volfan1978
SuperDad
- Joined
- Jan 19, 2015
We just returned from our family Disney vacation...first trip for all four of the kids (ages 8, 5, 4, and 1). I thought I'd give a quick recap while it's still fresh in my mind so that others can learn from our successes and failures.
First, the trip there. We elected to drive in order to avoid the high airfare that comes with taking six people to Disney. It's about 10 hours of driving, and we decided to do it at night with the following thought process--the kids will sleep instead of being up and asking "how much longer?" a number of times into the quadruple digits. This worked perfectly except for one flaw--my wife couldn't get comfortable enough to sleep, and so my plan to swap drivers after our gas stop 7 hours into the trip didn't work out. So I ended up driving the whole way--which means I arrived on property at around 8:00am with no sleep except for the two hour nap I had the previous afternoon. The wife ended up only getting about 2-3 hours of sleep along the way, so she was pretty tired as well.
First day there was Sunday 5/24--went straight to DHS for Star Wars Weekends. We started out doing the Disney Jr show and then meeting Hiro and Baymax...great so far except for the fact that the baby was a little fussy at this point. As we walked from place to place the kids alternated between being incapable to keep up and then running to try to be "first"--this was a recurring theme throughout the week. And this, when mixed with sleep deprived parents and massive crowds, is a dangerous cocktail. I probably looked like a madman yelling at the kids when they wouldn't listen...but then I managed to get a power nap in the Frozen Sing-along, and I felt a little better. Mercifully around this time we got the text letting us know that our room at the Polynesian was ready...so we returned to the van and drove to the Poly.
If you want a full review of our stay at the Poly, look under the Resorts forum. We couldn't have been happier with our stay at the Poly because we got exactly the room we wanted and the place was super nice...but our arrival was a little bit of a challenge. First, in my sleep deprived state I goofed up the navigation to the resort...there really should be better signs that let noobs like me know that I need to be in the right hand lanes at the Magic Kingdom parking gate in order to get to the resorts. Finally straightened that out, pulled up to the front of the Polynesian like I owned the place, and dropped off the luggage with bell services. Then I told the family to go ahead and check out the lobby while I parked the van. Little did I know that I wouldn't see them again for literally 30 minutes! That's how long it took for me to circle the parking lot like a shark until I found someone walking to their car, at which point I sheepishly asked if they were leaving and they confirmed that they were about to clear out a space. Finally I get parked, and although I'm not the complaining type I go straight to the concierge and tell him "listen...I don't want to fuss at someone who isn't supposed to be fussed at, so please get me the appropriate fuss-ee". He chuckled and asked how he could help...and I explained that I felt like 30 minutes of our vacation had been robbed from us because I had to circle the lot looking for a space like I was back in college or something. The man was very apologetic and gave us extra fastpasses to makeup for the lost time. Luckily I didn't have the same parking problem again that week, so I guess it just hit at the wrong time. We got checked in, found lunch, did the pool, rested, and then returned to DHS for the evening. Other than the kids refusing to walk at an appropriate pace, the rest of the evening went pretty smoothly--including a nice dinner a Rebel Hangar.
Monday was a much better day. We got to Epcot for rope drop and executed our touring plan to perfection. Despite big crowds, we moved from place to place like seasoned pros. I looked like a hero when we got to the Japan pavilion...because not only did we surprise the girls with pick-a-pearl, but we had also already bought cages for them to wear their pearls. The girls had good luck with their pearls...one got a monster 8.5mm white pearl, and the other got a beautiful silver pearl. The pearl lady acted like the silver was a pretty rare color and made a big deal out of it...I'm pretty sure this was just to make my daughter feel special about it, but it worked. The kids also got to meet Garrett Clayton (Tanner from Teen Beach Movie) who just happened to be in the shops in the Morocco pavilion. Our only faux-pas for the day was attempting to do Agent P...in my opinion it's better suited for ages 10-13 or so. Our kids didn't really understand what was going on and definitely weren't willing to put in the physical effort required to go looking for all these things. So after one mission we turned the phone back in. Scored some delicious eats from France and Germany, and had a wonderful dinner at Garden Grill.
