1st Trip as Mommy & Daddy Nov 2011 TR- Complete!

[khertz]

That makes sense. Glad I asked. I doubt Alex would sit still for that kind of thing either w/o fussing about it. I'm also expecting to have to skip the 3D shows too and that makes me sad since one of my favs is Filharmagic but oh well.

Haha about him taking the string away from y'all. I can totally see Alex doing that! Now when you say the spinning was a problem once, how was it a problem? We had an issue here recently where DH was spinning Alex around and Alex freaked out because it took him so long to get his equilibrium back so I'm kind of scared of that happening on the ride.

He actually really enjoyed Philharmagic because of the singing and colors, even though he couldn't see anything in 3D. Muppets, not so much. Not enough to keep his attention.

It was only a problem the time we rode right after he ate and he puked a little in DH's lap. It didn't seem to bother him, but DH was not too excited. It wasn't a lot, but any baby puke on you is more than enough.

 

[Leger13]

He actually really enjoyed Philharmagic because of the singing and colors, even though he couldn't see anything in 3D. Muppets, not so much. Not enough to keep his attention.

It was only a problem the time we rode right after he ate and he puked a little in DH's lap. It didn't seem to bother him, but DH was not too excited. It wasn't a lot, but any baby puke on you is more than enough.

Oh great!! Maybe we can try it with Alex then. I guess we could always sit at the end of a row and leave if he hates it.

Oh goodness ITA....any baby puke is too much! Especially when you can't just go and change right away. Poor DH. Mental note, do not ride TSM right after Alex eats

 

[afwdwfan]

That's too bad that you missed the Visa picture. We did that and really liked it. It was nice to stand in a shorter line to see characters and then end up with a free picture.

It looks like a fun day at EPCOT. We never thought far enough ahead to take DS' pajamas to the park with us. We just let him sleep in his clothes if we were lucky enough to have him fall asleep on the way back.

 

[khertz]

That's too bad that you missed the Visa picture. We did that and really liked it. It was nice to stand in a shorter line to see characters and then end up with a free picture.

It looks like a fun day at EPCOT. We never thought far enough ahead to take DS' pajamas to the park with us. We just let him sleep in his clothes if we were lucky enough to have him fall asleep on the way back.

Luckily we were able to do it a couple of times even though we missed it on our first Epcot afternoon. We missed doing it on our 2 previous trips but we really enjoyed doing it this time, especially getting the free print! Anything free is WDW is a plus! Lol

I got the idea for the pajamas from reading another TR and thought it was brilliant. Otherwise we'd have just let him sleep in his clothes too. Just not worth waking him up to change into pjs and having to get him back to sleep again!

 

[Imagineer5]

Mostly it was to warm his milk because he will only take it warmed right now. But he is also VERY nosy and wants to know everything that is going on around him, so it was also easier to feed him in there with less distractions in a quiet environment. To drink his milk, he has to be free from distractions totally or that cup is hitting the floor. And then once we were in there, it was nice to have a full highchair to feed him in instead of the wooden ones in the restaurants that don't do much for baby. There were a couple of times we fed him at the same time we ate, but we found it was better for all three of us to get out of the chaos of the park for his mealtime. No question is stupid, especially not for a first time mom!!!

Ah, a warmed bottle...of course. See IDK why I don't think of these things LOL. Though I do hope to be BFing so I guess that would solve that issue...but not the distractions one.

We were absolutely AMAZED that we were able to do all of that without waking up! I think we definitely tired him out during the day. He actually did a lot better than we had expected during the whole trip. We did get some use out of the rental rocking chair, but we probably could have done without it if we had needed to. He usually gets a little bit of rocking time at home and then I stick him in his crib and he puts himself to sleep. I was worried that the change of environment would make it harder on him to put himself to sleep, so there were a couple nights the rocker really helped because we could rock him all the way to sleep before putting him down.



I'm glad you're here!!

The baby stations were lifesavers! He is SO easily distracted when it comes to drinking his milk, if not for those BCCs he never would have finished a cup!

We are working on the table food thing, but he is still fairly frustrating when it comes to that (spitting things out halfway through a meal and crying hysterically!). I'm hoping by May when we go to DL, but definitely by next year's WDW trip, we shouldn't be needing to haul food around for him.

I was not overall impressed with November, which I planned to talk about in my wrap-up post, but the weather was one of my biggest annoyances. It was like Florida just couldn't decide if it wanted to be hot or cold! Chilly in the mornings, sweating by the afternoon. There was one day where it was really cold in the shade, but blazing hot in the sun, so my jacket was just on off on off alllllll day long! Drove me crazy. I know all of the fall months in FL can be like that, but I just wasn't overly impressed with November in general, so that was just another annoyance to add to the list! I sincerely hope you have a better November experience than we did! I think we just hit a perfect storm so to speak in terms of crowds.

