Do you ever notice how some years seem to be better than others? CP and I have had a good run of years, but 2013 has been a challenge. It’s reminding me of 2008, the last year I remember thinking that I couldn’t *wait* for the calendar to turn the page.  We’re both overworked, overtired, stressed out, and chronically in need of a happy place. Cue this 72 hour trip to WDW, a quick hit of Disney to tide us over until our longer trip in August.

Hence the title of this trip report. One afternoon leading up to our trip, CP and I were driving about town, stressed out and remarking how much we were both looking forward to this getaway. I was lamenting the fact that it wouldn’t be a long trip, but CP looked on the bright side – it’s just a taste, she said. Like licking the mirror to get the last bits of cocaine after the rest of it is gone.

Indeed!

Of course, neither one of us have ever done drugs, so I don’t know if the title is truly apt or not. But it seemed to fit. This trip was just a quick taste, a little dose of Disney to tide us over until our next larger dose. And despite my worrying, it was a lot of fun.

The details:

We flew from Hartford to Orlando on a Friday night, on the same JetBlue flight we always seem to take. It gets us in to Orlando around 9pm, which allows us to work a full day and still not get to WDW too too late.

To save money, we decided *gasp* to stay offsite. Originally, I had booked us at a Homewood Suites near Downtown Disney; I’ve stayed there before on business and it’s quite a nice hotel. As the trip drew nearer, however, I became a bit captivated with some deals on Hotwire, and we decided to spring for a four-star hotel deal that would cost approximately half as much as the Homewood. Of course, it would also be a hotel nearer to Universal than to Disney, but we figured the few extra miles of driving would be worth it. (Spoiler alert: it wasn’t.) The hotel turned out to be a Crowne Plaza, which – while nice – was far from a true four-star resort, in my opinion. It was conveniently located near Whole Foods and Starbucks, so that was nice, but I have to say, I don’t think we’ll be staying offsite again anytime soon. Sometimes paying for location is really worth it.

We had annual passes and used our Tables in Wonderland card for meals. Speaking of which, in spite of my obsessive compulsive planning, we typically end up doing a fair amount of winging it on our trips. So, a few dining reservations changed. We ended up having dinner at Artist Point and lunch at the Plaza, as well as an impromptu lunch at Be Our Guest. But we opted to skip our breakfasts at the Wave and at Kona Cafe, as well as a planned dinner at Via Napoli. We decided that on such a short trip, we’d rather use that time to be in the parks.

Our trip happened to coincide with Disney’s most successful (in my opinion) Limited Time Magic offering, a celebration of Star Wars and “May the Fourth” at the Studios. Neither one of us are great fans of Star Wars, but the sense of community and excitement created by this event were really encouraging. More on that to come.

A full trip report and lots of pictures are forthcoming, but in the meantime, here’s a taste – just a taste – of some of the fun we had: