Trip Report Triskaidekaphobic Trip Report (live)

Hello All! Well, here it is our 13th trip report. I really have no actual fear of the number 13. In fact, I'm pretty certain that my 13th actual trip to the World was the first with my now 13 year old daughter, so 13 is sounding pretty good. And, we're hoping that this trip is pretty good as well.

For those who have not travelled along with us the past 12 times, we are a crew of 3 who all have a fairly unhealthy Disney obsession. Here we are on one of our few non-Disney related vacations:

My wife and I are both high school teachers (she teaches English and drama and I teach instrumental music), who happen to be at rival high schools in the same district and our daughter will be starting high school at another rival in the same district this fall. If you look through some of our past trip reports, you will find we have had quite a few amazing experiences at WDW and certainly more than a couple less than amazing experiences as well. This is also the first time in over a decade that we have been away from the World for over 12 months. It's been quite a long 16 months!

Once we get to Florida, I will try to put up a daily blog post with details of the day and some pictures. But that is still a week away. Up next...the Pre-Trip portion of the report which means (of course) far too much planning.
 
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brifraz

brifraz

Marching along...
Premium Member
Original Poster
So, here's the plans. I'll try to keep things somewhat brief! We tend to be pretty excessive overplanners, but we also tend to adjust quite a few of our plans on the fly. Whether it be Disney planning or school planning, both my wife and I plan extensively with the expectation that nothing will ever go according to plan.

We hit the road next Thursday, June 29 around noon, driving from our home in northern Maryland relatively straight through to the Orlando area. There are a couple pit stops and since we are driving overnight a few rest breaks along the way. Our first stop on this trip is Universal and our hope is to be there at opening on the 30th to spend some time in Diagon Alley and maybe some other US areas before heading to our hotel across the street from Universal for a nap and then back into Universal for some evening touring. Saturday will be another full day of Universal time, with Hogsmeade in the morning and the water attractions at IOA in the afternoon before another afternoon respite and back to the park in the evening.

July 2nd we finally make our way to Disney. This is a split stay (thanks to taking 16 months off, we have a few extra DVC points) and we start off at the Polynesian for our first ever stay there. We have the California Grill Brunch booked for late morning and then we head into Magic Kingdom for some touring. In the evening we will relax back at the Poly, but then might head over to Animal Kingdom to check out Pandora or a night Safari - just depends on how tired we are.

If you've travelled 'with' us before, you know that we are 4th of July week veterans, having done 2014 and 2015 visits during the holiday (while our daughter was doing the old Disney Soccer Academy, which is sadly gone now). So, we have a plan that works and we stick with it. Monday, July 3rd will be a relatively lazy morning, with breakfast at Ohana and then some Poly pool time. In the afternoon, we will head into Magic Kingdom and stake out a spot on the second floor of the train station to watch the fireworks from. From there, we will take short trips out to use FP+ and get food and shop a bit. But, the day and evening will be basically hanging out at the train station. Really hoping that we don't get a thunderstorm this year, but it did make for some cool pictures when we did have one...
MK%20heat%20lightning_zpsjplred4x.jpg


The rest of the 3rd will be spent touring around Magic Kingdom as much as we can with the masses of people! Then on the 4th, we are moving from Poly to our home resort of Old Key West, where we like to enjoy the 4th of July activities that they host. In the evening, we will head to Epcot for some FP+, touring, and then the Epcot fireworks on the 4th!

More soon.
 
amjt660

amjt660

Premium Member
brifraz said:
So, here's the plans. I'll try to keep things somewhat brief! We tend to be pretty excessive overplanners, but we also tend to adjust quite a few of our plans on the fly. Whether it be Disney planning or school planning, both my wife and I plan extensively with the expectation that nothing will ever go according to plan.

We hit the road next Thursday, June 29 around noon, driving from our home in northern Maryland relatively straight through to the Orlando area. There are a couple pit stops and since we are driving overnight a few rest breaks along the way. Our first stop on this trip is Universal and our hope is to be there at opening on the 30th to spend some time in Diagon Alley and maybe some other US areas before heading to our hotel across the street from Universal for a nap and then back into Universal for some evening touring. Saturday will be another full day of Universal time, with Hogsmeade in the morning and the water attractions at IOA in the afternoon before another afternoon respite and back to the park in the evening.

