Disney was fun, but tiring. Florida is so hot and humid, and at the lower altitude it just feels HEAVY. The kids had their moments, I know it was more than they expected, it was more than I expected!
I promise to give you all the vacation details, but I wanted to give you a tip or two first. I'm not a Disney pro, but after our week there, I have a little insight I would like to share.
If you are planning a vacation to Disney make sure you stay at one of their resorts. We stayed at All Star Movies, which is what Disney considers 'low end'. If I had it to do all over again, I would still stay there. The rooms had two full beds, enough for a family of four, and a bathroom and tv. Really do you need more? You'll be at the parks or the pool, so really the room is just for sleeping and showering, why waste the money? The real reason I say stay at their resorts, is because you can bundle your package and save even more money.
Trust me, you want to bundle, cause Disney is not cheap! Eating a meal at a restaurant for a family of four can cost $140 per meal, a quick dine meal can run about $60 per meal. When I say quick dine, think fast food, of course the food at Disney is outstanding. They know how to do customer service. We bought the meal plan, and you can only buy it if you are staying at the resort. The meal plan cost us $36 per day for each adult and $5 per day for each kid, grand total $82 per day, not even the price of one meal! What did we get with the meal plan? Three meals and two snacks per day. We actually left with 9 individual meals still not used. I say individual because, we had a total of 84 meals and 56 snacks on the plan.
Another great bundle tip, is getting the park hopper passes. You want this for sure. It lets you go to as many parks per day as you want, not including the water parks. We didn't do the water parks, we just used the pool for an hour or so every day, the kids where happy with this. We went to two parks per day, most days. Plus when you buy the park hoppers with the bundle you get a huge discount. Plus if you set up reservations for meals at the parks, you have to have a ticket to get into eat, and you may eat at more than one park per day.
Most important tip, don't book your vacation online, call them directly. I did this at it saved me $$$$. When booking online it doesn't give you all the discounts, you need to talk to a live person for this. I know it can be inconvenient, but really for the money who cares? Trust me you will spend the money on STUFF! Disney is a marketing genius, they have store at the end almost every ride, so you get off to 'I want this!' every thirty minutes!
When you book your vacation, try to do it at least 6 months out. This way you can start booking your dining reservations. I only booked 45 days out, so there where a few restaurants we couldn't eat at, they were all booked up. Trust me if you are bringing kids you want to do as much of the character dining as possible, and 45 days out was just not enough time.
I promise more tips and vacation fun, with pics of course, sooner rather than later. I will leave you with this picture of my daughter after her boutique experience!
Lauren as Sleeping Beauty!
Love, XX
