*COMPLETE* "You know he won't remember!" - 9 wk old baby's 1st visit to the World!

[DisneyParkLover]

When I left off, we had headed back to the room for a quick rest. Being as this was our first day trying the "go back to the room" method, we did not leave ourselves nearly enough time. So it was a very quick rest indeed! I think we rested somewhere between 1/2 hour to an hour. First (as usual), we got Luke ready.

Can you guess by his outfit where we are headed?

If you are a good DISer, you have guessed by his outfit that we are headed to...

Epcot! We have reservations with M and her family at Coral Reef. But first we have to stop for some Photopass pictures!

If you zoom in, you can see how thrilled Luke was to be here!

We get to the restaurant just in time for our early dinner reservation (I believe the reservation was for 4:20?). M had already checked us in, and it was PACKED in there! So we sat on the floor along the wall. We tried to keep the boys (my one and her three) entertained, but they were antsy and we had a long wait here. This was actually our longest wait for any reservation this trip. I think we waited about 30 minutes after we arrived (and M and her family had checked us in about 10 minutes before we got there).

Finally, we were led into the restaurant. I was hoping for a table close to the aquarium, but due to our large group size we were taken to a table at the very top. I actually couldn't see the aquarium at all from my seat. Oh well, I guess we will just have to go there again! Here is one of those photo fails I mentioned. I was certain I had taken a picture of the restaurant, but I did not. I also don't have any photos of my food. My mom did take photos of her food, so I will post those.

My mom and DH both had the pan-seared seasonal catch (it was snapper this night) and both declared it delicious. But I ordered the lobster orecchiette pasta, and it was the clear winner! It was a lot of food, so I had a little to share with each of them. No clue what M and her family ordered, but they have been there before and they have always enjoyed their choices. For dessert, DH and my mom picked the same thing again. Both went with...

the Bailey's and Jack Daniel's Mousse. I ordered the Chocolate Wave. If I won dinner with my pick, then they won dessert! Both of the selections were awesome, though. As we were finishing up the meal, though, I felt my entire lap get flooded! Not a little damp - totally soaked! Another digression to follow...

At home, we use cloth diapers and love them! They really work great and we don't have any leakage. But we didn't want to have to carry them with us on vacation, so we brought a few packs of disposables we were gifted. After the arrival day explosion plus today's flood, we made an unscheduled Wal-Mart stop to buy a different brand (thinking it must just be that brand). Unfortunately, this did not make a difference and basically every poo and several pees resulted in complete outfit changes! (And I have held previous jobs as a nanny, daycare teacher, and NICU nurse - so I know how to put on a diaper!) Oh well - we just had to do laundry mid-trip! Okay, back to the report.

So I had just gotten completely flooded! M (being a pro with 3 boys of her own), helped me to the bathroom for a diaper change and complete outfit change for Luke. Sadly, I did not bring an outfit change for me. And because of how he was sitting, it looked like I had wet my pants! No amount of patting it with paper towels made a difference. Fortunately, we had not planned to stay after dinner. So we packed up and left the park and headed back to POR.

One last picture of my mom and Luke at Coral Reef...

This is obviously pre-outfit change!

And one more of him at POR (post-outfit change)!

My husband's football team (the St. Louis Rams) were playing this night, so I (being the amazing wife that I am) agreed to drop him off at the resort so he could watch the game while Luke, my mom, and I went to Wal-Mart. (And this was extra sweet of me considering that everyone knows the best football team is actually the Green Bay Packers! )

For those paying attention, you can see we only hit about 4 rides today. Since we were used to touring "commando style", this was a big change for us! We really realized this first day that between rest periods, nursing, and diaper changes it was going to be a much different trip than we were used to! You will have to stay tuned to see what we thought of this new approach to Disney!

Next update: Second park day - my family is reunited, two parks, and our first taste of F&W!

