Adventures at Disney - PART 2

Adventures at Disney - Part 2 - Baby swap, Dining, Parades & Fireworks

We fell in love with Walt Disney World long before we had our kids, but bringing our little ones to Disney is now the best part of our experience. Dax has been going since he was about 6 months old, and each trip has brought something new for him to enjoy. Through most major milestone ages from 6 month - 2 1/2 years, we've been able to look forward to him experiencing a new ride or have something spark his interest that he didn't notice previously. Dax currently LOVES Pirates of the Caribbean and is a must do anytime we visit. He also loves Dumbo, Tomorrowland Speedway, and the Mad Tea Party at the Magic Kingdom, and Grand Fiesta Tour at Epcot, just to name a few! Most attractions are friendly for all ages. In fact, even our 7 month old enjoys riding along with us. He has been on quite a few rides starting from just 3 months old, including Pirates--which has a drop! 

Of course not all attractions are kid friendly, and due to the fact that our kids our very young (and short), they couldn't tag along on some of the bigger attractions that have height restrictions. On a normal visit, we skip over those rides and stick to the ones that our kids can join us on, but since we had my in-laws along for the trip, we were able to try out  the "baby swap" system. We had Fast Passes (FP) for Soarin' Over the World, but it was a ride our kids could not accompany us on, so when we told the cast member at that FP stand, she handed my in-laws a pass that would allow my husband and I to go on after they did, and literally swap the kids. We kept the kids busy while they rode, and then my in-laws entertained them while we rode. It was a neat way to extend our FP time as well, since by the time we got in line, our return time was well over. We also used this system for Test Track. Keep this in mind if you're running a little late as the "Baby Swap Pass" can be used anytime that day.

Even though we did take advantage of the FP, there were unusually light crowds this weekend, even for the "slow season," which made it very easy for us to experience a lot of attractions during our 4 days. I think our longest stand-by wait time we experience was 40 minutes, and that was for the newly opened Frozen ride at the Norway Pavilion in Epcot--that we were able to ride TWICE. The lines weren't usually as long as they seemed, and we even realized that the app was not always giving us accurate wait times. We could usually tell just by looking at a line if it was going to be a quick wait or not. Even with opening weekend of the Food and Wine Festival at Epcot, the food lines were so short that we didn't really have to wait at all to order and get our food sampling--at lunch time! Believe it or not, there are slower times to visit Disney World still, including late August, early to mid September, early December, and most of February. (By the way, the Spanakopita from Greece and Cheddar Cheese Soup from Canada are to die for and I think I ate the Spanakopita before she even handed it to me, here's your hand back ma'am!)

At Epcot, we didn't want to eat at a quick service restaurant with all of the great options currently available at the Food and Wine Festival, but finding something our toddler would enjoy that wasn't chicken fingers wasn't the easiest. Toddlers love mac n cheese right? WRONG. Well maybe just not the loaded mac n cheese from the Farm Fresh stand which I regretfully ended up having to eat both his and my husbands. It did have a little spice to it as well which most likely wasn't appealing to the toddler taste buds. He was hungry so we flipped through our Passport and ultimately strolled our way over to Germany as they had a potato au gratin meal with ham and cheese, and to our luck it was toddler approved! Most of our trip was spent in Epcot and there are so many great options that visiting multiple times is the only way you could taste everything without overdoing it and feeling guilty.

This go around, we only made one dining reservation (which you can do 180 days out from your visit if you're staying on Disney Property, or 90 days out if you're not) at the Polynesian Resort for The Spirit of Aloha dinner show. The family style Hawaiian food was pretty good, with endless portions of pulled pork, roasted chicken, ribs, veggies, and jasmine rice and all you could drink beer, wine and Sangria, but we weren't too impressed with the show. It was interesting to see the traditional dances of Hawaii, but mixed with a cheesy Disney-like storyline and filler dance numbers, some parts came off pretty boring if I am being honest. The fire dancer at the very end made the experience worthwhile at $65/person (kids ate free!). Our toddler didn't move his eyes from this man until he was finished. Glad we experienced the show, probably won't be back. Next time we'll opt for the Hoop Dee Doo Musical Revue over at Fort Wilderness.

