A few weeks ago, I went to Disney World for the first time. Well, technically the first time, i was inside my Mom's womb. But as far as my first trip to Disney World that I remember.. this trip was it.
Now, a few weeks removed from the trip, I find myself looking back and remembering mostly the fun we had and already hoping very much to return someday! This blog post will be just a few highlights of our Disney Trip. I will not attempt to cover everything we did.
I also will try to throw in a few tips as a first time visitor to WDW for those who may be planning their trip. Keep in mind I am no expert by any means on the subject of Disney traveling. There are dozens of excellent websites and youtube channels out there for well informed, detailed trip planning advice! A couple of my favorites are Blair Lamb's youtube channel and the Disney food blog (which also has a youtube channel too) So just think of my tips as simply the ramblings of a Disney newbie who has already decided she will return someday! :) By the way, those two sites have no idea I'm recommending them nor will they probably ever haha!
Back to our trip..
As a bit of back story, this vacation would not have been possible without the loving generosity of my Mother and Father in Law. The group going on this trip totaled six people: five adults (my in-laws and brother in law, my husband and me), and our four year old, James.
We all drove a few hours north to the Cincinnati airport because that's just how the airline prices worked out. After spending a night in a hotel near the airport, we were up well before dawn and took the hotel shuttle to the airport terminal. The flight down ended up being a very pleasant experience. We had those little screens on the back of each seat and we could watch movies or play fun little games like tic-tac-toe, word searches and more. It helped the time go quickly and in no time, we landed in Orlando. At the airport there, we found the very long line for the Disney Magical Express which is the free bus service to all of the Disney resorts. (Although I heard that service is ending next year..sad face. Hopefully they will replace it but I don't know details.) Anyway, after being in line for what seemed like forever but was probably only like 45 minutes, we got on a bus that had cute Disney character pictures all over the outside. The seats inside were nice and plush and the 20 minutes or so that we drove to our resort was quite pleasant.
We stayed at the Pop Century Resort. This is one of the "Value" resorts which means it is near the lower end of the price point for a Disney resort. But I am not kidding when I say I totally loved the resort. From pictures, I wasn't sure if I would but in person, it was so cool. The resort has a retro feel. There are four or five sections and each one has a different decade as its theme. Our rooms were in the 1950 decade section. The buildings in our section were painted a light purple. Statues and silhouettes of memorable things from that decade decorated the buildings and grounds. I especially loved the giant "lady and the tramp" statues near the pool outside of our building.
We were able to leave our luggage and go get lunch in the onsite dining area. The food service at Pop Century is a mix of grab and go items and cafeteria style foods. Our first meal there we ordered burgers if I remember right. They weren't bad.
We took off after lunch and found the bus line for Magic Kingdom. It wasn't long before we pulled up in front of that park and we got off the bus.
I have to be honest, by this time, all of us were more than a little tired. We had all been up since around 4 am, a long morning of travel and figuring out where to go and what to do etc.. made that first afternoon at Disney kind of long in my opinion. Plus it was just plain hot. We did get some good pictures that day in front of Cinderella's castle and a few other spots, rode a few rides including jungle Cruise, Big Thunder Mountain (I screamed the entire ride!), saw a show or two, and ended the evening with dinner at Diamond Horseshoe which was a very good, family style meal. We did see most of the castle fireworks as well afterwards before heading back to the hotel for a night of rest.
The next morning, rejuvenated from a decent night of sleep, we ate breakfast then headed to Animal Kingdom. This was a pretty fun day. We rode several rides and enjoyed the animal safari. But my favorite two things were a show with birds that flew low over our heads, and the lion king show. That last one did make James cover his ears as he thought it was too noisy. But I loved it.
Animal Kingdom overall seems easier to walk around in and I think we covered basically every area in the day. We ate supper at Flame BBQ which was delicious. Back at the resort, James wanted to go swimming so Matt and I took him. It was a lovely night and we enjoyed relaxing in the large pool after a long day of fun.
The next day was EPCOT day. This was probably my favorite park we visited. For one thing, we got to ride the skyliner there from our resort. The skyliner is so much fun and even though I'm a little scared of heights, I was fine with it. The views were great and it just felt so nice to breeze over the treetops.
Along with that fun experience of the skyliner, I also loved EPCOT's rides for the most part. we got to go on the Frozen theme ride first thing and I loved that ride. It was beautiful and mostly a gentle boat ride but it also had a couple moments of excitement thrown in. We all liked it I think.
Another favorite ride of mine from EPCOT was Soarin'. I actually rode it twice. Sadly, it scared James pretty badly the first time. But the second time, he stayed with his Grandparents and I went on it again with my husband and his brother. If you haven't been, it is basically an IMAX movie but you are in a seat with a lapbelt and the entire row lifts up into the air so your legs are dangling and you feel like you are hang gliding. They even change the scents in the air depending on the scene you are soaring over. When we "soared" over an ocean scene, there was a smell of ocean breezes. And when we went over a herd of elephants lumbering in the Savannah, there was a fresh grass scent. It was a super cool adventure.
