nikki's mickey trips

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Oh, The Places to Stay

Oh, The Places to Stay - With so many resort choices it's hard to make a decision. Here's what we've factored into our stays. #WaltDisneyWorld #Disney #DisneyVacation #DisneyResorts #Travel #Hotels #DisneyBlog

The last post about Disney Basics touches on one of the first questions of where to stay. I love staying at the Walt Disney World Resort, or as you will hear some say “on property.”  Admittedly, I haven’t stayed “off property” and I don’t really have any plans to do it either. Why? Because staying at Disney on property makes everything so easy. It’s basically an all-inclusive vacation.

I did…

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Disney Basics

NEW BLOG POST!! No idea where to start? Here's the very basics to think about when planning a #WaltDisneyWorld vacation. #DisneyWorld #wdw #disneyblog #DisneyVacation #Travel #DisneyPlanning #VacationPlanning #DisneyMom

One of the first things to happen when you return from any vacation is your friends, family, and neighbors say “How was it?” This question can lead to a myriad of other questions. Where did you stay? What did you do? Did you like it? Will you go back? Did you see this attraction or that? Did you eat at this place or that place?

A Disney vacation certainly evokes these questions and so many more.

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Planes, trains, boats, buses, and a few automobiles too. That’s how we’ve made our way to and around the Walt Disney World Resort. Our two visits to Disney have been staying at Disney-owned hotels. Our next one will be too. They make it so easy when it comes to transportation.

Of course, I have to do the “hard” part deciding which airline to fly (read: finding a Southwest Airlines flight that works with our schedule) and then getting to the airport for departure. After that, I leave it all to Disney!

Let’s face it Disney isn’t exactly a relaxing vacation. It’s full of fun but we’re often on the go and walking a lot. My relaxing comes in letting someone else take the wheel and get us from point A to point B.

Magical Express

Once we arrive at Orlando International Airport we follow the signs to Disney’s Magical Express. No, not baggage claim, I said Magical Express. I let Disney pick up our bags and deliver them to our room. Our carry-on luggage has all we need for the first night and even a few days, just in case there is a luggage mishap.

Magical Express is a comfortable coach bus that will take us from the airport to our Disney hotel and then back at the end of our stay. All I need to do is provide Disney with my flight information either by phone or online and they will send me labels for our luggage and an airport map. If you’re anything like me and overpack you can ask for extra labels.

The day before our trip ends this warning shows up on our door to tell us when to be ready for shuttling back to the airport. Many commonly refer to this as the “Tragical Express” notice.

  Bus

Depending on the hotel we’ve stayed at our methods of transportation vary, but generally, we rely on buses. If you’re doing your research before your Disney World vacation you are going to run across people that love the buses and people that hate them. We had experiences that were both good and bad. You can read a more detailed account of them in the resort reviews for Art of Animation and Port Orleans Riverside. There are times (mainly park open and close) that the buses are super busy with long lines and everyone is crammed in. There are also times that we had to wait (and wait) for a bus to arrive. To me, it’s still easier than loading up my car, finding parking, remembering hours later where parking was, and oh yeah, dealing with the traffic. I leave that up to someone else.

Peanut loves the buses. He even has his own spot– but only when it’s a light load. He walks right back to the driver’s corner seat. Sometimes he can even doze off on the ride back to the hotel.

Monorail

We have used the Monorail on a few occasions. During our first stay, we had dinner at 1900 Park Fare located in the Grand Floridan hotel. We left Magic Kingdom and hopped on for a ride to dinner. It was our first and we were a little turned around. I messed up and had us get off at the Ticket & Transportation Center. So then we ended up on a boat back to the Magic Kingdom and then on the monorail again this time for a full resort loop ending at Grand Floridan. It was a bit time-consuming, especially considering my mix up.

On the other hand, taking the monorail ride from Grand Floridian to Magic Kingdom though is a piece of cake. The best part about using the monorail is we didn’t have to fold up the stroller!

We have not yet experienced the Epcot monorail loop, but are planning to use it for our next stay in the fall.

Boats

We took the Magic Kingdom ferry boat just once in the little mix up I just mentioned. It was just a normal ferry boat ride that wasn’t very memorable.

Diva and I also used a boat to travel between the Boardwalk after our breakfast at Trattoria al Forno to Hollywood Studios. I think we made three stops, but maybe it was four, before we arrived at the park. It was a beautiful morning for a boat ride. It was super relaxing especially after a filling meal. I was happy to see that it wasn’t crowded at all. I’ve heard the walk from the Boardwalk to the park is faster so that’s probably why. I didn’t have a stroller for Diva so I know it wouldn’t have been faster for us. And, I was going to be walking all day, why not take a short ride.

