Meet the Shaneyfelts

Traveling

Disney World 2025 Part 2 (Rest Day, Magic Kingdom 2, Hollywood Studios)

Today I’m back sharing part 2 of our Disney trip! To see my recap of Part 1, click here!

Traveling with young kids is always hard, but this trip was truly the best. I loved seeing them get so excited over things because it made me get so excited! We did a lot of Disney-themed family movie nights leading up to this trip, so the kids were more prepared to recognize characters and movie references–which upped their excitement! Harrison is still talking about all of the rides and Banks is still talking about the monorail ha!

I also want to give a shout out to our amazing Disney planner, Genny Slack. She was incredibly helpful–especially when I wanted to upgrade last minute–and gave us all the tips!

We slept in on Monday, September 22 and then drove over to Disney Springs to do some shopping. We went to the big Disney store first and let the kids pick out a toy! Toy Story is a huge favorite in our house, so Banks picked Buzz and Merritt picked Woody and then Harrison got his toy the previous day at Animal Kingdom (Simba). We walked around and explored and I ended up getting 2 new tops from Lululemon 🙂

We at lunch at Chicken Guy and then headed back to our resort to go to the splash pad!

All 5 of us had a great time playing in the splash pad! The pool area was great too, but we stuck to the splash pad since the babies were so young, and it was a good size too.

We cleaned up for dinner, hopped on the monorail, and went to the Polynesian to have dinner at O’Hana!

I took this after and Merritt was tired!

The next day we were going back to Magic Kingdom and we were all so excited about this day because…

OUR BEST FRIENDS WERE THERE!!!!!

Janie’s oldest daughter is exactly one year younger than Harrison, and her youngest daughter is 4 weeks younger than Merritt!

When we first started planning this trip, we originally had fall break week booked (this week haha!). But then Disney put out a discount for trips booked in September, so Genny ran the numbers and when we saw how much money we could save by moving our trip up a couple of weeks, we jumped on it! Then I casually mentioned to my best friend, Janie, how “cheap” our trip ended up being and how they should come, too. She talked to her husband that night and the next day said yes!!! Our dates didn’t line up perfectly due to work schedules, but we at least scheduled 2 parks days together–this MK day and then the next day at Hollywood Studios!!

We both signed up for Lightning Lanes for the trip and then an app that automatically booked the other LL for us, so we didn’t have to stay on our phones. We booked lots of rides to do together, and Harrison even rode Space Mountain with Abigail and Chris!

We were so happy to be back together! (Fun fact: We’ve been best friends since I was 15 and Janie was 14, and then we even lived together for 3 years in college!)

I’ll be using this picture on their wedding slideshow haha!

We were so excited to eat lunch at Be Our Guest! It was so good!

We like rides where we can all ride together, and Dustin finally got to ride Pirates!

This was the one character that didn’t make Merritt cry!

Banks wanted her to sign his autograph book after he finished writing in it himself haha!

We rode a TON of rides and then went back to our resort and ate quick service again there!

The next day…

We went to Hollywood Studios and since we had early entry, we rushed to Toy Story Land so the big kids could rope drop Slinky Dog Dash!!! The line looks super long, but it moved so fast once they opened the ride. And early entry was key for our family since we’re up early all the time anyway!

Harrison loved is despite the picture haha

The sun was bright!

Poor Eloise was a little too short for this ride, so she and Janie watched all of us.

They were so excited to see the Incredibles characters since our room was The Incredibles themed, and they had watched it in the car on the drive down.

We took an inside breat at the Disney Jr area on the last day it was open. If you saw my IG story of this, Merritt was getting down until she noticed Doc McStuffins dancing like her and that upset her lol

This was a dream come true for the boys! And Banks is showing us his teeth 🙂

Because of our family’s obsession with Toy Story, we were so excited about lunch at the Rodeo Roundup.

IT WAS SO GOOD!!!! We all talked and decided it might be our favorite food of the entire trip. And we loved the ambiance of the restaurant and how we had to “freeze” if we heard Andy was coming–the kids were really into that. I highly recommend this restaurant!

