Disney Part I - Our Trip and Magic Bands

As mentioned in the first post of our blog, we're headed to Disney this month.  I know a ton of people go to Disney every year, and Maurice and I have both been before.  I went to Walt Disney World with my parents, paternal grandparents and sister when I was 17 then when my mom worked in Orange, California when I was 18 we basically lived less than 10 minutes from Anaheim so my sister and I went almost every single day to Disneyland for an entire summer.  She and I have grown up with Disney.  Maurice went with his mom when he was about 12.  As a family of 5 though, we've never been.  I want this experience for Kayla and Tristan especially to be as "magical" as it can be.  I've got a lot of surprises planned for them and we've done a lot of preparation in a short time (we're last minute - down to the minute people). 

I booked our vacation directly through Disney, which a lot of people don't necessarily recommend (especially if you don't live in Florida or California) because the price can be more expensive.  However, we are Florida residents and the park is offering 4-day Park Hopper Passes with resort for Florida residents at a pretty great (cant pass it up after tax time) deal. I booked it.  We need a vacation, the kids are off school for the week we're going for Spring Break and both Kayla and Tristan are at an age where it'll be fun for them and they'll remember it.  Blake, not so much but by the time he's old enough to remember Kayla and Tristan will be out of the house and we can take Blake on his own separate trip.  We're staying at Disney Art of Animation resort which is in Value Level of Disney Resorts.  This means, the price is less than say resorts closer to the parks or with more amenities geared more toward an older crowd, in my opinion.  Art of Animation offers family suites, which we're staying in - ours is Finding Nemo themed, which is perfect for us and less tacky (also my opinion) than the other family suite offering, Lion King. It's geared towards the "art of the animation" of Disney movies and I'll post more on the actual hotel once we get there, or get back. 

In addition to booking a Disney resort + 4-day Park Hopper, we were invited to test and try Disney Magic Bands.  (Magic Band information found here!)  We've received these in the mail after making "Fast Pass" selections on our My Disney Experience portion of our trip.  We're "testing" them and according the website, they're limited on who tests them.

 I think they're so cool.  You can customize the color you want by family member preference.  The box they come in is well-packaged and as you can see from the pictures everyone's name is under their band.  We mostly chose our favorite colors (except I prefer purple and they didn't offer it and Blakes is yellow because he's our "bee").  All of the bands also have your name personalized on the inside of them.  In addition to that they have gray edging on them.  This can be removed for smaller wrists, like that of a baby and if you look closely we've removed the edging on Blakes because he has tiny wrists. 

Magic Bands can be used as your hotel room key, to make purchases (if you link your debit/credit card to it) as well as your link to Fast Pass - the shorter wait times for rides you pre-select on your My Disney Experience either through the website or the app that are more popular or would normally have long wait times (1+ hours).  I've selected 3 Fast Pass items for every day we're going to be in Disney according to our scheduled itinerary.  We are able to change those times/locations on the app or through the website if plans change.

This was the first of many magical items we've received from Disney since booking and I will share more as we get it.  Also, I will come back and post OUR experience with Magic Bands.