Sophia has always loved all things Disney. Her first birthday party had a Minnie Mouse theme, she has more Disney stuffed animals than she can count, and she loves watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse when it’s on TV. So, not surprisingly, Cesar and I had been discussing the idea of taking her to Disney World (as in, the parks) since she was about 18 months old. Kids are free until their third birthday, so it would just be buying tickets for Cesar and I…perfect. We talked about all the possibilities- one day pass? Three day? Seasonal? Annual? Geez, the number of options when it comes to purchasing Disney tickets can really stress out a research freak like me. Finally, about a month before Sophia’s second birthday, we decided to go for it. But not without a little research first.
One day pass. Cheapest option for sure, but definitely not the biggest bang for our buck. We could only choose one park and I’d feel like we needed to spend the whooooole day there to get the most out of our money. Umm, that was a big no with a two year old and a 7.5 month pregnant mama who was already starting to waddle. One day passes were out.
Three day pass. We didn’t really want to go for three days in a row with Sophia- we thought it might be too much. With the flex-pass or whatever they call it, we could go three separate days and we could probably fit some time in at all four parks if we chose the right tickets. But what if she loved it and wanted to keep going back (which we were thinking was a very strong possibility)? We would have wasted like $150 each then would have to buy more tickets anyway. Hmm. Three day passes- nope!
Seasonal pass. I knew from the beginning that I didn’t like the idea of seasonal passes for us. We had them when I was younger and it worked out nicely for us, but for Cesar and I, there are too many blackout dates. With Cesar working an hour away in the complete opposite direction from Orlando, there are only certain days we could go and wanted to know that our Disney tickets would be good for the days we wanted to use them. Plus, if I was going to spend several hundred dollars on passes for the year, I’d rather just spend the extra $200-something and get annual passes. Soooo…annual passes it was!
I researched and researched and researched online to figure out how I could get the best deal. I ended up buying annual passes through AAA. It was a little cheaper than buying them directly through Disney and it came with a free Diamond parking pass.
At the end of April, we took Sophia to the Magic Kingdom for the first time. She had an absolute ball! When we first got there, a parade was just starting. She did not turn her eyes away from that parade for a second.
After the parade, she wanted to meet the princesses. She couldn’t believe the princesses in her books were real! Her favorite was Cinderella.
Then we rode the train to Fantasyland to ride Dumbo. She was so excited to ride them both and just laughed and smiled the entire time! She and Cesar rode Dumbo while I watched. She was having so much fun controlling the lever on the Dumbo ride. I think Cesar regretted that decision.
Next stop was meeting Minnie Mouse and Daisy. She squealed when she saw Minnie Mouse and she even tried sneaking under the ropes to meet her before our turn.
We also shopped a little, rode on the Carousel of Progress, ate lunch in Tomorrowland, and visited a few other attractions. Believe it or not, that was a full day’s worth of fun (which equaled about 8 hours for the aforementioned 7.5 month waddling pregnant woman).
We have been to Epcot since then, which was even more fun for me (at about 38 weeks pregnant). We are really happy with our decision to buy annual passes and are definitely planning on going lots now that I’m no longer pregnant. Next up…Animal Kingdom!