My family visited the week after thanksgiving. Great time to go. The crowds were as predicted around 5 to 6 most days. My plan worked perfectly for magic kingdom and animal kingdom. Hollywood studios was tough to plan but we got to see all the shows we wanted with two toddlers. Epcot world show case was also difficult to plan. We did get our kidcot passports stamped at each country but the times didn’t work out to see many of the characters. We seemed to arrive as they were completing a session or they would cut the line off right in front of us. We had seen many of the characters at magic kingdom anyway.
Day 1
We drove in and arrived little before noon at art of animation. Was hoping to check in early but rooms not ready. We had a 210 appt at bibbidi bobbiidi boutique so we drove to Disney springs. Very quick and easy drive and easy to park. We had time to look around, buy ornaments at gift shop and arrive early for our appt. I had both my granddaughters and their parents with me. My grands are 3 1/2. One was very apprehensive about the appt but as soon as we arrived the staff were terrific. Once we got into the “magical” dressing room she never hesitated a second. We brought dresses with us so they changed and the their fairy godmother was ready. They both sat perfectly and allowed them to put hair up, paint nails , do make up and all. It was the most incredible experience. I would highly recommend to anyone with little princess!!
We left Disney springs and returned to finding memo rooms at hotel. They had sent a text to my phone letting me know it was ready while we were at Disney springs. Got our things together and caught the bus for magic kingdom. Not a bad wait at all and took us close to 20 min to arrive. Then we had a pretty good walk to front gate and waited a little to go thru security and then to enter and scan bands. I will say that if you have little one, scan their band but use your finger to scan because whatever you do the first time you will have to do every time. So it is much easier to scan and adult do finger scan than get little ones up and out of stroller. Half way thru trip a Disney employee helped us to change the finger scan to one of the adults and that helped us to move thru more quickly. We arrived at Christmas party around 445. I had fp to ride Peter Pan so went there first and rode small world and few other rides in area for little ones then went across the park to space mountain where I had another fp. Then we ate. It was so crowded and chaotic. We just went to a hot dog place on corner of main and stood at a high top table to eat. We listened and saw bits of show in front of castle while we ate then walked all the way to train station to get view of parade. The center section unfortunately was blocked off and reserved so we did not have the best view. We started to move but it was soooo crowded and everyone was lined up for parade we just stayed there. It wasn’t bad but wasn’t great either. We then hiked across park again to try to catch princesses with their prince. From reading I was under the impression that we would see all 4 but that was not the case. We had to wait for Cinderella and Elena but in order to see repunzal you had to get in yet another line so I was disappointed and girls were half asleep by then anyway so after that we saw the fireworks and left. I was not a huge fan of the Christmas party. Maybe we didn’t approach it in the right way but everyone was crowded in around castle and Main Street you couldn’t seem to get from one place to another and in order to get a good view , people were camped out over an hour ahead and we just couldn’t do that with 3 year old. Anyway. Guess I am glad I experienced it but would not go back, at least not with little ones.
I will continue tomorow with day 2.
Day 2. Magic kingdom
We arrived by rope drop. This is very important. We went straight to see rapunzel. The line for that the night before was 50+ minutes. And that was at the top of my little girls list! Took 5 minutes then on to dumbo. Rode 3 times!! No wait. Then started with all things in that area. Barn stormer, little mermaid, pooh bear, carousel, tea cups etc. we were done with all those rides by 10:30 So went on to country bears, Tom Sawyer island , fp for Thunder mt railroad , And ate picnic lunch and then back to Main Street for fp with tinker bell. It still took a while even with fp. Then one of my grands had her first haircut at the barber shop on main. They made a really big deal of it and she got mouse ears and a certificate. Then was time for parade. We walked around after in some shops. Rode magic carpets and left mk in time for mickeys back yard bar b q. Taking the ferry was easy. We rolled our stroller right on. We arrived at bar b q and our girls absolutely loved it. They danced and danced with all the character. We had great seats right on end beside the dance floor. The food was pretty good too. No nap for our little ones today so we left a little early and headed back to hotel for an early night.
Day 3 -Animal kingdom.
We actually drove to animal kingdom from art of animation. It was really easy drive and we had two strollers so that was easier than folding them up and holding all our bags to ride bus. The parking lot was a good ways to walk but we needed the exercise and it may have taken 5 min to walk. Not bad at all. We went straight to expedition Everest. Fun ride. We may have waited 5 min. Not long then we made our way all the way across to the safari. Got right on and we loved it. After the safari we had time to walk the trail right beside it before we hit the lion king show at 10. It was incredible!!! Then while in area we got on train to the affection section. My girls loved the animals. They provided brushes for the girls to brush them. After that we made our way back to Pocahontas and then the other two trails and the famous tree!! It really was incredible. Saw all we wanted and made our 1:35 reservation at rain forest cafe. Then back to hotel for much needed nap for little ones. That night we hit Epcot around 530 or 6 Had fp for spaceship earth and frozen We did earth on way in then Nemo and crush then made our way to frozen with our coveted fp!! It was down. For 4 hours that day!!! I was so distraught but they assured me customer relations would make it right. So I talked with customer relations at our hotel but unfortunately they can handle fp problems for every ride at Disney except frozen. They told me I had to return to Epcot to get it handled. Thank goodness I had some free time the next afternoon. I went to Epcot and got 7 anytime fp for Monday. I was very pleased!!
Day 4 - Hollywood studios
We rode tower of terror and rockn roller coaster first thing while my daughter in law went straight to Jedi training. The line to get a ticket was over an hour. (Even that early on extra magic hours. ). She didn’t attempt that line. We met back up at first time in forever, frozen show. It was great. Then on toy story where we had fp. Then since it was just around the corner we did disney jr - my girls loved!!! They clapped and sang. Then on to little mermaid which was not my favorite. Ate lunch then beauty and beast rode tower of terror again with fp then we were done with all we wanted to do and see so back to hotel to swim and relax. I just stayed at hotel rest of day. My daughter and her husband walked around Epcot and grabbed a bite at the Mexican restaurant there.
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Last park day
We got up for our last day in the parks, sad!! We had a 9 o’clock reservation at castle for breakfast. We arrived around 8:15 and got to enter right away into park. We went towards the left to a special line and showed our reservation. Easy easy. The photographer was on Main Street so perfect time to take a family picture!! It turned out great.