See Disney in a Day!

We had SO much fun on our vacation to Florida a few weeks ago. It was nice to have my boys all to myself for 10 days! We went to St. Pete’s Beach and it was gorgeous! The condo we were staying at had its own private beach area which was so nice compared to a super busy commercialized beach. Our last two years we went the private beach route and it really spoils you! We were on the gulf side so no waves which was great for the kids. They were able to get out in the ocean and swim!! There were these HUGE rocks all alongside one part of the beach where people would fish or sunbathe. Cody LOVED fishing and it was cute seeing him and daddy bonding :) Manatees would actually come right up to the rocks and let you pet them! (NO, I didn’t do it, but it was fun seeing others from afar!LOL)  There were bars/restaurants  on the ocean within walking distance which was divine. On Mother’s Day, we went to a beach restaurant with a D.J. and yummy food. After we ate, we walked right out onto the beach with our drinks and the kids played in the sand. Heaven on EARTH! I would be a total beach bum if my hubby would let me pack us up!! We went to the Pier one day which was fun. They had shopping, more restaurants on the water and lots of boats to look at, including a cool pirate ship the boys got a kick out of. We had beautiful weather and you can’t beat how NOT humid it is when you go that early in the summer. We are usually on the beach in the dead of summer when it is hot and humid and that is especially not fun when you have two kids in tow! I did NOT want to leave, but it had to come to end and back to reality :)

We did end up splurging one day and went to DISNEY! I had been thinking about this for some time because we were only an hour and a half away so I wanted to take advantage of that. I only wanted to spend a day there so my first decision was which park to pick? I asked the question on FB and it was 99% Magic Kingdom since it was my first Disney trip so that is what I went with. I did some research before hand and have lots of tips and tricks to share with you on how to get the most out of your trip in a DAY!

Choose your Park.

Head over to Easy WDW and start your planning! (I planned my entire trip with the help of another blogger friend and this website and we had a GREAT trip!)

• Since we had 10 days, I could pick any day I wanted to go to Disney. I looked at the Crowd Calendar and chose based off the lowest number. This shows which parks are the least to most crowded on a particular day.
• Check out the Cheat Sheets section and read them over. (I went off his Fast Pass Priority which was dead on!! Read about FP below)
• Read through the Fast Pass Info (BEST INVENTION EVER!). So you can get these every 2 hours and this allows you to go past the line and not have to wait for a ride! So he based his list of the rides that get the most busy and then you can do the other rides that don’t get as busy in between. It really worked and we rode SO much in one day. It was CRAZY awesome! Make sure to check on the EasyWDW for disconnected FP info- these are FP you can pull with other ones at the same time. The only thing to keep in mind is that you have to arrive at that ride by your FP time. They give you an hour, but work that into your schedule! Get something that you keep on you that you have your passes in (you will need these for your FP) and you can put your FP in there as well for easy access. I used my wristlet and I kept my notes, FP and passes in it.
• Study your park map so you aren’t running around in circles when you get there
• Download the Disney app. This will give you height requirements, wait times (those weren’t always accurate), show times etc.
• Make sure you and the hubs each have a phone. If he is running to get a FP or taking someone to the potty you need a way to stay connected!

If you are going just for the day….Tips before you get there:

• Get your tickets ahead of time so you don’t have to get them when you get there. That takes time and you don’t want to waste a minute!
• Since we were an hour and a half away and I wanted to get there when it opened at 8am so we decided to stay at a hotel nearby to save my sanity! I found a Resort Hotel, Best Western Lake Buena Vista for $79 on Expedia. It was a SUPER nice hotel and I was able to get our tickets the night before which saved us a lot of time the next morning. Another benefit of this was that I knew we wouldn’t be staying until the park closes and you can see Epcots and MK fireworks from this hotel!! You can upgrade to a room you can see them from or you can just go out on the hotel balcony and see them for FREE! I saved us about $25 doing this :) If you don’t want to get there before the park opens, you can take advantage of the shuttle option these resort hotels offer, BUT beware that they do multiple stops so they can’t guarantee you that you will get to the resort before it opens. This does save you parking, but you don’t have as much control. Up to you!
• GET THERE BEFORE  IT OPENS :) See below!

Tips on Magic Kingdom!

• GET THERE BEFORE  IT OPENS! This is the MOST IMPORTANT thing you can do IF you want to get on a lot of rides and  if you only have one day. There are so many advantages to this. Parking can take forever because you have to take a shuttle to the park after you have parked and then you have to stop and get your tickets (if you didn’t do that the night before)! There is an opening show that starts about 15 minutes before the park opens. The train comes with all the characters and they do a little singing and dancing and then the Mayor of MK counts down from 10 to 1 when the gates open! I was crying it was SO magical! Even if you are there for a week, this is a must see in my opinion.
• When you get to the main gates (this is before the park opens), there is a holding area where everyone congregates. While you wait, you can get your buttons (1st visit, birthday etc. which are FREE) in the little gift area. They also have the sig books and other goodies you can buy. If you want to save money on souvenirs, get them at the Disney outlet and hide them in your bag. Then as you go through the park, you can get them out and surprise the kids with them. They will never know the difference! You can also pick up the park map (grab 2 so you and the hubs can each have one) and show times here as well.
• As the gates open, if you want to see Mickey or the Princesses, go through the gates on the right and they are in the first big house on the right. You can get a FP for either of these, but if you are first in line, I would recommend just getting in line then because it is at the main entrance and you would have to walk all the way back through the park to get there when your FP time is. We only had to wait 5 minutes to see Mickey and then we could head out to the rest of the park. If you wait just a minute before you go in, all the characters from the train go by there so you can give some high fives and snap some pics.
• After this, I would recommend sending the hubs to get a FP to Peter Pan and you head to Ariel (unless you want to see the new Belle attraction- from what I read, this was something that would not have appealed to us). We were able to see Ariel in about 10 minutes and then walked right on the ride. This ride was AWESOME! Highly recommend.
• Try to plan your rides based off the land so you aren’t walking back and forth from land to land. See the MK map to see what I mean.

