WDW Day 1: Downtown Disney

Walt Disney World. Wow. So amazing. So overwhelming. So FUN! After LilliAnn was born, I always said that I would take the kids to WDW for their 3rd and 5th birthdays. Jeb had never been to Disney before and I had only been once when I was about 12, so of course we were all very excited. WDW lets you start making reservations 180 days before your trip, and I was on the phone on day 180. I made all of our reservations through Walt Disney World and Walt Disney World dining. I booked all of our reservations in one day. Here is a list of my reservations:

-T. Rex Cafe (Downtown Disney)

-Hollywood & Vine, Disney Jr. Character Breakfast (Hollywood Studios)

-50s Prime Time Cafe (Hollywood Studios)

-Tuskerhouse Character Breakfast (Animal Kingdom)

-Bibbity Bobbity Boutique (Cinderella's Castle - Magic Kingdom)

-Cinderella's Royal Table (Cinderella's Castle - Magic Kingdom)

-Chef Mickey's Character Breakfast (The Contemporary Resort)

-The Pirate's League (Adventureland - The Magic Kingdom)

I had Akershus Banquet Hall princess dinner booked at Epcot, but since we decided to do two days of Magic Kingdom instead and we were already doing a princess dinner at Cinderella's Castle, I cancelled this in exchange for The Pirate's League for Reid. I plan on booking this for our next trip, as well as a couple of the character breakfasts at The Grand Floridian Resort. If your kids like Winnie the Pooh and Friends, I would book the character breakfast at the Crystal Palace at the Magic Kingdom. My kids aren't really into Winnie the Pooh, so I didn't make reservations for that one. 

We did the Disney Dining Plan and I highly recommend this. We did the "middle" dining plan which included one table meal a day, one quick service meal a day, and one or two snacks a day - per person. Most of the character breakfasts/dinners use two table meals/person, so we still had to pay for some of our table/sit down meals. The next meal plan up came with two table service meals a day and I knew we wouldn't be having two sit down meals a day at Disney with a three and five year-old! 

Our meal plan worked out great, except that Jeb kept forgetting to use the meal plan when he bought snacks in the parks, so we ended up with about 12-15 snacks left on our plan when we left. 

People that are planning Disney trips have asked and so I don't mind telling...after it was all said and done (spending money and all), we probably spent about $12,000-$14,000 on our Disney vacation. You could definitely do it much cheaper (and you can do it for much more - you can hire a personal tour guide to get you VIP access to everything for $100/hour - we almost did this for our Magic Kingdom days), but we did almost everything and I had made a ton of reservations. You pay a lot more to stay on property, especially at one of the Deluxe Resorts, but it is SOOOOO worth the money! A big advantage is that if you stay at one of the Disney Resorts, you can use the Fast Pass machines on certain rides. This ticket "saves" your place in line, and you can come back to the ride at the time that is on your ticket and get right on the ride! By using Fast Passes and my AMAZING itinerary (more on this - I researched and stayed up MANY MANY nights to plan out each of our days), we hardly ever had to stand in any lines! 

After asking friends on Facebook and doing some internet research, I chose the Contemporary Resort...mostly because of convenience. 

#1. Because it is the closest hotel to the Magic Kingdom and right in the middle of everything

#2. Because the monorail runs through the lobby

#3. Because Chef Mickey's restaurant is there and we had reservations booked

#4. Because it was a Disney Deluxe Resort

#5. Because I really wanted to stay at the Grand Floridian, but I heard it was in the process of a remodel  and construction, so this was my next choice

The Contemporary was very nice and definitely convenient. We loved the rooms and had the most amazing view of Cinderella's castle from our balcony. For our next trip we will probably choose the Grand Floridian because it is a little nicer resort, and our stay will probably be a bit shorter. The monorail comes to this resort as well. Also, there are a couple of restaurants and character dining opportunities at the Grand Floridian that I want to try on our next stay. (The monorail only travels to the Magic Kingdom and Epcot parks.)

Because I booked our trip through Disney, we took Mickey's Magical Express motor coach from the airport to our hotel. Our bags had a yellow resort tag and were handled separately, so it was nice not to have to worry about going to baggage claim. The bus was very comfortable and it was about a 30 minute bus ride to the Contemporary from the airport.

