August 2016 - WDW with 2 kids under 3

[Moushe]

Welcome to my very first Trip Report!

In August 2016 we made a short trip to WDW with 2 kids under 3, I did extensive research before the trip in order to plan the most enjoyable time for all of us. During my planning I found it helpful to read trip reports from people who had small kids, that way I could see what worked or didn’t work.

My one regret was that we didn’t take as many pictures as I would’ve liked. With two small kids it wasn’t easy to pull out my camera and make them stand still for a picture. Next time I will make more of an effort to take pictures. Even though the pictures I do have aren’t great, I still wanted to post the report as it is mostly tips for touring WDW with small kids and I feel this could possibly be helpful to other parents thinking about visiting WDW or already in the process of planning their trip.


I wrote a short Pre-trip Report titled “August 2015 – POP Century - 3 Days 1 Park” so I will just copy and paste the intro here….

Hello there! let me introduce myself. My name is Adri, I am 36 years old from South FL. Lived here since I was 2 so I'm basically a native South Floridian . I've been married to my wonderful husband Al (DH) for 6 years.



We have an almost 3 year old little boy, DS, (will be celebrating his birthday in WDW next month!) he was 2.5 at the time of our trip and a 1 year old little girl DD who was 10 months at the time of our trip.

 

[Moushe]

A little of our Disney history:

Growing up - in the 80’s, my family was very much a Disney family, we had annual passes and were there about 5 times a year. I have great memories of our car rides to Orlando and how we could make our way around the parks with our eyes closed. But, I admit it kinda lost its appeal once I was in my late teens and college years. We went on our last family trip in 1998 and I didn't return until 2007 (with DH when we were dating) and that was only to EPCOT for WFF.

DH visited WDW a few times during his childhood plus several other times with his older son who is now an adult. He likes Disney but doesn’t “love” it. (I intend to fix that!)


Back in February we visited MK for one day to meet up with family from Texas. DS had just turned 2 at the time. DD was only 3 months old so she stayed behind with Grandma. That trip was very rushed but it helped me realize how much things have changed and how much planning and research I would have to do in order to have a successful trip with 2 little ones in the future.

 

[Moushe]

Tips for Travelling to WDW with 2 Kids Under 3

Before I go on to tell you what we did each day, I want to go over some tips that made our trip with small kids more enjoyable. I found little tidbits like these on other trip reports really helped me in my planning.

Disclaimer: I feel it is important to note that we live within driving distance of Orlando (about 3 hrs) and we know we will be going often so we aren’t in a rush to do everything, everytime. My tips may not work for everyone, particularly if you live far away and have to fly to Orlando or if this is a “once in a lifetime trip”. (actually, I don’t recommend doing that with very small kids, it would be better to wait till they are older and easier to handle).

So here are my tips:

Ø Know what is important to you and what things you could do without. During the planning stage DH and discussed the things we wanted to do and see. We decided on 1 park day and 2 Resort days (pool/ADR’s). We also decided that parades and fireworks were not important to us this trip. The Fireworks are way past our kids’ bedtime and it would be too hot to stand around waiting for a parade to start, so we are leaving the parades for our January trip when the weather is cooler. We also decided that we weren’t going to do any solo rides while the other one sat with the kids. We wanted to concentrate on doing stuff the kids like so we weren’t going to make them sit around waiting for one of us to ride a roller coaster.

Ø Take advantage of Character Meals while your kids are still “Free”. We wanted to do character meals since our kids would really enjoy them and they are both under 3 so we don’t have to pay for their food. We booked Chef Mickeys for brunch on a resort day and Crystal Palace for lunch at MK.

Ø Know your Kids! No one knows your kids better than you do. Our kids are early risers and more chipper in the early part of the day. My 3yo in particular basically starts to fall apart as the day goes on, lol. (especially now that he’s all but dropped his afternoon nap) So we knew we wanted a pre-opening ADR to be in the park as early as possible. We lucked out with an 8am ADR at BOG. My kids are also very impatient. I knew we could not do lines that were longer than 20 minutes. We also couldn’t spend too much time standing around trying to figure out what to do next, or we would surely have a meltdown on our hands. We basically had to KEEP MOVING. This is where the next tip comes into play…

Ø Plan your Day. Seems obvious but it’s a really important aspect of a successful trip so I had to add it. I paid for a Touring Plan membership and used it to create my own plan which I tweaked A LOT in the weeks before our trip. I used the interactive MK map to actually see where the rides were so I could plan how we would get from ride to ride. While we didn’t use it as much while at the park it helped me get a sense for how long the lines are and which are the best times for particular rides. Plus I had been playing around with it so much I practically knew it by heart. Once we would be done with a ride DH would turn to me and ask “where to?” and I would already know which ride we needed to get to next.

