First Trip With Baby and Much Pixie Dust ! ! ! ! (pics included) !

[IWISHFORDISNEY]

Well we just got back from 3 days in Vero Beach and 3 days in the world at AKL. I was hesitant to upgrade prior to my trip. We were booked at POP and I upgraded 2 days prior to my arrival. Let me just say the upgrade was well worth the money!!!! More detail lie ahead!!!! Bare with me this is my first trip report.

Cast

Me 38 Long time Disney goer
DH 40 I turned him into a disney man long ago
DS 18 mo. First trip to the world.

We set up our trip for the first three days in Vero and were driving 16 hours with an 18 month old to get there due to DH's fear of flying. Well we got into Florida a day early and I called the Vero resort at 11pm from Daytona and asked if we could check in a day early. Here comes some of that Pixie Dust......No problem maam we will have your room ready when you arrive. That was sooooo nice to hear after 14 hours in the car with a baby.

We finally arrive at the Vero Beach resort. They checked us in within 5 minutes and put us into a Deluxe Ocean View room. The bedrails were already in the room and they had the air turned on for us. We had a mickey head towel animal on our bed with a welcome sign.....Swoon....Disney Magic!

We woke up in the morning after a good nights sleep. This was the view from our balcony.

The room was number 2221. It was clean and in good shape. The maid service was excellent and left towel animals every day. I didnt manage to get a picture because my DS kept taking them the moment we walked into the room. She also lined up his pooh and cars on the pillows each day. So cute.

Here are a few shots of the hotel and the kiddie pool area and put put course.

So we did some house hunting and enjoyed 3 days at the beach/pool. It was a very fun and relaxing time for us. The resort is wonderful. The food was great. We ate dinner one night at the Ocean Grill (an upscale seafood restaurant) and the others at the resort. Very good service and tasty food.

Onto Disney for day 4 of the Magic.......

We arrived at the AKL at 10am and were greeted with very friendly staff at the entrance. DH stayed with the car and the bell hop to get the luggage taken care of while I went into the lobby. I waited in line for about 15 minutes for my turn at the front desk. I had a very friendly CM named Michael who checked us in. *take out the pixie dust again* He noticed I and DS were wearing our Micky shirts and showered us with gifts. He gave DS coloring books, crayons, comic mag, and a cars plastic toy. He welcomed our son for his first trip and gave us our room key.

By this time DH and the bell hop were waiting for us with the luggage. Side Note* We had upgraded from POP to a standard view room at the AKL for only 160 bucks more 2 days prior to arrival* I get to the room drop off the luggage and think this room is really nice. What to my wondering eyes does appear****** The most excellent surprise of all****much pixie dust****

WE WERE UPGRADED TO A DELUXE ROOM WITH A POOL VIEW . The giraffe and Zebra savannah viewing area were just to the left of our room. We had the best of both worlds a pool view with the savannah just outside our front door. Tears came to my eyes, I have never been treated so nice by anyone in my entire life. It was like hitting the Disney lotto. Our room was 2468. (Who did we appreciate Michael,Michael ,Michael!!! ) This was a king bed with a pull out couch and handicap accessable room. It worked well and the kiddo loved the view of the pool. He also banged on the door every morning saying g-rafff g-raffff g-raffff.

Here are some pics of the room.

Savannah view to the left of our front door

Room and pool view.

We headed over to Epcot and ate dinner on the run that evening. Extra Magic hours were in effect. DS did great on the rides we took him on. He loved the Nemo turtle talk and the Manatee tank. He deemed the Manatee to be big swimming dogs. Go figure he is 18 months old. Dog mama dog mama, look dogs. We stayed there for a couple of hours. We were supposed to eat at Boma but the lady messed up our beeper and after waiting 40 minutes we decided to eat on the run becasue no one would be able to tolerate our son at the table next to them. Once I fed the troops we were off. We had a very pleasant meal at the CS in AKL and had snacks on the run throughout Epcot. The rice cream, patries in France, and fish and chips were all great. Yumm.....

Our next day was spent in the pool and it was so nice and very relaxing. AKL has a zero entry pool which the baby loved. The pool alone made me fall in love with this resort. I must add I didnt like this place the first time I stayed here but this trip has convinced me it is now one of my favorites.

Pool pics....
DH an DS goofing off.

Zero entry area just outside our room.

We finally got to eat at Boma that evening and it was not a dissappointment. The baby loved all the food. Every thing was tasty and well seasoned. The soups were awesome. So were all the desserts. I think DS must have ate 10 blueberry tarts. We love this place to eat. Service was fast and very friendly. Definately a must for our November trip.

Day 3 to come and more fun in the world..........

 

[IWISHFORDISNEY]

Continued.......
Up and at em for an early breakfast buffett at again Boma. This was just as good as the dinner the night before. I am not sure which meal is better. Tough call. So I must say breakfast is a must at Boma too in November.

Our last day we spent at MK and it was very fun. The new POC was cool. DS had a blast in Fantasy land. His favorite ride just like mommy is small world. I have loved this ride since I was a child. Back to the resort for a nap and some shopping/swimming. Then we had dinner at Crystal Palace. Ds loved the characters and kept petting Tigger his fav.

