Back in the middle of Lily’s junior year of high school, Kevin and I talked to her about ideas for a senior trip – a trip she could take with the both of us, maybe to NYC, maybe to somewhere tropical, or even to Europe.  We talked about budgeting and planning, and then Covid happened and most of our trip ideas went out the window. Then about six months ago, I said to Kevin, “What if we just take Lily to Disney World for her senior trip?” We both thought it was a great idea, but decided that maybe I should go with her alone, since ditching the boys while we went to Disney would be easier to explain if it was a “girl’s trip.”  And so we told Lily and the planning began.  And wow, it was so nice to have something fun to plan for!

We planned the trip to happen after a week of AP tests for Lily, and I took her out of school for it, giving her a fun and much deserved break from the rigors and stresses of the school year. And so, on Tuesday morning around 4am we were up and headed to the airport in Philadelphia. We had a short two hour direct flight to Orlando, and before we knew it, we were in Florida!  We even had our custom ordered Magic Bands all ready to go – so fun!

When we arrived at the airport, the hour long line to take our shuttle to the resort was not what we wanted to wait in. It was barely noon, and we were anxious to get to the parks – I mean, if we were going to wait in a line, shouldn’t it be a line for a ride?  So we splurged and took an Uber instead 😉. Wishing 30 minutes, we were checked in to our resort and ready to go.

We checked in our luggage, not even waiting to go to our room, and hopped on the Skyliner to spend the rest of the day at Disney Studios. (The Skyliner, whose station was a two minute walk from our room, was one of our favorite things ever – so fun and easy to get to Disney Studios or Epcot, and an opportunity for a much needed mask break.

When we got to the park, we got right down to the business of playing, and we had so much fun! 

We started things off at the Tower of Terror, which is such a fun ride! Because we arrived at the park in the busiest part of the day, the line was an hour long, which was a bummer, and it was 95 degrees out, which wasn’t great – especially in masks – but since I have a grown daughter, I looked up and ice cream shop and sent Lily to get us a treat to share. She came back with the most amazing peanut butter chocolate milkshake, complete with a giant peanut butter cup in it! It was so good – messy – but so good! And it helped our time in the line go faster.  Oh, and because of our magic bands, Lily could pay using hers and my PIN number – so awesome!

The ride was so much fun, and as soon as it was over, we were ready for more.

Our next stop was Rockin’ Rollercoaster, which is always fun, even if I had to hold my mask between my teeth so that it didn’t blow away since the coaster was so fast – ha ha! And we had to get a picture of the outside, because the guitar looks identical to the one that Derek built – so cool!

After that, it was time to head to Galaxy’s Edge for some Star Wars fun! Unfortunately, because we had terrible reception at both the airport that morning, and in the park that afternoon, we weren’t able to get a boarding party for Rise of the Resistance, but we still got to fly the Millennium Falcon on Smuggler’s Run, which is always awesome. And Lily found a Porg nest in the line – pretty fun!

After that, it was time for Toy Story Land and some very late lunch. We ate at Woody’s Lunchbox and had the best Brisket Grilled Cheese and Raspberry Boxtart – yum! And since Lily and I love a lot of the same food, we were able to share. Then we had to ride Toy Story Mania, and I even beat Lily.  

We had so much fun, but by then, the fact we had woken up so early was catching up to us, so all we wanted to do was go back to our hotel.  And wow, what a crazy fun hotel it was! back when we started planning this trip months ago, we decided to splurge and stay on Disney property. Originally we were staying at a less expensive resort, but last week we got a phone call from Disney world asking if we wanted a free upgrade. They switched us to the beautiful Art of Animation Resort, and put us in a Cars Suite. I thought that was pretty amazing and exciting, but even more so when we actually showed up at the resort and saw what our suite was like.

The fun little touches throughout the room are just amazing, with caution cones all over, beautiful artwork from the movie, even the curtains have a little caution cones subtly sewn onto them. And we have an amazing view!

But our favorite thing about the room, other than each having our own bathroom (What?!), is that Lily’s bed is a Murphy bed that pulls out of the wall where the table is. So awesome! We had to pull it out over and over, and then when we FaceTimed with the boys that night, Arthur wanted us to show it again and again.

I also loved that because it was a suite, I had my own room.  That meant that Lily and I each had our own space and didn’t have to disturb each other.

And even better, we each had our own bathroom!! Wahoo! And they had the cutest carwash theme.

After we got settled into our room and relaxed for a bit, we got some dinner and decided to finish off our day at the pool just outside of our building, the Cozy Cone. It was seriously the cutest! And since there are multiple pools at the hotel, and this was a little smaller, it wasn’t busy at all.  It was the perfect way to finish off an amazing day!