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

[khertz]

Welcome everyone to my 3rd trip report, and welcome back if you joined in on my PTR. If you don't feel like going back and reading all of the plans & introductions, don't worry, I'll re-cap them for you here!

TABLE OF CONTENTS​

PTR Recap

Friday November 4th
DAY 0 & DAY 1: Getting to Disney!
DAY 1 Part 2: Our first park!

Saturday November 5th
DAY 2 Part 1: The main attraction of the Kilimanjaro Safari
DAY 2 Part 2: DS meets his first character!
DS Meets Pluto & Goofy
DAY 2 Part 3: Character Explosion!
DAY 2 Part 4: Hello there, Yeti
PhotoPass Pictures are in!

Sunday November 6th
DAY 3 Part 1: A Chilly Ride to MK
DAY 3 Part 2: Magical Memories in Fantasyland
DAY 3 Part 3: DS's First Haircut!
DAY 3 Part 4: Nemo? Nemo!

Monday November 7th
DAY 4 Part 1: Toy Story Mania + Stroller = MADNESS!!
DAY 4 Part 2: Toy Story Mania + Lunch = Ewwww...
DAY 4 Part 3: Happy Birthday, DS!
DAY 4 Part 4: Happy Birthday, DS! Continued

Tuesday November 8th
DAY 5 Part 1: Our Compliments to the Chef
DAY 5 Part 2: A Not So Restful Rest Day

Wednesday November 9th
DAY 6 Part 1: A Super Duper Early Morning
DAY 6 Part 2: Welcome to our Friendship Day Celebrashun!
DAY 6 Part 3: A Beautiful Day to be in MK!
DAY 6 Part 4: DH's Revenge!

Thursday November 10th
DAY 7 Part 1: A Salute to All Nations, But Mostly America
DAY 7 Part 2: Where did all these people come from?!
DAY 7 Part 3: Wishes!

Friday November 11th
DAY 8: Festival of the Masters Part I
DAY 8: Festival of the Masters Part II
DAY 8: What a Spectacle!

Saturday November 12th
DAY 9: Bye Bye Disney!


NEW Final Thoughts & New PTR Link! NEW
​

 

[saintstickets]

Sign me up coach! From one "Who Dat" to another, I'm looking forward to your TR.

 

[khertz]

Here's the down & dirty on this trip:

WHO?
1. Me, aka Mommy, aka Kristy. I'm 26 years old, a Pediatric nurse, and lover of all things WDW & Mickey Mouse! My favorite WDW ride is Splash Mountain, and this was my 9th trip to Walt Disney World.

2. DH, aka Daddy, aka Dustin, aka DDuck4Life on the DIS (can you guess who his favorite character is? ) His favorite WDW ride is Big Thunder Mountain. This was his 8th trip to WDW, and he has spent a day in Disneyland solo earlier this year.

3. DS, aka Paxton. My sweet little boy who just recently turned 1 years old. He's bright, energetic, and almost always smiling. And he's usually getting into something. This was his very first trip to WDW, and his favorite ride was It's a Small World, of course. His favorite character...well, I'll be honest, it's Elmo! Try as we might, we haven't gotten him interested in Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, he prefers Sesame Street & most of the other daytime programming on PBS Kids.

Here's a picture of us from Paxton's 1st birthday party last month:

WHAT?
A Disney trip, of course!

WHEN?
8 nights from November 4th through November 12th. We flew roundtrip on Southwest Airlines out of New Orleans on nonstop flights each way. We had 5 day park hopper tickets for myself & DH, and a rental car for the length of the stay.

WHERE?
We stayed at our timeshare resort, Wyndham Bonnet Creek, which is located next door to the Caribbean Beach resort, and nearest to Epcot. We had a 1 bedroom Presidential unit in Tower 6 with a view of Downtown Disney.


WHY?
Why did we take this trip? Mostly because neither of us thought we could wait much longer to take DS to a place we both love so much! We chose November because it was close enough to his end-of-October birthday to be a birthday trip, and because it would give us the opportunity to experience the Osborne Lights at DHS, and Festival of the Masters at DTD.