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back of the Contemporary Resort

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Contemporary Lobby

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Taking a rest at the hotel before heading to Downtown Disney

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We arrived at the resort around 1 p.m. and our first stop after checking out the rooms was Downtown Disney. This isn't considered a Disney park, so park tickets/cards are not required. 

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Checking out the map

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Getting used to their "ears"

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Reid could not have been more excited!

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Downtown Disney is full of GREAT shopping! 

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This was Reid's first site of a Disney character - a Buzz Lightyear statue outside of the toy store!

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The toy store was AMAZING! Of everything in that place, LilliAnn begged me for the Cinderella castle. I should have had it shipped home!

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There was a huge princess room with entire sections dedicated to each Disney princess. Can you guess what our favorite section was?

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The weather was absolutely GORGEOUS! Upper 70s and low 80s the entire week!

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Amazing topiaries! Epcot is full of these beautiful little wonders, but we chose to skip Epcot this trip and spend two days at the Magic Kingdom because of my kids' ages.

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Downtown Disney Carousel Fun!

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Downtown Disney and the Magic Kingdom both have a Bibbity Bobbity Boutique, but we chose the one at Cinderella's castle because we had reservations to eat in the castle right after our boutique appointment. I'm guessing that the one in Downtown Disney is probably less busy. 

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There was an entire "Disney" sports store! Reid was in heaven!!

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After shopping for our autograph books (these are VERY important because the kids really get into the whole autograph thing - make sure you get a "fat" pen because it is easier for the characters to sign with these) and a few small souvenirs, the kids spotted the face painting stand. Warning: These are EVERYWHERE at WDW and cost about $15 a face. But, this was one of my kids' favorite things to do each day, so I thought it was definitely worth the extra money. 

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LilliAnn chose the Minnie Mouse face this time.

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Reid chose the dragon!

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This is World of Disney, the biggest store at Walt Disney World. It has anything and everything Disney that you could ever want or think of!

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Our first picture with "Cinderella."

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A ship and a dragon made entirely of Legos...AMAZING! 

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This dragon was in the water outside of the Lego store and was made of Legos as well. Reid thought all of the lego displays were super awesome!

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The Toy Story one was my favorite!

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Before heading into the Lego store, we had to make our 3:00 reservations at the T-Rex Cafe. This is where we had Reid's special birthday dinner. 

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The T-Rex Cafe is kind of like a Rainforest Cafe, only with a prehistoric theme and dinosaurs. Of course the dinosaurs roar and move, so Reid thought the place was pretty cool...definitely a little boy's dream! There is even an "Ice Cave" with ice age-type animals that you can eat in. The ice cave continuously changes colors and makes for a really neat dining experience.

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The food was very good and there was definitely a lot to look at during dinner. This makes for a great dinner with kids because they never get bored and it's ok if they walk around the restaurant and check things out! The aquariums were beautiful! I heard that the Wolfgang Puck Express restaurant in Downtown Disney is also great, so I definitely want to try that on our next visit.

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Reid's birthday dessert - smoking volcano explosion!

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This hot air balloon takes you 400 feet up in the air! The kids didn't seem very interested and it would have cost about $150-$200, so we decided to skip it this time.

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Disney is SO CLEAN! EVERYWHERE! I love how there is never any trash lying around and how the bathrooms are always nice and clean. 

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On our way back to the exit, we stopped at the Lego store. I thought Reid was only interested in Duplo Legos, but I found out here that he actually is getting to the age where he loves the regular "big boy" Legos! 

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He stayed here to play outside the Lego store for almost an hour!

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Sis had fun posing with the Lego family.

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And with Sleeping Beauty (A.K.A. Princess Aurora)

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The kids thought that the most fun thing of the day was the little train ride at Downtown Disney. Good thing we hadn't been to any of the parks yet, or this little train would have seemed like an old toy!

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This picture was taken outside of the pin shop. At Disney World, collecting pins is a really big deal. You wear a lanyard with lots of different Disney pins and you can go around trading them with other people in the parks or with Disney cast members (this is what they call the workers at WDW). I'm glad my kids are still too young to get into the whole pin thing, because those pins can get really expensive, and I'm sure we would have them all lost in no time!

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Before we got back on the bus to the hotel, the kids begged to get wet. Of course we said yes, we were at the happiest place on Earth! 

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Such a wonderful day, but it was only the beginning to the trip of a lifetime... (stay tuned!)