AN AP-ALOOZA with a baby! October TR turned year of Disney! NEW 2/7 AUG FINISHED!

[Leger13]

ugh so sorry the KNO lady didn't work out well. I've never even considered hiring them because Alex would be miserable the whole time. He's insanely shy so if we tried to leave him with a stranger in a strange place he'd go nuts! I'm now wondering how Alex will do with pooping while we are at WDW. He usually doesn't go unless he's in somewhere he's comfortable so hopefully he will at least feel comfortable enough to do it in our hotel room. Blah! Sorry dinner wasn't all that great either and expensive to boot. That happened when we went to the old steak house that used to be at the Contemporary on my birthday in 2007. The meal absolutely sucked and would have been so expensive if we hadn't of been on FD. I'm glad the day was mostly good though. I guess it can't all be wonderful and magical, huh?

 

[jenny105]

Are you referring to the idiota at the early breakfast line?! YEP she was so so annoying. Did you get in the early breakfast line that morning or go in with regular crowds?

We got there a little after 8 so we went in with the regular crowds. I just feel like some of the CMs don't know Disney AT ALL. Even our reps give us wrong information like when she told us the Little Mermaid section wouldn't be open until 2013...when it was already open. Then I wonder why I don't have a job there!

 

[bellaally]

Wow so KNO didn't work out, dr.brown completely stumps the older generation, my mom bless her was 59 when we left her with Nicholas and she forgot the piece so, the milk spilled out, I love dr.brown but after awhile we decided it has too many parts to clean. we switch nic to avent and he never got colicky or gasses and they were easier to clean. I am glad you did have fun with your husband and even though you didn't enjoy the dinner, you looked like you were enjoying the alone time in your pics. Poor baby aria, I am trying to get baby Jordan use to leaving him with his grandma but he always throws a fit, he usually calms down and is happy to see us when we come back. Can't wait to hear more keep it coming.

 

[khertz]

Sorry KNO didn't work out. It's already so hard to leave your baby with a stranger, but then when it doesn't go well, it makes it even worse. I struggled so much with whether or not we should do something like that when we wanted to attend the AP event in DL, and reading this, I'm glad we decided to just go different nights. It sounds like you are just like me when it comes to our kids...particular about the way things are done and schedule oriented!! I worry leaving Paxton with anyone, my parents included, that they are just not going to do things the way we do and that drives me nuts! Hopefully the later bedtime didn't affect Aria's mood the next day.

 

[DVC Kelly]

I'm really enjoying reading your trip report. The amount of photos you include is great. Sorry that your night out didn't go as well as planned.

 

[Imagineer5]

Well you definitely do have to take a slower pace with a baby so I think you guys did great seeing what you wanted to and doing the things you wanted to.

Haha two year olds are a totally different ball game. A different challenge but you will figure it out just like we are

Oh yeah I didn't think she was just thought the picture was cute

haha! Aww thank you Yes I think we will be staying away from everyone just before our trip and I'm going to be cleaning everything Alex comes into contact with. He's even getting his flu shot next week.

Yep can't wait to see Aria at all these stages! Loving it! I hope you are successful in keeping the germs away!

ugh so sorry the KNO lady didn't work out well. I've never even considered hiring them because Alex would be miserable the whole time. He's insanely shy so if we tried to leave him with a stranger in a strange place he'd go nuts! I'm now wondering how Alex will do with pooping while we are at WDW. He usually doesn't go unless he's in somewhere he's comfortable so hopefully he will at least feel comfortable enough to do it in our hotel room. Blah! Sorry dinner wasn't all that great either and expensive to boot. That happened when we went to the old steak house that used to be at the Contemporary on my birthday in 2007. The meal absolutely sucked and would have been so expensive if we hadn't of been on FD. I'm glad the day was mostly good though. I guess it can't all be wonderful and magical, huh?

We haven't ever done a babysitter but left Aria at daycare of course and she has never cried, and left her with various family members and again never was upset. It didn't help she was not feeling that great and I wouldn't have attributed any of that sadness to KNO if everything else went great but I wasn't happy with just about every aspect of KNO!

And after this day, FYI, Aria pooped like 3-4 times a day LOL! At home she was going about once a day, sometimes skipping a day. So that was interesting hahahah.

