.: Disney World

During the summer, Rand and I got to visit family and during that time we got to go to King's Dominion. That is where we learned Rand was a bit of a roller coaster junky.

A couple week ago we learned that Rob had a lot of leave days to use up before the end of November and if he didn't use them, he'd lose them so we decided to take a family trip to Disney World! We knew Rand would have a blast and it would be a nice memory for us before the new baby arrives this Spring.

I bought our tickets at the Fort Benning MWR and booked a hotel at Booking.com. We got a 4 day hopper pass. Be sure to link up your tickets on the Disney Experience website (and download the app) so you can book Fastpass tickets. I only had a couple weeks to plan and many rides were already booked up. Be sure to book them in the morning. After you use up your 3 FP, you get another one to use. As soon as you use that, you get another and so on until their are no more FP slots.

After some research I decided to buy Magic Bands. You get them free if you stay at a Disney Resort but you can either buy them online or at Disney for $12-22, depending on the color and style you want. You link up your Magic band with your ticket and Disney Experience account and it becomes your ticket and fast pass ticket. You can also use it to get photos from your trip with Disney's Memory Maker. You can also reuse them for future trips. If you are staying at a Disney Resort, the Magic band is also your room key and can be used in place of a credit card for purchases at any of the parks. Oh, another fun feature is that throughout the park and on rides, it senses your Magic Band and your name pops up or is said on rides. Here is what happened during the It's a Small World ride.

We had 4 full days to spend at Disney. Here is how I split up the days along with our Fast Passes:

Monday (8am-7pm)

Magic Kingdom

Run to the Seven Dorf Mine train!

8:30 Peter Pan

9:50 The Many Adv of Winnie the Pooh

11:25 Barnstormer

3:20 Pirates of the Caribbean

4:40 Mickey's PhilharMagic

Tuesday (Ep 9-9/ HS 9-8)

Epcot in morning

Run to the Frozen ride

Hollywood Studio in afternoon

4:10 Muppet 3D Vision

5:10 Toy Story Mania

Wednesday (9-8:30)

Animal Kingdom

11:05 It’s Tough to be a Bug!

12:35 Kilimanjaro Safaris

1:55 (Rob only) Expedition Everest

2:40 Adventure outpost meet Mickey and Minnie

Thursday (9am-7pm)

Magic Kingdom

Run to the Seven Dorf Mine train!

9:30 (Rand and me) Winnie the Pooh

9:30 (Rob only) Space Mountain

12:10-1:10 Haunted Mansion

1:30-2:30 Splash Mountain

Epcot

3:05 Sea with Nemo and Friends

7:30 Meet Disney Pals at the Epcot Character Spot (Minnie, Mickey and Pluto)

We were able to get on all the rides we wanted to and I was so surprised by how cute the Ariel ride was. It was one of Rand's favorites because of all the fish. He hated the Peter Pan ride :( The pirates and indians scared him.

We saved a lot of money by eating a big breakfast at our hotel and bringing snacks and lunch for Rand. I ate kid's meals, the portions were still very large and the prices were much cheaper than the "adult" portions. We brought water bottles and filled them up throughout the day.

As we pulled up to our hotel, Rob realized it was the same hotel we stayed at 7 years ago when we visited! It was a funny coincidence. We stayed at the Comfort Inn Orlando - Lake Buena Vista. It had free parking and had a free shuttle to the parks. We opted to drive since we didn't like the shuttle times and it was only about a 10 minute drive to the Disney World gate. The breakfast was good and had a lot to offer. Rand loved the Mickey Mouse waffles. The room was nice and we especially loved the balcony where Rob and I could sit and relax while Rand was falling asleep in the room. Bonus was we got to see the fireworks from the park at night. The pool with a water slide was also a nice surprise!

As soon as we entered Magic Kingdom we went straight to the Mine Train. The guys had to wait about 30 minutes but it was well worth it... the wait got over 160 minutes in the middle of the day! Rand got scared of the dorfs but loved the rest of the ride.

Here are some more pics of Rand on some rides at Magic Kingdom.

We quickly learned that Rand loved seeing all the characters. His first view of Mickey Mouse was during a parade and his expression was priceless! We quickly started scoping out characters for photo ops.

I just loved watching Rand get so excited and have the time of his life this week!

When we first arrived at Animal Kingdom we headed over to Dinoland USA. I highly recommend going to the Boneyard right when it opens. Donald Duck was there helping lead the kids into the play area and gave them all autographed shovels. Another bonus was it was not packed at all! Rand had a blast running around the huge playground.

We really enjoyed the safari ride at Animal Kingdom. We saw lots of animals like lions, zebras, elephants and much more!

We didn't get a chance to go to the Lion King show but we did go see the Finding Nemo musical and WOW, What a show! You do not want to miss this colorful musical! The cast was outstanding and I loved watching them manipulate the puppets.

We so happen to be visiting Disney during Epcot's Wine and Food festival. I didn't get to enjoy the wine but we did get to indulge on a lot of yummy food from all over Epcot.

Of course Germany was my favorite stop at Epcot. We sat by the fountain enjoying listening to the yodelers eating pretzels and apfelstrudel. I miss Germany so much...

Oh and Rand loved the model trains. It was especially fun because it reminded us of our village back in Germany with the red Deutsche Bahn.

While at Epcot we came across many familiar sites. Here are a couple comparing shots of Rand during our travels in Europe vs the replicas at Epcot.

We didn't spend very much time at Hollywood Studio. We really just went to go on Toy Story Mania and was it worth it! I wish we were able to go on it twice. The line itself was fun to walk through with all the large scale toys.