Have you thought about cramming as much Disney and Universal into one vacation as you can, with elementary-aged kids to boot? I had that thought too, and survived it! Along the way, I decided to document how it went, not only for my own memories but in case any hardcore planners find any of my experiences helpful.
I will caveat, this is not a “hack” post on how you should plan your trip. This is just what I did, sometimes on purpose, and sometimes by happenstance that just worked out.
Day 1: 5AM flight on Southwest.
Kids are ready to board!I usually wake up at 2:30 most nights, usually due to kid nosebleeds or childhood conviction of thunderstorms being raging monsters. Sometimes for no reason at all—those are actually the worst. So getting up at 2:30 wasn’t too bad. Plus, the kids (ages 5 and 8) were actually excited to be woken up since it meant it was time to go, waking up already fully dressed in their Disney shirts with assurances they didn’t have to brush teeth just yet. We’d hoped they could be transferred to the car still asleep for the drive to the airport, but they were just too excited.
At least she put in a valiant effort to sleep!
I elected to skip coffee in hopes to catch a few Z’s on the plane. Thanks to our one child under 6, we were able to board before B group, even with our lame C group tickets. I sat with my 8yo girl while the hubby sat with our extremely chatty 5yo boy who refused to fall asleep one wink. Poor hubby. I succeeded with a few minutes of sleep myself due to my earbuds not fitting my 8yo’s ears and constant demands of readjustment while watching Captain Marvel on the Southwest app. Fun times.
Onto the $125/9-day car rental with Routes Rent a Car—one of my financial victories. But with this victory came downfalls. Despite not answering the phone when calling for a shuttle, one luckily showed after a mere 10 minutes of flailing and finger-pointing. Post another commute—how far is this place??—we’re feeling the lack of sleep. I never got my coffee, so I’m getting crabby as a headache brews. Amazingly, the kids are still in high spirits! We rode with another family, the Mom making sure everyone can tell she’s in a mood. I sign in at Routes just before them, which turned out to be our godsend since this high-quality car rental company didn’t seem to have enough cars for both of us. The other family storms out as I’m talking to my insurance company to get the declarations page I forgot to avoid the $22/day for insurance—whoops! Safeco for the win as our opinion of Routes continues to plummet. We walk to their one vehicle to find a minivan exactly like our own. I giggle as my husband’s dreams of renting something fun—like a Jeep—crunches beneath the minivan’s tires as we roll out.
Welcome to Epcot!
We’d rented a house through VRBO less than 15 minutes from Disney property for only $90/night—another financial victory—but since we can’t check in until 4PM, we head straight to Epcot with 3 FastPasses ready to go. Time to push through people, we can sleep when we’re dead!
Hoping to come back without hungry, tired, and hot picky eaters—so much good food!
We grab a couple of Mickey treats—my 5yo, of course, manages to drop half, but a cast member was quick to offer a replacement. Disney service for the win!—then hit a couple of countries (Dominican Republic and Mexico) for an empanada and a taco as we attempt to get a lay of the land, which seems to be under a lot of construction. The kids start to hit meltdown mode once the ice cream, and then the giant head-size donut, is gone. Not to mention the Florida sun beating down on us with ferocity. The kids need some real food, and it’s apparent by now there won’t be chicken fingers and hot dogs at the World Showcase. I wish my kids would eat good food! By then we’re near Norway, so we meet Elsa and Anna, hit our first FastPass at Spaceship Earth, get quick meals with picky-eater approved food Electric Umbrella, then meet more characters (Joy and Baymax) before our next FastPass—Mission: SPACE.
With some time to spare, we do the non-spinny version (Green) before using our FastPass for Orange. Green was a blast! The kids did fine on Orange, the 5yo even thought it was fun. The 8yo said she felt a little sick but bounced back. But alas, the sleep-deprived adults were ruined with nausea and headaches, so much so that we gave up our last FastPass—Soarin! That hurt to give up—and headed to the house for much-needed naps.
Take-out and grocery shopping filled the rest of the evening. Exhausting and successful first day!
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