Sorry, I’ve been away from the blog for about a month now, helping my brother move to a new apartment and getting settled in.
I did have time to book a trip to Disney World! We are leaving May 5 and returning May 8. A short but hopefully fun filled trip.
Our party will include four adults and two children, ages 2 and 5. We are staying on-site of course, Port Orleans Riverside. We have already booked a Character breakfast at Play ‘N’ Dine at Hollywood and Vine at the Hollywood Studios Park. We haven’t experienced this one before and it should be fun. There will be Jojo and Goliath as well as Leo and June from the Little Einsteins show. The kids love them and apparently they pull the kids into a song and dance routine. I can’t wait to see that!
My dilemma has been whether to try the Magical Express, the free Disney transportation option, or to stick with Murray-Hill Transportation, which I have used numerous times in the past. I have weighed the pros and cons of both. I have also done my research and checked the reviews of Disney travelers who have used the Magical Express. Some think it’s great and it worked out quite well for them. Others have complained about long lines to check in at the airport before getting on the bus, some complained about having to stop at three different resorts before getting to theirs, and many complained about having to wait much more than the 3 or 4 hours they advertise for getting their luggage. The return trip to the airport is also scheduled more than two hours before the flight. If you happen to miss that bus, you are on your own to get to the airport. I don’t like sitting at the airport with kids for more than two hours before we board the plane. But hey; it’s free!
I have decided to use the tried and true MH Transportation again for this trip and here is why: They offer a 30 minute grocery store stop. This is important to us because my 2 yr. old granddaughter is lactose intolerant and we need to buy Lactaid milk for her. I haven’t seen that sold at the resorts or parks. It is always nice to pick up a few snack items as well. I also like the convenience of arriving directly to my resort without a lot of stops in between. Apparently the bus to Port Orleans Riverside stops at 3 different resorts prior to arriving at Port Orleans. We are arriving at 8:00 at night and I don’t want my luggage delivered at midnight or even in the wee hours of the morning like some people have complained about. We could pick up our own luggage to take on the bus, but that defeats the purpose of the Magic Express picking it up for you. I’m also leery of arriving there with multiple other families all trying to check in at the same time. Now granted, we could be the only people on the bus since we are coming in so late in the day, some people have had that experience. However, I don’t want to leave things up to chance. I guess I like to be more in control. They will pick us up two hours before our flight leaves which gets us to the airport at least an hour and a half early so by the time we check our luggage and make our way to the gate, we only have about ½ hour or 45 minutes to wait. Plus, our plane leaves at 8:50 p.m., so we can get a full day in at the park before they pick us up.
We had also planned to rent a double stroller at the parks for the two kids for three days. They have recently drastically increased the price of the strollers (from about $18 per day to $31) so now I’m also considering just getting a stroller from Murray Hill for $10 for the whole stay. More on that later.
Sunday, April 27, 2008
Friday, April 25, 2008
Toddler Rides: Magic Kingdom
WARNING: By taking a toddler on any of the rides below, you do have a significant risk of discovering the true meaning of the phrase "To Infinity and Beyond!" As it is a proven fact that toddlers are quite capable of reaching infinity before snack time and long after they have exhausted all of your energy reserves.
The vast majority of toddlers love the Tomorrowland Transit Authority, although one with a fear of the dark may dislike it when it goes through Space Mountain. They also will enjoy the Disney World Railroad-be warned, strollers can be a tricky issue for this ride. It may be a bit slow for you, but I suggest just doing a whole circuit in the train for fun rather than using it as a way to get around Magic Kingdom. Cinderella's Golden Carousel is another hit.
But then, we come to the "dark rides". Dark rides are those which are enclosed within a building such as Pirates of the Caribbean and the Haunted Mansion. Despite not being all that dark, Small World is also a dark ride and a very good one for toddlers at that. The song is really not as much of an earworm in the ride as people like to say. The earworm ride prize goes to the Carousel of Progress, which toddlers enjoy during the singing, but the rest is lost on them. However, it's always nicely air conditioned. And...I just cursed myself into having that song in my head for the rest of the night.
Dumbo, The Magic Carpets of Aladdin and Triceratops Spin are all basically the same rides, which toddlers enjoy. Dark rides, however are not created equal. The Maelstrom in Epcot, although mild on the thrills, has trolls that make it best avoided. While the arcade dark ride Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin at Magic Kingdom is not only a fun dark ride for teens and adults, there are buttons for toddlers to push! Going on this one with a toddler is tons more fun than actually racking up a high score..
The new additions to the Pirates of the Caribbean can be a bit scary to a toddler and the constant darkness in Haunted Mansion can be tough for some. It depends on the age. A younger toddler of 22-23 months may actually handle these better than even the most thrill-seaking two and a half year old who has reached an important cognitive developmental stage that makes them rather more sensitive. If they seem okay with those two rides, then you can give Peter Pan's Flight or Snow White's Scary Adventures a try.
