"..He's the Rootinest, Tootinest, Cowboy in The Wild Wild West..."

How many times do you ladies let your husband pick the restaurants? It seems to me like it has gotten to be a lot more since we had kids. My husband and I have totally different tastes in food; that is, in favorite cuisine types, but generally we can find something on a menu when the other person picks the restaurant. So I said to my husband before we went to Walt Disney World "one night you pick a restaurant."

Surprisingly enough he picked a no-so-very-popular dining location, Trail's End at Disney's Ft. Wilderness. Don't get me wrong, it's good food, I think the main reason that it's not as popular as some of the other restaurants on Walt Disney World property is that there aren't any characters, and the main reason: location.

Disney's Ft. Wilderness is a great resort, if you and your family are campers (which I am not) you can book a campsite there for your trailer, camper, or even pitch a tent! There's also the cabins at Disney's Ft. Wilderness, which are a little more up my ally. They have a bedroom with a double bed and bunk beds, a bathroom, a kitchen, and living room area that has a pull down bed as well and it can comfortably sleep a family of six.

Trail's End is an all-you-care-to-eat barbeque buffet with menu items including fried and oven-roasted chicken, ribs, spit roasted carve-to-order prime rib, corn, mashed potatoes, salad bar, macaroni and cheese, other vegetables, a dessert buffet, and then a children's buffet as well with pizza, chicken fingers, and other kid-friendly items. Also the buffet price comes with a non-alcoholic beverage.

Sounds good, right? The food is great! But keep in mind if this is a dining location that interests you and you are coming from one of the theme parks that day (and not staying at Ft. Wilderness), or from a different resort to leave yourselves a little extra travel time to get there. If you've been to the dinner show the Hoop De Doo Revue before, you'll be able to find Trail's End just fine, it's right next door. You would have to take a bus to Ft. Wilderness and then take another "resort bus" to get to where the restaurant is located. This can add about an extra 15-20 minutes of travel time depending on how long you wait for buses. Coming from the Magic Kingdom, or in our case from the Wilderness Lodge we could take a bus or a boat straight to Ft. Wilderness and it wasn't a long travel time at all.

The other thing that occurred that I wanted to tell you about that particular night was that it was the only night we were there that it rained... cats and dogs. I mean it poured. The bus from the Wilderness Lodge to Ft. Wilderness took almost no time to bring us there at all. Do you know how long we waited for the bus back??? About 20 minutes. Must have been the weather, but imagine everyone who just got out of the 5pm Hoop de Doo Revue show and all of us running in the rain from the door to the restaurants to the bus stop that's covered and hovering underneath it.. about 50 people I would guess. LOL. It was an experience.

When weighed out, my husband made a good choice, the food was nice and hot and comforting on a cold, rainy night and it was pretty convenient all in all. If only the kids had sat still a little while longer at dinner I might have gone up for thirds. :)

Good Morning, Good Morning! It's Great to Stay Up Late...

Good evening, night owls! Man, I hope my followers don't think I'm dropping the ball too bad on this. I have been B-U-S-Y! With bookings, peak season, Spring Breakers, and birthday parties, everything all at once. I did not forget about you and as all of you know I need this little outlet to write about Disney (because it's not like I spend at least 1/2 my day talking about it) :).

Where did I leave off? Oh yes, my review of our trip this past January. You read all about what I thought of our accommodations at Disney's Wilderness Lodge Resort. Fantastic! I really wanted to start gearing this blog to help mom's of school-aged kids tackle Walt Disney World. In the past 15 months since I started it, I have leaned more towards writing about what I thought I knew best, which was Walt Disney World in itself. But I had really mainly experienced it as an adult, with one or more adults with me, and being able to do things on my own time and schedule.

Not so much anymore.

I don't care how much you (or I if I booked your reservation for you) plan. You can plan until you're as blue as the genie, you just have to be able to roll with the punches when taking young kids to Walt Disney World. A lot of people will say that it's just for kids. From reading my blog, both you and I know that this is a point that can be argued. There are many many things that are for adults there. But, what the hay...let's take the kids.

Our first full day at Magic Kingdom in January: Day One.

"Let's go! Get up! Time to hit those parks!"

Yea, no. More like "Come on, get out of bed. I will get the kids ready."

"Sit still, let me put your shoes on."

"Don't take your jacket off, it's chilly outside."

