It's kind of fun to do the impossible - Disney with a 1 month old *new 2/13/15*

[TheMaxRebo]

WOW! What an amazing view!! I LOVE your room! I get what you're saying about the impracticality of the bathroom, but Emma looks like she was just loving the bath/sink! Looks like you guys had a ton of space, too.

The view truly was amazing and it was a very nice room - definitely spacious which was great for all of us and all of our stuff

Emma probably loved the sinks the most

Wowzers!!!!!!!!!

That view is just out of this world! Fantastic! I'm so happy that you guys got to enjoy it! The room does look big on the reverse shot with Judi in it. My eyes got a little bigger when i saw it. Boo to the bathroom though. That seems like a strange oversight that could have been fixed during previous renos.

What a wonderful start to your stay! Can't wait to see more!!

Wowzers is a great work - especially for the view and location!

It is a sizable room - which was great for us. The sinks/bathroom definitely seemd to be a bit of style over substance but it definitely fits the modern theming of the resort/room

Thank you!

 

[TheMaxRebo]

Ah, that is a perfectly acceptable picture of the sign. This last trip, I was so distracted by eating lunch with Izzy and being in the backseat of the bus that I didn’t notice in advance and couldn’t get my phone on in time to even get a picture! Ooops, bad DISer.

That has got to be awesome, driving toward the Contemporary and knowing you will be staying there! (We never have). I’m glad Peter was pleased with your choice too.

Oh, how cool that the balloon was passed along!

That room does look really nice. Minus the lack of bathroom storage, of course. Also neat that Olivia had her own bed. That is an awesome bath picture!

Yep, that is an acceptable view. Very, very nice!

At least we got the sign so I definitely can't complain too much. I think it was more that we talked about it beforehand and were all prepped and then ... well, that is what we got

I definitely think one of the coolest parts of staying at any of the MK resorts is that you get to go through the parking tool gates for the Magic Kingdom and see monorails go by, etc. before you even get to your resort ... with the Contemporary so you just that much closer - I mean, where you pull in it feels like you could touch Space Mountain.

The pixie dusted balloon was a wonderful start to the trip and was like the first tangible example of this being a special stay at Disney and not just a regular vacation.

Having the extra bed was really nice as it let Judi and Emma have one, me and Peter to have one and then Olivia to have her own ... in the Hampton before there were just the two beds so I (at least to start the night) had both Olivia and Peter with me which was a bit much (we wound up getting a roll-away bed for Olivia for the night before we left for home)

Yes, I agree that the view was acceptable

Great update on the Contemporary. Starting the trip is always so exciting. What a great view from your room! You are right...there is no price tag for that.

It was very exciting to check in and be given our information and to just be *there*

Well, Disney did find a way to put a price tag on it But I agree you can't get that view anywhere else (ok, Disneyland, Disneyland Paris, etc.) but location was so huge of a factor for us and really worked out so we were very please with that aspect of it

 

[TheMaxRebo]

Following along... We were there the 20th-27th and it's fun reading a trip report for the same time. I can't wait to see where our trips overlapped!

You're trip to the airport had me very tense! I'm glad it went smoothly.

Love the view! I can relate to it being too hot to enjoy it for long...we were at AKL with a savanah view for the first 3 days of our trip, but it was too hot to sit outside and enjoy it. We were melting...or so it felt!

thanks for joining ... definitely please contribute with your thoughts and what you experienced as well - I too would like to see if we were ever in the same place at the same time

Trust me, it made me tense too Though at some point I just got to the point that what happens will happen and tried to to stress too much about what I couldn't control - though that is easy for me to say now

Oh wow, having a savanah view much be great. We stopped by that resort (will get to that on Disney day 2) and it is so nice and similar to how we had "oh wow, there is the castle" there is it "oh wow, there is a giraffe" ... the heat at least on a few of the days did make it hard to be outside if you were in direct sun though ... though I guess some views are worth melting for

 

[amazingact21]

How very nice of that guest to give your DD their balloon. And it's so nice that your DD got into the spirit of things and wanted to pass it along, as well. Disney magic at work.


What a view. Man oh man, that looks fantastic. To wake up to the monorail and Space Mountain every morning.


I have to say, I was curious about what your thoughts were on the Contemporary. My DH wants to stay there for our next trip, and since we figured we'll have 2 little ones by then, I was curious if the convienence would be worth the cost. And it sounds like your pros outweighed your cons, so that was good.

