Mrs. Midcoast

So after our Epic Disney World Adventure we needed a little chill time at the beach. We like to stay at different types of places that aren’t your typical hotel. I knew I wanted a quaint vintage vibe old Florida Cottage. So I did a little research and came across the cutest little cottage community in Sanibel Island, Florida called Waterside Inn. It was about a 3 hour drive from Disney World and well worth it. Just relaxing on the beach for a few days after a crazy Disney trip was fantastic.

We stayed in the Raspberry Cottage, which is PINK! The Waterside Inn is right on the beach, has laundry facilities, beach towels, a pool and was close to dining and shops. We couldn’t have asked for a more perfect place.

Since it is not cheap to fly a family of 6 anywhere we try to maximize our vacation adventure by visiting more than one place. So we usually always fly in one airport rent a car and then fly out of a different airport. This trip we flew into Orland, went to Disney then drove down to Sanibel and file out of Fort Meyers airport.  Most of the time there is a $50-$100 fee to return the rental car to a different location, but its worth it for us. Other trips we have done like this were fly into Portland and out of Seattle. Fly into San Diego and out of Los Angeles. We’ve never had a problem switching airports and it’s really nice to see different cities.

 

The Inn had a great little pool and we swam in the rain because it’s Florida and it rains more than I expected. It was actually overcast for most of the beach trip which normally I would be bummed about, but after the heat of Disney World it was a nice break. 

This was Liam’s first real beach experience. He went with us to Mexico last year, but he was only 3 months old so he didn’t get to play. It was fun to watch him exploring the sand and water.

There was also a storm off shore which made some pretty big waves. The boys had a blast with the big waves.

The inside of the Raspberry Cottage was the perfect Old Florida vibe. The kitchen and living space were open to each other. The kids chilling with their iPads. After being so busy at Disney and long days at the beach we really didn’t mind them just chilling and playing on their tablets. This was one of those times the Brendan and I just wanted to chill SOLO on the lanai and have a cocktail, so we let the iPads parent for a while 🙂 

We rented a Surrey Bike and went on a bike ride on one of the many bike trails on Sanibel. It was actually hard work pedaling with four kids, but it was super fun. 

We spent mornings drinking coffee and evenings having cocktails on the lanai.  It was a nice “playpen” for Liam. Eloise and Quinn really loved playing in the “shell dirt” outside the door. 

Me and Eloise wearing our matching dresses. A plus to being a petite person is that I can buy clothes from the little girls section and Eloise and I can match 🙂

Family Picture time!  I always take a tripod on vacation so we can take a nice family picture. I actually forgot my camera remote control so I had to set the camera on a timer push the button and run to get in the shot….eek!  The remote works way better!!!

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Welcome to the official Mrs. Midcoast “How to do Walt Disney World AND have fun with 4 young kids of various genders” blog post. 

While researching for our Epic Disney trip I found LOTS of information on various topics. One I did not find any info on though was doing Disney with a big family (6) that includes 4 young children of different genders and ages. There are tons of how to do Disney with a baby, how to do Disney Cheap, Disney on a Budget, etc. I had to pull info from every source I knew in order to make a decent plan for our trip.

So a few things you need to know first about this post.

1. This is not the only way to do Disney, there really is no right or wrong way to do it. This is just our best way with FOUR young kids ages 9, 7, 4 & 1 year old with a mix of boys and girls.
2. Disney World is not cheap, there is no cheap way to do Disney (and also have fun with 4 young kids). There is a less expensive, middle and more expensive way. We did the Middle expensive way, more on why and how we did it that way later.
3. Priorities for families are all different.  If you just have little girls, you can stick to Princesses and be in and out in a few days. Just Teenagers, then thrill rides are where you will be. If you have a 9 year old boy, a 6 year old boy, a 4 year old girl and a 1 year old baby like us then you are all over the place, and you need a plan!  A really great plan and a decent backup plan doesn’t hurt either.  I searched and really found no dedicated info for Families of 6 which is why I am writing this.  Hopefully it will help a family or two 🙂

Disney World is a super fun place, but you have to do a few things to make it FUN! and stress free, especially with four young children.

