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

[Leger13]

Ok I'm all caught up!!! What a great trip!!! Love all the pictures from the breakfast at Chef Mickey's! The dress is adorable! Oh and Biergarten looks amazing but DH would never eat there LOL I know there's more I wanted to comment on but can't remember since I fell behind. Now off to check out Kristy's TR!

 

[CandleontheWater]

Your review of Sanaa makes me wish I was there, RIGHT NOW! We got the chance to try it the first week it was open and it became an immediate favorite of me and DH! I agree that it is next to impossible to find even remotely spicy food at the world (which is my main gripe about Restaurant Marrakesh), but you can get spice at Sanaa! I'm so glad to hear that the food was still noteworthy, and it makes me even more excited for DH's and I's date night in April.

Ok, so I have some cypress point questions for you, did you use a government travel website to book it, or did you just book through the resort directly? You got a steal of a deal, and I'm working on getting DH to agree to a next Thanksgiving trip to WDW, and if we could get three bedrooms for the right price, it would be a lot easier to convince him. I was thinking about Shades, but having the space and the separation for the kiddos would be a much easier sell. Thanks in advance!

 

[jenny105]

I wanted to try Sanaa since I don't know when we'd stay at AKL again but I wasn't sure if Kris would like it. Seemed a little adventurous. Maybe next time. I know I could convince my sister to go there She'd go just to see the resort.

Your villa looks nice! Sorry about the issues at check-in. I hate when check-in takes a long time. Just give me my room key and let me go! I've never stayed off property so it'll be interesting to read about your experience.

Looking forward to reading more.

 

[khertz]

I'm glad she was so good during your lunch! That picture of her looking through the fence posts it just adorable. Doesn't look like my kind of food, but I'm glad you both enjoyed your meal.

That's a lot of space for not a lot of $$! How great that the PnP came through, I am always so worried about that when we are traveling places. When we were looking for a hotel for our last night of our October trip, I started calling hotels near the airport to find out of they had PnPs available, and one place told me, "Yes, we have one." One?! I don't like those odds. NEXT! So far we have never had a place tell us there were none available, but that thought always goes through my head and makes me worry!

Great updates!!

 

[Joyciemc]

I love Sanaa!!

Aria crawling with the toy in her mouth is adorable... I mean, how else is she gonna carry her stuff? Haha!

 

[Dugette]

Mmmmmmm, we love Sanaa!! So yummy and such great views of the animals too. Aria's outfit is adorable, as usual!

Too bad they didn't heat the pool at Cypress Point. Looks like you had fun anyway, though! And 12 hours of baby sleep, that sounds nice!

Oh, and you asked if we're getting character meets planned...I was actually just thinking about this the other day, as I saw Disney princess dresses on clearance (Halloween costumes). I'm thinking I might check out those clearance racks next year to see if there's anything that might be useful for the trip. Dress like a princess to meet a princess or something. That's about as far as I've gotten, though.

 

[Imagineer5]

Ok I'm all caught up!!! What a great trip!!! Love all the pictures from the breakfast at Chef Mickey's! The dress is adorable! Oh and Biergarten looks amazing but DH would never eat there LOL I know there's more I wanted to comment on but can't remember since I fell behind. Now off to check out Kristy's TR!

Aw thanks!! LOL I have said I would never eat at Biergarten, but they did have quite a bit for me to eat too, and the entertainment was worth it. We plan to return with DH's family.

Your review of Sanaa makes me wish I was there, RIGHT NOW! We got the chance to try it the first week it was open and it became an immediate favorite of me and DH! I agree that it is next to impossible to find even remotely spicy food at the world (which is my main gripe about Restaurant Marrakesh), but you can get spice at Sanaa! I'm so glad to hear that the food was still noteworthy, and it makes me even more excited for DH's and I's date night in April.

Ok, so I have some cypress point questions for you, did you use a government travel website to book it, or did you just book through the resort directly? You got a steal of a deal, and I'm working on getting DH to agree to a next Thanksgiving trip to WDW, and if we could get three bedrooms for the right price, it would be a lot easier to convince him. I was thinking about Shades, but having the space and the separation for the kiddos would be a much easier sell. Thanks in advance!