Merritt says the mac and cheese was her favorite hahaha

After this we parted ways with Janie’s family because they park hopped to AK and we had a few more LLs scheduled.

Disney theming is the best

We did a rider swap for Rise of the Resistance and WOW it was so good!!!!

This is what the babies did while we rider swapped

We did a few more rides and then went back to our resort to get quick service again for dinner because Banks was TIRED and over it

We checked out the next morning.

And this is how they rated their vacation!!!

We had a great time and can’t wait to go back in a few years when the babies are older!

Disney World 2025 Part 1 (Magic Kingdom 1 and Animal Kingdom)

Happy Monday!! This post is long overdue since we’ve been back from our Disney trip for several weeks now….oops! Today I’m going to share our travel day, our first day of Magic Kingdom (we did 2), and Animal Kingdom!

We loaded up the car Thursday, September 18th after school and hit the road! (Merritt is only turned around for the picture–I turned her back rear-facing when we left the driveway). Dustin moved Banks’s carseat to the 3rd row next to Harrison so they could watch movies on the iPad while we drove–we keep the iPad reserved for big travel only, so it’s a real treat when they get to watch it! I checked out a hotspot from our library and we had wifi the whole time in the car.

Since Banks moved back, I sat in his seat so I could be next to Merritt and by the boys in case I needed to hand anyone anything. It just made it much easier. We drove to south Georgia and found a hotel around midnight. Let’s just say it was a rough night with Merritt refusing to sleep in her pack and play, so we put her in the bed with us and she only wanted to sleep on me (in what felt like a full size bed). I did not sleep much that night at all. It was rough.

We were up early Friday morning, so we ate breakfast at our hotel and headed out. The boys were set with their Tonie boxes and Merritt went to sleep immediately (it happens when you don’t sleep any at night lol)

Okay, here’s where it gets funny. When we booked this trip, Dustin and I first said we wanted to stay at the Wilderness Lodge, which was the hotel we stayed at when we took Harrison when he was 2. But we were also quoted prices for resorts in all levels and ended up choosing Port Orleans French Quarter after we saw it was saving us a couple thousand and we remembered that we really didn’t spend much time in the room at all last trip.

Well, this whole time I was worried about the room size because we would be storing a double and single stroller each night and Merritt would be sleeping in a pack and play.

About 30 minutes out from arriving at our resort, I had convinced Dustin that we needed to swap our resort stay to the Contemporary Resort because the rooms were bigger and we’d have monorail access and wouldn’t have to fold the strollers up to ride it (like you do on the bus). When my parents took us on our first Disney trip as a child, we stayed at the Contemporary and I remembered how magical (and convenient) it was.

Since I had already checked in to the hotel on the app, we had to drive to the French Quarter and then they had to call to swap our reservation to the Contemporary. Also, we had already paid for our trip so we’d only be paying for the upgrade. We had set on a number we wanted to stay over, and it ended up being over but I told Dustin it would be worth it. (Side note: He was SO glad we swapped resorts)

We got to our resort and checked in and LOVED our room size!!! We had plenty of room to store the stroller and put Merritt’s pack and play. We had a view of the monorail and the boys just went crazy watching it–I loved watching them! The only problem was that our (huge) bathroom had a big shower and that was only an issue bathing the babies at night–I just used the detachable shower head and had to stand in the shower and bathe them that way each night. Not really an issue, but not the most convenient when you’re used to a bath tub at home. The couch they are sitting on folds out into a twin bed, so I told Dustin that room would be perfect when all the kids are sleeping in a bed!

We explored our resort a little and then went back to our room to get ready for…

Dinner at Sanaa at Animal Kingdom Lodge!!! I had always wanted to see this resort, so I was excited about this reservation. We explored before our dinner time and loved seeing the animals, but we did not love the food. Turns out, we’re not fans of the African food they had. The kids loved their cheeseburgers, but Dustin and I only liked the naan bread service. (I forgot to mention that I ate gluten on this trip because I wanted to be able to eat whatever I wanted, and by the time we got home, I felt so puffy and my lower back was killing me)

We went to bed and got up the next morning for our first park day–Magic Kingdom!

