Pre-Trip Far too early Pre-Trip June-July '15

Well, it had to be done. I had to start the Pre-trip report. The room is booked, it was time. No plans are constructed yet (ok, that's a big lie, I've already made a couple sets of different plans), but we are looking forward to a visit next June 28-July 8.

We'll be staying at our home resort of Old Key West the entire time for this visit (last time had to split between OKW and SSR) and our daughter will be participating in the Disney Soccer Academy from June 29-July 2. This will be her second year at the academy and while soccer is her second love (behind music), she really enjoys the camp and is considering joining a travel or club team in the near future, so the camp will be another great experience for her.


Our daughter is going to be 11 next summer and over 58 inches, so it is finally time for her first trip to Universal. That means we will likely be doing 3-4 days at Universal and the rest at Disney. Since 4 of those days she will be at soccer, we'll be enjoying either our resort or the Rose and Crown at Epcot each of those four days. That leaves us 4-5 days of Disney time. Likely one day per park with maybe a little hopping around.

We are still waiting (and praying) for a DVC Annual Pass special discount. While the usual discount is great, we are hoping they do the over the top awesome discount that they did a couple years ago where the Premium Annual pass ended up cheaper than the regular DVC Annual Pass. Hoping.... otherwise, we'll be going with the non-Premium.

You might be asking "Why would they get an AP for only 5 days (or a few more for the adults) of Disney Parks time???" Well.... we're trying to figure out ways to get back again for the Wine and Dine Half Marathon and maybe even another Christmas/New Years visit. Last time we did NYE was 2009-2010 and resulted in a couple of our best days at Disney ever - Christmas at MK (in at 7am, out by noon, did almost every ride) and NYE at Epcot (lots of rides early, then camping out at R&C all afternoon).


Right now, the general plan is...

Arrival Day (June 28) get to Universal at opening and enjoy the NON-Harry Potter activities of IOA.
June 29-July 2 - our daughter is at Soccer Camp, so possibly mornings with one EMH ride and maybe a couple late afternoon FP+ - my wife and I will be pool lounging or Rose and Crown drinking with Carl each day.
July 3 - Magic Kingdom - loved July 3 there last year (check the trip report)
July 4 - Epcot - also loved July 4 there last year
July 5 - Animal Kingdom or Hollywood Studios - depending upon our EMH and FP+ from soccer days
July 6 - Universal IOA - Harry Potter and then whatever else we can do at Universal in the afternoon/evening
July 7 - Universal Studios - starting with Diagon Alley and then ???
July 8 - departure day - who knows....another park day, but where???

There you have it - 7 months out planning. Yup.

 

[brifraz]

Just a month out now, so plans are in place, a couple ADRs have been made and here's the way things look. Your thoughts and ideas are most appreciated!

June 28 - likely arrive in the Orlando area around 8am and we will head straight to Uni to visit IOA but not Harry Potter. Our hope is that it by 2 or 3pm we have completed the things we want to hit in IOA (Hulk, Spidey, Dudley, Popeye, Jurassic park, Poseidon) and we can head to Old Key West to get checked in. We have a dinner booked at Wolfgang Puck and will take the boat of OKW to DTD - something we absolutely love doing.

June 29 - our daughter starts the Soccer Academy, so we will go straight there for first day check-in. While she is there, we are likely to stroll our way around Epcot or head back to OKW to relax by the pool.The camp wraps up each day at 3pm, so we have booked FP+ for late afternoon to do a little touring before bed. Our plan for this day is to hit the West side of Future World at Epcot with FP+ for Soarin' and Character Spot, we will also hit Imagination (maybe), Living with the Land (absolutely), and Nemo (likely). If we don't do all those things it isn't a big deal. The big deal is getting back to the room so our daughter gets good sleep!

June 30 - if we do get early to bed on the 29th, we will be up early and hit Epcot morning EMH for a quick ride on the Test Track before taking our daughter to WWoS for soccer (we did this once last summer and it worked out great). Again, while she hits soccer camp we get actual vacation. Late afternoon we will FP+ at Hollywood Studios - Rockin' Rollercoaster, Tower of Terror, and Little Mermaid.

