There was a lot of crafting for this trip. You'll see us in matching/coordinating shirts everyday that I made with heat transfer vinyl and the Cricut Maker Brent got me for Christmas. You'll see our personalized magic bands (cheap crystals on the girls and nail polish to paint the faces on the boys) and each of our hats I made instead of wearing the headbands sold in the park. That saved us from face sunscreen concerns all day with the kids! Brent wore a Lion King themed hat, I chose Moana, Doodle chose Elsa/Frozen and Nugget had Sully ears from Monsters Inc.
Plus, Doodle and I had fancy Disney nails to kick off our vacation. Her Anna and Elsa (and my Minnie) are water slide decals I made with water slide decal paper from Amazon. That's not a great picture of her nails - they're ombre glitter.
We flew out on Friday afternoon and got to Orlando later than we would like. Plane landed around 830pm, then Orlando takes forever with baggage claim, and we waited about 20 minutes before the bus left the airport to the resorts and we were of course the last stop - they went to the Wilderness Lodge and Contemporary first. Lesson learned for next time!! We didn't have time to explore the resort or get our ducks in a row. Pre-check in at the Polynesian was convenient though - they texted us our room number and we went straight there, opened the door with our Magic Bands, and got the kids to bed around 1030pm!
Day 1
Family Shirt Theme: Baymax!
Our first park of the week was (strategically) Epcot! We knew that'd be a tough sell after the kids got a taste of Magic Kingdom. We walked from the Polynesian to the Travel and Ticket Center to board the monorail to Epcot and were the first in line for rope drop!
After a brief pre-rope-drop performance by the Jammitors we did the half-run shuffle to be literally the first ones on the Test Track, for which we did not have a fast pass! Doodle clearly was not sure about this ride until it was over. Big man in the front seat is blocking Nugget's face in the backseat. boooo
From the Test Track, we meandered around future world starting with Spaceship Earth, then on to Nemo, Turtle Talk with Crush which was adorable. The flower and garden festival was going on, so you'll see photos of character topiaries sprinkled in to our Epcot days.
Next we had our pictures taken with Baymax which was super fun. I was worried because he was our first character meet, and is obviously large and non-human and the kids have always been scared of big costumed fellas. They did great though! And Baymax was very appreciative of our shirts. The handler actually lined us up and made Baymax close his eyes to surprise him. The whole ordeal was really cute.
After Baymax, we used a fast pass on Soarin' (bypassing a 90 minute standby line - woohoo!) and Figment (bypassing a 50 minute standby line) and then made our way to the middle of the World Showcase by boat which dropped us off exactly where we were headed to meet provincial Belle. She was one of the best character meets as she went on and on talking with Doodle about books and libraries and was just really sweet.
Before leaving Epcot for the day we hit up a photographer for a necessary photo with the Epcot ball. He added a little Disney magic with Nugget. He told us to act surprised, but Doodle just looks unimpressed. lol
When we got back to the resort, we ordered a room service version of the O'hana Twilight Feast. We would have liked to dine at O'hana, but didn't make reservations. Luckily they will serve you the exact same feast in the room. It was a ton of food and delicious. We ordered 2 for the 4 of us and couldn't come close to finishing it! Other than that, we had a super late night getting into to Orlando and were the first in line for rope drop, and were up against daylight savings where we'd lose an hour of sleep Saturday night, so we made it an early night getting to bed!
Day 2
Family Shirt Theme: Cinderella, except Brent. There's just no masculine way to put him in Cinderella so he's wearing vintage Mickey. :) There aren't any closeups, so Doodle's says "Have Courage and Be Kind" in glittery script letters. Nugget has Jaq and Gus Gus working together to get the key for Cinderelly, and it says #Teamwork. Mine just had fairy godmother's wand. By far my least favorite shirts. They were supposed to be mint green but we had a vendor scam debacle. There's a whole facebook group dedicated to sharing stories of Wordans.com scams. We experienced the same. Hobby Lobby came through for us locally but had fewer colors to choose from.
On Sunday, we visited the Magic Kingdom! We planned to take the Monorail again but they were running way behind so we ended up on the Ferry. I always loved the ferry ride to the magic kingdom but it was pretty chilly!!
We were there prior to rope drop, but in the back of the cattle stampede. On our way into the park we noticed Town Square theater doors were open, so we were the first in line to meet Tinkerbelle! What luck! Brent got us Starbucks on Main Street while I waited the 10 minutes with the kids and it worked out perfectly. She was sassy as you would expect Tink to be. She presumed Doodle had frost powers like her sister Peri because of the snowflakes on her Elsa ears, then turned to Nugget and said "well what about you lost boy? What are your special powers?" He stood there silent and befuddled while Tink tapped her foot waiting impatiently. lol With some help we collectively decided he has sports powers and then hightailed it out of there.
