Memorial Day Getaway & Baby's First Trip: A Belated 2021 TR - Updated 6/5 x 4

[Disney102015]

Hi all! Welcome to my very first trip report! As the title says, this was a 5 night trip over Memorial Day weekend 2021. Our party was me (H), DH (N), our 3 year old son C, and our 9 month old daughter G.

It’s been so long since our trip that I debated whether to post our trip report. After all, things have changed SO quickly with Covid restrictions, Genie+, Lightening Lanes, new rides, finished construction at the Polynesian…but I really enjoyed reliving the memories while writing up this TR so hopefully you’ll enjoy following along as well, despite the fact that our trip was basically back in the “dark ages” at this point

So, I’m H, the main planner of our trips. I’ve been going to WDW since I was a kid, and got DH to fall in love with it back when we were dating. We’ve been together 6 times, and after this most recent trip I convinced him it was time to buy DVC, so we are brand new owners at Animal Kingdom Lodge!! Animal Kingdom is our favorite park - we absolutely love it there and spend a lot of time just wandering around exploring the various trails and taste testing the various beverages.

I’m the adrenaline junkie of our group and LOVE roller coasters. Fun fact: the ONLY attraction in WDW that I refuse to do is It’s Tough to be a Bug. I did it once and {shudder} fled for the exit mid-show. Just not for me. Give me a roller coaster any day!! DH maxes out with Thunder Mountain so I’m on my own for the bigger coasters, but his absolute favorite is Test Track. My favorite depends on when you ask me, but I am a huge fan of Everest at night.

This was Little C’s 3rd trip to WDW in as many years - lucky duck! One of my favorite parts about traveling with kids is seeing what they actually like, versus what you expect them to like. On our last trip, C really enjoyed shows and anything with animals - Jungle Cruise and the safari were huge hits. This trip, he was tall enough to ride some of the coasters, so I was really excited to see what he thought of that. Hoping C will be my new roller coaster buddy! This was Baby G’s very first trip so we were just hoping she’d be as easygoing as C was when we took him for the first time around the same age.

Thanks for following along!

 

[Disney102015]

TABLE OF CONTENTS​

The Plan
Hot Mess Travel Day, Part 1
Hot Mess Travel Day, Part 2
Welcome Home!
Day 1 Part 1 – Magic Kingdom Morning Part 1
Day 1 Part 1 – Magic Kingdom Morning Part 2
Day 1 Part 2 – Pool Time & Narcoosee’s
Day 2 Part 1 – Good morning, Animal Kingdom!
Day 2 Part 2 – A Quick MK Evening & Unexpected “Date Night”
Day 3 Part 1 – Toddler’s Paradise: T-Rex Restaurant
Day 3 Part 2 – An Animal Kingdom Evening
Day 4 Part 1 – A Quick Magic Kingdom Morning
Day 4 Part 2 – A Perfect Evening at Hollywood Studios
Day 5 – Pool Day & Heading Home
Concluding Thoughts & See Ya Real Soon(er than Expected!)

 

[Disney102015]

THE PLAN​

How this trip came about….well, it’s sort of hard to believe now in the middle of this insane surge, but we were hitting a bit of a Covid lull leading up to May 2021. Things were starting to feel like maybe, just maybe, they were inching back to normal. DH and I both got vaxxed and decided to talk to our pediatrician about the possibility of taking a trip. His feeling was, unless we were planning not to travel til both kids were vaccinated (a long ways off), there was no reason not to go now. He also had a lot of comforting things to say about air travel and how relatively safe the airplane ride itself is considered. We had second thoughts when Disney announced that the mask mandate would be lifted outdoors, and that capacity would be increasing, about 2 weeks before our trip. We gave it a LOT of thought but ultimately decided we were ready to go for it!

This was probably the most last-minute trip I had ever booked, just over a month out. At the time, we were deep in research on DVC, so we decided it made sense to stay in a DVC accommodation to test the waters. We luckily snagged a Polynesian studio rental for 4 of our 5 nights, and were able to tack on a cash night for our 5th and final night.
We had accumulated a fair amount of JetBlue points while stuck at home during the pandemic (and G is still a free lap baby) so flight choices were easy peasy. We were going to Disney World!!!



Now we just had to sort out our park tickets. Here was the situation: in 2019, we did 2 trips so we got APs. But, for the second trip, we ended up sharing a room with N’s parents and getting free dining, which required us to purchase tickets. After doing a LOT of math, I made a call to Disney to ask if we could use those tickets (or the ticket value) on a future trip. I was told no problem (and luckily extensively documented the conversation, and had all the ticket numbers and other details saved). Fast forward to 2021…first I talk to ticketing (after literal 4+ hour waits on hold), who tells me the tickets are expired and have no value. They bounce me over to whoever handles packages. This department tells me the tickets are expired, but I still get the value toward current ticket prices, but they can’t help - has to be done through ticketing. More multi-hour waits on hold. After several days of this, I am panicking a bit about getting park pass reservations lined up for our trip and am determined to find someone who can help. I finally reach someone (God only knows now if it was in reservations or ticketing) who understands what I am saying, agrees I’m entitled to the value of the tickets, but can’t figure out how to make it happen. After MUCH time on hold and talking to various supervisors, this absolute angel simply cancels out the old tickets and credits us with “free” tickets for our upcoming trip. Hallelujah!!

Park passes made, NOW it really feels like we are going to Disney world. Well, kind of. There were no fast passes to reserve and, due to Covid / traveling with 2 tiny unpredictable humans, we were limiting how many ADRs we’d make. I kept feeling like I was forgetting to plan something but really, the planning was done, 2021 style!!

Next up...off to Disney World!

 

[StarWarsMomofGirls!]

Following along

 

[Disney102015]

Following along

Welcome, thanks for joining!

 

[Disney102015]

Hot Mess Travel Day, Part 1​

At one point as I was packing, Little C asked “Mumma? Who gonna sit with me on the airplane?” I explained he’d be sitting between me and daddy, and he said “ohhh...who flying the plane, then?” Little man thought his parents would be piloting the aircraft, apparently. He’s flown a bunch of times, but not in over a year, so I don’t think he remembers any of it. And, this would be his very first time flying with a seat of his own, so I couldn’t wait to see what he thought about that!

I am usually very type A and super organized but for some reason, I was way less prepared for this trip than usual. Maybe it was because I kept feeling like the trip wouldn’t really happen after all, maybe it was the feeling that less planning was necessary without Fast pass, etc....who knows. But let’s put it this way - I was not on my A game when it came to planning this adventure.

