“Dreams Come True Momma!” A 2 year old’s first trip ~ May 2015~Complete {NEW TR LINK!}

[Gracefulskinny]

Sometimes, you just need those down days like that.

I am not familiar with either option. It would be hard to be sooo close and not go to the parks though. I understand your predicament, but I folded and ended up getting 3 nights on property and 3 day tickets for my quick visit to Orlando in January.

My current idea is to book Ohana dinner for our arrival night and watch wishes from the beach afterwards. I booked friday through monday at the hotel with the wedding on saturday. (Because its just a save the date that we got that's all the info I've been given. I'm taking a bit of a gamble that this will be convenient but we'll have to see when the actual invite arrives.

If I'm honest, I'm kinda holding out hope for a CHristmas or Birthday miracle and in an ideal world 2-3 day tickets. (Wouldn't be able to visit a park on the day of the wedding anyways.) I doubt that will happen though. We also have trown around the idea of going down to the Space Center (DH really wants to go and has never been.) but with little miss so young and it being over an hour away we've pretty much ruled that idea out.

Sounds lovely.

I know right!

Can't get much closer than that!

Pretty much.

I absolutely love Disney's cornbread. That stuff is amazing. And that is pretty much my feeling about any salad I've ever had.

That cornbread and honey butter were pretty outstanding!

I appreciate the honesty. I can really see how you'd feel this way after all the hassle to get there and waiting so long. I mean I'm sure the show is good and the food is good, but I couldn't imagine a mass produced meal that is brought out to everyone in the theater at once could be any better than the identically prepared food you could get at Trail's End.

And I'm sure this probably had a significant effect on your overall feelings about that evening.

And I can definitely see that too. Being eye level with the performers knees... from 5 feet away. Yeah, that would make it difficult to watch the show.

More like their shins.

EPCOT - Nemo

Sunshine Seasons

Quiz answers - Epcot, living with the land, sunshine seasons

I have no information on the hotels but really hope you have a good experience where ever you decide! Why is it so expensive in general is my question its crazy!!!!

I'll certainly keep y'all posted. Don't think the trip merits a ptr because a. its so short, and b. We more than likely won't hit up a park.

I'm going to say Epcot, Spaceship Earth and Akershus.

Once again, loving Little Miss' t-shirt in this update -- Jesse is simply adorable and it's the perfect shirt for the evening. She's got an awesome Disney wardrobe

That she does! I'm also not going to lie. The fact that we will be down there in March and so she'll get an extra trip out of her wardrobe (even if we don't hit up a park) just thrills be a tiny bit!

 

[kadrachb]

Salad (Meh).

That looks like a salad you would get at a pizza place that has no right to make salads...

you sit and DH and I ended up feeling like our seats were almost TOO close to the action.

I'm surprised they even have tables that close! It's like the very front seats in the movie theatre.

 

[chunkymonkey]

I had wanted to do the Hoop Dee Doo (never went before) - but looks like it wasn't that special based on your experience. I would probably not have liked to sit up front though. I always find it too annoying to crane one's neck to look up. Looks like Little Miss enjoyed the show though! It does seem like a lot of effort to get there. Might be fun for a group thing.

 

[bibba410]

Yikes - I would not enjoy being so close to the stage. We had considered this for our December trip. We were already on the fence on it, but after reading your review I think we'll forgo it. Thanks for the update!

 

[annie170]

The couple times we've talked about doing HDDR, we ended up scrapping it for a more convenient restaurant. Little Miss looks adorable as usual and seemed to be really enjoying herself. Sorry the food wasn't better.

I'll go with the crowd and guess Epcot, with your first ride being Nemo and you had lunch at Akershus.

 

[Gracefulskinny]

That looks like a salad you would get at a pizza place that has no right to make salads...

A hilarious but very accurate description!

I'm surprised they even have tables that close! It's like the very front seats in the movie theatre.

Our thoughts exactly!

I had wanted to do the Hoop Dee Doo (never went before) - but looks like it wasn't that special based on your experience. I would probably not have liked to sit up front though. I always find it too annoying to crane one's neck to look up.

