Update: 10/3 A Year of Disney- Traveling Once a Month with my Annual Pass!! An ongoing Trip Report!

[PrncessA]

Hi Everyone! It has been quite a while since I posted a trip report, I think the last one was in 2018 and I didn't finish it. Don't hold it against me, I just got very busy when I got my dream job and didn't have time to write any longer!! All of my photos have become unlinked, so I will work on fixing that!

Since 2018 things have been a little crazy, and that isn't even counting a global pandemic bringing everything to a halt. Since 2018 I have graduated college (FINALLY), moved jobs and now am an elected official for my old dream job, made a few more trips to Disney, found my love of cruising (no Disney cruises yet), became a grandmother (VERY young GiGi thank you very much), enrolled in Grad School and got my friends hooked on Disney! Some of my friends and family will make appearances in this report, I'm just not sure who or when they will appear.

A picture of most of our cast of characters on my last trip to Disney in July 2021 enjoying bottomless mimosas at California Grill.



Disney Trips: I will link to the posts once they are written!
June 2023- June 24 One Day Trip w/ P : Part 1 Part 2 Part 3
July 2023- July 15-19 w/ friends Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Part 8 Final Day
Aug 2023- August 24-28: Mom & Daughter Trip
Day 1
Day 2 Part 1 Part 2
Sept/Oct 2023- Upcoming! Sept. 30-Oct. 3
Nov 2023- TBD
December 2023- TBD
January 2024- TBD
February 2024- TBD
March 2024- TBD
April 2024- TBD
May 2024- TBD
June 2024- TBD


First up let me explain how this Year of Disney began… It began as all good stories begin, with an impromptu get together at our favorite local winery in April, a few glasses of wine and a love of all things Disney. My partner in crime, Paul had decided to see if he was able to get an annual pass the day they were released and after all day in the virtual queue and getting kicked out a few times, he managed to purchase one at 10:30 pm. A few days later we were having wine, and I was definitely jealous of his purchase. My husband insisted I purchase one so that Paul and I could travel together this year, and although I ask many many times if he was serious, I already had the pass in my cart and purchased it before he could change his mind!!

The proof is in the wine:




So now comes the planning, the trips, the HEAT , and the flight delays (and cancellations). My goal developed pretty quickly; try and visit at least one day a month for a year, and try and keep it as cheap as possible. That already has been an issue, but that story will be told soon.


Next up our cast!

 

[PrncessA]

Reserved for our ongoing Cast of Characters!

First up you have me, Sara, I also go by Mom and Gigi

I have been a lover of Disney ever since I was a child, but I didn't get to make my first trip until 2009. It was also my first trip report on here! I am a Parks & Recreation Manager for one park district and an elected official for my hometown park district. I grew up in a state without parks and recreation programming and fell in love with it as an adult. I love the impact that it makes on communities from infants to seniors. My favorite part of my job is creating special events for the community, so ALL of my WDW trips will be planned around my events calendar. Since 2009 I have made many trips to WDW, most of them longer trips since we live in Chicago and the commute isn't cheap. I am married to another Disney lover (and my husband will make at least 1 appearance I am sure), am a mom of 2 and a bonus mom of 2 (at least a couple of them will appear) and have one adorable grandson who is almost a year old and a bonus grandson who is 7(I doubt they will appear, but you never know!). I have traveled to Disney in many forms, family trips, solo trip, couples trip, family plus extended family trip, but my trip last week was the first time I had been to WDW since Genie+ was introduced. I went through a Disney boycott while Bob C was in charge

, not really, but I was not happy with some of the changes and it didn't feel magical for me to visit, so I cruised instead. But as you can see.... now I am in it full force for the next year! I believe that vacations are the best part of life and would give up many other things in life to vacation more.

Next up you have Paul

Paul is one of my best friends’ husband and my soulmate. His husband Daniel, told me we were soulmates before we ever met, and our love of all things Disney is the chief reason. Not counting our trip last week, P & D have visited Disney with my family two times and we travel elsewhere together all the time. The first time in 2019 was Daniel’s first trip to any Disney park, and while he was a skeptic before the trip, they have now went on MANY Disney trips since then. Since he has an annual pass as well, he will show up many times I am sure.

Here we are in 2019 at our first family trip together:

And here we are in 2022 at their wedding when I had the honor of walking Paul down the aisle in Punta Cana.

