We made it through our three night Walt Disney World cruise aboard the Disney Dream and our three night stay at Art of Animation! And yes, we managed to visit all four parks at Walt Disney World! Here is a brief run down of what we accomplished in a week.
The girls were really excited to get on the plane, as we pulled in to the airport, my youngest asked, "Are we there yet?" I should have seen that as a sign! It was a REALLY LONG WEEK! We flew to Orlando (MCO) Airport on a Wednesday, took the shuttle to the Hampton Inn nearby, and stayed the night. At 11:15 am our private transportation arrived to drive us to Port Canaveral for our cruise to the Bahamas.
Processing to board the ship went smoothly. I purposely did not pre-register the kids online for the kids clubs so I could see for myself that it is actually just as easy to register them in the terminal. We were aboard the ship from Thursday to Sunday as it sailed to Nassau, Castaway Cay, and returned to Port Canaveral.
On Sunday our private transportation once again picked us up, this time at 8:45 am and we headed to Disney's Art of Animation Resort. Check-in went smoothly and we headed straight for Animal Kingdom around 11:00 am via a Disney bus. After a few hours in Animal Kingdom we hoped on another bus and headed to the transportation drop off where we took the monorail to Magic Kingdom. We stayed there until the Electric Light Parade ended and returned to our resort, via bus, with two very exhausted little girls. (And a very tired Gammie, too!)
On Monday, our second day at the resort, we took the bus over to Hollywood Studios. I really had no plan, but things worked out really well and we ended up staying there from 11:00 am until 9:00 pm! Unfortunately the rain meant no pool that night. Our final day in the parks, Tuesday, started at Epcot around 9:00 am. Around 3:00 pm we took the Monorail over to Magic Kingdom. By 6:30 pm everyone had enough and returned to our resort for dinner and a dip in the pool.
I printed out boarding passes and checked in for the Magical Express Tuesday evening. We were packed up and out the door by 6:50 am on Wednesday. The resort has flight and baggage check-in so we checked our bag and waited for the Magical Express to take us to the airport. At the airport we went straight to security. Our first flight took off right on time, but our second flight was delayed. We made it home and I breathed a sigh of relief.
The Florida sun can be unforgiving, accompanied with the crowds, long lines, and energized little girls I am glad my Mom and I survived this trip! I have finally stopped rocking from the motion of the ship. I was sick before we got on board so my equilibrium was a mess! I should have paid a visit to the doctor on board and gotten those sea sickness patches. In retrospect that probably would have been a huge help.
I do feel bad that I was thinking, this will end, this will end during what should be a fun vacation. I'm sure I'm not the only parent who thinks that about Disney, ask any parent who takes their toddlers, it's exhausting. You want to see and do as much as possible and the truth is you need years to see and do it all. That being said, I guess I better start planning our next trip, after all, my younger daughter turns 5 next year!
We were limited by the dates that we could travel. It would have been far better to take our cruise AFTER hitting the parks. I normally recommend this to my clients. Visiting the parks with little ones is hard work. Relaxing on a Disney cruise feels more like a real vacation.
We want to hear about your Disney survival stories!
