Living the Dream: Retirement, Star Wars, and Stress-Free Disney Days

 

Two retired teachers, one a Disney fan, one a Star Wars fan and they are living the dream! That's us, it finally happened! I got Don Rahn back to Disney World on his own terms, with no persuading. The only requirement...we must do EVERYTHING Star Wars! 

No tight plans, no big itinerary, just a few dinner reservations and a few Lightning Lane reservations to make sure that the Star Wars request was met. 

It was hot! It was magical! We had fun! We laughed and we have the pictures to prove it. 

So how do two 50-something adults do Disney and still like each other at the end? AND, how did I get Don Rahn to have his first "retirement travel trip" be to Disney World? Plot twist...it was his idea!!

 Read on to follow our 4-day adventure in Walt Disney World.  (teaser - there is some Star Wars involved!😊)

So here’s how it happened…..

2017

December trip to Disney and the last time Don was at the parks. He claims he has no interest in returning until “Star Wars Land” is complete.

Since then…

2019
3 Rahn girls trip to Walt Disney World in July

2021-2024

Laura and Katie make trips to Disney for Katie’s make-up high school graduation trip, Epcot Flower and Garden Festival, and a December Holiday adventure

2024
3 Rahn girls take on Disney Land in California during Katie's college grad trip

2025

3 Rahn girls bring Elisabeth to Disney and experience the Epcot Fine Arts Festival

June, 2025 Don is retiring from 30 years as an educator and Laura is busy planning vacations that they will both love.  She tries to sneak in a May, 2026 Walt Disney World trip and Don says he doesn’t want to go then…he wants to go NOW!!

30 minutes later, I have planned 4 nights at an Epcot resort in August when teachers are getting ready to return to school. Don says he is excited! It didn't take long to get the buttons and some t-shirts. 

That’s how it started, and here we are home from an incredible, HOT adventure in Walt Disney World. 

So, how did it go? Aside from the Florida heat in August (which we were prepared for), I'd say it was perfect! 

We traveled Monday thru Friday in mid-August which was great. Summer crowds were thinning and many states were returning to school or getting ready to. The crowds weren't that bad at all. So...let's go to Disney!

Monday

We arrived in the late morning and checked into the Swan Resort. Our room was ready! We unpacked a bit and went and found lunch at The Boardwalk Deli. Don had never seen the Boardwalk before.

Our home resort for many years was The Wilderness Lodge, due it it's nature theming. I discovered the Swan and Dolphin when I chaperoned a journalism conference with Carleigh when she was in 10th grade. 

Katie and I switched over to staying at The Swan during our trips because there was more activity, and it proximity to Hollywood Studios (walking or boat) and a short walk to Epcot. 

I've come to love the Boardwalk area. You're still in Disney and the crowds are a lot lighter.

Boardwalk Deli did not disappoint and then we made our way to the Magic Kingdom for the afternoon. 

With all the research that I do prior to vacations, I had learned that with the Swan being a Marriott property, it uses charter buses instead of Disney transport for park transportation. Therefore, the Magic Kingdom bus would let off at the Ticket Center and you'd have to take the monorail to get to Magic Kingdom. We avoided that extra step by walking over to the Boardwalk Resort and getting the Disney transport bus to the Magic Kingdom at their bus stop. This little tip has saved us many minutes of extra time trying to get to the Magic Kingdom from the Swan. 

We arrived shortly after 1:00 and walked right in after security and finger scans. Having the park ticket on our phones is another tip that I learned and it also saves a lot of time. If your park ticket is in your phone "wallet," you just hold your phone up to the reader, scan your finger and you are in. 

The first stop was the only thing that I requested for this trip...pictures of us in front of the castle with our retirement pins. 

The Photopass photographers had a little fun with the magic shots during this trip. Don was not impressed, and I love him because he played along!!! 💓

It was so nice not having big plans or things that we had to do, and no children, of any age, that we had to keep happy. We wandered around and made decisions on the spot about what we wanted to do.

