My first trip report: 8 magical days at WDW

[PamelaASmith]

Hi everyone! After spending the last year planning our first family Disney vacation, I am happy and excited to finally be able to personally contribute to the board!

We rented DVC points from a kind soul I met through the DIS rent/trade forum. Easy, smooth transaction. Couldn't have gone any better. We got a two-bedroom villa at Wilderness Lodge. It was more beautiful than pictures do it justice. It was very large- plenty of room for our family of four.

We arrived on the 21st at about noon. We stopped by the hotel to leave our luggage and received our first of many dustings of pixie dust. Our rooms were ready early and we were able to check in immediately! Without even making a special request, we received one of the best rooms in the resort, according to a fabulous book "The Unofficial Guide". We were on the top floor facing the woods and lake. We quickly checked in and headed to Disney Studios.

I should step back right now and list the resources I used. All were fabulous.
1) This board (of course)
2) Mousesavers site
3) The Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World
4) Passporter
5) The DIS podcast
6) touringplans.com

I planned out which park to visit on which day according to the crowd calendar at touringplans.com. I also printed out touring plans from that same website. Even though all the books said to get to the parks early and take a break mid-day, we didn't do that, and it worked out great. I figured it would be more relaxing to sleep in every day, arriving at the parks around 10 or 11. Taking a break mid-day would have meant pool time, and our girls would have completely worn themselves out and would have been finished for the day after that. I know my kids! So, we slept in every day, and stayed at the parks as late as we felt comfortable. We followed the girls' lead every day and ended when they got tired. Even arriving late, we walked onto many attractions, waited usually only 5 or 10 minutes for a ride, and the longest wait of the entire trip was 20 minutes for Dumbo.

I made ADRs for one meal each day. We improvised for the other meals, which worked out extremely well. This way, we could be somewhat flexible in our days, yet have at least one meal planned and guaranteed.

Probably the most useful format to post our trip will be to list each day in order, followed by what touring plan we used, and the highs/lows/funnies/magic for the day. This summary is from the Passporter book, which we filled out as a family at the end of each day. As for the touring plans, we used them as the backbone and modified as desired as we went along. We did many rides not listed, as our 7 year old was ready for them and wanted to do them. If our 5 year old didn't want to do it, my husband would take one child and I'd take the other, we'd each do one attraction, then meet back up. It worked out extremely well.

Tuesday the 21st: Disney Studios.
Followed the One-Day Late Arrival Touring Plan for Parents with Small Children.
Lunch at the airport. Dinner was an ADR at the Hollywood Brown Derby (Fantasmic dinner package)
Day lasted from 1 - 8 pm. No complaints- great day!
Weather: perfect
Best thing: Star Tours (5 year old), Fantasmic (7 year old and Dad), Tower of Terror (me)
Worst thing: Fantasmic (5 year old), falling down and scraping her knee (7 year old)
Funniest thing: Muppets in 3D (5 year old)
Magic: early check-in, walking onto every single attraction with no wait, discovering we could see the MK fireworks and electric water pageant from our room balcony.

Wednesday the 22nd: Magic Kingdom
Followed Late Arrival Two-Day Touring Plan for Parents with Small Children: Day 1
Breakfast/Lunch- ADR at Cinderella's Royal Table. FYI I did not have to jump through hoops to get this reservation. I called 180 days out from our first day and was able to book everything I wanted at the times I wanted. No problem whatsoever! Dinner was at the Whispering Canyon at our resort.
Day lasted from 9 - 5:30.
Weather: perfect
Best thing: Haunted Mansion (7 year old), Dumbo (5 year old), Cinderella's Royal Table (Mom)
Worst thing: Dumbo (7 year old), Haunted Mansion (5 year old)
Funniest thing: Philharmagic (all)
Magic: meeting princesses at CRT, having a CM approach the girls and have them help decorate the tree in the Christmas Tree Shoppe and then giving them a certificate for helping.

Thursday the 23rd, Epcot
Followed the Two Day Sunrise/Starlight Epcot Touring Plan (sunrise part)
Breakfast was in our room. Lunch was an ADR at Akershus Royal Banquet Hall. Not as good as CRT. Dinner was sampling the booths at the Food and Wine festival (EXCELLENT!!)
Day lasted from 9 am- 9:30 pm. Good day!
Weather: Cloudy but good, poured right before fireworks but we had ponchos.
Best thing: Mission Space, orange ticket (7 year old), Not being afraid of the fireworks (5 year old), lasting for 12 hours in the park with everyone happy and energetic (mom and dad)
Worst thing: Honey I shrunk the audience (all). That Kodak commercial they make you stand in a crowded room and watch is just too much and too long.
Funniest thing: Talking Turtle with Crush, belly dancing with my 5 year old in Moracco!

Friday the 24th, Animal Kingdom
Followed the One Day Touring Plan for Parents with Small Children
Breakfast in our room. Lunch at Yak and Yeti (not that great). Dinner at Jiko (ADR).
Day lasted from 11 - 5 at AK, then we went to EMH at Epcot from 8 - 10.
Weather: rainy and humid.
Best thing: Being able to ride Kali River Rapids 4 times in a row without getting off, having NO LINES at ANY attraction.
Worst thing: Lauren's foot hurting (only day she wore crocs and not tennies)
Magic: stumbling upon Pooh, Tigger, and Eeyore. We had not planned on standing in character lines at all, but we literally kept running into characters with little to no wait to meet them, so we ended up meeting probably 15 - 20 characters in all!