July 2nd we finally make our way to Disney. This is a split stay (thanks to taking 16 months off, we have a few extra DVC points) and we start off at the Polynesian for our first ever stay there. We have the California Grill Brunch booked for late morning and then we head into Magic Kingdom for some touring. In the evening we will relax back at the Poly, but then might head over to Animal Kingdom to check out Pandora or a night Safari - just depends on how tired we are.

If you've travelled 'with' us before, you know that we are 4th of July week veterans, having done 2014 and 2015 visits during the holiday (while our daughter was doing the old Disney Soccer Academy, which is sadly gone now). So, we have a plan that works and we stick with it. Monday, July 3rd will be a relatively lazy morning, with breakfast at Ohana and then some Poly pool time. In the afternoon, we will head into Magic Kingdom and stake out a spot on the second floor of the train station to watch the fireworks from. From there, we will take short trips out to use FP+ and get food and shop a bit. But, the day and evening will be basically hanging out at the train station. Really hoping that we don't get a thunderstorm this year, but it did make for some cool pictures when we did have one...
MK%20heat%20lightning_zpsjplred4x.jpg


The rest of the 3rd will be spent touring around Magic Kingdom as much as we can with the masses of people! Then on the 4th, we are moving from Poly to our home resort of Old Key West, where we like to enjoy the 4th of July activities that they host. In the evening, we will head to Epcot for some FP+, touring, and then the Epcot fireworks on the 4th!

More soon.
Click to expand...
Cool pic

Max
 
fractal

fractal

Well-Known Member
brifraz said:
So, here's the plans. I'll try to keep things somewhat brief! We tend to be pretty excessive overplanners, but we also tend to adjust quite a few of our plans on the fly. Whether it be Disney planning or school planning, both my wife and I plan extensively with the expectation that nothing will ever go according to plan.

We hit the road next Thursday, June 29 around noon, driving from our home in northern Maryland relatively straight through to the Orlando area. There are a couple pit stops and since we are driving overnight a few rest breaks along the way. Our first stop on this trip is Universal and our hope is to be there at opening on the 30th to spend some time in Diagon Alley and maybe some other US areas before heading to our hotel across the street from Universal for a nap and then back into Universal for some evening touring. Saturday will be another full day of Universal time, with Hogsmeade in the morning and the water attractions at IOA in the afternoon before another afternoon respite and back to the park in the evening.

July 2nd we finally make our way to Disney. This is a split stay (thanks to taking 16 months off, we have a few extra DVC points) and we start off at the Polynesian for our first ever stay there. We have the California Grill Brunch booked for late morning and then we head into Magic Kingdom for some touring. In the evening we will relax back at the Poly, but then might head over to Animal Kingdom to check out Pandora or a night Safari - just depends on how tired we are.

If you've travelled 'with' us before, you know that we are 4th of July week veterans, having done 2014 and 2015 visits during the holiday (while our daughter was doing the old Disney Soccer Academy, which is sadly gone now). So, we have a plan that works and we stick with it. Monday, July 3rd will be a relatively lazy morning, with breakfast at Ohana and then some Poly pool time. In the afternoon, we will head into Magic Kingdom and stake out a spot on the second floor of the train station to watch the fireworks from. From there, we will take short trips out to use FP+ and get food and shop a bit. But, the day and evening will be basically hanging out at the train station. Really hoping that we don't get a thunderstorm this year, but it did make for some cool pictures when we did have one...
MK%20heat%20lightning_zpsjplred4x.jpg


The rest of the 3rd will be spent touring around Magic Kingdom as much as we can with the masses of people! Then on the 4th, we are moving from Poly to our home resort of Old Key West, where we like to enjoy the 4th of July activities that they host. In the evening, we will head to Epcot for some FP+, touring, and then the Epcot fireworks on the 4th!

More soon.
Click to expand...

great shot!
 
susan lees

susan lees

Well-Known Member
We're also 4th July veterans having been several times including 2015. As our kids are now grown up we've now changed to November being our favourite time of year to come over.
Following your report and looking forward to hearing about your trip.
 
brifraz

brifraz

Marching along...
Premium Member
Original Poster
I guess we are up to the 5th of July in our Pre-Trip portion...