Fire Dancer at The Spirit of Aloha

Our other meals in the parks were eaten at the quick service restaurants. As many times as we have visited the parks, you would think we would have learned to check menus before walking all the way across Magic Kingdom in the rain only to remember that Pecos Bill's Wild West Café in Frontierland now served Mexican cuisine instead of chicken and burgers like we were in the mood for. We then bee-lined it over to Tortuga Tavern in Adventureland only to find it not serving dinner that night (note to self: if serving times are missing when looking up an eatery on the My Disney Experience App, it probably means the restaurant currently isn't open!). We ended up at one of our favorites, Casey's Corner on Main Street. Between my husband, Dax, and I, we shared 2 Corn Dog Nugget Meals, it would be more than enough for all of us. Keep this in mind so you don't end up wasting food or money! Casey's doesn't quite have enough seating to accommodate the lunch and dinner crowds, but it's very convenient to the recently installed green-space around the center hub. Save the time and aggravation of trying to find a table and just spread out on the Astroturf lawn instead! Depending on the time you're eating, you might end up scoring an awesome spot for a parade or fireworks as well! We have learned that fireworks are best viewed from Main Street about halfway between the Casey's and the center hub. If you're too close to the castle, you miss the big picture of the show. The green-space was great because we were able to sit for the duration of the firework show and didn't have to worry about others squeezing in to and blocking our view.

The Main Street Electrical Parade is leaving Disney World (again), so we wanted to make sure our son got to see it (and us too of course). Normally we would stake out a parade spot at least 45 minutes ahead of time, but we got lucky and found an open spot just minutes before it began. I don't know which was better, watching my son in all of his amazement, waving at the characters and dancing, or my husband watching our son enjoy one of his favorite parades with the most genuine of happy smiles. I think I was experience first-hand one of those magical Disney moments that you see on their TV commercials.

Pointing to his favorite characters in the parade.

We left right after the parade with the rest of the world and found the monorail line to be backed up to the park's exit gates so we decided to take the ferry back to the parking lot. Best. Decision. Ever. The Ferries can fit more people more efficiently than the monorail can. They were running 3 ferry boats and both loading docks, so we boarded promptly, even being 3 ferries deep in the crowd. I imagine we would have waiting at least a half hour before being able to board a monorail. While celebrating our minor victory, our crying, leg shaking toddler reminded us, that we never took him potty between the fireworks and parade. There just wasn't anything for us to do as we said across the middle of Seven Seas Lagoon, about 5 minutes from our destination. Lesson learned--always take the kid potty when they ask, and always, ALWAYS, bring a change of clothes. Ugh, I am feeling awful about this again.

We saw a lot, and did a lot during our 4-day trip, but we also feel that we missed a lot on this trip too. Maybe because it was hotter than normal for the end of September, or maybe it was because it was our first multi-day trip with 2 little ones in tow. Or maybe there really is just so much to do and see that it is hard to cram it all in, especially when you're trying to keep a good pace that allows the kids to have a great time without over-doing it! 2 out of our 4 days we made our way back to the resort to let our kiddos get a good nap in, this allowed us to stay out a little later in the parks and avoid having grumpy kids. We also learned that if there is a 50/50 chance that our son will have an epic hour-long meltdown if we wake him up from his nap early...DON'T wake him up early from his nap!

Donald was telling us to go and he would keep the kid. We considered letting him!

Taking a Disney trip with 2 kids is TONS of work, and truthfully it was probably more work than it was relaxing for us, but we seriously had so much fun. The wonderment in our sons eyes is enough to keep us going again and again. Kids don't see the long lines for food, and the long waits for rides, the hoards of people that aren't watching where they're going. They see a HUGE castle, their favorite characters, dragons everywhere, and are using their imaginations without even realizing it. We are taking a break from the parks for awhile, but we can't wait until we return and become children again ourselves, just by watching and learning through our 2 boys.