Will I EVER finish a full TR? - June 2023 PTR (Updated 6/13)

[ExpeditionEmily]

Welcome everyone to my THIRD attempt at finally completing a trip report! I'm hoping that my excitement for the PTR will carry over.....maybe
In my defense, life has been moving at about 100mph for the last year or so.
Before I get started, let me catch you up to speed on who we are and what we're up to:



On this trip and all previous trip report attempts are myself and my husband, Tyler. Here we are at one of the MANY weddings we attended last year.
We attended a wedding in April, Tyler was a groomsman in August, I was a bridesmaid in September, attended a wedding in October.
Oh, and we also got married in November!

Since the last attempted TR (our Universal trip in June 2022), we went on our first ever Disney Cruise as well! We honeymooned on the Wish in December and had the most AMAZING time.
(If anyone wants to hear the story of us "becoming cruise celebrities", my husband LOVES to tell it )
So, what else is there to know about us?



I'm Emily, the mind behind all of the planning and preparations.
I teach 6th grade and am currently in training to be a travel advisor too.
In my non existent free time, I'm working on my school theater production and planning all of our vacations.
Favorite park: Magic Kingdom
Favorite ride: Haunted Mansion or Expedition Everest
Favorite restaurant: Yachtsman Steakhouse
Most excited for: Flower and Garden and Guardians!



Joining me is my husband, Tyler. Tyler teaches elementary school and plays lacrosse whenever he gets the chance.
Since his birthday is in June, it usually lines up with our summer vacations.
Favorite park: Hollywood Studios
Favorite ride: Runaway Railway
Favorite restaurant: Yachtsman Steakhouse
Most excited for: Guardians

This trip will be our second trip together to Disney and this time we get to stay for a whole week, so if you're interested, stay tuned to see what the plans are




​

 

[ExpeditionEmily]

The Plans:

We originally had NO intention of booking a Disney trip for this summer. However, a few things lined up perfectly for us.
1. We got caught in the Great Southwest Debacle of Christmas 2022
Our honeymoon flights for Southwest got royally messed up. We spent hours on Christmas night frantically searching to make it to Orlando for our honeymoon. By a small miracle, we snagged last minute flights on American Airlines and made it to our honeymoon in time! As a result of everything, Southwest refunded our tickets but also provided us with a generous amount of Rapid Rewards points.
2. I got hired to work on my school play again this year! I did this last year as well and it was so much fun. By picking up this job, this gave us some additional $.
3. Disney released the Dining Promotion offer!

With all of this information, I went to Tyler to ask him a VERY important question.
I asked "Can we PLEASE book a Disney trip?!" Lucky for me, he specifically said in his vows that he would say yes to all the Disney trips!

The Details of our Trip:

Originally, we were going to fly in June 26th early morning and stay until July 1st early morning. However, I wanted a longer trip. I was able to convince Tyler to add to our trip after confirming that it wouldn't add an expense on the free flights. So, here is our current plans:

We fly in June 24th in the late afternoon/early evening. We've got the first leg of our trip at Port Orleans - French Quarter! This is a favorite of mine and first time stay for Tyler. We'll be there until the 26th, with a buffer day to just enjoy the resort. On that day, we'll transfer over to our old reliable Pop Century.

We've got park days planned for the 26th, 27th (Tyler's birthday), 29th, and 30th.
I just bought us After Hours tickets for Hollywood Studios on the 28th!

We go home early on July 1st which wraps up the trip.

My current dilemma / decision to be made:
We're doing after hours on the 28th but have no other park tickets. We could:
a. Buy park tickets and enjoy a morning in a park other than Studios
b. Buy tickets and go to Typhoon Lagoon
c. Rest at Pop in preparation for the after hours

Personally, I lean towards wanting to do a park in the morning. Guardians and Tron will be important to us, so this would be an extra opportunity to ride one of those. Tyler loves waterparks so that could also be worth it for him but I don't love the 10am opening time since we would want to factor in for an afternoon nap. Would love to hear opinions on what you would do for this day!
Next up, we'll look at our dining reservation choices.
​

 

[DLo]

Following along. Looking forward to reading more .

