We had an amazing vacation in Walt Disney World the last week of January. We learned a lot from our first trip in 2011 and reaped the benefits and only could have asked for one thing more: less rain! Let me start from the beginning and be as thorough as possible, mostly because I've had a lot of questions about the details. Please be aware that one of my grandmother's admonishments was to travel while we were young. She told us that by the time you are old enough to retire chances are traveling will be uncomfortable or later, in my grandparent's case, my grandfather got Alzheimer's.
Preparations
In October we got a Disney Visa and made reservations at the Art of Animation Resort, complete with the medium level dinning plan. As soon as I could I reserved all our sit down ("table service") meals and used the new Fast Pass+ service on the My Disney Experience app. I did a ton of research, mostly while feeding the baby, trying to memorize the maps and itineraries. Weeks ahead of time we made a matching set of shirts to wear our first day in the Magic Kingdom and one week in advance I ordered groceries to be delivered to the hotel, etc. etc. etc. We allowed ourselves a Saturday to make final arrangement, finish packing, load things into the van, bath the children, and all go to bed early.
Day 1: Sunday
At 4:30am Dan and I carried two children each down to the mini van and headed to the airport. Meigo was already at my parents house. We parked in long term parking, checked in 2 suitcases, breezed through security, bought breakfast at McDonald's, and got on the airplane. I had drilled into the children what would happen step by step at the airport so they were thrilled and excited instead of stressed. (This is crucial for Kaelah and helps D & M too.) We had activities and snacks for the airplane and boy, was I glad. When did airlines not even give you something to drink on a 3 hour flight? Yesh. Natalie slept most of the flight. Getting to the hotel was easy peasy. Going through the airport we followed the signs for the Disney Magical Express and put on our Magic Bands. They were scanned and we were told to get in line #5. Our 2 suitcases were delivered to our room later. I had done the online check in so that was easy. They had Dan's Happy Birthday pin & Natalie's 1st Visit pin all ready for us. Although check in wasn't officially until 3pm (90 minutes after we got there), we didn't even have to ask to check in early since they knew our flight arrived at 12:30pm. Our food had been delivered from Garden Grocers and the Disney staff even put items in the fridge for us. Totally worth the $10 fee. We stayed in a Cars family suite. Now that we have Natalie we aren't allowed to stay in a normal room and this was perfect. The kids loved seeing the towels folded into a Mickey shape and they even had Disney Parks paper plates, bowls, and plastic silverware stocked. Dan, the baby and I shared the queen bed that in the master bedroom. D & M shared the double bed that came down over the 4 chair table. Kaelah had the hide-a-bed but what we did was put the cushion on the ground in front of the unfolded bed so there would be no way of her falling out and breaking a bone like she did last time. That alone made the entire trip better than 2011! And having two bathroom certainly came in handy on more than one occasion. I had to laugh about that.
After looking around the Cars courtyard and going swimming in the Cozy Cone pool we changed and headed to the Contemporary Resort to east dinner at Chef Mickey's. The bus transportation to the different resorts was pretty nice. Our only beef was that they followed a schedule instead of seeing where the demand was. (We once saw an Animal Kingdom bus leave entirely empty while there were enough of us in the Magic Kingdom line to fill a bus.) Nothing worth complaining about, though. We got to ride the Monorail to the Contemporary, which had been very high on our children's priority list. While on the monorail Michelle fell asleep and the Minnie Mouse ears we had bought her at Disneyland in 2012 fell off. Dan noticed right away and asked one of the cast members for help. Since they knew which train it was on, they checked at the next station and they couldn't be found. So, the monorail worker escorted Dan to the gift shop, where we were given a brand new pair of identical Minnie ears. I was impressed! Michelle had slept through the entire experience but later mentioned that her ears felt tight on her head. She noticed they weren't broken in. lol.
