“I have imagination ice cream please?” A February 2025 Trip Report (Complete 3/17)

[eliseisawkward]

The next morning, we let Noodle sleep in, and she woke up at 7:30. She’s like a human alarm clock and wakes at exactly 7 most mornings, so the extra half hour was nice.

I assume we ate something? But I didn’t write it down so that must mean it was more of the breakfast foods from Target (yogurt, hard boiled egg, granola bars…) which served us well this trip. After eating we all got dressed and went for a walk.

Noodle really wanted to go to the beach, so that’s what we did.





As you can see it was really foggy again this morning. After we brushed most of the sand off, we went back up to the room to change into our suits to go swimming.

We spent about an hour or so at the pool. There were 2 or 3 other families there, about a dozen people total. Noodle made a friend, a 7ish year old girl who was very sweet. She was there with her grandpa, and when she left we used it as an excuse to convince Noodle to get out too.

This is the best picture Derek took the whole time we were in the pool


After the pool we showered off, Noodle insisted on washing her hair so it took ten hours. And by the time we got her back into her clothes it was time to head to lunch.

In the hallway on our way to the elevator we ran into the housekeeping manager, who told us she was so glad she caught us… because she had a balloon for Noodle! I’m not entirely sure why, she said she thought she heard us talking about a birthday? I laughed and said maybe she did, but it wasn’t a birthday trip, just a first trip! And she said that was even better! Noodle was soooooo excited about the balloon. Plus it had a pink Mickey! Her favorite color!

We decided to leave the balloon in the room for its own protection, while we made our way down to Beaches and Cream.

 

[Sarahh1027]

What a great evening in Epcot! So glad Noodle loved Epcot and all the older rides. I’m the same way lol

 

[Sarahh1027]

Ooo just realized you had another update on page 3 lol Sounds like a nice relaxing morning! That was so sweet of the manager to get Noodle a balloon!!

 

[eliseisawkward]

What a great evening in Epcot! So glad Noodle loved Epcot and all the older rides. I’m the same way lol

I was both surprised and not surprised. I’m so happy she loved the classics because I do too!!

 

[eliseisawkward]

Ooo just realized you had another update on page 3 lol Sounds like a nice relaxing morning! That was so sweet of the manager to get Noodle a balloon!!

It was amazing. We’ve never done a resort day before because we are usually GO GO GO, but it will definitely be a staple of all future trips.

 

[footballmouse]

 

[eliseisawkward]

We checked in for our lunch reservation at Beaches and Cream, and they sat us pretty quickly.

Our server was great! Noodle ordered Mac and cheese, watermelon, and a Mickey Sundae. I got the Impossible Burger and a strawberry milkshake. Derek got the grilled cheese and the root beer float with alcohol.



We all enjoyed our food. Noodle was especially excited for the ice cream, which ended up ALL OVER her. So after lunch we went back to the room to change.

Housekeeping hadn’t gotten to our room yet, so we decided to go chill in the Solarium. Noodle watched some TV on her tablet while we enjoyed relaxing. They offered a glass art project at this time, but we didn’t try it out. I think if Noodle were older we would have done it.

After relaxing for a bit, Derek suggested Disney Springs for some shopping. So we went to grab the car keys, but housekeeping was in our room at the time so we popped in super quick. Note: Derek started complaining that his stomach was bothering him at this point. But he did not take anything because we were rushing. Big mistake.

We drove to Disney Springs, and by the time we got there Derek was pretty miserable. We got through security and he went straight to the bathroom while Noodle and I went into World of Disney.

Noodle was on a mission to pick her souvenir. We told her she could pick ONE thing, but didn’t restrict her on her choice. We looked at EVERYTHING. She really wanted a Frozen bubble wand, but didn’t want Olaf and that’s all they have. So she decided to get the Ariel bubble wand instead.

At this point Derek texted that it was bad. He couldn’t meet us yet, and we should go ahead and keep going without him. So we headed to the Lego store. I offered Noodle to make her own mini fig, but she wasn’t interested. She ended up picking out a Gabby’s Dollhouse set, which was pretty cute.



At this point Derek informed me that he needed to go back to the room. So we made our way back to the car. On the way out an old woman touched Noodle while we were walking by. Noodle was so upset and I was so angry! I immediately told her not to touch my child and quickly got out of there. In what world is it okay to just touch other people randomly??

We drove back to Beach Club and found Noodle’s bed made up like this:

So cute!

At this point it was clear Derek was done for the day. We suspect the combination of dairy and alcohol really disagreed with him. So I decided to take Noodle on an adventure to AoA to see the playground there.

We walked to the skyliner, then rode it all the way to AoA.



The playground is ok. It’s a few slides and the theme is super cute. Noodle was pretty mad she couldn’t go in the pool or run around the splash pad. It did not occur to me they are next to each other and the splash pad is super tempting.


Once the novelty of the playground wore off, we made our way back to the skyliner. Rode back to Beach Club and hunted down the campfire to toast some marshmallows! She also got a little craft kit of a campfire, which was free.


