Back in August I had the opportunity to go to Disney World for 6 days straight with my mom. If you get the chance to travel with one of your parents as an adult with none of your siblings… JUMP ON THAT OPPORTUNITY ASAP. Seriously, we rode all the rides, ate so many foods, sweated our butts off and made the best memories. We spent 6 days in Orlando and went to one of the parks each day that we were there. TIP: If you are going to Disney World for any longer than 4 days, just be prepared to not stay at the parks all day long each day. We closed down parks a few times but going into it we were so jazzed to stay from open to close all day errr’ day but we got there and quickly realized that it wasn’t realistic.
This was also my first time going to Disney as an adult where we stayed off property. I wrote a post called “5 Reasons to Stay on Disney Property” and you can read about that, here. Staying off property wasn’t too bad, but you can read about my reasons in that blog post Where I weigh the pros and cons. Another blog post that will be helpful for planning your trip would be my “Six Day Fast Pass Guide” and you can read about that, here. One of the things that was different about staying off property was that we needed to connect our magic bands, I have linked my favorite and in my opinion CUTEST below!
Day 1
Park: Magic Kingdom
We got to the parks pretty late this day. I flew into Orlando that morning so we got to the park around 12pm just in time for our first fast pass {Space Mountain}. We headed straight to our fast pass and then set out on our hunt for food. We decided to eat at Pecos Bill, they have gluten free options and I hadn’t checked them out so it was the first place to check off of my list. After lunch we wandered looking for the many snacks that we had on our list. We got the Lost Princess cone and Lafoo’s Brew from Gastons Tavern! We had both been up since around 3am and decided to head home after we did our other two fast passes {Peter Pans Flight and Seven Dwarfs Mine Train} . We called it a day around 5pm and went to the hotel to relax and get to bed early.
Day 2
Park: Animal Kingdom
We got to Animal Kingdom bright and early to get a start on our day. We initially planned to run to Flight of Passage but we decided to just wait until later because everyone and their mom ran there. We did go to Pandora first but just to look around. My mom had never been there and wanted to see what it was all about! From Pandora we went to get coffee at Creature Comforts which is Starbucks in Animal Kingdom. We went to our first fast pass, Dinosaur and then had lunch at Flame Tree Barbecue! I got the gluten free Pulled Pork sandwich and it honestly might be my favorite food in all of the parks. Seriously it was delish! After lunch we had our fast passes for Navi River Journey and then went to Tamu Tamu to get a watermelon rum dole whip, so yummy! We walked around awhile and tried to find hidden Mickey’s from the book Hidden Mickey’s of Walt Disney World.
We also went to Rafiki’s Planet Watch and took the drawing class at the Animation Experience and it was so cool to be able to learn how to draw a character from Disney like the artists do. After the drawing course, which took about an hour we decided to go try the bugs and grubs ice cream cone which was too cute and tasty! The last major ride of the day was Expedition Everest and I could honestly ride that ride over and over again! It’s so much fun!
Day 3
Park: Epcot
This day was probably my favorite out of all the days we spent there. We rode all of the rides in the morning, we ran to Test Track, then over to Soarin’, rode Spaceship Earth and then made our way to the Frozen ride. We spent the second half of the day wandering each of the pavilions. This paragraph won’t be too long just because I wrote a very long blog post about our day here including all of the foods and beverages. If you missed it, I “drank around the world” all by myself, one of my more proud moments - if I do say so myself. You can read all about the drinks in this blog post, here. You can read all bout the gluten free foods in this blog post, here.
Day 4
Park: Hollywood Studios
Now this might be different with all of the Star Wars stuff that is in this park now but I can never get myself to stay at Hollywood Studios for very long. I don’t know what it is but I go through things very quickly and then I am ready to leave. This days started by us running to Toy Story Land, the line was 75 minutes when I got it in and I know now that I should have stayed in the line because it wouldn’t have been 90 minutes at all. Instead we went and rode the Alien Swirling Saucers and wandered Toy Story Land taking pictures and looking at all of the details! We ate an early lunch at Woody’s Lunch Box. I had the gluten free BBQ brisket melt and tots! After lunch we went and did our fast pass for Toy Story Mania. We decided after that ride that we needed to just bite the bullet and get in line for Slinky Dog Dash. The line was about 90 minutes long and we actually only waited about 60 minutes which was awesome. After we were done with Toy Story Land we did our fast pass for Rockin’ Rollercoaster. We grabbed an early dinner at Fairfax Fare. I had the 7 layer rice bowl with chicken and it was really good. We knew the next day we had a really long day so we decided to leave around 4:45.
Day 5
Park: Animal Kingdom
This was our second day at Animal Kingdom and we were there all day long. We ate breakfast at the hotel this morning so we could head right to riding rides. We rode Expedition Everest, watched the Up Bird show, rode Dinosaur again and then had an early lunch at Yak and Yeti. I had the gluten free bacon cheeseburger, pretty good! One of our main goals for the second day was to make sure we waited in line for Flight of Passage. We decided to get in line around lunch time because there was a drop in wait time. We waited in line for the much worth it ride, it was a blast and I know that the wait time is intimidating but oh so worth it! Grab a snack and get in line! We went from Flight of Passage to The Festival of Lion King - I love this show, it is a must see! After the show we wandered around and decided to have dinner at Restaurantosaurus in DinoLand U.S.A. I had the gluten free chicken fingers- YUM! We headed over to our fast pass for Kali River Rapids and then got in line for Rivers of Light. After the show we headed home!
Day 6
Park: Magic Kingdom
This day was particularly special, it was my moms birthday! It was so special to spend her birthday at the happiest place on earth! In the morning we ran straight to Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, we were told it would be a 70 minute wait but only waited about 30 minutes, maybe even 25. I definitely recommend running to this ride in the morning, it wasn’t this low at any other point in the day. We spent the day wandering and soaking everything in. We hit all of the big rollercoasters and our fast passes. We had passes for Space Mountain, Pirates of the Caribbean and Splash Mountain. For lunch we had reservations at Be our Guest, I had the gluten free French dip and fries and it was so tasty! I was happily surprised that they had that as a gluten-free option. One ride that we rode that I hadn’t before was the Carousel of Progress, definitely do it if you have the time! We spent some time wandering the shops on main street, trying snacks and many kinds of ice cream and riding some more rides. Dinner was at Columbia Harbour House, I got the chicken nuggets and fries, so good! We watched the fireworks at night and said our final goodbyes to our favorite place!