We got there a little after 8 so we went in with the regular crowds. I just feel like some of the CMs don't know Disney AT ALL. Even our reps give us wrong information like when she told us the Little Mermaid section wouldn't be open until 2013...when it was already open. Then I wonder why I don't have a job there!

Nope some CMs really don't. Idk why they would hire them when there's thousands of ppl that know Disney like the back of their hands and could be super helpful. I know some Disney TAs that are like that too, so weird!

Wow so KNO didn't work out, dr.brown completely stumps the older generation, my mom bless her was 59 when we left her with Nicholas and she forgot the piece so, the milk spilled out, I love dr.brown but after awhile we decided it has too many parts to clean. we switch nic to avent and he never got colicky or gasses and they were easier to clean. I am glad you did have fun with your husband and even though you didn't enjoy the dinner, you looked like you were enjoying the alone time in your pics. Poor baby aria, I am trying to get baby Jordan use to leaving him with his grandma but he always throws a fit, he usually calms down and is happy to see us when we come back. Can't wait to hear more keep it coming.

Lol! I just think if it is someone's job to watch children then they should know what is current. And my mom was able to figure them out! And DHs mom! Lol. Daycare uses (and cleans!) them and we rarely use bottles so we haven't switched to anything else. I'm sorry it's been hard getting him used to staying with Grandma! I'm sure it will be comfortable for him soon

Sorry KNO didn't work out. It's already so hard to leave your baby with a stranger, but then when it doesn't go well, it makes it even worse. I struggled so much with whether or not we should do something like that when we wanted to attend the AP event in DL, and reading this, I'm glad we decided to just go different nights. It sounds like you are just like me when it comes to our kids...particular about the way things are done and schedule oriented!! I worry leaving Paxton with anyone, my parents included, that they are just not going to do things the way we do and that drives me nuts! Hopefully the later bedtime didn't affect Aria's mood the next day.

Yeah this was the first time except for the first day at daycare we left her with a stranger. Very weird! I won't be doing it again, at least at Disney. Still don't have a baby sitter at home, but haven't really needed one either.

No foreshadowing here, next day was awesome, and Aria was fine thankfully

I'm really enjoying reading your trip report. The amount of photos you include is great. Sorry that your night out didn't go as well as planned.

Hi!! So happy to see a new face, thanks for posting! Glad you enjoy the amount of photos I never know if I'm including too many or too few. This was really the only disappointing night of the trip - so not too bad!

 

[Dugette]

How freaking adorable is this!

Very!!!!

This may be my favorite photopass pic! LOVE!

That's super cute!

Really enjoying the report so far! Also like the tips for WDW with babies (BCC instead of CP for changes and riding the carousel horse w/baby). Very neat that you got to see SM with the lights on during your TTA ride. Too bad your KNO and CG night was not so great, but glad that everything else is going pretty well and Aria is having such a great time (and likes the characters).

 

[Imagineer5]

Very!!!!

That's super cute!

Really enjoying the report so far! Also like the tips for WDW with babies (BCC instead of CP for changes and riding the carousel horse w/baby). Very neat that you got to see SM with the lights on during your TTA ride. Too bad your KNO and CG night was not so great, but glad that everything else is going pretty well and Aria is having such a great time (and likes the characters).

Thank you!! Yep I learned so much! Our next trip should be a breeze, knowing exactly what I need for the diaper bag, what we need to (AND DON'T NEED TO) pack, etc!! LOL

 

[Imagineer5]

Day 3 – Saturday October 6th

Another bright and early morning! (Well for Aria and me, Andrew wasn’t so bright this morning…). We had a 7:30 AM breakfast ADR at Kona, which meant we needed to be up by 6:30 to shower, feed Aria, and head out the door. Luckily the night before I had remembered to pack the stroller with outfit changes, diapers, waters, etc and laid out outfits for Aria and me (apparently I was refusing to lay out an outfit for my grown man of a husband who really could have used my dressing skills…) so it was a little easier going this morning, but we were still cutting it close when I asked Andrew what time it was and he said “7:25” and we were still in the room. Thankfully though the room clock was 15 minutes fast and it was only 7:10 when we were out the door!

Beautiful view walking from BLT to CR!

