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

I have been lurking here, but just wanted to comment to say that I absolutely love your TR! We’re west coasters, so we’re taking our daughter to Disneyland for the first time for her second birthday this June. You’re making me envision what it can look like at Disney for her when she’s a little older! We’re hoping for a WDW trip in a few years!

I absolutely love the Christmas ornament with character autographs and definitely plan to do that when our daughter is older!

I also LOVE Noodle’s undying love of Spaceship Earth!
 
I have been lurking here, but just wanted to comment to say that I absolutely love your TR! We’re west coasters, so we’re taking our daughter to Disneyland for the first time for her second birthday this June. You’re making me envision what it can look like at Disney for her when she’s a little older! We’re hoping for a WDW trip in a few years!

I absolutely love the Christmas ornament with character autographs and definitely plan to do that when our daughter is older!

I also LOVE Noodle’s undying love of Spaceship Earth!
Welcome!!

Visiting with a little is SOOO different, but I am glad we did it. I do wish a bit that we had done it before her 3rd birthday for the cost aspect, but I think the few extra months of “growing up” helped with her understanding of what was going on.

We also aren’t sure about a second child, and what that would look like. I’m glad we took the trip when we did.

And serious love for Spaceship Earth. Derek forgot the part about the Phoenicians yesterday and Noodle stopped him and said “Noooooo, no no no. You forgot do you know your alphabet!!”
 
After our failed attempt at a nap and leisurely room snack, it was time to head out to the parks for the last time. We had 2 missions: 1) ice cream and 2) ride the monorail to MK so that Noodle would officially use all 4 forms of Disney World transportation on her very first trip. Would we accomplish both missions?

Noodle requested another boat ride, so even though the boat might take longer than walking, we caught a boat to Epcot. We were into the park around 4 and Noodle caught sight of Daisy so we hopped in line and were actually next up for hugs and pictures.


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Noodle blew Daisy a kiss and said goodbye. This was her third time meeting Daisy this trip and Noodle was starting to feel like old friends. :love:

We made our way towards Swirled Showcase to check out the ice cream and frozen treat offerings. They had bubblegum soft serve and 3 flavors of dole whip. The special offerings included a trio of dole whips topped with candy, or an Imagination Cone: bubblegum soft serve in a lavender waffle cone topped with “sparks” of imagination and white chocolate wings. Can you guess what Noodle chose? She asked for the imagination ice cream, and promptly made up a song all about said imagination ice cream, singing the entire time we were in line.


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Noodle and I split this and it was surprisingly good! The bubblegum flavor wasn’t super overwhelming like I had feared when we ordered it. The lavender cone was really yummy. The sparks were nerds, one of Noodles favorite candies. Noodle was in heaven.

At this point I was itching to get to the front of the park and start making our way to Magic Kingdom, but Noodle had other ideas. She wanted to do the Moana garden again, so we did.

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And once she saw the entrance to Nemo, we had to ride that again… :rotfl:

Finally, after our detour we were headed to the monorail! We caught monorail gold a few minutes before 5:30 and after a short delay transferred to monorail black. We were soon strolling into the park around 5:45!

And all the line times were AWFUL. No idea why, but almost nothing was under 30 minutes with most of the rides having wait times up over an hour. We settled on heading towards Adventureland and hopped in line to ride the magic carpets. The wait said 20 minutes but I think it was closer to 30. We ended up placing a mobile order for Pecos Bill while we were in line.

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Derek and I split a plant based bowl along with some chips and queso. Noodle had a side of rice, which she demolished along with some apple sauce and a granola bar. There was some singing and dancing while she ate.

By the time we were done eating it was late enough that we really only had time for one more ride before fireworks. Noodle requested Small World, so that’s what we rode!

When we got off the ride, fireworks were just about to start and Noodle PANICKED at the thought of how loud they would be. So we told her we would leave and she could cover her ears while we walked out. We ended up having to take the bypass backstage to get to the front of the park and it was kind of fun! This bypass is not as nice as the one on the other side of the park, which we’ve taken before. Here they shuffle you as quickly as possible and welcome you back to Main Street with a big smile.

