WE DID IT! We survived travel and three theme parks and more with three small children (who turned six, six, and four on our trip!).
It was expensive. It was magical. It was exhausting. (Although thankfully my Enneagram One moves to Seven in growth, so I ran on a crazy amount of adrenaline and let’s-do-all-the-things kind of vibe the whole time.)
You’ll wonder where the magic is as you push around a stroller or two and stand around in more lines than you thought possible. You’ll think of how much money you paid and seriously you’re spending like 50% or more of your time just waiting for things to happen and what even is this and was it a good idea? But then you get on a ride and it IS magical, it IS. And we don’t remember the lines now. I mean, we do, but it’s not what we’ve been talking about. When we talk about our trip we talk about the fireworks and the light show and wasn’t the Buzz Lightyear ride cool? And the safari ride where we got to see all the animals? And we remember the things we actually got to DO, and not the 45 minutes we waited.
And when you’re holding a kid as the fireworks begin and they say, “There’s real magic here” and another kid says “This is my magical day” as she swishes around in her ridiculous princess dress and another kid asks, “Can we come here again?” as the fireworks end, you get tears in your eyes and think, YES. Yes we can come here again. This was 1000% worth it.
The kids are back at school this week and it’s the first time I’ve really been without them in the past seven days and it’s AMAZING. I can think entire thoughts and my brain space is my own for at least a couple of kid-free hours and sweet Jesus, I kind of forgot what that was like. My body is still getting used to not being in a crush of people all the time and having almost an entire freaking house to myself right now feels like the ultimate luxury. I can take entire steps with my feet! And swing my arms around without hitting anyone! What a gift.
Random Thoughts:
I remember loving Animal Kingdom as a kid but there weren’t as many rides as I thought there would be. It was also stupid cold the day we visited, which put a bit of a damper on things. BUT. The three main things we did: The Festival of the Lion King, the Finding Nemo Musical, and the safari ride were AMAZING. The shows themselves were jam-packed full of some serious talent and seeing them was worth the admission price alone. And the kids are still talking about how we could have practically reached out and touched a rhinoceros on the safari.
Legoland was perfect for us - Caden and Brooklyn each say it was their favorite day there and Nolan lists meeting Emmett as his Favorite Thing From the Entire Trip. The wait times for the rides were minimal which made it feel like more of a break in our trip than a full-on theme park day. If they were a few years older I think they would have been bored, but ages four and six with a healthy (unhealthy?) amount of LEGO obsession made it ideal.
At some point your kids will say they want to leave and go home or that this is boring because kids are jerks and you’ll kind of hate them for it.
You can be a feminist and also spend way too much money living vicariously through your daughter as she gets all dooded up at the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique. As a girl, I played with trucks and never came in at night in the summertime without a healthy amount of sand in my hair and also the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique would have been my absolute favorite thing at Brooklyn’s age. The boys got made over into knights and they also loved it. You’re only this little at Disney once and, as far as I’m concerned, this experience was worth every penny.
Those FastPasses are amazing. We used them for both shows at Animal Kingdom and for some character meet-and-greets at Magic Kingdom. I highly recommend the Enchanted Tales with Belle experience - it was one of my absolute favorite things besides the light show.
Speaking of meet-and-greets...what is up with the lighting at these things? I’m surprised that in 2020, the age of Instagram, the lighting is really this terrible. Disney brings in millions of dollars each and every day...can we really not figure out how to get some natural light up in here? The grainy, gross lighting really takes away from some otherwise adorable photos.
Things I Used/Wore/Recommend:
These shoes held up to walking (15,000+ steps!) around Magic Kingdom and everywhere else. I had purchased them last summer so they were already broken in, though I haven’t worn them recently. No rubbing, no blisters, just comfort.
These sandals worked well for our Legoland day and bumming around elsewhere. Not sure I’d want to wear them for one of our long days (Legoland closed at 5:00 - we were at Magic Kingdom almost four hours longer!) but they held up for a more relaxing day. And by “more relaxing” I mean only 11,000 steps around the park.
This belt bag. I was between this and another one with a zipper, but the flap closure made it sooo easy to get in and out of. I fit a small wallet (below), my phone, a hair tie, and lip gloss in here with room to spare.
This card case. Held mine and the kid’s cash, my ID, my credit card, and mine and the kid’s FastPass cards. Loved how thin and portable this was.
This windbreaker was a lifesaver on our day at Animal Kingdom where it never felt warmer than 45 degrees. You can smoosh it up and cram it anywhere and it feels super flimsy and you’ll wonder if you spent money on something that actually doesn’t even do anything, but it WORKS. I never felt the wind (which was substantial!) the whole day.
Also:
I purchased carbon offsets for the flights for our trip here. We’re not a family who flies often - this is our second trip with the kids, and Tyson and I each fly maybe once or twice a year. I feel slightly guilty when we do, just knowing how negative the impact is on the environment.
I debated whether to buy offsets or not - as with most things on the Internet, you can find all sorts of articles telling you why you should, why you shouldn’t because it doesn’t matter, etc., but came to the conclusion that it certainly doesn’t hurt anything, and since it may even (hopefully!) help, then for all of $30 for our family of 5, I might as well.
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