Friday 27 November 2009

Disneyworld - The rest

To finish off here are some random thoughts of our time at Disney.

  • Andrew spent an hour at Hollywood Studios one night riding the rollercoasters and the Tower of Terror. There were no queues so he was able to ride a few times on each before the park closed.
  • Ridemax. One way we maximised our time at Disney was to use a program called Ridemax to set our itinerary. It was a very helpful program and I recommend it to first time Disney travellers. However we did find that it had overestimated wait times - I think there are fewer people travelling to Disney this year due to the economic downturn.
  • Passporters Guide to Disney. I borrowed this book from Alexis and it was excellent. I spent many hours reading and noting down rides and shows we wanted to see. It also helped me select good restaurants to eat at. We used a travel agent to make our bookings so we had all our reservations organised for us.
  • Autograph book. Our travel agent gave Lucy an autograph book to gain character signatures. This was very fun for Lucy and gave her an entry point to meet the characters.
  • Photo Pass. Disney has professional photographers throughout the parks. We tried several times to get a family photo of the four of us but Lucy did not co-operate. So whilst it was a great idea to get a photo CD there were only a couple of good photos of Andrew and I, so we didn't buy it. We did have a voucher for one free photo so we picked the best one and had it printed.
  • Dining Plan. Disney has a dining plan (that we received for free as part of our package saving us $600) which covers all of their restaurants. It allowed us each day to get lunch, dinner and a snack. Both lunch and dinner covered a main meal, a drink and a dessert. In most cases a sugar-free dessert was on offer which helped Andrew out. He was surprised at how well we could eat if we tried and he kept his blood sugar under very good control.
  • Outlets. Since we had a car we visited one of the Disney outlets. We picked up some souvenirs at 50% off the regular price. Whilst there was not the selection available in the regular stores at Disney it was well worth a visit here to pick up what we could. I also stopped in at the crocs store and got some really good deals.
  • Magic. Disney has their own philosophy to life. It is that if you believe hard enough in the magic in your heart your dreams will come true. This is the message that was overtly presented in their shows. We made sure that we explained to Lucy that this was not a biblical view of life and is not the reality that she would see around her.
  • Baddies. Most Disney stories have a scary element to them (a component of good storytelling) so it is important to consider what to expose a 3 year old to. Lucy was not scared by any of the rides themselves, she loves speed, but she can be scared by characters and scenery. After going on an adult roller coaster she commented that she didn't like the bats.

1 comment:

chan said...

wow! what an adventure - it has been such a pleasure reading about your adventures and learning about what goes on when holidaying with children.
its sounds like it was a magnificent time - thanks for sharing it.