[00:00:00] Dana Stanley: It can be a no brainer to prioritize a morning routine at home versus on vacation, especially in Disney because it can feel like the magic doesn’t start until you get inside the parks anyway. But I’ve found that how you start your day in Disney really does matter just as much as home or even more so and can make a difference in.

[00:00:23] Dana Stanley: That said magic. And before we get into it, no, I am not going to start talking about. Like a 5:00 AM alarm or a trip to the gym. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but just a few things, but just a few tiny adjustments that you can add to your mornings at the resort that I think can make a big difference.

[00:00:45] Dana Stanley: Today, I am walking you through exactly how I start my mornings at Disney World as a mom of three kids, including what I prepped the night before. How I keep my body from tanking later in the day and why I will always, always prioritize getting some sun on my eyes first thing in the morning. Let’s get into it.

[00:01:08] Dana Stanley: Formal intro. I have been really trying to be intentional with our mornings here at home, just with getting the girls off to their new school. Making sure that not only they’re eating a good breakfast, but I’m having a good breakfast and just setting ourselves up for the day. And while it is far from being perfect, I actually think we have a better morning routine in Disney World than at home.

[00:01:36] Dana Stanley: And I know that it for sure matters because unlike at home in Disney World, you probably had a late night. You are probably sleeping in a room with like two to four or more other little people. Maybe you have a toddler who is getting a new tooth or a baby that was overtired that was up all night. The list goes on and on and the mornings can be rough in Disney, and I have definitely been there.

[00:02:06] Dana Stanley: Something I’ve learned about lately is that cortisol, so your stress hormone, those levels spike within the first 30 to 45 minutes of waking up. They’re the highest they will ever be for the day in the morning. So if your environment on top of that is loud and chaotic and you feel rushed and you’re like panicked.

[00:02:28] Dana Stanley: Your brain will go into full survival mode and just think that you’re in actual danger and you almost can’t even think straight. So instead of starting off as like a relaxing day, your body right from the get go is thrown off starting with tension, which a hundred percent can trickle down onto your kids.

[00:02:50] Dana Stanley: And I wish that wasn’t the case, but if you’re a mom, you know that your energy goes right to the kids. But when you can build in even these tiny changes, I really think you can set you and your body and your brain, and you can give your body and your brain at least a chance to reset before heading into the parks.

[00:03:18] Dana Stanley: The first thing in the morning that I do really starts the night before. And yes, I know I am like cheating a little bit here since this is a quote morning routine, but it is an important step to things running smoothly, and that is laying out our outfits the night before. So in our case that is with the three kids.

[00:03:37] Dana Stanley: So my two girls who are nine and five are old enough. I can tell them where we’re going and our plans and they’ll go in their drawer and pick out their outfits. So we don’t do set outfits like Magic Kingdom Day outfit, Hollywood Studios Day outfit in like bags ahead of time. I know some people do that, but we generally have like just kind of an arsenal of Mickey t-shirts and.

[00:04:04] Dana Stanley: They’re mostly vintage, so there’s like Star Wars and Winnie the Pooh, just like kind of all over the place. Figment, like obviously we go to Disney World a lot. We’re Disney World people. So if you’re new to Disney and feel more comfortable having them labeled and ready to go, that could definitely save you a ton of time as well.

[00:04:22] Dana Stanley: And I found. Before you go ahead and pack everything for the kids. I have found that when the girls picked out their outfits, so like if I tell them our plans, they’ll kind of like, oh, I wanna wear my Star Wars shirt, or I wanna wear this. Or I wanna wear these ears. They get really excited in the morning to get dressed, and they get dressed super fast.

[00:04:47] Dana Stanley: Whereas if you maybe pick something out and for some reason that day they don’t wanna wear it and they’re like kicking and screaming and you’re trying to figure out what they did want, but you didn’t pack it.

[00:04:57] Dana Stanley: I do think letting them have a little bit of say at least, or do you wanna wear this or this can kind of speed along the process a little bit more. But something you may forget is that it’s always like the little last minute things that get you, like for me it’s always like if there’s something new and I forgot to cut off the price tag or like the little.

[00:05:21] Dana Stanley: Sticker size stickers, ripping those off. Or there’s like a tag on the side of a t-shirt that my, you know, it’s itching my kids and then I probably don’t even have scissors. You get the idea.

