Mission:Visit Disney Once a Month for a Year. A Florida Newbie's Tales.

[KatGarcia]

Hi! I'm Kat. I have been doing TRs on the DIS for a while now and I LOVE reading everyone else's. This past year has been a huge year in changes for me.... I am in the process of getting divorced, I found out I was pregnant about the time we decided to get divorced, I decided to move to Florida (and did so on July 4th), met someone new, and on Dec 14th, 2011 I had my baby, Lily. To say it was a roller coaster of a year is an understatement! BUT I believe everything happens for a reason and I am happier than I have been in a long time, have a wonderful boyfriend (details on his in a sec), supportive friends and an amazing and beautiful new baby girl!

Plus we are a mere 45 minute ride to Disney!! It also doesn't hurt that I am SO excited to turn Lily into a Disney kid so starting her early is a MUST!

The Cast....

Me- Kat-

The Disney addict, the human Disney map, the person who got the rest of the cast into going up to WDW so much & proud of it! Tink's my fav & I love anything shaped like a mickey head.

DD- Lily -

My new little Disney princess. I can not wait to do a million things with her in Disney!

DBF- Chris -

Has yet to go into the parks BUT he grew up in Cali near DL and has been there a bunch of times. He has a collectors mentality and is now obsessed with Disney Pin Trading, and he is really starting to love all things Disney, esp. with Lily & I to share them with! His fav Characters are Ariel & Peter Pan. He is collecting villain pins too.

There will also be appearances by some friends too, I'll introduce them as we go along since we tend to go up in groups but the people change each time. But suffice it so say we have gotten just about everyone in our group into going up to Disney and into the pin trading!

Our first trip this year was Jan 2nd so that is where I will begin.....

Thanks in advance for following along with us, I hope you enjoy the craziness.

 

[KatGarcia]

January 2nd, 2012

February 4th, 2012 Part 1

February 4th, 2012 Part 2

February 26th, 2012

February 29th, 2012 One More Disney Day! Part 1.

February 29th, 2012 One More Disney Day! Part 2.

February 29th, 2012 One More Disney Day! Part 2. Cont.

 

[KatGarcia]

I moved to Florida in July. Between then and the end of the year my friends and I made about 5 trips up to Orlando. It's a very quick 45 min drive. Most of my friends and my new boyfriend, Chris, weren't that into going to Orlando....until I came along. You could get the group on an occasional trip but it was a once in a long while thing, that is until we discovered pin trading.

When Chris and I started dating I asked him 2 questions that I told him hindered on weather we could get involved....(1) Do you like cats? I asked because I have 2 kittens. and (2) Do you like Disney? We have been together for 8 months so he obviously passed. He had never been to WDW but said he would check it out. he also told me of his obsession with The Little Mermaid. Our other friend, Allison had some pins and a pin book and when Chris saw them it sparked something. He then went on ebay and bought himself a starter kit of pins and the insanity was born.

We took a trip at Christmas time with everyone to pin trade and see the decorations and he was really hooked. He was like a little kid pin trading, he said it was the most fun he'd had in a while. By the end of that trip everyone that was with us wanted to buy pins and trade too!

The wildfire of pin trading has spread around our group and Allison and her husband, Bill, have more than all of us combined. They are the ones who decided on taking this day trip. Chris had to work unfortunatly. So it was Bill, Allison, our friend Kim, myself & Lily. Lily was almost 3 weeks old and already she was headed to WDW!

Of course I had to get her all Disney-ed up!

Closer...

Our goals were to hit up DTD and pin trade anywhere we could and then hit up the monorail resorts for trading as well.

The Christmas decorations were still up too, which was really cool!

We wandered from the West Side all the way over to the marketplace, stopping CMs every time we saw any with pins. I was VERY saddened to see my beloved Adventurer's Club all covered by bad shrubbery.

I had all our tradeable pins with me on a lanyard at first then i realized that the cup holders on my stroller (its a winnie the pooh stroller btw) were much better used as a pin trading station! LOL

OF COURSE we went to the pin store.

Our first pic in Disney together!

I got some crazy looks for having a baby that tiny out in Disney but whatever. It was a day trip and most of it was spent with her asleep in the stroller.

She did get used 2 times for trading....LOL...we convinced 2 CMs that she was a kid so she could trade off their kid lanyards! One CM acted like it was a shady drug deal, she tapped the stroller and had me put the pin down and picked it up while dropping hers, it was hilarious. CMs asked about her a lot and a few asked if I named her after Walt's wife.

This was her most of the afternoon....

We ended up getting hungry and decided to try our luck at Raglan Road....but the waiting people outside made us change our minds and head to Cookes in stead. We lucked out and got a table with space next to it for the stroller!

I got the fishermans pie with chips. YUMMY! I think everyone got one of the pies. Such a good meal.

Then we were off to the monorail resorts. We drove over to the Poly and parked. Then we found the mother load of pin trading- a HUGE book at concierge. I was kinda loosing interest in the trading at that point so I used my 2 trades for Bill and went over to change Lily into something warmer since the evening was chilly. Turns out the CM said she had never heard of the 2 trade rule and Bill & Allison traded 20 pins from that book! Crazy!!!! The CM even gave them a free pin for doing 20 trades!

Lily & I at the Poly.

We monorailed it to the Grand Floridian and to The Contemporary, doing trading with randmn CMs and at each concierge desk. When we got to the Contemporary I needed to feed Lily so I was about to sit down at a bench when I heard a bunch of booms outside and realized Wishes was going on. So i grabbed the stroller, Lily & her bottle and headed to the windows to watch.