We were on a bus by 8:15 and Noodle actually loved watching some of the fireworks from INSIDE the bus while we sat there for a few minutes. This gives me hope that ear protection will solve our fireworks problem in the future.

Back in the room we snacked a little in our PJs before heading to bed around 9.
 
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On our check out day we were all up a little after 7. We ate breakfast in the room and then Derek and I started packing while Noodle watched some TV. Around 8:30 Noodle and I decided to go to the pool for a bit. Derek stayed in the room to shower and relax.

Noodle and I were back in the room by 9:45 for a quick shower and snack while Derek took most of our luggage down to the car.

At around 10 we were automatically checked out of our room. We didn’t realize what happened at first, but later realized that it must have been some sort of geolocation based check out? I actually sent a complaint to Disney about this because I’ve heard it’s a common problem. We were literally in the room while it happened!! Luckily it didn’t really matter since we were headed out.

On the way out we asked if they could deflate the Noodle’s balloon for us and the CM at the desk told us he knew exactly who could do that! He called them, but they were busy in another area of the hotel. He offered to run the balloon to them and come right back. I was so surprised that he offered this, but then again it’s Disney! He soon returned with our balloon neatly folded and ready to pack.

I won’t bore you all with our drive and the remainder of our trip in the Ft Lauderdale area. Other than to share a couple pictures from Sugar Sand Park, which I HIGHLY recommend if you’re in the area!

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There is also a children’s science center right there, that Noodle LOVED.


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The remainder of our trip was spent with family. It was lovely and we were soon flying home again. Our stroller lost a wheel on the flight back, which was annoying but not too bad since we don’t actually use a stroller most of the time and it wasn’t our nice stroller.

Overall I would call Noodle’s first trip a success! There were certainly a couple set backs, but looking back I don’t think I would have done anything differently! Traveling with a 3 year old is always risky, but knowing your child’s temperament and being flexible pays off.

We didn’t do any super late nights, but I actually think Noodle probably would have been fine if we did. We didn’t pay for Lightning Lanes, but also we weren’t trying to do any headliners. We only did 2 parks, and only did 2 park days, but we knew this was a short trip for “testing the waters” on how Noodle would handle Disney. We LOVED Beach Club. The location is fantastic and even though Storm Along Bay was closed while we were there, we got such a good rate on the room that I wasn’t bothered by this.

This summer we plan to do Sesame Place and Dutch Wonderland, and then maybe Great Wolf Lodge in the fall! All of these are driving distance for us, and also much less expensive. Tentative Disney plans for Fall next time we go. Probably not until 2027 at the earliest, which sounds so far away…Noodle starts Kindergarten that fall which might change how we plan the trip, but I’m already thinking ahead to what that trip would look like. I am desperate to do a Halloween party! Derek has no idea what he’s in for…

So until next time friends… see ya real soon!
 
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I enjoyed reading along and it sounds like Noodle had a great first trip to Disney!
I have had Housekeeping knock at 8am on checkout day before but not sure if we have been checked out at 10am before. I will have to watch for that.
 
I enjoyed reading along and it sounds like Noodle had a great first trip to Disney!
I have had Housekeeping knock at 8am on checkout day before but not sure if we have been checked out at 10am before. I will have to watch for that.
Omg an 8am housekeeping knock would be so unpleasant! I’m always so surprised when Disney does something wrong like that, I guess because they usually do everything right!
 
Incredible trip despite the unexpected twists! Planning for your child’s first visit to Walt Disney World must have been such a special experience, and it’s amazing that it turned out magical. For future trips, if you’re looking to streamline things, trivago customer service might offer helpful resources. They could provide insights on booking or handling any travel-related concerns, making it even easier to focus on creating lasting memories!
 
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Finally caught up on the end of your trip! Sounds like it was overall a great vacation. I am sure we will see you back here Fall 2027! After our kids first trip in May we won’t be back for many years, unless we magically come up with the funds lol
 



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