We took the craft to the room and put it together then played with Noodle’s new Lego. We had left overs for dinner, I took them down to the Marketplace to heat up. I honestly don’t even remember exactly what we had. I probably supplemented Noodle’s dinner with fruit and a milk carton.

After I got Noodle to bed, I went back down to get myself a treat (chocolate caramel cheesecake!) and some Imodium for Derek. He wasn’t sure it would help, but after he took some he immediately felt better.



We crossed our fingers he would be ok enough the next day for another park day. I hadn’t really planned for what to do if someone got sick while we were here…

 

[Sarahh1027]

Ugh such a bummer having stomach issues on vacation!! Hoping he felt better after that night! Sounds like Noodle still had a good night tho

 

[PollyannaMom]

It was amazing. We’ve never done a resort day before because we are usually GO GO GO, but it will definitely be a staple of all future trips.

Soooo important, especially with kids! - We learned early on that we could not do three full park days in a row (at least if we wanted to avoid the epic crankiness forever after referred to as "the day three curse"). I love a rest day (or at least half-day rest) in the middle of a trip.

Really enjoying your report so far, and following for more!

 

[eliseisawkward]

Ugh such a bummer having stomach issues on vacation!! Hoping he felt better after that night! Sounds like Noodle still had a good night tho

Spoiler: The worst is definitely over!!

Noodle had a great time even though dad wasn’t feeling good. She LOVED the campfire. Apparently they are daily at a bunch of the resorts, and the marshmallows were free!

 

[eliseisawkward]

Soooo important, especially with kids! - We learned early on that we could not do three full park days in a row (at least if we wanted to avoid the epic crankiness forever after referred to as "the day three curse"). I love a rest day (or at least half-day rest) in the middle of a trip.

Really enjoying your report so far, and following for more!

Welcome! I’ve started toying around with a future trip, and I think 2 days on, 1 day off is the pattern we will aim for. Definitely want to avoid your day three curse!

 

[Paulaparm]

We were lucky enough to just stay for 3 weeks (at Fort Wilderness with our camper). We had 10 day park hoppers and it worked out that we were able to do 2 park days and 1 rest day for the 14 days that we had to use the tickets. It worked perfectly for us. We never got that “Disney tired” feeling!

 

[eliseisawkward]

After our rest day, I was up at 6 (no idea why) and we ended up waking Noodle at 7. She was super excited this morning because it was PRINCESS BREAKFAST! Derek was feeling much better, but not 100%. Luckily he had the scooter for his knees so he was pretty sure he would be fine for a park day.

Noodle quickly got dressed in her Elsa dress and we were into EPCOT by 8. She saw someone had a little booklet and immediately wanted one, but I wasn’t about to go find it. A woman overheard us and promptly sent her husband to get the maps/Festival booklets for herself and for Noodle. She was so kind!



Most mornings they split you in two just past the entrance area, but for some reason they ushered everyone towards Remy? So we were over the bridge and actually first right up by the rope to go up and over to Norway. We had been hoping to rope drop Frozen but this put us at a disadvantage. We chatted with a really lovely couple while we waited for the rope to drop. And once it did we were off!

By the time we got to Norway, the line for Frozen was longer than 35 minutes. We knew we would be cutting it close, so we decided to just check in early for breakfast instead of risking it. In the future, I would probably try for a later breakfast OR would just not bother rushing and take our time getting into Epcot.

Food at Akershus was pretty good! Noodle ate SO MUCH cheese. She also tried the eggs and LOVED the waffles. I liked everything I tried. Derek was a fan of the eggs and waffles as well. He was careful to eat only small bites, but ended up eating more than he thought he would!

Noodle was in absolute heaven for the entire meal. We saw 5 princesses, and first up was her favorite!



They had a discussion about Noodle being a cold water mermaid? It was such a good interaction. Ariel was so lovely.

Next was Tiana, who was very sweet. Followed by Aurora who was fine. Noodle hasn’t seen either of their movies but she still loved meeting them.





Snow White was spot on and so so sweet. And Belle was also perfect! They had a whole discussion about dancing dishes and Noodle decided that sounded like silly fun!




Overall breakfast was just under an hour. Our server was lovely and attentive, we couldn’t have asked for a better experience. 10/10 for the experience, worth every penny.

 

[erinch]

I tried to Direct message you, but it didn’t work! Loving your report. In the Apricot post, Noodle has an additional name, if that matters. Such fun to read, my now 29 year old daughter still loves Epcot the best, from her toddler days of exploring.

 

[eliseisawkward]

I tried to Direct message you, but it didn’t work! Loving your report. In the Apricot post, Noodle has an additional name, if that matters. Such fun to read, my now 29 year old daughter still loves Epcot the best, from her toddler days of exploring.

Oh thanks for the heads up! I try to avoid using her name and face online. But I’m sure I slip up more than I like to admit.

