Trip Report A Five-Year-Old's Dream Vacation

Hello, humans! My family just returned from a whirlwind, extended stay at Walt Disney World, where we tried lots of new things and extended our stay by a day and a half (because we just couldn't say goodbye!).

The family includes myself, a thirty-four-year-old Disney World lover; my husband, a forty-one-year-old Disney convert (I hope); and our five-year-old daughter, who is an emerging Disney World fanatic. This trip was the result of a promise made after our December 2014 trip. My husband told our daughter that we would return to celebrate her fifth birthday. Not one to forget anything, she started angling for her birthday trip about a year ahead of time, and I booked it in February.

By some stroke of magic, I managed to book right about the 180 day mark, which meant I was able to score a couple of coveted ADRs: Be Our Guest and Cinderella's Royal Table. More on these later. I also grabbed our room/ticket package when a modified free dining plan was offered. We received one quick service meal per person, per night. This ended up being a great decision for us, and a little research allowed us to stretch it out significantly.

But first, we had to get there. We live in the Raleigh area, so we drove. We have done many road trips in the past, including a long haul from Boston to Toronto when DD was nine months old, so this was a logical choice for us. But we have never had to do this:

That's me, taking a creepy selfie whilst in the cab of a tow truck with my beautiful, beastly machine riding on the back. Oh, yes. We got a flat tire on the side of I-95 north of Daytona, Florida. My husband and I are both able to change a tire (although at seven months pregnant, I was willing to let him do most of the work), but we were missing the wheel lock key. To be honest, I didn't even know I had wheel locks on the tires, so I am absolving myself from the blame here. But what that meant logistically was the we had to be towed to a Honda dealership to have the tire replaced. Roadside Assistance found us a tow truck that could accommodate three people in the cab, but it was forty-five minutes away. The Honda dealership closed in under an hour. But humanity won out as the manager of Hendrick Honda in Daytona offered to keep members of his team past closing so that we wouldn't be stranded. And on that note, if you need any Honda help in Florida, Rich at Hendrick is your man.

We were back on the road about three hours after the initial flat, and we arrived, finally, at our destination around six p.m.

We stayed at All-Star Movies. I had checked in online several days prior and made some room requests. I received the text with our room number (and a digital map of the resort) while waiting for the tow truck, so we shlepped all of our stuff directly to the room. Our bands worked perfectly, and we were in (and relieved) right away.

We stayed in room 1747, which was on the backside of the first Dalmations building. The location was awesome. We were close to the lot where we parked our car for the week, and it was always quiet. Our view looked like this:

The room/ticket/dining package mandated a preferred room, otherwise I wouldn't normally request one. But I was really happy with our location. The room itself was the typical value resort experience:

Snowman blanket not typically included. Somehow (read: by force) my daughter has inherited my genes for organization, so she put her things in a drawer and aligned her stuffed animal friends before we headed out to see the resort and obtain some food.

 

[SarahBella82]

Despite the trials of the day, we all came through unscathed and were beyond excited to be at Disney World. So here are some pictures taken with gusto when we finally bounced through our resort:

 

[SarahBella82]

We only toured the Dalmations and Fantasia sections before three very hungry stomachs took over. We made our way to the food court and used a few of our dining credits. The plan was for DH and I to share meals (in order to stretch the credits over lunch and dinner), but tonight we made an exception. We were too hungry to share, and we only had one meal to consume that day. I ordered the roasted turkey dinner with green beans and corn. I also got a lemonade and a chocolate chip cookie. DD chose mac and cheese with grapes and carrots, plus an apple juice box. DH grabbed a honey mustard chicken wrap with sides from the grab and go cooler (plus a cheesecake slice because I've been craving cheesecake for a month now). My food was great; the gravy added a lot of flavor, and both DH and I enjoyed the garlicky green beans. DD's meal was kid approved. DH's sandwich was a bit on the soggy side, having sat in the cooler for a while. But we were honestly all so hungry, that I don't think he really noticed.

After this, it was a little late, and I would have preferred to get DD in bed ASAP, but when on vacation: swim and stay up past bedtime. We jumped in for a short swim before I coaxed her back to the room to get some sleep in preparation for our first Disney day.

In case you're wondering where we went on our first morning, wonder no longer:

We had awesome luck with buses all week, and we waited only a few minutes before a bus pulled up. We had gotten in line around 830, so we arrived at Magic Kingdom shortly before the Welcome show.

 

[SarahBella82]

Main Street, U.S.A., was a glorious sight.