Besides rides, we also sampled some yummy food and browsed the shops throughout the world showcase. This might have been my favorite part of the day. For one thing, as evening came, the air grew cooler and there was a perfect breeze. And it's just lovely as you walk or sit along the water near the world showcase.
We headed back on the skyliner and went to bed.
The next day was Hollywood studios. We again rode the skyliner which was awesome. Matt and I opted to head with James to Toy Story land first. James was quite grouchy on this fourth day of our vacation and it was all we could do to convince him to ride any rides. But he finally tried the alien saucers and loved it so much that we ended up riding it three times. He also liked toy story mania. We explored Galaxy's edge some as well, including drinking some fun juice at the cantina.
Some other favorites from Hollywood Studio day were riding the Mickey runaway train ride, going to a Disney Junior themed song and dance party, watching a very good Beauty and the Beast show, and eating a delicious supper at Mama Melrose Italian restaurant. It was maybe my favorite meal of the week. And walking outside afterwards, it was so lovely near there with lights around a nearby fountain and again the cooler, breezy air. The weather really overall was lovely for most of our trip.
Our final park day, we actually split up. Our little three person family unit went back to Magic Kingdom. The rest went back to Hollywood Studios. We headed our separate ways with plans to meet up for supper.
Our second day in Magic Kingdom was wonderful. Arriving in the morning gave me a fresh perspective and we just had the best time together. We rode nearly all the rides in tomorrowland, had lunch nearby, rode more rides in fantasyland and adventureland, and just enjoyed the atmosphere.
Around 5, we headed back to the resort and rested for a few minutes before meeting up with the others and heading to the bus to Disney Springs. Disney Springs is like a giant outdoor shopping district with tons of restaurants as well. We had reservations at Planet Hollywood. We shopped for a bit then went and ate. It was a fun place and we enjoyed ourselves.
Later, we took a bus back to Pop Century and turned in for the night. I should note that our room, although somewhat small, was very nice. Matt, James and my room had two queen beds, one of which was actually a murphy bed (but quite comfortable), lots of creative storage, and everything was nice and updated. We had zero complaints about our room.
The next day we were heading for home. But our flight was not until the evening so we had several hours to kill. We didn't have park tickets for that day so we opted to return to Disney Springs for a few hours. We shopped, walked around, ate lunch and then headed back to the resort to catch our magical express to the airport. Thankfully, our flight went smoothly other than a slight departure delay.
We arrived in Cincinnati and took the hotel shuttle back to where our cars were parked and said our goodbyes. It had been a nice family vacation for the most part.
Then we headed for home. It was very late and we were exhausted so after about an hour or so of driving, we stopped for the night at a hotel. We got into our room around 12:30 am I think and I am pretty sure i was asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow or close to it.
The next morning, we drove the remaining couple of hours home. It was so good to see our dogs again and be back in our home but already, I missed Disney.
Here are some tips that I'd say I learned from my first real trip to Walt Disney World:
1. If going with a group, be ok with splitting up for at least part of the trip. This was helpful I think because there were so many varying interests and it helped to be able to say, you do your thing, I'll do mine and we'll meet up later. Not every day was like that but it was nice to do some days together and some split up in my opinion.
2. Bring a water bottle that will keep your drink cold. I don't know the name of mine but it did a really good job of keeping my water ice cold all day. There are lots of brands to choose one from. Artic, yeti, etc...
3. You can get free cups of ice water all over the park. Ask for a couple of those cups when you are running low on water and pour into the aforementioned water bottle. :)
4. Your muscles will hurt. Prepare for that! For me, it meant having ibuprofen handy. I found that after a couple days of nonstop walking for miles, my back was killing me. I switched shoes but it did not matter, my back just hurt no matter what footwear I had on. Taking a couple ibuprofens helped tremendously. So I'd highly recommend having some on hand. Because you will hurt.
5. If possible, bring or rent a stroller if your child is any age under five. (Or even older maybe). We were very glad we rented a stroller for James. Not only did it give him a break from walking, but the UV protected awning was a huge help with keeping him from getting sunburned or just too hot. He would crawl up in the stroller and pull that shade down when he was sick of the hot sun. It was amusing in a way. Just in general, the stroller was helpful too for hauling things like my water bottle in the provided holder, or bags in the spot underneath. But the stroller was also a pain when getting on and off buses. You had to fold it each time and sometimes I'd forget to take something out and things would go rolling. One time, I had a mandarin orange stashed in the stroller. It rolled off when I folded that thing. Oh well..
6. If you can, plan well in advance and have a general idea of what you plan to do in the park on specific days. This is a tip I think I would utilize if we ever go back as a family of three. Honestly, I did not put much thought into which rides I knew for sure I wanted to ride, or which food I wanted to try etc. But having gone once, I know now that I would want to have a bit more of a detailed daily itinerary in mind for any future visits. For instance, in the future, I would probably want to loosely map out which section of the park to start with and where to go from there.
7. I'd probably also want to build in relaxation times where maybe during the hottest times of the day, we could go nap or swim for an hour or two before heading back out to the park. Maybe not every day but certainly maybe once or twice I think that would be very nice.
I'm sure I'll think of more tips later but for now, there are some highlights from our Disney vacation and some tips.
Have you ever been to Walt Disney World? What would you add to the list?
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