COMPLETE "You know he won't remember!" - 9 wk old baby's 1st visit to the World!

DisneyParkLover · Feb 9, 2014

Hi! I'm Katie and I'm relatively new to these boards. But I have really enjoyed reading everyone's trip reports and so I thought I would do one about my son's first visit to the world! Let me start by telling you how this trip came to be.

We were not always Disney fanatics. I went to WDW once as a child at age 8. I also went to Disneyland once when I was 13. My husband never went to Disney as a child. But in 2008, my brother had just turned 21 and I was 25. We were both in serious relationships with the people who would become our spouses. So my mom was staring down the barrel that is "empty nest syndrome". I am thinking that was the driving force behind my mom suggesting a big family trip. My brother and I were originally thinking Vegas, but my mom suggested Disney! This started me thinking. "Disney? Isn't that for little kids?" But both my brother and I loved our local amusement parks, so we were in to give it a try. So we went on an adults only Disney trip just the 6 of us (my parents, my brother and I, and the significant others!). How did it go? Well.....

we had an awesome time! This trip dispelled any thoughts that Disney wasn't for grown ups! So the next year when my dad's company sent him on a business trip at the Dolphin, my mom decided to tag along. But she didn't want to go to the parks alone while my dad was working, so she invited me! And I wasn't about to pass up a Disney trip with a free stay at the Dolphin! Sadly my husband couldn't get off work. And although my brother and sister-in-law loved our family trip, they didn't get bitten by "the bug". So it was just the three of us and we had another awesome trip!

So fast forward to 2012. My husband and I have been married for a few years and are thinking of starting a family. But I was longing for one last adults only trip, so we plan a trip in May 2012. We try to keep it fairly inexpensive so we stay off site, eat lots of PB&J, etc.! My parents also come down and join us for most of the trip. And again, we had a great time! (Do I sound like a broken record?). So that brings us through all my Disney history, but if you want to find out how this trip came to be then stay tuned!

DisneyParkLover · Feb 9, 2014

So if you read the intro, you can tell that my Disney addiction had already begun! But I was going to do what is considered "the norm" and wait until I had children that were a little older before I took them to Disney. But then, when I was about 5 months pregnant, I got a seemingly innocent email. "Disney has opened free dining dates to cardholders!" I was going to ignore it. But then I thought it wouldn't hurt to just open the email. :lmao:

Now let me just stop and say that in all the trips I previously mentioned, we have never done Disney dining. We have just never stayed somewhere that it was an option. So the idea of free dining was already really tempting! But then I opened that email. And as if by fate, the end of free dining lined up with the beginning of F&W (which I had also been dying to try) and it all lined up with my scheduled maternity leave! So the seed was planted.

The gears began to turn. "Could we make this work?" "I wouldn't have to take any time off." "Is it okay to take a young baby?" "Would we even have a good time?" So the first step was to test the waters with my mom. After all, we needed them to come along. We couldn't do this without them! So I started casually. "Mom, would I be crazy to want to go to Disney on maternity leave?" She said no.

Okay, next step. "Would you and dad want to go?" She talked to my dad and came back and said they'd love to go! :cool1:

But that was just the beginning.

Luckily my two closest friends are also Disney junkies so I approached them next. They were more tentative but both thought that since there were four adults to manage one little baby it would be fine. They thought that as long as we took a leisurely approach it could be a great trip!

So the last and biggest hurdle...the doctors! I talked to the OB/GYN and pediatrician and both agreed that as long as we took some basic precautions we had their approval! Yay! :banana:

So we booked!

Next post: cast of characters and trip plans!

Marsheliz · Feb 9, 2014

I'm in!!

The title hooked me-as I've heard that millions of times!! We have a 5 year old who has been 3x, a 2 yr old that has been twice and we have been trying for a 3rd since June and have plans to go on a big trip next Feb to Disney but not sure if we should hold off on the trying for awhile bc of the possibility of having a newborn. I'm interested to see how your trip goes!

))

I have a TR going on as well and it's do fun to relive your trip!

DisneyParkLover · Feb 9, 2014

The cast of characters:

First up, my husband and me:

I am a 30 year old nurse practitioner, my husband is a 34 year old chemical engineer. We are from Alabama. My husband isn't as addicted to Disney as I am, but he's always willing to join me in my obsession! Fortunately, he had no qualms about taking our young baby to the World. :thumbsup2

Next, we have my parents:

I don't know if they would want their ages disclosed! :rotfl2:

They love to travel and love Disney! They are wonderful grandparents and we could not have done this trip without them.

