Bear Hugs & Piggy Kisses - Baby's 1st Trip ~ Updated 12/6: Aulani TR Started!!!

[Dugette]

Oh my goodness, that is the most adorable things I've heard all day. I can just see Izzy eating hot dogs, thinking about that dance.

I really kinda think that's what's going on. Makes me want to give her a super special experience of eating a hot dog while watching the Hot Dog Dance.

Could you imagine if our two kids were in the same room when MMC came on? They'd be so confused because they'd each be calling it a different name.

I can just see it now: "Mickey!" "No, Minnie!" "No, Mickey!" "I want Minnie! WAH!" Etc. And then the show would start and they'd both think they won.

Okay, going back to read your update now, I just had to say I got a kick out of your story.

Toddlers are fun!

Yikes! I'm glad the glowstick wasn't pointing directly at you guys when it exploded. That would have made for a long clean-up.

Yeah, those things are messy when they break! Glad it wasn't worse.

Glad to see Izzy was hanging on at such a late hour and that you didn't have to ditch your dinner plans. The entree looked quite tasty. As did the drink sampler. I wasn't aware of that option on the menu. Might have to put La Hacienda into consideration in the future now.

I was so impressed that she was still going strong at that time. The food was good. And I love the margarita sampler. I don't think it's actually on the menu, but if you ask, they should have it. Nice treat!

You can't beat a nice view of IllumiNations throughout your meal. Not having to sit or stand around outside or find a good viewing spot had to be a nice respite.

Yes, I love having what amounts to a FP+ for Illuminations viewing. No waiting in line or fighting crowds, but a good view of the show.

I don' think Olivia even likes the trolls in Frozen

Well, everyone's a bit of a fixer-upper...

Totally forgot that you have had more trips since this TR so that there were other chances to get on Maestrom again

Yeah, I know, I keep sneaking in these unplanned trips.

Totally didn't realize they pipe the music for Illuminations into the restaurant - that is awesome and will have to remember that for future trips. Rose & Crown is generally our "go to" Illuminations viewing restaurant but might have to add this to the mix

We've never done Rose & Crown - actually we almost did once, but then La Hacienda opened and we changed it. We really like it there. The place was basically designed for Illuminations viewing with huge windows. Then they turn down the lights and pipe in the music and it's quite nice.

I love the pictures of Illuminations through the window! That is my favorite nighttime show and I've never seen it during dinner. I love the different perspective those photos show! Also, the margarita sampler looks pretty amazing!

Something to keep in mind for a future Epcot visit! Nothing like sipping margaritas while comfortably watching an amazing show. It's not exactly the same as being right on the lagoon, but it's really nice!

I'm crossing my fingers for a few 2 nap days on our trip and hoping I can just screw with cadens schedule and do some late nights! We love nighttime at Disney and will be sad if we have to go back to our room early....strike that...we'll be sad if we have to deal with a crabby tired baby while we drag him thru MK at night. Haha
Thankfully he's a good stroller napper so if I need to I could always just tell him to go to sleep haha.

When I get the next chapter up, you'll see how we "put Izzy to bed" on this late night. You know Caden, obviously, but I wouldn't expect an older toddler to go back to two naps, unless that still happens sometimes. At the time of this trip, Izzy had fairly recently gone from 2 naps to 1, so it wasn't super strange like it would be now. However, what I've learned from more recent travel with her is that she is really adaptable. She will stay up with us and be fine and not want to sleep. But she at least needs some sort of nap and some sort of overnight sleep - just not necessarily exactly what we do at home. She does make up for it afterwards by sleeping extra, though (makes for a nice plane ride!) I hope Caden does well for you!

Sounds like a great evening for you guys! Love the pics of illuminations thru the window!

It really was a great evening. I hadn't truly anticipated being able to stay for Illuminations, so that was a real treat.

 

[Dugette]

We headed to the Baby Care Center to get Izzy changed into her pajamas for the night. We figured, given the late night and the stroller-friendly transportation, we might as well put her to bed in the stroller and then head back to the room. She could sleep in the stroller until her middle-of-the-night wake-up and then spend the rest of the night in the pack ‘n’ play. Already being in her jammies would make that easier.

