I think I've created a 22month old addict! Our 9/09 TR! **Update 10/13**

[eecteacher82]

Well, we are home and I am taking a break from unpacking so I thought I would get a quick first post of our TR!

First of all, to catch you up, here is our PTR

I was packed and ready to go by 11:00am on Friday 9/25....I just had to wait for DH to get off work so we could leave! After what seemed like days, he was off work and ready to go at about 4:00.

We left right away and made the 1.5 hour trip in about 2 hours (thanks to the Friday afternoon traffic)!. We checked into our (non-Disney) hotel (we only planned on sleeping there and then getting up early to head to the parks and our Disney hotel so we decided to save money and stay at a cheapie for the first night) and grabbed a quick dinner at Chick-fil-a then hit the sack early to get some sleep for the morning!

That's it for now! No pics or anything exciting on our first night, but LOTS of fun and pics to come![/SIZE]

 

[eecteacher82]

I woke up at 7:00 on Saturday so I could pack our overnight stuff and get myself ready before I woke up DH (Toby) and DD (Olivia). I was all ready to go and woke them up at 7:30. Toby actually got ready pretty quickly and Olivia perked up VERY fast when I said we were going to see Mickey and Minnie! We were all packed and ready to leave the room at 8:00-which actually was my goal time! We grabbed a quick breakfast at the hotel and were on the road by 8:40.

It was about a 10 minute drive to Saratoga Springs (SSR) from our hotel...but we started talking and managed to miss one of our turns, so after going down the road for a while, we realized we had to turn around. After the quick detour, we saw the Disney World sign (which I of course forgot to have DH take a picture of since I was driving) and easily followed the signs to SSR and pulled in to the check-in parking at 9:00. Since I did online check-in all I did was walk to the counter, pick up our welcome package and birthday/anniversary buttons, and arrange for a text when our room was ready.

By 9:15 we were on a bus to Epcot! The bus was pretty full so we had to stand, but Olivia quickly discovered that she liked to hold on to the rails:

We arrived at Epcot by 9:30 and headed right for Guest Services to upgrade our 4 day park hopper tickets to Florida Resident Seasonal Passes and to pick up our Guest Assistance Card (GAC). We got a wonderful CM and she was kind enough to give us REFUNDS since our original park hopper tickets cost more than the SP's!!! So that was an extra $60 in our pockets!

Our first ride was Spaceship Earth. Olivia loved the "big ball" and was quite excited to just stare at it while we were in line!

After Spaceship Earth we headed over to Ellen's Energy Adventure...but made a pit stop at Mouse Gear on the way....

I told you Olivia loves Minnie!

It was almost lunch time now, but we wanted to squeeze in Ellen before lunch. They say hindsight is 20/20 and I agree....we probably should have done this after lunch

Olivia did like the pretty flowers though

Olivia did end up enjoying Ellen's and she fell asleep about 3/4 of the way through it. When the ride was over we headed over to the Land Pavillion for lunch at Sunshine Seasons. Olivia was still asleep so Toby stayed up top with her while I went for food. I forgot to take pictures, but I got the 1/2 chicken with mashed potatoes and carrots and Toby got Mongolian Beef from the Asian station. They were both excellent! Olivia was still sleeping when I got back upstairs with the food so we ate and people watched. After a while, she finally woke up and only wanted a bit of a snack and something to drink.

Next up: Characters: Will she laugh or scream bloody murder like our February trip?

 

[Stasieki]

Great start. Olivia looks like she is having fun. I love the plush Minnie you got her!

 

[shebaxric]

Hi there!
I found your report and am subbing! DD is so cute! I'll be heading to WDW and staying at SSR for the first time in November, so any tips you can give me would be great!

 

[eecteacher82]

Great start. Olivia looks like she is having fun. I love the plush Minnie you got her!

Glad you're here!!! It's nice knowing people are reading!

Hi there!
I found your report and am subbing! DD is so cute! I'll be heading to WDW and staying at SSR for the first time in November, so any tips you can give me would be great!

Welcome! We loved SSR. We had a 1bdrm villa (there will be pics to come). The whole resort is beautiful and we had no problems with busses or anything!It was very quiet. I have to confess that we never made it to the pool, so I can't comment on that. I will share lots more resort info in the next part or two of our TR!

