It has been almost 2 years since we did the Disney thing. We promised the kids we would go back when Jordan was 6 and ever since her birthday back in September, they have been asking when we would go back. We booked this trip in January and made all of our Dining reservations months in advance.
Before we left, Noah made sure we measured him to make certain he was above the 40" requirement for many of the rides he wanted to ride.
We again stayed on property, this time, we stayed at Port Orleans Riverside (check out this website for info) http://portorleans.org/. Everything about it was great and we would definitely stay here again. The location was fantastic. We had easy access to all the parks and never had to wait long for bus or boats.
Because it was Spring Break, we expected huge crowds. There were only had 2 days where the crowds became unmanageable and fortunately, our schedules were so well planned, it did not bother us. Our plans were simple. Head to the parks early, do whatever we wanted to do 1st, Fast Pass things we wanted to do twice etc.
There is no way to effectively describe how much fun we had or list everything we did.
We rode every ride in every park and in some cases multiple times.The new favorite: Toy-Story Mania in Hollywood Studios. The kids LOVED it and we rode it 4 times over 2 days at that park.
At the Magic Kingdom, we took advantage of the Extra Magic Hours (7am-3am) and by 10 am we had ridden many rides 2 or 3 times before the park started to get crowded. It was a blast.
Cole was a total thrill seeker. His favorites: Rocking Roller Coaster and Soaring
Noah loved Splash Mountain. Jordan likes rides that run slightly slower and Peter Pan and It's a Small World are her favorites.
Since we had 7 days, we did not have to rush to cram everything in each day. The beauty and benefit of staying on property is that once you have your fill or it gets too crowded, you just go back to the resort and relax. (Hit the pool, arcade, shops or sleep). Once rested, head back and have fun.
Some of the most memorable experiences:
- Breakfast with the Princesses at Epcot
- Co-Piloting the Monorail. - This was awesome
- Jedi Training - Noah was selected to attending the Jedi Training session outside of Star Tours. He successfully completed his Padawan training by defeating Darth Vadar
Additionally, This was the 1st time we used the Disney Dining Plan and I can honestly say, it was probably the best decision we've ever made. Laura made all the dining reservations months in advance and we didn't worry about anything once we arrived. Thanks to the allears and wdwinfo websites for all the information.
We tried tried restaurants in each of the main resorts and it was great. We ate at:
the Polynesian, we ate at Ohana (Awesome) and the Kona Cafe
the Wilderness lodge we hit Whispering Canyon
the Grand Floridian we at at the Grand Floridian Cafe
the Contemporary we had a character breakfast at Chef Mickey's
the Animal Kindgom Lodge we at a HUGE breakfast at Boma's (Awesome)
If it was not for the Disney Dining Plan, we would not have tried half of these places and would have likely spent much more on generic meals. Instead, we got to experience all these new places and the food at each was absolutely awesome.
Another cool experience this trip was taking the boat over to Downtown Disney. We made reservations at the T-Rex Cafe and it was a blast. We spent the day at the Animal Kingdom and then took our time heading over to dinner that afternoon. In addition to the Dinosaur sized meals, the kids got to Build a Dino (same concept as Build a Bear) which made the evening a lot of fun for them.
As mentioned above, there was not a single thing we did not do throughout the week. We rode every ride, saw almost all the shows and just had fun. The hardest part of the trip was leaving but we all know..... we'll be back.
No comments:
Post a Comment