The Disney Post
While my usual blog content is more about cancer, life and faith, today’s post is dedicated to Andrew and I’s wonderful trip to Disney World! It was a lovely memory that I’d like to preserve. It’s probably way more than you ever wanted to know, but I imagine that if you are reading this you’re actually interested! Whether you’re here for “Caitlan’s life” or are perhaps planning a Disney trip yourself, pull up a chair! Grab a warm mug of something delightful. Let’s talk Disney!
Why Disney?
Around Labor Day, Dr. Tan invited Andrew and I to present with her at a conference in Orlando, Florida. We were so flattered! She was leading the American Society of Clinical Oncology “Breakthrough” course for breast cancer. The first session of the conference was a patient and caregiver perspective- that was us! ASCO offered to cover our flights, hotel stay, and food during the conference. Andrew and I figured it was an excellent opportunity to 1- share our story and help Dr. Tan, and 2- get to Orlando cheaply! (LOL)
The conference was the week of Veterans Day, so it was already a short work week. We decided it was worth exploring what it might cost to stay in Orlando the rest of the week and do something fun! We briefly researched one day tickets to Universal and Disney, but it was a little overwhelming. (Frazzled, Party of 2)
Enter: Amanda of Reeds Do Disney
I met Amanda in Rally, my online community of Christian business women. ❤️️ I knew we were late to the Disney planning game, but thought it was worth asking what she could do with: 3 nonconsecutive days, about 6 weeks away, with half our hotel stay already booked. (Definitely a handful of odds and ends in terms of vacation criteria!) And you know what? SHE MADE IT HAPPEN!
Planning Process
Planning a Disney vacation can almost be like planning a wedding! The options and add-on’s can spiral forever. Amanda was wonderful! She asked a few questions about what we needed, and narrowed down the multiverse of options to just a few choices for us. We opted to book a “Moderate” Disney resort for our remaining days in Orlando to make the most of our Disney experience, purchase some Lightning Lane fast passes to skip the lines for rides, and opted to use our Apple Watches in lieu of Magic Bands. Three easy decisions after just one voice memo to Amanda! Huzzah!
Our Disney Resort was Coronado Springs. It was absolutely beautiful! When you stay at a Disney resort, you get:
FREE transportation to parks and Disney Springs.
Early entry to the parks.
Restaurants and entertainment within walking distance.
A super fun, themed experience!!
As first-time Disney tourists that planned to fly and have no car with us, this was totally worth it for us!
Amanda did ALL OF IT! She woke up at 5AM to book Lightning Lane Passes for us. She sent us helpful Youtube videos to watch to learn more about our resort, food to eat in the parks, and more! We had a Zoom call about two weeks out to go over our plans, and she gave us a daily itinerary to follow!
The planner in me LOVES an itinerary, but doesn’t always find joy in creating the itinerary. (haha) Amanda gave us enough wiggle room to go with the flow and try fun things spontaneously, AND structured our days enough so that we had a logical sequence of events that made the most of the time we had. I truly cannot recommend her enough! Please call her, friends.
Our Week in Orlando
We were blessed with such a smooth trip! I don’t know if November is where it’s at, or if we just got lucky, but our flights were on time, we arrived everywhere early, Ubers were a breeze, and the weather was beautiful! Let’s dive in!
Sunday Nov. 10- Travel Day
Andrew and I kissed Moo goodbye about 8:30 that morning and headed to the airport! We arrived about 10:00 for a 12:00 flight. We were in Orlando by 1:30, took an Uber to our conference hotel (the Signia Hilton Bonnet Creek), and settled in! Our hotel actually had a free shuttle to Disney Springs, so we spent the evening shopping and eating!
Monday Nov. 11- EPCOT
Our conference hotel had a free shuttle to Disney parks, but we were not eligible for early entry that morning. So this was the latest we slept the entire trip! We got to EPCOT by 8:00 to stand in line, basically, but we were able to buy coffee and snacks at a Joffrey’s stand outside the gate. We decided we needed a “real” breakfast, and Andrew booked a crepe reservation in France for 9:00. SO GOOD!
