We're Going to Disney World! (again)

Saturday - April 29, 2017

It's 6 am and my alarm is blaring.  On a Saturday.  Usually that means bad things - but not on this day!  Because we we're going to Disney World!  And any day where Disney is involved has to be a good day, right?

My best friend JK and I have been talking about doing WDW (Walt Disney World - shortened for lazy people like me) for years and years and years.  Actually, well over a decade, and after I went with my family in December of 2015, we decided the two of us would have our uh...we're-turning-thirty-again-for-the-millionth-time birthdays there (okay fine, our 40th).  Not our actual birthdays (because we weren't born on the same day, and also, those dates are horrible for WDW), but the year when we turn 40 so we could celebrate getting old in style.  You know...Disney style.  Because it's awesome - and nothing says you're fashionable like wearing a polka dot shirt and a rodent hat.

Anyhoo, we (I) ended up being impatient and decided to go THIS year instead, when we're NOT turning 40.  One of the reasons is that my Hilton free night certificates were going to expire in a few months and after finding out that they were also good for Waldorf Astorias, I refused to use them at plain old Hiltons because I'm fancy and was determined to find a Waldorf Astoria to use those certificates on.  Except there were no Waldorfs in California (except for the one in Beverly Hills that joined the family after we booked, but I wouldn't have wanted to use them in B.H anyway)...but there's one in Orlando!  It's located inside Bonnet Creek, which is actually in Disney World, but it's a little pocket of land that Disney doesn't own...so you get the same proximity (it's actually closer than some of Disney's own resorts), but lower prices.  Except at the Waldorf, which I would never pay for because even though I'm fancy, I'm also cheap.

So we decided to go...in late April/early May.  We avoid the Easter/spring break crowds, and go before the summer crowds (and horrendous summer weather) hit.  Genius!

And we go back to it being 6 am on a Saturday.  That part sucks.  But once I was fully conscious and realized it was WDW day, I jumped out of bed and did a little dance no one saw, nor should anyone ever be subject to.  Because our flight was for 9:50 am, we wanted to leave early (by 6:30 preferably) in case the security line sucked balls.  Fortunately, it didn't.  My parents (and dog) dropped JK and I off at United and as we had planned to just carry on our luggage on the way there to save time (we had reservations for the Fireworks Dessert Party that night at Magic Kingdom) when we arrive so we could zip directly to our rental car and to the hotel and the park, I had checked us in online the day before so we already had our mobile boarding passes.  We literally walked into security since both of us have TSA-precheck and within minutes, we were both on our way to the gate.

By gate I mean lounge.  Because my whole family has the United Mileage Explorer card, we each get 2 lounge passes a year.  My parents are both United Gold, so they already get lounge access and don't need the passes, so we always have a few on hand that we usually give to my brother because he travels for work a lot.  But not this time!  I actually get to use it, which would be the first time because I usually travel with my parents and their gold cards allow them to each bring in a guest.  So JK and I make our way to the brand new United Club in terminal seven and have breakfast and chill for awhile before we have to board the plane.

I was too embarrassed to just start randomly taking photos of the lounge, so this is all I got.

Another benefit to having the Explorer card?  (I swear, I'm not getting paid by them, I'm just excited that we actually got to use some of the perks of the card for the first time after having it for so long!)  Priority boarding!  We boarded after the disabled, the babies, those on active duty, and first class people...so we had plenty of overhead bin space for our luggage and we got to settle into our seats and relax when general boarding was a zoo and people were jostling back and forth and trying to squeeze their suitcases overhead.  Nope, we already had our headphones on and were watching our shows.  Because we cool like that.  Yay!

Because I refuse to pay $10 for a boxed lunch of stale nuts and crackers on a flight, JK went to 85­°C the day before and bought us a delicious assortment of breads for the flight.  I also had a few bags of peanut butter M&M's, because protein (that's what I tell myself).

The 5 hour flight to Orlando was packed, but as we (JK) had the foresight to pick two aisle seats across from each other, we both had aisle seats, which is fantastic for me since I have the bladder of an 193 year old woman and have to pee all the time (TMI!).  I watched some Blackish, did some reading, and napped for about an hour.  Then we arrived!

We booked our rental car through Costco (yay for 2nd driver free!) and got Alamo.  I had a horrible experience at the rental counter last time, and because I wanted to avoid it (and save time!) I checked in online beforehand so we could proceed directly to the garage, pick our car, and literally drive it out after they scan the paperwork I printed off online after checking in.  Why have we never done this before?  This is freaking magical!!!

We booked a full size, and after deliberating for a few minutes (JK had no faith in the car of her people, so no Kia or Hyundais), we picked a not-sexy-at-all white Altima and zoomed (or putt-putted) outta there!  It literally went as smooth as possible.  There were NO delays at all.  We rolled our luggage outta the plane, got into a tram, went directly to the garage and zipped out in our car all in under 20 minutes.  Wow!

