Disney Girls Trip: 3 Days of Madness in Dec 2019 TR (Updated 3/2/20)

We interrupt this trip report to say....I have a MARCH 2020 trip booked...or at least the start of it. I found a DVC room for a Thursday night, I have some cheap flights in mind for booking, and this will (as of right now) just be a one night trip mostly to have dinner at Flying Fish on Friday night and then to fly back home that night. So Flying Fish will be the conclusion of our trip, but what else will we do while there? Well I just happened to notice that there is a Disney After Hours event at Animal Kingdom on the Thursday of our arrival so that is a possibility. Right now the only thing for sure is that we have a 2BR room booked and I have a rental booked for a Thursday morning arrival and a Friday evening departure. If the flights come down a little maybe we'll extend to the weekend...but right now that's just not the case. If I book the flights I want as of now it will cost me about $500 for all 5 of us to fly round trip. I just can't beat that.

Still working on exactly when we'll leave as I know the younger two won't want to miss too much school but the reason we chose these dates is because my oldest is on Spring Break that week.
 
Last edited:
On a side note...my Baltimore Ravens have a big game coming up tomorrow night. I live about 20 minutes from the stadium and this morning they were having an event there from 6am-10am where they were doing car decals for free. There are only two reasons for me to wake up EXTRA early in the morning...vacations and of course Ravens now. My normal work time is 6:30am anyway, so it wasn't a huge stretch for me to wakup at at 4:30am. I was out the door by 5:15am, made a quick roll through the car wash since my car was filthy due to salt from our snowstorm Tuesday afternoon, and was in line at the stadium by 5:45am. It was a pretty well orchestrated line they had there, rolled up just before 6am, signed a waiver, and was done in seconds and on my way to work with this:

464079

I was so freaking excited about this I can't even tell you. It was ridiculous.

So with any luck I'll get around to finishing my report and I think I have finally decided on dates for our next trip in March. I booked a 2BR at Wilderness Lodge last night, changing from SSR which I had before. Hopefully this next trip will all work out.
 


On a side note...my Baltimore Ravens have a big game coming up tomorrow night. I live about 20 minutes from the stadium and this morning they were having an event there from 6am-10am where they were doing car decals for free. There are only two reasons for me to wake up EXTRA early in the morning...vacations and of course Ravens now. My normal work time is 6:30am anyway, so it wasn't a huge stretch for me to wakup at at 4:30am. I was out the door by 5:15am, made a quick roll through the car wash since my car was filthy due to salt from our snowstorm Tuesday afternoon, and was in line at the stadium by 5:45am. It was a pretty well orchestrated line they had there, rolled up just before 6am, signed a waiver, and was done in seconds and on my way to work with this:

View attachment 464079

I was so freaking excited about this I can't even tell you. It was ridiculous.

So with any luck I'll get around to finishing my report and I think I have finally decided on dates for our next trip in March. I booked a 2BR at Wilderness Lodge last night, changing from SSR which I had before. Hopefully this next trip will all work out.
This is so incredibly cool and you know the game will be on at my house❤️
 
Still working out the details of this March trip. I have the dates somewhat narrowed down but trying to determine when my daughter is willing to leave because it would mean her missing one or two days of school...and she's not happy about 2 days being missed. Yet that earlier flight is so much cheaper...and when multiplied by 5 people that makes a difference. I'm already looking into some resorts because I can't get a DVC room for any of the other days. I am considering a possible stay at an All Star Resort again...or going off property.

I should go ahead and finish this trip first though, huh?
 


That loss was hard to take. Ali was pouty for a few days and it didn't help the matter that the KC Chiefs (my team) and the GB Packers (her brother and sister's team) made it to the next round...
 
That loss was hard to take. Ali was pouty for a few days and it didn't help the matter that the KC Chiefs (my team) and the GB Packers (her brother and sister's team) made it to the next round...

I know it was very hard because it was so NOT the team we've been watching all season. Sad...but it's football and now I get my life back until next year....well other than hosting our annual Superbowl party. I think KC finally has a chance this year...we'll see though.
 
Well tried to buy my airline tickets last night for our March trip...and failed because apparently the customer service for the airline closes around 10pm...and opens again at 3:30am. :)

So may try again tonight if I'm feeling up for it. We have pretty much narrowed down the March dates for sure now, and it will be a 3 night trip where we still have a lot of nothing planned other than meals. It's a quick 15 minute drive to the airport for me so no big deal that I have to go back...just have to pay again for short term parking...I paid $2 last night for my 10 minutes that I was parked, if that.

I've gone back and forth on the resorts part but as of now we have 2 nights at All Star Music and one night at Wilderness Lodge. Ideally I think I'd like to stay at least one more night at WL or really Boardwalk or Beach Club area would be better. We will see if anything opens up in the next two months.

So my Disney Institute class on Wednesday was interesting. I've heard nothing but good things about their courses and I must say it was very engaging overall. I didn't get as much out of it as I was hoping but still got some good information.

