Baby's First Trip; Child Swap Til We Drop!! Nov. 12-22nd 2016 (TRIP REPORT COMPLETED 2/28)

[allysetraskos]

Hello!!
So this is my trip report from November 12-22nd 2016!
I hope you enjoy!

[I did a pre-trip report if you care to backtrack]
Never to early for Disney; Planning w/a infant; Baby's first trip!

INDEX:
Meet The Grants
Day 1 - Arrival & Fireworks at the hotel!
Day 2 - Mulan & Pick a Pearls; Pixie Dust!!
Day 3 - The trip turned into a WORST CASE SCENARIO NIGHTMARE!
Day 4 - So much accomplished in a day!!
Day 5 - A cracked tablet & ripped bag.. But still a good day
Day 6 - Character Dining x 2
Day 7 - A Soakin Good Time!
Day 8 - Baby's First Haircut!
Day 9 - How Many Times Can We Go On Everest
Day 10 - LOST CAMERA! & Scheduling 7 FP+
Day 11 - Time To Fly Home​

 

[allysetraskos]

Meet The Grants:

William, Gavin, Allyse, Greyson & Brihanna

Allyse:

The name is Allyse pronounced: Uhh-Lease, although to my boys I go by Mama!
I am a cook in a corporate office building, I love my job.
Aside from working part time I am a breastfeeding mother which is like a full time job all on its own! I have struggled with it since giving birth not thinking I would be able to do it so I am very proud for coming as far as I have. I like to scrapbook, take pictures, sew & make videos as well.
Disney is much more then a "like" or a "hobby" to me, my husband calls it an obsession lol
We had a Disney inspired Beauty & The Beast Wedding & honeymooned there, so at least my husband knew what he was getting himself into!
I have loved Disney since I was a little girl & wish we didn't live 19 hours away.
I have two Disney tattoos, love to Disneybound dress up when I go, & make my own ears!
Favorite ride: Splash Mountain
Favorite restaurant: Chef Mickeys
Favorite character: Belle!

William:

This is my husband William.
He works in a factory, he doesn't quite share my Disney insanity but at least he puts up with it. His first trip was in 2013, his favorite part about Disney is Fantasmic.. He will probably kill me for sharing this but during the Christmas castle lighting he teared up lol
He told me that since I had just had the baby in 2015 we had to wait for a 2016 trip. He is a huge Star Wars fan and cannot wait until the new land in Hollywood Studios is complete.
Favorite ride: Star Tours
Favorite restaurant: 1900 Park Fare
Favorite character: Buzz Lightyear

Gavin & Greyson:

These are our two handsome boys. Gavin is 7. Greyson is 16 months.
Gavin takes after me in the sense that he is a Disney lover. You could ask this boy any question about any character and he can spit out the answer with no hesitation.
Greyson is the result of some "extra pixie dust" on our last Disney trip, It really was the most magical place on earth.. He already loves the sound of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse on TV & gets completely entranced by him when he comes on.
Gavin loves the characters and rides and talks about going back just about every day.
Gavin:
Favorite ride: 7 Dwarfs Mine Train
Favorite restaurant: 1900 Park Fare
Favorite character: Goofy

Greyson:
Favorite ride: Kilimanjaro Safaris
Favorite restaurant: He likes to throw food anywhere
Favorite character: Joy & Sadness

Brihanna:

This is our niece Brihanna. She is not "technically a Grant" but everyone though we were her parents the whole trip anyways, She is 9 years old. She had never been to Disney World before.. The closest thing to it was last year when I took her and my son Gavin to see Disney On Ice, She was in complete awe and amazement. She loves Disney Princesses HOWEVER she is also sophisticated for her age and loves Mary Poppins as well as other older Disney movies.
Favorite ride: Rock N Roller Coaster
Favorite restaurant: Chef Mickeys
Favorite character: Princess Jasmine​

 

[Thing2008]

So excited to hear about this trip. I read your PTR and it's so nice that's you brought your niece along to share the magic. You are truly making dreams come true

 

[allysetraskos]