 

[DisneyParkLover]

My dad arrived at the hotel very early this morning (maybe 1 or 2 a.m.?). He had taken a late flight after work, then taken the Magical Express to the hotel, and finally had a CM take him by golf cart to our room. Nobody besides Luke slept great this night because we were all sleeping lightly so we would be able to answer the door, phone, etc. for my dad. After he arrived, we said our hellos and then we all finally went to bed for real. Unfortunately, Luke didn't get the memo about sleeping in, so he was up and ready for the day around 6. So we all started this day pretty tired. But we drag ourselves out of bed and get ready. Luke gets ready first of course.

This outfit is another of the ones M bought us.

After we get ready, we head out the door for the first of two parks that day. We are headed to Animal Kingdom! We have lunch reservations with M and her family at Yak and Yeti. We have Luke all ready with his hat and his fans for the hottest park.

We head in and go straight back to the safari. These photos are on my mom's camera, so I will have to come back and add them. We had a great safari, and Luke enjoyed looking at all the animals.

After the safari, we headed over to another of our favorites - Everest! We all took turns watching Luke and riding. Then we met up with M and her family. Her oldest son wanted to ride, but her younger two were too small. So she and her DH took the little ones on one of the trails, while her older son stayed with us and we rode a couple more times. Below is the evidence from our 6 rides on Everest. (And it actually may have been 7. I only see one photo with M's son, and I'm pretty sure he rode with us twice.)

And here are a couple pictures of my parents watching Luke while we took turns riding.

After tackling Everest, it was time for our reservation at Yak and Yeti! We checked in, and I found a quiet corner to nurse Luke. After our Coral Reef experience, I expected it to take awhile. So I was surprised when they called us just a few minutes later! I stopped nursing and then had to finish after we were seated. This was my first experience nursing in a more public place. I was super self-conscious, but I used a cover and was very discreet. This actually worked pretty well. And he was a happy boy during lunch since he had just eaten. My dad is on a low carb diet, so the chef came out and discussed the options with him. We were very impressed when they did this at restaurants. After hearing the options my DH, my dad, and I all ordered the Shaoxing Steak and Shrimp.

You can see that my dad's (top) was altered slightly for his diet. My mom went for the Malaysian Seafood Curry.

Everyone was very pleased with their entrees. My parents were not particularly excited about this reservation when we originally booked it (Asian food is not their favorite), but we have all agreed we will definitely be going back! Based on DISers' recommendations, for dessert we ordered four orders of...

the Fried Wontons!

My dad didn't have a lot of dessert options, so he just got an order of these for the rest of us to split. You DISers did not steer us wrong. These were AWESOME! We agreed this was the best dessert of the trip!

It was at this lunch that we took the one and only group picture of us and M's family (and you can't see either of the babies ).

Guess we better go back and try again.


Next up: the rest of Animal Kingdom!

 

[I_Luv_Stitch]

Thank you - he really is a pretty happy guy! And I was disappointed that going back to the room didn't work well! It WAS cool and quiet - but it was just a huge undertaking. Between the walk to the car, loading the baby in the carseat, packing up the stroller and all the other stuff, driving back to POR, unloading the baby, and walking to the room - it was easily over an hour long process. And then it took just as long on the way back. So we killed over 2 hours of the rest time in transit! Plus it made us even more exhausted to do all that additional walking. Oh well! I think next trip instead of naps we might try rest days. No parks, just swim and relax.

That sounds too stressful!
Being English, we love the water parks, so with our mid day breaks for the first couple of days we use the water parks as down time!
You're experience at Yak and Yeti sounds lovely, I can't wait to try it for the first time in July!

 

[Toystory05]

Great trip report!

 

[DisneyParkLover]

That sounds too stressful!
Being English, we love the water parks, so with our mid day breaks for the first couple of days we use the water parks as down time!
You're experience at Yak and Yeti sounds lovely, I can't wait to try it for the first time in July!

The water parks are a good idea. We have never used the water parks option because or seems like we always have plenty to fill our days with just the 4 main parks. How many water park days do you get with that option?

 

[DisneyParkLover]

Great trip report!

Thank you and thanks for joining in!

 

[DisneyParkLover]

Without further ado, I present the promised safari photos! I held Luke on this ride, so my mom took all these pictures. (But if you really like them, I will take credit for them! )

Love this one with the baby elephant!