Me too, I could eat Sanaa multiple times per trip. I guess I'm going to have to fit it into the June trip somewhere, since I don't have it planned for December or March.

Restaurant Marrakesh SHOULD have spicy options. Grrr. Haven't been back there in years.

I went through getravelop.com but there's also afvclub.com which is for military members, it's stupid they separate them because they are literally the same website with the same resorts. IDK. Currently they are running specials for $299 for the week! For November, the resorts will come out December 1st I think, so if you want to book I'd do it as soon as you can - the 3BR's seem to go pretty fast. I was looking at next Sep/Oct just for fun yesterday and there were a lot of really nice resorts available but only 1 BR ones. That said, even a 1 BR with a full kitchen and laundry would be super awesome LOL. It was hard not to book but I have so few vacation days IDK how to squeeze out another trip.

Let me know if you have any other questions!

I wanted to try Sanaa since I don't know when we'd stay at AKL again but I wasn't sure if Kris would like it. Seemed a little adventurous. Maybe next time. I know I could convince my sister to go there She'd go just to see the resort.

Your villa looks nice! Sorry about the issues at check-in. I hate when check-in takes a long time. Just give me my room key and let me go! I've never stayed off property so it'll be interesting to read about your experience.

Looking forward to reading more.

It's adventurous for some people, but so so good!

Villa was okay - inside the villa was really nice, the bathrooms were totally updated, and kitchen was very clean and updated. The resort itself was okay - nice from afar but just not Disney-nice. I don't know if I would rather go LESS and stay onsite or go more often but have to stay offsite. It's a toss up. To me, the resort is part of the vacation. Some people just get a room to sleep in, but I do love having the Disney touch surrounding me.

I'm glad she was so good during your lunch! That picture of her looking through the fence posts it just adorable. Doesn't look like my kind of food, but I'm glad you both enjoyed your meal.

That's a lot of space for not a lot of $$! How great that the PnP came through, I am always so worried about that when we are traveling places. When we were looking for a hotel for our last night of our October trip, I started calling hotels near the airport to find out of they had PnPs available, and one place told me, "Yes, we have one." One?! I don't like those odds. NEXT! So far we have never had a place tell us there were none available, but that thought always goes through my head and makes me worry!

Great updates!!

I loved that photo too. I was trying to get the zebra in the background since she was in a zebra outfit. I'm sure there were options for non-spicy lovers at Sanaa, or a little less out there tastes, but it is really good.

Yeah- it was actually a semi full size crib, much bigger than a pack n play. It was so nice, and unexpected. LOL on ONE crib. Oh boy! Worst case was that we'd have to go buy one from walmart or something, maybe $50? So not awful I guess. But it was nice letting her have a bigger bed too.

I love Sanaa!!

Aria crawling with the toy in her mouth is adorable... I mean, how else is she gonna carry her stuff? Haha!

LOL I know! She does it all the time, socks are her favorite to carry around actually. hahaha

Mmmmmmm, we love Sanaa!! So yummy and such great views of the animals too. Aria's outfit is adorable, as usual!

Too bad they didn't heat the pool at Cypress Point. Looks like you had fun anyway, though! And 12 hours of baby sleep, that sounds nice!

Oh, and you asked if we're getting character meets planned...I was actually just thinking about this the other day, as I saw Disney princess dresses on clearance (Halloween costumes). I'm thinking I might check out those clearance racks next year to see if there's anything that might be useful for the trip. Dress like a princess to meet a princess or something. That's about as far as I've gotten, though.

Heheh thank you! Yes she sleeps 12 hours normally but on vacation/when she's going through some developmental something or other she might sleep 9 and then come into bed with us for another 2.5 or so. How's Isabella sleeping? Aria started sleeping about 8-10 hours straight overnight around 8 or 9 weeks old, and just kept sleeping longer and longer. Of course, I took advantage and usually went to bed super early to get what sleep I could in after putting her to bed.