After another stop for a basic requirement type photo in front of the castle, we headed to Tomorrowland where we drove cars at the speedway, rode the people mover, and Buzz Lightyear which was a hit. The astro orbiter, not such a hit. There may have been tears.
Then, unexpectedly we took advantage of bumping into Alice who was hanging out by the Teacups. While she isn't my favorite Disney character and I struggle to make it through the movie, she was one of my favorite character meets. She was 100% Alice from the way she waved hello and goodbye, to her almost spastic, curious little girl energy.
We had a few minutes to kill before going in to meet 4 princesses using back to back fast passes. Princess Fairytale hall is close to the castle, so that called for a family castle selfie :)
Rapunzel was very sweet! Unfortunately the photographer must have been transitioning or something because no flash. :( This was the best I could do to salvage a photo.
This photo doesn't do Tiana or her dress justice. It was enormous and she was so pretty. You can kind of tell how far Doodle is standing away from the base of her dress. lol
One of the kids Disney Jr favorites, Princess Elena of Avalor...
Cinderella left me underwhelmed. The kids were dressed in shirts in her honor and she made no fuss whatsoever. Boooooo.
After meeting all the princesses, we snacked on a Mickey pretzel as the move it shake it dance party was coming up Main Street. Kind of lame, but the kids were interested and we could see it from where we were resting. Then we headed through Liberty Square and on to the Haunted Mansion for Nugget. Doodle sat that one out. Then we walked through Frontierland to get to the train station for a ride around the park. On our way through frontierland some of the country bears, evidently on break from their jamboree, ambushed Brent and Nugget with their furry ears. That was a fun and unexpected interaction. :)
The train dropped us off at the front of the park on Main Street where the kids browsed the never-ending shop for their perfect souvenirs for almost an hour until we had to head over to Tony's for our lunch reservation at 1:20. We booked the parade package which gets you lunch at Tony's and then a VIP viewing area for the Festival of Fantasy parade at 3pm. We're not the "stake out a spot 3 hours in advance" type of family, so we were happy to pay for the ability to waltz up near parade start time and get a guaranteed good spot to watch. :)
However, even with a reservation we waited about 20 minutes for our table, and then unfortunately our food was severely delayed. Tables arriving way after us were in and wrapping up before our entrees arrived so we didn't even get to order the dessert that came with our package and took the last bites of the kids food to go to run across to our viewing area before the parade started. We didn't say anything, but the manager personally delivered the food and apologized and wrote us a paper fast pass for our next visit to the park since we were leaving right after the parade. I was afraid they'd block us from crossing the street at a certain point, but crisis averted. Turns out after we hustled across to our viewing area, we still had 15 minutes of silly time before the parade got to us.
The viewing area was perfect, and they had a Disney cast member laying the hammer down on anyone trying to get into the designated area without a wrist band. That probably sounds bad that I appreciated it, but when you pay an arm and a leg for special service, it's no fun seeing it given away for free. We were just off center of main street on the inner circle where the flagpole is so the parade made a circle around us. This was the view prior to the parade starting.
Brent got a little carried away with the panoramic mode on his phone - his steady hand is impressive, sure, but it distorts everything. lol :)
The Festival of Fantasy parade is sooooo good! I'm not a parade person, and I remember even the parade as a kid was kind of ho hum for me, but the floats are amazing. The Tangled float has swinging hammers that Flynn stands on, there's a fire-breathing dragon, and all the pretty princesses you can handle. Doodle was a little spooked by some of the "extra" characters on stilts and some of the menacing floats. So here's the deal with the photos. They're not good. To get good photos I'd need to be shooting the next float in order to get all of it in the frame of my phone, but I was busy engaging the characters immediately in front of us. If you aren't going to Disney anytime soon and want to experience the parade, I'm sure you can watch it on Youtube. :)
Belle and the Beast lead off the parade.
One of my best memories from the whole trip came shortly after as Anna and Elsa came by. Doodle was wearing Elsa-inspired ears all week, and Elsa noticed them immediately and started waving and miming and fussing over the ears as though she was honored. Then she tapped on Anna's shoulder to continue the fussing and Anna got in on it. I wish I had video, but these two photos are all I've got other than the memories. I was so busy amplifying the moment for Doodle and missed Elsa's original acknowledgement of her ears. I get choked up thinking of it and how Doodle looked so overwhelmed and star struck. Such a great moment.
I didn't do this float justice, but in the second photo you can kind of see Flynn swinging on that flying hammer.
