A toddler, preschooler and Disney - Oh My! Pretrip Report

[thegreggersmom]

A suggestion for avoiding the lugging of the car seat -- consider renting a CARES restraint off e-bay for the trip. I am singlehandedly taking DS who will be 22 mos. in December. No way I could lug the car seat, push the stroller, etc. but I also could not fathom having him on my lap for the entire flight.

PS your boys are adorable!

 

[mom2shayleeandlogan]

Hi, Monsters Inc night looked like fun! Love the cupcakes.

 

[karenwwu]

As quoted by KathyRN you are most worthy of being called an obsessive disney planner! I am coming out of lurkdom to tell you that you are a WONDERFULLY cool mom with the theme nights every week. Monsters week was not weak at all. Those one eyed cupcakes were adorable. Also loved the Disney planning binder, stroller tags and pressed penny tubes! I haven't been to WDW with my family yet but am enjoying living through everyone else's TR and PTR. Back to lurking...

 

[Macduffy]

- some nights I barely get the kids chicken nuggets and peas! And believe me, when my Ben demands cereal for dinner, being the picky eater he is, I am secretly relieved.
I loved your Mike cupcakes!
Looking forward to hearing more of your plans!

Boy do I wish my Ben would eat Chicken Nuggets and Peas - yup I have a picky eater too Thank god he likes Spaghetti but now he'll actually pick the veggie out of it (time to puree I guess LOL)!

I think YDS will be using most of his meal credit during free dining

A suggestion for avoiding the lugging of the car seat -- consider renting a CARES restraint off e-bay for the trip. I am singlehandedly taking DS who will be 22 mos. in December. No way I could lug the car seat, push the stroller, etc. but I also could not fathom having him on my lap for the entire flight.

PS your boys are adorable!

Thanks for that suggestion! I've looked into renting one. DH really really REALLY liked the idea of NOT lugging around that car seat. The only thing I'm concerned about is that there is no crotch strap YDS is a little Houdini and I'm worried he'll squirm out of it and onto the floor LOL. The price is great for renting though (even in Canada!). I'm still reading reviews but it's hard to find some for kids around 20 months or at the lower end of the weight restriction.

Hi, Monsters Inc night looked like fun! Love the cupcakes.

It was pretty fun actually and I really liked that YDS was in bed and we got some special time with Ben (DS3). Those moments are so rare with two *sob*

As quoted by KathyRN you are most worthy of being called an obsessive disney planner! I am coming out of lurkdom to tell you that you are a WONDERFULLY cool mom with the theme nights every week. Monsters week was not weak at all. Those one eyed cupcakes were adorable. Also loved the Disney planning binder, stroller tags and pressed penny tubes! I haven't been to WDW with my family yet but am enjoying living through everyone else's TR and PTR. Back to lurking...

Ahhhhh.... thanks! I really needed that little boost. I feel like I'm losing steam - I called Delta the other day and they asked for my flight number etc. and I couldn't find it right away and lost it (to DH of course). Time to get my game on again

 

[Trinity524]

The Poly? oh I hate you LOL! I'd love to be able to stay at a deluxe but definitely not in our budget at this point. Maybe if a 4/3 deal were to come up again!
I think it will be neat for the boys to say "i've been going to Disney since I was...."

Only because we are going with my mother... My husband loves her and he adores her; however, even the best of men have limits. The other rooms are too small and the hubby refused to stay in a double bed again. It's a once in a lifetime thing!

I would love to do your theme nights! My poor little guy is not old enough though. I am secretly thinking about doing one tonight. Life is not all about my toddler... I think hubby would like it too!