1. Plan your trip 1 year in advance. This may sound crazy, but seriously if you don’t plan ahead you won’t get restaurant reservations, fast passes or special event tickets and then you will have to stand in long lines and fight crazy crowds and miss lots of fun stuff, you’ll be discouraged and probably won’t ever want to go back to Disney. I cannot stress this enough, plan, plan, plan!!!
2. Pay for convenience.  Time is money people! Convenience at Disney is going to cost you. In my opinion, it’s worth it to pay for extra things like Desert Parties, Character meals and On-site resorts. It will save you so much time walking and waiting which leads to a fun happy trip.
3. Visit the parks First thing in the morning and leave by noon. Every day for 7 days like clockwork at noon the kids where begging to go back to the hotel pool. It gets super hot and super crowded so quit while your still ahead. With little kids you just can’t expect to do all day at the park. Heck, I needed to head back to the hotel for a nap.  3-4 hours of morning overstimulation is plenty for the kids. Head back to the hotel for a nap, pool, whatever. Then head back to the park in the evening. This is where the advantage of having an onsite resort comes in. You are leaving the park, but you aren’t leaving Disney World. You are going back to your themed pool and room to continue the fun in a relaxing less crowded environment.
4. Relax. Realize you aren’t going to be able to do everything (not even close, actually). Disney World is HUGE there are 4 parks and it would probably take a few months to do everything. Take time to look around and enjoy just being in the park. One of my favorite things to do is just push the stroller down main street with my coffee in the morning and soak in the magic.

 

Hotel: The great debate of On-site Disney Resorts vs Off-Site Non-Disney 

Pros of On-Site with a family of 6 people:

1. No car rental needed & no carseats to deal with. Disney Magical Express bus picks you up from the airport and drops you off at your hotel. You don’t even have to get your checked luggage, they deliver it directly to your room. For a family of 6 for a week stay at Disney this saves about $1200 in renting a Mini-Van. Plus it saves having to park at the Disney Parks which is currently $40 a day. So to rent a car and park for our family would be at least $211 a day. I’d rather spend that money on the Resort Hotel.
2. Monorail, Boat and Bus transportation to and from the parks at any time during the day. With little kids it is necessary to take a midday break. We hit the parks right at opening and then leave by noon when the parks get jam packed and super hot. Then we head back to the parks around 5:00 when it is less crowded. Some off-site hotels have shuttles, but as of now they only operate in the morning and evening, so if you want to leave the park in the afternoon and then go back it’s not really possible. The Monorail and Boat you don’t have to fold your stroller, but for all of the busses you have to get the kids out of the stroller and fold it up. Even if you are the only ones on the bus, it’s the law. 
3. FastPass+. When staying On-site you get to book FastPass+ 60 days in advance so you get the best pick of rides and times. Off-Site guests don’t get to book FastPass+ until 30 days in advance.
4. Free luggage transfer for Split Stays. There are so many hotels at Disney, it’s hard to choose. More on our Disney Resort Split-Stay later, but if you change to another Disney Resort during your stay they move your bags from one hotel to the other for you while you are at the Parks having fun.
5. Extra Magic Hours. The Early morning extra magic hour is the only one that matters with young kids. Priceless though. You can get more done in that Extra hour than you can in 2 regular hours. And you have babies so you are up early anyway. Use the Extra Magic Hours!!!!
6. Never leaving the “Disney Bubble”.  You’re going to Disney to get away from reality and staying On-Site is the only way to never leave the fun bubble. Especially fun with themed rooms and pools. This makes such a difference in my opinion. I just never want to leave the Disney fun while I’m there.

Pros of off-site:

1. Good for teenagers or going to Universal Studios and other places besides Disney. Most likely in a few years when we go back with older kids it might make more sense to rent a house, which is what we normally do on our adventures. Until we are at least out of strollers we won’t consider it.  The Disney hotels are just part of the experience for us.

