4.23 to 5.2 with 2 preschoolers; Dolphin & Sheraton Safari

[linda_loo]

Mom, 34 (me)
Dad, 41
DD4 – dinosaur fanatic
DD2.5 – loves Mickey

For the most part, we followed www.tourguidemike.com itineraries for those with young children. We only did one parent swap, and focused on doing the things that we thought our girls would like. Happy children = happy parents. I have been planning the trip for around 3 months, and spent a lot of time reading TGM's advice, checking out these boards and phoning in ADRs. I felt pretty well prepared for the trip.

We can't recall waiting for more than 5 minutes for anything, maybe 10 on the FP for Soarin'. I think we could have done better and even less wait (!!!), but by the time I got 2 kids in the park, their stroller, the backpack... and unloaded them, and marched them into whatever we were riding... it took a little longer than what was ideal.

April 23 to April 27, we stayed at the Dolphin. My husband had a conference there, so I mostly did the parks w/o him, just me and the girls. To keep things easy, we only did things in the Epcot resort area. We were at the Dolphin for a couple days last year, when we visited the parks for just 2 days. It was as lovely as before and we especially enjoyed the pool and the convenience of Picabu's, plus it was so nice to take boats to Epcot and MGM. The only complaint we had was that we were on the East elevator side, and I swear it took us like 20 minutes to get to the pool!

April 27 to May 2, we stayed at the Sheraton Safari, in a suite using our Starwood points. It's a much smaller hotel, and you can tell that they are trying to do well, but its age is showing. We didn't think that housekeeping did a very good job, our socks were almost black every day, just from walking around our hotel room. However, it was great to have a suite with our points and we loved having the pool close by and to be able to run to Walgreen's or eat at a non-Dis restaurant. The shuttle schedule was good for MK and AK, but not so much for Epcot and MGM, as you can't get there for park opening.

more to come...

 

[linda_loo]

Day 1 - afternoon flight, check in and dinner at 1900 Park Fare.
We had to wait nearly an hour to be seated*. It was another hour for all 4 characters to make their way passed our table. Food was yummy, but we wouldn't go back.

* 45 minutes into the wait, I noticed a doorway, far to the right of the host station... out that door is a (closed-in) courtyard with beautiful flowers and a Mary Poppins topiary. My girls were so easy to supervise in that area, I wish I had found it earlier.

Day 2 - Epcot FW, Le Cellier, break, Epcot FW.
dh was at his conference, I took the girls to Turtle Talk, Living Seas and Circle of Life.

Met dh for lunch at Le Cellier, which was fabulous, I'm so glad we went there. We had the first seating, ate and I took the children back for a nap.

We ate some snacks in our room, and dh joined us to go back to FW. The park was not very crowded, we easily got into Journey Into My Imagination & ImageWorks, had another snack, then Living with the Land and Ellen's Universe of Energy. My girls are kind of earthy, love bugs, animals, fish and dinosaurs, so I felt they would enjoy even the ones that aren't as kid-friendly. I was right. Ellen's was a huge hit with my 4 year old, probably because of the dinosaurs.

Day 3 - MGM, Mama Melrose, break, MGM.
dh was at conference in the morning. I picked up an FP for The Little Mermaid, saw Playhouse Disney and then used our TLM FP. We had a chunk of time before our ressie, so I decided we would jump ahead to the Muppets. On the way, we were just in time to catch LOTS of characters. We were 5th in line to see Jo-Jo and Goliath, 5th for Donald and 2nd to see Sorcerer Mickey. It was 10:40 when I passed under his marquee, and there was no one there, for the 10:45 session!!! I actually stopped a cast member nearby to clarify for certain that my eyes weren't deceiving me. Before lunch, we saw the Muppets.

Mama Melrose was one of our favorite places, it's exactly what we like to eat and it was so nice to be seated right away (first seating) in a place that was (relatively) quiet. We love it! After lunch, dh went back to meetings and we girls rested.

In the evening, we took the boat to see Beauty and the Beast. dh took the kids for ice cream, while I enjoyed a moments peace and saved seats in the first row! Well, actually 3rd. It was the first non-handicapped guest row.

Day 4 - Epcot, Biergarten, break, swimming and Boardwalk.
dh still at conference, I took the girls back into FW to see Turtle Talk again (they LOVED it!) and I picked up a FP for Soarin'. When dh caught up with us, I rode Soarin'. We enjoyed some of the flowers in FW and wandered over to WS for it's opening. We opted to not go over to Norway and Mexico for rides, and instead did some Kidcot stations, checked out the trains by Germany and went to lunch.

We enjoyed the food, but the Biergarten is one place that I wished we had made a later ADR. IIRC, the band doesn't start until 1 and I (music teacher and if German descent) was really hoping to have some party time in Germany. It's ok, we still had a lovely time.

Afternoon was a huge nap for all of us, then swimming, snacks and a ride on a surrey bike on the Boardwalk (I have always wanted to do that!!!)

Day 5 - Swim, Break, do laundry, check out, taxi to Sheraton Safari, Maccaroni Grill.