Look, the elusive cheetah!

Not the best photo, but proof we saw the female lion...

and the male lion!

Pretty awesome safari, right? We saw the cheetah, both lions, and an adorable baby elephant. And Luke had a good time, so it was a complete win in mommy's book!

Next update: back to the regularly scheduled trip report!

 

[MatoMany]

Loving the report so far! Your son is adorable..

I know some won't agree but to me the easiest time to travel with a child is when they are itty bitty. They basically eat and sleep. My oldest went to Disneyland at 2 weeks on comparison she was 2 yo on her first trip to Disney World and she was a HANDFUL. I did an international move with 3 children (4, 2 and 2 months) and the baby was by far the easiest to move. He napped, ate, napped, ate.. My older two were handfuls.. So the younger the better in my eyes. It also gets them use to traveling younger and its easier to take them on trips.

I LOVE cloth diapers. I can't find a brand of disposables that hold more or leak less than my cloth.

 

[DisneyParkLover]

Loving the report so far! Your son is adorable..

I know some won't agree but to me the easiest time to travel with a child is when they are itty bitty. They basically eat and sleep. My oldest went to Disneyland at 2 weeks on comparison she was 2 yo on her first trip to Disney World and she was a HANDFUL. I did an international move with 3 children (4, 2 and 2 months) and the baby was by far the easiest to move. He napped, ate, napped, ate.. My older two were handfuls.. So the younger the better in my eyes. It also gets them use to traveling younger and its easier to take them on trips.

I LOVE cloth diapers. I can't find a brand of disposables that hold more or leak less than my cloth.

Thank you - we think he's adorable too! And thanks for joining in!

I agree that this was an easy age. Most of our friends thought we were CRAZY. But we weren't going for him, we were going for us and just thought this would be a good time with his age and my leave. It would be MUCH harder to
try to take him now (almost 7 months), as he is no longer content to just be held/worn all day.

The cloth diapers are another choice that gets me one of these reactions from most people: or . But we love them! Disney really reaffirmed that for me. Those disposables just didn't contain well!

 

[schmass]

I'm enjoying your trip report! Luke is so adorable!

I leave Thursday night for my 9 month-old's first trip - can't wait! I'm not sure if I could have handled Disney World when he was 9 weeks - you are brave!

 

[DisneyParkLover]

I'm enjoying your trip report! Luke is so adorable!

I leave Thursday night for my 9 month-old's first trip - can't wait! I'm not sure if I could have handled Disney World when he was 9 weeks - you are brave!

Thank you! Glad to have you along! He was actually surprisingly easy for the trip. I will do a separate post on traveling with a young infant at the end, but I can honestly say that this was actually a really good age.

 

[jedimeg16]

Joining in! My youngest was 13 months old on his first trip to Disney and my oldest was almost 3, so I understand the questions about why we were going if they weren't going to remember. But I think we got lucky and they have a couple of actual memories.

Luke is adorable! He makes me long for the time when my sons were newborns.

 

[emmysmommy]

Thank you for sharing your TR link! I'm so glad that I'm reading along.

Luke is seriously adorable!!

What a travel day you had with the tire and the rear hatch - sorry you missed Wishes that first night.

And one more of him at POR (post-outfit change)!

My husband's football team (the St. Louis Rams) were playing this night, so I (being the amazing wife that I am) agreed to drop him off at the resort so he could watch the game while Luke, my mom, and I went to Wal-Mart. (And this was extra sweet of me considering that everyone knows the best football team is actually the Green Bay Packers! )

I must agree with you about the Packers! We are a Packer loving household.

Your travails with baby poo and pee brings back some memories of over 30 years ago when my oldest was a baby. Back then I used cloth diapers but more because I had a service for a "gift". Gotta love those nursed babies who have no problem creating messes sometimes! Oops! I can't count the times that I've been messed on from my 4 kids.

Based on DISers' recommendations, for dessert we ordered four orders of...

the Fried Wontons!

