Hey guys! Courtney here, with another fun travel blog. This time it’s all about DISNEY WORLD! I’m so excited to write about this one because it was an amazing trip and a perfect on to kick of my 2020, especially with how the year has been going lately. I’m going to warn you now, this one could get long!!! I went on this trip with two of my closest friends, Aly and Ingrid. We decided to do this very last minute trip for Aly’s 25th birthday and we were so excited!!!
So, our trip didn’t start off on a great start. We decided to fly out of Columbus which is about a 2hr drive away from where we live, but we decided to fly out from there because it was a lot cheaper than any of the other airports closer to us. So, we all packed in my car and headed off. Going good so far, jamming to Disney music and chatting all about what were we going to do on our trip and then about 40 minutes away from the airport I get a flat tire, great timing right? Thankfully I got the flat right by a Speedway gas station, so we were able to pull over into their parking lot and get out and look at the damage.
We all got out and go around to the flat and Aly starts calling her dad, mind you its like 4 in the morning. She starts explaining to her dad what kind of car I have, and he tells us right where to find the spare tire, underneath the car, and where to find the built-in jack so we can lift the car and Aly gets to work. To be honest I had never changed a tire before, I know that’s bad, but after this experience I definitely know how to now! So I just told Aly whatever she needs me to do just let me know, so she’s lifting the car up with the jack, this jack is old and is going very slow. It’s the end of January in Ohio so not only is it old but of course its drizzling as well! She gets she car lifted, gets the flat off, puts the spare on but it still doesn’t look right. Luckily there was a tow truck at the gas station, so my friend Ingrid runs over to him and asks for help. He comes over and gets his much nicer jack out and starts to lift the car again so he can check out the tire. He realizes there is only one stud on it and that’s why our tire isn’t going on the way it should and explained how driving with only one stud to hold a tire on is very dangerous. We only had 40 minutes left so we figured if he can get the tire back on and I drive really slow we should be good right?
WRONG!! He got the tire back on but right when we started to drive away the tire just came back off but this time breaking the only stud that was on there. SO now it was time to call a tow truck and get my car towed and uber the rest of the way to the airport. I called the tow, Aly called the uber, the uber came in about 10/15 minutes and we loaded our luggage in their car, and we were on our way! By the time we got to the airport it was a little past 5 in the morning and our flight was scheduled to leave at 6:30 and we still had to go through security. Thankfully security only took about 20/30 minutes to get through but right as we started to walk towards our gate, which was on the other side of the airport, a voice came over the loudspeaker and announced it was final calling for the flight boarding to Florida! Which, you guessed it, was our flight! Ingrid had just left Aly and I to go to the bathroom, so we sent Ingrid a text and told her to pee as fast as she could and then we booked it and ran all the way to the gate! We made it on our flight with a few minutes to spare and we were THOSE people everyone starred at because we held up the flight, but hey they didn’t know how our morning was going and we had huge smiles on our faces because at least we made it on our flight.
After the unfortunate adventure that morning everything we smooth sailing form there. We landed and called an Uber to take us to our hotel. Once we got there, we weren’t able to check in yet because it was still early in the morning, so we dropped off our bags and then went to get breakfast! After that we decided to spend our afternoon outside of Universal studios. No I don’t mean just hanging by the entrance gates of Universal. Before you get to the gate to go into the actual amusement park of Universal they have a huge area full of restaurants, bakeries, candy shops and just random shopping store so we hung out there for a long time! Walking around, getting some margaritas in Margarita Ville and then just relaxing in the warm sun, which we rarely see during the winter back home!
Around 5pm we decided to head back to the hotel and get cleaned up for dinner. We planned on going to The Rainforest Café in Downtown Disney but once we got there we found some food trucks that smelled amazing so we each chose a food truck, found a table and ate! Then it was time for some shopping! I of course wanted to go into the Star Wars store first so I went in there with Ingrid, and Aly went into the Disney store next door. I bought a cute Star Wars crewneck and the cutest Baby Yoda, or “The Child”, phone case, which I still have on my phone to this day. After I was done there Ingrid and I headed over to Aly in the Disney store. We all looked around but then decided to save our money for Disney themed stuff until we were actually in Disney World! After that we went into this giant Coca-Cola store where Aly bought some stuff for her husband, because he works for Coke, and then we headed home to get a goodnights sleep.
