Best advice?

[enchantingdragon]

I am so overwhelmed right now and our trip is coming up!

We are going from Aug 2-8. Its my husband myself our son (4) and our daughter (1) as well as my mother who is a cast member through ABC Studios.

We are staying at AoA and we are driving down.

I want to know what I need to buy ahead of time food as well as ease in the parks.

I would love to know what are the must dos for each park in that age set. (My son loves animals and Nemo so I have some already in mind)

I would love to know any thing extra I can find or do (free especially) to make this trip even more magical for my kids. (I want to take my son to get the kitchen sink ice cream, the sing along with Chip & Dale, and the movies under the stars at our hotel one night)

I would love to know food recs in each park for my picky son and food lover husband.

Thank and sorry Im just so overwhelmed with all this info.

 

[mm1971]

I am so overwhelmed right now and our trip is coming up!

We are going from Aug 2-8. Its my husband myself our son (4) and our daughter (1) as well as my mother who is a cast member through ABC Studios.

We are staying at AoA and we are driving down.

I want to know what I need to buy ahead of time food as well as ease in the parks.

I would love to know what are the must dos for each park in that age set. (My son loves animals and Nemo so I have some already in mind)

I would love to know any thing extra I can find or do (free especially) to make this trip even more magical for my kids. (I want to take my son to get the kitchen sink ice cream, the sing along with Chip & Dale, and the movies under the stars at our hotel one night)

I would love to know food recs in each park for my picky son and food lover husband.

Thank and sorry Im just so overwhelmed with all this info.

For food, it depends on what your family likes to eat. We will bring PB&J or something simple that will not spoil if bringing into the parks. We normally bring trail mix, some energy bars and a few pieces of fruit for snacks. Meals will depend on what you enjoy and is easiest to make in the morning. Cereal bowls are easy and convenient to pack.

MK would be Buzz Ranger Spin, Pirates, HM and Dumbo I would guess for a 4 yo. If he is tall enough and likes the bigger rides, mine always enjoyed Splash, BTMRR and the new 7DMT is probably a good idea.

Epcot would be Nemo (and turtle talk) obviously, Soarin, TT, JII and SE. Mission space orange, but the tight space made DD nervous when young. Living with the land and Maelstrom are fun as well.

AK would be the safari, both nature trails, Lion King show, flights of wonder and I know my kids spent a good couple of hours in the Dino Dig.

HS really only had a few things for my kids. Muppets 3D, TSMM and Star Tours. They also have the Indiana Jones show. We like One Man's Dream, but that may be a little boring for a 4 year old. The great movie ride is fun, but my kids never really had any interest and the destruction scene can be a little scary.

For free stuff, you have most of it. The Lego store in DTD is pretty cool for young ones, You could see the water pageant from Poly/GF beach and watch wishes. Illuminations and Fantasmic! shows if you a re up late enough.

It's hard to match a picky eater and a food nut. I would suggest going to the Disney site and reviewing the menu's. Find places where both have a favorite available or just allow your son to share with one of you. The overall favorite for us is a meal t Via Napoli in Epcot (Italy).

Good luck and have fun.

 

[MandiC]

Speaking of the lego store in DTD, on the first Tuesday of the month at 5pm I believe the lego store does a free' build' where you can build a figurine and keep it for free. We planned that for our AK day since I knew it would be the shortest park day. We got there and didn't end up doing it because the line was so long and it was a 'boy' character (gotta love those kids, all that rushing and bus transferring to have them turn their noses up ). It is something to think about, I would show up early though, we showed up a few minutes past 5 (you cannot take a bus directly to DTD from the parks, you need to bus to the resort and then bus to dtd, or in our case we took the boat from POR) and the line was wrapped around the entire store. If you have a lego lover though, it'd be worth it. It's a fun store to visit anytime, my girls wanted to sit there for hours on our first day playing.