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July 6th - 16th - Our first summertime trip to the World </font>
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Pre-Trip Report </font>
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Our Party: </font>
Sharon (me), age 36, 10th trip to WDW
Lee (DH), age 34, 4th trip to WDW but grew up in Southern CA so many trips to DL over the years
Savannah (DD), age 4, 4th trip to WDW
Cheryl (DSis), age 42, numerous trips to WDW
Scott (DBIL), age 39, 3rd trip to WDW
Mike (DNephew), age 15, 4th trip to WDW
Danny (DNephew), age 10, 2nd trip to WDW
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Our Journey: </font>
Every year we try to take a vacation with my sister & her family. For the past two years we have taken cruises but this year we decided to do Disney together. My family will arrive on July 6th and my sister's family will arrive on July 7th. This is our first time going to WDW in the summertime - we always go during Off-Season. We are very nervous about the heat & the crowds. We plan to only do the parks in the mornings & evenings and spend the heat of the afternoons resting & swimming.
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Our Lodging: </font>
We will spend the first 3 nights in woods-view rooms at WL. My sister has stayed at this resort before and it is one of their faves. This will be our first time staying here and we are very much looking forward to it. We got an AP rate on 2 Woods-view rooms of $154 per room per night. On the 4th day we will be checking into timeshares for the remainder of the trip. My sister & her family are staying at Orange Lakes, where they are owners. My family will be staying in a 1BR unit at Celebration Resort, which is where my other brother-in-law owns. He let us rent the unit from him for $400 for the week. So $57 a night for a nice resort doesn't sound too bad to me
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Pre-Trip: </font>
Lodging - done. Airfare - done (flying Southwest). Rental Car - done (renting an Intermediate-size car from National using a code I found on Mousesavers.com). All that is left now is booking someone to look after our animals while we're gone and packing. The goal for this trip is to not overpack. Since we will have a washer/dryer in our timeshare unit, we plan to not pack too many clothes and wash & re-wear during our stay.
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Our Planned Itinerary: </font>
<u>Wednesday, July 6th</u>
Arrive MCO at 1:30pm
Check in at WL and get settled in room
Maybe spend the evening at MGM, catching the 10:30pm showing of Fantasmic
<u>Thursday, July 7th</u>
Morning - Magic Kingdom
Afternoon - come back to WL, DSis & family arriving today
6:30pm - dinner at Whispering Canyon
9:30pm - Wishes fireworks cruise
<u>Friday, July 8th</u>
Morning - Magic Kingdom
10:25am - breakfast at Crystal Palace - I must see Eeyore and DSis must see Tigger!
Afternoon - rest & swim at resort
Evening - back to Magic Kingdom
9:00pm - Spectromagic - must-do for me!!
10:00pm - Wishes
Evening EMH at Magic Kingdom from 10pm-1am!
<u>Saturday, July 9th</u>
Morning - check out of WL & head over to Animal Kingdom
Afternoon - check in at Celebration Resort & relax
Evening - no set plans
<u>Sunday, July 10th</u>
Morning - Epcot
Afternoon - no set plans
Evening - no set plans
<u>Monday, July 11th</u>
Morning/Afternoon - Blizzard Beach
Evening - possibly mini golf at Winter Summerland
<u>Tuesday, July 12th</u>
7:00am - Disney Fishing Excursion on Bay Lake (pick up at Polynesian Marina)
9:40am - breakfast at O'hana
Afternoon - rest & swim at resort
Evening - no set plans except for 9:00pm Passporter meet at Ghiradelli's in Downtown Disney!
<u>Wednesday, July 13th</u>
Morning - trying to arrange tee time for DH & DBIL to go golfing at Orange Lakes
Afternoon - no set plans
5:00pm - head over to AKL so DSis & family can see this resort
6:30pm - dinner at Boma
no set plans after dinner
<u>Thursday, July 14th</u>
Morning - no set plans
Afternoon - no set plans
5:30pm - dinner at Chef Mickey's
Shopping at Downtown Disney after dinner
<u>Friday, July 15th</u>
Morning/Afternoon - Typhoon Lagoon
Evening - no set plans
<u>Saturday, July 16th</u>
Morning/Afternoon - Magic Kingdom
6:00pm - flight home
As you can see, we purposely have not overbooked our itinerary this trip. We are leaving plenty of open time for resting, swimming, etc since we have no idea how the crowds & heat will affect us
We are also leaving some open time for spontaneity - maybe checking out a restaurant we haven't been to or heading over to a theme park for a few hours. We want to take it easy this trip and not go "Commando-style" in the heat of the summer.
So as of today, we are leaving in 20 days!
More to come as the time draws closer.....