Who Needs a Touring Plan when You Have a Two Year Old! March 2011 TR *UPDATED 4/19*

[BMC423]

WELCOME!!

For those of you who did not get a chance to read my PTR here is the link PTR (ifyou feel like checking that out) and a quick reminder of who we are:

• My husband John
• My son Michael…who just turned 2 this trip was part of his birthday gift.
• Me (Bickiana)

It was the night before Disney….

I finished packing and the suitcases were downstairs by the door and we ready to go around 5:00pm. My plan was to eat dinner early and go to bed around 9 since we had to be up very early. We ate dinner as planned and I was so happy everything was working out, Michael was in bed by 8:30 and John and I were getting ready to go to sleep. John was out like a light by 9:30 and I of course was restless. I could not fall asleep, a couple of sleeping pills later and still nothing so I picked up a book and started reading…around 11:00 Michael wakes up crying and yelling so I go see what is going on and once he sees me he says ”mommy up”. We don’ t really let him sleep in our bed but at this point I wanted him to sleep, and I wanted to try to sleep so I made an exception. Thankfully he fell asleep right away…I didn’t. I finally managed to fall asleep around 12:30ish.


DAY 1
Around 2 in the morning I woke up and could not fall back to sleep no matter what I did so I just got up. All of the alarms were set to 3:00am so I went around turning them all off. I showered, got dressed, and double-checked all the carry-on bags by then it was 3, so I woke John up. As he showered and dressed I prepared Michael's milk and snacks and so on. Our cab arrived right at 4:00 and we were off to the airport. I did the online check in so we went straight to security. Since this was my first time traveling with Michael I was prepared for the worst during security check in it wasn’t that bad. Michael was wide awake so I just had to take off his shoes and his jacket, they had to test his milk and juice but other than that it was pretty much routine. We headed to the gate and tried to keep Michael entertained till it was time to board. The flight was on time and we were off at 6:30am, Michael fell asleep right before (thank god) and slept for a good forty minutes. When he woke up he wanted cheerios, which I had packed so I let him snack away while watching some cartoons on my ipod.

He quickly got bored with that so I gave him his coloring book and some crayons. He quickly got bored with those too and was very cranky that’s when I noticed the runny nose and then the coughing began …NOT GOOD! Before the flight I had given him some Benadryl (his pediatrician recommended it for his ears) so I didn’t feel comfortable giving him any other medicine. Thankfully we were almost there, the plane arrived at 9:15 a little more than two hours but that was fine. We stopped to get some coffee and headed towards the DME.

LOOK MOMMY! MICKEY MOUSE!

Waiting Patiently:

Next: Bus Ride, Check In and DHS

 

[heathsf]

Yay! You started!!!! And I've never been first to respond on anyone's TR before!!!! Yay!!!!

You got even less sleep than I did before my trip and I didn't think that was possible! I hope you were able to catch up on sleep at some point! And I really really hope Michael didn't get sick!

Can't wait for more!

 

[saraheeyore]

looking forward to reading as we are taking a 4 year old and 20 months old soon

 

[BMC423]

Yay! You started!!!! And I've never been first to respond on anyone's TR before!!!! Yay!!!!

You got even less sleep than I did before my trip and I didn't think that was possible! I hope you were able to catch up on sleep at some point! And I really really hope Michael didn't get sick!

Can't wait for more!

YAY! That lack of sleep really messed me up later... but it was ok I did catch up eventually!

looking forward to reading as we are taking a 4 year old and 20 months old soon

Welcome! Thanks for joining! Aww, is this the first trip for your little ones?

 

[BMC423]

DAY 1 PART II

So while we were patiently waiting to board the DME many other families were loading up on a few buses that were there when it was our turn the lady with points to the MEARS bus… I have never been on the Mears bus but from what I read on here I was kind of disappointed. My disappointment didn’t last long when the driver announced that Coronado Springs was the first stop. The experience was the same… same video sure the DME buses are cuter but hey what can you do? The driver was friendly and animated.

Watching the video...

Palm Trees

I can never get this sign... this time someone had their head in the way so this was as good as it got.
We left MCO at 9:50 and reached Coronado at 10:30 if you read my PTR you know that we were very ahead of schedule, which made me very happy! I did the online check in on the Disney site so I didn’t have to wait on the very long check in line. There was only one guy in front of me so I waited about 5 minutes. I checked in Michael got his first visit and birthday buttons …our room wasn’t ready so the CM offered to txt me when the room was ready.

Entrance

Registration

Shop

BDAY Button

We went over to the baggage desk and left our carry-on bags and off we went to DHS.

I checked my phone app to see what the wait time was for TSM: 70-minute wait and no FPs left… so we had to change our plans around a bit. We had a 12:45 ADR a Hollywood and Vine it was 12:00 so I wanted to see if we could be seated early… we couldn’t so we moved on. We went over to the Honey I Shrunk the Kids playground, but Michael wasn’t really feeling it. I think he was just tired and probably feeling miserable since his nose was still running and he was still coughing.