No football this weekend so trying to work on some plans which might include finally going to see Frozen 2 probably with my daughter and a quick trip to Box Lunch because I have some money to spend there...and they have so much cool Disney merch.
 
DAY 3: Final Day and getting stuff done

We were done to our last day of vacation but we had pretty much the entire day with a flight that didn't leave until about 10:30pm so there was plenty of time to get stuff done.

We started the day off with breakfast which for me and my friend W in the room with me was our dessert from the night before that we had NO room for during dinner. We slammed that down and quickly packed up our stuff for the trip. We were out the door close to 8am, leaving this resort behind:

466465

I must say I was quite happy with our time at All Star Music and I'd definitely return there...and actually might be back in just two months!

We headed to the car and made our way to the very nearby Animal Kingdom park because our priority was to ride Flight of Passage without a FastPass. We got there just after 8am or so and the park opened at 9am but I don't recall us doing the cattle call at the front but maybe we did...I sorta recall waiting in line at the tapstyles.

We entered the park and made our way over to Flight of Passage and got in the line that wasn't quite entering the actual queue but it moved pretty well. Around 9am we were one of "those" people stopping in the line to take some photos:

466466

My friend was sending these photos to her daughter back home in Maryland who was in school..and to my kid also in school. Nothing like a good parent rubbing it in to your kids that you are at Disney.

We probably waited overall close to an hour I think...had the delay in the "cleaning" room which pushed us back a little bit but mostly the line moved well. After coming off this ride, I thought it might be good to try to ride the Navi River Journey since some people hadn't been on it, but the line said 45 minutes and really we were in line for a while before my one friend piped up that she thought we were getting food. She was clearly hangry and our response was why didn't you say something earlier? We made the decision to ditch the ride and make our way towards some food. We headed towards the area near the Safari because I knew they had some breakfast sandwich options there so we got some food and ate for a bit.

Once finished we decided not to do the Safari as planned and instead made our way over to Expedition Everest. One friend wasn't up for riding it so the other 3 of us got in the single rider line which moved quickly enough. I don't think it took more than 20 minutes. I think this was all we ended up doing here, though we talked about it and decided we would prefer to spend some more time at EPCOT exploring the World Showcase for a while. We figured that was where we would end our trip. We took a photo at the park exit:

466470

We drove over to EPCOT next and were at the gates around 12:30pm with the plan to hang at the park until around 7pm at the latest.

I think we decided to do Test Track Single Rider line? I know I have some photos inside the LIving Seas so we definitely did Finding Nemo and walked around a bit. It was then close to 2:30pm and we were a bit hungry again. My one friend wanted Fish and Chips because at some point earlier in our trip I had a lengthy conversation with a stranger in line about the different Fish and Chips options at Walt Disney World...and Yorkshire Fish Shop at EPCOT. I told her I'd be up for sharing with her so we got some food and grabbed a table near the water there and chilled for a bit.

While we were sitting there, my one friend was having a convo with her husband back home about her car which was apparently having issues and us women were diagnosing it for him from Florida. In any case, I glanced over and got a look on my face that said...OH MY GOSH GUESS WHAT? Everybody was wondering what was making me crazy, and it was that I could see the International Gateway and I had spotted Goofy which meant there was a chance Mickey and Minnie were taking photos down there as they had been the previous day when I had to make us all NOT stop to visit with them because we were in on a time crunch for a lunch reservation. So we headed over there after eating and sure enough...we could all barely contain our excitement that we would get to meet Mickey and Minnie!

466473

Mickey was first of course, he hugged each of us (great view I know) and then we got a photo:
466474



We hopped in line for Minnie next but as we reached the front she had to take a little break...which was fine. Eventually she and Mickey came out and they two of them had a little moment I actually got on video where Mickey thought maybe Minnie needed a wheelchair, and she thought he was the old man in the relationship...and it was just cute to see them interact.

466476

Then it was our turn for photos with Minnie of course...and hugs.
466477466478


So after this we decided to just make our way around the World Showcase, we would just eat and drink and shop our way around at leisure.

It was 3:45pm and we ended up stopping to see Pierre Noel in France for a bit and listen to him:
466479

We also managed to see Serveur Amusant at France which is one of my favorites. No photos because I was too busy watching and I've seen them before. So fun. We shopped and we ate and at some point also decided we were going to do the Holiday Cookie Stroll so this was one of our purchases:

466481

We were also stopping for drinks along the way, trying some of the seasonal food and drink items.
 
DAY 3: Final Day and getting stuff done

So as I mentioned...food was on our minds and this was one of our big food stops where we shared a cider flight some food...and a cookie for our stroll.

466482

This was around 4:45pm and we were quickly getting full putting us at risk at not finishing the cookie stroll and getting our "free" cookie at the end of our trip around the world.

We did make our way around the world showcase and also made some time to shop at Mousegear and other places. My one friend was getting a bit antsy when we hadn't made our way completely around yet and she was afraid she wouldn't have time to shop. I tried to stop to watch the acrobats in China for a bit but nobody seemed interested in that so we didn't stay long.