Ø Get your FP+ for the first part of your day. This goes against all the FP tips I read on the boards but most people who suggest getting FP for later in the day also have older kids. For us it was key to do as much as possible in the morning. We got FP for 9,10,11. We did the Mickey Mouse M&G and then walked-on Buzz Lightyear before even using them. Once those were used up we were able to get 3 more throughout the day at the kiosks. (we could’ve gotten more but we were hot and tired and wanted to go back to the hotel)

Ø Lunch ADR (especially in the summer). I can’t tell you how GREAT it was to get out of the sun and into a nice air-conditioned room. Plus since it was a buffet we didn’t feel like we had to rush. Character meals are also a big plus because your kids will be entertained. That hour we sat in Crystal Palace really re-charged us.

Ø Frog Togs!! (especially in the summer). I read about these here on the boards and purchased 2 from amazon. They really saved us and made a huge difference in beating the heat.

Ø Misting fans (another summer must!) I got 2 of these on Amazon and put one on each of the kid’s cup holder in their stroller so they basically had a fan pointed at them all day. I would spray DD every once in a while to keep her cool and DS figured out how to spray himself so his shirt was pretty much soaked. For some reason the price on these vary a lot, I got them for $8 each back in July and now they are at $13. I believe you can also get them at Walmart.

Ø Wear comfortable shoes and clothes. Sneakers make my feet hot and flip flops kill my feet because I need arch support so I need something in between. I ended up buying the Merrell Buzz sandals in black and they were SO comfortable, I could barely feel them on my feet! For pants, I took the advice of wearing moisture wicking yoga pants. I bought a pair of Champion brand ones from Target for $18. The moisture wicking fabric kept me cool and the fact that they were yoga pants helped prevent chafing.

My thoughts on the Disney Dining Plan:

I don’t consider this a tip or must-do since it really varies on personal eating habits, but I will say that it definitely worked for us this trip and we will probably get it again. Before purchasing the DDP I crunched the numbers both on my own and using 2 different calculator tools I found online and came to the conclusion that we would be saving about $70. The DDP works for us because DH and I like to eat and do not like to share food, so the amount of food is not an issue for us. We also like to indulge while on vacation and not have to worry about watching the budget. So having our meals already paid for is a big plus in our book. Our kids are still “free” at Disney so this also helps, especially since we did 2 character meals and a breakfast at BOG. We may feel differently next year when we have to pay for DS’s meals.

 

[Moushe]

Our Trip – August 2016

I was able to convince DH that we should do a quick trip in August since there were great deals for Florida Residents at the end of the summer. For this trip we wanted to only visit MK which we knew would be the park our kids would enjoy the most. Plus it would be extremely HOT so one day was enough for us. The rest of the time we would spend on character meals and swimming in the resort pool. This was kind of a test run for us to see if WDW with 2 small kids would be enjoyable enough for us to get seasonal passes so that we can come for several short trips throughout the year. If it turned out to be a total disaster we would just wait till the kids are older. (Spoiler alert: we ended up upgrading to the Seasonal pass before leaving MK!)

We travelled to The World from Sunday, August 16th till Wednesday, August 19th. Staying offsite at Marriott Springhill Suites the first night and POP Century the remaining 2 nights.

Day 1 - Sunday 8/16 - DTD & Offsite hotel

Our plan was to leave the house by 9am and drive directly DTD for a lunch ADR at T-Rex with some friends who live in the area. After lunch we wanted to visit the Lego store, Once Upon a Toy, and World of Disney before returning to our hotel to swim in the pool for the rest of the evening. I made sure to have everything packed and ready to load in the car by Saturday night so that Sunday morning we would just get ready, grab breakfast and head out.

