My AP-ALOOZA Continues (WE RENEWED!!) ~ NEW TR link posted!

[Imagineer5]

Welcome to my Annual Pass – Alooza 2013-2014!! This is the 2nd year we have had annual passes (if you want to read about our previous AP fun, you can go here). We activated them in December 2013 and are planning two more WDW trips with them, as well as an unrelated (to AP’s at least) trip to Disneyland!

Well who are we?!

I am Lauren, a mechanical engineer by day, and Disney lover by day & night!

I spent my free time planning new trips, tweaking (and adding) to the ones planned, looking up airfare deals & hotel deals when we DON’T have a trip planned, etc. My 2nd hobby is children’s clothing, which I have a ridiculous love for purchasing my daughter tons of fun clothes hahaha. Many of which are Disney related, of course.

My background with Disney – I grew up on the west coast and visited Disneyland a bunch from ages 7-18. I bugged my mom to take me to Disney World but she would not, so at 18 I booked a trip by myself, had it all planned out (and paid for) and then my mom decided to come with me. LOL And the rest is history – I now live on the east coast and have been to WDW 12 times I think?

My favorite ride, however, still remains at Disneyland – Indiana Jones adventure.

Oh, and we are trying for baby #2 – maybe TMI but I know a lot of mamas on here also on that journey so I wanted to share.

Moving on…

My DH Andrew is also a mechanical engineer, though his #1 hobby is boating, #2…fishing…#3…going to Cape Cod…and so on. He loves going to Disney but was okay with going every 2-3 years. I talk him into going or he stays home, but it aggravates me because when we are there he truly loves it! I will say, the more he goes the MORE he wants to go – he is getting excited for our upcoming October trip. He absolutely loves Cape May, loves the Food & Wine festival, and loves it when I plan in “relax” time to spend at the pool. Haha.

His favorite ride is Pirates of the Caribbean and he just loves everything Pirates!

Our darling daughter Aria, is last but not least as she is the star of the show in my eyes! Aria was born 1/30/2012 so she will be 2 on our upcoming trips. Her first trip was at 8 months old and she has been to Disney world 6 times already. LOL! It has been SO SO amazing watching her grow up and change from trip to trip. Currently her favorite characters are Minnie, Goofy, and Mickey in that order, plus she loves Nemo, Ariel, Cinderella…yes she is my child. She loves Disney. Also one of her favorite pasttimes now is to look through a Shutterfly book I made from our June 2013 trip – she loves pointing out Dumbo and all the characters she met. Andrew doesn’t stand a chance at staying away from Disney for so long with the two of us conspiring to go back! Hehe.

Coming up next I’ll give a run down of the AP trips on the horizon and start on with our December 2013 stay at VWL! One of our most magical trips EVER!! Stay tuned!

 

[Imagineer5]

~~My 2013-2014 ANNUAL PASS PLAN~~
(images in this post courtesy of google!)

I hope you will get a sense for how we like to eat (ah hem, I mean visit WDW!). I LOVE Disney restaurants so including those in my plans are top priority. Aria went through a very difficult anti-restaurant phase but now that she is 2 she is mostly (hopefully!!) over that. Still no 2.5 hour lingering meals but she is good for the most part. Especially if ice cream is involved!

Instead of renewing in October (when my previous AP expired) I purchased new AP’s and activated them the first day of our December, 2013 trip (December 12th).

Here is my overall use plan!

December 12-16, 2013 Stay at VWL in a studio

December 12th – early flight, pool time, Hoop De Doo & Carriage ride around Fort Wilderness

Part 1! Flight, arriving at VWL! HDDR & Carriage Ride!

December 13th – Magic Kingdom at opening; CRT lunch; California Grill dinner

Photo family of the day @ MK! MK day Continued! Meeting Princesses!
MK, CRT, nap time!
End of MK & Cali Grill


CLOTHING INTERMISSION


December 14th – Ohana Breakfast, Animal Kingdom, Artist Point dinner, Parade & Wishes FP+

Ohana BF! AK morning

More AK Pool time and artist point MK at night!


