McIntosh Family 1st Trip: A Tale

Oh, that sounds awesome @B_squared. Girls that age are so great. Look for our crazy family of 5 running around that week! Where are you guys staying?

Exactly.

@SallyEppcot, @Outer1… our kids will love it all, but still maybe not as much me!

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[quote=“JustKeepSmiling, post:37, topic:7403”]
I bet no one is sleeping in the pews at your church on Sunday morning.
[/quote] @JustKeepSmiling Ha! I wouldn’t say “no one.”

[quote=“JustKeepSmiling, post:37, topic:7403”]
Akershus was always my DD’s favorite princess meal. They will have so much fun!
[/quote] Good to know, @JustKeepSmiling. Glad to hear that you got the ADR’s that you wanted too.

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awesome! loving reading this! thanks for sharing.

Pulling up a carpet square with a pillow and a bag of jelly bellies.

@JonMcIntosh what an awesome spread of last minute reservations on hard to score days. Kudos for not giving up. So awesome that you got CP on turkey day!!

Can’t wait to read more.

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Squee!! So excited to read this, and so glad you’re bringing us along!

Love it! It pays to be persistent (and pray a little bit too). :slight_smile:

Pop this time. Two years ago I took DD5 for her first time and I am the one who got hooked!! Ended up with annual passes! (We live about six hours away.)

Oh, and as for the window shrinking, I also made a point of taking a trip in Sept just because DS was 2.9 and it was the last time he could go without a ticket, ha ha! :slight_smile:

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Part 3: What Does Olaf Know About Love Anyway?
The day we booked our Disney trip, I immediately subscribed to Touring Plans.

Let’s just say, @Len, you had me at “genetic algorithms."

It was so much fun to go through the existing plans for families (including the well-done Magic Kingdom plans for Princess Fans), edit those around our schedule, plug in meal times and tinker with each day until we had the most effective way to tour each park.

It started to get complicated, however, when I began looking for Fastpass Plus times.

I didn’t know how time sensitive the process of getting the choice FP+ (how do you pluralize Fastpass Plus?) was and that I was already behind the ball.

Of course we want to ride Seven Dwarfs Mine Train and Toy Story Midway Mania, and all the rest. But more importantly (and perhaps most importantly of all) we had to meet the singing sisters of Arendelle.

I didn’t know yet about the 3-4 hour wait times (5 someone reported?) to see the ladies. I was blissfully unaware of “the Frozen 5k” where moms sprint from rope drop to Fairytale Hall, elbowing others out in some kind of free-for-all Battle Royal. You know… for the princesses. The princesses who learned that “love is putting someone else’s needs before yours” (thus spake the prophet Olaf). Anyway.

I don’t know what I thought… maybe that we could just walk up and see them?

Let me cut to it. Here is what I did to get the Meet Anna and Elsa FP+.

  1. I became okay with accepting late times for key attractions. Both our A&E and 7DMT FP+ are scheduled for 10pm or later. Since we’re doing long afternoon breaks, I’m ok with that.
  2. I broke up our party. It started when I decided to look for a FP+ for Space Mountain only for me, when I knew our family would be in Tomorrowland. (Since I’m the only adventurer on this vacay, DW is cool with me doing this once or so per park.)
  3. I then looked for a A&E FP+ for the girls one by one. When I was only looking for a single FP+ at a time, I found that the A&E option was available.
  4. I couldn’t find an exact time match up, so I looked for overlapping times. DD8’s FP+ is for 9:20-10:20, DW’s is for 9:50-10:50, and DD6’s is for 10:00-11:00, which means that they have a 20 minute window from 10:00-10:20 to all go in together.
  5. Lastly, and sadly, I accepted that I wouldn’t be able to go in. Once I found the priority people a FP+, I looked for a single for me, but there were literally none left.

But I’m content. The girls are guaranteed to meet A&E… or least two actors who look like A&E. And I didn’t even understand until later what a rare thing that really was.

(Next up… Is it possible to plan too much?)

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You have a really fun writing style. I hope you make an equally detailed after trip report with some great photo’s in it!

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I was so pleased to see another installment and it was fantastic again! Thanks! :slight_smile:

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No, too much is never enough. :slight_smile:

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BTW, I am really enjoying this “tale”. It really demonstrates that, with a little perseverance and Liner knowledge, you can make a “last minute” trip that does not miss out on the hard to get ADRs and FPPs.

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Don’t give up. You never know, you may get your FPP too!

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@Outer1, @LoveBug53, @brklinck, and @JustKeepSmiling: thanks for the encouragement! I’ll keep telling my story, and hopefully I’ll have some great stories (with pics!) of our actual visit to WDW to match.

Love this Liner community!

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Another great instalment, thanks for posting!

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You could give lessons on how this is done! Amazing! Wow!

I cannot tell how how much I am enjoying this! Thank you!

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@Ellen1976 and @PrincipalTinker Well, shucks. :blush:

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