I actually just squealed! Baby girl's 1st trip!~Sept '12 AoA~Day 6 and single digits

[gellybean]

Day 2 – Magic Kingdom ~ A Tradition Years in the Making

Plans in a nutshell:

• Breakfast at Landscapes of Flavor
• Magic Kingdom all day - IASW first!
• Lunch Ressie at Liberty Tree Tavern 12:45pm
• Afternoon Break
• Parade and Wishes!
• Casey's and/or Landscapes for Dinner

I think the Lion King room in LoF is gonna be my favorite, for sure!

Details:
My very first ride was IASW, as was my mom's and sister's, husband's, and boys'. So it was a pretty big deal for me to have it be Violet's first ride. I have gotten over my tradition of it having to be the first ride of every trip. Sometimes, it just doesn't work out for MK to be the first park on your first day. But this trip, we are braving a higher crowded rated day, so that we can continue the tradition of first rides EVER being IASW! I do a little happy dance in my head everytime I think of Violet on IASW the first time. Yes, she'll be a little young but I still think watching her reaction is gonna be one of those memories I cherish forever.

As far as the rest of our touring plans, it gets a little difficult to predict how our day will go. I realize that higher crowd levels in September might not be the same as say July or December, but still. Contingency plans abound!

Rides we would like to hit this day: HM, Splash, BTMRR, PoC. If timing works out great, and the lines aren't long then we will ride as much as we can cover. We hope to get there fairly early and make the loop from Fantasyland, to Liberty Square, Adventureland or Frontierland depending on Fast Pass windows and return times for BTMRR and Splash, shortcut back for our lunch ressie at LTT.

My lunch plans :

DROOL!


Then we'll either head back to the hotel or redemn our Fast Passes. This is where the new FP policy is throwing me off a bit. We can't just decide to wait til we get back to ride the FP rides... and we have to be careful that our lunch ressie isn't smack dab in the middle of the return times.

We do know we need an afternoon break. It will most likely still be really warm. Addie will need a nap and we will all need a break from the heat. We may try to take the boys to the pool, although I do have a weak spot for after dark swimming at WDW. No sunscreen!! We may do both! Who knows!

After our midday break, we will head back into MK and depending on timing, return to our FP window rides, or head over to a different area we hadn't covered in the morning. We might ride the train around to check out the new Fantasyland behind the scenes stuff. But we will definitely be parked on Main Street in plenty of time to get good seats for the MSEP. We only have one parade/fireworks viewing opportunity in MK (because of MNSSHP on our second MK day) and we definitely want to take in the parade and WISHES! We will most likely grab a seat at one of the tables in front of The Plaza after the parade, order a snack from Casey's and wait for Wishes. Wishes made the top five must dos for all of our lists so we really hope weather and kids permit that we get to see the fireworks this evening!

Closing time bus mass exodus and then back to our room! We may pick up something more to eat at Landscapes. We may split up and some of us go to the arcade and some to the pool. We may hit the showers and crash for an early night in. We will see how it goes!! So many options!


DISCLAIMER: As always, when traveling with small children any and all plans could completely fly out the window. And that’s ok!

 

[gellybean]

The Nemo Suites really do look bright and fun!!

They do don't they?! I'm so glad we changed. I know we'll be glad to explore all the areas, but the Nemo rooms look awesome and it's such a good location!

I think the nemo suites look awesome. Just today I was looking through a tour and noticed the indoor corridors. How cool is that? I mean... the deluxes are the only ones with that so this is super cool that Disney made these suites with them.

I will make sure to let you know when I start a PTR.

I too usually am a pretty positive person... but every now an again it all catches up to me. When dd had to be readmitted last summer... it was one of those moments where I was not in my best form. Oddly enough though, when she had to go to the ER just two days before we were about to fly out for our December trip... then I was mostly calm and like "well, we will just deal with whatever we have to"

I think the indoor corridors are gonna be awesome!! Can't wait til you start a PTR!

It does catch up with me occasionally... we're human. We have to process it all so we can be there for our kiddos when they need us!! But it is those moments of calm that I am thankful for most. My mom likes to say 'we do what we have to do' and it's been a big mantra of mine since Violet's diagnosis !

