"See the Line Where the Guests Meet the Mouse? It Calls Me..." March 2017 *New Post 7/4*

[AlliGirl]

Hello and Welcome to our Walt Disney World Vacation!

Hi! We are Alli and Scott (alligirl and FreddyMercury here on the boards). We have written three other trip reports about our Disneyland and Walt Disney World trips:

"It's So Clean!" First Timer's July 2014 Trip Report
Former Cast Members Take Back the Parks! (A June WDW Vacation TR)
How to Plan a Disneyland Trip in One Hour (Labor Day 2015)

We are just about to leave for our trip to the vacation kingdom, and we wanted to start this right before our departure, so we’d be all ready to start posting upon returning.


First, in this post, I’ll give some information about how our trip came to be, and then I’ll break down our more specific plans in the following post, and throughout the trip report, we'll see how they compare to what we actually do throughout our trip. We are rope drop to park close types, but we always leave room to change our plans based on what we feel like doing next. We also have a couple fun surprises that we planned for each other to share with you guys, and since I love reading about how people get themselves and their bags ready for their trip, I'll share some information about that as well.


Your Ghost Hosts:

Scott and I at a very different castle, one that serves wine.


Scott and I met while on a Disney College Program starting in January of 2013, and we’ve been stuck to each other’s hip ever since.

When you live at Walt Disney World, you even get your haircut on Main Street.

I opted to get my hair done at the Whispering Canyon Salon instead.

I sunk, I mean STEERED, boats at the World Famous Jungle Cruise (just don't ask about the whereabouts of the Kissimmee Kate, and we're all good) while Scott swabbed decks and raised sails at the Pirates of the Caribbean. We worked at Walt Disney World from January 2013 – January 2014. We left Orlando so that Scott could finish his degree and I’m proud to say that we are both educating the moody pre-teen youth of this country. Sure, it may not be quite AS fun as dressing in head-to-toe khaki and training elephants to speak on command, but hey it’s paying for this awesome trip to our favorite place and we didn’t even have to ask for a single day off, because we just get weeks of work off at a time.

You may have seen Scott and I moonlighting in various other roles. Including the ever fulfilling stroller parking shifts.

You may have even seen us in our favorite role, highly enthused Disney fans who spent every waking moment at a park!


When and How This Trip Came to Be:​

Scott and I last visited WDW in May of 2015 with a friend who was on our DCP with us. Since then, we have visited Disneyland twice. We always crave magic, and we had a big trip in mind: Tokyo Disneyland. I adore Japanese food and culture, and TDL is the international park that we’ve most desired a trip to see, mostly because of DisneySea, and because Tokyo is somewhere we’d love to vacation anyway. The trip we had in mind would be around two weeks long, and going SO far away from home, we wanted to bring some friends for that journey. We had friends who were down for the adventure, until they found out that they had eight…EIGHT weddings to attend in 2017, with some of them being at out of country destinations! Oof! Scott and I were still considering going to Tokyo just us, but that would have to wait until June or July. Fast forward to January 2017, the spring semester at our respective schools had just started and we made it to about Wednesday of the first week of the semester before we had our trip for spring break booked! We have a trip to Key West planned in June, so this way we have something to look forward to mid-semester and this summer.

Throughout this school year, we’ve had many conversations deciding when we would return to WDW. We kept wondering if we should wait for Pandora to open. But when it came down to it, there were plenty of new and exciting things for us to do and we NEEDED THAT SWEET, SWEET MAGIC! We teetered back and forth about actually pulling the trigger, I was constantly checking package prices and room availability and then one night I saw that all of the packages with a room discount for our resort had been booked! I quickly figured out that the package without the discount was less than $200 more, and I took this as a sign that we needed to book NOW!


Scott went to take a pre-bed shower and I quickly made the reservation without him knowing and then I saw THE most glorious screen!

I showed Scott the laptop screen and he asked me with wide eyes, “what does this mean?!” I was very pleased to tell him that this meant that WE WERE OFFICIALLY GOING BACK TO DISNEY WORLD!


