Pre-Trip We’re Off to Neverland… ahem, I Mean Disney World

Hi there! I’m back again to share my pre-trip report with you lovely folks. This year we’re super excited to be staying at the Sheraton Vistana Resort Villas in Lake Buena Vista. We decided to stay off property because we did last year and it was great and super affordable. I do enjoy staying in the Disney bubble, but when you see what we’ve got going on this trip, you’ll probably understand.
Okay, down to business:
Who: Me, DH Scott, DD Cassidy 9 & DD Chelsea 6 (My stepson Dylan DS 24 and his girlfriend Morgan 23 will be joining us for a few days & my sister and her family will be joining us as well for a few days)
Where: See above
When: August 13th through August 26th

Here is a link to last year‘s trip report if you’re interested….

Trip Report - DL & DW! ~ August 2022 ~~ Completed

Me and my family, dh Scott, dd Cassidy 8 and dd Chelsea 5 did Disneyland August 10th-13th and then went to Disney World from August 20th-27th. We are from NJ and flew out to LA to visit family, do some sightseeing and then we ended our trip with 3 nights at Disneyland Hotel with2 days in the...

forums.wdwmagic.com

It was a good time.

Here are some internet photos of Vistana Villages

We have not stayed here before and we are super excited about it!

Here is a possible layout of our room. We have a 2 bedroom Villa booked. Sleeps 8 and has a full kitchen. I really enjoy having my own space, especially for an 11 night vacation.

 

[DiSnEyF@n]

The planning part is part of the fun, isn’t it? Have a great time!

It sure is!

 

[DiSnEyF@n]

Thursday, August 17th~ Magic Kingdom
We plan to be there the whole day and try to catch the nighttime show. I do not have any ADRs. We will eat breakfast on the go. We may order something from Friars Nook. Can we pause here for a second to discuss how much I really like mobile ordering. I know some people don’t like the fact that everything is done on the phone but it’s sooooo super convenient. I order the food before we even get into the park and then it’s ready by the time we get back to Fantasyland. Win/win

Anywho, Friar’s Nook has yummy breakfast:

We typically do all the rides in Fantasyland first. We can get almost all of the rides done in 1-2 hours in that land if we do it first thing. Depending on our virtual queue and our genie plus rides, we’ll probably make our way to Tomorrowland or Adventureland. We love Pinocchio Village Haus for lunch, so we’ll probably eat there for lunch (unless I pack again… tbd).

After lunch we’ll do some shows: Tiki Room, Monsters Inc and then Carousel of Progress. We did this last year in MK and it was really to plan all the shows at the same time to truly have downtime. Maybe we’ll do Mickeys Philarmagic again. Chelsea doesn’t particularly like Philarmagic bc she doesn’t like the loud noises and the 3D aspects of the show, but she goes in and watches it anyway without the glasses.

Dinner might just be ice cream somewhere…. Haha. We also like the egg roll stand the pops up around dinner time by the entrance of Adventureland. They’re yummy. Maybe Picos Bill? We’ll be playing this by ear.

If we have the stamina, we’ll stay and watch the nighttime show. We didn’t last year because we were tired, but maybe this time around we’ll find the energy.

Enjoy some random pics from previous MK days:
Me ad Cass 18 months old (Mommy and Me trip)

Cass 3 years old (another Mommy and Me trip)

The whole family in 2018

Another one from 2018

The 4 of us in 2019

Rapunzel 2019

Me and Scott 2019

 

[Colincoach]

That sounds awesome! I will do a Trip Report when we get back and add the link to this thread!
Have you stayed at POFQ before?

Hi, yes we stayed there last year, for 1 week and then moved to Orange Lake. POFQ was fantastic, great bus service and lovely boat trip to Disney Springs, that's why we have booked again for next year.

 

[DiSnEyF@n]

Friday, August 18th: Epcot
We love love love Epcot. This will be our 2nd Epcot day, but we will spend the entire day here again! I think I said this before, but we find it way more relaxing than the other parks but still so much to see and do. Last year when we went, it rained in the afternoon (not a big surprise for us August visitors) And we found our way to a new(?) bar there. I’m not sure what it’s called but it’s next to Mexico in the Future World direction.… kind of on the way from Mexico to Test Track. They had live music and beer. Win/win Haha
We will probably wind up taking an afternoon break there. This is Dylan and Morgan’s last day with us in the parks. It’ll be nice to have them with us but know they may go off and do some things on their own. Yes, this will be their last night. They fly home on Saturday.
We do not have an ADRs for this day. We’ll do the usual: eat breakfast on the go, pack lunch and snacks and grab some dinner somewhere. I just recently read that Sunshine Season sells breakfast…. I can get into that. We might head there first to do Soarin’, Living with the Land and grab some morning grub.

 

[Bullseye1967]

I'm in!

 

[DiSnEyF@n]

I'm in!

Welcome!

 

[DiSnEyF@n]

Saturday, August 19th~ Hollywood Studios
**Dylan and Morgan fly home**

This will be our only day at HS this trip. Hubby has been wanting to do Rise of the Resistance and I will desperately try to get him into the virtual queue… if all else fails, we will buy him a genie pass thingy for it. He enjoys Stars Wars Land so much. We will definitely purchase the Genie plus for everyone today. This will ensure that we ride all the rides. We love Toy Story Land and all the rides there, too. I will personally pass on Star Tours this time around because it gives me motion sickness. Scott and the kids will go on it and I will find myself an adult beverage.
Last year when we went we spent 2 hours in the afternoon relaxing and cooling off at the Backlot Express Quick Service… while we were there we ate lunch and came across the Reuben sandwich. It was delicious!
I will of course pack snacks and whatnot, but we will prob do lunch here again or Pizzerizzo. Someplace we can sit and hang out in the AC after eating.