So, we headed in and got her all changed and ready for bed. At that time, she nursed only before going to bed (no daytime nursings by then), so I tried out a nursing room for the first time. The Epcot one is one big room with rocking chairs vs. the private rooms in the other centers. The place was empty, but it still seemed awkward to me, as I wasn’t used to nursing in a big, open room. Apparently Izzy wasn’t totally comfortable with that either, as she really had no interest in her normal bedtime nursing and just wanted to get back up. So, we called it quits quickly and went to find Dug, who was sitting on the loveseat right by the door. We sat and let her play for a few minutes:





Those are her Marie the Cat pajamas, by the way. After a few minutes of relaxation, we headed out, got her into the stroller with her blankie, and headed towards the park exit. But not without stopping for all the Photopass photographers, of course:



Still awake!

Ah, I love Epcot at night:



She was out by the time we got to the next photographer:







More pretty nighttime Epcot, dressed up for the holidays:



Walking over the sparkling sidewalk:



Interesting color reflections in the big ball:



This was probably at a monorail station:



We took the monorail to the TTC:



Then we just walked the path back to the Poly, which is lit by tiki torches at night:





We arrived back to an elephant in our room:



I believe Izzy slept in the stroller until her middle-of-the-night wake-up, then nursed, then went back to sleep in the pack 'n' play for the rest of the night.

Up next: Our last day!

 

[AprilRenee]

Fair point on the 3 yr old doing 2 naps. You're right. That won't happen. Haha
But what I might get out of him is a late nap that gives us a late bedtime. I'd be good with that. Honestly, he will do late nights when needed (we've done a few here and there) and if there's stuff going on to interest him he's totally fine to hang til he's in a place where he can sleep.
We did an impromptu visit to my college town a month or two ago and he was all screwed up on his schedule and really did just great. Gave me hope for Disney. Especially since he'll be 6+ months older.


But back to your story... I LOVE you the pic of sleeping izzy in front of the EPCOT tree. Just so peaceful and beautiful!

And the sparkly sidewalk is possibly my favorite nighttime thing in all of Disney. That or the fireflies in the trees! They both just make me so happy and feel so full of magic

 

[schmass]

I love the picture of you guys with the Mickey and Minnie topiaries!

Do you think Izzy could give lessons to Rory on how to fall asleep in the stroller?

 

[khertz]

Finally finding time to get all caught up on TRs after being away from the DIS for almost 2.5 weeks, so I am now all caught up on yours! Just wanted to let you know, and now hopefully my responses can be a bit more specific from now on.

 

[TheMaxRebo]

Seems like a good idea to get Izzy into PJ's before heading out ... and cute to watch through the PP as she starts awake and then is asleep.

Cute towel elephant too!

 

[Dugette]

Fair point on the 3 yr old doing 2 naps. You're right. That won't happen. Haha
But what I might get out of him is a late nap that gives us a late bedtime. I'd be good with that. Honestly, he will do late nights when needed (we've done a few here and there) and if there's stuff going on to interest him he's totally fine to hang til he's in a place where he can sleep.
We did an impromptu visit to my college town a month or two ago and he was all screwed up on his schedule and really did just great. Gave me hope for Disney. Especially since he'll be 6+ months older.

I agree on the later nap and later bedtime thing. Sounds a lot like Izzy, where he's adaptable to some schedule changes and does okay. As long as he gets a reasonable amount of sleep, I'm sure he'll be fine with some schedule adjustments. Or he can get some stroller sleep if he's tired and you're out late (like this update).

But back to your story... I LOVE you the pic of sleeping izzy in front of the EPCOT tree. Just so peaceful and beautiful!

Yes, I love that too. Epcot at night at the holidays is so nice - and the sleeping baby makes it even more peaceful.

