These Hawaiian Byrds are heading east - our first family trip to WDW - February 2017 PTR

[thebyrdwoman]

Aloha! ​

My name is Natasha and I am THRILLED to be here posting about our upcoming trip to WDW!

Let's start with the basics...

WHO: The Byrds (more on us later)

WHAT: ARE GOING TO DISNEY WORLD. Booked a play, stay, dine package

WHERE: Staying at Port Orleans Riverside

WHEN: February 11-18, 2017

WHY: Do you really need a why?
Living in Hawaii, most (ok, all) of our vacations are spent visiting family members on the mainland. And, while that is awesome, we are due for a family vacation. Plus, we have another little Byrd set to join the nest in May so we are going to go and enjoy some time as a family of four!

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This will be our first trip to WDW as a family. SO EXCITED.

Alright, so a let me tell you a little bit about us...

This photo is already 6 months old - we've got to work on getting us all in the photo more often!
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The smiley guy up there is my husband, Alex. This will be his third trip to WDW. He is (sap alert) the most amazing husband and father who works SO hard to keep us happy and healthy! He isn't the biggest Disney fan but always enjoys his time at WDW. His favorite park is Animal Kingdom. His favorite Disney snack is a churro. He likes to surf, play soccer/basketball and is a cookie monster.

Our daughter's name is Lyla, she is two and a half. She LOVES princesses but can't decide on a favorite. Probably at the top are Ariel, Cinderella, Belle, Anna and Elsa. This will be her second trip to WDW - her first was when she was 6 months old (I was running the Wine and Dine Half). I am probably most excited just to see it all through her eyes. I know she is going to be on cloud 9.

Our son is Simon Earl. He will be one at the end of November - our little Thanksgiving blessing last year! He is ALL boy and loves balls, climbing on things and eating. He always has the sweetest smile on his face. He will be 15 months on this trip.

I'm Natasha. A stay-at-home mama and blogger extraordinaire. Ok, maybe not extraordinaire but I do blog I have no idea how many times I've been to WDW but it's a lot! In 2011 I participated in the Disney College Program and was a seater at Cinderella's Royal Table. In fall of 2012, I started working at Aulani and continued to until a few months after having our first child. My favorite park is all of them, duh! But, if I had to choose, I'd choose Epcot. I think. DON'T MAKE ME CHOOSE. I'll be making all of the plans for this trip and need a place to share them so that I don't drive my husband crazy over the next 103 days so I hope you will follow along!

So, if you are here - say hi! And tell me YOUR favorite park.​

 

[thebyrdwoman]

ADRS
TRAVEL PLANS
PARK PLANS​

 

[jrmint427]

I am following along! Our kids will be about the same age at our next visit - one turning 3 while we are there, and one turning a year a few days later. I'd love to hear more about your plans and how it goes (any tips you learn) travelling with a toddler and a baby!

Since you worked at Cinderella's Royal Table, do you think it is worth it for a 3 year old? We are thinking about a CRT reservation for the morning of our daughter's 3rd birthday.

I don't think I can possibly pick a favorite park between Animal Kingdom, Epcot and Magic Kingdom. Epcot has my favorite food, and I love walking through the World Showcase. Animal Kingdom has one of my favorite rides (Mount Everest) and I love that it is kind of a zoo and a park at the same time - and I love the food. And Magic Kingdom is just kind of magical and fun because of the nostalgia from when I went there when I was little.

 

[thebyrdwoman]

I am following along! Our kids will be about the same age at our next visit - one turning 3 while we are there, and one turning a year a few days later. I'd love to hear more about your plans and how it goes (any tips you learn) travelling with a toddler and a baby!

Since you worked at Cinderella's Royal Table, do you think it is worth it for a 3 year old? We are thinking about a CRT reservation for the morning of our daughter's 3rd birthday.

I don't think I can possibly pick a favorite park between Animal Kingdom, Epcot and Magic Kingdom. Epcot has my favorite food, and I love walking through the World Showcase. Animal Kingdom has one of my favorite rides (Mount Everest) and I love that it is kind of a zoo and a park at the same time - and I love the food. And Magic Kingdom is just kind of magical and fun because of the nostalgia from when I went there when I was little.

Glad you are here! I promise to post more! Just as soon as the holiday craziness settles down

That's fun that we have kids similar in age - I'm really looking forward to seeing WDW through their eyes!