I was super lucky to snag ADRs at Woody’s BBQ Roundup At 4:30. Been hearing mixed reviews, but this is the only proper sit down all you can eat that we’re doing because Chelsea eats practically nothing at theses places and it turns out to be a waste of money… with that said, we will still do it to do it and enjoy the experience. I will have super low expectations of my 6 year old eating anything

We would love to see Fantasmic as we’ve never seen it before, but we may just watch the other show (the one that projects onto the Chinese Theatre) and call it a night.

Hollywood Studios fun from 2018

Up next MK with fireworks at Poly!

 

[DiSnEyF@n]

Check our shirts for our trip! Just did them yesterday! Yay!

 

[Tuvalu]

There isn’t a VQ for Rise of the Resistance anymore. It is standby or Individual Lightning Lane (which varies between $22-25).

 

[DiSnEyF@n]

There isn’t a VQ for Rise of the Resistance anymore. It is standby or Individual Lightning Lane (which varies between $22-25).

Good to know. We will prob buy it then so he can do it. Thanks for the info

 

[DiSnEyF@n]

Sunday, August 20th: Magic Kingdom

Back at it again in Magic Kingdom. Not sure exactly what we’re doin on this day, but we will be at MK at some point. We may chill in the am and then head over around 1 or 2, do some rides and then head to Polynesian’s beach to watch the MK fireworks. We’ve never been to Poly before, so that’ll be something new. Looking forward to having some snacks and drinks at Poly while waiting for the fireworks.

Maybe someone knows if the water parade will be going on too? That would be awesome to catch that as well.

 

[DiSnEyF@n]

Also worth mentioning, hubby and I went and saw the new Haunted Mansion last night and really enjoyed it! (Check out his Tommy Bahama Haunted Mansion shirt- got that last year in DL)

 

[Bullseye1967]

Sunday, August 20th: Magic Kingdom

Back at it again in Magic Kingdom. Not sure exactly what we’re doin on this day, but we will be at MK at some point. We may chill in the am and then head over around 1 or 2, do some rides and then head to Polynesian’s beach to watch the MK fireworks. We’ve never been to Poly before, so that’ll be something new. Looking forward to having some snacks and drinks at Poly while waiting for the fireworks.

Maybe someone knows if the water parade will be going on too? That would be awesome to catch that as well.

It starts at the Poly and that time of year it would go by somewhere between 8:30 and 8:45 before the fireworks at 9. Fireworks from the Poly are always great!

 

[DiSnEyF@n]

It starts at the Poly and that time of year it would go by somewhere between 8:30 and 8:45 before the fireworks at 9. Fireworks from the Poly are always great!

Superb! Thanks for the information!

 

[erstwo]

Excited to read about your trip!
I don't blame you for driving - in the last 4 weeks, I've have flights delayed or canceled for: 1- wind, 2 - pilot 'timing out', 3- lack of crew, and 4 - my favorite: baggage handlers forgot to lock the conveyor belt machine in place and got off of it to chat with someone on the ground and all of us on that side of the plane watched helplessly as the whole machine rolled right into the engine of the plane - meaning, we were canceled. You just never know these days!
Love that there are so many new things you might get to do this trip. Love your shirts! Looking forward to your report.

 

[DiSnEyF@n]

I’ve been slacking…..

Let’s see now… Where did I leave off?

Ah yes, Monday, August 21st…. So much going on.
Scott and Cassidy are going to Universal Studios and Chelsea and I are going to Epcot.
Cassidy is super excited about about going to Uni because she’s been reading all the Harry Potter books. They got a one day, both parks with express entrance to almost all the rides for $700 Very expensive, but well worth it. She’s a good kid and works very hard in school, so this is, in a way a show of our appreciation of how hard she works.

I asked Chelsea which park she wanted to do (her pick) and she chose Epcot…. My girl! I was like yep, Epcot it is…. It’s our favorite. Whoever says kids don’t like Epcot (perhaps?) aren’t doing Epcot properly… I joke… anyway….
She’s hung up on doing GotG and Soarin and Ratatouille, among all the other things. She wanted to do Bippity Boppity Boutique, but they were already out of available slots while we’re there…. I am going to surprise her with a brunch at Akershus, just the two of us and some Disney princesses. So, we have ADRs there at 11:45.

This day, my sister and her family will be flying down to start their trip. They’re going to stay with us for 2 nights and then stay at the Dolphin for the following 7 nights.
When we get home at night, they’ll be there! Very exciting.

 

[DiSnEyF@n]

With 2 sleeps to go, we’re getting packed and ready to go here, too…. Check it out….

 

[DiSnEyF@n]

Tuesday, August, 22nd is a day off from the parks… we’re going to hang out with Lisa, her husband and my nieces.
We’ll check out the different pools the hotel has to offer and relax.
Enjoy some pics of my crazy kids enjoying our pool at home…..

 

[DiSnEyF@n]

Oh dear. I didn’t get a chance to finish my pre trip report before I left. My daughter got sick prior to us leaving (like emergency room sick) so I was scrambling to get packed and get her taken care of as well. She’s fine, had an allergic reaction to something. She was fine by the time we hit the road.
I plan on doing a trip report soon and I’ll post the link!

 

[Tuvalu]

Look forward to reading all about it!