Such a fun family vacation we had in our favorite place on Earth! Myself, my DH, and my DD (2.5) and DD (9 months), drove our van and camper to our favorite campground: Fort Wilderness. My father-in-law and his wife pulled their fifth wheel and brought three of my nieces and nephews. My parents drove their motorhome. My mother-in-law flew down with two more of my nieces and nephews and one of our close family friends brought their family of 5 and stayed in a hotel. It took a lot of planning, but I'm a huge control freak, so I loved planning the whole thing!
Day 1: Travel Day
We left Central Illinois at 2:30am with plans to drive into Georgia. With two little kids in tow, we wanted to try to drive while they were sleeping and it worked well. We stayed at the A-OK campground in Calhoun, Georgia. It used to be a KOA, but no longer has to meet their standards, so there were some minor maintenance issues when we stayed: the pool was in rough shape, the campsites weren't kept up the best. We had called months ahead and booked three sites, but when we got there, we were told the sites we picked were permanent sites and weren't available. So frustrating after driving for 14 hours. We got it all figured out, swam, ate, dinner, then prepared to get up and do it all over again!
My DD and two nieces in my parents motor home, my two DDs, two nieces and nephew having dessert at the Calhoun A-OK.
Day 2: Travel Day
From Calhoun, we drove to the Traveler's Campground in Alachua, Florida. It was right off the highway, which was the biggest selling point when choosing a campground for these travel days, and very nice. They have many shaded permanent or daily sites, but since we were staying overnight only, they have these long rows for overnight guests. The pool was beautiful, except you had to be toilet trained to swim, no swim diapers allowed. They had a bunch of animals for us to see (macaws, ostriches, peacocks) and the staff was very helpful. We swam, had dinner, and prepared to arrive at the Fort the next day! My husband wanted to drive the longest the first two days so that we didn't have to wake up super early on day 3, we just had a two hour drive to get to WDW. SO EXCITED!
All the kids in our van to give the grandparents a break and try to keep them more entertained (we attempted to teach the art of road trip games, but iPhones are definitely more fun), Rest Stop fun, playing in the rain at Traveler's Campground, me and little DD, the overnight spots at Traveler's Campground, my DH cooking a leisurely breakfast, the kids waiting for food, my mom, MIL, and mom, my FIL cooking.
We woke up without an alarm clock and made breakfast before getting on the road. We ran into a bit of traffic on the Florida Turnpike, there was an accident, so after a Google Maps detour, we were back on the road.
We made it!
When we arrived, our site wasn't ready, so we parked our camper and took off with the kids, nieces and nephews to explore. We didn't know it, but the other two sites we had reserved were ready, so my parents and in-laws headed to their sites. We had requested the 100 loop, which is what we got and it was perfect. My husband's goal at WDW is to park the car and not get back in it until we head home, which he accomplished this trip! We love taking the boat, the bus, the monorail, every Disney transportation option to be honest.
We walked with the kids for awhile, then got on the internal bus to the Settlement, which is the closest stop to loop 100. My parents and in-laws sites were right next to each other, ours was across the street. We loved the proximity of the sites to the park, the boat, the Settlement, Tri Circle D Ranch, the trail to Wilderness Lodge. We were heading to Mickey's Backyard BBQ to celebrate my MIL's 60th birthday and it was a perfect evening. It was really, really hot, but we were all so happy to be out of the car after traveling so long. We got our sites set up, showered and changed for dinner, then walked to the open air pavilion where the BBQ is located.
Our awesome site, big DD helping set us our campsite, playing at the park with my mom
I had never been to Mickey's Backyard BBQ and I was pleasantly surprised. My MIL loves country music and it was a place we could easily get a reservation for our large group. Plus, it was right there at the campground. It was perfect for the kids because we didn't have to spend the entire meal trying to get them to sit still while the characters came around. If you've never been there, I recommend it. Buffet style, country/picnic style food, all drinks included (they had fountains for pop and a bar with beer, wine, and sangria), and all the ice cream bars you could eat. No joke: chocolate, strawberry, and orange cream. My kids were in heaven.
We waited in line to get in and we just missed taking a picture with Goofy. There is a PhotoPass photographer taking your picture as you enter, then again wherever there are characters. We chose to pay for PhotoPass this time because we split between four families and saved money because we purchased ahead of time. So worth the money. Back to dinner: the host brought us to a long picnic table, then it wasn't long before we were being released for dinner. The band starts the night while you eat, but there are breaks where the characters are available for pictures (you stand in line), but then the characters are out on the dance floor hanging out with the kids. The hardest part was keeping track of my DD because she had so much fun running around and dancing with her cousins.
The birthday dinner group, our table, my DD dancing with Mickey, my in-laws and nieces and nephew with Mickey and Minnie
We danced, sang, met some classic characters, ate more than enough, and before we knew it, it was time to go back to the campsite! We all had so much fun. My MIL and another niece and nephew were waiting at the campsite when we got back (they flew in due to schedule stuff). We couldn't resist seeing the castle, so we took the boat over to the Magic Kingdom. It was so wonderful to see my DD's face! She has seen the castle before, but she has just turned two the last time we took her, so it had been awhile. We weren't coming to the Magic Kingdom for a few days, so I was happy to see the castle too.
