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

Packing is the worst part of any trip.
I'm glad you were able to enjoy Star Tours and the lights despite the crowds. Your pictures make me wish I was back there watching the lights dance right now. We absolutely loved them. I know when we were there it seemed like they were dancing every few minutes.

Those were a huge hit with us on our December '09 trip, and I was ecstatic at the opportunity to see them again! Maybe they did have them dancing more often this year? It seemed like it was spaced to every 15 minutes a few years ago, but this year it felt more like 5 or 10? :confused3 Either way, it was a welcome change! We love seeing them dance! :goodvibes When I was watching the videos as I tried to upload them, it made me want to be back there so badly.

Love the info on the Festival. We will be there that weekend and I am not sure we will visit it or not. I heard how bad the parking and stuff was. DH does like art though, so he would enjoy it the most out of our group. A friend of mine from CO who I used to work with is an artist and participates in chalk art at home (she's amazing), she went out there this weekend just for the Festival and loved it. The chalk stuff just blows me away. That would be cool to see.

I swear Earle always has a huge line. We always wait though because it moves super fast. and we are addicted. :lmao:

LOL at Paxton and the toliet paper. :rotfl:so cute!

It is definitely worth checking out! :goodvibes And if you get there early, parking was not an issue at all. There were tons of spots down by the Cirque theater when we arrived at 10 am. Since we were there on Friday, I'd imagine it gets more crowded on Saturday and Sunday when the locals come. So Friday has some advantages there, but the disadvantages are not being able to see complete sidewalk chalk art. That was such an incredible sight!

The Earl line DOES move fast, thankfully. And of course, DS made friends with the CM helping to keep the line organized, so that helped pass the time quickly!

I have truly enjoyed your TR from beginning to almost end :goodvibes Your Osborne Lights pics are beautiful! Don't you just love how the lights dance to the music? We saw this in Dec 2008 when my DGS was 14 mos old and I'll always treasure the memories of that trip.

I can't wait to see the new Star Tours attraction. I had hoped to visit WDW this next December but not sure if that will happen now that I applied for the Disneyland College Program. I may be working at one of the hotels down at Disneyland and not be able to take a trip to WDW so if I do get accepted, I told my DD that they will have to come to DLR (I would be able to let them in for one day for free :) )

Loved the pic of your son with the toilet paper roll - :laughing: how cute! He is SOOOO adorable!

Glad you are enjoying it!! I can't believe I am only 2 posts away from being done!

Getting into DL free...NICE! Wish I knew some CM's!! :rotfl: That would be cool to work for the DL College Program. For some reason I never even thought of them having the CP there, but I guess that makes sense. I hope you get in! :thumbsup2
 
Subbing to your TR!! I've only gotten to page 4, but had to come on over and sub and tell you that the pics with your son and Chip & Dale are SOOOO CUTE!!!!!!
 
I just found your TR as it seems to be coming to an end very soon.

I absolutely love the pics of Paxton with the characters...too precious!! And the video from CP...so sweet!!

We are taking our kids to WDW in Oct and Dec (Oct will be my little boys - age 2 and 3, first trip) I am hoping they love the characters.

Cant wait to read your Oct PTR when you get that going.
 
I really enjoyed your trip report! Thanks for sharing.

We were at WDW the same time as you. I was looking hard through your pics to see if we were in them...lol.

Your little boy is adorable. I remember taking my kids to WDW and DLR at that age. It really is hard to keep them happy while you're waiting for a ride, or a show to finish. Now my youngest kids are 11 & 13. Big difference. All they want to do is ride RnR and EE. I have to drag them onto It's a Small World. I remember the year when my ds11 was only 18 months and the ONLY ride he didn't cry on was IASW. We must have went on that ride 20 times...lol.
 

The festival of the Masters looks so cool! I have heard about it, but I've never had the chance to visit.

I loved the lego booth! I'm in the process of watching Lost right now on Netflix, (which is part of the reason why I've been behind with my updating, I just can't stop watching it! :rolleyes1), so I thought that the vehicles were really cool!

You got some great shots of the Osborne lights! I never seem to be able to get the settings right on my camera, and for some reason our Photopass shots all came out slightly blurry! :headache:

I'm glad that Paxton had such a wonderful time enjoying the lights and snow and that you enjoyed your "late night" at the parks.
 
