Catching the Magic Where I Can- A Kid Free January Trip!

[disneydaydreamer33]

INTRODUCTIONS
Hello and welcome to my trip report! My name is Jenny and I am lifelong Disney fan. I grew up in CA, so Disneyland was my jam but as an adult I fell in love with Disney World! I have three great children ages 5-11, but they aren't featured in this report because this is a KID FREE trip!

A couple months ago my husband found out he had a work trip in Orlando which is a first. His company was going to have a booth at the NAHB International Builder's Show, and Erik decided to go and meet with customers that were also going to the show. My ears definitely perked up when I heard Orlando and you can better believe that it didn't take me too long to line up child care and book a flight for me to join him!
Our dear friends Amanda and Brett who live in North Carolina decided to drive down and join us for part of the weekend keeping our winter vacation streak
alive at three years running (in 2015 we went on a week long cruise together, in 2016 Amanda and I met in Orlando for the Princess Half Marathon and a day of Harry Potter, we are already trying to think of a plan for 2018)!

(the four of us in D.C. May 2016)
Our trip wasn't going to be too fancy since this the main purpose of this was a work trip. We found a condo to rent off-site, and I knew that some of the time Erik was going to be busy with work stuff. But as a true WDW fan, I was happy to catch the magic wherever and whenever I could- not to mention I was very happy to be leaving the cold, snowy Utah weather for a bit!
​

 

[disneydaydreamer33]

REUNITED AND IT FEELS SO GOOD!

My day of travel started off very chilly. Utah was having its coldest morning of the year, and all I could think about was spending the next few days in warm Florida! My very good friend was taking the kids for the weekend and my three little ones were super excited about having a “sleepover” with their best friends!


Because I was trying to make this trip as affordable as possible, I used credit card points for my flight was flying solo while Erik was getting a bit of work in for the day and then meeting me in Orlando.


My flights were pretty uneventful, I had a quick flight to Denver then a very long layover (4 hours!) and then flew to Orlando.


I spent the time listening to books, podcasts, and the La La Land soundtrack!


Once Erik and I both landed in Orlando, we rented our cars and needed to find a place to eat at 2am. . . Denny’s to the rescue. (one thing about my wonderful husband is he enjoys cheap diner food more than anyone I have ever met!)


Because we had turned in so late on Friday (or Saturday morning actually!) Erik and I slept in until 11:00 (granted we were used to MST which is two hours later). While we slept Amanda and Brett worked out and probably waited quite impatiently for us to wake up and get ready!
Saturday was our easy chill day, and we decided to make our way over to Disney Springs. We started out thinking we would see a movie/eat lunch at the AMC dine-in theater. We were all really excited to see Hidden Figures. We also were re-living the good ol’ days when we all lived in Virginia and went on countless double dates to our local movie theater (Alamo drafthouse movie theater- if you have one near you go check it out!)! However, when we went to buy our tickets we found out that Hidden Figures was playing in the theater without the dine-in aspect. We were a bit disappointed, but just decided to eat a meal somewhere else and then see the movie afterwards.


So we popped over to Earl of Sandwich!
Now this Disney Springs outing was a bit of a re-do for me and Amanda. Last February when we were together on our Half Marathon/Harry Potter trip, Amanda got very sick and spent the day before the half marathon throwing up (and needless to say she wasn’t able to run the race the next day). So on the day that we went to Disney Springs and the race expo, Amanda was walking like a 97 year old and could only chew on ice and drink gatorade. So the fact that she was able to eat an actual meal at Disney Springs this time was a win for us!


We walked into several stores and just browsed around until it was time for our movie. As a runner myself, I was very saddened to see that the half marathon had been canceled due to unsafe weather conditions. I can’t imagine how heart broken I would have been if I was doing that race. But one of my favorite things about the whole trip was seeing all of the runners making their own 13.1 mile course around Disney property that day. We cheered any runner we saw or anyone walking around with a medal. It made me excited to run my next Disney race whenever that may be!

Then we saw Hidden Figures and LOVED IT! It is seriously so good!




After the movie, we did some more shopping/browsing. We all made fun of Erik for how excited he was about his new Harley Davidson beanie (he used to have a Harley and pines for another one!)


