[Edog]

I wanted to say a big thank you to everyone on here. I posted a while back on some tips for a trip to WDW and everyone gave me really good info. I had a major day of depression at work (it didn't help that we flew from 80 degrees in Orlando into a crazy snowstorm in CO), I really wanted to get back as soon as possible! I hope to be a regular on here and be back at WDW sometime in 2010.

I went with my three kids: 5,3 and 6 months, wife and MIL. It was both a great time with my kids at this age and also frustrating at times. There werre a few times that got really stressful where everyone was tired and I wanted to keep going. I really had to tone down the push push push attitude because they just didn't have the stamina. We had 5 day park hopper passes for everyone.

The sheer logistics of getting to MK took a lot out of us. We had to unload the baby 3 times out of the car, into the shuttle to get to the entrance, then again into the monorail/boat. I think next time I would pay extra and stay on site and close to MK just to minimize the energy it took to get to MK.

This time we stayed off-site at the Floridays and it was great. I had a work conference for three days at the convention center so the location worked out great.

The day we had the breakfast at the Royal table was just great in the morning. This was wonderful. I would recommend this to anyone, and it honestly was my favorite thing there.

I wanted to make the most out of our park hoppers and tried to get to HWS in the afternoon. We didn't end up getting there until about 530pm and most of the rides were either shutting down, out of fast passes, or had >1 hour waits. That day showed me that we definitely did not need the park hopper option, because we were only good until about 2pm or so.

We loved Animal Kingdom. I have heard from many people that it's not worth more than a day and could even be skipped but we loved it. I loved that is was lower key and easier to navigate than MK.

The last day we had set aside to make sure and see the fireworks on our last night. I think I would see these more than once next time, I thought they were spectacular!

I am ashamed to admit we didn't even make it to Epcot, I would like to go there with just my wife and see it to assess if the kids would like it.

My favorite things were:
Royal Table Breakfast
Safari ride at AK
Everest at AK
Fireworks at MK
Splash Mtn
Nemo/Lion King Shows at AK

Least favorite:
Dumbo
Tom Sawyer island
Dino land



I just got back right before Halloween and here is the breakdown of what we did:

Day 1: MK

Dumbo-wow lines are long for this <2 minute ride.
Peter Pan
Winnie the Pooh
Snow White’s scary adventures-scary for everyone!
Mickey’s Philharmagic-Awesome
It’s a small world
Ariel’s Grotto->1hour wait but my 3 year old still won't stop talking about it and acting like Ariel.

Day 2: MK/HS

AM
Breakfast at the Royal Table
TeacupsX2
Peter Pan
It’s a small world
Haunted Mansion
Tom Sawyer island
Big Thunder Mtn Railroad

PM
Hollywood Studios
Little Mermaid show
Tower of Terror-Just dad on this one

Day 3: AK

Safari-awesome!
Exploration Trail
Kali River Rapids X2
Finding Nemo

Day 4: AK

Kali River Rapids X2
Everest X2
Festival of the Lion King
Met all characters (like 7 all after lion king-this is a good area to meet characters!)
Triceratop Spin
Dinosaur

Day 5: MK

Dumbo
Teacups X2
Winnie the Pooh
Splash Mtn X2
Pirates of the Caribbean
Hall of Fame-met all the princesses only waited for 2 minutes!
Night Parade
Wishes Fireworks

I got the DVC spiel and I have been reading up on how to rent points from the DVC members, I think that is in our future because we need larger than a conventional room. DVC seems a bit pricey, I have been reading up on it and I'm not sure if it's for us, but we will see, I think I may be addicted to WDW!

I threw on some pictures, thanks for reading, take it easy everyone.

[disneymania]

it sounds like you had a blast, remember this in all likelyhood will not be your last trip! It is alot easier to stay on grounds, if half of your party is tired they can return to the hotel for a nap. It also gets easier as the kids get older, you may lose some of the magic interactions with characters but you are able to stay later, enjoy your meals without incidents and do other things that very young children are just not into!!!Each stage has it's advantages!!!

[PrincessJill]

Sounds like a great trip! I loved the pictures. Your little one dressed as Snow White is absolutely beaming in that picture with her!

Just curious... who smooched the baby with that pink lipstick?

[nubeanie]

Your girls are precious! So glad you had a good time! Staying on property definitely has its advantages. Especially with the younger ones. Thanks for the TR!

[Dopey]

Hi Edog, glad you had a great trip. How about some more pics?

I moved this thread to it's proper home

[leslieh]

Hello edog! The kids are beautiful- glad you had a great trip!

[WishUponAStar]

Adorable pics, sounds like a GREAT trip!!

[hanwill]

what cute little girls.. hope they had fun.. remember that each trip is fun, staying on site is easy, and if you are on here enough, you will learn all of the intracacies of all of the things to so at WDW... I have learned when to go on what ride, and it makes it a line minimized trip, and very fun...

[lovemysons]

Oh so much fun to read a first time report!

I am sure you will be back, glad to hear that you liked AK, I can always spend a whole day there, no problem! When my boys were little, Epcot did not hold much interest for them, but now they really enjoy it.

Also, so happy that you enjoyed Cinderella's Royal Table.

The hour wait for Ariel's grotto was definitely worth it for your three year old, how cute that she is even acting like Ariel!! Another princess is born. :)

[ssn]

Glad you had a great trip!!! Your kids are beautiful - glad the girls were able to meet the princesses. When DD was younger we would stay on property and do a park in the morning then go back to the hotel for a nap and/or pool around lunch time and then go to another park in the evening rejuvinated. Even now we don't like to go to a park from opening to closing w/o a break in between.

[allirella]

Sounds like a fun trip. Your kids are precious!

[WALL]

Great TR .... Love the pic in CRT with the lipstick on the baby's forehead!

[princesslindsey]

Sounds like a great first trip! So glad you had a good time!

[Edog]

More pictures! The kiss on baby's head came from Snow White who called him one of her dwarfs! I actually caught it on video and put it on youtube, the link is below.

YouTube - Royal Table Breakfast

[Edog]

More pictures..