She's free before she's three, touring the world with a toddler (COMPLETE 12/4)

[Chabby]

Hi:
I love your TR title! We are thinking the exact same thing. We could go September 2013 or February 2014. But DS will turn 3 in December 2013, so September it is

I will definetly follow your TR to get some ideas for next year!

 

[GrandCalifornian]

Joining in! I will have to say your TR just made my day...from what I remembered the cut off age was 2, so I was bummed we were going to have to pay for our little man to go next year, but since it's actually 3 he will be free!!! YAY!!!

Yay! I love a good deal and taking your kid to Disney while they are still free is a pretty good one

My daughter is busy sewing a dress for her three year old. I can't remember if it is Cinderella or Sleeping Beauty or Snow White.

Did your daughter have any trouble with nightmares or anything like that from the rides? There are a lot of scary and loud ones out there.

Sewing special outfits for WDW is neat. We got lots of comments at the parks about Allie's different dresses.

She didn't have any trouble with nightmares. I think she was so tired that by the time she went to sleep, she was out. We were really pretty selective about rides though, and didn't make her ride anything she didn't want to. We are usually content to walk around and explore, so we aren't trying to fit in all the rides we can.

Hi:
I love your TR title! We are thinking the exact same thing. We could go September 2013 or February 2014. But DS will turn 3 in December 2013, so September it is

I will definetly follow your TR to get some ideas for next year!

We have a bounceback trip currently booked for September 2013, it was a great time of the year to go this time and we are so excited about next year. We're glad to have you following along.

 

[SoNotAPrincess]

Hello! I just found your TR, and I'm subbing in for the ride. I think multi-generational trips are the most fun! Allie is beyond adorable!

 

[GrandCalifornian]

Hello! I just found your TR, and I'm subbing in for the ride. I think multi-generational trips are the most fun! Allie is beyond adorable!

Aww, thanks. On our honeymoon we saw lots of kids with their grandparents and we thought that would be fun someday. The day Allie was born Grandma said she wanted to take her to Disney World and the planning began. We weren't sure how it would work out having people of different ages together, but it was great. We had all of our ADRs together and did lots of stuff together each day, and we did other things with Allie while they rested.

 

[GrandCalifornian]

We started off Monday by having donuts in the room with a Mug Refill. This was to be our earliest day of the trip, since we wanted to try to make it to AK for the morning Extra Magic Hours, which started at 8:00. Melissa was still dragging this morning, but we left the hotel by about 8 and headed down to the busses.

We had a 10-15 minute bus wait, and then we headed to GF for another pick up of people before heading to AK. As we walked into the park, Melissa was feeling even worse and wasn't sure what to do. We sat on a bench and decided to go look for the first aid station to see if she could rest there. Debbie there was really nice and let Melissa rest in a little room for a bit while we went on.

I hated being sick at Disney but the first aid center was really cozy and I got a bed in a corner where I could actually sleep. I think I must have been pretty sick because normally there would be no way I could sleep like that. Debbie was so nice and took my temp then sent me with some Tylenol when I felt well enough to go try and do the park with everyone else.

Our first stop was Kilimanjaro Safaris, where we walked on with only about a 10 minute wait. It is neat how you can keep the stroller with you in the line, then drop it off at the end before getting on the ride. We ended up in the back row of a truck, which was a lot rougher than I remembered it. It bounced us around quite a bit, but Allie enjoyed seeing the different animals, especially the zebras and giraffes. After the ride we walked the Pangani Forrest trail and Allie loved seeing the Gorillas. She was amazed that one had more sticks than the other, and then dropped his sticks and laid down to take a nap. She told that story over and over.

Then Allie, Grandma, and Grandpa headed for the Lion King show while I went to check on Melissa. She was feeling better, and came with me to go meet up with everybody. We had an hour before lunch, and Allie wanted to pet some animals, so we headed for Rafiki's Planet Watch.

We had a lunch ADR at Tusker House so we had to leave Rafiki's and take the train back to Africa.

We had to wait in line to check in at Tusker house and it was probably the longest it took to get seated out of any of our meals. It really wasn't too bad though maybe 20 mins. This was our first character meal of the trip and we weren't sure how Allie would do with the characters. She hadn't been too fond of them at Disneyland lately but with toddlers you never know. Well it turns out she likes the characters wants her picture taken with them but gets painfully shy when they come by and looks tortured in all of her pictures.

