Disney World

It’s been a few weeks since we got home from Disney World, but the memories haven’t faded yet and hopefully won’t for quite a while. This was our first big family vacation — and by that I mean the four of us going somewhere for more than a couple nights that didn’t involve visiting family.

We had such an awesome time!

I could never hope to document everything, but I wanted to write down some of the trip highlights, some things that worked well for us, and a few lessons we learned for next time. Because there WILL be a next time!

The Details:

We spent 5 days at the parks — 2 days at Magic Kingdom, and 1 day each at Epcot, Animal Kingdom, and Hollywood Studios. They all had things we loved, and I can’t pick a favorite! (Epcot was probably the least popular with girls, but I’m glad we didn’t skip it.)

We stayed 6 nights at Port Orleans Riverside and really liked it. We splurged on one of “Princess Tiana’s Royal Guest Rooms” which the girls LOVED. I’d definitely stay there again.

We flew into Orlando and rode the Magic Express to/from the airport. We used the Disney buses to get around the property each day, except for one morning when we used Uber to get to Magic Kingdom (long story).

We spent ~$4000 on the resort and parks, ~$1300 on airfare to get there, and ~$1500 on meals and souvenirs. In the end, we spent about what I’d guessed it would cost before we’d even talked to anyone about going! There are certainly ways to lower costs, but at the end of the day, doing a big Disney trip is simply not cheap, and we accepted that and planned accordingly.

Highlights:

+ Lunch with the princesses inside Cinderella’s castle. It was magical. The girls were enthralled. Totally worth it.

+ Avatar: Flight of Passage. This is a relatively new ride at Animal Kingdom and lived up to the hype. You sit down as if you were on a motorcycle, with 3D glasses and a huge screen that opens directly ahead and you feel as close to flying as I think you probably can without actually jumping off something. It was amazing.

+ Swimming at the resort. After several hot, sweaty hours in the park each day, coming back and hopping in the pool at the resort was so, so refreshing.

+ Seven Dwarfs Mine Train. Emma loved it and despite her half-hidden grimace in the photo above, Charlotte got off and immediately said she wanted to go again.

+ Mickey beignets. These were at a “sister” resort about a half mile away, so one night we took a ferry ride down there and stuffed our faces with delicious fried dough.

+ Disney Jr Dance Party. Of everything we did, Emma keeps saying this show at Hollywood Studios was her favorite thing — and Charlotte often agrees! Unexpected for sure, but if she loved it, then I loved it.

What worked well:

+ Using a Disney planner. Jose started talking about a Disney trip more than a year ago, but I was hesitant. A big part of it was me just wanting to wait until Charlotte was a bit older and out of diapers…but another big part was that Disney seems to be SUCH a THING. I mean, you can go wayyyyy down the rabbit hole when it comes to trip planning, and I’ve seen plenty of friends and acquaintances do that. They love it, but it felt very overwhelming to me.

Enter the trip planner! We used a lovely woman who lives in our neighborhood, and whose contact information I spotted at the elementary school carnival silent auction back in February. (I’m happy to provide her info to anyone who wants it; just comment or email me.)

She recommended resorts and dining options, answered a ton of questions, and then booked absolutely everything for us — the resort, park tickets, fast passes, character dining reservations, transportation from the airport, magic bands. EVERYTHING. It was amazing.

(One example: character dining reservations open 6 months in advance, and we didn’t even start planning until 3 months out. We wanted to do Cinderella’s Table to eat with the princesses, but of course it was all full. But our planner was able to check every day and when she saw a lunchtime spot open up, she was able to quickly book it for us. AWESOME.)

I should also note that the planners do this at no charge to us. I know — that seems crazy — but they get paid by Disney. After she booked our trip, I went through the online booking process on my own just to see what it would say, and it quoted me the exact same price. I can’t imagine ever doing a Disney trip WITHOUT using a planner. Period. The end.

+ Port Orleans Riverside resort. We did exactly ZERO research on resorts. Instead, we told our planner that we wanted something in the “moderate” category, she suggested Port Orleans Riverside and described it, and we said “that sounds great, book it.” And it WAS great!

