Pre-Trip An Ever-Changing, On-Again, Off-Again Trip Planning Extravaganza

As I type these words, I'm in disbelief.

Is this really happening?! On Monday, I was scraping the barrel desperately trying to get my Disney obsessed hands on a 3-day solo trip in January and planning imaginary trips for next year. But now, I'm planning a very real, 7 day trip to Disney for June 2018. Say what?!

So we're going back!

Here we are, me (Kaitlyn) and my boyfriend, Cody, at Magic Kindom this past February

We've been to Disney World twice together. In January 2016 we went to Disney on our first vacation together to celebrate our 5th anniversary. And this past February, Cody's family took a very last minute weekend trip to WDW and they invited me along for the ride!

And now we're planning our third trip together! Here are the basics so:

WHEN: June 9-16, 2018
WHERE: Port Orleans Riverside
WHY: Why not! Right?! I honestly don't know why Cody agreed to this trip but I didn't need to do any convincing and he didn't roll his eyes ONCE while talking about it. He was actually the one to suggest going in June(!) rather than pushing to wait a little longer or going somewhere else for our next vacation. He has previously told me that he wanted to visit some other places before returning to Disney, which totally makes sense. As much as I love Disney, I also want to see everything the world has to offer! But when he mentioned going to WDW in June, 7 months from now, I didn't question him. I did what any good Disney Addict would do - started researching and researching. Before I knew it I was calling the Disney Resort line!

So it's official!! We're going HOME!!!!

 

[kaitertot5249]

Congratulations on your engagement

Thanks!

Awe! Congratulations on your engagement!
I'm so glad I found your PTR!
I'll be there at the same time

Thank you! Yay for overlapping trips I'm super excited to be heading back to Disney but I feel like the wedding stuff has temporarily made me forget about planning this trip!

 

[kaitertot5249]

It's my ADR Day!!! I'm slightly embarrassed to admit that I almost forgot that today was the day. But I woke up abruptly at 6:15 this morning remembering that I had an important appointment with the Mouse that I was late for!

I'm happy to report that I was able to get all of the ADRs that I had hoped for at around the times that we wanted. When initially planning this trip, Cody and I had discussed doing more sit down restaurants than we've done on our previous trips - he had originally suggested that we try to do about one per day. Since getting engaged and planning out our wedding budget, we've decided that in order to save some money we would only do a few sit down meals. We're still doing more than we have done in the past but definitely not one per day!

Now that we have some dining reservations I thought I would share the beginnings of our plans. This will all probably change 75,621,739 times before June but here it is anyway:

6/9 - Arrival day, no parks
We'll probably explore the resort and go to Disney Springs. I'm interested in trying Blaze Pizza but we'll see where we end up for dinner.

6/10 - EPCOT
We'll probably get to the park relatively early since it's our first day but EPCOT is not one of the parks that we can spend a full day in, so we'll probably take a break at some point, maybe heading over to the Boardwalk area and visiting Ample Hills. We might also end up hoping over to another park. We'll plan on drinking and snacking around the world for most of our food.

6/11 - Hollywood Studios
No solid plans, again a park that we won't spend the whole day in. We could end up having a lazy morning and making our way to the park in the afternoon. We'll also plan to catch Fantasmic.

6/12 - Animal Kingdom
I love Animal Kingdom and I'm so excited to see Pandora. We have a 2:15 lunch reservation at Sanaa- a first for us! After lunch we'll head back to Animal Kingdom for the rest of the afternoon. I'm undecided on whether or not we'll stick around for Rivers of Light.

6/13 - Park Hopping day (Hollywood Studios & Magic Kingdom)
We're planning to start the day in DHS (Cody's favorite park) heading out in the early afternoon. We have a 1:20 Beaches & Cream reservation and then we'll head to the resort to rest a bit before going over to MK (my favorite park) for fireworks and what I'm hoping will be extra magic hours based on what the schedule was last year.

