amazingact21
Upendi
- Joined
- Nov 6, 2010
Hello all! Welcome to my latest Trip Report here on the DISboards.
While I’m no novice to writing about Disney, each time I start a report feels new and exciting.
Sort of like walking into a room full of strangers, hoping you’ll find a new friend, fearing you won’t click with anyone. Or seeing new neighbors move in down the street and wondering if they’ll be the people you text when you need vanilla for a recipe. Or even going to your kid’s performance, keeping fingers crossed it goes as they hoped it would.
Why am I tapping into all the “new person” analogies?
Maybe because, for this Disney vacation, I was traveling with my husband of 12 years.
Hi, Alex!
He’s a pretty spectacular guy, even if his favorite Disney attraction is Guardians of the Galaxy and he loves to tell me: “Animal Kingdom is a half day park.”
He also just so happens to be working on Year 17 in the military, which succumbs us to many, many moves over the years.
I’ve become comfortable with introductions and greetings.
You aren’t a military spouse if rather than ask someone, “Where are you from?” your go-to question is, “What base were you last at?”
Which reminds me.
Hi there! I’m Alicia:
Writer of this report. Long-winded, mom to 2 kids who weren’t with us, and tiny Gideon’s addict.
I mention Alex’s job and our nomadic lifestyle, because that is the root of how this little trip came to be planted and grown.
Alex and I (and the kids, they were with us, too) lived overseas for 7 years, and the opportunities for long trips just the two of us were nonexistent. Pretty difficult to leave young ones when our trusted babysitters (the grandmas) were across an ocean. So when we moved back stateside last summer, everyone was in agreement that the time was ripe to take a trip.
Well, everyone but the kids.
Okay, just the younger one. The preteen in the mix gave a halfhearted shrug and an “I don’t care.”
Along with some random words that are supposedly normal dialect now.
Bruh.
The world of middle schoolers is an anomaly to me…
Alex and I suspected Disney was going to play into our trip mix in some way. We honeymooned on the Disney Magic, took both kids when they were babies, and visited the Disneyland Paris parks several times. Disney was our go-to destination.
Last year, I took a trip with my mom to participate in the Springtime Surprise Race Weekend, and I was yearning to return. I love runDisney. It’s where my Disney passion is rooted, and I couldn’t think of a better way to spend time with Alex than with sharing some runs together.
And my dear, dear husband.
He definitely didn’t understand my idea, but he supported me and agreed to do it.
When running is part of your career, you don’t quite comprehend why people do it for fun. More than one coworker commiserated with him when he explained why he was taking leave from work.
“You’re going to run? Three mornings in a row? For fun?”
“But that means you were running even more than normal after work to train?”
“You must really love your wife.”
Alex was a good sport about it, and he never once complained, but this was 100% my idea of a fun vacation.
I made it up to him with long park days and Ronto Wraps.
Seemed like an even trade.
Our trip spanned:
April 17-23.
And we stayed at the wonderful:
Wilderness Lodge.
6 splendid nights at one of Disney’s most transformative resorts, with 5 Table Service meals experienced, 4 parks visited in 1 day, 3 races completed, and 2 a.m. wake up calls most days, all resulted in 1 eventful trip.
This was a whirlwind of a week.
With a lot of highs.
And a lot of frustrations.
More than I care to remember.
However, as I sit at my desk, back at home in dusty Texas, I look back on my trip and think, “I’d go back again in a heartbeat.”
And since that’s not a possibility right now, I’ll have to settle for discussing Disney.
I sincerely hope you join along in my ramblings and discuss with me the special qualities that make Walt Disney World a magical place to vacation.
If you stay, I promise there will be pictures of coffee.
Accidental boarding groups.
Axolotl discussions.
Haranguing of the Florida humidity. Particularly at 6 o’clock in the morning.
Unpacking and packing of medals. Over and over again.
Fake cheese and broken screens and surprising snacks and fireworks and the splash of a Pirates boat after the drop.
There will also be a character meet and greet story.
That only took standing in line twice for.
I hope to see you all here as I retell our Disney trip to 2024’s Springtime Surprise Race Weekend.
look at those beautiful medals!
