We finally did it! We did what I said we’d never do! We went to Disney! 🙂 And it was actually fun! I don’t know why but I just envisioned waiting in lines and hot and whining, etc. But the kids were such troopers.
I thought Disney vacations were only for Type A people, but we managed just fine – though I did get some advice beforehand from my Type A friend and a thorough list of rides to get fast passes for. 🙂 Therefore, we had fast passes for all the main rides with typically long waits so we were able to get right on. That saved the day for sure. I would recommend not going if you don’t have those.
The kids tried to complain about the minimal wait we had in the fast pass line but when I told them – seriously, look at all the people in that other line (who were also looking at us rather grouchily) – it shut them right up. Boom! I did tell the kids that it’s a once in a lifetime trip so hopefully they get the hint or brainwashing that I don’t want to ever go back.
Next vacation, we’re hitting the beach – though I can imagine with kids even the beach is going to be high stress – maybe, especially the beach. Whatever, details.
We did the quick service dining plan which was amazing although I definitely gained 10 lbs. We had so much food with that plan. There was definitely no worry about going hungry even with kids – they were stuffed the whole time – we made sure of it. The goal was to not hear, “I’m hungry!” the whole vacation. We were more like – oh look! There’s another snack cart! Get whatever you want! Boom! That boom sound is for a parenting win.
If you plan Disney right there’s lots of parenting wins. 🙂 And make sure you take lots of pictures so the kids know you did all this work when they were little. :-p We did order the picture package they offer, but we sometimes forgot to upload the pictures after the rides (remember that I’m not Type A and neither is my husband), so I didn’t find it to be that worthwhile. There wasn’t many pictures on there.
We ended up having about 30 snacks leftover at the end so we went to the hotel cafe and got a bunch of snacks for the road. Our favorite hotels to eat at were the Contemporary and Port Orleans – French Quarter. Although we only ate at the Contemporary and Port Orleans – just kidding, we also ate at Port Riverside. :-p Port Riverside was also good just found the others to be better. I personally LOVE Cajun food so that’s why I liked Port Orleans so much. I ate so much gumbo while there I honestly felt like I was in New Orleans.
The food was so good or maybe I was just so grateful to not have to cook that I thought everything was delicious. The French Quarter hotel has beignets with chocolate (it’s called coffee sauce but it tastes like chocolate) or you can get caramel dipping sauce. They were good. And 3 of them only count as 1 snack – can’t beat that. I guess that’s how we gained so much weight – er, had so many snacks leftover.
I do have to say that if you get the Quick Service dining plan, you will feel like a second class citizen. You will walk by the people sitting in the fancy restaurants sipping their wine in their nice seats at their nice table – all cozy and not at all frazzled.
And meanwhile, you will have to either physically fight someone for a seat at a quick service restaurant or eat on the curb b/c there is no seating for the quick service diners. Well, there is but it’s limited. And if you go when everyone in the world is there like we did, then you will not find a seat. But I would do the quick service dining again b/c it was cheaper and we were still well fed. :-p
We booked a 6-day park pass and stayed at Port Riverside hotel which is on site. The reason we decided to stay on site is because we were driving from Missouri to Florida and didn’t want to have to worry about driving and parking once we got there. They had shuttles to take us to the park, etc. And they have extra magic hours which I thought we were going to use but we didn’t.
Before the trip, I was really motivated thinking about all we were going to do from 8AM to 11PM (including the extra magic hours) but when it came down to actually doing all the things, it was a little too exhausting. :-p I witnessed many couples arguing – they were probably trying to take advantage of magic hours – it’s definitely not the happiest place on Earth for adults at times, but overall it can be good. :-p
Just pace yourself and don’t try to do everything. That’s why we booked a 6-day park pass b/c we figured if we didn’t fit something in then we could cover it on the last 2 days or just hang out at the hotel pool for those 2 days – either way. The most important thing is to be flexible so you don’t kill each other. :-p
This was our itinerary:
Day 1: Magic Kingdom
Fast Passes:
Space Mountain: 10:25AM to 11:25AM
Splash Mountain: 12:55PM to 1:55PM
Seven Dwarfs Mine Train Roller Coaster: 3:20 to 4:20PM
Day 2: Epcot
Fast Passes:
Soarin: 10:35AM to 11:35AM
Mission Space: 12:45AM to 1:45PM
Spaceship Earth: 2PM to 3PM
Ate at the Contemporary for dinner (the best).
Day 3: Hollywood Studios
Fast Passes:
Star Tours: 9:55AM to 10:55AM
Toy Story Mania: 11:25AM to 12:25PM
Rockin Roller Coaster: 1:10PM to 2:10PM
Day 4 (July 4th): We were tired and it was rainy so we just went up to Disney Springs and shopped. We watched Solo the Star Wars movie. Went back up to Magic Kingdom at night to try to see the fireworks. This was a bad idea. It was way too crowded. We ended up leaving before fireworks started.
Day 5: Animal Kingdom
Fast Passes:
Avatar Flight of Passage: 11:15AM to 12:15PM (our favorite ride of the whole trip)
Kilimanjaro Safari: 3:05PM to 4:05PM
Festival of the Lion King: 4:30 to 5:30PM arrival (wouldn’t do this one again)
Day 6: Typhoon Lagoon (water park) – got rained out. The rain was sporadic there. It would rain one minute and the sun would be shining the next. But this day, there was lightning and they kept closing the rides so it didn’t work out. My oldest daughter got to go down one slide and then they closed it. 🙁 So, we just went back to the hotel pool and played there.