When we went to Disney in 2016 and again in 2021, we said that we would continue the tradition of going every five years. So here we are again, five years later, heading back to the "happiest place on Earth!" Each trip has been different and new in the best ways. This trip, there were no diaper changes or strollers, but instead thrilling rides with everyone meeting the height requirements and not too much concern for bedtimes. I have barely unpacked, but I'm afraid I will forget all that we did if I don't document it right away. So here it goes!
Day 1 (Friday, November 6th & Saturday, November 7th): Traveling to Florida
After the workday on Friday, we hit the road around 5PM and drove to a midpoint in Georgia just outside of Savannah. We stayed in the same hotel from our trip in March for the cruise, and it was again a great way to breakup the 9-hour drive. When we woke on Saturday, we only had about four hours remaining to Orlando. After a quick stop at Walmart for some breakfast and lunch items, we arrived to the Pop Century resort soon after we received the notification that our rooms were ready. After dropping off our bags, we took a ride on the Skyliner, and then the kids quickly changed into their bathing suits for a dip in the pool. We had dinner at the resort and were in our rooms early, with alarms set for our first big day at Disney.
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After eating breakfast in Grammy and Grandpa's room, there was excitement in the Kennedy room even before the day got started. Eli lost a bottom tooth when he was brushing his teeth. We weren't sure if the Tooth Fairy would find us in Florida, but luckily the front desk provided us with an envelope for safe keeping, and the next morning, Eli found $3 under his pillow! Once things were taken care of with the tooth, we headed to Hollywood Studios via the Skyliner. Our original plan was to hit Rise of the Resistance first, but it was down at the start of the day, and the wait time was too long when we kept checking later. It is the one elusive ride we just weren't able to fit in for our whole trip. However, no worries, we did all the others! We pivoted to Toy Story Land and rode Slinky Dog, followed by Toy Story Mania. Then we crisscrossed the park a bit to ride Millenium Falcon, Mickey & Minnie's Runaway Railway, and Star Tours. We watched the Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular, then rode Rock 'n' Rollercoaster. We stayed along Sunset Boulevard to watch the Beauty & the Beast Live on Stage and then rode the Tower of Terror. Thank you to the generous gift of our Aunt Glenda, we used our Lightning Lane passes to ride for a second time Millenium Falcon, Toy Story Mania, and Tower of Terror. It was fun to ride the Tower of Terror at night as our last ride of the day.
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It was a similar morning schedule of leaving our rooms around 7:15AM and taking the Skyliner, this time to Epcot. Unfortunately we ran into the same dilemma of our first ride (Remy's Ratatouille) being down, so once again we had to pivot, making the quick decision to go to Frozen Ever After in Norway and then on to the other popular rides Guardians of the Galaxy and Test Track. While we walked around the World Showcase, Boomer suggested we get a drink in each country, and so between all the adults, we accomplished just that: a grapefruit hefeweizen (Germany), fiesta frozen margarita (Mexico), Kung Fu punch (China), frozen Viking coffee (Norway), beer flight (America), limoncello cocktail (Italy), pineapple coconut sake slushie (Japan), white sangria (Morocco), orange slush (France), Snake Bite lager and apple cider (United Kingdom), and Ottawa Apple (Canada). I was personally responsible for Norway, Italy, and France, and I was quite happy with my choices. We checked off the other rides: back to France for Ratatouille, then Figment, Soarin', Living with the Land, Nemo, Moana Journey of Water, Spaceship Earth, and Gran Fiesta Tour. We finished the evening with pizza at Via Napoli in Italy before hopping back on the Skyliner.
Day 4 (Tuesday, November 10th): Magic Kingdom and Emmy's Birthday
Tuesday was double-ly special - our Magic Kingdom day and Emmy's birthday. Coley sent a TimeHop from 10 years ago when I announced Emmy's birth to all my best friends. It was so sweet seeing one of the very first pictures I ever took of her. After opening cards and gifts in the room, we headed to Magic Kingdom by bus for early entry. After two mornings of striking out with our first ride, we executed the "rope drop" perfectly on our third day. We went directly to Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, then Tron and Space Mountain, all within the first hour of the park opening. Meg and I felt very proud of our sucessful execution. We stayed in TomorrowLand for the Speedway and Peoplemover. We zig-and-zagged after that, riding It's a Small World, Pirates of the Caribbean, Dumbo, Haunted Mansion, Peter Pan's Flight, the Carousel, and Ariel Under the Sea. There were big crowds around lunchtime, as Disney was filming their Once Upon a Christmastime Parade. We did catch a Mickey and Minnie sighting while in line at the Carousel, but we kept hitting the rides while others were watching the parade. We paused for dinner at the Columbia Harbour House, before the final push of the evening with Big Thunder Mountain, Country Bear Jamboree, and the Barnstormer. We ended the evening at a spot along Main Street watching the Starlight Parade and the Happily Ever After Fireworks. While every part of the day was memorable, we can't forget the infamous churro chocolate sauce incident or the automatic closing doors of the Country Bear Jamboree. Those stories kept us laughing several days later. For Emmy, I think it was a very special birthday, celebrating double digits at Disney.