 

[nemolover22]

We are going in June too except we are going at the beginning of the month! If you don't want to pay for another park ticket on the 28th you could do a resort hopping/disney springs day! Being at Pop Century you will have access to the skyliner so it might be fun to check out the Riviera or the Epcot resorts. Also, Disney Springs has so many amazing food options you could have a late lunch/early dinner so that you can make sure to save room for all the snacks during After Hours!

 

[StacyStrong]

The Plans:

We originally had NO intention of booking a Disney trip for this summer. However, a few things lined up perfectly for us.
1. We got caught in the Great Southwest Debacle of Christmas 2022
Our honeymoon flights for Southwest got royally messed up. We spent hours on Christmas night frantically searching to make it to Orlando for our honeymoon. By a small miracle, we snagged last minute flights on American Airlines and made it to our honeymoon in time! As a result of everything, Southwest refunded our tickets but also provided us with a generous amount of Rapid Rewards points.
2. I got hired to work on my school play again this year! I did this last year as well and it was so much fun. By picking up this job, this gave us some additional $.
3. Disney released the Dining Promotion offer!

With all of this information, I went to Tyler to ask him a VERY important question.
I asked "Can we PLEASE book a Disney trip?!" Lucky for me, he specifically said in his vows that he would say yes to all the Disney trips!

The Details of our Trip:

Originally, we were going to fly in June 26th early morning and stay until July 1st early morning. However, I wanted a longer trip. I was able to convince Tyler to add to our trip after confirming that it wouldn't add an expense on the free flights. So, here is our current plans:

We fly in June 24th in the late afternoon/early evening. We've got the first leg of our trip at Port Orleans - French Quarter! This is a favorite of mine and first time stay for Tyler. We'll be there until the 26th, with a buffer day to just enjoy the resort. On that day, we'll transfer over to our old reliable Pop Century.

We've got park days planned for the 26th, 27th (Tyler's birthday), 29th, and 30th.
I just bought us After Hours tickets for Hollywood Studios on the 28th!

We go home early on July 1st which wraps up the trip.

My current dilemma / decision to be made:
We're doing after hours on the 28th but have no other park tickets. We could:
a. Buy park tickets and enjoy a morning in a park other than Studios
b. Buy tickets and go to Typhoon Lagoon
c. Rest at Pop in preparation for the after hours

Personally, I lean towards wanting to do a park in the morning. Guardians and Tron will be important to us, so this would be an extra opportunity to ride one of those. Tyler loves waterparks so that could also be worth it for him but I don't love the 10am opening time since we would want to factor in for an afternoon nap. Would love to hear opinions on what you would do for this day!
Next up, we'll look at our dining reservation choices.
​

We are personally doing a water park day on our AH day (and staying at pop)

The plan is water park until 4-5 and then back to the room to take an hour long nap and eat before heading to HS.

We aren’t too worried about getting to HS early because we will be there another day of the trip. AH doesn’t even start until 10pm! So we can still get there an hour or so early.

 

[ExpeditionEmily]

Following along. Looking forward to reading more .

Welcome! Thanks for joining in

 

[ExpeditionEmily]

We are going in June too except we are going at the beginning of the month! If you don't want to pay for another park ticket on the 28th you could do a resort hopping/disney springs day! Being at Pop Century you will have access to the skyliner so it might be fun to check out the Riviera or the Epcot resorts. Also, Disney Springs has so many amazing food options you could have a late lunch/early dinner so that you can make sure to save room for all the snacks during After Hours!

I like that idea! Would love to check out Riviera more this trip for sure. We've got a full day for pool and Springs so I'll have to see if there's anything else my husband would like to do there.

 

[ExpeditionEmily]

We are personally doing a water park day on our AH day (and staying at pop)

The plan is water park until 4-5 and then back to the room to take an hour long nap and eat before heading to HS.

