1st trip with our 3 month old- complete with police activity!!!! *Updated*

Tracey1974

Maybe a 2009 babymoon before our family of 3 turns
Joined
Jul 15, 2003
Messages
1,719
Illnesses, tissues, poopie diapers, gas shortages and accidents- all this just on the way there!

Here is a trip report from our very short excursion to WDW for our son's first trip and to capitalize on the free dining. Mmmm........


Cast- Me, hubby, our son Christopher (3 mo) and my sister Sarah, 21 (an extra set of hands)
Mode of transport- 2006 New (this will come into play later) Jetta TDI

Wed 9/28
Today is our 3 year anniversary and I am starting to get a stinking head cold. We leave tomorrow and I can barely swallow- haven't been sick since before I got pregnant last October. My throat is killing me and I still have a million things to do. Surely this must be a joke, me being sick. Took baby to Dr to make sure he was all set to go, got a dozen roses delivered :love: from hubby, finished packing and went to dinner. All was good and fine until I decided to take a Tylenol cold non drowsy at 9:30pm. Yeah....great. Went to bed at 11:30pm, alarm clock set for 4am since we are driving down.

DIDN'T NEED THE ALARM CLOCK- I WAS UP ALL NIGHT!!!!!!!!!!!! I was so wired, I think I may know what being on crack feels like. So- now I'm totally pissed, overtired, nervous about the trip and mad at everyone sleeping soundly in their beds. Then I think, not to worry! We are going to Disney! Surely everything will be right with the world as soon as we get to Florida!

Wrong.


Thurs, 9/29
Nursed Christopher at 4:15am and we were out of the house by 5:30am. No problems! Had the DVD player going in the backseat, Christopher was sleeping and everything was going fine until we hit some traffic in DC. At this point, I had gone through 1/3 of a box of Kleenex and was rapidly going through the rest in record time. I was also trying to catch up on the lost sleep from the night before. Christopher decided it was time to poop by looking to see if I was 1/2 asleep before it was bombs away. We stopped quite alot and finally we were at South of the Border. I was so excited to stop there that I didn't realize what a stinky place it really was. Here I am so deliriously tired and stuffed up that I thought the bathrooms were clean! Sarah is gagging the entire time she is in there because it stinks so bad and I'm thinking how clean everything is because it didn't smell. But- I digress. Sinec we stopped so much, we came up 60 miles short of our goal and ended up bunking for the night at a Marriott in Savannah, GA. We are READY for WDW tomorrow!! Everyone is very excited and I finally got some sleep.

Fri, 9/30
Who-hoo!!! Out of the hotel by 8 and ready to go. Stopped at the Fl welcome center for some free oj and cheesy shell souveniers for Mom and Dad. It is now my turn to drive and I notice that we are running pretty low on fuel. Now- we have a car that runs on diesel. We are driving I-95, a main road for major trucks and there is diesel all over the place. UNTIL- we get to Fl. NO DIESEL ANYWHERE!!! We are down to 20 miles before we run out. Hubby is sweating running out of gas, baby is crying and I am going through the maps looking for places to stop and getting out my AAA card just in case. We stop at every exit looking and finally fill up with 15 miles to empty. Whew!!! I think, hmm.... that was a bad thing but we are only 30 mins from Disney- what could go wrong??? Well- Christopher was quite distressed and was not waiting to get to our hotel to eat so we pull over at a maintenance parking lot 10 mins from the Disney exit on I-4 to nurse. Baby fed? Check. Tank filled? Check. Hotel vouchers ready? Check. I pull out back onto the highway and prepare to get back onto to I-4.

