Let's do Disney (and Universal)!
Gavin’s an October baby. He’s had some pretty stellar birthday parties over the years…obviously because his mother is a party planner. This past year, I gave him the option of either having a party or going on a trip. He chose a trip for his 12th birthday and the trip he requested…was DISNEY! He and his brother had never been. SUPER FUN I thought! Especially since Orlando is now only a short drive from where we live….ALSO…super stressful because I haven’t been to Disney since I was 6 years old and I have NO clue what or how to plan it all out! The moment I started researching Disney online I became even more stressed because there are about 10 zillion recommendations out there. I figured it was easiest to seek some professional help. I started with Shaylan, one of my brilliant team members who has been to Disney several times. She guided me knowing my boys and also suggested I use a Disney booking agent who could book our accommodations, restaurant reservations, guide and officially put the itinerary together for us. So now enter: Meghan from ET Family Travel. Here’s the run down of where/how we got to our final plan for Disney…note that there are so many different ways you can do Disney and this was simply the version that worked best for my family.
Hotel
This was a tough one because if you know me, you know I’m a hotel snob AND I stay in a lot of Holiday Inn’s for my kid’s hockey tournaments (which secretly kills my soul) so I like to indulge when possible. With that said, I really wanted to stay at the Disney Four Seasons. I was convinced not to because of the location and because of the fact that we really wouldn’t have been spending a lot of time at the hotel, both of which proved to be true. The hotel we ended up staying at was Disney’s Beach Club Resort. Shaylan sold me on this property with the following points:
- GREAT location (literally couldn’t have been better. One of the nights we did Epcot for the afternoon/evening and were able to WALK right next door to the park. Also, we took a tram + water taxi home from Hollywood Studios which was so fun. AND the boardwalk was so awesome for watching the Epcot fireworks (and grabbing food and souvenirs!)
- GREAT pool: SO TRUE. The pool is set up like a beach…it’s so cool! Sand bottom, chairs in the sand, a water slide and food + drinks.
- Rooms were a good size, plenty big enough for the 4 of us to share two queen beds.
First night, before the Parks
When we arrived at the hotel, Meghan had a box of beautiful treats waiting for us to celebrate with for Gavin’s birthday (and Adam’s, who is also an October baby). We enjoyed a few of these sweets and brought the rest home for me to style and photograph because I knew one day, I would write a blog post about this fabulous trip.
We got settled and the first place we hit was Disney Springs. We had heard The Boathouse was a must and somehow, I got us a reservation on the Disney app (which is a must for booking restaurants and checking wait times for rides).
We were totally floored when we arrived in Disney Springs. It was SO cool. Tons of restaurants, shops, live music and so much more. It was really something to see.
We got to the restaurant and sat at a table on the water just in time for sunset. It was perfect. Our waiter told us that with our receipt from dinner we could get a discount on the Amphicar tour which looked super fun so right after we ordered, we put our name in on the list. We were the last to get on the list! It was great timing. Our boat, that was an old fashioned car, boarded soon after our meal and it was a fabulous family activity. I’m really glad we did it.
We walked around after the boat ride with drinks in hand for Adam and I and candy apples in hand for the boys. A few musts that were spot on as recommended by Shaylan were:
* The map of Disney Springs which proved to come in very handy especially when we first arrived and would not have been able to find the restaurant without it.
* The Ghiradelli store gives out free squares of chocolates to everyone!
* The goofy’s candy company store has a ‘build your own’ candy station that is SUPER CUTE! You can customize a cookie, caramel apple, rice krispie treat or marshmallows, etc. with different chocolate drizzles and toppings.
* There is a GINORMOUS coke experience store that has all kinds of random cokes and coke flights which is awesome if you love Coke, which I do.
Parks
I was really torn with the park situation. We were spending two days there and I wanted to maximize our time on the best rides. We ended up going with Universal Studios for day one and day two we did Hollywood Studios and Epcot.
Universal Studios
A key piece of advice here was to do both parks with the Hopper Pass. There is a Harry Potter Train that you can take to get between parks which is fun and having access to both parks gives you a lot more options on rides.
Shaylan was able to guide us on the rides that she knew we would like and not like. Here’s a quick and very spot on list that she gave to me to skip (again, based on my kids)…
Rides to skip -
Cat in the Hat
Jimmy Fallon
Simpsons (we did end up riding this because my kids sometimes watch it and wanted to try it. It was one of those simulators and was nauseating)
Fast & Furious
Flight of the Hippogriff
Every other ride? My kids LOVED. Gavin’s personal favorite: The Incredible Hulk Roller Coaster.
We had a guide who showed us around the park and helped us with the express pass lines. Our guide was awesome and I would highly recommend her if you are looking to book one. Her name was Kyrsten Rapp of Stone Vacation Services.
Many people told us not to make dinner reservations for the night of Universal Studios and I will say for us, that was a mistake because food is number 1 for my family and since we arrived at Universal so early that morning…we were done by 3pm.
The nice thing about finishing at the park early was we got some time back at the hotel to enjoy the beachy pool area and it really was lovely.
We were not able to get a reservation anywhere so last minute so we walked over to the Yachtsman Steakhouse and ate at the bar. Food was good but service was tough because it was so busy. I would have preferred to have had an actual reservation and a proper table so we’ll know for next time!
