"...You're blowing my mind!!" A Disney Pre-Trip Report (Nov 16-22)

[Sorahana]

Ok so I've never done a trip report and I'm bored, so I'll do a pre-trip and a trip report, YAY!!

November 16th-22nd
Disney's Pop Century Resort
QSDP

Plans for the Trip
How this is Possible
Why Pop Century?
Our Must-Do's

The Cast and Crew of the Trip:


Sorahana-That's me! I'm a 20 something yr old and I'm excited to be part of their first trip to Disney!!

Jessie-She's a 20 something who is going and this will be her 1ST VISIT !!!

Ashley-She's a 20 something who HAS been to Tokyo Disneyland/DisneySea when she was studying over in Japan, but this will also be her 1ST VISIT !!!

Mrs. Simpson: Ashley's mom, who I got the title of the thread from (lol). It is also her 1ST VISIT !!!

Mr. Simpson: Ashley's dad, also 1ST VISIT !!!

Alec: Ashley's brother, also 1ST VISIT!!

Backstory:
My mom was sending me to Disney to work some shifts (thanks mom ) , but I'm not really a fan of traveling alone and my mom couldn't get time off work to go. So, I asked Ashley if she would want to come since she's not in school atm and she'd never been. She was totally onboard for that. I then asked Jessie if she wanted to come as well since she'd never been. She looked into it and her mom said "YOU'RE GOING!", lol.
So, Ashley asked her mom about it and her mom became interested in going as well, and possibly taking Ashley's brother (who has Aspergers) since he's always wanted to go but they've never gone because it would have been difficult.
Next thing I know, Ashley's mom is asking me all these things about Disney, so I oblige and answer them and make her feel more at ease about the trip, and now the whole family is going!! Her mom is so excited about this trip since she's making her son's dream come true, I'm happy I can be a part of it .

I hope this is ok!! I'm going to post more about why I picked where and such too .

 

[Sorahana]

Our Plans

This is a general plan we came up with

11/16
-ARRIVE AT WDW!
-Downtown Disney
-Cirque Du Soleil

11/17
-Magic Kingdom
-Relax/Break
-Back to MK
(MSEP and Wishes)

11/18
-EPCOT
(Illuminations)

11/19
-Animal Kingdom

11/20
-Blizzard Beach
-Spa for Ashley's mom

11/21
-Shopping @ Downtown Disney
-Spa day (?)

11/22
-Go home

 

[Sorahana]

Here's some more!!

How this Trip is Possible

By the goodness of my mom, Jessie's mom, and Ashley's parents . My mom is covering me going back, Jessie's mom is paying for her as a birthday/Christmas present, and Ashley's parents are doing it as a Christmas gift to them, Ashley, and her brother.

The room ended up being very affordable due to a holiday discount I received, and the dining plan was also affordable. When I told Ashley's mom the total price, her jaw dropped and she said "YOU'RE BLOWING MY MIND!!"

We got lucky enough with that, the flights were a good price too! The flight down was only $69 and the flight back was around $157 (because it's a Monday). I had to mess around with dates to find the cheaper flight since flight prices vary by what day you travel. Thursday-Monday are most expensive, whereas Tuesday and Wednesday tend to be cheaper.
Southwest=
(I love Southwest, they are awesome!! Fly them if you haven't!!)

 

[Sorahana]

No replies/subbers yet, oh well ^^;. I wish my report was more exciting!! I'll be spending some of the trip working, so they (my fellow travelers) will be figuring out what they're doing each day. I do have some plans though for when I'm with them. But first I'll take about resort choice!

Why Pop?

I picked Pop because we've stayed there a few times and it's my favorite value resort. We could have stayed in a moderate but to make the trip more affordable for all we picked a value resort.

We were originally booked in All Star Sports but when I saw we could get rooms at Pop, I switched over to Pop. I showed them both resorts online and we all agreed that we prefer to stay in Pop. I love the theming, the amount of walking, and the food court.

I feel like the theming "pops" more, is more colorful and lively, and much more fun. I also like their food court/gift shop set up. I am bummed that they got rid of the frozen Coke machines though , those were always a highlight of trips with my mom or other family members. I miss you Frozen Coke machines!!

We're bummed of course that values don't have hot tubs, but that's ok!

More to come!!

 

[Sorahana]

Must Do's

Here are the "Must Do's" I came up with, especially since everyone going besides me has never been. Some are park related, some are not. I was trying to come up with stuff I'd know they'd do/be interested in and I left out some things that you really don't have to do.

