1st Trip as Mommy & Daddy! Celebrating DSs 1st Bday Nov 11-UPDATE 11/13 TR LINK!

[khertz]

I read your last trip report and then messaged you before reading this one. I can't wait to see if you are going to get a week in DVC!!

Thanks!! I am hoping we do too just to stay onsite again, but we loved Bonnet Creek so I definitely will enjoy another week there if we don't get DVC. We haven't heard anything from RCI yet so we are still waiting & watching!

 

[exwdwcm]

Adorable shirt! love it! I love his Saints outfit too- so cute!

For the AP discount, they actually extended a special merchandise discount they offered this year, through end of 2011~!!! so we saved 10% at most retail locations unless they were non disney owned (like the store in Japan etc.).

They were also running the special receipts while we were there in December- you got them with quick service food- it was for the 20% off at World of Disney or the other flagship stores in the 4 parks (Emporium, MouseGears etc.). YOu had to use it before noon. So that was better than the AP discount.

FLASH! Passholder merchandise discount extended!
The current 10% Passholder discount* at select Walt Disney World merchandise locations has been extended through January 10, 2011. What a great way to get holiday gifts for those you love—and what a great "excuse" to visit the Theme Parks you love, too!

 

[disneybarbie]

hi there!

Subscribing

it must be so exciting to plan your first trip with Paxton ... I liked seeing photos of Bonnet Creek too.. never ever seen what that resort looks like.. amazing views!!


Emma x

 

[khertz]

Adorable shirt! love it! I love his Saints outfit too- so cute!

For the AP discount, they actually extended a special merchandise discount they offered this year, through end of 2011~!!! so we saved 10% at most retail locations unless they were non disney owned (like the store in Japan etc.).

They were also running the special receipts while we were there in December- you got them with quick service food- it was for the 20% off at World of Disney or the other flagship stores in the 4 parks (Emporium, MouseGears etc.). YOu had to use it before noon. So that was better than the AP discount.

FLASH! Passholder merchandise discount extended!
The current 10% Passholder discount* at select Walt Disney World merchandise locations has been extended through January 10, 2011. What a great way to get holiday gifts for those you love—and what a great "excuse" to visit the Theme Parks you love, too!

Thanks for the info! We loved those receipts on both of our last two trips. We always eat lunch early anyway, so we had plenty of time to get over to the stores & shop. Hopefully they are still doing them in November!

hi there!

Subscribing

it must be so exciting to plan your first trip with Paxton ... I liked seeing photos of Bonnet Creek too.. never ever seen what that resort looks like.. amazing views!!


Emma x

Hi Emma!

We definitely just LOVED Bonnet Creek. It is a really beautiful resort, and the views were phenomenal! Hopefully we can get a fireworks view again, especially since we might not be in the parks late enough at night to see them in person. We are hoping that since we'll be taking it a little slower with DS tagging along that we will have more time to explore the resort as well. We didn't see much besides our room on the last trip because we were hitting the parks so hard!

I have your current TR opened in my browser, it is just hard to find time to sit & read in long enough intervals to catch up! I'll get there eventually!!

 

[stackyallred]

Hi! I was excited to find your PTR as it sounds like we have a lot in common! DH and I have been to WDW MANY times (honeymoon included), went to WDW for our babymoon in May 09 and took DS for his first trip last September (he was almost 11 months old). We are headed to Bonnet Creek this October for our 8th anniversary and DS's 2nd birthday! I'll be tuning in as you plan and if you have any questions on how to plan for taking a little one for the first time, feel free to ask- I obsessively planned for DS's first trip for months! We had a great time and can't wait to go again! Happy planning!

 

[dtr_angel]

I'm subscribing to your PTR! I somehow stumbled on your babymoon trip report and ended up here. My DH & I (both 26) are going on our last trip alone in May and we can't wait! Of course, I'm hoping it will be an end-of-first-trimester-babymoon, but we won't know that for at least another week I'm in nursing school and will graduate in December so we have a lot in common! Your DS is adorable, I cannot wait to read all about his first trip to Disney!

 

[khertz]

Hi! I was excited to find your PTR as it sounds like we have a lot in common! DH and I have been to WDW MANY times (honeymoon included), went to WDW for our babymoon in May 09 and took DS for his first trip last September (he was almost 11 months old). We are headed to Bonnet Creek this October for our 8th anniversary and DS's 2nd birthday! I'll be tuning in as you plan and if you have any questions on how to plan for taking a little one for the first time, feel free to ask- I obsessively planned for DS's first trip for months! We had a great time and can't wait to go again! Happy planning!