I woke up first at around 5am because I wanted to wash my hair and blow it out (it was dirty, lol) and double check a few things before everyone else got up. This went according to plan. Once I was ready my DS woke up. While DH made him breakfast (mini pancakes, his favorite) DD woke up so I got her ready. While DH loaded the car, I fed DD breakfast and DS watched cartoons. We were able to get on the road right on schedule.

The ride was uneventful, DS brought a dinosaur toy he had recently become obsessed with so that kept him entertained throughout the drive. DD was a little fussy at first and I had to keep switching her toys out. Finally about an hour into the drive I gave her a bottle and she fell asleep, sleeping for the remainder of the trip. We made it to Orlando in 3.5 hours which was just what I was hoping and we were lining up to enter the parking garage at DTD with an hour and half to go before our ADR time.

The walk from the garage to T-Rex was a bit long but we got to see how much DTD has changed. I sent my friend a text to let her know we had arrived and she assured me she was on her way. It was HOT (I will probably say this about 100 times in this trip report, but well it was August in Florida – IT WAS HOT!) We got a shave ice for DH to share with the kids while I stood in the ADR check-in line.


The line was pretty long and right in the sun. I stood there for about 15 minutes before making it to the counter. The CM checked us in and told me to gather my party and stand in yet another line inside the restaurant. I was under the impression that my friend would be there soon but it turns out she lives a lot further from WDW than I thought – 45 minutes – so it was taking her quite a while to get there. She also didn’t realize she should’ve been there about 1 hour before the ADR. They called our name over the speaker and I explained that the rest of our party was “on their way” but was told they couldn’t sit us until everyone was there. DH was not happy about this. But there really was nothing we could do. So we waited… and waited… about 30 min later my friend showed up, we were seated and all was well.


The restaurant itself is just fantastic, especially if you have a little boy who is really into dinosaurs like mine is. There are large animatronic dinosaurs throughout that roar (growl?) and move. One dining area is a cave where you experience a “meteor shower” every few minutes – the lights flicker and change color and you can hear thunder. Another room is designed to look like you are underwater. My DS and my friend’s DS were just in awe of the place. The food itself was nothing special, the menu is the same as a Fridays or Applebees type restaurant. We all had the Bronto burger with fries. It was pretty good as far as burgers go. The boys had a cheeseburger and macaroni and cheese which they both seemed to enjoy. The total for 3 burgers, 2 kids meals, and 6 beers with tax and 20% tip came out to $176, more or less what I was expecting.(we paid OOP for this meal since we were staying offsite that night).


Once we exited the restaurant we realized our plan to walk around was thwarted because the sky was practically black. We knew we needed to get to the car before the sky opened up so we just high-tailed it back to the garage. Actually, we did make one stop – United World Soccer. I wanted a James Rodriguez Real Madrid jersey, but all the jerseys they had were plain (no names on back). We got DS a Barcelona mini-soccer ball (we really wanted a Real Madrid ball but they were out) and DH got a Real Madrid scarf. THEN we high-tailed it back to the car. We made it just in time because when we drove out of the garage it was raining pretty hard.

Now we were headed to Marriott Springhill Suites. I was using my annual free night stay that I get from being a Marriott Rewards CC member. I wasn’t expecting much, I just picked the hotel closest to WDW, with a pool, which would take my free night voucher. Turned out we were pleasantly surprised. The check-in was fast and easy. Our room was on the ground floor like I requested and when we walked in a pack n play was already there. The room had a king sized bed, nice sized bathroom with separate vanity area. There was also a separate alcove with a sofa bed, large flat-screen TV, desk, chair, mini-fridge, microwave and sink.


The plan was to enjoy the pool and splash pad area but the weather was not cooperating so we were forced to stay indoors. DH and I played with the kids on the floor of the alcove. Luckily I had brought a couple new toys for them so they didn’t mind being stuck in the room. Ds had some fun running around dribbling his new soccer ball. I also think they were just happy to not be stuck in a car seat, stroller, or high chair for the first time that day. Around 7pm it stopped raining so we went out for a walk. We ended up at the hotel “Marketplace” and got some ice cream for DS and some adult beverages for DH and me. We were still stuffed from lunch so we ended up skipping dinner. Back in the room we got the kids bathed and ready for bed and once they were asleep DH and I watched TV and relaxed with our beverages in the alcove before deciding to go to bed.

