1st Trip as Mommy & Daddy! Celebrating DSs 1st Bday Nov 11-UPDATE 11/13 TR LINK!

Sorry the disney math isn't working out for the premier pass, but yeah for a quick DL trip! When is all the CARS stuff supposed to open? I am in Anaheim on business in November, so might drop by DL one day on my own. :thumbsup2

Hmm I don't know about the Carsland stuff? I tried finding a finish date for the whole DCA rehab yesterday because I was wondering how much was going to be completed and I can't find much information. Hopefully most of it, if not all of it, is done by the time we go. I'm pretty excited about World of Color though!!

So far all Disney has said is that the renovation should be finished Summer of 2012. No official date has been announced yet. It looks like we will just miss the Carsland stuff going in May.:(
 
It was a great little trip, and it almost didn't happen, but I'm SO glad we were able to go! We had fun taking DS somewhere and making those memories with him of his first vacation. :)

I am about 95% sure I have decided against Hanson. :laughing: I just thought about the pros & cons, and for a 30 minute Hanson set, I would be missing the Osbourne Lights, the Castle lights, and Festival of the Masters, and it just doesn't seem worth it. I kept the second set of ADRs for now just in case I change my mind, but I think we are just going to keep the trip the way it is now. I did tell DH though that since we have the APs, we are not picking our dates or booking anything next year until the Eat to the Beat concert schedule comes out because it they play again next year and it is within our AP dates, we are going when they are there!! :thumbsup2 So hopefully that works out.

Hmm I don't know about the Carsland stuff? I tried finding a finish date for the whole DCA rehab yesterday because I was wondering how much was going to be completed and I can't find much information. Hopefully most of it, if not all of it, is done by the time we go. I'm pretty excited about World of Color though!!
Well i think you made the right choice and Paxton will love the lights. When we took Will at 2, that was his favorite thing!

So summer 2012 on CARS? well that is a bummer, but at least Little Mermaid is open now! World of Color was awesome!!! I have a DL TR in my sig from a September trip that was fabulous. We did the dining package at Ariel's Grotto for it and since mom is vision impaired, we got handicap seating too which was fabulous. The show is not to be missed. i would definitely do the dining package though. We saw the lines waiting for the show and it was crazy and that was in September during 'off season'!
 
So far all Disney has said is that the renovation should be finished Summer of 2012. No official date has been announced yet. It looks like we will just miss the Carsland stuff going in May.:(

I'm so excited that you came out of Dis hiding to post on my PTR! :rotfl: Although thanks for bringing the bad news. Oh well. Maybe they will have some soft openings or even (yeah right!) finish early!!

Well i think you made the right choice and Paxton will love the lights. When we took Will at 2, that was his favorite thing!

So summer 2012 on CARS? well that is a bummer, but at least Little Mermaid is open now! World of Color was awesome!!! I have a DL TR in my sig from a September trip that was fabulous. We did the dining package at Ariel's Grotto for it and since mom is vision impaired, we got handicap seating too which was fabulous. The show is not to be missed. i would definitely do the dining package though. We saw the lines waiting for the show and it was crazy and that was in September during 'off season'!

Yeah, I am happy with our decision. Paxton does LOVE lights so I think the dancing O Lights will be a big hit. Hopefully we are not packed like sardines trying to see them though!

I'm SO excited about the Little Mermaid ride and World of Color! Thanks for the suggestion on the dining package. I'm so confused by Disneyland dining. Is it only 60 days in advance that you can book things? And is the WOC dining similar to the Fantasmic dining where you book the meal as a WOC meal and get a special place for the show?

Your family is so cute!! I love the PRT so far :)

Thanks for joining in!! :cool1:
 


WEDNESDAY MAY 4TH

On our last day of this ultra-short vacation, we woke up to some windy and slightly chilly weather. Definitely not a hang at the beach or pool kind of day! We woke up kind of late and were slow to get moving. DS let us know he wanted to watch some of his favorite show, Sesame Street!

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Then we had a little fun putting his hat on him and taking some silly pictures because he is just so cute!!

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When we looked out from the balcony, it seemed like the tide was pretty low, so we decided to go take a walk down the beach to look for some seashells that might have washed up overnight to take home as a souvenir for Paxton from his first vacation. We got ourselves dressed and strapped DS into the carrier with Mommy this time.

