FastPass for rides is a must. Anyone can use this. You use your park ticket to get passes that tell you to come back to a certain ride after a time later in the day. They don't tell you this, but they don't expire. So if your time says 2:30-3:30 - it basically means anytime after 2:30. You just walk up to the FastPass line, and very soon you are on the ride. It worked great for us since we had Gracie with us. We could get FastPasses and then split into two groups to ride the rides. And the rides that Sophia couldn't ride on, we used her FastPass to let one of the boys ride twice.
Dining Plan is great! This is part of the package you can get when you stay at the Disney Resorts (which I also recommend). The Disney Plan was for everyone in our party over 3 and gave us a quick meal, a sit down meal, and a snack for each day we were at the resort. It was great just for the simple fact that you didn't have to see the bill and whip out a bunch of cash to pay for burgers/chicken/fries which can run about $60-70 for us at Disney. I didn't keep all my receipts or keep track of our expenses - but others have and said cost wise it is less expensive to do the meal plan. Just doing estimates on what we spent - 60-70 for quick lunch, 100-140 for dinner - I'd say it was worth it. Our favorite places were Tony's in Magic Kingdom and Sci Fi Dinner Theater in Hollywood Studios.
PhotoPass is a rip off. There are photographers placed about the parks. The first time you have your photo taken . . . say in front of the big castle with all 6 of your family members smiling with excitement . . . they will give you a card that you can then use for all the other photographers and all parks. You can then go online and look at and share your photos. However, if you want to purchase them to actually have in your home, plan on cancelling your next vacation to buy the photos from this one. I did not have anyone take a photo of all 6 of us except for this photographers so I did have to suck it up and buy them online after our vaca was over. I would just recommend finding those nice people in the parks who will take a photo of your family on your camera.
Stay in the resorts if you can. We stayed at the Boardwalk resort. We were a 5-10 minute ferry ride from Epoct and Hollywood Studios. We could take the ferry to Epcot and the monorail to Magic Kingdom and be there in 20 minutes. We did have to take the bus to Animal Kingdom but it was only about 10-15 minutes. Boardwalk, Beach and Yacht, and Swan and Dolphin are all very centrally located amongst the resorts. I think this helped us alot. I have heard staying over by Downtown Disney can make for longer rides to places. The valet parked our car Saturday when we got there and didn't see it until Friday when we left.
A warning . . . those commercials on TV that talk about how affordable Disney is are made for families of four. Once you get over that number you are into suites and villas and things get a little pricier. Just a warning - don't be fooled by the ads if you are a larger family. :-)
My last bit of "advice" would be go now! For so many years we put this trip off. And we thought about waiting another year. But we are so glad we did it this year! You will always find a too young or too old child excuse. But you know what they really do make the "magic" at all ages. We had such a great time as a family and I was reminded of each of my children's amazing qualities that I love. While Sophia and Grace might not have their own memories of it, Jeff, the boys and I can tell them stories for years of all the great times we had while we were there. It really was a "priceless" vacation for us and I highly suggest you go for it!
And here ends the recount of the Stahly summer adventures in Destin and Orlando.
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