 

[Macduffy]

A little Disney Magic arrived at our house this morning Our Magical Express tags/pkg arrived today!! I was soooooo excited. DS asked what it was and I told him it was from Mickey Mouse. He glowed! I called DH who just left for work and yelled "Our Magical Express stuff arrived today!" and he said "OMG that's awesome -what is that?" LOL

I read about doing a Disney Trial Run (thanks Jana616!!!!) and took the boys on a mini day trip to see what pitfalls we might face at Disney. The boys are used to traveling for about 2 hours and our WDW flight is about 3 so hopefully they'll be okay. We didn't take the DVD players with us this time (1.5 hrs) and they were great so hopefully with them we'll be laughin'!
YDS, Logan, is getting better out in public - following us, holding hands and getting over his tantrums faster. The biggest problem was eating. We were at a little beachside restaurant and Logan didn't want to sit still at all. He squirmed and screamed and didn’t want to eat (strange for him). It was VERY frustrating to say the least. I tried to take some comfort in the fact that 98% of our meals were buffet at Disney and so we wouldn’t have to wait for food to be served and he can go with us to fill our plates! Also, 99% are character meals so that might keep him entertained. That night we saw that he had 4 teeth pushing through – I felt bad for being impatient with him .

DS3, Ben, was amazing – strange that nearing the age of 4 he has become so well behaved and well – just plain pleasant LOL. No problems with him but I didn’t expect there to be. My only “Disney issue” with him will be that he HATES the camera and having his picture taken. Candid’s are nice but some posing shots would be nice too.

I'm going to post my Itinerary and ADR's next to see what needs to be changed!

 

[crocko]

Yay for Magical Express!

(hoping ours comes this week some time)

Also, we have those PJ's at our house!

 

[mom2shayleeandlogan]

Very exciting!!! We did a trial fun also, at Six flags. It went good, My DD is almost 4 and they are little people and way better behaved the Early 3. Can't wait to hear more.

 

[jana616]

Well, you know I am super jealous about your Mickey Mail today (if you're up to date on my PTR, at least!). Still waiting on ours...

I'm glad you tried a test run, and that things went well. That's awesome! My YDS struggles with wanting to run free, which I'm not okay with, and both boys have a super hard time sitting still at restaurants, so I really feel you there. We have 5 character meals, and 'Ohana dinner (lots of kids activities) so I think we'll be fine there, hopefully. Le Cellier is what makes me nervous, but I keep telling myself that everyone else will have loud, cranky kids too, right?

 

[Macduffy]

Le Cellier is what makes me nervous, but I keep telling myself that everyone else will have loud, cranky kids too, right?

Of course! It's Disney

 

[Macduffy]

So it’s time to reveal the Itinerary -dun dun dun-!

We are arriving at MCO around noon so we are planning to hang out at the resort (All Star Sport) and then head to Planet Hollywood for supper around 4:30. Since our flight to Disney leaves at 6 AM an early night will be required LOL!

On the first day we are going to Magic Kingdom. I always feel like it’s the most Magical Place to go so I want to they boys to first experience Disney there! We have an ADR at Crystal Palace for 5 PM.
The next day is off to Epcot. To be honest – I’m not excited about this day. Epcot just seems to be for a much older audience and can’t imagine the kiddos enjoying it as much. The World Showcase is a little more kid friendly I think. We are eating at the Garden Grill at 4:30. I’m disappointed with this ADR – it’s early for even us so I’ve been checking daily to see if anything opens up.

DHS is next. I LOVE DHS!!!! I think the boys will have lots of fun here because it has all the movie characters and Playhouse Disney which is always on at our house. I scheduled two table service meals here mainly because it’s not a huge park and there were two “can’t miss” restaurants for the boys. We have a lunch at Hollywood n’ Vine (both DS’s are so into Little Einstiens) and the supper at Sci Fi. They times are at 12 and 5 – I hope it’s not too much. Maybe I’ll look into moving up Sci Fi’s time?
Finally – it’s Ben’s 4th birthday! We are of course spending it at MK with supper at Chef Mickey’s. I’m so excited – as it’s our second trip to MK I’m hoping it will be a more relaxed visit. I still haven’t decided on a cake yet but Ben said he wants a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse cake so I’ll have to call the cake hotline and see what they suggest. I really don’t want to spend a lot of money – maybe $45? We’ll be travelling through MK after CM so we can’t take it with us .

