Y'all, we just returned home from what I'm calling "The Best Vacation"!
Our little family took a road trip down to Florida and went to Walt Disney World for the very first time as a family! From there we spent a few days on the pristine beach of Siesta Key, and it was as gorgeous as we heard. Clear water, soft cool sand, uncrowded beach.
The Best Vacation may be a bit of a bold title, but with all the excitement Disney World brought to our family and the relaxation we found by the ocean, for us this trip was the perfect family vacation!
We've been dreaming about taking our family to Disney World a long time now as many parents do and waited till both children finished kindergarten before we took on the great adventure. I think the Lord helped us make the right decision because, as a whole, they were pretty patient as there were a few times we waited in line for a ride or reservation and had miles of walking everyday. I will get into more of those things in a bit.
We made the wise decision to go to the beach for a few days after Disney World. The beach is my "happy place". There is something about the clear aqua water, the humid air, the salty breeze, soft sand, and the sound of waves crashing that infuses my bones with relaxation like I never quite feel at home. The looking across an endless horizon that makes you feel small and reminds you of how big God is to create and control such a wonder. It helps that all our family finds it their happy place, too! It was the perfect way to recoup after a busy Disney experience before coming back to real life and immediately feeling the need of yet another vacation!! Am I right? Although it took the hubs and I days, DAYS, to get rested after we came back home from our trip (after 10 days of going strong and the last one being 17 hours on the road with kids in tow) we all needed time to recoup...that kind of traveling will do it to you! Plus the time change, and the immediate 4th of July activities, and all the unpacking.... we were tired. A good tired, though, because of all the memories we made.
Before I get into Disney World, let me share with you a little about the beautiful isle of Siesta Key. It's a small island off the coast of Sarasota Florida. It has a small village with condos lining the beach, but not a bunch of big high rises although there were a few. The island has a nice laid back feel to it.
The beautiful view of the sunset over the Gulf every evening reminded me of how great my God is to make something so breathtaking!
It reminds me how much God really loves me to create something so exquisitely beautiful for me to experience, for us to experience as a family! His loving-kindness and faithfulness even shows up in creation with the setting of the sun every evening, no matter where you are on earth!
When we arrived I took this photo below and it was then-- as we were taking it all in, experiencing shear joy with our family-- that I could hear the Lord tell me that He wanted me to settle in and enjoy this relaxation. It was for me to enjoy!
That is a big deal for me, because I am on-the-go all the time at home and it's hard for me to relax. I listened and obeyed my Heavenly Father and enjoyed my time there so much, being present in the moment!
I allowed myself to rest.
Today, I've popped in to not only tell you about our trip but I want to share with you all how we "did Disney" in case any of you would like to hear our own experiences and recommendations! Things we would definitely do again or maybe leave out next time. Tips and a few things to expect if you haven't been or if you have been but without children.
Keep in mind, we are no Disney expert, but just getting home from the trip I can share from our own experience while it's fresh on our mind.
We were blessed to have a whole lot of help with the planning from a very dear friend who knows the park inside and out, and that helped the overall Disney experience tremendously!!! We also asked many different people what they thought, but overall we made the trip designed for our personal preferences. That's how you should do it, too. Glean ideas from those who have been and get recommendations and but when it comes your daily "schedule", only you know that speed your family would like to go. It still takes some research to get to that point. When all was said and done, we planned enough ahead of time that while we were there we didn't have to stress. We initially went into the planning stages overwhelmed by all the options we had. Between the resorts, to the meals, the fast passes, the character meets, the options felt limitless.
We knew for sure that we wanted to spend 5 days in the park and give a "magical" trip to our 6 and 7 year old that we would never forget!
We are a family of 4 and didn't take any grandparents or extended family with us. We actually enjoy the bonding time of just the 4 of us each year on vacation, although it would be fun and easier in some ways to have more family there. ( I hope that happens in the future!!) We navigated our way around a little easier that if we had gone with a large group and getting reservations or even just a table at a counter service place is easier with four.
We decided to go to Magic Kingdom, Epcot, and Animal Kingdom. We felt that our kids were a little too young and innocent for them to go to Hollywood Studios this time. We knew we were going to the beach afterward, so we didn't care to go to a waterpark. I think we ended up making wise choices for this trip! We found the least to do at Animal Kingdom but that day we went back over to Disney Springs for dinner so it worked out well. Coincidentally our favorite ride in the entirety of Disney World ended up being at Animal Kingdom .... you'll have to keep reading to see what that was. :) Let me back up..... it was a God thing, not coincidence that we chose Animal Kingdom because we had no idea how fun that ride would be, but He knew!
