November 2017, party of 7 or 9 or 11 or 13

Yes! We had to wake up the next day to make our cousins Fastpasses but we were able to tweak most of them so we can go in at the same time and now it won't clog up Sarah's MDE account. I just paid it off, now to save more money for souvenirs lol

Woohoo! Final stretch! I've been buying gift cards at Target to save PLUS when I use the redcArd I get 5% off the gift card. One of my favorite tips!
 
Days until Disney: 52 days

FastPass+ Reservations have been made:

November 13
Did not make any for 4pm-6pm for MVMCP

November 14
Spaceship Earth
The Seas with Nemo & Friends
Frozen Ever After

November 15
Peter Pan's Flight
Big Thunder Mountain Railroad
Seven Dwarfs Mine Train

November 16th

Na'vi River Journey
Meet Favorite Disney Pals
Kilimanjaro Safaris **5:15pm

November 17th
Toy Story Mania!
Star Tours
Tower of Terror

This might try to get tweaked a bit after I plug them into the Touring Plans. I want to make sure we have enough free time to stop for photos and interact with characters.

Dining
We were able to snag a 7:45pm Park Fare reservation on November 13! Peggy, Kristi, K and D all land at 5:45pm. Fingers crossed that the flight is on time and doesn't get pushed back again!

I was also able to move up 1 of our Garden Grill reservations to 8:10am, thanks to someone on the board. Now if I can just get another 3 person Garden Grill for 8:10am, we will be all set haha

We also have been searching for a later BOG lunch. Since Disney moved up the time for the FOF parade, our reservation now interferes with watching the parade. Maybe I should ask "which would you rather do?" Sarah and our mom are going up to Indy this weekend. Maybe they can stop over at Kristi's and see what they want to do that day.

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I want to do both lol

Money
We are just waiting on Kristi's final payment and her reservation will be paid off. Time to save save save for souvenirs!
 


Days until Disney: 39 days

We are only 39 days away! This trip is coming up quickly!

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Updates
  • Both reservations are officially paid off!!
  • The price for our departure flight from IND went down to $94 so I snagged that up! We are now up to about $140 in Southwest credit for a future flight. Looks like we will be making a quick trip this Spring to the Tampa area to visit our grandparents. Don't know if we can squeeze a day at Disney...we shall see.
  • I booked a dinner reservation at the Grand Floridian Café as a temporary plan for dinner when Peggy, Kristi, D and K all arrive. I was able to snag a 7:45pm 1900 Park Fare for all of us but I'm not sure if they can make it from MCO to the Grand Floridian in 2 hours. :guilty:
    • I will keep hunting for a later reservation but once the magicbands arrive we will have a final meeting to discuss what is going on, how to check in, where to go, where to eat ect.
  • I need to add some free time in our Touringplan itineraries. If I don't, I fear we won't be able to meet some of the characters on Ds list.
  • We have been unable to move our BOG lunch so sadly we are going to have to miss the FOF parade :sad::sad::sad:These are the days I wish it was offered twice.
To Do List
  • Put souvenir money on giftcard
  • Put Ds Pirates League total+tip on giftcard
  • Sort out tip money
  • Call Disney to "link" reservations
  • Pack
  • Share game plan
  • Cancel any dining reservations we don't need
 
Don't know if we can squeeze a day at Disney...we shall see.

This made me laugh because I'm sure you'll find a way to squeeze in some Disney. FX that you are able to get a later 1900 and a better BOG time. I think people are still holding on to a lot of ADRs and I'm just waiting for the one left on my list to open up.
 


Have your Magic Bands shipped yet?

Nope, no email yet. It says we have 1 day remaining to customize so very soon :) Now, I'm just worried about getting our DME information. I signed us up forever ago but haven't received any tags or information other than the email.
 
Days until Disney: 27

Things are beginning to speed up rather quickly. The month of September was over in a flash and now we are half way out of October!

Our Magicbands have shipped out and are scheduled to arrive at the end of the week! Peggy and Kristi's reservation still says finalizing. Hopefully we receive those at the end of the week too, so we can drop them off with all the other presents we have for them.

I called the reservation line last week to "link" our reservations as traveling with and the man on the phone said that if they were linked in the MDE account, they would be linked reservations as traveling with. I'm not sure that I believe him but he went in and said everything look good. I would just like our rooms to be on the same floor.

I plan to start packing this weekend and by packing I mean throwing my summer clothes in a suit case haha

While finalizing our plans, we found out that the day we have Animal Kingdom scheduled, they are going to open the park up at 8am....we have an 8:15am reservation for breakfast. I was wondering why the hours were extended until 8pm the rest of the week and that day was stuck at 7pm. Oh well, we will all enjoy a nice breakfast at Tusker House

I will post another update when I get home with some pictures of my recent Disney purchases and some non Disney updates.

Adding: We also got our DME tags! I'll need to call and get an extra tag for the me. I want to bring an almost empty suitcase for souvenirs ol
 
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A few weekends ago we took the kids to the Children's Museum in Indianapolis. I personally love this museum. We got to practice with K's wristlet He liked it and then he didn't. He was like I get to walk wherever I want but in reality, he can't. D enjoyed learning new things at the museum and asking lots of questions.

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We also went to our 5th Ed Sheeran concert in Columbus, OH as a birthday present for our mom. He gets better every time we go!
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We are using a Disney stroller when we go to the parks. I made K this flap, so we can ID his stroller out of all the others. We also watched K, C and R they other day while their moms went to a local festival. We had a bit of tie dye fun!
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AZqZLW3jFXYjR-RnOn11A75m2PT4DEQsmxBsbG-YyI0xLu-hKFuMKANzKhT8vufzoVkmXY2FV9j7aBVsEJHq-pOt9uOI-2cn4Ks50pRMSK2qElAZ1-vgKw9HmuIsZWiMV9AKQwUb


We've had a pretty busy last few months and I can't wait until next month!