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Our view that morning

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DS actually fell asleep while we were walking, but we didn't end up walking too far because the wind was blowing so badly that the sand was hitting us like crazy and I was worried about it getting in his face and eyes. We managed to collect plenty of pretty shells for him to take home though, so our brief walk on the beach was a success!

After going back to the room and feeding DS, it was time for DH and I to eat some lunch! We looked at a bunch of restaurants, but we ended up heading back to Pier Park again because they just had so much to choose from that we wanted to try, and we hadn't gotten into very many of the shops we had wanted to the day before.

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We picked Red Brick Pizza for lunch. We ordered our pizzas at the counter and they brought them to our table. It was pretty crowded in there because we showed up right at lunch time, but we didn't have a problem grabbing a table. The pizzas were delicious! They were made in brick ovens so they were crispy and the cheese was all melty and stretchy. SO yummy!

DS was a little jealous that he didn't have his own drink, so he tried to steal DH's!

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After lunch, we headed out into the shops! As if we needed to spend any more money... lol But if I remember right, we really only spent money at the Carter's Outlet store getting DS more outfits. They had some really cute stuff there! We also got a disposable styrofoam ice chest from Target and looked around there awhile. We went to a couple different stores, like a flip flop store, an Aeropostale outlet, and some others but didn't get anything else, except we might have gotten our painted sand dollar magnet this day. We always buy a magnet when we go on vacation, and this one was no different! They had some great stores with children's clothes, but OMG they were expensive!! Like $35 for one jumper than he will maybe fit in for a couple more months?! I don't think so!!

Also while we were walking around, we checked out the menus at some of the sit-down restaurants in Pier Park to figure out where we wanted to eat dinner. We looked a quite a few places, but ended up deciding on Margaritaville anyway, even though we eat at those all over the place. The seafood restaurants were just all way too expensive for fish we can get at home for a lot cheaper.

DS snoozed in the umbrella stroller for most of our shopping, so by the time we got back to the resort, he was raring to go and I was exhausted! I tried to take a nap, but DH had DS out on the balcony while there was a dance party going on down at the pool right below our room, and I was distracted by baby giggles! So I gave up on the nap and joined them on the balcony to enjoy DS having a GREAT time!

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All too soon, it was time to get ready for dinner so that we could get back at a decent time and pack up. :(

We arrived at Margaritaville and were seated immediately on the second floor near the balcony looking down over the main dining room.

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While waiting for our food, they had a pirate on stilts walking around making balloon animals and swords for the kids on our level. I was a little disappointed he didn't come make anything for DS, but I guess we didn't really need one for him anyway.

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Waiting for dinner

DS had a good ole' time flirting with the waitresses again tonight, and they had a good time playing peek-a-boo with him around the corner. lol It kept him entertained while we ate at least. DH had the Cheeseburger in Paradise, and I had a delicious steak with mashed potatoes and grilled vegetables. Mmmmm, I could go for that right about now!

Continued in next post...
 
After dinner, instead of going back up to our room right away, we went down to the beach for one last walk in the sand. We collected some sand in a sandwich bag to take him to put in a bottle with DS's shells for his keepsake from the trip, and I wanted to get some more pictures of DS's feet in the sand for his baby book.

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He didn't seem to mind the dry sand nearly as much as he had hated the wet sand the day before!

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Paxton & Daddy...my favorite picture from the trip!

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Baby footprints

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Mommy, Daddy & Baby

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Beautiful Sunset

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After finishing up on the beach, it was about DS's bedtime. We made our way back up to the room and got him ready for bed and fed him. He was out pretty quickly. DH and I had to be VERY quiet as we started packing up as much as we could so that we wouldn't be scrambling to get out before checkout time the next morning.

The drive home was pretty uneventful except that DS spent a lot more time awake than he had on the drive there, and it was hard to keep him occupied for that length of time. He got pretty cranky for a couple of hours in the middle of the day!

Although it was a long drive for such a short stay, I am SO glad we were able to get away for a little while and reconnect as a family after DH was gone for so long. I think it was a lot on him too, since he had just flown in from California Sunday night and we were packing up that night to leave early Monday morning, but I think he agreed that it was totally worth it. We had a great time together, and DS seemed to enjoy the change of scenery as well. It was a nice little "practice" vacation for our LONG drive to Disney World in just a few more months!!
 