One of my all-time favorite days of the trip was at Epcot. I've never been before but Heath and I absolutely loved it! It felt less crowded, I loved the beautiful music that was playing over the speakers around the park, and I loved the World Showcase and all the diversity those countries brought. There was delicious food everywhere we went. We only went to Epcot one day but I would have loved to go an extra day and see it all...and eat all the food! Next time we'll spend more time there.
On that day in Epcot, we saw where a lady was doing face painting. We hadn't seen anyone walking around with their face painted but it looked like so much fun and the kids wanted to do so we thought, "when in Rome... errr, Disney"! They got fabulous painted faces, especially baby girl's. She was a stunning ice queen!!!
My excitement arose when I saw how great they looked and in the joy of the moment, this happened .....
Then, the kids & convinced Heath he needed to get his superhero on as well.
Yes. We got our faces painted too!! I never had done this before, but we were at the most magical place on earth so why not??? This is the time to just have fun, that's essentially why we were there!
We became "that family" and it was pretty amazing! I couldn't have been more proud to be a part of our bunch of characters walking around the park sweating our booties off but having fun! We ended up getting a lot of compliments from people, even this one elderly man said how sweet it was for us to paint our faces for the kids. I thought, "I did this for me, Buddy!"
So practically speaking, let's talk Walt Disney World!
1. When you begin planning, decide if you want to stay on or off Disney property.
We stayed on Disney property which was the right decision for us.
We stayed at the Caribbean Beach Resort which is a "moderate" resort. It is in the Epcot area but fairly central to all the parks and Disney Springs, except for the Magic Kingdom. The bus ride there was about 20-25 minutes for us. The grounds of this resort are simply beautiful! Lush foliage all around with a tropical Caribbean theme that's done really well. The pool was awesome with a zero entry on one side and two water slides. Our kids loved that pool! We stayed in one of the Pirate themed rooms, and it was wonderfully done! They remodeled these rooms just a couple years ago and it was decked out like we were going to sail the high seas! Our son especially got excited when we walked in. The beds in those rooms are full sized but honestly we were so tired at night I never noticed a difference. The mattresses were firm and very comfortable, and housekeeping left the kid's toys in adorable, playful ways on their bed every day. (It's the little things like that you'll only find at Disney!) This room had a mini fridge and a small table with two chairs along with a very large flat screen tv. The Caribbean Beach Resort is undergoing renovations right now, but the construction wasn't around South Trinidad, the building complex we stayed at. I guess next year it will be even more beautiful there when all the renovations and rebuilding is complete! I can definitely see us staying there again in a few years.
Some nice things about staying on the grounds of a Disney Resort, is that we parked our van after we checked in and left it there the whole trip, taking Disney transportation everywhere we went. That gave my husband a huge break from the stress of driving and allowed us to have the all inclusive feeling of living in a "magical" place, if only for a few days. Also, each person gets a cute Disney souvenir style travel mug that you can take home. There are drink stations set up around each resort that you can fill up your mug and have something to drink with you around the resort. The magic bands you receive in the mail about 3 weeks before your Disney vacation serves also as a room key so you don't have to pack around a key card. Just scan your badge and the door easily unlocked for us. It was so nice when we're tired and hot and dragging ourselves over to our room after a long day of fun to not fumble around a bag to find that room key! Yay for Magic Bands!
2. Decide how you will want to do meals. Disney Dining plan or not.
We knew we wanted to use the Disney dining plan. It worked out wonderfully for us and would do it again. We chose the plan with two snacks, one counter service, and one table service per person, per day. These can be used at any time in your trip. For example, some days we would share the (large)portions of a "snack" like at Gaston's Tavern where the cinnamon roll was the size of a loaf of bread. Each of us didn't need our own cinnamon roll, that would be a waste.
Two of those cinnamon rolls fed our family with a couple of Lefou's brews. Gaston's Tavern, by the way, is a delicious place we loved at Fantasyland in the Magic Kingdom! At the end of our trip our dining plan ended up being the perfect amount of food. We used all our credits just before leaving the park, and we never went hungry. We did have a small fridge in the room where I kept yogurts and fruit for breakfast along with some bottle waters and coffee creamer.