Cars

So we did use one car while at Disney, but it wasn’t Disney transportation. Diva and I called a Lyft driver to pick us up at Port Orleans and take us to Boardwalk for our breakfast. It was much faster at 7AM than bus hopping. (My term for taking a bus to a park to get another bus to a hotel.) The driver arrived in less than 5 minutes and the ride was less than 10 minutes. We took a BumbleBum booster seat to use specifically for this ride. It was easy to use and also easy to store while we were exploring the parks all day.

Disney now partners with Lyft to offer Minnie Vans which come with two child seats in the van. I’m not certain if we would opt to use them or just go with a regular Lyft service. Grumpy will probably pass when he sees the $25/ride price tag.

Overall, Disney transportation has been pretty seamless for us, minus a few long waits for a bus pick up. It’s efficient and gets us where we need to be.

Navigating Disney - When we're on vacation I leave the #transportation up to someone else! Here's a look at the many ways to navigate @WaltDisneyWorld. #WaltDisneyWorld #wdw #disneyblog #monorail #boat #MagicalExpress #DisneyBus Planes, trains, boats, buses, and a few automobiles too. That's how we've made our way to and around the Walt Disney World Resort.

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Kids & Characters

*** NEW BLOG POST *** Meeting Disney #characters is fun and exciting...even when your four year old says "there's a person inside that costume." #WaltDisneyWorld #wdw #disneyblog #Animal Kingdom #MagicKingdom #MickeyMouse

It’s really hard to guess how kids are going to react to characters. Some will cry and some will jump for joy. Others may do nothing at all. Literally nothing.

My kids had met plenty of characters in costume before our trips. They saw the Chick-Fil-A Cow. Peanut was quick to give him (or is it a her?) a high-five! Diva, on the other hand, gave a concerned side-eye look. My sister took them to see…

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A Whole New (Disney) World

Planning trip #3 is just as exciting as #1! There's still so much more to see and do. Look at all the new things in our plan. #WaltDisneyWorld #DisneyVacation #DisneyPlanning #WDW #DisneyWorld #DisneyBlog #toystoryland #mnsshp

We’re planning our third trip and I feel like it’s really going to be a whole new world when we make it back. One thing about Disney World is you can’t do it all in one trip and we haven’t even come close to seeing and doing all it has to offer in two. I know there’s still going to be plenty more after this trip to.

New Resort

We’re booked at Beach Club Villas!

Photo from DisneyWorld.com

Original…

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One of the things I’ve loved doing since returning from Disney World is helping friends, especially those going on their first trip, plan for their visit. I make suggestions about many things, but they are just that suggestions. Every family is different and so I can’t say you MUST do something because it might not fit your family like it did mine. There is one exception to this: You MUST purchase Memory Maker and utilize PhotoPass photographers! You really, really must.

Buying in advance will cost you $169. That might sound like a lot until you think that your family photo session at home probably costs more than that. At many amusement parks, zoos, or other events your photo will be taken when you walk in and then ask you for $10, $15, $20 or more to buy that photo on your way out. For the price of Memory Maker you can use it for your length of stay and you can download and print all the photos taken.

PhotoPass photographers are located all over Disney property. By the third day of our trip Grumpy was pointing them out and saying “Let’s get a picture here.” On our first trip we had over 1,000 photos during our eight days from PhotoPass! Our second trip was a little shorter and included almost 900 photos. Some of the quantity comes from interactive group experiences, but most of them are of our family around the parks or meeting characters. We took 94 PhotoPass photos at Epcot in one day!

Characters

One of the most common uses of PhotoPass photographers is at character meet-and-greets. Their position gives them a unique ability to capture amazing magical first moments meeting the characters. As a parent standing in line I don’t have the ability to jump in front of my child to get the right angle to see her reaction. Plus, if I do that I’ve changed the whole moment anyway. The most magical meet and greet moment was captured by a PhotoPass photographer that snapped our family portraits in Germany then answered some questions on when and exactly where to see Snow White. He walked us right to her spot. We were first in line and he was ready to capture my daughter’s excitement the moment she saw Snow White. She ran and gave her the biggest hug!

