Day 5 - Epcot!

Our final day.

We chose to go to Epcot on Friday. I was worried because it isn't really a park geared towards little ones, however, we all had a blast! 

We were there during the Food and Wine Festival which is an event that happens every fall. There are snack-sized samples from ALL OVER THE WORLD. It was FANTASTIC!! We saved a lot of our snack credits for this day and we didn't do a table service for lunch and instead ate (and drank) around the world. WORTH IT! 

We started the day with most of the adults riding Soarin' which is a REALLY neat ride in Epcot. I highly recommend it. I wasn't sure how Alice would handle it so she and I did some shopping instead. 


After that, we started in Canada and worked our way through the World Showcase! 

We had nothing on the schedule until much later so we all went our own way. 

Tami, Jon and Travis enjoyed all the drinks and food each country had to offer. They made it all the way to the other end! Mawmaw and Papa tasted their way through the countries as well. 

My Beloved, Alice, Nana, and I took a MUCH slower pace and we never made it past Norway. We stopped to meet Alice, which was a bit awkward again, however, we immediately got in line to meet Mary Poppins and it was completely different. Alice TALKED to her!! AND SMILED!!! Mary is JUST SO MAGICAL!! Seriously. This was enough for me. I got a smiling picture with Mary Poppins. We can go home now. 

We meandered through a few more countries, stopped to have a parasol painted for Alice in France, shopped in China, waited out the rain in Morocco. It was very low pressure and it was a perfect end. 

Before dinner, Alice and I had passes for the Frozen Ever After ride in Norway. It's the EXACT same ride as the Viking ride it used to be only now it's Frozen themed. And I forgot about the two drops until we were on the boat. Ooops. Alice handled it well and let me know that she would like to NEVER do that again. Sure thing, kid. My bad. 

For dinner we ate at Akerhus in Norway. It's a character meal (WITH ALL THE PRINCESSES!!) with traditional Norwegian food. I was worried about the menu, however, it was all delicious! 

AND she smiled with ALL OF THE PRINCESSES!!! Bless it be. She even hugged Cinderella. 


It was WONDERFUL. And COMPLETELY different from our first princess experiences. Again, a perfect way to end the week. 

After dinner, we rode Spaceship Earth and then headed home. We didn't stay for the night show. With it being a Friday, the show would have been later than normal and we were looking forward to going back to the resort. (I've seen the show before and it is worth staying for if you have the energy and the time.)

Meals: 
Lunch (snack credits): Eating through the countries was a lot of fun. Alice isn't an adventurous eater so she mainly ate snacks and a big pretzel. She did eat well at dinner. This park is all about the drinks and you can get traditional drinks in all the countries. With it being Wine and food Fest and the additional countries, the options were amazing. And it's fun! But expensive, so be prepared. 
Dinner (1 Table service): Akershus in Norway. This is a character meal, however, if you are on the Dining Plan it is only 1 Table Service credit which is nice! This is the princess meal I recommend. It didn't feel as rushed, it was an easier wait, and much 'cheaper'. The princesses are great and there's a Princess Parade. Uncle Travis enjoyed walking through the parade with Alice. Bless him too. 

It was a magical week. It was hot and crowded, however, I think we all had a fantastic time! And given some more time, we will all want to go back eventually!! ;)

Day 4 - Animal Kingdom!

This is a day we missed a lot of the actual park. We started out with lunch at Sanaa (1 Table Service) which is at the Animal Kingdom Lodge. The food is traditional African food and it was delicious! If you ever get a chance to eat here - do it and order the Bread Service for an appetizer. Seriously, you won't regret it.

After lunch, we headed to the park. This was another uncomfortably hot and crowded day. Animal Kingdom has added so much stuff since our last visit and can be a harder park to navigate. It is a lot of up and down in the landscape with a lot of walking in between. 

We started with meeting Mickey and Minnie!! This is the only place you can meet them together and they are wearing they're safari outfits. SO CUTE!! Minnie gave us all kisses. 

