Mr. & Mrs. Vandebilt + kids

It turns out if you want to go to Disney world you need to plan that trip waaay more than a week in advance. Disney is still limiting the number of people into the parks and the earliest we could get tickets for magic kingdom was the end of April. We didn’t think it was worth extending another month of vacation to go.

We figured we should still do something Disney-ish. Some families come here and that’s all they do – so we wanted to make sure the kids had an authentic Florida experience. Since we couldn’t do Disney world we figured we would head over to Disney springs and see how much free Disney stuff we could take advantage of.

We wandered around Disney springs area for a while – the kids learned the art of window shopping. We stopped in at the BoatHouse, watched an old car turned amphibious launch into the water, ate our packed lunch at Sprinkles – the kids were hoping to use the cupcake ATM but it was out of order. After lunch we went on a mission through the Disney store to try and find the cheapest and weirdest Disney souvenir. Corn on the cob holders at $8 were the clear winners.

The Coca Cola store in Disney springs has a roof top area where you can sample all the different coke products from around the world. We grabbed the two trays plus a float sampler and went on a flavour spin around the globe. Some were alright others were downright disgusting – Italy’s Beverly soda was by far the worst.

The kids were all done with window shopping – the line to get into the Lego store wrapped around the store – so we headed for the free Disney transportation network. We made use of all of the different options – buses, skyliner, boats and finally the monorail with a little break at the Disney boardwalk in between.

Last stop on the free Disney tour was The Polynesian Resort where you can make use of their beach area to catch the Disney fireworks. We shared a roll of sushi and some dumplings for dinner at one of their restaurants before the kids found the Just Dance party happening on the lawn.

We grabbed a spot on the beach where the kids did sprints to warm up. The wind coming off the water was chilly! The girls had never seen fireworks before. These did not disappoint.