July 1 - Soccer day 3 with no morning EMH plans. After soccer, Magic Kingdom with FP+ for Space Mountain, Buzz Lightyear, and the Tomorrowland Speedway. We have ADRs for 6:25pm at 1900 Park Fare and after that will head back to the room for another relatively early night.

July 2 - last day of soccer and maybe Animal Kingdom morning EMH for Expedition Everest. After soccer, we are planning to visit Art of Animation for dinner and also to check out the pool before heading to Epcot with FP+ for Spaceship Earth, Mission: Space, and Test Track.

July 3 - finally, a full day in the parks! Magic Kingdom is our destination. Morning EMH (not on the calendar now, but likely to be added) means Fantasyland attractions in the early morning. we hope to hit 7 Dwarves and Peter Pan (plus Small World, Winnie the Pooh, and Philharmagic) before heading west to the Haunted Mansion and Tom Sawyer Island. After lunch, we will check out the lines in Adventureland and see what we can do there. Around 3pm we'll head to the train station (right after the parade) to get seats for Fireworks. Yup. 3pm for 9pm fireworks. Totally worth it. Once our spot is secured, we will take trips for a subset of the trio to do some FP+ - Splash Mountain, Big Thunder Mountain, and Anna and Elsa M&G. Last year there was also a full loop of the train in there somewhere. Plus some food. Finally at 9pm the 4th of July fireworks. Since night EMH are until at least 1am, we will likely hang out late and have a good time!

July 4 - Sleeping in. We earned it, right? We have 10:30 ADR for Akershus and will likely drive to Epcot just in time for those. After that, it is time for the great Epcot chill out. We will just hang out in World Showcase (most likely the majority of time in the Rose and Crown Pub) while our daughter goes off for some Perry adventures. We are still hoping to secure FP+ for the fireworks (which we did last year), but if not, we will head to one of our secret special spots to watch Illuminations around 6pm or 7pm. No FP+ yet, but they will likely happen so we can have subset adventures similar to July 3. No late night this time, though. After fireworks, we will face the traffic to head out (possibly parking at Boardwalk to avoid the total chaos).

July 5 - EMH at Animal Kingdom means Safari time. Other than that, the only priority is Finding Nemo: The Musical which is a family favorite. In the late afternoon, we have FP+ for Studios and will head over there for Star Tours, the Frozen Sing-Along (yes...really), and Toy Story Midway Mania. We will likely also do the Animation Tour at some point in there and also the Great Movie Ride.

July 6 - back to Universal for the day of Potter. At opening we will head to Hogwarts for the Forbidden Journey followed by a ride on the Dragons and then the Hogwarts Express over to Diagon Alley. Lunch at Leaky Cauldron (hopefully) and then Diagon Alley touring and Gringotts. Dinner back at the Three Broomsticks (maybe) and then back to OKW.

July 7 - finishing up our touring of Universal, we will hit the main attractions at the original park with Minion Mayhem, Rip Ride Rocket, Transformers, Mummy, Disaster, Men in Black, and maybe ET, Shrek, and Terminator. It's been a long time since DW and I have been to Universal and DD has never been so we'll see what we end up doing!!

July 8 - our check out day is still a blank page, but sometime in the next week or so, we will figure out what we really haven't planned enough time for!

BTW, we have now booked another visit for December 24-January 2.

 

[LisaBelle]

Sounds like lots of fun. It will be here before you know it! Enjoyed your TR from last year. You provided great info about all the Frozen events at HS. Your info came in handy for our July trip last year.

 

[brifraz]

Sounds like lots of fun. It will be here before you know it! Enjoyed your TR from last year. You provided great info about all the Frozen events at HS. Your info came in handy for our July trip last year.

Glad we could help out!