I'm sure as I start planning, I'll have a LOT of questions for you!! Right now, it is so hard to predict anything of how he will respond because he is so little, and will be at a totally different stage by the time we take our trip. We plan to take him for a lot of "practice" outings to the Audubon Zoo, Aquarium, and out to eat at restaurants as our trip gets closer.

Have you ever stayed at Bonnet Creek before? If not, you will love it! Make sure you request a fireworks view, it is really incredible!! DH and I are happy that we'll have more time to explore the resort this trip, because there are so many great things going on there that we missed out on because we were hitting the parks to hard last time.

I'm subscribing to your PTR! I somehow stumbled on your babymoon trip report and ended up here. My DH & I (both 26) are going on our last trip alone in May and we can't wait! Of course, I'm hoping it will be an end-of-first-trimester-babymoon, but we won't know that for at least another week I'm in nursing school and will graduate in December so we have a lot in common! Your DS is adorable, I cannot wait to read all about his first trip to Disney!

Thanks for following me over here!

Good luck with the rest of nursing school! Let's just say, I'm VERY glad that part of my life is over.

OOh, and good luck on the babymoon! I always thought I wouldn't have as much fun on a Disney trip with kids in tow, but I think I'm even more excited for this trip to take DS than I have ever been for a trip before! I can't wait to experience everything with him and see the parks through his eyes.

 

[khertz]

It has been a long time since I had a minute to update, but there is really not much planning going on anyway since there are no park hours in sight yet. I'm hoping they will be in at the beginning of May so we can start planning our days and making ADRs!

Speaking of ADRs, we already have ideas of what sit-down meals we want to attempt. It won't be too many, because we usually don't do many anyway, and because DS might not be too cooperative for a lot of them. We are going to take him on a lot of "practice" outings to the New Orleans zoo & aquarium, and to restaurants leading up to the trip so that he won't be thrown into a weird element of going to the parks and restaurants.

Here's some of the meals we are hoping to score:

1. Chef Mickey's - We definitely want to do a breakfast here just so that we can do a breakfast with the Fab 5. Plus I think it will be fun for DS to do the breakfast and then take the monorail over to the Magic Kingdom for the day. DH and I did this breakfast in 2009 and the food was standard breakfast stuff, but the environment was pretty fun, so we are happy to eat here again

2. Sci-Fi Dine In - It has become kind of a tradition for us to have lunch here in DHS because the food options are so limited. We also really enjoy the atmosphere, and hopefully DS won't be too disruptive!

3. Crystal Palace - This would be our second and probably last character meal. We'd like to again do breakfast here, and I'm hoping we'll be able to snag a reservation before park opening. I have some cute ideas for pictures in front of the Castle that would look great without anyone else in them! This would be the first time either of us are eating here, but we figure we can't go wrong with breakfast.

4. Biergarten - This was another place we really enjoyed eating on our December trip. Hopefully since we won't be going at Christmas when so many people are eating here as part of the CP package, we won't have such a huge wait as we did last time! There is some entertainment going on while you eat, so I think DS will do ok at this meal. And it isn't too expensive compared to other places in Epcot.

5. Via Napoli - Our meal here is still up in the air. I think I had DH sold on it when the individual pizzas were $16 a piece, but now I think they are up to $18 so I don't think I'll be able to convince him on it anymore.

Because of DS, I think this trip we will be doing more meals at our resort too. Since we are driving, we should be able to take some things with us for quick lunches & dinners as needed. But we are used to eating almost exclusively CS meals on our Disney trips anyway, so it doesn't really matter.

In the past couple weeks, we made a couple more trip purchases for DS! We purchased a new carrier, which hopefully I can get some pics of soon. We almost got it customized with some cute Mickey Mouse fabric, but it drove up the price a little too much. We are hoping he'll still fit in it when we go, but with the way he is growing, who knows!

We also found some really cute t-shirts at Target that were on sale, so we got him a couple.

​

We are slowly building his Disney wardrobe for the trip! Plus I eventually want to get him some kind of embroidered shirt with a Mickey head & his name, and maybe one that says something about it being his first birthday. I'll have to start trolling around on etsy and ebay!

