Allie's Fabulous, In-Your-Face, Surprise Graduation/Anniversary Trip of Awesomenss - Pre-Trip

Long enough title for you all?

Today we booked our Fastpass+, completed online check in, and made our final payment so pretty much all we have left is to get our Magical Express luggage tags and Magic Bands in the mail and we are set! With all those big checks and only 60 days to go, I figured it was time to start up a pre-trip report. We surprised my baby sisters with this trip over Christmas as a graduation gift and they are both super pumped. They both have been to Disney World several times but there last trip was in 2007 so neither of them have had an adult(ish) trip.

The Characters:

ME!

That's me, rocking the legacy fastpasses on my last trip. I'm Allison, age 26. Last time in the World was October 2012 on an adults only 1st anniversary trip with my amazing husband. We stayed at Caribbean Beach and greatly enjoyed the F&WF throughout our trip. You can read our last trip report here. Both DH and I are crazy, fun loving, and big kids at heart and we have been itching to get back and run around Disney ever since we got back. I'm an accountant for a property management company in chilly Minnesota, have an adorable 10 month old daughter who I love more then anything. She will be staying home with Grandma and Grandpa this trip but gets to go with us for her first Disney World trip in Dec 2015. I love theatre...going to the theatre, being in shows, all of it, and was in my first stage production when I was 3 years old. Nothing professional, just for fun. Jon and I actually met playing significant others in a local production of West Side Story 10 years ago and were immediate friends, started dating 2 years later, and got married 5 years after that. We will actually be at Disney for our 3-year anniversary. My favorite Disney movies include Little Mermaid, Frozen, Tangled, Mulan, Hercules, Beauty and the Beast, and Aladdin. I love princesses and villains, with Ariel being the best princess and Ursula being the best villain, of course. Food might be my number one favorite thing about WDW. My favorite ride is probably Splash Mountain or Expedition Everest and my favorite show is Finding Nemo the Musical. I'm generally not a big fan of parades or fireworks but the new Festival of Fantasy parade is one of the things I'm looking forward to most this trip (besides food).

MY ADORABLE, GOOFY HUSBAND

Pictured with Penny, our super sweet daughter. Aren't they the cutest? Anyway, I digress...Jon is 33 and a big goofball. He's a manager at the Boys and Girls Club and loves working with kids. His hobbies are video games and theatre (both acting/singing and directing) and will be directing Mulan and Tarzan for our local theatre company's upcoming season. His favorite Disney movie is Aladdin and he likes Toy Story Mania, Pirates, Monsters Inc Laugh Floor, Expedition Everest, and Rock'n'Roller Coaster.

MY BIGGEST LITTLE SISTER

Megan, age 18 (almost 19 by the time of the trip). We are celebrating her high school graduation since she graduated this past spring. She'll be starting college in the fall and is planning on studying music production. I'm heart broken that she's moving so far away (about a 3 hour drive) so I'm greatly looking forward to this trip as a last hoorah before she goes away to be a grown up. Her favorite ride is Space Mountain.

MY LITTLEST LITTLE SISTER

Gillian (pronounced like Jillian), age 17. We are also celebrating her high school graduation since she will be graduating this coming spring (I still have another year with her!). Her favorite ride is Big Thunder Mountain.

The Setting:

We'll be staying at Coronado Springs (a first for us) from August 31st to Sept 6th with Free Dining and a 7 Day Park Hopper. I did online check in today and called to request a 2nd floor room in Casitas building 5 so we'll see where we wind up. I have vowed to check out the pool here at least once, as we completely missed doing that at Caribbean Beach on our last trip and the Dig Site pool looks awesome!

The Plot:

Here's the plan for the moment. I've been known to change the schedule a thousand times in the past so I'm not sure what it will end up looking like in the end, but probably at least something pretty close. I also have put the schedule into spreadsheet form attached below, though Dream Along With Mickey and Move It, Shake It, Celebrate It times have not been released yet so we will need to update it with those once they come out.

Sunday, August 31st
Fly out of MSP on AirTran at 6:20am
Short layover in ATL
Land in MCO at 11:55am
Check into Coronado Springs
Eat lunch at either Pepper Market before heading to DTD or eat at Wolfgang Puck Express depending on how hungry we are at this point
Do some browsing/shopping at DTD
Head over to the Wilderness Lodge for our 6:50pm reservation at Whispering Canyon (first for us....unlimited milkshakes!)
Possibly make a stop at MK (open until 12am, EMH until 2am) if we're not too exhausted (this is a surprise for my sisters, they think we're not going to MK until Thursday)
Fastpass+ for Seven Dwarfs from 8:20-9:20pm
Fastpass+ for Space Mountain from 9:25-10:25pm
Fastpass+ for Big Thunder from 10:25-11:25pm just in case we're able to stay up this late