December 15th – Kona Breakfast, EPCOT, Tutto Italia dinner, walk to DHS for Osborne lights, check out Boardwalk holiday decorations & dessert at B&C

Part 1 - Kona & morning at EPCOT EPCOT Continued Best character meet!! World Showcase wanderings Tutto Italia Dinner & Boardwalk Holiday Decorations DHS Osborne Lights & Yacht Club Beach Club Holday Decorations


December 16th – WCC bf, flight home

Final day & thoughts

Hope you don’t mind me adding in my DL trip plan? It’s coming up in just under 2 months, YAY!

May 2-7, 2014 Stay in a standard view Disneyland hotel room – going with my friend Lynda and my DD Aria


We are using my friend’s military Disneyland tickets which are 3-day hoppers but non-upgradable. We are going for 5 nights (4 full days) so will have 1 day to just relax at the pool and shop at DTD.
May 2nd – early flight, pool time, dinner at Catal @ DTD

Flight & Shuttle ride Checking in & pool time! we get into the room!


May 3rd – Disneyland! Blue Bayou lunch, F! Dessert Package (hopefully can grab that)

Entering DL!

DL#2

DL continued

Dumbo & Snow White

Carousel, tea cups & storybookland canal boats!

Mickey's Toontown!

More toontown and HM

Blue Bayou lunch

BTMRR, PP, and Space

Pool time then back to DL

Pooh, treehouse and carousel

Pinocchio, Pooh and Fantasmic

More Fantastmic!

May 4th – Start at DCA, lunch at Ariel’s Grotto with the princesses, head over to DL and dinner at Café Orlenas

DCA Morning

Luigi's and bug's land fun

More Bug's land fun



DCA continued - monsters inc, RSR, Ariel's lunch etc part 1 part 2 part 3 part 4

Meeting Duffy!! & Redwood Creek fun

Cars land and back to DL for dinner at Cafe Orleans

More dinner then Splash & Pooh

May 5th – Down day! Goofy’s Kitchen breakfast, pool time, Aria gets in a good nap in the room, dinner at Ralph Brennen’s Jazz kitchen

Goofy's Kitchen breakfast

More Goofy's Kitchen!

Shopping at DTD!

More shopping then pool time!

Trader Sam's and the disappearing $40

Tiara for a princess and Ralph Brennen's

May 6th – Steakhouse 55 BF, Disneyland morning, hope to DCA and world of color package at the Wine Country Trattoria.

Steakhouse 55 & DL morning fun

Pinocchio and Astro Orbiter

Tink's Grotto

Casey Jr Train & Jungle Cruise

Royal Theater, Roger Rabbit and more DL fun

Pool break & dinner at Wine Country Trattoria

Mickey's fun wheel to World of Color

May 7th - home

Flight home


***ADDED MAY 19th!!!***

June 10-13th! Last minute trip bc I didn't want to wait over 3 months to return to Disney! HA! It actually came about bc I was perusing the governement condo website and noticed that Silver Lake Resort WAS actually available, but for short stays. I kept stalking it to see if it would be released again for the $350/week deal - this is the resort I stayed at last August with Aria for a week, and it is right around the corner from the AKL. What is SUPER AMAZING AWESOME about it, is the fact that a turn out of the driveway and you are onto Disney property, so you don't have to deal with 192 and lights and all that. (IE doesn't have as bad as an offsite feel). I was first looking at June 3-6 but ended up choosing 10-13 because 1) a DIS friend might be able to join me and she couldn't do 3-6 and 2) We are planning to visit Lynda in Baltimore June 5-8 so I would have had to change the dates for that.

Tentative Plans:

June 10: EARLY flight, pick up rental car, check in (fingers crossed I can get into the room) and pool time until 12:30 or so - IF Dugette comes I will need to head to the airport to pick them up at this time. IF she doesn't come, we will head to the MK. Either way, Kona for dinner & MK for the evening with FP for MSEP. I'll get to ride the Seven Dwarves Mine Train tonight! YAY!