The timing of our booking was great because we only had to wait less than a week to make our Fastpass Reservations. However, because we booked fairly close to our departure date, flights were STEEP! In fact, the cost of both of our round trip flights was only slightly less than our 7 night hotel stay and 6 day parkhoppers! OY VEY! I tried looking at departure from several different locations, I thought about flying in to a different city in Florida and driving in, but nothing I considered was going to produce savings worth sacrificing that much trip time. I booked our fares through Southwest, and all of the cheapest category of tickets were sold out, for both travel days, which is why they ended up being so pricy. However, I checked Southwest’s website daily and I was able to find tickets for both of our flights in the cheaper category! Each time I found the cheaper fare, I just called Southwest and then we were refunded a couple hundred dollars, TWICE! So now I had more reasonably priced flights, AND both were non-stop flights, with our arrival day flight getting in at 9:45am! We’re so excited to be arriving in Orlando so early!

We plan to take a lot of pictures, and have a ton of fun, which is easy for us always, but a guarantee at Disney! I really hope you'll be along for the ride(s)! I have a feeling this is going to be one of our best and most special experiences at the parks yet!

So, our final details:


When: March 11th – 18th


Where: Pop Century (but let’s be real…the room is only for sleeping, we are here to park, park, PARK IT UP!)
​

Thanks for reading and I hope that the story of our Disney trip brings you joy, wherever you are reading this from!

Isn't the lighting at Disney always the best?



-Quick Links-
MagicBand Scavenger Hunt
Pre-Trip Itinerary
The Night Before...
Travel Day
Disney Springs
Dinner at Sanaa
Magic Kingdom Park Day - Pt. 1
Magic Kingdom Park Day - Pt. 2
Magic Kingdom Park Day - Pt. 3
Animal Kingdom Park Day - Pt. 1
Animal Kingdom Park Day - Pt. 2
Epcot Park Day - Pt. 1
Epcot Park Day - Pt. 2
Hollywood Studios Park Day
Park Hopping Adventures - Pt. 1
Park Hopping Adventures - Pt. 2
Park Hopping Adventures - Pt. 3​

 

[FreddyMercury]

WE'RE STUPIDLY EXCITED AND WE CANT WAIT TO TELL YOU GUYS AND GALS ALL ABOUT OUR TRIP. ONE WEEK. WOO!!! SPRING BREAK '17. GON' BE LIT, YALL.

 

[steviethegreat]

Following along! Looking forward to hearing all about your adventures!

 

[FreddyMercury]

Hello, all.
Scott here...
​

We're still inching ever so closely to our upcoming trip. When you teach 8th grade mathematics and you have a Disney vacation less than 4 days away, every hour seems like eternity. So before we left, I thought I would share with you all about a small pre-trip surprise I planned for Alli...

We had discussed many moons ago that we should do something special for each other during this trip, being that it was our first Disney vacation just the two of us. I instantly had an idea in mind, but I had to figure out a fun way to dress it up. So for the next 60 days, my scheming mind worked to concoct an exciting plan.

We had been anxiously awaiting the arrival of our Magic Bands for weeks now, and it was finally arrival day. Alli had given me SPECIFIC orders to wait until she got home to check the mail. She didn't want me unboxing the magic without her. I immediately disobeyed her orders (as I had been planning to) in order to execute the last few steps of my plan and reveal my surprise.

And so begins the MAGIC BAND SCAVENGER HUNT!!! My go-to move when it comes to Walt Disney World vacations. Alli arrived home from work to her first clue, and the race was on!! (It wasn't a race. It was a scavenger hunt. Was I clear on that?)

We purchased the Haunted Mansion Ghost Post subscription box, and one of the items was this awesome little
teacup (with saucer).

​

You see... The scavenger hunt was simply a means of revealing the ACTUAL surprise. I knew right away that I wanted to make an exciting dinner reservation, but there were two questions I had to answer first: Where should I make the reservation, and was it possible to make a dining reservation and NOT have it listed on the MDE app? (I knew Alli would be checking)

I simply called, asked if it was possible to not have the reservation linked, and homeboy working for Disney Guest Relations hooked me up. Deciding where to dine wasn't much of a challenge. I know Alli and I know what she wants. Now I just needed to think of a clever reveal. Well...

SECRET SANAA RESERVATION SUCCESS!!!
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Sanaa is a dining experience that has been on both of our to-do lists for a while, so we are more than thrilled about eating there on our arrival night. And I'm more than happy about how the scavenger hunt worked out. Alli didn't see it coming for a second!

Anyway, that's it for now! I hope you enjoyed. Gentlemen: Feel free to steal my idea. It's a real charmer.


Click here for our next post: Pre-Trip Itinerary

 

[lilaurora]

How fun! Very creative on your part. I hope your surprise and scavenger hunt were appreciated

 

[JessRose]

What a bummer! Just missed you at the Pop. Following along!

 

[Terra Nova guy]

Gentlemen: Feel free to steal my idea. It's a real charmer.

Well play sir, well played. And I may just have to keep this idea tucked away for future reference!

 

[AlliGirl]

Following along! Looking forward to hearing all about your adventures!

Thanks for following along!

How fun! Very creative on your part. I hope your surprise and scavenger hunt were appreciated

I have been wanting to eat at Sanaa forever! It was a great surprise and I can't wait!

What a bummer! Just missed you at the Pop. Following along!

I hope you had a fantastic trip! Thanks for following along!

 

[AlliGirl]

Welcome back! In tonight’s post, I’ll be sharing our plans and itinerary.


I forgot to say in earlier posts that Scott and I will both be writing posts from our respective accounts as we go throughout the Trip Report. Double the writers, double the fun!


I wanted to wait until after Scott posted about the surprise he planned for me so I could include it in our plans here. We made a couple dining reservations and chose which parks we’d be visiting on each day before we made our Fastpass+ reservations. We chose which day we’d be visiting a park based on EMH mostly, but we always start a trip the same way! In planning, I create a spreadsheet for each day with Fastpass+ reservations, ADRs, plans for rope drop (which attractions we want to hit), schedules for shows, souvenirs we want from a specific location, and any food ideas for that park. I save an image of each day’s spreadsheet on my phone to refer to throughout the trip. I realize I could just open MDE, but we all know that WiFi and MDE can act up in the park, and this way it’s personalized to include things that aren’t included on MDE. However, I’m going to wait and post those images after we return when we’re posting about each day.


Day One:


Though our flight arrives before 10am, Scott and I don’t like to visit a park on a travel day if we don’t have to. Also, we are very excited to visit Disney Springs on this trip! When we last visited Walt Disney World in May 2015, Disney Springs was still very much in flux. Some new areas had been uncovered, while others were still majorly under construction.


Since we arrive so early, I don’t think our room will be ready even though we’ve filled out everything for online check in. If our room is ready, we’ll stop in to drop off our bags. If it’s not, we’ll get our park bags ready in the lobby by taking out all the unnecessary travel stuff in our backpacks like iPads, chargers, etc. and leave our bags at bell services.


Disney Springs Food Ideas:

-The Daily Poutine

-Jock Lindsay’s Hangar Bar

-Tea Traders Café

-Morimoto Asia Street Food

-Coca-Cola Store (I LOVE unique sodas and I have to get the tester trays!)


We are the kind of people all about getting to try many different things, so we like to get a little here and a little there and split stuff to maximize the amount of things we get to experience.


We have a couple souvenirs we want to get here, and new stores we want to check out. The other thing we are planning to do at Disney Springs is add express transportation onto our tickets.


In the evening, we’ll be heading to Sanaa for a special arrival day dinner! We’ll probably head right back to the resort after dinner, because that day will be starting with a 3am wake up call!


Day Two: Magic Kingdom


We HAVE to start every trip at Magic Kingdom, no exceptions!


