Best of Disney World With Preschoolers

Posted by Caitlin - Be the first to comment

The 2-5 year old age bracket has spoken, and these are their favorite experiences at Walt Disney World! If you’re planning on doing Disney World with preschoolers, here are the attractions and experiences you can’t miss.

Download the free printable checklist to make sure you hit them all!

None of these has a height limitation that would preclude a preschooler, nor are they potentially frightening for small children. (For a guide to all the height restrictions and potentially scary rides in Disney World, read this post.)

Magic Kingdom

It’s no surprise that the majority of preschoolers’ favorites are at Magic Kingdom. This is the park that has the most rides in general and by far the most for small children to do. If you’re planning a 5 day trip, I would recommend doing 2 Magic Kingdom days and 1 day at each of the other parks.

Town Square Mickey

Aka Talking Mickey! Meeting characters is a huge source of excitement for most preschoolers, and the main mouse tends to draw the most excitement of all. Of all the places to meet Mickey, this one is not to be missed because he’s the only one that talks! He will greet your child, ask them questions and even tell jokes.

Prince Charming’s Regal Carrousel

After walking through Cinderella’s castle, you will see every child’s eyes light up when they see the carousel. In fact, if you are rushing to another attraction you should probably take a different route to avoid walking by the carousel. If you walk by it, your kid is going to want to ride it right then!

Dumbo

It doesn’t matter that today’s tykes most likely have never seen the movie. They will still want to take a spin on the classic flying elephant! An added perk is that you don’t have to wait in line. When you enter the queue you will be handed a paging device which you hold onto while you relax/play in the air conditioned play area. While parents cool off and sit down to rest their legs, the little ones will love running and climbing.

Festival of Fantasy parade

A catchy song, dancers, all their favorite characters, and a fire breathing dragon? What’s not to like? Tip: keep kids under a sun-shaded stroller if you have a stroller. Most of the viewing areas are in direct sunlight and that pavement will cook you. Grab a spot and then send one parent to get them an ice cream and some ice water. It will help the wait go by and keep the kids cool.

Casey Jr. Splash and Soak

Speaking of keeping cool, if you’re visiting during one of the 9 months of the year when it’s hot at WDW, pack a change of clothes and let the kids get soaked at the Casey Jr. splash pad.

It’s A Small World

Disney Scrooges hold your tongue. The little ones truly enjoy this ride, and to them the song is fun, not annoying.

Walt Disney World Railroad

They say Walt himself was a lover of trains and that is why there are so many train-themed attractions in Disney World. Preschoolers may be too small or too scared to ride Seven Dwarfs Mine Train or Big Thunder, but they can certainly enjoy the quaint train ride that circles all of Magic Kingdom. BONUS: Use the train to get from one side of the park to the other if your need to rest your legs and take a break!

Under the Sea: Journey of the Little Mermaid

Ariel fans will be captivated by this mini journey through the movie, taking you virtually under the sea and through all the major scenes from the movie. My 5 year old son was afraid of the larger-than-life Ursula, but I don’t expect most kids have that reaction.

Enchanted Tales with Belle

This one is a bit of a time commitment, so plan accordingly! It is well worth it to work it into your touring schedule. Disney magic transports you to the day Belle met the Beast in a way that leaves even adults wondering “how did they do that?” Many small children will get a role in the re-enactment that follows, putting them into the heart of the story.

Peter Pan’s Flight

The line is almost always long for this popular ride, so get to it first thing in the morning or better yet book a Fastpass! Kids love the sensation of flying when the pirate ship you boarded moves by suspension from the ceiling.

Tomorrowland Speedway

It kind of kills me to put this one on here, because it’s truly one of my least favorite Disney rides. The smell, the heat, the old cars that barely move… it’s pretty awful for adults. But this is about the preschool crowd and unfortunately they LOVE it. It’s every small child’s fantasy to drive a car and they manage to see past all its faults and enjoy this attraction.

Epcot

Frozen Ever After

Disney knew what it was doing by bringing Frozen to Epcot. Any parents who were considering skipping this park, which is known for lacking “kid appeal”, are now making a beeline for it so their little Frozen fans can ride this.

