3 kids, 1 mom- Let's do it all! Jan 2019

[minnie_erin]

Hello! I have read trip reports for a long time, and love them. I decided to try to do one of my own for our little trip we took at the end of January 2019.


Who came along this time? My three kids and myself. (My husband came along last year and had no interest in coming this time.)
Kids are Peter- 9- loves all roller coasters and FIGMENT
Emi- 8- Loves all coasters, ALL animals and all characters
Lainey- 5- Loves MOST coasters, all characters and taking lots of pictures on her camera.

We had nearly free plane tickets down and back, so we took a week off of work and school and lucky for us, avoided the polar vortex that hit MN while we were gone, the kids ended up only missing ONE day of school!

Last trip, we didn't meet many characters and did lots of rides, this time we were goign to try to do everything at least once and meet as many friends as we could!

This trip, we flew into St. Petersburg, spent a few days on the beach, and then came to Orlando for 4 days. We planned to do three park day (MK, EP, AK) and the a resort day- Staying at Wyndham Bonnett Creek.

 

[reyasmommy]

I sure wish my kids liked Roller coasters!

I look forward to reading more!

 

[minnie_erin]

I often see people asking different places about beach ideas, so I thought I'd just put a few things that we did at the beach. We were at St. Pete's Beach area the weekend that it rained and rained and rained... On Saturday, we had one great (but cold) afternoon at Ft. DeSoto Park. Highly Recommend!!




Sunday was the day that it was 50* and rainy ALL DAY LONG. We ended up driving to Tampa to the Florida Aquarium and had a great day there. We weren't prepared, otherwise my older two would have loved to do the swim with the sea turtles experience, something to keep in mind if you go- bring a towel and swim suit! But lots to see and do there, we managed 4 hours easy, and then drove back to St. Pete's Beach for a cold wet walk on the beach.



The final beach day was clear of rain, but still very cold. My oldest and his grandpa wanted to do a fishing trip and the person we had scheduled with on Sunday had cancelled because of the weather. We found a company in Madeira Beach that was reasonable and they had a great time and caught lots of fish.


While they fished, the girls and I went to Madiera Beach and they ran around in their swim suits (while the locals wore their down jackets- again, from MN) and then went for a short hike on the boardwalks in Seminole at Boca Ciega Millennium Park.

 

[minnie_erin]

Onto our first disney day- that’s what we are here for, right?

Started out at Epcot this trip. Since we were so close at WBC, I decided to Uber over in the mornings and not pay for parking. I ended up saving money (and walking!) this way.

That morning, we ubered to the beach club and entered through IG. We arrived at the IG at 7:45 (park open at 9) and no one was there, I had never rope dropped back there and didn’t know what to expect. Around 8:30-40, a line began to form and at 8:50, they let us onto the bridge and at 8:55, let us go into the park! We headed right for Frozen Ever After. From there, we took a few pictures in the Art Festival booths, but hustled to Soarin’ to beat the crowds there.


We waited maybe 20 mins to ride, I have us going into the bulding at 8:17 and a ride photo at 8:44. (love watching their faces on that ride!)



Next, we headed to Figment- new to us- which they loved, and then to Misson Space, which I think we had a fastpass for. Done with that by 10am.


We had some snacks that we brought along at this point and took a quick breather- we had gotten a lot done by now!

 

[Westcorkdisfan]

I'm heading in October with my 3 kids. DH does not "get" theme parks let alone Disney so we decided to leave him at home. So excited!!!! Looking forward to hearing more of your adventures.

 

[sheri18]

Joining in...we stayed at WBC in January and loved it..we used Uber also.
And love the St. Pete’s beach area. Would like to do a Disney/ beach vacation..but do Disney first. To rest after

 

[TNGirlwCamera]

Looks like a fun trip already!

 

[oceanmarina]

Joining in here. Wow I’m impressed. I have 2 munchkins and i feel it would be a lot to be with them without hubby. Love the pictures. The one with your daughter in the sand with the sunset and horshoe crab is just beautiful! Should be in a picture frame. Looking forward to reading more.

 

[LeiaIsAPrincess2]

Hello from another Minnesotan! You got out of here at the perfect time

 

[oufpat]

Good for you Mom. My first Disney trip was also with 3 kids, ages 8-10-12. At that time DH had no desire to go, I did, and off we went. This was when there was only MK, EPCOT and River Country. We had such a good time, convinced DH to come with us 2 years later, and now he's the biggest Disney Fan of all. We belong to DVC, go1-2 times a year, and enjoy sharing it with our 3 adult kids and 5 grandkids. So be careful, you never know where that trip alone with the kids will take you!

 

[minnie_erin]

Joining in...we stayed at WBC in January and loved it..we used Uber also.
And love the St. Pete’s beach area. Would like to do a Disney/ beach vacation..but do Disney first. To rest after

That's what we did last year, the schedule worked better this way this year, but it was so nice to decompress last year doing it that way! We also went to Clearwater Aquarium last year and the kids still talk about that, so add that to your to do list too!

Joining in here. Wow I’m impressed. I have 2 munchkins and i feel it would be a lot to be with them without hubby. Love the pictures. The one with your daughter in the sand with the sunset and horshoe crab is just beautiful! Should be in a picture frame. Looking forward to reading more.

