Trying to plan our first Disney trip felt like showing up to the last day of school trying to write an exam when I hadn’t attended a single class. There is So.Much.To.Learn. But I’m here to tell you while the overwhelm can be real, it is all completely figure-out-able!

The stats of our trip:

1 night at Disney’s Contemporary Resort

1 day at the Magic Kingdom

When I started booking/planning:

5 weeks before our trip

Our room at Disney’s Contemporary Resort

The Planning:

We had already planned to stay for a week in the St. Petersburg area of Florida so Randall and I decided it would be the perfect time to make the drive to Orlando for a little “dollop of Disney.” We knew we wanted to stay 1 night at a hotel and 1 day at a park so with that in mind I started by looking at accommodation options. After a bit of research, we settled on Disney’s Contemporary Resort for a few reasons: proximity to the Magic Kingdom (our park of choice), character dining options and the ability to view the fireworks over the Magic Kingdom from the hotel during our one-night stay.

After the hotel was booked, I went to book the character breakfast at Chef Mickey’s (which was in our hotel) for the morning of our park day. In my naivety I didn’t think availability would be an issue 5 whole weeks out. Wrong! Every single dining window was booked for as far at the calendar allowed me to go. After a quick google search, I learned about MouseWatcher Basically, you pay them to find Disney reservations for you. It cost $9 USD for me to sign up for MouseWatcher to find me a reservation for Chef Mickey’s. I believe the fee is based on the length of time they’re searching for you. In my case it was 5 weeks until our arrival. I paid the same amount for the site to find me a reservation for California Grill (more on that below). Once a reservation becomes available, MouseWatcher sends you a notification and you need to be quick about grabbing it when it comes up. It took about 3 weeks to get a reservation for Chef Mickey’s and then a week before our trip I got the notification that there was an opening for dinner at the California Grill. Then even closer to our arrival date more reservations became available. If you’re looking to dine and having a hard time booking, I highly recommend this service! You can also use it to find reservations for experiences like Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique, Harmony Barber shop etc.

Next came the super fun part I like to call “I don’t need to book our tickets and park reservations this early out because there is NO WAY the park will be FULLY booked on a Wednesday in April.”

Wrong.

I found it confusing at first but yes, you need to buy tickets and then book reservations at whichever park you plan to use those tickets. I decided to wait to buy/reserve until closer to our travel date because I was a Disney novice, and I didn’t know better. 10 days before our trip I went to book our tickets and reserve our spots at the Magic Kingdom. Buying tickets = no problem. Reservations at the MK = fully booked. FULLY BOOKED. I refreshed that page about 2 dozen times with no change before calling the Disney reservations line who confirmed, that because of the new Tron ride that was opening that week, the park reservations at the MK were fully booked and it was very unlikely that availability would open up. I legit felt sick. I hung up and then refreshed a bunch more times in the next couple of hours with no luck. Then later that night, as if some pixie dust was sprinkled on my screen, another refresh and a reservation opened at the MK and I was able to book us for the date we had planned! That right there is some Disney Magic!!!

Tip: Book your tickets and reservations early.

The Hotel:

Disney’s Contemporary Resort

Disney does check-in right. We had our reservation linked to the My Disney Experience App. There’s some pre-check in stuff you need to fill in beforehand including when you plan to arrive and the option of choosing a PIN to access your room. On our way to the resort, we got a notification that our room was ready. We headed straight to our room and unlocked the door with the PIN/App. No need to stop at the desk to check-in which is a game changer for kids who just want to get to the room, jump on the bed, get their swimsuits on and head to the pool. Bea loved that our room was decorated with an Incredibles theme. The room itself was lovely and functional and had a fridge and a balcony which could have been an option to watch the fireworks that night. I booked a room with a park view which was totally worth it because witnessing the girl’s faces seeing the castle for the first time from our balcony was priceless.

During our stay, the Contemporary Feature Pool with the big waterslide was closed for refurbishment so we hung out at the Bay Lake Pool which was rammed, as you can imagine. The kids had a great time swimming while RG and I enjoyed some pool side pina coladas.

Dining: Dinner at California Grill (Located in the Contemporary Resort)

A few people recommended eating here and I’m glad we did. The food was incredible (I’m still thinking about the short rib wontons). It’s a 3-course dining experience atop the Contemporary Resort with gorgeous views of the area and a spectacular sunset. The 3-courses were way too much for my kids who were done eating after the bread and their first course. Dinner also took almost 2 hours which was a long one for the girls to sit through. It’s also spendy choice (89$ USD for adults, 39$ USD for kids) but worth it for us to be able to enjoy an amazing dinner and then come back to watch the fireworks from the observation deck. The music from the park plays on speakers and everyone gathers out there and it was so beautiful that I cried watching my girls’ faces light up.

Dining: Breakfast at Chef Mickey’s (Located in the Contemporary Resort)

There’s a lot of debate on whether character dining is worth it or not. For us, it was a big yes. Goldie is massive Mickey, Minnie, Goofy and Donald Duck fan. Buffet breakfast at 7:30 am was the perfect way for us to start our day. About 15 mins into our reservation the characters started coming around to the tables and I’m telling you, seeing the girls’ reaction to seeing Minnie Mouse was maybe my favourite memory from the trip. The characters come to each table, give hugs if you want them and spend enough time for you to take some pics before heading off to the next table. It was pure joy to see a room full of kids so full of excitement. Did my kids eat? A nibble of a muffin and some juice. RG jokes that we spent over $200 for a corner of a muffin. I say we spent it for the memories! You can also choose to skip character dining and visit characters in the park instead but that would mean booking a time or lining up and we wanted to focus on rides with our time at the park.

Have any questions? Drop them below and I’ll do my best to answer!

Next up! First-Timers Part 2: My Disney Experience App, Genie+, Individual Lightening Lanes, What We Brought, Ride Reviews (and all that jazz)

Big love and pixie dust,

Danielle

Disney First-Timers Pt 1: Planning, Hotel, Tickets, Reservations & Dining