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10 Things I Want to Do on Our Next Disney Vacation - A Follow Up!: A Walt Disney World Planning Article

by Lisa Smith-Lester, PassPorter Guest Contributor
Last modified 01-28-2016

Early in 2015, I wrote an article called "10 Things I DO Want To Do on Our Next Disney Vacation". This is a follow up article to see if we succeeded or not!

1. More downtime at our resort pools: Though we visited the pools at each of the two resorts we stayed at (Old Key West and Kidani Village), we didn't spend as much time at them as we had hoped to. My daughters had particularly wanted to swim more in the evenings, but we had quite a few late nights with dinner reservations and plans, so other than our second evening, we were not back early enough to do this.

2. Visiting the Boardwalk, Beach Club and Yacht Club resorts: This was both a success and a fail! We spent a lovely afternoon/early evening walking from Hollywood Studios to these resorts and had a walk around the whole area, before having dinner then walking back to Hollywood Studios. Unfortunately, on our planned evening/night-time walk around the area it was a bit chilly and windy, and our youngest daughter and niece were both tired so we made the decision not to walk all the way around.

3. Properly seeing World Showcase: We did not visit each country in depth, but we saw a lot more of the countries than we did on our previous trip. We enjoyed the model railway in the Germany pavilion and the Matsuriza drumming in the Japan pavilion. Coming from the UK, it is always fun to see the UK pavilion and we enjoyed looking around this area in more detail, and particularly liked seeing the British items for sale in the stores

4. Enjoying family time together: This was definitely a success. In our large family group of 16, we enjoyed many different combinations of time together, from all of us on my sister's wedding day, to an amazing meal at Yachtsman Steakhouse with my brother, sister-in-law and niece, to my family of four spending so much quality time together. We enjoyed plenty of park time, pool time and dining with all the different members of our family and came away with so many incredible memories.

5. Riding certain rides: This will also go down as a success. Though my eldest daughter hated the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train (we were sat at the back so it was very fast for her), we did get her on Soarin', which she and my youngest daughter loved. My youngest daughter was amazingly brave and went on Test Track, which she loved and we were so proud of her. We also got three rides on Toy Story Midway Mania, which we all thoroughly enjoyed. After Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, we couldn't get the girls to try Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, so we will have to save that for another time.

6. Try some new places to eat: We got to try quite a few new restaurants to us. Some major highlights include Portobello at Disney Springs, Trattoria al Forno at Disney's BoardWalk, Yachtsman Steakhouse at the Yacht Club, and California Grill at the Contemporary. We had amazing meals here and would highly recommend them. Some old favorites included Raglan Road at Disney Springs, and Crystal Palace in the Magic Kingdom for breakfast. Some new ones we weren't overly impressed with were Trail's End at Fort Wilderness and Hollywood and Vine in Hollywood Studios.

7. Go on a Disney Cruise: Wow, what can I say but wow! This was the most incredible experience. We sailed on the Disney Dream and it is such a beautiful ship. We were on the first sailing after dry dock for the Oceaneer’s Club and Lab refurbishments, along with upgrades to the adult areas and the addition of the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique and Vanellopes Sweets and Treats, which were all incredible. Castaway Cay is absolutely stunning. There is so much to see and do, our 4-night cruise was not long enough and we will hopefully do another cruise in the future.

8. Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique appointments: This was a resounding success. I was able to book both of my daughters (7 and 4) on the same day, at the same time. They were seated within minutes of each other and at stations next to each other. We were able to enjoy the experience of watching both girls at the same time and they got to experience this together. Hundreds of photos and a full video recording later, the girls both had loved their experience and had had a fantastic time again. Their Fairy Godmother's-in-Training were brilliant and we loved the whole experience so much. I was so happy we were able to do this.

9. Seeing Wishes and IllumiNations: We had a mixed bag with this one. We didn't get to IllumiNations as we had an early morning and long day planned for the day after we planned to see these, so we made the decision to give it a miss this time. We did see Fantasmic! and I unfortunately was not overly impressed with it. We did get to see the Magic Kingdom fireworks twice, both from an incredible location - the first time was regular Wishes on my sister's wedding day and the second time was HalloWishes, both or which we watched from the Grand One Yacht. These were both such amazing experiences and I loved both, especially the 180-degree fireworks during HalloWishes.

10. Enjoying ourselves and not overdoing it: We really enjoyed ourselves and managed to get so much more done than I had hoped for, and I don't feel that we overdid things. We did start off the first couple of days having early nights to help with the jet lag but still managed to see and do all we had wanted. I even squeezed in some shopping at the malls, without compromising on the time we spent in the parks.

About the Author: Written by Lisa Smith-Lester, a working Mum with two daughters who just returned from an amazing vacation!

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Updated 01-28-2016

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