Monday, September 1st
Breakfast in the room (we're packing muffins, poptarts, etc)
AK for EMH at 8am
Festival of the Lion King at 10am
Fastpass+ for Kali River Rapids from 10:30am-11:30am
Flights of Wonder at 10:45am (may be a little late after Kali but we've already seen it so missing the first couple of minutes isn't the end of the world)
Lunch at Yak & Yeti (my favorite!) at 11:30am (hoping to get in a little early after Flights of Wonder is done...last time we were there at 11am and the place was empty)
Fastpass+ for Expedition Everest from 11:30am-12:30pm (may be a little tight with lunch but we'll do what we can)
Fastpass+ for 1pm show of Finding Nemo the Musical from 12:30pm-12:50pm
Head back to the hotel to take a nap/swim
DHS for EMH from 9:30-11:30pm
Character Palooza at 5:40pm
Dinner for Jon and I at Brown Derby Lounge (margarita flight, anyone?) and a quick service of their choice for my sisters
Fantasmic at 8:30pm
Frozen Fireworks at 9:45pm

Tuesday, September 2nd
Epcot for EMH from 8:00-9:00am
Breakfast at Kouzinna (first and last time) at 9:30am
Fastpass+ for Soarin from 10:10am-11:10am
Fastpass+ for Mission Space from 11:10am-12:10pm
Fastpass+ for Spaceship Earth from 12:10pm-1:10pm
Lunch for me at Tangerine Cafe, lunch for everyone else at a quick service of their choice
May head over to MK to catch the Festival of Fantasy Parade at 3pm since we have the KTTKT the next morning and I would like to see the parade before seeing the floats backstage
Possible nap/swim at hotel
Dinner at Coral Reef (another first) at 6:55pm
Illuminations at 9pm

Wednesday, September 3rd (Jon and Allison's 3rd Anniversary!)
Breakfast in room
Keys to the Kingdom Tour at 8:30am
Lunch at Columbia Harbor House (included in tour)
Fastpass+ for Seven Dwarfs from 1:15pm-2:15pm
Fastpass+ for Splash Mountain from 2:15pm-3:15pm
Watch Festival of Fantasy parade from Frontierland/Liberty Square area if we didn't see it the day before
Fastpass+ for Enchanted Tales with Belle 3:20pm-4:20pm
Possible nap/swim at hotel
Dinner at California Grill (a first for us...sensing a theme yet?) at 9:05pm for Jon and Allison, quick service of their choice for Megan and Gill

Thursday, September 4th
Breakfast in room
MK for EMH from 8:00-9:00am
Fastpass+ for Peter Pan from 9:10-10:10am
Fastpass+ for Big Thunder from 10:10am-11:10am
Lunch at Be Our Guest (hoping to snag a Fastpass+ for this)
Fastpass+ for Anna & Elsa (yay!) from 11:40am-12:40pm
Possible nap/swim at hotel
Dinner at Ohana (first time) at 5:20pm
Main Street Electrical parade at 9pm and Wishes at 10pm if Megan and Gill didn't hit them the night before

Friday, September 5th
Breakfast at 1900s Park Faire at 9:05am
DHS
Fastpass+ Toy Story Mania from 10:20am-11:20am
Fastpass+ for 11:40am show of Voyage of the Little Mermaid from 11:20am-11:35am
Lunch at Fairfax Faire
Fastpass + for Tower of Terror from 12:05pm-1:05pm
No nap today! It's our last full day, dangit!
Head over to Epcot for EMH 9pm-11pm
Lunch at quick service of our choice (I'm thinking Katsura Grill possibly for me)
Dinner at Tutto Italia (first) at 7:30pm

Saturday, September 6th
Breakfast in room
DHS for EMH from 8am-9am
Fastpass+ for Toy Story Mania from 9:25-10:25am
Fastpass+ for Tower of Terror 10:25-11:25am
Fastpass+ for Star Tours 11:25am-12:25pm
Head over for lunch at Epcot...Lunch at quick service of our choice (I'm thinking Katsura Grill possibly for me)
Catch the Magical Express around 3pm
Fly home via Southwest at 6:03pm

I know it sounds like an insane plan, but that's how we love touring Disney World. We're always go, go, go and love to be in the parks, though I'm trying to schedule in a little more rest time then we usually do. I'm betting once we get there though we will skip most of the midday breaks I have planned. We have two day to catch up on sleep once we get back before we go back to work. I'm sure we'll need it, too!

ETA: I would also like to note that, though I'm a fanatical planner, I'm fairly laid back once we get there so no worries about me pushing the rest of the group through the parks commando style!