The food at Disney was delicious! The portions were perfect if not extra large and the longer we stayed the better we knew how to order wisely for our family. You learn where has larger portions also from observing other people's food.
Another perk with the dining plan is that you're not carrying a bunch of food around the park weighing down your backpack or stroller. It's a good idea to still have a pack of peanut butter crackers or a couple granola bars in your back pack, also we bought a Brita filtering water bottle to refill in the park...but that's all the food and drink we carried around. (Keep in mind, if you go with toddlers or pre-schoolers you would probably need more snacks on hand to keep little ones happy.) We found Disney to have some really cute kid or kid-at-heart friendly snacks. From the classic Mickey pretzel to the Mickey shaped ice cream bar to more refined tastes of the Epcot snacks or the popular Dole Whip float, which was one of my all-time favorites when you're in the afternoon heat. Oh, that Dole Whip Float was like manna from Heaven for us at the time! We drank it so fast I don't think we got a picture!
I believe you can make dining reservations as early as 180 days out from your arrival date. We planned our trip 3 1/2 months before and immediately made reservations for dinner once we nailed down the dates, even before we booked our accommodations! We had help doing this and all the recommendations of places were great. The only lunch we reserved was at "Be Our Guest" in Beast's castle. What an amazing place to eat in Beast's castle! It's chock full of intricate details straight out of the movie. There are three diding rooms in there and we chose to sit in the West Wing! It was fun for the kids. We definitely recommend eating there if you can, but the reservations fill up fast so I recommend trying to get that one early. We reserved all of our dinner reservations because that's when we chose to use the table service meals. If we go back I think I would like to try to eat breakfast one morning at Chef Mickeys. I've heard so many good things about the Mickey waffles particularly there, but it fills up fast. There's a pizza restaurant in Epcot / Italy that sounds divine so I would like to try that out, too.
- Favorite Restaurants
If we had the chance to go to a place without our kids for a more relaxing dinner we would go there for a date. Real life: one of our children was in an epic bad mood there, but instead of allowing it to totally ruin the dinner we chose to make the best of it. Going into this trip my husband and I sort of made that our mantra. We knew bad moods would happen but it doesn't have to sink the whole ship, right?? I can guarantee every family will have a melt down or sour mood happen at least once, even in the perfection of Disney World.
Be Our Guest at the Beast's castle in Fantasyland at Magic Kingdom was a favorite restaurant as I mentioned. We highly suggest the cupcakes and the potato leek soup there! We planned to go here after going to Enchanted Tales with Belle in keeping with the Beauty and the Beast theme.
The Biergarten Restaurant in Germany at Epcot was amazing. It felt like Oktoberfest there and even had live traditional German music on stage that the kids can dance to. Unless you go with a large group you will be sitting at a large table with another family there, so that is something you may want to be aware of although it wasn't a problem for us. It is a nice, large buffet. The German potato salad was exceptional and the creamy German cheesecake with the cup of berries poured over was divine! Everything we had there was delicious come to think of it!
We enjoyed the food at the Crystal Palace at Magic Kingdom more than we thought. It's definitely pricey if you're paying out of pocket but apparently the character dinners are always more. It was a buffet of delicious American fare. Some of our kids favorite there included the mac and cheese and our daughter raved about the pomegranate lemonade. She talked about it for days! We were blessed to have up close view of the fireworks over the castle. There you can inform your server you're stepping out to watch the fireworks, and it's not a problem. The view from the Crystal Palace is like a front row seat.
Let me interject how it was God's timing to be at The Crystal Palace at the time of the fireworks....
We had an earlier reservation at 7:20, but we over slept our nap a little and the bus coming to the resort was running very behind so we completely missed our reservation. (This is the only time this happened.) Heath called to see if they had anything later and they advised us to come on and they would get us in as soon as possible. I'm glad we did that because they have a nice porch with benches overlooking the castle and it's courtyard! We watched the sun go down behind the castle and the kids watched ducks and a bunny in a grassy area just across the walkway. By the time we got a sat down, the castle's fireworks began and the restaurant was almost empty leaving the characters (did I mention Pooh and friends are there?) to a have more time visiting at our table! God was all over the details in our trip, making it even better than how we planned!