Looks like Little Miss enjoyed the show though! It does seem like a lot of effort to get there. Might be fun for a group thing.

It could be it was just an off night for the ferry. However I can see that with a larger group further back it might be better. There definitely some good parts to it in our case they just got overshadowed by having to wait outside in the humid bugginess for over an hour before being let in. The only real problem I have with it is that you are forced to use disney transportation to get there.

Yikes - I would not enjoy being so close to the stage. We had considered this for our December trip. We were already on the fence on it, but after reading your review I think we'll forgo it. Thanks for the update!

We both felt that if we were ever to go back we wouldn't bother with the category 1 or 2 seating. You could end up having a better experience. We just ended up feeling underwhelmed after having it talked up so much from so many people.

The couple times we've talked about doing HDDR, we ended up scrapping it for a more convenient restaurant.

Don't blame you. We really don't feel its worth the hassle to get over there.

Little Miss looks adorable as usual and seemed to be really enjoying herself.

Once we finally got in there she had a blast. It was the over an hour long wait that tried all our patience.

 

[Kiren]

I'm a DL girl but I'll take a guess that you guys went either back to MK or headed to AK and did the Safari. Or at MK you finally rode Dumbo!

 

[Sunshinegrl243]

Great TR!! I've been reading along (and lurking), but now I just have to know - where did you get your shirts? Did you make them? Buy them? I especially love the white shirt with Cinderella and her prince dancing. Love!!

 

[Dugette]

Option 2 is B Resort and Spa.

I actually rented a car from here in May (there is an Enterprise desk in the lobby). I felt like it was further than I expected it to be from Downtown Disney. Part of that might have been that traffic was at a standstill, so it took forever (walking may have been faster! ). There was a lot of road work/construction going on and they were in the process of putting up a lot of pedestrian bridges/walkways, which looked really nice. The lobby seemed very nice, but that's as far as I got. They also have a free shuttle to and from the parks. It was a coach bus (the one I rode after returning the car) and it stopped at multiple parks and resorts - not the most efficient and definitely not run by Disney, but it got us there.

FINALLY at 8:30 they let us in and lead us to our table.

Though I'm glad you got to see some of Fort Wilderness while you waited, I'm sorry it took so long and you had to just stand around waiting!

I know this is going to be an unpopular opinion here on the boards but, other than the cornbread, there was nothing really stand out amazing about any of the food in our opinions. Maybe we had heard it talked up so much it couldn’t live up to our expectations.

The show, while funny and enjoyable wasn’t blow us away impressive either.

Bummer the show and food weren't really worth the trip. It does look like Little Miss was enjoying herself in those pictures, though. We've never done Hoop Dee Doo, but I'd still like to try it someday. It's just never convenient, it seems.

Once the boat finally got there it was a very slow trip on a boat that had bugs continuing to swarm in Little Miss’s face while zero air flow passed through. I got a bit on the queasy side before we reached the dock.

Yuck! That sounds awful!

Which park do we go to first and what is our first attraction there?

I guess I'll jump on the Epcot bandwagon.

Where do we end up eating lunch?

Sunshine Seasons.

 

[pkondz]

It's update day!!!!!!

Woot!

Thank you for being patient.

No. You guys were the patients.
We were just waiting.

Before I get to the next update I need your thoughts and opinions on something.

My two cents. When the DDs were little, we always picked suites. That way we had a room with a door that we could close so that we could read or watch TV and they could sleep. When they go a bit older, they starte to balk at the pull-out since they're not very comfortable. But when they're little, they don't mind.

Because the only way to get to Fort Wilderness is to bus over to the Magic Kingdom and then take a boat to Fort Wilderness

Cost aside, can you take a cab there?

That horse really looks like it wants to be petted and/or fed.

We then were told to go line up for dinner and then stood around for a full half hour till they opened the line.

That seems... poorly thought out.

We had swung for the category 1 seating based on a few recommendations. We ended up Smack against the stage.