Meet Anna and Elsa at Royal Summerhaus

Piggybacking off of the Frozen ride, you will also find Anna and Elsa’s meet and greet at Epcot. My son (the same one who was terrified of Ursula) was afraid that Elsa would “blast him with her ice powers” but I’m pretty sure every other preschooler is delighted to meet the Frozen duo.

The Seas with Nemo and friends

Similar to the Little Mermaid ride at Magic Kingdom, Epcot has the Finding Nemo ride that makes you feel like you’re going under the sea. The building that houses this attraction has a fun little aquarium for kids to explore so plan to spend some time there.

Turtle Talk with Crush

Another attraction in the Seas building is this interactive experience with talking Crush, the hippie turtle from Finding Nemo. It’s really impressive to see how he actually responds to what the kids say, and he’s hilarious too. Another great example of Disney magic at work.

Hollywood Studios

Frozen Sing Along

Just in case your kiddos didn’t get their Frozen fix at Epcot, there’s the Frozen sing along at Hollywood Studios. Kids love the show, which will have everyone joining in to sing. Have you ever heard of this little tune… what’s it called again?… Let It Go?

Disney Junior Live on Stage

This is a can’t-miss show for preschoolers. Join Mickey, Sophia, Jake, and Doc McStuffins in a live stage show with all their hit songs and plenty of surprises like bubbles and gold doubloons falling from the ceiling.

Toy Story Midway Mania

An all-around fun ride for young and old alike! Put on your 3D glasses and get spun around to a series of midway shooting-style games with all the Toy Story characters. You will want a Fastpass for this one as it’s very popular. Heads up: There will surely be other preschool favorites coming to Hollywood Studios soon with the addition of Toy Story Land, coming in the summer of 2018!

Animal Kingdom

Nope, it’s not a zoo. It’s definitely a theme park (and it’s my husband’s favorite!)

The Boneyard

Make sure to take the little ones over to Dinoland USA to let them burn off some energy at the Boneyard, a very cool themed play area. In addition to running and climbing, kids can be mini paleontologists by digging up dinosaur remains with their shovel and pail. Do this one early before it heats up too much to be enjoyable.

The Festival of the Lion King

Don’t miss this captivating show with amazing costumes, music, and talented acrobats. It’s definitely a highlight of Animal Kingdom for the younger set who isn’t quite thrilled by the World of Avatar yet.

Kilimanjaro Sarafis

While Animal Kingdom isn’t a zoo, it does have animals. Board your jeep and drive through the terrain on this safari to see animals “on the loose” in their habitats (there are invisible enclosures). The giraffes, elephants, and lions were the highlight for my kids.

In addition to these 20, all ages will enjoy these 5 underrated Disney attractions

These are family favorites that you won’t find on every must-see Disney list.

Plus, 2 can’t miss bonus experiences

Schedule some time at your hotel pool!

Parents might cringe at this, but when you ask a preschooler what their favorite part of the Disney World was, most often their answer is the hotel pool! Make sure to take breaks from the parks and let the kids go for a swim. All the Disney resorts have life jackets in various sizes that the kids can use.

And lastly, book a character meal!

There are so many great ones to choose from, I can’t recommend just one. Cinderella’s Royal Table or Akershus if you have princess fans, Chef Mickey’s or Tusker House if you want the classic Mickey characters, Crystal Palace for Winnie the Pooh and the gang… I could go on and on. Just pick one (or more than one) and book it. It’s a great way to get to meet multiple characters without waiting lines, and a fun way to eat a meal if your kids need some entertainment to enjoy a restaurant. Win-win.

If you’re planning to do Disney World with preschoolers, print this checklist to make sure you hit all the attractions they are sure to love!

Click here to download and print!

Thu
08 ^th

How To Fly For Practically Nothing

Posted by Caitlin - 1 Comment

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links, meaning if you click my link I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you.

As I promised in my post about Easy Frugal Tips for Moms, here is the little trick I use to get flights for my family for almost nothing on Southwest. Of course I choose to use these flights for trips to Disney, but you could fly anywhere Southwest flies using this method.

I first heard about this when I was Googling how to get Southwest Companion pass (more on that later) and landed on a website called The Points Guy. He is basically a professional credit card churner, meaning he leverages credit card sign on bonuses to accumulate airline miles and cash.