We visited Country Bear Jamboree...

We rode Pirates of the Caribbean...

We took a tour of The Haunted Mansion...

We enjoyed the music of Mickey's Philarmagic orchestra...

And we took a trip on the Happiest Cruise on Earth. 

It's a Small World was my idea. This ride is special to me for many reasons, the first being that it is a core memory from my first trip to Disney Land with my parents. I loved the song and it played on repeat for one of our big cross country drives in our VW Van. Ever since then, It's a Small World is on my Disney list. My family knows it, and they endure!! 💞😍

I'll have another blog post about this ride because they changed the ending, and it's a full circle connection to our visit to Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, CA last summer. I love Disney for all the creativity and innovation, and also all of the stories that are part of the Disney Universe. 

We didn't have any big to-dos at the Magic Kingdom and tomorrow is Star Wars Day and we are rope-dropping Hollywood Studios, so we found the Boardwalk Resort bus and headed back to shower and get ready for dinner. 

We had a dinner reservation at Cape May Cafe in the Beach Club Resort. We were able to walk there from the Swan. 

Katie and I found this restaurant a few trips back and have returned each time. It is a seafood themed alll-you-can-eat buffet. Also, lots of chicken and beef items. 

There are so many seafood options, hard and soft shell that each table comes with its own bucket. Clams...oysters...peel and eat shrimp...lobster tails (extra charge) and Don Rahn didn't waste time filling the bucket. It was a great first dinner for us.

Our server/cast member was amazing and she asked if we were celebrating anything. We talked to her about our retirement and she brought us each a complimentary dessert treat!  I love the Disney "pixie dust."

We took a leisurely walk back to the hotel and were happy to find out that we could see the Epcot fireworks from our hotel room. Early to bed because tomorrow we have goals (and an itinerary/plan)!

Tuesday

Alarms were set, and we grabbed coffee and a breakfast sandwich at the Swan and we did it! We caught the first boat to Hollywood Studios, right outside the Swan and we were off. Galaxy's Edge here we come!

We arrived at Hollywood Studios, waited a few minutes and then they started letting everyone in. 

Early entrance for Disney resort guests started at 8:30 and we were walking towards Rise of the Resistance at 8:00. 

We entered the queue for Rise of the Resistance at 8:08 and at 8:24 we were off the ride and heading to the next ride. 

Rise of the Resistance is amazing. I love the full immersion of this ride from the cast members to the many different moving pieces. It's so fun and Don definitely enjoyed it. 

We headed through Galaxy's Edge and walked right onto Smuggler's Run. Don and I were co-pilots. I didn't do very well. 😂 We then explored more of Galaxy's Edge and found some good photo-ops! He also tried the blue milk.

We then headed out to Star Tours, the original Star Wars ride.  

This one is a hard no for me due to its crazy movement and 3-D. I had no problem waiting in the air-conditioned gift shop while Don rode Star Tours 4 times in a row, with no wait!

Mickey and Minnie's Runaway Railway was also a lot of fun and then lunch at Sci-Fi Dine In! The air conditioning was a requirement, so we splurged for a table-service meal. 

After lunch, we headed to visit with Chewy and then to Toy Story Land. 

Toy Story Land was also new for Don. 

We rode Toy Story Mania and then it was time to head back to Galaxy's Edge.

We had a 4:00 reservation at Oga's Cantina in Galaxy's Edge and we were very interested in what we were in for. We ended up being "seated" at a stand-up table, and your reservations are for 45 minutes. It's a popular spot!

After Oga's, we headed towards the front of the park and back to our hotel. We were done with the heat and ready to relax with some air conditioning before dinner.

We had dinner reservations at the Yacht Club resort at the Ale and Compass. We enjoyed the evening on the Boardwalk and then headed back to the hotel.

 Tomorrow is Animal Kingdom and Epcot!!

Wednesday

We woke up Wednesday and headed to Animal Kingdom. The day before, Don embraced the idea of wearing a Disney t-shirt in the parks, and found one that he liked. 

