Trip Report The I'm Ditching the Spreadsheets....an Unrecognizable Trip!

We arrived home around 10pm last night from our Disney vacation. The planning for this trip started in March, but by September it was not even close to the original. So how did it all turn out? Did I make the correct decisions? Was this trip as hectic as the last one? Should I have cancelled so many dining reservations? Did we miss too much because upon arrival I decided to rip up the spread sheets..the same ones that I so painstakingly obsessed over?! I'm thinking about all of this as I am attempting to organize my 609,504,302 photos.

There were a few hiccups, including my Etsy order not arriving in time, sprinting to the Magical Express just as the doors closed, leaving our Elf on the Shelf in the room after check out, getting stuck on a ride, a missing boat captain, broken ornaments, and a horrible 3 hour lunch. All in all it was an amazing trip. I do not regret the decision to change from the original plans, or the second, or the 3rd, or even the plans I had when we were on the plane heading to Orlando. I decided to throw out most of them and take a (semi) wing it approach.

 

[21stamps]

Amazing report, and fantastic pictures. I love how deserted the park looks in a lot of the pictures. I guess this is the time of year to go?

That was actually the Sunday after Thanksgiving. It was crowded, but most of the photos are during Early Morning Magic and just after park opening. It was also a MVMCP night (which we weren't attending), so I'm sure crowds were much better that day than the previous. We weren't able to get any 4th FPs to any of the bigger attractions, Space, Splash, Mickey, etc, and all of the character lines were too long...but it definitely could have been worse!

Your son is so cute. In particular, I really liked the photos of him on the Speedway. Many people have mentioned that they'd like to see the Speedway leave, and put a different attraction in there. I disagree, as I always see happy children "driving" -- it's such a big thrill for them.

I agree!! I would hate to see the Speedway leave. I've always enjoyed it, and T absolutely loves it!

 

[MySmallWorldof4]

EMM Part 3...

Flew with Peter Pan several times.. then crossed over to It's a Small World. Luckily no one else was in our boat, T decided to sing along the entire time.

Then we went to the Carousel..and T tried to remove the Sword from the Stone.

We've now been on 13 rides..and it's 9:08am!!! We hadn't even been in Fantasyland for an hour!! Did I mention that I LOVE Early Morning Magic?!!

Loving your trip report. You are getting me to consider EMM for our trip in May. The Disney website says that only Peter Pan's Flight, 7DMM, and MAWP are the only open rides during EMM. DId that change? If Small World and the Carousel are open too, then that could push me to purchase.

 

[21stamps]

Loving your trip report. You are getting me to consider EMM for our trip in May. The Disney website says that only Peter Pan's Flight, 7DMM, and MAWP are the only open rides during EMM. DId that change? If Small World and the Carousel are open too, then that could push me to purchase.

I don't know if the carousel and small world were open the entire time, but when we came out of Peter Pan's Flight (around 8:50ish) Small World was. Then we walked over to The Sword and noticed the Carousel was open too. Other people in my FB planning group did EMM on different days and reported the same. The nice thing too is that you are already back in Fantasyland, so when the waves of rope droppers get there after park opening you already have a head start.

The food is served until 10, so potentionally you could even do a couple of more rides than we did. We went to breakfast by 9:10, and took our time eating and talking. Food was good, plentiful, and not crowded at all in the restaurant.

 

[NutsForFlorida]

Thanks! I'm looking forward to the playoffs!

Clemson should be tough. But they're no Alabama. Should be an OSU/Alabama final.

 

[21stamps]

11/27 Continued...

It's been a great day at the park. Took the launch back, Had dinner at GF Cafe, and now I'm charging my phone in the room. Here is where Hiccup Numero 1 happens..

Phone has 20% now, so we head to the marina for drinks, cupcakes, and music.
The set up was quite cute!! I settled on a surprisingly strong adult beverage, kiddo ordered the one option for kids, we decided to share a red velvet cupcake. I touch my Magic Band to pay. Cashier says "I'm sorry your Magic Band isn't working. Do you have another form of payment?" "What?!?!?!"
I didn't even bring a handbag with me, I asked him to try again. Same result. T is looking at me. I'm embarrassed and confused. Then I said "I'm going to grab cash and be right back." T is asking me why he can't have his cupcake. The CM offered for him to take the cupcake. I said "No thank you, I'll be right back." Omg this was embarrassing!!

We speed walked to the room, I grabbed my wallet, and paid cash for our items. I would try to have fun and deal with it after T went to sleep. Maybe just a security block? Annoying bc I always fill out a travel notice with my bank, so there shouldn't be a red flag. Anyway, I'll deal with it later.

We tried on some hats--

I wish I could remember the name of this drink. It was sooo good!!! A lot stronger than I expected though, 1 was quite enough for me.

