WDW Dining - Magic Kingdom

After yesterday's post, I've been thinking quite a bit about Disney World.  So, as promised month's ago, I thought I'd do a Disney World post.  Today, I'm going to focus on restaurants at Magic Kingdom.  I'll tell you restaurants that we've been to and whether we recommend them.

Magic Kingdom
Quick Sevice

• Casey's - this is located on main street and sells mainly hot dogs.  On our first trip, it was the first restaurant we ate at.  The hot dogs are good, but expensive (covered by dining plan). They also have french fries, and for dessert you can get the standard (yummy) chocolate brownie, cotton candy, or Cracker Jacks.  There isn't much seating, but there are several small tables outside - sometimes a piano player comes out, which is pretty cool! We would eat there again - though not by first choice. Recommended for lunch, but I don't know that it would hold you over for dinner.  Recommended for gluten free dining.
  

•  Cosmic Ray's - we ate here on our first trip - it's located in Tomorrowland.  They have burgers, chicken, and ribs.  There is a large seating area inside, which is nice. I do not like the set up of this restaurant.  If you want burgers, you have to go to a certain bay.  If you want ribs, you go to a different bay.  So, either you and your party need to agree on entrees, or you'll be waiting in several lines.  Our food there wasn't great.  But I've heard great things from others - it just wasn't great for us. This would be substantial for lunch or dinner.  There are also gluten free options.

• Be Our Guest - for lunch, this is a quick service - it's located in Fantasyland. There is quite a bit of seating, but if you want to eat in the West Wing, get there early!  We arrived 45 minutes before they opened and were still maybe the 10th person in line.  The opening is REALLY cool.  They come out and welcome you and cheer for you as you walk in.  It is easily the prettiest restaurant in all of Disney (at least the one's we've been to!).  And the food is excellent.  They have table service quality food for lunch.  They have sandwiches, roasted meats, and other yummy things.  My son inhaled his grilled mahi-mahi. And their cupcakes - SO good!  HIGHLY recommended (for lunch) - also great for gluten-free diets.

•  Pecos Bill - this one is in Frontierland.  This year was the first time we ate there.  It was SO good.  They have burgers, salads, sandwiches, and other foods.  I got a southwest chicken salad and it was delicious.  There is quite a bit of seating there, and luckily, there are cast members to direct you to open tables.  Other wise, it would have been tough to navigate through the restaurant with two little ones and two huge trays of food.  We will definitely eat here again.  I feel that it would be substantial for dinner - there were also some gluten free options here.

• Columbia Harbor House - this is located in my favorite part of MK - Liberty Square.  They are famous for their fish and chips and their lobster rolls. They also have chicken and some grilled entrees. I had grilled salmon, steamed broccoli, and couscous.  It was VERY good.  There are plenty of tables here, both upstairs and down.   I really like the theming of this restaurant.  It feels very Colonial and has creaky wood floors.  This is a great place for lunch or dinner (they close early in the off-season) - there were some gluten free options.

• Pinocchio's Village Haus - this is located in Fantasyland.  It is probably my least favorite restaurant that we've eaten at in WDW.  They have flatbread and sandwiches and pizza.  They food was very bland.  There was quite a bit of seating, and some of the tables even overlook the entrance of It's A Small World.  One thing I do remember is that they had pretty tasty chocolate gelato.  I'm not sure about how many gluten free options they have.  The family liked it, but I did not.

Snacks

• My hubby LOVES these pretzels.  We got this one at a cart in Frontierland.  Not gluten-free.

•  The Plaza Ice Cream Parlor - WOW.  So good.  This is located on Main Street.  We got the All-American sundae (which was covered by a snack credit).  It was easily enough for two people and was SUPER yummy.  Recommended for gluten-free dining.

• Gaston's Tavern - this is in Fantasyland.  The theming is AWESOME.  It looks exactly how I thought that Gaston's Tavern would look.  They have steak on a stick, some baked items, and their featured item, LeFou's brew.  It's basically a frozen apple juice with a marshmallow foam.  It was refreshing, but a little sweet for my taste. Recommended for gluten-free diets.

• Aloha Isle - If you like pineapple, you MUST get a dole whip float here!  So good, and covered by a snack credit!  Recommended for gluten-free diets.

Table Service
Of all the parks, I feel that Magic Kingdom's table dining choices are very limited.  We've eaten at only a few, one was our worst meal in Disney World, and one is one of our favorites.