So here's the problem with the ADR window being 180 days instead of 90 like it was for the last big trip I planned...it gives me lots of time to play with the itinerary, and to DH's dismay, add more ADRs!

We had discussed a meal at Via Napoli when we first started planning, and it was a restaurant I was very interested in trying. I didn't make the ADR because DH complained that he saw the prices were going to be increasing. Months later, that still never happened. I really wasn't sure where we were going to fit it in because our time at Epcot was limited to only 2 afternoons anyway, and I didn't think we'd want to spend a couple hours of that time at a TS dinner.

In looking over the itinerary again (and again, and again, and again... :rotfl:) I found the perfect solution. Dinner on our resort day! We are already having breakfast that morning at Chef Mickey's at 9:30 am, then hanging out at Bonnet Creek all day. Our other option was cooking, but I honestly just don't see us doing much cooking on this trip anyway. So I went ahead and got us a 5:45 pm ADR for Tuesday Nov 8th.

Again, trying to take advantage of having that AP! So nice to be able to just go to a park for dinner and not be "wasting" a day on our tickets. :thumbsup2 I'm really excited to try this restaurant! It sounds amazing. And DH absolutely LOVES pizza, so I'm sure he'll enjoy it too, even though right now he is not too excited about it. :laughing:
 


So here's the problem with the ADR window being 180 days instead of 90 like it was for the last big trip I planned...it gives me lots of time to play with the itinerary, and to DH's dismay, add more ADRs!

We had discussed a meal at Via Napoli when we first started planning, and it was a restaurant I was very interested in trying. I didn't make the ADR because DH complained that he saw the prices were going to be increasing. Months later, that still never happened. I really wasn't sure where we were going to fit it in because our time at Epcot was limited to only 2 afternoons anyway, and I didn't think we'd want to spend a couple hours of that time at a TS dinner.

In looking over the itinerary again (and again, and again, and again... :rotfl:) I found the perfect solution. Dinner on our resort day! We are already having breakfast that morning at Chef Mickey's at 9:30 am, then hanging out at Bonnet Creek all day. Our other option was cooking, but I honestly just don't see us doing much cooking on this trip anyway. So I went ahead and got us a 5:45 pm ADR for Tuesday Nov 8th.

Again, trying to take advantage of having that AP! So nice to be able to just go to a park for dinner and not be "wasting" a day on our tickets. :thumbsup2 I'm really excited to try this restaurant! It sounds amazing. And DH absolutely LOVES pizza, so I'm sure he'll enjoy it too, even though right now he is not too excited about it. :laughing:

Sounds like a great idea to me!

You could even park at the boardwalk in the evening for a stroll, and then head in via the international gateway!
 
Sounds like a great idea to me!

You could even park at the boardwalk in the evening for a stroll, and then head in via the international gateway!

That sounds like a great idea!! I have been wanting to check out the Boardwalk for awhile now, but never been able to work it in. Thanks!
 
That sounds like a great idea!! I have been wanting to check out the Boardwalk for awhile now, but never been able to work it in. Thanks!

Glad to help!

BTW, I haven't commented on your DL trip, but while it's unlikely...there is a slight possibility Carsland could be up and running by late May, 2011. However, the exact date will probably not be known until the spring.

It seems like we time our trips together. We will hopefully hitting DL for the first time next summer as part of a larger trip. This will likely be in July, so hoping that Carsland is up and running by then.
 
Your plan sounds good. I want to try via also and just like you, i want to take advantage of the discount there with the AP.:thumbsup2
And i love the way you wore the Disney tour shirt on your beach trip!
 
Glad to help!

BTW, I haven't commented on your DL trip, but while it's unlikely...there is a slight possibility Carsland could be up and running by late May, 2011. However, the exact date will probably not be known until the spring.

It seems like we time our trips together. We will hopefully hitting DL for the first time next summer as part of a larger trip. This will likely be in July, so hoping that Carsland is up and running by then.

I am hopeful for some soft openings so that we can at least see it since it will probably be a long while before we make another DL trip in the future. But I won't be too upset if we miss it. I'm not a huge fan of Cars anyway.

How funny that you'll be taking a trip (around) the same time! I too wanted to do a larger trip, and visit several cities in CA and have our DL time somewhere in there. But DH really took to it while he was there for work and is excited about bringing me and DS there. So we figured we could work it out since we'll already be on the west coast for a small trip, and then to visit his grandmother. I still would like to take my envisioned 2 week California trip sometime, but it just might end up further off into the future!