Also, just for fun, I'll share some pictures from DS's recent photo shoot at JC Penney. I was really impressed with how well the pictures came out and how well DS cooperated!

​

Hopefully it won't be so long before I can update! Thanks for sticking with me, those of you that have.

 

[leshunlenese]

hey! First i must say those pics are beautiful!! and i so got those shirts today for my DS at target, i also found a mickey 3ring binder there on sale for 98 cents.

 

[khertz]

hey! First i must say those pics are beautiful!! and i so got those shirts today for my DS at target, i also found a mickey 3ring binder there on sale for 98 cents.

Aw, thank you! We had a fun time taking them. I couldn't believe how cooperative he was!

How funny that we got the same t-shirts! Target had quite a few cute ones that I wanted, but only a few in the 12 month size. So I guess I'm going to have to keep my eyes peeled every time we go to see if they have any more for him. I'm trying to beef up his Mickey Mouse wardrobe for the trip!

And I might have to keep an eye out for the $0.98 binder too! If I can ever find time to start working on a trip binder this time around...lol

 

[dtr_angel]

I think all our ADRs sound really good! He's going to look so cute in all his Disney gear

Those pictures turned out adorable! I love the one of the whole family. What a cutie!

 

[khertz]

I think all our ADRs sound really good! He's going to look so cute in all his Disney gear

Those pictures turned out adorable! I love the one of the whole family. What a cutie!

Thanks! I can't wait to get him in all his Mickey t-shirts. He already has SO much Mickey clothes! lol It doesn't help that my parents are crazy about Disney too, so he ends up with a ton of Disney apparel!

And thanks! We loved how our pictures came out & how cooperative DS was! I'll be taking him back in a few weeks for his 6 month shots. I can't believe it has almost been a half a year since he was born!!

 

[ZFamily5]

I'm here to join the party!

Paxton is sooooo cute! I always wanted a little brother as cute as him! He's super adorable!

I can't wait to read more about your planning!

 

[khertz]

I'm here to join the party!

Paxton is sooooo cute! I always wanted a little brother as cute as him! He's super adorable!

I can't wait to read more about your planning!

Thanks for joining in!

 

[khertz]

So last night I was laying awake in bed & couldn't stop thinking about our Disney trip! I haven't even discussed this with DH yet, but I thought I'd toss it out to the DIS people and see what y'all think?

I'm starting to wonder if we should split up our driving, at least on the drive down? Our original plan was to spend all day Friday driving and check in on Friday night. It's about a 12.5 hour drive to WDW from Lafayette. We had already figured it would take longer than that because we'd be stopping a lot at the rest areas to take breaks and let Paxton run around (if he can run by then , but at least get out of the car seat & stretch his legs).

When I requested my time off from work, I asked for the 3rd through the 13th. Maybe instead of leaving super early in the morning on Friday, we could leave around lunchtime Thursday and knock out half of the drive that afternoon? The "halfway" point is just past Pensacola in Crestview, Fl. We'd have to find ourselves a decent/fairly cheap hotel room for the night of course, which would mean an extra expense. But it might be worth it. What do y'all think? I already looked into going off the path a bit and trying to get a room at one of our timeshare resorts in Destin or Pensacola, which you'd think would be easy to do in November, but not so! They don't have anything just for 1 night available, you have to stay 2 or more. Seems a little silly for practically winter time, but whatever.

Then the next morning we could get up and hit the road for 8 or 9 am and get to Bonnet Creek at a decent time for some swimming after we unpack or something. And since we'll be upgrading to the APs, we can go to MK that evening just for dinner, even just a quick CS meal and just look around! I wouldn't even be worried about experiencing any attractions, but just being in the park on our very first day would be amazing and something we've never been able to do before!

Of course, I still need to talk it over with DH and start looking to see if we can even find any decent accommodations for that extra night. I figure we probably would just drive straight through on our way home, or stop if we need to wherever we decide to stop rather than planning a place to split the drive. I took off enough days to do that just in case it is necessary.

Opinions?

 

[ZFamily5]

So last night I was laying awake in bed & couldn't stop thinking about our Disney trip! I haven't even discussed this with DH yet, but I thought I'd toss it out to the DIS people and see what y'all think?

I'm starting to wonder if we should split up our driving, at least on the drive down? Our original plan was to spend all day Friday driving and check in on Friday night. It's about a 12.5 hour drive to WDW from Lafayette. We had already figured it would take longer than that because we'd be stopping a lot at the rest areas to take breaks and let Paxton run around (if he can run by then , but at least get out of the car seat & stretch his legs).

