Guess Who's Back? October 2019 Trip Report

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...back again...

Hey all, so, as some of you may have noticed, if you read any of my trip reports, I kind of disappeared around April and....never came back all summer? I planned to, but then life happened and I got a little overwhelmed with the thought of coming back to the DiS and dealing with it.

But I've missed you all so much!

So, I don't think I'm going to finish the TRs that I've got going on, just to save my sanity....but! I'm going to Disney for a weekend trip in October and it felt wrong not to do a PTR about it.

For those who may not have ever seen one of my Trip Reports or Pre-Trip Reports before, I'm Elle!

I'm an Annual Passholder, even though I live in the wilds of Central Massachusetts. When I'm not taking photos or vlogging in Disney, I spend most of my time either working or participating in my local community theatre. I'm a middle school English teacher and after school I direct the competition play and the musical for my students.

I usually head out to Disney with my friend Liz, who is invited on this trip but may not be able to go due to work. I am also going with my friend Jill, who I spent the last part of my April trip with this year. She is one of my theatre friends and is also a Disney lover and Annual Passholder.


I'll post more soon! For real this time

 

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The Plan Thus Far...

So, we go to Disney in like a month and a half. We didn't start planning this trip until maybe 3 weeks ago, though we had had the plan of going to Disney in the fall for a while - since my April trip that I forgot to write a TR for.

In April while we were in Disney, Jill managed to convince herself (with little to no pushes from me, I swear) to upgrade her parkhopper to an AP. She was super excited and started planning a bunch of mini trips from there. Her first one was in June with her family, but while we were walking around on our last few park days I mentioned just how much I love Disney in the fall, and Jill mentioned how much she wants to go to Food and Wine and Not So Scary.

Originally we were looking at Columbus Day weekend but it would be crowded and hot and expensive. I mean, it's still going to be hot, it's Florida in October lol! But when we looked at Columbus Day, even though we would have an extra day in the parks it was too much money for us to spend for such a short amount of time.

We also looked at Halloween weekend, but again, the prices were too much for us. And we knew it would be crowded because of the holiday.

Finally we settled on October 24-27. It's a super quick Thurs-Sun with only two days in the parks, but it lets us do everything we want to.

We managed to call Disney and get a better rate than we were finding on the website, and we're staying in an All Star Music preferred room (remember that time I said I was done with Value resorts? And I have stayed in them the past 4 trips at this point? ). Jill's going to get down in the morning on Thursday and have some solo time in MK. I'll be down by the evening and meet up with her.

Here's the rest of the plan:

::Friday::
- Studios opens at 6 am. Since it's a Friday and we're both used to getting up super early for work anyway (I'm usually up by 4:30-5 and we start work at the same time and both live about a half hour from our respective jobs) we're going to plan on going to Studios for rope drop. We'll check out Galaxy's Edge right away if we can, but if not we'll take advantage of the early morning and get what we want to done in Studios before it gets too hot.
- We do have a reservation at Oga's Cantina for 10:30, so we'll at least get some Galaxy's Edge time in.
- After we leave Studios, we plan on heading back to the hotel for some relaxation. Depending on how the morning goes we'll be at the hotel for a couple of hours, so we can take a nap/shower/spend some time in the pool before getting ready and heading on out to MK.
- Our first FP for the day is Peter Pan starting at 2:15. We basically plan on getting to MK at the later end of the FP time. Then we'll go to our next one, which is Mine Train, a little on the earlier end.
- We'll check in for Not So Scary around 4-ish, then head towards our last Fp of the day which is....Thunder? I think?
- We have dinner reservations at 5:30 at Skipper's so we'll eat there then enjoy the party for the rest of the evening.

::Saturday::
- "sleep in" for both of us is probably going to mean up at 7.
- Our first FP is at 9:45 for Soarin'. Our plan is to get there in the middle or back end of the time.
- We then have a FP for Spaceship Earth at 11 that we'll go to right at the beginning.
- Once Food and Wine starts for the day we'll head on into World Showcase and the Festival Center. We're going to mosey and spend most of the afternoon in the countries trying the different booths. I like having more than one day for Festival things but we're not going to be able to have that this time around so we'll make it work.
- In the evening if we decide we don't want to stay in Epcot we'll head out to another park for the night.

::Sunday::
- Jill is leaving later in the day so she'll head out to a park in the morning. I leave at 1 pm so I'm going to pack up and head to wait for the bus.


This week I bought our Not So Scary tickets and we made our FPs. We made our Skipper's ADR well before we planned anything else and I got Oga's randomly and since we both love Star Wars it seemed too good to pass up!