We did It's a Bug's Life in the Tree which I'm pretty sure Alice did not approve of. We headed to Pandora after that. Half of our party rode the flying ride while the other half rode the river. We were on the river ride and I thought it was super neat!! The things The Mouse does with technology! I found it to be impressive. After this, Alice fell asleep so we stalled. I had a Henna tattoo done!



I also found THE PERFECT Disney trading pin for Alice.

Because, yes. 

Stay weird, my child. 

We eventually woke Alice up for a later-in-the-day safari. We got to see several animals and she thought that was neat!! 

We did a quick service meal (I recommend Yak & Yeti) and then headed to the Rivers of Light show. This is a newer show and while it was neat, it wasn't anywhere near as impressive as the Magic Kingdom show. I recommend doing this show before you see that show. 

This was the 4th day of our trip and we were tired and basically over the schedule and just wanted to make it through. Travis did get to ride Everest which is totally worth it if you don't have a kid in tow! It's an awesome roller coaster. 

The day started late and ended early and we missed a lot but we had a good day - and this park serves alcohol!! (The only park that doesn't is Magic Kingdom - unless you eat at a few restaurants that do serve wine.) 

We closed out our trip with Epcot! 

Day 3 - Back to Magic Kingdom

This day started out rough. 

I didn't feel well. We were all tired. It was SOOOOOOO crowded and SOOOOOO hot. 

Most of our party had Fast Pass times for Space Mountain while Alice, Mawmaw, and I had times to meet Ariel in her grotto. 

**Pause for side story. When Alice gets nervous, she goes into Puppy Mode. (Tami and Travis thinks it looks more like a T-rex but it's a Puppy.) This means she pulls her hands up near her face like paws, hunches over a bit, and shakes her butt like she's wagging her tail. She does this ALL THE TIME. She does this almost every morning at school. When she sees family for the first time in 12 hours. When we run into people we know out in public. If ANYONE speaks to her out in public. If we encounter another child out in public. Default is always Puppy Mode.**

We get up to Ariel and her handler asks if we have an autograph book. Nope! I am not here to take up any more time than my child needs and she has ZERO desire to have anyone sign anything. And she doesn't really want to be spoken to. God bless the Princesses and their dedication to staying in character. My mother-in-law kind of eases her toward the tailed Princess but she is in full Puppy Mode and Princess Ariel is just a talking to her. Bless. Her. Heart. 

We get her to sit next her. This is how that looks....

Bless it be.

Ariel is trying her best to engage our overwhelmed child and asks, "Oh! Are you being a fish?"

And Alice barked at her.

Yep.

And again, bless Ariel, she went on talking about how she loves Prince Eric's dog without ever missing a beat. These Princesses should be making WAY MORE than whatever Santa gets paid. 

We made it through. And I have to be honest, I was discouraged and frustrated. Why can't she just smile like a 'normal' kid?! But she is normal, she's just Alice Normal. This is just the way she is, how she copes. It doesn't hurt anyone. And for now, it's fine. This was MY damage. Not hers. This was my expectations being greater than her feelings, and I'm sorry for that. She's 5 and apparently I can still have Bad Momma Moments. I can laugh at the picture.....now.

We had reservations in the castle for her birthday lunch where we got to meet ALL the Princesses. The adults enjoyed meeting them quite a bit!! Alice avoided eye contact like they were carrying Ebola. 

We skipped our afternoon Fast Pass with Belle and went back to the resort for a much needed break in the pool. It was JUST what we needed. No hustle or bustle or crowd. Just the family floating in the pool. It wasn't at all what I had on the schedule, and yet it was probably the most important part of the day.

We had plans to go back for the firework show. We got back early enough to ride the Buzz Lightyear ride and then we headed to Main Street for the Happily Ever After show.

IT WAS SO MAGICAL!! 

This is a stock photo from Disney.