We hopped on the monorail and in no time were arriving at the Poly.

So nice the restaurants are on the 2nd floor/monorail level as we arrived just before 7:30 and the restaurant wasn’t open yet!

While waiting for breakfast for all of 2 minutes…

We checked in and were seated right at 7:30, and they offered to let us bring in the stroller which was very nice. Aria was a doll during breakfast, and I finally got to try some tonga toast. I’m pretty sure we were spot on with my predictions – both of us ordered some lilikoi juice, we split a kona coffee French press, and I got the tonga toast and Andrew got the Big Kahuna. We were both extremely happy with our meals – I was able to get a side of potatoes with mine, and Andrew stated everything was fantastic. This was one of our best tasting, easiest meals, and I would definitely come back!
At the table

Aria had her very own water with a straw, and this was her first time using a straw! She was thrilled!

My breakfast…YUM

Andrews Big Kahuna

Breakfast was over by 8:30 or so, and we took the elevator down to the 1st floor and then headed over to the TTC. What I had read was a 10-15 minute walk was more like 3 – the TTC is so close to the Poly. Makes me want to stay there even more – we absolutely loved having such awesome monorail access from the Contemporary, but the Poly would be even better. Shades of Green is supposedly walking distance to the Poly, but I have yet to actually try that resort out. My coworkers swear by it, but it just isn’t very appealing to me.

So on to our destination…EPCOT! First views:

We went through the gates right around 9:15 and our first stop…photos!! Photopass pictures to be exact.

Then we decided to do Spaceship Earth.

We had a blast riding this and watching Aria watch everything as it went by. Her favorite part was the “stars” at the end of the ride – she was just in awe looking around. The funniest part was when they took a photo to show us our “future” I held up Aria’s face to get her picture taken instead of mine…and this was the result!

LOL They totally cut out Andrew and instead used Aria’s and my photos! I felt really bad bc that wasn’t my intention but thought it was pretty funny.

See they did get all of our photos though!

I tried this time and the next time we rode to email myself a postcard and neither time could they find our pictures…

continued in next post

 

[Imagineer5]

Continued from previous post...

From there (after a quick diaper change), we were dwindling on Aria awake time so we wanted to ride Nemo before we had to put Aria down for a nap. Andrew ran and got a FP for Soarin’ while I meandered my way over there. Normally at this point, she would have gone down by 9AM or so, and it was already nearing 10, but she seemed okay.

We took some photos outside Nemo…

And then hopped on the ride. It is pretty cute, but I’m not the hugest fan of it. Kind of boring IMO. Spolier alert: I was afraid VotLM would be very similar, but IMO it was not.

But Aria seemed to enjoy it. Afterwards we had to take the shark pic –

And then there was just 5 minutes or so until Turtle Talk so we decided to wait for that. Such fun having so much to see while waiting! Such a reminder that Aria is a little kid, not just my baby!

In turtle talk we originally sat in the 2nd row but I decided to bring Aria up front and sit with her. That was a great choice as she loved watching that view, and was just as excited to watch the other kids too. There was a little boy who was about 1.5 years old that wasn’t watching the show at all, instead he was just smiling and trying to get Aria’s attention. She didn’t give him the time of day though – she already has a little boyfriend at her daycare LOL…anyway the show was really great as always. I’m always afraid to be picked out of the crowd but luckily this show they pick out kids instead.

After Turtle Talk it was about 10:30 and definitely time for a nap for baby girl. So we laid the stroller seat back, put an A+A blanket over top, and she fell asleep almost instantly. We took a little refuge from the heat in Innoventions and got some new tags for Annie & Oliver, and then I decided to check out the smart home, which was pretty neat but it would have been nice if they allowed strollers inside as there was definitely plenty of space and no stairs, so while I did that Andrew had to just hang out with the stroller.

Not a fan of the baby’s room…

 

[Leger13]

Yep can't wait to see Aria at all these stages! Loving it! I hope you are successful in keeping the germs away!



We haven't ever done a babysitter but left Aria at daycare of course and she has never cried, and left her with various family members and again never was upset. It didn't help she was not feeling that great and I wouldn't have attributed any of that sadness to KNO if everything else went great but I wasn't happy with just about every aspect of KNO!