I feel like it was probably close to 6pm when we were done with our stroll around the World and we didn't really have time for any more rides and nobody wanted to shop so we just leave early for the airport...yes for our 10:30pm flight we were on the road probably close to 6pm or so and even with stopping to fill up the tank...oh yeah that side story. So I drive a Toyota and have only owned Hondas all my life and we had this little rental Chevy Malibu. First I pulled up to the pump with the tank on the wrong side...and had to move...but then when I got there I was baffled that I couldn't find the release for the fuel door anywhere. We had the manual out, we were googling with our phones and though I thought I had tried to open it before it was clear that I didn't try correctly. I swear it took more time for us to TRY to figure out how to open the fuel door before I figured it out than it did to put the maybe 2 gallons of gas in the tank! Oh and my one friend..her daughter has a Chevy at home and she and her husband both drive Chevy vehicles..or have...so crazy!

Anyway we had a ton of time to hang at the airport of course, so we didn't go to the gate right away (since our flight wasn't going to be there for a few hours anyway) and we hung out in the open areas of the airport instead, got some food and we worked on repacking our suitcases a little better because...well Spirit and our bags were bulging a bit. We did some people watching, we cracked ourselves up, we just enjoyed a very laid back time until we finally headed to our gate. Oh so after repacking our bags my friend and I decided to head over to a nearby Spirit gate just to try to put the suitcases in their carry on baggage device to make sure we were okay. She puts her bag in there and it isn't easy so she eventually crams it a little bit and we get it to fit...we are successful and she and I high five each other at the gate at the success...which cracks some of the people up at the airline gate who are waiting for their flights but like we said...this flight was CHEAP and we weren't going to pay for any bags!

The return flight is uneventful unless you count the fact that I decided to get on the plane and NOT sit in my assigned seat since I knew the flight was going to be pretty empty based on the people waiting at the gate. Sure enough the flight attendant did tell some people that after they closed the doors they could move but I ended up hopping around to about 3 or 4 rows before finally settling into one that wasn't mine but I didn't have to move..while my friends all sat in their assigned seats.

We were landing close to midnight and back at our homes around 12:30am. Successful trip overall for sure!
 
Ok this trip report is really wrapped up here with my last two entries. In other exciting news, I did buy tickets YESTERDAY for our March trip but many details are still unknown right now. We are probably NOT going to do any Disney parks but will be doing Disney restaurant meals as that is our main goal. I think right now we are thinking of spending a day at BG Tampa and a day at Seaworld at least. Where we are staying is still up in the air. I may start another TR for that one though...just not sure where it will be with our agenda not really focused on the Disney parks.
 
Still hashing out details of the upcoming March trip but I now have 2 of my 3 nights booked in a 2BR Villa at Boulder Ridge...yay DVC!

and now I am focused on our next big trip which is a cruise in Europe followed by some additional time in Italy and a trip to Disneyland Paris before coming home!

Really excited!
 
Still hashing out details of the upcoming March trip but I now have 2 of my 3 nights booked in a 2BR Villa at Boulder Ridge...yay DVC!

and now I am focused on our next big trip which is a cruise in Europe followed by some additional time in Italy and a trip to Disneyland Paris before coming home!

Really excited!
Holy cow!!!! So jealous!!!!!!
 
So a few more details about the BIG trip that has been distracting me the most the last few days. My husband wanted to celebrate his 50th birthday with a cruise to Alaska...we were trying to get a large group to go...but everybody pretty much has bailed on it. Honestly I wasn't feeling the need to go to cold and rainy weather and I was sure my kids also wouldn't be enjoying it. So while everybody is willing and able to travel with us, including my VERY Italian father-in-law who has already done an Italy trip once before, I felt it was a good time to do an Italian cruise. Plus the cruise prices and the flights were pretty comparable. I did a lot of research and narrowed down some dates and some cruises and finally it's coming together. Then I figured since I was already all the way over in Europe...why not make a stop in Disneyland Paris...and of course everybody is on board with that as the final piece of our trip. We also are planning a few post-cruise days on an Italian island where my husband's grandfather originated as well. I'm really looking forward to this trip.

I have some books on the way to help me plan and I'm instructed my kids that all of us need to learn at least a LITTLE bit of Italian before we go since that's our big focus. Plus the kids have passports that all expire in August of this year...so I have to renew them because apparently they can be rejected if they don't have at least 6 months before expiration. It seems a few other people MIGHT be joining us on this cruise now as well but we'll see.

Anyway I'm less focused on this March trip now but there isn't too much left to plan for that one. I need to figure out our first night's stay but that should be easy enough.

 
I'm late to this party but just found your TR. What a packed trip as always, your stamina continues to amaze me!! But looks like a lot of fun was had!! We will be there in March as well, staying offsite though with some Disney newbies so it's gonna be nuts!! Exciting about your cruise too - would love to hear about that!!
 

GET A DISNEY VACATION QUOTE

Dreams Unlimited Travel is committed to providing you with the very best vacation planning experience possible. Our Vacation Planners are experts and will share their honest advice to help you have a magical vacation.

Let us help you with your next Disney Vacation!





Latest posts

Top