Third Time's the Charm! A June, Oct/Nov and Dec '19 PTR complete 12/22!

[lvcourtneyy]

Travel Plans

When I first started traveling to WDW, I always said I would NEVER drive- only fly.

Fast forward a few years and we were sitting in the airport waiting to board our plane and our flight got cancelled.

The only flight option they offered us that would get me back in time for work the next day was a flight to Texas with a layover that
'hopefully wouldn't be canceled".

So we ended up renting a car and driving home. The positive outcome is that we realized the drive isn't that bad!

Last year when we decided on a long trip, we decided to drive and we're doing it again this year! DBF's mom and 3 sisters live in Florida about an hour from WDW so driving means we can see them for a few days before and after our time in WDW. His nephew recently started driving and actually met us in Orlando for HHN and Halloween day last year and probably will do so again this year.

Since I work 3 12 hour shifts a week, I can maximize my time off by working Sunday Monday and Tuesday before my 2 weeks of vacation. I'm hoping to be able to use an extra day of vacation this year so we can leave at 7 am on Tuesday when I get out of work. Otherwise, we'll leave at 7 am Wednesday.

We'll drive to DBF's mom's house and stay there for a night or two, depending on which day we're able to leave and then head to WDW on the 24th.

We're debating renting a car for the trip to not put more miles on my car since I lease it but the cheapest I've found a rental car is almost $800 which is ridiculous to me. My car will go back soon after we get home anyway so unless I find a good deal on a rental car, we'll just take it.

Other planning notes:

I'm still frustrated that they haven't released MVMCP dates yet! MNSSHP dates were announced SO early this year and they're taking their sweet time with the Christmas party dates. I'm holding off buying our MNSSHP tickets yet because we may have to shift our dates back a few days if the Christmas party doesn't start the same Thursday as last year so I'm very anxious!

It's also crazy to me that we have to make ADRs without official park hours released but I guess it doesn't matter much since they end up changing them later on anyway.

I read a rumor that the Return to Sleepy Hollow event won't happen this year because of construction at the Fort and I'm bummed! That was one of our favorite things the last 2 years!

Short update this time but hopefully Disney will release more info soon so I can finalize most of our planning before ADR day! We're planning to go see Dumbo today- I can't wait!

​

 

[missangelalexis]

It's so funny because I am still in the mindset that I never want to drive to Florida! it just seems sooo long! And I think for me it's more that I have limited vacay time so I don't want to sacrifice any days in the parks by driving. If I was able to take a longer trip then I might consider it!

It's great that you'll get to spend time with DBF's family!

Disney planning is not like it used to be! It was always great having those preliminary hours to base your plans off of.

How was Dumbo?!

 

[princess_ariel_85]

ADR Planning

March 25 is a rough day for me. I'm an Emergency Room nurse and today marks 2 years since I was attacked by a patient at work who attempted to choke me with wires connecting him to a cardiac monitor. Fortunately, I did not suffer any lasting physical injuries but I still struggle mentally with the incident. I am lucky to have a great support system in my family, friends and coworkers and last year he was sent to prison for his actions.

It is easiest for me to keep busy today so what better to do than try to map out our ADRS?!

Our ADR day is about a month away on April 27th and I'm frustrated because Disney hasn't released
1. Park Hours
2. MVMCP dates
3. Food and Wine dates



I mean they're turned us into these master planners but then only given us half the info we need!

The most important to me are the dates for MVMCP because we will change our trip dates to allow us to attend the first party if we need to but for how, I'm just hoping it follows the same schedule as last year.

The hardest part of picking ADRs to me is balancing our old favorites to return to with new places I want to try.
​

Old Favorites

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Hoop-dee-doo has quickly become one of our must-dos on every trip! The food is good, the show cracks me up every time and it's not hard to win me over with unlimited sangria! A certain PTR writer may have over-indulged on the sangria last time and tortured DBF wandering through the campsites wanting to find more dogs to pet...

My plan is to book the 4 pm show on 10/30 and hopefully enjoy the Return to Sleepy Hollow event afterwards as well as enjoying some of the Halloween festivities taking place at the Fort.