 

 

Where to SAVE money at Disney

Park Tickets:

1. Parksavers.com (can usually find tickets buy 4 get 3 days free) So 7 days for the price of 4 days is a great deal. We paid $2022 total for 2 adults and 3 kids for 7 park hopper days (kids 2 and under are free). Booked Directly through Disney would have cost $2518, so thats a $496 savings. Disney raises prices each year so this price has probably already gone up. 
2. Buying tickets direct through Disney is actually more expensive. Parksavers buys discounted lots of tickets from Disney and resells them cheaper. If you get your tickets through parksavers you can link them to your Disney Account just like if you buy them through Disney. No difference.

Hotel:

1. Disney website:  I booked our Art of Animation suite directly through Disney and got the summer discount. I recommend booking the “Room only” through Disney since you can double discount. (Discounted park tickets through Parksavers & Discounted room through either Disney or other booking site). If you book everything through Disney you will only get one discount, either the room or the free dining plan.
2. Other Hotel Site: I was able to save $150 a night booking the Polynesian from Expedia (the only risk with this is it’s not freely changeable so you better be sure of your dates before purchasing) Going directly through Disney you can adjust the dates much easier if needed, but I was willing to risk it to save $150 a night for this trip. The hotel still links up to your magic bands and is just like you got it through Disney. We stayed at the Poly for 3 nights so Expedia saved us $450

Planning:

1. Touringplans.com : get a membership to this website! It’s $15 and is amazing!  You type in what you want to do each day at the parks and schedules the day for you with the best times to do everything with the least amount of walking and waiting. It was seriously well worth the money. It calculated everything perfectly and we printed out our personalized park maps for each day and we were set. Since we had so many people doing different things for their FP+ it was nice to have.
2. Disney Authorized Travel Agent: I personally don’t recommend using them for a large family that wants to do lots of different things. There are many Disney travel agents (they are paid a commission from Disney so you don’t pay for them directly). We started working with one, but it was stressful having a middle man and I just didn’t like not having control over my whole trip so we ditched the agent and did touring plans instead.  But they are free right??? Nothing is free!!! If you are booking your hotel and tickets through another website you will loose those hotel & park ticket discounts if you use a travel agent because they will book through Disney. So in a roundabout way you are paying for them even if not directly. The agents can still get you the Disney offered discounts if they are available though. If you hate planning and don’t plan on splitting the family up for FP+ and don’t care about the discounts from other websites, then yes, totally use the travel agents in that case it would be beneficial for you. I LOVE planning so just couldn’t let go of the control, eek!

Disney Visa:

1. If you get a Disney Visa card you get a $200 statement credit. I signed up for one and so did my husband. So we paid for our tickets and rooms with the card and saved $400. Then paid the cards in full and cancelled them when we got back from the trip. Only do this if you are good at not having debt. If you can’t pay off the card immediately then don’t do it or you will end up paying more for your trip in interest rates. Do not get into credit card debt ever!
2. There are special character meet & greets for Disney Visa cardholders. Kinda like having an extra FP+ for certain characters.
3. 10% off merchandise purchases over $50 at the park stores.

 

Dining Plan, Yes or No????………..I say No. Why?

1. Because you loose your other discounts. If you book the dining plan you have to also book your tickets and Hotel through Disney, so you loose the Hotel & Park ticket discounts through the other websites. Sometimes there is “free dining”. I’ve priced it out and for a family of 6 people it still is less expensive to buy dining on your own and get the discount on the hotel room and tickets.
2. Gardengrocer.com – Order all the groceries you want to your hotel room so you don’t have to make the trek to the cafeteria every time one of your kids proclaims out of nowhere that they are “starving to death”.  All Disney Hotel rooms have decent sized mini fridges. I’ll post my grocery list later on.
3. Ugh, the Cafeteria. Dealing with kids in cafeteria style settings is just not my thing. Plus, my kids don’t eat as much when they are distracted by other kids running around. Then they would be hungry like 30 minutes later so I end up paying for food they don’t eat and then having to buy more food. I much prefer eating in the room with just our family rather than loading up the whole crew to go fight with them in the crowded cafeteria and deal with meal plans and who gets what and where to sit. Some families may like this, but it’s just not for us.