 

[disneymoon_0307]

Just found your report. Olivia is so precious. I have a 4 month old and we are taking her to Disney when she's 2 if not before then . I can't wait to hear more. Keep it coming.

 

[eecteacher82]

After lunch we decided that there was no better time to see how Olivia would react to the character this trip. (On our February trip she screamed if any character came within 10 feet of her.)

We left the Land Pavillion and headed toward the Epcot Character Spot. I started by having Olivia look through the windows to see how she reacted. Window viewing=good, no problems. Next step, walk inside to look. Inside viewing=good, saying "Hi Mickey". We decided to get in line to meet the gang. The closer we got the Mickey, the more excited Olivia got! Finally after about 20 minutes it was our turn. The moment of truth.

Pluto

Minnie!!!

Donald Duck (one of her new favorites)

Goofy

\

Meeting the characters was a huge success!!!! It literally brought a tear to my eye when it was time to go and Olivia turned around the waved bye and said "bye bye my Minnine". Toby turned to me and said that made it worth all the money we paid for the trip.

Now it was on to The Seas with Nemo. Olivia loves fish and turtles, so I knew this would be a hit. She was totally into it from the moment we stepped into our Clam mobiles:

When we finished up on Nemo, we headed over to Journey into Imagination with Figment. Olivia loved this ride too! Although I think she enjoyed the play area at the end even more!

After play time, we headed off to Japan. I wanted to watch the pick a pearl station in the Japan store, and Toby and Olivia wanted the air conditioning (did I mention it was about 93 outside!?). On the way we took some pictures (I couldn't get that lone guy to move..ughh!)

When we had watched a few people pick pearls, my DH said he wanted me to pick one and have it put on a ring as a late anniversary gift! I was so excited that I forgot to take any pictures!!! I got my pearl and had it set on a simple silver band, and it is beautiful!

By this time it was 3:30 and I had just got the text that our room was ready, so we decided to head out of Epcot so we could get to the hotel and unpack and freshen up a bit before our dinner reservations. On the way out, we made a quick pit stop at the Norway pavillion to ride Maelstrom. This was another one that mesmerized Olivia:

We also grabbed a quick popsicle since it was SO HOT! Olivia enjoyed hers in a unique way:

Next up: We finally get to see our hotel!

 

[eecteacher82]

Just found your report. Olivia is so precious. I have a 4 month old and we are taking her to Disney when she's 2 if not before then . I can't wait to hear more. Keep it coming.

Welcome aboard!!! I love your avatar!!! We took Olivia for the first time when she was 15 months old and this trip was her 4th, and can't wait to go back in 3 weeks!

 

[shebaxric]

Looks like a very successful character meet!! Now I understand the whole "addict" in the title!

 

[onelilspark]

I'm aboard Your daughter is cute with the characters!

 

[princess_momma]

I just found your tr! Olivia is so precious!! I just got back from a trip taking my 10 month old! I think its nice taking kids when they're young!! Imagine all the great pics you'll have of her through the years in Disney World!

 

[MomsOf2boys]

I stumbled upon your TR from another and think I will just pull up a chair and sit and read for a spell. So happy that your DD is not afraid of the charactors this trip. Loved how she cooled off by holding her popcicle.

 

[eecteacher82]

I just found your tr! Olivia is so precious!! I just got back from a trip taking my 10 month old! I think its nice taking kids when they're young!! Imagine all the great pics you'll have of her through the years in Disney World!

Welcome! I just jumped over to your TR and caught myself up. I am loving it! You have such a handsome little man! I am quite excited to get pictures of Olivia "growing up" at Disney! Every trip so far, we have made sure to take a picture of her in the same place so we can see how much she grows from trip to trip and year to year!

I stumbled upon your TR from another and think I will just pull up a chair and sit and read for a spell. So happy that your DD is not afraid of the charactors this trip. Loved how she cooled off by holding her popcicle.

Glad you stumbled over here, the more the merrier! I am SO glad she wasn't afraid either! I think it helped that now she knows who most of the character are and is familiar with them, as opposed to our February trip when she still didn't really "get" them!

