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

[shan23877]

Hello! And Welcome to my very first Trip Report! I love to read about all of the fabulous trips that others take, so I decided to give it a shot myself!

DH, DD4 and I braved the heat from July 31-August 5 and stayed at POFQ. This was DD’s first trip, so we planned to make this one (almost) all about her. We knew that we wouldn’t be doing all of the things we usually do, and would be seeking out things that we usually skip.
We enjoyed several character meals, got “invited” to the BBB, and tracked down every last princess!
Meet the Cast


I’m Shannon the trip planner, list maker, and organizer.

DH Bryan was raised by a Disney Nut, so he understands the mania

DD Maddie a lover of all things Princess, pink, purple, and sparkly. She had memorized the Disney Vacation Planning Video, so she considered herself a WDW expert.

This is Uncle Cory. He was invited to join us on this trip, but chose to buy a 42” flat screen instead. He lovingly named it “Vacation”. Even though he didn’t join us, he will be referenced, so I thought you might like a visual.

 

[shan23877]

Chapter Links

The One With the Wrong Terminal

The One Where The Memories Begin

The One Where She Sees the Castle

The One With The Questionable Parenting

The One With The Scary Mountain and Lovely Ladies

The One With The Gang From The 100 Acre Wood

The One With Empty Streets and A Date With Royalty Part 1

The One With Empty Streets and Royalty Part 2

The One With More Rapunzel and A Minor Meltdown

The One Where Rosetta Steals the Show

The One Where We Were Holding Out On Her

The One Where We Were Holding Out On Her Part 2

The One With Crab Legs and Hang-Gliding

The One Where The Buses Have Me Fuming

The One With All The Fairy Godmothers

The One With A Little Shopping and A Lot of Sandwiches

The One Where Mom and Dad Have A Moment Part 1

The One Where Mom and Dad Have A Moment Part 2

The One With Scary Monsters and Race Cars

The One With Possible Trip News!

The One Where She Meets Prince Charming

The One With The Curtsies

The One With the Mickey Quilt

The One Where Mom Makes Threats Part 1

The One Where Mom Makes Threats Part 2

The One Where We Go "Camp"ing

The One With CPO The Golden Robot

The One With The Salami

The One With the Fever

The One With The Rainbow Earrings

The One With Mr. Smarmy

The One With The Thank Yous

The One With the PTR

The One With the Presents

The One With the Shopping

The One With A Lot of Rambling, and Some Day One Too!

The One With Good News, a Mother in Law, and Day 2

The One Where I Whine a Lot, and DAY 3!

The One With Great News and Day 4!

The One With A Sweet Dream and Day 5

The One With House Hunting and Day 6

The One With Day 7 and More MiL

 

[shan23877]

Is it Disney Day Yet?

The night before our trip DD had a very early bedtime. We were leaving the house at 2:30 in the morning to make our 6am flight out of an airport 2 hours away.

After she crossed off the last day on her countdown to Disney calendar, we put her to bed around 7:30 pm and hoped that she’d be able to sleep in the car too. DH went to the basement to sleep shortly after DD went to bed, and I headed to bed around 9. I work nights, so I knew that falling asleep at 9 pm was a long shot, but I hoped to be able to cobble together a few hours sleep in the car and on the plane.

DH and I got up at 1:30, showered and finished packing the car. It was Go Time! Unfortunately DD woke up as we were putting her into the car. The excitement of the trip kept her up for the duration, but she was in a great mood. After a quick stop at MiL’s house (she was driving us to the airport) we were off!

MiL dropped us off at the US Airways terminal and we went inside to check in. When we got inside we noticed a sign saying that certain flight numbers had to check in at the United terminal, ignoring that we proceeded to the check in counter only to find that we had to check in at the United Terminal. We headed back outside, walked the 3 miles (not really but it seemed like a long walk with our stroller carrying the 4 year old, 2 suitcases, 3 carry ons, and my purse and the laptop) to the correct terminal and got checked in. It took longer than it should have because the flight had been changed from US Airways to United, so after we got checked in we had to rush straight to security. We got through security with out any one having to be searched and hurried to the gate.

By the time we got there the flight was already boarding, and because we ended up checking in so late, we didn’t get 3 seats together. Mom guilt took over, and even though I really needed to sleep, I decided that I couldn’t possibly let DD take her first airplane ride without me. So, DH was in the first row with plenty of leg room (he’s 6’2”) and DD and I settled in 3 rows back. I ended up falling asleep for a little while in spite of myself, but DD was so busy watching Tangled that she didn’t really notice. Shortly after Flynn and Rapunzel lived happily ever after we landed in Orlando. After hopping on the fake monorail, we proceeded to follow my explicit directions and went the wrong way to the ME. After getting our bearings, we made our way back up, and then down the right way. We quickly checked in and got in line. We must have just missed a bus because we waited 15 minutes or so which seemed like an eternity to DD and to me! We just wanted to get going!

 

[baseballmickey]

Hi!

Jumping in to follow along on a fellow TR first-timer!! I look forward to reading all about your trip! Looks like you are off to a good start!

I'll send you a PM about the quoting and TOC! It's a lot to put in here.

More and more people have joined my TR as I have been going along, so don't worry if it starts a bit slow. Mine certainly did and I was tempted to just pull an all-nighter and bang the whole thing out in one sitting. As more people have joined, I've slowed down. I am taking time to add pictures and tell the story as well as I can. It's been a lot of fun so far!!

I can't wait for my next trip. DW is frightened of how many pictures I'll take to document EVERYTHING for the next TR.

 

[dismagiclover]

Joining in! Great start!

 

[Love2Roam]

Can't wait to read more. We are staying at the POFQ in November w/ our DS3 so I'm interested to see how you made out w/ your pre-schooler.