• Tony's - this is located on Main Street.  The theming is nice, it's supposed to look like the restaurant from Lady and the Tramp.  The food wasn't very good.  With the exception of dessert - their Pistachio Creme Brulee is DELICIOUS!  I really don't recommend this one.  They do have a steak entree, but I don't know how gluten-free friendly it is for children.

• Liberty Tree Tavern - I love the theming of this one as well.  It's Colonial, with the creaky wood floors.  Each room is themed around a president.  We've only had dinner here, which is basically, a Thanksgiving Feast served family style.  I really enjoy this meal.  Almost everything (except rolls, gravy, mac and cheese, and stuffing) is gluten-free.  They will give you gluten-free rolls and gravy if you want it.  They will also give you ice cream (instead of craisin cake) for dessert.  They food is always quite delicious, and plentiful.  You can eat as much as you would like.  Highly recommended.  Also recommended for gluten-free diets.
  
  
  

Our Disney World Curriculum

If you're here to check out our pre-Disney World curriculum, I wanted to make things a little easier and have a list of each day's lesson/books/activities.  So, here you go!

Day 1 - North America
Day 2 - Italy, Germany, and France
Day 3 - Norway and UK
Day 4 - Asia and Ocean Life
Day 5 - Africa and Additional Ideas

Hope this makes navigating a little easier.  I am so glad that we took the week before our trip to do some studying on countries in Epcot.  Last year, my kids really didn't enjoy Epcot; this year they LOVED it.  We could have spent a few days there.  Another thing we did was try foods from many of the countries while we were there, of course they really liked that too!  Some of our favorites were the lamb and chicken platter from Morocco; chocolate croissants, ham and cheese croissants, and napoleons in France; Kaki gori in Japan; school bread in Norway; and the chocolate gelato in Italy (this is not part of the meal plan, but totally worth the splurge!).  We also had dinner at the Rose and Crown in the UK, so they had fish and chips there along with a super yummy dessert.

Like I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, we plan on creating an additional post with trip tips and some of our favorite moments.  We haven't completed this yet, so please check back!

Disney World Curriculum - Day 5 - Africa and Additional Ideas

Today was our last day of the Disney World curriculum.  We focused on the one remaining (and, my personal favorite) country in World Showcase: Morocco.  Since Morocco is in Africa, we thought it would be a great time to learn about some of the animals at Animal Kingdom. 

Africa

• National Geographic DVD: Swinging Safari 
• National Geographic Little Kids book: African Animal Alphabet by: Beverly and Dereck Joubert
• Water for One, Water for Everyone by: Stephen R. Swinburne
• We All Went on Safari by: Laurie Krebs

Morocco

• The Children of Morocco by: Jules Hermes
• The Storytellers by: Ted Lewin
• Mirror by: Jeannie Baker (this one was really neat - it compares the lives of a family in Australia to a family in Morocco)
• We also watched Aladdin - partly because it was helpful so that I could get some work done
• We tried mint tea - you would've thought that I tried to poison X-Man (and I wish I would've had the event recorded!)

We did a few other things today too - I looked up some info on the architecture and landmarks at World Showcase.  I look forward to being able to share information on the martyrdom of St. George in Germany, and the church in Norway, I think they'll enjoy trying to figure out which totem pole is the real one in Canada, and seeing the Terracotta Army in China.  I think our preparation is going to make Epcot much more enjoyable for them this time around.

We've also been listening to Disney music as we rented a few CDs from our library.

Additional Ideas

We decided to skim a lot of information this week.  I think when they're older, I'd love to go back to Disney after a more intensive curriculum.  Here's some additional ideas that we just didn't get time to do:

• practicing with money
• time (keeping track for shows, etc)
• reading the non-Disney versions of fairy tales and comparing them to Disney versions
• write a new ending to a fairy tale
• write a new fairy tale
• write a dialogue between two characters from two different stories
• practicing reading maps
• looking for spiritual applications in movies/stories
• creating packing lists
• creating foods from various countries
• physics and magnetism - how rides work

We have packing lists ready and our house sitter in place.  We're getting pretty excited and can hardly wait to get there!  In the next few weeks, I hope to add additional information and tell you all about our trip.

Thanks for reading -  "See ya real soon!"

Disney World Curriculum - Day 4 - Asia and Ocean Life

Wow, isn't it amazing how quickly time flies when you're busy?  I'm so glad that we decided to take a break from our regular curriculum this week.  It's given me more time to prep for our trip (which, somehow, there's still so much more to buy/do/plan than what we've already completed) and learn new things to prepare us for our trip.

