Pre-Trip It's 2018-Let the countdown begin

(Not sure if this pic will load but here I am in DL in November with my long awaited Mickey Macaron and Matterhorn Macaroon-I did not want to share!)

I am new to this site but after reading some awesome trip reports I am itching to post a pre-trip report even though there are still 131 days left to go, I booked my vacation package ~120 days ago so we're almost halfway through the wait!

 

[ELeigh]

Wow--that sounds like a nightmare!!

That was just brutal, and after that ordeal was solved it was still a 3 hour car ride through the dessert to my in laws house (the live a few miles from the Mexico border). I feel like I have bad travel luck fingers crossed I have learned from my mistakes and my upcoming trip goes smoothly!

 

[ELeigh]

Well, if anyone is still here after 10+ posts on my past 2 trips, here is a little info on our next trip:
This May, the kids and I will be heading back to WDW for a 5 night stay this time we will bring my other sister. DH is sitting this one out as our Nov visit to DL was enough for him.
Since I went in May 2015, I have had May 2018 tentatively slated for a return trip. In September I saw an advertisement for AOA 10% off room offer with park ticket purchase on Facebook and decided to book (I follow a lot of WDW fan sites and did not see this mentioned anywhere else). Since AOA little mermaid rooms have often been excluded room offers I decided to book that day. I figured I could always swap out the resort if I found a better deal down the road. I decided on a 5 night trip as I want to save longer trips for when we have a bigger group.
From the start of the planning I had a few specific must-dos for the trip, here are my top 5:
1-Ride SDMT with O (she’s finally tall enough and now a roller coaster pro after our DL trip) Unless Z grows 3 inches in the next few months he will have to sit this one out but if we do rider swap O will get to ride at least 2x.
2-Eat dole whip-After two dole-whip free trips I really need to fix that. Luckily I was able to try it in DL (I had the float) and It was amazing and exceeded all of my expectations. Now I feel like I should squeeze in 1 dole whip a day somehow lol.
3-Ariel ride/meet Ariel-We skipped this last time and both of my kids are little mermaid obsessed. On our visit to DL they rode the mermaid ride there at least 8 times because they absolutely loved it and since it’s basically the same I expect the WDW version to also be a favorite.
4-‘Ohana Dinner-Always a must for me I just love the food
5-Frushi-I feel like this is controversial as I have seen a lot of negative reviews on Frushi but it was everything I ever wanted a dessert to be (I guess I am just weird). I sincerely hope that it’s back on the menu for this years Flower and Garden Festival! (If not I will have to try a recipie I found online but it seems out of my skill set).
Thanks following along. I will post more details of the trip including ADRs on my next post

 

[ELeigh]

One week closer to our trip! I am already having trouble keeping the secret 4 months out, the kids have seen me on the MDE app and they always ask to see where Mickey is.
Here are some details about our upcoming trip:
Where: I chose an AoA little mermaid room this time. The kids are Ariel obessed and I know it's sure to be a hit with them. I am excited for the awesome themed pools and unique food court options. After staying at French Quarter and All Star Music I think this should be somewhere in the middle which seems perfect for this trip.
Who: This trip will be myself, my sister and O and Z. I was originally hoping to get my mom to come along and while we had to count her out I am still hoping she will make an appearance (we are from the northeast but my parents have recently begun investing in real estate in central Florida, so if she's already in the area...).
What: We have 3 day park hopper passes for our 5 night trip, I am planning 1.5 days at MK, an evening at AK, and 1 day at Epcot. I have had bad luck with HS, I am considering going for a few hours but I think we may just skip it. I plan to spend the rest of our trip by the pool and checking out all the dining at DS.
ADRs:
My sister and I are both one big meal a day eaters. My kids are both all day snackers. Currently I have DDP on our package, there is no way the current trip party will eat enough food to justify it, but if any of our family in FL decide to visit we can use credits for them so it will make more sense. I will take the dining plan off our reservation if that aren't going to make it.
As of right now, I am still making changes to the ADRs, but here is what I have so far:
Day 1: (travel day/pool) 'Ohana Dinner
Day 2: MK day: BOG Lunch, Tentatively Wave for dinner but considering just cancelling and doing Columbia Harbour House or some snacking for dinner.
Day 3: Dinner ADR at Frontera Cocina (I don't see anyone else raving about the food here but I love it and know that my sister will too, kids approve of anything that involves sour cream so they are fans too)
Day 4: QS: World showcase for lunch and and Flame Tree for dinner
Day 5: ADR for dinner at Coral Reef, we have never been but we enjoy seafood and I think the kids will love seeing the fish.
Are there any must do foods I am missing? (Won't to a signature on this trip with the kids but it's on my bucket list for the next trip!)