An older toddler or a preschooler will likely enjoy the Tomorrowland Indy Speedway. Since it's on tracks they can even steer it themselves while an adult controls the gas pedal. The wait for this one can get pretty long and tiring, though. The Jungle Cruise varies depending on the toddler, as does the Enchanted Tiki Room, which can actually be alarming for them.
Of course, toddlers wouldn't be toddlers if they didn't prefer things like a box instead of the toy that came in it. You may find the best toddler attraction of all isn't even in Magic Kingdom; The Monorail. If you aren't in a rush to get back to your resort, try going around on this once, or twice, or to the toddlerth power. (The field of mathematics doesn't recognize this as a legitimate exponent, but only because the combined mind power of the whole field throughout all of history and the future is unable to calculate a number that goes that high. However, it can easily be reached by all toddlers merely by using the word "again!")
The vast majority of toddlers love the Tomorrowland Transit Authority, although one with a fear of the dark may dislike it when it goes through Space Mountain. They also will enjoy the Disney World Railroad-be warned, strollers can be a tricky issue for this ride. It may be a bit slow for you, but I suggest just doing a whole circuit in the train for fun rather than using it as a way to get around Magic Kingdom. Cinderella's Golden Carousel is another hit.
But then, we come to the "dark rides". Dark rides are those which are enclosed within a building such as Pirates of the Caribbean and the Haunted Mansion. Despite not being all that dark, Small World is also a dark ride and a very good one for toddlers at that. The song is really not as much of an earworm in the ride as people like to say. The earworm ride prize goes to the Carousel of Progress, which toddlers enjoy during the singing, but the rest is lost on them. However, it's always nicely air conditioned. And...I just cursed myself into having that song in my head for the rest of the night.
Dumbo, The Magic Carpets of Aladdin and Triceratops Spin are all basically the same rides, which toddlers enjoy. Dark rides, however are not created equal. The Maelstrom in Epcot, although mild on the thrills, has trolls that make it best avoided. While the arcade dark ride Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin at Magic Kingdom is not only a fun dark ride for teens and adults, there are buttons for toddlers to push! Going on this one with a toddler is tons more fun than actually racking up a high score..
The new additions to the Pirates of the Caribbean can be a bit scary to a toddler and the constant darkness in Haunted Mansion can be tough for some. It depends on the age. A younger toddler of 22-23 months may actually handle these better than even the most thrill-seaking two and a half year old who has reached an important cognitive developmental stage that makes them rather more sensitive. If they seem okay with those two rides, then you can give Peter Pan's Flight or Snow White's Scary Adventures a try.
An older toddler or a preschooler will likely enjoy the Tomorrowland Indy Speedway. Since it's on tracks they can even steer it themselves while an adult controls the gas pedal. The wait for this one can get pretty long and tiring, though. The Jungle Cruise varies depending on the toddler, as does the Enchanted Tiki Room, which can actually be alarming for them.
Of course, toddlers wouldn't be toddlers if they didn't prefer things like a box instead of the toy that came in it. You may find the best toddler attraction of all isn't even in Magic Kingdom; The Monorail. If you aren't in a rush to get back to your resort, try going around on this once, or twice, or to the toddlerth power. (The field of mathematics doesn't recognize this as a legitimate exponent, but only because the combined mind power of the whole field throughout all of history and the future is unable to calculate a number that goes that high. However, it can easily be reached by all toddlers merely by using the word "again!")
Saturday, April 12, 2008
Waste Not, Bored Not
Once upon a time, I was in Frontierland in Magic Kingdom while everyone else in my party went on Splash Mountain. My twenty-two month old daughter was far too little to ride. Everyone had sort of meandered over, leaving me at a spot at stroller parking. It was meltingly hot. It would take about half an hour for my family to return.
This will happen sometimes, you don't want to or can't go on a certain attraction that everyone else is going on. Then you wait, twiddling your thumbs, for everyone to return. In my situation above, I'd had enough of that after ten minutes. It was hot, it was boring. My daughter wanted to be occupied. But most of all, I was wasting a half hour doing nothing! This is fine if you're at the point where you just want to sit for awhile and people watch. However, this was a spot with no seating available and it was early, I wanted to do something!
Even though we had made the fatal mistake of not arranging for a meeting place before the rest of the group broke off, all was not lost. I figured they would be coming back for their stroller sometime. So my daughter and I made use of the time by sharing a Mickey ice cream bar. That in turn required that I use some of the time doing melted chocolate clean-up duty and I might as well get a diaper change out of the way rather than at a more inconvenient time. We also wandered around in Splash Mountain's gift shop briefly. Then my daughter happily watched the deadly storks that like to attack people for their food. (Remember: Do NOT feed the birds, unless you like that Tippi Hedren look.)
This happened again at the Tower of Terror while doing the child swap. However, this time I right away started to make use of my time browsing the shops nearby. This strategy only backfires if your party returns wanting to browse the shops. In which case I merely told them to meet me at Sweet Spells further on down the street.
