Disney World Logistics

We did it!

We finally got to take the kids to Disney World! It has been a trip a LONG time in the making. We were scheduled to go spring break of March 2020, and we all know how that turned out. Then we wanted to wait until you could get a closer to the characters since our kids are young and think the characters would be cool to meet. Then my mom was sick and we weren’t leaving during all of that. So last fall we were in major need of something to look forward to, and decided spring break 2023 was the time to make it happen!

For both trips I spent hours of time researching what the heck I needed to do to make the trip go as smoothly as possible. Most of the information I came across was how strategically plan your day get the most done in each of the parks and what yummy food to eat at each of the parks. Both are helpful, but I also had no clue what to expect for the logistics of our stay. Hopefully this will give you a little more information to wrap your head around as you are making plans for your trip.

Accommodations

We stayed at the Art of Animation Resort, which was awesome for kids. My aunt and cousin are travel agents so we booked through them, and they suggested Art of Animation since we are a family of 5. There are a lot of resorts that can’t accommodate 5 in a room, so this was a great option for us. They have both family suites and regular hotel style rooms at the resort. We were in a family suite, so we had enough room for all 5 of us comfortably.

The resort in general is pretty amazing for kids. The design of this one focuses on the animation process of 4 Disney/Pixar movies. Lion King, Finding Nemo, Cars, and The Little Mermaid. When you walk into the lobby there are giant pictures on the wall showing, early sketches of characters for each of the 4 movies. The dining hall is also themed, of course, the paintings on the walls and ceilings all show scenes from the movies and adds some extra fun to your dining experience.

One of the coolest parts is that each of the buildings in the resort are also themed. So there are two buildings designated for each of the movies. Between each of the buildings are huge statues of the characters for that movie. The kids loved walking around and getting pictures with each of them. In the Little Mermaid area there is a pool between the buildings, and the giant characters are surrounding the area. Ursula, Sebastian, King Triton, and of course Ariel.

Art of Animation - The Little Mermaid

In the Lion King Area, there is a small play area that looks like the elephant graveyard, there is also a place where they make a bonfire each night if you want to make S’mores. And of course there are the statues of Rafiki, Mufasa on top of Pride Rock, the hyenas in the Elephant Grave Yard, Scar, ZaZu, and the iconic scene from the Hakuna Matata song where Simba, Timone and Pumba are walking across the log singing.

Disney’s Art of Animation Resort- The Lion King

The Finding Nemo area, is directly off the back of the lobby area, this is where you will find the biggest pool at Disney, The Big Blue Pool. It is Finding Nemo themed, and very cute. There is also a splash pad, and a small playset for kids to play on, all Nemo themed. Between several of the buildings are some little yard game areas for people to play bean bag, connect 4, and checkers. My bigger kids had some fun with this while we were waiting for the next thing.

Nemo and Marlin in the splash pad area!

The Cars area was SO cute. It felt like you were in Radiator Springs. Life sized Cars character statues were out all over, and they were each in their area of town. Sally had the Cozy Cone Motel, which is a pool with cone shaped cabanas, Sarge was in his military outpost, and Mater was in his tow yard. I so wish we would have gone here during Oscar’s phase of being obsessed with Cars, Etta kept saying little Oskie would have LOVED THIS. I got to live vicariously through some of the other families around as their littles were going up hugging all the cars. Luckily for me Oscar did still want to get pictures with all the cars.

Mater from Cars-little Oscar’s dream come true!

Our Room

Our room was a family suite in the Lion King building. Everything is themed and so fun! We had an adult bedroom with a queen sized bed, TV, and separate bath. The main area had its own bathroom, a full sized Murphey Bed that was also a kitchen table when folded up, and a full size pull out couch. There was also a TV in that area as well as a small kitchenette. In that area there was a sink, mini fridge, microwave, coffee maker and some storage.

Watching TV in our bed with Zazu

Food

There was a cafeteria style dining center on the resort that had 4 different counters to choose from. For breakfast, there was always character waffles, some sort of scrambled egg meal, pancakes, yogurt and fruit, sausage, bacon and overnight oats. There may have been a few more things, but we actually only ate breakfast there our last morning so I didn’t look much. We were just always trying to get out the door early so we did breakfast in our room most of the time. There was also a grab and go bakery area with pastries, muffins, and bagels.