Groceries Delivered to your resort room: Convenient and less expensive, a win win!!

We ordered milk, deli meat, bread, peanut butter, honey, jelly, cheese, yogurt, lots of fruits & veggies, granola bars, muffins, donuts, crackers, popcorn, juice, gallons of spring water (florida water is really gross and I’m NOT a water snob), snacks, lots of beer and wine. We were stocked for 7 days in our mini fridge. We packed food for the parks each day so we never bought a meal at the parks. I’m guessing this saved us a ton of money. A couple of days we did a few snacks like Mickey Pretzels and Mickey ice cream bars, but those are so cheap compared to actual meals in the park. And we probably saved a few hundred dollars on alcohol. The pool bar isn’t cheap. Beer is $8.25 and cocktails are $9.50-$18.00 each not including gratuity.

 

Where to SPEND money at Disney

I’m not a super cheap person but I don’t like to pay for stuff when I can save money.  So I don’t recommend these lightly. At Disney, time is money and when you have 4 kids in tow there are certain things that are well worth spending money on to save you time, headaches, meltdowns and your sanity.

Character Meals. you’re paying for the characters, not the food (even though most of the food is pretty good, it’s not “$60+ a person good”). I recommend doing the Breakfast for all Character meals EXCEPT “Be Our Guest” because the only time you can meet the Beast Character is at dinner.

Tips for Character meals:

1. Split the group if you can. My boys were not at all interested in eating with princesses, which was totally fine with me! At $60+ per adult and $35+ per kid, I was totally fine with NOT paying for them. It was a fun time for just me and Eloise to chill with the princesses. The boys went souvenir shopping and did rides while we ate with the princesses at Cinderella’s Royal table and Akershus.
2. Breakfast is better than dinner! Breakfast is less expensive than dinner. Kids are in a better mood earlier in the day. It gets you in the park before it opens to get a jump start on the crowds (for the restaurants that are actually in the parks of course)

Ohana (Polynesian Resort): My review: this is really fun. we LOVE Stitch so it was great! Characters: Stitch, Lilo, Mickey, Goofy, Pluto. As of now, this is the only place you can meet Stitch.

 

 

Cinderella’s Royal Table (Magic Kingdom): Characters: Cinderella, Jasmine, Ariel, Snow White, Aurora.  My review: Awesome food, fantastic setting, great overall experience. Will do this every visit. This is also the only way to see inside Cinderella’s Castle. BOOK THIS 180 DAYS IN ADVANCE!!!!!

 

Akershus (Epcot): Characters: Belle, Cinderella, Ariel, Snow White, Aurora (sometimes Mulan or Jasmine). My review: for the price it’s not great food, not that cool of an atmosphere. It was fine but I wouldn’t do it again. Don’t recommend unless you can’t get into Cinderella’s Table, then just do it to meet the Princesses. Or if you don’t have a Fastpass for the Frozen ride. They start running the ride at 8:45 so if you book an early breakfast eat fast and go on the Frozen ride (at 9:05 the ride will have at least a 45 min wait).

 

Be Our Guest (Magic Kingdom) Characters: Beast.  My review: amazing food, amazing atmosphere, just the best place in all of Disney World.  Meet the Beast at Dinner only, request to sit in the West Wing, where the enchanted Rose is. Try the “Grey Stuff”, it’s delicious. As of now this is the only place you can meet The Beast and he is there for DINNER ONLY.  Do this with the whole family. There are NO princesses at this meal BELLE IS NOT THERE (she is at Akershus)!  BOOK THIS 180 DAYS IN ADVANCE!!!!!

Fireworks Dessert Party with Plaza Garden Viewing: this was hands down THE BEST MONEY WE SPENT THE WHOLE TRIP!

