Hi everyone! (Assuming people actually read this, if not, it might at least keep me from rambling about the upcoming trip to anyone that will listen ). This is my first time writing here on DISboards, but I’ve read a ton of TRs and PTRs. I’ve gone to Disney World 15 times… I think? My family goes just about every year, but none of us seem to be able to remember what the actual count is and are too lazy to go figure it out lol. This trip is going to be the first week of July and I’m SUPER excited for it because this is one of the biggest parties I’ve traveled there with and we’re celebrating 3 birthdays (mine included)!! I’ve been not so patiently waiting for it to arrive for 2 years now. When I was 19, I asked my parents if they would bring me back to Disney for my 21st birthday (I asked about a future trip to Disney while in the middle of a trip ). They were pretty quick to agree (it’s never hard to convince them to go back to the most magical place in the world) and loose plans were put in place right then and there. Now here we are many, many moons later and only 65 days away from our trip!!
I feel like I should warn you right now that I am fairly wordy (a result of me constantly talking and my education requiring me to write long papers) and that there will probably be a lack of pictures in this. My feelings won’t be hurt if you abandon ship now lol. Now that you have been warned, back to the plans!
Our group this trip includes:
Myself (Kimmy or Kim)- I’m 20 years old right now, but I will be turning 21 at the end of May (celebrating a birthday)
My wonderful Mom and Dad
My older brother Zach- 24 years old and will be 25 at the end of August (not sure why he doesn’t want to throw his birthday in with the rest of us “kids,” but oh well!)
My Uncle David and his wife, my Aunt Tammy
My cousin Catie (Uncle David/Aunt Tammy’s daughter)- 15 years old right now, but she will be turning 16 at the end of May (celebrating a birthday)
My Aunt Karla (called Auntie)
My cousin Christopher (Auntie’s son)- 21 years old as of the beginning of April (celebrating a birthday)
This is the only picture I could find with all of us in it (3 of the folks shown are not coming along on this trip- red shirt, black long sleeve in the back, and gray hoodie in the front).
We’re going to be traveling to Disney July 1st (flying because no way we’d make it driving ) and will be leaving Disney on July 6th. (Side note: we are already dreading/mentally preparing for the heat and crowds that will be there at this time, but it’s the only time I’m going to be off of summer classes and everyone else could get off of work.) We’re going to be staying at the Yacht Club this time round. This is one of my favorite resorts (the pools are spectacular, love love love the sand at the bottoms of them) and we stay here a lot. Recently we’ve been switching it up and staying at the Animal Kingdom Lodge (also amazing), but I requested the Yacht or Beach when I asked when I asked for this trip and my parents are coming through!
This will be the 3rd time that Auntie and Christopher have come along on our trip to Disney (they’ve gone many times on their own with Uncle Mike and Brian [son/brother]. These two opted out of this trip due to Uncle Mike’s strong dislike of the heat and Brian’s lack of interest- the kid is crazy lol). This will be the 1st time that Uncle David, Aunt Tammy, and Catie have come along with us and only their 2nd trip to Disney!!!! The last time Catie was there she was only 3 and she remembers nothing so this is kind of like her first trip to Disney World! So exciting!!!
Initially this trip was going to just be my parents and myself, but after discussing this trip while standing in a lake, Auntie and Uncle David decided that they would like to join this adventure. Shortly after they got on board, Uncle Mike and Brian backed out and Zach got on board, and thus the crew was set!
I’m going to break this PTR into individual days and write about them!
P.S. I’m writing all of this wearing my Minnie Mouse ears headband cause I’m just too psyched for this trip .
Hello again!! Here are the plans for the first day!
This trip is going to start with waking up before the sun and hoping to get out of the house on time (5:30am departure has been tossed around a bit, but we haven’t quite set an official time). I can already tell you now that this is NOT going to happen . My dad is the reason for this literally every time we go on vacation. He ALWAYS waits until everything is packed in the car (including my mom, my brother, and myself), on time and ready to go might I add, to wander around the house checking to make sure everything is turned off (which he’s usually already checked twice) and to grab something he could have gotten the night before . Every time those of us who are prepared and ready to go sit in the car and repeatedly ask each other, “what is he doing in there?,” never giving an answer because we all already know, but it’s tradition at this point lol.
SO, probably 15 minutes after we’re supposed to head out for the airport we will actually get on the road (we’ve tried to plan for these 15 minutes in the past and have had mixed results). We’ll hit a Tim Hortons drive thru and grab some coffee/breakfast (I would like to mention that we are not Canadian. We’re from southeastern Michigan and lucky enough to be have been gifted with Tim Hortons lol). Before finishing our trek to the parking lot place, we’re going to meet up with Auntie and Christopher at a bank somewhere on the route to the airport. Auntie has never driven to the place we’re parking so she’s going to follow us there. Once we’re parked, we’ll tuck the piece of paper with the letter/row we’re parked in somewhere safe and hop on one of the many shuttles be delivered at the airport!
