"There Can't be a Rainbow Without a Little Rain" A July '17 TR! *Complete*

[Elizabeth Smith]

a family showed up and squashed in right in front of us. At this point, there was no where else to go. Up went a guy’s iPad for photos (SERIOUSLY, who brings an iPad to the parks for photos?) and we stood angrily watching HEA.

I'm sorry your HEA viewing was less than stellar. I feel like it's almost impossible to have a good viewing, though, because if it's not someone's ipad, it's someone's kid on their shoulders or anything else in the way.

Nevertheless, it sounds like you had a great last day!

 

[SaraSpringsIsHome]

Travel Day- Home
July 22 ​

It’s over!!! Wahh!!!

The last morning is always so sad. Our days at the Boardwalk were amazing, so it was going to be so hard to say goodbye!

We “slept in” after our late night at the MK until about 7:45. We were both pretty hungry, so I ventured down to the Boardwalk Bakery to see what I could wrangle up for breakfast. Normally, we do breakfast bars and fruit in the room, but we were both hankering for a hot breakfast. We got a Boardwalk Bounty Platter ( scrambled eggs, breakfast potatoes, bacon, sausage and a mini croissant) to share. My notes were that it was “nothing fancy, hot, filling, yummy bacon.” Hey, at least the bacon was yummy!

We slowly got ready and finished up the packing. One of my favorite parts about a 1 br villa is the washer and dryer in the room! Weird, I know, but it was great to go home with almost all clean clothes. It was about 10 a.m. when we finally left the room and hit the road...

We didn’t get very far, however. We decided we weren’t *quite* done with our trip yet, and made our way to Disney Springs! Ah, the joy of having a car at Disney.

We still had some $$ on the giftcards I had purchased before our trip, so we wanted to see if there were any other goodies we may have missed. It was so calm and quiet at Disney Springs at 10 in the morning. It was really nice to be able to leisurely walk through World of Disney and not be elbow to elbow in a sea of people.

We found a few last minute treasures at World of Disney and each got a couple more shirts at uniqlo.

Calendar, BatB notebook, pencils


I present to you: the BACKSIDE of a calendar!​

It was nearing noon at this point, so we figured we should probably just eat lunch before we actually got on the road. We meandered over to Earl of Sandwich and each got a sandwich, of what variety, I do not know, as I did not write it down.

We had delayed the inevitable long enough, and finally started the drive home around 12:30. It rained a bit, and we hit a little traffic driving through the Charlotte area, but overall it was a very uneventful drive home. It was about 10:30 p.m. when we finally arrived home.

We love to go away... but it’s always nice to come back home again, too!

 

[SaraSpringsIsHome]

Final Thoughts​

We really had an awesome trip. There were some reservations about going in July, but overall it was great. It’s funny going back and finishing this up a year after we traveled, but I was so sad about not having a trip planned (and thinking we couldn’t or wouldn’t go back until 2020) that I just stopped going on all my fav Disney sites. No Dis, no Allears, no Mouseplanet, no Disney youtube channels... Once we started planning our upcoming trip, the joy returned and I really wanted to finish this sucker! I told myself I couldn’t start a PTR for our January trip until I finished this one.

​

So, here are some final thoughts on our July ’17 WDW trip!

How was it to go in July?
Not as terrible as I had imagined!!! Was it hot? Oh, yes. Did it rain? Every day. Did either of those things ruin our trip: NOPE! We took disposable ponchos in to the parks every day and they really did the trick. We took afternoon breaks anyway, so we did a pretty good job avoiding the worst of the weather. We wore tons of sunscreen, drank lots of water, and avoided the heat as best we could at mid-day.

Would we go in July again?
Only if we had to! Again, we had great trip, but I don’t think we would actively plan a July trip unless there was no other option. We were pretty zapped by the end of the day, even with mid-day breaks. It was fun to see the parks in their “regular” state, but we really love the Fall with all the MK Fall/Halloween decorations up, and of course all the parks are gorgeous at Christmastime! The crowds were super manageable, though, and with FP+ and refreshing the app, we rode almost everything we wanted.

