So a couple of summers ago, the hubby and I packed up and went to Europe for almost 2 weeks. After that experience we decided we wanted to get away more often, but after some talking felt like we couldn't "ditch" the kids every year to go off on a large vacation. So the plans we started to head to someplace magical….whether the hubby knew it or not :p
While hubby was on his extended vacation in a sandy place **wink, wink** I made reservations at Shades Of Green while they were running a discounted special. I also started consulting a good friend who happens to be a wealth of knowledge of doing a fun yet reasonable Disney trip and checking out some blogs that specialize in all things Disney. Before we knew it I was making dining reservations, making FP+ for each of our days, and packing the suitcases.
We started our drive down on a Friday and after a couple brief stops along the way (they may warrant their own blog post) we arrived on Saturday evening. We checked into the hotel, ate some yummy supper at the restaurant on property and made out a detailed plan of attack for the upcoming days.
We started our 4 day hoppers at the Magic Kingdom, arriving 30 minutes before the park opened. We took the ferry across, with this view being the first look of the castle.
We disembarked and proceeded through the security gates, ticket gates, and waited for the park to open. We enjoyed the details of the park and also watched the official opening presentation.
After a failed attempt of jumping on the new Seven Dwarfs Mine Train (SDMT from here on out), we made our way to the Tommorrowland section since our FP+ started in this area. We jumped on the Astro Orbitor, used one of our FP+ on Space Mountain, did some shooting on Buzz Lightyear, escaped with Stitch, and laughed with Monsters before heading over to Speedway to beat the afternoon crowd.
We then made our way over to Fantasy Land….again noticed how long the line was for SDMT and jumped on Peter Pan with our FP+ (which if you will need a pass for!). We walked across and then walked right onto It's a Small World, one of the kids favorite.
We tracked back and jumped onto the Barnstormer and took a peek at the candy and trinkets at the Big Top. We got to see the marching band parade by before getting in line for the Under the Sea Little Mermaid ride.
For lunch we ate in Belles Castle at the Be Our Guest restaurant. The boys enjoyed the decor and maybe made a couple of friends.
After enjoying the tasty food and taking in the three different rooms at Be Our Guest, we walked over through Liberty Square, hit up Halls of Presidents, and on to Frontier Land.
We jumped onto Splash Mountain before heading to Thunder Mountain Railroad….a couple of our favorites. We also hiked over Tom Sawyers island, before leaving. MK closed early this day due to the special Halloween party so we hopped over to experience some of Hollywood Studio.
The big boys jumped onto Tower of Terror, and came to the conclusion that the one in CA was way scarier.
From there they headed to the Rock and Roller, hands down their favorite roller coaster of all time.
While they were getting some thrills, I scored some FP+ through a Kiosk for the Fantasmic show that night. Disney knows how to put on the most incredible light and firework show!
Upon eating at Shades of Green we started our second day at Disney by heading to Epcot. We hit Disney at a great time, low crowds and hosting the Food and Wine Festival!
We got there early, about 20 minutes before gate opened. Which made it early enough to walk right onto Test track, one of my favorite rides. We then went over to Mission:Space to use our FP+ tickets…where I proceeded to get motion sick since we went in the "intense" line. The boys liked it so much they did it again while I sat in the fresh air and getting my bearings again. After experiencing space we decided to take the plunge in the ocean with Nemo and talking with Crush. We then headed to Soarin' to use another one of our FP+. Soarin' was one of favorites when we were CA, it was a nice trip back to our time in CA. We used our last FP+ on Spaceship Earth, which I really enjoyed, before making our way to the World Showcase.
We took the time across all the parks to get our pictures taken with all the Disney photographers, we had purchased the Memory Makers package so that we didn't have worry about catching the moments or fearing that something would happen to the camera.
We took full advantage of the fact that the Food and Wine Festival was going on…scallops, Hawaiian pork sliders, crepes, waffles, steak, crème brûlée, flan, wine, beer, hand rolls, fruity slushy drinks….etc…it was a good time! We enjoyed doing both the wine and beer flight while making the circle around Epcot.
After filling our stomachs we needed a break and enjoyed the Canadian Pavilion and their 360 movie.
We continued around…reliving our past trip to Paris...
and headed south of the border to hang out with Donald and went on a boat ride.
We headed back to the Future World part of Epcot to meet some of our favorite characters.
We managed to walk right up and sneak in some hugs and pictures.
J may have tried to make out with Minnie ;p
We managed to score another FP+ at a Kiosk before spending time with Mickey, and went for a night ride on Test track…my car kicked everyones butt..including the random lady that joined us in the car.
Once again we took in the Disney light and firework show, Illuminations…wow! We collected our purchase, a bottle of wine, from the front shop…which was a zoo…and headed back to the hotel.
We slept in a little on our third day, ate once again at the hotel buffet and then proceeded with the plans of the day. We had to stop over at MK ticketing to pick up the special Military Halloween Event tickets. Once getting through the hoops we headed over to Downtown Disney.
We made reservations to eat at T-Rex, which is similar to the Rainforest Cafe…pricey, only ok food, but you are paying for the atmosphere.
Downtown Disney is free to park at and to walk around at, but you could really spend a bunch in all the little shops and restaurants! The boys enjoyed poking around in the Lego store. We hurried back to get ready for our special event…customs and all!
Crowds are a lot smaller for these special events, but we were allowed to come into the park before all the other guests were suppose to leave….making it pretty crazy. We also couldn't make any FP+ during the special event, so we just bounced around to the areas we thought would have less lines after consulting the special Disney app. During the actual party the app didn't work, but for the first couple hours we used it to determine where to go.
We headed to space mountain, we lucked out to get the chance to ride on the other side of the coaster.
We proceeded to do some trick or treating, grabbing some food, and getting some more pictures snapped of us enjoying being on vacation.
We eventually made it to Pirates of the Caribbean, Thunder Mountain, Magic Carpet, and Jungle Cruise.
We watched parts of the special parade and then made our way to SDMT to see if with the parade and 1st light show underway would mean shorter lines. We lucked up and only had a 40 minute wait…ya, 40 minutes is short compared to 75 or 90+ minutes we had seen our first day.
The wait is more tolerable then other due to the interactive activities/games that are along the wait line, but I think that also slowed down the line moving as people were involved in their mini game and not paying attention to the line moving ahead of them.
It's a cute ride, but not worth the 70+ minute wait that it normally has. Luckily the ride was set on fire a couple days after we rode it, but while we were there it was shut down several times and we saw them walking people off the ride.
We stayed late so we could watch the entire second parade and light/fireworks show…we didn't take any video and only a couple photos…we weren't like some of the (IMO) rude individuals holding their iPads, phones, go pros into the air blocking everyone behind them or light blinding them with flashes and larger screens. Do people really go back and watch their shaky cam videos, is this the new slide show torture people make their friends watch? I don't get it.
What I do get is that Disney really is magical and it always amazes me how much better behaved and how the boys argue much less then their normal daily spats. Halfway through, and we were tired cookies, but we were roaring to go everyday to see and do all things Disney. Stop back another day for part 2 of our Disney Halloween Vacation.
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