[00:05:36] Dana Stanley: Or if you have a daughter that, you know, you do the little cute hairstyles and you need those tiny elastic hair ties. If you have a kid in diapers and you need a fresh diaper. Socks, shoes, lay everything out. And the same goes for me. I lay out my outfit if I need to iron it. I’ll try to do that the night before and just like hang it on the back of a chair or something along with anything that goes with it.

[00:06:01] Dana Stanley: So like the one thing that has killed me and still does is I’ll put on the outfit and I realize like, oh, I needed a strapless bra for this, and then I go to find it. And it’s buried somewhere. I can’t find it. Did I pack it? So just make sure you have everything laid out that is going to go on your body.

[00:06:20] Dana Stanley: It doesn’t seem like this will be like a big deal to frow you, but like realizing you’re missing something when you’re trying to get ready for so many people can add up. And one of the pluses too, is your husband can easily help because you don’t have to explain what they’re wearing. It’s like it’s over there on the chair.

[00:06:42] Dana Stanley: Just get them dressed.

[00:06:44] Dana Stanley: So those were laid out all the night before. And the absolute first thing before I will do anything in the morning. It’s just look outside. This is something I’ve been trying to do at home because again, learning about cortisol and all the things, just a few minutes of morning sunlight resets your circadian rhythm and boosts your mood regulating chemicals in your brain.

[00:07:07] Dana Stanley: So it’s pretty cool. So I won’t necessarily leave the room for this. I’ll most likely just open the blinds, look out the window, or step onto the balcony. Anything I can do. To just literally get the sun on my eyes. Sometimes I think we just don’t even think to like even open the blinds, like we’re just so rushed to having like a slow morning or get dressed and it, I have found, like at home, I’ve been really trying to do this and I, and it seems so small, but I actually think it’s making a difference.

[00:07:46] Dana Stanley: Now opening the blinds kind of goes hand in hand with the next step, and that is deciding whether you’re waking up your kids. If there is a certain time that you want to leave the room and your alarm goes off and the kids are still asleep, what do you do? And I think this is like the biggest thing I struggle with is wanting to be at the parks earlier, but my kids are like exhausted and.

[00:08:11] Dana Stanley: You know, they wanna sleep till maybe 8, 8 30. So even though I don’t consider myself a quote rope dropper, which is when someone gets there really early before the park actually opens to get in line for one of the popular rides.

[00:08:29] Dana Stanley: I don’t love doing that, but I do love being in Disney World in the morning. I’m not like a late arrival type of person. It’s probably my favorite time in Disney World is the morning. I love the smell of coffee and I love breakfast foods. I love walking and hearing the birds. I like just the smell of early morning, I guess, and like just the little music that’s going on in the background of just, it feels like Disney to me and I love it.

[00:09:01] Dana Stanley: But it’s hard when your kids need sleep and you know that they need sleep. And while I will have the best intentions of like we, and I’ll say to my husband like, we have to get out the door by X, y, Z tomorrow. Like, I’m serious. We’re doing it. And then when my alarm goes off and like the room is really quiet and the kids are just like peacefully asleep, it becomes very easy.

[00:09:23] Dana Stanley: It becomes a very easy decision of like, there’s no way I am waking them up.

[00:09:27] Dana Stanley: So now what I do, and I recommend if you’re nervous about this in particular, is to just have a very early lightning lane. So, so the first. Lightning lane time slot you can get for the day is when the park opens, so it doesn’t include early entry. So let’s say Magic Kingdom opens at 9:00 AM and early entry starts at eight 30.

[00:09:51] Dana Stanley: You could get a lightning lane four, nine to 10, but not eight 30 to nine 30, if that makes sense.

[00:09:58] Dana Stanley: And some people are shocked when I tell them to get a return time for let’s say, Remy’s Oui Adventure or Peter Pan’s flight for 9:00 AM because they think those are really popular and they can only get time slots for the afternoon. But it is possible. I mean, there are people that are getting these early RET return times, especially if you’re staying on property and can book seven days before.

[00:10:22] Dana Stanley: You just have to know. You just have to know how the whole system works how to get around the app really quickly and also your booking order. Like there’s a certain way that I book our lightning lanes for each day. I don’t go in chronological order, so I usually have no problem getting that first time slot for something I.

