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

[Leshaface]

Aw love Izzy with the stuffed animals. I love when they just hug and hold them!

I so agree about the Country Bears. What's up with the songs? And how are they even in Disney But I grew up with them, so I'll still check them out every once in a while. And DS seemed to enjoy them and not cry, so that's a definite plus!

I love when I hear stories about families taking their children so young. Looking back I still can't believe we took DS at 8 weeks old! I was talking to someone the other day about Disneyland and she had mentioned wanting to take her 3 year old and her new 7 week old, but wasn't sure how the 7 week old would do. And then I told her we took DS to Disneyland when he was 6 weeks old and it was sooo easy!

I remember reading your little update and giggling and your "plans=hahahaha!" It's so funny how we plan things out here and then when we actually get there, it's way off. Oh well, the good thing is we got there right?!

I love Izzy's happy, smiling face when you get off BTMR

 

[TheMaxRebo]

man, Izzy does love her stuffed animals ... or rather, not specifically "her" stuffed animals but rather any and all that are in a store ... which, by toddler logic, are, in fact, hers

Dug did a great job detailing the pirate adventure via pictures - so much so I don't feel the need to do it myself now

Wow Izzy looks to be in a great mood post-nap! Hope ETwB worked out well!

 

[Dugette]

Aw love Izzy with the stuffed animals. I love when they just hug and hold them!

She just loves her stuffed animals so much lately! So many hugs and cuddles and kisses...it's just adorable!

I so agree about the Country Bears. What's up with the songs? And how are they even in Disney But I grew up with them, so I'll still check them out every once in a while. And DS seemed to enjoy them and not cry, so that's a definite plus!

Yes, I'm sure we'll be back. It's strange, but it's classic Disney, air-conditioned, and I'm sure Izzy will grow to love it.

I love when I hear stories about families taking their children so young. Looking back I still can't believe we took DS at 8 weeks old! I was talking to someone the other day about Disneyland and she had mentioned wanting to take her 3 year old and her new 7 week old, but wasn't sure how the 7 week old would do. And then I told her we took DS to Disneyland when he was 6 weeks old and it was sooo easy!

I can't believe you took him that young either! I don't think I could have handled Disney myself at that point, much less toting the baby around too. People really were doing a lot of sharing with me about how they approve of babies at WDW on this trip.

I remember reading your little update and giggling and your "plans=hahahaha!" It's so funny how we plan things out here and then when we actually get there, it's way off. Oh well, the good thing is we got there right?!

Very true. Plans are good, but you sure can't get too attached to them with a toddler around.

I love Izzy's happy, smiling face when you get off BTMR

Thanks! She was so happy to see Mommy approaching!

man, Izzy does love her stuffed animals ... or rather, not specifically "her" stuffed animals but rather any and all that are in a store ... which, by toddler logic, are, in fact, hers

Yes, that is exactly how toddler logic works! I remember seeing something online about toddler rules of what it theirs. It amounted to basically, "anything I want is mine, unless it is broken, then it's yours".

Dug did a great job detailing the pirate adventure via pictures - so much so I don't feel the need to do it myself now

Glad to save you some MK time!

Wow Izzy looks to be in a great mood post-nap! Hope ETwB worked out well!

She was in a pretty good mood. Refreshed and ready for more!

 

[Dugette]

So, we were finally on our way into the long-anticipated Enchanted Tales with Belle. This is the attraction that we had not been able to do the day we planned, due to FP+ problems. It was a new one for us and we had heard a lot of good things about it.

We just had to wait a few minutes to get in:



We gathered around and passed through the magical door:



We moved into this room for the actors to be selected:



We look like we’re having a blast :



After the actors were ready, we entered the library:



Not surprisingly, Izzy didn’t want to sit and watch:



Lumiere was pretty cool:



Here was our Belle:



And here was our “Beast”:



Though I’ve heard that they often allow all kids to meet Belle for photos afterwards, they did not for us. Just those that were in the show (which was most of the kids, but obviously Izzy was a bit young to volunteer her). We grabbed a Photopass card anyway, but I probably shouldn’t post dozens of photos of other peoples’ kids.

My general thoughts on this attraction: probably is much cooler than I remember it being and I’d like to do it again someday when Izzy is not a ready-to-run young toddler. Really most of what I remember about this is trying to keep Izzy quiet and near me and making sure she didn’t disrupt the show. I can see how this would be great for a bit older child that wanted to participate (plenty of opportunities for that), but if your kiddo hasn’t been interested in any of the other WDW shows, they likely won’t be interested in this one, even though it’s considered an attraction vs. a show. She didn’t care at all about what was going on. I think now, 6 months later, she MIGHT be more interested – because she likes watching older kids. But probably still not the target audience. However, it was at least good to see what it was all about. The magic mirror door was neat. I wish we’d been able to explore the rooms and check out the Imagineering work, but we didn’t have much of a chance for that. And for all the trouble we went through for a FP+ for this, it didn’t really feel worthwhile. Would I go again? Sure. Would I re-arrange my schedule and wrangle an antsy toddler for it? Nope.

