Trip Report Snowbirding at The Most Magical Place on Earth

My wife and I have found out that we love to be away from the cold in our hometown of Louisville KY. We bought our condo (which is a little over 2 miles from the entrance to AK) in 2016 and started this annual pilgrimage the year after the COVID shutdown. We usually come the second week of January and stay until the second week of April. We usually make it to a park at least 5 times a week, mostly depending on the weather.

We are a retired couple, I’m 66 and my wife is 71. I’ve been a lurker on the forum for years, thought it was about time that I shared our experiences. I’m the Disney enthusiast having made my first trip to Disney World in 1972 when I was 14 years old. In turn we made our daughter a Disney nut, she married a Disney nut and now the two grandkids are Disney nuts too! My wife had no choice and now she has drunk the kool-ade and joined us.
 
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pkkurz

pkkurz

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
A few more pictures from MK. Had to catch the Country Bears before the revamp to the new show.
 

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Eric Graham

Well-Known Member
pkkurz said:
We interrupt this trip report for a life event…tonight was Thunder Over Louisville. It’s the kickoff event for the Kentucky Derby Festival. It’s billed as the largest fireworks show in North America.
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How fun! My wife's brother lives In Louisville and he goes to the Kentucky Derby every year. I believe I heard on XM that Winona Judd is singing the national anthem at this year's event.
 
pkkurz

pkkurz

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Our next most popular park is AK. We always catch a safari and on occasion I will ride Everest (my wife has decided that she can no longer ride it). I cannot ride FoP, I never have been able to ride it. My height (lower leg between knee and ankle) prevents me from riding. Oh how I wish Disney would come up with a solution to accommodate us long legged folks (similar to rear seat on TRON). We will also catch the shows Festival of the Lion King and Nemo depending on the need to rest or get out of the weather.
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pkkurz

pkkurz

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Our least favorite park is HS. We are not big Star Wars fans. Thus, no pictures. We always ride MMRR and Toy Story Mania, however I can no longer ride Slinky without removing my leg. CM told me that is what most amputees do but I decided to skip it. It’s a cute ride but not a must do. We will ride Rise and I will ride the Millennium Falcon and Star Tours when the grandkids visit. We love Fantasmic and view is several times a season. Unlike some people, @Tuvalu 🤣 we’ve only had the shown canceled on us once. Storms started to move in just about the time we decided to get out of Dodge. Food is hard for us in HS, we usually get a snack and then eat outside the park.
 
pkkurz

pkkurz

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
One of the highlights of our snowbird season is when the grandkids come for spring break. A bonus this year is that they were out of school for Good Friday and then they also were out of school the Monday after spring break week for the Eclipse. So, the normal week turned into 10 days. When they are here we pickup the pace and basically hits the parks every day, all day. It’s too much of a blur to give a day by day run down of what went down, but here are some pictures of the highlights. Our daughter was along for the ride, unfortunately our son-in-law had to work to save his vacation days to accompany our grandson on his 8th grade trip to Washington DC.

We try to do a full service meal and a character meal during their time with us. This year we did Easter Lunch at Tusker house and breakfast at Cape May (a first for us). We also had brunch at the Summerhouse on the Lake at Disney Springs (it’s a wonderful experience - foods and service was top notch). We also met friends at Splitsville for lunch.
Stand by for the photo dump of the 10 days. We had a ball.
 
pkkurz

pkkurz

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Pictures in no random order
 

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pkkurz

pkkurz

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
After the grandkids left we took the next week to pack up and prepare our condo to be a short term rental again for the summer. We don’t visit then, I don’t handle the heat and humidity very well. We will be back late September early October for at least a month. Thanks for following along. We made it home in time to celebrate my birthday at our favorite Mexican restaurant. The grandkids insisted that I get the full experience!
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fractal

fractal

Well-Known Member
pkkurz said:
Food is hard for us in HS, we usually get a snack and then eat outside the park.
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That's always a challenge. I used to love Starring Rolls for a nice lunch sandwich before they closed it.

pkkurz said:
We made it home in time to celebrate my birthday at our favorite Mexican restaurant. The grandkids insisted that I get the full experience!
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Happy Birthday and thanks for the report!
 
erstwo

erstwo

Well-Known Member
I loved reading this too! You are living the dream - I can only wish I had purchased a condo in Orlando in 2016 (hindsight, right??)

So glad you are no longer a lurker! Enjoy your summer up north - thanks again for sharing.
 

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