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Every year on Labor Day Weekend, we typically take a vacation since the holiday falls near our anniversary. When we got married, someone told us we’d always be fighting the crowds if we vacation on our anniversary. This year was no exception.

My mom and I have been wanting to take a trip to Legoland Florida for some time now and we decided earlier this year that Labor Day would work well for our schedules. It’s almost like we completely forgot that it would be the hottest, busiest weekend of the year. Regardless, we made the most of our family vacation and created wonderful memories along the way. In this post, I’m sharing things that we can’t wait to do again as well as some of the things we might skip out on next time.

A Day at Legoland Florida

Our son, Judah, is five years old and has been lego obsessed for the past two years. Last summer, we told him if he learned how to swim that we would take him to Legoland. We set aside a full day to spend at Legoland. I did not realize that Legoland was an hour south of the other main attractions in Orlando. We were sure to rise early so that we could get to the park when it opened. Luckily the crowds were at a minimum because it was the Friday before Labor Day and most kids were still in school.

I was so impressed with Legoland and its appeal to children around Judah’s age. There is a wide variety of outdoor rides and theater rides all of which are Lego-themed. We rode as many rides as possible before the water park opened for the day. Judah was looking forward to the water park more than anything. We got into the water park, took some time to get changed and grab a bite for lunch, and finally ventured into the wet fun. To our dismay, we made one lap around the lazy river only for the water park to be shut down due to lightning strikes in the distance.

We ultimately decided to change back into dry clothes and explore some of the indoor rides. Take my advice, always bring ponchos! Better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it. In our case, we needed them for the rest of the afternoon! We were discouraged and certain that the rain wouldn’t be gone soon enough for us to visit the water park again that day, so I found an employee and asked what their policy was since we weren’t able to enjoy our purchase. She informed me that if the water park remained closed for two hours or more, the park would grant us rain-check tickets. Even though we were sad that the water park was closed for the rest of the day, we were so excited to get a rain-check and have another trip to look forward to!

For Future Trips…

On our next visit, I hope to spend more than a day at Legoland. We weren’t able to get to everything in one day especially visiting both the water park and the theme park. The Legoland Resort Hotel is located at the entrance of the park and it looked like a fun-filled Lego-themed experience. Of course, Judah insisted that we stay there next time!

Something else to keep in mind for a trip to Legoland; bring Minifigures from home! You can trade Minifigures with any of the employees in the park. Some of the stores located in the park also have a plethora of tradeable Minifigures to choose from. It was a special experience for Judah to be able to trade with the employees and see all of the trading options.

Two Days at Walt Disney World

Justin and I had been counting down the days until our time at Disney World! We have the Disney app on our phones and we were watching ride wait times all week itching to be there. That week prior to our trip, the ride wait times were some of the lowest times we had ever seen. We kept telling each other not to get our hopes up and sure enough, when we visited on Saturday and Sunday there were floods of people everywhere in the sweltering 90-degree temperatures.

Magic Kingdom

We chose to explore Magic Kingdom on Saturday. We arrived not too long after park opening times and were able to ride a few things before our lunch reservations. We always take a left into Adventureland when we’re in Magic Kingdom. The wait times for Jungle Cruise seemed to be longer than usual since the recent release of The Jungle Cruise Movie with The Rock and Emily Blunt (great movie, by the way!)

We had lunch reservations at Liberty Tree Tavern and we have been raving fans ever since! The 18th-century colonial-themed restaurant is located in Liberty Square and serves all you can eat Thanksgiving feast! This was some of the best food I’ve ever eaten at a Disney restaurant.

Don’t mind me, I’m always scoping out the elements of design that make spaces feel so special. I was obsessing over this colonial theme where no detail was left unplanned.

With full bellies, we continued our trek through the park. I was so thankful for my baby carrier when Joanna was ready for her naps. As long as her fans were running, she would take a nice nap and the fans kept us both cool and comfortable.

We ended the day with dinner at Tony’s Town Square Restaurant; you know, where Lady and The Tramp had their noodle-laced first kiss! The restaurant ambiance and decor were spot on for the Italian theme, but I feel like I’ve had better Italian food at chain restaurants. I’m glad we experienced it, but it’s not on the top of my list of things to do again. As we finished our meal, I looked at my phone — it was 8:54. The park closing time was 9 o’clock. I looked at Justin and said, “if we run, we can make it to Space Mountain for one last ride!” We dropped everything, left the kids with my mom, and sprinted across the park to be the last ones to enter the ride for the night!

Epcot

Epcot was at the top of our trip list primarily because Judah’s favorite ride is Gran Fiesta Tour Starring The Three Caballeros (aka “Donald Duck Ride”). He’s been talking about taking his “Ma” to ride with him on the ride for the past 6 months! Epcot opens later in the day compared to the other parks, so it was nice to be able to have a slower, relaxing morning.

We were able to take it slow through the park and were able to ride nearly all the rides. We didn’t have any special lunch or dinner reservations this day, so it was nice to take the park without feeling rushed or as if we had to be somewhere. We made sure to leave the park before closing time to avoid the rush of people being squeezed out of the place. At the end of the day, we were exhausted from the entire weekend. We picked up Denny’s on our way back to the hotel and got some much-needed rest before heading home the next day.

Things We Used the Most on Our Trip