On a personal side, this was the first time I had left my boys overnight, and I was pretty nervous about it. I knew they were in great care, but it's hard to leave them for the first time! But, this opportunity was too good to pass up, so I knew that I was going to have to make it work!
The program asked that our flights arrive to the Orlando Airport (MCO) before noon. I typically drive down to WDW, but because there were a lot of moving parts in terms of child care, I wanted to be sure that we still had two cars and carseats at the house. I learned a lot from flying though, which I know I can use to help my clients. I decided to take the Magical Express, which is the free airport transfer to your Disney Resort. That meant that I put a luggage tag on my bag (it was mailed to me), and once I checked my bag, I didn't see it again until it appeared in my resort room (pretty magical if you ask me!).
My flight was a little delayed, but considering it's only an hour in the air from Atlanta, that delay didn't really change anything.
Once I arrived, I followed the signs to the Magical Express.
They scanned my magic band and told me which line to go to.
As we pulled into AKL, a family sitting next to me started saying "This is it! We are finally here! This is what we've been waiting for." I just got chills knowing that helping people have that moment is what I do with this job. It was awesome.
After heading into the spectacular lobby, I went to check in. I had not checked in online, so I went to the front desk. Check in was easy and then I headed to my lovely room. The beds in the deluxe hotels are so very comfy.
I had a few hours, so I hopped on the My Disney Experience app to see if there were any open reservations at Sanaa. I found one, grabbed it up, and walked from Jambo House to Kidani Village. It's about a 5 or so minute walk, but the weather was perfect. I checked in and walked outside to enjoy the zebras. I was seated, and ordered my very favorite dish in all of Walt Disney World, the bread service. It comes with four kinds of naan bread and 10 different dipping sauces from mild to spicy. It's so wonderful.
After my late lunch, I did a little work and then met with the other travel agents in the lobby. We boarded up on the bus and headed to backstage Epcot. I've been backstage before at Disney World, but it feels special to be told you have to put your phones and cameras away! We were escorted into the American Pavilion and into a private room upstairs.
After a short introductory session outlining the goals of the week, we all introduced ourselves. We all talked about how long we have been in the travel industry, which agency we came from, our most magical disney moment, and our favorite Disney character. It was good to hear a large range of experience and people were from all over the country.
Then we moved to another room in the upstairs of the American Pavilion where we had dinner. It was great to start talking with people who I became friends with over the course of this 5 days. One of the facilitators sat with us. I tried my best to milk him for some secret information. The most he was willing to really divulge is that 5 years leading into the 50th anniversary of Magic Kingdom are supposed to be the most exciting so far. So, that wasn't anything firm, but we appreciated the excitement!
After dinner, we walked over to the Italy Pavilion area. There was a beautiful area overlooking the water set up. We had seating along with tons of amazing desserts to eat at our private Illuminations dessert party. This was the first dessert party that I had attended. These are available for all of the firework events around the parks. It was really nice to have a place to sit during the show. It was even nicer to be eating Nutella filled cakes while sitting to watch!
When the show was over, they started moving us to the bus. Because it was Extra Magic Hours, and we were all resort guest, I asked if we HAD to get on the bus to head back. They said, "of course not," and then encouraged us to stay and enjoy the parks. The program facilitators really did encourage us to use our free time to explore as much as possible. So we did!
The line was fairly short at the Anna and Elsa meet and greet in their Royal Summerhaus, so we hopped in and had some pictures taken.
Then we all popped over to Soarin' Around the World. This is a new show for this attraction. i had see Soarin' Over California, but not this new iteration. It was amazing. I love how the international theme really fits Epcot so well! The new smells are great (I know! A ride with smells!) and the film is gorgeous!
At this point, we all hopped on a bus and headed back! We had four more huge days ahead of us!
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