Two trips in one year? i must be mad - May/September 2018

[Elsa42]

Two trips in one year? That’s a lot of planning! May/September 2018

With finishing my 2017 trip report just days ago which can be found here May 2017 if you can dream it you can do it it seemed only right to post my pretrip report for both trips.

As the title states this year I’ll be going not once but twice to the most magical place on Earth. Im not sure how it’s happening but I’m going to have this trip report for both of them 😊

The trips are two different trips with two different people but we will start at the begining.

Part one

So first things first who?

For those who have read my previous trip reports, This is me (Chloe) with my mum Heather. I’m 24 years of age I’m a veterinary nurse and love all disney! You’ll be happy to know my previous frozen obsession has died down slightly 🙈 I couldn’t pick a favourite film as I love them all for different reasons. This trip will be a different adventure so I’m
Really looking forward to the new experiences.

On to my mum (heather) she is 52 I think 🤔 Loves Disney and is another big frozen fan (sorry everyone) She has been to Disney 5 times. She doesn’t have a favourite film and her ride choice would probably be similar to mine however on the last trip she found a new love for haunted mansion so I have a feeling we will be riding that a few times! .

So onto when, we’ll the trip happens this week actually! I wrote my previous trip report a year early and this time round I’m writing it days before we leave! We are used to the May weather we like the Time of year so it just made sense!

So what’s the plan

So the plan, this trip is slightly different. We are spending a week in Disney with the dining plan, at the Caribbean beach. We know there is work going on but we are happy to try a new place and hopefully it won’t be that bad! No universal this trip as we are spending our second week on the Disney fantasy for a weeks western Caribbean cruise! Staying on the cruise longer than 3 days is new for us so we are really excited about being able to spend more time exploring everything the Disney cruise line has to offer. That along with the different ports will hopefully make for a fantastic holiday!

Flights
We are flying with Thomas cook, we decided to go just economy this time as premium was just too expensive, with seat selection they were roughy £450 pp so not too bad. Flying at 12pm so hoping we get to the resort at a reasonable time to hopefully get some park action?

4 parks plan

So as some of you may know we did the 4 parks challenge last year which was incredibly fun however we decided to make it more interesting by doing 5 parks challenge. We had so much fun that we’ve decided to do it again this year! We’ve changed some of the rules and tried to do a few different rides this year so here’s the plan for that.

5 park challenge

Rules include
-walking around the whole park (meaning not walking in and doing rides closest to the exit)
-using all Disney transport
-picture in front of each park entrance
-must do 3 attractions
-Eat one item in each park.
-meet a character in each park

•Up at 6am get ready and be at the park for 7:30am. Wow that early for me!
•The first park will be animal kingdom and we will be using the bus to arrive getting into the park for 8am as it has extra magic hours
•Rides to include:
Safaris
Rapids
Dinosaur
Meeting of a character
Bonus of it’s tough to be a bug if we have time.
Make sure we have a snack and a picture at the park entrance before leaving.
•Leaving no later than 10:30am. Park 1 completed.

•10:30am get the bus to Blizzard beach

•Arrive at the bb around 11am. Grab a locker and get changed before going inside
Rides to include:
Lazy river one lap round
Storm troopers
Teamboat springs
Bonus
Rapids
Toboggan racers
Summit plummet if there’s time

Have a snack before leaving the park around 12:30pm now at this point we have to get a bus to the nearest hotel then from there a bus to the studios. It took us around an hour last time and put us behind so hopefully we can keep on track.

Hopefully arriving at the studios around 1:30pm

We have an adr at mama Melrose at 1:45pm so we will be enjoying another sit down meal on our crazy 5 parks day! People may think this is a wasted time but it worked well for us last time so why not do it again!

Hollywood studios doesn’t have many offerings for us both to ride so it seems that our options were star tours, voyage of the little mermaid and muppets. I’m not overly thrilled by the choices but there’s nothing much we can do! We will also need to meet a character in the park.

I didn’t fastpass in this park due to there being lack of things we actually wanted to do, we’ve planned to have longer waits here due to this but I’m hoping we can make back time in Epcot.

Picture in front of the park before leaving and heading to the next park. From Hollywood studios we will catch the boat across to epcot. Again this takes slightly longer but will give us a brief break to chill. Hopefully leaving around 4:30pm

The idea here would be to get off the boat at the boardwalk so we could have a look around and head towards epcot from here. BONUS ROUND.

We need to be heading into epcot at 5pm at the lastest ideally.

We will enter epcot at the international gateway and head anticlockwise around the world showcase.

