A Week in Orlando: Part 2 Why am I going to Orlando?

There's nothing that quite makes my heart go pity pat like the sound of Disney music piped through the speakers at the entrance to a Disney park. The anticipation and joy almost move me to tears. I've spent many vacations at Disneyland in California, including my honeymoon and 10th anniversary. I know those Parks like the back of my hand, and you could drop me in the middle of them any day and I'd be able to find my way around without trying. For our 25th anniversary next February, however, we decided to go big and visit Disney World. I really had no idea what I was signing up for when we chose this. I found out later that all of Disneyland, California Adventure, and the Downtown Disney District can fit into the Magic Kingdom at Disney World, and the Magic Kingdom is the smallest of the four theme parks! The entire Walt Disney World resort area is 43 square miles, the size of San Francisco or double the size of the island of Manhattan. When I learned this, I knew I had my planning work cut out for me!

I jumped in head first, reading blogs and watching YouTube videos, and practically memorizing every page of the Disney World website, but I still couldn't quite grasp how this whole thing works. How do I use the Disney resort transportation? How do I get from one resort to another? How will this all work in a wheelchair? Will I be able to eat there with my special diet? I learned everything I could online, but I still felt uneasy about the whole process. I'm not going to say that God told me to go to Orlando, but it really felt like everything lined up just perfectly. My therapist was taking a week off for a personal trip, so I wouldn't miss my appointment. There were last minute cancellations that allowed for me to get the cheapest possible room at a Disney World resort. And of course, I can fly for free last minute, so realistically this was as reasonably priced as you could get.

I flew down here to figure out several things: What's the best way to get from the airport to the resort? How accessible are the resorts? How accessible is the Disney World resort transportation? How do I use the different forms of resort transportation to reach the destinations I'd like to visit? I also rented a power wheelchair for the first time and my husband was hoping that I would be able to determine if it was a good fit for me and what considerations we should have when purchasing our own.

I was able to book a really inexpensive last minute cruise going out of the Orlando area, so I will be able to learn about transportation from a resort to the cruise port, and from the cruise port to the airport, as well as what the Port Canaveral embarkation and debarkation processes are like. I am sailing on a different Cruise line than Norwegian for the first time. For a long time I thought this is something I would not do at all because I wanted to maximize my loyalty points with Norwegian Cruise line and I very much value they're cruising style. However, as I have been learning more about last minute cruises I have found that several other cruise lines offer much less expensive options for solo cruisers, which would increase my opportunities to travel in this way. The more I learned about other cruise lines I also became curious about what it would be like to sail on them, so part of this exploratory trip will be trying out the MSC Cruise line!

Here's the thing: I realize it is not available to most people to be able to do an exploratory trip like this, and that I am very blessed to be able to have this opportunity. I hope that some of the things I learn will be able to help and bless others as well.