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Day 5 (Wednesday, November 11th): Animal Kingdom
After such a long day, it would have been nice to sleep in, but we did not build in a rest day this time. We powered through with an early morning at Animal Kingdom. As the park that opens the earliest, we were up before the sun and on the bus around 6:45AM. Eli wore his "birthday boy" shirt, and we celebrated his birthday a few days early. Since we usually go to the zoo for the kids' birthdays, it seemed fitting to count Animal Kingdom as our zoo trip this year. We started in Pandora with the Avatar Flight of Passage and Na'vi River, and then we went to Africa for the Safari. We saw several animals and even had close encounters with a giraffe and ostrich. After the Safari, we rode the train to the Africa Conservation Station for the kangaroo exhibit. We watched the 12PM showing of the Festival of the Lion King, which is always an impressive show of dancing, singing, and aerial acts. We had lunch at Flame Tree Barbeque and then ended with Zootopia Better Zoogether in the Tree of Life theater and then the Everest rollercoaster in Asia. We were leaving the park around 3PM, which was perfect timing to make our transfer over to Universal Studios, where we would be staying for our final three nights of the trip. It was sad to say 'goodbye' to Disney, but it was exciting to know the adventure wasn't over yet.
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Day 6 (Thursday, November 12th): Islands of Adventure
For our time at Universal Studios, we stayed at one of their resort properties called Endless Summer Dockside. Like Disney, it includes complimentary bus transportation to the parks, so we boarded the bus around 7AM for early access to Islands of Adventure. Since it was my first time to Universal Studios, I was very unfamiliar with the park, but we navigated just fine with the app. We headed directly to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter for Hagrid's Motorbike Adventure. This ride was a top contender for favorite of the whole week, with its unexpected drops and bursts in speed. Megan and her crew especially loved all the things in the Harry Potter World since they have read all the books and watched all the movies. Even though I was not as familiar with the characters or storyline, it was still very impressive and magical. After the Hagrid's ride, we rode Flight of the Hippogriff and then Harry Potter & the Forbidden Journey. With our park-hopper pass, we were able to go to the Universal Studios park via the Hogwarts Express train, which was an entertaining ride in and of itself. We went to Diagon Alley for the Escape from Gringotts and Men in Black Aliens Attack, before riding the train back to Islands of Adventure. The Houston boys were excited to get wands from Ollivander's, and we had lunch at the Three Broomsticks in Hog's Head. Oh and of course, we had the famous frozen butter beer! After lunch, we left the Harry Potter World and rode the Seuss Trolley Train and One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish. We ended in the Marvel Super Hero Island with The Hulk, Doctor Doom's Fearfall, The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man, Skull Island: Reign of Kong, and the Pteranodon Flyers. As a first-timer, I was very impressed by the effects, 3D animation, and special details in all of the rides.
Day 7 (Friday, November 13th): Universal Studios
On our final day, although we were tired, spirits were still high and attitudes pleasant. All in all, the four kids (and the six adults!) were troopers the whole week. They showed a lot of gratitude and excitement for the things we were doing. We repeated our itinerary from the previous day, but then after Hagrid's we rode the Velocicoaster in Jurassic Park. We took the Hogwart's Express again, but this time, we stayed in Universal Studios for the remainder of the day. We rode the Escape from Gringotts again, then had lunch in New York at Louie's Italian Restaurant. The afternoon passed in a relatively easy but steady pace of low wait times: the Revenge of the Mummy, Transformers, Race through New York with Jimmy Fallon, The Bourne Stuntacular show at 1:45PM, Despicable Me Minion Mayhem, Villain-Con Minion Blast, Trolls Trollercoaster, and our final ride E.T. Adventure. The cherry on top to end the week was watching fireworks from our hotel room, as we had the previous two nights. We had the best view on the 10th floor, and it added to the magic of the whole trip.
Day 8 (Saturday, November 14th): Traveling Home
We made the drive back to North Carolina today, departing Orlando just before 7AM and arriving in Kernersville around 4:30PM. As we readjust to the routines of the real world again, the past week was a fun escape from the grind of school and work. For eight whole days, our biggest worries were wait times and the next snack. We are so thankful to my parents for planning this trip for the ten of us. We will cherish these memories for a lifetime!
(P.S. I'll end with one final collage: Meg and me with our daily dose of caffeine. Thank you, Starbucks, for fueling our trip!)
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