So be prepared for lots of tortured toddler pictures. Anyway, the food at Tusker House was great and we all got to try new things. I was feeling better so I got to enjoy some too. They had lots of toddler friendly food too including Allies favorite uncrustables.

I knew Tusker House was probably going to be our most exotic ADR of the trip, and I was a little afraid about what Grandpa would think of it. The food certainly was different, but everything we tried had lots of good flavor. Grandpa found plenty of good stuff to go back for, and didn't have to resort to eating from the kid's section where they had more "normal" food in a cute little shorter buffet section.

I love the Pangani Trail and was bummed I missed it in the morning so after lunch we headed back to do that again. Grandma and Grandpa did some shopping while we did the trail. We got to see the baby gorilla sleeping with her mom and she was so sweet and little. She was 2 1/2 only a little younger than Allie.

After checking out all the animals there we found the grandparents and went over to Asia to do the trail over there. On the walk between Africa and Asia Grandma and Grandpa got a call that their house they were selling had just closed escrow so that was pretty exciting for them.

We did the Maharaja Jungle Trek and Allies favorite thing there was the paintings on the walls and she wanted her picture taken with every one.

She also made some people laugh when she asked if that was a tigers butt she was looking at (it was). By now Grandma and Grandpa needed a break so we headed back to the lodge.

Our first full park day had been a success, since it was almost 4 PM. We hadn't ridden Expedition Everest (which we never made it to on our honeymoon either) but we promised that we would come back and try it later in the week when Melissa's tummy was up for the ride. Since it wasn't in the dark, Grandpa said he'd try it too. Leaving a little while before park close worked well, and we had a nice quick bus ride.

One of our goals for this trip was to check out some of the different resorts so we could make a more informed decision on where we wanted to stay on our next trip, plus we love seeing new places especially Disney ones.
So after a little resting in the room Paul, Allie, and I decided to go check out Pop. We took a boat over to the Magic Kingdom and then took a resort bus to Pop. On the way there Allie with her impeccable timing said she had to go potty (Insert toddler tip here: Always carry a pull-up or a diaper). So I pulled a pull-up on over her clothes just in case so she wouldn't make a complete mess but she didn't end up needing it! Yay we made it . I can't tell you how many times I said that during the trip. Anyway, it was dinner time so we got dinner at the Pop food court.

I got the veggie lasagna and Paul got the meatball sandwich and we we each got tie dyed cheesecake for dessert. I really liked the lasagna, it was one of my favorite meals of the trip.

The tie dyed cheesecake was super yummy too and I could definitely see going over there for dinner on our next trip.

After dinner Allie had some money to spend so we let her pick out a toy at the Pop gift shop. She got a baby Lady with a blanket. She LOVES those babies with the blankets I think with this one she has 4. Then we went outside to check it out more and really liked it. Allie got a kick out of the giant yo-yos and wanted her picture taken with every one we saw. Someone was nice enough to offer to take a family picture with a yoyo.

We wanted to visit the new Art of Animation Resort so we walked over the bridge. The pool area there is really cute and so is the playground Allie really wanted to stop and play but I don't know how we convinced her to keep going. After some exploring there we called Grandma and Grandpa up so we could meet them at the Magic Kingdom for the electrical parade.

As an interesting point of comparison, they left their room at WL the same time we left the AoA lobby. They took a boat to MK, and we took a Bus. We probably got really lucky, but a bus arrived almost immediately and we arrived almost 10 minutes before them. With them having taken a little afternoon nap, we were all ready to go. We had some time to killl before the parade, so we walked around to the carousel and Allie rode it again.

Then we found a spot in Frontierland to watch the parade. The park wasn't super crowded, but the people that were there were lining the parade route. We did find a spot where my Mom could sit on a rock near where Allie could sit right up front by the ropes, so everyone was happy. I think Allie was really impressed by the lights and music, and of course Mickey and Minnie.