I had ordered a new travel bag for our double stroller but hadn’t thought to test it out until we were packing the night before our flight. After wrestling with it in the garage for a while, DH came in and gave me the bad news that the bag most definitely did not fit our stroller - it zipped, but just barely, and was basically bursting at the seams. I had done zero stroller rental research, since we had planned to bring our own, but we were obviously going to need to figure out a plan B! I quickly went online and rented a double stroller from the only company that is allowed to drop off at Disney hotels without the guest present (not sure if I am allowed to name the company or not). At least, I THOUGHT I rented a double stroller....stay tuned for our check in to find out what happened with the stroller situation!

I made a last minute run to Target to pick up Disney gift cards with the 5% discount. Unfortunately they were out of cards in large denominations so I would up with approximately a zillion $25 Disney gift cards. Oops. That’ll teach me to wait til the last minute I guess. I didn’t want to travel with that many cards, and try to keep tabs on the balance of each, so I resigned myself to consolidating them all that night. It took ages to scratch all the codes off, enter the numbers, and transfer them all onto one card (I think the Disney gift card website only let me enter 5 or so at a time). But I got it done, and we finished packing and called it a night - MUCH later than planned, but isn’t that how it always goes??

We were up bright and early Thursday, to pack the car and drop the kids at daycare for the morning. DH and I fly JetBlue whenever we can - we love the airline and more importantly (for us) we like their mileage program. Since JetBlue allows same day changes to your flight, and we often don’t know our work schedules at the time we book a trip, we usually book the cheapest flight on the day we’ll be traveling, then pay the fee to change to whichever flight we want on the day of travel. (This used to be a better idea money-wise when there were just 2 of us and the fee was $50 per person. Now that we have 3 tickets to book and the fee has increased to $75, we need to make sure we aren’t paying more in the long run by booking the cheapest flight up front.) We’ve never run into an issue switching to the flight we want (here’s some foreshadowing for the travel day at the end of our trip...spoiler alert, the day after a holiday weekend is not the time to plan on this “hack”!) So, we had booked the cheaper late-night flight to Orlando but decided to try to do a same day change to an afternoon flight so we could avoid starting our trip with a super late arrival with the kids.

But - I hadn’t realized I couldn’t accomplish this change online on the day of our flight. Because we had booked the flight on points, a same day change could only be done on the phone....and the hold time was over 2 hours. Which increased to 2.5 hours after my toddler heard the fun hold music coming from my phone and decided to investigate by pushing some buttons and accidentally hanging up 30 minutes into our wait. Oh well. I walked around with my phone on speaker all morning in my pocket after that, and someone answered almost exactly 2 hours into my second call. We had no issues switching to the earlier flight and I was so excited to know we’d be getting to our hotel before dark!

The plan was to pick up the kiddos, get DH at work, and arrive at the airport by about 3:15 for our 5:15 flight. I picked up the kids (C was wearing his Mickey shirt and was SO excited!) and plugged the address for DH’s office into my GPS. It said we’d arrive exactly on time. Perfect! We hit the highway and I turned on my Disney World playlist...and watched as the time on the GPS crept up...and up...and up.... There must have been an accident somewhere along the way because the quick ride to DH was suddenly turning into an hour+. We tried to brainstorm on the phone - would it make more sense for him to Uber? But then how would I get all the luggage inside with the kids? Would park and ride be better or would we end up in the same traffic? Etc. etc. Ultimately we couldn’t come up with another solution so we just powered through and hoped for the best.

Would we make it in time?? Stay tuned…

 

[Disney102015]

Hot Mess Travel Day, Continued…​

We picked up DH and finally arrived at the airport just before 4:00, for a 5:15 flight. Now, in my younger, child-free days, this would have been no sweat. I actually preferred arriving at the last possible minute and not wasting time sitting around the airport getting anxious. But with 2 kids, no stroller, and a (possibly absurd) pile of luggage? Not ideal, my friends. I was sweating it out, literally and figuratively, with a 20lb baby strapped to my chest in the Ergo as we hustled to security.

Of course, when you’re already running late, you know check in will be a comedy of errors, right? The kiosk wasn’t recognizing my confirmation number so we had to jump in long line for human assistance. Normally, I would’ve been full on panicking that we were going to miss our flight. But honestly, I knew there were still seats on the later flight, and I was just so happy to be going at all...so I figured it wouldn’t be the end of the world if we ended up missing the earlier flight. This would become a bit of a theme of the trip, actually - just so damn happy to be traveling somewhere fun with my family, I couldn’t really be bothered to sweat the small stuff. Plus, I was distracted by my toddler, who was belting out Old McDonald for the entire JetBlue terminal to hear. He hadn’t really been out in public much during Covid times, and it was pretty hilarious to see him singing his heart out in a crowd, completely oblivious to the other travelers staring at him.

We finally got to the counter and checked in, and were told we didn’t get free checked bags because we had booked our flight on points. I knew this wasn’t accurate but we didn’t have time to argue so just agreed to pay the fee and contact JetBlue for a refund later. (I did this as soon as we returned home with no issue.) Also our big suitcase was 13lbs overweight - epic fail. If we had time to spare we would’ve hopped out of line to redistribute some stuff, but we really didn’t want to miss the flight for this, so we paid the fee (gahhh it pains me to say that!) and bolted for security.

We made it to the security line and here was where we needed to begin our adjustment in expectations for the trip. Despite markers on the ground for social distancing, everyone was packed like sardines in the lines and completely ignoring the markers. To top it off, Baby G thought the funniest game was “pull mama’s mask off” so I was frantically trying to keep my nose and mouth covered while being elbow to elbow with strangers for the first time in over a year. There wasn’t much we could do about it, over than wash hands and mask up, so we decided we needed to try not let the lack of distancing stress us out the whole trip.

Here is where it becomes glaringly apparent that I have not traveled in over a year. Like I said before, I am pretty type A and usually very organized and efficient. But apparently I forgot basically all the TSA rules over the last year because security was a hot mess. I wore Baby G in the carrier through security - no problems there - but basically every bag we carried through got pulled aside for additional screening. In removing the electronics I forgot about Little C’s tablet, so that got flagged. I also had an opened bottled water and moisturizer in my backpack that I had forgotten about. Little C panicked a bit and had to be carried through the scanner. Etc. etc. All little things that slowed us down.

We hustled to our terminal and hopped straight in the line to board. Close call! I hadn’t packed water for Baby G’s bottles because I didn’t realize I could take water through security for that purpose, so my plan was to pick up a few bottles of water after security to mix up her formula before we boarded. Unfortunately a) we were running super late and b) all the airport shops were closed due to Covid! Once we got on board we explained the situation to a flight attendant, who brought us a small cup of water. Not ideal, but it was enough to mix up a small bottle to get us through takeoff. Also not ideal - neither kid had a diaper change in almost 3 hours by that point. We crossed our fingers no one would spring a leak because I wasn’t changing them in the airplane bathroom unless absolutely necessary.

