How We Do Disney

We love Disney.  That is evident.  There are a million Disney blogs you can read to gather info on planning a trip.  I enjoy recording our trips for future reference for us in planning and to share what we have learned.  So, if you like planning out your vacation and developing a strategy for the parks – I’ll give you are best info!  If you enjoying winging it at Disney – I’m not your girl and this probably won’t interest you at all!

Planning – Where to Stay

o   We use a Disney Planner (Courtney Fowers).  I highly recommend using a planner.  It is no extra cost and they have the best info on which resort would work best for your family; they will book dining, fast passes, etc.. for you if you want!

o   We have always stayed at a value resort (All Star Movies and Pop Century) before this trip.  We are at the resort so little that the amenities at the resort do not entice us very much.  We would have stayed at a Value resort again, but our family has outgrown the rooms other than the Art of Animation suites.  In pricing out the options, we went with our planner’s recommendations – a preferred room at Port Orleans Riverside.  It had 2 queen beds and a twin murphy bed.  It was a good size room for our family – room for suitcases and the pack n play, as well as a small table.  The resort was nice – the pool had a water slide; there is a Table Service Restaurant and more amenities than a value resort.  However, we were only around the resort one full day.  One thing we did love – water transportation to Disney Springs.  We would definitely look for a resort with water transportation in the future.

o  
    I have always been firm on staying on Disney property.  Benefits of staying on property include: the Disney Dining Plan (more on this later), Extra Magic Hours, the Magical Express (airport transportation) and Disney Transportation system. I have since softened my views on staying on property a little bit.  Here are some pros and cons to each. 

o   We love the Magical Express – no issues with it.  Disney takes your luggage from your plan and delivers it to your room.  This is actually one of Chad’s favorite parts of the whole trip – no hauling luggage around!

o   Extra Magic Hours (EMH) – in the past we have always used them, especially in the morning.  There is a theory however with crowd predictors, that the park that has EMHs is the most crowded park that day.  So this trip, we used a crowd calendar and tried to arrange our trip according to that.  There is no way to tell if it helped.  We felt the parks were pretty crowded anyway, especially the Magic Kingdom.  The other reason we did not use EMH is that they simply don’t work for our family.  Getting to a park opening at 8 is significantly harder than 9.  With 4 kids, 2 of them being pretty little, we have to know our limitations.  Allowing them to sleep in makes life easier.  They are normally up around 7:30, so making a park opening at 9 is normally very doable.  The later EMH also do not work for a young family. However, if rockin Magic Kingdom from 11:00PM-1:00AM works for you, then by all means, do it! 

o   Disney Transportation – This a big perk for staying on property.  I have read many blogs where people talk about taking cabs/ubers instead of buses, especially after a park closing.  Yes, the buses may be a little crowded, but overall, we see the buses as a positive, not a negative.  We don’t think we would enjoy navigating our own car to and from the parks each day even if we lived close enough to drive to the parks. Anytime we have considered staying at Shades of Green (the military resort), the transportation is always a factor in us deciding against it. 

Planning – Dining Plans

The Disney Dining Plan has been hands down the main factor for us staying on property in the past.  I was a huge supporter of the dining plan.  We always did the Quick Service Plan.  We enjoy the rides and shows and never wanted to be tied down to a specific eating schedule with making reservations for TS meals.  For those that don’t know, the Dining Plan is paying in advance for your meals and snacks and you are given a “discounted” rate. The Quick Service plan includes 2 Quick Service meals and 2 snacks per night of your stay.  The Table Service Plan includes 1 Quick Service Meal, 1 Table Service Meal and 2 snacks per night of your stay.  All the dining plans come with a refillable mug for each person in your party that can be used at the resort.  This trip we chose NOT to do the dining plan for a few reasons.  First – I had heard from a lot of people that it is cheaper to just order food as you go.  Second – the resort mugs are almost worthless to us.  Chad drinks coffee, but other than that we drink water.  We are also at the resort so little that we rarely use the mugs anyway.  Third – Addison is considered a Disney adult for the dining plan prices.  Which honestly, is probably fair – she can eat like a horse.  We also would have to pay for Lucy and we weren’t sure about paying in advance for so many meals for a 3-year-old, who can be hit or miss.  Fourth – we just didn’t like either dining plan.  We wanted more flexibility in how many TS meals we chose and wanted freedom to order anything on the menu, not just the dining plan options.  I was very nervous that it would ended up costing us more, especially because as a family, we generally eat a lot of food. 

