Misty Krueger

Since my niece was born about a decade ago, I knew I wanted to go with her to Disney World. Then when my nephew was born a few years later, I knew I also wanted to go to Disney with him. My sister said we had to wait until the younger of the two was old enough to be able to enjoy the parks, so we waited.

Then last year when I was diagnosed with stage IV metastatic breast cancer (meaning that my “original” cancer had returned, despite having undergone a double mastectomy, chemo, radiation, and years of estrogen blockers) I realized that I couldn’t put off doing the things that were on my bucket list. Hence, I told my sister we needed to go to Disney World this year.

And that we did. We went to Disney World for 4.5 days. The half day included arrival at a Disney resort and then dinner at a Disney restaurant. The 4 days were slated for Magic Kingdom (MK), Epcot, and Hollywood Studios. We opted for 2 days at MK instead of 1 day at Animal Kingdom because my sister and I knew from experience that 1 day at MK would not be enough, and due to my having been to Animal Kingdom already, I felt like it wasn’t something I needed to do this trip.

Yes, I’ve been to Disney World before–I’ve been twice! I also visited Disneyland. But I haven’t gone with kids. I didn’t even go as a kid. My first Disney trip was as an adult. Did I feel weird about going to Disney without any kids the first two times? Absolutely not.

Disney is for everyone at any age. And I saw babies and senior citizens (like really senior) at the parks. While my mom is not a senior senior, she is over 70, and she went with us. So did my bro-in-law. There were 6 of us total. My dad didn’t go because Disney and theme parks aren’t his things.

I’m going to blog about each of the 4 days and the opening and closing days around those theme park days to give you my perspective on all things Disney trip related. Feel free to share with anyone who is going to the parks this year.

Before I close this post, I’ll share that my sister decided to hire a Disney planner to help us figure it all out. Yes, there is an occupation called Disney planner! The planner walked us through a lot of the things we needed to do to maximize our Disney experience, including which resorts we might stay at, which restaurants to eat at, which rides to ride, etc. She helped me get a pass that would allow me not to have to stand in line for an hour for a ride because of my cancer side effects, which make standing in line for long periods of time difficult. While the planner didn’t account for everything we needed to know, and oftentimes communication with her wasn’t clear or timely, she definitely helped us figure out how to navigate the experience of a multi-day Disney vacation with kids. It’s wild. Really.

I hope you follow my posts, which will include being vomited on at Disney and getting what’s colloquially called the Disney Rash. You know you wanna hear about those two things. 🙂