Once at the airport we’ll get our bags checked, make sure everything is correct with our tickets, and head off to security. We’ll then head off to our gate and to find the rest of our party. I’m actually really excited about this part of the trip. I really love Detroit’s airport and enjoy riding on their version of a monorail (gets me pumped for the real thing ). There is also a really cool fountain that I love to watch, even though I’ve seen it a bunch of times. I found a picture of it on the airport’s website to show all of you, it’s much cooler in person, promise .
We are flying into Tampa this trip because the tickets were significantly cheaper than the tickets into Orlando. While we would have preferred to fly into Orlando, Disney is expensive so money should be saved whenever possible . We’ve done the Tampa route before and it only added about a half hour to our drive (if I remember correctly). Our flight is supposed to leave at 8:35am, but it was supposed to be leaving at 8:21am last week so hopefully this doesn’t keep getting pushed out… We all have seats near each other on the plane which will be a fun time I’m sure lol. If the plane departure remains what it is right now, we should be arriving in Tampa around 11:30am.
Once we get off the plane, we’ll collect our luggage, go pick up the car rentals, and set our course for Disney World!! Before we actually arrive at Disney, we’ll stop at a nearby Walmart and grab some things we’ll need for the trip including but not limited to: granola, a couple pool noodles, a case of water, and beer (being able to drink must be celebrated to the fullest lol ). After picking up what we need, we’ll head over to the hotel!
We’re not supposed to be able to check in until after 3, but after traveling from Tampa and stopping at the store (which will be an adventure with the 9 of us getting what we need along with things we probably don’t ) we should be close to this time. Hopefully, a room will be ready for us and we’ll be able to get settled in!
Plans for this afternoon/evening are pretty loose right now. We’ll for sure be heading down to the pool to swim for a while, get ice cream from Beaches and Cream (or at least I will be ) and then we'll figure something out for dinner. Maybe we’ll find something at the YC/BC, head over to the Boardwalk for one of the delicious pizzas that can be found there, or travel somewhere else on Disney property for dinner (we’re big fans of the food court at Port Orleans Riverside). After dinner, maybe we'll visit Disney Springs or watch performers on the Boardwalk.
I imagine we’ll be heading to bed fairly early (or at least most of us will be- never know with Zach and Christopher ) after our travel day, ready to rest up for our trip to the Magic Kingdom the next morning!!
I forgot to mention a MAJOR thing that I plan on doing our 1st day in Disney!! I can’t believe I forgot to write about how I plan on picking up one of these bad boys (and insist that Christopher/Catie also get one)! What is a birthday in Disney without a birthday pin???
This one is from when we were in Disney around my 17th birthday (that birthday celebration wasn’t the reason for going on the trip, though ).
I absolutely love the birthday pins and wore my last one the entire trip, and I plan to wear my new one the whole time (maybe I’ll request Kimmy goes on it this time??). It just makes the trip extra special with well wishes from CMs and other people in Disney. Also, it can bring some pixie dust your way- I got a free cupcake from my birthday pin last time!!
Now that I have fixed that mistake, let’s get back to the plans for our 1st park day!!
We’ll start the day with a wake up call around 6:30 (this is the typical wake up call time). Me and my mom will actually getting out of bed to start getting ready. The boys are notorious for staying in bed later . Zach is almost always in bed until the last possible minute seeing as he takes no time at all to throw clothes on and doesn’t really believe in eating breakfast. I, on the other hand, LOVE breakfast and will for sure be eating something before we head out. Whether this is something that we picked up from the store the day before or some Mickey waffles from downstairs (is it just me or does food shaped like Mickey Mouse taste better than just about anything else? ), I’m not sure, but I am positive food will be consumed.
We usually head out for the park (Magic Kingdom is planned for this morning!!!) by 7:45/8:00 if the park opens at 9:00, so I imagine this will be the case for this trip as well! While we don’t have to be the first people in line to get into the park, we love being there for rope drop/the shows they put on in the morning to welcome us to the park so getting there fairly early is a must! Since each family is renting a car (expect Auntie/Christopher cause they can just fit in our cars), we get to head out as soon as we’re all ready, no waiting on the buses!
Mumsy has informed me that the welcome show to Magic Kingdom has changed and that they do the show in the actual park instead of in front of it with the train (they went last summer and didn’t bring me . But to be fair it was their first real trip with just them since they starting having kids a quarter of a century ago so I guess it was time ). This change in show makes me a little sad because I loved the Magic Kingdom welcome show the best! I’m keeping high hopes that the new show will be just as good, but I guess I’ll just have to wait and see.