Verdict: We will (most likely) never do the dining plan again.  It was significantly cheaper for us to pay out of pocket than to pay for the dining plan.  With simply ordering what we wanted to all week, here were the totals for our family:

Table Service Dining Plan - $1820

Quick Service Dining Plan - $1316

Our actual Out of Pocket Dining Costs - $1125

Here’s how it worked for us:

o   Our first night, I placed an Amazon order through Prime Now.  I HIGHLY recommended using it if you have Prime.  The grocery prices were very reasonable, there is no delivery fee (just a tip) and there is a two hour delivery window.  Even if you aren’t there right when they come, the luggage office takes the order and stores it for you.  I ordered yogurt, English muffins, cereal, bread, milk, cheese sticks, diapers, sunscreen, paper plates, bowls and dish soap. 

o   We ate breakfast in the room every morning, except when we were checking out. I brought granola from home.  The kids ate cereal or yogurt and granola every morning.  Not only did this save some money, it saved basically an hour of sleep every morning.  We are not huge fans of the food court – its crowded and not having to battle that every morning was awesome.  I brought almond bars from home and Chad normally ate a Kind bar or yogurt.

o   I packed a nice (non-leaking) water bottle for each person to take to the parks.  We refilled them all day, saving tons of money from not buying $3 bottles of water.

o   Each day I packed a couple peanut butter or sunbutter sandwiches in our park bags.  Sometimes they were eaten as snacks, but normally Jake and Lucy ate them for lunch or dinner.  I also packed squeeze applesauces, lara bars, nuts, cheerios and apples in our park bags for snacks. 

o   We ate 4 table service meals (TS), 1 character breakfast and Be Our Guest breakfast.  Sometimes Mya and Addison split an adult meal and sometimes Addison ordered a kids meal – neither of which they could do on the dining plan.  Jake normally shared with me and/or Lucy. 

o   Often we did our big meal at lunch because it is cheaper than dinner.  Dinner would end up being quick service, shared meals or big snacks.

o   We thought we wouldn’t like the schedule of table service meals, but it actually turned out to be a great thing.  On the days we did quick service meals at lunch, it was chaotic and crowded in the restaurants, even trying to eat at off peak times. With the table service, we could schedule them between fast passes and have a nice little break from the heat and crowds, plus normally MUCH better food.  A HUGE plus for us.  Especially since I don’t eat much gluten, quick service meals generally don’t give me a lot of options.  We would MUCH rather pay $30-40 more and get better food and a more relaxing atmosphere. 

o   One aspect of table service meals that we are not a fan of though is traveling around to different resorts.  We spend so much time at the parks, that on our off days, we just want to relax.  We don’t want to spend a lot of time going around to other resorts to eat.  Maybe we will change our minds on this one one day too though!

o   Whether you use the dining plan or not, you can make reservations for TS meals 180 days in advance.  If you want meals at popular places like Cinderella or Beast’s castle – you must do it at 180 day mark for sure.  I did have good luck making a few last minute reservations during our trip though, so even if you don’t get one right away – keep trying! I used touringplan.com to get text alerts for dining reservations that I couldn’t find.  It helped me get all the reservations we wanted!

