We may only be a few days into the adventure, but the one and only thing for me to write about this week is clear:  we are living our best lives at Disney World and enjoying our own little Orlando Oasis.

The last time I took time off from work that spanned longer that a few days – the last time I took what I would call a proper ‘vacation’ with flights, and hotels, and plans, was our honeymoon 11 years ago.  It seems suiting, I suppose, that this particular trip happens to include our anniversary date right in the middle of it all.  It is something we’ve been planning for years, waiting for when the kids are just the right age to be able to collect some memories, be able to enjoy all the rides and experiences, yet not be yet at an age where they no longer want to hang out with their cool mom and dad.  So after all of the careful planning, and intense saving efforts, we made it happen – 10 days in Orlando, 5 days in Disney World, 1 day at Universal, 2 escape rooms, and a whole lot of time on water slides.  Get ready Mickey, because here comes Team Beandricks!

In the lead up to the big trip we received a number of tips and tricks from friends, family, and colleagues who have gone through the adventure(s) before.  Admittedly the whole thing is kind of confusing, but YouTube helped us navigate some of the intricacies of the Lightning Lane Multi-Pass, Single Pass, park hopper, rigamarole that is the Disney App, and we came up with a general plan for what would be our time inside each park.   We’re still early on, but if the days so far are any indication of what’s to come: I think we did a pretty good job!   And for whatever doesn’t go directly to plan, our family motto of ‘making the best of it’, will get us through the rest.  That said, we do want to be sure to get in the top attractions, so some level of dedication to arrival times and virtual queues is required, especially since this is a decidedly one-time-only vacation.  I’ve spoken to many people who make Disney an annual event and, bluntly, that’s not for me.  I am fully engrossed in the magic of it and it is very fun, but I would personally rather put our future travel investments into far off destinations for a fraction of the price.

For as much planning as we did, there were still a lot of “what do we do and where do we go” thoughts going through our minds as we stepped into Hollywood studios for the first time on Thursday morning.  We sort of just ‘walked straight ahead’ until we ended up in a line for Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railroad, with a sign posted ’65 minute wait time’, and we asked the two people standing in front of us “Is this worth lining up for?”.  The one thing we hadn’t and couldn’t have planned for, was how unbelievably lucky we were that these two people, Sammy and Josh, would be the kindest and most helpful people we could have met after only being in the park for ~5-minutes.  As we waited in that line with this mother/son team, they downloaded every bit of information we would need over the course of the next week, but perhaps more important than that, they reminded me that genuinely kind people exist, made particularly evident by the fact that they waited for us after the ride to ask how we all enjoyed and to wish us the best on our journey.  It was a great way to start our adventure.

The next three days of our trip has left me reeling with pride over how our girls held it together.  They’ve been serious troopers with the amount of walking, the long lineups, the over-bearing heat, and the late nights we’ve had to endure.  I’m impressed….their bodies are holding it together better than mine, that’s for sure.  These days have also left me giddy with excitement from the handful of rides and experiences we’ve had so far.  I mean, I got to ride the Millennium Falcon, enjoy drinks in the cantina, stood in awe at the feet of an AT-AT, travelled through New Orleans by river raft, I’ve won a race on a light cycle and escaped the clutches of a giant yeti on the peaks of Everest.  I will openly admit that I was terrified to go on rollercoasters, as my stomach doesn’t tend to do well with those types of things, but the girls have inspired me to be brave and I’ve been having an absolute blast screaming down the tracks.  The only real negative thing I’d have to say about Disney so far (and I’m sure I’ll get heckled for this by many) is that the food is downright bad.  Not only is it expensive, but some of it has been completely inedible and we’ve thrown so much of it away.  Even the giant Mickey pretzels are terrible.   Save for our character dinner, which was actually very good, everything else is a hard pass and I’m glad we opt to pack our own lunch each day.

Beyond the thrills, chills, and spills, we’ve also managed to find opportunity to slow things down in between, taking in shows and nature at Animal Kingdom, immersing ourselves in the lazy river just steps away from our air bnb resort door, and eating chips in front of a movie.  With five days, three parks, and three escape rooms still ahead of us, I’m sure we’re going to be exhausted before we get home, but we’re only here once, so we might as well do it all.

I admit this post is a little rushed, and likely riddled with spelling errors, but I’m having too much fun to make corrections or apologize for that right now;  besides, I don’t have time for corrections – it’s off to our next adventure…stay tuned for more!