When I look at photos of the resort, though, I always wonder if those sinks allowed for enough storage space. It was my biggest fear. Sorry they weren't the greatest in the world.

 

[Marsheliz]

WOW!!! What a view!!!! How I would love to look out and see that... My sister stayed CL on her trip and we got to go up one night- I will get into that once I get into the next day of my TR!

That sink looks very practical for giving babies baths!!

Arrival Day is so exciting! I can hardly wait for February- everyone is so happy and excited and you have the whole trip right in front of you. <3

 

[TheMaxRebo]

How very nice of that guest to give your DD their balloon. And it's so nice that your DD got into the spirit of things and wanted to pass it along, as well. Disney magic at work.

What a view. Man oh man, that looks fantastic. To wake up to the monorail and Space Mountain every morning.

I have to say, I was curious about what your thoughts were on the Contemporary. My DH wants to stay there for our next trip, and since we figured we'll have 2 little ones by then, I was curious if the convienence would be worth the cost. And it sounds like your pros outweighed your cons, so that was good.

When I look at photos of the resort, though, I always wonder if those sinks allowed for enough storage space. It was my biggest fear. Sorry they weren't the greatest in the world.

Definitely! It was just like an instant "Welcome to Dinsey!" moment!

Definitely could get used to that view!

The pros - especially if you have kid(s) and strollers are involved, etc. outweigh the cons definitely. Did want to present both sides though

They were really cool to look at and I actually normally am really into different styles of sinks, etc. - these, from a practicality standpoint, didn't do it for me

WOW!!! What a view!!!! How I would love to look out and see that... My sister stayed CL on her trip and we got to go up one night- I will get into that once I get into the next day of my TR!

That sink looks very practical for giving babies baths!!

Arrival Day is so exciting! I can hardly wait for February- everyone is so happy and excited and you have the whole trip right in front of you. <3

Cool - look forward to reading that in your TR! The view really is hard to put into words - it's just so right there!

yes, I suppose that is the practical part of those sinks

You are so right about arrival day ... and then it all goes so fast from there!

 

[annie170]

That view was nothing short of amazing!

I really like the room, but I would agree that there never seems to be enough drawer space in the rooms. I'm the type that likes to get everything out of sight and stored away in a drawer.

So sweet that Olivia was given a balloon! Did the balloon make it long enough to be passed on?

 

[Imagineer5]

Love the room and the view! It is beautiful!

So neat to start your vacation with such a special gift. That was my plan for my poor balloon, but after two different pops I decided it wasn't meant to be. Next time!

 

[TheMaxRebo]

That view was nothing short of amazing!

I really like the room, but I would agree that there never seems to be enough drawer space in the rooms. I'm the type that likes to get everything out of sight and stored away in a drawer.

So sweet that Olivia was given a balloon! Did the balloon make it long enough to be passed on?

Definitely agree about the view! Also about the drawer space. I know some people bring those hanging shelves - but I feel like you shouldn't have to bring your own shelf space

It did! The balloon held up great! Spent most of the week in our room so not sure if that helped

Love the room and the view! It is beautiful!

So neat to start your vacation with such a special gift. That was my plan for my poor balloon, but after two different pops I decided it wasn't meant to be. Next time!

Thank you Lauren! I know, your poor balloon - Mickey with a bum ear just looked kinda sad. Definitely for next time!

 

[MarbleBob]

Nice review of the Contemporary Love the photos from the room, especially of the monorail entering the building. My kids would have probably spent a long time watching the monorail from the window. Who needs Disney channel piped into the room TV when you have much better things to watch outside?

 

[TheMaxRebo]

Nice review of the Contemporary Love the photos from the room, especially of the monorail entering the building. My kids would have probably spent a long time watching the monorail from the window. Who needs Disney channel piped into the room TV when you have much better things to watch outside?

Thanks Matt! Oh, it's coming up in future updates how much the kids, ok, well, Peter enjoyed the monorail ... let's just say it involved him making the noise from the doors closing (the "dee doo") like non-stop ... and in his case, who needs to pay tons of money to go into the Magic Kingdom when you can just spend hours riding the monorail for free!