After ETwB, we were headed to see some more princesses. It looks like our plans originally had us meeting Cinderella and a guest from Noon-1pm, but we changed that to a 1:10-2:10pm FP+ for Rapunzel and a Visiting Princess.

Izzy liked roaming the halls of Princess Fairytale Hall:



This was cool:



Waiting in line for Rapunzel:



Hey, look, the coolest wall ever (why, I don’t know, but Izzy deemed it so ):







Well, Izzy was just having SUCH a good time with this wall that a Visiting Princess just had to come see what all the fuss was about:





Such a cute little moment! Izzy got a little bonus meet-and-greet with Snow White….and got to show her the Fairest Wall of All, of course. It was such a sweet, little interaction and Snow White scored big points for that!

Up next: Get all that hair away from me, you crazy Princess!!

 

[Denovagirl]

We are doing Enchanted Tales for the first time this trip so we shall see how Maddie does with it too, she may be more interested in the walls also...

How cool that Snow stopped to see your little princess!?!?!? Pixie dust!!

 

[Imagineer5]

Yeah, i have been one time (out of maybe 4?) that they didn't offer for Aria to go up and get a photo. Now that she is going up on her own, I wonder how AUgust will go. I *know* I won't be able to get her to play a part (ok, 90% sure anyway) but I think I can get her to go up there. If they don't specifically offer, I will definitely ask.

The magic mirror is SO cool!

You confused me for a sec with the cinderella and another princess and changing to rapunzel and another princess - then I realized this was before A&E! Now it's Cinderella & Rapunzel...anyway...the Snow White moment was so sweet! The 2nd princess always seems to be over by herself. I am interested to see her in her new place at the MK on Main St!

Uh oh on Rapunzel!!

 

[amazingact21]

Well, I guess EtwB was a learning experience, and now you know to wait until Izzy's old enough to want to watch the show. That magic mirror does look cool, though.



Awww, what a great surprise in Fairy Tale Hall! . Oh my goodness, that just sounds like such an awesome little Disney moment. Those are the things you can't plan for nor can you explain how special they are to non-Disney fans.

 

[Dugette]

We are doing Enchanted Tales for the first time this trip so we shall see how Maddie does with it too, she may be more interested in the walls also...

I hope Maddie does well with it! Keep in mind that Izzy was only 14.5 months old on this trip, so Maddie will be a bit older and maybe more into it, I hope!

How cool that Snow stopped to see your little princess!?!?!? Pixie dust!!

It was really cool! Such a sweet, unexpected moment to have Snow come over to play with Izzy.

Yeah, i have been one time (out of maybe 4?) that they didn't offer for Aria to go up and get a photo. Now that she is going up on her own, I wonder how AUgust will go. I *know* I won't be able to get her to play a part (ok, 90% sure anyway) but I think I can get her to go up there. If they don't specifically offer, I will definitely ask.

She would be such a cute Beast! But, yeah, I don't know that she'd go for that. It was weird that they didn't invite us up. I almost felt, like...unwelcome? Oh, well.

The magic mirror is SO cool!

That was really neat. I'd like to see that again. In fact, I'd like if they had the attraction open sometimes just for walking through and admiring, without a show.

You confused me for a sec with the cinderella and another princess and changing to rapunzel and another princess - then I realized this was before A&E! Now it's Cinderella & Rapunzel...anyway...the Snow White moment was so sweet! The 2nd princess always seems to be over by herself. I am interested to see her in her new place at the MK on Main St!

Ha ha, yeah, this trip was so long ago now! The princesses have all been rearranged. So, Snow is going to Main Street?

Uh oh on Rapunzel!!

Ah, it's not so bad. Just some kinda funny pictures.

Well, I guess EtwB was a learning experience, and now you know to wait until Izzy's old enough to want to watch the show. That magic mirror does look cool, though.

Exactly. I can see how it's a hit with the elementary school set. We'll get back there someday.

Awww, what a great surprise in Fairy Tale Hall! . Oh my goodness, that just sounds like such an awesome little Disney moment. Those are the things you can't plan for nor can you explain how special they are to non-Disney fans.

