Our Disney Getaway

It all started back in March 2023. It was time to start planning Christie's 50th birthday. What would be something that she has always wanted to do? So I called a friend of mine at Adventure Dreams Travel to help me out. Christie has never been to Disney World, so why not book a vacation to Orlando? As we set the plans for our getaway in October Christie had no idea about what I was doing. Everyone knew about the trip but her. One day in September I got a welcome packet from Disney in the mail, not knowing what else was being sent I decided to tell her we were going. The look on her face when I handed her the packet was something that I will never forget. Her reply was "We're going to Disney!". As the days got closer we started to plan our trip down to Orlando. Sixteen years ago we were in Savannah and purchased our wedding bands. Since that time my band had broke and was stolen in February of this year. So Christie decided that we stop in Savannah and go back to the store we bought them at and purchase a new set. So we took the long way down to Orlando. We left on Friday and drove to Savannah. When we got there we checked in and then made our way to River St. The first place we stopped was Cassandras Jewelry we told to staff our story about how we purchased our original rings and we needed a new set. The staff was very helpful with helping us make our decision. After we purchased the rings we took a walk down River St and watched a couple of Barge's one leaving and the other coming into Port. Then went and had dinner. 

The next morning we got ready to head out for Orlando. Not sure who was more excited Christie or me. We made our way down I-95 going through Brunswick and Waverly. As we made it to the Florida state line, Christie has always told me that when she was a kid traveling to Florida they would stop at the Welcome Center for their free cup of Orange Juice. So why not relive that memory and stop at the Welcome Center? 

After our free cup of Florida Orange Juice, we kept down I-95 through Jacksonville and made a quick little stop at Buc-ee's in St. Augustine. Continuing on our trip we finally made it to Walt Disney World. 

We got checked into our room at Pop Century Resort and made our way to Disney Springs to kick off Christie's Birthday week. We walked around Disney Springs and had a nice dinner at Raglan Road Irish Pub. 
The next morning started our Disney Adventure, the first stop was Animal Kingdom. 

My first stop was Starbucks, someone needed coffee and I needed a cinnamon roll. After getting our breakfast we made our way to Kilimanjaro Safaris to go visit our animal friends. We hit up a few shows and looked at some of the sites. It was October 9th and Christie would turn 50 the next day so we took advantage of our Park Hopper pass and headed over to Magic Kingdom. I wanted her to experience Magic Kingdom before she was 50. We time it out pretty well because as soon as we got to Magic Kingdom, a parade was about to start. 
We watched to parade on Main Street USA and made our way down to Cinderella's Castle. 

Then headed over to Tomorrow Land and rode the People Mover. Then a quick little stop at Magic Kingdom and I wanted Christie to experience the Monorail. So we headed out of Magic Kingdom to the monorail to Epcot. The plan was to go to Epcot and get on the Skyliner back to Pop Century. Poor planning on my part I didn't realize that the Monorail was on one side of Epcot and the the Skyliner was located on the opposite side. So we walked through Epcot got a couple of pictures and made our way to the Skyliner. After that, we headed to Pop Century and relaxed. 
The next day we made our way back to Epcot and made a day out of it. We rode a Spaceship Earth and from there we went to The Seas with Nemo and friends, after that, we went and hung out with Crush. At 1 o'clock I got the Virtual Queue for Guardians of the Galaxy, Unfortunately, we had to wait until almost 8 pm to ride that ride. We walked through the World Showcase and stopped in Germany before getting bratwurst I noticed a sign. The sign said Würzburg. For those that don't know that is one of the cities that I lived in when I was a kid. 

They also had Würzburg Hofbräu, the only brewery in Würzburg, Germany. I found that pretty interesting. It was also the first time that I had seen that since 1989. We also went to the Disney and Pixar Small Film Festival. On the way in we noticed that Minnie and Mickey were inside the building taking pictures with guests. 

So why not get a picture with them? 
After the short film, we headed towards Test Track. We built our car and got to test drive it.

Finally, around 7:30, we got the notification for Guardians of the Galaxy Cosmic Rewind. After waiting almost 6 hours we got to the ride and they told us the ride was down and that we would have to wait roughly thirty more minutes. We decided to grab a bite to eat and then headed back to the ride. I will have to say that this is by far the best ride I've ever been on. 

Wednesday was our day at Magic Kingdom it was everyone's day at Magic Kingdom. 7 am I got on the Virtual Queue for Tron and got Group 6 which means we had to get to the park pretty quick. We made Rope Drop and headed directly to Tron. Hardly any wait for the queue. We rode Tron. Also another great ride. 

When we left Tron we made our way to Space Mountain and Pirates of the Caribbean. Christie looked at me and said, "I'm Exhausted, can we go back to the room." I didn't have a problem with that plan. We went back to the resort and took a much-needed nap. Around 5 pm we made our way back to Magic Kingdom to get ready to watch Happily Ever After Firework. It began to rain and we made the best of it. The best part was it stopped before the fireworks. 

Thursday was our last day to visit a park. Hollywood Studios was that park and we made the best of it. We watched the Indiana Jones Stunt show. Rode the Star Wars rides along with Rock N Rollercoaster. 

Although it was a long 4 days I couldn't have thought of any better way to spend Christie's 50th birthday. I know that there is a lot that we missed, but here gives us an excuse to go back. 

Friday morning came we loaded up the truck to head home. Christie had mentioned to me that she has never been to St. Augustine which gave me an idea. We are now going to visit St Augustine. As we headed up I-4 I had to make one little stop, at Daytona International Speedway. We toured the track and then made our way up north to St. Augustine. We got checked in and went to grab a bite to eat at Osteen's. 

After dinner, we made our way to  St. George St and walked and enjoyed the historic town. The next morning we went to tour the Castillo de San Marcos National Monument and walked the streets of St. Augustine before heading to The Fountain of Youth. 

Christie and I hadn't been on a "real" vacation in a while. But we have decided that we need to do it more often. 

To see all the photos from our Disney trip you can view them on Google Photos