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Crystal Palace is another restaurant we eat at almost every trip. The food isn't anything new or amazing, but it is always good and we always enjoy our meal. We prefer breakfast but last year we booked lunch here before MNSSHP and it worked out perfectly so that is the plan again this year.


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Sanaa- we ate here for the first time last October and not to no-one's surprise, we fell in love with the famous bread service. Plus, who can pass up eating with this great view of a zebra so close! I'm happy that DBF has recently decided to try Indian food and like it so that we were finally able to eat here!

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Kona Cafe- Tonga Toast and a mimosa flight (including one with the POG juice!) - need I say more?

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Ohana- DBF requested to eat here again and most of the time when I asked where he wants to eat I get "I don't care" so I like to accommodate when I get an actual answer!

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Yak and Yeti- this is another of our must-dos where we eat every trip. We have the Landry's card so we won't actually make an ADR but it's at the top of our favorites list!

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Bon Voyage Breakfast- the food is delicious, Tangled and the Little Mermaid are 2 of my favorite movies, and I can start the morning with mimosas and princes!


New Restaurants

California Grill brunch- I've been watching tons of vlogs and reading reviews here on the Dis that have made me put this on my must-do list. The only concern I have is the Sunday that we can do this is the day of the Post-Race party at Epcot and I was hoping to be able to take advantage of the opportunity to come back at night and watch the fireworks

Be Our Guest dinner- we've eaten at BOG many times for all meals since it opened but haven't tried dinner since it switched menus

Plaza lunch- we ate here for breakfast in November last year on the first day they had breakfast and it was delicious. I discovered my love for fried green tomatoes in Savannah so that sandwich is calling to me! I think this will make a good pre- MVMCP meal

Biergarten- our World Showcase go-to is Rose and Crown but there's so many options that I want to try something new. The show here looks fun and a liter of beer is always a good option in my book

Trail's End brunch- I've wanted to try Trail's End for a while and the brunch options sound delicious

Homecomin'- we had a reservation here last trip and cancelled it to meet up with friends so I'd like to actually try it this time

Beaches and Cream- I'm pretty sure we did eat lunch here once but I think it was on our trip a couple years ago in July where I was getting heat exhaustion and I don't remember it at all so I'd like to give it another chance. I'm thinking on a HS day it would be a good alternative.

Wine Bar George- another restaurant we had a reservation for last year and canceled to go to the Post-Race party. I've read reviews and the steak looks delicious and I want to try the Frose!

Sorry for the lengthy post! It's a long list but with 15 nights, we have a lot of meals to eat! I'll only be able to make ADRs for our first 10 days initially, and then will have to go back and do our remaining days which is annoying but it worked out okay last year. If anyone has eaten at any of the new places we're considering and has any good or bad things to share, I'd love to hear them!

Picking ADRs is so hard! Lol I feel your pain.

Yak and Yeti is one of our faves and we always go to Crystal Palace.

We’ve done Biergarten twice now and it’s definitely an experience. Loved it the first time because you get seated with strangers and we got seated with some very nice people. The second time wasn’t so great but the food was nice.

And fireworks from Cali Grill is a lovely way to end a day so if you do plan on going back to watch the fireworks you won’t regret it.

 

[Corrine 1973]

Just started reading and I really am enjoying the read. I am loving the Disney Store finds especially since I bought that same Peter Pan ornament at my Disney Outlet. Couldn't pass up that $2.99 price. I also bought another one that was the door knob from Alice in Wonderland. I am very jealous about your trip dates. I was able to do MNSSHP in 2009 for my sons MaW trip but haven't been able to do it since. My son and I are talking about going about that time in 2021 for his graduation trip. Maybe I can convince him to go later in the month so we can do MVMCP as well. He also wants to do Halloween Horror nights.

 

[lvcourtneyy]

It's so funny because I am still in the mindset that I never want to drive to Florida! it just seems sooo long! And I think for me it's more that I have limited vacay time so I don't want to sacrifice any days in the parks by driving. If I was able to take a longer trip then I might consider it!

It's great that you'll get to spend time with DBF's family!

Disney planning is not like it used to be! It was always great having those preliminary hours to base your plans off of.

How was Dumbo?!