The Points Guy had a post about Southwest’s Rapid Rewards Plus Credit card by Chase. You apply for the card, use it to make $2,000 worth of purchases in the first three months, and you are rewarded with 50,000 bonus miles to buy flights on Southwest.

I had never been one to sign up for credit cards before, as I had been raised to believe that credit cards are the gateway to debt and will get you into big trouble. In fact I think my husband and I had one or two that we regularly used and never applied for any others. We always used our credit cards responsibly, paying the full balance every month and this helped us achieve healthy credit scores.

How we did it

At this point I realized that my healthy credit score meant it was completely safe to apply for a couple credit cards and reap the rewards of the sign on bonus.

Given that we were planning a Disney trip, it wasn’t hard at all to put $2,000 on the Southwest credit card the first month it arrived, and I was overjoyed when the 50,000 bonus miles hit my account. A roundtrip flight to Orlando costs about 15,000 points, so that meant 3 of us were already covered!

Next, I had my husband repeat the same process so we could get another 50,000 bonus points and cover the other members of our family. We paid off both of cards that same month and then never used them again after that.

Ok so are these flights totally free or practically free?

Like I mentioned in the title, these flights are not COMPLETELY free. Each card has an annual fee of $79 that can not be waived and it is charged in the first month you receive the card.

The only other fee is the mandatory $5.50 September 11th security fee that can not be waived on any domestic flights.

So in total for our six roundtrip flights, we paid:

$79 x 2 cards = $158
$5.50 x 6 people x 2= $66
Total cost: $224

Considering the flights would have cost $275 per person for the trip, we saved $1,426!

Check my math:

$275 x 6 = $1650

$1650 – $224 = $1426

And, we still had points leftover after all of us flew so there’s an additional value there.

how to fly — Who’s ready to fly to Disney???

Southwest Rapid Rewards FAQs

Does Southwest have blackout dates or other restrictions on redeeming the points?

NOPE! This is one thing I love about Southwest. The points are used the exact same as cash when booking flights. If there is a seat on the flight for purchase, you can book it with points.

Southwest is also fantastic about cancelling or rescheduling flights if you need to. You can cancel and rebook another flight anytime without any fee or penalty. It seriously could not be easier! And (I have done this!) if the cost of a flight goes down after you’ve already booked it, they allow you to re-book it for the cheaper price.

Who is a good candidate for this card and who is not?

I would never recommend this (or any) credit card to someone who is already struggling with credit card debt. Only use the card if you have $2,000 worth of purchases to put on it that you are going to make anyway. And that you will be able to pay in full when the bill comes.

Also, your application will be rejected if you have applied for too many credit cards in a short period of time. The rule of thumb is “5/24”, meaning you can not apply for more than 5 credit cards in the last 24 months.

Doesn’t applying for more credit cards damage your credit score?

Having more credit cards only hurts your credit score if you’re carrying an outstanding balance. If you pay your bills on time, adding another credit card actually helps your credit score. This is because it increases your available credit, improving your debt-to-credit ratio.

Are you penalized for cancelling the card later?

Your points will not be revoked after they are awarded, even if you cancel the card. Your only requirement is to spend $2,000 in the first 3 months after applying for the card. After that, you are under no obligation.

For the same reason as above, it is better for your credit not to cancel cards. Since this card has an annual fee however, I do close it before the one year mark to avoid paying the fee on a card I don’t really use.

What about Companion Pass?

So the process outlined above was:

I get a card and get 50,000 points
Husband gets a card and we get another 50,000 points
We end up with 100,000 points to use for our family’s flights

which worked great and we were very happy. But if we had known about Companion Pass at the time we could have made it even more amazing. You can bet this is exactly what I did the second time around!

If the SAME person accumulates all 100,000 miles (so just me, or just him), then you qualify for one of the best perks the airline industry has to offer: Companion Pass. This means for the rest of the calendar year AND the entire following year, anytime you fly you get to bring someone else along completely free. Think of how many trips you can take in that amount of time- there is no limit to how much you can use this!

On our second go around, we knew that one of us alone had to accrue all 100,000 miles. The way to achieve this is by getting two credit cards, but they have to be different cards. In addition to the Rapid Rewards Plus credit card, Southwest also has one called the Rapid Rewards Premier credit card, and they have a business credit card. I went with the business credit card since it offered an even higher bonus of 60,000 miles.