Very true. By the way, I feel like you and I are running parallel with our reports. I just went and looked at your update about Rapunzel and Snow again...I'm fairly certain we had the same Snow White, so that explains why we both had great meets with her. However, strangely enough, I think we had different Rapunzels, but they both behaved the same way! Odd.

 

[Dugette]

Imagineer5 and amazingact21 - you guys aren't on the same cruise, are you? I was just noticing that your tickers are one day apart! Probably a coincidence, but just thought I'd check - because that would be awesome and far too much cuteness for one boat.

 

[Dugette]

Soon enough, we had to part with the glorious wall to go meet Rapunzel. This is a mix of Photopass pictures and iPhone pictures, so I’m not sure that they are all in the correct order, but you’ll get the idea:



























So, we had a decent meet with Rapunzel. Parts of it were good, such as the peek-a-boo. But, much like amazingact21’s experience in her TR, Rapunzel was just a bit TOO aggressive with her hair. Poor Izzy probably felt like she was being mocked for having so little hair. At least there's some amusing pictures from it!

Next up, though, was Izzy's wall-admiring-friend Snow White:

















She was great and just super sweet with Izzy. You can tell she likes babies.

With those meet and greets down, it was time for some lunch!

Up next: Lunch! Miscommunication. Transportation issues at the worst time. Fun stuff!

 

[AprilRenee]

Lol what was up with Rapunzel? She was like assaulting izzy with her hair. Lol poor kid. Weird.
And boo on wrangling a toddler in all these shows!!! Tell me you went on some rides next!

 

[Leshaface]

I would probably be the only one interested in our group to see ETwB. DS would like it because, just like you said, they would be interested in the older kids.

Awesome that Snow White came over to see her! Good thing Izzy was loving up on that wall

You can totally tell that she's pretty much pushing her hair into Izzy's face and not really liking not. Not sure why she would press on doing that. Glad Snow White was sweet though.

 

[cindianne320]

Oh my goodness! We were at WDW the same week- my DH and I were there June 11-15! That would have been so fun to meet up in FL even though we both live in MN! Can't wait to read all about it!

ETA-Looking at the Pre-Trip- We WERE in Epcot the same evening as you, though wondering if the rain affected your plans at all...

 

[amazingact21]

Imagineer5 and amazingact21 - you guys aren't on the same cruise, are you? I was just noticing that your tickers are one day apart! Probably a coincidence, but just thought I'd check - because that would be awesome and far too much cuteness for one boat.

We actually don't have an exact date yet. I just picked one in the general area of when we're hoping to go. We can't even book until right before Alex gets back, and even then, my in-laws can only do it if a military or FL RESIDENT discount is released.
However, if we do end up on the same cruise, that would be very cool! Landon would have a friend on board. (And with both of us on a DCL, maybe a 3rd family could be convinced to join....one that has a super cute baby named Izzy. )




What the heck was up with Rapunzel in December??
But oh my goodness, there was one picture of Izzy, where she was looking at Rapunzel like shed lost her mind, and that was absolutely hilarious. Even the baby knew something was off about that princess!


I am glad Snow kind of smoothed things over after that. It does look like we saw the same one. Maybe Snow sees all these babies getting mauled by Rapunzel's hair and knows she has to do damage control.

 

[LuvEeyore]

Love the Snow White interaction. I might be intimidated by Rapunzel and her hair myself. Izzie looks so cute in the Snow White interactions. Love the wall pictures.

 

[TheMaxRebo]

all that trouble to get the FP+ and Izzy would much prefer to Walt Disney Wall Attraction! And now that is an elusive FP+ to get ... so elusive it isn't even offered!

The peek-a-boo with the hair looks really cute but I can see the other parts being a bit too aggressive. Actually a bit surprised she goes that route as some kids are very touch sensitive and could really freak out by that

Snow White is often so sweet with the kids - that interaction with Izzy by the wall is such a great memory!

 

[Dugette]

Lol what was up with Rapunzel? She was like assaulting izzy with her hair. Lol poor kid. Weird.
And boo on wrangling a toddler in all these shows!!! Tell me you went on some rides next!

Ha ha, yes, it was a full hair assault! I don't know what we were thinking with all the shows! Looking back, it seems so foolish, but I guess we kept thinking, "She'll like THIS one!"

I would probably be the only one interested in our group to see ETwB. DS would like it because, just like you said, they would be interested in the older kids.

Yep, older kids are a great source of amusement these days!

Awesome that Snow White came over to see her! Good thing Izzy was loving up on that wall

It was such a sweet, unexpected moment! There we are, just minding our business, waiting in line, loving on walls rotfl, and up comes Snow White to join in!

You can totally tell that she's pretty much pushing her hair into Izzy's face and not really liking not. Not sure why she would press on doing that. Glad Snow White was sweet though.

