Orlando Florida Trip

The first thing to decide when planning a trip to Orlando is where to stay. We knew we would be doing 2 days at Disney parks, but we also wanted to do Legoland and Islands of Adventure. We also knew our kids would need some "down days" when we weren't doing theme parks or they would melt down.

After much consideration, we decided to rent an off property condo. It had 2 bedrooms plus a fold out couch. This was perfect. We took the master bedroom, the kids took the room with two twin beds, and for a few days Uncle A joined us and stayed on the couch.

The resort had many activities which I will be covering in other posts. This post is just about the condo itself. The kitchen was perfect! We bought basic breakfast supplies and always ate in the condo. We also stocked up on snacks that we carried into the parks. We literally filled a backpack every day with a variety of single serving snacks - dried fruit, high protein granola bars, chips, chex mix, popcorn, dried veggies, etc. We didn't forget to bring water in bottles that we refilled as needed. Every night we repacked the bag for the next day and this ended up saving us a ton of money and time. Every time we were in a line we would let everyone pick a snack bag.  Since most of our snacks were healthy the kids were getting all of their nutrition from snacking. This also meant when everyone else stopped for lunch, we stayed on the rides. We would sit down for a meal in the middle of the afternoon when it wasn't crowded. Not only did only having to sit down for a meal once a day save us money, it saved us a lot of time by not eating at the busy times.

The kids discover their own room. It's what we call a fancy room with beds (including bed frames), a dresser, a night stand, a lamp, etc. This was exciting in and of itself.

They were insistent those were supposed to be used as drums. I mean what would decorative pillows really be for? 

The view off our balcony. This was only one of the resort pools. It was heated which we were grateful for as it was a bit chilly in the other pool.

Another money saving tip - we brought souvenirs from home. These stuffed toys were from Grandma before we even left, but the kids found them on their beds the first night. They also got small plastic characters that they played with on the plane. The other item we brought were glowing necklaces and bracelets. When waiting for the electric light parade, people come by trying to sell so many great light up things. I brought out the pack I had bought at home and the kids had their pick of many (we also wore some). I spent less than $5 for the entire family and they were happy.