Okay, I'm so darned excited I decided I'd start my pre-trip report a little early, though I'm sure I'll end up making another right before we leave. 
Let's Start!
My name is Kim, I'm 20 years old, and will be heading down to Disney December 2nd-8th with my wonderful boyfriend, Angel. We have a 17m old, but she'll be splitting the week up between my parents and her other grandparents. So basically, we're toddler free for a week.
I don't care what others say, I deserve this vacation, I NEED this vacation. I've never been away from our daughter for more than two days though, so I'll probably have a meltdown at some point.
Anyways, back to the trip. I'm fortunate enough to have two wonderful friends that are working for Disney that are also wonderful enough to send their spectacular discounts my way, hence our barely 3 months planned Disney vacation! One friend works as a lifeguard at the Poly, he's full time and recently moved to Orlando to be with his parents, and another works as a lifeguard at Typhoon Lagoon and is only there until January for the College Program. Again, hence going in December with very little planning before we decided to book our flights and hotel. Whoops?
(Basically, our $800 a week hotel room was cut down to $415, and we get free access to the parks because our friend that lives there will be going in with us. Yep. We're extremely lucky.)
Boyfriend grew up in Puerto Rico, so his ideal vacation was always the beach, but getting these discounts he's agreed to give Disney a shot because I won't shut up about it. He's a huge ride guy though, so I'm hoping those will win him over and he'll want to go back again someday.
My grandparents used to have a timeshare in Disney, so I went almost every year from the time I was born until I was about 7, as that's when my Mom Mom passed away and my Pop Pop sold the timeshare. My most recent trip was in June 2010 with a friend and her family, but the only Disney park we got to go to was Epcot. My friend and I did however skip out one day and go to Universal for the grand opening of WWoHP. We stayed at Old Key West, which is beautiful and I'd recommend it if anyone is thinking of staying there. Here's some pictures from that trip:
Ehh, not the best pictures, but you get the idea.
Due to making last minute reservations, we are bummed to say we didn't get to make any ADRs, but maybe we'll be really lucky and get into some good places anyways.
So far this is what we plan on doing. Let me know if you all have any extra suggestions!
Sunday:
We are flying from Philadelphia to Orlando by US Airways. Our flight leaves around 1 and will arrive in Orlando around 4, which hopefully means we'll be on the Magical Express and at the resort by 5:30. That's our hope anyway.
Once we get to the resort we plan on checking in and settling into our room, and then meeting up with our friend at the Poly for dinner and fireworks.
Monday:
Two words. Magic. Kingdom. (Open 9am-11pm)
We had originally planned to hold off until Thursday, but with the Grand Opening of Fantasyland, we chose to go earlier in the week to avoid any mayhem which may occur. Though since I haven't been here in years, I'm not sure where to hit first, but I DO know that these are the things I refuse to miss.
Jungle Cruise, Pirates, Aladdin, It's a Small World, Peter Pan, Thunder Mountain, Winnie the Pooh, Dumbo, Barnstormer, Space Mountain, Buzz Lightyear, and of course, WISHES!
If you can think of anything I missed, or have any suggestions about where to go first, let me know! We'll be spending the WHOLE day at Magic Kingdom, so hopefully we'll have time to hit everything.
Tuesday:
Hollywood Studios. (Open 9am-8pm)
We don't plan on spending the entire day here, but if we do that's okay too. Here are some of my "Can't Miss" attractions!
Great Movie Ride, Star Tours, Muppets 3D, Honey I Shrunk The Kids, Lights! Motors! Action!, Toy Story Mania, Rock n Rollercoaster, Tower of Terror, and of course, Fantasmic!
If we leave early we plan on heading to Down Town Disney and doing some shopping and wandering.
Wednesday:
"Down Day"
Okay, it's not like we're not going to do anything. We plan on starting the day by wandering over the bridge to Art of Animation to check it out. I would have much rather stayed there, but there were no available rooms with the cast member discount. Boo.
We then hope to hope to visit Animal Kingdom Lodge, The Boardwalk, Old Key West, and The Grand Floridian at some point. If we get to them all, wonderful, it not, that's okay too.
The end of the day will be spent watching Disney movies in our room and relaxing before two more hectic days.
Thursday:
Animal Kingdom (Open 8am-5pm)
Discovery Island Trails, Kilimanjaro Safari, Expedition Everest, Maharaja Jungle Trek, Dinosaur, Boneyard, Primeval Whirl.
Anything I'm missing? Or anything I can skip?
Once we leave Animal Kingdom we'll be heading out for dinner, then back to the room to get changed so we can head to Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party! Very excited.
Friday:
Epcot (Open 9am-12:30am)
Last time I was in Florida the only Disney park we went to was Epcot, but looking through others photos I realized I've missed A LOT. This time I plan to look much more closely.
The World Showcase (Probably first, I want to walk through during the sunlight), Space Ship Earth, Mission Space, Test Track, Nemo and Friends, Turtle Talk, and Soarin.
Again, we plan to spend the whole day at Epcot (then we can sleep in after the Christmas Party), but if we decide to leave a little early we'll probably head to the resort to get some sleep.
Saturday:
Flying Home.
Our flight leaves MCO around 7pm, so we'll be leaving the resort around 3pm. We'll probably just lounge around, or wander other resorts until the Magical Express comes to take us on our way.
While I'm really excited, I have a LOT that I want to shove into this one week. We definitely need the one day to just relax, though maybe we'll go somewhere in the evening depending on what we decide once we actually get there.
What attractions are absolutely CANNOT miss for you? Anything that I'll regret if I don't get to?