When you make a reservation at a restaurant you can check a box for food allergens. WDW takes food allergies very seriously! The chef is required to come out to your table and speak with you about items offered on the menu. This was the case at all the sit down restaurants. I highly recommend it to anyone with food allergies, but for us with K being lactose intolerant and me having a sensitivity instead of an allergy it was kind of overboard. Chef Mickey's is a character buffet and the one time Michelle got to hug Minnie Mouse, which was the #1 character she wanted to see. Check out the smile on her face! That night baby N got her first exposure to people dressed up in giant animal costumes. I didn't push it on her. I figured watching her siblings would make her want to try it. Eventually she wanted to get closer and boy, she gave Donald Duck a good stare down! To pay, the waiter scanned Dan's magic band and we found out our gratuity could be charged to our room, which was also linked to the Magic Band. Since we are a party of 6 the tip is automatically 18% and we were on our way. Too easy! This was the first time we used our Magic Bands for our Memory Maker as well. Whenever a Photo Pass photographer took our picture it was linked to our band and it was a breeze to download from home (once the Memory Maker was properly linked to my account, which only took a quick email). I figured we would have to get 10 really good pictures to make it worth it, and we got almost twice that. The picture with Minnie was taken by us and the picture with the Mickey statue was taken by them. P.S. When I asked Kaelah which restaurant was her favorite, she said it was, "the one we could see the Monorail in and where there was Minnie & Mickey & Donald & Goofy." I think that's a good recommendation there. She is a trusted source for compliments.
This was a great way to ride the monorail see some characters without having to pay another day in the parks or be rushed after flying out. We even got to watch the fireworks on the way back to the hotel. It was truly a great start to a magical week.
Anyone tired of reading this yet?
For future reference, when I say "the kids" I mean K, D, and M. When I say "all the kids" I'm including N too.
Day 2: Monday
After convincing the children to leave our awesome hotel courtyard, we rode the bus to the Magic Kingdom for day one of our park adventures. First up on the Fast Pass list was the Barnstormer. Scanned our Magic Bands and got switch rider passes. Although I had been a little nervous, our bands never let us down once and made our lives so much easier. We got to pick 3 Fast Passes per day from a list of options weeks before we went so I could find times that went well with our dinner reservations. So great. We spent almost the entire day in Fantasyland. The new expansion is much better than the old Toon Town (was there a toon town or is that just in CA?). Highlights included D, M & N riding the Railroad while K and I watched the show at the castle, M & N & I riding Dumbo (I wonder if we got the original or the new one?), Enchanted Tales with Belle were Danny got to play the character Chip, Journey of the Little Mermaid, It's a Small World (big hit with the baby), Peter Pan's Fight (a must!), Prince Charming's Carousel, the Main Street Electrical Parade, the Jungle Cruise (which, as it turns out, can scare kids in the dark), and the fireworks.
We ate lunch at Pinocchio's Village Haus with great quick service food but what's really fun is you can see It's a Small World from there too. The dinning plan gets you so much to eat. This came in handy with how hungry the children got having so much fun. We saved things like a bag of grapes and a bag of carrots to eat later and they ate it about 45 minutes later. lol. For dinner we ate at the Crystal Palace, another character buffet, this time with Winnie the Pooh and friends. The kids thought it was great and Natalie warmed up to the characters, this time getting food on Winnie and Piglet so I had to clean wipe them with a napkin before they went to the next table. This was the most crowded and loudest of all the restaurants we went to. Of course they were darling about it in their silent way. I was glad we got to see the characters, but it was this restaurants only saving grace other than the Victorian decor. I was surprised at how many people were at Disney World in January but the lines were MUCH shorter than when we went the week of Thanksgiving in 2011. As we were to find out, we traded the perfect weather of November for short lines and cheaper prices. Since we planned accordingly due to the weather forecast, it wasn't a big deal but I am still wanting to avoid another January trip. And we have to go back because they amazing looking Seven Dwarfs Mine Train won't be ready until Memorial Day weekend.
Day 3: Tuesday
This was our one hot and sunny day and we spent it at Disney's Hollywood Studios. I think this is the best park to have the good weather for because it is the smallest of the 3 parks we attended. So we lucked out there! We take all the parks at the children's pace so we just go and have fun and see the most important things and leave the rest. It's not like Dan and I would be vacationing at WDW if we weren't parents!