And the sparkly sidewalk is possibly my favorite nighttime thing in all of Disney. That or the fireflies in the trees! They both just make me so happy and feel so full of magic

It is really cool to see the sidewalk sparkling like that. Just a fun little touch to let you know you're in Disney.

I love the picture of you guys with the Mickey and Minnie topiaries!

Thanks, I love that one too - probably my favorite of that night's PhotoPass shots.

Do you think Izzy could give lessons to Rory on how to fall asleep in the stroller?

Sure! In this case, it was really just a matter of it being late and her being too tired to fight the sleep. But it also helped that we tried to do her normal bedtime stuff as best we could. For naps in the stroller, we have to keep her moving until she's out and/or facing something really boring, like a counter/wall. Imagineer5's daughter Aria should give lessons, though - she is an amazing stroller-napper!

Finally finding time to get all caught up on TRs after being away from the DIS for almost 2.5 weeks, so I am now all caught up on yours! Just wanted to let you know, and now hopefully my responses can be a bit more specific from now on.

Thanks for popping in! How was your trip?! I hope it was amazing!

Seems like a good idea to get Izzy into PJ's before heading out ... and cute to watch through the PP as she starts awake and then is asleep.

Cute towel elephant too!

It worked out well to get her in jammies and make it a fairly normal bedtime. I love how you can see her awake, then asleep, then super-asleep (paci fell out) thoughout the shots.

It was neat to get a towel animal too. If only we'd been at AK - might have been more appropriate, but still cool.

 

[Dugette]

We woke up to our last morning at the Poly and our departure day. We dealt with our sadness by eating yummy treats for breakfast. That explains why I didn’t have pictures from Karamell Kuche on the previous day – we saved them for morning.

As predicted, I had a dark chocolate sea salt caramel:



Delicious, even for breakfast!

I had forgotten that, since I was in charge of picking out our treats, I decided to get something new for Dug to try. I picked a caramel cheesecake thing:



He enjoyed it, so it was a good pick!

Izzy started her day by playing on the bed:



We probably fed her something too. But not caramels. A pouch, maybe?

We took one last moment to soak up the patio:





And we also took some shots of the room, as I don’t think we had any previously. You can see in the first one where we had Izzy’s pack ‘n’ play:







Some of our party is getting ready to go in this one:



And, with that, we were off to the Great Ceremonial House:











Ah, the waterfall. This is how you know this TR has gone on for a long time! (Well, and the volcano is coming down now too, I believe).

We had taken it pretty easy so far this morning, getting everything packed up and all, so we were a little behind schedule. We knew that Imagineer5 and her family were going to be at the Poly for breakfast this morning, so thought we might be able to say hello before they took off for Animal Kingdom. I texted her sometime during our journey (my text says 9:13am, actually). Turns out that they were already pulling up to AK at that time, though. No worries, who knew I would see them quite often the next year?

When we got to the Great Ceremonial House, we had to take care of all the departure things. We did the airline check-in and got that all squared away. We had them store our carry-on luggage at bell services. And we had to pay off our room-charge balance with our stack of WDW Gift Cards. We had already done this earlier in the trip, so this would just take care of the charges since then. Quick and easy, right? Yeah, not so much. They had already charged a credit card, so had to reverse that, then run all the gift cards. And, for some reason, their system was working EXTREMELY slowly, so it was taking forever. Izzy was getting antsy, so I decided to take her off exploring while Dug dealt with the payment.

Up next: Roaming the Polynesian!

 

[Imagineer5]

I am so excited to be able to use the monorails so much in our upcoming trip while staying at the GF - to EPCOT especially. As you mentioned, I can put Aria to sleep in the stroller as we make our trek home vs using the car and tranferring her a million times.

I LOVE Izzy's Marie jammies! If you ever come across them in a 3t let me know! LOL.

I never liked the big rooms where you nurse, and I don't think I ever found one empty. MK is like that too. We still used them a lot but it was awkward. I liked to turn my chair around and sit in a corner, so at least I couldn't see anyone lol.

Yes I remember that, that was the morning we had breakfast at Kona I think and then headed to AK. I don't think I had my phone out all breakfast bc Aria was being a total butt.

