Our Cabin Fever had become too much! We were ready for some much needed sunshine with flip flops and pool time! After searching the Internet looking for a getaways, planning on a trip around March 24th or so, we jumped from one Caribbean island to another to the Florida Keys. We found a beautiful place in Key West called the Southernmost House. We called, only to be informed that during that time in March, we’d be hanging pool side with “spring breakers”. We decided, we’d go for our anniversary in June. So I then began searching a dream trip out west to Sorrel River Ranch only to be brought back to reality and why we were planning the trip to begin with… we want sunny and warm!! So my husband did a “last minute trip” search for Disney World and found a deal that was perfect!! Everything came together so magically!
Kali LOVES Mickey and Minnie, and although she’s only one year old, we knew she’d enjoy the trip! Below she’s at the airport, ready to leave dreary, chilly, grey weather to meet her favorite Disney Friends in the Florida sunshine! Nico is six and he’s at the age where he loves to ride bigger rides and get his confidence up for the super big ones! He does get a bit overwhelmed and can become introverted in crowds, but Disney has soooo much to offer, it’s always a great time and he was excited! We were on our way, ready for some Florida sunshine and Disney magic! (That pic above, I asked two young girls to take our pic, then I offered to take theirs in return. As I was taking theirs, fireworks began on both sides of the castle and the two girls both had Mickey ears on with perfect matching Disney shirts, I wish I had a copy, the photo was perfect!)
Kalie on the phone, talking to Marmar and Pappa at the airport breakfast, getting excited!
Here we goooo! Mickey, Minnie, here I come!
When we arrived in Orlando, it was already around 2 p.m. so we made plans to stay at the hotel our first afternoon and evening. It was a great place to stay, I highly recommend! The Wyndham at Bonnet Creek. I have a separate Blog entry just to tell you about it!
The next morning, we were up and at ’em, ready to get to the park early. After a $50 breakfast at the resort consisting of two coffees, a yogurt for me, a cinnamon roll for Nico, a bagel for Dan and a fruit cup for Kali, we drove to the Magic Kingdom parking area. On the way we got to see the Princess Half Marathon still going strong! TONS of women running and walking. I had looked into running the race myself, but it was all sold out. From what I learned, these Disney races, marathons, half and 10K runs sell out FAST. I do want to run either this Princess Half or do Goofy’s Challenge in January, which is running the half marathon on one day, then doing the full marathon the next. The Star Wars Dark Side Challenge in April would be cool too!
We rented a car because the ride from the airport to the resort would’ve cost MORE than renting a car! And we wanted to be able to drive to the grocery to get snacks for the park, drive to a restaurant for dinner, and just have some freedom! They do have shuttle options to any Disney park, but again we wanted freedom to drive in the Florida sunshine and warmth! It was $20 to park then we walked to the boat that takes us to the Magic Kingdom Park! We decided we’ll take the boat in the morning, then ride the Monorail back to the parking lot when we leave, that way the kids get to enjoy both! I had anticipated the morning be a bit on the cool side so the kids and I had light long-sleeve shirts, easy to take off and store in the lightweight backpack I was carrying. Keeping it simple so nothing becomes a nuisance later on!
And there it is!!!! The most magical place on earth! It can be a little overwhelming at first but don’t let that discourage you, I love Disney World! It truly is impressive, how clean and how pretty it is, how fun and happy all the workers and characters are, the overall energy of the place! This is unlike any other theme park! This isn’t King’s Island or the Zoo, this IS DISNEY WORLD! The organization is impeccable, the place is flawless and every detail is precise! Combine it all with the blue sky, sunshine and summer warmth, it’s a great vacation with kids!
Selfie in front of Mickey’s Castle (that’s what we have called Cinderella’s Castle for years from when Sneaks was a baby! Because he loved Mickey, had no idea who Cinderella was). I love the front entrance, as you walk in, it’s beautiful! It has this Old Key West/New Orleans feel to it with the trolley on the roadway and the buildings having such charming character, painted pastel colors and decorated perfectly with colorful flowers. The smell is so fun and perfect with a cotton candy and icing sweet aroma. Is that cookies and perhaps a touch of coffee I’m getting a whiff of? And there’s cutesy music and kids laughing and just this feeling of a summertime welcoming!