Meanwhile, Little C kept asking if we were flying yet. We promised he’d know once we were taking off! Like I mentioned, this was his very first time flying in his very own seat. I wasn’t sure how he’d react to that, and was a little worried about how easy it is to unbuckle an airplane seatbelt (I’ve done it myself by accident before!) so I had done some research ahead of time and ordered an FAA-approved harness for him to wear. Basically, the strap goes around the back of his seat (it doesn’t affect the person behind you, as it wraps around inside their tray table, which they can still use) then attaches to the airplane seatbelt, and kind of holds him exactly like he sits in his car seat. It worked out really well! He seemed totally comfortable and stayed put the whole flight. (We have used it a few times since on other bumpier flights and I was VERY happy to have the extra security over his shoulders during pretty serious turbulence.)



Chubby baby toes on the flight

THIS flight, however, was absolute smooth sailing. I don’t know if it was because I was just so happy to be traveling again or what, but the flight felt quick and relaxing (NOT words I usually associate with flying!) Despite his initial excitement at having his very own TV screen, Little C dozed off quickly, and Baby G followed shortly thereafter. DH and I each got a glass of wine to toast to finally being en route to vacation. Here was another instance of us being out of practice in traveling: I brought my new AirPods to listen with on the plane…forgetting I’d need reliable Wifi to use them. No problem, I brought my headphones as a back up and downloaded an audiobook…forgetting my phone no longer has a headphone port! Ah well. I was a little worried about how it’d be to keep a mask on the whole flight but it wasn’t a problem. My only complaint is that I found it really hard to communicate with DH - I was trying to keep my voice down so as not to wake the kids but with all the normal airplane noise we had a lot of trouble figuring out what the other was saying through masks.

Before we knew it we were landing at MCO after a beautiful flight!



Next up…arrival at the Polynesian!!

 

[Disney102015]

Welcome Home to the Polynesian!​

I placed our Instacart order while we waited to get off the plane, then we made a beeline for the bathroom for a round of diapers (no leaks! ) and were in the Magical Express line with our luggage by 7:40. We boarded the bus 10 minutes later - everyone was assigned a seat and there were empty rows left between parties, which was great, but none of those measures were imposed for the ride back to the airport later in the trip, which seemed really odd! Anyway, we only sat for about ten minutes and then we were on our way. This was a record for us - we have historically had VERY bad luck with waiting ages for a bus THEN waiting ages for that bus to get moving, so we were really grateful that was not the case this trip. Little C loves a good bus and shouted “THIS IS THE BEST RIDE!!!” as we pulled away from MCO.



I got the notification that Instacart was on the way almost as soon as we hit the road. I was worried the hotel wouldn’t hold it for us til we arrived (we ordered wine, among other items) but that turned out not to be a problem.

We got to the hotel around 8:35 and were dropped at Pago Pago since the Great Ceremonial House was under construction. It was kind of an awkward check in - there were 3 CMs sitting in the lobby but no one said hi or told us what to do so we sort of stood there while they chatted among themselves until finally asking if we were in the right spot for check in.



It turned out we were staying in Pago Pago on the first floor. I was a little bummed since we had requested a higher floor - I had a feeling we were more likely to use a balcony than a patio (as it turns out, we never did use the patio) and this put me at 0/6 on Touring Plans room requests. I was also a little worried we’d have extra noise and traffic outside our room since we were close to the makeshift check in area, but that turned out not to be an issue at all. We loved the room itself so much, from the layout (2 showers = amazing) to the decor (we actually ordered one of the mermaid prints when we got home).

We placed a mobile order at Kona Cafe and DH went to get it while I called for our luggage. I always, ALWAYS unpack when staying in a hotel for more than a night or two. I just don’t like digging through a suitcase and prefer to “nest” when I get to my room! However, I was trying to watch the 2 kids while DH was gone, and I was getting tired from our long day. Plus, I was a little flummoxed by the Poly’s setup, which was lacking in drawer space. I hung a few things I didn’t want to wrinkle, and used the laundry basket provided to organize some of the kids clothes, but left most of my stuff and DH’s stuff in the suitcase. I figured I’d finish unpacking the next day but ultimately didn’t get around to it the entire trip! I kind of regretted this each morning as I dug through the suitcase to find what I needed. Next time I’ll definitely pack some hanging fabric shelves that we use at home to hang in the closet and make organizing easier. I had also brought a pop up hamper from home - turned out I didn’t need to do that since there was a plastic hamper in the closet, but just having a hamper at all was a game changer! It kept the room so much neater and made unpacking/throwing all the dirty stuff in the laundry a breeze when we got home. It’s the little things!

We finished our food and were starting to wind down pretty quickly - but it was around 10pm that I realized our stroller wasn’t waiting in our room. Hmm. I called bell services - they didn’t have it either. I logged into my email to check the confirmation…and saw the notification that I needed to call with my payment info to secure my reservation. Gah! Night 1 at Disney and no stroller! I was a little frustrated with myself for misreading the instructions but there was nothing we could do about it that night so decided we had to shrug it off and figure out Plan B in the morning.

We had called for a pack and play for Baby G - she fell asleep in DH’s arms with her bottle but woke up immediately when put down in the pack and play. Rinse and repeat. Eventually DH laid down with C to sleep while I sat in the dark rocking Baby G and googling stroller rental companies. After about 40 minutes she was finally asleep, and I followed her shortly after.

Next up was our first day at Magic Kingdom!

 

[lvcourtneyy]

Following! I'm also writing a much belated trip report about baby's first trip! Your travel day sounded stressful but you made it! Can't wait to hear about the rest of the trip

 

[footballmouse]

What a day!

 

[Disney102015]

Following! I'm also writing a much belated trip report about baby's first trip! Your travel day sounded stressful but you made it! Can't wait to hear about the rest of the trip

I am going to check out your TR! I love reading about other people's trips with babies because it is just such a learning curve traveling with little ones! But so worth it!

 

[Disney102015]

Magic Kingdom Morning, Part 1 ​

We were up and moving by 5:45, which would normally feel obscenely early on vacation but a) we have 2 early risers so 5:45 is basically sleeping in and 2) we were on DISNEY TIME so who needs sleep??!

We walked out of Pago Pago at 7:05, and opted to head for the bus since we weren’t sure what the monorail or boat situation would be at that hour. We were approaching the bus stop just as a Magic Kingdom bus pulled up, and DH took one for the team and sprinted ahead to make sure we didn’t miss it. I had DS walking as fast as his little toddler legs would carry him and soon we were on our way to MK, arriving at 7:17. We cruised through security - the new scanners were seriously awesome! I remember security with kids and a backpack being a huge hassle before but this was easy peasy.

