A Very Mousy Memorial Day! PTR Updated 5/26

[mansionterror]

Welcome to my PTR for our annual trip to WDW. I have written a couple trip reports in the past but never really attempted a PTR so bear with me.

We are headed to Florida on May 30th with a 1 day stop in Cocoa Beach before heading over to see Mickey for 5 nights. Originally we were going to be staying at Pop Century for 7 nghts w/ hopper passes but things changed several times over the past couple of weeks but I will get to that in a few.

First up the cast:

This is me, your writer, Melissa or Mel for short. I have being going to Disney since I was just a little girl, my first trip being at 3 years old. I talk my DH into 1 trip a year to Disney but more recently have talked him into a 2nd shorter trip for the family or at least some of the family. I am stubborn and have a lovely IRISH temper. I love to read and a die-hard fan of the show LOST.

This is my DH, James (along w/ DS and Pluto). He went to Disney once as a child and didn't get to spend much time there. His trips really picked up once he and I married so he has been many times in his adult years. He loves NASCAR, anything having to do with boats and just being outside. He also loves the beach. He is not a big Disney fan but accomodates my love for it and willingly goes on the annual trips.

This is our DS Colby, he is one lucky kid because he has been to Disney 6 times since he was 2 years old. He loves all things Disney and really wishes he could live there. He is a very active child, loves to be outside and ride his bike which he just learned how to do.

So there is the cast, I hope you will stick around with us as we prepare for our next adventure in WDW. Up next more info about the trip and where we are staying.

 

[apirateslife4us!]

Fun! I'm in

 

[mansionterror]

Fun! I'm in

Yeah a reader! I will add more later today (on my lunch break).

I see that others have viewed so it looks like a few more people may join in.

 

[apirateslife4us!]

Awesome, I look forward to it!

 

[mansionterror]

So normally our family stays at Pop Century Resort, have stayed their every trip since 2007 when we started staying onsite.

We booked Pop with the gift card promo so we would have a $300 gift card to use on our trip.

As I said before we made a couple of changes along the way. First we downgraded our tickets to base 5 day tickets because we had hoppers last year and never hopped a single day. Next we changed our days a bit when we decided to head down on Sunday instead of Saturday and stay at the beach for one night.

Then it happened, I got the elusive pin email...this one offered a free upgrade to our choice of Saratoga Springs or Old Key West. After much conversation here on the Dis about this pin and what is expected I decided to go ahead and switch.

So much to my excitement we were upgraded to a 1 bedroom villa at Old Key West for May 31 - June 5 and we were able to keep our gift card, bonus!! We are very excited and cannot wait to experience a new resort at WDW!!

Up next our schedule and plans for the week and what we look forward to (trying new things, and trying things over again).

I hope any others that may be lurking decide to pop in and say hello!

 

[apirateslife4us!]

Wow I'm so jealous!!! How wonderful that you got a rockin' free upgrade!

We stayed at the Pop for our first trip (three years ago) and we are staying there this time too

 

[mansionterror]

Sorry that I have neglected for a few days...I was sick Friday and most of the weekend with some sinus thing. Will be back later today with an update.

 

[mansionterror]

So after looking at hours for the week and factoring in EMHs here is what our schedule looks like for the week. You will have to keep in mind that we are not a rope drop kind of family...we have to get up super early normally due to work schedules so we like to get some sleep in time on vacation...I know, I know many shudder at the thought in Disney.

05/31 Memorial Day - this is our arrival day at Disney since we are spending a night in Cocoa Beach. We plan to leave our beach hotel around 7 AM so that we will reach Disney by 8:30 to check in at OKW. Depending on whether or not our room is ready will determine when we get to a park. Since it is a holiday I expect any of the parks to be busy but we went with AK since it has evening EMHs this will allow us more time to get things accomplished.

06/01 We will go to Magic Kingdom on this day, there are morning EMHs on this day but we don't want to push MK too far into our week.

06/02 We have DHS scheduled for this day again to make use of evening EMHs.

