Packing for Hollywood Studios

 Our first Park Reservation is for Hollywood Studios. Here is my packing list for Day #3:

My #OOTD, of course:

I will never give up my Iron Man Loungefly. It is an essential part of every Disney vacation for me!

Can't wait to add this cutie, for this trip....

to go with THIS....

I'm not sure I have ever been more excited to wear an outfit than I am at this momoent, just thinking about wearing this one!

#iloveyou3000 😍😂

Park essentials:

LOVE these little fans. They are small, rechargable and powerful. Perfect for cooling off on hot park days and they fit easily in any bag I take. 

I always keep a spare pair of  sunglasses in my park bag due to a fear of losing/breaking mine, which has never happened thankfully! But if it ever does, I am prepared! I cannot stand being out in the sun without sunglasses so it is comforting to know I won't be stuck there without any. I think these are sucha a great deal and super cute!

The all important battery pack!

Clean hands!!

A must for us big girl thighs!

staying fresh on those hot days:

Next up: Outfit and park essentials for Epcot!

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Countdown to Disney....park plans

Daily Park Plans! Probably my favorite part of the planning process is deciding which attractions are going on our Must-Do list for each day. We typically stay at one park all day. No park hoping for us. I just find it easier to plan this way. If we ever manage to go on an adult only trip, I may rethink that!

Day 1: Arrival

We will arrive pretty late in the day since our Van Gogh Experience tickets are for the afternoon in Atlanta. A late night arrival is another new thing for us. We usually leave bright and early and drive straight to the Happiest Place on Earth. So, we will likely go straight to the resort and get settled in. I also like to quickly run through plans for the next day each night and since this trip is a surprise, I know I will be answering lots of questions and lost of additions to our Must Do list for the whole week. :)

Day 2: Resort

This is kind of strange to plan for day 1, I guess, but it just kind of happened this way and I actually think it will work well for us. We have a long day the day before. We will be driving to Atlanta for an art exhibit, where will will spend a couple of hours and then we will drive the remainder of the way to Orlando. We had originally planned to stay in Georgia and finish the drive to Atlanta the next day. So, now we are arriving a day earlier. This will be the first time we have really had a true Resort Day during a DW trip and I am so excited. Exploring the resorts is always fun and now we have a whole day to do so! And, I can't wait to get hang out in the Big Blue Pool!

Day 3: Magic Kingdom

We will making our way over to to the iconic Magic Kingdom and we have a long list of MUST DOs for our first day in the parks! Space Mtn, the Peoplemover, 7 Dwarfs, Mad Tea Party, Little Mermaid, Haunted Mansion and Peter Pan are all on the list BEFORE lunch! We are really challenging ourselves to hit all of those before lunch but we have plenty of time after, if we don't get them all in. Then, it's Frontierland and Adventureland for the rest of the afternoon. I have to admit that I am crossing my fingers that we will be able to stay late and see a magical light show on the castle by the time we go! 

Day 4: Animal Kingdom

I love to get to Animal Kingdom early to do the safari when the animals are the most active. So, we want to try to arrive in the parks as they are opening. Something that we haven't gotten the chance to see yet is the Bird Show at the Tree of Life so we are excited about that addition. Kali River Rapids is one of my favorite rides of all times! I love that the whole family can be in the same boat and we get to face each other and see excited (and somewhat nervous) little expressions on litte faces. I would ride it 10 times if there was enough time. But alas, we have Pandora Flight of Passage and Nav'i River Journey, Dinosaur, Expedition Everest and more! 

Day 5: Disney Springs

Disney Springs is practically a Must Do for us. Great restaurants, great shopping, even some fun activities and cute photo opportunities. If it isn't part of your Disney Plans, I suggest checking it out if you have the time but I wouldn't put it above a day in the parks!

Day 6: Epcot

AHHH, the Experimental Protype, Community of Tomorrow. Every single trip I leave saying I wish we had spent more time in Epcot. I could spend a whole week! I am STILL discovering that there are elements of Epcot that I had zero clue existed.  We keep adding to the very long list of things that we would like to do this time in Epcot. I honestly don't know how we are going to narrow this list down. Frozen Ever After, Soarin'and Spaceship Earth for sure. I love Turtle Talk with Crush so I am bummed that it is stil closed but I guess that gives us time to to something new to us like the Gran Fiesta Tour....how have we never done that!? But one of my favorite things is taking a tour around the world! I love walking through all of the countries and learning and shopping! Plus, I am pretty excited to take the Skyliner to the park!

