Just Jana: Disney

I'll just come right out and say it, we are Disney Groupies. We love Disney World. We love going there with our family in tow or sans children...like say, even for our...

Honeymoon in 2005!

We love that our extended family (on both sides) share our Disney enthusiasm. Matt's dad is quite the vacation planner and had been organizing our trip for well over a year. He is a beast when it comes to searching out direct flights at a convenient time. They are also Wyndham Vacation Club members so we got to stay at the Bonnet Creek Resort located very close to all the parks and right across the street from Disney's Caribbean Beach Resort, where we stayed on our honeymoon.

The 3-bedroom condo worked great for our crew. The kids loved the pools & we had great views of the firework shows.

We started off with a kid-free dinner (thanks to the grandparents!) at the Grand Floridian's Narcoossee's where we could watch the Magic Kingdom's firework show and the light parade on the the Seven Seas Lagoon.

I just love the light parade!

Next day, up and at 'em early to take on the Magic Kingdom! We had 6-day hopper passes for all the parks. So let's just say, we did it all.

#KeeleysTakeDisney

We weren't really sure what to expect for our group of 11 people which happened to contain 1, 2, 3, and 4-year-old children. I figured we would have to go at a slower pace than we are used to in the parks and just play it by ear as far as what the kids wanted to do and could handle.

Ariel's Castle in Fantasyland

Don't get me wrong here, we still had a plan. You MUST have a plan at Disney to get the most out of your experience. What we love about Disney is their attention to detail and amazing levels of efficiency. You'd be hard pressed to think of something that they haven't already thought of and perfected.

There are TONS of resources out there to help you plan your trip and get the most out of your park time, especially with kids. I really loved this blog that helped us decide what park to go to which day (since we were there over a holiday), ideas for how to organize our day, and info on the new FastPass+ system.

The FastPass+ system is a way to make "reservations" for the more popular rides (also now available even for restaurants, parade seating, or character greetings too!) without having to wait in the long line. If you are staying at a Disney resort, a magic band is included and you can select and book Fastpasses (3 per day) up to 60 days prior to your trip. If not staying on property, you can arrange Fastpasses 30 days prior to your trip (which was fine for us, still got everything we wanted to do) and you can use your park ticket (a card) or purchase a magic band upon arrival for about $13 each. (I used my band from my last trip.)

I'm serious, they have thought of everything. Just be informed so you can take advantage of their many conveniences!

{Of course, if you plan to stay on property and prefer not to sort this out yourself you should take advantage of free services my aunt, Mindy, offers.}

The Seven Dwarfs Mine Train is the newest ride and had a consistent 90-120 minute long wait. Glad we had FastPasses!

Cade loved this one!

I really wanted to eat at the newest restaurant, "Be Our Guest," in the new Beast's Castle area of Fantasyland so we decided to go there for lunch on our first day at the Magic Kingdom.

Once again, Disney has worked out all of the kinks and it was a pleasant dining experience with a fast-moving line. You can eat in the West Wing, Ballroom, or Library. Cade chose the West Wing.

You can learn more about all of the Disney restaurants (throughout all the parks and resorts) here. I loved this search engine for seeing the restaurants available in the different places we would be since they all serve different genres of food.

You can (and should) make your dining reservations 180 days prior to your trip. We had reservations for Narcoossee's, Chef Mickey's (character breakfast), Hollywood & Vine (paired with reserved seating for Hollywood Studios Fantasmic Show), Biergarten Restaurant at Epcot, and Liberty Tree Tavern at Magic Kingdom. I also make it a point to eat as much Mickey-head-shaped food as possible. I love the ice cream sandwiches, soft pretzels, caramel apples, and cake pops. I might have a problem...

We found ourselves going strong and still passing our fair share of people when moving about the parks, even with strollers in tow. I think it just goes to show that Disney has something to offer for every age group because we did many things that I'd never done at Disney before, since we'd never been with kids before (other than when Cade was 5 months, but he didn't do much then). There were little play areas that were "Reese friendly" that I had never even noticed before on our past trips.

First time riding the carousel, usually we walk right on by it since we could do this at the mall. But there's never a line and the kids liked it. And there's not a castle-view at the mall.

The kids loved Dumbo and Aladdin's Carpet rides because they could control the car going up and down. Dumbo recently got an over-haul with the Fantasyland renovation and the kids had a blast playing in the big-top-circus-themed play area. It's air-conditioned and is designed to be a place where you play while you wait for your turn for the ride, however, there was never a long enough ride to have to use it while you wait, we just chose to go in there and play multiple times during our visit. The Fantasyland renovation is amazing and provides so much for young kids to do. Reese could ride nearly everything and loved it all!