You'll notice that almost all of our curriculum has been based around World Showcase, and there's a reason for that.  The least stimulating parts (for young children) of WDW include World Showcase and Animal Kingdom (more on that tomorrow).

So, today, we focused on China, Japan, and Ocean Life (Epcot's aquarium is pretty cool!).

We started in Japan.

Japan

• National Geographic Website
• Japan by: David F. Marx
• We also had rice for lunch, tea with our snack, and talked about Hello Kitty (Little Lou's favorite!), also, since Japan is an island nation, we decided that it would be a good intro to ocean life.

Ocean Life

• Ocean by: Cassie Mayer
• Coral Reef - this book mysteriously went missing as I was typing this
• Tell Time with Turtles by: Melissa McDonnell
• Out and About at the Aquarium by: Amy Rechner

China

• National Geographic Website
• Postcards from China by: Zoe Dawson
• Chinese New Year by: Nancy Dickmann
• The Emperor's Silent Army by: Jane O'Connor (we looked at the pictures and discussed each one)
• Watched Mulan - prior to our last trip, I hadn't ever seen this movie - I was really missing out.  Mulan has a wonderful message about loyalty, friendship, and bravery.  Plus, it empowers women, which I think is refreshing.

Over the past few days, we've also done a few supplemental (FUN!) activities.  We've gone on long walks to prepare them for the walking they'll be doing, we've played "Just Dance: Disney" as PE, we've talked about our must-see attractions, we've worked on reading maps, made some iron-on shirts for our trip, and we've watched some videos (only a few).

Tomorrow, we'll be learning about Morocco and African animals (AK safari!).  Stay tuned :)

Disney World Curriculum - Day 3 - Norway and England

I think today was my favorite day of our Disney World lessons so far.  I learned quite a bit about England (it's embarrassing how much I didn't know).  I also realized just how gorgeous Norway must be (though, COLD!).  You'll notice we didn't have an art lesson to go along with today's countries.  That is because a month or so ago, I signed them up for a two hour art and creativity class for this afternoon.  There wasn't time or energy today.  Tomorrow is a new day though!

England

• National Geographic Website
• England By: Kay Melchisedech Olson - mostly skimmed this one
• A to Z England  By: Byron and Rebecca A. Augustin
• Postcards From Great Britain By: Helen Arnold (this one was one of my favorites!)
• Skimmed through National Geographic Kids: Everything Castles By: Crispin Boyer
• We talked about a few words that differ in American English from British English (loo vs toilet, trainers vs. sneakers, sweets vs. candies, etc.)
• We talked about characters from England, including: Winnie the Pooh, Peter Pan, Pongo and Perdita and others from 101 Dalmations, Mary Poppins, and Alice

Norway

• National Geographic Website
• A Primary Source Guide to Norway By: Elizabeth Rose
• Norway By: Elaine Landau
• Three Billy Goats Gruff - many Norwegian stories a centered around trolls, so we thought this would be a good additon
• Last week in our normal homeschool curriculum, we also discussed vikings, so we talked about that for a few minutes today too

 I do hope you'll check out the National Geographic Website - the videos they post are about things that aren't typically covered in traditional kids books, which I think is refreshing.  There are also breathtaking photos (especially the one of the Northern Lights in Norway).

Tomorrow, (I think) we'll focus on Asia.  Or Morocco...  I guess you'll have to remain in suspense until then!

Disney World Curriculum - Day 2 - Europe (Italy, Germany, France)

Yesterday was a pretty busy day, which is part of the reason I am just now posting this.  Epcot World Showcase has five European countries, which I thought was too many for one day.  We chose to focus on just three.  Here's what we did yesterday:

Italy

• National Geographic Website - this is a wonderful resource (since we just found out about it yesterday, we also looked up the countries we learned about on day 1).  There's photos, facts, maps, and videos about several countries.
• Find Out About Italy By: Patricia Borlenghi
• Michaelangelo By: Diane Stanley - we mostly skimmed through this, but enjoyed looking at his work.
• We also talked about Pinocchio being from Italy.

Germany

•  National Geographic Website
• A Look at Germany By: Helen Frost
• We talked about how Snow White is from Germany (at least in World Showcase!)
• I learned that many composers are from Germany - Beethoven, Bach, Brahams, Schumann, and Wagner just to name a few.  So, we listened to a few songs:
• Brahms Lullaby
• Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata 

France

• National Geographic Website 
• Find Out About France by: Duncan Crosbie
• We talked about which Disney characters are from France, including Belle and the Beast, Aurora, The Aristocats, Remy and others from Ratatouille

Europe - Art

For an art lesson, I had them decide which country's flag they would like to make.  Since all three of these countries have simple designs, I thought it would be good cutting and pasting practice.  Little Lou chose Italy, and X-Man chose France.