Haha About the Saints jersey...he didn't wear it for the Saints season opener game, and they lost. The next week, we put it on him, and they won! My aunt (OBSESSED with the Saints, and the one who bought him the jersey) demanded that he had to wear the jersey for every single game for the rest of the season, no matter if he was sleeping, whatever! She called me up one Sunday to fuss at me because we had taken him to the zoo that day and he wasn't wearing a jersey, and was wearing the opposing team's colors (by accident of course!). That's the downfall of posting pics on Facebook, you always get caught.



Cute about the WS CM! It's always nice when you can tell a CM loves their job and goes out of their way to talk to you and make sure you are having a great time on vacation! I hope we can get back their ourselves to play some more minigolf one day, maybe when Paxton is a little older. We had a lot of fun!

Yes, it was game day! We all packed our Saints gear to wear appropriately! Gotta do that on game day. It took me awhile to learn the rules of football, and there are still some penalties I just don't understand, but I get the basics and now it's much more enjoyable for me. But I still just don't like to watch a game if the Saints aren't playing!



We skipped Turtle Talk, along with a lot of other shows we thought we would do. Either they were too long for DS or just not enough singing and dancing going on to keep him interested.

As for TSM, we rode it a few times with him, and the spinning was only a problem once. Just don't count on racking up many points because DS kept grabbing the string from us!

That was too bad about the weather!! I'm surprised by the huge temp change, that had to be annoying.

Too bad about missing shows...guess we'll see about that too. I was hoping to do the Voyage of a Mermaid one, along with possibly Nemo and Lion King, and Philharmagic. Turtle Talk is also fun but might have to wait until she's older. Too funny about TSMM (and I'm assuming Buzz as well). I guess you just have to ride twice, letting 1 person be the "baby keeper" and the other actually gets to play...

 

[khertz]

Ah, a warmed bottle...of course. See IDK why I don't think of these things LOL. Though I do hope to be BFing so I guess that would solve that issue...but not the distractions one.

I didn't get to see the setup for the Nursing Mothers rooms at the MK or Epcot BCC because it was just a closed door that said it was for mothers & babies only. I have to guess it is just one room that the mothers share since it seemed like husbands were not allowed inside like the private rooms at AK. At DHS, it was basically just a curtained off area with a bench. I was never the type that could BF in public, just freaked me out. But there are lots of quiet, out of the way places in the parks I had never noticed before having a child with me that would be great places to BF without having to go to the BCC every time!

That was too bad about the weather!! I'm surprised by the huge temp change, that had to be annoying.

Too bad about missing shows...guess we'll see about that too. I was hoping to do the Voyage of a Mermaid one, along with possibly Nemo and Lion King, and Philharmagic. Turtle Talk is also fun but might have to wait until she's older. Too funny about TSMM (and I'm assuming Buzz as well). I guess you just have to ride twice, letting 1 person be the "baby keeper" and the other actually gets to play...

Yeah, there were a lot of shows on our to-do list, but once we actually got there, it was a whole 'nother story! DS does ok waiting for short periods of time, but that usually meant we could control him waiting to get into the theater, but by the time we got in, he was tired of being patient! Plus, the maps usually say how long the shows are, and that 22 minute Little Mermaid show sounds a LOT longer when you are holding a squirmy one year old!! The only ones we managed to do were Philharmagic, Muppets, and Country Bears. I think he would have enjoyed Lion King, but it just never worked with our schedule. Hopefully next time we can catch it. For our DS, the more exciting and in your face the show, the better he will tolerate it, which is why we skipped things with a lot of talking like Turtle Talk, Monsters Inc Laugh Floor, etc.

 

[khertz]

DAY 4 Monday November 7th

This morning we were up & at 'em bright and early so that we could make it in time for rope drop at DHS! I think I set my alarm for 7, but was up by 6:45 or so. I got up and started getting myself ready before waking DH and DS. DS drank his milk and watched some Curious George, then ate his breakfast and we got him dressed. We made it out to the car by 8 am and arrived at DHS for 8:25 am. I mentioned it in the previous posts, but as we were walking up to the gates, we actually ran into the Asian couple that had had fun with Paxton at the MK the previous morning!

I was happy to see that they already had their tree up!

Somehow, we always end up lucky here and find a very short line everyone else seems too scared to get into for some reason. So even though a lot of the other lines had started to build up, we were in one maybe 2 families deep. People quickly caught on after us though, because soon that line was just as long as the others.

The turnstiles opened at 8:45 am, and they let us into the park a little past Sunset Blvd. up by where the little path leads down towards the Brown Derby. This was different from all of the other RDs at DHS we had been to, but we later found out it was because they stopped doing the opening show altogether.

