My Disney Experience

One week ago I could not have guessed that just a few days later I would be flying to Florida, going to Disney for an afternoon, then driving all day Friday from Orlando to Dallas with one of my best friends. That's what happened, though. Those two days were probably the most spontaneous days of my life thus far and I loved every second of it, except for maybe the hotel room where the air conditioner didn't every really turn on, despite the humidity that is Florida.

Thursday morning my sister took me to the airport at 5:30 for my 7:30 flight to Orlando. By 11:30 that morning I was in Diana's car on the way to the parks where she has been interning all semester with Disney. Crazy, y'all. She was able to get me into the parks for free so we spent all afternoon going from park to park. If you're familiar with Disney, you can tell from the order of the photos that we went from Animal Kingdom to Hollywood Studios, then Epcot and Magic Kingdom. This rapid succession of events was a nice refresher for someone like me who would happily plan out the exact route I would take in each park if I had all the time in the world to see everything. Because this was not possible, however, Diana planned it all and I just followed.

Favorite ride? Either the Star Wars or Peter Pan one, although there were several others that I thoroughly enjoyed.
Favorite food? The rolls at Mama Melrose's in Hollywood Studios or the hot dog with pork and coleslaw on top from Casey's Corner in Magic Kingdom. OH! Or the mango sorbet (on a cone!) from the France Pavilion in Epcot.
Favorite park? Epcot. For those that don't know (like me, one week ago) Epcot has over ten 'pavilions' (largest pavilions I've ever seen) that are like different countries. They literally brought in architects from the various countries, have food, etc. from that country, and all cast members that work there are from that country. If I could only return to one park, it would be Epcot because there was so much to learn there.

I've always said that, while I wouldn't mind going to Disney, I wouldn't want to pay for it, so I'm very thankful that I got to experience this. I did spend quite a bit on food and water, but no where near what most have to pay to even enter the parks for a day.

Our drive back went quickly. We took turns driving the 16 hours so we could do it all in one day. Florida had a lot of rain and Mobile, AL has awful traffic. We listened to a lot of music and several hours of comedy. By the time we got to Dallas at one in the morning we were both exhausted, yet were able to get home safely.

Thank you, Diana's mom, for encouraging this trip and helping us along the way.
Thank you, Diana, for spending your last day at Disney (for now!) running me around the whole place and then trusting me while driving. (;

- rl