                  Another amazing moment was the look on my Diva’s face as she met Joy. I promised her we would do the meeting and an emergency potty break almost got in the way of it. Photopass didn’t miss the moment when her dream had come true!

Diva isn’t the only one that was captured on camera. Peanut couldn’t wait to show Buzz his little Buzz toy! He ran right to him with so much enthusiasm.

  He also surprised us by greeting Minnie with a giant hug!

And ushered his sister off to meet Minnie at Epcot:

As he pushed her away Diva just stopped and turned her head to Minnie. Photopass caught the picture below. I was confused why she was frozen in place and then I realized she had stopped to show Minnie her tiny silver Minnie earrings.

What’s really cool is when they capture Grumpy, who doesn’t interact much with characters, doing a double high-five with Woody!

These are just a few of my favorite magical meeting moments that I never could have capture from my position in line. We also have many posed photos with the characters as well, but those aren’t the same as what happens at first sight!

Ride Photos (and videos)

Ride photos are almost as fun as character meets. You never know what you’re going to get. We actually didn’t even know about the the videos until someone in line to meet Gaston showed us. Most photos/videos are linked right to your Magic Band. Photos from Buzz Lightyear Space Spin need to be scanned to your band. Peanut now knows which rides have photos and wants to check out MyDisneyExperience right away to see his latest photo even though he generally looks terrified! Diva can’t wait to listen to Heigh Ho on the video over and over again!

  Credit: Disney

  Interactive Group Experiences

Photopass photographers are present at interactive experiences like Jedi Training, Enchanted Tales with Belle, Captain Jack Sparrow’s Pirate Tutorial, and more. The photographers at these locations have their own ‘territory.’ Honestly, sometimes they were in my way, but they were doing their job and I was just a mom trying to snap a picture. It is important to know that you will get A LOT of photos from these events and only some will include your child. Depending on their “part” the amount will vary. Even if you’re in the audience you may end up in the shot!

(Note: Peanut is crying in our photos from Jedi Training and left the stage. I don’t feel I need to repeat the photo, but if you’d like to look back check out the Magical Malfunction post.)

Landmarks

PhotoPass photographers are also found at each park’s most common landmarks: Magic Kingdom’s Castle (from a variety of angles and several points along Main Street USA), the Train Station, Epcot’s Spaceship Earth, Animal Kingdom’s Tree of Life, Hollywood Studio’s Hollywood Boulevard and so many other points throughout all parks. No trip to Disney World would be complete without a picture in front of Cinderella Castle!

        Magic Shots

Magic Shots just fun little add-ons that Disney pops into the picture. (Think: Photoshop) They honestly don’t rank high in my favorite, but they are cute. It’s a bonus that the kids often find them to be funny. You can almost bet money that if your Photopass photographer asks you to do something you think will look rather awkward there’s a Magic Shot behind it.

    Miscellaneous

There are so many places for PhotoPass around the parks. One of my favorites started in spring 2017 and quickly became very popular: The Tangled Lanterns! This is such a pretty backdrop and the picture of the kids holding the lantern is too cute! (Yes, I’m biased.)

There is no way I could choose one, two, or even just ten photos from each of our trips to download as souvenirs. The cost of downloading that many photos adds right back up to the advance purchase price for Memory Maker. I downloaded nearly two thousand photos (which took forever) and everyone in the family could pick their favorites and get prints. It’s the one thing that no question is worth every penny!

***NEW BLOG POST*** There's only one thing I tell people they must do on their #DisneyVacation and that's use @DisneyPhotopass and buy #MemoryMaker! #WaltDisneyWorld #WDW #MagicKingdom #AnimalKingdom #Epcot #HollywoodStudios One of the things I've loved doing since returning from Disney World is helping friends, especially those going on their first trip, plan for their visit.

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Disney Dollars & Sense

***NEW BLOG POST*** My thoughts on the cost of a #DisneyVacation. How I went from thinking we could never go to planning our third trip!! #WaltDisneyWorld #DisneyMom #DisneyKids #DisneyFamily #FamilyVacation #DisneyWorld

When I said I was going to Disney the first time at lot of people had something to say. Many comments were positive, but there’s plenty of negative. When I said I couldn’t wait to go back some understood, others thought I was crazy. Now in the midst of planning a third trip in as many years the reactions continue to be mixed and the first thing I hear is commenting about the cost of the trip.