​

 

[disneydaydreamer33]

ROLLING WITH IT- A MAGIC KINGDOM MORNING
After a pretty uneventful night of grocery shopping, TV watching, and a fairly early bedtime, we woke up fresh and excited for Magic Kingdom (well most of us woke up fresh, more on that later!). Since this was Brett’s very first time going to WDW, and Amanda had just been a couple of times growing up, I was took upon myself to be the “crazy Disney planning lady” (they they were happy about - honest!). I told them that we should shoot for getting to the MK parking lot at around 7:45 for a 9:00 open since we had to take the ferry over, go to the ticket office and picke Brett and Amanda’s tickets, and watch what I had hear was the very last open show at the train station!


However, sometimes even with the best of intentions stuff happens. I forgot to consider all of the road closures that were sure to be happening due to the marathon that morning! We were lead on a crazy path that took about 45 minutes to get to the parking lot! At moments, we would feel a bit antsy but then we would remind ourselves we didn’t have any kids to keep happy right now and could just relax. We finally got to the ticket office at 8:40 then took the monorail to the entrance.
And my excitement by this point could not be contained!

Make that two very excited girls!

So we missed the opening show and were finally walking down Main Street at about 10 after 9. I really enjoyed seeing the Christmas decorations since we have never been to WDW during the Christmas season. However, I decided by the end of the trip, that Christmas needed to come down and it felt weird to hear Christmas songs or see the trees, holly, and lights.


We stopped for photopass photographers whenever we saw them. Sometimes the magic shots didn’t work out as well as they were supposed to!

I never grow tired of a castle shot!


We decided to hit up Tomorrowland first so our first ride was Space Mountain! Yup that ride is just as jerky as I remembered!


(Unfortunately our Space Mountain pics never loaded, so I only have this silly picture of Erik!)
After Space Mountain, I realized I forgot my sunglasses on the ride, so I sent the group to ride Astro Orbiter while I went back and got my glasses (this was a win/win as I was still feeling a bit queasy from Space )

After that we helped Buzz protect the Universe!
Again some of our ride photos never loaded to Memory Maker, and I never got the shot of Brett and Amanda)


When I saw that Suzy and Perla had a very short line, I decided to hop in. The boys were happy to sit this one out, so it was just me and Amanda that met these cute mice!

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[TGM]

Hello! I think I'm your first reader!

and the La La Land soundtrack!

Searched the Disboards for La La Land, and found your post. I'm loving the trip report so far!

What's your favorite song from La La Land? (small confession: I've seen the movie 6 times...)

 

[disneydaydreamer33]

FOR THERE'S NO ONE AS BURLY AND BRAWNY!
Next, we made our way over to Fantasyland and Erik and I were just marveling at how low the crowds were. We were warning Brett that the park is usually not this empty. I’m sure the fact that it was quite chilly kept people away, but also that the marathoners were still running. I loved looking at instagram to check in on the IG friends that were participating!
Though I had made the fast passes and a general structure for the day, I wanted to make sure that Brett and Amanda had freedom to do things as they wanted. In Fantasyland, we saw the Mine Train was closed down (which is what they wanted to do next) so we headed over to Little Mermaid.
We are total Ariel wannabes!


After LM, we rode Small World. Luckily, we didn't have the song stuck in our head for TOO long!

And then it was time for our first fast pass of the day, Peter Pan.


As we were leaving Peter Pan, I saw that people were lining up for Gaston, and checked in with the group to see if they wanted to join.


Gaston was quite the aggressive jerk I had come to know in the movie! I stupidly flattered him and when I first approached Gaston, I told him my husband was looking for workout tips, because he obviously works out quite a bit. He then grabbed me and wouldn't let go!

Honestly I couldn’t even hear the workout tips, because I my ear was smashed into his pecs. Oh man, did I ever feel for Belle in that moment!
After the harassment, we took a group pic and then we were on our way! Amanda was very happy she didn’t talk to Gaston first haha


Next up was another FP for Haunted Mansion. I looooove this ride! Erik and I loved it when the ghost in our ride told us he’d see us in Utah! Creeeeepy!

