TRAVEL DAY: THE MAGIC IS CALLING! - WALT DISNEY WORLD TRIP SEPTEMBER 2022✨
- Once Upon Hannah's Dream
- Sep 22, 2022
- 5 min read
*ALL VIEWS ARE MY OWN AND NOT OF THE WALT DISNEY COMPANY, CENTRAL MICHIGAN UNIVERSITY OR YUMMY JOBS*
Hey there, pals!
Oh my goodness, it's been some time since I last posted on my blog! But, life has been great!!! I was promoted in my company a few months ago and have been incredibly excited about putting together this vacation to Walt Disney World again. And let me tell you, I had the best time travelling back to the magic with my sister!
The best part? I get to relive the entire trip on my blog! So, let's head back to the very beginning...
The start of the vacation wasn't necessarily travel day, as I got to spend a couple of days relaxing at my parents house! I say relaxing, one day was spent driving down the motorway and the second day was franticly packing those last minute bits in time for heading off to Florida! I'm not going to lie, I did get a wee bit stressed because I thought I had everything packed based off the packing list that my parents had emailed me. However, my mum and my sister were throwing in little bits from home that we may need for our hotel. We were also dividing our belongings between our suitcases just in case one of them we lost one of them in the trans-Atlantic journey.
And my sister and I were off on our vacation!!!
My mum was very kind to drop my sister and I off at London Gatwick Airport. Our check in and getting through security was an absolute breeze for both of us. I had heard some horror stories of people missing their flights because it took so long to get through security, however we factored in plenty of time and the wait times weren't too bad. I only got a bag check because I was taking some of my crochet projects to do on the plane. Now if you're like me and are super into crocheting and knitting, as long as your scissor blades are rounded and less than 6cm in length then you're good to go. Check out the link below for the exact scissors that I used (can only be purchased in the UK only!).
Once we had sorted out collecting our suncream, aftersun and meal deals from Boots, we were straight to our boarding gate. Unfortunately, the smoothness of our journey across the pond came to a brief end.
Our plane was delayed by 30mins leaving London Gatwick because it took a little extra time to load on all the bags, even though we were not a full flight going out to Florida! Eventually, we hit the skies and our 8hrs 30mins flight was turbulent-free for the most part. Now, if you know me, you know that I get bored very very quickly, especially on long-haul flights. But, this one I managed to keep myself fairly entertained for the duration of the flight. I watched some Disney movies, Despicable Me and some BBC Earth documentaries too! Even while I was busy crocheting a project that I'm doing for Christmas, a gentleman from cabin crew asked what I was making, which I thought was super nice of him to ask!! I couldn't fault the team on board, who were especially accommodating to my sister's needs.
If you have been following my blog for a long time, particularly my Disney Academic Exchange Program update series, you would do well to remember that my family and I made a trip to the Kennedy Space Center. Around the time of our departure, my family and I had been looking at BBC News anticipating whether the Artemis rocket was going to be launched into space on, before or after our trip. Now our flight path for landing was heading straight past Cape Canaveral. Luckily, my sister and I were on the right side, in which you could just about make out the launches with Artemis still there!
We then touched down in Florida and it finally sunk in that my feet were back on solid American soil, as well as being within a few miles of some of my closest long distance friends!!! Again, it took soooo long to get through immigration when we arrived in the USA. As of time of publishing, the current travel restrictions for UK visitors to the USA were that you had to have a valid visa (same as always!) and proof that you are fully vaccinated, in which my sister and I had already pre-printed the QR codes from our NHS Covid Passes. Unfortunately, we had to wait a further hour to collect our bags and we did struggle a little bit to find our shuttle bus to the hotel we were staying at.
Of course it wouldn't be a trip through Orlando International Airport if we didn't find the Walt Disney World wall in the middle of the terminal buildings! I'm absolutely gutted that it was just a digital screen and not the same one from when I arrived on my Disney Academic Exchange Program. But, the images pictured on there gave us just the insight we were so looking forward to for when we were stepping foot into the parks once again! 😊
Nonetheless, we made it to our hotel for the next 10 nights: Sonesta ES Suites - a self-catering apartment complex with a communal bar & breakfast lounge, swimming pool and games area. The picture on the left shows you what our apartment floor plan looked like and the one on the right shows an exterior view of the hotel entrance.
Picture Credits: Thomas Cook (L) & Virgin Holidays (R)
We got to our apartment at about 9pm (EST), so my sister and I had been on the go for almost 24hrs. The good thing about getting a slightly later flight into Orlando (and dare I say the baggage reclaim delay) was that we were able to crash pretty much as soon as we got in! The worst part is always trying to stay awake, even though your body is telling you otherwise that you need sleep! We stopped for a quick Five Guys on International Drive for dinner as this was literally a less than 5min walk away and I could quickly message all my American friends to say that we had landed safely back in the USA. And then, my sister and I were both knocked out as soon as we hit our beds!
And that brings us to the end of the travel day blog post! I really hope you guys enjoyed reading about our travelling back to the magic of Walt Disney World in Orlando, FL and stayed tuned for the next 10 weeks, as I'll be writing out exactly what happened on our first trip back to Orlando since the pandemic!
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 😊
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