(These bonuses are offered periodically throughout the year and they fluctuate in the amount, so definitely hold out and wait for a good one. You want 50,000 points or higher! If you apply for the Plus card through my link you will get the 50,000 point bonus anytime.)

If you’re thinking about getting the business card saying “but wait, I don’t have a business”, I’d tell you to think a little harder. For example, I got the business credit card because of this blog. Do you have a website? It doesn’t even need to be profitable. Doing childcare or teaching piano lessons count as a business, as does eBay or Etsy sales.

When all 110,000 miles posted to my account and I got the “Congratulations, you’ve earned Southwest Companion Pass” email in my inbox, it felt like Christmas morning!

How To Fly With Companion Pass

After you’re done with your happy dance, you can go ahead and start booking flights with Companion Pass.

First, book your flight for just yourself using either cash or points.

Next, go to My Travel and click “Add Companion”. It then automatically books your companion on the same flight as you, and the only thing you will pay is the $5.50 9/11 security fee.

Any questions about Southwest Rapid Rewards credit cards or how to earn Companion Pass?

Ask in the comments and I will do my best to help you out!

Fri
05 ^th

6 Fun Ways to Get Excited for Your Disney Vacation

Posted by Caitlin - 7 Comments

If you’re planning a vacation to Walt Disney World, it can seem like the days are crawling by. How can you pass the long months before your trip AND get excited for your Disney vacation? Here are 6 awesome ways you and the kids can get in the Disney spirit and get pumped for your big trip!

Disclosure: We may earn money or products from the companies or links mentioned in this post. All opinions are my own.

1. Movie party nights

Sure, your kids have seen Frozen 8,000 times, but have they seen all the Disney movies that are represented in the parks? Beauty and the Beast, Peter Pan, The Little Mermaid, Cinderella, Winnie the Pooh, Snow White and the 7 Dwarfs, Lilo and Stick, and Monsters Inc are featured at the Magic Kingdom. Finding Nemo has its own ride at Epcot and a show at Animal Kingdom. Toy Story and the Star Wars movies are huge at Hollywood Studios. If your kids are old enough to handle PG-13 movies, watching Avatar would help them appreciate all the immersive theming in Animal Kingdom’s Pandora- the World of Avatar.

There are also character appearances from some of the older movies that your children may be less familiar with, like Mary Poppins, the Jungle Book, and the Aristocats.

With so many movies in the queue to watch, it is easy to pick a lineup and start a weekly (or biweekly) family movie party!

Make a snack or craft relating to the movie, and watch it all together as a family. Here are some great ideas to get you started:

Lady and the Tramp Spaghetti and Meatball Cupcakes

Beauty and the Beast Family Movie Night Games and Snacks

DIY Finding Dory Sensory Bag

2. Mickey Mail

Did you know you can have mail sent to your child from Disney World for free?

Our friends at Jones Family Travels will mail you a character autograph from Main Street, USA in Magic Kingdom! All you have to do it send them a stamped envelope with your child’s name and address on the front. Your child will love finding their own piece of mail straight from Disney.

For more details on how to receive your own Mickey Mail, click here!

3. Countdown Chain

The passing of time is a pretty abstract concept for small children, and they may not be able to understand the concept of a vacation that’s in the future. A physical object representing the number of days can help.

One easy way to do this is build a paper chain with each link representing a day until your trip begins. Each day that goes by, have the child rip off one link. This way they can see the chain getting smaller and understand that the trip is getting closer.

4. Park maps and Disney planning DVD

A few years ago, Disney used to send you huge fold up color maps of each park. My kids loved those maps and studied them like they were being tested on them. Sadly, Disney has since stopped sending physical maps and replaced them with online interactive maps. Kids might still enjoy the online maps, but if you want a physical paper map you will have to do some googling and printing.

Luckily Disney does still send free copies of their planning DVD, which you can request here. The DVD if pretty commercial-y and not very specific, but it could definitely generate some excitement for kids who only have a very general idea of what Disney World is.

