Day 3, Part 3 August 14
We finally go to a park! We're going to ride something, right?!
We went to our bus stop (the last one at POR, but it picks up first for MK, we constantly debated going to the front instead, but always stayed put).
Another aside: the bus service at POR was the worst we've ever had on this trip. But it still wasn't that bad. Only a couple of times did we have any big issues. The biggest one was only experienced by DH, so I'll let him tell you.
I don't remember Lily's first bus ride, so that probably means it was uneventful!
So we got to DHS right before rope drop, and I found Guest Services(it's to the left). I asked for early ticket pick up and the CM said sure. We had to show her our room cards and then she called the resort. Wait, what? Yes, she had to call the resort to confirm we were indeed staying there, so why couldn't the resort just give us the tickets? Well, whatever, it took a bit longer than I expected and the park opened.
We got our paper tickets, which DH was bummed about. He's really partial to the plastic keys. lol
For those who are wondering what the heck I'm talking about: A disney resort guest with a package reservation may pick up their tickets up to 3 days before the package begins. So it's SUPER cool for split stays due to discounts, because you can get those extra days cheaper than buying seperate passes.
Cheshire Figment has all the details in his Park Ticket sticky on the theme parks board.
So tickets in hand (I got Pluto and DH got Minnie lol), we got in behind the big crowd of rope droppers and I told DH to go get FPs for TSM. I told him it would be totally crazy, but if it was really bad to just skip it since we've ridden it and it wasn't that big of a deal to us.
They were sending every single park guest to
Pixar Place, so I figured that he'd take one look and turn around. I would have fought my way through, but I've heard stories of waiting in line for 30 minutes or more just to get the FP. Plus the ride was scheduled to go down for refurb on the 16th (I think) so I thought it might be worse than normal.
While DH is trying to get FPs, DD and I walk over to the Animation area and on the way, I see Minnie coming and no one is anywhere near her, so we make a beeline. I get her out of the stroller and I'm walking to Minnie when I realize that DH will miss her very first Character Meet!
I imagine how upset I would have been, and I freak a little until I look up and see DH standing there filming with the Flip!
He had taken one look at Pixar Place and turned around just like I thought he would!
I'm not sure if the video came out or not, which brings me to:
**General Hot Weather Camera Tip
In the morning your cameras will fog up due to going from the sweet heaven of your super cold hotel room to the insane furnace outside. Even with waiting for the buses and all, the camera wasn't ready. I read a tip on TGM to leave it outside the room for 30 minutes before you leave, which will work if you have a private balcony or something (you lucky duck) otherwise just be prepared.
Luckily Minnie had a Photopass photog and I got her first Photopass pics. Now here is where writing this report so quickly is going to be annoying, because I don't have the pics, but I will post them!
I was of course worried about how my little Mickey Mouse obsessed baby would do seeing the characters in person. We had watched LOTS of Mickey and the gang on TV. She would stop whatever she was doing when the Disney Parks Phone Ap commercial came on (you know the one that has Mickey?) I got her the old
Disneyland Singalong DVD. I did everything I could to brainwash her!
So what happened??
Her face lite up and she started pointing at Minnie. She was a little hesitant when we got close, but she smiled and reached out and grabbed her nose soon enough. She was very curious, but not super enthusiastic. It was still really magical.
The Photopass pics are great! In the last one she has a death grip on Minnie's nose and is looking at the camera like it's the most natural thing in the world to be standing next to a giant mouse.
ETA:
We notice Stitch is only a few steps away with no line. She did not like Stitch. She grabbed onto me and wimpered. There was no Photopass and DH did take a couple pics that I will post. We didn't stick around very long. I apologized to Stitch for the trama, and he blew me kisses. It really wasn't tramatic, I'm not one of
those people.
Here's what I mean about foggy cameras. DD looks a lot less upset than I remember:
After that we headed to the Animation area to check the times for Playhouse Disney. The first showing wasn't until 9:40, it was 9:08. Nothing is open over there. So we decided to head to the Great Movie Ride. Really?! GMR was not in my vision of Lily's first WDW ride/attraction experience.
But we headed over there anyway. 3 CMs were standing out front saying that the ride was temporarily closed. The CM said that apparently Judy Garland was refusing to take her place. I said, "That Diva!"
So we decided to go hit Muppets 3D, it wasn't until we got there that I realized there was no way we would make it back in time for the first PDL, but the next one was at 10:30 and that sounded good. So we took are time walking over there. We stopped at the leaky fire hydrant and all got nice and wet and then went in the air conditioned theater!
We were the third stoller in the stroller parking area. I don't think a CM ever touched our stroller the whole week, I guess we parked correctly.
When we got inside, I realized that I had left the Ergo in the stroller, so DH went out and got it. I just couldn't take a chance on that $120 thing!
Lily got fussy when we got in the theater, so I was worried. We sat all the way over to the side, so we could exit if we needed to. There was one other young family over with us, I'm sure they were thinking the same thing we were. Everyone else was in the middle.
