The Rest of Disney and fun at the Springs

So now we get to the whole point of this trip. After Animal Kingdom we drove to an RCI resort and met up with my brother and his family. It was all a bit of a mess up. I haven't seen my brother for four years but on our arrival, he was on the phone trying to sort out a problem with the keys. Oh well!! At least we finally got to see each other again. We spent the week in 3 bedroom flat in a residential area of Orlando. Not really what we had expected from an RI booking but it was great.

The first day we decided to hit the Magic Kingdom and it was utter chaos. Never go to the Magic Kingdom on a Saturday. Trying to sort out everything for ten people had me going crazy. I promise that we are never going to Disney with my husbands family. Helping 22 people around Disney may be the death of me. It was a long and exhausting day but the kids still had fun and really enjoyed spending time with their cousin. The girls dressed in their Elsa costumes and really hit the Disney vibe in full.

We discovered that kids will keep themselves quiet at Disney once provided with stickers from the gate.

On Sunday we took a break from Disney and headed to Wekiwa Springs. It was such a great idea and so nice to escape from everything. We floated in the spring, paddled down the river in a canoe and let the kids loose in a playground. I highly recommended a trip there!!

Monday we stayed at home so I could get some work done and my brother could study. Boring but the truth of life:)

Tuesday was back to the Magic Kingdom for another fun day. This time we went for breakfast at the Crystal Palace. That place has become super expensive. Well, it certainly is pricey when your 4-year-old eats one Mickey Waffle and you just paid $20 for her breakfast. The kids loved seeing the characters but I think this is one that we will skip in future. Zoey got to go on Under the Sea five times and she loved that. We did a number of character meetings today. The highlight for me was Tiana. Ewan didn't want to see the princess's as he claimed that was boring girl stuff. Tiana told my daughter that all boys are frogs and brothers are especially bad. Loved that.

Wednesday was a quiet day at Disney Springs. Did a bit of shopping and let the kids go crazy at the Lego store and World of Disney.

Thursday we hit EPCOT. FINALLY!!! My favourite park of them all. It was super quiet and we managed to get there in time for park opening. Got to walk straight on to a number of rides. In a bad moment, Andrew managed to lose his Magic Band. If anyone has a great idea for keeping them on, please let me know?

I am going to end off here for today as I want to devote a whole post to the awesome that is EPCOT!!

US Trip Week 1 Part 2

Day 3

We had a sleep in and a slow start to the day. Zoey was running a temperature during the night. We managed to break it with Calpol but it was a difficult night with lots of crying. In the morning she was fine and I still don't know what caused the fever. Possibly a bug caught on the plane.

Breakfast was at the Pop Century Food Court. 

TIP

Split a kids meal between two younger kids. Disney is pricey but the meals are huge. We just asked for an extra plate and bought a second Mickey Milk. It worked out much cheaper and both kids were full. Andrew and I found the coffee to be great value as you can have as many refills as you like.

After checking out of the resort we drove to Legoland. The park was deserted as it was closed for the day but we had reservations at the hotel. I found the hotel to be very well designed and perfect for kids. My children had a ball playing with lego in the lobby, swimming with giant lego pieces in the hotel pool and dancing to disco music in the elevator. I filmed a YouTube video of the hotel and I will let you know as soon as it's posted online. 

In the evening we had dinner at the hotel's buffet restaurant, Bricks. The food was decent but nothing was particularly exciting. One odd feature was being asked to pay a tip for your waiter before the meal. I had pre-paid for the meal months ago and couldn't remember the price. I ended up tipping 24% on a buffet. The service was good but not worth that. Throughout the entire meal, the waitress will push you into paying $10 extra to have Smores down by the lake. It sounds lovely but I don't like pushy service and we had just paid a large amount of money for this meal. My kids didn't want to do the Smores as they had both eaten plenty of desserts. Lucky us:)

Day 4
Legoland
Ok, straight off the bat... not my favorite park. It all looked a bit sad and dated after the excitement of Disney. I know that its a new park but it doesn't feel that way. This may be due to the fact that plastic really doesn't do well in the sun and Lego is made of plastic.  However, the kids loved it. They loved the mini rides and the brick building centers. Ewan spent 30 minutes in a Mind Storm class and learned so much. The classes are free but you will need to book as you walk in on a busy day. Luckily for us, the park was not but busy. We had extra brick time thanks to staying at the hotel and took full advantage of that. We got to ride a few of the bigger attractions twice in a row which was great. I found the rides fairly tame and this park is really meant for the younger kids.

