Home again, home again... (June 2023) 5/18 Update- 21 days to go!

[ccahpp25]

Hello! I am planning again; this is my fifth trip, my son's third trip, and my wife's first (!!!) trip. I'm stoked about this trip as it will be my son's first trip where he is a) not an infant and b) not restricted by COVID protocols (I take him every other year, so his first trip was in 2019 at 1 year old, and second trip was 2021 at 3 years old). I am Abigail, 25 years old and Disney World is my favorite place. One of my earliest memories is climbing on the gigantic spider web in the Honey, I Shrunk the Kids playground with my dad when I was three years old and I am thrilled with the fact that I can give my son those types of memories too. My wife is Abby, 27 (yes, yes, I know, we've heard all the jokes about having the same name, also fun tip, when booking a trip with someone who has the same first and last name as you, you do have to call Disney and inform them that you are NOT booking the hotel and ticket package for the same person twice, but two people with the same name), and Tiny Human is five. We weren't 100% sure we would pull this years trip off as we decided to move back to my home state last year and buy a house, but thanks to our lovely flexible employers, we were able to go remote with our jobs and everything fell into place shockingly smoothly to make this years trip financially feasible. Our other children include five cats (plus a bonus foster cat, thanks to the recent tornados that have left the local animal rescues scrambling to house all of the poor displaced babies), a betta, and a bearded dragon, all of whom will be happily staying at home with the boy who exists to house-sit for me (my long-suffering little brother- what else are siblings for?). I am one of those people who refuses to pay for flights for anything other than international travel (seriously, those prices have become outrageous lately), so we will be making the ~1000 mile drive, leaving home on Friday morning for our Saturday check-in, then making the ~1000 mile drive back home as a fun roadtrip with some pit stops along the way.

We'll be at the Art of Animation from June 10-17, which is the only hotel Tiny Human will allow us to stay at for the time being. Our ADR window opened last week, and we were able to score everything we wanted; Crystal Palace breakfast for our first park day, 'Ohana breakfast on our resort/Disney Springs day, Garden Grill lunch (Chip and Dale are a favorite in this household), Tusker House dinner, an afternoon booking for Beaches and Cream (another family favorite), and a very first visit to the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique for Tiny Human. I'm desperately hoping that this year, Tiny Human's favorite "ride" will be anything other than the skyliner (which he still talks about every single time someone mentions Disney World).

This is a first wedding anniversary trip for myself and my wife. We're doing one day at each park, except for Magic Kingdom which we have plans for two days, and one day free as a resort/Disney Springs day. We don't plan to use Genie+, but I do get a DAS pass for Tiny Human as he has autism and severe ADHD which ruins waiting in line for him, me, and literally everyone within earshot of him, so I will be trying my hand at the online pre-registration for that for the first time, but based on some horror stories, I'm fully prepared to need to go the guest services route, which is what I did for our 2021 trip. I'm almost done with our shirts, it's cliché, but I love nothing more than making matching family shirts and when you have a child with elopement issues, it's so easy to just be able to tell people to look for a child in a shirt that matches my own. So, matching family shirts it is, because any excuse to use my vinyl cutter is a good excuse for me

So here we go! 52 days and counting until I'm back at my favorite place

 

[DLo]

Following along. Looking forward to reading more .

 

[diser_fam]

Following along. We will be there the same week. Can't wait!

 

[ccahpp25]

Sorting Out Plans​

Been making some final dining reservations and sorting out our plans this weekend. So what we've got going on right now:

Friday, June 9- leaving home. It's a 13 hour drive, and we'll trade off driving through the night because that's just how we prefer to travel.

Saturday, June 10- arrival day. Plan to check in and drop off luggage at the resort because we'll be there pretty early. I don't expect the room to be ready. I have promised to take my wife to World of Disney at Disney Springs, and I want to go to the lego store. I will definitely be making a Target/Walmart run for groceries and the like and I'll leave the Tiny Human and wife at the resort for some pool time.

Sunday, June 11- MK park reservation, 8:05 am breakfast reservation at Crystal Palace. We have two days with MK reservations, so I plan to keep this first day low-key and let my wife really revel in her first trip. We'll focus on shows, character meet-up's, and rides with low wait times.