Have you ever played the video game Frogger? When you have to get the frog from one end of the pond to the other without him falling off or getting hit? Well, that was me and we lost. I was too busy watching the semi and swerving to keep from hitting it that I didn't see the car in front of me and BAM! Crashed the front quarter panel and wheel of our brand new car that is only 2 days older than Christopher. So- man we hit was pretty upset but not freaking out. Everyone is ok and I am surprisingly calm. I can't think of what would have happened if the car had hit us farther back or head on or I would have lost it. Sarah entertains Christopher in the car with the baby Einstein video and we wait for the police in 100 degree weather 10 minutes from Disney! Police come and since it is my fault, it doesn't take long and miraculously I don't get a ticket. Thanks officer Eric! So- hubby is freaking out about our new car, (you'd think we totaled the thing and now he wants to go home and why did we HAVE to go to Disney again, blah blah blah) he can't find our hotel (Port Orleans), I am on the phone with Geico giving our family tree and history and we finally pull into the hotel. Car is seriously pulling to the left but is driveable.


I'll have to work on this more tomorrow. My head cold has turned into a sinus infection with a touch of bronchitis so I think I should get to bed now. Tomorrow we will actually get to the Disney part of the Disney report!
 
Wow, way to start off a vacation. DH should be thankful that no one is hurt. I hope your WDW trip went well. Can't wait to read more about your trip. Thanks for sharing. Get better soon!

P.S. Christopher is adorable.
 
Oh tracy I am so sorry about the start of your trip! It must have been really hard to drive when you were feeling like that anyway and I hope DH gave you a big hug when he calmed down. Christopher is adorable but it is really wearing with a new baby so no wonder you were run down. I hope the next part brings more pixie dust :wizard: :wizard:

Claire xx
 
As they say Tracy, years down the road you and hubby will laugh about this one! :teeth: Glad you made it through the rough times! I see that you're :boat: the Disney Wonder! We loved our 2 Disney Cruises. We had our 1 yr old grandson on the Disney Magic with us. I'll never forget how the CM at Flounder's Reef told us that Snow White rocked him to sleep one night. If you and hubby need some time alone, maybe at Palo's, know that Flounder's Reef is an awesome place to leave your little one for a few hours! ::MickeyMo
 

being sick is enough ....never mind having a fender bender too........waiting for next installment
 
Part 2...
Ok- here we are in WDW after our insane road trip. Hubby is fine now, glad that we are all ok and we are just looking to check in, eat and relax before my crazy planning sets in.

Mind you, we are 2 hours behind our schedule due to the gas shortage and accident so it is 3:15pm. PRIME CHECK-IN time!! There are about 40 people on line. Lovely. Just what I want to do! Sarah stands in line for me while I run to the ladies room and hubby and Christopher are hanging out outside. Check in goes well and we are in AB building 35. Room is great and our bags are there 10 minutes after we are. Pack and play arrives and we still haven't eaten from 8am but we are on the "free" dining plan and my card is burning a hole in my pocket. I then realize we don't have any TS ADRs for that day! :scared1: What to do? I sneak over to Boatwrights and snag an 8:40pm ADR. Yes, it is very late for us but I figured we would eat a quick CS at the food court (it is now 4pm), sneak down to DTD for some shopping and be back in time for a nice dinner at 8:40pm. DTD is good, here we are with Buzz.
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Get back to POR and settle in for a nice dinner at Boatwrights. I had the sirloin (just ok), hubby had the pot roast (mmmm!) and Sarah had the kids grilled cheese. She just wasn't hungry enough to order off of the adults menu. We all had appetizers but didn't have room for dessert and by this time it was after 10pm and we just wanted to go to bed. Mind you- I am still sick and my nose is all red and dry. That is probably TMI but I look funny in some pix and that is why.

OMG- just previewed this post and the pix are way way too big! Oh well- I'll figure it out later. So- food court was good, Boatwrights OK.


Fast forward to 6:45am- need to get up and ready for our 8:20am ADRs at Crystal Palace!!! Dumb me decides to drive to the MK instead of taking the bus. I can't remember the last time we drive to a park- why pick this morning? We are in the first rown of parking at TTC and I'm thinking great- it is 7:45, we have a quick monorail trip and we will be in the park in no time. WRONG AGAIN!!! The monorial is NOT the express one- guess who gets to stop at Poly and GF? US! Now I am getting so mad because I didn't want to be late for our breakfast and on top of that, I asked in the beginning to ride up front on the monorail and someone had beat us to it. Fine but at the GF stop, the CM comes over to the family sitting directly across from us and invites THEM over! Who-wee, I am steaming at this point. But whatever- the castle comes into view and all is forgotten. We make it through and get to Crystal Palace 15 minutes late which is ok. Here is another too big shot of us before breakfast- notice Christopher's Mickey ears!
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Hey-why is that one so small? That is the size I wanted them all! Whatever.