We had to spend a day here because the kids really wanted to ride Toy Story Midway Mania. Thank you, Fast Pass+, for letting us walk right in. The ride had broken down before we got there so the man gave us free Fast Pass tickets but we never used them b/c all the lines were so short (other than Toy Story). Turns out the park closed at 7pm that night so a lot of people didn't come. Worked out well for us, though, because we got back to the hotel, watched the Epcot fireworks from our room window, and Dan took the kids swimming at the Finding Nemo pool. Glad he did b/c it was not swimming weather the rest of the week. I'm getting ahead of myself, though. The big surprise of the day was this: I took M & N to see Disney Junior Live on Stage while Dan took K & D to ride Star Tours. Later M was upset she couldn't ride the bigger kid rides, so Dan took her up to the measuring stick to show her she wasn't tall enough... and she was! I had measured her when making plans and she was barely 40" tall. It must have been the shoes -- I had measured her barefoot at home. She was soooo proud of herself. I don't think she necessarily enjoyed the 40" rides but the self confidence it gave her was totally worth letting her go with her older siblings. When I asked Michelle what her favorite part of going to Disney World she replied, "The rides!"
That morning the early flight had gotten to Kaelah so she & the baby and I took our time arriving at the park. So before we got there, Dan took D & M on the Great Movie Ride. Turns out watching the Wizard of Oz at home was a big mistake. They were terrified of the Wicked Witch. Good thing their big strong Daddy was there. We all got to see Muppet Vision 3D, the Lights, Motors, Action! Extreme Stunt Show (the best thing at DHS is you ask me), and Voyage of the Little Mermaid. For lunch we had yet another character buffet, this time with Disney Junior characters: Doc McStuffins, Sofia the First, Jake from the Neverland Pirates & Handy Manny. The kids loved the desserts at this place best -- things like marshmallows dipped in a chocolate fountain and topped with Mickey shaped sprinkles. Danny even joined the dance party at this place and Jake was happy to have another boy to help him out with all those girls around him. Oh, and one funny story. As we were about to leave DHS, Michelle say the Phineas and Ferb characters and said she wanted to meet them. There was no line so we went to take a picture and she suddenly decided she didn't want to. So, as part of our Memory Maker we have pictures of just the baby and I with them. I do like the show, but I'm not that big of a fan. lol.
Day 4: Wednesday
Epcot is the reason I like Disney World more than Disneyland. It's the educator coming out of me. We stopped for a picture in Canada, met Mary Poppins in the UK, visited the fountain in France and ate at the delicious bakery there. The kids liked it so much we ate lunch there again the next day! Dan said just the food was worth coming for. On the way back out of the bakery Danny jumped up on the fountain and right as I said, "Don't fall in!" he did. The side was slippery from rain and down he went. He had already used the spare pants I had brought for the rain due to an accident on the way into the park. So, long story short, Danny ended up with a $25 pair of Perry the Platypus pajamas in order to get him dry asap.
Epcot was great for the rain, though. We rode Spaceship Earth did played some of the games at the exit. We rode the Seas with Finding Nemo & Friends and didn't have to leave the building to go to Turtle Talk with Crush, play at the Bruce themed spot, or watch the dolphins. I found there are benefits to going to Walt Disney World with a baby. The trainers were out with the dolphins having them do tricks. As soon as we went to where they were, a cast member asked if I could bring the baby to a different window. Ok. She blew her whistle, gave a hand sign, and brought the dolphin right to Natalie! The dolphin smiled and waved and it was so precious. I was struck once again at how amazing God's creatures are. The only problem was that when other people noticed, they crowded us and Michelle & Kaelah got pushed out of the way, which scared Michelle. Dan was taking Danny to the bathroom so the boys (the biggest dolphin fans in the family) missed the whole thing and Dan wasn't there to help Michelle. Really neat but bittersweet experience since one child got special attention at the cost of the other child's comfort. But it all happened super fast so she got over it quickly too.