Tuesday was Animal Kingdom...and the worst day of the trip. We had breakfast at 'Ohana (which was good but not great), so we got to the park around 10:30am. Big mistake not to be there at rope drop. Not only was it the hottest day of the week, but AK just isn't set up for big crowds. Credit me with another tactical error in having our first ride be Expedition Everest. I just made FP's for myself and the 8 year old daughter, because I knew we could ride swap to allow my wife to ride and none of the other kids were tall enough to ride. The daughter's favorite ride at Epcot was Test Track, so I didn't think EE would be a problem for her...turns out that the therapy bills I'll be paying to deal with the trauma she experienced on that ride will probably mean I won't have the money for another Disney vacation anytime soon. She was scared to death of that ride. Our ride photo is a terrified 8 year old with a panicked look on her face grabbing onto her dad as tightly as she can...and that pretty much set the tone for the day. I like all the work they're doing on AK including the Harambe Market, but it just wasn't our day--and sometimes you just have to know when to punt. We left early, got some dinner, and then went back to hang out in the pool the rest of the night.
Wednesday was Magic Kingdom Day 1. We had an 8:00am ADR at Crystal Palace on a 9:00am open day, so it was neat getting into the park before it was officially open. But with three places now serving breakfast at 8:00am, the days of "pictures of an empty main street" are gone. Breakfast was great (puffed french toast), and Pooh was the first character that the baby really warmed up to--so we got some great pictures. Got in a few rides, but then the heat was finally just too much for the baby--so the wife took him to the baby care center to cool off and eat while I took the other three kids to ride. They too were feeling the effects of the heat--thank goodness for the free ice water! Of course at this point after Splash Mountain and BTMRR, the 8 year old thought anything slow-moving was boring. In fact, after we got off the Little Mermaid ride and I asked her what she thought she said "starts with a B, ends with a G". Like I said, the heat and humidity were killing us at this point. Mercifully we had a 1pm appointment for baby's first haircut at Harmony, so that was a nice diversion. A big snack and we were on our way to ride a couple more rides before the FoF parade. For some reason the parade was the highlight of my day...we managed to snag a good spot in Frontierland. Then it was off to the castle for our 3:50pm ADR at Cinderella's Royal Table, which I recommend everyone do once and exactly once. We can say we checked that off the list, and the girls liked meeting the princesses...but our dining experience wasn't great. It didn't help that the baby was in full melt down mode at this point. So after the early dinner we hopped back on the monorail to the Poly and got some rest. Everyone (including mom and dad) got a much needed nap, and then we went back to watch the electrical parade and Wishes. Almost witnessed a fistfight in our area while waiting for Wishes...a dad took exception when a woman decided to encroach on the spot he'd been staking out for over 30 minutes. The happiest place on earth indeed! Anyway, seeing the fireworks there was even better than having seen it from the pool at the Poly the previous three nights. After the fireworks mom took the baby back to the room and I stayed at the MK with the kids for an uber-productive 90 minutes. With the heat and stroller no longer an issue, we crushed it. Did Buzz Lightyear, Astro Orbiter, people mover (the kids wanted to), Pirates, Aladdin's carpets, and talking Mickey.
