Trip Report Graduation Celebration and a First-Time Disney Trip!

Pre-Trip:

I’ve been a longtime lurker on these forums and have always enjoyed living through other’s trip reports. About 5 years ago, I tried my own hand at a trip report, but high school got in the way and I never ended up finishing the report. Now that I’m about to have a whole summer off and don’t have to worry about school getting in the way, I’m determined to do another trip report and actually finish it this time! This report will be semi-live, but more likely than not, I’ll be too busy in the parks and will have to finish it up when I return home from the parks.

A little bit about me: I’m a 22 year old who just finished undergrad and will be attending law school in the fall. I’m giving myself the whole summer off to mentally prepare for law school, so I’m excited to have no responsibilities for a couple of months. I’m a huge theme park/roller coaster nerd, which has made me a huge Disney park fan considering they’re some of the best theme parks in the world! It’s been five years since my last Disney trip, so I’m excited to make my way back to the parks and see all that has changed! This will also be my first ever Disney trip without my parents, and even though I love them dearly, it will be fun to experience the parks with someone new! Here’s a picture of me from my last Disney trip in 2019:
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My companion for this trip is my best friend from college who is also 22 and graduating this year. She will be referred to as L for the rest of this report. To protect her privacy, I’ll most likely refrain from posting any pictures of her in this report, but I promise to include lots of other pictures!

Throughout college, I’ve been attempting to talk L into going to Disney for our graduation trip. She had always vehemently told me no, claiming that there was no way an expensive, hot, and crowded theme park could be near as magical as I claimed. However, last year, she studied abroad in Japan and had the opportunity to visit Tokyo Disney Sea and finally understood what I meant by the Disney magic (well really theme park magic in general). At the beginning of this school year, she asked me if I would still be up to visit an Orlando theme park for our senior trip. Of course I said yes!! I’m so excited to share these wonderful theme parks with her and see the joy on her face of experiencing Disney World for the first time!

We briefly debated if we wanted to go to Universal or Disney, but considering I’ve been to Universal more recently than Disney, she is not a huge fan of coasters due to bad motion sickness, and the opening of Epic Universe already has me planning a Universal trip for next year, Disney was the clear choice. Even though we decided we wanted to do this trip months ago, there was uncertainty on if it would actually work out because there was a chance she would have to start working in May. Luckily, she got her first choice job (that was good and bad news though considering her first choice job means she’ll be moving to Japan in August and I will miss her dearly), so we were able to finalize our trip plans a couple weeks ago!

We’ll be arriving in Orlando on Sunday, June 16 and departing Friday, June 21 and staying at the Walt Disney World Dolphin hotel. We debated staying in a resort actually owned by Disney, but the cost was just too much to stay in a deluxe Disney resort (we wanted to stay in deluxe because the extra evening hours were super important to us since we’ll only have one day in each park). We ended up booking through Costco Travel which was cheaper than booking through Marriott and it came with a free room view upgrade (I’m praying we get this view that I got when I stayed at the Dolphin with my parents 5 years ago!)
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As part of our Costco Travel package, we got the 4 day magic ticket allowing us to spend one day at each park. In total, it was $2,200 ($1,100 a person), but we thought that was reasonable for a Disney trip at peak time staying in a pseudo deluxe resort that’s so close to Hollywood Studios, Epcot, and the Disney Boardwalk!

We both are originally from Georgia so we’ll be going home right after graduation at the end of May and driving down to Orlando together. I’ll be doing the driving, so L is just going to meet me in Atlanta. It’s about a 3 hour drive for her to get to Atlanta and even though we want to get to Orlando as early as possible, it would be unfair to ask her parents to drive her to Atlanta starting much earlier than 6:30, so we’re planning to leave from Atlanta at 9:30 and get to Orlando around 4ish. We have already agreed on only playing Disney music while in the car😉

We know we want to hit up Disney springs our first day so she can get a magic band, so as of now, we’re planning to go straight to Disney Springs, but our plans for when we get there are pretty flexible. Because of the extended evening hours we get to take advantage of as resort guests, we’re definitely going to Epcot on Monday, June 17, and Magic Kingdom on Wednesday, June 19. We’re planning on doing Animal Kingdom on Tuesday, June 18 since it closes earlier than Hollywood studios and we need as much rest as we can get after going to Epcot from 8:30 AM-11 PM and before going to Magic Kingdom the next day from 8:30 AM-12 AM. That leaves Hollywood Studios for Thursday, June 20.

