Today I would like to share some of my thoughts on Disney World, the things we really enjoyed, what we packed, etc. This was our first trip so I feel like I learned a lot.
I packed everything in two suitcases, three days in one suitcase and two days and toiletries in the other. I figured that if one bag got lost at least we would have some clothes for a couple of days. I like organization so each day's clothes were folded together in the suitcases. Usually I pack everyone separate and we end up with lots of extra clothes but this helped me stay with just what we needed so that we had room for our treasures from Disney. I checked the weather almost daily for a week before we left and most days it looked like it would be cooler in the morning and warm up into the 60's or 70's during the day. For this reason, I brought layers and each child had a light jacket and their rain jacket. If we will be somewhere for a week or longer then I unpack our bags when we arrive. I put one suitcase in the closet and I left one out for our dirty clothes. I didn't want to pack our toiletries and anything we bought with our dirty clothes. When we would get back to the room and get ready for bed, we would just throw our dirty stuff into the suitcase. It made packing to go home a lot easier as one whole bag was already packed.
The kids each have a small rolling suitcase that they packed with books, their phones (they have old iPhone 4's that you can only play games on), and their Mickey/Minnie. We did not let them take toys because we knew they were going to buy stuff and there just wasn't time for toys. We pulled Luke out of school for a week to go so his teacher sent some homework for him to do during the week. We worked on it during the flights since I knew our days would be long. He wasn't super excited about it but I want to make sure we emphasis how important school is and make it a priority.
The kids each have a small rolling suitcase that they packed with books, their phones (they have old iPhone 4's that you can only play games on), and their Mickey/Minnie. We did not let them take toys because we knew they were going to buy stuff and there just wasn't time for toys. We pulled Luke out of school for a week to go so his teacher sent some homework for him to do during the week. We worked on it during the flights since I knew our days would be long. He wasn't super excited about it but I want to make sure we emphasis how important school is and make it a priority.
We live off a pretty tight budget so we put a lot into this trip thinking we would not be able to go back for a while. We wanted to see each park and since we were going to be there Sunday through Saturday we had a extra day and decided to spend 2 days at Magic Kingdom. We went back and forth about going to the Christmas party and didn't decide until we got to Florida. Since we went to the Christmas party, we could have done without one of the days at Magic Kingdom. We spent every day at a park and I wish we would have taken a day in the middle to rest. If I had to rank the parks: 1) Magic Kingdom, 2) Hollywood Studios 3) Animal Kingdom and 4) Epcot. There isn't a bad park.
We heard both positives and negatives about the dining plan. We decided to do it because we didn't know anything about the park so this way our planner, Brooke (www.bookwithbrooke.com), could get us some great meals without us having to worry about it. She did an amazing job! We enjoyed every meal and have fantastic memories from all of them. It was much easier than us trying to find somewhere to eat for every meal. We planned our snacks and ended up using every meal and every snack, we even took some home with us to enjoy! We kept track of each meals cost too just to be able to compare and we saved about $100 by doing the meal plan. It includes drinks, meals and desserts and most of the time we ate everything because we were so hungry from walking.
We didn't buy an autograph book. I had a friend tell me that she just brought blank paper for the characters to sign and then she put a picture of the child with the character on it and made a scrapbook. I loved that idea! I went and bought 100 pieces of card stock paper and some sharpies and I put them in a gallon size ziplock bag in case we got rained on and to protect them from the wet rides. I had heard that it was a good idea to put a line at the bottom so each character knew where to sign but Brett didn't want to limit them so the kids would just hand them the paper and ask them to sign at the bottom. It probably would have been easier to just draw the line but i like that some signed really big at the bottom and made it special. I made one for each of them. The kids love their scrapbooks and looking at all the fun characters they met on our trip.
Picture of Cinderella signing the paper
We chose not to rent a stroller and even though I went back and forth about it, I am glad we chose not to rent one. The kids were so excited that they did a great job walking and I was glad we didn't have to park it for all the rides. By the end of the day the kids were beyond exhausted and almost every night Lily passed out before getting to the bus but the stroller just felt like one more thing to deal with and it was just easier to carry her. Since we didn't have a stroller, we carried a backpack every day with a few snacks, rain jackets (if there was rain in the forecast) or they wore a light jacket in the morning and we put it in the backback in the afternoon when it warmed up, wipes, bandaids, a brush and our autograph papers. I wish we had thought to put some activities for the kids in the backpack because they were super bored in most of the lines which always means trouble. :) Just some small thing to color or word searches or something to keep them busy would have been nice.
We are about 2 months out now from our trip so those are things that stick out the most to me about planning and enjoying our trip. I hope you will find some of this helpful. I would love to answer any questions you have. Just leave one in the comments! :) I was so stressed about planning the trip and making sure everything was perfect for the kids but our planner, Brooke, helped me relax and just enjoy it! Things will go wrong or plans will need to be changed but just relax and have fun! This was the best trip we have ever taken as a family and I will hold on to these memories forever!
We heard both positives and negatives about the dining plan. We decided to do it because we didn't know anything about the park so this way our planner, Brooke (www.bookwithbrooke.com), could get us some great meals without us having to worry about it. She did an amazing job! We enjoyed every meal and have fantastic memories from all of them. It was much easier than us trying to find somewhere to eat for every meal. We planned our snacks and ended up using every meal and every snack, we even took some home with us to enjoy! We kept track of each meals cost too just to be able to compare and we saved about $100 by doing the meal plan. It includes drinks, meals and desserts and most of the time we ate everything because we were so hungry from walking.
We didn't buy an autograph book. I had a friend tell me that she just brought blank paper for the characters to sign and then she put a picture of the child with the character on it and made a scrapbook. I loved that idea! I went and bought 100 pieces of card stock paper and some sharpies and I put them in a gallon size ziplock bag in case we got rained on and to protect them from the wet rides. I had heard that it was a good idea to put a line at the bottom so each character knew where to sign but Brett didn't want to limit them so the kids would just hand them the paper and ask them to sign at the bottom. It probably would have been easier to just draw the line but i like that some signed really big at the bottom and made it special. I made one for each of them. The kids love their scrapbooks and looking at all the fun characters they met on our trip.
We chose not to rent a stroller and even though I went back and forth about it, I am glad we chose not to rent one. The kids were so excited that they did a great job walking and I was glad we didn't have to park it for all the rides. By the end of the day the kids were beyond exhausted and almost every night Lily passed out before getting to the bus but the stroller just felt like one more thing to deal with and it was just easier to carry her. Since we didn't have a stroller, we carried a backpack every day with a few snacks, rain jackets (if there was rain in the forecast) or they wore a light jacket in the morning and we put it in the backback in the afternoon when it warmed up, wipes, bandaids, a brush and our autograph papers. I wish we had thought to put some activities for the kids in the backpack because they were super bored in most of the lines which always means trouble. :) Just some small thing to color or word searches or something to keep them busy would have been nice.
We are about 2 months out now from our trip so those are things that stick out the most to me about planning and enjoying our trip. I hope you will find some of this helpful. I would love to answer any questions you have. Just leave one in the comments! :) I was so stressed about planning the trip and making sure everything was perfect for the kids but our planner, Brooke, helped me relax and just enjoy it! Things will go wrong or plans will need to be changed but just relax and have fun! This was the best trip we have ever taken as a family and I will hold on to these memories forever!
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