So that's the basics, and I hope you'll join me for my TR!

 

[khertz]

DAY 0: November 3rd

The week leading up to our trip was pretty crazy...I was working a LOT so that I didn't have to use all my paid time off during the trip. On Wednesday, DS went to the sitter and I worked a short day. I got off at 3 pm and came home to find DH had gotten away from work early too, so we started packing before picking up DS from the sitter.

We had to make sure we had all the important stuff packed of course!

So on Thursday, we got up early and finished packing. We tried desperately to fit everything into just 2 suitcases to check, but it was impossible. In all, we had 3 suitcases to check, 2 backpacks, a camera bag, and DS's carseat and stroller to take on the flight, plus an overnight bag for Thursday night and our cat in her carrier.

We got on the road from our house at about 2:30 pm which was only a little later than I had counted on. We had a 2 hour drive to get to my parents house where we were spending the night. They live right outside New Orleans, and it was a lot cheaper & easier to fly out of there than it was to fly out of our home airport in Lafayette.

My mom made some chicken & sausage gumbo for us for dinner, and we took baths and got to bed early. All 3 of us slept in the guest room and didn't get much sleep between being excited about leaving in the morning and uncomfortable sleeping arrangements!

DAY 1: Friday November 4th

We were all up bright and early to get dressed, pack up our toiletries from the night before, eat breakfast, etc. before we could leave for the airport. My dad was nice enough to drive us to the airport before going to work. This is him and Paxton before we left.

A little backstory...DS had his 1 year well visit with the pediatrician on that Monday. He'd had a small rash on his waist that we pointed out to the doctor and she gave us a cream to put on it. She said not to be surprised if it got a little white head on it. So I was watching it all week and putting the cream, and as the trip got closer, it was getting more red and swollen. By the morning of the trip, it looked terrible and I saw a trip to a walk-in clinic in our future, so I was freaking out a bit. I had to call the office and talk to the doctor on call, which luckily was her (I know her very well from working at the hospital, so she is very familiar with Paxton, and remembered discussing the rash at the appointment). She was able to call in a prescription for an antibiotic to a pharmacy in Orlando near our resort, so even though I was still a little freaked out about it getting worse, I felt a little better at that point.

We arrived at the airport around 7:30 am and went to check our bags and print our boarding passes. Was that an ordeal! It was difficult walking around with all those suitcases plus DS in the stroller and carrying his carseat. Luckily the 2 smaller suitcases clipped together, and we had bungee cords to strap the carseat onto the larger suitcase.

We made it through security unscathed, although they did have to check through my backpack since I had a glass jar of babyfood for DS. I told them there was 2 (a fruit for his breakfast that morning, and a vegetable for lunch after we landed), and the lady looking through my bag said there was only 1. That's when I realized I had left DS's breakfast in the overnight bag. Ugh! But we found our gate and fed him the biscuit DH had brought for himself. We also bought some apple juice and got his cup ready for the flight.We did make sure to ask at the gate if there were any available seats so DS could fly in his carseat but the flight was full.

DS had fun crawling & walking around while waiting to board the plane. And he loved looking out all of the big windows!

We went ahead and boarded the plane with family boarding, and found an unoccupied row so that we weren't forcing ourselves on anyone who might go, "Oh no, don't wanna be stuck by the baby!" Luckily, a sweet grandmother asked if the seat was taken, and actually wanted to sit by us because she loves sitting by children on planes!

DS enjoyed the air blowing out of the little a/c units.

As we started to taxi out to the runway, we put in his Earplanes, gave him his juice, and hoped for the best! He actually did really well on the flight! He started getting a little crazy at the end, but he was just tired of being stuck on our laps at that point. We pulled out the iPad and distracted him with some Elmo, and he was good to go.

As we flew over WDW, we were actually on the correct side of the plane for the first time ever and were able to pick out the Swan & Dolphin, and Spaceship Earth.

