In just a few short weeks we’ll be heading to Walt Disney World for a child-free vacation! That’s right – child-free! I’ve been to Walt Disney World several times but this time we’re doing some new things, which we are really excited to try.
Who?
Me – 29 – return visitor
Husband – 33 – return visitor
Best friend – 29 – return visitor
Best friend’s husband – 29 – first time visitor
My husband and I have visited Walt Disney World on our own as a young married couple, with our son, and with our extended family, all throughout different times of the year. My best friend and I did a girls’ trip over Labor Day Weekend in 2017 for a quick 3 day visit, so she’s had a bit of a taste of Walt Disney World, but now we are back for a longer visit, and with the husbands in tow!
When?
End of January. We have 6 day park hopper tickets, and I have an Annual Pass. The AP comes in handy for the PhotoPass downloads and discounts, plus we are going again in July so it just made sense to get an AP. During this time of year, Epcot’s Festival of the Arts is going on!
Where?
We’ll be flying out of John Wayne Airport (Orange County) and into MCO, staying at Animal Kingdom Lodge – Kidani Villas, in Standard View Studios. We rented DVC points for this visit from DVC Rental Store. It’s the first time any of us have stayed at Animal Kingdom Lodge!
What?
Here’s where the fun part begins! We have some awesome plans in store so let’s break it down day by day.
Day 1 – Travel Day / Arrival Day / Non Park Day
Our flight arrives around 430pm at MCO. We are taking Disney’s Magical Express straight to Kidani Villas, and we have a dinner reservation at Sanaa! None of us have eaten at Sanaa, so this will be a new experience for everyone involved. After dinner I think we will probably go back to our rooms and call it a night pretty early, since we have an early morning the next day!
Day 1 New Experiences:
- Sanaa
- Animal Kingdom Lodge
Day 2 – Hollywood Studios, Epcot, and a Surprise!
Hollywood Studios opens at 7am on our first day in the parks! I’m thinking we’ll be there bright and early to try to get in a boarding group for Rise of the Resistance. From there, we plan to do Slinky Dog Dash standby, and a few other rides depending on when our Rise of the Resistance boarding group is called. We all kind of have different interests in this park, so we may split up and do different things! When we are ready to hop parks we plan to take the Skyliner to Epcot.
We are going to play lunch by ear, depending on when our boarding group for Rise of the Resistance is called. Our original plan was to snack around World Showcase for lunch, so we will see if that happens!
In Epcot we have our FastPasses set up for Frozen Ever After at 2pm, Mission: Space at 3:05pm, and Living with the Land at 5:30pm. We have dinner at San Angel Inn at 4:30pm!
We then have a Super Secret Surprise at 10pm. For now, I’m keeping it Secret!
Day 2 New Experiences:
- Rise of the Resistance
- Skyliner
- Super Secret Surprise
Day 3 – Animal Kingdom, Magic Kingdom, and ?
Animal Kingdom has morning Extra Magic Hours, so best friend and I (and maybe the husbands, if they’re up for waking up early) may pop over to Animal Kingdom to go on one or two rides (Everest and Dinosaur?) before heading over to Magic Kingdom to get to our FastPasses!
Our FastPass selections in Magic Kingdom are for Big Thunder from 9-10am, Space Mountain from 10-11am, and Seven Dwarfs Mine Train from 1250-150pm. We have Lunch at Liberty Tree Tavern at 1150am. I think our plan is to go do Jungle Cruise and Pirates of the Caribbean at Rope Drop then use our Big Thunder FastPass, then head across the park to Space Mountain. Before lunch we hope to squeeze in Peoplemover, Carousel of Progress, and maybe Monsters Inc Laugh Floor. Immediately after lunch we’ll go do Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, then see what FastPasses we can pick up for the remainder of the day.
After Magic Kingdom, depending on what time we wrap up everything, we may park hop! Or, a portion of us may park hop. We left the evening open so we have some flexibility here.
Day 3 doesn’t have any new experiences, although we do want to try to do the Tangled photo opportunity!
Day 4 – Animal Kingdom, then ?
Animal Kingdom opens up at 9am! None of the parks have morning Extra Magic Hours, so we can sleep in a bit. Plus, with staying at Animal Kingdom Lodge, we don’t have to be on a bus super early, since the travel time won’t take too long.
We plan to rope drop Navi River Journey, then start using our FastPasses.
Our FastPass plans are: Kilimanjaro Safaris from 9-10am, Expedition Everest from 10-11am, and Avatar Flight of Passage from 1225-125pm. We have lunch at Tiffins at 1130am.
After Navi River Journey we’ll head straight for the Safaris, then do the Gorilla and Tiger trails on our way over to Expedition Everest. Sometimes these trails experience a delayed opening, so if that’s the case we’ll explore some other things before our Expedition Everest FastPass. Between Expedition Everest and lunch, we can explore the animal trails, check out Dinosaur, or catch a show. We are really looking forward to lunch at Tiffins – it’s one of our favorite places, as it’s super quiet and the food is consistently good! And of course, Flight of Passage is hands down one of our top 3 favorite attractions at Walt Disney World!
