I can now call myself an official fan of Disneyworld. I spent 27 years of my life without ever stepping foot on that magical soil in Orlando, FL--I even stated on the way down: "Why would someone drive 12 hours to go to Disneyworld, when you can drive just 6 hours and go to the beach?" I am a great fan of the beach--it's my favorite vacation--I like to vacation and not have to do anything. Having said that--I think this trip to Disney can go down as my favorite vacation ever. It was great sharing the first time experience with my little guy who turned 20 months old while we were there (If you are a first timer, don't forget to stop at City Hall on your way in to Magic Kingdom to get your First Visit button). My husbands parents were able to go, as well--which made it an all around great trip. Plus--Jonah was free since he was under 3. He will not remember this trip, but we will never forget the faces he made this trip. It was magical!
We ended up driving a day early and splitting our travel time in order to avoid the snow that was forecasted all the way down to Dothan, AL. Splitting travel time worked out so well that we ended up doing the same on the way back. Jonah did great traveling--which always makes for a great trip. We were only able to do 2 days of parks due to this trip revolving around my husband's work conference. So we chose to do Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom. The next two days were spent hanging out at the resort (which was well worth it) and at Downtown Disney. My husband was working these days, so it was just me, Jonah, and the grandparents.
Here is some information that I have found helpful:
http://www.allears.net/ You can find tons of information here. I mainly looked at dining info. You can find restaurants by location and even look at menus and pricing. You can also look at the character dining to see which characters to expect at which meals.
http://www.mousesavers.com/ You can sign up for e-mail updates and monthly newsletter with special events and money saving tips--we were able to get our resort at a great discount thanks to the info on this site
--Stay onsite--it is well worth it. Bus transportation was great--we never had to wait very long for the bus we needed. We stayed at Carribean Beach Resort (a Moderate Resort) and we were very pleased.
--Photopass: Disney has people throughout the parks that will take your picture at key locations and at character meetings and put them all on one card for you to purchase after your trip. Have them take lots of picures and when you get home add Disney borders, etc. The photo cd is supposed to be the best value--because these pictures are then yours to do as you please--but it is still pricey at $150. I have been looking for discounts--and apparently you are able to pre-purchase before your trip and get it for $100. If you are going with several family members--you can split the cost of the cd.
--I did not do this, but I saw that you can check out from your public library books on planning for disney trips.
--If you are planning on doing a character meal, you need to do book it ASAP--these fill up early. You can book these online at the disney website.
--Pick up your park maps and daily schedule as you enter the parks. The daily schedule will have showtimes for shows and parade times. I would highly recommend taking the time to see the parades and the shows.
MAGIC KINGDOM:
We started our day early and got to the park just before it opened. Someone had recommended that we see the park open--which was great. Jonah clapped all the way through the opening of the park--and for another 20 minutes after we were in the park. It felt like we did not accomplish very much this day. Of course, it is difficult to accomplish a whole lot at Disney with a 1 year old--but I think that next time I would like to create a list of things that we would like to do in the park. The first stop was the Dumbo ride for Jonah and Daddy (Mommy doesn't ride anything that goes around in circles). We also did the train ride and later that night did "It's a Small World". These were the only rides we did all day--although we did ride the monorail "just for fun". We spent alot of time in line to meet characters--which ended up being more than worth it since the characters were surprisingly Jonah's favorite part. He did not even like Santa this year, so I wasn't counting on him liking the characters. We waited in line for about 45 minutes to meet Mickey and Minnie with Jonah fussing the whole time because he was hungry and tired. He cried even harder once the line moved into the room where they were, but once it was our turn, I sat him down and he quit crying and ran right into Mickey's arms. It was priceless...
This is my favorite memory of the whole trip--I'm so glad that he loved the characters. He would cry everytime he saw one--but just because he had to wait to meet them. Now Jonah did not even know who most of the characters were. We had started letting him watch Mickey Mouse Clubhouse before the trip--so maybe he would know who Mickey was (Jonah is an absolute Sesame Street fan--if something else is on, he usually asks for Elmo).
This was another favorite memory. Jonah was so tired when meeting Pooh that he hugged him for like 2 minutes straight without moving at all. He must have felt very cozy.
We grabbed a bite for lunch at Pinnochio Village Haus. For around $7 you can get pizza, a chicken basket or salad--which is probably as cheap you are going to find a meal in the parks. We did not do the meal plan--and we really did not spend alot of money on food in the parks. A good tip is to order a kid's meal for yourself--I did this several times--and got the same amount, or occasionally even more food, than the adult meals. We ate several times in the food court area of our resort--and it wasn't too expensive. I will say that we did the refillable cups for $14--and probably did not get our money's worth since these can only be refilled at the food court areas.