There was a DJ playing music and CMs dancing. We danced with them for a bit and then T started to crash. He was nodding off about 30 seconds after this photo.

We packed it up and went back to the room. Walked out on the balcony to check out Christmas Space Mountain first.

T got ready for bed and fell asleep immediately.

Luke was ready for the morning.

I watched a bit of Holiday Wishes before calling my bank.

Called my bank, sounding a bit annoyed I'm sure. They informed me that there was not any hold or alert placed on my account. What?!? I called the front desk. Apparently the entire Magic Band system had been down for a few hours. Whew. Ok. No harm, no foul.

Placed my room service order for the morning and went to sleep.

Big day tomorrow!!

 

[21stamps]

Hollywood Studios Day!!!


Woke up at 7am. Just in time for room service to arrive. Neither one of us are big eaters when we first wake up, so I ordered a continental plate for us to share. The butter made me smile. It's the little things

I am just ecstatic beyond words that T still got his morning castle view!!!! Thank you room number choosers!!!!!

I drank almost the entire pot of coffee, we were both slow moving this morning. Planned on being at Hollywood Studios at 8am. We left our room at 8:35. Even though we were in a hurry I did have to pause and take a photo-

Walked up to the bus stop and noticed a line. Didn't check bus times, just immediately asked for a taxi. Luckily one was there in a matter of seconds. We had to get to JTA sign ups!! Last year our Ohana breakfast ran later than expected and we did not arrive in time to sign up. I was not letting that happen again!


Kiddo happily talking about meeting Chewy, Kylo, and what he brought to trade with the Jawas.

 

[Billy6]

Great stuff! That View! Breakfast with the castle!

 

[21stamps]

Great stuff! That View! Breakfast with the castle!

If you only knew how much I agonized over the fact that I had downgraded from a TPV to Lagoon View.
Last year at Poly we had breakfast in the room a few times, and dinner twice. Kiddo loved seeing the castle every morning and every evening. This trip with all of our early mornings and park evenings I just decided that I couldn't justify the added expense. I think Tinkerbell must have sprinkled a little pixie dust before we checked in. I almost cried, I was so happy!

 

[21stamps]

Took a photo of the Golf Course that we wouldn't be playing at. Originally I had booked a golf instruction for T (he's a golf nut, I'm not). The schedule was looking too over scheduled, I cancelled that one pre trip. I didn't tell him about this activity. What he doesn't know won't hurt him, right?

 

[SSH]

drinks and a red velvet cupcake...that combo sounds sooo incredibly good right about now.

 

[21stamps]

drinks and a red velvet cupcake...that combo sounds sooo incredibly good right about now.

I know, right!!! I wish I was there!!! Instead my current situation is -- the laundry room.

I do wish I could remember the name of the drink that I had, it was good, just a limit of 1 for sure!

 

[Billy6]

If you only knew how much I agonized over the fact that I had downgraded from a TPV to Lagoon View.
Last year at Poly we had breakfast in the room a few times, and dinner twice. Kiddo loved seeing the castle every morning and every evening. This trip with all of our early mornings and park evenings I just decided that I couldn't justify the added expense. I think Tinkerbell must have sprinkled a little pixie dust before we checked in. I almost cried, I was so happy!

LUCKY!! You are probably right about the pixie dust. My family and I enjoy breakfast with the animals at Kidani Village when we stay at our DVC. I think that's a close second to the castle!

 

[21stamps]

LUCKY!! You are probably right about the pixie dust. My family and I enjoy breakfast with the animals at Kidani Village when we stay at our DVC. I think that's a close second to the castle!

Oh nice!!! At the start of this whole process, when it was still a WDW/DCL combo, I had AKL booked for 2 nights pre cruise. After I decided to change everything then I cancelled the reservation. I have never been on AKL property but the photos look GORGEOUS! I wish we could have made it over there to see the Christmas decorations. We will definitely stay there eventually!

 

[Billy6]

Oh nice!!! At the start of this whole process, when it was still a WDW/DCL combo, I had AKL booked for 2 nights pre cruise. After I decided to change everything then I cancelled the reservation. I have never been on AKL property but the photos look GORGEOUS! I wish we could have made it over there to see the Christmas decorations. We will definitely stay there eventually!

Both of the resorts are great although I have only stayed at Kidani Village. Worth a trip over there just to see the animal savannas.

Did you make it on the cruise this trip as well?

 

[21stamps]

Both of the resorts are great although I have only stayed at Kidani Village. Worth a trip over there just to see the animal savannas.

Did you make it on the cruise this trip as well?

I would love to see it! I'm sure it's amazing to see all of the animals from the hotel!