The first ride that we’re going to head to once we’re in is the 7DMT. We enjoy the ride and think the queue is really cool, but we don’t find these things worth it when the line is crazy long. So this has been our first stop on the last 2 trips to Disney that I’ve taken and will be it again!
After the mine ride, I’m not actually too sure what direction we’re going to head. We’ve picked out what rides we for sure want to go on, but haven’t quite figured out the order yet . We have had 2 Disney Planning Parties with all 9 of us present (plus Uncle Mike and Brian) to try and figure out what we want to do. The 1st party was not very successful, just turned into us hanging out and having a good time instead of discussing Disney lol. The 2nd party was more successful with us figuring out what rides we want to go on and what we hope our fast passes will be (we don’t get to pick until next week so for right now this PTR will include what we hope to get. I’ll update it when everything is made official!). I broke out my favorite markers to make a pretty list with the different FP tiers for each park for this party. We also had maps out (paper ones and the map on the My Disney Experience app) so that Uncle David and co. could see the other rides available at the parks.
We’ve picked out the following rides for the Magic Kingdom:
7DMT (as stated above lol) Space Mountain
Splash Mountain
Big Thunder Mountain
Peter Pan
Mickey’s Philharmagic
Buzz Lighteryear’s Space Ranger Spin
Jungle Cruise
Pirates of the Caribbean
These are the rides that we all have decided we want to go on. We decided at Party #2 that we would do some stuff together, but that we were also going to break off and go do things that we individually want to do. For example, Zach is determined to go on Magic Carpets of Aladdin and both Dumbos to compare which one flies best .
So for now, the plan is to hit up 7DMT and then do as many things as we can before our 11:25 lunch at…..Be Our Guest!!! Beauty and the Beast is one of my FAVORITE Disney movies so I love love love eating here and requested that we eat here this trip (another birthday wish coming true! ). I think it is beautifully decorated and I’ve never had a bad lunch here! I usually get the carved turkey sandwich, but this year I’m going to switch it up and get the French dip! We always order ahead for this lunch because it is so much faster than ordering in person the day of (we made this mistake our 1st time eating there, which I think was the year of the accidental 17th birthday celebration? lol).
The rest of the order goes like this:
Uncle David, Auntie, and Christopher: French dip
Aunt Tammy: vegetable quiche
Mom and Catie: croque monsieur (such a fancy name for a ham sandwich )
Pa and potentially Zach: braised pork (Zach thinks this sounds good, but loves fries and seems to think he’s never had green beans and won’t like them?? He for sure has, but whatever . Plan is to see if we can’t substitute beans of the green variety for fries.)
We always end up eating in the ballroom area, so hopefully we’ll get to eat somewhere else this year! But, since we have such a large party, we probably will get stuck in the ballroom again cause it’s the biggest of the rooms. Still going to keep my fingers crossed though!
After we finish what will most likely be a delicious lunch, we’ll finish up what’s left of our ride list and then head on back to the hotel for some swimming! We never stay in the parks into the afternoon since this is when they are the hottest and the busiest, we much prefer to spend this time cooling down in the AC and pools. This afternoon by the pool will probably include a pina colada or 2 and a nap in a lounge chair (if we’re lucky enough to find some). Swimming and drinking will take us into the evening where we’ll get dressed again and find some dinner. After that, it’s back to the parks!
Now some of you might be wondering why we don’t have a single FP planned?! That’s because they’re all for the evening and at Animal Kingdom ! The evenings in the parks are typically busier than the morning, especially since we get to the park right at rope drop, so we always plan our FPs in the evenings. This way we get to hit our favorite rides and usually not have to wait too terribly long. So, the plan for this trip is a park at rope drop and a different park in the evening for FPs (gotta love park hoppers!).
Once we make our way to Animal Kingdom, we’ll hopefully have FPs for Flight of Passage, Expedition Everest, and the Safari.
Other rides we want to hit are:
DINOSAUR
Na’vi River Journey (if the line isn’t insane- which let's be realistic here, it probably is going to be lol)
Primeval Whirl (us “kids” at least, the others don't seem so interested in it . Last trip with Auntie/Christopher, Zach, Christopher, and I went on this ride like 5 times in a row. We just kept getting right back on because there was no line lol)
Maybe the Lion King and or Finding Nemo shows
Tough to Be a Bug (Zach seems to be the only one who wants this one, but he’ll probably be able to convince Christopher to join in. I personally HATE this ride, giant bugs and effects that freak me out- no thanks )
Kali River Rapids (last thing we’ll do at this park because Pa and I got SOAKED last time we went on it)
I’m pretty excited to visit Animal Kingdom because I haven’t been there since Pandora opened and I’ve heard so many great things about this area of the park. The pictures I’ve seen of it, especially at night, are stunning and I can’t wait to see it in person (Christopher is also excited for this. We're actually visiting AK in the evening at his request! Birthday wishes are coming true left and right )!