Anyhoo- here are some pix from breakfast. We had a great time!
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Ok- now I really don't know what is going on with those pix!

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We are out of breakfast and I hop over to the baby care center- what a great place this is! I nursed the baby, changed him and we were out of the hot sun for a while. Space Mountain is next!! Did the baby swap for that and it was great- there was a 5 minute wait and with the swap passes, we were able to get in the fastpass lane. Who-hoo! Hubby and sis went on Buzz and I stayed with Christopher as he was sleeping and didn't want his first ride to be a dark loud one. We also got his silhouette done- you can see it was very exciting for him-
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This is getting to be a long post so far and I've got a ton of things to do today- ok. Gotta keep moving....

First ride was IASW- it rained (thank you Graco stroller rain cover) so there were 50 million people getting on the ride. I bought 3 ponchos for the trip and guess who didn't pack them onto the stroller? You guessed it! We were stuck in the rain at Mickey's Toontown and Christopher needed to be fed so I had to feed him sitting on the toilet in the bathroom! :earseek: :earseek: Pretty gross but I had to do it or we would have been standing in the pouring rain.

We decided at this point after the sun had come backout and it was 100 million degrees that we would go back to our resort to get our bearings and go swimming. We took the bus home because we didn't feel like getting the car just yet. I have never taken a break from the parks like that before but then again, this was atotally different trip than I have ever taken anyway. Pool at POR was great, it was Christopher's first time and he loved it!
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After baths, showers, snacks and rest we went out to wait for the bus to MK. And waited. And waited. And waited. 3 MGM busses came, 4 EPCOT busses came and no MK. It was almost 7:30pm and I was getting impatient again. Finally make it to MK and it rains again! Hung out with our Nestles Tollhouse cookies and waited for Spectromagic to finish and made our way over to Fantasyland. Peter Pan still had a 1/2 hour wait but Pooh's was pnly 20 mins- Christopher loved Pooh and by the time we made it back to Peter Pan, the wait was only 10 mins. Bonus!!! Got out and watched WISHES while we were walking back to the monorail. Caught the next monorail with NO WAIT! Bonus #2 and got home safe and sound.


Tune in next time for installment #3!!!
 
Fizz- how did you get your pictures to be that size? I hate how big mine are!
 
Hi Tracy! I looove that piccie of Christopher in his swimming shorts, he is so gorgeous :love2:

Anyway, back to the photos. I uploaded my photos to photobucket and this site gives you the option to resize your photos. Otherwise you need to upload a pix resizer from the web :confused3 . Don't worry it took me a while to figure all this out. At least you got your photos posted, so that's a good start (it took me weeks just to do that!). Try photobucket and see what happens.

Big or small, the pictures are gorgeous, and seriously you don't look that bad. Looking forward to the rest of the trip,
Claire xx
 
Hmmm, I went on photobucket specifically for these pix. What size did you resize them with? I'll have to play around with it some more. Thank you for the compliments!
 
I totally get you about the head cold...My husband took my there for our first anniversary and I went through many boxes of kleenex and bags of cough drops. He thought this was hilarious!!! Men are so sensitive, aren't they?
I hope your trip went better than the drive down. Sounds like you could use it!
 
That baby is soooo cute! I like that you are keeping all your posts on one thread.

