The Roadtrip of May 2025 happened. Check out how it started and come back for Part 2 with Epic stories.

Our trip started off with a bang with an immediate injury. We will not be vacationing in May ever again. So let’s go back in time to May 2018 with our first Disney World trip as a family of four. The first day of the trip started with an early flight, tickets to Magic Kingdom and dining reservations at Be Our Guest and Tony’s Restaurant. I’ve since learned that this was way too much for a travel day, but that was our first trip with two kids, a double stroller, five park days and grandparents along for support. The torrential downpour started while we were having lunch at Be Our Guest, and a light rain continued throughout the day. Thankfully I had covered the double stroller with a rain cover, which was actually a shower liner with clips, but we got soaked while leaving Magic Kingdom to check in to our resort. Our only athletic shoes were soaked through as well. This led to wearing whatever sandals we packed to our dinner reservation, while it was still raining. For me and the children, this meant comfortable athletic sandals. Grandma bought some Mickey Mouse shoes at the resort shop. Grandpa wore damp shoes and Matt wore cheap flip flops. We’re talking those cheapest of the cheap, from a place that had a wall of flip flops in every color and had them on sale for $1 a pair back in the day. These flip flops contributed to the incident of 2018 and we don’t wear them anymore. Great for the shower in college, but not for running down main street in Disney World in the rain. Matt had a 3 year old child on his shoulders, and walked into a shop with those cheap, worn out flip flops and went down hard. His feet went up in front of him and he and the little lady were down. Everyone ran to her and worried about her and her little head, but she turned out to be unscathed. Since he was holding onto her, he didn’t catch himself at all and his back took all the impact. As the night progressed, he realized he was not ok and went to first aid for ibuprofen and an ice pack. There’s not much to be done, but we suspected an injury to the tailbone. This led to a trip with frequent pain medication and breaks to rest and ice his back.

Fast forward to May 2025. First off, the month of May with a preschooler and kindergartener in 2018 wasn’t a big deal. The month of May now, it’s just a lot. Field trips, teacher appreciation days, and so many school events and dates to remember! I’m talking about volunteering at field day and the PTO carnival. I’m talking about having a kid in the middle school band now, with the required outfit and the concerts. May isn’t just school stuff. I know I’m a mother, but I also have a mother myself and a mother in law so we’re usually taking some time to show our appreciation for them. May is busy and it doesn’t stop, so why I thought to add to the madness with packing and traveling is beyond me. I know I was checking prices and the school calendar, but wow, never again. We also knew we would not be home, so Matt spent an inordinate amount of time “tweaking” our home security cameras. I didn’t know our cameras needed to be updated and networked and that it would take hours of his time so lucky me, I got to do all the other trip prepping. The kids reminded me to pack every single day, as if I wasn’t aware of the impending trip, but I had my packing check list and many other things to do so it happened when it happened. Did we forget a couple things? Sure. Did we pack too many clothes? Also yes. So we prepared the car on the last day of school with a plan to load the suitcases and cooler and leave as early as possible on the following day.

I woke up at 4:00am, dressed and ran to fill the cooler with my prepared ice bags and meals for the drive. It was 44 degrees outside so I also realized my travel outfit of bike shorts and t-shirt wasn’t gonna cut it and threw on some sweat pants. Everyone else was asleep, but I was ok with a quiet house to get focused on my final tasks. We had dropped off the dog the day before so she wasn’t in need of any care, and I had done the cleaning I felt necessary in the prior week to ensure the house wouldn’t be overrun by ants while we were away. Around 4:20am, I heard more alarms going off and then a crash. A literal crash, like something big fell. I carefully walked down the hall and peered into the bedrooms, waiting for whatever impending doom awaited me. I found Matt on the floor next to our bed. He got up and seemed confused about what had happened, then sat on the edge of the bed for me to check him out. He had scraped his torso on the wooden corner at the end of the bed, and woke up the children. The house became a flurry of activity and excitement to get the vacation started. Matt came out to the kitchen to join and then fell down again. He looked pale and confused and said he thought he was leaning back to sit in a chair but then there was no chair so he was sitting on the floor. I got him some apple juice and got him back to bed to rest. Was I worried about his health? For sure. Did I also have an itinerary and no trip insurance? Also an affirmative. Had I expected him to assist with the 4 suitcases and cooler? I sure did. I continued packing like my life depended on it and our son thankfully is big enough to assist me in lifting up the heavy cooler and getting it into the car. We got everything situated and at this point I’m sweating in my sweatpants but I check on Matt and he’s feeling ready to go. I had always been planning to drive the first leg of the trip and had a canned coffee and protein shake ready for me. I figured, or I hoped, he just needed more sleep and then he’d be fine. We had hoped to leave by 5:00am and it was now 5:30am. I was trying not to be annoyed that he got out of loading the car and that we were behind schedule, but as I look back now, I find it amazing that we made it on the trip at all and that we were only half an hour delayed!

