Disney World 2022 - Day 1
We pulled off a huge surprise again for the girls for spring break. We were sure Ava overheard some conversations but she actually seemed truly surprised. When they woke up the first morning of Spring Break, they came downstairs to find Minnie ears and Disney gift cards at their breakfast spots and surprised them with the news that we were headed to Disney World. They were both super excited…as were we. This was a trip we’ve been wanting to take for such a long time but were waiting until things got back to more normal (the thought of wearing a mask in FL heat all day seemed miserable). We kept watching things and were very hopeful that by spring break this year, things would be better. Thankfully, right before we left they dropped the mask mandate except for on transportation. They also changed the rules for character dining to allow you to stand up when the characters came by your table (still no hugs but much better than it had been. Hugs are back now so we just need to go again, ha). And best of all, we were able to go during the 50th anniversary of the Magic Kingdom. It was amazing to be able to see all the celebration in person (especially the beautiful castle updates).
Friday morning, we packed up the car, dropped Winnie off with my mom and then drove to my Aunt Emily’s house in Daytona. We are so thankful for Aunt Emily letting us crash for the night so that we could get an extra day in the parks. It was fun for the girls to get to spend some time with Aunt Emily since we don’t get to see her often and they loved visiting with her and her cute dog, Sadie.
Saturday morning, we said goodbye to Aunt Emily and then headed straight to Epcot. We were there during the Flower and Garden Festival and it was fun trying to find all the topiaries as well as all the different character sightings around the World Showcase. Since character hugs were not back yet, the characters would pop up in random places and you could interact with them and take pictures from a distance. I think my favorite character sighting was Pooh because he was trying to catch butterflies and he really interacted with Zoe. We did get to do a meet and greet with Anna and Elsa in their Sommerhaus, but it was still from a distance. Also, as part of the 50th, there were the Fab 50 statues all over the 4 parks. I had a list of where to find them and it was fun to try to check them all off.
We took a short break in the middle of the day to go check into our hotel room and then headed back to Epcot for supper and more rides, like the Living with the Land. This was a new ride to us and it was so cool to see the gardens where they grow so much of the produce and flowers that are used all over the parks. When we headed back to the hotel for good that night, we found that housekeeping had arranged the girls’ blankets and stuffed animals on the bed. Then we got to watch the Epcot fireworks from our room. It was a great end to the first day.
