Day 1226: Never Quite the Same

A huge part of the Disney experience when you're in the parks is who you experience them with, and let me tell you, once you see them with your best friends in tow, you can never go back.

I spent years trying to find a way for my friends to go with me to Disney, but up until 2014 and the band trip to Walt Disney World, it never happened. Then, suddenly, it worked, and within a couple days in June of 2014, I had them wanting to go back. It wasn't long after we returned before Frank decided to book another trip the following January, and soon after Shovell joined in as well, meaning that our trip in January of 2015, originally just planned for four of us, jumped to 6, and the extended family tradition was born.

That trip in January 2015 was definitely one of the best trips of my entire life. While I can go and explore so much of Walt Disney World on my own or with my family, there's something entirely different about going with your best friends, especially when they're seeing some of it for the first time. We didn't have a ton of time on the band trip, so I mostly took them to the most important attractions in each park, as well as those they might enjoy specifically, giving them a taste as of much of the resort as I possibly could. With the extended time in January 2015, I could bring them to resorts, we could plan our own Dapper Day, we could meet up with more characters, go mini-golfing, and eat at more restaurants.

Now, however, Disney doesn't seem quite the same without them.

Frank went again this last January, and is now actively at work trying to find the next chance for us all to go, although something tells me that won't be for a while. Meanwhile, I continue to head to the Most Magical Place on Earth and wonder why they're not with me. I mean, after experiencing something like that with your best friends, how do you go back? It's said that friends are the family you choose, so to go with my family and my friends really brought us all together in a way we haven't in quite some time. There was just something special about all being together daily around a big table for lunch or dinner, all of us squeezing into a picture somewhere, or waiting in line for Tower of Terror for the first time.

And maybe the fact that it's Disney has something to do with that. The Disney Parks are places to be with the ones you love, whether that means family or friends, and when you're in a place like that with them once, it's never the same again.

Have a magical day!