We’ll be there for rope drop and try to cross off a few Fantasyland attractions. Our Fastpasses start mid-morning and include Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, Space Mountain, and Splash Mountain. I’m hoping that breakfast at Casey’s will still be going, as we’d like to try the breakfast hot dog. We have a reservation at the SKIPPER CANTEEN for lunch. As a former Jungle Cruise Skipper myself, this is a MUST DO and I am so excited! We would like to watch the new Muppets show in Liberty Square, the Festival of Fantasy parade, and Wishes and Once Upon a Time that night. These are lofty goals, so let’s see how much we are able to do!


Day Three: Animal Kingdom


I am really looking forward to seeing Animal Kingdom, because last time we were there, there were many construction walls covering Discovery Island and a crane by the Tree of Life. We have Fastpasses for Dinosaur, Kiliminjaro Safari, and Expedition Everest, which are all of our favorites! We plan to watch Festival of the Lion King and Finding Nemo. These are some of the only stage shows we make a point to watch at Disney World. We’ve never been able to stay at Animal Kingdom while it’s open until 9pm! I’m pumped for an after dark ride on Expedition Everest! After they stopped doing the 5k in Animal Kingdom at night, I didn’t know if I’d ever have the chance! I am really looking forward to drinks and food from the Nomad Lounge for lunch or dinner as well.


Day Four: Epcot


Right after we booked this trip, I realized that we were going to get to see Flower and Garden at Epcot and I was so overjoyed! We were working at WDW for the first year they had the outdoor kitchens open, and this is something we really enjoy! We’re going to try to hit Test Track and Soarin’ at rope drop, because we have a Fastpass for Frozen Ever After! Yay, new ride experience! Plus, we’ve waited in the standby line for Test Track many times, and don’t mind it at all. Our other fastpasses are Mission: Space and Spaceship Earth. We have a long list of our picks from the F&G offerings, and will be enjoying those for our meals throughout the day.


In the evening we are planning to return to Animal Kingdom to see Rivers of Light. As the times and dates for this show weren’t announced until after we already had our reservations set, we’re thinking that we will try to watch the second showing of RoL this night.


Day Five: Hollywood Studios


We will be trying to rope drop Rock ‘n Roller Coaster, and we have Fastpasses for Tower of Terror, Toy Story Midway Mania, and Star Tours. I’m very excited to have a nice leisurely late lunch and drinks at the Brown Derby Lounge to wait until it’s time for Fantasmic! that evening. If we still have more gas in the tank after Fantasmic!, then it’s on to the Magic Kingdom for late night EMH that evening.


Day Six: Epcot/Resort Hopping


We’re going to head back to Epcot for a few hours in the morning. Afterwards, we’ll be heading around the Monorail loop. What time we leave Epcot will decide which order we visit the resorts in. We’d like to try the new shareable drink at the Contemporary, hang out at Trader Sam’s at the Polynesian because we’re big fans of Disneyland’s TS, and then we have something special planned at the Grand Floridian!


After our Monorail day, we are thinking of watching Illuminations that evening.


Day Seven: Magic Kingdom, Magic Kingdom, and more Magic Kingdom


Yep, we are going to bask all the livelong day at our favorite place on earth. I’m thinking we may take a boat to the Wilderness Lounge to try out lunch at Geyser Point. Then, we’ll definitely be catching Wishes that evening, to give it a proper good bye.


WEE! If you read that very dense all text post, welp you’re as wild of a Disney planner as I am!


It’s Thursday, Friday, and then we’re outta here, YESSSS!



Click here for our next post: The Night Before...

 

[balty74]

You guys are so much fun! Can't wait to hear all about your trip. Have a blast!!!

 

[TEAMJACOB]

Following along. Hopefully today, your travel day, went smooth.

 

[Tracy161]

I am here as well! I think you two are everyone's relationship goals Sounds like you have an amazing trip planned. Can't wait to read all about it upon your return!

 

[frostymojo]

Following along

 

[FreddyMercury]

I am here as well! I think you two are everyone's relationship goals Sounds like you have an amazing trip planned. Can't wait to read all about it upon your return!

I HOPE YOU'RE STAYING WARM!!! We're having a blast so far despite the less than tropical weather.

Following along

Welcome! Can't wait to update.