Day 1 - Saturday, November 12th.
​

We flew Delta from Detroit to Orlando non-stop. Let me tell you I will NEVER fly another airline again.. We are normally Spirit people, but after experiencing Delta I CANNOT and WILL NOT go back! I was very nervous to fly with the baby because he is not a "content" child, he needs to be in motion at all times.. He does not sit still nor does he cuddle. Luckily our flight was right around the time of his morning nap so I got lucky and he fell asleep for the first hour of flying! My husband was a wreck he does not do well in the air, but with the tvs to watch movies on it made him MUCH more calm then he had ever been before. The two older kids were perfect.
We landed in Orlando at around noon, now every time we have taken the Magical Express we have never had a line we have legit just walked into the bus.. This time there was quite a large line most likely the veterans day crowds, we waited about an hour for a bus.
Once we got on the bus we were off to Coronado Springs Resort.. We were lucky and got Cabanas 9a right outside were hammocks and the sand!​

​

We settled in the hotel, We were staying there for the first 3 days until the free dining promotion kicked in on the 15th. My husband took an Uber to the closest Walmart and picked up some groceries. I took the kids to the pool to swim, they had a blast on the slide! This resort was completely amazing so beautiful! The beds were comfy and loved the sliding wooden doors, we were able to squeeze the pack n play by the sink area so the baby could have his own "room".
We had dinner in the food court the food was delish.
We went back to the room and were relaxing when all of a sudden it sounded like somebody was banging on our door, we all jumped.. We opened the door but nobody was there, then we heard more noise.. It was fireworks we had prime viewing for what I believe was Hollywood Studios fireworks display right from our room! Too cool! The kids were so excited.​

​

Best part about it all was we only had 7 days of park hoppers and tickets but I was able to convince my husband to want to go to the parks the next day since the cost was less then $40 total for all of us, so we planned on waking up and heading to Epcot
The trip was going great so far... Or so it seemed....​

 

[allysetraskos]

So excited to hear about this trip. I read your PTR and it's so nice that's you brought your niece along to share the magic. You are truly making dreams come true

Thankyou!! It was a wonderful trip, she literally had the time of her life. Knowing I could make a memory for her was all worth it!

 

[Thing2008]

Thankyou!! It was a wonderful trip, she literally had the time of her life. Knowing I could make a memory for her was all worth it!

Every child should have that Disney feeling. I would give anything to have kids enjoy that expirence. It's truly magical and I still get that feeling and I've bee countless times.

 

[allysetraskos]

Day 2 - Sunday, November 13th.
​

So Saturday we woke up early, it was unplanned but when your 15 month old decides its time to wake up then everyone wakes up.
We decided we would add an additional ticket to our package and activate our tickets a few days early [Our Free dining package didn't start until the 15th]. The cost was very minimal, less then what we would spend on dinner or the movies.
We chose to start with Epcot since it was still Food & Wine festival, we waited in a small guest services line to upgrade the tickets then headed into the park. Since we had no FP+ scheduled it felt like "The Old Days" just winging it. We did end up walking over to The seas with Nemo and friends & making that our first ride. We then went on the land... and decided we would just walk around the world. Apparently it was to early for that so we just wandered and took pictures for a while.
We were at rope drop for the showcase and decided lets go take some pictures of around the world, We were over by China and all of a sudden Mulan comes walking out to go to her meet and greet! The kids get really exicted (especially my niece) she yells out in complete awe "OMG MULAN!!!".. Mulan walks right up to them and asks if they want to come with her!! She takes both of them by the hand and they go up the stairs into her meet & greet! They got to pass the line of people waiting and take pictures first before anyone, she spent a good amount of time talking to them about being warriors. It was amazing! Talk about Pixie Dust to start off our park visits!!

After we met Mulan the kids were jacked up on excitement! We walked around the world a little more, and decided to go pick a pearl in Japan. This was highly anticipated by them as they have been waiting for months! I pre bought special pearl cages a carriage for my niece and a shark that is biting into a pearl for my son. They both picked out their oysters, Brihanna went first she had a 7 1/2mm sized pearl, super white. Gavin went second & he had TWINS! both 6 1/4mm. More Pixie Dust!!
One was a pinkish white the other was a super white pearl.