As long as it's clear that the whole party doesn't have to do absolutely everything together, this works well at making sure that there isn't one person in the group constantly shorted on fun and always waiting. So take a look around before the party splits up at anything else close that you can do. Take advantage of roaming characters, so that when everyone comes back beaming at how much fun something was, you can beam right back that you met Figment. No one gets tired or grumpy, toddlers can be occupied and everyone vacations happily ever after.
This will happen sometimes, you don't want to or can't go on a certain attraction that everyone else is going on. Then you wait, twiddling your thumbs, for everyone to return. In my situation above, I'd had enough of that after ten minutes. It was hot, it was boring. My daughter wanted to be occupied. But most of all, I was wasting a half hour doing nothing! This is fine if you're at the point where you just want to sit for awhile and people watch. However, this was a spot with no seating available and it was early, I wanted to do something!
Even though we had made the fatal mistake of not arranging for a meeting place before the rest of the group broke off, all was not lost. I figured they would be coming back for their stroller sometime. So my daughter and I made use of the time by sharing a Mickey ice cream bar. That in turn required that I use some of the time doing melted chocolate clean-up duty and I might as well get a diaper change out of the way rather than at a more inconvenient time. We also wandered around in Splash Mountain's gift shop briefly. Then my daughter happily watched the deadly storks that like to attack people for their food. (Remember: Do NOT feed the birds, unless you like that Tippi Hedren look.)
This happened again at the Tower of Terror while doing the child swap. However, this time I right away started to make use of my time browsing the shops nearby. This strategy only backfires if your party returns wanting to browse the shops. In which case I merely told them to meet me at Sweet Spells further on down the street.
As long as it's clear that the whole party doesn't have to do absolutely everything together, this works well at making sure that there isn't one person in the group constantly shorted on fun and always waiting. So take a look around before the party splits up at anything else close that you can do. Take advantage of roaming characters, so that when everyone comes back beaming at how much fun something was, you can beam right back that you met Figment. No one gets tired or grumpy, toddlers can be occupied and everyone vacations happily ever after.
Saturday, April 5, 2008
BYOF
There are three parts to the cost of Disney World, that people consider when planning a trip. Getting there, staying there and going through the gates. Once through the gates as noon approaches is when guests are reminded of that hidden fourth cost of Disney World. Food. Oh, and you're trapped inside the gates.
Unless you are staying off site, spending some money to eat in one of the Parks is inevitable and in some cases even desirable. (I'm thinking of you Gertie's ice cream! You too, sugar-free Kringla Bakeri og Cafe chocolate mousse!) Everyone has their favorite treat or place to eat at Disney World.
But it costs. It costs dearly. It will drain whatever money you brought along. That's why it's advisable to try to minimize the costs by bringing some food of your own. You can pack it in your suitcase if it's non-perishable or use a 30 minute shopping stop on your way from the airport to the World.
Breakfast items are especially handy, since this will save you having to fight the crowds of the resort food courts in the morning. It's also nearly a necessity when traveling with small children. The moderate resorts all have small refrigerators in the room. The value resorts offer them for rent, which isn't that great of a deal. Hauling a small cooler along may be a wiser option. In addition, most food courts have microwaves.
This is also the only way to accommodate some special dietary needs at Disney World. They do try to be very accommodating, but it doesn't always work out. My daughter is lactose intolerant, so bringing our own container of Lactaid milk is essential, even if we plan on eating breakfast in the food court. The results of letting her have lactose just once isn't something I want to have to deal with on my vacation. Many people who prefer Pepsi over Coke will find that they will need to bring their own 12-pack.
But most of all, just having one meal in your room each day will probably save an average of $8-10 per person.
Unless you are staying off site, spending some money to eat in one of the Parks is inevitable and in some cases even desirable. (I'm thinking of you Gertie's ice cream! You too, sugar-free Kringla Bakeri og Cafe chocolate mousse!) Everyone has their favorite treat or place to eat at Disney World.
But it costs. It costs dearly. It will drain whatever money you brought along. That's why it's advisable to try to minimize the costs by bringing some food of your own. You can pack it in your suitcase if it's non-perishable or use a 30 minute shopping stop on your way from the airport to the World.
Breakfast items are especially handy, since this will save you having to fight the crowds of the resort food courts in the morning. It's also nearly a necessity when traveling with small children. The moderate resorts all have small refrigerators in the room. The value resorts offer them for rent, which isn't that great of a deal. Hauling a small cooler along may be a wiser option. In addition, most food courts have microwaves.
This is also the only way to accommodate some special dietary needs at Disney World. They do try to be very accommodating, but it doesn't always work out. My daughter is lactose intolerant, so bringing our own container of Lactaid milk is essential, even if we plan on eating breakfast in the food court. The results of letting her have lactose just once isn't something I want to have to deal with on my vacation. Many people who prefer Pepsi over Coke will find that they will need to bring their own 12-pack.
But most of all, just having one meal in your room each day will probably save an average of $8-10 per person.
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