1st family WDW trip EVER! June 2018

[VandVsmama]

We are Disneyland veterans and live in Arizona...the land of the searing hot desert, where rain is a major event and people get out of their cars to look at how there's actually water in the local rivers.

Well, DH was informed earlier today that he's going to be attending a big work conference at the Orange County convention center in Orlando in June! And of course now we are planning our first ever family vacation to WDW!

I've dreamed of doing a trip like this and didn't think that it would ever happen. But DH's airfare, hotel, and car rental will be covered by his employer because of the conference. And the cost of his breakfasts and dinners will be covered, too. Here are our cast of characters for this trip:

• DH - 45
• me - 44
• ODD - 11 (will almost be 12 on this trip)
• YDD - 10 (will have just turned 10 a week before the vacation)

Here's what I know so far:

1. DH will most definitely fly out separate from me & the kids.
2. We'll be staying at an off site hotel for most of the time...convention hotel, none of which are on site WDW hotels.
3. We are going to extend our stay by an extra 2 days after the convention ends.
4. DH's rental car will not include a provision for me to be able to drive it, so if I need wheels, I'll need my own rental car. OR I'll need transportation to/from WDW each day.
5. Not sure how many days' worth of park tickets DH will get.
6. Not sure whether the convention includes an option for purchasing convention tickets at a discounted rate. DH is going to check.

So from reading stuff on the DIS for many years, I know that we are probably behind the 8 ball on a fair amount of planning. There are 4 "must do's" for me, personally, on this trip:

1. have dinner at the Hoop Dee Doo Review
2. take family pictures in front of the castle
3. see either fireworks at Magic Kingdom or Illuminations at Epcot with all 4 of us.
4. spend 1 night in the Contemporary Resort. I was 5 years old on my first and only trip to the Magic Kingdom back in 1978 (so this was before Epcot was even there). We camped in a nearby campground and on 1 of the days, we took the monorail to the Contemporary Resort. I remember my mom saying, "Isn't this hotel amazing? Some day, maybe we'll be able to afford to stay here. Some day, I really want to spend the night here." She passed away a few years ago before we were ever able to do that.

In my head, I have 2 possible itineraries:

Option #1:

• Day 1 (Sat 6/9) - DH flies to Orlando. Kids & I fly to Orlando as well.
• Day 2 (Sun 6/10) - day 1 of the convention. DH goes to convention. Kids & I go to a WDW park in the morning, take break at hotel in the afternoon. We all have dinner at Hoop Dee Doo Review in the evening. And yes, I know that dining reservations have already been underway for about 3 months now!
• Day 3 (Mon 6/11) - day 2 of convention. DH probably done ~ 4-5pm. Kids & I spend morning at a WDW park, back to the hotel to rest, nap, swim. Then kids & I go back to the park for evening entertainment. Not sure if DH will join us. Part of this convention involves him taking a certification test, so he would benefit from having wife & kids out of his hair 1 or 2 evenings.
• Day 4 (Tues 6/12) - day off from the parks. Maybe sleep in. Or maybe kids & I will do an organized tour of Cape Canaveral. I've always wanted to see that. Meet up w/DH for dinner. Any evening is an option for the Hoop Dee Doo dinner.
• Day 5 (Wed 6/13) - DH is at the convention all day, kids and I go to a WDW park in the morning, hotel in the afternoon, head back w/DH in the early evening for dinner and rides.
• Day 6 (Thurs 6/14) - last day of the convention. DH said the convention should be done by 3pm on this day. So he'll definitely go w/us to a park in the late afternoon/evening.
• Day 7 (Fri 6/15) - We check out of the convention hotel in the a.m. Then drive to the Contemporary Resort and check in there. Go straight to a park for the rest of the day. This would be a good evening for us to watch fireworks at Magic Kingdom or see Illuminations at Epcot, I think. Whichever park we go to, we'll stay until closing.
• Day 8 (Sat 6/16) - check out of Contemporary Resort. Sad! Head to the airport and fly home.
• Sun 6/17 - Father's Day and DH's birthday. Recuperate from the trip!

DH has also mentioned staying an extra 2 days beyond that and flying home on Monday instead of Sat. I think he likes the idea of spending his actual birthday inside WDW.

Option #2:

• day 1 (Sun 6/10) - we all fly to Orlando. DH heads to the convention. Kids & I swim at the hotel. We maybe have dinner at Disney Springs. I'm reluctant to make ADRs on our arrival day in case there are flight delays.
• Day 2 (Mon 6/11) - Day 2 of convention. Kids & I have our first park day. At a park for rope drop, leave shortly after lunch time. Rest at hotel. Head back to park in the evening
• Day 3 (Tues 6/12) - Day 3 of convention. 2nd park day for kids & I. Same routine as the day before with kids & I heading back to a park in the evening while DH studies for his certification test.
• Day 4 (Wed 6/13) - Day 4 of convention. Day off for kids & I from the WDW parks. Maybe go to Cape Canaveral on this day. Dinner w/DH.
• Day 5 (Th 6/14) - last day of convention. Same routine as Tues except DH will come with us back to the park earlier than he might have on prior days.
• Day 6 (Fri 6/15) - We check out of convention hotel. Check into Contemporary Resort for probably 2 nights instead of 1. Or stay at a budget resort for Fri night & do Contemporary Resort on our last night (Sat night). The 4 of us spend most of the day at the park. But realistically, given the humidity and the time of year, I think that we'll start to melt by about 1-2 pm, so a break will be necessary.
• Day 7 (Sat 6/16) - Contemporary Resort night #2. Magic Kingdom probably today. Hoop Dee Doo Review for dinner would be a fun way to end the day, I think.
• Day 8 (Sun 6/17) - maybe if we get flights that leave later in the day, we can spend the morning at a park. Not sure, though. it'll depend on how everything works out logistically.

We're also thinking of flying back on Monday 6/18. Of course, all of this will be dependent on me getting that whole week off of work. Yet another option is for me to work remotely at the hotel and we do late afternoon through the rest of the evening at the parks instead.

What we don't care about:

• character meet & greets - We're going to Disneyland for 2 days later this month with my sister to experience DCA's Food & Wine Festival and we're going to do character M&G's there. The only exception to this would be to meet Mickey in Town Square if Mickey still talks there.
• Space Mtn
• Rock n Roller Coaster
• BTMRR (we like to refer to this as Fast Choo Choo)
• Test Track
• eating anything in that Beauty & the Beast themed restaurant in Fantasyland
• Soarin'
• Buzz Lightyear
• Primeval Whirl
• It's tough to be a bug
• the Frozen sing along show at Hollywood Studios. We did that a couple of years ago at DCA and it was fun, but my kids are no longer into Frozen enough to warrant going to this.

 

[VandVsmama]

Dining Plans:
Our tentative plan is for DH to get a convention hotel reservation which includes free breakfast. There are a few decent options for this on the list of convention hotels that are also within his company's required price range. This will save us some $$ for the kids & I in terms of breakfast each day.

On prior trips to Disneyland, we've really enjoyed using Extra Magic Hour at Disneyland, getting there for EMH rope drop, going on rides all morning, and then doing a late character breakfast reservation (usually around 10:30 am) at the Plaza Inn. in those cases, EMH was often 7-8 am, so by the time 10:30 am came around, we'd had 3.5 good hours of rides, characters, and other fun.

However, I noticed on wdwprepschool.com that all of the parks regular opening is at 9:00 am. So that gets you only 1.5 hours of park time before you end up with a 10:30 am breakfast reservation. So I think I'll pass on that.

Our #1 must do is the Hoop Dee Doo Review.
We're not going to be using the Disney Dining Plan at all.
I've heard good reviews of Tusker House so if we DO end up doing a character meal at all, it might be there, but I don't think that my picky YDD would go for much of the lunch/dinner menu there. If we did a character meal here, it would have to be for breakfast.

I've heard negative reviews of all meals at Chef Mickey's at the Contemporary, so we are going to skip eating there.

 

[VandVsmama]

So I've been looking at the park hours and recommended parks on www.wdwprepschool.com for our vacation week and this is what they recommended:




Green = recommended park(s) to go to
Blue = meh, just ok to go to this park on this day
Red = stay away!

Then from somewhere here on DIS Boards, I saw a link to Kenny the Pirate's WDW planning website, so I went there and he had a slightly different take on things:



Based on what the possible flights are currently looking like, I strongly suspect that the kids & I will be arriving Saturday evening/Saturday night, so going to MK or AK on Sunday is a possibility.

Originally, I was thinking that the kids & I would go to Kennedy Space Center on Wed, but based on the above, perhaps going there on Tuesday would be better? If we do arrive on Sat 6/9, then a possible itinerary would be something like this:

• Sat 6/9 - fly PHX --> MCO. Check into hotel.
• Sun 6/10 - maybe do MK on this day?
• Mon 6/11 - Epcot day 1
• Tues 6/12 - day off. Sleep in a bit. Go to Kennedy Space Center. Plan on returning by 3 pm. Dinner w/DH near the hotel. Everybody to bed early.
• Wed 6/13 - AK
• Thurs 6/14 - MK day 2. This is the last day of DH's conference, so he'll join us ~ 3 pm.
• Fri 6/15 - Epcot day 2. DH joins us all day on this day. On Fri, we'd check into the Contemporary Resort.
• Sat 6/16 - MK day 3 (so kids & I would need 6-day tickets). This would be DH's 3rd park day. Right now, Southwest Airlines has decent flights leaving in the evening, so we could spend the morning there.

Another option is we not do a park day in the morning of departure day. Instead, we could sleep in, do a character breakfast at 1 of the resorts, maybe let the kids swim some more before we have to leave for the airport.

If we fly in on Sun 6/10, then a possible rough itinerary could be this:
- Sun 6/10 - fly PHX --> MCO. Check into hotel.
- Mon 6/11 - Epcot day 1
- Tues 6/12 - AK
- Wed 6/13 - day off. Kennedy Space Center today. This would be a good day to go to Hoop Dee Doo for dinner.
- Th 6/14 - MK day 1. DH w/us today starting ~ 3 pm.
- Fri 6/15 - Epcot day 2. DH w/us all day today. Check out of convention hotel & check into Contemporary Resort.
- Sat 6/16 - check out day & departure day. Hit up MK in the a.m. today before we have to leave for the airport.