Stay tuned.  Our next blog post will be about England and Norway.  We're getting so excited for out trip, and learning about the various countries is making it even more exciting! 

Disney World Curriculum - Day 1 - North America

Next week, we'll be in my favorite place, THE Walt Disney World Resort!  We're so very excited, and since we are homeschooling, we really want to make the trip as academically rich as possible.  We've decided to take a break from our normal curriculum this week and instead focus our studies on subjects and themes that can be enriched by our experiences at WDW.

I've had a hard time finding Disney lesson plans from other homeschoolers, so I thought I'd post our resources here in case it would help another family.

Today we began in North America (or, at least, the North American countries represented in World Showcase).

North America

• We Live in North America By: Susan Ring
• Famous Places of the Word, North America By: Helen Bateman and Jayne Denshire (we kind of skimmed this one)

1 - Mexico

• History/Geography
• Mexico By: David F. Marx
• 1, 2, 3 Suddenly in Mexico: The Protective Jaguar By: Cristina Falcon Maldonado (this may be my new favorite (geographically, historically rich) book series
• Mexico's Great Pyramids - National Geographic DVD (we only watched 15-20 minutes of this as it was a little dry and talked about human sacrifice (Mexico in World Showcase looks like a Mayan Pyramid)
• Fine Motor
• Lego pyramid

• 

2 - Canada

• History/Geography
• Canada By: David F. Marx
• Niagara Falls By: Sarah De Capua
• Totem Poles By: Jennifer Frantz (Two faux and one real totem pole in World Showcase)

• Fine Motor/Art 
• Stamped totem poles onto construction paper

3 - The United States

• History/Geography
  
  • America the Beautiful - A Scholastic book
  • Florida By: Carmen Bredeson
  • Celebrating Florida By: Marion Dane Bauer
  
  
  • Landmarks
  • The White House By: Susan Ashley
  • Visit Independence Hall By: Alexander Wood (Hall of Presidents is modeled after this)
  • The Liberty Bell By: Nancy Harris (Replica in Liberty Square)
  • Biographies
  • Mark Twain By: David and Patricia Armentrout (Co-host of American Adventure, also, ties to Tom Sawyer Island)
  • The Life of Ben Franklin By: Maria Nelson (Co-host of American Adventure)
  • Walt Disney By: Joanne Mattern 
  • Read About Walt Disney By: Stephen Feinstein

• Literature
• Tiny Dreams, Sprouting Tall: Poems about the United States By: Laura Purdie Salas 
• Brer Rabbit Down the Well Retold by: Louie Stowell (Br'er Rabbit is the main character of my favorite ride - Splash Mountain)
•  Br'er Rabbit Caputred! By: Jean Cassels
• Meet Me in the Magic Kingdom By: Kathy Jakobsen

• Art
• Created Hidden Mickey's by reusing recyclables
  
  
  
  Please check back tomorrow for day two of our Disney World curriculum.  Thanks for stopping by!

Countdown to Disney! The Grey Stuff...

I'm super excited to say that very soon, our family will be heading back to Disney World!  We're going with some of our very best friends, and can hardly wait.  We've been watching lots of Disney movies, and I'm shopping for clearance and sale items to take on our trip.  Tonight, I began creating a Disney homeschool curriculum for the week prior to our trip.  Once I have the (50 plus) books I requested from our library, I plan on posting more details about the curriculum in case it would help anyone else.

But for tonight, I wanted to share an idea that was inspired by this pin on Pinterest.  The plan was to theme meals to our movies.  That didn't exactly happen tonight (and, I failed to get photos as everything was delicious and promptly inhaled), but the idea was to watch Beauty and the Beast.  (What actually happened is three other movies - but still, it was the thought that counts, right?!).  For dinner, we had American-French-inspired food: croissants with cheese and ham, french fries, and veggies.  For dessert, we made a special treat: the grey stuff ("Try the grey stuff, it's delicious!  Don't believe me? Ask the dishes!").  It was very tasty.  I contacted Lisa at The Disney Diner and was granted permission to share this yummy recipe with you!  Please note: while ours was delicious, we scooped it into cups so it wasn't the prettiest dish - her presentation is gorgeous, and looks like photos I've seen of the grey stuff at Be Our Guest Restaurant at Disney!