5. Books with pics (or Youtube)

The more familiar the kids are with the specifics of the trip, the more excited they will be. Show them pictures of the resort you’ll be staying at, restaurants you’ll be eating at, and attractions you’ll ride. Birnbaum’s makes an awesome book for kids with lots of photographs of the characters and rides. It is fairly easy to read and includes cute snippets of kids discussing what they liked and disliked.

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Watching ride videos on YouTube (look for POV or “point of view” videos) is another way to get the family super pumped for their upcoming thrills. These videos give a good sense of what it feels like to be on the ride. An added benefit to YouTube videos is you can gauge if young children will be afraid of an attraction.

6. Coin jar

Even if your trip is years away, kids can begin collecting change in a large coin jar. This a good exercise in learning about saving over time for a big expense, and kids will feel that they are contributing to the cause. Even better if the kids use their own change earned by doing chores instead of just throwing in Mom and Dad’s lose change!

get excited for your Disney vacation — Kids will love turning their change into Disney dollars

When the vacation finally gets close, take the coin jar to your local credit union to redeem it for cash or check. Then use that money to get each kid a Disney gift card for their spending money in Disney World!

Kids will love having their own “Disney money”. The kids can buy what they want for souvenirs with it, and no whining to buy more stuff because when it’s gone, it’s gone.

How many days are there until YOUR Disney trip?

No matter how close or far, NOW is the time to get excited for your Disney vacation!

Mon
27 ^th

Planning Your First Disney Cruise

Posted by Caitlin - 2 Comments

The big buzz in our Disney-crazed family lately is, we have booked our first Disney cruise! In the spring we will be boarding the Disney Magic for a 5-night Caribbean cruise, and our excitement is through roof! Since I’m all about everything Disney cruise right now, I thought I’d write a quick guide for planning your first Disney cruise.

Why a cruise?

We absolutely love our Walt Disney World vacations, and I’ve written about planning them before. As much fun as Disney World is, it isn’t a relaxing vacation by any stretch of the imagination. There are fast passes and reservations, tight timelines, touring plans, and miles and miles of walking the parks each day. A Disney cruise offers that same magical feel but with a slower, more relaxed pace. And of course, they still cater to kids!

What makes Disney Cruise Line unique

My kids and I love Disney, so choosing Disney cruise line was a no brainer for us. Being able to meet characters, see Disney-themed shows, and fireworks at sea were big draws for us. But the number one factor was the amazing kids clubs they have on board, included in your fare for kids ages 3 and up.

Elaborately themed spaces include Tinkerbelle’s Pixie Hollow, Toy Story’s Andys’ room, and Marvel’s Avenger Academy. The kids clubs offer activities like cooking classes, animation classes, arts and crafts, dress up, games, electronics and more. My children can’t wait to experience the kids clubs for as much time as they want to during our cruise, and my husband and I are thrilled to get a little adult time on the ship.

Zari can’t wait to find his superhero powers with Captain America! Photo credit: Disney Parks

For little ones under 3, there is the It’s A Small World Nursery, where you can leave your baby at pre-arranged times for an hourly fee ($9/hour at the time I’m writing this!).

Choosing which cruise

When trying to choose which cruise to book, you will likely spend a lot of time searching the different itineraries on https://disneycruise.disney.go.com. Search by date, length of the cruise, port, or destination depending on what your constraints are. You can even narrow it down by which of the four ships you prefer. Then browse the search results and compare prices. The common advice is to book as far in advance as possible, because the price will only go up. The exception to this is that they sometimes have last-minute sales a few weeks in advance of a cruise to fill up any empty rooms, but it’s a gamble and you can’t count on this.

Our search took us right to a Caribbean cruise because it is super convenient for us to fly to Florida, which left Port Canaveral or Miami as our possible ports of departure. From there, I narrowed it down to spring time which is when we wanted to travel. My only other “must” was that it HAD to include a stop at Castaway Cay (Disney’s private island) which is the kind of paradise dreams are made of.

Family size considerations

An important note for families with more than 2 kids- you will likely need to book two rooms to take your whole family on a cruise. The majority of rooms are only fit 4 people. (And unlike Disney resort hotels, 4 people does NOT mean 4 people plus a baby in a pack n play on Disney Cruise Line.) There are some suites that can hold more, but those get booked quickly and are very expensive. It usually works out to be more cost effective to book two rooms. You can request that they be adjoining, so there is a door to go between the two rooms without having to go into the hall.