Yeah with limited vacation time I wouldn't consider it either! I only consider it as an option when driving time doesn't cut into the days I've planned for the trip itself lol.

I agree- why must they make it more complicated for us?!

Dumbo was so good! I know it got mixed reviews but I really enjoyed it. I was crying in the theater but luckily there were only about 6 people in it!

 

[lvcourtneyy]

Picking ADRs is so hard! Lol I feel your pain.

Yak and Yeti is one of our faves and we always go to Crystal Palace.

We’ve done Biergarten twice now and it’s definitely an experience. Loved it the first time because you get seated with strangers and we got seated with some very nice people. The second time wasn’t so great but the food was nice.

And fireworks from Cali Grill is a lovely way to end a day so if you do plan on going back to watch the fireworks you won’t regret it.

Thanks for sharing your experiences at Biergarten! The seating with strangers makes me anxious but DBF talks to everyone so I'm hoping it'll be fine!

Just started reading and I really am enjoying the read. I am loving the Disney Store finds especially since I bought that same Peter Pan ornament at my Disney Outlet. Couldn't pass up that $2.99 price. I also bought another one that was the door knob from Alice in Wonderland. I am very jealous about your trip dates. I was able to do MNSSHP in 2009 for my sons MaW trip but haven't been able to do it since. My son and I are talking about going about that time in 2021 for his graduation trip. Maybe I can convince him to go later in the month so we can do MVMCP as well. He also wants to do Halloween Horror nights.

Thank you for joining! The ornaments are definitely impossible to pass up at $2.99. My store didn't have the Alice door knob! I'm jealous!

My first trip was also for my sister's Wish trip! How is your son doing now?

If you can work out a trip to hit both MNSSHP and MVMCP, I highly recommend it! It was so much fun to start the trip with Halloween and the end it with Christmas!

Halloween Horror nights is my true Halloween love! It's the exact opposite of Disney but the details in the scare zones and houses are amazing!

 

[lvcourtneyy]

A Wickedly Good Summer

I'm not sure about the rest of you but it's been a busy week around here!

We started the week seeing Dumbo (which was so good and made me cry!) and celebrating DBF's birthday. I worked a ton of overtime this week which means I did 5 straight 12 hour overnight shifts.

My bank account will be happy on payday. My soul is not.

The much more exciting thing that happened this week were tons of announcements from Disney on summer events.

I've been trying to fit in another Disney trip in summer sometime. My original plan was the end of August but it was too close to October and then SWGE was announced. I'm going to Nashville in July so the only open month was June which seemed too close to make happen.

First they announced the next set of V.I. Passholder events. I was able to book us for the Typhoon Lagoon event on June 3. The plan was to make a trip to hit the end of Flower and Garden and the event.

Then I saw this:


We did the After Hours several times at MK and enjoyed them but I felt the last one my sister and I attended in August last year was significantly more crowded than others we went to. The AK one I attended in February was fantastic and we were able to ride FOP 5 times! The Villains twist had me sold!

Plan A was a trip from 6/2 - 6/7 to hit both the passholder and villain events. This would've been ideal but the flights were expensive closer to Memorial day and we weren't able to make the dates work with our work schedules.

So we came up with Plan B to attend the 6/13 event. After playing around with flight and resort prices, we settled on dates: 6/12- 6/16.

We're staying at:

(pictures stolen from google)


Caribbean Beach Resort!

I never really had a desire to stay here in the past because we've visited before and the bus system was awful but we got a great rate where it's costing us $12 more than the All-Star resorts and it checks another new resort off the list!

The Dis also just did a resort review and the refurbed rooms are nice, the pool looks awesome and I want to try Sebastian's Bistro!

I'm gonna do our June trip plans in this color, just to differentiate!

I haven't booked flights yet because the Hopper app recommends waiting but the flights I'm looking at on Jetblue will get us in early on the 12th and fly out late on the 16th- my favorite flight schedule! I'm not sure why but Southwest seems to have taken almost all the non-stop flights out of Newark to Orlando

6/12: Fly in early, enjoy some resort time waiting for our room to be ready. Have lunch either at Banana Cabana or Spyglass Grill then head to Epcot for the evening.