Saturday the 25th, MK
Followed Late Arrival Two-Day Touring Plan for Parents with Small Children: Day 2
Big brunch in our room (room service). Dinner at Liberty Tree Tavern character meal (EXCELLENT!!!)
Day lasted from 10:45 am to 10:45 pm. The girls were great!!
Weather: sunny and warm/hot.
Best thing: Carousel of Progress (5 year old), Big Thunder Mountain roller coaster(7 year old)
Worst thing: being hot!
Funniest thing: Winnie the Pooh ride (5 year old), meeting Hook and Smee (7 year old). They were the best characters we met- them and Peter Pan.
Magic: getting free fastpasses from a woman for Big Thunder Mountain rollercoaster, getting free fast passes for Peter Pan from a CM, the girls being guest conductors on the RR by sitting in the back row (they got to say all aboard on the microphone and they each got a card), literally stumbling upon excellent seats for the parade and fireworks without having to stake them out ahead of time.

Sunday the 26th: Disney Studios and MNSSHP at the MK
Followed no touring plan. Didn't have to! Lasted from 11 - 4 at DS, then from 6 - 12 at MNSSHP. Note: we never were able to get into the Toy Story Mania ride- the fast passes were gone when we got there both days we were there.
Brunch in the room. Dinner was left-overs from Whispering Canyon earlier in the week.
Weather: perfect
Best thing: Rock and Roller Coaster (7 year old), MNSSHP (all!). I HIGHLY recommond MNSSHP. You can skip the dance parties (loud and no character meet and greet), but the crowds are low, fun, and the park atmosphere is FANTASTIC!!!
Worst thing: Tower of Terror (7 year old), not getting many points on the Buzz Lightyear ride (5 year old)
Funniest thing: MNSSHP decorations
Magic: trick or treating in the MK, the special fireworks, the parade, getting free fast passes from a cast member for Tower of Terror and Rock and Roller coaster!

Monday, the 27th. Epcot and MK
Lasted from 11:30 - 7 at Epcot, enjoyed EMH at MK from 8 - 11.
Weather: cooler and sunny
Followed no touring plans. Hit our favorites at each park and used fast passes as needed.
Breakfast in the room. Lunch at Les Chefs de France (ADR). Dinner at the Food and Wine festival booths.
Best: everything! We revisited all of our favorite attractions at Epcot and MK.
Worst: finally starting to get a little tired, lol.
Magic: getting to the MK one more time and hitting 10 rides in 3 hours.

Tuesday the 28th. Downtown Disney.
Last day :-( Downtown Disney was very crowded. Lunch was at Cap'n Jacks. We were not impressed with Downtown Disney nor the restaurant.

So there you have it. It was the best family vacation we have ever had. Everyone was happy, energetic, and got along beautifully. Everyone was able to do the things they wanted to do, and we did almost everything together as a family.

I hope this was helpful for some of you. If you want me to elaborate on anything at all, I would be more than willing!

 

[Michelle_R]

Hi Pam,

Great trip report! Loved the format and the perspective of the rides from the kids ages. It's also nice to hear about the villa's. I've always been curious about them. Did you see the Dream Team much? We only saw them once the whole trip at the end of Big Thunder. The weather was really all over the place, wasn't it? Love the fastpass stories.

It sounds like you had a wonderful trip with alot of special moments thrown in.

Michelle

 

[PamelaASmith]

Who was the dream team? Was that the family of four (I think) we saw being led from ride to ride by a CM wearing a suit? They were wearing those blue cloud Mickey ears. Funny- when I saw them they did not look happy. They looked tired and just like they were following someone and not caring where they were going. Is this who they were, or is the dream team something different?

Big Thunder mountain ended up being a family favorite. Erin, our oldest, started off being afraid of it, which was really weird because she rode every other roller coaster in the parks. She finally decided to try it and loved it. We rode it at least 10 times.

It was interesting to see how the girls changed while we were there. Lauren, our youngest, started off afraid to do most things. She is afraid of loud, sudden noises (including fireworks). I had ear plugs for her that she wore on just about every attraction. By day 3, she decided she loved fireworks and was no longer afraid of anything except the Haunted Mansion. Our oldest was willing to try absolutely anything and everything, which was a big surprise that we weren't expecting. My husband was thrilled because he had a willing partner for some of the wilder things I didn't want to do (like orange version of Mission Space!)

We absolutely loved the villas. We would definitely return there. Most definitely we would do a villa again on property. Not sure if we will try another villa resort or stick with the lodge. We loved being so close to the MK. Next time, we would go grocery shopping and use the kitchen more, I think.

Are you going to go back anytime soon? We are thinking maybe in two years. YAY!

 

[Michelle_R]

The dream team has to do with the year of a million dreams. I guess certain cast members (wearing dream team vests) hand out fun things like fastpasses, etc. I'm wondering if it could have been a dream team cm that gave you your fastpasses.

I think some other things are an extra hour in the park, a night in Cinderella's castle and so on. I think I even may have read that there is one DVC membership that they give away, Wow, would I love that one!

It was interesting to watch our kids also. My son was a little scared to ride some of the rides at first. But by the end he was quite brave and having lots of fun. My daughter did really well, but even she did not care for Dinosaur. We always told them they did not have to if they were really scared, but they were troopers. They also knew that they did not have to ride a 2nd time if they didn't like it.

Thanks for the additional info on the villa's. It sounds like it worked really well.

We are hoping to go back in 2 or 3 years.

Michelle