Have you ever visited Disney World and thought “this would be way more fun without all these other people with me?” Last week I had the opportunity to go to Disney World alone for two days. I was excited do all the things that I wanted to do. I had a long list of things that I wanted to photograph and a long list of big rides that I wanted to ride.

The day started incredibly early. I woke up at 3:00 in the morning for a 5:30 flight to Orlando. The flight was on time and I arrived in Orlando at 7:30. As soon as I could take my phone out of airplane mode I opened the My Disney Experience app and booked an Individual Lightening lane for Guardians of the Galaxy Cosmic Rewind. I booked it for early in the afternoon. I also purchased Genie+ for the day and booked my first lightening lane. Then I set a timer for 2 hours after park opening so I could then book another lightening lane. I deplaned and headed to the exit booking an Uber along the way. This was my first time using Uber and it was quick and easy and I got to my hotel fast.

I stayed at Shades of Green this trip. Shades of Green is a military resort and qualifies as a deluxe resort for Disney. It isn’t my favorite resort but it is centrally located to both Magic Kingdom and Epcot and I am able to take the monorail to both of those resorts. I arrived at Shades of Green and checked in and they said they would call me when my room is ready. I dropped my backpack with bell services and then headed to Epcot.

I don’t love the buses from Shades of Green. They are not as efficient as the busses from Disney resorts and they don’t come as often. So I choose to walk from the resort down to the Polynesian resort. From there I can go through their security and ride the monorail to Epcot or the Magic Kingdom. The walk down to the Poly is about 10 minutes but that depends on how fast of a walker you are.

I arrived at Epcot around 9:00. I have military park tickets and before I went into the park I needed to go over to guest services to validate my tickets. While I was there I was able to also get a disability pass attached to my account. I’ll discuss DAS in another post but if you have a disability that makes it difficult to wait in long lines DAS is a great addition to your day. It cuts down on standing in longer lines which my legs have a real problem with.

The Epcot International Flower and Garden festival started this month so I spent the morning walking around World Showcase looking at the topiaries and drinking my Joffrey’s coffee. I’m a sucker for their Shakin Jamaican cold brew with a splash of milk. I always have to stop in the Norway pavilion to eat a school bread which I actually had for breakfast this trip.

My breakfast school bread. Sweet bread filled with custard.

The festival booths around world showcase have many food offerings and I walked past many of them. Almost all of the festival booths open at 11 which is a problem if you are hungry and it is 9 or 10:00. After my school bread I went over to Mexico and rode the Gran Fiesta Tour. I got a boat all to my self which was lovely as I was really starting to feel tired from the early start to the morning. Afterwards I bought myself a Mickey pretzel and two drinks from a festival booth and waited for my lightening lane time to come for Guardians of the Galaxy.

Mickey Pretzel, Violet Lemonade and a small beer tasting.

In my opinion Guardians of the Galaxy Cosmic Rewind is the best ride in Disney World. It is so immersive and the ride is so smooth. The songs that play during the ride are just such fun songs. I start smiling as soon as I get in the line and am still smiling when the ride is over. It’s such a fun experience and I look forward to it every trip I take to Disney.

Walking into Guardians of the Galaxy Cosmic Rewind

The queue inside Guardians of the Galaxy Cosmic Rewind

After I rode Guardians and a few other rides the exhaustion from getting up so early and all the walking (I had over 15,000 steps by lunchtime) was beginning to take a toll on me. I decided it was time to head to the resort for a little rest break and a shower so that I was able to continue my day over at Magic Kingdom.

I stayed at a Deluxe resort so that I could take advantage of the extended evening hours for deluxe resort guests. And that night they were happening at Magic Kingdom. It was the last week of the 50th anniversary celebration so I wanted to see Enchantment for the first and last time before the celebration was over as well.

I got back to my room around 3:30. The nap didn’t really happen but at least I rested and took a shower so I felt ready to head back out. I was headed out to Magic Kingdom by 6:00. My goal for the evening was to ride the mountains and watch Enchantment fireworks. I was able to hop on Big Thunder Mountain and then I hopped over to Pecos Bill’s for some dinner tacos. I also saved room for an orange swirl dole whip. yum!

I spent about two hours at Magic Kingdom before I was too tired and irritable to even enjoy myself anymore. And thinking about the masses of people that were starting to form to watch the fireworks didn’t seem the least bit enjoyable. So I decided to head back to my hotel. On the way back I caught some of Enchantment from the beaches of the Polynesian.

So what did I learn from this first day of my solo trip? I learned that I don’t do well when I get up super early. When I do this again I will take a little bit later of a flight to Orlando. I am a person who really needs their sleep at night. So only having about 4 hours of sleep the night before my trip really messed with the entire day.

I hope you enjoyed my recap of Day 1 of my solo trip. It was really refreshing to be able to do what I wanted when I wanted. However I missed having my little guy with me and it made me think I needed to book a trip for the both of us really soon! Stay tuned for Day 2 in the next blog post!

My First Solo Trip

Solo Trip Day 2

Let’s stop being strangers!