When I read your bulleted list about the stroller breaking the x-ray machine, I chuckled out loud thinking you were just giving it some dramatic flair...but you were serious! Which makes it even funner!

But yet that has to be ANNOYING at the same time!

Sounds like a lovely first evening to me! I look forward to your reviews of the AoA eats.

We totally break the x-ray machine EVERY.single.TIME. We broke it so badly on our last trip to Duke, we were hiding in the food court, hoping no one would notice us when they were racing to their gates to make their flight because we shut down the line for so long.

I am vowing to take MORE pictures this trip! FOOD will be photographed!

Joining in! I came over from my PTR and can't wait to follow along with you.

Your boys are adorable, and little Addie ... what a blessing. She is precious.

Happy planning!

Thank you! Planning is so much a part of me!! So happy to be doing it for a Disney trip!!

AoA looks like so much fun. I would rather be in a nemo suite than a cars suite too. I keep looking at the little mermaid rooms. They look so cute.

We are very excited to be staying at AoA!! Nemo is gonna rock! Little mermaid rooms will be awesome when we are there without our extended family!! Can't wait to stay there when Violet is older and has gotten to watch the movies!

Coming over from Amy's PTR. You'll be arriving the day after we leave!! That totally stinks. So excited that you'll be staying at AoA....it looks amazing!!!

I have a PTR of my own if you want to check it out. I need to update it...probably get to it tomorrow.

Aww!! We will just miss you!! I will definitely be heading over to you PTR now that I'm back on the DIS some more. Two harddrive crashes in two weeks, a huge one year birthday bash and a vacation to Florida to visit my MIL! It's been a busy couple of months! All these things are doing their best to keep me off the DIS!!

I'm so excited for you staying at AoA!
Your arrival plans look great. I hope you have better luck at the airport with your stroller!

Thanks!! We are going to insist that they don't put the stroller through the machine this time!!

Just saw that you started this PTR! How awesome that you get to go back and bring Violet on her first WDW trip! So happy for you!

I really haven't kept up on AoA details, but from what I can tell, it seems like a great addition to Disney's resort line-up. I hope it's a perfect place for your family to stay and I can't wait to hear about it!

So happy you're planning this trip!

Dugette! So happy to have you here! Just popped over and saw you're adorable 30/31 week baby bump pics and your darlin' nursery color!! So excited for y'all!!!

I hope AoA works out well for us too!! We'll see! the sleeping arrangments may be interesting.

 

[Dugette]

Plans for the day look good! That's great that you're keeping your IASW tradition with Violet! Lunch looks tasty; we've never gone there, but I hear good things! I think the new Fast Pass window enforcement will be difficult for our planning also. It was always nice not having to rush back to an attraction to use a Fast Pass at a certain time, as meals/naps/breaks/etc. often get in the way of that. It will be an adjustment.

 

[Pepi]

Joining in! We are planing our baby girl´s first trip to WDW in December . It´s exciting to read about your plans .

And sorry about my english (I´m from finland)

 

[annmarieda]

Plans for day two look good.

I did start a PTR, then we decided on another trip... did a PTR for that and now doing a TR for that trip. I have totally neglected my first PTR..for the "real" trip. I have to get back there and do an update before the mods close it out!!!

 

[gellybean]

So.....

Ya know how I mentioned that it wouldn't be a gellybean TR if there weren't changes?

I wasn't kidding.

We have a minor change to update y'all with.


We nearly always fly SW. My mom has a SW Visa and has free flights and we book with her card to get her more points etc. There is a great non stop flight from Austin to MCO that we try to get every time. It's a good fit for us!

And even better is the fact that SW is super easy to change reservations.... or flights... or even re-book the same flight if the rate goes down and have a credit left for the next time you fly. Win win!

Well.... I was clicking away on SW .com the other day to check to see if the rates had dropped any and sure enough, I was able to get back $30 a person by rebooking the same flight over again at the current rate. SCORE!

And as I was playing around on SW .com I just happened to notice that if we left on a Tuesday instead of Wednesday, we could save another $30 per person. Nearly enough to pay for the extra night at Disney.

Love me some Fuzzy Disney Math!!