We finished walking around the showcase and decided we were going to go back to the hotel to eat lunch and relax for a bit.

Once we got back to the hotel we relaxed, ate, swam then decided to head over to Hollywood Studios for a while. During this time I noticed the baby Greyson just didn't look so good, he had a very glazed over look in his eyes. I could tell he was coming down with something. Little did I know this was just the calm before the storm...

Once we got there we went on The Great Movie Ride... My older son said it was the scariest ride when the mobster took control over the vehicle, he legit thought he was going to die lol... I was able to get FP+ for this ride so no wait!! I then got a FP+ for Star Tours which technically ended up being 4 FP+for my husband because the baby couldn't go on it; I didn't go on because I usually get motion sickness with 3D glasses and didn't take my Dramamine. He went on twice with the kids and saved the other 2 FP+ for later in the week.
We got to meet Doc McStuffins with less then a 3 minute wait.. I was shocked.

​

We walked around a bit and took pictures mostly then watched Fantasmic... We had pretty decent seats. The kids LOVED it. The baby was exceptionally great during it and sat wonderfully! His head started feeling really warm so I knew he was getting a cold.

We went back to the hotel after that.

I brought my really good thermometer and took the baby's temperature he was at 102 degrees! Thankfully I brought my Tylenol and Motrin (yes I over pack everything and am so glad I did).. He started having a cough, nothing too major yet.
We decided to get Buffalo Wild Wings my husband took an uber to get it and come back... So far our uber experience was great. The next day we planned on going out to lunch and just relaxing at the hotel and do nothing!

 

[allysetraskos]

Day 3 - Monday, November 14th.​

I stayed up all night with the baby he wouldn't stop crying, his cough wasn't too bad but I could tell he was irritable from his fever, it was miserable. I gave him more medicine and it brought the fever down.

We scheduled a reservation at Beaches & Cream for lunch... Or more so for dessert. The two oldest children are picky eaters so I decided to feed all the kids lunch before we went; The main reason we were even going was for the kitchen sink ice cream anyways. We left a bit early and had an hour to kill before our reservation so we walked around the Boardwalk & Beach club taking pictures and letting the kids pin trade. For anyone who has kids that are going to pin trade I HIGHLY suggest buying the locking backs, those little black backs were terrible and both kids had already lost 2 pins each! We ran into a older woman who was by herself she had a really cool pin trading bag with expensive pins, the kids asked if they could trade with her.. I told them that she was not a cast member and her pins were the really nice collector ones $15+ that you buy in the stores not like the inexpensive mystery lot I bought on Ebay lol... The woman was so sweet and took time to show the kids all her collections and talk about their favorite characters. They were pretty amazed with the amount she has, then you know what she did?! Told them they could both pick ANY pin out that they wanted and could trade with ANY pin they wanted, I told her she didn't have to do that, she said that clearly they are really great kids and really wanted to. A little more Pixie Dust; Those pins are easily some of the most unique ones I've seen, collectors edition perhaps. It was a very nice gesture.

Finally it was time for us to go eat at Beaches & Cream! It was such a small restaurant. We were seated at a booth, I asked the waitress for a highchair and apparently booths are NOT allowed to have highchairs per-fire code regulations. Just a warning if you are traveling with a little one who cannot sit in a booster chair yet I strongly advise asking for a couple tables to be put together when you are waiting to be sat. We asked for this after we were sat but the restaurant was all booked up, they said they could try to get two tables but together but it wasn't guaranteed. I was a bit irritated because my 15 mo old CANNOT sit in a booster chair, he just stands right up so the majority of the lunch was spent with me putting my arm across him like a seat belt. I just tried my best to have a good lunch despite that. My husband and I ordered hamburgers while the kids had the kitchen sink. Hamburgers were great! and OMG THE KITCHEN SINK WAS HUGE!! We all tried to eat it and couldn't finish but it was defiantly fun trying! We did eat a good portion I feel. It was the greatest dessert of all time the kids said. After we were done eating we decided to go back to the hotel for some swimming and relaxing.