Now onto the reason you guys are reading this blog post. Day 1 of Disneyworld started with Hollywood Studios, which is now personally my favorite and we will get to that reason later on. So for Hollywood studios we woke up pretty early because we wanted to get there for 6am! I know what you’re thinking, “6AM?! THAT’S CRAZY!” which yes we agree it is but also even though the park says they don’t open until 8am they let you in at 7am and then you can go stand in line outside of whatever “land” you want until 8am and then you are there to hop on the closest ride with no line! But also we got there that early because the new Star Wars ride, Rise of the Resistance, boarding pass becomes available on their app right at 8am and the only way to ride that ride is to get a boarding pass and let me tell you those boarding pass are gone in like 30 seconds! NO JOKE! So I’m in charge of getting our boarding passes for this ride vecasye I’m the one obsessed with Star Wars and I’m also the main reason we are even going on that ride! So 8am hits and myself, along with literally everyone else around me and I’m sur every other person in that park, get on the app and click secure boarding pass, the screen loads and we are in! We are in boarding group 22 which I was like that’s not too bad, even though I got on right at 8am. But get this the person right next to me who was doing the same exact thing as me at the same exact time got boarding group 102! 102!!!!! And I think they only give out like 250 or 300 boarding groups a day and then you are put on a standby list, so that’s how fast those passes go and that’s why we woke up at 4am for Hollywood studios😂
After everyone is all done getting there boarding passes they let us enter into the “land” we decided to wait outside of, and since we already got our boarding pass for a Star Wars ride we decided to go into Toy Story Land for our first one of the day and our first ride of chose was the very new Slinky Dog Dash! We were the second ride of the day for that rollercoaster and that ride is a 10/10 in my book! I would’ve ridden that ride 5 times if I was able to but after we got off the ride the wait for it was 190 minutes plus wait the whole day!! Glad we rode that first, next we waited in a very short line and got to meet Jesse from the Toy Story movies and then was so much fun!! Then moved we onto the rest of the rides in Toy Story Land, Toy Story Mania and Alien Swirling Saucers which both were amazing! Next we moved onto Star Wars land since we were supposed to board Rise of the Resistance by 9:30 but they were having technical difficulties, so they said to come back in an hour or so, so then we decided to go eat. We all three grabbed a delicious cinnamon roll in a restaurant called Docking Bay 7 inside Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, which is what they call the Star Wars land. We ate that and then walked around, I took a bunch of photos, had Aly take a photo of me infornt of the Millennium Falcon and then we went back to the entrance for Rise of the Resistance but they were still having technically difficulties and said anyone is a boarding group number for 35 or lower can ride the ride anytime until the park closes they don’t have to follow the times the app is telling them so we decided to wait a little longer and explore more that Hollywood Studios has to offer us.
So while we waited to go on Rise of the Resistance we went back walked around a really cool museum and
learned more about Walt Disney himself and then we went and met Buzz lightyear back in Toy Story land. Next up we went and relaxed while watching a Frozen Sing-a-long, it was Hilarious and so much fun to sing some songs!! After that we decided to head back to Star Wars and finally get in line for the ride! We get in line and about half way through the line the ride broke down again for about 30 minutes and by this time I was starting to get worried that we might not be able to ride this ride. But after that break down while we were in line it was smooth sailing from there and let me tell you that ride was AMAZING! And I’m not just saying that because I love Star Wars my friend Ingrid, who has never seen any Star Wars movies😟, loved the ride as well! Sure it had long lines even after getting a boarding pass but the whole ride itself is a full on immersive experience that lasts about 20/25 minutes! Ugh I’m getting excited all over again just thinking about it!!!