I know from listening to the DIS Unplugged podcasts that Disney has ME pick up on site guests 3 hr prior to their flight departure, so I'm going to plan on using that rule of thumb for when we leave the Contemporary to get to the Orlando airport.

 

[jchurch0409]

Joining in!

 

[VandVsmama]

Joining in!

Welcome!

 

[DizneyMommy]

We are DL veterans too (AP since 1996!) and just moved from Orange County (the CA one ;-) to Arizona last year. We are going to WDW this June too (though not for the first time) I’ve got my plan hashed out like 90% but I’m following along with yours too! We actually arrive on the 15th, we are doing a Friday afternoon flight out of PHX, but the flight options really kind of stunk for what we were aiming for.

 

[VandVsmama]

We have our airplane tickets and the convention hotel booked! Thankfully, DH & I were able to coordinate the airline tickets such that going TO Orlando and coming back, we are on the same flights together all 4 of us. We really wanted to do a direct flight PHX à MCO, but that was too cost prohibitive for me & the kids. Here’s what the flight itinerary looks like:

Sat 6/9 – Departure Day:
Southwest Airlines flight leaves PHX 11:10 am.
1 stop in Raleigh, then arrives in MCO (Orlando) at 9:00 pm local time.
** So I’ll need to pack food for the kids & I. And I think stop for dinner very soon after we exit the plane because it’ll be 6 pm according to our bodies (dinner time)!

Sat 6/16:
Southwest flight # 4195 - leaves MCO 7:40 pm, arrives Las Vegas 9:25 pm
Then a 1-hour lay over. It will be tight if we miss the flight because of a flight delay! Oh well. We’ll be on vacation. I’m not going to worry about it.

Southwest flight # 3259 - leaves Las Vegas 10:25 pm, arrives PHX 11:30 pm

The kids will be WIPED out. I predict that YDD will sleep on the plane. ODD will probably try to stay awake, but will sleep on the tail end of the flight to Las Vegas. Airfare for the kids and I came to $471.50 per person. This includes $15/person each way (there and back) to pay for the automated Southwest priority check in 24 hours before boarding. I’ve used this before with Southwest and have found it to be a very useful expenditure. It will ensure that the kids & I end up with seats together. Plus, we can save a seat for DH (whose employer won’t pay extra for that).

I probably could have found cheaper airfare if I had known earlier this year what our travel dates would be...or even that we were going at all!

TRANSPORTATION:
We’re going to pay for our own rental car. If we get a rental car through DH’s employer, then I can’t be added to it as a driver. Even though the hotel we’ll be staying in does have a shuttle to WDW daily, there are hardly any time slots on it and you have to sign up a day in advance and the shuttle does not run mid-day. So that wouldn't work for the kids and I since we'll be leaving the park each afternoon! Another negative of the hotel shuttle is that in some cases, you don’t get on site to WDW until 10 am. Nope, that’s not going to work for us!

I do predict that there will be some days in which the kids and I will want to get to the park about the same time that DH has to be at the convention center. On those days, DH will just use Lyft and his employer will pay for that.

LODGING:
DH booked the hotel late last night through work. We'll be staying Sat night through the following Friday morning at....
Homewood Suites Lake Buena Vista-Orlando
11428 Marbella Palm Ct in Orlando



The hotel includes a free hot breakfast daily Mon-Thurs and it looks like it includes waffles, which will make my kids happy. So this will save us upwards of $200 for 4 days of breakfasts (compared against purchasing counter service breakfast in the parks). We will need to figure out breakfasts for Sunday & Friday mornings.


DH is a Hilton rewards member, so he’ll be able to earn some Hilton points with this hotel stay! This hotel seems to have an adequate pool. No water slide, but that’s ok! It could be a simple rectangular pool and my kids would be happy.

So how far will it be to drive to WDW from this hotel?
According to Google Maps, it looks like this if you left the hotel tomorrow morning at 7:00 am:


Here's what it would be leaving at that same time tomorrow morning to get to Animal Kingdom:


And to drive to Epcot...3 different circuitous routes to get there! It looks like the I-4 option is the fastest.
I wonder if I-4 is a toll road?


Meals:
So what are we going to do for meals? I only have a rough plan right now.

• Sun a.m. – on our own for breakfast. Lunch in the parks. Not sure about dinner
• Monday – free breakfast at the hotel, kids & I lunch in parks (CS), DH has lunch @ the convention. Probably will end up doing dinner at the parks, too, unless DH can meet us for an early-ish (5-5:30 pm) dinner near the hotel.
• Tuesday – same as Monday
• Wed – same thing for breakfast. Kids & I eat lunch on the road while headed back from Cape Canaveral. Dinner hopefully at Hoop Dee Doo on this day. However, DH said last night that 1 of the evenings, there will likely be a vendor dinner event that he’ll have to go to. So I just don’t know when that will be and he won’t know until a day or 2 beforehand. L Maybe we should do the Hoop Dee Doo on Sunday evening? DH will be much more likely to be able to go with us in that case.

If we did it that way, then Wed evening would be really casual. I’d probably take the kids to a movie at Disney Springs or something like that and get to bed at a decent hour.

• Thurs – same thing as Monday except we all have dinner together in a park.
• Fri – on our own for breakfast. Lunch & dinner in a park.
• Sat – check out day. Breakfast at the WDW resort. I’m thinking of having us stay in a savannah view room at AKL instead of the Contemporary Resort. Since our flight doesn’t leave until the evening, the kids can enjoy the pool before we leave and DH can chill out and relax a bit.

