Believe it or not I wasn’t always a Disney Parks person. I went to the parks once as a child in like 1995, don’t remember much, and that was it. I loved Disney movies, but I really didn’t know anything or ever really think anything about the Parks for majority of my life.
But then, in 2014 I went on a trip to LA with my BFF Tami and we decided to go to Disneyland. We went on my actual birthday and the park was empty, like nearly completely empty, almost every ride was a walk-on. I had the best, most magical day ever, and so much fun. The next year I convinced a group of my friends to go on a girls trip to Disney World around the same time, my birthday, and once again it was empty and we had the best time.
Through a series of completely unintentional events, from then on, I literally happened to wind up at a Disney park once a year every year since then.
It’s become my favorite place and due to the lack of crowds around my birthday, it’s become my favorite place to spend my birthday.
I went for last year’s birthday and this year we decided to do it again!
So you know I enjoy doing trip blogs, so here’s my Disney B-day trip!
We stayed at the Grand Floridian again, which is my favorite hotel. The smell makes me soooo happy and bonus: Basin White, the bath place inside the Grand Floridian has special Grand Floridian scented bath bombs! They’re called Isn’t it Grand & I believe they’re a Grand Floridian exclusive. I always buy a few and its honestly really nice to soak in after long park days.
The view from our room
That first day we went to Disney Springs - walked around the shops and had dinner at Wolfgang Puck’s. We ate here in December and it was sooo good; and still this time around just as amazing. They have an appetizer of bread with tomato butter - it’s literally the greatest butter ever!
The next day, we went to Magic Kingdom to meet up with some of our other friends who happened to be down there at the same time. Thanks to Genie + we did most rides as a walk-on, though the park was pretty empty itself. That evening, we popped over to EPCOT because we had reservations at Via Napoli! As a New Yorker, I will attest to the fact that the personal pizzas there are really delicious, so highly recommend!
The following day was my birthday! I was sooo excited; my birthday is my favorite day of the year and always has an extra vibe of magic in the air. I wore a selkie dress I love and a fun golden headband paired with my Disney “it’s my birthday” button of course. We started the morning meeting up with my friends and doing a Capture Your Moment. Disney had a special thing you can book in advance where you book a private photoshoot with a photopass photographer and you can take pictures at any location you wish. It lasts about 20 minutes or so.
We did this last year and I loved the way they came out so we did it again. Last year we had been able to get that early 8:30 spot so there was no one in yet and the lightning was perfect. This year, that time wasn’t available so we had to do 10:40 and it wasn’t as great, to be honest. The lighting was very harsh, the backgrounds were people-y. So, personally I think a Capture Your Moment is only worth it if you can get it first thing in the morning. Honestly, right after we decided to go on Space Mountain, Buzz, and then teacups and I noticed the lighting at the teacups were amazing - so I had Justin take a few shots and I actually liked those way better than this year’s Capture Your Moment. (But still not as good as last year’s Capture Your Moment, they were truly perfection! And still my phone background!)
The park that day was actually surprisingly empty for being Labor Day. I think it was a combo of people thinking it’d be crowded because of Labor Day and also because the Halloween Party was that night so Magic Kingdom closed early, so people not going to the party weren’t going to pay for less time, they probably went to other parks. So that worked in our favor!
We went on a bunch of rides, then returned to the Grand Floridian Cafe for a sit-down birthday brunch, where I finally got my Mickey Waffles! We also had sooo many laughs during this brunch, some spilled water that caused a whole hilarious commotion, and our waitress was kind enough to bring two birthday cupcakes to me for us all to share.
After this, we went back to our room to all chill for a bit then get ready for the Halloween Party.
It was a bit strange to celebrate Halloween on my birthday given they’re usually close to two months apart. That night I had to keep actively reminding myself it was my birthday, but it was still something super fun to do! And I really loved the Halloween party!
For our costumes, we dressed as Briar Rose and Prince Philip. I actually made Justin’s cape and tunic! I’ve been trying to learn to sew, and while my costume seemed a bit complicated to make, I knew I could make a cape and tunic, so I did it and I’m really proud of how they turned out. All night long Justin’s cape kept majestically blowing in the wind it looked soooo good pictures can’t do it justice.