Subbing to your TR!! I've only gotten to page 4, but had to come on over and sub and tell you that the pics with your son and Chip & Dale are SOOOO CUTE!!!!!!

:goodvibes Thanks so much!! I'm happy to have a new reader.

He had a BLAST with Chip & Dale. It was one of those moments we definitely wish we had gotten a video of, but the pictures are still a wonderful reminder.

I just found your TR as it seems to be coming to an end very soon.

I absolutely love the pics of Paxton with the characters...too precious!! And the video from CP...so sweet!!

We are taking our kids to WDW in Oct and Dec (Oct will be my little boys - age 2 and 3, first trip) I am hoping they love the characters.

Cant wait to read your Oct PTR when you get that going.

Thanks! He had so much fun with the characters, and it made the whole trip worth it to us, especially since we had been considering waiting to take him when he was older instead.

I hope your boys love the characters too! And of course I hope they have a great time on their first trip! What dates in October will you be there?

I'm planning to wrap this up pretty soon, then get started on my October PTR which will also play host to a few details/plans for our Disneyland trip in May. :goodvibes

I really enjoyed your trip report! Thanks for sharing.

We were at WDW the same time as you. I was looking hard through your pics to see if we were in them...lol.

Your little boy is adorable. I remember taking my kids to WDW and DLR at that age. It really is hard to keep them happy while you're waiting for a ride, or a show to finish. Now my youngest kids are 11 & 13. Big difference. All they want to do is ride RnR and EE. I have to drag them onto It's a Small World. I remember the year when my ds11 was only 18 months and the ONLY ride he didn't cry on was IASW. We must have went on that ride 20 times...lol.

Thanks so much, glad you are enjoying it!

Keeping him happy while waiting was such a challenge at times. It made those 25 minute waits just seem impossible, especially since he was trying to master walking and wanted to do it anywhere and everywhere.

Isn't it funny how kids almost universally love IASW and parents hate it?! :rotfl: I actually enjoy it, but DH not so much. Luckily he has gotten used to the fact that it's just something we're going to have to ride several times a trip while DS is young and interested!

The festival of the Masters looks so cool! I have heard about it, but I've never had the chance to visit.

I loved the lego booth! I'm in the process of watching Lost right now on Netflix, (which is part of the reason why I've been behind with my updating, I just can't stop watching it! :rolleyes1), so I thought that the vehicles were really cool!

You got some great shots of the Osborne lights! I never seem to be able to get the settings right on my camera, and for some reason our Photopass shots all came out slightly blurry! :headache:

I'm glad that Paxton had such a wonderful time enjoying the lights and snow and that you enjoyed your "late night" at the parks.

Haha I am trying desperately to get DH to start watching the show from the beginning with me, but he's not too interested. That is the only show in a long time that I would never let sit on my DVR for long, I always wanted to watch it the first available minute I could, even if that meant sitting through commercials on nights when I could watch it as it aired. I cried like a baby through the series finale episode. We did a Lost tour in Hawaii on the ranch where they filmed most of the series, and I was like a kid in a candy store! We took pictures on Hurley's golf course from season 1, one of the Dharma stations, and the hill where they first hear the French transmission...plus lots of other memorable spots from the show. It was incredible! It was just me and DH with another couple, and I was definitely the biggest Lost fan, so I was a total geek through the whole tour! :laughing:
 
I'm sad that it's ending too! One more post plus the wrap up/final thoughts post and that's it! But...then I just get to start my October PTR!

I hope DHS is a productive day for you! And I hope the BCC isn't occupied whenever you need to visit. Seriously...it's SO small!

Have fun on Start Tours! It is a really amazing ride.

No lie, when I got an email letting me know I had a reply, and I saw it was you, I said to myself, "What is that girl doing replying to this TR when she's in Disney World?!" :rotfl: Hope the rest of your trip is MAGICAL!!

WooHoo! Can't wait :goodvibes

We never went to the DHS BCC.

Yeah, just wait until my TR. Lets just say I'm glad we have free wifi access here at POFQ. It's saving my sanity :upsidedow
 
Thanks! He had so much fun with the characters, and it made the whole trip worth it to us, especially since we had been considering waiting to take him when he was older instead.

I hope your boys love the characters too! And of course I hope they have a great time on their first trip! What dates in October will you be there?

