The Trip That Started It All

Let’s talk about the trip that reignited my love for Disney. Back in February 2023, my family finally made it to Disney taking my niece for the first time. My parents reluctantly agreed to go, anything for their only grandchild. I say reluctantly because Disney is not really their thing. Mom’s mobility isn’t great, so walking thousands upon thousands of steps daily isn’t ideal. Dad, like most, isn’t a crowds kind of guy. They were troopers though and did their best!

We stayed as a family at the Animal Kingdom Lodge, Kadani Village. It was a 2 bedroom villa and was perfect for us, it allowed us all to be together and be comfortable. The master had a king bed with a large bathroom with separate shower and tub. The second bedroom was 2 queens. The living room had a fold out sofa and fold out chair. There was a full kitchen and dining area. The kicker, which is why we chose this over other 2 bedroom villas, it had a full third bathroom. Since I slept on the sofa fold out, this third bathroom was mine and boy was I thankful.

Our Disney vacation officially started on Monday, but my brother and his family went down on Saturday. They chose to do Universal Resort Orlando on Sunday then moved over to Disney on Monday. I too went down on Saturday, but I spent time with college friends I hadn’t seen in quite a while.

I made it to Orlando early evening and we went to Raglan Road in Disney Springs for dinner. The food was so good and the entertainment from the Irish dancers was so enjoyable. Very talented individuals and so fun to watch.

We stayed at Disney’s Port Orleans – Riverside which had such picturesque grounds. The room had 2 queens with a 5th fold down that would be perfect for a child or shorter individual, I probably could have slept there (I’m only 5’0 if you’re interested).

Sunday I transitioned to a friend’s place. We relaxed, watched the Super Bowl and caught up on life. Monday morning, she drove me to Animal Kingdom Lodge so I could catch up with my brother and family. The parents were driving down to Orlando and were expected sometime that afternoon.

Before I jump into the details of our trip, here’s our schedule we planned while at Disney.

• Monday – EPCOT
• Tuesday – Animal Kingdom
Lunch reservations at Tusker House
• Wednesday – Hollywood Studios
Drinks at Oga’s Cantina
Dinner at The Brown Derby
• Thursday – Magic Kingdom
Dinner at Be Our Guest
• Friday – breakfast at Chef Mickey’s
Fly home

Our room was ready first thing that morning (not the norm but happens, not that I knew that then), so I dropped my stuff off and grabbed a coffee before catching the bus to EPCOT. The kids (I call my brother, his wife and niece kids….I’m old, lol!) were there for rope drop. When I made it to EPCOT around 10:30 I think, they had already done Frozen, Guardians of the Galaxy Cosmic Rewind, and Mission Space. They were on their way to Test Track when I found them, we did it together. After that, we ate and drank our way around the World Showcase and did the following rides: Remy’s Ratatouille, Soarin’ Around the World, Turtle Talk with Crush, Figments Imagination, Spaceship Earth, and that might be it but I can’t remember. The parents made it for some of those rides, traffic was crazy so they didn’t arrive until after 5pm but they did drop their stuff off at the resort first. At the end of the night, they went home earlier and we stayed for the fireworks show. I forget which one it was now (been to a couple since) but it was a great show. All in all, a great first day.

The next day, we all got up and moving to get to Animal Kingdom to rope drop Avatar Flight of Passage, which was still about a 30 minute wait. Really enjoyed the ride and Pandora – wow, they did a great job with this land. I don’t really remember the order that we did rides but by the end of the day, we had done Mt. Everest, Nav’ii River Journey, Dinosaur, Kilamanjaro Safari, and the Festival of the Lion King. We had lunch at Tusker House which was really good. It’s buffet style with different variations of food,my family loved it. This is also a character meal, so you get to meet Minnie, Mickey, Donald, and Goofy all dressed in their best outfits. At the end of the day, we watched the gorgeous ceremony at the Tree of Life.

Upon getting home from Animal Kingdom, we decided we’d just order food. Well, this turned into a bit of a nightmare. Ultimately we ordered from a local pizza joint, wish I could remember which it was because I would tell you NEVER order from them. It took 2 hours for the pizza to arrive, which was not hot. I tried calling several time to no avail. Anyway, we ate and crashed.

On Wednesday, we made our way to Hollywood Studios to rope drop Rise of the Resistance. THIS, has got to be one of the best rides, even if you’re not a Star Wars fan. It is a trackless ride with a combination of screen and audioanimontronics. After this, we went straight to Slinky Dog Dash which is a family friendly roller coaster. Super cute, the whole Toy Story area is amazingly themed. Then on to Alien Spinning Saucers and the rest of the day consisted of Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway, Star Tours, Millenium Falcon, the Muppets and the kids did Tower of Terror, Rock ‘N’ Roller Coaster, and Beauty and the Beast sing-a-long. Because I hate roller coasters, I wasn’t with them for the last three. I was with my parents up until mom had a fall requiring a trip to the hospital. She ended up being fine (broken nose, stitches, and a couple black eyes) but ok. Disney took amazing care of her, including a message to the hotel room to check up on her. For dinner, we ate at The Brown Derby (parents were still at the hospital). It was good, atmosphere is nice. At the end of the day, we watched Fantasmic which was really good. Day 3 in the books and we were all exhausted. Yes, mom was sore and felt like she’d been hit by an invisible robot but was doing well.

Last day in the parks was Magic Kingdom. We rope dropped Seven Dwarfs Mine Train which is a cute little coaster. This was probably the longest line of all the rope drops, if memory recalls it was between 30-45 minutes. That too was a cute family friendly little coaster. Throughout the day, we did Peter Pan’s Flight, it’s a small world, Haunted Mansion, Pirates of the Caribbean, Swiss Family Treehouse, Enchanted Tiki Room, Jungle Cruise, Dumbo, Tomorrowland Speedway, Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin, Big Thunder Mountain, Journey of the Little Mermaid and 2 I didn’t do but the kids did was Space Mountain and Winnie the Pooh. My parents came later in the day and we enjoyed dinner at Be Our Guest. We finished the night shoulder to shoulder with thousands of our newly found friends to watch the fireworks show. We were stationed in front of the castle early and ready (tired and grumpy, to be honest by this point) so it was packed. I later learned that watching further back on Main Street is a little more enjoyable. The show was dazzling, a fun way to end our trip! After the fireworks, we fought our way out of the park.

Friday morning we had a late breakfast reservation Chef Mickey’s and my parents were making their way to Port Canaveral to jump on a Royal Caribbean ship for the upcoming week. We were lucky all week with our character dining, having great interactions with the characters and Chef Mickey’s was great as well. My brother was informed the cheesy potatoes were to die for and our informant wasn’t wrong, in fact my brother still talks about them! After breakfast we did a little souvenir shopping in the Contemporary as well as the World of Disney at Disney Springs. Due to time, we didn’t really get a full picture of everything Disney Springs had to offer. At this point, the trip was wrapping up, it was time to pick up our luggage and head to the airport.

Over the next several days to a week, the Disney blues really set in. I even Googled it to see if others felt it too, thankfully I wasn’t alone. I can’t remember when I did it, but I started looking at flights to go back down, and that’s when I found an inexpensive round trip on Spirit, so I booked it. Not only was I now going back to do my first (what was to become many) solo trip, but I also started looking into becoming a travel advisor so I could help others get to Disney, too.

In my next post (hopefully it won’t be almost a year after this one!), I’ll detail my first solo trip and will continue to post about the additional seven trips I’ve taken after my first solo trip! I’ll also fill you in on my three trips to Universal Orlando as well. All this since February 2023, so stay tuned!