Then we have Daniel

This is Daniel, my bestie, my brother. Literally, he feels like my brother. He is my children’s guncle and him and Paul are a huge part of my family’s life. We met about 10 years ago when we both started college at the same time for the same program. There’s a few years difference in our ages, LOL, but we had an instant connection and have been through a lot together in the last 10 years. Daniel’s first trip to WDW was in 2019, when Paul and I decided that we needed to get him there for him to fall in love. He complained constantly about the planning, the price, the time commitment; he just didn’t understand yet. Needless to say our trip in 2019 was a huge success and we have since visited Disney together a few times, and they took their honeymoon there in 2022! If I could describe Daniel in one word it would be EXTRA.

Vince

Next Up with have Vince. Vince is newer to our group, but has found his place so quickly that it feels like he has been there forever. He made his first trip to Disney in October 2022, when he crashed Paul and Daniel's honeymoon for a couple of days. He is a relative Disney newbie, but learning fast! Both Daniel and Vince work in the hospitality industry together and have high standards for hotels. Vince and I were an honorary couple this trip, a couple of besties as he put it. I thought I was a fast walker at Disney, but I found myself chasing after him many times.

C & B

Finally, we have C&B, who I will keep as initials since I didn’t ask permission to use their names in this report. B is Daniel’s cousin, and her and her husband C were celebrating their 5 “ear” anniversary on this trip. This was also a post baby babymoon. They have a beautiful 6 month old daughter who did not come on this trip. They move at slightly slower pace than the aforementioned crew, so they explored some with us and at other times they were on their own.

 

[MinnieFan4ever]

Cant wait to read all about your year of Disney. Sounds like sooo much fun!

-you might want to re-read your post. You slipped and gave away P’s first name.

 

[PrncessA]

And so our trip begins, early on a Saturday morning, way earlier than I would get up for anything other than a trip to Disney! This trip was a semi-impromptu trip, and the only motivation behind it was that Paul and I wanted to get the Figment magnets that were offered as part of June’s Passholder Appreciation. We woke up pre-dawn to make it to our flight out of Midway airport at 5:45am. Living in Chicago it is a bonus that we have two major airports to fly out of, but Midway is always our go-to if we can choose. And since we are normally Southwest flyers and Midway is a hub, the prices are always pretty good.

On this trip though we were trying to save money, and since it was last minute, Southwest was more expensive than we wanted to pay. We decided since we were going for one day, we didn’t need luggage, so we could afford to fly the cheapest of cheap airlines. So we booked our flight down on Frontier and our flight home on Spirit. This would definitely come back to haunt us before the day was over…

Since I had spent the night at P & D’s we were out of the house by 4am, but not before filming a tiktok that my daughter had taught me how to do the night before. That will be shared near the end…

The main benefit to flying out of Midway Airport is that TSA is almost always empty, especially in the mornings, but this morning it wasn’t. Paul stuck it out with me in the regular line, even though he has both Clear and TSA Pre-Check, but he did tell me this would be his only time doing that. By the end of the day, I had the Clear trial and I will have Pre-Check before our next trip.

We made it to the gate right as our boarding was called and our flight with Frontier was seamless and easy peasy!

We were off the plane and walked directly to National to pick up our rental car for the day. To be honest, I don’t have a ton of photos from this trip, I had a very rough week at work and I was just excited to relax and take everything in.

Before I knew it we were driving under the magical Disney archway and headed to Epcot! We parked pretty close, but I was already melting before we even made it to the turnstiles! Paul had no issues in getting in, but for some reason, my pass needed to be activated at Guest Services before entry. The cast member was so nice and told me to come back to the front after guest services to enter. Guest services went quickly and within minutes I was home at my happy place! I could literally feel all of the stress of work and life melt away with every step I took toward Spaceship Earth.

I really enjoyed all the new planters and space in the entryway now that the photo statue things are gone. The sun was beating down on us like crazy and I was already regretting not bringing a cooling towel! We took our time, meandered through Connections in the AC, and stopped at Creations to pick up a new MagicBand+ and cooling towel for me! This was my first trip through Connections and I love the space and the open concept.

Had to stop at this lovely wall!

The passholder discount was 30% for June and that really added up! I ended up purchasing the Orange Bird MB+, and it is so cute! I am a sucker for any nostalgic WDW characters, and Orange Bird is my new love.

