So we joined millions of Americans and people around the world and took our kid to Disney World. Donald and I agreed sometime before/after Stella was born that we wouldn't take her to Disney until she asked. Well she started asking about Nov/Dec of 2015. She learned that the castle at the beginning of Disney movies is a Disney World. One day she said, "I'm going there for my birthday." Randomly she would say it or she'd notice something about a princess or on TV and then bring it back up. It go to where it was happening quite often. So we started planning the trip last Summer. And it was awesome. Here, let me show you.
*This is quite lengthy, but with it being our first family trip I wanted it all documented because I never want to forget this or have Stella forget this. This was truly the best vacation.
So Thanksgiving night we told Stella our plans for Disney. We revealed it through a poem and game at Michael and Jessica's house. She got a Belle dress, shoes, wand and headband and found out she was going to have breakfast with the princesses. Thanksgiving night was exactly 10 days before we left.
I'd selected our magicband colors as green for me, blue for Donald and pink for Stella. My luggage tag was pink and had Daisy, Donald's was blue and had Donald and mine was green and had Goofy. The fact that Donald got the Donald Duck tag really made my day.
Day 1: Sunday 12/04
We left our house at 6:40 am and had breakfast sandwiches at the airport. We'd told Stella on our first day we would be able to ride on a truck, a bus, a train, an airplane and a boat. This was almost more than she could handle. We drove to Park 'n' Fly in his truck, shuttled from the lot to the airport via bus, took that train at both airports, obviously flew on the plane and then took a boat from our resort (Port Orleans Riverside) to Disney Springs. This experience was definitely a highlight for her.
How cute is our mini traveler?
She said, "I can't believe we're going to Disney World...on a plane!"
Stella did amazing on the plane. She sat next to me while we watched the first half of The Secret Life of Pets. The flight was just at an hour and she never once complained about her ears hurting.
We checked in to Port Orleans Riverside right at noon which is exactly when I said we would be getting there, so great timing on my part. Our room wasn't ready yet since it was early so we left our bags and hopped on the boat to Disney Springs.
We walked around Disney Springs for just a little while and then Stella conked out in her stroller--for two and a half hours!! Donald and I sat down in the shade at House of Blues and had an actual uninterrupted conversation, actually many. And it was fantastic.
These were the walls inside the women's bathroom at House of Blues. Each individual piece of wood was painted differently. This continued throughout the entire room too. Quite impressive.
We had a late lunch/early dinner scheduled at The Rainforest Cafe for 4:00 pm. We posed for pictures while we waited for our time slot.
Stella took this one. And was very specific about how I posed.
She took this one as well. She wanted to document the lava seeping through the rocks underneath the volcano.
We enjoyed Rainforest Cafe. Stella loved the interior and the jungle animals. We chose the moderate dining plan for our trip. I had the shrimp sampler and cheesecake, Stella picked pizza and corn (yep, you heard me-all you teachers know what I"m talking about!) and an ice cream sandwich and Donald had a trio of steak, ribs and shrimp with the chocolate diablo cake.
Donald said if we hadn't already planned holiday photos/cards this one would have been a good choice.
Our view of Disney Springs from the boat ride back to our resort.
We were in the Acadian House. Stella found a cool place to hide once we got inside.
We put on our swimsuits and headed to the pool for a swim after supper. Stella took her first ride down a water slide by herself and nearly lost her mind when she plopped out into the water. Donald and I were cold so we didn't stay more than half an hour I don't think.
We went back to the room to chill out and get ready for our first big day on Monday. Stella ran into the bathroom, shut the door then opened it back up, just enough for her fat cheeks to poke through and said, "I need privacy, guys" then shut the door. A few minutes later I hear her singing, "Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, there are 7 days, there are 7 days, there are 7 days in a week." She must have sung this 8 times, stopped, very quietly says, "I'm going to Disney World" a few times then goes back into her days of the week song we didn't even know she knew. It was such a cute moment.
Day 2: Monday 12/05-Magic Kingdom
We also didn't go get breakfast like I thought we were going to do before our bus ride so Stella and I just lightly snacked and didn't get properly fed. We get to the MK and it's already quite warm. Then we have to stand in line just to enter the park and be searched. Then I get plucked from the crowd to go through the metal detector. Which I was fine with, but my kid just wanted to be inside the park.
So we finally get in and this is the first picture I take. Ha. What a crappy one. It was just weird that we were in shorts and already pretty hot and there's a Christmas tree all decorated. I commented that this must be what it's like to be in Hawaii during the holidays.
This is a much better picture. The castle she'd been wanting to see.
