Never say Neverland: Easter '18, May/June '18, July '18, Sept '18, Nov '18 TRs (8/22 UPDATE!)

Plans with modifications:


THURSDAY March 29th: Arrival at Shades of Green late morning/early afternoon. Check-in maybe grab lunch at SOG before heading to Magic Kingdom for a while. Dinner at 5:45pm at Citricos (monorail to GF from MK). After dinner rest of the evening at Magic Kingdom. We have Fastpasses at 12:30pm for Pirates (let's see the new no-Redhead scene), 3pm Space Mountain and then 10pm 7DMT. I am seriously considering trying to ditch the 10pm 7DMT for an earlier FP, so that we can then make other FPs later. We may try to stay out a bit late this night, but probably not the midnight closing. I'd like us to be fresh and ready to try to arrive really early at MK the next day.

FRIDAY March 30th: I think we'll all try to be up early to hit MK by 7am, which would mean leaving our resort by about 6:30am. That might be tough if we have a late night the night before. All of us will now be doing the Marceline to MK tour at 8am. Once that's done, I expect crowds may be crazy here, so we may head off-property for lunch elsewhere (maybe a monorail resort, maybe head to Disney Springs) or I can keep my reservation at GF Cafe. Head to Hollywood Studios (aim for 1:15pm arrival) and use our FastPasses there for the day which are: Toy Story Mania (1:30pm), Star Tours (2:30pm) and Tower (3:30pm). Maybe boat to EPCOT for F&G booths for dinner or head back to our resort and have dinner there. I have an ADR for Crystal Palace this evening but will probably cancel. Now that AK is open until 11pm, maybe we hang out late at night there or at least try ONE ride on FOP via standby or FPs if I can get them that day. If not, we

SATURDAY March 31st: If we have not been out too late the night before, it might be fun to try an early entry at AK this morning...at least to see BABY TIGERS, maybe do the Safari, EE and Dinosaur all standby. This seems unlikely based on current crowd level reports, but we'll see. We may be better off heading to EPCOT instead, arriving by entry there, and then hitting Soarin' (standby), Mission: Space (standby) and Test Track (single rider). Our first FP isn't until almost 1pm at The Seas. I have a lunch reservation at Tutto Italia that we can try here, but it would mean giving up The Seas FPs, something we missed last time and really want to do this time for my DH. If we didn't do Soarin' earlier, we also have a 2pm FP+ for it. Sometime during our time here, we can explore the Flower and Garden booths around the World Showcase for lunch and we have a 3pm FP+ for SE that we can do maybe on the way out. Head back for a brief break at our resort OR early dinner at Tiffins. Around 5:30pm, head over to Magic Kingdom for our last night there. We have dinner at the Plaza, and then we can do rides until park closing at 11pm.

SUNDAY April 1st: Last day :(. Check out of resort. Option#1 is breakfast at resort and do a few rides at Hollywood Studios via early entry (8am) before hitting the road. Option #2 is head directly to HS by 8am, ride a few rides, leave at 10am and head to Boma for a nice Easter brunch before hitting the road no later than noon. We have a 10:25am TOT FP+ and 12:15pm RnRC (probably won't use this one). OPTION #2 is still my preference.
 
Congratulations on the new addition to your family! She is adorable and I love her name!!

Have a wonderful trip (despite the crowds)! I'm glad the weather is looking good for your trip. Cant wait to hear about the MK tour!
 
Congratulations on the new addition to your family! She is adorable and I love her name!!

Have a wonderful trip (despite the crowds)! I'm glad the weather is looking good for your trip. Cant wait to hear about the MK tour!

Thanks so much. I can't take credit at all for her name, as that was all DH. We are so in love though.

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I'll definitely report back on the tour. Part of me is kinda kicking myself for using up early entry hours at MK for this tour, but we are still looking forward to it.
 
So this is it...the big travel day. Part of the family is a lot less excited about this trip because we have to leave our puppy behind. I've assured them that she won't grow while we are gone and she'll still be a puppy and love us when we return but I'm not sure they believe me. I'm definitely tired, having had a hard time falling asleep last night due to excitement, thinking about things I still wanted to do before we left, and a snoring puppy who at some point I put in bed next to me for a little while.

