When my mom and dad asked us if we'd like to take a big family trip to Disneyworld, I thought they were crazy. My husband, Mark, was so excited. At the time of our trip our son would be 1.5 years old, and my sisters son would be 6 years old. We started our planning by booking our hotel rooms and made dinner reservations (I'll go into more detail later).
We chose to stay on the Disney property at the Port Orleans French Quarter (The hotel rooms were small but they had a nice bathroom area. For those of you with babies, I suggest renting an actual crib. A pack n' play is complimentary).
By doing this we were allowed on the Magical Express...which magically takes you and your bags to your hotel relatively quickly. It's about a 35 minute ride from the airport to the property. FYI...pack a bathing suit for swimming or wear something you want to wear to the park on the plane. It takes a while for your luggage to get to your room. If you are not prepared, you will lose time waiting on it.
We decided to take advantage of the Disney Dining Plan which for the most part was great. We were disappointed that gratuity was not included in the plan as it had been stated in our book that it would be. The Dining Plan was a prepaid $40/per person, per day and $11 for kids 3-10. Our baby was allowed to share with us (which was plenty) or purchase extra for him. You are allowed 1 snack, 1 sit down meal and 1 quick service meal per day. It's more food than you can imagine...and it's nice to know what you will spend on food before you go. I can't say enough good things about this plan!
Your hotel key serves as your room key and park pass, and you can even link it to your credit card to use to make purchases while you are in the park. If you make purchases in the park, you can have them sent back to your room at no charge so you don't have to keep up with them. You will probably receive it the next day.
day 1: We had just a few hours of park time on the first day because of our arrival time. Everyone but me and g (our baby)set our for Epcot (just so you know the others in the party are: the grandparents, sister and her husband, nephew and my husband). We stayed back to get in some zzz's. I can't tell you what went on while we weren't there so here's what I can tell you. When g woke up from his nap, we started our journey and I mean journey to meet the other folks. I loaded him in the stroller grabbed our full backpack. We walked to our bus stop which took about 7 minutes. Disney provides a complimentary bus system from all of their resorts to all of their parks. I, unfortunately, underestimated the difficulty of making this journey by myself. You have to collapse your stroller on the bus. Imagine wrangling a highly active toddler, carrying a large bag and stroller and loading on a very full bus...NOT FUN! When we got to Epcot about 20 minutes later, I went through the same process in reverse. After unloading you have to go through a bag check...and finally into the park with your room key and fingerprint.
Epcot - Our first adventure in Epcot was Honey I Shrunk the Audience. Clearly this was not my day. G used this time to take care of business in the holding room. We were able to do a quick change just before the show started. Contrary to what my Mark says, this 3-d is not fun for little kids. It's scary and really loud. As for all of us, we loved it. Unfortunately, we had to take g out. I know you are thinking we shouldn't have taken him in the first place, but you have to learn, right? After that we had a dinner reservation to meet. It was at the Coral Reef. It was a huge aquarium lined resto with a nice seafood selection. It was just what I needed to end a hectic day of traveling. I left at this point so I don't have any more info on epcot.
night 1: not much sleep, rough night with g in the same room.
day 2: This day started early because we had a reservation at Chef Mickey's in the Contemporary Hotel. By the way, the buses do run early for breakfast reservations, but they are few and far between. I would get to the bus stop at least 1 hour earlier than your reservation. Chef Mickey's was so much fun. All of the original characters come around to see all of the folks. There is fun music and a bounty of food. The food was decent, but the reason to go here is primarily for the characters. Spencer (nephew) loved the whole dining experience.
Then we headed to the Magic Kingdom. We started in Adventureland with the jungle cruise. That was a fun as I had remembered, and they did away with the scary pop gun at the end. We all rode and enjoyed.
Pirates of the Caribbean was next. It was quite fun for all. Let me warn though that it is very dark and there is a small, fast drop at the beginning.
Splash Mountain - was so much fun. I could never figure out when the big drop was going to happen. All but mom and g rode this. There is a 38" height requirement. We had the two heaviest men in the front. They both got soaked. The rest of us had moderate splashes.
Thunder Mountain - same riders as above. This was fun but very jerky.
Race Cars - this was a hot wait and the cars were somewhat uneventful. If anyone remembers the old timey cars at Libertyland...imagine that as a slow racecar. It was really fun for Spencer who is really into Nascar. To disney I think it would be more fun with a Lightning McQueen theme.
Space Mountain - you have to be 44" to ride this. So just Mark, Kelley and I rode it. It's dark and jerky and a Disney classic.
others: Haunted Mansion, Hall of President's, Buzz Lightyear, the Orbiter, Stitch.
Spencer was sidetracked with a talking garbage can. This was really fun.
Day 3: Disney's Hollywood Studios
We walked in to a High School Musical Parade. It was great fun. We all split up here to maximize our time.
Playhouse Disney Puppet Show - g loved it. we did it twice.
Honey I Shrunk the Kids Playground - fun and a cool retreat for both the kiddos
Toy Story - the new ride...similar to Buzz Lightyear. You may have a long wait on this one.
The Movie Ride - wow! This one really got on my nerves. It was slow moving and the hosts were really loud and obnoxious.
Tower of Terror - I couldn't bring myself to ride it, but it is by far Mark's favorite ride. I think he rode it 2 or 3 times.
Rockin' Rollercoaster - who wouldn't want Aerosmith blasting in their ears while you are rocketed off at 70 miles an hour. This was my favorite. I would have done this several times if there was time. We did have to wait, but it was well worth it.
BabyCenter - very small, but clean
50's Prime Time Cafe - it's like eating at home in the 1950's. The food is really good and the waitress production is hysterical.
Fantasmic - Personally, I did not think it was worth staying the extra time to see this. It is quite a production, but you have to get there VERY early to get a seat. If you're on a short time span, I'd leave this one out.
other things: Jedi Training, Muppet's 3-d, ABC Commissary
BTW...there's not a lot of shade in this park. Wear lots of sun block, sun glasses...and take some breaks.
more to come later....didn't realize I had so much to say.