 

[ELeigh]

Only 4 months to go! (2 more New England winter months and then I am sure early spring will fly by)
That means only 60 days until I the FP window. I already have an alarm set as I forgot about our ADR window for the first hour (I was hosting Thanksgiving dinner for 20+ people and got caught up in Turkey prep) but I didn’t really have any dining plans that were that hard to get.

I am hoping to get FP that will line up with my current plan, what I am hoping for is:

Park Day 1: Hoping to get PP and SDMT as earlier in the day FP and then adding whatever else will work for the morning so that we can add FP as we go in the evening.

Park Day 2: Hoping for BTMRR or SM earlier in the morning and then Pirates and HM or JC. I am thinking I may want to wait on Splash for O until DH is with us and Z is tall enough on our next trip.

Park Day 3: FEE (planning on spending the whole day at Epcot with a break for nap/pool so I will take whatever time I can get for a FP window)

With the opening of Pandora (and possibly even TSL by the dates of my trip) I really hope we will be able to score FEE and SDMT.

Quick update on “Suprise” for the kids: O has been playing on MDE app looking at rides (I have not told her about the trip) and asked to see which ones she is tall enough for and had to be measured. I think she’s on to me!

 

[ELeigh]

Only 4 months to go! (2 more New England winter months and then I am sure early spring will fly by)
That means only 60 days until I the FP window. I already have an alarm set as I forgot about our ADR window for the first hour (I was hosting Thanksgiving dinner for 20+ people and got caught up in Turkey prep) but I didn’t really have any dining plans that were that hard to get.

I am hoping to get FP that will line up with my current plan, what I am hoping for is:

Park Day 1: Hoping to get PP and SDMT as earlier in the day FP and then adding whatever else will work for the morning so that we can add FP as we go in the evening.

Park Day 2: Hoping for BTMRR or SM earlier in the morning and then Pirates and HM or JC. I am thinking I may want to wait on Splash for O until DH is with us and Z is tall enough on our next trip.

Park Day 3: FEE (planning on spending the whole day at Epcot with a break for nap/pool so I will take whatever time I can get for a FP window)

With the opening of Pandora (and possibly even TSL by the dates of my trip) I really hope we will be able to score FEE and SDMT.

Quick update on “Suprise” for the kids: O has been playing on MDE app looking at rides (I have not told her about the trip) and asked to see which ones she is tall enough for and had to be measured. I think she’s on to me!

We are still 107 days out, but I am getting a more solid idea of Plans thanks to some input from others on the forums .

At this point I am fairly certain that we will have my cousin join us, she has had an extremely rough year and could use some Disney magic and the trip is right after her birthday . Before adding her to the plans I was almost certain we would cancel the dining plan but with a 3rd adult on the trip it makes sense as both my cousin and sister are in their mid-20s and will get their margarita and mimosa fix cheaper this way. I am hopeful that Ohana will allow for alcoholic beverages as part of the dining plan but haven’t seen any confirmation yet. EDIT: I read on another site/forum that alcohol is allowed at buffets but nothing in a "specialty" glass which reportedly includes pineapples. Fair enough-I am sure I can find a decent replacement .
Am I the only one that has a spreadsheet with 5 different scenarios to determine if DDP is going to work out? Oh well off to update my crazy spreadsheet!

 

[ELeigh]

We are 95 days out from our trip and I have done better keeping the surprise under wraps. I officially added my cousin, M, to our room reservation so now we have 3 adults and 2 children. I made it just in time before park ticket prices go up this week. I have been stalking trip reports and other blog sites to start a list of things I want to make sure to eat on my trip and have moved around our ADRs at least 10 times. I will be driving to work or in the shower and suddenly think, "How much time did I leave between lunch and dinner ADRs?" As it stands right now we have:

'Ohana early dinner on arrival day

BOG lunch and Skipper Canteen dinner on park day 1 (This went from The Wave to CG, back to the Wave and now I think I am firmly settled as I want to spend as much time in MK as possible and I have seen some enticing photos in trip reports)

Chef Mickeys brunch and Frontera Cocina for dinner on our park-free day (I originally had not planned a character meal but I felt that the kids would appreciate having one in the mix)

No ADRs for our second park day, I am now thinking we will visit the world showcase for breakfast and lunch and then have dinner at flame tree BBQ

For our last day, I have a reservation for Kona for breakfast before our MK morning and then Coral Reef for dinner.