 

[AlliGirl]

The Night Before…​

Hello everyone! Scott and I returned from our trip on Saturday, March 18th. I can’t believe that was only a week ago! We are going to try to write an update every weekend until we finish our report. I tend to drag my feet more than Scott does to get started on a post, because I’m always scared of the Disney blues, and we’ve already started thinking about our next WDW trip, which definitely won’t be another two years away! We had such an incredible trip and I can’t wait to share it with you all! We just had simply amazing luck and fairy dust and we’ve both agreed that it was one of our best Disney trips EVER (if not THE best)! Here we go…


One thing I forgot to mention before our trip, was that Scott wasn’t the only one who planned a surprise! After Scott planned his scavenger hunt for me to find out that we had a Sanaa reservation, I planned a scavenger hunt for him to find a special present for the trip. I told him that it was “Boot Camp” to get ready for the trip, and I got him to pack his backpack and carry on with trip essentials through the clues. Then the last clue instructed him to go out to my car and put his luggage inside, and there was a gift waiting there!

​

Scott and I are huge believers in Chaco’s, and they are our preferred walking shoes. Scott has had his pair for about five years (a testament to their longevity!) and needed a new pair, so I sneakily ordered a pair online. The day before they were going to arrive, Scott started mentioning that he thought he needed a new pair before the trip as the sole was separating on these etc. I got really nervous that he might order a pair himself, so I just responded with a couple of “mhmms” and “I don’t know” and moved the conversation to another topic!

Scott: I didn't see this coming at all, and I was incredibly happy. I was really worried about bringing my broken Chacos along, but now I didn't have to worry!! Come to find out, I wouldn't be wearing sandals that much....

Friday, March 10th was our last chance to wrap up loose ends before our very, very early flight the next morning. We had a couple errands to run, and of course we needed to pack!


We had a special treat we wanted to pick up as well. Scott and I are both teachers and we celebrated this last school day before Spring Break by wearing matching Walt Disney World shirts, haha! Obviously we zipped right on out of school just the second we could!


Right when we got home, we had to take care of the worst part of any trip: dropping our dog off at the boarder. For some reason I always get really worried right when we are going to take her, but then the second we do I feel better and I know she’s always well taken care of!

After we dropped our little Penny June off, we went to Panera for dinner. Then we headed to pick up something special for our trip! Everybody loves to have some snacks and sweets for travel, and we love to get them from our favorite candy shop called Big Top.

​

I was a little worried, because there was a music festival going on downtown and it was Friday night, and we were headed right into it, but it turned out to be a quick trip! We love buying candy by the pound from this retro candy shop, and made sure to get a lot of our favorites. It ended up lasting us our entire trip, because we kept it in the room and only ate a few pieces here and there.

​

Afterwards we stopped by Target so we could get a couple last minute items. Luckily Scott remembered to get bottles of water right at the check out counter. We are people who always need access to water (and who doesn’t at a theme park?) and we typically carry our own reusable bottles. However, they get heavy in our backpacks, and the smaller plastic bottles are much lighter, so we each got one to refill at water fountains throughout our trip, we just empty them before going through security of course.


Once we got home it was a mad dash to shower, pack, and get organized while trying to get to bed at a reasonable hour. I annoyingly wanted to bring two backpacks, one large backpack that has a spot to hold my iPad, that I prefer to take on a plane, and then a smaller backpack that I carry in the park. The park bag went in my suitcase filled with the items I’d only need in the parks, like pins. I was getting a little stressed thinking about having to switch stuff around in the hotel lobby if our room wasn’t ready when we arrived, and trying to figure out the logistics of all that.

While choosing outfits and clothes, we debated what we would need. I thought about only taking my Chaco’s, but then decided that one pair of shoes for a week full of walking wouldn’t be my best choice, and grabbed a pair of Keds and some socks. Scott debated which jacket to bring, while I was sure that one cotton zip up jacket was enough. Well, thank goodness that we brought at least SOMETHING warm (one pair of jeans and one jacket each) because…well, foreshadowing.


We also took pictures of our pin collections, so we’d remember what we wanted to trade for while in the parks. We had an amazing trip for trading pins! We had so much fun with it!

