I booked our first Disney trip as a family of three in the spring of 2021. My 40th birthday was coming up in November, and I wanted to spend it away from home, and I also wanted to take advantage of the last few months of the free Disney Magical Express transportation from the airport. I crossed my fingers that Covid cases would be low or nonexistent by then.
When delta arrived and starting peaking in the summer, I gritted my teeth and wondered if I should postpone the trip, with no vaccine in sight for toddlers. But, miraculously, cases began to drop and were fairly low by the beginning of November, so we marched on.
In the days leading up to the trip, LS was pretty excited. She was going through a phase where she never wanted to leave home, so this was seemingly a miracle.
Our flight, while slightly delayed, was mostly uneventful.
We arrived in Orlando, picked up our bags and our rented stroller from Kingdom Strollers, then made our way to the other side of the airport to get in line for the Magical Express.
We made our way to the Grand Floridian. This was my first time staying there. I had originally wanted to book the Contemporary, solely so we could easily get to Magic Kingdom, but it was booked up. So I went ahead and splurged for Grand Floridian, since the walking path to MK had recently opened up.
I had checked in through the app, so we went straight to our room. We dropped off our bags and went in search of food. On our way to the grill, the fireworks at Magic Kingdom were going off, which was pretty cool, since we could see them from the courtyard (and, if you leaned forward, from the balcony of our room). LS, however, thought they were “too loud” so we didn’t stick around to watch.
The next day was our day at Epcot. Upon waking, I immediately tried to get into the virtual queue for Remy’s but failed since I didn’t know what I was doing. We had breakfast reservations at Trattoria al Forno, so we took an Uber to the Boardwalk and ate before walking to the International Gateway entrance. We arrived slightly before it opened to resort guests (half an hour before non-resort guests). Our plan was to try to make it to Frozen Ever After and ride it quickly before the line got too long. However, even with pushing LS quickly in the stroller, the line was enormous and an hour long wait by the time we made it there! We waited for a couple minutes, but ultimately decided to just bite the bullet and purchase the Lightning Lane.
I checked the queue times to figure out where to head next. Since the World Showcase wasn’t open yet, we headed back toward Future World. LS loved seeing the “big ball” so we decided to go on Spaceship Earth. We arrive just in time to see the rope drop for the non-resort guests, who immediately flooded the line we were about to join. Luckily, it was still a fairly quick wait.
After Spaceship Earth, we went on Nemo, then walked around the Seas pavilion.
We then rode Journey Into Imagination, and LS loved the “stinky dragon”.
After that, it was our Lightning Lane time for Frozen, so we headed back to the World Showcase. We saw Anna and Elsa standing outside, but they were about to leave, so we waved and continued on to the ride.
It was our first time riding Frozen Ever After since it replaced Maelstrom, and it was fun, although Mr. Strange was quite disappointed that they didn’t leave the Norway video in at the end, haha.
LS asked for an Anna doll in the gift shop afterwards, so we purchased one. We had lunch reservations at Via Napoli, but had about an hour to kill so we walked around and in an out of shops for a bit, and LS fell asleep.
We ate some yummy pizza at Via Napoli, then walked through the rest of the World Showcase. LS was ready to head back to the hotel by this point, but we made a quick stop at Turtle Talk with Crush before heading back on the monorail.
The next day was my birthday, and our day at Magic Kingdom! We purchased Genie+ this day, as we knew there were a lot of things we wanted to fit in, and I booked Jungle Cruise as our first Lightning Lane.
We walked to the entrance and down Main Street USA to Fantasyland. LS was so excited to see the castle! She wanted to go in it, but since we were there at early entry, it was not open yet, so we walked around to Fantasyland and went on Winnie-the-Pooh first. After that, we met Rapunzel and Tiana. LS got shy, but I could tell she was excited. Then we rode the carousel.
We had breakfast reservations for Cinderella’s Royal Table, so we headed there next. It was a bit of a wait (45 minutes!), even with our reservation, but LS was happy to finally be in the castle.
Breakfast here was great; I had never been inside before. Due to Covid restrictions, Cinderella did not come out to the tables but stayed on the raised portion behind the dining room. When we left, LS was given a choice of a wand or a sword, and she chose the wand.