Matt doesn’t typically have problems with falling, except on travel days to Florida in May. His balance and awareness was better once we progressed on the roadtrip, but then we began to discuss the pain in his side and if maybe he had broken any ribs. It’s possible, and I did watch him and watch for hospitals as we drove, just in case. Thankfully, there was no need for emergency services, and all things considered, it was a smooth drive. The kids played road trip bingo, ate snacks and played on their phones. We consolidated stops to save time so we all used the bathroom while getting gas or coffee, and packed most of our food so we could eat on the go. We also took turns driving which really helped so both of us could take naps. I ditched the sweatpants in South Carolina as the temperature literally doubled from our starting temperature of 44 up to 88 degrees. We had a hotel booked in northern Orlando on points and it took us about 16 hours to get there. My packing had to be strategic so we didn’t need to bring in all the suitcases so I had a couple bags set up for the first couple nights of the trip. It was all a blur and a rush and a worry if I was doing the right thing trying to proceed with the trip at all!

First official day of the trip! We wake up and get our free continental breakfast then pack up to drive an hour to Legoland! We got a little confused at their entrance and thought as we planned to check in to the Legoland hotel, we would have separate parking. We asked a lovely security guard for assistance and then got into a massive line of cars entering Legoland at 10am. We did have separate parking but it was after that line and still pretty far from the hotel entrance. We dropped off our luggage so we could enjoy the theme park which included a lego festival. We were immediately surprised at the quantity of flying bugs all around us. People call them love bugs I believe. They don’t bite and seem to have their own priorities, but our family, well we don’t cope well with bugs. The kids get that from me. I don’t cope well with bugs. So all in all, what did we think of legoland? The pros were that the staff at the hotel and the theme park were lovely and helpful. We loved the immersive rides of some of the kids favorite shows like Ninjago and the Lego Movie. The cons were the wait times were high despite short lines. For example, the pirate boat ride just had 1 boat running, and only 8 people allowed in a boat, which was half the boat, so the wait time was 45-60 minutes with just a couple dozen people in line. There were other rides like that too, just slow rides that couldn’t move people through them quickly. The hotel was very loud at night with a pajama party, and we couldn’t try out the pool because it rained that evening. We went to the hotel restaurant for dinner and breakfast. Do I recommend this hotel? I can’t say that I do. It was very expensive, although the meals were cheaper than Disney buffets, they also weren’t as high quality and there wasn’t a quick service option so the buffet is your only option. The theming of the hotel is excellent, so I am glad I can say we tried it, but I’m also glad it was only one night. I don’t see how anyone would relax here, but there are the beach houses a bit further away that seem more relaxing and also have lower cost. They require a shuttle to the parks, which would be fine, but my kids really wanted to try the main hotel. When I first started researching, I let them pick a room and they fell in love with the Lego Movie themed room. I didn’t love the lack of any cancellation policy and was holding out for a deal, so I waited to book. The prices only went higher and higher and then the free parking was also removed with an added charge of $33 for parking! The price of a lego movie room was over $700 a night at that point, so I found a compromise and we booked a Ninjago room for just over $500 a night. So very expensive but it was a holiday weekend, and you do get a separate sleeping area for the kids. I reminded myself to compare it to a 2 bedroom at Universal or Disney, with a separate television and sleeping area, so in that sense, the price was comparable. Although 2 bedroom suites at Disney or Universal also tend to have a kitchen area, while Legoland did not. There were cute touches, like a lego themed newspaper delivered to each room in the morning, and then lego shaped waffles with breakfast.

