Traveling from Chicago, we arrived in Orlando on a GORGEOUS Thursday afternoon. We’d rented a car, and then headed straight towards Disney…taking a brief detour to pick up groceries, and then we were back on our way! I don’t know about the rest of you, but the moment we see the Walt Disney World entrance is ALWAYS a magic moment for me…Such a thrill to know we were FINALLY here!!
We stayed at Bay Lake Tower at Disney’s Contemporary Resort this trip. We are DVC Members, and had booked a studio with Magic Kingdom view. Normally, I wouldn’t spend the extra points to get the Magic Kingdom view, but given that we hadn’t been in so long, and I was SERIOUSLY in Castle Withdrawal (it’s a real thing, I promise!!!), I decided to splurge a little for this trip, and I am SO glad we did. It was worth every single point!!!
One of the downsides of not having been to Disney for a couple of years is that we weren’t aware of some of the significant changes to traffic patterns that had occurred. The last time we visited (and for many years before), you had to enter the Magic Kingdom gates on the far right side to access the Magic Kingdom resort area (Grand Floridian, Polynesian and Contemporary/Bay Lake Tower). That has changed. Disney currently has a lot of construction going on in this area, it looks like they are adding new exit and entrance ramps; they have already added a new exit for the Magic Kingdom resorts BEFORE you get to the Magic Kingdom gates. Traffic was very backed up in the far right lane; we lost about 40 minutes here, partly due to congestion and partly because we didn’t realize the route to the Magic Kingdom resorts had changed, and we ended up having to go through the Magic Kingdom gates and then basically exit the Magic Kingdom and loop back around to go catch the exit ramp that we’d overlooked the first time….with all the traffic. We were about the 20th car that we saw have to do this, so I’m happy to report we weren’t the only idiots that missed the signs…it will take some getting used to, but ultimately will be a good change, I think.
I loved seeing the inflatable Mickey and Minnie atop the Magic Kingdom gates…so festive!!!!
Getting settled into our studio at Bay Lake Tower….
Once we were settled into our room and I’d taken 27,000 pictures of the castle from our balcony, it was time to head to the Magic Kingdom for Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party. One of the best things about staying at Disney’s Contemporary Resort and/or Bay Lake Tower is that you can walk to the Magic Kingdom. It takes less than 10 minutes. A new thing, at least for us, is the security station set up on the sidewalk that is the path from the resort to Magic Kingdom. We went through security before we even got to the park, which sped up our park entry. I think this is a terrific idea–and since there are not many people approaching the park from this path, every time we had to pass through security here, it went very quickly.
Once we arrived at the park, we had to make a quick stop at Guest Services to pick up our Annual Passes and make sure the ticket media was loaded on our magic bands. Once that was done, it was time to enter the park.
Now, I feel the need to remind all of you that I LOVE DISNEY. I love all of it…but ESPECIALLY the Magic Kingdom. When things were better financially, I visited Disney 2-3 times every year. However, the last few years have been rather challenging financially, so we hadn’t been back to Disney since our wedding trip in 2014. So I had been missing Disney SO much…three years had been a pretty long time for me between trips. I say all this because when we entered the park through the tunnel and I saw Main Street and the balloons and the Christmas tree, I immediately burst into tears!! It completely surprised me, but did not surprise my husband at all! He knows how emotional I get, especially about Disney, so he was pretty confident I’d cry. I was caught completely off guard, though. And it was a pretty funny, ugly cry. And I hadn’t even SEEN the castle yet, haha.
Almost immediately we were approached by the sweetest cast member, Iair from Paraquay, asking if I was ok. My husband was laughing and I was crying. I think Iair probably thought we were crazy! I told him I was just emotional because I was so happy to be back. He asked how long we’d been away, and I told him three years and explained that we’d gotten married at Disney during our last trip. He was just adorable with us, and wanted to be sure we had bride and groom ears–he even gave us a voucher where we could go and get bride and groom ears. He was just the sweetest thing, and it was the perfect start to our anniversary trip!
I love these little memorable moments with Disney Cast Members! Great cast members just add so much extra magic to your trip.
Coming up…Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party!!
Happy Dreaming!
Brooke