We all packed last night but there will be last minute things to do today, such as get the cats all ready for their caretaker and get the puppy to her temporary home. I'd like to pack some food and drinks for the trip, but we'll surely stop for lunch and dinner at this point. The kids should be home late morning. We will pretty much throw everything in the car and go at that point.

Really looking forward to that Florida sunshine!

P.S. Today I also have an 18 year old...how the heck did that even happen???


 


So we have been on the road for about 3 hours now...and about 8 until we hit our hotel in Jacksonville which I think is reasonable even with a few remaining stops. Dropping off our puppy was hard but her caretaker has already sent me a photo of Harley passed out from hard play.

I'm so thankful for her.

We stopped for lunch as soon as we hit the road and just stopped for bathroom breaks and snacks.

Hoping tomorrow morning I'll have an update after we hit our first park. Those crowds still look crazy at MK especially but it is an EMH day there. Hoping everybody is elsewhere tomorow,
 
Just checking in from Florida. We made a pretty long stop for dinner at a restaurant in SC last night. It got good reviews online and it was NOT a chain. The food was really Good! We may add it to our stops during future drives if it works out.

Arrived at our Jacksonville hotel around 1am. Cranky 18yos are miserable. He is not a late person. I had booked two rooms on one reservation so they are right next to each other. It is now 7am so hopefully the rest of the crew wakes up soon since free breakfast ends at 9am.

Hoping to be back on the road before 9am with about 2ish hours to go until we reach the World!
 
What was the name of the restaurant and where was it? We may need to check it our on our next trip.
 


Greetings once again and now live from Walt Disney World. I've settled into my room for the night as have all of us. We have decided it will be better to get an early start in the morning.

So we arrived at SOG around 11am and our room wasn't ready. We parked in the garage and walked over to the Poly to grab a light lunch/snacks. That meant a dole whip for 3 of us and chicken noodle soup and a burger for two others. Bellies full we then headed to MK via monorail.

We had to stop at Guest Services outside the gates to have our APs activated and then inside was chaos as the parade was going on (I guess the 12pm?). First priority stop for me was my refillable popcorn bucket.

We eventually made it to our first FP at POC which was around 12:45pm? Standby there was 70 minutes. After that we needed to kill about 2.5 hours until our 3:30pm SM FPs so we did TTA and COP standby. We still were left with over an hour to kill but Monsters Inc had a 60 minute standby wait, SM was already at 160 minutes and even the Teacups were wrapped around the whole place so we didn't even try. Kids decided they would be good giving up SM and just hitting the resort pool so we did that. Oh but first a stop at the confectionary to get the most evil dessert we have found...chocolate covered mickey ears brownie. Got a call on the monorail that our room was ready. Good timing. Hit the pool for about an hour, played some cards and had a Key Lime Cider that was delicious.

After that was an even more delicious dinner at Citricos where I wanted to fall asleep at the table. I figured a quick nap in the room might refresh me but instead I'm still a bit uncomfortably full and with our early day tomorrow I am good calling it a night. Honestly right now I am awake again and could totally hit a park but I'll stay in and make the most of the next two evenings instead hopefully.



 
First of two full days today and we made the most of it. We were up around 6:15am and caught the bus before 7am. It was still dark but soon sunrise as we approached the MK. Our attempt to squeeze in SM failed but we hit Buzz instead with no wait. Then it was a quick stop at Cheshire Cafe and then to check in for the tour where amazingly there were TWO name tags for Dina, one for Vina and then two other correct for our party. We had those replaced and while waiting for the tour I went over to the confectionary and got one of those evil Mickey Brownie Chocolate desserts on a stick. OMG evil good.

The tour was so great and then we left and had lunch at Contempo Cafe before catching a bus to HS for our 3 FPs there. Once we finished the last one again 3:30pm or so we headed back to our resort just to get the SUV and drive out Olivia's Cafe for dinner. That was followed by an emergency trip to Walmart to get duct tape for a car repair. Then parked the car back at the resort and made some 4th FPS at 9PM for SM which took a lot of determination. After riding that my DD secured FPS for Jungle Cruise next and while in line there she grabbed one for BTMRR. By then our party of 5 was just the two girls and while in line at BTMRR she grabbed FPS for Splash immediately afterwards. While there the next FPS she got were Peter Pan followed by Pooh as we waited in line for Peter Pan. Lastly she got FPS for the Speedway but 7DMT showed a 50 minute wait which I knew wasn't right. We waited about 20 mins finishing about 11:40pm then hit the Speedway and finished the evening with ice cream and curiosity before heading back.