Dis…

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Magical Malfunction

I love our #DisneyVacation but sometimes #magic is missing. Here's an #honest blog about magical mishaps & meltdowns. Thanks @DrewBarrymore for confirming that all kids cry, even at #WaltDisneyWorld. #DisneyMom #DisneyBlog #DisneyKids

I love being at Disney World. My kids love being there. My Grumpy husband, well, sometimes he might like it a little bit, but that’s hard for him to admit. There’s a lot of great things about Disney World. We’ve had a lot of fun and excitement, but it doesn’t mean every moment was perfect.

I can’t sit here and write a blog and pretend like there weren’t some hiccups along the way. Or that just…

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Reflections: Disney World 1st Visit

Sharing some thoughts about #FirstVisit at #WaltDisneyWorld originally written in 2016. #CharacterDining #DisneyDining #MagicKingdom #AmazonPrimePantry #DisneyTransportation #Characters #FastPass #Travel #DisneyVacation #DisneyBlog

Planning a trip to Disney for the first time is no small task. Searching the internet you may stumble across a plethora of information and some it might be conflicting. It’s hard to sort through it all. I spent a lot of time talking to people on Facebook and reading there recaps. These were people that had been on their first, second, and umpteenth trip.

The first thing I noticed after “lurking”…

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I don’t have a green thumb. I can’t grow a thing. Flowers last for a few days in my house. I generally say don’t even bother buying them because I feel they get wasted. I can probably name less than a dozen types of flowers– and by types I mean the basics: roses, tulips, lilies. I just have never grown an interest in growing anything. So, it’s hard to believe it when I say the thing I miss most about Epcot is the Flower & Garden Festival.

I’m actually really sad that I’m not seeing all the topiaries and landscaping sprawled throughout the park this year. We go back to Disney in October and nothing will be in bloom. It’s hard to imagine seeing the park without these fine structures. The sculpting of the characters actually blew me away. They are such amazingly intricate designs. We’ve taken pictures with the Walt & Mickey statute at Magic Kingdom and with Rafiki a hundred times during our stay at Art of Animation, but there is something different about posing with a topiary. Maybe it feels move lively since it is in fact living. Who really knows? They’re just plain beautiful.

One of the most commonly displayed pictures of the floral artwork is in the area near the monorail. You can see in the background of this picture the flowers in bright patterns and a few Mickey head designs too!

My personal favorite character topiary is Mater! He’s in a bed of flowers and surrounded by junkyard tires! Perfect for Mater.

Not far behind Mater at the top of the favorite list is the Tick Tock Croc and Captain Hook. On the day that we stumbled past them the kids conveniently had convinced us to buy these plastic hooks. They almost had too much fun with Hook and their hooks. Peter Pan was also flying high on the building behind Croc, but I seem to be missing the picture of him.

  Belle and friends were located in France. The detail is just stunning to me. Beast’s face. Cogsworth clock hands-mustache. The eyes on all of them! Piercing. Even looking back at these pictures from two years ago it still blows me away!

  There are classics like Buzz Lightyear (with a Photopass photographer when we were there) and Tigger.

The kids were very excited to see one of their newer favorites last year: Phineas & Ferb. Peanut even tried to orchestrate a copycat pose for a picture with them. Diva didn’t quite get it.

We couldn’t miss the change to take pictures with Snow White’s friend Doc & Grumpy. Grumpy, the husband, refused a photo with his namesake!

And one of my favorite Flower & Garden photos was Diva in her Snow White dress with this gorgeous Snow White topiary. It’s absolutely perfect!

We didn’t even experience all of what the Flower & Garden Festival really is. There’s many special food booths set up with small snack size services and a concert series with big name musicians appearing. I definitely need to schedule a visit around the concerts next time!

I’m really going to miss all the beauty these add to Epcot when we visit in the fall.

New blog post! #Spring in #Epcot means #flowers. A post loaded with pics & low on words! See exquisite topiaries from the #FlowerandGardenFestival! #WaltDisneyWorld #DisneyBlog #DisneyMom #DisneyKids #DisneyWorld #DisneyVacation I don't have a green thumb. I can't grow a thing. Flowers last for a few days in my house.

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Quick Services Meals & Snacks

The last in this week's series of #DisneyDining posts. I may have obsession with desserts/snacks! #MickeyIceCream #MickeyFood #DisneyDining #Disneyworld #WaltDisneyWorld #MagicKingdom #Epcot #Hollywoodstuidos #AntimalKingdom

Yes, there’s still more to write about food at Walt Disney World! I told you we ate a TON in the two weeklong visits we’ve had. It wouldn’t be complete without talking about the quick service (walk-up) dining and SNACKS. Snacking is my favorite part about Disney World! (Really, it’s my favorite part of every day.)