 

[TheMaxRebo]

Part 7 - MGM part 1: Frozen Fun but where's Olaf?
Monday August 25th​

​

​

So last update we arrived and had our first sprinkle of pixie dust and I also provided my take on the Contemporary as well as some pictures of our acceptable view


As our room wasn't ready yet we decided to check our bags and head to a park ... so back in the car as we were driving over to MGM Studios!

And of course we were informed we needed to park at the far end of a new row far away from the tram stop. I mentioned we had an infant and can we park closer, but no dice. Oh well, got some pre-exercise I guess.

We did get on our first attraction of the trip though - the TRAM! Which also resulted in this picture of Peter looking uber cool:

Before we even got in the park we saw the opportunity for our first Photopass picture in front of the very cool Frozen related sand sculpture:

Entering the park was also our first chance to actually used our Magic Bands - definitely was just a bit nervous that linking the tickets, et. worked, but I am happy to report that everything worked find - we got the green Mickey and were good to go.

Heading into the trip one things I was still debating on what to do was a theme for my ride photos. Knowing that MGM was our first park and knowing that part of the Frozen Summer was the Olaf on a Sick so I thought I would use one of those and kinda make it that Olaf was photo-bombing my ride photo - so after entering the park we headed over to the booth where they were handing out said Olafs on Sticks .... only to find they were out of them:

Ok, well, maybe I can find them elsewhere ...... (sort of foreshadowing)


First Park of the trip we of course had to get a Photopass picture - though we were a bit of a hurry so didn't bother to get Emma out of the stroller or anything and just got me with Olivia and Peter:

It was rather hot that day - probably the hottest day of the trip ... but Disney did offer up this car driving around spraying a small trickle or water in the general direction of the crowd. Hey, at least it has been 0 days since their last injury

So where were we in a hurry to anyway? Well, to try and get tickets to a showing of the Frozen Sing-Along that would fit in our schedule ... which of course were located at the very back of the park - so off we went.

We got to the area and everything was a little confusing as there was a line for the theater for the next show that was cut in two as it was split across the road way and then a separate line for those with the package - and then a separate place to go to get the tickets. When we found that though they had plenty of tickets left and were very open to let people pick the show they wanted, etc. Well, they had tickets for the next show (the 3:30 show) which was in ~20 mins, so we decided to just get those and go right now rather than fit in a later show (and based on what happened later I am so glad we opted for this - but that is a story for another update).

The downside was this meant we would miss the FP+ for our first attraction which was Star Tours - which, for those of you that know where my user name comes from, was a bummer to me.

For those of you that don't, Max Rebo is this guy from Sy Snootles and The Max Rebo Band which performs in Jabba's Palace

When asked about trying to get on the ride later Olivia informed me that she "didn't want to go on that Darth Vader ride" - so getting on the ride was always in question anyway. (Spoiler alert: We never got on the ride *le sigh*)


So, coming back to things we did do, we first decided to get a cool beverage to have while we waited ... and hey, we've been here 5 minutes let's spend some money on a themed cup that we really don't need and will not have to find room in our luggage:

BTW - it was full of their special Frozen punch (why red and not blue I am not sure) that was ok, but mostly just tasted like extra sweet pineapple juice - I seemed to like it the most so drank most of it.

One thing I did like about where we were waiting on line was it was along where they have all the Muppet parody movie posters, my favorite of which was the one for Beak-E (which also plays off the tag line for Alien as well):

Eventually the line moved and we were led into the theater. We had Emma in her car seat (couldn't bring the actual stroller) and were asking where we could sit and be able to put the car seat down. There was some confusion as to whether or not we could use the seats designated for wheelchairs, etc. ultimately they brought us over to the side where there was a little extra room next to the seats. They turned out to be ok, though we did have a pole a bit on our view, as shown in this picture:

So how was the show? It. Was. Great! I really enjoyed it - the narrators were really fun, had enough of Anna, Elsa, and Kristoff so seem like a legit show and just to hear a room full of kids (and adults) singing their hearts out to songs they love along with the characters who sing the songs was just so great. I was so glad we got to do this and was perhaps the moment that I really felt the Disney part of the trip was starting.

Couple of photos of Kristoff and Elsa from the show:

This was the first show I tried to take a bunch of video for the trip video I am putting together (oh yes, there will be a video )

Here is a .gif of the closing bit and if you click on it, it should take you to a slightly longer youtube video:




So to anyone who will be in the area before they stop running this, I highly recommend doing the show!