Brent and I were fascinated with the dragon. The head moved up and down and then when I saw the jaws open I knew fire was coming! Doodle was hiding behind us. lol
The kids got a high "four" from one of the dwarfs.
Of course Mickey and Minnie and the other OG's close the parade!
After recovering from that bizarre experience which was somehow more off-putting than magical for me personally, we headed back to the Polynesian, ate at the quick service restaurant and had another early night in bed. We had early plans for the next morning as well as plans to be out late the next two nights so we were pacing ourselves (and the kids).
Day 3
Family Shirt Theme: Avatar!! These were my favorite shirts. One guy asked where he could buy our shirts and was sad to learn we made them. When people flippantly say "you could sell those online" they don't realize that sucks all the joy out of it for me.
Monday was the only rainy day, and it only rained lightly on and off until about 2pm. We were on the bus to Animal Kingdom at 610am and moving with the heard towards Pandora when they let everyone in for extra magic hours prior to 7am. The big attraction that got everyone out of bed early for the extra magic hour was the Flight of Passage which simulates riding a banshee. The line almost instantly got to 4 hours. Unless they're handing out hundred dollar bills, no ride is worth 4 hours. Sorry! However, we headed to the Na'vi River Journey and were on and off by 7am! It was really beautiful. When we were planning our trip, I'd hoped to try to get back to Animal Kingdom to walk around at night to see Pandora and the tree of life at night. However, at 7am it was still dark out and we got the extra bonus of seeing it all lit up! Our shirts glowed like crazy on the Na'vi River ride and all through Pandora. Sadly our family picture didn't turn out without flash, but love this one of the kids!
My pics of the Na'vi River Journey didn't do it justice so I'm sharing a few from BlogMickey.com
You meet this Shaman towards the end of the ride, and she's singing to Eywa. It's really beautiful.
Even though, or maybe because we were way ahead of schedule, our agenda got a bit messy from here. We'd intended to ride the safari next, but for whatever reason they were not opening that ride until 830 the day we were there. So we went on to the next ride, Kali river rapids, which was not open until 8am. Disney, if you're reading this, you need more than 2 rides to be open if you want us to get out of bed and be at the park at 630am for "extra magic!" So we were the first to ride the River Rapids. The kids were both a bit scared - it's a big raft for 8 people and there were several kids a few years older psyching each other out about a huge drop at the end that's really not a big deal but they were trying to scare each other and my kids were hearing it all. They ended up having fun, and the ponchos we had were perfect for the little bit of rain we got as well as the soaking ride!
By the time we got back to the safari, it became clear they didn't wait until 830 to open it as the 30 minute line was moving and people were already riding. SMH It moved fast and Nugget absolutely loved seeing all the animals. None of them were hiding or shy - we saw so much activity. Even saw some wilderbeasts chasing a giraffe off their turf which was amazing and beautiful to watch.
OMG why does he look 14 years old here?
Grown up Simba and Nala :)
After the safari we literally ran to get in to the 9am session of the live Lion King performance/show. It was REALLY good. Definitely make time for it if you're going to Animal Kingdom! That was all - 4 attractions and done by 930am heading back to the hotel. Brent had to carry Doodle as her wet crocks gave her a blister. Poor girl. (and poor Daddy) We had a quick lunch at Disney Springs and then had the kids in bed by 1pm to nap for our nighttime activities!
After naptime, I turned our hotel room into our own personal Bibbidy Bobbidy Boutique. I tried getting Doodle a reservation around the time we reserved our fast passes and had our days planned, but like dining reservations, that's just not how it works when you go to Disney nowadays. The only reservations I could get her were at like 10pm which didn't make sense to get dolled up and then go to bed. Plus, I wanted her to meet her favorites while looking and feeling her best. So, she had a beautiful Anna dress from Santa, and I made her some practical walking shoes with Anna-like details. Oh, made the choker as well. It's a pretty good replica for Anna's! For the final boutique touch though, I ordered some synthetic hair extensions from amazon in the color "linen" which was a pretty good match. At the roots Doodle's hair is much lighter but for Anna braids they worked perfectly. She looked absolutely perfect - recognizing I'm biased.
By the end of the night, her baby soft hair was no longer covering the extensions so this is what it looked like from the back. :)
We had fast pass reservations for the Frozen Ever After ride at 615pm, after which we'd head over to meet Anna and Elsa at their Somerhaus. The Norway area in the World Showcase looks just like you're stepping into Arendelle now and the Frozen Ever After ride was adorable! I may or may not have been the one belting "Let It Go" in the back row of our boat. The new technology they use for the characters on this type of ride is so cool. It's like the expressions are projected on to the shell of their face so it's full 3D animation.