We decided the best thing for us to do was take DS out of the stroller and let DH walk with him straight to the FP machines while I parked the stroller and met up with them at the entrance. I was nervous about pushing the stroller in that crowd, especially because it was a mob scene! Looks like my anxiety at going to DHS on a park to avoid day was not unwarranted. lol

Once the CM's dropped the rope and began walking us towards Pixar Place, it was absolute mayhem! One woman started screaming at another who accidentally tapped her foot with the stroller she was pushing. Once I got to the stroller parking, the man parking the stroller next to me was SCREAMING at his kids to hurry up and get out of the stroller! And the absolute worst was a woman dragging three kids that were each holding each other's hands, and the littlest one on the end dropped his stuffed Perry. He kept screaming and crying "My Perry! My Perry!" but she was just trucking over to Toy Story not paying the least bit of attention to her kids!! Luckily since I had parked the stroller by that time and was by myself, I was able to grab the stuffed Perry and run it up to the kid. The mom had no clue anything had even happened!

I got up to DH and DS just as they were getting their FP's and our return time was for 9:50 am. We got in line even though it had already jumped to 35 minutes hoping it actually wouldn't be that long. I think we ended up waiting 30, which I don't think I'd do again with DS. If it takes that long to get FPs and get in line in the future, we'll just wait to ride with our FPs instead of riding standby. It was too difficult to keep him entertained and hold him for that long. We did dig out the carrier to try that, but in the process ended up dropping a pair of socks without noticing. A lady had seen them on the ground and picked them up and put them on one of the displays in the line, then told us about them when she caught up to us. Not sure why she didn't just hold onto them until she caught us at a switchback, but it was nice of her anyway. DH had to hop a couple of gates to go back and get the socks!

That 30 minutes was brutal, but we finally made it into our car. DS did ok with the spinning, and he wasn't really understanding enough what was going on to try to play the games so he just kind of sat there and watched at first. I didn't score a lot because it was hard holding him around the middle with one arm and trying to aim and pull the string with the other, but it wasn't as much of a massacre as I expected!

After riding TSM, we decided to head down Sunset Blvd. to see about riding ToT and RnRC. Tower of Terror had a 10 minute wait, so I was going to ride first while DH shopped with DS. I stopped at those bathrooms to pee before getting in line, and in the time it took to do that, I came out and the wait time was 45 minutes!! No thank you!

So I called DH and let him know about the jump in wait times, and that I was heading over to RnRC instead because the single rider line was short. I think I waited maybe 10 minutes, most of that was waiting at the point where the FP, SR, and standby lines merge and go into the studio.

I know this is "dirty" but it just cracks me up so I had to get a pic!

Shocker!

I had not been on this ride since our trip in '09 since I had been pregnant on our quick trip last summer, so I was psyched to ride it again! It is my favorite roller coaster in WDW. That takeoff always has me struggling to catch my breath for a couple of seconds, and I just LOVE it! Plus I love the Aerosmith music blaring in my ears for the ride.

After I rode, I met up with DH and DS in the dump shop, and DH rode single rider. He was in and out within 20 minutes. By then, we could get more FP's so we picked some up for ToT, which still had a pretty long standby line.

We got a must-do-on-every-DHS-trip picture in front of the Tower of Terror.

As we were walking up the street trying to figure out what to do next, we saw a Photopass photographer by the old time car parked on the sidewalk. We have never done pics here, so we decided to give it a try. A lot of shadows, but they came out cute.

Since DS loved the characters so much, we decided to head to the Animation Building to see Sorcerer Mickey.

We got in line and immediately noticed a smell...We thought it was maybe poop, but we kept checking DS and he was clean. Just when we'd think we were dreaming, we'd catch a whiff again. I finally thought I found the source at his arm, and figured he must have spit up without us noticing. I tried wiping him with a wipe, but the smell was still there.

After about a 15 minute wait, it was our turn, so we had to abandon trying to get rid of the smell for a minute so we could meet Mickey!

So cute, right? This is only about 1/3 of the pics from that interaction, it was so hard to choose! Here's a few the PP photog was able to capture for us.

DS didn't want to leave Mickey, and we had to pretty much drag him away so the next family could have their turn. As we left, the CM hanging over to the side said, "If that doesn't get Photopass picture of the month, I don't know what will!" Haha I wonder if they have such a thing really?

I was happy DH had gotten his dream come true, to see DS toddle over to Mickey Mouse on his own 2 feet. He had been so worried DS wouldn't be walking well enough by the time our trip came that he wouldn't get to see this happen!

After our meet & greet with Mickey, we went up to the top of the stairs to let him run around a bit and burn off some energy. I got a couple of videos of it, just because he was still so cute and unsteady.





