Disney has been on my bucket list for a long time. We have saved for two years to get there! Like I said, in the Florida post, I should have booked the beach AFTER Disney, because we ran for 9 days straight, and would have benefited from relaxing on a beach. When I say we ran, I mean we walked 10 plus miles each and every day and were up from sunrise to well after sunset! I have always said that once we do Disney, I will not do it again. One and done, I said. Well, after spending over a week at Disney, we have definitely changed our minds! We will be heading back at least every four years or so. I wanted to get the best picture of the Disney sign while driving in. We were heading into the park around 0630 in the morning, so it was a bit dark, yet. I also had thought in my mind that there was a spot to get out for pictures, but I was wrong. No matter, we felt super excited just by driving underneath it!
We booked our vacation directly through the Disney website. This was a whole process that I was only slightly prepared for. Once I had our dates, room and tickets booked, there were other dates I needed to keep in mind. At 90 days prior to leaving, since I booked on their site, we were able to make reservations to the restaurants on property. We did the moderate dining plan. I knew we would do a lot of eating and I didn't want any of it to be out of pocket. I wanted everything to be prepaid. Right at the time I was able to make the reservations at the 90 day mark, I got up and made sure that we got every single one that we wanted. There was nothing that I didn't get, and I was glad to have this option. At 60 days out, we were able to make our fast pass selections. I was unfamiliar with Fast Pass, but I had thankfully done some research on the rides that I needed to get ASAP. We ended up getting everything we wanted for that, as well. I missed out on getting the new Slinky Dog ride, but I had heard some tips on how to basically walk onto it. It is definitely a process, getting the reservations, fast passes and good deals on the trip! Another convenient part, was that our tickets were mailed to us a few weeks before we left. Our tickets were the magic bands that we would wear while at the parks. Our magic band is also used as a room key and like a debit card.
For our first day, we had Hollywood Studios planned. We parked in the parking lot on the first day, because we hadn't checked in to our room yet. As soon as we got into the park, we went to guest relations so we could pick up some birthday buttons for both kids, since their birthdays are that week and one the next week. We also got our first visit buttons. The Very first ride that we rode was Star Tours. We had a blast! Next, we ventured to the brand new Toy Story Land. We met some toy soldiers and rode the Buzz Lightyear cars. We did not get a fast pass for the new roller coaster, Slinky Dog Dash, but we planned to ride it in the evening when the lines got smaller. I had read that we would basically be able to walk onto it when everyone leaves to watch the nightly shows. The March of the First Order went through, and it was spectacular! We are Star Wars fans, so it was definitely something to see. We got to meet a lot of characters that day and we didn't mind standing indoors for them, as it was nice and cool. July in Orlando is quite hot! We had lunch at Backlot Express and used one of our meal credits. The kids got some yummy cupcakes. Sophie got a BB8 one and Braden got a chocolate sith. We watched the Beauty and the Beast show and rode many more rides. I don't recall standing in line more than 30 minutes for any rides we didn't have fast passes for. If we did, we didn't notice because like Universal, most of the queues are interactive. The Indiana Jones show was probably our favorite! We wouldn't have minded watching it again! Our reservation for the evening was at Scifi. The theme was Scifi, of course, but inside, there were lots of old cars lined up like we were at a drive in movie theater. On the big screen, were old Scifi film clips. The food was decent, but the ambiance was out of this world. See what I did there?? After dinner, we rode a few rides than we made our way to the front, where there would be a nighttime show. Slinky Dog would have to wait until the second day we visit the park. My kids were exhausted, and where we sat to wait on the show, one of them fell asleep on my legs. The show was loud and caught our attention. It was a Star Wars theme. It was an exhausting first day, but well worth it.