Which is a bit of a different day for us in multiple ways: no theme parks and a bit of splurge spending. @MeffysMom and our daughter are doing the Amorette's Patisserie cake decorating class in the morning. After which, we will doing some touring around Disney Springs and eating on the way. Then back for the (you may notice, regularly scheduled) afternoon break/nap. In the evening it's back to Disney Springs for the Splitsville DVC Member night and then over to Typhoon Lagoon for the DVC Moonlight Magic event there. We don't always do a water park, so it'll be nice to do TL in the evening without the big crowds.

July 6th is our first real touring day at Epcot (July 4 is just crowd management maneuvering). And we plan to actually do a FULL day, without the afternoon break. Lots of rides, some substantial time at the Rose and Crown with Carl, dinner at the Biergarten, and Illuminations in the evening.

Since July 6 is a full day, July 7 starts off pretty slowly. In fact, it will likely be laundry and hang out at Old Key West morning and afternoon. We have planned dinner at 1900 Park Faire, which is a family regular since...well, forever.
DSC_2938 edit.jpg Char.Anastasia 13 edit.jpg DSC_7551 edit.jpg
After dinner, it'll be into the Magic Kingdom for some rides and the new fireworks show. We've managed to avoid reading too much about it online and hope to enjoy (even though my wife is a crazy avid Wishes fan and is very worried)!

More soon.
 
brifraz

brifraz

Marching along...
Premium Member
Original Poster
Despite those first few days with downtime and a possible nap in the afternoon, the next couple days are planned without such a break! July 8 starts with EMH at Animal Kingdom, including a very late breakfast at Tusker House and possibly a light dinner at the Nomad Lounge. We will definitely spend some time in Pandora over the course of the day and hit Rivers of Light in the evening. Not sure how late we plan to stay...I expect the heat and crowd will effect that.

On July 9, we are doing much the same thing as the 8th, but at Hollywood Studios. Morning EMH, early lunch at 50s Prime Time, light dinner at the Hollywood Brown Derby lounge, and the day ending with the Star Wars Fireworks dessert party (and trust me, we make it worth the price ;))

July 10th finds us taking it easy through the morning as we move to the Wilderness Lodge and start that portion of our visit with a late breakfast at Whispering Canyon. We've greatly enjoyed dinner there before and are quite excited to do the breakfast. Late afternoon, we plan to head to Epcot for a relatively short visit with likely just a pint at Rose and Crown and a few rides.

Our last full in the World finds us up early for a morning visit to Animal Kingdom. There will be some rides ending with an early afternoon drenching at Kali River and then back to our room to get changed for (what we hope will be) a very exciting evening. We've booked the Highway in the Sky Dine Around and are quite excited for this. Yeah, it's a big splurge, but hope it will be a great experience, especially for our daughter who is just starting to try out interesting foods!

July 12th marks the end of our stay and is still pretty open, but will likely feature a little time at Magic Kingdom.

I might be back with some other thoughts before we head out on Thursday, but if not... we will see you Live from WDW.
 
brifraz

brifraz

Marching along...
Premium Member
Original Poster
Hitting the road tomorrow and very ready for this vacation to happen. Been doing plan revisions and additions and updates and the like for the past couple days. While the drive is quite long and arduous, we tend to have quite a bit of fun. We listen to lots of Disney music, go through our plans (so maybe some more revisions...additions...updates...the like), play some games, maybe watch a Disney movie or two - well, not whoever is driving who just gets to listen to a Disney movie or two.

I think our only potentially decent sized plan change is with Studios time. On July 9th, we tried to map out on the show schedule how to catch Beauty and the Beast, Indy, Frozen Sing-Along, and Pixar Live shows all in one afternoon/evening. Think we might have it worked out. And July 10th, which had most of the day at Wilderness Lodge with a late afternoon Epcot visit that now might be an earlier afternoon Epcot visit followed by an evening at Studios. Depends on our level of exhaustion at that point and if there are any Studios things we still want to catch!

See you on Friday (or Saturday) from Universal with the start of the Live trip reporting!
 

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