bishop&holland

Dallas Fashion Blog

Our First Trip to Disney World

family group standing in front of castle at disney world

For Spring Break, we took the boys to Disney World for the first time. They are at the ages where everything is so magical and we don’t have to work around naps, etc. Since it’s been 18 years since any of us had been to Disney World and it was the kids’ first trip, we felt like it was everyone’s first time there! We had such a great time and it was so special seeing it all through the boys’ eyes. They are at the ages (3,5 and 7) where they are able to ride nearly all of the rides and roller coasters. We spent four nights in Orlando, and this is how we broke the trip up:

  • Day One: travel day
  • Day Two: park day
  • Day Three: pool day
  • Day Four: park day
  • Day Five: pool day, and then we flew home that evening.

It felt like the perfect amount of time to be at Disney World!

stroller sign for stroller at disney world
family group at disney world
family group standing in front of star wars ride at disney world
two boys sitting in star wars ride
mom holding little boy at hollywood studios disney world
family riding roller coaster disney world
three little boys eating mickey ice cream bars disney world
little boy sitting eaitng mickey ice cream bar
minnie van at disney world
family standing in front of the castle at walt disney world
three boys standing looking at the castle at disney world
mom with three little boys and stitch at disney world
two little boys eating mickey ice cream bars at disney world
boy in stroller with mickey ice cream bar
stroller sign on stroller at disney world
two boys wearing character hats from disney world

Tips For Disney World

We are no experts in this area, but this is what we learned and what worked for us!

  • Use a Disney Planner to help plan your trip. We used @mrs_sarah_shirley to help us plan our park days and help with the ins and outs of a park visit. She will also help make hotel and restaurant reservations. There is no charge for her services. We had already decided to stay at FS Orlando when she started to help us plan, so that part was done. (See more about our stay here.) In an initial conversation, Sarah mentioned the VIP Tour to us and we are so grateful she did!
  • The VIP Tour- Since we had limited time, we did the VIP Tour for one of our days at the park. Your planner can help you book. We ended up doing a seven hour tour (the minimum amount of time for a tour), visited three parks and did 15 rides. There is no waiting in line. Your guide takes you to the front of the line, sometimes accessing through back of the house entrances or going in the exit! For Haunted Mansion, we even had our own private elevator ride! After exiting a ride, our guide would have water waiting for us and snacks like Mickey ice cream bars, popcorn, etc. We did everything on our “must-do” list on that first day, so the next park day was much more relaxing and laid back. No panic about getting on a must-do ride. If you can do it, most definitely do it! It made our entire visit so amazing and fun for us all.
  • If you are staying at a Disney resort, including FS Orlando, you can access the parks 30 minutes early.
  • We used the Lyft “Minnie Van” to be dropped off right at the front of Magic Kingdom.
  • We brought the kids’ favorite snacks from home and brought sandwiches from the hotel snack bar to eat while we were at the Parks.
  • We used Genie+ to book Lightning Lanes the day we were on our own. Our planner was helpful with our day on our own, but it was a lot more stressful than the VIP Tour. Thankfully we had already done our must-dos. The only ride we missed was Frozen. It was sold out when we went to book the Lightning Lane on our second day at the park. But in reality that was nothing compared to everything else we were able to do!
  • We brought our stroller and couldn’t have done it otherwise! We have this stroller with the extra rumble seat and piggyback ride on board, so all three boys were able to ride whenever they got tired of walking. There is no way we could have covered the ground we did, especially on the VIP Tour, when we were trying to get to as much as possible while we still had front of the line access.

