Pre-Trip May 2015 Pre-Trip Report

Hurry baaaack... Hurry baaaack...
That's all I could think about since my last trip. I'm always trying to think of how I can "hurry back" to my favorite place! I had a great plan this time...
You see, I signed my sister in law (Brooke) up for college at Appalachian State University knowing that one day she would graduate and in turn would have to take a celebratory trip to the happiest place on earth!
Well, in May of this year, my plan will come to fruition - WE'RE GOING (back) TO DISNEY WORLD!!!!! This time we are celebrating Brooke's college graduation!

Now for the particulars...
Who: Scott, Pam, Brooke, Brittany, Grant and myself
What: A 7 day, 8 night Walt Disney World vacation
When: May 11-18, 2015
Where: Disney's Fort Wilderness Campground
Why: Brooke's college graduation
How: Driving from NC to FL

If you've read any of my other trip reports, you've met the cast of characters that will star in this trip and eventual trip report. You can read those TR's here...

Jan 2014:
http://forums.wdwmagic.com/threads/magic-bands-fp-and-a-baby-a-january-2014-tr.879176/

Sept 2011:
http://forums.wdwmagic.com/threads/...for-a-halloween-parade-a-september-tr.812088/

Dec 2010:
http://forums.wdwmagic.com/threads/...e-cream-bars-feel…-a-december-2010-tr.718898/

But for those of you who don't want to read all that old crap or are just curious to see some more recent photos, here ya go:

Grant:


And a family shot - Brittany, me, Grant, Pam, Scott and Brooke:


Ok, so I wasn't completely honest. We are taking one more with us on this trip. Grant has an announcement to make...

He's going to be a big brother!!!! (Although as you can see, he is not too sure about this development)
The baby is due in August!

Stay tuned for our tentative itinerary in my next post...

 

[jlthomas81]

Congratulations! We are also going in May! However, we don''t leave until the 26th. I'll be anxious to see how our trips will compare.

 

[mrdrift]

Well, congrats to Brooke on the graduation. Also Congrats to the whole family on the baby announcement. Will be watching for more details of the upcoming trip.

 

[MEyeSeeKayEY]

The Tentative Itinerary

Brooke graduates at around 12:00pm on Sunday May 10 (Mother's Day) from Appalachian State University in Boone, NC. Boone is about an hour and fifteen minutes from where we live, so we plan on just driving up that morning for graduation. After the ceremony is over we are going to high tail it down the mountain, change clothes and begin our journey south to Walt Disney World!
Right now, the plan is to drive as far as we can Sunday evening so that our drive the rest of the way in on Monday won't be too bad. Scott, Pam and Brooke will be in the truck pulling the fifth wheel camper and Brittany, Grant and I will be driving our own car for more space. Ideally, we want to make it at least to Savannah, GA before we stop for the night. Savannah is only about 4 hours from where we live, so that shouldn't be a problem. If we can go further though, we will. We picked Savannah because it's almost the half way point between us and Disney World!
So, that brings us to Monday morning May 11. We will get up and finish the drive to WDW, hopefully arriving no later than 2:00pm or so.
We are staying at Disney's Fort Wilderness Campground, so once we arrive we will check in and get the camper set up before grabbing a bite to eat (probably at Trail's End) and heading to the Magic Kingdom (open until 11:00pm) for the night to kick off our trip! I'm going to try to book FastPass+ reservations for Space Mountain, Seven Dwarfs Mine Train and Splash Mountain - all for after 5:00pm so we can ride a few favorites before capping the night off with the Main Street Electrical Parade and Wishes! What a way to start our vacation!
Tuesday May 12
We are heading to Disney's Animal Kingdom for our first full day in the parks! DAK is open from 9:00am-6:00pm and has crowd level of 3 according to touringplans.com. FastPass+ selections for the day will be Kilimangaro Safaris, Expedition Everest and Dinosaur. have dinner ADR's at Yak and Yeti at 5:45pm and then we plan on heading over to EPCOT to catch IllumiNations!
Wednesday May 13 we are going to Disney's Hollywood Studios! DHS is open from 8:00am-8:30pm and has a crowd level of 3. FastPass+ selections for the day are Toy Story Midway Mania, Tower of Terror and Rock'n'Roller Coaster.
Thursday May 14 is our first full day at the Magic Kingdom! The MK is open from 8:00am-11:00pm with a crowd level of 4. The plan it to hit Fantasyland first thing and ride as much as we can and save our FP+ selections for the afternoon for the usual headliners (the mountains).
Friday May 15 is our EPCOT day! I'm the only one in our party who really loves EPCOT, so it often gets put on the back burner... EPCOT is open from 9:00am-11:00pm and has a crowd level of 5 on this day. The plan is to truck it to Soarin' first thing and ride it and use at FP+ for it again later. We always ride Test Track by using the single riders line. There are no other attractions at EPCOT that we even need to use FP+ for, so I guess we'll get Spaceship Earth and Nemo? Does anyone know if you can get a FP+ for EPCOT Character Spot?
Anyway, we have dinner ADR's at 'Ohana at 5:30, so we will be hopping a monorail over there at around 5:00 and then heading to the Magic Kingdom (open until midnight) or head back to EPCOT to finish out the day.
Saturday May 16
Since we've spent the majority of a day at each of the parks, this day and Sunday May 17 will be used to hit our favorites again, go back to pick up something that we saw in one of the shops, hit Downtown Disney, go swimming, who knows?? I'll probably book some FP+ reservations just in case, but those can be changed at any time depending on where we end up.
Monday May 18 is our travel day home back to North Carolina. I don't want to talk about it...




**Stay tuned for updates until we head down to see the mouse and the TR once we get home...

 

[FlaggNL]

Sounds like more than great plans And two trips comming up Enjoy the pre feelings!

 

[Gaston's gal]

Lots of thing to celebrate. I'm sure you will have a great trip! Enjoy

 

[MEyeSeeKayEY]

2 weeks!!!! I'm SO pumped!!!! Follow along with our trip on Instagram (jonclendenin) and on Twitter (@jonclendenin).

 

[jlthomas81]

All of you going in early May have me jealous!! 30 days still!!

 

[LisaBelle]

Your trip is getting so close! Plans look great. Hope you have a magical time.