Once we finish up the rides we want to hit, we’ll most likely head back to the hotel. All the reviews I’ve heard about River of Lights have just been meh, so we’re not planning on sticking around for it.
After retrieving the vehicles, we’ll head back to the hotel. I always want to night swim, but always struggle to get someone to go with me . However, I think I might have a pretty good shot at convincing Catie to go with me, so depending on the time, maybe we’ll do that! If it’s a bit late or we’re too exhausted- strong possibility of this happening, we’ll probably all head back to our rooms and start getting ready for bed. We’re going to be getting up early again so that we can be at Epcot at rope drop!!
Hi everyone! Day 3 in Disney will bring us to Epcot and Hollywood Studios!
Once again, this day will begin with an early wake up call around 6:30 (I’d like to take a moment and acknowledge how fun it is to get a phone call from a Disney character bright and early ) and heading out for Epcot around 7:45/8:00. Getting to the park will be rather quick and easy since we’re staying at the YC. Being able to walk from the hotel over to the park in a very short amount of time is another one of my favorite features about the YC/BC. The International Gateway entrance is so convenient and usually not too terribly busy, which is awesome!!
The rides/attractions we want to hit are:
Soarin’
The Seas with Nemo and Friends
Journey into Imagination with Figment
Disney and Pixar Short Film Festival
Spaceship Earth
Test Track
Frozen Ever After
Gran Fiesta Tour Starring the Three Caballeros
The 1st ride we’re going to head for is Soarin’. We really enjoy Soarin’ and think that it should be the 1st ride that Uncle David/Aunt Tammy/Catie should experience at Epcot. I’ve only seen the new (even though it’s a couple years old lol) video for Soarin’ a couple times and I’m excited to see it again. While I really liked Soarin’ Over California, I think that the new video/locations are awesome. (Side note: I’m outside soaking up the sun while writing this and I’ve got my Minnie ears on, it’s pretty much a requirement when I’m writing this PTR at this point, and my neighbor is looking at me like I’m crazy but OH WELL ).
After Soarin’ we might pop into Living with the Land, this technically didn’t make it onto the list, but I know Zach really enjoys it and Aunt Tammy also mentioned that she remembered liking it when they were last at Disney. This isn’t usually a ride that we go on (I think it’s been years since I’ve gone on), so I don’t have any real memory of it/opinion on it and would be happy to experience it and see what I think!
Once we head out of the Land Pavilion, we’ll head on over to either Nemo or Figment. I have no real clue, but just for the sake of this PTR let’s pretend that it’s decided we’ll head over to Figment lol.
Post Figment, we’ll go over to the Pixar Short Film Festival since they’re right next to each other. I have never actually visited this attraction, but my parents did it last summer when they visited (probably when hiding from the rain because it POURED pretty much the entire time they were there) and loved it! Their shining review of it makes me pretty excited to go see it myself.
Next we’ll head on over to Nemo. I like this ride, but I LOVE the aquarium attached to it. It’s one of my favorite things that Epcot has to offer. There are so many cool fish and other aquatic animals to look at, and it has an amazing Disney flair to it that makes me happy. For example, this picture I took back in 2014 of Goofy made of rocks. Like that is so cool and adorable and totally Disney. I love it lol. Zach also loves it a whole lot (I’d say he loves it far more than I do and I’ve made my feelings on it pretty clear ) and might be some trouble to get to leave.
Once we’ve gotten our fill of gazing at the pretty fish, we’ll make our way towards Spaceship Earth. This ride is a classic and I absolutely love it. The interactive future is fun even though my picture is always terrible .
I’d imagine that after Spaceship Earth we’ll head over to Test Track. We’re going to be extra special VIPs at Test Track this year because Uncle David works for GM!!
This means that we supposedly get to enter the ride from a different location and visit the exclusive lounge. This lounge is exclusive to GM employees and their guests. Since we’ve never gone with Uncle David, we’ve never had the chance to experience this. Fingers crossed it all goes as planned and we get to go check it out! If we do get to go in there, I’m going to take lots of pictures!!!
By the time we make it through all of these things, I imagine that the World Showcase will be open and we can start making our way through the countries. Zach wants to try food from each country and I think that I want to pick out some drinks I’d be interested in trying from the countries (maybe I’ll make a list and share it???) I don't think I'd make it if I tried to drink at every country .
We'll probably head over to England at some point to get some beer and fish and chips. This is a favorite of my family. I'm not sure I've ever really tried it because I'm usually not crazy about fish. I think I might be adventurous and give it a go this year!