As I was planning our trip a couple of weeks prior, I called WDW to change Erik's one day ticket to a two day. The operators ended up transferring me to the wrong person like three times in a row! I was never too upset about it because I was just paying bills on the computer while I waited, but when the final CM helped me over the phone he kept apologizing and then gave our group 2 free fast passes to use on our Magic Kingdom day! I was very excited about this unexpected bit of magic. We decided to use our first fee fast pass on Pirates of the Caribbean. It was pretty sweet bypassing the 40 minute standby line with our FP!


After Pirates, Amanda really wanted to do Philharmagic. She remembered this as one of her favorite things as a kid, and its definitely one of my favorites too!

Even though it was chilly we were enjoying the sunshine!

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[disneydaydreamer33]

Hello! I think I'm your first reader!



Searched the Disboards for La La Land, and found your post. I'm loving the trip report so far!

What's your favorite song from La La Land? (small confession: I've seen the movie 6 times...)

6 times?? Oh my goodness, I'm jealous! My favorite song at the moment is "Another Day of Sun," because it just makes me SO happy to hear it! I also love "A Lovely Night" quite a bit. And I love the jazz numbers. Basically, the whole soundtrack is great! What about you?

 

[disneydaydreamer33]

BE OUR GUEST
I noticed on the app that mine train had just opened up, so we booked it over there, but saw that the line was very long. We decided to use our last free fast pass for Mine Train.


Amanda was very excited to be the “chosen one” and hold the red car. EVERYTHING is exciting at Disney World!

(also I love that cute photo bomb in the back!)

Heigh-ho Heigh-ho!


This is definitely among my top 5 WDW rides. The theming is so cute!


One thing you would think in a group of adults without kids, is that our bathroom breaks would be kept at a minimum, but nope! We all were drinking a lot of water that morning and were stopping constantly. Not that I minded as mentioned in my previous TR, I have a Tinker Bell bladder. Also any chance we got, we used the Rapunzel bathrooms.


Next it was time for lunch at Be Our Guest! I was so relieved when I finally scored a lunch reservation about a week before our trip!


Since Beauty and the Beast is my very favorite Disney movie (and maybe my top movie in any category!) I LOVE visiting Be Our Guest. We have done dinner once, breakfast twice, and lunch twice. I think lunch is my favorite meal there!

We decided to eat in the West Wing. We like to live dangerously!


I was so excited to eat the food! Erik and I ordered the Braised Pork. Amanda ordered the Carved Turkey Sandwich and Brett ordered the Croque Monsieur. Brett and I also got the Potato Leek Soup and Erik got the French Onion Soup. And of course we got a couple of cupcakes to share!

(sorry for the super blurry pic!)

The only problem was my stomach was not feeling well at this point! I’m pretty sure it was from my lack of sleep the night before. Even though we turned into bed fairly early, I had a really hard time falling asleep and in the end only got about 2 ½ hours. I am a total little kid and when I’m excited about something, I just can’t calm down enough to relax. Super annoying! I was especially bummed that I didn’t have the appetite to eat more than a few bites.
However, the lunch was still fun. We had fun trying to video the Beast’s transformation in his painting. And the bubbly diet coke was making my stomach feel slightly better.


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[DVCKerry]

I love the idea of a Kid-Free Disney trip. Who says adults can't have fun? That being said, who said adults aren't just kids at heart anyway?

 

[disneydaydreamer33]

I love the idea of a Kid-Free Disney trip. Who says adults can't have fun? That being said, who said adults aren't just kids at heart anyway?

It was great! My husband was a bit skeptical if he was going to be able to have a good time without the kids there, but he totally did! After our Magic Kingdom day, he couldn't believe that he had questioned it to begin with! I never have a problem acting like a little kid, so I knew it would be great!

 

[disneydaydreamer33]

It's a Festival of Fantasy!

With my to go cup of diet coke in hand we made our way over to Liberty Square to watch Festival of Fantasy! I was pleasantly surprised that everyone wanted to do this in the afternoon. I think because we had accomplished so much in the morning, sitting around and relaxing seemed like a good option.


We found a good spot and just soaked up the sun while we waited for the parade to start. I was even were able to keep my outer two layers off!