Slept in Thursday and then returned for Day 2 of the Magic Kingdom. First we hit Enchanted Tales with Belle right before our lunch ADR at Be Our Guest. Lunch was fantastic...I had the roast beef sando and it was delicious. Even the kids liked the food...and they can be picky. Then we knocked out a couple of things before our reservation at the Pirate's League. The girls got mermaid makeovers and the boy got made into Jake. In terms of entertainment value, this was money well spent. But then once we were out and about the heat started kicking in again, and moving the children was like trying to move mules. Once the kids did Ariel's Grotto in their mermaid/Jake costumes, we decided it was time to quit for the day since we were going to spend a little time at MK on Saturday before getting on the road. First we got a quick bite and then tried to go play mini golf at Fantasia Gardens, but it was a 45 minute wait and we knew the kids wouldn't be patient enough for that...so we spent the evening back at the pool. I'm convinced that if we had let the kids plan this vacation that we wouldn't have even bought park tickets...it would have just been 7 days of the Poly pool.
Friday morning it was back to DHS for another Star Wars day. The 8 year old girl and 4 year old boy wanted to do Jedi Training Academy, so we got up very early and made our way to DHS at about 6:30am. In retrospect this was overkill, because we were first in line at the tapstiles. We got to see the stormtrooper pre-show (in fact we were right against the rope)...which was a big hit with the kids. Then we made our way to the JTA sign up in a very orderly fashion. Got our choice of show times and then went to do a couple of rides. After a few attractions (including Great Movie Ride, which 8 year old declared...you guessed it, BORING) we met up with mom, the 5 year old daughter, and the baby for breakfast at Hollywood & Vine. The younger kids loved the interaction with Sofia, Doc, Jake, and Handy Manny. Mom and dad loved the chocolate Kahlua sauce on the buffet--we tried it with multiple items. It goes great on pancakes, french toast sticks, and particularly tasty on Mickey waffles. Anyway, we had a much more successful DHS day than our first day. The wife did the D-Tech figure thing. She chose to be an x-wing pilot...I was hoping they'd have "Princess Leia in her slave metal bikini outfit" as an option, but much to my chagrin it was not. We let the kids make lightsabers and then crushed their dreams by having them sent back to the room. The 8yo and 4yo had a great time at JTA, and we periscoped their performance so that extended family could watch. The rest of the afternoon was spent watching the Star Wars: Rebels show (meh), complaining about having to walk to the attractions, me racking up a cool 250k points on TSMM while holding a baby, and then the Warwick Davis show--which was fantastic. I would try to make jokes about the "lift and squeeze" technique, but you just had to be there. Then it was back to the Poly for one more night at the pool. After the pool I took the kids to finally play mini golf while the wife got the baby down for the night and did most of the heavy lifting packing up our stuff to check out Saturday.
Finally our last morning came...and after getting everything loaded up and checked out, it was off to the Magic Kingdom for one last hurrah to get the remaining things we missed. The big prize for Saturday was meeting Anna and Elsa...we had fastpasses for them and so luckily we didn't have to wait two hours to meet them. Then we went through the main street shops for one last souvenir run, and we caught the monorail back to the Poly for one last mug refill and one more Dole Whip for the road.
We broke up the return drive into two days. And while I was a lot more rested when we got back home than when we arrived on Day 1, I'll say that I'd take the sleep deprivation to avoid all the complaining about how long the drive is from the kids.
To sum up, here's the advice I'd offer similarly sized families...
First, the trip there. We elected to drive in order to avoid the high airfare that comes with taking six people to Disney. It's about 10 hours of driving, and we decided to do it at night with the following thought process--the kids will sleep instead of being up and asking "how much longer?" a number of times into the quadruple digits. This worked perfectly except for one flaw--my wife couldn't get comfortable enough to sleep, and so my plan to swap drivers after our gas stop 7 hours into the trip didn't work out. So I ended up driving the whole way--which means I arrived on property at around 8:00am with no sleep except for the two hour nap I had the previous afternoon. The wife ended up only getting about 2-3 hours of sleep along the way, so she was pretty tired as well.