So by us going with DH on this trip, it’s going to save us ~ $1700 in travel expenses for the whole cost of the trip (his airfare, hotel for 6 nights, his meals for 5 ½ days)! Ka-ching! I’m really pleased about this.

I think that our next main to do’s are going to be:
1. Book the 1-night on-site stay at a WDW resort. I’m now heavily leaning toward AKL instead of Contemporary Resort. Showed the kids pictures of both and they both really want AKL over Contemporary. Plus, I think the AKL pool is better than CR’s. Another option I was looking at was Wilderness Lodge. So I have some research to do still!

2. Reserve a rental car! We are USAA members, so I usually look there first. But we’re also Costco members, so I’ll check there for discounts. I don’t want to wait too long to reserve a rental car, though, in case prices go up too much the closer we get to our travel dates. If any of you guys have suggestions on finding rental car deals, let me know!

3. Buy park tickets. If our 1-night stay is Fri 6/15 – Sat 6/16, then I’ll need our park tickets purchased & linked to my MDE account by 4/14 so that I can be online 60 days prior on 4/16 to book FPs. That’s only a month away!

4. Then before 4/16 à Figure out FP ‘wants’ for each day. This means I have to nail down which parks we’re going to each day! Originally, I thought 2 days each for Epcot & MK and 1 day at AK, but now I’m second guessing that. Maybe we should do 2 days each at AK and MK and 1 day at Epcot? Or 3 days MK, 1 day Epcot, 1 day AK? Almost none of the TS restaurants at Epcot appeal to our food budget for this trip. Plus, YDD is a picky eater and I’m not interested right now in plunking down $15-$20 for an adult meal that she’ll hardly eat anything of (since she’ll be 10 on this trip, she’ll have grown out of the kids’ meal menus at TS restaurants at WDW).

 

[VandVsmama]

If we spend our last night at AKL, I've been thinking about the AKL lodge options for breakfast....

On this Disney trip, both kids will be over age 9, so no more paying the kids' meal rate at TS places! According to allears.net, there are 3 likely options for breakfast on site at the hotel:

Sanaa
I think this is QS (quick service) at breakfast? There are options here which would satisfy all 4 of us and nobody would leave hungry. Well, except maybe for DH. LOL.

Mara
Also appears to be QS for breakfast. Their menu has a side of bacon, which is a big plus because my kids are bacon fiends!

Boma
Looks like this is TS for breakfast and it's a buffet. So that's a plus because DH could load up and not be hungry 2 hours later. But on the downside of it, we're looking at plunking down $100 for breakfast before you even add tax or tip.

 

[VandVsmama]

Here's the current standard room rates at the 3 different Deluxe hotels I'm considering for our 1-night on site stay:

Animal Kingdom Lodge

• $578 for savannah view ($650 w/tax)
• $453 for pool view ($509 w/tax)
• $397 for standard view ($446 w/tax)

Wilderness Lodge

• $461 for courtyard view
• $433 for nature view
• $394 for standard view

Contemporary Resort

• $696 for Tower - Theme Park View ($786 w/tax)
  
• $636 for Tower - Bay Lake View

As much as I'd love to, I think that I'm going to eliminate CR from the list. I don't want to eat breakfast at Chef Mickey's with the rest of humanity. And the kids think that the pool looks boring. DH & I were totally prepared to plunk down $700+ for the 1 night since it's a bucket list thing. BUT when you add tax to that, the total comes to $786 for the one night! Eek! AKL after taxes is $136 less than that for a savannah view room.

I think the choice is obvious...we need to go with AKL savannah view room.

I've also thought about renting DVC points through David's Vacation Club Rentals. A lot of people on the DIS seem to have gone this route before and it's worked out well for them. If we did that, a studio savannah view room for the 1 night would be about $352! So that's more than half less than the CR theme park view room and almost half the price of a regular savannah view room booked through Disney. Same type of room at the DVC Rental Store would be about $396, but it looks like they have a more flexible rental policy and you can purchase an equivalent of trip insurance through them, but that brings the total to about $435.

To be honest, I'm not sure if I'm ready quite yet to deal with the added hassle of coordinating things with a DVC member and all that. I'd probably be ready to dive into that if we were staying there the whole time. But the details for this trip are already a little overwhelming as it is.

Hm...decisions!

 

[VandVsmama]

Ok you guys, thanks to all of the fabulous information on DIS Boards and other places online, I've been doing a ton ton TON of reading over these past few days since we learned that we're going to be going to WDW. WDW is way different than when I went to the MK for 2 days in the late 70s when I was 5. You're probably thinking, "No duh!"

As I mentioned in a previous post, we're going to be driving to the parks instead of using other forms of transportation. To put things into perspective, our family are Disneyland veterans since that resort is much closer to us (we live in Arizona). Our usual routine at DL is something like this:

• stay at an off site hotel on Harbor Blvd within walking distance (10 min or less walk).
• For an 8 am regular park opening and if we're not using our 1 Magic Morning entry (w/3 day or more tickets at DL, you get 1 Magic Morning entry at DL, which is on Tues, Thurs, or Sat), leave the hotel by 7:15-7:20 am. Walk the 10 min to the Esplanade (big area between DL & California Adventure). <5 min to get through security. Get in line at the turn stiles.
• ~ 7:40 am - DL/DCA gates open. Walk with purpose to the roped off area for the land you want to go to.