The last time I went to Disney was the day after Dorian hit so the parks were empty (so empty that we managed to ride every single ride at Magic Kingdom). I’m worried what it will be like to attend in June, especially after getting to experience the parks being so empty the last time I went, but with our schedules, that was the only date that worked, so we’re going to push through! To help deal with some of the crowds, we’re planning on buying Genie+ for each park and potentially an ILL for some of the big ticket rides. My friend really wants to try to do and see as much as humanly possible in each park since it will be her last chance to go for the next few years, so we also thought Genie+ would be helpful to accomplish that. Although we’ve both read a ton about Genie+, I haven’t been to Disney since they introduced the program, so if anyone has any tips, please comment them below!

As of now, we’re planning to only do QS restaurants to save time and money, so I didn’t have any ADR’s to worry about. We’re still debating trying to grab a last minute ADR for Be Our Guest since we’ll have so much time in MK, but we’ll see.

I think that’s all the planning we’ve done for now! Now it’s just time to wait until June 16!! I’ll post more updates as we get closer, but I wanted to go ahead and do the initial post since we’re about a month out! Thanks for reading!
 

the_disney_dreamer

Active Member
Original Poster
Free State Celebration GIF by University of the Free State


I look forward to reading this! I always enjoy the unique perspective of a first timer.
Congratulations on your graduation! Can’t wait to hear about your trip!
Congratulations on your graduation. Your trip sounds amazing already. Cannot wait to read about all your adventures. Have a super time.
Congratulations! You've accomplished an amazing feat! Excited to following along on your adventure!
Thank y’all so much! This trip will be the perfect way to unwind after 4 tough years of college!
 

the_disney_dreamer

Active Member
Original Poster
T-32 Days: A Brief Update with Some Good and Bad News

I know we’re still a ways out, but I just wanted to give a couple quick updates! I was watching the most recent episode of American Idol last night and saw that they finally announced the official opening date of Tiana’s Bayou Adventure as June 28, 9 days after we’ll be in Magic Kingdom. We knew it was a long shot for it to be open by the time we went, but it’s upsetting that we were just one week too early! On the bright side, we’re hoping with Test Track closing the day before we get to the parks and Tiana’s not opening until the week after, the parks will be less busy since people might rather go the week before or the week after.

On a whim today, we also decided to make a lunch ADR on the day we’ll be in Magic Kingdom. We had originally planned to just go back to the hotel for a midday break since we’ll have such a long day at the park (we’re still not quite sure we can make 8:30 AM to 12 AM, but we’re determined to try our best!), but today we decided we should just grab a late lunch and let that be our midday break since it’s kind of a pain to get back to the Dolphin from MK. We didn’t expect there to be any good ADR’s open this close to when we’ll be there, but surprisingly enough, everything was wide open! Even Be Our Guest had a ton of available times and we could’ve even gotten dinner there at a relatively normal time (7:30). We’re hoping the availability of ADRs is a sign that the parks won’t just be ridiculously overcrowded while we’re there!

Since I’m a picky vegetarian we ended up settling on making an ADR at Skipper Canteen at 1:30. We could’ve done earlier, but we thought the classic pop up summer Florida storm is most likely around this time, so we thought it would a nice way to potentially wait out the storm. We might end up cancelling it if we don’t get as many rides out of the way in the morning as we’re hoping to at MK, but for now we’re planning on keeping it!

Those are all the updates I have for now! We keep getting more and more excited every day!
 

Bullseye1967

Is that who I am?
Premium Member
T-32 Days: A Brief Update with Some Good and Bad News

I know we’re still a ways out, but I just wanted to give a couple quick updates! I was watching the most recent episode of American Idol last night and saw that they finally announced the official opening date of Tiana’s Bayou Adventure as June 28, 9 days after we’ll be in Magic Kingdom. We knew it was a long shot for it to be open by the time we went, but it’s upsetting that we were just one week too early! On the bright side, we’re hoping with Test Track closing the day before we get to the parks and Tiana’s not opening until the week after, the parks will be less busy since people might rather go the week before or the week after.

