Our first trip to Walt Disney World

Posted by Monica in Family Fun, Fun stuff, General Brain Waves | 2 comments

So I’ve debated which blog I’m going to write all about our first trip to Walt Disney World on, and I think I have it all figured out… I’m going to do it on both… but in two very different ways. This blog is all fun and jabber, where the other one is all about business… so here goes..

When I got the email from Hanes, asking if I’d like to be a part of the Hanes Comfort Crew, and join them in Walt Disney World, (most) expenses paid… for a week.. with my family… I couldn’t say no. We figured out a way to buy airfare for Hubby and the girls, and went from there. We didn’t tell the girls anything… except that we were going on vacation, and we got to take airplanes to get there. I wanted to tell them so badly… but didn’t want our night before to be anything like this one:

I mean really.. it was bad enough that Daddy and I were up till 2 am the night before… barely tired, packing, and really “too excited to sleep”. We did get everything packed and together before we finally went to sleep that night… Thank goodness because the next morning was a crazy blur!

Monday morning, Daddy and I woke up, got ready, packed up the last of our toiletries, got the girls up and dressed, packed up the van, and were off to the airport. I couldn’t help but think I had forgotten some things, but it was too late… There was no turning back now! We turned in our luggage, made it through security and waited to board our first flight out of Jacksonville, NC… The girls were beyond excited, and so were we.

Our first flight was quick and smooth… We landed in Charlotte without any crazy deals with the girls. They watched a movie on our iPhones, and that was good… They used their new MyPhones, and loved them! We grabbed some Jamba Juice in the airport… a small treat since we don’t have one of those anywhere near us in Jacksonville… and went on to our next gate. Ahhh Jamba…

The flight from Charlotte to Orlando was a nice one too. The girls had some fun coloring and working on their workbooks. The flight went by so fast… not including the anticipation of our Magical ride to our Magical resort! When we landed, we didn’t have to worry about our luggage. We had a trip aboard Disney’s Magical Express, thanks to Hanes… We made our way to the shuttle, and let them take care of everything! One of my fellow Walmart Moms, and author of ChicShopperChick.com,  Erika Lehmann arrived at about the same time as us, and joined us on our shuttle ride over to the Polynesian!

We got checked in, walked the beach out our back door… (yes, I said beach!) relaxed for a little bit, and grabbed a quick bite to eat before meeting our group in the lobby for our first trip out to the park! We met our awesomely cool VIP Tour Guide, Zane… More on him later… and our girls made instant friends with another girl in our group. Her parents are lots of fun…and from North Carolina too!!! LOL.. too cool! We all got on the bus, and rode into Disney’s Hollywood Studios through the back lot. It was really cool walking into the park through “secret” doorways, and just appearing in front of the coolest ride evah! Oh yes… Aerosmith’s Rockin’ Rollercoaster.

Daddy and I took turns sitting with the girls as Zane took groups in to ride the Rockin’ Rollercoaster.. Ok, Space Mountain used to be my favorite coaster… but this one totally took the cake! I only wish it had an encore! Oh, and the kids… they were too small for this ride, so instead, they got to hang out at the craft area out front… which happened to be sponsored by Hanes!

From there, we headed on to Toy Story, and a couple of other very cool things… The Little Mermaid, and more that I just can’t remember right now.. We did get to be part of the audience at the American Idol Experience. I almost felt like I was at the real show. We were at the last show of the day, so we were able to listen to all of the finalists from the whole day’s performances, and vote for who we thought should get the “Golden Ticket”. The “Golden Ticket” was basically a Fast Pass to the front of the line at the real American Idol auditions. We heard 5 very talented singers, but at the end of the night, we had to vote for the only male singer in the group.

He was AMAZING! He sang one of my favorite Tim McGraw songs “I Like It, I Love It”, and he got the audience cheering. Everyone was pretty amazed at how close he sounded to the actual song…  We all voted  with our little dial pads on our chair arm rests, and he won! It was so exciting!

At the end of the day, we were taken back to the Animation Studios where an amazing dinner awaited us. They turned the studio into a little restaurant and it was delicious! We walked in and were handed our very own set of Mickey Mouse ears… with our names embroidered on the back! I thought it was so cool that even the grown ups got a pair!! I never had any Mickey Mouse ears with my name on them, so this was super special! While we ate Mr & Mrs Incredible came by to visit, and a little later on, Mickey came to visit! The girls even got autographed Mickey Mouse gloves!!! They were in heaven! After dinner, we went back to our rooms and were surprised by a special gift bag from Hanes full of goodies for us! Our first Pins for our lanyards with a Rockin Rollercoaster Guitar Pick, some sunglasses, lip balm, a Comfort Crew Tee for me, and some other goodies. It was awesome. Needless to say, we pretty much crashed after this day of travel, rides and tons of excitement. We couldn’t believe we still had 4 more days to go! Phew..

For more photos from Day 1 of our trip to Walt Disney World with the Hanes Comfort Crew, check out my Gallery!

** Thank you to Hanes who paid for our trip to Walt Disney World (my airfare, my family’s hotel, park tickets and most meals). I covered Airfare for my husband and girls and some incidentals (souvenirs) while on our trip. I was sent to WDW as part of the Hanes Comfort Crew**