So we backed our trip up a day. I was able to call and back up our existing AoA reservation by one more day and keep our free dining, up our tickets from 5 day to 6 day base and boom! We are going for 7 nights instead of 6, and adding another day in the parks. The Day 1 and Day 2 plans have not changed any. It's just a Tuesday instead of a Wednesday etc.

I was able to get nearly the same times for our lunches at LTT and Teppan Edo.

So that's all the good....



Here comes the bad:

In the process of switching around ressies, I was trying to find an ADR for Friday night since we will no longer be at Epcot on Friday. (moving Epcot to Thursday and MK to Wednesday now puts us on all green days! )

I put in the date and time and let the WDW Dining Reservation system tell me what restaurants were available.

And 'Ohana was one of them ! Which worked much better now for us than our original reservation for later in the week... so I grabbed it, plopped in my debit card # cus I have it memorized and cancelled the original 'Ohana ressie cus I didn't wanna keep it from someone else that might be scouring for a cancelled ressie.

Strange thing was I never got my emailed confirmations for any of my new resies.... so I called Disney Dining and inquired about the emails. I had written down all of the conf# except Teppan Edo and wanted to have that number just in case.

When the CM was looking up my ADRs by my cell phone #, she told me not to worry, she had all 7 of my ressies in front of her.... except I should've had 8 ressies. Mr. I and I have a date night that we are not using credits for.

Um which ressie is missing?


Yeah.... you guessed it....

'Ohana.


I was a bad DISer y'all... Bad I tell ya.


I booked 'Ohana for Friday the 27th of JULY not Friday the 28th of September. I hadn't checked the date when I did a new search each time and it defaults to the next available day. I just so happened to be booking on a Thursday for a Friday ressie.


So the CM found the 'Ohana reservation and it was listed as a NO show. So not only do I now have no 'Ohana ressie, my debit card got charged $70 for a no show on Friday July 27th. When I was sitting at home, happily watching the Olympic opening ceremony, oblivious to what I had done.




Now.... thanks to the Magical Way that is Disney, after quite a bit of holding time on the phone, and explaining my stupid mistake to about three CMs, Disney is refunding the money, thankfully! Thank you Disney, that is why I love you so much!

Rest assured, I will be stalking the online reservation system for 'Ohana ressies for any night while we are there. I did go ahead and book Kona for Friday night. If we really have our heart set on 'Ohana, we'll try to get in on standby... on opening night of Food and Wine maybe we'll get lucky?

I mean afterall, I managed to book this past Friday on Thursday night. So maybe that 24 hour cancellation policy will come in handy. I will also try to sneak in at the 45 day mark for paying off packages and hope someone cancels then.... and if we can't get in, so be it. We'll be at Disney World!!!!!!

 

[gellybean]

Day 3 – Epcot and DTD

Plans in a nutshell:

• Epcot Day
• Breakfast at either LoF or Sunshine Seasons
• Soarin' a must do
• Play the rest by ear....
• Lunch at Teppan Edo
• Afternoon break
• DTD in the evening
• WPE for dinner

Details:
Depending on how well the first morning goes with breakfast plans, and depending on how much time it takes us all to get ready and get out of the room, we will decide whether we want to attempt breakfast in LoF, ask Edna to please pick breakfast up and bring it back to the room as she's always the first ready in the mornings, or grab breakfast at Sunshine Seasons after we pick up our Soarin' FPs. I am very tempted to do the later... but I don't want to starve my children for an hour waiting to get to the park and all the way to the Land. So we will make that judgement call that morning or evening before.

Once we do arrive at Epcot, Fast Passes for Soarin will be our first priority.

IF and only If Spaceship Earth is a walk on, we'll ride it before heading to the Land to get our hot little FPs. Ideally I'd like to ride Soarin more than once if FP return times work out for us. I have downloaded Mobile Magic for my iPhone so I hope this comes in handy when planning our FP times and juggling the new return window times etc.

The amount of time before our FP window opens will determine the order in which we do things. Most likely we'll just kill some time in the Land, eat breakfast if we haven't already and if we have to leave the Land, we'd head to Journey into an Imagination and Nemo first to stay on that side of Future World.