A man's heart plans his way
But the LORD directs his steps.
Proverbs 16:9
The characters come around to your table while you're seated, but it could be as long as 1 1/2 hours after being seated, although we didn't have to wait nearly that long. Character meals are great for younger kids so you get to meet characters without standing in a line somewhere in the park. Our kids loved meeting Pooh and the gang ... and I did too... mostly. Haha, honestly there was a point during the meal I really didn't care to get any more hug and kiss interruptions from Tigger, as cute as he is, for the rest of the night. Real life: I did experience a few moments of over-stimulation at Disney, and those usually came mid afternoon or close to bed time. I know my limits and that's when a timely solo trip to the bathroom came in handy to get a moment of alone time in the bathroom stall. It's real life, folks!! That's how I could handle the big crowds and extra excitement that came with the Disney experience.
Bongos at Disney Springs was wonderful! It's Gloria Estafan's restaurant and they serve authentic Cuban/Latin style cuisine. The whole place was just as colorful and vibrant of an atmosphere and food as you hope! You can even join a conga line, which my kids did! If you want lively and delicious food with or without kids, this is the place. I recommend the tres' leches cake!
La Cantina de San Cantina in Mexico was a wonderful place for lunch while in Epcot. We only used two quick service credits there by sharing an order of nachos with fresh guacamole and some delicious shredded beef tacos. We knew there was so much good food around the World Showcase so we didn't want to eat too much anywhere so we could try lots of things. We were STARVING and happened to be in Mexico after riding Soarin' and going to a character meet and a couple other rides in the future world part of Epcot. We just started going around the "world" and came upon the savory smells in Mexico. It became my favorite lunch meal of the whole trip! Look at our water view.... very, very peaceful and quiet to be in the middle of Disney.
- Favorite Snacks
Gaston's Tavern in Fantasyland. As I mentioned before, this place was a favorite and has generous portions. The LaFeu's brew with is a refreshing and frothy apple cider drink with a huge cinnamon roll or chocolate croissant was an amazing mid morning treat for us! We like that they had huge urns of iced water for free so we would each guzzle a cup of that and refill our water bottle before leaving.
Dole Whip Float. My fave! This is a treat unique to Disney and is something right up my alley with pineapple soft serve ice cream floating in cold pineapple juice. We had it at Aloha Isle in Adventureland and planned getting it at one of the hottest and most tiring parts of our trip so when we arrived at the stand it felt like we arrived at an oasis in the desert. Haha! We loved it so much and the kids loved the Dole Whip cone. I didn't take a picture because we were too busy drinking up the island goodness!
Big Top Souvenirs. This is right across from the Dumbo ride. Let me just say, we had googly eyes at everything behind the glass case at this place... these confections are a kid's dream come true! There are some really fun treats here including caramel apples, chocolate covered Minnie Mouse strawberries and sprinkled covered chocolate dipped marshmallows. I chose the chocolate covered pineapple and it was outstanding! I have never seen this unique treat anywhere before, but if pineapple is your thing get one of these at Disney! Just be sure to quickly eat it in the summertime heat, because the chocolate melted fast.
That will not be a problem!
Kringla Bakeri Og Kafe in Norway at Epcot. The sweet pretzel and the school bread were unique and delish! Along these lines, when we go back we will also try the patisserie in France, but we didn't have time this trip. So much do go and do and see!Big Top Souvenirs. This is right across from the Dumbo ride. Let me just say, we had googly eyes at everything behind the glass case at this place... these confections are a kid's dream come true! There are some really fun treats here including caramel apples, chocolate covered Minnie Mouse strawberries and sprinkled covered chocolate dipped marshmallows. I chose the chocolate covered pineapple and it was outstanding! I have never seen this unique treat anywhere before, but if pineapple is your thing get one of these at Disney! Just be sure to quickly eat it in the summertime heat, because the chocolate melted fast.
That will not be a problem!
Gelati, the gelato/cappuccino stand in Italy at Epcot. Although I think the strawberry gelato we got was not in the dining plan, we could just scan our Magic Band like we did with anything extra we bought at the park and paid at the end of our trip when we checked out. Anyways, that gelato wsa phenomenal and really hit the spot when we were hot and a little tired in Epcot. It was nice to sit at the street café style tables and relax.
