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.

11076246_1067826226567346_8681303412030525415_n.jpg




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! :happy:
 

jackson2005

Active Member
Check what nights they are having Halloween parties. Universal closes early for their Halloween horror nights, as does magic kingdom for not so scary Halloween. Both you have to buy tickets for. Have a great trip!
 

LisaBelle

Well-Known Member
Your plans sound great! I think you will enjoy writing a trip report. I wrote my first TR after our vacation last summer. It was a great way to relive the entire trip. I will be following along!
 

brb1006

Well-Known Member
I would recommend visiting the Magic Kingdom on the last time. It's been my WDW tradition ever since my first visit back in 2004.
 

12in12

Well-Known Member
You will have so much fun! I use a crowd planner to plan my days as I like to go to the least crowded park. Although MK is always my first and last park.
 

ColoradoEquestrian

Active Member
Yay! I saw you're flying out of PDX! I'm a native Oregonian (now live in Colorado, but intend to move back) and am so glad you were able to get your boyfriend on the Disney train. Congratulations on your anniversary and have a magical vacation! :D
 

sheriffwoody

Well-Known Member
Looks like a great trip! For Universal, I was told to arrive before it opened and waste no time getting to Escape From Gringotts. Maybe since by Sept it won't be quite as new, that won't be the case anymore, but it's something to consider.

We'll miss you guys by just a couple of days! We're also REALLY pumped about Food & Wine. Our honeymoon was during F&W and it was kind of the highlight :D haha
 

Ciara

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Looks like a great trip! For Universal, I was told to arrive before it opened and waste no time getting to Escape From Gringotts. Maybe since by Sept it won't be quite as new, that won't be the case anymore, but it's something to consider.

We'll miss you guys by just a couple of days! We're also REALLY pumped about Food & Wine. Our honeymoon was during F&W and it was kind of the highlight :D haha

Good to know! I think we will try to do that either way as we do not want to miss that one! Ahh dang, we always enjoy making new friends! I'm really excited its the 20th anniversary for F&W too, hopefully it will be extra great. Any tips for food & wine??
 

sheriffwoody

Well-Known Member
Good to know! I think we will try to do that either way as we do not want to miss that one! Ahh dang, we always enjoy making new friends! I'm really excited its the 20th anniversary for F&W too, hopefully it will be extra great. Any tips for food & wine??

Load up some gift cards and go nuts! The other two times we've gone we've passed up things because we were being frugal, and I regret it. We're buying $100 gift cards every month or so (up to $400 now and that's probably more than enough). Kroger does 4x the fuel points on gift cards so we take advantage of that! We'll probably go to World Showcase at least once a day while we're there to eat and drink.

We've never done any of the classes or demonstrations they have, but we're open to it. I'll probably look into it more when all the details are out.
 

Ciara

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Well its official, my boyfriend thinks i'm crazy! I wont shut up about Disney, anytime i can bring it up, i do. I think my boyfriend is starting to realize just how special Disney is to me though, and that's making him more excited! I realized after reading more on here that i have been missing some amazing foods. I came up with a little list of my "want to try" items. Blue= Non-Alcoholic drink, Green=FOOD, Purple= Adult beverage

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.
 

Ciara

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
60 days! FP+ picked out and already checked in online since were arriving before check-in :D I switch our universal and animal kingdom day, in hopes the crowds will be better. Same ADR's. AHHHHH!!! So exciting!
 

Ciara

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Well everything is paid for! :D:D Now all that's left to do is wait... so much easier said than done!
A couple things have changed! First we will be flying in earlier than we originally thought. We waited a little too long to book our airfare and the shortest/best flight gets us to Orlando around 6AM :eek: I'm sure it will take a bit to get to the resort but i am still guessing we will be there before 8am. Has anyone flown in this early and had any luck getting into the room somewhat soon after?
We decided we definitely want to go to EPCOT the first day so in hopes we will be less rushed and have more time in the park, i moved our Olivia's cafe ADR, cancelled the ADR for raglan road and booked us an ADR for rose and crown at prime firework time :D We also have a new breskfast ADR for whispering canyon cafe the day we leave!
Wow wow wow so much going on! We really cant wait, as it gets nearer to a month away time is just flying!
 

prfctlyximprct

Well-Known Member
I've gotten there incredibly early for my las two trips.. one our room was ready, one it was not. Just do the online check-in and let them know your arrival time! We arrived around 9 am in August at Wilderness Lodge, and it wasn't ready till around 12. They told us the rest was at capacity so that was why. Enjoy your planning!!!!! :):)
 

Ciara

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Oh also thanks to the many suggestions we will be going to MK the last day!! Can never get enough castle :D:D
 

Ciara

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
I've gotten there incredibly early for my las two trips.. one our room was ready, one it was not. Just do the online check-in and let them know your arrival time! We arrived around 9 am in August at Wilderness Lodge, and it wasn't ready till around 12. They told us the rest was at capacity so that was why. Enjoy your planning!!!!! :):)

Okay great! I think they may be pretty full while we are there as well, but I hope it's ready :) I'd love to maybe take a nap haha! Thank you for sharing :)
 

Ciara

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
40 days:eek:
The days are seriously ticking by, my boyfriend and i have started to count time in work weeks, one work week down just one week closer to wdw! I think its because neither of us have had a real vacation since last September. We hoard all of our vacation time for big trips! My bf, has also been working graveyards and were on totally opposite schedules! WE NEED THIS VACATION :arghh:
 

Register on WDWMAGIC. This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.

Back
Top Bottom