During this time the baby's cough getting worse and worse and his fever was not going away. I know it may be frowned upon but we let our two oldest children go walk around the resort and play at the pool and playground while we figured out what we were going to do with the baby (both the kids are really responsible for their age and well behaved so I had no worries about them causing trouble, being loud or anything. + Plus they had their cell phone with them). We decided that the cough was getting too bad the baby was almost gasping for air sounding like he was choking that he needed to go to urgent care. My husband was going to be the one to take him to urgent care since I was exhausted and got no sleep the night before. We called an uber with a car seat since we did not bring one with us (not thinking we needed to), We asked the driver where a good place would be to take the baby since all other urgent cares looked to be closed he found Night Lite Pediatrics. The went to urgent care and turns out the baby had croup.. They gave him a steroid to help. Now here is where the NIGHTMARE began. Apparently the urgent care's BCBS system was down so my husband had to pay $160 out of pocket, whatever it needed to be done so we paid it. Then he tried to schedule an uber to pick them back up but it wasn't giving him the ability to do it. So I decided to schedule it, I asked him what the address of the place was and he gave me the address that was on his discharge papers. After a few min of waiting the uber driver said he was there waiting however my husband couldn't find him... Apparently the urgent care has the WRONG location listed on their discharge paperwork, the uber driver was irritated and said he WOULD NOT be going to pick him up from there and they still charged us a $15 fee. I tried to find another uber driver in the area he was in but NOBODY had a car seat so they COULDN'T pick them up. I called a taxi service who were going to dispatch somebody out to them... 20 minutes go by and nobody shows up, I call the taxi back and they say they cannot find a driver who has a car seat it could be 20min or 3hours they have NO IDEA!! Now I am starting to freak out. The urgent care has closed so my husband and sick baby are sitting in a parking lot at a strip mall, in the dark, in a state we are unfamiliar with and NO WAY to get back to the resort. I was crying, my husband was crying and yelling at me that we should of rented a car and brought the car seat.. It was terrible. The baby was good because the steroid kicked in. Finally I had an idea, I would take a uber from the hotel that had a car seat, drive out to get them and drive back. I was just hoping to find a driver that would do that for me. Luckily out of all the uber drivers we got a woman.. a MOTHER! Thank god. I told her what happened and she said she would be happy to do the round trip for me. I had to leave the other 2 kids at the resort because we all wouldn't fit. At this point they were in bed and I had no choice but to try to be quick. The awesome uber driver Ivanalise was my hero. We got back to the resort and went to bed, we planned on going to Magic Kingdom the next morning EARLY and it was already extremely late and we were both exhausted.

 

[mum of two pirates]

You can't just leave me hanging.... we're taking a 5 month old next Christmas I might need to know more.

 

[TheMaxRebo]

Joining in. We took my oldest when she was 8mo old and my youngest when she was 1mo old so we definitely are in the "never too young" camp

Congrats on keeping up with the breast feeding (my wife and her family are big proponents)

I love the story of Milan wii the kids and the pin trader - shows Disney fans can bring the pixie dust too!

So sorry the baby got sick and all the issues with the Uber, etc - glad you figured something out in the end and hope that was the worst of it

Great start!

 

[KTwiegs]

Joining in! Looking forward to more! Sick baby on vacation had got to be the worse case scenario!

 

[allysetraskos]

Day 4 - Tuesday, November 15th.​

Despite our hectic night we actually got decent sleep since the baby was given medicine. We were up bright and early though ready for rope drop at Magic Kingdom. I have never been to rope drop we have always had Early ADR breakfasts inside the park so this would be a first!
Most importantly our FREE DINING kicked in!! & it was sadly our last day at Coronado Springs Resort, we packed up our 25 bags... YES 25 bags of stuff between luggage, carryons, backpacks, bags & coolers with food ETC. and call Bell Services so it could all be transported over to POP! Century. I feel terrible for the Bell Man because he only had 1 dolly and no driving vehicle so he had to do 3 trips, we made sure to tip him very well and the husband helped him carry some of the bags on the final trip.
We were off to Magic Kingdom!!! The bus was dead, I will tell you the shuttle system at Coronado was awesome we never waited more then 10 minutes for a bus and there were never more then like 5 families at a bus stop. We got in front of the train station with a great view of the show then rushed inside.
This is what were able to accomplish with a baby (& the fact that my husband is a smoker so we needed plenty of breaks so that he could go off to the smoking areas).

