In 2019, we did kind of a crazy thing — we got annual passes to Disney World in Orlando. I feel like every time I tell someone that, I have to justify why because they aren’t cheap and we’re not rich by any means. So here goes my canned justification: Jason’s mom lives about an hour from Disney, so it gives us an extra excuse to go see her several times a year. Also, this was the last year that both of our kids would be free (kids 2 and under are free) for over half of the year, so we wanted to take advantage of only having to buy the passes for Jason and me.

In reality though, we just really like Disney and we wanted to spend our travel budget on it. It does help that we only had to buy two annual passes, and it’s nice to be able to see Jason’s mom while we’re there. But all justification aside, we like Disney and our kids have grown to love Disney over the last year.

We are probably slightly insane, but we actually went four times in 2019! The first time we went last year was in March over Brighten’s little Mother’s Day Out Spring Break. Grady was only three months old. Told you, insane!

We also went on a whim over Memorial Day weekend. We were planning to visit my parents in Destin, but the day before we were supposed to leave, my mom called and said she was super sick with a stomach bug. Poor Honey! Since we had a 2 year old and 5 month old, we said, “Thanks for the heads up!” and we started making other plans to avoid the virus. We had already packed for warm weather, we didn’t have plane tickets, and Jason had the vacation time already approved. So, we said, “What the heck?” and we drove to Orlando instead of Destin the next day.

Standing in front of the castle on our spontaneous May trip.

Our fall trip to Disney was for Morales Day (Brighten’s birthday and our anniversary), and it was the first time Brighten was REALLY into all of the Disney princess stuff. She’d been into Moana on our previous trips, but something about the princesses and the castle just really came alive for her in September.

Before we even purchased our annual passes, we’d planned to go to Disney right after Christmas with my family. So, it actually made it a little cheaper for our Christmas trip since we’d already purchased our passes. We rounded out the year with a trip to Disney which had us leaving on Christmas Day! Since Brighten had loved “the castle” so much in September, she was beside herself when we finally packed the car and got on the road on Christmas. She’d literally been asking every single day for three months when we were going to go “back to the castle with Honey and Poppy.”

Fam pic in front of the castle two days after Christmas 2019.

I’m by no means an expert, but with four Disney trips in one year, I’ve learned a few things that I thought might be helpful to share!

Disney Planner

Even though I’d booked hotels, FastPasses, restaurants, and more on my own for our first three trips in 2019, we decided to use a Disney travel agent for our Christmas trip since we were traveling with five adults and two children. We used Jean Norris of Family Fun Travels, and I cannot recommend her enough! She was great at helping us book everything we needed, from the hotel to planning out our days and helping us strategize our rides and restaurants throughout the days we were there. Planning services are free to you and me, so there’s really no reason not to give her a call or email her. She also had lots of helpful material for taking kids and what rides and restaurants her kids have grown to love most!

Parks

For most of our trips this year, we only spent two days in a park. When we went in September, we did three days, but we really only did half days for two of them. If you have a whole week to go and you want to put a fairly large chunk of money into your Disney vacation, then absolutely hit every park, maybe twice! But if you have little kids and a small to moderate budget, have no fear — you can still go! The way we usually do it is by planning two days in the parks. If you’ve never been (or your kids have never been) I’d recommending spending one whole day in the Magic Kingdom and then a get a hopper pass for the second day and do half my day in Animal Kingdom (go there first, they have more rides that you’ll want a FastPass for) and second is Hollywood Studios (more shows — easier to get in to without FastPass). We also really enjoyed EPCOT in May and September because that’s where Anna and Elsa are as well as the Frozen ride. They also have the Finding Nemo ride and a huge aquarium that we spent lots of time in (it was inside and air conditioned!).

Rides at Magic Kingdom

Absolutely get a FastPass for any of the big rides (the three mountains, Mine Train, etc.). Of course if you have little ones, they can’t do those, but there is something called a rider swap. Basically you tell them that you want to do a rider swap and they will let you go then the other adult with you will get to go.

My favorite rides for kids are: It’s a Small World (get a fp), Little Mermaid (get a fp), Peter Pan’s Flight (fp), Philhar Magic (don’t need fp), the carousel (don’t need fp if you do it early in the day), Magic Carpets (don’t need fp), and Brighten really liked the speedway in Tomorrowland (there may be a height limit for this one — I hung with a napping Grady while she rode it with Jason).

