Landing Page Disney 2019

This is my landing page for our 2019 Disney Trip! You can find all my daily reports here: 

Day 1: Universal Studios

Day 2: Hollywood Studios

Day 3: Magic Kingdom

Day 4: Animal Kingdom

Day 5: Magic Kingdom

Day 6: Epcot 

1. Lodging

We loved staying at Wyndham's Bonnet Creek Resort and feel fortunate Scott's parents took us here on their timeshare. It books up fast and they were happy to get it, as they had tried and it was full in previous years. Doing a condo is hands down the best: plenty of space to spread out, kitchen, laundry, and close parking. 

2. Parks 

I was really happy with the plans of doing both Universal and Disney on this trip. It was a lot doing a park every day, but I think we balanced it well. It was hard because even on our "short" days, we were still almost ending close to dinner time. I enjoyed doing the whole day at Universal but it would have been too much to try to do that with more days than just that. The kids were definitely feeling tired as the week wore on and we felt the burn from vacation the following week trying to get back into our normal routines. As in my previous post, I'm glad I made a list of things I wanted to do because I think we did a good job of doing those attractions. I think the only regret I had is not allowing time for re-rides of favorite attractions, I'm just not sure we could have done that with the crowds. 

Speaking of crowds, I am posting these crowd levels from touringplans.com for my own memory and also so people don't think I am crazy for thinking it was crowded while we were there. 

Universal Day: 

Makes sense in hindsight, the rest of the week was all 9's. It was also St. Patrick's Day and it did sprinkle a bit on and off throughout the day which may have been factors. 

DHS Day: 

Magic Kingdom Day (least busy and we noticed it because of the rainy day) 

Animal Kingdom Day: 

Magic Kingdom Day 2

Epcot Day:

Only a nine, we didn't feel like it felt too bad but we did end up skipping the whole seas pavilion due to do crowds. 

I think that we were smart with our plans in anticipation of spring break crowds but it did wear especially on my patience. It felt like we did not have a lot of freedom to go willy nilly from place to place but we had to be pretty mindful of our schedule. I think we got a lot accomplished, all things considered. The weather is so nice at spring break time, but I wonder if another time of year would be better for future trips. 

3. Planning

I feel like I did not go bonkers in planning this trip, but I did do some lengthy sessions over the course of Saturday mornings leading up to the trip. I used primarily the plans and advice at easywdw.com and then used touringplans.com to create customized touring plans that would give me an idea of the wait times, show times, and walk times to expect on the days we were there. It really helped for me especially to know what we could realistically accomplish in the time I knew we wanted to spend at the parks. Then when booking our fastpasses, I could add in at the times that made the most sense. 

For touring, I primarily tried to keep our routes to a loop to eliminate a lot of backtracking or traversing the parks. I think this helps immensely in fatigue and battling the crowds. I especially liked it when we could ditch the stroller for a bit and do a handful of attractions all in the same area.  

I also exclusively used the touring plans Lines app in the parks, as it gave posted and expected wait times and as well as recommendations on when to ride and when to wait. 

You can get access to the touring plans site and app when you buy the Unofficial Guide books, which I did as well for both parks. I mostly just enjoyed reading them for fun. :) They are chock full of great info! 

We used my friend Lisa to purchase our tickets and she gave us some good information as well as a whole package of goodies in the mail before we left. She is great, please check out her facebook page!

4. Other

I think that is all I am going to expand on at this time. All my other tips rang true this trip as well and you can see me reference them throughout my trip report. You can visit my previous landing page for them! 

5. The Future

As for what the future holds, we are not sure at this point. :) I would love to take a Disney Cruise or visit Disneyland in California but as of right now they are both pipe dreams. I would also love to visit WDW again for their big 50th-anniversary celebration in 2021.

We need to make it through this season of life and then we will figure it out...who knows? 

Resort and Last Day

We stayed at the beautiful Wyndham Bonnet Creek vacation resort. It is a timeshare property, and right by Carribean beach on Disney property. We had visited this resort a few years prior, when Scott's brother and sister's families stayed here. It was a treat for sure! 

The resort is huge with a ton of amenities. It seemed like most people staying there were there exclusively to take advantage of all the resort had to offer, which was smart! 

