October 2017 Trip Report (Part 1: The Beginning & Ronan's 4th Birthday)
Gentle readers, we literally *just* got back from the Walt Disney World(R) Resort on Sunday night, October 29. And here I am, writing the trip report on Monday, October 30 [update – still writing it on November 1!]. It feels a bit surreal - but there are several factors that went into this strange phenomenon of timeliness:
I did laundry on vacation and only had to do two (2) loads today
Said laundry got started at 6:30am after the Little Mouseketeer woke up asking, "When are we going back to Disney World?"
Hubby drove the whole way home from Florida, leaving me lots of time to mentally prepare for the process of unpacking
Now that the literal and proverbial housekeeping is out of the way, here's a breakdown of our trip – part one of 3 (Saturday, Sunday and Monday – Ronan’s birthday):
Saturday, woke up, hubby & kid to gym, me to pack the car and get my nails done; left home around 130pm for our drive to Valdosta
Saturday night, stayed overnight at the Drury Inn & Suites in Valdosta - had our typical Olive Garden dinner by the indoor pool
Sunday morning, Ronan woke up at 5am. Yep. 5 am.
A bit later Sunday morning, we piled back into the car and continued the drive to Walt Disney World, arriving around 1130am. Note: the 'good Pilot' is at exit 341 on I-75 South
Upon arrival, we knew our room wasn’t ready (thanks to Disney’s advance online check-in and text messaging service) but we were prepared for that, parked at our Resort Hotel and headed to the Magic Kingdom.
We grabbed lunch at Columbia Harbor House and I was ready for lot of fun but His Majesty was NOT having it, wanting nothing to do with the awesome FastPasses I had secured in advance, but we did manage to hit a few rides, including Dumbo.
Sunday afternoon, we headed over to Epcot to grab dinner and see Toad the Wet Sprocket during the Eat to the Beat Concert series. It happened in reverse – show first and then dinner. It felt amazing to be able to see a band I’ve loved since high school perform live. Check out a very short video here: https://youtu.be/ak0mfIbZ-Vk.
After dinner, Ronan got a second wind, so we stayed a bit longer to take in British Revolution over in the UK Pavilion. He ran around like a maniac and had A LOT of fun in the process: https://www.facebook.com/rebeccazf/videos/10156674007257646/
On Sunday night, getting back to the room, I was expecting my Instacart groceries to be delivered between 9-10pm. Fast forward to 12am (that’s right MIDNIGHT) and I’m in my pajamas, unloading the groceries from the delivery person’s car because they were so inept. Never again…Amazon Prime Now ONLY for this family.
Monday was Ronan’s fourth birthday…never mind the fact that I’m now the mother of a 4-year-old (eek!), we were ready for a day of fun that started with some rides at Epcot Future World followed by brunch with the Princesses at Akershus in the Norway Pavilion of World Showcase.
Food was very good and very plentiful. Biggest issue is that our kiddo isn’t a big breakfast eater…bit of a fight to get him to eat the allergy-friendly waffles vs. using them as a syrup delivery vehicle.
Check out this adorable video from the Princess Procession: https://www.facebook.com/rebeccazf/videos/10156674007222646/
Monday late afternoon, we headed back to the Magic Kingdom to do some rides and take in the new Happily Ever After fireworks. Thanks to a decent stroller nap, we were able to stay out very late (like 11pm or so!) and even though it was super soggy in the MK, we watched those fireworks.