Either on the way to England or after it (depending on how hungry we are and the direction we take), we'll stop at Mexico to go on an adventure with Donald Duck and co. We'll also check the line for Frozen. We're thinking about coming back here in the evening on Thursday so we might just ignore it until then when we (hopefully) have a FP for it. We'll definitely ride it at some point though because Catie is a HUGE Frozen fan (gotta check some of her birthday wishes off the list as well ). Also, my parents are the only ones who have gone on it so far. (My mom was a bit disappointed in the ride last year. She had built the ride into something majorly magical and the actual ride did NOT meet these expectations at all. She’s hoping she can appreciate it for what it is better and enjoy the ride more this year.)
Side note: I'm still super unhappy that this ride is even here. Maelstrom was one of my favorite rides. I shout "BACK" like the troll all the time to keep the memory alive. I crack myself up .
After bouncing around the countries, I’ll probably head back to the resort to get some swimming in. No idea if the rest of the party will be joining me, but that’s another perk of being walking distance from the hotel- you can go whenever you feel like it!
This time at the pool will probably go the same as the day before with swimming, drinks, and a nap. Maybe I’ll spice it up a little get an ice cream cone? lol After hanging out at the pool for a bit, it’ll be time to get cleaned up and ready to go to Hollywood Studios.
Even though we can walk to Hollywood Studios or take the boat, we always seem to drive there. The walk seems to take forever and the boats can be uncomfortably hot and or full, so car is the best option in our opinion! Also we’re renting them so might as well use them .
We don’t have any ADR planned so we’re on our own for food. I imagine that we’ll probably find something to eat at Hollywood Studios (we’ve gone to the ABC Commissary a couple times).
Our FPs for this evening will hopefully be:
Slinky Dog Dash
Tower of Terror
Rock ’n’ Roller Coaster
We’d also like to get on/see:
Toy Story Mania
Maybe Alien Swirling Saucers
Star Tours
Maybe go see some of the shows like Indiana Jones
Walt Disney Presents museum thing
Muppet*Vision 3D (I might be the only one who wants to go on this though - I've been told this, but I'm holding out hope )
I imagine that the park is going to be really busy since Toy Story Land is opening June 30th and we’ll be there on July 3rd. But, I’m sorta hoping everyone will be in the new area leaving the Tower and Coaster open for me to ride a bunch of times lol. Those are 2 of my favorite rides.
I really like this picture of ToT (I took this bad boy back in 2013 and have been passing it from iPhone to iPhone for years lol).
Zach has a plan to sit on Sunset Boulevard and drink a beer. This sounds like a rather relaxing plan that most of us should be able to get behind and enjoy.
I’m not really sure at all what order we will go to these rides. I imagine that the order will be greatly influenced by how long the lines are. The My Disney Experience app makes running around Disney a whole lot easier. No more walking all the way across a park just to realize that the line is waaay too long and that you don’t want to wait .
The order and time of our FP will also influence when we do things. We should be able to plan this evening out a little better once we get to book our FPs. Until then, I’m just going to have to content myself with this vague outline of our evening lol.
I’m confident that Fantasmic! will be seen since it’s me and my mom’s favorite nighttime show put on at Disney World. I enjoy the story it tells and I love seeing the princesses/princes on the boats. I’m not a fan of being packed into that stadium, but show is worth being crammed together (at least it is in my opinion ).
Once we finish the show, depending on when which show time we go to, maybe we’ll check the lines and hop on something before heading back to the hotel.
We don’t have park plans for the next day since we enjoy a day of just swimming and we figured that the 4th of July would lead to some PACKED parks. With that in mind, it doesn’t matter too much if we get to bed at a reasonable time since we get to sleep in! (I’m already excited for that and it’s 60 some odd days away lol.) Even though we’re not going to the parks, it’s still shaping up to be a fun day!!
It feels like it’s been forever since I’ve found the time to write something for this PTR. Who knew that substitute teaching, teaching swim lessons, and taking summer classes could be so exhausting/time consuming?
Now, I’ll admit I’m being a bit dramatic with the title. Some of what I had written on this PTR has changed since we got to pick our FPs this week, but it doesn’t change what we plan on doing at the parks. We knew what FPs we wanted and we made the changes that let us get them.
SO, here is the new order of the parks and the FPs that go along with them.
Monday
AM- Magic Kingdom (Be Our Guest lunch)
PM- Hollywood Studios
Toy Story Mania (6:05-7:05)- we decided to go for this one instead of Slinky Dog Dash
Tower of Terror (7:35-8:35)
Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster (9:15-10:15)
We’re planning on hitting the 9:00 or 10:30 show of Fantasmic!
