This past weekend was one of my absolute favorites I’ve had this program! One of my best friends that I met during my last program, Hayley, came down and visited to celebrate her 21st birthday. I hadn’t seen her since last summer, and I was SO anxious for her to get here!
On Friday I picked her and her mom up at the airport and took them to their hotel, then we went to Olive Garden for dinner (an old favorite of ours!) and did a little wandering around in Downtown Disney before we parted ways for the night.
Saturday, we got breakfast at Cape May Cafe at the Beach Club–it’s one of the few character dinings I HADN’T done yet, so I was so excited! It was yummy (as Disney buffets always are) and I managed to not make myself feel like a complete balloon from stuffing myself with too many Mickey waffles, so it was very successful! After we wandered the Boardwalk for a bit, we checked in at Pop Century then hung out by the pool for a bit before we headed to Downtown Disney for the evening. I convinced Hayley to go see Big Hero 6 with me and we both LOVED IT.
Seriously, I am obsessed with it. It’s all everyone had talked about at work the week before so I knew I needed to go soon before it got spoiled—and even with the super high expectations I had, I still loved it. I laughed, I cried–the whole deal. It’s easily one of my new favorites and I can’t wait til I get to watch it again! After Hayley and I scoured Downtown Disney to see if they had any stuffed Baymax dolls (they were all sold out all over property, sadly enough) we headed home for the night. On Sunday we did some park hopping–we started the day at Animal Kingdom and visited Resto, where we both met and used to work, and said hi to a few old coworkers who are still there, then we saw Festival of the Lion King and rode a couple rides. We then went to Hollywood Studios and met Baymax and got Baymax souvenir mugs because I JUST CAN’T GET ENOUGH OF THAT ROBOT and then we wandered Epcot for a bit, then headed back to the hotel to get ready to go back to Downtown Disney to start officially celebrating Hayley’s birthday at midnight!
Hayley, her mom, myself, and a couple other friends ended up at Raglan Road- I had never been before but it was so so fun! They were so excited about it being Hayley’s 21st, and the live band that was playing kept joking around with her. She ended up having a lot of fun, which I’m happy about! On Monday, Hayley’s actual birthday, we all headed over to Magic Kingdom for a little bit to eat Nutella waffles and have Mickey sing happy birthday before we went to Epcot where the REAL festivities began! Of course, since Hayley was turning 21, she wanted to drink around the world for her birthday! We kicked it off in Mexico and made it all around the World Showcase before the park closed. Even though it was rained almost all day, we still had a lot of fun!
After ending the night with a drink at Pop Century’s pool bar, it was time to say goodbye… I’m already missing her TONS and currently trying to brainstorm what our next reunion will be. Hopefully, next time, all my friends from Resto can be there! Overall, it was a perfect and much needed weekend. ❤
Rachel Does Disney 
