Planning Your Day

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I think for a family, the important thing is to try and plan the day so that you arrive when the park opens and actually make your food breaks within the park.

Well the first day we get here we have a vote and decide which one of the four parks we're going to. Usually Magic Kingdom for the little ones.

So I asked each child what they wanted to experience and we just marked them on a map.

I think it's good to be informed in terms of how much time you need to spend at each park and the different rides and to check the weather the day before.

One of the tips I would give is having to pace yourself when you have young kids, you need to rest and take a break, is to go in and see some of the shows.

Fastpass allows you to skip the larger lines and kind of slip up to the front and get right on the ride or whatever the entertainment may be.

So we can buzz into one park and just hit all the big rides.

You should do a park a day and not try and parkhop.

We have a Parkhopper pass which is wonderful.

If you like more flexibility it is kind of nice to rent a car which we have started doing.

If you want to go to another park you go down and find the sign which says ëWe're going to MGM' and you get on that bus and they run I think every 20 minutes.

That's why it's so important when you're at home to buy a book or to get online and to really look and pick out the things your kids want to do and the things the adults want to do.

We pretty much planned our excursions around meal times.

We purchased a meal card. That meal card allows us to utilize any food service establishment on any lodge property everywhere. We can use it for anything whether its snacks, ice cream, Coke, or full meal service.

It's very convenient, you don't have to carry a lot of money with you that way.

And also carrying a backpack with waters, and juice and small snacks.

We actually came to Animal Kingdom so we could have the character breakfast for the kids and we dined withÖwho did we dine with Sidney?

Goofy and Mickey and Donald Duck.

Some of the tips that I have for the other families are to bring a rain coat just in case it rains and a good pair of walking shoes.

And if there's a water ride we bring extra clothes so that when we get drenched we don't have to buy a new t-shirt or anything like that.

Go ahead and rent the double stroller. Even the older children can ride in the double stroller.

This is a vacation, but it's busy, busy every day which is good.