This was our longest line of the day and Kaelah's #1 priority -- to meet Queen Elsa. In the UK we were told it was a 4 hour wait to see Anna and Elsa. But since the weather was cruddy, we decided to go ask at the actual line and we were told "over an hour." That seemed like a deal! The children rode Maelstrom 3 times and went in the gift shop and bought snacks to eat while Dan and I took turns waiting in line. It was our longest wait of the trip, clocking in at 2 hours, but boy, were Kaelah & Michelle trilled. Michelle wore her Anna dress, which was her souvenir she picked out at Target before the trip and Kaelah brought along the Anna & Elsa dolls she had gotten as Christmas presents. Danny was upset Kristoff wasn't but Anna said she could give him a message. lol. Immediately after that we walked a few yards to the Akesrhus Royal Banquet Hall. This place was the best use of our dinning plan. We didn't have to wait in line for princesses, we got to eat exotic food, and we walked out with 2 8x10s and 8 4x6 complimentary photos which were also linked to our Memory Maker so I can have them in our Shutterfly scrapbooks. Our poor son was pretty princessed out but luckily our waiter was a man with an accent and fancy clothes to help our boy cope. After this day, though, he never had to deal with princesses again.
Day 5: Thursday
After all the rain and the forecast being the same for the next day but nice on Friday, I went through the effort (with the help of the hotel concierge desk) to switch our 2nd Magic Kingdom day and 2nd Epcot day. So, we went to Epcot 2 days in a row -- and still didn't see everything! After the wet clothes from Danny the day before and Natalie's blow out, I stayed at the hotel with Natalie and waiting for a load of laundry to finish. This was the only day our baby got to nap in a bed! And it really was no trouble and I got to reorganize all our stuff in the hotel room, which was beneficial. Dan took the kids to ride Test Track and they loved it. As soon as they were done with that (the 2nd longest line of the trip), Natalie and I were there ready to join them in "The Land." We rode Living with the Land and Soarin' (so neat!), watched the Circle of Life (with Timon & Pumba), and ate at the Garden Grill restaurant. This was Danny & Michelle's favorite place to eat. It slowly turned in a circle and Chip, Dale, Mickey, and Pluto came to visit. By this time, Kaelah was trilled to introduce her baby to the characters and Natalie fell in love with Pluto and his whiskers. It was so sweet. The food wasn't great, but if it turned out to be D & M's favorite and where N could find a favorite character of her own, it was worth it. As I looked at our pictures Natalie gasped in excitement when she saw a picture of her and Kaelah and Pluto together. So cute! And now I can say I've eaten in a revolving restaurant too.
The concierge recommended Journey into Imagination with Figment and Captain EO for our kids. I'm glad he did b/c I remember thinking they looked lame, but we enjoyed them. They were just so silly. I had to laugh because both Kaelah & Danny referred to Michael Jackson as "she" while they excitedly chatted about the movie afterwards. After that we went in for some international travel: Mexico (The Three Caballeros ride & glass blowing), China (where she was not impressed I knew it was Chinese New Year), Germany (which had a store I wanted to buy every toy in), Japan (where the cast worker gave Kaelah a drawing), and Italy. I was laughing so hard in Italy. There was a fountain with a King Triton statue. Kaelah loooooked and asked me, "Can I see his butt?" That was my children's first impression of Italy and there was lots of giggling. Good thing the fireworks show started right after that so we weren't stuck in potty humor.
Day 6: Friday
Our last day in the parks was our 2nd day at the Magic Kingdom. The weather was not warm and sunny as expected, but at least there was less rain and warmer weather. While I took Michelle to see Tinkerbell and Periwinkle, the others rode Aladdin's Magic Carpets and Pirates of the Caribbean. We met Aladdin and Jasmine simply because the line was short and it was right next to where you get the Dole Whips. We've never had them before! I can see why people go nuts over them. And so thankful for those snack credits. It was so nice to say "yes" when kids asked for a popcorn or when we wanted to try something. Big Thunder Mountain was a blast. Well, Michelle tolerated it but was proud of herself for doing so. Those switch rider passes are neat, though, because you can take a kid with you when you return, so Kaelah and Danny got to go through the Fast Pass lane twice -- once with me, once with Dan. Happy kids and mom got to ride a neat coaster too. Should have taken advantage of that sooner! I was super excited to take Kaelah to the Haunted Mansion. That was my favorite ride when my parents took me when I was her age. Somehow we all ended up going... well, because Danny & Michelle begged and we caved. It was fun but the scariest thing D & M have ever experienced. Should have stood our ground on that one but luckily having a big sister and a baby sister who liked it brought out those feelings of pride and accomplishment instead of complaints. And as we walked through the line area I could hear my dad's wonderful laugh as I read all the lame jokes on the fake headstones. Made me really wish we had kidnapped him to come with us.