Day 7: Hollywood Studios

HS is probably a favorite for the guys in the house. I guess it has a little something to do with Star Wars. Even I have to admit Rise of the Resistance looks A-Ma-Zing! Getting a boarding pass is probably the thing I am most nervous about making happen. Toy Story land will also be a first for us.  and we are pretty excited about Slinky Dog Dash! And, shockingly.....Mickey & Minnie's Runaway Railway is on the list for the first time ever..... WHAT!?

Day 8: The Journey Home

On the last day, we will have a TBD breakfast and then do some souvenir shopping before we head out. Though the ride home can be a little sad in a way, I love it because we all talk about our favorite parts of the trip. We each pick something from each day that was our favorite. Except our Sweet P (10 yr old) that can pick a favorite because "she loves is all so much!" Then, we start planning the next trip and the things that we saw this time but didn't get to do so they have to go on our list. 

We can't wait to share all of the fun with you!

Up Next....keeping the surprise but still building excitement!

Countdown to Disney....Dining

 Disney Dining Plans! One of my favorite things about planning a Disney World vacation is the Disney Dining Plan. I have never planned a trip without one. I love that I can prepay for everything, I don't have to worry about keeping up with purchases in the park. I don't have to manage a budget for each meal. I don't have to worry about a kid ordering the most expensive item on the menu, like I have one that has a tendency to do. I don't even have to think about any of that. It is the best! 

But wait... 'rona. No Disney Dining Plans.😭😭 I keep hoping that they will bring them back before our trip. I literally wake up every single day and search for Disney Dining Plans news. As we get closer to our check-in date, I am losing faith that we will be adding Disney Dining to our vacation plan. So...on to planning our dining budget. 

We arrive on Monday and will probably eat something quick on the way from Atlanta. I am budgeting $60 for this one. Here we come Chick-Fil-A! We have ordered lots of snacks, small foods and breakfast items from Amazon to save some money and really only plan one big meal per day. We have a sit down reservation each day of our trip. 

Tuesday is Olivia's Cafe . This is actually a free day for us to hang out at the resort and rest up from the drive and the first part of our vacation in Atlanta. So, we took a peak at opening at different resort restaurants. We have stayed at Old Key West on a previous trip but have not actually eaten at Olivia's. I looked over the menu and built out a meal based on what I think everyone will order. I added drinks, desserts and a 20% tip. Based on that, I will budget $200 for this meal. I rounded everything up and added desserts which we will not be getting at every meal. However, I felt that I would rather OVER budget for the meals and be able to let the kids get whatever they want rather than have to be strict about sticking to lower cost and not geting special treats. 

Wednesday is Magic Kingdom Day. We were able to get reservations at The Crystal Palace.  Again, based on the menu, I have budgeted $300 for this meal. 

Thursday is Animal Kingdom and we have Tusker House reservations. Tusker House has been closed and as of this moment, is still closed but will be reopening before our trip. It is one of our favorite character dining experiences.  Character Dining so this is a big one at $400. 

Friday is our Disney Springs day with reservations at Splitsville. I landed on a $250 budget for this meal. 

Saturday, we are headed to lunch at Coral Reef in Epcot. I have decided to budget $250 for this meal as well. 

Sunday is Holywood Studios with lunch at Mama Melrose's. I budgeted $300 for this meal. 

We will be leaving on Monday and I am planning a breakfast meal for the way out but have decided against making a reservation. We will wait to see if we can snag something last minute. If not, we will just eat a quick breakfast in the room and grab lunch on the way home. We are going to budget $200 for this, just in case. 

I have also set a $60 per day budget for an evening snack in the parks. 

This is definitely a big food budget. It doesn't have to cost this much to eat in Disney.  We will pay with our Disney Visa to get the cash back! Then we will use that to go towards paying the card. 

To be honest, I am not overly happy with this budget. I feel like given more time and planning I could get this down a bit. However, we are on a timecrunch at this point so I am going with this plan. All the while, I will continue to cross my fingers for Dining Plans to return! If time and my patience allow, I will revisit Dining planning and budgeting after I nail down all of our other plans. 

Up Next: Park Plans