Jim had a conference at a Downtown Disney hotel last week, so Kaden and I tagged along for the adventure. Due to Kade's age and affinity for FLIPPING OUT with excitement, Jim and I decided not to do an actual park, but just to soak up the atmosphere. Which was suprisingly easy and fun to do!
First, there's Downtown Disney itself, with a variety of character statues, interesting/interactive shops, and free random entertainment.
Disclaimer: though a Florida native, I'm not a Disney geek and might not be using the real, actual names of places. Because I don't really know them!
We stopped by Goofy's candy shop where Kade custom designed a cookie and then watched them make his order (gingerbread mickey dipped in chocolate, covered in mini MMs and then drizzled with more chocolate). We each had about 2 bites and then saved the rest of it for later... too sweet!
Then there was the LEGO shop. We spent about 2 hours in there, making mini-figures (2 police guys and a crimnihmal) and looking at all the lego statues and just playing.
At the free play station, there were a lot of different ages there. Kaden saw a table of teen boys, walked right up and said, "Can I play with you guys?" They were *great* with him- turned out the group (3 guys and 2 gals by the end) was from a NY college, in town on a band trip! It was really nice of them to include Kaden and play along. Actually, it was the perfect fit- Kaden kept coming up with the ideas (what about a police helicopter?) and the guys would make it. Talking all the while, about school and cousins and what Disney characters they liked best.
We also used the free "Disney Transportation" - buses, boats and the monorail of course. When Kaden recognized 'Mickey's castle', I thought to myself 'gee, maybe we *should* take him inside the park.' And then we got on a BUS and he sat under the CARS ad and bounced up and down in the seat, before turning to me and whispering "This is so exciting!!!" Yeah, we'll skip the park for now.
We did explore a few resorts, like the Campground. Kaden screwed up his courage and rode a Shetland pony, that I got to lead, around the "trail". As you can see, he was much less impressed with the massive breeds we saw in the main barn, preferring to climb fences and play in the dirt while I goggled my eyes at their beautiful muscles and intelligent eyes :)
We also visited the Animal Kingdom Lodge, and got to see quite a few animals on the savannah. In this photo, if you enlarge it, you can see a giraffe and zebra, maybe the ostrich or antelope. Despite what Kaden says, we did not see a rhino- it was a very entertaining warthog.
Somewhere along the line, we also visited the Fort Wilderness Lodge- also great scenery inside and out. They have a neat geyser that goes off every hour. We stumbled across a campfire on the beach and were offered marshmallows. Kaden asked for two, then scarfed them down without roasting them!
There's a 100 other stories of course... mostly Jim and I got a kick out of seeing how excited Kaden got over all the "little extras"- like the Disney Channel in the hotel room. Or when we rode the monorail (he insisted on calling it a train) to the Magic Kingdom gates: he heard the welcome announcement and jumped up and down- I'm in the Kingdom! I'm in the Kingdom!
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Overall, I really liked this Disney on the cheap trip. Not spending ticket money made it feel like we weren't going overboard with a cookie treat here or lego set there. Plus, I didn't feel the need to "pack it all in", which made for some pretty relaxing explorations most of the time. The best part, though, was not being separated from Jim while he was on a conference- meeting up for lunch or at night was pretty cool. I realize it won't work for a lot of families, nor for us in another year or two, but for right now this was a great family adventure.