We only have 4 people so we don’t book 2 bedrooms usually and our per night cost at Disney and Universal were much lower. We moved over to Disney’s Port Orlean’s French Quarter and had the pleasant surprise of having a room ready early so we could drop off our luggage before heading to Blizzard Beach for our free water park day. We didn’t need a full day there as the kids aren’t fans of the big water slides so we did a couple hours with the lazy river and wave pool before a big storm blew in. Unfortunately this began a pattern of almost daily thunderstorms. We had tried some family oriented slides at Typhoon Lagoon and Volcano Bay in the past and the kids haven’t wanted to attempt any again. They did like the Ski Patrol area of Blizzard Beach with an obstacle course and small open inner tube slides. We would pick Blizzard Beach again if given the choice for a free water park day in the future. Ultimately, if not free, we would just stick with our hotel pool on check in day.

I’ve covered Disney World so I won’t go into it at length, but this was our first time attempting it without fast passes, lightning lanes or disability access service. I wouldn’t have changed it as we didn’t want to add more expense on top of the budget, but it was hard and with the rain and heat, we just didn’t have time to do as much as I wanted. The kids coped well with the lines for the most part, as phones helped with distraction, so I didn’t feel DAS or disabliity access service was warranted anymore. Our son would still be approved even with the new, stricter, guidelines, but he copes well with noise cancelling headphones and breaks. He’s quite over Disney World in general though and doesn’t want to return. I was hoping we could meet some characters with our reluctant tweens as photo evidence of our farewell to childhood tour but we spent too much time in long ride queues and recovering in air conditioning while eating.

It’s been some years since we’ve stayed at the French Quarter resort but I forgot how overwhelming their food court can be. As the only on site location for food, finding a table was always difficult and there were many people who appeared to be visiting only for the beignets. Ordering groceries to the resort helped with breakfasts in the room. I added ice in ziplock bags to pack around the milk since it was only a beverage cooler. The room had plenty of organization, however no matter where I hung the bathing suits, they never seemed to dry! I used the pull cord in the shower and spaced out items in the closet. The air conditioning unit near the front of the room did the best so I placed wet shoes there and a hanger with bathing suits on it. I also used the blow dryer for our shoes if time demanded it. Oh my, did it rain.

We had some hopes for events that the rain cancelled. We had limited flexibility with four parks days, one park per day and one rest day. On our one rest day, kids started smores at the resort before it was quickly cancelled due to lightning and then the movie under the stars was cancelled. On the Hollywood Studios day, Fantasmic was cancelled due to rain which was very disappointing for me. We had so much rain at Animal Kingdom that we forgot to do any animal trails but we did plan around it as best we could and caught the Lion King show at the start of the storm. Epcot ended in rain but we hadn’t taken a midday break and were exhausted anyway so we left the park a little before 8:00pm and figured the nighttime show would be cancelled by the storm. Our Magic Kingdom day started with rain but then cleared up so we were able to have lower wait times in the morning on rides and then just had to return to our resort for dry shoes and a rest before enjoying the fireworks and the castle show. It was ironic that our first day in Florida with no rain was our moving day from Disney to Universal!

We had rainy days at Universal too and had the rain gear down to a science by then. We also made sure to have it with us at all times as we had our rain jackets in a locker at animal kingdom and never did make the trek to get it until we were already too wet. We had a slight upgrade from ponchos in that they had draw strings on the hood and snaps down the front. We’ve found these helpful as indoor ride operators make you remove ponchos and the snaps are more efficient and allow air flow in the humid Florida weather. I used a travel compression plastic bag to return the wet rain jackets into and then push out any air to save space. We also use a large dry bag with a strap to add a back pack too. I really missed having a stroller to push our gear in and move kids efficiently to the next location, but I also appreciated not having to park a stroller, retrieve it and avoid stairs with it. Universal has a substantial amount of stairs, more than Disney. They do have ramps and elevators to accommodate wheels, but I was grateful we didn’t have a stroller in locations like Nintendo World.

Epic Universe was indeed epic, so it warrants a part two!