The Rose Family Spring Travels

I typically don’t go through my vacation photos until around two years after we come home, but I decided this year would be different. This was our third (yes, I know, my girls are extremely spoiled) Disney vacation in Orlando, and I’m thinking it will be our last for quite awhile. I thought I’d share a few insights, and far too many photos, in hopes you find something helpful from our experiences there.

I took one camera and one lens with me on this vacation, which is also a first. In years past, I’ve always taken my Canon camera and two lenses — usually a 50mm prime and a 70-200mm or a 24-70mm — and I always regret coming home with a backache. So I decided to travel light this trip. As a photographer, I’ll admit, it was a little disconcerting not having more flexibility in focal length, but my goal for family vacations has always been to capture moments and family time rather than to have the most technically perfect photos. I don’t want to become obsessed with getting a perfect shot and miss out on the whole reason I went on vacation in the first place — to enjoy my family. I ended up taking a Sony A7rII with a 35mm lens on this trip.

We stayed at the Disney Contemporary Resort, where my husband was attending a conference. This was the first year that we stayed at one of the Disney properties, and it was really convenient being able to get around Walt Disney World by monorail or boat. It also had a sweet view of the castle and nightly fireworks shows.

The hotel had a few places to eat, the most convenient of which was the cafeteria just outside the entrance to the monorail. It’s a cafeteria-style place; overall, I’d go to the poolside cafe or the restaurant in the basement. Food at this cafeteria was pretty awful, but it’s one of the few places that had breakfast without a reservation. And I guess it did have Mickey-shaped waffles.

I’d definitely recommend doing at least one dining reservation while you’re at Walt Disney World. It’s a much better way to meet the characters, and usually these experiences include some sort of entertainment. We’ve done Cinderalla’s Royal Table, dinner at the Crystal Palace (with Winnie the Pooh characters), the Be Our Guest Restaurant (no characters but looks like the inside of the Beast’s Castle), and breakfast at the Grand Floridian with the princesses. This year, my daughter had her heart set on the Princess Tea, also at the Grand Floridian. And since this next photo shows off my youngest’s magic band well, I’ll mention it here. If you stay at one of the Disney properties, they include these Magic Bands, which allow you and your kids to get into your rooms (no lost key cards!), and allow the adults to charge things to your room. These really are magical, as they can be fully immersed in the pool. They can serve as your tickets into the Magic Kingdom and other WDW properties as well.
The whole rose petal over the head thing was a little weird, but the kids played along.Our youngest does not quite understand the “curtsy” concept; she just lifts her dress up. Oh boy, thank goodness for liners under dresses!They each received a Sleeping Beauty doll and wand, along with necklaces and charm bracelets. They were thrilled about all of these, especially the dolls. She was very relieved that her “tea” was actually apple juice.
They put on a nice little show while telling the Sleeping Beauty story.
Sleeping beauty makes her appearance.
No princess tea would be complete without a parade, right?


The Grand Floridian had incredible Easter eggs on display with many of the Disney characters.
The Grand Floridian is a beautiful place with lovely gardens. A blue heron hanging out at the resort’s beach area:

And my little bird, doing her best to scare off the heron.
No idea what’s happening here, but here we are taking a boat ride from the Contemporary to the Wilderness Lodge.
Here’s that curtsy again. Thankful for shorts under this dress! The grounds at the Wilderness Resort are great. We’d love to stay here sometime. They have a nice running trail that is woodsy, along with a campground and dude ranch. The lodge is built to look like the Old Faithful Lodge in Yellowstone. 
They have a great cafeteria-style restaurant at the Wilderness Lodge called the Roaring Fork. Good food, friendly staff, and low-key environment — much, much better than the one at the Contemporary. 

Back at the hotel for a little rest before dinner. 

We always try to make time for naps, even if it’s a very carefully planned car ride in the afternoon. Moms and Dads need a break from the action too. Having s’mores at the resort’s patio.
The pool at the Contemporary is great, and the slide doesn’t have a height minimum. Even our youngest loved it and was fairly independent navigating it. The kids loved watching an outdoor movie on the patio.

One of our dinners out was at Bongos in Disney Springs. It is a cuban restaurant with some of the best chimichurri I’ve ever had. There’s also a live band and entertainment. Probably best to get a reservation. Great service, yummy mojitos and amazing food.

