Pre-Trip Anniversary/1st time. WE'RE GOING TO DISNEYWORLD!! Plus a past trips mini report

My anniversary with my boyfriend of 2 years is September 21st and so far each year we go on a vacation. We started thinking about where to go in April and over and over I kept dreaming of WDW. I have been to WDW a handful of times, and considering I am writing a pre-trip report because I can’t contain my excitement, I am obsessed! I have never been as an adult and always with family. Going back the year of my 21st birthday and with my favorite person in the entire world, I could not stop day dreaming, to me it was a dream vacation! My boyfriend has never been to Disney anything and our experience with six flags last year was absolutely horrible, so he needed quite a bit of convincing. I think I went on and on about it for maybe 2 weeks, he was either annoyed or I have master powers of persuasion, because finally he says “so Disneyworld huh?” Eeeeek! That means yes! Then it was the waiting game… I knew we wanted “free” dining, and I knew WDW typically released its free dining plan deals for September around May, as soon as they did I booked us a reservation! We are going to DISNEYWORLD!!


Who: Myself, Ciara and My boyfriend, Billy.

What: An Anniversary/First time trip to WDW with a day at Universal Studios!


When: September 20th-26th


Where: Pop Century Resort


6 day Water Park & more tickets, a 1 day park to park universal studios ticket and a standard Disney dining plan


Billy is looking forward to feeling like he’s on vacation, so I’m trying not to go too crazy but Disney is so much more enjoyable with a little planning. So far the plans look like this… I have tweaked the ADRs about 5 times so who knows they may change!


September 19th

We both work this day until about 5pm, we have a couple hours to relax and then it’s off to PDX to catch our late night flight. I do not like flying overnight but is was way cheaper and got us there early enough to enjoy almost a whole day!


September 20th

We should arrive to our hotel before check in time. I’d love to think they may have our room ready early but were not banking on it. We are packing swimsuit in our carry-ons, ditching our bags and heading to Blizzard beach. We LOVE waterparks, maybe more than the theme parks! After, we have a later dinner ADR at the Olivia café, a place I have desired to go for some time, I’m very excited for this one! Depending on time and how we are feeling we may hit EPCOT after dinner


September 21st

Our anniversary! We are headed to studios this day, they have EMH. Knowing studios is slowly trimming down to almost nothing, I figured we could fit two ADRs. I told Billy to pick out a restaurant for lunch and he chose Planet Hollywood, not exactly special but we have nothing like it here plus I think the movie stuff is cool! We also have a dinner ADR at 50’s prime time café, a favorite of mine! We will be sure to catch fantasmic! As I’ve barely seen any fireworks shows/parades in all my times in WDW!


September 22nd

Universal studios! We are beyond excited to experience Harry Potter world! Neither of us have been here and we have no real idea of how to navigate these parks so any help on that would be wonderful! The plan as of now is to take Uber from our hotel to Studios. Start in one park, work our way back to the Harry Potter section, have lunch here or possibly mythos? Take the Hogwarts Express train to the other section of harry potter, and work our way to that park entrance. For dinner I think we will stick around and eat at one of the CityWalk restaurants after the park closes. Suggestions? I know this is a WDW forum but any Studios tips would be super helpful!


September 23rd

For the most part this is our most relaxing day, we will be visiting Animal Kingdom!! They have morning EMH. Since the park is only open till 5pm we plan to spend the evening in the new Disney springs shopping or maybe just kicking back at the hotel depending how we feel. We have two ADRs this day since it’s not a packed schedule. For lunch we have an ADR at the rainforest café, again not spectacular for all but something to see for us! For dinner, we have an ADR at the amazing Raglan Road. I’m really hoping we end up staying at Disney springs for the evening! I’d love to see all the changes and hang around a bit, I genuinely enjoyed the time I spent at the old downtown Disney.