Day 5.
Disney
We spent the previous night at the All Star Movies resort. The whole family loved it and I am certain we will stay here again in the future. We got the Toy Story section and the kids loved walking through the door to Andy's bedroom. Not going to lie... parents loved it too. In the morning we got going super early and headed to Animal Kingdom. We couldn't get fast passes for Flight of Passage so made the choice to run as the park opened. We still queued for almost 70 minutes but the ride was worth every minute. I was lucky to be able to get us a fast pass for the Navi River ride while we waited in the queue for Flight of Passage. So here is a big DISNEY TIP... keep checking the app for fast passes. I am not going to chat about the amazing Avatar rides here as I have an in-depth chat about the rides on my vlog. All links will be posted soon. Lunch was at Sat'uli Canteen. The food was fantastic and pretty reasonable by Disney standards. I had the cheeseburger pods and I would highly recommend them but Andrew had one of the bowls and we both agreed that was better value. In the afternoon we hit all the shows and the kids loved that. Kali River Rapids was my four-year-olds favorite ride of the whole day and she just wanted to go again. We all loved Kilimanjaro Safaris. In the evening we watched the Rivers of Light. It was pretty but not as spectacular as I expected. Perhaps I will grow to love it.
In the end, we all loved Animal Kingdom. As we are from South Africa it was a park that we avoided in the past. I guess we felt that we had probably seen most of the animals in the natural habitat. Boy were we wrong. I saw plenty of animals that I have never seen. We all love the rides at Animal Kingdom and after 11 hours in the park, we had still had plenty to see on our next visit. In fact, it is now my second favorite park after EPCOT.

Don't forget to follow us on Facebook at Taylor Family Travels. 

Week 1 USA Trip Part 1

Okay, so we have finished our first week of our US trip. Some highs and some lows. As to be expected of any holiday.

The flight:
We had an insanely long flight to get to the US. The first flight left Ballito at 7:10 on Sunday morning so we had to be at the airport at 5:40am. That meant leaving the house at 5:30am. I barely slept the night before and the morning was super rushed.
The first flight was only to Johannesburg so pretty quick at only 50 minutes. 4 hours later we got on the first international flight from Johannesburg to Dubai. 8 long hours of a very bumpy flight we landed in Dubai at 11:30pm.

DUBAI AIRPORT NB.... Leave lots of time to get to your next flight. It took us about 30 minutes to transfer to the next terminal and the security is very tight. You have to take out and switch on every electronic device in your hand luggage. If you are a gadget geek this can take ages.
The 16-hour flight to Orlando seemed to take 40 hours. The flight was very turbulent and we had to stay seated for large sections of the flight. The food was excellent and the kids channels are great. I highly recommend Emirates as an airline for anyone flying with children.

Day 1
A tip for Orlando airport is, don't use the trolleys for your luggage. You get to push them about 50m before they are taken from you and you are told to carry your luggage up the escalator.
A tip for international visitors to the US. Hire your car through a UK agency or an agency in your home country. We hired through Thrifty directly and they don't include basic insurance in the rental. That was a bit of a shock to us. We have always hired through Rhino.com and the insurance is included. This time I went through Thrifty directly. That won't happen again. They quoted us $4000 for insurance and tried to push us into taking it. Luckily we had annual car hire insurance from Worldwide Insurance. I am not sponsored by the company in any way but after using them on multiple international journeys, I highly recommend them.

Tip for US travel. Buy something at the airport to make sure you have small change. We hit a toll booth soon after the airport and only had a $100 bill. Whoops. The simple solution is a SunPass. Don't pay the insane fees charged by the hire companies. Just pick one up for $25 at a supermarket and link it to your credit card.

Our first night was Disney All Stars Music resort. We loved this value resort. The beds are super comfy and the kids had so much fun exploring the resort theme. They got rid of energy playing on the playground before we all crashed at 6pm.

Day 2
In a moment of crazy, we went to the Magic Kingdom while still zonked on jet lag. The kids loved it. The park was pretty quiet so we managed to go to on just about every ride in the park and enjoy a yummy lunch at Pecos Bill before 4 when the park closed for the day. Kids hated The Barnstormer and Big Thunder Mountain. I guess Rollercoasters are out for the next few years. They loved Peter Pan, Pirates, and Buzz Lightyear. My favourite ride is still the Haunted Mansion. Dinner was a light snack at The Pop Century food court. Yes, we moved resorts to see as much as possible. Kids didn't like Pop Century as the theming doesn't continue into the rooms. No Disney characters.

I would suggest going to Pecos Bill for lunch or dinner. The fixings bar is enough to create another whole meal so it is one of the best budget meals in the park.