Now, we need to focus on the hardest part: the Not So Scary costumes!

 

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Small Changes...

Some minor changes have occurred during the past week and a half.

Firstly, Liz is officially unable to come with us. Work gave her the time off, but she's got some personal stuff (moving, etc.) going on at around the same time so she decided it would be too much stress, which I completely get. Jill called and took her name off the reservation yesterday. It's sad, but we have a list of "foods to try in her honor" which I am more than happy to oblige.

I also was able to buy my return flight and changed from the afternoon flight to the evening flight! Someone is going to move my car from the small airport near my house, drop it at Jill's place, and I will take the same flight home as her, and I'll stay at her house for the night. She lives about 15 minutes from my work so I'll just head to work in the morning from there.

This means we'll get to go to Animal Kingdom (which was her plan) in the morning, then spend the rest of the afternoon back in Epcot! I'm super pumped about more park time and a solid plan that will keep me from barely any getting any sleep. That's what happened in January with all the flight delays (we ended up being lucky - our flight was arriving in Rhode Island so it was inland enough to not be affected by the cold front as badly as Boston and New York were, but we were still delayed by at least an hour, whereas all the other flights were canceled.)

 

[DouglasE]

Hi!

I'm chuffed for you that you get to journey back to your happy place. We'll be there at the same time! I'll be there 10/22-10/28 at Port Orleans French Quarter. Saturday, if you see me, be sure to wave. I'll mostly be enjoying Food & Wine Festival. Sunday you can find me passed out from too many Rum Blossoms at Animal Kingdom (just kidding) we both know I'll be passed out at Nomad Lounge.

We both will be having a blast in a few short weeks!

 

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Hi!

I'm chuffed for you that you get to journey back to your happy place. We'll be there at the same time! I'll be there 10/22-10/28 at Port Orleans French Quarter. Saturday, if you see me, be sure to wave. I'll mostly be enjoying Food & Wine Festival. Sunday you can find me passed out from too many Rum Blossoms at Animal Kingdom (just kidding) we both know I'll be passed out at Nomad Lounge.

We both will be having a blast in a few short weeks!

Nice! I'll wave if I see you!! Have fun on your adventures too - I'm so excited for this weekend!

 

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Everything is paid off!!!!

I have been trying since Thursday to pay the last of our hotel room online but it has not let me. I even put the last payment onto a Disney gift card and it was not having it. Yesterday I finally had an opportunity to call and make the last payment over the phone so now we are completely paid off! Jill should be getting me a check with her payment by next week hopefully.

We also had a heck of a time getting the magic bands we wanted to work. Originally we wanted the HM ones but those sold out, so then we wanted the Magic Kingdom ones. Those kept selling out. Jill, unfortunately, got hurt at work last week, so she was at home for the majority of the time. She was finally able to snag the castle bands we wanted to get just by being on at random times throughout the week.

Finally, we figured out our plan for our outfits for Not So Scary. We're doing "Trick or Treat Down Main Street" shirts with fun leggings and the Minnie ears that look like hard candies. I managed to buy that as well as a cute shirt for Food and Wine from Main Street Press! So I'm excited for those outfits and for just being in Disney so soon. 36 days!

 

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I Should Really Be Packing...


I mean, not physically at this moment. I'm currently at work. But like, I should start packing soon.

I ended up putting in orders to restock my travel supplies, and I have all my tops out to pack. I just need to pull out my bag and start packing it. My dad actually offered for me to use his carry on because his is hard top and mine needs to be cleaned so I really just need to find his. He kind of, sort of told me where it was but I honestly did not hear him when he told me so I feel like I'll be digging through their storage room to find it after work today.

Jill also dropped my Magic Band off to me. Yay! It finally feels so real!

 

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I Leave In A Week...

Which is great. I'm so excited! But I can barely concentrate at work right now! I have one more package coming in from Sephora (the travel size of my primer was out of stock) and then I'll have everything that I need for my trip. I packed the majority of my clothes for the trip already last weekend, as well as any travel-specific things I don't need to use until I'm in Florida. This weekend I need to clean out my purse of anything I don't need for Disney!

I am really glad I'm going next week and not this week though because my flight would definitely be delayed today - it's super windy and rainy - we're having a nor'easter. I woke up without power today, which was fun. Hopefully the weather next week is nicer so I can leave without an issue!

 

[piglet1979]

I am joining in. It sounds like you are getting the weather that we had yesterday. Raining all day and super windy all night and this morning. Still no sun today. I hope the weather is better next week for you. Saturday we are supposed to hit 70 degrees here.