June 11: 8AM AK opening, 10:15 Tusker House BF, around noon head to EPCOT and spend the afternoon & evening there (Aria will nap in stroller). Dinner is up in the air (will either book a TS or try out Spice Road Table)

June 12: 8AM MK opening; 3:45PM Crystal Palace "dinner" (hoping to show up at 4 so it isn't SO crazy early...) and just overall a fun day at the MK!

June 13: Cape May Cafe character breakfast! Should be fun! I need to look into who all is here, as Aria has requested to meet Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Pluto, Donald AND Daisy <--- her new faves are donald and daisy. That is along with Tinkerbelle, Ariel, and Pooh. lol!

Then we fly home...

A couple links for our planning - Updated plans Silly updates


Next up is my mommy/daughter trip! This came about last year because Aria’s daycare closes for 1 week each year, usually in August! Last year I decided to bring her down to Disney and we had such a great time I was eager to book another trip down there! (I just finished up that TR if you are interested!).

August 24-31, Split stay between BLT and AKV Kidani!!

August Planning links:
Plan changes

More!! Adding HP! HP & August FP plans

Added ANOTHER day due to Frozen Summer Fun!!

How many WDW TS restaurants have you been to?

Frozen premium package and crazy clothing list

August 22nd early flight!! Arrive at RPR and go to Universal. Spend some time shopping and looking at all the details during Aria's afternoon nap time, then dinner at the Leaky Cauldron possibly.

August 23rd hire a babysitter for the morning, so I can ride Gringotts along with a number of other big rides. Lunch at Mythos? Enjoy Seuss land and other rides with Aria after her nap, then head back to the hotel. Dinner at Emeril's tchoup chop and pool time.

August 24th morning at either IOA or Uni, then check out and head to BLT, check in then head straight over to Fort Wilderness via the boat for lunch at Trails End (one of the few restaurants I have yet to visit!), then a pony ride ($5 cash, sweet, Aria LOVES horses), back for a nap in the stroller. Hope to spend a little time unpacking and then head towards MK. Dinner at Tony's and we have some fun FP's planned, then put aria to sleep in her stroller and I can enjoy a late drink & Wishes at the Top of the World lounge.

August 25th – 8AM CP reservation, Magic Kingdom for the day (making sure to watch the new parade), then head out for California Grill for dinner August 26th – EPCOT, Coral Reef lunch, Aria naps and I might head to Spice Road or Wine Grotto, snacky dinner. Maybe wine grotto for wine & cheese while she sleeps, then Spice Road table for food…hmmm…meet up with TheMaxRebo & family hopefully for Top of the world lounge Wishes viewing! (hopefully bc not 100% sure I'll be able to go up there!)
August 27th – MK again, BoG lunch, EPCOT afternoon and B&C for dinner (IE DESSERT!) (I was trying to stick with MK area while we are at BLT)
August 28th – Check out of BLT, head to AK. Lunch at Sanaa (MMM), check into AKV Kidani before lunch hoping room is ready so she can nap in room). Pool time tonight, dinner at Jiko!

August 29th – 8am H&V breakfast, DHS, head to DTD and Aria can nap in stroller while I walk around. Dinner at T-Rex.
August 30th – AK morning, Tusker House lunch, Pool time (Kidani has the BEST splash pad), then MK for the evening with BOG and hopefully a MSEP FP+ and watch wishes from there.
August 31st – Frozen Summer Fun premium package at DHS! Meeting up with Dugette for the day too! Lunch is planned at 50's, no other reservations.
September 1st - Boma BF, pool time, then flight home

And lastly (for now anyway)

October 3-12 Split stay between the Grand Floridian 2BR villa & the Beach Club 1BR villa! My inlaws will be with us at the Grand Floridian.

If it's a 1 BR and a studio, not sure if we should put the IL's in the studio and take the 1 BR putting aria to bed in the living room? I think that would work...

