Top

Adventureland Girls

Sharing our love of all things Disney

Vacation Dining: Planning for a delicious trip

Once upon a time it was high noon in the Magic Kingdom, and everyone was quite hungry. While toddlers melted down in the unseasonably warm December day from hunger, their haggard parents waited in lines out the door for popular counter service (“quick” being relative…), and the crowds so thick you could barely walk. Yet the Adventureland Girls crew calmly made their way to a hostess desk where folks were being turned away without reservations.

“Flaum, Party of 4” was called within moments and we were seated inside with air conditioning, ice water, and service with a smile.

When it comes to eating well on vacation – a little planning goes a long way. Now eating well comes in all forms from cheap eats to fine dining, but the planning is what will set you apart and minimize the meltdowns, drama, and general problems that occur without. One of the big delights for our family is eating well. Street food to fine dining, new cuisines to trusted favorites – we love to eat great meals! I would estimate somewhere around 40% of my planning efforts involve finding the best choices for us, researching our fast food options, and plotting when best to make reservations. In this article I will discuss all of my best tips and practices in general for planning to eat on vacation.  [Read more…]

Planning the perfect trip: Plan for the middle ground!

How do you plan and time out the perfect day on vacation?

My goal when planning a vacation for my family is to have each and every day be memorable, fun, and something we smile about by the time we go to bed that night. What they don’t fully realize is that I spend a ridiculous amount of time planning, plotting, and thinking to make it so. Do I mind? Absolutely not I love really jumping into the trip for months ahead and envisioning how things might go, what will pair well, where we should eat well, and more. In this article I will share my tips for you as well as the planning process and suggestions for your own magical vacation days. [Read more…]

Disney Cruising: Europe

With the final payment scheduled and the countdown getting serious here – I wanted to take a minute and talk about the preparations so far in planning a Disney cruise in Europe.

When I began this planning quest over a year ago, I had assumed we would fly in the day before, take the cruise, and head out. I had not factored in:

  • Cost of plane tickets to Europe
  • Jet Lag/adjusting to a time zone 9hrs ahead of our own
  • Plane routes to Europe
  • Overwhelming WOW amount of stuff to do in the port city!

I know overseas travel can be a daunting task so I will be breaking this process down a lot as we count down (and after the trip with full reports!) to Europe summer 2018. In this introduction article I will break down where I began with planning, and what comes next.  [Read more…]

Breakfast with Mickey at Aulani’s Makahiki buffet

There are a lot of reasons to love starting a day at Aulani – we especially love to make sure one of those days also includes breakfast with Mickey & the gang at Makahiki. To kick it off you queue up and meet Mickey. There’s just something so awesome about Mickey in his vacation gear with the beautiful Aulani backdrop that says magic!

[Read more…]

Planning the perfect Disney trip: Part 1 an introduction

One of the worst things I hear is when someone comes back from a trip and had “no idea” about major happenings at the park. What do you mean, Haunted Mansion closes before Halloween? Halloween party? Never heard of it. While we can’t all know every tiny detail that only a seasoned regular would, we can be up to date about our own trips.

To accomplish this I’d recommend reading a blog or two (hopefully ours!) – but keep it simple. Disney Parks official “Disney Parks blog” covers all the major happenings so adding 1-2 others that are reputable, report good information (not random rumors!), and have good writing that you like the style of is what to watch for. We’ll talk more about that another day.

The other thing you’re going to want to do is lay out either on paper or via computer your plans. I recommend doing a spreadsheet style for this so that you can see the days lined up back to back. Why? Well doing this you’ll catch things like “hmmm, booked 2 buffets in a row” or “whoops! Late night is next to an early morning!” and other small details that could derail your perfect trip.

[Read more…]