Taking Little Miss to Meet the Mouse! ~ A May 2015 PTR ~ Trip Report Link Posted!!

[ValarDisneyus]

I love that you're training with your family! We are some, too, though I think your Mall idea is superior to mine. I took Squeaks to a trail at our local park and we were only walking for about two minutes when she said "Momma why are we walking so Loooooooong?" We only did a mile that day, but we both made it no problem.

 

[Gracefulskinny]

You definitely need to build up. We have some other places we use as well. Outside areas will help with adjusting to heat. Trips to the Zoo are also on our list for practice.

 

[Gracefulskinny]

Disney Shoes

Photo Courtesy of google.

Fellow Disney vets know and understand the importance of planning out proper foot wear for trips well in advance. For us that involves not only breaking in new shoes if they are needed but also testing out and doing our best to make sure that our shoe choices are wise ones. So what do I look for in proper Disney shoes?
First they have to have good air flow. Shoes that don’t allow your feet to breath and just trap moisture and sweat inside are invitations for blisters. They also must be as supportive as possible without entering Granny territory.
For me there is also the added challenge that I am just not a closed toe shoe person. As a general rule HATE wearing sneakers. I mostly rely on my trusty sandals to get me by. My husband is the same way.
Our go to sandals are Rainbows. While they are a flip flop type, these are shoes that are meant to last and my husband’s first pair lasted him 20 years before I had to force him into a new pair. Another thing we like about them is that they run rather large so even my 11 ½- 12 sized feet can find a size that fits. (Note: when I say they run big, I mean it. When I got fitted I ended up in a size 10. I don’t remember the last time that happened.)

Photo Courtesy of google.

Something to keep in mind, what makes the Rainbows (we both recommend the double arch type) so wonderful is that over time the shoe cushions and molds to your foot. However, when you first get them they are VERY TIGHT on your feet. As the shoe molds to your feet the shoe stretches out quite a bit. It can take a few weeks of near constant wear before you understand the magic and true comfort of the shoes but they are worth the wearing in process. If you plan on getting a pair of these before Disney I would recommend at LEAST 2-3 months of regular wear before going. It can also help to soak the shoes right before putting them on your feet in the beginning. That helps to mold and stretch the shoe faster.

Something else I do to avoid blisters and other foot issues is that I try to alternate my shoes from day to day as needed.

I am currently in the debate on whether I feel like investing in a new pair of sneakers or not. Having just invested in a new pair of rainbows I am not sure it’s worth it to me to invest in a new pair of sneakers that I rarely wear. The sneakers that I have are fairly good and breath really well so I’ll probably just stick with them. Though I may look into some better heel inserts for a bit more support.

I didn't have my rainbows on our last trip to Disney, but after our recent quick trip to Charleston where we did a LOT of walking I was flat out amazed at the difference they made. (And that was while they were still brand new and being broken in!) Also don't worry about them looking to manly on your feet. I almost never like how broad strapped shoes look on my feet but not only found the broad strap more supportive, I also found that it allowed my foot a "dainty" (or rather not manly) look as well.

In case you didn't pick up on it, we love our Rainbows in this family!
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[Gracefulskinny]

I know its been a while since I have updated and I do have a few updates to bring your way but I've been having some issues getting my pictures off my phone and uploaded to Photobucket.

You would think that being the wife to an it guy would make these things easier to accomplish....

Look for some updates soon though!

 

[Gracefulskinny]

Disney Training Setbacks

I’ve been doing so well lately. Over the past year or so I have built my endurance levels for walking around and being on my feet up to about 6 hours straight. And then yesterday happened.
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Some how, some way I seemed to have sprained my ankle. One moment I am walking around my kitchen fine as can be and then the next I shifted my weight in some weird way and now I can hardly put any weight on it at all.:

I really hope that this doesn’t back track my progress. And can I say, dealing with a toddler on crutches is fun stuff. Thank God I have a wonderfully obedient child (most of the time).

I guess it could be worse. I could have done this right before our trip.​

 

[pigletgirl]

I'm happy to join! There is something quite magical about taking your child for the first time! It's awesome!

You are so right, Disney is a TON of walking. It isn't much fun to be in the parks with really achy feet. I made a rookie mistake and wore my new Nike Tennis Shoes and my feet were screaming mad! I had to by Croc Flip Flops in Epcot because I couldn't take it one more second. While DD and I walk every morning (with the dogs) it wasn't nearly as much as I had thought I had done. I REALLY need to get back into running.

Anyway, great start! Your DD is a cutie!

 

[Gracefulskinny]

I'm happy to join! There is something quite magical about taking your child for the first time! It's awesome!