Right after we were herded down Main Street USA like cattle we found out Paul, Ginger, Nini and the kids weren't too far behind us. We'd purchased the memory maker photo pass and I wanted the iconic view of the castle behind us with the view of Main Street, but Stella wasn't having it. She told us she didn't want to take a picture now (the crowds and lack of food to name a few had turned her into a not-so-nice 3 year old), but she would take a picture when we got to the top of Cinderella's castle. Then I said, "Yeah, that isn't going to happen. We can't go up there." And she lost it. The excitement of finally being at Disney, seeing her cousins and the factors mentioned above had turned her into a ticking time bomb and it had just exploded.
We told her that her cousins wanted to see her and we had lots of fun things to do which helped to calm her down. We walked just a bit to meet up with everyone and saw a proposal taking place. By the time I grabbed my phone the guy had already popped up off on his knee to hug and kiss his fiance.
Walt Disney
Look at these two cousins in their personalized Disney shirts. So cute.
Stella had two (I think) more meltdowns and I was feeling discouraged. Basically I was thinking this was how it was going to be the rest of our day and it's going to be crap. Boy was I wrong. And I was so happy I was wrong.
We did The Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse and used a Fast Pass for Pirates of the Caribbean.
Those things went well, but Donald pointed out that we had no idea how she had envisioned Disney in her head and there was a lot of mental stimulation and just a lot to process. Her mood has always been very dependent on food so we made it our mission to get food and get it fast.
We all shared a giant smoked turkey leg and a Mickey Mouse shaped pretzel. This was our lunch. It was delicious. Only complaint was our lunch was consumed in the sun standing up while we balanced the food on the top of the stroller and basically constantly felt like we were in the way.
We took a log ferry over to Tom Sawyer Island and stayed here for a while exploring. We discovered that this would have been the perfect place for lunch. It wasn't crowded, they had ample shade and it was just so peaceful.
We then rode Aladdin's Magic Carpet Ride...
Then saw Elena of Avalor on the castle steps with Cinderella and Prince Charming...
...and then rode on Prince Charming's Carousel.
We got to watch the daily parade of all of the characters which was fun. I'd only hoped we could have been closer.
We used another FP for Peter Pan's Flight.
While waiting in line for It's a Small World I witnessed the coolest thing between a dad and his daughter. She was probably ten'ish and they were playing patty-cake while standing in line. And I don't just mean a simple game of patty-cake, like some for real clapping/hand smacking was going on and they were good. This guy earned major Dad points in my book for that.
We then used our last pre-scheduled fast pass to ride the Seven Dwarves Mine Train. Stella sat with Donald and I sat with another dad while his wife and daughter were behind us. Stella kept her hands up the ENTIRE ride. Only one time did she say she didn't like something and was a bit scared. I'm so proud of her. And so glad she's a little daredevil who loves roller coasters like us.
I then broke out the glow sticks and stuff since it was dark at this point.
So then we started going nuts with the Disney app to schedule Fast Passes.
We FP for Ariel's Underwater Adventure and then Dumbo's Flight. Stella hopped on with Donald first, then she got on with me. For some reason with me our elephant wouldn't fly like it was supposed to. I messed with the lever for 2/3 of the "flight" then Stella took her glow-in-the-dark wand I'd given her, tapped the lever with her wand and said "Abracadabra!" and immediately Dumbo started going up and down like it was supposed to. No joke! It was amazing and truly magical for us.
We stood in line for the tea cups aka Mad Hatter Tea Party and I got some pretty cool photos while doing so.
One of the workers overheard Stella telling us she wanted to spin really fast so they told us to go to the green and purple teacup. Luckily it was available and we secured it.
This photograph below is my favorite photo from the entire vacation. I have a few other favorites, but this one is number 1. I love the joy and excitement on her face, the blurry background, her shirt. I love how it looks like time stopped in our little teacup aka bubble so I could capture her joy. I just love everything about it.
We had dinner at the Pinocchio Village Haus. I had a caprese flatbread and raspberry sorbet. Donald had the chicken parmesam pasta with sorbet and Stella had chicken tenders, fries, apples and chocolate milk.
We ran into Paul, Ginger, Nini and the kids while going to the bathroom. We chatted for a few minutes and then went our separate ways. I rediscovered how much fresh breath and the feeling of clean teeth can improve my mood.
We passed the Beast's castle from Beauty and the Beast. It was so cool lit up at night.
Now, it's absolutely worth noting that since we stuffed our faces with a turkey leg, the day was fantastic. Amazing. Splendid. Superb. Not a single complaint or fuss or whine was heard from our child. She also never napped which shocked us. Her superpower for the day? Not sleeping.
