"We'll need a suitcase just for your ears!" - A July 2015 PTR *Complete*

[crmscotland]

Enjoying your PTR. Love your "ears" Good job on the magic bands practice.

 

[catmom46]

So if I'm calculating correctly, you're doing Tusker House on Sat July 18? We also have an 8am ADR there, so maybe we will meet face-to-face after all!

 

[xlsm]

So if I'm calculating correctly, you're doing Tusker House on Sat July 18? We also have an 8am ADR there, so maybe we will meet face-to-face after all!

Yes! How fun! I mentioned on Facebook that all of us July travelers should make little tags for our bags or something, to identify ourselves

 

[catmom46]

Ah, but we already know what you all look like, since you posted pics! LOL

 

[ariane37]

Really nice job on the MB's!

 

[xlsm]

Chapter Five...In which it's going to be a great big beautiful day at the Magic Kingdom!

The Wednesday of our trip, I'm going to go against the recommended park, because I will not be able to last one more second without making my way down Main Street USA!

Here's an outline of our idealized plan: **note: this was our original plan before operating hours were updated. Modifications made in later chapters**
-----------------------------------------------
8am BOG breakfast

SDMT

Buzz Lightyear

Meet Stitch

Space Mountain

Dumbo

Barnstormer

Maybe Pete’s Silly Sideshow characters

Maybe Peter Pan standby (to see new queue)

It’s a Small World

Haunted Mansion


FP Big Thunder (FP+ 10:00 - 11:00am)

FP Splash (FP+ 11:15 - 12:15pm)

FP Haunted Mansion (FP+ 12:15 - 1:15pm)



1pm Lunch at The Plaza


Monster’s Inc

Stitch’s Great Escape

Philharmagic


Maybe Festival of Fantasy


Back to resort


Back to MK


Jungle Cruise

Carousel

Tea Cups

Wishes Dessert Party

Second MSEP


Ferry to WL


Our first Magic Kingdom day of the trip!!!! When I was younger, my favorite park was Epcot. I adored everything about it. Last summer I jumped (space)ship and changed my mind to the Magic Kingdom. It really brought the magic for us in a big way, and we are all chomping at the bit to get back.


We have an 8am breakfast at Be Our Guest this day, which I didn’t get until well after my 180 day mark. It threw off my plan, and I had to make a new one...sort of. We will start off this day by hopefully getting a jumpstart on Seven Dwarfs Mine Train then our usual approach of taking Tomorrowland by storm. Buzz Lightyear and Space Mountain are always walk on first thing in the morning, and Stitch comes out for his first meet of the day, and there’s hardly any people around, so that’s where we’ll go after leaving the mine behind. We’ll take our “secret path” behind the Tomorrowland Speedway, and maybe hit up Barnstormer before or after a spin on Dumbo.


I really want to meet the characters at Pete’s silly Side Show, so now would be a good time for that, too. We’ll also see if Gaston is around to meet, because he is always super fun.

Depending on the wait time, we’ll hit up Peter Pan standby to see the new queue and then make our way to It’s a Small World.

We’ll cap off our morning with a visit to Gracey Manor, and then use Fast Passes for Big Thunder Mtn. Railroad, Splash Mountain, and the Haunted Mansion (yes, again. We love it). We'll then go pick up a 4th FP for later in the evening for the Jungle Cruise, probably around 7pm-ish.
There's a time gap between our Splash FP and our HM FP, so I imagine we'll shop, see my Country Bears, meet Chip and Dale, etc...



After this will be lunch at a new place for all of us - The Plaza. We are looking forward to it! We’ll slow it down at this point and go hang out with the gang at Monsters Inc Laugh Floor, brave Stitch’s Great Escape, then make our way back to Philharmagic. We may or may not watch the Festival of Fantasy Parade.


We’ll head out of the park for a long rest and return to MK later on for another first for us...the Wishes Dessert Party! I imagine we’ll grab something quick for dinner either at the resort or Casey’s Corner before our (hopeful) FP for Jungle Cruise, then taking a whirl on the teacups and/or the carousel. We’ll stick around after Wishes for the second Main Street Electrical parade of the evening before catching the ferry back to the Lodge.

