Heatherhy01

In need of pixie dust
Joined
Dec 17, 2007
Hi everyone!:hippie:
Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Heather, 44 year old Mom of 2 daughters, married to her first love for 20 years this year and all around Disney lover!
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I love all things Disney but my favorite all-time character would have to be that little purple dinosaur...FIGMENT!! One little spark...

Anyhoo, :welcome: to my Pre-trip report!

Our cast of characters are as follows:

Myself: Heather :figment:
Hubby: Rich :darth:
Youngest child: Savannah :tink:

Let me explain:

Savannah is going to be a Junior in high school this coming fall and is an active member of the school's choir. Every 4 years, our band/choir submits an application to Disney to visit and sing/play. It is quite a process and Disney is very specific when choosing which groups will be welcome so this is a huge accomplishment and such an exciting once-in-a-lifetime experience for them. This is the year and we are super excited. My oldest daughter will be sitting this trip out because she will be taking a study abroad trip to Italy in May which is a pretty pricey trip. Now... I had originally signed hubby and I up to drive the rental truck with all the band equipment to Disney from Pennsylvania...I know...I am a little crazy but it was for the kids. BUT>>> They had a nice family donate the cost of the truck and hire a professional driver so....Hubby & I are now on our second honeymoon!! This October will be our 20th anniversary and since we honeymooned in Disney after we got married, what a great way to celebrate! Am I right??:confused3

The Dates: December 13th thru 18th
Staying: All Star Music (The kids are staying at Sports)

I was able to get in on the free dining!:dancer:So, I actually upgraded to the standard plan and acquired free park hoppers and am ending up $100 less than my original quote. So I was very happy!!

I will update more soon! I already reserved di
ningpopcorn::
 
The following is the itinerary for the kids. We will try to follow along but Savannah is our independent child, so we will be there without "really" being there. If you know what I mean??
Friday, December 13th

Depart the school for Philadelphia International airport. Arrive at Orlando International. Take the Disney Magical Express to the All Star Sports Resort. Included meal voucher for resort food court

Saturday, December 14th

Meal voucher for breakfast at the resort food court. Load Disney Transportation bus to EPCOT. In the evening, the choir will sing 2 shows for the Candlelight Procession in the American Gardens Theater. (6:45 & 8:15) There is a counter service meal voucher included for today at the park.

Sunday, December 15th

Meal voucher for breakfast at the resort food court. This morning, the choir will participate in the "Disney Sings Workshop" before we load Disney Transportation to Hollywood Studios. There is a counter service meal voucher included for today at the park.

Monday, December 16th

Meal voucher for breakfast at the resort food court. Load Disney Transportation to the Animal Kingdom. This afternoon, the band will participate in the "Your Musical Instrument Workshop". There is a counter service meal voucher included for today at the park.

Tuesday, December 17th

Meal voucher for breakfast at the resort food court. Load Disney Transportation to the Magic Kingdom. The band will march in the afternoon parade. We will stay in the park for evening festivities including fireworks show. There is a counter service meal voucher included for today at the park.

Wednesday, December 18th

Breakfast at the resort. Board Magical Express to Orlando International. Take flight back into Philadelphia International. Bus to school.

This could change so many times but they are hopeful that it stays close to this. We will have a final meeting about 3-4 weeks before leaving. This is when we will receive our pass numbers. Since this is a school trip, we are all getting discounted youth passes. There will not be a park hopper feature, so only one park per day. Also, we will not get our magic bands until we check into the hotel. Some of the parents were VERY unhappy that we will not have our pass numbers to reserve fastpasses until about 3 weeks prior to leaving. I mean, I get why, but this is a school trip which is at a really good cost, I think anyway? It really is a trip for the kids, so untwist your panties and relax!

The workshops sound sooo good too!

Disney Sings: During this workshop, the choir will work with a professional Disney singer. They will work on a particular Disney song from one of the many Disney movies. They will actually record the kids singing to the movie and each child will be given a copy to keep.

Your Musical Instrument: The band will work with a professional Disney band member. They will work on sight reading, and many other different aspects of reading music. (there wasn't much info given on this workshop but I am sure it will be amazi
ng!)
 