(Continued next post)

 

[TheMaxRebo]

Part 8 - MGM part 2: Wait, you forgot the what?
Monday August 25th​

​

​

After hearing the tale of Arendelle (if, slightly altered by the narrators for comedic effect) we were let out fairly close to where Lightning McQueen and Matter meet - and Peter was really excited for this. So Judi took the kids to get on line for that while I went in search of Oaken's Trading Post as there was word on the street they may have had some Olafs on Sticks there

Sadly, they did not ... but they did have the most creative CM service door ever:

Funny part was as I was taking a picture of the door a CM came in through it, saw me and, chuckling, said "every time ..." - guess it gets photographed a lot. Disney: featuring the most photographed service doors and bathrooms in the world!

The good news is I got back in time to see Peter go up to Lightning and Mater and he just loved it - had a huge smile on his face the whole time.

Now it was time for us to get to our next FP+ and it was one we definitely wanted to make: Toy Story Midway Mania! Definitely loved that even though we didn't get to the park until close to 3pm we were still able to get on this ride - definitely one of the positives of the FP+ system.

We parked the stroller and Judi got wrapped up so she could wear Emma on the ride:

We had a very short wait before the counter where you pick up your 3D glasses and then up and over and before you knew it we were waiting to get on:

We all had a great time - it really is a fun ride! One of these days I might actually get good at it though - although I did get high score for the car, but not sure if that says much. I rode with Peter and considering he kept forgetting the aiming part I thought getting close to 20,000 was pretty good for a 2 year old:

After this we had time to fit in a character meet or two before dinner. Given that Olivia was wearing her Sofia shirt we figured it made sense to go see here, so off we went. Unfortunately we arrived about 10 minutes after her line closed and she would not be returning for the day. As this was our only scheduled MGM day I felt really bad that Olivia would not get to see her. She took it ok (we had met her just last October) and we assured her that next trip we would make meeting Sofia a priority ... that, and the news that instead we would go meet Minnie Mouse seemed to do the trick.

So into the Annimation Couryard we went and were happy to see that there was next to no line for Minnie (I think people miss it some times as it is tucked away in the back a bit).

Those of you who read my last trip report may recall that at that time Peter enjoyed the characters from afar but didn't really want to be close to them or meet them. Well, I am happy to report he did much better this time. After some initial hesitation he even went in for a hug with Minnie, and then posed nicely for a picture along with Olivia as well:

Then a double low-five from the kids:

and even a picture with Emma (and Judi who was attached to her):

It was a very nice M&G with Minnie and I like the sparkly dress she wears there and the meet area is fun and well themed as well.

After this we decided to head to our dining destination ... only to realize we had left all of the extra diapers for Emma in the car. Fearful that it would take to long with the tram and everything I decided we could just get some from the baby center. So off I went to the front of the park - with Peter in tow who insisted on coming. I did decide that if I was going to do this I was going to get an extra Photopass picture out of it. Peter really wanted nothing to do with it and some of the outtake photos are kinda funny - but somehow mixed in there we got one of my favorite photos from the trip:

Upon arriving at the baby center we were informed they didn't have any diapers there but directed us to another counter/store where we could buy some. Unfortunately they only had "medium" sized diapers (which are like a 5 or a 6) and Emma is, well, she's pretty tiny at this point. But, they were clean and worked - and we never made that mistake again


Coming up next, one of the best - and longest - meals of the trip

TTFN

 

[DisneyKid4Life]

Congratulations Phil... Looks like you got my normal parking lot spot.

Haha, that pic of Olivia and the "Special Frozen Punch" (Disney does know how to sell) is comical. Totally focused.

I'm curious now that this is a FP how the setup will be. Still confusing I imagine. Hopefully not. And what is that pole and why is it there? Seems an extremely odd location.

You know I don't know that I've ever stopped to even really look at the Lightning McQueen Meet. Do they do anything?

Hmmm, I think Disney should set up a meet and greet with Anna/Elsa similar to the Minnie meet wherein nobody knows it's there. You know, Just for kicks.

 

[missangelalexis]

Great update! Glad you were able to get into the sing a long. Love all the pictures, especially that one of you and Peter

 

[geckodani]

That unplanned pic with Peter is a great one! And I'm sorry about the diaper derp but I'm glad it worked out in the end. The frozen sing along definitely looks like a good time, and I LOVE that door, LOL!!!

 

[Marsheliz]

Yay for Frozen!! I hope SO bad they decide to keep this around!!!

