Disney (Once)!
"Laughter is timeless, imagination has no age, dreams are forever" - Walt Disney
My girls are not (and have never really been) Disney super-fans. This made it easy for us to take the "one and done" approach when planning our trip to Disney World. At the risk of disappointing hard core Disney-goers, Disney World intimidated me (and I wasn't all that excited to go) but I knew we would regret it if we never experienced it with our kiddos. And in the end, I'm SO glad we did this trip with our kids and I'm so glad we did it when we did. We decided to go at the beginning of November and the weather was great and the crowds were not overwhelming. Our girls were 10 and 8 and for us, those ages were the absolute sweet spots. They had the stamina, excitement, and appreciation we were hoping for and we came away with some really great memories.
I solicited the advice of Disney Expert Dani Garcia from Glass Slipper Concierge who took our preferences and helped us map out a great itinerary. Our best first decision was to stay at the Four Seasons Resort Orlando. The resort is Disney luxury and the kids genuinely loved the resort and its amenities as much as they did the parks. For my husband and I, it offered us a luxurious home base to come home to after long days in the parks. The resort offers complimentary transportation to the parks, great restaurant options, and tons of fun resort activities. We loved the 5-acre water park and the rock climbing wall as well as the gaming center and outdoor lawn games. Don't miss dinner at Ravello, the resort's modern Italian restaurant. It was our favorite meal of the trip. And we loved grabbing breakfast and coffee each morning at Lickety Split before heading into the parks. Tip: Book your room and prepay in advance to get a discounted room rate. You will not be disappointed because let's be honest, you will never go wrong staying at the Four Seasons.
We spent five nights and visited three parks - Epcot, Magic Kingdom, and Animal Kingdom. One entire day was spent just enjoying the resort. Navigating the parks, lines, rides and the Disney App could be a whole blog post in and of itself and there are far more qualified people to offer that advice so I'll just say we found it manageable with Dani's guidance.
The best second decision we made was to splurge on a private VIP tour for a day. The private VIP tour offers private transportation and an entirely customizable itinerary designed to make the most efficient use of your time. We booked a seven hour private VIP tour (seven hours is the minimum, ten is the maximum) and decided to use our time exploring Magic Kingdom. Many choose to split their time between two parks and this is entirely possible with a VIP tour, but we wanted to make sure we got in all of Magic Kingdom in one day. The private tour isn't a small investment. Tours run $450-$900 per hour but for us it was 100% worth every penny (and then some) and if you can swing it, I can't recommend it enough. We were picked up at our resort at a time of our choosing and a Disney Tour Guide rolled out the red carpet for us (literally and figuratively). For seven hours our Guide bounced us around the park from attraction to attraction with front-of-the-line access and personalized perks. We did every attraction in the park (except Space Mountain which my girls weren't up for) with a stop for lunch and snacks in 7,500 steps and the kids' (and adults') stamina and joy still entirely intact! At the end of our time together our guide dropped us off at the Liberty Tree Tavern for dinner and then afterwards we made our way to the Magic Kingdom Fireworks Dessert Party. This was our third best decision. Tickets to the Seats and Sweets dessert party provide for a private table with a beautiful view of Cinderella's castle and the fireworks show while enjoying a dessert buffet, cocktails, and not to mention the opportunity to avoid all the crowds. It was truly a magical day for us. Tip: Book your VIP tour to start at 10am instead of first thing in the morning. You have front-of-the-line access anyway and this way you can go right from the tour to dinner to the dessert party and it doesn't feel like too long of a day.
Our other days were spent enjoying Epcot and Animal Kingdom. Animal Kingdom was home to some of our favorite attractions like the Kilimanjaro Animal Safari (which we did twice) and Avatar Flight of Passage. We navigated these parks on our own and it was entirely manageable. We definitely felt like using the VIP tour time was best spent in Magic Kingdom where the lines are generally longer and there's more ground to cover.
Our girls came away from this trip saying it was their favorite trip we'd taken to-date and frankly the adults enjoyed it just as much! We got to enjoy all that Disney had to offer but in a way that perfectly suited our family. It was surprisingly low-stress, super fun, and low-key luxurious. I'm sure the girls would be excited to go back someday but frankly I'm not sure it could ever live up to this experience. So, we will just be grateful for the memories. It really was magical.
Our itinerary highlights:
Day 1: Arrive and spend afternoon at leisure exploring the Resort. Dinner onsite at The Lobby Bar. I'm not sure I should admit this but hilariously our girls love a good lobby bar restaurant. This made for a super easy and relaxed meal and the food is great!
Day 2: Epcot with dinner in the park at Space 220 (super cool and food was better than expected)!
Day 3: Private VIP Tour Magic Kingdom with dinner in the park at Liberty Tree Tavern (cute with family style Thanksgiving feast) and Dessert Party to watch the Fireworks show
Day 4: Day at Leisure at the Four Seasons. We had dinner reservations at Capa, the resort's steakhouse for dinner but we ended up cancelling because we all wanted to do a more casual and relaxed dinner instead. So we ended up back at The Lobby Bar and it was just what we needed :)
Day 5: Animal Kingdom with dinner back at the Four Seasons at Ravello (modern italian - favorite meal)