And Doodle's big moment meeting her favorites was precious. Nugget decided to sit this one out but Anna still engaged with him a little about Kristoff. :) They both fussed over how she looked like Anna's little twin, and of course when dressed as a princess, all the cast members address her as such with a bow of the head. So sweet. I'm not posting the video, and Doodle didn't even realize it but her awe of Elsa made her fidget with the skirt on her dress to the point where she had it fully hiked up to her waist and you could only see her leggings and petticoat. LOL
After that epic encounter which made Doodle's trip, we had dinner reservations at La Hacienda de San Miguel, the nice Mexican restaurant on the water with huge windows to view the nighttime Illuminations show at Epcot. We requested and got a window table to watch the show. While the food, service and view were perfect, the show itself was "meh" at best. Plus, the park closes basically when the nighttime show starts, so at the conclusion, every single person inside Epcot has to make their way out to either the bus or monorail. I'm pretty sure we were at the end of that Monorail line as it's one of the longest waits we had all week and made for a very late night. Good thing we had good naps!!
Day 4:
Family Shirt Theme: Frozen!
My shirt: "We finish each other's"
Brent's shirt: "Sandwiches!" I love how random his looks when I'm not standing next to him! Mine at least has a picture of a sandwich.
Nugget: "I'm a bit of a fixer upper"
Doodle: "Wait, what?"
We headed to Hollywood Studios for part 1 of Day 4, and I wasn't expecting much and thought we may not make it through all the stage shows on the agenda figuring the kids might be bored after a couple. But this turned out to be our best day overall! We literally stampeded over to the Toy Story Mania line and got on after about 10 minutes of a steadily moving line. As we got to the line we panicked because the app showed a 45 minute wait almost instantly and we didn't know how far in front or behind we were at that point. This is a game/ride in one with 3D glasses where you shoot at a screen and rack up points. It's adorable and super fun. Luckily I landed a fast pass for the afternoon so we got to ride it twice and our early morning effort was totally worth it!!
When we got off this ride we crossed the street to meet Buzz and Woody, but unfortunately Woody had to step out to "check on bullseye." We ended up just getting Buzz, but Nugget still enjoyed himself.
From there we fast passed the Voyage of the Little Mermaid, which is a bit dated, but the kids were fascinated by the lasers and blacklight puppets. :)
Stepping out of that theater we landed in Disney Jr. land and got to meet Sofia and Doc McStuffins! Both were fantastic meet and greets.
From there we hustled over to fast pass the Frozen Singalong which was really well done! I thoroughly enjoyed myself. I tried getting a good photo, but my phone couldn't capture all the sudsy snow falling from the sky at the end of the show that Elsa treated us to. Then of course we had to meet Olaf and get a warm hug. Olaf's meet and greet area smells like a beach. It's amazing how Disney pipes in scents to set the scene.
Next up was the Beauty and the Beast stage show. I got seats with the kids and Brent brought us lunch which worked out perfectly! It got pretty chilly in the shade of the outdoor amphitheater, but the show was cute with beautiful costumes.
We got this taken on our way back to ride Toy Story mania for the second time before heading back to the hotel for the day to rest up for our part 2 festivities!!
After naps, we headed over to the Magic Kingdom! I love these pics - the anticipation riding the ferry is palpable and I still feel it as an adult but so fun to see the kiddos experience it.
Look at that tiiiiiny castle!
This was my biggest risk of the week. I booked another VIP viewing experience, this time for the "Happily Ever After" Fireworks and light show. The anxiety wasn't about the viewing area, but rather the package. We treated the kids to a dessert buffet for dinner, starting at 730pm which is their normal bedtime at home. lol These kids don't eat a lot of sugar, so when they do, they usually hit the roof. You can get a glimpse of that here:
ROUND 1
and so it begins... i couldn't even take a photo without a blur!
After eating our weight in chocolate, they led us over to another private fenced "wristband-only" area adjacent to Main Street. All around us outside the fence people were sardines in a can. So glad we splurged on this experience so we didn't have to stake out a spot or deal with the crowds. This was our pre-show view.
We brought the sound dampening headphones for the kids who are pretty sensitive to loud noise. I don't know how Disney does it, but I barely heard the pop of the fireworks. The kids were still able to hear the music which makes the show come to life.
Photos and videos will not do this show justice. It's so beautiful and moving, and I had my other favorite moment of the trip. Nugget, who had proven to be very difficult to please thus far in our trip, turned to me during the show and said "Mumma, I love animals, my teddy, and this fireworks show!" I will never ever ever ever forget it.