So successful day and tomorrow we plan to just do EPCOT again park opening and hang there doing standby and FPS for a while and then maybe the F&G booths. I'm planning an evening at MK again to catch HEA to end thE trip.

Now it is time for some sleep after about 18 hours on my feet.
 
Quite the day! Great job on the MK evening FPS. Enjoy your sleep and have fun in EPCOT tomorrow.
 
Well, I am home and you are in Disney. I hope you have a marvelous trip!!!:earboy2:

MK was VERY crowded when we were there. The line for the People Mover was wrapped around Astro Orbitor, heading towards Space Mountain...
I am NOT a fan of the new redhead scene. I personally think it shouldn't have been replaced...

Harley Quinn is ADORABLE! Congrats on the new addition!!!!!
 
Quite the day! Great job on the MK evening FPS. Enjoy your sleep and have fun in EPCOT tomorrow.

Thanks so much. We did have another great day yesterday. I can't take credit for the FPs but my daughter totally rocked them.

Well, I am home and you are in Disney. I hope you have a marvelous trip!!!:earboy2:

MK was VERY crowded when we were there. The line for the People Mover was wrapped around Astro Orbitor, heading towards Space Mountain...
I am NOT a fan of the new redhead scene. I personally think it shouldn't have been replaced...

Harley Quinn is ADORABLE! Congrats on the new addition!!!!!

Thanks. Yes we definitely saw crowds unlike any other visit. Line for the teacups wrapped around it...what? 60+ minute stand by for Monsters Inc? Crazy.

We are on the way home now and should arrive tonight late. And snow tomorrow. Ugh!
 
So we had another full day yesterday at EPCOT and MK. We arrived probably just around 9am and headed directly for Soarin...where we encountered a 60+ minute wait and line outside the original queue. No thanks.

Instead we decided to ride the Land much to my children's horror. After that we headed over to the Seas and rode that also. Next up was Test Track single rider which showed 50 minutes but we waited about 25. Tried to hit Misson:Space next but that was already 60 minutes. So we headed of to World Showcase tof check out the F&G booths and we rode the Mexican boat ride. I don't recall the foods consumed but I think my son had potstickers from China which he enjoyed and though I tried to steer him away from the empty Italy stand he did get something there and didn't like it. I know I got the chocolate cake from the American Smokehouse booth which was good and and Italian Margarita as well. We did a full circle around the world Showcase and then it was close to time for our 1:50pm Soarin FP so we hit Mousegear and then rode that as our last ride. My son asked if we could ride SE if the line wasn't bad but it had overflowed the regular queue. Eek. Headed back to our resort and hung out at the pool for an hour or so while the kids swam even though it wasn't hot or sunny.

Headed back out around 5pm for our 6pm Plaza Restaurant dinner ADR. They told us at checkin before 6pm that they were running about 30 minutes behind but we were seated about 10 minutes later right at our ADR time if not earlier. Dinner was good and then we staked our a spot for HEA which was nuts. The rudeness level there was beyond crazy.

After that my DD had been persistent and booked a SM FP for all of us. We did that around 9:45pm and the she booked Splash Mt FPS for just the two of us while everyone else headed back to the room. She followed that up with a 10:25pm FP for BTMRR so that was our last ride.

So today is Easter and we decided to just do an early meal at Boma and then hit the road. We should arrive close to midnight tonight or so depending on our stops. Can't wait to pick up our puppy tomorrow who has had a blast at my friends this week. She has sent me daily photos and videos so fun.

Hoping to have more updates soon and photos.
 
Happy Easter! And how can it not be happy if you got to eat Breakfast at Boma? LOVE their bread pudding!

Sounds like another great day yesterday. A crowded park day still beats being at home cooking and cleaning!