We'll ride those same rides AFTER Soarin' if we don't have to kill as much time waiting for the FP return window.

We may head across FW and get a FP for Test Track (if it's open.... need to check that) or Mission Space. May explore Innovations or stand in line for the Visa character meet etc etc

We have a lunch ressie at Teppan Edo

around 12:40pm so we will make our way around WS for that. It has occurred to me that it might make sense to do as much of WS as we can BEFORE F&W starts because on our second Epcot day it will be more about food.... that and I can always do the WS twice.

American Adventure and Maelstorm would be on our must do list. Really like the French Film and the pastry shop... Germany caramel shop too!

But we may head straight back to FW and hang out there the rest of the day.
A late afternoon break will be needed I'm sure. If we skipped Spaceship Earth on the way in, then we'll ride it on the way out.

Back to the hotel for a nap and then bus to DTD that evening for shopping!! Dinner plans most likely will be a counter service meal at WPE, my favorite CS hands down.

Most likely what I'll be ordering... YUM! Miss the pepperoni and mushroom pizza though....

Back to the hotel for sleep... and maybe a night swim depending on timing.

DISCLAIMER: As always, when traveling with small children any and all plans could completely fly out the window. And that’s ok!

 

[mommys3]

I'm in Your kids are adorable! Sorry to hear about the ADR confusion...good thing you're able to get a refund! Sounds like something I would do...so I had to re-check my ADRs

 

[gellybean]

Here are a few pictures from Violet's first birthday party!!!

 

[faerieprincess]

Oh that baby is just so beautiful, twinnie! (As if I don't tell you that enough)

 

[gellybean]

Plans for the day look good! That's great that you're keeping your IASW tradition with Violet! Lunch looks tasty; we've never gone there, but I hear good things! I think the new Fast Pass window enforcement will be difficult for our planning also. It was always nice not having to rush back to an attraction to use a Fast Pass at a certain time, as meals/naps/breaks/etc. often get in the way of that. It will be an adjustment.

I am very excited about the IASW tradition continuing! Edna even has an idea for a 3 generations of IASW riders picture with me, mom and Violet and each of us holding the year we first rode. Should be awesome! I am glad to hear that it's not just me grumbling about the new Fast Pass policy! I'm sure it'll work out fine. Just not able to plan quite as much after a FP ticket is obtained as I used to.

Joining in! We are planing our baby girl´s first trip to WDW in December . It´s exciting to read about your plans .

And sorry about my english (I´m from finland)

Your English is wonderful ! That's so exciting that you are planning your baby girl's first trip as well!! December trips are magical!!

Plans for day two look good.

I did start a PTR, then we decided on another trip... did a PTR for that and now doing a TR for that trip. I have totally neglected my first PTR..for the "real" trip. I have to get back there and do an update before the mods close it out!!!

I found it, finally!

I have totally neglected my TR from the two trips when I was pregnant with Violet. I may never get that one finished... it's like my brain got fried since then and I can't remember as much as I like to when I'm writing TRs.

I'm in Your kids are adorable! Sorry to hear about the ADR confusion...good thing you're able to get a refund! Sounds like something I would do...so I had to re-check my ADRs

Thank you!!! The ADR confusion was a total blonde moment and I am brunette!! So funny that you re-checked your ADRs! I find it odd that Disney can remember your last search dates for a hotel ressie but not your last date for an ADR. I should email Disney! But seriously, if one person learns from my mistake and doesn't pull what I did, then I'm happy. Cus

Oh that baby is just so beautiful, twinnie! (As if I don't tell you that enough)

Awwwww.... but you're biased... Welcome back to the Dis SARE!

 

[annmarieda]

I am so relieved to read that Disney will be refunding your money. Holy cow!! That did happen to my dd, but it was at a place that didn't require the guarantee. It happened in the same way though... she was doing a search and the month reset.

I hope you are able to get the Ohana ADR you were hoping to get. Have you subscribed to the cancelation thread? I am sub'd to both september and october since my dates straddle it. You can't request cancelations, but the great part is people give heads up to any cancelations they are going to make. Sometimes you can pm the person and set up a time for one to cancel while the other books. I like the system.

Oh my!!! You have THE cUUtest kids!!!! ALL of them... but your wee girl is sooo darn pretty!!!

