Oh man I am so sad this trip is over and we are back to reality! I really enjoyed all the planning and I’m not sure what to do with my time now :-), so I figured I’d write a trip report!
My kids are DD6, DS4, and DS10months, and my parents joined my husband and I for the trip. We stayed offsite in a house in Windsor Palms.
Day 1 - Flight to MCO and Chef Mickey’s (canceled)
We have never flown with the kids before so were a little nervous about how it was going to go. We had a 9:20am flight, and absolutely cruised through the airport and security, only to find out our flight was delayed because they needed to replace a part on the plane. It started as a 1 hour delay, and then they realized they needed to FLY in the part from JFK, so it ended up being a THREE hour delay. The kids were champs and we actually survived, but it was a crazy long day and we had to cancel our Chef Mickey’s dinner we had planned. We ended up moving it to the next day, but it was kind of a bummer because then we missed park time to do the dinner. We made it to MCO, got our rental van, and had some nice time swimming in the pool at our house. We were really glad we rented a house so the baby could have his own room and go to bed early!
Day 2 - Magic Kingdom and Chef Mickey’s Dinner
Plan: Rope drop
do Fantasyland and Tomorrowland
watch the Festival of Fantasy Parade at 3
Dinner at Chef Mickey’s at 5
We brought a cooler with lunches, snacks and water
Fastpasses:
Peter Pan 9:15 - 10:15
Meet Cinderella and Elena 10:20-11:20
Enchanted Tales with Belle 12:10 - 1:10
How it went
My kids are super early risers so I figured rope drop would be easy to achieve, but I didn’t realize how much time parking / bag check and monorail-ing it to MK would take, so we showed up right as the opening show started. It was fine because we weren’t rope dropping any headliner rides. We didn’t realize until day 2 that the ferry is way easier to deal with with strollers, I wish we had known that from the start!
The longest line we waited in was to meet Rapunzel and Tiana because we didn’t have a FPP for it, we probably waited 20 minutes for this, other than that we walked on to everything, and completely understood how important a touring plan was within the first hour!
Let the Magic Begin Show
Buzz Space Ranger Spin - rode it twice in a row with no wait
Meet Ariel at her Grotto
Under the Sea
Peter Pan’s Flight (FPP)
SNACK - brought our own, ate in Pinocchio Village Haus - you can sit and watch them load Small World which the kids loved
Meet Cinderella and Elena (FPP)
Mickey’s Philharmagic
Meet Rapunzel and Tiana
LUNCH - brought our own, ate in Gaston’s Tavern and got a Cinnamon Bun to split for dessert, they are GIANT and yummy
Enchanted Tales with Belle (FPP) - DD6 got picked to be the Beast and it was basically the best moment of her life haha
It’s a Small World (same day FPP)
Made way to Liberty Square area for parade, we watched from right in front of Sleepy Hollow, if you want a spot in the shaded side of the street you need to be there at least half an hour early, we showed up about 15 minutes before so were in the sun, but ate Mickey Bars while we waited.
Festival of Fantasy Parade (3:00)
Dumbo (same day FPP) we had a FPP for this but there was no line so we let the kids go in the play area inside to play, rode it once without the FastPass and then let them go again with my parents while the baby napped
Left Dumbo area around 4:15 to get on monorail to get to Chef Mickey’s for 5:00
How it Went
Once again we planned to rope drop but didn’t make it to the Castle until the show was just ending. This was a day when the park opened early for onsite guests but we again weren’t rope dropping headliners so it was fine. We brought a cooler with water and snacks, and left the park for late lunch / early dinner. It was SUPER hot this day and very crowded, but we still got so much done thanks to our plan!
Winnie the Pooh
Mad Tea Party
Haunted Mansion (FPP)
Tiki Room
Swiss Family Treehouse
Pirates (FPP)
Jungle Cruise (FPP)
My plan was to leave and head home to our rental house for lunch and pool time, but it was hard to get them to leave!
Country Bear Jamboree
Hall of Presidents (DS6 was really excited to see this)
Muppets History (ended up being right after Hall of Presidents)
Tom Sawyer Island (they REALLY loved this)
HOME finally for super late lunch / early dinner and pool 3pm - 6pm
Back to park around 6:30
Monsters Inc Laugh Floor - they LOVED this
Buzz Space Ranger Spin (same day FPP)
Happily Ever After Fireworks show - DD6 was terrified and just went in the stores during the show, DD4 loved them but fell asleep after 5 minutes, and the baby was the last man standing watching them!