 

[Moushe]

Day 2 - Monday 8/17 – Chef Mickey’s Brunch & Check in at POP

Monday we were up at about 7am. The hotel offers free breakfast so we headed over and were pleased to see a large assortment of hot and cold options. Unfortunately the seating area was very small. Before we could even get food we had to stand around waiting for someone to get up from a table. It was very uncomfortable as people were practically pouncing on open tables so we had to hover around waiting. We were finally able to sit down and grab some breakfast. They had scrambled eggs, sausage, bacon, oatmeal, assorted cereals, assorted pastries, sliced bread, bagels, fruit, yogurt, orange and apple juice and a variety of flavored coffees. I only had coffee and a bagel as we had a 12:30 brunch ADR at Chef Mickey’s. Dh had coffee and several different pastries which he really liked. DS wanted pancakes (there were none) so he settled on yogurt and apple juice, and I gave DD some bits of banana along with her baby cereal which I brought from home. Once everyone was properly fed (and caffeinated) we went back to the room to pack up and head over to POP for check-in.

At around 9:30am I got a text message saying our room was ready and we could head straight over there. However this was our first time using the DDP so I still wanted to stop at the front desk to make sure our magic bands were activated. (It turns out this wasn’t necessary and they were in fact ready for use.) Check-in at POP was pretty easy, there were only 2 people in line in front of me and plenty of CMs checking people in so I only waited about a minute or two before being called up to the desk. The very nice CM informed me that we could’ve gone straight to the room or our ADR as everything was ready to go.

We unloaded the car and headed to the room. I was happy to see all my room requests were met*: Ground floor room, pool view, in the 60’s building. Now I must say that value rooms are always described as “tiny” on the boards but I really didn’t feel it was too bad. We had a double stroller in there plus our 2 suitcases and a cooler and I never felt like we were cramped. We unpacked, changed the kids’ diapers and decided to leave for the Contemporary for our Chef Mickey’s ADR with about an hour to spare. Before leaving we stopped to get our drink mugs. Dh got a red one. I let DS pick mine and he picked green.

At the gate for the Contemporary parking lot they scanned DH’s magic band to confirm we had an ADR and let us in. (DH was surprised when the CM said “enjoy your meal Al!”). We parked and walked through the hotel and up the escalator to Chef Mickey’s. We checked in, took our picture, and waited in the little lobby area. My son then decides to jump and climb on the sofas, and try to get in everyone’s pictures. Unfortunately we ended up waiting for close to 30 minutes, so I was exasperated to say the least by the time we sat down. It seems my son burned his energy in the waiting area because he sat quietly and ate his Mickey waffles without further antics. I was pleasantly surprised by the food at Chef Mickey’s. I read several reviews of the new brunch where people complained that it was all breakfast food and some ribs. I still booked it because I knew DS and DD would love to see the characters, plus DH loves breakfast food. But there was actually a good variety of food. I had about 3 different plates and NONE of it was breakfast food and all of it was delicious

Just as expected the characters were a BIG hit. DS was so excited he didn’t know what to do, the look on his face was priceless. The character interaction was fantastic, we saw the Fab 5 and they each spent a good amount of time at our table. So no complaints here, we will definitely make this ADR a must on future visits.




Once we had seen all the characters and had stuffed ourselves with yummy food we headed out. Before leaving the Contemporary we decided to ride the monorail loop. We had a car all to ourselves and it was nice to see the different resorts. Plus it was clear and sunny so we could see some of the MK. After doing the entire loop we walked back to the car and drove to POP.


Both kids fell asleep on the drive so we carried them to the room where they slept for almost 2 hours. The plan was to hang out by the pool for the rest of the day with an early QS dinner at Everything POP, and an early bed time for all of us. However, about 5 minutes after the kids woke up it started pouring! We had to wait about an hour and a half to get in the pool, and it was actually still drizzling, but the lightning had stopped so we were allowed in.



The kids really liked the kiddie pool and it was nice to be able to relax and let DS run around and splash in the water. DH and I each had a Mojito from Petals – the poolside bar. It was cold, minty, delicious, and just what we were looking for. At around 6 we threw on some shorts and t-shirts and went to grab dinner at Everything POP. Dh had a pizza which he said was ok, not bad - just nothing special. I had the pulled pork sandwich with a side of pasta salad. The sandwich was DELICIOUS. You could get the pork in either tangy or sweet sauce. I picked sweet and let me tell you I was practically licking the plate by the time I was done. The pasta salad on the other hand was not so good. I was expecting it to be a mayo-based salad, but it was more like Greek salad. So I took a few bites but left most of it. DS had an “Unscrustable” pb&J sandwich (I brought a box of them from home and kept them in the cooler.) He also had a few bites of my pasta salad and drank lemonade from my mug. DD had a jar of baby food.