I'm planning to wrap this up pretty soon, then get started on my October PTR which will also play host to a few details/plans for our Disneyland trip in May. :goodvibes

We will be there Oct 17-20, just a short trip while my older kids are out for Fall break and we can enjoy MNSSHP & a brief visit to F&W. Our Dec trip is much longer, Dec 18-27.

I'm interested to hear your DL plans too as we are seriously contemplating a DL trip next year.

By they way, I was very upset when LOST ended too!! That was mine and DH fave show!
 
WooHoo! Can't wait :goodvibes

We never went to the DHS BCC.

Yeah, just wait until my TR. Lets just say I'm glad we have free wifi access here at POFQ. It's saving my sanity :upsidedow

Oh, no lots of time in the room?! Well, yes, I guess free wifi is better than $10/day in that case.

We will be there Oct 17-20, just a short trip while my older kids are out for Fall break and we can enjoy MNSSHP & a brief visit to F&W. Our Dec trip is much longer, Dec 18-27.

I'm interested to hear your DL plans too as we are seriously contemplating a DL trip next year.

By they way, I was very upset when LOST ended too!! That was mine and DH fave show!

You will be leaving the day before we arrive! How fun getting to go again so soon. You can get a little taste, be sad to leave, but know you get to come back in 2 months and do it bigger & better. It's almost like a practice run vacation! :laughing:

I think I'm going to just combine my DL plans with my October PTR because there is definitely not enough planning going on to warrant an entire PTR. I'm going to do a separate DL TR, but there just isn't as much planning as is needed for a WDW trip, especially considering TP has all of our DL dates rated as a 2!

Absolutely loved Lost. I have never grieved so much over the ending of a TV series, not even Charmed! :laughing: I think most other shows when they end it's because they become stale or ridiculous or have run out of plots. Since they knew how and when they were ending the show, I thought the whole series was just incredibly played out (aside from some of Season 2 when they were just adding in crazy stuff for the sake of stretching the material!). I know some people hated how it ended, but I thought it was appropriate given then themes of the series as a whole.
 
Oh wow, I love the LOST stuff in Lego too! I had to send a link of your picture to my fiance because he's obsessed. I still haven't finished the series because I didn't like watching it alone. I'll have to wait a few more months until I'm married so I can watch it with him!

I also LOVED the Middle Earth one too! Did you know they're coming out with LOTR Lego figurines?

And WOW, the chalk artwork? That is AMAZING. I have no artistic skill at all. It just stuns me to think that they make something out of nothing!
 
Love your last couple updates!! Glad you got to see Osborne lights and that they were going on when you were there! So sweet that Paxton loved dancing!!

Question - how did going past his bedtime affect him during the trip/when you got home? Friends of ours start their 9 month old daughter's bedtime routine at 6:30 and she's asleep by 7:30. That might be nice for home, but on vacation at WDW seems impossible to stick to (and you wouldn't want to either!). Granted, you were able to get him to sleep in the stroller & transfer him to the condo so I guess that's a big factor in trying to stick to a bedtime.

Anyway...Aria is here and we are more excited than ever to head to the world! Though with the amount she is eating right now, I'm kinda glad I didn't go crazy and plan for a super early WDW trip for her! :eek:

Looking forward to hearing about your last day!
 
I agree that the last day comes by very quickly. Almost makes me sad when the trip begins because it will eventually end. I love your idea about getting a postcard from each vacation my parents use to let us do that when we were young but only at disney. For deyvn's disney trips we take a pic in the same spot in front of the castle every trip and i put them in his scrapbook.
 
Oh wow, I love the LOST stuff in Lego too! I had to send a link of your picture to my fiance because he's obsessed. I still haven't finished the series because I didn't like watching it alone. I'll have to wait a few more months until I'm married so I can watch it with him!

I also LOVED the Middle Earth one too! Did you know they're coming out with LOTR Lego figurines?

And WOW, the chalk artwork? That is AMAZING. I have no artistic skill at all. It just stuns me to think that they make something out of nothing!

Didn't know about the LOTR Legos, but that might have to be a gift for DS when he is a little older. :thumbsup2 I'm obsessed with those movies!

The sidewalk chalk art was really incredible, especially since I don't have any artistic ability either! I couldn't believe what level of detail some of the artists were getting...with chalk!!

