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

[holleypie]

The food at Cape May looks delicious! We're hoping to stay on the Boardwalk next year (if we can get in at 7 months) and I'm already making a list of places to eat.... Dining out with Luke is a lot of fun now that I can share with him and let him feed himself.

I thought this deserves its own post...Aria took her first solo steps over the weekend!!

OMG, she's walking! So exciting! Luke cruises and stands on his own just fine, but he can't be cajoled into taking any steps. Brian didn't walk until he was a year and a half, so we might have a long wait.

 

[CandleontheWater]

congrats to Aria on taking her first steps! I'm sure she'll be running down Main Street in 10 days!

It looks like you guys had an awesome day at DHS. Its my least favorite park too, but it has two of my favorite rides (ToT and RnRC). Glad you guys got everything done you were looking to do, the photos of Aria with sorcerer Mickey are very cute!

We also enjoy Cape May, I'm hoping to get back there soon. Glad to hear that you guys had a great meal there!

 

[Marsheliz]

I have soo soo soo enjoyed your TR!!! Aria is just beautiful!! I wish I would have utilized the BCC a lot more than I did. I love TR with children- I have a 4 year old and an almost 14 month old.. We just went in September and I was trying to convince my DH to go in February but it's a no go. He said to at least wait a year.. How do you convince yours to go a couple times a year? I need the secret.

 

[Marsheliz]

Oh yeah on a sidenote- I wanted to try Cape May Cafe when we were there but didnt get too. It looks quite delicious!!

 

[Joyciemc]

Your DHS day turned out pretty nice!

I would be a horrible parent, it never occurred to me that you would have to bring food for a baby! Haha, I'll have to get very detailed instructions if any of my friends ever trust me to babysit.

Aria is walking- time flies! She is so adorable.

 

[jenny105]

Looks like you had a great day in DHS.

GMR! I knew we forgot about something in that park. It just hit me now that we didn't go on it LOL

 

[Imagineer5]

The food at Cape May looks delicious! We're hoping to stay on the Boardwalk next year (if we can get in at 7 months) and I'm already making a list of places to eat.... Dining out with Luke is a lot of fun now that I can share with him and let him feed himself.



OMG, she's walking! So exciting! Luke cruises and stands on his own just fine, but he can't be cajoled into taking any steps. Brian didn't walk until he was a year and a half, so we might have a long wait.

Cape May is definitely top of DH's list. Non-shellfish eaters wouldn't enjoy it as much but I like it just fine. Their drinks are fantastic. We are really enjoying feeding Aria now that we can just cut up whatever we are having and feed her that, in addition to pureed veggies or whatever. She has a BIG appetite lol.

I don't really know what the protocol for saying she is walking is, hahahaha, i mean she is up to about 5 steps before falling over, but it's generally between DH and I, not like running over to the christmas tree or something...

congrats to Aria on taking her first steps! I'm sure she'll be running down Main Street in 10 days!

It looks like you guys had an awesome day at DHS. Its my least favorite park too, but it has two of my favorite rides (ToT and RnRC). Glad you guys got everything done you were looking to do, the photos of Aria with sorcerer Mickey are very cute!

We also enjoy Cape May, I'm hoping to get back there soon. Glad to hear that you guys had a great meal there!

I sure hope so! We will see. Yep funny about DHS, I REALLY hope the Carsland addition rumors are going to come true, that'd be amazing.

I have soo soo soo enjoyed your TR!!! Aria is just beautiful!! I wish I would have utilized the BCC a lot more than I did. I love TR with children- I have a 4 year old and an almost 14 month old.. We just went in September and I was trying to convince my DH to go in February but it's a no go. He said to at least wait a year.. How do you convince yours to go a couple times a year? I need the secret.

Aww thank you so much!! How was September?? I'm taking Aria at 10 months, 13 months, and 16 months so it's fun to hear about the different ages there!

I somehow convinced my DH that annual passes would basically be a wash, so we should just get those. IDK WHY he agreed, because he should have foreseen my need to then USE those AP's more than just the trip in October, but somehow I caught him on a good day and he went along with it. Then for the December trip, I told him that if we were just going to use the AP's ONCE again, I'd rather go during the holidays than any other time of year (true) so we bookd that. THEN we came up with the awesome idea to go with DH's family while our AP's were still good. Then I decided I just HAD to go during the Flower & Garden festival, and I wanted my mom to get to see Aria at Disney before DH's parents did so I booked us a trip for March. It snowballed you could say! works for me! Oh, and I also planned it out so that my AP's expire ON my birthday next year, which is a Saturday, so that I could potentially go back that weekend and leave Sunday and still use our AP's... that trip isn't booked yet.

