HEHEHE! I decided to surprise my family with a Christmas Eve surprise to Disney World in Orlando! To make the trip a little more fun (and budget-friendly) we’re going to be driving from the Canada/US border on Christmas Day all the way down to Orlando, Florida. Roughly a 24-hour drive… Anyways no one in our family had ever been and with how much Disney+ we’ve been watching lately, I was so excited to take them!
Our Full Disney Road Trip Itinerary
Day 1: Just Driving
Our trip started on Christmas Day leaving my parents’ house just after lunch. We drove over the day before to celebrate Christmas Eve with everyone. We also packed up the car with all of our luggage the day before too so we could have an easy first day.
Day one we drove from Niagara Falls, Ontario to Indianapolis, Indiana- 864km or 536miles
States driven through: Ontario – New York – Pennsylvania – Ohio – Indiana
This took us about 9 hours including the few bathroom and snack pitstops we made. We stayed right downtown in Indianapolis (why? Idk.) I wanted us to stop in as many interesting cities as we could on our drive and while I was looking at the map, Indianapolis just stood out. We stayed in the Holiday Inn Express. Since it was Christmas Eve and we arrived at the hotel at about 8pm, we didn’t have the opportunity to do or see much.
Day 2: Now to our first stop
This day we drove from Indianapolis all the way down to Atlanta, Georgia. Years back, Brandon and I flew to Atlanta and we said one day we would come back with our kids and bring them to the Georgia Aquarium – so we were.
Day two we drove from Indianapolis, Indiana to Atlanta Georgia- 857km or 533miles
States driven through: Indiana – Kentucky – Tennessee – Georgia
We arrived at our hotel, The Sheraton Atlanta just in time for everything to be closed, except for Pizza Hut. We learned that Pizza Hut is SOOO different in the south! Let’s just say it was not the best.
Day 3: A chance to relax
I scheduled a day between driving to just relax and explore a new city. Like I mentioned, we always wanted to go the Georgia Aquarium, so that’s what we would do today. Before we went to the aquarium, we stayed in our hotel to check out the pool. The Sheraton Hotel in downtown Atlanta has this amazing pool in the center of the hotel under this glass dome. After we went to Chili’s for the first time and had some of the best ribs and fajitas we’ve EVER had. I mean, for a chain restaurant we weren’t expecting much – but we really did get some of the best cooking from the south.
Next, the aquarium – finally! The excitement was 6 years in the making. We saw so many different water animals, it was really cool! Logan loved it of course. The coolest part was the pep rally for a college football game that was randomly happening in the aquarium. I’ve never been to a huge pep rally like this, but it was amazing. So many cheerleaders and a full marching band. After the aquarium we walked through the World of Coca-Cola and learned a bit more about our favorite Coke Zero.
We then checked into our next hotel, which was going to hopefully make our drive the next day a bit easier.
Prepare for instance #1 of many pitfalls to our trip…
HELL, to the NAW. We went to a hotel beside the airport, it seemed to be a little iffy as soon as we pulled up. So, we changed rooms because of smoking and dirty beds. Our second room seemed okay, so I went to lay in the bed, as I pulled over the covers, I screamed! BUG! We ran out, drove over to the Crown Plaza Atlanta on the other side of the airport and phew. It was time for room service and relaxing in a clean bed.
(in case anyone is wondering the hotel with the bugs is a Comfort Suites)
Day 4: We’re there! Almost.
Finally, we would be making it into Orlando and be able to smell Disney World. While we were driving we were feeling a little more carefree. We stopped into Chick-a-Fila and tried to debunk what the heck the hype is about… When we were finally just outside of Orlando, we stopped into Olive Garden and ate all the bread and I drank all the wine – we would finally be on vacation and would get to relax!
Day four we drove from Atlanta, Georgia to Orlando, Florida- 778km or 484miles
States driven through: Georgia – Florida
We got to our (first) hotel and crawled into bed. Then Brandon smacks my leg – you guessed it, BUG! This time it was a tick, and after that we once again ran out of the hotel – I’m not looking to catch Lyme Disease on this trip. Since it was December 30th, every other hotel was booked in Orlando. Literally every single one. We had to track back out of Orlando to find somewhere to stay. At 2 am we finally checked into a hotel and crashed.
Day 5: Universal Studios
We finally got a reservation in what would be our hotel for the rest of our time in Orlando. We stayed in the Hyatt Grand Cypress. I’ve never been to a hotel as massive as this before. The lobby was incredible and after letting them know about our terrible hotel experience so far, they gave us a room with views of Disney and their beautiful pools.
Then we were off to Universal Studios for our first day of family vacation fun! We were only able to stop into one of the parks so we chose Universal’s Island of Adventure. There was so much for us to explore with Logan. We loved the Dr. Seuss part of the park and stayed practically all day. Logan was able to go on all the rides so we were running back and forth. We also got to catch the Grinchmas show which was so amazing! The Grinch is my favorite Christmas movie and it was a nice little break mid-day.
For dinner I had booked a surprise for my boys that I was so excited about. In Universal’s Island of Adventure, they have a Marvel section. I booked them a surprise Character Dinner with the whole Marvel Squad. We ate a buffet style dinner with Spiderman, Captain America, Storm, and more. Even though Logan was a little shy, he loved meeting Spiderman. One of the characters, Storm, was so sweet and brought us a special treat to help break him out of his shell. This day was more fun than I could have ever had hoped for! After dinner we tried a few more rides before we headed out.