You may recall my stroller snafu from the night before. I was carrying Baby G in the Ergo which was not going to last long given the steamy weather, so our first stop was stroller rental. This actually went much smoother than expected. They did have infant strollers, which looked a lot more cozy than the toddler-sized plastic strollers so we got one of each and headed off to Main Street.



We were at the castle by 7:30. I was hoping to get a photo of the fam in front of the castle but there were absolutely NO photo pass photographers out. I shrugged and figured we’d get a family castle pic later in the week but (spoiler alert!) we never did! Remains one of my few regrets from an otherwise lovely trip. But, it did make the decision not to purchase Memory Maker easier - we had APs on our last two trips and I got so used to getting to keep all our photos for free. We got some pics of us and DS in front of each park icon on that trip that I really treasure. Alas, between masks on the rides, general sweatiness, and a lack of photographers, it was a pretty easy call to skip MM this time around. But I digress...

Small World unfortunately wasn’t running yet. The line for Seven Dwarves Mine Train was wrapped all around the mountain and it didn’t appear to be running yet anyway. We really didn’t mind, since we didn’t think a coaster was the best way to start DS warming up to rides again. Little did we know that we were headed to the scariest ride of the trip...Peter Pan’s Flight!

We were in line by 7:37 and walked right through the entire queue. Overall I didn’t miss FP too much on this trip and one major benefit was walking through the standby queues! The bedrooms and flickering Tinker bell were so adorable. Unfortunately, the relative darkness of the queue had DS a bit uneasy right from the start and he was pretty clingy before we even boarded our pirate ship. Once we were off to Neverland, things got more nerve-wracking for the little guy, as the ride came to a sudden halt right as we were flying over pirates and crocodiles. Kiddo was NOT impressed and was very anxious to get off the ride.

We got off Peter Pan and DD celebrated by spitting up allllllllllll over me. Let me tell you, baby puke baking on your shirt in the hot Florida sun smells...not awesome. I cleaned up as best I could and regretted not throwing an extra tank top in my bag. (Rookie mistake! This has also happened to me on a flight before. Always pack an extra top for whoever is carrying the baby!)

We debated hopping on Winnie the Pooh, but DS was still feeling a bit spooked from Peter Pan so we figured maybe an outdoor ride that he could actually see first would be a good choice. With that, we headed for the Teacups, and were the very first tea party of the day! DS enjoyed helping DH spin our cup, while DD enjoyed trying to decapitate herself by letting her head swing about wildly as we spun. We were off the Teacups by 8am. Next up we headed to Dumbo, which had a 5 minute wait posted, but we walked straight through the line to boarding. I sat with DD in my lap, and DS and DH sat in the elephant behind us. DH absolutely loved this ride and I was glad the earlier scare on Peter Pan wasn’t going to deter him from rides altogether.



Next up...Little C's first coaster!

 

[Disney102015]

Magic Kingdom Morning, Part II​

After Dumbo, it was time for a break. We kept dining reservations to a minimum this trip, partly due to the uncertainty of traveling with two little kids, and partly due to our goal of sticking primarily to outdoor seating. So, I had packed pop tarts as a treat for DS, and we found a shady spot to sit in and enjoy our snack. I also took our break to circle back through Fantasyland to grab our stroller, since DD was rubbing her eyes already.

Next we decided to have DS try Barnstormer as his first little coaster! We walked all the way through the queue and I kept talking the whole time to keep him a bit distracted from looking at the ride going by - I didn’t want him to get intimidated and miss riding it, because I was 99% sure he’d enjoy it. We were seated in the first row and he held onto my hand as we took off - he loved it! He squeezed my hand extra hard a couple times - one of my least favorite things about masks on rides was that I couldn’t see his facial expression, but I could hear him giggling so I knew he was ok. When we got off, he said “mama, that made me SO laugh!” I was so thrilled he enjoyed it!

DD had dozed off in the stroller, so DH stayed with her while DS and I headed back to Dumbo at his request. Then he and DH hopped on Little Mermaid for a 5 minute wait while I took the stroller to find us a more substantial breakfast. I hopped in line at Gaston’s first - the line stretched all the way past the fountain and I remember just hanging out waiting, listening to the instrumental music from Beauty and the Beast, and just feeling so relaxed and so happy to be at Disney with my favorite people. It was such a nice morning and I was just feeling super grateful to be there.

I checked the menu on my phone while I waited and realized there weren’t a ton of options available, so decided to change course. I stumbled upon Friar’s Nook and took my first stab at mobile ordering. I got us donuts and a breakfast sandwich to share, plus some coffee, and clicked “I’m here” right away. I got my text that my food was ready about 5 minutes later so our first mobile order experience was a success! I had no trouble getting a table and soon DH and DS were joining us - DS was thrilled to see the ducks wandering around between the tables looking for a snack! We ate our food and decided to check out the shop by Winnie the Pooh. DS picked out a little figure set of the characters, then we headed off to Small World.

Small World had a posted wait of 25 minutes, but it’s a sentimental favorite and we always like to ride it on our first day, so we decided to hop in line after dropping the strollers again. DD was just waking up from her quick doze, so we popped her in the Ergo and hopped in line. By this time, DS was feeling the effects of our big travel day and early morning wake up - plus maybe a bit of lingering hesitancy from his ride on Peter Pan - and was NOT interested in riding Small World. I felt bad, because he sat down on the ground and started to cry as we were approaching the boarding area, but we also knew he was just exhausted and would enjoy the ride once we were on it, so we decided to press onward. Thank goodness, the wait was closer to 15 minutes, and soon I was peeling a sobbing toddler off the ground to haul him on the Happiest Cruise that Ever Sailed by 9:50!



As expected, DS calmed down once our boat was moving. I think the poor kid was just nervous about any ride he couldn’t see first, but once he was convinced nothing scary was going to happen, he seemed to really enjoy it! He is a huge animal lover so he especially loved the room with the giraffes and big elephant. Meanwhile, DD sat in the Ergo gazing around like someone who had just realized she had taken one too many edibles. I love how you can notice different details every time on this ride - my favorite was the cactus playing guitar.



By 10:15 we were making our way out of the park for a morning break. The crowds heading up Main Street were pretty intense, plus it was HOT, so we felt like getting an early start had definitely been worthwhile. We returned our strollers on the way out, which was quick and painless, and headed for the boat back to the Poly.

Next up...pool time and a dicey trip to dinner!

 

[StarWarsMomofGirls!]

At one point as I was packing, Little C asked “Mumma? Who gonna sit with me on the airplane?” I explained he’d be sitting between me and daddy, and he said “ohhh...who flying the plane, then?” Little man thought his parents would be piloting the aircraft, apparently.

I love it! I can see how in a kids mind that would make sense. I mean we drive the cars....

I am usually very type A and super organized but for some reason, I was way less prepared for this trip than usual. Maybe it was because I kept feeling like the trip wouldn’t really happen after all, maybe it was the feeling that less planning was necessary without Fast pass, etc....who knows. But let’s put it this way - I was not on my A game when it came to planning this adventure.

