Kevin and I recently became Walt Disney World annual passholders.  Even though we live in Pennsylvania, we try to fly down to Orlando as often as possible…even if that means we only have two days at a time to enjoy the parks.

Disney’s Magical Express:

We booked a room at one of the resorts on property and took advantage of Disney’s Magical Express, a complimentary motorcoach service to and from the Orlando International Airport and the Disney resorts.  Out of my 23 years of visiting WDW, this was my first time ever taking the Magical Express.  It was extremely convenient since we didn’t have to rent a car or find another way to get to Disney property.

When we got to our resort, we checked in and were ready to head to EPCOT.  We chose to go to EPCOT the first day because it was open later than usual because of the Extra Magic Hours, until 11pm for resort guests, and, well, it’s just one of my favorites.  Kevin and I had been to Disney together several times before, but for one reason or another we never really had much time to explore EPCOT together – I had so much I wanted to show him!

EPCOT:

By the time we actually got to EPCOT, it was already around 1pm.  We spent a good twenty minutes or so taking pictures of Spaceship Earth.

World Showcase:

It was then time to hit the countries.  We skipped Future World at first because we had fastpasses for later on that night that would bring us back to that part of the park.  We went to Mexico first and then made our way around World Showcase!

We spent a while in Norway admiring the details of the pavilion.

I was so excited to stop at Village Traders, the African themed outpost between the China and Germany pavilions, because that was my “home” for seven months during my Disney College Program.  We stopped by and I got to show Kevin my old work location and I got to see a wonderful co-worker that I had worked with during my time there.  My heart was so happy!

We stopped in Germany for some bratwurst.

It was then almost time for our first fastpass of the day so we wandered back towards Future World.

Future World:

We had a fastpass for Spaceship Earth, Test Track, and also one for Character Spot to meet Mickey and the gang. A Cast Member friend of mine also gave us a fastpass for Soarin’, so we didn’t have to wait in a line for anything!

Baymax was also inside Character Spot – and look how cute he is!

After Future World, we wandered around World Showcase until it was time to watch the nighttime show, IllumiNations.  IllumiNations means so much to me.  Every night for seven whole months of my College Program, I got to see (or at least hear) IllumiNations as we were closing up the shop.  It brings tears to my eyes now every single time as I reflect on the wonderful memories of my time working in EPCOT.

Normally EPCOT closes right after IllumiNations, but we still had two more hours to play in the park.  We went over to the Norway pavilion to see if we could get on the Frozen ride (even though I am still sad about Maelstrom being replaced).  It was only about a 20 minute wait, which is the shortest I have ever seen it, so we jumped in line.

As we were wandering around, we spotted a hidden Mickey shadow from a table and chairs.

We wandered around until 11pm enjoying the countries at night.

And just like that, our first day had come to an end. The next day we had our breakfast reservation at Crystal Palace, and then spent the rest of the day at Animal Kingdom.

♡ Brianne