Always Let Your (Preschooler) Be Your Guide. My First Trip Report! COMPLETE

[Caretames1]

I picked up a Mickey shirt for Maddie and a cute pair of Tink cheer shorts for her to wear to dance and gymnastics. (Trying to explain to DH why she needs special clothes to wear over her leotards was a fun conversation BTW ).

Guys have no clue! I once got Kadence a pair of dance tights/leggings and DH couldn't understand why they had no feet in them.

By then it was past time to be at the bus stop, so we hot-footed it to the stop for the Grand Floridian. Turns out, staying at the fancy resort doesn’t get you a closer bus stop .

On our trip, the journey to the GF was the longest wait time and bus ride. I thought the same, fancy place, quicker bus route

 

[shan23877]

We had no wait for Mike and Sully last trip as well. It sounds like a trend.

DS cannot wait to meet Phineas and Feb who were not there on our last trip. We just saw the live stage show, so he is really into them right now.

It stinks that the bus for GF is not close at HS. We are staying at GF for the first time in December and were looking forward to a better exit from that park, since we are once again attending Fantasmic (took over an hour to get from HS to CBR by bus). If there were sidewalks, we probably could have walked there faster than that.

I love her pics with the cars! It should not matter who a princess is posing with, she always needs to look her best. The pointed toes are half princess/half dancer.

Maddie hadn't ever watched P&F before the trip, so luckily we didn't have to get in that line. Of course she's started watching it since...

How exciting staying at the GF!! I can't wait to hear about that! No, the stop is not close to the exit, and the wait seemed pretty long . I hope you have better luck.

That's true might be princess/dancer toes. Who knows where she gets this stuff.

Guys have no clue! I once got Kadence a pair of dance tights/leggings and DH couldn't understand why they had no feet in them.

Too funny! My DH also wanted to know why she needed 2 different types of leotards for ballet/tap and gymnastics. "Can't she just wear the same one?" Oh boy.

On our trip, the journey to the GF was the longest wait time and bus ride. I thought the same, fancy place, quicker bus route

How strange. I think if I was staying there and paying those rates, I would expect some pretty good service-buses included!

 

[Fall1]

Cute update!! Love that the dress was edging you out...lol!

 

[CandleontheWater]

I'm back and all caught up! I just love Maddie all dressed up as Ariel! She looks so lovely, they did a wonderful job at BBB, and I'm so happy to hear that you had such a great experience!

I think you guys are troopers to stand in line for an hour! I have to beg DH to wait for anything longer than 10, and 30 minutes is about his max.

I'm looking forward to hearing about the princess treatment at the MK!

 

[TanzUnited99]

Aaw I love the poses of Maddie with Lightening McQueen and Mater.

I couldn't believe how busy the M&G was for Phineas and Ferb either!

Great PP pics! Zaheer and I had the furthest bus conversation on various occasions during our trip

 

[shan23877]

Cute update!! Love that the dress was edging you out...lol!

Thanks! That was a whole lotta dress!

I'm back and all caught up! I just love Maddie all dressed up as Ariel! She looks so lovely, they did a wonderful job at BBB, and I'm so happy to hear that you had such a great experience!

I think you guys are troopers to stand in line for an hour! I have to beg DH to wait for anything longer than 10, and 30 minutes is about his max.

I'm looking forward to hearing about the princess treatment at the MK!

Welcome Back! BBB was so much fun, I'm so glad we did it!

That hour wait was brutal. We'll never do that again.

Are you going to do a TR for your most recent trip? I'm anxious to hear about it and about your great holiday trip as well. Plus, you have such a nice writing style!

Aaw I love the poses of Maddie with Lightening McQueen and Mater.

I couldn't believe how busy the M&G was for Phineas and Ferb either!

Great PP pics! Zaheer and I had the furthest bus conversation on various occasions during our trip

Phineas and Ferb was a mob scene. I imagine that if we'd done that and standby for TSMM in the same day, we might never go back to DHS

Thanks for the nice words. I've framed so many pics from this trip, and filled 3 photo albums!

I would assume the the bus stop would be closer for some of the better resorts? The GF on is a hike at DHS!

 

[merbobear]

I just read all of your updates so far..Maddie is too much! I love that she had to meet up with Rapunzel a second time to ask her those all important questions..she cracks me up!
Can't wait to read more

 

[shan23877]

I just read all of your updates so far..Maddie is too much! I love that she had to meet up with Rapunzel a second time to ask her those all important questions..she cracks me up!
Can't wait to read more

Thanks for reading! She cracks us up everyday. I can't believe the stuff kids do

Those Rapunzel questions were very important! Thank goodness there wasn't a line

Hope to have more up tomorrow!

 

[Fantasyland Mom]

I love her princess pose with the Cars!
I didn't know where the Monsters, Inc. area was, either! Good to know for next trip!

 

[mickeyplanner]

You are very talented. The Cinderella Dress you made for CRT was beautiful.

 

[shan23877]

I love her princess pose with the Cars!
I didn't know where the Monsters, Inc. area was, either! Good to know for next trip!

They are really tucked away, but there doesn't seem to be a line!

