Joshua and Mallory were planning a trip to Florida to go to Disney World and to do some sight seeing. They invited anyone in the family who wanted to come to go on the trip with them. I thought it sounded like fun and having never been to Disney World I thought this would be a good time to go. The week they had it scheduled for was the week after our Spring Break so Kefford and Rylee both were not able to go. They were ok with me going and I booked my trip and got pretty excited about it.
I flew into Florida about 40ish minutes before Heather's flight so I waited outside her gate to meet her and then we got our luggage and found our Uber driver. I have never used Uber and I was nervous about it but it worked out pretty great and the app was pretty easy to figure out. The only hiccup was it asked for my flight number and so it kept track of me getting in but I had to wait for Heather. I was able to text the driver and keep him informed which was good because he told me when we finally got to him that after an hour he could have left and we would have been out our money. Me sending him text messages and keeping him informed kept him at the airport waiting for us. He was nice and told us some good information on our way to the Hotel and he did wait for us so I gave him a tip.
When we got to the Hotel we checked in and found our room, Heather and I are sharing with Andrew and his girlfriend Maren whom we were meeting for the very first time. I shared a bed with Maren and Heather shared the bed with Andrew. It sounds awkward but it was ok and it was nice to spend time with Maren getting to know her.
The next day we got up early and headed over to the bus to take us to Magic Kingdom. Heather agreed to do a bound with me and after lots of thoughts and ideas we decided to do Elsa and Anna. I thought we did a good job with our outfits and we got a lot of compliments throughout the day. Joshua's family slept in so they did not go in early with us and Maren was not officially listed as part of our room so she couldn't go in early either. We were originally going to have Amos in the room with us but Maren got talked into coming and we put Amos over with his parents and had Maren come in with us unofficially. Maren has Chrones disease and was able to get a disability pass that let her and 5 people skip the line for two rides. We used it to book Space Mountain but we had a little wait so we did Astro Orbiter and Buzz Light-Year Astro Blaster. Finally we were able to go on Space Mountain and I was pretty excited because I love the ride at DisneyLand. I was not impressed with Walt Disney Worlds Space mountain there was not any music and they did not have the cool space projections that DisneyLand has also the ride is a lot more jerky and felt more like the Matterhorn which I won't go on any more because of how painful it is. After Space Mountain we wanted to get a snack and we got Pretzels.
By that time Joshua's family had entered the park so we went to go meet up with them. We rode the Carousel and Big Thunder Mountain then we had some hungry people so we stopped for some lunch. none of us ate breakfast so it was a good stopping point to get some food.
I had a lot of fun being there with my niece and nephews and love that Mallory took a picture of me and Leona having a moment.
After eating we rode on Pirates of the Caribbean and then we explored the Swiss Family Treehouse. The treehouse was really cool, it was bigger then the one in Disneyland and I love that it was still the Swiss Family Treehouse. Disneyland changed theirs to a Tarzan theme which is fun but the original is just nostalgic.
Leona, Elizabeth, Fredrick, Andrew, Maren, Mallory, Amos, Joshua and Heather
Next we went on The Magic Carpets of Aladdin. I really love spotting the extra touches of magic that Disney adds throughout the parks and seeing this heart while waiting in the due was fun, Leona and I both enjoyed it.
Amos was really struggling with the heat and what he thought were really long lines so after Aladdin we took a break and got some Dole Whip. I got the lava dole whip float and it was really tasty.
After our treats we went and did the Tiki Room and enjoyed the seats and air conditioning. Next we did the Carousel of Progress which was interesting and the song got stuck in our heads but I have heard it talked about and so it was fun to actually get to see it. After the Carousel of Progress we got on the People Mover. I thought this was a way to got from A-B like the monorail at Disneyland but this was a ride and it was an unexpected delight and my favorite of the day. The ride would go faster and then slower and it was pretty lengthy going all around Tomorrowland. We were up high so we could see all over the Park and it even took us through Space Mountain, the Buzz Lightyear ride as well as Star Traders retail shop. I loved it and just found it so delightful.
I took a picture of the Haunted Mansion (left) and I liked that the facade was different then the Disneyland one. Heather kept track of all the rides we went on but somehow missed writing down that we went on the Haunted Mansion. We did go on the Haunted mansion and I enjoyed seeing the differences between Disney Worlds version and Disneylands. It was mostly the same but I could see differences. It is the same in comparing Magic Kingdom to Disney World. Walking through the park felt like I was in a fever dream about being at Disneyland but it was different and weird. I liked being there and loved the experience but I prefer Disneyland and I know that is just because Disneyland is nostalgic and familiar to me.
Fredrick is a thrill seeker and he loved the Space Mountain ride at Disneyland and kept talking about wanting to go on it here at DisneyWorld. Nobody was super thrilled with going on it again because it was not so great so I told Fredrick I would go on it with him. I wasn't really wanting to but I decided to take one for the team. After we got off of the People Mover I went with Fredrick and we rode Space Mountain. He loved it and was really excited, he said it is his favorite ride and I was glad I made the sacrifice to go on it with him.
We did the Monsters Inc Laugh Floor where Heather and I took the opportunity to get a picture of our Bounds.
We stopped to get some popcorn and I also got a water and then we got in the Lightening Lane for Small World. The Small World question was inside and the path followed the water, the boys have noticed the money in all the bodies of water throughout the park and I thought it would be fun to give them each a coin to throw in Small World. When we were at a stopping point in the queue I balanced my phone on my box of popcorn and crouched down to get my wallet out of my backpack. As I was getting down, almost in slow motion I watched my phone slide off the box and fall perfectly through the crack between the guard rail and the floor and fall down the 6 or so feet to land nicely in the water with a big plop. I was stunned and in shock, I stood up slowly turned to our group and announced that my phone just fell in the water. I went down to let the cast member know and after I explained what happened and showed him where my phone was he turned to another cast member who was using a long pole to fish around in the water and told her we had another phone in the water. She was gobsmacked and just said "another phone?". Apparently someone else did the same thing and not too much before mine fell in. The cast member was super nice and he told me they would get it out for me and to go on the ride and not worry about it just enjoy the ride with my family. I did as he suggested and when I got off the ride they did have my phone sitting on the trash can waiting for me. I was so happy and immediately turned it off and put it in my backpack to dry out.
The Disney World castle was big and beautiful and I am glad we found a spot to get my picture with it.
At about this time Joshuas family were done and left to go back to the hotel for food and bed and Andrew wasn't feeling well so he went with them. Heather, Maren and I couldn't get a lightening lane pass for the Dwarfs mining ride but we wanted to do it and were ok with waiting in line for it. The line took about an hour and a half which was long but we had nothing else to do and it was ok to wait. We liked the ride and liked the interactive things to do while waiting in the queue. After the wait we had dinner and got to see some of the fireworks from the restaurant. Maren really wanted to go on the Tea cups ride and there was not a line so we did that and then we went over to ride the Ariel ride. Stephanie Young's daughter, Eva, is doing the college work program at Disney World and her assignment was the Ariel ride. Stephanie let me know what time she would be working and I was really happy to see her when we got to the ride.