Love your last couple updates!! Glad you got to see Osborne lights and that they were going on when you were there! So sweet that Paxton loved dancing!!

Question - how did going past his bedtime affect him during the trip/when you got home? Friends of ours start their 9 month old daughter's bedtime routine at 6:30 and she's asleep by 7:30. That might be nice for home, but on vacation at WDW seems impossible to stick to (and you wouldn't want to either!). Granted, you were able to get him to sleep in the stroller & transfer him to the condo so I guess that's a big factor in trying to stick to a bedtime.

Anyway...Aria is here and we are more excited than ever to head to the world! Though with the amount she is eating right now, I'm kinda glad I didn't go crazy and plan for a super early WDW trip for her! :eek:

Looking forward to hearing about your last day!

We really tried sticking with his normal routine as much as possible, but we also kind of tried to relax, if that makes any sense. We didn't try to make him nap when he would normally nap at home, we just made sure he napped period. We also start his bedtime routine early: dinner at 5, bath at 6:30, in his crib by 7:45 at the latest. Bedtime was even earlier before our trip, and he was usually in his crib by 7 and asleep before 7:30. So most nights, we didn't push it, which meant missing out on some things. The night we decided to try to stay for Wishes, we only did so because he was in his pj's and asleep in the stroller by his normal bedtime. Had he been cranky and too stimulated to go to sleep in the stroller, we'd have taken him back. With the Osborne Lights, we braved the heavier crowds early in the evening instead of staying late when we knew they'd be less crowded so we could get him to bed at a decent time. He seemed to do ok with the small adjustments, and when we came home, it was back to the schedule as usual with no problems!

I agree that the last day comes by very quickly. Almost makes me sad when the trip begins because it will eventually end. I love your idea about getting a postcard from each vacation my parents use to let us do that when we were young but only at disney. For deyvn's disney trips we take a pic in the same spot in front of the castle every trip and i put them in his scrapbook.

I am the same way! As soon as we get to the airport, I am already telling DH, "In just a week, we'll be back here leaving to go home :("

That's a cute idea getting his picture taken in the same place! I'll have to look through my pics and see if we have any special spots where we got his picture that we can copy on all the trips!
 
DAY 9: Saturday November 12th

We were up bright and early this morning at 6:45 so we could finish packing and give the room a once-over to make sure we were not forgetting anything. I had posted a few nights before on a couple of Bonnet Creek threads to see if anyone needed some diapers, because we had TONS left over from the case DH had bought, but we managed to find space for every last diaper somewhere in our luggage. :rotfl: We also had to get DS ready for the parks and feed him some breakfast, plus bring the rocking chair over to Building 1 so that it could be picked up from there. We officially checked out of Bonnet Creek at 8:45 am. We considered leaving our luggage with bell services and picking it up after we finished at the park, but we figured we'd be able to spend more time at the park if we didn't have to make a stop at the resort before going to the airport. So we loaded everything into the rental car and headed to the Magic Kingdom!

We arrived right at 9 am, but the park had already been open for an hour for EMH, so we didn't get to see the opening show again. Bummer! We knew we wanted to ride Dumbo one more time, so we headed straight there. The posted wait time was 20 minutes but we only waited 13 and we were on our Dumbo!

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DS loved it just as much as he had the first time! We attempted to get a picture of him in the stationary Dumbo outside the ride, but DH had the wrong settings on the camera and by the time we noticed it was just a white screen instead of a picture, we didn't have time to stop back and try again. Maybe next time.

Then we headed over to Winnie the Pooh, where the interactive queue was actually open, so we were able to see other kids playing the games. DS enjoyed the honey walls this time!

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Next we decided to ride Pirates of the Caribbean and went through the line with absolutely no wait. DS seemed to enjoy it even more this time and had fun looking around at all of the scenes. DH wanted to try the Tea Cups again, so we went back to Fantasyland to check out the wait, which was maybe 5 minutes.

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"I will destroy you, tea cup!"

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After our spin on the tea cups, we thought we'd check out the wait at Buzz Lightyear since we had not ridden it yet this trip, but it was over 20 minutes, so we skipped it. Maybe next time, Buzz! Instead, since we were right there, we hopped on...you guessed it, the TTA! I think that make a total of 3 times this trip?