 

[FlaggNL]

Looks like more than great plans! Time will fly by the next couple of weeks

 

[brifraz]

Pretty large update...we will be arriving a day earlier. And spending one night at Art of Animation. We have wanted to tour it forever and our daughter really wants to try the pools. Happened upon a discounted room on hotels.com and booked it for Saturday night. We will be surprising our daughter with this. As we pack the car on Friday evening in preparation for our Saturday late morning departure, we will randomly decide to just leave early. We're crazy and kooky like that. 17 hours later (13 hours driving and 4 hours of breaks and sleep time in rest areas), and most likely 5000+ questions later about what we're going to do when we get there, we will show up at AoA and hopefully we will have managed to keep the truth secret until we arrive! We are not planning to do the parks at all on our bonus day - just rest and relaxation at Art of Animation. This will also make it much easier to get up on Sunday morning for Universal IOA!

 

[LisaBelle]

Sounds like fun. Hope you can keep the surprise a secret during the drive!

 

[brifraz]

Sounds like fun. Hope you can keep the surprise a secret during the drive!

We hope so, too. Going to be tough - she will ask a lot of questions and we aren't the best liars in the world!!

 

[Figgy1]

We hope so, too. Going to be tough - she will ask a lot of questions and we aren't the best liars in the world!!

To be a fly on that wall! LOL

 

[mrdrift]

Sounds like some wonderful plans. Good luck with that secret. Following along.

 

[brifraz]

We've made it over a week with the secret Art of Animation visit still a secret from our daughter. At some point in the past week, there was a quick mention of the resort in a discussion and our daughter got very sad. We asked why she was upset and she said that it was going to be another Disney visit without her getting to go to Art of Animation and see the resort and swim in the pools (because, of course, she knows that we can't pool hop there). We managed to keep our mouths shut!

 

[Figgy1]

We've made it over a week with the secret Art of Animation visit still a secret from our daughter. At some point in the past week, there was a quick mention of the resort in a discussion and our daughter got very sad. We asked why she was upset and she said that it was going to be another Disney visit without her getting to go to Art of Animation and see the resort and swim in the pools (because, of course, she knows that we can't pool hop there). We managed to keep our mouths shut!

Good luck keeping that secret! shhhhh I won't tell

 

[brifraz]

Just five days away now. A few small adjustments have been made. Nothing major. A few rescheduled fastpass plus, a meal at the new Test Track Grill quick service, figuring out when to do laundry and go to the grocery store. Packing has begun...in which our dining room turns into a staging area. Very excited around here!

 

[LisaBelle]

So close now! Is the surprise still a surprise?

 

[ScarletBegonias]

Following..

wondering if it's still a secret? She will be so excited!

 

[brifraz]

So close now! Is the surprise still a surprise?

Following..

wondering if it's still a secret? She will be so excited!

She has absolutely no idea. Friday late afternoon, I will start packing the car. This is usual - I tend to do it the day before so we KNOW that we haven't forgotten anything. After dinner, I'll figure out some excuse for putting the cooler in ("Not sure if it will fit in there!") and then come back in and say something to the effect of "Why don't we just leave now and stop at a hotel somewhere along the road?" and off we will go! If we get out by 7pm we should make it to AoA around noon or so. We're still not sure if we will tell her on the road or try to keep it from her until we arrive...

 

[DVCPluto]

Good luck with the surprise! You are good parents to drive through the night!!

Safe travels!! Can't wait to hear all about it!

 

[Figgy1]

Safe travels and try and keep the surprise!

 

[brifraz]

Good luck with the surprise! You are good parents to drive through the night!!

Safe travels!! Can't wait to hear all about it!

Believe it or not, we almost always drive through the night. Even if we weren't planning the surprise visit to Art of Animation, we would have left on Saturday late morning and driven through the night Saturday to arrive very early on Sunday morning. We have about 950 miles to drive and can usually do it in 13.5 hours of driving. Used to be we would leave after Baltimore/DC rush hour (about 6pm from our house avoids most of it) and hope to arrive between 7am and 8am. Recently we have been leaving earlier and earlier and taking more and more breaks...perhaps something to do with age. Since we are just going down early for a relaxed day exploring the resort at Art of Animation, no worries on arrival time this drive!

 

[ScarletBegonias]

We must be around the same area if we both are fighting Baltimore/DC traffic! takes us about 16 hours door to door (not counting stopping for the night)