From the couple snippets I've read about the poly pool & volcano removal, the new pool sounds like it is going to be really awesome and kid friendly with a big splash pad area. I'm excited about that as well!

 

[schmass]

Love the treats for breakfast! We were on the dining plan one year and kept bringing all of our desserts back to the room and saving them because we were too full to eat them. On our last day we had a dessert breakfast buffet - it was awesome.

We took a walk through the Poly two weeks ago when we stayed at GFV. Sadly it looks nothing like your pictures right now.

 

[TheMaxRebo]

um, I think you mean "Delicious, even *moreso* for breakfast!"

We had a similar thing last trip where we wanted to pay off the room with a gift card but they had already charged it to our credit card so they had to back-it out, etc. Fortunately it turned out to be pretty painless - but it was a bit of a stressful moment before we realized it wouldn't be an issue

Ah, so sad to think that waterfall is no more

Sad that it is departure day ... though my spideysense says that may not be the last time you are at Disney World

 

[Jackiemarie21]

Awe Izzy was so cute in her Marie pjs!

Yummy last breakfast!

So sad about the poly changes. I am betting they will be amazing, but the "old" poly has such precious memories for me. I am not sure I can cope with this!

 

[Dugette]

I am so excited to be able to use the monorails so much in our upcoming trip while staying at the GF - to EPCOT especially. As you mentioned, I can put Aria to sleep in the stroller as we make our trek home vs using the car and tranferring her a million times.

It really is so nice! If only there were a value resort on the monorail line... As you said, especially Epcot, since you can enjoy the great evening ambiance there and let the kiddo fall asleep without transfers until you get back to the room.

I LOVE Izzy's Marie jammies! If you ever come across them in a 3t let me know! LOL.

Will do. Though, we did get them a long time ago, so not sure if they are anywhere to be found anymore. I THINK we got them from target's website, but can't remember for sure. Pretty cute, though!

I never liked the big rooms where you nurse, and I don't think I ever found one empty. MK is like that too. We still used them a lot but it was awkward. I liked to turn my chair around and sit in a corner, so at least I couldn't see anyone lol.

I think I'd do what you did too. I felt awkward and there wasn't even anyone else in the room. And, if I remember right, they were wooden rocking chairs and just not as comfortable as I'm used to. And Izzy just wasn't having it - I think it seemed too out of the ordinary for her, as she was used to being in her bedroom. At least it wasn't really a necessity at that point for her, so we could just move on.

Yes I remember that, that was the morning we had breakfast at Kona I think and then headed to AK. I don't think I had my phone out all breakfast bc Aria was being a total butt.

Well, we've made up for our missed DIS-meet, I guess.

From the couple snippets I've read about the poly pool & volcano removal, the new pool sounds like it is going to be really awesome and kid friendly with a big splash pad area. I'm excited about that as well!

Oh, that's great to hear. I hadn't gotten that much info yet, but love the idea of the splash pad! (They are trying to entice us into Poly DVC, aren't they? )

Love the treats for breakfast! We were on the dining plan one year and kept bringing all of our desserts back to the room and saving them because we were too full to eat them. On our last day we had a dessert breakfast buffet - it was awesome.

Haha, love the dessert breakfast buffet idea! That's great! I am totally in favor of dessert for breakfast. Probably the same nutritional value as most breakfast foods anyway.

We took a walk through the Poly two weeks ago when we stayed at GFV. Sadly it looks nothing like your pictures right now.

I think we were lucky that we were there early on in the remodel process. There was construction, but it wasn't very noticeable. I would be sad seeing it now, I'm sure. Interested to see how it all ends up, though. I do like that they are adding Trader Sam's. And the new pool sounds cool (based on what Lauren just said).

um, I think you mean "Delicious, even *moreso* for breakfast!"

I'm on board with that!

