The Baranko Family

The long awaited trip to the most magical place on earth finally happened! Yay! It was so fun. The four of us went to Disney World with Kristin, Cory, PJ, Mom, Dad, Donna and Emil last week and it was A-M-A-Z-I-N-G. (I had to spell that out like M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E does.)

The headline is that we all had an awesome time and made memories that will last a lifetime (at least for Matt and I, the kids of course won't remember a thing!). In the week that we were there we had a nice schedule which allowed for plenty of theme park time, nap times, pool times and hang out times. We stayed at the Beach Club, which is an Epcot resort, and we loved it. The hotel was really nice, and our room was a one bedroom so that while the kids were napping or in bed early, we could still hang out and watch TV or go out on the balcony. It also had a kitchenette which was really convenient as we ate breakfast there every day and made a couple group dinners there, too. We ended up going to to all four parks and had two pool days at the hotel. Luke had a ton of fun and did a lot of the attractions. While there were a lot of rides he was too short for, it ended up being fine because I don't think he would have been emotionally ready for any of the rides he was too short for anyway. While there he ended up acquiring a pretty extreme aversion to darkness, fire and explosions - which meant that many of the rides were more a torturous experience than a fun one. You don't realize how many of the rides have dark and scary parts until you're experiencing them through the eyes of a 3 year old. Even rides like Winnie the Pooh and Peter Pan can be quite traumatic at times. By the last couple days we stopped forcing him on rides he didn't like and just looked for the ones that were totally in the daylight, like the carousel and the train. Dumbo and the train were his favorite rides if I had to say. He liked to look at the characters from afar, but didn't want to meet any of them.

At 5, PJ I think was at a perfect age for Disney. She was tall enough and mature enough to enjoy 90% of the rides, and young enough to be totally into all of the characters, especially the princesses. It was so fun to witness all of her excitement with everything she was experiencing.

Watching PJ & Luke have fun together was the best. They loved to hold hands and walk around the park, and they kept doing this thing where PJ would carry Luke around even though she is not that much bigger than him! They just had a ball together.

Claire was an absolute angel the entire week. She was happy almost every minute of the time, she slept in the stroller when she was tired, and just people watched the rest of the time. She ended up going on several rides that Luke didn't want to go on, like Pirates of the Caribbean. She wasn't scared!

It was awesome having my parents and Matt's parents there. They helped watch the kids so that Matt and I could enjoy ourselves, too. Donna and Emil were happy to sit out some of the rides at the parks so that we could go on them, and my parents stayed back at the hotel to watch Luke & Claire while Matt and I went with the rest of the group to see Cirque du Soleil. We ended up being able to come back to the hotel for naps all but 2 of the days, which kept Luke in pretty good spirits without any major meltdowns (we had some minor ones, but not too bad). Disney just does everything so well, it is really quite impressive. We were a part of a pilot that got to wear "Magic Bands" which were bracelets that acted as your hotel room key, your credit card, your Fast Passes, your dinner reservations, you name it. I didn't need to bring a purse anywhere, which was nice, but on the flip side it was way too easy to spend money!

So if I could provide any guidance to other families with young children considering a Disney vacation, may I suggest the following keys to happiness if you have the means:
- stay at a Disney resort for the convenience factor (kid friendly pool area is a plus, too)
- plan a flexible schedule to allow for naps and keeping a sort of regular schedule for the kid(s)
- go with a group, preferably family who is eager to spend time with your kids, so that you have help
- get a hotel room with a door on one room at least so that you don't have to sit silent in the dark at 8:00pm and/or during naps

All of the above contributed to our vacation success. Way too many fun pictures to do in just one blog post, so I'm going to break it up a little. Here is the first installment.