disney days

We are officially into the single digits in the countdown to our Disney trip:) We are all about to die with excitement! To get me even more in the mood (like I need any help!), I thought I'd share some of the details of our trip just in case you may be planning on visiting Disney World in the future or are just curious what we will be doing. If not, sorry...I feel the need to share so I don't spontaneously combust:)

Our trip - May 13-19

We chose this time to hopefully miss the summer vacation crowds. Ideally we would have gone earlier (like end of April), but with my nursing school, I can't take time off. We're leaving the night after I finish finals, so this is the earliest we could go. I hoping its a good time!

Oh, and it is my, Jimmy (husband), Noah, and my mom going on this trip. We are beyond excited for Noah's first visit...we know he won't remember it, but we will:) Also, my mom has graciously offered to watch Noah for us when we want to do rides and stuff own our own, so Jimmy and I are excited to have a little alone time as well.

Our travel plan - driving our own cars all the way

We opted not to fly for 1)the expense, 2)no car rental, and 3)we can bring more stuff there & back. We'll be traveling down in the middle of the night so Noah will sleep and traveling back right after lunch so he will nap for at least part of the trip (pray that this will work!). Yes, we'll have to pay to park each day we visit the parks, but we're willing to do that for the convenience of no rental car, no waiting on the Disney bus system, and no having to lug Noah's carseat around.

Our resort - Disney's Caribbean Beach Resort

*photo from allears.net

We chose to stay on the resort for several reasons (convenience, extra magic hours, etc), but we didn't want to spend a fortune, so we chose a moderate tier resort. We've heard wonderful things about this resort from many different people, so we're super excited about it!

Meals

We chose to purchase the dining plan this trip, and that is something we are super excited about! Jimmy and I were very unprepared when we visited Disney for our honeymoon (we waited to make reservations when we got here), so we really researched our options and decided to go with the plan so we could eat everywhere we wanted and not worry as much about the price. We also made our reservations WAY in advance. Here are our plans for meals:

• May 13 - Dinner @ Coral Reef Restaurant (in Epcot)
• May 14 - Dinner @ San Angel Inn (in Epcot)
• May 15 - Dinner @ Boma (in Animal Kingdom Lodge)
• May 16 - Breakfast @ Chef Mickey's (in Contemporary Resort); Dinner @ SciFi Dine In Theater (in Hollywood Studios)
• May 17 - Dinner @ Le Cellier (in Epcot)
• May 18 - Dinner @ Sanaa (in Animal Kingdom Lodge)
• May 19 - Lunch @ T-Rex Cafe (in Downtown Disney...NOT ON DINING PLAN!)

We're planning on having breakfast in our room, using our quick service credits for lunch, and using snack credits whenever. We'll also have to purchase Noah kid's meals, but they are very reasonably priced.

Extra Stuff

*I'll spare you the plans on which park we'll be visiting each day. I'll just say that we do have the park hopper option on our tickets, and plan on doing one park in the morning and one in the evening. Typically, the evening park coincides with our dinner reservations, but we just prefer to switch it up halfway through the day like that.

*One other fun thing we'll be doing our first day is getting Noah's first haircut at the Mainstreet Barbershop in the Magic Kingdom. They make it all very special (with "first ears" and a certificate and such), so that's something I'm personally very excited to do.

*Otherwise, we plan on taking it easy that week:) I'm not so crazy that I plan the order of the rides or anything, but we already know which attractions, which shows, and which parades and such that are at the top of our list. That is one benefit to having been before...you know what to expect, what you want to do again, and what to skip this time around.

If you have any questions, please feel free to ask away:) I'm certainly no expert, but I've spent LOTS of time planning and researching this trip because I enjoy it and I want this to be an extra special one since it will be Noah's first time there. You know I'll have a million pictures and stories to share when we return too!