The very much needed family photo! All of us, and a seagull, in front of Mickey’s Castle.
Another quick selfie. The stroller Kali is sitting in is a rental from the park. I highly recommend if you don’t mind paying. If you’re at Disney, you have to pay extra for everything, so you might as well mentally prepare and make it a happy, enjoyable time rather than counting every dollar. It’s best to plan out what you’re anticipating financially so you’re not in complete shock. Because if you walk in with the mentality that you’re going to spend $200 and you walk out realizing you dropped $2000, that might spoil your magical time. For this example, you definitely can bring your own stroller, but that means putting in the car (if you rented one or drove to Disney) or on the shuttle, then on the boat or on the monorail, then making sure it doesn’t get lost or accidentally taken if it resembles another’s stroller when you get on a ride and park it in the stroller parking area ( I really don’t think anyone at Disney is in the market to steal a stroller, but I could be wrong. Especially if it’s a top-of-the-line $500 stroller they really would like to have. It is there for the taking.) Here’s some info: Disney Stroller Rentals. It’s $15 per day or $13 per day if you rent it more than one day and pre-pay for each day. It makes life easier. You pick it up when you get there or whenever you need it, then drop it off when you leave. Another example of convenience is if you’re wanting to ride The Disney Railroad, the Choo-Choo-Train that takes you around the perimeter of the park and stops at a few locations. You can park the stroller, take the name tag that allows you to know it’s yours, then when you get off at a different stop, you get a new stroller and just put your name tag it in. This way, if you want to ride the train from the far end of the park to the entrance, you can and not worry about having to push your own stroller all the way back. You can’t put any strollers on the Disney Railroad. <—That’s the Choo-Choo-Train not the Monorail I’m talking about.
When we first entered the park, we got there early enough that Dan and Sneaks were able to head over to the rides we knew Sneaks wanted to go on. Before you get into the park, a part of the planning ahead is downloading the Disney Experience App onto your phone. It’s needed!
Once you do so, you set up your account with your name and the others in your group. Then, when you get your tickets, you can scan them and they’ll be attached to your profile. Now, using the app, you can reserve rides, called FastPass! And you can get reminders for parades and see which characters will be where and reserve dining times. The best, most useful, maybe second to having an actual interactive map of the park on the app, is the Wait Times!
I need this for everything in LIFE! Look at all the little times, 5 minutes, 10 minutes, 40 minutes…
Seven Dwarfs Mine Train is already an hour wait!! Space Mountain was already 120 minutes! That’s when reserving a FastPass is very helpful. You can reserve your time, say 11 a.m. and you have an hour window, so you can arrive anywhere from 11 a.m. to noon. Then after that window you can reserve another Fastpass for another ride (you can reserve all at once, but can’t overlap times). It is limited to only three(3) reservations per person, but you can reload for a fee. We didn’t do that, so I’m not sure how much it is. Say you reserved three rides, one at 11 a.m., one at 12:15 p.m., and another at 1:30 p.m., your Fastpass would be exhausted and you wouldn’t be allowed to reserved anymore for the day. You go to the ticket office and then you’ll get three more Fastpasses to use for the day. The tricky thing is though… even if you do have Fastpasses available, the rides might already be full. That happened to us. Trying to reserve Space Mountain didn’t happen. No Fastpasses were available for the day. Same with meeting Mickey at Town Hall. That’s how many people were already scheduled! WOW!
So being at the park at opening time helped! Dan and Sneaks were able to go right to Splash Mountain AND Big Thunder Railroad and walk through the line in about 10 minutes!! NO FASTPASS! It was great! Get there early, you can ride some rides without having to waste your three FastPasses!