So, without further ado - the grey stuff.

Please let me know about your fun countdown to Disney ideas - we're always looking for ideas to make this time even more exciting.  As always, thanks for reading!

The Disney Post - Now, easier to follow!

Hi friends,

I wanted to let you know that I updated the titles of the Disney Post.  They are now listed as part 1, part 2, part 3, and part 4.  I thought it would be easier to figure out the order if  I included this in the titles.  Again, please let me know if you would like to share some of your own tips!

Thanks for reading!

The Disney Post Part 4 - Tips for the Trip

Well, this is the final installment of The Disney Post series. I hope you've enjoyed reading this as much as I've enjoyed writing it!

Today's post is all about the trip.

1 - What you need for the park
As I mentioned on the last post, I had a bag for the park (in addition to the hubby's bag of cameras) - as a reminder, this bag had:

• A wristlet with money, debit card, ID, cash, room keys, park passes
• A folder to contain itineraries, and park maps
• A note book with notes about things we wanted to do, restaurants we wanted to try (for counter service restaurants), and a list of which rides we wanted to ride first at each park
• My favorite planning book about Disney World.
• A gallon size plastic bag with park essentials: hand sanitizer, sunblock, bandaids, triple-antibiotic ointment, stain remover wipes, hair brush, ponchos, tissues, pain medication, a small deodorant stick, wet wipes, a small flashlight, moleskin and blister bandages
• I also left some room for jackets since we were there in January
• If your child is frightened easily by the automatic toilets in the parks, you could also pack self adhesive notes to cover the sensor on the toilet

We also packed the kids small totes (we would just hang this on the stroller) - we took out the coloring pages so that there was only park-essential items in there:

• Autograph book and pen
• Sunglasses
• Spillproof water bottle

Also, don't forget your strollers, snacks, and water bottles.

If it's first thing in the morning, bring a bag of cereal for breakfast. That way the kids can eat at the bus stop or in the park.

2 - Transportation
Since we stayed on-site, we had no use for a rental car. We took the Disney bus line to the parks each day (the drivers do not accept tips). We could also take a ferry to downtown Disney. I would arrive at your bus stop expecting to wait twenty minutes for arrival. Often it doesn't take that long, but sometimes it does.

3 - Photo Pass tip
If you're like us, one of the very first things you'll do at the park is get your photo taken. We (as mentioned earlier) paid in advance so we already had a Photo Pass card. Unfortunately, we forgot it at the hotel. Luckily, you can link as many Photo Pass cards as you would like under one account. So, my recommendation is to snap a picture of your Photo Pass card. That way, if it gets lost, you'll still have the card numbers to access the photos.

4 - First Visit
If it's your first visit (or if you're celebrating a special occasion), stop by Town Hall. They'll give you a special button to wear. You may even get special treatment (one of the cast members saw us with our first time buttons and let us walk right onto a ride).

5 - Rides and Attractions
We let the kids decide what we were doing and when. The only exception was when we first arrived. We found out (from books and friends) which rides tend to have the longest waits. We would head to that ride first. If the wait was over 30 minutes, we got a fast pass. If it was under 30 minutes, we rode.

Also, if there's a parade or firework show that you don't want to watch, go to the popular attractions then. The wait will be significantly shorter.

If you have small children, you'll want to familiarize yourself with the rider swap option. Our daughter was too short for some rides, so I would take our son on a ride and tell the cast member at the ride entrance that we wanted to do a rider swap. They would give me a rider swap pass, which is like a fast pass, except that you can bring three people back with you. After they were done riding, my son and hubby got to ride by going through the fast pass line. It was awesome.

6 - Meals
Since we had a meal plan, we got a sit down meal and quick service meal each day. The kids ate cereal for breakfast on the way to the park each morning. We would eat lunch around 11:00 each day, this helped us to avoid to lunch crowd and ensured that the kids would be hungry for dinner. The meals are pretty big, normally a drink, entree, side, and dessert.
We ate dinner around 5:00 most nights. The longest we waited was five minutes for a table. One night we ate at 6:00 and had to wait for 30 minutes for our table to be ready. So I would definitely recommend eating earlier if you can.