We had a similar thing last trip where we wanted to pay off the room with a gift card but they had already charged it to our credit card so they had to back-it out, etc. Fortunately it turned out to be pretty painless - but it was a bit of a stressful moment before we realized it wouldn't be an issue

Yeah, I had that happen again in August, but I knew it was coming. It took a bit of time, but not too bad and no problem. I think there was something going on with the computer system this December morning, though, as everything just took FOREVER (as you'll see - with all I did during that time in the next update). Dug had paid off part of our trip like this earlier and it was pretty quick and easy. Not so much this time.

Ah, so sad to think that waterfall is no more

I know! At least we have our memories...

Sad that it is departure day ... though my spideysense says that may not be the last time you are at Disney World

Why would you think that?

Awe Izzy was so cute in her Marie pjs!

Thanks, I figured those would be perfect for a late night at Epcot! Footed and cozy and everything.

Yummy last breakfast!

Very! Enough to tide us over until we had a real meal, at least.

So sad about the poly changes. I am betting they will be amazing, but the "old" poly has such precious memories for me. I am not sure I can cope with this!

Agreed! I am hoping it will be wonderful, but it's hard to top the place that was. We'll see how it all comes out, I guess.

 

[Dugette]

Izzy and I decided to roam around the Great Ceremonial House while we waited for Dug to finish up the transactions. We started in the now-non-existent (see a theme here?) Wyland Gallery. Fun to look at the cool artwork there. I had to take pictures of the ones involving doggies, of course:





I love Lady and the Tramp!

After that, Izzy and I wandered the gift shop. I found a coffee mug that I wanted to get as a gift for Dug, but realized that I only had my Magic Band to pay and that wouldn’t be a good idea, since he was paying off our balance as I was shopping. So, instead, I settled for taking pictures of it:





Just as good as getting an actual mug, right?

We headed out of the gift shop and took another swing by Dug. He was still in the midst of slow-computer-world , so we decided to take a walk outdoors. I think I started by going out to the marina, but then just kept on walking:





Look what I found:



I had never seen this area before, as we’ve never done the Spirit of Aloha dinner, so I took this chance to wander the empty area and take pictures:







We also checked out the luau beach area:







We saw the pirate cruise:





Looks pretty fun!

Then we made our way back to Dug and saw this:



Ugh, still going! We were glad we decided to take care of this right away, instead of right before our departure, though. Otherwise, we’d be in a hurry to get on the Magical Express and it would be a problem. We were still losing time in the Magic Kingdom, so it wasn’t great, but we were okay for our FP+ window.

Izzy was bored:



I don’t know what she was holding, maybe a snack?

Eventually, we finished up and headed upstairs for the monorail.

Up next: Mickey talks!

 

[AprilRenee]

Man! It's taking FOREVER!!! *adds mental note to pay off room night before departure!*

Can't wait to hear how Izzy does with talking mickey!!

 

[Dugette]

Man! It's taking FOREVER!!! *adds mental note to pay off room night before departure!*

Yes, do that! We were going to, but were both so tired after the late night previously that neither of us wanted to walk back down to the lobby when we got back to the room. Guess we should have.

Can't wait to hear how Izzy does with talking mickey!!

Well, she was talking TO him from the line, so that was good!

 

[Imagineer5]

I love those paintings! I almost got a Thomas Kinkade one in August for Aria's room, but they didn't have one that didn't have scratched off corners? The CM thought that was perfectly acceptable, but I disagreed.

Anyway, glad you finally got the cards done with. Yeah I always stop by the night before if I need to change any sort of payment method. We'll have to remember to do that after our VGF stay since we will probably be putting all our meals on the room and splitting with his parents, since we have the TiW.

 

[amazingact21]

That is a pretty cool mug. Did you ever go back and buy it for Dug?


Love the walk around the Poly. I've never seen that part of the resort before. I was digging the massive tiki statue that Izzy posed in front of.


Wow,that sounds like a long ordeal. Hope Dug had plenty of patience. (And Izzy in the stroller.)

 

[Dugette]

I love those paintings! I almost got a Thomas Kinkade one in August for Aria's room, but they didn't have one that didn't have scratched off corners? The CM thought that was perfectly acceptable, but I disagreed.

