What started as a seed of an idea spurred by some ridiculously cheap Allegiant flights to Orlando ended with an amazingly magical girls' trip to Disney with my cousin, Emily, and my sister-in-law, Melissa.
During our planning phases, we joked about "winning Disney." And after putting all our plans into action, I truly believe that we did. With some expert planning, energetic trip partners, perfect Disney snack fuel, and a little bit of pixie dust, I don't think our trip could have gone any better.
We flew from Peoria to Orlando on Monday evening, grabbed a car dinner from Culvers, and entered the Disney bubble at precisely 11:01 pm to start our week of Disney fun. Although my dreams of basking in the warm sunshine in my shorts and Disney tees didn't come to fruition thanks to some unseasonably cold days, I can only think that the colder weather scared off a lot of Disney locals, leaving the parks a little more available for a few Illinois gals. And a chilly day at Disney sure as heck beats an even chillier day at home.
Our All-Star Sports resort was just what we needed it to be...a nice, clean, convenient place to sleep between our park opening to park closing days. It was super quiet...we barely saw another person during our entire stay. Although that could be due to the fact that we were leaving our room as the sun came up and not getting back until late at night.
We bought 3 day park hopper passes. We started our trip off with Early Entry at Magic Kingdom. With an early park closure that day at 4:30, we conquered the park without needing Lightning Lanes while still accomplishing all our priorities...and then some.
Seven Dwarves, Tron, Space Mountain, Astro Orbiter, Little Mermaid, Haunted Mansion, Tianas, Small World, and Pirates of the Caribbean filled our Magic Kingdom ride fun for the day.
Astro Orbiter was the only ride in all of Magic Kingdom that I had never done, so I was pumped to check that off my list!!
No trip is complete without snacks, and we did it right! Our Magic Kingdom snacks including Cheshire Cat Tails, hush puppies, spring rolls, and Dole Whip.
And, of course, we had to meet the main man mouse.
Adelie's only request before my trip was that I meet Ariel for her...so I did!
And no one asked me to meet Mulan for them, but I did it anyway.
After catching the Festival of Fantasy parade (always a favorite!!), we felt satisfied that we had conquered the Kingdom and were ready to pop on over to Park #2 of the day...
Epcot!!
Once at Epcot, we single ridered our way onto Test Track and then Single Passed our way onto Guardians of the Galaxy. While Emily and I hurtled through the galaxy listening to 'I Ran' (definitely not the best Guardians song), Melissa met Mickey and friends before we all met up for some well-deserved dinner.
As I was starting to get hangry for some real food, Mel and I got dinner at Le Halle's Boulangerie and Patisserie while Emily munched on Fish and Chips from Yorkshire County Shop. The lobster bisque in a bread bowl might have been one of the best things I ate the entire trip!
We followed dinner with a ride on Remy's, a boat ride with the 3 Cabellaros, and leveraging our single rider power on Soarin'.
We finished our rides in time to catch Luminous before heading back to our hotel for a good night of sleep.
Day 1 by the numbers: 2 parks, 14 rides, 3 characters, 7 unique food places, 2 shows, and 32,016 steps.
