Pre-Trip My February 2018 trip inspired by YOU!

And YOU! and YOU! and YOU! And YOU! (But let's be real, mostly @Tuvalu ;))

Hello friends and welcome to my trip report inspired by YOU!

I have read what feels like hundreds of trip reports in the last year or so. I have taken inspiration from them and I am ready to do some new things this trip!

Who am I: I am Teresa from Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. I am currently on maternity leave (which is 1 year in Canada) which gives me ample time to read this forum and plan my own trip. This will be my 8th trip to the World, 2nd time staying onsite. I am cynical and sarcastic and you’re gonna love me.

When and Where: February 1-8 at Port Orleans Riverside. Me and Lukas (DH) stayed on-site for the first time last year at CBR and fell in love with it. The convenience is worth every extra penny. We booked on the PSD deal and after spending 2 hours on hold and then being disconnected :mad: the only package left online for a standard room in a Moderate was POR (we were originally going to book Coronado Springs). I considered booking POP instead for a few hundred dollars less but I have seen SO many reports here of you guys staying at POR and loving it so I booked it (and it better be good! :joyfull:)

Who: Me, Teresa, and my DH Lukas. We have 2 kids - Kinley who will be 2.5 years old and Malcolm who will be 5 months old. Kinley has also gone at 1.5 years old and 9 months old and both kids had in-utero Disney trips so they are pros already.


You love them already, right?

Last year when we went we decided we wouldn’t do it alone with small kids again as it is EXHAUSTING, so my sister Emily (@AKemily) is also coming with us!

Here's me and Kinley and Emily in May 2016 meeting our faves :inlove:


And of course, when my parents heard that we were going (and paying for ourselves :rolleyes:), they decided to tag along as well!

This is us on a past trip. I lovingly cropped out my other sister and brother-in-law as they won't be coming on this trip.


Why:

Well first off, this is my view right now.


Dismal right? And it will only get worse over the next... let's see.. 88 days and 3 hours.

But really, whenever I try to branch out and look for other winter holidays, I am just fooling myself because WHY would we go anywhere other than Disney? We never thought we would be *those* people who bring small children and *gasp* double strollers to WDW :eek: but can we really wait 5+ years to return to WDW?? No, we can’t. So we have become the people we always despised and I apologize in advance. I promise to park my stroller in my room and not in the hallway ;) - but watch your ankles, I may have had 2 children but the “park commando” never dies!

Up next: Our plans so far!
 

Matt and Kelly

Well-Known Member
Count me in! I'm in Edmonton and lots of snow already and really cold! The Florida heat will be so nice in February!!! And unfortunately we are still that people with the stroller too. We are going in December and we will be bringing the stroller for our 5 year old, although she is the size of a three year old if that makes it better. But it will be my 7 years old first time walking. Wish us luck!
 

krause

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Count me in! I'm in Edmonton and lots of snow already and really cold! The Florida heat will be so nice in February!!! And unfortunately we are still that people with the stroller too. We are going in December and we will be bringing the stroller for our 5 year old, although she is the size of a three year old if that makes it better. But it will be my 7 years old first time walking. Wish us luck!

Thanks! Yes February is not typically considered a "hot" month for Disney but it's plenty hot enough for us! We went in May last year and nearly died :joyfull:. At least you won't have to bring the double stroller! On our first trip my sister Emily was 6 almost 7 and we never used a stroller and I'm told she did great :D Your trip plans look fantastic! One day I will make it there at Christmas time :inlove:
 

krause

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Sounds like fun!! You won't be disappointed with Riverside. It is a beautiful resort!! My favorite!!

Thanks! It better be your favourite or you picked the wrong name :joyfull: I am very excited to see it and explore the area and take the boat to Disney Springs!
 

riverside

Well-Known Member
Thanks! It better be your favourite or you picked the wrong name :joyfull: I am very excited to see it and explore the area and take the boat to Disney Springs!
The boat ride to Disney Springs is a plus!! It's a nice change from the buses. If you get a chance try to see YeHaa Bob(Wednesday-Saturday nights at the River Roost Lounge). His show is extremely entertaining for the whole family!!
 

krause

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
The boat ride to Disney Springs is a plus!! It's a nice change from the buses. If you get a chance try to see YeHaa Bob(Wednesday-Saturday nights at the River Roost Lounge). His show is extremely entertaining for the whole family!!