1. NO WAITING FOR FIREWORKS. If you haven’t been to a Disney Park before, the fireworks (it’s more of a Castle light, projection, music fireworks extravaganza) are amazing and in my opinion the best part of the trip. However, it is a massive cluster crowd of people smashed together to watch them. People start staking claim to spots HOURS in advance. With 4 kids there is no way I was interested in staking a claim for hours just to ultimately be squished in and have someone put a kid on their shoulder right in front of me and block the view of the spot I had just staked out for 2 hours. We meandered in to the garden around 8:50 and the fireworks started at 9:00, we had plenty of space to pick a great spot away from other people.
2. NO CROWDS! Reserved spot in the Plaza Garden with tons of space for the kids to run and play. They limit the number of people able to buy tickets for this event so there is tons on space in the garden. We had a solid ten foot circle around us of NOBODY for the whole fireworks show!
3. Sit or stand. If you are not in a reserved spot then you have to stand because everyone stands and just pray that nobody taller than you stands in front of you. And you will be shoulder to shoulder with the crowd. In the reserved section we were able to leave the baby and 4 year old in the stroller and sit on the grass to watch the fireworks.
4. Good Location. For the fireworks you don’t want to be too close to the castle or too far away from it. I wouldn’t go any closer than the “partner’s statue”. The garden is actually the perfect distance from the Castle to watch the fireworks. Not to close, not too far.
5. Desserts. Meh, they were good, but who are we kidding, we booked this for the view.  But as a rundown there was all sorts of fancy deserts, an ice cream bar, make your own cupcake, drinks of every flavor, cheeses and fruits. The food is not worth $60 per adult and $35 per kid, that we paid for the show which goes on rain or shine.

 

 

Daily Park Visiting Schedule:

1. Arrive before the park opens. It’s less crowded, lower temperatures, better lighting, etc. You will have to wait in a security checkpoint line, then a line to get into the park. The lines can get long in the morning. Be through them by 15 min prior to park opening if not earlier. Depending on the Hotel you are staying at and the Park you are going to it can take anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour to go from your hotel room to the inside of the park.
2. Go start riding, meandering or doing whatever you want to do before the park gets it’s second wave of guests (late sleepers) around 10:00.  From 9-10 am most rides except the usuals that always have a long wait (mine train, princesses, splash, space, thunder, etc.) should have a 0-15 minute wait.
3. At 10:00 longer lines will start to form so schedule your Fastpass+ windows to start at 9:30, 10:30 & 11:30. Then you will actually use your Fastpass+ rides at 10:30, 11:00 and 11:30.
4. At 12:00 all the really late sleeper guests will arrive at the park, it will get really crowded and really HOT, the kids will start complaining or falling asleep and you will want to get the heck out of there! After your last Fastpass+ is used schedule another one for the evening at whatever park you want to visit that night.
5. Back to Hotel to eat, chill, nap, pool, etc.
6. Head back to the park in the evening for another Fastpass+ night rides & Fireworks.

 

 

Ok, so now that we’ve gotten the basics out of the way, here are some other general tips to make your trip way “funner”.

Spend at least 7 Days at the Parks: it seems like a long time when you say it out loud, but if you plan on only spending the mornings in the parks and a few evenings then it’s not really. There are 4 different parks: Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Hollywood Studios and Animal Kingdom. So one day at each park is already 4 days.

Room request: request a room on the first floor closest to transportation to minimize walking. Disney resorts are extremely large and spread out. You will be walking all day at the parks, the last thing you want is a 15 minute walk from the bus to your hotel room on your way back. Check Touringplans.com  for all hotel maps and room views so you know which room to request for your resort. This is seriously an AMAZING planning tool. If you pick the right room it saves so much time and walking.

Photopass: We did buy the PhotoPass (it was $150 at the time) and glad that we did it. I didn’t want to deal with my fancy-pants camera in the parks because I wanted to just concentrate on having fun and being with the family for our first trip. I did take my iPhone so that’s what most of my pictures are taken with. I do recommend it if you are there for 5-7 days and plan on meeting lots of Characters. If you are only there for 3 or so days it probably isn’t worth it since the price is still the same, but you don’t get as many pictures. We had over like 780 pictures from PhotoPass at the end of the trip so that was worth it. The photographers did a decent job, not perfect or amazing, but good enough. Lots of the Character meets have really wonky lighting and the PhotoPass photographers have their cameras already set up for that lighting. I would have been messing with camera settings too much and would have missed out on the fun.