Tuesday
AM- Epcot
PM- Animal Kingdom
Flight of Passage (5:20-6:20)
Safari (6:25-7:25)
Expedition Everest (8:00-9:00)
Thursday
AM- Undecided
PM- Epcot
Mission Space (6:10-7:10)
Soarin’ (7:25-8:25)
Spaceship Earth (8:30-9:00)
As I write this, I realize that the only real changes are our Monday and Tuesday evenings, they just took each other’s spot. So, our plans for Monday and Tuesday morning are still all set! It just feels like it was really switched around to me because me and my mom set the FPs like 4 different times on Wednesday morning (I had to get ready for work in like 20 minutes which isn’t nearly enough time for my slow self- I pulled it off though ). We thought we were good with the FPs until we were discussing them with Pa that evening after dinner. DUN DUN DUUUUUN lol
He wasn’t crazy about the park order (I think our evening park order for the 3 nights were AK Monday, E Tuesday, and HS Thursday?) because we have to leave for the Tampa airport fairly early the next morning. He wanted us to be able to get back to the hotel pretty quick/early that last night, which is easiest at Epcot since we just walk there. We decided we had already switched them around so many times, what's one more? We tried our luck once again (hoping and praying it wouldn't bite us in the butt, we hate that you have to delete all your FPs if you want to look and see what's out there at another park ) and ended up with what we have now. We’re pretty happy with the times and rides that we got!
Now that I’ve updated on the FPs, I’m going to work on writing out our plans for the rest of our trip. Hopefully I find time to do that soon!
Also, we’re getting so close it’s crazy!!!
Hopefully I'll have something longer for you all soon! Bye for now! (I can't decide if I like this little waving friend, it sorta looks like he's constantly breaking his neck? Maybe that's just me? )
Quick update on my life: it’s stupidly hot here in Michigan and I turned 21 this weekend!! I went up northish with Zach, Christopher, and some of Zach’s friends and it was a blast. I also got $75 worth of Disney gift cards and some other things from my family which was so exciting and kind! Great way to celebrate my birthday!
Anyway, back to what you’re here for!
The 4th day of our trip is just going to be a relaxation day. This means no parks , but it also means no early wake up or fighting with the crowds that I’m sure will be out ! This day will be spent predominately by the pool. That’s where you’ll be able to find me (and my parents) pretty much from the moment we wake up until the late afternoon when we’ll head up to get ready for for our dinner. I can’t say if or when the rest of the party will join us at the pool. I imagine that Zach and Christopher will be sleeping in pretty late on this day, but they’ve surprised me before. I know Auntie will be soaking up the sun and Catie/Uncle David will be at the pool with us pretty quick. Aunt Tammy isn’t crazy about swimming, but she’s big on exploring and finding new things so I imagine that’s how she’ll spend the day.
Since we’re starting the day pretty early at the pool we should have no trouble getting lounge chairs/a table in the area that we really like (we enjoy the area that is over behind the kiddie pool and next to the little area that connects to the pool that they put on the afternoon pool party). Pa always gets up earlier than he needs to and heads down to scope out the area and stake his claim for the day. We usually get down there pretty quick and find him happily sitting there enjoying the day before it gets stupidly hot. (It’s crazy to me that he’s always and up and ready to go for that “on time,” but he can never get out the door for the airport on time .)
I really hope that we get to see the pool party that the resort puts on. It’s literally one of my mom’s favorite things about our time at the pool (I love it too). We’ve been staying at this resort for years and Raoul has always been the cast member that leads it. We walked by him briefly on my last trip to Disney and we were so excited just to spot him. He’s become like a key part of our Disney vacation lol. I’m going to be really sad the time we stay there and he’s not working there, just saying.
We’re planning on staying at the pool playing around, doing some drinking, and eating ice cream (I keep finding myself thinking about Beaches and Cream ice cream- any flavor- in a waffle cone ) and food that isn’t dessert until the late afternoon. Around then, we’ll head up to the room to get ready for our dinner at Hoop Dee Doo Revue!!! I’m super psyched about this dinner because we’ve never gone to it . Also the strawberry shortcake dessert looks amazing and the included alcoholic drinks was a big factor in us deciding on this dinner lol. I think we’ll have a lot of fun at this dinner, especially with all the great reviews I’ve heard about it.
My mom isn’t super happy that we’re gonna have to cut our pool time short to make our 6:15 dinner, but I think (hope) that the dinner will be worth it!
We’re not quite sure what we’re going to do after our dinner. We’ve tossed around heading over to the Transportation and Ticket Center (or the Poly) to see if we can’t see the Magic Kingdom fireworks. We’ve also talked about heading over to the boardwalk to see the performers there and then walk to the International Gateway at Epcot to watch fireworks from there. Main goal it seems is to see fireworks one way or another .
It won’t be a crazy late evening for us since we’re back in the parks the next morning!
I’m working on getting the next set of plans put together so I’ll try and finish/share them soon! Hope you all had a nice Memorial Day!
