Don't Ruin This For Me! A July 2018 PTR!

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Hello again!

Anyone shocked I have another PTR up and running?

So, I'm Elle!

For those of you that haven't seen one of my reports before, I'm a 29-year-old middle school teacher from Massachusetts. I've been going to Disney pretty much constantly since I was 11, and I love everything about it! I have a Disney Instagram account so I have something to do with the million and a half pictures I take in Disney all the time, because I love taking pictures of all the little details and moments in the parks. Currently, I'm working on a Trip Report for my April 2017 trip, a Pre-Trip Report for my August 2017 Disneyland vacation, and a Pre-Trip Report for my October 2017 mother/daughter weekend.

So, with all that going for me here, you may be thinking to yourself "Elle, what the heck are you doing, starting another PTR like this?"

Well, random visitor, the reason is because I've already started planning, because as most people know/are because well, that's what a lot of people use this board for, isn't it?

Anyway, this trip is going to kind of be me celebrating my 30th birthday (y'know, 6 months later) in Disney. I've even said I'll wear a Birthday button (I'm not hugely into people singing to me or anything like that, I got very used to my birthday being pretty overlooked by Christmas/New Years and I'm a shyer person in real life so I'm into big into it, but for Disney I'll do it!), but more just a fun friends week away. My goal for my 30th birthday is to travel more, and this is the first step in that direction (even if it is to Florida. Where I go every 8 months.)

So, the five W's! Outside of the photo of myself (on Flickr) I don't have access to my other pictures right now, because Photobucket. I may go back in and post more later, or we'll just leave it for now.

Who:

Well, me, of course! As well as Liz, whom you guys should all know if you've read any of my other TRs in the past few years. For those who haven't, a recap: Liz is my oldest friend. We've known each other since we were kids, and we both love Disney. She's a former CM, who worked for Disney for 6 years, first as a ride operator, then as a server. She adores everything Beauty and the Beast or Thunder Mountain themed. She's coming with me to Disneyland this summer and it's her first time going, so I'm super excited to experience that with her!

Coming along with us is our friend Kristen. Kristen is the baby of our group, but she's one of Liz's and my closest friends. She's only been to WDW once when she was a kid so this is a whole new experience for her, but she's super excited. She loves that Liz and I plan outfits in advance, and last night at dinner we started to introduce her to our favorite etsy shops, and Magical Ribbons, and she's already got a cart full of things to buy!

Also joining us is Liz's boyfriend Kyle. Kristen and I have known Kyle for years, but he's become one of our closest friends in recent months. He and Liz are ridiculously adorable together and he loves the parks. He's not so much into the themed days as Kristen is but he's already said he'll participate in a couple of them for good pictures.


What:
A glorious week in Disney, with at least a day planned for Universal and probably a night out off property.

When:
July 6-13, 2018. Kristen and I are teachers so we have to plan in advance and go in the summer.

Where:
Lion King suite at Art of Animation

I will say that this will most likely be the quietest of my posts for the first few months, but I wanted to kick it off since we figured out our budgeting this past week and we're definitely going!


Oh, and the name of the PTR? Well, last Thursday when we originally decided to see if this was something we could do together, this was Kristen's response to every "this could go wrong" scenario. It's become our trip's planning catchphrase.

 

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The Trip That Almost Didn't Happen

So since I first posted this, our trip was almost canceled. I had work troubles, as did Kristen (since we work in the same district), but as of yesterday everything is 100% back on!!!

So, let the insane planning commence!

 

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Let's Officially Meet the Players, Shall We?

Now that my Disneyland trip came to a close yesterday, I can focus my energies on my quick October trip and this behemoth that I'm super excited for! There will be themed days! There will be that good old Disney sugar high we're all so used to!

There will be a lot of people involved.

I've introduced myself, so why don't I introduce everyone else?

Liz!

Liz and I have known each other since we were kids. We grew up down the street from one another, we went to camp together, all that jazz. We're super close. Liz is a former CM and loves all things Beauty and the Beast and Peter Pan. She has a deep love for Big Thunder Mountain, and is a great Disney planner. She's already come up with some theme days for us.

Jen!

Anyone who has read any of my TRs has heard of Jen (much in the same way you've probably heard of Liz). She is my best friend from high school and a former CM as well. She loves Cinderella, Alice in Wonderland, and The Little Mermaid. She and I are only two weeks apart in age so this is a joint 30th birthday.

Kristen!

Kristen is a new addition. We "met" Kristen very briefly as a friend of a friend when she was in high school, but it wasn't until five or six years ago when we met again as adults that Liz and I became super close to her. She's the baby of the bunch - where everyone else will be 30 or at least in their late 20s by the time of this trip, Kristen will be in her mid-20s. She's only been to Disney once or twice but has already jumped onto Liz and my insane planning bandwagon.

Jenny!

Jenny is the newest addition to the group. She's Jen's DGF and a CA native. Liz and I met her while in California on our recent trip and while we don't know her that well yet we really liked her. She fits in great with our personalities which is perfect for us! She's never been to WDW before after being a DL annual passholder for forever so she's excited to see what's different.

