Disney...Is it for me?
When I first booked our first trip to Florida, my husband was not impressed. He has never seen a Disney film, he isn’t a fan of crowds, and he wasn’t really enjoying the thought of a long haul flight with 3 young children, but I reassured him all would be worth it (I was praying at this point that this would in fact be correct).
To make his trip (and the rest of ours) as fun as possible, I read up everything I could about Disney and America. Firstly, I did our ESTAs (anyone travelling to the states needs one of these or a VISA, please check if you are eligible for an ESTA before applying) then I downloaded the My Disney Experience App (MDE). On here I could arrange all my fast passes, arranged my dining reservations, and just generally find out as much as humanly possible to make our trip as easy as can be. With the dining you can arrange your reservations from 180 days before your day of travel and for fast passes, as we were staying onsite, we could arrange these at 60 days before travel (offsite is 30 days). Both make a huge difference to your trip.
I am a planner, so I sat there and made sure everything was written down and easy for my husband to understand.
So, to the trip, as you can imagine, we were nervous about the flight and when we got there what to expect. Do you know what, we shouldn’t have been. The flight was fine (as great as any long-haul flight is with kids). Once we arrived into Disney all my husband’s worries vanished. Yes I had planned everything down to the finest details but as we all know, these don’t always work. But we didn’t let that bother us.
We went on all the rides we could, ate at the best restaurants, met the best characters, had the most amount of fun I think I’ve ever had on a holiday, ever. My husband pulled me aside during our trip and said, thank you for persuading me to do this, I’ve had the best time. Now for him to say this, made me well up, he’s not great at accepting when he’s wrong haha!
There is so much to see and do in the parks, other than the rides and the characters, the little detail Disney put in is just out of this world, the food is just something else (Mickey shaped waffles, I mean who doesn’t love mouse shaped food).
So, if you’ve been thinking about a trip, and not sure if it’s for you, give it a go, because believe me, I never believed I’d convert my husband. But he is 100% converted! We’ve been again since this trip and have another trip booked, and that in itself is some mean feat.