October 3rd – early flight (I sound like a broken record!) check into VGF, enjoy the pool, splash pad, aria naps, etc. Then head to EPCOT – maybe grab a small dinner at Tutto Gusto, but we don’t want to eat too much because we are hoping to do the 3D Dessert Party this evening!!
October 4th – EPCOT! Biergarten for lunch, then tonight is date night – Victoria & Alberts for my birthday meal (a new restaurant for us YAY!)
October 5th – MY BIRTHDAY! Wahoo. MK day!! MK opens at 8AM otherwise I’d do an early breakfast at CP. Instead we will do lunch at LTT. I plan to save a FP+ and hopefully get one for the MSEP this evening – we are going to have dinner at Citricos and then head back to the park.
October 6th – AK, lunch at Sanaa, back to VGF for nap. Have an afternoon tea at the GF, pool time, and dinner at California Grill.
October 7th – Check out & into BCV early, say goodbye to IL’s, then head to UNIVERSAL TODAY! GASP! BUT the new Harry Potter section should be open and I HAVE to see it. I’ve been to the WWoHP at IoA once, now am ready to go back! Probably have lunch at the Three Broomsticks unless they open up a reservable restaurant. Parks close at 6 this day but I can see us leaving earlier. Dinner at Cape May buffet (DH’s favorite).

If i can fit the pack n play in here....this may be where Aria sleeps...

October 8th – Breakfast at Cape May (new for us for breakfast), walk to DHS, lunch at H&V (can’t wait for this one – aria loves Jake and Sofia!). Nap in stroller or at room. Dinner at the Polynesian Luau (new for us!!)
October 9th – Akershus BF before EPCOT opens, then enjoy EPCOT, back for the pool, dinner at Chef Mickeys (BTW we will have a car)
October 10th – CP early breakfast, MK, pool time in afternoon, B&C for dinner and then my DH Andrew has to head home bc he has a wedding to go to on the 11th. I get to stay another two nights.
October 11th – Breakfast at the Wave, MK morning with a FP for BoG for lunch (hopefully), back for nap, then head to EPCOT and La Hacienda for dinner.
October 12th – Captain’s Grill for BF, pool time in the morning before an 11AM or so check out and head to airport to go home.

OK PHEW! This is long enough! I am sure you are bored by now (SORRY!) But just wanted to get all the plans written down. Coming up ~~ Day 1 of my December trip!!

 

[Dugette]

Ha ha, I found you! So glad you're back on here and can't wait for more!

 

[Dreams0308]

Sounds like fun!!! Following along.
My Hubby and I are both Engineers as well (I'm Electrical and he's Mechanical)
Engineer Disney Nerds!!!

 

[wiigirl]

Following along!

 

[Imagineer5]

Ha ha, I found you! So glad you're back on here and can't wait for more!

It's so fun to be reading through your December TR while planning to write mine up!! A great way to bring back memories! Thanks so much for joining in!

Sounds like fun!!! Following along.


My Hubby and I are both Engineers as well (I'm Electrical and he's Mechanical)



Engineer Disney Nerds!!!

Aww thank you so much!! Welcome!! This will be ongoing through 2014 I am thinking but I do plan to start up right away since the first trip with the AP has already happened.

That is awesome about you both being engineers!! We met in college and basically went through every class together, but now do very different things (I work for the DoD on torpeodes, UUVs and submarines; he works for MIT doing clean rooms and lab spaces and such).

Following along!

Thanks so much for coming over!!

 

[TheMaxRebo]

joining! As the possessor of both an Engineering degree and an WDW Annual Pass (as well as being married to another Engineer) I feel a bit of kinship

 

[Imagineer5]

joining! As the possessor of both an Engineering degree and an WDW Annual Pass (as well as being married to another Engineer) I feel a bit of kinship

Oooh!! AWESOME!! So funny to see so many engineers on here! What do you do?? Thank you for joining in!

 

[Imagineer5]

Ok i edited the 2nd post with all my plans! Now off to work on the december TR

 

[Imagineer5]

~~DECEMBER 2013~~

SO this December trip came about after a slightly shorter December 2012 stay at POR that just didn’t go right. Andrew and I just fought the entire trip, Aria screamed at the characters, we didn’t get to see Wishes, it was just sort of a mess. So I got home from that trip and told Andrew I was going to plan a do over and he can come or stay home, but I wanted a do-over! He agreed and wanted to come, so we planned it for the Wilderness Lodge and went for 4 nights. A little foreshadowing – the trip was magical.