I know what you'll say at the end of this update, and that was my first thought too.
Just too close.
I'd get a sore neck from looking up!

Just a little hungry?

How did the washboard playing go?

On the other hand, someone looks like she's pretty happy with the location.

After the show let out we went back to the dock and ended up having to wait quite a bit for a ferry. This ended up being very tedious and annoying because the dock was now SWARMING with Nats and Bugs and it was pretty much Little Miss’s nightmare.

Ugh. No.

The bus was another post fireworks super crowed disaster and by the time we got back to POR I was just done with it all.

Sorry to hear that. Takes the enjoyment right out of it.

The theater is small enough that it really doesn’t make much of a difference view wise where you sit and DH and I ended up feeling like our seats were almost TOO close to the action.

I kinda thought so.
Never been. May never go. We'll see.

Which park do we go to first and what is our first attraction there?


Where do we end up eating lunch?

Epcot. SE. Sunshine Seasons.

 

[BibbitybobityLu]

Hey I'm actually (sorta) keeping up!

So cute!

Then we went up and looked at the horses.

Horses!! I didn't think of horses! Or bugs! I am terrible at this game!

FINALLY at 8:30 they let us in and lead us to our table.

We had swung for the category 1 seating based on a few recommendations. We ended up Smack against the stage.

Wow you really are front and centre!

Soon our waiter came along and dropped off the corn bread (Mmmmmmmmmm) and Salad (Meh).

I love that!

This photo cracks me up! It looks like Admiral Ackbar on your DH's shirt is really excited about the chicken and corn!

The theater is small enough that it really doesn’t make much of a difference view wise where you sit and DH and I ended up feeling like our seats were almost TOO close to the action.

That's sometimes an issue in theatres like that, you can be too close!

***Bonus Question Time***


Which park do we go to first and what is our first attraction there?

Hmmmm.....Animal Kingdom????? Kilimanjaro Safari??? Seriously I get so panicky with this game!

Where do we end up eating lunch?

Errrrrmmmm....Tusker House??? I don't know!!!

 

[Gracefulskinny]

Back to do more responses later turns out my cold from last week turned in to Bronchitis. Thankfully the O2 reader on my phone helped me to catch it in the very early stages before it got too nasty.

While some have properly guessed the park and a few here and there have gotten the ride no one has yet to get the restaurant so the first full correct bonus point is still up for grabs. I'll be nice though .... Think TS. Do with that what you will. ​

 

[BibbitybobityLu]

Back to do more responses later turns out my cold from last week turned in to Bronchitis. Thankfully the O2 reader on my phone helped me to catch it in the very early stages before it got too nasty.

While some have properly guessed the park and a few here and there have gotten the ride no one has yet to get the restaurant so the first full correct bonus point is still up for grabs. I'll be nice though .... Think TS. Do with that what you will. ​

Yikes! Hope you are feeling better soon!

Okay so I'm changing my mind on the bonus questions to Epcot, Nemo and Garden Grill (is that what that's called??) and I'm sticking to those answers...maybe...

 

[pkondz]

Not good! Hope you start feeling better!

 

[ThemeQueen]

Good to know about HDD! The logistics of getting there was enough to turn me off to begin with.

 

[afwdwfan]

I'll go with Coral Reef. And I hope you're feeling better soon!

 

[Gracefulskinny]

I'm a DL girl but I'll take a guess that you guys went either back to MK or headed to AK and did the Safari. Or at MK you finally rode Dumbo!

Great TR!! I've been reading along (and lurking), but now I just have to know - where did you get your shirts? Did you make them? Buy them? I especially love the white shirt with Cinderella and her prince dancing. Love!!

I made both my Cinderella shirt and my Sorcerer Mickey Shirt using glitter iron on sheets and tracing the silhouette with an exacto knife. The other shirts in my collection came from Torrid. They have a wonderful section of disney shirts for plus size.