There are so many great shows on the castle stage so make sure to just get a schedule for the day and plan to catch some of those shows. Definitely stay for fireworks even though you’ll be wiped out. That’s the best part, and I cry every single time! Brighten loves them so much, and now Grady does too. In fact, when it’s Jason’s turn to put Brighten to bed at night, they watch YouTube videos of the fireworks together. It’s really sweet!

Bring a swim suit for kids and you can go cool off at the soak station over in Fantasyland. Disney is this kind of bizarre thing where adults spend the whole day on our feet walking and standing, but kids spend the whole day in a stroller. So, we’ve actually found that our kids have pent up energy while we’re in the parks. The Dumbo ride has a huge playground so that parents can sit and kids can play! You can tell them at the beginning of the line that you just want to play and they’ll let you in just to play for however long you want. It’s inside, air conditioned, and has lots of different slides and stuff. This area has also saved us in a rain storm when we just needed to stop and get our bearings for a little bit.

This is a weird, but necessary tip: we like to do a nice little rest in the Hall of Presidents. It’s air conditioned and dark, so easy to grab a little cat nap or just chill. Brighten also really liked the Country Bear Jamboree last time in between dinner and the fireworks! It was the perfect thing for her age to help us bridge that awkward time when she’s usually in bed, but we are still going strong in the park.

Restaurants in Magic Kingdom

If your kids are into the characters, I would definitely suggest a character meal. Crystal Palace has Winnie the Pooh and all of the Hundred Acre Woods characters. That’s what we did for dinner in December. My kids hated meeting the characters that time, but in the past we’ve done Chef Mickey’s at the Contemporary and Brighten loved it. I wish my kids would make up their minds — do we like characters or not?!

Grady’s face says it all! Sorry Pooh Bear!

I definitely recommend getting a reservation for lunch at Be Our Guest. That was probably our favorite this last time (note: if you’re on a dining plan and go to Be Our Guest for lunch, it’s considered a quick service). Liberty Tree Tavern also has really good food. I haven’t eaten there in a long time, but it’s one of my favorites!

Rides in Animal Kingdom

Definitely get a FastPass for the safari! That is one of our absolute favorite things in all of Disney. It’s really incredible to see the animals and it’s no small thing. We also love the Finding Nemo musical (don’t need a fp). It’s literally like a Broadway show! The Boneyard is a super cool park for the kids to play at in Dinoland. We went to It’s Tough to be a Bug’s show our first time in Animal Kingdom with B and she HATED it! We ended up walking out of it because she was screaming...oops!

Seeing the giraffes on the safari are our favorite!

Definitely plan ahead when you want to go see Festival of the Lion King — again it’s like Broadway quality and so fun for the kids! You don’t need a FastPass for it if you’re willing to get in like like 30-45 minutes early. We’ve done it with and without a FastPass and it hasn’t made much of a difference except what time you have to get there to wait in line.

Waiting for Festival of the Lion King with Honey and Poppy!

If you’re into non-little-kid rides, Expedition Everest is a really fun roller coaster. Pandora is a newer area of the park and they have the Flight of Passage, from Avatar, but we’ve never been able to get a FastPass for it and the wait when we were there was 230 minutes!! We did enjoy the Na’vi River Journey in Pandora though, and the kids can do it too, since there’s not a height limit. Definitely get a FastPass though — and if you’re not interested in any of the Pandora rides, at least walk through that area of the park because it’s super cool!

I discovered that roller coasters help me get a lot of stress out!

There are also lots of fun animal exhibits throughout Animal Kingdom. Brighten LOVED the gorilla exhibit and there are lots of things to stop and see between rides.

Restaurants in Animal Kingdom

We’ve eaten at the Tusker House (character dining with Mickey and friends) for lunch and it was delicious. It’s kind of Mediterranean food meets Southern food and I really liked the change of pace from the regular park food! We also really like Yak and Yeti. It’s also different food — more like rice and noodles.

If you like pineapple, find yourself a Dole Whip in Animal Kingdom! I got one and ate it in line for Lion King, which was the best decision of the day. They also make Dole Whip cocktails, which I imagine are amazing!

Hollywood Studios Rides

Hollywood Studios is less rides and more shows, in my opinion. That’s where all the new Star Wars stuff is, and it’s definitely worth walking through if nothing else. I’m not super into Star Wars, but Jason is. Even so, I can admit that they did an amazing job capturing the look and feel of the Star Wars world (or should I say galaxy?!).