FYI I take a TON of photos – 99% are of Aria. I wish I was a better photographer but am taking a class in April so I am excited for that.

The morning of December 12th started out much earlier than usual, with a 7AM flight to Orlando on Southwest. We fly out of Providence though which has a small airport and rarely a line for anything. Grabbed a quick breakfast at Starbucks (we brought whole milk in a little cooler for Aria for the flight & first day) and then we boarded the flight during family boarding between A & B. We managed to get the middle seat in our row for Aria despite it being the last trip she’d take while being a free lap infant (she turned 2 in January!) and Aria spent the time reading some books, watching the ipad, and eventually fell asleep due to the early morning. Oh and we may or may not have had a couple early vacation drinks due to having some free drink coupons on SW...

No photos until the room I guess, but we always enjoy the airport monorail (nope not the fake o rail, we love starting off our vacation riding that). We picked up a rental car and made it to the VWL by about 11:30AM, room was ready and PERFECT – first floor looking at the quiet pool, so we could slip in and out of the back door while Aria naps.

We quickly headed to the pool to get a little fun in for Aria before having to put her down for a nap. We had a 4PM HDDR reservation (our first time!) and she normally naps 1-4 or so, so we’d have to wake her up a bit early to head over there. Anyway – we opted to head to the main pool and Aria’s favorite area was the stream and rocks. It was chilly though and we just couldn’t stay in the cold water for too long so we went back to the room for warm showers and then put Aria down.

A quick visit to the kiddie pool but Aria had her sights on bigger and better things

Gorgeous view. Check out how bundled up the lifeguards were. It was maybe 72?

Apparently Aria was allowed to go down this?!?! We did not, however, let her go despite her getting out of the pool and running up the stairs and TRYING to!

There was a little nook near the door to the room that we were able to hide the pack n play, which Aria slept great on throughout the trip (sorry to keep you in suspense over that, but she LOVES her sleep). While Aria napped I walked around and snapped some pictures of the villas and lobby. We had never stayed at the WL before, but had been for meals at Artist Point and WCC and love the look of the lobby. It was beautifully decorated for the holidays and an amazing tree was the centerpiece – it wasn’t until a few days later I realized there were giant teepees as decorations on the tree. So cool.

Villas lobby tree

Villas relaxing "train" room

Love maps! I wish I could have a map room at home.

Villa elevators

Covered boardwalk between WL & VWL

Aria LOVED saying hi to mickey every day!

Inside the WL lobby

Tree in all its glory

My favorite part of the lobby

Continued in another post! Stay tuned for HDDR & a carriage ride…and a very stressful wake up!

 

[TheMaxRebo]

Oooh!! AWESOME!! So funny to see so many engineers on here! What do you do?? Thank you for joining in!

well, my degree is in Computer Engineering and my wife's is in Chemical Engineering.

... though I have turned to the dark side and now do Corporate Finance (though I do use a computer every day) and my wife is now a stay-at-home now

Definitely proud of my background and the mascot from my university (at least when I went) was the Engineers!

 

[TheMaxRebo]

just noticed the update to your second post with your future plans and realized you will be there in August the same time as us - we even have the 27th planned as a MK day as well!

*****************

Glad you flight went well and looks like you got a nice room and love checking out the pool right away. Though, living in the north east it is hard to fathom 72 degrees requiring someone to bundle up - but that's central Florida for you

I agree with you about maps! I love that one and have a love of all old maps ... actually we have one hanging above our bed at home (probably TMI, sorry )

 

[khertz]

So excited to see you have started another year of TRs for me to enjoy!!! And starting off with my favorite, WL at Christmas, what could be better?! We wanted to stay in the Villas for our May weekend trip, but it wasn't available so we are just staying at the Lodge. I'm still happy about that, though! I did have a mini-freak out when I was reading your planning post and saw your May dates thinking we could meet up, but then I realized that was for your DL trip. Darn the luck!! Hopefully we will overlap one of these days!!

Looking forward to more, as always!! I love watching Aria grow in Disney!

 

[Imagineer5]

well, my degree is in Computer Engineering and my wife's is in Chemical Engineering. ... though I have turned to the dark side and now do Corporate Finance (though I do use a computer every day) and my wife is now a stay-at-home now Definitely proud of my background and the mascot from my university (at least when I went) was the Engineers!