While I also noticed a bunch of other people dressed as Princess Aurora, no one had the exact Briar Rose outfit so that was a win. And the other Aurora’s either had friends as the fairies with them or Maleficient; no one had a Prince Philip, and no one in general was a Prince Philip so that was even more of a win!
One of the best parts though was my friend Tami dressed as cotton candy; she completely made her costume and said she was going to manifest someone giving her free cotton candy - and the confectionary manager loved her costume so much and did give her free cotton candy! It was soooo fun!
The Halloween party is great because the ride lines are pretty much all walk-on’s. We did a few rides, but we mainly did trick or treating. They provide you a trick or treat bag and then you go to separate marked stations and they give you handfuls of candy.
I’ve watched streams on YouTube of the halloween party and most of them looked pretty crowded, but we were lucky ours was pretty empty for the most part so it was really easy to get candy.
They have a special firework show, which we didn’t watch, but we did watch the special Boo-To-You Parade which I think is one of Disney’s best parades. I’m not a parade person but the song is so catchy and the vibes of it are really halloween-y and cute.
Overall, the Halloween party was definitely a win and if you can ever go to one I definitely recommend!
the candy just from my bag alone!
The next day, we went over to EPCOT where we finally got to do the new Guardians of the Galaxy Ride! It was pretty cool; I heard people say it was super intense, so I was actually kind of nervous and scared going in. I was expecting it to be like Rockin Rollercoaster, which is way too intense for me, but it wasn’t bad at all! It literally looks like space mountain plus the Guardians. It spins a bit, and did make me a bit dizzy afterwards, but overall it’s an enjoyable ride and overall a cool experience.
After that, we met up with our other friends and walked around World Showcase. I finally got to do the Frozen Ride with Genie +! It’s been years but the wait times for Frozen have always been soooo long, but I finally got to do it and it was really cute however I wished it was much more cold inside. I expected it to be Frozen 🤣. It was a really, really hot day, probably the hottest, so the cold air would’ve been much appreciated.
It was the food and wine festival that day, so we tried food from Mac and Eats booth - I got the regular, plain Mac and cheese of course and as a Mac and Cheese connoisseur I will say it was really good!. Justin also got the French Fries flight - and I personally say the Sweet Potato fries were the best.
We had planned to do Hollywood Studios that night, we had reservations for Oga’s Cantina Bar, but a massive storm was coming in, so we just decided to call it a night and go back to the hotel. It rained a lot, but later that night it lightened up and because of that Justin and I finally got to see the Water Pageant in person! The Water Pageant is this silly cute little light show that goes to the resorts and plays cute little music as the lights turn into creatures that move. It’s soooo cute and made me soooo happy!
hehe I'm obsessed with the cuteness of the Water Pageant Octopus
Right after that ended it was time for the Magic Kingdom fireworks which we were able to also see from our resort. It was actually really nice to be able to watch the fireworks without dealing with the crowds inside the parks. Afterwards, we ate majority of our halloween candy and watched Star Wars… so even though we initially had been bummed by the bad wether, the Universe gave us an even better plan and we had a really, unexpectedly fun night.
On our fifth day we went to Animal Kingdom! This park was so great for this day because it had so much shade so it really didn’t feel as hot at all. I wore my daisy outfit with my Daisy Loungefly ears that I loved and kindly got so many compliments on. First thing we did the Safari, again another walk-on, and so many of the animals were out since it was early. Afterwards, we walked through the Gorilla expedition trek, which also had so many active animals. I especially liked the cute little yellow birds flying around in the bird section.
We met up with our friends again and did Flight of Passage which we had a lightning lane for. Haha soooo I will admit I’m not a huge Flight of Passage fan. To me, it’s literally Soarin meets all the Harry Potter rides that Universal did 10 years ago. I think it’s cool, but it’s super over-hyped. People say it’s amazing but to me it’s just okay, been there, done that. But it is always a laughing point with my friends because I adamantly say it’s overrated and everyone teases me I’m crazy and wrong 🤣
After that, with our group we did the Safari all together and the giraffes got even closer to us, and the newborn baby rhino was out and right next to our car!