The Disney Jr. Dance Party is super fun for littles! Brighten and Grady have both enjoyed it! There’s also a Frozen Sing Along — which even if your kids aren’t very into Frozen, it’s a fun show! The first time we saw it the actors were INCREDIBLE (they always are but these were exceptionally great), and they had Jason and I rolling laughing.

Toy Story Land is AMAZING. We haven’t done the slinky dog roller coast because the wait has been super long and we couldn’t get a FastPass, but Jason did one of the other rides with Brighten and said it was fun. It’s just incredible to spend time there because you really feel like you’re in Andy’s bedroom!

Rockin’ Rollercoaster is fun for the adults! We both had a FastPass for it in September when we were there and we were able to take turns. The guy who sat next to me did the “rock on” hand motion the whole time and kept sticking out his tongue — he was super into it! I, on the other hand, had not been on a roller coaster in at least 5 years, so it took me almost an hour to recover!

Restaurants in Hollywood Studios

We’ve done a character dinner with Mickey and friends at Hollywood & Vine. It was fine, but not my favorite that we’ve done. The Sci-Fi Dine-In is a cool atmosphere, but the ambiance may be lost on littles. Usually we leave around dinner time and eat somewhere else off property. I haven’t been super impressed by the restaurants here, but I’d love to hear from anyone who has suggestions!

EPCOT Rides

Like I mentioned before, EPCOT is where the Frozen ride is, as well as Anna and Elsa plus the Finding Nemo ride. Turtle Talk with Crush is super cute and interactive. The aquarium where the Finding Nemo rides is was really cool and Brighten absolutely loved it. We spent a lot of time there to stay out of the heat before we booked it over to Norway to meet Anna and Elsa. We’ve never needed a FastPass to meet Anna and Elsa, but you’ll definitely need a FastPass for the Frozen ride. Since my kids are so young, that’s really where we focused our time in EPCOT, but there is a lot more to do for the older crowd.

Brighten gets a little star struck when she meets her sheroes!

EPCOT is home to the Food and Wine Festival as well as the International Flower and Garden Festival. I also love visiting the World Showcase, which consists of 11 countries on display. It’s great to get food from the different countries and it’s also really fun to see the Disney characters in their “home country.”

There are also several fun rides for adults and big kids — Mission: SPACE, Soarin’, and Test Track.

EPCOT Restaurants

When I was a teenager and my family and I would go to Disney together, we always would eat at La Hacienda de San Angel in Mexico. It’s beautiful inside and the food has always been really good — and again different from your everyday park food. When we went in September, we ate at Coral Reef Restaurant, which was delicious and a cool atmosphere. Brighten loved looking at the fishies while we ate!

Disney Springs

Disney Springs is so fun when you want to get in the Disney spirit but don’t have the time or energy for a park. We usually go there on our first night. They always have live music and kids dance up by the stage (Marketplace Stage Schedule). There’s also some good restaurants there. My favorite is Chef Art Smith’s Homecomin’. It’s like good, southern soul food. 4-Rivers Smokehouse is a popular BBQ place in Central Florida and they have a food truck in Disney Springs. For a quick service meal, we also really like the Polite Pig.

Where to Stay

We’ve done it all — AirBnb nearby, nearby hotel (Embassy Suites), Disney Springs hotel (Hilton Palace), and a Disney hotel on property (Pop Century). I’ve stayed in several other Disney hotel properties when I was a kid/teenager and they’re all incredible, but I think my favorite is the Animal Kingdom Lodge. We really haven’t had a bad experience with an accommodation. Jason is a loyal Hilton customer, so we typically stay at a Hilton within a few minutes of Disney. I do think that our favorite as a family has been the Hilton Palace, and that’s where we have returned several times. We love their zero entry pool and lazy river!

Brighten doing some night swimming at the Hilton Palace

Grady enjoying the lazy river at the Hilton Palace a few years later.

If you stay at one of the Disney resorts, you have access to the bus systems, possibly the monorail, walking paths to some parks, water taxies, and their new skyliner system. With an annual pass you get free parking at the parks, and you also get free parking if you’re staying at a Disney resort. Also, if you stay at a Disney Resort or a Disney Springs area resort, make sure to find out about extra magic hours for the parks you’re going to!