YEP seriously, if she is going to meet a princess I'd definitely recommend her wearing that particular princess's dress. I just got Belle, Tinkerbelle, Ariel, Cinderella, Minnie, and a larger Rapunzel dress, all in 12-18 months for our upcoming trips. I wish I could find a baby Tiana dress but no luck so far, they start at size 3 or 4 or something annoying. I also already have an Aurora dress. Really makes for a fun character meet though IMO.

 

[Imagineer5]

Day 5 –

We had a leisurely morning planned – I had sort of hoped that meant, wake up and head to MK haha but I didn’t push it at all, and it was sort of nice to sleep in a bit. Aria slept well overnight (until 7:35AM!!) and then we enjoyed a nice breakfast and Aria got some good crawling time in.

It was a bit overcast outside so we waited until 10 or so to head to the pool, and this time visited the pool at the Cypress Point Grand Villas. We ended up just going in the kiddie pool, but Aria was having a total blast in there – the water was also much warmer too. I never checked the regular pool to see if it was heated but I bet so! Looks like Grand Villas would be the way to go!
There was a ginormous bug of some sort in the kiddie pool but we didn’t let it spoil the fun. I originally thought the pool would be shallow enough that Aria could sit down in it, but it was just a little too deep. She didn’t mind though of course!

Daddy had so nicely rubbed his scruffy face on Aria’s cheek…luckily it never lasts long…

A favorite pastime is smacking things right now, and I used that to take a quick photo of our hands hehehe

After a quick dip we headed back to the room for a quick shower and then we put her down for a nap – we wanted her to get a nice long nap in the AC vs the short ones she gets in the car ride or the hot ones in the stroller, at least for this first nap! It worked and she slept for 1.5 hours, I fed her, and then we headed out!

Our destination…Magic Kingdom! We had quite the fun afternoon/evening planned – Magic Kingdom afternoon with her very first haircut, 1900 Park Fare dinner, and then MNSSHP! Yay!

When we got into the magic kingdom just after Noon, I remembered why I like to get there at park opening – WOW the crowds were ridiculous. There really is no LOW time of year anymore. This was a Monday for pete’s sake! We decided to go on IaSW, with a posted 10 minute wait, and it took that long (I don’t remember ever actually waiting for this – ha!). We all enjoyed the ride quite a bit.

Andrew ran over to get FP’s for Splash and Big Thunder and we met up again to ride Buzz. I ended up in charge of Aria, and we got stuck in a dark spot for a while which she didn’t really enjoy. Apparently my baby is afraid of the dark…I was beat sooo badly it’s not even funny. The ride photo is pretty telling though – Andrew wasn’t stopping for ANYTHING. Competitive much?!

Continued in next post...

 

[Imagineer5]

Continued from previous post...

There wasn’t anything else we could ride as we were nearing the Main Street Barber Shop 1st Haircut appointment, so we decided to head over that way. I never remember where it is because I’m used to DL’s barber shop right on Main St. but found it pretty quickly. There was no wait and we sat Aria down in their little seat. It was really pretty awkward because she doesn’t like to sit by herself so she kept reaching out for me. Stickers and light up toys only worked for so long, and she was really showing her “separation anxiety” that was building at this time. She wasn’t the best baby during the haircut but she didn’t break down either. It wasn’t the most magical thing I envisioned but still fun, and Andrew took a really nice photo of the back of Aria’s “1st haircut” mouseears looking into the mirror. We didn’t want the barber to take much hair off, and just ended up having him cut a little around the ears off.

After that we wanted to ride the jungle cruise but the line was ridiculous – seriously have not dealt with these sorts of lines before! And the FP return time was too late since we would have to head to dinner, so instead we parked the stroller and popped onto the flying carpets. It was a fine ride, we really haven’t ridden it before Aria came along and I don’t really care for that sort of ride but it was still fun. The water spraying was fun too!

Then we decided to talk on the Swiss Family Robinson treehouse. Secretly one of my favorite things!! HAHA. Love this treehouse, would be so amazing to live there, and I hope to read the book to Aria when she’s old enough.

