Trip Report She Thought We Were Going To The Beach...Surprised?

Hello Everyone!

This is my first attempt at a trip report so bear with me!

WHO:
Me - JoAnna (25)

Daughter - Gracie (6)

Sister - Halie (22)

WHEN:
May 6th - May 13th

WHERE:
Port Orleans Riverside

WHY:
Halie is graduating from college with her Bachelors in Psychology (I believe that's what it is), and Gracie will be celebrating the completion of her first year of big girl school, Kindergarten.

A little background first. In September of 2015 we went to WDW to celebrate Gracie's 5th birthday. I the summer before I had decided that we wanted to go to Disney, and then realized that her birthday was a great time to go. She wasn't in school yet, so it was so easy for us to just choose a date and go. This also meant that I didn't have to worry about throwing a birthday party, which I was all for! I packed her birthday gifts and took them with us so she would have some gifts to open on her special day. We stayed in AoA Little Mermaid Room and had a blast. She was able to eat her birthday breakfast at CRT, what more can a girl ask for?

Some pictures from that trip to follow.

 

[MomofPrincessGrace]

 

[MomofPrincessGrace]

Last time we also did Universal Studios. We won't be doing that again until she gets a little older. We decided that instead we would just add on an extra Disney park day to make things a little easier. Here are pictures from our Universal day.

 

[MomofPrincessGrace]

My sister went on that trip with us, but she is pretty picture shy...Unless it involves a selfie, haha. It is so much easier doing trips with her because we usually split all costs down the middle, this upcoming trip included. Okay... enough reminiscing, onto our plans for this trip.

Last trip we asked Gracie's opinion on everything, which rides she wanted to ride, princesses she wanted to meet, everything was pretty much her decision with our influence. It was really a wonderful trip. After about 6 months I asked Halie if she wanted to go back and of course her answer was yes!

This trip we decided that we were going to keep it a surprise. We are leaving the day after my sisters graduation. Her graduation date was actually planned for Saturday, so we were going to leave on Sunday. About 3 months after we booked the dates (thankfully before any ADR's were made) they changed the graduation to Friday. I asked her if she would be okay with us leaving Saturday, she agreed, so I called and made the change. Thankfully since Gracie is in kindergarten she isn't missing much school work (she took 2 extra years of pre-k on a kindergarten curriculum so she is actually ahead of her work at the moment). She will miss one week of school, but will return in time to enjoy all of the end of the year festivities.

We have also decided to stay in a Mod this time instead of a value, overall this trip costs about $1,000 more than last trip, but with annual price increases, an extra park day, and upgrading to a moderate resort, I don't think that it was too bad of a deal.

Coming Up.... Tentative Plans for Park Days....

 

[MomofPrincessGrace]

Thankfully we live in Alabama which means we can save quite a chunk of change driving to WDW instead of flying. I also like the convenience of having a car and driving on property, especially if we have early ADRs. The drive is about 9 hours according to Google, and we are planning on leaving around 4 a.m. I plan on heading to bed Friday night around 7 and having the car packed the night before. All I will have to do is wake up, shower, hop in the car and go. Anytime we go on vacation and leave early, I dress Gracie in travel appropriate pajamas so all she has to do is use the bathroom and she can go straight from bed to car. Hopefully we can get there around 1 or 2 accounting for the hour we lose due to time zones.

I hope to check in and let Halie and Gracie head to the pool while I unpack the car and get the lay of the land. This trip will be very different in a variety of ways. We are staying in a different resort than last time, we also only have one repeat meal, which is lunch at BoG. We are repeating a restaurant, which is Crystal Palace, but we will be doing dinner there instead of breakfast like we did last time.

Last trip we booked a lot of PPO breakfast character meals. I regret doing so many breakfasts because the food was nearly always the same, and it was though getting out of bed nearly every morning to rush to the parks. We also missed out on the MK Welcome show every morning . We do enjoy buffets and family style meals because Gracie is a VERY picky eater. She had issues with different food consistencies so she is hesitant to try new foods. At buffets we can usually find something that she enjoys eating and can get full of. I may take @Figment Forever idea of Disney Dollars to hopefully get her to try some new food. I am the first to admit that I do bribe her to try new foods, and Disney Dollars sounds like a pretty good bribe.