So after dinner, we did more Fast Passing. Donald scheduled a time for he and Stella to meet Ariel. They had to wait just a few minutes and he said she was fading-fast but he managed to keep her awake to meet mermaid Ariel. This was our first time using the Memory Maker Photo Pass all day.
Then I got to FP and take her to the Enchanted Storytime with Belle. Each kid got to be apart of a play to act out the story of how Belle and the Beast met. Stella didn't exactly shine when it was her turn to audition for parts so she ended up being a dish which was fine. This was a 30+ minute thing and so worth it.
Lastly, he scheduled a FP meet and greet for Rapunzel and Tiana. The photographer for Rapunzel saw Stella's autograph book and said, "Ok, who's was that because it's really old?" I told her it was mine and she asked if she could look through my autographs. She was really, really quite excited to flip through and commented on each one.
Stella told Tiana about how in June she would be dancing to her song "Almost There" and Tiana stood up and danced with her for a few seconds.
The whole princess experience was just fantastic. And all of the meet and greets were captured through the Memory Maker.
As soon as we walked out we found our stroller, Stella crawled in and within seconds was completely passed out. She'd been awake for over 14 hours. At this point our goal was to get out of the park before the fireworks started since Stella does NOT do fireworks and we obviously didn't want her waking up from that even if she did.
Cinderella's castle was covered in the prettiest lights. Thankfully we were able to point it out to Stella while stopping for the bathroom.
Donald and I stopped for the iconic Main Street USA/Cinderella's castle photo at night.
We took our photos and hauled butt to the exit. I'd hoped Stella could see Mickey, Minnie and Tinkerbell as they were supposedly up at the exit, but it just didn't work out. And that's ok. We had an amazing day.
The same tree from earlier, all lit up.
We made it to the buses just as the fireworks were starting. We transferred her out of the stroller and onto my chest/lap for the bus ride to the resort, then back in the stroller and into the bed once we returned to our room. She was so exhausted she ended up wetting the bed in the middle of the night. Poor thing had a long, exciting and memorable day.
Day 3: Tuesday 12/06-Epcot
So Sunday we were in jeans/t-shirts/light jacket. There wasn't an ounce of humidity. Monday, it was sunny, warm, hot even at times. We were in shorts, but the humidity wasn't too bad. I regrettably left our chilly pads back in Georgia because in my mind I was thinking, "Yeah, it's Florida, but it's December." Wrong, Steph, wrong. Tuesday, it was very overcast and the humidity had to have been at 300%. Again, we were in shorts, but were prepared for rain and the possibility of storms so we had raincoats. Thankfully I did pack these. And we got really lucky with weather. A line of storms just bypassed us and we just had rain here and there instead of thunder, lightning and a complete and total downpour.
So this morning, we did things a little differently. We were scheduled for an 11:00 am breakfast with the princesses so we didn't want to stuff ourselves on a first breakfast. But we didn't want to be hangry prior to our brunch date. So Donald went to our cafeteria at PO Riverside and picked up a little continental breakfast of bagels, fruit, juice etc. We ate this during the bus ride to Epcot. It was perfect.
Stella's dress (headband and wand/septor included) came from Costco and was part of a few Disney princess dresses available for Halloween costumes. It was $16.99. The shoes came from Ollies and were $3.00. I checked the price on a similar dress at Disney Springs and it was $60. Steph-1, Disney-0.
Wanda met us here so she could spend the day with us since she was spending the week with Paul, Ginger and the kids. (Although now realizing I have no pictures of her with us.)
So happy this man could make our trip possible. She sure loves him.
Walking into Mexico on the way to meet Anna and Elsa in Norway.
We stood in line for close to 45 minutes which was the longest we had to wait to see any of the princesses.
Meeting Elsa....
And Anna....
Gosh, I just love the expressions on her face when she encounters the princesses. It's the best. Makes it so worthwhile.
Afterwards we walked just across the road to Akershus for the Disney Storybook Princess breakfast. We arrived early so we had to wait a bit for our table....
Belle was the host so she sat up front near the entrance and greeted everyone.
Princess Aurora was in our section as just after we were seated she came over to ask Stella if she wanted to be in a Princess Parade with her and the other girls. Stella couldn't get up out of her seat fast enough. I think she ended up doing two, if not three princess processionals.
Then Snow White came over
And Princess Ariel who's clearly different from Mermaid Ariel she met the night before with Daddy.
"Why don't I just jump in your lap?!"
Princess Aurora/Briar Rose/Sleeping Beauty stopped back by for a photo op.
And lastly Cinderella.
