We had a few firsts this trip:
- First time to travel with another family (the Greers). The Trey and Stephanie went with Jennifer and me 10 years ago in 2004, before any of us had kids. Between us, there are five now (not counting Trey and myself). They have 3 girls, Avery, 8, Carley 6, and Lily 4. Caleb is 4 and Caden was almost 7 on this trip
- My mom meet us. Not the first time, she met us for her 65th birthday 5 years ago and got to experience a few days of Caden’s first trip (he was 20 months, I’ll keep you from doing the math. He was along for the ride, Jen and I were having withdrawals)
- This trip was the longest trip we had stayed with kids, 5 nights was the most before this trip, which was 7 nights.
- First trip using MagicBands and FastPass+. I quickly decided i liked the MagicBands, especially with my hands full, all I had to do was hold my wrist up to the door. It beats digging for a card. Caden and Caleb loved that they could open the door themselves. I’m not a huge fan of FastPass+. I like not having to run around to get my FastPasses, but don’t like being locked to that much of a schedule.
We left on Friday, May 23 around 4:45 am, ate breakfast in Vicksburg, and lunch at the Florida welcome center (we started this last year, we pack lunch and eat there. It is more relaxing than being crammed in a restaurant at lunch time). We of course took a few fun photos.
We stayed at Ocala, for the night and arrived at Bay Lake Tower before 11 am, being “Welcome Home” by name. When we stopped to check in Jennifer’s door was open for her and we heard “Good Morning Mrs. Breeding, your room is not ready yet, but I show someone is currently cleaning it, so it shouldn’t be too long.”
Last year were decided that the day we get to Disney World, we would just explorer around the resort, go swimming and not go to the parks. It worked out well last year, so we did the same this year. We took the monorail to Magic Kingdom (not going in), then took a boat to Fort Wilderness Campground (not realizing there is a boat that goes there from the Contemporary, which is right next to Bay Lake Tower, our Resort.
We were attending the Hoop Dee Doo Review later that night at Fort Wilderness Campground so we found where it was going to be, picked up our refillable mugs at the Quick Service location (the mugs work at all of the resorts, not just your home resort), then road a boat back to Magic Kingdom, then walked back to Bay Lake Tower by way of the Contemporary where we stopped and tried on some Mickey Ears.
We met up with mom mid afternoon, swam, rested, then had a good time at the Hoop Dee Doo, where we had a table right next to the stage. The guy in the show that was the comic relief kept hitting on mom. It was fun.
We met up with the Greers at our room and watched the fireworks from there before crashing for the night. Day 2… Magic Kingdom!