When it was time for the marching band to play, I explained to Amanda and Brett that it's always fun to see where the high school is from that is playing in the parade. . . .However when the marching band got closer to us I realized that was definitely not a group of high school students. They were a cute collection of - how do I say- mature band members. They were really great, but I had to laugh at myself for sounds so authorative about it and then being so wrong haha


I freakin’ love this parade. Just watching back the videos I took this time, gives me all the feels!

We were happy to sit in the sunshine, however this spot does make for some pretty bad pictures, because you are looking into the sun!
This was my excited face throughout most of the parade.


After FoF, we took a cruise around the Jungle!


Honestly, this ride I can take or leave, however it doesn’t quite feel like a day at Magic Kingdom unless I ride it. I’m hoping that compulsion passes someday, because honestly it's not my favorite ride.


One thing I was sure of- queasy stomach or not- was that I was going to get a dole whip! They sell dole whips at our local movie theater, but I refuse to get one outside of Disney-- it just doesn’t seem right somehow!


But eating one here is 100% right!

We also stopped for some side castle pics, and finally got a magic shot to work!

And you as you can see, the layers had to get back on at that point.

​

 

[TGM]

6 times?? Oh my goodness, I'm jealous! My favorite song at the moment is "Another Day of Sun," because it just makes me SO happy to hear it! I also love "A Lovely Night" quite a bit. And I love the jazz numbers. Basically, the whole soundtrack is great! What about you?

Nice! I love "Another Day of Sun" too, but since I'm a pianist, I love "Mia and Sebastian's Theme". I can play the beginning, but once I get to the jazzy part, I still need a bit of practice.

By the way, what movie theater do you go to that they sell dole whips?

 

[disneydaydreamer33]

Nice! I love "Another Day of Sun" too, but since I'm a pianist, I love "Mia and Sebastian's Theme". I can play the beginning, but once I get to the jazzy part, I still need a bit of practice.

By the way, what movie theater do you go to that they sell dole whips?

There is a chain of movie theaters here in Utah called Megaplex that sells them!

 

[disneydaydreamer33]

IT WAS ALL STARTED BY A MOUSE


As we were walking by Liberty Square again I saw that people were gathered to watch, “The Muppets Present . . . . Great Moments in American History” and we decided to watch as well.


It was really cute! I love the Muppets, so it was a no brainer that I would love it. And Amanda’s sarcastic feminists comments next to me made it even more entertaining!


We had our last fast pass for Mickey and on our way there, of course we stopped for a photopass photographer


That tree and surronding decorations are certainly pretty!




Meeting Mickey was of course great.

I mean look at the smiles on all four of our faces as we were meeting him! Who doesn’t love that mouse?!


“I only hope that we don't lose sight of one thing - that it was all started by a mouse.”

Mickey hug!

I knew we couldn’t leave Magic Kingdom without seeing Monsters Inc. Laugh Floor. Mike Wazowski is definitely one of my very favorite characters! Also, Erik and I have special memories with this show. Our first time there his Dad got picked to be “that guy,” and last February our 8 year old son got picked to help with the knock, knock jokes. We knew Brett and Amanda would love the show as well.


Erik was pretty proud of the joke he texted: Why did Tigger stick his head in a toilet? He was looking for Pooh.
A total classic.

Shockingly, it did not get chosen.


But the show was great fun, as always!


After the show, we were all fading a bit. We made the decision to skip out on Wishes. As sad as that made me, I knew with how little sleep I had gotten the night before and how cold the weather was, it was a good decision. So since dinner would be outside of the park, we decided to perk up with a Mickey pretzel!


Oh man, I can’t even describe how perfect that pretzel was for me at that moment. Since part of me was starving, but part of me was still feeling a bit out of sorts, this salted, warm, soft pretzel was perfection.


Coming up: Saying Goodbye to Magic Kingdom​

 

[ZellyB]

Joining in! I didn't realize you at a TR going until I noticed it in your signature. You guys look like you are having an absolute blast. Chris and I have done a few kid-less trips and we really love them. Actually, I think we love Disney more than our kids do.

You are rocking that InB Monarch shirt. Love it on you!

 

[disneydaydreamer33]

Goodbye MK!
While we were in Tomorrowland, we decided to just check what fastpasses were available. Of course there weren’t a ton of good ones at this point. But when we saw there was a Dumbo one, we decided to just use it as one last ride before we left the park. I’m not sure what the standby time was, but I doubt it was very long since we were able to get an immediate fastpass.


