Y'all, what a strange, strange week it's been. Two weeks ago, I'm honestly not sure I'd ever even heard the term Coronavirus. A week ago, I thought... man, this thing is getting kind of crazy. Today, it's so much. Like many others, I've spent a lot of time researching, reading, analyzing, weighing pros and cons, and deciding what was best for our family. 

We're in a good place right now. We're social distancing as much as possible, Dan is now working from home when he's able, and we've cancelled pretty much all plans in the foreseeable future. Well, here we are then. Inconvenient? Yes. Will we get through it? Absolutely. And my sincere hope is that when this is all over, we'll be closer, happier, less crazed, and calmer. (I also really hope teachers come out of this with ridiculous amounts of respect, but that's a blog for a different day!) 

So here's what we're doing before we start going cray-cray. Every day, we're focusing on how we can make someone else's day during this. Yes, we're physically distant. But we actually don't have to be socially distant. We just have to choose different metrics now. Here are some of the things our family has added to the list. What would YOU add to it? 

-Facetime a friend or family member. 
-Pop a care package in the mail. (Bonus if you can do this without leaving home).
-Leave a post it note for your spouse on the mirror reminding him or her that she's doing a good job. 
-Do something nice for someone else in the house. 
-Send a letter or a card. 
-Leave a video message for someone (Marco Polo is my favorite app for this!). 
-Support a small business by purchasing a gift card, and then send it to someone else (local restaurants are still operating as carry out in most states!). 
-Grab a funny meme you laughed at and pass it on to someone else who will laugh too. 
-Give a compliment. 
-Take a walk outside with your family. 

Our Post Disney Recap: The Tips and Tricks I Didn't Read Anywhere Else!

We're baaaaaack from the most magical vacation to Disney World, and while exhausted, we're still feeling the Disney Magic glow. We learned a TON on this trip (which is good, because more trips are definitely in our future!), so today, I want to share these tips with YOU so that you'll be in the know too! 

The Details: Before I jump into these tips, let's get to the details. We went to Disney for six nights from a Thursday to Wednesday. We traveled as a group of six: my parents, my husband, and our two children ages five and two. We stayed six nights at Coronado Springs in conjoining rooms (worked out SO well!). We did four park days - Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom, a rest day, Epcot, and Hollywood Studios. 

Top Tips:
Take grandparents! I realize this won't work for everyone, but I WILL tell you that having two extra sets of hands there was HUGE in making the trip less stressful. Just having the extra help getting onto a bus, having someone else to hold a tired toddler, and having someone to help make decisions was CLUTCH, y'all. If there's any way you can travel with extra adults, you should totally, totally do that. 

Memory Maker is a must! Want to know the best use of your money? Get the Memory Maker package. I was SO excited to not have to pull out my phone every time something fun was happening. I know there's a lot of debate about doing this if you're not planning to see characters (which, if you have littles, SEE THE CHARACTERS!), but we found that there were photographers EVERYWHERE. You'll get your money's worth if you're looking around. We literally had hundreds of photos taken, and the looks on the faces of my boys in them - they're priceless. I've said it before, and I'll say it again, pictures are the BEST use of money (this is my wedding advice too!)! 

Plan a break day! So as I mentioned, we have small children. And maybe the most crucial decision we made to the happiness of our vacation was planning a break in between our park days. And here's why. By like 10 a.m. on the second day of our trip, my five-year-old was asking if we could go back to the hotel. It was a LOT. A lot of people, a lot to look at, a lot of noise. Sensory overload to the extreme. He muscled through the day and had a great time, but just knowing we had a break coming up was a lot of the reason why he was calm. Our break day was perfect. We went to a later breakfast at 1900 Park Fare (which was SO fun!), took naps at the hotel (the only day we did this!), and went to Disney Springs to walk around and get souvenirs. It was just what we needed for our littles, and I would totally recommend this if you can swing it! 

Park your stroller in backwards! Have you SEEN the stroller parking at Disney? It's a LOT of strollers, friends. I read a ton of blogs before I left about how you should mark your stroller in some way so you can quickly find it in the masses, but my genius husband had a better idea. When it was time to park, he simply turned the seats facing us as opposed to the seats facing inward. That's it. And 90% of the time, the stroller was right where we left it and SO easy to find (probably because the Disney workers didn't want to have to mess with unlocking it once we'd pulled it in that way!). The other 10% of the time, it might have shifted, but most of time, it was waiting seats out for us! 

Use your meal plan from the get go! Y'all. Let's talk Disney Dining Plan for a minute. We went back and forth on whether or not to do this, but ultimately we decided to do the dining plan. We chose one table service, one quick service meal, and two snacks a day. Since our little was still free, that gave us 3 of each meal and 6 snack credits per day. And in the beginning, we were so nervous about using all our credits up quickly, so we majorly paced ourselves. We're talking, like, using one snack credit a day for our family so that we could hoard them. Mistake! Just spend the credits, people! Like many meal plan newbs, we got to our last day with a whole lotta credits we were spending in bakeries and cafes. Just use the credits! I suppose if you run out, you can pay out of pocket then. But get the treats, get the meals (and see some of our favorites below!). 