September 24th

Finally, my most favorite park, Magic Kingdom!! I can’t believe we won’t be going here until a couple days into our vacation, but you better believe we will be here all day! We have an 8:05 am ADR for Be Our Guest, this reservation was a tough one to snatch. My advice is to check every day! And check early, they state online that breakfast reservations are released 90 days in advance but they actually released the times 94 days in advance in my case, no one must have been expecting this because I had CHOICES for breakfast times. We have another ADR this day as well, we wanted a character meal so Chef Mickeys for Dinner it is!


September 25th

It’s our last full day, but the first day of the Epcot food and wine festival! We wanted to make sure we got to visit BOTH waterparks while we are there so the plan is to hit Typhoon Lagoon first thing when they open, enjoy the park early and head to EPCOT in the afternoon to enjoy the festival! I have never been to Food and wine and I’m super excited! There are no ADRs this day so we can snack and drink around the world as we please with no worries about a schedule! If were still hungry for a meal I figure we can grab something quick!


September 26th

We don’t take off until about 7pm, I think we should be able to hang around Disney till about 4pm. There are literally no plans this day! I’m not sure what we are going to enjoy the most, so were leaving it up in the air! We may see the kingdom one last time or head to Epcot for more food and wine, maybe a waterpark, who knows! It’s literally making me sad to type about my last day in Disney who wants dream vacations to end!


We can’t book FP+ until July 22nd, but my plan is to book the big hitters for late afternoon and evening.


So there ya have it, my first ever pre-trip reporting! Yay! I am planning on writing a full trip report, possibly live? Not sure! Food and drinks will be a big part of this trip and my goal is to take a picture of literally everything I eat or drink, actually we both hope to go photo crazy as this is something we usually slack on. I also ordered a copy of the hidden mickeys book and I can’t wait to see how many we find!


I just discovered this wonderful world of trip reporting not too long ago but I love reading everyone’s trip reports! And I hope you all enjoy mine!


Have a MAGICAL day!

 

[Ciara]

Only one more weekend before take off! I'm feeling a little stressed. I have Sunday/Monday off but my boyfriend works all the way up till the day before we leave and there is still a lot to do!

We still have to go to the Nike employee store to pick up some shoes for the trip (and be able to wear them in a bit!!) The problem with this is my boyfriend is the one who has the pass and needs 3 pairs of shoes, i only need one, so i definitely need him to come with! and his works schedule is cray.

We have been saving all of our change for a while now, maybe 6 months? and have to cash that in! I'm excited to see how much it is, some days i put more than a dollar in there.

Going to run to the mall today to pick up some beauty/clothing items i still need.

Still need to pack EVERYTHING. I'm not sure when ill start this, probably Monday after i do ALL the laundry. My boyfriend will probably pack the day before/day of. But I HAVE to have everything packed by next Saturday morning because we literally have to leave the moment i get off. We have very little time to catch our flight! I've bought most of our toiletrie items but i feel like im forgetting something.. lol. I also have all of my outfits picked out so hopefully packing isn't too hard.

I ordered new prescription sunglasses and im extremely worried they wont be here in time because they haven't even shipped yet, last time i ordered they only took 3 days once shipped

Plus i have a hair and nail appointment next week, DISNEY nails!!

And of course i still have 6.5 work days

But Disney is so soon i really dont mind! I hope the next week goes by quickly and smoothly. Then... DISNEY!!!

 

[Ciara]

Being one week away, i'm really feeling excited, so i decided to try and dig up some Disney past! I had my computer totally crash so i have lost many photos from my past trips But i found a few and I thought id write two mini-trip reports from what i could remember and the photos i do have!

 

["El Gran Magnifico"]

You're going to love F&W. Olivia's is nice. Congrats on your anniversary and have fun. While at Uni's take a look around City Walk. Nights there are usually pretty good. Pat O's is fun and make sure you order a Hurricane. Not quite like they make them in the Big Easy, but close enough.

 

[Ciara]

Alrighty so lets see here... I guess i should start with a quick backstory of sorts... Go back in time to 2005..

Its the 50th celebration and my step-dads 40th birthday, my mom decided we should go to Disney world for the event(s)! I remember being excited but not all that excited. My first and last trip at this point was when i was 5 and the only evidence i was ever there is a photo of a very terrified 5 year old me on splash mountain, no memory whats so ever.