We aren’t too worried about getting to HS early because we will be there another day of the trip. AH doesn’t even start until 10pm! So we can still get there an hour or so early.

We're in the same boat - we've got Studios the day before, so we also wouldn't necessarily need to get there early either. I LOVE Typhoon but will definitely price out our options.

 

[StacyStrong]

We're in the same boat - we've got Studios the day before, so we also wouldn't necessarily need to get there early either. I LOVE Typhoon but will definitely price out our options.

We bought with UT and for us it was cheaper to do a 5 day park hopper plus sports option than it was to do a 4 day hopper and a water park ticket.

 

[ExpeditionEmily]

Trip Updates
Here are some changes I've made since last time:
Southwest ended up emailing us that they changed our departure flight. While this only changed by 10 minutes, we were given the option to choose another flight that day for no extra fee. We typically prefer to fly out in the AM for a full first day, but went with a cheaper option to ensure the flight was fully covered by reward points.
This ended up working out great for us! We swapped to an earlier flight time that will get us in around 8:30am.

Based on that, we booked H2O glow nights at Typhoon Lagoon for our first day!! This day will be followed by a pool day and gives Tyler the chance to see one of the waterparks.
We've also upgraded from a 4-day to a 5-day ticket, so we will be going to a park in the morning prior to our Studios AH event.

The new lineup:
24th- fly in early, check in to Port Orleans French Quarter, Typhoon Lagoon glow nights
25th- pool day
26th- Animal Kingdom, check out of POFQ and in to Pop
27th- Tyler's birthday! Studios
28th- Epcot in the morning, Studios AH event
29th - Magic Kingdom
30th- Epcot
1st- fly home early morning

Now FINALLY up next will be our dining reservation plans and what we hope to get! ​

 

[ExpeditionEmily]

Let's Talk Dining Reservations

Since we'll be at Disney for a FULL week, I've decided to split our dining reservations into 2 categories- must do and maybe will do. Here's what we've got so far:

Must-do:
Dinner at Boathouse (Not new to me but new to Tyler. I love the food and atmosphere! This will be on our non park day.)

Eat to the Beat dining package to see Simple Plan in Epcot (We love concerts and pop punk, so we absolutely want to see them play. We plan for this on the 26th.)

Oga's Cantina (New to us both! I can't believe we still haven't been. Likely will go on Tyler's actual birthday.)

Steakhouse 71 (I used to work at Contempo Cafe, so the Contemporary is really special to me. I enjoyed the Wave and have heard nothing but great reviews for Steakhouse 71. We'll plan to go here on the same night we watch MK fireworks.)

Maybe will do:

We're deciding on the Eat to the Beat package. Since my husband is a picky eater, I think Biergarten or Garden Grill are our best options. Both would be new to us. I'm leaning towards Biergarten for the atmosphere, proximity to the concert venue, and the liters of beer.

Sci-Fi - this would also be new to us and it's caught my husband's eye. We will likely end up going here but I'm not sold on the menu.

Tony's Town Square - I worked at Tony's up until the pandemic closure. While I know the negative reputation, I still have friends working there who I'd like to visit. We've both been before and enjoyed our meals.

Roundup Rodeo BBQ - I'm tempted because this is a new one, however, we aren't huge BBQ fans so I don't know that this would be a good choice for us.

Yachtsman Steakhouse - Tyler's absolute favorite and one of mine too! We had such an amazing dinner here on our last trip but the price tag intimidates Tyler. We might pass on this one since we'll be (hopefully) trying Steakhouse 71.


Right now, those are the main reservations we want / are considering making. Knowing me, I will probably end up making too many reservations when they become available and then cancelling or modifying later on. We'll be able to book in about 4 weeks!

​

 

[nemolover22]

Let's Talk Dining Reservations

Since we'll be at Disney for a FULL week, I've decided to split our dining reservations into 2 categories- must do and maybe will do. Here's what we've got so far:

Must-do:
Dinner at Boathouse (Not new to me but new to Tyler. I love the food and atmosphere! This will be on our non park day.)