Overall, I loved EPCOT! It’s by far the biggest park, but it was a great way to start our trip. There aren’t too many high-demand rides there, so we were able to get the hang of using and rebooking our Lightning Lane passes on the Disney app. Amanda had also booked a Single pass for Andrew to ride Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind. It was important to me that he got to ride all the scary rides he wanted even if I’d rather not- LOL. So I rested a bit in the shade, and Andrew hopped right on without waiting in line! Totally worth it.
We were there during EPCOT’s Food and Wine Festival, so we basically walked around the park, stopped for a snack or drink every 300 feet, and shopped at all the themed stores! I bought some Mickey ears in Norway, and our last ride was Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure in France. By 8:00PM, we were exhausted! We opted to leave before the fireworks show and caught a shuttle back to the hotel.
EPCOT Favorites:
The grapefruit hefeweizen in Germany.
The live music in every country! Too many videos to post!
The adorable shopping in France and England.
Tuesday Nov. 12- Conference Day/Move to Resort
You can see details about our presentation in the last blog post, but I’ll share the rest of the day here! Andrew and I checked out of our fancy conference hotel around 11:00AM and took an Uber to our Disney Resort, Coronado Springs. It was so easy! The resort held our suitcases until the room was ready, but we had access to all the amenities for the whole day. We had a yummy lunch, booked a massage at The Grand Floridian, and went to see the giant Christmas tree! We rode the monorail around to get back to our resort for dinner on the water and time to relax in the room. Overall, Tuesday was a fun, slower paced day.
My heart was especially full celebrating our 5 year cancerversary in Orlando with Dr. Tan! I mean, who gets to do that??
Here’s the amazingly comfy outfit I wore after the conference! I felt so cute, but essentially wore pajamas. This park bag is also AMAZING and carried a full-size water bottle without feeling bulky. Highly recommend!
Wednesday Nov. 13- Hollywood Studios
Now that we were officially Disney Resort guests, we were eligible for Early Entry to the park! Andrew and I used Amanda’s handy dandy itinerary to get on the bus from our resort to Hollywood Studios, and “rope drop” our first two rides of the day. Hollywood Studios is all about movies, so it was fun to see all the Christmas decorations and hear classic Christmas music everywhere. The Toy Story area was super cute and very kid friendly- aka, Caitlan friendly. 😂 Andrew loved all the Stars Wars sights, and even made a lightsaber! That was by far the newest and coolest section of the park. Highly recommend!
Hollywood Studios Favorites:
Breakfast in Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge: Ronto Roasters
Micky and Minnie’s Runaway Railroad- so much fun!
Frozen Sing-a-Long …(Can you tell these are Caitlan’s favorites and not Andrew’s??) LOL
Thursday Nov. 14- Magic Kingdom
This was by far my personal favorite! We purposefully chose to visit Magic Kingdom on Thursday because it was closing early for a special event. Amanda tipped us off about significantly lower crowds, and we were sold! I think it was also fun to finish our visit with the quintessential Disney experience- castle pictures, spinning teacups, the whole nine yards. Plus, Thursday was the coolest weather of the week, and I personally enjoy anything a little more if I’m not super sweaty. 😂
This was by far the earliest day! We followed Amanda’s itinerary, caught a 6:30AM bus, and were in the park before 7:30AM! We were able to get Starbucks and take castle pictures so peacefully and easily. Like, it was a dream! The closer we got to the castle, the photo op’s seemed to get better and better. I’m not sure what time the rest of the park opened, but we had plenty of time to do everything we wanted. Compared to the other parks, MK is such a cute, tiny place. We could zip back and forth all we needed without too much fuss.
The rides here were more my speed, and Andrew and I rode everything we wanted! Most of the rides are “slow” and/or “dark” rides, though there are some coasters. We hilariously barely fit in the Astro Orbiter in Tomorrowland- I think they should have a combined height maximum- but that was really the only thing I didn’t enjoy.
Magic Kingdom Favorites:
7 Dwarves Mine Train
Great food: Gaston’s Cinnamon Roll, Doll Whip
The Parade!