I mentioned the “Royal Guest Room” already, which featured a lot of fun decor touches and felt suitably fancy for the girls. There were several pools, including a great big one on a small island in the middle of the resort with a slide. There was a food court, and a sit-down restaurant, and a shop, and an arcade. There was a boat that you could ride to the other half of the resort (Port Orleans French Quarter) and on to Disney Springs.

Even the grounds were beautiful, and it was a lovely place to come “home” to each afternoon after the heat and crowds and noise of each park. We just really, really liked it!

+ Magic bands. Most people had these, and they really are pretty magical. It’s connected to your Disney account so it opens your hotel room door, gets you into the park each day, and knows all your fast passes for rides. You can even connect your credit card to it — which means you don’t have to even carry a wallet. I just tucked my drivers license into a zippered shorts pocket each day and that was all I needed!

(Using your credit card via the magic band requires a PIN, which makes it easy to keep your kids from spending. The only hitch was that you maybe should warn your credit card company! My band stopped working on the last day and I assumed it was because we were past our room checkout time, but apparently it was actually the credit card company putting a stop on the charges. Oops!)

+ Renting a stroller. We knew we’d want one for Charlotte, but decided to rent a double so that Emma could sit down too. That was absolutely the right decision. Even at almost 7 and very nearly too tall for it, she would’ve been exhausted if she’d had to walk everywhere, and having them both contained in the stroller made getting around less stressful for Jose and me also.

+ Buying the photo pass. I probably would have skipped this (and its $200 price tag) on my own, but our planner recommended it and she was totally right to do so. We got a good family photo every day, along with several others that we’d stop for when we saw a photo pass photographer. We also got pictures of all the princess meet-and-greets, and even some from the rides. And the girls loved the “magic” photos like the one above! Definitely worth the price.

+ The whole Fast Pass system. I haaaate waiting in lines, so the Fast Pass system is the best thing ever and Disney’s done a pretty darn good job of making it work. We gave our planner a list of the 3 rides we definitely wanted to do at each park (6 for Magic Kingdom, since we spent 2 days there) and she set up our fast passes for us. You’re allowed to sign up for 3 each day, starting 60 days in advance.

We admittedly weren’t interested in some of the most popular rides, since we had little kids — no Space Mountain or Tower of Terror for us this time. But there were still a couple major ones we wanted to do — Slinky Dog at Hollywood Studios, Avatar: Flight of Passage at Animal Kingdom — and the fast pass system made it easy. For the Avatar ride, we were also able to take advantage of the “rider switch” option. Since Charlotte wasn’t tall enough to ride, and either Jose or I would need to stay with her, we got the rider switch option added to our fast passes. Jose and Emma went through the line while I hung out with Charlotte, and then I got to go — and Emma got to go again with me!

Also, once we’d used our 3 fast passes for that day, you can use the app to reserve another one. And speaking of the app…

+ The Disney World app. This app was totally invaluable from start to finish. It has maps of all the parks and resorts that helped a ton. It shows the current wait time for all the rides, and showtimes for all the entertainment. It tracked all the fast passes we had gotten in advance, and then let us sign up for new fast passes once we’d used those, or decided to change plans.

The app also has a mobile ordering available at many of the park “grab-and-go” style restaurants. We used that option several times since it allowed us to find a table and sit down before ordering food via the app. Then we got to relax at the table instead of standing in line, and just had to go pick it up from the counter when our order was ready!

+ Lots of sunscreen, cooling towels, water bottles, and quick dry clothes. Y’all, the first week of June is HOT in Florida. (I know. Surprise!) I was pretty worried about this aspect because being hot and uncomfortable tends to lead to a lot of grumpiness. But we tried to prepare and it worked pretty well.

Jose and I both wore tech tees and shorts every day — the stuff made from quick dry fabric that doesn’t soak up sweat like cotton. I also bought a set of “cooling towels” before we left and soaked those with water every time we took a restroom break. They helped!