You are very talented. The Cinderella Dress you made for CRT was beautiful.

Thanks so much! I make DD dresses to play dress-up in at home, but I was a little self-conscious about letting her wear it at WDW, and about admitting that I made it on here!

There are some TRs that I've seen where the mom's have made some really amazing dresses, so I really appreciate the kind words

 

[shan23877]

I've been working for 2 months to convince DH that we should plan a trip for this summer, but he's been stubborn. He said he wanted to wait until Fantasyland expansion was complete.

However, tonight he asked me to price a vacations for this summer! We've had to rule out May because Maddie's preschool graduation and dance recitals fall in the middle of may and first of June.

I quickly priced out 7 days at POFQ, DxD for the first week of June--leaving the day after her recital.

Then, he asked me to price a sail on the Fantasy too Doesn't look like the cruise will work out for this year, but I promised that we'll do a cruise when maddie is a little older. He suggested that we take a cruise alone for our 10th anniversary in 2 years!

I'm very excited, so I already started sketching out how we'd attack the DxDP, which scares the pants off DH!

 

[shan23877]

We left DHS and were on our way to the Grand Floridian! Even though we’d gotten to the bus stop a little later than we wanted to, we weren’t running late for our ADR. We’d planned a little extra time to look around the GF. Neither DH nor I had ever been there. We wandered around out front for a bit before heading inside. I had expected the lobby to be very serene and quiet, thought maybe we’d hear the soothing sounds of the piano.

Not a great picture, but it was crowded! This is the only one I took.

The lobby was a mob scene! It was still lovely, and it’s such a large space that it wasn’t loud, but definitely not serene. We checked in at 1900 Park Fare for our 6:20 reservation, and were given our buzzer. There was literally not one chair unoccupied n the entire lobby, so Maddie and I passed the time by using the facilities (Maddie struck up a conversation with the attendant and had a lovely time). Bryan had gone outside to wait because the area was such a mad house, so we joined him until it was our turn. We waited about 15 minutes, and were called in to get our photo taken. There was some confusion after the photo session, because 2 or 3 families were all waiting to be seated, but there was no one at the doors. We all hung around for a bit before one of the other fathers went to the check-in area to ask what we should do. Luckily they summoned someone quickly and we were all taken into our tables together.

We were seated at a table close to the buffet. Our server came by quickly and was visibly disappointed that DH and I weren’t ordering wine or cocktails. Luckily, we were in pretty good moods, so his being upset was sort of amusing rather than annoying. Looking around, we decided that we probably had enough time to hit the buffet before the characters reached our table.

The food was ‘meh’. The buffet was an odd mishmash of cuisines. There was Greek salad, Italian pasta dishes, curry chicken, egg rolls, and several traditional American dishes as well. Maddie and I each filled our plates with more items from the soup and salad area than any thing else. I liked the famous strawberry soup, DD said “yogurt should be thicker”. DH tried several things, not really loving any of them.

*DH would like to interject about the food “I think the adjective I would use is sucky, but if you want me to sound a little more refined, then say I thought the food was underwhelming.”

Had to include a photo of DH from the meal since he's weighing in...

Maddie found the grapes to be delicious

But, we all know the real reason we were here—the characters!

First up was Drizella. She was hilarious but also understood instinctively that DD was taking the princesses VERY seriously. She told us that when we saw Cinderella we should tell her to get back to work. Then she suggested that she and Maddie should show off their beautiful dresses for the photo.

Lady Tremaine was next. She never broke character at all but didn’t scare Maddie. She complimented Maddie’s dress and mentioned that it was nice to see a little girl as well behaved as her daughters. For their picture, she told Maddie to cover her ears while she told mom and dad a few things. Made for a really funny photo!

Next up was Cinderella. This was the 3rd time we’d met her, but Maddie didn’t seem to notice that she was a different person.

Not sure what was happening with these photos

Then came Maddie’s favorite character of the night. Prince Charming! He was wonderful with DD. Kissed her hand (I didn’t get the picture), told her she looked beautiful, bowed to her. Maddie was loving every minute of it.

Incidentally, Charming was a dead ringer for our college buddy (and Bryan's best man in our wedding)! I posted the pics on facebook, and even Adam's wife was shocked at the resemblance.

The characters took a break from the visiting to dance, so we took a break to get some more food, and then DD joined in the dancing for a few minutes.

Hard to see, but that's Maddie joining the crowd

Finally Anastasia made her way by. She was also really funny, and told DD they’d put on their prettiest smiles for the picture.

We grabbed some dessert (sucky) and while we were eating Cinderella came by again. She realized that she’d seen us already, so she told Maddie that she just wanted to tell her again how pretty she looked.

Prince Charming also stopped by a second time. He told Maddie that he thought they should have gotten more pictures together so he had to come back.

The character interaction was awesome at 1900 Park Fare. Even though the food was terrible, we’ll probably go back for dinner again because the characters were so entertaining. Maddie still hasn't stopped talking about Prince Charming!

We settled up with the server (who’d gotten over his attitude), grabbed the stroller and headed upstairs to hop on the monorail bound for Magic Kingdom.