Jealous of your wife!! Lol! Corporate finance sounds interesting!

just noticed the update to your second post with your future plans and realized you will be there in August the same time as us - we even have the 27th planned as a MK day as well! ***************** Glad you flight went well and looks like you got a nice room and love checking out the pool right away. Though, living in the north east it is hard to fathom 72 degrees requiring someone to bundle up - but that's central Florida for you I agree with you about maps! I love that one and have a love of all old maps ... actually we have one hanging above our bed at home (probably TMI, sorry )

That is so awesome!! It would be fun to meet up. How old are your kids? Where will you be staying?

Hahahah we had a good laugh over the life guards. The pool water temp could have been warmer, then we'd have had no problem swimming longer.

Lmao about the map above your bed.

So excited to see you have started another year of TRs for me to enjoy!!! And starting off with my favorite, WL at Christmas, what could be better?! We wanted to stay in the Villas for our May weekend trip, but it wasn't available so we are just staying at the Lodge. I'm still happy about that, though! I did have a mini-freak out when I was reading your planning post and saw your May dates thinking we could meet up, but then I realized that was for your DL trip. Darn the luck!! Hopefully we will overlap one of these days!! Looking forward to more, as always!! I love watching Aria grow in Disney!

Your tr is the only one I haven't tackled yet, I missed so much in the last month but can't wait to go get all caught up.

I know, would have been perfect if we were going to wdw in May!! Ugh!! I actually found an awesome condo at the end of May and *almost* booked it lol!! But our dates wouldn't have overlapped then either.

Hey are you still planning to go to Disneyland Paris on your Europe trip later this year? (Have I already asked you this??). I'm starting to plan next years trip which we plan to spend 3 days at dl Paris.

Thank you so much

 

[TheMaxRebo]

That is so awesome!! It would be fun to meet up. How old are your kids? Where will you be staying?

Definitely would be fun to meet up! My DD is 5, my DS is 2 and we have a third on the way (we find out Tuesday if it is another prince or princess). Currently we are booked at Port Orleans Riverside, but depending on if/when room only discounts come out for that time we might look to change to a monorail resort (probably Contemporary given the construction that will be going on at the Poly)

 

[Dugette]

I'm so glad that your do-over trip righted the wrongs and went so much better!

Your room looks great! You are really making me want to stay at VWL now! There are just too many great places to stay at WDW.

As always, Aria is such a cutie and I love watching her grow up on these trips.

 

[Imagineer5]

Definitely would be fun to meet up! My DD is 5, my DS is 2 and we have a third on the way (we find out Tuesday if it is another prince or princess). Currently we are booked at Port Orleans Riverside, but depending on if/when room only discounts come out for that time we might look to change to a monorail resort (probably Contemporary given the construction that will be going on at the Poly)

Oooh that'd be perfect given we will be at BLT the first part of the week!! Aria gets along better with little boys than girls it seems LOL so I think they'd have a blast!!

AND Congrats on the new little one!! When is the baby due???

I'm so glad that your do-over trip righted the wrongs and went so much better!

Your room looks great! You are really making me want to stay at VWL now! There are just too many great places to stay at WDW.

As always, Aria is such a cutie and I love watching her grow up on these trips.

Thank you!! I know, working on staying at them all!! So happy to have stayed at VWL, but there are places we love *more* so it'll be a while before we go back, though it was beautiful at Christmas of course.

Thank you!!

 

[Imagineer5]

Moving on, but first I forgot a few details in my last post. (whoops!). When we checked into VWL, we were greeted outside by a CM with an ipad, and she walked us right in, had us stand at the counter while she grabbed our packed and then we were off to the room – super efficient. She also asked if we already had our Magic Bands (we did) and she whispered that the KTTW cards would also work in the FP machines (we knew this, and we had AP’s and we totally planned to rock them all weekend knowing FP’s were going away). Anyway, the point of this is because I was reading all about how CM’s were upset at people grabbing regular FP’s if they were wearing Magic Bands, but we NEVER got that impression the whole time.