Once fed we were all exhausted so we headed back to the room. We originally thought we would watch the movie by the pool since it was right outside our room but the movie turned out to be “The Mighty Ducks” – not something my DS would sit still for so we just went back to the room. Once we were all bathed we realized how tired we were. The kids pretty much fell asleep the second their heads hit the pillow. Dh ran out to Petals and got us drinks while I got the kids ready for bed but I could barely stay awake long enough to finish mine – I was THAT tired!

*side note: A lot people advise against getting a poolside room because of the noise. We requested one because it’s just easier getting in and out and not having to deal with elevators, especially with a double stroller. I will admit that you could hear a lot of the pool noise in the room but it didn’t cause us to lose sleep or anything. While we were going to sleep you could sort of make out the movie but we all fell asleep without issue. (I’m a VERY light sleeper and this kinda thing would normally drive me up the wall but I was able to fall asleep with no problem). On Wednesday morning when I woke up I could hear faint music and I actually thought DH had fallen asleep with his earbuds in but it turned out to be the music from the pool. I was the only one who noticed though; DH and the kids were not fazed by it. We will definitely request a poolside room again as it is a lot easier to run back to the room for diaper changes, snacks, a bottle, etc. when we are out by the pool.

 

[Moushe]

Day 3 - Tuesday 8/18 – Magic Kingdom, ADR’s at Be Our Guest & Crystal Palace - PART I



We woke up bright and early as we had an 8am ADR at Be Our Guest. I put my alarm for 6am and DH and I got ready before the kids were up. We were dressed and out the door by 7am. By the time we got to MK entrance there was already a line for early ADR’s. They let us in at 7:45 and let me tell you it was such a magical experience, being able to walk through Main Street without a huge crowd trying to push past you. I was so giddy I was skipping, Dh laughed at me. We took some pictures in front of the castle and headed to BOG. The check-in was quick and easy and soon we were walking over the bridge while CM’s clapped and welcomed us.

We had pre-ordered our breakfast (which DH thought was insane, “how the heck am I supposed to know what I want for breakfast a month from now?”) so we were seated fairly quickly. We took a table in the main room and although we were all the way to the side closest to the drink dispensers you could see into the West Wing and hear the thunder. I thought it was pretty cool, unfortunately the thunder scared the crap out of DS (don’t know why since he was totally ok with the meteor shower at T-Rex). He jumped in my lap and would not let me put him down. So I had to eat breakfast with him in my lap. DH and I both had the Open-faced Bacon and Egg Sandwich. Oh my, that was one delicious egg sandwich! We both really enjoyed it. I was planning on sharing with DS but he was more interested in the pastries and fruit. Dh and I were stuffed from our sandwiches so we didn’t have any pastries, but DS had about 3 and seemed to like them. DD had baby cereal that I had brought as well as some fruit. DH and I drank coffee and I got DS and DD some apple juice.

Now the reviews on this place seem to be mostly in the “I liked it but not at $20 per plate” category. I will say that we really liked it, more than we thought we would and don’t feel $20 is too much for this meal since it includes pastries and drinks AND the food is delicious. DH agreed that being in the castle was a nice experience and he really liked being inside the park before the masses so I am sure we will be eating breakfast here again.

After we were done eating we got everyone a cup of ice water for the road and we were off to start our MK adventures!

Except….. right off the bat all my planning started to go awry! (ok, it didn’t really but it felt like it would) Here’s what happened:

My DS loves Mickey Mouse, watches him all the time at home on the Disney Channel, on youtube, plays the apps, etc. When we went to MK in February he loved the talking Mickey at Town Square, I almost couldn’t pull him away from Mickey, he wanted to stand there and hug him all day! So for this trip I wanted to make sure we saw Mickey early in the day to get DS into the Disney mood and so we could get a nice family picture before we were all sweaty. When I asked on the boards about walking back to Main Street after BOG I was told it was a better idea to just stay in Fantasy Land where we could get a walk on ride on Winnie the Pooh or Peter Pan; possibly both.

