Mcmahon clan trucks to Disney World!

Happiest Place on Earth

Sometimes people get cranky when tired or hungry. Kids are being dragged from here to there and everywhere, and adults are stressed at all of the dragging. Have expectations to have fun, but also expect some of the grumpiness that comes along with running ragged and be patient with everyone–including yourself!  I saw some cranky faces on parents, stern “talkin’ to’s” as well. Just have fun and relax, and make memories!

We decided to try mouseowners.com for the first half of our trip and then moved over to the atrium level at the Contemporary. We loved Baylake and having our own room with two bathrooms and the washer and dryer was a plus but nothing will ever beat the connivence, service, amenities of the Contemporary Club level on the 12th floor. Yes, it is about 200$ a night more but well worth the extra money. Especially if your kids like to eat snacks and Mom and Dad like a cocktail here and there. There is something to be said for having a clean room every day and night, fresh towels, a great turn down service with chocolates daily and all you can eat continental breakfast from 7-10:30 (which included delicious steel cut oatmeal, cereal, pastries, fresh fruit, coffee, teas, espresso), all you can eat snacks from 11-4, and a hot dinner with a new choice every night, (two choices of a hot dish, veggies, hummus, dip, pb&j, bread, butter, crab cakes, lobster rolls, cheese & crackers, all you can drink wine, soda, water, beer, juice) and then a full spread of desserts from 8-10 including a great view of the fireworks with the music from the MK piped in every night. Seeiously, if you don't need to try all the disney restaurants or have tried them, you will soon realize that the extra money to stay on club level totally exceeds the value of the 1200$ not including tip dining plan for a family of five. The tips you will spend will probably add up to about 250$ total. Another perk to staying at the contemporary vs the Bay lake towers is the pool. Unfortunately, it was poor planning on disneys part because the pool does not have direct sunlight in the afternoon and in November you need the heat from the sun to keep you warm at the pool. We gave the Contempory atrium level a 10/10!! They also provide you with a texting number for all your needs. They will book fast passes, all your meals, make or change any reservations and are at your service 24/7. They even deliver balloons, cards, full bottles of champagne and wine for celebrations! 

Day One

We arrived at our resort via the magical express which starts off the magical vacation because you no longer have to worry about transporting luggage. You are free to check in to your resort, grab a bite to eat and jump right in to the Greatest place in a Earth!!  

We headed straight for MK and battled the crazy weekend crowds and a magic Hours park. We did ok at first and then as it kept getting colder and windier we decided to call it a day and got snugly warm in our hotel room. I don't know how some families make it until 2am as I know we will never be "that family". Our first day we did the mad tea party ride, the carousel, Pirates of the caribean, and space mountain. We had dinner at The Crystal Palace and the kids really enjoyed the characters there. They are celebrating their birthdays so at every restsurant we are getting special treatment and extra cupcakes and cards!! It's very fun for the kids. 

The Crystal Palace

Garden Fresh Salads

Spice-boiled Shrimp

Spit-roasted Carved Meats

Chicken, Beef, Fish, and Vegetable Creations

Freshly-prepared Pastas

House-made Sweets and Ice Cream

The menu looks better than it tastes. Definitely wouldn't reccomend this for dinner, maybe breakfast because the kids loved hopping around with the characters but the food leaves little to be desired! 

I must say that I did not think that this restaurant was that clean. Meg's chair had mashed potatoes under it and the carpets were really dirty. They did have a good variety of selections and Connor had the best dinner because he ate 14 corn dogs but for me it was just...ahhh ok. 

Here are the kids with one of my favorite characters, Eyeore! For sure, you can see the magic in their eyes. After dinner we rode the carousel and then headed back to our hotel. 

The magical express

Bay Lake Towers 

The resort pool

The grounds near the pool

The lobby

The tower

We spent Monday night at the World tower on the 16th floor and had a spectacular view of the fireworks along with the MK music piped in to the resort. Best of both worlds, no crowds and meg slept right through it all in my arms on s bench. 

Day Two

We got up early for our Breakfast at Chef  Mickey's and oh what fun we all had! The kids loved meeting "The Fab Five", Micky, Minnie, Goofy, Pluto, and Donald Duck!! 

Not only was it fun, but the food was superb. I had a great heslthy bowl of oatmeal, eggs, and a wonderful veggie quiche! The kids enjoyed their cereal, Mickey waffles, Danish, bacon, sausage and of course cupcakes! Don(aka Donald Duck) gave imitations to Donald with his impression voices and he indulged in some biscuits and gravy with a whole lot  of yummy food to go with it! The waitress was phenomenal and the restsurant was super clean. 

After breakfast the kids got their first of many Disney souvenirs. Being married to Don, my philosophy of getting just one prize per trip is out the door and the kids are getting almost everything they ask for unless I step in to intervene. The first purchase was the elsa/anna topsy turvy doll. Connor got an eraser that is like a big stick of licorice. He literally played with it all day. The girls played imaginative  pretend with their dolls but the novelty already wore off. I'm hoping when we get home they will reinact our trip together with the dolls. As far as Connors eraser I know he will use that everyday! 

