Saturday, we started the day with breakfast and a talk about all Disney has done/is doing to make vacation planning easy. We talked about how you can tailor your Disney vacation to your family's wants, needs, and budget. From pitching a tent at Camp Wilderness and cooking your own food to staying at a deluxe villa with the Disney Dining Plan, you can find something that works for your family.
Their website is really easy to navigate and you can play around with different dates and hotel options to look for the best deal. You can even print out personalized maps for your family. Have a question and want an answer from an actual mom who knows all the tips and tricks to make your vacation the best possible? Go to the Disney Moms Panel and ask away! I met Margaret and Amber from the Moms Panel this weekend. What fun girls and boy, do they know their stuff! I think the best piece of advice I heard from Margaret was, "There's no way you can do everything here. Even if you stayed for 4 weeks, there would be things you'd miss.' Disney World just has that much to offer. You need to decide with your family, what things you really want to do and see while you're there. If you go in with the attitude of "I've got to do it all!" you'll be stressed, the kids'll melt down, and you won't be able to see everything anyway. That was my number one piece of advice from when we went to WDW back in October - take time to relax, hang out by the pool, or sleep in one day. We tried to "do it all" and we really pushed the kids, park hopping every single day from sun-up till sun-down. That doesn't make for happy families.
If you're planning a Disney World vacation, you can get a copy of the free vacation planning DVD HERE. Oh and when you check out the website, don't forget to check for specials HERE! Sometimes you can get totally awesome specials! When my friend Melissa went to WDW in September, she got the Dining Plan for FREE! All her family's breakfasts, lunches, dinners, and snacks were included!
OK, after breakfast, we toured the new family suites at Disney's All Star Music resort. These are nice sized rooms that sleep 6, have 2 bathrooms, and a kitchenette, and because they're at Disney's value resorts, the price won't break your budget. After that, we donned hard hats and met Imagineers Brian & Diego who took us on a tour of Disney's new Bay Lake Towers, under the final stages of construction. They have luxury rooms that accommodate 12 people and are 2 stories! Seriously, these rooms were more than twice the size of my house!
Just call me Handy Manny
All us "Magical Moms" in front of Disney's new Bay Lake Tower (I've got to get a list of everyone's URLs so you guys can check out some new blogs!)
Imagineer Brian
From there, we went to the Magic Kingdom, where we toured The Baby Care Center. I bet a lot of people aren't aware this is even there. If you've got a little one, you've got to check this place out. If you want to escape the park for a while, you can breastfeed in a cool, quiet dimly lit room. You can change baby, feed baby in a clean high chair, or buy baby food, formula, bottles, diapers, and many other essentials you might have forgotten.
Room with high chairs for feeding baby in quiet, air conditioned comfort and little tables and a tv to occupy small siblings.
nursing room
We then had time for a Dole Whip, a ride on Pirates of the Caribbean and The Haunted Mansion, before going to lunch at Waves in The Contemporary Resort.
This is the drink I ordered at the Wave. It was radioactive.
yummy desserts at The Wave
The monorail inside the Contemporary
We had a few minutes to freshen up and then it was on to Hollywood Studios where everyone took a backstage tour of the new attraction, The American Idol Experience. Well, everyone except me and Lindsay from Suburban Turmoil. We blew that off and rode on Rock 'n' Roller Coaster three times in a row, thanks to our fast passes!
Cruddy picture of the Rock 'n' Roller Coaster taken with my camera phone because I accidentally left my camera back at the hotel.
After that, we met everyone else and saw The American Idol Experience.
From there, we had dinner at The Hollywood Brown Derby. And then it was back to the hotel. Whew! They crammed a ton into those 2 days!
September IS the time to do Disney. The weather is still warm, it's the parks' slowest month, and yep, to get you there they will give you the free Dining Plan. Which, if you do it like myself and my travel companions do, you will end up eating your entire trip's worth of food (seriously, at Disney's prices, over our ten-day trip last year I clocked well over $600, and it was $800 for my full trip...can't imagine what it'll be like on the twelve-day trip this year)! It's pretty awesome. And you'll only need FastPasses for the most ridiculously popular rides, because again, no one's there!
ReplyDeleteDisney in September rocks, plain and simple!
That Dole Whip looks TO DIE FOR! :)
ReplyDeleteWhats with the PRA in sky writing in one pic?
ReplyDeleteWow...your trip experience so totally makes me want to go even more now with my own kids. Sigh...if I ever get the money to do it right. They will probably be in their 20s or 30s by then!
ReplyDeleteAwesome - looks like loads of fun! We are taking a trip to Disney next week and I can't wait - it will be Zilla's first time!!!
