I’m so excited to share more about our multi-generational 7-night whirlwind trip to Disney World and Universal at the beginning of April! This trip had been postponed twice and it was a big family reunion with my parents, my sister's family of five, and my family of four, so we were thrilled to finally get together and experience all the magic. We did six days in the parks and made so many incredible memories!

There is a LOT to share, so I’m going to split this into several different articles. This week I'll focus on the two days we spent in Magic Kingdom. Up next will be Hollywood Studios and Epcot, and we'll finish up with Universal Studios! I'll include some tips for the parks along the way in each article too.

Don't forget that I'm also a travel advisor and I LOVE helping families plan their vacations. Elite Travel Concierge is an Authorized Disney Vacation Planner, and it's my specialty to make this kind of vacation less stressful and more enjoyable! Learn more at my website.

Disney World Parks

Let's jump right into all the fun we had at the Disney World Parks!

Magic Kingdom Day One

Our original plan was to spend two days at the Magic Kingdom, even though I thought we really needed a rest day. But I'm so glad we planned it this way because we got stuck with weather cancellations on our flight to Orlando. We got diverted to Atlanta and then canceled, so we were stuck there. We ended up figuring out how to drive to Orlando the next morning, so half of our first park day was driving to Orlando from Atlanta. 

We had planned to be at Magic Kingdom for the park opening that day and stay until the evening show, and I'm actually glad we weren’t there earlier. I found that 8-9 hours in each park was my breaking point. Everyone was exhausted beyond that point and the walk back to the parking lot was like a death march.

I wasn’t sure what my 7-year-old was going to do with the rides, so the first Genie+ Lightning Lane attraction I had booked was the Haunted Mansion. Well, he hated it, too spooky, and I almost lost him. But then we headed over to Pirates of the Caribbean and Splash Mountain and he was in love!

After a few rides we took a quick break to have an early dinner we had booked at Be Our Guest, the Beast’s castle. This was a fantastic three-course meal! The restaurant features three rooms for seating, including the ballroom, the west wing, and the rose gallery. Each had beautiful theming, and the Beast even comes through the dining room frequently! Our food was delicious and it’s one of the few places in Magic Kingdom where you can order an adult beverage with your meal.

The remainder of the afternoon was spent enjoying Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, getting Dole Whips, and then heading to Main Street to catch Disney Enchantment, the fireworks extravaganza. It was a fabulous show and even though my feet were killing me, I was in awe at the amazing projections on the castle and down main street. Tinker bell even makes a very cool appearance!

Magic Kingdom Day Two

Our second day at Magic Kingdom happened to be our sixth park day, so we were pros by then and had put together a plan! 

We had to go back and ride Splash Mountain and Big Thunder Mountain each twice, and everyone loved their first ride at Space Mountain!

We tried a different type of Dole Whip (vanilla/dole whip twist in pineapple juice, which was amazing, but next time I'll just get the twist with no juice.) We also got to do Princess meet and greets with Cinderella, Rapunzel, Tiana, and Elena. We just missed getting to hug the characters, which started up again recently, but it was still a treat to get to interact with the Princesses!

The kids had the time of their lives on all the ‘mountains’ and we ended the day a little early to head back to our house! (It was our sixth park day, after all, time for a little hanging out and resting.)

There are so many amazing attractions for all ages at Magic Kingdom. I loved being there with my 10 and 7 year olds, it was definitely a different experience than when we had been there with a five and one year old. I'm already looking forward to our next visit!

Magical Rental House

Deciding where to stay can always be a tricky decision, so I wanted to share more about our lodging on this trip. While planning we looked at both onsite and offsite options, but ultimately decided that with 11 of us we wanted room to spread out and hang out for seven days. We found a big 10-bedroom house in the Reunion area that had a heated pool, movie theater, arcade, lots of gathering space, and a huge kitchen. It also had really cute themed kids rooms so all the cousins could bunk out together during the vacation. It was perfect for the type of vacation we wanted, and being together was a huge perk for us.

There were a few drawbacks to staying offsite though. We had to drive to the theme parks each day, which means we had to pay to park and that adds up quickly, especially if you want the preferred parking areas. Traffic in Orlando is horrible, so it was usually a 30-45 minute drive each way. Some parks were a longer walk-in or out than others, but it's not much longer than the resort transportation (unless you're staying at a monorail or Skyliner resort, that's much closer!) It can still be a rough walk at the end of the day on very tired feet. If you're staying offsite it’s also nearly impossible to get a paid Lightning Lane and the best dining typically goes to onsite guests (because they have an advantage for both options). But, those weren’t deal breakers for us and we still had the time of our lives!

That's it for Part One! Stay tuned for more about Epcot, Hollywood Studios, and the Universal theme parks!