Disney Travel Day & Bay Lake Tower [Day 1]

Prior to Brayden starting Kindergarten, we took a super quick/long weekend trip to Walt Disney World and had an absolute blast! Our trip included a split stay with one night at Bay Lake Tower followed by the remainder of the week at Old Key West. We spent time in all four parks, did a lot of swimming, and even visited Blizzard Beach. These recaps will include the highlights of our days at Disney!

Oddly enough, just as we were about to leave for our trip, our Florida friend Randy was in Louisiana to visit his parents. He stopped over to say hi! (We live about 12 hours apart!) 

No and I mean NO Texas road trip is complete without a stop at Buc-ee's! It was definitely the highlight of Brayden's day!

We sure do love this place! If you've never been, you should stop by sometime! It's seriously the largest and cleanest gas station/restroom stop/souvenir store I've ever seen!

Our flight departed bright and early the following morning. We stayed at a park and fly hotel the night before and were then brought to the airport the following morning. TSA pre-check was open and running which was nice (sometimes it's not open that early) and we were through the gate in no time.

Somehow, we snagged the front front row seats on Southwest and joked that we were starting our trip off on "Southwest first class"! These seats were awesome! 

Only problem is, you had to store your bags overhead for takeoff and landing as there's no where to put them at your feet. I would totally sit here again, though!

Now that Magical Express no longer obtains your bags for you, we had to do something we've never had to do in all our years of flying to MCO! Baggage claim!

It was not bad or difficult at all, though! Just something new for us! 

The line for Magical Express was incredibly short. We got right into line 3 which also had zero line and we were directed right onto our bus!

Off to Bay Lake Tower! In total, the whole airport thing took about an hour, then another 45 minutes or so for the Magical Express trip. We landed at MCO a little after 9 a.m. and were up and in our room at 11 a.m.! 

Imagine my surprise when I discovered that our room at BLT was ready!

We booked a basic deluxe studio without anything extra.

The rooms at Bay Lake Tower are very nice and I'd love to stay longer on our next trip.

I love how clean and updated these rooms feel. 

A kitchenette with all of the amenities were included in this little alcove.

The overall size of the room was great as well!

We ended up with a lake view somehow, but I wasn't complaining! :)

The artwork was so cute!

After glancing over our balcony, what I thought was a lake view actually turned out to be a split lake view/theme park view!

We dropped off our bags and headed to the Magic Kingdom (more on that later) then came back to the resort mid-afternoon to swim!

Brayden LOVED their slide!

They also had this adorable splash pad!

Behind the pool area was the cutest little beach/relaxation section complete with comfortable outdoor furniture! It looked so nice!

Even though Bay Lake Tower isn't our home resort, we loved it and would definitely consider adding on points there in the future!

It was so nice to be "home"! 

Stay tuned for a peek at our time in the Magic Kingdom! :) 

Disney World Travel Day (November 2019)

Happy frosty Tuesday from the winter tundra of the south! Although it's been a hot second since we returned from our Wine & Dine Disney trip (with Disney Dream cruise), I figured it was high time to share a recap of our trip with all of you!

This trip was a combination of several of our friends and in total, there were 7 of us. We've always talked about doing a friends trip together, and I couldn't believe it was actually happening. We were the only one from our group with a kid, but it didn't matter to anyone and I loved it! 

For starters, I'm going to share our itinerary and link each post as it becomes available.

Disney Travel Day: Wine and Dine Expo & Animal Kingdom
Disney Day 2: Wine and Dine 10K & Kids Races & Hollywood Studios/Epcot
Disney Day 3: Wine and Dine Half Marathon & Magic Kingdom
Disney Day 4: Boarding the Disney Dream
Disney Day 5: Castaway Cay
Disney Day 6: Nassau
Disney Day 7: At Sea Day
Disney Day 8: Disney Springs and Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party

Our trip began with a late start. First of all, Halloween happened to fall the night before we were flying out to Disney. Since we couldn't let Brayden miss one of the best nights of the year for a kid,  we decided to hang back around a bit longer in our home town to let him do a little trick or treating. We had a blast (so did he) and I do not regret it one bit!

We did end up getting on the road about 7 p.m. and because our flight was an early morning one, we decided to spend the night at a hotel near the airport (which was about 2 hours from our home). 

After about four hours of sleep (literally), we were at the airport, through security, and on the plane in no time. We purchased TSA precheck about a year ago and haven't regretted that decision yet. It's so easy and smooth, especially with a little one! On this trip in particular, we were told at first that the precheck line at the airport wasn't yet open (I didn't know they had a time cap?) and we would have to go through the regular security line. There were several of us with precheck, kind of milling around for a minute, and somehow (miraculously), they decided to open the precheck line a few minutes early! YAY!

The flight was smooth and we landed in Orlando without any issues. You could definitely tell it was a race weekend, though - Magical Express was crowded! Thankfully we were at the beginning of the line for Pop Century, but check out that line behind us!

Front(ish) row!

After arriving at Pop, we decided to check our bags since our room was not quite ready yet. While waiting in the bag check line, I literally received a text that our room was ready, so off we went! We were in the 50's building with perfect access to the Skyliner! So much fun!!

We dropped off our bags, then said goodbye to our friends who weren't running any of the races that weekend and headed over to the Expo. (See link for expo recap.)

After browsing the expo for a while, we decided we were hungry and made our way to Animal Kingdom to meet up with our other friends.

Lunch included a stop at Flame Tree BBQ for a little brisket mac & cheese. It was so filling and delicious!

Brayden was WORN out from all of the traveling, so he napped in the stroller while we ate. After lunch, we rode Expedition Everest (dumb, I know) then walked over to see the Festival of the Lion King!