After the parade we made our way out of the park and headed for a boat. The timing worked out so that we made it to the boat before Wishes started, and we were able to see the fireworks as we rode the boat back to WL. We stopped at Roaring Fork for a mug refill, and Allie fell asleep for the night. We played with looking at pictures and writing in our trip Journal, then went to sleep.

 

[GrandCalifornian]

We got to sleep a little late this morning because our first activity was a 9:30 AM ADR for breakfast at Chef Mickey's. Allie had gotten plenty of sleep, so she was all ready to go. We did have some debate over which dress she wanted to wear, but we were able to convince her to wear the dress with characters on it that Melissa had made for her to show Mickey and his friends at breakfast. We went downstairs and all headed for the boat, with Allie happily leading the way:

See she does smile!
We had a nice short boat ride over to the Contemporary on a small boat, and walked over to the lobby. On the way we got to see them fueling the Sea Raycer boats from a fuel barge to get ready for the day.
The CM was funny when Paul said "so that's how they fuel them" he said "no you aren't supposed to see this it's Disney, everything is magic!"
Then we went upstairs and signed in for Chef Mickey's. The wait was very short, just enough time to take a bad picture of all of us in front of a plate. We got our table and immediately the characters started coming by. Allie was excited by this concept, right up to the point where a character would show up at the table, then she would get shy. This resulted in some more tortured toddler pictures:

After the characters would leave, she would excitedly announce that she met them. Whatever, as long as she was having fun. Pluto took a picture with Grandma and Grandpa, who were better at posing for a character picture:

The only character Allie didn't get to see was Daisy so we promised that we'd find her (although I was kinda hoping she'd forget about it because one can only hold a tortured toddler for so many pictures)
The food was good and had plenty of variety, but the character interaction was what made this meal worth it. I was very glad that we chose this ADR.
After breakfast, we headed to Epcot via the monorail. It was our favorite park last trip, and we were excited to finally make it there. We got there just after 11 AM, and there was very little crowd. We stopped to get a PhotoPass picture of everyone.

Then lo and behold there was Daisy waiting just for us! Well, we had to wait in a bit of a line but we got to see Daisy and took yet another tortured toddler photo.
We also got to meet Stitch (Melissa's favorite) before heading over to the Seas with Nemo. During our first trip The Living Seas was our favorite attraction, so it was fun to see it again and share it with Grandma and Grandpa 27 years later.
Allie really liked the manatees and the dolphin and we also did Turtle Talk with Crush. I'm always secretly afraid they'll call on her because I know she won't say anything but she loves the show anyway.
Then we headed to The Land and rode that boat ride, which everyone enjoyed. For lunch, we had planned on Seasons right there in The Land and it worked out great. We were ready for more food after breakfast, and we ended up getting Chinese food, although there were lots of good options. We also got to sample two desserts, and got Strawberry cake and an awesome pineapple cupcake. Here is a picture of the star of the meal:

After lunch, Grandpa and I rode Soarin while Melissa, Allie and Grandma waited outside. It was a very short wait, about 15 minutes. We enjoyed the ride and it felt just like home, since it is identical to the CA Adventure version.
We played with the jumping fountains outside of Captain EO and then saw Belle and Snow White walk by. Allie HAD to go "talk" to Belle so we waited in line for some more great tortured toddler photos. I thought she might do better with the princesses because there is a bit more interaction and well they are more like real people but apparently not. She clung to me like glue but was so excited afterwards that she got to see them. Really she talked about Belle's sparkly dress for the rest of the day.

After that Grandma was done walking for the day, so she headed to the busses while Grandpa went with us to Imagination. Allie got a small figment and danced with it outside.

Then we walked through world showcase. It took a little bit, but we were able to get Allie to sit for a while in the stroller and she fell asleep. This gave us the chance to shop and explore while she got some good rest. At Japan, we watched the artist make candy animals and then Melissa decided to do pick a pearl because it was on her list, and with Alllie asleep we had the time to do it.

