DAY 1: "TO ALL WHO COME TO THIS HAPPY PLACE, WELCOME" 😊- WALT DISNEY WORLD TRIP SEPTEMBER 2022

*ALL VIEWS ARE MY OWN AND NOT OF THE WALT DISNEY COMPANY, CENTRAL MICHIGAN UNIVERSITY OR YUMMY JOBS*

Hey there, pals!

I hope you all are having a fantastic week and are ready to read about my trip to Walt Disney World in September 2022 because I am certainly ready to bring it to you! This post is quite a special one because it was the first time my sister and I had been at the Walt Disney World Resort in over two and a half years! And, it was extra special because our first full day was spent at Magic Kingdom ✨

But, as with any international trip and if you’re staying in self-catering accommodation, my sister and I needed to get some groceries for the trip. Now staying at Sonesta ES Suites, or International Drive, they’re a number of different options and restaurants for sourcing food – all within walking distance or a short Uber ride. To save money (well, the reality was spending more money on merchandise!), we decided to cook the majority of our meals at the hotel. So, our closest grocery store was Walmart and Whole Foods, which I was very familiar of!

Fun fact: it was the same Walmart on Turkey Lake Road that I used regularly on my Disney Academic Exchange Program!

Now, my sister is dairy-free. So, grocery shopping at Walmart was a little bit tricky. But, we did manage to get the majority of our groceries from Walmart. However, we did stop in Whole Foods, which was only around the corner, as that’s an allergy-friendly grocery store to grab a few extra bits to complete our dinners for the entire trip. I don’t know about anyone else, but I actually enjoy going grocery shopping in a different country haha I just love the adventure of trying to find what you need from each aisle, as everything is placed in differently and finding out what the international version of Tesco, Asda etc. is!

We had a little bit of a chill afternoon before heading straight for the magic!

The first change my sister and I saw was the entrance gates are now painted completely blue and, I must say, they look absolutely stunning! I couldn’t believe that my eyes were seeing the familiar sights of Walt Disney World after being locked away in our houses during the pandemic for such a long time!

Photo Credit: Disney Food Blog

Like every other trip I’ve done to Florida, the first stop has always been Magic Kingdom and this trip was no different.

Our Uber driver dropped us off at the Transportation and Ticketing Center (TTC) where we had to speak to a Cast Member to get our tickets activated. I will state that when booking our vacation through our local travel agent, our theme park tickets for both Disney and Universal came through on confirmation pages with a QR code, which obviously cannot be scanned at either theme park’s turnstile entrance. It was actually a really simple process and my sister and I couldn’t stop smiling because we couldn’t contain our excitement!

Once we were all sorted with our tickets, it was time for the choice of boarding either the ferryboat or the monorail. This was a pretty easy decision as my sister and I are both fans of the monorail! I was quite ecstatic to see that not only had the monorails been painted up, but one of them had a 50th anniversary sticker on the body of the monorail!

Whilst en route to the Magic Kingdom, I was trying so hard not to look towards the park and instead face Seven Seas Lagoon. This was so I could save genuine reactions for walking into Magic Kingdom and then seeing Cinderella’s Castle in all her glory for the first time in forever! My heart definitely went fuzzy when I saw the castle and I think my sister was on the verge of happy tears 🥰

Disney's Photopass Memory Maker was included in our tickets, so of course we had to maximise the number of professional photo opportunities there were. So while we were on Main Street USA, we got a handful of pictures. It was here when we first noticed that some of the Cast Member attitudes were more corporate-minded than guest-focussed. Nevertheless, we got some great pictures in the Florida sunshine and my favourite has to be the magic shot where my sister and I are holding a rainbow 🌈

Now when it comes to what ride to go on first, it has suddenly dawned on me that every visit in the past has always started on Pirates of the Caribbean. And this trip was no exception because this was exactly how we started our rollercoaster of riding all the different attractions! As always, Pirates of the Caribbean is a fantastic attraction and the ride truly has some of the best smells in all of Walt Disney World!

Next up was Splash Mountain – one of my sister’s favourites. My sister and I realised that each ride on Splash Mountain was going to be special as this would be the last time we ride the ride before the retheme. If you followed the D23 Convention from California a couple of weeks ago, then you would know that the ride is going to be rethemed into Tiana’s Bayou Adventure. We had picked the right time to queue for Splash Mountain as the humidity was super high at this point, so my sister and I were both ready to get nice and wet! We were sat on the second row and we had an absolute tidal wave on one of the smaller drops, so we were already dripping wet before the main event! Nonetheless, we still had loads of fun on an absolute classic of a ride!!!

