"Pick 'Em Up!" Our First WDW Road Trip PTR-March 2025! Updated 10/10/24

[sunnysideup3]

"Pick 'Em Up!" Our First WDW Road Trip PTR-March 2025!

Hello and Welcome to our PTR! For those who don't exist on 90's movie quotes, the title is an ode to the classic Dumb and Dumber, which I foresee us quoting a lot during our vacation....

This is a trip I'm especially excited about. I tried writing a PTR for a trip my DS and I did in February 2024, but lost momentum and didn't finish it. You can read the meager updates here:

https://www.disboards.com/threads/u...tive-february-2024-ptr.3933952/#post-65230844

But lucky enough the first couple posts of this PTR will be brief recaps of that trip and provide some of the context of this upcoming trip as well!
Links:

Mini-TR Day 1/2: What Would You Say You Do Here?
Mini-TR Day 3: Alrighty Then!
Mini-TR Day 4/5: Can't Rain All The Time...

The Who:

Me: Jillian

40-something Operations Manager in Higher Ed/Part-Time Travel Agent
Mom-ager to 2 kids

DH


Will be 50 just after the trip, works in the aging care community.
Loves Sci-Fi, Legos, D&D


The Boys: 17, 17 and 11


My two children and my eldest DS's best friend since 4th grade, who I call bonus son. It will be his first time in Florida and first time Walt Disney World experience!
DS17: Lacrosse, Swim, involved in his youth group and is a lifeguard
BDS17: football, basketball
DS11: football, lacrosse, shot put and loves sports and stats


We are SO excited to show BDS why we love it so much.


How Did We Get Here?

Long back story: My in-laws have been avid world travelers as long as I have know them (almost 20 years), and swore they would never buy a second house and would travel the world until they couldn't. COVID happened and my BIL/SIL moved to Florida and soon after they vacationed there that winter and bought a house. So, we've been roped into the cycle of "our week" at their Florida house, and ours has been designated as Spring Break week. For anyone that has flown to Florida recently, the cost is INSANE. BONKERS. Got to the point where this year, for the 4 of us to fly, the cheapest cost was $4300. To sit on a plane for a combined 5 hours. The same thing happened with my SIL (who's designated time is "Winter Break") and they drove last year. They said it was long, but not awful. We thought about that for a bit and talked about our time down there as well. Being down in a golf and tennis heavy community where we don't play golf or tennis and like active vacations gets long after 3-4 days.

So we thought some more. DH said one Thursday "well, we drive past Walt Disney World, we kinda have to stop, right?" So I looked into it. Doable for sure!
We told the DS' the plan. They were all in, even the car for 20 hours part.
Then, the ask: We can't leave BDS (how I will refer to bonus child) behind!

They went to the same elementary school, but now attend different high schools so I thought the likelyhood they would have the same spring break would be minimal. But I consulted the website anyway (Can't rely on 16 year old for communication accuracy)....


They lined up! So I talked to his mom at his football game the next night and she gave us the a-okay to proceed! The kids started getting excited. It's hard to get a teenager and pre-teen excited about much (much less together), but the next day was the Saturday of Labor Day and they were both up and watching Disney videos on YouTube and chatting about all the things they wanted BDS to experience. I was still trying to put a $$$ on this, but was SO excited being excited for the kids!

For those of you not at the stage of life, it's the junior year of both DS and BDS. They are both widely involved in varsity sports, planning on attending college, and social lives. We will probably not get to take another trip like this again, especially senior year. So it feels nostalgic and important and all the warm fuzzy things you want it to be, so part of all of that is knowing we are on the cusp of what the future will look like and embracing all the things we love about Walt Disney World as a family.

Stay tuned to see how our planning has come together and share in our excitement as we share our happy place plans with you! (and stay for the mini-TR from my February 2024 trip with DS11!).


​

 

[DLo]

Following along . Looking forward to reading more .