I think CRT is worth it for little girls. We have booked it for one of our first mornings too. I used to cry almost every day at work watching the little princesses meet some of their favorites inside of the castle. Very special.

Merry Christmas!

 

[thebyrdwoman]

ADRS​

I'm back! I hope you all had a Merry Christmas (or Happy Hanukkah). My mom was able to fly in from LA for a few days and we really enjoyed her visit

ANYWAYS, we aren't here to talk about Christmas - we are here to talk about DISNEY WORLD!

I love to eat, so like any good Disney fan, I've been obsessing over our ADRs for the past month or two.

We are on the DDP, so my husband and I each have 1 QS, 1 TS AND 2 SNACK credits per night totaling...

14 QS
14 TS
28 SNACKS

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(Both of our children are under 3 years old so they wont have any dining credits)

Written down, 28 SNACKS seems crazy excessive but I'm sure we will find a way to use them all

Because we have two littles ones with us, our restaurant choices are definitely different than what we would have chosen sans kids, but I am still really excited about all of them!

So far we have...

'Ohana (dinner)
CRT (breakfast)
Tusker House (lunch)
La Hacienda de San Angel (dinner)
Chef Art Smith's Homecoming (lunch)
50's Prime Time Cafe (lunch)
Crystal Palace (lunch and dinner -- I'm trying to decide which one to keep, I really wanted breakfast but haven't been able to find an ADR yet )​

New to me will be...

CRT (even though I worked there during my college program, I never got to experience it as a guest, so I am really looking forward to this), Tusker House, La Hacienda de San Angel (We are meeting friends who live locally for dinner here tonight. I originally had Garden Grill booked which was also new to me -- have you tried either for dinner? Thoughts?!), and Homecoming.

A few of these are "must do's" for us, and some are definitely still subject to change. That's half the fun of a Disney trip, right?!

Which of these restaurants have you tried? Are we missing one of your must dos? HELP!

 

[aldenarielle]

Very awesome! I'm planning a trip for May/June and have a few similar ADRs.

My daughters loved Garden Grill (aged 4 and 6 when we went). My oldest actually said it was her favorite restaurant when we went!! And we went to CRT that trip!!! We had amazing character interaction though. And they came around several times too.

Good luck getting a CP morning ADR. I snagged one but its a tad later than I would like.

 

[thebyrdwoman]

Very awesome! I'm planning a trip for May/June and have a few similar ADRs.

My daughters loved Garden Grill (aged 4 and 6 when we went). My oldest actually said it was her favorite restaurant when we went!! And we went to CRT that trip!!! We had amazing character interaction though. And they came around several times too.

Good luck getting a CP morning ADR. I snagged one but its a tad later than I would like.

That's great to hear about Garden Grill! I may have to add it back to our plan. While I know that DH and I would love Hacienda, I think that GG may be a better option with the kids.

Woohoo about your CP ADR. Hopefully something a little earlier opens up for you

 

[thebyrdwoman]

OUR FLIGHTS ARE BOOKED!
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It's a looooong trip from Honolulu to Orlando and the price of tickets was hard to swallow. At one point, they jumped to MORE than what our week at WDW was going to cost so we were a little discouraged. But, we watched them for what felt like forever and finally had the opportunity to jump.

Now the trip feels SO real.

We leave HNL on February 10th at 12PM and arrive at MCO earrrrrlly in the morning on the 11th. We have three seats, so our 15 month old will be on our laps. Our 2 year old is pretty petite so I'm thinking we will just put up the arm rests when we can and make a big bench seat

One of the big draws for us to plan a WDW trip (you know, besides it being WDW) was the convenience factor of the transportation. We plan on leaving our car seats at home and relying on Disney transportation to take us around the resort.

SO - we will be on the Magical Express early Saturday morning. Hopefully we will be the first stop ​

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[Lei]

Aloha! Oh, wow, I understand completely the thrill after booking the flights (and Magical Express!). I did mine yesterday, and yep, it made the trip feels so real. Your ADR sounds awesome! I've never been to both, but food-wise, I heard GG is better. La Hacienda's ambience is really nice, especially for adults get-together, but the food is known for being inconsistent. But hey, it's Disney! I'm sure you'll have a good time wherever you dine

 

[Lizziotti]

Following! My two favorite things Hawaii and wdw how could I not follow! I'm very jealous that you get to live in Hawaii. That's been our dream ever since we visited 4 years ago. Hopefully we can atleast take another trip there soon. We are also hoping to be in wdw this November when our youngest will be 15 months old so can't wait to see how your LO does!