And after this day, FYI, Aria pooped like 3-4 times a day LOL! At home she was going about once a day, sometimes skipping a day. So that was interesting hahahah.

It's definitely fun

Yeah seems like she was right to be sad about the KNO care taker. Sounds like a huge bust!

haha well that's great!

Glad to hear Kona breakfast went well. That one for us was just meh. I love the Nemo ride but I also love the movie. It is a little boring though and too short IMO. Glad to hear VoTLM isn't like that though. I can't wait to ride it! Love all the pictures after the ride and TTwC. He's my favorite! The pic of Aria in the shark is so cute! We never have gotten a pic there but will try in December for one for Alex. We always ride SE first when we get to EPCOT too. Love that ride so much. That's funny how they used yours and Aria's pics instead of DH. I held Alex up in front of my face so they would use him and DH in Feb. It was really funny! I have never walked through the smart home. What's it like? It looks like a regular old home from the pictures. Guess it's time for them to update it. I can't wait for Alex to run around in the fire house area. Oh and really great pics in front of Nemo! Forgot to say that.

 

[deedee2177]

I'm really enjoying follow along on your TR. It definitely gives me hope that my DS who will be almost 10 months when we go will have a good time.

I'm definitely concerned about the naps. He is not a big nap taker at all and usually only takes about a 30 minute cat nap in the morning and then another in the afternoon, and usually that only happens when he is in my arms, his Daddy or Mamaw. So, since he is not a big napper he goes to bed about 7pm. Right now I'm in the mist of trying to push back his bed time a bit because he is starting to wake up at 4am every morning now....not fun!!

We got a new lightweight stroller for him to use while we are there and so far he loves it!!!! I had to laugh when I saw the picture of your little one on the monorail chewing on the stroller straps...Joey does the exact same thing!! I will have to keep in mind the blanket trick with the stroller. Maybe if we recline the stroller and put the blanket over it will help him to fall asleep.

I said worse case scenario is that either my DH or I will have to find a bench somewhere and let him get his cat nap in on us while the other parent takes my DSD6 on some rides or something. I'm trying not to sweat it too much and just go with the flow.

Can't wait for the next installment

 

[Chelley00]

Joining in. Aria has grown so much!

I'm so sorry KNO didn't work out for you. What a miserable way to end a birthday than to come back and see all the things that went wrong.

 

[xkaittloveex]

Joining in!

I absolutely love your TR so far and Aria is beautiful! Can't wait to read more!

 

[khertz]

I was scrolling through reading this update and trying to remember all the cute pictures of Aria to either quote or comment on, but then I realized I was picking almost all of them!! She is just so dang cute!! Really love the ones of her looking in the tanks with the other kids though. She is such a little doll! And I see she's a thumbsucker. I loved her outfits too. Just so precious!

Your Kona breakfast looks amazing! I really want to try there one day. We passed it while visiting 'Ohana and it smelled SO good in there! I think I would have to get the Tonga Toast too, every picture I've ever seen of it posted here on the DIS has made me salivate!

Loving your updates! Just gotta say again, Aria is SO CUTE! And she looks so happy and content in all of your pictures.

 

[Imagineer5]

I just want to say that you all make me SO happy, even when I'm stuck at work and Aria's in daycare, it's so wonderful to be able to pop onto the DIS and see all your sweet comments! (yep another one of THOSE days that I so wish I could be home with my little munchkin...). Anyway...

It's definitely fun

Yeah seems like she was right to be sad about the KNO care taker. Sounds like a huge bust!

haha well that's great!

Glad to hear Kona breakfast went well. That one for us was just meh. I love the Nemo ride but I also love the movie. It is a little boring though and too short IMO. Glad to hear VoTLM isn't like that though. I can't wait to ride it! Love all the pictures after the ride and TTwC. He's my favorite! The pic of Aria in the shark is so cute! We never have gotten a pic there but will try in December for one for Alex. We always ride SE first when we get to EPCOT too. Love that ride so much. That's funny how they used yours and Aria's pics instead of DH. I held Alex up in front of my face so they would use him and DH in Feb. It was really funny! I have never walked through the smart home. What's it like? It looks like a regular old home from the pictures. Guess it's time for them to update it. I can't wait for Alex to run around in the fire house area. Oh and really great pics in front of Nemo! Forgot to say that.