Also, ALL of these flights have been free. i signed up for the southwest CC when they offered 50,000 points, which is enough for about 4.5 round trip tickets from Providence! Then I signed up my DH too and got another 50,000 points. So the trips are actually super cheap with free flights, free tickets, etc.

Oh yeah on a sidenote- I wanted to try Cape May Cafe when we were there but didnt get too. It looks quite delicious!!

Your DHS day turned out pretty nice!

I would be a horrible parent, it never occurred to me that you would have to bring food for a baby! Haha, I'll have to get very detailed instructions if any of my friends ever trust me to babysit.

Aria is walking- time flies! She is so adorable.

LOL I totally read this when all you had written was "I would be a horrible parent" and I was going to ask what you meant!! HAHA. It's a learning curve, I mean a couple months ago I had no idea HOW to feed a baby let alone what to have with me, and obviously I still forget, as we had to resort to BCC food for her and a hard metal spoon. But she survived! there is definitely a lot of stuff that comes along with babies though, much of it we brought I didn't need but had to learn that the hard way I guess!

Looks like you had a great day in DHS.

GMR! I knew we forgot about something in that park. It just hit me now that we didn't go on it LOL

Hahah yeah I think we skipped it on the last trip, and there's so little for Aria to ride in that park that I decided to go on it. The wait time was annoying me though, I've never actually waited for that ride before!

 

[khertz]

Oh my gosh, YES, the baby care center at DHS is just awful, especially compared to the ones in the rest of the park. You can tell it was just a total afterthought there, especially the nursing "rooms." If I ever nurse a baby in Disney World, I'd have to find somewhere else in DHS to do it besides there.

Otherwise, it seems like y'all had a great DHS day! It's so hard with little bitty ones. Our problem with Paxotn at a year old was that almost everything there was too long (shows, GMR) or too fast. Now that's he's bigger (and so is his attention span!) it wasn't quite as bad. It looks like Aria is much more go with the flow than he was though.

Your dinner looks delicious!

 

[Dugette]

Someday we've got to try 50's Prime Time. Looks so fun!

I'm glad Aria enjoyed meeting Sorcerer Mickey!

RnRC is the one ride where I won't go in the Single Rider Line. We had a very bad experience there once, with the regular line moving WAY faster than the SRL...not cool.

Cape May looks decent. I'm not a seafood fan, but looks like a lot of other options there too.

 

[Marsheliz]

Cape May is definitely top of DH's list. Non-shellfish eaters wouldn't enjoy it as much but I like it just fine. Their drinks are fantastic. We are really enjoying feeding Aria now that we can just cut up whatever we are having and feed her that, in addition to pureed veggies or whatever. She has a BIG appetite lol.

I don't really know what the protocol for saying she is walking is, hahahaha, i mean she is up to about 5 steps before falling over, but it's generally between DH and I, not like running over to the christmas tree or something...



I sure hope so! We will see. Yep funny about DHS, I REALLY hope the Carsland addition rumors are going to come true, that'd be amazing.



Aww thank you so much!! How was September?? I'm taking Aria at 10 months, 13 months, and 16 months so it's fun to hear about the different ages there!

I somehow convinced my DH that annual passes would basically be a wash, so we should just get those. IDK WHY he agreed, because he should have foreseen my need to then USE those AP's more than just the trip in October, but somehow I caught him on a good day and he went along with it. Then for the December trip, I told him that if we were just going to use the AP's ONCE again, I'd rather go during the holidays than any other time of year (true) so we bookd that. THEN we came up with the awesome idea to go with DH's family while our AP's were still good. Then I decided I just HAD to go during the Flower & Garden festival, and I wanted my mom to get to see Aria at Disney before DH's parents did so I booked us a trip for March. It snowballed you could say! works for me! Oh, and I also planned it out so that my AP's expire ON my birthday next year, which is a Saturday, so that I could potentially go back that weekend and leave Sunday and still use our AP's... that trip isn't booked yet.

Also, ALL of these flights have been free. i signed up for the southwest CC when they offered 50,000 points, which is enough for about 4.5 round trip tickets from Providence! Then I signed up my DH too and got another 50,000 points. So the trips are actually super cheap with free flights, free tickets, etc.





LOL I totally read this when all you had written was "I would be a horrible parent" and I was going to ask what you meant!! HAHA. It's a learning curve, I mean a couple months ago I had no idea HOW to feed a baby let alone what to have with me, and obviously I still forget, as we had to resort to BCC food for her and a hard metal spoon. But she survived! there is definitely a lot of stuff that comes along with babies though, much of it we brought I didn't need but had to learn that the hard way I guess!



