the wonderful world of disney

                               

We’ve just come back from 8 wonderful days of amazing experiences at Disney World.  The kids couldn’t be happier, and my husband had the opportunity to witness first hand, the miracle of Disney’s well-oiled machine (it was his first visit).

For me, what I found amazing this time around (I’ve been here twice; once as a child and once as an adult on a pre-paid-planned business trip) was the ability to book almost everything in advance, so all you do is simply arrive at the airport, and all the administrative “work” is taken care of, so we can focus as a family to really enjoy every magical moment while we were in Disney.

We stayed at the relaxing, tropical inspired Polynesian Resort, which brought the South Pacific to us (one of the places we considered for our honeymoon).  From our room, we had views over the Seven Seas Lagoon...we could see the Magic Kingdom Castle and the famous Wishes Fireworks from our balcony!

When we were at our hotel at night, this was what we saw every time from our balcony...
Tahiti Room 3018 for those who want to book a similar room!

An invaluable resource was a website/blog, http://yourfirstvisit.net/. Written by a Disney expert, the site charted which weeks were busiest, most expensive, had the best forecasted weather, which rides would likely have the most crowds and which restaurants that have the most positive reviews...and charted schedules based on that information.  We booked ALL our restaurants and mapped out our daily attraction plans, about 6 months before we arrived. Since we booked our restaurants so far in advance, we had some of the best seats at the restaurants.  Most with window views to Magic Kingdom's Wishes Fireworks.  Two great restaurants with fabulous views were Ohana and Crystal Palace.

The book, "The Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney 2012" (thanks, Nellie for lending us your copy!), showed us which rides to take and which ones to avoid.  We were able to make strategic choices with which rides/shows to enjoy first, which ones to "Fastpass", and which ones to avoid.  This way we were able to make the best of our time, and went on every single major ride or attraction.  We were never in line for more than 15 minutes.  Especially for the most thrilling rides like Space Mountain, Rock N' Roller coaster, and The Tower of Terror.

A 13 story high ride that "drops" in the dark.
My thrill seeking kids loved it (even my little girl!)...my husband, well...not so much!

It has become an art to “do Disney”, and scheduling which parks, shows and restaurants you want to see in advance made it easy for us to see all the best that Disney had to offer (I think the last time I did so much planning was for our wedding!).   With the ability to preplan everything online, it was amazing to be able to enjoy our family vacation with relatively so much ease. 

This is the ferry boat that goes directly to the Magic Kingdom from the Polynesian/TTC centre.

And with everything running so smoothly, it really was the wonderful world of Disney.

Simple Ways to Plan for Disney World

Planning in advance made our life at Disney just a little easier.  Here’s some links and references for those planning a Disney World trip...

A great reference book...don't go to Disney without reading it first: "The Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World, 2012"

A great website that had great charts for scheduling your days: http://yourfirstvisit.net/

Keep track of your hotel reservations, and check into your hotel 10 days prior to arrival for a fast check in once you arrive: Disney Plan

Make all your restaurant and show reservations: Disney Dining & Reservations

If you don't take a lot of photos (unlike me...I took about 2500 pics on this trip!), use their onsite photographers who will professionally capture moments, so you can enjoy at the end of your trip, all the photos on a CD: Disney PhotoPass


Enjoy!