According to a vague explanation from my dad, apparently I’ve been to Disney World as a child. To back up this claim, he has a single cropped picture of me at age 2 sitting on a curb. There’s nothing remarkable about the location. There’s no Disney theme backdrop, I’m not holding anything Disney related, and there are no magical characters hanging out nearby. I don’t remember going to Disney World and it’s a running joke in our family that because there’s a lack photo proof I most certainly haven’t been 😂

Now that I’m a parent, a desire to venture to Disney World myself or take our kiddos never welled up inside of me. I’m not a fan of crowds, lines, or heat; plus I have a particular disdain for mascot-like characters. Those creepy frozen smiles give me the willies and Disney World from my point of view would be like walking straight into the lions den.

So how did we end up there??? Well my amazing Aunt and Uncle that live in Florida treated us to tickets! Once they found out we didn’t plan on going during our family vacation, they insisted on paying the way for the girls to have that memory.

Needless to say me and hubs were super shocked and surprised! We had pretty much figured we would hang out at the beach and probably hit up an aquarium, but now we had a different undertaking to tackle within a weeks time…how to survive a day at Magic Kingdom!

I know people spend months planning trips with their family and I was going to have to do mine in a week! I immediately got on YouTube university to gain as much info on how to make it the best possible time for the kiddos. From my many article readings of the Disney experts, I was able to piece together a plan I thought would work for our family. To my relief, we were able to do our one day in Magic Kingdom with zero tears or meltdowns 🙌🏾🙌🏾🙌🏾 Huge win for us! I’d like to share some helpful tips and learnings for a seamless Disney Day.

Plan to arrive early for rope drop and purchase Genie Plus+ to get better standby times early in the day and get through the lines asap. We got to Magic Kingdom at opening. This kept us from being in an anxious rush to “hurry up and have fun”. We took the ferry which set our pace taking in all the experiences. **Side note: They take your fingerprint before you enter the park, but apparently you can opt out and choose to show your ID instead. I wish I had known this before going. The print is used as a security measure to avoid people using someone else’s park card on a multi-day pass.**

Once we got into the park, we rented a double stroller and were off to a nice start. **Side note on strollers, they really aren’t too bad depending on the type of kid you have. My kids rode in them and even though it was hot, we parked it facing away from the sun to keep the plastic from heating up and making it worse. I did have the thought to use the girls’ car seat covers on top of the stroller seat, but we didn’t even need that.**

Walking into the park my strategy was to have us go to the left side towards lighter crowds and shorter waits in Adventureland. I had already booked my first LL (Lighting Lane) for Peter Pan around noon. It was nice to know that was all taken care of while we got in line for the Jungle Cruise ride.

Jungle Cruise was cute but definitely not the girl’s favorite ride. We waited maybe 20 mins in line and kept it moving to visit Jasmine and Aladdin which brings me to another tip I found most useful in strategizing:

Plan a theme for your day. My girls LOVE all things princess, so I made sure that princess experiences got priority over anything else available to ride or do. By the end of this trip they were either going to love Disney Princesses even more or never want to see them again 😂 Thankfully it wasn’t the latter.

Adventureland was a great start to the day for us. We got to ride the magic carpets, try that much talked about Dole Whip (*Side note, it’s just aight, it’s not like it’s Blue Bell 😂) and visit the Enchanted Tiki room. Planning it this way allowed me to stack LL’s for our next stop and main hangout for our time at Disney, Fantasyland.

Before our Peter Pan ride, we headed over at Sir Mickey’s Shop to have the girls get pixie dusted. This was a cute tip I found on a blog. A cast member will take a magic wand and sprinkle glitter in whoever’s hair per your request. It will be a nightmare to wash out, but it was worth the fun little treat for their sake.

Once we got started at Fantasyland, we were in the zone! I was surprised how quickly the handful of standby lines moved. We used Lighting Lanes the most, but I think the entire day our longest wait might have been 20 minutes.

We hit up Fairytale Hall to see Tiana and Rapunzel, rode The Carousel, Mad Hatter Tea Party, Ariel’s Adventure Under The Sea and Dumbo. We also made a pit stop at Rapunzel’s tower where the girls pretended to be pirates lol.