But Dumbo at night is quite fun! This is my youngest two kids' second favorite ride (Test Track is their number one. Our oldest is a bit more adventurous and loves the thrill rides). Anyway, as much fun as we were having, being on Dumbo without the kids did make me miss them. By this point in the trip, they were now being watched by my in-laws, and I knew they were doing a fabulous job. But it’s hard to turn that “mom brain” off sometimes!

But I can multi-task- I can miss them and have an absolute blast!


This was my first time seeing the Christmas lights on Cinderella’s castle. It is truly a stunning sight! So of course we did our last group photo sesh



The lit up castle definitely brought out our romantic sides

Right by our condo, Erik noticed there was a Chevy’s which is a high school staple if you grow up in California! I haven’t seen one in any of the other places we’ve lived (that list includes Idaho, Arizona, Central California, Virginia, and now Utah). So anyway, Erik pretty much begged us to go to Chevy’s, and we all agreed!

Dinner was yummy, plentiful, and affordable!

We all got a kick out of the way Brett's J Crew "magic wallet" completely blew Erik's mind!

Step count for the day was pretty good. I definitely felt like we deserved an evening in.


We relaxed while watching the Golden Globes. So many of my favorite shows and movies won! I was really happy to see Claire Foy (who plays Queen Elizabeth in The Crown) take home an award. Plus it was fun to see her looking gorgeous and super glam!


Erik had a very early wake up call the next morning. He was taking his customers on a fishing trip in Tampa leaving at 6:00 am! I was pretty dead tired at that point and I hoped to get to Animal Kingdom at rope drop. So we decided to get to bed at a pretty reasonable time. First, we had to say our goodbyes to Amanda and Brett (who were going to sleep in before driving back home the next day). I was so so happy we got to have this little weekend together. Whenever we move away from good friends, I always worry and wonder whether we can stay close. Some friendships unfortunately don’t survive long distances, but a few like my friendship with Amanda have survived and flourished in the past couple of years! I was also so happy we got to be with Brett for his first Disney experience. That’s a pretty cool thing to experience through fresh eyes. He absolutely loved it! They are already planning their first family trip for later this year.


​

 

[disneydaydreamer33]

Joining in! I didn't realize you at a TR going until I noticed it in your signature. You guys look like you are having an absolute blast. Chris and I have done a few kid-less trips and we really love them. Actually, I think we love Disney more than our kids do.

You are rocking that InB Monarch shirt. Love it on you!

Thanks for reading! I 100% KNOW I love Disney more than my kids- and they're still pretty young!
And I can definitely thank you and @Ariel484 for showing my the joys of InkNBurn!!

 

[Ariel484]

Hi Jenny! Love your report so far. Wish I would have run into you over the weekend!

That stinks that you weren't feeling well, but it doesn't seem like you let it slow you down too much!

Long-distance friendships are tough. My 3 BFFs live in all different states and it stinks!

Can't wait to read about your solo AK morning.

Oh and you are looking fabulous in that pullover!! We were twinning that morning!!

 

[disneydaydreamer33]

Safari-tastic!


Monday morning I woke to my 7:30 alarm, jumped in the shower, put an apple and some snacks into my backpack, and drove to Animal Kingdom! I realized this was the first time I had ever driven myself to one of the parks. Last year, I spent a day at MK by myself, but since I had stayed on property the night before, I used the bus. It was fun driving there! Our condo was very close to Disney property-- a couple minutes from Disney Springs. Between my phone GPS and the signs around Disney property, I never had a problem.

I parked in the Dinosaur parking lot at AK and was waiting at the entrance at 8:32 When I noticed lots of people walking straight into the park, I realized it was an Extra Magic Hour Morning there! Duh! I can’t believe I hadn’t looked that up! I was fine staying off-site this trip, but I have to admit watching groups of people flow into the park while I was just waiting at the entrance, helped confirm my decision that next time I was staying on-site (although if another bonus trip comes up unexpectedly like this one, I’d be fine staying wherever!)


Once we were let in, I went straight to Expedition Safari. The wait wasn’t bad at all-- I believe it was about 5 minutes!