While we were on the plane, Daniel had managed to get us in the virtual queue for a new ride for me Guardians of the Galaxy Cosmic Rewind. I normally am the worst at spoiling things for myself and reading reviews on rides and watching videos, but since I had been in a Disney funk for a couple of years, I had no idea what to expect! All I knew was that it was an indoor rollercoaster… no other info.

While we were waiting for our boarding group to be called we decided to make our first food booth stop for Flower & Garden at the Farmer’s Feast booth. When we travel together we often all purchase different items so we can share. I purchased the Tomato and Red Onion Panzanella with avocado, burrata cheese, and fresh basil and the Ghost Mary, and Paul purchased the Sweet Corn Crème Brûlée with corn biscotti and the Collective Arts Brewing Blueberry & Elderberry Sparkling Hard Tea. We ask if there was a passholder discount and there was!

I am not a big fan of meat, so this booth really appealed to me! Both food items here were delicious. I do wish the salad had a bit more pieces of bread and that the burrata was a little softer, but the taste was fantastic. The creme brulee was very good! Sweeter than we expected and the texture was definitely different than a normal custard, but the taste was great. Paul easily won for his choice of drink. The tea was amazing and refreshing, while the Ghost Mary was blah. I love bloody mary’s and this was not one. I would have given it higher marks if there was any flavor, but there wasn’t.

After our breakfast, we headed over for our boarding group at Guardians. There was a very long line outside for the LL, which to be honest should have been a warning to us. We scanned our magic bands and headed in…. Barely. The line was at a standstill right inside the doors and the fact that people were sitting on the floor all through the line didn’t bode well for us. We waited about 20 minutes without moving and finally heard someone say that the preshow was down. Since this was my first time riding, I really wanted the full experience, plus the line was not moving at all. We decided to talk to guest services and see if they could move our boarding group to later.

Just so everyone knows if you leave the line of your own accord before Disney shuts it down you are not guaranteed a replacement, but the cast member was nice and gave us a later boarding group since were were only there for the day.

We decided to take a walk over to The Land and walked through the maze of construction walls. What is so amazing is that D has never saw Epcot without them! They had just been put up in 2018 and they have yet to go down. I am so excited to see the new Epcot, but this feels like it has been like this forever!!

By the time we made it to The Land the line for Soarin’ was over an hour, and we decided to ride Living with the Land since it is nice and cool and we wanted to see if there was anything extra inside for Flower & Garden.

Then we popped a squat in the Passholder Lounge area of Sunshine Seasons. I’m going to be honest here, this was a cop-out for Disney. It was a tiny seating area and extremely crowded, the water was warm and it was confusing on how to get your free soda. But the tables were cool and we sat at a Figment table. We did purchase the passholder exclusive dessert to try, and it was awful. We didn’t even eat half of it and I was so disappointed. I don’t know if it was too sweet or if the crust just wasn’t great, but yuck.

We hung out and charged our phones a bit in the lockers, but we only had one day so it was time to GO!

Next up: More food booths and a trip through World Showcase... will we get to ride Guardians???

 

[PrncessA]

Cant wait to read all about your year of Disney. Sounds like sooo much fun!

-you might want to re-read your post. You slipped and gave away P’s first name.

I got permission to use names, so we are all good! Thanks for the catch!!

 

[Kitty & Covs Covs]

Following along! We also got passes for the first time this year and are trying to do a bunch of cheap trips using our local cost airline. We can't swing monthly, but I can't wait to read about how you're making it work!

 

[Counting Stars]

What a terrific concept! You definitely have me following This is going to be so cool....

 

[footballmouse]

 

[PrncessA]

Following along! We also got passes for the first time this year and are trying to do a bunch of cheap trips using our local cost airline. We can't swing monthly, but I can't wait to read about how you're making it work!

I love this! I am already a little stuck on some of the months right now, so there might be a couple of trips that cover 2 months... Like Sept/Oct and January/February.

 

[PrncessA]

We really didn’t have any plans for our day at Epcot. In fact, we didn’t discuss what we were going to do on this trip once, other than eat and drink, which may be our favorite past-time. Our next stop was at Pineapple Promenade where we both got the DOLE Whip topped with Sōmrus Mango Cream Liqueur. No photos, you know what a dole whip looks like I am sure. It was delish!

