Our first family trip in 2012

To Walt Disney World, that is! 

From the moment you pass under the Walt Disney World sign, to your first sighting of the monorail, there is nothing like your first visit. 

As a child I made a few visits to Disney World, and although I was quite young, I still have very vivid memories to this day. I’ll never forget singing along with the birds in the Enchanted Tiki Room, having chills while riding in a Doom Buggy in the Haunted Mansion, and sitting in Pinocchio’s Village Haus having dinner while waving to the people below riding It’s a Small World. I even remember riding 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and peering out the window and seeing the top of the water, and finally realizing we weren’t far below the water’s surface! And I can’t forget one of my favorites from back then, Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride. 

It’s hard to believe that just a few visits have stayed with me for my entire life (along with every 1980’s and 90’s song). But there is one memory that stands out, and that’s the first time I rode the monorail. It felt so futuristic, so incredibly special. My siblings and I loved hearing the monorail spiel, but the most exciting part of it was passing through the Contemporary Resort. It was the most modern thing we’d ever seen, and a monorail was running right through it. I remember as a kid wishing I’d have the opportunity to stay there at some point. 

Fast forward to 2012..I’m married with a 3 year-old princess of my own and Edward decides to surprise us with our very first family trip to Walt Disney World, and announces that we’re staying at the Contemporary! He had no idea that it had always been on my bucket list. We had only 45 days to plan, so I quickly bought the Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World and scoured as much of it as I could. We planned 3 park days, choosing Magic Kingdom & Animal Kingdom. The last day would be chosen by our daughter. That was back in the days of paper FastPasses, so you could be a bit more spontaneous. I made touring plans for that trip, and we were ready to roll! 

We flew down to Orlando, with that being Audrey’s first flight. I had read that Disney’s Magical Express (their complimentary bus service from Orlando International airport to the Walt Disney World Resort, which unfortunately has ended) could take a very long time for arrival to the resorts, so I opted instead for a car service. It was so much fun seeing our daughter’s face when she saw the “Tanchez Family”  sign, and we were whisked away. 

I can’t even express the joy we all felt when we drove under the Walt Disney World sign! After arriving at the Contemporary Resort, we headed to check-in. We had booked our trip with AAA (I would come to realize that probably didn’t save us the most money…but more about our mistakes later. LOL), and the helpful Cast Member was having a hard time locating our reservation. I took our daughter to the restroom, and upon finishing and exiting, we were greeted in the lobby by about 5 other Cast Members including a Manager. They were holding balloons and all shouted, “You’re Family of the Day!” 

My daughter can be a bit quiet at times and introverted, and being the center of attention is not her thing. Upon seeing all of the celebration, she quickly turned her head towards me and cried a bit. We were all so surprised and overwhelmed. They snapped a quick picture and delivered it to us later. It’s a keepsake I will forever cherish. 

We were told that since we were Family of the Day, we had been upgraded to a Bay Lake View room in the Main Tower. I had NO IDEA what that meant, and in fact, I can be a pretty skeptical person so I wasn’t buying into all of this. I just thought since our reservation wasn’t found soon enough, they were doing that to make up for it. Who knows, maybe that is really why they upgraded us, but either way, it was a very magical way to start the trip! 

As we took the elevator up to our room, that’s when we caught sight of the monorail coming into the resort. I’m not going to lie, I had tears in my eyes seeing that. In that moment, I felt like the little girl that was in awe of it, and of course, our daughter loved it as well! 

We found our room and entered…it was sort of modern, spacious, and very pretty. We then headed to the balcony and couldn’t believe the beautiful and peaceful view of Bay Lake. We settled in and explored the resort before calling it a night to rest up for Magic Kingdom the next morning. Around 9pm that evening, we were awoken to the strangest sounds and music coming from the lake area. WTH is that?!! It’s nighttime!! We ran to the balcony only to discover the Electrical Water Pageant (again, we had NO IDEA what that was at the time) floating past our resort. It was fun and reminded me of the Main Street Electrical Parade that I loved when I was little. I think we even woke our daughter and she was mesmerized by it. Only Disney could think of something like that! 