Safe travels home, and enjoy your puppy! My annual pass expires on Tuesday and we're not renewing, so I'm having a little pity party today. :guilty:
 
Happy Easter! And safe travels! Glad the trip went well - sounds like a fun time! Your daughter is quite the expert on the FPs- she will have to give us some tips!

Hope you don't get snow tomorrow as predicted - that's too much of a shock back into reality.:sad2:
 
Happy Easter! And how can it not be happy if you got to eat Breakfast at Boma? LOVE their bread pudding!

Sounds like another great day yesterday. A crowded park day still beats being at home cooking and cleaning!

Safe travels home, and enjoy your puppy! My annual pass expires on Tuesday and we're not renewing, so I'm having a little pity party today. :guilty:

Thank you. Hope you also had a good Easter. Yes breakfast at BOMA was very nice. I did have some bread pudding and a few other things. We definitely had a full trip. So sad about not renewing the annual pass. I still need to find a way to work in a few more trips this year on ours but not sure when I'll make that happen yet. With a two week trip to Hawaii planned for August, I'm limited in my time off.

Happy Easter! And safe travels! Glad the trip went well - sounds like a fun time! Your daughter is quite the expert on the FPs- she will have to give us some tips!

Hope you don't get snow tomorrow as predicted - that's too much of a shock back into reality.:sad2:

Thanks so much. Hope your Easter was good. Yes my daughter totally rocked the FP+ system and she KNEW it for sure. I didn't do anything but stand in the FP lines with her and watched as she booked the next set each time.

We did not end up with any snow thankfully, but they are calling for possible flurries again this Saturday...when I have an OUTDOOR tennis match scheduled. WHAT??

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So yes we are back to reality at home. I ended up driving for about 6+ hours of the trip back home, starting in NC somewhere through to back home in Maryland, right after we had Easter dinner at a Cracker Barrel. We got in around 11:45pm at home and pretty much went to bed.

Monday morning we got up somewhat early to head out to pick up our puppy. So happy to see her again. She is the sweetest thing. I think she may be a bit sad and missing her puppy and dog friends, but I'm already planning a playdate for her this Thursday so she can visit them again. She will love that.

She is already totally spoiled back at home though. I couldn't even bare to crate her last night...so she slept in bed with us. Not a habit I want to start honestly, but she seemed to like it.

Hoping to be able to start our little trip report soon and provide some photos. Until then, here are a few:

Magic Kingdom:
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Tower of Terror:
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Splash Mountain:
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Easter Breakfast at Boma:
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NEVER say NEVERLAND Day 1: We're off!

So Wednesday arrived and it was time for our big trip. I left work early, the kids left school early, and we all met up at home to get ready. I was designated as the person to drop off our puppy, that we had had at this point for BARELY THREE DAYS, at my friend's home so my daughter and I headed there. I'm known to be a talker, but I kept it as short as possible while going over all the puppy information with my friend. I knew our puppy would be in good hands and she was for sure.

Back at home, it was now time to load up the car and hit the road. I think we left around noon or pretty close to that, as our first stop was at ChickFilA for some lunch and my mobile receipt there is 11:57am. Once we had our food, it was time to hit the road.

Travel was pretty smooth overall for us. We were on the road well before rush hour which helped tremendously when driving in Northern Virginia, which is just ALWAYS horrible when it comes to traffic and congestion. I streamed some Netflix to keep myself entertained. This was me about four hours into our trip:

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Around 6pm, we were passing this:

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Only a few more states to go, and this is sort the "halfway" point for a lot of travelers doing the north to south drive.

This was around 6pm and we were now contemplating dinner. Since it was my son's 18th birthday, we wanted to do a somewhat nice dinner somewhere. I reviewed one of my travel books and came up with some places, finally settled on a place called Percy and Willie's in Florence, SC. It was probably close to 7pm or later when we arrived there, but the place got good reviews online and the parking lot was packed...a good sign. We were seated immediately, and we all really had a great dinner there. It was the perfect stop for us. I had a small gift for my son and cards that I gave him there. We finished our food and hit the road, with the next stop being our hotel in Jacksonville, Florida. Our arrival estimate was 11:45pm and at some point I took over driving to that point.

