A Magical 50th birthday celebration at WDW (and some bonus trips too...6/13 Update)

[kittylady1972]

Greetings one and all!

I've been taking a break from the WDW Parks for now, as much as it pains me to say, but no worries we plan to be back as scheduled in 2022 for the big Magic Kingdom/WDW 50th Birthday celebration! This has always been my plan, as I was lucky enough to spend my 25th birthday at the Magic Kingdom and yes I have photos with the birthday cake castle to prove it! I definitely want to spend time at my favorite place for my 50th birthday coming up in March of 2022!

As of right now, we don't have any solid plans in place, as crazy as that sounds. I can see that the dates we are considering are already not available at most of the DVC properties and at Shades of Green which would be our backup place. We'll keep looking though as I can't officially book with my DVC membership until December 1st...so about 5 weeks away. If I need to put in a waitlist at that time, so be it.

In the meantime, we are considering at least one or two more trips to Florida before the end of this year to use what is left of our remaining days of our USF annual pass. I've never spent a lot of time at US/IOA during the Christmas season, though we've done numerous trips to WDW usually during Thanksgiving week. So that is what we are thinking about and we'll see what happens.

In the meantime, as I put things in place for my upcoming birthday celebration I'll post updates here.

 

[Bama Mom]

I would love to spend my birthday in Disney one day. Especially since my birthday is during a slower time (mid September) but the timing never works out.

 

[kittylady1972]

So quick trip update...nope not for March! Just booked flights tonight for a quick Florida trip in December. Seems like a no brainer when you can pay $78 for 2 RT tickets to Florida.

We even have some friends joining us. Should be fun.

 

[kittylady1972]

December Trip Update:

So right now the only thing we have confirmed are the flights (leaving on a Thursday evening, coming home Saturday evening) and our rental carS...yes two because just in case another few people decide to join us I have a minivan and a regular car. It's looking likely that it will just be the four of us though. We will travel with my oldest and dearest friend (we've known each since before birth...yes really) and her husband.

Our only plans are to visit the Universal Parks on Friday and Saturday. We won't have Express Passes so we'll just do what we can in the regular lines. We've been enough this year that we don't have a need to do it all. This trip should be somewhat laid back overall.

Resort and/or hotel decision has yet to be made. We were thinking a Universal Resort but honestly...there's no real NEED to stay there since we have a car and we can stay at a nearby place just as easily. That's likely what will happen. I did see Shades of Green opening up...sorta...for our nights so I may continue to stalk that. We really love the atmosphere of Shades and it would give me a small Disney fix.

LIFE UPDATE:

So this 4-day work week has been nice, especially since I was out all last week at home for a class for work. Stayed up way to late to watch my RAVENS totally TANK so that was no fun. Weather here in Maryland has been mild and in the 60s and 70s all week, which is crazy for November but I'll take it. I'm sure by the time we make our Florida escape in December it will be cold again. For now I'm enjoying some more outdoor tennis time at least.

My daughter comes home NEXT weekend for her Thanksgiving break, so looking forward to some girl time and possibly knocking out some holiday shopping with her while she's here.

Other than that, life goal right now includes seeking out a new position doing something completely different here at work. I have an interview next week for one job I applied to, have had conversations with people at another job and I'll apply for that one this week too. It's just time for me to move on and find something new though I know I'm going to hate leaving in some ways.

 

[princessbelle2015]

Good luck with your new job search!! Have fun with your daughter when she comes for Thanksgiving break!

 

[kittylady1972]

December Update

Are you really shocked that I am already working on changes for our DECEMBER trip? I mean...it's me right?

This morning DH and I were discussing annual passes. I hate that the ones we plan to buy have blackout dates of Thanksgiving but I can deal with that since we have the option of making other trips now. We'll have 3 kids in college next fall so gathering at home for Thanksgiving just seems right.

ANYWAY...in the process of just looking up all kinds of stuff I was on the Disney Vacation Club (DVC) site and saw that the Members Annual meeting is actually the day we had planned to arrive, only we were coming in that evening. So I thought it would be cool to attend one of these meetings...and we decided to move the trip up. I suggested flying out that morning instead, but DH decided the day before would work better. Of course, DH will be on travel for work earlier that week and flying in Wednesday morning...then we'll turn around and jump on a plane that day back out. So I've changed our rental car so far, and changed our hotel dates, and the last thing will be the flights which we'll likely go to the airport to update because it is cheaper to do it there.

And that's the story of how my quick 2 night trip to Florida turned into a 3 night trip. Stay tuned for more!

