I have three kids - an older daughter (9) and twins (7). A few years back I started thinking about how much fun it would be to take each of them separately for some dad/daughter quality time down at WDW. I figure that in a few years from now they'll hit the dreaded teen years when they want nothing to do with their mom and dad for a while, so my window was rapidly closing.
On Wednesday morning I woke my daughter up at the crack of dawn (5:30 or so) and told her we were going on an adventure. She was totally disoriented and started asking all sorts of questions. I told her she had to wait and try to figure out where we were going. My dad picked us up to drop us off at the airport and she started to get suspicious - what really tipped her off was the luggage tag for DME on our suitcase. Those tell-tale mickey ears are hard to hide.
She figured it out before we even got to the airport and was more excited than I've ever seen her. After a quick flight from Boston to Orlando we go to try out our magic bands for the first time as we boarded the DME bus to Wilderness Lodge. We would be staying from Wednesday to Sunday, visiting the parks on Thursday, Friday and Saturday.
On Wednesday night we hit up the Hoop Dee Doo Musical Review dinner show. We've been to the Spirit of Aloha show at the Poly and enjoyed it, but nothing compares to the Hoop Dee Doo show - that was a lot of fun. The food was great and the show was hilarious. She loved it. My only complaint was that there was just too much food! There's no way the two of us could eat it all - we barely made a dent.
After a boat ride back to the WL we settled in for an early night knowing we'd be up at the crack of dawn again tomorrow.
Thursday AM she got up before I did, eager to get to the parks. We had a stop over at the Contemporary for breakfast with Mickey and the gang at Chef Mickey's. This would be day 1 of a 4 day binge on Mickey waffles for her. After that we made our way to MK and for our first ride we chose Peter Pan. After barely 5 minutes in line and a quick ride to Neverland we went on to ride IASM, Haunted Mansion, Thunder Mountain, Splash Mountain, etc. etc. etc. The best part about a September trip is that the crowds are basically non-existent.
Lunch was Be Our Guest, and it was a bit of a let-down. Not sure what I was expecting, but it really isn't much more than a small step up from counter service during lunch.
We took a mid-day break back at the hotel and finished the day with dinner at 50s Prime Time, a ride on toy story and saw Fantasmic before heading back to rest the legs and prepare for Friday.
Friday morning started out at Animal Kingdom with breakfast at the Tusker house. A ride on the safari then back to back rides on Kali River Rapids and we had hit all we really wanted to at AK. We thought about a show, but as the trip was totally in my Daughter's hands she decided it was time to motor over to Epcot.
At Epcot we hit Soarin real quick, sampled some soda at Ice Station Cool, met the characters and then had lunch at Via Napoli. This was the only day where a rain storm caught us off guard and we got a bit soaked running over to lunch.
We made it back to the hotel for a rest, a quick nap, then I surprised her again with tickets to MNSSHP. For the past two months I had been putting together Bellhop costumes from the ToT. I kept telling her they were for Halloween when I'd have her try them on. Not a complete lie ;-)
The party was amazing. We had such a great time that night with the parade and Hallowishes. It was just incredible. We stayed until the very end, and got back to the hotel room really late. We had reservations for breakfast on Saturday AM but I cancelled them knowing we'd need to sleep in.
Saturday we rolled out of bed at a very late 8am (late considering the three previous mornings). We went over to DHS again and rode a few rides and had lunch at Sci-Fi Drive In. After a mid-day break we ventured back to MK to take advantage of the EMH that had the park open until 1am.
It was a whirlwind. We did and saw just about everything in MK and played around with the Pirate League and the Sorcerers of the Magic Kindgom games. We caught the Main Street Electrical Parad from Frontierland, and saw Wishes (although the MNSSHP fireworks were way better).
We closed MK again that night, and made our way back to the room to pack - well, I packed while she slept.
It was exactly what I was hoping it would be. My daughter and I will never forget this trip.
Here's a video of all the highlights:
On Wednesday morning I woke my daughter up at the crack of dawn (5:30 or so) and told her we were going on an adventure. She was totally disoriented and started asking all sorts of questions. I told her she had to wait and try to figure out where we were going. My dad picked us up to drop us off at the airport and she started to get suspicious - what really tipped her off was the luggage tag for DME on our suitcase. Those tell-tale mickey ears are hard to hide.
She figured it out before we even got to the airport and was more excited than I've ever seen her. After a quick flight from Boston to Orlando we go to try out our magic bands for the first time as we boarded the DME bus to Wilderness Lodge. We would be staying from Wednesday to Sunday, visiting the parks on Thursday, Friday and Saturday.
On Wednesday night we hit up the Hoop Dee Doo Musical Review dinner show. We've been to the Spirit of Aloha show at the Poly and enjoyed it, but nothing compares to the Hoop Dee Doo show - that was a lot of fun. The food was great and the show was hilarious. She loved it. My only complaint was that there was just too much food! There's no way the two of us could eat it all - we barely made a dent.
After a boat ride back to the WL we settled in for an early night knowing we'd be up at the crack of dawn again tomorrow.
Thursday AM she got up before I did, eager to get to the parks. We had a stop over at the Contemporary for breakfast with Mickey and the gang at Chef Mickey's. This would be day 1 of a 4 day binge on Mickey waffles for her. After that we made our way to MK and for our first ride we chose Peter Pan. After barely 5 minutes in line and a quick ride to Neverland we went on to ride IASM, Haunted Mansion, Thunder Mountain, Splash Mountain, etc. etc. etc. The best part about a September trip is that the crowds are basically non-existent.
Lunch was Be Our Guest, and it was a bit of a let-down. Not sure what I was expecting, but it really isn't much more than a small step up from counter service during lunch.
We took a mid-day break back at the hotel and finished the day with dinner at 50s Prime Time, a ride on toy story and saw Fantasmic before heading back to rest the legs and prepare for Friday.
Friday morning started out at Animal Kingdom with breakfast at the Tusker house. A ride on the safari then back to back rides on Kali River Rapids and we had hit all we really wanted to at AK. We thought about a show, but as the trip was totally in my Daughter's hands she decided it was time to motor over to Epcot.
At Epcot we hit Soarin real quick, sampled some soda at Ice Station Cool, met the characters and then had lunch at Via Napoli. This was the only day where a rain storm caught us off guard and we got a bit soaked running over to lunch.
We made it back to the hotel for a rest, a quick nap, then I surprised her again with tickets to MNSSHP. For the past two months I had been putting together Bellhop costumes from the ToT. I kept telling her they were for Halloween when I'd have her try them on. Not a complete lie ;-)
The party was amazing. We had such a great time that night with the parade and Hallowishes. It was just incredible. We stayed until the very end, and got back to the hotel room really late. We had reservations for breakfast on Saturday AM but I cancelled them knowing we'd need to sleep in.
Saturday we rolled out of bed at a very late 8am (late considering the three previous mornings). We went over to DHS again and rode a few rides and had lunch at Sci-Fi Drive In. After a mid-day break we ventured back to MK to take advantage of the EMH that had the park open until 1am.
It was a whirlwind. We did and saw just about everything in MK and played around with the Pirate League and the Sorcerers of the Magic Kindgom games. We caught the Main Street Electrical Parad from Frontierland, and saw Wishes (although the MNSSHP fireworks were way better).
We closed MK again that night, and made our way back to the room to pack - well, I packed while she slept.
It was exactly what I was hoping it would be. My daughter and I will never forget this trip.
Here's a video of all the highlights:
Looks like some amazing memories were made that you both will have forever!!