Our first morning came early, and our daughter wore her Snow White dress. It was her absolute favorite costume, and she wore it everywhere prior to our trip. Snow White and Pocahontas were her favorite princesses, so we knew she’d need to meet them. 

We were told it was quicker to walk to the Magic Kingdom from the Contemporary (if we took the monorail to Magic Kingdom we’d have to wait on the other stops along the way), so we made the short 10-minute stroll over. Arriving and hearing the entrance music set the tone for the day. Our first ride would be none other than Snow White’s Scary Adventures. I had read that it frightened small children so I had no idea how it would go with Audrey. Well, she absolutely loved it and we rode it many times that day. It turned out to be her favorite ride, and she was very sad to learn it would close in May of 2012 to make way for the Princess Fairytale Hall. 

We zipped around the Magic Kingdom, carefully following my touring plan. Up next on our plan was meeting Snow White in front of the Town Square. I had Edward line up and save us a spot as Audrey and I watched the Main Street Trolley Show. As it ended, we made our way over to the Snow White meet and greet line, and Audrey spotted her beloved princess. She started screaming for her daddy, as she didn’t want him to miss it either, not realizing he was already in line. When we finally made it to see Snow White, Audrey was in heaven. That sweet princess took her hand, had her twirl around together, and chatted for quite some time. I vividly remember other adults smiling at the interaction between them. It was the most precious thing I’d ever seen. Right at that moment, I knew how special Disney was. 

I knew going into this trip that we would need some dining reservations, and somehow I got lucky and scored an early dinner at Cinderella’s Royal Table. I’d read all about how amazing it was to eat in the castle and meet the princesses and couldn’t wait to take Audrey there. We later made our way over to castle for our dinner. We checked in and had our picture taken with Cinderella. The castle was stunning, and we ascended the beautiful staircase up to the top. The stained glass windows were amazing. We were seated and began what I’d like to refer to as the longest dinner of my life. My sweet girl had absolutely no interest in eating a single thing, so she sat turned around in her chair so that she could see which princess was coming next. 

It wasn’t too long before Snow White made her appearance. She came to our table to meet and chat with Audrey, but Audrey was very skeptical of her. I swear at the young age of 3 she had already realized that this was a different “friend of” Snow White’s. It was hilarious! 

Luckily we finally got Audrey to eat dessert after meeting each princess. If you know anything about Cinderella’s Royal Table, you know it’s a pricey meal, and it hadn’t turned out exactly the way I wanted (and the food wasn’t that great either). Still, I’m glad we tried it, but we haven’t been back since! Our poor girl was exhausted as we had been in the park all day (another mistake I made!), and it was time to call it quits. We made our way to the monorail and back to the Contemporary, completely exhausted but looking forward to our next day at Animal Kingdom. 

We headed to Animal Kingdom the next morning, and for one main reason, to meet Pocahontas. In 2012, Camp Minnie-Mickey (it would later close and be replaced with Pandora-the World of Avatar) was the area to meet Pocahontas as well as other Disney characters. We found her spot and got in line, with Audrey wearing her favorite Pocahontas shirt to show her. Just as we reached the front, Pocahontas had to take a short break. We were completely fine to wait, but Audrey didn’t quite understand what was happening. She began to cry a little and I’ll never forget the amazing Photopass Photographer that walked over and comforted her by chatting with her. She took us to a small table to explain that Pocahontas had to feed Meeko and would be back shortly. Then she sat down with Audrey and looked through her autograph book, admiring all the signatures. A few minutes later, Meeko appeared and sat down with us. It was the sweetest moment! Not too much longer, Pocahontas arrived to greet Audrey, took her by the hand, and talked with her while posing for pictures. The Photopass Photographer spent so much time taking pics of us all together as well. Many years later, I would see that same photographer, still taking photos of characters, and it would bring a smile and a little pixie dust to my eye. It’s those special moments that leave the biggest memories for us. 