Once he seemed done running around, we went back outside and to the bathroom so I could clean off his arm with soap and water. It wasn't until after juggling cleaning him while making sure he didn't fall off the counter and I brought him outside that we realized the smell was coming from his sleeve! Ugh, gross. We cleaned him up as best we could and headed over for our 11:30 lunch reservation at Sci-Fi.

We checked in and waited inside for only about 5 minutes before they called us and sat us in our car. We had DS next to us in a highchair, which was awkward. He didn't do so well at this lunch. It was hard to get to him with him next to us, and he just didn't feel like sitting there. Plus that restaurant is always so quiet with people wanting to watch the movie trailers, and DS was also not too interested in being quiet himself. We got our waitress to bring us a cup of hot water to start warming his milk, but he only drank about half before he was throwing the cup on the ground.

I ordered the burger and fries, and DH decided order the Picnic Burger - flame broiled Angus burger patty topped with grilled hot dog, sauerkraut, and sauteed onions, drizzled with ketchup, mustard and crowned with a pickle spear. He ordered it without the sauerkraut and onions, but I was still just disgusted with the idea of a hot dog on a hamburger. I absolutely detest hot dogs!

Once we got our food, it was even harder to keep DS entertained and try to eat myself. One of the CM's brought him one of the glow cubes, and that sure kept him happy so I could hurry up and eat my food!

Once I finished eating, DH was still working on his, so I fed DS his baby food and got him to take the rest of his milk. We could not get out of there fast enough! As much as we enjoy eating at Sci-Fi, we will have to skip it until DS is a little older and more civilized in restaurants.

When we got outside, I wanted to get a shot of DS and I in the car. There was a family taking group shots in the car, so I waited patiently for them to finish so we could have our turn. But as soon as they finished, the adults all went off to the side to talk and let the kids have free reign over the car, which was kind of annoying. So instead of getting a picture IN the car, we had to settle for one IN FRONT of the car with random kids in the background.

We thought DS might be ready for a nap after lunch, but he was still up and raring to go! So we pulled out the map and started trying to figure out what we could do next...

UP NEXT: Toy Story Mania + Lunch = Ewwww...

 

[CandleontheWater]

The video of Paxton toddling around and the photos with Mickey are both very cute! He really was at a perfect age for Disney! I noticed on this past trip that Everett was much more reticent with the characters, then he even was in May, so I'm really happy I took him when he was too little to be afraid.

Sorry you didn't have the best experience at Sci-fi. I could see how it would be hard with a high chair in that restaurant. I bet he'll like it when he gets older, and really can watch the TV screens.

 

[khertz]

The video of Paxton toddling around and the photos with Mickey are both very cute! He really was at a perfect age for Disney! I noticed on this past trip that Everett was much more reticent with the characters, then he even was in May, so I'm really happy I took him when he was too little to be afraid.

Sorry you didn't have the best experience at Sci-fi. I could see how it would be hard with a high chair in that restaurant. I bet he'll like it when he gets older, and really can watch the TV screens.

He was definitely the perfect age. We had been so unsure about taking him before he was about 3 or 4 and a little more independent, but once we took him on this trip, I couldn't have been happier about the decision to take him now. He really had the best time! I think if we had waited until he was older, he would have been a lot more afraid of the dark rides and characters. We are hoping that with continued exposure to characters in DL in May and WDW again in October he will continue to love them, but we know that's not guaranteed, just like you are experiencing with Everett. Just another reason to be so excited we took him when we did! Just this week, he surprised the heck out of me by crying on Santa's lap at the mall! He was all smiles and grinning at him until DH put him on his lap, then the tears & screaming began! Totally unexpected reaction from him!

I'm sure he would have enjoyed Sci-Fi a lot more if they were playing Sesame Street clips!

 

[disneybarbie]

Another lovely update - amazing photos of Paxton meeting Mickey Mouse! (definitely would win the 'Photopass of the month' contest, if there is one )

I love that DS has an audience (in the car behind) in that photo with his glowing ice cube!


Hope you're having a good weekend & looking forward to the holidays



Emma x

 

[skier_pete]

Another great update.! It is so cute the way paxton takes to Mickey. I should my daughter his pix and video. She said "is he learning to walk at Disney?"

That picnic burger looked awesome. We missed the sci-f last trip because DD is still scared of the movies. IDK if you will be lucky with Paxton. Our daughter got scared of the rides our first trip and doesn't have any consistency about what she will do. There's nothing official but rumors are a similar restaurant in DL carsland with movie clips like the end of "Cars". That would be awesome! Don't know if Carsland will be open yet for you guys.