 

[SarahBella82]

A couple things I want to mention:

1. Of course I booked my Fastpasses sixty days in advance, doing a bit of adjusting as the trip approached. I wanted to be sure we hit all of the rides DD wanted to exerience. As it turned out, on this sunny Sunday we didn't really need them. First thing in the morning ride times all over the park were reasonable, and we walked on to all of our Fastpass rides without using the passes. That said, I loved, loved, loved the app for allowing me to make changes on the fly. The longest we ever waited was twenty-two minutes (not including the time we waited at the front of the Frozen Ever After line because it broke down...).

2. The night before, when I went to the front desk to request a birthday celebration pin for DD, James at the Movies front desk took pity on me for our car debacle and gifted us three use anywhere/anytime Magic Kingdom Fastpasses for the next day. They showed up in my app within the hour, and all we had to do was walk up, scan our bands, and enter three rides of our choosing (as long as it was not within another Fastpass+ reservation period). It allowed DH to ride Seven Dwarfs Mine Train without a hard-to-get Fastpass+ reservation, and it allowed us all to ride Buzz and visit the Laugh Floor during busy evening hours.

Moving on.

I would wager a guess that few people would be able to guess where DD requested to go first.

No, not here.

Almost there...

Ahhhh, a scrim. Well, my little lover of all things spooky chose Haunted Mansion for her inaugural ride this time. She was nervousish, but she was determined and never requested to skip it. I am not a parent to force my kid onto a ride; I just think it ruins the vibe. So we held hands, and I whispered previews of what was coming next to cut down on the surprises. And she left the ride raving about it. So I guess it worked.

By the way, we were among the first group on the ride that day, having arrived at the Mansion's front door just two minutes before nine a.m.

Our next stop was every pregnant mom's favorite:

Seriously. We love Tangled, so this area is always fun. DD enjoyed the music and was prancing and dancing all over the place. This delighted several families in the area.

We parked our stroller (yes, we brought the stroller because not listening to a five-year-old whine about being tired is paramount to avoiding the judgmental stares from other guests) and entered Fantasyland. We had a lot to accomplish here today, starting with one of DD's favorites:

 

[SarahBella82]

We rode It's a Small World six times in four Magic Kindgom visits this trip, and we all enjoyed it. I'm not being sarcastic.

We actually also liked the customized "goodbye" at the end. Big Brother be damned, we really liked that.

After IASW, we tromped over to Winnie the Pooh. No Fastpass necessary as the wait time was only ten minutes. But this was DD's first time in the queue, so we didn't rush it.

I think the lesson to learn here is not to binge on honey before bed because your dreams will be trippy. Look at that. Really.

Because being trapped in Pooh's psychedelic world was not disorienting enough, we opted for a Mad Tea Party next, then continued on to the Storybook Circus portion of our day.

It was a walk-on, but AC and the play area beckoned, so we grabbed a pager and let DD run around for a while. She loved it. I loved sitting for a few minutes.

After our first ride, we jumped back in line and rode Dumbo a second time, this time skipping the play area and moving directly into line.
We then repeated that process at Barnstormer. Well, DH and DD did. I found shade and watched them zip around. Let me just add that watching all of this joyful roller coaster riding was tough for me. I love coasters (and all other rides), but even I have to admit that taking it slow(er) was the right thing.

 

[SarahBella82]

Barnstormer is a fun little coaster. I was surprised by how high it actually goes, considering that it's a "kid" coaster. Somehow my memory of the ride's height was foggy from a couple years ago.

Next we ventured under the sea. Ariel (live and animatronic) was a huge hit during our week. More on that later.

We did a little wandering around Belle's village (bathroom break, shopping for a sword, laughing at Gaston -- the usual).

Then, we headed for our lunch ADR.

Cut to me squealing with glee. I was able to book this ADR at about 180 days out, but we checked in forty-five minutes early and were shown right in. I had also pre-ordered our food at thirty days out, so that whole arrival process was pretty swift.

 

[SarahBella82]

In order to make the most of that dining plan I told you about, we often substituted drinks and desserts for sides, which meant sharing some good grub without having to spend a lot of additional money on quick service food. But we were so pleased with the quick service places we visited this time. We never ate the same thing twice, and we were not in any way limited to fried park food.

At Be Our Guest, the grown ups ordered the carved turkey sandwich with French fries, a side of onion soup to replace our beverage, and the strawberry cupcake... because strawberry cupcake. DD had the pasta with tomato sauce and French fries. Her meal came with a small cup of apple juice, so we took advantage of the beverage zone to fill up on ice water and her apple juice.