As if I haven’t gushed enough about desserts that we’ve had with our meals there…

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Can you believe we still had more dining adventures? I told you, we ate SOOO much food while at Disney World. We really do love character dining. There is so much fun to be had during the meals.

Disney Junior Play n’ Dine at Hollywood & Vine (Hollywood Studios)

We ate at Hollywood & Vine in 2016 and 2017. The visits each had a different set of characters to meet.

In 2016 we had lunch with some of the Disney Junior characters: Jake, Sophia, Doc McStuffins, and Handy Manny. (Now they meet only at breakfast.) At the time the kids we’re almost five and two and a half so it was perfect! They were crazy about all of those characters on our trip and we couldn’t have picked a better meal. The food is a buffet with many of the traditional items salads, sides, meats, and a kids station with chicken fingers, of course. We had our fill of food.

The dessert Buffet here is out of the world!!! I pretty much need to go here for dessert about every trip. There are many cakes, cheesecakes, cookies, brownies, chocolate covered everythings, and many other desserts. Oh, and there is an ice cream station! Soft serve ice cream.. out of the machine.. as much as you can eat. ‘Nuff said.

I was too busy stuffing my face so this is the only picture there is of the sweet, yummy deliciousness.

Back to the point… It’s a character meal: The kids had a huge miles for every character as they walked by and stopped at our table.

I remember Diva yelling ‘Fia the moment that she saw her! She had to meet Sophia but then she saw Doc and she had to meet Doc too! Peanut has loved tools since he was about a year old. He’s just like his father. He loved watching Handy Manny and identifying all the tools so meeting him was a treat.

Now Jake, I can’t begin to tell you how many episodes of Jake and the Neverland Pirates we watched in my house and we still do. My kids love Jake! We had met him just a short time before lunch reservation because they couldn’t wait but they needed to see him again.

The kids aren’t always so great at being interactive so the dance session was a little less exciting for them than the character standing at the table but they didn’t parade around the restaurant with the characters.

Minnie’s Seasonal Dine at Hollywood & Vine (Hollywood Studios)

In 2017 we went for Minnie’s Springtime Dine. This time we were able to see Minnie, Mickey, Daisy, and Donald. Diva had become quite obsessed with Minnie so she brought her Minnie Mouse dress to wear and get a picture. As you might have read our dinner was a bit chaotic due to Grumpy’s cell phone suddenly deciding to not work. We still made the best of the meal and ate plenty from the buffet. I was sure to eat a little less and leave plenty of room for dessert. Peanut and Grumpy decided to leave a little early for a FastPass to see Indiana Jones and Diva and I remained in the restaurant to finish our desserts!

The characters were just as fun as we’ve come to expect. Photopass was at the front of the restaurant to capture our family portrait with Daisy. We could go up any time so we just waited until there wasn’t a line.

Bon Voyage Adventure Breakfast at Trattoria al Forno (on the Boardwalk)

This is probably THE cutest meal I have been to in all of our character dining adventures! The was a reservation for the whole family but Grumpy and Peanut were being grumpy (or maybe just sleepy) so Diva and I went on our own. We took an Uber to the Boardwalk Hotel and then walked right to the restaurant. We had a 7:30 a.m. reservation which was right at opening. We were just a few minutes early and waited in the lobby with a few other families.

Disney is great at their marketing and has some little stands with Rapunzel and Ariel goodies setup right outside while waiting. I saw many parents roped in. Once the doors opened we were the second or third name called. We walked in and there were servers holding mini frying pans up in saber-arch style. The server standing between those holding the frying pans were applauding and welcoming us. It was so cool!

The food I had to customize a little to meet my appetite. For the first time I tried steak and eggs for breakfast (and potatoes). The steak was okay A little tougher than I prefer and it’s hard to mess up scrambled eggs. Diva had Mickey waffles which are always tasty. The meal includes some pastries at the beginning which I probably could have eaten an endless supply as my whole breakfast.

  This is the only place at Disney to meet Flynn Rider or Prince Eric so it made the meal even more appealing. It’s very fun to meet the princes.

We had brought an over-sized birthday card for one of Diva’s friends since Rapunzel was her favorite. All the characters were super excited too sign the card and Rapunzel even wrote the friend’s name on the envelope. We missed getting Prince Eric’s signature and Ariel was super gracious to go off and find him and have him sign so that we could be on our way to Hollywood Studios for the day.