o   There are tons of blogs and websites with reviews for each restaurant when thinking about reservations.  The most important factors of choosing a restaurant for us was the quality of the food and how it fit into the schedule of our day.  Again, we didn’t want our day to be dictated by a time consuming haul to a resort or another park to eat.  I worked our reservations between fast pass times and also in the area of the park where I knew we would be, based on our fast pass schedule.  We only booked 1 character meal.  They are the most expensive and so we chose the one we thought would be most enjoyed by our kids.  We ended up at Hollywood and Vine for the Disney Jr. breakfast because of the characters (Sofia the First, Handy Manny, Doc McStuffins and Jake and the Neverland Pirates) and because the food got good reviews.  It was a breakfast buffet (again, always cheaper to eat breakfast or lunch rather than dinner) that included an omelet bar.  So just consider what’s important to you in booking dining.  If all your kids care about is seeing Mickey and eating a waffle – it may be better to grab a waffle at your resort (they are all the same waffles!) and booking a Fast Pass to Mickey.  If you are a foodie – look for the restaurants with the best reviews (Epcot is great for good food!).

So with all that info, you can decide if it is worth it to you to stay on Disney property or do the dining plan.  Definitely price the dining plan out and see if it would work for you!

Planning – Tickets/Fast Passes

o   We always use the military tickets.  This year there was a choice between 4 and 5 day tickets.  We went with 5 days to give us one day at each park and an extra day at the Magic Kingdom.  The tickets can be purchases at an ITR office or on property at Shades of Green. 

o   The military tickets are park hoppers, however if we had the choice, we wouldn’t pay extra for park hoppers.  In 4 trips, we have only park hopped 1 time.  We normally stay open to close at the park each day, so we never have time to go to more than one park in a day. 

o   Fast Passes (FP) can be booked 60 days before your trip.  You have to have your tickets purchased already and link your tickets to your reservation online. (We use the Disney app).  You can book 3 fast passes per person, per day.  If you are willing to put a little thought into planning out your days, you can make efficient use of your fast passes and avoid standing in most lines.  I planned out which days we would be at which parks before the 60 day FP mark. I will go into more detail about which FP we used in the parks later, but just make sure to keep dining reservations in mind when booking FP so you are not running from one side of the park to the other needlessly! 

o   If you have little ones, make sure you use the rider swap option for bigger rides and keep this in mind when booking FP.  Rider swaps allow both parents to ride bigger rides without having to wait in line twice.  Paired with a FP, it is the ticket to not waiting in lines at Disney!  Simply ask for a rider swap as you enter the ride.  (Sometimes they will ask to see the little one that can’t ride, but most will not.)  After you ride, the other adult goes through the FP line with the rider swap ticket.  For example, instead of booking a FP for Chad, Addison, Mya and me on Thunder Mountain Railroad, I booked one for Mya and me and booked a FP for Chad & Addison at Splash Mountain shortly after.  Then we used rider swaps for each ride. The rider swap ticket is good for 3 people, so if Addison and Chad rode Splash Mountain (with the FP, so no waiting!), with the rider swap, Addison, Mya and me could ride, again, without waiting.  It’s a Win Win for all!

o   Try to plan your advanced FP for earlier in the day because after you use all 3, you can get more (one at a time). 

Planning – Other Tips

o   Download the Disney App.  Its helpful for booking fast passes, making dining reservations, wait times, park maps, etc…

o   One thing to note for first timers – you have to fold up strollers for the bus rides. We took a double stroller the first time we went and it was such a pain to fold and was super heavy for Chad to haul around. Now we take umbrella type strollers.  Easy to fold and Chad and easily maneuver 2 on the bus along with a bag or 2.  One of our umbrella strollers has a five-point harness, a basket underneath, a cup holder and zip pouch.  Its pretty amazing.  I wish we had 2! Most of the time, I had Jake in the Ergo and Lucy and Mya in the strollers.  A lot of people rent strollers through Kingdom Strollers.  We looked at this, but decided to just go with what we had.  The biggest reasons I would have rented a stroller – a bigger sun shade and a snack tray.  It would have been $70 for a single stroller and they deliver directly to the resort for free.  Great option if you don’t have a stroller or one you want to take. 

