Wow, a lot has changed at Walt Disney World. There was FastPass, there was no FastPass. Annual pass holders could not buy passes, annual pass holders could buy passes, now annual pass holders can only renew passes. There’s something called Genie+ and something called Lightening Lane. What’s the difference? (more…)
Disney
Disney Cruise With A Toddler: Day 7 Castaway Cay
Back in February 2020 right before the world turned upside down we took an amazing 7 night Eastern Caribbean cruise on the Disney Fantasy for one last vacation as a party of 3! This was our way of doing a babymoon keeping our toddler involved. Yes I know this is not really a babymoon, but whatever. We did a European babymoon when we were pregnant with our first son and wanted to do something exciting, but not exclude him. A Disney Cruise with our toddler was the perfect option for rest, relaxation, and adventure for the entire family.
It has taken me a bit longer than expected to finish up this blog series, but new baby and 2020 then 2021 happened…. This post is about Day 7 on a PRE PANDEMIC CRUISE. Some things may be different now, but from what I’ve heard cruising in many ways has gone back to ‘normal’. This will give you a great idea about cruising with a little. I’ll let you know all the changes when we cruise again… anyways (more…)
Disney Cruise Line With a Toddler: Day 6 Star Wars Day at Sea
Back in February 2020 right before the world turned upside down we took an amazing 7 night Eastern Caribbean cruise on the Disney Fantasy for one last vacation as a party of 3! This was our way of doing a babymoon keeping our toddler involved. Yes I know this is not really a babymoon, but whatever. We did a European babymoon when we were pregnant with our first son and wanted to do something exciting, but not exclude him. A Disney Cruise with our toddler was the perfect option for rest, relaxation, and adventure for the entire family.
It has taken me a bit longer than expected to finish up this blog series, but new baby and 2020…. This post is about Day 6 on a PRE PANDEMIC CRUISE THINGS MAY BE TOTALLY DIFFERENT in the future, I’ll let you know once we cruise again… anyways (more…)
Disney Cruise Line With a Toddler: Day 5 St. Thomas
Back in February 2020 right before the world turned upside down we took an amazing 7 night Eastern Caribbean cruise on the Disney Fantasy for one last vacation as a party of 3! This was our way of doing a babymoon keeping our toddler involved. Yes I know this is not really a babymoon, but whatever. We did a European babymoon when we were pregnant with our first son and wanted to do something exciting, but not exclude him. A Disney Cruise with our toddler was the perfect option for rest, relaxation, and adventure for the entire family.
It has taken me a bit longer than expected to finish up this blog series, but new baby and 2020…. This post is about Day 5 on a PRE PANDEMIC CRUISE THINGS MAY BE TOTALLY DIFFERENT in the future, I’ll let you know once we (more…)
Meal at Disney World’s Newly Reopened Crystal Palace
If you’re thinking about dining in Magic Kingdom and not sure you want to try Crystal Palace without characters I’m here to tell you to try it out!
Crystal Palace is an American restaurant in Walt Disney Worlds Magic Kingdom theme park. It was previously a character meal buffet restaurant featuring Winnie the Pooh and friends. They have been closed since the beginning of the pandemic and reopened in December 2020. We happened to be at the parks the week they reopened and wanted a break from the park with a hungry toddler. We walked up and got right in! That is definitely not the normal, but extremely nice. We had a wonderful meal with fantastic service.
Disney World Gender Reveal
Prince or Princess What Will It Be?
We wanted to surprise our family with a gender reveal and do something a little different for our second baby. We had just found out the gender of our baby the week before a family vacation to Walt Disney World, so we thought it was the perfect opportunity to change it up with an exciting reveal. We had done a pregnancy announcement photo at Disney, so why not do a Disney World Gender Reveal too!
Our Reveal Idea
I had a million different ideas for a reveal and looked at a lot of different articles. I needed something that would be easy and quick since my family had no idea we’d be doing this! We had just found out days prior to this trip, so I really didn’t have time to order anything or prearrange something either. Ordering a cake was out and we had done that for our last gender reveal. We really wanted to do it while my family was all together. We decided on using Mickey balloons since they come in pink and blue and we could do the reveal at any opportune moment with the help of a Disney PhotoPass photographer. We could make it pink or make it blue and let everyone know!
How We Did the Reveal
This idea worked out perfectly! I told my family moments before the reveal so they were totally shocked. I found a photographer, named Mae, who wasn’t busy and she was so excited to help out! She helped me pick out a location that wasn’t busy while the parade was happening just off main street, so it would be a private moment for my family. My husband purchased the two balloons totaling $28. My niece was going to get the pink one after the reveal and our son was going to get the blue one, so no balloon went to waste either.
It was extremely extremely windy, so besides the wind blowing the balloons around the moment turned out exactly how I imagined it. We took some photos with both balloons then for the “reveal” I handed my mom the balloon of the gender our baby was not and kept the balloon that our baby was. In this case we are having a baby boy, so we kept the blue balloon to take photos with the blue one. Then we went over in front of the castle to snag some more photos with our blue balloon for our new little prince!
This was super easy fun way to announce we are having a little boy and my family was so surprised!
Disney World Pregnancy Announcement
We are so excited to announce we are expecting baby #2! Being a huge Disney fan, travel agent, and living just a short distance from Walt Disney World the only way I wanted to share our families exciting news was with an announcement taken at Disney. It just so happened that our timing also meant it was right around the holidays and the parks were all decked out perfect timing for a holiday announcement.
Our Ideas
I had about 100 different ideas on how to announce we were pregnant again, in front of the castle, with a baby onesie, or maybe with a sign. The little Mickey ear hats with our announcement embroidered on the back was on the top of my list. You can get the hats all over Disney property and have them embroidered on site with any message under a certain length. They make super cute announcement photos, but time constraints an a busy two year old that really wasn’t the best option for us.
Our Announcement Photo
Instead, I decided to pick up an I’m celebrating button and just write our surprise on it! You can pick up these buttons at almost any merchandise location or stand and the cast member working there will likely have a sharpie to write on it. I had our family coordinate colors for Christmas and posed in front of the Epcot Christmas tree. We originally planned to use photo pass photographers, which is the best option if you are alone. My parents were with us so instead I had my Dad snaps some photos of us while I held out the pin with our secret message. After about 30 different shots and a few funny ones of my toddler trying to pick his nose (keeping it real here), we had a perfect Disney announcement! It was easy, simple and quick for the toddler! Even better the celebration buttons are FREE!
Congratulations
If you are pregnant and thinking of doing a Disney announcement congratulations! This is such an exciting time of life and I am so excited for your family. Share in the comments how you did your announcement!
Cruising With A Baby On Disney Cruise Line
Are you planning on sailing with a baby? We did, it was amazing, and no you aren’t crazy! We sailed on Disney Cruise Line with our then 18-month-old son for 7 nights to the Western Caribbean. There were some trials, tears and tantrums, but he did great. He loved it and we loved it. While he won’t remember everything, we will and those memories will stay with us forever. Plus he did some pretty cool things, such as travel to 4 countries, tried new food, and met over 15 characters! What did we learn from cruising with (more…)
Disney World Travel During Hurricane Season
I live in Florida so I get to deal with hurricane season no matter what. If you are a non-Floridian traveling to the Orlando area to visit Walt Disney World you may have no clue about hurricane season or what to expect if you wind up traveling during this time of year.
Hurricane season officially spans from June 1st through November 30th. This lines up with some of the most popular dates to travel to (more…)