 

[MomofPrincessGrace]

Here is our current itinerary:

Saturday - Arrival Day
Arrive around 1-2 p.m.
Chef Mickey's 6:25 p.m. will probably stick around the deluxe resort areas to hopefully catch a glimpse of Wishes. Our last park day is supposed to be the first day of the new fireworks show. It will be really cool if we can catch both wishes and the new show during the same vacation. After fireworks we will drive back to the resort and sleep. I will most likely be a zombie at this point, but sleep is for the weak!

Sunday - Magic Kingdom
We don't have any breakfast plans for this morning. We aren't big breakfast eaters anyway, so if we get hungry we can just grab a muffin or something. We are hoping to catch the welcome show and take our time walking to our first FP+.
FP#1 - Seven Dwarfs Mine Train 9:10 a.m. maybe the line wont be too long and we can ride it first as stand-by (I really want to see the queue without waiting forever. Did that with Peter Pan last trip, never again will I wait over an hour to see a cool queue ) and then ride again with the FP.

Don't have any fast passes book until after lunch which is at 11:00 a.m. I wanted to do an early lunch since I knew we were skipping breakfast and had an ADR for dinner. I figure we can just enjoy Fantasyland, ride Small World, Ariel, etc., and just enjoy the morning. After lunch we have a FP for Splash Mountain at 12:30. Gracie loves Splash Mountain, when we went over the small hill she screamed thinking it was the big drop. We both loved every minute of it. Next up is Big Thunder Mountain at 1:45. We didn't get a chance to ride this last time because I thought it would be a little too intense. I think my little speed demon is ready for it this time though. After our wild ride we will probably just go with the flow, check for whatever ride has low wait times and just enjoy ourselves. We have a 7:05 ADR for Crystal Palace. We did breakfast here last trip, but decided that we wanted to try dinner. After we eat we will most likely go find a place to watch Wishes.

Funny story time... Last trip we thought that since the masses were leaving as soon as Wishes was over we had to leave the park ASAP. Not that we know that is not the case, we will take our time leaving instead of rushing to park exit.

Up Next...AK Plans

 

[MomofPrincessGrace]

Monday - Animal Kingdom
So we are going to start this morning off different than others. We have a 7:30 breakfast reservation at 'Ohana. I am so excited about this for a variety of reason. Last trip we didnt get to visit ANY of the deluxe resorts, this time we get to check out 3! I know most people love 'Ohana for dinner, but breakfast was a better fit for our family because of the foods served. I am pretty sure Gracie will stuff herself silly with the bacon and potatoes. We have a FP for Kilimanjaro Safari at 9:10, but even if we can't make it by the end of the FP window, we will still probably be fine in the FP line. At 12:15 we have a FP for Dinosaur, I know this ride can be a little on the scary side, but Gracie loves dinosaurs and it won't kill her to try it at least once.

Now here is where we begin our park hopping. After our Dinosaur FP we don't have any plans until nighttime. We are going to catch the Lion King show and will probably try to ride Kali River Rapids. I have made an ADR for 6:30 at Sci-Fi Dine In. We really wanted to try this last trip but just couldn't fit it in. This trip we already had an ADR for our HS day so I figured this would be a good time to try to fit it in. I am actively trying to get an earlier reservation around 5 ish, but be will see.

After Sci-Fi we are going to drive back to AK to catch our final FP.... Rivers of Light! I am so excited that it will be up and running by our visit. I was planning on canceling one of our ADRs and booking a ROL dining package if we couldn't get a FP, but alas, we were able to get a FP and can keep all of our originally planned ADRs.