Day 6: Disney’s Animal Kingdom
It’s our first Disney day! We had breakfast at the IHOP beside our hotel and then quickly took the Disney shuttle offered by our hotel. BIG MISTAKE. The concierge mentioned the shuttle would take us only 45 minutes to get from the hotel and to the front gate for Animal Kingdom. It took over 2 hours – with the hotel shuttle, to the Disney transport center, to the Disney rail, then to the Animal Kingdom bus, then finally to the front gate.
We’re finally in Disney’s Animal Kingdom and we’re transported into another world. Even with all the FastPass+ planning I made when we got to the park we were a little lost. Some of the rides we went on were:
- DINOSAUR
- It’s Tough to Be a Bug
- Triceratops Spin
- Kilimanjaro Safari
We also stopped to see some of the animals living in the Animal Kingdom like:
- Macaw’s
- Flamingo’s
- Monkey’s
- And more in the Safari Ride
We had a Character Dinner reservation at Tusker House, featuring an African Buffet style cuisine. Surprisingly, the food was AMAZING – for all of us actually. Many vegetarian and dairy free options, and lots of desserts too. The best part was having Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Donald and Daisy come up to our table to see Logan. He was a bit shy again but eventually warmed up to them. After dinner we went to see the Rivers of Light show. It was beautiful. Luckily, I made a FastPass+ reservation and we got front row amazing seats.
Animal Kingdom was wonderful!
Day 7: Magic Kingdom – NEW YEARS EVE
Let’s just say that I really wanted Mickey Ears – and from my online blog reading I learned that the ears cost too much at the parks so we went off to the little shops around our hotel to find them after breakfast. We took an UBER to the park this time around – but of course, our driver took not only one wrong turn, but like 10 and ended up trying to park instead of dropping us off. As we were finally making it to the drop of… Magic Kingdom is CLOSED. BOOOOOOO
So sad! We had the option to go to the other parks, but I knew that they would be just as busy (especially since Magic Kingdom was now turning away hundreds of people) plus, we didn’t have any ride or dining reservations so we would be able to beat the crowds. We decided to stay in our hotel and get a little rest in the pool.
For New Year’s Eve the hotel was hosting a big balloon drop. We ran down to see all the balloons fall and even catch one. It was really cool and kinda made up for our missed day.
Day 8: Hollywood Studios
So excited to take Logan here because he LOVES Toy Story. The park was not as busy as I thought it would be for New Years Day. We walked around the parks and picked up a mickey pretzel and ice cream that we were all asking for the whole trip. We fell in love with Toy Story land – this part of the park is decorated so beautifully.
Some of the rides we went on were:
- Toy Story Mania (about 5 times)
- Slinky Dog Dash
- Alien Swirling Saucers
- Tower of Terror
- Muppet Vision
I really loved our day at Hollywood Studios, if we wouldn’t have missed our dinner reservation, it would have been perfect. But, to make it perfect, we stopped into Taco Bell before going into our hotel and got like 20 tacos to pig out after Logan went to sleep.
Day 9: Typhoon Lagoon
Trying to give our feet a little rest, we escaped to Disney’s Typhoon Lagoon Water Park for the day. Surprisingly the park was almost empty… For all the water slides we waited about 5 minutes at most. There was also ample seating around the park with lounge chairs, benches and tables. I loved that there was something for all of us to get excited about – there were fast and crazy slides for Brandon, small kids slides for Logan, a huge wave pool for me 🙂 One of the coolest things was the lazy rizer – it’s a circle around the park with multiple entry/exit points, so if you want to get around the park no need to walk, just use the lazy river!
We ended the day with dinner back at Chili’s to score some $5 margaritas and fajitas.
Day 10: Food Poisoning
Today we planned to go to the Magic Kingdom originally for the second time, but it would end up being our first time actually. The night before Logan started getting really sick with a fever and getting sick. Because of that we stayed in all day. I felt so bad for my poor boy who wanted to see the castle we see before every movie. Not going to lie I was and still am a bit disappointed that we didn’t get to see Magic Kingdom – at least now we have a reason to come back sooner than later to Disney World!
Day 11: Time to go home
Since Logan was still sick, we really just wanted to get back home in case he would need to see a doctor. We woke up quite early and were on the road by 8:30am. We drove through all the way to Virginia which was about half way. We stopped into Richmond which is just outside Virginia Beach (the place I went every year as a kid).
Day eleven we drove from Orlando, Florida to Richmond, Virginia- 1190km or 740miles
States driven through: Florida – Georgia – South Carolina – North Carolina – Virginia
Day 12: The end!
We’re almost done! We had our quick hotel breakfast and made it back on the road before 9am again. We wanted to stop into my parents before we drove home since we didn’t get to spend the whole holiday together. The drive was a bit tricky and I don’t recommend driving off the interstate through Pennsylvania or New York. It got very confusing and being in the mountains, our GPS signal wasn’t the best. We probably got lost at about every turn.
Day twelve we drove from Richmond, Virginia to Toronto, Ontario- 1190km or 740miles
States driven through: Virginia – Maryland – Pennsylvania – New York – Ontario
Will We Go to Disney World Again?
YES! I still didn’t get a picture of my family in our matching Disney t-shirts in front of Cinderellas castle – so we have to go back. I think we might go back at a different time of the year – maybe Halloween – so we can see the parks all dressed up again. Seeing Disney and spending our holiday on vacation was one of the best experiences ever. We really needed a break to get out and have fun and Disney was the perfect spot.