06/03 Epcot will be our park on this day, you guessed it...EMHs.

06/04 We will do our 2nd MK day as our last park day.

We don't usually stay all day at AK or DHS so we will allow for DTD time on those days and plan to visit the pool each evening.

Next update will feature what we are excited about trying again or for the first time...believe it or not there are a couple of firsts in there (for DS at least).

 

[apirateslife4us!]

Cool! I did a post on my ptr about things we've never tried before

It looks like you have a good plan going. I'm still on the fence about morning EMH, but the evening ones were great when we went last time

 

[mansionterror]

Cool! I did a post on my ptr about things we've never tried before

It looks like you have a good plan going. I'm still on the fence about morning EMH, but the evening ones were great when we went last time

I need to jump over and join your PTR. I am not a fan of morning EMHs either and prefer the evening ones.

 

[Lynn5700]

Hi, Melissa! I think it's awesome that you got to switch to OKW. Good for you!

Your little Colby is adorable. Looks like you and I will be in the same park on the first, second, and third, LOL!!! I really hope we bump into each other.

You leave so soon!!!! I cannot believe I am almost a week away.

Do you have any ADRs?

 

[mansionterror]

Hi, Melissa! I think it's awesome that you got to switch to OKW. Good for you!

Your little Colby is adorable. Looks like you and I will be in the same park on the first, second, and third, LOL!!! I really hope we bump into each other.

You leave so soon!!!! I cannot believe I am almost a week away.

Do you have any ADRs?

Hi Lynn!! Thanks for joining in. We will have to be on the lookout for each other on those days.

We only have two ADR's:

Rainforest at DTD and Kona for breakfast.

I know both of our trips are coming up fast!!

 

[mansionterror]

I cannot believe we are just 4 days away from our trip!

As I said in the last installment we are looking forward to trying some new things, and trying things again (in DSs case).

New things:

Space Mountain - Colby has never ridden and it was closed for refurb during our last trip...he may chicken out once we get inside but we are going to try.

Laugh Floor and Stitch - Colby and I have both been on these and suprisingly liked Stitch, I know the horror. James has not tried either so these will be new for him.

Mission Space - Another new one for Colby and we will do the easy side.

Pickapearl - This is one of my planned suvie purchases this year, I have already purchased my cage and Colby is going to pick for me.

Wishes - In front of the castle...we have only seen it from fantasyland.

Trying again: These are rides that we have all been on but Colby hated them and refused to ride again. I explained that rides that scared him at say age 4 may not scare him at age 6 so he is willing to give it another shot.

TOT - Yep I was the parent that took my child on this at a younger age, he was 4 and made the height requirement but he hated it! He has watched videos of it on youtube lately and laughed so we are trying again.

Everest - Again Colby tried this one last year and wasn't thrilled but is willing to give it another shot.

Colby is getting very excited and tells everyone he sees that we are going to Disney!!

 

[apirateslife4us!]

Awwww, only four days away!!! I'm so happy for you guys

We did the laugh floor and we enjoyed it. We figure we'll do it again when it's hot out and the lines are long. It'll be nice to get a little AC and relax.

We've never been on Stitch or Mission Space, and we want to try them this time too

We aren't even going to try Space Mountain, ToT or Everest this time!

I can't wait to hear how your trip goes!! I hope you get a chance to squeeze in a few more posts before you go!

 

[apirateslife4us!]

I keep forgetting to say... your son is soooooo cute!!! I bet he looks a lot bigger since his trip two years ago. I didn't think my daughter changed all that much until I looked through our pictures from three years ago, omg she was practically a baby!!

 

[mansionterror]

So I just checked the crowd calendar for next week and have decided to change our schedule a bit based on their reccomendations. Before a couple of my parks were the parks to avoid that day so I had to move them around!

Monday - DHS
Tuesday - AK
Wednesday - MK
Thursday - Epcot
Friday - MK

Tuesday looks like the worst day as far as crowd levels (9) and Wednesday looks like the best with a 3.