My Favorite Disney Memories of 2013

I thought it would be fun to write a post highlighting my favorite Disney memories of 2013. I am in the process of writing more posts reviewing some of the specific elements of each trip so stay tuned for those!

Disneyland - March 2013

Patrick and I took this trip to celebrate 10 years of being together. We stayed at the Grand Californian Hotel and Spa for two nights. Our view was of Downtown Disney with a great bonus view of Disneyland park!

This was our first time seeing Cars Land at Disney California Adventure. It truly lives up to all the hype - Disney magic at it’s best. Radiator Springs Racers is amazing.

I surprised Patrick with lunch at Blue Bayou - his favorite restaurant at Disneyland. The atmosphere is truly remarkable. Our goal next time is to wait as long as we need to to get a table next to the water so we can watch the Pirates of the Caribbean boats go by.

Alaskan Cruise on Disney Wonder - June 2013

I still can’t believe we went on this trip. We went with our best travel buddies - Amanda and Eric - and had the best time. It is hard to pick only a couple things I loved about that trip since it was all amazing but I will write a longer post on this trip someday.

The sunset our first night was gorgeous. I love how long the sunsets lasted! After we watched the sunset Pat and I decided we weren’t ready for bed yet. We noticed Mary Poppins was playing on the big screen by the pool so we put our swimsuits on and got in the hot tub. It was a great way to start our trip.

My favorite port was Skagway. The town was quaint and surrounded by snowcapped mountains - exactly what I imagined Alaska being like. We simply walked around town and grabbed lunch at Skagway Brewing Company.

We only did one port adventure to save money - whale watching and a visit to Mendenhall Glacier. We used Juneau Tours because we got a great group rate and we would not hesitate to use them again.

One last note: Beware of the Bingo! We played nearly every game of bingo on board the ship. Though we had fun we won nothing. Next time we will only play a few times including the big jackpot on the last day.

Disneyland - October 2013

My best friend, Meredith,  asked me to go with her and her little boy, Anderson, to Disneyland. Of course I went! We stayed at The Disneyland Hotel and I fell in love with that place. The details in that hotel are beautiful and the pool is spectacular!

We had breakfast at Goofy’s Kitchen in The Disneyland Hotel. This was my first time eating there and it was really good. Anderson was so cute with the characters and the food was delicious. I will write a more detailed review in another post!

Anderson’s favorite part of the trip was the “dinosaur train”! Known as The Disneyland Railroad to the rest of us :)

I enjoyed watching Anderson eat this lollipop like a champ! Seriously, I have never seen someone eat these so fast.

Walt Disney World - November 2013

This was a combo trip. I was already going to be at Disney World for an Agent Education Program so Amanda and I added a girls’ weekend beforehand.

Until this trip I had never met the Mayor of Main Street!

We had lunch at Be Our Guest for the first time. The restaurant was beautiful decorated for Christmas and our lunch was delicious. We shared the Croque Monsieur (Grilled sandwich of carved ham, Gruyere cheese, and bechamel with Pommes Frites) and had the Passion Fruit Cream Puff and The Master’s Cupcake for dessert. All delicious!

Enchanted Tales with Belle is a must-do. I did it twice on this trip and would have done it more! Tip: Make sure you add this to your FastPass+ selections in Magic Kingdom because as you can see in the photo the standby wait time for this can be very long. We saw it over an hour many times during the trip.

One day we took the monorail over to the Polynesian to have Pork Nachos from Captain Cook’s as well as Pina Colavas (our favorite drink!). I could eat these nachos every day. Seriously.

The Osborne Family Spectacle of Lights is reason enough to go to Disney World during the holidays.

I took my first ride on The Hollywood Tower of Terror during this trip (after much persuading by my fellow Glass Slipper agents). I had fun!! You can’t beat the theming in that queue!

We also rode Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster a couple times that night and this photo is a favorite from the trip.

Another must-do during the holidays is seeing the gingerbread house at the Grand Floridian. This was another first for me and I am so glad I got a chance to stop by twice during the trip!

One of my favorite things to do is leave the Magic Kingdom after it has closed. Someday I want to be the last person to leave! It is such a great opportunity for photos especially around the Partners Statue.

I hope you enjoyed my year of Disney! I could probably write 10 posts highlighting my year but that would just be lengthy and I am sure you would stop reading by then.