ReplyDeleteCome and enter into my 300th post giveaway!!
Yes! I totally loved the Baby Care Center at Magic Kingdom. I was so excited to find a refuge for my infant at that time. My SIL was more than happy to sit on a bench and nurse in front of all, but I didn't really have a good cover-up to pull that off! The Baby Care Center was so comfortable, I didn't want to leave it to rejoin the rest of my family in the park! The staff was very sweet there as well. It had all the supplies and comforts of home! The Baby Care Center at MGM, however, was not so nice. It had cold tile floors and strange nursing dressing rooms. This was a couple of years ago, so maybe they've remodeled since. Anyway, I recommend that any parent of infants and young children check Magic Kingdom's Baby Care Center out!
ReplyDeleteThe Rock N Roller Coaster was one of the coolest roller coasters there! Glad you were able to enjoy it.
ReplyDeleteJust reading about your time there has worn me out!
ReplyDeleteOkay, your glowing drink is awesome! I want one.
ReplyDeleteMiss you already!!! How was your book signing? Lovin' the recap and pictures. I have a list of the people who attended w/ links, want 'em? Email me, or check 'em out in my post right here ;)
ReplyDeleteI want the Dole Whip AND the radioactive martini!
ReplyDeletedawn i know this has nothing to do with ur post today but i put my girls down for bed last night when my 3 yr old was freaking out b/c something was on the door window to their room (we live in a fema trailer and unfortuantely their room with 2 small bunk beds built in has a door leading outside dangerous i know) i immediately thought of your possum on the window even though i knew it wasnt a possum anyways i inspected the window which is covered with paper so no one can see in and informed her it was just a dead mosquito and left out of the room so then both of my girls are screaming bloody murder that there is "something there please hurry" so i come back and find a lovely tree frog clinging to the glass of their window how he got inside is beyond me as we DO NOT use that door but there he was after that we had to search the whole room to make sure no more came in--sasha
ReplyDeleteWe leave for Disney in 4 days, so so so excited. And I will NOT try to do to much. I promise! Just wanted to share :-)
ReplyDeleteI LOVED the baby care center at Disneyland! I probably couldn't get away with going there now that my youngest is 4 1/2. When he was a baby, it was the best break to go there and nurse him while my husband took our daughter on some rides.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the review of the family suites at the All Star. Any photos of those rooms? We have been staying at a Disney Vacation Club (Old Key West) during our last two trips (which is pretty affordable when you buy someone's "points"), but I think the suites might be more up our alley.
ReplyDeleteIt's important to know that EVERY Disney park has a baby room. They're all set up about the same and they also have microwaves where you can heat baby's food, which is great! They also have diapers if you run out (go ahead, ask me how I know THAT).
Hey! I was at Disney this past weekend too! I probably saw you or was by you and didn't even know it. I was chaperoning middle schoolers, I really didn't notice much besides those silly girls! :-)
ReplyDeleteWalt Disney World is the best ... as a nearly life-long Floridian, some of my best childhood memories were there ... and now I've been able to take my kiddos. No one ever outgrows Mickey!
ReplyDeleteMelinda
www.parentingconfessions.com
Great report. We were going to eat at The Wave last evening, but a headache kept us home.
ReplyDeleteTotally true that you can't do everything in one vacation! That is also the first thing I tell people who ask me for planning advice. Living here for 6 years, and for a one year period we spent one (or more) days every weekend at a park, we still have not done it "all". We've hit every ride, but not done all the special tours, etc.
Someone earlier asked about the PRA in the sky. In case you didn't have the answer here it is. There is a gentleman that skywrites messages about Jesus most every weekend above the parks. It is pretty cool to watch as he makes smiley faces and letters. I also found one one Disney message board that his messages cause controversy! www.turntojesus.net.
We were just there a few months ago and I thought it was totally cool when the monorail went right through the hotel!
ReplyDeleteAh, the baby care room at Disneyland and Disney World... They really came in handy when my kids were little (my youngest is now 15). One of their other features were "mini-potties", just the right size for toddlers.
ReplyDeleteI'm also glad to see that Disney is building larger rooms. In Anaheim (Disneyland), city regulations limit the number of people per room to 5 and one of the occupants in each room has to be over 18. We had to book a suite b/c I wasn't going to split the family into two separate rooms!
Oh they certainly did cram a lot into your two days. Wow! Interesting restaurant. I stayed at the Contemporary back when I was a little kid, but ... I don't think they had that on the menu then. YUM! Desserts and drinks.
ReplyDeleteAnd you don't by chance know what they were skywriting in the baby care area pic do you? PRA what? :)
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ReplyDeleteadd another follower!