Magical Moment: You've Got a Friend in Me

A Great Magical Moment...makes you want to start singing "You've Got a Friend in Me" :) 

While I like nothing more than visiting WDW with my husband, there's just something magical about a trip with your best girlfriend. I was lucky enough to take a trip to the World with one of my oldest friends in November of 2009. It’s funny – the only reason we ended up at WDW is because we were too young to rent a car if we went somewhere else (we were thinking Napa). Okay, it wasn’t the ONLY reason but Disney was the easiest option.

My best friend has always been the one to balance out my more serious side. We’d spend hours watching Boy Meets World on breaks from college or special features on Disney DVDs.  She may not be a Disney super fanatic like I am but she’s right up there. Our trip’s itinerary was pretty routine – dinner reservations, park hopping, the works. But it was fun to be the tour guide (even if she had been there before with her own family) and we wore ourselves out getting as much done in the parks as we could. (In fact, we were always patting ourselves on the back for being so productive.) I had my first meal at Yak & Yeti with her, and it immediately became one of my favorites (and a must-stop). We enjoyed the last weekend of the Food & Wine festival, and the unveiling of many the holiday decorations I had never seen in person.

So the trip was nothing out of the ordinary. It’s just that a few weeks before we left that I had moved out of our hometown into my first house with my fiancé. And my best friend and I would be permanently apart, no longer only separated by fall and spring semesters. Or having the ability to meet up for dinner during so frequently on weeknights. So we had four days to catch up and gab non-stop. No interruptions. No boys. We drank wine, ate good food, and made some friends. In particular, Safari Mickey (her boyfriend) and (mine) Woody from Toy Story. We even got tattoos of them in Hollywood Studios.

 So I got to hold hands with Woody. She got to hug Mickey. My best friend and I got to eat breakfast and listen to some talented kids (who were sadly not Zac Efron) sing songs from High School Musical. And even though those seem like normal happenings on a Disney trip, it’s the small things that matter most.

Estelle is the co-founder of This Happy Place Blog & a frequent contributor to The Disney Blog. She collects too many vinylmations, thinks the Muppets make the world a better place, and is always daydreaming about her next trip to WDW. (She also tweets a lot @thatsostelle!)