Based on what I've read about this process at WDW, we have been spoiled at the Disneyland resort! I'm so glad that I read about this now instead of discovering it when we got there and then lost an opportunity to walk onto Peter Pan or something like that!

From what I can tell, if you're a "rope drop" person like we are, then doing rope drop at MK wuold go something like this:

• I read on WDW Prep School that if you're driving to MK, you have to park at the TTC parking lot. And that you should factor in 30 min to get from the TTC to the MK main gate (whether you walk, take the monorail, or take a ferry).
• 8:00 am - MK gates open. Guests can start going through the turn stiles now. Then you can walk to the rope for whichever land you want to get to. Sounds like most guests head to 7DMT in Fantasyland.
• 9:00 am - Magic Kingdom regular park opening

So with a 20 min drive from the hotel to the TTC, what time should we leave the hotel if we want to do rope drop at MK? I saw a Youtube video where people from Touring Plans were demonstrating the difference in being at the front of the pack at rope drop vs getting to the MK main gate at 8:00 am (thus you are not even in the middle of the rope drop pack) and how that changes your wait time for 7DMT first thing in the morning. And in that video, they were waiting at the MK main gate at 7:30 am.

Hm...so that means that we'd need to be at the parking lot ~ 7:00 am? From what I read, it also sounds like the TTC parking lot opens ~ 2 hr before the parks open. Now I understand what everybody means when they say that it takes a long time to get places at WDW! That's ok, though. We're going to be on vacation. After spending a sweaty morning at a park, we will definitely be ready for a break back at our hotel. I think that my thought of returning at 5 pm is probably not realistic and we should plan on returning a little later than that and close the park each day (assuming a 10 pm park closing).

Now that I understsand those logistics, I'm also rethinking my plan of getting up early on our Cape Canaveral day and just doing the morning there. Nope, after 2 days in a row at WDW theme parks, the kids & I will be pooped! We will definitely need to sleep in, watch some TV, and rest.

This also confirms what we'll do on check out day...no theme park. We'll enjoy the WDW resort hotel instead! We will all need it, I think!

 

[LMA712014]

Sanaa is AMAZING for breakfast! We went last month and loved it (and will definitely be back)

 

[VandVsmama]

Sanaa is AMAZING for breakfast! We went last month and loved it (and will definitely be back)

That's great to hear! My DH is a big fan of big fancy breakfasts, so we may splurge a bit on this for our last morning at WDW.

You know what I am the MOST excited about going on?
the People Mover and going through the Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse

Seeing the Hall of Presidents and the Country Bear Jamboree would be close 2nds!

 

[DizneyMommy]

That's great to hear! My DH is a big fan of big fancy breakfasts, so we may splurge a bit on this for our last morning at WDW.

You know what I am the MOST excited about going on?
the People Mover and going through the Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse

Seeing the Hall of Presidents and the Country Bear Jamboree would be close 2nds!

Haha, I was dying to do CBJ when we went to WDW for the first time a few years ago since we don’t have it at DL anymore. Omg I could not stop laughing at how bad it is, it’s like the coolest thing ever when you’re a kid... my husband was not amused!

 

[VandVsmama]

Since we're going to be in Florida in June and hot weather goes without saying, we're going to bring some fans with us. I already have some of those Frogg Toggs cooling pads. We bought some a couple of years ago to use at summer swim meets for our kids. I found that between one of those and a fan and drinking water constantly, that helped stave off that icky feeling you get when you're starting to get overheated.

I know that everybody talks about using these mister fans. But we've tried those here in AZ and I've learned that once it reaches a certain humidity, misters don't really do much.

Well...and let's be honest with each other, shall we? LOL! I don't want to have to lug around 3 of these through the parks for 5 days.

Last summer, we spent a week at Disneyland and before our trip, I went to our local Cost Plus Imports and bought 3 fabric folding fans. You know, the kind that require a human to power it. Doesn't require a battery. Doesn't require a USB port. And you don't have to worry about running out of power. Of course, now I can't find them so I have to go purchase 3 more...well, ok, I really need 4 of them because if I just get 3, then DH will want to use 1 of them.

There's a Cost Plus not too far from where we live, so I'm going to get some from there. They don't cost that much. I think I paid $3-5 a year ago for them. I also found some on Amazon for ~ $2.50 each.

Here's the sort of thing I'm talking about...tech gadgets are great, but sometimes the old fashioned stuff works, too! At last year's work conference, DH brought home a few of those small fans that you plug into your phone's USB port. Well, it worked wonderfully. However, it drained the battery pretty darn fast.

 

[VandVsmama]

In a previous post, I mentioned this possible itinerary...

• Sat 6/9 - fly PHX --> MCO. Check into hotel.
• Sun 6/10 - maybe do MK on this day?
• Mon 6/11 - Epcot day 1
• Tues 6/12 - day off. Sleep in a bit. Go to Kennedy Space Center. Plan on returning by 3 pm. Dinner w/DH near the hotel. Everybody to bed early.
• Wed 6/13 - AK
• Thurs 6/14 - MK day 2. This is the last day of DH's conference, so he'll join us ~ 3 pm.
• Fri 6/15 - Epcot day 2. DH joins us all day on this day. On Fri, we'd check into the Contemporary Resort.
• Sat 6/16 - MK day 3 (so kids & I would need 6-day tickets). This would be DH's 3rd park day. Right now, Southwest Airlines has decent flights leaving in the evening, so we could spend the morning there.