 

[sunnysideup3]

"What Would You Say You Do Here?"

Another great movie quote from Office Space. As promised, I said I would give a brief recap of our February 2024 trip here. This trip came about because my oldest DS was going to a conference in Florida that weekend, and I found cheap flights while searching for his, and youngest DS didn't have school so I figured "why not go have some fun?" My DH was staying home to work and originally take care of our 12 year old beagle Bassett hound, Belle, but she had passed away the Monday after Thanksgiving.

Thursday, February 15th
From what I remember, our flight was uneventful, mostly on time and no problems. We took the Mears Connect shuttle and we're at the age of "too cool to sit with mom":


Soon we were here:

And then at our home for the next 4 nights, Port Orleans-Riverside! Like my signature says, we go WAY BACK with POR and really like this resort. Our room location for this trip was.... not great. It was a hike to the main building but close to a bus stop so we rarely went to the main area unless we were filling mugs or something.

I believe DS swam for a bit, our room was ready and we trekked over. We took some time to chill, recombobulate and head out to Disney Springs. We had dinner at Paddlefish:


And we've moved on from chicken nuggets and plain burgers (although he still ate those) and we did crab french fries and steak here.
After we were done, we shopped a bit before going back to get snacks for the room. DS didn't understand a line for cookies until we got back to the room and he tried Gideon's for the first time. He's a fan. The first thing on his list for this trip was "Go to Disney Springs and get the good cookies":



We watched Mickey cartoons and went to bed for our busy first day at:​

Friday, February 16th
MAGIC KINGDOM!

We were up early and headed out to early hours there, where I don't remember what we did first, but we did get to ride everything we wanted, including Tron (which is not conducive to people with big calves!)

Met some old friends:


We ate lunch at Plaza because this kid loves shakes and a burger, which was perfect for our day.
We caught the parade and I got some great shots!


We stopped to meet magician Mickey on the way out. I believe we went back to the park that night, but we did go back to the resort and rest a bit that afteroon.

That's it for Days 1 and 2 of the TR within a PTR! I'll be back soon with Days 3/4/5 and details about our upcoming trip!

​

 

[Mollydolly334]

Hello from a fellow Milwaukee-area DISer!! Following along!!

 

[sunnysideup3]

Following along . Looking forward to reading more .

Thanks so much for being here!

Hello from a fellow Milwaukee-area DISer!! Following along!!

Loving your TR with your whole family and the MKE connection!

 

[sunnysideup3]

"Alrighty Then!"

Saturday, February 17th
Hollywood Studios

So a very unpopular opinion, but Hollywood Studios is one of my favorite parks. I just love the ambiance and... I don't know. Maybe because I am a huge Twilight Zone (original 60's version) fan and I LOVE everything about Tower of Terror, but this is a must-do park for me.
I have so many good memories here:

Star Wars Weekend (the last one!) for my husband's 40th birthday weekend.


Meeting life-long DISboards friends for Osbourne Lights and night time DHS.


Or these two little baby nuggets...

ANYWAY...

We were up and out the door early and rope dropped Tower of Terror and coffee. Sam is a little old man when it comes to life, so he likes his morning coffee like any adult. He also likes pajama pants hiked up to his sternum and watching sports highlights and stats every morning.

I took this cool TOT picture (it was a rainy/sprinkle day on and off):


And we got to do Mickey and Minnie's Runaway Railway, and visited Potatoland, which is one of our favorite Mickey Shorts:


I had purchased Rise of the Resistance LL, so we did that and Smuggler's Run, in which we were both Engineers with parents with young kids who let their kids fly the ship. Sam was not amused and has a very expressive face so he did not hide that dismay well...


We also met some friends in Batuu:


This is where I will get real for a second. Even though Sam was 10 at this point and not a young kid anymore, it was around the middle of the day that being the solo parent on a 4 day trip hit me. I was trying to be chill and flexible, but he gets amped up easy and we start to butt heads. Usually everything works out and comes back around, but It was a lot to know you were their sole source of entertainment/need/etc for the whole trip.