Next up was something I wasn’t even sure if we would do – The Tiki Room! Andrew swears he’s never even been in it, and I guess that is possible since it was under refurb on our last trip and I went into the DL one in 2009, thinking he was there but that was a solo trip. Aria for the most part just sat in my lap and watched = she really liked it! haha. I think it would be even more fun now – she has started standing at toys/sofas/whatever and dancing to music! SO cute!

Day 5 to be continued

 

[Joyciemc]

The lines really were crazy! We ended up skipping some things entirely (never did get on Splash Mountain!), which we never normally do.

 

[jenny105]

She is so cute!

Was that day Columbus Day? Maybe that's why it was so crowded?

 

[holleypie]

Her first haircut pictures are so cute! Luke doesn't have much hair but it is really scraggly around his ears, so we're probably going to take him to the Barbershop on our next trip.

 

[Imagineer5]

The lines really were crazy! We ended up skipping some things entirely (never did get on Splash Mountain!), which we never normally do.

Yeah!! Thankfully over the few days we had at MK we got everything in - though we totally forgot to do the train so we'll do that in December, but we didn't get to Jungle Cruise until late on our last day!

She is so cute!

Was that day Columbus Day? Maybe that's why it was so crowded?

Well, yes! haha but I usually go around this time of year and really have never seen crowds like this before.

Her first haircut pictures are so cute! Luke doesn't have much hair but it is really scraggly around his ears, so we're probably going to take him to the Barbershop on our next trip.

Thanks!! Yes, hers was all over the place around her ears too. She has long hair up top/front and he tried to cut that off but I wanted him to leave it so it will grow out.

Barbershop was fun, it is cute now to have the hair clippings, ears, and certificate, but at the time I just sort of felt rushed and she wasn't all that happy about it. Oh well!

 

[MiaBella05]

joining in

 

[Imagineer5]

joining in

Welcome!! I see you are preggo! Congrats!! Care to give details?! I started my PTR when I was about 28 weeks preggo this trip was so much fun we have 3 more planned over the next 7 months...

 

[Imagineer5]

Day 5 Continued!! (Still at the MK, then heading over to GF for dinner, then back to MK for MNSSHP!!)

After this it was right about 2PM – Aria went down for a nap in her stroller and our FP’s for Splash and Big Thunder were open, so we headed over that way. Andrew was hungry and we had had no lunch so that was understandable! I suggested a taco bowl from Pecos Bills and I got myself some fries. No pics, sorry. But it was really good and he enjoyed the snack! It was nice to be able to bring the stroller inside, too.

We learned a bit from our previous time here and I rode Splash first after getting a rider switch for Andrew. I carried my trusty iphone onto the ride and took a couple requisite pictures, even though I’m sure I have about 10 of the exact same scenes from every trip.

Then I hopped onto Big Thunder and we got a rider switch for that one too – while in line I got a bit worried because they announced there was inclement weather on the horizon and wasn’t sure if I was going to get on OR that I would get to ride and then Andrew would be SOOL and not get to ride either, but luckily (sorry to remove the suspense!) that did not happen! I got to ride! Yay! Andrew took some photos of me while on Big Thunder, probably because I thought he would take photos of me coming down on Splash but he didn’t and I got a little huffy about it LOL! (Ok fine I admit, I was not an angel all trip either!).

After I finished up with my rides, I headed over to the BCC and Aria woke after a little over an hour nap – pretty good! And I nursed her and changed her into her 1900 Park Fare outfit.

Andrew met us outside right as we were exiting, we took a couple photopass pictures and then headed to the front of the park.