And the star of the show - my son Luke!

Here he is as a newborn!

Here he is at Christmas!

And this is last week!

Our plans:

We booked 10 nights at POR starting September 25th, 2013. We originally booked at POFQ, but found out that POR would be testing the Magic Bands and we were interested in trying them so we switched. We had the regular dining plan and park hopper tickets. Our dining line-up included: Coral Reef, Yak and Yeti, Via Napoli, San Angel, 50's Prime Time, Crystal Palace, O'hana, Biergarten and Le Cellier! We also planned to head offsite to eat at Boston Lobster Feast as we go every trip and it is one of our favorites. We also wanted to hit ALL the F&W booths. We lucked out in that one of the Disney-loving friends I previously mentioned was going to be there the same time as us. So we wanted to spend some time with them. This report will be heavy on dining info and will also include our experiences with having a 9 week old baby at the World. We had a lot of naysayers (hence the title) that told us that we were making a big mistake, so I want to pass along our experiences to anyone else considering something similar. Please also note that I am the primary photographer and I was usually holding or wearing the baby! So there are some pictures that I missed. But there will be plenty of photos!

DisneyParkLover · Feb 9, 2014

Marsheliz said:
I'm in!!

The title hooked me-as I've heard that millions of times!! We have a 5 year old who has been 3x, a 2 yr old that has been twice and we have been trying for a 3rd since June and have plans to go on a big trip next Feb to Disney but not sure if we should hold off on the trying for awhile bc of the possibility of having a newborn. I'm interested to see how your trip goes! ))

I have a TR going on as well and it's do fun to relive your trip!

Thanks for joining in! I have found your TR and am following it now! I am really enjoying it. Plus your boys are so cute!

I_Luv_Stitch · Feb 9, 2014

Joining in

Your son Luke is soooo cute, and the photo of him in the swing is just adorable :goodvibes

Can't wait to read more

DisneyParkLover · Feb 9, 2014

We left after my husband got off work on the 24th. (Obviously, I didn't work this day since I was on maternity leave!) The trip took us about 12 hours (with stops) last time we drove straight through, but we thought that would be too much for Luke. Especially since we had to have an extended stop every 3 hours so he could nurse! So we planned to drive a little less than halfway the first day and then finish the drive the next morning. So we booked a hotel in Macon, GA. We actually managed to leave earlier than expected and made really good time. It actually made me wish we had picked somewhere a little further to stay the night! But alas... :laughing:

I don't even remember where we stayed the night this first night. I could look it up, but the important thing is that is was clean and safe. So we brought in just our overnight bags and the Pack and Play, got the Pack and Play set up, and headed to bed so we could get an early start!

This is the only photo from that first day. I'm giving Luke a bottle of expressed milk. For those interested in nursing tips, I brought my pump so I could give him a bottle if it was not convenient to nurse. However, as the trip went on I became more comfortable with just nursing him. Plus, it was WAY easier that way! :thumbsup2

DisneyParkLover · Feb 9, 2014

I_Luv_Stitch said:
Joining in

Your son Luke is soooo cute, and the photo of him in the swing is just adorable

Can't wait to read more

Thank you! We think he's adorable too, but we are a little biased! :lmao:

Thanks for joining in!

DisneyParkLover · Feb 9, 2014

I forgot to mention that my dad did not drive down with us. He flew down a couple days later so he wouldn't have to take as much time off work. This is somewhat relevant to this day's report. Okay, so that detail has been noted. Now back to your regularly scheduled trip report!

We got up nice and early this morning so we could get on the road. The Garmin was telling us we had less than 6 hours to go, so we thought we could make decent time and arrive in Orlando early afternoon. Our plans were to check into our resort and head to Magic Kingdom for dinner and Wishes. Spoiler alert: this did NOT happen!

So we went to put our overnight bags back in the van and we could not get the back door of my parents' van to open. We manhandled it, WDW-40'ed it (yes, that's a verb! :rotfl2:

), and reasoned with it to no avail. We could not get it open. That was a problem. Not only could we not get the luggage out, but we needed use of the back doors to get the stroller in and out! So we called around and found the nearest dealership. They said they could get us in that morning so we headed that way. We only waited a little over an hour, so not too terrible.

Here is Luke learning to drive in the dealership parking lot!