Now that we have plane tickets & a flight itinerary nailed down, it's time to start nailing down what we'll do each day! I like this part of trip planning because it makes it feel more real! Like, "OMG, this is really going to happen!"

Sat 6/9:
Fly PHX --> MCO. Arrive in MCO 9 pm.
Get bags, pick up rental car, feed hangry children.
Check in at hotel.
Go to a grocery store or a Super Walmart for a few groceries. This will be helpful having a kitchenette for most of the week because my kids are always hungry again about 1-2 hours after dinner. It'll be nice to have some healthy snacks readily available.

Sun 6/10: MK 9 am - 10 pm
Magic Kingdom in the morning. Lunch at MK, then leave.
DH will join us for this because his check in at the convention is in the afternoon and it's only for about an hour for him to get his badge & pick up the convention swag.
Kids & I swim at the hotel while DH is doing the convention swag pick up.
Hopefully, dinner at Hoop Dee Doo at Ft Wilderness, then we will either spend the rest of the night at MK or call it an early night and head back to the hotel

Mon 6/11: Epcot 9 am - 9 pm.
1st full convention day for DH. He has classes during the day. I don't know yet what time he'll have to be at the Orange County Convention Center.
Kids & I will spend all morning at Epcot.
Lunch at Epcot, then leave.
Rest, swim at hotel.
Dinner w/DH if he doesn't have a vendor event to attend in the evening.
Then back to Epcot for the evening to maybe see Illuminations, but I'm not interested in a dining or dessert party package to get a FP for it.
Attraction "it would be nice to see this" list for Epcot:

• Frozen Ever After
• Spaceship Earth
• Turtle Talk - We've seen this at California Adventure before and enjoyed it.
• Joy & Sadness meet & greet

Ironically, not "must do's" are:

• Test Track - we're going to Disneyland in 2 weeks and plan on going on Radiator Springs Racers multiple times over the 2 days we'll be there. So if we miss Test Track, it'll be ok.
• Soarin' - same ride as at DL. Kids said OK to skip this if we can't get a FP or if waits are too long

Now this is where I'm getting stuck in our trip planning. Maybe you guys can tell me what you think?
Originally, I thought of doing 2 days at MK, 2 days at Epcot, and 1 day at AK. But knowing my DH and my kids, the more I think about it, I think that we should seriously consider doing 3 days at MK, 1 day at AK, and 1 day at Epcot. DH will only be doing 3 park days (and 2 of those aren't going to be full days anyway). And I know that we are not going to be doing all sorts of TS ADRs at the fancy restaurants at Epcot.

So I think we should 3 days at MK. We're going into this WDW trip with the expectation that there will be NO way we can do it all and that's ok. We want to focus on having a nice time and not turn it into a week-long marathon.

Last summer, we spent a week at Disneyland. I know that the conventional wisdom says "Oh, you can be all done at Disneyland & DCA in 3 days." And we've done 3-day visits before and had a wonderful time. But I assure you that even with a 5-day park hopper ticket at Disneyland/DCA, you still can't see everything!

But you know what was so great about that trip? We didn't feel rushed. It was relaxing. We had busy mornings. On the days that we did rope drop at Disneyland, we got on about 12 attractions by lunch time. And we walked at a normal pace. No speed walking or "walking with purpose!" We took breaks each afternoon at our hotel and then we'd spend part of the evening in the parks. I'm excited to see & experience WDW and see how awesome it is! I'm pretty certain that the WDW will bite some of us and we'll have to plan a return trip!

 

[VandVsmama]

Tues 6/12:
2nd full convention day for DH. He'll have classes again during the day. And we won't know until he's there what evenings the vendor dinners will be. At this conference, DH said that usually Tues or Wed night there is a customer appreciation event which involves a music concert by a headliner performer. Last year apparently it was Bruno Mars. But since the kids & I will be there w/him, DH is going to skip the customer appreciation event. This will definitely not be an ADR-focused trip.

So after "thinking out loud" in my previous post and after mulling this around in my head last night, I really think that on Tuesday the kids & I should go do.....

Magic Kingdom!

Yes, instead of a day off that day.
Instead of going to the Kennedy Space Center that day.

Why not do MK on Wed instead? Well, it looks like MK has EMH on Wed morning and we're not staying on site that day, so we won't be doing EMH. And it doesn't make sense to me to go to a park where you don't have EMH. We've done this method when we go to Disneyland and it works well there, too. If you don't have EMH privileges, you start your day at the park that does NOT have EMH.