We decided that we didn't want to go the Magic Kingdom right away when we arrived, even though that's really hard for me to do. We are old school Disney people, I like to do it the way my parents did when I was a kid. There were only two parks then and one water park and way less pressure to get everything done. Don't get me wrong, I love FastPasses and I wish we could see everything every trip, but with two little ones, it would be too stressful for me and not a true Disney vacation. We always eat breakfast at the camper, bring our own lunch and Nalgene bottles so we can fill them with ice water from quick service counters, then put Crystal Light packets in to mask the weird Florida water taste. If we're staying all day at the park, we usually buy dinner or share snacks for dinner to save money.
Back to the day! We took the internal bus to the front of the campground and waited for a bus to take us to DHS. I feel like I'm not making the most of my ticket if I get to the parks after rope drop, so we always arrive early.
While we were waiting for the park to open, my husband pulled out his phone and had received a Fox News alert about the Orlando bar shooting the night before. We didn't really notice anything different at the park, except that a helicopter kept circling overhead all day. If you had never been there before, it might not have seemed like a weird thing, but I noticed it all day. I was just happy they were making a point to keep us safe.
I had made FastPass plans for all 19 of us to ride TSMM together and for most of us to ride TOT, then our family had a FastPass to the Frozen Sing-Along, while the bigger kids had FastPasses to RRC. We all arrived together at the park, but the age range among kids was so great (9 months-15), we only really got together for the two FastPasses. We headed right to the line for Jedi Knight Training, which I thought would take 15 minutes at most, but the bigger kids were in line for 45 minutes. We rode TSMM once before our FastPass, then headed over to see Ariel and Disney Junior. The lines weren't too long for the characters, so we met Doc and Sofia. Later on there were super short lines for Donald, Daisy, and Goofy in from of Grauman's, so we had some really extended visit times with them. My DD loved meeting them. She was giving hugs, high fives, kisses. The Frozen Sing-Along was fun; this little boy behind us was singing the songs so loud that my DD kept turning around and looking at him instead of the show. He was really enjoying himself.
Having fun at the Disney Junior show, hanging with Doc and Sofia, some of the group with Pluto, enjoying our time with Daisy, selfie on TSMM, waiting for the Frozen Sing-Along
We saw Beauty and the Beast and rode TOT with the bigger kids, then headed back to the campground. We weren't planning on staying for Fantasmic since our kids go to bed early and it would have been a big stretch, so we left a little early. It was a great day!
Day 5:
One of my favorite things to do while in WDW is to resort hop. We love to check out the lobbies, explore the gift shops, see the pools. Since Disney is always improving and changing, I like to see what has changed since the last time I was there. In the morning, we took the bus over to the Wilderness Lodge to swim in the pool. The bigger kids were looking for a little bit deeper pool to play in. We played for a few hours, then headed to the campground. The last time we visited, the splash area wasn't finished, so we enjoyed it this time. Unfortunately, the beach area was closed because they were building the new vacation club villas, so we didn't get to play at the park there. The bigger kids were looking forward to a movie night, while we went out to celebrate our 8th wedding anniversary.
My husband and I really enjoy eating at 'Ohana, but since we were kid free for a whole evening, we extended it by taking the boat to the Magic Kingdom, then taking the monorail around to the Grand Floridian. We shopped for a bit, then had drinks at Mizner's Lounge. We were there early, so it was practically empty. We sat, each had a drink, and enjoyed the view of the water. The mixed nuts on the table were delicious and the whole menu of small plates looked really good too, but we were saving ourselves for dinner.
We walked on the path to the Polynesian, past the main pool, beach, wedding chapel, and Alice in Wonderland themed DVC pool. I hadn't seen that pool before and it looked awesome. We were a little early for our reservation and there must have been issues with the pagers because we didn't get seated for a half hour. But we had a view of Cinderella Castle once we were seated, so I was happy. We were really looking forward to this long meal without kids, but were really disappointed. The food was the same, but once we said we had been there before, the server just kind of shut down. We had to ask for drink refills, dirty plates were left on the table, and we left there wishing we had gone somewhere else. After we got home, I emailed customer service explaining how much we were looking forward to the meal and how disappointed we were in the service. We have very high expectations of Disney service and this just fell short. Not only did someone from dining contact me via phone and then mailed us a $50 dining gift card, a few days later the manager of 'Ohana called us and said to contact him the next time we come and he will cover the meal for our entire party. There's the customer service we've come to expect!
I had read that the one of the best places to watch Wishes is on the boat dock at the TTC, so we made our way over there. While we were waiting for the show to start, this helicopter kept flying around Bay Lake with a spotlight on the water, which was super distracting and made it difficult to hear the show, but I still loved every minute of it! We took the boat back to MK, which was totally empty going back there at that time of night. We talked to one of the men working there and because he works on the lower deck, he said he didn't even notice the helicopter when we asked him about it.
We then took the boat to Wilderness Lodge because that line was shorter at MK. When we got on the boat to Fort Wilderness, another passenger asked what was going on with the helicopter, but we didn't get any more information out of him. When we got back to the campground, my parents had the news on and we finally found out that an alligator had taken a little boy into the water from the beach at GF, the same beach we had walked past three hours previously. We went to bed thinking of how many times we have played on the beach at WDW and how it could have been one of our kids.
