I am an artist and educator who has been teaching photography at various levels for the last 15 years. Shamefully I must admit that I am that guy who hides massive portions of himself at work. Well, it turns out two of my coworkers have been doing the same thing. We all love Disney! When a conference opportunity popped up in Orlando we decided to put together a proposal and make it happen. The following are the ramblings and photographs of a somewhat neurodivergent Disney fan.
Inspired by this trip I've created a new Instagram account : https://www.instagram.com/death_metal_disney?igsh=a2VyMzl5MTRjemY4&utm_source=qr
Please follow along!
When: January 10, 2026
Where: 1 Night at AoA
Remainder of trip was spent at the conference hotel, Rosen at the Orange County Convention Center
I am a father of two amazing boys aged 6 and 4. In fact, our first family visit came last July. Despite my wife and I being pretty experienced and passionate Disney fans, that was something new and it hit us in unexpected ways both in raw emotions but also in our perception of WDW is this chapter of our lives.
Back to this trip. We departed school after our last block on Friday and had a smooth ride down to MCO from Boston. I seemingly always miss big security lines and all the messes that you see online. From MCO we hopped into an uber and headed to Art of Animation. This was the first time staying there for the crew. I'll try to avoid being judgemental as we typically stay at deluxe level hotels but the AoA was an interesting experience and kind of perfect for what we needed, a bed and a quick hop to Epcot for our only planned day in the parks.
The conference ran Sunday to Wednesday and I must admit that the idea of bailing one on the workshops for an additional day crossed my mind. Despite the high cost of daily single tickets I was more than willing to do that, more on that later!
Before our Saturday at Epcot, we simply dropped our bags at roughly 645PM, freshened up a bit and headed to Disney Springs. We were amped, fans down in Orlando without families and a reminder of the freedom we all once had. I don't say that in a negative sense towards my family as they are everything in my life but it certainly is not the norm for me anymore. It felt strange having less plans and I wasn't prepared for the lack of chaos over food and what the lads wanted to do. It was absolutely packed at Springs and we stopped for a quick meal at Chicken Guy. It may be my favorite quick spot in all of Disney, bold take!
The vibes were up, just a loads of folks enjoying themselves. We left Boston in a relative "heat wave" of 45 degrees but Orlando was perfect. 70 degrees, I mean how can you complain about that! I was on a mission to snag some gifts for the family and my first stop was at the CoOp for the Drop Factory. My wife was really after some of the mystery Trash Cans. Unfortunately they were sold out and despite my constant mantra of "if you see it and they have it, buy it" I passed on some mystery style LaBubu backpack things. I told myself I'd be back at springs later in the week and I'd get them. Nope, when I returned later in the week they were long sold out. Bad moves! Walking around really set the tone for the trip. We were close to the magic and helped build that anticipation. I can't remember the name of these performers but they were fantastic.
AoA was a bit tricky to navigate with the buildings. We stayed in the Little Mermaid section, the rooms were lightly decorated but were also pretty small. I kept thinking to myself that it would be tough for a family of 4 to spend much time in the room.
We landed back at the hotel around 11PM and quite frankly, we probably overstayed a bit at Springs. Exhausted we stumbled back into bed and off to lala land we went.
Day 1 in the books.
Inspired by this trip I've created a new Instagram account : https://www.instagram.com/death_metal_disney?igsh=a2VyMzl5MTRjemY4&utm_source=qr
Please follow along!
When: January 10, 2026
Where: 1 Night at AoA
Remainder of trip was spent at the conference hotel, Rosen at the Orange County Convention Center
I am a father of two amazing boys aged 6 and 4. In fact, our first family visit came last July. Despite my wife and I being pretty experienced and passionate Disney fans, that was something new and it hit us in unexpected ways both in raw emotions but also in our perception of WDW is this chapter of our lives.
Back to this trip. We departed school after our last block on Friday and had a smooth ride down to MCO from Boston. I seemingly always miss big security lines and all the messes that you see online. From MCO we hopped into an uber and headed to Art of Animation. This was the first time staying there for the crew. I'll try to avoid being judgemental as we typically stay at deluxe level hotels but the AoA was an interesting experience and kind of perfect for what we needed, a bed and a quick hop to Epcot for our only planned day in the parks.
The conference ran Sunday to Wednesday and I must admit that the idea of bailing one on the workshops for an additional day crossed my mind. Despite the high cost of daily single tickets I was more than willing to do that, more on that later!
Before our Saturday at Epcot, we simply dropped our bags at roughly 645PM, freshened up a bit and headed to Disney Springs. We were amped, fans down in Orlando without families and a reminder of the freedom we all once had. I don't say that in a negative sense towards my family as they are everything in my life but it certainly is not the norm for me anymore. It felt strange having less plans and I wasn't prepared for the lack of chaos over food and what the lads wanted to do. It was absolutely packed at Springs and we stopped for a quick meal at Chicken Guy. It may be my favorite quick spot in all of Disney, bold take!
The vibes were up, just a loads of folks enjoying themselves. We left Boston in a relative "heat wave" of 45 degrees but Orlando was perfect. 70 degrees, I mean how can you complain about that! I was on a mission to snag some gifts for the family and my first stop was at the CoOp for the Drop Factory. My wife was really after some of the mystery Trash Cans. Unfortunately they were sold out and despite my constant mantra of "if you see it and they have it, buy it" I passed on some mystery style LaBubu backpack things. I told myself I'd be back at springs later in the week and I'd get them. Nope, when I returned later in the week they were long sold out. Bad moves! Walking around really set the tone for the trip. We were close to the magic and helped build that anticipation. I can't remember the name of these performers but they were fantastic.
AoA was a bit tricky to navigate with the buildings. We stayed in the Little Mermaid section, the rooms were lightly decorated but were also pretty small. I kept thinking to myself that it would be tough for a family of 4 to spend much time in the room.
We landed back at the hotel around 11PM and quite frankly, we probably overstayed a bit at Springs. Exhausted we stumbled back into bed and off to lala land we went.
Day 1 in the books.
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