In late October the Sauder women embarked on a journey to the Happiest Place on Earth to celebrate The Kid's 21st birthday. Actually, according to my mom, we were celebrating all of our 21st birthdays, since no one else received a 21st birthday trip.
I distinctly remember drinking a grocery store wine cooler in our parent's kitchen in GB with Gentry on her 21st. We're a wild bunch.
No matter the reason, we love to celebrate with a trip to Disney. It's just how we roll.
Let me add a little here about Disney's new "Magic Bands" that we got to use. They said we were part of the pilot program and we felt very elite when our box of bands arrived. (Google pic, not ours, but our box looked just like this. We picked the colors of our bands and they had our names printed on the back of them and printed in the box in front of each bracelet.) Once at the resort we realized we weren't as elite as we thought as it seemed like nearly everyone had them.
The band served as our room key, our FastPass onto rides (which were all reserved well in advance by my aunt Mindy) and you can link your credit card to the band to make purchases without having to carry anything with you in the park. I carried the old school card key with me as I doubted the band at first, but there was never a single problem with it.
And of course, the genius of Disney, although the bands are "free" you can purchase band "bling" in the gift shops...and if you're there long enough you begin to drink the koolaid and think you need the bling. I held strong.
Along with the band you can use the My Disney Experience App on your smart phone to help you see all your reservations and even track where you are in the park. It was all very cool. You can hold up to 3 FastPasses at a time so it's definitely smart to use this for the more popular attractions. It's even smarter to have someone who knows Disney make all these reservations for you! (See below about my aunt's business and how she can help you too!) My aunt chose our restaurants and made our reservations 180 days prior to our arrival. She also included that my mom has a gluten intolerence and at each restaurant the chef came out to speak to her about her dish.
The Magic Kingdom has always been my favorite park so I was glad to head there first. But since it was the special Halloween party, not all attractions and restaurants were open. You know where this is going...I did NOT get to ride the Carousel of Progress. It's an old-school ride that no one in the world but me enjoys, but it ranks as one of my favorites. I don't know that I would do the Halloween party again. It worked out well since our trip was so short but I usually enjoy more daylight hours at Magic Kingdom and don't love the Halloween themed stuff. They have done some construction work since the last time I was here adding the Beauty and the Beast Castle (which pretty much just has a restaurant in it that we did not go to) and a Little Mermaid Ride which we did like. This area was formerly Mickey's Toon Town and is still under construction a bit, if I remember right.
The next day we spent the entire day at Hollywood Studios which has quickly become my next favorite park. The Beauty and the Beast Show, Tower of Terror, Rockin' Roller Coaster, Toy Story Mania and many others to keep all ages entertained!
Since we were traveling on a group trip planned with my aunt, she hooked us up with a very cool breakfast in a behind the scenes prop room and a ride on the most popular Toy Story Mania ride--all before the park opened at Hollywood Studios. So cool!
I know you're thinking I'm a terrible person for going without my kids. And it did seem a little strange to be at Disney World without the kids. But we are bringing them back this summer with Matt's family, so this trip was like research for when the kids are here. I've always said that Disney provides magical entertainment no matter what ages are in your party!
Of course the food was great and we enjoyed that our visit happened to be during the Food and Wine Festival at Epcot. We attended this on our last full day at Disney. It worked a little differently than I expected. In the World Showcase each country had a few drinks and snack-size specialty dishes for sale. You could get a "passport" and collect stamps at each station. I believe the Kid collected them all! I did enjoy the festival (bought myself a souvenir apron to commemorate the event) as I enjoy trying new food and it made walking through the World Showcase much more exciting. In the other parts of Epcot we enjoyed the new Nemo ride and aquarium area (the kids will LOVE this!), Soarin', and the newly renovated Test Track.
Some of my festive food...not all in one day of course.
Wine fest food from Germany in the Epcot World Showcase.
Birthday celebrations!
Pics that I took to send to the kids. Had to fess up as to where I was. They didn't seem to mind.
We had a magical time! It was so fun to get to enjoy the rides, food, and warm weather together! We did not make it over to the Animal Kingdom this time since we were only there for 3 and 1/2 days.
We stayed at the Coronado Springs Resort, which I would rate as "ok." The rooms were fine but the dining options at the resort were limited with inconvenient hours. And the staff was less than magical. Not sure how they got in. But there are so many fun resorts to try out, you never want to stay at the same one twice anyway.
Some of my festive food...not all in one day of course.
We dined at Narcoossee's one evening just across the water from the Magic Kingdom. The food was wonderful (I was sent a free dining plan code so we enjoyed a $300 meal for free) and we got to take in the fireworks show and the light parade straight from the restaurant.
Wine fest food from Germany in the Epcot World Showcase.
Birthday celebrations!
Not ready to head home!!
What a great way to celebrate The Kid!
Can't wait to head back this summer, even though it will be a TOTALLY different kind of trip. Probably not as relaxing, but looking forward to seeing the kids experience the magic!!