They got it fixed and we were back on the way! Only about an hour to an hour and a half behind schedule. We can still make it to MK with plenty of time! We get back on the highway and get about 5 miles down the road and all of sudden we notice someone honking and gesturing at us. We pull over to find a completely flat tire. :sad1:

My husband attempts to change it, but he is unable to find the jack point to place the jack. This is where it comes into play that my dad was not with us, because if anyone would know where it was it would be him. Nevertheless, we couldn't find it. So we called AAA and waited for them. They finally arrived and put on the spare (the jack point is on the back instead of the side - who would've guessed?!?). But then we still had to go and purchase a new tire and get it put on. So we found a nearby Wal-Mart, purchased a new tire and waited for them to put it on. Finally, we leave Wal-Mart and get back on the road.

By now, we are 4-5 hours behind schedule. :sad2:

No way were we making it to MK for Wishes. Which was really sad, because (another spoiler!) we never made it to see Wishes this trip. Oh well! We finally pulled into POR after dark (I think it was close to 8?).

Photo of the sunset from the road.

Baby's calling - I will finish this day in the next update!

Marsheliz · Feb 9, 2014

Luke is sooo cute!! We have a Lawson and a Landen and have Luke on the list for a future name if another boy!!

Love the sunset pic!

Curious about POR!! That is where we want to stay next Feb!

DisneyParkLover · Feb 10, 2014

When I left off, we were pulling into POR (much, much later than anticipated).

We left Luke in my husband's care and my mom and I went to check in. It was too dark to really appreciate the outside of the resort. However, despite being dog tired I was able to enjoy just how pretty it is inside the lobby.

We had a little bit of trouble with check-in. I called to make sure to let them know we needed a fridge for Luke's milk. This was during the time that they were changing out the fridges at POR and only about half the rooms had them. They guaranteed that we would have a fridge. Unfortunately, when we checked in they said that they didn't have any fridges available. But they said they would deliver one the next day. Okay, that will work...we can put the milk on ice overnight. But when we get to the room there were actually two fridges in there! :confused:

(Turns out one of them didn't work, but it was still pretty funny!) Some room shots:

So after we found the room we started getting the car unloaded. Now let me digress for a moment. :offtopic:

When we booked this room, it was only slightly more expensive to get the "garden view". That sounded like it would be the best as it would be a quieter location for the baby. And in fairness, it was a nice quiet location. However..."garden view" also means "furthest possible location from the parking lot"! Normally, we do not go to the room in the middle of the day. But based on all the recommendations I had read about escaping the midday heat, for this trip I had planned to go back to the room every day to cool off and let Luke rest. This did NOT work well! It sounded good in theory, but by the time we walked all the way back to the front of the park, then walked to the car, then drove to the resort, then walked to the room - it was not worth it! Especially since after the rest we had to do the same thing in reverse! We found that it was easier for us to just do cooler things during the hottest parts of the day and take breaks out of the sun. Then we would just leave when we were done or when Luke was over it. This may not work better for some people, but it did for us. Digression over.

So we made the long trip back and forth to the car several times and got all the stuff unloaded. In that process, we met up briefly with my Disney loving friend (we shall call her M) and her family. How crazy is this - we did not book our trips the same day, didn't check in the same day, didn't link our reservations, but got rooms right next to each other!! So we just had a quick 5 minute visit with her. Then Luke wanted to eat. After feeding him, we decided we were all pretty hungry too. It was already close to 10 at this point, so we decided we would just head down to Riverside Mill.

I was pretty amazed by how BIG it was. And it was really packed for being so late at night. Since I had done most of the research, I acted as the guide on how to use the dining plan. We got our refillable mugs - these didn't get a lot of use as our room was really far away and we only ate here once (and got take out once). But they were free. Then the food! We all got made-to-order pasta and LOVED it! It was a huge helping, though. I am a good eater and I couldn't come close to finishing it! Not wanting to waste delicious pasta, we packed it up to take back to the room. (We also took the drinks that came with the meal.) Then we ordered dessert! DH and I both got ice cream sundaes and my mom got a cherry cobbler. The ice cream sundaes were good. Simple, but they hit the spot. My mom didn't seem overly impressed with the cobbler. (She is a DISer as well, so maybe she will post and add some of her thoughts!)

After this, we headed back to the room and I think we were all asleep within 5 minutes! (Except Luke, who fell asleep during dinner.

)

Up next: Will we ever make it to a park? What will Luke's first park be? How about his first ride? Stay tuned!