Your plan sounds good. I want to try via also and just like you, i want to take advantage of the discount there with the AP.:thumbsup2
And i love the way you wore the Disney tour shirt on your beach trip!

:thumbsup2 Yep, love my Disney shirt! I think I love it the most because we weren't even supposed to visit WDW in 2010 and ended up going very last minute, so it is special to me. :goodvibes DH bought me 2 really cute shirts from a Disney store in Hollywood that I can't wait to wear in WDW too!

We tease each other that we have bought so many t-shirts on our travels that they are all we wear now!
 
love the pics of him laughing, he is just such a happy baby! I also think the pics of your footprints in the sand is just amazing- such a great idea and great memory.

what does your green shirt say on the front- that shirt is really cute!
 
love the pics of him laughing, he is just such a happy baby! I also think the pics of your footprints in the sand is just amazing- such a great idea and great memory.

what does your green shirt say on the front- that shirt is really cute!

Thanks! He really is one of the happiest babies ever. It takes a lot to make him whiny, although cutting teeth right now is hitting him pretty hard.

I have tried to take more of a scrapbooker's approach to life since having a child. :laughing: Stuff I never would have thought to take pictures of, I have made sure I had my camera ready to whip out and snap a shot for his baby book! That's where the inspiration for the footprints pictures came from. :goodvibes

I can't believe I didn't post pics of the shirt in my Babymoon TR! I bought it specifically because it said 2010 and we had not planned on stepping foot in Walt Disney World in 2010 until the week before we decided to go, so it had to be commemorated in t-shirt form! :rotfl: Here's some pics of the shirt, hopefully they came out decent enough to see.

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The front. The decoration is down in the bottom right corner.

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The back
 
Ok So I'm joining in!

I LOVED the mini TR from Panama City! I went to grad school in Pensacola, so the FL gulf coast is near and dear to my heart, best beaches in the world! (well at least in my humble opinion ;) ) It looked like you guys had a great time and Paxton is such a cutie!

I think your itinerary looks great too! You are going in with the right mindset and I'm sure you will have an awesome time. You'll probably get to do more than you think, I'm always surprised as to how much we get done with Everett. I'm sure it helps that Disney is one of the most baby friendly places in the world.

I'm looking forward to hearing more updates! I love the F&W festival and the Castle and Osborne lights, and we won't be seeing them this year. I'll just have to live vicariously though you! :laughing:
 
I just love the back of that shirt- so cute!

yep, i take way too many pictures now with William. it is a sickness, i tell you. Sorry he is cutting teeth, that's a rough time, but hopefully he gets through it soon!
 
Ok So I'm joining in!

I LOVED the mini TR from Panama City! I went to grad school in Pensacola, so the FL gulf coast is near and dear to my heart, best beaches in the world! (well at least in my humble opinion ;) ) It looked like you guys had a great time and Paxton is such a cutie!

I think your itinerary looks great too! You are going in with the right mindset and I'm sure you will have an awesome time. You'll probably get to do more than you think, I'm always surprised as to how much we get done with Everett. I'm sure it helps that Disney is one of the most baby friendly places in the world.

I'm looking forward to hearing more updates! I love the F&W festival and the Castle and Osborne lights, and we won't be seeing them this year. I'll just have to live vicariously though you! :laughing:

We have been to Pensacola a few times, and actually were trying for there, but our timeshare was booked solid. We definitely enjoyed PCB too, even though we were there for such a short period of time. It was a great little practice vacation!

I am approaching this Disney trip with a 1 year old in that I am planning lots of things, but don't actually expect to do them all. :laughing: I am adding into the plans what is the best night for fireworks in each park, but right now, he starts getting cranky by 6:30 and is usually out for the night by 7:30. So will we actually get to do the fireworks? Probably not, but that's ok!

Thanks for joining in! :goodvibes

I just love the back of that shirt- so cute!

yep, i take way too many pictures now with William. it is a sickness, i tell you. Sorry he is cutting teeth, that's a rough time, but hopefully he gets through it soon!

