Planning for Disney

We are getting close to our Disney trip.  Close enough to start thinking about details like how to get to and from the airport, what to bring in our luggage and making sure we have all of our paperwork good to go.

One big detail still to take care of is our Magic Express passes, which lets us use the free Disney shuttle and gets our luggage picked up and delivered to our hotel room.  From experience, we know that it takes 3-4 hours after the shuttle arrives for the luggage to be delivered, so this time we are planning to have what we need in our backpacks, so that we can head out without waiting.

We have some Fastpass activities booked at Epcot on the day we land, as well as a sit down dinner.  Nathan has been clear that he doesn't want to start quietly and go swimming.  He wants to go and see Disneyworld.  I got us into the IllumiNations firework show for that night, which should be fun.  I'm thinking I'll need to make sure we all have shorts to change into but we shouldn't need quite as much gear as we did with Alex.

The other big detail to deal with is a car rental to visit LEGOLAND.  (Interestingly my autocorrect just made that all capitals, which makes me think that Blogger is more excited about the Lego themed park than I am.)  Disney does offer complimentary shuttles to its associated rental company but interestingly, it's not one of the features you can arrange online.  I guess they don't really want to encourage you to leave the resort.

We've arranged for the LEGOLAND (Blogger still psyched) visit to be early in our stay and are planning to pick up some groceries to keep in the hotel room to keep down our meal costs.  You can arrange for groceries to be delivered but there's a $75 minimum plus a $ 25 delivery charge.  Since Nathan will be more flexible with the meals on offer through the meal plan, I think we'll be okay with them for the most part.  There are grocery stores near the resort but you'll pay $20-$30 each way in a taxi.

The hotel dining rooms were crazy first thing in the morning as people tried to stock themselves up in anticipation of a day at the park.  Lunch and dinner were relatively quiet, so if we can have breakfast in our rooms (we'll bring plastic bowls and can get plastic cutlery, etc, from the dining hall) then we can avoid the tantrum-inducing waits and noise and be on our merry way bright and early.  We have a table meal booked for dinner most evenings.  Disney's meal plan gives each person one table meal, one self-serve meal (the cafeteria style meals in the hotel dining rooms) and one snack each day.  Some of the meals (like Cinderella's Royal Table or Mickey's Backyard Barbecue) count as two table meals per person, but it's still a good deal.  I often used our "snack" to get fresh fruit or pastries the night before to have as part of our breakfast in the morning last time.