 

[afwdwfan]

I have such a love/hate feeling about TSM... I loved it when I rode it right after it opened in 2008, but I never had to deal with the stampede then. Having seen what you're talking about first hand, it really does take a little bit away from the TSM experience.

Nice move on your part to pick up Perry for the poor kid.

Completely agree with everything you said about Rockin Rollercoaster. Love it!

I'm glad your DH got to see Paxton walk to Mickey!

 

[Leger13]

Another amazing meet with characters!! I'm so afraid all of my pictures of Alex with characters will be of him crying I love the pictures of Paxton and Mickey so much! And the videos of him walking. I'm also afraid that Alex won't be walking in time for our trip. I really want him to be toddling around so badly. Would be awesome to see him run up to Mickey. He LOVES Mickey Mouse!

Your DH's burger looks disgusting haha!

And what annoying kids getting in your picture like that. I hate it when parents just let their kids do whatever. How hard is it to try and teach them some manners?? Geez!

Looking forward to the next update!

 

[Imagineer5]

Awesome update!! Sorry about sci-fi! That didn't make our list this time, and it looks like it is a wise decision to skip it! And yes that burger looks horrible. I don't eat meat, but the thought of hot dogs on a burger make it look 10 times worse than it already does. Honestly I don't even think my DH would order that LOL.

I didn't get to see the setup for the Nursing Mothers rooms at the MK or Epcot BCC because it was just a closed door that said it was for mothers & babies only. I have to guess it is just one room that the mothers share since it seemed like husbands were not allowed inside like the private rooms at AK. At DHS, it was basically just a curtained off area with a bench. I was never the type that could BF in public, just freaked me out. But there are lots of quiet, out of the way places in the parks I had never noticed before having a child with me that would be great places to BF without having to go to the BCC every time!




Yeah, there were a lot of shows on our to-do list, but once we actually got there, it was a whole 'nother story! DS does ok waiting for short periods of time, but that usually meant we could control him waiting to get into the theater, but by the time we got in, he was tired of being patient! Plus, the maps usually say how long the shows are, and that 22 minute Little Mermaid show sounds a LOT longer when you are holding a squirmy one year old!! The only ones we managed to do were Philharmagic, Muppets, and Country Bears. I think he would have enjoyed Lion King, but it just never worked with our schedule. Hopefully next time we can catch it. For our DS, the more exciting and in your face the show, the better he will tolerate it, which is why we skipped things with a lot of talking like Turtle Talk, Monsters Inc Laugh Floor, etc.

I'm hoping to just find out of the way places around the parks - no idea how I'll do with BFing in public but I certainly won't just be whipping them out LOL. The AC might be nice from time to time though!

Ahhh I just love Turtle Talk! Maybe we'll get her sleeping before heading in there. Or is that wishful thinking?? LOL Other than that, the Lion King is a great idea - maybe even Nemo, definitely Country Bears (which I must say we've avoided up to this point!).

Anyway looking forward to hearing more!!

 

[khertz]

Another lovely update - amazing photos of Paxton meeting Mickey Mouse! (definitely would win the 'Photopass of the month' contest, if there is one )

I love that DS has an audience (in the car behind) in that photo with his glowing ice cube!


Hope you're having a good weekend & looking forward to the holidays



Emma x

I found that Paxton quite often found himself an audience many many places around WDW! He hooks them with the smiles & the dimple, and before you know it, people are watching him instead of whatever they were doing before. Makes me think that in about 15 years I will be answering a LOT of phone calls from girls wanting to talk to him!!

Another great update.! It is so cute the way paxton takes to Mickey. I should my daughter his pix and video. She said "is he learning to walk at Disney?"

That picnic burger looked awesome. We missed the sci-f last trip because DD is still scared of the movies. IDK if you will be lucky with Paxton. Our daughter got scared of the rides our first trip and doesn't have any consistency about what she will do. There's nothing official but rumors are a similar restaurant in DL carsland with movie clips like the end of "Cars". That would be awesome! Don't know if Carsland will be open yet for you guys.

I was both surprised and excited by how well he took to all of the characters, especially Mickey! I'm glad we got one good trip in where he loved them in case he gets a little more nervous over our next couple of trips.

That restaurant sounds cool in DL! Unfortunately I think we will be a little too early for Carsland, but I guess it's just an excuse to plan another DL trip in the future when he's a little older! I won't be complaining about that!!

That burger has been so polarizing. My dad also said it sounded delicious. Most people I've described it too said it sounded disgusting. To each their own! I guess if you like hot dogs, it can be a good thing. DH loved it!

I have such a love/hate feeling about TSM... I loved it when I rode it right after it opened in 2008, but I never had to deal with the stampede then. Having seen what you're talking about first hand, it really does take a little bit away from the TSM experience.

Nice move on your part to pick up Perry for the poor kid.