Melissa picked out a heart shaped ring and the 7mm pearl she had picked was mounted in about 20 minutes. Then we continued on through the countries. By the time we got to "The American Experience" Grandpa was ready to head out, and he hopped on a boat to head for the front gate. Melissa and I continued exploring at our pace, and I got an awesome soft pretzel in Germany (seriously, like the best ever) where they also had large fountain Cokes, which we enjoyed. Melissa wanted to try the School Bread in Norway, so we got one of those and it was good too. Allie woke up just in time to enjoy the school bread, and by enjoy she ate a good quarter of it.
We continued around the loop and stopped in Mexico to check out the boat ride because I had heard kids love it. Allie really liked it, it's alot like Small World but has cartoons too so I think it's a win win for the toddler set. Do be warned though there are lots of colorful breakable things at toddler level in the Mexico pavilion and I think we had a harder time here than anywhere else keeping her from grabbing at things.
Next we went over to look at the Test Track construction, since that was my favorite ride. We knew it would be closed, but wondered about the cool GM cars and gift shop. The shop was closed, but they had cars out for you to sit in, including a Convertible New Camaro. This is one of the cars high on my wish list, so it was great to get to sit in it. Allie enjoyed it too.

I would like one of these as a souvenir, but like Melissa's red chair, it wouldn't fit in my suitcase either.
Since it was already after 8, we decided to stay for Illuminations. We found a spot between the gift stores at the end of World Showcase opposite America, so we'd have a direct path toward the sphere and the busses when it was over. We had a great view, and enjoyed the show.
It is on the loud side though and Allie covered her ears for most of the show. She didn't really complain but for a kid that's super sensitive to that kind of stuff it might be intense for them so close to the lagoon.

As the show ended we led the rush toward the gates. We did make a quick potty pit stop to be ready for the bus, and still made it to the WL bus stop before the first bus arrived. It showed up in a couple of minutes, and we got right on. It ended up filling to standing room only, but everyone at the stop made it on. We made it back to WL by 9:45, and then went to Roaring Fork for a late dinner where we shared chicken nuggets and had the whole dining room to ourselves.

 

[Woodmnky]

We will be going to WDW just before DS's 2nd birthday in December. DS and I are enjoying reading your report. I love the dresses you made for DD. I'm a bit jealous that the cutest thing I get to make is a t-shirt.

 

[GrandCalifornian]

We will be going to WDW just before DS's 2nd birthday in December. DS and I are enjoying reading your report. I love the dresses you made for DD. I'm a bit jealous that the cutest thing I get to make is a t-shirt.

Grandma Nancy had to wait 30 years to get her girl to play dress up with. Now I am learning how to dress Barbies for the first time. There's plusses and minuses of everything. ~Paul

We're glad you're following along, and enjoying the trip. Your visit should be great, enjoy the Christmas decorations!

 

[GrandCalifornian]

Ok, so this is a bit of a detour, but it is timely based upon where we are in the trip report. Yesterday we went to Disneyland and finally got Allie to take some happy pictures with characters! She talked to them, and smiled for pictures with Mulan, Snow White, and Merida. We'll get the others on our PhotoPass CD, which we waited to order so we could get a full 30 days of pictures on there, but here's one from a phone with Merida.

So see we don't really torture her!

 

[WDWKOOK]

Melissa, you are one talented seamstress - the dress is so cute and fits her perfectly. And, Grandpa's t-shirt is a true testament to his dedication to that cute girl in the dress.

Your Merida photos reminded me that on the day Hurricane Isaac passed by WDW, we went to the MK and there was virtually no line for Merida. DD13 wanted to skip it and go on a ride, but DH just had to see Merida and he's all smiles in the Photopass photos.

 

[Chabby]

Beutiful pictures, I'm glad to see she's over her shyness. DD6 has her days and I'm still hoping with DS LOL.

I agree about the beautiful dresses, I can barely sew a button back in its place

 

[GrandCalifornian]

Melissa, you are one talented seamstress - the dress is so cute and fits her perfectly. And, Grandpa's t-shirt is a true testament to his dedication to that cute girl in the dress.

Your Merida photos reminded me that on the day Hurricane Isaac passed by WDW, we went to the MK and there was virtually no line for Merida. DD13 wanted to skip it and go on a ride, but DH just had to see Merida and he's all smiles in the Photopass photos.

Aww thanks! That is probably my favorite I made for the trip . It is funny that she was wearing it in both sets of pictures, because I think she has only worn it twice. She has other favorites and likes the Minnie dress much more.