After years of laughing at the name Pizzafari, we finally had lunch at Pizzafari, hehe it was fine theme park food, but the interior is painted in a really cool way!
A storm was coming again, so we decided to leave, and this time we didn’t quite make it, as it started torrentially down pouring just as we were in the parking lot - but it was really funny.
In that moment I was reminded that while sometimes rain can be a bad thing, other times it can also just be memorable and magical. Us all getting soaked and running trying to find our cars was actually hilarious and a favorite moment for sure.
That night, the rain let up, and Magic Kingdom had after hours just for Deluxe Resort Guests only, so Justin and I went back to Magic Kingdom. We watched the fireworks - I’ll say the new additions to the beginning of the show with Walt and Mickey really help connect it more, and I enjoyed it a lot more this time than last year!
I got to wear my cute Alice in Wonderland outfit I bought in EPCOT so I was excited about that. After the fireworks, most people cleared out, so when the park was open to just the resort guests it was sooooo nice. There’s nothing I love more than an empty nighttime Magic Kingdom.
Day 6 - we finally were able to go to Hollywood Studios! As huge Star Wars fans it was so rare to go this long without going there. We went super early because since it was Disney+ day, resort guests were able to get into the parks an extra hour early, so we wanted to take advantage of that. Again, for picture purposes, Galaxy’s Edge had such a nice soft morning light and the area around the Millennium Falcon was really empty - so we were able to get some really cute pics!
That day I had an Ahsoka themed outfit and got sooo many compliments! The navy blue top is a bodysuit I got from Abercrombie, the orange skirt I got from ASOS, and the Ahsoka ears were Ashley Eckstein’s exclusive designs for Shop Disney and among some of my favorite ears. Bonus: Ahsoka’s BFF REX, my Captain Rex backpack was also a Loungefly exclusive but it can still be found on EBAY and re-sale sites like that.
It was really cute all day long several cast members, even back at the hotel, kept calling me Ahsoka!
We went on Smuggler’s Run which is always one of the best rides, but honestly only if you’re a pilot (though we were mad because while we did get to be pilots and probably did some of our best flying ever; the gunners were strangers and they got bored and stopped shooting so we didn’t get a good score😡🤣)
Also went on Rise of the Resistance, which is the best ride, but this one did breakdown while we were about to go on, so despite our lightning lane, we did have to wait a bit but it was fine - we were inside in air conditioning so it wasn’t terrible.
Couldn’t break tradition (yes that’s a Bad Batch reference) and we had to get the Mantell Mix (or Outpost Mix). I love this popcorn so much and I’m not even a popcorn person; it tastes like fruity cereal - it’s so good.
While at Hollywood Studios we also did some of our fav classic rides like Midway Mania, where I always try to beat Justin but always fail … hehe someday I’ll manifest the win!!
For lunch we did Sci-Fi diner, which is a really nice, cool, place to relax. It’s modeled to look like a 1950’s Hollywood drive-in. It’s dark and cold and refuels you from the hot sun. We tried to branch out and actually both wound up getting the impossible burger, which is a veggie burger. We are not hamburger people at all lol, but we tried it because it’s just vegetables and healthy and surprisingly we were tired of eating chicken fingers and there was nothing else on the menu we’d eat. It was pretty good - it leaked green all over 🤣. I wasn’t crazy about the brioche bun, it just tasted stale and soft but I feel like all brioche buns taste that way, but the other elements of it were actually pretty good.
We were going to do Tower of Terror and more rides but saw a ginormous dark cloud rolling in and figured it was our time to leave. We headed back to the resort and the second we did it started pouring - so we missed the rain yet again. We relaxed for a bit, because later that night we had reservations at EPCOT for Les Chefs de France.
Magically enough, when we went to leave for EPCOT, the rain had actually slowed down a lot!
We took a lyft to boardwalk and walked into EPCOT that way so we were right next to France. It was still raining, but we had ponchos so it was all good.
