We had already planned to go to Disney World for summer vacation before we found out that William was being moved up to the national team at his club. Our original plan was two weeks later, so we just moved up the trip to tack on to the end of the volleyball tournament. Luckily it worked for us and for Ryan and Tarek, who were already planning to join us. I think the guys were a little suspect of our Disney love but once they started sharing my itinerary around with friends, they were assured it was a good one!
We stayed at a 2-bedroom villa at Beach Club Villas which was easy walking distance to EPCOT and Hollywood Studios (via the EPCOT Skyliner). But day one was Magic Kingdom and themed t-shirts. The best I could find were ready made Mickey at the beach, which felt appropriate for our Beach Club theme. No one complained but I got everyone his favorite color!
I am very proud of how I mastered the Genie + and Individual Lightning Lanes plus Virtual Queues all of the days to beat the heat and crowds. The many stops for snacks also helped.
Our Magic Kingdom evening ended with a late dinner (after returning to our room to freshen up ) at our favorite, California Grill. They're still serving a prix fixe menu for the 50th anniversary. I'm sure next time it will be prix fixe for some other celebration. But this is by far our favorite restaurant - a must do each trip - so as long as they keep our favorite appetizers and entrees on the menu, we'll be there!
Fireworks from the terrace of the restaurant. Pro tip: the back walkway is better than the front one.
Day two was Animal Kingdom, but I don't have any photos of it because I stayed back to rest. I had a horrible encounter with housekeeping who kept trying to come in even though I said we didn't need it and I was in the room. After twice disturbing my nap with knocking / walking in and then a third time with a phone call, I gave up resting and let the manager walk thru for their "room check."
After a quick evening swim, we headed over to EPCOT for snacking around the World for dinner and fireworks.
Our last day was a Hollywood Studios where we were able to catch most of the highlights around some rain showers, and finished with lunch at the Hollywood Brown Derby. I do love a Cobb salad! Yes, most of the pictures are food and drink! No, I'm not sure why we don't have any others! Ha!
Our grand finale dinner was Morimoto at Disney Springs after a trip through the Lego store and World of Disney. It was a pretty crazy menu for me who loves sushi....so long as it's tuna! John and I shared a chef's choice sashimi and it was a little....exotic! We should have known better but thought we'd try!
It was a fun way to share our favorite place with some favorite people! We hope they enjoyed it as much as we enjoyed sharing it with them!