This will be a busy, full, amazing day

Up Next...Will we be able to top the Magic Kingdom with Epcot??

 

[JMSTANLEY110]

I love the Wilderness Lodge. We have always wanted to go back but it just hasn't been in the budget. I love your plans, y'all are going to have a blast!

 

[bunnyboo]

I have a pair of Snow White/Wicked Queen/Dwarf ears from EarBowtique (also on instagram and etsy):

Why did I read this thread?! Now I'm browsing etsy trying to decide which ears to buy!
Your ears are gorgeous! I especially love your Snow White one.
I've had that happen to me before too, passing up on something and then scouring every shop for it. I'm so glad you were able to find the ears you wanted in the end!

--Day 5, Friday, Universal Studios/Islands of Adventure, L's 10th birthday!!

We will be getting up very early this day and taking a cab (or maybe uber, depending on how brave we feel) around 6am over to the Royal Pacific Resort to check in and get our express passes. No ADRs for today, but we are considering The Three Broomsticks, The Leaky Cauldron, The Simpson's area, Universal Monster's Cafe (for me), or Mythos. Who knows where we'll end up??​

You should definitely try Uber, it's very easy to use! Plus there are always codes out there for 1st time users so your first ride would likely be free.

Those MBs look GREAT!

 

[xlsm]

Happy Monday, Kids! Nine days of school left and just saw a Jurassic World commercial, so it's a good morning so far! (Also, watching Old School on TBS while I work and just noticed Simon Helberg, aka, Howard Wolowitz, as one of the frat pledges. It's the little things that delight me.)

I'm at a weird point in the planning, that lull where there's nothing really to do except watch the countdown numbers get smaller and smaller...
I did do one thing for the trip yesterday -- I bought a groupon for Characters in Flight! Weather permitting, we'll do this on DH's birthday when we venture to Downtown Disney.

And now onto...

Chapter Six...in which life is beautiful around the world...




Again, this is an idealized plan, but honestly, I think it's going to work out pretty much as written. I don't know though, we tend to get allll caught up in the World Showcase.

We plan to make this a short day, and split Epcot into a Future World day and a World Showcase day, but in reality we'll do some of each both days! This is a primarily Future World focused plan.


Thursday, Epcot

Get to the park around 9ish

Nemo

Maybe Turtle Talk

The Land

Figment

Captain EO/Movie sneak peek (or totally skip, whatever.)

FP Test Track (FP+ 9:50 - 10:50)

FP Mission Space (FP+ 10:55 - 11:55)

Ellen’s Energy Adventure


Lunch in World Showcase

Disney Visa Character Meet

Spaceship Earth (FP+ 2:35 - 3:35)

Back to the resort


Dinner ADR for just me and DH at Artist Point


Stay in for the rest of the night


Thursday will be another take it nice and easy day. We’ll get to Epcot at opening time, but not too early, we don’t care about rope drop here. We’ll head to the right for Nemo and Turtle Talk, we’ll live with the land, visit Figment and Captain EO (if it’s showing, I know they’re putting movie sneak peeks in there sometimes now.). We’ll walk to the other side to use FPs for Test Track and Mission Space before relaxing in the a/c with Ellen on her energy adventure. After Ellen, we’ll start through the World Showcase. I want to eat at Tangierine Cafe, but we also really love to snack around the world! I’d like to try to meet Aladdin and Jasmine on this day, too.

We want to leave the park by 3:30 or 4:00, so after lunch we’ll go to the Disney Visa character meet and spaceship earth before heading back to our resort.

DH and I have an early ADR for dinner at Artist Point. We’ll stay in this night and go to bed early, because we have a crazy day to follow.

---------------------------------------------

Up Next...You're a Wizard, Harry!

 

[xlsm]

Interlude...RL happenings...DAVE MATTHEWS BAND!!!