Monday, June 12- EPCOT park reservation, lunch reservation at Garden Grill. Wife is super excited about the flower and garden topiaries, Tiny Human loves the Frozen ride and meet-and-greet with Anna and Elsa here.

Tuesday, June 13- AK park reservation, dinner reservation at Tusker House (we may cancel this). Kilimanjaro Safaris! Pandora! Am I brave enough to sit through "It's Tough to Be A Bug," just so that my wife can endure the source of collective childhood trauma many of us still fear? (Seriously, does anyone actually ENJOY this???)

Wednesday, June 14- free day, 7:30 am breakfast reservation at 'Ohana, 2:30 pm reservation at Beaches and Cream. We will likely resort hop a little, I enjoy exploring all of the resort shops. We'll probably enjoy pool time at all of the AoA pools because Tiny Human can't pick a favorite. We may wander around Disney Springs a bit. Who knows where the day will take us?

Thursday, June 15- DHS park reservation, lunch reservation at Roundup Rodeo. We don't spend a lot of time in Galaxy's Edge just yet. I love me some Star Wars, but Tiny Human doesn't enjoy it yet and I don't love Star Wars enough to risk the meltdown when he decides he's done waiting around on the grownups. We do, however, spend a lot of time in Toy Story land and we also enjoy the Frozen sing-along here (honestly, I think I love this just as much as Tiny Human does, it's actually so much more fun than I thought it would be!). We will also probably ride the "Mickey and Minnie Train" ride a few times, as it is Tiny Human's favorite ride in all of WDW- second only to the skyliner.

Friday, June 16- MK park reservation, 9:30 am BBB reservation. We'll go a little harder on our second day in MK. We plan to rope drop and we'll make it a point to hit all the rides we want this day. If it seems necessary, we'll splurge on Genie+, but we're hoping to make it through the whole trip with just DAS and standby lines.

So those are the preliminary plans! I've finalized the designs I plan to put on our shirts, so I'll share finished products within a couple weeks. 47 days to go!

 

[ccahpp25]

21 days! DAS pre-registration was last week, so we did our pre-selections and finalized our dining reservations around those. We've ended up with the following:
6/11: MK, Crystal Palace breakfast res; Pirates of the Caribbean and Haunted Mansion DAS
6/12: EPCOT, Garden Grill lunch res; Seas w/ Nemo and Soarin' DAS
6/13: AK, plan to do lunch at Satu'li Canteen; Kilimanjaro Safaris and Na'vi River Journey DAS
6/14: free day, 'Ohana breakfast res, Beaches & Cream lunch res
6/15: HS, Roundup Rodeo lunch res; Toy Story Mania and Slinky Dog Dash DAS
6/16: MK, plan to do lunch at Pecos Bill; Jungle Cruise and Buzz Lightyear DAS

I've been working on Tiny Human's road trip treasure chest. The drive is 13+ hours one way, so road trips without plenty of entertainment for an easily-bored 5 y/o would be miserable for all of us. For those with littles who are interested in long-distance drive solutions, this is what I did: lidded storage tub (useful for holding everything in the car and keeping it together in the resort room!) with Mirabel costume, Elsa doll, Disney princess chapsticks, "Lightyear" Zurg action figure, two Spiderman water bottles, and "Frozen" wet brush (all bought on sale at Target over the past few weeks); Spiderman beach towel and Disney princess ears set from Sam's Club; a lapdesk and a pack of Crayola pipsqueak markers from Michaels; 101 Dalmations blanket, and a folder full of Disney movie coloring and activity sheets that I printed. I have a portable DVD player and a Buzz Lightyear backpack coming from Amazon to add to this box, and I'll be going by the dollar store this week to pick up some coloring books. Things that we already own that will be packed in this box will be his Elsa costume, noise-cancelling headphones for parks, bluetooth headphones for the car, neck pillow for car naps, his nintendo switch lite, and we'll make a trip to the library the day before we leave to pick out a selection of books for the ride. (If I can figure out how to add a picture of this box, I will do so when I finish it this weekend).

It's awfully convenient that all of the Disney100 merch is coming out as we're prepping for this trip, because I'll be going to Target tomorrow to stock up on all of the Disney themed snacks for our trip Try as I might, I cannot resist, but I feel justified knowing that Disney snacks from Target will be way cheaper than Disney snacks from Disney.