We have fast passes for test track, meeting the characters and spaceship earth to speed us along slightly.
We will also do living with the land.
Bonus rides would be nemo, Mexico’s ride and soaring depending on time!

We didn’t get a snack here last time so didn’t fully complete the challenge we had set slightly silly really when there’s the whole world showcase to pick from. Make sure we have a snack and a picture outside the park.

Once we have finished we will head over to the monorail to head over to the final park that is magic kingdom. Ideally would like to be leaving by 7:30pm to get to magic kingdom for 8pm

Had another idea to get off at the transport and ticket centre and get the boat across so we may arrive slightly later than planned.

•Rides will include mickeys Philharmagic, BTM, little mermaid and meeting a character. Other good options for bonus would we IASM and potc I’m sure mum will take us on haunted mansion or buzz lightyear

We really enjoyed watching the fireworks from behind the castle so that’s the plan of action for today!

Once finished it will be time to head back to the hotel. We did think of a crazy idea of heading to Disney springs for something to eat or a drink but we may literally give up at that point.

So there you have it a new 5 parks challenge plan. We are hoping while we are there we can tweak things so different rides can be rode from last time

We have EMH this time which should help us get a little more done.

Hopefully you’ll join us on our 2nd challenge! A few photos from last years challenge.

Overall plan

Friday - flights checking in, Disney springs or fantasmic? Time will tell

Saturday - animal kingdom, so glad this is our first park of the holiday!
Fp+ Rapids, safaris and FOP
Dining at sanna

Sunday - Epcot
Fp+ soaring, living with the land and Nemo
Dinner at chef de France

Monday - magic kingdom
Fp+ BTM, splash mountain and SDMT
Dinner at be our guest

Tuesday - Hollywood studios and Epcot
Fp+ frozen, spaceship earth and imagination with figment
Dinner at le cellier

Wednesday - 5 parks challenge

Thursday - animal kingdom
Fp+ FOP, dinosaur, safaris
Dinner at the flying fish

Friday - magic kingdom
Be our guest for breakfast
Fp+ haunted mansion, POTC and BTM
dinner at whispering canyon
Fantasmic to finish?

Saturday we will be being picked up by the Disney cruise line to take us to the Disney’s fantasy


So that’s the trip! I’ve decided as we are on the cruise for half the holiday not to write a full report for this trip, however I will instead be doing a restaurant review for all our ADR’s as well as an overview of the cruise and the park days. I will however write up the 5 park challenge unless it all goes to pot! 😂 I hope you’ll stick with me along the way as when I’m back I’ll be adding information on the second trip of the year

[Goldia]

Oh wow! It feels so soon, although I guess the last time was last year, but we've only just finished reading your trip report.

I hope you do share the 5 park challenge day with us, I'd love to read about it. We are attempting 4 parks this summer and I used a lot of your 'rules' in my plan. I agree about the not just doing a ride at the front of the park and leaving. I've been trying with the idea of making the character meet and greet a bit harder! I want to meet Mickey in all 4 parks during the challenge! Crazy maybe, but it's do-able I reckon.

I hope you have a wonderful time with your mum. Good luck with your packing.

[Elsa42]

Originally Posted by Goldia

Oh wow! It feels so soon, although I guess the last time was last year, but we've only just finished reading your trip report.

I hope you do share the 5 park challenge day with us, I'd love to read about it. We are attempting 4 parks this summer and I used a lot of your 'rules' in my plan. I agree about the not just doing a ride at the front of the park and leaving. I've been trying with the idea of making the character meet and greet a bit harder! I want to meet Mickey in all 4 parks during the challenge! Crazy maybe, but it's do-able I reckon.

I hope you have a wonderful time with your mum. Good luck with your packing.

See more...

I know honestly it feels pretty soon for us too!

I’m really hoping too as long as all our timings work out ok! Hopefully you’ll share yours too! I always enjoy reading what everyone else manages to do! Meeting a Mickey in every park is a good one I like that idea!

Thank you packing all done and on the way 😁

[caitlinsmummy]

That 5 park challenge sounds amazing ... I would love to do that, however not sure the family would appreciate it x

[Elsa42]

Originally Posted by caitlinsmummy

That 5 park challenge sounds amazing ... I would love to do that, however not sure the family would appreciate it x

See more...

Its so much fun! Recommend it to anyone tiring but you feel like you’ve achieved something and tbh we probably get more done than if we went to one park

[caitlinsmummy]

I'd definitely love to try it but that many changes in one day might just tip Noah over the edge (he needs routine) however the next trip we're planning we're thinking of taking the in-laws so built in babysitters for the day whilst we do this would be awesome! X