Fast passes are something that gets you to the front of the line (queue) without waiting. It's like a magical pass that lets you go ahead of even the sometimes 2-3 hour wait lines and step right on the ride! Everybody gets 3 Fast passes per day. These can be key in the planning of your day, especially with little ones and when it's very hot outside. We booked these easily through the My Disney Experience app on our phone and tweaked them as we went along. There are places in the park to get fast passes if you don't have the app. If you need somebody to help give you recommendations on what is worth booking, talk to friends or family about this who know you and your family well. You want to Fast Pass rides you definitely want to ride on and ones that have notoriously long waits.
- Favorite things to Fast Pass for our Family/ Favorite Rides
Magic Kingdom:
The 7 Dwarves Mine Train roller coaster. I loved this ride so much! It was pretty thrilling but a great starter roller coaster for the younger ones. I like how every person gets their own safety bar in front of them. Meaning you could be much larger or smaller than who is beside you and fit it to make you comfortable and safe. I didn't feel like I was holding my daughter in this coaster like I did Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. This was a shorter ride but like I said, we loved it and Fast passed it every time.
Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. Our whole family loved this one!! It is jerky though so just be prepared. The views of the park are nice and it's definitely thrilling for the whole family! Here was the kids after just stepping off for the first time... haha.. they were proud of themselves!
Splash Mountain. A classic favorite that I waited over 1 1/2 hours to ride back in 1994. Never again! It's really cute and lots of fun though. You will get wet so it's great to book to ride mid day in the summer! Our kids loved this one, too!
Space Mountain. This is a ride to have an epic-long wait time since it first debuted. This is the only ride we did not ride as a family. My daughter and I sat this one out and went on the Astro Blaster ( a much tamer ride) while my husband and son rode Space Mountain. They said it was intense but they loved it! It's a roller coaster in the dark which adds to the thrill.
The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. This ride is adorable for the young at heart and perfect for the little bitties. The line is always is long though!!! I have to say there are cute things for young children to play while waiting in the line to help pass the time. Disney does a brilliant job with that. It's a cute ride, but I'm glad we didn't wait an hour for it.
(Classic Ride) Peter Pan's Flight. This is a delightfully classic ride that has a long wait time. We went first thing after rope drop and didn't wait long for it. It will take you back to your childhood!
Enchanted Tales with Belle. This is one we Fast passed without knowing too much about it, but I'm so glad we did because it's so neat!! It's something a bit longer (about 20 minutes) and it's where you can interact in a play of Beauty and the Beast! My husband was in the play and our son played the Beast! He even danced with Belle!! It was an AMAZING time for this mama to watch! Our daughter and son both enjoyed this. It was a highlight for us, for sure. Heath scheduled us to eat at Be Our Guest directly afterwards so the Beauty and the Beast theme continued. It's times like these we are glad we scheduled those things ahead of time.
Prince Charming's Regal Carrousel. This is the first thing you see if you walk through the castle into Fantasyland, and it's a classic ride. We rode it twice without a Fast pass and didn't wait. The time we went back to the park after eating at 'Ohana and it was after dark during extra Magic hours, riding it truly felt like a dream! It was a sweet, nostalgic experience reminding me of when when I was 10 years old and there with my family!
Prince Charming's Regal Carrousel. This is the first thing you see if you walk through the castle into Fantasyland, and it's a classic ride. We rode it twice without a Fast pass and didn't wait. The time we went back to the park after eating at 'Ohana and it was after dark during extra Magic hours, riding it truly felt like a dream! It was a sweet, nostalgic experience reminding me of when when I was 10 years old and there with my family!
*If you want some extra Magical fun. When I say extra, I mean you will have to pay extra for these things. We used some Disney gift cards we had to do this. It was worth every penny to us. In our opinion, the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique and The Pirate's League (both in Magic Kingdom) were unique extra experiences we wanted our children to have their first time there. I know that Heath and I were just as excited to see our son transform into a pirate and our daughter to get made over in a princess salon and get pampered and sprinkled with fairy dust! We were very impressed with both places and the workers, I mean the Fairy-Godmother-in-training and the Pirate/Sea wench who worked on our kids were in full character all the time. They were amazing!!!
Epcot:
Soarin'. This is very popular and I know why! You are in what feels like a hang glider and you soar all over the world and over magnificent scenery! I'm actually afraid of heights. It's a fear I face head on with Jesus, because I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength! That being said the first time I rode it I had my eyes closed the first minute. I ended up opening my eyes and loving it so much that we rode it again with another Fast Pass and kept my eyes open!