I try to remember to take pictures of everything, but sometimes I don't take as many, and I regret it later. Usually because I am too busy having fun with him instead! I'm thinking for his 1st birthday party asking my friend Kim (she is a hardcore scrapbooker, and always manages to get GREAT shots of her kids) to come be photographer for the day so I can have fun and experience everything with Paxton and DH, and not worry about taking the pictures (and be IN all of them!).
 
For months now, I have been trying to convince DH we should consider flying to Disney World instead of driving. It wouldn't save us any money...driving would definitely be cheaper, even splitting it over 2 days and getting a hotel room. But flying would save us so much TIME. And since I'll presumably be the one sitting in the backseat with DS the most trying to keep him entertained, you can see why I think flying would be the better option. :laughing: A 1.5 hour flight vs. a 13+ hour drive? No contest!

But I'm having a dilemma about flying with DS as a lap baby vs. buying him a seat. DH is totally against buying him a seat, which I can understand, because with Southwest, there is an infant fare, but it's 1/2 of the full price adult fare, which comes out to the same price as the "Wanna Get Away" fares we'd be buying for ourselves. He'd rather just drive and save the money. On the other hand, I love the idea of flying, but my mommy brain keeps coming up with so many "what ifs?" that I am super concerned with DS's safety and keep having that nagging feeling that I don't really want to fly without getting him a seat because it's safer. My thought it always, "I'm sure it will be fine, but I bet everyone who has ever died in a plane crash thought that too!" I'm a little psycho that way. I have never been totally comfortable flying, although I have done it many times since getting married. But then, it was always just me & DH, I never had to worry about my child in the mix. Ugh, being a mom can be so stressful!!

So share with me...if you flew with an under 2, did you do lap baby or buy them a seat? Share your experiences & thoughts either way! I know we will have to decide soon before the fares go up or the flights sell out.
 
We flew with our DD several times as a lap child. Never really had any problems. As she got older, we ended up on a trip to Arizona right before she turned 2 buying a DVD player INSTEAD of the ticket, knowing that she would be too squirmy otherwise. The only problems we had were her spiking a fever once on a long flight. We had medicine but had forgotten the dropper to dose her with. Couldn't get her to drink it, and ended up having to get the flight attendent to break into the medical kit, which requires calling the ground apparently....

...anyways back on your concern. I can see where your coming from being worried for your son. If it's any consolation, most plane crashes the seat belt isn't going to make much of a difference! (OK - that was my dark sense of humor - sorry.) SEriously though - during take-off and landing, I would strap him in by sharing your seat belt, just for that short time...the rest of the time, the seat belt isn't much use anyways, unless you get into some ridiculous turbulence.

I don't know how well you know the SWA flight schedule, but here's one thing to try - if you pick a flight that is NOT full, they will generally let you bring your baby carrier on the flight and use a seat anyway. However, so many SWA seem fully booked now, I am not sure how well that plan would work for you.

Really, what I keep thinking is...if it really was a true SAFETY CONCERN to hold your child on your lap, would SWA allow you to do it? I don't think they would. You figure they would rather make the money of selling the seat? So, if they could argue it from a safety point of view, they would, right?

IDK - I probably put you no closer to a decision...myself I would probably fly unless the cost difference was significant. (More than $300-400) Our time off is so precious, it's tough to use it up on travelling.
 
Thanks for joining in! :goodvibes

I try to remember to take pictures of everything, but sometimes I don't take as many, and I regret it later. Usually because I am too busy having fun with him instead! I'm thinking for his 1st birthday party asking my friend Kim (she is a hardcore scrapbooker, and always manages to get GREAT shots of her kids) to come be photographer for the day so I can have fun and experience everything with Paxton and DH, and not worry about taking the pictures (and be IN all of them!).
I found myself taking way too many pics and not enjoying the moment, so i've tried to just enjoy instead now. Plus, i have NO time to scrapbook anymore. I do it all online now, although i'd prefer to do it the old fashioned way, i simply don't have time. :thumbsup2

I have to agree with Pete, I know it is pretty grim, but in a plane crash, not sure how much difference the seat is going to make. And the chances are just so slim (as you know, chances of car crash are so much greater). I would totally do lap baby, it's such a short flight anyhow. I did it with Will when he was 4 months old. Getting that stupid car seat in the seat of the plane was a complete nightmare the time we did use it. Last December, he just flew in the regular seat. And like Pete said, if you get a flight that isn't full, you can always spread out if you want! I would take flying over driving any day.
 

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