So we go, just the 3 of us (only child here) and we have a BLAST! We had an amazing dinner at foltons, went to every park and a water park, rode splash and space mountain till 3am! (not sure if they do EMH this late anymore, i think this is when they just initiated them and seriously parks were open till 3am like every night it was awesome!) This trip got me hooked on Disney! I couldn't wait to go back but i had no idea when it would happen.

Well February of the next year my grandpa passed.. He was the coolest person ive ever met! It was a really hard time for my family, especially my grandma. His birthday is in May and to get my grandmas mind off things and get her to have some fun, my mom booked all of us a trip to the world, this time with free dining! This trip was more amazing then the last. Having free dining literally opened the door to the WDW food world for me! My parents typically spent as little on food as possible so the trip before was lots of quick service! It was so nice to have a sit down dinner every night. I do remember it being A LOT of food. Back in 2006 even though we were staying at pop, we got a normal dining plan free and it included an appetizer per person for dinner! Man things change.. Anyways, This trip was also more amazing because my grandma was there! My parents like to hit the parks around noon and stay till close, I was younger then and so excited i could do rope drop everyday and still stay till the park closed. So having grandma there i got a buddy for rope drop, my parents would meet us later in the day, grandma would go back to the hotel and nap/sleep while we stayed up till the wee hours of morning! I basically got to play ALL day. What could be better?

Now its 2007, we had the best trip ever last year with my grandma, So hey why not do it again??! This trip was a little different, this time we stayed at POFQ, our first time at a moderate resort. And this time instead of May, we were going in September. This trip was a fun one too, however i think my grandma had enough of Disney and i remember her complaining about the heat a lot, poor granny We loved POFQ and i loved the time of year, it was slower, hotter and i just loved the Halloween decor! We wanted to go again the very same time next year, but we didn't think grandma would want to come back, so it was time to find a new rope drop buddy!

My final year of middle school was 2008 and as a good grades/graduation gift my parents told me we could do Disney again, but this time i could bring a friend! I immediately knew who i would take, she was my best friend and loved disneyland! Her name is Sierra which was always super fun for us, we were a package deal, we even got called the Cia/Sier-ra's at school! She had never been to the world and was over the moon excited to be going with my family. We counted down from 100-75-50-25 days and would have little craft parties and make bracelets to wear there. People got the biggest kick out of us because we were so dang excited!

This was by far my favorite trip! I experienced a ton of things that i had been missing out on before. We were 14, my parents knew we were safe, so we pretty much did what we wanted and would meet them for evenings/dinner! We stayed at POFQ, had a dining plan, 5 maybe 6 day waterpark and more/park hopper tickets(the only time ive had a park hopper), And a whole lot of energy! We hit rope drop almost everyday!

I don't remember what we did exactly each day, but here goes it. We flew out LATE like 12:30am or something crazy like that, Sierra and i got asked if we were twins at the airport. We thought this was kind of funny because maybe we could pass as sisters but twins? No way. We arrived in Orlando around noon, and our room wasn't ready yet. My parents decided to hit the pool bar and we went straight to the parks! My memory is failing me and i don't remember if we went straight to DHS but i know we ended the night there because i still have
this terrible photo

We left DHS that night around 2am. My parents had had an afternoon naps but we hadn't even been to the room. When that photo was taken we had been up for way over 24 hours! I miss that hat! Say what you will but i liked the hat.

The next day was the only day we ever slept in. We slept in and decided to hit a waterpark and downtown Disney.
First stop was typhoon lagoon!
We spent like two hours in the wave pool that day. It kept raining off and on which kept the park pretty empty. It was like 4pm and another rain just started, we got some of those delicious mini-donuts and headed back to the hotel. We got some funny/fun photopass photos that day. Enjoy!

 

[ScarletBegonias]

Loving the old trip reports/pictures!

I'm getting my Disney nails done on Wednesday! I can't wait. A nice little pampering just for me! Ahhhhhh.

