For Christmas, B1 and S1 gifted us a weekend in WDW with them and our niece and nephew! They were going for five days and invited us to join them, which was incredibly thoughtful and generous - flights, hotel, and park tickets! We went with them last January as well, so maybe this is the beginning of a yearly tradition! We made some great memories together, did some character meals, and took advantage of Genie+, which was a huge time saver! We went to Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom, and Epcot, which was hosting the Festivals of the Arts - one of my favorite things at WDW!
Our niece and nephew didn't know about us coming on the trip, so that was a fun surprise when we appeared at Magic Kingdom! Other than a few sprinkles for about 30 minutes, the weather was fantastic the entire time and the crowds were pretty manageable. We wish we could have stayed longer, but as usual, jobs prevented that!
We spent one night at the Swan Reserve and one night at All Star Sports. The Swan Reserve was absolutely beautiful; we've never stayed at either the Swan or Dolphin before because if I'm being honest, I don't think of them as "official" WDW resorts because they're not run by Disney. But that's just me being snooty! It was a great resort and the only downside was not having more time to spend there!
Avalanche had his first stay at a kennel and he did very well! He was very excited when we picked him up on our way home from the airport, which made me happy because I'd been worried about confusing him since we'd only had him for three weeks at that point. He'll definitely be staying there again when we travel!
My uncle was kind enough to come from Canada and stay with my mom for the weekend; it was great that they got to spend some time together because they hadn't seen each other since before the pandemic started!
The worst part of the weekend was with TSA on our way to Florida. It was the most miserable experience. Not only was I pulled aside for "random" screening, it ended up escalating into a full-on, very thorough and uncomfortable pat-down in a private room and all items in my carryon bag being individually swabbed and scanned. Have you ever had each of your toes fondled one-by-one to ensure you weren't hiding anything between them? Because I have! The whole thing took almost 30 minutes and it was beyond absurd. They kept telling me different things: "too many electronics" in my bag (complete nonsense); my hoodie was "setting off" the machine (I offered to take it off and put it through the x-ray machine by itself, but was not allowed to do so); and then my shoes were deemed "suspicious" and they had to be removed and individually swabbed and scanned (more nonsense). Once they couldn't find any reason to detain me further based on my clothing, they emptied the entire contents of my carryon and of course found nothing. I've written many times before about what light and efficient packers C and I are when we travel, and I was so grateful for that because they went through every little thing and asked questions about each item. I can't even imagine how long it would have taken if I'd had more stuff with me. DID I MENTION THAT I HAVE TSA PRE-CHECK?!? Of course this happened at one the worst airports ever - Reagan. Not a great start to the trip!
Although it was a very quick weekend, we had so much fun! My 5yo niece is extremely entertaining and she did not disappoint. My favorite quote from her was when we went into the Tangled bathrooms together. She was washing her hands in the kid-level sink when she looked around, and then said, "I like this bathroom because it's beautiful AND accessible!" SO precious!!!
Despite my desire to de-clutter my life, I did buy some souvenirs. Not sorry at all!
A huge thank you to B1 and S1 for such a fabulous time!
Happy Tails to you!
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