Eat to the Beat dining package to see Simple Plan in Epcot (We love concerts and pop punk, so we absolutely want to see them play. We plan for this on the 26th.)

Oga's Cantina (New to us both! I can't believe we still haven't been. Likely will go on Tyler's actual birthday.)

Steakhouse 71 (I used to work at Contempo Cafe, so the Contemporary is really special to me. I enjoyed the Wave and have heard nothing but great reviews for Steakhouse 71. We'll plan to go here on the same night we watch MK fireworks.)

Maybe will do:

We're deciding on the Eat to the Beat package. Since my husband is a picky eater, I think Biergarten or Garden Grill are our best options. Both would be new to us. I'm leaning towards Biergarten for the atmosphere, proximity to the concert venue, and the liters of beer.

Sci-Fi - this would also be new to us and it's caught my husband's eye. We will likely end up going here but I'm not sold on the menu.

Tony's Town Square - I worked at Tony's up until the pandemic closure. While I know the negative reputation, I still have friends working there who I'd like to visit. We've both been before and enjoyed our meals.

Roundup Rodeo BBQ - I'm tempted because this is a new one, however, we aren't huge BBQ fans so I don't know that this would be a good choice for us.

Yachtsman Steakhouse - Tyler's absolute favorite and one of mine too! We had such an amazing dinner here on our last trip but the price tag intimidates Tyler. We might pass on this one since we'll be (hopefully) trying Steakhouse 71.


Right now, those are the main reservations we want / are considering making. Knowing me, I will probably end up making too many reservations when they become available and then cancelling or modifying later on. We'll be able to book in about 4 weeks!

​

Dining reservations are so stressful! We always end up making too many and then cancelling depending on what we get. We can make ours in less than a week and we are hoping that we are able to get everything we want! Boathouse is on our must do list because those Filet Mignon sliders are to die for.


I used to work at WDW too in so many different locations. Glad to see that you were a CM also

 

[ExpeditionEmily]

Dining reservations are so stressful! We always end up making too many and then cancelling depending on what we get. We can make ours in less than a week and we are hoping that we are able to get everything we want! Boathouse is on our must do list because those Filet Mignon sliders are to die for.


I used to work at WDW too in so many different locations. Glad to see that you were a CM also

Those sliders sound amazing, I think my husband would love them! My time as a CM was great, I did two college programs and loved them both. Definitely gives a new appreciation for Disney knowing all the behind-the-scenes work that goes into everything. Hoping you all have good luck with your dining reservations!

 

[nemolover22]

Those sliders sound amazing, I think my husband would love them! My time as a CM was great, I did two college programs and loved them both. Definitely gives a new appreciation for Disney knowing all the behind-the-scenes work that goes into everything. Hoping you all have good luck with your dining reservations!

I did 2 college programs and a professional internship before going Full Time but didn't get to go back after Covid. It definitely gives you a new prospective on things!

Our dining reservations went very well and we got all the restaurants we wanted. Hoping you have the same luck

 

[ExpeditionEmily]

Real Life Update
It's been a little while since I've posted, but so much has been going on and sadly so little to do for planning the Disney trip. I returned today from an AMAZING spring break girls cruise on Carnival with my sister, mom, and aunt!

We celebrated my sister's 23rd birthday by treating her to her first ever cruise. Despite the rough sea day, we all had a great time! We snorkeled in Turks and Caicos, swam with stingrays, drank out of coconuts, read all the books, and spent way too much money on Bingo.
In addition to the cruise, I've also:
1. Officially finished training to be a travel advisor
2. Been working on the school play
3. Working on courses to be a school administrator
4. Found out I need surgery.....