[00:10:42] Dana Stanley: Really want. So instead of needing to rope drop or even us getting to early entry, sometimes nine, nine times outta 10, we just have to make it to our first lightning lane. So for example, this happened on our Epcot day. We. Had a slow morning. We were super tired and by the time we got into Epcot, it was maybe like 15 minutes before the park actually opened and we ended up getting in line to see Winnie the Pooh.

[00:11:15] Dana Stanley: We were the first in line. There was nobody there. I almost thought we were in the wrong spot before heading to Remy’s, and I really, really liked doing this. So we usually go to like just a low weight ride. In this kind of scenario, but I really liked meeting a character, especially as someone as calm and sweet as poo bear.

[00:11:37] Dana Stanley: Before a park day. It was just really sweet and I didn’t have to stress about running to Remy’s because I had a lightning lie for it. And it was like in my mind it’s almost like a reserved spot in line. Like, like as long as we just make it for our lightning lane, we’re good.

[00:11:50] Dana Stanley: Now what really makes a difference in the analogy of opening the blinds and waking up your kids, and what changes a lot from trip to trip for us is if we’re staying in a studio all together or a one bedroom. So a one bedroom will have the bedroom with a door, and then like another living space off of it.

[00:12:14] Dana Stanley: And that other living area will have some type of, like a Murphy bed or a sleeper sofa

[00:12:20] Dana Stanley: for more people to sleep. So sometimes in a studio it’s really hard. To not wake them up because maybe you’re slinking out of bed, you have to use the bathroom. You wanna get dressed and you’re kind of like creeping around in the dark and they’ll just kind of naturally be disturbed by you. Maybe you’re like drinking water and they just wake up.

[00:12:42] Dana Stanley: So I know it’s harder, so I know it definitely makes it harder to let the kids sleep in if you’re in a studio. Versus a one bedroom on the other hand, is really nice to be able to wake up before the kids. , Like if they’re sleeping in the same room as you, you can kind of creep into the living room space and start breakfast or your makeup or get the stroller ready.

[00:13:07] Dana Stanley: Or if they’re sleeping out there, you can stay in your room and just start getting yourself ready. So the order of these things. Might change a little bit depending on what type of room I’m staying in, but it’s generally the same.

[00:13:22] Dana Stanley: I think it’s very important at home and also on vacation that I get dressed first before the kids. If I go downstairs at home in my pajamas, I am like not getting dressed for the day. That’s what it feels like versus the two seconds it takes me to get dressed upstairs, starting the day. And like every time I don’t do it, I’m like, I have to get dressed before the kids.

[00:13:47] Dana Stanley: And the same thing in Disney World on vacation. And after I get dressed, I do my hair, which is usually barely anything. Maybe I’ll put it up if it’s super hot, and then I’ll do a quick makeup. So I’m a type of like full face light makeup, like I wear a little bit of everything.

[00:14:06] Dana Stanley: And I have it down to a science where I can really get it done under five minutes, where I can truly get it done under five minutes. And I learned this when I was pregnant with my second. I was like, so. Nervous about having like multiple children and being able to balance everything. Now looking back, I’m like, girl, you had it so easy.

[00:14:30] Dana Stanley: ’cause with three kids it’s so hard. But while I was pregnant, I was kind of like practicing makeup so that when she was born, I could do it super fast, like with a newborn and get my oldest off to school. So my favorite makeup that I’ve been using since then and learned is merit makeup. So they have kind of like makeup sticks that you can just boop, boop, boop in the spots that you need and blend it with a brush.

[00:14:55] Dana Stanley: I like their bronzer. I like their blush. And then I’ll do just like quick eyebrows, quick mascara, and that’s it. I definitely don’t like a. Full coverage like foundation or even like a tinted moisturizer. That’s like anything that’s going all over my face. I don’t like in Disney because we’re usually not there in the winter and it’s just hot from spring to fall.

[00:15:20] Dana Stanley: So I like merit’s makeup stick because I can, so I can just put it where I need it, and then everything else is just my skin. But I still feel good enough to like be able to see human beings and be out for the day.

[00:15:35] Dana Stanley: Once I’m dressed and the kids are dressed or at least getting dressed, I move on to the stroller and make sure that it’s all packed and ready to go. It’s a little bit of reverse engineering. That way when we are ready to go out the door, the kids aren’t just like standing. The kids aren’t just like crowded by the door and then we can’t leave and they’re in my way ’cause I gotta get the stroller like move over.

