Disney
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Disney is a vacation always at the top of our list. Disney if enough fun as adults, since it's one place that is honestly ageless and timeless, but it's even more fun with kids in tow. What is better than watching your child's eyes light up as they witness magic in front of their very own eyes.
We've been to Disneyland multiple times and once with Kira when she was 3. We've been to the Mickey's Halloween Bash in Disneyland as well (Well actually in California Adventure).
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We've been to Disneyworld Once just a few years ago, but we went with the three older kids. Kira had a princess makeover, we had a premium dining plan, a photo package, and attended Mickey's Christmas Party.
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We have yet to take a Disney Cruise we had planned and booked one but had to cancel when we got pregnant with Athena. Still on our bucket list of family vacations.
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It's not a question of if we will go to these places again, it's a question of when!
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Disneyland
Highlights: Smaller size, can tackle more in less time.
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Been There multiple times, including with Kira
Disneyworld
Highlights: Dining Plans, Cheap Disney Resort hotels, Massive expansive parks Could never do it all in one trip
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Been there once with Everyone except Baby Bea
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Disney Cruise
Highlights: All Inclusive, lots of activities and shows, childrenss Clubs
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Had one booked then we ended up pregnant with Athena, would love to take all the kids
Disneyland
Disneyland is a great destination for people with or without kids. I got the joy of witnessing my husbands first trip and my children's I myself have been to Disneyland many times, several as a kid, several as an adult, several times with family, and several times with friends. The upside to Disneyland is it is quite a bit smaller than Disneyworld. This means if you don't have a week or more time to dedicate to the trip you should still be able to see most things in a few days. You can also ride some of your favorite rides multiple times.
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Because it is smaller you don't have to go far to travel out of the park so eating off the resort or park is fairly easy to do and a lot cheaper. The downside is Disneyland hasn't offered dining plans since i was a kid so you either have to pay the high theme park prices or leave the park. Because magic bans are not running in Disneyland yet there really is no big downside to staying in a non resort hotel. So for our family we like to stay at Embassy Suites, it's right up the road, you get free cooked to order breakfast, and a managers reception with drinks and snacks if you make it back to the hotel in the late afternoon early evening for a couple hours.
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Disneyworld
Disneyworld was a dream of mine my whole life and a few years ago we made that a reality. From Atlanta we packed the kids up in a van overnight and drove the 6 hours down to Orlando. We didn't tell the kids where we were going so when they woke up . . . . Surprise we were parked up front, in front of Epcot! Yes we paid for the VIP parking so the kids could wake up and see exactly where we had arrived!
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Disneyworld is huge, it's not just a theme park it might as well be it's own city. Leaving one park and heading to another can take 30 min. and because of this eating outside of the park or resorts is hard to do. Unless you want to spend a huge chunk of time and energy out just for meals its not worth it. We spent a Week in Disneyworld and it felt like we needed two more just to see it all. The dining plans are where it is at though. They have some reasonable once and some more expensive ones, but regardless of the plan it's literally going to save you hundreds if no thousands depending on the size of your family. We splurged and went all in, we went with the premium dining plan, it included free drinks, 3 sit down meals (including the most luxurious of restaurants), and two snacks a day. The meals each included an appetizer, an entree, a desert and a drink (the drinks included smoothies and shakes for the kids, and alcoholic beverages for the adults). The snacks could be redeemed for anything from popcorn and ice cream, to coffee and fruit. Really the snack choices are endless. It was also usable for in room pizza delivery at the hotel (yes we did this for a night) The plan included so much food that on our last day we were getting non stop food and drinks trying to use up the plan. We ate some of the most amazing meals on this trip and we will forever splurge on the premium dining. (this also include buffets, dinner shows, and Character Dining)
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Another Must have in Disneyworld is the Photo Package. The photo package is $200 but it gets you access to all photos taken of you in the parks and resorts. This means any pictures taken on rides such as splash mountain, expedition Everest, Tower of Terror Etc, as well as all the pictures with the characters and endless cast members wandering to take photos at all those spots you naturally want photos from anyway. $200 sound like a lot, but to put it in perspective one ride photo can cost you about $20 for a single print. We no joke had hundreds of photos taken by cast members. They are good quality professional looking photos and you can use filters to edit people out of backgrounds or to add "magic" to your photos. They are all easily accessible via the app, and you can download or make prints for up to 90 days.
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The Hotels at Disneyworld range from value to premium and the truth is you want to stay in a resort hotel. you need to be on property to have a magic band and without a magic band you will not have fast passes. but honestly the magic bands are also nice because they unlock your hotel room doors, count as your pass to the resort transit, and can be linked to your debit or credit card so you can literally leave your hotel room with nothing but your sunglasses, magic band, and yes the kids! The hotels themselves are pretty cool though, we stayed a Value resort hotel, the All American Music Star Hotel.. It was a pretty standard hotel room but Disney themed. It had two pools, and a cafeteria. The Pool had poolside games and activities and at night dive in movies. It was nice to relax at the pool one night with the kids vs. heading back out into the parks. Dining plans of course work at the resort hotels, and as stated above we even used our dining plan to order pizza to our room. I would say next time we would pay for the preferred room. These run about 15 bucks more a night, but the hotels are very big, and if you dont' have a preferred room expect to walk the equivalent of a couple blocks to get to the lobby, cafeteria and transportation pick up. it doesn't sound like a big deal but after an exhausting day at the park, carrying a small but heavy sleeping child, or trying to rush to the buses first thing in the morning with a whole bunch of kids and you may change your mind.
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We have decided on our next trip we will be upgrading to a moderate hotel. The price difference is from about $140 per night to $160-200. The increase gets you more amenities , slightly bigger rooms, more theming, and killer pools, spray pads and playgrounds. These hotel pools come with water slides and in a place like Florida a water slide is a big deal when cooling off for the day.
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Disney Cruise
Disney Cruises are something i've always wanted to try. We've never been on a cruise period but with kids this seems like a good bet. We do know quite a bit about them since we had researched booked and planned a trip that included a cruise up the western coastline several years back, however we found out we were having Athena and had to put it off.
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The plus side to the disney cruises is they include all food and drink other than alcohol. I have read that a lot of cruise lines will actually charge you for water and juice, and some of the water prices alone were terrifying.
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Disney cruises also have tons of on board entertainment for both kids and the adults. With kids clubs included you can feel ok with letting the kids do their own thing while you go off and do something more adult for awhile. There is a full spa as well, with some pretty awesome offerings. Disney Cruises are equiped for rooms that hold a few more people good for famillies like ours where it doesn't make sense for us to get an extra room for kids, when we are not comforatble at their ages to let them have a room to themselves.