Never say never...New Year New Plan **a NYE 2018/2019 PTR** Updated 12/26

Thanks to @coloredimage I also developed a crocheted coffee cozy problem...

Yesssssssss! One of us, one of us!

I moved but haven't taken all of my things recently and actually made my mother go looking around in the stuff I haven't yet moved to find my Disney backpack and crocheted cozy because i knew I would want it for my trip in January lol
 
Sometimes 50% off is too much to resist, and the practical side of my brain is overtaken by the "but it's so cute and glittery" side ::yes::

This happens to me ALL. THE. TIME. The glittery side of the brain is a powerful force.
 
Fantastic Beasts! Woohoo! I'm going today to see it. :hyper:

Hope he feels better soon! Love the bags. I agree with the whole 50% off concept. C gets irritated with me when I try to reason it out. He doesn't agree with my reasoning ;)

Happy Thanksgiving!

Ooh, I hope you liked it! I liked getting to go back to Hogwarts for awhile!!

He's feeling pretty good...they told us swelling would peak today and they were right. I thought he looked like The Situation from Jersey Shore, but he and his brother decided he looks like Carl from Jimmy Neutron :rotfl::rotfl:

DH is more of a buyer than I am...usually I'm trying to come up with a reason to NOT buy something, so when I actually go through with a purchase my family is proud of me, b/c I am the queen of picking things up, carrying all around the store, and then putting it back instead of buying it, LOL!!

Yesssssssss! One of us, one of us!

I moved but haven't taken all of my things recently and actually made my mother go looking around in the stuff I haven't yet moved to find my Disney backpack and crocheted cozy because i knew I would want it for my trip in January lol

Ha!! We say "one of us, one of us" all the time, that made me laugh!! Yes, I am fully on the cozy train. If you don't drink Starbucks at a Disney park without a crocheted cozy, did you even drink Starbucks at Disney???

This happens to me ALL. THE. TIME. The glittery side of the brain is a powerful force.

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(I did not make this, but I want to be friends with whatever 8 year old did, LOL)

I saw Fantastic Beasts yesterday it was AMAZING!

I agree!! Queenie was my favorite from the first movie, so I have...feelings...about the end, though :sad:
 


I think it ruined me for free shows, it was crazy and I am too old for that!! Leon Bridges is coming back to town in May and I bought tickets yesterday so I don't have to stand in a crowd. I can just stand in front of my seat, instead, ha!)

Haha I went to a free concert once and I'd never do it again! We had to stand in a park for like 3 hours to get a good spot, and we had to wait through all these terrible local band opening acts :rotfl:
 
Thanksgiving Week :dogdance::dogdance:

We have the full week off from school, woohoo!! I made my last visit to the grocery store this morning, and I think I'm ready to get down to baking on Weds and Thurs.

X is recovering well from his oral surgery. He's still a little puffy faced, but I figure by Wednesday he'll look mostly normal again :D

Other than catching up on some laundry, I am doing NOTHING today.

Well, nothing except updating this with some day one (and arrival day) plans!


Chapter Three: Florida, we are in you!

Every year on Christmas Day, the boys go home with their grandparents after we've done our present opening and meal eating. They'll do that again this year, we'll just go pick them up much earlier than usual (it varies each year, but they usually stay through New Year's Day). We fly out of our home airport on 12/29 (20 minutes from our house) around 3:00pm-ish. We switch planes in Atlanta, then land in Orlando around 9.

Last year DH and I had a late dinner at McCoy's in the MCO Hyatt, and we may do that again this year, depending on starvation levels of everyone.

We'll be staying at the Hyatt again on arrival night, just like last year. I don't remember what kind of room we booked this time, but last year I was excited that we could see the Christmas tree from our room:



I hope we can again this time, but I guess it doesn't really matter - we're only there to sleep. The next morning we are Disney bound!

I am also not sure if we'll take the Magical Express or if we'll just get an UberXL. It will probably depend on how early we get up.

We'll get to the Polynesian, drop our bags with bell services (unless there's a miracle and our room is ready), and take the monorail to Epcot! We will be using the resort monorail and transferring at the TTC so we can show the boys how to do that if they ever join us later at a park during the trip. We'll be letting them have more freedom on this trip (if they want it), and this is the only transportation thing they've never really had to deal with. Not that they couldn't figure it out, but it will make me feel better to walk them through it once!

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I was really unsure of which park to pick for this day, but we ultimately chose Epcot because we wanted to catch the last day of the holiday storytellers and food booths. Will we actually EAT from the food booths?? I have no idea, but we're going to have them as an option!