Good morning again!
I know I said that next up would be our Universal/IOA plans or whatever, but nope.

In the winter, it was announced that Dave Matthews was coming here for a show. I FREAKED OUT. I never thought I'd have him in (almost literally) my backyard, and that if I was ever so lucky to get tickets to a show, I'd have to travel to get there. So, in February, when tickets went on sale, I was glued to the computer the second sales opened. It took about 15 minutes, but I was able to get real, actual seats. Not lawn seats. Hahahaha!! I am the champion!! At least that's how it felt at the time - like winning some kind of award. Sort of akin to getting perfect ADRs and FP+ times, lol.

Gates were set to open at 6:00, show to start at 7:00. We got there right at six, and stood in the longest line imaginable to get inside. We found our seats and were super impressed with the venue. It was our first time at The Amp since it opened in its new location last summer.

Here's the setlist:

1. Take Me To Tomorrow
2. Old Dirt Hill
3. Satellite
4. Tripping Billies
5. Snow Outside
6. Gravedigger
7. Where Are You Going
8. So D**n Lucky
9. What Would You Say

-------- SET BREAK --------

10. Don’t Drink the Water
11. Belly Belly Nice
12. Black And Blue Bird
13. #41
14. So Much To Say
15. Anyone Seen The Bridge
16. Too Much
17. Mercy
18. Jimi Thing
19. Drunken Soldier +
20. Save Me +
21. You and Me +
22. Stay (Wasting Time) +

-------- ENCORE --------

23. All Along The Watchtower

they sounded amazing!! We had him on two days rest, and his voice was recording quality. I've never been so impressed with a show in my life. The musicianship was really just incredible. And they played Satellite, my favorite, right away <---This was me. It was a two set show with no opening band, alllll Dave. The first set was acoustic, and the second was electric.

Here's a few pictures:













I have a short video too...What Would You Say, the final song of the acoustic set. Just a few seconds, but it sounds good!




I think you have to click it to hear it?? I've never put a video into a post before, bear with me!

Anyway, so that was our night. It was awesome. And I'm officially TOO OLD to do anything like this on a weeknight. Don't they know I'm over 30??? Today requires much coffee.

Thanks for humoring me and my non-Disney update!!!

 

[Glittercat]

Nine days of school left and just saw a Jurassic World commercial, so it's a good morning so far!

Oh neat! You guys get out earlier than we do here, I think it is middle of June for us.

I bought a groupon for Characters in Flight! Weather permitting, we'll do this on DH's birthday when we venture to Downtown Disney.

I hope the weather cooperates and you all have a blast!

I want to eat at Tangierine Cafe, but we also really love to snack around the world!

Tangierine Cafe looks delicious, we'll be going there as well!

I was able to get real, actual seats. Not lawn seats. Hahahaha!! I am the champion!! At least that's how it felt at the time - like winning some kind of award. Sort of akin to getting perfect ADRs and FP+ times, lol.

Really lovely looking venue...That rocks and I'm glad you had fun! I felt the same way when Pete (my husband) got up at the ahem crack of dawn to secure Phantom of the Opera tickets for my daughter and I!

Anyway, so that was our night. It was awesome. And I'm officially TOO OLD to do anything like this on a weeknight. Don't they know I'm over 30??? Today requires much coffee.

As one on the cusp of 40 you're never to old for a great night out!

 

[xlsm]

53 days away from vacation!!!

I'm a little excited I guess.
I've been checking off and on for a Crystal Palace breakfast reservation for our last MK day ever since I decided to cancel the one for our departure day. I want one as early as possible, and the earliest I could find was always 8:25. I knew that wouldn't work for us, we wanted an earlier time. But, karma smiled or something, and this morning I found an 8:10am reservation for that day and snatched it up!! Persistence pays off, as most of us know by now

We also paid off Universal today, which was the last thing we had left to do. We were set up for autopay to happen near the first of June, but my husband called and paid it this morning so we just wouldn't have to think about it anymore.
Now, all we have to do is show up at the airport in a few weeks and relax!!