Kyle!

I've known Kyle most of my adult life but have only recently become close friends with him. He is Liz's DBF and the singular guy coming on our trip. He likes pirates, specifically Captain Hook, and is pretty laid back. This trip was actually his idea. While he used to live in Florida he hasn't been to Disney a lot, and he'd love to go back with friends.


This is actually a great group of people to go with - we can all stay together or split a part into smaller groups easily. There are people who like the bigger rides so everyone will always have a buddy and no one will have to go alone onto anything.

We plan to do at least one day at Universal too. I'm super excited, guys!

 

[LilTinkFan]

I'm along for your planning!

 

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This Trip May Become Legendary

Oh, my goodness. July is slowly spiraling out of control in a very good way for me. Anyone who's been with me for the last few years of trips, any of you remember July 2015? Because it's turning into that.

For those of you who have no idea what I mean:

Back in 2015 all my vacations ended up, through schedule changes, etc, falling within two weeks of each other. So I went from driving to/from Myrtle Beach to Florida to California in the span of 3 weeks.

Well, the group of friends whom I normally go to the beach with are trying to plan our next trip. We usually just go to the beach, but we've always planned this year to be different. Since it's our next "big" birthday (aka for all but two of us it's a birthday ending in a 0) we've started planning out a larger trip. We were originally going to go in April but out April time off didn't end up being at the same time. So now we're looking at potentially July.

One of our front runners is either just before or just after Disney, so I may be coming up from my cousin's condo or heading down TO my cousin's condo depending on how everything works out. Our main front runner leaves from Cape Liberty and comes back the day before I'd have to leave for Florida so I'd probably drive home from there to fly to Florida if need be.

So, this is becoming quite the 30th celebration for me without even meaning to be, lol.

 

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Problems with The Disney Website


This should be titled "who's shocked? Not me!"

Anyway, I've been trying to book our vacation. The problem is, because of the hours I work, doing everything online is way easier than trying to call. I've been trying all month to book our vacation but what happens is:

I click on the vacation package (it's been in my cart forever)

It brings me to the page where you add guests. I add our MDE accounts. I click the "next" button.

And it says it's loading the next page but it stays on the page it's on.

I have tried Chrome, Safari, Firefox, even Explorer. I've tried my phone. I've tried the app. Nothing works. I've seen some people complaining about issues with the website but not like this!

 

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It's Finally Official!

For the past two days at work I've been testing. Which is super less than fun for me because I have to sit here in the silence (I don't do silence well) staring at my computer and staring at my students to make sure they are doing what they are supposed to be doing. The best part is that I can split screen for multitasking (thank you, Windows!) so I'm updating!

I sort of back-end figured out how to fix the issue I was having with MDE. It kept stopping once I got to add guests. And I think part of it was because of Kristen's account. When she first made it she didn't use "Ms" but "Miss" which is not something that MDE lets you do, so I think that was messing it up.

So this morning I tried a different way. I didn't log in to do anything, I just made the reservation as if I didn't have an account. I was able to do everything, pay the deposit, and then after everything was done I was able to log onto my account, look up the reservation, and connect it to MDE as well as everyone else's MDE accounts. We've been texting all morning and I had everyone double check their accounts - especially Jen because we each have ghost accounts for each other from the pre MDE days and it seems like everyone is attached (the only one who hasn't officially gotten back to me is Jenny but it's just 7 am for her so she may not be up yet.)!!!!

I'd like it known that I leave for Disney tomorrow afternoon for the weekend but I am so excited for next July right now!

 

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Fancy Magic Bands?

Has anyone else booked for next year recently? When I went to book last week, I saw that my package that I booked was attached to an offer but I didn't really look at what the offer was. It took a little bit of money off my price and I was thankful for that. Then last night, I was making a list of dates to remember for Kristen, who has never booked her own trip before, and went to check when we needed to customize our magic bands by.

Apparently it is the "Family Gift of Magic" package and it is comes with this:

which is awesome and beautiful and I am not complaining at all!

In other news, one of the things I was thinking of it renting a car while we're down there. I'm not 100% sure if we'll need it but I'm doing the research early. Anyone have any input?

 

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And Seven?

A couple weeks ago, my friend Sadie started asking about Disney. She wants to go with me, which is fine by me - I'm always up for more people with the Disney love. She asked if I would take her with me in 2019, but as I was talking to her she admitted she really wanted to go with us next year, she just wasn't sure we'd be okay with it. Of course we would be!

It's just a logistical nightmare.

Okay, not a nightmare. I actually think I figured it out. It's gonna be one of two things:

* Put an air mattress in our suite. This is the less awesome suggestion but it's probably cheapest.
* book a second suite and see if we can get an adjoining room for her. It'll give us more space in all AND it'll allow for us to have extra space.

Actually, okay, what I really want to do since this is my birthday trip and all is to get the two-bedroom villa at Boulder Ridge if I'm honest. But I know my friends can't afford it. I may splurge and pay the difference myself honestly.