I'm sorry your breakfast at Kona wasn't great! What did you guys get? I LOVE bananas cooked in things, so tonga toast was right up my alley. MM I want some right NOW! LOL.

I love the movie too, and the ride is certainly OK! Esp for Aria, but for me it's pretty boring LOL. Oh well! LOVE turtle talk, I could do it 4 times a day and never get bored with it.

I tried to hold Aria up but with the lap bar I ended up moving my head to the side at the last minute LOL and there has to be someone back there choosing the photos to use! This actually happens AGAIN later on...spoiler! LOL

The smart home WAS recently updated! HAHAHA. It does look like a normal home. I should have done a better job describing it but honestly it was pretty boring. I watch a lot of HGTV and am always looking at cool new gadgets to get for our house, so I don't think anything was really news to me. They did have a sweet integrated lighting/heating/etc system you can access from anywhere, which I would LOVE to have on our house (use the iphone to shut off lights, adjust temp, etc). But not particularly amazing technology. Lots of recycled items, or "green" items used throughout the house. I guess it's good for kids to see...

I'm really enjoying follow along on your TR. It definitely gives me hope that my DS who will be almost 10 months when we go will have a good time.

I'm definitely concerned about the naps. He is not a big nap taker at all and usually only takes about a 30 minute cat nap in the morning and then another in the afternoon, and usually that only happens when he is in my arms, his Daddy or Mamaw. So, since he is not a big napper he goes to bed about 7pm. Right now I'm in the mist of trying to push back his bed time a bit because he is starting to wake up at 4am every morning now....not fun!!

We got a new lightweight stroller for him to use while we are there and so far he loves it!!!! I had to laugh when I saw the picture of your little one on the monorail chewing on the stroller straps...Joey does the exact same thing!! I will have to keep in mind the blanket trick with the stroller. Maybe if we recline the stroller and put the blanket over it will help him to fall asleep.

I said worse case scenario is that either my DH or I will have to find a bench somewhere and let him get his cat nap in on us while the other parent takes my DSD6 on some rides or something. I'm trying not to sweat it too much and just go with the flow.

Can't wait for the next installment

So funny, Aria is exactly the opposite. She will NOT fall asleep while being held. I wish she would, so we could go see a show (such as candlelight processional in EPCOT in december, we are going to have to keep her up late!!). Has to be laying down. But she was an amazing stroller sleeper so I'm not complaining. Before we left, we made sure to give her her naps wherever we were - in the car, pack n play, stroller, etc, and it seemed to really help allow her to fall asleep wherever. In the plane she slept on my nursing pillow. Having a cover/blanket over helped too because otherwise she'd just stay awake watching everything.

Her current naps are only about 40min- 1 hr each, and she goes to bed by 7:15 at home. I found that at Disney, she was SO easy to keep up later, get in a 3rd nap, or only take 2, she really just went with the flow! If we knew it was going to be a late(R) night (DH apparently has an inability to stay up LATE) we put her to bed in the stroller around 7:15-7:30 and then she might wake up around 9 (fireworks...spoiler LOL) and then she would fall right back asleep. Or if we wanted her to stay up later, we'd get in a later afternoon nap, like around 5:30 or 6PM, then she'd be good through 8:30 or so. Sorry if this was too much info or makes no sense hahaha, feel free to ask any questions! Aria will be 10 months for our december trip and I am NOT worried at all about her.

Also, she has gone through a few phases of waking around 4AM, usually for about 4/5 days straight. We just bring her into bed with us and she falls right back asleep. IDK what you are doing, but I haven't done ANY night nursing/feeding for months. She seems fine without it and I don't want her to think that middle of the night wakings = nighttime snacks LOL.

Joining in. Aria has grown so much!

I'm so sorry KNO didn't work out for you. What a miserable way to end a birthday than to come back and see all the things that went wrong.

I know!! Thanks for coming over, it's been a while! LOL yes she has!

Joining in!

I absolutely love your TR so far and Aria is beautiful! Can't wait to read more!