 

[kittylady1972]

So just made a quick trip to the airport...changed my flights to an earlier outbound...now have a $10 credit on my Spirit account. For the record the cost of the RT flights for 2 of us (no seats, no bags) has now cost me about $68...TOTAL not each. Crazy. Funny thing is trying to make that change online it was giving me a new amount due of about $160. Yet go to the airport...and I have a $10 credit. I cannot figure this airline out but as long as the flights continue to be this cheap...I anticipate getting a lot of use out of my Disney annual pass next year!

Can't believe I'll be back in Florida in 24 days! Since it will get into the 30s tonight here and we just fired up our gas fireplace today to try it out I'm sure by then I'll be ready for sunshine and warm temps again.

 

[kittylady1972]

December Quick Trip Plans:
Wed - Work in the morning, home around 12:30pm, wait for DH to call as he'll be arriving on another flight. Pick him up at airport, he'll change out bags, and we'll park and catch airport shuttle back to airport for our 4pm flight. Arrive at MCO, get rental car, head to Disney Springs where we have dinner at Morimoto. Check in at hotel afterwards.

Thu - Maybe spend the morning at the Universal parks for fun, done around 12pm or so, grab lunch somewhere. Head over to Contemporary around 1:30pm for the DVC Member Meeting there. Afterwards maybe food/drinks at a monorail resort and back to hotel near Universal. Around 8pm we'll head to airport to pick up our friends who arrive that night.

Fri - Spend the day at the Universal Parks. Dinner maybe at Toledo?

Sat - Another day at Universal Parks. Depart around 5pm or so for the airport and catch flight back home that evening.

 

[kittylady1972]

Can I just say how difficult it is for me NOT to try to squeeze in a Disney park for this upcoming trip? It really makes no sense to spend money on tickets again this year since I KNOW we will be coming back in March with annual passes so I should be able to wait four months. After all we visited Florida in September and managed to stick to just the Universal parks and some Disney restaurants. My last Disney park visit was in July when we managed to hit 3 of 4 parks in just one day. I'm pretty sure if I mentioned it DH could probably be swayed to do a Disney park this trip. Yet there are other things we could do instead. TALK me off the DISNEY PARK TICKET BUYING LEDGE people!

Anyway all that really matters is that in TWENTY ONE days I'll be back in Florida.

 

[kittylady1972]

So my girl is home for Thanksgiving Break...and I'm so glad to have her here. She will be going back a week from today, but at least she will be home for Winter Break only a few weeks later.

We keep debating what we'll do for Christmas but Thanksgiving will just be the five of us and my FIL...so 6 people with turkey for 25 people. Good times.

I am close to having my holiday shopping done I think...which is good.

I have rebooked my rental car for our trip early next month and saved a little more money.

Today I just booked my airfare for our trip in March. We also just bough gift cards to purchase our Disney Annual Passes for that trip.

Of course you know where I'm going with this next right? Yep...they have suspended the sales of annual passes for now.

Hopefully this is just a holiday thing and they will resume after the new year sometime. Otherwise...well I guess we'll just hang on to those gift cards until we can buy passes.

I couldn't believe when I read that last night. UGH.

So that's it from here.

 

[kittylady1972]

So despite the fact that I can't buy annual passes...I've already got the makings of two trips booked for 2022 to Walt Disney World and another trip to NC/SC in January. Plus in just TEN days I'll be in Florida again!

Today is a bit of a melancholy day for me. This would be my mom's 75th birthday but instead it is the 5th year that she is celebrating her birthday in heaven. Back in 2016, this is the final vacation she ever took...she joined us in Walt Disney World for Thanksgiving week. She wasn't able to make it through the entire trip, and really the only park she visited was Magic Kingdom where we had this meal at Crystal Palace. She was experiencing a lot of problems with her eyes, she would return back home to NC and soon would receive news that the breast and then lung cancer she has been battling for about 10 years had now spread...to her brain. By December she was working on getting it treated, by January they told my dad that things were just progressing in other areas and he should initiate hospice care, and by early February I drove 7+ hours one day straight from work to be by her bedside where I was able to talk to her for a little bit. The next morning I woke up and we all gathered at her bedside to watch her take her last breaths. Those memories are still painful even though I am glad she is no longer suffering here on earth.

So images like this one make a sad and happy all at once. She took me on my very first Walt Disney World trip...and I was there for her very last trip.


Today we will celebrate her life and my daughter made a birthday cake in her honor:



So we'll watch some football tonight, hopefully see our Ravens win like my daughter's school WVU won their football game last night:


In the meantime I've knocked out a good portion of my holiday shopping already, a lot of it online but some in person. My daughter has one last night here with us before she returns to college but we'll see her again in a few weeks.