I can see that maybe some babies find it fun - hair can be fun to play with (and pull on!) It was just too much for Izzy, though.

Oh my goodness! We were at WDW the same week- my DH and I were there June 11-15! That would have been so fun to meet up in FL even though we both live in MN! Can't wait to read all about it!

ETA-Looking at the Pre-Trip- We WERE in Epcot the same evening as you, though wondering if the rain affected your plans at all...

Wow, I wish we'd known!!! We did still go to Epcot that night, though some things were maybe switched around a bit. Aw, that would have been so fun to meet up! Hope you had a good trip and didn't get TOO wet!

We actually don't have an exact date yet. I just picked one in the general area of when we're hoping to go. We can't even book until right before Alex gets back, and even then, my in-laws can only do it if a military or FL RESIDENT discount is released.
However, if we do end up on the same cruise, that would be very cool! Landon would have a friend on board. (And with both of us on a DCL, maybe a 3rd family could be convinced to join....one that has a super cute baby named Izzy. )

Oh, okay. That would be awesome if you ended up together (hers is a 5-night out of Miami). We're tentatively planning a Disney cruise (and WDW) next May. Although we made the cruise deposit, I'm not confident enough in our plans to make a ticker quite yet. But, yes, that would be too fun to have a DIS-toddler-cruise-meet!

What the heck was up with Rapunzel in December??
But oh my goodness, there was one picture of Izzy, where she was looking at Rapunzel like shed lost her mind, and that was absolutely hilarious. Even the baby knew something was off about that princess!

There must have been a "friends of Rapunzel" CM meeting where they touted the benefits of mauling the babies with the hair. So strange! On a side note, that's gotta be rough carrying around that much hair...they probably are just trying to take the strain off their necks by putting the hair on the babies instead.

I am glad Snow kind of smoothed things over after that. It does look like we saw the same one. Maybe Snow sees all these babies getting mauled by Rapunzel's hair and knows she has to do damage control.

I think you are right on! Snow is probably over there cringing and just waiting for her turn to make the babies feel better!

Love the Snow White interaction. I might be intimidated by Rapunzel and her hair myself. Izzie looks so cute in the Snow White interactions. Love the wall pictures.

Aw, thanks! Gotta love those sweet unexpected moments of magic at WDW!

all that trouble to get the FP+ and Izzy would much prefer to Walt Disney Wall Attraction! And now that is an elusive FP+ to get ... so elusive it isn't even offered!

You never know what the toddlers will love, I guess. Awesome show that everyone's raving about? Meh. Wall that nobody's ever noticed before? Winner!

The peek-a-boo with the hair looks really cute but I can see the other parts being a bit too aggressive. Actually a bit surprised she goes that route as some kids are very touch sensitive and could really freak out by that

Yeah, the peek-a-boo was really cute. I like that a lot of the characters play that game (both face and fur), since it's one that Izzy (and probably a lot of little ones) responds really well too. But, yeah, she just went too far with the hair.

Snow White is often so sweet with the kids - that interaction with Izzy by the wall is such a great memory!

Yes, it was super sweet! We weren't expecting anything, then suddenly Snow White is there bonding with Izzy over the awesome wall.

 

[Imagineer5]

LOL I bet Rapunzel just didn't really know what to do, other than play with her hair? IDK very strange. I will say Aria does like her hair? But anyway the Snow White interaction was cute.

 

[Dugette]

LOL I bet Rapunzel just didn't really know what to do, other than play with her hair? IDK very strange. I will say Aria does like her hair? But anyway the Snow White interaction was cute.

It did start off with cute intentions...trying to see what Izzy would look like with hair. But, clearly, she didn't like it and Rapunzel should have stuck with Peek-a-Boo and not pressed on. Oh, well. Not really a big deal, just sort-of odd.

Snow was so sweet, though!

 

[Dugette]

We left off having met some princesses and ready for lunch. Our original plan (in the PTR) was to have lunch, then meet the princesses between 12-1pm, then head back to the Poly for a nap and maybe a swim before getting ready for our photo session at 4pm. However, we had juggled the plans around with Izzy taking an early nap and ended up meeting princesses with a 1:10-2:10pm time slot and still needed lunch. We headed to our planned destination: Columbia Harbor House.

We wheeled the stroller inside and had a look around. We knew that we wanted to sit upstairs, but we weren’t sure if there were high chairs up there or not. Dug said he’d go check. So, he climbed the stairs and I stood there with Izzy in the stroller, near the entrance/bottom of the stairway. I waited. And waited. And waited some more. How long could it take to see if there is a high chair available??

