Adventure Is Out There… and So Is The Humidity: An August Trip Report

Walt Disney World Trip Reports
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Pre Trip Report!

I was fighting some insomnia the other day so I perused the forum posts for a while. Somehow I ended up back at my Honeymoon trip report from 2015. And I discovered I never finished it! I’m sorry! I’m hoping to not repeat that this time!! To help me fall asleep I decided to start a pre-trip report on my notes app. Don’t think it helped as it just gave my brain MORE of a reason to be awake haha.

Here’s our pre-trip report and I’ll update if things change!

If you are also on chat you may recall seeing me post a lot about having a very hesitant DH. He is usually a “yes man” when it comes to booking Disney trips so having him say “maybe” was new territory for me! I’m glad he changed his mind though!

We are booked to be at All Star Sports from Aug 19-25. I have asked CMs and checked daily as I would love to be at Movies instead as we stayed at Sports last January so I thought my kids (DD7 and DS4) might like a slight change in scenery. Have been told to check back closer to our 30 day mark as that is around when people cancel trips.

We are Canadians so we are taking advantage of the Canadian discount for rooms and tickets. Plus we are doing the Disney Dining Plan (since the kids are free) for the first time ever.

My kids don’t know about the trip yet! DH wants to wake them up the morning of and toss them on a plane. But I think they will catch on. I’m a very early packer haha. And I don’t know how a 3am wake up call will go. I would like to do a scavenger hunt since DD is a good reader. And I think they will like that. Will update when we decide!

Our current plan is as follows:

Aug 18 - fly in to MCO. Stay at the Wyndham Garden Lake Buena Vista. Deciding between taking a Lyft or booking Mears to get there. We might be arriving at MCO after 7pm. So could be a late arrival at the hotel and might be taking the kids to bed but if they have energy we might go for a swim to help them fall asleep. OR we might walk over to Disney Springs and pick out MagicBands at WOD. My kids have never had MagicBands before and I thought this might be a fun addition to the trip. And we can use them again for our cruise in February.

Aug 19 - wake up and have some breakfast delivered. Get an uber/lyft to Sports to check in and drop off our luggage. Head to Blizzard Beach for the day. QS lunch there and a snack. Head back to hotel to shower and change and take a bus to MK and walk to Contemporary for our Chef Mickeys reservation at 515. We are meeting friends of ours who we have loosely planned our trip with. This is also a first for us! We have either gone by ourselves or with DHs family but never with friends before.

Aug 20 - rope dropping Hollywood Studios. Will get LLMP and hopefully get some good options for those. Lunch at 1255 at Sci Fi for the Fantasmic Package. I know some people have told us it’s not the best use of a TS credit numbers-wise but I think my car loving 4 year old is gonna squeal with delight at the idea of “eating in a car”. Fantasmic is also one of my favorite Disney things so great seating for it is important to me. Not sure where QS supper will be yet… probably a ronto wrap! Yum.

Aug 21 - rope dropping Magic Kingdom. Hoping to take advantage of those mythical “low crowds on party days” I’ve heard about. Thinking we will buy LLMP today as well so we can crush out some things. QS lunch probably at Cosmic Rays as my kids like it. Supper at Crystal Palace at 505pm because DD7 is going through a Winnie the Pooh phase. Back to hotel after for an evening swim and a good night sleep after two early mornings.

Aug 22 - rope dropping AK with our friends. DH and our friend’s wife want to head straight to FOP while me and friend husband take the three kids on Navi. We both have Tusker House brunch reservations at 10:25 so hoping we can sit close to each other. Early QS supper at Satuli before heading back to hotel for another evening swim and bedtime.

Aug 23 - rope dropping Epcot with our friends. Will be getting ILL for Guardians. Both our kids are tall enough but we will see if we all go or end up rider switching. We have lunch at 1200 at Garden Grill and then a flexible afternoon. Might head back for an afternoon break and swim. Or stay a bit longer and have another early night. Won’t be staying up for the fireworks so will see how the kids are. We aren’t planning on getting LLMP this day which may come back to haunt us…

Aug 24 - my 39th birthday! Last park day at MK. Our hope is to rope drop but will see how the kids are doing by this point. Not sure where QS lunch will be but we do plan on having an afternoon break before our 1900 Park Fare reservation at 535pm. Back to MK afterwards for my absolutely favorite nighttime fireworks.

Aug 25 - head back home. Womp womp.

Our kids have only gone in January or February before so the Florida heat is going to be very new. We have neck fans and cooling towels and ponchos at the ready. Renting a double stroller from Kingdom Strollers. And will be placing a grocery order from somewhere for breakfast foods and extra snacks (DS has the nickname of “Horse” because he is constantly eating).

Will update as we get closer and see how my LLMP selections go! Let me know if you have any thoughts on our plan. Always appreciate Liner advice and input!

So excited!