I TOTALLY feel this way. it's been 2 years and I feel so rusty!

I THOUGHT I rented a double stroller....stay tuned for our check in to find out what happened with the stroller situation!

Oh No!!!

But I got it done, and we finished packing and called it a night - MUCH later than planned, but isn’t that how it always goes??

yes! And if I can get to bed on time it feels like I am forgetting something!

We tried to brainstorm on the phone - would it make more sense for him to Uber? But then how would I get all the luggage inside with the kids? Would park and ride be better or would we end up in the same traffic? Etc. etc. Ultimately we couldn’t come up with another solution so we just powered through and hoped for the best

How stressful!!! Yikes!

Plus, I was distracted by my toddler, who was belting out Old McDonald for the entire JetBlue terminal to hear. He hadn’t really been out in public much during Covid times, and it was pretty hilarious to see him singing his heart out in a crowd, completely oblivious to the other travelers staring at him.

Nothing like kids to distract you! Hopefully some of the folks around you enjoyed his singing as well.

There wasn’t much we could do about it, over than wash hands and mask up, so we decided we needed to try not let the lack of distancing stress us out the whole trip

I am afraid of this. My girls are older and my youngest is very aware of COVID and what she should and shouldn't be doing. And she would have been freaking out.

Once we got on board we explained the situation to a flight attendant, who brought us a small cup of water. Not ideal, but it was enough to mix up a small bottle to get us through takeoff. Also not ideal - neither kid had a diaper change in almost 3 hours by that point. We crossed our fingers no one would spring a leak because I wasn’t changing them in the airplane bathroom unless absolutely necessary.

Oh man! It was a stressful trip!

Little C loves a good bus and shouted “THIS IS THE BEST RIDE!!!” as we pulled away from MCO.

Oh little C! There is so much more fun to come!

I had a feeling we were more likely to use a balcony than a patio (as it turns out, we never did use the patio) and this put me at 0/6 on Touring Plans room requests

I stopped putting in room requests. It just makes me disappointed. I have yet to get one.

I had also brought a pop up hamper from home - turned out I didn’t need to do that since there was a plastic hamper in the closet, but just having a hamper at all was a game changer!

I unpack completely as well. I use packing cubes, and leave one open in the suitcase and collect all the dirty clothes in them. And just keep filling each one as the trip goes along. Less packing at the end! And I usually end up with a full suitcase of dirty clothes, and just toss it all into the laundry.

We were up and moving by 5:45, which would normally feel obscenely early on vacation but a) we have 2 early risers so 5:45 is basically sleeping in and 2) we were on DISNEY TIME so who needs sleep??!

So true. Although, I say it's the only place my girls sleep in because they are so exhausted!

We cruised through security - the new scanners were seriously awesome! I remember security with kids and a backpack being a huge hassle before but this was easy peasy.

I can't wait to try this!

When we got off, he said “mama, that made me SO laugh!” I was so thrilled he enjoyed it!

YEAH!!!!

Thank goodness, the wait was closer to 15 minutes, and soon I was peeling a sobbing toddler off the ground to haul him on the Happiest Cruise that Ever Sailed by 9:50!

Poor Guy! it is so weird what kids will be afraid of. But Small World hopefully let him see that they aren't all scary.

 

[Disney102015]

Pool Time and Narcoosee's​

When we left off, we had hopped on the boat back to the Poly, thinking it would be much quicker to get back to our room from the boat launch rather than the Transportation and Ticket Center monorail station. Spoiler: it wasn’t! But, it was really, really nice and relaxing taking the quick cruise back to our resort - so many things sold us on the Polynesian and this was definitely one of them.

That said, we definitely underestimated the hike back from the boat launch to Pago Pago. Maybe it was because we were tired from travel and adjusting to the heat, maybe it was because we didn’t have a stroller, maybe it was because we didn’t have the lay of the land yet and took the longest possible route (accurate!) but it seemed to take ages to get back to our room. We were back by 11am and relaxed a bit before getting everyone ready for the pool. DD was just learning to crawl (and now she’s walking…sob!) so she enjoyed trying to scoot around the room. Unfortunately she had only mastered scooting backward at that point and kept backing herself under the bed.

In the meantime, I worked on sorting out the stroller situation. I called the company I had thought I booked with previously, but they couldn’t deliver until the following day. After a bit of frantic Googling, I found a company that would drop off a double stroller in about 2 hours. SOLD! Their service was really wonderful and I was so relieved to know a stroller would be on its way soon.

After about an hour we headed to the pool and WOW, were we impressed. The waterfall, the castle view, the margaritas….we were in heaven. We put DS in a life jacket (so convenient these are available right at the pool for free!) and DD in a pool float with a sunshade that we brought from home and just enjoyed cooling off and relaxing. DD was deeply skeptical of the pool float and fussed for the first few minutes but soon relaxed and even gave us some smiles eventually. I decided to try the big slide - I got to the top and realized I still had my flip flops and sunglasses on, so held those in my hand as I slid down! I made my usual graceful exit from the slide, sinuses fully irrigated, and DH and I took the crew over to the Kiki Tiki play area. DS absolutely loved it and did the little slide over and over. I carried DD around and she got a kick out of all the spray features. Truly, just a joyful afternoon that totally cemented our love for this resort.



We decided to get some food and drinks before heading back to the room (the blood
orange margarita was my pool bar beverage of choice this trip) and mobile ordered from Captain Cook’s. Unfortunately our food took almost half an hour to be ready, and in the meantime I got a text from the stroller rental company that the delivery was nearly there. This resulted in a bit of a resort-wide scramble as I left Captain Cook’s (still no food yet) trying to track down the driver, who didn’t realize the Great Ceremonial House entrance wasn’t open. I found him eventually - almost all the way back to Pago Pago - then circled back for our food - then realized I had NO idea how to get back into the pool area with a stroller (since the entrance we used previously had steps). DH was pretty sure I had abandoned ship by the time I found my way back, and I was a little sweaty and frustrated, but the delicious nachos and pulled pork sandwich and (now somewhat watery) margarita put me right back in vacation mode. After we ate, the kids were fading so we headed back to the room for naps (a MUCH easier trip now that we had a double stroller!)

Gear note: the stroller we rented was a Baby Jogger City Mini. We LOVED it so much that we sold our stroller when we got home so we could buy one of these. Super super easy to fold, which made loading the bus way easier. The canopy was enormous and almost fully blocked the kids from the sun. The basket in the bottom isn’t huge, but there are flaps in the front of the stroller to access the basket, so we didn’t have to dig around everyone we needed something. Can’t say enough about it, it worked out really well for us and made me feel a lot better about the initial stroller snafus!

