Category Archives: Disney Travel Planning

Saying Farewell to Walt Disney World

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It inevitably begins the day before the last day of our vacation.  I start to get anxious and wonder how the days went by so impossibly fast.  After all the planning and anticipation, vacation is practically over already!  Then I get a little depressed thinking, “Oh, NO! Tomorrow’s the last day!”.  And you know what?  I ruin the last day of vacation for myself.  This time?  I’m bound and determined not to let that happen.

Saying Farewell to Walt Disney World

Next month we’ll be spending a long-awaited five-and-a-half-day family vacation at Walt Disney World.  The dining’s been planned, the FastPasses have been booked and soon the packing will start.  Once we arrive, I know time will mysteriously and tragically speed up.  While it might not be possible to change the fact that time does indeed fly when we’re having fun, I’m planning to do everything possible to slow it down a little and make our last day every bit as happy as the first.

Over the past nearly five year existence of this blog, I’ve been dishing out advice like crazy…it’s time for me to listen to me.

My Strategy

Slow down – I plan so much stuff, it’s always full steam ahead all day, every day.  This time I’ve built-in big blocks of time to relax.  I’m convinced this will make our vacation seem to last longer.  As an added bonus, we’ll be less tired and Megan (who will be 7-months pregnant) will certainly benefit from less time on her feet.Epcot meeting Minnie

Stay in the moment – With tons of plans, comes a whole lot of looking ahead.  I love to take pictures, so maybe I can capture special moments while NOT thinking about what comes next.  In the past, when I’ve focused on being present and soaking up the magic of both being at Walt Disney World and also being surrounded by my most favorite people in the world, I seem to make better memories.  Who remembers what they were looking at on their cell phone at any particular time?  I certainly don’t.

Don’t over-plan – I always think the more we accomplish, the more fun we’ll have…as if we’ll never be back. That’s crazy and I’m not doing it again. I’ve deliberately only planned a few things for our last day and, because our plane leaves late on departure day, I’ve only planned one thing for that day.

Let someone else take the lead – To facilitate this, I’ve already emailed a spreadsheet of our itinerary to everyone.  I’m hoping Joseph will take the lead on Animal Kingdom days.  Thanks to the Disney College Program, he’s now more an expert than I could every hope to be.  I haven’t asked yet, but I’m sure Megan and Grant would be happy to take a day to lead the way.  I do love planning everything and giving everybody options on what we’ll do between FastPasses and where we can grab our Quick Service meals.  If I let go of the reins, though, maybe I’ll relax more.

I have a feeling that beating the last-day-blues will take practice, but I’m determined to conquer it!  My Grandma always said, “Quit while you still want more”.   While that seems to always be the case with every Disney vacation I take, it never feels like my choice to quit when it’s time to go home.  This time will hopefully be different with my new and improved strategy.

Do you have any advice for making the last Disney day more special?  I’d love to hear it.

 

 

FastPass Strategy – Six Adults Including One Expectant Mother

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After gleefully anticipating and tackling many a FastPass-booking day, I’m feeling anxious about the one ahead!  Typically, we all ride the same rides and none are off the table.  This time’s different and if you’ve got advice, I’d love to hear it.

FastPass Strategy – Six Adults Including One Expectant Mother

This will be our last family vacation before we all change names.  Megan and Grant will become Mom and Dad, Joseph will become Uncle Joe (which always makes me think of Petticoat Junction – holler if you know what I mean!), and Raymond and I will turn into Grandma and Grandpa (or some variation thereof).  This trip is special and I want everyone to have a wonderful, memorable time.  Because Megan’s “in the family way”, she won’t be able to ride her usual favorites, but that doesn’t mean the rest of us have to miss out, right?  But I don’t want Megan hanging out the whole time waiting alone, either.  Thus the need for a new, special-circumstance FastPass plan.

I found and reviewed this list of rides Disney specifically says expectant mothers should not ride.  Of the ones left, only a few are possibly FastPass-worthy.  Let me know which one’s you’d choose.

Magic Kingdom:  Pirates of the Caribbean, Peter Pan’s Flight, The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, Haunted Mansion, Jungle Cruise, Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin, or It’s a Small World.  I feel like I can book FastPasses for us in groups of two or three for the Mountains and Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, so Megan won’t wait alone.  The best thing about Magic Kingdom, under these circumstances, is that there are a ton of attractions that won’t need FastPasses at all.