"Are you ready yet? We're out the door."

"You have to sit in the stroller if you want to go to Disney World. "

Is it even 9am yet? This is family-fun, right? LOL. Yes, it is. :)

We ended up getting to the Magic Kingdom around 11 am that day. No, we are not morning people and I will tell you I prefer it that way. Because as much as my kids aren't big sleepers (never have been and I fear never will be), I do like getting to the park at an early lunch time so they're not completely postal by the time of the fireworks. They get to run around and ride attractions, have dinner, and take it easy, and they're still up for the night time activities as well.

Although on a side note; I can't tell you the last time before this trip that I stayed at the Magic Kingdom until the very end for the fireworks and I definitely could've planned that better. Perhaps not by getting that spot right in front of Cinderella's Castle and opting more for a position towards the front of Main Street, USA so when they were over we could've just turned around and walked out of the park rather than spending about 20 minutes in the crowd just to get through the turnstiles to the boat transportation.

With adults = don't even notice it.

With two 2 year olds who have been going all day = VERY noticeable.

Let me tell you one other thing that would be one of my biggest tips for this first day at Magic Kingdom. And this very well may be child-specific. If you have a child (or children) who are not fond of the stroller; work out a plan beforehand. We wanted to let the kids walk on their own a bit, but in the past when they got tired they wanted to go in the stroller. This time not only did they not want to ever climb into the stroller, we were using it as a time-out when they weren't behaving! Maybe not such a good idea, but it's a learning process. Really, I don't know that if we hadn't brought it at all they probably would've wanted to sit in it and also... where would I have kept all my stuff?!!

At the end of the day, their faces on the attractions truly are priceless. Prince Charming's Regal Carousel, The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, and Peter Pan's Flight being their favorites. I've said it before and I'll say it again, I love going that time of year because we have the option of taking them on rides that they want to do again two or three times. It's worth it. The whole trip is worth it, and... magical. :)

"....The Greatest Adventure is Mine..."

I am so excited to tell everyone about the wonderful time we had on our Walt Disney World vacation this past month. Where to start, where to start? How about at the beginning. I had been spending some time in South Florida visiting family the week before. While there, my kids got sick. Not just a cough mind you, but one had pink eye and an ear infection and the other had pink eye and a red throat. Ugh. Then to top it off; one by one, every adult in the house got the sore throat as well. I don't get sick that often, I try not to. When mommy goes down the ship falls apart. But I was sick. The doctor at the walk in clinic I had taken the kids to gave them some antibiotics because I had mentioned our upcoming trip to Walt Disney World. But when I showed up a couple of days later... nothing.

My husband was arriving from home the same day we were checking in at Disney's Wilderness Lodge Resort, later that night. So here I was, with two small kids, checking into the resort myself, and let's not leave out that my sore throat had now turned into laryngitis. Fabulous. Here's a general question that I'm going to put out there to anyone reading this blog... what was I thinking?!

I don't often write about my kids on this blog, I consider myself a pretty private person. But I can't write this story without telling you that I have soon-to-be 3 year old boy/girl twins. So.... what was I thinking? :) The first part went pretty smoothly! I drove up to the resort, the valets helped me get all our luggage out of the car, and they loaded up on the baggage cart and held it for me while I parked the car.

My kids were so excited! We walked through the "magic" doors of the resort (which they kept telling to "open please" and "thank you" every time they automatically opened), and they happily sat over in the TV area for young kids watching Donald Duck cartoons while mommy checked into the resort.

The cast member checking us it was very nice, she gave the kids some goodie bags with crayons and coloring pages, and I received all my check in materials. We proceeded to our room which was on the 6th floor of the main building. When we opened the door to the outside of our room, we were overlooking the entire lobby area and Whispering Canyon Cafe from the 6th floor of the resort. Every evening that we happened to be in the room around 5 pm we could here them ring the dinner triangle for Whispering Canyon and yell "cooooome and get ittttt.....!"

The room itself was nice, two queen size beds, a bathroom, vanity area with two sinks, flat panel LCD TV, two bureaus, a table and chairs, ceiling fan, and balcony with a table and chairs outside as well. Our luggage was promptly delivered to our room and I began to unpack because I didn't want to be digging through suitcases for the next five days. My kids happily explored the room, played with their toys we had brought, and colored with their goodie bags.

