Have a Girl's Day Out at King Richard's Faire

I was provided admission in exchange for my review, however, all thoughts and opinions are my own. 

It is definitely Fall now.  Sweatshirts at night, a chill in the air in the morning, and the leaves are turning colors.  One of my favorite Fall things to do is to go to King Richard's Faire in Carver, Ma.

It's turned into a tradition to go to this fun and unique Renaissance Faire in the woods! We've gone as a family for the past few years after our first trip 5 years ago and it's such a fun escape! There are performers, games and rides, food and drynk, and so many crazy costumes! King Richard's Faire is a great family day trip, but this year, I left my family at home.

Emmalee was not happy but David told me I should head out with some girlfriends to celebrate my new position at work. I just switched departments at my school, changing from an English teacher to the Special Education department and I am so thrilled. I don't think I'll ever say no to girlfriend time so I called up a couple of my best friends and we were off.

We were immediately greeted by the King and the princesses, singing us a song!

I love strolling through the Faire, looking at the little shops and seeing what the vendors have to sell. From left handed mugs, to walking sticks, to floral headbands, there is literally something for everyone, all based on the time period.

Even though I was content ducking in and out of shops all day, we made our way to the Big Cat show.  They are huge, and even though the audience was told multiple times to not move during the show, seeing the cat eyeing that one dumb audience member who started walking was so scary!

After the show, we made our way to the jousting because honestly, if you don't watch jousting, did you even really go?

By then, it was noon time so it was perfectly acceptable to order a drink... or 2...

A few strawberry champagnes and a little rose was just what we needed!

And add in some fried dough and literally the best new job celebration meal.

We spent the day watching shows, shopping, and drinking which is a completely different experience than going with two kids who don't want to sit still longer than 10 minutes and who want to touch all the items in all the stores. 

I love that King Richard's Faire allows you to create the experience you want based on who you're there with. Each weekend has a different special event or theme and with weekends that highlight Game of Thrones, Harry Potter, and even a weekend for Princes, Princesses, Pirates, and Fairies, everyone will find something they love! Literally, you can even get married there!

You can purchase tickets in advance or buy them (with cash!) at the gate and be sure to bring spending money for food and drinks, games of strength, and/or the extras like a tarot card reading.

King Richard's Faire is open every weekend until October 22nd!

Huzzah!

Using the Dining Plans and Ordering Amazon Prime Now at Disney World

One of the most asked questions I see on the Disney Fan Facebook pages, after what is the best time to go, is "Is the dining plan worth it?" For us, it has been. I like the convenience having it all paid off ahead of time and since we do the mid level dining plan, we always have enough food without having way too much left over.

The mid level plan offers 1 Table Service Meal, 1 Quick Service Meal, 2 snacks and 1 refillable mug per person. On the dining plan, we set up one Table Service character meal per day, often lunch, which usually services as our recharge time. We love doing our table service meals as character meals because my kids get to see the characters they want without the in-park wait times! On our last visit it was 40+ minutes to wait and see Ariel and over 90 minutes to see Rapunzel in Magic Kingdom! At our Bon Voyage Breakfast, we enjoyed our meal in a normal hour time frame and BOTH came to our table!

Quick Service meals give us some flexibility to grab something as we're walking around the park. A chicken fingers and fries was enough for both kids to eat from so we were able to maneuver our meals around a bit so that we weren't paying out of pocket for any of our food during the trip.

While the dining plan is great for us, it isn't for everyone.  I personally like using my snack credits for indulgences that I wouldn't have grabbed otherwise, so we also utilize Amazon Now to have things like yogurt, granola bars, and fruit cups for our hotel room.

Amazon Prime Now is a service included in your Amazon prime account, and if your area is available, they'll deliver fresh groceries to you within 2 hours, or 1 hour for an extra charge. Knowing we were arriving in Orlando around 11 am on a Sunday, I ordered on Saturday (you can order same day or one day in advance) for noon time delivery.  I used the hotels address and our groceries were in our room waiting for us when we arrived! I loved knowing that we had juice boxes for the kids and fresh produce to much on in addition to the not so healthy Disney treats we used our snack options on.

It's so interesting to me that food can play such a huge role in a trip to Disney but between the Dining plan and Amazon prime Now, we ate like kings during our trip! Have you utilized the Dining Plan or Amazon Prime Now on a Disney vacation?

xo, Heather

Back at Disney with Kingdom Strollers

We were provided a stroller in exchange for our thoughts. All opinions are my own. 

What an amazing trip we had at Disney! It was the perfect way to end the summer and or kids have talked about it nonstop since we got back!

One of the biggest decisions we had to make this time around was regarding a stroller.  Emmalee was adamantly against it.  As a 42 lb 6 year old, she absolutely still fits in it but in her mind, she's a big girl who doesn't need the stroller.  I know that with miles and miles of walking, I wanted one for her.

On our last visit to Disney World, we utilized Kingdom Strollers and it was amazing, so there was no hesitation when contacting them again for this trip. Kingdom Strollers has a ridiculously easy webiste that made booking our stroller simple. Even though Emmalee said she didn't want one, I trusted my gut and booked the double stroller.

Kingdom Strollers offer a few version of double strollers and I opted for the City Mini.  Unlike the park strollers, each kid has their own space, in a comfortable, reclining seat, rather than a plastic bench shared by both kids. When both kids are tired and breathing by someone else bothers them, this different space is so appreciated.

Additionally, Kingdom Strollers will provide a free cooler and rain cover.  We used our cooler every day in the parks, stuffing it full with juice boxes, fruit cups, and granola bars. I was surprised we only got hit with rain once this trip as our last trip, it rained at 1 pm like clock work every day. I was happy to have the rain cover, even if we only used it once.

Unlike Disney stroller rentals, which are only available in the park, Kingdom Strollers delivers your stroller, with a cute name tag, directly to your resort.  We were able to climb off of the Magic Express and grab our stroller immediately, which made check in and getting to the room much easier with the kids wrangled.

Although you have to fold up the stroller on the Disney provided buses, it was worth it to us to have a place to let the kids sit and wait while waiting for the buses after fireworks and as we walked across the resort at 11 pm.  Even Emmalee who didn't want the stroller spent a good amount of time in it, "resting her legs".

Kingdom Strollers has provided us a great product in years past and I loved using them again on this trip!