o   Ergos or other baby carriers are amazing for the parks.  Jake slept better in the Ergo than the stroller and I could take him on most rides in it.  That way if he was sleeping, I didn’t have to disturb him getting him out of the stroller.  Just make sure to wear them on the front, not the back to go on rides.  I even carried Lucy on my back one day for a bit!  Plus, I kept Chad’s wallet in the Ergo pocket since I normally always had it on and we could leave the other bags in the strollers.  (You really don’t need a wallet/purse with a magic bands, but we had his with our IDs in it just in case.)

o   Eating breakfast in the room and applying sunscreen before you leave, saves tons of time!

o   Get a Disney Credit Card!  The annual fee of $49 easily pays for itself.  You get a $200 statement credit after your first few purchases.  You get 1% back on most purchases, but 2% on gas and groceries, plus more on Disney purchase.  You also get 10% off at Disney stores of purchases more than $50 (including gift shops at Disney). You also get 10% off at certain restaurants at Disney.  This perk got us 10% off our character breakfast at Hollywood & Vine!  Plus, there are two secret character spots – one in Epcot and one in Hollywood Studios.  We have actually never used our rewards for Disney gift cards, but you can.  We always use them toward airline tickets.  We have found using dollar for dollar discounts on airlines is better than points on certain airlines. 

o   If you have a Target Red Card, buy Disney gift cards at Target before you go.  You will save 5% with your Red Card on the gift cards and then apply them to your room balance when you check in. 

o   Buy ponchos and glow sticks at the dollar store before you go! 

    Day 1 – Travel Day

            We always try to get to the resort early enough to get the kids in the bed at a good time.  We know there will be many late nights, so we try to start the week off well.  Sometimes we let them swim the first night, but that didn’t work out this time because Mya wasn’t feeling well!  Make sure you do online check in for the resort – I remembered too late and it made check-in longer.  We were put in an upstairs room in a building with no elevator, so we asked to be moved to a first floor room.  That could have been avoided with requesting a first floor room during online check in.  Thankfully they said they could move us to a first floor room, but not until the next day.  There was some confusion with our bags and we ended up speaking to the front desk because of how we were treated by one of the cast members.  Because of the trouble we encountered, the manager gave us 3 anytime Fast Passes for each day we were in the parks!  Hopefully you won’t, but if you experience any issues during your stay, it’s always worth mentioning it! 

Day 2 – Animal Kingdom

We started off the week at Animal Kingdom.  Since we had to activate our military ticket vouchers, we gave ourselves a few extra minutes to get in the park.  We caught the bus at 8:30 and were at the park by 9:00.  Here was our schedule for the day:

9:00-10:00 FP Safari (all) – some may say that FP aren’t important so early in the day, but this one worked out well.  It was 9:30 before we actually got in the park at to the ride.  By that time, the wait was already 45 minutes.

11:00 – Lion King Show

12:45-1:45 – FP Expedition Everest (Chad and Mya), Rider Swap – Addison and me

1:15– lunch at the Yak & Yeti Café (QS)

-       Train, Dinoland

2:25 – FP Primeval Twirl (Me and Addison), Rider Swap – Chad, Addison and Mya

Tough to Be a Bug, snack (buffalo chips by Dinoland entrance are really good!)

4:30 – FP to Nemo Show (all) – FP seemed pretty worthless.  The line was enormous for the FP entrance.

We left after the Nemo Show because Mya wasn’t feeling well.  We were disappointed to miss the nighttime show because we had heard such great things about it!  Looking back, a FP to the night time show would have been much more valuable than the Nemo FP. 

Day 3 – Hollywood Studios

          We got on the bus at 7:30 to Hollywood Studios.  We had a breakfast reservation for 8:10.  I wanted an early reservation, so we would have breakfast finished before the park was open very long.  Here was our schedule for the day:

          8:00 – Gate opened and we went immediately to sign up for the Jedi Training Academy.  It’s important to do it before breakfast (if you have breakfast planned) because the spots fill up quickly. 