Building excitement for the cruise

Just like I’ve done with Disney World attractions, I love to show my kids video clips of Disney cruises so they’ll know what to expect when they’re on board. These also get them SO excited to go! My kids love watching cruise videos that show other kids that they can follow along with and get to know. For example they love watching Jones Family Travels:

During the holidays/birthdays leading up to the trip, I also love to give gifts related to the trip. Disney shirts, autograph books, costumes, and travel toys are all useful gifts to get them ready for the cruise. My kids are also getting their own piece of rolling luggage so they can help haul all our stuff during the journey.

What we are looking forward to most

After all this research, planning, and YouTube watching, here is what we are the most excited about!

KIDS:

Kids clubs (all)
Meeting Anna and Elsa and the other princesses (Elle)
Disney Junior dance party (Luca)
Eating soft serve ice cream by the pool without having to pay and ordering room service without having to pay (Tiana)
Water slides (Zari)

PARENTS:

Brunch or dinner at the adults-only restaurant Palo (the main dining rooms are all included in the price of the cruise, but this one does have a $30 per person upcharge. Well worth it based on the amazing reviews I’ve read and the fact that there won’t be any kids present!)
Enjoying the adults-only areas of the ship when the kids are at kids clubs (noticing a trend here?)
Mailing a letter from Castaway Cay
Surprising my girls with makeovers from Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique
The night time shows and entertainment
Getting the whole family dressed up for Pirate Night and watching the fireworks at sea
Port excursions! Haven’t even delved into these much yet but I’m excited about the possibilities
Enjoying a week of family time that can be as busy or as relaxed as we want

You can bet you’ll be hearing more about Disney Cruises as our date approaches!

For those who have been on one before, what advice would you give about planning your first Disney cruise?

If you haven’t been, what else would you like to know about Disney cruise planning?

Answer in the comments!

Tue
14 ^th

Disney Trip Day 1: Animal Kingdom (including Pandora- The World of Avatar)

Posted by Caitlin - Be the first to comment

For those who have been following, you know about the mother-daughter trip to Disney Tiana and I took in October. This is the trip report of our first day, which included traveling to Orlando, checking in to Saratoga Springs, and spending the rest of the day at Animal Kingdom. (Spoiler alert: we made it on both of the new rides in Pandora- the World of Avatar.)

Pre-trip planning

Since this was a special one on one trip for my daughter, I let her make a lot of the decisions in the planning. We only had three days, so I told her to pick three parks. Her original choices were Magic Kingdom for the Halloween party, Hollywood Studios, and Epcot.

As everyone who has planned a trip to Disney World knows, a lot of advanced planning goes into these trips. So I was a little thrown off when one day Tiana saw a commercial featuring Pandora- The World of Avatar and wanted to change our plans to include a day at Animal Kingdom! I rolled with it as best I could and set to out get us Fast Passes for at least one of the two Avatar rides.

We both REALLY wanted to get a Fast Pass+ for Flight of Passage, having heard all the hype. I knew the standby lines were in excess of 3 hours so the only way we’d get to ride it would be with FP. Of course when I logged in at the 60 day mark, there were none available. I did get one for Na’vi River Journey, but I was definitely bummed that we didn’t get our first choice.

I thought about changing our plans back to Epcot once again. Then I remembered a time I had been in a similar FP conundrum before. A few years ago when people were waiting all day to meet Anna and Elsa at Princess Fairytale Hall, Fast Passes were nearly impossible to get. I got in the habit of checking every day at different random times just in case anyone decided to let theirs go. About a week before the trip at 6am, I got one. I think the was the closest I’ve ever felt to winning the lottery!

Once again we were pixie dusted by the Fast Pass gods because a couple weeks before our trip I happened to check for Flight of Passage Fast Passes for our Animal Kingdom day and there they were. Tons of time slots magically opened up, indicating Disney had released a whole batch of new FPs. I really didn’t care about why, I was just so happy to know that we’d just scored the hottest ticket in town.

Travel

Our travel day started early, as we had to leave our house at 6am. Both of us were so excited about the trip that waking up early was no problem. It was too early for any traffic so it was smooth sailing to the airport.

