Top Ten Tuesday {Disney Edition}

If you are my friend you are probably really tired of hearing about my trip to Disney!

(I am sorry for that!)

However, I thought there were a few things that you should know if you are planning your first visit to Disney. I know, I know, there are a million blogs that are all about Disney. This is not one of them. I am no expert. I read those blogs and talked to several people who had been before to get some advice. There were a few things (hopefully 10 things) that I did not know going into it that I wished I had.

Here they are:

1. Think through the meal plan. Our meal plan was 1 snack, 1 quick service and 1 table service. The snack included pretty much anything you could buy in the park for under $5. This included drinks. I try not to drink a lot of soda (Remember that post about giving up Diet Coke?). You can get cups of ice water for free. So if you do that, you are getting something else to snack on. Quick service and table service include a side and a dessert along with the main part of your meal...hamburger, sandwich, salad, tacos...lots of options, and a drink. Sometimes for the table service you also get an appetizer.
Are you catching on here? This is a lot of food! I was happy to drink water all day, skip the snack (because I was so full from the meals) and eat quick service wherever we happened to be.
Some people might like to take the time to visit other resorts to eat and enjoying the convenience of the meal plan. Which is totally fine! All I am saying is really think about it. You might be able to save some money by not doing it.

2. Like I mentioned above you can get cups of water. However, if you are pushing a stroller, carrying a back pack and juggling a couple of kids I would highly suggest taking a water bottle to fill up. We did this and it was perfect! I didn't have to worry about spills, I filled it up whenever I could, and it fit nicely in the back pack.

3. I also mentioned the enormous amounts of food...Take some Ziploc baggies! There were several times the kids didn't eat all there food, but I knew in about 30 minutes they would be hungry. I wished I would have had a baggie to throw it in to take along.

4. Don't try to look fashionable. Did you see my pictures? Bad hair days, gym shoes, hoodies. I wanted to be comfortable. When you are walking from 8:00am to 11:00 pm it is wise to be comfy. Of course I would have loved to look cute, but this trip was not about that. The last thing I wanted was to be worrying about blisters. If you can pull fashionable and comfy off I say go for it!

5. Fast Passes are your friend. It took us a few days to figure this out. Saturday when we first got to the park we rode one ride, ate lunch then got a fast pass for Space Mountain. Not smart. We should have got the fast pass first, then ate lunch and rode the ride while we were waiting for the fast pass time. Some rides run out of fast passes really quick. Like Toy Story Mania. Sunday the fast passes for the whole day were gone by 11:00. We had gone straight to sign Broderick up for Jedi training so we missed the fast pass. We ended up waiting in line for about 40 minutes, which wasn't to bad. Looking back, I should have taken Broderick to sign up and Rob should have went straight for the fast pass at Toy Story Mania.

6. When a meltdown happens, just redirect. Overall, my kids were very good. Considering they were running on little sleep and busy all day. Meltdowns will happen and they will come in different forms for all kids. Friday, the last day we were at Magic Kingdom, Carys wanted to meet Tiana. It was the last princess she had to meet. We were waiting to watch a parade, so I walked her over. Tiana was there, but the line to meet her was closed. Tell that to a 5 year old little girl. She started to cry. Redirect people! Get your child's mind on something else...Get ice cream, go meet someone else, get on a ride, look in the shops, trade pins. I simply told Carys that Tiana had to leave to be in the parade so we would go watch it and see her then. And if we could we would meet her later. (We never did get to meet her.) Quickly Carys was just fine.

7. Give your kids a spending budget. There is so much to look at and buy and it is so easy to get wrapped up in wanting it all. The pins, the outfits, the hats and ears, the stuffed animals. So much cool stuff. We simply told the kids they had "X" amount of dollars and when it was gone it was gone. If they wanted to spend it all on pins that was fine. Of course we surprised them with a few things, but for the most part they spent the amount we gave them.

8. Do things even if you think you might not like them. We saw the Hall of Presidents and it was so cool. We also watching a show about the United States at Epcot that was also very cool. Chances are you aren't going to be able to do it all. We had 8 days and I think there were only a couple things at Epcot we did not do. Out of all that there is only one thing we probably not do again. (I am not telling what it is either!)

9. Where to stay? This is tricky, again. Think about how much you are going to be at the resort. We stayed at Animal Kingdom Lodge and it was gorgeous. It was neat to see the animals in the savannah. The difficult thing was, we were there much. We left each day around 7:30 or 8:00 and didn't get back until 11:00 each night. We pretty much saw the lobby and the hallway to our room. Some people are different, they may be there more. For first timers, you may be like us and want to see it all, or as much as you can. Which means you probably won't be at the resort much. Let's be honest, the value resorts are still Disney resorts. The same bed, the same staff, just different looking.

10. And finally, take an extra empty bag for the trip home. We took a carry on bag that could easily fit in one of the suit cases. It was empty when we left and full when we came home!

Most of all, have a good time! You know what your family likes, how they travel, what they will want to do. Like I said yesterday, you make it magical!

Today I am linking up with Oh Amanda and Top Ten Tuesday!