Time You Enjoy Wasting Is Not Wasted Time

On Friday it was time to head out to Karen’s grandparents. We had breakfast at the hotel and then headed out. Some things we learned from this trip:

If at all possible, stay at one of the park hotels. We stayed in the All Star Music, which had pools, food, and a playground right there. The bus service was great, no need to drive and park. Even still, you have to remember that taking the bus at best will take 20 minutes and our longest trip, including wait time, was about 45 minutes. This adds up.

If you are going to see the fireworks in the Magic Kingdom try to be closer to the front of the park (by the exit). We were in the very back of the park and it took us a very long time to get out of the park. Plus we had to wait for a second bus since the first one filled up. This made for a very long night.

If you have little ones it is totally worth renting a stroller if you didn’t bring one (or like us wanted one for the older kids). We would never have gotten as much in on Wednesday if we didn’t have the double stroller in addition to the single we brought with us.

If at all possible plan a day in the middle of the trip to not do any parks. Chill out at the pool and playground or something. That way you are not exhausted on the last days.

Don’t have a weekend in the trip, or maybe use Saturday as the chill day. We arrived on Monday and left on Friday. The parks and hotel (pool, food, etc) were pretty empty until Thursday. Then it took longer to do everything. Next time I think arriving on a Saturday or Sunday and leaving on a Friday might be best with a day ‘off’ on Tuesday or Wednesday. The only possible downfall is there may be more programming over the weekend.

Get a meal plan. Food is expensive, but with the meal plan it is already prepaid and one less thing to worry about. We got the Quick Service Dining Plan, which worked great for our family. We each, except for Erin, got 2 quick-service meals and 2 snacks a day. We managed to use them all except for one meal. We also each got a refillable mug to use at the hotel cafeteria. This was very handy.The food at the hotel cafeteria was very good and it was very convenient to be able to grab food before going to and after getting back from the parks. The servings were big enough that Erin had plenty to eat without us going over our allotment. All of the meals came with so much food, it was really great.

This was taken in the main lobby of the hotel right before we left: