We averaged about nine miles a day while we were in Disney World. Knowing this ahead of time, I rented a stroller so we wouldn't have to force march the kids or have to carry them all day. It was delivered to us around 7am Saturday morning. I had read a lot about how to set up your stroller. We got a cute stroller banner and lights to help us identify our stroller quickly amongst a sea of strollers. I actually got two banners, one normal and one Halloween themed. We had two Mickey ear stroller hooks to hold our Mickey water bottles. Bottled water is expensive so I would fill our water bottles (with propel flavor too) every morning. There are water stations throughout the park to refill. We had a Mickey attachable bag to easily grab our autograph books. I had a see through mesh bag under the stroller with an umbrella, rain ponchos, a stroller rain cover, the fans, snacks, a first aid kit (Motrin, kids Tylenol, bandaids, etc) and sweatshirts if needed. The stroller was key.
Timing is everything in Disney now with lightening lane. If you are scheduling a trip now, you have to buy lightening lane daily after midnight if you want to use it. Back when I booked the trip, I was able to just buy it for the whole stay. Lightening lane goes live at 7am. You have to strategically pick your lightening lane (skip the line) and you can't make a second selection until you ride your first lightening lane, it has been two hours after the park opens or two hours after you made your last lightening lane selection. It will only allow you to select the next available lightening lane for each ride, you cannot pick when you want to ride it. I spent tons of time reading strategies for each park. In addition to lightening lane, each park has one individual attraction selection ride that you can pay for in order to skip the line. This is usually the most popular ride in each park. Lines can be as long as four hours for these rides so obviously, I just bought the pass. Lightening lanes for each person each day of your visit can add up, but truly, it is worth every penny. The entire week we probably waited no more than two to three hours total and half of that was because a ride broke while we were in line. Our first day in Magic Kingdom, we rode over twelve rides, whereas without lightening lane, it probably would have been four to five. Every morning, I would wake up and get ready, go get my coffee from the coffee station and be back in my room by seven to make my lightening lane selections.
It's not housekeeping in Disney, it's mousekeeping. We had these cute mousekeeping cards for the tip each day.
The breakfast lounge! The kids could walk here on their own and pick breakfast while I was packing lunches.
We actually ate in the lounge the first morning after the stroller was delivered.
I had temporary tattoos for the kids in case they got lost. Luckily, we only lost one child in the hotel who was returned to us quickly.
Our first look at the castle from up close! We rope dropped every day except the last two days in Animal Kingdom. When you stay on Disney property, you can get into each park thirty minutes early ahead of everybody else and it's called early theme park entry. If you are there immediately when they drop the rope, it is called rope dropping. You can use this thirty minutes to ride rides with low wait times without using a lightening lane.
Magic Kingdom was beautifully decorated for fall. I loved all the carved pumpkins on the buildings.
We had photo pass so that we could use the professional photographers throughout the park. All of the pictures we stopped to take with these photographers as well as photos from the rides went directly to the account on my phone.
If you wave at these gold statues with your magic band, they will talk to you. Our magic bands were our keys to the room, the way to get into lightening lanes, the link for photo pass, our form of payment in the parks and would also light up and vibrate during fireworks. We got little safety straps from Amazon prior to the trip to help keep them on. I wouldn't wear them without a safety strap or you could loose them.
Cinderella's wishing well!
One thing that really proved helpful was memorizing the park maps prior to our visit. I had also watched videos of people walking through the parks so that I knew where everything was. It saved a lot of time to know where all the rides, restaurants and bathrooms were without having to use a map during our trip. I also knew where the shortcuts were which was helpful to beat crowds.
We rope dropped Small World. It was the kid's first ride!
After Small World, we ran over to Haunted Mansion.
Rapunzel's area! She doesn't have a ride, but has great bathrooms!
After Haunted Mansion, we rode Cinderella's Carousel. Harper was angry because she didn't get to Cinderella's horse first. It is the only horse with a golden ribbon on the tail. Don't worry, we got it later in the week. Ethan was terrified initially.
After the carousel, the kids attempted to pull the sword out of the stone. No such luck!
Then we walked over to Sir Mickey's to get some pixie dust! According to Peter Pan, all you need to fly is faith, trust and pixie dust!
Our first lightening lane was Jungle Cruise. It is a cute boat tour through the jungle where the driver tells nonstop jokes.
We then went on a magic carpet ride with Aladin!
Enchanted Tiki Room!
You always have to watch out for spitting camels in Adventure Land!
Before our trip, I had picked which restaurants I wanted to eat at. There are different types of restaurants in Disney World - those that require a reservation and quick service restaurants. You can make a reservation sixty days in advance at 545am. You have seconds to get the reservation at some restaurants before they fill up. Luckily, I was able to get all the reservations we wanted. The quick service restaurants allow you to mobile order food hours before you want to eat. You select a time you want to pick up the food and when you show up, it is ready to take! This avoids waiting in lines to order food. I mobile ordered food at Columbia Harbour House for lunch. The food was amazing!! We sat upstairs and had a cute view of Liberty Square. The kids ate sandwiches and snacks I brought from the room.
We ate a lot of desserts on this trip!
We didn't ride splash mountain. I remember getting soaked on this ride when I was ten and definitely wanted to avoid it!
Our next lightening lane was Pirates of the Caribbean. We loved this ride!
We also loved the Mad Tea Party ride.
My individual attraction selection for Magic Kingdom was Seven Dwarfs Mine Train. Ethan was tall enough to ride so we brought him on. Unfortunately, he was terrorized. The rest of us loved the ride!
After traumatizing Ethan on Seven Dwarfs, we headed over to Ariel's Grotto for a more kid-friendly ride.
We decided to head back to the hotel to go swimming in the afternoon after an action packed morning. We heard a nice Dapper Dans song on our way out of the park.
The Wilderness Lodge had both bus and boat transportation to Magic Kingdom. We took a boat back to the hotel.
Our hotel had the cutest details everywhere! This little beaver was in the elevators.
The outside of our hotel was just as beautiful!
Not pictured was the cute matching Mickey Mouse bathing suits I had for both kids. When we got to the pool, Harper decided she no longer wanted to wear it so Alex took her back to the room to change, much to my dismay!
We got to see the geyser erupt while we were at the pool!
After the pool, we headed back to Magic Kingdom for our dinner reservation at Be Our Guest.
Be Our Guest! This is a coveted restaurant inside the castle from Beauty and the Beast.
We had to wait a little for our table to be ready so the kids took a quick nap.
We were seated in the Rose Room. It is a scary room with a dark themes and lightening outside. We loved it! The rose petals were slowly falling from the rose.
The photo of the Prince would change to the Beast when it would storm. The Beast himself came into the room for a quick visit too!
The food was amazing. The kid's dessert was interactive!
After dinner, we rode our last several lightening lanes then watched fireworks. We rode in a hunny pot on Winnie the Pooh.
We rode on flying elephants on Dumbo.
We also rode another roller coaster, the Barnstormer.
Harper loved the Carousel of Progress.
Fighting crowds for a fireworks view was not fun. Some people line up an hour before the fireworks for a good spot.
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