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When we get to Epcot, I will force everyone to pose for photopass pictures, and we'll do one of two things first, depending on what time we get there:

A. We go to Soarin'/Land/Nemo

or

B. We go right to our Fast Pass rides

For fast passes we have Test Track for 9:40 - 10:40, and I want to catch it as close to the ending time as we can, because we follow it up with Mission:Space from 10:45 - 11:45.

I *might* even suggest that DH and L ride Mission: Space by themselves while X and I run over to Norway to watch Sigrid and Julenissen. They were our favorite of the holiday storytellers. The chances of us making their 11:00 performance is pretty slim, but hey...

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Right???

But in reality, if we want to watch them in particular, we'll have to do the 1145, which makes us have to kind of rush to do the others we want to see.

By "we", I mean ME.

I want to catch Voices of Liberty (because I'm obsessed and I always stop to see them), and the Hanukkah storytellers, and either the band in Germany or Pere Noel in France. We did Italy, China, Japan, and Norway in 2016, so I'm trying to do ones we haven't seen before.

Even though I have specific times listed on my planning spreadsheet (just a daily overview so I can see how each day is laid out), I have no illusions we'll hit everything perfectly. We like to wander too much :rotfl:We don't have lunch planned, so we'll just be snacking around the world...and my boys will be much more interested in how much they can eat vs. how many storytellers they watch.

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Our final Fast Pass for the day is Spaceship Earth, from 105 - 205. I'd like to hit this around ten til 2:00 or so, and be out of the park no later than 2:30.

We'll go back to the Polynesian to find our room and get ready for dinner, maybe a VERY quick swim for the kids (because it will be their main resort priority!) and about an hour before dinner we'll make our way to the Wilderness Lodge for our ADR at Artist Point. Our likely route will be monorail to Contemporary, boat to WL, but Uber or Minnie Van could always be an option if we end up staying longer in the park or in the pool.

That night, the kids will either want to just go back to the room or swim. DH and I want to try and go to Trader Sam's, or maybe even venture over to the Magic Kingdom for awhile.

Four or five hours in Epcot is a short time, but we're not worried. Our days are going to be pretty busy for the rest of the trip, so this will just be a fairly relaxed day. We'll just get there and see how we feel, and change things around if necessary!

One of my favorite parts of writing PTRs and TRs is seeing how drastically different the real day is from the planned day!

That's all for now!! Hope Monday has been kind to you, and see you real soon!!






 


Yay for getting the FP+ you wanted for the most part

First day plans look good, you don’t want to go guns a blazin the first day so this sounds perfect.

I will be excited to see what your thoughts are of the new dinner at AP, we are trying this in January.

I hope your room at the Poly will be a good one and ready early!
 
Just swinging by to say hi and see what everyone's up to!! I've been MIA on the DIS for a while....your trip looks fantastic...I agree about how fun it is to go back and see how close your plans end up being with what you actually end up doing...!! I am gonna try to follow along! Your trip is so soon!! I can't believe it's almost December!
 
Yay for getting the FP+ you wanted for the most part

First day plans look good, you don’t want to go guns a blazin the first day so this sounds perfect.

I will be excited to see what your thoughts are of the new dinner at AP, we are trying this in January.

I hope your room at the Poly will be a good one and ready early!

I'm still second guessing myself, even though I'm comfortable with my choices :rotfl:

I'm so, so excited about AP. I'll probably be posting on Facebook and on here about it that night, since it will only be two weeks into its run. It makes me a *little* nervous to try it so early on, but I can't wait!

Maybe we'll get pixie dusted and put in a bungalow :rotfl2:Slim chance, but hey, a girl can dream, right?? I really just want a 3rd floor room in Rarotonga, so fingers crossed that's where we end up!

Sounds like an exciting first day!!!

I hope so! Right now all I can think about are worst case scenarios regarding long waits for MDE or traffic. I always go through the negative "what if" phase at this point in trip planning, LOL

Sounds like a great first day.

I told DH and the kids I would take it easy on them and not rush around, so I'm going to try hard to keep that promise :rotfl:

Enjoying your PTR. Did you hear about the moms panel? I've always wanted to try for it.

Thank you!

I did hear back - I didn't make it to round three. I made and turned in my video for round two at the very last minute, and the time limit for it was 60 seconds. When it was uploaded it said 61 seconds, so I wonder if it automatically me eliminated then. I was kind of relieved to not make round three this year b/c the next few months are insanely busy for me. I'll try again next year, though, and if I get round two again, I won't wait til the last minute to submit, LOL!!