We were on the regular dining plan, which includes one table service meal, one counter service meal, and one snack for each night that we were staying at the resort. Both myself and my husband received 4 table service meals, 4 counter service meals, and 4 snacks for the duration of our stay. I just figured that since his plane didn't get in that night until about 8:30 pm, that I would use one of my counter service meals at Downtown Disney and share with the kids. They are still two years old, and as far as children are concerned on the dining plan; if they're under 3 they are more than welcome to share with their parents. If I wanted to get them a kids meal to share, I could've paid out of pocket.

My dad ended up calling me and asking if the kids and I wanted to go to dinner with him. That he had called and gotten reservations at Trails End Restaurant at Ft. Wilderness Resort and Campground. We had reservations at that dining location the next night, and I asked him if he would just like to come to the Wilderness Lodge and I would see if we could get into Whispering Canyon. My father had tried to get a reservation there, but unfortunately nothing was available. Well, this is proof right here that restaurants at Walt Disney World do take walk ups if they can. Mind you, it is better to have reservations, but we walked up exactly at 5 pm and would've been seated immediately, but they wouldn't seat us until my dad arrived. So I think we waited a total of 20 minutes.

Now before I tell you this next part let me explain something first. I love my kids. There is nothing I wouldn't do for them and they have been the greatest joy that I have ever had in my

life. I am so proud to see them grow and learn everyday. I think they are beyond a blessing and can't wait to see what the coming years have in store for us all. Having said that, they are 3 years old right now. You've heard of terrible two's? I'm sorry...they've got nothing on three.

This is when the "3 year old gene" kicked into full force. I should've done a counter service meal. I am not the type of parent who takes the attitude of "they're kids so you as the other patron of the restaurant have to deal". I was mortified. My daughter did not want to sit in her seat for 1 minute, she was trying to play with the utensils, the salt and pepper, the menus, my son saw what he was doing and then he didn't want to sit still. And through all this, our server felt it necessary to give me a run down of the menu after I had said that we had dined there before. Do you not see my kids going bananas? The only time they looked like they were doing what they were supposed to was when one server lead the entire restaurant in the chicken dance. LOL.

We ended up getting the food to go and immediately returning to the room where I finished my dinner. Now I understand that they're 3, I understand that sometimes these things happen, but that was the shortest (and the longest) dinner out ever. Never a dull moment.

We waited a little while, went to pick up my husband at the airport where I managed to squeak out to him in my raspy voice... "your turn". Overall, they had a big day and a lot went on, so in general I think they handled all of the excitement pretty well.

Above are the pictures I took of our room. Tomorrow look forward to day two, including restaurant reviews. :)

A Whole New "World"

Oh my goodness! Can it be? Yes it's me! Back in 2011 and with loads of great Walt Disney World travel information to help my fantastic readers create the best possible Disney vacation ever! I have been out of the blogging loop for a while, for a few different reasons. The most important being that I just returned from a 4 night Walt Disney World vacation and man, do I have lots of stories for everyone! The picture above is from the night we dined at Chef Mickey's Buffet at Disney's Contemporary Resort, and it can now be found on my facebook fan page, Jennifer Phelps; Travel Agent!

This is the most challenging part... where to begin? First off, I hope everyone had a "magical" holiday season and New Year and that 2011 is treating them alright so far. The weather in most of the country has been arctic in January thus far, and I know everyone up there is probably dreaming of someplace warm where the palm trees are a-swayin'.

I wanted to get the full experience to be able to share with everyone; so my family and I stayed at Disney's Wilderness Lodge in a standard view room with base park tickets (no hoppers), and the regular dining plan. I have reviews of the restaurants we went to, the resort itself, and the park for everyone to enjoy in the upcoming weeks. I am also hard at work as a Disney vacation specialist booking future guests' fabulous Disney vacations, my day to day activities of being a mom. One side note that I am going to divulge in this post.. going to Walt Disney World with young kids is a whole different animal (a whole new 'world' so to speak) than visiting the parks as an adult with friends. This is something I knew taking my kids for a day here and there since they were born; but after doing the "full experience" so to speak this past month, I have a new outlook (and respect) for parents who take their young kids to Walt Disney World and hopefully I myself and this blog will be more helpful to this demographic specifically.

I look forward to blogging in 2011 and as always any questions anyone reading may have... I am here, talk to me. :)