Hello again! The following is our ADULT itinerary:

Friday, December 13th

Fly in, Swim at resort and RELAX!! 5:15 Dinner at Reglan Rd and explore Disney Springs and possibly the Boardwalk.

Saturday, December 14th

9:10 breakfast at Whispering Canyon Cafe. Head to Epcot around noon. 6:45 or 8:15 Candlelight Procession with Gary Sinisi as our Narrator. (Savannah will be singing) Close out the night with Epcot Forever at 9:30.

Sunday, December 15th

Off to Hollywood Studios today! Early Magic Hours from 8-9. 5:05 Dinner at 50's Prime Time Cafe. Fantasmic at 9 PM.

Monday, December 16th

Animal Kingdom this morning for early magic hours from 8-9. This is not our favorite park. Depending on with type of fastpasses we get will depend on how much time we spend here. We have a 5:25 Dinner ressie for the Cape May Cafe. We will then hop on over to the Magic Kingdom and close out the night with Happily Ever After at 9!

Tuesday, December 17th

Breakfast ressie at Be Our Guest at 8:15 AM. We will spend the day at MK, watch the band march in the afternoon parade at 2:00, then hop on over to Epcot for a dinner ressie at Tepan Edo at 5:10. Close out the night at Epcot.

Wednesday, December 18th

Check out and fly home:oops:

Please let me know if you have any thoughts on our reservations! Some of these are new to us and others are old faves!
 
Hello Everyone! It's been a long time and "Oh! So many changes have happened!" I am going to try to make this as easy to understand as possible and PLEASE let me know if there are any things that you would do differently. Thanks ahead of time!!

So first off, our dates have stayed the same. December 13-18, 2019. We were originally only going to do 4 day park hoppers but we got a VERY early flight with Frontier (5:05 AM with arrival at 7:57 AM) that I had to see how much an extra day would add on. Believe it or not, an extra day for both of us only came to about $26 and some change! A whole extra day at Disney??? Well, sign me up! So now we have 5 days to play in the parks!

Secondly, we are going to be getting some company!!! My best friend will be joining us for a couple of days! I am super excited for this. We are both Disney nerds and went together in high school and we cannot wait to be back together at the happiest place on earth again! Megan will be flying in on Wednesday, December 11th and visiting friends in Daytona for a couple of nights, then meeting up with us upon our arrival on Friday morning. Hubby already informed me that he plans on grabbing a lounger next to the pool on arrival day and just relaxing, this means "girl time" in the parks! Megan will spend Friday night with us and we will meet up with another friend of hers on Saturday morning. Trish lives in Kissimmee and will spend Saturday with us before taking Megan back to her house and ending our time together.

Thirdly, I purchased a Candlelight Procession Package for the four (Me, Rich, Megan and Trish) of us on Saturday evening. We will be eating a late lunch at the Coral Reef at 3:10 PM and seeing the 6:45 showing of the procession. Honestly, I have never purchased a package like this before so I am not real sure what to expect??? Is it going to be really crowded? Are the seats first come, first serve? Do we need to line up ahead of time to be able to sit together?? If anyone could shed some light, I would be grateful!

Fourth, I changed our Reglan Road ressie to 9:45 PM since Megan only has 2 park days, we wanted to be in the parks as long as possible. I also cancelled our Whispering Canyon ressie due to going to the candlelight procession dinner. Since we paid out of pocket for the procession, this will free up 2 table service credits which will be used for Megan at Reglan Rd. on Friday night and Savannah at Prime Time on Sunday. I also changed our ressie for Tepan to the Grand Floridian Cafe instead. I guess that I was expecting something extra special at Tepan since it was Disney but everything that I have read stated that it is just like your typical steak house at home. I really didn't want to waste a dining credit on something that I could get at home and we have never eaten at the Grand Floridian Cafe so...thus the change!

I am currently ordering vinyls to make t-shirts (for me & the gals...not hubby) and going to try my hand at making my own Mickey ears!!! I will post pics once they are done!

I will update soon! 88 days until I am home!!
 


