One Day at Disney World – Our whirlwind 24-hour Disney trip!

What an absolutely WHIRLWIND last week was, with a hot sec spent in Orlando with my friends at Walt Disney World! The occasion: to celebrate the beginning of Minnie’s Garden Party at the Epcot International Flower & Garden Festival. When the Mouse calls, even for one day at Disney World…you RSVP HECK YES and pack your ears. 😉 I grabbed the yummiest peanut butter acai bowl at the airport and was on my way to Florida for some fun. Was also SO happy that Katie got to come along for the ride! (Katie works with me behind-the-scenes to help keep CUR running at full-speed, especially now that I have Olivia getting my #1 attention – she’s a God send and I lovelovelove her!!!)

24 Hours in Walt Disney World

24 Hours in Walt Disney World

DAY 1:

Katie and I got to our resort around 2-3 pm, after taking Disney’s Magical Express from the airport. We stayed at the Port Orleans Riverside resort. Since it was only one night and we spent the vaaaaast majority of our time not actually in the hotel room, it’s hard/seems unfair to really “judge” the resort on that. I will say, however, that I preferred the Grand Floridian from my last time in Disney World; Port Orleans Riverside’s room entries are all from the outside as opposed to going up an elevator to your hall/room, so I just got confused more easily as to where the heck I was going. Ha! Take that with a grain of salt since I was running around like a crazy lady in mouse ears… 😉

Since we had a 5:30 return time to meet with the rest of the group for dinner, we didn’t have the most time and had to be suuuuper strategic. So, we hit up Animal Kingdom; we had Fast Passes, so on our list was Avatar’s Flight of Passage (because duh), and Expedition Everest if time permitted.

24 Hours in Walt Disney World

24 Hours in Walt Disney World

Minnie Mouse tee (under $20 + on Prime, comes in other colors, too!) // (just recently restocked – come in olive, too! SO SO good as a fun statement short for the season!) // Dr. Scholl’s sneakers (from my Spring Shoe capsule blog post – TOLDJA they’d be great Disney shoes! 😉 ) // Minnie Mouse bag (on Prime!) // Gucci belt lookalike // (c/o)

 

Time did not permit, but we did it anyways. 😉 Ha! Katie and I RAN to Everest, it was like an actual trek through Asia.

The whole group bussed over to the Contemporary Resort for dinner before spending the evening in Magic Kingdom and enjoying After Hours. Just strolling Main Street en route to the Castle is a magical experience there – there was the caaaautest little girl (besides Olivia, obvi) getting her picture taken with the Castle as a backgroup and she had a *crowd* gathered to watch the photoshoot taking place (and some kind dude blowing bubbles since that would obviously be the icing on the picture’s cake – I wish I could see the finished shoot! Ha!).

We shot a few pics at the Castle before the crowd reaaaaally got wild pre-fireworks (since there are fireworks every single night there!), hopped on Space Mountain since there was no line, and then went to catch the show! Magic Kingdom’s fireworks show makes me all teary-eyed every time because it’s just SO well done, from the light show to the sountrack.

Side note: I found the playlist to it on Spotify! So you KNOW what I’ve been jamming out to all day…

After the show, we headed towards the Haunted Mansion; word on the street is that the ride is closing down to be transformed into a Coco ride. IDK if there’s any truth to that rumor or not, but we figured we needed a ride regardless JUST IN CASE. Fun fact: The Haunted Mansion ride at Disney World came FIRST, preceding the 2003 movie with Eddie Murphy; the movie was inspired by the ride, not vice versa!

Katie and I headed back to the Port Orleans after that since we were POOPED, and it was already 10:30ish; we had a 7:30 checkout time the next morning and I still had blog content to get done, so there was no rest for the weary. Ha!

24 Hours in Walt Disney World

24 Hours in Walt Disney World

P.S. I got quite a few Q’s on Instagram about “how on Earth did I get this pic?!?!” with no people in the background – ha! This was RIGHT before it did get crazy, and it was actual madness behind-the-camera with folks already sitting/standing everywhere to prepare for the fireworks – so we just had to pretend no one was watching. Ha! 😉 But since the area was roped off right behind me, I was able to get in for a quick shot before strollers took over!

 

DAY 2:

After checking out, we head to Minnie’s Garden Party at Epcot’s International Flower & Garden Festival! Miss Minnie Mouse was there in the flesh, so that was a treat; even though we’re all adults here and KNOW that there’s an adorable little 5’2″ Disney-obsessed girl inside the character costume, somehow we all manage to forget that in the moment and freak out like kids again. 🙂

I MEAN, MINNIE MOUSE. THE QUEEN OF DISNEY.

24 Hours in Walt Disney World

24 Hours in Walt Disney World 24 Hours in Walt Disney World 24 Hours in Walt Disney World

After the garden party, we had a little brunch inside Spaceship Earth while it *downpoured* outside; Katie and I managed to sneak out for a quick pic between the raindrops before having to head back to the hotel to grab our stuff and go! All of Day 2 was at Epcot for us!

It was a QUICK trip, but as is anything in WDW, magical nonetheless. 🙂

It was two days, but really more like 24 hours in total in the parks, so we made it work. The biggest key when you’re short on time is to have a plan and make it happen. We had our list: Flight of Passage, Expedition Everest, Space Mountain, Haunted Mansion, and then anything else beyond that was going to be icing on the cake as we went along. But we knew we’d be waiting in line for all of the above, so we tried to keep that in consideration! Beyond that, always always always keep travel time in the back of your heads. It takes time to wait for the shuttles between parks, as well as the shuttles to the resorts and the Magical Express to the airport. So leave a *solid* buffer in your schedule so that you aren’t in a pinch!

24 Hours in Walt Disney World

What would you do with one day at Disney World?

Let me know in a comment below – and if you have a favorite ride at Disney World, let me know that, too. 🙂 ALSO, who is your favorite Disney character, or what’s your favorite Disney movie???

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** Thankyou to Disney for partnering for this post. As always, all opinions + thoughts presented are entirely my own. Thank YOU for supporting the brands that support Coming Up Roses!