6/14 - Our break day + date night!
We're really going to need a break after 4 days in the parks and what could be a late night. We'll spend the morning relaxing, hopefully spend some time in the pool. In the afternoon and early evening we might head to the monorail resorts to look around a bit, maybe grab a drink or two. We have 7:20 California Grill reservations - this will also be a first for us. We're using our engagement/upcoming wedding and our birthdays as a reason to celebrate and kind of splurge on this dinner. After dinner we'll watch Happily Ever After from the observation deck.

6/15 - Magic Kingdom
I love Magic Kingdom and it kind of pains me to not have a full day here until the last day of the trip, but I just keep telling myself that I'm saving the best for last! Being fully refreshed after our break day I'm hoping that we'll be able to get to the park early. We have 1:00 reservations at Be Our Guest and we'll probably try to head to Trader Sam's in the late afternoon or after the park closes to grab a drink.

6/16 - Last day, no parks
We don't have any plans but we will be trying to get a later flight to maximize vacation hours . We're thinking about making breakfast reservations somewhere but I'm not sure where. If anyone had any recommendations for a good breakfast on property let me know!

So that's where we stand! Now that I have some reservations this is all seeming more and more real. I have a feeling that June will be here before I know it!

 

[12in12]

I like Boma for a sit down breakfast but I am sure there are many other good places.
If you want to have breakfast on a budget you could get the Tonga toast at Captain Cook's in the Poly.

 

[kaitertot5249]

I like Boma for a sit down breakfast but I am sure there are many other good places.
If you want to have breakfast on a budget you could get the Tonga toast at Captain Cook's in the Poly.

Thank you for your recommendations! I've heard such mixed reviews on Tonga Toast so I'm a little afraid of it I'm not a big breakfast person but it's Cody's favorite meal of the day. I'll probably just have him look at some menus and decide based on that.

 

[12in12]

Thank you for your recommendations! I've heard such mixed reviews on Tonga Toast so I'm a little afraid of it I'm not a big breakfast person but it's Cody's favorite meal of the day. I'll probably just have him look at some menus and decide based on that.

I tried the Tonga toast ones and didn't care for it. But if you want to try and not spent too much money on it the QS at Poly is a good option. Plus it is a gorgeous resort to wander round.
You do have a lot time to look at menus, one of my favorite things to do before a trip.

 

[kaitertot5249]

I've been MIA for what feels like FOREVER... The past few months have been crazy busy for me between work and wedding planning and real life stuff so I really haven't had a chance to get on here at all. I'm SOOOOO far behind on everyone's Trip Reports and I have so much reading to do But I will catch up!!!

Sadly, we decided to cancel our June trip to Disney World in favor of real life things like saving money for our wedding We decided that since we both already had requested the time off work that we should still getaway and since we have frequently brought up the idea of moving out-of-state once we got married we chose to switch our trip to one of the cities we had been considering. Long story short(er), we decided that moving immediately after the wedding wasn't the right move for us and we're staying in the Boston area for at least a year or so once we tie the knot!

We literally made this decision 2 days ago. Last night, we were sitting, eating dinner and discussing whether or not we still wanted to go on our trip and the more I thought about it the more I wanted to go somewhere a little more exciting for our last trip before we're married. I looked into what it would take to re-book the Disney World trip we had cancelled a few months ago but we ultimately decided that it was time we ventured out of our vacation comfort zone. So I suggested California. Can anyone guess where this is going?! Cody went for it and when I mentioned the possibility of stopping in Anaheim he enthusiastically agreed

We're going to be in the Golden State from June 9-16. We'll spend 3 days at Disneyland and California Adventure followed by a few days in the LA area!

Disneyland, I'm coming for you!

 

[kaitertot5249]

I changed the name of this PTR because my plans keep changing and the old title didn't seem as fitting anymore (don't worry though, this trip is still a celebration)

After looking at the Disneyland schedule and crowd calendars for June, Cody and I decided that it makes more sense to head out there after Pixar Pier opens on June 23. So, we're pushing our trip back to the end of June. Which means that if all goes according to plan...

I'LL BE IN DISNEYLAND ON MY BIRTHDAY!!!!!

Now I need to make sure work is okay with these new trip dates and look into flights and hotels. I'm ready to plan this thing!