Disney World has come and gone, and every second of it was everything I had imagined and more! I was giddy with excitement and anticipation as Bill and I drove up to Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort last Wednesday night. It’s a beautiful hotel modeled after the Hotel del Coronado in San Diego, and walking into the ornate, majestic lobby is simply breathtaking. Mom, Dad, Erin, and Sam greeted us upon arrival, and we quickly hit up the ice cream spot at the hotel before going to bed and resting up for our first day at the Magic Kingdom.
We’ve pretty much maintained the same schedule through all the years we’ve gone to Disney World, and it always seems to work out wonderfully. Our routine consists of meeting for breakfast at 8:00 (where we typically consume delicious mickey mouse waffles) and then arriving at the park by 9:00 so we can ride our favorite rides while enjoying short lines. Each day we would stay at one of the parks until 1 or 2, and then it was back to the hotel for some R&R by the pool before meeting for dinner in the evening. Oh, the dinners! Boy oh boy did we enjoy some amazing meals during our trip. I tried to prepare Bill in advance for how much food we tend to eat at Disney World, and he was still shocked by the amounts of food we were able to consume in a day. It was all well worth it in my opinion. Eating on vacation is one of the best parts about being on vacation! Our favorite dinner restaurants include: Narcoosees at the Grand Floridian, Artist Point at the Wilderness Lodge, The Yachtsman Steakhouse at the Yacht Club Resort, Jiko at the Animal Kingdom Resort, and California Grill at the Contemporary Resort. You simply can’t go wrong eating at any of these restaurants for dinner. Just be prepared to feel stuffed afterwards! J
In addition to our great meals, we had a blast at each of the parks. The Mt. Everest roller coaster at Animal Kingdom, Rockin’ Roller Coaster at Hollywood Studios, and Soarin’ at Epcot were probably our three favorite attractions. Disney World also has the best fireworks on planet earth, and we often enjoyed watching a spectacular fireworks show post dinner. Other favorite memories from this particular trip include: squeezing 6 adults into a 4 person surrey and riding it around the boardwalk while honking our horn and yelling funny remarks at innocent bystanders in our way, breaking parade rules and trying to cross the street so we could get to Thunder Mountain and immediately being halted and pushed back by parade security in .2 seconds (hats off to Disney World security for the amazing job they do!), performing “screens” and “blocks” to keep people from getting in front of us in lines (we’re not hard-core at all), and going to Epcot to watch the British Invasion (a Beatles cover band) perform while enjoying a beer in England before dinner one evening. Yes, we definitely made some incredible memories, and I’m so thankful to Mom and Dad for treating us all to such a fabulous vacation. Disney World brings out the inner kid in us all, and there’s really no place like it. It truly is magical! I took tons of pictures, but I’ve posted some of my favorites below. Hope you enjoy!
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| Just arrived and ready for the fun to begin! |
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| The beautiful Grand Floridian Resort and Spa |
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| The ornate and grand lobby |
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| Nice spot for an afternoon snooze! |
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| Ready to face the rain our first day at Disney |
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| Enjoying the most delicious (and biggest!) ice cream sandwich! |
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| Ready for dinner our fist night |
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| Amazing fireworks at the Magic Kingdom |
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| Rockin' Roller Coaster |
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| Yummy milkshakes at the 50's Primetime Cafe at Hollywood Studios |
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| On the monorail to Epcot |
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| Epcot's flower festival |
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| The British Invasion playing in England |
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| Dinner at the Yachtsman Steakhouse |
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| About to go on a wild Safari |
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| Mickey doing the morning opening ceremonies at the Animal Kingdom |
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| Expedition Everest! |
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| Having some fun on the surrey |
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| Ready for a delicious meal at Narcoosee's |
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| Watching fireworks across the water after dinner |
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| The girls |
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| The guys |
Thanks for sharing! Ah Disney is just one of my favorite vacations and I echo everything you said to do! We'll be there in a month and can't wait! p.s. love your cute fedora!!
ReplyDeleteSo much fun!!! I love all the tips and pictures! Looks like a great vacation. Can't wait to go in one month :)
ReplyDeleteThat was one amazing vacation!
ReplyDeleteI wish we were still there!!! SO.MUCH.FUN.
ReplyDeleteI've been on a Bailey vacation. . . I could have warned Bill about the food consumption! :-) SOOO glad y'all had fun! :-)
ReplyDeleteLooks like y'all had a great and much needed vacation! And I agree, the food is always the best part! Colby is actually just a 3rd year med student, so in the same year as Bill I think?!? He just does most of his rotations at JPS, as it's their home hospital. Let us know if you need anything while he's here. Colby will more than likely be at the hospital and we have a guest room if you need a place to stay! As hard as it is to be away, they really do get a great experience and facetime for future programs, what is Bill wanting to go into?
ReplyDeletehaha the food consumption made me think of all the food we ate at DVR. ughh that was an insane amount! its worth it on a good vacation though :)
ReplyDeleteloved the disney post! we are leaving sunday! Can't wait to blog about our trip too! fun fun!
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