Disney Trip 2017

I grew up getting to go to Florida every year for spring break and usually got to go to Disney World. I would love for my kids to be able to grow up getting the same experiences and getting to love Disney as I do. Unfortunately my husband isn't such an avid Disney lover as I am. We took a trip back in January 2011 which was his first trip ever and he wasn't a big fan. Being a huge Disney lover I have been wanting to go back, but trips have led us elsewhere. That was until February of 2017. I decided I was taking a trip even if he didn't want to. I packed up me and my girls and headed out on the road. We headed out on a Thursday.

This was my first time EVER driving a long distance. Any longer trips we had taken my husband had always drove. I always just drove locally, so this was a little scary and exciting especially since my husband wasn't there if something were to go wrong. AND IT DID!! We were a little over an hour into our trip, not even 100 miles from home yet when we blew a tire. I had to pull off to the side of the highway, there was literally NOTHING surrounding us. I called AAA and got everything set up and got it scheduled for someone to come help us. Because we were in the middle of nowhere there was no landmarks or anything to be able to tell where we were so the tow truck driver had a hard time finding us. He finally got there managed to get our spare out from underneath and it too was flat. Luckily he was able to blow it up, but said it was no where near good enough condition to get us all the way to Florida. He said just a few miles down the highway was the Georgetown exit and it had a Walmart with a tire center that should still be open. We managed to make it there and had to wait an hour for them to put a new tire on the car. After a 2.5 hour delay we were finally back on the road.

Because of the delay we didn't get as far as I had hoped to get before stopping to rest. My hope had been to get below Atlanta before stopping. That point was around half way as it is a little over 7 hours from home and a little over 6 hours to Orlando. I got way too tired and had to stop shortly after getting into Georgia. It was around 1am when I finally had to stop. We stopped at a rest area and I got a little sleep. Around 4am I was ready to get going again. We got stuck in a little rush hour traffic in Atlanta, but it wasn't bad at all. The rest of the trip was pretty uneventful and we finally got to our hotel around 1:30pm Friday afternoon. This was about 7-8 hours behind when I had hoped to arrive, but we made it safely.

We spent that evening going over to Downtown Disney and checking it out and checking out the area around the hotel. Our hotel was only 3 miles from the main Disney World entrance. We had quite the time trying to find Downtown Disney as it had been a few years since i had been to the area and this was my first time having to drive it. Never the less we found it and enjoyed getting to explore. The girls were very amazed by the giant Disney Store. They loved looking at all the shops. They were in awe of the lego sculptures. They really liked getting to build their own lego cars and race them.

The next day they still had no clue we were going to Disney at all!!

                                       

We ended up having a blast at Magic Kingdom. They were shocked when we went thru the entrance and they realized where we were at and where we were going. They got even more excited when we parked, although I wasn't very excited by thr $20 it costs to park...geez. 

We got there before the park opened so that we could watch the opening ceremony, so we had to take the boat over to get to the park. The girls and I were both so excited. I didn't remember taking the boat as a child, so it was a first for me. We got thru security quickly and got to the castle to watch the opening ceremony. After that we were off. We headed over to Tomorrowland. We started off with the Astro Orbiters, high in the sky.

Next we headed on over to one of my favorites, the Carousel of Progress. 

We got very busy and went on a LOT of rides. We braved Space Mountain and Splash Mountain. Bella wasn't exactly thrilled with either, but Kaya loved them. Bella later came around and said she would love to go on Splash Mountain again, but not Space Mountain because she didn't like it being in the dark. We took a little break during the day to watch the parade.

The girls even got the privilege of meeting a few of their favorite characters during our visit.

We went on lots more rides. Some of our favorites were the Peter Pan ride, the Jungle cruise, and the Haunted Mansion. The girls even tried to pull the sword out of the stone!!

We ended the day watching the fireworks show, and was glad we got to watch it when we did as that show is no longer at Disney, they have a new nightly fireworks show. After the fireworks we headed to the monorail and back to our car to go back tot he hotel. We were tired, but we had a surprise. My mom had flew down to spend some time with us and help me drive back home. She hadn't eaten yet so we headed to Denny's for a late dinner, then back to the hotel for bed as we had another busy day the next day.

The next day, which was Sunday, we went to Hollywood Studios. I still get caught up in that name and still tend to call it MGM Studios, which is what it was when I was growing up. We started out the day with meeting Donald Duck.

We walked around and looked around and finally settled on going on the Great Movie Ride. Glad we did, as this is another part of Disney that is no longer there. The Great Movie ride was recently closed for good. 

We tried other rides and attractions such as muppet vision 3-d, Tower of Terror (which again Kaya enjoyed it Bella was terrified but later said she would ride it again.), and another first for me Toy Story Mania. We even watched the Disney Junior show that they put on.

See us in the back with the girls holding onto me for dear life? Bella was screaming so loud and squeezed my arm so hard it hurt after.

Speaking of Disney Junior, the girls got to meet some of their favorite characters from Disney Junior. Their brothers back at home were a bit jealous.

One of the best parts, and a part I myself was really looking forward to was them getting to meet Mickey and Minnie. This was one major thing I remembered growing up and wanted my girls to definitely get to experience.

We checkout out Walt's Dream where they actually had a real Emmy Award for the day!!! In there the girls also got to meet Moana, one of their favorite characters.

Soon we headed back to the hotel to meet back up with my mom. We went to eat again and spent some time looking at gift shops in the area, close to the hotel. The next day was Monday. We didn't go to the parks that day, besides we went back to Downtown Disney again since my mom missed it the first time. We also explored the area, went to a little flea market and Walmart. We also tried to do some swimming, but the pool wasn't heated and was VERY VERY cold. We had some fun at Downtown Disney.

On Tuesday we left to head back home. Our trip  was short and fun. Luckily the trip home was very uneventful and went a lot quicker than the trip down. I dropped my mom off at home, and arrived home around 1am right as a big storm was getting ready to roll in.

Next year I hope to go again, but next time I am bringing all my kids and dragging the husband along to. Lookout next year for the post on that trip.