MCO/Airport (when we leave to go back home) :
-Visit the Disney store
-Walk around the airport

Pop Century:
-Walk around the resort
-Generation Gap bridge
-Hustle (maybe, don't know how game they would be for that. I know my two friends will do it, and I've never done it. I always catch the end of it)

Downtown Disney:
-Shops
-Cirque Du Soleil
-Ferry to Port Orleans
-Free chocolate sample from Ghiradelli's (a favorite)

Magic Kingdom:
-Monorail
-Wishes
-MSEP

Rides
Space Mountain, TTA/People Mover,Laugh Floor,Splash Mountain (temperature permitting ),Big Thunder Mountain Railroad ,Pirates, Haunted Mansion,Small World ,Philharmagic,Teacups (not sure who would be game for those...)

Miscellaneous
Bakery, Train station (for the view of the Castle), train, Dole Whips, Ice Cream on the corner of Main St., Wishing Well.

EPCOT:
-All of Future World
-World Showcase
-Monorail
-Illuminations

Miscellaneous
Mousegear
Mitsukoshi (gift shop in Japan)
Friendship Boats
Club Cool
Fountain show

Animal Kingdom:
Everest,Kilimanjaro,Kali River Rapids (temperature permitting),Finding Nemo the Musical ,Festival of the Lion King ,Dinosaur,Primeval Whirl ,It's Tough to Be a Bug

Miscellaneous
Mickey's Jammin Jungle Parade

 

[tpettie]

Hi Sorahana, I too was bored and wanted to get my Disney Fix... I have never done a trip report before either and was looking at the board to see is what people were writing and thinking aobut doing one. Still thinking but for now I will follow yours

 

[Sorahana]

Hi Sorahana, I too was bored and wanted to get my Disney Fix... I have never done a trip report before either and was looking at the board to see is what people were writing and thinking aobut doing one. Still thinking but for now I will follow yours

Thank you !! I'll post some more so it's a good read, hehe .

 

[Sorahana]

I haven't updated in a while, I apologize . I'm not even sure if anyone is reading this but I'll try and make it more exciting.

So here's what's been happening...
Disney Movie Day/Night
We decided to have a Disney Movie Day/Night where we'd get into the Disney spirit. Jessie and I went over Ashley's and spent a day watching Disney movies. Here's what we ended up watching...

-Princess Mononoke (ok so it's not technically a Disney film but we watched it first since I've never seen it)
-Mulan (I'LL MAKE A MAN OUT OF YOU...oh Donny Osmond. Love Mulan.)
-Beauty and the Beast (in blu-ray )
-Little Mermaid II (I subjected my friends to this since they haven't seen it and we ended up pausing it to watch Illuminations on Youtube ) aka, not a fave and we kept giving commentary during it.

We also watched the Disneyland fireworks, Illuminations, Fantasmic ending (Disneyland), and some other Disney videos to get into the spirit. They are now pumped for the fireworks and parades, mission accomplished !!

We also looked into where we want to eat on the 1st day and decided on Wolfgang Puck (it was the creme brulee....haha). Ashley wants something they have for breakfast but by the time we get to Pop on ME and check in and such, it will be lunch time (but she will try to defy time and get breakfast anyway, she is so dead set on this food dish ).
COUNTDOWN IS NEARING SINGLE DIGITS
We are at 11 days until Disney, so we're getting close to being able to do the single digits dance!! I am so excited, can't wait!!

 

[tpettie]

COUNTDOWN IS NEARING SINGLE DIGITS
We are at 11 days until Disney, so we're getting close to being able to do the single digits dance!! I am so excited, can't wait!!

That is exciting

Do you have any special ADR's planned?

 

[Sorahana]

That is exciting

Do you have any special ADR's planned?

No ADRs planned since it's their first time and we want to have flexibility when we're wandering around. We may go to Nine Dragons in EPCOT though .

General Update
So...I'm back. A day before the trip. I thought I'd post a recap of what's been going on. I'm taking my laptop on the trip so I'll try and update with daily "reports" because it will be a blur to me when we get back, hahaha.

I started a temporary job for the holidays and it has been stressful and the days have dragged leading up to the trip. Yesterday went so slow and when I was done I was relieved.

Today is packing day. Have to make sure I packed everything, check in for flights, and print out confirmations and such. Not sure what else to do today, maybe blast Disney music or movies to get me more in the mood. So excited!!

Schedule
We changed our schedule around slightly, I like what we changed it to. (Changes are bolded)

Tuesday:
-Arrive
-Downtown Disney


Wednesday:
-Magic Kingdom

Thursday:
-Animal Kingdom
We switched AK from Friday to Thursday since we were originally going to do EPCOT this day, but they have EMH on Friday.

Friday:
-EPCOT
-Hollywood Studios (to ride the bigger attractions)
-EPCOT EMH
Switched EPCOT from Thursday to Friday due to EMH, also with EMH we can parkhop over to HS to ride a few rides we want to ride over there and then go back to EPCOT.

Saturday:
-Blizzard Beach
-Cirque Du Soleil
We were originally going to do Cirque Du Soleil on Tuesday but the show is "dark" that day (aka no shows that day), so we changed it to Saturday night.

Sunday:
-Shopping @ Downtown Disney

Monday:
-Go home