Overall, we loved the atmosphere (although I'm the only one in the family who's familiar with the movie), and the food was terrific. Both DH and I loved the sandwich, with its zippy dijon mustard. And while DD mostly ate French fries, she did say the pasta and sauce was tasty. I finished that for her, actually, and it was fine. The onion soup was a real nostalgic hit for me, since my mom used to make that a lot when I was a kid. And the cupcake was delicious. I loved that it had a cream cheese frosting rather than standard buttercream. Will say the wrapper was tough to remove, though.

 

[Tuvalu]

And the cupcake was delicious. I loved that it had a cream cheese frosting rather than standard buttercream. Will say the wrapper was tough to remove, though.

Newbie mistake . The cupcakes at BOG are meant to be eaten (with fork or spoon) while inside the wrapper.

 

[SarahBella82]

After lunch, we jumped in line for Enchanted Tales with Belle.

None of us has seen this show before, but I knew what to expect. My daughter, though, surprised us. Keep in mind, she stood at her school Christmas concert last year with her hands over her face, too scared to sing in front of a crowd of thirty. So when she volunteered for a role, DH and I were bursting. Here she is:

My Beast! She does love to roar, but I couldn't believe she actually got up there and took on a starring role! Of course, she nailed it. Until right after these pictures, when she suddenly got shy again. It was a wonderful and charming surprise.

 

[SarahBella82]

After our visit with Belle, we decided it was time for something a little different, so we galloped over to Tomorrowland for some more fun. Because we had plenty of Fastpasses to burn, I grabbed several for things we really didn't need to Fastpass. It's a good problem to have.

First up, my crew rode the Speedway.

Then, we visited Mike Wazowski (with one I). We are HUGE Monsters, Inc., and Monsters University fans -- way more so than princess fans, to be honest. So we love this show.

After some jokes with Mac & Cheese, we took it down a notch:

DD thinks this is a wonderful ride. And the view can't be beat.

At this point, it was pushing five o'clock, I guess, and we decided to head back to the hotel. My directive was for everyone to nap because DD wanted to watch fireworks that night. Ten o'clock fireworks. I wasn't particularly interested, but it was her dream vacation. So to rest we went.

Spotted these gentlemen on the way out:

So we bused back to All-Star Movies, where we rested for hours, right?

Oh, no. We swam. My sister and her daughters -- who live about twenty-five minutes from the World -- visited. We ate dinner in the food court. Then we got back on the bus around 7:30. So much for that nap.

Our night at Magic Kingdom coming up next!

 

[Courtney6682]

Wow! What a great start to your vacation...minus the tire of course!

 

[SarahBella82]

Naturally, the Magic Kingdom was gorgeous when we returned. Here are some photos to prove my point.

We rode It's a Small World and Buzz Lightyear (with our bonus Fastpasses) before checking out the hub events. First up was the Main Street Electrical Parade. My pictures are atrocious. We were back in basically the second layer of crowd, and at one point DH and DD were atop a low wall trying to see.

I won't torture you with these zoomed in, bad setting pictures.

We made our way toward the Partners statue, from behind which we watched Celebrate the Magic and Wishes.

 

[SarahBella82]

We chose not to fight the crowds to the buses, so we picked our way over the restrooms adjacent to Crystal Palace and took a break. We wandered through the Emporium a bit as we made our way out. It was a full and fantastic first day. DH and I both felt like it was a perfect first day with so many walk-on rides, a great meal, beautiful nighttime shows, and generally pleasant interactions with cast members and guests.

The next morning, Monday, July 25, was our Animal Kingdom day. I had originally planned this as an afternoon/evening park, but morning is really my favorite time to visit, so I shifted things around.

Our first stop was Kilimanjaro Safari, so we made our way to the queue.

I could not love the details in Harambe more than I do.

Some Safari shots.

 

[SarahBella82]

We walked onto the Safari, so I pushed our Fastpass to a later time so we could sneak in a second ride. Our guide was terrific. When we were stopped on the grasslands, she had lots of information to share about a bevy of creatures, and she delivered the information with some self-deprecating humor. I enjoyed it.

Before hitting the Pangani trail, we stopped in Harambe for a bathroom, water, and ice cream break.

I had a Mickey Premium bar (my only of the whole trip!), DD had a frozen strawberry lemonade cup, and DH had a sugar-free strawberry bar. It was nice to rest in the shade outside of a shop, people watching while savoring that dark chocolate/ice cream combo.

