A Great, Big, Beautiful Disney Trip

My youngest sister and I had the incredible opportunity to visit Disney World during the first week of October. We had originally planned for a trip in August when both of my sisters could go, but due to COVID we were unable to make it happen. Thankfully, a friend of ours who had a trip planned for October invited us to come crash in her living room at Old Key West Resort. It was an offer we couldn’t refuse. Sadly, our other sister couldn’t make it because she was busy with her doctoral program :'(

In the hopes of remembering our wonderful trip, I’m going to share the good, the bad, and the magical moments here to look back on later. There will be many pictures, fair warning.

Our trip began on a Sunday when we flew into Orlando. A couple of old friends we know who live there let us stay in their house for the night before we headed to the resort the next evening. It was a great time to catch up, and they very kindly gave us some Universal tickets (a perk from working at the parks).

Monday: Universal Orlando

We spent Monday exploring Universal with our friends, which was so fun! We rode several new rides, including the Velocicoaster and the Hagrid’s coaster, which blew my mind. And of course, we couldn’t pass up the photo-up with a baby raptor or eating lunch at the Three Broomsticks with delicious frozen butterbeers (one of my favorite drinks ever).

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After bidding our friends farewell, we met our other friends at the resort. They surprised us BIG that night by revealing that another dear friend of ours, who had moved away to another state, was staying there too! We stayed up way too late talking and catching up, but it was a sweet moment I’ll cherish forever.

Tuesday: Hollywood Studios

This park has a special place in my heart. I’ll admit, now that they’ve added Galaxy’s Edge and Toy Story Land, it’s much busier and the feel and nostalgia of the park isn’t quite the same. Still, I was happy to be back.

It was our first time seeing Batuu and we were thoroughly impressed. The entire place is so immersive (like everything with Disney) that any Star Wars fan can’t help but be giddy walking through it. I mean, we held lightsabers, flew the Millennium Falcon, drank blue and green milk, and were an instrumental part of the rebellion. It doesn’t get much cooler than that.   

        

We also rode Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway (totes adorbs), I beat my sister and everyone else is in our car at Midway Mania (a fact I’m far too proud of), sang along to Frozen and enjoyed the snoap (the snow made of soap bubbles), and cringed watching the socially distanced version of Beauty and the Beast (it was just as bad as the tiktoks made it out to be).

The best part of the day—and every day really—was coffee time with our family. My sister and I had a hoard of Starbucks gift cards that we’d accumulated, enough to pay for an iced coffee each day in the parks.     

We got  our coffees, found a bench on Hollywood Boulevard with a perfect view of the Hollywood Tower Hotel, and skyped with our mom.

It was a much-needed break and we loved getting to share with our mom all the fun (and not so fun) things that had happened that day.

Wednesday: Magic Kingdom

It’s hard to explain the feeling of walking into Magic Kingdom, especially during the fall. It’s like a breath of fresh air. Refreshing, energizing, and relaxing all at the same time…. you Disney Adults out there know what I mean.

This was also photoshoot day. I’m not one to dress up and take lots of pictures. My ideal vacation day is riding lots of rides and eating good food. However, my sister LOVES it. So, we have a lot of cute pictures from this day thanks to her 🙂 We also had a very special moment with the photopass cast member who took our photos in front of the castle. He was so kind and wonderful, and got some adorable shots of us!

 

We took pictures with tons of 50^th anniversary statues, ate chicken nuggies at Cosmic Rays, waved at the Country Bears, drank coffee and skyped with our mom on Main Street, and one of us nearly died of exhaustion while waiting for the new firework show (which was good…but not great).

RIP Happily Ever After. We miss you already.

 

Thursday: EPCOT

We started off the day in Boarding Group 2 for the Ratatouille ride (also totes adorbs, though a bit underwhelming). From there, we took more pictures with statues, ate delicious food all around the world, acted like kids at Figment, and drank coffee and skyped with our mom and sister in front of the EPCOT Ball. I also got to visit the Japan pavilion and nerd over all of the anime stuff. After a brief respite at the resort in the afternoon for a few hours, we made our way back for dinner and to watch the new nighttime show, Harmonious, which was spectacular!!

Friday: Animal Kingdom and Boo Bash

DAK has always been and will forever be my home and favorite park. The atmosphere, the rides, and the food top all the others. We started off the day with five rides in a row on Everest (my favorite rollercoaster), then we got to ride Dinosaur (the attraction I worked during my college program), eat at Satuli Canteen, and of course, drink coffee and skype with our family (mom, sister, AND dad) in front of the Tree of Life. We may have also waited in line for an hour and a half to ride Flight of Passage… totally worth it. 

 

After watching the new kite show and getting rained on, we changed outfits and headed over to Magic Kingdom for the Boo Bash.

 The rain was pouring when we got there, and we sat under the bus overhangs for a good twenty minutes waiting for it to lighten up. It was a great time for people watching. We felt sorry for the many completely soaked visitors who clearly had no jackets, umbrellas, ponchos, etc. This sounds bad, but it was also pretty hilarious to watch all the people in costumes trying to navigate the weather and huge puddles on their way to the entrance. A memorable moment for sure.

It stopped raining by the time the party started, and we enjoyed unlimited ice cream bars, low waits for rides, and themed photapass pictures.

Saturday: Resort Hopping

On our last day, we resort hopped to several different places. We started at Pop Century and Art of Animation so we could ride the Skyliner, which was quick, easy, and fun. Thumbs up all around for this newish Disney transport. After that, we headed to the monorail resorts. We enjoyed the atmosphere and beach of the Polynesian, then stopped at the Grand Floridian for lunch because I love the chicken and brie sandwich from the Gasparilla quick service there.

Then we visited the All Star Movies Resort where we took a TON of cute pictures. The photo opportunities at that resort are insane. We ended the night at Disney Springs with some last minute shopping at World of Disney and a visit to the Candy Cauldron.

Overall, we had an incredible time, though we were utterly exhausted by the end of it. We also arrived home to the biggest and most unexpected surprise of my life. My embarrassing reaction was caught on video, so maybe I’ll post something about it in the future. 

As a reward for making it through this entire post, here are some pictures that my family thinks are hilarious and that prove my sister got all the photogenic genes. 

 

Thanks for reading, and here’s to a great, big, beautiful tomorrow full of magic and found towels.