February 7th, 2017

Disney Vacation: Day 1 (Traveling ✈️ / Visiting June 👵🏻)

Here we are! It’s finally the day! Today we leave for Disney World!!!

It’s safe to say that both Michael and I were super excited this morning…even despite the fact that we had to wake up around 3AM to leave for the airport. Yeah, our flight was at 545AM… But! Nonetheless, we were bouncing with glee even in the wee hours of the morning. Everything went very smoothly when we arrived. We dropped off our larger suitcases before heading to security. Our carry-ons were checked and we got through their in less than fifteen minutes. I haven’t flown in literally like seven years, but thankfully I had Mike with me—he’s flown more times than I can count! We settled down by our gate with some coffee and pastries to wait for our plane.

Once we boarded, we found two seats together. We were sharing our row with a little eight-year-old girl, so we had plenty of room! It was very lucky. :) The flight itself was also great! Despite some bad turbulence in the beginning, we arrived early in Orlando just as the sun came out! We fetched our other luggage before heading down to the rental car place to pick up our vehicle. Unfortunately, things didn’t go super smoothly at first down there. I had booked the car online and also spoken to a representative to make sure the price was final. Yet when we got to the airport, they wanted like one-hundred and fifty more dollars from us! The man we spoke to was super unhelpful and very rude. Eventually we ended up walking away to go see if another company would be able to help.

We were blessed again when we walked up to a different counter and spoke with a lovely lady who happened to be a Chicago native! She not only matched the price I had booked online, she knocked off close to one-hundred dollars for us! It was such a relief and a blessing. Luck was definitely on our side today! :) After the papers were signed, we headed to the garage to fetch our car. We ended up with a cute little red Kia. We loaded up our luggage and headed off.

The weather was so gorgeous. We threw all the windows down and enjoyed the warm, Florida weather the whole drive. We stopped at a Walmart to pick up a few toiletries and some snacks/drinks to keep at the hotel. Our hotel was ready shortly after we finished, so we headed there next to unpack our things and freshen up a little. Our room was so lovely! We were on the third floor, which was the top, so we had no one walking around above us. We also were next to the storage room, so we had no one to our right either! The room was spacious and cozy. There was a nice TV on the wall, a fridge to keep our snacks and drinks in, and a safe to lock up any electronics or money when we went out.

After we were all set, we had one more stop to make. I ordered our Disney tickets through this website (and it gave me an incredible deal—what a discount!) so we had to pick up the physical tickets today. We drove a short distance to Orlando, grabbed our tickets, then headed off towards Animal Kingdom’s Kidani Village. That is an animal-themed hotel that has actual safari animals on the property! Mike’s step-grandma June was staying there for the night so we could see her! We got a little lost and did a lot of walking, but eventually we made it to the lobby where we finally met June! It was so nice to see her—and, for me, it was the first time I finally got to meet her! We’d been friends on Facebook for a while but this was finally my first visit. :) We headed back to her hotel room, which was gorgeous, and enjoyed the evening chatting and catching up. Her balcony looked out over the mini savannah area, so we three had fun watching the animals.

We got hungry, so we decided to grab some dinner. June suggested a place at Disney Springs, so we decided to head there for food. The restaurant was called the House Of Blues and it was just so cute. It really felt like an old blues house—from the music to the art on the walls to the lighting to just the entire atmosphere. I got a Philly cheese steak sandwich that was to die for. Again, the time spent together was so nice. We laughed and chatted and enjoyed our food for a long while. Once everyone was stuffed, we walked around Disney Springs for a little bit. We checked out some shops and June told us about the area. Then we headed back to the Kidani Village to hang out for a while longer.

June showed us how to play one of her favorite card games…and I discovered I was basically hopeless at it lol. We watched TV and just talked some more. I could tell June really enjoyed the time together and was glad we were able to see her. I definitely had a lovely time with her. She’s such a sweet lady. Eventually it was getting dark and the two of us were definitely tired. We said our goodbyes with promises to come visit her at her home later into the trip. We took the short drive back to the hotel room and basically fell into bed exhausted. All the walking and traveling definitely wore us out! We headed to bed with more excitement stirring inside of us. Tomorrow is the first official day at Disney!!!