First day there was Sunday 5/24--went straight to DHS for Star Wars Weekends. We started out doing the Disney Jr show and then meeting Hiro and Baymax...great so far except for the fact that the baby was a little fussy at this point. As we walked from place to place the kids alternated between being incapable to keep up and then running to try to be "first"--this was a recurring theme throughout the week. And this, when mixed with sleep deprived parents and massive crowds, is a dangerous cocktail. I probably looked like a madman yelling at the kids when they wouldn't listen...but then I managed to get a power nap in the Frozen Sing-along, and I felt a little better. Mercifully around this time we got the text letting us know that our room at the Polynesian was ready...so we returned to the van and drove to the Poly.
If you want a full review of our stay at the Poly, look under the Resorts forum. We couldn't have been happier with our stay at the Poly because we got exactly the room we wanted and the place was super nice...but our arrival was a little bit of a challenge. First, in my sleep deprived state I goofed up the navigation to the resort...there really should be better signs that let noobs like me know that I need to be in the right hand lanes at the Magic Kingdom parking gate in order to get to the resorts. Finally straightened that out, pulled up to the front of the Polynesian like I owned the place, and dropped off the luggage with bell services. Then I told the family to go ahead and check out the lobby while I parked the van. Little did I know that I wouldn't see them again for literally 30 minutes! That's how long it took for me to circle the parking lot like a shark until I found someone walking to their car, at which point I sheepishly asked if they were leaving and they confirmed that they were about to clear out a space. Finally I get parked, and although I'm not the complaining type I go straight to the concierge and tell him "listen...I don't want to fuss at someone who isn't supposed to be fussed at, so please get me the appropriate fuss-ee". He chuckled and asked how he could help...and I explained that I felt like 30 minutes of our vacation had been robbed from us because I had to circle the lot looking for a space like I was back in college or something. The man was very apologetic and gave us extra fastpasses to makeup for the lost time. Luckily I didn't have the same parking problem again that week, so I guess it just hit at the wrong time. We got checked in, found lunch, did the pool, rested, and then returned to DHS for the evening. Other than the kids refusing to walk at an appropriate pace, the rest of the evening went pretty smoothly--including a nice dinner a Rebel Hangar.
Monday was a much better day. We got to Epcot for rope drop and executed our touring plan to perfection. Despite big crowds, we moved from place to place like seasoned pros. I looked like a hero when we got to the Japan pavilion...because not only did we surprise the girls with pick-a-pearl, but we had also already bought cages for them to wear their pearls. The girls had good luck with their pearls...one got a monster 8.5mm white pearl, and the other got a beautiful silver pearl. The pearl lady acted like the silver was a pretty rare color and made a big deal out of it...I'm pretty sure this was just to make my daughter feel special about it, but it worked. The kids also got to meet Garrett Clayton (Tanner from Teen Beach Movie) who just happened to be in the shops in the Morocco pavilion. Our only faux-pas for the day was attempting to do Agent P...in my opinion it's better suited for ages 10-13 or so. Our kids didn't really understand what was going on and definitely weren't willing to put in the physical effort required to go looking for all these things. So after one mission we turned the phone back in. Scored some delicious eats from France and Germany, and had a wonderful dinner at Garden Grill.
Tuesday was Animal Kingdom...and the worst day of the trip. We had breakfast at 'Ohana (which was good but not great), so we got to the park around 10:30am. Big mistake not to be there at rope drop. Not only was it the hottest day of the week, but AK just isn't set up for big crowds. Credit me with another tactical error in having our first ride be Expedition Everest. I just made FP's for myself and the 8 year old daughter, because I knew we could ride swap to allow my wife to ride and none of the other kids were tall enough to ride. The daughter's favorite ride at Epcot was Test Track, so I didn't think EE would be a problem for her...turns out that the therapy bills I'll be paying to deal with the trauma she experienced on that ride will probably mean I won't have the money for another Disney vacation anytime soon. She was scared to death of that ride. Our ride photo is a terrified 8 year old with a panicked look on her face grabbing onto her dad as tightly as she can...and that pretty much set the tone for the day. I like all the work they're doing on AK including the Harambe Market, but it just wasn't our day--and sometimes you just have to know when to punt. We left early, got some dinner, and then went back to hang out in the pool the rest of the night.