I actually rented a car from here in May (there is an Enterprise desk in the lobby). I felt like it was further than I expected it to be from Downtown Disney. Part of that might have been that traffic was at a standstill, so it took forever (walking may have been faster! ). There was a lot of road work/construction going on and they were in the process of putting up a lot of pedestrian bridges/walkways, which looked really nice. The lobby seemed very nice, but that's as far as I got. They also have a free shuttle to and from the parks. It was a coach bus (the one I rode after returning the car) and it stopped at multiple parks and resorts - not the most efficient and definitely not run by Disney, but it got us there.

Yeah I was wondering what the construction traffic would do. I think it is supposed to be done by then. We'll just have to see what the progress is and make the final call closer to the actual date.

Though I'm glad you got to see some of Fort Wilderness while you waited, I'm sorry it took so long and you had to just stand around waiting!

Yeah there wasn't much there to impress us really.If I had known that the arrive by 8 so you can get in line to check in then get in line for photopass and then get in line for the door that won't open until exactly 8:30 I wouldn't have built such a buffer into our timing.

Bummer the show and food weren't really worth the trip. It does look like Little Miss was enjoying herself in those pictures, though. We've never done Hoop Dee Doo, but I'd still like to try it someday. It's just never convenient, it seems.

The show and the food were good its just the extreme hassle to get there that causes issues.

Yuck! That sounds awful!

Ugh such a damper on the evening.

I guess I'll jump on the Epcot bandwagon.

Sunshine Seasons.

 

[Gracefulskinny]

Woot!

No. You guys were the patients.
We were just waiting.

Ugh I think I'm tired of being a house full of patients. As soon as one recovers another get's sick. Hopefully I'm, the last to get knocked down by this.

My two cents. When the DDs were little, we always picked suites. That way we had a room with a door that we could close so that we could read or watch TV and they could sleep. When they go a bit older, they starte to balk at the pull-out since they're not very comfortable. But when they're little, they don't mind.

The problem is accounting for the possibility that my mother might choose to join us.

Cost aside, can you take a cab there?

You can take a cab to Fort Wilderness but to get access to the theater where the Hoop De Doo is held you would then have to take an internal bus. There is no direct access. The directions on the tickets specifically state to take the ferry from MK.

That horse really looks like it wants to be petted and/or fed.

I know! It kept staring at us for attention but that was the closest we were allowed to get.

That seems... poorly thought out.

Indeed!

I know what you'll say at the end of this update, and that was my first thought too.
Just too close.
I'd get a sore neck from looking up!

Just a little hungry?

Just a smidge I think!

How did the washboard playing go?

She LOVED it!

On the other hand, someone looks like she's pretty happy with the location.

I'll say this, being that close did make for getting good lighting for pictures.

Ugh. No.

And because everyone had to take the ferry the boat was PACKED on the way back.

Sorry to hear that. Takes the enjoyment right out of it.

I kinda thought so.
Never been. May never go. We'll see.

Meh. Its a cute show. the food is tasty(mostly) but nothing special. I wouldn't tell people to avoid it but its certainly not one of those MUST DO experiences.

Epcot. SE. Sunshine Seasons.

Hey I'm actually (sorta) keeping up!

Guess it helps that we keep getting nailed with illness in my house.

So cute!

Horses!! I didn't think of horses! Or bugs! I am terrible at this game!

I was surprised no one thought of horses. Actually I thought that question was going to be fairly easy.

Wow you really are front and centre!

I love that!

I can enjoy a good salad every now and then but that one was just eh!

This photo cracks me up! It looks like Admiral Ackbar on your DH's shirt is really excited about the chicken and corn!

That's sometimes an issue in theatres like that, you can be too close!

We were way too close for sure!

Hmmmm.....Animal Kingdom????? Kilimanjaro Safari??? Seriously I get so panicky with this game!

Errrrrmmmm....Tusker House??? I don't know!!!

No need to panic!Still plenty of points to be had.

Yikes! Hope you are feeling better soon!

I'm just grateful I caught it before it really got nasty!

Okay so I'm changing my mind on the bonus questions to Epcot, Nemo and Garden Grill (is that what that's called??) and I'm sticking to those answers...maybe...

Not good! Hope you start feeling better!

