erinclemmer
Earning My Ears
- Joined
- May 16, 2012
Our family just returned from a 4 day Military Salute ticket. We were in the parks Thursday- Sunday. My father is retired Navy and Disney is my parents special place with my girls so until they are unable to hoof it around the parks we always go with them and my single sister. Traveling with extended family can be hectic, but my parents always make it about the girls just like my husband and I do so since we are all on the same page, it works out great, and we have extra help. Who knew two little girls could take down 5 healthy adults, but they wore us out! This trip was a special treat for my daughters 9th birthday so our girls (other one age 6) were in charge! We did whatever they wanted. We wore ourselves out making this trip as magical as possible for the girls.
We stayed at Port Orleans French Quarter and thought it was lovely. The size of the resort was great, not too big and it was quite at night. The food court had delicious food- we ate dinner there the night we arrived and breakfast there twice. We would definitely stay there again- we had a 35% military discount too so the rooms were a super good deal. I would take my own pillow next time. The ones in the room were a little on the firm side and they did bring feather pillows which were really full. I sleep on a goose-down pillow at home which is full, but very squishy. The room was clean and well maintained, bed was comfy, the towels were fluffy, overall a great place to stay.
The only parks my girls were interested in were Magic Kingdom and Epcot. I know a lot of people would try to cram in all four parks, but our girls like the rides and activities at MK and EP most so we concentrated on those parks. Not that it would not have been great to get to AK and HS, but we exhausted ourselves daily with just 2 parks and as long as the girl were happy mom was happy!
We have been to Disney most every month of the year except July and August, but this was our first time in January and I noticed a couple of things 1. the park was full of people 2. most of those people were Brazilian tour groups. Now, I had read a lot about these tour groups, but I had no idea how crazy it would be. All of the groups we saw were family groups, none of them were noisy or causing trouble, but there were A WHOLE LOT OF THEM!
We were there at rope drop every morning and between getting there early and utilizing fast passes we rode everything we wanted as often as the girls wanted and never had to wait more the 10 minutes or so for anything. I thought this was great considering how crowded the park appeared to be. That said, we have been when we had low wait times and the park looked be less crowded too so I probably would not return in January again over perhaps another month.
The weather was variable we had warm and cold and we drove down- so no luggage worries- we packed for every temperature and we wore a little of everything. On the upside, we did not sweat at all which I was really happy about. It is so much nicer not to be hot and uncomfortable when you travel.
We had dinner at Be Our Guest. The food was excellent. I had the steak, ordered medium and it was cooked perfectly. My kids loved eating the in West Wing- very quiet and mysterious. We got to wander around the entire restaurant. The giant window in the grand ballroom with snow falling outside was beautiful! The girls had a blast as the dresses for dinner, my oldest as Cinderella and my youngest as Tinkerbell! Nothing say Disney magic like a princess and a fairy dining at the Beast's castle in France!
Enchanted Tales with Belle had the longest wait of anything our girls wanted to do and we planned to do that first thing which was the thing to do because the line got long and never changed. We waited 20 minutes at 8am opening. So if you go, do it first and you won't have to wait an hour!
I feel like I am just rambling here, which is probably because I am, but I am just trying to think of anything that might helpful to anyone else.
We did Pick-a-Pearl, it was a thrill for the girls. We did it in Japan. We had them mounted in a pendant with a little diamond (they had every birthstone) as my girls both wanted the diamonds. It was about 15 each for the pearl picking part and then the mount was $30. I took gold chains with me so the girls could wear them in the park the next day. That activity was a big hit and we will do it again the next time we go.
Ohhh, the Bakery in France, I am mentally working my way through each park try to remember the high spots, the Bakery is a super high spot! They should have made it bigger, and the seating area is large, but feels like an afterthought as they took half of the shop at the exit to the French movie and put in tables and chairs, that said, it is a lot of seating. Even if the line for the bakery seems longs, it moves fast so don't be discouraged if you see the line stretched out into the seating area. There are two lines and they are the same. We actually bought lunch there one day and took it down to the Moroccan pavilion where my husband wanted to get counter service and we all ate together there. If you love the lobster bisque from Chefs of France, you can get it in the bakery! That was a big plus for me. Everything we had to eat there was excellent. It is a great addition to the French pavilion.