Since they weren’t huge fans of the fireworks we decided to not stay for Fantasmic, so we brought our lunches and had ice cream and Mickey Bars for snack.
Fastpasses
Toy Story Mania 9:35-10:35
Beauty and The Beast 12:30-12:50
Frozen Singalong 3-:3:15
How it went
Parking here was so much easier since there’s no TTC to deal with, so we actually got in before 9! We had shown the kids Star Wars a few weeks before our trip but they weren’t super into it, and when we got to the park and Storm Troopers walked by they were scared, so we skipped all the Star Wars stuff, which worked out well because they wanted to see the other shows more.
Alien Swirling Saucers - our plan was to hit this then do Toy Story Mania twice in a row (once with a FPP), but only half of the saucers were working so we ended up waiting 20-30 minutes for this! Not a great way to start the day Luckily my Dad had the great idea to wait in line for Woody and Jesse while we were waiting for Saucers, and the timing worked out perfectly that we were done with the ride when he was a few people back.
Met Woody and Jesse
Toy Story Mania (FPP) - everyone loved this ride!
Voyage of the Little Mermaid - 11:15 show
Met Mike and Sully - kids were bummed they don’t sign autographs
LUNCH - brought our own, ate at ABC Commisary
Beauty and the Beast (FPP) 1:00pm show
SNACK - ice cream and Mickey Bars
shopping - DD6 had been dying to spend time in the stores so we took a break to let her shop!
Incredibles at Pixar Place - they are just continuously dancing, so its quick but kids really loved it
Met Edna Mode
Frozen Sing along (FPP) 3:30 show
Met Disney Junior Pals at Animation Courtyard - lines for these guys were really short which was nice
Disney Junior Dance Party - 4:55pm show
Muppet Vision 3D (same day FPP)
we had planned to eat dinner at the Muppets Pizza restaurant but it was closed so we just went home for dinner
Day 5 - Flight Home
We had a really crappy experience at MCO. The line for Delta to drop bags was super long, and then they completely stopped the security line to wait for the K9 dog to arrive. We stood there for over 45 minutes just not moving at all. And then the dog finally came and my kids are terrified of dogs so everyone was just crying and hysterical getting through security! Luckily our flight was NOT delayed and the kids were awesome on the flight home.
Overall, this trip went SO much better than I thought it would. The big kids were so excited to be there they were super well behaved. The baby did amazing and was so happy (but he is generally a unicorn easy kid!). He took a few naps in shows but overall did not stick to his normal schedule at all and was totally fine.
Everyone was EXHAUSTED by the end of the trip, if we go for longer in the future I would definitely not do 3 days in a row of parks.
Having a stroller for everyone was absolutely essential and I’m so glad I listened to everyone’s advice on that!
It was SO hot while we were there, so I’m glad we checked the weather before leaving and made sure to pack shorts for everyday. I can not imagine doing this in the summer as we were super hot and sweaty in February!
Bringing in our own food and water worked out really well - getting through bag check took forever because we had a lot of stuff, but since we had strollers to stash stuff in it was easy to take with us and nice to have when someone needed a snack NOW.
I had a few extra things in my original plan that we dropped because I underestimated how long bathroom / snack breaks would take, but we did more than I thought we would actually get to so I was happy with how it worked out.
We waited about 5 minutes for Doc and Sofia, Vampirina was closer to 10. Pluto was also there but we didn’t meet him, he had no line (poor guy!). What’s nice about these lines though is you can see the characters the whole time, so the kids were excited and interested - as opposed to the Mike/Sulley and Edna lines where you can’t see the characters until you are the next family up!
Sounds like you had a very fun trip! Its nice to hear your kids like Tom Sawyers island as much as our family does. Its one of the few things I remember when I went as a little kid in the 70s and its one of my favorite books
Luckily my Dad had the great idea to wait in line for Woody and Jesse while we were waiting for Saucers, and the timing worked out perfectly that we were done with the ride when he was a few people back.
You guys got so much done!