Seriously. It was amazing!! If you are planning a trip, I would save this show for last because any show after this is of no comparison. So wonderful! 

After the show, my Beloved, Alice, myself, and my mom decided to stay for Extra Magic Hours. Alice didn't really have a say but she was totally game so there's that! She's totally a 'ride or die' kid. Staying up until the wee hours of the night has NEVER been a problem for our girl.

The temperature was nice and the crowds nonexistent. It turned out to be my most favorite part of the day. 

We rode several rides and caught the last showing of the Tiki Room. We got back to the room late and went straight to bed. A rough start but a perfect end to the start of year 5 with our growing girl. 

Rides Alice LOVED: The Tea Cups, the Dumbo ride, Aladdin's Magic Carpets, It's a Small World, Under the Sea, Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin, Mickey's PhilharMagic. 

And she FINALLY rode the carousel!! When she first went as a baby, we stood in line for over an hour. As soon as we put her on the horse - she screamed like a banshee and we immediately left the ride. 

Not this time!!! 

Our meal: We ate at Cinderella's Royal Table for lunch. They wouldn't accommodate a table for a party our size so we had to sit at separate tables next to each other. The food was decent and the Princesses were nice, however, I'm not sure this is one we will do again. It requires 2 table services if you are on the dining plan and is SUPER pricey if you are not. We did a different Princess dinner in Epcot and that is the one I would probably recommend. 

Tomorrow is Animal Kingdom day!!

Day 2 - Disney Studios!

We started the day a little later and with the adults at the Rock n' Roller Coaster which is one of the greatest rides at Disney. Seriously. The only problem with it is that it is WAY too short. But other than that - it's fantastic. 

While we were riding the big roller coaster, Uncle Travis and Alice were riding Toy Story Mania. This is a shooting ride where you ride in bucket type seats wearing 3D glasses and shoot at things. According to Travis, Alice liked it! We forgot to hand him her headphones so he rode with his hands over her ears so she could shoot. He is such a good Uncle. 

I mean, seriously, how cute are they?!

After our first rides, the boys had FP to the Tower of Terror. The girls opted out because sometimes you don't want to be dropped that close to breakfast.

For lunch, we had reservations at Mama Melrose's Ristorante Italiano. I chose this restaurant so we could get VIP seating tickets for the night show, Fantasmic! It's in a little corner in the Muppet section and it was delicious. The food was fantastic, the service was great!! This was a slow moving meal so we did miss an afternoon FP but we were able to catch the later showing with no problem. This is another restaurant that I would return to.

After the meal, the boys went to the Indiana Jones ride and the girls went to see Frozen Sing-a-long Celebration. It was SO CUTE!! We had such a fun time! The 'hosts' were funny, the songs were recognizable, and it even snowed at the end. It was worth the wait, I think Alice enjoyed it. And if she didn't, we did so who cares. ;) 

After this, we caught the Beauty and the Beast stage show while half of the party went to the Star Wars ride. Again, Alice loved it. It was a story she know, characters she knew and she enjoyed it. When Chip came on stage, "Yook, Mom! It's Chip!!" All the heart eyes! 

We did opt to go back to the resort for a bit while the others stayed to do some character meets. It wasn't a long break but it made a difference. 

We returned to the park for the Fantasmic! show. IT WAS WORTH IT! The show was amazing. I rate it as the #2 show we saw (the 1st being Happily Ever After at Magic Kingdom). I bought glow sticks and bracelets before we left so I wouldn't have to buy them at the park and they worked out great. She loved her little glow wand.

We received VIP seating with our lunch so we were able to sit in a much less crowded space and it didn't cost us anything. There are dark elements to the show but Alice handled them fine and the headphones helped with the noise. 

It was a long day but a good day. I did have a mild panic attack because I thought someone took Alice's headphones out of her stroller, but it turns out I left them on a column while I was adjusting the stroller and they were turned in to Lost and Found. Bless them. We were able to get them back before the night show. Hallelujah! 