I agree that garden grill is the way to go it's always been one of our favorites. We had anniversary there back when they used to have a cute little anniversary ceremony it was so special. The kids love how it rotates and the characters of course!

 

[thebyrdwoman]

PARK PLANS

Good Morning, friends!

Only have 38 days until we get to WDW
SO EXCITED

Let's talk park plans...

Originally, I had booked 5 day park tickets because I wasn't sure what time we would be arriving on Saturday and knew that we would want at least one day "off" between our travel day and when we started in the parks. So our plan was...

Saturday: arrive
Sunday: resort/Disney Springs
Monday: Magic Kingdom
Tuesday: Animal Kingdom
Wednesday: Epcot
Thursday: resort morning/ Animal Kingdom afternoon and evening
Friday: Magic Kingdom
Saturday: leave

I had decided that DHS wasn't in the cards for us this trip and, since Alex's favorite park is Animal Kingdom, that we would visit that park twice.
BUT
Now that we know we are arriving at 7AM Saturday, I think that Saturday and Sunday as "off" days is just too much and that the kids will start to go crazy. (or maybe it's just me being antsy to get into the parks ) I logged into MDE and saw that it was only $30 total to add an additional ticket to our package so that's what I did!

I'm so excited that Sunday will be a park day as well It will be a "light" park day. Our Ohana dinner is scheduled for 3:40PM so I'm planning on taking our time at the resort in the morning, making our way to the park for a few hours, heading to Ohana for dinner and then back to the resort so we can rest up for our first full park day!

Now, I'm a total Disney creature of habit and always start my trips with Magic Kingdom as my first park. I thought about planning it that way even with the additional park day, especially since we could easily take the monorail from MK to the Polynesian for our ADR but then I thought that two MK days in a row might be a little much for DH. Because I love him oh so much and I want him to have a great time (and want to come back again ) I decided we will do his favorite park Sunday.

Adding that extra AK time meant that we now have AK on the schedule for 3 different days, which I think is probably overkill so I changed out our AK trip later in the week for DHS.
Our new plan looks like this...

Saturday: arrive/resort/Disney Springs
Sunday: Animal Kingdom "light"
Monday: Magic Kingdom
Tuesday: Animal Kingdom
Wednesday: Epcot
Thursday: DHS
Friday: Magic Kingdom
Saturday: leave

I've got some FP+ selections done and things are looking good!
Although, since I started writing this, I'm now wondering if I should swap Tuesday and Thursday plans? To space out Animal Kingdom days? What do you think?

Also, I want to know - do you have a park that you "have" to start or end your trip with?!
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[thebyrdwoman]

Aloha! Oh, wow, I understand completely the thrill after booking the flights (and Magical Express!). I did mine yesterday, and yep, it made the trip feels so real. Your ADR sounds awesome! I've never been to both, but food-wise, I heard GG is better. La Hacienda's ambience is really nice, especially for adults get-together, but the food is known for being inconsistent. But hey, it's Disney! I'm sure you'll have a good time wherever you dine

Thanks for following along! Yes, the photos of La Hacienda are beautiful! I did go ahead and re-book at Garden Grill because so many people rave about it!

 

[thebyrdwoman]

Following! My two favorite things Hawaii and wdw how could I not follow! I'm very jealous that you get to live in Hawaii. That's been our dream ever since we visited 4 years ago. Hopefully we can atleast take another trip there soon. We are also hoping to be in wdw this November when our youngest will be 15 months old so can't wait to see how your LO does!

I agree that garden grill is the way to go it's always been one of our favorites. We had anniversary there back when they used to have a cute little anniversary ceremony it was so special. The kids love how it rotates and the characters of course!

Glad you guys had a great visit! What island(s) did you come to? Our LO just started walking on Christmas, I'm so excited to see him waddling down Main Street

Thanks for the recommendation on Garden Grill - I went ahead a re-booked there!

 

[Corrine 1973]

Joining in. I love that you are able to take you kids a littles to enjoy the parks. The parks are so magically through the eyes of a child. My favorite park is Magic Kingdom but honestly you I am like you and hate choosing. Don't even ask me what my least favorite park is. I will not answer you then. My favorite restaurant is Boma. It is a must do for my family.

