So here comes a week full of Disney! I know, I know. Go ahead unfollow me now, but I've been documenting our lives over here on this little ol' blog for almost nine years now and I'm certainly not going to leave out one of the most fun trips EVER!!!
Now, Chad and I had not visited Disneyworld in twenty-ish years, so you can only imagine how excited we were to be heading back and taking our oldest son for the first time to celebrate his 5th birthday! It's a trip I had dreamt of for so long (Seeing all the magic through his little eyes? The best.) and began planning around this time last year. We'd always thought we would take our oldest child before we had our second (that's what my parents did for me, before my sister was born, then we all went again once older) but our sweet Charlie was our little surprise of course. The best surprise. So I thought since Cade's birthday fell on the first weekend in February, which is one of the least crowded weekends at Disney, well...why not?
As much as we hated to leave our sweet Charlie, we felt it was best to keep him nice and cozy with Grami while we spent some one-on-one with Cade. We knew it would be a quick, jam packed (read: exhausting) trip and didn't think our 18-month-old was up for it quite yet. Now that it's all said and done, we look back and know we definitely made the right decision for us. Again, not for everyone to leave one child behind and well of course we sure missed him like c-r-a-z-y, but it was best for all.
At the time I decided to get serious about booking/planning, one of my friends/customers had just finished up her Disney training to be an authorized Disney travel agent last Summer. Her Facebook page is HERE. She's free of charge (gets paid by Disney, not you) and really helped me. I had no idea where to begin. All the dining reservations, FastPasses? What did all that even mean? No clue how to go about booking them, which ones were best, etc... and I really didn't have time to research and research... and research some more. I was overwhelmed. Jennifer got up at the crack of dawn and got everything booked based on what we had talked about / requested (she gives you a form to fill out to tell her more about the child's/family's preferences & we also met to talk about the trip) and we were all set. One day we even woke up and she had upgraded us from a value resort to Coronado Springs (which we loved) at no extra charge. It was all just because of a special promo that came about, which I would have never known about or thought to look for. To me, it was a no brainer to use her.
Look her up if you need help planning your next trip. She gave us a sweet little Disney goody bag to take with us and was just a text away if I had any questions on the trip. Everything was so organized and she had great recommendations. Also, trip ended up being a lot more affordable than I had expected. We used my Delta Skymiles that I'd been saving for a while so that is why we had a quick layover in Atlanta when leaving out of GSP, but yes the flights were FREE for all three of us. Next time (for our Charlie's 5th birthday, Lord willing. Only fair, right?) we hope to go for an entire week and we will definitely drive. You can take SO much more with you when driving, which I feel like we would need for a week. (More on that later). This was kinda like our little "get your feet wet" Disney trip.
So enough blabbing, here's a little bit about how I prepped for the trip and what we packed. Again, this was our first time in so many years that I was basically a "first-timer" again. This is just what worked for us.
First up, our MagicBands came in with luggage tags, but not with our Magical Express tags that you must put on your luggage when you are flying into Orlando airport and want your luggage to go straight to your room. Those are delivered separately. (which I was skeptical about, but all worked flawlessly. So much so that it was pretty magical, I must say)
One week before we left, "Mickey" left Cade a few prizes (the soaps were not to take on the trip, but just Method products I found on sale at TJ Maxx we could use at home) and all of his shirts for the trip. The shirts were made for us by one of my sweet ZTA sorority sisters who has a fabulous Etsy Shop, AWDesignsandMore. She does an awesome job with her appliquéd shirts and she makes the most adorable dresses too. Based out of Columbia, SC, she has so many cute things!
I packed these up, along with the rest of Cade's clothes and all of mine and Chad's things in ONE big suitcase (remember, we were flying Delta and that means $25 per checked bag). Chad thought we should have just taken two rolling carry ons but then again, we didn't want to have to fool with lugging them all around the airport. One big suitcase was easier and you better believe I strategically packed it and kept it at a whopping 48 pounds, right under the limit.
We tried to be minimal (it doesn't seem like it when you read below, but I swear I left out things like the glow sticks they recommend you take from the Dollar Tree... a stroller, etc...which we just said we wouldn't worry about and if he got tired in the parks, we would rent one. Fortunately he did great and we never needed one. He was a trooper) and tried to keep our packing list slim and trim. I did not pack all of those shoes for Cade in that first pic, but I did pack four pair and he only wore three sooo... note: pack two good pair of tennis shoes for kids [one to wear and one backup in case that one gives blisters, etc...] + one pair of flip flops for the pool and you're good. Here's a few things we made sure to take and were our three carryon items on the plane!