Overall Disney vibes
Friday Nov. 15- Travel Day
We checked out of our resort Friday morning and left our luggage with Bell Services until time for our flight. We had some Mickey waffles in the food court, caught a free shuttle to Disney Springs one more time, bought any souvenirs we missed, and came back for lunch! It really was nice to have the flexibility of using resort amenities before and after check-out. We were able to read books, watch the water, and generally relax until time for our airport Uber! Our 4:00 flight had us back in CLT by 6:30 and, and we were at the Reese house for dinner and a slide show of our pictures by 7:00. Reunited with our sweet Moo by 10:30 that night! 🥰️
Fun Extras to Share
Disney offers “I’m Celebrating” buttons to wear in the parks (FREE), and it’s a fun way for staff to share in your special season. Andrew and I picked up our buttons the first day in EPCOT, and had a time explaining a “5 Year Cancerversary” to them. 😜 Most people assumed it meant “5 years cancer-free,” but it was a great moment to share that simply surviving 5 years was worth celebrating. I even got a free Dole Whip in Magic Kingdom! I love having a keepsake to remember our trip and this milestone. Highly recommend!
I was also really impressed with Disney’s overall food, cleanliness and customer service! It was like the Chick-fil-a of vacation spots! Very accessible, tons of bathrooms, very helpful staff. 10/10 on all of that.
What did we do without?
Amanda helped us narrow down the 5,000 Disney decisions, and we opted not to do a few things:
Magic Bands (We just used our apple watches- totally satisfied!)
Memory Maker photo package
Park Hopper Passes (Figured we could commit to 1 park a day and save a little money!)
We skipped autographs, character dining, princess meet and greets, etc.
Themed dinner reservations.
I think it just depends on what matters most to you! We decided waiting in lines was going to majorly affect our experience, so we opted for Lightning Passes and early morning buses just to minimize our wait time. Because of that, we never had to wait longer than maybe 20 minutes for something we wanted to do. For us, it was totally worth the money. Amanda’s services made this even more doable! She advised us which rides to “rope drop” so that we could catch the shortest lines of the day.
Random Tips
We are not Disney experts by any means, but here are a few helpful suggestions for you! (Or my future self LOL)
Parking Spot: We left our car in The Parking Spot at the airport. It was simple and safe. The shuttle picked us up from our parking spot and drove us to the terminal. If you have a trip coming up, I highly recommend them.
Checking Luggage: Andrew and I opted to check suitcases for the flight instead of cramming into carry-on’s. It was totally worth it! We had room for souvenirs, and it was less stressful to fly home with a lightsaber when that’s all we had to worry about. 😂
Disney Springs in the daytime: Disney Springs was a great “Disney” activity on a non-park day, but Sunday evening was insanely crowded. Friday during the day was much more enjoyable! Tolerable crowd levels.
Disney Resorts are worth it: The perks of staying in the Disney resort Tuesday-Friday really were excellent! We got in the parks almost 2 hours earlier than Monday, when we stayed at the conference hotel. So if you’re on the fence, I’d do it!
Breakfast in the room: This is the one thing we did NOT do, but really would next time! We always made it work by grabbing coffee and biscuits near the park, or before our morning bus, but it was a close call every time. Apparently Walmart will deliver grocery orders to your room at a Disney resort, so that is a tip we’d like to try next round.
Plan Dinner: Making dinner decisions on a hangry bus ride back to the resort was not my favorite. 🙃 We ate wonderful food every night, and the resort always had options for us, but I’d recommend at least having a game plan before you’re pooped.
Call Amanda: I’m going to say it a million times, but Amanda of Reeds Do Disney was a dream to work with, no extra work for us and dramatically improved our overall experience! She took our “Maybe we could do this!” to “It’s happening and we’re so excited to do this!” She was also available our entire trip if we needed anything- though she planned it so thoroughly we didn’t need it!
So that’s a wrap, friends! Way more than you ever wanted to know about Andrew and I’s trip to Disney World 2024, but a play-by-play that I hope inspires you to try it sometime. Andrew and I never would have attempted a Disney trip without Dr. Tan’s invitation to Orlando, but it was such a wonderful opportunity to make some memories. So here’s to celebrating my 5 Year Cancerversary in the happiest place on earth! 🥰️
Thanks for walking down memory lane with me! Be sure to catch the video recap here!
