This past month, I visited Walt Disney World with my parents to celebrate my birthday! Yay!

Although we only planned to spend three days in Florida, we were determined to squeeze in as much Disney as possible. I’ve been to WDW before but it was my parents’ first time and I wanted them to see a little bit of everything the resort had to offer. Here’s a summary of day one!

Day 0: Red-Eye Flight

To make the most of our trip, we decided to take a red-eye flight to Florida. It wasn’t too bad because I was able to sleep for most of the flight. I also packed a travel pillow and blanket with me— I learned my lesson from previous red eye flights that these are necessities to fall asleep on an airplane.

After landing at the Orlando International Airport around 6:45 am, I soon found my parents who flew in shortly after me. We stepped outside to board the shuttle that would take us to our hotel, and I was greeted with a rush of familiar warm, humid air of the subtropical climate.

The next twenty minutes were filled with excitement, eagerness, and anticipation of the next few days at the resort.

First Stop: Animal Kingdom Lodge

We arrived at our hotel in Animal Kingdom Lodge, Jambo House and dropped off our luggage at the concierge desk because our room wasn’t ready yet. No worries, I planned for this: I brought a pair of shorts to change into, a hat, sunscreen, and more necessities for the parks in my carry-on backpack.

The aesthetics and views of the hotel are unmatched— the hotel is filled with warm tones, wooden beams, plenty of natural light, and artwork all inspired by the heart of Africa. The view of the live animals that live in the surrounding savannas is an amazing sight to behold as well.

We stopped to eat a quick bite at The Mara, the quick service food location at Jambo House, to fuel up and discuss our game plan for the day.

After connecting our Magic Bands to our tickets on the My Disney Experience app, we decided to venture to our first park of the day: Magic Kingdom.

The Most Magical Place on Earth: Magic Kingdom

I didn’t believe all my coworkers who told me that AK Lodge is far away from the rest of the resort. I thought, surely it can’t be that far away. I am here to confirm that the hotel is indeed far away from Magic Kingdom park— a 25-minute bus ride felt like eternity, especially on our first day on vacation.

We entered the park and were enamored with the sights, sounds, and smells of the park. We made it! After a few steps in, we entered some of the shops on Main Street to cool down from the heat (yes, it was that hot and we were not used to it yet lol).

After window shopping, we continued walking down Main Street and entered the Hub. I forgot how big Cinderella Castle is at MK until I approached it and thought wow, it’s huge.

We took some necessary pictures and selfies and then headed over to Adventureland.

As someone who visits Disneyland frequently, I’ve adapted an agenda of leisure, where I mainly walk around, take photos (with Kermie), window shop, and eat. I don’t ride rides too much, especially when I’m visiting alone and don’t want to wait in line by myself. However, walking around with my parents reminded me of how I used to venture the parks as a family that visited the parks once a year when I was growing up: it’s go-go-go. Pick a ride and we’ll wait in line, no problem. While we’re in line, think of the next thing we’re going to do.

We rode on Jungle Cruise and then walked through Adventureland & Frontierland. We weren’t too familiar with what rides were at the west side of the park, so we just rode what we knew we’d like. We boarded the WDW Railroad back to Main Street, where we did more walking and window shopping, and we were soon hungry again.

We stopped by Casey’s Corner on Main Street to enjoy hot dogs and corn dog nuggets. At the same time, the Disney Festival of Fantasy parade was traveling by. What a nice treat while we ate outside!

At this point, it was around 11 am and exhaustion from the red-eye flights caught up to us and we decided to head back to our hotel. I still didn’t receive a notification that our room was ready, we wanted to wait in the lobby to rest.

On our walk back to the busses, I got the notification that our room was ready! Hooray!

AK Lodge is for Naps

It didn’t take long for us to get comfortable and take some well-needed naps.

After a few hours, we were able to park hop to our next park which also held our dinner reservations: Epcot!

Epcot & Chefs de France

I was really excited to show my parents Epcot. I really liked the park when I visited the first time, but I remember not being able to explore all the pavilions like I wanted to.

We started with Spaceship Earth— it was a must. I forgot how much my mom loves history and learning! She said she knew most of the facts shared on the ride, though ;).

Then, we went to the Mexico Pavilion at World Showcase and… stayed in Mexico for a couple of hours. There was a lot to offer inside the pyramid and my proudly Mexican family was so excited to see all the different merchandise, food offerings, decoration, drinks, and more. My parents got margaritas and I got an a non-alcoholic drink.

After taking plenty of photos and walking around the interior of the pyramid, we realized our dinner reservations were coming up fast and had to head over to the France Pavilion. We breezed through the next few pavilions, taking quick photos and catching the sunset in the process.

We arrived to our French-themed restaurant and were welcomed and serviced by the friendliest waitress. She gave us lots of recommendations on popular food and drink items, and even shared a bit about her Disney career. She first started at Disneyland Paris and then worked on the Disney Cruise Lines. Now, she's working at Epcot through the Disney International Program. She was so eager to serve us at WDW and was excited to learn that I work at Disneyland. Her enthusiasm and friendliness definitely brightened our dinners and set the tone for the remainder of the trip. Don’t worry, we gave her a Guest Compliment through the app!

Now onto the food— oh my god, it’s amazing. I ordered the ratatouille (mandatory) and the St. Germain cocktail per our waitress’ recommendation; both were phenomenal! My parents ordered the beef tenderloin (listed as “filet de boeuf grillé, sauce poivre, gratin dauphinois, haricots verts” on the menu) and the braised beef (boeuf bourguignon, linguine). Both were exquisite as well. We opted out of dessert only because we wanted to race over to the new Ratatouille ride before it closed (WHY does Epcot have to close so early?!).

Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure

Our speed walking didn’t fail us— we made it in line for the Ratatouille ride! The posted wait time said 40 minutes and we thought welp, what else are we going to do? In actuality, since the queue cut off shortly after we entered it, and I’m sure the Cast Members wanted to close the ride as soon as possible (I’d be the same way if I worked there lol), we only waited about 15 minutes!

The ride is super cute and immersive. I really did feel like I was shrunken down to the size of a mouse and scurrying inside a kitchen! My favorite part was probably the mop scene. No spoilers, but that part caught all of us in the mouse vehicle off guard.

After the ride, we headed towards the park exit. We made it through day one! We took pictures of Spaceship Earth lit up in her beautiful lights (“it looks like a golf ball”), and headed to the buses.

Overall, we had such a fun first day at the resort! Extremely tiring, but fun!

Our first park tomorrow is Animal Kingdom!

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