1. Cade's Mickey Mouse backpack - he carried all by himself and we kept super light. However, by the end of the trip we were stuffing so many souvenirs in it that Chad & I had to carry it around in the airport coming home!
- his ipad + headphones (he loved using his headphones to watch movies on the plane)
- coloring books/activity books (which he didn't really even use on the plane and never had time to use them in the room, because we were hardly ever there)
- Cade's sunglasses/sunglass strap
- MagicBands which we put on our wrists as soon as we landed at the Orlando airport
- gum for his ears popping on the plane
- Earplanes for ear pressure on the plane, but he only used once since the pressure never bothered him
2. Kavu Backpack. (shown in the background of the pic below) I purchased the black gingham one from David Lindsey Clothier in Uptown Greenwood. It's like the new fanny pack. Seriously. You just use it as a crossbody-backpack and swing it around to the front when you need to get something out of it. No taking it off your shoulders, none of that. Can you say convenient? We carried this on the plane, but this is also what we used in the parks everyday (along with my crossbody purse)
The version we got didn't hold a TON, but it held the following for traveling + each day at the parks:
- GoPro Session + floatie holder
- external power bank to use to charge iPhones (trust me. you will need)
- Cade's autograph book + Sharpie (recommend the "push top Sharpies bc easier to open, obviously and keep in Ziplock bag)
- extra pair of shoes for Cade and on the first day it held an extra pair for me because I didn't know how the Ugg Slip Ons would last (but they did. more on that later).
- Ziplock with meds (for both us and Cade, basically just tummy meds + Ibuprofen) , Neosporin and BandAids
- Tissue/small wipes
- Hand Santizer (hooked on to side for easy access)
- ponchos from the Dollar Tree in case of rain (Luckily we never had to use!)
- the tiniest travel size of sunscreen that came in one of my Birchboxes one time
- extra shirt for Cade just in case (never know when kiddos can spill the whole darn Mickey Mouse ice cream on them. If younger toddlers, extra underwear may be a must too)
- since we went in February, I packed an extra layer for Cade (lightweight sweater one day, pants another) just in case the temps dropped at night or if we started early in morning and he shed it later. For myself, I always just wrapped my jackets/sweaters around my waist.
What I wish we had also packed for the parks: more wipes (WetWipes, not just sanitizer) and if we were driving and had room to bring more, I would pack more snacks for each park day and as many bottled waters as possible. We probably should have taken a Swell bottle or something from home and filled it up, but the parks do offer free ice water and since it wasn't blazing hot we were really just fine with drinks during meals and whenever we got the urge for a snack.
3. Crossbody Purse. I purchased a neutral taupe/gold HoBo one years ago and I swear it has been the best purchase ever. It has compartments for everything inside, so I didn't even have to take my wallet. Invest in a neutral that you can wear with EVERYTHING, so it will be your one crossbody. In this I took...
- ID and cash. Even though everything is basically on your MagicBand, if you want adult drinks in the park, you need your ID and a little cash too. Plus cash for tipping Uber rides if we took them, etc... Honestly some have said you don't even need cash though! You can tip at restaurants and if you have dining plan, just use your MagicBands for it all.
- small MayBook given to me by a sweet friend that used to jot down rough plans for each day, even though the main plans (dining reservations, FastPasses, etc..) were all on my Disney App. Your phone battery WILL die fast at Disney parks, so it was nice to not have to check my phone 24/7 for plans and let's face it... sometimes I'm just a good ol' pen + paper type of gal.
- my powder + lipstick + chapstick because duh
- extra hair ties
- extra phone charger
- my iPhone (i didn't take my big Canon DSR camera. I took every photo on my iPhone 7)
- sunglasses because Florida = BRIGHT. I kept mine on me with a Lilly Pulitzer Sunglass Strap so it was easy to take on and off and not have them flying off my head during rides.
Plane selfie with my boy!
I think this was right when we landed in Orlando. Ready to start our adventure...
Our first flight left out of GSP at 5:40 am. (yes, meaning this mama got up about 2:30-3am to get ready and get everything loaded to leave our house by 4am since we had a 50 minute flight to GSP. Whew lawd). This picture was taken during our quick layover in Atlanta and as you can see, the sun had not even come up yet. Look at Cade posing with his "wings"...
He sat there during with head phones and iPad in hand. So grown.
He was just amazed at everything and I'm so proud of how well he did! We have a video of him skipping/walking to load the plane like it was nothing. At one time he was even holding my hand saying "It's ok mama". He's so brave.
next stop: Orlando, boarding Disney's Magical Express and heading to Animal Kingdom!
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