This was a great experience. The food was great. They brought scrambled eggs, bacon, breakfast sausage links and the most amazing hashbrown casserole ever to our table. At the buffet there was sliced ham, salami, several cheeses, smoked salmon, bagels, doughnut holes, fresh fruit, yogurt and granola. Stella ate surprisingly well considering how excited and distracted she was. Our girl chowed down on some food.
Nini and, of course, Donald and I thoroughly enjoyed seeing Stella with all of the princesses. Stella sat next to Donald and I sat next to Nini. At one point Stella's excitement level was nearly immeasurable. She had so much adrenaline pumping through her veins she wasn't sure what to do. She actually fell down on the floor and rolled around like a dog on her back. Donald asked her to get up and she crawled over to the chair, opened her mouth and went to bit the leg of the chair. She was like a little puppy that just needed to bite something. It was the weirdest, yet cutest thing.
We thought this breakfast experience was the best way to make use of our time here since we didn't come for the week. I didn't want us to have to stand in line for hours just so she could get autographs and pictures. We had to eat so I figured this was the best way to knock out food and entertainment. We will definitely do this again when we go back.
We left Norway and walked through China, Germany (below), Italy and stopped in America.
The weather was looking pretty iffy so we decided to go inside a big hall to watch a presentation. But as soon as we got upstairs Stella had to use the potty. We came back downstairs and went outside to use the potty to find it pouring. "No problem," I thought, "our raincoats are in the stroller." Turns out they were in Donald's backpack. Upstairs. So I picked Stella up and we made a run for it. Turns out the bathroom in America makes a great place to photograph my Belle.
We went back to the hall and just relaxed on the carpet in the corner. She drew and wrote for a bit, then I got out her new dinosaur matching game. She loved this.
The rain finally let up so we ventured on through Japan and then into Morocco. Wanda spotted a sign with meet and greet times for Princess Jasmine. This was the only other princess she wanted to see but hadn't yet. One of the times listed was the time that it was then but we didn't see anything that looked like somewhere she would be. He walked around for a second and all of a sudden saw Jasmine dart through an alley and into a bazaar. He hollared for us to follow him and we took off. We only had to wait about five minutes. Such perfect timing.
Yay! The Princess checklist was complete!
Then she spotted this little girl mannequin and had to get me to photograph her with the girl. She loves taking pictures with mannequins.
Soon after Stella passed out again. We continued through to France, UK (walking though the brief Africa part at some point on the map) and then onto Canada.
We ended up walking around the world twice. It was very humid, but also pretty overcast for most of the day. We stopped for beer and almonds in Germany and took a little break.
At some point in the day we took these...Don't remember what country.
On our second trip through we stopped in Morocco to rest our feet and have a snack. Stella was still completely out so Donald, Wanda and me shared a veggie sampler platter at an outside table just underneath a cover. This was great because midway through our meal it began to rain again.
Stella ended up napping for nearly three hours and only because we woke her up. It was time for a FP-Turtle Talk with Crush. She was not happy to be woken up but finally came to. She enjoyed the show, then we walked around the aquarium before FP the Nemo and Friends ride.
Wanda left to go back to their rental house and we headed towards Mexico to the San Angel Inn Restaurant. When we walked in there was a guy passing out paper Duffy Bear on a paint stick. She could color it and the idea was for each country you visited, an Epcot member would stamp that country's flag on the back of the stick. It was dark outside and I hated that we were just learning about this. This would have been a great learning experience and something for us to talk about later. Next time...
The restaurant was made to look like you were dining outside under the stars near Mayan/Aztec ruins and a volcano which Stella enjoyed once again. I dined on pork with sala verde with potatoes and corn and had THE most delectible Bavarian mousse for dessert. Donald had a Mexican combo platter with chicken masa, short ribs and chile rellano with the dulce de leche ice cream. Stella had the quesadilla with green beans, rice, fruit and churros for dessert. Everything was so very good. But that dessert? I'm not sure how a Bavarian mousse ended up on a Mexican dessert menu (the waiter explained it was new from their chef) but it was one of the most fantastic things I've ever put in my mouth.
The restaurant had an "outside" market with different vendors to stop at. When we left we walked through it and Stella spotted a rainbow colored unicorn pinata. She asked for it which was the very first thing she'd asked for the ENTIRE trip. It was small and super cute, but I told her it might get crushed in our luggage and she never asked for anything again.
We had FP reservations for Frozen Ever After pretty late in the evening. We did that which we loved and then headed back to the entrance/exit to hop on the bus back to our resort. Epcot had extended hours that night and I would have loved to have walked around the world for a third time but their firework show was starting around 10 or so, I think, so we had to get out.
