Trip Report A Disney Year: a recap of 2025

Hello! It’s been awhile since I have done a trip report. I always think I’m going to post one and then I don’t. I’m not disciplined enough to do a live report either. Well I decided to do a recap of highlights of my trips this year to WDW and Disneyland.

The people involved: me (Amy) and Brad (my husband)

Trips: January (WDW), March (Disneyland), April (WDW), June (WDW), July (Disneyland)

Reasons for travel: quick check up on my dad, DL Food and Wine, Easter and visiting my niece on the college program, just for fun, celebrating Disneyland’s 70.

 

[pkkurz]

I like the idea, bring on all the details!!

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

January 2025

My dad was/is not doing well healthwise and I took an emergency trip to Florida. He lives about 45 minutes north of WDW and I wasn’t planning to go to WDW at all but before I left things were better so I booked a one day ticket for Epcot. It had been a couple years since I went to WDW, I’ve been focusing on Disneyland the last few years and one park I really missed was Epcot. And with the start of Festival of the Arts a festival I had never been to going to Epcot for one day. It was very tempting. I gave into temptation.

After checking on my dad, I made it to Epcot about midmorning and did some touring. Got to see a lot of new stuff like the new area by the Walt statue and the Moana journey of water.. I enjoyed the festival of the arts Broadway exhibit and got to see the guy who played Genie on Broadway.

A major highlight was meeting up with @riverside! We hung out for awhile together in World Showcase and had some laughs and snacks!

I was also pleased and confused to see some Christmas decorations still up. I loved looking at the art and I got a fun print and some postcards. The Broadway show was great and I planned to see another show but a breakdown of Guardians and waiting 45 minutes for pizza at Connections ended that.

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

More of January 2025

I was able to see Luminous for the first time in person. It’s just ok. I hated the big circle thing of Harmonious but I think the music of Harmonious was better than Luminous. After the fireworks I took a leisurely walk around World Showcase before heading back and driving back to my Dads house.

One day at Epcot was great and I fell in love with FARTS. So much that Brad and I decided not to go Disney for Thanksgiving of 2025 and put our $$ towards a January 2026 FARTS trip, it will be his first time.

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

January 2025

My dad was doing better so I decided to head to Disney Springs for a little bit. I had a mini eating tour of Disney Springs. And I decided to try the Gideons line as I’ve never had Gideons cookies before. I also decided to get cookies from the summer house. And spoiler alert the summer house cookies are much better than Gideons. Especially the oatmeal butterscotch cookies.

I started at Frontera with queso fundido and an avocado margarita. Then Morimotos Street Food for the delicious ribs and cinnamon snickerdoodle ice cream at Salt and Straw.

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

March 2025

As I said, I’ve been going to Disneyland the last couple years instead of Disney World. And my favorite time of year is spring time because of the food and wine festival. It’s not as big as Epcot but it’s small and it’s got a lot of fun stuff going on like cocktail classes, beer classes, wine classes, and they have Soarin over California in the spring. Because of weather coming into Minneapolis, I flew out a day earlier than I planned. So I ended up with an extra day and no parking ticket, but I spent the day at downtown disney and checking out the resorts. I even spent some time at Trader Sam’s and the craftsman at the grand Californian. I even read my book on my Kindle by the fireplace at the Disneyland hotel.

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

March 2025

I did the longingly through the gates of Disneyland, but I knew I’d see it soon. I took a midday nap, which was nice and headed back out for fireworks and ice cream at the salt and straw. I have a recording of the soundtrack for the fireworks show so I played that (with headphones) while I watched from the Esplanade, it was like being in the park. It was nice to go to bed early and then be fully rested for my next day.

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

March 2025

First full park day: started at DCA and eventually hopped over to Disneyland. I enjoyed a nice lunch at the Carthay Corcle lounge (by the Archives window), snacks for Food and Wine, a couple flights over California on Soarin’, and met some characters.

Oh and like my quick January trip this March trip was solo. Although this trip was planned and January’s was not.

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

March 2025

End of first full park day: I did the world of color dessert party. The snacks are not that great, but the seat is so worth it at the end of the day. Then I hopped back over to Disneyland for a little while and did a few attractions and enjoyed a peanut butter square before saying goodnight to Mickey on my way out of the park.

View from my dessert party table.

 

[Wicked Sisters]

Loving reading your year of adventures. Hope your dad is feeling much better now.

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

March 2025

Second full park day: I started at Disneyland today. I had purchased an early release of 70th merchandise as a spirit jersey at the D 23 expo in 2024, so I wore it to Disneyland this day and a lot of cast members commented on it. they hadn’t realized 70th merchandise have been released yet.

I had a great time in the morning of Disneyland. It’s my favorite time. I had a dining package for a Fantasmic at Café Orleans, but I had to rush through that because I also had a cocktail class over at California adventure at noon. The cocktail class was a lot of fun and my table mates were interesting to talk to. The cocktail was pretty good too.

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

Loving reading your year of adventures. Hope your dad is feeling much better now.

Thank you. He is ok but could be better.

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

March 2025

More of full park day #2
After the cocktail class, I went back over to Disneyland and if you have read any of my previous reports, you know that my husband and I love the dapper dances so I spent a lot of the afternoon catching Dapper Dan shows. My favorite Dapper Dan , Drew, wasn’t there today but the guy in yellow it was his first day performing as a dapper Dan, so that was fun to see. The guy in purple he is Tyler and Tyler has a girlfriend/fiancé that is from Wisconsin and my husband’s friends know her family so that’s kind of a fun connection. I also enjoyed more attractions and had a lovely fried chicken dinner at the Plaza Inn.
I watched the first show of Fantasmic and the fireworks from the Fantasmic area. My tradition is that when I watch Fantasmic I eat a chocolate peanut butter square they are fantastic and everyone should love them. During the night I did some more attractions and met up with some characters. .

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

March 2025

More of full park day #2: and in the night with some of my favorite characters. Mickey really liked my shoes because they had Mickey Mouse on them.