Adventure In The Great Wide Somewhere

The three mouseketeers took our brand new Senior Wilderness Explorer badges and hopped a bus to Magic Kingdom.  Faith, trust and Pixie Dust! We swung by Town Hall to meet Tinker Bell courtesy of a FastPass+ then mixed in our first ride on Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin to "de-girl-ify" the afternoon. Then I got to pick the next ride, so Carousel of Progress! The kids enjoyed the surprise (as they had no knowledge of the ride going in) but they liked it.  Kylee in the Rose Garden We headed back to Main Street, U.S.A. to meet Mickey (our second FastPass) then wait for our last FastPass, reserved viewing for the Festival of Fantasy parade. But first snacks!  As much as I'm a Dole Whip purist, everyone must visit the Plaza Ice Cream Parlor for a parade snack. Waiting with his (regular) ice cream cone until his sister received her special dairy free cone? So sweet. Thankfully we planned a little extra time for Kylee's ice cream cone an...

Welcome Wordless Wednesday Blog Hoppers! This Wordless Wednesday is brought to you by the magical signs which abound throughout Disney property!  Sorcerer's of the Magic Kingdom Seal Thank you to Deb of Focused on the Magic for hosting!

After what passes for alone time on a two kid, one parent trip to Walt Disney World... Ahem. We headed off toward Frontierland for our "afternoon break." Rather than heading straight for Space Mountain like the kids suggested for their rest time, we headed toward the Liberty Belle Riverboat for a lazy afternoon cruise around the Rivers of America. Very relaxing. Between a brief nap on the bench and a long time staring at the paddle wheel, we soon found ourselves on another form of river going vessel, the Becky Thatcher raft to Tom Sawyer island. Fort Langhorn was a big hit. Running in and out of caverns, over barrel bridges and under escape passages and firing rifles at Fort Langhorn and generally whooping it up? Yeah. That's how my kids rest. Watching the Liberty Belle paddle by. Chris and Kylee needed a nice cool snack to cool off from all of the spelunking. That will do quite nicely! Feeling refreshed after their first Dole Whips, off we...

After circling around the back side of Cinderella Castle, Chris broke out the map and off we went to hunt down our first portal on our Sorcerer's of the Magic Kingdom adventure.  Impressively beautiful, any day of the year. After several portals, they really began to get the hang of the game. Sorcerer's of the Magic Kingdom is a cute, multilevel and very addictive card game where you quest around one of the lands at the titular Magic Kingdom park helping defeat various Disney villains and eventually Hades. It can be played near endlessly as you collect different cards each day you enter the park. Did I mention it's addictive? My kiddos happily forgot about all of the rest of the most magical place on earth in hopes of rescuing Aurora's good fairies.  Busy fighting the Mistress of All Evil Until I remembered our Seven Dwarfs Mine Train FastPass+ window. Trotting through the FastPass queue, we went straight to the front of the line. Being a party of thr...

The Magic Kingdom may be the most magical place on earth, but it is also smack dab in the middle of Walt Disney World. My biggest problem at Disney is there is literally, "more to see than can ever be seen or to do than can ever be done." Forty-three square miles brimming with tons of things to see and do and eat, to be exact. So where do I start planning my perfect, stress-free Walt Disney World vacation?   It can be done! Whether it's as simple as my kids' picks list out of the Birnbaum's Walt Disney World for Kids or a well detailed down to the minute spreadsheet developed from pouring over PassPorter's Walt Disney World and The Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World . Step 1: Do Your Research! Look at projected crowd levels . Learn about the FastPass+ system. Measure your children (at the end of the day in sneakers) and note any rides with height restrictions out of your range.  Please note: they do not count bows, high ponytails or f...