I would never use a snack credit on a soft drink or bottled water. You can bring your own bottles of water or get free cups of ice water (or hot water) during the day. If you bring instant drink mixes with you - it's easy to make some lemonade or hot tea/coffee for free. Instead, use your snack credits on something mouse shaped, or really, whatever you want (my favorite was a Dole Whip at Magic Kingdom). We would often share our snacks which meant we had PLENTY of snack credits for each day. In fact, on our last day, we had seven snack credits left, so we bought the kids Mickey Mouse gummies and Mouse shaped rice krispie treats for later. I personally would only use snack credits on something that costs around $3 or more.

7 - Extra hours
As a Disney resort guest, you are able to spend time at the parks when they are closed to the general public. We found a television channel at the resort which listed all the extra hours for each night. They don't advertise the extra hours very well, and had we not checked the channel, we wouldn't have known that for us, Epcot closed at 12:00 am instead of 9:00 pm! There were literally no lines.

8 - Journal
Each night we would write all about our day. We talked about what we did, where we ate, etc. My favorite part was asking the kids what their favorite part of the day was. It amazed me that sometimes in such a huge, magical place; their favorite part was something as simple as 'riding next to Daddy in the race car'.

Disney World is wonderful and magical, (and expensive) - hopefully some of these tips will save you some money, or help to make your trip a little more magical. If you want specific restaurant or activity recommendations, please let me know. Thank you so much for reading my posts. And please, let me know what special tips you have!

The Disney Post Part 3 - Packing

This is the third post in my Disney series. Today I'm going to focus on packing.

First, I would recommend finding a checklist online. This will help you remember all the basics, clothes, toiletries, etc. You can find that information anywhere, so I'm going to focus on tips given to me by friends and things that helped us save time when we arrived.

We chose to separate our luggage based on need. I'm a little neurotic about certain things, so some of this may be overkill, but it really did help me to know exactly where things were which saved us some time and stress.

1 - Bags for the flight
We had two bags that we took on our flight.
The hubby carried on a backpack (which we later used at the park). This had our camera and camcorder as well our chargers, and extra memory cards. We also packed swimsuits in case our room wasn't ready when we checked in at our resort.

I carried a shoulder bag which had several, smaller bags inside.
I had small totes, one for each child. Each of these totes had a cuddle buddy for the flight, coloring pages, stickers, crayons, fruit snacks (to help with 'popping' their ears during the ascent and descent), lollipops, an empty spill proof water bottle (for the park), autograph books with a pen, a glowstick for the first night, and sunglasses.

I had a park tote that would prove irreplaceable during our Disney trip. Inside this bag was my wristlet (you do not need a purse in Disney) with my ID, health insurance cards, debit card, and some cash for tips (you'll want to tip mousekeeping, tip at table restaurants, and also tip the driver of the shuttle to and from the airport). Having a wristlet was also very convenient to hold our park passes and room keys.

• A folder to contain itineraries, boarding passes, park maps, and envelopes for the tips for mousekeeping.
• A notebook with notes about things we wanted to do, restaurants we wanted to try (for counter service restaurants), places to use our snack credits, and a list of which rides we wanted to ride first at each park. We also used this as a journal.
• My favorite planning book about Disney World.
• A gallon size plastic bag with park essentials: hand sanitizer (make sure it's under three ounces for the flight), sunblock (again, under three ounces), bandages, triple-antibiotic ointment, stain remover wipes, hair brush, ponchos, tissues, pain medication, a small deodorant stick, wet wipes, a small flashlight, moleskin and blister bandages. For the liquid items: sanitizer, ointment, sunblock; you'll want to keep them in a quart sized baggie so that they're easily removable for x-ray when you're at the airport.
• I also left some room for jackets since we were there in January.
• If your child is frightened easily by the automatic toilets in the parks, you could also pack self adhesive notes to cover the sensor on the toilet (a family member gave us this great tip!).

2 - Checked luggage - toiletries
We used one bag for all our toiletries. Of course there was shampoo, body soap, deodorant, toothbrushes etc. - but some things that most people don't think about packing were also very helpful - hand soap (they do not provide it in your room), a small package of laundry detergent, a larger bottle of sunblock, and a larger bottle of hand sanitizer.

3 - Checked luggage - clothes/toys/food

We packed our food in a large, plastic shoebox. Before we left our house, I measured a cup of cereal into sandwich sized baggies so that each morning, we could just grab a baggie and go. Having the food in the shoebox kept everything from getting smashed in the suitcase. We also packed some plastic grocery bags to put our water bottles and snacks in each day.