Then you can follow EasyWDW recommendations on FP priority based off what you want to ride (also, make sure to take note in the color coded map based off priority).

Attractions (I wanted us all to be able to do everything together so I made sure to make a list of what we would all want and could  do. If you have older kids, there are rides we did not do so I can’t attest to them.

• Winnie the Pooh. You can get a FP to this, but they have so many fun things for the kids to play with while you wait in line that I think you would miss out on that if you bypass the line so I would try to work that into your day (early before it gets busy). This ride was amazing as well. Highly recommend.
• Dumbo. This was such a cute ride and you can get a FP to this, but they have an indoor play area that is AMAZING. There was no wait for us, but we opted to let the kids play inside for a bit before we went on the ride. They give you a pager and when it is your turn in line, they page you so you don’t have to wait at all. Not sure it is worth wasting a FP on this one. Let them play instead! This and Aladdin’s carpet are pretty much the same ride. I would recommend this one over the carpet because of the play area.
• People Mover. You get to see some of the park and it is nice to just sit and take a tour, rest those toes :) We walked right on this one, but I probably wouldn’t do it again unless there was no wait.
• Stitch. I had been told and read this was a scary one. Cody begged and begged me to do it and we literally hit no lines so we were ahead of schedule so Steve took him on it. I didn’t go in, but Steve said it got pitch black for a few minutes and this scared Cody. They shoot water at you and you have to be strapped in with shoulder harnesses so beware for your little ones.
• Pirates of the Carribean. I think this would be one you would do with your older ones and if you have seen the movie. The boys liked being on the boat, but I didn’t think it was very age appropriate for my 4 or almost 2-year-old. It is also very dark so keep in mind when planning.
• Buzz Lightyear. AWESOME! Favorite ride of the day! You get to turn your ship around and around and shoot at the bad guys. We all loved it and it was SO much fun! Must do!!
• Philarmagic. This show was AWESOME! It is 3D and you have to wear the glasses, but the show was amazing! I won’t give away the fun, but make sure to look at the back of the theater as soon as the show is over to see something funny!
• Monsters Inc. This was another show and it was SUPER cute! It is a little comedy show and it is a nice place to sit and cool your heels.
• Peter Pan. I didn’t love this because I am claustrophobic and it is really dark the entire ride. The kids loved it though because you get to fly in a boat  so I would say you should add this one to your list!
• Swiss Tree house. Cody thought this was awesome because you get to walk through a HUGE treehouse. There is no wait, but if you are pressed on time I would skip this.
• Jungle Cruise. This is so adorable. You get to see some animals and get some hilarious commentary. I would say to do some of the others first, but if you have time, I would do it. Cody still talks about the animals he got to see :)
• It’s a small world. You get to ride in a boat and see a lot of things on the ride. Nice and cool and a pretty long ride as well. If your kids are younger I would do this one.
• The only other thing I wanted to do that we didn’t get to is the Astro Orbitor. This looked really cool, but if you don’t get to this early the line gets fairly long and we were pretty spoiled because we went when it wasn’t super busy so we had FP for the long wait times ride and literally walked on everything else.
• See at least one of the parades. We were able to see them both, but if I had to choose, I would make sure to see the 3:00 parade. Get there 10 minutes early to get a spot right on the road so you can see it all. You will see all the characters this way and my kids LOVED it! So did I :)
• Splurge on a character dining. If you packed food for everything else, you can splurge a little on this. We went with Winnie the Pooh characters at Crystal Palace. The characters each come up to your table, sign your books, give hugs and you can get pics! This is a great way to entertain the kids, while you get some food in your tummy and rest in the AC. I was SO happy I decided to book this. We actually only had one time to pick from since I booked it 2 days before, but it worked out perfectly! The 3:00 parade is over at 3:10 and we headed straight over to Crystal Palace for our 3:20 reservations. We ate and enjoyed seeing Winne, Tigger, Eyore, and Piglet. Then we went straight to the castle for the 5:00 show which I would highly recommend. Mickey and the gang, peter pan, the princesses and a lot of the others are in it so it is a great time for the kids to see some of their favorites!

 Money Savers

• Eat breakfast before you go or in the car.
• Bring your big water bottles and they will refill them for you for free at the food stands.
• Pack your lunch or dinner and snacks. They will let you bring in whatever you want, so pack as much as you can fit in your stroller!
• Get your souvenirs and signature book from Disney outlet prior to going on your trip!

We had a FABULOUS time and am SO happy we went. Our next visit I want to go somewhere else. I feel like we saw all the big ones I wanted to see at MK and then some so I feel content to move on. Maybe one day I will splurge on a week-long trip so we can park hop, but until then it is possible to see MK in a day and feel satisfied!!

I would love to hear your tips and tricks or favorite websites you use to plan your Disney vacation!