6/13: MK for rope drop then back to the resort during the day. I booked 1900 Park Fare for 4 pm and we'll go back to MK for the night and Villains After Hours after. I thought it would be nice to start the night with a meal with some villains. I would've booked Storybook Dining but I had an awful experience there in February and I'm sure it's all booked up anyway.

6/14: rope drop Hollywood Studios. I set a dining alert for Beaches and Cream since it'll be closed for refurb in October. My hope is to eat lunch at Beaches and Cream then go to Disney Springs to do the Wreck-It Ralph VR at the Void. Then back to HS at night for Fantasmic.

6/15: EMH at AK. We have the Landry's card and will use that to have lunch at Yak and Yeti. We'll play it by ear to see if we want to spend all day in the park, leave and come back, hop to another park or use it as a resort night. I've booked us at 5 pm dinner at Sebastian's Bistro since this is the only night it fits in so we'll see if we make it work!

6/16: Leaving open. Flight will hopefully be late at night. I'm thinking we may want more Epcot time since we only will have a half-day there at most our first day.

I'm obviously beyond excited and I'm pretty sure planning this is the only thing that got me through this week of overtime! Our countdown has gone from 200 days to:



It's already almost fastpass day!

​

 

[Corrine 1973]

My first trip was also for my sister's Wish trip! How is your son doing now?

What a small world. His trip was in 2009 and he is now 16. He has Cystic Fibrosis and has been doing well. We did have a bump in the road last October and he was hospitalized for 8 days. We amazingly learned that one of the scare actors at Six Flags Great America also had CF and we were able to say hi to him the weekend before Halloween.

Yeah for a summer trip!!! We are going to also be a CBR but it will be at the end of July beginning of August. It just so happens that we will be at MK on August 1st and my son is talking about treating me. We just need to figure out the other kids since 5 tickets would be expensive.

 

[lvcourtneyy]

What a small world. His trip was in 2009 and he is now 16. He has Cystic Fibrosis and has been doing well. We did have a bump in the road last October and he was hospitalized for 8 days. We amazingly learned that one of the scare actors at Six Flags Great America also had CF and we were able to say hi to him the weekend before Halloween.

Yeah for a summer trip!!! We are going to also be a CBR but it will be at the end of July beginning of August. It just so happens that we will be at MK on August 1st and my son is talking about treating me. We just need to figure out the other kids since 5 tickets would be expensive.

Glad to hear he’s doing well! My sister is a bit older. Her Wish trip was in 2000 and she’s 32 now. Thankfully she’s also doing well but she also spend 18 days in the ICU in January.

The pool at CBR looks really cool! That’s very sweet that your son wants to treat you. Tickets do definitely add up for a whole family !

 

[missangelalexis]

Yay I'm glad you're squeezing in a June trip! The Villains event has me dying and I'm considering trying to plan some kind of trip to attend one but idk if it will work out!

That's awesome that you got a great rate at Caribbean Beach too!

 

[lvcourtneyy]

Yay I'm glad you're squeezing in a June trip! The Villains event has me dying and I'm considering trying to plan some kind of trip to attend one but idk if it will work out!

That's awesome that you got a great rate at Caribbean Beach too!

Disney is so good at taking our money lol! I hope you can make it happen!

 

[lvcourtneyy]

Fastpass Plans and Spending Money!
Our Fastpass day for our June trip is TOMORROW

I've read a lot of posts from people saying their FP window was unexpectedly open early so naturally I've been stalking the app to see if ours does lol

It hasn't. Yet!

These are my Fastpass goals:

6/12: arrival/ Epcot
1:30 pm: Spaceship Earth
2:30: Mission Space
3:30: Test Track

6/13: MK/Villains After Hours
9:30: 7DMT
10:30: Splash
11:30: Meet Mickey and Minnie

6/14: DHS
Slinky as early as possible
TOT
RNRC times depending on Slinky time

6/15: AK
FOP as early as possible
EE
Kali , again times depending on FOP time

6/16: still up in the air

Cross your fingers for me!

On another note, I got this popcorn bucket in February:


And I just saw the Minnie version was released in WDW so I'm hoping it's still there in June!

I got a survey in my email yesterday because I had booked an AP rate for June. Amongst the questions Disney came up with to ask were these gems:



I'm not sure if they often get people who disagree with these statements and request to pay more money?