I know we did Star Tours twice, and watched the Frozen Sing-a-long and the Indiana Jones Stunt Show. We also did go back to the room for a bit before our dinner reservation here:


All I can say is that we loved it. Sam ate well and loved the kitschy stuff of the restaurant and has declared this a "must do!" for our March 2025 trip.

It's SO CUTE in here.


I believe after dinner we did a couple things...Toy Story Mania? And then headed out. It was a soggy day and we ended up doing chill time back in the room.

Next up.... the skies open up in the worst park for rain.....​

 

[sunnysideup3]

"Can't Rain All the Time..."

Sunday, February 18
Epcot

We were up and out the door early again this morning. I was lucky enough to get both virtual queue and a paid LL for Guardians and Remy (which I had done in March 2022). We went and did Soarin' and Living with the Land and then went over to Test Track single rider line. We did Mission: Space in 2009 and I vowed never again, but Sam wanted to do it, so I waited in the exit area for him while he did that solo. It was weird just letting him go, but he was behind a family that seemed chill, and he said he had a good time and wants to bring the boy on in March.
It was time for our first ride and we LOVED it. We got "Everybody Wants to Rule the World"
Spoiler alert....

We got that song both times and we weren't mad about it....

We were starting to get a bit grumpy about the rain:



We headed into World Showcase and the sky continued to open up. I will say, it never stopped raining this day. We hid out on the balcony of the Norway church after doing Frozen Ever After, and we did eat lunch at the Regal Eagle, and did the Mexico boat ride. But I honestly don't know what else we did for those hours...



We had an earlier dinner at Teppan Edo, and browsed the giftshop before heading around to the front of the park, where despite the 10 hours of rain, Sam insisted on Moana: The Way of Water...


He loved it.
I believe we wrapped up with a ride on Spaceship Earth, where it kept stopping and slowing, so I got some decent pictures.​

Monday, February 19th
Animal Kingdom

This was our departure day, and originally we were slated to leave pretty early, but with the change in flights, we had the opportunity to add on another park day and decided to do Animal Kingdom (which isn't always a must-do for us!).

But first, we were going to Topolino's for breakfast!

'


It was great as always and we waited for a bit for a bus, but we soon were greeted with the Tree of Life!





We did ride Everest and Dinosaur, and saw a lot of random characters:​

And did Rafiki's Planet Watch (he loves trains and petting animals, so a no-brainer!)
We moved on to Kilimanjaro Safari, Sam did the Boneyard for a bit, and we did both walking trails.
Sam wanted to do Flight of Passage, so I bought him a solo LL and waited for him outside the exit. He liked it, but said he didn't need to do it again.
I think right around then we cashed out some extra snack credits on treats for the plane and home and headed out to catch the bus back to Riverside for our shuttle back to the airport.
From what I remember, security was pretty typical for Orlando- busy, but it moved. Sam talks to ANYONE, so struck up a conversation with a guy waiting with us in line. We got some dinner there and I had bid to "upgrade" our seats on Spirit to the bigger ones up front and we'd gotten them, so we were on the plan quickly. We were waiting for everyone to board when I heard a loud voice exclaim "SAM!!!" It was his elementary school principal, who is just the best person- and they were seated behind us!
She snapped a picture of the two of them to send to his old teachers and they chatted for a bit before an uneventful flight back home to Milwaukee.
We took an Uber home (it was late and my DH works early and I wasn't 100% ready for the newly licensed 16 year old to do a 10:30pm airport pickup).

All in all, it was a fun trip and something that was great for just the 2 of us to do.

Up next-- the ACTUAL plans for this coming March!




​

 

[Becky2005]

Just read through everything and looking forward to seeing your plans. Sounds like it was one of those fun but extra tiring trips.