DisneyParkLover · Feb 12, 2014

We used Luke as our alarm clock :lmao:

and got going early most mornings. Luke did very well with sleeping on this trip. He did wake up once or twice at night to nurse but would go right back to sleep. But usually he was up for the day by about 6, so that's when we would start getting ready. However, this first day we got a late start since we were all tired from the long day of traveling. First order of business - getting Luke dressed for his first day at Disney!

Doesn't he look adorable? My friend M had these monogrammed onesies made for him!

I actually had another outfit in mind for his first day at Disney. It was a cute little overall set my parents bought him. But I made the mistake of putting it on him the day before, thinking we would definitely make it to Disney that day! :rotfl2:

And then he had a diaper leak, so he couldn't wear it again the next day. :sad2:

I did laundry later in the trip, though, so he did get to wear it eventually! After everyone was ready, we ate a quick breakfast in the room. (We brought cereal bars, cheese sticks, etc. with us for quick and easy breakfasts.) Then we were out the door! We stopped on the way to the car to take a couple photos of the resort by daylight....

and then we got in the car and headed off for Luke's very first park! Can you guess which park? It was...
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Magic Kingdom! Okay, so I bet most of you guessed that. It only seemed right that it be Luke's first park. But I bet you guys won't have such an easy time guessing his first ride! We shall get to that in a moment! Our first stop upon entering the park was Town Hall to get our Photopass Plus activated. We ran around a little bit first, because the CM's we asked kept telling us different places to go. But we finally found the correct place and got in line. Unfortunately, it was a very LONG and slow-moving line. And it was only made worse by being so close to all the fun MK stuff and not being able to get to it! DH waited outside with Luke, as they would not let the stroller in Town Hall. Then it started to rain, so he was crowded on the porch with all the other strollers for what seemed like an ETERNITY while I got the Photopass card. It was over half an hour before we finally got our card and went on our way. Next stop was for the obligatory castle photos.

You can't really see Luke in these, but I had gotten him comfortable in the carrier and didn't want to take him out. (You will notice that this is a trend!)
Next stop was for Luke's very first ride! I wanted his first ride to be Dumbo. Now those of you congratulating yourselves on guessing Luke's first ride, you have jumped the gun! I said I WANTED Dumbo to be his first ride. But on the walk to Dumbo, we saw that another ride had no wait and decided that it would make a good first ride instead. So we hopped on...

Buzz Lightyear! The nice thing about this choice is that this ride has Photopass, so we have photographic evidence of his first ride! :thumbsup2

So what did he think? He was very excited! He loved looking around at all the lights. DH beat me pretty bad (as he always does), but I blamed this on the fact that I was wearing the baby! :rotfl:

After the ride, we thought about heading over to Dumbo but it was getting close to our lunch reservation time. I had used the link I had found here on the DIS to make us reservations at BOG!

Next update: lunch at BOG and finishing our morning at MK!

DisneyParkLover · Feb 12, 2014

When I left off, we were heading over to our lunch reservation. I had followed the link posted here and made a reservation for 11:25 - 11:40. We were a few minutes early, but the CM at check-in looked up our reservation and waved us right in! This was one of those moments that I really felt like all the time and research I had done really paid off. The line without reservations was INSANE! My mom and DH were very excited when we were able to walk right in and were really praising my planning. :goodvibes

We barely had time to stop and take a picture!

After this picture, we walked in (and out of the sweltering heat). We were directed to a CM who took our order and told us they would find us by our magic bands. This was so cool! I couldn't believe they could pinpoint our exact table using the magic bands. We picked a seat in the ballroom and went to get drinks. Shortly after we got back to the table, our food arrived.

My mom and I both ordered the croque monsieur with the master's cupcake (as we both really wanted to try the famed "grey stuff"). DH ordered the carved turkey sandwich with the triple chocolate cupcake. The sandwiches were delicious! The cupcakes were also excellent, but my mom and I agreed the "grey stuff" didn't live up to the hype. DH's triple chocolate cupcake was much better. After lunch, we looked around and took some photos.

Photos complete, we left BOG and headed out of New Fantasyland. We really wanted to wait for my dad to arrive before exploring New Fantasyland further. I had wanted to wait to eat at BOG until he arrived, but when I booked it, this was the only date available. But we enjoyed it so much that I kept checking to see if I could find another date, and eventually another spot opened up later in the trip!

Had to share this adorable picture taken at some point on this first day!

