Let me begin by saying, some people have made some crazy remarks, funny remarks, (at times rude remarks about all of our travels), but hey we live for the moment, we save money for our trips, we look forward to them, we plan them, and we check off bucket list items, mainly because none of us are guaranteed tomorrow. We want to make the most of what we have been given, while normally we don't do two big trips back to back like that, a family trip came up and we couldn't pass it by.... Just wanted to get that off my chest, I felt like some were putting me down for our trips, but in reality we are just celebrating this precious life that we are all given. So que sera, sera...
Thursday, March 31st
I WON tickets for my mama, myself, and my Grandma to attend "A Night With the Kingsbury's". This was a night that was encompassed with fun, laughter, tears, joy, and JESUS!
Karen Kingsbury is my mama's and grandma's favorite author and mine also. She had a night dedicated to sharing her personal story, her family's story, her adoptions, her books, and her struggles. It was the best night! We drove to Atlanta, and made it back home around 1 am.
Friday, April 1st
Friday after school we left straight for Orlando with Seth, my cousin Lauren, Seth's mom, nephew, his brother, and his brother's girlfriend! It started off kind of rough, because I forgot my tennis shoes (which I ended up not wearing even after we went back for them..my bad, but I hate wet tennis shoes and the forecast called for rain), my phone charger, my fitbit charger, and my camera. Seth was not the happiest of campers with me. hehe. However, once we finally got on the road, we had a great time. We of course watched Frozen, The Lizzie McGuire Movie and had countless Disney Sing Alongs....we made it to Orlando at about 12:30 am. We checked in online to the Disney All Star Movies Resort! (** This was amazing, we never even had to go into the lobby to check in, our magic bands that they mailed to us became our room keys, we just went straight to our room and got to sleep to prepare for our long day ahead..***) I totally recommend this if you are driving in late to your Disney Resort. They make everything so easy for you! Gosh, I love Disney.
Saturday, April 2nd
Alarm goes off 5:30 am
Breakfast in Hotel 6:30 am
On the Bus 7:15 am
Arrive at Magic Kingdom 7:35
Can you say busy morning! We made it to Magic Kingdom (with our WHOLE PARTY) at 7:35, the park was not scheduled to open until 9! We made it in time to get great spots for the Welcome Show into Magic Kingdom. This was my first time doing this and I can promise you it was so worth it! We got to see the Mayor of Main Street come out and welcome us, and all of the Characters rode in on the train and did a welcome dance and such! (*Insert Huge Thank you to my cousin Kerri for the idea)
Once they dropped the ropes we HUSTLED straight towards the new Snow White Mine Train Rollercoaster Ride (****because they were already out of Fast Passes 3 weeks in advance for that ride, and we didn't have that much time once we planned our trip, like I said super last minute, so heads up if you are planning a trip to Disney, and you are staying on site, you can make your fast pass reservations up to 6 weeks in advance****). Despite not having fast passes, we made it to the ride and only had to wait 5 minutes to ride it! It was Trey's (Seth's nephew) first rollercoaster and HE LOVED IT. I loved it also. It was my favorite ride of the trip! They even video you on it, and put it on your My Photo Pass Experience! (which is another huge thing I would buy if I was planning another trip to Disney)
Later, of course, we had a fast pass for Splash Mountain and got right on with no wait, however it was right after we just had dried off from all of the rain haha, but HEY IT WAS SUCH A FUN RIDE, who cares if we got soaking wet again?!?. Right when we came off of Splash Mountain, we had perfect seats for the parade that was coming through, we saw it from beginning to end with the best views. We saw all of the princesses, peter pan, the Maleficent dragon that breathed REAL FIRE (which Trey loved), and so much more. It was a great parade. Lauren got some really cool pictures as well! Some people don't think the parades are worth it, but I just love them. I think it is a preference thing, if we had not had enough time to do all of the other rides, I would have wanted to skip the parade, but since we were on such a roll, we could not pass it up!