Switching back to our Oct/Nov trip, I bought our MVMCP tickets yesterday also

I usually try to wait until closer to buy non-refundable things but since there was no party on Thursday like I was hoping, we could only attend the Friday party. With rumors of a new fireworks show and it being a Friday, I started worrying about how quickly the first party would sell out. My worries were probably a little dramatic but nonetheless, the tickets were purchased!



Last year, I randomly found these shirts at the Disney Outlet and they were PERFECT for the party! Not sure what we'll wear this year. I'm open to ideas!

I did recently buy a bunch of other shirts because I'm apparently on a mission to own more Disney shirts than I'll ever have room for.



These are from the Disney store because they gave me $25 Disney notes last time we went so of course I went back and spent more money. DBF also got a Lion King shirt but I couldn't even try to tell you where he put it.



These came from Teepublic. I just discovered Teepublic and now I want just about everything on there haha. Plus these tanks are SO SOFT! Again, DBF also got two shirts but where they are now is an eternal mystery.

Lastly, these two from Etsy!


I managed a photo of this one before DBF disappeared it into a black hole!

I want to find some Wendy themed ears to go with this one. Anyone have any favorite etsy/Instagram ear shops they wanna share?

Lastly, I saw on facebook that Universal was running a photo package sale:



I wasn't going to purchase it until I clicked their link to a video of what Shutterbuttons is and I decided I needed it!

We're planning on spending at least 3 days at Universal so hopefully we'll get good use out of it!

Basically, I feel like all I can do at this stage is buy things.

That's all for now though- hopefully the FP odds will be in my favor tomorrow!



​

 

[lvcourtneyy]

June Fastpasses and plan updates!

This morning was Fastpass day! I went out with my best friend last night who I don't get to see as much recently because she has a newborn so I didn't go to bed until 4 am so I was very confused when the alarm went off at 6:45 am lol. The things we do for Disney.

It went smoothly (no app glitches thankfully) except I couldn't get Slinky at all!

In black are the FPs I hoped for, in purple is what I actually booked:

6/12: arrival/ Epcot
(12:10-1:10) 1:30 pm: Spaceship Earth
(1:25-2:25) 2:30: Mission Space
(2:35-3:35) 3:30: Test Track

They're all a little earlier than I originally planned but I won't be that upset if we miss either of the first two since our focus this day will be the World Showcase and I'm hoping to make a 4th FP for Frozen Ever After once we get in the park.

6/13: MK/Villains After Hours
(3:30-4:30!) 9:30: 7DMT
(9:50-10:50) 10:30: Splash
(11:10-12:10) 11:30: Meet Mickey and Minnie

The afternoon 7DMT time really isn't going to work for us. I'm hoping to take a midday break this day since After Hours is until 1 am. I'm going to just keep trying to modify it and if I still can't move it earlier once we're in the park, we'll just change it to something else.

6/14: DHS
(9:30-10:30 Alien Swirling Saucers) Slinky as early as possible- no Slinky!
(3:05-4:05) TOT I'm so surprised that this was the earliest for Tower of Terror! I read that half the ride will be closed at some point for refurb- I wonder if that's why? Once again, I'll have to keep trying to modify it
(10:45-11:45) RNRC- times depending on Slinky time

6/15: AK
(2:05-3:05) FOP as early as possible
(9:40- 10:40) EE
(10:45-11:45) Kali , again times depending on FOP time

Not as early as I'd like but also not the worst. If I can get an earlier time, great. If not it'll work out this way too.

6/16: still up in the air

I left the 16th as a day to do whatever we didn't get to on the other days. Currently, my plan is to start the morning at Epcot since we'll only have a partial day there the first day. So the idea is to spend most of the 1st day in the World Showcase and then hit whatever we miss then in Future World today.

I booked a PPO at Garden Grill to RD Soarin' and then we'll go from there.

Hollywood Studios also has AM EMH this morning so if we really want to, we can start the morning there, hit a few rides then go to Epcot. Probably won't happen since we'll have to pack everything, do Resort Airline Check-in and drop our carry-ons at Bell Services before going to the park.