So we headed back into "old" Fantasyland and came to Winnie the Pooh. We decided to hop in line and soon we were traveling past heffalumps and woozles! Next we made our way over to Peter Pan. We can fly, we can fly, we can fly! I can't comment on whether Luke enjoyed these rides, as he fell asleep during lunch and slept through them both! :lmao:

After these rides, we were tired and it was HOT (it was probably between 1 and 2 at this point). So we decided to head back to the room, but first we had one last ride to hit.

You probably can't tell from this photo (unless you are really good!), but our last ride was on POTC! I believe the wait said 10 minutes, but the line moved really slowly and I think it was more like 20-30 minutes before we got on our boat. But we enjoyed the ride (as always), and I sang "Yo ho, yo ho, a pirate's life for me" all the way out of the park.

We boarded the monorail, walked to the car, and then drove back to POR. Back in the room, we all cooled off and rested for a little while. But not for too long, as we had dinner reservations to go to with M and her family!

Next update: Where will be dining? How will we enjoy our first TS meal of the trip? How will Luke do? Stay tuned!

cstorm65 · Feb 12, 2014

I'm enjoying your report. We ate at BOG for dinner on our last trip, but have not tried it for lunch. Looking forward to doing that this summer.

Can't wait to read more.

DisneyParkLover · Feb 13, 2014

Marsheliz said:
Luke is sooo cute!! We have a Lawson and a Landen and have Luke on the list for a future name if another boy!!

Love the sunset pic!

Curious about POR!! That is where we want to stay next Feb!

Thank you!

We really loved POR. The only other Disney property we have stayed at is the Dolphin, so I can't compare to any values or any other mods. However, I can say that this resort was wonderful. The theming was really nice and it had lots of lush vegetation. We were very close to a small pool that got very little traffic. We were pretty far from the lobby/food court so we only got to Riverside Mill twice and never made it to Boatwright's. But we were very pleased with the selection and quality of food at Riverside. We also really liked the boat transportation to DTD (small spoiler!). And it is one of the resorts that can sleep 5 (you can see the fold down bed in my photo), so it is a great choice for a family of 5!

DisneyParkLover · Feb 13, 2014

cstorm65 said:
I'm enjoying your report. We ate at BOG for dinner on our last trip, but have not tried it for lunch. Looking forward to doing that this summer.

Can't wait to read more.

Thanks for joining in! We loved our BOG lunch and it felt more like TS than quick service. As I said in the report, we enjoyed it so much this first day that we scheduled another visit later in the trip!

Marsheliz · Feb 13, 2014

I want to try BOG on our next trip. How are the prices? Love Luke's Disney shirt!

I_Luv_Stitch · Feb 13, 2014

It's a shame your car was so far away from your hotel room! We always go for midday breaks!
Can't wait to try BOG your experience looked really good!
Also that picture of Luke is so cute he looks like such a happy baby!

DisneyParkLover · Feb 13, 2014

Marsheliz said:
I want to try BOG on our next trip. How are the prices? Love Luke's Disney shirt!

I thought the prices were very reasonable (especially for Disney)! I actually kept a record of what things would have cost so I would know if the dining plan would be a good value. I will put all that info in a post at the end for those who are interested. My notes say that BOG was $19.17 for drink, entree, and dessert. Just a sandwich with a side was around $11.

Thanks for the compliment on the shirt! M surprised us with those and we really loved them (they are now retired to his baby box)!

DisneyParkLover · Feb 14, 2014

I_Luv_Stitch said:
It's a shame your car was so far away from your hotel room! We always go for midday breaks!
Can't wait to try BOG your experience looked really good!
Also that picture of Luke is so cute he looks like such a happy baby!

Thank you - he really is a pretty happy guy! And I was disappointed that going back to the room didn't work well! It WAS cool and quiet - but it was just a huge undertaking. Between the walk to the car, loading the baby in the carseat, packing up the stroller and all the other stuff, driving back to POR, unloading the baby, and walking to the room - it was easily over an hour long process. And then it took just as long on the way back. So we killed over 2 hours of the rest time in transit! Plus it made us even more exhausted to do all that additional walking. :sad2:

Oh well! I think next trip instead of naps we might try rest days. No parks, just swim and relax.

*COMPLETE* "You know he won't remember!" - 9 wk old baby's 1st visit to the World!

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COMPLETE "You know he won't remember!" - 9 wk old baby's 1st visit to the World!