I love planning out my travels almost as much as I enjoy going places. I'm a bargain hunter, and I get a rush from saving and planning and organizing.
I learned a lot from this trip.
1. Obviously, plan ahead. I'm taking down to a rough itinerary for every day. You don't have to be crazy with it, but having an idea of exactly where to go is key. I used a plethora of different websites to help with packing and which parks to go to on what days.
2. Bring lots of new stuff either for the plane or car. We drove, so we needed new movies games for our Innotab and coloring/activity books to keep us busy. In the words of Barney Stinson...."New is always better". And, for kids, that is totally the case...so get them some new stuff they've never seen and have a nice trip. I saved a few things in my suitcase for the trip home.
3. There are advantages to staying on and off a Disney site. If you go with a Disney hotel you have free parking, shuttle, bus, or ferry to the parks. Staying offsite you have to pay $14 per day to park. We stayed offsite, but this was because we got a deal where we paid only $129 for the entire week for our 2 bedroom apartment. Money wise this was a better choice for us. If I were going again, I'd look into the Nickelodeon Resort. They are cheaper per night than Disney and they have free transportation to the parks. And, your kids get the joy of Disney and Nickelodeon characters on their vacation.
4. If you can....bring lots of your own food....and drinks. Not just for the parks (though you can bring in your own and it saves tons of money) but, also for the hotel too. We had a kitchen, so we hit up the WalMart down the road when we got into town and bought all sorts of goodies, including our breakfast, dinners, and snacks. We had pizza, meatball sandwiches, breakfast sandwiches, oatmeal, cereal, ice-cream for snacks, etc.
5. We bought our park tickets from undercovertourist.com. They are an authorized Disney dealer, so you know the tickets are legit, but you get a free day with every purchase. So, we paid for 3 days admission and got the 4th free. They mailed them directly to our house. What I learned is they don't work on the turnstiles. So, when you arrived your first day head to City Hall and trade them in for cards that work, so you don't have to add to the hoopla when your trying to get into the parks.
6. Buy your own souvenirs...and then plan to still buy more. I'm certain we didn't spend as much as if we'd brought nothing, but my crazy idea my kids would be happy with the things I surprised them with every morning would be enough was shot down quickly. I did bring our own bubbles, glow sticks, and glow bracelets for the Electric Parade, which made the girls happy enough that we didn't get suckered into buying on of those light-up spinny things for $10 a pop.
7. Plan for rain. I read a very helpful tip before leaving to buy a shower curtain and clips to clip over the stroller if you have to leave it out to go into a ride. The clips came in super helpful too for the plastic ponchos we brought. The girls would get in the stroller and we'd clip a poncho around them to keep them dry. The grown ups all brought rain jackets that fold up into a little pouch...which saved on room in the bags.
8. Bring a stroller. Even if your kid is older. Chances are, they are going to get tired. I'm so glad we brought two strollers, not only does it carry around tried and cranky kids, it also holds all your crap.
9. My kids love rides, and characters are overrated. At least in my family. Everything I read up to the trip was how great it is to get character's signatures. Truthfully, all the girls really cared about was riding rides. They would oblige us every now and again and stand in a line and see a character. But, for the most part these gals were just about the thrills.
10. Pining is also overrated. Unless you plan on making Disney a yearly or bi-yearly trip I wouldn't waste the time. For us, this was a once...maybe twice...in a lifetime kinda trip. So, other souvenirs were more important. Plus, the girls were scared of characters, there was no way they were going to go to a stranger and ask to trade a pin.
11. Magic Kingdom is the best park. No duh, right? I'm glad we tried other parks, but honestly we would have been happy doing four days of Magic Kingdom. Like I said before...these gals were all about the thrills, so walking around looking at shows and animals wasn't doing it for them.
12. Use the PhotoPass system if you don't have a decent camera...or you have a mom that can't line up your faces in the little box. That was you can go online and buy the pics you want to keep forever.
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