The next blog will include Legoland, Disney All Star Movies, and Animal Kingdom.
BIG NEWS
I am running a competition!!!!
Subscribe to this blog and comment on this post to win a special prize from Disney for your kids. The prize is gender neutral and will work for kids aged 3 - 9. Winner will be announced on Sunday. All offensive comments will be deleted.

Restaurants in Disney

One of the big drawcards of a Disney vacation is food. People spend months obsessing over the food options and trying to make sure that they get the perfect reservation. Personally, we are skipping out on the big restaurants this time. I am going to try and squeeze in a few reservations but the Rand/Dollar exchange rate has left them a bit out of the budget this time.

However, I still love talking about Disney food:)
So here are a few of my top choices:

Top 5 table service
Yak and Yeti
Trail's End
Kona Cafe
Boma
Skippers Canteen

Top 5 quick service
Yak and Yeti Local Foods Cafe
Flame Tree BBQ
Satu'li Canteen
Pecos Bill
Sunshine Seasons

Top 5 Character Meals
Crystal Palace
Chef Mickey's
Tusker House
Cape May
Ohana

This year we will certainly be eating at Trail's End, Kona Cafe, Chef Mickey's and Ohana. Of course, we will hit the quick service spots. I haven't yet tried Satu'li but I included it after hearing rave reviews. We will be going to Disney Springs for the first time and I am looking forward to going to Earl of Sandwich. I have heard wonderful things. Let me know about any places that I really need to try!!
These restaurants are probably not the top places to eat but with kids, we tend to go to the places that they will enjoy.

Only 4 sleeps now till our trip. I will be posting here once or twice a week and uploading videos on our YouTube channel every Monday.

Disney Places to Stay

So you have found the perfect flight and set aside a budget for your Disney trip. Now, its time to decide where you are going to stay.

The biggest question is, should your stay on-site or off-site. Here is a list of pros and cons for both options:
PROS
On-site
*Access to extra-magic hours. If you stay at a Disney World resort you will get early or late access to one of the parks each day. This can be a huge bonus for your holiday. The biggest benefit comes for parks like Animal Kingdom. On days that AK has extra-magic hours you have a much better chance of getting on one of the new rides in Pandora. If your heart is set on riding a very popular ride and you can't get a fast past.... this is your only chance. Another bonus is that the parks tend to be much quieter during extra magic hours.
*Experience the magic all the time. At a Disney resort, you get to be part of the magic 24 hours a day. This can be a great benefit as you can still enjoy a bit of Disney even on non-park days.
* Free transport. Guests staying at a Disney resort can get free transport from the airport using Disney's Magic Express. During your stay, you can use free buses and boats around the parks and resorts.
*Enjoy all the extras such as free movies and games at the resorts.
*Free parking at the Disney Parks. That will save you $14 per day.
*If you book tickets with your hotel rooms, you can start booking fast pass reservations 60 days in advance.
*You can book your dining reservations 180 days from the start of your trip for your whole vacation.

Off-site
*Cheaper options. The biggest pro to staying off-site is the price.You can get some amazing deals for an off-site property. Search the net on websites such as Booking.com and Hotels.com for the best deals.
*Off-site properties often have small kitchens giving you the chance to cater for your family and save money.
*It's easier to get to supermarkets and cheap restaurants from an off-site hotel.

CONS
On-Site
* Price. You are going to pay for the privilege of staying at a Disney Resort. Value resorts start at about the $90 mark but can run as high as $130 for a night. Note that Disney does not charge for parking or resort fees so take that into account when looking at prices.
*Rooms in value resorts are small and can get very cramped for a large family.
*You get a small fridge in a value resort and no coffee machine
*Distance to other restaurants and the lack of cooking facilities means that you will be eating at Disney prices for most of your meals. That can get very pricey.
*Deluxe resorts can cost over $1000 per night.

Off-site
*No extra-magic hours. In the case of popular rides, extra-magic hours may be your only chance to get on the ride.
*Charge $14 per day at Disney parks for parking. That can get pricey.
*You can only book fast passes 30 days in advance.
*Distance to the parks. You might get a great price but you probably won't be able to pop back to the hotel for a nap in the middle of the day.

So those are the points that I think you should consider. For this particular vacation we are staying both on-site and off-site. The first few days will be at a Disney resort and the second week will be at a Timeshare Villa. Timeshare is great idea for large groups. In the second week we will have family meeting us in Orlando and for a group of 9, a villa is the best option.

Let me know if you can think of any other important points. Thanks for reading and please leave a comment below. Please check out my Facebook page. Like, if you like the content.