You are so right, Disney is a TON of walking. It isn't much fun to be in the parks with really achy feet. I made a rookie mistake and wore my new Nike Tennis Shoes and my feet were screaming mad! I had to by Croc Flip Flops in Epcot because I couldn't take it one more second. While DD and I walk every morning (with the dogs) it wasn't nearly as much as I had thought I had done. I REALLY need to get back into running.

Anyway, great start! Your DD is a cutie!

Thanks for joining in! I've got a few updates needing to be posted soon. Hopefully I'll make that happen. This stinkin foot is slowing me down though so we'll see when that actually happens.

 

[vleeth]

I took my daughter for her first trip when she was almost 2. I have some really great memories and awesome pictures from that trip.

Happy Planning!

PS. We homeschool too!

 

[Gracefulskinny]

Hello All! Sorry to have dropped off the face of the earth like I did. I have fought hard and battled stupid phone's and computers and now....

I got things figured out ALL BY MYSELF! No need to call in the reinforcements.

So with the photos FINALLY uploaded to photobucket I should be getting some updates out soon.

 

[Gracefulskinny]

Disney Hording….

At some point thinking ahead and stocking up crosses a line into hoarding territory. I don’t know if I am there yet but you have to admit I’m getting a little close.

To be fair, a good portion of these things are going to end up as Christmas presents, but a few of them I nabbed while there was a sale and am holding on to for our trip. Such as the Mickey Plush that DH and I found on sale at the Disney store. And the Mouse ears that I was able to tweak and customize.

Based on my Pins on pintrest, I have a feeling that this Disney pile is going to get a lot bigger before we get down there.

What do you start stocking up on months before a trip?
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[Gracefulskinny]

Disney Training Jackpot!

So a few weeks back DH and I decided to take Little Miss out to a local art festival. It turned out to be a Disney Training Jackpot! Not only did we get practice waiting for and getting on and off buses, we found a few other interesting things as well.

Turns out the local branch of the 501st was there as well as actors from the local Medieval Times. So we got to get some character interaction training as well. (Doesn’t appear that we have anything to worry about on that front other than getting her to actually look at the camera at times. She was getting so fascinated with the characters that we couldn’t get her to look at the camera!

I won't share the others as they are just more of the same


We even got to look at some reptiles!

After walking the festival we stopped to run on errands and when we finally made our way in the door that evening we found that we had been on our feet nonstop for about 6 hours. DH and I are hoping to build that up to about 8 hours and get ourselves to a point where we feel we can do that for more than one day a week.
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[Gracefulskinny]

Getting Crafty- Autograph book

I have been inspired by the many craft ideas for shirts and things that I keep coming across here on the dis as well as on pintrest. {We’ll see how many of my ideas actually get done! }
Since before our last adult only trip I knew that when I finally take Little Miss to Disney for the first time I wanted to make her autograph book special. So I always kept my eye out for cute autograph cards and saved them as I found them to my Disney clip art file.
My original plan was to figure out the exact details of the autograph book a little closer to the trip, but when I came across a deal for a free photobook on Shutterfly a while back I decided it made more sense to go ahead and make it now and save the money. After upgrades (I went up a size and added a few pages) along with S&H I ended up spending about $19. Not bad considering that this one is truly custom for Little Miss and the deluxe books on Disney’s site are about $20.
I have to say, that I really Love how it turned out and I can’t wait to see how the characters react to it once we get in to the parks. And Little Miss is already pretty thrilled with it as well. I've had to hide it so she won't tear it up before the trip.

I won’t blast you with pictures of the whole thing but here is some of how it turned out:

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[Gracefulskinny]

Disney Family Movie Night- Toy Story 2

So our most recent movie night was Toy Story 2. We had recently done a movie night for the first one but that was before I was taking pictures. For our meal we had

-“Woody’s Cowboy” BBQ

- “Smashed Mr. Potato Heads”

- “Green Alien Heads” {Brussel Sprouts}

With “Asteroids” {Cream Puffs} for dessert.

While dinner was getting ready Little Miss colored some pictures from toy story and we talked about what we would see down at Disney that related to the movie. We talked about the two rides and how we will be able to meet Buzz, Woody, and Jessie. After dinner we all snuggled down and enjoyed the movie.

I have to say, this is a movie that neither DH nor I had really seen much of before our movie night. Not only did we find ourselves laughing and enjoying it just as much as Little Miss we also ended up noticing at least 8 different Star Wars references. Pay attention next time you watch it. You’ll be amazed. Albeit, some of the references are more obscure then others. ​

 

[vleeth]

We usually start walking a few weeks/months before our trips. I thought we did quite well before our trip last year, but my feet were hurting by the end of the first day.

This time around I plan to walk/jog/run more before we head back to WDW.

One of these days I might go one of those movie nights. Do you think if I do it leading up to the trip my dd9 will figure out we are going? I'm trying to make it a surprise.