Completely agree with everything you said about Rockin Rollercoaster. Love it!

I'm glad your DH got to see Paxton walk to Mickey!

Yeah, TSM was much more enjoyable when it was just myself and DH to worry about. I started losing that excitement over it last year when I was pregnant because I was so worried about someone tripping me while I was trying to walk over there. I've gotten to where I am further and further back in the crowd every time we go with a new obstacle. It's just not worth the craziness! When it was just adults, it was worth it to hustle over there and get to ride, and maybe get 2 sets of FPs so we could ride a few times. Now I'm ok with just getting the FPs and riding once a day.

I still think about that kid crying for his Perry! It reminded me of The Pursuit of Happyness when the kid drops his Captain America running to catch the bus. And this was just to get in line for a theme park ride!

Another amazing meet with characters!! I'm so afraid all of my pictures of Alex with characters will be of him crying I love the pictures of Paxton and Mickey so much! And the videos of him walking. I'm also afraid that Alex won't be walking in time for our trip. I really want him to be toddling around so badly. Would be awesome to see him run up to Mickey. He LOVES Mickey Mouse!

Your DH's burger looks disgusting haha!

And what annoying kids getting in your picture like that. I hate it when parents just let their kids do whatever. How hard is it to try and teach them some manners?? Geez!

Looking forward to the next update!

I wouldn't stress yourself out too much. It took DS awhile to catch on to the whole walking thing, but once he did, he got better at it really quickly and now he is running & getting into everything!! Don't rush him too much, you don't know what ya got till it's gone!! Now he is all over the place!!

My aunt is a very outspoken person, and her comment on that picture from in front of the car was, "You forgot to get those other kids out of the car." I guess I should have taken her with me on the trip! I avoid confrontation. People are just so oblivious.

Awesome update!! Sorry about sci-fi! That didn't make our list this time, and it looks like it is a wise decision to skip it! And yes that burger looks horrible. I don't eat meat, but the thought of hot dogs on a burger make it look 10 times worse than it already does. Honestly I don't even think my DH would order that LOL.




I'm hoping to just find out of the way places around the parks - no idea how I'll do with BFing in public but I certainly won't just be whipping them out LOL. The AC might be nice from time to time though!

Ahhh I just love Turtle Talk! Maybe we'll get her sleeping before heading in there. Or is that wishful thinking?? LOL Other than that, the Lion King is a great idea - maybe even Nemo, definitely Country Bears (which I must say we've avoided up to this point!).

Anyway looking forward to hearing more!!

There are LOTS of out the way places, but some of the best ones are also DSA's unfortunately. One of the girls I work with had a nice cover she used to BF in public.

I'm with you on Country Bears, I can't stand that show! But it kept him entertained, so I'll endure it for my little man.

 

[khertz]

DAY 4 Continued: Monday November 7th

After finishing up our lunch at Sci-Fi, we stumbled a little when trying to decide what to do next. As it turns out, when your child won't sit through a show, there is surprisingly little to do at DHS! So we decided that since TSM was the one attraction DS could ride (we decided against Great Movie Ride & Backlot Tour because they are SO long!), we would use our FPs. So we grabbed the stroller and headed off to Pixar Place again.

The line was of course tremendous by that time, but we got on with our FPs in under 10 minutes. DS sat on DH's lap this time so I could have an easier time playing the games, but DH still beat me!!

As we were coming towards the platform to unload, we stopped, so DH let DS "play" with the shooter a little bit.

As we were getting off, we noticed that getting on TSM directly after lunch probably wasn't a good idea! DS had left a small smelly present in DH's lap that smelled of sour milk! Gross! We cleaned him up really quickly and ran out of there as fast as we could!! lol DS used to have really bad reflux as a newborn and almost everything that went in came out. We had to put him on Prevacid, which helped a LOT but he still had to wear a bib at all times to prevent him from ruining all of his clothes with spit up. Since he now spends more time upright, this is not as much of a problem as it used to be, but he does surprise us every now and then like this day. But it's much worse now smell wise since it is whole milk vs when it was breastmilk!! Sorry if that was tmi. lol

After a good meal and a ride on TSM, DS was finally starting to wear down and get sleepy. As we started walking around in search of something to do, he passed out in the stroller. For some reason, I was intent on taking a picture of him every time he slept in the parks!

So we decided since he was down for the count we would use the Tower of Terror FP's we had gotten earlier, which was great since there was a 35 minute posted wait time!

I went first while DH kept walking with DS in the stroller, and quickly figured out that FPs on ToT are entirely useless unless there is a HUGE line outside of the building, which their wasn't. You merge with the standby line in the library, and then still have a long wait in the boiler room! It was packed in both lines once we got out of the library. Luckily though, I had only been in line for a couple of minutes when the CM asked if there were any single riders, so I got to bypass a huge part of the line and get right into an elevator. I was riding with a lot of first timers, so it was a lot of fun sitting in the dark and listening to them wonder out loud when the drop would be coming!