Then there was a thundershower and we waited for it to pass inside a shop… by then it was 12:30 so we headed back to H&V. This was my first time eating there and well I wasn’t really impressed. The food was just ok (this must be why I have no pictures of the food), I didn’t think the choices were that great, John and I had some seafood alfredo, cucumber salad, salmon, and polenta. Michael had some chicken nuggets, salad, and a biscuit. The only reason we made an ADR there was because of the characters and they were pretty good. Michael was excited to see Handy Manny and Oso because he watches them, not so much for the characters from Little Einsteins do they even show this on Disney Junior?

OSO

Manny
After lunch I checked my phone….no text from the hotel so we went to see Lotso and Mickey. When we were waiting on line for Lotso I saw the signs of a meltdown so I told John we should just go and forget about the meet and greet so we did… crisis averted. We let him walk around animation studios that calmed him down.

B&B My Favorite Disney movie

Then we headed to the 2:30 Disney Junior live show. HE LOVED IT!!!! You know that moment when you see your child’s face light up cause they are so happy and you can’t help getting all teary eyed yup this was one of those moments.
After the show we decided to go back to the hotel even though I had never received a text it was after 3 so surely our room was ready (or so I hoped). As soon as we got there I went straight to the front desk and yes our room was ready, I told them I never received a text message but the CM told me they sent it. ANYWAY… I don’t have any pictures of the room I forgot to take a picture since Michael was so cranky, so I’ll do my best to describe it. We were in Room 1244 Casitas 1. Our room was on the second floor and not too far from the elevators. The room itself was not as big as I expected. We had the king size bed with two nightstands, the dresser, a desk and chair, and an armchair. We requested a pack and play and it was already there, it fit perfectly in front of the door to the connecting room. The bathroom had one sink and tons of counter space. We had book a preferred king since we thought it would be best to be closer to the store and restaurants with a small child. Turns out it would have not really made a difference at least not to me. Our suitcases were there already so I left John to change Michael and went to buy some milk. When I got back I found one very excited boy and one very tired dad. All Michael wanted to do was jump and roll around on the bed. I called my mom to let her know we had checked in ok and he told my mom he was in his new house lol! We finally got Michael down for a very short nap, and shortly after John fell asleep too. So I unpacked, showered and got ready for the evening. We were hoping to catch the 7:00 Fantasmic but John and Michael did not wake up until 4:30ish.
We left the room around 5 and we were trying to decide what to do for dinner, we ended up eating at the hotel. We went to Maya Grill for dinner…YUM!

Pineapple and Blueberry Agave Margarita

Queso Fundido (My App)

Empanadas (John's App)

Shrimp Tacos these were soooo good, we both got them and we couldn't even finish them. They give about four tacos and some rice.

Michael had the chicken parm which he said was delicious

There was no way we were making the 7:00 show so we took our time walking over to the theater for the 8:30 show. I was concerned Michael would be scared but he wasn’t he was just cheering on Mickey Mouse.

As usual I loved it! Fantasmic is one of my favorite things at the world and its changed since I last saw it.

This was new...
After the show we headed back to the hotel and went to bed.

Next: Animal Kingdom, DTD, and maybe TSM (finally)

 

[teachermommy78]

Joining in!!! Michael is adorable!

 

[shaka]

Michael is so adorable! You're so brave to take a 2 year old - my little guy is 19 months and I can't wrangle him at the mall, let alone at Disney I can't wait to see how the rest of the trip went!

 

[m2zjj]

I'm here. Great start!

I'm so excited to read all about your trip. We took DS for his first trip when he was 2, he turned 2 the day before we left for disney, so I can relate when it comes to plans changing at a moments notice to avoid a meltdown.

Can't wait to read more.

 

[heathsf]

Then we headed to the 2:30 Disney Junior live show. HE LOVED IT!!!! You know that moment when you see your child’s face light up cause they are so happy and you can’t help getting all teary eyed yup this was one of those moments.

I don't have any kids but imagine it must be the greatest feeling in the world.

Is Maya Grill a sit-down restaurant? Your food looks soooooooooooooooooooo good!!!

 

[BMC423]

Joining in!!! Michael is adorable!

Welcome and thanks

Michael is so adorable! You're so brave to take a 2 year old - my little guy is 19 months and I can't wrangle him at the mall, let alone at Disney I can't wait to see how the rest of the trip went!

Welcome and Thanks, ha ha I really wanted to take him there for his 1st haircut so a trip at 2 seemed like a good idea... it was, we had a great time. As far as me being brave I saw tons of parents with babies and sometimes a toddler and a baby... I kept telling John those people are brave I can't imagine going there with toddler and a baby unless we had some extra help.