Allie loved Merida and asked her where her horse was. Grandpas shirt was a retirement gift and he got a ton of comments on it the day he wore it at WDW. ~Melissa

 

[GrandCalifornian]

Beutiful pictures, I'm glad to see she's over her shyness. DD6 has her days and I'm still hoping with DS LOL.

I agree about the beautiful dresses, I can barely sew a button back in its place

I don't think she's completely over being shy we just got her on a really good day. I am glad you are enjoying the pictures and the dresses there are more to come!

 

[littlebit0863]

I'm really enjoying the thread so far. I'm traveling with little ones soon and it's giving me some ideas. Love the magic towel idea, my 3 year old adores his Mickey one.

 

[GrandCalifornian]

I'm really enjoying the thread so far. I'm traveling with little ones soon and it's giving me some ideas. Love the magic towel idea, my 3 year old adores his Mickey one.

Great, we're glad you are enjoying it, we have fun going through the pictures and reliving the trip.

We really weren't sure how having her there would change going to WDW, which we loved so much as a couple. She really fit right in though, and we all ended up having a great time. Little things like the towel worked out so well that is fun to share them.

 

[Bisoubird]

I'm following now too! We will be taking our almost 3 year old to Disney for a week in November and we are staying at WL so your TR will come in handy! Is there a list of rides that are suitable for their age or do I have to look at each ride individually? Is our first trip!

 

[pascalstongue]

I'm subscribing too. We are also travelling with grandparents and the kids will be two and four so I'm following your TR with great interest.

Your DD looks so cute in her home-made outfits.

 

[GrandCalifornian]

I'm following now too! We will be taking our almost 3 year old to Disney for a week in November and we are staying at WL so your TR will come in handy! Is there a list of rides that are suitable for their age or do I have to look at each ride individually? Is our first trip!

Great, you should have a wonderful time. Getting to stay on site and spend multiple days in the parks makes it so much more fun and relaxing, you should really enjoy it. We LOVE WL too, so you should be happy with that choice. As far as rides go, we are probably less focused on them than most people. We have gotten used to going to Disney to walk around, people watch, and enjoy the whole experience, and we just aren't as ride focused as we used to be when we would try to fit everything into a single day at Disneyland. We do recommend learning something about the rides ahead of time though, and we liked the Birnbaum's Walt Disney World for Kids book. That gave a good kids perspective on the different rides, even though the kids it is written for / by were older than ours. It gives you enough of a feel for what the rides are like so you can figure out what your DD will be most interested in. Height restrictions keep the little ones from riding the fast scary rides, but there are other rides that they can ride but still might be scared by. It took Allie quite a while to work up to riding Pirates of the Carribean, but she ended up enjoying it and saying that it wasn't too scary because Hook wasn't in it... We'll point out the rides we did in each park and be sure to mention Allie's favorites.

I'm subscribing too. We are also travelling with grandparents and the kids will be two and four so I'm following your TR with great interest.

Your DD looks so cute in her home-made outfits.

Thank you for the compliment on the dresses. They were a fun part of getting ready for the trip, and I think Allie enjoyed wearing them.

Having Grandparents along worked out pretty neat. We had all sorts of fears going into it about trying to keep everyone happy, but by having time together and doing some things seperate (not to mention time to nap for whoever needed it) it all worked out great. We're glad to have you following along and feel free to ask about whatever details we miss.

 

[GrandCalifornian]

On Wednesday our only scheduled ADR was dinner at WCC, right in the WL lobby so we had our schedule pretty open. We figured it would be a good point in the week for a break, and we still hadn't been to Downtown Disney so that was the plan to start the day. After sleeping late and eating donuts and a cinnamon scone we got the night before with dinner in the room, we went downstairs and waited for a Downtown Disney bus. This was our longest bus wait of the trip, at almost half an hour. It wasn't too crowded though, and we got to Downtown Disney about 11 AM. As soon as we got off the Bus Allie saw a jumping water play area and wanted to go check it out. Melissa had spare clothes if she needed them, but Allie is pretty cautious and likes figuring stuff out, so she watched the fountain and figured out how it worked, and believe it or not stayed dry.

