Our First Family Trip to Disney World
While my husband Josh was out on his last deployment, we decided to plan a family vacation for when he returned home. We decided it was the right time for us to take our kids to Disney World, and we’re so glad that we did! This was our first trip to Disney with kids. The last time we visited Disney was when we were college kids at UCF in Orlando around 2013, then briefly during a Young Life conference in 2016, and a lot has changed since then. Not to mention how intimidating Disney can seem with a toddler and young kid in tow!
Getting to plan a Disney trip for our family was such a great morale boost for me getting through the last months of Josh’s deployment. Normally we wouldn’t have planned a family vacation during the school year (since Ivy is in pre-k), but since Josh was away the entire summer, this was what worked with our schedule. The pros of visiting in September were that the parks were a little less busy, the resorts were not as expensive since it’s off-season, and the weather was a bit more mild than midsummer.
Part of the importance of this trip for me was getting to bring the kids to Disney at these ages. When I was ages two and three, my family was stationed in Key West and my mom brought me to Disney World when she had to evacuate from a hurricane. Some of my earliest memories are of visiting Disney World—the Mickey balloons, waiting in line for the Dumbo ride, walking around Mickey’s Toontown Fair (which is dating myself quite a bit, shhh…). Ever since our kids were born, I’ve been dreaming of bringing our kids to Disney World at a similar age as my first trip. I can’t tell you how many times I teared up getting to experience the magic of the happiest place on earth through the eyes of our four and two year old.
We decided to stay at Disney’s Art of Animation, which we loved for the excellent theming, access to the Skyliner, and that it’s one of the more cost-effective resorts. We stayed for five nights and did four park days, but we really could have stayed longer; I was actually bummed to leave our room on check-out day!
Disney World tickets are available to military families through MWR (Morale, Wellness, and Recreation centers), so we were able to get 4-day park hopper passes at a discounted rate. Another benefit of taking the kids at these ages: Ollie was FREE. Kids under the age of 3 have a direct invitation from Mickey and don’t need an admission ticket to enter the parks!
Josh had a bunch of leave saved up, so he took eight days of leave for our family vacation. We also decided to spend a couple days at the beach after Disney so we could relax & recover from the parks. Plus, Ollie had never been to the beach before, which had been a thorn in my heart since I grew up on the coast. This was a great opportunity to remedy that.
Here’s the rundown of our full trip schedule:
Arrival Day / Disney Springs
Park Day 1 - Magic Kingdom
Park Day 2 - Epcot
Park Day 3 - Hollywood Studios
Park Day 4 - Magic Kingdom, Epcot, & Hollywood Studios (park hopping day)
Transition from Disney to Cocoa Beach
Beach Day 1
Beach Day 2
Departure Day
We flew from Omaha (OMA), had a layover in Minneapolis (MSP), then arrived in Orlando (MCO). We had an early morning flight so it was mid-afternoon when we arrived in Orlando. During our trip planning we discovered that Disney no longer offers complimentary transportation from the airport for resort guests, so we had to figure out how to get to the hotel with our two kids still in car seats. Since we didn’t bring our car seats with us, we decided to reserve a private shuttle from Away We Go Transportation to get us all safely and efficiently from the airport to Disney’s Art of Animation resort. We had a great experience and would highly recommend this company!
That morning, Josh was checking our hotel reservation when he discovered a surprise—we had initially booked a Little Mermaid themed standard room, but we scored a free upgrade to a Cars themed suite! This wound up making a HUGE difference in our trip, and we were incredibly thankful for it. I’m confident we still would have been comfortable and figured out a flow, but having the extra space with the kids really was a game changer.
With the Cars suite, Josh and I were able to sleep in the main bedroom (with a door and our own bathroom!) while the kids slept in the living space; Ivy slept on the pull-out couch and Ollie was in a pack-n-play on the opposite side of the room. It meant that when we put the kids to bed, we were still able to move around our room to prep for the next day and get ready for bed in privacy instead of tiptoeing around a dark room with our phone flashlights trying not to wake up the kids. As an introvert, it was so rejuvenating getting to take a hot shower in silence and solitude after a long day at the parks.
Maybe I’ll write a full review on our stay in the Cars suite, what do you think?
By the time we were settled in our room it was still mid-afternoon, so we went over to Disney Springs to walk around and explore before our dinner reservation at Raglan Road. We stopped by Swirls on the Water for a Dole Whip Sampler, which included classic pineapple, pistachio + purple cheesecake, and salted caramel.
Dinner at Raglan Road has been a favorite of ours since college, and the food did not disappoint. It was fun getting to watch the Irish dancers with the kids, and they put on their own performance by our table in one of the back corners. Then we grabbed a shuttle back to our hotel and prepared for our first park day!
I’m writing out a detailed recap of our park days, which I will link below as they become available:
Day 2: Epcot recap
Day 3: Hollywood Studios recap
Day 4: Park Hopping recap
What questions do you have about our trip or visiting Disney World with young kids? Let me know in the comments!