We did arrive around before midnight and checked in for the night. The plan was that we could wake up at our leisure, free breakfast was the next morning, and with any luck we hoped to be on the road before 8am.

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NEVER say NEVERLAND Day 2: We're HERE!

I think everybody was at breakfast between 7am and 8am. I grabbed a bunch of fruit, they did have some kind of eggs but nothing I wanted, and plenty of carbs as most of the "free" breakfast places tends to have anyway. Once our bellies were sufficiently full, it was time to hit the road again and the next stop would be WALT DISNEY WORLD!

So glad we made the push to Jacksonville, because it's nice that the next day drive is so short. At 10:25am this photo was taken, with the excitement building for our arrival:

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And here is our 10:45am photo:
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YAY we have arrived!

It was now time to hit Shades of Green first to see if our room was ready. We weren't expecting that it would be, but the plan was to park there and then hit the Magic Kingdom.

So we got to Shades of Green and I ran inside to see about the rooms. Not ready of course, so we parked the car in the garage there and went inside. We did some bathroom breaks and discussed plans for food. Some of us were a little hungry already, I mentioned grabbing something at Shades but nobody was interested in that. Instead we decided to just hit the Polynesian Resort and Captain Cooks (a favorite) for something to eat. We walked down the path from Shades to the Polynesian Resort.

We weren't all terribly hungry. My daughter wanted one of her favorites...Disney Parks Chicken Noodle soup...she has an obsession with it. So she ordered that and I got a burger for my younger son. I'm not sure anybody else got "real" food by my oldest and I decided while they waited for "real" food, we had other plans:

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That's right, time for DOLE WHIPS! Perfect lunch if you ask us! My father-in-law also wandered over with us and got one for himself. This was the perfect refreshment for us.

Once our bellies were full again, we hopped the monorail and were on our way to the Magic Kingdom!


 
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Glad you had good travel days. The dole whips look great - I'm craving one right now! Your weight loss is really showing - congratulations!
 
NEVER say NEVERLAND Day 2: We're HERE! (continued)

So we we were happy to be on the monorail over to one of our favorite places!

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Our first stop was to get our annual passes activated, which we had to do at guest services outside of the MK. The line was a bit long there, so we told my FIL he could go ahead in if he wanted (since his pass was active already) and actually my DH started having blood sugar issues and was in need of sugar. So he sent his dad inside the gates to get him something, since there was nothing outside of the gates. This took a long time, and as it turned out my FIL ended up at the Confectionary where he brought back one of the most delicious Disney treats yet. It was a chocolate Mickey shaped brownie on a stick, dipped in chocolate, with marshmallow ears. OH my gosh I had a small bite of DHs and then we ALL wanted one. However once our passes were active, and we were inside the gates, we had some plans.

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We had a few Fastpasses thankfully, because the crowds were pretty crazy. This photo above was taken just after 1pm. Our Fastpass for Pirates was at 12:35pm and THANK GOODNESS because that standby line was the most insane I have EVER seen!

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After Pirates, we wandered a bit and ended up at one of the only other things with a reasonable line:

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Teenagers (well 18 year olds) don't like photos but 13 year olds are still happy to oblige mom.

Crowd photos taken from above:

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Doesn't look horrible, but trust me it was crazy. We had plenty of time until our 3:25pm Space Mountain FP, so we tried to find other things to ride. We ended up on the Carousel of Progress...killing a few more minutes. Everything else though was crazy, and it was now around 2pm I think. The kids were willing to NOT do the Space Mountain FP (and this is a favorite) and instead opted to head back to the room and hit the pool. We took a few photos right outside of the gates. The Photopass photographer helped my daughter stage this one, he called the ULTIMATE SELFIE:

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And the group photo:

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As it turns out, I got a call not long after that our room was ready...and so we hopped the monorail back to the Polynesian and then walked back to our resort.

We unloaded the car and took the stuff to our rooms, put on some swimsuits and headed to the pool. It wasn't terribly hot, so the adults sat near the pool and enjoyed beverages:

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Kids hit the pool, well two of them. 18yo chose to hang in the room. Whatever.

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We didn't spend too much time here, but enough to play some cards and enjoy our drinks. Then it was back to the room to change because we had a 5:45pm dinner at Citricos that we would not want to miss!


 

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