Tiana was using her own piece of rolling luggage for the first time so she was enjoying feeling like a big person.

The flight was three hours of peace and quiet like we never get at home with the three younger kids. We both enjoyed our books and Tiana enjoyed coloring with some scented markers I had picked up for the flight.

Soon enough the plane landed and we made our way to Magical Express. The only noteworthy tidbit about this part of the journey is that we stopped to use the restroom and there was an ENORMOUS cockroach in one of the stalls. It scared Tiana so much that she’s basically sworn off using any airport bathrooms for the rest of her life.

There was no wait at all for our Magical Express and we arrived at Saratoga Springs before lunch time.

Checking in to Saratoga Springs

Arriving at our resort wasn’t quite as smooth as other Disney resort check ins I’ve had in the past. We had received a text that our room was not quite ready yet, so I thought we’d just leave our bags and get to the park. But we weren’t appropriately dressed for 80 degree Florida weather, so dropping our bags and running wasn’t exactly an option.

In addition to changing clothes, I also had to rearrange a lot of our stuff to turn our backpack full of flight entertainment into a park bag. Bell Services is right next to the entrance to the very busy lobby so opening my bags right there with people passing by was not very pleasant.

In the middle of all that, my phone buzzed and I saw that our room was now in fact ready. I quickly abandoned my bag re-packing mission to head to our room. A cast member pointed us in the direction of our room so we had a vague idea where we were going.

It ended up being a bit of a hike to our room, plus we got lost on the way there which made it even longer. I was feeling a little annoyed that the Cast Member hadn’t offered to help us with our luggage knowing how far the room was. The joy of carrying her own luggage had definitely worn off for Tiana by now.

I snapped this pic just before we went the wrong way and got totally lost:

Eventually some kind soul helped us and we got to our room. We changed and freshened up a little, packed our park bag and hopped on the bus to Animal Kingdom.

Finally at Animal Kingdom!

I am infamous for taking crappy cell phone pictures, but HOW did I not notice that the “m” was cut off from Animal Kingdom in this photo???

We had some time to spare before our first FP, so we happily explored the park and some of the animal exhibits. We both love just wandering this park and taking in the cool vibe and energy it has. One of Tiana’s dreams is to visit Africa one day so she especially loves hanging out in that part of the park.

Pretty soon it was time for our Expedition Everest Fast Pass. Tiana was nervous about this one! Even though she likes roller coasters, she isn’t into the scary elements and she doesn’t particularly like going backwards. She asked me if she HAD to ride it, and I told her no, she never has to ride anything. I did remind her though that this was our only day at Animal Kingdom and I wasn’t sure when we’d be back for another trip just to make sure she understood if we skip it she can’t change her mind tomorrow. She thought about it for a couple minutes and decided to give it a go.

In the past, this one has made me so motion sick I almost lost a whole day of touring. This time I was prepared and had taken Bonine for motion sickness so I was feeling confident!

The verdict on Everest? I think this face says it all:

Tiana was NOT a fan! I would have enjoyed the ride except that she was screaming and maybe crying so I had to try my best to console her while my brain was getting rattled around. She told me she is NEVER going on it again, “not even if I bring my kids here and they beg me and beg me”. 😄

I’m pretty sure I got her a Mickey bar at this point to get her back in a good mood. It also helped that our next FP was for Kali River Rapids, which we both love.

It was mostly overcast that day, so Tiana decided she didn’t want to risk getting soaked on Kali. Luckily we were armed with these bad boys:

We always end up laughing so much on this ride talking with the other people on our boat. Everyone knows a couple of us are going to get soaked and no one wants it to be them! The line wasn’t too long, about 20 minutes, so we rode it again standby since we had plenty of time on our hands.

Photo credit: disneydaybyday.com

Just a pic of the ride in case anybody isn’t familiar with it.

One little detail that will pop up again later in the trip: After riding Kali River Rapids in her poncho twice, Tiana went to take it off and it ripped all the way down the front. I considered it garbage at that point and threw it out, leaving us with just one poncho in our park bag.

Now I was getting super excited because we were finally headed somewhere I’d never been before…

Pandora- the World of Avatar

Disney does such an amazing job of transforming the mood when you switch from one land to another. Going over the bridge to Pandora you can feel a shift in the atmosphere. The sounds are different, the smell is different. It is hard to describe but we felt a certain mystical energy building.