25 Days! (Can you feel the excitement?)

Trip is paid off and I am now in the process of saving $$ for the fun stuff!!

I promised pictures of my t-shirts and mickey ears that I made. Please excuse the photography, I am completely self taught...which means that I am horrible at it! :flower:

This one is for Megan and I on Friday:
BESTIES.jpg

This one is for Megan, Trish & I on Saturday (perfect for EPCOT):

BEERS, CHEERS.jpg

This one is just for me:
CARDIO.jpg

I have one more, but unfortunately, I do not have a pic of it. It looks like this:


il_794xN.1732446612_9920.jpg

I also tried my hand at Mickey ears! I can tell you that it is not as easy as it looks and they are a little crooked but I am okay wearing them anyway. I wanted to make ones with our school colors/mascot since this is actually a school trip. Here they are....
EARS.jpg
ME EARS.jpg
I still have another pair that needs to be made, I wanted to make an Americana pair to match my one t-shirt, but I have not gotten to it yet. Once I do, I will upload a pic of that one too.
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I have finalized our plans and am hoping that they do not change again! This is what we have as of right now:

12/13/19 (Megan, Me & Rich): 12:05 Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin
1:05 Haunted Mansion
2:05 Big Thunder Mountain Railroad
9:15 PM Reglan Road Ressie

12/14/19 (Me & Rich): 10:30 Test Track
11:45 Spaceship Earth
12:50 Mission Space (GREEN PLEASE!)
3:10 Coral Reef Ressie
6:45 Candlelight Procession :mic:
9:30 EPCOT Forever

12/15/19 (Me & Rich): 11:20 Muppet Vision 3D
12:35 Star Tours
2:30 Toy Story Mania
(Today, we will either have lunch with Savannah & all of her friends OR dinner with just Savannah?? It will be decided once we arrive.)
9:00 Jingle Bell, Jingle Bam

12/16/19 (Me & Rich): 8:35 Be Our Guest Ressie
11:30 Dinosaur
12:35 Expedition Everest
2:40 Flight of Passage

6:40 Boma Ressie
9:00 Happily Ever After

12/17/19 (Me & Rich): 10:05 Space Mountain
12:10 Jungle Cruise
2:10 Seven Dwarfs Mine Train
5:00 Grand Floridian Cafe Ressie

Question!!!!! I originally had a Tower of Terror FP but traded it for Toy Story Mania, was that a good exchange? Or should I have kept TOT?? Also, should I have gotten A Small World or Pirates FP instead of the bigger rides?? I figured, they would be easier to get than the mountains??

So, there you have it! I will update more as we get closer:)

I am not a computer guru by any means and I hope this works, but click on the below link to see a video of my Winston watching Lady and the Tramp!
https://www.facebook.com/plugins/video.php?href=https://www.facebook.com/hyouse/videos/2915177885158925/&show_text=1&width=269
 
18 Days!!!

Can you feel the excitement pouring off of me people???

Just a little update. We have received our coveted Magicbands!!!


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The pink is mine and the orange is hubbies. (of course)

We also received our luggage tags. (Are they always the same or can you receive different ones?)

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I thought the Minnie kissing Mickey was perfect for us since we will be celebrating our 20th Anniversary. I already decorated my band since I bought these cute little vinyls on Etsy.

thumbnail_privatevarmobileContainersDataApplicationA2447410-9D7E-4603-BA64-6EECED199187tmp7555...jpg
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My favorites! Walt & Mickey & Figment!
Now on to the packing!
 
FOUR DAYS!!! 4 DAYS!!! ONLY 4 MORE DAYS!!!!

Can you tell I am excited??

Not too much to report. My bags are already packed. Savannah & Hubby tend to pack VERY last minute. I even got my nails done for the occasion:

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If the background in the above picture looks upside down, well that is because it is!! I had to flip the pic to show you Minnie right side up!!

Anywho, I may not be back on before I leave. I am going to try my hand at a somewhat live TR? Maybe I will just update every evening?? We shall see?

Thanks for coming along for the ride!
 