To park hop or not?
We SOOO missed our Park Hoppers! We had 4 parks, one park per day, DVC tickets that were being offered at the time, so we saved some money, but we really missed the ability to park hop and often felt stuck in one park all day. It was a bummer to only get one day at the MK. It also was a bummer to choose between which evening event we wanted to do at DHS, since we love Fantasmic!, but had to skip it in order to see Star Wars: a Galactic Spectacular.

Highlights:

• Flight of Passage and the world of Pandora! FoP is amazing and the detailing in the area is really great. We lucked out and were able to ride it 3 times, and each ride was amazing!
• Refreshing for FP’s!
• Our 1 br villa at the Boardwalk. We both absolutely love this resort: the ambiance, the rooms, the views, the pool, the convenience to Epcot and DHS... it has it all for us!
• Surprising Donnie with the Star Wars Dessert Party. We had so much fun and ate and drank lots of goodies. I also was able to keep it a surprise, which is really hard for me!
• Seeing our friends M & D a couple of times! They are such generous people, and it was great to catch up with them and have a blast at Blizzard Beach and Jock Lindsey’s.

Lowlights:

• We didn’t get to ride BTMRR: no same day FP’s could be found, and by the time we could ride it, we were both so tired and ready to go home.
• HEA fireworks viewing.
• Didn't make time to see Rivers of Light.
• We didn't save room for ice cream after eating at Beaches and Cream

Thank you for reading!!! I appreciate all your likes, comments, and kind words!

Come read about our next adventure! 2 for 1: You're halfway done! January '19 PTR

 

[SaraSpringsIsHome]

I feel like it's almost impossible to have a good viewing, though

It's such a bummer that it seems that way. We will be giving it another try in January, so hopefully we will have a better experience! It just made me miss Wishes, since good viewing for Wishes was easier to come by.

Nevertheless, it sounds like you had a great last day!

It really was a great day... a great whole trip for that matter!

 

[Disneybell2015]

I so enjoyed reading your trip report! It sounded like it was a pretty great trip. I look forward to following along on your PTR.

 

[SaraSpringsIsHome]

I so enjoyed reading your trip report! It sounded like it was a pretty great trip. I look forward to following along on your PTR.

Thank you for reading! We had a really great trip.

Thanks for following along on the PTR, too! It's just getting started, but I have lots to add already. I mean, isn't planning a trip one of the best parts?

 

[Disneybell2015]

Thank you for reading! We had a really great trip.

Thanks for following along on the PTR, too! It's just getting started, but I have lots to add already. I mean, isn't planning a trip one of the best parts?

Yes planning the trip adds to the excitement !

 

[Pooh's-Honey-Pot]

Enjoyed your report thank you!

 

[SaraSpringsIsHome]

Enjoyed your report thank you!

Thanks for reading! Glad you enjoyed

 

[SaraSpringsIsHome]

This TR is complete, if a mod wants to move it to the completed TR forum. Thanks!

 

[unwritten01]

Fantastic TR - thanks for sharing!

 

[SaraSpringsIsHome]

Fantastic TR - thanks for sharing!

Thank you so much! And thanks for reading

 

[chunkymonkey]

Looks like you had a great trip! Thanks for sharing! I love your final thoughts at the end. It's always nice to wrap things up.
I hear you about going in the summer - I would never choose it but when I have to, I will, like we did for our August family trip last year. It was so hot and humid and rained every day too, but we made it work and we all had a great time!
I wouldn't know what to do if I didn't have Park hoppers either! I would feel stuck as well, I need to be always moving. I think I'm park hopping every day on our Sept trip. It's what we're used to and what we like to do. I also like to catch all my favorite shows more than once!

 

[SaraSpringsIsHome]

Thanks for sharing! I love your final thoughts at the end. It's always nice to wrap things up.

Thanks again for reading! It was nice to wrap things up and remember what a great trip it was. I'm sure I would have had more to say if I hadn't waited a year to finish

It's what we're used to and what we like to do.

We like what we like! I don't think we'll ever go without hoppers again. If only I could justify us getting APs...