Disney April 2026 – Planning and Day 1

Dear Liza Jean and James,

Your Mom is about to take the most important Medical Board Exam of her professional career.  It is all oral with questions coming from a panel of experts in her field. And she must fly to Dallas to take it.  She has been studying months for this exam and her most intense studying will occur during James’ spring break from pre-school. As a result, your mom and dad asked if we could keep you during that week.  Gizzy The Great accepted the responsibility under one condition – that we take both of you to Disney World that week. And so, we are going to Disney World – our first big trip with the two of you. 

Liza Jean, you are 2 and a half years old. And James, you are now 5 and a half years old. Your Papa J and Gizzy took your dad and his brothers to Disney World for the first time in the 1990’s when they were close to your current ages. And we took them back two more times. Each trip was special.  Things have changed since then.  For one thing, the Disney Brand is not what it once was – not quite as special.  And visiting Disney World itself has become much more expensive.  People save for years to make this trip, and some families even go into debt to go to Disney World.  As a result, people develop entire strategies to maximize the number of ride and show experiences and to optimize their time there.  “Rope Strategies” and “Lightning Passes” are a part of all of this.  It can be a bit daunting.

I told Gizzy that she would have to do the planning for this trip because it was her idea. And once the decision was made to go, your Gizzy The Great was on a mission. To help navigate this web of information and choices, we used a travel agent. Her name is Jen and she is also a friend. She has made the planning of this trip so much easier for us. The final preparations (other than final packing) were completed a week before leaving when we purchased our “Lighting Passes”. I truly believe that your Grandmother Gizzy was more excited than the two of you! And to be honest, I became excited as well. Her joy was contagious. And this is my first message to you.  Be joyful. It is contagious. Your joy will bring joy to others. And by doing so, your joyful “outlook” will help you live better lives.  This has been scientifically proven by the National Geographic Blue Zone study. So, live joyfully.

One of the tag lines for Disney is “Disney World – Where Magic Happens.” Instead, I was thinking “Disney World – Where Stress Happens.” I must admit, I had a bit of anxiety about two sixty-something grandparents spending five straight days alone with a five-and-a-half-year-old and a two-and-a-half-year-old navigating a trip to and through Disney World! So, when we left this morning for Charlottesville to pick the two of you up and then head to the Richmond airport, I entered this adventure with a little trepidation.  To help reduce the stress of the trip, I told my clients, especially new clients, that I and my wife were taking a vacation with our two grandchildren to Disney World – alone.  So, there would be no time to sneak away to take calls, sit in on zoom meetings, or write extensive emails.  I knew I had to be present with the two of you every moment. You two are very energetic and inquisitive children – and I wanted to always be near and present with the two of you.

As one client observed during a call before the trip, your son and daughter-in-law must really trust the two of you to let you do this.  And that is very true.  I am sure they were more nervous than I was.  At least I could control my actions around the two of you during this trip.  They could not control my actions.  So, they were giving us a lot of control to let us do this.  But as one of my close friends told me on a phone call before we left, “When we took our grandchildren to a theme park, I would ride behind them on roller coaster rides and lean forward in case the device that protected them malfunctioned, which was absurd. But I did that because I was so much more diligent with my grandchildren than with my own children because someone else had put their sacred trust in me to take care of the most important people in their lives.” And then my friend Paul said, “You will do the same.”  He has always been so good at affirming others.

Lesson number two – do not ever take for granted your mom and dad’s willingness to “let the ones they love have their own adventures and experiences.”  This was more difficult for your mom than you can ever imagine.  So, some day you need to thank your mom and dad for allowing you to take this special adventure. Without their willingness to let you go, this would never have happened.

Once we arrived at the airport, everything went smoothly. We walked around the airport and even had a pizza picnic while we waited for our plane.  And once we were on the plane, the two of you were amazing.  James, you kept busy by watching a movie. And Liza Jean, you slept the entire trip.  Because we did not check luggage – it is a Franklin thing – we zipped right through the airport to our waiting driver, who had our “Minnie Ride” waiting, full of yummy snacks. 

Once we got to Jambo House at Animal Kingdom Lodge, we walked straight to our room, 4467, where we had a view of a small savanna with all kinds of animals including zebras and giraffes.  The two of you were so excited. After walking around the property, the four of us headed for our dinner destination – Jiko – The Cooking Place. Highlights at dinner included wild boar and a painted ostrich egg for dessert.  The ostrich egg consisted of a white chocolate eggshell with moist chocolate cake inside. This came with a small paint brushes and red, yellow and brown paints – raspberry, mango and chocolate sauces respectively.  We laughed so hard when the two of you started dipping the paint brushes into the “Paints” and licking the brushes instead of painting.  Gizzy and I agreed that the meal, the service and atmosphere was first class.  If we ever go back to Disney World, we agreed that we would go back to that restaurant. 

After dinner we headed to the crafts and play area where you two did some drawing and coloring.  We then headed back to our room where we experimented with the “Hey Disney” voice assistant and watched classic Disney cartoons.  You both fell asleep quickly.  And I thought to myself, “Wow, our first day was amazing.  There were no meltdowns and no drama. Could this continue?” And I also realized I had not checked work emails all day.