Let's Go to Disney! - An October 2020 Girls' Trip PTR! *CANCELLED 6/23 :(

the2ndstar2theright

DIS Veteran
Joined
Jan 7, 2017
Jambo, everybody! :wave:

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Since one PTR at a time is simply not enough, please allow me to welcome you to
Let’s Go to Disney! – An October 2020 Girls’ Trip PTR!!!

This trip came about somewhat as a joke (which seems to be a trend with me), but one that very quickly transitioned to “Wait---let’s actually go to Disney!” This will be my first girls’ trip with friends, and I have to admit that I am beyond excited. Which reminds me—before I go any further, let’s meet the girls!


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Hi there! That’s me. I'm Lindsey, and I am an almost-21-year-old college student studying English (does this actually surprise anyone?). This will be my 15th trip to WDW! If you don’t already know me pretty well, you can check out my previous PTRs/TRs in my signature. I also have another PTR in the works for a February 2020 trip HERE. A few of my favorites…

Favorite Character: Tinker Bell

Favorite Movie: Princess and the Frog
Favorite Song: “Show Yourself”
Favorite Park: Magic Kingdom
Favorite Ride: Big Thunder Mountain Railroad



Skylar & Abby are my ride-or-dies, my people, the ones who keep me from going completely insane. We all met through the dance company we are a part of at school, and now I can’t imagine life without them. A little about them…

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Skylar has been to WDW even more times than I have (she thinks the number is somewhere around 40)! Some of her favorites...

Favorite Character: Dopey

Favorite Movie: Moana
Favorite Song: “Into the Unknown”
Favorite Park: Magic Kingdom

Favorite Ride: Splash Mountain


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This will be Abby's 5th trip to WDW! Some of her favorites...

Favorite Character: Robin Hood

Favorite Movie: The Aristocats
Favorite Song: “Once Upon a Dream”
Favorite Park: Animal Kingdom

Favorite Ride: Expedition Everest

That's us!


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Now that you know a little bit about us, let’s get on with this planning adventure!

 
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The Basics

Who: Me, Skylar, & Abby
When: October 2020
Where: Disney Springs Best Western (subject to change)
Why: Fall Break, Skylar’s 21st, MNSSHP!



This trip originally came about because we were all talking about wanting to go to a Halloween Party. Then, we realized that Skylar would turn 21 on our next fall break (then subsequently realized that it would be my last fall break), and the rest is history! :cool1: We will therefore be traveling to WDW in October 2020 for our school’s fall break, and we could not be more excited! Our fall break gives us a Thursday and Friday off of classes, so our plan is to drive part of the way on Wednesday after we all get out of our last classes.


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As of right now, we are booked at the Disney Springs Best Western, which gives us all the perks of staying onsite, but we’re definitely keeping our eyes peeled for more discounts. During our trip, Skylar will turn 21, and we’re, of course, planning to attend MNSSHP! We’ve already been talking about our costumes for the party and lots of other fun things like that.

Obviously this trip is too far away to have much in the way of specifics yet, but I'm so excited for all the planning to come! :D



 


Overdue Update

Hi there, friends! It has been a hot minute since I have updated this PTR, but with the chaos that is the global pandemic, there wasn’t really a lot to share for a while because we weren’t sure that this trip was going to happen. With all the recent discussions about plans for reopening and various things like that, we have decided to go ahead with the planning as though it definitely is happening.

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With that said, A LOT has changed in the last couple of weeks! The three of us had a group facetime a couple of weeks ago to talk about some things, and one of them was the way that we were getting there. Both mine and Abby’s moms were not thrilled about the idea of us driving, so we started trying to figure out if it was possible for us to fly. We managed to get return flights essentially for free thanks to my mom’s Southwest points, but we’ve still been looking for a flight down. Well, just a couple of days ago we scored tickets for $59/each on a Delta flight for the way down! We were pretty thrilled with the realization that we got round-trip tickets for $70, so we’re super excited about that. :banana:

With that, though, came the decision to stay onsite rather than at the Disney Springs Best Western like we had originally planned. We were okay staying at the Best Western when we were driving because then we wouldn’t have to rely on their shuttle system. Now that we had decided to fly, though, we knew that the shuttles weren’t going to be a great option, and getting an Uber back and forth could get kind of pricey (especially when considering going to and from the airport). So, with that in mind, we went back to our spreadsheet to compare numbers, and now we are booked to stay at All Star Movies!

I went looking through our old scrapbooks to find some pictures of the Resort, so please enjoy these photos of almost 4-year-old me at All Star Movies on my first trip back in 2003.

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I’m honestly pretty excited about it, because I haven’t stayed at Movies since 2004, so I think it will be fun. Plus, with the new renovations, Movies now has queen beds, which makes our lives a little easier.

Our ADR day was a couple of weeks ago, too, but after talking through it, we actually decided not to make any reservations for this trip. It’s a short trip, and we are on a pretty tight budget, and we all felt like we’d rather put that money toward something else (like our MNSSHP tickets ;)).

