This will be short report of what we did, what went well, and what didn’t go well during our visit in the hopes it may help others with their decisions. My wife and I took our 13 month old son and 3.5 year daughter on their first WDW trip! 5 Nights at Bay Lake Tower.
Feel free to ask any questions!
11/24 - Arrival Day
We took a Minnie Van from the airport to Bay Lake Tower. The Minnie Van experience was great. Our driver met us the bag claim area and helped with our luggage. My wife and I were very happy with the carseats and time savings on the road (which were important factors to us with our 1 year old). Originally we planned to take DME back to the airport, but after experiencing the Minnie Van ride to our resort, we decided to book it for the ride back to the airport. I will likely continue to use the Minnie Van service on future WDW trips while my youngest is under 3. Once he is over 3, I suspect we will go back to using DME most of the time.
We ordered Garden Grocer and Instacart deliveries to Bay Lake Tower. The Garden Grocer delivery was seamless and worked out great. The Instacart delivery was a mess and we had to throw out dairy items that were not put in the refrigerator by Bell Services. Also, when we arrived, Bell Services told us the delivery had not been made yet while Instatcart said it had been made an hour earlier. I still don’t know how much was the fault of Bell Services at our resort and how much was Instacart’s fault … I suspect a combination of both. In addition to throwing out dairy products, the result was wasted time upon our arrival making phone calls and emails…
Early evening, we headed to MK for a quick visit. FP+ for Dumbo and meeting Tinkerbelle.
11/25 - MK from rope drop to 11:30. Chef Mickey’s at Noon. My daughter and I headed back to MK in the afternoon while my son napped in our room. Note - My son would not nap in the stroller so each day one of us took him back to the resort for a nap. Dinner at California Grill (my wife’s and my favorite WDW restaurant). A very fun day all around! Rope drop really is key with kids (In my previous adult only trips, I never did rope drop). The lines were very low from 9 am to 10 am. After 10 am, the lines quickly increased throughout the park. Our TP’s worked great (with some on the fly adjustment) and our only waits of longer than 20 mins the entire trip were Anna/Elsa meet and great (30 mins) and Adventurer’s Outpost (35 mins).
Note - after you use your 3 FP+looking for new FP+ and continually modifying is key to saving time. We were able to swing extra rides for Dumbo, Magic Carpets, Small World and Pooh with little or no wait from booking FP+ and then modifying times to get them earlier. It does take some persistence which can be annoying to do while at a park, but it is worth the time savings in line.
11/26 - Bibbidy Bobbidy Boutique at 8:20 am followed by breakfast at CRT. My 3.5 y/o daughter loved the entire morning and we loved watching her. To my surprise, my 1 y/o son loved meeting all the princesses (I thought he might be scared). He seemed delighted to receive a lipstick kiss on the forehead from each of Ariel and Jasmine. The only melt down of our trip occurred this day when the Fairy Godmother had her break while my daughter was waiting in line to meet her. The Fairy Godmother was replaced by the Stepsisters and my daughter had a melt down (which the Stepsisters immitated). After a mid-day break at the resort, we headed to Epcot for FEA, meet Anna and Elsa, The Three Caballeros, and dinner at La Hacienda de San Angel. Dinner was fantastic. I highly recommend.
11/27 - MK from rope drop to 4:30 pm (except for my son’s nap break at the resort with my wife). All was great except my daughter refused to try to the Barnstormer because it looked too fast. We had a lot of resistance to each new ride as she asked if each ride was (a) fast, (b) dark, © high or (d) had any scary parts. Every time we convinced her to try a ride, she loved it, but we couldn’t convince her for The Barnstormer or Nemo (she said the shark would be there and she doesn’t like him). Any suggestions for getting a child to try a roller coaster? … I think she would like it if she tried.
11/28 - AK from 9:15 am to 3:00 pm (except for my son’s nap break at the resort with my wife). Kids loved KS. We made a mistake here and should have done our 3rd FP+ for meeting Mickey/Minnie. Instead we used our 3rd FP+ on the Lion King show and went to meet Mickey/Minnie when we arrived at 9:15 am. Posted wait time was 15 min, but the actual wait turning out to be 35 min. Meanwhile, the theater for the Lion King didn’t fill up.
11/29 - Departure Day. We all had a blast the past 5 days. My daughter said she wanted to stay at Disney World forever. Don’t we all?!?