What a trip! Celebrating your 15th anniversary in your happy place is a wondrous event. Here’s a quick overview of our trip to Walt Disney World.

As discussed in my previous blog post, Isabelle and I had been planning a Hawaiian holiday for our 15th anniversary, but the Universe would have other plans for us. Over a 12-hour period, we canceled a long-planned two week vacation and pivoted to book a trip to Walt Disney World Resort about 10 days before the trip started. Despite the quick turnaround and lack of lead time, we ended up having one of the best visits to WDW that we’ve ever had; maybe the best.

This trip was going to be different for us in a couple of ways. First, we were staying for 10 days. Our longest trip previously had been 8 days, I believe, and the last few were in the 5-6 day range. Ten days would give us more flexibility, more capacity to see and do more things and, most importantly for us, to build in some downtime to truly enjoy ourselves. And that, we did! Because we had such a lengthy stay, we did not feel the need to cram our days from park open to park close as we have so frequently done on previous trips. For the first four or five days of this trip, we were often back at our hotel by 7PM. On more than a few nights, I’d be ready to doze off when I’d hear the boom of fireworks in the distance – the nighttime fireworks display from one of the nearby parks.

One of our favourite days from this trip was one where we had no plans made. While we had a general idea of which park we were going to visit on most days, we had a couple of days where we had no dedicated plans. We thought we’d just see how we felt, and go with the flow. On this particular day, Isabelle had the lovely suggestion of going to the Magic Kingdom in the morning to just pick up a drink at Starbucks, and then have a seat somewhere near Cinderella Castle and be. (No, I did not forget a word – we wanted to just BE.) On our first day of the trip, we visited Disney Springs, a shopping and dining area, so that we could go to Gideon’s Bakehouse. Gideon’s has the best cookies in the world (and this is not hyperbole, in my opinion). They are each a half pound in weight. We bought a half dozen that day. On the morning in question, we still had some leftover cookies in our room, so we each brought a Gideon’s cookie with us to Magic Kingdom park. We headed to the Main Street Bakery (that’s the Starbucks location at MK), got some drinks, and found a spot to settle in and enjoy our drinks, our cookies, and people watching. Such a lovely morning.

A bit later that morning, while deciding what we wanted to do next, I happened to see that one of the Theme Park Comedians, Devin Siebold, was currently at EPCOT. We’ve been following Devin and James on social media for some time and had hoped that we would happen to cross paths with them. So, off we headed to EPCOT! (For any Disney fans, I highly recommend following Theme Park Comedians on Instagram, Facebook or Youtube!)

Because we are fans of their content, we knew that there were a few spots that they regularly visited when they were in EPCOT. As we were passing by the American pavilion, we could hear the Voices of Liberty, an a cappella group who performs in the American Adventure pavilion. I suggested popping in as Devin was a big fan of the group. As luck would have it, we walked into the rotunda to find him enjoying the performance. We stopped and enjoyed the music and, when they finished the show, wandered over to introduce ourselves. He was so welcoming. We had a brief chat with him and his fiancée (sadly, James was not with him today – he was doing a radio show), got a picture and continued on our way. This was truly one of the highlights of the trip for me.

To cap off our planless day, we, again at Isabelle’s suggestion, headed to Hollywood Studios. What did we do? We each bought some popcorn, and then sat on a bench on Sunset Blvd to enjoy the popcorn and people watching. To begin and end our day with the same energy and intention – of just being present – made for a wonderfully pleasant day.

Another new thing for us was completing the 4 Parks, 1 Day challenge. For our first full day, we chose to tackle the challenge of visiting all four Disney parks in one day. At each park, we had to ride at least one ride, eat one snack/food item, and take a picture with the park icon. We had done three parks in one day before, accidentally, but had never really thought about doing all four in one day until this trip. As it was our first full day, it gave us a chance to whet our appetites a bit, and just get a taste of each of the parks right off the bat. We were very efficient and had completed our challenge by mid-afternoon! A fun-filled, but hectic day.

Another way that this trip was different for us was that we decided to do a split stay. We booked the Caribbean Beach Resort for the first 7 nights, and were then moving to a different resort for the last few nights. Given that this was our 15th anniversary, we decided to indulge and splurge, and book one of the Deluxe Resorts – Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge.

We checked in the day before our anniversary. On our anniversary proper, we stayed on the resort for most of the day, taking in the sights. This resort is near the Animal Kingdom theme park, and has a savannah with live animals. While we did not have a savannah view room, we were pleasantly surprised to walk into our room, look out the window and see ostriches when we checked in. Shortly thereafter, we had some giraffes and some other horned animals. All directly in front of our room.

We stayed at the resort until 4PM at which point we hopped on a bus and made our way to Magic Kingdom once more. This time, however, we were going to attend the Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Party. On select nights, the park closes early for regular ticket holders and a specialty-ticketed event is held. There are limited numbers of tickets available per night, so the park is much less busy than a normal day. You can dress up if you so choose (we did not do that this time round), and they have a dozen or so trick-or-treat stations throughout the park. As you enter, they give you a treat bag to use. You can visit as many of the stations as you want, where the Cast Members greet you and shove a handful of mini chocolate bars, gummies and other candies into your bag. The party is capped off with a special Halloween parade and fireworks display.

Of course, because the party happened to be on October 1st, our anniversary, we delighted ourselves in saying that this was all done specially for us. A celebration of our 15 years together as husband and wife! As an aside, for those who don’t know, Magic Kingdom was also celebrating an anniversary on October 1st. 55-years earlier, they opened their gates for the first time. While Isabelle and I were oblivious to the date when we planned our wedding, we did discover the fact the next year on our 1st anniversary with a trip to WDW. We had hoped to be at the park in 2021 for our 10th (and their 50th) anniversary, but COVID had other plans for us. At least we got to enjoy our 15th and their 55th together.

While I could continue writing and recapping this trip for many, many more paragraphs, I will leave it at that. Over the course of our ten days, we ate some amazingly delicious food, rode many thrilling and fun-filled rides, laughed, enjoyed ourselves, and let the joy of magic fill our very souls. Trips to Disney World always leave us feeling like we are kids again; this is why we keep returning. It rekindles the childlike wonder that is so often missing in everyday life.

We returned home, our hearts filled, our fun-meters maxed out and our bellies full. Sure, our wallets are a lot lighter, but it was all worthwhile. This trip is one filled with memories that will last a lifetime. Thank you Walt Disney World for your hospitality. To quote a certain mouse:

Thanks for coming and see ya real soon!

Mickey Mouse