I'll be having surgery in about 3 weeks to remove my gallbladder. Thankfully, the surgery was scheduled a few weeks out so I can wrap up the school play along with some other important tasks at work. I tried to time out my surgery with our ADR day so I could be home and have something to entertain myself, but it didn't work out. Our ADR day is next week and I *think* at this point we have all our goals and priorities sorted out. Here is the order in which I'll be trying for reservations:

1. Sci-Fi Dine In lunch, Tyler's birthday. Possibly as Fantasmic package?
2. Steakhouse 71 dinner
3. Boathouse dinner
4. Oga's Cantina - maybe before our Studios AH event or the night we see Fantasmic
5. Eat to the beat Biergarten dinner

I'm also thinking about booking Garden Grill for breakfast one of our days. Tyler apparently loves Chip and Dale and I think he'd love to go there. AND I'm still considering a Happily Ever After dessert party and/or Tony's.
9 days until reservation day! ​

 

[Bama Mom]

Sounds like great plans so far. I just had my gall bladder out a month ago. I had a quick recovery with no issues and I feel so much better now.

 

[ExpeditionEmily]

Dining Reservations
We've (mostly) finished our dining reservations! We got everything we wanted, though we'll be looking to modify a little bit. I also picked up a few extras that seemed interesting.

Saturday - Ohana @ 11:50, Sanaa @ 2:55
We won't keep both of these. I'm going to let Tyler pick because I've been to both and he would enjoy either one. My preference is towards Sanaa because we've got other breakfast reservations I'd like to keep instead later in the week.

Sunday - Homecomin' Brunch @ 12, Boathouse @ 3
Again, won't keep both. I'm 99% sure I will let go of the Homecomin' reservation since we snagged brunch there on departure day as well. I'm hoping to modify the Boathouse to anytime between 5-8pm.

Monday - Tusker House @ 8 , Eat to the Beat Biergarten @ 4:25
Definitely keeping Biergarten so we can get seating for Simple Plan! Debating on keeping Tusker House breakfast - we've never been but I hear good things. Will probably only do 1 sit down breakfast throughout the week since we prefer to sit down for lunch or dinner.

Tuesday - Tyler's birthday! Oga's Cantina @ 11:35, Sci-Fi Fantasmic Package @ 12:55
Keeping both of these! Tyler wants to try Sci-Fi, so I figured doing it as a Fantasmic package would work best for us.

Wednesday- Hollywood Studios AH this evening. Garden Grill @ 9:40, Roundup Rodeo @ 7:40
We may keep both. Tentative plans are Epcot in the morning with an afternoon nap before going to Studios for dinner and AH.

Thursday- Steakhouse 71 @ 6:45
Considering adding Crystal Palace breakfast in the morning because Tyler loves Winnie the Pooh. I really need to have him sit down and just choose 1 or 2 character breakfasts to finalize the plans.

Friday - Space 220 Lounge @ 2
We weren't planning on going there, but I saw a reservation and just had to. We may book a dinner at Tony's since the food at Space 220 doesn't excite us. Mainly going for the atmosphere and the drinks.

Saturday - Homecomin' Brunch @ 11:30
Will keep this one so we can have a nice meal and shop Disney Springs before Mears Connect picks us up in the afternoon.


It's beginning to feel more real now that dining and Mears are booked and the entire trip is paid for. We did get some stressful news regarding my surgery that has me concerned for the trip. My surgeon had an emergency and is unable to practice, which resulted in me having to essentially start over with the local hospital to schedule. New surgery date is about 2.5-3 weeks before this trip. Fortunately, it's a quick recovery time (1-2 weeks), but I am worried what my doctor will and won't give me clearance for on this trip. Fingers crossed for good news on this front at my consultation. Other than that, just 5 weeks until the end of the school year and 8 weeks until Disney!
​

 

[ExpeditionEmily]

ANOTHER trip?!
Well, I went ahead and did what I've been wanting to do for a little while. We're going to Disney TWICE this summer!! Here's the latest information about the next trip we just booked:

I was already thinking about booking for early August, right before back to school, so we could go to Not So Scary. Today solidified that for me when Southwest sent a deal for 30% off flights to Orlando!