I carried sandals that she could wear in the water along with a bathing suit in the backpack for the trip just in case along with the usual change of clothes everyone carries when they have a toddler.

Then we headed into a store. Allie picked out a cupcake recipe board book, which she really enjoyed looking at. We got some more post cards to send home, and then went into the Christmas store, one of our "must visit" places since we had gotten a custom ornament there during our honeymoon. We saw one of the custom samples that we liked, and decided to have them add Allie's name to it. We also got a big Mickey ball ornament and had the year and "Allison's first visit" painted on it. The CM did a great job making sure we knew which artist would be doing the painting and that we liked her work. We had met her earlier in the store, and knew to ask for her based on the sample we picked. We ordered the ornaments, and decided to have them shipped to the resort when they were done so we could see how they turned out without having to pick them up ourselves.

We also stopped to do a penny press. This turned out to be one of our better ideas for the trip. Since we figured Allie wouldn’t be that into character autographs, we brought quarters and a new roll of pennies to do the penny press machines wherever we saw them. We got MnMs minis tubes to carry the coins in, so whenever we found a machine we could easily get to some coins and make a souvenir. She loved getting to pick her favorite of the three designs at any machine we found, and we got her a book to keep them in. She likes picking where to put each one, and is very particular about that. It made a nice thing for her to do that left her with an almost full book by the end of the trip.

By now it had started to rain and was lunch time, and based upon the trip reports we had read before we came, we wanted to try Wolfgang Puck Express, and in particular the meatloaf sandwich. WPE is on the dining plan, and is a quick service meal. It was a great dining plan bargain, and the food was amazing. We really enjoyed the meatloaf sandwich, it just had so many good flavors mixed together and was served with tasty skinny fries. This was Grandpa's favorite food item of the trip, and was right up there on my list too.

I got the Cavatapi Alfredo so I could share easier with Allie. While it was super yummy I didn't think it was anything super special. Allie really enjoyed sharing the french fries with daddy. I got the Creme Brule for dessert and really enjoyed that.

By this point Grandpa had his fill of shopping, and with us just having been to two stores we were just getting started. He didn't want to rush us, so he said he'd head back to the room, but would make a detour to the mini market for some less than Disney priced adult beverages. He found his way to the mini market and went back to the room while Grandma Allie and I kept shopping. We went to the toy store and put together a box of Mr. Potato Head parts, since that was on out to do list as well. Allie also colored with Grandma while Mommy checked out.

Paul also got a Lightning McQueen Lego car and we got Allie a Minnie Mouse dress up doll set that we miraculously were able to sneak home and wrap up for her birthday the next week.

Allie generally does really well shopping, but she has her moments and one of them was leaving the sports store. She wasn't excited by the stickers that many CMs would offer her, so she would usually turn them down. Well, one very nice CM went and looked for a better sticker that she might like more. Usually she would have appreciated getting a different sticker, but today she was certain she didn't want one. I offered to hold it for her, but she didn't want me to have it either. Seeing Allie's tantrum building, the CM offered her one of her pin trading pins from her lanyard. Allie hasn't done any pin trading before (and neither have we) but we were so impressed by this nice CM offering to give Allie any pin. We agreed on a pink one before Allie totally melted, still mad about the sticker. After some time with Mommy, she calmed down and was ready to go to the soap store. She loved Basin, and we got her an assortment of soap pieces so she can smell the different ones. Then, finally we were on to the big World of Disney store. We got some more stuff, including a shirt and sweatshirt for Melissa, and just loved looking around. By now Grandma was ready to head back, so she went to the busses and the three of us continued on. Allie was asleep in the stroller, and a CM came by and offered to sprinkle her with pixie dust for when she woke up. She liberally applied glitter to her legs, feet, and the stroller, but it was a real hit when Allie woke up. She said it was from Tinkerbelle, and that she saw her.

With Allie still asleep, we could do whatever we wanted so we decided to do some more resort hopping and we walked to SSR. It was a nice pretty walk once we figured out that we just had to cross the bridge behind Rain Forest Cafe. From there the walking paths were marked and we strolled along the water and by a pool and playground. We found a map and finally the central hall with the gift shop and restaurants. It looked like a beautiful resort, but the walk to DTD from most of it was pretty long. Even the walk to the boat dock would be a long way from most of it, so riding busses to get around in the resort would be pretty common.