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Your trip sounds so well thought out, and I love that you’ve built in pool breaks and some flexibility. I think that’s going to make a huge difference with young kids, especially in August.

The surprise trip idea is also really fun. Whether you tell them with a scavenger hunt or wait until travel day, I bet it’ll be a memory they’ll never forget.

One thing I’d definitely keep doing is staying on top of hydration and taking advantage of indoor attractions during the hottest part of the afternoon. August heat can be intense, but it looks like you’ve already planned for that with the neck fans, cooling towels, and stroller.

Hope you get that switch to All-Star Movies if it opens up, and happy early birthday! It sounds like you’ve got an awesome trip planned. Looking forward to reading the updates once you’re there!

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Yay! Sounds like a fun trip. I’m here for the pre-trip shenanigans as well as the real ones!

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FYI not to dampen your plans, but as someone who lives in the north and only recently went for the first time in August, I would literally never expect to do this in August. I was in Florida for 2 weeks and I think there was a thunderstorm every.single.day between 3pm and 6pm. Again, not trying to wise crack, but it was really hard for us to get any swimming in!

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Yah we went about 10 years ago in August and experienced those afternoon storms often. If we have to go back and just take a nap that would be fine too! I imagine our kids will be tired towards the end of the trip anyways!

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So fun! How old are the kids?

Your trip is 2 weeks before mine! I’ll be following along. I haven’t really been keeping up with Disney news, so I’m feeling a little unprepared. :laughing:

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I was there August 23-31 last year, and the heat was tolerable (better than when I was there in June last year, to be honest). Also MK on a party day was chef’s kiss. Probably didn’t even need LL but we had it anyway (also we were park hopping so we used it that night at HS).

Have so much fun!

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My daughter is 7 and my son is 4!

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Update 1: We paid off our trip earlier this week. And then on Wednesday we got some news that MIL most likely has breast cancer. So far she has had ultrasounds and a mammogram. Has a doctor appointment tomorrow to get a referral for a biopsy. But the radiologist who looked at her scans said it didn’t look good and she had to get seen as soon as possible. So we are in this waiting game with our trip now. We won’t go if her surgery is planned while we are gone or if she is in active chemotherapy. She also has T1D and a platelet disorder, plus she is divorced. So DH and SIL are her primary source of assistance if needed and we would want to be here for whatever she may need. And I don’t think DH nor I would have fun knowing things were not good back home. I offered to outright cancel but DH said no. He says if we are still in this waiting period (since the health system can be a bit slow) then we might as well wait in Disney. So we may lose our $200 deposit. But that isn’t a huge deal to me. But will keep y’all updated if we have to cancel or if we get to go!

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I’m so sorry for the bad news. Hopefully it is a false alarm! I’m sure MIL really appreciates the support.

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Oh no! I’m sorry to hear about your MIL. I hope that she is able to be seen quickly to receive a diagnosis.

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Update! We are officially a go!

Found out yesterday that MIL won’t be having surgery until September so we are heading to WDW! Booked our LLMP and ILL this morning.

So far we have:

Aug 20 - HS

935 - Star Tours, 215 - Rise, 530 - TSM, 630 - SDD

Aug 23 - Epcot

Guardians at 1130

Aug 24 - MK

905 - Buzz, 945 - BTMRR, 11:10 - Pirates, 830 - Tron

Our HS day doesn’t line up with our friends that are also going that same day. They were able to book yesterday so I’m hoping I can do some same day modifications for that one. Looking forward to riding Tron later in the evening. I know it won’t be dark but hopefully still a different vibe than in the morning. I have only tried it once so just happy to try it again!

We surprised the kids last night with the news. We had them do a scavenger hunt. They didn’t seem that excited by the reveal of the trip at the end but they loved the scavenger hunt. As time went on and we talked about rides and watched some YouTube they got more and more excited.

I need to get packing!!

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So happy for you that you can go ahead with the trip and it sounds like your MIL has a good treatment plan, so fingers crossed.

Your plan sounds amazing. So many great character meals! I’d love to get your verdict at the the end on which ones you enjoyed the most. It’s definitely also a great way to get out of the heat and re-charge at mid-day. We had some pretty brutal heat during our trip to UOR in July (and we usually come over the summer holidays) - especially when the sun is out and especially at Epcot where the walks feel SO FAR. I actually prefer overcast or even lightly drizzly days, and evenings after a big storm can be amazingly fun (because big downpours also often clear out the crowds).

For DHS, if you don’t make it over to Baatu for Ronto Wraps, we love the QS options from Woody’s (I’ve even walked over to F! with the sandwiches in hand to finish eating over there while waiting for the show to start).

If you can’t manage to align your LL with your friends’ I would probably try stopping at guest services’ blue umbrellas and politely ask if they might be able to help align them? There have been many positive reports in the Forum on GS agreeing to do that.

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