Just swinging by to say hi and see what everyone's up to!! I've been MIA on the DIS for a while....your trip looks fantastic...I agree about how fun it is to go back and see how close your plans end up being with what you actually end up doing...!! I am gonna try to follow along! Your trip is so soon!! I can't believe it's almost December!

Hi!!! I'm happy to see you here!!

I did a little dance this morning when I realized I can say, "I'm going to WDW this month!!"...even if it is at the verrrry end of the month :rotfl:
 
Hi ...Joining in... great read..good job on ADR and FP
for us it is challenging ...there are 11 of us...so ADR are hard to make...
right now I am hoping for some pre Pixe dust....my co-worker suffered a mild stroke 2 weeks ago...and I am not sure if I can still go on this trip...I will be heart broken...no Disney...no seeing the my grandkids faces light up...so for now I am reading everyone else's plans and hope I can still go...
 
Hi ...Joining in... great read..good job on ADR and FP
for us it is challenging ...there are 11 of us...so ADR are hard to make...
right now I am hoping for some pre Pixe dust....my co-worker suffered a mild stroke 2 weeks ago...and I am not sure if I can still go on this trip...I will be heart broken...no Disney...no seeing the my grandkids faces light up...so for now I am reading everyone else's plans and hope I can still go...

Welcome!!

Oh my gosh, planning for a big group scares me! Mainly b/c at this point, planning for our family is pretty easy - I don't know how I'd handle doing it for a big group. I admire you planning that!!

Aw, I'm sorry about your co-worker, I hope you can still make your trip!
 
Good morning!!

So it looks like my last post was before Thanksgiving, yikes! I hope everyone who celebrates had a good holiday. We had our usual, and enjoyed the full week off school.

My Christmas stuff has been up since Thanksgiving evening. Well, most of it. We had some issues with our big 9 foot living room tree, and now there is a giant real one in its place. Two real trees this year mean lots of sweeping and vacuuming (Roomba sucks up the tree skirts!) for me. We also bought a new fake tree to replace the one in our kitchen dining area. My old one was the kind you have to stick each individual branch into the tree, and I was ready for a quick set tree. I have a cheap $15 tree that's been sitting in the closet for a few years, and I added it to our bedroom. More trees! More trees! More trees! I can't get enough. Here are a few rough pictures taken after setting up, no nice clean prepared photos, LOL

Here's the fireplace. Top is real greenery, bottom is fake. Wreath is real. This is a terrible angle to see the pretty stuff at the bottom, but you get the idea.



The cheap little scraggly tree in our room:



I found those poinsettias at Hobby Lobby and became obsessed, and had to find some way to use them. I bought the ornaments to match, and I love the color combo. It matches nothing else in the house, but our room is gray, white, and blush...my one excuse to do something with pink!!

Part of our real tree in the living room, using portrait mode and trying to show off the fuzzy branches:



We were at an antique store on Sunday, and I found this older Pluto ornament:



I felt compelled to buy it! It's that old plastic-covered-with-furry-stuff type that I grew up with on my grandparents' trees.


I'll take some good ones of our other trees and share those at some point. I love decorating for the holidays!

Ooh, I did find one more awesome thing!! We have a local clothing company that I buy from quite a bit. It's called Southern Trend and it has a little pig mascot, and on many of their shirts they fill the outline of the pig with designs like mermaid scales, houndstooth print, animal prints, etc...Most of my shirts from them don't have the pig on it, but a few do...and when I saw this specific new one, I bought it immediately!!





I love it so much I considered buying a backup :rotfl:

But enough of that, let's move onto Day Two plans!

Chapter Four: Days Two and Three - New Year's Eve and New Year's Day

Truly, honestly never thought we'd come back for another New Year's Eve after last year's craziness, but, here we are! No WAY are we going to be on the road in the afternoon on this day (two hours on a bus is not something I want to repeat ever), but we will risk it first thing in the morning.

We are Hollywood Studios bound for New Year's Eve morning!

They added Early Morning Magic on this day, which kind of ruins my initial plan, and may even send us to a different park...with only 25 days to go until we arrive, I guess I'd better figure that out soon, huh? For now, I'll share what we have down as of now.

We plan to get there as early as possible, and head for Toy Story Midway Mania and maybe Slinky Dog (although the chances of the line being reasonable have decreased in my estimation, due to potential EMMers hanging on for another ride. )

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I never counted on Slinky Dog Dash, but I still had hopes of catching a line around 30 minutes first thing, if we walked fast enough! I didn't even try to get a fast pass for this particular day, b/c I wanted to save that for a nighttime ride later in the trip.