 

[wdisney9000]

@Ciara, Very excited fro you and your BF. First trip my wife and I took was for Food and Wine Festival (we were still just BF and GF at the time) and he we are over 10 years later and still visiting! I even wound up proposing at WDW! You guys will love it. We always buy a few Disney gift cards and use them while at F&W to buy food and drinks. It makes easier for us to not have to worry about how much we spent on food and booze.

Take it slow and soak it all in. Especially for your first trip together. Its so easy to get caught up in the excitement of simply being in WDW that you rush around trying to ride as many rides as possible. Not saying to avoid the rides, just enjoy being there with someone special. My wife and I have so many silly little traditions that we have started doing over the years. There are many things we do that have become just as important (and fun) as riding our favorite rides. Things like having a Tokyo Sunset (adult beverage in Japan Pavilion) while sitting at the top of the steps of the Pagoda during sunset, or we buy a treat from Writers Stop (usually the carrot cake cookie) at HS and sit at the benches by Star Tours and people watch. Just a few examples, but our little traditions have become a "must do" every trip and we get so excited to do them.

Cant wait to read all about it! You guys are gonna have soooooo much fun! Ill be Following along!

 

[Ciara]

You're going to love F&W. Olivia's is nice. Congrats on your anniversary and have fun. While at Uni's take a look around City Walk. Nights there are usually pretty good. Pat O's is fun and make sure you order a Hurricane. Not quite like they make them in the Big Easy, but close enough.

I keep reading about the booths and events, im excited and just want all these snacks already! This hurricane drink sounds right up my alley i will be sure to try one! Any suggestions on food at uni? We are completely up in the air right now!

 

[Ciara]

@Ciara, Very excited fro you and your BF. First trip my wife and I took was for Food and Wine Festival (we were still just BF and GF at the time) and he we are over 10 years later and still visiting! I even wound up proposing at WDW! You guys will love it. We always buy a few Disney gift cards and use them while at F&W to buy food and drinks. It makes easier for us to not have to worry about how much we spent on food and booze.

Take it slow and soak it all in. Especially for your first trip together. Its so easy to get caught up in the excitement of simply being in WDW that you rush around trying to ride as many rides as possible. Not saying to avoid the rides, just enjoy being there with someone special. My wife and I have so many silly little traditions that we have started doing over the years. There are many things we do that have become just as important (and fun) as riding our favorite rides. Things like having a Tokyo Sunset (adult beverage in Japan Pavilion) while sitting at the top of the steps of the Pagoda during sunset, or we buy a treat from Writers Stop (usually the carrot cake cookie) at HS and sit at the benches by Star Tours and people watch. Just a few examples, but our little traditions have become a "must do" every trip and we get so excited to do them.

Cant wait to read all about it! You guys are gonna have soooooo much fun! Ill be Following along!

My plan is too try and hoard as many snack credits as i can till F&W day! Then hopefully i am mostly paying for alcohol. We are both expecting to spend quite a bit this day but i like the gift card idea so i dont over spend!

I love all these ideas! I feel like we may be like kids in a candy store unsure of where to go/look first, especially him being his first time! We will definitely try to do a little relaxing each day, i know my boyfriend will appreciate it. I totally get what you mean about other things becoming a favorite instead of ride. I have to visit Downtown Disney at least once every trip and for me that area is as fun as the parks! I love just strolling around there at night looking at the shops. I love people watching too and i like it better with a drink in my hand will definitely have to try a Tokyo sunset!

Thanks for following along!

 

[wdisney9000]

Magic Kingdom-

Lefou’s brew

Dole whip float

Disney Studios-

Butterfinger cupcake

EPCOT-

School bread

Macaroons

Visit club cool

Universal -

Butterbeer

Duff beer

Krusty dougnut

The poly-

Drink in pineapple

Lol okay maybe hes right, a little crazy.

There is nowhere near enough PURPLE on this list!!!!!! jk, dont let my bad habits rub off on you, haha

 

[Ciara]

I'm thinking this trip report will most definitely be written after the trip and not live. I may write parts of it live and not post it till later? I think we will just be too busy and ill be too tired at night to write everyday.