From there, we hopped on a MK bus which came within a few minutes. Then we looped through SSR to the other bus stops, and got to MK within about 25 minutes. There wasn't a WL bus waiting, so we walked to the boat dock and took a boat back to WL, and arrived in time to go up to the room for about 5 minutes before dinner.
Then we headed downstairs to Whispering Canyon Cafe, which had been pretty calm all week. We weren't sure how Allie would do with the loud activities, but we remembered the food was good so we gave it a try. We were seated almost immediately, in a relatively quiet corner.

Within a few minutes everybody got up to do the hokey pokey she was ok until our table stood up too, then she was reduced to tears. I don't know if it was the noise or sheer embarrassment but I had to take her out of the restaurant until she calmed down. The rest of dinner was fairly uneventful and Allie really enjoyed sharing my Caramel shake.

I enjoyed the meal at WCC, but the ribs weren’t as good as the ones we had at TE. The pulled pork was really good, but I understand that with recent menu changes it has been removed from the platter. I would still come back for the activities if Allie wanted to get into them more, but otherwise I would probably skip WCC next time, at least for dinner.
I would go back for dessert. I got the apple pie and Paul got the chocolate cake. The chocolate cake was yummy but the apple pie was divine! I agree about skipping it next time at least while Allie is so freaked out by the hokey pokey and other shenanigans.

After dinner, Grandpa took our desserts up to the room since none of us were ready for them yet, and then we walked over to see the Villas. At WL, the Villas are in a building right next door connected by the covered walkway that leads to the bus stop. They have a nice big lobby with multiple rooms, one of which has train memorabilia from Walt Disney. We would definitely enjoy staying here sometime. We walked down to the pool and watched an afternoon rain shower for a bit before heading back up to the rooms.

Tonight Grandma offered to stay and play with Allie if we wanted to go out to a park, so they sat and watched movies on Grandma’s laptop while Grandpa, Melissa, and I headed to Hollywood Studios. This was the only park we hadn’t been to yet, so it seemed like a good choice. Without Allie, it would also be a good chance for us to ride faster rides, so we headed straight to Rockin’ Roller Coaster, which we missed on our honeymoon trip as well. Grandpa wasn’t sure he’d follow through with it, but he stuck it out and ended up really enjoying the ride. It was a very nice smooth roller coaster, with magnetic launch (the engineer in me just loves that), and very smooth loops and rolls. Grandpa thought it was a great ride, and had his faith in his riding ability restored after not enjoying Space Mountain.
Rockin Roller coaster is now my second favorite roller coaster, right behind California Screamin at California Adventure.

We got off the roller coaster just in time for Fantasmic, so we decided to check it out. We really enjoy Fantasmic at Disneyland, so it was cool to see how they did it at HS, with its own separate arena area. We enjoyed it, but were glad that we didn’t have Allie with us since there were some times it got pretty intense, and we noticed lots of parents walking out with screaming children in the middle.

The show had a nice happy ending though, and you could get a great view of the characters.

After Fantasmic the park was closed, so we headed for the bus. We didn’t have much of a wait at all, and got on a bus and even had seats. Within half an hour we were back at the hotel, and met back up with Allie and Grandma who had been having fun playing and watching videos. This was the only time all trip that we went to a park without Allie, but she had a great time with Grandma and I don’t think there was anything she missed that she would have enjoyed.

Since Allie was still up we decided it was bath time. I finally figured out to use one of the disposable coffee cups I had brought to rinse her hair. After bath I filled out nine more postcards, wrote some more in the trip journal (I am so glad we kept a journal this trip. It takes a bit of time to keep up with but having all the little vacation details written down are priceless, especially being able to save it for Allie someday who I'm sure won't remember the trip. We are definitely doing another one next year.), and then crashed.

 

[nmills]

Do they have the pressed penny books to purchase there? We are headed to BBB at the DTD location with my daughter before we head to MK and didn't know if you knew if they had them there...? I thought it would be something for my son to do while she had her special birthday surprise. I am loving following your TR and all your photos, your little one is so cute. I think we will have some tortured toddler photos in November, but I am looking forward to them!