Weird on the corners. Those are such cool paintings, though! I'm not a big art person, but I always loved browsing that gallery.

Anyway, glad you finally got the cards done with. Yeah I always stop by the night before if I need to change any sort of payment method. We'll have to remember to do that after our VGF stay since we will probably be putting all our meals on the room and splitting with his parents, since we have the TiW.

We were going to do it the night before, but exhaustion won out. And we just didn't think it would take as long as it did. Bad timing with the computer system running so slow. It only took me maybe 5 minutes to do the same thing in August.

That is a pretty cool mug. Did you ever go back and buy it for Dug?

Never did! Oh, well, he can always admire the photos while drinking his coffee from some other mug.

Love the walk around the Poly. I've never seen that part of the resort before. I was digging the massive tiki statue that Izzy posed in front of.

I had never seen that area either, so I was really enjoying wandering around. I thought about going up on the stage, but was worried I'd set off some sort of alarm or something - just felt weird. Neat to see everything, though.

Wow,that sounds like a long ordeal. Hope Dug had plenty of patience. (And Izzy in the stroller.)

It really was a much longer ordeal than we'd anticipated. Dug was certainly ready to go by the time we finished. Luckily, we had a really nice CM, but she just couldn't speed up the computer any. Izzy handled things okay, mostly because I kept her rolling most of the time.

 

[Dugette]

Okay, so I guess I got a bit ahead of myself – talking Mickey is the NEXT update. We had a FP+ for 9-10am, so it was supposed to be now, but our slow morning debacle had caused us to miss it. But, don’t worry, we’ll get in there, even if we have to beg and plead. First, we have Izzy’s haircut at the Main Street Barbershop!

After we finally finished settling up our account with our gift cards, we got on the elevator and made our way up to the Poly monorail platform:





It didn’t take too long to make it here:



That red and white striped barber pole is our destination:



I think we were right on time for our 10:30am appointment, despite the lengthy payment process. Guess it all works out if you skip your other plans.

Little does she know that her tiny amount of hair is about to get even more scarce:



It was bustling inside the barbershop:



However, there was nobody there at the podium to check us (or the other waiting guests) in for our appointments. Eventually, one of the barbers came over and said that the podium CM had run to the restroom. Okay, then. We waited around for quite some time for her to return – I suppose she had to retreat into the utilidors or something – can’t have guests seeing a “costumed” CM in the restroom, right? I don’t know. At any rate, we waited:



Once she returned and checked us in, the existing customers started finishing up and it was Izzy’s turn. They had this spinning Minnie toy for her to play with and tasked me with operating it:



The downside of doing that was the way it distracted me (and not just Izzy) from what was going on. Not that playing with my child is bad, obviously, but I really didn’t get to observe the haircut. Luckily, Dug was taking pictures:







Izzy loved the toy and didn’t need any stickers for distraction (see my PTR for explanation, or the short version – I don’t like stickers). Sometime after the trip, I found that same toy (but in pink) for cheap at a consignment sale, so Izzy now has one in her collection. And knows how to operate it herself now.

They didn’t cut a lot of hair, but just neatened it up a bit. We do have a little bag of her hair clippings that they gave us.

When Barbara the barber had finished, she presented Izzy with her complementary My First Haircut Mickey Ears:



She liked them, but NOT on her head:



These were the days that she was intolerant of anything on her head. She’s still not crazy about it, but is accepting of some things.

Here we are trying to set up that perfectly magical shot (at Barbara’s direction) that shows the back of the Mickey ears and the kid's face in the mirror:



Can you see how unhappy Izzy is? How about now?



Poor kiddo. The haircut didn’t bother her at all. But headgear? Forget it!

She does look considerably cheerier here, though:



At least Barbara is all smiles:



Izzy has accepted her unfortunate Mickey-ear-wearing fate:



We also received this lovely First Haircut certificate:



We paid using the remaining WDW Gift Cards, then headed out. It is a pretty good value, by the way!

Up next: Okay, NOW we go talk to Mickey!