It was getting close to when we'd have to exit the park, so we made our way over the Tomorrowland bridge. But we did have a few minutes to stop for our last Photopass pictures of the trip!

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I think DS was just as bummed as we were to be leaving because he did NOT want to cooperate for those pictures!!

We went over to the baby care center so we could warm DS's milk, but we gave it to him on the go. It was already 11:50 and we needed to be heading to the airport! The real reason he didn't want to take pictures soon became apparent when we reached the monorail platform. My boo boo was tired!

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I posted that picture on Facebook with the caption, "He's officially all Disney'd out. On our way to the airport. Sad it's over but we had an incredible time!!"

We went straight to the airport and were overjoyed to find out that our checked luggage was under the weight limit! No more rearranging right there at the check-in desk like we had the last time we flew home from Disney World. We grabbed some lunch for DH and myself at Chick-Fil-A and fed DS his jar food, and stopped to check out the Disney store before going through security. We inquired about empty seats on the plane, and found out they actually did have a few, so we were able to get a free seat for DS. They told us he just had to be in the window seat. We had plenty of time before the plane was to board to let DS burn off some energy.

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We boarded the plane with family boarding, and I sat with DS while DH got the carseat installed in the window seat. I sat in the middle, with DH in the aisle seat and we settled in for our flight home. We put DS's Ear Planes in, and he actually fell asleep during takeoff!

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Wish I could say it was uneventful from there, but not quite! After sleeping for about 20 minutes, DS woke up SCREAMING! He just could not be consoled no matter what we tried to give him, so I ended up taking him out of the seat and putting him in my lap while DH pulled out the iPad with Elmo videos loaded onto it. That finally settled him down, so DH propped the iPad up on its kickstand and had it on the tray table so DS could see, while DH continued to hand him puffs from a container. Well, the lady in the seat in front of DH got up to use the restroom and when she sat back down, the iPad started to fall over. DH went to go grab it with the same hand that currently had an open snack container of puffs in his hand, which sent them flying all over the lady across the aisle from us!! :lmao: It was hysterical, and luckily she thought it was pretty funny herself, or else I probably wouldn't have laughed so much! Poor lady was just sitting there minding her own business reading a book, and she got showered with puffs!

We put DS back into his seat for the landing, and by then he was fine. My dad picked us up from the airport, and we picked up our car and our cat from their house, and made the 2 hour drive home. DS was out like a light halfway through the car ride and stayed asleep when we got him inside and to his crib. Our day started at 6:45 am in Orlando, and ended at 8:15 pm in our own beds!!

UP NEXT: Final Thoughts
 
Awesome TR! I am sad it's over, though I will (as you know) be looking forward to that DL TR. So glad you had a great trip, though a bit sad we were within a few miles of eachother but didn't get to meet. Perhaps another time. It's starting to look like I could be spending some (work) time in Louisiana in the coming years.
 
Sad to see your TR come to an end! Looked like a fun last few hours at the Magic Kingdom though :goodvibes

Sounded like an eventful flight home.. especially the iPad story! :cutie:

Emma princess: x
 
Awesome TR! I am sad it's over, though I will (as you know) be looking forward to that DL TR. So glad you had a great trip, though a bit sad we were within a few miles of eachother but didn't get to meet. Perhaps another time. It's starting to look like I could be spending some (work) time in Louisiana in the coming years.

As the DL trip gets closer, I'm getting more & more excited! I probably won't do a PTR since we are not doing much planning, but I will definitely write a TR! They are so much fun & a great way of reliving my favorite memories of the trip. :goodvibes Yes, maybe one of these days & one of these trips our actual plans will overlap!

What part of Louisiana??

Sad to see your TR come to an end! Looked like a fun last few hours at the Magic Kingdom though :goodvibes

Sounded like an eventful flight home.. especially the iPad story! :cutie:

Emma princess: x

A few hours in MK on both our arrival day & departure day was a great way to bookend the trip. We had SO much fun!

I was still laughing over the iPad story when telling a friend about it the other day! Luckily the lady didn't mind. :rotfl:
 
aww last day. How sad! Now that we're back and we've experienced our trip I'm totally jealous over what a wonderful trip y'all had! But I'm glad that you guys didn't experience the issues we did. I wouldn't wish that on anyone. Can't wait for the next PTR! :goodvibes
 












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