What is up everybody?
In August of this year Erin and I will be celebrating our ten year wedding anniversary. What a crazy ten years it has been, filled with very high highs and some very low lows. Our time together has been full of adventures and we’ve seen and been through a lot of things. As I look back, I can’t help but to remember the adventure that started it all for us. Our honeymoon. Don’t worry nothing explicit here. For our honeymoon we went to one of the happiest places on Earth…….Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida.
Growing up in the West, we tended to travel to Disneyland in California. So I was fairly familiar with what to expect when we traveled there. I had never been to Florida, so I didn’t really know what to expect. I wasn’t the seasoned adventure then that I think I am now. Now a days I would do some research before the trip so that I would have some sort of an idea of what I was getting into. What can I say, I was young and dumb and didn’t know any better. I packed the way I normally would. BIG mistake on my part.
Erin and I were married in August, of course, during one of the hottest months of the summer. For most of my life, we have been playing in the deserts and backcountry of Utah. I figured I knew what heat was and how to handle it, but Florida has a different type of heat all together. You may or may not know, that Florida has a high percentage of humidity. Something I really didn’t understand until we moved to the Chicagoland area. Because of this high percentage of humidity, it adds a different layer to the heat. If you are from anywhere that has humidity you’ll understand what I’m talking about. The moisture in the air makes you feel like you are constantly sweating, even though you are not doing anything that warrants you to do so. I like to think of it as being fully clothed in a sauna. Well….maybe not that drastic but you get my point. For someone like me, who prefers to wear pants, it became super miserable super fast. Luckily, I did have a pair of shorts that I brought along which saved the trip. I wouldn’t have let that stop me from enjoying our trip. I would have powered through and still have had as much fun.
You may not be aware, Disney World is separated into four main parks: Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom, Hollywood Studios and Epcot and several other smaller parks including: Typhoon Lagoon, Blizzard Beach, ESPN Wide World of Sports and a few others. We decided that to get the most out of our trip and see what we wanted to see, we would spend a day in each of the four main parks. We went to Hollywood Studios first, followed by Magic Kingdom, then Epcot and finally Animal Kingdom.
Many people have asked us what are favorite park was and I tell them the same thing. Its hard to say which is my favorite. Each park is different and each one has its own good and bad. Magic Kingdom felt really familiar to me because its shares a lot of similarities with Disneyland in California. Hollywood Studios has more shows for your viewing pleasure. Epcot is a little bit more laid back. Animal Kingdom a bit of a zoo vibe to it, but a lot better than an actual zoo. Like I said each park has its good and bad. Each one is fun and exciting. It all depends on the individual and what they are looking for.
To be honest I don’t remember every detail of our trip, but thats okay. I know we had a lot of fun and thats all that matters. It was an experience that we both really enjoyed and couldn’t wait to go back.
Fast forward ten years…..well maybe eight and a half to nine years. Our ten year anniversary was right around the corner and we wanted to do something really special to celebrate it. We settle on taking a trip but not quite sure where we wanted to go. Fly to Europe and see the wonders of the old world or maybe visit our Aussie brothers in Australia. Hop on a boat and cruise the Caribbean or even Alaska. So many option it was hard to decide and then it hit us. Lets recreate the magic that we had on our honeymoon. It was settle, we would head back to the happiest place on Earth.
With our destination set, we went into planning mode. The first big step was to solidify how long we were going to stay. We decide that we would fly in on a Saturday, play in the parks for rest of the week and fly home on Sunday. We had to tweak this plan a little do to some unforeseen events that popped up, but we would still be in the parks for seven days.
Now that we knew how long we wanted to go. The next step would be to find out when we wanted to go. Of course our anniversary is in August, but we didn’t want to repeat our mistake from our honeymoon and deal with the uncomfortable humidity. This is where our research came in handy. We scoured the internet and came to the conclusion, at least for us, that going in May would be the best time. The temperature would not be to unbearable and the it would not be as crowded.
There was one last thing that we decided on. If you have been following us for awhile, you would know that for our bigger trips we usually do with our families. This trip was no exception. We threw it out there that we were going to Disney World for our anniversary and anyone that wanted to come was more than welcome to come with us. Both sides decide that they wanted to tag along to celebrate with us. The idea was that it was their vacation to so they didn’t have to do everything that we were doing. They were free to roam around as they pleased and for the most part that is what happened. Some days we were all together and other days it was just the two of us.
We had a lot of fun playing and exploring Walt Disney World. Over the next few weeks I’ll be going into more depth about our adventures. If you haven’t been there I hope you will be inspired to plan a visit and experience the joy of Disney World.
Until next time. Thanks for stopping by.
Josh