We then went to Haunted Mansion, which my sister and I think is an absolutely hilarious ride. I do love the Haunted Mansion and you can’t help but appreciate all the little details that goes into making that dark ride.

Whilst we were in line, I was messaging some friends who had made the journey to come and see me before they went on their vacation to California! I could see my friends off in the distance, so I texted them to say I could see them and then waved to which they caught a glimpse it was me. To my surprise, they joined the line to meet us for a ride on Haunted Mansion! I got to have a wonderful catch up with them and had some huge hugs, which had been long overdue! We all joked around saying silly puns/jokes and even my sister pranked me in the Stretching Pre-show Room by scaring me!

My friends are took pictures together and said our goodbyes after riding Haunted Mansion and I made one of them cry, in which I felt so guilty. But, she was just really happy that she finally got to see me in person! 🥺 I promised to my friends that we would definitely hang out for dinner or something similar next time I’m in the area. So, Walt and Melissa, if you’re reading this post, I am keeping to that and am already saving for our next get together!

Side note: Walt and Melissa do a fantastic job of bringing the magic of the Disney theme parks to their YouTube channel, so definitely check them out!

Click Here to Check Out Walt and Melissa's YouTube Channel!

My sister and I decided to go on the Little Mermaid: Journey Under the Sea, which proved to be our longest wait of the trip so far. There were a lot of families misbehaving that meant the ride had to keep stopping, which added to everyone’s frustration (including the Cast Members!). But eventually we got our ride on the Little Mermaid: Journey Under the Sea and it is another fantastic dark ride, featuring one of my favourite Disney villains performing one of my favourite songs: the Poor Unfortunate Souls scene performed by Ursula.

We then stopped for dinner at Pinocchio's Village where I had a pepperoni pizza and my sister had a vegan margherita pizza. They were both delicious and my sister says her vegan pizza was one of the best she’s had! While we were eating, we tried to find a spot for the Enchantment firework show but every viewing area seemed to full. So, we abandoned trying to see the fireworks and instead rode some more rides.

I absolutely hate It’s a Small World with a passion and so does my sister… but, is it really a Disney trip without riding It’s a Small World? So, with a pretty much walk on queue, my sister and I went on to say we’d been on it this trip hahaha! I feel that as you get older, you can appreciate the ride a lot more, despite still having that repetitive song stuck in your head! Every time I ride It’s a Small World, I’m always spotting something new that I hadn’t seen before. This time, I'd noticed that the station area had been completely painted in different colours and it's really brought the whole area to life, as opposed to staring at all the white!

To conclude the night, my sister and I rode the Tomorrowland Transit Authority Peoplemover, which again is one of our favourite rides at Magic Kingdom. The first thing I noticed when we were on board was brand new audio commentary, featuring Tron Lightyear Cycle, which certainly creates more anticipation for when the brand new rollercoaster opens next year! And let me tell you, the whole thing is coming together at the construction site since I was last in Magic Kingdom!

But, my favourite moment of the night was when my sister and I queued to get our pictures taken outside the Tangled restrooms. And, you're probably thinking 'Hannah, why on Earth did you get pictures outside some toilets?'. First of all, good question. Second, after the sun sets, the Photopass Cast Members come out with a Tangled lantern that you can hold and have your picture taken! Just look at how awesome these pictures are - I think they're some of my favourite that I've ever had taken at Walt Disney World!!!

My sister and I made our way out of the park and back to the TTC where we were waiting for our taxi to come and pick us up. By the end of the trip, my sister and I were very familiar with the taxi run and charter bus lanes! As soon as we got back to our hotel, we immediately crashed from exhaustion, especially myself as I was hit with jetlag early in the morning!

And that brings us to the end of Day 1 of mine and my sister’s September 2022 trip to Walt Disney World. I do hope you enjoyed reading about our adventures stepping back into the magic and getting back on some of our favourite rides at Magic Kingdom. This is not going to be the only post about our Magic Kingdom adventures, so make sure you keep your eyes (and ears!) peeled for more posts in the upcoming weeks. Be sure to give my Facebook page a like and follow me on Instagram (both @onceuponhannahsdream) as I’m starting to post out more content from our trip.

Thank you for reading and have a magical day!

-Hannah

DISCLAIMER: this blog is my personal experience on the Disney Academic Exchange Program (DAEP) 2019-2020 and may not reflect everyone’s experience. Other programs and future participants on the DAEP may have slight adjustments to their programs that may not be featured in any of my blog posts. That being said, if you do leave any questions, I will try to answer them as best as I possibly can 😊