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How to Survivie Disney (in August) – The Nitty Gritty {Part 2}

June 5, 2017 No Comments

Alright, its time to get into the Nitty Gritty of Disney! You’ve got the basics down.

So now where do you eat, how to see characters and how to make that all happen while trying to enjoy yourself!

1. Best Places to Eat – Disneyland – if you’re looking for ease, lots of seating, good prices and some shade, head on over to The Hungry Bear Restaurant in Critter Country! We ate there for lunch three days in a row. Pack those snacks. Don’t be shy! Disney is really good about that. Bring that cooler in as long as its smaller than 24x15x18! Eat one big meal in the park and snack away the day!! It helps pass the time when you need it and the kids don’t miss out. Just don’t forget to grab yourself some Dole Whip and have a rest in the Tikki Room!!! Another favorite, that was actually a surprise (not that I expected any food to be bad) was Jolly Holiday Bakery and Café. You guys…the grilled cheese and tomato soup was to die for!!! And the desserts…well, Disney is magic. Want to have a date night or eat out somewhere nice? They aren’t kidding about those reservation dates. Make them!

2. Seeing Characters – Having not been to Disney in over 10 years I wasn’t sure what to expect. I had kept hearing about how they just weren’t seen the wild as much as they used to be. And while that statement in general might be true we saw SO MANY!! And I want to reiterate that there is just something about Disney. Even in lines for characters, walking by with them, people were so nice!! And depending on the needs of your kids, that might be enough. You can frequently find Minnie and Mickey when you walk into the park on the right side on main street. Right in a little alcove past the first 4 or 5 shops (the ones that are really expensive). The Wicked Queen from Snow White hung out near the bathroom right as you were walking to Fantasy Land. Many princesses can be seen down in Snow White’s Grotto (which is one of the most romantic places in the park). Peter Pan, Alice and the Mad Hatter hung out by the tea cups, and Critter Country is a good place to find Winnie the Pooh and his whole gang! If getting guaranteed time with characters is really important Minnie’s Breakfast and Ariel’s Grotto is the place to be!

3. Souvenirs – One of the biggest things I did to save money was purchase most of the souvenirs BEFORE we went to Disney. I realize that I could have been taking a gamble, but for the most part you can do a pretty good job of avoiding most of the temptations. Watch out for the shop after the Small World Ride and Pirates of the Caribbean. One of the best purchases we made was at the castle, in the little beauty salon. Believe or not that have amazing swords for boys. They are amazing, really sturdy foam swords! Every prince needs a sword!!

4. Regrets – We didn’t do a character meal. I’m totally blaming Mr. Air Force on this one. He convinced me that it wouldn’t be very exciting for the kids, and did the cost equal the benefit. I would absolutely say yes!! Other regret – going towards the back of the park for the parade based on a recommendation. The recommendation came to me for the evening parade. Get to the back of the park where the parade was ending that time. Unfortunately meeting anyone at the back of the park is a nightmare. Either all go together, or stay at the front of the park.

5. Random Thoughts – Daytime parade watching was a breeze, and much easier than I expected. We sat outside of the castle, along the wrought iron fence (on the cleanest street in all the land. We arranged seating about an 45 minutes before the parade began, and then one by one I took the kids over to the castle for souvenir shopping. It worked out perfectly!!! Frozen fast pass, waiting in line to see the characters….totally worth it. Waiting at Pixie Hollow, also completely worth it. We survived without a dining plan. Eating our way through Disney wasn’t a priority. We made it with a hearty breakfast, snacking through the day and eating one large meal in the park. We left the park for a rest time around 2/3 and then went back into the park for all the fun evening stuff. Take your date night during fireworks time. In the summer this is one of the best times to ride the rides. So many people are watching the fireworks. It was so much fun riding Thunder Mountain over and over again, coming up over the bumps and seeing the fireworks explode above you. So cool!!!

Visiting Disneyland can be a crazy place, but it is most definitely crazy fun!! As long as you go into it knowing that you can’t control every experience you have. Going through to see the park through your children’s eyes, and that learning to stand in lines is a rite of passage and makes you a good human. What better place to learn all that stuff then in the happiest place on earth! Have fun!!!!!!!!!

Disney, Disneyland, travel with kids

How to Survive Disney in August – The Basics {Part 1}

June 1, 2017 No Comments

Summer is coming fast upon us and with it comes fun family vacations. While traveling to Disneyland or Disneyworld at the height of the tourist season might not be the most ideal of situations, it’s when the most people are at the park. So how did we survive it with three small children? A lot of research, that proved helpful, a little grace, a dose or two of chill pills and a whole lot of fun!! Now, my tips are built around our trip to Disneyland in Anaheim, California, but many of the tips work for other Disney locations.

1. First things first – Get those tickets! For my military readers, you can’t beat a military discount! The military ticket prices are absolutely amazing, and you can purchase a significant number of them at one time. All that it requires is you, or your spouse with your IDs, to purchase. I purchased ours over the phone and then picked them up. So easy!! One of my favorite parts about these tickets (aside from the price) is the fact that they are park hopper tickets, which usually tack on quite the extra fee.

2. Now that you have your tickets – TOURING PLAN – Get this right now! It’s amazing. Buy the subscription as well. Even if you only go once in the year that you have it, the subscription is worth the price. Honestly I could stop my tips and tricks right here. This website and app lets to schedule your day down to the minute. You can factor in meals (and the meal’s locations), nap times and any other events that might come up during the day. Have rides that are important to you? It factors that in, and calculates the order in which you should obtain your fast passes (Disneyland).