However, Touring Plans showed Town Square Mickey’s lines getting longer after 10am. Skipping Mickey was not an option, neither was zig zagging back and forth through the park later in the day OR waiting in line longer than 20 minutes. I should add that everyone’s response to my question of walking back to Main Street was that we SHOULD NOT, not specifically that we COULD NOT. The reason I say this is because I assumed we could just walk right back to the front of the park before it officially opened, the same way we had walked over to BOG. Turns out I was wrong. After leaving BOG we walked past Cinderella’s castle and down the little hill. At the bottom of the hill before reaching the bridge to the hub a CM stopped us and asked where we were going, we said “Main Street” she said ok, wait here just a minute. It couldn’t have been later than 8:45 by now. We waited and waited ….I wasn’t really paying too much attention to what was going on because I was busy texting my dad. (my mom was having minor surgery that morning so I was checking in). And DH was busy wrangling the kids who were both trying to climb out of the stroller.

What I didn’t realize was the CM was making us wait for the RD crowd to reach us. When the CM said “ok you can go now”, I looked up to see the massive RD crowd making their way towards us. We were stuck, pushed up against the side wall as the crowd tried to squeeze past us to get to 7DMT. It was a horrible experience! We were getting swallowed up by the crowd and the people in the crowd were annoyed to have to get around us and our double stroller and making not-so-nice comments. Needless to say I was NOT pleased with this situation. Especially since it could’ve easily been avoided if the CM would’ve just told us we couldn’t go back to Main Street, or that we couldn’t get to the hub through that particular bridge. Eventually we managed to basically swim upstream through all the people and get to the hub to finally walk down Main Street to Town Square Mickey. This was really the only snag we encountered in our plan that day and in reality it wouldn’t have happened if I would’ve listened to everyone’s advice. Fortunately it didn’t really cause a disruption to our plans. We basically just lost any “lead time” we had gained by getting an early ADR. And looking back, for the way we wanted to schedule our day, being there at RD would have been just as good. The early ADR wasn’t really necessary but we will probably still do it again since we loved BOG so much.

So we finally get to the line for Mickey and the sign outside says it’s a 5 minute wait, while the Touring Plan app said 15minutes. The app was correct. This is was really the longest line we stood in all day. We finally get in to see Mickey only to find that DS is now terrified of him! WHAT?! I have no clue why he was so scared since he loved this M&G only 7 months ago. DS was shaking, he was so scared. He just stood there grabbing DH’s leg. Mickey tried talking to him and asking him to skip around but DS would barely even look at him. Finally Dh picked DS up and said “let’s give Mickey a hug”. Ds gave Mickey a reluctant hug and we took some pictures. I’m still not sure what got into DS (we may be skipping this next time especially if we have ADRs for Chef Mickey’s)



Our next stop was Buzz Lightyear which was a walk-on. Great ride, DS loved shooting at things and DD wasn’t sure what was going on but she seemed to like it. We then headed to the Tomorrowland Speedway which according to the app was a 15 minute wait but when we got there the line was already pretty long and the sign said 25 minutes. This seemed like too long for us so we decided to skip it. We opted for a bathroom break instead which for us is more involved since both DH and I have to use the restroom in addition to changing 2 diapers. While DH was wetting our Frog Togs I gave DD a bottle and DS drank some water and had a left over BOG pastry.



Next up was our FP at Winnie the Pooh. The standby line already said 25 minutes so I’m glad we got FP for this ride. We followed Pooh with our FP for the Little Mermaid which we were all riding for the first time. I must say, I really enjoyed this ride. The theming was excellent and I can’t wait to ride it again in January. (plus this is my favorite Disney movie). We then headed over to Dumbo which was practically a walk on and then DH took DS on the Barnstormer. I was a little worried about how DS would react, but DH said he really liked it. (this line was about 10 min long). While DS and DH were on Barnstormer, DD fell asleep so when they returned I left DH with the stroller while DS and I went to see Donald, Goofy, Daisy, and Minnie at Pete’s Silly Sideshow. Once again DS was terrified and wouldn’t even look at Donald or Goofy. Fortunately he perked up by the time we made it to Daisy and Minnie. This time he was his usual cuddly self. Hugging them and not wanting to let go. Minnie was even waving me away, telling me to leave him with her. It was adorable!





