The Magic Kingdom!!!

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So at this point our trip is already CRAZY. Ian had to work Friday morning so we both woke up at 5 AM so I could drop him off & make it easy to head up to LAX after work. Once I dropped him off, I grabbed coffee & headed to Target for some last minute essentials & finished packing our bags. Dropped Clover & Paisley off at grandma's (hardest thing ever!) & picked Ian back up around 3 PM and drove straight to LA in our little rental car. The transfer process from the rental car place to the airport was super easy & before we knew it, we were hanging in the Delta Sky Lounge before our flight! Delta has this deal where you pay $99 for four 24 hour passes to their sky lounge, which includes comfy chairs (and tons of charging stations) as well as free alcohol and snacks. Pretty sure it's the only way to travel!! Our flight was delayed until around 11:30 PM or so & by the time it took off, we were pretty tired.

You'd think being tired on a plane across the country would be a GOOD thing but it's not for us! Both Ian & I totally can't sleep on planes. Plus it was only a 4 hour flight, a little less. So there really wasn't much time to get a good night's sleep in! Luckily I had contacted our Disney World hotel beforehand & they assured me they'd likely be able to check us in at 5:30 AM when we arrived so we could nap for a few hours before tackling the park.

Well, they were wrong. We arrived at the beautiful Port Orleans French Quarter resort at Walt Disney World around 6 AM & they were totally FULL. No rooms available until 3:30 PM. Now remember, at this point we're already running on about 20 hours of being awake (and it's not like we slept great the night before either) but what else was there to do but tackle the Magic Kingdom? We only had one day in the park & we didn't want to waste it trying to sleep like bums in the lobby of our hotel, so we grabbed breakfast & headed into the park!

Oh, did I mention it was pouring cats & dogs? Because it was!! Luckily the park wasn't very crowded though; the longest line we waited in (BY FAR) was the line to buy ponchos at the front of the park. $16 well spent!!

We enjoyed the differences between the Magic Kingdom & Disneyland. Ian & I have been annual passholders at Disneyland for I think 3 years of our 8 year relationship (maybe even 4) so we definitely KNOW Disneyland. The Magic Kingdom still didn't bore us, and little things like different seating arrangements on Splash Mountain, the People Movers (one of my favorites when it was in Disneyland!), and the Dumbo-themed circus area were definitely neat to witness!

Now going on 30+ hours of being awake with NO sleep, we stayed in the park until we received news that our room was ready around 4 PM. We took the shuttle back to the hotel & slept for ONE HOUR & then woke up again for dinner. The main reason we wanted to do the Magic Kingdom over the other parks was because of the Main Street Electrical Parade... my all-time favorite Disney parade from when I was a kid that I haven't seen in YEARS. So even lack of rest wasn't going to stop us! We took the riverboat over to the restaurant one resort over & had an amazing cajun dinner... some of the best food EVER! We went back to the shuttle & back into the park for the parade, quick ride or two, and the fireworks show!

By the end of the day, I can't even describe how sore, wet (SO much rain), and exhausted we were. We hit almost 40 hours of going nonstop except for that ONE hour of sleep before dinner. We were kinda acting drunk even though we hadn't had a sip of alcohol!! It was definitely an experience we won't forget & we're so glad we are now able to say we've been to Walt Disney World! It made everything worth it!!

Now it looks like we'll be getting around 6 hours of sleep before we have to wake up EARLY and transfer to Universal Studios for another full day of theme park fun!! Stay tuned! 😊

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