This is one of our favorite shows at AK.

Before long, a local friend of ours joined our party and we all rode Kilimanjaro Safaris together.  (Brayden is here but he's not in the picture.)

For dinner, we hopped a bus to Disney Springs and I made a bee line to the Christmas store to check out their specialty Wine & Dine Half Marathon Weekend ornaments. I've seen this display for many races, so if you're running a race and want a special memento to remember it by, these make for a great souvenir! They often have the year, distance, or even the race name hand painted on them!

Dinner that evening was at Earl of Sandwich and it was oh so delicious! 

We called it an early evening because four of our six adults had the 10K to run the following morning! 

...and that's a wrap on our travel day/day one at the most magical place on earth! Stay tuned for more! :)

Day 1: Disney Travel & Arrival

Back in August, we spent a very quick weekend at Walt Disney World and although we were short on time, we had a ton of fun!

Earlier in 2019, we scoured the calendar for a weekend that would work to take a short getaway. I didn't think it was going to happen at first, but I'm so glad everything worked out and fell into place!

We also had several reasons for this trip - the number one reason being that we had some extra DVC points to use! Among other reasons, we also wanted to get Brayden's AP activated and take him to see the new Lightning McQueen Racing Academy (which turned out to be one of the highlights of our trip)! More on that in the next post, though...

We left on a Friday, I worked until noon that day, then we drove to New Orleans to catch a 6 p.m. flight. We knew our Friday would be long but we didn't care - we were going to Disney!!

We arrived at MCO around 9 p.m. and headed straight for Magical Express. Due to the time change, our bodies thought it was technically 8 p.m. and we hadn't eaten dinner yet. Although none of us were starving, we definitely wanted to eat dinner somewhere.

Magical Express was technically a ghost town which meant we were the first one on our bus! This also meant we got to sit for a while....a long while....and wait on the bus to fill up a bit more before taking off. Whomp whomp.

Finally though, we were off! We were also super excited to discover that Old Key West was our first stop! YAY!

Welcome Home! Best feeling in the world!

On our way to Old Key West, we received a text that included our room number. Since this was a new resort to us, (and it's BIG) we were completely lost. After attempting to figure out our way on a map, I asked a cast member at the hospitality house which way we should start walking. She asked if we'd ever stayed there and when we told her no, she asked us to wait. Minutes later (and much to my surprise), a very friendly bellman wearing a navy blue name tag (you know, those extra special ones) pulled up on a golf cart to take us to our room!! Along the way, he also gave us a "tour" of the resort which was super nice. What a special touch!

By this time, it was approaching 10:45 p.m. and we still hadn't eaten dinner. While waiting at the hospitality house earlier, we asked about dinner and they recommended calling out a pizza. Even though we had a long day and yes, I know it was late, we decided to take a bus to Disney Springs for two reason - #1 was to activate Brayden's AP so we wouldn't have to wait in line the following morning at the parks to do so and #2 we saw that Blaze Pizza was open until midnight or 12:30 a.m. and we really wanted to try it!

So, off to Disney Springs we went!

Since it was so late, Disney Springs was rather empty and I loved it! After asking about activating AP's at Guest Services, we were directed to the new ticketing location just down the way. Brayden loved playing on the colored bean bags by the TV in the back corner while we activated his ticket!

Finally, it was time to eat dinner! Jason ordered a pizza for himself and I ordered a pizza for Brayden and I to share. It was SO good, y'all!

I also found out that there's a Blaze pizza about an hour up the road from where I live! What a fun little way to have a piece of Disney at home with you!! I'll definitely visit in the near future!

The best part of all of this is that Brayden took a super late nap on the plane, he slept the entire flight, and he was good to go for the evening! We were shocked and pleasantly surprised to say the least! Yes, we were those parents who had our toddler at Disney Springs at midnight. It's vacation - YOLO!

Have you ever spent a late night at Disney Springs? What's your favorite quick service location at Disney Springs?

Weekend Recap

Hello and happy Wednesday! I've attempted to write this blog post for two days now, but I kept getting taken away from my desk (and one night, sleep won out...I'm sure you moms understand what I mean with this one)!

So, this past weekend was a nice and relaxing weekend and I really enjoyed spending time with my two main men - my husband and my baby!

On Friday after work, I spent a little time with Brayden, then headed to a friend's house for a game night! We played Loaded Questions and Speak Out which were both hilarious!

While we were having fun indoors, craziness was happening outdoors!

Thankfully, we all made it home safely and in one piece!

On Saturday morning, I ran in the early morning with my friend Heather. We are both training for Rock N Roll NOLA and needed to get another decent long run in before the race. We decided on 10 miles for Saturday and had a great time! (More about Friday's run later!)

I also had my first slice of King Cake this weekend which of course had to be paired with a cup of King Cake roast from PJ's coffee! 

Saturday was a great mail day, too! Our Magical Express tags for Princess Weekend arrived! YAY!

In between Brayden's naps and lunch, Jason and I discussed, searched, and debated and finally decided on our 10 year Anniversary trip. We haven't booked it just yet, but we are going to sail on the Fantasy on an Eastern Caribbean itinerary.  The Fantasy is the only DCL ship we haven't been on, and we've never been to the Eastern Caribbean, so we figured this was a win win! I am so excited!!

Brayden and I spent a bit of time outdoors and he LOVED walking around the driveway! So much fun!

Afternoon nap time snuggles are the best!

We also had dinner with my parents on Saturday night which was a fun treat! We love spending time with them! :)

Sunday morning brought about church and more time with friends! On Sunday evening, we had dinner at a local pizza joint which was delicious!

Love my friends! :)

Now we are midway through another week and looking forward to another great weekend! I hope you have a fabulous one!! :)