We missed doing a lot at this park simply due to crowds and temperament and timing issues, however, Alice doesn't know we missed anything.

The food was FABULOUS, the rides were fun, and the shows were fantastic!

Day 3, we're back in Magic Kingdom for a very special birthday!

*Side story: She was acting silly and fell on our way to the bus and scratched her knee and knuckles. This is how she insisted on sleeping. She didn't want anything to touch her boo-boos. This child. 

Disney Planning

I've had some people ask about the planning of our trip so I thought I'd share some of my experience. I'll do a breakdown of our personal days in other posts because we had way too much fun. However, this is just some planning tips. 

Disclaimer: We have been talking about this trip since we took her the first time in 2013. We had this trip booked online a year before the trip was scheduled. You can book a trip 499 days out, however, you can't make dinner reservations until the 180 day out mark and Fast Passes at the 60 (I think) day out mark. I'm a crazy person and I had reminders on my phone. The earlier you book, the more time you have to pay it off.

We were a group of 9 and I did 100% of the planning up until the 180 day out mark when I was unable to add days to a reservation and I struggled to get the dining reservations I wanted. I was overwhelmed and discouraged and I gave it all to a Disney Travel Agent. She rebooked things and took over the planning. I still made some dining changes because I'm a control freak but everything else she handled. I didn't have to get up at 6am to schedule Fast Passes. When I wanted something changed - she changed it. She handled the stroller rental, when we decided to fly last minute she called to add our Magical Express information, and when we were done and my prepaid Memory Maker wasn't working, she called IT and had it fixed. And she cost me nothing. If you are new to Disney and feel overwhelmed with the amount of planning and sorting and such - hire a Disney travel agent. If you are going in a large group - hire a Disney travel agent. If you have been a million times - you probably aren't reading this. ;) I am very thankful for Chrissy with Magically Ever After Travel. 

My top two recommendations on booking a trip: Stay in a Disney resort and pay for a meal plan.

Resorts: Staying at a Disney resort means you have transportation from the resort to all of the parks every day. If you fly in, it also means you have a ride from the airport to the resort and back again at the end of your stay. It's BRILLIANT. When you shop in the parks, you can have things sent back to your resort. And when you stay on site, you also get to stay in the park for Extra Magic Hours. For example, on Wednesday of our trip we were in Magic Kingdom which closes at 9pm. However, it was an Extra Magic Hour night which meant we could stay in the park and ride rides for an extra 2 hours. It was wonderful. It was much cooler and MUCH less crowded. We got to ride several things with Alice without having to stand in line. It was probably my most favorite part of the trip.

I would also recommend researching the resorts you want to stay at. If you can budget it, I would recommend a Moderate or a Deluxe resort. The service is just amazing. For this trip, we stayed at Art of Animation which is a Value/Moderate option that offers family style rooms for larger groups. This is a great option for families with lots of kids. We chose this resort because it is heavily Disney themed. We stayed in the Little Mermaid standard rooms and we were surrounded by Little Mermaid things. Alice LOVED it. We walked through The Lion King area every day. If you have a kid that loves Cars, Finding Nemo, The Lion King or The Little Mermaid - this is your place. If it's not a huge deal - stay someplace else. Because it is geared toward families - it always seemed packed. The pool by our section, which is the farthest from everything and required a lot of walking, was never too crowded and we actually went swimming twice! I've gone to Disney 5 times and this is the first time I've stepped into a pool. It was so wonderfully refreshing. 

Dining Plan: Disney offers several dining plan options to those staying on site. You must be staying in a Disney resort to be eligible for the Dining Plan. We went with the mid range one which meant we each had 2 snacks (this is anything from a bottle of water to a small container of fried rice), 1 quick service meal (this is grab and go counter service) and 1 table service (sit down meal) a day. That's a lot of food. Being on the meal plan means you don't worry too much about what stuff costs and you are more likely to try some of the FABULOUS table service options because price isn't a problem. When you look at the cost of a meal, which will be anything from $80 - 150 per person, it's nice to know it's already paid for. When you are paying out of pocket, choosing the cheapest thing on the menu might be priority. However, with the meal plan, the steak is the same price as the chicken. 