Little did we know, that less than 5 minutes from entering, this interaction would happen!!

We decided to make an early breakfast reservation at Tusker House inside the park. We love the Disney Breakfast Buffets! It was also a character meal. Not part of our plan, and we went all in! 

After breakfast, we walked around Animal Kingdom hitting some of Don's favorite areas...the walking trails with live animals. 

But first, we had to pre-game our Oct/Nov African Safari to the Serengeti with the Safari ride in Animal Kingdom!

We were heading to the Dinosaur ride, and Don's idea...we decided to get in line to say hi to Chip and Dale! They are Katie's favorite, so of course I had to get a pic of them waving to her!!

We then headed over to Pandora before heading back to the hotel.

We've been going to Disney World since about 2006, and one of my unpopular opinions was affirmed again this trip! Animal Kingdom is HOT! I truly believe the temperature in that park is always 10 degrees warmer than anywhere else on Disney property. 

We had a nice air conditioned lunch at Pizzafari and then headed towards the buses. Epcot was our second park for the day and we decided to just head straight there. So we found a direct bus to Epcot from Animal Kingdom.

We arrived and did the obligatory pictures in front of the "ball."

We decided to purchase a Lightning Lane single pass for the Guardians of the Galaxy ride. We had some time to kill before our ride time, so we wandered around the front of the park and explored.

Of course I found Walt. 💙

We then explored the aquarium area for a bit and enjoyed the air conditioning.

Then it was time for the ride. I honestly can't say it was my favorite. I like RocknRoller Coaster and can ride the other coasters, and I think the spinning and jostling around of this ride didn't agree with me.

After exploring the front of Epcot, we headed to World Showcase and ended up in Italy for our dinner reservation. They were able to take us an hour earlier than our reservation and we enjoyed a great pizza/pasta dinner at Via Napoli.

One of the joys of staying at a Boardwalk resort is that you can walk to Epcot, no worrying about waiting for Disney transportation.  After dinner we exited from between England and Canada through the international gateway and enjoyed a leisurely walk back to the Swan through the Boardwalk area.

So the big question was, what are we doing on Thursday? We had no official plans and had an early flight out on Friday morning back to Virginia.

Thursday

Since this was essentially Don's trip, it was back to Hollywood Studios and more Star Wars. 😍💓

We took the boat and rope dropped again, being one of the first on Rise of the Resistance.

We then rode Smugglers Run again, this time being engineers and gunners. Then we made it over to Toy Story Mania. No matter how hard I try, I can never beat him in this game. I start out strong and then he finishes ahead of me...

After playing around in Hollywood Studios, we took the boat back to our hotel and found a bus to Disney Springs, the Disney shopping district. It wasn't that busy and we wandered around there for a while. We found a good lunch spot and after a few hours exploring, we took a LYFT back to the Swan.

Dinner on our final night was at a restaurant in the Dolphin, The Fountain. It's a diner type restaurant and the burgers and fries were great!!

Back to pack, and get ready for our early morning pickup to the Orlando airport.

As the sun set on Retired Rahns Trip #2, I couldn’t help but smile at how perfectly it all came together...days filled with laughter, Star Wars adventures, delicious meals, and those little Disney details that always feel like magic. Traveling with my best friend and retirement buddy made it even more magical, reminding me that Disney will always be my happy place no matter what stage of life I’m in. Memories made, hearts full, and plenty of laughs to carry us until the next adventure—because if this first trip is any sign, retirement is going to be one magical ride. ✨

And the adventure doesn’t stop here… 

Coming soon: Retired Rahns Trip #3! This time we’re heading west for seven nights of wide-open skies, golden aspens, and wildlife wonders in Wyoming and Yellowstone. At the end of September, we’ll be trading Mickey ears for hiking boots—ready to soak up fall colors, crisp mountain air, and more unforgettable memories. Stay tuned, because the Retired Rahns are just getting started! 🌄🐻🍂