Not as good as the Spikey Pineapple from Trader Sam’s Tiki Terrace. But a photo of that, because it is worth looking at…

Next up was the Trowel and Trelis booth, which was completely meatless! I got the IMPOSSIBLE Lumpia with Thai sweet chili sauce and a glass of J. Lohr Wildflower Valdiguié, while Paul got the Boneless IMPOSSIBLE Korean Short Rib with cilantro-lime rice, Danmuji slaw, and kimchee mayonnaise and the Twinings Iced Green Tea with cranberry and lime with Hangar 1 Makrut Vodka served in a mason jar. There was a passholder discount here as well.

Paul and I split the win for this booth. The lumpia was very good! Had I not known that the filling was not meat, I would have sworn I was eating meat. I’m not usually a fan of sweet chili sauce, but it was a good balance of sweet and savory. My wine however tasted very cheap and like it had oxidized. I love wine, and am not a snob when it comes to price, but I am when it comes to quality and this was not good. I should have looked up the scores on my wine app before purchasing because it isn't rated that great.

Paul’s tea was very refreshing and the clear winner again with drink of choice, but his impossible short ribs were not cutting it. The texture of the meat was definitely giving spam, while the taste did not in the least taste like short ribs for either of us. The rice and the kimchee mayo were good, but neither of us liked the texture or the taste of the slaw. Most of this did not get consumed sadly.

Epcot has long been one of my favorite parks and so it was great to just have a day to walk around. I wanted to souvenir shop, but since we were flying Spirit home I didn’t really have much room to bring much home. We spent a lot of time in World Showcase, exploring shops and the flower and garden topiaries. I took a lot of video but no real photos, at the time I didn’t know I was going to be doing a trip report, so I will be better next time!!

Mickey was looking a little rough in the UK gardens…

But Cogsworth was adorable in France!!

The wait for Ratatouille was almost 2 hours, so we decided to skip it for a day when we had more time. This will be a new ride for me as well! But we did head back to explore a little. The line for crepes was insane, but I WILL be picking up some crepes on my next trip. The fountain with Remy on top is insanely cute!

And of course you can’t stop in France without picking up my favorite cocktail in Epcot. The Grand Marnier Orange Slush, with extra Grand Marnier on top. This admittedly is an expensive drink, and Paul actually treated since I had a rough week at work. Thanks Paul!

The Eat to the Beat concert that night was Simple Plan (who was there for quite a few days), and there were already people lined up to get in! We stopped in Italy and shared a glass of Prosecco and then we continued on to Germany where I don’t have photos of our food, 1. Because it was hot and we were hungry and 2. Because Paul took one on Snap and didn’t save it. But we did stop at Baurernmarkt food booth I got the Potato Pancake with caramelized ham, onions, and herb sour cream and a Raspberry Radler and Paul got Toasted Pretzel Bread topped with black forest ham and melted gruyère cheese and something to drink, but no idea what.

It took a while to get my Radler because the keg was out, but the wait was worth it. So cold and refreshing! I love Radlers and this one did not disappoint! This both was by far our favorite food booth. I didn’t even get to taste Paul’s pretzel bread, because it was gone in a blink. He said it was delicious and he could eat 5 more. My potato pancakes were just as good. The herb sour cream was perfect on top and the ham and onions were perfectly caramelized. All in all, a perfect stop for us, plus we got to enjoy this entertainment:

We continued on and made a stop in Norway to get my husband a new hat. My husband is Norwegian so this is always his favorite stop. And this is where I found out my daughter has a lot more to teach me when it comes to TikTok and I inadvertently ruined our TikTok by posting it accidentally before we finished. I had, and still have no idea if I could have stopped it or could have fixed it… but here it is for your viewing pleasure. I promise we will get better! (I hope!)

Next up: Do I finally make it on Guardians? Will we make it back home in the same day?

 

[ThreeBoyMama]

Sounds like a fun relaxing Epcot day!

 

[summerlvr]

My wine however tasted very cheap and like it had oxidized. I love wine, and am not a snob when it comes to price, but I am when it comes to quality and this was not good. I should have looked up the scores on my wine app before purchasing because it isn't rated that great.

Loving your review, but please do tell what this wine app is! I love trying new wines, but hate spending money on something I don't like.

 

[PrncessA]

Loving your review, but please do tell what this wine app is! I love trying new wines, but hate spending money on something I don't like.