Anyways, love your updates!

 

[Gracefulskinny]

We usually start walking a few weeks/months before our trips. I thought we did quite well before our trip last year, but my feet were hurting by the end of the first day.

This time around I plan to walk/jog/run more before we head back to WDW.

One of these days I might go one of those movie nights. Do you think if I do it leading up to the trip my dd9 will figure out we are going? I'm trying to make it a surprise.

Anyways, love your updates!

Not if you word it right. Just tell her that since it will be a long time before you can get a chance to go back you want to bring some of the magic to you and so thats why we are doing them. Or you could just call them Family movie nights and try to mix in other movies as well.

 

[Gracefulskinny]

The Great Lambie Emergency!!!

This is Lambie. Lambie is extremely well loved in this house. Lambie is extra special because this particular Lambie is now out of production. Lambie also talks, meaning she can’t go through the wash. Little Miss LOVES that Lambie talks. After two years of hard lovin’ you can imagine that Lambie has generated a bit of a funk to her.

So after doing some research I found a cleaner that was supposed to work well with non-washable stuffed animals. I waited for a day that Little Miss was going to be spending the night with Nana and took the opportunity to attempt a cleaning. This is where things went downhill quick.

The cleaner it turns out not only leaves an odd residue behind it also has its own plasticy chemically smell that instead of cleaning Lambie just piled its own stentch on top of her already bad BO. To fix this I was trying other methods of dealing with the smell. During one of these treatments I accidentally let the hair dryer get too close to Lambie’s Face. Lambie now looked like this:

I had burned a ring of deep not easy to fix holes into Lambie’s face!!!!! At this point I almost cried. I waited for DH to get home with dread just thankful that I had waited till Little Miss was gone for the night to try to clean her. My first real dose of Mommy Guilt was in full swing.

When DH came home and saw the damage, plus the original issue, plus the new strange film on Lambie we both came to the same conclusion, Lambie was done for. At this point, I DID cry. And DH wasn’t a whole lot of help. I spent a good amount of time just holding Lambie just crying “I killed Lambie!!” {Like I said the Mommy guilt was in full swing.} All DH could say at first was, " Yes you did." That just made me cry harder.

Thankfully Daddy was able to save the day and after quite a bit of poking around was able to find a few replacements. We ended up having to spend $40 each to get them but we didn't want to find ourselves in this position again anytime soon and there were quite a few that were being sold for $75 and up. Bonus, he was able to get one on a guaranteed Sunday delivery (This was Friday Night). So with a new Lambie on the way we start to think of how to pull off the switch up and explain a missing Lambie for a day or two.
{For those who aren’t aware, Lambie is actually a character on a Disney Junior Show called Doc McStuffins. On the show Doc is a special doctor for Toys who is known to be the expert toy doctor. No surprise, we love Doc McStuffins in this house. Thanks to Doc Little Miss isn’t scared of getting shots. She doesn’t like them sure but she isn’t scared of them. She enjoys going to the doctor. Doc McStuffins has allowed me to find ways to explain to a 2 year old what is going on at the doctor in such a way that she understands. }

In a true fit of brilliance I come up with the perfect solution. When Little Miss came home from Nana’s house and asked for Lambie we decided to tell her that Mommy had done everything she could to help Lambie get a bath but that Mommy couldn’t fix Lambie. So Mommy made a call to Doc McStuffins and Lambie had to spend a few days at Doc’s clinic to get better. While Little Miss did continue to ask for Lambie throughout the day she did accept the reasoning.

So Saturday night after she went to bed I made a letter and DH hunted down a signature for Doc. {Thanks Kenny The Pirate!} I was ever grateful for the rather large file of Disney clip Art I keep on hand. The End result was this:

Not too shabby if I do say so myself. Next I googled up a hospital bracelet for Lambie and got it all ready for New Lambie’s arrival.

Yesturday new Lambie arrived and as soon as I could easily slip away I grabbed the box and went upstairs. After a quick evaluation to be 100% sure we really lucked our way into an identical Lambie, I cut the new Lambie out of her box slapped her hospital bracelet on her and grabbed the letter.
After a quick check with DH to confirm what was about to happen I snuck downstairs to the front door and rang the doorbell and pretended to thank Doc for dropping her off. And then held my breath to see if it would work.

As soon as Little Miss rounded the corner and saw Lambie her face lit up and she yanked Lambie out of my hands and gave her a big hug. After verifying that Lambie was alright she had me read her the letter from “Doc”. We have been hard pressed to get Lambie to leave her side since. Our only regret is that we didn’t get the whole thing on video.

I have to say, the Magic of the reveal almost made up for the trauma of the rest of the experience. ​

 

[Gracefulskinny]

Park Hours!


Park hours for May have been released!