Cheers,

Stia, Jean and Katherine

Our Stay at Four Seasons Orlando

two women with three little boys standing with Mickey mouse four seasons orlando

The kids’ first trip to Disney World was better than we could have imagined! We knew it was going to be fun, but it truly is such a magical place for all ages. We stayed at Four Seasons Orlando and it is such a special place for families!

breakfast on the balcony patio four seasons orlando
toasting with margaritea and sunset view
minnie mouse and young boy at breakfast four seasons orlando
minnie mouse with young boy at breakfast four seasons orlando
family standing with mickey mouse
goofy interacting with young boy at breakfast four seasons orlando
playing on the lawn at four seasons orlando
two women walking to the pool with two young boys
water slide at four seasons orlando
man and boy reading the paper poolside
lazy river four seasons orlando
swing bed at four seasons orlando
woman and toddler floating on lazy river four seasons orlando
child sleeping in comfy bed four seasons orrlando
two women and three little boys heading to dinner four seasons orlando
view of brightly colored dresses for dinner four seasons orlando
toasting with signature margaritas at capa four seasons orlando
family group on balcony at capa four seasons orlando
two little boys waiting for breakfast at lickety split four seasons orlando
couple standing by hanging pool bed four seasons orlando
view of four seasons orlando pool with margarita
kids toasting s'mores at four seasons orlando
sunset view at four seasons orlando
breakfast at lickety split four seasons orlando
woman walking to pool with two young boys
woman and two young noys playing with water guns four seasons orlando
two young boys walking to pool four seasons orlando
mom with toddler boy in lap enjoying a popsicle by the pool
two women on bridge overlooking lazy river four seasons orlando
two women in colorful maxi dresses before dinner at capa four seasons orlando
two young boys enjoying popsicles on pool steps four seasons orlando
two women standing in front of hanging poolside bed four seasons orlando

Rooms

We stayed in a Park View Suite which was great for our family. It has a king bedroom with bathroom and the living room couch is a pull out sofa. There is also another full bathroom adjacent to the living area which was great for the boys to share. There was so much room and the closet space was huge! I like to get everyone unpacked and organized when we get to our room and I had so much space to do that. One of the things we loved the most was the balcony overlooking the pool and out to the parks! I’m the first one up, so I would take my coffee out there and read while I was waiting for everyone else to wake up. It was so peaceful! We also loved watching the Disney World fireworks at night from our balcony, right before getting the boys in bed. Also, the boys loved taking baths and watching tv in the mirror of the bathroom 🙂

Restaurants

We ate all of our meals at the hotel. There are a lot of restaurants and variety, which was great since the kids were so tired at night and not up for leaving the hotel!

  • Room service: If you book a room with balcony, I highly recommend room service one morning! We did this the morning after we got there. Our flight was delayed, so we ended up making it to the hotel at 11 pm. I ordered room service when we got to the room to be delivered at 9 am. We enjoyed it on the balcony and then headed to the parks for our first day!
  • Ravello: The Four Seasons does a character breakfast on Thursday/Saturday mornings. We did this on our pool day, so we had time for a leisurely breakfast and the kids loved meeting Goofy, Mickey and Minnie in person. It was so cute and definitely a highlight for everyone. The breakfast books up quickly, so make your reservation as soon as you can!
  • Lickety Split: This is a little coffee shop in the hotel and we did a quick breakfast here two days. The coffee was great! They also have snacks, wraps, sandwiches, etc that we grabbed to take for lunch on the second day we did the parks.
  • PB&G: This is the pool restaurant and we ate here during our two pool days. The fish tacos were amazing and so was the margarita!
  • The Lobby Bar: We ate here for dinner after our first day at Disney. The kids were exhausted and so were we! We were dropped off and went right into the Lobby Bar for dinner. We sat on the patio and saw the most beautiful sunset, and food was good! It was quick and perfect for us after our first day.
  • Capa: We ate in the restaurant on our third night and then the Capa Bar on our fourth night. It’s located on the 17th floor of the hotel and the views are beautiful. Highly recommend getting a reservation around sunset – we had the most beautiful sunsets while we were there! It is a tapas and steakhouse, so one night we did more Spanish styled tapas and the next we did more of a steakhouse dinner. Both amazing and highly recommend! While we were there, the fireworks went off. Our waiter always told us a few minutes before so we were able to make our way to the balcony to watch!