After this, we took a walk on the Pangani Forest Trail, where we spotted a couple of these fellows:

We took our time (as the heat was already starting to creep up on all of us), and when we exited, we went directly to our Fastpass for Festival of the Lion King. DD had never seen the show, and I was excited for her to take it in. She was riveted and enjoyed it immensely. We were lions, which was perfect for us. The new theater is lovely, large, and loaded with AC, so it was a relaxing and exciting experience. Some new Harambe shots and some show shots.

 

[SarahBella82]

We wandered back toward the Safari for another ride. The Fastpass queue was insane. I think it was at this point that we decided to grab some lunch and wait out the Fastpass line. I had originallyplanned to take my crew to Flame Tree Barbecue, but I was too hot and uncomfortable to walk all the way there and then come back. Call it laziness if you want, but my unborn child and I were feeling the heat.

So we went to Pizzafari with really no expectations. DD loves pizza, so I was sure she would enjoy it. Boy, was I surprised by how much of a hit this restaurant was for us!

DD chose a child's pizza with grapes, a bottle of water, and carrots. DH and I ordered a shrimp flatbread and substituted our drink and dessert for garlic knots and tomato/basil soup.

The flatbread was incredible. Great pesto flavor (perhaps some Thai basil in there), the fresh veggies on top provided a nice coolness, and the shrimp was delicious. We were surprised by how good it was, and we couldn't stop raving about it.

The garlic knots side contained six massive garlic knots with a side of tomato sauce. We ended up dunking them in the soup, which was stellar. I mean, that was some awesome soup. Evidently I was so smitten with my food that all I managed for pictures was the one above. Highly, highly recommend Pizzafari.

After filling up and cooling down, we walked back to Safari.

 

[SarahBella82]

We continued through the park.

I was really excited to take in the details of the Asia area at AK. My husband is Indian (parents are from Nepal), and we have traveled to India three times. I get nostalgic for the crumbling buildings and gorgeous woodwork, so this was beautiful for us.

DD and I cooled off in the Bazaar while DH rode Expedition: Everest in the single rider line. It took him no longer than fifteen minutes, start to finish. In the meantime, I managed to by an "adventurer's kit" for DD: flashlight, whistle, multitool. and magnifying glass. Should come in handy on our many evening walks.

When DH exited the ride, we found the Maharaja Jungle Trek and (grumpily on my part) explored.

A little more Asia.

 

[SarahBella82]

After a leisurely, hot, tiring journey through Asia, we walked into Flights of Wonder. This was another first for DD and me, and it was terrific. Entertaining, education, and fun.

We crept over to Dinoland, USA, where we all rode Triceratops Spin. Fun ride with no wait. A little toasty in the sun, to be sure. But we do love our spinners.

DD remembered the Boneyard from our last visit a couple of years ago, so we had to make a stop there before heading out. She dug for fossils, slid slides, and generally wrought havoc. It was fun for her. I found a nice big fan and a seat. Ha.

After this, we headed out. We were all hot and bothered (not in a good way), and I was ready to cool off and actually rest.

One last look at this beauty. The next time we visit, Pandora will probably be open, so I expect lots more fun in AK in the future.

 

[SarahBella82]

The next morning, I had a BIG surprise for DD (and really DH too). It was Cinderella's Royal Table day! And we were getting in before park opening! Princesses! Great food! Gorgeous setting! Pure joy!

It was a bluebird day, as they say. We got on the bus around 815, which felt late-ish to me (I'm always early for stuff), and when we got through bag check, I hustled my people over to the early entry... entrance.

Not empty but delightfully sparse.

Can you see the approaching rope drop horde?

We checked in and joined the short queue to meet Cinderella. The queue was entirely inside the foyer, and we had some time to take in our surroundings. Lovely vaulted ceilings, theme-appropriate stone, colorful tapestries. Cinderella herself was not particularly chatty, but as soon as we took our pictures, we were ushered up the winding staircase. In the next post, I'll share images from inside the restaurant. It's a beautiful as one would hope.

 

[Zipadeelady]

Well hello neighbor!!! Our family also just got back earlier this week. We also stayed at the Movies from July 24th-30th.. We were 2 stories above you in rooms 1948 and 1949. Your pictures are great, I even took the same Dumbo "believe and Soar" pic. It's the first time I noticed that sign and I really liked it. Our first day on Sunday was also at MK. Look forward to the rest of your report. Maybe I'll see our family in your pictures.