Afyer our shopping in the contemporary we headed to Epcot. Our first fast pass was for Soarin so we had some time to kill before our fp time and we decided to go on living with the land. The kids really enjoyed the boat ride and looking at all the gardens and veggies being grown. I think we need to start vertical gardening in the summer. 

The pumpkin patch display in living with the land was one of the only fall displays left in disney! Halloween was down one day after and now they are getting ready for Christmas! 

Getting ready for Soarin! The kids wre excited to take a ride through the sky. Meg was a little apprehensive about going on the ride but once she went on she was totally fine. 

 After Soarin we did Finding Nemo and then went over to the countries. We stopped at a few wine and food stops but it was really quite crowded due to cooler weather and one of the last weekends for food and wine. We enjoyed our short braised ribs and Cabernet from France but when we went to buy our wine they were all out so we opted for another selection which was very good too! I think Don liked the label best. 

Connor was begging for a pretzel all morning and when we made our way around to America he got his Mickey pretzel and was so happy. 

When we got to Italy we decided to cancel our dinner reservation since we had a huge breakfast. The kids were starting to melt down so Don took Connor over to Mission Space and the girls and I watched a drum show and then got lucky and had a photo op with Snow White. I was very impressed by how nice she was and how much time she spent with the girls. 

After Snow White we were heading out and we saw Doug and Joan!!! They had no clue we were even in Disney. The kids were excited to see them and we hung out in Canada with them for a bit. 

We had dinner at the Contemp Cafe and it was just ok, Connor and I had salads, Don has a flatbread pizza and Mara and meg shared a kids meal. 

We ended up going back to epcot to ride Spaceship earth and the ride in Mexico and then I got my Nachos that I was craving! 

Day Three

Magic kingdom

We started our day with having breakfast in the room. We had bagels with creme cheese and I had eggs. Don is against eating in the room so he just had his coffee. We took our 7 minute walk to MK and arrived just as the park was opening. We were able to get on Peter Pan's flight in 10 minutes. Still don't understand why this ride is always a 60-70 minute wait because although it is cute, it is completely overrated. 

Connor kept asking for a pirates costume so he would have something to wear to Cinderellas castle on Friday and to his surprise I had already scheduled "the Pirates league" for Monday morning. 

The kids were all very surprised and has a great time getting "pirate" ready! The girls did the empress package and Connor did the mate package. He picked out his pirate outfit and was transformed into the best pirate ever. 

As soon as the kids were all dressed up we went right on the Pirates of the caribean. After that we headed over to Fantasyland and went on Barnstormer, which was Megs favorite ride. Connors favorite ride was splash mountain and Samara's  was  Soarin. We tried to get into Belle's castle for lunch but the standby line was closed so the kids ate popcorn and Don and I had the pork from Gustans tavern that everyone raves about. It was definitely worth it, super tasty. 

We continued to celebrate their birthdays throughout the entire trip. After a few days the kids were tired of all the celebration but it was definitely worth it for all the extras we got at each restsurant. 

After the Barnstormer we headed towards space mountain and on our way we stopped at the race car speedway. There were some crazy drivers out there. 

We had dinner at whispering canyon cafe and the food there was pretty good. I had the ribs and Don had the steak. Connor  and Samara had grilled cheese with French fries and basically we went all week without ordering Meg any dinners. She was on dessert and French fry overload. Tonight she even asked to have a Mickey bar for dinner but she fell asleep before we even ate. I think the kids enjoyed the activities and celebrations way more then the food at any of the restaurants we went to. Whispering canyon let the kids parade around on pretend pony's and they also make a HUGE deal about asking for ketchup. At one point we had at least 10 bottles of ketchup on our table and then the kids got to run it to the next table that needed it. It was really funny. 

Here are Mommy and Daddy before our dinner waiting in the lobby of wilderness lodge. It was our first experience taking the boat from our hotel to another resort. It was a very convenient way to get around. We finally figured out how to fold our rental stroller. Thank goodness the crew sees lots of strollers Everest because they came to our rescue. Now if we can only figure out how to keep from everything falling out of the pockets and bottom we would be golden. 

We used a company called stroller world and it was perfect although next time I would rent the city mini GT as the regular city mini is hard to turn and push when you are over the weight limit as you would be with an almost 4 and 7 year old. I definitely know that we wouldn't have made it without the stroller because Ssmara barely walked 5 feet  the entire trip unless she was running to the lounge for the snacks and drinks. 

Day four

Tuesday we decided to just have breakfast in the room and chill out until we went to Animal a Kingdom. What a 360 from MK. Such a more relaxed setting and nothing is rushed or too fast paced. We were able to really enjoy our time there and covered just about everything except the dinosaur ride. Connor had the best time ever on Mt.Everest. It actually goes backwards and is a really cool ride. We swapped Magic bands with Don and Mara and were able to go on twice in a row!! Between using their bands and the ride(kid) swap we were able to really utilize our ride time. 