On a whim today, we also decided to make a lunch ADR on the day we’ll be in Magic Kingdom. We had originally planned to just go back to the hotel for a midday break since we’ll have such a long day at the park (we’re still not quite sure we can make 8:30 AM to 12 AM, but we’re determined to try our best!), but today we decided we should just grab a late lunch and let that be our midday break since it’s kind of a pain to get back to the Dolphin from MK. We didn’t expect there to be any good ADR’s open this close to when we’ll be there, but surprisingly enough, everything was wide open! Even Be Our Guest had a ton of available times and we could’ve even gotten dinner there at a relatively normal time (7:30). We’re hoping the availability of ADRs is a sign that the parks won’t just be ridiculously overcrowded while we’re there!

Since I’m a picky vegetarian we ended up settling on making an ADR at Skipper Canteen at 1:30. We could’ve done earlier, but we thought the classic pop up summer Florida storm is most likely around this time, so we thought it would a nice way to potentially wait out the storm. We might end up cancelling it if we don’t get as many rides out of the way in the morning as we’re hoping to at MK, but for now we’re planning on keeping it!

Those are all the updates I have for now! We keep getting more and more excited every day!
Congrats on your graduation! There is a chance they will have a soft opening of TBA when you are there. You may get lucky.
 

Zipadeelady

Well-Known Member
T-32 Days: A Brief Update with Some Good and Bad News

I know we’re still a ways out, but I just wanted to give a couple quick updates! I was watching the most recent episode of American Idol last night and saw that they finally announced the official opening date of Tiana’s Bayou Adventure as June 28, 9 days after we’ll be in Magic Kingdom. We knew it was a long shot for it to be open by the time we went, but it’s upsetting that we were just one week too early! On the bright side, we’re hoping with Test Track closing the day before we get to the parks and Tiana’s not opening until the week after, the parks will be less busy since people might rather go the week before or the week after.

On a whim today, we also decided to make a lunch ADR on the day we’ll be in Magic Kingdom. We had originally planned to just go back to the hotel for a midday break since we’ll have such a long day at the park (we’re still not quite sure we can make 8:30 AM to 12 AM, but we’re determined to try our best!), but today we decided we should just grab a late lunch and let that be our midday break since it’s kind of a pain to get back to the Dolphin from MK. We didn’t expect there to be any good ADR’s open this close to when we’ll be there, but surprisingly enough, everything was wide open! Even Be Our Guest had a ton of available times and we could’ve even gotten dinner there at a relatively normal time (7:30). We’re hoping the availability of ADRs is a sign that the parks won’t just be ridiculously overcrowded while we’re there!

Since I’m a picky vegetarian we ended up settling on making an ADR at Skipper Canteen at 1:30. We could’ve done earlier, but we thought the classic pop up summer Florida storm is most likely around this time, so we thought it would a nice way to potentially wait out the storm. We might end up cancelling it if we don’t get as many rides out of the way in the morning as we’re hoping to at MK, but for now we’re planning on keeping it!

Those are all the updates I have for now! We keep getting more and more excited every day!
My daughter is also a picky vegetarian and we ate at Skipper Canteen last year. I have to tell you that the Falls Family Falafel was soooo good. I never thought I'd like a Falafel. We both got the Nellies noodle bowl, hers was minus Shrimp and I had chicken instead of shrimp. If you were thinking of ordering that you can have them put the sauce on the side. It was a bit spicy and the waiter said if we came back to order it on the side next time and we could control the amount sauce so it wouldn't be quite so spicy.

Have so much fun!
 

the_disney_dreamer

Active Member
Original Poster
My daughter is also a picky vegetarian and we ate at Skipper Canteen last year. I have to tell you that the Falls Family Falafel was soooo good. I never thought I'd like a Falafel. We both got the Nellies noodle bowl, hers was minus Shrimp and I had chicken instead of shrimp. If you were thinking of ordering that you can have them put the sauce on the side. It was a bit spicy and the waiter said if we came back to order it on the side next time and we could control the amount sauce so it wouldn't be quite so spicy.