Wednesday was Magic Kingdom Day 1. We had an 8:00am ADR at Crystal Palace on a 9:00am open day, so it was neat getting into the park before it was officially open. But with three places now serving breakfast at 8:00am, the days of "pictures of an empty main street" are gone. Breakfast was great (puffed french toast), and Pooh was the first character that the baby really warmed up to--so we got some great pictures. Got in a few rides, but then the heat was finally just too much for the baby--so the wife took him to the baby care center to cool off and eat while I took the other three kids to ride. They too were feeling the effects of the heat--thank goodness for the free ice water! Of course at this point after Splash Mountain and BTMRR, the 8 year old thought anything slow-moving was boring. In fact, after we got off the Little Mermaid ride and I asked her what she thought she said "starts with a B, ends with a G". Like I said, the heat and humidity were killing us at this point. Mercifully we had a 1pm appointment for baby's first haircut at Harmony, so that was a nice diversion. A big snack and we were on our way to ride a couple more rides before the FoF parade. For some reason the parade was the highlight of my day...we managed to snag a good spot in Frontierland. Then it was off to the castle for our 3:50pm ADR at Cinderella's Royal Table, which I recommend everyone do once and exactly once. We can say we checked that off the list, and the girls liked meeting the princesses...but our dining experience wasn't great. It didn't help that the baby was in full melt down mode at this point. So after the early dinner we hopped back on the monorail to the Poly and got some rest. Everyone (including mom and dad) got a much needed nap, and then we went back to watch the electrical parade and Wishes. Almost witnessed a fistfight in our area while waiting for Wishes...a dad took exception when a woman decided to encroach on the spot he'd been staking out for over 30 minutes. The happiest place on earth indeed! Anyway, seeing the fireworks there was even better than having seen it from the pool at the Poly the previous three nights. After the fireworks mom took the baby back to the room and I stayed at the MK with the kids for an uber-productive 90 minutes. With the heat and stroller no longer an issue, we crushed it. Did Buzz Lightyear, Astro Orbiter, people mover (the kids wanted to), Pirates, Aladdin's carpets, and talking Mickey.
Slept in Thursday and then returned for Day 2 of the Magic Kingdom. First we hit Enchanted Tales with Belle right before our lunch ADR at Be Our Guest. Lunch was fantastic...I had the roast beef sando and it was delicious. Even the kids liked the food...and they can be picky. Then we knocked out a couple of things before our reservation at the Pirate's League. The girls got mermaid makeovers and the boy got made into Jake. In terms of entertainment value, this was money well spent. But then once we were out and about the heat started kicking in again, and moving the children was like trying to move mules. Once the kids did Ariel's Grotto in their mermaid/Jake costumes, we decided it was time to quit for the day since we were going to spend a little time at MK on Saturday before getting on the road. First we got a quick bite and then tried to go play mini golf at Fantasia Gardens, but it was a 45 minute wait and we knew the kids wouldn't be patient enough for that...so we spent the evening back at the pool. I'm convinced that if we had let the kids plan this vacation that we wouldn't have even bought park tickets...it would have just been 7 days of the Poly pool.
