For this post I thought I’d do something a little different and talk about what I have planned for our upcoming trip next week. My family and I are taking a quick weekend trip down to the Walt Disney World Resort May 19-21. The travel party consists of 6 adults (age range 55 to 22) and 2 kids (ages 10 & 8).
Friday
The 8 us going are flying down Friday afternoon, arriving in Orlando around 4 PM. We are staying at Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort in Theme Park View rooms. This first night we will mainly chill around the hotel and maybe go swimming until it is time for dinner. For dinner, we will be taking the highway in the sky aka the WDW Monorail to Disney’s Polynesian Resort to eat at ‘Ohana. Our reservation is at 8:25 PM, so hopefully we will be seated by a window and we can see the new Happily Ever After firework display at 9 PM. After dinner, my sister and I are planning on going to The California Grill Lounge at the Contemporary Resort for a drink or two. If there’s no seating available in the lounge, we will probably go back to the Polynesian to the Tambu lounge for a Lapu Lapu.
Saturday
Breakfast will be each man for himself. My father usually heads to the Grand Floridian Cafe at 7:30 AM when they open. My mother normally orders room service. While my sister and I have a granola bar and coffee and head straight to the parks for rope drop. Our first morning we will head to EPCOT since it is the only day we will have any real free time. I normally rope drop ride Test Track, single rider, and can usually get 2 or 3 rides in with almost no wait. At 11:00 AM, once World Showcase opens, we will spend the hour eating lunch at various kiosks. At 12:30 PM my family will all be meeting at the Land Pavilion, where we will meet our Private VIP Guide for the day. We have the same guide requested that we always use and she is fantastic. We will start our VIP tour in EPCOT with Soarin’ Around the World, Frozen Ever After, and Test Track. Then we will head over to the Magic Kingdom where we will start off by watching the Festival of Fantasy Parade, then hit all the major rides across the park. At 7:30 PM we will say goodbye to our guide till tomorrow. We will have a quick service dinner then check in for our Firework Dessert Party at 8:00 PM. Once the fireworks are complete, everyone except my sister and I will head back to the hotel. I have 3 FastPass+ Reservations for that evening for Space Mountain, Jungle Cruise, and Big Thunder Mountain from 8:30-9:30 PM, 9:30-10:30 PM, and 10:30-11 PM, respectively. I also already have paper FastPasses for Dumbo, Journey of the Little Mermaid, and Monster’s Inc Laugh Floor.
Sunday
Today we will have a character breakfast at 1900 Park Fare. At 9:00 AM our VIP Guide will be meeting us in the lobby at the Grand Floridian before whisking us away to Disney’s Animal Kingdom. Here we will go straight to Kilimanjaro Safaris followed by Expedition Everest, Dinosaur, and Adventurer’s Outpost. After Animal Kingdom, we will head to Hollywood Studios for Tower of Terror, Rockin’ Roller Coaster, and Toy Story Midway Mania. Depending on how we’re doing on time, we may head back to Magic Kingdom. We’re required to have our guide until 4:00 PM due to a 7 -hour minimum. Then we will head back to the hotel, grab our luggage, and make our way to the airport for an evening flight.
Disney: An Urge to Splurge 