Thanks! Love those beach pictures, can't get enough of them! My kids were awesome helpers on this trip and better listeners than they are at home so that's how we managed- I'm sure before we left, I informed them that this would never happen again if they weren't as good as gold. LOL

Hello from another Minnesotan! You got out of here at the perfect time

Sure did! Couldn't have gotten any luckier- it was VERY cold to be swimming in FL, but that didn't hold the kids back- lots of questions- where ARE you from?? And then Ahhhhh, that makes sense when we told them.

Good for you Mom. My first Disney trip was also with 3 kids, ages 8-10-12. At that time DH had no desire to go, I did, and off we went. This was when there was only MK, EPCOT and River Country. We had such a good time, convinced DH to come with us 2 years later, and now he's the biggest Disney Fan of all. We belong to DVC, go1-2 times a year, and enjoy sharing it with our 3 adult kids and 5 grandkids. So be careful, you never know where that trip alone with the kids will take you!

I know it, I told him that was my last trip for a while... Lies... so many lies.

 

[minnie_erin]

Ok, onward. I also have the big picture situation fixed, sorry!

Our next fastpass was for Spaceship Earth, but as any good Instagram-lover knows, you can't go on SE, until you take a few pictures. My son, of course, wanted nothing to do with that.



Rode SE, loved it, my kids go to Montessori School, so there are works where they read about art, so my 8 year old pointed out the Michelangelo scene and let me know it was one of her faves at school too- more to come on this as we explore world showcase...



Took some cute pics in front of the ball and with the cute rainbows as well.

Next we went to see Mickey and Minnie and Goofy, now we didn't meet them last visit and this was top of the kids' lists. Emi and Lainey were Minnie and Goofy for Halloween this year, so there were eager to see them.



I really enjoyed meeting them, but I did feel like most of the time we met the characters, it was rushed. Like take a quick photo and move on. This was not true in AK, I will get to that soon. But we got all of our photos and hugs, Goofy loved Emi's shirt and leggings and Minnie twirled with Lainey.

After that, we went to another 'popular' attraction that was being requested over and over... Club Cool. They all tried the Beverly, all made the same face and sugared up enough to get back across the park (see a trend here?) to our last fast pass- Test Track- which was from 12:30-1:30. We didn't think that the scoring was working correctly in TT and I know that Emi and my car wasn't letting us design it, but I didn't say anything. While in line, I got another FastPass for Soarin' (prob two sets of overlapping actually) so we stopped got some popcorn in our friend's bucket that they sent with us and THEN we went back over for a ride in the sky (saw a VIP tour in line behind us and wondered if they'd notice 4 more in their group) and to also do another of my kids' favorites- Living with the Land. (they are very easy to please!)

After that we were on our way to future world. Last year, we were there during the Festival of the Arts, so they knew all about the big mural and wanted to be sure to do it, so that was the next stop. Sadly, we didn't make it back to see it later in the day to see our (and 10k)of our closest friends) progress.

 

[minnie_erin]

Done with future world (for now- hoped to make it back to the aquarium, but since we'd already done the FL aquarium, I was ok with us not spending a ton of time there, AND it was time to eat!)

Heading into Canada, my youngest had plans to EAT and was watching everyone's plates that they were carrying around. I know that the festival eating is popular and fun, but with little kids, I really think it is HARD to wait in line, spend $15 on two small things and then walk to the next county and do it all over again. So, very few pictures of all of this, But I know we have poutine near Canada, croissants in France, a Schwarma platter in Morocco, sushi for my son in Japan (we'd regret that). We also stopped to see a some of the street performers- the drummers and Voices of Liberty were our favorites!




Remember when I said Emi was pointing out art that she knew from school? The Birth of Venus was another that she pointed out and when she went to pose in it, she said- mom the lady is naked in the picture, I'm not sure what I should do! :grin:



The other very fun thing that we saw, was character training next to America! Tigger, Eyore, Wendel and ??? Someone else that I can't remember were there. Wendel of course had no line and played with the kids for quite a while.

We had just gotten to the point that we were going head to see Anna and Elsa when Peter told me he needed a long break- he actually napped on the ground/my lap during the Chinese acrobats, and then needed another restroom stop- I wonder if it was bad? My youngest had one piece and also needed a smaller breather, but both were quite uncomfortable. But after a break, everyone started to feel better, and we slowed down, watched the trains in Germany (Peter LOVED trains when he was a toddler and still enjoys them)

So, we skipped Anna and Elsa, went and rode the boat through Mexico, and I made the decision to forgo the next set of fastpasses we had for Soarin'. We did a quick ride through Figment and Nemo, visited the manatees quickly and were really just ready to head back, which is unlike us to leave before close, but we had a long day ahead tomorrow and I didn't want to risk it. Plus the kids had been asking to go swim at the pool for 30 mins.





All wasn't lost, as we were able to swim for a little bit, and then we had a fireworks view room (Tower 5) and we were able to see some of the fireworks show laying in bed.

Steps: 23,224 (9.8 miles)
Best things: Soarin', Voices of Liberty, and my kids would say Figment
Things I wish we had done that we missed: explored in some of the pavillions more (Canada, Norway/Anna and Elsa specifically), visited with the caretakers in the aquarium as my kids love asking them questions and I had visions of us eating ice cream from France and watching Illuminations.


Uber details- we were dropped off at Beach Club but left from the front of the park. There was a little purple shelter that they directed us to go and wait in for the Uber. I think it was about $8 +tip each way.