Tuesday - EPCOT
I am very excited about our Epcot day. We didnt really explore much of Epcot last time and are excited about taking in all the fun details. We will also be there for Flower and Garden and are excited about seeing all the topiary's that are on display. No breakfast for this morning, so we will most likely just grab something quick. We have another early lunch so we don't want to be too full. We have a FP for SSE at 9:05 and will head over to The Seas for a FP with Nemo at 10:20. I love checking out all the cool marine life that live in The Seas building. Especially the manatees, which I lovingly refer to as Ocean Cows. We plan on spending the rest of the day in World Showcase after leaving Nemo. We have an ADR for Via Napoli at 11:30. I am so excited about this because I.LOVE.PIZZA. It always has been and always will be my favorite food. YUM! We were also able to score a FEA FP for 2:45. I actually had two, one for today and one for later in the week but ended up changing my mind (reason coming up). After FEA we dont really have any plans and just want to enjoy all the shops and atmosphere of WS. I to plan on doing Pick a Pearl for Gracie. I found a really cute Cinderella pearl cage on eBay that I plan on purchasing soon. I don't have any dinner plans, open to suggestions for a quick service around WS.

Coming Up...Another Magic Kingdom Day

 

[Zipadeelady]

Sounds awesome so far!!

 

[Zipadeelady]

This is just me so please take no offense.

I would move that Dinosaur FP to a later time and watch the Lion King show first then head over to Dinosaur. That's a ton of walking from one side of the park back to the opposite side. I only say this because Lion King and Kilimanjaro are on the same side and Dinosaur on the complete opposite. I know my kids would get tired, But my kids are special. Meaning on our first trip I rented a stroller....not for my 2.5 year old at the time but for my 5 year old who thought it would kill her if she had to walk more that a few feet. She's 17 now, so glad she grew out of that phase.

 

[MomofPrincessGrace]

This is just me so please take no offense.

I would move that Dinosaur FP to a later time and watch the Lion King show first then head over to Dinosaur. That's a ton of walking from one side of the park back to the opposite side. I only say this because Lion King and Kilimanjaro are on the same side and Dinosaur on the complete opposite. I know my kids would get tired, But my kids are special. Meaning on our first trip I rented a stroller....not for my 2.5 year old at the time but for my 5 year old who thought it would kill her if she had to walk more that a few feet. She's 17 now, so glad she grew out of that phase.

Awesome idea. I didn't even think about zig-zagging all around. Went ahead and moved it to 2, giving us a few hours before having to head to the other side of AK.

 

[MomofPrincessGrace]

Moving on to Wednesday, another day at Magic Kingdom
Wednesday - Magic Kingdom
This is the day we have our only PPO breakfast planned. We have an 8:00 ADR for breakfast at BoG. I know that the breakfast wouldnt be worth the money if we were paying cash, but on the DDP its not too bad of a QS credit since we get into the park early. I am hoping we will be done with breakfast a little before 9, and can hop in line to do 7DMT before the rush of all other park goers. After *hopefully* riding 7DMT I have a FP for Haunted Mansion at 9:20. She was a little frightened in the stretching room last time, but once I told her that all the ghosts are pretend she loosened up a little and seemed to enjoy the ride. I am hoping that she will have no fear riding it this time.

After our visit to the Haunted Mansion we have a FP for Jungle Cruise at 10:50. I figured that we could use this day to explore Frontier Land/Adventure Land/Liberty Square. After our Jungle Cruise FP I have a FP for Pirates. We were unable to ride this last time, as it was down for refurb. We have no specific lunch or dinner plans for this day, and will probably just grab something from a QS counter. I have intentionally left this afternoon plan-free so we can do whatever we are feeling.

Thursday - Time to Do Some Park Hopping at Epcot and DHS
On Thursday Epcot has Extra Magic Hours from 8-9 a.m. Since we went with Frozen as our Tier 1 on our first Epcot day, we weren't able to FP Soarin. My plan originally had us at Epcot with fastpasses until our lunch at DHS at 3, but I decided that since we were devoting a whole day to DHS, that I wanted to make our fastpass selections for there instead of Epcot. The current plan is to hit Soarin and Test Track as soon as we can get in with a minimal wait. We all loved Soarin and are excited to experience Soaring around the world. Last year we missed out on Test Track, wasn't high priority, so this year we are going to try and ride it. I am hopeful that most people will head straight toward Frozen and that will lessen our wait at other attractions. After those rides we will most likely check and see if there are any other low wait time, and if not take the walk over to DHS. We have never done the walk, but I am looking forward to the scenery. I have made our first fastpass for TSMM at 1 pm. which gives us plenty of cushion regardless of if we stay a little longer at Epcot or not. We missed TSMM last trip. Because of the tier system I chose Rockin Rollercoaster thinking that the TSMM wait wouldn't be too bad, boy was I wrong. Since I am the only one in my family that likes thrill rides, I decided to skip over RR and ToT. Our next FP is for Muppet Vision at 2:30. We missed this last trip as well and I think that Gracie will get a kick out of it.