I am sure a few adjustments will still be made but I am hoping this general plan ends up panning out.

I spent a little too much time looking through photos of our past trips yesterday before grocery shopping and ended up filling my cart with ingredients to make a few favorite wdw recipes.
This morning for breakfast I made.....

I don't have my vacation stomach on so I left some on the plate. I have to say I missed the ukulele player and leis while eating this, and it certainly would have gone down better with a Lapu Lapu! Z is at my parents house so O shared this breakfast with me. She ate the ice cream off the top and literally gagged on the banana part and promptly asked for cheerios.
I will be making another one of my favorite Disney foods for dinner (this time from Downtown Disney in DLR) and will share pictures later.

 

[ELeigh]

So Sunday I made my favorite meal from my DL trip for dinner....

Gumbo and cheese stuffed garlic bread from Ralph Brennon’s Jazz Kitchen in DD and DLR. We ended up dining here after a night at DCA around 8:30pm, I wasn’t terribly hungry after a large lunch and a churro earlier that day and really wanted to save room for dessert. I decided to just order gumbo from the appetizer menu as well as the stuffed garlic bread. The combination was like heaven. Before trying this, I only ever eaten gumbo that I made which was very different so I don’t have a lot to compare to but after we got home DH asked if we could try to replicate this from now on and we have been enjoying it at home since then.

This week hasn’t brought much in terms of planning our trip since now I am really just waiting for the FP window to open up. Tomorrow the kids will be watching Peter Pan for the first time (I bought them the dvd for Valentine’s Day) and I am hoping they enjoy it. They are big into Jake and the Neverland Pirates right now and Peter Pan is on the show every so often.
Still trying to keep the trip the surprise but I discovered last night that Z has been hiding a WDW pamphlet in his bed and looking at it when he’s supposed to be sleeping. It is the one they sent when I booked the trip so it is full of pictures of AoA and the little mermaid rooms so I guess he won’t be as surprised about the room as I would have hoped. I have created some seriously Disney obsessed children. Before our DL trip, O had been asking all the time to “go to Disney Cruise” because she saw commercials on TV. Luckily she hasn’t asked since then because it will be a while before we can make that happen.

 

[ELeigh]

I can’t beleive after 7 months of waiting today I am finally 60 days out from my trip! This was my first time making fast passes at the 60 day window as I have always booked trips within 60 days in the past. I set three alarms this morning so I would be sure to be up and ready to go for 7, but I didn’t end up needing them as I was up long before that. I ended up getting most of what I wanted, I just had to switch days for SDMT as there were no times left for the first day of the trip.

I ended up getting:
Park Day 1 Magic Kingdom:
Peter Pan, Little Mermaid, Winnie the Pooh (was hoping for SDMT this day but couldn’t get it)
Park Day 2 Epcot:
Frozen ever after, Nemo, and LWTL (really just wanted FEA)
Park Day 3 MK:
BTMRR, Pirates, and SDMT

 

[ELeigh]

The trip is inching closer and closer! I have been stalking MDE all week and I finally got a SDMT FP that will work with the plans for our first park day!

I am so glad I got this FP because I was getting nervous that something could possibly happen the last day and prevent us from riding. Since riding this ride with O was one of my main motivations for this trip, it would be pretty devastating if we didn’t get to ride it. Now we have 2 FP for this ride, one of each of our MK days, so I think it’s a safe bet that we will get to ride .
I am trying to work out some other details of the plan and I was considering a fireworks dessert party but I am thinking I will save that for a trip when DH is going to be with us. I have changed the plan to do fantasmic instead. After reading @Figment Forever trip report and seeing her pictures of the show I am convinced this is the best plan. Another upside of this plan is that instead of eating in MK we can eat at the showcase in Epcot which is a plus for the adults . Then we will walk or take a boat to HS.
I have already started packing and sometime this week I will have to snap some pics of all the cute Disney swag I have bought for the trip! (I have a serious addiction to online shopping for Disney stuff but I make up for it by buying almost nothing at the parks).

