Sounds like you had a lovely end to your trip. Thanks for sharing!
Lucky for us Galaxy's Edge didn't bring the crowds: A family's first trip to WDW was a great success
Thank you for following! It was such a fantastic trip, and I have this forum to thank for much of that.
We will be forever grateful for people like you who take time out of their day to helps strangers with their vacations!
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Now you can be one too!
Ok, here are some brief thoughts:
Food:
-The dining plan is too much food for us, but it still made financial and emotional sense. DH and I see a grown up drink (or 2) as part of vacation. And, the trip felt nicely extended by eating a few disney snacks once we got home. I think getting the upgrade to the standard plan was worthwhile, as the table service places ranged from great to absolutely amazing and offered us a break and air conditioning. As long as kids remain “disney” kids, we would do it again. We wouldn’t do it when the kids are disney adults until they are much older.
-Eating almost always took longer than we expected. We budgeted 60 minutes for QS and 75 minutes for TS. That was never enough for us, because…
-Our kids reliably need to use the bathroom the moment cold drinks arrive. And then again, the moment hot food arrives.
-The pizza at Pop is gross
-Mobile order is the way to go. The only way to go!!!
-In terms of allergies, Disney will make sure people have safe food, and will often go the extra mile and make sure people have safe and exciting food. But, just expect the safe part. That way if it’s also exciting, it’s special. If you always expect the exciting, you might be disappointed.
Making the schedule:
-It’s hard to know what kids (and adults) will like ahead of time. It was worth reading through all the ride explanations, but there were still some surprises in what we found appealing (FoP, we’re looking at you!) so being flexible is important
-I’m glad I found time for everyone’s “must dos”. It helped that I made clear the schedule ahead of time, what it included and when. And as we planned the trip, I kept asking what everyone was interesting in, and adapted best I could to those desires. I was also clear that we couldn’t do everything, so everyone needed to be flexible.
-If there is something that might help, ask! I couldn’t believe how quickly the CM were accommodating when they could be. We got to ride Soarin’ about 25 minutes before our FP window, we got our 7DMT FP moved when the ride closed and didn’t reopen. Don’t be rude and be gracious and grateful regardless of the answer, but it’s worth asking for something nicely if it will help.
-Modifying a fast pass works wonders. The drops can help too.
-I got the advice here to learn the maps and that helped enormously. I also read through “rope drops” on easywdw to gain confidence of how the process would work.
Kids at Disney:
-This was such a wonderful maturing experience for our 8 year old twins. They loved using their magic bands to open the door, buy snacks, tap into a ride, etc.
-The CM are such safe and lovely adults for the kids to interact with.
-Breaks were key for keeping the kids happy. Snack breaks, afternoon breaks, breaks in the A/C and theme park day breaks. It helped keep the grownups happy too 
-We talked ahead of time to DS (who has food allergies and general food pickiness) about needing to be flexible with what he would eat. He rose the occasion for sure and we were flexible with him too. One day he only wanted french fries for lunch, so we went with it.
-Managing expectations and maintaining flexibility in all family members was key.
A few favorites:
-Biggest surprised loved ride: Jungle Cruise (is now on our must do list for any trip in the future)
-Biggest disappointment ride: Kali River Rapids (too short)
-DD favorite ride: BTMRR and Slinky
-DS favorite ride: FoP
-DH favorite ride: FoP and ToT, minus the phone part
-My favorite ride: all of them 
Favorite meals: DD: Akershus, DH: 'Ohana, DS: Mama Melrose, Mine: Sanaa
Best evening show: We all agree HEA!!!
A final word about how amazing Disney is. When we got home, the claim people from Disney called us, and agreed to reimburse us the current lowest cost to replace DH’s phone. They send the check a few days later. FOR THE WIN!!!
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Your DH losing his phone is a good cautionary tale for me. I can see this happening to me and I would have been devastated. You are quite the pro when it comes to modifying FP+. Hopefully, I will be just as skilled on my upcoming trip. Your trip report taught me the lesson to be sure to pay for meals early so I can leave when I want to. You must be proud that your children handled themselves with such grace for the trip. Somebody must be doing something right.
Thanks so much for this response!
I thought this was a good cautionary tale for everyone! A pocket does not mean “securely stowed”! Although, I have to say, we were so impressed how Disney “made this right” and sent us a check quickly and without a fuss.
You make me blush! Any skills I have are because of this forum. I think we were lucky to be at WDW at a time they thought was going to busy, but really wasn’t. This way, I think rides were overly staffed, so there were more fast passes as compared to demand than usual. That modify trick is amazing though and really made the extra FPs work.
Now you REALLY make me blush. Our kiddos are completely amazing and we were so happy to do this trip for them and with them.
Good luck on your upcoming trip. I can’t wait to read your report!
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