I had hoped that being such a short flight, I wouldn't have to change DS at all on the plane. However, he faked us out and made us think he had gone #2, so I had to get him into that tiny bathroom to change him only to find out it was a false alarm! Other than that, we made it through his first flight unscathed, and actually arrived ahead of schedule.

We took the airport monorail to the baggage claim area, which DS couldn't have cared less about, but I was super excited!!

We picked up all our bags and made it downstairs to the rental car counter to pay for the car, then had to hoof it across the street to the parking garage to pick it up. That was quite a long walk with all that stuff!! DS made it a little easier by falling asleep as soon as we put him in his stroller, so that was a blessing.

We got on the road to Walt Disney World, and after about 30 minutes in the car and a stop at the pharmacy to pick up DS's prescription, we passed under this beautiful sight!

Once we finally arrived at Bonnet Creek, we found out from the guard shack that Presidential units have their own check-in desk in Tower 6, so we headed straight there. Our unit was available, and I asked about the rocking chair we had rented from A Baby's Best Friend. They said it was already there at the luggage services room in Tower 1, and someone would bring it over. They also went ahead and sent up our highchair and Pack & Play we had requested for DS. After picked up our parking pass and scheduling our dreaded members update, we brought the stuff up to the room. I started unpacking everything while DH made a grocery run to Publix to pick up milk, baby food, snacks, and breakfast foods to keep in the room.

The unit was beautiful! Unfortunately, I was so eager to unpack I didn't get any pictures before destroying the place with our stuff. We had more than enough space for the three of us. The only disappointment was not getting the fireworks view we had requested, but that was more than ok since there were only a couple of nights we would have been able to take advantage of that anyway.

Once DH got back with the groceries and we put everything away, we got our park bags ready and headed out to our first park, the Magic Kingdom!

UP NEXT: DS's first Disney ride!

 

[khertz]

Sign me up coach! From one "Who Dat" to another, I'm looking forward to your TR.

Love running into Who Dats, both on the DIS & in the parks!! Thanks for joining in!

 

[Colleen27]

Yay, you started! I'm in.

 

[Dream426]

YAY!! Glad to see you started. Enjoyed the first installment. Can't wait to read more.

 

[Sneezie]

Fellow Louisianian here!

Can't wait to read about your trip and see your pictures.

 

[CW4DW]

Just found your report and can't wait for more - your son is so adorable.

 

[leshunlenese]

Hey! I am here. Ready to see how paxton enjoyed his 1st trip!

 

[jc040404]

What a handsome little man! Looking forward to following along and seeing how he liked the parks!

 

[BridgetR3]

Also from Louisiana...can't wait to read more of your TR!

 

[afwdwfan]

Great start! I'm glad Paxton decided to cooperate and be good for the plane ride. Can't wait to see what his first ride is.

 

[khertz]

Yay, you started! I'm in.

Happy to see ya here!

YAY!! Glad to see you started. Enjoyed the first installment. Can't wait to read more.

Hopefully I can keep up with the updates!

Fellow Louisianian here!

Can't wait to read about your trip and see your pictures.

Yay for Louisiana DIS fans!

Just found your report and can't wait for more - your son is so adorable.

Welcome to the TR! And thanks, I think he's quite adorable myself.

Hey! I am here. Ready to see how paxton enjoyed his 1st trip!

Happy to see you here!

What a handsome little man! Looking forward to following along and seeing how he liked the parks!

Great start! I'm glad Paxton decided to cooperate and be good for the plane ride. Can't wait to see what his first ride is.

I was so relieved that he did well on the plane. I didn't want him to be *THAT* baby that drives everyone crazy. He cut up a couple of times, but no major meltdowns thankfully.

 

[disneybarbie]

Joining in!

Sounded like a good journey to WDW! I'm jealous that your flight path goes over WDW, our's never does as we fly down over the East Coast of FL hehe

Btw - I saw on the Disney Parks Blog that they're bringing out an NFL range of Vinylmation soon, and there's a Saints one! Didn't know if you & DH had seen it.