[00:15:58] Dana Stanley: So like the stroller fans, those were charging from the night before, but now they have to get wrapped back onto the stroller. Or maybe there’s a bunch of stuff under the boot that I didn’t get to the night before. And I mean truly like two to three minutes of just setting up the stroller. That way when we’re ready to walk out the door, that doesn’t hang us up.

[00:16:16] Dana Stanley: Our stroller hooks hanging my bag on it, adding our water bottle like a 92nd thing. But when you wait until the last minute, it can feel like a 20 minute problem. Somehow. I,

[00:16:29] Dana Stanley: we’ve changed the way we do our mornings a little bit lately. Around breakfast, and I’ll admit I didn’t do this for years. Like usually we would just get out the door and like worry about it later, we’d hit the bakery or the cafeteria or market, whatever, get a coffee, some breakfast, and kind of like eat it on the way to the bus stop.

[00:16:50] Dana Stanley: But now in my old age, I guess I can’t really do that. So like my husband, I mean we both, we both like coffee first thing in the morning and. The difference is I really need to have it with food. So I will make sure to have something small in the room just so I’m not drinking coffee on an empty stomach and the kids aren’t leaving with an empty stomach.

[00:17:16] Dana Stanley: ’cause the other reason we changed this was a lot of times when we would wait to eat somewhere, like in the park or even the resort, like the kids barely eat. They’re like too excited to be there and they just wanna get on rides and then by the time you grab something, get your food, it’s just a little too long and then everyone’s like melting down.

[00:17:36] Dana Stanley: At that point, my blood sugar’s crashing. Whereas if we just like front load our day with something nutritious, like whatever that means to you, it could be something with protein or maybe a muffin, a granola bar, just something. Then we can usually just kind of pick if we get like a second breakfast, but it’s not a big deal.

[00:17:58] Dana Stanley: But we’re not like, depending on it for sustenance, if that makes sense. And I know that might be like a niche thing to me because I definitely have like blood sugar issues. Like I can’t walk out the door and grab an ice latte and a donut. Like I will not survive the day. So I’ll try to just have like protein powder or like chicken sausages if I have a microwave.

[00:18:22] Dana Stanley: Just things like that. That I can easily munch on in the room.

[00:18:26] Dana Stanley: So now we’re like about to leave. We’re like rock and rolling. We had breakfast and our coffee we’re dressed, our strollers ready. I have my magic band on, but before we head out, or even maybe while I’m like sipping my coffee, I’ll just kind of review our plans for the day. And this is always on my paper planner that I have filled out ahead of time with my priorities for the day.

[00:18:49] Dana Stanley: And if you’ve known me for a while or been following the podcast and laid back magic, that is always going to be three rides, two experiences, and one dining reservation. So like obviously I have like our reservations and lightning lanes digitally on my phone within the My Disney Experience app of what we have booked.

[00:19:09] Dana Stanley: But I still like to just have paper to kind of like refresh it in my memory. So I’ll at least make sure like, okay, this is like the first thing where we’re headed, or maybe the first two things and then I’ll pop it back into my bag or like the back of the stroller so I can easily look at it throughout the day.

[00:19:26] Dana Stanley: I found too that this is really good for like jogging your memory about something, like there could be something during this step, like. Oh, there’s a splash pad there. Like, let me just grab his bathing suit. Or, we’re meeting Tiana today and my daughter wanted to grab those green ears, like just things like that.

[00:19:47] Dana Stanley: You’d be surprised, like how many things you remember randomly when you’re looking at that paper. I,

[00:19:52] Dana Stanley: so that’s it. Nothing extreme. I know Disney Mornings can and feel a little bit rushed to an extent. But if you give yourself even just like a five minute buffer and some of these steps to get some sunlight, get a little protein glance at your paper planner, you’re gonna feel so much better. Like going into what is probably going to be a very busy day.

[00:20:18] Dana Stanley: I know I rambled on a little bit about lightning lanes earlier in the episode, so I’m gonna leave a link to my Lightning Lane toolkit. That’s where you’ll find tutorials and my top picks for lightning lanes and just how the whole system works, so you can be skipping the lines as much as possible.

[00:20:36] Dana Stanley: Thanks for listening to today’s episode, and I will see you next week.