The Jackson Crew managed to find a window of opportunity in our four kids’ age range to finally take the leap {car, shuttle, jet, taxi and tram actually} and get to the most magical place on earth. We chose the Four Day Park Hopper ticket and never looked back! It was the perfect amount of time to see it all from our family’s perspective.
As first-timers ourselves {I haven’t been myself in 25 years}, we were given some helpful suggestions from Disney veterans and then we learned some tricks of our own. Here are some ‘Tips for Disney’ that I think are the most important to know before hitting the parks.
1. Make an account on the My Disney Experience website. Then start making your purchases, reservations and itinerary for each of your days in the parks. All of it will be saved together and is your reminder of what you’re doing. Plus it helps you know what attractions are at each park.
2. Fast Pass. This comes free with your park tickets for that park. Do it way in advance as soon as you get tickets. The popular rides have HUGE wait times. Also, I learned on our first day that you need to reserve your first three fast passes early in the day. Once you use your first three, you can go to a kiosk and add another pass. And keep adding them as you ride each ride. But you can’t add a new pass until all three are used. My family rode every ride at Hollywood Studios except the Rockin Roller coaster, and that’s because I didn’t do our three FP until afternoon so I couldn’t add to them until too late. Lesson learned! And the rides are fun for everyone in your family! There was only a few that my 40″ daughter couldn’t ride. My 46″ son could ride all but one in all of Disney.
3. Magic Bands. Buy these bands before your trip from Disneystore.com. Once they arrive, add all of your reservations to each persons band by connecting the serial number inside the band to the persons name saved in your Disney Exp account. It makes it so quick and easy to get on Fast Pass rides, get through the park’s entrance, and save photos to your Memory Maker. 4. Memory Maker or PhotoPass- get this online with your park tickets ahead of time. A card will be mailed to you, but if you get the Magic Bands, this is something else you can save to your bands. Anytime you see a Disney photographer and get a picture made, they’ll tap your band and the picture is saved to your account. This includes those funny pictures during a ride. It’s about $70 for 256 photos (with mom in them). WORTH IT.
5. As your trip nears, get the My Disney Experience free app for your phone. You’ll log in just like on your website account from #1. So much is at your finger tips; maps of parks, all the attractions, wait times, and your first three Fast Passes can be made and changed here. To add to your FP after you’ve used your first three, you’ll have to find a kiosk to get a new reservation. 6. Take water bottles! Every concession you see that sells fountain drinks, will give you an ice water. Yes, give. We would ask for three ice waters and then refill our bottles we had on our stroller.
Doing Disney with kids is not the most relaxing vacation. But it’s fun and magical for any age. The tricky part for our crew was finding entertainment for our ages of 3,5,9 and 10. There were three rides that our 40″ daughter couldn’t ride on but Disney is a place with stuff to do every where you look! Daddo and I took turns playing with her at a playset or getting a drink under some shade while the boys were on a ride. Our older boys went on this trip knowing they had to be patient with the girly and little kid stuff. They sat through princess dinners and Playhouse Disney shows like champs. Also, the long days and high temps aren’t for everyone. My crew is used to the heat and we’re all in pretty good shape and I know that helped. Plus Florida heat isn’t like Texas heat. We felt a relief in the tropical climate! Wear your most comfy tennis shoes since you’ll walk 5-7 miles during a full day at Disney. I also suggest taking a day off from the parks if you can. We did two days at Disney, then took a day off and just relaxed and had fun at our resort. Then went back for two more days. Great decision! So with all of that said, here’s our #jacksonsdodisney2015 Favorite Memories for each of our days in the parks.
Day 1 Hollywood Studios
Breakfast reservation BEFORE the actual park opened…. Skipped the long entry line and went straight in to an empty park {which you’ll never ever see otherwise}. Started the first day with a character breakfast to get everyone in the mood. {and the little ones to comprehend where they really are}.
{having no one in the background of a picture at Disney World will never happen. So to all the strangers in my pictures and now on this blog, sorry.}
We found out a few things we DID RIGHT when we got to our first park. One of those was deciding to bring our Stand n Ride stroller even though we never use it at home. Also using our Mommy Hooks and bringing our fans. The hooks later hung a snack bucket and Disney water bottles. Life saver.
Tower of Terror. Do it! {it’s scary for the little ones, but our’s toughed it out for their older brothers}.
I jumped up in the crowd waving my hand and got chosen as an extra in the Indiana Jones Stunt Show Spectacular. I just had to fake laugh….
Star Wars 3D simulation ride. Great for all! And the Ewok village was incredible.
The real Lightening McQueen and Mater are sitting in the back part of the park. Find them. They’re cool.
The 3D Muppets show. {actually find 2-3 indoor shows at each park. Very little wait time and it’s a nice break in the AC.
Buying an $8 autograph book and pen and getting all the characters we met to sign it. We even found a Green Army Man from Toy Story. Fun!