We brought a couple things that our kids sleep with every night (favorite stuffed animal or blanket), but they really didn't need any toys while we were there. We woke up, went to the park, explored our resort or swam, then went to bed. If you pack glowsticks, you want to put them in a zipper bag just in case they break.

Probably my favorite tip of all was an easy and space saving way to organize clothes for the kids. I used a bunch of gallon sized zipper bags to store their outfits. For each day, I put a pair of shorts/pants, shirt, underwear, and socks (and hairbow for the girl). I also labeled each bag (taking into account the weather forecast) with their name and a day of the week. This was a great time saver as each morning, we just grabbed their bags then got them dressed. We could also put their dirty clothes/pajamas in the empty bag when we were done.

You also want to make sure to have comfy shoes for everyone - you'll be walking. A lot.

We used cable ties to secure each bag. We placed a heavy-duty nail clipper in the front pocket of each bag so that we could easily open the bags when we arrived. We also packed extra ties in the front pocket of each bag for the flight home. We used big, obnoxious bows to mark our luggage. This made it a breeze to pick out our luggage (that looked like everybody's luggage) when we came home.

4 - Strollers
We chose to bring an umbrella stroller for each child. This saved space in our hotel room. One thing that I'm really glad we did was mark each stroller with a big (glittery) bow. There were several strollers there that looked just like ours, and the cast members at Disney often rearrange the strollers when you're visiting an attraction. Having the bow made it very easy to find ours in a sea of hundreds. At night, you could also use glowsticks to mark your stroller.

I hope you are finding these tips helpful. Again, I am not a Disney-expert, so please, if you have any tips to add, I'd certainly appreciate it!

Check back for the last post in this series - all about tips for when you're in the park.

The Disney Post Part 2 - Tips for before the Trip

Thanks for coming back for my second day of tips. Today I'm going to focus on some tips for after booking, but before arriving.

1 - Restaurant Reservations
One of the best tips I got from a friend was to book restaurant reservations as soon as possible. Once you are within 180 days of arriving, you can begin making reservations. We read online reviews, checked out the Disney website for menus, and read a few books about the restaurants. We then decided to pick restaurants based on which days we would visit each resort. We chose to only use our table service credits for dinner (with the exception of a character breakfast). Our travel agent made the reservations for us and got us confirmation numbers for each meal. We also decided not to use a table credit on our last day. We wanted to be able to go to whichever park the kids liked the best and not have to worry about being at a restaurant at a specific time on our last night there.

2 - Photo pass
At Disney World, there are lots of photographers who will gladly take photos of your family. You're given a card to 'load' the photos on so that you can access them online. If you choose to order photos once you return, they cost around $12-14 per photo. Or, you can purchase all the rights to your photos for around $150 (as of March, 2012). However, if you pay for the rights before your trip, you save $50 ($100 for all the photos). We opted to do this. All in all, I'm happy with the purchase.

3 - Busy items for traveling
Before we left, I purchased Disney stickers and activity books from the dollar section at my favorite retailer. I also made a free activity book for the kids. If you do an online search for "free Disney Coloring Pages" you can print pictures of your child's favorite characters to color. There were also some fun activity pages (dot-to-dots, word searches, counting pages, etc.) that I printed for the kids. These were life-savers during our flight.

4 - Shopping before the trip
We decided to buy a Disney shirt for each of our children for each day. We were able to get clothes on clearance on Disney's website and at different department stores. We saved quite a bit compared to buying clothes there.

We also bought some sort of light up toy or glowstick for each night. Your kids are going to want some light up toy while you're there, so why not buy them in advance for MUCH less? We bought glowsticks from the dollar store/craft store, and bought light up toys at our party store.

5 - Snacks and drinks
I recommend packing many snacks for your trip. One thing I would mention is not to pack dense items like chocolate or peanut butter - if these items are in your checked luggage, TSA may have to search your luggage as these items can look like explosives on the x-ray image. We packed baggies of cereal and pop-tarts for breakfast, bags of crackers, cookies, and chips, and single drink mix packets to add into water.

A few days before our trip, we also had bottled water delivered to our resort (via Costco). This was nice to have at the parks each day.

The next blog will be about packing for your trip. Thanks again for reading!

The Disney Post Part 1 - Before and During Booking

So in late January we took our first trip to THE Disney World. It was awesome. We had such a good time that we are already talking about going back. So, I thought I would create a post about money saving ideas, time saving ideas, and just helpful information. It will hopefully help some of our friends who are planning trips. And, whenever we go back, I can also look back at this post to refresh my memory. Now, in the interest of full disclosure, I am in NO WAY an expert on Disney travel. Like I said, this was only my first trip, but I did pick up a few tips (please, feel free to add some of your own!)