When I requested my time off from work, I asked for the 3rd through the 13th. Maybe instead of leaving super early in the morning on Friday, we could leave around lunchtime Thursday and knock out half of the drive that afternoon? The "halfway" point is just past Pensacola in Crestview, Fl. We'd have to find ourselves a decent/fairly cheap hotel room for the night of course, which would mean an extra expense. But it might be worth it. What do y'all think? I already looked into going off the path a bit and trying to get a room at one of our timeshare resorts in Destin or Pensacola, which you'd think would be easy to do in November, but not so! They don't have anything just for 1 night available, you have to stay 2 or more. Seems a little silly for practically winter time, but whatever.

Then the next morning we could get up and hit the road for 8 or 9 am and get to Bonnet Creek at a decent time for some swimming after we unpack or something. And since we'll be upgrading to the APs, we can go to MK that evening just for dinner, even just a quick CS meal and just look around! I wouldn't even be worried about experiencing any attractions, but just being in the park on our very first day would be amazing and something we've never been able to do before!

Of course, I still need to talk it over with DH and start looking to see if we can even find any decent accommodations for that extra night. I figure we probably would just drive straight through on our way home, or stop if we need to wherever we decide to stop rather than planning a place to split the drive. I took off enough days to do that just in case it is necessary.

Opinions?

I might not exactly be the type of opinion you were looking for, only being 14 and all, but I think that it would be in your best interest to leave Thursday and find an inexpensive hotel for that one night. When Thing3 was little we took a road trip to the Outer Banks and that halfway stop saved us! She was getting cranky after being cooped up that long...I'm not sure if Paxton is the same way or not...just my opinion on things!

 

[exwdwcm]

love the ADRs......we loved Via Napoli, so much so, we are doing it again this trip. We shared the pizza between 3 adults and had plenty leftover, which we took back to the room and ate later. it was delicious!!! i do recommend it!

i am always a fan of going earlier if you can! i mean who wouldn't want to? i think breaking up the drive a bit will be great. that way you are all well rested and ready to tackle your first full day, plus you can get in time to unpack, relax and like you said, enjoy that first evening out and about too!

oh and the pics are just so adorable! his smile is priceless and the family pic is so perfect!!!!!!

 

[khertz]

I might not exactly be the type of opinion you were looking for, only being 14 and all, but I think that it would be in your best interest to leave Thursday and find an inexpensive hotel for that one night. When Thing3 was little we took a road trip to the Outer Banks and that halfway stop saved us! She was getting cranky after being cooped up that long...I'm not sure if Paxton is the same way or not...just my opinion on things!

Actually, your opinion is very valuable since you have ridden in the car with a little one! The more I think about it, the more I'm thinking we will plan on stopping. We have no way of knowing how Paxton will react to being in the car because he will have grown & changed so much by the time we go. It will be a learning experience for sure!

love the ADRs......we loved Via Napoli, so much so, we are doing it again this trip. We shared the pizza between 3 adults and had plenty leftover, which we took back to the room and ate later. it was delicious!!! i do recommend it!

i am always a fan of going earlier if you can! i mean who wouldn't want to? i think breaking up the drive a bit will be great. that way you are all well rested and ready to tackle your first full day, plus you can get in time to unpack, relax and like you said, enjoy that first evening out and about too!

oh and the pics are just so adorable! his smile is priceless and the family pic is so perfect!!!!!!

I still really want to book Via Napoli, so I'm hoping I can convince DH that an extra couple bucks is no big deal. It sounds so delicious! And the pictures I have seen of the pizza just reinforce that idea.

I think we are going to plan on splitting up the drive to avoid a cranky toddler and to give us more time to do things on our arrival day. Although my co-worker who went to Disney when her girls were 6 & 11 months told me "If he is sleeping when you get to your stop point, KEEP DRIVING!" I don't know if we'll be able to find a hotel with an easy cancellation policy, but I'll just have to do some research.

Thanks! We had a lot of fun taking the pics. It's almost time for me to set up his 6 month photoshoot. I can't believe how the time flies!

 

[khertz]

Since the AAA Travel Agent park hours have surfaced, I took advantage of a slow morning at work yesterday to work on my itinerary! It changed our plans up quite a bit from what we had been thinking just going off of the Touring Plans crowd calendar, and there are still some things I'm not entirely happy with, but I'll throw those out at the end and see what y'all think I should do. So, here it is: Draft #1 of the Itinerary!