YAY so happy to see a new face!! Welcome! Thanks for the compliments, sometimes I wonder if I have my mommy goggles on thinking she's so cute...always nice to hear ppl say it though hahaha

I was scrolling through reading this update and trying to remember all the cute pictures of Aria to either quote or comment on, but then I realized I was picking almost all of them!! She is just so dang cute!! Really love the ones of her looking in the tanks with the other kids though. She is such a little doll! And I see she's a thumbsucker. I loved her outfits too. Just so precious!

Your Kona breakfast looks amazing! I really want to try there one day. We passed it while visiting 'Ohana and it smelled SO good in there! I think I would have to get the Tonga Toast too, every picture I've ever seen of it posted here on the DIS has made me salivate!

Loving your updates! Just gotta say again, Aria is SO CUTE! And she looks so happy and content in all of your pictures.

Aw you are too cute, thanks!! I didn't even get that many adorable pics of her this day hahaha. I loved watching her look in the tanks, especially when all the kids came over and she just looked like another little kid, not just my baby? KWIM? It's so weird. I don't get to see her play with other kids often, so it's pretty cool to get to see her interaction with them.

YES she is a thumbsucker, but it's actually gotten a lot less over the last couple of weeks. She'll suck it to go to bed, but not as much during the day now.

I finally gave Kona a try and so happy we did! MMM. I'm definitely going to make an ADR there for our June trip. No time in December or March lol.

She seriously was so happy! Andrew was so worried the whole time about her schedule and keeping her up late/getting her naps in/etc and I just tried to lay back and let us have a good time, and she was just so easy, I can't say it enough! It's going to be interesting once she wants to run around, but it's going to be fun to see the stages. I wonder if this trip is going to end up our easiest? LOL. Guess it depends on whether she's walking in December!

 

[Imagineer5]

Day 3 Continued!

When I got out, Andrew was raring to go ride Mission SPACE. The Soarin FP was ready, so he went and rode MS while I stayed in Innoventions. Aria woke up after a pretty short nap and I nursed her right in Innoventions. It was a quiet spot when I sat down, but a couple minutes in and older man sat in the chair right next to mine (awkward!) and then 2 women with a little boy sat across from me. It was super weird, but Aria was done in a couple minutes and I took her out to go meet up with Andrew and go into the Land pavilion. We had to all be there in order to get a rider swap card (pretty annoying for Soarin since you have to leave the stroller outside). We did that and I got to ride Soarin while Andrew hung out with Aria. He took her over to see the fish while I rode, and we met up outside the land to head over to…Germany! We had a lunch ADR at Biergarten! It was already 12:15 or so and we had 15 minutes to hightail it over there but we checked in right at 12:30.

Our table was on the 2nd tier and pretty centered, I loved the location as it was very close to the buffet but also gave us a nice view of the stage. We were seated with a family of 5 – looked to be grandparents, parents, and 1 girl about age 10. They were friendly but didn’t really carry on conversations with us, so we just focused on Aria and keeping her happy. We were still getting the hang of the ins and outs of restaurants with her, but she did great. At one point she flung a toy onto the level below, but that was about all that happened haha.

I ordered a glass of Riesling while Andrew enjoyed a nice size german beer. I tried the cauliflower soup, along with some chicken and as many vegetarian dishes I could find. My favorite was the cheese spaetzel (sp?). Very delicious I actually went up for some more.

Andrew tried as much meat as he could, and ended up going up again to try some other salads. He was in love with everything – said it was all absolutely delicious.

Aria was helping us out by feeding herself…

And I took a photo of my dessert but it won’t show up. I tried everything though. It was all good, but I don’t think anything really stood out as amazing. I enjoyed my Riesling the most…LOL.

Perfect timinig, the entertainment started right about 1:15 and we enjoyed watching that. Aria enjoyed it too and it kept her busy which was nice.

Watching the show-

I ended up taking her up to dance and Andrew took some photos of that.

All in all, we loved Biergarten. I wasn’t thrilled with the food selections, but there was more for me to eat than I had anticipated and the entertainment was fun. It would have been nice to sit with a family that seemed a little happier to be there and was more interested in chatting, as it felt awkward at times to have a conversation over the table with them sitting right there and not showing any interest in talking. But I’m glad we visited and we will probably go back in June, it would be a fun one to do with Andrew’s family.