The next day is blank so far! We have b’fast at Ohana’s but nothing scheduled. I have an extra day on my pass but not sure if we should do MK for the 3rd time, DHS or AK? Thoughts? Whatever we do - it will be a very RELAXED visit.

The day before we leave we are going to AK. I think the boys will really like this park. We are doing Donald’s Safari Breakfast which I was a bit hesitant on as it takes up valuable AK touring time as it closes at 5PM but it’s for the kids and they come first right?

Then we leave (this is already making me sad!). We fly out at noon so DME will pick us up at 9 – no time to do anything except grab a bite to eat at the ASSp food court.

I’m really wondering about the extra day and what we should do. We plan on doing a very relaxed tour of the parks with 3 hours breaks each day so I’m not sure a “park free” day is necessary for us. Please HELP!

Our ADR’s are early but we eat early at home so I want to stick with that schedule.

I’m following Touringplans.com for each park. I figured that touring plans are their jobs so they must know what they are talking about. Here’s hoping….

 

[crocko]

Hollywood & Vine -- will the characters be out and about for lunchtime? I thought it was just breakfast there.

 

[Macduffy]

I was surprised too! Lunchtime Character meals are SO uncommon. I double checked on the website and it said:

Playhouse Disney's Play 'n Dine at Hollywood & Vine Restaurant is a Character Dining experience with breakfast and lunch buffets

Character Dining Lunch Buffet: The Playhouse Disney pals continue the festivities at Hollywood & Vine from breakfast through lunch for more singing, dancing and playing. Across the lunch buffet, find kid- and adult-friendly entrees, such as baked chicken and assorted deli selections.

I'm not sure if people know this either because I just made the ADR online about a month ago and there were TONS of available spots!

Something to think about if you're kids are Playhouse Disney Addicts like mine

 

[crocko]

Awesome!

I was unaware of that.

 

[jana616]

Your plans sound great! I don't think you'll need a park free day if you're taking a break each day. We're doing breaks and planning for a park each day. We have a semi-open day planned, where I know we are doing DTD in the evening (my ODS is a dino junkie, so we have to do T-Rex), but I'm leaving the morning open for whatever park we want more time at. I'd just wait and see what the kids want. I know mine would LOVE getting to choose!

I'm celebrating my birthday at WDW too! Happy early birthday to Ben! Do you need a cake? I think Chef Mickey's pretty consistently brings out a cupcake with a candle in it, and if they forget, could you bring a candle just in case and get a treat from the buffet? I guess I'm super cheap, but $45 just sounds like a lot for something you won't even get to bring with you, and you know you'll be stuffed from dinner. Just my 2 cents, sorry to butt in!

We have so many of the same ADRs!! Chef Mickey's dinner, CP dinner, Tusker House breakfast, 'Ohana breakfast, and H&V lunch (well, brunch at 11). Great minds must think alike! And I am pretty sure there are characters there at lunch; at least everything I've read says yes. I know what you mean about there being tons of ADRs open for H&V. I went on there a couple weeks ago and found an 8 am ADR for the day I wanted-this was like 40 days out. I was shocked, since 8 am seems to be the most popular time to get into the parks early. But ultimately I decided we would not want to get up that early twice (our TH is at 8 am too), so I switched to 11 am-not sure what meal we're eating now though since lunch switches at 11:20??? Oh well, it will be fine!

 

[Zeebs]

The next day is off to Epcot. To be honest – I’m not excited about this day. Epcot just seems to be for a much older audience and can’t imagine the kiddos enjoying it as much. The World Showcase is a little more kid friendly I think. We are eating at the Garden Grill at 4:30. I’m disappointed with this ADR – it’s early for even us so I’ve been checking daily to see if anything opens up. .

How funny is it that people see things differently, we decided not to do the World Showcase because I didn't think it would hold the kids attention enough, with them not really being old enough to do the Kidcot stations and alot of it just looking around. I thought I would save it for a future trip when we would have more time. We actually had a lot of fun at Epcot. We did the nemo ride a couple of times, the kids liked Living with the Land, (they did this with Grandma and Grandpa while we did Soarin') Cullen thought the free drinks at Club cool were wonderful. My trip report tells you all about our day there.