Our Lightning Lane time for Jungle Cruise was not until after noon, but I was able to book a second one two hours after park opening, so I went for Haunted Mansion next. It booked at a time in conflict with our lunch reservation at Be Our Guest, but, truthfully, because breakfast was so delayed, I was stuffed and had no real desire to eat at Be Our Guest, which was only offering a prix fixe menu.
We went on Carousel of Progress, which LS really enjoyed, then headed over to Adventureland for Jungle Cruise. LS loved the spitting camel in Adventureland and was enthralled with the magic carpets. We told her we would return, but we had to make it back over to Haunted Mansion.
Despite loving spooky things, she was a little nervous during Haunted Mansion. She made it through, but at the end declared, “That was too spooky for me!”
We had seen a lot of kids with bubble wands, and LS had her heart set on one, so we had been keeping an eye out but had yet to figure out where to buy one. We headed back toward Main Street to look in the shops there. First, we went to the town hall to meet Mickey. LS got shy again but had a big smile on her face! We finally found a bubble wand, then headed over to Casey’s for a hot dog before the princess cavalcade.
LS’s favorite princess is Merida, and this was one of the only opportunities at WDW to see her. I crossed my fingers we were standing on the correct side of the road to get the best view of her as the floats started to make their way down. And there she was!
“Merida!” LS shouted. “It’s Merida!”
This was worth the trip.
At some point around here, and I can’t remember the order we rode things, we went on Buzz Lightyear, It’s a Small World (LS loved this), and the Barnstormer (“This was too fast for me!”). We finally made it back to the magic carpets, which was LS’s favorite ride. Then afterwards we went through the Swiss Family Robinson’s Treehouse no less than three times before riding the magic carpets again.
It was dark by this time, and LS was getting tired, so we walked back to the resort to eat dinner and go to bed.
The next morning we took the bus over to Hollywood Studios. We headed straight back to Toy Story Land, where we rode Alien Swirling Saucers and Toy Story Mania, and had breakfast at Woody’s Lunch Box. Then we headed into Galaxy’s Edge, and Mr. Strange and I were enthralled at the amount of detail put into the theming. LS was having none of this. We had a Lightning Lane for Rise of the Resistance later, so we went and joined the line for Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway instead.
After that ride, it was time to head back to Galaxy’s Edge. Mr. Strange and I took turns with our Lightning Lanes so that one could stay behind with LS.
While I was on Rise of the Resistance (amazing, by the way!), she had decided that she absolutely needed a BB-8 toy. “Sure!” we said. This will be easy, right? Wrong. We went in every single store in the whole park (it felt like) and the only BB-8 we could find was the one you could build at the Droid Depot. We ended up buying a premade one (she wanted it to look just like BB-8) which, unfortunately, is the same price as the experience of building it yourself. Lesson learned: don’t promise your child a toy without finding it first.
Droid purchased, we went to eat at Docking Bay 7, which was super cool. LS did not like her food options here, however.
To cheer her up, we went across the park to check out Lightning McQueen’s Racing Academy, as one of her favorite Disney characters is Fillmore the Hippie Van. He made a brief appearance! We then caught a performance of For the First Time in Forever. LS was slowly getting crankier, so we decided to call it a day.
On Thursday, we headed out to Animal Kingdom. LS was getting grumpier and grumpier. She loved Kilimanjaro Safaris but quickly lost interest in everything else. We finally found some respite at the Boneyard, where she happily sat digging for a couple hours. It started to rain and we were getting hungry, so we went in search of food. LS was tired, though, and fell asleep in the stroller.
After she woke and we ate, we headed over to Pandora. We rode Navi River Journey, which LS seemed to enjoy but also said, “That was too dark for me!” We attempted to have our photo made, but she was done, so we headed back to the hotel.
Our plan for the next day was to relax and maybe do some shopping, but life had a different idea, and instead LS came down with a stomach virus. She was up all night and the next day throwing up. Which may explain quite a bit of the crankiness from the couple days before.
We were due to head back home the next day, but first we had a reservation at Chef Mickey’s. LS had at least stopped throwing up, though her appetite had not quite come back. She still enjoyed seeing the characters, but I could tell she still didn’t feel 100%. We were all happy to head home later that day.