I ended up driving for the week (I know, I know, crazy) and she was navigator.  We drove 20 minutes to the Waldorf, went directly to our room (yay for online check ins!  My phone was the key!  Technology is magical!  I can't stop typing exclamation marks!), dropped our stuff off and Lyfted our way to The Contemporary.  Because the TTC is evil.  Evil I tell you!   Instead of going to the TTC, then having to wait for, then be packed like sardines on the slow ass ferry to waddle over the fake lake, we just walked the 7 minutes from The Contemporary.  That's it.  The driver dropped us off at the front door, and we just took the path past Bay Lake Tower and arrived at the front gates to The Magic Kingdom 7 minutes later.  SO MUCH BETTER than going through the evil TTC.

We literally walked in, and headed straight for Space Mountain, the first of our fastpasses that we booked that night.  By this time it's after 7.  The dessert party check in was for 7:45 pm for the 9 pm show.  But as we weren't going to eat for a solid hour (even we're not that piggy), we didn't care if we checked in late.  So we head directly for Space Mountain.  Eh.  It's crazy jerky, and not nearly as fun as Disneyland's.  But it's an E-ticket, so we gotta do it!  Fortunately our excitement cushioned the jerkiness of the ride and we also didn't have a wait with the FP.  Once that was done, we headed directly to Tomorrowland Terrace for food.

I don't know why I look like I'm on crack

Ah...food.  The dessert party now has 2 tiers.  When we did it in 2015, everyone was assigned a table on the first level of the Terrace based on when the reservation was made.  About a year ago they decided to be retarded and have seatings be first come first serve.  So to grab one of the few amazing tables for the fireworks viewing, you'd have to wait around for over an hour before the 8 pm check in actually begins.  I don't want to spend money to wait around!  The whole point is to throw money at a problem, not throw money to CREATE a problem.  So we cancelled our Terrace viewing and opted for the cheaper Garden viewing they started doing earlier this year instead.  And since it didn't rain - it was FANTASTIC.  It was a great view (in the old FP area for Wishes), much more centered than the Terrace's view, and we got to stroll into the dessert party whenever we wanted to since seating for the dessert portion didn't affect our view of the fireworks at all.  Seriously, all around win!

clearly we like cheese.  Cheeeeeese...

the first of our many (lopsided) selfies.  My selfie game is not strong, but sadly, it's better than JK's. 

We ate.  And ate.  And ate.  And it was glorious.  And when we had our fill (we didn't want to hate ourselves, just stuff ourselves) we made our way to the garden viewing area.  It was a nice large area with fake grass to sit on.  And we picked an open spot and waited for the show.

I've seen it before, but I swear, no one does fireworks better than Disney.  It's not just pyrotechnics, but the lighting, the music, the semi-story...it tugs at your heartstrings.  I don't know how they do it.  It's like witchcraft.

And as usual, it was amazing.  AH-MAZING.  And because I had filmed it last time and taken a zillion pictures, this time I just sat there and enjoyed it without the aid of my phone.

Because I'm feeling nostalgic about it (Wishes actually ended a week after we left.  Literally, a week after we left), here's an awesome video of the very last show:

After it was over, we hung around in our area (we moved up a bit closer to the railing) to watch Once Upon a Time, the castle projection show they started earlier this year.  The difference between Once Upon a Time and whatever castle projection show they did before Wishes in 2015 is HUGE.  Technology has certainly come a long way when it comes to projection mapping on the castle, and I really liked it.  And because I hadn't seen it before, I felt the need to keep snapping pictures of it, though I reminded myself not to look at my phone, but at the actual ginormous castle in front of my face.  So a lot of my pictures came out blurry because I just kept snapping photos while NOT looking at my phone.

We managed to get same day FP's for Pirates, so we hurriedly went to Buzz Lightyear for a FP ride, then Peter Pan (I had snagged a 10 pm FP for that) - and even with FP at 10 pm, we still waited about 15 minutes, which is why I'm so glad we checked it off our list the first night.  Then we went to Pirates.  Once we exited Pirates it was 11, so we couldn't get in line for rides - but we could still shop!  And eat!

once again, I look like I'm on crack. WHY??!!

And because had been fantasizing about Disney food for so long, we headed to Casey's Corner and shared an order of corn dog nuggets, which are crazy greasy and delicious and just what we needed to end the day.  We wandered from store to store after eating greasy deliciousness to wait out some of the crowds and scoped out some possible souvenirs.  Then we walked the 7 minutes back to The Contemporary, called for a Lyft, and went back to the Waldorf.

The Waldorf is gorgeous.  It also smells incredible.  The two days we were there we would say, "it smells like rich people" every time we entered the lobby.  Because it does.  I don't know what they use to scent the hotel, but I want it.  The bathroom to our standard room was also gorgeous, and we squealed like little girls over the Salvatore Ferragamo toiletries.  We so fancy!!!

a quick snap of the room when we arrived, before we literally threw our stuff down and ran out to catch a Lyft to The Contemporary

Knowing we had an early day the next day, we take turns showering the travel dust off ourselves and go to sleep.  The next day, we head to Hollywood Studios!