Have so much fun!
Thank you so much for the advice! I’m not a big falafel person either, but now you have me tempted to give them a try!
 

the_disney_dreamer

Active Member
Original Poster
T-9 Days: One Last Planning Update!

Phew, it’s been a busy last few weeks! Between graduation festivities, the actual graduation ceremony, and moving into my new apartment, these last few weeks have absolutely flown by. A few days ago, I finally checked my Disney countdown clock and I was baffled to see our trip was only 11 days away! My friend and I could’ve sworn we still had a few weeks, but time has been moving much faster than we had realized!

I meant to start sending my friend fun Disney quotes every day starting 10 days before our trip so we could share in our excitement together, but I accidentally misread the countdown clock and started sending the quotes one day early, so the 10 day countdown turned into an 11 day countdown🤦‍♀️ At least it gives me an excuse to find another fun Disney quote! Here are the quotes I’ve sent so far:
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Even though I started counting down at T-11 days, I was still in packing/moving/unpacking mode and it wasn’t until today that I listened to 10 straight hours of Disney podcasts today on my drive back to my home state, Georgia, from my new apartment that it finally set in how close L and I were to going to my favorite place on Earth! By the way, if you’ve never listened to the podcast, Imagination Skyway, I highly recommend it! It’s a great listen with a ton of cool discussions about Disney parks!

Because of how busy these last few weeks have been, very little planning has been done regarding our trip. We both have done some heavy research on how to utilize Genie+ successfully (I miss the simplicity of the old fastpass system😔), but other than that, we’ve only made one dining reservation at Rainforest Cafe in Disney Springs the night we get there. We originally made the reservation for 5:30, but changed it to 6:45 after Disney released the official times for the Dreams that Soar drone show. The plan for our first night is to explore Disney springs for a bit, head to dinner, and then catch the show at 9:00 before heading to the hotel.

I think those are all the updates for now! Thanks for following along so far through this planning process! We’ll be at Disney world soon!
 

Minnie1986

Well-Known Member
T-9 Days: One Last Planning Update!

Phew, it’s been a busy last few weeks! Between graduation festivities, the actual graduation ceremony, and moving into my new apartment, these last few weeks have absolutely flown by. A few days ago, I finally checked my Disney countdown clock and I was baffled to see our trip was only 11 days away! My friend and I could’ve sworn we still had a few weeks, but time has been moving much faster than we had realized!

I meant to start sending my friend fun Disney quotes every day starting 10 days before our trip so we could share in our excitement together, but I accidentally misread the countdown clock and started sending the quotes one day early, so the 10 day countdown turned into an 11 day countdown🤦‍♀️ At least it gives me an excuse to find another fun Disney quote! Here are the quotes I’ve sent so far:
View attachment 790184View attachment 790185View attachment 790186

Even though I started counting down at T-11 days, I was still in packing/moving/unpacking mode and it wasn’t until today that I listened to 10 straight hours of Disney podcasts today on my drive back to my home state, Georgia, from my new apartment that it finally set in how close L and I were to going to my favorite place on Earth! By the way, if you’ve never listened to the podcast, Imagination Skyway, I highly recommend it! It’s a great listen with a ton of cool discussions about Disney parks!

Because of how busy these last few weeks have been, very little planning has been done regarding our trip. We both have done some heavy research on how to utilize Genie+ successfully (I miss the simplicity of the old fastpass system😔), but other than that, we’ve only made one dining reservation at Rainforest Cafe in Disney Springs the night we get there. We originally made the reservation for 5:30, but changed it to 6:45 after Disney released the official times for the Dreams that Soar drone show. The plan for our first night is to explore Disney springs for a bit, head to dinner, and then catch the show at 9:00 before heading to the hotel.

I think those are all the updates for now! Thanks for following along so far through this planning process! We’ll be at Disney world soon!
So excited for you all. Have an amazing time!!!
 

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