We loved checking out all the little details and of course stopped for a pic of the floating mountains.

Everywhere we looked, people were holding this brightly colored frozen drink with an enormous amount of kid appeal. Not surprisingly, Tiana suddenly couldn’t live another minute without one!

The Night Blossom: aka the most Instagrammed beverage in Disney history!

Note the paper straw as plastic straws are not allowed at Animal Kingdom (dangerous for the animals).

I thought this drink would be so overly sweet that we wouldn’t be able to finish it between the two of us. Well those fears were unfounded because we CRUSHED it.

By now it was time for the moment I had been waiting for. Time to ride Flight of Passage!

It almost felt wrong cruising by in the Fast Pass lane with people waiting an estimated 3 hours to ride. Almost.

The indoor portion of the line is like a dark, cement cave. Very industrial. I’m sure it’s authentic to the movie but I only saw it once and don’t remember these details!

I had purposely avoided reading much about this ride prior to our trip. I wanted to go in with no expectations. All I can say after riding it is WOW. Whatever expectations I had were blown away!

The guy in front of me in line had warned me that it was “intense” but I wasn’t really getting it. After experiencing it, that really is the best description for it.

In fact it was a little too intense for Tiana, she was screaming her face off the whole time!

It turns out, she believed every word of the pre-show and was convinced an Avatar was going to come take over her body. She thought the whole thing was 100% real. So that kicks up the intensity to a whole other level.

Dinner time

After Flight of Passage Tiana was suddenly very interested in going on Na’vi River Journey. I had to sacrifice the original FP I had gotten for it in order to book the Flight of Passage FP since you can only get one. So I had mentally crossed this ride off my list since I knew the line would be majorly inflated. We walked over to check anyway and it was about two hours. I was not interested in waiting that long so I told her we could come back at night and see if the line was down then.

Moderately satisfied with that answer, Tiana decided to head over towards Dinoland. We mostly just browsed shops and watched street acts, whatever Tiana was interested in. We passed by character spots but Tiana chose not to meet them, so I guess at 9 she is not as into meeting characters anymore. (She did end up changing her tune later in the trip so it wasn’t a completely character-less visit to WDW!)

Around 6:00 we made our way over to Rainforest Cafe, which Tiana had chosen for our dinner reservation.

It’s probably not the restaurant I would have chosen, but I have to say we had an awesome time there.

With a family of 6 Tiana doesn’t get the chance to go to restaurants all that often. And going out to eat just me and her is something I’m pretty sure has never happened! Which is exactly why we needed this trip 👍

After we’d had our fill of animatronic animals, pretend thunderstorms, and lines of servers shouting “volcaaaaaaaano!”, we headed over to catch Rivers of Light.

Animal Kingdom by Night

It was starting to get dark as we passed by the Tree of Life.

I was excited to see Rivers of Light because I had never seen it before.

We were seated up near the front on the left side of the amphitheater. We watched the huge seating area fill up as we waited. I would never have guessed that many people were even in the park that day! Crowds are so different when spread throughout the park versus all in one place.

The show started and while we thought it was cool to see, we also kind of felt like we didn’t know what was going on 🤷

It also felt SUPER short! When it ended I was actually confused. It seemed like there should have been more. In future trips I think I won’t bother watching this one again.

(Just my honest opinion, I know some people love it!)

Back to Pandora

Being seated on the left was good because we were able to make our exit before most of the crowd. We walked with intent over to Pandora, since I had told Tiana we could check the wait time for Na’vi River Journey before park close.

The posted wait time was 90 minutes and I had told Tiana I was only willing to wait 60, but she talked to me into it.

I’m glad she did, because the wait ended up being just under an hour. And with friendly people to chat with in front of us in line it went by surprisingly quickly.

The ride was very cool to look at with immersive theming from the movie. It was so serene and relaxing. We enjoyed it, but I’m glad I didn’t wait over an hour for it.

We exited the park right after riding as it was actually past closing time. Tiana was so happy after our long exciting day, she talked about it the whole bus ride back to Saratoga Springs. I went to bed that night so happy that I had decided to take this trip with her.

Next up…

Follow along with our trip as we head to Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party on day 2!

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