I'll have another trip up date this weekend!
 
Days until Disney: 24 days

Guess what arrived today.....

Our Magic Bands!!!

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I'm wearing my Dooney and Bourke band I got last year but I got a red 2.0 that I'm going to paint polka dots on it.

We are taking a trip up to Indy to drop everything off. We are also going to talk about our park plans and see if we need to move things around. We also might go to the Zoo, if the weather is nice. This weekend I plan on sharing our day to day plan, so stay tuned for those!

Until next time!!
 
Days until Disney: 22 days

Happy dance has officially begun!
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Here are our plans for the first few days:

Day 1: Sunday
  • Leave for the airport around 3:00am
  • Land in MCO around 8:25am
    • Not sure if we are going to grab something to eat for breakfast at the airport when we land or grab something at the Wilderness Lodge
  • Plan to be at DME around 8:45am
  • Arrive at Wilderness Lodge around 10am *
  • Take the boat over to Contemporary and resort hop to Poly and the Grand Floridian be back at the Wilderness Lodge by 2:00pm
  • Get ready for MVMCP
  • Boat over to the Magic Kingdom at 3:30pm for MVMCP and hope they let us in at 4pm
  • 4pm Peter Pan's Flight FP+ (as long as it doesn't get cancelled) and 5pm Jungle Cruise FP+
  • Between those FP+ grab dinner at Casey's
  • Wait in line for 7 Dwarfs after Jungle Cruise
  • Party starts at 7pm
    • We plan on meeting the Princesses with their Princes, Nick and Judy (as long as they come back), Scrooge McDuck, Peter Pan and Wendy, Country Bears gang, Mary Poppins, Bert with Penguin and much more!
    • We want to watch stage show, fireworks and 2nd parade.
    • I want some EPIC parade photos since I won't get to see FOF parade
Day 2: Monday
  • Breakfast reservation at The Wave (out of pocket)
  • Take a bus from MK to the Beach Club and resort hop, Beach Club, Yacht Club and Boardwalk
  • Have lunch around the Boardwalk
    • need suggestions on where to eat that will take a QS credit
  • Be back at Wilderness Lodge by 2pm
  • Rest up, sit by the pool. Explore all the changes made at Wilderness Lodge since last year.
  • Dinner around 5pm. Still trying to get an early 1900 Park Fare reservation, if not we will eat at the Grand Floridan Cafe.
  • Meet the family in the lobby of Wilderness Lodge when they get off DME and show them around.
  • Head over to the Contemporary for Fireworks and dinner for the rest of the family.
  • Watch Water Pageant
  • Go to bed
More plans to come....

Packing

I'm trying to figure out what camera I should bring. I love to take pictures and I want them to turn out well. I have two cameras: a Nikon L840 (a long zoom camera) and a Nikon 3200 (a DSLR). The problem with the L840 is it doesn't take the greatest low light pictures, so I'm worried about the parade. The 3200 is large and heavy but I'm able to make adjustments for lighting. Here are some pictures from previous trips...

These 3 were on my L840:

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These 3 are from my 3200:
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The photos I posted of Ed Sheeran on my previous updates were taken on my L840 but he had lots of lights. I'm just concerned about the parade and the movement and I want good clear pictures of the parade.

I don't know. I'll probably end up bringing my L840 because it is small and I can place it in my backpack easily. I do have a very small tripod I can easily throw in my day bag, that might help with the low light parade photos.

I'll have another update either tomorrow or early next week!
 
Days until Disney: 20 Days

Plans continued...

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Day 3: Epcot
  • Breakfast at Garden Grill
  • FP+s for: Spaceship Earth, The Seas with Nemo & Friends and Frozen Ever After
  • Goal: Finally meet Mulan!
Day 4: Magic Kingdom
  • Breakfast at Crystal Palace
  • D Pirate's League reservation
  • Lunch at Be Our Guest
  • FP+s for: Peter Pan's Flight, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and Seven Dwarfs Mine Train
  • Goal: See The Muppets!
Day 5: Animal Kingdom
  • Grandma and Grandpa Great join us!
  • Breakfast at Tusker House
  • FP+s for: Na'vi River Journey Meet Favorite Disney Pals and Kilimanjaro Safaris
  • Goal: See gorillas and tigers! Watch Rivers of the Light.
  • AK closes at 7pm, so I think Sarah and I may head over to Epcot to finish the night.
Day 6: Magic Kingdom AM and Hollywood Studios PM
  • According to the TouringPlans we can get what we need done during the 7 am opening and be done around 9:30am.
  • Our plans for Hollywood Studios start after lunch.
  • Dinner at Sci Fi Dine- In
  • FP+s for: Toy Story Mania!, Star Tours and Tower of Terror
  • Goal: Check out the new Sunset Seasons Greetings!
Day 7: Disney Springs and departure day
:sad::sad::sad:

I have also decided to bring my DSLR camera on this trip. I bought a special backpack for my camera and new strap. I can't wait!
 
Days until Disney: 17 days

Just want to share a quick update! We were finally able to get a 3 person reservation for 1900 Park Fare on Monday! I'm going to ask Cinderella to record a "we can't wait to see you" video for D and K as they make their way to the Wilderness Lodge on DME.

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Days until Disney: 17 days

Just want to share a quick update! We were finally able to get a 3 person reservation for 1900 Park Fare on Monday! I'm going to ask Cinderella to record a "we can't wait to see you" video for D and K as they make their way to the Wilderness Lodge on DME.

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Hooray! And awww, that'll be so cute for them!
 

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