Once my ride was over, I went outside and found DH and still sleeping DS in the corner on the patio where you come out of the giftshop. I sat there rocking the stroller back and forth with my foot & updated my trip notes while DH went to ride. It seemed like the wait time must have gone down in the time it took for me to ride, because it seemed like I wasn't waiting too long before he came out.

After that, we weren't sure what else we wanted to do to pass the time while DS was sleeping. We walked around a bit and shopped at the Muppets store, but didn't buy anything. We checked out the wait time for Star Tours, but the wait time was 30 minutes, and we didn't have FP's so it was too long to wait for a rider switch so we said we'd try it another day. But then I remembered something we had both wanted to try while in DHS, and now while DS was napping seemed like the perfect time! So we turned around and headed in the direction of Starring Rolls bakery for a...

...Butterfinger cupcake!!

I have to say, I was sorely tempted to try the chocolate peanut butter cupcake instead after seeing it, but the Butterfinger cupcake had been on our Disney World bucket list, so we got that with 2 forks.

It was DELICIOUS!!! I wasn't expecting the chocolate on top to be a hard shell, but that made it even better because the chocolate shell was a little cold, and I love cold desserts. We devoured that thing in no time flat. Paxton woke up while we were gorging ourselves, and we did offer him a bite of chocolate cake, which he spit out. Great, more for me & daddy!

We decided we were about done with DHS for the day, but there was one more thing I wanted to do before we left, and that was check out the store by the Little Mermaid show. I wanted to get something for my 2 youngest cousins for Christmas while we were there, and after talking to my uncle, his youngest daughter Sawyer was now obsessed with all things Ariel and called all forks dinglehoppers. So I wanted to see about getting her something cute with Ariel to feed her obsession. I found a few cute things, but ended up getting her this little jewelry box that when you wind up & open, plays Under the Sea with Ariel spinning on top.

We headed to the front of the park, and from this picture, you'd never be able to tell DHS had been a park to avoid that day.

It sure felt like it though!!

We did see some of the Streetmosphere characters on the way out, and I thought these guys were hilarious!

She was driving really slow and in circles hunched over the wheel and looking totally confused! It was pretty funny.

We stopped for a couple of different Photopass photographers on the way to the front of the park. First up was one close to the Hat.

For some reason, we decided to stop for one more a little further down the street, and I'm glad we did because we ended up with some funny pictures!! DS had grabbed the Photopass card out of DH's hand as we walked. He has this thing about holding things and wanting to hold things out to people, but he doesn't want you to actually take it from him so he will pull it back at the last second. So we walk up to the photographer and he's holding the card out to him, so the photographer takes it and DS immediately starts freaking out and crying. So the photographer keeps our card but gives DS his own card to play with.

We walked out to the car, and DH was putting him in the carseat while I folded up the stroller to put it in the trunk. As I'm doing this, DS just starts screaming hysterically, and I'm asking DH what happened but he has no idea. I go to the other side of the car and peek in at DS and he is still freaking out crying, but I notice a small cut on his chin that's bleeding. No idea what happened, but I thought maybe when DH went to clip the shoulder straps in front of him that maybe his chin got caught? Poor thing. We gave him his pacifier and that calmed him down until we got back to the resort.

We weren't there long, but it was enough time for DS to have some time to play and walk around a bit while we repacked the bag for our evening at Epcot. It was probably about 30 or 40 minutes before we were back in the car and headed to Epcot. We had realized the night before coming back from that park that we ended up coming straight down the street that the resort was on, so instead of turning right like we had done before, we just went straight. At the next light, we looked left and there was a guard station that said Epcot! So we turned, thinking we had found some super secret entrance into the Epcot parking lot. Turns out it was just a service entrance. lol The guard gave us plenty more Mickey stickers for DS, let us turn around, and sent us on our way to the correct place. Kind of embarrassing!!

We ended up at Epcot with plenty of time for the Visa meet this time. We were walking through the gates at about 3:40 pm.

Our first stop was Innovations to see which characters were there. We didn't have to wait long after signing in. There was only one couple ahead of us, and they had fun playing with DS while they waited for their turn.

When we walked around the curtain once it was our turn, we saw we'd be meeting Minnie & Goofy!

After having fun with Minnie & Goofy, we headed towards the World Showcase, our destination for the evening. Along the way, I stopped to take some pictures of the fountain. It reminds me of the Bellagio fountains in Vegas, which I absolutely love! So I waited to get this pic of the water shooting up.

On the way, we ran into a cranberry bog.

