56 Hours in Disney, Part 1

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Ah, April. The time in a college student's life where they are either panicking for internships (thankfully I am immune from that this year) or panicking on schoolwork (now this is what I'm talking about!)

So it should be an absolute wonder and surprise that I was summoned to be with my parents for the weekend. But not in Massachusetts, mind you. No, in Florida. More specifically Walt Disney World!

Why? What? How did you do it? All very good questions, and I will tackle them all in 56 Hours at Disney.

*Part 1, because what type of content creator would I be if I didn't overmilk something?

Obviously there needed to be a very good reason for me to jump ship from Tenleytown and go down south. Fortunately, there was!

You see, I have a sibling who is a high school senior who is a huge theater kid; meaning he has been involved in most* of the productions for his tenure at the high school. Every 3 years, the drama company gets the opportunity to perform at Disney Springs. By "opportunity", it's more if the Company remembers the application. They think very highly of themselves.

As such, he was going to perform at the Happiest Place on Earth, and my parents did not want to miss it. So off they went with C. Which left me. Now, I would have been fine if I couldn't go. But they wanted us all to be together. So after some creative schedule maneuvering, it was arranged for me to take the last afternoon flight out of DCA to get to my folks by Friday night, and return on Monday afternoon in time for my "Communication and Society" class.

The irony is that I didn't even see him perform. This was purely so I could spend time with my family while they were at the parks. More specifically: EPCOT and Magic Kingdom because those were the parks that I was most interested in going to.

Now, let's dive even deeper with a day-by-day revue of the weekend.

My day began at 6:00 AM and had me packing up my carry-on bag for the grand trip up north. However, prior to my trip, I had to participate in a group presentation on Casetify for my marketing class. For legal reasons, and the fact that I did not consult with my groupmates prior to writing this post, I cannot elaborate more.

Following the presentation, I used an excused absence from my philosophy class and dashed back to my dorm, grabbed my things, and made a run for the airport.

The flight itself was uneventful, save for the last 20 minutes where they misassigned us a gate and we had to wait for one to be available. But it was smooth nonetheless.

After the flight, I hastened to the shuttle check-in location… only to be told it was to be another 40 minutes. In which I spent finishing up the Bricklayer post and uploading it to the Rube Goldberg machine before I was able to go to the hotel.

Unfortunately, I was also the last stop on the planned route; going to Gaylord Palms and Riviera prior to making it to mine. But the bus driver (whose name is Randolph and was a former real estate agent) made the trip entertaining to say the least. Here is a video of the bus entering the Walt Disney World property:

Here is the link: https://go.zachsthoughts.com/41825-wdw.view

Yes, I was allowed to record this.

So, after a 18-hour day, I made it to my hotel: Walt Disney World Swan Reserve, at 11 in the evening, and promptly ate a pizza from the lobby restaurant before retiring for the night.

Speaking of the Hotel…

There are a few dozen (a lot) of hotels on Disney property. Most of them are owned and operated by the company directly. However, there are a few that are managed by 3rd-parties. Think: Four Seasons, JW Marriott, etc.

However, there are a few that are under an even weirder loophole where they are considered top hotels… even though they're separate. The Swan and Dolphin Hotels had this distinction to themselves by being managed by Marriott (after several mergers) for several decades. Until 2021 when the Swan Reserve opened across the street.

The Swan Reserve is the new chic place to stay for those looking to be in Disney, but not quite. It is essentially a full-service Marriott hotel… just without the branding.

Much of the hotel is reliant on its sister properties across the street, and it shows. But other than that, and the relatively inconsistent transportation, (which you can't really blame them for) it was a lovely experience; and I do recommend it if you want to be in a newer hotel yet not all Disney.

Thus ended the first travel day.

One thing you should know about my family is that we will try to do everything in Disney. Or as much as they logistically and humanly can.

The day began at 7:30 AM with us walking to EPCOT by 8:15. Along the way, we walked past Disney's Boardwalk. Which was a subtle reminder to the Jersey Shore, I guess. We made our way through security and the entrance by 8:45, and made our way to the first ride of the day (and standby at that!)

What was that first ride? Frozen Ever After.

Yes, I did want to Russian Roulette myself. Next question.

The line was only 10 mins, and the ride itself was 2 minutes maybe? But that was still 15 minutes of my life I'm never getting back. Arguably the scariest part was the fact that the line was 50 minutes long after we went on it.

After… that, we went over to Spaceship Earth and used a handy Lightning Lane. The ride itself is neat, and while it is somewhat old and out-of-fashion, I still think it's cool with all of the different ride scenes.

Then we proceeded to make our way to the exact opposite side of the park to go on Remy's Ratatouille Adventure; which is a cute ride for what it is. But the queue is confusing and seems like a maze most (if not all) of the time.

Once we finished Remy, we had lunch in the France pavilion where I had a chicken-and-cheese sandwich and a Napoleon. We were at Disney during the EPCOT International Garden Festival, and they had many popup food stands and plants which were unique to the celebration.

Following lunch, we went to Mission: Space… and I learned that I should probably never do that ride ever again with the amount of pressure put onto my body and soul.

Now that we have collectively lost our minds, we decided to relax with Soarin', Which is a pretty cool ride and one that you want to do over and over again with no risk to your sanity.

After Soarin', we went to the Italy pavilion so the icon known as "C." can eat, since he's rather picky. Pizza it was! It was also at this time where I ran into my sibling who brought us down to Florida in the first place. We went on Soarin' ourselves while we had a "little" discussion on where he should commit for higher education. (It is in his guest post from December 2024 now.) and my day finished with taking him over to the Magic Kingdom; because apparantly a school trip to Disney World requires Park Hopper.

After a few hours, my family (except my sbling, who was I think was doing Space Mountain?) went to dinner at the resort's sushi restaurant, Kimonos, and found ourselves full with a hearty meal. I do recommend the restaurant for those looking for sushi. No further notes on the establishment.

Finally, the night ended with a rooftop viewing of the fireworks from EPCOT. Originally we were going to go back into the park, but we found ourselves to be too tired. So rooftop mingling event it was!

Disney trips are a weird combination between high-energy, and chill. Something that I hope you figured out by the nature of the post. Due to the long days (and the fact that I need to do schoolwork and not have time to churn a 2,500-word post), the second half of the weekend will see its blog post released next Sunday. Heartbreaking, I know.

But what have we learned? Oh, yes. I like Disney, and everything is working out now... but will it continue?

To Be Continued...

We're almost in May! That's scary.

Next week, I am moving back to Massachusetts for the summer. So some things may be shifting around. But something that won't be shifting is the 5th Birthday Celebration of ZachsThoughts! You can check out the current public-facing page here!

Thanks for reading. See you next Sunday!