Des Moines Nesties
Dear Community,
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Has anyone been to Disney?
We are going in September and I'm trying to narrow down my must-dos! We are taking both kids with us. We already have our resort lined up, so I'm looking for suggestions like what parks we should go to, how many days should we spend at each park, other attractions the kids would love, things like that! TIA!
Re: Has anyone been to Disney?
We have looked into going but obviously haven't yet. One of the things on our must do list will be dinner with the princesses. The one linked below is at Epcot but they also do one in the Magic Kingdom that costs a bit more. Several Disney princesses are always at these dinners and will visit each table and address each child individually. You also get a picture with a princess that is included with your dinner. My Disney loving girls would be in heaven to actually get to meet the princesses like this. Especially when it can be hard to actually get any face time with characters in the park with long lines and never really knowing where they will be at.
http://disneyworld.disney.go.com/dining/akershus/
Disney World is my favorite place in the world!!!
Are you staying at a Disney resort? If so, you won't need a car, unless you want to leave Disney property. In all the times we've gone, we have never gotten a car. We don't have children, so it's a bit harder for me to chime in. But, I've been there enough, so hopefully I can give some input.
Magic Kingdom is the best for children. SO many things for children to do. Definitely check out It's a Small World. The Haunted Mansion is great, but scares lots of children. I also loved the Winnie the Pooh ride - very cute. The Buzz Lightyear ride was tons of fun - my whole family always goes on it together, and we all LOVE it.
Like a pp said, if you go to Epcot, don't plan on spending a ton of time there, as there isn't much for small children. However! There was a interactive show with Crush (from Finding Nemo). Cutest.thing.ever. Not sure how they did it, but he allowed the kids to stand up and ask him questions, and then he answered. My husband and I haven't laughed more, than in there with the kids. One little boy asked how many times Crush went to the bathroom a day. I thought his Mom was going to die. Ha! I would go to Epcot just for that.
Animal Kingdom is good - like a very, very large zoo. We always go on the safari - can't remember the name, though. There is also a 3D bug showing (in the Tree of Life), can't remember the name. Cute, but I could see it being somewhat frightening for little ones. Every time I've gone in, there have been some kids crying.
Hollywood Studios is a good park, not tons to do for children, but I wouldn't miss it unless you were on a super tight time crunch. Toy Story, IMO, is the BEST kids ride. The Fast Pass was sold out the last time we went - we waited in line for almost two hours, but it was completely worth it. So much fun! Lots of fun dining here. The 50's cafe was my favorite, but they also had a drive-in theater restaurant that was a lot of fun - you sit in old cars.
Definitely schedule some character dinners. I've heard the one in The Crystal Palace is the best - but it's the first thing to book up. Very difficult to get into. We ate at one at the Contemporary Resort. Can't remember the name, but the characters gathered up the children to dance around the restaurant, twirling their napkins over their heads and dancing. The kids were having a blast - lots of fun. We stayed at the Polynesian the last time we went, and ate breakfast there with Lilo & Stitch. The kids danced around at this one, too. This was my favorite.
Now I wanna go!
I've always checked out this site before we go: http://www.wdwinfo.com/. You can usually find the info on here about certain ride closings (for maintenance) for the time period you'll be there.
Have fun planning!
I really liked the books "The Unofficial Guide to DisneyWorld" and then "The Unofficial Guide to DisneyWorld with Kids". They were a lifesaver when we went about 5 years ago.
If you plan on eating in the parks, you might want to make your reservations now. I really liked the 50's diner place in MGM.
I was just getting on here to recommend this book. We went to Disneyland last month and loved this book. The girls were a super fun age and were so excited to see the characters and ride the rides. It was such a memorable trip and we didn't have any meltdowns/tantrums.
I made dining reservations 90 days out to make sure we got what we wanted on what day. We arrived at 3pm the first day and I did not make any reservations for the day after we arrived. I wanted us to have that day to get our bearings and not have to worry about getting up at a certain time for Breakfast with Minnie. We had character breakfasts the next 2 mornings and it worked great because the girls already knew what was going on and what they wanted to go see after we were done eating.
We let the kids sleep in until they had to get up for our dining reservations (we were on Hawaii time-it's 3 hours earlier so they were sleeping til close to 9). Then we ate lunch in the park and came back to the hotel for naps (stayed at a Disney property) and then we went back out for dinner and more rides. The girls stayed out til almost 10 every night (7pm Hawaii time) and slept awesome in the hotel. It worked great and the only ones with jetlag were DH & I!
Have fun!
My in-law's have a Marriott time share, so we are staying at Marriott's Grande Vista (it's on Avenida Vista if that means anything). I'm not sure how far it is from the parks, but it looks beautiful
Thanks for all of these tips and suggestions! I'm definitely making a reservation with the princesses. This was very helpful!