When you think of Disney, usually a long, busy week of running all over comes to mind. That’s how our first trip was to Disney World back in the day when my son was little. Fast forward to this year – I came up with a grand idea of doing Disney for the weekend. It was May & I had always wanted to go to Epcot’s Flower & Garden Festival. This year, we’ve done at least one trip per month & were due for our monthly trip so we decided to give it a shot!
I’m going to try & break this up differently so it’s easier to put together.
FRIDAY:ย We left on a Friday morning from Cleveland & flew directly to Orlando on Frontier Airlines. We only packed backpacks so once we landed, we were on our way. Since we don’t have little ones, we opted to take a Lyft to our resort. It was about $40 (we chose to go with an XL since it’s about a half hour ride – there were even cheaper options.)
Next, we checked into our resort. We had planned to waste time walking around until check-in but luckily, our room was ready early so we were able to get our day started right away. We stayed at Port Orleans French Quarter which was beautiful. If you’re looking for more of a laid back environment, I couldn’t recommend it enough. One of the reasons why I chose this resort was also for the boat ride that takes you to Disney Springs which is what we did for the majority of our first day.
We were able to walk right into Rainforest Cafรฉ without any reservations for lunch. Afterwards, we walked around & checked out all the shops including the Lego store & Coca Cola where you can take a pic with the Polar Bear & head up to the rooftop for great views & beverages. We also hit up the M&M store & Goofy’s Candy Co.
When we were done with Disney Springs, we headed back to the resort & got some beignets which everyone says you have to get if you stay at French Quarter & they were delicious! We ended the day with a dip in the pool & then headed back out to watch the fireworks show at Magic Kingdom & ride the monorail. This was absolutely free to do from the main entrance of Magic Kingdom (we even saw a part of it while on the monorail.)
SATURDAY: Epcot. We opened & closed Epcot as the professional Disney goers say. By staying at a Disney resort, we were able to enter early. This allowed us to go on the very popular rides first thing in the morning. We managed to do every single ride at Epcot that day which I was pretty impressed by! We did utilize the Disney Genie service (it was around $20 per person) & this helped although I’m fairly certain we could have come close to having the same type of day without it. I don’t have any fancy schedule tips, we kind of winged it all in an efficient way but PRO-TIP: Mickey is at the Disney & Pixar Short Film Festival which is pretty hidden. There was barely a line!
In general, we really liked Epcot but agreed that we don’t really need to go back anytime soon since we got on the new Guardians of the Galaxy ride. The World Showcase is neat but we are not big drinkers so I don’t have much recommendations for that. A lot of the food wasn’t really up our alley either so we honestly didn’t get too much.
Like I mentioned, we stayed until closing & ended the night with their fireworks show which was really nice! Not as magnificent as Magic Kingdom but still worth checking out at least once if you’re planning on a Disney trip with Epcot included.
SUNDAY: That morning we walked around the resort for a little bit, took some pics, & then started getting ready for home! We took a Lyft back to the airport & were in Cleveland by the afternoon. The flight is super easy & in case you were wondering, when we fly, we do park our car at the airport. We usually opt for the orange lot which is not too expensive & we almost always find a spot!
That’s it!ย
Would you ever consider a weekend trip to Disney?