Hahah yeah I think we skipped it on the last trip, and there's so little for Aria to ride in that park that I decided to go on it. The wait time was annoying me though, I've never actually waited for that ride before!

September was fantastic! I mentioned to someone else on here before that it was nice b/c when everyone else is going to the beach, etc during the summer, you know you're vacation is just around the corner and is way better than any old beach, HA and it's nice to go during a "low crowd" season. We throughly enjoyed it and can't decide if we want to go next September again or try October or November... Would love to wait on free dining again! That's always a huge plus!

 

[jenny105]

Hahah yeah I think we skipped it on the last trip, and there's so little for Aria to ride in that park that I decided to go on it. The wait time was annoying me though, I've never actually waited for that ride before!

I think that's why we skipped it. The wait was 20-30 minutes and my reaction was 'wth? I'm not waiting for that ride!'

 

[Imagineer5]

Oh my gosh, YES, the baby care center at DHS is just awful, especially compared to the ones in the rest of the park. You can tell it was just a total afterthought there, especially the nursing "rooms." If I ever nurse a baby in Disney World, I'd have to find somewhere else in DHS to do it besides there.

Otherwise, it seems like y'all had a great DHS day! It's so hard with little bitty ones. Our problem with Paxotn at a year old was that almost everything there was too long (shows, GMR) or too fast. Now that's he's bigger (and so is his attention span!) it wasn't quite as bad. It looks like Aria is much more go with the flow than he was though.

Your dinner looks delicious!

Lol they seriously were. I will probably just skip them next time, even the diaper changing areas weren't great. Def an afterthought. Yeah I am not too worried about the shows, I mean she doesn't give them total attention but isn't upset to be there either. GMR surprisingly held her attention pretty well. There isn't much there though.

Someday we've got to try 50's Prime Time. Looks so fun!

I'm glad Aria enjoyed meeting Sorcerer Mickey!

RnRC is the one ride where I won't go in the Single Rider Line. We had a very bad experience there once, with the regular line moving WAY faster than the SRL...not cool.

Cape May looks decent. I'm not a seafood fan, but looks like a lot of other options there too.

I shouldn't either, I have never had that SR experience before though. It was super annoying! Yeah there are decent non seafood options, but its mainly meat which I don't eat either LOL so I ended up with a lot of pasta. Still had fun though! Wish it was a character meal!

September was fantastic! I mentioned to someone else on here before that it was nice b/c when everyone else is going to the beach, etc during the summer, you know you're vacation is just around the corner and is way better than any old beach, HA and it's nice to go during a "low crowd" season. We throughly enjoyed it and can't decide if we want to go next September again or try October or November... Would love to wait on free dining again! That's always a huge plus!

I love October but September would be great too. I think it might be too hot for my DH though lol.

I think that's why we skipped it. The wait was 20-30 minutes and my reaction was 'wth? I'm not waiting for that ride!'

Hahahah yep thankfully it didn't take that long. You did waste time on the backlot tour hahahaha

 

[Imagineer5]

Whew, probably no update this week, we leave on Friday for a 3 night trip to the world! For those that don't know, we are staying at POR in a Royal Room!

Also, this week is our 180-day week for June trip (since we are staying offsite the reservations have to be made daily, ugh). Of course, since we are going for 10 nights, the last few days of the trip coincide with our stay at POR so I know what I will be doing at 7AM each day.

We had intended to book an Illuminations cruise for everyone as their christmas presents, but were getting mixed messages about the 10 ppl max capacity, CM's were CERTAIN that Aria didn't count, but I called the marina to be sure and they said she does. Which means we had to come up with a new idea quick, so we are going to try to get a reservation for the Grand 1 Yacht, because I can't think of anything else to do for a group of 11. DH's parents are treating everyone to dinner at Ohana, so another dinner seems a bit silly, and I know his sister has actually done the Wishes dessert party or else I'd do that. IDK anything else?

Anyway that's all for today! We had a very busy weekend, with a successful holiday party, had about 70 people come to the house, and kept Aria up til about 9 and she was happy and fine so that was great! But the 7AM wake up wasn't so easy. (DH stayed up until 4AM, I made it to about 2AM lol).

Talk to you all next week! Unless I can get on in the next 2 days with an update. Any ideas for a group thing would be much appreciated!

 

[jenny105]

Have fun!

 

[khertz]

Sorry I have no ideas for your boat situation, but I hope y'all have a fantastic time!!! How are you going to juggle all these reports, girl?!