The electric parade was awesome, we had curbside seats and DS loved this parade. So much so that he took off down the parade route after Nemo. The security kindly stated get your child maam. LIKE I EXSPECTED MY SON TO BOLT AFTER NEMO!!! It was all in good fun. I cant exspect to go on vacation without making a spectacle of myself at least once. We ended the night with wishes and went to bed for our long journey home the next day. Once again Disney has given us many fond memories to cherish forever.

A few pics of MK and us.....

Thanks for reading and looking. And a very big thanks for all the tips everyone gave on this board. It made our trip even more magical. Next trip round 2 BWV in November.....

 

[pumba]

always great to be in Disney for the first glimpse from a babies eyes. Thanks so much for your report and photos

 

[kathymc]

thanks for sharing - nice upgrade too!

 

[ely3857]

Good trip, Great pictures



Jodie

 

[kimwim8]

Great report and thanks for sharing the pics! Your son looks like he had a BLAST! And how awesome that you recieved all of that pixie dust!!

 

[Disfan3]

thanks for the report and great pics

 

[daisy_77]

Great report! Thank you for sharing! Glad to hear you had pixie dust at check-in-that is AWESOME!
BTW, your son is adorable!

 

[IWISHFORDISNEY]

Thank You everyone for your comments and I forgot to add we loved the Dole whip or at least what I got to try the baby claimed it as his after one bite. We also had the shaved ice in Japan and that was way yummy too!!!! We are just now finishing the last of the patries we brought home from France. November will not be here soon enough.

 

[emh1129]

Great trip report! Thanks for sharing

 

[SuAnne]

Loved your report and the pictures

 

[Tanya90210]

Thanks for sharing... You have a really cute family ...... that pool looks awesome!!

 

[michygoomy]

DOH! Sorry I missed this when you first posted it! Great report , though I have to remind you how you talked DOWN AK before MY trip.

I didn't realize you got to ride the new POC! More details? It was closed when I was there.

I hope you don't mind---I brighted up that pic of you an Ethan a bit. It's just too cute to not see better!

 

[IWISHFORDISNEY]

Mich once again thanks for fixing my picture. Yeah I must admit my first trip to AKL was not all that great and I figured out why. First we had drove all night to get there and I slept most of the first day. I smoked at the time and my room was on a savannah that was not all that appealing to me. The Uzima savannah I think it was. Third I was just bidding my time until we checked into BWV with the rest of the family.

Second time around. Had sleep. Just us and no family coming later in the week. Non smoking room with free upgrade. Had kiddo and he loved loved loved the animals. Totally different trip. Plus there were a ton of things for Ethan to do at the resort and we acutally used the pool this time.

I must admit that I must listen to you wiser disney travelers. This being my first trip with baby was a whole new experience. No commando trips for some time to come. Now Mich I finally understand why you went for 10 days. It is almost neccesary when you have little ones because there is way more down time.

Who Hoo AKL here we come in 2 more months. Counting the days. BTW we changed our November trip to AKL CL from BWV after this trip.

 

[firkat]

Hello. I just stumbled onto your report. Thank you very much! We will be going to WDW soon with our 3 children, including the youngest DS18months. Curious if you have any specific suggestions, as we have never really travelled with him just yet. Was there anything you were really glad you did or anything you would do differently next time?

 

[michygoomy]

LOL, I was just teasing you about AK. It's amazing what different trips to the same place can do. You're making me want to try it! But I have to try WL after my last trip! But I need more money! LOL!

firkat--I can give you a couple. I did Disney with 3, youngest 17 months at the time (see woefully un-updated trip report in my siggy). Here are some things that I found invaluable:

* Disposable sippys! Sometimes I re-used them, but it was nice to just throw away if I didn't feel like washing it or if it was sitting with milk in it too long.
* Clear diaper bag. My MIL bought me one before the trip and it made it SOOOOO much easier to get through security. At one point the guard held it up for everyone to see!
* Disposable bigs & forks & spoons. Made meals easy.
* Stroller rain cover for those expected downpours.
* Stroller sun shade to protect that fair baby skin.
* Afternoon breaks were a must. Sometimes DH would stay back and nap with the baby while I took the kids to the pool That way DH didn't get cranky either.


Have a magical trip!

 

[IWISHFORDISNEY]

firkat my tips are a huge box of disposable bibs.
Definately those throw away sippies, esp for AKL they dont allow straws.
Rain cover for stroller.

Afternoon naps were a must for us. Otherwise you were not eating dinner due to cranky toddler tantrums. We have never had to deal with this before and now I know naps are a must !!!! One day of no nap was enough for us to learn a valuble lesson.

Pick a resort you like. DS loved the animals. Even though we are not on the monorail line we can just hang at the hotel and let him do the kids activities if we need some down time. So that won out over monorail access. Alot of people will suggest monorail access for kids who need naps but we found the resort amenities for the kiddo were more important.

As they say to each his own. This was our first trip with baby and it went fairly smoothly. Let hope all is well in November.

 

[IWISHFORDISNEY]

LOL, I was just teasing you about AK. It's amazing what different trips to the same place can do. You're making me want to try it! But I have to try WL after my last trip! But I need more money! LOL!

QUOTE]


Mich you are to funny. I guess that is why you should never read only one review. We lurve AKL but want to try WL or Poly next trip in 2008 for the big 40.

 

[meloneyb21]

Awww, nice trip report and your DS is so cute! He reminds me of the baby on Meet The Fockers .