Test Track. This is probably the most thrilling ride at Epcot. We thought so anyways. We rode it once. Our kids loved it but because of the nature of the ride itself, but I was a little surprised we were put in a regular looking seat belt for it. I sat in the middle of one of the three seated rows, and the middle only has a waist seat belt. Anyway, it was fun and probably one the men and sons in your life will want more of!
Frozen Ever After. We loved everything about this newer ride! We love Frozen though, and went on this just after meeting Anna and Elsa immediately at rope-drop (with no wait at all at that time for the character meet). So we stayed in Norway and went to this ride to feel like we're in Arendale. It's in a beautiful building in Norway and intreicately done. Though we didn't fastpass this ride, even as you wait in the queue, it is beautiful with fun Frozen touches. We loved the music in this ride and our daughter simply lit up! We definitely recommend this if princesses, Frozen, or music is your thing, but the wait time is usually very long. Within an hour of rope-drop, we only had to wait about 20 minutes, though, and as I mentioned, the queue is quite entertaining.
Animal Kingdom:
Favorite Ride in the whole trip: Pandora's Flight of Passage!!! This is in the brand new Pandora world in Animal Kingdom. Honestly I knew very little about this ride, so it made me a little nervous to go with our little kids. Our daughter was stopped twice in the line to get measured. Height requirement is 44 inches and she is 44 1/2, so she was good...but it did make me a little nervous going into it. I covered up my nerves for my kids because I didn't want them to think they had anything to fear... turns out they loved it like we did! I didn't know what to expect other than we would fly on a Banshee like in the movie... but it was incredible!! I don't want to give it all away, but it was soooo worth Fast Passing this ride and I would've ridden it twice had the wait time not been 4 hours long! (yikes!)
The Safari. Beautiful way to see lots of animals in a realistic African setting.
Expedition Everest. Our kids stayed with a friends (we had one overlap day with some dear friends who were starting their Disney trip at the close of ours) while we hopped on this ride, and I'm glad because it would've been too intense for them with a much steeper descent, and at times riding backwards unlike the coasters we rode in Magic Kingdom. It was a lot of fun though!
Kali River Rapids. You get really wet and have fun but it's not worth a very long wait.
I have heard there is a Dinosaur ride that is really fun but also pretty scary so we sat that one out.
I have to say when we were in Animal Kingdom there was a time we were tired and almost cranky, so we tried out this place called Dinosaur Dig. Turns out it's actually a large inclosed playground style place (outside) with things to climb, little tunnels to explore, big slides and such. There were workers all around helping to keep kids safe as they played, and only one entrance/exit. So when we went in there, us parents rested for a while and our kids played without us having to watch something or think. It was a nice break for them to get to free play and us to rest. So if you have kids 10 or under, check this out when you need a break!
4. Set yourself up to win from the time you arrive.
Download the My Disney Experience App on your phone. You will have quick access to your entire itinerary from the reservations to the Fast Passes and hotel accomodations. There is a map of the entire Disney World that you can navigate to seeing into each park. This easily shows where the rides, bathrooms, restaurants and every thing you need to know is located...and most importantly gives wait times for different attractions that are updated in real time. FYI: We didn't go online for anything during this trip. This was our first completely unplugged vacation with no social media at all and it was wonderful!! We used our phones for pictures and to use this app. It's all we needed.
For us, setting our family up to win means arriving rested! Our trip there was almost 800 miles so on the way we decided to break it up by staying in a hotel about 3 1/2 hours from Disney. That way the trip there could be much more relaxing and we could stop as much as we wanted. That meant if we saw a neat rest stop or fruit stand or restaurant or Target, we could stop and not feel anxious. When we arrived at Disney World for the first time, we were fresh instead of tired and grumpy after a full day of travel. (I've traveled full days before and even in excitement it's hard to stay jubilant when you're spent). As parents, we were so glad we had a relaxing trip there, and that we arrived mid afternoon instead of late that night. Breaking the trip into 2 days worked really well for us and I recommend that if you're driving there with kids.
(Me seeing the first Disney sign!!!)