Back at Pago Pago, the kids and I napped (at the same time! Vacation miracle!) while DH watched some TV. Side note: I packed a sleep mask with Bluetooth speakers in the ears and it was a huge help! I was able to pop on some white noise and nap peacefully despite the TV and occasional kiddo noise. Parenting bliss, seriously.

…which was good, because things were about to get a little dicey! After naps, we all cleaned up and left Pago Pago to head for dinner at Narcoosee’s. We had a lofty goal of arriving to the Grand Floridian NOT soaked in sweat so opted to head to the monorail rather than walking to GF. When they say the TTC is close to the Poly DVC buildings, they aren’t kidding - we were pleasantly surprised to find it was about a 5 minute walk. This was where the good luck ended, however, as we discovered the monorail wasn’t running once we got there. We were going to have to take the ferry to MK, then the resort launch to GF - yikes. We were going to be pretty seriously pressed for time even if all went well, which it did not. We waited a while for the ferry to load and I tried to see if I could push back the reservation on the app, but the internet on my phone wasn’t working at all. (We’d later find out there was a widespread outage which was also why the monorail wasn’t running!) Once at MK, we hustled to the resort launch and saw a big line for the GF boat. The first came and went but there were still 2 parties ahead of us so we had to wait for the next one. The CMs at the boat launch told us we’d probably be fine and that Narcoosee’s would seat us late given the monorail situation, but we were still sweating it out, literally and figuratively. While we waited for the boat, we debated whether we should just head back to our resort - we were really skeptical we’d be seated almost an hour late. Luckily we stuck it out, the boat came eventually, and the CMs at Narcoosee’s seemed totally unbothered by our tardiness.

Part of the reason we chose Narcoosee’s was because we had read it had outdoor seating, but we didn’t see any outdoor seating when we got there. Normally this would have stressed us both out but at that point we were so frazzled about being late, and grateful to be seated at all, that we didn’t even mention it to the hostess. (Did I mention we were sweaty? The a/c was a bonus as well.)

We were happy to see the tables were distanced quite far apart and the restaurant felt at least half empty so we felt pretty safe despite eating indoors unexpectedly. This was a really special night - it was our only fancy meal planned for the trip, so we were all dolled up a bit, the kids were SO good, the food and drinks were great…one of my favorite memories from the trip. We started with crab cakes (amazing), I probably got steak and definitely got a cocktail…I wish I had written down more details but we were just enjoying our family time. DS realized he could get a cupcake with his meal and was over the moon. Due to Covid he hadn’t been to a restaurant in ages and he was so confused why the food didn’t arrive as soon as we ordered. We had to explain how restaurants worked, how the chef was cooking the food, etc. So crazy to think the things these kids will be confused about after a year+ at home. When his cupcake arrived, he promptly went at it, face first. The blue frosting went nicely with his light blue dress shirt, and he was so happy I didn’t even mind.

One of the major downsides to the Covid changes was definitely the shortened park hours. We had planned to go to MK after dinner but after running so late for dinner, it really didn’t make sense to go back to the park by the time we were done. We realized we’d be cutting our MK time short by skipping it this evening so decided we were going to skip Epcot this trip and return to MK the following night instead. We didn’t have much on our “must do” list for Epcot this time around so I think this was the right call for us. So, once dinner was over, we headed to the monorail and enjoyed a beautiful sunset on our ride back to the Poly. We got back to the room, set everyone up for bed, and I’m pretty sure we were all asleep by 9:30. An awesome start to the trip and a good night’s sleep before tomorrow’s adventure: Animal Kingdom!

 

[Disney102015]

Early Morning at Animal Kingdom​

It was another early morning, but no complaints from our crew as we were headed to Animal Kingdom today! DS watched some TV as we got ready for the day and proclaimed “I LIKE being at Disney world!” (Although we don’t have regular TV at home, so he was completely confused by commercials.)

I think this was our only stressful transportation morning. We left Pago Pago by 7:05 and the app said the next AK bus would arrive by 7:31. The bus stop got more and more crowded as 4 Magic Kingdom buses came and went. We chatted a bit with some dads across from us and realized they were headed to AK as well. I found myself really wishing the deluxe resorts had proper lines for buses so it’d be “first come first served.” (When we stayed at AOA, they had lines for each park - do all the values have this?) There was one family in particular that kept sprinting to the door for every bus that pulled up, trying to be first - and unfortunately, he and his huge family were also headed to AK. It’s a bit hard to tell with masks on, but I felt like the dads across from us made a silent pact to speak up if anyone tried to jump in front of us after we had been waiting so long. (Did we have a secret alliance, or were they wondering why the mom across from them was staring into their eyes so intently? We will never know.)

Anyway, 7:31 came and suddenly the app reported that the next AK bus wouldn’t arrive til 7:55. Yikes! Lucky for us, actual bus wait times seem entirely unrelated to the wait times reported on the app, and our bus arrived at 7:39, putting us in the park just after 8:00.

Man, I love this park. The entrance music, walking through the trees to get to the bridge, then seeing the gorgeous Tree of Life….so amazing and immersive. Most of the crowd was headed for Pandora, and while I had heard horror stories about the recent wait times for Kilimanjaro safaris, the standby wait was only 5 minutes, which turned out to be accurate!

Unfortunately, the lines to board each row of the safari were bordered by plastic partitions for Covid safety. Our row must’ve been mismeasured, because I couldn’t stand facing forward without both my shoulders touching the opposite walls! We were crammed in there and it was SO hot and humid. And, while the wait was short, we spent the entire time in that “corral,” waiting for the next bus to pull up. We were laughing pretty hard at how ridiculous it was, but I was also soaked through with sweat before we boarded the ride. Baby G also occupied herself during the wait by trying to lick the plastic walls which was…not ideal. (Not all the rows were like this, which is why I guess maybe this one was mis-measured? We rode again later in the week and our corral was totally comfortable, space-wise. Who knows!)

The safari is one of our favorites. Little C is a huge animal lover, and was so excited to find each animal on the poster overhead as we saw them on the ride. I was SO excited we got to see the new baby zebra!! Oddly, we didn’t see any giraffes - I’m assuming maybe they were all backstage for some reason? I can’t imagine all of them would be able to hide on the savanna at once.



We were off the safari by 8:45 and baby girl was fast asleep, having been rocked to sleep on the ride. In trying to find our stroller, we stumbled into the end of the Gorilla Falls Trail which was awesome - we bumped into a cast member and were talking to her about the Animal Kingdom show on Disney+ (one of Little G’s current favorites). She was able to show us which gorillas were on the show and which were used as “b roll” footage. It was neat!