3. Where do you stay? This is a little trickier. There are so man options for to choose from. Stay at a resort hotel, a partner hotel, or neither one. If you belong to a discount club save those rewards up and cash in when you go to Disney! We chose to stay off Disney property. There are some great hotels with military discounts, so make sure to check those out. There are so many surrounding hotels to choose from, many with shuttle systems. Uber and Lyft are amazing in and around Disney and I would highly recommend them. Visit MouseSavers for some excellent tips on staying on and around Disney.

4. You’ve Arrived!! Now what?! Rope drop! Do it! We arrived about 45 minutes before first gate opening. It was just starting to get really busy and the energy was amazing. It’s a lot of waiting around but the kid did amazing. If you have children under 10, get that stroller. Do it! Best money we ever spent. I wanted to bring ours, but my husband was convinced we wouldn’t need it, or that it would be crazy to bring around. Lets just say I was right. The rope drop was the best experience with my kids. People were happy, the music started perfectly welcoming you into the day. I cried…and skipped people!! It gets you into the park early, before its insanely crowded and before it gets really hot. Where should you go first? If you aren’t going to make a beeline for the Materhorn (we never got around to it with the littles), appoint someone your fast pass king or queen and send them off to either the Materhorn or Star Tours. Your first stop in Disneyland should always be Fantasy Land. Those classic rides are where you find the intense lines. Visit Alice in Wonderland, Tea Cups, Peter Pan, Snow White and all that good stuff right out of the gate! This is exactly why you need Touring Plans. Get it and get it now. You can thank me later!

Stay tuned for part two of this Disney series!! This is the Nitty Gritty of it all, more details to follow!!!

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Beauty and the Beast, Coco, Disney, Marvel, Star Wars

Disney’s 2017 Movie Slate Might Blow Your Mind!!

January 7, 2017 No Comments

I just saw Disney’s line-up of 2017 movies and I’m giddy with excitement!! I feel like we’ve had a serious lack of good movies lately and it’s a major bummer. Every year I feel like there’s maybe one or two movies that really just knock it out of the park, but over all I’m kind of bummed out when I want to go see a movie and nothing really tickles my fancy. I’m hoping this is a sign of good things to come for the year!!!!

One of the movies that isn’t a sequel that we don’t know anything about is a movie called Coco, and it looks absolutely adorable! Here’s a little first look I saw for ya’ll!

Cinderella, Disney, kid's movies, movie review

Disney’s Cinderella ~ What Did I think and is it for Little Girls?

March 27, 2015 No Comments

My sweet princess and I had the wonderful opportunity to preview Cinderella before it came out. You can now see it in theaters everywhere and I definitely would recommend it hands down! Whenever live action movies come out, especially ones where they are recreating an animation classic, I pause. Will they do it justice and will it be appropriate for my daughter? We’ve been watching live action movies for a little while now – we go for the classics and so far haven’t been disappointed, but new is different.

First off Disney did a fabulous job casting. I was a little bit concerned at first, but whoa..blow me out of the water! Disney captured the sweet without being too much you know. I was most impressed by Cate Blanchett. Her ability to be so beautiful while being so horrid and ugly was amazing. Disney has this way of making these ugly/beautiful evil queens, witches and bad guys. It messed with your brain because its not what you expected from Cate as an actor. Simply marvelous! The step-sisters were also cast well and I thought they were perfectly silly!

The one part that kinda did fit was the Fairy Godmother. She was kind of a dingbat and it did not fit with the rest of movie or the image I had of the Fairy Godmother in my mind. I’m not sure why Disney chose to go that way, but it didn’t ruin the movie experience or anything.

Fair warning – the movie is sad. They did cover over it like the animated versions do. Its out there and up front and people mourn. Its sad! I was really worried about how this might impact Ladybug but she didn’t really care. I’m going to take that as a parenting win! Maybe that meas she’s well-adjusted with a good understanding of life. Or maybe she’s only six and who really cares. But, can I just take the win anyway?

5 out of 5 Stars

This will become a part of the household DVD Library!

We received this opportunity from Blue Star Families, whom I volunteer with in the DC Metro area. If you are a military family or a military supporter, or connected in any way, please look into volunteering with Blue Star Families. They are all over the United States and abroad! check it out here.

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Alexander and the Terrible Horrible No Good Very Bad Day, Disney, Disney Movie, giveaway, kids

Alexander and the Terrible Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day giveaway

September 24, 2014 No Comments

Who as a kid remembers this book? I know I do. I think its part of every kid’s growing up, or it should be anyhow. When Disney announced that they were doing a movie based off this book I was super excited. It has an allstar cast and I believe my eight year old would think this movie is hilarious! If by some crazy reason you do not know about this fantabulous book and movie, here’s a little run down for you:

Alexander’s day begins with gum stuck in his hair, followed by more calamities. Though he finds little sympathy from his family and begins to wonder if bad things only happen to him, his mom, dad, brother, and sister all find themselves living through their own terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.

In celebration I have some really fun movie swag to give away! To win simply leave a comment telling me either your favorite children’s book to movie adaptation or what book you’d love to see turned into a movie.

Good Luck!!!

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