After lunch we headed back to FW and stopped for some photopass pics-

Then we went off to ride Figment! This is the one ride Andrew remembers from coming when he was 6, and it is what he is most disappointed about since it is different. I didn’t go to WDW until I was 18 so don’t know the original ride, and don’t share in his disappointment. It’s a cute ride I guess, and I figured Aria would enjoy it.

(they were NOT happy about her standing…*eye roll*…wouldn’t start the ride without her on our lap)

She loved it until we were blasted by air, then she put on a little puppy lip but didn’t cry, and was back to looking around and taking it all in. Love my girl!

We made a quick stop in the store to look around (I am a bad friend – promised her I’d get her a figment and totally forgot until I got back home). Tried on some cute hats that Andrew wanted to get us…

IT was a lot later than I expected (after 2) and we really hadn’t done that much today but we (Andrew) wanted to go back and relax at the resort. We were fighting over watching Illuminations that evening, but I finally relented and said we could do it another night (I knew that at the minimum we’d get to see it after the 3D dessert party, but I was disappointed he was too tired to stay up to watch them). We did have to come back to EPCOT for dinner at R&C though. Anyway on the way out we saw this –

Love those magical Disney touches! And then we were back on the monorail to the TTC and then to the Contemporary.

 

[Imagineer5]

Day 3 continued again LOL

Back at the resort we realized that we still needed to pack, and Aria fell asleep in her stroller on the way back, so we left her in that while we got most of the packing done. I talked to bell services and asked about having someone be up at our room by 7AM to take our luggage for the day, and they said that it would be no problem, just to call with about 20 minutes notice. We got it almost all packed, and then just spent some time relaxing in the room with Aria, letting her crawl around and stretch out her legs. The room is just SO SMALL that there really wasn’t much space to do anything. It was also raining outside, so no relaxing pool time for us. After that room break, we hopped back on the monorail and headed to EPCOT for dinner. We got in a quick 3rd nap for Aria while Andrew used the rider swap to ride Soarin from earlier, we walked past Canada and back into the UK. At this point the skies were darkening but rain was still staying away, and we did a little window shopping. I keep wanting to love the Toy Soldier shop and so wish it was stocked full of british toys, but alas I still have yet to buy anything from there. I was also searching for a beautiful child’s Tea set that I thought I saw a few years back – a china set with Alice characters depicted? I never found something nice like that though, just some crappy plastic sets, so I’m still searching for the perfect little tea set to get for Aria when she’s older.

While we were taking these photos -

The skies opened up and it started to downpour within seconds. We went back into the tea shop and within a minute the streets were emptied and the stores became jam packed. Aria woke up with all the noise going on, and we decided to ditch the stroller outside so Andrew handled that while I held Aria. He put the rain cover over it, but apparently the whole time he had our nice ($$) Canon DSLR over his shoulder…

It was only about 7PM and I had intended to see more of the WS this evening before our 7:30 R&C dinner, but with the rain we spent about 20 minutes looking around the shops (again) and then I ran over and checked us in early for R&C while Andrew did a diaper change.

With the pager we enjoyed a little wet UK – running through the maze!

Pager went off quickly

Within about 5 minutes our buzzer went off and we were led to a nice little table inside. I loved that for the most part we were given tables with a bench on one side and 2 chairs on the other – Andrew generally always sat on the outside next to Aria in a high chair, and I sat on the bench facing them. Anyway…on to dinner… I had brought a bottle with us so that Aria could get her last feeding in at dinner, and asked our waitress to bring a mug of hot water so we could warm it up. She nicely complied, and in the meantime we gave Aria some puffs, a little dinner, and her favorite new pastime of water with a straw. She was happy.

Andrew got a scotch flight, and I ordered a glass of red wine, and both were delicious. I don’t think we got appetizers as neither of us were that hungry. But for dinner Andrew ordered the fish & chips which he really enjoyed, and I got the Vegetable Pie N Mash. It was okay, fine enough since I didn’t have to pick out weird pieces of meat, but not that flavorful. Once Aria’s bottle was warmed, she was not happy when we tried to get her to eat that.

What is wrong with my camera?!

During this meal, the camera issue came into play – I could not get it to work at all. It would turn on, but would NOT take a picture clearly. Andrew admitted it probably got pretty wet in the downpour earlier. So I took some photos with my cell phone and worried about the camera issue throughout the meal.