In the case of Disneyland (in case anybody's interested), here's how it works:

1. EMH @ DCA (Disney's California Adventure) is on Sundays, Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.
2. EMH @ DCA is ONLY for on site hotel guests.
3. There are ONLY 3 on site hotels at the DLR (Disneyland Resort). As a result, if you DO have EMH privileges at the DLR, you should most definitely take advantage of them!
4. EMH @ DL is on Tues, Thurs, & Sat for on site hotel guests.
5. Off site guests who have 3-day or more tickets get 1 Magic Morning (MM) entry to DL on a Tues, Thurs, or Sat.
6. On the days in which DL regular park opening is at 8 am, EMH/MM is from 7-8 am. Hardly anybody is there for 7-8 am EMH. Seriously. It's amazing. During the 7-8 am EMH, we often go on 5-6 Fantasyland rides in that hour.

BUT if you DO NOT have EMH privileges, then you should TOTALLY NOT start your day at the park that DOES have EMH entry. So for DL, that would mean starting your rope drop day at DCA instead. And vice versa for the other days of the week.

So we're not going to MK on Wednesday.

Tuesday will be Magic Kingdom! We'll do a similar routine to the day before. Rides all morning. QS lunch at the park, then leave. Dinner w/DH off site and then go back to MK for the last 2-3 hr that it's open. Probably skip fireworks and go on rides instead during fireworks. We will try for fireworks on Sunday or Thursday. Or maybe we should do fireworks Sunday evening regardless and then if we miss it or it's cancelled, we'd have Thurs as an opportunity to see them.

Wait...my brain is in Disneyland mode...where fireworks are sometimes cancelled last minute because of Santa Ana winds. Do fireworks ever get cancelled at MK? Well, I suppose they might if there's a thunderstorm barreling through at that time. I have no idea. LOL! Lots to learn!

In our next episode...we'll talk about the plans for rides at MK!

 

[DLmama]

We took our first family trip to WDW last June and we go to DL pretty regularly, being from the Bay Area and it only being about a 5-6 hour drive. WDW is amazing!!! And so different from DL. We stayed at POR for 9 nights, with 8 day base tickets. My original goal was to have 2 days for each park, but after researching, plans changed to 3 MK days, 2 Epcot & AK days and 1 HS day. That 1 HS was a marathon day, but we really didn't need to add a 2nd day, although we did miss Fantasmic because we watched the Star Wars fireworks show instead.

I'm not sure we really needed the 2nd Epcot day, but it was nice to have. We only ended up spending about a day and a half there, but we were able to see everything we wanted to see. DS was 8 and he loved the Kidcot stations in all the countries in World Showcase. We got him a passport at one of the shops and he got stamps from all the countries and had each of the CMs write something in their language, so it makes for a cool souvenir. We loved Frozen Ever After!

We booked the dessert party for fireworks at MK because it was shortly after Happily Ever After debuted. There was a delay due to lightning in the area, so I was really worried they were going to cancel the fireworks because we're so used to it happening at DL. It was delayed for about 30 minutes and then it started pouring rain. And they started the show! That was my absolute favorite memory of that trip because I had never seen fireworks in a torrential downpour. LOL. Thankfully our plan was to leave after fireworks anyway, so we were only wet and miserable the length of the bus ride back to our resort. It took days for our shoes to dry out, but we were leaving the next day, so we just put them in plastic bags and then in the dryer when we got home.

As far as renting a car, I've found that Costco is usually the best. My favorite part about it is that you can re-book as often as you want to if you find a cheaper price. We went to Spring Training in AZ a couple years ago and I think I rebooked our rental car about 4 times because the price kept dropping. And you can do it up until you actually pick up the car. There are no penalties for cancelling either, so you can be completely flexible.

Sorry this ended up longer than I expected. Let me know if you have any questions and I'd be happy to answer them if I can.

 

[VandVsmama]

What attractions do we want to experience at Magic Kingdom?
There are so so many attractions at MK that it's a bit hard to nail this down! I mean, it's like you're starving and you haven't eaten all day and then you go to an all-you-can-eat buffet restaurant and you're in awe of the number of choices in front of you that you haven't even tried before.

I asked DH this morning what HIS MK priorities are. This is what he said:

• Pirates of the Caribbean
• Haunted Mansion

He's not a Space Mtn fan. He LOVES Star Tours, but it's the same as at DL and we'll have been on Star Tours a couple of times just 3 mo prior to this WDW trip. That's ok because we are all about experiencing the cool unique stuff at WDW! I kind of see it like ice cream. Ice cream tastes great and is a wonderful treat. We love our regular flavor of ice cream (Disneyland), but now we get to try out the mega buffet of ice cream (WDW)!

What's on MY list of MK possible to do's? Oh my goodness! SO MANY!

• People Mover - I want to ride this every day.
• Pirates of the Caribbean
• Haunted Mansion
• Carousel of Progress
• Peter Pan
• Hall of Presidents
• Philharmagic
• Enchanted tales w/Belle
• Little Mermaid
• take the train around the whole park a couple of times
• Country Bear Jamboree
• Monsters, Inc Laugh Floor
• Mad Tea Party
• it's a small world
• get some silhouettes done of my kids on Main Street

ODD & YDD have come up with their own list of "nice to have's" for our MK days:

• "Fast Choo Choo" - also known as BTMRR (compared to Heimlich's Chew Chew Train at DCA, which we call "Slow Choo Choo")
• Splash Mtn
• Pirates
• HM
• Peter Pan
• Indy Speedway
• and probably repeat Splash Mtn, Pirates, & HM as many times as possible

What we started doing on our Disneyland trips is we follow 1 rule of thumb that I read about on the Disneyland board....have everybody in your group pick THE #1 "thing" that they want to do on the trip. Try to make that happen on the 1st day. Go in with the expectation that EVERYTHING ELSE you do on the Disney vacation is icing on the cake. And if you can't do all of those #1 "things" on your 1st day, then that's ok because you'll be there for additional days, thus giving you more opportunities to ride that ride which broke down or see that character who you missed, etc. That's worked really well for us. It's made for happier children, happier DH, and happier wife on our trips! And it pretty much ensures that we want to go back again.

