Vacation Ideas - Disney World, FL
I’ll be honest. I was never a mom was swore she was excited to take her kids to Disney… but planning a vacation in December, you don’t have a lot of options for small humans to go places in warm weather…. hence how we came across a vacation to Disney World. (I’ll be updating this post as we go to help with tips and tricks if you are planning a vacation there too). Now, I’d also be lying if I wasn’t looking forward to seeing my small people’s faces as we walk through the magical world of Disney just a few weeks before Christmas.
We started looking at Disney because I was able to get some pretty inexpensive flights on Southwest. We really enjoy flying Southwest as a family because we don’t have the bag charges (saving us $$$) and we get to board early due to our kiddos ages. Plus, we find that Midway is a pretty easy airport to get in and out of.
Airport Parking at Midway
We use Park, Ride, Fly and we park our car there for the time we are away. You pull in, they load you into the bus and then drop you off at the airport. Seriously, it’s so simple. Coming home, you’ll give them a call and they tell you where to go for them to grab you and they bring you straight back to your car. I have found that traveling this way as a large family we tend to save some $$ vs if we were to take an Uber or Limo to the airport.
Rental Vehicle
So, I’m a bargain shopper. The vehicle I’m going to get is pretty much the same everywhere, but I also look at the reviews for the companies and go based upon my personal experience as well. The thing with Orlando is that a rental van tends to be a bit more expensive through the airport reservation options. This lead me to look into a company called Turo. You rent vehicles from people just like me and you. I ended up finding a smaller company that has great reviews and saved us about $300 on the car rental. So far, with just simply booking, it’s been a pretty easy process. I do have to email them back to follow up on the car seat rental situation, so I’ll keep ya’ll posted on our experience with renting from Turo.
Hotel
We looked into staying on the property but found that the prices for somewhere with a small kitchen were very expensive. We really want to have a kitchen to make breakfast in, come back in the evening. We also plan to have a park day, then a pool day, park day, pool day and a final park day, so finding somewhere with a great pool was also a high priority too. We ended up deciding on a condo in Windsor Hills, which is about 15 minutes from Disney World. We booked on AirBNB and the owner has been very communicative so far. The resort has a splash pad, park, large pool, and a lazy river. We are hoping that the resort provides some relaxing entertainment for the kids on the off days. We’ll keep you posted on this experience as well and will post the place we stay after if we end up loving it!
The Parks
So our tallest child is 47”, which means that he can go on a bunch of stuff, but our littlest is just about 38”, which means that we have to adjust a bit to ensure that she’s also enjoying her time too. We decided on going to three different parks, but will adjust if we need to while there. We are going to Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom and Lego Land.
We not only want to experience the magic of each park, but we also want to enjoy the different experiences that we can while inside the parks too. When using the Disney App, you can look up reservations to places to book them. I’ve been checking once a day in the evening time and was able to book Cinderella’s Castle for lunch in Magic Kingdom and Tusker House in Animal Kingdom for lunch too. I’m super stoked for Cinderella’s Castle, as I have heard it’s an amazing experience. We did these reservations closer to 3PM anticipating that we will have eaten a ton of snacks and will truly need a break at that point. We’ll see how this plays out.
The other portion of our trip is that we are hiring a service to help guide us through the parks. They help to book your tickets, do the Genie Plus ordering the day of and then help you navigate the parks for shorter wait times and an overall magical experience. I would by lying if I wasn’t nervous to book the service, but now that we did, I’m excited. Not having to worry about knowing the park inside and out and letting someone else take us through, get us into the lines more easily and help to reduce wait times (a huge savings with three small kids), it taking some of the stress of the vacation off myself. I’ll post an update and will give the name of the service we use with a full review if it’s something you’d be interested in as well.
Other Dining
We plan to eat breakfast at our rental property and likely dinner as well, but will gauge that based upon how all of us are feeling after a long day at the park. On the pool days we were able to get a reservation at the T-Rex restaurant in Disney Springs, which is a dino restaurant that my 4 year old will likely love. I’ve been looking on the app every day for some fantastic other reservations to some cool places to take the kids.
We can’t wait for this vacation. I look forward to seeing the magic of Disney World and of the holiday season through my little kids eyes. I look forward to giving feedback on our overall experience. If you are thinking of going, don’t hesitate to reach out. We all know that I love to chat and I’d be happy to tell you about the highs and lows of our experience!