Before and During Booking:

1 - Picking a date
The very first thing we did was contact a travel agent that specializes in Disney vacations. We chose Build a Better Mouse Trip. We asked if there were any free dining promotions, then decided to travel during those dates (free dining saves you over $600 for a family of four compared to purchasing a dining plan). We also checked out Disney's website and made sure that we didn't book a trip during any other events (dance competitions, marathons, etc). This gave us a list of certain dates that we would prefer to visit.

2-Choosing a flight
Next, we were ready to start planning our trip. My husband signed up for low-fare alerts from airlines. When the hubby got an alert saying that airfare would be $69 per person, we chose our travel dates. We decided to book our own flight online so that we could get the inexpensive tickets ASAP. We also opted to take the earliest flight to Orlando - this meant we almost spend the whole day at the park. We chose late afternoon for our departure - this way we could sleep in and just relax on our last day there.

3 - Booking the trip
Next, we contacted our travel agent to tell them during which dates we wanted to travel. As I mentioned above, we decided to travel during a free dining promotion. One thing to note is that you get different plans based on what type of resort you choose- for example, if you stay at a value resort during the free dining promotion, you get two quick service meals (think food court type meals) and a snack each day for each person. If you stay at a moderate resort (this is what we chose), you get one quick service, one table service (sit-down), and one snack per person. If I would have done my research, I would have discovered that we could have stayed at a value resort then paid a small fee to upgrade our plan to the one with the table service. This would have saved us money overall since the moderate resorts cost more per night.

4 - Choosing a resort
Our travel agent helped us pick a resort. We chose Port Orleans, Riverside. Like I said, we stayed in a moderate resort. Part of the reason we chose moderate is ignorance - as mentioned above, I didn't know that I could get the better dining plan while staying at a value resort. Some other reasons we chose the resort we did was that moderate hotels have refrigerators in their room, values don't (unless you pay extra). There is also some extra space in the moderate rooms compared to the value resorts. We specifically chose Port Orleans because they had very high traveler reviews compared to other Disney resorts. We also like that the grounds looked so beautiful, that there is a restaurant and food court (which, by the way, we didn't use), that there are multiple pools, and that there are many activities (outdoor movies, fishing, horse drawn carriage rides, ferry rides to downtown Disney). When you choose your resort, I would recommend talking to your travel agent, reading traveler reviews online, looking at amenities on the Disney website, and borrowing some Disney World planning books from the library. If you get an unofficial book, you can get unbiased reviews on your resort. We read the books after booking and were pleasantly surprised that we would have still picked our resort.

5 - Transportation from the hotel
When you book your hotel, your travel agent can also arrange for you to have transportation to your resort from the airport. They'll also deliver pick up your bags from MCO and deliver them to your room.

6 - Park tickets
When you book, you'll also want to decide how many days you want to visit the parks. We arrived on Monday morning and departed late afternoon on Saturday. Because of this, we chose to get park tickets for five days. We decided we could spend Saturday in downtown Disney.

We also opted to get park hoppers for all five days. Honestly, for our family, this was a waste of money. We only 'hopped' one day. For our next trip we'll either not do hoppers at all, or just get them for one or two days.

Please check back in the next couple days for some tips before the trip. Thanks for reading!

Almost a year?!

So I have not blogged since March 8, 2011. How ridiculous is that? I've decided I'm not going to wait this long anymore. That's my commitment to you and the two other people that still read this blog :)

So here's the past year in a nutshell:

• The kids are good - I now have a three year old and five year old, how did that happen?! X goes to preschool fours days a week and absolutely LOVES it.
• We took the kids to Disneyworld and they absolutely loved it. In the six days we were there, I fell in love and learned lots of tips on how to save time, money, and sanity there. Maybe I'll do a blog on it.
• We went back to Iowa last month. X-Man had a great visit. Every time we go the doctor is surprised at how good his feet are looking. I credit it to Dr. M fully correcting his feet, nightly stretching, nightly bracing, and daily prayer by those who love us. Thank you so much if you're one of them!
• We made a very exciting decision in the past two weeks. We're going to home school X-Man (kindergarten) next year! Over the next few months I envision this blog becoming a place that I can record and store lesson plans including the ones that are greatly successful and the ones that are less than perfect. I hope you stick around - I see many adventures in the next few months!

So for now I'll keep it short and sweet. More to follow. I promise.