Yes! That is definitely something we are hoping to fit into our plans! It’s crazy all the things that go on at the resorts that you don’t even realize until you stay there :)
 

krause

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
A fellow Canuck going to Disney??

Count me in

The little ones are adorable!!
Mine are 20 and 22 now - I continually remind them that they were once cute!!

Max

Great! Yeah no 25% off tickets discount for us this year but oh well.

Thanks!! Yeah they may grow out of the cute baby stage but at least they also grow out of the double stroller!!
 

krause

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Plans so far

I am a crazy obsessive planner and if allowed, I would plan every step of every day. Actually on our 2011 trip I did just that - 10 days we did all 4 Disney parks, Typhoon Lagoon, Blizzard Beach, Universal Studios, Islands of Adventure, SeaWorld, and Aquatica. To be fair, I was engaged and was pretty sure I would never be able to afford to go to Disney World ever again so I insisted we do EVERYTHING :joyfull:. Since then I have been back 4 times and I am given very serious instructions to “include down time in the schedule” :rolleyes:.

We are on the DDP because we enjoy feeling like it is an all-inclusive vacation. I also enjoy the challenge of trying to get our “money’s worth” out of the plan - it does take some strategy (side note: I seriously miss the strategy of planning paper fastpasses - man, I was good at that)! Our family trips growing up were all done on a tight budget and it was our 5th or 6th trip before we even ate any meals at park restaurants (I believe our first was Rainforest Cafe :facepalm:). Eating at restaurants has become a whole new part of the experience for us. Last year we were on the Deluxe Dining Plan and I had the whole week planned around food (Tiffins, Le Cellier, California Grill, it was going to be marvelous!) Then, I ended up being in my first trimester of pregnancy and we still went to all those places but NOTHING looked or tasted good :depressed: (except the Sonoma Goat Cheese Ravioli at CG of course :hungry:). It was a MAJOR disappointment for me, although Lukas really enjoyed it. This time, I will NOT be pregnant, and we will be trying almost all new restaurants and I am very excited for it.

So on to our plans - I’ll split this up as it’s a bit text heavy

Feb 1 - arrive 8:30pm on a DIRECT flight from Winnipeg. Direct flights are usually super expensive (we have in the past done the 4 hour drive to Fargo, North Dakota to fly Allegiant Air which saves enough money to be worth it) but I got a great deal with Westjet so we are all VERY excited about this. It is my parents and Emily’s first time staying on site so I am VERY excited for their first trip aboard the Magical Express - the magic begins just following those signs through the airport instead of the signs to go rent a car :joyfull:.

Feb 2 - Magic Kingdom! We have ADRs for a brunch at Crystal Palace (gotta try that Pooh’s toast) and dinner at Whispering Canyon Cafe - first time for both! I just know that I am going to fall in love with Wilderness Lodge. We saw it from the water a few trips back on a Fireworks cruise (which I HIGHLY suggest for anyone looking for a new experience), and I just knew that I needed to get there :inlove:.

Up Next: More plans
 

krause

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Okay sorry it took so long, here's the rest of the plans:

Feb 3
- Morning at the resort, evening at HS. This morning is our scheduled “pool time” but if the weather doesn’t cooperate we will be taking the boat to Disney Springs. We have no ADRs but will grab a QS supper somewhere and then I am determined to make it to Ample Creamery at some point, possibly after Fantasmic??? Is this a good plan or will it be swarmed by people with the same idea? We have never even seen the Boardwalk area before, so it’s a must-do on my list, especially after seeing @fractal pictures :inlove:

Feb 4 - AK in the morning with a 10:55 ADR for Boma breakfast. We didn’t plan anything for this afternoon because it is Super Bowl Sunday so Lukas and my Dad will most likely want to find somewhere to watch and so we will see where we end up, most likely just at POR.

Feb 5 - Unpopular opinion time: we are not huge Epcot fans :jawdrop:. We really really try every time we go to love it, it just hasn't happened. So our plan is go get there around ~1:00pm. We have an ADR at Garden Grill at 1:20pm which I am going to change to Akershus (gotta meet those princesses :inlove:) if it becomes available. And then eating at various Festival of the Arts booths for supper - does anyone know if you can trade a Quick Service credit for 3 snack credits at the food booths?? I figure with 5 of us on the dining plan if we each exchange a meal at a booth and get 3 things, that would be a pretty good use of credits!