We also had a 4.00 pm meal at Coral Reef, we normally eat about 5.00 at home and as it turned out it wasn't too early. Most of our reservations were for around 4.45 and 5.00. By the time we got seated, looked at menu, ordered etc it wasn't too early. Plus we got a really good seat. Well we thought it was great.

Plus I found that the kids tired out a bit earlier making them crankier earlier and it meant the weren't too bad for a sit down dinner. Plus you can carry on afterwards if they still seem to be up for it.

Kirsten

 

[Macduffy]

I'm celebrating my birthday at WDW too! Happy early birthday to Ben! Do you need a cake? I think Chef Mickey's pretty consistently brings out a cupcake with a candle. Just my 2 cents, sorry to butt in!

We have so many of the same ADRs!! Chef Mickey's dinner, CP dinner, Tusker House breakfast, 'Ohana breakfast, and H&V lunch (well, brunch at 11). Great minds must think alike!

We don't need a cake and yes $45 is ALOT of money for a b'day cake for 5 (for our family anyway)! DS associates birthdays with cakes so if I came to him with a cupcake I'd definetly get the "what is THIS?" look LOL! I'm 90% sure my mom will foot the bill for the cake - she spoils the boys like you've never seen He won't ask for a single present but will wonder where his cake is LOL!

Great minds DO think alike - and obviously we envisioned the same trip for our kids - magic magic magic!

The kids will LOVE t-rex - hmmmmm.... now you've got me thinking

 

[jana616]

We don't need a cake and yes $45 is ALOT of money for a b'day cake for 5 (for our family anyway)! DS associates birthdays with cakes so if I came to him with a cupcake I'd definetly get the "what is THIS?" look LOL! I'm 90% sure my mom will foot the bill for the cake - she spoils the boys like you've never seen He won't ask for a single present but will wonder where his cake is LOL!

Great minds DO think alike - and obviously we envisioned the same trip for our kids - magic magic magic!

The kids will LOVE t-rex - hmmmmm.... now you've got me thinking

I hope you don't think I was being obnoxious mentioning the cake! I just didn't know if you were aware that CM will probably do something for free. Of course, if grandma is footing the bill, then bring on the cake! And trust me, my kids are the only grandkids on both sides (well, my brother and SIL just had a baby a few weeks ago, but until then...), so I totally understand spoiling!!! And if the cake is important to him, then you definitely need it-I get that. I don't think my ODS would be thrilled with just a cupcake either, I know.

Yep, I want magic all the way. I couldn't tell if Griffin (my ODS) was getting excited, so I asked him today and he was very cute in showing me HOW excited he is. So now I am extra psyched! You should definitely think about T-Rex. I think it might be a requirement for all "boys only" households, lol! And it looks really cool! Too bad you can't squeeze that one in on his birthday. They have the Extinction dessert that has cake and ice cream and smokes like a volcano, and feeds a group for $15. Stick a candle in that and tell him it's a dinosaur themed birthday!

Can't wait to keep reading about your plans!

 

[NJDevsfan]

Don't underestimate EPCOT. We weren't excited to take or 2 yea-old, but she loved it. Lots of characters! A few nice rides - Nemo, especially - they'll love.

You and your husband will enjoy the views and the food and drinks. Lots of walking here.

 

[Trinity524]

OH MY GOSH! You guys are singing my story with Le Cellier. Last year it was the only restaurant that I was worried about. And guess what? My DS was nasty there. We looked around and all the kids were going nuts. Probably because it was 2pm which is nap time, and it was the only time I could get the ADR, so that was my fault. We took our meals to go, brought my son to this play area and we ate while he laughed and played in this maze type thing. Things happen, you will adapt, and it is Disney.

I am SO jealous that you got your Magical Express tickets. I am sending good vibes to my cell phone so that it will ring and it will be my AAA agent calling me telling me that they came in.