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| SciFi Restaurant |
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| Waiting on the Nighttime fireworks |
On day two, we were able to explore our resort for a short bit in the morning. We booked the Caribbean Beach Resort. We decided to have breakfast there and we used a quick service meals. We had the iconic mickey waffles, of course. There was some construction going on at the resort, so they had a huge meal tent set up, which was fine with us. No matter what type of vacation we are on, as long as the room is clean, we don't care, because we don't plan on being in the room long enough! When we got to the park, we basically rode the rides that we didn't have the chance to ride the day before. Brad and I enjoy rollercoasters, but we did sit out during the Rockin' Roller Coaster. Sophie said that was her favorite ride in that park. Our dinner that we had planned for the day was at Mama Melrose's Italian Restaurant. It had basic Italian food and we didn't feel like it was anything special. Our waitress saw that it was the kids' birthdays, and she brought out a special meatball cupcake and sang to them. This reservation was dinner with a show included. It was the same cost from out dining plan as a regular reservation, so it was a no brainer for me. The show included was Fantasmic, but it wasn't until much later in the evening. Our waitress gave us special tickets. While we were eating, there was a storm that rolled through. It was over in a matter of minutes and cooled everything down. It also thinned the crowd and we were able to run over and ride the Slinky Dog Dash. It was so much fun! Fantasmic was a show about Sorcerer Mickey and him defeating the dragon. I looked at the kids at one point, and they were totally focused on watching the show. It was bright, flashy, loud, and had fireworks, fire and water. At the end, a boat with all of the Disney princesses and some other characters floated through. It was a wonderful end to a jam packed day. Unfortunately, there are no more days at Hollywood Studios. We spaced it so that we would get one day at a water park and two days at each of the Disney parks.
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Meatball Cupcake from Mama Melrose's
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| Entering into Hollywood Studios |
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| Snowman in July |
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| Caribbean Beach Resort |
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| Iconic Mickey Waffles!!! |
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| Entering Hollywood Studios |
I know, it's picture overload! Day three took us to a new park and we were soooooo excited! We would finally lay our eyes on Cinderella's Castle! We couldn't wait! We had matching shirts laid out and we had booked a photographer for a few hours that day. We used the resort buses to get to the park. They were surprisingly fast. We had reservations for the Crystal Palace for breakfast, and they had Winnie the Pooh characters. The kids could have cared less about this, but me on the other hand...bring it on! I was super stoked!!! It was a buffet and they had the usual lay out for breakfast. Of course, we ate entirely too much.
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Our VERY FIRST view of Cinderella's Castle!
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After breakfast, we rode rides until mid morning and then we met the photographer. They did an amazing job. They put us in areas where there was less foot traffic. We even took some pictures on the 7 Dwarves Mine train and Dumbo. I will post some pictures below. We had a few things on our bucket list for this park. Sophie and I wanted to try some macaroons, LeFou's Brew and we wanted to meet Gaston. We got to accomplish two tasks. Gaston will have to wait until our next Magic Kingdom day. The reservations were for Be Our Guest. This was a very coveted reservation. We got seated in the main ballroom, but were able to get up and check out the other areas, though. We went into the west wing to check out the rose. We were told that it would continuously lose a petal, and it did not disappoint! Just like with every other place we had eaten so far, the waitress made a big deal out of the kids' birthdays. They sang to them and brought them out a special treat. For dessert, we had "The Grey Stuff" and it was delicious just as the dishes foretold! Once dinner was done, we got to meet Beast. Another thing on our bucket list for today was a picture with the lanterns from Tangled. After we got our pictures, we were exhausted from rides, shows, character meet and greets, and eating all day. We have one more day at Magic Kingdom, so we figured we would watch the nightly show then.
XOXO...Becky
More pictures below!!!
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| LeFou's Brew |
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| Cinderella's Castle |
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| Macaroons |
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| The Beast |
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| The Grey stuff |
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Our Lantern picture! We stood in line for about 40 minutes to get this shot!
It was well worth the wait! Braden and Brad went to do other stuff while we waited
and I think they missed out on a great shot! |
The pictures below were taken by our photographer. It was $300 and included al pictures digitally and a few hours with them. They are on Facebook and Instagram. It was worth it! These are just a few of the pictures we have.
