Who: Me (he/him), 50 and Kitty (she/her), 42
When: April 28-May 1st (4 days!)
Where: Caribbean Beach Resort
How: Me: flying WestJet, YYZ to MCO, Kitty: flying Air Canada, YUL to MCO
Background
As I mentioned in my planning post a few months back, I thought I was done with Disney for awhile after the Adult Dream Trip. But, a voice in the back of my head started saying “Hurricane Ian stooooooole two dayyyyyyys from youuuuuuuu! And there’s two days left on your tiiiiiiiickettttttttt” so, instead of saying “shut up, voice,” which is what a rational and sane man would have done, I’ve instead decided to head to Caribbean Beach for a 4-day weekend.
This was originally planned as a solo trip (L has 3 days on her ticket, but she really is done with Disney for awhile), but turned into a reunion of sorts with another partner of mine, Kitty, that I’ve not seen in person since late 2019.
Kitty has been to Disneyland Paris and Disney World, though her last visit was in 2009, before Pandora, Toy Story land, Galaxy’s Edge, New Fantasy Land, Cosmic Rewind, Remy’s, Tron, Magic Bands, FastPa—er, Genie+… so for her it’s like I was last fall: a lot of nostalgic faves and a ton of new things to see.
One of the largest changes for me will be that Kitty, unlike L, is a night owl, so I expect we’ll be in the parks late, possibly to close every night. As a result, I should get to see a lot of the nighttime stuff I missed last time: fireworks at the Magic Kingdom and Fantasmic at Hollywood Studios, for example, as well as the general nighttime feel of the parks.
Another big change is that I’ve qualified for DAS this trip. I didn’t realize that DAS would benefit me on my previous trip, and it wasn’t until I saw a throwaway comment on some vlog where someone mentioned why they had DAS and I thought “hey, I have a similar issue!” I’m very thankful for qualifying, it’s going to be huge for me.
I’m feeling a lot more prepared for this trip with the experience from my previous one, with first-hand experience with BG1, though there are a few new things I’m a bit wary of. I’ll be stacking for our arrival day and attempting to DB a bit, mostly just to see if it works.
I’ve also changed my tactics around Tron. As much as I want to ride it over and over, the whole no-lateness for the boarding groups really throws a wrench into things. So, I’m just going to ILL it on both Saturday and Sunday nights, and get 2 good, well-lit rides, and save my BG1 VQ prowess for Cosmic Rewind.
Of course, hubris comes before the fall, and no plan survives contact with reality (looking at you, 
Ian), but we have some pretty great plans, including drinks at Oga’s, dinner at Round Up Rodeo BBQ and 'Ohana, and dinner at Skipper Canteen. As I did before, I’ll try to summarize the daily plans, and then write up what actually happened.
One thing to note is that aside from wanting to ride Tron a bajillion times, everything else is super flexible, and we could just flit around, so I expect a lot more cancelled reservations and last-minute changes and we both just enjoy the parks (and shared company!) together.
10 days to touchdown. Surely I can survive 10 more sleeps, right?
Plan Summary
- Day 1: Travel, Hollywood Studios, Oga’s and Round Up Rodeo BBQ
- Day 2: Epcot, 'Ohana, Magic Kingdom, Tron
- Day 3: Animal Kingdom, Magic Kingdom, Skipper Canteen, Tron
- Day 4: Typhoon Lagoon, Epcot, Hollywood Studios, Travel
Currently bumping back the times to something more reasonable.