8:10 – Character Breakfast at Hollywood & Vine (Sofia the First, Handy Manny, Jake and Doc McStuffins) – We were very pleased with breakfast!  A buffet is perfect for our big eaters!  It was a fun restaurant and the kids loved the characters.  **If you use your Disney Credit card, you get 10% off!

9:40-10:30 – Jedi Training Academy/Show

11:05 – FP Toy Story (all)

Disney Jr Live Show, One Man’s Dream, Star Wars Launch Bay (this is where the special Kilo Ren entrance was for the Disney Credit Card)

1:50 – Lunch Reservation at Sci-Fi Dine in Theater – We were very pleased with this meal as well.  It is a super cute restaurant and the food was much better than I expected.

2:35 – FP Star Tours (Mya and me, Rider Swap Chad, Mya and Addison)

4:00 – Beauty and The Beast Show

5:00 – FP Frozen Ever After (all) – FP wasn’t needed, but this was our most favorite thing!  It is so hilarious! 

Special FP – Great Movie Ride

When we came out of the ride, it was POURING!  I had ponchos/rain jackets for us, but our strollers and bags were soaked.  After that, we wrapped our strollers in ponchos when we left them, if there was a chance of rain.

Special FP – Toy Story

Rockin Roller Coaster – Chad went in the single rider line and then Addison and I used the rider swap

By this time, it was 9:00 and our kids were done.  Mya still wasn’t feeling great, we were soaked and tired, so we headed back to the room.  We were disappointed to miss the Star Wars fireworks at 9:30.

Day 4 – Magic Kingdom

            Word of warning – don’t try three park days back to back if you have little ones.  It’s too much.  We originally had a rest day planned, but our dates changed 3x because of Chad’s schedule. We were on the bus around 7:50 and arrived a little after 8:15. The Magic Kingdom now does the “rope drop” ceremony to open the park at the castle, as opposed to the front gate.  This is so nice because you can take your time walking down main street and taking pictures, instead of feeling like you are being trampled in a stampede up main street once the gates are opened.  The rope drop ceremony is at 8:55. Here’s our schedule for the day:

           

9:00 – Tinkerbell (Chad was trying to find out how to participate in the flag ceremony, so the girls and I took advantage of the short line and saw Tinkerbell.

            9:45 – Be Our Guest Breakfast – this was hands down the biggest disappointment of the trip.  While I knew it was Quick Service, I didn’t even think about the fact that I didn’t really have to order for everyone if we just wanted to see inside the castle.  We had to wait in line for a while to order and then try to find a table.  It felt very chaotic and crowded.  Once we finally got a table, we had to wait for someone to clean it off and find enough chairs for everyone.  The food was not impressive for the $25/person pricetag.  My vegetable frittata was simply awful.  The kids enjoyed the pastries, but that’s about it.  I found out later that lunch is much better for a Quick Serve option and dinner is amazing (if you want to pay significantly more for it). 

The rest of the day was dedicated to covering Fantasyland:

FP/Rider Swap Barnstormer (a few times)

Special FP – Dumbo

Ariel Ride

11:50 – FP (All) – Enchanted Tales with Belle – such a cute thing for the girls, especially Lucy

Carousel, Mickey’s Philarmagic (my fave!)

12:50 – FP (all) – Peter Pan

Special FP – It’s a Small World

Lunch – Pinocchio Village Haus – Quick Service – super crowded and just ok food

2:20 – FP (all) – Cinderella and Elaina

3:00 – Parade

Special FP - Pooh

Special FP – Snow White’s Mine Train

Teacups, Dumbo (2 more times)

7:15 Dinner – Starlight Ray’s Café

After dinner it was time to find a place for the night time show, Happily Ever After.  We were on the circle right in front of the castle.  This is definitely our favorite show!  After the show we headed toward the exit.  As we were about to leave, they announce another show, Once Upon a Time, would start soon.  We stopped right by the flag at the entrance to watch it to end our night.  It was a late night, and we were glad we had the next day off!