Jose and I both had hats, and the girls had the sunshades on the double stroller. We applied sunscreen regularly and made it the whole week with not a trace of sunburn — which is in itself a big success. We also carried two water bottles into the part each day and would refill them from water fountains and the restaurant drink stands.

I’m still not sure we’ll go back to Disney in the summer — I’ll seriously consider pulling the girls out of school for a week in November or February next time. But with a positive attitude and some advance planning, the June heat did turn out to be tolerable.

+ Overall experience and customer service. The entire Disney World experience is a well oiled machine — mind blowing to the point of being almost incomprehensible. It’s stunning how smoothly everything seems to work from my visitor’s point of view. Everything is so well maintained and well kept, from the grounds to the buildings to the rides to the restaurants. And every single employee is helpful and friendly.

I would look around our resort — which was NOT small — and think about how many people it must take to keep it running well. And then multiply that by like 30 other resorts, and 4 theme parks, and 2 water parks, and tons of buses, and on and on. And it all works pretty seamlessly, with cheerful and enthusiastic staff. It’s seriously impressive.

Lessons Learned:

+ The bus system is…not perfect. Disney does SO many things SO very well that when something ISN’T quite right, it’s noticeable. Overall, the buses were ok. They were comfortable, cool, and free…or at least they were once we actually managed to get on one. The wait time was often 15-20 minutes from the time we’d arrive at a stop until the bus arrived. Now, there was always a sign telling you when the bus would get there, and those times were relatively accurate, so that was nice. And 15-20 minutes to wait is not hugely unreasonable either…except for the fact that the buses could be full.

Full buses seemed to be the biggest issue for Magic Kingdom, which is somewhat understandable since that’s the most popular park. But waiting 20 minutes for a bus only to watch it pass you full was frustrating. There were 4 bus stops at our resort and we realized immediately that waiting at the main building — which was the last stop on the pickup route — was the worst possible idea. Fortunately, there was another bus stop about as close to our room, and it was the 3rd stop on the route. Going there made a big difference but still, the unpredictability in timing and capacity of the buses made it feel like a bit of a gamble each morning.

On the flip side, when returning from the park, we again found ourselves waiting 15-20 minutes for a bus. Again, it’s not THAT long, but when you’re hot and sweaty and tired and watching buses pick up for all the other resorts, it felt longer.

+ Getting to and from the parks takes a while. This is related to the buses, of course, but transit time was just not as fast as I’d been led to believe. Multiple people told me it’d be easy to just “pop back” to the resort for an hour or two in the afternoon and then go back to the park at night if we wanted. But I’m honestly not sure how people accomplish this easily.

Between walking to the bus stop, waiting for the bus, boarding the bus with the rest of the crowd, riding the bus around the (very large) Disney property to your destination, and then walking from the bus stop to the park gate and going through the security and ticket lines — that can eat up as much as an hour on its own.

+ The “park hopper” ticket option was totally wasted money. For us, at least. This option lets you go to two different parks in the same day and I know a lot of people use it and love it. (Maybe this is easier with older kids?) We really did think we’d go back to a park for evening fireworks at least once or twice, but once we were there it just felt too inconvenient. So we didn’t park hop, and therefore flushed about $350 down the drain. Ouch.

+ Don’t book fast passes before 10 am! Again, for us anyway. With little kids, we assumed we’d be waking up pretty early and probably getting to the parks as soon as they opened, so we had a few fast passes booked for the ~9-10 am hour. But with so much activity and usually being up later than normal at night, the girls slept in more than they do at home. I wasn’t willing to force them out of bed and deal with that grumpiness, so it was usually 8:30 by the time we were ready to leave the hotel room and get some breakfast. Then, with the afore-mentioned transit time, it was usually 10:00 or later by the time we arrived. We cut a couple of our fast passes REAL close. (At Epcot, our fast pass for the Frozen ride expired at 10:10 and we made it at 10:23 — with exactly 2 minutes to spare in the unwritten 15-minute grace period!)

And that’s our Disney trip in a (rather large) nutshell!

We had SUCH a fun time as a family, and are already talking about what we’ll do next time.