5. Try to get to the park at rope drop, and make room for naps or down time in the afternoon.
We made it to the park by rope drop 3 out of the 5 mornings we were there. Two at Magic Kingdom and one at Epcot. It was hard to get out of bed in the mornings, I'm not going to lie. Although I was excited every morning, I was also a little sore and tired, but I set the alarm for me to get up first. I usually hopped in the shower right away, made my coffee and woke up Heath and we got all ready before getting the kids up. Yes, we were so tired they slept through us getting ready in the same room! Of course their excitement became pretty contagious though. It was a little crazy leaving the rooms making sure everyone had magic bands on, sunglasses, remembering the small bag I carried and Heath's back pack full of "goodies" we could need throughout the day. Also before leaving I took my meclizine (non-drowsy Dramamine) and an Ibuprofen before we left and coated our legs and ankles with the bug repellent they provide in the rooms (score for free bug repellant!). I usually put sunscreen on the kids in the bus on the way to the park. When we did make it to rope drop, the park wasn't crowded at all and we could walk on our favorite ride without a Fast Pass.... this made it worth the busy morning routine!
The flip side of this early equation is to make room in the afternoon for a time of rest preferably at the hotel, before dinner. Our dinner reservations ranged from 5:30 to 8:20 but most days we pulled ourselves away from the park to nap at the room. We brought a box fan with us so once we turned that on and got off our feet in the cool bed with the fan humming...that was all we needed to go to dream land, just don't forget to set an alarm to wake up! We were more refreshed for dinner that way or if you wanted to go back to the park or swim later.
6. Remember, things won't always be "magical" or go as planned.
We were at Be Our Guest and Heath was trying to stage a funny picture with the kids by Lumière. One of our kids at the time (uhumm) was in a bad mood, the whole time we were at this awesome restaurant and absolutely loathed this idea...completely refusing to play along. Not sure why, although I think it was a combination of things, but it just happened. Bad moods, they happen!
Before going on this trip, my husband and I talked about how we knew these things are inevitable with all the excitement around and all the going/doing, we know even Disney isn't a perfect place all the time! We decided to not let these things we can't control dictate how we feel, and not let it ruin the moment, period. I'm so glad we didn't let it get to us, because silliness will happen. There will be a random bad mood or a near tantrum over not having a perfectly clean bathroom stall or a child with tired legs who has much farther to go, or a mom getting overstimulated and just wants a peaceful meal or being in line waiting for a very delayed bus. It can get tiring for parents and kids alike and that's okay if you're prepared for it. It's just that we can't control every detail, so if the ride gets closed just before your Fast Pass (only happened to us once...and Disney made it right by us) or the sky breaks open with rain untimely (also only happened once, amazingly considering what's typical for Orlando area), try to remember that you are there making memories!!! You will look back and laugh or cry but it will be part of your Disney story with your loved ones!
Prepare as best as you can, both for yourself and your children. Try not to have unrealistic expectations. And rest when you can either in a cool theater like at The Country Bear Jamboree, The Enchanted Tiki Room, at a café, or in your hotel.
7. Plan your best trip, even if that looks different from others.
You do you at Disney!
We are somewhere in between the marathon-Disney people and the go with the flow/relaxed (or none at all) itinerary folks. We planned what we could and we didn't stress over the rest. We really didn't! Thanks to a recommendation from a sweet Disney veteran friend, I pre-planned all the kid's outfits at home even socks and underwear and put each outfit in a gallon sized plastic bag. I gave each child their bag the night before and it became an exciting reveal since I added new clothing prior to the trip that they hadn't seen before. This helped make getting ready so easy for the kids. We winged
I have so much I can say but in conclusion, we were just thrilled to all be together and present in this fun adventure as a family! It was one of the neatest things as a wife to see my husband 100% relaxed and care-free the way he was on this trip! His and my kids hands were in the air on every roller coaster!
All of us meeting Mickey Mouse for the first time was so great, and seeing their faces when they saw Cinderella's castle for the first time!
We flew on Banshees as a family and soared around the world on a hang glider! We watched our daughter clog on an Irish stage and our son transform into Edward Stormwater, the pirate! We tried Norwegian treats together and all got face painted for the first time. We rode on a monorail, on a ferry and on a safari as real as North America has!
We would not trade a moment of this trip for anything in the whole world! It was a blessing to our family, and we're already reminiscing together about it.
It's trip that we will never forget-- it was the best vacation!
What a beautiful family!
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