For this trip, I wanted unique dining experiences. I spent weeks on the website looking over menus and trying to decide where to eat. Our table service meals were fantastic. I'll go into more detail in the day breakdowns.  

Extra Tips

Stroller rental: Last time we traveled to Disney, we brought our own stroller. She has grown out of that stroller and we didn't want to travel with it. I don't like the Disney strollers. They are hard plastic with limited storage and I knew she wouldn't nap in it. There are companies that rent strollers and that's what we did. Our travel agent uses Kingdom Strollers and they were great. They dropped the stroller off at the resort and picked it back up after we left. It cost us $65 for the week. We ended up with a very expensive jogging stroller that Alice had zero issue with napping in. She could easily get in and out and it was the smartest money we spent on the trip. It was a bit bulky on bus rides. If you are going alone with a kid, it might be too much to handle. We were able to manage because there were so many of us and my Beloved always had stroller duty. But if it's just one adult and a tired kid, renting from Disney might be the best option. Their strollers get turned into the park each night before you leave.

Fast Passes: This process is overwhelming. And it was totally worth handing over to our agent. The one thing I would change is the timing of some. We missed a few Fast Pass times because our table services ran longer than we planned. If you plan a lunch table service - don't plan a fast pass until at least 3 hours after. And you will need Fast Passes. Some rides have crazy long lines. 

Pre Buy the Memory Maker: Disney has photographers EVERYWHERE. They snap your picture, scan your band (if you are staying on site) and the picture goes into your Photo Pass. When you buy the Memory Maker, all of those photos are yours. You can download them as much as you want and you own them. If you don't buy it, you will have to pay for each individual picture you want to buy. This is lame. 

I had detailed schedules because I'm a nut and I also provided everyone with pocket sized, laminated versions with our timed events (meals, fast passes) for each day along with the park hours and our groups contact numbers. While we had a lot planned together, I scheduled free time because that is a lot of togetherness.

Pack what you know your kid needs: I packed everything I could think of. I packed bath toys for a little bit of norm in the room. I packed bedtime stories because maintaining some bit of routine makes a HUGE difference. Alice HATES loud noises - I made sure to have her headphones. These made all the difference in her enjoyment level of almost everything we did. She is also not a fan of hand dyers. I packed Ziploc bags with dry rags to use, just in case. The restrooms are all equipped with paper towels so that wasn't necessary, however, we ended up using them for sweat because everything was near or on the surface of the sun. I packed the only princess dress she will wear just in case she saw another little girl in one and wanted to wear one. This did not happen but had I left it at home - it would have. 

I also focused on things I thought she would like. It's the first time traveling with a kid in mind and I had to refocus. Usually we're all about the rides, however, I knew she wouldn't be a huge fan of those so I focused more on the shows. She LOVED the shows. And if we got to something and she said she didn't want to - we didn't make her. 

Notes for next time: We will not travel in such a large group. It makes things logistically more complicated.  

We were there for 7 days and had park tickets for 5. I'm not sure we will go for that long again and if we do, I will schedule a day without park tickets. A break would have been nice. We did split the day and return to the resort a few afternoons which helped a lot. And other days, Alice napped in her stroller which was good for her. But by the end of the week of constantly going, we were all spent.

While we were the for a long time, there is a TON of stuff we missed simply because of the crowd and time restraints. 

We managed to go during an extremely hot and uncomfortably crowded time of year. When we return, it will probably be during the fall or winter and we will have to write a nice note to Alice's teachers about why she is missing school. 

Had it just been the three of us, I'm not sure I would have used a travel agent, however, knowing what I know now, I might call her the next time we plan a trip to Disney because she made it that easy.

Next up is Day 1!!

Until next time.....