Service was pretty slow here unfortunately, and I knew I wanted the sticky toffee pudding but ended up ordering it to go. Apparently they do not have to-go platters, because they gave it to me in a kid size cup – kinda weird! They were cute though and brought out a crown for me to wear for my birthday, signed around the inside from the wait staff at R&C, very sweet of them (side note, that crown is on our cork board in the kitchen at home and I smile whenever I see it).

After dinner we headed out of the park, stopped to get Aria to eat the rest of her bottle which she did fine once she was in a quiet spot, and we got some photopass pictures that came out blurry (to do list for December: nighttime EPCOT photopass pics!!) and then headed back to the resort.

It was nice, I will admit, to get back to the resort – from the monorail Wishes had started going in the distance, so we ended up watching most of the show while Aria was sleeping in the stroller on the bridge from the contemporary to BLT. Pretty nice way to end the evening out! Then we got up to the room, transferred Aria to her PnP and we enjoyed a drink out on the verandah outside and I ate my (now cold, boo) sticky toffee pudding. We turned in around 10PM, as we had another early morning the next day.

Day comparison to expected day from PTR:

Ordered exactly what I assumed from Kona! Walked to the TTC – check, did not make EPCOT RD, but no issue there, spent the morning at FW- check, only rode Nemo, Soarin and Spaceship Earth all morning (DH got in Mission Space) since Aria had to nap shortly after getting there! Rode Figment after lunch, but never got to living with the land (note: there was a huge wait for it when we went to get Soarin’ rider switch btw!). After lunch at the Biergarten, I had intended to see some of the WS but we ended up skipping it completely to ride Figment and then head back. I wanted DH to do the beer tasting at the Wave but he didn’t want to, and we still didn’t see any more of the WS aside from the UK before dinner at R&C! wow my plans were ambitious! LOL. I also completely forgot about my plan to do something signed in each country. I wanted to get a 11x14 picture mat and have it signed by characters as well as around the country but never did it. Oh well. LOL I was also supposed to go to the wine grotto at some point, and then watch illuminations.
For dinner I thought I was going to get the slow cooked chicken curry, but it was not chicken breast so I got a vegetarian platter. DH got fish and chips, but I thought he would get the grilled tenderloin and fried fish, but he said that sounded like too much.

All in all? Didn’t do that much today! Meals take so much longer now, and we did waste quite a bit of time this day fighting over what to do. I was so, so tired of Andrew’s presence on this trip, and it was only the 3rd day. Aria was doing really great staying up late, sleeping in the stroller, etc and I was tired of having to waste so much time going back to “relax” – granted I hadn’t really given us much time to pack which we did have to do. IMO staying up until 10PM to watch Illuminations didn’t sound late, but apparently it did to Andrew. It was nice to relax with a glass of wine in the room that evening, but it would have been even nicer to do more at the park.

Oh well…on to another day!

 

[Alysa]

Hello! I love your report! Aria is just beautiful and the photos are all fantastic. I especially love the one of her meeting Tigger!

 

[Dugette]

Baby's asleep, so finally have a chance to comment!

I love the start of your day at the Poly! And Kona...yummy! It reinforces to me why we're paying a premium to stay there on our next trip. Love that place!

Cute pictures from Spaceship Earth! I'll have to keep that (holding the baby up) in mind for our trip.

I really like the pictures from in front of the Nemo ride...super cute.

We have never taken that shark picture on any of our trips. I guess I'd better add that to the list for next time!

Smart home wasn't there last trip, either, so we may have to check it out.

I'm glad to see Biergarten went pretty well. That's on our future ADR list. We went once, but I was getting over being sick and could hardly eat anything. So, I'd like to try it and it seems like a fun place for a little one, with the show and all. Hopefully we'll get better table-mates than you had!

I wasn't sure if we should stay late to see Illuminations, as I've heard bad things about disrupting little ones' sleep schedules, but Dug is all for it. So, I'm thinking we may try it. When we go, it will have the Christmas tag too, which is great. We're thinking about watching from La Hacienda, as we've done that before and loved it. Interested to see how Aria did (assuming you make it to Illuminations another day).

Hope your camera is okay!