Hollywood Studios
Day 2, we woke up early once again and hit Hollywood Studios. There was no option for the fast pass there as they were just about to launch the new lightning lane program, but we still had our guide so she helped us navigate the park and rides. We started at the Toy Story ride. We were first in line and when we sat down on that roller coaster they announced a mechanical error.
O
M
G
They gave us passes to come back and skip to the front of the line at this ride (if) when it was fixed or choose any other ride to go to the front of the line on. This ride and the whole experience leading up to it along with the entire toy story village was really cute!
Shaylan’s spot on tips for us here were:
Best scary ride: Tower of Terror
Rockin Roller Coaster: SO fun. My kids actually liked this ride the best.
Minnie Train: Quite Babyish BUT my kids LOVED it.
Little Mermaid show: Skip unless you have small kiddos or need an AC break.
Muppet Vision 3D: Very cute and funny show VERY dated and 80s so unless you or the kids truly know/think the muppets are funny would skip. I LOVE the Muppets so I made the kids do this one.
Toy Story was a must BUT the ride never came back to life SO we did the Star Wars ride of resistance with our fast pass and it was pretty awesome!
SERI SNACK: Literally this was my favorite moment of the trip…Baseline Tap House. Cheese and Charcuterie boards - AH! With Wine! AH! Perfect mid day snack!!
Frozen Coke is the BESTTTTTT at Disney so find it!
After our morning of fun at Hollywood Studios, we took the Tram AND Water Taxi (both of which we LOVED!) back to our hotel and had a little rest in the room. We geared ourselves up, put our fanny packs on and then hit Epcot. We love to eat so needless to say…this park was a hit. The best part of Epcot was that we were there during the Food & Wine Festival. AH! It was too perfect.
When you arrive at Epcot grab a passport! You can get your passport stamped at each booth that you hit.
We of course went straight to China for dumplings because that’s our favorite food. We also hung out in Canada listening to their live music for a little while.
Funny enough, the rides at Epcot happened to be my kids faves of the weekend. The most fascinating and fun one was called Test Track. Truly a phenomenal experience. You basically design a car and then get to ride /race the car that you designed. It’s hard to explain but trust me when I tell you, it’s incredible.
Another super cool ride was Soarin’. There was barely a line and it moved super fast so we got right on. Try to get a seat in the FRONT ROW! That was a great tip for this ride. Definitely the best possible experience in the front row seats. ALSO…if you store anything in the bins under your seats…don’t forget it! BOTH of my kids lost their favorite hats there!
Right before we went on Soarin, there was the Livin’ with the Land boat ride that we were lured into…it was super slow which was perfect for me as I took a nap and very educational for my kids which I appreciated. There are a LOT more rides than I’m listing here but like I said…we came for the food.
Here are some of Shaylan’s tips for what to eat in Epcot, also spot on:
Mexico Pavillion: once you go in on the right side kind of tucked away is an awesome tequila bar with incredible drinks and flights.
Germany has a Werther’s Store that smells amazing and has really awesome treats and caramel popcorn.
The Japan Store is ginormous with lots of fun candies and tons of pokemon crap if your kid is into that like Luke.
France has a cart across from the bakery that serves grand marnier slushes which are INSANE. They also have a grey goose citron which is yum too.
OH CANADA! They have a cheddar cheese soup with a little pretzel roll that’s DELISH. They also have maple popcorn at their popcorn cart.
Outside of the world showcase there’s a store called ‘club cool’ where you can sample different cokes from around the world - the beverly is DISGUSTING the rest vary!
We ate until we were ready to explode, watched the Epcot ball’s light show and then the kids CRASHED. Mandy was on this trip too and though she had a very different experience with her little ones (she was on a totally different itinerary) we were able to do Epcot together which was SO fun. After our kids went to sleep (husbands included) we met on the boardwalk which was between our hotels (she stayed at the Dolphin Resort) where we watched the fireworks and had drinks + pizza. We got to chat for hours and recap all the weekend fun.
It took a village to plan this trip but it was totally worth it. Couple of super important tips that I’ll leave you with are as follows:
Everywhere you turn you are tempted to spend money. Prior to the trip I explained this to the boys and said if you are going to want to buy candy, toys, souvenirs, etc., it will need to be with your own money. They went through their savings and allotted an amount they were comfortable bringing with them and they used it very wisely. Was a great lesson in saving and spending for them!
Everyone told me to bring a portable charger and that was SPOT ON. We needed it.
SUNBLOCK SUNBLOCK SUNBLOCK
HATS HATS HATS
If you buy Minnie Mouse ears, Don’t wear them to Universal Studios. Or do (like me) and prepare to be trolled!
Wear comfortable shoes!
Take tons of photos.
Bring a boatload of Sanitizer and if you’re a mask wearer…come prepared. These parks were so busy I wore my mask OUTSIDE!
On a final note, I did end up taking the boys back to Orlando to go wake boarding (with our favorite instructor Tarah who runs this incredible company called Freedom Wakepark) and we stayed at the Walt Disney Four Seasons. It was…spectacular. I’m going back in a couple of weeks because I miss it and…we’ll be doing the Magic Kingdom. Let’s see how that goes…maybe it will require it’s own blog post!