I went on a wonderful vacation a couple of months ago with my daughter and her family. We did the Disney World vacation. Luckily, it was right before most schools have their spring break and the lines were really not that long at all at the theme parks. Of course, we also used Fast Pass, which I strongly recommend to help save time spent standing in lines! I look back on the vacation now with lots of smiles and hopes that I can return there again someday in the not too far future. I love Disney World! It has so much to offer anyone of any age. We enjoyed all of the theme parks as well as downtown Disney.
My grandson has a severe peanut allergy, and I have to say big kudos and thank you to Disney for their wonderful treatment and expertise in understanding and knowing how to deal with peanut allergies. Whether we were at one of the Disney theme parks or downtown Disney, our question about whether or not they use peanut oil in cooking immediately brought an understanding face, a smile, and the promise to have the chef come out to personally talk with us so we would know what is safe for my grandson to eat in their establishment. The chefs did not act annoyed by having to come out and talk to us, in fact, they were so friendly and knowledgeable we felt assured and relieved. So thank you Disney for the wonderful job you do regarding food allergies!!
Before the vacation, long before, I had purchased Disney T-shirts for my grandkids to wear from the Zazzle Disney Store. They wore them when we left home, at the airport, and their first day in Florida. I've posted a few photos of them wearing them for you to see how cute they look. I was able to personalize them easily before ordering to make them unique to our vacation. The Zazzle Disney Store has a lot of great designs and I've also posted links to many of the T-shirts in case you want to personalize your own for your family vacation!
During our vacation we stayed at the Lake Buena Vista Resort Village and Spa. What a wonderful place! It's clean, in a great location not far from Disney World, spacious, friendly, and plain old fun! I have absolutely nothing bad and all good to say about this resort. You never know when you go on a vacation what you will get, and I was so happy to see that all the people who had posted on facebook about how wonderful it is were correct. We had a three bedroom suite and it was gorgeous! Our own private balcony, a huge jacuzzi hot tub in the master bedroom as well as walk in shower, closets in every bedroom as well as in the bathroom, all the pots and pans, dishes, utensils, etc. you need, it even had a washing machine and drier so we were able to not only pack less, but also take home clean laundry! And because I own a business it was important to me to have email so I was relieved I was able to bring my laptop along and have internet capability as well.
When we first walked into our room, I walked into one of the bedrooms and peeked through the blind and saw the pirate ship pool out the window. Wow! No...let me rephrase that to WOW!!! I called the grandkids in (ages 3 and 7), pulled up the blind and said "Look". I still chuckle to think back on their screams and squeals of delight over seeing that pirate ship swimming pool for the first time. Ah such fun! They absolutely loved, loved, loved swimming in that pool and I have to say after coming from a winter in the land of ice and snow (michigan) I enjoyed sitting on a chair soaking up the sun and sipping on one of the wonderful slushies (smoothies?) from the outdoor bar, Lani's Luau.
We had such a blast at Disney and I couldn't have asked for a better place to stay. I would strongly recommend the Lake Buena Vista Resort to anyone vacationing in that area. And when I ever get back to Florida again, I will definitely stay there. The price was also amazingly good! And...they had a deal at the time that if you "liked" them on facebook, you got 15% off your bill. Amazing!
I'm not sure if it's because the beds were so comfortable or we were so tired from walking so much around the theme parks all day, but all of us, kids included, slept so well! I love to vacation but it often times is a bad experience for me trying to sleep because I find the beds uncomfortable, the room too stuffy, too noisy, etc, but wow, it was all just perfect. I had my own room, my daughter and her husband had the master suite, and the kids shared a room with twin beds. Every bedroom had a television and that was very nice too, although we didn't have much time for TV it was still nice to have it while we were there. We found all the bedding to be clean and nice.
The three bedroom suite had two full bathrooms, although the master suite bathroom could hardly be called a bathroom. It had a jacuzzi hot tub in the bedroom itself, a walk in shower, a double sink, and a private toilet room. The second bathroom had a tub/shower, single sink with cabinet, toilet, and good size wall cabinet/closet.
There is a Walmart not too far from the resort which was nice for picking up some of the items we decided to purchase there and not take from home like shampoo, soaps, laundry detergent, etc. Of course, there is also a mall right next door and a convenience store right on the premises which is actually pretty well stocked. We got take out food twice and ate once at the Frankie Farrell's Irish Pub & Grille. I found their food to be quite good.
There is a full size refrigerator in the suite, a full size sink, dishwasher, microwave, full size cooking range, and cabinets that hold all the cookware and dishes you'll need. The counter tops are granite. I almost hated to come home to my kitchen. lol The main area is spacious and open, the kitchen, dining room, and living room area all open to one another. There is a good size table to dine at with I believe six chairs around it and a light above it, the living area had a huge television, coffee table, sofa that also opened up into a bed I believe, and some chairs and end tables. The balcony is right off the living area and has high enough sides that you don't have to worry about the kids falling over a rail or any such thing. There is a little patio table and some chairs out there as well.
As for parking, we didn't have any problems. We parked on their parking deck and took an elevator up to our floor or walked up the one floor. It was an easy and not long walk to the swimming pool with the pirate ship from our room as well. We did rent a car while there right from the airport so I cannot comment on taking a bus from the resort to Disney as we did not do that at all.
All in all, a wonderful Disney family vacation. Oh, and I was also able to go to the ocean for the first time in my life. It's beautiful!
Thank you Disney and thank you Lake Bunea Vista Resort for your part in our having a most wonderful, fun, stress free, and much needed family vacation. Hope to see you again soon, I miss you!
Now check out some of the other Disney T-shirts you can customize or purchase as is for your Disney family vacation!