End of February/Beginning of March weather was perfect! No long explanation for this one. The weather while we were there was amazing. The high each day was between 62-82, and it was so amazing. Go then! 

Our unexpected favorite: The Skyliner! Guys, have you ridden The Skyliner yet?! This fabulous new transportation system wasn't at Disney the last time we were there, but this was an unexpected favorite of ours on the trip. We'd seen the gondola looking system when we were walking the world showcase at Epcot, but it wasn't until we were at Hollywood Studios that our five-year-old asked if we could ride them. As we left the park that day, we decided it would be a fun way to travel around to get back to Magic Kingdom, so off we went. And it was SO fun! The boys loved being up in the air and cruising over the different hotels and resorts along the way. At one point, the kids said it was their favorite ride (which, great, that's a free ride!)! But it was SO convenient, and there was no waiting. We'll strongly consider staying at a resort that Skyliner goes to the next time we go to Disney. <3 

Stroller naps are clutch, so take a stroller! We debated heavily about whether or not to take a stroller with us... until one day in January when our kids were napping and we happened to be driving through a nearby neighborhood, and we saw a Bob double jogging stroller with a FREE sign at the end of a driveway. No shame in the free stroller game, so we pulled over and snagged that guy immediately! It needed a SUPER good cleaning, but we figured if it got lost or taken, we wouldn't really be out anything. And let me tell you, it was SO amazing to have a stroller with us for the airport AND the parks. We had planned to go back to the hotel every day so the kids could nap, but I'll tell you, that stroller was perfection, and the boys both slept in it (multiple times!). We couldn't have asked for a better free stroller to take, so if you're able to find one on the cheap (or free!) ahead of time, do that. Stroller rental ranges from $20-45 a day at Disney, and that adds up, friends. 

Hire a planner! There are a LOT of details when it comes to Disney planning, and it was overwhelming for even a planner like me. Find yourself a planner who knows the ins and outs. We used my friend Dixie with Miss Mouse Magical Vacations. She was SO helpful! She took care of our initial booking (and broke down all the options for us!), answered any questions we had along the way about dining, rides, and parks, AND she was pretty much on call while we were gone (and answered questions in MINUTES when we had trouble with Memory Maker and when I forgot our luggage tags from Disney at home!). You pay nothing for using a planner, and they literally make sure you save money. It's a win-win! 


Dining plan tips and favorites: 

Favorite Meal: Be Our Guest dinner! Yes, we went for dinner, and yes, this was two table service credits. It was TOTALLY worth it! The atmosphere was so amazing, and the food was so, SO good (I got the filet, and you could cut it with a butter knife, y'all). We got to meet the Beast afterward in his study which was so fun! This will totally be somewhere we go again. (Our second favorite meal was 1900 Park Fare character breakfast - Mary Poppins was amazing!)

Favorite Use of Snack Credits: Everything I read prior to the trip said that to really get the most out of your snack credits, you'll want to make sure your snacks are at least $5 or more. It's easy to do with some super yummy options... and shocker, we mostly went for sweets with our crew!  

Starbucks Venti Drinks and Cake Pops - I can almost hear the groans on this one, but hear me out. For one snack credit, you can score a giant delicious drink (and as the sweet barista told me at Hollywood Studios, you can add an extra shot to it too!). AND, you can score three cake pops for one snack credit! This was perfect for giving the kids a little something sweet without loading them up with a huge dessert. Plus, I knew they were familiar, and the kids would eat them. 

Goofy's Candy Company - Make your own rice krispie treat - At Goofy's Candy Company in Disney Springs, you can make your own Mickey Shaped rice krispie treat for one snack credit. Each of our boys made one (one with white chocolate covered in sprinkles and white chocolate drizzle and one with m&m's and chocolate with white chocolate drizzle). They were MASSIVE, and we brought them home with us and nibbled pieces of them for several days afterward. So fun! 

Ghiradelli Ice Cream - Apparently all our favorite snacks were at Disney Springs! We stopped by the Ghiradelli Ice Cream Shop where we snagged a single scoop of ice cream in any sort of cone with any one topping for a snack credit. Y'all, the portions were HUGE, and we all opted for waffle cones filled with chocolate. Seriously good use of snack credit! 

Peter Pan Float - And our other favorite ice cream treat was this green deliciousness from Story Book Treats in Magic Kingdom. It was lime flavored soft serve with Sprite in it, and I'm telling you, it was GOOD. Plus, it came with a chocolate feather on top. Super refreshing after a busy park day, and the four of us split one (see what I mean about not using our snack credits?!).