Here's the long version with pictures - About a year ago, Nicole and I decided that we should plan our birthday vacation. We've done vacations for our 21st (Orlando, with a focus on Universal Studios) and 24th (Vegas) birthdays and it seemed we should do something for turning the big 3-0. Disney was at the top of the list for 2 reasons - 1. Our families would be coming with us and Disney is a very family-friendly place and 2. Disney has been running a promotion in which you get admission on your birthday at the park of your choice.
Disney did not disappoint!!!! The parks are huge; the rides are experiences (you know, Splash Mountain? It's not just around, up, and splash down. The ride seemed like it was 10 minutes long!); and Disney goes out of there way to make guests feel special. Our first night, we went to Epcot and we kept seeing people with buttons on that said things like, "First Time," "I'm Celebrating," or "Happy Birthday." While waiting somewhere, a woman asked about the buttons and another person said that they are free and you can get them at Guest Relations. No need for us to buy souvenirs! We got "First Time" buttons for myself, Nicole, Charlotte, Eli, and Landon and "Happy Birthday" buttons for Nicole and I to wear the next day, on our birthday. I think it's mandated that if a cast member (Disney employee) sees someone wearing a "Happy Birthday" button, they are required to say "Happy Birthday" to the person celebrating. We had so many people wish us a "happy birthday" - even Mary Poppins wished Nicole a "Happy Birthday" during the SpectroMagic parade. Although our character breakfast with Pooh and Friends was not on our birthday, when I booked our reservations (a loose term - reservations only hold your table, they do not guarantee your admission to the restaurant at your reserved time. Our reserved time was 9:30 but we didn't get seated until 10:15ish. Not fun with hungry kids, but Disney made up for it by giving us a VIP Fast Pass to use on one of the rides), they asked if we were celebrating anything. I said that we were celebrating our 30th birthday. At our table, we had confetti and streamers and during breakfast our waiter brought over two cupcakes with candles and a birthday card for each of us signed by Pooh, Piglet, Eeyore, and Tigger. So fun!!!!
But, let me back up a bit. Planning for the vacation took quite a bit of work - arranging flights for 3 groups of people; deciding to stay on the property or off; what should we plan on doing while down there; and, of course, how much did we want to spend. My Costco membership, thankfully, answered most of those questions because we booked a package deal through them. I found that Disney's website was extremely hard to navigate in determining hotel options and features. I did learn through the research, though, that staying on Disney property with a group of 8 is expensive! Instead, we stayed at the lovely Sheraton Vistana Villages in a 2-bedroom/bathroom suite, complete with kitchen, dining area, patio, and washer/dryer located about 10 minutes from the Disney World entrance. Our package included 5 days of Disney Park-hopper passes and a 1 day 2 park pass to Universal Studios/Islands of Adventure for each of the 6 people that needed paid admissions (those 3 and over) and a $140 resort credit to be used in their store or for activities (think cruise ship with all the activities they offer). I was so pleased with the Costco package that they will be my first choice the next time we are looking to book a vacation.
The suite worked really well. We ate breakfast there in the morning and generally returned for lunch and nap time. Travelling with 2 1 year olds and a 3 year old pretty much forced us to return to the hotel in the afternoon for naps. By then, most of the adults were ready for naps, too! In the evening, either the whole group or part of the group returned to the parks for more play-time and we usually ended up eating dinner there. Surprisingly, the food at the parks wasn't terribly expensive considering we were in Disney. More expensive than McDonald's but a little better quality and larger portions (for quick-service restaurants). The youngest kids would either share a kids meal or eat off of the adults' plates. We learned from a woman that I was sitting next to while waiting for the ferry one night that at places where you can order a double cheeseburger you can purchase an extra bun for 89 cents. So you buy the bun and split the burger between 2 people. The restaurants have a build-your-own-burger bar with cheese sauce, grilled onions, lettuce, tomatoes, pickles, etc. so you could really load up a burger. Excellent money saving tip!!!
As I mentioned earlier, on some evenings some of our group would return to the parks. Some of the group being: me, Alan, Nicole, and her husband Greg. We travelled with my mom, AKA Baby-sitter Extraordinaire, who was more than willing to watch the kids some evenings so we could hang out without them. I highly, highly recommend this!!! This enabled us to move through the park much more quickly than when pushing a stroller and all the paraphanelia that goes with it. We got to ride rides that we knew the kids couldn't go on, got to test some rides to see if they were okay for the kids to go on (Snow White's Scary Adventures we determined was too scary for our kids even though it's an "all ages" ride), and got an idea of what to cover when we returned to Magic Kingdom later in the week (FYI - our group spent portions of 3 days at Magic Kingdom. The park is HUGE and it took that much time to get through it all).
During the planning process, my mom insisted that we have a beach day. "The kids need to see the ocean! We can't be that close to the ocean and not take the kids," she exclaimed. Nicole and I weren't big fans of this idea. We knew we had lots of parks to cover and limited time, but mom won out...and we are glad she did! We spent Wednesday morning of our trip at Cocoa Beach and had soooo.... much fun. It was great to frolick in the water, play in the sand, relax, and goof off. Cocoa Beach was perfect - about an hour's drive away, hardly anyone was there, bathroom and showers, picnic areas (we brought a picnic lunch) and a playground for the kids.
Our package also included tickets to Universal Studios/Islands of Adventure. When Nicole and I went there for our 21st birthday, we had a blast and couldn't wait to bring our husbands there. Mostly because they have more roller coasters/thrill rides than Disney and we love riding those types of rides. I also preferred Universal/IOA for the kids. Unlike Disney, that has kid stuff scattered throughout their parks, Universal has their kids attractions in one central location. This included: water play areas, play areas, kiddie rides (although we could have taken Landon on Jaws if we wanted to), shows, and story-times. One of the shows was Barney, which was so great. Landon was engaged, we were in air-conditioning, and after the show, he got to have his picture taken with his Purple Pal - what more could a 20 month-old want?
All-in-all, a great trip and one that Alan and I will do again. Early on in this trip, he said that we should go back for our 5 year anniversary and not bring Landon with! I think we'll stay on the property then to see how it differs (I have more thoughts on property/non-property, but I think this post is long enough) and see how it differs without Landon - should be interesting, without a doubt!!
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