 

[gellybean]

I am so relieved to read that Disney will be refunding your money. Holy cow!! That did happen to my dd, but it was at a place that didn't require the guarantee. It happened in the same way though... she was doing a search and the month reset.

I hope you are able to get the Ohana ADR you were hoping to get. Have you subscribed to the cancelation thread? I am sub'd to both september and october since my dates straddle it. You can't request cancelations, but the great part is people give heads up to any cancelations they are going to make. Sometimes you can pm the person and set up a time for one to cancel while the other books. I like the system.

Oh my!!! You have THE cUUtest kids!!!! ALL of them... but your wee girl is sooo darn pretty!!!

Thanks so much!! I think so too!!

I was very happy that they refunded the money for the whole 'Ohana ADR debacle. It was totally my fault and they could have held onto the money. But they didn't! Thankfully I had a lot of supporting evidence. It really was the perfect storm... booking on a Thursday night for a Friday in the future so that the next available date just happened to be a Friday with one number difference on the date.

Thanks for the advice!! I did subscribe to the cancellation thread and I did get 'Ohana back!! It took less than a week! It's a little later in the evening than I wanted so I'll keep checking for a new time window but we're booked and that's the most important thing!

 

[gellybean]

Day 4 – Animal Kingdom Bonus Day

Plans in a nutshell:

• Breakfast at LoF
• Animal Kingdom during the day
• Expedition Everest, Lion King Must Do's!
• Counter Service Lunch
• Nemo, Dinosaur and Safari Hope to Do's
• Kali River Rapids LAST
• Hotel Break
• Dinner at 'Ohana
• Hallowishes from Poly

Details:
For a park we originally were going to skip, we sure have a lot of things we want to do!! Animal Kingdom is my least favorite park.... don't be hatin me AK lovers. It'd be like saying Corn Dog Nuggets at Casey's were my least favorite MK snack. Corn Dog Nuggets are awesome! But when you have to line up next to the ice cream sandwich, Dole Whip and Plaza Sundaes, it's got some tough competition. As does Animal Kingdom. I didn't grow up going to Animal Kingdom. My first trip in 1986 was the only trip we took that Disney MGM Studios wasn't open yet (that's DHS for you young'ens). MK, Epcot, and MGM were my original loves. AK just can't compete with the memories! But there are still a lot of awesome things I am looking forward to doing and a lot of new memories I'm hoping to make! We haven't been to AK since our trip in 2009 so Mr. I has actually only been once. I think I've only been twice! So when we added our extra night because of my awesome Disney Fuzzy Magic skillz , my first thought was adding an AK day. And everyone agreed. So it shall be!

Breakfast will be a well oiled routine by this day, at LoF either in the food court or back at the room. We'll bus over to AK and send a runner straight for EE FPs IF the FP window return time is late enough to accomodate the first showing of Lion King.

Then, if the current published show times are accurate we will wait around for the 10:30am to see FOLK. It's a must do. We missed the very last showing of the day in 2009 after hiking all the way back to Camp Minnie Mickey. So we want to make it work this time.

We do want to ride the safari but it's not on MY personal must do list. We rode when Jack Jack was 12 months and he wasn't a fan and depending on how hot it is, Violet and I may sit it out and let whoever wants to ride it, go for it!

After FOLK, depending on what happened with EE FPs, we'll either send a runner for FPs, all of us head over to ride EE or who knows. I do want to see Nemo at some point and possibly ride Dinosaur and let the boys play in the Bone Yard.

Lunch will most likely be at Restaurantosaurus. I know there is some serious DIS love out there for Flame Tree and it could happen. But c'mon y'all... we're from Texas. BBQ is a way of life here. So a lot of it will depend on what part of the park we're in when we get ready for lunch.

Whatever we don't manage to get to before lunch, we'll try to wrap up after lunch, picking and choosing based on highest priority. If we can ride EE twice, yay! If not, no worries! Go with the flow is my new middle name!

We are hoping to ride Kali River Rapids LAST. I think we all want to ride this, Mom included, so we'll have to do a Baby swap and some of us ride it twice. DARN! But we def want to ride this last since the likelihood of getting soaked is pretty up there and I'm not a fan of walking around soaked!