 

[MadilynnsMomma]

I'm getting ready to take my DD (just turned 2 on 9/06) - I am looking forward to hearing more about the trip! My DD is all geared up to go see her "Ickey/Minnie"

 

[eecteacher82]

I last left off with us leaving Epcot and heading to our hotel (which we had not seen yet). We waiting maybe 3 minutes for the bus to come and hopped on heading for our "home", Saratoga Springs Resort and Spa! We had a 1 bedroom villa. We were in the Paddock section, room 5145. I had requested the Grandstand section, first floor... We did get a ground floor, water view back in the corner, and we LOVED it! I am so glad we got the Paddock section! It was totally quiet and amazing (except for the, umm, funky smell in the hallway)! We managed to get everything out of the car in the room in one trip! Here are some pics of our room and the view:
Bedroom looking in from the door:

Part of the bathroom (for some reasone I didnt take a picture of the part with the shower/toilet area):

Kitchen:

The the view from our porch area:

After we got everything in the room, we washed up and I changed Olivia's clothes and it was off to the Magic Kingdom for dinner with Pooh! We hopped on the bus and were at the MK by 6:50 for our 7:15 ADR. We stopped and took some pictures on the way in...Olivia loved the "punky's" (pumpkins). Sorry for the blurry pics (

Don't know why, but I love this pic!

*Let me just say that I made the ADR for 7:15 hoping we could see at least a bit of Spectromagic since that was the only night it was playing for our trip.*
When I walked up to check in I knew it was not good..the line was at least 25 people long...just to check in!!!!!!! When it was finally my turn I was told that they were running about an hour behind! We decided to wait and hope for some pixie dust that we would be seated sooner! After about 20 minutes, Olivia was getting pretty fussy and hungry, but we just had to wait....wait....and wait some more! Finally at 8:00 (of course just as Spectromagic was starting), we were seated! Since we were celebrating our anniversary on this trip, we found this at our table:

It was a very cute touch! Olivia loved all the "pretty's" and played with them through the whole meal. Once again I forgot to take pictures of our plates, but I did get some good character ones:
Tigger (notice Olivia is still playing with the confetti):

Pooh (I love her face on this one)!

Eeyore:

Our anniversary cupcake and Olivia eating her Birthday cupcake:

After waiting a LONG time, Piglet was nowhere to be found, and it was getting late, Olivia didn't have a real nap, we had been up early, and had VERY early ADR's wth Mickey in the morning, so we decided to leave. Just before we left, our server came over and gave Olivia a birthday card signed by Pooh and the Gang, and we got an anniversary certificate signed by them as well. This was a great meal and we will definitely do it again (hopefully minus the waiting)!

When we walked out of the Crystal Palace is was literally monsooning out!!!! Of couse I didn't think to put the rain cover on the stroller before we went in, so when I went to put it on, I noticed that there was a puddle, yes a PUDDLE in the stroller seat!!!! I threw the rain cover on while Toby waited on the porch and ran to them and we tossed Olivia in and started running for the exit. The rain had come down so fast and in such HUGE amounts, Main Street was flooded!!! Like up to our ankles flooded!!! We trudged along all the way to the busses, and luckily beat the crowd there and were 3rd in the bus line!!! The bus came within 5 minutes and we got on and took the first seats we saw. Olivia fell asleep in about 2 minutes. I started to get her ready so I could give her a quick shower when we got back to the room. I took her hair bows out, then her shoes and socks....she was in the stroller the whole time and even her feet managed to get SOAKED!:

After a 20 minute bus ride we were back in the room and within 10 minutes were showered and Olivia was asleep. I threw a load of laundry in, mostly so Olivia and I would have dry shoes and her stroller would be dry as well. I threw the laundry in the dryer and was asleep by midnight.

Next up: Mickey first thing, and a morning of fun at the Magic Kingdom!!

 

[princess_momma]

Welcome! I just jumped over to your TR and caught myself up. I am loving it! You have such a handsome little man! I am quite excited to get pictures of Olivia "growing up" at Disney! Every trip so far, we have made sure to take a picture of her in the same place so we can see how much she grows from trip to trip and year to year!

Thanks! Olivia is so precious!! Glad you had a good time at CP too! Landon loved it. Except it stinks you missed Spectro! We both missed it! Dang! I bet Landon and Olivia both would've loved it!!

That rain sure sounds pretty crazy!! I'm pretty sure it started raining once while we were eating somewhere too and we didn't have the stroller cover on! Crazy Florida rain!