PS: Capa is a Michelin-starred restaurant, but don’t let that deter you from taking the kids! There is a children’s menu and the staff couldn’t have been kinder or more accommodating. Ford really wanted a burger, which wasn’t on the children’s menu, so they went downstairs to the other restaurant and got one for him 🙂

What to do:

We all said that we would come back and stay at the hotel again, even without going back to Disney! There is so much to do at the resort!

  • Character Breakfast: It was so cute and fun and we highly recommend! There are so many great opportunities for individual pictures with the characters and they interact to sweetly with the kids.
  • Pool day: We had two pool days in between our park days. The resort has an adults only pool, infinity family pool, splash pad pool, water slides and lazy river. There is SO much to do and we spent two full days out by the pool.
  • Kids for All Seasons: The kids club is located right next to the splash pad pool and the family pool. My two oldest went one afternoon for the scavenger hunt and crafts and I had to pull them away to get changed for our flight! They loved all the fun activities.
  • Dive in Movie: There is a dive in movie night and Saturday during for lunch. We did the one during lunch Saturday and the kids loved it.
  • Golf: The guys didn’t bring their golf clubs, but next time they will!

What to know:

  • Book a park view room to see the Disney fireworks
  • Kids 5 & under eat free at the restaurants
  • The character breakfast books up very quickly- book as soon as possible!
  • FS Orlando has shuttle transportation to/from the parks
  • They have an adults only pool and it’s beautiful! We didn’t spend any time here, but next time would check it out while the kids are at the kids club.
  • The Kids for All Seasons has a parents night out.
  • We booked airport transportation through FS Orlando and it was seamless. We met our driver in the baggage claim and we got right to the car with car seats already installed, etc.

What to Pack

Cheers,

Stia, Jean and Katherine

Couples Getaway at Rosewood Baha Mar

couple standing by a tropical landscape
woman in bikini sipping a drink by the pool
marni straw tote
lazy river at rosewood baha mar
view of lazy river from daybed rosewood baha mar
woman in dress on the beach
woman in floral bikini and pareo sitting on day bed at pool
yoga set-up and flamingo
interior of café boulud rosewood baha mar
clear caribbean ocean water
couple sitting at restaurant table rosewood baha mar
gelato cart rosewood baha mar
white cabanas on the beach baha mar
woman in red dress sitting at café boulud bar
woman in white maxi dress walking in the sand
woman in floral bikini sipping drink by pool
woman standing on the beach in red maxi dress
patio at café boulud rosewood baha mar
walkway to the beach rosewood baha mar

Caleb and I just got back from the most wonderful stay at Rosewood Baha Mar. It was a great time of relaxing together, reading, eating good food and totally enjoying being away, just the two of us! The convenience of getting to Baha Mar makes it that much more enjoyable. From Dallas, you can fly direct into Nassau (only a 2.5 hr flight) and it’s just a 10-15 min drive from the airport to the resort. So easy!

What We Loved About the Rosewood Baha Mar:

  • The service was amazing. From the moment we walked into the resort, the service was impeccable! Every little detail was thought of!
  • We had the best meals and the restaurants are beautiful. We especially loved Café Boulud and Costa. We had lunch every day at the pool and coffee at the Library.
  • The interiors are stunning! The hotel is so beautifully done, from the rooms/bathrooms, to restaurants, bars, library, etc
  • We went with the intention of just relaxing and it was the perfect place to do that. The hotel was at high occupancy, but it didn’t feel that way. The lounges at the pool and beach are spread out, the service was top notch. The two pools wind down through the landscaping so there are lots of private areas, day beds, etc!
  • The spa was one of the most unique experiences I’ve had. Your treatment room is also where you change into your robe and can enjoy a private outside patio space. So tranquil!
  • The Rosewood has its own private pools and beach for hotel guests only to access.
  • If you are interested in playing golf, going to the water park, visiting the sanctuary and aquarium pool, going to the casino or doing putt-putt, it’s all available for Rosewood guests to enjoy. All the activities are so close to the Rosewood- just a quick walk from the hotel along the beach!

What I Packed for the Bahamas:

Cheers,

Stia, Jean and Katherine