We had such a great time at Disney World! It was truly a once in a lifetime vacation for us, especially since the girls were at the perfect age to go. I'm so glad we had the opportunity to go when we did.
It felt like time stood still, at least while we were in Disney World.
It’s hard to believe it’s already the second week of May… Where did the first week of May go?
Randy made the comment while we were there…day 3 or so… that he had had a complete and utter brainwashing of all things related to work. I had to agree with him. While we were at Disney, I had similar brainwashing too! Home? School? Family back home? Nope. Nothing. Nada. It was all Disney, all the time.
And let me just say… you cannot over-prepare for a trip to Disney World. It’s just not possible. When we left for Disney, I felt as if I had over-packed, over-prepared, over-everything and I quickly came to realize that no, I had not. I was, if anything, prepared to face the masses of people and sensory overload that we were about to embark upon.
I will say however, what I wasn’t prepared for was Elisan throwing up at the dinner table on our very first night at our resort. Yep. She threw up. Twice. As you can imagine I was worried about my baby, but truth be told, I was more worried that our vacation would be spent in the resort hotel room tending to a sick kid. But, by the grace of God and a little bit of cereal the next morning, she felt better and was raring to go.
Our first day was spent in Animal Kingdom. We kicked off the day scaring the pee out of Kyla on the Dinosaur ride. It is one of the animal-tronic rides where larger than life dinos come roaring at you within inches of your face… at least it seems. Kyla came off that ride in tears and that pretty much sealed the deal for her and dark/loud rides with ‘fright potential’. Bummer.
We hit all of the highlights of this park, including the Expedition Everest ride, Primeval Whirl (hurl), Finding Nemo - The Musical, Tough To Be A Bug, Kali River Rapids (I got soaked!) and the Kilamanjaro Safari.
That night, we headed to Epcot for dinner and to catch the Illuminations: Reflection of Earth firework and laser light show. Aside from the prominent “big bang” evolutionary theme that encompassed the first ‘act’ of the show, it was really cool and impressive.
Sunday was spent at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. I think DHS was my favorite park! We hit all of the biggie rides like Toy Story Mania (super fun!), Rock’n’ Roller Coaster, and the Tower of Terror. We had lunch at the 50’s Primetime Café and it was a lot of fun. I highly recommend it!
While we were at lunch, the restaurant manage stopped by our table and was chatting it up with us. He came back about 10 minutes later and offered us VIP seating to the Lights, Motor, Action Extreme Stunt Show. Very cool!
After lunch, the girls participated in the Star Wars: Jedi Training Academy and they had a blast! You should have seen the look on Elisan’s face when Darth Vader stepped onto the stage. Each girl had a one-on-one light saber duel with Darth Vader.
We also managed to catch The Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular and a few other attractions like the Backlot Tour, Voyage of the Little Mermaid, and The Great Movie Ride.
We had dinner at the Sci-Fi Theater and then finished up the day with Fantasmic. My honest opinion about Fantasmic was that it was too scary. This show took every villain from all of the Disney movies and made them larger than life, along with all of the sorcery and magic each character wielded. It was NOT my favorite and I would have been happy to have skipped this grand finale show.
Monday, we headed out to Magic Kingdom. We walked right onto Space Mountain and the girls loved it! After riding Rock’n’Roller coaster at DHS, Space Mountain was “tame” to say the least. Magic Kingdom seemed incredibly busy with families with small children and it was VERY HOT outside. This day was a complete blur to me because of the heat and the stroller dodging. But, we did manage to hit the highlights like Mickey’s Philharmagic, Monsters Inc. Laugh Floor, The Haunted Mansion, Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, Stitch’s Great Escape, Peter Pan’s Flight, The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh and Tom Sawyer’s Island. And no trip to Disney World is complete without a spin on the Carousel of Progress.
For dinner, we headed out to the Contemporary Resort for dinner at Chef Mickey’s. This was one of my favorites. It was buffet style dining and all of the characters came by each table for autographs and photos. Lots of fun for everyone!
After dinner we headed back to the Magic Kingdom to catch the Hall of Presidents attraction and grab a piece of the curb for the SpectroMagic Parade. We had great seats for the parade, but we waited for nearly and hour and a half for the parade. The pavement was hot and with the crowds of people cramming in for the parade, it was almost not worth the wait.