Scott's parents booked us a three bedroom suite which was well suited for multiple families. We had plenty of space for our group of five, Scott's parents, and my sister. No one even had to sleep on the floor, thanks to the pull out couch in the living area. We loved it and it was very comfortable. For as large as the resort was, we felt like we hardly ever even saw another family in our tower. The elevators were always quick and it was never busy or a rush to get anywhere. We were in tower three and were able to park close by our door. 

In terms of travel, everyone did great. It was the girls' first time flying and they knew no different. I think the most exciting part for them was their little snack bags which occupied them both for the first part of the flight as they ate everything in them- even their sandwiches I had packed for lunch (our flight was mid-morning). 

The only slight hassle was that we did not check in early enough to make sure we had seats by the girls together and waited until we got to the airport to try and arrange it. It held up the flight a bit but we got my seat with the girls and Michael and Scott had to sit front and back. I know we can pay to get seats together but it is also against the law to seat a young child by themselves. I would have gladly let some strangers take care of my children for the duration of the flight but I don't think that would result in very good PR for Frontier. Both flights were bumpier than I liked but we survived and the flight went by fairly quickly despite the almost three hour in air time. 

We had quite a wait at MCO for our bags, I always forget this is a reason to do carry-ons- future note made! 

Scott did the pre-check in for our rental car and that was HUGE, we just walked right in and away we went. I feel like the line at those rental car places can take forever also. We had a Toyota Sienna which was really roomy and had a little jumpseat in the second row so all eight of us could fit. In reality, there was only one day when we all took it as Scott's dad stayed back at the condo every day except the first because of his hernia and cold. :(

(Scott did a good job of helping with meal prep!) 

One of the biggest perks of having a condo was the ability to eat at our place. We had breakfasts every day there and most dinners. I placed a huge order at walmart.com that Scott went to get during our arrival day. We spent quite a bit on groceries, about $350, but that was the cost of one *single meal* at the Disney parks. As much as I enjoy dining out, my children are too picky and restless to make it enjoyable. It always entails no one eating their food and a million trips to the restroom. So while not fancy, it worked for us and for the most part the kids ate the food we made at home. I included my grocery list just because I was curious about what I packed on my last trip and lo and behold- I had posted it! The online ordering and pick up was awesome, I hate navigating strange stores trying to find what I need, it seems unreasonably stressful. 

As mentioned earlier, our condo resort was on Disney property, which meant we got to go under the magic archway to stay in the Disney bubble all week. It was lovely! All drives to the parks were quick and it was easy to navigate. 

Our resort had the *best* pools and we enjoyed all of them except one. The favorites were the pirate pool or the one with the lazy river. These pools both had zero depth entries that made it easy for the girls to enjoy the water without me worrying a ton about them. The lazy river pool was the busiest but none of the others were at all. It was also very cool when we were there, only in the low 70's so that may have something to do with it as well. :) 

I think the biggest conflict I felt was visitng the parks and enjoying the resort. If we stay here in the future, I would love to build in more time just to enjoy the resort, maybe two whole days. Although I am not sure I would be able to hold myself to that with the lure of Disney right around the corner!

We had brought our own towels but the towel situation was well thought out and we even had a dryer at the condo to keep our towels from being soggy all the time. 

We rented a stroller again from Kingdom Strollers and it was there when we arrived and worked great for us the whole week. It was only about $65 for the whole week and we got good use out of it. A few times we even used it to get the girls up to the condo and it was handy in parking lots as well. I 100% recommend using a stroller company vs. the in-park strollers, it is nice having a place to store all your junk. Although I am looking forward to going stroller free for our next trip, it does have its advantages (like cup holders!). 

I was surprised to see this HUGE truck full of strollers arriving at our resort right in front of us. I would love to see how their operation works, we saw tons of their strollers in the parks and their list of resorts they deliver to includes everywhere. 

Our last day at the condo was probably my favorite. We had hustled to get everything packed up and then headed out to the pool to enjoy it for an hour before it was time to head to the airport. It was a beautiful day and it felt good just to relax and soak up the kids having fun. Even Scott got in on the action! It was the only time the waterslide was open the whole time we were there so that was awesome! This pool was right outside our tower and we loved the little kiddie pool as well as the BAR. :) 

Tourist mom- no, this is not my Halloween costume. :) 

Soon enough we were on our way back to DSM. I forget how busy the MCO airport is as we have usually flown into Sanford on our trips. It took forver to get seated and eat lunch and I had a hard time dealing with that plus tummy troubles from my flight anxiety. Next time I will know better!