Clothing: Have fun with your outfits!!! Honestly, this is one of my favorite parts of vacation planning. I know we are going to be taking lots of pictures so I don’t want everyone in t-shirts and gym shorts. I’ll do a whole blog post on how I plan vacation attire for the family that coordinates. The quick rundown though is to coordinate, not “match” the whole family. Have a theme for each day depending on the Characters you will be seeing and the park you are going to and go from there. My favorite places to get coordinating clothes for the kids are Target, Old Navy & Gap. Mostly shopping online for more options and better coupon codes.  Clothing for the hubby is usually Banana Republic, JCrew and Target character t-shirts. My clothing is usually from various places like Bloomingdales, Nordstrom, ASOS, and Target.

Dressing kids in the same clothing: Not just for fun, but also good for spotting kids in a crowded park. It is way easier to spot your kids if you know exactly what they are wearing. Super easy if you dress them the same. My boys pretty much always wore the same outfit. They are too young to care still thank goodness. It was nice to be able to immediately pick them out of the crowd if they wanted to walk ahead  or behind a few steps.

Waiting: don’t ever wait in a line longer than 30 minutes. We didn’t, and we skipped a lot of rides, but we had way more fun than if we would have waited in line for 45 minutes for a 5 minute ride. When we were there the Frozen ride had a 3 hour wait!!!! that’s insane. We had a Fastpass+ for it so we walked right on, and it’s a neat ride, but there is no way in heck I would wait longer than 30 minutes for it. No ride at Disney or anywhere in my opinion is worth more than 30 minutes of my time to wait, so we just didn’t.

Touringplans.com : get a membership to this website! It’s $15  for a year and is amazing!  You type in what you want to do each day at the parks and schedules the day for you with the best times to do everything with the least amount of walking and waiting. It was seriously well worth the money. It calculated everything perfectly and we printed out our personalized park maps for each day and you are set. Since we had so many people doing different things for their FP+ it was nice to have. There are lots of free Disney travel agents out there (they are paid a commission from Disney so you don’t pay for them directly,) we started working with one, but it was stressful having a middle man and I just didn’t like not having control over my whole trip so we ditched the agent and did touring plans instead.  Again, you will probably loose your discounts if you use one of these travel agents so yes, in a roundabout way you are paying for them even if not directly.

Character Autographs: we got a photo mat board and had the characters sign in different colors. The characters thought it was funny and now we can frame a family picture from the trip and have it on the wall. The Characters are hilarious and amazing actors.

Grocery Delivery to your room: I’m mentioning this again because it was a lifesaver. Having lots of food in the room was great. Super convenient and saved tons of $$$.

Rider Switch Passes: If you have a baby take advantage of the Rider swap at Disney. We were wangle to get 4 Fastpasses for the Seven Dwarves Mine Train because we used Rider Switch.

How to do Rider Switch Example:

1. Book a FP+ for Dad & 2 Boys for Mine Train at 11am
2. book FP+ for mom, daughter and baby for Ariel Meet and Greet at 11am (same time)
3. At 11:00 the whole family goes to Mine Train FP+ lane and ask for a “Rider Switch Pass” (they have to see the baby that cannot go on the ride, they won’t just hand it out).
4. Boys go on Mine Train, Girls & Baby go meet Ariel.
5. At the end of the Mine Train ride they will give the Dad a FP+ that is good for 3 people to ride again anytime during your stay.
6. So even if Mom doesn’t want to go on the ride, Dad can take the boys back in the FP+ lane again that day or any other day of your vacation.