 

[Fall1]

Great update!! I completely agree with you on 1900 dinner, the food is terrible but the characters are great!!

 

[Bethislucy]

I've been working for 2 months to convince DH that we should plan a trip for this summer, but he's been stubborn. He said he wanted to wait until Fantasyland expansion was complete.

However, tonight he asked me to price a vacations for this summer! We've had to rule out May because Maddie's preschool graduation and dance recitals fall in the middle of may and first of June.

I quickly priced out 7 days at POFQ, DxD for the first week of June--leaving the day after her recital.

Then, he asked me to price a sail on the Fantasy too Doesn't look like the cruise will work out for this year, but I promised that we'll do a cruise when maddie is a little older. He suggested that we take a cruise alone for our 10th anniversary in 2 years!

I'm very excited, so I already started sketching out how we'd attack the DxDP, which scares the pants off DH!

Yay for another trip.

 

[kokotg]

Yay, you have a new trip to plan! We're thinking of deluxe dining for next year, too--it gets complicated fast when I try to plan it! I'm up for the challenge, but I think it would hurt DH's head if I talked about it too much yet

Great update! Maddie looks so happy And I can't believe how well that hair holds up all day! They must have some really powerful product at the BBB

 

[mickeyplanner]

They are really tucked away, but there doesn't seem to be a line!



Thanks so much! I make DD dresses to play dress-up in at home, but I was a little self-conscious about letting her wear it at WDW, and about admitting that I made it on here!

There are some TRs that I've seen where the mom's have made some really amazing dresses, so I really appreciate the kind words

You should be proud of the dress you made your daughter, she definately seemed proud of you for making it for her. In fact I thought the dress you made was one of the nicer and comfortable ones I have seen.

It sounds like you DH was smitten with the experiences you had on your last trip. My DH was hooked after the first time we took our DD and now we will be taking our DS for his first trip. Have you looked into renting points to save on the cost of your room for the summer?

 

[shan23877]

Yay, you have a new trip to plan! We're thinking of deluxe dining for next year, too--it gets complicated fast when I try to plan it! I'm up for the challenge, but I think it would hurt DH's head if I talked about it too much yet

Great update! Maddie looks so happy And I can't believe how well that hair holds up all day! They must have some really powerful product at the BBB

I really hope this next trip pans out. We're waiting to see what DH's bonus will be this year before we can consider it a done deal. I've started sketching what ADRs we'll want because by the time we book, we'll be past the 180 mark. It's really tough! It seems that I either can't find enough places we'll want to go or too many! Should be a fun challenge though.

Thanks! She really loved 1900. That product was SUPER powerful, but it was nice that it held up all day

You should be proud of the dress you made your daughter, she definately seemed proud of you for making it for her. In fact I thought the dress you made was one of the nicer and comfortable ones I have seen.

It sounds like you DH was smitten with the experiences you had on your last trip. My DH was hooked after the first time we took our DD and now we will be taking our DS for his first trip. Have you looked into renting points to save on the cost of your room for the summer?

Thank you so much! I was aiming for comfort with fabric selection knowing that Maddie would want to wear the dress all day. She was pretty proud...

How exciting to get to do another first trip! I'm sure your son will have a ball!

We haven't looked into renting DVC. I've read about it a bit on here, but I don't know much about it. I'd be worried that it wasn't legit, but on the other had, DH would LOVE to stay at BC or YC. We might have to check it out. Do you have any tips?

 

[mickeyplanner]

I really hope this next trip pans out. We're waiting to see what DH's bonus will be this year before we can consider it a done deal. I've started sketching what ADRs we'll want because by the time we book, we'll be past the 180 mark. It's really tough! It seems that I either can't find enough places we'll want to go or too many! Should be a fun challenge though.

Thanks! She really loved 1900. That product was SUPER powerful, but it was nice that it held up all day



Thank you so much! I was aiming for comfort with fabric selection knowing that Maddie would want to wear the dress all day. She was pretty proud...

How exciting to get to do another first trip! I'm sure your son will have a ball!

We haven't looked into renting DVC. I've read about it a bit on here, but I don't know much about it. I'd be worried that it wasn't legit, but on the other had, DH would LOVE to stay at BC or YC. We might have to check it out. Do you have any tips?

There is a risk involved with renting points but if you use someone that you believe you can trust then the risk factor fades. But there is still always that possibilty that the DVC can cancel your trip or Disney can cancel this trip if the DVC member has not paid their dues. We actually rented points from three different DVC members for our upcoming trip. And I am sad to say that one of the members have declared bankruptcy and I am not sure if my reservation will still exists when we check in and I will be out the money I paid for the room. But the other two members I rented from have been great.

If you really are set on wanting to stay at a DVC property then I would rent points. For this trip we really wanted to stay at BLT for the proximity to MK and traveling with our DS and then having a double stroller. Now that the monorail hours have changed, I doubt we will ever stay at a DVC property. We are going back again March 2012 and I booked through AAA to stay at POR in one of the royal rooms.

 

[MadilynnsMomma]

1900 Park Fare was our favorite to date!!! Prince Charming was awesome for us too!