I had spreadsheets made with our plans for each day, which I added to as we planned. I took screenshots and emailed them to myself so I could save them to my phone, and then it was finally time for bed!

 

[AlliGirl]

Travel Day: And So it Begins!
​

Saturday, March 11th we woke up at the shocking hour of 3am. Oy. However, as we can all magically do on a Disney travel day, we were shockingly coherent and excited. We quickly got ready, got all of our toiletries packed up, took out the garbage, and headed out the door!


We used to live about two hours from the airport, with traffic, but now we live about twenty minutes away and I pass it on my way to work every day! Our city is known for its traffic, and I was surprised to see a fair amount of cars on the road for 4am, but it was an easy drive. We parked at The Parking Spot, which turned out to be a really good choice, as it typically is. By the time we were parked, I checked the clock and realized that we were making great time on our travel day!

​

Luckily, a shuttle was right behind us and we got on quickly. We made our way to the airport, and when we arrived at the terminal, I was very surprised to see many MANY people gathered up outside and inside. I quickly realized that it was a school group, that they were almost definitely going to be accompanying us to Disney and rushed to the security line in front of them. This would be a theme throughout our entire vacation, haha!


We had one of those mornings in security where I barely had time to get out my license before we were being called forward, and then we barely had time to situate our things before going through the metal detectors! Definitely not a complaint, just surprise! I looked down and realized that it had been 6 minutes since the last time I looked at the time on the shuttle! This is why we sacrifice our sleep for the early flights. We walked to our gate, and I realized that my suspicions about the school group were right, they’d be heading to Orlando with us! We got seats and started to read while we waited for boarding. Turns out we chose the two seats right under the A/C vents and got a pretty good chill…foreshadowing.

Scott:I get cold very easily, and I knew I needed to have a jacket for the plane. I. WAS. FREEZING at the airport. I couldn't even sit down, which was unfortunate because I was also fairly tired. I just couldn't wait for that warm, cozy Florida heat...

Soon enough, we had refilled our water bottles, taken trips to the restroom, and Scott ate his Go Picnic meal. Then, we were boarding and we were lucky enough to have gotten the A group of boarding. The very last spots in A group, that is. I figured it would be good enough to get our preferred middle and aisle seats with baggage space overhead.


However, once we entered the plane, we basically struck the jackpot! We got the two seats that are alone in the exit row, score!

Our flight was uneventful as I watched some TV and Scott read. We ended up landing 30 minutes early, again I was feeling luckier than a lottery winner!

​

We made our way to the Magical Express loading area and had our first experience of “we chose the wrong line.” I believe this is a sentiment shared by all Disney-goers at one point or another. As the other lines progressed quickly, ours was at a stand still. But finally, we scanned our bands and got through to the Pop Century line. I don’t know if the process has changed or if I just paid more attention to it, but guests were being pulled in much smaller groups from each line. The Pop Century line moved and the cast member cut it off where we just didn’t make it on, oh well. We waited around awhile more and then made it on to another motorcoach.

​

We were able to get seated right at the front, wee! We waited as everyone else was loaded onto the bus, and I eagerly anticipated the Magical Express video.


However, the best surprise of all came as were seated and waiting to depart on the Magical Express: OUR ROOM WAS READY! Yes, at 10:15 our room was ready to go! I was so relieved and happy that we wouldn’t have to worry about leaving our things at bell services etc. This was a huge relief and I truly felt like everything about this trip was going just splendidly!


Our drive to the resort went by quickly as we watched the video and chattered excitedly, and soon enough we saw the view that we all dream about!

View My Video

DISNEY WORLD, HERE WE COME!
​

Thanks for reading and I hope our words and pictures bring you some Disney magic, regardless of where you’re reading this!


Click here for Travel Day pt. 2 - Disney Springs!

 

[DisneyDreamers3]

Following along! Can't wait to read more

 

[Bailey22]

You both seem like so much fun! So excited to hear about the rest of your trip!

 

[BariTravis]

Following Along! Looks to be an exciting trip.

 

[amy1115]

Following along....sounds like a great start!