 

 

 

Our 7 Day Disney World Itinerary 

Day #0 Travel Schedule

10:00 Flight from Kansas City to Orlando

2:00 take magic Express to Resort

3:00 Check in to Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort Chill, eat, visit the pool

9:00 watch fireworks from Polynesian

 

Day #1 Epcot Schedule

9:30 Late morning – arrive at Epcot ride Living with the Land meander and take pictures get coffee

10:00 FP+ Finding Nemo ride

10:30 FP+ Turtle Talk with Crush show

11:00 walk through the aquarium

11:30 FP+ Test Track (Dad, 9 year boy, 7 year boy)**get second FP+ via Rider Switch***

12:00 it’s hot and crowded, leave park

1-4pm Polynesian Pool, rest

5:00 use Rider Switch FP+ to ride Test Track again (Dad, 9 year boy, 7 year boy)

5:30 FP+ Frozen Ride (Mom, girl) No rider switch with FP+ only with standby, which is odd, but whatever.

6-7pm meander around Epcot world showcase. get some beers and ice cream. Meet Donald Duck in Mexico, Meet Pluto.

Back to Polynesian Resort to watch the Electrical Water Parade Fireworks from the Poly Beach starts at 8:50

Day #2 Schedule for Magic Kingdom. 

8:00-9:00 Cinderella’s Royal Table Breakfast

9:00-10:30 am: Ride Winnie the Pooh, ride Small world, Meet Gaston, ride teacups, ride carousel

10:30 FP+ Space Mountain (Dad, 9 year boy, 7 year boy)**get second FP+ via Rider Switch***

10:30 FP+ Meet Ariel (Mom, girl, baby)

11:00 FP+Peter Pan

11:30 FP+Mine Train (Dad, 9 year boy, 7 year boy)**get second FP+ via Rider Switch***

11:30 FP+Under the Sea ride (Mom, girl, baby)

12:00 meander back up main street look in a few shops and leave the park

1-4pm Polynesian Pool, rest time

 

 

 

Day #3 Schedule for Animal Kingdom

7:45 Bell service picks up bags to move to new hotel

8:00 Character Breakfast at Ohana (at the Polynesian Hotel)

9:00 leave for Animal Kingdom via bus

9:45 FP+ Kilimanjaro Safari

10:30 FP+ Navi River journey

11:00 Festival of the Lion King Show

11:45 FP+Kali River Rapids (Dad, 9 year boy, 4 year old girl)**get second FP+ via Rider Switch***

12:00 Get Ice cream at the Anandapur Ice Cream Truck

12:30 Meet Pocahontas

12:50 FP+Dinosaur (Mom, 7 year old boy)**get second FP+ via Rider Switch***

1-2:00 Use Rider Switch FP+ to ride Kali River & Dinosaur again

3:00 leave park to check into new hotel Art of Animation

Evening- Chill at new hotel

 

 

Day #4 Schedule for Hollywood Studios (AM) and Magic Kingdom (PM)

9:00 Chill morning (with NO FP+)walk around and look at star wars stuff

9:30 meet Chewbacca

9:45 meet BB-8

10:00 watch March of the First Order

10:30 Meet Goofy

10:45 meet Chip n Dale

11:00 we planned to see the Beauty and The Beast Live Show, but the baby was asleep in the stroller. (taking an upset baby into a live play is a REALLY BAD IDEA. Just FYI, nobody will have fun and the show will be ruined for you and everyone around you. This is a situation of rolling with the punches. Anytime the baby falls asleep in the stroller a great “backup plan” is to go get in line to meet a character. Most character lines you can keep your baby in the stroller. ALL Shows, Character Dining and Rides will have “stroller parking” and you will have to carry your baby through the lines. 

