Disney World Trip: January 2021

What a beautiful sight! I’m going to recap our 5 night, 4 day stay at Walt Disney World from January 2021. I was nervous that the changes would make it not as magical, but it was a wonderful trip!

We were so excited to get there that we made the 7 1/2 hour trip with only two super fast pit stops. We chose to stay at Disney’s Coronado Springs Resort, and our room was just one building over from where we stayed last time.

A major perk of staying on Disney property is being able to enter the parks before they’re technically open. I was so excited to see that Magic Kingdom still had the Christmas decor on display!

You just can’t beat that first sight of the castle! There was palpable excitement among everyone on the street!

We always head right to Small World and were the first ones to ride it that day!

I love that even the bathroom areas are pretty and specifically themed. We also rode Peter Pan, The Little Mermaid and my personal favorite ride – the Magic Carpets of Aladdin!

The crowd levels were low, allowing us to see details we normally would miss. I love this window display of Cinderella’s dress with the castle in the reflection!

Even without fast passes, we never waited more than 30 minutes for anything. The key is to head right to the most popular ride on your list and do that one before the parks fill up.

We had plenty of time for our favorite attractions and then moved on to some new ones: Jungle Cruise, the Tomorrowland Speedway and Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin.

I’ll be sharing the details about our meals in a separate post. After a few hours of rest at our resort, we walked across the bridge for a delicious dinner! I love this fountain outside the gift shop at Coronado Springs.

As much as I love Magic Kingdom, Hollywood Studios is a close second! We spent our second day in this park and it was really fun to see it all dressed up in vintage holiday decor, too. The cloudy day didn’t dampen the festive glow one bit.

We headed straight to Galaxy’s Edge where Paul rode the Millennium Falcon ride twice without waiting! This is why you go right to your favorite ride. 🙂

After doing Star Tours, we stopped for breakfast where we watched a few Storm Troopers bark out orders across the street. Then we headed to the new Mickey and Minnie ride at the Chinese Theatre. It was really loud and chaotic, and while it’s cute I probably wouldn’t ride it again.

Toy Story Mania was another new ride for us – and was one of our favorites from the trip! Paul trailed me in points until the very end when he pulled out the win. 🙂

As fans of old Hollywood and classic movies, we both enjoyed the atmosphere at the Hollywood Brown Derby Restaurant!

The sun came out while we were riding the Skyliner – the new gondola transportation system! Paul got a notice that his boarding group had been called for the new Star Wars ride, the Rise of the Resistance, so we headed back into the park.

Paul said this was a heart-stopping, amazing ride that made you feel like you were actually in the movie. I took his word for it, as I’m not a thrill ride kind of person. I was happy to wait outside!

We spent the third day in Epcot, and even though it’s not on the top of our list, we had a great day! This was definitely the coldest day of our trip, with highs in the 50’s and cloud cover all day.

We rode Soarin’ for the first time (it reminded me of a fancy IMAX show – Paul loved it) and then did all the science stuff in the Land Pavilion.

We saw so many characters in this park! Winnie the Pooh was chasing butterflies on the lawn. You can’t walk right up to characters right now or get pictures with them, but you can interact from a distance.

I absolutely LOVE the UK pavilion in the World Showcase. One of our favorite restaurants in all of Disney World is here, the Rose and Crown. While we were eating lunch outside, a princess cavalcade (Disney’s word for mini parade) came through!

Everything looked so pretty, even on a cloudy day. There aren’t too many rides in this part of the park, so we took our time and enjoyed the sights.

We stopped for a treat at the bakery in the France pavilion. It was really nice that it was cool enough to enjoy a cup of hot coffee with my chocolate croissant!

We made our way “around the world” and saw the American Adventure show, rode Frozen and the Gran Fiesta Tour.

The low crowd levels plus the distancing measures made this the best experience we’ve had in Epcot. It’s usually so crowded that it’s hard to see much of the exhibits – but not this time!

Paul was pumped to hear the Voices of Liberty who were performing here as part of the International Festival of the Arts. Several of the group members also belong to Voctave, an acapella group he loves. They were great!

We saw Mary Poppins as well as Anna and Elsa from Frozen. After supper at Coral Reef we did some shopping, rode Under the Seas with Nemo and then walked around the aquarium before heading back to our resort.

For our last day, we spent a leisure morning at Magic Kingdom. We rode Winnie the Pooh (which is the cutest ride ever!), Buzz Lightyear and of course…took one more flight on the Magic Carpets of Aladdin.

I love the cinnamon rolls and the atmosphere at Gaston’s Tavern, and the view of the castle is pretty great too! Currently Disney requires everyone to wear a mask at all times “except when actively eating or drinking while stationary.” I took our picture while we were eating our cinnamon roll. 🙂

It was sunny but cool, so we found a spot on Main Street and just sat down to enjoy the attractions coming up and down the street. Another of Paul’s favorites, the Dapper Dans, came by and sang from the trolley.

We ordered lunch from Pecos Bill, and the all-princess cavalcade came right by our table while we were finishing up our meal! This one is so fun and even includes the fairy godmother!

We took one last look at the Seven Seas Lagoon before jumping on a bus to Disney Springs for shopping and supper at Raglan Road (more about that fun experience in my post on where we ate!).

It is always so sad to leave Disney World, but we are very grateful to the Lord for giving us the opportunity to spend a week there! Being away from the distractions and responsibilities of daily life is so good for our marriage.

We made lots of great memories, learned things about each other and just enjoyed spending all that time together!

I wanted this post to simply be a fun recap of our time at Disney World. If you have questions about anything related to vacationing there – planning, safety, cost, dining, etc., feel free to leave them below.

Thanks for letting my share our trip with you! I hope you enjoyed a peek at our magical week! ❤

More From This Disney Trip:

• Disney World Haul
• Dining At Disney World: January 2021
• Disney World in 2021: What’s It Like? Is It Magical? (Answering your questions)