Epcot:  Frozen Ever After one day, Soarin’ another.  If I book more than one FastPass, the others will be for Space Ship Earth and maybe Finding Nemo and Friends.  Typically, Raymond and I don’t ride Test Track or Mission Space, so we can keep Meg company while everyone else does those.  This park’s easy.

Animal Kingdom:  Kilimanjaro Safaris (Disney advises against this one, but we think it’ll be okay) and maybe the Festival of the Lion King.  This park is tough because almost all of our favorites are hard no’s for Megan.  Also challenging is how spread out everything is.  Maybe I can stagger our FastPasses for Flight of Passage (if I can even get any) in a way that would allow us to use Nomad Lounge for a home base and Megan can have a big rest and a snack while we take turns riding.

Disney’s Hollywood Studios:  Toy Story Midway Mania is probably the only thing Megan can ride that would need a FastPass.  If we rope-drop Rock’n’ Roller Coaster and make our first FastPass of the day for Tower of Terror, Megan would be on her own to shop or relax, but only for a very short time.  I hate to stagger FastPasses here because we’ll only be in this park for one morning.  I’m sure it’ll be back to being a full-day park for us in the future, but right now…no.

This is challenging and I know we’ll have a great time with or without FastPasses, but I want to save at least some queue-waiting time.  If you’ve been to Walt Disney World while expecting or traveled with someone who was, please let me know what you did.  For all the rest of you…speculate!  Any and all suggestions are welcome, I could use your help, please.  Thanks! – Lisa

New Year, New Disney Plans

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2017 was such an exciting, action packed, fun-filled year!  So much so, 2018 has a lot to live up to.  I believe in you, New Year!  You can do it!  Adventure is out there and we’ve got a big Disney to-do list ahead of us.  Since I’m not one to make official New Year’s resolutions, this is as close as it gets…Magic Picture with Tinker Bell

New Year, New Disney Plans

Disney Park Firsts – Raymond and I have an unbelievable four Disney trips planned this year with opportunities to try some things for the first time.

  • New Festival:  We’re excited to have a couple of days to experience Epcot’s Festival of the Arts later this month.  The festival’s 2017 inaugural year went so well, we heard nothing but glowing praise for this brief, but fun event from everyone we knew that attended.
  • Tiger Cubs! It’s no secret that I’m an Animal Kingdom fan & have often touted the joys of the Maharajah Jungle Trek…these new babies are yet another reason to spend all day in this park!Maharajah Jungle Trek Artistic Details
  • Disneyland (Finally!):  After last year’s anniversary trip was cancelled due to Hurricane Irma and 2016’s family vacation was interrupted by Hurricane Matthew, Raymond and I are taking no chances this year.  We’ll be celebrating our 29th anniversary on the West Coast and we couldn’t be more excited to finally get to explore Disneyland’s parks and restaurants.  I’ll be working on my must-do list shortly and welcome any and all suggestions you may have!

Disney Movies to See – Nick, Dave and I just talked about Disney’s 2018 movie line-up on The Disney Exchange (Episode 159).  There’s a lot to look forward to!  Honestly, I’m pretty stoked about Solo: A Star Wars Story (May) and Wreck-It Ralph 2 (March), but if I narrow down the list to my top three, I’m most excited about these…

  • Avengers: Infinity War (May) – I’m geeking out about this one!  It had better be as good as it looks because my expectations are really high.  Avengers and Guardians…how could that not be awesome!?!
  • The Incredibles 2 (June) – We’ve only been waiting 14 years!  That’s practically forever.  The original has always been one of my all-time favorite movies and with the way it ended, didn’t we all thing the sequel was right around the corner?  It’s about time!
  • Mary Poppins Returns (December) – I didn’t care for Saving Mr. Banks at all, so I’ve got my heart pinned on this movie to recapture the magical, whimsical wonder that was the original Mary Poppins.  C’mon, Disney, don’t let me down.

Disney Recipes to Try – I’ve barely tried anything from the Raglan Road cookbook I got for Mother’s Day last year, so cooking up some Irish dishes is high on my priority list.  I’d also like to try Sanaa’s Naan Bread, ‘Ohana’s Stir Fried Noodles, Jiko’s Macaroni & Cheese.

RunDisney 2018 – This year, Megan will be joining Joseph and I for her first runDisney events.  The three of us are headed for Disney World in February for the Enchanted 10k and the Princess Half Marathon (now called the Fairy Tale Challenge).  Of course, Raymond will be there to cheer us on.  (I feel like the luckiest mom in the universe.)

