My first visits to Disney World were long ago — before I moved from Maryland to Florida — and always with my family in tow.

When my husband, kids, and I relocated to Central Florida seven years ago, it was a no-brainer that we'd purchase annual passes. For years, we made memories in the theme parks, but, as my kids turned into teenagers, they weren't as interested in visiting anymore.

I decided to keep my own annual pass because I love visiting Disney alone. Even when my husband and kids held passes, I still loved nothing more than escaping alone for the day to visit a Disney park or shop at Disney Springs.

The first time my family sailed aboard a Disney Cruise Line ship, my kids were 8 and 10. Nearly five years later, we've taken several Disney cruises as a family. But when my husband and I recently started discussing a Disney cruise to Europe, my now 13- and 15-year-olds were totally uninterested. They both had plans and commitments that fell during the seven-night trip and asked to stay at home, leaving us questioning whether we should take a Disney cruise without our kids.

In the days when I could say my family never ate at chain restaurants, I'd drive past Bahama Breeze locations and feel curious.

With its sweeping, open-air patios and tropical signage, I imagined diners sipping mai tais and feasting on jerk chicken. It turns out that my perception of the chain was pretty close to the truth, though it's in a strip-mall parking lot instead of a tropical cruise port.

I've held an annual pass at Disney World for the last seven years and visit several times a month with friends, family, and sometimes even solo.

No matter how often I visit the parks, I never feel like I'm experiencing the same thing repeatedly, probably because I'm constantly stumbling upon events and experiences I never knew existed. One such unique experience, Sangria University, takes place at Disney's Coronado Springs Resort.

My husband and I have always prided ourselves in the fact that we rarely eat at chain restaurants and try to support locally-owned businesses whenever possible.

But lately, our teenagers have been asking about the chain restaurants they've seen in ads or on TikTok, so we decided to try some together as a family.