 

[Imagineer5]

Have fun!

thanks

Sorry I have no ideas for your boat situation, but I hope y'all have a fantastic time!!! How are you going to juggle all these reports, girl?!

Thank you!! Hahaha I meant to get this one done before our Decemebr trip but obviously that didn't happen!

We decided to do the Grand 1. A bit more impressive than a pontoon boat, so we figured what the heck!

 

[Imagineer5]

Whew!! just before Christmas and I am going to work on at least 1 day's update today. Only three days of work left (including today!) until 2013 YAY! Work has been so busy, but my main reason for not being on the DIS is that I was working on these:

I finished up Aria's stocking before our annual holiday party on December 1st, bringing it in to work to get it done ASAP, then Andrew was duly impressed and pleaded with me to make him one. I told him I would for next year, but secretly wanted to get it done this year, so during downtime at work the last couple of weeks, I have been making his pirate santa stocking. Finished it up late last night. Literally every one of Aria's nap times when I am home, all my lunch breaks at work, and from the moment I put Aria to bed to the time I can't stay up any longer I have been non stop working on his stocking since the beginning of December! Whew, so glad to be DONE!

Well, except for our long weekend at WDW! We had a good time, though it was just TOO SHORT. I tried to fit way too much into that trip, with all the holiday stuff along with new restaurants and lots of character meets. Which, by the way, apparently a baby can change SO MUCH in just 2 short months. She did not like the characters for the most part. And our Santa photo???? Looking back on it funny, but I swear I scarred her for life.

Anyway, that's another trip report for another time! Going to go work on...lets see where did I leave off?? AH, our one day at DHS!

Next up...breakfast with Princesses, EPCOT, Les Chefs, Poly Photoshoot, and Coral Reef! What a day that was!!

 

[Imagineer5]

Day 7 – October 10th! EPCOT!
Today we had 8AM ADR’s at Akershus – a “new to us” restaurant that I couldn’t wait to try, mainly for the pic with Belle in her yellow dress! Haha. I also love that they give you the photo on your photopass, included with the meal. I doubt that will last long with Photopass + but we enjoyed it. Or we would have, if the photo would have turned out better…LOL…

Anyway We started out by talking some photos on the long walk through an empty FW, passing people heading to guest relations for a segway tour and reminiscing about doing that!

We prepped for the photo with some pink shoes for Aria. I was a little unhappy with her tutu dress, I thought it was a lot cuter in the online photo than online. Don’t worry, I rectified that for our December trip with a super cute Belle dress that should fit her through at least our March trip. Hahaha

There was a short line to check in and then we waited maybe 3 minutes before we were called in. Don’t know if I have mentioned this before, but our restaurant wait times were pretty awesome the entire trip. It helped that we generally arrived right at (or slightly after, oops) our ADR time vs like 15-20 minutes beforehand like we used to.

We were called in and chose to just get a photo of Aria with Belle, but we probably should have taken a family photo instead…I wish they had given us the chance to take a few more without her so upset! This Belle wasn’t that great, either. Boo!

We were seated in a small room out back, which was fine for us, I’m not picky about seating locations. I ran up to get myself some food and enjoyed a couple bites. The food was okay, that lingonberry muffin in the middle was really delicious from what I remember, but that brown cheese was disgusting.

Before Andrew had a chance to get himself something, Princess Aurora made an appearance. Aria wasn’t so sure about her!

Then Andrew ran up for a plate of food –

And Cinderella made an appearance. She was so fantastic with Aria! We had taken her shoes off, and she was all concerned that Aria had lost her slippers just like she had. It was really sweet! (BTW, we have CRT ADR’s for march and she has a Cinderella dress to wear, of course!)

After she left Aria was having a bit more fun at breakfast and was enjoying watching her move around the room

Princess Ariel and Snow White came around, they were both fine but nothing too memorable with them (this will be a lot more fun when Aria is older and knows the princesses!).

Then while waiting for the check we took some more photos (surprise surprise hehe)

After breakfast we took some pictures outside in an empty Norway. I love being able to be in the WS without anyone else. The segway tour was like that too.

 

[Imagineer5]

Back in Future World, we wanted to get a couple rides in with Aria before her first nap, so headed over to Living with the Land (and picked up some FP’s for Soarin).

Then hopped over to ride Nemo and visit with some underwater friends. Aria enjoyed it though she was getting tired.

Sad to see the seahorses – we got 2 for our salt water tank but both died. They were so cool!

 

[jenny105]

Why does Belle look so...manic is maybe the right word? And ugh Aurora's wig just drives me crazy. It never looks good. Never.

/end rant lol

I love Aria's outfit! So cute!