My favorite topic to blog about is our family vacations. Then I go back and read them over and over to remind myself that life is good when winter consumes me and all I want to do is throw myself on the floor dramatically and weep big fat tears of gloom and despair. This continual vacation blog reading cycle could also account for the fact that this blog post has the largest number of views and that makes it number one on my most popular blog posts section. That was the year first year we traveled outside of our 2 state comfort zone.
This year I had hustled and saved as much money as I could in order to fly my sisters out to visit me. But it didn't work out. So I said to myself "Self! use that money to go on a super fantastically fun vacation".
So I started searching Beaches Resort vacations.
Do you know how stinking expensive those are?
And that's how we settled on the Walt Disney World Orlando, FL vacation. Because Beaches Resorts would require a reverse mortgage on our house.
We had never been to any Disney theme park location and therefore I felt this was the year for matching THEME vacation t-shirts.
To which Jason was all like:
Boo Hiss.
Planning a trip to Disney World is a thing people! I had no idea what we were getting ourselves into until we started planning and I realized Disney has it's own language. Jason actually called Disney a bazillion times while I Googled. Halfway through our planning, he remembered that his cousin Olivia is a Disney vacation planner. She works for My Mickey Vacation Travel. She is paid by Disney, so it was no charge to us (or anyone else who use her services) to book our trip through her. She was able to answer our never ending questions AND she's nice. Sometimes. AHAHAHAHAHA! totally kidding Olivia!
I fully intend to eventually do one whole blog post focusing on Disney planning tips that we learned along the way, but winter is coming. I need a vacation blog post to read.
We booked our vacation stay at Disney's Caribbean Beach Resort. This was our trip itinerary:
Arrival: Resort Check-in (full day of travel)
Day 1: Magic Kingdom
Day 2: Resort/Disney Springs
Day 3: Hollywood Studios
Day 4: Epcot
Days 5-7: We left Disney and spent a few days at Melbourne Beach
The first tip I would give is to space out the theme park visits if you're able to. By the end of each day we were exhausted, somewhat miserable and our feet were swollen. Isn't that magical?
We woke up crazy early to catch our flight that would connect us to Dallas that would connect us to Orlando. We were pretty giddy, even at 4 am at the airport.
And on the plane.
Our first flight had movie options! Dawson and I watched Spider-Man Homecoming and I'm still asking myself how a kid with a British accent can sound so american. Was it a result of being bit by the spider?
The Orlando airport has it's own terminal containing Disney's transportation system called Disney's Magical Express. If you plan a trip to Disney and stay at one of their resorts, you use their transportation for everything. Even traveling to the theme parks.
Disney sends you tags that put on your checked luggage. Your luggage will be transported from the airport directly to your room at the resort. We were checking in at the Disney counter at the airport, waiting to be told where to go.
We took a Disney bus from the airport to our resort. The luggage guy thought I was taking a picture of him. But I was actually taking a picture of the bus. No offense luggage guy.
Disney sends you Magic Bands that you wear everywhere you go. The band is scanned for everything, entry to your room, the theme parks, purchasing food or other items, and it contains your fast pass. A fast pass is disney language for a quick way to get on a ride. It allows you to bypass the long line that all the peasants are in and get on the ride really quick.
I'll add here that the gray edge you see around the band can be removed, which will make the band smaller. I removed the gray edge from my band as well as Dawson's and Evan's. Then I regretted removing the band from the edge of mine because I felt like my band wasn't as pretty and I fretted about it for 3 whole days (the edge doesn't go back on) to the point that I was going to buy a new magic band until Jason thought I was crazy so I didn't. Also, I recently found out that magic bands can be used until the battery dies.
Dawson found this Disney issued Star Wars Darth Vader hand sanitizer worth $12.00 laying on the floor of the bus! I'm certain this meant Disney was rewarding us for visiting.
I was super excited to find them for sale in a Disney store. I cold probably totally sell it for $100 on eBay.
The Disney Magic Express drops you off at a Guest Services Station at your resort where you transfer to a van that takes you to your room. This is how blurry your life feels at this point.
I felt it was necessary to also include a selfie on the van trip. I'll have it be on record here that I was determined to have my hair colored as blonde as it could get before we left for Disney against Jason's wishes. He likes my hair better dark. But this was a mid-life crisis time frame so he gave in.
Arriving at our section on the resort island.
A tiny room with a high price considering the amount of time you spend in it. But American Pickers was having a marathon so I was good.
Even the soap comes engraved with the word Disney. I meant to ask for more so that I could sell them on eBay too.
Located on this table was a note with 2 Disney pins (a Goofy pin and a Donald Duck pin) attached to it. The note apologized for the construction and offered the collector's pin as a thank you for staying with them. I totally thought I took a picture of the card with the pins but I can't find it anywhere. The pins can be traded at the Disney Parks. Many shops have a pin trading board, and many Disney staff have a lanyard with collector pins that they are required to trade with you upon request.
Upon the discovery that the pins could be traded, Dawson and Evan sought after any Star Wars themed Disney pin they could find, in order to trade up. I asked this staff gal if I could take a picture of her pin lanyard and she complied because I said it really fast and then snapped the picture before she had time to realize what she was agreeing to. I didn't have her sign a waiver.
After scouring every pin available in the Disney Kingdom, the boys came home with these. The pin on the bottom right was given to the boys by a lady in line in front of us at the Toy Story ride in Hollywood Studios. She whipped out this fat book full of collector pins and handed that one to me. Is it Star Wars? I don't even know. I thought it was the Colorado flag symbol. Whatevs.
We had a swimming pool located right outside our room, but there was a larger pool area on the premises. We'll get to that on the Resort/Disney Springs blog post.
The resort has a designated area where you go to pick up your re-fillable mug (if you paid for that service). So we went there to pick up our mug.
Then we went to the designated refilling station to fill them all. They can only be used at resorts, not the theme parks. The Coke machine knows if you are trying to use any cup other than the Disney cup because the cups are activated. I know this because the screen kept showing !No Mug Detected! if I was too clumsy when getting the mug in the right spot while trying to pour the pop. Because it's pop not soda.
Selfie with our mugs.
Selfie of me with Florida humidity hair.
Selfie of us on the center of the resort island where I saw not one but 2 snakes on the very first day when we arrived! I hate snakes!
I have more pictures of the resort grounds to be shared on the resort blog post. Our resort was undergoing construction and one of the areas affected was the food court. So they had a temporary tent set up where a buffet was served. This was included in our quick service (meal plan) package, so we ate there on our first night.
I rarely post food pictures because I have a "I hate food pictures" rule that I live by. But I have a few to share over the coming blog posts. Because it's my rule and I can break it if I want to.
My meal was a salad and a cheese danish because there wasn't anything else on the buffet that I wanted.
Dawson sat down to eat and immediately lost a tooth after taking a bite of a chicken tender.
So I have to end this super lengthy blog post on this lost tooth because I'm worn out already from this novel. We ate, we watched tv and we slept.
Day 2: Magic Kingdom -tomorrow.
Peace Out.
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