11:00 “Backup Plan” meet Olaf

11:30 “Backup Plan” meet Daisy

12:00 out of park back to hotel

12-3:00 pool/nap at hotel

3:00 leave for Magic Kingdom

4:00 Dinner Reservation at “Be Our Guest” restaurant (requested the West Wing)

5:30 Meet the Beast after dinner

5:45 FP+ Enchanted Tales with Belle

6:30 FP+ Mine Train (Dad, 9 year boy, 7 year boy)**get second FP+ via Rider Switch***

6:45 Meet Winnie the Pooh & Tigger

7:00 Use Rider Switch FP+ to ride Mine Train again, this time with Mom & 2 boys

7:30 FP+ Splash Mountain (Mom, 9 year boy, 7 year boy)**get second FP+ via Rider Switch***

7:45 Use Rider Switch FP+ to ride Splash Mountain again, this time with Dad & 2 boys

8:00 Teacups

8:20 Dessert Party at Tomorrowland Terrace

8:45 head to reserved Plaza Viewing for Fireworks

9:00 Fireworks

10:00 back to hotel

 

Enchanted Tales with Belle

 

Day #5 Schedule for Magic Kingdom with Morning EMH (Extra Magic Hours)

7:15 at bus stop to leave for park

8:00 meet Tinkerbell, get coffee, take pictures in front of Cinderella’s Castle, meet Merida, meet Alice, ride Teacups, ride Dumbo, ride Small World, meander around

10:00 FP+ Pirates of the Caribbean

10:30 FP+ Jungle Cruise

11:30 FP+ Splash Mountain (Mom, 9 year boy, 7 year boy)**get second FP+ via Rider Switch***

11:30 Dad takes 4 year old girl and baby to meet Aladin & Jasmine

12:00 FP+ Mine Train (Dad, 9 year boy, 7 year boy)**get second FP+ via Rider Switch***

1:00 back to hotel

Day #6 Schedule for EPCOT & Hollywood Studios

8:05 Akershus Breakfast (I wouldn’t do this again) Good if you want to get in the park early to ride Frozen without a FP+ (eat fast)

8:50 ride Frozen (no wait if you are in the park early for Breakfast) At 9:05 when they opened the park gates there was already an hour wait…..eeeek

9:15 bus to Hollywood Studios

9:45 sign up for Jedi Training, watch March of the First Order

10:30 FP+ Toy Story (Dad, 9 year boy, 7 year boy)**get second FP+ via Rider Switch***

11:00 meet Minnie and Mickey (magician’s hat) in Red Carpet Dreams

11:30 look at more Star Wars Stuff

12:00 back to hotel (lunch, pool)

5:00 FP+ Frozen Sing Along

6:00 Indiana Jones Show

6:30 Use Rider Switch FP+ to ride Toy Story again (mom and 3 older kids)

7:00 sit and eat Mickey Pretzel on curb and people watch

7:30 FP+ Tower of Terror (Dad, 9 year boy, 7 year boy)**get second FP+ via Rider Switch***

7:45 Use Rider Switch FP+ to ride Tower of Terror again (mom and 9 year old boy)

8:00 too tired for Fantasmic, back to hotel

Video of Eloise at the Frozen Sing Along. The first 30 minutes of the show were pretty boring for her as Anna appears like once then you are told a “story” by the “village storytellers”. The Storytellers are kind of funny (Rowan, our 9 year old thought it was hilarious). Eloise was asking where Elsa was for 30 minutes, ugh. Elsa finally makes an appearance for the last 5 minutes to sing “Let it Go” and it snows in the theater which was cool. I really want to see the Frozen show at DisneyLand which is a full on theater production, maybe next year 😉

Day #7 Last Day – Magic Kingdom

9:00 coffee and meander main street, Tomorrowland Speedway,

10:00 FP+ Barnstormer (Dad, 9 year boy, 7 year boy)

10:30 FP+ meet Rapunzel & Tiana (mom and 4 year old girl)

10:45 ride teacups again

11:00 FP+ Haunted Mansion (mom, 9 year boy, 7 year boy)

11:30 FP+ ride Peter Pan

12:00 meet Peter Pan character

12:15 Use Rider Switch FP+ (from day 5) to ride Mine Train agiain

12:30 Use Rider Switch FP+ (from day 5) to ride Splash Mountain again

1:00 family picture on Main Street, buy last souvenir, stand on train station platform and say goodbye to Disney World

2:00 Drive to the BEACH!

 

 

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