We ate lunch at Gaston's tavern. Although LaFue's Brew was tasty, the kids didn't like it and this was by far our least favorite quick serve. You get this huge pork shank and that's it. The 6 of us could have shared 3. It was a total waste of meat and they kids weren't full anyways. It's also very small and crowded. We would have eaten at the Be Our Guest restaurant, but they close at 2pm, which is noon on Mt. Standard Time and when we get hungry. Oh, well. Speaking of food and let downs, this was indeed our worst food day because we ate dinner at the Liberty Tree Tavern was our least favorite sit down restaurant as well. I cannot imagine anyone going there twice. Well, we got a good view of the parade from there -- which I accidentally saw 3 times, mind you. One time I barely missed it while taking Natalie to the awesome baby care center. Hello -- a nursing room which dim lights and half a dozen rocking chairs all set to a historic theme and a diaper change room with nice padded tables and big hugs papers for sanitation and cute decor that gave Natalie a big smile on her face. It also had a little store that you could purchase things you might have forgotten or run out of. Dan bought Natalie extra baby food on Main Street because it turns out he can really get Natalie to eat! I told him that if he was a stay-at-home dad I could totally wean her right now. But alas, she only eats about half as much for me. (She is not as easy to nurse as Michelle was, just saying!)
Most of the day was spent in Tomorrowland but we had to ride the Mad Tea Party while using our switch rider passes for the Tomorrowland Speedway. Kaelah and Dan rode Space Mountain and Stitch's Great Escape while the rest of us rode the People Mover, went to the Monster's Inc. Laugh Floor and got in line for Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin. That line was 4x shorter than the last time we were at Disney World. The Carousel of Progress is a good conversation starter, if nothing else. We couldn't believe our last of 5 days was over so soon, but I also don't think we could have handled another day, so it was just right. Ending on a good note -- check out this picture -- this is right before we headed back to the hotel and we are STILL happy campers. The Eastern time zone really helps, us, though. When the parks close at 9 it's like 7 at home and they go to bed at the normal time. Sa-weet!
Day 7: Saturday
The one day we worried about waking up was so we wouldn't miss having breakfast with Lilo & Stitch and the Polynesian Resort. Wow, fancy! The chef made Kaelah and I dairy free/gluten free Mickey shaped waffles and dairy free scrambled eggs. They were served on special plates so the waiters and waitresses knew who had food allergies. The kids joined the parade with Lilo and Stitch and got to see Mickey & Pluto again. Natalie was thrilled! When she saw Pluto at the next table she made her "I want that!" sound and arm gestures and practically leaped out of Dan's arms. She got the biggest smile on her face when we began walking over. She was also pretty upset when he walked away. A true fan, just like Michelle became a true fan of Minnie Mouse when she was 20 months old during our last trip to Disney World. Awwww.
Michelle & Natalie and I hung around the resort a little and rode the Monorail all over and the ferry boat while Dan took K & D to Downtown Disney to get made to order Mickey rice crispy treats at Goofy's Candy Company. We all got back to the hotel in time to pack, spend our last few snack credits on what would become our lunch, and get out to the bus to be transported back to the airport. Everything went so smoothly and we couldn't have asked for a better travel experience home. Dan even got to sit next to one of the Colorado Rockies' coaches. Our welcome back to DIA was feeling like the moisture was sucked right out of us and my hair was literally standing on end like I had rubbed it with a balloon on the train to baggage claim. M & N literally began crying from the cold as we walked outside. Dan and I scraped a week's worth of ice and snow off our mini van with our credit cards and bare hands. Welcome home! We grabbed a bunch of wings at Buffalo WW on the way home to take to our neighbor's super bowl party the next day. (Soooo depressing to watch our home team loose like that!) Sunday we went to church and I had a presidency meeting to attend and went to the party. On Monday Kaelah was back at school and D & M began a new gym class. And that, my friends, was the end of that. But we are still talking about it. Just today Kaelah said, "Wouldn't it be neat if we only had to drive half an hour to get to Disney World?" I'm thinking the week after Thanksgiving of 2016. Fingers Crossed. Come join us!
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