The Oerman Family: 2013

We're here!

Disney World! Jarrod and I have been wanting to take our kids to Disney World for a long time, but obviously that kind of trip takes a good bit of moolah. We saved up and waited until the kids were old enough to actually enjoy it (Ryan was 4 and Everett 2 1/2). We were lucky enough to also score the Disney spring promotion and got a really great package price! Our package included accommodations, tickets, and dining plan. I highly suggest getting the dining plan. We saved a ton of money on food and it was nice to look at the menu and order anything you wanted because it was technically already paid for (and at a much cheaper price!). Not to mention every lunch and dinner included dessert! This girl was happy! And based solely on the amount of chocolate cake Jarrod consumed that week, I would say he was too :)

Snacks were pre-packed and ready to shut down any potential melt downs.

I had done some serious homework before heading out on our trip. I talked to Disney travel agents, read the mommy advice columns for Disney World, looked up all rides and restaurants in each park, made reservations, and basically asked everyone I knew for any tips they could give me. All that work paid off and our trip went a lot smoother than I thought it would have. The kids did awesome on the drive down. I put in some movies for them to watch and they were good to go! Once we arrived, we went to get all checked in at our Disney resort, Pop Century. The lady behind the counter was very helpful and explained everything to us newbies. Then something weird happened. She started talking about her tattoos. She told us (or actually more my husband) how many she had, what kind, and where they were. She even told us (or mainly Jarrod) that she had a garter tattoo. Really? Are you flirting with my husband right in front of me? We just kind of looked at each other and politely excused ourselves to our room.

I will say this, the room was....basic. I mean it was your standard double bed room. The sheets were average quality, the toilet paper was pretty much 1-ply, and it had the normal mini fridge and tv. Nothing spectacular, but clean, plus it was one of the value resorts so we kind of expected it. We put our stuff away (I have an obsession with completely unpacking all suitcases as soon as we get somewhere). We had about 45 minutes to kill before catching the bus to Downtown Disney and decided to walk around the resort and take pictures by all the HUGE animations on the grounds.

Once we arrived, we let the kids ride the carousel and walk around a massive toy store, then it was time for our dinner reservations at Rainforest Cafe. The food there was amazing! I got to have ribs, coconut shrimp, AND steak......not to mention the giant piece of chocolate cake and fruity drinks we all got. Seriously, the dining plan is amazing!

Everett was nice enough to share MY drink with me.

The next day we headed to Magic Kingdom, we got there early enough to see the opening ceremony and then headed straight towards Cinderella's castle. I thought Ryan's eyes were going to pop out of her head. She could not believe that she was actually at Cinderella's castle! Right after we walked through it we ran into Cinderella's evil stop-mother. She walked right up to us and told Everett that he was getting married at 6:00 that night. Not sure what that was about, but it was fun nonetheless (except for the fact that I didn't ask for a picture. Doh!)

In two days we rode Dumbo a few times (a fast favorite), Winnie the Pooh, Barnstormer Rollercoaster, Prince Charming's Carrousel, Journey of the Little Mermaid, Walt Disney Railroad, Pirates of the Caribbean, Peter Pan's Flight, Magic Carpets of Aladdin, Jungle Cruise, "it's a smallworld," Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin, and Tomorrowland People Mover. All the rides were amazing! The detail that Disney has put into each one is absolutely unbelieveable.

As fun as the rides were, I was more blown away with the activities we did while killing time waiting for our fast pass ride to start. We had gotten a surprise fast pass for Mickey's PhilharMagic Show and had no idea what to expect, but it was so fun! It was a 3D show that whipped air and sprayed water at you. (I later found a few 3D shows that did this....Hollywood Studios' Journey of a Little Mermaid, Muppets, 3D, and Animal Kingdom's It's Tough to be a Bug).

Rockin' our 3D shades!

Other attractions I loved were Walt Disney's Carousel of Progress, Hall of Presidents, Tom Sawyer Island, Jungle Cruise, and Monster's Inc. Laugh Floor. If you've never seen any of these attractions, I don't want to ruin them for you by telling you what they are. I'll just say....check them out!

Onto our #1 attraction we were focused on seeing....Tales with Bell! I waited to do this attraction on the morning we had the Mickey extra magic hour (aka, we got to go in the park and hour before the rest of the public). We headed straight there and waited less than 5 minutes. The experience was AMAZING!!! You get to spend a lot of time with Bell in a small group. Ryan was in complete awe and would not say a word to anyone. She was practically a statue and I had to tell her where to walk. However, as soon as we were done she said, "That was so cool!!!!" Well, I'm glad she liked it, because for a moment I kind of thought she didn't. Turns out she was just star struck :)

Unfortunately on our last day my extremely old, irritatingly bad 5 megapixel camera decided it had had enough and would no longer work so I don't have many picture from Animal Kingdom. I will say this though, I wish we had done a full day in Animal Kingdom and only a half day in Hollywood Studios. There were lots of things we didn't get to do in Animal Kingdom because we were heading back home and needed to leave by a certain time.

On the Kilomanjaro Safari

I highly suggest getting there as soon as the park opens and doing the Kilomanjaro Safari first thing. Not only do you beat the crowds, but more animals will be out in the morning than the rest of the day.

Nom! Nom!

Now let's talk food. When you go to Disney, you should just forget about dieting. I mean, really forget about it. There is no such thing. It does not exist.

Take for instance this cinnamon roll from Gaston's Tavern. It was bigger than Everett's head (hence why he was probably scared of it). Ryan, however, had no problem with it. In fact, I think I only got a total of 3 bites off of it.
We did two dinners that were buffet character dining (Cinderella, and Winnie the Pooh w/ friends). Jarrod preferred the buffets, I preferred the "order from the menu" dinners (Rainforest Cafe & Sci-Fi Drive-in).

Dinner at the Sci-Fi Drive-in @ Hollywood Studios

On the Honey I Shrunk the Kids Play Area....this was actually what I was most looking forward to.

The entire trip was amazing! Everett only had 2 mini meltdown (that is a huge improvement people!), we waited 5 minutes or less for each ride, got in a nap everyday, ate our backs out, watched fireworks, danced with Woody in the parade, and returned home in one piece. We can't wait to go back, but not for another 3-4 years. It was exhausting!