Day 2
First, this day started with a trip to an urgent care place nearby after Will woke up with one eye completely swollen shut. He said it started bothering him 2 weeks earlier while at his regional baseball tournament. Then it got worse on Saturday during his State Championship game. Diagnosis was an infected diffused stye under his eye lid. Started antibiotics, bought him some shades and on we went!
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Epcot
Walking through the different countries was interesting and fun for our crew. The kids pretended to be in each country as we walked in and it was neat to see the buildings change from one to the next. We found out that each person working in costume was actually from that country and staying at Disney World for a year as an exchange program. Disney does it right!!
Morocco
Italy
The Princess brunch at Akershus castle in Norway was just perfectly magical for the little girl in our group.
And her brothers behaved like little princes…
It rained for awhile on this day and cooled everything off nicely. We actually had a little rain shower each day at the parks. We never got too hot before a little sprinkle cooked us off.
We met Mickey, Minnie and Goofy at a character greet we had a fast pass for. We met each one separately, got pictures with them and ‘chatted’ a little bit. We never felt rushed and it was just us in a room with them. Goofy was the last one we saw. He was funny for sure! Then we turned around and found Mickey and Minnie had come over to pose with us again! So we got a family picture with all three.
Our day of rest was much needed.
Day 3 Magic Kingdom
Arrived at the castle at 9 am
Stayed until 10 pm
The 13 hours in between were nothing short of magical.
I regret ever thinking twice about taking my family. I’ve said in the past how Disney is just another amusement park and has more shows than rides and my kids probably wouldn’t like it. I’ve said how it wouldn’t be fun for us adults at all. I was wrong. The 13th hour we were just as excited and happy as the first hour. Everywhere you look, there’s amazing everything. The different ‘Lands’ in the Kingdom make you feel like you’re there. Tomorrow land has metal palm trees. Adventure land has the incredibly life-like Swiss Family Robinson treehouse. You feel shipwrecked on an island and living in a tree when going through this thing. Tom Sawyer Island is a kids’ and parents’ playground! We spent an hour there just exploring and the kids playing. There’s guns in each tower of the fort. I needn’t say more.
Then there are parades almost every hour somewhere in the park. We happened to be in the right place for this Fantasy Parade.
I learned the Fast Pass tricks and as we used our early three passes, I went to a kiosk to add another. We rode every ride at every park except for two that we wanted to. Space Mountain is still the best! As I rode with my boys, I thought about the last time I rode it when I was 10 and my dad actually rode with me. He said I giggled the whole time. My boys did too.
Cora’s first time on a roller coaster was on the Big Mountain Railroad. She threw up her hands and squealed with delight! Her favorite thing to say during our week was ‘This is AWESOME! This is AMAZING!’
To get in out of the heat (and rain) we saw a few shows. These have no wait times. And these shows aren’t just good. They are magically perfect. The characters dance, sing, act, and look exactly like who they are portraying. And every one of the ‘Disney Crewmen’ (employees) are incredibly nice and helpful. There is no boredom ever at this place. The day flies by. Especially when you grab a quick power nap.
We grabbed some dinner and got a spot on the sidewalk in time for the castle show at sunset. The entire face of the castle displays pictures telling the story of Walt Disney and his dream; all of the Disney characters and their own stories. My oldest, almost 11 year old, turned to me during the show and said, ‘This is cool!’
During the fireworks and music show, 5 year old Rhett man, who I know was exhausted, delightfully said to me, ‘I wanna come here every day!’
We finally got home at 11 and the kids were already asking what park was next!
Day 4 Animal Kingdom
This is the ‘new park’ since I last visited 25 years ago. It isn’t near as packed and has a laid back atmosphere. Like the other parks, it has themed sections. Africa was our first stop.
They were giving African dance lessons. We watched. We went on the Kilimanjaro Safari where you actually travel to the Sahara dessert and view the roaming animals (well almost). Highly recommend!
The Mt Everest Expedition is probably the most exciting roller coaster I’ve ever been on (besides Space Mountain). And because this park isn’t as crowded (for whatever reason) the line for this is less than 45 minutes, compared to 120 for Seven Dwarfs Mine Train at the kingdom, which is eh. New, but I wouldn’t suggest wasting your time on it. We used our FP on the Expedition and then the boys took Daddo on it and just waited in line for 20 minutes while CL and I played in the Dinosaur Dig Site!
This is one of my favorite moments while on the Jungle Trek trail.
A monsoon hit while we were in Africa so we ran in and watched the Lion King show.
Asia looked and smelled like Asia. Seriously. Every region is made to make you feel like you’re really there. The park workers are from there, the music, food, sights and smells are all real. This was where the Kali Rapids was located. The ride itself was short with only one wet spot, but my girl made this ride memorable.
After Daddo and Rhett got soaked she said, ‘Booyah Baby!’ and pointed at them.
After that ride, it was agreed that Rhett and Daddo were too wet and squishy to continue and we had seen and done all we could. We said goodbye to our last Disney park…
feeling like we had conquered the world.
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