Another option would be my standard Hollywood Studios opening plan, which is to start things off with Tower of Terror and RnR...We haven't been on RnR since our first family visit in 2014 - I always pick TSMM as our tier one choice!

Right now we have a Fast Pass for Rock n Rollercoaster around 930/1030, but I'm getting the nagging "change it" voice in the back of my head.

We have Alien Swirling Saucers planned for right after that (1040/1140), so again, I may be changing up our plan of attack.

Depending on crowds and timing, we'd like to fit in some character meets and Star Tours. We have an ADR for Mama Melrose at 11:30 for lunch.

The final FP is for Tower from 110 - 210, which I'd like to hit at the end of the window, then exit the park. Current plan is to take the boat to Epcot, walk through to the front and monorail back to the Poly.

Dinner is at 5:30 at Citricos. I have a Touring Plans alert set for 7:00 instead, so we could watch the MK 6:30 fireworks first.

We won't be leaving the Grand Floridian/Polynesian area on New Year's Eve night. We tend to go to bed early, but because we'll have such a special view, we may stay up until after the late fireworks this year.

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New Year's Day

Last year we spend New Year's Day rope dropping the Magic Kingdom and loving life. It was SO EMPTY that morning, it was amazing. This year we're switching it up and going to Epcot instead. We may let the boys join us later on this day if they don't want to get up early.

We'll rope drop Soarin' and Land, Visit Nemo and the Seas, and Figment. Lunch is at San Angel Inn (DH's request - he and the boys have never eaten there), followed by Frozen Ever After and some World Showcase exploring. We have Spaceship Earth FPs for 230, but I may move those earlier in the morning to free up the afternoon if we want to stay at Epcot longer. I'll probably go check that out right after I post this!

We'll stay as long as we feel like it, and then head back to the resort.

I booked the after version of Happily Ever After dessert party, so it'll be an MK evening for us.

That's all for now! I have three more days of plans to share...Magical Express tags arrived yesterday and Magic Bands shipped on Saturday. 25 days left, so I'd better get moving to finish this off!!

Have a great day, Friends!




 
What a cool shirt!

Both days sound great! It's good that you have experience from last year so you know what to do/not to do!
 
Back again!!

It's kind of a weird day...I have nothing left to do! I mean, there's always housework, but who wants to do that??

L is going home with a friend after school and X walks home, so that means I don't have to go pick anyone up today. I've done my pre will-it-or-won't-it-snow shopping, sooo....seems like a good time to update!

Magic bands and Magical Express stuff has arrived!!

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Our countdown to being on Disney property is at 22 days!!

If I'm being honest with you, I'm not doing a very good job at keeping track. With the holidays rapidly approaching, the trip keeps getting shoved back behind other things. That just means that when I do stop to think about it, the excitement is new all over again!

Chapter Five: Welcome to a whole new year

I've actually made one small change - on 12/30 we moved our Artist Point Snow White meal to 6:10 from 5:20 to give us more of a time cushion that day.

So, we've made it past the craziness of New Year's Eve and New Year's Day...now we're just in regular plain ol' January.

It's our 4th day, and we're starting it bright and early at the Magic Kingdom. We have a pre-park-opening ADR at Crystal Palace, and I'm so excited! We haven't been in a few years, and I love it. Breakfast lasagna and Pooh puffs...yum!! Winnie the Pooh and friends are special childhood friends of mine, so I love visiting them. Last time we ate here I ugly cried all over Pooh, so I'm hoping I don't repeat THAT embarrassing moment. I just want to eat, not cry.

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I think we're going to head over to Tomorrowland after breakfast for Space Mountain and Buzz Lightyear. That used to be my favorite place to rope drop, but the past several trips I've headed to Adventureland/Frontierland instead.

We have fast passes for Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, Peter Pan, and Splash Mountain. I'm sure we'll ride as much Haunted Mansion and Pirates as we possibly can, too!

Our dinner this night is somewhere totally new for us, but that so many DisFriends have enjoyed - Shula's!!

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All four of us are verrrrry excited about Shula's.

We'd like to go to Epcot afterward to watch Illuminations for what could be the last time (we may or may not be back again before it ends in the fall)

Monorail back to the Poly to end the night!

I guess that's all for now! Day 5, day 6, and departure day are left to share. We were supposed to get real, significant snow for the first time in like 5 years this weekend, but now they've changed it to barely anything. I know several of you live up north and probably think I'm nuts for wanting to see snow, but I really just want one good day where it looks pretty...and then goes away because NO ONE here knows how to drive on it.

I'll be staring out the window looking for snowflakes this weekend...I hope you all have more exciting plans than that:rotfl:

See you later!!






 

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