Vivino! It is so easy when you are in the wine aisle, you just take a photo of the bottle and tons of reviews and pricing come up. You can save your favorite wines as well!

Not sure if you are a red wine drinker, but I wanted to recommend my favorite budget-friendly cabernet, Freak Show. I can usually get it at Target for $14 (sometimes even cheaper), and it is delish!

 

[summerlvr]

Vivino! It is so easy when you are in the wine aisle, you just take a photo of the bottle and tons of reviews and pricing come up. You can save your favorite wines as well!

Not sure if you are a red wine drinker, but I wanted to recommend my favorite budget-friendly cabernet, Freak Show. I can usually get it at Target for $14 (sometimes even cheaper), and it is delish!

Thank you, will look for this app. And thanks for the wine suggestion!

 

[PrncessA]

I really tried to get this trip finished before my next one took place, but work was so busy that I barely had time to even think about Disney before I left last Saturday. It is blowing my mind that I am going back again so soon and that I already have 2 more trips planned after that! I had a very large festival that I ran on Saturday morning before heading to the airport, which was stressing me out, but it is all worth it for 4 days at Disney!

We last left off in Norway with an ill-constructed TikTok and a hope of riding Guardians of the Galaxy! While in Norway we got our notification that our boarding group had been called. Shockingly we skipped Mexico, which felt extremely weird since we ALWAYS stop inside the pyramid to grab a margarita from La Cava del Tequila. Did I make it on our trip last weekend??? You will have to wait and see….

We meandered over to Guardians, stopping by the Odyssey center for a few minutes to check out some Flower & Garden Merch. They had a great sale (30% plus the additional 30% passholder) on the F&G Dooney’s but this year's was Snow White and I wasn’t interested. I really hope they have Orange Bird on the purse! Then we headed over for my first ride on Guardians.

From the moment we entered the queue, I could see the difference from the morning, we did wait quite a long time, but this time the overhead projections were changing and not repeating the same thing over and over. Like I said, I had no idea what to expect with this ride other than it was Guardians themed and it was inside.

Needless to say, I was blown away by the ride itself. I do think the pre-show is good, not fantastic, but good. Nothing can beat the Rise of the Resistance pre-show, that by far is the best. But the ride itself? I honestly think it is the best thrill ride at WDW! I had so much fun, as you can see in this photo:





After our ride through the time and space, we were in need of some non-alcoholic refreshments, so we stopped by Connections where I got some fries and a Smart water and Paul got a pizza kids meal and Powerade. We sat in the airconditioning and just relaxed, it was definitely hitting us that one day was not enough. Especially in the heat of summer! After a quick rest and some electrolytes, we headed over to Creations to pick up the reason for our trip, the Figment magnet!

The line to pick up the magnet was quite long, but it went quickly and we had our coveted magnet. We took a quick spin on Spaceship Earth. I love Spaceship Earth, for me, it is just so relaxing and predictable. A few of the animatronics weren’t working, but the one that stood out for me was Michelangelo's painting. He was just laying there taking a nap.

But we did stop and get a few photo pass photos:




And my personal favorite!!




Before we headed up to the monorail for a ride to MK and back. We wanted to just relax and possibly get a look over the walls into the Moana area in Epcot. We were able to see that the waterfall was running and a few days later they announced that cast previews for that area would be starting soon.

Even though it was a bit early we decided to head back to the airport, but by the time we arrived our flight on Spirit had been delayed by about 30 mins. We hung out in the atrium of the airport and watched the Orlando Philharmonic play for a little while. While they were playing I checked my phone and all a sudden I didn’t have a boarding pass, but Paul did… then I refreshed and his was gone, then they both were back, then they were gone. It was a mess. We headed over to the Spirit check-in and it was a MADHOUSE. After 4 tries we finally got our boarding passes to print from a self-service kiosk and we made a beeline for security.

If we thought the check-in was insane, security was 4 steps above that! Thank goodness I had signed up for the Clear trial during the day and we bypassed what had to be a 2 hour line to get through security. We made it to our gate only to learn that the flight had been delayed again. Our once 9:20pm flight was now delayed until after 11pm. The plane that had originally been meant for us had been diverted to another airport so we didn’t have a plane. We did have a pilot, but unless he was going to carry us then we had a problem. We checked with the gate agent to see what was going on, but they barely even looked up at us.