I guess that was a timely thing, since this update is about our plans for Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure.


These parks are completely new to us, none of us have been before. Honestly, the only real draw for us is Harry Potter world. Not that the other stuff isn't cool, but I don't think we'd ever make a special trip here if the HP stuff wasn't there. So, as you will notice, that's going to be our priority for this very special day...


Chapter Seven...in which both my kids will be in double digits.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Friday, Universal and Islands of Adventure - L’s 10th bday
Take a cab or uber to Royal Pacific
Check in, get our Express Pass, leave our bags, head to Universal Studios
Tour Diagon Alley
Hogwart’s Express to Islands of Adventure
Tour Hogsmeade
Poseidon’s Fury
Jurassic Park Discovery Center
Jurassic Park River Adventure
Walk through, do what looks interesting

Back to Hogsmeade, Hogwarts Express back to Diagon Alley

Simpson’s stuff
ET
Revenge of the Mummy
Beetlejuice
Whatever else catches our eye.

Depending on time/desire/exhaustion level, either return to WL or stay in our room at Royal Pacific.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Today will be L’s 10th birthday, and we are spending it at Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure. We’ll be getting up really early this day and either taking a cab or using uber to get us over to the Royal Pacific Resort. (Thanks to a PP who told us about special deals for first time Uber users...if we don't use it to GET to Universal, we'll probably use it on the way back to Disney!) We’ll check in, get our Express passes, leave our overnight bags, and hopefully be within our early entry window for whichever park is open early (although I've heard that in the summer sometimes BOTH parks open early?? I really need to do some more research in the next couple of weeks. This plan is based off of Universal Studios having early entry)


We know we will miss a lot this day, but we are primarily there for Harry Potter. We will begin in Diagon Alley, then take the Hogwarts Express to Hogsmeade. After we finish up there, our other must do for Islands of Adventure is the Jurassic Park area and Poseidon’s Fury (L is obsessed with mythology). We will do a loop to see the park and use our Express Pass for anything that strikes our fancy.

After our must do attractions at IoA, we’ll head back to Hogsmeade, hop on the Hogwarts Express again, and go back to Universal Studios.


Our must dos here include a visit to the Simpson’s Springfield, the kids torturing me with ET, and Revenge of the Mummy. I would like to see Beetlejuice’s Graveyard Review, the Horror Effects makeup show, and at least peek inside the Universal Studios Classic Monster Cafe.


There’s so much here I want to look at, and I know we’ll do more rides here. I would like to ride Rip Ride Rockit and maybe the Hulk, but I know I’ll end up doing those by myself.


I'm really curious how this day will end up!! I've been drilling it into everyone's heads that we will have to miss a LOT. L and I are incredibly excited to see Diagon Alley and Hogsmeade. He has asked for a robe and a wand (even though he already has one he got for Christmas a few years ago) and butterbeer for his birthday. I think we can handle that!!

Thanks for sticking around!!

Next up...

Breakfast with Donald, Frozen chai, and give me my darn samosas already!!!

 

[wehrengrizz]

I've only just read your first page describing your family and it's AWESOME I've not yet read any planning reports, etc. so now I'm really double excited to dive in! Your boys sound like our oldest two, so that hit home. I stay home with our crew too, our oldest is just doing Webelos 1 this coming fall, and will turn 10 (during our surprise trip right after Thanksgiving, if all works out!!) this fall. We have a soon-to-be first grade boy who is going to be a tiger cub, too....followed by a 4 yr old little Minnie Mouse (and really, all things Disney like me!) loving girl, a 2 yr old boy who adores Cars and Mickey Mouse, and a ?? on the way, will be about 4 mo during our trip. Yeah, I think we're certifiable, too, but it's DISNEY! Plus, my mom is coming, she's "been wanting to go since WDW opened" and it's a dream trip for her, even though she just wants to ride a couple rides and then watch "the babies while we play". SOLD.
Thanks for posting and I'm so excited to follow along!