I also was happy to be in the front row next to another solo guest. Bonus that she had a fun New Zealand accent too!


I’ll try to control myself with the Safari animal pictures, but I just love this ride so much!!

My favorites are usually the hippos, but this time I was really taken with the beautiful birds!


I have to say my Safari experience was just a little marred by a rude couple behind me. Our guide for the morning was very nice, but admittedly was a little hard to understand (I’m not sure if it was a speaker issue in the truck? ) Anyway, this couple would very loudly say super rude things about our guide. I get that sometimes people can get in their own little world and not realize how loud they are being, but I was so worried that the CM would hear. I’m sure you have to have pretty tough skin to work in the parks though!


After Safari, I noticed that Dug and Russell were meeting people with a very short line. I had never met them before and Up is one of my favorite movies (at the very least that marriage montage is one of the most romantic scenes of any movie-period!). So I happily met this cute pup and kid!

I explained to them that I have two pups at home. They were very excited about that, and then were obviously asking to see pictures of them. I should have thought of before hand, but my phone was at the bottom of my backpack and I didn’t want to take up too much time for the people waiting behind me.

But, I'll show you a picture of our Luna Lovegood girl and Maverick boy

We all settled for throwing the Wilderness Explorer sign instead.


And they surprised me with a group hug in the end!


My general plan was to make my way over to Everest (which is my favorite ride in all of the parks btw!), but one of the best things about touring the parks solo is you can do whatever you want! So when I saw Flick was just standing around with no one meeting him, I remedied that right away!


A Bug’s Life is probably my least favorite Pixar movie (and since my little brother is like the Pixar expert- I do feel I know those movies quite well! ), but it was fun meeting Flick and I do like It’s Tough to be a Bug so I approve of their presence at this park!

​

 

[disneydaydreamer33]

Hi Jenny! Love your report so far. Wish I would have run into you over the weekend!

That stinks that you weren't feeling well, but it doesn't seem like you let it slow you down too much!

Long-distance friendships are tough. My 3 BFFs live in all different states and it stinks!

Can't wait to read about your solo AK morning.

Oh and you are looking fabulous in that pullover!! We were twinning that morning!!

Thanks for reading! Yeah, it seems people get spread apart more and more these days! That's good that you can stay close to your BFFs though!

And I loved it when I saw you marathoning in the butterfly pullover on IG. Twinning is winning!

 

[disneydaydreamer33]

Glamour Shots and Everest


On my way over to Everest I noticed a photopass photographer on the bridge and decided to wait in line. There was just one family in front of me, but they were like a GIANT family of about 15. They were from Quebec and being the accent-phile that I am, I enjoyed listening to them. The photographer was pretty funny as he was putting them into just about every group configuration imaginable. I wish I could remember his name! He was a man in his 60s perhaps, and he was SO friendly! When it was my turn, I did feel a tiny bit awkward, because I felt like I was surrounded by huge groups of people and here I was by myself, but no matter the photographer started taking some pics.

Of course I got my millionth Tinker Bell of the trip


And then the photographer started really trying to bring out my inner model. It was HILARIOUS. “OK now cross your arms . . . Good! . . . Now pivot a bit . . . Great! . . . OK now give me a BIG smile! . .. Beautiful!”

And this is exactly how I felt:



I know my pictures didn’t turn out quite so crazy, but it honestly felt super awkward and made me laugh so much. It was all the funnier because I was by myself too!


Anyway, after that I was ready to ride my favorite ride!!

I think this area is so beautiful!



Unfortunately I decided to look super weird in the ride picture. I think I was trying to be brave and keep my arms up, but at the last second showed myself to be the chicken I truly am.


I went on Everest twice using the single rider option. Unfortunately as I get older, I have a bigger problem with motion sickness and dizziness So, two in a row was all I could take.

I decided to leisurely stroll around the Maharajah Jungle Trek.


The tigers weren’t too active or close to a viewing area unfortunately.

I thought this bird was so cool looking, but I don’t know what type it is!

By this time it was 11:15 and my lunch reservation was for 11:55. I felt that wasn’t enough time to do too many things, and I wasn’t ready for a ride yet. So I decided to make my way over and see if I could check in early.
Coming Up: Checking Out Tiffins​