I texted Dug, “Are you coming back?” at 1:56pm. Waited. Waited some more. No response. Strange – I knew he had his phone and probably was even looking at it, knowing him. I was getting very frustrated. It was late and we were hungry, but I was also stuck and in the way. I couldn’t get a hold of him (I think I may have tried to call him too, but I can’t remember). I couldn’t just run up the stairs and leave Izzy and/or her stroller there. Cast Members seemed to be acting like I was in the way, but I didn’t want to be gone when Dug came back down. It was all just very uncomfortable.

I finally decided to cut my losses and texted Dug, “I’m going to go park the stroller since I don’t know what’s going on and I’m in the way.” Not sure why I didn’t do that sooner. Probably too tired and hungry to think of it, I guess.

So, I went out and found the stroller parking. Got Izzy out, gathered up her dining gear, and headed inside and upstairs. And there was Dug. Sitting at a table, relaxing without a care in the world. With a high chair ready, though.

I have to admit, this was not one of my finer moments. I was SOOOO upset with him at that point. Why had he not wondered why I was gone so long? What did he think I was doing? Did he think I was taking care of Izzy and also bringing up food for him? Why wasn’t he helping with anything? Why did he expect me to do everything while he just sat and relaxed? When I got up to his table, some version of all that came out. I think I might have gotten some attention from nearby tables for laying into him (quietly, but still). I really didn’t care, though. Looking back now, 6 months later, it seems kind-of silly. But, as any mom who has felt like they were on baby-duty 24/7 can tell you, that sort of thing will really grate on your nerves – seeing the other parent enjoying some alone time and just assuming that you will do all the work.

One thing that contributed to this problem was that Dug was not receiving some of my text messages during the trip – including these ones. I don’t know if we figured that out after this incident or not until later. I’m still not sure exactly what was going wrong, but iMessages weren’t coming through, only standard texts. Very odd. If those had gone through, this whole situation would have been diffused much sooner. Oh, well.

After dropping Izzy with him and asking him to get her set up, I went down to get our food. I needed a few minutes away to calm down.

He took some pictures while I was away:









Gotta love that upstairs seating area. Generally pretty quiet and empty and great window views!

I went downstairs and got in what appeared to be the shortest line. And, of course, it turned out to be the slowest line. Hate when that happens. I think we had previously discussed what we wanted, so I eventually got up to the CM and ordered. I also remembered a tidbit from JC040404’s TR: there were Mickey straws for cheap here. I got one for Izzy, figuring she’d get a kick out of it. And, sure enough, she thought it was great fun (empty cup, by the way):



We still have the straw. We keep it in her mealtime bag for a fun distraction, if needed.

I got the tuna sandwich, as I had been planning:



Very good! You can also see here that we got a side of broccoli for me/Izzy to share and a cobbler for dessert.

Dug got this. Maybe shrimp? Not sure now:



He also got some clam chowder:



Izzy munched on a bit of both of our meals:



Once we finished up, we needed to hightail it on out of there so that we could get back to our resort and get cleaned up for our photo shoot.

So, naturally, we ran into the parade on the way out, which made it difficult to get anywhere:



We managed to esape the MK, though. And then we saw this:



Um, well, that looks unusually and suspiciously empty.

If you look closely, you can see that the monorail platform is roped off. Yes, closed. Both the express and resort lines. I actually just looked this up now, since we never knew why, and found a post that said a construction crew cut a cable. Yikes.

So, as you can imagine, this was not a happy moment. A big reason we stayed at the Poly was for the convenient transportation via monorail. And this was a time that we really needed it, as we really didn’t have any time to spare and had an important appointment to keep. Ugh.

We checked the boat docks and found that the Poly boat had a ridiculously long line. The TTC boat looked like it was going to be crowded, but we decided that we could likely make it on there and walk back faster than waiting for the Poly boats. So, we took our first ride on the TTC ferry. We’d never needed to ride it, since we had never rented a car at WDW. So, we enjoyed the view:



Dug called the Disney Event Photography people to let them know we’d probably be late, due to the monorail being down. They said to just get there as soon as we could.

Izzy nodded off during the ride:



Guess it was a two-nap day (though she was normally down to one by then).

Pretty view:



In retrospect, I think we were probably lucky that we left while the parade was still going. I bet it was a madhouse afterwards.

Hi, Poly:



We unloaded at the TTC and walked the path back to the Poly. We were already late at that point, but wanted to at least change and freshen up minimally for the pictures. So, we swung back to the room, cleaned ourselves up quickly, got Izzy up, and got into our photo session attire.

Then we were off to find our photographer, hoping for the best.

Up next: Um, photos?