 

[Lucille1963]

I can't wait to read more!

 

[reelmom]

Great start! I am so glad that you let your preschooler be your guide. On our first trip, I had us go, go, go. The kids were 2 and 3 and by the third day, we were all grumpy. We decided to let them be our tour guides and what a difference it made. Now that they are older, I get to be "the boss" again. Looking forward to reading more.

 

[shan23877]

Hi!

Jumping in to follow along on a fellow TR first-timer!! I look forward to reading all about your trip! Looks like you are off to a good start! :thumbsup


I'll send you a PM about the quoting and TOC! It's a lot to put in here.

More and more people have joined my TR as I have been going along, so don't worry if it starts a bit slow. Mine certainly did and I was tempted to just pull an all-nighter and bang the whole thing out in one sitting. As more people have joined, I've slowed down. I am taking time to add pictures and tell the story as well as I can. It's been a lot of fun so far!!

I can't wait for my next trip. DW is frightened of how many pictures I'll take to document EVERYTHING for the next TR.

Thanks for hopping over! I really appreciate the help Now that I've gotten going I'm eager to get more done, but I'd like to do it right. Since we're both night owls, you'll probably be the first to see all the updates! Thanks again.

Joining in! Great start!

Thanks for joining in. I hope to have another update done this weekend!

Can't wait to read more. We are staying at the POFQ in November w/ our DS3 so I'm interested to see how you made out w/ your pre-schooler.

Hello and ! We LOVED POFQ and can't wait to stay there again. Disney is so much fun with kids this age!

I can't wait to read more!

I hope to have an update done by the end of the long weekend!

Great start! I am so glad that you let your preschooler be your guide. On our first trip, I had us go, go, go. The kids were 2 and 3 and by the third day, we were all grumpy. We decided to let them be our tour guides and what a difference it made. Now that they are older, I get to be "the boss" again. Looking forward to reading more.

Hi! and thanks for hopping in! We are so glad that we slowed down and let her make some decisions. We had to remind ourselves sometimes that this was her first trip, and that whatever she wanted to do and see was most important. Luckily she likes thrill rides We were still pretty go-go-go, but she did great!

 

[IATink]

Can't wait to read all about your trip!

 

[shan23877]

Can't wait to read all about your trip!

I hope to have some more installments up soon!

 

[shan23877]

Since we had to wait a bit for the ME, we were among the first to board, and we were able to grab the front seat on the bus . Across the aisle from us was a group of young adults. Luckily they seemed charmed by DD’s constant exclamations of “I’m so excited!!” To be honest, I didn’t blame her. I was pretty excited too.

I knew that POFQ was the 3rd stop on the route, so I was a little worried about how DD would hold up to another wait. I had waited to do her hair until we boarded, and the video kept her distracted fairly well. I think that it was around this time thad DD started using “Disney” as an adjective for everything . Soon enough we saw it….

“Mommy, that says WALT DISNEY WORLD!!”​

It was nice to see some of the other resorts along the way, and the trip really didn’t take very long at all. Our flight arrived in Orlando at 9:30, and we were at POFQ by 10:30. Would you believe that I never took a picture of the sign at French Quarter?

As we walked into the lobby one CM was blowing bubbles (“Look Mommy, Disney bubbles!), and another was opening the door and passing out Mardi Gras coins to the kids (“to make a Disney wish in the fountain!”). I had done online check-in, and there was no one in that line. The CM at the front desk was super friendly. Within minutes we had our KTTW cards, Maddie’s “First Trip” button, and best of all our room was ready! I had requested ground floor, but that was not available. We were in building 3 very close to the elevator, and as it turned out, not getting ground floor was never a big deal.

We were really excited to check out the grounds and of course the room!

​

Maddie fell in love with these guys.

We were lucky enough to find this guy waiting for us (on DD’s “Disney Bed!”)

"A Disney Potty!!!"

Testing the "Disney Lights!"

I had our park bag packed and ready in one of our carry-ons so after a quick look around we were ready to get moving!

 

[westonkamom]

Joining in! Can't wait to see your full TR

 

[kmedina]

I'm in. Love the title. And, it is reading like a book so far.

 

[shan23877]

Glad to have you! I am having a lot of fun writing the TR, so hopefully I'll get updates done quickly!

 

[baseballmickey]

Love the pictures of POFQ. We stayed at Riverside once, and we liked it.

"That says Walt Disney World!" That's what my DD would have said! She also just reads the word "Disney" alone as "Walt Disney World"!

 

[dismagiclover]

Your DD is adorable! I didn't know there was such a thing as Disney toilets

 

[jc040404]

Cute title! I love little one's first time TRs and your pics are great! The "Disney Potty" was too funny.

 

[shan23877]

Love the pictures of POFQ. We stayed at Riverside once, and we liked it.

"That says Walt Disney World!" That's what my DD would have said! She also just reads the word "Disney" alone as "Walt Disney World"!

Isn't it hilarious what they pick up on? Maddie also insists on using the full name of movies as in "Disney Pixar's Cars 2". She's crazy!

Your DD is adorable! I didn't know there was such a thing as Disney toilets

Thank you! Oh yes, at Disney even the toilets are magical!!

Cute title! I love little one's first time TRs and your pics are great! The "Disney Potty" was too funny.

Thank You! Luckily the "Disney" adjective thing didn't last the whole trip. It was really adorable on the first day though

 

[CandleontheWater]

Hi there! I'm joining in the fun! I have an (almost) 2 year old, so I love reading TR written by families who also have young children.

Your daughter is so cute, and you guys look like you are off to a good start. I think you are a real trooper, if I didn't get any sleep the night before, I'm not sure I'd be up for a park right away!