Next up, we needed a break. DH wanted to find a hat so he took the stroller to a store while I went in search of coffee. On the way, I passed this beautiful flower display:



I got to Starbucks and have to say, they probably had the strictest social distancing of the entire trip. Everything was very streamlined with a dot for everyone to stand on and staff directing everyone where to go. I got our caffeine and snagged a table outside, soon to be joined by DH and the kids. DH had gotten a hat and C had gotten a stuffed hyena which he still absolutely loves. He played with his new lovey while we caffeinated and baby girl dozed - it was HOT so we set up our portable fan to try to keep her cool in the stroller.

After our coffee break, we decided to take a proper stroll through the Gorilla Falls trail. I had so much fun just watching Little C explore - he was so excited about everything, from the fish to the huge gorillas. We took our time on the trail and by the end we were ready for another break - as I said, it was super hot on this day! C had a popsicle and DH got a sandwich. Next we were off to Dinoland! The only thing C likes more than animals is dinosaurs so I was pretty excited to show him this. I’ll be honest - despite coming to Disney at least once a year, I don’t think I’ve set foot in Dinoland in maybe a decade?! We meant to do the Boneyard on our last trip and didn’t get around to it, and of course it was closed this trip.

The land did feel a little empty with most of the games and such closed down, but C loved it nonetheless! He thought the massive dino at the entrance was hilarious, and soon we were in a ~5 minute line for Triceratops Spin. While we were in the line, he spotted a light up Mickey bubble wand at a nearby kiosk. We got the exact same one on our last trip and he absolutely LOVED it, but it stopped working a few months after the trip (probably due to overuse!) We promised him we’d get one at some point during the trip. Well, after our ride we went back to the strollers to do diapers and reapply sunscreen, and C said he’d like to ride again. So, we made our way back over to the ride…til he made a hard right turn and made a beeline toward the kiosk! Once he had the bubbles in hand he decided he didn’t need another ride on the triceratops after all, and soon we were strolling out of Dinoland leaving a stream of bubbles in our wake.

(Mom hack: I knew from our last trip that we’d quickly run out of bubbles, and included a bunch of bubble liquid in our Amazon Now order at the beginning of the trip. Saved $$ from not buying a ton of tiny containers of bubbles at the park every time we ran out!)

Next we planned to do the Cretaceous trail, but it was closed for some reason. Instead we wandered through the area by Dinosaur so C could see some of the dinos and skeletons. He thought that was SO cool! This area was PACKED for some reason - one of the few times I felt a bit nervous this trip - so we didn’t stay long.

We were back tracking a bit but headed back toward Asia. DH stopped to grab us cold drinks while C and I found a shady spot to sit off to the side, overlooking the river. We saw one of the cavalcades go by, which was pretty cool! We aren’t big parade people and usually wouldn’t seat to wait for one, so I actually preferred bumping into the cavalcades rather than camping out waiting for a full parade. C was happy to take a bit of a break and set about gathering little seeds he found and pretending to feed them to his hyena. DH soon met up with us, with a Himalayan Ghost for me from Thirsty River Bar. It occurs to me now that it was roughly 11:15am but hey, I had been up for hours and hours and it’s vacation! Why not have a vodka drink before noon?!



Next up, Maharajah Jungle Trek. We only spotted one tiger but C got a kick out of seeing the areas we had seen on the Disney+ show! We all hit a wall rather abruptly toward the end of the Trek and decided it was time to head back to the hotel to cool off and grab food. I don’t know if it was the heat or hunger but the walk to the entrance felt endless!! We made it to the bus stop by 11:55 and were back at the Poly by 12:30.

 

[Disney102015]

Magic Kingdom Evening and a Surprise "Date Night"​

Both kids dozed off on the bus from AK to the Poly, so DH took them back to the room while I mobile ordered from Captain Cook’s and walked over to pick it up. I remember taking a phone call on my walk back and pacing the hallways of Pago Pago because I was sure the kids were sleeping and didn’t want to walk back in the room while I was on the phone. Well, I didn’t need to worry - apparently the bus ride was the power nap everyone needed because there was a full on bubble dance party happening when I (oh so carefully and quietly) opened the door. Since naps weren’t happening, we quickly ate and got everyone’s swim gear on to head to the pool. Baby G fell back asleep in the stroller on the quick walk over, so I found a shady spot to sit and got myself a blood orange margarita while DH took C in the water. Sleeping baby, delicious beverage, a few quiet minutes to read. Mmm, bliss. She was awake before long and we joined DH and C in the pool until about 4:30, when we headed back to the room.

After getting everyone cleaned up, we headed for the Transportation and Ticket Center for an evening at Magic Kingdom. We had much better transportation luck tonight and had a quick monorail ride to MK - about 20 minutes from leaving Pago Pago to entering the park. Can’t beat that!!

The skies looked a bit threatening but it never actually rained (though a bit of rain would’ve been welcome!) C and I started things off on the Magic Carpets, which he loved. (Basically he loved anything that was a variation of Dumbo.) He laughed so hard each time we went around and passed his dad and sister below! Oh, to be 3 again.




Next up was Pirates, which had a posted wait of 35 minutes. Not ideal, but it’s a “must ride” for us so we decided to wait. It wound up being closer to 25 minutes so that wasn’t too bad.

Now, I mentioned C was a bit spooked by Peter Pan earlier in the trip and was wary of riding any indoor rides (where he couldn’t see what he was getting into ahead of time). He was getting a bit clingy in the Pirates line and I could tell he was nervous - even more so when we were seated in the front row and set off into the dark and creepy beginning of the ride. We could tell he was starting to freak, and decided distraction was the best tactic - from that point on, you would have thought we were on a farm tour. “Look, buddy, a crab! So cool!” (Never mind the skeleton right next to it.) “Oooo, do you see those chickens?” (Just ignore the town burning around them!) “Wow, a doggy! What a nice doggy!” You get the picture. C relaxed and we all emerged from the ride unscathed.

We headed over to Tomorrowland for a ride on Buzz Lightyear. She doesn’t know who he is but Baby G absolutely lit up when she saw the Buzz animatronic in line. This was another time I felt a little nervous - in the indoor part of the line, distancing was non-existent and I saw a lot of people not wearing masks properly. Luckily it was a quick wait and we were boarding before I knew it. G and I rode together while DH rode with Little C. We were on the ride by 7:05 but it ended up being a long one because the ride broke down. It was actually pretty neat to see - we sat in the dark for a few minutes, then the lights came on and these railings popped up all along the ride track. We saw a
CM walking the length of the track but never figured out why we stopped. We were off the ride around 7:30 so it was a fairly long break down!

Next up was the People Mover, which was a walk on. Is there anything more relaxing than the People Mover at sunset? Or really, the People Mover anytime?