THURSDAY NOVEMBER 3RD

• Drive to Tallahassee, FL
• Hotel from Priceline

FRIDAY NOVEMBER 4th

• Drive to Bonnet Creek Resort
• Check-in 2 pm
• Grocery store
• Magic Kingdom in the evening
• Upgrade park tickets to APs
• Dinner: Columbia Harbour House
• Wishes 8 pm?

SATURDAY NOVEMBER 5th

• Animal Kingdom for Rope Drop 9 am
• Lunch: Pizzafari
• Jammin’ Jungle Parade 3:45 pm
• Dinner: Restaurantosaurus

SUNDAY NOVEMBER 6th

• Epcot for Rope Drop 9 am
• Future World in the am
• Lunch: Via Napoli
• World Showcase after lunch/break
• Dinner: Liberty Inn
• IllumiNations 9 pm

MONDAY NOVEMBER 7th

• Hollywood Studios for Rope Drop 9 am
• Lunch: Sci-Fi Dine In
• Break
• Magic Kingdom after break
• Dinner: Cosmic Ray’s
• Main Street Electrical Parade 7 pm
• Wishes 8 pm

TUESDAY NOVEMBER 8th

• Resort Day
• Late breakfast: Chef Mickey’s
• Pool/Resort Activities
• Lunch: Sandwiches at resort
• Dinner: Cook at resort

WEDNESDAY NOVEMBER 9th

• Magic Kingdom
• Breakfast: Crystal Palace – early ADR before park opening?
• 1st Haircut at Harmony Barber Shop?
• Lunch: Pecos Bill’s
• Celebrate a Dream Come True Parade 3 pm
• Hollywood Studios after break
• Dinner: Pizza Planet
• Osbourne Lights

THURSDAY NOVEMBER 10th

• Magic Kingdom in the am
• Lunch: Pinocchio’s Village Haus – eat upstairs over “it’s a small world”
• Dinner: ?
• Epcot/DHS in pm?

FRIDAY NOVEMBER 11th

• Downtown Disney
• Festival of the Masters
• Shopping
• Lunch: Earl of Sandwich
• Dinner Celebration? Five Guys?

SATURDAY NOVEMBER 12th

• Drive home

First and foremost, I'm not happy with there not really being a day available for Magic Kingdom for Rope Drop. We really want to have a breakfast ADR before the park opens one day, and Thursday is supposed to have am EMH, so we would miss RD that day as well. We need a day at DHS for RD for sure so we can ride Toy Story, and I figured we'd need a whole day at both AK and Epcot at least. AK is not a good park to hop to in the afternoon since it closes at 5 pm, and Epcot definitely needs a whole day for everything there is to do and see. So I'm just not sure what to do. I might have to tweak some things.

Most of this is also based on being able to get certain ADRs on certain days. Depending on how important the meal is to is will determine if I need to change any plans around if we don't get what we want. I'm hoping it won't be too difficult though. I have the disadvantage of not being able to book 180+10 since we are staying offsite, but I didn't have much trouble last trip, so I'm hoping I won't this time either!

We are definitely going to split up the drive now. We just figured it would be easier for everyone. Driving to Tallahassee the first day would be more than half of the drive, about 8.5 hours. So we would have 4 to 4.5 left the next day. And if we left at a decent time in the morning to get there as close to check-in time as possible, we could have plenty of time to unwind & unpack so that we could get to MK that night for dinner! I think that's one thing I'm MOST excited about since I have never been able to go to a park on arrival day because we didn't want to wast a park admission! Upgrading to the APs will eliminate that. So excited!

So, what do y'all think?! And have any of you ever gone to Celebration to check out any of the restaurants there? I saw it on the map and it's only 15 minutes from our resort. I thought it might just be something different to try on our last night. Not sure if it is worth the drive out there though.

Only 200 days left!!

 

[exwdwcm]

great schedule and good idea on splitting up the drive for sure. like you said, all will be happier!

on celebration- i have heard on the DIS podcast that Celebration Town Tavern is popular and i think they have good chowder? Celebration is so nice! We drove over once to explore a little, but didn't stay long.

i totally get you on the needing a RD day for MK and DHS, that was part of my scheduling problem too! We finally got it figured out. so annoying trying to fit all that stuff in, isn't it! lol