As for our December trip, since it's just Universal Parks we have decided to spend one night out of our 3 nights at Royal Pacific Resort so that we get two full days of Express Passes. Considering we only have two park days, we thought it would be nice to skip any lines that might be there, especially given this trip is during Pop Warner week. We'll still have our first two nights at an offisite hotel near Universal though. As much as I'd like to stay on a Disney property, we will still have the chance to visit and of course we will since we have the DVC Owner's meeting on Thursday. I'm still not sure what we'll do during the day on Thursday before/after the meeting though.

In 2022, the birthday trip so far I have booked our flights out on March 9th only. I know for sure we'll spend at least a few days doing the Disney parks during that time, but then we may just get on a cruise for a few nights as there is a 5 night Disney cruise with 2 Castaway Cay stops that sounds perfect. Since we don't have that all decided, but the points values for our outbound flights were pretty low, we've just booked that flight for now.

Then just because I could do so I've also booked a few nights at the Polynesian Resort in June. So two Disney trips partially booked for 2022 and one more Florida trip to Universal for this year are on the books!

 

[kittylady1972]

Cyber Monday deals were supposed to be pretty good for travel...but I can confirm that as far as rental cars or hotels go I checked into several dates for my upcoming trips and they were all more expensive. So nothing changed for me so far for my upcoming travel, the first of which begins in just over a week.

Part of me is tempted to switch to a Disney area resort for our first night there...and then I look at the current rates for those resorts and I change my mind. Their single night rate is more than I'm paying for 2 nights at a chain resort outside of Disney property...that includes free breakfast. I simply have to try to keep the budget on this trip as low as possible right now.

I'll still likely stalk the hotels and rent cars for at least another week just in case they do drop but it's not looking likely.

In the meantime, work is keeping me crazy busy while I am also in the process of looking for a new job so lots happening right now. This little 3-night trip next week is going to be a nice welcome escape before the holiday festivities really kick in here.

 

[kittylady1972]

I guess I should start updating this PTR as well...but I've been doing recent updates for this March trip in the "We're Off to see some Wizards...." thread instead.

Basically as of now:
FLIGHTS: All booked
RENTAL CAR: Also booked...we have a mid size and a minivan and SUV all booked in case my oldest son decides to join us as that would make us 6 people total. I'm not sure when he will decide though.
HOTEL: Booked. DH and I have the first 4 nights booked at Boardwalk, then the family flies in on Saturday and we will all move to Shades of Green which I successfully booked Sat -Fri last week.
MEALS: Yes I do have several ADRs booked but I know I'll change a lot of them as I narrow down my park visits for our time
TICKETS: UGH...not yet as we await APs. I could buy the tickets for the kids and my FIL I guess...but we haven't done so yet. This is making me a bit nervous since we'll need valid tickets to book our park passes and I don't know when that will happen. I guess worst case we end up park hopping every day to visit parks that we might not get in the morning. At least with our SOG stay we get the Extra Evening Hours advantage for some parks.

 

[kittylady1972]

So its' been a while...seems like life has just been a bit crazy. Weather here has been just as crazy. Yet I have an update for my upcoming birthday trip in just over a month.

Today while sitting at lunch we decided to go ahead and ADD a day to our trip. So now instead of arriving the day AFTER my birthday we will arrive ON my birthday...March 8th!

I figure the week is going to be a full celebration for me as it is so no need to really be at home on my actual birthday...when I know I will want to be in the sunshine.

So we made the leap and modified our flights while at lunch. I've booked a night at Bay Lake Tower for now and I've waitlisted the additional night at Boardwalk so we don't have to change rooms until the end of the week. We'll see what happens.

I have some thoughts about some things we would like to do while there and I have WAY too many ADRs booked right now as I work out what we want to do while there. So. Many. Decisions.

When will Disney release APs again? That would really make me happy right now.

 

[luvpoohandcompany]

Don't know how I missed this TR of yours but I'm here now. So sorry for your loss of your mum. Beautiful photo of her looking so happy at Crystal Palace. No doubt bittersweet but also a much cherished memory. Love that your daughter made a cake for her birthday
So excited you get to spend your birthday in wdw. Crossing my fingers that a room opens up for you at BWI so you don't have to change and with luck you'll be able to get that annual pass too ☘

 

[kittylady1972]

Don't know how I missed this TR of yours but I'm here now. So sorry for your loss of your mum. Beautiful photo of her looking so happy at Crystal Palace. No doubt bittersweet but also a much cherished memory. Love that your daughter made a cake for her birthday
So excited you get to spend your birthday in wdw. Crossing my fingers that a room opens up for you at BWI so you don't have to change and with luck you'll be able to get that annual pass too ☘

Thank you for the sweet words about my mom. This month was 5 years since we lost her. I still miss her so much.