 

[ELeigh]

My trip is 50 days away and I have officially started packing! All the TR I have read where people pack at the last minute make me so nervous, I need a lot of time to process and make sure I don’t miss anything important while packing. Since New England has decided that we won’t be seeing spring weather anytime soon I feel fairly safe packing the kids summer clothes into the suitcase.
As I am packing, I am admiring some of the things I have picked up for this trip:

This is mostly stuff for myself but a few things in there that are for my sister and cousin. I have a bunch more cute Disney stuff that is for the kids going into their Easter baskets this weekend .
Another development on our trip: my aunt and uncle will be joining us for a day on our trip since they don’t live too far away from Orlando. They are looking into either booking AoA or POP for Saturday night and will join us for some relaxation and Disney Springs time. I am beyond excited about this as I grew up being super close to my uncle and he has only met O once during our 2015 trip and has not met Z yet. Now that we have more people in the mix I will 100% be keeping the DDP on our reservation because it makes a bit more sense now. I have looked at the calculations and if we went more on the frugal side and paid OOP we would save maybe 100$. For 100$ more we will be getting a lot more so it seems like it should be worth it.

 

[Fankle]

Love your Disney gear!

 

[ELeigh]

Love your Disney gear!

Thanks! I tried not to go too overboard

 

[ELeigh]

Today makes 30 days until my trip! I am more than 1/2way done packing I have been spring cleaning and putting things into the suitcase as I come across them. I changed around my ADRs so they now include: 'Ohana dinner, Kona breakfast, Frontera Cocina dinner and Yachtsman dinner . I have been moving around fast passes to get better times, still hoping to get some better times last minute for a few things.

 

[ELeigh]

I'm still 29 days out from this trip and I am already planning not one but TWO future trips. I have a friend who is getting married at Shades of Green over New Years and my friend K who I went to Disney with in 2016 wants to go back in May 2019 This now puts me in a position where an AP may be worthwhile....this could get dangerous!

 

[krisri18]

I'm still 29 days out from this trip and I am already planning not one but TWO future trips. I have a friend who is getting married at Shades of Green over New Years and my friend K who I went to Disney with in 2016 wants to go back in May 2019 This now puts me in a position where an AP may be worthwhile....this could get dangerous!

Having an AP is sort of a blessing and a curse: you get the AP so you save money on the trips you already have planned but then you end up planning even MORE trips because you have the AP (therefore spending more $$$).

 

[riverside]

Having an AP is sort of a blessing and a curse: you get the AP so you save money on the trips you already have planned but then you end up planning even MORE trips because you have the AP (therefore spending more $$$).

I couldn’t agree more but are MORE trips ever a bad thing??

 

[ELeigh]

Look what arrived in the mail today!

I am done packing everything that I can pack ahead of time and now need to wait until closer to the trip for the last bit. I am also trying to figure out the plan for surprising the kids. H and M are coming from out of state to fly together with us so if they sleep at our house the night before I will have them arrive after O and Z go to sleep and then help me wake up the kids the next morning and do the surprise then. If they sleep at my parents house which is on the way to the airport, I will try to convince the kids we're going to school at 4am (they might not know the difference right.....) and then reveal the surprise when we pick up the girls. I am curious to see their reactions I am hoping for a big one but either way I know they will be over the moon with this trip.

 

[ELeigh]

Happy May! It's finally our Disney month and my excitement level is like a 10. I can't believe I have kept this surprise since September from the kids, I'm so excited to see how they react. We're 16 days out and my bags are mostly packed, just need to do some last minute additions when I do the laundry the weekend before.

 

[ELeigh]

I can’t believe it, but in exactly one week we will be arriving at the Poly and checking in for our dinner at ‘Ohana . I am hoping to finish packing this weekend but I have everything mostly ready to go so hopefully I will be able to focus on cleaning the house because it’s always nice to come home to a clean house after a trip. The plans for surprising the kids are coming together and I can’t wait to see their reactions!

 

[Fankle]

Super-excited for you! Do let us know how the kids react.