Really looking forward to reading more!


Emma x

 

[CandleontheWater]

I'm LATE!

Now I need to go back and read the update- just wanted to check in first!

Ok- I'm back! I'm sorry you didn't end up with an empty seat for Paxton, I know you were crossing your fingers, but I'm happy to hear that it all worked out and that your flight went well.

Yay for the room being ready and already having everything set up! I'm a big fan of lots of space when traveling with babies, and I'm sure you loved being able to really spread out!

I hope that Paxton's rash cleared up and that it didn't bother him during the trip! Isn't it always the case that things go wrong right before a vacation!

 

[khertz]

Joining in!

Sounded like a good journey to WDW! I'm jealous that your flight path goes over WDW, our's never does as we fly down over the East Coast of FL hehe

Btw - I saw on the Disney Parks Blog that they're bringing out an NFL range of Vinylmation soon, and there's a Saints one! Didn't know if you & DH had seen it.


Really looking forward to reading more!


Emma x

Good to see you again, Emma!!

We were SO excited to be able to see WDW out of the plane windows. We always fly Southwest to WDW and choose our own seats, and every time we have flown to Disney, we've chosen seats on the right hand side of the plane until now. We made a mental note to choose the left from now on.

And no, neither of us had seen the Saints vinyl!! DH had seen the announcement about the NFL vinyls but had not seen the pics of the teams that would be featured. That's another one we'll be adding to the collection. Thanks for the heads up!

I'm LATE!

Now I need to go back and read the update- just wanted to check in first!

Ok- I'm back! I'm sorry you didn't end up with an empty seat for Paxton, I know you were crossing your fingers, but I'm happy to hear that it all worked out and that your flight went well.

Yay for the room being ready and already having everything set up! I'm a big fan of lots of space when traveling with babies, and I'm sure you loved being able to really spread out!

I hope that Paxton's rash cleared up and that it didn't bother him during the trip! Isn't it always the case that things go wrong right before a vacation!

I can't even tell you how nervous I was to take Paxton and all his stuff to the airport, through security, and onto the flight!! But I was happy we did it & saw it could be done without too much headache. And I am so thankful I have such a happy baby because it could have been so much worse!

I was SO relieved when we were able to check right into our room and not have to wait. I was disappointed about not having the fireworks view, but nothing can beat getting right into the room and not having to figure out what to do with the 3 of us and our luggage until 4 pm!

It was kind of funny because I had been so worried about DS catching something respiratory right before our trip, and he ended up with that stupid rash right before! And it actually looked fine at the doctor's appointment, but as the days crept closer one spot turned into a pimple and got red & hard. All I could think of was ALL the kids we have in the hospital on IV antibiotics because things like that turn into an abscess!! I have read here on the DIS how great Celebration Hospital is in a pinch, but I sure didn't want to have to test it out myself!!!

 

[RachelNinja]

How fun for Paxton to experience WDW so early! I'm wondering if you're going to be trading Vinylmation this trip too!

 

[khertz]

How fun for Paxton to experience WDW so early! I'm wondering if you're going to be trading Vinylmation this trip too!

Sorry to disappoint, but DH didn't do much trading at all on this trip. Now that he is more "into" Vinyls, he's more selective of which ones he wants, whereas last time, he was just starting his collection so he wanted a lot of them! We did buy a few, which I made sure to snap pictures of, but only a couple of trades the whole week.

I just opened your Feb TR in another tab, so I'll go work on getting caught up!

 

[DDuck4Life]

Awesome to see all the fellow Louisiana DISers following along on our trip!

Thanks for the info on the Saints Vinyl Emma, I missed that info while we were on our trip.

Unfortunately RachelNinja I'm not a big fan of the new vinylmation mold so that limits my trading potential a little. I'm a big fan of the park series and you just don't really find them in the trading boxes to much. Unless you really wanted a big baby, bearded hippie, or a cutesters kid trading was disappointing for me. The blind trading boxes were really hit or miss, but mostly misses from what I saw.

Great start so far khertz!