Day 5 – Pool Day

            From the time we get to the resort, our kids ask when they can swim.  It helps to have a pool day on the calendar so they know when they will get the chance.  After pool time and naps, we went to Disney Springs for dinner.  We ate at Frontera Cocina, which was very good.  Then we headed across the street to Sprinkles for dessert.  By this time it had stopped raining, so we could take the boat back to the resort.  The boat ride was one of our favorite parts of the day!

Day 6 – Magic Kingdom

            Well rested after our day off, we were ready to conquer the rest of Magic Kingdom.  WE missed the actually rope drop ceremony, but we still got there as the park was opening.  Here’s what our day looked like:

            9:00 – FP Space Mountain (Mya and Me, Rider Swap Chad, Addison and Mya) While we were on Space Mountain, Lucy got her face painted.  If you keep the receipt, they will touch up the face paint anytime that day! 

            Tomrrowland Speedway

            FP/Rider swap – Mine Train (Lucy rode the Teacups for the 5^th time while she waited!)

            Pooh and Tigger

            Special FP – Haunted Mansion

            Special FP – Pirates of the Carribean

            12:35 – FP Thunder Mountain Railroad (Mya and me/Rider Swap Chad, Addison and Mya)

            1:40 – Lunch Reservations at Liberty Tree Tavern  Good Food!  We were so thankful for table reservations for lunch – we didn’t have to fight the crowds and got a break from the heat.

            2:55 – FP Splash Mountain (Chad and Addison) The rest of us watched the parade right outside the restaurant.  Fronteirland is much less crowded than Main Street for the parade. 

Rider Swap Splash Mountain (Addison, Mya and I)

            4:05 – FP – Jungle Cruise

            Swiss Family Robinson Tree House, snack

            5:00 – Flag Ceremony

We spent the rest of the evening in Tomorrowland – Laugh Floor, People Mover

            Special FP – Space Mountain, Rider Swap

            7:05 – Buzz Ride

We were tempted to stay longer, but we left and let the kids have a little time in the pool at the resort. 

Day 7 – Epcot

            Epcot is one of our favorite parks!  It was nice to end the week there.  The anytime FP were crucial here. They tier the FP system, so we knew we needed a FP for the new Frozen Ride, but that would leave us to wait in line for Soarin and Test Track.  We got to the park right before opening.  Here’s how are day went:

            9:00 – Spaceship Earth (The big ball)

            Special FP – Soarin Chad, Addison and Mya.  Lucy, Jake and I rode Living with the Land

            10:00 – FP Mickey Character Spot

            

Addison, Mya and I used the rider swap for Soarin

            Chad took the kids to see Joy and Sadness

            I used a special FP for Test Track

            I met back up with them and Chad took Addison and Mya on Test Track with Rider Swap

            Lucy, Jake and I saw Turtle Talk with Crush

            12:20 – FP (all) Nemo Ride

            1:50 – Lunch Reservation at Teppan Edo in Japan (Long walk from Nemo!) Excellent        food!  The kids had never been to a Japanese Steakhouse, so it was very exciting for          them.  They were also great about my gluten sensitivity. 

            4:05-5:00 – Voices of Liberty and show in America

            Stopped in Italy for an espresso treat my brother recommended to Chad.  Girls and I       shared the best Strawberry gelato EVER. 

            5:30 – FP Frozen Ride – such a great ride! 

            Donald Duck Ride in Mexico

            Then we made our way back around the World Showcase and sampled some treats. 

            

We tried to go to the Pixar Show and Figment, but didn’t realize it closed at 7:00.

            Special FP – Mission Space

            Special FP – Illuminations

Day 8 – Check Out

            We packed up and Chad grabbed a taxi to get our rental car.  The girls and I had breakfast in the food court and hit the gift shop.  Then we jumped in the car and drove to the beach!

It was a fun filled trip for sure!!  Hopefully this is helpful to anyone planning a trip!! Feel free to ask any questions!  Enjoy!