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After spending last week scrolling through everyone’s Disney pics you have decided to show your DisneySide and finally book your own Disney World Vacation.
The most important thing to remember is when it comes to a Disney World Vacation planning is key. My Weight Watchers coach used to say,
“IF YOU FAIL TO PLAN YOU PLAN TO FAIL.”
This definitely holds true for Disney Vacations as well.
Disney is not a place for winging it. You can’t just show up and make it work. It requires a little planning.
1.) Purchase your park tickets. You have two basic options for park passes a base ticket or a park hopper. The park hopper adds an extra $64 per ticket and enables you to visit multiple parks each day. The base tickets gives you entrance to one Park each day. There is also a Water Park Option which is also $64 per ticket and gives you entrance to the two Disney Water Parks. Once you purchase you tickets you can customize your Magic Bands. Magic Bands will be sent to you a few weeks prior to your vacation.
Animal Kingdom
Hollywood Studios
Magic Kingdom
Epcot
2.) Plan out what park you will visit on each day of your vacation. This is especially important if you purchase a base ticket with no park hopper since you will only be able to visit one park per day. While you are planning out your days also check to see when Extra Magic Hours are being offered at each park. Extra Magic Hours are when the parks open an hour early or extend their closing times 1-2 hours after scheduled closing time. These extra hours are for Disney Resort guests only and lines are typically shorter during these times. Plan to visit each park on a day they have scheduled Extra Magic Hours. The evening extra hours are my favorite because they are longer than the morning.
3.) Create an account on My Disney Experience. Once you create an account you can plan your vacation extras here. You can create an account for all the people in you party and link your hotel and dining reservations as well as your Fastpass+ choices. You can also plan our other activities like shows and parades you would like to see. My Disney Experience also has a mobile app for your phone. For the really anal retentive my husband likes to make an excel document color coding each day and each park with our dining reservations.
Chef Mickey’s
A Family Favorite for Character Dining
4.)Book your dining reservations 180 days in advance. Once you have a rough plan of what park you will visit on each day of your vacation you can start booking your WDW dining reservations. Each park has quick service, table service and character dining options. You only need to make reservations for character dining and table service restaurants. It might seem crazy to book your dining reservations so early but that will give you the best chance to eat where you want when you want.
5.) Make your Fast Pass+ reservations 60 days in advance. (30 days in advance if you are not staying on property) Booking this far in advance definitely seems weird. I remember my husband asking me whether we should go on Space Mountain or Runaway Train at 11:00 on a day three months from now. I love Disney and I was even like, “Really I have no idea just trying to get through the day today!” Once you get over that feeling of absurdity you can easily make your selections. It’s good to have a plan but they are not set in stone and you can change your FastPass+ selections at any time. However, the earlier you choose the better chance you have of getting the FastPass+ for the rides you want. Although I haven’t done it yet you can even use your FastPass+ for preferential seating at parades or fireworks or or character greetings.
Following these tips should take some of the worry and anxiety our of your Walt Disney World Vacation.
For many people winter means skiing. Skiing is a great family sport. There aren’t too many activities for a whole family to enjoy together. We taught our kids to ski as soon as they could walk and spend many winter weekends skiing.
The only caveat is that skiing is very expensive. Everything about skiing is expensive from the lift ticket to the skis and everything in between. There are no two ways about it you are going to lay out some serious money in order to enjoy this sport. Especially if you have a large family.
Therefore I am always on the look out for ways to save on skiing. When my kids are little I take advantage of the 4th and 5th grade Ski for free pass offered by many states. I also hand down ski jackets, pants and ski equipment from my oldest daughter to her younger sisters.
The most consistent way to save money at the ski lodge is to bring your own lunch. You can purchase lunch at the lodge but the prices are astronomical. Bringing your own lunch saves a lot of money. A family of five buying a hamburger or chicken nuggets, french fries and a drink can be anywhere upwards of $50. Do this over a few days time and you will break the bank.
When I was little and my father would take my sisters and I skiing he actually fed us K-rations from his time as a Coast Guard Reservist. For anyone who has every had a K-ration you know it’s not the lunch for kids. Fortunately, I have come a long way from the K rations days but I have discovered a few tips for DIY lunch at the ski lodge.
1.) Bring food the kids like and lots of variety. Remember you will be competing with french fries and mozzarella sticks. I bring all their favorite cold cuts and snacks. I try to avoid making it similar to the brown bag lunch like they take to school everyday.
2.) Don’t make individual lunches. The easiest way to bring lunch is to throw it all in the bag. I bring bread, lunch meat, peanut butter, meatballs & whatever else we have for sandwiches and we make it all there. This saves you time at home in the morning when you are trying to get out to the slopes.
3.) Be creative.. My children are picky eaters. They don’t all love sandwiches and I sometimes have to think outside the box. One of their favorites is to bring pasta in a thermos. Once we even made macaroni and cheese and brought it in a big drink cooler. I haven’t tried this but I have even seen people bring a crock-pot and plug it in at the lodge.
4.) Bring plates, napkins, and plasticware. Although you can get napkins and plasticware at the lodge I find it is just easier to bring it with you.
5.) Sometimes you have to give in. You are definitely saving lots of money so it’s okay to give in and get a french fry or a hot chocolate every once in a while. My kids look at it as a special treat.
I have been pretty obsessed with cupcakes lately…
I look forward to each new holiday because I can experiment with different cupcake ideas. Valentine’s Day definitely called for a heart shape cupcake. I did a quick search of Valentine’s Day cupcakes and found this great trick for making heart shaped cupcakes without a specialized pan.
Prepare cupcakes as you would normally. I wanted light and fluffy so I went with Duncan Hines Simply White cupcake mix. Prepare the cupcakes according to the recipe and fill the cupcake liners as you would normally. Then place a marble outside each liner in the cupcake pan. This creates a heart shape.
The first time I tried this I didn’t have marbles and substituted with tinfoil rolled up into balls. It didn’t really work that well, the marbles worked much better.
The marble created the beginning of the heart shape but it was really the icing that makes it. Buttercream icing is always my top choice for icing because it tastes great and the consistency is perfect for decorating.
I used Wilton cupcake tips 1M and 4B to create the heart design. I used one continuous motion starting with the outside heart shape first and then continued by creating hearts inside hearts until the cupcakes was covered.
Wilton Cupcake tip 1M
Wilton Cupcake tip 4B.
I also tried the marble trick with my mini cupcake pan with equal success.
Mommy Day by Day 