The castle is used as a backdrop for light projections which totally change the appearance and takes on different Disney movie themes and scenes. It's hard to describe, and is simply something you need to experience with a good viewing spot from inside the magic kingdom. Gone are the days of enjoying the fireworks from afar.
After the show adrenaline and chocolate were still coursing through our veins, so rather than exit the park like half the crowd, we went against the grain and strolled around Fantasy Land. There was no line at Dumbo so we went ahead and rode it, which was really pretty at night!
After a little stroll and riding Dumbo we decided the crowds died down enough to head back to the Polynesian. This time we took the resort boat shuttle and walked right on rather than waiting with the masses for a ferry or monorail. So nice to have options staying within the Magic Kingdom resorts!!
Day 5:
Family Shirt Theme: Little Mermaid! The grownups had bar-style shirts with Sebastian. It says "The Human World...It's A Mess." And the kids shirts had a fork and said "Dinglehopper." Tink joined us for this photo!
This time, we made it all the way to the castle for Rope Drop and got to see the morning welcome show!
From there we headed back to FantasyLand where we rode the teacups, and then the kids decided they wanted to ride Dumbo again. This time they had strategized that they wanted to ride together. Check out the hand holding -they really do love each other as long as you don't make them admit it! Sadly the circus ringleader said they were too young to ride alone.
We rode the new Little Mermaid ride which was cute, and then got meet Ariel who was running late in typical Ariel fashion. :) There was no wait this early in the morning though which was great. She engaged really well with the kids and appreciated our shirts. They obviously talked about dinglehoppers...
but my favorite photo is when she turns to play with Doodle's hair, still talking about dinglehoppers, Nugget sneaks a peak at her fin. I think this pic is so cute!! I blew it up big so you can see --Look at his eyes. In a few years his wandering eyes may not be so innocent. lol
At this point we were way ahead of schedule, so we headed back to Tomorrowland to cash in on our bonus fast pass for Buzz Lightyear (from the slow restaurant service at Tony's a few days prior) but the Buzz ride was down for the count. Ride operators were saying it didn't look good as the techies couldn't figure out what was wrong with it. We killed more time riding the people mover again, and even the Carousel of Progress *snooze* and still Buzz wasn't running yet. I asked the ride operator what to do with our paper fast pass for that ride since it was our last day at the MK. He wrote us another fast pass to use on any ride that day just in case Buzz didn't get operating again. How nice!! So we used them on the speedway and both kids drove much much better the second time around! Whiplash was minimal. :)
The rest of the morning we rode It's a Small World, The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, Mickey's Philharmonic show, and Prince Charming's Carousel in fantasy land.
We headed over to Adventureland for a quick ride on Aladdin's Magic Carpet and got lunch at Pecos Bill's in Frontierland. Great quickservice food options, but we got there a little too close to the lunch rush and it was total chaos. We still made it back to Belle's Enchanted Tale for our fast pass. This was a cute experience too. Doodle got selected to play Mrs. Potts in the enchanted tale they put on for Belle.
And Buzz Lightyear got his act together just before we were ready to leave for the day, so we got our final ride in!
We didn't nap that day, but had a low key dinner at the quick service restaurant, Captain Cooks and then bussed it over to Disney Springs for some ice cream at Ghirardellis along with a million other people on that frigid night. lol By the time we got to bed, we'd clocked 8.3 miles of walking for the day. Brent and I got a kick out of the 10k step fitbit fiesta happening before lunchtime everyday.
Day 6:
Family Shirt Theme: Moana!!
Brent wore Maui and Hei Hei, and it said "Boat snack!"
I wore "Village Crazy Lady" with a pretty sting ray
Nugget's shirt had a picture of Pua and it said "Whatever happened just now, blame it on the pig!"
And Doodle's just had a pretty picture of Moana
We struggled with what to do on our last full day. This day was on the books as a rainout contingency day, but we didn't get rained out, and the fast passes I booked for this day was a repeat of Day 2 which was the most likely to get rained out when doing our final weather check the week before. So we didn't have fast passes, and with all the detailed planning, we got through the week and our spoiled rotten kids didn't know what it was like to stand in a Disney line, so we weren't about to start on our last day! We slept in and took our time heading back to Epcot. We checked out the Pixar short film festival and then just strolled the World Showcase until the kids got bored. We snuck in a photo with Jasmine before heading over to the boardwalk area by the Epcot resorts for lunch at the brewery there.
Then we re-entered Epcot at the International gate and made our way to the front gates, by way of the gift shop for the kids to do their final souvenir shopping after making their final decisions and stalking the shops all week. As we left, couldn't miss the opportunity for a quick photo with Daisy who couldn't stop knocking Doodle's hat off! Even as she signed the autograph she had the foot up in a girly pose. That Daisy!