West Coast Disney Cruise:  Before we go to Disneyland, Raymond and I are sailing on the Disney Wonder’s 4-night repositioning cruise from Vancouver to San Diego.  The last time we sailed on the Wonder was in 2011 on an Alaskan cruise and that was an outstanding vacation.  I’m sure this trip will be fantastic as well…can’t wait!

Still here?  I’ll let you in on something – there are a couple more things planned for 2018, but I can’t share them quite yet.  Check back in about two weeks and I’m sure I’ll be able to elaborate then on what special secret adventures our family has coming up soon.

Your Turn!  What are your 2018 Disney plans?

 

 

Our Next Disney Vacation? Coming Right Up!

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Is there anything better than a Disney sea-and-land vacation?  I think not!  In just a few more days, Raymond and I will sail away on the Dream for a little 4-night Bahamian getaway.  I’ve been daydreaming about Castaway Cay and how heavenly that little slice of paradise will be.  Usually I’d prefer to do the land portion of the trip first since the parks are so busy and Disney cruises are more relaxing.  This trip being our anniversary Disney vacation do-over, we’re doing the best we can with what we’ve got.Castaway Cay's Mt. Rustmore

Our Next Disney Vacation? Coming Right Up!

And what we’ve got are some pretty sweet plans!  When we were only going to have the three-night land portion of our trip, I dutifully attempted to book ADRs and FastPasses at the earliest possible moment with mixed results.  I booked dinners at Il Mulino and Yachtsman Steakhouse and left Friday open for Food & Wine since we originally weren’t going to arrive in Orlando until early afternoon.  I booked the only FastPass I could get in Pandora, which was Na’vi River Journey on Saturday morning and then chose some in Epcot for Friday afternoon and Magic Kingdom for Sunday starting mid-morning.

Here’s where having Disney friends all over social media helps – I got a hot tip a couple of weeks ago that some additional FastPasses had opened up for several hard-to-get attractions and SCORE!!!  Na’vi River Journey is out and Flight of Passage is IN!  I’m super excited to see Raymond’s reaction to his first ride on a Banshee.

I’m also very excited to be meeting up with some of those aforementioned fellow Disney fans.  We’re hoping to see Tim from Dad for Disney and his family, Scott from Enchanted Tiki Talk, and our friends Linda and Phillip (we met on the Disney Magic in Norway cruise).  There are even a few more tentative meet-up plans in the works.  It’s good to have Disney friends…they understand me.

Here’s a quick rundown of the Walt Disney World part of this trip…

Friday:  Catch the Disney Cruise Line bus from Port Canaveral to Bay Lake Tower as early as possible, drop off luggage and catch a bus to Disney Springs for lunch at Chef Art Smith’s Homecomin’ – a place we’ve wanted to try since it opened in 2016.  Initially, I couldn’t find a dinner reservation (we were going to eat there instead of Yachtsman) then realized how early we could arrive straight from the ship and lunch was available.  Win-Win!

After lunch, we’ll make our way to Epcot where we can wander World Showcase between FastPasses for Soarin’ and Spaceship Earth.  When we get hungry for dinner, we can sample our way through some of the Food & Wine booths.  We’ll be in go-with-the-flow mode and can soak up the World at our leisure.

Saturday morning we’re headed to Animal Kingdom.  We’ve got FastPasses for Kilimanjaro Safaris, Flight of Passage, and Expedition Everest and I am loving this lineup!  We can hang around until after lunch then rest a while at Bay Lake Tower before meeting Linda and Phillip for drinks and dinner – AbracadaBar (Boardwalk) followed by Il Mulino (Swan).  AbracadaBar recently changed their menu and I’m excited to try a new offering or two.

Sunday we’re planning to rope-drop Hollywood Studios to ride Rock’n’ Roller Coaster and Tower of Terror before hopping to Magic Kingdom where our FastPasses are for Big Thunder Mountain, Pirates, and Seven Dwarfs Mine Train.  We don’t have to rush and can tour at our own pace.  Dinner at Yachtsman will wrap up our plans and Monday morning we’ll head for home.The Red Rock of Big Thunder Mountain

It’s a very short visit, but we’ll be back in February for the Fairytale Challenge and again in May for a family vacation.  There’s a slight chance of a brief January visit as well, but that one’s not certain yet.  I was going for the perfect mix of action and no-pressure touring with lots of free time built in.

If you had only three days at Walt Disney World, what would your priorities be?  How would your plans differ from ours?