Pre-Trip Only 479 Days??? Can't Stay Away Pre-Trip Report

Hello Friends,

Yes I know that I am in the middle of a DCL trip report, but until I can get the time to get the pictures off my camera, I have put a short hold on that report. That being said, I have decided to go ahead and start our pre-trip report. This is going to be our most expensive trip ever, and will cover Universal and WDW.

We decided while we were on the cruise that our vacation style is more suited for the parks. We had a great time on the cruise, but we would have done so much more at the parks with the money that we spent on the cruise.

Anywhooooo

I will start with who is going. It will again be me, my sister, and Gracie. I love being so close with my sister because we split the costs of vacations down the middle making it much more affordable to go so often. After our mom suddenly died in April 2013 we decided that we would live our best lives and do the things that we never really got to do growing up. We were raised in a lower/middle class family and vacations weren't a normal thing for us usually, especially after my parents divorced.

We went on our first sister trip for Gracie's 5th birthday in 2015

We did a week long trip which included a day at Universal (which was a complete bust and disappointment which I will explain later)

And we stayed at AoA in the little mermaid section

We were here when all the Halloween decorations were up, which was super fun.

Next up:
What we did in 2015 vs. what we did in 2017 vs. what we will plan on doing in 2019.

 

[MomofPrincessGrace]

Our next trip was in May of 2017. We chose this time of year because Gracie would be in Kindergarten and the school year would be winding down and she wouldn't miss much. This time we opted to stay in a moderate and chose Port Orleans Riverside. We chose this section because they have the pull down beds and I knew Gracie would love that (and it meant I got my own bed)

Because you can only get this bed type in the Alligator Bayou section, we requested a room change after we were originally assigned a room in the Magnolia Bend section. We had a garden view, which was very convenient to the parking lot and bus stops, but quite a walk from the main pool, lobby, and food court.

Unfortunately I dont have many picures from this trip. I have all the photopass pictures which are home on my computer, but personal pictures are lacking. While we were driving down there my phone died, i mean completely died and would not turn on. This happened on the first day and I was afraid that it would ruin our vacation because it started off so horribly. We decided to run to Walmart to get a pre-paid phone (at it was late at night) and thats what I used while we were there. Thankfully I was able to upgrade when we came home to a Samsung Galaxy 8, which hasn't given me any problems at all.

Here are some of the pictures from that trip:

Taken before breakfast at O'Hana

Our view from our table at Ohana

Yes, I did rent a stroller for this trip. I highly recommend Kingdom Stroller Rentals. They were well priced, clean, and the delivery drop off pick up process was super easy. The stroller was perfect when she began to get cranky from the heat and needed a rest. We could cover so much more ground without her complaining. This was also much nicer than the umbrella stroller we used in 2015 which was a pain to push.

After being the only two people on Kali River Rapids to get drenched!

Waiting for Captain Jack to teach us how to pirates AKA run away from all conflict

Getting her pirate apprentice certificate. She still tells everyone to this day that she met Captain Jack and he made her a pirate.

My sister bought this for me for my Mother's day gift that year. I love this more than words can express.

Fun tip, if you get your face painted anywhere in any of the parks, you can get it touched up throughout the day at any of the face painting places. We got it painted over in tomorrowland, and later got it touched up in DHS.

 

[MomofPrincessGrace]

So, while we were on our May 2017 trip we decided 2 things. 1. We wouldn't go back again in May because of cheerleaders and the heat and 2. we were going to wait until around 2020 to go back to WDW when Toy Story and Star Wars would be open. We also decided that we weren't going to stay in a moderate resort again because we just didn't have time to enjoy the grounds as much as we would have liked.

We decided that we were going to do a cruise since we had never done one before. We booked a cruise on the Carnival Fantasy that port out of Mobile (a quick 3 hour drive from home) with a port in Cozumel. Well..... over the course of a few months I began to become uneasy with all of the Carnival catastrophes (camera hidden in rooms, bus crashed on excursions. Now we can add the flooding cabins to that list of catastrophes. So around the week of New Years this year, I talked with Halie and decided to cancel. We lost about $400 because we cancelled 1 week after the penalty free period ended. We then decided that we would go somewhere else. We had only wanted to spend about $1000 because thats how much the Carnival Cruise cost. I checked in maybe going to DLR, but airfare is too expensive. After talking about it we decided to price some other cruise lines. We decided that we would do a 3 night Disney Cruise that ported out of Port Canaveral. It cost us about an extra $1000, but it would be worth it.

More pictures will be in my trip report, but here are a couple.
We did Pirate Makeover at BBB (Only cost about $45 so a REALLY good value for what you get). It included makeup, nail polish, bandana, eye patch, sash, hoop earring and sword.

After our return to Port Canaveral we had planned on going back into the Disney bubble before heading home. I made us reservations at the GF cafe because we wanted to check out the monorail resort loop and WL to make sure we wanted to spend the big bucks on our next trip.

You guys have GOT to try the specialty house Cafe Sandwich at the GF Cafe. It has ham, roasted turkey breast, bacon, tomato, and boursin cheese sauce. The bread is like a garlic butter bread. Probably the best sandwhich I have ever had. I would advise against the House Breaded Fried Mozzarella. You only get 2 pieces for $10 and they are pretty small.

While we were at lunch the Youtube family the Bratayley's were sat down next to us. The only reason I know who they are is because their son died a couple of years ago suddenly due to an undetected heart problem. I only saw 2 girls come up and interrupt their lunch, which was nice. It was interesting to see that although they have like 6 million followers on Youtube, they are still just normal girls who color on their kid menus like everyone else.

So with full bellies we decided to hop on the monorail. Our first stop was MK to jump on the boat to WL. This ride is so nice. We had some trivia from the boat attendant (?). He pointed out the different names of the islands and that one was called Shipwreck Island because when Walt came down to Orlando to scope out the area the lagoon was all marsh. He ended up getting shipwrecked and it took like 4 hours (I believe that how long he said) for them to come rescue him. They give the islands names because if something were to happen to the ferries they could radio and let them know where they are stranded.

Monorail Ride to MK

Closest we are getting to MK this trip!

Boat Ride to WL

Checking Out the Area

Had to get a picture with Mickey

Up next: So when is the next trip?????