By now it was almost noon so we had just enough time to walk over to Peter Pan, park the stroller, ride, and then head over to Crystal Palace for our ADR. Before leaving Fantasy Land we stopped at the FP kiosk and got Jungle Cruise FPs for 2pm. Our ADR was for 12:45 but I read that you should get there early. We checked in at CP at 12:15 and were seated almost immediately. It was getting pretty hot out by now so we were happy to sit down in the air conditioning. Our server was very nice and told us it would take about an hour and a half for all the characters to make their way around and that we should take our time and not feel like we had to rush out once we were done eating. I’m glad she said that because that’s exactly what we did. On the walk over from to Crystal Palace DD had fallen asleep again so DH sat at the table holding her while I got DS and myself food. Once I was done eating Dh handed DD over to me (still sleeping) and got himself a plate. She finally woke up in time to see the characters. The characters didn’t start coming around till we were almost done eating but we didn’t mind. It was nice to sit and relax, plus the food was really good so we were happy to go up for 2nds and 3rds. The character interaction here was great, they made sure to stop at each table and spend a good amount of time with the kids. They even came over and interacted with DD even though she was still groggy from her nap.

 

[Moushe]

DAY 3 - MK PART II

After our meal was done we headed over to Jungle Cruise, I was able to move the time of our FP up so we got right on. Another visit to the FP kiosk resulted in a Haunted Mansion FP, and then another FP for It’s a Small World. But before heading back to Fantasy Land we went to Tomorrowland for a ride on the People Mover which DS really liked, and then my favorite ride: The Carrousel of Progress! On our walk back to Fantasy Land we enjoyed some Mickey Bars, at this time it also started raining. Luckily I had packed ponchos so we were good to go. It’s a Small World was a total hit as I expected, especially with DD, she was dancing along with the music and basically had the attention of everyone on our boat. After It’s a Small World it was raining even harder so we dashed over to Mickey’s Philarmagic, I think this show is great, but DS was a little scared by the 3-D effects, he did like seeing Donald crash into the wall at the end though.






At this point we decided it was time to go. We were all exhausted, it was past 5 and we had been in the park since 8 am. However, I wanted to buy a Christmas ornament for our tree and some souvenirs to take back home so we stopped in a few shops. While I was in one of the shops DS started to have a meltdown. He was crying so loud I could hear him from inside the store. I went and got him (he just wanted “mommy”) and he calmed down as we walked around the store together. I finally finished my shopping and we headed towards the exit. As we’re walking down Main Street I remembered we wanted to upgrade to Seasonal Passes, so I went to guest services which had a pretty long line. The kids were exhausted but we needed to do this now in order to apply the cost of our 1 day tickets to the SP cost. So DH walked around the town square hoping the kids would dose off while I waited in line. The line moved quicker than I expected, but when I told the CM I wanted to upgrade 2 tickets he said he needed the magic band and ID for the second person (I assumed he could just assign it through my MDE account). So now I am calling DH and making him walk all the way back to me (he was walking down Main Street at this point trying to distract the kids).Finally Dh gives me his band and ID and the CM gets us squared away and we are on our way. By now DS has decided he has about had it with Disney and pretty much everything and having a meltdown DefCon4. In retrospect, it was my fault for not leaving the minute I noticed DS was over tired (which was when we left Philarmagic). The time I had him waiting while I shopped and got the passes upgraded was about an hour and the poor little guy was completely exhausted. We quickly got on a boat to the TTC and drove back to the resort.

We got the kids bathed and in bed and DH went to Everything POP to get us dinner. The kids had their dinner in the car – formula for DD and an Uncrustable for DS. DH got us the pulled pork sandwiches and a couple of beers. The sandwich was just as delicious as the first time; I hope they still offer it when we go in April 2016 because I will be having it again!

 

[Moushe]

Day 4 – Wednesday 8/19 – Disney Hollywood Studios and Drive Home

On Wednesday morning we woke up around 8:30 (this is late for my kids) and took our time getting ready and packing up our stuff. Since we had upgraded to the Florida Resident Seasonal Pass we decided to hit up a park for lunch and a ride or two before driving home. I knew DSH had the Disney Jr. show which the kids would enjoy so I got us FP for that at 1 and another for The Great Movie Ride at 2 pm.