 

[luvpoohandcompany]

Thank you for the sweet words about my mom. This month was 5 years since we lost her. I still miss her so much.

My own mum died almost 3 years ago now and while I wouldn’t wish her back to suffer any more with Alzheimers I miss her laugh more than anything. We still talk about her and laugh at the stories she’d tell both pre and post dementia so when I saw that your daughter made a cake for your mom’s birthday it resonated with me. Such a lovely way to honour your mom. I think it’sa sign of how great a lady she was that you love and miss her and I’m sure she’d be delighted with her cake

 

[kittylady1972]

So I thought I had already updated this trip report....but looks like I did not. Here is the latest.

I managed to snag a Boardwalk Studio Boardwalk View last week...so I switched out my first night at Bay Lake Tower. This way at least our entire first week of DVC would be at Boardwalk. I had a Garden View Studio waitlisted but one day I logged on and checked (as I do pretty much daily) and there was a Garden View Studio room available...so I booked it. Now I am hoping it won't be an issue to check in for our first night at Boardwalk Garden View and then the remaining few nights at Boardwalk Garden View. I also gave up on hoping for getting us into a DVC resort for the following week, we'll just stay at Shades of Green as planned. So I cancelled my Sat night at Boardwalk as that's when we'll move to Shades.

Then...this week they made the announcement that DVC is bringing back Moonlight Magic events. I've been to two of these in the past...one MK and one at Typhoon Lagoon and they were so fun. They are now much harder to book though, and this time the first two dates are in March at EPCOT. Of course one falls on the week we'll be there...but the likelihood of us getting it is very slim because first priority goes to those with Disney Reservations as they get an earlier date to book. We aren't in a true Disney resort for that time since we'll be at SOG.

I haven't given up total hope though because we happen to have plans for two other Disney trips...in June and July right now...and the July one we are booked during the Animal Kingdom Moonlight Magic event. Those won't book until later though, but now I'm thinking we may have to go if we get into the event in July.

I'm also still working on an early June trip for my youngest son as his graduation gift. He only wants to stay at Bay Lake Tower but for now I have only managed to book the first night at BLT and I'm waitlisted for the remaining nights. We have SOG as a backup booked for that trip.

PLUS since I waited so late to cancel my last night for the March trip right now I have DVC Holding Points. That means I can only book a reservation 60 days in advance. So I"ll have to find a time to use those points too.

AND I really want to go back in September or October and maybe December so I really REALLY need them so start selling APs again. Now that they have raised ticket prices and are easing restrictions again it just seems like it should happen soon.

I'm a bit nervous we don't have any park reservations for March yet, but I have a ton of ADRs depending on the parks we ARE able to book. I think I'm going to do my birthday meal at Coral Reef since I've like that in the past especially their shrimp and grits.

I think I've got the rental car about as low as possible unless I want to book a non-refundable pay ahead reservation. I may do that closer to the actual date.

Part of me is also considering a day at Sea World, especially if we can't get annual passes for Disney. Maybe my first few days will just be at the Disney resort and doing other stuff. I don't know...I hate all the bad stuff I'm ready about the parks right now. Of course my neighbors just went recently and had a great time so I don't know.

Well that's about it for now. We are just over two weeks away from this trip. Don't think I'm gonna be able to drop even the 10 more pounds I wanted to lose before the trip.

 

[luvpoohandcompany]

I'm looking forward to hearing all about your trip and crossing my fingers it will be wonderful for you all

 

[kittylady1972]

So this has been a busy week for me, but as usual I continue to stalk the DVC sites (no rooms for our week) and the MDE site...where I found out park reservations were sold out for a few parks during our second week. So I had to modify some of our dining reservations...and then I had to buy my park tickets today.

I chose to not buy hoppers for now, but I'll likely upgrade while there. Just in case I ended up making all our park reservations making sure if I had an ADR in a park that we were going to that park.

The new ticket by the way...have the 50th anniversary statues on them...they are so cute.

So I keep thinking about this trip and I really don't need to eat all the FOODS while there so I need to really think about my dining reservations.

I'm still hopeful that annual passes will go on sale but it's not likely.

Oh and I'm so excited now about our upcoming June trip as Guardians of the Galaxy will be open and if we have to wait hours for it...I'm pretty sure we'll do just that.

If not, then there is always July...so we may have to buy a 1 day park ticket for that trip now.

We are so close now to this trip...can't wait!