The other thing that we have spent a lot of time figuring out is how to connect everybody on MDE. Skylar already has an AP under her family’s MDE account, and I will have one, so that meant we needed to keep our separate profiles, but still be connected. Abby’s was a little less complicated since she’s only getting a two day ticket. We finally were able to get my MDE account connected with Skylar’s family’s, so I was then able to choose her as one of the guests on the reservation. For whatever reason, though, the same method wouldn’t work with Abby’s family’s account, so I ended up just creating her a profile on my account. Since she’s only getting a two day ticket, it doesn’t matter about it being under her family’s account.

Whew. Sound complicated? It kind of was. Planning with multiple MDE accounts has been a new experience for me, and there’s definitely been a bit of a learning curve. We think we have it mostly figured out now…hopefully anyway lol. :confused:

Since we did finally get that squared away, Abby went ahead and bought her two day ticket, which means I am the only one who still has to buy a ticket. That has to wait a little while longer though, since I need my AP to still be active next May for another trip that is in the works. ;)

Wow, I know that was a lot of words, so I’m sorry! I’m going to try to do better about updating this PTR as we actually make plans, which hopefully will be easier now that the semester is over.

As of now, this is the state of our planning checklist (thank you for this idea @Newsies :laughing:):

Hotel Reservation?
Yes!

Flights? Yes!

Tickets? Almost – 2/3!

MNSSHP Tickets? Not yet

MNSSHP Costumes? In progress lol

FP+? Not yet

Magic Bands? Not yet

Memory Maker? Included with mine and Skylar’s APs!

 
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Idk how I missed this PTR?? But I’m here! Also reading your birthday trip report!!

I just wanted to point out that if I’m not mistaken, you can purchase your AP voucher now and it will not be active until you actually activate it in person during your trip. I’ve been toying around with the idea of seeing if an AP makes any sense in my future, so I’m considering buying a voucher sooner rather than later and just activating it when I actually need it.
 
Sounds like some good changes!! Glad you will be staying on site now!!

We are very excited about it! Just crossing our fingers that it happens at this point.

Idk how I missed this PTR?? But I’m here! Also reading your birthday trip report!!

I just wanted to point out that if I’m not mistaken, you can purchase your AP voucher now and it will not be active until you actually activate it in person during your trip. I’ve been toying around with the idea of seeing if an AP makes any sense in my future, so I’m considering buying a voucher sooner rather than later and just activating it when I actually need it.

Welcome aboard!

Oh really? I was thinking that it was good for a year from the date of purchase. It's been a couple years since I've bought one, and I don't remember. Either way, waiting a little while gives me more time to save up the money. ;)
 
Oh really? I was thinking that it was good for a year from the date of purchase. It's been a couple years since I've bought one, and I don't remember. Either way, waiting a little while gives me more time to save up the money. ;)

Saving up is where I’m at now too! I’ve got a special bank account for my next Disney trip, slowly adding more to it over time... it’s worth the money, but it definitely takes time to save.
 
The Saddest of All Updates

Well, friends, this is the update that I never ever wanted to write. Unfortunately, due to the pandemic and the policies in place as a result of it, my friends and I have decided to cancel our trip. :sad: :sad: We just decided that we were going to be spending a lot of money on what would feel like an incomplete trip, and we just didn’t feel like that was the smartest use of our money.

This was just confirmed even more with the announcement that all of the MNSSHPs for the year are cancelled—which just says to me that they are not expecting the parks to return to any semblance of normalcy any time soon. I also just received confirmation this morning that my school has done away with our fall break this year so that we can end our semester at Thanksgiving, which was something we had been hearing rumors about for a while, so taking a trip in October is no longer possible anyway.

I’m currently going through the process of cancelling everything for this trip. I have now tried to call Disney 8 times to get the tickets cancelled, but so far I haven’t even been put on hold because the line is so busy. :confused3 Everything else is fairly simple to cancel, and thankfully we hadn’t paid for much in advance.

With that said, I’m not sure when I’ll be back in WDW. That is the saddest thing I’ve said in a long time, but as of right now, we don’t have a trip in the works. I don’t want to go back before it is safe for the parks to return to normal operations, so I guess I’m just playing a waiting game at this point.

I hope everyone is staying safe and healthy, and I hope we all get to return to experiencing the magic soon. Until next time! :tinker:


 
Right as I finally find my way over here, this happens. I'm so sorry to hear that you had to cancel. I think it will all be for the better since Florida really is not anywhere you'd want to be right now and Disney reopening is purely economic. It might be better come October, but even better to return when things are normal like you said and we all can go on vacation feeling fully safe.
 
Right as I finally find my way over here, this happens. I'm so sorry to hear that you had to cancel. I think it will all be for the better since Florida really is not anywhere you'd want to be right now and Disney reopening is purely economic. It might be better come October, but even better to return when things are normal like you said and we all can go on vacation feeling fully safe.

Well thanks for hopping over anyway! I definitely think it is for the best, and even though it isn't necessarily what I wanted to happen, I know I while enjoy a trip so much more when things return to normal.

So sorry you had to cancel your trip :(

Me too! :( Certainly not the decision anyone wants to make, but I'm certain it's for the best.
 

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