As Dan and Sneaks were riding big kid rides, Kali and I walked around, watched a cute puppet show at The Hall of Presidents with Kermit the Frog.
Took more pics in front of Mickey’s Castle.
And thanks to the My Disney Experience App, I knew a concert was coming up in front of the Castle. So we headed that way and Kali got to see Mickey and Minnie and all their friends dancing and singing!!
I tried to get selfies with her but she didn’t want to look away!!
I asked a nice woman to take our pic and Kali still didn’t want to look toward the camera. That’s Mickey Mouse up there mom!!!
When Olaf came out, he stole the show! Everyone in the audience cheered so loudly!
Finally Kali looked at the camera! Kali and mommy at Disney World! (The guy’s shirt to the left in the photo, it says PRINCESS PROTECTION AGENCY.)
It got warm quick! It began a bit on the chilly side, especially on the boat, but then warm sunshine, with a high around 80! The kids needed sunscreen reapplied often. Even the little spots I missed I could see a bit of red! Make sure you have sunscreen with you all day! And water! I had a water bottle for both of them and we needed to refill numerous times. You can bring food into the park, so snacks like apples and pretzels were perfect for the kids! We did have lunch at a place across from the Pirates of the Caribbean ride… DELISH! I wrote about it, and other Disney meals, in another blog (well-fed) post!
Kali got to ride rides too! It’s a Small World was perfect. Nico, being older, was trying to figure out the mechanics of the ride. I said to him “so you don’t think it’s little kids from all over the world dancing and singing in harmony?” His response “No mom, it’s dolls they made move with electronics.”
We all also road the Pirates of Caribbean. It was a fun dark ride with the music and characters from the movie. The audio-animatronic pirate of Jack Sparrow really looked like him! Nico, again, being six years old said “that’s not real, it’s not really pirates or skeletons, it’s manikins they made move to the music.” He enjoyed both rides! He also went into the Haunted House and said it was a bit scary! So that’s impressive!
Then there’s the Parade! They have a few parades throughout the day; the last time we were here in 2014 we got to see the Disney Festival of Fantasy Parade which was incredible! This here is the Move It! Shake It! Dance & Play It! Street Party! Use your app to know the time or, like us, you could be walking through and there it is!!! And there’s Mickey!
So much fun! Nico’s such a good big brother. And even here, with Mickey coming around, he says “that’s people dressed up in a costume, it’s not really Mickey.” He then waves and says “Keep up the good work!!”
That was our Magic Kingdom Visit! We LOVED it! Because it was a last minute trip, we didn’t get to make plans to have a meal with Mickey and Friends, such as Breakfast with Mickey at Chef Mickey. It was all sold out and you have to plan wayyyy ahead to reserve a spot. Our last trip to Disney in 2014, Nico was three and a half, so he enjoyed it thoroughly. This time, we weren’t too bummed because of the kids’ age, but if you do have plans to go to Disney in the future, I do recommend Breakfast with Mickey at Chef Mickey. It’s a very cute and fun experience for the kids! Here are a few photos. It’s a guarantee photo opportunity with ALL Mickey’s Friends! The cute little girl with my son is my niece, she was two years old and knew who everyone was so it was a great age to see them!
Another thing we didn’t get to do, because all the FastPasses were taken up and the line was super long to wait, was meeting Mickey at Town Hall. Again, we did this with Nico in 2014 and it was GREAT! This Mickey TALKS!! And the kids get a one-on-one meeting with him!!! This one I HIGHLY recommend if you have a kid who loves Mickey!
Our trip in 2014 was in August! It was hot and we had to keep hydrated! In comparison, this year going in February, the weather was incredible! Perfect!
Lastly, because Kali is only one year old, we didn’t go back into the park at night to see the fireworks. She was sound asleep by then. We had done so in 2014 and it takes effort! They have the fireworks every single night, it’s a great sight to see but the park gets crowded at that time! Jam-packed crowded!
Good thing is we could see them from our resort balcony this year!!!