Many Adventures Of Winnie The Pooh
Under the Sea
Meet Ariel in her Grotto
Dumbo
Barnstormer
Cinnamon rolls at Gastons Tavern
Astro Orbiter (Son1 and Niece)
Meet Tweedle Dee Tweddle Dumb
7DMT FP+ (Mom & Son1. Child Swap saved for later.)
7DMT FP+ (Husband & Niece. Child Swap saved for later)
Splash Mountain (Niece & Son1)
Lunch at Pescos Bills
Peter Pans Flight FP+
Meet Rapuenzel and Tiana FP+
Its A Small World
Parade
Pirates Of Caribbean FP+ (Because we used our initial 3)
7DMT (Child Swap from FP+)
7DMT (Child Swap from FP+)

I was also really excited because I got my husband to finally babywear with our ERGO!! This was his first time babywearing, and my son loved it. The carrier was perfect for when we had to leave the stroller parked or when we were going in between rides that were close. Plus it was my sons favorite place to nap. I strongly suggest babywearing!!

We left the park by 5pm yes we did all of that by 5PM!!!!! for our 6pm Dinner at Chef Mickeys, we were there by 5:15pm (I didn't realize how quickly the monorail would get us there). We asked if we could check in early, they said yes but a table wasn't guaranteed until our reservation time, The buzzer went off at 5:22pm lol
The food was good, I thought it was a great buffet compared to some of the horrible reviews you hear. The character interaction was awesome.

We walked around and saw the gingerbread houses then headed back to the resort, our room was ready we had got a text that we could skip the front desk so we went straight there by 8pm! I took the older two kids down to the pool for a little bit so they could swim.

We had a very action packed fun filled first day!!

Magic Kingdom again was the plan for the next day!!!

(Don't let the baby's face fool you he wasn't scared, he was crying I took away his ice cream cone for the picture lol)

​

 

[allysetraskos]

You can't just leave me hanging.... we're taking a 5 month old next Christmas I might need to know more.

I took some vacation time and lost track of posting!! I'm going to be updating more. Honestly babies are not as hard as it sounds at Disney, especially when you use that FP+ and Child Swap correctly you REALLY benefit!

Joining in. We took my oldest when she was 8mo old and my youngest when she was 1mo old so we definitely are in the "never too young" camp

Congrats on keeping up with the breast feeding (my wife and her family are big proponents)

I love the story of Milan wii the kids and the pin trader - shows Disney fans can bring the pixie dust too!

So sorry the baby got sick and all the issues with the Uber, etc - glad you figured something out in the end and hope that was the worst of it

Great start!

Thank you!! & Yes it is awesome when everyone gets in the "Disney Spirit", just makes for that much more of a magical time! & Yes that little time of being sick was it, he was a trooper through it all.. Hes my healthy child, that was the first time he ever has got sick so it was a bit scary!

Joining in! Looking forward to more! Sick baby on vacation had got to be the worse case scenario!

Gosh it was the worst, but thankfully he was a trooper. It's funny because he is my "non-content child" and he handled it like a champ the rest of the trip.

 

[allysetraskos]

