"The Trip Itself Is Only Half The Battle" - Prepping for October 2018

[B. Shoe]

I don’t recommend skipping FOP... It’s the best ride at WDW. We rode it 3 times during our May trip, the second we waited 90 minutes and none of us regret the wait. Try to ride it during EMH or at the very end of the night.

We really hadn't planned on being at AK any other time than Monday morning/early afternoon. Maybe we'll get lucky enough to swap out our FP for FoP sometime in the next two weeks. (Doubtful, I know. But we'll keep trying!) We still have time to figure out how to handle it.

 

[B. Shoe]

So we're t-minus 11 days (or 10, if you ask DD10, who reminds me that 'if you don't count today, it's 10 days!')

I wanted to talk about something and just get this out in the open, as I may have to remind myself of it a couple of times while we're at Disney World.

"It's okay."

Recently, I've read a lot of posts/threads on the boards of negative fashion. Complaints that the parks are crowded. Complaints that MNSSHP is potentially oversold. Complaints about food. Complaints about lodging. Complaints about "this wasn't how it used to be." I'm sure, at some point, I'll probably have some complaints of my own. As parents, we plan, plan, and overplan to make our time at Disney a 'perfect vacation'. But it'll never truly be that way. My DD10 feeds a lot off of how she sees me react and respond to scenarios. The last thing she needs is to see her father becoming irate over something that wasn't quite how we envisioned it going.

Maybe we'll wait in a little bit of a line here and there. Maybe the Halloween Party will have a few more people than we imagined it would. Maybe we won't have the most perfect view from our room. But it's a week away with me and DD10, in one of the best places on the planet. So, if everything doesn't go exactly as we hoped...there are always greater tragedies.

 

[shannie102]

So we're t-minus 11 days (or 10, if you ask DD10, who reminds me that 'if you don't count today, it's 10 days!')

I wanted to talk about something and just get this out in the open, as I may have to remind myself of it a couple of times while we're at Disney World.

"It's okay."

Recently, I've read a lot of posts/threads on the boards of negative fashion. Complaints that the parks are crowded. Complaints that MNSSHP is potentially oversold. Complaints about food. Complaints about lodging. Complaints about "this wasn't how it used to be." I'm sure, at some point, I'll probably have some complaints of my own. As parents, we plan, plan, and overplan to make our time at Disney a 'perfect vacation'. But it'll never truly be that way. My DD10 feeds a lot off of how she sees me react and respond to scenarios. The last thing she needs is to see her father becoming irate over something that wasn't quite how we envisioned it going.

Maybe we'll wait in a little bit of a line here and there. Maybe the Halloween Party will have a few more people than we imagined it would. Maybe we won't have the most perfect view from our room. But it's a week away with me and DD10, in one of the best places on the planet. So, if everything doesn't go exactly as we hoped...there are always greater tragedies.

if everyone went in with this thought the parks would be a better place!
And i agree, you never count todays- i count how many sleeps till disney

 

[jhoannam]

So we're t-minus 11 days (or 10, if you ask DD10, who reminds me that 'if you don't count today, it's 10 days!')

I wanted to talk about something and just get this out in the open, as I may have to remind myself of it a couple of times while we're at Disney World.

"It's okay."

Recently, I've read a lot of posts/threads on the boards of negative fashion. Complaints that the parks are crowded. Complaints that MNSSHP is potentially oversold. Complaints about food. Complaints about lodging. Complaints about "this wasn't how it used to be." I'm sure, at some point, I'll probably have some complaints of my own. As parents, we plan, plan, and overplan to make our time at Disney a 'perfect vacation'. But it'll never truly be that way. My DD10 feeds a lot off of how she sees me react and respond to scenarios. The last thing she needs is to see her father becoming irate over something that wasn't quite how we envisioned it going.

Maybe we'll wait in a little bit of a line here and there. Maybe the Halloween Party will have a few more people than we imagined it would. Maybe we won't have the most perfect view from our room. But it's a week away with me and DD10, in one of the best places on the planet. So, if everything doesn't go exactly as we hoped...there are always greater tragedies.

You will have a blast! The thing I remember most from our first trip was the look in our daughters' eyes when they saw the castle for the first time. And the excitement when they met Mickey. Yes it was crowded, and we didn't get to do everything we wanted, but that only meant that we had to go back. Enjoy your trip.

 

[B. Shoe]

We're down to single digit sleeps until we depart for Walt Disney World. DD10 and I had a great time drafting our packing list over the weekend, and making our grocery list that I'll order online later this week to keep some snack, drinks, etc., in our resort room. I still have a rather busy week of work and some other items this week, so packing will likely not begin until Saturday. Our inbound Disney Magical Express luggage tags also arrived in the mail today. It's exciting to see all of these little nuances finally all come together to make up our trip.

I keep an eye on the weather forecast, which seems to change hour by hour, every day, for each day of our trip. Opportunely, we're dry in the evening for Monday and Thursday evenings (HEA Dessert Party and MNSSHP nights.) But DD10 and I had a good chat that we are going to have a blast and let nothing get in our way of having fun, regardless of a potential storm here and there.

We've set up a list of goals for our MNSSHP visit. We'll fill in the blanks after that, but these are our first priorities. We will NOT do any trick or treating (Believe it or not, this was HER idea. She said she can get plenty of candy the following week during Halloween):

• Ride Space Mountain, Mad Hatter Tea Party, Pirates of the Caribbean, Haunted Mansion.
• Collect the special MNSSHP Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom card.
• Attend the 9:15PM Boo To You Parade.
• Attend the 10:15PM Hallowishes fireworks display.
• Attend the 12:00AM Hocus Pocus Villain Spectacular.
• Get a photo with Elvis Stitch.

We're still holding onto that FoP FastPass on Thursday, with hopes that we'll be able to snag one during our Monday morning visit to Animal Kingdom and I can dump it.

 

[shannie102]

Happy trip day! wishing you the best of weather and times! Make sure to let us know how it went!!!

 

[B. Shoe]

We’re here! I apologize that we didn’t’t get one last update I’m before takeoff on Sunday. Two days down, three to go, and I can’t even begin to tell you how much EXTRA MAGIC has been bestowed upon our trip! We are truly fortunate and DD10 is having the time of her life. The Contemporary was everything we hoped it would be and more. We return home on Friday night and I’ll write a trip report over the weekend. Our plans have changed a little bit, but thankfully we allowed ourselves the flexibility to do so with little impact. And it turned out great.

(PS - We got upgraded from Garden Wing BACK into the main tower! And that’s just the START of everything great that happened to us.)

 

[shannie102]

Please don't forget the after thoughts!! I cant wait to hear about all the EXTRA MAGIC!!!!!