My husband doesn’t sleep while we’re on vacation, mainly because he’s so excited about seeing things. He’s typically waking the girls up as early as I’ll let him. He is a super planner when it comes to travel, which is absolutely essential when traveling to Disney World. Make sure you research Fast Passes and get those reserved, along with your dining reservations, at least 3 months in advance. After you use your first 3 Fast Passes at the Magic Kingdom, you can go stand in line at a kiosk and refill them one at a time.

The only photo I got of them in front of the castle together. They were just not having it that morning! Staying entertained on the way into see Belle’s cottage…..Andy obliged our youngest’s request that he pretend to be a “horsey.”If you have young ones, Belle’s cottage (Enchanted Tales with Belle) is a must-do. The Dumbo ride is really nothing out of the ordinary, but while you wait for your turn, you get to go inside a big circus tent and play. It’s pretty cool.Ariel and Merida from Brave are probably the only two character meet-and-greets I’d stand in line for. Otherwise, take care of those during a dining reservation. Ariel’s Grotto was the only one we did this trip.Mickey’s Philharmonic 3D show was a big hit with the kids. The master travel planner himself, back from the Fast Pass kiosk.We missed Aladdin and Jasmine, but they let us take one with the lamp. 🙂After a crazy, over-crowded, somewhat stressful day, this was Mom’s favorite part of the day…chill time with some ice-cream. We’re always running from one line to another during the fireworks show, and it can be nearly impossible to move around the park during the show, so I never have the perfect viewing spot. It’s always a neat show, nonetheless.
The Astro Orbiter is a great ride that hardly ever has lines. Do it at night for some amazing views. And on to Universal Studios, definitely the parents’ (and I maybe think the kids’ too) favorite part of our trip. We’d never been to Universal Studios until this trip, always opting for Disney World because of our kids’ ages, but I think we’ve been convinced otherwise. Universal just seems to do everything about 100 times better than Disney. People who work there are friendly and seem to like their jobs. They are not barking orders constantly at the crowds. They actually smile as you go through the lines. Not only that, but Universal just seems to have engineered everything better. Their walkways are wider and traffic flows better. Their lines move and are spread out so people don’t feel like they are on top of one another. They provide refreshments in line, along with things to look at and do during your wait times. It was just a more pleasurable experience overall than the Magic Kingdom, which felt over-crowded, grumpy and stressful. Universal had their visitor’s in mind when they designed their parks, and the Wizarding World of Harry Potter is the bomb. Mr. Potter was definitely our priority, so we got there as soon as the park opened. First stop, the Hogwarts Express. Then into Hogsmead….And onto Hogwarts for the Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey ride. Amazing. That’s all. Oh, and if you have younger kids who don’t want to ride, take advantage of the Child Swap option; one of you stays with the kids while the other goes on the ride and then you swap. The two big rides are a pretty scary for younger kids, but they get to see a lot of Hogwarts School while they are in line. Our youngest was most interested in the Chocolate Frogs, although she was disappointed that it didn’t jump out of the box.
Inside Hogwarts…The Sorting Hat! I’m such a Harry Potty nerd. 🙂Back on the Hogwarts Express to go check out Diagon Alley.Diagon Alley is one of the neatest places imaginable.
We took our oldest inside Ollivander’s to find her wand, which happened to be made from holly, just like Harry’s. The interactive wands are definitely worth the splurge. She could use them at all kinds of places all over the park to cast spells and make neat things happen. She even made it rain once!
The pram room, aka stroller parking:Casting spells….Wingardium Leviosa!Ok, now Gringotts Bank had to be my absolute favorite part of our trip. Seriously amazing, folks. The goblins are so life-like, it’s almost creepy. They work, chat with one another, make eye contact with you, and shake their heads at you disapprovingly. And the ride was amazing. If you haven’t been to Universal since they built this, you have to go back. A trip here just wouldn’t be complete without a butterbeer. I think it’s actually just cream soda with a little extra caramel, but it was delicious. I think she’s trying to remember the spell that makes her mother’s camera disappear. In total awe of it all…Waiting for dinner later that evening, which, wonder of wonders, we did not need a reservation for and only waited for about 20 minutes. Yet another way Universal is doing it right – they have plenty of restaurants, especially if you go right outside the park at the Universal CityWalk. Thanks for stopping by! Hope you all had a wonderful Spring Break week somewhere fun.