I caught it early so it hasn't had a chance to royally kick my butt. Still bad enough though.

Good to know about HDD! The logistics of getting there was enough to turn me off to begin with.

Yeah as fun as it can be it just really isn't worth the logistics of getting there.

I'll go with Coral Reef. And I hope you're feeling better soon!

 

[pkondz]

The problem is accounting for the possibility that my mother might choose to join us.

Gotcha. I guess it depends then on how badly you want her along.

You can take a cab to Fort Wilderness but to get access to the theater where the Hoop De Doo is held you would then have to take an internal bus. There is no direct access. The directions on the tickets specifically state to take the ferry from MK.

Ah. Did not know that.

She LOVED it!

Good!

Meh. Its a cute show. the food is tasty(mostly) but nothing special. I wouldn't tell people to avoid it but its certainly not one of those MUST DO experiences.

Interesting. I keep reading TR after TR after TR with people raving about it and saying it's better than almost anything else at Disney. I kept wondering just what I was missing.

 

[Gracefulskinny]

Mother’s Day Morning Adventures
(5/10/15 Part 1)

Since today was Mother’s day and we ended up having a late night the night before we decided that we would skip rope drop this morning and get to the park whenever we got there. This was also a day without much agenda. We wanted to be sure to allow for a nice relaxing Mother’s day.


We struck out to Epcot around 10:45 am. We ended up with some decent bus luck and didn’t end up waiting too long. It was as we were loading on to the bus that DH and I had a “I thought YOU had the park bag!” moment but with the bus there and waiting we decided that we would just chance our luck and leave it in the room this time.


As we were walking from the bus I mentioned to DH that I was feeling low on Iron and really needed a steak to boost it. (It happens from time to time a good steak will boost it right back. Though looking back I am pretty sure it was due to Implantation of the miscarriage and not the usual cause. ) I have heartedly mentioned that I wish I had gone ahead and done a Le Cellier ADR for lunch like I thought about doing during planning.


DH then surprised me and suggested that I look and see what’s available and see if we luck out.


So I started poking and it took a while because MDE was being slow and I wanted to soak in the magic of being at Disney on Mother’s day.


We got near bag check and discovered the perk of leaving the bag in the room. I have to say it’s kind of nice skipping bag check like that. Soon we were through the tapstiles and stopping for a PhotoPass in front of the ball.

From there we went to The Seas with Nemo and Friends. And Little Miss and I saw a Photopass guy out front of it so while we waited on DH to park the stroller we went and got more Photopass Pics

Little Miss seemed to really enjoy this one and spent most of the ride waving at the different characters. After that we went over to Turtle Talk with Crush and while we were waiting for the next show I went ahead and was able to get on to MDE to see what was available for lunch.


Shocker of all Shockers… Le Cellier wasn’t available. However, I was surprised to see what was. We had quite a few options open to us with reasonable ADR times. We discussed our options and which menu could get me a steak (since that was the main reason to make an adr) and picked one for a little later.


Turtle Talk with Crush was very cute and definitely something we would go back to. After Turtle Talk we explored around the Sea pavilion. Little Miss had Big Fun doing this.

Soon though it was time to head towards our ADR. We made our way to the World Showcase boats and hopped on one that was about to leave for Germany. Once docked we skipped over to Italy and parked the stroller and in to Tutto Italia we went.

I have to say this meal was AMAZING!!! For all the love that Via Napoli gets DH and I by far hands down prefer Tutto Italia. It was cool and quiet and even Little Miss’s Pizza was amazingly delicious! DH’s pasta and Little Miss’s Pizza were a bit better than my steak, but really I didn’t have high expectations for it anyways and I would have ordered something more Italian had I not been in need of the iron. And even still the steak wasn’t bad, just not quite as good as the other two. (When is the last time that you had a kids meal beat out an adult entrée?!?***)

We walked away from the meal very happy and agreeing that we would back on our next trip. This meal ended up costing $105.93 after tax and tip.


***Bonus Question Time***

~What do we do next?


~Do we stop for more Photopass Pictures and if so where?​