Plus the Magic welcomes Guest Contributor Rebecca Kelly, sharing plans for her next visit...
Well, it's been a long time coming, but in October I'm
taking a mother/daughter trip to Disney World with my 7-year-old daughter. I
started planning this trip while we were on our way home from our last trip, in
February 2011... It was originally going
to be late September 2012, but Things Happened, and here we are. :)
My daughter has been my Disney Buddy for as long as she can
remember, and we had a fantastic time on our first family trip, but even then
there were just so many things we didn't get to do. We just couldn't fit them
in with the family as a whole. But since
our upcoming trip is a quickie - only 3 nights, one park per day - there will,
by necessity, be a lot we don't we don't manage to do this time either. So it's about stripping down to the bare
bones and figuring out what is most important to her, most important to me, and
most important to us together. Like many
Disney fiends, I am a compulsive planner - I love to know in advance what I'm
doing and just what I'll have time to fit in, but this time I'm deliberately
trying to step back from that and focus on the most important things, while
letting the smaller ones happen as they do.
That said, I do have to have my big things picked out. Which is why, at KJ's invitation, I provide
to you now:
The Top 5 things I can't wait to do with my daughter at WDW:
5: Club Cool/Beverly
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| photo courtesy of thejcgerm, via flickr |
Honestly, I really can't wait to do this, because I am that
sadistic. :) In case you aren't aware,
at Epcot there is a small Coca-Cola shop called Club Cool, located near Innoventions West and across from the Fountain of Nations. In addition to
piles of Coke memorabilia, there is a beverage dispenser in the middle of the
room where you can get free samples of various Coca-Cola products from other
countries that are unique to that country.
No cola here - instead we've got watermelon soda from China, Lychee
Mello from China, Mezzo Mix from Germany... and then there's Beverly. Beverly is a bitter aperitif from Italy that
is used to cleanse the palate, and it's a favourite thing for repeat visitors
to trick their friends and loved ones into drinking it. She will never trust me again. I'll make it up to her by telling her she can
give some to her younger brother on our next family trip. All will be forgiven. :)
4: Dole Whip
If the promise of evil tricks on her brother doesn't buy my
daughter's forgiveness, then that of special ice cream probably will. Actually, funny story about Dole Whips: I've
only had one, and it was underwhelming.
I had it in 2008 on my one and only solo visit. Maybe that was why I didn't really care? It was in no way bad, mind you. Just... not amazing. I guess I expected amazing. Anyway, I have been told to get a citrus swirl
instead and try again, and I'm going to do that. And while I'm at it I'm going to get one or
the other for my daughter and see how she likes them, with no hype at all in
advance. In this case, it's really less
about "Everyone says this is so great!" and a lot more about having
and sharing a new experience that we can only get at WDW.
3: The New Test Track
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| photo via disneyparks.disney.go.com |
If there was one attraction that she would not stop talking
about afterwards, yeah, it was Test Track.
I didn't expect that. I had in
mind other ones she would probably like best, but nope: fast car. (She is also convinced, with the passage of 2
1/2 years since our trip, that we steered the car ourselves.) She talks all the time about going on Test
Track again and we've looked over the ride-thru on YouTube of the new version. I think she'll like it - I hope she will
anyway - but either way, we get to do it together. When we have a place like Disney World, where
I've been way more times than she has and I research it constantly, it's nice
to get to experience things for the first time with someone else doing the
same.
2: Camping, just the two of us
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| photo via disneyparks.disney.go.com |
We've been camping as a family twice, though not Disney
camping. I've been Disney camping on a
solo trip, back in '08 when my daughter was just 2. (That was my first time; it was practice, I
was such a noob. :D) But other than the
bugs, D is quite a fan of camping; she loves the outdoors, she is not addicted
to technology yet, and she loves the excitement of nature. She also loves cuddling in a tent. This is a blessing and a curse, because I am
a light sleeper and she is a flailer who has a tendency to sit up in the middle
of the night and then throw herself onto the other end of the bed. (One time on our last trip to WDW, I had a
dream where I couldn't move my legs. I awoke in horror to discover that it was
TRUE. In a panic I came to and realized
it was because 5-year-old D, who was sharing my bed, was sleeping perpendicular
over my lower body.) But I try to focus
more on the blessing, because how much longer am I going to have an
affectionate little girl who enjoys hugging her Mom at night? As long as I can, I hope. I also love tents. They're like having your own little cave,
where you're outside but you're safe from strangers.
1: Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween party
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| photo via disneyparks.disney.go.com |
Well, this is the biggie. I first heard about this back in
2004, quite by accident - my husband and I were at the Magic Kingdom on a night
when they closed early for a party.
Whoops. Since then, the more I
found out, the more I thought I might like to go. Enter D, who loves Halloween almost as much
as me; who has a crush on Jack Skellington; who thinks of candy like rain from
heaven. From within a week of our last
trip to WDW, back in early 2011, I was planning this camping trip. Camping, D and me, and staying up to do the
Halloween party if I could afford it. To
be doing it? MAN am I excited! The only downside is I don't have a
costume. At all. No ideas.
D is going to be a butterfly. The
only thing I really want to be is a Ghostbuster, and I'm not sure I can pull
that one together cheaply in time for the party. ;)
Overall, I do keep having to remind myself that the most
important thing is to go and have a good time doing what we want to do while
we're there; go with the flow and enjoy spending time together in our favourite
place, and it doesn't really matter what we do.
Because I want to do SO MUCH with her that it's easy to get
overwhelmed. When you can only get there
every few years, you tend to want to do everything and feel like you're missing
out if you don't... but I know we'll remember more if we slow down and do
less. Since D has trouble slowing down
and taking things a bit at a time, I guess this is a lesson for both of
us. Here's hoping...! :)
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Rebecca Kelly blogs with many a Top 5 (plus whatever else strikes her fancy) at Disney With Me; in addition to being a parent, wife, and publishing assistant, she is also a full-service travel agent with Fairytale Journeys, an Authorized Disney Vacation Planner, and loves all her jobs. Follow Fairytale Journeys by Rebecca Kelly on Facebook for travel tips & general Disney fun, or @rkellyWDW on Twitter for her personal account.