After The Rise of the Resistance we decided it was time for lunch and stopped and ate at a small outdoor restaurant right outside of Tower of Terror which is what we rode next! Now since Disney gives you 3 fast passes for you to use on rides we decided to use one for Tower of Terror. So instead of waiting in line for probably 2 hours we only waited about 30 minutes, maybe! And that ride was spooky and full of drops! I loved it!! While at Hollywood Studios we saw a live performance of the Little Mermaid and Indiana Jones which we both so good!! After Indiana Jones we went on our last ride for the evening which was Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster starring Aerosmith! Now being an Aerosmith fan I was very excited to ride this ride and it did not disappoint! Its shoots you off in the very beginning and from then on out there is not stopping! And the whole time we were on the ride Walk this Way by Aerosmith played in the background! It was AWESOME!! After the ride we went and got a seat at the fireworks show they put on at Hollywood Studios called, Fantastic! And it was pretty fantastic!! That concludes day one of our day at Disney World! (don’t worry there is only one more day left).
Our second day starts at the one, but not the only, Magic Kingdom! We decided to do Magic Kingdom last because Aly wanted to do that park on the day her birthday! So she got to wear her birthday pin and Ingrid wore an “I’m celebrating my friends birthday” pin and I wore “It’s my first time at Disneyworld” pin! Our day at Disneyworld started off with us meeting my friend Bethany because she works there and so she was helping us get into the park, we had a bit of trouble in the beginning but after talking with someone at the help desk we got it all figured out and it was smooth sailing from there. For our first ride we did The Haunted Mansion! It was spooky and so much fun and made me want to go home and watch the movie! From there we met Rapunzel and Tiana and then did some shopping. Afterwards we said goodbye to Bethany because she had work to do. After that we rode Dumbo and then went on the infamous Tea Cups. Next was onto visit Ariel, who was my inspiration for my outfit that day, she liked my ears!!! After we met Ariel we went of her ride called Under the Sea – Journey of the Little Mermaid which was so much fun! It’s like we were in the movie!
Next we decided to get a snack so we all had to try the famous Mickey Mouse pretzel with cheese of course! It was pretty tasty, not super amazing, but I don’t regret buying it and eating it! While we ate our pretzels we enjoyed watching a parade that was happening down main street!! After we got some food in our stomachs we decided to go meet Stitch, who was alys theme for that day. To say he loved her ears was a HUGE understatement! He freaked out, it was so cute!! After meeting Stitch we moved onto Space mountain, which was amazing, and then onto Buzz Lightyears Ranger Spins, which was so much fun, I’m pretty sure Aly beat me but it’s okay, it was her birthday!! Next up we went and relaxed and watched Monsters Inc Laugh Factory, it was HILARIOUS!!! Next we rode some slow cars at Tomorrowland Speedway, that was probably my least favorite thing we did that day. After We rode The Seven Dwarfs Mine ride and then Big Thunder Mountain… I prefer Big Thunder Mountain!
We also went on Pooh Bears Adventure, The Pirates of The Caribbean ride, The Jungle cruise, we rode the Magic Carpets, saw, but didn’t meet, Aladdin and Jasmine. Afterwards we ate some yummy Dole Whip, I HIGHLY recommend that! And then we relaxed in It’s a Small world and finished our last ride of the day off with Peter Pans Flight, which actually broke down while we were on it and I thought it was because I touched the flag of the ship we were “flying” by because the ride just happened to stop moving right after I touched it but I didn’t get in trouble and the ride started moving right away after it stopped so I think I was fine😮. And then obviously we ended our day at Disneyworld watching the fireworks over Cinderella’s Castle, which I’m sure you can tell by the photos below was just magical!!
Well there you have it! That’s my two days at Disneyworld for ya! Hey! I told you it was going to be a long one!! If you just so happened to make it all the way. Though leave a comment below what your favorite part to read about was or what your favorite part of your own trip to Disney was! Thanks for reading and as always…
Positive vibes. Positive Mind.
Courtney✌🏻
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