This was our third trip to Disney with the kids and by far the easiest! Disney with teenagers requires so much less planning. As long as the adults on the trip are willing to more or less go with the flow, you can just follow your kids’ lead once you are there. That being said, there are a few decisions that the adults need to make in advance, such as where to stay and what tickets to buy.
We started off looking at resorts on Disney property. It honestly never occurred to me to look anywhere else. But the more we looked, the less interested we were in any of them. They were either too expensive, too over the top in their Disney theming (for this stage of our lives), or the rooms were too small. So we branched out and started looking at non-Disney resorts. (Gasp!)
We thought about going half-way and staying at a hotel in Disney Springs, where you get some of the Disney perks and vibe but potentially more space and a better price. Then we discovered the Bonnet Creek area, a group of (non-Disney) chain hotels located just inside the gates of Disney World. We were initially interested in the Wyndham Grand Orlando Resort Bonnet Creek because it offers rooms with bunk beds in a separate nook of the room. The additional space, separation, and a bed for everyone was enticing. But then we discovered that just next door was a Wyndham timeshare resort where we could get 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a living room, dining room, kitchen and laundry. Sold! (See my review of Club Wyndham Bonnet Creek here.)
With that decision made, we moved on to the tickets. We’ve never been the type of family that can go from park opening to park closing, and I knew that would be even truer now with teenagers who loved to sleep! We had 4 full days allotted to Disney World (which coincidentally has 4 parks). My husband briefly floated the idea of taking one day off from parks just to relax at the resort and getting a Park Hopper ticket for one of the days (so 4 parks in 3 days). Ultimately from a money, scheduling, and logistics standpoint we decided it didn’t make sense. When I got an email advertising the 4 Park Magic Ticket, we went with it. No need to overthink it!
The only remaining decision was which park to do on which day and that was a gametime decision by the boys. I used the Crowd Calendar from Undercover Tourist to come up with 2 options that would put us at a different “low crowd” park each day. The night before, I asked the boys to choose between Magic Kingdom and Hollywood Studios for their first day and they chose Hollywood Studios. The other days fell into place from there.
For the most part, our park days were driven by the boys deciding together what they wanted to ride and when. My husband and I had a few highlights that we wanted to hit but the kids really took the lead on the itinerary once we were in the parks. The only thing we had to work around was the Virtual Queues we had booked for Guardians of the Galaxy in Epcot and TRON in Magic Kingdom.
So in the grand scheme of things, this was a super easy trip to book. No character meals, no dining plans, no tightly planned schedules. Just a few high level decisions and then we were off to experience the Disney magic.