Can you find Cade?

It was hot and humid--it's Florida in July. But we dressed accordingly and drank lots of water and it wasn't terrible. You move in and out of the air-conditioned stores and rides so much it's not like you're outside the entire time. The longest we waited in line was about 20 minutes just by using the FastPass system and watching the wait times on the MyDisney Experience App. The lines are designed with different entertaining games while you wait, and the kids had each other, so it was never too painful.

Best Buds

The kids were super-pumped to get to meet and hug their character friends. We did spend more time seeing characters than ever before, which was totally worth it to see how star-struck the kids got. It really was a magical experience for them!

I love this pic. The characters always loved on our kids so much. I think it's because they're extra-cute, of course!

Ever since we've returned home, the kids love dressing up and pretending to be Disney characters...for the sole purpose of hugging and posing for pics. Reese says, "Would you like to hug and have a picture with Princess Sofia?" Then we have to hug and pose for the camera. It's hysterical, and so fun.

My favorite attraction was Enchanted Tales with Belle. I wasn't even sure we were going to like this because I thought it was just the character Belle reading a story. Everyone recommended it and said to get a FastPass for it but I still wasn't sure our kids could sit through it. I should have known Disney better than that. It turned out to be very interactive and they assigned different characters to all the kids present.

Cade got to be Chip.

And Matt got to be a knight!

You move around to a few different rooms in the castle acting out the story and then each child gets to meet Belle and have a picture taken. It was very well-done.

Cade still talks about when he got to hug Belle.

We watched the parades at Magic Kingdom from the benches right in front of the Diamond Horseshoe restaurant which turned out to be perfect! Seek it out!

We all enjoyed the breakfast buffet at Chef Mickey's at the Contemporary Resort where Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Goofy, and Pluto come around to all the tables for pics, and hugs, of course.

I'd say our time at Epcot was the most, meh--just okay, of the entire trip. It rained on us and it's not a very stroller friendly park. The good thing about Magic Kingdom (and Hollywood Studios and Animal Kingdom really) is that you can park your stroller very close to your destination and not have to walk much with the kids out of strollers just running about. But at Epcot, you have to leave the strollers outside most buildings making it very difficult to navigate (read: herd and wrangle) the kids.

Highlights were the Nemo ride and aquarium, Living with the Land boat tour, the show at the restaurant in Germany, the street show in France, and Soarin'.

Aunt Beth was a rockstar helping out with all the kids!

"Dad, it's raining on us."

Grandma did a great job entertaining the littles while everyone else rode the bigger rides at times.

I've always thought there wasn't much to do at Animal Kingdom, but it actually had a lot of things that were age-appropriate for our group this time.

We saw many animals on the morning safari!

They also have an area called "The Boneyard" that the kids could have played in for days.

Cade was much braver than I expected and enjoyed riding all of the rides he was tall enough to ride (which was all but 3 rollercoasters total, from all the parks) even if they were more intense! Like the Dinosaur ride at Animal Kingdom.

Pic taken from the ride, you can go online and see them.
They track you with your band. It's quite freaky actually.

We went about every other day powering-through for a long day without stopping and then the next day doing one park in the morning, taking a break at the condo for the afternoon and then going back to another park in the evening. (Usually Magic Kingdom.) It worked out really well and the kids (and adults) were quite resilient.

Our 6th day in the parks was the 4th of July, my favorite holiday!

We spent the 4th at Hollywood Studios.

Star Wars ride

Backlot Tour

Cade even rode the Tower of Terror! (Which he now compares to my driving. Ha!)

The kids thought the monorail was so cool. Online I had read that you have to fold up your strollers to ride on it, but that is not true. Don't fold up that stroller, just wheel it on!

The ride pics are just too funny! Reese and I on the Buzz Lightyear ride at Magic Kingdom.

Cade is serious about this!

When we asked Cade if he knew who did a lot of work for this trip and made it possible for us, he answered..."God?" Well, kinda. Answer we were looking for is Grandpa.

A huge thanks to Mike and Jan for all they do for us and for being as excited as we were to tackle the parks with this crew. The kids may not remember it, but they had a blast and we had a blast watching them experience it all. They will definitely look at the pics and be able to tell the stories!