We just got back from our road trip to Disney World. After LOVING our road trip to Arizona last summer, we decided we wanted to road trip every summer with our girls. Our girls are in love with the disney princesses, so we decided to road trip it from Wisconsin to Florida with Disney as our destination.
When we made this decision, I started looking at the Disney website. Man is it overwhelming! All the different parks and all the different attractions within each park could take you forever to explore. With a 4 year old and two 3 year olds, I knew conquering all the parks was out of the question for us. On top of the energy level needed to explore all the parks in a short period of time, getting into the Disney parks is expensive - almost $100 per person.
In order to make Disney fit our budget, we decided we would spend one day visiting Disney. And in order to make our trip easy (bus transportation to the parks) and Disney themed, we stayed at the new value plus resort, Art of Animation. It was awesome for our girls. There is a great splash pad and a zero depth entry pool - PERFECT!!! We stayed in a NEMO themed room. We had 3 beds, a kitchenette, 2 bathrooms - we would stay there again.
With our resort picked out and booked, how do you visit Disney for just one day? For me, I had to think simple. Simple is less stressful and makes our time together more enjoyable. With our girls' ages and interests, we knew they would love to meet their favorite princesses. We decided this would be our sole goal of our trip - MEET PRINCESSES.
Their was one glitch to our plan to only visit Magic Kingdom. One of our daughter's favorite princess was Aurora and she was no where in Magic Kingdom. We searched and searched and found out that she was located at Epcot. Now what?
We had an amazing day at Disney. I wouldn't have done it any other way. Of course there were cranky moments - naps were missed - but we still look back and loved it all. The next day our legs were wobbly with fatigue and we enjoyed a relaxing day at the pool at our resort.
There is a lot of Disney we didn't see, and that's ok. We hope to go back to Disney when the girls are a bit older - maybe in 5 years. Our focus can be on other areas of the parks then. We can enjoy discovering all that Disney has to offer at our girls' pace and enjoy the smiles on their faces as we experience the wonders of their imaginations come to life.
Side Note: Souvenirs get expensive. We decided the girls could each pick one thing (they each picked out a disney princess dress). We got an ornament to remember our trip. And I bought each girl a necklace that I am holding onto until Christmas as a Christmas present. We kept it simple and the girls cherish their dresses.
ROAD TRIP TO DISNEY:
Our road trip for our Disney destination was just as awesome. We planned our days on the road similar to our last trip to Arizona. But with the girls a bit older we were able to push bedtimes and be a little more flexible. Here's an overview of our trip on the road:
Day 1: 9am on the road, picnic in El Paso, IL, dinner in St. Louis, MO, hotel in Blytheville, AR
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| Strawberry Patch Park |
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| Panama City |
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| Little Talbot Island, FL |
Day 5: Magic Kingdom & Epcot
Day 6: Pool Day at Resort
Day 7: 9am on the road, Picnic at Little Talbot Island State Park (awesome! great for sea shells!), dinner in Valdosta, GA, hotel in Mcdonough, GA
Day 8: 10am on the road, quick picnic in Chattanooga, TN, ice cream stop in Jasper, TN, stop in Nashville, TN to visit Family
Day 9: 2pm on the road, drove through Kentucky, stop in Champaign-Urbana for late dinner and hotel
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| Drive Through Kentucky |
Day 10: 11am on the road to HOME