Diva loves this meal so much she has already asked many many times can we go to the Rapunzel breakfast when we go back to Disney? We’re going for her birthday trip so yes, Diva, I do have it on the to do list.

Princess Storybook Dining Breakfast at Akershus Royal Banquet (Epcot)

I keep saying that we’re going to have a princess dinner at the castle but I just haven’t worked it into the plans at this point so I made a reservation for a princess breakfast Akershus. Again with our eating habits any other meal was just not appealing for us so took the safe choice with breakfast. We had a pre-park reservation which I hoped would help us get in line for Frozen. However, we had a rough start to the morning including a meltdown. By the time we made it to the restaurant the line for our reservation was about 10 to 15 minutes long. There was a little patience that morning with the kids not so pleasant attitudes but everyone was relaxed again.

We started by taking a family photo with Belle and then Diva and I got our own picture too. We were seated and immediately jumped at the buffet. The food is a little different here. The buffet doesn’t include the eggs, bacon, sausage, and potatoes. Those are all brought out family style. Fruits, yogurts, and some Norwegian specialty items.

Diva had fun parading around the restaurant with Cinderella, but Peanut preferred to stay at the table. The kids took time with the to smile, give hugs, and take lots of pictures with all the princesses.

While we were eating Belle who doesn’t normally wander around the restaurant came to our table. We were pretty surprised to see her but she had picked up one of our Disney pins that had fallen off while we were meeting her. She made it a special point to remember who we were and then come find us as soon as she had a free moment.

It’s not a must do again meal but I wouldn’t necessarily pass it up either.

Coming soon… Quick Service Dining

Read the new blog for more adventures in #CharacterDining!#Akershus #HollywoodandVine @WaltDisneyWorld! #DisneyWorld #DisneyBlog #Epcot #HollywoodStudios #DisneyMom #DisneyPrincess #Rapunzel #Ariel #PrinceEric #DisneyJr #FlynnRider Can you believe we still had more dining adventures? I told you, we ate SOOO much food while at Disney World.

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Adventures in Character Dining, Part 1

New blog post: Character Dining, part 1. #DisneyDining #WDW #MagicKingdom #AnimalKingdom #GrandFlordian #TheContemporary @WaltDisneyWorld @DisneyParks #ChefMickey #ChefMickeys #DisneyBlog #TuskerHouse #1900ParkFare #CrystalPalace

We have been lucky to get reservations at many of the character dining locations. In all we’ve had 9 reservations, 8 different character sets, in 7 restaurants across the Walt Disney World resort. The amount of time the characters can spend at each table makes these dining experiences worth every penny in my mind. Here’s is part 1 of our adventures in character dining:

Cinderella’s Happily Ever…

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Feed Me! Adventures in Disney Dining

Oh so much food! This new post is only the start of our dining adventures! #DisneyWorld #wdw #WaltDisneyWorld #DisneyDining #DisneyFood #AnimalKingdom #Epcot #MagicKingdom #HollywoodStudios #BeOurGuest @DisneyParks @WaltDisneyWorld

There’s pretty much food everywhere you look when at Disney World. Choosing dining is not an easy task. Without wasting my time counting I would say there’s at least 70+ locations that accept reservation for meals at Disney World and another 100+ that have walk up (or quick) service locations. Not to mention all of the booths and other locations that sell snacks.

As we planned for our first visit…

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On our first trip there was a huge debate about where to stay. Art of Animation won over Port Orleans Riverside. So it was a no-brainer to stay at Riverside on the second trip. I was drawn by the beauty of the property and was not disappointed on arrival.

We had stayed at the Grand Floridian the prior night and were at Magic Kingdom when I got a text message from Disney to say our room was ready. I had used Touring Plans to request a specific room and was placed just two doors away.  I double checked the map online to confirm which bus stop was closest to the room and we went straight to it skipping the front desk. The bus stop was just a two minute walk to our building.

The room is really a basic hotel room. (Excuse the wild kids walking all over the bed in the picture below.) We had a double sink, a small round table, and dresser for some storage. There was just enough room behind the door and next to the bed to store the stroller keeping it open but out of the way. It was nothing that wowed me, but it was clean and the beds were comfy.

There is a little detail of the southern charm on the headboard. On this particular day we had come back and Mousekeeping and tucked up Snow White and all of her friends that had journeyed with us.