Day 5 - Wednesday, November 16th.​

We wokeup early-ish... My husband was in a cranky mood because he didn't get very much sleep. Going from a Moderate hotel with Queen size bed to a full sized bed sucks.
My son went to play with his tablet since we went right to sleep the night before and it was CRACKED, the luggage bag it was in also had a HUGE tear. I was super sad because it was my moms luggage that we borrowed. I called the bell services just to make them aware not expecting anything in return, I just honestly wanted to let them know what happened... well they made a BIG mistake (I work in customer service so I know the rules lol) they gave me WAY to much information as to their procedure such as when our bags were handled from one resort to another nobody took a log of our stuff, they had no idea where our items came from or who handled them. They literally told me they have no record of it being in a Disney van, sombody could of just brought them over in their car... (***). They asked if we were sure that we didn't bring them, I said yeh pretty sure I have all the tags on our stuff still.. They were completely puzzled. Now the "smart" thing to have said would be "That is terrible what happened to your items, we will look into this matter further" -End conversation- However they went on to then break rule #2 in customer service: 'Admitting fault' they told me that they are responsible but blamed another team member at Coronado Springs. Well Coronado Springs contacted us and blamed POP! Century.. So basically now they have both admitted that THEY as in DISNEY were in the wrong as to how they handled our stuff (In the company I work for have a motto.. "WE ARE THE THEY"... meaning we all have to take ownership and never put another team member in a bad light even if they messed up). They then broke rule #3 in customer servicing 'promising something'... never ever ever ever promise something to a customer if you are unsure you have it within your power to make happen. The bell service man we spoke to said they could get us a new tablet similar to the one we have and a new piece of luggage... So even though he didn't get it cleared by a supervisor they had to pull through.
Now don't get me wrong I am completely thrilled my items got replaced, but did I need to know everything that happend for A-Z? Nope... Does it worry me in the future when Bell Services handles my luggage? YES.
To put it simply I should have been told "Its unfortunate that happened to your items, we will look into this matter" & then "We do apologize for the inconvenience we would be happy to replace items".
Done lol

Anyways... back to our morning...
My husband didn't want to go to the parks yet so I told him that he could stay behind at the hotel and I would take the kids... He said "Fine go ahead" not thinking I was serious he thought I would just stay back in the hotel for a while longer but I honestly didn't see the point because 1. The baby was up so there was no relaxing. 2. The hotel room is small and keeping the kids cooped up and silent to try to sleep is impossible. 3. Why waste a low crowd day? and 4. We were already awake so we were GOING!, you don't come between a Mama and her Magic Kingdom!! LOL. The kids were excited that I said we were gonna go, but I'm not gonna lie I have never been "alone" in the parks before without my spouse or somebody to help out, not even just me and the older son.. Here I was crazy enough to take a 9, 7 and 15 month old SOLO.
We didn't make it to rope drop but we did get through bag check quickly.
First thing we did was go to meet Merida. I was super stoked because her line is always long and we have never been able to meet her because of it.

Next I let the two older kids ride on the carousel.. During this time my husband sent me a text that he was outside in the bag check line, he felt bad so he came ( MEN).
He told me to come out and meet him he wanted to smoke quickly before he got in but there was a huge line he wanted me to save his place while he stepped out of line really quick... I probably broke another "parenting rule" (O WELL ) and let the older kids watch the castle show with Elena while I did this.. They had a cell phone and I told them to stay in the same place by a specific bush. When we got back in they were still standing in that exact spot.
What we did:
7DMT FP+ (Mom & Niece)
7DMT FP+ (Husband & Son1)
Meet Gaston
Lunch at BOG
Pirates Of The Caribbean FP+
Railroad
Space Mountain FP+ (Husband & Niece)
Space Mountain FP+ (Husband & Niece again.. Son was to scared & I hate the ride)
Philharmagic
7DMT (FP+ from child swap).
7DMT (FP+ from child swap).
Meet Peter Pan
Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse
Dinner at Crystal Palace

We didn't stay out to late we had a 5:10pm dining reservation for Crystal Palace.. After we were done eating I was honestly tired, we were going to stay for the fireworks originally but decided to call it an early night so we could make it to rope drop at Hollywood Studios the next morning. We were back to the hotel by 8pm (Yes we keep this baby on a strict schedule because he was out by 8:30pm lol)

Next up on our list.. a FULL day in Hollywood Studios!​

 

[Shrfleen]

7DMT (FP+ from child swap).
7DMT (FP+ from child swap).

We have never done child swap before but will need it for our next trip with my cousins. Do you just get a child swap ticket/pass and use the FP+ line ?