No cruise last month . I had to cut back the trip from 2 weeks to 9 days due to work and an opportunity that came up for 2017. I gave my son the choice between WDW or the Fantasy saying that we had to cut it down to one or the other. He chose the parks, much to my surprise, I really expected him to say the Fantasy. I was 2 days past POF and I thought about pushing it more..but we have another cruise June '17 so I went with his choice of the parks...I'm sticking to my guns this time though, we will not do WDW as a family in 2017 for sure!!! Only I will sneak down to F&W for a quick secret weekend. Shhh


Edited to add- Another thing that impressed me in my AKL research (mostly on this site) was that they have so many daily activities. Much more than I've seen at the other resorts. It would be the perfect place to have breakfast in the room and just spend a day at the resort.

 

[21stamps]

HS DAY CONTINUED....

We arrived at Hollywood Studios and did a run/walk to the security check. Stop to take a photo, T gets sidetracked by bubbles, then we dash to Jedi Training Sign Ups- it's 8:55 now. ONE HOUR WAIT. Ugh. Ok. We're getting in line. I didn't even have time to stop at Starbucks first.

Disney, please send a Barista or Runner to the JTA sign ups line. Take our orders, charge us 6 bucks, and bring us a latte back in a timely manner. That's one "money grab" that would seem to make sense and everyone would be ok with! I personally think it's a great idea .

Seeing a Stormtrooper for the first time!

70 minutes later, we had woven thru the woods and were now on the street still waiting in line. We could see the end though! It was near!
2 Stormtroopers walked up to us. I was recording and the Stormtrooper pointed at me and asked if I was with the Resistance. T got a kick out of that.

 

[21stamps]

HS still continued...


It's 10:15 and we are finished with sign ups!!!! They were handing out an "Anytime Fastpass" which was nice since we are running way behind. I don't know if this is normal procedure or only done when the line is long. I was grateful for it though!
Sadly we couldn't get a morning time slot, 2:10 was the only thing available. We had a Sci Fi reservation at 3:10, and JBJB Dessert Party at 5:45.

Right now Mom needs coffee. ASAP. We rush to Starbucks only to find another long line. I decided I would rather still have withdrawals than stand in a slow moving que for another minute. So, we headed to our first FP of the day- Star Tours.

 

[21stamps]

Obviously Star Tours was a hit. Here's the best part- We left the store without buying ANYTHING. NOTHING. NADA.!!!!!!!

A little back story-
Last September T did the "build your own light saber". The woman asked if he wanted the regular or deluxe. I'm like "What the heck is a deluxe light saber? That doesn't even look normal." (I paraphrased here, that's what I wanted to say anyway). Apparently the odd looking lightsaber was from the "new movie" (The Force Awakens).

Ok guys, please don't shoot me- at the time I had not heard of the movie. Anyway, we purchased the stupid Deluxe and I logged on to YouTube to show T a preview, and so we could see this odd looking lightsaber and the character who uses it.

That moment changed our lives as we knew it. Nothing would ever be the same again..


This year he did in fact ask for a lightsaber again (now he has 6 in his collection), I was not buying one on this trip. I told him that if he wanted it then it was coming from his money. The card was now at $73 balance remaining. We discussed if he really needed a 7th lightsaber. He thought, looked, thought, asked one more time if it could come from 'my (mom's) money. I said "Nope. It's your decision. If you want it you can have it, but you will not have much left on your card, and we have 6 more days to go after today." He said he'd pass on it, and we walked out. YES!!!!!

Photos from last year. The lightsaber that altered the course of our lives from that day forward...

 

[Billy6]

I would love to see it! I'm sure it's amazing to see all of the animals from the hotel!

No cruise last month . I had to cut back the trip from 2 weeks to 9 days due to work and an opportunity that came up for 2017. I gave my son the choice between WDW or the Fantasy saying that we had to cut it down to one or the other. He chose the parks, much to my surprise, I really expected him to say the Fantasy. I was 2 days past POF and I thought about pushing it more..but we have another cruise June '17 so I went with his choice of the parks...I'm sticking to my guns this time though, we will not do WDW as a family in 2017 for sure!!! Only I will sneak down to F&W for a quick secret weekend. Shhh


Edited to add- Another thing that impressed me in my AKL research (mostly on this site) was that they have so many daily activities. Much more than I've seen at the other resorts. It would be the perfect place to have breakfast in the room and just spend a day at the resort.

They do have plenty for everyone to do and we enjoy the "nightvision" goggles to see the animals after dark.

The cruises are the best and I hope have fun on the June one. I have been on 2 including the Fantasy.

I "snuck" down just last month for the F&W festival on my own and it was a blast...You'll enjoy that as well!

 

[epcotisbest]

Patiently hanging out waiting for more of this wonderful trip report.