I'm here. Great start!

I'm so excited to read all about your trip. We took DS for his first trip when he was 2, he turned 2 the day before we left for disney, so I can relate when it comes to plans changing at a moments notice to avoid a meltdown.

Can't wait to read more.

thanks, yeah it became very clear to me that my plans were going to change a lot

I don't have any kids but imagine it must be the greatest feeling in the world.

Is Maya Grill a sit-down restaurant? Your food looks soooooooooooooooooooo good!!!

yes it is one of the greatest you'll see when you take your kids in the future, and yes Maya is a TS and it was really really good.

 

[BMC423]

DAY 1: A Look Back

So now that I wrote about day 1 and I read my report for that day I have a few things to add. In the future I don't think I will take the first flight out, it really is a hassle to get up that early. I also don't think that arrival day will be a park day anymore, I think that is something you can do when its adults only but with a child it becomes too much.

I forgot to mention:
* For dessert we got both got the coconut flan (but we got it to go so there are no pics) and it too was yummy.
* The drinks were very extremely watered down and I'm not a big drinker so...

 

[lbuzz52]

looking forward to more- our ds will be 2 on our next trip.

 

[BMC423]

Day 2 Part I

Day 2 was a very exciting day for me it was my 1st time at Animal Kingdom! I requested a wake up call for 6:30 since we had a breakfast ADR for 7:15 at Maya Grill. We also wanted to take advantage of the AK morning EMH. Well I was up 6:10… I guess my internal clock thought that was late enough since I wake up at 5:00 for work. So I showered, got ready and got the coffee going. I turned on the tv to check the weather and it was 50°.. so much warm sunny weather. So I got the boys up and waited for them to get ready and down we went for breakfast.

Michael's breakfast this included a fruit cup which is not pictured here.

My Breakfast Eggs benedict... this was good.

This was John's breakfast he had the traditional breakfast.

After breakfast we headed to the bus stop to wait for the AK bus, we missed rope drop but managed to get in by 9:00.

I love this picture!
The plan was to get a FP for KS but when we got there it was a walk on so we just did it here are some pictures, it was kind of a chilly gray morning as you can see in the pics...

We headed to festival of Lion King for the 10 o’clock show. It was so much fun! We (I) loved singing along. Michael who really enjoyed the popcorn he had during fantasmic the night before kept asking me for popcorn, and I kept trying to explain we couldn’t eat during this show. I really like that they leave the floats out after the show is over for photos.

enjoying the show

Mickey Birdhouse

After we waited on line for Mickey, Thumper and Miss Bunny. I was so excited to see Thumper and Miss Bunny since they aren’t very common and I LOVE thumper.

We still had some time till our ADR at Yak and Yeti so we took the train to Rafiki’s Planet Watch… we really didn’t do much there except meet Rafiki (which is one of John’s favorites). Pocahantas was there but she had a huge line so we didn’t wait.

So we took the train back and headed to Yak and Yeti. So after reading so many good things about Y&Y my expectations were very high. Here is what was we got and how we felt about it.

Everest Avalanche and Big Bamboo ~ Again watered down

John's App Lettuce Cups ~ These were good!

My App Pot Stickers ~ Yum!

John's Ribs ~ He liked them... I didn't really care for them.

My Steak and Shrimp ~ This was really good.

Chai Tea - I love Chai tea and I was really excited to have this... it was a complete let down

I have no pics of our dessert so I'll "borrow" some:

My delicious fried wontons...these were soooo good.

John had the chocolate cake (I can't find a picture for it) he thought it was very rich but good.

UP NEXT: Did we make it on TSM....

 

[ash-n-brensmom]

Hey, I'm here!! It was awesome meeting you!! So glad you started a TR!! You are making me hungry with those pics!!!! We ended up missing AK so I am living vicariously through you!!

 

[BMC423]

Hey, I'm here!! It was awesome meeting you!! So glad you started a TR!! You are making me hungry with those pics!!!! We ended up missing AK so I am living vicariously through you!!

I know I've been wanting a churro since we came home and yes i can get them here but its not the same. lol.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I've been swamped with school work since we got back... promise I'll update later this week.

 

[teachermommy78]

Apparently I never subscribed!!! Now I need to go back and read!

 

[heathsf]

Just caught up on your update. Yak & Yeti looked so good! Your pictures made me hungry!

 

[disneygirl1972]

Subbing!! We arrived on the same day, & were @ AK the same day, & ate the same thing @ Yak & Yeti. Spooooooky!!!

 

[goofy1983]

LOVE all your pics! You food looks like it was super yummy!

 

[Colleen27]

Subbing!

The weather on the 7th was rough, wasn't it? We were at Epcot that day and decided to forget about Illuminations because even in long pants and light jackets my girls were complaining about the cold. Of course, back home in the snowy north they'll argue that they don't need coats at those same temps...