At this point we had about 25 minutes to get to our ADR, but I thought it was a good idea to squeeze in one more thing – meeting Mickey! I had never been in the town hall since it was turned into the character meet and greet (SPOILER ALERT: on the last day we meet some amazing princesses for our all time best character interaction!!). It had a 5 minute posted wait time, but probably took about 10 minutes. I was actually hoping to meet with Minnie, and didn’t realize she isn’t here. Actually, I didn’t realize she was back near Dumbo until last week when I printed out all the character locations throughout the park, hoping to plan out some more character meets for December! Whoops! But it was still a fun meet and Aria was happy. TIP: Always put shoes on babies if you want solo photos, they wouldn’t take them in the parks otherwise, and I never remembered to put them on until later in the trip.

Then we hightailed it out of the park. The boat would have been fun but I didn’t want to fold up the stroller so instead we hopped on the monorail to the Grand Floridian.

We had some fun with a water bottle on the way over…LOL…

And then we got into the pretty elevator down to the 1st floor –

I so so wanted to get a photo with that gorgeous background they take when you enter the restaurant, but I didn’t want to buy the photo. At the end of the meal I wanted to get the photo (just have Andrew take the picture) since there was no one there, but alas that never happened.

Sorry, foreshadowing…so Anyway we checked in pretty quickly and I ran up to get some food since I didn’t see any characters coming yet. I had to try the strawberry soup, but I never really thought I’d enjoy it and well, yep I was right. Weird. I let Aria try some and she agreed. Very strange.

It kills me – I have a PERFECT headband – silver headband, with pink satin flowers with PEARLS in the center of each!! Why I didn’t bring it, I have no idea.

Continued in next post...

 

[Imagineer5]

Continued from previous post -

Then the Prince came over but Aria seemed pretty indifferent, I guess she realized he was not actually a real prince. Or that he already had a princess.

The Fairy Godmother was really great, really trying to interact with Aria which was sweet, and Aria didn’t really know what to make of her but she definitely was trying to figure her out.

Andrew got a fun beer. I took a photo of it. LOL.

Cinderella came over next. I actually just bought a Cinderella dress for Aria to wear at CRT in March, and I’m excited to get some photos of her with Cinderella again because I think they could be really cute. (BTW this pink dress is the brand Cinderella!) I also just got Cinderella on Blu Ray for Aria’s stocking. Nice buying gifts for Aria that I really want to *wink wink* I realized I only had it on VHS!

Here is when it became really difficult keeping Aria clean but fed and getting her full, while constantly taking her out of her high chair! It was ridiculous! It was just character after character – Prince Charming, Fairy Godmother, Cinderella, and the evil step sisters one after another. The evil step sisters’ interactions were OK but of course Aria didn’t really get it and they rushed past after photos.

Phew, we could finally take a breather – it was already after 6 though! I had the BEST mashed potatoes here, that I had to go back up and get more plus some pasta from the pasta station because I was still hungry, and then I also tried some desserts as well. Andrew had a couple desserts and we gave Aria some pineapple in her mesh feeder thing which she really enjoyed.

Unfortunately, we waited and waited forever for the check to come – so long that I ended up taking Aria out, getting the stroller, changing her into the Tinkerbelle costume, and Andrew STILL wasn’t out! This meal was super duper long, but it didn’t help I was anxious and excited to get back to the MK for MNSSHP!

We finally made it in a little before 7, got our wristbands, and headed right to Tomorrowland, thinking about doing the treat stations and trails. Andrew had an agenda to ride Space Mountain, while Aria took a late nap in her stroller, and I went to Star Tours (?) store waiting for party merchandise to be released right at 7. There was nothing very exciting though and I didn’t buy anything… then we went to 1 treat station. That was it – I didn’t really see the point for standing in line to get a little package of jelly candy things? IDK. The treat trails looked like fun (esp the one in FL) but we didn’t want to wait in line for it, so instead we headed to…POOH! Aria had had a little nap of about 40 minutes, so we made the mistake of waking her up to enjoy the party. She wasn’t very happy about that, but we wanted her up…anyway, Pooh had been down earlier so we didn’t get to ride it, and now there was zero wait. We tried to spend a moment playing with the honey walls but the people behind us were pushing by so instead we just got on the ride.