I think I am going to stop here. If I think of anything else I will try to post it. Overall it was great trip and my girls made some wonderful memories. As always Disney delivers a Magical experience that makes me want to return each year. I loved going to Disney World as a kid and it is so much fun to watch my girls have the experience and get to relive it through them.
We stayed at Port Orleans French Quarter and thought it was lovely. The size of the resort was great, not too big and it was quite at night. The food court had delicious food- we ate dinner there the night we arrived and breakfast there twice. We would definitely stay there again- we had a 35% military discount too so the rooms were a super good deal. I would take my own pillow next time. The ones in the room were a little on the firm side and they did bring feather pillows which were really full. I sleep on a goose-down pillow at home which is full, but very squishy. The room was clean and well maintained, bed was comfy, the towels were fluffy, overall a great place to stay.
The only parks my girls were interested in were Magic Kingdom and Epcot. I know a lot of people would try to cram in all four parks, but our girls like the rides and activities at MK and EP most so we concentrated on those parks. Not that it would not have been great to get to AK and HS, but we exhausted ourselves daily with just 2 parks and as long as the girl were happy mom was happy!
We have been to Disney most every month of the year except July and August, but this was our first time in January and I noticed a couple of things 1. the park was full of people 2. most of those people were Brazilian tour groups. Now, I had read a lot about these tour groups, but I had no idea how crazy it would be. All of the groups we saw were family groups, none of them were noisy or causing trouble, but there were A WHOLE LOT OF THEM!
We were there at rope drop every morning and between getting there early and utilizing fast passes we rode everything we wanted as often as the girls wanted and never had to wait more the 10 minutes or so for anything. I thought this was great considering how crowded the park appeared to be. That said, we have been when we had low wait times and the park looked be less crowded too so I probably would not return in January again over perhaps another month.
The weather was variable we had warm and cold and we drove down- so no luggage worries- we packed for every temperature and we wore a little of everything. On the upside, we did not sweat at all which I was really happy about. It is so much nicer not to be hot and uncomfortable when you travel.
We had dinner at Be Our Guest. The food was excellent. I had the steak, ordered medium and it was cooked perfectly. My kids loved eating the in West Wing- very quiet and mysterious. We got to wander around the entire restaurant. The giant window in the grand ballroom with snow falling outside was beautiful! The girls had a blast as the dresses for dinner, my oldest as Cinderella and my youngest as Tinkerbell! Nothing say Disney magic like a princess and a fairy dining at the Beast's castle in France!
Enchanted Tales with Belle had the longest wait of anything our girls wanted to do and we planned to do that first thing which was the thing to do because the line got long and never changed. We waited 20 minutes at 8am opening. So if you go, do it first and you won't have to wait an hour!
I feel like I am just rambling here, which is probably because I am, but I am just trying to think of anything that might helpful to anyone else.
We did Pick-a-Pearl, it was a thrill for the girls. We did it in Japan. We had them mounted in a pendant with a little diamond (they had every birthstone) as my girls both wanted the diamonds. It was about 15 each for the pearl picking part and then the mount was $30. I took gold chains with me so the girls could wear them in the park the next day. That activity was a big hit and we will do it again the next time we go.
Ohhh, the Bakery in France, I am mentally working my way through each park try to remember the high spots, the Bakery is a super high spot! They should have made it bigger, and the seating area is large, but feels like an afterthought as they took half of the shop at the exit to the French movie and put in tables and chairs, that said, it is a lot of seating. Even if the line for the bakery seems longs, it moves fast so don't be discouraged if you see the line stretched out into the seating area. There are two lines and they are the same. We actually bought lunch there one day and took it down to the Moroccan pavilion where my husband wanted to get counter service and we all ate together there. If you love the lobster bisque from Chefs of France, you can get it in the bakery! That was a big plus for me. Everything we had to eat there was excellent. It is a great addition to the French pavilion.
I think I am going to stop here. If I think of anything else I will try to post it. Overall it was great trip and my girls made some wonderful memories. As always Disney delivers a Magical experience that makes me want to return each year. I loved going to Disney World as a kid and it is so much fun to watch my girls have the experience and get to relive it through them.