Hello fellow southeastern michigander!! I turn 21 this July! I wanted to go for my birthday this year but since I got engaged we decided on a honeymoon next hear! I’m looking forward to the rest of the report
Hello fellow southeastern michigander!! I turn 21 this July! I wanted to go for my birthday this year but since I got engaged we decided on a honeymoon next hear! I’m looking forward to the rest of the report
Day 5/6: Decisions, Decisions and Overwhelming Sadness
Hello everyone!
Only 33 days to go!!! Also, I’ve managed to get my homework done earlier than expected and was able to finish this up!
The last day of our trip (though technically not because of our travel back home day but that doesn’t count in my book ) will include an early wake up again because we’re all about those rope drops lol. However, we really have nothing set in stone for Thursday morning so I can’t say where that rope drop will be! We decided as a group that we will go wherever our hearts desire this last morning. This lets everyone get back to the park that they must visit once more before we depart the next day. I’m personally flip flopping between Magic Kingdom and Hollywood Studios. Magic Kingdom is always tempting to me because I love the mountains and I am OBSESSED with the Fresh Fruit Waffle Sandwich at Sleepy Hollow in Liberty Square. 10/10 would recommend .
Not my photo because I at mine too fast but the internet supplied this and it definitely shows the glory that is this waffle. Please take a moment to bask in it lol.
Hollywood Studios on the other hand has Tower of Terror and Rock ‘N’ Roller Coaster which I love a whole lot. It also has Slinky Dog Dash which we should be able to get on without a super terrible wait if we are there right at rope drop (I hope). I think my parents are planning on hitting up Hollywood (which will probably mean Auntie will come along since she has taken to calling my mom Cruise Director Julie and is planning on being wherever she’s told to be at the time she’s told ). Pa really wants to go on Slinky Dog Dash.
My mom has a sneaking suspicion that Uncle David and his crew will want to go back to Magic Kingdom because of how many different attractions there are there. No clue what Zach and Christopher are thinking of doing on this open morning.
Wherever we end up that morning, I imagine that we will find each other at the pool that afternoon because Disney in July (even if it is just the beginning of the month) can be painfully hot lol. We’ll eat some lunch, do some swimming, do some packing so we won’t have to worry about it the next morning, and get ready to roll out to Epcot.
FPs for this evening were listed above in a previous post, but here it is again in case you forgot (which I did so I bet you did too and no one wants to scroll back up ).
I think that this trip to Epcot will include a lot of time spent in the World Showcase because it's amazing and so pretty in the evening. It will also probably include a ride or two on Test Track because of Uncle David’s work perk. Depending on the wait lines, we will probably hit rides that we went on on Tuesday again.
Besides the FPs, this evening is not terribly well planned much like the morning lol. It’ll be a go with the flow kind of evening (day if I'm being honest) and it’ll end with seeing Illuminations (which honestly isn’t my favorite show, but it’s still pretty good).
Fast forward a couple hours and we’ll be waking up fairly early to leave the resort by 8:30 at the latest to make the drive back to Tampa’s airport. Our flight is at high noon so we need to leave ourselves time to combat morning traffic, return the cars, and get through the airport. Once we make it there it’ll be back to Michigan and the real world .
Luckily, my parents are already talking about going back again next year sometime in June since we won’t be restricted by my summer class schedule, so yay! This is it for now on this PTR which is kind of sad, I really enjoyed writing it. I’ll update if/when we make new plans, things change, or something exciting and Disney related. Until then, ta ta for now!
We are 23 days away from Disney!! AHHHHH IM SO EXCITED!!!!!!
We got our MagicBands in the mail the other day and that really made me realize how close we are to going!
Side note: like the entire time we have been planning I was set on pink. I literally changed it on a whim very shortly before they were finalized. My mom did the same thing, but I can’t remember what she had before going to pink. Not sure if I regret my sudden change or not .
We also ordered some decals online to put on our MagicBands! They are super cute and I really hope that they last. Some people have said they stayed on their entire trip while others lasted like half a day. Fingers crossed we fall into the first category, if not we tried and each one was only like 90 some odd cents so you get what you pay for . Here is what we ordered and what each person picked (of those who decided to participate. The lads and Uncle David’s family chose to opt out of the decals. Their loss lol)
Even though the decals are super cute and I was sassy about some of our party deciding to not get them, part of me is thinking about buying one of the little puck holder things so I don’t have to wear the MagicBand. I love MagicBands and the decals, but I hate wearing things on my right wrist and my FitBit is currently living on my left wrist. I’m in quite a pickle if I do say so myself. I think I’m going to check out the little holders on the first day and see what I’m feeling then. For now, it’s just something to consider I suppose.