So what are OUR #1 attractions for this trip?
- me - Hall of Presidents
- DH - Pirates
- ODD - Splash Mtn
- YDD - go see animals at AK

 

[VandVsmama]

We took our first family trip to WDW last June and we go to DL pretty regularly, being from the Bay Area and it only being about a 5-6 hour drive. WDW is amazing!!! And so different from DL. We stayed at POR for 9 nights, with 8 day base tickets. My original goal was to have 2 days for each park, but after researching, plans changed to 3 MK days, 2 Epcot & AK days and 1 HS day. That 1 HS was a marathon day, but we really didn't need to add a 2nd day, although we did miss Fantasmic because we watched the Star Wars fireworks show instead.

I'm not sure we really needed the 2nd Epcot day, but it was nice to have. We only ended up spending about a day and a half there, but we were able to see everything we wanted to see. DS was 8 and he loved the Kidcot stations in all the countries in World Showcase. We got him a passport at one of the shops and he got stamps from all the countries and had each of the CMs write something in their language, so it makes for a cool souvenir. We loved Frozen Ever After!

We booked the dessert party for fireworks at MK because it was shortly after Happily Ever After debuted. There was a delay due to lightning in the area, so I was really worried they were going to cancel the fireworks because we're so used to it happening at DL. It was delayed for about 30 minutes and then it started pouring rain. And they started the show! That was my absolute favorite memory of that trip because I had never seen fireworks in a torrential downpour. LOL. Thankfully our plan was to leave after fireworks anyway, so we were only wet and miserable the length of the bus ride back to our resort. It took days for our shoes to dry out, but we were leaving the next day, so we just put them in plastic bags and then in the dryer when we got home.

As far as renting a car, I've found that Costco is usually the best. My favorite part about it is that you can re-book as often as you want to if you find a cheaper price. We went to Spring Training in AZ a couple years ago and I think I rebooked our rental car about 4 times because the price kept dropping. And you can do it up until you actually pick up the car. There are no penalties for cancelling either, so you can be completely flexible.

Sorry this ended up longer than I expected. Let me know if you have any questions and I'd be happy to answer them if I can.

Thanks for all of that info! It's super helpful!

 

[VandVsmama]

Alrighty, so we've talked about Tuesday and the general idea for that. Now let's talk about Wednesday! Wed will the 13th of June. Here's what the park hours & park recommendations looked like according to WDW Prep School & Kenny the Pirate's websites:

- MK - RUN AWAY! STAY AWAY AS FAR AS YOU CAN! EMH @ MK in the evening 10pm - 12am
- Epcot & AK - green. 9am-9pm for each
- HS - don't care because we're skipping HS entirely

The kids & I are going to sleep in. Ok, well, *I* am not going to sleep in because I'll have to drop DH off at the convention center in the morning. We won't have to leave the hotel to go find breakfast somewhere because there's a free hot breakfast buffet IN the hotel. Sweet! ODD & YDD will probably want to lay around and watch TV for part of the morning. In fact, I am CERTAIN of this since the prior 3 days in a row, we will have been up early for rope drop.

I REALLY REALLY REALLY want to take my kids to the Kennedy Space Center on this trip. But at the same time, I need to NOT make it another marathon touring day or else they won't survive Thurs & Fri. ROFL!

So I'm kind of torn on when to begin everything on this particular day. Advice I've read online says to get there when they open (which appears to be 9 am). And it takes ~ 1 hr to drive from our hotel to the space center, according to Google maps. Online reviews of what's available at the Space Center say that you should devote 7-8 hours there. But we're not going to do that. We'll do the 2.5 hour bus tour and see some of the exhibits, but my kids will burn out (not out of lack of interest, but out of a lack of energy) if we are there literally all day.

Therefore, I'm going to go into this with the same attitude we'll have about our WDW days: we can't & won't see it all. It's kind of like visiting Washington, DC. You literally don't have time in a week to see everything in the Smithsonian museums.

So....here's how I think Wed would probably go:

• ~ 10 am - leave the hotel. Load kids up with extra waffles in their bellies before we go. Pack some snacks in my purse + everybody brings a water bottle.
• ~ 11 am - get to the KSC.
• ~ 11 am - 3 pm - go on the bus tour, eat a light lunch there, see some of the exhibits
• ~ 3 pm - leave KSC
• ~ 4 pm - get back to hotel. Unwind. Force kids to actually lay down and veg out, but they will want to run off to the pool right away. DH will use Lyft or Uber to get back to the hotel if he's done before we are back from the KSC.
• Dinner - all dinner plans are up in the air each day. If DH has the evening off from the convention, we'll have dinner w/him.
• Then maybe go to a movie at Disney Springs if there's something family friendly. Otherwise, kids swim in the hotel pool and we are in bed, lights out at 9 pm.