Disney- Who Knew?!

Way back 8 months ago, we finalized plans to go to Disney World.  Like the genius I am, I planned for us to take our first trip, with experienced Disney friends.  I am self-aware enough to know: planning ain’t my thang- chicken wang.  Sooooo, I asked our favorite travel friends, who are experienced Disney folks, if we could tag along the next time they went.  Thankfully they said we could (besides the fact it really helped us navigate our trip, we just had a really fantastic time).

My friend did a great job staying on top of me to make reservations, buy our tickets, and research rides and shows we wanted to do, so she would be able to FastPass stuff we all wanted to do.  I would NEVER have done all of that on my own.  It’s SOOOOOO overwhelming. 

Before we left for Disney, we were certain that this trip was the only one we were doing.  Doug called it our Two-Fer trip: we’re one and done.  (hahahaha that Doug.  He’s so funny.)  Since we’re only doing it once, we felt like we had to do it right.  However, since we just finished our 6th day and final day- we both agree that we will come back one day. 

A few weeks before we left, I started to get really nervous about this trip.  I am ashamed to say that I fell into the “everyone else is doing it and liking it, so we should too” vortex.    (I hope I remember this situation for when either of my children succumb to peer pressure, I can remind myself - heck I did too, and I’m 38 years old and should know better.)  My nerves were valid because, I hate crowds, get sick on amusement park rides, and get annoyed with things I think are overly materialistic.  Uhhhhh- what the heck were we doing coming to Disney World???????  I don’t know, but a big part of my intentions were:  my kids will love it.  And how many things do we do in the name of our children? 


Thankfully we had an absolutely fantastic time!  Even Tuesday morning, when we were leaving to go in the POURING rain, and oh yeah- a tornado warning had just expired; we had a great time and eventually the weather improved (and kept the crowds away).  The kids were shockingly well behaved- even though it was crazy crowded, we were there for at least 8 hours every day, and walked well over 4 miles a day. (if anyone tells you that Thanksgiving isn’t crowded- you should know they’re lying.  Magic Kingdom was at/near capacity on Monday- supposedly a non-crowded day).  Despite the odds being somewhat against us (crowd-wise), we didn't lose a kid, we didn't lose Lovey (that accompanied us through every park, because I knew Alexa was tired and I was afraid to not have Lovey in case she had an exhaustion induced meltdown).  The kids didn't fight, they didn't beg for tons of stuff.  Well- they did need lots of food.  They were hungry constantly.  Thankfully we brought snacks, but we still bought a lot of food.  Somehow the huge crowds didn't bother us that much (because when I go to the grocery store tomorrow evening- I will go psycho on someone).  Somehow our kids never got irrationally exhausted.  The whole trip was a blast!  Maybe because I prepared myself to not enjoy it- the whole thing was a blast?  I don’t know, but we just might come back to Disney one day, and hopefully with our friends because I'm pretty sure they're what made it so awesome.  

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