We took a break at lunch time and went to the rainforest cafe. The kids really had a fun time and because we had a light breakfast our lunch tasted extra good. I would definitely reccomend eating here if you have kids. I had the quesidillas, don had a bacon cheeseburger and Connor and Mara had a kids meal. Don't leave without getting the "dirt" pudding with the crushed Oreos, chocolate moose and gummy worms. Definitely taste worthy of eating spoonful after spoonful. I think I gained like 5-10 lbs alone in my belly on this trip. 

Tuesay night we tried out the contempo cafe and all that I had read about it had me liking for more than what we received. My steak salad was just okay but not the best I've ever had. Connor had the chicken ceased salad, Don had the meat flatbread and Samara had the nuggets. Meggie resorted to more French fries. Although we didn't purchase the dining plan this trip we pretty much came out even if we would have done it. If we don't do any character breakfast or lunches on our next trip then I wouldn't purchase it because with the Contemporaey Atrium level there is plenty of food and drinks served mostly the entire day. 

Day five 

We spent our day in Epcot and compared to our Sunday trip there it was like night and day. Sunday was completely mobbed with everyone trying to get through the food and wine festival. 

We were able to easily get around and there were no lines to see the princesses at the meet and great locations. Connor, Samara and Meg all loved meeting Belle and princess Aurora.  

After we saw the princesses we finished touring the countries and then stopped at Via Napoli for some brick oven pizza. One quick tip is that if you are trying to make reservations through Disneys dining reservation line and they tell you there are no reservations available don't always believe them. It's best to see for yourself at the restsurant. We walked in and were seated with in 5 minutes even though Disney dining said they were completely booked. During our next vacation we will eat at mostly non reservation needed restaurants. With the exception of the Hollywood wine and vine to see Doc McStuffins and Sofia the first. The best bang for your buck is to do schedule a character lunch because the atrium club level only provides snack type items during the afternoons and it's not really enough to fill up on. My only other suggestion would be to get into a park early to choose a character breakfast at a park that doesn't have extra Magic hours and pick the first dining seating. This way you are finished eating before the park opens and you can avoid long lines at a popular ride. We are definitely going back to Brown Derby lounge which allows you to order off the main menu as well as the lounge menu. They have a Cobb salad that is to die for! We looked up the recipe and it was three pages long. I also want to try the Italian wine bar, Tuttus Gasto in epcot. These are places that don't allow the dining plan but are worth the money for lunch. 

Since Wednesday night we had reservations at raglan road but everyone wanted to relax by the pool we canceled our reservations with no charge because it wasn't in a park and we walked over to Caseys in MK for hotdogs and fries before the parade. We jumped right in under the ropes after our dinner because our stroller was parked at Caseys and we were able to squeeze in with another family. The looks on the girls faces during the electrical parade made every bit of the trip 100% priceless. This was by far my favorite night of the trip. 

The girls found new little girls to hang out with and Connor and Don went to take advantage of the no wait at splash mountain. They went on that ride a total of 16 times our entire trip. Each time taking new photos to add to the memory maker. 

speaking of the memory maker, another fantastic package to pre buy before your trip. Even though we may be paying about .50 cents per picture, I'm not sure how many pictures we actually took but they charge you $14.95 for each ride photo and we went on a lot of rides that capture photos. Including splash mountain, test track, the cars outside of test track, Mt.everest, space mountain, and we took advantage of all the Magic shots you could take in the theme parks at MK and animal kingdom. We also used it for the Pirates league photos and all our meet and greets with the characters. 

Day six

Well, we hit a bump in the road when we woke up because Samara woke up with a fever and a rash all over her face. We gave her some Tylenol and that seemed to help for a bit but she was definitely not herself. We switched rooms over to the contemporary and had a light breakfast and then headed over to Hollywood Studios where we just made it to our FP for Toy Story Mania. Which by the way I really enjoyed but would never wait in line for 90 minutes to ride. After our ride Samara really wasn't feeling well so we decided to try to move our  lunch at Brown Derby up and they didn't have anything for us so they canceled our reservations with no charge and we were able to get a table outside at the lounge where they don't advertise but you can still order off the inside menu. Samara and Meg weren't hungry so meg snacked on Oreos and Mara ordered a dessert. Connor had the Cobb salad appetizer and chicken noodle soup and I also ordered the Cobb salad appetizer along with the scallop and crab appetizers. Next time I will order the full Cobb salad and just the scallop appetizer. Don had the hamburger with the fried egg and said it was excellent. Just like steak and eggs. We will definitely return to the lounge on our next trip. Our hostess even put our name in and told us to go on a ride which we chose the Frozen sing along and then when we returned we were seated right at the next opening for a big table. Don thought that was the best so he slipped her a 20$. Magical what money will do and she was ever sograteful for that tip. It was our best meal in disney and the best wine too. It was even cheaper than any other meal we had besides our counter service meals.