I got pangs getting on the monorail to leave Epcot knowing it'd be a while before we get back. I always get the end of vacation blues, especially on a trip as magical as this one was.
Even though we didn't accomplish much, we still did a LOT of walking this last day. The kids were pooped. LOL
We really thought about going back to the Magic Kingdom for one last hoorah, but the thought of the crowds and no fast passes just felt like it would taint what was a perfect trip. We got some dinner and were going to watch Coco playing outside on the main lawn by the Great Ceremonial House at the Polynesian, but it got really cold! Had it started on time it may have sucked us in, but instead they were playing GoNoodle or something still at 815 when the movie was supposed to start at 8. We ended up back in the room catching a March Madness game. When we woke up it was time to pack and say goodbye. :(
But not without one more surprise for the kids!
To curb some patterns and bad behavior we were seeing and not liking mid-January, we introduced the idea of earning tickets for doing the basics (making their bed, getting ready for school and not being late to Mammy's house, putting their dishes in the sink, and putting their clothes in the right laundry bins). For doing those basics they would earn 1 ticket a day and we told them we would buy their tickets from them for $1 each, so they could have made $60 of spending money each just for going about their daily business. They earned bonus tickets for going out of their way to be kind or thoughtful or unselfish (Doodle earned lots of these - Nugget, not so much), and they earned bonus tickets for things like a great report card, or scoring his first basket during basketball season. However, they would also lose tickets for fighting, or being fresh, or tantrums etc. As Disney drew near, Doodle had a couple full on meltdowns and DADDY took away 5 tickets each time! That bad daddy! Anyway, we talked these tickets up so much but they lost their magic and by the time our trip arrived, Nugget ended up with $22 spending money, and Doodle only $14. Do you know how hard it is to shop at Disney with $14 or $22? We wanted them to have fun shopping and had envisioned them going wild with $75 if they'd behaved and taken us seriously, but it was a great opportunity for them to pick up something they wanted, get a sense for how much everything costs, and learn how much hard work it would take to earn it.
They both ended up with small toys they bought with their own money at the end of the week, but after we felt they learned from the shopping experience and that we'd made our point, Daddy and I did some shopping of our own. While the kids weren't paying attention, we bought the item both kids kept going back to but couldn't buy with their funds and had them delivered to the resort. We were able to surprise them on our way back to the airport. Doodle got a musical jewelry box that plays "Let it Go" with Anna and Elsa of course. Nugget got a remote control Lightning McQueen.
On our bus ride to the airport, Brent and I started planning our next trip. We decided we'll wait 3 years so the kids are 8 and 10, in a slightly different age bracket and eager to go on more rides like Splash Mountain etc. I don't know how we'll ever wait 3 years though, and I can't imagine my babies at 8 and 10 years old!
I'm jotting down some thoughts/reviews on various aspects of our trip. Maybe they'll be helpful for someone out there!
Staying at the Polynesian
My expectations were really really high because all the Polynesian regulars just rave about it. I think some of the areas where we felt it came up just a tiny bit short aren't really the Polynesian's fault. We did advance online check-in and arrived really late (after 10pm, which is late with young kids). So we didn't get any sort of guidance or orientation or lay of the land. We self-navigated to our longhouse and room and sort of figured everything out on our own. I was expecting it to be more festive. Sure, the cast members greet you with "Aloha" and there's an almost nightly torch-lighting ceremony, but I guess in my mind it was going to feel more like staying at Kellerman's in Dirty Dancing with lots of festivities going on all the time. We went to check out the campfire on the beach one night, for example, and we could smell it, but it was covered up and there was nobody there - guests or cast members. The only activity we really saw was hula hoops for the kids in the afternoon.
The other big miss for us was dining options, but this is my own fault. All the Disney crazies out there fully advise you to make your advanced dining reservations for every meal 6 months in advance when reservations open up. I acknowledge that I was warned about this, just like booking bibbidy bobbidy boutique...but I'm like...