My dad didn't have a lot of dessert options, so he just got an order of these for the rest of us to split. You DISers did not steer us wrong. These were AWESOME! We agreed this was the best dessert of the trip!

I LOVE those wontons!! The best thing in AK in my opinion!

 

[emmysmommy]

I'm not very good at explaining technical things but let me see if I can help you with creating chapter links.

You see where there is a post number in the upper right hand corner of every reply? This one should be #34.

Click on that number which has a hyperlink.

Is will open that unique post and you can copy/paste the URL from your browser address thingy... so for example my post #33 looks like this when I copy/paste that address: http://disboards.com/showpost.php?p=50744523&postcount=33

You can then copy/paste that URL into a Chapter Links section. You can add that to the bottom of post #1 or wherever you want people to find your chapter links.

I hope this makes sense. There is a test area of the forums that you can mess around and test it. It is found here.

 

[Wood Nymph]

I just found your trip report and it brings back a lot of memories of traveling with our children. I remember how easy it was to find lots of places to nurse the baby. Long, dark rides were especially nice, but I appreciated the Baby Care centers the most of all. I also used cloth diapers, except on vacation.

We had the fp for BoG lunch and I agree, it made all the research on the Dis worth it. I love the braised pork. We also ate at Coral Reef and the Mahi Mahi was really good.

I'm wondering why you didn't use the park buses. Is it because you wanted to keep the baby in a carseat?

By the way, Luke is adorable. My youngest grandchild is named Luke.

 

[junie18]

I love your TR and your family is adorable. I love all of your son's outfit. We took our soon at 8 months for his 1st visit and it was great. Much easier than later that year when he was walking and had more opinions! Can't wait to hear more about your trip!

 

[DisneyParkLover]

Joining in! My youngest was 13 months old on his first trip to Disney and my oldest was almost 3, so I understand the questions about why we were going if they weren't going to remember. But I think we got lucky and they have a couple of actual memories.

Luke is adorable! He makes me long for the time when my sons were newborns.

Thank you! Glad to have you along! While Luke won't have any memories of this trip, I will. And there were lots of things he really enjoyed and I will cherish those memories!

 

[DisneyParkLover]

I'm not very good at explaining technical things but let me see if I can help you with creating chapter links.

You see where there is a post number in the upper right hand corner of every reply? This one should be #34.

Click on that number which has a hyperlink.

Is will open that unique post and you can copy/paste the URL from your browser address thingy... so for example my post #33 looks like this when I copy/paste that address: http://disboards.com/showpost.php?p=50744523&postcount=33

You can then copy/paste that URL into a Chapter Links section. You can add that to the bottom of post #1 or wherever you want people to find your chapter links.

I hope this makes sense. There is a test area of the forums that you can mess around and test it. It is found here.

Thanks for following along! And thank you for teaching me how to do the chapter links (they are now in the first post). Definitely good to have another "Packer backer" on board! . We were very sad to miss Wishes as it is definitely my favorite show and we never got to see it this trip (although I did have something planned later in the trip to help ease the blow). Love the fried wontons - would go back just for those!

 

[DisneyParkLover]

I just found your trip report and it brings back a lot of memories of traveling with our children. I remember how easy it was to find lots of places to nurse the baby. Long, dark rides were especially nice, but I appreciated the Baby Care centers the most of all. I also used cloth diapers, except on vacation.

We had the fp for BoG lunch and I agree, it made all the research on the Dis worth it. I love the braised pork. We also ate at Coral Reef and the Mahi Mahi was really good.

I'm wondering why you didn't use the park buses. Is it because you wanted to keep the baby in a carseat?

By the way, Luke is adorable. My youngest grandchild is named Luke.

Thanks for the compliment and for reading along! Luke is a great name (but I am biased! ). We really loved BOG and found it to be a good QS option in MK. Would love to try it for dinner sometime! We considered taking the buses but preferred having Luke in a carseat. Plus we thought driving would save us time since we didn't have to wait on the bus or make any extra stops. I don't know if it actually saved any time, though!

 

[Marsheliz]

Great update!
About how much were the entrees at BOG? We are hoping to try next trip.