If you need them you can find them HERE

Now please excuse me while I go off and start nailing down my plans. The charts and notes are about to explode all over the place for a bit.

​

 

[HHMcG]

HI!

I am thrilled to read about your love of POR. This will be our first visit there and I'm a bit nervous. I'm not crazy about the Alligator Bayou themeing but I know we will be there since we are 5. I'm also not sure about the 5 of us all in one room. We have always done Family Suites previously. Oh well, live and learn.

I LOVE your Lambie saga. If you can buy another one stat. My middle child is VERY attached to his 'froggie'. I bough extras early on and it has been a heaven sent. Of course he is 7 now, so I hope a night without 'froggie' wouldn't be the end of the world anymore.

 

[Gracefulskinny]

HI!

I am thrilled to read about your love of POR. This will be our first visit there and I'm a bit nervous. I'm not crazy about the Alligator Bayou themeing but I know we will be there since we are 5. I'm also not sure about the 5 of us all in one room. We have always done Family Suites previously. Oh well, live and learn.

I LOVE your Lambie saga. If you can buy another one stat. My middle child is VERY attached to his 'froggie'. I bough extras early on and it has been a heaven sent. Of course he is 7 now, so I hope a night without 'froggie' wouldn't be the end of the world anymore.

Thanks for joining in!

We really do enjoy POR. We've discussed changing resorts but we always decide that POR is just too special. It feels like a home away from home.

Glad you enjoyed that story. It was heart wrenching while going through it but it sure does make for a great story now!

We found a second one in the UK that is headed this way. It was actually the first one we found but because its coming from the UK its not scheduled to get here until November. Also UK Lambie may have a british accent and sayings when she gets here. I am also thinking that the next time I'm at the Disney Store I am going to pick up their version of Lambie and if it comes down to it we can just say that because the Nobathatosis keeps coming back Doc had to remove her voice box to cure it.

 

[Gracefulskinny]

Am I Crazy or is there merit to this idea?!?

So after hearing so many stories from the dis unplugged crew about how WONDERFUL the new Cabana Bay resort is and how its SO MUCH CHEAPER then the disney resorts, I thought on a whim I would check for our dates to see just how much cheaper we are talking about.

So, in disbelief that I am actually doing this, I log on to universals website...

Y'ALL.

OMG

I have a problem now....

A family suite over there is being quoted for $135ish a night. Do you know that means?!? It means that for about $700 less we could stay in a room with 115sqft MORE SPACE! (And yes my calculations factor in the $90 in WDW parking fees we would then encounter by staying off site as well as the 10 per day parking fees at Cabana Bay itself. )


Now I have to decide if this is worth it to even discuss with DH. Here are the set backs that We would have to consider....

1) Part of the relaxation of being on vacation is getting to the destination and letting someone else do the driving. We love taking advantage of the on site transportation and just leaving our car for others to deal with.

2) We really dislike leaving the Disney bubble.

3) With my strong reaction to Motion Sickness when it comes to roller coasters and motion simulators even though I am a Huge Harry Potter fan I don't see us having enough to do at Universal to justify the expense of Park tickets.

4) With DD only 2 we really were planing on going back to the hotel for naps. I worry that the added commute to our hotel would detract from the amount of time we end up spending in the parks.

5) We can probably kiss our chances of getting in to see Anna and Elsa and riding on the Mine Train goodbye. Going off site means loosing out on the 60 in advance scheduling advantage.

6) While DH and I do have magic bands from our last trip that I understand would still work for us a lot of the advantage to them will be gone because we are no longer on site guests and it also means that DD wouldn't get one at all.


All the being said from the little I have looked around there are a few disnict perks to the resort...

1)A Savings of $800

2) A BIG thing to consider... 115sqft MORE SPACE

3) From what I have seen the resort is much more compact the POR making for less walking

4)We have multiple resort rest days and the pool and beach would be heaven to DD.

5) We would be guaranteed to have an elevator at the hotel. At POR unless you book a Royal Room ($60 a night more then the standard we are currently booked) that is not the case. The Alligator Bayou section of the resort has no elevators and with my weak ankles and DD's stroller we REALLY want the convenience of an elevator.

5) There is a Starbucks in the Lobby



So now its your turn... What would you do?
1) Is it worth mentioning to DH?
2) Would you stay at a Universal hotel even if your park time was 100% Disney?
3)What are your thoughts on Cabana Bay if you have any?



EDIT: After poking around and reading up on reviews in a bunch of different places I think I have decided that there are just too many down sides. Many reviews have complained of rock hard beds, paper thin walls and Mysterious Charges to the credit cards. I think we will be sticking with Disney. Also There is the other big down side I didn't think to include earlier, The advantage of the 6 months no financing on the Disney Visa obviously doesn't apply at universal. ​