We didn't. In my mind, we were going to Disney for the parks, not for the restaurants. So my first priority was planning our days at each park, strategizing the order and which fast passes would be most efficient to get the kids on everything they wanted while minimizing wait time. I slayed that part. More on that later. So, since fast passes don't become available for resort guests until 60 days prior to the trip, 180 days advance dining reservations just didn't compute in my mind. I figured, when we're hungry I'm certain there will be someone at Disney with food to sell to us. And there was. But, on nights where we had no other plans, we would have enjoyed something other than the one quick service restaurant at the Polynesian. The food was good, and the menu had several choices, but you stand in line to order and the atmosphere was like hard plastic tables and chairs a la McDonalds... it was eating for sustenance rather than for pleasure. Even at our own resort, we would have needed dining reservations which I didn't realize. I understood we wouldn't be able to sit down at a restaurant at the parks without a reservation, but I didn't realize we wouldn't be able to walk into a restaurant at our hotel. So we had 1 option for dinner all week when we weren't otherwise engaged in the parks. There was also a coffee "kiosk" with horrible coffee and a cast member undeserving of a barista title. We only did that once.
The grounds of the Polynesian are really really beautiful and it definitely looks the part of a Hawaiian getaway. The hallways of the longhouses (buildings where your actual room is) were looking pretty dated, but the rooms themselves were very nice. Huge flat screen tv, 1.5 bathrooms (2 showers/1 toilet), and a little kitchenette, so we were able to have groceries delivered to save time on breakfast in the morning. Check out garden grocer next time you're staying at a Disney resort. That was a great decision.
The beautiful pool was one of the reasons we chose the Polynesian figuring the kids would want to cool off or use our break time by the pool. The reality was it was just too darn cold. There were plenty of crazy people in the water and even worse than that, wet from the pool, just sitting around in swimsuits even after the sun went down. They must be from Alaska because it was WAAAAAY too cold for us to be swimming.
I was pretty set on a specific room request so we'd have a view of the castle from our balcony. The first night we didn't even get in the longhouse I'd requested but they did move us the second day. We were 3 rooms away from the furthest possible distance from what I'd requested, but bottom line for those of you insistent upon a particular room for a "free" view at the Polynesian: Don't bother. The only difference maker in terms of view is one you pay for with a lagoon view. You can readily see the castle from most walking paths at the Polynesian so it somehow feels less important to see it from your balcony. We were in a deluxe studio/villa category so our longhouse options were Tokelau, Moorea, or Pago Pago, all of which are excellent options if you're walking to the TTC to pick up a ferry or monorail. We wanted to be in Tokelau for a balance of proximity to transportation but also the hotel lobby.
Speaking of transportation, as we reflected on our week, we decided now that we've had a taste, it's pretty hard to stay anywhere outside the Magic Kingdom resorts based on the extra transportation options and flexibility you have there with the ferry, monorails, as well as the resort boat launch. We'd love to give the Beach resort a go over by Epcot next time but not sure we can get over the dependence on bus transport. That's a definite plus for the Polynesian - the 10 minute walk (less if you stay in Moorea or Pago Pago) to the ticket and travel center gets you instantly on a ferry or monorail to your destination. If you take the monorail from the Polynesian you wait for it there, then ride to the TTC, get off, walk down the ramp, walk up the ramp to the Epcot monorail, and wait for the next one to arrive - it can add quite a bit of travel time. Also, when visiting the magic kingdom, you go through security at the TTC which tends to be very quick and then you breeze right to the gate at the MK when you get off the ferry or monorail. That seems to be a time saver too, vs. traveling by bus to the magic kingdom which we'd have to do staying at an Epcot resort.
All in all, it was a great stay at the Polynesian and the room was very nice. I think my expectations were just too high, and had to live with the consequences of my failure to make dinner reservations 6 months in advance, both of which combined to make us feel like outsiders at our resort all week. If we had made more dinner arrangements in advance, I'm not sure I would be able to find fault with this resort and haven't ruled out booking there for our next trip. :) Given the previous statement about how convenient it is to stay within the 3 Magic Kingdom resorts, the Polynesian fits our family vibe and style the most.
TRIP PLANNING: TouringPlans.com
I decided to subscribe to touringplans to be able to personalize our daily agenda based on crowd-sourced data about wait times, walking time from ride to ride etc. What's funny is after I subscribed and had already invested a ton of time putting together our daily plans, I was reading a comment on a different disney planning blog that was almost mocking the touringplans site and wondered if I'd put my eggs in the wrong basket. Now that we've put those plans to the test I can wholeheartedly recommend this site!! I'll absolutely use them next time. You basically select all the attractions you want to get in, and you can add time slots for things you know are in the park but aren't listed as attractions, such as certain character meet and greets, or making time for the pressed penny souvenir machines. You can let them put a plan together for you, or you can drag and drop to rearrange the day yourself and it will then evaluate your work and give you approximate arrival times if you go from ride to ride, walking time, waiting time in line etc. For a data nerd it was heavenly. I wrote to this company when we got back and thanked them, but then scolded them because my spoiled rotten kids still don't know what it's like to stand in a proper line at Disney World. We had these plans for each day and referenced it on our phone throughout the day. I'm sharing a screenshot of the plan for our first day at Epcot to give you an idea of its value! The lesson I learned is that I will work on these plans 6 months and a few days prior to our next trip so that I'm prepared to make dinner reservations that work with our daily plans! You'll notice we accomplished everything we wanted to do at Epcot including 2 top Tier 1 rides that end up with 2-3 hour standby lines and were done by 1pm. This prevented us from feeling like we were running ourselves ragged without missing a single attraction. It's important to build in breathing room and be able to flex when needed, but this provided the perfect structure for us! Sometime we'd get ahead of schedule and then fall behind and it all seemed to even out in the end.