HI! :wave:

I just found your Pretrip report. I wish I would have discovered it earlier as you were in the actual planning stages! But now I can be here for your TR that you will write now that you are back. You just got back home and the holidays are upon us. So take your time but just make sure to either add your TR here or post a link to it once you write it. And I will be following along!:thumbsup2

I, too, am a band parent mom and my hubby and have been on the pit crew for the four years my son was in marching band and now for the past three years my daughter has been in marching band. My son's band went to Disney back in February 2014 and it was so much fun. We tagged along similar to what you did with your daughter. The link to my TR from that trip is in my signature but they were only there a couple of days.

My daughter's band was suppose to go on their band trip this year (they go on a trip every other year). They were suppose to take part in the halftime show at the Outback Bowl in Tampa over New Years and the Outback Bowl parade. But not enough people signed up for the trip so it was cancelled! It was pricey - 1,400 a student and they were just going to be at a hotel in Tampa, go to Seaworld one day and one day at Universal. I think more kids would have elected to go on the trip if the trip would have been more like yours an extended time at Disney. Our director tends to try to go to lots of different places in ONE trip, picks a more expensive hotel to stay at (Hilton conference ones) and at least one expensive meal that everyone eats together and so that means less time at any one place and it adds to the cost of the trip itself. He did the same thing when my son was in band. If he would just keep it simple, one place - DISNEY and let Disney do what it does best - plan and accommodate large groups, then the cost would have been more reasonable AND the kids would have more time to enjoy the parks!

I had booked a hotel at Disney and was going to enjoy Disney with my son (hubby could not go) and we were going to go watch them at the parade in Tampa and go to Universal the day they planned to be there. I was really bummed when they cancelled their trip.

But now that the trip is cancelled, I ended up making plans for a trip for us this summer instead. I was just super excited about going back (last trip was Feb. 2014) and could not let go of my Disney dream! :tink:

WOW, I didn't realize how long my post was until now! Sorry for writing a novel that may or may not interest you. I guess you can tell how disappointed I am that my daughter does not get to experience a band trip to Disney or even Universal (I guess) like her brother did. And since the band trip her Freshman year was a cruise to the Bahamas that she did not go on, she has now missed out on going on any band trip. She did not go on the Freshman trip because she is shy and she didn't really know anyone in the summer before Freshman year started when they must sign up and pick roommates and she was reluctant to go out of the country without us tagging along. Due to the cost of that trip, I was not going to be able to tag along. So she did not go at all.
 
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25 Days! (Can you feel the excitement?)

Trip is paid off and I am now in the process of saving $$ for the fun stuff!!




I also tried my hand at Mickey ears! I can tell you that it is not as easy as it looks and they are a little crooked but I am okay wearing them anyway. I wanted to make ones with our school colors/mascot since this is actually a school trip. Here they are....
View attachment 453447
View attachment 453448
I still have another pair that needs to be made, I wanted to make an Americana pair to match my one t-shirt, but I have not gotten to it yet. Once I do, I will upload a pic of that one too. /QUOTE
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I love the Minnie ears you made! They turned out really cute with the school colors and the musical notes! I still want to see your Americana pair!​
 
I love the Minnie ears you made with your school colors and the musical notes! So cute! And perfect for a member of the band fan club! I would love to see a picture of your Americana ears too!
 
HI! :wave:

I just found your Pretrip report. I wish I would have discovered it earlier as you were in the actual planning stages! But now I can be here for your TR that you will write now that you are back. You just got back home and the holidays are upon us. So take your time but just make sure to either add your TR here or post a link to it once you write it. And I will be following along!:thumbsup2

Welcome!!! And thanks for your comments:) Sorry it has taken so long for me to get around to responding. I am trying so very hard to just get back into a "normal, Post-Disney" lifeo_O

I can tell you that this trip was very tiring for the kids, they were kept at the park from open to close daily. There were a few times that Savannah actually just went back to the hotel with us because she was exhausted and just wanted to sleep.

I love the Minnie ears you made with your school colors and the musical notes! So cute! And perfect for a member of the band fan club! I would love to see a picture of your Americana ears too!
THANKS!!!! I never got around to actually making the americana ones but I did wear these while there. This has also fueled my obsession with ears to begin with as you will see in my TR!
 

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