I don't know how to fix the pictures. It's still easy to read though so don't worry about it.
 
love your trip report! your son is a DOLL! once again murphy's law creeps in to play. just remember that these are the trips that make great family stories later on! ( a car is a car, but the stories...priceless!)

we drive down to Fl also instead of flying and we always stop at South of the Boarder. at first glance...a strange roadside motel/diner/gift shop/truck stop (not quite Bates motel, however you were very lucky to have been stuffy, because i think they hide the remnants of truckers past in the restroom!!) :rotfl:
 
#3 EPCOT for the day I LOVE FREE DINING!!
Since my head was still pretty stuffed up, I slept in (til 7:45am) and was mad that my wake up call didn't work. (Hpw do you get those Disney wake up calls to work?) Anyway- we decided to drive to EPCOT again and got there about 9:40am. Hubby decided that it would be a good idea to do the Legacy tiles but Christopher was sleeping so we headed into Future World. We were just sooo unorganized, I couldn't believe it. We headed over to Test Track and grabbed a baby swap ticket. There wasn't really a line so we bypassed the preshow stuff. TT seemed faster than I remembered but it was great. Then we decided to grab breakfast. Now- it is 10:28 when we walk in. I'm trying to decide on the breakfast croissant or the french toast thingees when the menu magically changes to cheeseburgers and chicken fingers. Everyone in line is waiting for the menu to change back when it was announced that they would now be serving lunch. :confused3 No way do I want a bacon cheeseburger before 11am! Of course by the time we get to the register, they are out of breakfast offerings.


Now- I must say that I rarely see rudeness in the parks but there was a lady making such a stink there because she wanted breakfast. "I only came here for breakfast and that is what I will be leaving with. That is it- I want breakfast" I think she was about to get into it with the cashier because there were no more egg platters! :rolleyes: She was very rude and I hope they served her the old remnants of the eggs since she had to be the last person to get breakfast. :rotfl:

So- being that bacon is good for breakfast, lunch and dinner, I get the bacon cheeseburger. Whatever. I send hubby and sis over to the Land to grab a fastpass for Soarin' while I head over to the oasis, I mean baby center for a feeding. The baby centers in WDW rock!!! Meet back up at Innoventions to make and send tons of electronic postcards. Love them!

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Rode Spaceship Earth with the baby sleeping the whole time. Aaaahhhh....

Return time on FP is for 2:50. How many of these have been given out already if the return time is 4 hours from now?! Whatever. Wanted to go to Ellen's Universe of Energy but the baby was sleeping so we head over to Mexico for a relaxing boat ride. Nope! Christopher decided that he was going to wake and wail for about 1/2 hour. Finally got him calmed down enough to enjoy the 3 minute ride.

Wandered around the countries for a while and saw so many yummy treats thanks to the Food and Wine Festival. Ate my rice dream, I mean rice cream :love: and hung out for a while in Norway. It decided to rain so it was nice that we had a table and sat under the roof to keep dry. Ended up NOT going on Soarin' because Christopher would not sleep in the stroller or the Bjorn so I had to carry him around for 2 hours while he napped. Really wanted to get into American Adventure to rest and nurse but he was howling and I just couldn't risk ruining anyone's experience for my cranky baby. See how considerate I am? :cheer2: So- we were stuck in the heat waiting for our 7pm ADR at Le Cellier. Decide to get the tile done- so mad that they can't fot the 3 of us in there so the very patient photo people and us get Christopher to finally smile and he is now preserved for the next 15 years at EPCOT.
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7 pm rolls around, we get our table and guess who won't sleep??! It is not very easy to eat your delicious Cheddar Cheese soup with a sleeping 14 pounder, but it was done. Even harder to try to cut your meat and eat it! Of course he fell asleep during dessert but whatever. Dinner was great! Our bill was almost 170 bucks and we didn't pay a cent! Did I tell you I love free dining???!

Were able to see some of the fireworks on the way out of the park and made it home again, safe and sound. I'll try to post some pix-
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Christopher found his thumb on this trip!
 
Baby is adorable..hope he doesn't get your cold! Hey, its a small
world. I'm a hop, skip and jump away from you. Live in alpha. So
many people in this area are big supporters of disneyworld. We are
big fans of the mouse!!!
 












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