General Tips

Make reservations for restaurants and FastPass as soon as possible. Dining reservations can be made 180 days in advance. If you are staying on property, you can book FastPasses 60 days prior to your trip beginning at 7 a.m. EST. If you have a ticket or annual pass, you can book FastPasses 30 days in advance, starting at the same time. My advice would be to make a list of what you want to book and set an alarm to log in. Try to make your FastPass selections as close together as possible because once you complete all three, you can add more for attractions that aren’t already booked.

For meals, we typically do one nicer (possibly character) meal per day and then one that’s considered quick service. You can also pre-order counter service from the Disney app at some of the quick service restaurants. One thing we’ve started doing is that we try to only be in a park for one meal a day. It has saved us a ton of money and we just go through fast food or some sort of quick counter service once we leave the park and head back to the hotel.

For our trip in December, we did a Disney dining plan. While it was really nice to prepay for everything, I’m not sure that we’d do it again in this season of life. Since our kids are so young, we didn’t feel like we got our money’s worth with Brighten’s dining plan, and we also felt like we had to eat more than we really wanted or needed to be able to get the most for our money. I think as our kids get older, that would be something we would try again, but with toddlers, we felt like it was difficult to see that as either a savings or breaking even on what we would have spent without the dining plan.

Take a comfy stroller! My kids have fallen asleep every single time in the stroller so I’m always happy to have my big stroller. Every time we go back, the thought of taking two umbrella strollers crosses my mind, but then I’m always glad that we don’t do that. If you fly, you can always rent strollers either in the parks or there are lots of companies who will bring you a single or double stroller to rent for the duration of your trip. I also take some kind of baby carrier for Grady so I don’t have to hold him when we have to stand in a long line.

If you drive to Magic Kingdom, it takes quite a while to get into the park, so plan to leave about an hour before you want to be there. We like to get to Magic Kingdom about 20 minutes before it opens. Minnie and Mickey come out on stage and the Fairy Godmother opens up the “magical lands”. It’s really special and just kind of starts the day off with all the good Disney feels.

Brighten taking in the opening of the Magic Kingdom

If your little ones get tired, need a snack, or just need a break from sensory overload, there’s a Baby Care Center in each park. They have high chairs, microwaves, bottle warmers, nursing rooms, TVs, tables for coloring, and all kinds of other stuff. They also have diapers and wipes if you’re like me and completely forget to pack wipes. The people who work in these centers are super sweet and it’s just kind of a serene place in the midst of chaos!

You can take snacks and drinks (bottled water) into the parks so we pack a HUGE backpack full of snacks, diapers, extra clothes (for everyone!), extra shoes and socks, an umbrella and rain coat, bottled water, hand sanitizer, sunscreen, etc. I also bring a bag of bags — like a zip lock bag full of empty grocery bags. You literally can’t take too much stuff. I also may or may not (I definitely did) wear a fanny pack the last time we were there. I knew I’d want to have my phone with me at all times, but I also knew I wanted to wear some work out leggings that don’t have pockets. I highly recommend the fanny pack regardless of your pocket situation.

Last, if you can, I highly recommend taking a day or half day off between parks, especially if you’re going to be at a park from open to close. When we went in December, we knew we had to be in the Magic Kingdom from open to close because it was their super busy season and if we left, they may have reached capacity and we wouldn’t be able to get back in. So we took off the next day and just hung out at the pool, rested, and we did a really fun luau dinner at Disney’s Polynesian Resort. It was so necessary after 16 hours in the Magic Kingdom the day before!!

Grady-man snoozing on Aunt Carlee by the pool.

Post-luau photo. Obviously the most photogenic we’ve ever been, haha!

I read something recently about how millennial moms are more obsessed with Disney now than ever before. The article cited that as parents who now have young children, we grew up during the Disney Renaissance (between 1989-1999) when movies like Beauty and the Beast, Toy Story, Lion King, Pocahontas, Aladdin, and many more came out. Because of that, a lot of our parents made the voyage so that we could meet our favorite characters in either Disney World or Disneyland. Now that we’re adults and have the opportunity to show our kids these classic movies, we want to make that voyage with our kids as well. I thought that was really interesting and definitely true for the Morales family!

We are actually trying to plan at least two trips this year before our annual passes end, so stay tuned!

P.S. I would LOVE to hear from you and hear your tips for Disney, see your super fun pictures, and answer any questions you may have!! Reach out via email or DM or comment below!