Aria was tired so this hadn’t been planned out all that well. I didn’t have much I really wanted to do besides get a ghost photo, see the parade and hallowishes. Luckily we did a little more than that, but not much hahaha. Anyway after Pooh we made our way to the Haunted Mansion for the ghost photo, waited only about 10 minutes, and that came out okay.

 

[Imagineer5]

Day 5 completed -

After that I saw a Duffy meet. I have mixed feelings about Duffy – more positive now, but until this trip I really didn’t understand (and still don’t) who he is. Obviously I need to read about it. But I got in line anyway because it looked to be less than a 10 minute wait, and I didn’t have anything else to do until the parade. I’m so glad we did – the meet was so very cute! Love Duffy now, and even bought Aria her very own “Chef Duffy” later in the trip.

After that we had about 20 minutes until the first parade. Now, had my husband been able to stay up past 10PM, I would have put Aria down at this point and we would have watched the 2nd parade. But instead we found a terrible spot behind a family who insisted on all standing at the rope throughout the whole parade. I sort of thought they’d at least let me sit at the rope, since it’s so very easy to see over someone sitting, but alas they did not. We sort of fought about the awful viewing spot, but never left again to find someplace better. Aria played with some light up things I brought along.

She didn’t understand why we were just standing there for 20 minutes, not doing anything or watching anything. During the parade I tried to hold her up so she could see it all, but we were under a tree (seriously WORST spot to stop ever, I suck even though Andrew insisted on that spot I really should NOT have agreed). I enjoyed the parade – what little I could actually see, and also tried to get some photos all of which came out horrible.

Headless horseman

At the end of the parade, Aria and I headed over to the BCC and I nursed her and put her in jammies and then put her down to bed in the stroller and she was out immediately. Afterwards we met back up with Andrew and we waited around for HalloWishes to start. The display was beautiful as always, though I was a little tired of hearing the HalloWishes music – I’d heard it from TotWL, at the CR one night, and now again. MNSSHP was on so many nights of our trip! I couldn’t wait to hear the regular Wishes music.

Aria woke up during the show, but I just picked her up and she was fine watching the show. Those headphone thingys never got any use, though I did try to use them a couple times. After the fireworks, I put her back down, but the poor thing of course had to still be transferred to the carseat, then into the condo but for the most part just stayed sleeping for those transitions. She didn’t sleep all that well that night though.

So another day down, but not quite halfway through the trip!

Overall a very fun day, it WAS nice (I will admit begrudgingly) to have a leisurely morning, and looking back on the day I wish there was not SO many attractions we both really felt we HAD to ride to make it a successful day – we did so much running around but did get quite a bit in I guess. The character interactions were great, and I’m so glad we got Aria’s 1st haircut at the MK even if it wasn’t that amazing of an experience – the photos and little clip of hair with mickey confetti were worth it!

 

[holleypie]

You guys got a great family photo with Mickey!

We were at Epcot a few years ago when Duffy had JUST started doing meet-and-greets. I asked Brian, "Who is that bear?" and he explained the story to me and I said, "That is the dumbest marketing ploy I've ever heard." Then we went into a gift shop and I saw all the cute outfits you could buy for him, and suddenly I'm like, "OH MY GOD, I LOVE THIS BEAR." I'm such a sucker.

 

[Imagineer5]

You guys got a great family photo with Mickey!

We were at Epcot a few years ago when Duffy had JUST started doing meet-and-greets. I asked Brian, "Who is that bear?" and he explained the story to me and I said, "That is the dumbest marketing ploy I've ever heard." Then we went into a gift shop and I saw all the cute outfits you could buy for him, and suddenly I'm like, "OH MY GOD, I LOVE THIS BEAR." I'm such a sucker.

Thanks, yes the Mickey meet was great, despite squishing it in there haha.

LOL! Seriously the Duffy bear story is RIDICULOUS. I just looked it up online finally, and it makes me sort of mad I bought a darn bear. hahaha. I thought there was more story behind it vs a COMPLETE marketing ploy - I mean, obviously I knew that was fueling the Duffy stuff but I thought there was some sort of long-lost history from the bear. Ugh.