We are all so excited!!!!!!

I have been wating for this moment forever!!!!!

We rope dropped Dumbo and changed up who we rode with each time since there were very few rides that all 5 of us could ride together.

Winnie the Pooh

We ended up going back to our resort after lunch this day in order to rest for about 2 hours–which we hadn’t planned to do, but when you vacation with little kids, you don’t really have plans and you just go with the flow. We went back and then rode a few more rides before going back to our resort for dinner at Chef Mickey’s!!!! (Since we moved resorts, I had snagged us a dinner reservation there last minute)

The boys LOVED it and Merritt did not. We learned this night that she hated the characters, and well, I had lots of character dining booked after this night haha

Also, this was my first time ever doing dinner at Chef Mickey’s and it was FANTASTIC!!!! I loved the food so much and so did everyone else in my family. It’s something we’ll definitely do again!!

We went to sleep (Merritt slept great in her pack and play for the rest of this trip) and then it was…

time to head to our next park!!!

Animal Kingdom!!!

We did a rider swap for Dinosaur and Dustin and Harrison rode it first. They got off the ride and Harrison said he was NOT riding it with me.

We had lunch reservations at Tusker House (again, Merritt screamed when she saw the characters haha) but the food was good!

Then right as I was going to scan in to Dinosaur to ride by myself, Harrison changed his mind and rode it with me. This is how he rode the entire time…

I don’t have a ton of pictures from AK because it was HOT.

We took a quick picture while Merritt napped in the stroller.

We did the safari, Dinosaur, watched Lion King, and Na’vi River Journey. We rode the train, also. We decided this wasn’t the best park for little kids and wished we would have done Epcot instead.

We rode the bus back to our resort, ate quick service from a restaurant there, and then were all asleep by 9pm that night!

Our Stay at The Grand Hotel in Point Clear

Dustin and I have not been on a vacation just the two of us since 2018. Harrison was born in 2019. We took him to Rosemary Beach in 2020, Disney World in 2021, and then did not vacation in 2022 because we were saving for our next adoption. Banks was born in 2023, so we did not vacation that summer. Then we booked a 10 year anniversary trip to the Dominican Republic in 2024….and then found out I was pregnant so we cancelled that trip ha. No vacation for us last year either.

Needless to say, it was time for us to get away together. I had always wanted to stay at The Grand, so I found two nights that worked for my mom to watch the kids (her first time watching all 3 overnight!!!) and booked those! (Special shoutout to my mom for making this possible for us!). I felt like two nights was a good first time away from the kids.

We left on a Sunday morning and dropped the kids off at my mom’s house before driving south. As soon as we pulled out of our driveway, I started crying haha. I cried all the way to my mom’s house, held it together inside, and then cried as we drove away haha! I knew they were in excellent care, but I was just so sad to leave them! I finally got it together and Dustin and I listened to a true crime podcast on the drive down.

If you’ve never heard of The Grand or never been, the property is HUGE! You don’t have super tall buildings (ours had a parking garage on the bottom and then 4 stories above), but it’s just really spread out. It’s a gorgeous property with all of the oak trees and Spanish moss.

We staying in the spa building which is the L shaped building on the right that borders the water. They had a beautiful brick path that borders the water that we loved walking on and a beautiful garden around the lagoon that on the other side of our building that we also enjoyed walking through.

This was dinner our first night. We ate every meal on property at their restauratnts.

To the left of this picture, they have a putting green and then areas for corn hole, ladder ball, croquet, pingpong, and another lawn game I wasn’t familiar with.

We stayed at the adult pool the whole time, but we both agreed that we would love to bring the kids back because the family pool had a slide, rock waterfall, and was huge! This resort is very family friendly with all of the activities they had going on all the time!

We walked on this path to get from our building to the main building.

Overall we had a really great time together! I was able to sit down and just start eating my own food, and I read an entire book at the pool. I missed my kids a lot, but I was thankful for the time away with just Dustin!