After Flight of Passage, we’ll see what we can get as far as additional FastPasses – if we have completed everything in the morning, we may try to score FastPass at a different park instead of trying for Dinosaur or a repeat ride on the safaris, Everest, or Flight of Passage. Epcot has nighttime Extra Magic Hours, so we may go take advantage of that as well.
Day 4 so far doesn’t have any new experiences, although it has been a very long time since we’ve done nighttime Extra Magic Hours at Epcot, and the bird show at Animal Kingdom has changed since we last saw it!
Day 5 – Magic Kingdom, then ?
All of the parks except for Hollywood Studios open up at 9am! But we have something special planned for this day! We are starting off the day with a pre-park opening breakfast at Be Our Guest. None of us have done this before so we are really excited to check it out. After breakfast we’ll get going on our FastPasses for the day.
Our FastPass plans are Space Mountain from 9-10am, Big Thunder Mountain from 10:10-11:10am, and Seven Dwarfs Mine Train from 11:50am-12:50pm. We then have tea at the Garden View Tea Room.
As soon as we are done with breakfast, we are heading to Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, then to Peter Pan, then to Small World, and possibly Winnie the Pooh, before Space Mountain. Ambitious, yes, but I think it’s doable! We’ll then head over to Big Thunder, and fill in the gaps between Big Thunder and Seven Dwarfs with things like the Teacups, Philharmagic, etc. After Seven Dwarfs Mine Train we’ll head on over to the Grand Floridian via boat or Monorail, as I don’t believe the walking path they’ve been working on will be complete just yet.
After tea in the afternoon, we’ll evaluate our plans and see if we want to head back into Magic Kingdom and do some more attractions, or hop parks. Magic Kingdom has evening Extra Magic Hours that day, so we’re expecting crowds to pick up in the afternoon. We will be checking for additional FastPasses across all parks as soon as we scan in at Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, so that may determine what we do the rest of the afternoon!
Day 5 New Experiences:
- Pre-park opening breakfast at Be Our Guest
- Tea at the Garden View Tea Room
Day 6 – Epcot, then ?
Epcot has morning Extra Magic Hours, so we are getting a full Epcot day then probably heading to a different park for the evening!
Our FastPass plans are Spaceship Earth from 9-10am, Mission Space from 10:05-11:05am, and Frozen Ever After from 11:15am-12:15pm. We have lunch at Via Napoli at 11:50am.
Since Extra Magic Hours begin at 8am, I think we will start on the right side of Spaceship Earth, with Living with the Land, The Seas with Nemo and Friends, and Journey Into Imagination with Figment. We will probably skip Soarin’ as we have it out in California. When we are done with that side of the park we will start using our FastPasses. Unfortunately, Test Track is down for refurbishment during our visit, so we will be finishing up Future World pretty quickly! We’ll use our Frozen Ever After FastPasses right away, then head straight to lunch. After we use our Frozen FastPass, we’ll see what comes up as another option in another park so we can hop later on in the day. We have our dinner plans wide open so we can either snack around the world or make a reservation somewhere else.
Day 6 does not have any new experiences, except for whatever we find at Festival of the Arts!
Day 7 – Animal Kingdom, ?, then Tragical Express
Magic Kingdom has morning Extra Magic Hours, but I’m not sure if we will be taking advantage of them, as this is our check out day! We will need to drop our bags off with the Airline Check-In Service & Bell Services before heading out to explore the parks again. We booked FastPasses for Avatar Flight of Passage from 9-10am, Kilimanjaro Safaris from 10-11am, and Expedition Everest from 1120am-1220pm. We wanted to do our favorite attraction one more time! From then we’ll see what happens. We will probably hop parks and grab a quick bite to eat on the way out of Animal Kingdom. Our flight isn’t until later at night so we have some time to revisit some of our favorites. Then, we head home!
Day 7 does not have any new experiences.
Wrap-Up
That’s pretty much it! I’m so excited for our trip in just THREE SHORT WEEKS! At this point we only have a few things left to do:
- Place our breakfast order at Be Our Guest – it’s really important at breakfast & lunch to pre-order your meals so you don’t have to wait in line to order when you arrive.
- Every now and then, check to see if FastPass plans can be modified a bit. Some of our FastPasses are a few minutes off from where I’d like them to be (example, on our last day we have Expedition Everest at 11:20 when I’d really like it at 11, so I’ll try to change that). Things are always changing at WDW so it’s important to keep checking!
- Start checking the weather reports – January can be in the 50s or in the 80s in Orlando.
- Start packing. I’ve gathered ponchos and I have 3 shirts that I know I’m going to wear, so I need to figure out the rest of my shirts as well as what I’m wearing on travel days. Making packing lists and packing helps time go by faster!
- Figure out breakfasts. Our rooms have mini-fridges and microwaves, since we are staying in studios. I think we will probably bring oatmeal packets to microwave in our rooms for breakfast, and probably snacks like goldfish crackers and trail mix.
- Decide if I’m bringing my real camera or just my phone. I go back and forth on this big time. Ultimately I think I will bring it, especially since I don’t have to carry around a diaper bag!
Next up, once I do pack, I’ll be sharing a packing list and updating everyone with how I’ve packed, because I have a pretty specific way of packing!
