Walt Disney World Road Trip-Part 2

So once you are on-location at your Disney Resort Hotel, then you must have an itinerary for your fun! It is a good idea to select what park to visit on any given day.  When doing this, refer to the guide for "Extra Magic Hours".  This can be received at the hotel in your welcome folder and it tells you which parks and at what times on what day you, as a Resort Guest ,are entitled to extra hours.  These will be either at the start or end of the day.  This is essential information to have ahead of time.  You can also get it from the website so that you can have these days planned out before you arrive in Orlando!

So armed with some extra hours, you can select certain parks on certain days.  For example, if Animal Kingdom is offering early arrival for Resort Guests on a Wednesday, you will want to plan to wake up a lot earlier.  If you are commuting to your parks by the Busses provided by the "world", then you will need to plan to catch that bus 45 minutes ahead of your park arrival time.  If you want to take advantage of your refillable beverage cup at your resort dining hall, you must wake up early enough to cross the resort from your room to the dining hall and still catch your bus on time!  So there is a lot of detailed planning in order to fully benefit from the opportunities available for FREE.

Don't forget the free benefit of your pool and water parks right on your hotel grounds!  Also, each hotel has a playground and gift shop and an arcade too!  Our hotel, The POP Century had giant Icon statues to entertain kids of all ages!

The POP Playground

The Water Spurts, goofy-themed

Although every one of the Value resorts has similar features...this GOOFY spot was one of my all-time favorites and the main reason I choose The POP over and over again!

If you have arrived at night and did not purchase the extra day of park admission, there are still some wonderful ways to enjoy the "World" for free!  Here is what you do:

1. Hop on the first bus to Magic Kingdom
2. Cross the lot to the Main Entrance but do not go through the gate...instead, head up to the MonoRail.  You may ride the monorail for FREE!  The train arrives and looks like a futuristic space shuttle of sorts.  The doors open to individualized seating compartments where you may board.  The monorail circuit will give you a lovely tour.  It leave Magic Kingdom and enters inside of the Contemporary Resort.  If you would like, you may exit the monorail and explore this resort and then return to catch the next monorail.  Inside the Contemporary Resort, you could visit the Dining areas which include Chef Mickey's Restaurant!  You could also shop at their gift shop. Every resort has specialized gift items with their resort logo that cannot be purchased anywhere else in the "World". 

If you continue on the monorail, your next stop will be The Grand Floridian Hotel.  After that, The Polynesian.  We departed the monrail at the Polynesian and explored the resort, taking many pictures and picking up some complimentary leis which we later used in our scrapbooking!

The monorail will continue running until the parks close and so you may take it back to the Magic Kingdom to catch your resort bus back to your resort.  While doing this, you and your family will see and hear the sounds of the Magic Kingdom!  There are lights and street performances everywhere...magic lingers in the most unexpected places!

Our Park plan included 6 days to vist 4 parks.  We had 7 nights to stay in our hotel, The POP Century.  Because we had driven down, we also had the freedom to drive around and see anything we wanted.  In previous years, when we have flown, we did not have that freedom without an extra cost.

Choosing where and how to eat is an important step in the planning too.  How I did it was to select one special place to eat at each park on any given day.  Then I would choose which meal we would be dining out at.  We never bothered with a sit-down dinner or anything full service since my son was so young for that trip.  Whenever possible, we simply ate our meal at the POP Century dining hall where we could use our refillable mugs and where we were close enough to our hotel room to take the food back and eat it there if we wanted.  Most of our dining experiences in the park were lunches or late lunches.  I personally love Cosmic Ray's Starlight Cafe in Tomorrowland at Magic Kingdom.

But when we are in Animal Kingdom, I love just being able to grab a fresh piece of fruit from the jamba Market.

At HollyWood Studios there are plenty of nice restaurants to choose from.  We usually pack a lunch and eat at a picnic spot.  also at Epcot Center there are many great picnic spots!



I have friends who LOVE the dining plan, but for me and my family, al-a-carte works best.  I bring snakcs, sandwiches and water into the park.  I always carry a bag, and I never complain about it.  I like having what we need and saving money.  We splurge when we want something special.

NOW!  Planning what order to visit the parks...very important!
My suggested order:

MAGIC KINGDOM

EPCOT CENTER

HOLLYWOOD STUDIOS

ANIMAL KINGDOM

If at all possible take a day to rest or halfday to rest between park 3 and 4.  Animal Kingdom is a lot of walking!  So get started...get planning...get to making your family's dreams come true.  Watch for the next part (3)...for more in depth planning topics.

See ya'All!