Pre-Trip Mother/Daughter Escaping Reality Trip

Hi all! This is my first trip report ever and I am so beyond excited to be sharing it all with you! A little history on me, I am 21 years old and a full time student as well as a retail manager in North Alabama. I have previously worked for the mouse himself, as a College Program participant in merchandise at the Polynesian! I grew up going to Disney and prior to living down there, I had visited the parks approximately 35 times, going since I was 3. There was one year that we went monthly! My mother is my absolute favorite travel companion and we are widely known as "those Disney people."

We've had our 5 day trip in mid July planned for a few months now, but we didn't know that it couldn't have fallen at a better time! I'm swamped between work, school, a full time job, and going through a pretty tough breakup (He hated Disney, so i'm better off this way), so a Disney escape is most definitely needed! We're staying at Port Orleans French Quarter and attempting to do all of our Disney faves in 3 days as well as finding time to relax, eat ALL of the Disney food, and squeeze in a few Grapefruit Beers, you know, because break-ups and what not. I'm already anticipating that it will be a trip full of twists and turns and lots and lots of changing our minds on dining reservations and fast passes (we're very go with the flow people, which doesn't work very well with MDE). It will also be my first full-length trip back since being a cast member so I'm over the moon to see all of the changes made since last summer!

 

[amjt660]

Sounds like a fun trip with your mom

Looking forward to the details and will follow along

Max

 

[meg0039]

A week and a half later, I have finally found time to post an update! Between a few huge days at work, finishing up my first summer classes (with a 4.0!) and starting the second half of them, I've been beyond swamped. Thankfully, today is a laid back, rainy day that i'm taking to finalize Disney plans and breathe a bit before jumping back into the whirlwind. But on the plus side, 12 days!!! WE ARE ALMOST IN SINGLE DIGITS PEOPLE!!!!
Tentatively, here is our schedule:
Monday, July 17, 2017:
Fly out of Atlanta around 12:30 PM, putting us in Orlando by 2, at the latest. Naturally we're taking DME to POFQ, and every other time that we've taken the bus we've been the first stop, so fingers crossed! We've got Grand Floridian Cafe (a first!) that night at 6:45, which should give us plenty of time to do the monorail loop of gift shops before heading back to the room for an early night to get ready for the next park day.

Tuesday, July 18, 2017:
9:35 Spaceship Earth FP+
10:50 Soarin FP+
11:50 Figment FP+
These time will most likely be changed around as we play in the morning, but Epcot is my FAVORITE park, so I don't mind spending a lot of time in the morning there.
ADR:
4:40 PM Mama Melrose's Magic of Pixar Dining Package. Mama Melrose's is also a first (in memory) for me, and I have a strong connection to Disney music, so it was a must do. We were considering skipping HS this trip, but we must pay homage to GMR. I have a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach that it may not be with us any longer. Guess we'll wait and see

Wednesday, July 19, 2017:
9:20 Peter Pan FP+
10:50 SDMT FP+
12:55 Buzz Lightyear FP+ (This one was a must because it's one of my faves and we missed it our last trip)
ADR:
Be Our Guest: 12:20 (Me) 12:30 (Mom) - This is a little planning hack for us. If we can't get a BOG lunch reservation together, we book two separately within about 20 minutes of each other. With the check-in leeway time, we typically tell the CMs checking us in that we're together and they let us in together. We preorder and are on the DDP, so it all works out perfectly!
Liberty Tree Tavern 6:10 PM ANOTHER first for us! I'm very excited about it. I love comfort food!
I still haven't seen the new nighttime show, so we're planning on that too!

Thursday, July 20, 2017:
Well... in all honesty... I'm not totally sure yet. We have a Tusker House ROL dining package booked as well as a ROL FP+ because we've never done ROL. However, my heart hurts at the thought of missing Illuminations and I feel like Tusker House wouldn't be the best food that we could get on property. But I want to see ROL, but not have to use an entire day's worth of FP+ at DAK (It's, uh, my fourth favorite park. Unless you count the water parks and DS. Then it's sixth, only ahead of DS. Bring back the Marketplace!!!!) So this day will be very, VERY much played by ear! I also want to soak in a bit of pool time and maybe a pina colava at some point on the trip, so this may be the day for it!

Given recent events, when I'm not working OR doing schoolwork, I am obsessively reading these boards and planning our trip, to keep my mind busy, you know. Thanks to many amazing TRs on here I've booked so many new experiences for us and I absolutely cannot wait to share them all with you!

 

[meg0039]

In the wake of D23, i've also booked a morning GMR Fastpass on Thursday, in case we can't get it done Tuesday afternoon. I am in serious mourning.

 

[meg0039]

Yet another last minute change. Was playing on the App this morning and an 'Ohana ADR came up for 5:35 tomorrow night so I grabbed it up! And at my home resort no less! I was super sad that we wouldn't be dining at the poly at least once so I legit nearly cried happy tears. Also decided to add some MK fastpasses for Haunted Mansion, Jungle Cruise, and Peter Pan. Keep in mind that I got all of this JUST THE DAY BEFORE. I'm hoping this is a good sign of crowds to come. Also here is me in my Polynesian floral mumu with two of my old coworkers in the spring of 2016 just for a bit of 'Ohana themed fun.

 

[meg0039]

And one more for posterity. A stageless, pre park opening Chinese Theater while it's still GMR picture. I woke up at 5:30 that morning to attend a backstage preview of it and in hindsight I am so incredibly thankful that I took that opportunity. Okay. Going to cry now.