Back in 2017, my family asked me where was our next summer family vacation spot. As a child, I’ve always wanted to go to Disney World so that is what I suggested. At the time my oldest daughter was eight years old, and I thought it would not only be a perfect family vacation but also a memorable one. I was super excited when everyone else jumped on board with the idea and the the best family vacation was in the works!

Planning Our Trip to Disney World

We definitely were Disney World newbies! When planning for our trip, I didn’t do much researching. I practically dived in head first. We decided to stay in Orlando for 4 nights and 5 days. We designated 1 day for travel and 3 days to explore the parks and tour the city. One thing that I will mention is that we were coming from Louisiana, so that was about a 13 hour drive. The first day, we spent traveling and didn’t arrive in Orlando until later on that night. We purchased our theme park passes from a gas station not too far from our hotel. They offered a 2 day theme park pass + 1 day free water park pass for the price of Disney’s 2 day pass. It was around $270 per person, which wasn’t bad since we were getting the water park for free.

Epcot Theme Park

The first park we visited was EPCOT. This park is more kid friendly. It is filled with the classic Disney characters, such as Mickey & Minnie Mouse. We arrived at this theme park at about noon. We quickly learned that we should have arrived earlier. Consequently, it was flooded with people and the lines were ridiculously long. We didn’t know about “Fast Pass,” so it took us quite a while to get from one attraction to the next.

Fast Pass

Originally I was under the impression that fast pass only worked with the $30 wristband they offered. You actually can access Fast Pass through the free My Disney Experience Mobile App. Fast Pass allows you to reserve access to theme park attractions, entertainment, and character greetings. You will have little no wait time for those attractions you reserve. With this option you can reserve up to 3 attractions per day. When we learned about this feature, we were able to navigate through the park at a much quicker rate. Three attractions, may seem like its not a lot, but scheduling out the three attractions with the highest wait time, can definitely save you hours from standing in line.

Soarin’ Around the World

My favorite attraction at Epcot was Soarin’ Around the World. This attraction is described as “an exhillarating ariel expedition,” on Disney’s website, and THAT IT IS! You are raised high in the air and are swept from one scenic location to another. We visited places such as the Swiss Alps, Greenland, Australia, Great Wall of China, and the Fiji islands. The experience was surreal and to top all of that off the scents changed from scene to scene. It was like a 3-D experience and it felt like I was actually there!

Epcot Food

Just as with any theme park, the food is definitely pricey! The theme of Epcot is “Travel around the World,” so the cuisine options were a little overwhelming. There were restaurants that featured different culture’s cuisines. We settled on American —only because my daughter is a picky eater! Next time I visit Disney World, I definitely want to try the different restaurants.

Magic Kingdom Theme Park

On Day 2 we decided to go to Magic Kingdom! This was the theme park I was most excited about! We learned from Day 1, that we needed to get to the park earlier, so instead of arriving at noon, we arrived at about 9:00 am. We utilized Fast Pass, and the experience went much smoother.

Splash Mountain

This theme park is filled with rollercoasters, which is my favorite type of ride. We utilized Fast Pass and reserved our spot on Splash Mountain. This ride was filled with many dips and turns. The anticipation of the drop is what really makes this ride fun. Every time I thought– “Ok, this is it,” it wasn’t! This attraction is known for its iconic 50 foot drop! This was one of the last rides we went on, and definitely was the icing on the cake!

Typhoon Lagoon Water Park

Finally, on day 3, we went to Disney’s Typhoon Lagoon Water Park! I love the water and especially love swimming, so this was right up my alley! This water park has a tropical paradise theme, they even have real sand. There is a wave pool that is considered to be the largest wave pool in North America. It literally felt like I was on the beach! We had a blast sliding down the “Crush ‘n’ Gusher water coaster and enjoyed the wave pool to the fullest. The anticipation of the typhoon was the best part! My daughter and my mom had a blast!

Final Thoughts

I am already in the midst of planning our second trip to Disney World, this time we will have an extra guest, Mackenzie (1 years old). Unfortunately, the pandemic halted our plans to go this year, but I’m still excited about our future trip!

Here are some things I want to do different to make this trip even better:

• Family t-shirts. I saw so many customized family t-shirts and next time this will be a must
• Longer Stay. I learned quickly that we need more days to fully explore Disney. Next time I want to stay at least for a week.
• Bring Snacks & Drinks. Disney allows you to bring food and drink into the park. I definitely will bring water and different snacks to snack on, because it is very hot and the snacks and water are very expensive!
• Utilize Fast Pass. We learned about fast pass on day two, next time we will use Fast Pass every day we are at the theme park.
• Stay on Property for Perks. We stayed at a resort, that had a free shuttle to the Disney World parks, however it wasn’t an inclusive Disney Resort.

I must say that I had more fun on this family vacation than my daughter. It definitely brought out the kid in me! My mom and dad had a blast as well. To this day, my mom always rants and raves about how this was the best vacation she has been on, and let me just tell you, her and my dad are world travelers–lol!

Have you ever been to Disney World? What was your experience like? Let me know in the comments!