The Lord definitely gave us favor the whole day to do everything we wanted to do. We even met quite a few characters along the way. (Minnie, Donald, Daisy, Goofy, Ana, Elsa, Rapunzel, Cinderella, Buzz, Woody, Jessie, and of course Mickey Mouse, WHICH BY THE WAY DID YOU KNOW HE TALKS NOW???!!!??) This totally blew all of our minds, it was super cool the way he spent one on one time with Trey. He totally loved it, and of course the child in me loved it too!
It was such a good time watching Trey enjoy every little thing. We rode some more rides and was making our way to Tomorrow Land and ran right smack into the Move It, Shake it, Dance, Play it Party! They had a Live DJ in front of the castle playing dance songs like the Macerana, Shakira's new song from Zootopia, the Hokey Pokey, the Electric Slide and much more. Trey got to dance with Woody and give him a High Five, and Mickey photo bombed our picture. It was just awesome how we kept walking into all of these super cool, fun events. Some things were things that we planned, and some things were just plain favor.
We stopped for a popcorn, churro, turkey leg, and ice cream break, and to charge our dying phones. (***Did you know you could take your phones to City Hall on Main Street and they will charge your phones for free? Much better option than spending time searching for outlets which there aren't that many of***) While we were doing this Lauren got to dance with the characters from Splash Mountain that rarely come out, so that was awesome! Lauren, unfortunately, did not get to meet her favorite character, Stich, but we did get to ride his ride with a short wait time. We actually ended up finding a lady's phone in our seats, which was really weird. (I'm telling you, we had the craziest time)
As the day continued, we kept riding rides and meeting characters along the way. Around 7:30 we had dinner at Cosmic Ray's Spotlight Café. We all had really good chicken fingers and fries. Then, we made it out just in time for the Show on the Castle, which is to die for. It is a projection up on to the castle and combines different music and movies from all of the Disney movies! I'm not going to lie, it always brings tears to my eyes. every. single. time. (insert Disney geek)
Then, the Wishes Fireworks show came on! It was amazing, Trey loved the fireworks, everyone was excited, Tinkerbelle flew down and surprised all of the kids! After Wishes, is when we officially met Mickey Mouse. Then we watched the Electrical Parade, Seth, his mom, and Trey went home. Lauren and I stayed in the park and went and met the princesses that we wanted to meet. We actually met this awesome family from London along the way also! (Lauren doesn't meet a stranger). Then, we go to REWATCH the castle show, and THE Wishes firework show! WE HAD THE BEST TIME. We took several pictures with the cast, and had them take ours, we sang and danced our way out of the parks closing. It was the perfect day. We walked out as the park was closing. I have never stayed at Disney that long in all of my life. and I loved every minute of it.
We hopped on the bus to head back to our resort. I pretty much passed out, I don't remember the bus ride back to the resort, because I was so exhausted. Lauren of course stayed up talking to people.
Sunday April 3rd
We woke up around 9am and went to Downtown Disney! We shopped around there, listened to a band play, ate some pretzels, and enjoyed our last remnant of Disney. Once we left Downtown Disney, we went and ate at the nearest IHOP, (just don't ask, lol). After IHOP, we drove down to Daytona Beach and stopped a little bit to enjoy the ocean air and breeze. Seth loved breathing in that salt air and Trey loved playing in the water. After Daytona, we hit the road and jammed out the whole way home. From songs like, "I will always love you, I don't wanna miss a thing, Justin Bieber, and so much more. We made it home from Disney World around 10:30 pm and enjoyed every minute of it. It was a great trip that we will treasure forever.
All in all the trip was just perfectly orchestrated. Lauren came and I could look at her at certain times and see that she had tears in her eyes, because of the memory she had with her Daddy and family there. (for those of you who don't know, her dad passed away a few years ago and Disney was a special place for their family) Many times on this trip, I caught her looking off in the distance and I don't think she ever realized I knew, but I could sense her happiness and her sadness at the same time.
Trey had the time of his life and it was so watching him experience his dreams come true with meeting Buzz and Woody. I am so thankful for this trip and all the memories that we made. We love Disney and will always return to the Happiest Place on Earth! I am so thankful that the Lord blessed us, with such a fun, loving, close circle of family and friends.
Go plan your trip, I promise you won't regret it.
Living to Make Jesus Famous,
Amy and Seth DuVall