We stopped for some pictures in front of the huge Christmas tree! It's a pretty tree, but probably my least favorite of the 4 parks' trees.

Continued in next post...

 

[khertz]

DAY 4 Continued: Monday November 7th

We started our tour of the World Showcase to the left in Mexico.

As I was parking the stroller so we could go inside and ride Gran Fiesta Tour, DH spotted Donald with hardly any wait, so I met him and DS over there to get his picture with Donald.

After having fun with Donald, we went inside the pavilion.

What's this? A LINE for Gran Fiesta Tour?!?! I had to take this pic as proof...it was coming out of the entrance!!

We got in line anyway, because it seemed to be moving pretty fast.

DS didn't seem to mind waiting in line.

I tried getting a picture of both guys with their favorite Duck, but someone didn't want to cooperate for any more pictures!

We got on our boat in under 10 minutes, and were in the front row. The three rows behind us were families with young babies, and a row of 20-something friends in the last row. DS started out fine as we started moving.

Very quickly, the entire boatload of children was melting down for various reasons. By the time we got to the dock to unload, we were just sitting there stopped and every single baby in the boat was crying, including DS!! I looked at DH and laughed and said, "It sounds like a daycare!" They were just feeding off each other and as one got more hysterical, the rest of them followed suit. It was so ridiculous all of us in the boat had to laugh about it. Even the 20-somethings in the back, who had the worst Gran Fiesta Tour ride EVER!

As we left the pavilion, we located the Kidcot station to start on DS's birthday souvenir, a 9" black Vinylmation that we were going to have different CM's write Happy Birthday in their native language on the back! Mexico was first, and the CM was happy to write Feliz Cumpleanos for us.

Next we went into the Norway pavilion to look for their Kidcot station, but after several minutes of searching, we couldn't find it and we never did.

We walked through the China pavilion, but that wasn't one of the languages we wanted to get, so we just took pictures instead.

Next up we tried Germany, since it is a big part of DS's heritage on DH's side.

It took awhile to get Germany, because the kids kept flocking the table and I didn't want to tell them "Hey kid there's a line you know" lol. So I just waited patiently for an opening and the CM was happy to sign it for us and said what a great idea it was.

By this time, DS was melting down a bit, so we decided it was probably time to head to the Baby Care Center and feed him some dinner.

Nom Nom Nom

Thanks for the dinner, Mom!

We let him play a bit in the playroom, which was our favorite one because it actually had toys in it!

When we came out, we decided to start on the opposite side. We didn't spend much time in Canada, and I got a few pictures as we walked through United Kingdom.

We crossed the bridge and headed down to France, one of the places I wanted a Happy Birthday from for DS's Vinyl.

The CM at the France Kidcot station was great and taught us how to say Happy Birthday in French, but she kind of ruined the Vinyl because she wrote it in French then wrote French in parentheses underneath. She was the only one that did that, but oh well.

The next pavilion we tried was Japan!

Continued in next post...

 

[khertz]

DAY 4 Continued: Monday November 7th

This was another Kidcot station that was difficult to find, but it was one of the languages we were hoping to collect on DS's Vinyl. Eventually we found her, and she was the best CM of them all! Not only did she write Happy Birthday in Japanese, she also did DS's name, and his favorite character (Elmo!) and drew a Mickey Mouse face! Of course, I have no idea which line says what, but it was nice, and she was wonderful.

After that, we stopped at Liberty Inn for some dinner for DH and I, and DS snuck a couple of our fries.

We had one last signature we wanted, and that was from the other big part of DS's heritage from my side, Italy!

Excited about eating here the next night!

I don't remember when, but somewhere along the way we stopped for this picture.

Here's the finished Vinyl with all of the Happy Birthdays on the back (We were saving the front for something else!).

After we finished collecting our autographs, we found an open family restroom and tag teamed DS to get him ready for bed & into his pajamas again. We were hoping to repeat our success from the night before!

We took a bunch of pictures as we made our way out of the park of Spaceship Earth all lit up.

We stopped at the Art of Disney store for our free photo, and got the one I posted earlier of DS with Minnie & Goofy from the Visa meet, then we headed out to the car. DS was still wide awake when we got to the room, but after rocking him for a few minutes, he was out, and soon after, so were me & DH!

UP NEXT: Breakfast with the Fab 5

Edited to add: Since I probably won't be around much before the holidays, I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas!

 

[heaven2dc]

I can't wait to find out what you were saving the front of DS' vinyl!

Loved your family pic with Donald! One of my favs

 

[BridgetR3]

What an awesome idea about the birthday Vinylmation!! I will have to do that for my sons' birthdays when we go this summer! One will be turning 10 and one will be turning 6. Thanks for the idea!!!