Art of Animation specialty cupcakes!

For lunch and dinner there were a few options at each counter. One counter was more adult food I would call it, Salmon with green beans, Greek Salad, BBQ Sandwich, the second counter was more Italian, Pasta, and a designated spot for pizza by the slice or a whole pizza. The third was chicken strips and burgers. Each of them have corresponding kids meals, mac and cheese, pizza, chicken strips, hot dogs, cheeseburgers. The 4th counter was a bakery counter where they had ice cream, and signature cupcakes.

For the record the meals were decent. If you are eating at the resort for lunch and dinner a lot, it did feel a bit repetitive. And the kids meals all over Disney are a bit repetitive. I think Etta had 12 Cheeseburgers during the trip, eww. You get the entrée, 2 sides- yogurt smoothie, apple slices, or a clementine usually and then a juice box, milk or small water bottle. Depending on how picky your kids are it may be perfect.

I should note there area also some grab and go items, beer, wine, Powerade, granola bars, cookies, fruit cups, chips, and a few other things that you can add to your meal or grab for snacks by the pool. There is also a full service bar out by the pool. We did get some margaritas from there one night after a long park day and they were very good!

We did use our Shipt grocery delivery service down there though, and that was great! The drop it off right at the front of your resort. I have heard they may even leave it at the desk for you, but since I had bought beer too I had to be there in person to show my ID so I am not 100% sure. We stocked our mini fridge with grapes, mini carrots, yogurt, a few more beverages for the kids, and some beer for the adults. We also got a few protein bars for breakfasts and a few snacks to bring with us to the parks, or have by the pool. It was nice to order a few brands that we normally eat so we weren’t having the kids take one bite of something and telling us they didn’t like it. Anyway, I am very glad we did this it made our mornings a lot easier, and we had snacks to fill in when they were hungry.

The last food related information I’ll share, is we did walk across the the Disney’s Pop Century Resort, which is a cute decades theme resort, they did have pretty much the same food as ours but a few things were different. We also took the Sky Liner to a quick service restaurant in the Disney Riviera Resort, it had slightly different food, and I would say slightly higher quality, it was also a lot quieter, café style restaurant which was a nice change from our cafeteria style after a few days of the same thing. So if you are getting sick of the food at your resort, it doesn’t hurt to check out what near you, plus its fun to see some of the other properties!

Getting to and From Disney from the airport

Since the Disney Shuttle is no longer an option, we opted to go with Mears Connect shuttle service. They actually ran the old Disney Shuttle, so it felt like the smart option. We reserved it prior to our trip, and they kept track of our flight info, so they new what time we were coming, if our flight was on time, all the details. We did pay for the express service. I had heard stories of how long the bus rides can get as they are dropping passengers off at different resorts. Since ours was direct, it took us straight to Art of Animation with zero stops. As for pick up, they send you an email the day before you leave with your pick up time to take you back to the airport. It was really nice, since they have your flight info they have it figured out what time you need to leave in order to get to the airport on time. I don’t know why that always stresses me out, so it felt nice to have the decision made for me!

Disney here we come!

Resort Transportation

The Art of Animation is located near both Hollywood Studios and Epcot, so you have super easy access to both of those parks through the Sky Liner Gondola. It picks up right behind the resort, and it was a very fun and easy way to get where you needed to go. There is also a bus pick up for the other two parks as well as the Disney Springs area. They have different lines for the different parks and the busses were running pretty constantly. They also have the Minnie Van Lyft service, as well as regular uber or Lyft to get you places as well. We wound up using Lyft one day when we got out to the Sky Liner and saw the line was wrapped around the resort. It moves fairly quick, but we were already running later than we wanted to be, so Pat hopped on the app and got us a Lyft to Hollywood Studios. I am so glad he did because the line there was nuts too! They also didn’t have a bus running to Hollywood Studios that day, and maybe they typically don’t since it is connected by the Sky Liner, but there is spot for a bus line to Hollywood Studios, so we were a little confused. The bus system was really easy, but a heads up they do pack them pretty full so you may be standing for the ride. All in all the transportation is easy to figure out and fairly convenient, you just need to plan for wait time/drive time as you are planning your days.

Hope all this information helps someone planning their trip have a little easier time of knowing what to expect!