Next up we have a 3:55 reservation at H&V for the Fantasmic package. We didnt see Fantasmic last trip, so I am excited to catch it this time. After lunch/dinner I have a FP for Star Tours at 6:10. During all of the gaps between FP at DHS I would like to fit in the Beauty and the Beast show and the Voyage of the Little Mermaid Show.

Up Next.... Plans for our last park day

 

[Zipadeelady]

Awesome idea. I didn't even think about zig-zagging all around. Went ahead and moved it to 2, giving us a few hours before having to head to the other side of AK.

YEA! I think you'll be happy. No rushing. I'm excited... I don't think most people take my advice!!

 

[MomofPrincessGrace]

YEA! I think you'll be happy. No rushing. I'm excited... I don't think most people take my advice!!

Hey, if it is good advice I will definitely take it!

 

[amjt660]

Hi
Following along
It looks like you have most of it sorted out!!!!!

Max

 

[MomofPrincessGrace]

Hi
Following along
It looks like you have most of it sorted out!!!!!

Max

Thanks for following! I am very Type A when it comes to planning ANYTHING. I really enjoy the whole planning process. Hopefully we can stick to my plan, or at least remember it while we are actually there.

 

[MomofPrincessGrace]

Friday - Last Park Day
So Friday is the last day that we have park tickets. I plan on starting the day at MK and kinda just going with the flow and catching anything that we missed. We will probably park hop if there are any attractions at other parks that we want to do one last time before leaving. MK has Extra Magic Hours from 8-9 a.m. so we will probably try and head over around 8 and maybe ride a few rides before our first FP at 9:10 which is Enchanted Tales with Belle. We didn't do this last time, but I think Gracie will love it. We are going to catch the live action remake of Beauty and the Beast as soon as it comes out (I dont know who is more excited to see it, me or her) so hopefully the story line of BatB will still be fresh on her mind. Our next FP is at 10:20 for Peter Pan. I was going to make this FP for the first day, but decided that Splash was more important to ride first than Peter Pan . After Peter Pan our final FP is for Seven Dwarfs Mine Train at 11:20. I am hoping that we can do Splash once more before we leave, I just love that ride. Needless to say we will also be hitting some other smaller attractions when we aren't going to and from FP rides. We do plan on hitting Buzz, Barnstormer, Country Bears, Pooh, Under the Sea, and Monsters, Inc. I just dont have any specific time frame throughout the trip as to when we will do these.

As I said before, we will probably hop over to another park. I have no reservations until dinner so we have plenty of time to take things slow and explore. At 5:30 we have reservations at 1900 Park Fare for dinner. Gracie is really good at cracking jokes and has a great sarcastic sense of humor for her age so I think she will love getting to interact with the Step Sisters and Lady Tremaine. I am super excited about finally getting to check out the Grand Floridian. After dinner we will head over to MK to watch the premiere of the new fireworks show Happily Ever After. Its really cool being able to catch a brand new show on the day it premieres. Be on the lookout for my thoughts in my trip report.

Saturday is check out day. We plan on taking our time heading out and Halie and Gracie will most likely head out to the pool while I get the room packed up and the car loaded. Last trip we left the resort, visited some local outlet malls, and played mini golf before heading home. Because of that we didn't get back home until around midnight. This trip we decided to stay another night at a hotel not too far from Disney, so we can enjoy everything on checkout day without rushing to get on the road. I priced out doing a night at Pop, but since we don't need the hotel for anything other than sleep it just wasn't worth the $180. I figure once the car is packed and Gracie is tired of swimming we can head to WinterSummerland and play both courses. We will also go over to Fantasia Gardens as well (the kid loves mini-golf and its not something we can go back home). I also want to get some shopping done at Disney Springs. We will probably grab something at DS for dinner before heading to our hotel. I would like to get up Sunday and head home around 9, which will get us home around 5 CST. Its nice being able to gain that extra hour on the way home.