So that being said, I typically post a couple photos to Instagram daily during vacations and if you'd like you can follow me there for my Disney pics!
My Instagram name is ciarastinson

Also if you use snapchat, your more than welcome to add me on there! I am sure i will be blowing up my story with everything Disney while i am there and me and my boyfriend can be pretty entertaining, especially while drinking, if i do say so myself! Haha
My snapchat is ciara_stinson


Thanks to everyone who has read, followed, commented, and liked my PTR so far I love being able to connect with people who love Disney as much as i do! Only 5 more days till take-off!

 

[Ciara]

There is nowhere near enough PURPLE on this list!!!!!! jk, dont let my bad habits rub off on you, haha

Lol i do think you are right! I've gotten some suggestions and the list has grown. I actually had made a separate list specifically for food and wine, but i never posted that one. I suppose i should maybe- It has lots of purple!! hahah

 

[ScarletBegonias]

I'm going to add you on Instagram! I'm Bburg

 

[Ciara]

Loving the old trip reports/pictures!

I'm getting my Disney nails done on Wednesday! I can't wait. A nice little pampering just for me! Ahhhhhh.

Oh yay! You'll have to take a photo for sure! Lol it's silly, but I'm excited to show Mickey and Minnie that i got my nails done special to come see them!

 

[Ciara]

I was at my moms and she gave me our old photo pass CD's!
We got one in 2007&2008. It was fun seeing the photos and reliving the memories

I didn't write much about our 2007 trip because to be honest it wasn't very memorable but here are a couple photopass photos of things i do remember!

We met captain jack sparrow! This guy was good, looks wise and character! My mom had a huge crush on johnny deep around that time and made me stand in line forever to meet him. I'm glad we did though because this was the only time i have ever seen him meeting, plus it started raining really bad right as we go inside. Perfect timing!

I clearly did not get the memo with this arm thing and Im trying to cut off grandmas head! This was all of our first time at MGM...

Which meant first time on TOT!! I love this ride but the first time i was actually scared. I remember thinking it was going to be more of a get in boom drop boom drop done. I was so into the little scenes and remembering them from the Disney channel movie, i totally forgot i was on a drop ride, then the doors opened and WOOOOOOO!!

This was taken on our first trip down the crush n gusher! This photo cracks me up. My dad looks uncomfortable, but i'm like "that was awesome!"


Alright now this photo...

Can you tell how uncomfortable i am? This Tiger was giving me the creeps! He kept purring in my ear and would only talk to me, it was strange. Pooh is even uncomfortable haha

Well thats it for 2007! Ill get back to 2008 shortly

 

[FlaggNL]

I'm thinking this trip report will most definitely be written after the trip and not live. I may write parts of it live and not post it till later? I think we will just be too busy and ill be too tired at night to write everyday.

So that being said, I typically post a couple photos to Instagram daily during vacations and if you'd like you can follow me there for my Disney pics!
My Instagram name is ciarastinson

Also if you use snapchat, your more than welcome to add me on there! I am sure i will be blowing up my story with everything Disney while i am there and me and my boyfriend can be pretty entertaining, especially while drinking, if i do say so myself! Haha
My snapchat is ciara_stinson


Thanks to everyone who has read, followed, commented, and liked my PTR so far I love being able to connect with people who love Disney as much as i do! Only 5 more days till take-off!

Added you on insta mine is MiessieNL

 

[FlaggNL]

I'm going to add you on Instagram! I'm Bburg

There are so many Bburg on Insta

 

[ScarletBegonias]

There are so many Bburg on Insta

Really??? what is your name? i'll look you up

 

[ScarletBegonias]

Are you getting excited!!! Not long now!!!

 

[Ciara]

Are you getting excited!!! Not long now!!!

Insanely excited! Work is bumming me out though haha it feels SOO long!

I still have 3.5 work days Today we have a party at work so hopefully that helps the day go by quick!

I just want it to be Friday so i can finish everything and be leaving the next day!

 

[ScarletBegonias]

I feel you on that. My work days are SLOWING way down this week. Tomorrow will probably be the WORST! My last full day before we leave. Half days always go really fast for me, so I'm not too worried about Friday.