We were in the “Mansions” area of the property and this is the view I was hoping to wake up to. Instead we walked by it ever morning. Close enough. It was so peaceful. I could have stood at this spot all day long. I feel like it was always rather quiet and laid back, except by the main pool and lobby areas.

For our first night I had a surprise for the family. We took a horse-drawn carriage ride around the resort. As our ride was ending the sun was just about the set over the river. The kids were excited about it, but it wasn’t anything they talked about after it happened.

    Did I mention it was H-O-T during our May trip?! We spent a lot of time at the pools. There are six pools but we only made it to check out three of them. Two of the “quiet pools” were close– one outside our building and one on the far side of the next building. They were definitely quiet. Sometimes we were there with only one or two other families and had basically the whole pool for the kids to splash as much as they wanted.

The main pool had a slide. Diva loved it and Peanut hated it. It dropped the riders right into the middle of the pool. It was awkward placement with people walking right in front of it as someone came flying out. It was busy most of the time and full of activity. The kids joined in a few of the poolside games and even made a few friends.

  There is a table service restaurant and a food court option for meals. We never had the opportunity to eat at the table service, Boatwrights, so I’ve added it to my to-do list for our next trip.

The food court was great! We found so many options for food. And they had ice cream and Mickey Brownies at the same station. We put many of our snack credits to use for this awesome dessert! Two scoops of ice cream = One snack credit! Grumpy is actually the one who spotted my favorites and brought them back to the room early on in the trip. After that it was a just an every day thing.

We did manage to get some actual meals here as well. Mainly quick lunch options for the kids of basics: hamburgers or chicken fingers. I really enjoyed the barbecue pork sandwich and Grumpy made his own chicken salads a few times.

I did not love the bus transportation this time around. I wasn’t as prepared for the multiple bus stops as I thought I would be. At Art of Animation you piled onto an empty bus each time. Here there were four stops. Each time the bus stopped some people got off and others got on. You never knew if you’d have a seat or not. For the most part it wasn’t awful, it just wasn’t great. We did spend a lot of time sitting on the benches waiting.

It’s pretty hard to tell who is going where because it’s one open bus stop for all destinations. One morning we arrived just after 8:00AM to get to Magic Kingdom for 9:00AM opening. The bus stop was full of people heading to all parks for opening. Each time a bus pulled up there was little room for new passengers. The Magic Kingdom buses were almost overflowing. Only allowing a handful of people to board each time. There was a woman waiting in an electric scooter that had been there since before we arrived. She couldn’t board any of the buses due to the capacity. Finally after nearly five full buses over 30 minutes someone called to complain. We could overhear her and she was polite about it. It was a legitimate complaint. They sent an empty bus to stop. The woman on the scooter finally was able to board and then it filled to standing room only. We went straight to the park.

Another night we were leaving Epcot and the line was so long to the Riverside bus that we hopped on the French Quarter bus. There was no line and we had a seat! The walk along the river was quiet, except for Diva yelling about the “best day ever!” It was short walk, maybe 8-10 minutes. It also made me add French Quarter to the list of hotels I want to try. The property is SO cute and also compact.

We had fairly little interaction with the staff on property since we skipped the desk check-in. The Cast Members that handled our luggage when we arrived and departed with very helpful and polite. When I went to the front desk to pick up a package they were really apologetic when it took a little longer to locate. There was some kind of computer glitch on our check out day that ended up having us make a second call to have our bags picked up. Maybe it was a Cast Member. Maybe it was the computer.

In the end, the family is divided in our thoughts on Riverside. Peanut and Grumpy say “it doesn’t feel like Disney.” The little Mickey heads on the coat rack aren’t sufficient for them. Grumpy also misses the suite. Diva wants to go back, but she doesn’t have any reasons why. I liked it. I loved the property and food court. I thought pools were just right. So maybe the rooms could be a little more Disney.

Resort Report for #PortOrleansRiverside for our May 2017 visit. Read, share, RT, comment, and subscribe for updates on new posts. #DisneyWorld #WaltDisneyWorld #DisneyMom #DisneyBlog #wdw On our first trip there was a huge debate about where to stay. Art of Animation won over Port Orleans Riverside.

[nikkismickeytrips]

May 26, 2017

This trip is coming to an end way too soon. It was much too short for my liking. We had six park days compared to 2016’s eight days. At least I have one last visit to Magic Kingdom before we leave… and there was one last special thing to do.

