Hi guys! I wanted to share a recap of our Disney trip on here for a few reasons. I know Instagram shows my posts to hardly anyone anymore and I wanted it for posterity! Also, this was my first trip to Disney since 1999 so I thought it’d be nice to share the perspective of a newbie, since there are already so many posts from experts! That said, we did tag along on my sister and her family’s trip, and she did hire a Disney coordinator, so we benefited from having her plan the itinerary and details for us! While my sister did all the communicating [aka no effort on my part, bless her for that!], I will say it was SO nice to have direction on where to go and when. She was able to secure our park and dinner reservations. We got the Genie+ passes and we did pay for Lightening Lane at Magic Kingdom and Epcot, which we thought was SO worth it. Because of all that, we had such a great time and were able to do/see so much. In terms of packing, I made sure to include a Yeti, some protein bars/applesauce pouches [you’re allowed to take drinks and snacks into the park, which is great for saving time and money], a portable iPhone charger [clutch! mine is this one], ponchos, Dillon’s fire tablet + headphones, mickey ears, a CBD stick [great for sore muscles], water spray, extra ziploc bags, wipes/hand sanitizer, our vitamins [these for me and these for Dillon], bandaids, Sunscreen, and advil. One thing I wish I would’ve packed is a sunglass chain because they were annoying to keep on my head with my Mickey ears on! I also forgot to pack extra socks for Dillon, so that wasn’t great. But besides that, I was pretty happy with what I had on hand. Obviously make sure you pack incredibly comfy shoes for the whole family. I wore these the entire trip and was totally fine.
Day/Night 1 – Disney Springs: We traveled in and our flight landed around noon [we were delayed 2 hours]. We took an Uber to our hotel, which was the Courtyard Marriott at the Buena Vista Village. It was your standard Marriott property but it had a nice pool, playground, and was walkable to a few restaurants. That said, we did spend a decent amount on Ubers, so keep that in mind for your expenses if you stay off of park properties. It was a quick drive so we didn’t mind, but the tab was sizeable. We walked to and ate at Bahama Breeze while we waited for our room to get ready. Once we checked in, we took a quick siesta, Dillon swam for a bit, then we met up with my sister and her family for dinner at Art Smith’s Homecomin’ at Disney Springs. It was so good! After that, we all went back to our hotels [they stayed at the Swan Reserve, which was GORGEOUS and had shuttles/boats to the parks for free, which was a nice perk]. My day 1 outfit is linked here and Dillon’s is here.
Day 2- Magic Kingdom: I was so excited for this day. We had the Lightening Lane pass for this park, which I highly recommend. With it, we were able to ride Little Mermaid, Dumbo, It’s a Small World [x2], the Carousel, Aladdin’s Magic Carpets, Space Mountain [only I rode on this with my BIL and niece and nephew since they had a Lightening Lane for it], Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin, and the Monsters Inc Laugh Factory. Dillon loved the Buzz ride, It’s a Small World, and the Magic Carpets the most. We were able to catch the character parade on our way out of the park, which was a nice surprise. I will never forget seeing Dillon’s eyes light up during that! After the park, we just went back to my sister’s hotel and ordered pizzas and hung out, which was the perfect end to Day 1. Dillon and I’s outfits are linked here.
Day 3 – Epcot: I know this was the day Mike was most excited for. Again, we did the Lightening Lane here and it was worth it. Here, we rode Spaceship Earth, Figment’s Imaginarium [x2], Nemo & Friends [x2], Crush’s Q&A, Mission Space [we had to do the Green level due to D’s height], Living On the Land [x2], Soarin’ [this was AWESOME], and we paid a visit to the Butterfly Conservatory. We also splurged on lunch at Space 220, which was epic! It is super pricey but it’s a really cool experience that Dillon loved. Mike also said that was one of the best experiences of the whole trip. One thing we loved about Epcot was that after each ride there was an area for games/activities. Spaceship Earth and the Nemo ride specifically had a ton to do after. Nemo was in the aquarium area, which Dillon obviously loved. In fact, we had dinner at Coral Reef, which was another neat location. If you and/or your kids love the space and/or the ocean, definitely slate a lot of time at Epcot. We honestly could’ve spend a whole other day there since we didn’t get to visit any of the country areas at all. I didn’t take too many pictures this day since we were constantly on the move! Our outfits are linked here.
Day 4 – Animal Kingdom: I was super excited for this day as I remembered this was one of my favorites last time I went. We chose not do the Lightening Lane here which ended up working out since the waits weren’t terrible for anything. Instead, we paid for Mike and I to do Avatar: Flight of Passage, which was INCREDIBLE. That was the best ride of the whole trip for me. We ended up getting the same time slot as my sister and her family, which made it even better. Dillon couldn’t ride that so we had half our party wait at the bottom with him and then we swapped. Besides that we were able to ride the Tricera-tops, the Jungle Safari [highly recommend], and we walked through the Maharaja Trail and the Gorilla Sanctuary. We also popped into both the Bugs Life and Lion King shows, but we left early as Dillon got a bit scared with some of the lights/effects/characters [ahem Scar]. Despite all that, we all enjoyed Animal Kingdom so much. The animals on the Safari were incredible and Avatar was truly worth it. Even just walking around the Pandora area was breathtaking. I’m not able to upload any of my pictures from the Safari since they were all Live, but trust that it was amazing! We lucked out with the weather, too. All in all, a last day WELL spent. My outfit is here.
So there you have it! A [brief] photo diary of our trip to Disney. In my opinion, 4 days was perfect. We walked a total of 27 miles! I’m so glad we went at Dillon’s current age [5.5] since we didn’t have to worry about schlepping a stroller, diapers, or bottles! He was also able to push through all day without a nap so we didn’t have to try to factor that in. I’m hopeful he remembers bits of this trip, too. It was so nice for him to get time with his cousins and I know I will remember this trip forever!
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