CRAFTING/PERSONALIZED GEAR
So I love to craft and make stuff. I know it's not for everyone. However, I strongly urge you to consider looking on Etsy if you're not a crafter to personalize your family's Disney gear. Everyone pretty much needs a magic band if you're not an annual pass holder, so personalize it! You're seriously in the minority if you're not wearing ears of some sort, so wear something unique! Matching t-shirts for us not only set the theme for the day, but helped keep our group together when shuffling along the park open and close cattle heard. I can't stress enough how much love we got from fellow guests but especially Cast Members at Disney for our ears, shirts and magic bands. So many of them went out of their way to fuss over the kids and make them feel special. It was a great conversation starter for many of the character meets and in some cases our way of honoring some of our favorite movies and characters. Case in point, the wordless exchange during the parade between Doodle and Elsa was priceless for me. Oh, the other project I didn't even mention yet is the autograph cards I printed for each of the characters. The kids could hand them a card and a clicky marker to make it easy to sign rather than having books open to a certain page. I've already had all our photos printed and we'll pair the photo with the autograph card in our memory books. They were designed and printed as 4x6 cards to work well with the photos. Autograph cards can be purchased from Etsy artists as well.
OTHER TIDBITS
I've already shared the snafu with dining reservations, and the convenience of transportation at the Polynesian.
If you're not a technology person, take some time in the week or two before your trip to get comfortable using the Disney My Experience app on your phone. It's sooooo useful, but you need to spend some time in it to appreciate the value. We still find ourselves checking the app to see what the wait times are for some of the rides just out of curiosity and early onset nostalgia.
Oh!! BIG NOTE TO SELF: Disney will take the liberty of changing park hours a couple weeks before our trip, so all that work on our daily planners and securing the perfect fast passes will be for naught and have to be redone right before the trip. They may even entirely change a restaurant from offering actual lunch items to only offering tater tots and coffee. That may be the restaurant where we planned to grab a quick lunch. Double check all your plans a week before the trip because things are constantly changing there!
Next time we will make sure our flight arrives in Orlando in the very early evening so we can take our time exploring the resort before the craziness of our first park day. And, we'll fly home later in the day so we have time to do something in the morning.
I think I'd still have a contingency day like we did this time in case of bad weather on our favorite park day, but I think next time I'll have a contingency plan for our contingency day. We had a complimentary round of mini golf we didn't take advantage of, and next time could incorporate that into our extra day. We loved our park hopper add-on and would definitely do that again next time.
We had a lot of fun at Hollywood Studios and there will be even more to do next time when Toy Story land opens this summer, so I won't shy away from planning a full day there again!
I'd go back to Animal Kingdom and do all the same stuff again, but maybe next time if we don't have evening plans (that would force us to get back and nap early) I might incorporate more of the walking trails to see more animals. The kids really enjoyed seeing the animals.
The Polynesian will be in our consideration set next time, and we'll check out the Contemporary too. The Contemporary isn't generally our vibe but you can't beat walking distance to the MK - except you give up direct Epcot monorail access. Grand Floridian is a bit too snooty and refined for us based on all the people we picked up on shared bus rides! lol! We will also take a look at the Epcot resorts like the Beach Club Resort because word on the street is that there could be a new transit system like a gondola in the works to improve transportation in that area.
Next time we will take advantage of the Minnie van service to avoid buses when traveling outside the monorail/ferry system.
We spent a lot of time on character meets this time, as was age appropriate and appropriate for our first visit. Next time I think we'll be more opportunistic about meeting characters if/when it's convenient or the spirit moves us. As the kids get older, we will want to use those fast passes on rides with long lines!!
This will sound silly to anyone else, but if anyone in our group chooses a hat with furry ears, I would recommend bringing a second hat. We didn't wear our hats on the rainy day because I was afraid Brent and Nugget's hat would smell like a wet dog the rest of the trip. lol
I think that's all I've got. Have a magical night everyone! *sigh*
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