Our First Trip to Disney World

I have dreamed of going to Disney World for many years. My love of Disney started when I went to Disneyland for Magic Music Days. My High School choir took a trip every other year to Disneyland and we performed in the Carnation Plaza Gardens. I had so much fun and was sad to leave. Since, I had experienced Disneyland already I knew I wanted to see Disney World one day.

Now, I was a mother of 4 and still had not gone to Disney World. Therefore, I knew if I didn’t make a goal to go it would never happen. So, I set a date and saved enough money to take our first trip to Disney World. I planned and saved for 3 years. I watched YouTube videos and read blogs about Disney World to prepare for the trip. Our first ever vacation to Disney World was in December 2019.

I decided the beginning of December would be a good time to visit because the weather is cooler. Also, I knew I had a chance that my trip would be during the free dining offer. But 2019 was a weird year for free dining so that didn’t work out. Also, I booked 500 days out, so my vacation package was cheaper than if I had changed it to get free dinning.

We stayed at the Caribbean Beach Resort for 6 nights in a preferred room. This was great because it was close to the bus stop and the town center. I’m definitely glad I paid a little more for the preferred room. We spent five days in the parks 2 days at Magic Kingdom and a day at each of the other parks.

At the time of our first trip to Disney World, Candon was 10, Zachary 7, Ezra 3, and Alexandra was 18 months old. Kids under 3 years old don’t cost anything and can eat off your plate for free. I rented a double stroller from Magic Strollers. The best thing about those strollers is how much shade they provide. The stroller I own doesn’t provide a lot of shade and all my kids burn easily. For that reason, I rented a stroller instead of using the one I own. Luckily, no one got sunburned on our trip. We spend all day in the parks so Ezra and Alexandra took their naps in the stroller. At home they sometimes have a hard time falling asleep. So, I was happy that they fell asleep so easily in the stroller.

We had breakfast at Crystal’s Palace. I booked a reservation at 8:15 a.m. that way we could get in the park before it officially opened. I got some great pictures of the kids with the Pooh characters. The characters came around twice and we had plenty of interaction with them. Our table was by the door so we were one of the first to have characters at our table.

We paid to do the After Fireworks Dessert Party at the Magic Kingdom. What I liked most was having a designated place to sit for the Fireworks. Since I have 4 kids I didn’t want to worry about finding a place to sit and then waiting an hour for the show to start. The desserts tasted okay, much smaller than I was expecting, but that’s not a big deal since it was a buffet. But the kids were tired and didn’t eat as much as I would have expected. The Happily Ever After Fireworks are the best I have ever seen. Disney really knows how to do fireworks.

Zachary loved the rides, that’s all he wanted to do. His favorite ride was Slinky Dog Dash. Candon wasn’t as big of a fan of the thrill rides. His favorite ride was Peter Pan’s Flight. My favorite ride was Toy Story Mania. It was a walk on because we rode it just before Jingle Bell Jingle Bam started. I was lucky and got some great fastpasses. I was able to get fastpasses for Peter Pan’s Flight, Seven Dwarfs Mine Train and Slinky Dog Dash.

Satu’li Canteen was my favorite restaurant out of all the ones we ate at. I ate the Slow-Roasted Sliced Grilled Beef Bowl with noodles and creamy herb dressing. It was delicious. The dressing was very rich so next time I will ask if I can get it on the side.

• 

• 

Candon and Zachary built droids at the Droid Depot. It didn’t take long for them to build their droids. Before the trip I reserved a time slot at night to build the droids. Because, I knew it would be difficult to carry around 2 big droids all day. Trying to get on the skyliner was quite the challenge. We had 2 little kids to help get on, plus a stroller, the 2 droids, and a few other purchases.

• 

• 

• 

Tim went to Savi’s Workshop to build his lightsaber. When you build a lightsaber you can take one other person with you so, Zachary went and took some pictures.

Disney World was a lot of fun, as well as stressful taking care of four kids. It was also very tiring. We made it to the parks early every morning. This was quite the accomplishment since we were so tired by the end of each night. However, it was worth it and I already can’t wait to go back.

If you are like me and have dreamed of going to Disney World you can make it happen. Make a plan. Find out how much it will cost then figure out how much you need to save and save a little each month. Even if it takes five or ten years to save the money it’s worth it.

If you have any questions about our trip or would like to tell me about your first visit, comment below. I would love to hear your stories. Also, If you want me to explain in more detail about something I wrote let me know.