 

[jstkpswimming]

Was just reading through, and I'm getting some great tips for our trip in a week! My son is 13 months old, and this will be his first trip!

Question: We rarely stray from his 7pm bedtime, but we'd obviously like to stay out to see the nighttime entertainment. Not sure if you usually keep a strict bedtime with your toddler. If so, did you find you had trouble staying out later with him?

Thanks!

 

[allysetraskos]

I fell off a bit with updating my posts... Life lol

We have never done child swap before but will need it for our next trip with my cousins. Do you just get a child swap ticket/pass and use the FP+ line ?

Yes anytime you go up to the line, the parent with the baby can stand off to the side, most of the time I just pointed and my husband would wave and the cast member would issue the swap pass.

Was just reading through, and I'm getting some great tips for our trip in a week! My son is 13 months old, and this will be his first trip!

Question: We rarely stray from his 7pm bedtime, but we'd obviously like to stay out to see the nighttime entertainment. Not sure if you usually keep a strict bedtime with your toddler. If so, did you find you had trouble staying out later with him?

Thanks!

So my son has a pretty set bedtime too, we did stay out a few nights late to do fireworks and fantastic he would usually just sleep in the stroller or our ergo baby carrier. With all the excitement I'm pretty sure it drained him.

 

[allysetraskos]

Day 6 - Thursday, November 17th.​

We were up early and managed to make it to Hollywood Studios right as they were letting people in. Our priority was hitting Rock & Rollercoaster right away since with the FP+ tiers we chose to do TSMM. That is where we made a bee line to. Got in line maybe took us 15-20 min from the time we entered until we were out, My niece & I went on (my son was scared) we got a Child Swap pass for later.
This is what our day looked like:
R&R (Me & Niece)
Star Tours (Husband, Son1 & Niece)
Meet Olaf
TSMM FP+ (All of us)
Lunch at Hollywood & Vine
Star Tours (FP+ from Child Swap)
Muppet Vision
Voyage Of The Little Mermaid
Star Tours FP+ (Husband & Son1)
Tower Of Terror FP+ (Me & Niece)
Star Tours (FP+ Child Swap)
R&R (FP+ Child Swap)
Starwars Launch Bay
Meet Kylo Ren
Dinner at Hollywood & Vine (Seasonal Dining)
Jingle Bell Jam Fireworks

I was bummed the Osbourn Lights are not longer there I really enjoyed them in years past.
I was glad about our two character dining though, the baby did great with the characters again. My husband fell in love with the red potatoes at lunch, to this day he tries to make them with no luck!

Overall it was a great day!

Next up:
Magic Kingdom!

 

[allysetraskos]

Day 7 - Friday, November 18th.​

Today was sort of our "Chill Day".. We started off over in Frontierland and booked it to Splash Mountain, we let the kids do pin trading over there for quite a while. We then went over to Fantasy Land and road some rides. We ate at Cosmic Rays I got a delicious burger..

This is what we did:

Splash Mountain (Mom, Niece, Son1)
Splash Mountain (Child Swap FP+) (Husband, Niece, Son)
Carousel
Mickeys Philharmagic
7DMT FP+ (Child Swap FP+) (Mom, Niece, Son1)
7DMT FP+ (Child Swap FP+) (Husband, Niece, Son1)
Meet Fairy Godmother
Move It Shake It Parade.
Lunch at Cosmic Ray's Starlight Cafe
Talking Mickey FP+
Dumbo FP+
Casey's Splash Station
Peter Pans Flight

We were able to meet talking Mickey, my older son loved it. He loves to tell jokes and it just so happened that Mickeys interaction was a joke! How fitting!

We walked around a lot of the shops, specifically the fancy ones that we cannot afford anything at lol... I like to browse. I took some videos of things like that expensive castle with crystals and of some of the bakers at the confectionery, just to have some cool stuff to insert in the video I planned on making when we got home.

I just want to say out of all the stuff we did the baby LOVED the splash station the most. We took so many videos and pictures of him running around, during the summer at home he wasn't walking yet so this was the first real time he was able to play in water and he had a BLAST.