Anyway! I just wanted to share my excitement with all of you! If anything else exciting comes up I’ll be sure to post about it!
There is only 13 more days until we go and I'm so excited!!!! My mom has been making a bunch of lists on what we need to bring and what is going to go in what suitcase and all sorts of other things that need to be figured out to successfully get down there. This happens before every trip, it's part of the whole Disney going experience, so it's making the fact there is only 13 more days feel even more real!
We also learned that my brother's best friend, also named Zach funnily enough, is going to be at the Tampa airport at the same time we are! The plan is for Zach and Christopher, and probably me, to meet up with other Zach for a quick beer while the rest of the family goes to hunt down our luggage and our rental cars. It was such an exciting thing for them to realize that they could meet up real quick and these plans were immediately laid out and set in stone. Other Zach is coming to the airport a bit earlier than he needs to for his flight so that he can meet up with our Zach for a little bit. Hopefully this goes according to plan because the Zachs only get to see each other a couple times a year because other Zach moved out of state for work.
In other news, we recently placed our MagicBand decals and they look super cute!!!! I love them so much and really hope that they stay on for the entire trip. After seeing them, I decided that I will wear my Apple Watch (recent upgrade- super happy with this decision) on my left wrist and just put the MagicBand on my right (even though I never wear anything more than a hair tie over there, it'll be quite the change. A plus is that I'll get matching tan lines cause they're the same size). Auntie's Olaf (no picture unfortunately) looks really cute on her band as well!
As always I'll update with new things if and when they happen! Thanks for reading!
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). This is my first time writing here on DISboards, but I’ve read a ton of TRs and PTRs. I’ve gone to Disney World 15 times… I think? My family goes just about every year, but none of us seem to be able to remember what the actual count is and are too lazy to go figure it out lol. This trip is going to be the first week of July and I’m SUPER excited for it because this is one of the biggest parties I’ve traveled there with and we’re celebrating 3 birthdays (mine included)!! I’ve been not so patiently waiting for it to arrive for 2 years now. When I was 19, I asked my parents if they would bring me back to Disney for my 21st birthday (I asked about a future trip to Disney while in the middle of a trip 
). They were pretty quick to agree (it’s never hard to convince them to go back to the most magical place in the world) and loose plans were put in place right then and there. Now here we are many, many moons later and only 65 days away from our trip!!
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. Every time those of us who are prepared and ready to go sit in the car and repeatedly ask each other, “what is he doing in there?,” never giving an answer because we all already know, but it’s tradition at this point lol.
). There is also a really cool fountain that I love to watch, even though I’ve seen it a bunch of times. I found a picture of it on the airport’s website to show all of you, it’s much cooler in person, promise 
). After picking up what we need, we’ll head over to the hotel!
!!!
. Zach is almost always in bed until the last possible minute seeing as he takes no time at all to throw clothes on and doesn’t really believe in eating breakfast. I, on the other hand, LOVE breakfast and will for sure be eating something before we head out. Whether this is something that we picked up from the store the day before or some Mickey waffles from downstairs (is it just me or does food shaped like Mickey Mouse taste better than just about anything else? 
. But to be fair it was their first real trip with just them since they starting having kids a quarter of a century ago so I guess it was time 
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). I think it is beautifully decorated and I’ve never had a bad lunch here! I usually get the carved turkey sandwich, but this year I’m going to switch it up and get the French dip! We always order ahead for this lunch because it is so much faster than ordering in person the day of (we made this mistake our 1st time eating there, which I think was the year of the accidental 17th birthday celebration? lol).
! The evenings in the parks are typically busier than the morning, especially since we get to the park right at rope drop, so we always plan our FPs in the evenings. This way we get to hit our favorite rides and usually not have to wait too terribly long. So, the plan for this trip is a park at rope drop and a different park in the evening for FPs (gotta love park hoppers!).
. However, I think I might have a pretty good shot at convincing Catie to go with me, so depending on the time, maybe we’ll do that! If it’s a bit late or we’re too exhausted- strong possibility of this happening, we’ll probably all head back to our rooms and start getting ready for bed. We’re going to be getting up early again so that we can be at Epcot at rope drop!! 
) and ended up with what we have now. We’re pretty happy with the times and rides that we got! 
! This day will be spent predominately by the pool. That’s where you’ll be able to find me (and my parents) pretty much from the moment we wake up until the late afternoon when we’ll head up to get ready for for our dinner. I can’t say if or when the rest of the party will join us at the pool. I imagine that Zach and Christopher will be sleeping in pretty late on this day, but they’ve surprised me before. I know Auntie will be soaking up the sun and Catie/Uncle David will be at the pool with us pretty quick. Aunt Tammy isn’t crazy about swimming, but she’s big on exploring and finding new things so I imagine that’s how she’ll spend the day. 
