This spring break, I got the opportunity to tackle the city of Orlando with my older sister. Somehow, we managed to conquer all four parks at Walt Disney World as well as Universal Studios in Orlando in 3.5 days. This trip was full of laughter, walking, and Disney pretzels! So without further ado, I will tell you how we did it.
We would not have been able to do this without planning in advance. I’ll be honest, I am not the best person at time management, so I was more than happy to let my sister take the reins in terms of booking. Two nights before we left, my sister and I sat on our mother’s bed and tried to choose which rides we wanted to get Fast Passes for. Unfortunately, we were not able to book a lot of them because we were not being as time efficient as we thought we were. At Disney World, I believe you can start making Fast Pass reservations as early as 30 days before your trip, and if you are staying at a Walt Disney World Hotel, you can start making Fast Pass reservations as early as 60 days before your visit. However, we were able to get a Fast Pass for a couple of rides, which helped us accomplish our goals in a timely manner.
Another factor that helped with conquering Orlando was the fact that we were staying at Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort, which meant that not only did we have access to the Resort Monorail, but we also had access to Disney’s Extra Magic hours! For those who may not know, Disney Magic hours are extra hours of access to Disney parks set aside for resort guests exclusively.
We started off the break at home in Austin, TX, so that we could spend some time with our parents. Our flight out to Orlando was originally supposed to be at 11:15AM; however, our flight got delayed and our plane did not end up leaving until 2:10PM. I do not remember what time we landed, but I do believe we ended up getting to the hotel around 6:30PM. We were very nervous about this because we had a Fast Pass at 7:50, but fortunately we were able to make it. Although we arrived at the park late, the Extra Magic Hours at Magic Kingdom were until 1AM that day, so we were able to hit everything that we wanted to.
On Thursday, we were able to do both Epcot and Animal Kingdom. We actually did not have any Fast Passes for this day, but honestly, they would have been unnecessary. Personally, I feel like you can get through Epcot quite quickly. We got there maybe at 9:30 or 10:00 in the morning, and we were able to get everything that we wanted to do at Epcot by 1:30PM. The reason for this is because other than the Frozen ride, all we really wanted to do was look around at the different ‘countries.’ As a person who appreciates attention to detail, I can confidently say that Epcot hit the mark. I have actually been to Morocco, so I was simply blown away by Epcot’s portrayal of the city. I also enjoyed walking around the lands of China, Japan, Mexico, France, Italy, Norway, Canada, etc. The second half of Thursday, we went to Animal Kingdom and had fun on the Kilimanjaro Safari and Expedition Everest. We finished the night by dining at Rainforest Cafe. On the bus ride back to the hotel, I was literally so exhausted that I kept falling asleep.
(Taken by me; taken in Epcot’s version of “Italy”)
Then on Friday we tackled Universal Studios and Adventure Island. If it were not for the Fast Passes we bought for the park, we would not have been able to conquer it. Since it was Friday, the park was a lot more crowded and the regular lines were hours long. In our case, it was definitely worth the money. I would also like to mention that it was also on Friday where I could just feel my legs BURNING. Because it was just my sister and I on the trip, we had no one to tell us to take a break so we were literally going full speed ahead with a diet that consisted purely of popcorn and amusement park pretzels. We hit Hollywood Studios on Wednesday and Saturday by going to Hollywood Studios and it was nice to end the trips with the closing fireworks of Disney’s Fantasia.
Overall, the reason that this was one of my favorite family trips that I’ve been on was because I got to spend a lot of time with my sister and we got to experience all of it together. I feel like Spring Break is usually a time where you get to reunite with people you haven’t seen in a while or you get to go somewhere fun with your friend’s and the fact that I was able to do this with my sister was really special to me. Plus, after calculating the totals based on the data from the Health app on my phone, I walked 65,148 steps (25.8 miles) which I am pretty sure is around the same amount I walked during the entire month of February. All in all, Orlando is a great place with plenty of attractions available for you and your family to enjoy!