Magical Disney Days
When we have friends or family in town, we like to take them on the full Angie & Andre Disney Day experience. Basically, this means we do Disney the adult way, with copious amounts of delicious food and cocktails. A couple of weeks ago, we had family in town, so we went against our usual rule. We don’t typically go on a ton of rides, but this time, we told our guests we would take them on all the best rides, and do all the things. We did all four parks in one day! This always leaves me exhausted, not physically, but my social battery is drained. If you’re interested in hearing what the Angie & Andre experience looks like, then just keep reading!
We are not rope droppers. If you want to get up early, by all means, do it! For me, I feel like it’s always more chaotic at that time, so you’re almost better off just starting a little bit after. We got to the first park at 9 AM, and were out until around 8 PM. We did about 25,000 steps total! The weather through March is perfection. However, the crowds were crowding with all of the Spring Breakers out. Magic Kingdom was crazy, which is how I always feel. EPCOT was okay, Hollywood Studios was totally fine, and Animal Kingdom was pretty empty, so that was great.
The first park we went to was Magic Kingdom. As for rides, we did not mess around and just did the heavy hitters. We went straight to Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, then jumped on the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train. We actually got stuck going uphill in the cave on Seven Dwarfs, which was not my favorite moment. If this happens to you, I don’t suggest looking backward. Yikes! I love both of these rides, but Tron is my number one favorite, hands down. If you’ve never done it, I highly recommend it! To give you an idea, I’m a baby with rides. I can’t do Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind or The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, but Tron is incredible. I also love Space Mountain, but we skipped it this time around. Apparently the one at Disneyland is better, but I don’t think I’ve ever done that one.
Once we finished up at Magic Kingdom, we got in the car and went straight to EPCOT. First, we hopped on Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure because that is my second favorite ride. Then, we had lunch at Andre’s mom’s favorite restaurant, Chefs de France (in the France Pavilion). After lunch, we went over to Soarin’ Around the World, which was lovely. However, EPCOT gets very chaotic in this area because everything is under construction, so it’s hard to get from World Showcase to the Figment area.
We then took the Skyliner to Hollywood Studios to meet our friends for cocktails. I’m not a huge fan of the Skyliner; it’s just not my jam. It was okay that day, but I would not suggest going on it on a windy day. Once we got to Hollywood Studios, we went on Andre’s favorite ride of all time, which is Toy Story Mania. He takes it very seriously, although I crushed it that day! He’s a sore loser, but I’m a sore winner, lol. Then, we went on Slinky Dog Dash. Andre’s reaction on this ride is probably my favorite thing of all time. It’s hilarious! We wanted to go on Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance, but we found out it was broken when we walked up. Luckily we hadn’t waited over an hour like some people had! This has happened to us before, and what they did was issue us one day Lightning Lane passes, so we could jump ahead in line once the ride was fixed.
By that point, it was about 4 or 5 PM, so we went over to Animal Kingdom. Our mission was to ride Avatar Flight of Passage (Andre’s mom’s favorite ride), and have sunset drinks at Nomad Lounge. Nomad Lounge is one of my favorite spots, especially in the Spring. It’s not too hot and it’s just lovely! They have a really good charcuterie board and amazing sliders. Once we finished up at Animal Kingdom, we were completely spent. We left the park by about 8:30, and went straight to bed when we got home.
Living in Golden Oak, I always get questions about the perks that come with it. Despite what some people might think, we don’t get all the things for free, and you can’t just go to the parks whenever you want. We did get a few years’ worth of annual passes, which is amazing. However, I wouldn’t say they were free, because the price of the passes was included in the price of the house. One epic perk that doesn’t get talked about a lot is that we are allowed to park wherever we want. We can park at the hotels, the theme parks, etc. and don’t have to pay the parking fee. Another cool behind the scenes perk is that we get to preview rides. We got to preview Ratatouille, and I rode it for the first time on my birthday. It was incredible! We were also able to preview Tron, which was super cool. I think DVC and Club 33 members can also do this!
The day after park hopping, we went to Disney Springs. Andre and I joke that it’s our favorite park (it’s not a park, but we love it). It’s a whole vibe! We had a traditional low-key Angie and Andre day, which consisted of going shopping at Disney Springs, having lunch, coming home and working, then getting in the pool. The big dream for us was to be able to go to Disney World or Disney Springs on our work days. We used to say, “can you imagine a world where we pop over to EPCOT on our lunch breaks?” It’s wild that we can do that now! It’s incredible and we love it.
At night, we love to just chill. We’ll usually do some Lego, play video games, or go for a golf cart ride. We love taking the golf cart over to Fort Wilderness Lodge. We recently found a bar next to Story Book Dining at Artist Point that is the best hidden gem; it’s called Territory Lounge. It’s my new favorite spot! They have such good food and service, and the shareable plates are amazing.
Thank you for being a part of our very Disney days. I love bringing you along! I hope you enjoyed the ride, and maybe even got some ideas for your next Disney vacation.