I booked FPs for MK. With a midday break on our MK day, we'll miss Festival of Fantasy and I want another chance to see which characters are at the Flagpole for the "random" meets they've been doing!

So we have

10:50- 11:50 Peter Pan's Flight
12:05-1:05 7DMT
1:15-2:15 Jungle Cruise

The flight I'm looking at doesn't leave until 10:30 pm so we'll have most of the afternoon free.

I actually decided to add an ADR for 5 pm for Sebastian's Bistro this day. Magical Express shouldn't pick us up until around 7:30 and we'll be at our resort anyway so it'll be a pretty non-stressful way to end the trip then. Plus, the only other place I tried to fit it in was our AK day and I feel we'll end up wanting to spend the entire day in the park.
​

 

[Eeyore daily]

Nice job with the fastpasses! We RD slinky and were off the ride by 9:45 so not too bad if you can’t get one. I’m excited to hear about Villans night!

 

[Corrine 1973]

Great job on the FPs. I have 47 days until our FP day and I really need to figure them out. I know my son wants to do SDD so hopefully we are able to snag one.

 

[lvcourtneyy]

Nice job with the fastpasses! We RD slinky and were off the ride by 9:45 so not too bad if you can’t get one. I’m excited to hear about Villans night!

Thank you! We're rope drop people anyway which is hysterical because at home I won't wake up in the morning for anything but in Disney, I'm up at the crack of dawn so we probably would RD it either way for a second ride!

Great job on the FPs. I have 47 days until our FP day and I really need to figure them out. I know my son wants to do SDD so hopefully we are able to snag one.

Thank you! It's so stressful trying to piece everything together haha. The later in your trip you can try for SDD, the better!

 

[lvcourtneyy]

Monorail Bar Crawl?

Any other Game of Thrones fans out there? I haven't watched the new episode yet because I'm rewatching the series first! I'm not ready for it to be the last season lol!

When I told DBF about the plan to have an early dinner at 1900 Park Fare, he asked if we could have an early dinner at Ohana instead. Of course it wasn't available so I told him not to get his hopes up and set up a *********** alert for it.

I find working overnights comes in handy a lot with dining alerts because they don't go nearly as fast and it happened on Saturday at 2 am when I was at work- I got an alert for Ohana and was able to snag a 3:45 pm reservation!

I can taste this bread pudding already!


I was also already able to move our 7DMT fastpass up for this day from 3:30-4:30 to 1:45-2:45!

I'm thinking our time for a midday break will be too short with our current plans so my new idea is to do a monorail crawl before our Ohana reservation.

Anyone have any drink suggestions at the Contemporary or the Grand Floridian?

I know I've seen a fishbowl drink at the Wave posted on Instagram but they don't see to have a specialty cocktail menu online. And Mizner's at GF won't be reopened as the Beauty and the Beast theme yet so I'm not sure where to go there. Does Citricos have a lounge worth going to?

Trader Sam's now opens at 3 pm instead of 4 which works out perfectly. I think we'll start by walking to the Contemporary after our 7DMT fastpass, monorail to Poly, go to Trader Sam's then our dinner reservation and then do the Grand after dinner.

​

 

[missangelalexis]

Your FP plans for June sound great! I'm glad you got mostly everything. I can't believe no SDD though!

Glad you got your MVMCP tickets!

Yay for getting an Ohana ADR! A Monorail crawl sounds fun!

 

[lvcourtneyy]

Your FP plans for June sound great! I'm glad you got mostly everything. I can't believe no SDD though!

Glad you got your MVMCP tickets!

Yay for getting an Ohana ADR! A Monorail crawl sounds fun!

Me neither! I thought FOP would be the harder one to get !

 

[evre13]

Caribbean Beach Resort!

I never really had a desire to stay here in the past because we've visited before and the bus system was awful but we got a great rate where it's costing us $12 more than the All-Star resorts and it checks another new resort off the list!

I stayed at CBR a few years ago, and I loved it. It's a great resort!

Anyone have any drink suggestions at the Contemporary or the Grand Floridian?

There's a pop-up bar at the Grand Floridian that's the stand-in for Mizner's; depending on the time, you could also go to the Pool Bar? I have had a good drink at the lounge at California Grill, too!