SOOoo yes we had a 4PM HDDR reservation, and we needed to take the boat from the WL to the Fort Wilderness to get there, so I planned to wake up Aria at 3PM. To say she was unhappy about being woken up was an understatement – no photos at this point because I was just doing all I could to get her changed. Her hair was also very unruly after the bath and straight to bed, so I did a little straightening of it with a flat iron, and then we were out the door. Despite her bad mood I wanted to get a few pictures (yes, we are matching LOL!).

We made the 5 minute walk to the boat and didn’t wait long because the boat was there waiting for us! – we left the stroller in the room because I figured we would have to fold it up on the boat anyway, so that was a good choice. Aria was still being a butt but we were trying to ignore the attitude and hope for the best with the meal. At this point, she was just starting to get over being horrible in restaurants (though…dun dun dun…in a few nights it returns with a vengeance) so we had NO idea how tonight would go with a long dinner show, short nap, and bad attitude.

We checked in and waited in line to get in and were seated in about 10 minutes. By this point Aria had significantly calmed down thankfully and we were all ready for drinks…ehhm I mean dinner!

NOTE: This was the ONLY jacket we brought for Aria. Let's just say she wore it ALL weekend long -EWW

Now, for some crazy reason I had (in my head) put Mickey’s Backyard BBQ AND HDDR into one show (hadn’t been to either). SO I kept talking to Aria about Mickey coming out :-/ I think that was my ONLY disappointment the whole night though. I love the “free” drinks – we started off with sangria for me and beer for Andrew, and milk for Aria and I quickly moved on to wine. The food was decent (Andrew LOVED his! I even liked the chicken, and loved the mashed potatoes) but best of all – the show was SO much fun. AND two whole hours went by and kept Aria totally occupied and happy – AMAZING for a dinner!

We sat in the 1st tier and were 1 table away from the stage – loved the location, loved being in the middle of the dancing, and just truly enjoyed ourselves. I almost booked it again for October but we decided to try something new then but we will 100% be back.

Aria is like - WHAT is going on mama??

I ordered a "vegetarian" meal actually, because I don't like chicken on the bone and don't eat meat otherwise - it came with salmon but it was SO flavorless I ended up just eating mashed potatoes and sucking it up and eating the chicken.

You can see Aria moved around a little bit - between her high chair and our laps, but never once complained and was in a great mood.

Having the 4PM dinner was also fantastic – because it was only 6 when it was over! We had a 6:30 carriage ride this evening, so we had a little down time to let Aria run around on the large playground which she enjoyed…

And then it was our turn for the carriage ride. We took the one at POR last December because we were staying there (one of my favorite things about that trip, and Aria slept through the whole thing then!) and I was so excited to do another one this year, this time truly holiday-style with the FW camper decorations. I tried to get some photos but it’s tough in a moving vehicle in the dark, so I apologize for the poor quality!

After this pic we snuggled up under the blanket that was in the carriage!

As Dugette mentioned in one of her recent updates, one of the coolest things was a “Wishes” inspired display that a RV-er had set up with LED lights. Our carriage stopped and we got to watch the couple minute long show as a private audience. So magical.

I don’t remember our horse’s name but wish we could have pet him as Aria loves horses (as do i) so we intend to go back to FW in August for a pony ride for her.

After that wonderful ride, we took the boat back to the room and put Aria to bed immediately (she usually goes to bed at 7 at home) and I headed to the store to pick up some whole milk for the room as well as some waters, we had brought wine & drinks from home, though, so we enjoyed those on our patio for a little while and then headed to sleep ourselves.

 

[Dugette]

Yeah, we never had an issue getting/using paper Fast Passes while wearing Magic Bands either. CMs didn't blink an eye.

Bummer that Aria was so unhappy to be woken up, but I'm glad she recovered. Sounds like Hoop-de-doo was a big hit! We need to do that someday. I've heard so many great things about it, but we've never made it over there.

Perfect way to end your day with the ride through the lights and tiny Wishes.

 

[dtr_angel]

Just found your new TR, so excited to read along. I can't believe how big Aria has gotten.