We loaded the car and then I went up to the front desk to checkout and pay for the items we charged to our magic bands. I was using gift cards which I purchased at Target at an awesome discount using the Top Cash/Raise route. We also had to claim a welcoming gift my sister sent to our room. They’d put a gift in our room (a blue Mickey Mouse cooler bag with balloons) but it wasn’t what she ordered (a large mickey tote/cooler bag with balloons) luckily I took a picture of the kids with it and sent it to her and she noticed it was the wrong item. I had to wait about 10 minutes while they brought out the correct tote bag, they told me I could go ahead and keep the blue cooler bag “for my troubles”. I felt weird keeping it since it really was no trouble at all, but I am now the happy owner of two very cute Mickey Mouse bags which we’ve gotten a lot of use out of.

For some reason this day at Hollywood Studios felt like it was 100 degrees. It was sweltering hot, I could feel the sweat dripping down my back. It was hot the day before but nothing like this. It could be because we didn’t have our Frog Togs this day or maybe we did more walking around in HS whereas in MK we basically went from ride to ride. You can see in the picture of DD and I that our faces are red and sweaty and we didn’t look like that in any of the MK pictures.



We made our way to DHS which was the first visit for DH and the kids and about the 3rd for me. However, the last time I went to the park was probably back in the early 90’s and nothing looked familiar to me. We walked around a bit just trying to figure out where everything was. We ended up at Min & Bill’s Dockside Diner because there were plenty of tables and no one in line. We got DS the Frankfurter in a Pretzel Roll and DH and I each had a foot-long Chili Cheese Dog (hey, we were hungry!) DS was more interested in the pretzel roll than the frankfurter, but he really liked the chili from my hot dog. The Chili dogs were good as far as chili dogs go, I give them points for the fact that I needed a fork and knife to eat it because that’s the way you should have to eat a chili dog in my humble opinion!

We had about 45 minutes before the Disney Jr. show so we went to the Honey I Shrunk the Kids Playground to let DS run around. That turned out to be a huge mistake because A. it was scorching HOT in there! And B. DS loved it and didn’t want to leave. We literally had to drag him out of there kicking and screaming. The walk to Disney Jr. was a lot longer than I anticipated but we finally made it inside the theater and sat down. The wait wasn’t long and soon all DS’s favorites were on stage and he was in heaven. It was kind of annoying that the puppets are so short and they make you sit on the floor because my little guy could barely see, he kept trying to stand up so I just raised my knee a bit and had him “sit” on it so he could get a better view. I don’t understand why they can’t make this easier to see for the kids. But other than that it was a hit with the kids and we will probably do it again next time.



After the show we did a bathroom/diaper run and got some snacks for DS and a beer for us to share (since we would be driving home in a few hours) while we waited for our Great Movie Ride fp. I was surprised that even with FP we had to wait about 15 minutes to get on the ride. I’d heard this is usually a walk-on but I guess with the intense heat people wanted to get into the AC and this was a great wait to do just that. Upon exiting the ride we see its about to start raining at any moment. We do a final bathroom run and make our way towards the exit to begin our drive home.


To make a long story short we got SOAKED making our way to the car. It was raining so hard, we basically looked like we had jumped in the pool with our clothes on. We drove until it stopped raining enough for us to get out and change the kids into dry clothes. The drive home was uneventful (except for DD crying for about 2 hours, but that’s a story for another day). We made it home in 3.5 hours, tired but very happy after what we consider a very successful WDW trip. We will be there again Jan. 27-31 with a bigger group, so I hope everything goes just as smoothly.


For those of you who have read this report in its entirety, I hope you enjoyed it! It was my first so I hope I didn’t bore you too much. I definitely plan to continue writing them as it’s a fun way to relive the memories.


See ya real soon!

 

[t64]

I know this is an old thread, but I wanted to say thanks for sharing! I'm reading up on trip reports from people with little ones trying to decide the best time to go back We went once when lo was a baby because I "had" to go for work. Now with number 2 we're trying to figure out if we go now for ods or wait until they can both enjoy it. My vote is for winning the lottery so we can go every year, lol.

 

[JBF1982]

Thank you for the well written report and all the tips; it was a great, informative read!