Soppin' wet, we shall return to the AoA and rest up, shower, change, nap, swim, snack, etc.

Then it'll be time to get ready for our dinner ressie at 'Ohana!!!!

Hello my precious!

So very happy I was able to rebook this after the ADR stunt I pulled! We have an 8:20 ressie so we most likely won't be done in time to get out to the beach for Hallowishes. I'm going to keep trying to get that bumped earlier in the evening if possible. Around 7ish is what I'm shooting for. But we have a confirmation number so I'm happy!!

Thankfully because of the MNSSHP, buses will be running late. We'll monorail/boat back to MK and head back to our hotel stuffed silly no doubt!

DISCLAIMER: As always, when traveling with small children any and all plans could completely fly out the window. And that’s ok!

 

[mommys3]

Your AK day sounds fabulous! AK is my least favorite WDW park as well, but I think that we'll enjoy it more sine 3 out of 4 of my kids are tall enough for EE, Dinosaur, Kali River Rapids and Primeval Whirl

DISCLAIMER: As always, when traveling with small children any and all plans could completely fly out the window. And that’s ok!

This is so true As long as everyone is having fun

 

[annmarieda]

So glad you got an ADR for Ohana!

Day four looks great!

 

[Dugette]

AK plans sound great! I don't blame you for doing Kali last...I hate walking around wet!

I'm glad you got 'Ohana back for dinner! Hopefully you'll be able to work something out to see Hallowishes from the beach (or from 'Ohana, I suppose).

 

[gellybean]

We had to change 'Ohana again because I mistakenly made the ressie for 6 people and not 7. So to include Violet, we rebooked for 9:55pm I think we'll have plenty of time to watch Halowishes from the Poly Beach and then make it to our ressie. I am still trying to book for an earlier ressie. But so far no success...

We got MAIL!!! Our ME tags and luggage tags were in the mail today. Nothing makes it seem more real than Disney mail!

Miss Violet is walking!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YAY!

Dash started 4th grade today and Jack Jack starts pre-k next week. Considering my first DIS TR was for Jack Jack's 1st birthday trip.... yeah. Starting pre-k is a big deal!

I'll be back soon to update day 5 plans.

 

[gellybean]

Day 5 - DHS and Date Night

Plans in a nutshell:

• DHS all day
• Lunch @ Mama Melrose
• MUST do: ToT
• Early evening back to AoA - park closes at 6pm
• Date night for Mr. I and I at Raglan Road

Details:
This day has been DHS since the beginning. It's one of the only days we can go that works around the crowds and all that. I recently found out that it's also the day of the ToT marathon. But I'm not thinking it's gonna affect the crowds too much. *crossing fingers* We will try to be there as close to rope drop as possible, high tail it over to TSM and go from there. My top want to do's are TSM, ToT, RnRR, Great Movie Ride, and VoLM. ToT is my one MUST do!

I missed it so much on my last two trips when I was pregnant with Violet. Mr. I and I are so looking forward to riding it together. The last time we rode it, we were greeted with a wonderful view of the sun setting when the doors opened up at the top... one of my favorite Disney memories ever!!

As far as other rides.... anything else we get to will be gravy on top. Lunch at Mama Melrose should be yummy... it's becoming a tradition!

We will leave mid to late afternoon, depending on how much we can cover, get the kids back for a nap, and then get ready for our date!! We originally had Jiko booked, then Flying Fish, then... we decided we really wanted to do more than just a restaurant so we currently have ressies at Raglan Road. We definitely want to do something at DTD/PI and right now Raglan Road sounds yummy and really fun. As a bread pudding fan,

I have been wanting to try Raglan Road for a while... and this seemed like a good time as any. We'll probably walk around, do some shopping, check out the areas we've never been. Should be a lot of fun!

Meanwhile, back at the hotel, Mom and Edna will be wrangling the kids for us, hopefully turning in early after ordering pizza and watching some TV back at the room. An easy evening for them, I'm hoping!

DISCLAIMER: As always, when traveling with small children any and all plans could completely fly out the window. And that’s ok!

 

[uscgmouse]

It looks like you are going to have a great trip!!!!