Friday morning it was back to DHS for another Star Wars day. The 8 year old girl and 4 year old boy wanted to do Jedi Training Academy, so we got up very early and made our way to DHS at about 6:30am. In retrospect this was overkill, because we were first in line at the tapstiles. We got to see the stormtrooper pre-show (in fact we were right against the rope)...which was a big hit with the kids. Then we made our way to the JTA sign up in a very orderly fashion. Got our choice of show times and then went to do a couple of rides. After a few attractions (including Great Movie Ride, which 8 year old declared...you guessed it, BORING) we met up with mom, the 5 year old daughter, and the baby for breakfast at Hollywood & Vine. The younger kids loved the interaction with Sofia, Doc, Jake, and Handy Manny. Mom and dad loved the chocolate Kahlua sauce on the buffet--we tried it with multiple items. It goes great on pancakes, french toast sticks, and particularly tasty on Mickey waffles. Anyway, we had a much more successful DHS day than our first day. The wife did the D-Tech figure thing. She chose to be an x-wing pilot...I was hoping they'd have "Princess Leia in her slave metal bikini outfit" as an option, but much to my chagrin it was not. We let the kids make lightsabers and then crushed their dreams by having them sent back to the room. The 8yo and 4yo had a great time at JTA, and we periscoped their performance so that extended family could watch. The rest of the afternoon was spent watching the Star Wars: Rebels show (meh), complaining about having to walk to the attractions, me racking up a cool 250k points on TSMM while holding a baby, and then the Warwick Davis show--which was fantastic. I would try to make jokes about the "lift and squeeze" technique, but you just had to be there. Then it was back to the Poly for one more night at the pool. After the pool I took the kids to finally play mini golf while the wife got the baby down for the night and did most of the heavy lifting packing up our stuff to check out Saturday.
Finally our last morning came...and after getting everything loaded up and checked out, it was off to the Magic Kingdom for one last hurrah to get the remaining things we missed. The big prize for Saturday was meeting Anna and Elsa...we had fastpasses for them and so luckily we didn't have to wait two hours to meet them. Then we went through the main street shops for one last souvenir run, and we caught the monorail back to the Poly for one last mug refill and one more Dole Whip for the road.
We broke up the return drive into two days. And while I was a lot more rested when we got back home than when we arrived on Day 1, I'll say that I'd take the sleep deprivation to avoid all the complaining about how long the drive is from the kids.
To sum up, here's the advice I'd offer similarly sized families...
- If you plan to spend multiple days at MK and if there's any way you can afford it, stay at one of the monorail resorts. It was so convenient hopping on the monorail without having to fold a stroller or try to find enough seats for all of us on a bus. Plus those resorts all have very nice pool areas, which leads me to my next recommendation...
- Budget plenty of pool playtime. Despite all the fun stuff at the parks, I really believe that the pool was the highlight for the kids.
- HYDRATE! Even if you're from the south like we are and you think you're used to the heat and humidity, chances are that you're not used to spending hours at a time out there. We made this mistake the first day but then learned our lesson. Take advantage of the free ice water from anywhere they sell fountain drinks. Take a Tervis water bottle filled with ice and keep making everyone drink.
- Know your kids' eating habits and plan accordingly. We tried to "do it big" and scheduled ADR's at some of the more popular places, but it wasn't what the kids liked and so they didn't eat very well at times. One of the best meals they had was Friday afternoon at Pizza Planet...and it also happened to be one of the cheapest.
- Try to go at a time of year when the weather isn't so hot. I know for school aged children this isn't always convenient unless you want to go at Spring/Fall break or Christmas, all of which are heavy crowd times. But if you can make it work then it might reduce the hardship on the kids in terms of heat.
- If you can manage it at all, rope drop is key. Bite the bullet, get up early, stay for a while, and then go back for a mid-day nap to prepare for another run in the evening when it's cooler. Unfortunately my wife is about as far from a morning person as you'll find, so we only managed to do this a couple of days. Not coincidentally, those were our most productive days.
- Wait until your kids can get around without a stroller before you go. Obviously for us with the baby we had to have a stroller...and dealing with it is a real pain. We moved so much better during those periods where mom took the baby and it was just me and the three bigger kids. That brings me to another recommendation...
- If you can, leave the baby behind with grandparents. I know that you want the whole family to experience Disney together, but I promise you that a one year old will not remember anything about it. I love my little baby boy, but our trip would have been much more productive it he had spent a week with Nana instead. Especially in the heat--we went to a lot of effort to try to keep him as cool and hydrated as possible, and there were still times when he was obviously miserable.
