I have dreamed of taking my children to Disney World before they even existed. I have been once but I think the magic of Disney is something that many of us get hooked on without even visiting the park. I imagined I would take my children for a one on one trip before they started Kindergarten but as life unfolded, that was not in the cards for us. With the monotony of the summer of 2020, a virtual trip sounded like just the adventure we all needed. This way all the kids could come, height limits on rides would not be an issue, and we could stay in the AC (necessary for August in Texas).

I have promoted and used virtual Field Trips in my classroom my entire career so it just took a little brainstorming to decide how to make a full day of Disney Magic happen at home. I will provide the detail below if you would like to create your own Disney World Vacation (or trip, depending on how you view traveling with kids). These steps can be applied to any location you’d like to virtually visit whether that is ancient Rome, Mars, Yellowstone, or Atlantis!

There was limited decor and world building. This is True Life: I’m mothering 3 kids alone during a pandemic and I need to spice it up for sanity sake. No “instagram worthy” photos, just engaged learning and happy kids.

A quick Pinterest search led me to this blog where I got a jump start on planning our trip. YouTube has just about anything you could ever want to see (and a lot of stuff you don’t) and Google images provided the ride posters. I reached out to my neighborhood mom’s group to see if anyone had some Disney toys or games they were looking to get rid of. While no one had hand-me downs they were ready to part with, I did make contact with a Disney Travel Consultant in my neighborhood. Michelle was kind enough to gift my kids with a Mickey and Minnie plush toy and provide some maps, postcards, and even a Mickey Mouse waffle maker! She suggested to look on Amazon for the Mickey ears which were a good, low priced find. Most other supplies were already in our home:

HP instant ink subscription allowed me to print all posters and signage without anxiety- here’s my referral code
Leveled Readers from my classroom featuring Disney characters. We read these after the ride they connected to. I had these to encourage reluctant readers when I was doing reading interventions with my DHH students. They are now encouraging my Kindergarten son in his early stages of reading! It also helped us to take a break from staring at the TV.
Character shirts- the boys got these for Christmas last year. The character pajamas came from Target.
Figurines- the boys already had some character action figures and I had a few stashed away for bribery purposes. Most are from Dollar Tree and some were found at Marshalls
Snacks: HEB and Target had several Mickey Mouse shaped treats and others were copy cat recipes from Disney treats. There are tons of ideas on Pinterest.

I tried to spend as little money as possible and the boys really didn’t comment at all about seeing their toys, action figures, and costumes re-used for this activity. A gifted plush toy and a set of new pajamas were just extra for my satisfaction!

When the boys woke up, they were greeted by their character shirts and boarding passes on their airplane “seats”. As they sat down to eat their Mickey waffles, they watched this video of a plane landing in Orlando, Florida. I wanted to set the scene of how we would “arrive” to a new location.

What caught their eye as soon as they arrived at the park was the gift shop. No surprise there! They each picked their items, “paid” for them, and took them back to their seats. This could be a great place to infuse math, social studies, or communication goals if you are doing a virtual visit in a classroom.

After the gift shop, we took a walk down Main Street USA and had a photo op at Cinderella’s Castle. Best part, no crowds in the background of our photos!!!

*The mural was purely a creative outlet for me. You can totally buy a photo backdrop from Amazon if you want to re-create this element without the physical labor.

If I did this again I would let me kids take turns taking picture of each other as another language and peer-to-peer communication moment.

Then, it was time to hop on some rides! I used a pool noodle cut to the size of their laps to act as the lap bar on the roller coaster. These came from Daddy’s boots as he uses them to shape his boots. They happened to be the perfect size and texture to use for the lap bar!

While you could set out an itinerary for which rides to go on throughout the day, I allowed the boys to park hop and choose rides as they wanted. However, the practical part of my brain made them use this transportation card to select how they would get from park to park to enjoy their rides. We also consulted the maps to determine how best to travel around the park.

*insert Social Studies goals/standards here!

To make a selection for transportation, a ride, a parade, or show; the boys scanned a QR code that was taped to the sign for the attraction. For each attraction I printed an image from the internet (Pinterest, Google images) and used the Google Chrome extension to create QR codes that linked us to the YouTube video I had selected. I chose posters that had a vintage design because that was attracting my eye- the kids could recognize the attractions from the simple artwork compared to something more busy and detailed. I slipped each printout into a page protector but you could laminate if you want to take the time or need an upgrade in durability. The children could scan the QR code using my phone and then we use Apple airplay to show the video on the TV. We also used our iPad to watch some videos in a darker room to create the ambiance of some indoor rides.

You can see on the right how there was an Inception moment (which caused the boys to crack up each time) as we were screen mirroring the phone while scanning.

A few weeks before our Virtual Vacation we watched a video overview for each park for our Family Movie Night and my oldest son made a list of all the things we thought would be fun to experience. I selected the attractions for this visit based on his list and other online resources but the best part is that your Virtual Visit can be completely custom to your desires. And, it can grow over time. I can’t wait to add some Disney Paris and Disney Tokyo attractions to our collection!

While a day in front of the TV isn’t the norm for us, the looks of their faces and the exclamation of “this is the best day!” made it totally worth it!

We ended the night munching on Frozen character shaped mac & cheese, Dino chicken nuggets, and Mickey Mouse ice cream bars. Then the boys put on the pajamas they bought in the gift shop, grabbed their favorite characters and had one last photo in front of Cinderella’s castle. These smiles prove that Disney really is a place where dreams come true!