Day 6 - MK, Crystal Palace, swim.
We had a great day at MK, fitting in a bunch of stuff before the kids crumpled. Not in order: Goofy's Barnstormer, got FP for Pooh, Pooh, Snow White, the Carrousel, Dumbo, Peter Pan, It's A Small World, and used FP for Pooh. On the way to lunch, we happened to see Alice, who had a really short wait. I think we were 3rd or 4th in line.

Then, we had lunch at the Crystal Palace. We thought the restaurant was beautiful and the staff was wonderful. The characters were great about following a pattern in getting through the restaurant, and it was easy to be visited by each one. The food was good, desserts were yummy and the girls were thrilled. I don't think we would do it again, because I think once was enough for us, but I would recommend it to a friend who asked.

After lunch, we did Jungle Cruise, the Magic Carpets, Tiki birds, rode Buzz Lightyear - loved it and picked up a FP - the Tomorrowland Transit Authority and finished our day with another round of Buzz. We had dinner near our hotel, swam a little and put the kids to bed early.

Day 7 - AK, Tusker House.
I guess it was a pretty normal crowd day for AK, but I felt like it was tight and hard to move around the park. Used a FP for Safari and rode the Tricratops ride a bunch of times and hung out at the boneyard. I didn't love Maharajah all that much. It was pretty crowded at that time, and the girls had some troubles seeing most of the animals (I think bats were the only ones that they saw well). I guess it was just the position of the animals that day? We got tired of lifting them in and out of the stroller, but they did enjoy what they saw.

We had lunch at Tusker House, which was great. We got there early, it wasn't very crowded, and it was excellent counter service food. We saw Lion King (great seats, loved it), and from feedback by the girls, decided to go back to Dinoland for another Triceratops. Our oldest wanted to check out the bones again, but the Boneyard was really crowded in the afternoon, and it was hard to supervise them. So, we went back to the hotel for some swimming, and early dinner nearby and early bedtime for kiddos. (wahoo for early bedtime, and having a suite, so we could relax w/o the kids a little!)

Day 8 - friend from FL visits, Downtown Disney, Wolfgang Puck Grand Cafe, swim
After gorging on Mr. Potato Head parts and Legos... we went to WPGC for our 11:30 lunch reservation. The ressie was for 3 adults and 3 kids under 4). They didn't open their doors until 11:35. We were the first ones seated, and they shoved us in a corner right by the kitchen. They gave us a huge table, with 6 chairs and stuck the high chairs at the ends. When I expressed that this wouldn't work, could they please remove some chairs so we could seat the children closer to adults, they told me we could move whatever we wanted. I thought that the Grand Cafe was to be more family friendly, but I really didn't get that, from our first 5 minutes there. The food was great, but the service was slow, inattentive and the bill was huge. Way overpriced, we won't go back. Live and learn.

Big nap for kids in afternoon, swimming and dinner at a local Mexican place, Chevy's... which was fantastic. At the end of the day, I asked the girls what they wanted to do on Monday (our last day in the parks) and they screamed "BELLE!" I called for an 11:05 ADR at 50s Prime Time, which is one of our favorites.

Day 9 - MGM, 50s Prime Time, break, MK
We got a FP for Little Mermaid and turned to go to Playhouse Disney, but the must have had problems, because their first 2 shows were off. We wasted a little time doing the Great Movie ride before seeing Little Mermaid again, this time in the first row.

We had lunch then dh took the kids to see the Playhouse Disney again, while I went to save seats for Beauty and the Beast. We got in the same front row and loved it even more the 2nd time.

In the afternoon, the kids took a huge nap, we had dinner in our room and then took a cab to MK. We got there at 7 pm, did Haunted Mansion and basically repeated a lot of Friday's rides. We saw Mickey's Philharmagic in there too, which we missed on our first day. We went over to Toontown, and had a lot of fun seeing some characters. Then, we decided to pop into the Grand Prix, with a 5 minute wait because of Spectro. We left the ride just in time for the start of the fireworks and weazled our way into a great viewing position in front of the castle. As soon as they were done, I started weazling again, to try to beat as many people possible out of MK (not easy with a double stroller!).

more...

 

[linda_loo]

All in all, we couldn't have been happier. This was seriously the BEST vacation that I have ever had, and I KNOW that the girls were giddy most of the time. I am certain that 90% of this is because I felt so well-informed about creating an itinerary and because we experienced so much magic with such ease. I find it stressful to travel with two small children and very tiring. Hauling them in and out of the stroller is hard on my back and I constantly worry about their behavoir around others... but because so many things went so smoothly, it was all fabulous!

 

[TLinden16]

Sounds like you had a great time! You sure saw a lot of characters at MGM that day! FYI, Chevy's isn't a local place--it's actually a chain resturant. They are all over the place. It's one of my favorite restaurants.

Thanks for posting.

 

[averill94]

Thanks for sharing- brave taking kids alone! I dont know about that
We are hoping to follow same plans as you and I have about all same ADRs as you did! Is Everest the huge draw at AK? Spoke to a few people that were there and they said out of all the parks AK was the most crowded.

Thanks

ps cant wait to see Belle!