Day 4: Wednesday, 12/07
We started off the day with cartoons in bed. We then walked over to the cafeteria to have breakfast. It was absolutely gorgeous out! I snapped these on the walk back to our room. Donald took Stella to the playground for a bit while I finished up packing.
The boats that take you from here to other resorts or Disney Springs.
The main/big pool with fountains, sprayers and a water slide.
Kiddie pool
Such beautiful Southern Charm. There's so much thought and detail put into everything.
Our house.
We rode the Disney Magical Express bus back to the airport. We were one of the firsts to get on and I didn't know how full the bus would be so I put Stella's Disney Fairies backpack up in the overhead bin. I said out loud, "Let's not forget this." I think you know where I'm going with this. When the bus got to the airport Stella decided she needed to go potty. She wanted to go on the bus because she'd never done that before. By the time we go out, the driver had gotten all of the luggage and strollers out and was basically waiting on us to exit so we could leave. We walked in the airport, Donald went to the bathroom and then we headed upstairs to go through security. That's when I realized it wasn't with us. Maybe Stella shouted it out, I can't remember but we all three had this sinking feeling. Her LeapPad, Dory headphones, rechargeable batteries, the charger and her jacket were all in the backpack and not a damn thing had her name on it.
Donald took off running and we stayed put. He let the lady at the Disney bus area know what happened and somehow she got in touch with the bus line, found the driver, he was contacted and he turned around to bring it back. Luckily, our flight had been delayed (and ended up getting delayed another time) so we weren't in any hurry to get through security and to our gate.
We had an early dinner at Outback watching planes take off and land. Stella was tired and we could tell this very easily. She wasn't wanting to listen to us and was flat out ignoring us at times. It was a good thing it was our last day because after the delays and irritation of loosing the backpack and such we were all just ready to be back home.
For this trip home, Stella sat next to Donald and she watched the end of The Secret Life of Pets.
When the movie was over she decorated the window with the gel clings. Two flight attendants "Oohed" and "Ahhhh'd" over them. I saw this on Pinterest and would have thought this would be a typical thing on flights to Disney, but they seemed to act like it was their first time seeing this so I felt pretty cool about that.
We got home hours later than we had planned. It was a struggle to keep Stella awake on the ride from the airport parking lot to our house. No one had trouble sleeping that night.
This was such a good trip. Really the best. She's asked many times when we are going back and we explain that it will be a while. She doesn't like this answer, but we try to quickly change the subject.
A few notes:
*I'd read on Pinterest that Disney has the coin machines where you insert a shiny new penny and make your selection and it will imprint that image onto the penny. The suggestion was to bring a bunch of shiny pennies and rolls of quarters and make this your children's souvenirs. It worked. We let Stella pick out a book to put her pennies in the Pirates of the Caribbean gift shop. She chose a Tinkerbell book which was $9.95. We ended up getting 10 pennies squished so for $15 dollars she had ten Disney souvenirs. Stella really delighted in finding the machines and then making her selection. Since she napped so long on Tuesday I took it upon myself to find a few and show them to her when she awoke.
**For cheap and small entertainment I got most stuff at The Dollar Tree or the Target $1 section. I grabbed a Paw Patrol lined book and sticker book, Inside Out coloring pack, Christmas gel clings and the Spritz 6 pack of cards (Old Maid, Dinosaur Matching Game, Crazy 8's, Go Fish, Animal Rummy and a plain pack of regular cards for $5) all from Target, an Elsa doll she could color (again & again after washing) from Ollie's, Frozen press-on nails, glow sticks/necklaces from The Dollar Tree.
***In our luggage, I brought along some fruit pouches, Annie's bunnies and animal crackers, some Lara bars and Belvita blueberry breakfast cookies, beef jerky and a 6 pack of bottled water. I didn't bring too much because we had purchased the moderate level dining plan but I wanted some stuff for backup.
So what did I learn on my first trip to Disney since I was in middle school?
1. This "world" is clean. So, so clean. Freakishly clean. I think we saw one piece of confused and misplaced trash that wasn't in a bin. Even the trash can flaps/lids are spotless. But we only saw one or two people tidying up. It's amazing. And I'm ok with that.
2. It's difficult to find a place to buy ice. I am a HUGE fan of very cold water. Very cold water requires ice. As a result, I found myself not drinking as much water which isn't good when you are doing a lot of physical activity. And especially when you are used to drinking lots every day.
3. There's no water bottle refill stations. Either you bring your own or you buy it. I was expecting refill stations similar to the ones at the airport. But nope.
4. This place truly is magical. Best.Vacation.Ever!
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