 

[shebaxric]

SSR pictures!! I love the scenic picture with the fountain in the middle! I also love the Halloween pics, I'm definitely going to have to try and get there during this time of year!

Those poor little piggies! I hate wet feet, so I can imagine how all of you felt! I love the nail polish, by the way!

 

[MomsOf2boys]

Oh no Piglet! Piglet is one of my favorites for some odd reason.

I'm very glad she isn't afraid of the charactors. My oldest son (now 18) got frightened by goofy at one point and still will not sleep in any rooms with dolls or stuffed animals. I guess he thought the "stuffed animal goofy" came alive. Sorry for him then, love to tease him about it now though.

 

[eecteacher82]

SSR pictures!! I love the scenic picture with the fountain in the middle! I also love the Halloween pics, I'm definitely going to have to try and get there during this time of year!

Those poor little piggies! I hate wet feet, so I can imagine how all of you felt! I love the nail polish, by the way!

I really loved SSR! It was an awesome resort and just so quiet and relaxing! We never had any trouble with waiting for busses and everyone there was very friendly. We would definitely stay there again!

The wet feet really did suck! At least it happened as we were walking out for the night though! Olivia is a total girl and loves having her toes "pity" (pretty), so whenever we go to my mom's house (Guma), she runs to her and says "pity toes peas"!

Oh no Piglet! Piglet is one of my favorites for some odd reason.

I'm very glad she isn't afraid of the charactors. My oldest son (now 18) got frightened by goofy at one point and still will not sleep in any rooms with dolls or stuffed animals. I guess he thought the "stuffed animal goofy" came alive. Sorry for him then, love to tease him about it now though.

I love Piglet too, so I was pretty upset we missed him. That is just a good reason to go back to CP on our next trip!

I was SO glad Olivia wasn't scared this time! After the meltdown she had last trip, I took a big chance booking 3 character meals, but I am SO glad I did! A friend of mine had a daughter who is 8 and is still terrified by the characters!

 

[eecteacher82]

I left off with us ending our first day getting soaked to the bone and then hitting the sack for some much needed rest.

The next morning was a VERY early morning (luckily the only early morning I planned all trip)! When I made our ADRs I knew I really wanted Chef Mickey's and the only time I could get was 7:15am, so I took it. This of course meant a super early wake-up call after a late night...

I woke up at 6:00, got myself ready, got all of Olivia's cups ready for the day, repacked the diaper bag, put the stroller back together after drying it the night before, and was ready by 6:30. I woke Toby up first, then moved on to Olivia. Toby is NOT a morning person at all, so I basically had to jump on him to get him up on moving. Olivia on the other hand is pretty easy. I just rubbed her back a little and asked if she wanted to go see Mickey and Minnie and she practically jumped up!

We were all ready and out the door by 6:45, and on a bus by 6:50. Since we were the only ones on the bus the driver took us right to the Contemporary, which was really nice. Here is a pic of Toby and Oliiva on the bus...you can see just how tired they are!

We got to Chef Mickey's at 7:10, checked in and were seated in about 2 minutes-the complete opposite of our dinner the night before at Crystal Palace! Breakfast was very good! I only managed to take a picture of Olivia's plate, but Toby had waffles, fruit, bacon, sausage and eggs, and I had waffles, eggs and fruit.

Waiting for Goofy:

**These pictures are not the best...DH was in charge of pics this day**
Goofy

Mickey (she was trying to chew and smile at the same time!)

I love this one because it looks like he is trying to take her!

Minnie!!!

Look Minnie...you're on my dress!

Donald Duck

Pluto

Of course since we were celebrating Olivia's birthday and our anniversary, cupcakes were in order....Olivia could see them coming a mile away!

Olivia is NOT a shy eater:

Or clean eater for that matter:

After breakfast was over it was only 8:10 and MK didn't open until 9:00, so we decided to take the monorail over, just to enjoy the ride. Olivia loves the monorail on everytrip. She loves just getting up on her knees and looking out the windows:

Even with taking our time, we were able to get to Magic Kingdom for the Opening Ceremony! I haven't seen this since I was in college, so it was a nice treat! Olivia loved the train and seeing all the characters at once!

And one of my favorite pics from the whole trip:

Next up: Toby's only must do of the trip, boat rides and bears and shopping!