We went on to enjoy the safari and a few other rides, but what we enjoyed the most was Mickey’s Jammin’ Jungle Parade. It was absolutely adorable and Audrey loved every minute of it! As we wrapped up an early day, we headed back to the Contemporary for dinner. 

In my research, I had read that the California Grill (at the top of the Contemporary) was a must-do. I had mentioned it to Edward, that we needed reservations, but he said there was no way an expensive restaurant like that wouldn’t have availability at Disney World. It was the one restaurant I looked forward to the most, so Audrey and I got our dresses on and headed to the check-in podium for the California Grill. The nice Cast Member informed us that they were fully booked for the entirety of our stay, but that they did have a lounge we could visit and order off the full menu. With a 3-year-old, we couldn’t imagine sitting in a bar/lounge area, so we decided to pass on it. I was heartbroken. (By the way, nearly all of the lounges allow children, and we’ve since been back many times there and sat in the lounge a few times, and enjoyed it very much. If only we had known!)

So we headed back downstairs and ate at the Wave, which was perfectly fine. I made up my mind right there that on our next trip, we would definitely eat at the California Grill, so we did in 2013. And since then, it has remained my favorite restaurant in all of Walt Disney World.

We ended that night watching the Electrical Water Pageant again. Before heading to bed, we asked Audrey what park she’d like to go to the next morning, and she chose the Magic Kingdom again. 

The next morning we headed back to the Magic Kingdom to finish the few things we hadn’t done, and to ride Snow White’s Scary Adventures over and over again, as we knew it would be our last chance to. At one point I remember looking around in Fantasyland and thinking that I couldn’t believe how empty it was. It was glorious. Looking back, I think many people were waiting for the New Fantasyland to open later that year before their visit. But that last day was just perfection. 

We checked out of the Contemporary and flew home. As soon as we got back, it wasn’t long before we were planning another trip, for February of 2013. We were completely hooked and couldn’t wait to visit again! Since Edward had planned our hotel, flights and tickets for our first trip, I decided to take over for the next trip to see if I could save us some money. And, oh, I can’t wait to share with you how that all went!! 

Mistakes were made: 

1. Our first mistake was not making enough Advance Dining Reservations. The idea of having to provide a credit card, and then being charged $10 per person if we missed our reservation made us nervous. We ended up having to eat more quick service than we would have liked, which limited our dining options. 
2. Although I was prepared with great Touring Plans, we realized we didn’t like the fact that we had to zigzag across the park at times to be super efficient. I’ve since tweaked them a bit to stay in certain lands, finishing most rides there, before moving along. It does add a few minutes of extra wait time, but it saves our feet too. 
3. We are not people that want to stay in the park from open to close. Although we didn’t do that on our first trip, we were in the parks for over 8 hours with no break, and with a small child, that’s a long day. Our patented formula for a happy day is to hit the park before rope drop, hit as many rides as we can, have lunch and then head out of the park in the early afternoon. We go back to our resort to swim/shop and possibly nap if necessary. Around dinner we head back to the parks to close them down. At this point though, we are very flexible in changing things too at the last minute. 
4. This isn’t really a mistake, but more of a warning. If you stay at a monorail or Epcot area resort, it makes it really difficult to stay somewhere else on subsequent trips. Being super close to a park (being able to walk or take the monorail) just makes every trip so much easier. Keep that in mind when booking your trip! 
5. We booked a car service or a rental car for most trips from the Orlando International Airport. For some reason I was always hesitant to use Disney’s Magical Express, afraid it would eat up too much of our vacation time. A few years later we finally started using it, and I wish we’d used it from trip one! It saves us money and is truly a magical way to start a trip. Unfortunately the service ended, but you can now book Mears for a fee, which is similar. But I’m grateful that we were able to enjoy it as Magical Express. 

Do you have anything to share about your first trip? If so, I’d love to hear about it! 

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