missjackiemcg
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Sep 2, 2013
- Messages
- 3,584
Welcome to my very long overdue 2nd trip report, following our kid-free adventure, including New Year’s Eve and the start of Marathon Weekend! It was very cold, (and that’s coming from people who live in Chicago and are used to Midwest Winters)!! It was also incredibly magical and filled with lots of firsts for us.
If you’d like to read about how this trip came to be, you can check out my PTR in my signature. If you’ve been waiting and wondering for the last 3 months if I would EVER get this thing started, your wish has finally come true! Here we go…
The who?
FB_IMG_1489147123853 by Jackie Lagoni, on Flickr
Just us, Rob and Jackie. It was very weird to plan a trip without our son, Jimmy! It’s been 9 years since we have ventured off to the magic without him, so we certainly missed him. We kept telling him we would be riding rollercoasters and running races all week…so he wouldn’t feel like we were having fun without him. There were some things we just could NOT do without him—two of the main parts of our deal were absolutely no train rides and no Tomorrowland Speedway for either of us! He even made us shake his hands to seal the deal LOL
So, when I’d originally decided to make the trip to WDW to run my very first runDisney races, I also tried to work in a quickie cruise in the days leading up to the trip. One of my good friends squashed that plan when she booked her wedding for December 29th….so, instead we planned to be in town for her wedding and leave early the next morning for Florida!
20171230_080353 by Jackie Lagoni, on Flickr
At 8:03 a.m. we were out the door on our way to my parents’ house in flip flops despite the snow—we were SO excited to head to the warmth of Florida….ha! More on that later.
We were able to get an awesome deal on flights using Southwest (our first SW flights ever!!) but flying out of the airport further from our house. Thankfully my Dad didn’t mind taking the drive to drop us off, and honestly it was about a 30 minute drive, so not too terrible in any case. This was a great decision for us because I priced out similar departure times for flights leaving closer to home via United…we saved over $1,000 by flying Southwest. #sold
By 9:35 a.m. we were already through security, sitting at Reilly’s Daughter having a grilled cheese, burger, chips and aluminum pints for breakfast. #vacationmode
20171230_094524 by Jackie Lagoni, on Flickr
20171230_095824 by Jackie Lagoni, on Flickr
Our flight took off at 11:35 a.m. for an exactly 2 hour flight to Orlando MCO! Our flight arrived 30 minutes ahead of schedule—amazing! We were riding the Fake-o-rail at 3:07 Florida time, and passing through the gates of Walt Disney World by 3:55 p.m. Ten minutes later we were walking through the lobby of Pop Century—mmm, the citrusy goodness of that lobby!!
20171230_125856 by Jackie Lagoni, on Flickr
20171230_132411 by Jackie Lagoni, on Flickr
20171230_140716 by Jackie Lagoni, on Flickr
We had done online check in and received our text when we got off the plane that our room was ready. I had requested the highest floor in the 60’s building and that’s just what we got, so we were very happy in #4422, climbing through the green yoyo multiple times a day!
20171230_145559 by Jackie Lagoni, on Flickr
20171230_150905 by Jackie Lagoni, on Flickr
20171230_152437 by Jackie Lagoni, on Flickr
Next up: Magic Kingdom is open til 3 am?! What are we waiting for!?
If you’d like to read about how this trip came to be, you can check out my PTR in my signature. If you’ve been waiting and wondering for the last 3 months if I would EVER get this thing started, your wish has finally come true! Here we go…
The who?

And seriously....how could I say no to this little face!?
FB_IMG_1489147134415 by Jackie Lagoni, on Flickr

So, when I’d originally decided to make the trip to WDW to run my very first runDisney races, I also tried to work in a quickie cruise in the days leading up to the trip. One of my good friends squashed that plan when she booked her wedding for December 29th….so, instead we planned to be in town for her wedding and leave early the next morning for Florida!
Saturday, December 30th
We were able to get an awesome deal on flights using Southwest (our first SW flights ever!!) but flying out of the airport further from our house. Thankfully my Dad didn’t mind taking the drive to drop us off, and honestly it was about a 30 minute drive, so not too terrible in any case. This was a great decision for us because I priced out similar departure times for flights leaving closer to home via United…we saved over $1,000 by flying Southwest. #sold
By 9:35 a.m. we were already through security, sitting at Reilly’s Daughter having a grilled cheese, burger, chips and aluminum pints for breakfast. #vacationmode





We had done online check in and received our text when we got off the plane that our room was ready. I had requested the highest floor in the 60’s building and that’s just what we got, so we were very happy in #4422, climbing through the green yoyo multiple times a day!