Disney World Planning - Budget tips

We are spending the first 11 days and last two days of our holiday in Orlando. This was due to an amazing flight deal that I found (more on that in another post). So we fly into Orlando on the 27th November at 9:30am.
My 8-year-old son and 4-year-old daughter are beyond excited. To a child, there is nowhere better in the world. An adult would probably prefer New York or Vegas :)

So let's break a Disney holiday down into steps.  I am ignoring flights and the other Orlando theme parks for now.

BUDGET
Disney is insanely expensive. There is no getting around that fact. Park tickets start at $99 per adult for a one day pass. Then you need to find accommodation and transport. Don't forget about food. It all gets a bit crazy but there are ways to save money. Here are my five tips:

1. Stay off-site or at a Disney Value resort
I have found some super cheap off-site deals. On Booking.com I found a hotel room that sleeps 4 for $50 per night. DON'T expect any level of luxury for that kind of money. If you plan on being in the parks all day and you are just using the room to sleep, it can be a great money saver. If you need to be in the heart of the magic - check out the Value Resorts. They are really well themed and your kids will adore them. Prices start at about $90 per room.

2. Stop at Walmart or Publix
On your way to your hotel stop at a grocery store and stock up on snacks. Water in the park costs around $2.50 and you can get 24 bottles for that price in Walmart. Buy a few snacks and easy breakfast items. Most hotel rooms in the US have at least a small fridge. Having a few small items on hand can be a great way of staying budget friendly. Disney allows you to take your own non-alcoholic drinks and snacks into the park. Great for when little people want an apple and you don't feel like spending $2 on a piece of fruit. Note: this applies to drinks and snacks. You cannot bring a full meal into the park.

3. Tickets
DON'T buy your tickets from Craigslist or any other seconds sites. The prices may be great but you will not get into the park. Disney tickets are assigned to a particular person and you can't use tickets that aren't linked to your name by Disney. In the past, I have bought tickets from the Disney website but this time I am trying UnderCover Tourist. They are official Disney Ticket sellers and slightly cheaper than the official site. If you find very cheap tickets, they are often from timeshare sales groups. You make get cheap tickets but you will need to spend one morning of your holiday at a sales presentation. I know that the pitch says that the meeting will take two hours but expect it to be closer to five hours in reality.

4. Souvenirs
Avoid the souvenir shops in Disney. If you really need to buy a few Disney themed items, try getting them outside the parks. Target, Walmart, and Publix all have awesome Disney stuff at a fraction of the price. You can always buy the items in stealth mode and have them waiting for the kids in your hotel room after a day in the park. Another option is to budget a small amount of money for each person to spend in the parks.

5. Do free things
Yes, there are free things to do at Disney. This list gives you some Disney magic without even going into the parks.
* Ride the monorail. The monorail has three different routes and smaller kids will find the trains to be a fun ride.
*Take a boat ride from Disney Springs to the Port Orleans resort. A lovely boat ride that shows some stunning scenery.
*Walk around the resorts. There is no charge for going to the Disney resorts. At Animal Kingdom Lodge you can walk around the savannah and see all the animals there. The theming at the resorts is amazing. Taking a self-guided tour around a few of the resorts is a great way to spend a non-park day.
* Watch the fireworks from the beach at the Polynesian resort or Fort Wilderness. Both spots offer fantastic views of the fireworks each evening. Bring a blanket and find a nice spot on the beach for the perfect end to a magic day.
*Kids will love the Camp Fire with Chip and Dale at Fort Wilderness. Only Disney guests are supposed to join the fun but I can't find any evidence of them checking that people are staying at a Disney hotel. Take a boat ride from the Magic Kingdom to Fort Wilderness and spend a fun-filled evening. The resort offers a Smores pack for $10 but you are welcome to bring your own. Chip and Dale lead a campfire sing-a-long and if you are really enjoying yourself you can stay to watch a Disney movie under the stars.

I hope that you have enjoyed these tips. Tomorrow there will be a post about the different accomodation options in Orlando and how to book them. Thanks for reading and please comment below. I love hearing from you.

Welcome to Taylor Family Travels

This blog is the story of my little family and the fun trips we undertake. I hope that you will find some great ideas for your own families here. In our current plans, we are heading to the US in 32 days. So the next few blog posts will be planning posts and I will be uploading planning videos on our Youtube channel.

I happen to live in the lovely town of Ballito on the East Coast of South Africa. I know that that this is a popular holiday spot so I am planning to add a few blog posts and videos about the town before we leave.

I hope that you enjoy this blog and please feel free to leave any ideas in the comments below.