(A little pre-curser to this report. My wife and I went on a 2-day, 1-night trip to Disney World for my 30th birthday. This entire trip report was written by her, because, well, she is much more eloquent than I am. Enjoy!)
In stark contradiction to what the world tells us to feel about reaching the 30 mark, and despite my “old man” teasing of my husband, I am super excited that we are reaching our 30’s. We have done a LOT during our 20’s and they feel complete. I feel excitedly ready to find out what the next decade will hold for us. Maybe it’s because we were married so young, and started our family so young, but I feel like our age hasn’t necessarily matched our maturity in years past, and maybe now that we are starting our 30’s we will finally be viewed as grown ups {whatever those are}.
Friday 3:30am, we awoke from a restless night’s sleep on my mother’s couch and loveseat. We had spent the night there since we were leaving the children in her charge while we were gone. A wash of the face, a brush of the teeth {notice I didn’t say hair}, and a change into clothes rendered us ready for a quick drive and almost equally as quick flight to Disney World. Tim had found a stellar deal for $49 tickets to Orlando, which spurred on the idea for a last minute birthday bash. Since we are annual pass holders, it was a big “DUH!” as to whether or not we should go.
If you have the chance to go to Disney, you go. “DUH!”
Our flight landed at 7:30am. We caught the Magical Express {Disney’s complimentary transportation to those who are staying on Disney property} and arrived at the Boardwalk Inn by 8:40ish. Although we are DVC Members, we paid cash for this room because all of this year’s points are currently tied up and Tim found {yet another} amazing deal. We were able to book a studio at the Boardwalk for only about $80 more than a night at the Allstar Resorts. {Is it possible to say “DUH!” too many times in a post? Okay, good.} Since the Boardwalk is just a short walk away from Epcot, it was Tim’s 30th birthday we were celebrating, and Epcot just happens to be his favorite park, you guessed it, it was a big fat “DUH!” that we booked our one-night stay there.
We were happily greeted at the door when we walked up by a woman saying, “Are you Mr. and Mrs. Elrod?” {How do they do that? This Disney Magic stuff is no joke.} She escorted us to the front desk where they checked us in, took our luggage, and we literally walked straight out of the lobby and walked into the back entrance of Epcot by 9:04. Epcot opened at 9:00am.
The first thing we did was take a stroll hand-in-hand to France where we shared a chocolate croissant. Magnifique! [kisses fingertips]
Tim, being the fantastically thorough Disney-planner that he is, had already booked us fastpasses for Soarin’ starting at 9:30, so we headed towards The Land. We knocked out Soarin’ and Living with the Land, then passed up our fastpasses for Journey into Imagination in exchange for a ride on Spaceship Earth. {Can I just say how much I love Spaceship Earth? I always forget this ride in the talks of “What’s Your Favorite Disney World Attraction?”, but man. I am just such a history nerd. I get all the feels every time Judi Dench says into my sound-wired headrest, “After 30,000 years of time travel, here we are, a truly global community, poised to shape the future of this, our Spaceship Earth.” Watch out, Elrod kids. Homeschool is about to go Disney.}
Tim’s face in our future lives had me belly-laughing!
Content with skipping rides we’ve ridden so many times, we took an hour or so to just brows World Showcase. We debated lunch in many countries, but decided to stop and eat in China at Lotus Blossom Cafe. We split the orange chicken and drank tap water, because we’re so thrifty like that.
In stark contradiction to what the world tells us to feel about reaching the 30 mark, and despite my “old man” teasing of my husband, I am super excited that we are reaching our 30’s. We have done a LOT during our 20’s and they feel complete. I feel excitedly ready to find out what the next decade will hold for us. Maybe it’s because we were married so young, and started our family so young, but I feel like our age hasn’t necessarily matched our maturity in years past, and maybe now that we are starting our 30’s we will finally be viewed as grown ups {whatever those are}.
Friday 3:30am, we awoke from a restless night’s sleep on my mother’s couch and loveseat. We had spent the night there since we were leaving the children in her charge while we were gone. A wash of the face, a brush of the teeth {notice I didn’t say hair}, and a change into clothes rendered us ready for a quick drive and almost equally as quick flight to Disney World. Tim had found a stellar deal for $49 tickets to Orlando, which spurred on the idea for a last minute birthday bash. Since we are annual pass holders, it was a big “DUH!” as to whether or not we should go.
If you have the chance to go to Disney, you go. “DUH!”
Our flight landed at 7:30am. We caught the Magical Express {Disney’s complimentary transportation to those who are staying on Disney property} and arrived at the Boardwalk Inn by 8:40ish. Although we are DVC Members, we paid cash for this room because all of this year’s points are currently tied up and Tim found {yet another} amazing deal. We were able to book a studio at the Boardwalk for only about $80 more than a night at the Allstar Resorts. {Is it possible to say “DUH!” too many times in a post? Okay, good.} Since the Boardwalk is just a short walk away from Epcot, it was Tim’s 30th birthday we were celebrating, and Epcot just happens to be his favorite park, you guessed it, it was a big fat “DUH!” that we booked our one-night stay there.
We were happily greeted at the door when we walked up by a woman saying, “Are you Mr. and Mrs. Elrod?” {How do they do that? This Disney Magic stuff is no joke.} She escorted us to the front desk where they checked us in, took our luggage, and we literally walked straight out of the lobby and walked into the back entrance of Epcot by 9:04. Epcot opened at 9:00am.
The first thing we did was take a stroll hand-in-hand to France where we shared a chocolate croissant. Magnifique! [kisses fingertips]
Tim, being the fantastically thorough Disney-planner that he is, had already booked us fastpasses for Soarin’ starting at 9:30, so we headed towards The Land. We knocked out Soarin’ and Living with the Land, then passed up our fastpasses for Journey into Imagination in exchange for a ride on Spaceship Earth. {Can I just say how much I love Spaceship Earth? I always forget this ride in the talks of “What’s Your Favorite Disney World Attraction?”, but man. I am just such a history nerd. I get all the feels every time Judi Dench says into my sound-wired headrest, “After 30,000 years of time travel, here we are, a truly global community, poised to shape the future of this, our Spaceship Earth.” Watch out, Elrod kids. Homeschool is about to go Disney.}
Tim’s face in our future lives had me belly-laughing!
Content with skipping rides we’ve ridden so many times, we took an hour or so to just brows World Showcase. We debated lunch in many countries, but decided to stop and eat in China at Lotus Blossom Cafe. We split the orange chicken and drank tap water, because we’re so thrifty like that.
I wish we lived close enough to go down for a couple of days at a time. Are you near Atlanta? I just noticed the Atlanta airport has $50 Southwest flights to Florida sometimes. My friend and I are actually driving 6 hours to Atlanta just to fly the rest of the way down to St. Petersburg in November...it sounds ridiculous, but for $50 we couldn't resist! 