Unfortunately it might’ve been a bit TOO relaxing, as Little C was soon rubbing his eyes and asking if we could ride around one more time. We knew with him fading fast, we’d need to wrap this night up sooner rather than later. I was a little bummed - I had high hopes of closing down the Magic Kingdom or at least making it past dark, but it wasn’t worth pushing a sleepy toddler to his breaking point, so we grabbed a quick mobile order at Cosmic Rays and started making our way out of the park.

Both kids were out cold by the time we got to the ferry, which was too bad since we had an awesome view of the Electric Water Pageant on the ride back! (Spoiler alert - they’d get to see it later in the week.) Mask compliance was terrible on the ferry and we were both pretty relieved to get back to the TTC and head back to Pago Pago for sleep.



Thennnn we realized, we had two peacefully kids sleeping in a stroller, while we were in walking distance of a socially distanced drinking establishment. Parenting achievement unlocked!! We decided to salvage the evening by heading to the Great Ceremonial House for a beverage. DH found a quiet spot to sit upstairs while I grabbed drinks from the Tambu Lounge, and we were able to sit and enjoy our cocktails while the kids snoozed happily. It was like a nice little date night! DH had a mai tai and I had a raspberry mojito I had been eyeing on the menu since we first booked the Poly. Baby G eventually woke up and joined us but I had a bottle ready to go for her. Drinks all around! It was a really fun, relaxing way to end the night (and made me feel better about cutting our MK night short). We were back in the room by 10:10, and basically collapsed from exhaustion. Tomorrow, we’d be sleeping in!

 

[Disney102015]

I unpack completely as well. I use packing cubes, and leave one open in the suitcase and collect all the dirty clothes in them. And just keep filling each one as the trip goes along. Less packing at the end! And I usually end up with a full suitcase of dirty clothes, and just toss it all into the laundry.

This is such a good idea! I am going to have to get packing cubes for our next trip. Especially since it's a split stay!

 

[StarWarsMomofGirls!]

I found myself really wishing the deluxe resorts had proper lines for buses so it’d be “first come first served.”

So True!!! I guess they just don't have too too many people so it isn't usually an issue. But I do wish they had markers or something.

(Mom hack: I knew from our last trip that we’d quickly run out of bubbles, and included a bunch of bubble liquid in our Amazon Now order at the beginning of the trip. Saved $$ from not buying a ton of tiny containers of bubbles at the park every time we ran out!)

YES! i did this back in the day too!

We decided to salvage the evening by heading to the Great Ceremonial House for a beverage. DH found a quiet spot to sit upstairs while I grabbed drinks from the Tambu Lounge, and we were able to sit and enjoy our cocktails while the kids snoozed happily.

How nice!

Especially since it's a split stay!

Yes! We have done split stays, and I would pack cubes with each hotel, so that I didn't have to take everything out.

 

[Disney102015]

Toddler's Paradise: T-Rex Restaurant​

We had grand plans for spending the morning at Magic Kingdom, lunch at Disney Springs, and hopping to Animal Kingdom at night. But, we could tell everyone needed a slower pace that morning so we decided we could skip MK and just be a bit lazy til lunch at Disney Springs. Except, our park reservation was for MK and we couldn’t hop to AK without tapping into MK first. GAH! I really did not want to haul everyone over to MK just to tap in, and lo and behold when I checked the app there was availability for AK park reservations that day. But, the system doesn’t just let you modify your reservation - you have to cancel one reservation then book the other. I sat on the bed hemming and hawing for a bit - what if I canceled MK and the AK availability suddenly disappeared?! Ultimately I bit the bullet, canceled MK, rebooked for AK as fast as my fingers could go, and took a million screenshots once the process was complete (which was smart - it took about 15 minutes for the new reservation to show up in My Disney Experience!) Whew!!

We had booked a Mears shuttle to get us from MK to Disney Springs, since I didn’t think buses would be running there in time for our lunch reservation. This lunch was probably the thing DS was most excited about leading up to the trip, so we wanted to make sure we were on time. I called Mears and asked for a pickup at the hotel instead (and reminded them that our booking included 2 car seats) and they said no problem.

With that squared away, we headed to Captain Cooks for a leisurely breakfast. We completely forgot to mobile order so we had a bit of a wait for our food but luckily it wasn’t crowded. DS got his very first Mickey waffle and thoroughly enjoyed it!



While walking back to Pago Pago we got a call from the Mears driver. He hadn’t gotten the memo that we’d requested pickup at Poly rather than MK. Ultimately it didn’t matter, because he also had no car seats. Yikes. Off we sprinted to the buses, which luckily were running from the hotel to Disney Springs! We had a long-ish wait for the bus and were a little stressed about making it to lunch but we arrived just in time to….



Toddler’s paradise!

How to describe our T-Rex dining experience….it was A Lot. Sensory overload, maybe? The lobby and gift shop were wall to wall packed with people. There were meteor showers every ten minutes or so, with the lights going dim and balls of “fire” streaking across the ceiling with rumbling noises. There was a prehistoric animatronic creature with tusks just above our table (which seemed to drip on us intermittently…prehistoric snot?)

I’m not complaining at all - C was in absolute heaven and Baby G was pretty mesmerized as well. I’d describe the menu as bar food, and we were all happy with what we got. But be warned, if anyone in your group is sensitive to noises, flashes, general chaos…this is NOT the restaurant for you! We had gotten a discounted Landry’s gift card at Sam’s Club before the trip so it was nice to have this meal covered. We also got a Build a Bear (Dino) gift card so that was our next stop. Watching DS pick his dino was one of the absolute highlights of the trip for me. First he grabbed an ankylosaurus…then he saw the stegosaurus and changed his mind…WAIT, they also have triceratops?!! Decisions, decisions. Ultimately he picked triceratops and got to help the CM stuff it (and insert some strawberry scent, for reasons I still do not fully understand). Did I mention he was in heaven? Totally worth it. He did have to carry the triceratops home since there was no way that thing was fitting in our suitcase, so keep that in mind if you go!

Up next was our only really negative experience of the trip. I don’t love going to Disney Springs to begin with - I feel like it’s always too crowded (especially in Covid times) and somehow I always end up at the opposite end of the whole complex from where I need to be. So, our Mears driver called and told us to walk down toward Cirque to meet him. It was quite a hike but we assumed there was no closer spot where he was allowed to get us. (Someone later told us there was another ride share location…who knows.) Anyway, we waited right in front of Cirque as instructed, but before long a security guard came along and told us we couldn’t be picked up there. Meanwhile, our driver pulled up and wanted us to get in, while the guard was pointing to a ride share/bus area further down where he wanted us to go - which was fine except the guard and our driver wound up yelling at each other for a bit with us in the middle and it was pretty uncomfortable. We ultimately hustled down toward the bus area where the guard had indicated and eventually our driver pulled around. He DID have the necessary car seats so all’s well that ends well, I guess.

Next stop...a lovely evening at Animal Kingdom!