Disney World Part 1

Last week we took a trip down south to the heat and humidity for our first family trip to Disney World.  My mother-in-law came along as well (well she actually was the driving force behind all of us going, so saying she just came along would be an understatement. :))   I thought I would share our experience, how we did things.  I know that before we left I was concerned a bit about what all there would be for Noah to do - and if there would be enough for Ohlen. (lol)  So, if anyone else out there is hesitant to take their young kids, don't be.  I'll share some of the things I really liked and things they really liked.   And, of course, there will be pictures. :)

Our boys are 4 and almost 2, so we didn't want to completely overwhelm and wear them out.  So we booked a trip for 3 nights.  We got 2 tickets for the parks - the very basic tickets.  No park hopper option or anything like that.  It just didn't seem worth it for us.We did everything through Disney.  I ran the numbers a bit - and it was possibly a little cheaper to stay off resort, rent a car, and all that - but it would have also have been more of a hassle.  And for the time we were going to be there - it really didn't seem like a  huge price difference.

Meals.  I can't say I researched this too well.  We ended up going with the bottom tier meal plan.  Each person over 3 (I think) was given 2 meals and 2 snacks per day.  As well as a souvenir mug that you could refill at the resort with as much pop, coffee, etc as you wanted. So Noah did not get the meals - but we generally had enough to share with him - and he wasn't eating real well the whole trip anyways.  I have no idea if this was cost effective or not.  The food was, generally, pretty good, especially in the resort.  It was also fairly pricey.  It was a little confusing in the parks as to what was and was not included in our plan.  There was supposed to a symbol marking what was included, but many times the main dishes did not have a symbol - but if you asked they said it was included - so it was a little confusing.  But it all worked out in the end.

On one of the shuttles.

The whole Disney package was so nice.  They had a service to take your luggage from the plane directly to your room - no need to go to baggage claim.  They had fairly efficient shuttles that would take you from airport to resort, resort to each of the parks (including the water parks and Downtown Disney)  We had no need to take along a car seat for the boys, which was really nice.  We got there at a low time so check in was a breeze.  Plus they give you a card that you use for everything, meals, park ticket, etc.  The resort was nice.  The rooms were just regular hotel type rooms - but the decor around the facilities were so much fun.  They provide Pack n Plays for free.  We stayed at the All Star Movie resort.  We were in one of the Toy Story buildings. (Completely by chance - I was so happy. :))  They had a complete large mock up of Andy's room.  I think Ohlen's facial expression says it all.  This resort had 10 buildings 2 each per theme - Toy Story, 101 Dalmations, Fantasia, and The Love Bug.  There were also 2 pools, plus a kiddie pool area.  Our building was right next to the main building that housed the food and store and all the shuttles. It was also next to the playground and the pool.   We really lucked out as far as the location of our rooms.  And we had a connecting rooms which was a huge plus.

"That is a really big Buzz"

Probably a good idea to put a fence around Woody.

Army men "guarding" the rooms.

This kid's energy was impressive.

We saw Buzz's rear every time we left our room to go anywhere...

He really, really wanted to climb on to Rex.

The Brrm-brrm was also a big hit.

I could do a whole other post on flying with little ones - but really it went really well.  I would definitely recommend a stroller for ones as little as Noah.  It saved some sanity as we had to wait for a while in the airport on the way home.  We just pushed him around for a while and he loved just looking at everything.  It was also nice to have a light weight stroller along for in the parks - it was easy to fold up and carry onto the shuttles.  Although, renting a stroller there would be another viable option.  The flights themselves went really well.  Ohlen loved it.  He sat by the window and looked out a bit, when he wasn't playing on the GameBoy.  Noah was very sleepy on the way down - explained in next paragraph.  On the way back he was a ball of energy, but still did really well, no crying, screaming, or anything like that.  We had a genius plan to have him watch some Thomas on a laptop while in the air... but the laptop battery was somehow dead.  I do have to say I felt completely defeated at that point, but really it all turned out well.

Waiting for acceptable electronic devices to be allowed. (for some Gameboy play)

Sick little boy.

Enjoying the plane ride.

The biggest issue with the whole trip was with poor Noah.  He started with a fever literally as we were driving to the airport.  Although we didn't really notice until we were already on the plane - with the medicine and thermometer safely in the checked bag.  He held on to the fever until the morning we left.  However, my boys always seem to do really well when they have fevers, and he was in a pretty good mood - especially for not feeling the greatest.  And thanks to Disney for having some infant ibuprofen in their store.

The weather was also great.  Well, ok, it was a little too hot (mid 80s) and humid for Jonathan and I, but the rest of the crew enjoyed it. We even got to go swimming one day.  And it was nice not to have to worry about coats, gloves, and winter hats.  Although we did trade that for sunscreen and caps to keep the sun off of heads.

Tomorrow I'll post about the specific parks we went to.

Has anyone else done Disney with little ones?  Is there anything you found to be a better way than using Disney for mostly everything?  I think there are definitely pros and cons to using their shuttles vs driving yourself.  There is definitely more freedom in having your own car - but it was also nice to not have to drive at the end of the day.  As far as staying in a Disney resort vs an outside hotel.  I remember when we went when I was a teenager we didn't stay at Disney and it was fine.  You definitely don't get completely immersed in the whole "Disney experience"  They do have a whole bunch of little things they will do for the little ones.  We got 1st time Buttons when we first arrived.  One time they gave the boys a balloon with a neat Mickey weight thing to keep from flying away.  They got plenty of stickers wherever we went.  It was definitely a fun experience.