We’ve been home from our Walt Disney World trip now for a little over a week and I have finally recovered. Taking an infant definitely made the trip different from any trip we have ever taken. Molly Kate did so good on the trip and Emily and Jacob had a lot of fun showing her all their favorite attractions and introducing her to their favorite characters.
I mentioned before we left that we were staying at the Contemporary on this trip thanks to my dad. Since we drove down, we were able to trick the kids. They thought that we were going to the Contemporary to take a picture for the blog, something they are very used to, and told them that we were going to try our MagicBand on a room to see if it opened. When it did, my oldest refused to go in and said we were being bad and she didn’t want any part of it. Once we convinced her that we were in fact staying there, she was over the moon excited.
Having the baby with us meant that we went at a different pace than usual. We usually have a specific touring plan and get to the parks at rope drop. Since I had to base everything around when Molly Kate needed to eat and sleep, we decided to just go with the flow.
Most mornings, Jason would take the other 2 to the park for rope drop and I would meet them about an hour or two later. We utilized both the Fastpass+ system and parent swap and took Molly Kate on the rides that she was able to enjoy. Her favorite ride was Winnie The Pooh and she loved Dumbo and Toy Story Mania.
We rented a stroller from an off-site company, but she mainly wanted me to wear her. So most of the time, I found myself sitting and people watching with her strapped to my chest.
Since I am breastfeeding, I utilized the Baby Care Centers in every park. It gave us a chance to unwind in the air conditioning. I even talked with a few moms who were on their first trip and didn’t know about parent swap. I was able to teach them and help them enjoy the rest of their trip.
We spent most of our time at the Magic Kingdom and I believe the kids rode every single ride there. They managed to make it on Seven Dwarfs a total of 13 times and only once did they stand in the hour long line. Yes, that was something new for us too. We have never waited more than 30 minutes in a line (and I would say that is very rare), but they wanted to see what the queue was like and they were eager to ride it again. We also had a total of 5 Fastpass+ reservations for 7 dwarfs and we utilized Parent Swap. Then we got the bonus Fastpass ticket at Cosmic Rays.
The Wizarding World of Harry Potter was absolutely amazing! My husband took the older 2 to ride attractions for most of the day and I was able to take the baby and throughly tour WWoHP. She even slept on me for the Olivanders presentation in both Hogsmeade and Diagon Alley. The wait times were what we had hoped to find at Disney World. Everything was 5 – 20 minutes including Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey. I decided to ride it and I was glad I did, but I don’t think I will be on it again anytime soon. I definitely felt nauseated after that ride.
We went to the Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party for the first time. Once the party started at 7 pm, the crowds cleared out and the lines dropped significantly. I saw a wait time of just 10 minutes for Space Mountain! The kids were able to ride Barnstormer 8 times in a row while we stood in line to meet Goofy and Donald. We found the attraction lines to be short but the character lines were long!
The parade was the best part! We grabbed a seat in Frontierland for the 10:30 parade and we didn’t have to wait long for it to start. We also sat in Fantasyland for Hallowishes and that was AMAZING! We also made sure to view it from the Contemporary a few days later. I highly recommend the party and we want to make plans to attend the Christmas party.
Overall, the trip was absolutely amazing and I am so glad that we went. I mentioned before that we scheduled this trip during the specific week of October 11th – 18th because it is our dark week. I had a few rough emotional moments but overall it was hard to be depressed at Walt Disney World! Check out my 3 super sweet kiddos with the balloon we got for Andrew.
The group trip events were a lot of fun. I was so glad that a handful of my readers were able to join us on the trip. I got to know one reader and her family very well and the kids had so much fun meeting everyone. We are talking about trying to put a trip together for dates that qualify for FREE dining.
So there you have it! If you have any questions about the trip or Disney World questions in general, feel free to post them below.
Is the bonus fastpass a regular thing they are doing at Cosmic Ray’s? Are any other restaurants doing that too? Thanks :)
How fun! We are also wanting to visit the WWOHP when we go to Disney World in February. What hotels do you recommends that is close to both. We would love to stay at one of the Disney hotels. Do you know what days the have to free dining plans? thank you
Will you be posting a summary of your expenses this trip? I always love seeing how your budget was spent – helps me to plan mine with a little tweaking here and there! :)
I just love this page. My family and I are disney junkies and this is such a fun way to save for our big trip in March. Thank you!
It looks like you all had such a magical time! Please keep us all posted about doing this with the free dining!
I’m glad to hear you enjoyed the WDW Halloween Party. We went to the DL Halloween party last Friday (10/24). I love Disney and like your family, we try to go every year. However, I was greatly disappointed in the DL Halloween Party. The lines for both rides and characters were significantly longer during the party than they were during the day at the park. Haunted Mansion hit 1.5 hours, and the lines for the characters were all at least 50 people long. Even the lines for the treat stations were crazy long. I purchased the PhotoPass+ this trip specifically for the character pics we would get while wearing our costumes…we only ended up getting 2 pics because the lines were sooooo long. Considering the party is only 5 hours, if we had actually waited in line for the characters and Haunted Mansion, we would have only been able to do like 4, maybe 5 of them. For $70 I was so disappointed and didn’t find the party to be worth it.
Did you eat at Be Our Guest by chance? We were there last week (in MK on the 21st) and were being told that you had to stay in a Disney resort AND get a fastpass to even have lunch there! My girls were so disappointed and the cast members didn’t seem to know much about it. I have never heard of Disney requiring you to stay on site for ANYTHING in the park…it should all be included in your ticket! I am totally fine with making dining reservations, that is understandable. But to not know that a quick serve lunch would be unavailable ahead of time was absurd! Also had a really tough time with the new Fastpass+ system… any pointers on how to use it better? We are Annual Passholders and honestly after this trip may not renew.