All tagged Disney World
You may this post a little backwards than my usual trip report posts. Normally I post about what we did each day, THEN I get into all the details on individual posts about all the specific things we did on our trip. Well I am starting with a very specific thing we did on our early September trip because it is the Halloween party! It ends on November 1st, so I wanted to share our experience as soon as I could!
Leading up to our Disney World trip in March 2023, we had tons of countdowns going. I love getting everyone excited, and sometimes I even overdo it. One countdown I made was a coloring sheet. I also did this for Brad’s parents as a easy way for them to participated 3 hours away!
During our Disney World trip in March 2023, we got to cross a fun experience off our Disney Bucket List…Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique! Prior to COVID, Melody wasn’t old enough. We only went once when she was 3, and it was a quick trip. Then on our trips post COVID, they were not open. But they were finally open for our Spring Break trip, and after a lot of research and stalking, I found an ideal time for us during our trip.
During our trip to Disney World in March 2023, we took advantage of the Facebook group “Ear for Each Other”. It is where castmembers who were laid off during COVID could post different business ventures. One properly option is where different people deliver various goodies to your resort. After looking around on the page, we decided to reach out to Storybook Treats. We were uncertain if they could deliver to Shades of Green (they can!), and once we received confirmation, we decided to order some treats for the trip.
During our trip to Disney World in March 2023, we stayed at Shades of Green. Most people do not even know this resort exists. There is a list of criteria that you must meet to qualify to stay here. The two largest qualifiers is if you are military/former military (some special rules apply to the later) or a Department of Defense Civilian. We found out about the resort a few years ago, and we wanted to give it a try. It is actually located on two golf courses, so that was how we convinced Brad’s dad to come to Disney with us. It also gave us a great opportunity to try out the resort too!
When we went to Disney World in March 2023, we decided to drive. We had the time, and it would actually be dramatically cheaper AND we could add two nights to our trip. With this we knew we would be asked a million times “are we there yet?” or “how much longer”. So I decided to make a map. I made two copies, one for the drive down and one for the drive home. Once we left and we knew the direction we would be going, I placed 10 stars along with the name of cities along our drive. Whenever we came to a city, I would let Melody know. This gave her a good way to track, and we only got asked those questions a hundred times ;)
We have made many Disney family shirts over the years, and it does get hard to make up new ones. I hate to re-use themes from the past. And when you are with a larger group, it is harder to make it all unison but different. So when it came time to design a family shirt for us to all wear for our March 2023 Spring Break trip, I had a little bit of a difficult time. I didn’t want to do favorite rides, because I really don’t know that Bob and Vicki had a favorite ride prior to this trip. Brad mentioned everyone being a different park, but I wasn’t sure how we would narrow that down…and there are not five parks. So after some deliberation with Brad, we opted to try and make everyone a character or favorite “thing” and make it have Mickey ears.
During our trip to Disney World back in March 2023, I finally took Brad to the World’s Largest McDonald’s. It is located in Orlando, and it has changed quite a lot from my first visit there back in 2008. While I didn’t research the changes, I am certain they leveled the original building and rebuilt it. Either way, this was all about our experience there in March of 2023.
During our March 2023 trip, we spent our second day at the Disney parks (third day in Orlando) at Magic Kingdom that morning and Hollywood Studios that evening. We had a big, late breakfast at Cinderella’s Royal Table, so we didn’t do a real lunch. We decided to make a dinner reservation at Sci Fi Dine In Theater once we secured the plans for Magic Kingdom. Melody had never been there, and I hadn’t been there since our trip with friends in 2014
Back in March 2023, we were able to ride Guardians of the Galaxy for the very first time. It was quite the experience, and I will say, I do think this is one of the best roller coasters there (we have NOT rode Tron yet). However, my experience afterwards was not the best.
Leaving Disney World is always one of the hardest parts. We really had such a fun time this trip, and we loved almost everything about it. (I will speak to the negatives in a future post. All were in regards to changes (such as Genie+.))
Day Six was our final day at Disney World before heading back to Huntsville. We opted to start our day at Hollywood Studios doing some of the bigger rides we didn’t do on day three. Then we wanted to end with our favorite park, EPCOT.
Our fifth day was a day we had been look forward to for the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique experience. It would be Melody’s first time getting to do it, and Vicki was so looking forward to it. And while the time originally wasn’t ideal, we ended up being happy with it. So this was definitely a Melody kind of day ahead!
Our fourth day at Disney World was our “break” day. We always strive to have a somewhat laidback day in the middle of a big Disney trip. Unlike trips past, we opted to still make it to the parks somewhat early, but leave after lunch. Brad’s parents are morning people, and while at Disney we tend to be too.
Our third day didn’t go quite as planned, but we also all went in different directions at different times. Generally we spent the morning at Magic Kingdom, and we spent the evening at Epcot. Bob planned to play golf that morning, so he did not plan to come to Magic Kingdom. We had plans to meet up with him at some point in between Magic Kingdom and Hollywood Studios. Where things went in a different direction is when I woke up not feeling so great. I had a headache and still had some vertigo issues. I ended up sleeping in and set an alarm to make sure I would make it to Magic Kingdom in time for our dining reservation for a late breakfast. However, Brad, his mom, and Melody went ahead and went to the park in time for rope drop. I did get up and buy Rise of the Resistance for all 5 of us, and Genie+ for the 4 of us doing Magic Kingdom. I booked Big Thunder Mountain first thing since that was a must for Melody.
On our second day, it was our first FULL day at Disney World visiting the parks. We spent the morning at Epcot and the evening at Animal Kingdom. We did open the park, but we made sure we didn’t exhaust ourselves and didn’t close the park. Follow along below.
Our first day at Disney actually consists of two nights and one day. This trip was such a fun trip, so let’s dive in!
For Spring Break, we went to Disney World with Brad’s parents. We opted to drive to save money. We started our trek after school on Friday. We had originally planned to check Melody out once we were packed and ready, but she had a field trip that afternoon. So I check her out from the field trip, and we headed out.
It has been over a month since our return from Disney, but I am finally getting to posting all about our fun trip! Brad does not entirely agree, but I must say that this was one of my least tiring trips to Disney World in quite some time. I did get to sleep in one day while he got up early to take Melody to Magic Kingdom (more on that soon), but the trip overall went so smooth.
As my previous post explains, we have been pretty busy between Spring Break, Easter, starting a new company, and life in general. March was a really fun month though! Check out all the fun below.
