Our Vacation to Disney World! (The Resort)

My first post on Disney was our travel experience. You can read about that here.

We stayed at Disney's Saratoga Springs Resort and Spa. We did a lot of research when it came to where we would stay. We checked out hotels and resorts off the Disney property, and decided that it'd be nice to take advantage of Disney's Magical Express (where they take your luggage to and from the airport for you) and the free transportation. Then we had some deciding to do when it came to where we'd actually stay on the property. We looked at the value, moderate, deluxe and deluxe villa resorts. Of course, I immediately check out deluxe vilas, because I am a spoiled snob and I wanted to see if it was something even close to our price range. 

Simply put: they're not.

However, we were directed to a phenomenal website where there are great deals for the deluxe accommodations. We made a request to see what was available, and it still was outside of our price range, so we continued to look elsewhere until we got a last minute deals email. We made another request and there were two room types at Saratoga Springs that were available. We decided to go for a one bedroom villa since Charlotte goes to bed much earlier than we do, and we didn't want to keep her up too late and ruin a perfectly fun vacation. But since it was a "last minute deal", we were leaving in TWO weeks.

The resort was beautiful. It wasn't Disney overload, and our room was perfect.

View from balcony looking in. Full kitchen, so we didn't need to dine out for every meal with two little kids!

Our view. It was so peaceful and calm. No wailing kids or anything obnoxious.

We had a few groceries delivered so we could enjoy a quick breakfast at "home" instead of spending $50 dining out.

There was a pack n play available, but Charlotte slept on the pull out couch, which was her first time sleeping  without being stuck in a baby jail. There's something funny to me about seeing her sleep somewhere besides her crib or a pack n play. The first morning, she waited until she saw a light turn on to call to us. Later that day, she napped in our bed while we were out in the living area. It was completely quiet when we saw a little figure scamper towards the door. Charlotte had silently opened the bedroom door, and wandered out, but didn't know the layout of the place so she was headed for the exit. 

After we caught the escapee. Love that bed head!

Lena slept in her car seat in our bedroom. That's all I have on that.  She's little, and doesn't do a whole lot. What she did do, was sleep really well the entire trip. She gave us 7+ hour stretches every night. She got a little congested on the last two nights and was coughing a bit. I think it was just the air in the hotel or something. It would have been really nice to have packed the baby saline spray, but I didn't think of it. (Something to consider when traveling with your littles.)

Saratoga Springs is very close to Downtown Disney. We learned that we could walk if we wanted to, but there was ferry transportation also. We did both. The resort is enormous, so you have to be okay with doing a little walking to get where you want to go, I think if you had two small kids who weren't in a stroller (think 4 or 5) you may want to take advantage of the bike rental. They're really cute carriage-like with a surrey, and the whole family can ride on one.

The pools were fantastic. I'm a moron and forgot swim diapers, but fortunately the shop had some available in packages of one or two, That's a lot better than needing to buy a package of 20. Charlotte loved swimming way more than she did this summer. The pools have a great activity schedule which would be great to take advantage of if you have a little more time to spend there. 

She wanted to do this SO.BAD. but looks terrified. She went down 3-4 times.

Lena loved the pools too.

High Rock Spring Pool

The Paddock pool (my favorite)

There are also quick dining options at the resort, but we never went. Overall, I really liked this place, but would definitely like to check out the Animal Kingdom Lodge next time. :)

Next up: our experience at the parks!

Our Vacation to Disney World! (The Travel)

Last Saturday we left for our family vacation to Disney World. It went so well! There is of course some anxiety associated with traveling with a toddler and a 10 week old, but it went pretty much as I expected it.
I did a ton of research before leaving, and I write this to maybe help others out if they are planning a trip to Disney with their little ones.

We drove to Chicago to fly to save a couple bucks and I still don't think it's worth it. The ride there is always fine, but when you get back, all you want is to be home as soon as possible. Driving 3 hours in the middle of the night is no way to end a vacation. The drive there went great, Lena slept almost the whole time, and Charlotte was happy for the first two hours, and then I popped in an Elmo DVD and she was content for the rest of the trip.

We were sort of disappointed upon airport check in that they wouldn't let us take our stroller through the airport because it was too heavy to gate check. This is one of the things I went back and forth over and over on, but we ended up taking it, just to have to check it. It wasn't a big deal, but if you have a Baby Jogger City Select and you fly out of Chicago, you will have to check it with your luggage. I was thankful we picked up a travel bag the day of our trip!

Charlotte and Lena both did great during the flight. Charlotte was really excited to "fly in the sky" and said it over and over (and over and over), and as soon as we were above the clouds, she immediately crashed (bad choice of words) and slept the rest of the flight.

Proof that Lena was there. The only pictures we have are of her in a carrier or in her car seat.
Poor second child. 

She slept this way the whole time! 

Airplane head

Once we landed, we made our way to Disney's Magical Express, where we boarded a motorcoach to take us to our resort. It was around 11:00-11:30 when we got on, and Charlotte was wound up!! She never stays up that late, and she basically got a 2.5 hour nap, so she was ready to party. We waited forever to get moving, and since she's never been on a bus either, she was pretty psyched about that too. "a bus! a bus! a bus! OH TOODLES! a bus! toodles! toodles! oh toodles! a bus!" Anything that has Mickey ears is "oh toodles" even if it's Mickey Mouse. Sometimes she'll say "mouse" but it's usually toodles. She wasn't bothering anyone, but she was so slap happy. Lena was doing alright, as far as little babies go. It's good to be a portable milk machine sometimes. We were all so ready to get to our resort.

We stayed at Disney's Saratoga Springs Resort and it was really nice. We arrived at about 12:30am and were so, so ready to just go to bed. But this resort is enormous and sprawling and after we checked in, we had to get on a golf cart shuttle to our room. So we had to fold up the giant stroller again and watch as the bellman hung it precariously on some dolly thing attached the cart. (seriously...consider renting a stroller if you have two little ones), then after our cold cart ride, we arrived at our room and finally got settled in for the night.

I'll post about our resort later, as this post is about the travel. Saratoga Springs is very close to Downtown Disney, and they have ferry shuttles to take you back and forth, or you can walk. We did a lot of both.

Staring at strangers. 

We traveled to and from the parks by the complimentary shuttle service, which is great, but there is some waiting involved. For the most part it wasn't too bad, but it was sort of a pain folding up the big double stroller each time we got on and off. Our stroller specifically is a challenge because it doesn't fold up nicely when it has both seats on. It is the perfect stroller while in use, but it is a little bit of a beast when you're trying to fold it up quickly. So that's something to consider if you have one and plan on traveling with it. The bus drivers were usually very helpful and quick to remind me (if I seemed frazzled by trying to hurry) that "you're on vacation, take your time, we're here to make it easier for you." and I thought that was very sweet.

I would say if there was any challenging part of the trip, it was getting to and from our destinations. That being said, it was a very small challenge.

This post has been like 3 days in the making as coming home from vacation usually leaves you busier than you care to be.

Have you traveled with your babies or toddlers or do you say NO WAY until they get a little older?