Pre-Trip ONE MORE MONTH (Ace Gang Reunion)

Coordinating a vacation with 5 twenty-somethings is not easy. There were times when my friend Val and I thought we might end up being the only 2 people on this trip (which would have been fun anyway). But alas, everyone finally has plane tickets so this reunion is happening FOR SURE!!

So here we are, my group of best friends from college. We call ourselves the Ace Gang. We haven’t all been in the same place at the same time for over 2 years now.

We have 33 days on the official countdown but Val is coming a few days earlier than the rest of the Ace Gang so she can come check out where I live or whatever. Here are some Disneyland pics of Val and me:

Wednesday, October 15th
Val arrives in MCO 5:30ish. I’m working most of the day and then leaving to drive to Orlando. We’re heading straight to the Magic Kingdom and have FP+ for Space, Splash, and 7DMT.

This will be her VERY FIRST TIME in WDW so we’re both super excited. She lives in CA and seems to be in Disneyland all the time. In fact, the wait for this reunion started to feel a little too long so I made a trip out to California to visit her (and spend a day in Disneyland) just a few weeks ago. We actually decided that we were going to take lots of video footage (both in Disneyland and on our October WDW trip) so I’ve been making Youtube videos that will be great to go back and watch. Here’s a link, if you’re interested:

 

[abzoo]

Back to the planning:

Thursday and Friday Val and I are doing things elsewhere in Florida. I might work in the morning on Thursday, Friday we’ll likely go to St. Augustine.

Saturday the 18th, we’ll be heading back to WDW in the morning. Might make a quick stop at one of the parks and then we’ll be leaving to meet the rest of our group since they’ll be getting in @10:45 and taking the Magical Express to Art of Animation. At this point, we have FP+ in the afternoon for Mickey, Enchanted Tales, and Peter Pan. Not sure why I chose these ones, it was a bit random. We’ll be staying until 12 for Extra Magic Hours. Woo!

Sunday the 19th, we’ll go to Hollywood Studios in the morning and Epcot later on. We have Le Cellier reservations for a super early dinner. Then we’ll probably hit F&W for even more yummy things and stay for Illuminations.

Monday, October 20th: EMH at Animal Kingdom (FP+ for safari, Everest, DINOSAUR) then we’ll be back at MK at some point since we have late reservations at Be Our Guest. If we get out in time, we’ll watch Wishes from New Fantasyland.

Tuesday, October 21st: Val and I will wake up earlier and head to MK and meet everyone else at Chef Mickey’s for breakfast @10:45. Then we’ll relax a bit and start getting ready for Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Party! I’m excited-- need to finish up on my costume (and make costumes for others). We’re staying until the very end and then waking up early the next morning for …

Wednesday, October 22nd: UNIVERSAL DAY. Can’t wait to see new Diagon Alley! We’re gonna try to get everything done in one day. Let’s see how this goes. For dinner, we’re driving to 100 Montaditos so we can pretend like we’re in Spain with some delicious little sandwiches.

Thursday, October 23th: Epcot morning (FP for Test Track, Mission: Space, & The Seas) then DHS later. Fantasmic.

Friday, October 24th: No real plans for this day yet. Everyone but Val and I is leaving at different times throughout the day. I’m thinking about taking Val to Hoop Dee Doo for dinner? yum.

Saturday, October 25th: Val and I are checking out of A of A and moving offsite (which will be a bummer). We’ll be at MK at some point since we have FP+ later in the day.

Sunday, October 26th: We have morning FP+ for DHS. It’s our last day. We shall see what happens. Maybe I should pick an ADR?

Monday, October 27th: Taking Val to the airport for a SUPER early flight back to the other side of the country. I think i’m gonna drive home and nap then go to work and try to fight off the post-Disney, post-friendunion blues.

That's what we have planned for now. Suggestions are welcome!

See you real soon, Disney World! Actually I'm thinking I might need to drive down for a quick day trip sooner to say goodbye to Maelstrom. So that might be a thing.

 

[FlaggNL]

Great plans Seems you are there the same period as we are! Enjoy the pre-feelings!!

 

[abzoo]

24 days! Here was my recent project:

...grabbed these family reunion buttons from WDW last time I was there and made some adjustments with nail polish. Decorating things with nail polish is a talent of mine haha. See?

Alright so I mentioned that it was unreasonably difficult to coordinate everyone's plans. Turns out that Cassie, one member of our group, neglected to mention that she wasn't actually leaving on Friday night but at 7:30 AM on Saturday. Thank God Val and I decided not to move offsite until Saturday or else I would be in charge of driving to the airport before dawn Saturday instead of leaving Cassie to fend for herself with DME that day. I still need to call and make sure all the girls are set up to use DME. woo.

So the 3 of us who are left now have reservations for Hoop Dee Doo on Friday night. Can't wait for the...

Can't wait at all!

 

[abzoo]

And our Magic Bands have arrived in Chicago!