So I've been obsessively reading all of y'all's trip reports, and it inspired me to go ahead and write one of my own!
The way this trip happened was pretty spontaneous...I mean, we've been planning like crazy so I guess it's not REALLY spontaneous, but I guess the desicion was...
My family was discussing future vacation plans when we were all together this past Christmas(we're from Ohio, and my parents still live there, but the 4 of us kids are kinda spread around the country). We already had our next vacay planned for the upcoming summer(Emerald Isle, which we just got back from a few weeks ago!), so we were talking about 2014. We are a Disney-loving family for sure and the last time we were there was maybe 5-6 years ago, so we decided another Disney trip was due! So as soon as my sister and I got back to Nashville, the planning commenced. We budgeted, talked DDP, Moderate vs. Value Resorts, what ADRs to make, researched all the new attractions, etc...
In the midst of this planning, we got bit by the Disney bug HARD. The discussion somehow came around to "I wish we could go sooner!"...."Why can't we go sooner?"...."We should go sooner!" And so this quick little trip was born.
We started talking dates, and when would be the best time to get off work, and decided end of October was ideal. We didn't even think about Food and Wine Festival, but when that clicked, it was definitely on!
Our next priority was budget...this was a big one. Since we were thinking of this as just a little weekend trip and not a full-blown vacation, we wanted to try and spend as little as possible. We were already resigned to the fact that we probably would be staying off property, which we were okay with. The Holiday Inn Express Lake Buena Vista East is no Port Orleans, but at the price of exactly $0(due to credit card reward points) it would do nicely.
We were talking to our dad about the trip and he offered to get us our plane tickets with his frequent flyer points(he travels a lot for business and usually has more points than he knows what to do with), so that was a huge budget-saver as well!
Hotel and Flight- check!....Money spent- $0!
So we're flying out from Nashville on Wednesday, October 23rd in the evening, renting a car at the Orlando airport, and getting to the hotel probably around 10:00 or 10:30.
Our Schedule for the next 3 days is....
Thursday- This day is gonna be very loose. We're not planning on going to any of the parks, just DTD, the Boardwalk, and some resort hopping. We have an ADR for Kona Cafe for lunch, and we definitely wanna hit up Jellyrolls in the evening. We have a great dueling piano bar here in Nashville, The Big Bang, and it's always so much fun, so having that AND the fact that it's at Disney? super-win.
Friday- Our Epcot day! We've been reading up on F&WF obsessively, and there's no way we can do and eat and drink everything we want(which is pretty much everything there, lol). So we're in the process of narrowing the booths to our musts and as much as I hate having every second of a trip planned, we're gonna have to have a pretty tight game plan this day. We have an ADR for an 8:00 breakfast at Whispering Canyon Cafe. Not 100% sure about transportation from there to Epcot. We thought it'd be fun to take the boat to MK and then monorail to Epcot, but with our time constraints that day, that might not be best. Also, we're not sure if we're allowed to have our car there all day, since we're not guests. Anyone?
We also have tickets to the 3D Dessert Discovery party at 8:00, which also gets you prime spots for IllumiNations 
Saturday: MK from Rope Drop to Wishes! No super tight plans this day, although we still are gonna fit in as much as possible. We have an ADR for The Plaza, which we've never been to. BOG was our first choice but we couldn't get a res, of course. I'm excited for The Plaza though- I love the art nouveau decor and the location is perfect. We might do BOG for lunch if the line's not too insane.
Our flight back to Nashville is Sunday early evening, so we have a few hours in the morning/early afternoon to fit a couple more things in. No plans for that yet. Any suggestions? A good brunch place or something?
So that's it! Our whirlwind Disney trip! Thanks for reading! I tend to blab.... 
...it is okay though, diabetic anyway so couldn't eat the sweets but would have liked "sweet" seats lol. 
This would not fit in well with our Master Plan(yes, I'm capitalizing The Master Plan- that's how important it is). Well, we would try to get to them if we had time- we had the 3D Dessert Discovery event at 8, so we might be able to split up and each go to one, meet at the World Showplace Pavilion and share whatever we got just before the event. We also planned out pretty specifically what rides we would go on and when in the front of the park. We were pretty happy with The Master Plan in the end, but I kept thinking about how tight we would be on time, and how much I dislike being on such a strict schedule when I'm on vacation(okay, even just in my everyday life). I mean, we shouldn't be studying maps and using phrases like "game plan", and "optimize our time" when planning a vacation- it was like we were going to war- or worse! Black Friday at Best Buy! *shudder*
- what if we just got 3-day tickets instead of two? Ummmm, HELLO?! We already had a day that was kind of a "whatever" day, so we spend a few extra hours at Epcot, and we can still go to our ADR for lunch at Kona, and DTD at some point. I mean.....duh! It's almost another hundred bucks each, but I just got a $200 Disney gift card from my Disney Visa, so I took it as a sign. 
! (Okay, dudes, you can wait outside 
). We LOVE Disney of course, but combine that with fashion, clothes, shopping, etc...we are SO on board. 
