Last week I went to Disney World in Orlando, FL with my two amazing sisters. It was my younger sister’s senior year spring break field trip, and my older sister signed up to be a chaperone. When I found out I thought, “Well there’s no way they’re going to Disney World without me!” and so I bought a plane ticket to go down the same week.
Monday:
Monday was a travel day for everyone, so nothing too exciting happened. The hotel was nice. My room came with a mini-fridge, microwave and a quadruple King sized bed (yes, that was the size of this bed – it could have fit 30 of me on it!). My sisters weren’t set to arrive in Orlando until the following day, so after unpacking I hit the gym to do a lower-body workout and then walked to a Whole Foods for dinner and snacks. I spent the rest of the night relaxing in my room reading Ender’s Game on my kindle. Quiet evenings in bed with a good book are some of my happiest nights ever.
Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday we spent all day at the Disney World parks. For the most part it was myself, Kathleen (older sister), Jennifer (younger sister), and Ryan (my younger sister’s boyfriend) hanging out all day. We had a blast, and I have lots of photos below to commemorate our time together!
Tuesday – Animal Kingdom:
Highlights:
- Going on the Expedition Everest roller coaster aka “Yeti” ride.
- Going on the “bumpy jeeps” ride that made you think dinosaurs were going to eat you.
- Doing mud masks with my older sister back at the hotel while enjoying a beer and watching The Voice after a LONG day of walking and slathering on sun screen!
- Taking an enormous amount of selfies and pictures together.
Wednesday – Hollywood Studios:
Highlights:
- Getting a free breakfast at the House of Blues restaurant with Kathleen, Jennifer & Ryan and seeing a live Blues Brothers performance! “I’m a sooooouuuullll man!”
- Hearing my little sister perform an assortment of Disney music on stage with her band (my favorite was the Pirates of the Caribbean tribute and the Cantina Band theme from Star Wars!).
- Going on the Aerosmith themed roller coaster.
- Waiting 2 hours in line to go on the Aerosmith roller coaster while playing the catch-phrase phone game (Step 1: stick phone to head. Step 2: watch as your companions hilariously act out random movie characters, tv shows, or other famous culture references).
- Realizing how dumb we were for waiting 2 hours to ride this roller coaster when we could have “Fast-Passed” to the front of the line from the beginning (apparently).
- Going on the Star Wars 3D simulation ride that made it feel like you were flying through the galaxy.
- Watching the Fantasmic show at night – a live fireworks, pyrotechnics and water-projectile show that explored the dreams and nightmares of Mickey Mouse (kind of trippy, but definitely cool!!).
- Getting outraged together that Mulan was not present anywhere as a Disney Princess in the show.
- Realizing together that Mickey Mouse is in fact, the Avatar – proof in the fact he was water bending, fire bending, air bending, and earth bending during the entire Fantasmic show.
- Taking an enormous amount of selfies and pictures together.
Thursday – Magic Kingdom:
Highlights:
- Going everywhere in the park with my older sister to find where we can get a beer only to realize that Magic Kingdom does not serve alcohol at all! (Boo! We wanted to enjoy at least one beer together while we were there but alas, we waited too long and Magic Kingdom had none! Oh well).
- Scouring the park for souvenirs and finding adorable Mickey Mouse t-shirts to take home.
- Going on the Space Mountain roller coaster.
- Eating a delicious tuna-melt sandwich for lunch.
- Watching the parade go through the park and see all the various Disney characters and floats.
- Walking amongst all the buildings that looked like scenes from the Disney movies I loved growing up.
- Watching a laser light show projected onto the face of Cinderella’s castle while eating ice cream.
- Going on a merry-go-round aka. HORSE TORNADO – if you try to tell me you’re “too old” for a merry-go-round you are wrong!
- Watching the night “electric” parade go through the park.
- Getting the “Family Reunion” pin with Kathleen, Jennifer and Ryan, to remember that we all came together on this trip.
- Taking an enormous amount of selfies and pictures together, because “too many selfies” is a term that doesn’t apply when you’re on vacation with your sisters.
Friday
Friday was a travel day again. My sisters went on with her school to see Epcot but I had a plane ticket booked home. Overall, it was a great trip. Apparently I had been to Disney World before with Kathleen and my parents when I was 5 but I don’t remember the trip at all (and apparently I just got really sick and puked everywhere, hahaha, so yeah I don’t remember!). It was fun to go as an adult and re-live my childhood a bit. I may be in my 20s now but I STILL watch Disney movies, and no matter what age I am if “I’ll make a man out of you” ever comes on I will sing my heart out.
I’m also really proud of myself for sticking to my normal workout and healthy eating schedule while on this trip. Going on vacation does NOT have to be a death-sentence for your fitness routine, nor does it have to be a week long binge of unhealthy meals if you don’t want it to be. Yes, it’s fun to indulge a little and treat yourself on vacation (and I definitely did this in Orlando!), but it’s also possible to stay on track at the same time. Take advantage of your hotel’s fitness center (or research alternative options), plan some hotel-room workouts before you leave (for example, Wednesday I did a full upper body circuit of pushups, burpees, tricep dips, resistance-band bicep curls, and commandos!), pack your own snacks, and look out for healthy meals wherever you’re at – they do exist!