We went back that afternoon to allow Jonah to take a nap--then headed back to the park for the evening. I was so looking forward to sunny Florida weather and flip flops, but there was a cold front when we were there. This night was the coldest--and it was very cold! We fit a few things in before settling in to watch the fireworks. I learned quickly that you spend more time waiting at Disneyworld than you do anything else. The fireworks show was great--we then grabbed a quick bite at Casey's Corner before trying to find a spot to wait for the Spectromagic parade. Mainstreet was very crowded, but we kept heading toward the entrance/exit because we had decided that it was much too cold to spend anymore time in the park after the parade. Fortunately, there were many spots available in the front of the park--and we were able to exit quickly after the parade passed by us.
ANIMAL KINGDOM:
We almost did not go to Animal Kingdom because we had been told by many people that they did not spend much time there or they just weren't that impressed. I LOVED ANIMAL KINGDOM! This was my absolute favorite day and I could have spent several days here. This is the newest park--so it is laid out so well. The park is just as busy, but I felt like we were able to accomplish so much more because of the layout. We started our day at the Tusker House before the park opened for Donald's Safari Breakfast. The meal was great (but pricey--as are all character meals). I was a little dissapointed that the characters did not spend very much time at each table--but I did like that we saw most of the characters there, so there was no need to wait in lines to meet them throughout the day. Although--if you are doing the character thing at Animal Kingdom, they have a great layout for it.
After our breakfat, we headed for Kilamanjaro Safaris. This was my personal favorite of the whole trip. It's an open air safari ride where you will see animals roaming through 100 acres of savannah. You never know what animals you will see--and I would recommend going more than once, because you will likely see different animals at different times of day. This ride lasted for about 20 minutes. I could have rode all day long. We did one of the walking treks after this--definitely check out the gorillas. There are about 5 or 6 of them in one area. We also took the train ride to Rafiki's Planet Watch. This area seemed unfinished. They do have a petting zoo area there that is not too impressive.
We did several shows at Animal Kingdom:
--Finding Nemo: The Musical--which was great. You have to start getting in line for the shows about 45 minutes before showtime. Luckily you are not standing in line the whole time, because they do seat you when they can. We made the mistake of getting food to eat while in line (2 great big ole turkey legs) which had to be taken back to our stroller and hidden because the line starting moving inside and you couldn't take food in. I was starving, but was more worried about wild animals raiding my stroller while we were inside. Jonah couldn't take his eyes off of any of the shows. I was so impressed that he didn't mind to sit still for such long periods of time. I would highly recommend this show.
--It's Tought to Be a Bug 3D-- I think they run different shows, so you may not see the same one. The line winds down underneath the Tree of Life--I did not like this at all. Once you get to the doors, you are underneath the tree and it is dark and crowded. We had to wait for about 10 minutes until the doors opened. There are no real lines once you get to the doors--so that crowd kind of pushes you through to the auditorium. This show is short. You wear your 3D glasses and are taken into a bug's life. There are some moments that may frighten small children. It gets dark, smokey, and loud--but only for a few moments. Jonah did fine through it.
--The Festival of the Lion King--This was a good show, too. We headed to it quickly after watching The Jammin' Jungle Parade (Have your kids sit on the ground along the tape--and some of the characters come by and shake hands). I will admit that this show wasn't quite what I expected. If you can get a seat in the front rows, there is a chance that you or your children might get to help out in the show. This show had lots of singing and some acrobatics.
CARRIBEAN BEACH RESORT:
My husband's conference started on the third day of our trip. We took this time to explore our resort. If you are looking to save some money on your disney trip, you can easily spend a day at your resort. Ours was set up as Carribean Islands, with lots of white beaches with hammocks (they offer boat and bicycle rentals), playground areas, and several pools. Even though the weather was cold, you could have easily swam in their heated outdoor pools. I was so glad that we took this day to recover from our 2 days of madness at the parks.
DOWNTOWN DISNEY:
You can also easily spend a day at Downtown Disney. If you stay at a DW Resort, the transportation buses will take you here, as well. There is lots of shopping and even more amusement options. Don't expect to get any deals on souveniers, though. I did have someone tell me that the best place to get souveniers is at the Target close to Disneyworld. We shopped for a bit and took in some music performed by an orchestra just outside the Disneystore (my little guy loves music). There are lots of food options at Downtown Disney. If you go into the Ghiradelli chocolate store--find the lady with the basket to get your free chocolate square (the soda fountain side smells delicious). I got a pretzel from Wetzels Pretzels that was really good and then we did lunch at Rainforest Cafe. This was my first dining experience here--and it doesn't really live up to the hype. Jonah did enjoy it and I can't help but post a pic of his shocked face when a thunderstorm came through (in case you don't know, periodically the animals come to life and an occasional thunderstorm passes through).:
To sum it all up---we had a great time. I would highly recommend taking a little one--or anyone at all. I can't wait to go back and explore even more. If you are planning a trip--ask other people what they did and look for info online. The whole process can be very overwhelming--there is tons of information. We did not plan alot--our plan was to go and have a good time. I don't think I would overplan (save room for some surprises)--but I do think I would make a loose plan for our next trip.
No comments:
Post a Comment