 

[xlsm]

I've only just read your first page describing your family and it's AWESOME I've not yet read any planning reports, etc. so now I'm really double excited to dive in! Your boys sound like our oldest two, so that hit home. I stay home with our crew too, our oldest is just doing Webelos 1 this coming fall, and will turn 10 (during our surprise trip right after Thanksgiving, if all works out!!) this fall. We have a soon-to-be first grade boy who is going to be a tiger cub, too....followed by a 4 yr old little Minnie Mouse (and really, all things Disney like me!) loving girl, a 2 yr old boy who adores Cars and Mickey Mouse, and a ?? on the way, will be about 4 mo during our trip. Yeah, I think we're certifiable, too, but it's DISNEY! Plus, my mom is coming, she's "been wanting to go since WDW opened" and it's a dream trip for her, even though she just wants to ride a couple rides and then watch "the babies while we play". SOLD.
Thanks for posting and I'm so excited to follow along!

Hello and thanks for following along!!

It's so nice that your mom will be there to help you! I think that will be a huge advantage, and everyone will be able to do what they like with an extra grown up around.

Congratulations on your upcoming ?? (lol).

And a way early happy birthday to your upcoming 10 year old! You can tell him they lit up the castle just for him

 

[Newsies]

How did it take me so long to find this?

Joining in!!! Can't wait to hear more about your adventures!!!

 

[xlsm]

Hi everyone

I hope you all had a great holiday weekend!! This is the last week of school here and it's packed with activities. I'm so ready for next Monday when I don't have to be ANYWHERE. A whole lotta nothing will get done that day!!

Anyway, just popping in to say a new installment is coming up in a couple days...with pictures of my new ears!! My Vera Bradley pattern ears came in Friday and they. are. gorgeous.

See ya real soon!!

 

[cheekypoppins]

your title is what brought me here because I thought maybe you make your own ears like me but ,buying them is always good too I am actually working on a pair of stretching room ears too but I did the hm purple wall paper ones yesterday for my upcoming September trip

 

[kaylasmom07]

Really enjoying your trip report! Your magic bands look awesome. I wish I were as talented. I just realized that we will be at EPOCT the same day that Thursday, but our plan is to get there around 3:30-4:00 right when you are leaving. Maybe we will see each other in passing!
Your Universal plans look great. It makes me wish we were going back to Universal this year. The first time I went to Universal it was just for the Harry Potter stuff, but I fell in love with it. The Unlimited express was amazing, as well as being able to walk from Royal Pacific to either park. The Despicable me ride, Mummy, Simpsons ride, and Transformers are all such amazing rides... you might find that you really like the rest of Universal more than you thought you would. It has a different vibe than Disney no doubt, but there is a ton to offer. Citywalk is really great too with lots of good restaurants.

 

[LizardQueen8]

Chapter Two, in which I explain the title of the PTR...
So there you have it. Now you know my dirty little secret. I'm an Ear-o-holic. There are worse things in life to be, I guess.

Another Ear-o-holic joining the party here. At some point I plan on discussing my ears on my own PTR. Looking forward to hearing about your trip! My upcoming trip (okay, it's a year away, but still) will be my first experience with FP+, so I'm hoping to pick up a few tips! Also I really need to get a couple of Parkbound buttons. Like, REALLY.

 

[xlsm]

Another Ear-o-holic joining the party here. At some point I plan on discussing my ears on my own PTR. Looking forward to hearing about your trip! My upcoming trip (okay, it's a year away, but still) will be my first experience with FP+, so I'm hoping to pick up a few tips! Also I really need to get a couple of Parkbound buttons. Like, REALLY.

FP+ is pretty simple to figure out, I promise! I never understand the hubub on the boards about them being hard to do. Now, I'm not saying certain times of year aren't more challenging, but for August and July we've never had an issue getting what we want beforehand, and getting more once we're there, so no worries!! As for Parkbound, she's done with Etsy now and has her own website, just fyi