Dinner was at 1900 Park Fare at 5:30pm.. We of course arrived a bit early but were able to be seated right away. The character interaction was great. The stepmother cracked me up with how she talked to the baby and was able to get him to focus on taking a picture. The food was good we had a nice time. I got my niece to try the strawberry soup and she liked it.. My favorite.

 

[allysetraskos]

Day 8 - Saturday, November 19th.​

Our last day in Magic Kingdom I feel like anytime its your last day in Magic Kingdom you get sad, knowing the vacation is getting ready to come to an end is depressing!
It was going to be a good day though, I bought my niece a Jasmine costume and today was the day she was going to meet Aladdin and Jasmine and she was super jazzed up about it lol.

Today was also the day my baby was going to get his first haircut! He needed one so very bad and we had been holding off specifically to get it cut at Harmony Barber Shop so he was well due.

Big Thunder Mountain was "rumored" to re-open after the refurbishment. So clearly we got up extremely early in hopes to making it to rope drop which we did. We made a bee line to Big Thunder Mountain, and it was OPENED! Husband and Son1 were super excited!
Myself and the two older kids went on right away it was about a 15 min wait which wasn't bad because by the time we were done it was already at an hour! Lucky we of course got the FP+ child swap for the husband and kids to ride again.

We went over to Adventure Land and I got my first dole whip float every, so honestly I liked the icecream but the pineapple juice was just TOO much for me. I think next time I will get just the dole whip.

Next up meeting Aladdin and Jasmine.. My Niece was in complete awe. My husband and sons stayed off to the side to eat their dole whips that way she could really have that 1:1 character interaction and let me tell you they really interact with you when your dressed like them. It was amazing. Her complete dream come true.

It was time for the haircut we went over to the shop, the shop was small so I let the two older kids follow the dance parade over to the hub and told them to follow it right back when it was over. The baby did really good and the cost of the haircut came with Mickey Ears, Certificate, Lock of hair & pixie dust. The woman who cut his hair wasn't really "child friendly" she had a bit of an attitude which was weird because we had not encountered an unpleasant cast member until her. None the less she did a nice job at cutting his hair and my heart melted. He finally looked like a "big boy" and not a "baby".

By the way we had a ton of FP+ Child Swap Passes by mid day... from collecting them the past few days when we wouldn't use them this is what it looks like when you are doing things correctly lol:

This is what our day looked like:

Big Thunder Mountain (Mom, Son1, Niece)
Big Thunder Mountain (Child Swap FP+) (Husband, Son1, Niece)
Magic Carpets
First time having Dole Whip.
Meet Aladdin & Jasmine
Meet Chip / Dale
Dance Parade
Splash Mountain (Husband, Son1, Niece)
Splash Mountain (Child swap FP+) (Husband, Son1, Niece)
Pesco's Bills Lunch
Explored Tom Sawyers Island
Jungle Cruise FP+
Haunted Mansion FP+
Dumbo
7DMT FP+ (Mom, Son1)
7DMT FP+ (Husband, Niece)
Be Our Guest Dinner
7DMT (Child Swap FP+) (Mom, Niece, Son1)
7DMT (Child Swap FP+) (Husband, Niece, Son1)
Buzz Lightyears Space Ranger Spin FP+
Wishes Fireworks

We got to eat at Be Our Guest for dinner and I was so surprised at how good and filling it was, I heard mixed reviews that the steaks were not that large but I had leftovers. My niece ordered the childs steak and she even had left overs. Getting to meet the Beast was a big deal to me since I am a huge Beauty and the Beast fan. I am so happy with how it all went.

I also enjoyed watching the Wishes Fireworks. We found a spot right in the center of the hub with pretty awesome viewing of the castle all the adults let the kids in front before the line that is marked off so they could have unobstructed views which was awesome. I love when adults put all kids first at Disney. I have never got to see the fireworks in full we always try to leave before they are over so that we don't have to wait in the crowd. This time we stayed an I am so glad we did it was amazing. We ended up getting back to the hotel pretty late this night because of the crowds but it was well worth it we did pretty good the whole trip by sticking to a tight schedule getting back to the hotel by a certain time.

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