I plan on beginning my post-trip report the Monday when we get home. I figure it will help me combat any port-Disney blues. I am getting super excited with only 57 days to go!

 

[Zipadeelady]

Friday - Last Park Day
So Friday is the last day that we have park tickets. I plan on starting the day at MK and kinda just going with the flow and catching anything that we missed. We will probably park hop if there are any attractions at other parks that we want to do one last time before leaving. MK has Extra Magic Hours from 8-9 a.m. so we will probably try and head over around 8 and maybe ride a few rides before our first FP at 9:10 which is Enchanted Tales with Belle. We didn't do this last time, but I think Gracie will love it. We are going to catch the live action remake of Beauty and the Beast as soon as it comes out (I dont know who is more excited to see it, me or her) so hopefully the story line of BatB will still be fresh on her mind. Our next FP is at 10:20 for Peter Pan. I was going to make this FP for the first day, but decided that Splash was more important to ride first than Peter Pan . After Peter Pan our final FP is for Seven Dwarfs Mine Train at 11:20. I am hoping that we can do Splash once more before we leave, I just love that ride. Needless to say we will also be hitting some other smaller attractions when we aren't going to and from FP rides. We do plan on hitting Buzz, Barnstormer, Country Bears, Pooh, Under the Sea, and Monsters, Inc. I just dont have any specific time frame throughout the trip as to when we will do these.

As I said before, we will probably hop over to another park. I have no reservations until dinner so we have plenty of time to take things slow and explore. At 5:30 we have reservations at 1900 Park Fare for dinner. Gracie is really good at cracking jokes and has a great sarcastic sense of humor for her age so I think she will love getting to interact with the Step Sisters and Lady Tremaine. I am super excited about finally getting to check out the Grand Floridian. After dinner we will head over to MK to watch the premiere of the new fireworks show Happily Ever After. Its really cool being able to catch a brand new show on the day it premieres. Be on the lookout for my thoughts in my trip report.

Saturday is check out day. We plan on taking our time heading out and Halie and Gracie will most likely head out to the pool while I get the room packed up and the car loaded. Last trip we left the resort, visited some local outlet malls, and played mini golf before heading home. Because of that we didn't get back home until around midnight. This trip we decided to stay another night at a hotel not too far from Disney, so we can enjoy everything on checkout day without rushing to get on the road. I priced out doing a night at Pop, but since we don't need the hotel for anything other than sleep it just wasn't worth the $180. I figure once the car is packed and Gracie is tired of swimming we can head to WinterSummerland and play both courses. We will also go over to Fantasia Gardens as well (the kid loves mini-golf and its not something we can go back home). I also want to get some shopping done at Disney Springs. We will probably grab something at DS for dinner before heading to our hotel. I would like to get up Sunday and head home around 9, which will get us home around 5 CST. Its nice being able to gain that extra hour on the way home.

I plan on beginning my post-trip report the Monday when we get home. I figure it will help me combat any port-Disney blues. I am getting super excited with only 57 days to go!

Your plans sound great. Can't wait to hear about it when you come back. Especially the new Happy Ever After show.

 

[MomofPrincessGrace]

Your plans sound great. Can't wait to hear about it when you come back. Especially the new Happy Ever After show.

Thanks! I am so excited. Since all the plans have been made now we are in sit and wait mode.

 

[WDWDarling]

We're just missing you - checking in on the 13th as you guys are checking out. We're also excited to see the Flower & Garden Festival.

Your plans look great and Gracie is such a cutie! Our trips will be here before we know it!

 

[MomofPrincessGrace]

We're just missing you - checking in on the 13th as you guys are checking out. We're also excited to see the Flower & Garden Festival.

Your plans look great and Gracie is such a cutie! Our trips will be here before we no it!

Awww thanks Are yall staying at POR as well?