"..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. :)