I don’t know what else you can call this trip. April and I have been talking for a few months about going to the beach for a long weekend with just Kyndal and Kenz. We spent so much time together over the volleyball years, seriously, these new volleyball teams have no idea how much time we spent together, in gyms, especially, every Saturday at tournaments. There were no fall break trips, other than volleyball tournaments, and I wouldn’t have had it any other way. Fast forward 4 1/2 years and now Kyndal is 2 months from graduating college and who knows where she will land, Kenz has a full-fledged cosmetology business, and our time for said trip just seemed like it might not happen.
When I had my knuckle replacement surgery I had a lot of downtime and watched a lot of TV, especially after I had the Shingles. I am still not sure how it all started. I went back to the beginning our our group chat and I was a full week post-surgery. We had talked about the possibility of a quick Disney trip during a summer pool day, I was watching Resort TV1’s MNSSHP video, and 8 days after surgery I texted, “Ya know, I’ve been thinking, we could go to Orlando for just the Halloween party”, which started the girls sending TikToks from the Halloween Parties, and lots of back-and-forth conversations, and on Labor Day we booked the trip. #bookthetrip #dothethings
The Trip That Made It Out of the Group Chat
We flew out of Birmingham because flights were cheaper and it was almost halfway between us and Kyndal. Kyndal had class, so we got there first and waited for her to arrive. We wore matching Halloween travel shirts (because it’s fun) and I wore the cutest pumpkin earrings, gifted to me by Kyndal. Flying is a lot of hurry up and wait. Fortunately, our delay wasn’t too long, and we had plenty of room to spread out. (Had or took?) So, here we are, The Disney Divas, on The One Where the Trip Made It Out of the Group Chat.
Don’t Mind Her. She Will Be On The Next Progressive Commercial.
The paper boarding pass….. so many additional comments, but I love her, so I’ll just leave it alone.
The Most Magical Place On Earth
All-Star Sports
Don’t sleep on this resort. 🙂 Pun intended. It’s been renovated and the rooms are just as good as Pop Century, but a little cheaper. They have their own buses now, so that’s a huge change from the days when all the All-Stars shared one bus.
That’s it for our Travel Day. We picked up random eats (except Kyndal ordered her salmon and veggies) in the cafeteria and settled into our room.
Sweet Kenz. Filling cups in place of Lance and Jonathan.
Someone had to bring my coffee. 🙂
Breakfast at Boma’s
We opted to spend our free time being tourists. We began by going to Boma’s for breakfast. It’s at the Animal Kingdom Lodge, so with only resort transportation, we had to get creative. Thankfully, we are experienced Disney people and Kenz is great at being Tour Guide Barbie. We took a bus to Animal Kingdom, the park closest to All-Star Sports, and then walked to the resort bus for Animal Kingdom Lodge. It was a pretty easy navigation and also a great way to be immersed in Disney without having park tickets.
My favorite Disney breakfast is at Ohana’s. My family loves it so much we have perfected the Ohana Juice for family breakfast meals. Boma serves Boma Juice, and we were thrilled to find out it’s the exact same juice as Ohana’s. Boma might just edge out Ohana’s. They are different choices. Ohana’s is a family-style meal with characters, but Boma’s is a buffet. Both serve amazing food. I think where we are in our stage of life, I’ll probably choose Boma’s instead of Ohana’s until we are back in the stage of character meals.
Touring Animal Kingdom Lodge
After breakfast, we walked around the Animal Kingdom Lodge and explored the grounds.
Skyliner & Touring the Riveria
We took the bus from Animal Kingdom Lodge to Hollywood Studios. Then we took the Skyliner to The Riveria. Again, Kenz, the Tour Guide Barbie was great at figuring out the easiest way to manage resort transportation. Oh my. This resort is gorgeous. The videos I’m sharing are from the entrance from the Skyliner. This may be my favorite hotel smell ever. The smells were fabulous! The more we walked, the more we loved. It’s truly a beautiful area.
Tik Tok Made Us Do It
I guess you can also call this trip, “In our Disney Era”, or something like that. The girls saw how the cast members were giving/trading the bracelets like the Swifties, so April made a quick Amazon order and we were ready to go. The girls made bracelets to give out. I can’t tell you how fun it was for us to have little customer service rewards for the cast members. I have to admit, the girls were pretty selective with who was bracelet-worthy. #nobraceletforyou #bootoyou
Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party
One day, I’ll add some of our tips and tricks from attending an MNSSHP, but for now, I’m just going to post our random pictures for fun and memories. If you are going between now and November 1st, message me and I’ll give you some feedback. My crew attended in 2014 and I was very meh about it, however, after this trip I would 100% go again! So much fun!
Let’s Go Home
It was a quick trip, but we’ve learned that for the most part, that’s the way to do it. I would rather go more for a few days than have one trip for a long time. I also feel like it helps you do more things. Don’t get me wrong, I’m still planning for the day we take a big trip over seas. We are just not there yet.
Fun With Instagram Reels
Travel Bag Comparison
I love a good comparison. I bought the Lulu bag (on sale) this summer for K’s trip to Paris/Spain. She didn’t use it, so I hung on to it in case I needed it. I don’t mind a fanny pack, but I don’t love the fanny pack/shoulder sling on me. I do love a good crossbody, and I don’t like changing wallets. So, the Lulu bag was a huge win for me and I’m glad I kept it. I looked around and found the #dupe link on Amazon. I haven’t tried it, but it seems very similar.
Amazon Links
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