I’m the oldest of three girls. When I got married in 2008, I wasn’t even 21 yet. Therefore, my two younger sisters were not at all a part of what (extremely small) bachelorette celebrations I had. So when my youngest sister, Jessi, got engaged in 2017, it was about to go down. My middle sister, Grace, and I originally tossed around some small ideas. But at some point in the planning process we came to the decision that the only way to celebrate #ItsMillerTime was to go big or go home.
We were going to Walt Disney World. And we were going to keep it all a surprise from the bride-to-be.
I’ll address what you’re probably thinking. Why would a group of adult women pick Disney over literally ANYWHERE else? If you haven’t been to the happiest place on earth recently, you may not realize that Walt Disney World is FULL of things for adults. I promise you, the park has some of the best restaurants, drinks, and nightlife I’ve experienced. Plus, doing the theme parks as an adult without children in tow is very much under appreciated. Disney with kids requires strollers, height limits, nap times, and low tolerance for waiting in lines. Me? I will totally wait an hour for a roller coaster, while enjoying an adult beverage in the queue. I can also ride whatever I want, and stay in the park from rope drop until the cast members usher me out at closing.
Grace and I invited our cousin, Kayla, to go with us (she’s the life of the party, and a solid buffer for three sisters), and of course she was in on the surprise. Together, we spent MONTHS planning. Literal MONTHS. Everything from the restaurant reservations, to the coordinating shirts, to the holographic bum bags, to the themed Minnie Mouse ears – we literally made sure every detail was as perfect as could be without ever saying a word to the bride.
At 4 a.m. the day of our departure, while wearing mermaid Mickey hats and blasting our carefully selected song of, “The Circle of Life,” we woke up the bride. Get up, girl! We’re going to Disney World!
We actually went through airport security wearing Mickey ears and mermaid clamshell bra shirts (and received many compliments!). We chose to fly out of Indianapolis SUPER EARLY, therefore getting us to Florida by 8:30 a.m. Early flights equal extra time at Mickey’s House, and none of us were upset about that!
Upon arrival in Orlando, we boarded the complimentary Magical Express and headed straight to Disney’s Boardwalk Inn. During the ride, I finally gave Jessi some options to customize our trip. We had originally planned to spend our whole park day at Epcot, and did not purchase Park Hopper tickets. When we got to our resort, we decided to upgrade so that we could catch the fireworks at Magic Kingdom (because, duh.). Making that change was as simple as a stop to the concierge!
We grabbed breakfast, quickly explored the Boardwalk, and promptly found ourselves day drinking by the pool in the Florida sun.
Later we got dressed up, and caught a Minnie Van to Disney Springs. Guys, these are the CUTEST way to travel at WDW. We simply requested it via the Lyft app, and voila! We were riding in style, alone, and not on a crowded bus with over-exhausted small children.
I had made dinner reservations for us at Morimoto Asia, which happens to be Courtny’s and my favorite restaurant on Disney property. As soon as I introduced the girls to the kakuni pork bao, it became everyone else’s favorite too. It’s been over a year since this trip, and we still group text about bao regularly because we’re OBSESSED.
Following dinner, we grabbed drinks at The Edison. The steampunk/warehouse vibe is a fun atmosphere, and those cocktails are the real deal. Following The Edison, we wandered our way to Jock Lindsey’s Hangar Bar for a shot for the bride, and fireworks over the lake.
The next day was our one and only park day. Grace made sure we had coordinating Cinderalla shirts, with each of us playing a different character. We’ll call this “diet Disneybounding.” Jessi was bridal Cinderella, Kayla was the Fairy Godmother, and Grace & I were the evil stepsisters. All shirts, hats, and ears for this trip were created by our UBER talented mother.
We were able to walk to Epcot from our hotel, which was amazing. I had purposely scheduled all of our FastPast+ reservations for the morning, so we could spend the afternoon getting to the serious bachelorette activities. We started with a quick visit with Baymax since there wasn’t a line, and followed with meeting Mickey, Minnie, and Goofy at the Character Spot. We finished with Soarin’ Around the World and Test Track before heading our way to the World Showcase to get our drink on.
Margaritas from La Cava del Tequila just seemed like the right place to start our adventure. From there, we grabbed a quick lunch at Lotus Blossom Cafe and continued drinking clockwise around the lagoon. Our favorites? The Desert Rose in Morocco (sparkling wine topped with pomegranate liqueur), and the Grey Goose slushy in France.
We grabbed a pizza at Via Napoli for dinner, before Jessi got kicked out of Canada.
Ok, that’s not totally the truth. But the poor Canadian kid at the counter definitely refused to sell her an ice wine simply because she handed him her credit card before her ID. I promise, we were not obnoxious. But it makes for a funny story.
That was our cue to leave, as we grabbed the monorail to head to Magic Kingdom for fireworks.
On our final day in Orlando, we ventured back to Disney Springs for lunch at Chef Art Smith’s Homecomin’, some shopping, and to add another local cousin to our party.
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This bachelorette party was 100 percent awesome. So awesome, in fact, that we replicated the whole experience two weeks ago with a different bride. Stay tuned for the next trip report – featuring two park days, full-on Disneybounding, and much more bao.
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