We got a 3rd delay that pushed us to 12:30am, and at that moment we had a feeling that this flight was not going to happen. Paul saw our pilot talk to the gate agent then walk away and at that moment we knew it was over. Then came the mad scramble of the 200+ people who were waiting at the gate. People were screaming and mad, it was not a pretty sight. We all headed back to the tram and the line for Spirit was SOOOOOO long. They had to have canceled more than just our flight. They were making announcements saying they would not pay for food or accommodations… We felt so bad for the parents with kids.

Paul and I went into survival mode, all the while our husbands were trying to get us to commit to walking in the Chicago Pride Parade the next day. Needless to say it was a stressful time. We split up airlines and the cheapest flight (which was not cheap at all) was on Southwest the next morning. We booked it before someone else could! We did manage to get a really good rate at the Hyatt Place near the airport, thanks to Daniel’s friends and family discount, but getting an Uber took about an hour.

I won’t bore you with the details but we made it home the next day around 10am and we were both exhausted and swore we would never again use Spirit airlines! The lack of customer service and apathy was crazy. I am pretty loyal to Southwest and now I know why!! Our one-day trip turned into a bit more of an adventure than we had planned, but all in all it was an experience I will never forget. And no, we did not make it to walk in the parade.

Next up: July 16-19, A trip where I walk 44.5 miles in 4 days, with 5 friends!

 

[ThreeBoyMama]

Ugh, sorry your trip home was such a nightmare! Looking forward to hearing about your next trip

 

[MinnieFan4ever]

Why does flying always seem like a nightmare! Ugh.

i am ready for your next installment

 

[Robbie Fowler]

Not just in the U.K. the flights are a nightmare. I live ion an island and cancellations are such a pain. At least we get compensation though and our expenses covered albeit it doesn’t take the stress of not getting home or a 4 hour boat journey in a force gale . Loving the report

 

[erinch]

Loving your report!
I had an insane security experience in Atlanta, bailed and signed up for the Clear trial right then, cancelled it 48 hours later as recommended and now have TSA pre-check, which I got at staples. When I got married 35 years ago, my hubby kept his maiden name , and I hyphenated mine and his. So I had to bring my marriage license and he did not. Which feels, irrationally, incredibly sexist.

 

[PrncessA]

Thank you for all the comments and encouragement! This is definitely a marathon and not a sprint! I am going to get going on Trip #2, a one that we could name “The Blister with it’s Own Zip Code”, but we won’t because 1: It’s Gross and 2: This trip was so much fun, not even a massive blister could dampen our spirits! Let’s start with more introductions, and I will add them to my intro post as well.

First we have Daniel, my bestie, my brother. Literally, he feels like my brother. He is my children’s guncle and him and Paul are a huge part of my family’s life. We met about 10 years ago when we both started college at the same time for the same program. There’s a few years difference in our ages, LOL, but we had an instant connection and have been through a lot together in the last 10 years. Daniel’s first trip to WDW was in 2019, when Paul and I decided that we needed to get him there for him to fall in love. He complained constantly about the planning, the price, the time commitment; he just didn’t understand yet. Needless to say our trip in 2019 was a huge success and we have since visited Disney together a few times, and they took their honeymoon there in 2022! If I could describe Daniel in one word it would be EXTRA.

Next Up with have Vince. Vince is newer to our group, but has found his place so quickly that it feels like he has been there forever. He made his first trip to Disney in October 2022, when he crashed Paul and Daniel's honeymoon for a couple of days. He is a relative Disney newbie, but learning fast! Both Daniel and Vince work in the hospitality industry together and have high standards for hotels. Vince and I were an honorary couple this trip, a couple of besties as he put it. I thought I was a fast walker at Disney, but I found myself chasing after him many times.

Finally, we have C&B, who I will keep as initials since I didn’t ask permission to use their names in this report. B is Daniel’s cousin, and her and her husband C were celebrating their 5 “ear” anniversary on this trip. This was also a post baby babymoon. They have a beautiful 6 month old daughter who did not come on this trip. They move at slightly slower pace than the aforementioned crew, so they explored some with us and at other times they were on their own.

This trip started a bit differently than my others! I usually love to fly early in the morning and get a full day in at Disney right off the bat, but circumstances this time made that impossible. About 2 months before the trip I got a text message from Daniel and Paul asking if I could make a trip in July, but of course, it happened to be right over the time I had an important event that I was running. I decided that if I worked really hard, I could fly out the next day and spend a couple of days in Disney with them. Vince decided to make the trip as well and was able to get a comp night at a hotel on the 15th (the day of my event), so I decided to fly out the day of my event. You can sleep when you die right?