Tuesday, was spent in Epcot. We hit all of the highlights on the right side of the park including Soarin’, Living with the Land (Elisan’s favorite attraction), The Seas with Nemo and Friends, Journey into Imagination with Figment, Honey, I Shrunk the Audience and The Circle of Life. We headed to the World Showcase and managed to see Canada, UK and France pavilions, before we called it a day! On our way out of the park, we rode Spaceship Earth and ended up being “trapped” in that ride for about 10 minutes due to technical difficulty. Not fun sitting in the dark in that big ‘ol ball.
For dinner, we had reservations for the Hoop De Doo Musical Revue at the Fort Wilderness Resort. It was great fun and the kids really loved it. It was fun for the adults too. I would recommend this dinner musical, but it was $50 per person. Fun, but pricey!
Wednesday morning was the main event…The Royal Table Breakfast at Cinderella’s Castle. I spoke the to concierge the day before and he suggested we allow a one hour buffer for ourselves and the time of our reservations, which were nine. We left the resort at 8:10ish at the latest, arrived at Magic Kingdom at 8:40ish and by the time we walked into the castle for our 9:00 reservations, 90% of the guests were already seated and were eating their breakfast! As soon as we sat down, our orders were taken and the princesses began stopping by our table for pictures. The food was brought out within 5 minutes of our arrival. By then it was a little after 9:00 a.m. and the waiter was coming around with our ticket for us to settle up and get outta there. Needless to say I was a little put off with the rushed breakfast and service, but the girls didn’t seem to notice. I would recommend skipping the Royal Table Breakfast and rather plan a Royal Table dinner instead or character dining in another location, like the Akershus Royal Table Hall in Norway.
After breakfast, we met up with Randy and rode on some of the rides in Magic Kingdom we didn’t ride on Monday. We rode the Pirates of the Caribbean, The Magic Carpets of Aladdin, The Jungle Cruise, and saw the Country Bear Jamboree. We finished up the day at Magic Kingdom riding Splash Mountain and Big Thunder Mountain Railroad two times in a row!
We then ventured over to Hollywood Studios and rode Rock’n’Roller Coaster again and Tower of Terror two times. We had a blast! Kyla went with her grandpa and rode Toy Story Mania one last time.
After Hollywood Studios, we went to Epcot for dinner and rides! We rode Mission: Space and Test Track. Both rides had little or no wait. We finished up this long day very exhausted, but it was fun going to three parks in one day!
Thursday was out last day in the parks! We decided to visit Animal Kingdom one last day and see the Festival of the Lion King musical. The girls were selected to help warm up the crowd with a hand-jive cheer led by one of the cast members. It was great fun for them as they went to four sections of the audience to help lead the cheer.
We then headed to Expedition Everest and rode it two more times before we left Animal Kingdom for Epcot.
At Epcot, we rode Mission: Space one more time, visited Innoventions East and saw Ellen’s Energy Adventure. After those attractions, we headed to the American Pavilion and saw the “American Adventure” show. By then, we were losing speed with two worn out kids, so we walked the remainder of the World Showcase, not stopping to explore and we headed back to the hotel early. Randy took the kids to the pool while I packed up our things.
Friday was our last day in Florida. We took a (much too) long ride out to Downtown Disney and the girls each bought a souvenir. By the time we got back to the hotel, it was time to board the bus transportation to the airport and head home.
All in all, we had such a great time. We truly had a Disney experience!
My favorite perks of the trip was the bus transportation to and from the parks. It was so easy and convenient. That’s a great perk to staying at a resort. We also enjoyed the meal plan. Although the meal plan is pricey, if you plan to eat in the park, you might as well get a meal plan. The park prices are so exorbitant that you really do come out ahead if you have a meal plan.
My favorite dining spots that I would definitely recommend were the 50’s Prime Time Café and Chef Mickey’s for dining and The Sunshine Seasons Food Fair for counter service eating.
The girls enjoyed trading pins with the cast members throughout the parks and resort. It was a lot of fun for them. We also liked the “Kid Cot” stations throughout Epcot where the girls could get their passport books stamped and signed. Taking pictures with the characters throughout the park might have been fun, if the lines were no so long, but we did manage to get some random character photos.
Everything about Disney World was first class and high quality. We really felt as if we got our money’s worth in every aspect from the hotel, parks and meals. It definitely is a vacation that we will remember for a lifetime.