Bummer on Sofia! That's one thing that I do not like about MGM.. How everything closes early! My gang was bummed last year when we got there & it was too late to meet the Monsters Inc bunch but I now know to check these things when planning..

Love Mater & mcQueen. Lawson has outgrown them ;(, but they used to be a favorite! Landen uses his old Cars toddler bed.

That's terrible about the diapers! On our 2012 trip, Landen had started drinking formula.. Well. We flew this particular time since my mom was so sick. My DH left an entire can on the plane and I was SOOOO mad! The gift shops did not have any, I called around to the delivery places.. Thankfully my dad had driven and didn't mind going to Wal- Mart!! These babies, they require too much work & TLC! Ha!

 

[TheMaxRebo]

Congratulations Phil... Looks like you got my normal parking lot spot.

Haha, that pic of Olivia and the "Special Frozen Punch" (Disney does know how to sell) is comical. Totally focused.

I'm curious now that this is a FP how the setup will be. Still confusing I imagine. Hopefully not. And what is that pole and why is it there? Seems an extremely odd location.

You know I don't know that I've ever stopped to even really look at the Lightning McQueen Meet. Do they do anything?

Hmmm, I think Disney should set up a meet and greet with Anna/Elsa similar to the Minnie meet wherein nobody knows it's there. You know, Just for kicks.

Ah, it was your spot ... that must be why they charged us extra

Well, having the FP+ for it should eliminate one line to get into at least ... although will they have a standby line too? So potentially three lines: Standby, FP+, Package? Ok, now my head hurts a bit

Oh, the pole was one of the main supports for the theater - we were on the left side and there was another one on the right, with the middle section in between the two. Guess it is a relatively older theater or for some other reason it needs the support

The cars don't really do anything but there are flashing lights and music and revving noises and stuff - so still exciting for little kids but nothing to go out of your way for.

That would be pretty cool if they did like "pop-up" or "flash-mob" meet and greets and have like with no announcement A&E meet for an hour some place

Great update! Glad you were able to get into the sing a long. Love all the pictures, especially that one of you and Peter

Thank you - the sing along and the fireworks were definitely the two parts I was most excited for related to the Summer of Frozen stuff ... and arriving later I was really worried that they would be out of tickets so when I finally found the place and saw the stacks of tickets left I definitely had a sigh of relief

I was so pleasantly surprised when I logged into the photopass account and saw that really nice one of Peter and I .... though most of them looked like this:

 

[TheMaxRebo]

That unplanned pic with Peter is a great one! And I'm sorry about the diaper derp but I'm glad it worked out in the end. The frozen sing along definitely looks like a good time, and I LOVE that door, LOL!!!

The diaper fiasco was especially funny as we had just bought a big pack of diapers - just neglected to put them in the diaper bag that came into the park

I also appreciate that they went to the effort of making up that door for a non-permanent space

Yay for Frozen!! I hope SO bad they decide to keep this around!!!

Bummer on Sofia! That's one thing that I do not like about MGM.. How everything closes early! My gang was bummed last year when we got there & it was too late to meet the Monsters Inc bunch but I now know to check these things when planning..

Love Mater & mcQueen. Lawson has outgrown them ;(, but they used to be a favorite! Landen uses his old Cars toddler bed.

That's terrible about the diapers! On our 2012 trip, Landen had started drinking formula.. Well. We flew this particular time since my mom was so sick. My DH left an entire can on the plane and I was SOOOO mad! The gift shops did not have any, I called around to the delivery places.. Thankfully my dad had driven and didn't mind going to Wal- Mart!! These babies, they require too much work & TLC! Ha!

I know they extended it a month but I think that is it ... maybe they will bring it back at some point though - I know there are rumors of moving the sing-along to the newly-closed American Idol theater ... not sure about the rest of the stuff though.

yeah, I was surprised that @ 4:30 Sofia was done for the day ... guess when I picked this to be the arrival day park I didn't take that into consideration. Bad DISer

That's cool that Landon gets the Cars bed now! Personally I kinda wish they did more than just be there but Peter was so happy so that made me happy.

I know! Why do the smallest members of the family need the most stuff!

 

[MidnightParade]

I LOVE the pic of Olivia with the slushie. Its just "NO, I'm not riding the Darth Vadar ride and you WILL get me a drink.....I am appeased, for now"

Yay for first park day fun!