We’ve been wanting to eat at Les Chefs de France for a while, and were so excited to finally go and have our France date night. It was even more fun because our waiter was from Marseille and had the authentic French accent that made me so happy and made me feel more all the French vibes to manifest actually being there.
We both decided to try the Ratatouille because it was all vegetables, so it seemed safe for our palette 🤣 and it was actually really, really good! It’s vegetables like eggplant, zucchini, and peppers covered in tomato sauce and cheese (I mean what isn’t good covered in tomato sauce and cheese?) and came with Quinoa on top. We both really enjoyed it, would recommend, would get again! We also shared a creme brûlée for dessert, because France lol, and that was also super great.
Afterwards, we walked around the shops, and esp in France they had some Disneyland Paris merchandise, included Lavender flower ears, which we couldn’t resist buying.
Afterwards, we went on Soarin and manifested getting the front row, middle so it had the perfect angle. I’ve never gotten the perfect angle on Soarin, I always get the side and it looks distorted! So it was extra magical to experience it the right way. It’s such a fun, relaxing ride that again, helps me manifest traveling the world!
For the final day we popped back into Magic Kingdom where that morning we had breakfast at Cinderella’s Royal Table.
Last time we wanted to eat here, but there was nothing on the dinner or lunch menu that either me or Justin would eat. BUT this time, Justin surprised me with breakfast reservations because there was one thing we’d each eat.
Honestly, going into Cinderella’s castle was so cool. It was just such a fun vibe being inside the castle. When you first get in, Cinderella was there to meet and greet and take pictures…and then you go up the spiraling staircase and enter the main dining room with all the windows that you see from the back of the castle.
It’s a pre-paid system, so everything is the same cost. They deliver you a bread basket first - which had a whole grain croissant (good but not as a good as a normal croissant lol), a blueberry muffin in the shape of Mickey ears, and a a pan au chocolat which was my personal favorite. The waters also came out in these really cool blue goblets which we definitely wanted for our own home. For the meal, we got the Caramel Apple French Toast and it was really good. It didn’t look like French toast, it looked more like a giant muffin, but it did have the taste of French toast along with an apple crumble. Overall, we enjoyed it a lot and if you can get reservations I’d definitely recommend it’s so worth it.
On the way out, they give out little cinderella fairy godmother wands to little kids, but I also managed to get one hehe so it was really cute and fun.
Before Cinderella’s castle, we had a few minutes as we had gotten into the park around 8:20 (our reservation was 8:30 but while in the park they wound up pushing it back to 8:40, then 8:50) so we went to the castle to take some pictures and it was completely empty. If you’re looking to take amazing people-less castle pics, I definitely recommend getting there around this time of morning. The lighting is so good; soft and won’t get any harsh shadows on your face; and there’s very few people around.
My Cinderella ears are from Park Hopper Design and my Cinderella corset is from Her Universe
I also finally had dole whip! Yes I never had it before because I always opt for more chocolatey desserts, but I felt in need of a midday refresher so I got the orange one and it was sooo good!
The rest of our day we spent going on rides (with genie + we didn’t wait for anything) until finally just going back to chill at the Grand Floridian for a bit, listen to the piano guy and be on our way.
The most magical thing though, we left Magic Kingdom as it looked like rain was rolling in, so we took the boat back to Grand Flordian (which we just made; it was about to leave but the Captain saw us coming so he let us on). It was a 3 minute ride, we walked from the boat dock to Gasaprilla Grill and the second we got inside it started pouring! It was sooo magical how well the timing worked out!
While flying home and leaving Disney is always sad, it was actually really cool to fly during the Full Moon. Phone pictures don’t do it justice, but staring out the window the moon was so vibrant and had a luminous aura around it; lots of fun to see.
Overall, it was another amazing Disney trip. This one felt super special to me because I was really able to let go and not worry about anything. I just lived in the present moment everyday. I felt like I was inside my own little Disney bubble where I solely focused on fun and magic and I didn’t let anything from the outside world penetrate my thoughts or vibes. I know that is the exact reason why things just kept magically working out. So now, going forward, I’m trying to work on keeping those vibes, surrendering and trusting, so that way I can manifest more of everything in my ordinary life just magically working out like it does in Disney<3
