After a lot of planning and changing, I am finally at the day before my birthday trip!! It consists of WDW from 7/18-21 staying at Music and a 5-night Disney Dream Cruise with 2 stops at Castaway Cay!! Being at Disney World ON my birthday has always been a dream and this time it will happen!!
I got checked into my flights this morning and discovered a fun fact! At least for American Airlines domestic flights - well, maybe just shorter haul…I don’t know about cross-country ones - at the 24-hour mark, those seats that have an upcharge - the Economy Plus and the Exit Row seats - that are not sold lose the upcharge!! The catch is it ONLY kicks in at the 24-hour mark. I grabbed one for my flight from JFK to CLT (very happy about this since my connection is 50 minutes and in case there are delays I want to be able to jump off quickly - though right now they are only 4 gate numbers apart) at check in, but the CLT to MCO one still had the charge. I tested my theory and went back to that flight at its 24-hour mark and voila - an Exit Row, window seat!! I’ll nap and then get up and be ready by about 1:30am to watch the weather and dash to the subway between rain hopefully! Worst-case the umbrella comes too and I leave by 2:30 at the latest.
Landing in MCO is scheduled for 10:58am, and I will head straight to Magical Express and then onto Music.
Here’s the plan as now…
Thursday…
Lunch at Music and hopefully dropping bags in the room.
Head to Epcot around 3:30ish for a few hours, then monorail over to MK for Villains After Hours.
Friday…
Breakfast at ‘Ohana with a friend (she is also going to be at VAH, but at this point we do not have meet up plans there), then I think to MK for the morning - unless she wants to do the Wine Walk at Epcot. My afternoon and evening will be at Epcot.
Saturday (birthday!!)…
Breakfast at Tusker House, then Up Close With Rhinos!!! And the day at AK complete with FOP FP+!!
Sunday…
I have a PPO breakfast ADR at Garden Grill, but keeping that will depend on my DCL Bus pick up. In February it was 12:30pm from AOA, but it always varies based on the number of people using it and what resorts and can start as early as 10:30. If timing is too tight for my comfort zone (trying not to spend extra on Lyft, etc this trip) I will cancel and just have breakfast at Music.
DCL Bus to Port Canaveral and boarding the Dream for a cruise that will go to Castaway Cay, Nassau (aka sea day in port for me), Castaway Cay, and a Sea Day!!
I will do my best to keep the land portion updated! The sea…I am not planning to buy internet on board so that will come after!
Hooray!! Vacation is here!!