 

[eliseisawkward]

After breakfast we continued our Very Princess Morning with Frozen Ever After. I was worried because it said 55 minutes for the wait, but we had already hyped Noodle up for the ride. The line to meet Anna and Elsa was even longer…. So into the line we went, and we learned that Noodle is perfectly happy to wait in lines. Like, so did not complain once. What is this child??

Outside she used her doodle pad for a bit, but inside she mostly just danced and sang to herself. For nearly an entire hour.




She loved the ride! Even the drops didn’t seem to scare her, although “the big snow guy” did and she closed her eyes for the drops because of him.



I laughed that in our one and only ride photo, you cannot see Noodle.

We stopped for a snack, and Noodle ate whatever fruit snacks and veggie straws we had. Then we saw that the line for Anna and Elsa was only 20 minutes so we made a beeline for that. It ended up being a touch longer than 20 minutes, but not too bad. And the meet and greet was EVERYTHING.

Elsa took Noodle by the hand and told her she had the same dress in her wardrobe! They had a whole whispered conversation about snow and castles. There were a couple hugs.








After such a great interaction with Elsa, I was worried Noodle would not want to leave. But Anna is also a favorite, so that eased the transition. And Anna was great! Super bubbly and Noodle talked to her about holiday traditions while Anna signed our ornament.




This was the last of the princess autographs that we got this trip, so the back of the ornament was complete! We had been hoping for Rapunzel too, but (spoiler) we never got around to meeting her.



This concluded our Very Princess Morning, and we had to decide what to do next. I grabbed a Troll Krem (A frozen blend of cranberry and vanilla, topped with dragon berry rum) and we strolled over to Mexico.

Noodle did the Coco “make your own” dia de muertos activity thing? I had no idea what this was, but she enjoyed it.



Afterwards she did the Kidcot fun stop and colored for a bit. Derek wandered around looking at stuff. I just watched Noodle color. She didn’t really want to leave, but we didn’t want to spend all day there so we convinced her to head out and try to meet Goofy.

 

[PollyannaMom]

That autograph ornament is a fabulous idea!!

 

[eliseisawkward]

That autograph ornament is a fabulous idea!!

I got it off Etsy! The name of the shop is SvensDenDesigns. I just realized I don’t think I mentioned it yet. The front has Mickey and friends, I’ll share it after we collect our final signature!

 

[eliseisawkward]

We exited the Mexico pavilion and made our way towards World Celebration to the Mickey and Friends meet and greet so we could meet Goofy. At this point Noodle had complained approximately 262451167 times that we hadn’t met Goofy or Pluto when we went to Topolino’s so we needed to right the wrong.

Just across from the line entrance is this giant globe thing that a group of acrobats were performing on? Noodle and I chatted with the cast member at the line entrance about how cool the performance was and how lucky they were to have it across from where they were working! Derek had to figure out where to park his scooter, so we got to watch for a few minutes. Once Derek returned we got into line… right behind a HUGE group of cheerleaders. I mean massive. They were all seated on the ground, which did not bode well.

We waited for about 5 minutes with zero movement at all and decided to abandon ship. I told Noodle I would find a way to meet Goofy, but this was not working. So we exited back the way we came and as we exited, the woman we had been chatting with grabbed my attention and said “come with me!” So I had to flag down Derek to come back and we were pixie dusted a LL entrance! A few minutes later we were meeting Mickey!




And… as it turns out Goofy is “So so so big! Even bigger than mom and dad!” Which was too much for Noodle, and dad had to hold her the whole time.



We did end on a high note though, with all time favorite Minnie rounding out the trio.



Noodle was definitely happy to have met Goofy after the fact. I think she just was not prepared for how tall he was compared to all the other characters. And we were able to “complete” the front of the ornament. Please excuse the scribbling out of Noodle’s name.




Noodle was hoping for Pluto too, but it just never happened. And she never let us forget it. After returning home she told EVERYONE she spoke to “I went to Disney World, but I didn’t get to meet Pluto.” Completely ignore everything you DID do kid, and just tell them how I failed you. Thanks.

We had time for one more ride before heading back to the room for a nap (fingers crossed) and asked Noodle if she wanted to ride something she already tried, or if she wanted to ride Figment “with the purple dragon” and to everyone’s surprise she said “I want to ride Spaceship Earth where we go up and up and up and up and we get to see the future.”

You got it kid! We hopped into the queue and this time Noodle asked to ride with dad. The ride stopped at least 3 times this trip, but never for too long. This made an impression on Noodle, as just yesterday she made Derek “narrate” the entire ride from memory for a bunch of stuffed animals and she made him stop the ride “3 times only” .

After our ride, we made our way back to the Beach Club for an attempt at a nap. Which failed miserably. But we did rest, which I think helps. And afterwards we snacked on left overs and snacks from our Target order.

 

[Sarahh1027]

Love the Princess morning. Glad Noodle took the line for Frozen like a champ! If only adults had her patience lol
Noodle fixating on not meeting Pluto is adorable. So glad you guys got a LL for Goofy, Mickey and Minnie!
Also glad your husband was feeling better this day!