But before we get to the special events we started the day with Extra Magic Hours. We were a bit late because of a computer glitch at the resort getting our luggage picked up. We still had thirty minutes of time before the park opens to the general public. We met up with my friend again and the kids gladly introduced her to the Barnstormer. And they tried to teach her how to properly ride a roller coaster with “hands up!”

We had about four or maybe rides on the Barnstormer before we enjoyed some of the classics–Dumbo and the Teacups. Then did some shopping before taking one last ride on Seven Dwarfs Mine Train. Grumpy had enough. He was waiting on his “FastPass+ to the airport.” He wasn’t interested in the last ride so he gave his MagicBand to my friend (shhh!!) and she rode with us.

We had lunch scheduled at Be Our Guest and then it was time for my baby’s first haircut! The poor girl had barely any hair at her first birthday. Now, here she is 3.5 years old and it’s not even as long as I thought it would be when I scheduled the cut.

We were booked at the Harmony Barber Shop with the first haircut package. We also added Peanut on for a haircut too. He probably could have used it early in the week to stay a little cooler. The Barber Shop is itty bitty! The kids were able to get their cuts at the same time though. They were kept entertained with fun spinner toys and then topped off with pixie dust…. A LOT OF PIXIE DUST.

As we were leaving the Barber Shop the Move It, Shake It, Dance Parade was just starting. We watched as it made it’s way to Main Street and then sadly walked towards the exit gates.

One last stop for PhotoPass pictures in front of the train station. The Diva made the most of it.

New blog post: It was a beautifully, sunny day. But it's a little sad when it's the last day of the trip. #DisneyWorld #WaltDisneyWorld #wdw #disneyblog @waltDisneyworld @DisneyParks #MagicKingdom May 26, 2017 This trip is coming to an end way too soon. It was much too short for my liking.

[nikkismickeytrips]

May 25, 2017

We planned a pretty low-key day for our visit to Animal Kingdom. We started the day meeting with a friend of mine just before rope drop.

I decided I was breaking some unwritten rules of the FastPass+ system and had us set up for 9:10AM on the Safari. I ended up very happy I did this. The masses flowed right into Africa and quickly lined up in the standby queue. By the time we walked through the park we were right on time to scan in for our FastPass+ and were soon boarding. The animals were incredibly active on this morning– as I’ve heard they often are at this time of day. We probably could have reached out and touched the giraffes standing right next to our vehicle. (We didn’t, of course!) The lions about the only animal still sleepy.

The kids played with the camera settings again this year– and they weren’t nearly as good as last year’s pictures. Most are blurry but here are a few either from the camera or my phone that turned out.

We then grabbed a quick morning snack and took the train to Rafiki’s Planet Watch. My kids gave some affection to a few goats, got a short lesson in finding hidden Mickeys from my friend, met Doc McStuffins, and learned about poop. There’s not a much more fascinating and disgusting topic for kids than poop.

Last year we missed out on meeting Mickey & Minnie and watching the Lion King. This year the plan was to get it out of the way early. And that we did. The Lion King was full of constant activity and the kids were captivated the entire length of the show. My gymnastics loving Diva and always on the go Peanut were in awe of the acrobatics.

We moved on to meet Mickey & Minnie. There are few characters that meet together at Disney so this is a treat. And having the two characters together makes the meet much more interactive.

We decided to end the morning visit at this point. My friend needed to get to work and I wanted to avoid any meltdowns. It was a success! We accomplished the things we wanted to do and would be back in the evening for dinner.

Unfortunately we’re leaving tomorrow so part of the break included doing some packing. While packing up we decided to make a change to our dining reservation to move it a little later in order to spend more time at the pool. We cancelled the package we had for River of Lights viewing with our meal and changed to a regular dinner.

We made the dinner reservation for pretty late. It was at Tusker House where we had a park closing meal last year. This wasn’t quite closing time but it’ll do. We got to see the Tree of Life beautifully lit up! It was still daylight last year so that was never an option on our visit.

The kids wanted to do It’s A Bug’s Life again so I agreed. Nothing like ending the night with a bunch of a creepy crawly bugs.

A successful day at Animal Kingdom! A short recap of our 2017 visit-- complete with NO meltdowns. #DisneyWorld #WaltDisneyWorld #wdw #disneyblog #Animal Kingdom @WaltDisneyWorld @DisneyParks May 25, 2017 We planned a pretty low-key day for our visit to Animal Kingdom. We started the day meeting with a friend of mine just before rope drop.