The number one pet peeve of anyone who has ever worked in a theme park is not what one would expect. It is not getting asked the same question for the hundredth time. It is not being asked where Pirates of the Caribbean is when you’re standing in front of it. It is not rearranging strollers. Those things all make the list, but what we hate the most is when someone you went to high school with and haven’t spoken to in years asks you to take them to the parks for free. The flip side to this is when your high school best friend tells you they’re coming to Orlando for a conference and asks if you can hang out while they’re in town, and you tell them they’re going to Disney for the first time.
Left to right: Doug, Jeremy and Robby in our Junior year of high school.
I met Doug at the Homecoming basketball game freshman year of high school. It was one of two basketball games I ever went to, and thank goodness because by the time graduation rolled around, he was one of my best friends. We hung out the summer after my college program, but he moved up north by the time I came home for Christmas 2013. Until Saturday, I hadn’t seen him since.
He messaged me back in September to tell me his company’s annual conference is in Orlando this year. I don’t even think I asked if he wanted to go to Disney before I started planning out his first Disney World experience. Over several months I sorted out what nights he had a hotel booked through his convention, what nights we’d stay at Disney, and what days were best for which parks. There is nothing in this world I love as much as planning Disney vacations! (Except maybe Duffy.)
His flight was scheduled before I’d be off work so we booked him on the Magical Express, which is Disney’s free transportation from the Orlando Airport to their resorts. I took it in 2010 when I visited and it was super cute with a video about Mickey and his pals checking into different hotels. Apparently they didn’t play the video and I was extremely disappointed he didn’t get to see it. As soon as I got off work, Jay and I sped over to the Art of Animation Resort where he had already checked us into one of The Lion King suites.
I have wanted to stay in a Lion King room since they announced Art of Animation, but it was never available when I had the means. The Lion King is my favorite movie, was the first movie I saw in theaters, and my earliest memory is Simba roaring at the top of Pride Rock in the rain. When Doug said we could stay there, I was bouncing off the walls.
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Art of Animation is known for its elaborate theming and they have sections dedicated to The Lion King, Cars, Finding Nemo, and The Little Mermaid. Unlike most other resorts, the rooms are themed as well rather than being generic resort wide. The entire room was themed from the carpet to the mirrors right down to the shower tile. I was so excited I forgot to put Duffy in the pictures. There was a ton of squeaking involved on my part. However, we were all starving because no one had eaten yet so we headed for the buses to Disney Springs. I was surprised the bus pick up circle had screens with the expected arrival time of the bus for each destination. They didn’t have those the last time I took Disney buses. We didn’t have to wait long and we headed straight for the back of the bus.
Doug has only been to Florida once in his life before this, and he had never set foot on Disney property. We figured we would buzz Disney Springs, grab dinner and go back to the pool. Due to my dairy allergy, Blaze is actually the only pizza in Orlando I can eat and I had been craving it since the Pi Day specials. Therefore Blaze was our first destination, and I sent them ahead to get in line while I made a quick stop by Guest Relations for a “First Visit” button. As soon as we were done stuffing our faces, we headed to the World of Coca-Cola to hug a polar
World’s friendliest polar bear.
bear. We walked over to Splitsville and the AMC to show off the dine in theaters. I ran into the Disney Quest gift shop to swap my fuel rod out so I could keep playing Pokémon before we made our way towards the Marketplace. I frequent Disney Springs so I have a list of the must dos for a first timer, although admittedly I visit these almost every time I go. We stopped at Ghirardelli for free bunny-shaped chocolate samples, that I looked at longingly while they ate. Stupid dairy. We went in UNIQLO to look at all the unique Disney shirts and I found some new ones I need to go get. We wandered around World of Disney for a while before heading over to my favorite place, Fun Finds, AKA the Duffy Store. It has a five foot tall Duffy statue that I desperately want to steal in addition to two displays with Duffy and Shellie May. I put a Duffy in with the Shellie Mays with his arms around them because I always do that. Our final stop was the Art of Disney where we searched in vain for anything from the Great Mouse Detective. Of course his favorite movie would be one there is no merchandise for. We showed him the light boxes and the collectors keys to the different attractions, and I reminded him my annual pass gets him 20% off everything. (Thank you, 45th Anniversary of Magic Kingdom!) We made the trip back to the buses where we didn’t have to wait for more than a few minutes before we were on our way back to the resort.
The sun was dipping below the horizon and the temperature was starting
to drop so we hurried to get changed into our swim suits. I hoped to hit all three pools, but insisted on doing The Little Mermaid first in case it got too chilly. This is only about the third time I’ve worn my Ariel Hot Topic bikini since I don’t trust it to hold up for water parks, and I wanted pictures. I made the mistake of thinking I knew where the Little Mermaid section was and we wound 
up going on a much longer adventure to get there than necessary. We dropped our towels and Doug was the smart one who tested the water before getting right in, opting to sit and dangle his feet over the edge. I made it up to my waist and refused to go any further. Mr. Always Cold (also known as Jay) dove right under and swam to the far side and back, insisting it wasn’t that cold. I got him to admit it was freezing after about ten minutes and we got out. Slightly disappointed, I suggested we go back to the room to put dry clothes on and then wander the resort for pictures. We took our time going back, snapping the photos with The Little Mermaid decor along the way. I had already taken photos of Simba and his friends when I arrived, so that left Cars and Finding Nemo. On our way to the Cars section, we passed an inflatable projector screen where they were showing Lilo and 
Stitch. We walked by the Big Blue Pool to find Radiator Springs. While it is not as fancy as Cars Land in California, it is a beautiful little area and the
cones around the pool are adorable. There are figures of all the major characters you can take photos with. We then headed back towards Finding Nemo to wander along outside of the pool gates. Once we took those pictures, we decided to go over the bridge to Pop Century to take photos with some of the larger than life figures there. We saw Lady and 
Tramp, Mowgli and Baloo, a giant Mickey phone and Roger Rabbit. Somewhere in between pictures and catching up on the last four years, Doug was ecstatic he could see fireworks. We had Disney’s Hollywood Studios Star Wars fireworks directly in front of us, and Epcot’s Illuminations to the right. Jay tried to play the Imperial March on his phone but we couldn’t get it to match up correctly. Doug didn’t care though, he was just excited, and I told him he had such better fireworks to look forward to. So we headed back to the room to get some sleep because if we wanted to be there for Extra Magic Hours we would have to be up at 6:30 am.
Mine?
You can read about our second day of adventures as we take Doug to the Magic Kingdom for the first time in Part Two.
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