THANKS EVERYONE!
(and I'm sorry this is long...)
Let's Start!
My name is Kim, I'm 20 years old, and will be heading down to Disney December 2nd-8th with my wonderful boyfriend, Angel. We have a 17m old, but she'll be splitting the week up between my parents and her other grandparents. So basically, we're toddler free for a week.
I don't care what others say, I deserve this vacation, I NEED this vacation. I've never been away from our daughter for more than two days though, so I'll probably have a meltdown at some point.
Anyways, back to the trip. I'm fortunate enough to have two wonderful friends that are working for Disney that are also wonderful enough to send their spectacular discounts my way, hence our barely 3 months planned Disney vacation! One friend works as a lifeguard at the Poly, he's full time and recently moved to Orlando to be with his parents, and another works as a lifeguard at Typhoon Lagoon and is only there until January for the College Program. Again, hence going in December with very little planning before we decided to book our flights and hotel. Whoops?
(Basically, our $800 a week hotel room was cut down to $415, and we get free access to the parks because our friend that lives there will be going in with us. Yep. We're extremely lucky.)
Boyfriend grew up in Puerto Rico, so his ideal vacation was always the beach, but getting these discounts he's agreed to give Disney a shot because I won't shut up about it. He's a huge ride guy though, so I'm hoping those will win him over and he'll want to go back again someday.
My grandparents used to have a timeshare in Disney, so I went almost every year from the time I was born until I was about 7, as that's when my Mom Mom passed away and my Pop Pop sold the timeshare. My most recent trip was in June 2010 with a friend and her family, but the only Disney park we got to go to was Epcot. My friend and I did however skip out one day and go to Universal for the grand opening of WWoHP. We stayed at Old Key West, which is beautiful and I'd recommend it if anyone is thinking of staying there. Here's some pictures from that trip:
Ehh, not the best pictures, but you get the idea.
Due to making last minute reservations, we are bummed to say we didn't get to make any ADRs, but maybe we'll be really lucky and get into some good places anyways.
So far this is what we plan on doing. Let me know if you all have any extra suggestions!
Sunday:
We are flying from Philadelphia to Orlando by US Airways. Our flight leaves around 1 and will arrive in Orlando around 4, which hopefully means we'll be on the Magical Express and at the resort by 5:30. That's our hope anyway.
Once we get to the resort we plan on checking in and settling into our room, and then meeting up with our friend at the Poly for dinner and fireworks.
Monday:
Two words. Magic. Kingdom. (Open 9am-11pm)
We had originally planned to hold off until Thursday, but with the Grand Opening of Fantasyland, we chose to go earlier in the week to avoid any mayhem which may occur. Though since I haven't been here in years, I'm not sure where to hit first, but I DO know that these are the things I refuse to miss.
Jungle Cruise, Pirates, Aladdin, It's a Small World, Peter Pan, Thunder Mountain, Winnie the Pooh, Dumbo, Barnstormer, Space Mountain, Buzz Lightyear, and of course, WISHES!
If you can think of anything I missed, or have any suggestions about where to go first, let me know! We'll be spending the WHOLE day at Magic Kingdom, so hopefully we'll have time to hit everything.
Tuesday:
Hollywood Studios. (Open 9am-8pm)
We don't plan on spending the entire day here, but if we do that's okay too. Here are some of my "Can't Miss" attractions!
Great Movie Ride, Star Tours, Muppets 3D, Honey I Shrunk The Kids, Lights! Motors! Action!, Toy Story Mania, Rock n Rollercoaster, Tower of Terror, and of course, Fantasmic!
If we leave early we plan on heading to Down Town Disney and doing some shopping and wandering.
Wednesday:
"Down Day"
Okay, it's not like we're not going to do anything. We plan on starting the day by wandering over the bridge to Art of Animation to check it out. I would have much rather stayed there, but there were no available rooms with the cast member discount. Boo.
We then hope to hope to visit Animal Kingdom Lodge, The Boardwalk, Old Key West, and The Grand Floridian at some point. If we get to them all, wonderful, it not, that's okay too.
The end of the day will be spent watching Disney movies in our room and relaxing before two more hectic days.
Thursday:
Animal Kingdom (Open 8am-5pm)
Discovery Island Trails, Kilimanjaro Safari, Expedition Everest, Maharaja Jungle Trek, Dinosaur, Boneyard, Primeval Whirl.
Anything I'm missing? Or anything I can skip?
Once we leave Animal Kingdom we'll be heading out for dinner, then back to the room to get changed so we can head to Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party! Very excited.
Friday:
Epcot (Open 9am-12:30am)
Last time I was in Florida the only Disney park we went to was Epcot, but looking through others photos I realized I've missed A LOT. This time I plan to look much more closely.
The World Showcase (Probably first, I want to walk through during the sunlight), Space Ship Earth, Mission Space, Test Track, Nemo and Friends, Turtle Talk, and Soarin.
Again, we plan to spend the whole day at Epcot (then we can sleep in after the Christmas Party), but if we decide to leave a little early we'll probably head to the resort to get some sleep.
Saturday:
Flying Home.
Our flight leaves MCO around 7pm, so we'll be leaving the resort around 3pm. We'll probably just lounge around, or wander other resorts until the Magical Express comes to take us on our way.
While I'm really excited, I have a LOT that I want to shove into this one week. We definitely need the one day to just relax, though maybe we'll go somewhere in the evening depending on what we decide once we actually get there.
What attractions are absolutely CANNOT miss for you? Anything that I'll regret if I don't get to?
THANKS EVERYONE!
(and I'm sorry this is long...)