 

[thebyrdwoman]

Joining in. I love that you are able to take you kids a littles to enjoy the parks. The parks are so magically through the eyes of a child. My favorite park is Magic Kingdom but honestly you I am like you and hate choosing. Don't even ask me what my least favorite park is. I will not answer you then. My favorite restaurant is Boma. It is a must do for my family.

Welcome! Just started reading your PTR as well! Boma is SO GOOD. It's definitely one of my mom's "must do's" for every trip. I'm always a little deterred when I don't have my own transportation because I feel like it's hard to get to without your own car.

Thanks for following along!

 

[Lizziotti]

Glad you guys had a great visit! What island(s) did you come to? Our LO just started walking on Christmas, I'm so excited to see him waddling down Main Street

Thanks for the recommendation on Garden Grill - I went ahead a re-booked there!

We only went to Oahu. Mainly Honolulu (is this where you are?) but visited other areas as well. Watched a surfing contest at the north shore that was cool! Someday I'm hoping to go to Maui.

Hope you love the garden grill!

 

[JessRose]

Joining in from my PTR! Your plans sound great so far and your trip is SO close!

I'm actually going to Hawaii in September because I'm turning thirty. Eric went to Hawaii when he was in high school and I haven't been in ten years. I figured if I was going to have to do this, I wanted to do it on the beach, with a Mai Tai in hand. We haven't made many plans other than we are likely doing seven nights on Hawaii and two on Kauai.

Can't wait to hear all about your trip!!

 

[StarWarsMomofGirls!]

Hello! I am joining in! We are taking a VERY short trip in Feb as well, Right before you arrive! My husband and I took our honeymoon in Hawaii, and just loved it. We want to take the girls one day but the time difference scares me.

Which of these restaurants have you tried? Are we missing one of your must dos? HELP!

We have only been to CRT from your list. It def is a must with little girls. So magical! We love BOMA, but like you said it is kind of hard to get to. We are trying out Homecoming this trip (hopefully) and Minnie Beach Bash Breakfast over at the Beach Club. Maybe 1900 Park Fare for dinner, with Cinderella and the Prince. My girls loved meeting the Prince and the ugly step sisters, who were hilarious!

I've got some FP+ selections done and things are looking good!
Although, since I started writing this, I'm now wondering if I should swap Tuesday and Thursday plans? To space out Animal Kingdom days? What do you think?

I was thinking that when I was reading your list. The only thing I would think about to, is that DHS will probably not be a full day, so you might like having a half or 3/4 park day at that point in the trip. So, it might be good to keep it that way.

Also, I want to know - do you have a park that you "have" to start or end your trip with?!

We usually start and end our trip with Magic Kingdom. Magic Kingdom is the park to be at in our family's opinion. And we usually try to hit it as the first park. And then we have always done it as the last day and let the girls each pick 3 rides they want to ride one last time.

Can't wait to hear the rest of your plans for the trip! And how you survive that Flight!

 

[chunkymonkey]

Aloha! I'm joining in! I am very jealous that you get to raise your beautiful family in Hawaii, which is my favorite vacation spot (aside from WDW of course) in the whole world. Our last trip to Hawaii was to Oahu this past November and I really miss it, because it's -10 degrees here in NYC and I dream about the beach. I even write a blog about my travels to Hawaii too. I'd love to see your blog that you mentioned! I love anything that reminds me of the islands.

Your meals are great. I really enjoy all those places you mentioned. The only place I have not been to is La Hacienda and Homecoming because that is new. My favorite is' Ohana (duh) but I also love Garden Grill. The food at 50's Prime Time is great. Tusker House is my favorite meal at AK, and CRT is very magical to meet the Princeses! You can see some of these meals in my trip reports and dining reviews that I've done.

As for your park days, I tend to avoid the parks that have the early morning extra magic hours, just because I find them a little more crowded during that time. I look up crowd calendars online and tend to pick the least crowded park that day. I think the hour of EMH isn't worth it to me, but I do like evening EMH if it's offered. I think during that time of year should be ok though. We're also going to WDW in Feb but not until a week after you leave.You will probably get some of the Presidents weekend crowds but so will we but it won't be for the entire time.

I hope you have a magical vacation!