Hi friends, happy Tuesday!

If you follow me Instagram, then you know that we recently became Disney Annual Pass Holders after being on the fence about getting them over the last 3 years.

The girls and I have really wanted them but Joe didn’t so we held off until we were all ready. We have been married 12 years and I know by now that Joe and I need to be on the same page with these things to make them all the fun they need to be. We were like this with the boat too, it took me longer than him to want to get it and once we were both ready, it became the best decision!

Anyways, as we explore the parks without having to rush and cram everything in in one weekend I thought I would share with you guys our experience and how we are exploring if you too are becoming or thinking about becoming pass holders.

This past weeekend, we went to Magic Kingdom which I will round up today and later this week I will share Hollywood Studios with you too! We let the girls pick the parks since we went this weekend to celebrate thier birthdays!

So without further ado..let’s get started!

First up, we had to check out the castle of course! We snapped a few pictures and took it all in (along with Main Street) and chatted about where we wanted to spend the day.

We also grabbed Magic Bands and a couple snacks to throw in our bag (I meant to grab a few snacks before the parks and forgot). The girls decided on Tomorrowland so we hit the pavement and made our way around.

I’ll recap all the rides we did at the bottom of the post but we spent from about 10:00 AM - 3:00 PM making our way through Tomorrowland and grabbing lunch. We decided to do a grab and go lunch since we had dinner reservations and it was perfect. We sat inside, took a break from the rides and heat and were able to get off of our feet for a bit which was nice.

Paisley mostly wanted to ride with either Joe or I (she kept switching off) and Savannah wanted to be alone in many of the rides so it was a constant mix of who was sitting with who and who was solo. Joe also doesn’t love to go on every ride especially since he has had a couple brain surgeries so when he sat one out we did a mix of the girls riding together and I rode solo or Savannah solo depending on what she preferred.

We could check in at our hotel at 4:00 PM so around 3:00 PM we decided to head to the hotel and take a break since we wanted to stay for fireworks. It was a nice break from the crowds (we stayed at the Hyatt Grand Cypress just about a 10 minute drive away and we loved it) and on our way out of the park we stumbled upon a parade which was fun.

We spent some time at the hotel and headed back. Joe and I wanted to stay at the hotel a bit longer, we had grabbed coffee and were just hanging but the girls were anxious to get back to the park. Since it was our first time back in a couple years we definitely knew they were excited so we headed back.

Joe wanted to do the Pirates of the Caribbean ride so we walked to Adventureland and stopped at the little Christmas shop for pictures on our way. We had reservations for 8:00 PM at Tony’s so we only had time for one ride since it was a 45 minute wait but it all ended up being the perfect timing.

This was our first time eating at Tony’s and it was delicious. Usually, we just do grab and go to save time but I was impressed not only that the food was amazing but that the service was fantastic and it only took about an hour to eat with apps.

Tony’s is at the very beginning of the park and right by Main Street which was the perfect location to watch fireworks. We don’t love to be right in the middle of it because of the crowd and people act crazy so being at the end of the fireworks line was nice.

After fireworks the girls talked us into a few more rides and if you know Magic Kingdom after fireworks, it is just chaos. So we decided where we ended up we ended up and thats where they would pick a few rides.

It was pretty empty after fireworks so they rode a few rides while Joe and I hung out at the exit of the rides and then we stopped for treats on the way out. By this time it was about 10:00 PM and were tired so we headed back to the hotel exhausted and so so happy. It was a great day!

Since we are new annual pass holders and we want to make our way through the entire park during our time we are pass holders, I am keeping track on my phone of the rides and places that we eat. This is helpful for us to see what we did throughout the day but also, help us focus on certain areas of the park each visit so we can try to see everything at some point over the next year.

For this trip, we really focused on Tomorrowland (which we typically don’t spend a ton of time in) and we had so much. Plus, it was nice to not run from one side of the park to the next the entire day which also conserved our energy too!

Rides:

• Buzz Lightyear

• Space Mountain

• Tomorrowland Speedway 

• People Mover 

• Carousel of Progress

• Astro Orbiter 

• Pirates of the Caribbean 

• Flying Dumbo 

• The Barnstormer 

• The Little Mermaid 

Food:

• Starlight Cafe (we ate here for lunch) 

• Tony’s Town Square (we ate here for dinner) 

• Main Street Confectionery (we grabbed sweet treats on our way out of the park)