My aunt and cousin decided they want to join us, so splitting the room makes it even cheaper.
Our plans:

Flying in early AM on August 10th and flying out AM on August 14th
Staying in a preferred Pop Century room
Mickey's Not So Scary on August 11th for opening night!!
2 additional park hopper days on the 12th and 13th

This will be a great shorter trip before Tyler and I head back to work for the school year! I've been to Disney with my aunt and cousin MANY times before I met Tyler. My younger cousin gets along perfectly with Tyler and I just know they'll have a blast together eating all the candy and running around to the rides. Next steps for the August trip will be finalizing park reservations, planning those dining reservations, and deciding if we want to do any other "extras."

Now accepting suggestions for cool group party costumes! ​

 

[ExpeditionEmily]

The Finalized Plans
We're less than 3 weeks out from our trip! At this point, the school year has wrapped up so now most of my energy can focus to Disney. I'm taking a handful of summer courses that start soon, but I'll have plenty of time to work on that before the trip. My surgery was yesterday morning and went very smoothly! My doctors and nurses were amazing and gave me the full go-ahead for all the roller coasters and water slides! Here's our finalized list of dining reservations and overall plans:

Saturday - Arrival day! No dining plans, checking into POFQ. We will go to H20 glow nights this evening and likely just eat QS before we head over.

Sunday - Pool day! We'll spend the day relaxing at the resort. I was able to push our Boathouse reservation until 4:30 which gives us a little more pool time.

Monday - Animal Kingdom in the morning, followed by Epcot in the evening. We'll be doing the Biergarten concert package for dinner to see Simple Plan. Pre-booked DAS passes are for Navi River Journey and Kilimanjaro Safaris.

Tuesday- Tyler's birthday! We've got plans off and on in Studios all day, but may choose to drop by Magic Kingdom for a bit as well. We'll be going to Oga's Cantina and doing the Sci-Fi Fantasmic package for lunch. Tyler is heavily considering building a lightsaber as well. Pre-booked DAS passes are for Slinky Dog Dash and Tower of Terror.

Wednesday - Epcot in the morning and then AH at Studios. We've got breakfast reservations at Garden Grill and dinner reservations at Roundup Rodeo. Pre-booked DAS passes are for Test Track and Soarin'.

Thursday - Magic Kingdom plans off and on all day - we'll likely spend most of the day there. Dinner reservations are at Steakhouse 71. Pre-booked DAS passes are for Big Thunder and Peter Pan's Flight.

Friday - Epcot in the morning, will try to hop in the evening to both AK and Magic but mainly just finishing up some priority rides. We'll be going to Space 220 lounge around lunch time, though likely just for drinks. I'm considering making us a dinner reservation at Tonys to see some old co-workers who are still there. We haven't prebooked any DAS passes for this day, so I will either skip the pre-book for this day or will try for some morning Epcot times.

One thing that's changed: you'll notice my mentioning of DAS pass. This is something we've never had a need for in the past, though my recent surgery and symptoms have been troublesome with some anticipated symptoms as I recover. The process for getting approved went SO smoothly and the cast members I chatted with were so kind. I told her this should (hopefully) be the only trip I need the DAS pass for and that symptoms should reside soon, so fingers crossed!

Next week, I plan on doing daily updates when we get to 12 days until Disney! ​

 

[ExpeditionEmily]

12 Days Until Disney
Today makes 12 days until we're in Orlando! I can't believe it! To curb my boredom and prevent me from packing too early, I figured I'll do short check-ins each day until it's time to go.
No new Disney plans or updates for the day - my summer classes just started, so I spent all morning working on classwork and had a GoogleMeet class this evening. Tyler is still going to work (2 more days!) and wrapping up the school year.
I did watch a few reviews on H20 glow nights that have me SO excited for this! Surgery recovery is going well so far - my pain is almost gone, though I still have another week before I can go to the pool and another 2 weeks before I can lift anything. I think I will try and hold off until Saturday or Sunday before I have Tyler bring up the suitcases and begin planning outfits.

12 more! ​