One of the girls favorite experiences was the interactive Story Time With Belle. Bee got to play Miss Pots and Jai Bird got to be Philippe. They did such a great job incorporating all the kiddos who wanted to participate and the animatronics were really cool to see up close.

The way I planned our lunch was to do a major break at 3:00pm so we could rest and cool off before the next half of our day.

Making sure to have ample AC breaks is a must for the Florida heat and humidity. The Dumbo ride actually has an indoor play area that the girls really enjoyed running around in before going on the actual ride. In fact, a good portion of rides had indoor queues anyway which provided much relief. During my pre planning time I also made sure to get us rechargeable lanyard fans. They definitely came in handy for keeping cool when our faces were sweating like crazy.

For food, we decided to keep it chill at Pinocchio Village Haus. Because it was later in the day there wasn’t a ridiculously long line and we could find a seat quickly. We used the time wisely to not only rest and refuel, but get the girls restroom breaks as well as get me an opportunity to charge my phone.

Rather than make us sit at an outdoor mobile station waiting, I chose to invest in a Fuel Rod portable charger. I decided it was better for me to save time by spending the dollars to have the ability to move around while keeping my battery charged.

Once we had that recharge the girls were ready to jump right back in. We headed to The Grotto so they could meet another Disney Princess, Ariel. Us ladies actually wore tees featuring the live action Ariel in support of their favorite Little Mermaid in all her shades ☺️

We also stopped by Gaston’s Tavern to pick up a “The Gray Stuff” cupcake. It features “The Gray Stuff” Lumiere sings about in Be Our Guest. I actually enjoyed that cupcake; it was my favorite treat of the trip.

Our last stop in Fantasyland we went back to Fairytale Hall to meet Cinderella and Princess Elaina. Bee made sure to ask Cinderella about little Gus Gus lol.

Next we made our way towards Tomorrow Land, but not before snapping some pics in front of the fabulous castle.

Tomorrowland was really cute and a nice finisher to the long day. With rain threatening, we parked the stroller under a huge shaded overhead and dipped into the Carousel of Progress. This “ride” was really a break for me and the mister. With all the energy spent on the kids, a welcome 20 mins in a dark room with ac gave us the last boost before heading out again.

A helpful tip to remember is to plan for rain even when it’s not in the forecast. Thankfully Tomorrowland had pretty much all covered rides, but Disney World has no problem capitalizing on travelers who get caught without rain gear. We opted to wait it out by going on the Monsters Inc Laughing floor ride. Not only did our little Jai bird get chosen for an on screen cameo as the character “Boo” but by the time we got out crowds and skies were all clear.

After the Laughing Floor, we ventured next door for the Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin. If going on this ride, be sure to aim high for the best chance at a better score.

Our final family ride was the Transit Authority People Mover. We really enjoyed the scenic views of the park from above.

Finally, me and Buzzy Bee took a mommy and me ride at the Space Mountain rollercoaster. I was worried that she wouldn’t like it, but Bee surprised me and enjoyed it so much that she even wanted to do it again 😂

All the walking, riding, and energy spent had more than worn us out. It was time to say goodbye to Tomorrowland and head back to Fantasyland for the Happily Ever After grand finale.

Most people start finding seats on Main up to an hour in advance to get the amazing castle views with the fireworks. Since we didn’t want to cut into the trip to find a spot, we chose to set up behind the castle right next to the carousel. It was very uncrowded and we got to see fireworks from both sides. The girls enjoyed dancing to the music as the sky lit up with endless sparkles.

I must say, for a last minute planning session, I’m amazed at how well the overall experience went. I’m so thankful that we got through it tear and meltdown free. The girls crashed as soon as we got back to the car snoring while gripping their Disney souvenirs lol.

I wouldn’t say I’m more of Disney World fan having gone on this trip as an adult, but I definitely respect the magic 😉. People were amazingly kind and generous with our whole family. It really adds icing on the cake. What a wonderful experience full of timeless memories! I hope my girls remember for years to come and may we never do it again 🤣

‘Til next time happy venturing 🧚🏾