The week of my event was crazy. We have been getting so many storms here in the Chicago area. This meant my outdoor event was up in the air and needed backup plans upon backup plans. The night before of course we got crazy winds and downed powerlines, but the morning of was beautiful and my event went off without a hitch. It was really the only thing in the area because there were so many downed powerlines, etc. I was done at work by 3pm, when I realized my keys were locked in my car (thanks to my husband). Luckily he came back to open my doors and I was able to shower and change before heading to the airport. Thank goodness because I would have been a hot mess at the airport had I not been able to shower after an outdoor event!

I got to the airport and decided to wait on Vince before going through security.

Here I am supporting VPR girl Ariana in my Something About Her sweatshirt!

Vince had signed up for the Clear trial and needed to finish the signup process and we both also got TSA PreCheck. He arrive a few minutes after me and we checked his bag. It was a running joke on the trip that between all the guys I packed the least and took the least time in the bathroom. Since I am going to be traveling so much I decided to try and only do carry-ons to reduce the amount of time waiting after the flights. And to be honest it made packing so much easier! I am a notorious overpacker and my friends often make bets about how much I bring. This trip was:

8 Outfits
1 Swimsuit
1 PJ
3 pairs of shoes (plus the ones I was wearing)
4 pairs of Mickey Ears
1 Hat
Medicine for every conceivable illness imaginable
Toiletries for a week
1 computer
Cords and charges for all devices
1 Hairdryer
1 Flatiron
1 Poncho
1 Umbrella
1 Park Backpack
1 Mini-fan
1 Waterbottle

I think that’s about all. I managed to pack this all in a carry-on rolling bag and a backpack. After this trip I made a few adjustments, but for the most part, this is what I will pack from now on! During prime days I had picked up a new carry-on and I love it!

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BKSQ2FP4?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details

It fits so much and was so smooth to roll, even with my heavy backpack on top.

There was absolutely no line at security, which is normal at Midway. We still used Clear and TSA PreCheck so we wouldn’t have to take off our shoes. Vince finished his Clear check-in and we headed toward our gate. Since we both had PreCheck we got to the airport about an hour before boarding so we didn’t have much time to wait before boarding.

We did take the time to stop and have a quick bite to eat since I hadn’t had a bite all day.

When we got to our gate we learned that there were only 79 people on the flight! I was A30 and both Vince and I ended up with our own row to spread out!

The flight was supposed to take a detour due to “traffic” but the pilot found a shortcut and we made it on time.

I finally remembered my Southwest drink tickets and enjoyed a Dogfish Head Lemonade. It was pretty good, but a little sweet for a seltzer.

While we were flying Daniel, Paul, C & B were doing this:

We headed down to baggage claim, where we waited for a long while. There had been multiple flight delays and the luggage was backed up. We were both exhausted from working that day and just wanted to get to the hotel. I also realized I forgot my water bottle on the plane. I wasn’t surprised. I am the world’s worst at losing things on planes. I have lost so many water bottles, earphones, a book, a Kindle, and sunglasses. I am the worst, but I was shocked that I left it this time since there was nothing to distract me. I once lost my phone in Punta Cana on our shuttle to the resort, thank goodness for Vince because he was able to contact the driver and get it back for me. He now asks me constantly if I have my phone.

We finally got Vince’s luggage, I gave him a hard time for checking it, and we finally got our Lyft to the Hyatt Regency on I-Drive. Our Lyft was a Tesla with the doors that lift, which was pretty cool.

The Hyatt Regency is a beautiful hotel, if not a little too big. Our Lyft dropped us off at the wrong entrance and we hiked to registration. Our desk agent was so nice and upgraded us to a room with a balcony. It ended up having a king bed instead of doubles like we thought, but oh well we would be sleeping in the same bed the rest of the trip anyway.

We took a minute to enjoy the view of the grotto pool and the Orlando Eye, but I was so tired I didn’t even take a photo. I was asleep before Vince even made it out of the bathroom after his nighttime routine. Which isn’t short, LOL.

Animal Kingdom opened at 8am, and we needed to meet up with Daniel and Paul by 7am at the new hotel!

Next Up: Animal Kingdom & More