Feb 6 - Animal Kingdom ALL day. We LOVE Animal Kingdom. We have a Sanaa reservation at 1:40pm. We also want to eat at Flame Tree because we never have :eek: and at Satu'li Canteen (I'm disappointed they are ending the breakfast here).

Feb 7 - Magic Kingdom last day :(. We have ADRs for 'Ohana for breakfast and then Jungle Skipper Canteen for supper. There are EMH from 8-10pm so we will be able to stay and finish up any rides that we want to do one more time.

Feb 8 - We will be catching the Tragical Express around 7:30 probably for an 11:30 flight (international so 4 hours before departure time :facepalm:). Direct flight home to the frigid north :cold:.

We may potentially flip our Feb 3 and Feb 5 days because I could get Akershus reservations on the 3rd, but figure Epcot may be busier on a Saturday with the Festival of the Arts so this is still up in the air until we have to lock in fastpasses. And we are still desperately trying for a Bon Voyage breakfast ADR but with 7 people we're not basing any plans around this.

Next up: We book fastpasses starting December 3rd! Emily doesn’t believe in me that I can snag FoP FP+ for both of our AK days but I know I can do it!
 

AKemily

Well-Known Member
Hiya folks! I probably waited too long to comment on this but as you know, I am the little sister of @krause and I graciously decided to tag along with her and her husband on this trip to help along with their kiddos. Such a sacrifice, I know, but somebody's got to do it! :joyfull:

There's so much I'm looking forward to on this trip including my first stay on WDW property and the Disney Dining Plan!! I have always been pretty cheap with food on past trips and I am SO excited to eat at so many great Disney restaurants - especially Skipper Canteen! I'm not really sure why but that one is really calling my name. My last trip was in October of last year so, to me, this trip feels long overdue!

Looking forward to going on this journey with you all! Only 80 days until the happiest place on earth! :inlove:
 
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krause

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
"I got Trattoria al Forno" - Me singing on the phone to @AKemily :joyfull:

AHH I'm so excited!! It's the one reservation we both really wanted to get yet for this trip and although it may require rearranging the rest of our week completely, we're okay with that! I got the reservation for Tues Feb 6th at 10:10 am for the Bon Voyage breakfast. This was supposed to be a full AK day, so the easiest thing to do would be to just go to AK after our breakfast, but we are AK lovers and can easily spend a whole day there so we'll have to see if there's another way we want to rearrange things.

I used the Touringplans.com reservation finder and it worked! I didn't really expect it to but I got an email, was online within a minute or two and there it was! Just like they said! I never knew this existed until I think I saw @Doc Disney mention it? So thanks! I always use Touring Plans because I have unrealistic expectations of how long things take (walking, queues, the actual rides, etc.).

Just 13 days until we book FP+ so now we really have to get our plans nailed down! :D
 

krause

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Okay today was the VERY stressful FastPass+ day but I think I did pretty good!! Getting super excited for the trip, it is coming up so fast! Here's the *final* plans (subject to change if I get bored in the next 60 days :))

Feb 1 - Arrive MCO at 8:30pm, DME to POR, go to sleep.

Feb 2 - AK
Sanaa at 1:00pm
FP+ for Kilimanjaro Safari, NRJ (NO FoP left!), Rivers of Light (we haven't seen it yet and I know my Mom will just love it so I wanted to guarantee good seats)

Feb 3 - MK
Crystal Palace at 10:20am
Whispering Canyon at 5:15pm
FP+ for Jungle Cruise, Splash Mountain, BTMRR

Feb 4 - HS
No ADRs for this day :eek:
FP+ for ToT, TSMM, Star Tours

Feb 5 - AK
Boma at 10:55am
FP+ for Kilimanjaro Safari, FoP, and Expedition Everest

Feb 6 - Epcot
Trattoria al Forno at 10:10am :inlove:
FP+ for Nemo, Character spot, and FEA

Feb 7 - MK
O'hana at 11:30am
Skipper Canteen at 4:40pm
FP+ for Splash, HM, and 7DMT

Feb 8 - Tragical express pick up probably around 7:30am :cry:

Thanks for everyone following along so far!
 

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