She did fine through the whole thing. She was kind of in awe. So next we headed back to the animation area (GMR was still closed) and decided to see Sorcerer Mickey. It was about 9:50, so we got in line (it was pretty long already). In case you don't know...there is an attraction the Magic of Disney Animation or something? You watch a little video and then get let out into the animation studio where there are character meet n greets that start at 10am. We skipped the video portion by going in through the exit (it's in a store right next to the entrance to the attraction).
Anyway, she was getting really fussy at this point, so I took her out of line (DH held our spot--nearly everyone in line was doing it, so I didn't feel bad). We looked at one of the little computer display things for about 60 seconds when Mickey came out and we got back in line. The line only took a little more than 5 minutes, but it felt like forever, because Lily was not happy. When Mickey first came out, she was excited and pointing to him, but also a little puzzled due to the outfit.
By the time we got to Mickey, she was really fussy and I was dreading it. I thought I was about to be one of
those people. The CM gave me a little lecture about her not having shoes on. Children are not allowed to walk up to characters without shoes (she can't walk). Something about his tone got to me, especially as I was trying to comfort fussy DD.
It took her a few seconds (which felt like forever) to realize that Mickey was standing next to her. Right before we walked away, she smiled and reached for his nose. Luckily the photographer caught it.
ETA:
So I was really close to being one of those people, but we survived. As we walked away it was clear that DD was pretty much done. But this was our only day at DHS and I was determined to see PDL (or is it PHDL?).
So we got in line for that (which is outside. UGH!) It was HOT. All of the tired hot toddlers in the park were in that line. It wasn't pretty, but luckily Disney supplied us with TVs with our favorites on them for the kids to enjoy. We were in line for less than 5 minutes before they loaded the theater. It was a new experince for DH and I. We got a seat in the center and Lily fussed on and off, while a super sweet little girl in front of us tried to entertain her. She was so awesome. I could see why people have siblings. (Not that I am in any way tempted for another anytime in the near future!
)
I envisioned her really enjoying this and I'm sure she would have if we had made the earlier show. Something to remember for December. She did clap a few times and loved seeing the Clubhouse gang, but got bored with the Little Einsteins. I felt like the show was just a little too long, but it was fun. I was absolutely shocked though that there was no Hotdog Dance?! How can you have a show that centers around MMC and not have the hotdog dance?
After that, we bought her mister fan. I decided that maybe she needed a diaper change (obviously she was fussy because of that and not because she was hot and tired) I found a quiet restroom (next to American idol I think?) and changed her. It was 11am and we decided to eat lunch. She obviously wasn't that fussy or we would have left, but we figured some AC and food would really help. So we ate at the Commisary. DH got in line and I took her to a table. We sat down and all of the sudden the sound level jumped like 4 levels! There were 60 some 11 year olds taking over the place.
No not really, they seemed well behaved and I barely noticed them. Luckily DH had gotten in line RIGHT before them, so we got our food (it still took forever though).
It was here that DD had her (what I would guess) favorite time of this day. We gave her french fries and let her dip them herself in ketchup.
She had done it once with my mom. She is very very good at expressing what she wants when it comes to food, and my mom said she clearly wanted to dip her fries in ketchup one day. So this perked (and messed) her right up. She actually stayed pretty clean. She started by dipping and then eating the fry, but by the second decided she would dip, lick the ketchup off, and then dip again, and so on. It was very funny. I wish we had video, but we were both trying to eat and keep her from making a mess.
At one point she got a hold of the ketchup container (the little paper cup) and I grabbed it
right before she squished it all over the place.
So we had a short fussiness reprieve and then she was really starting to lose it. I her in the stroller and she freaked out, so we headed out. This was in hindsight not the best idea. We should have gone to the Baby Care Center and relaxed and I should have tried to nurse her, but that didn't happen.
She screamed pretty much the entire way back to the resort. I was one of
those people. There were only 2 other families on the bus with us, but I felt awful. We couldn't console her.
It wasn't even noon. We had been in DHS for 3 whole hours, not ridden an actual ride, only saw 2 attractions and 3 characters.
That bus ride was the longest of my life. I felt like the worst mom in the world. I knew we had made a major mistake in wasting all that money coming to WDW. All those wet blankets on my orignal Tips for a 1 Year Old thread were right. We were cruel terrible people.
We got back to the resort and by the time we made it to the room, she was asleep in her stroller. We put her in front of the AC.
I took a shower and she woke up shortly after I was done. She nursed and fell back to sleep. We cuddled up and all of us napped for the next 2 hours.
Up Next: DTD on a Saturday Night!
We always fly, but we are driving this Dec (also from east of Cleveland
) 
In retrospect, I should have told DH that we now HAD to buy DVC, because DD obviously wanted us to. 
(Yes I wiped her hands down after this! 
im taking my son at 13 months this october!
He didn't want to have to get it in and out. I was perfectly happy to leave it there, which meant, he got to carry it. 
I doubt I'll be on for updates this weekend, so you all probably won't get another until Monday.