It was the best moment, being there with my baby girl and seeing Wishes. It really just made me so excited to show her so many things, Disney & beyond. She changed my whole world, and made it so much better. I've never been more excited about life before. Anyways I'm sidetracking.

I snapped one pic of Christmas decorations.

We finished up the trading and hopped on the monorail back to the Poly. I had one more thing that needed to be done, something I kept trying to do the last few trips but didn't get to.... to have one of these:

Allison tried one too and liked it as much as I do!

Lily how did you like Disney??

LOL.

We headed home after the Dole Whips. It was a great day overall, but I def missed Chris being there and missed him seeing Lily be there for the first time, so next time we will pretend it's her first time I think.

Wanna see the pins I traded for??

Our next trip is going to be the first weekend in February. It's my BFF's and her daughter's birthday week and they are going for an overnight trip. Chris, Lily & I are going to take them to the Ohana Character breakfast the Sunday they are there since Stitch is their favorite. I'm excited to see theeir reactions as well as Chris' & Lily's.

 

[mousetravel]

Subbing! Baby is so cute!!! Can't wait to hear more!

 

[ericamcl]

so glad you decided to to a TR here - I've been admiring Lily from your FB posts - such a cutie

 

[OhMari]

Congradulations Kat.
I saw your ticker for your baby a few times this Fall and didn't realize you finally had her.
Didn't know all the changes in your life-but you seem to be fine.
Your dd is adorable.
M.

 

[addictedtothemouse]

I'm so jealous! My DD had her baby on Dec 17th, and we are already talking about her first trip to Disney, but it won't be until she is 16 months old. But I'll read all about your trips and get some pointers.

 

[Grumpy's Wife]

Lily is such a beautiful baby. Congratulations!

I'm looking forward to hearing all about your trip.

 

[mousetravel]

I showed DD your TR, because she loves babies so much, I knew she would like to see it. She said "that's gonna be you when I have a baby!" (meaning taking baby to Disney, and dressing her/him in Disney clothes!!) I had to remind her that I DID have her 1st hospital picture made in a Disney outfit!

I told her that she didn't even need to be saying or thinking of that right now!

I don't want ya'll to see me on an episode of Teen mom!


Can't wait to hear more about Baby's 1st Disney trip!!!!
(I also want to move to Florida, so bad! Even trying to hint to DD that she needs to look into going to a FL college! )

 

[KatGarcia]

so glad you decided to to a TR here - I've been admiring Lily from your FB posts - such a cutie

Thanks! & thanks for reading along too

Congradulations Kat.
I saw your ticker for your baby a few times this Fall and didn't realize you finally had her.
Didn't know all the changes in your life-but you seem to be fine.
Your dd is adorable.
M.

Hi! I am doing well, what doesn't kill you & all that, right?

I'm so jealous! My DD had her baby on Dec 17th, and we are already talking about her first trip to Disney, but it won't be until she is 16 months old. But I'll read all about your trips and get some pointers.

I am planning a real trip for her first birthday, not just a day trip, if all the day trips go well and she likes being there and seeing characters and that stuff, prob a 4 or 5 day vaca i'm thinking.

Lily is such a beautiful baby. Congratulations!

I'm looking forward to hearing all about your trip.

Thanks so much! Thanks for reading!

I showed DD your TR, because she loves babies so much, I knew she would like to see it. She said "that's gonna be you when I have a baby!" (meaning taking baby to Disney, and dressing her/him in Disney clothes!!) I had to remind her that I DID have her 1st hospital picture made in a Disney outfit!

I told her that she didn't even need to be saying or thinking of that right now!

I don't want ya'll to see me on an episode of Teen mom!


Can't wait to hear more about Baby's 1st Disney trip!!!!
(I also want to move to Florida, so bad! Even trying to hint to DD that she needs to look into going to a FL college! )

LOL no Teen Mom!!!! I actually brought Lily home in a Minnie Mouse onesie, its in her blood she must love the mouse.

 

[KatGarcia]

There have been a few changes to our next day trip to the world.

Originally it was going to be just Lily, Chris & I heading up to take my BFF & her daughter, H, to Ohana but then a few other friends expressed interest so I just rebooked the ressie....for 10!

We now have Lily, me, Chris, BFF Laura, H and our friends: Kim, Pat, Patty, Bill & Allison coming with us!! I am hoping everyone makes it but if not its much easier to have less people on the ressie than not enough.

I am excited tho, none of them have done a character meal!!!!

20 days till the next day trip!!!

 

[heaven2dc]

What a beautiful baby and beautiful name! (my name is Deborah ) I think Lily will grow up to love all things Disney just like you!

Sounds like you've had a rough year but everything turned out quite magical!

 

[Annal606]

There have been a few changes to our next day trip to the world.

 

[disney<333]

Joining in! Your daughter is so cute! Congratulations.
I lived in Altamonte Springs for a while, but now live in S Florida. I took my DD for the first time at 5 weeks, so you beat me.

 

[jenseib]

Holy Cow!!!! I am so out of the loop. I had no idea you got divorced or was having a baby....and she is such a doll! I'm so happy things are going good for you now.

 

[punkin413]

Subbing! I've already told you this on FB but your little one is gorgeous! I'd love to be so close to Disney where you can take day trips. Jealous!

 

[KatGarcia]

What a beautiful baby and beautiful name! (my name is Deborah ) I think Lily will grow up to love all things Disney just like you!

Sounds like you've had a rough year but everything turned out quite magical!

My mom's name was Deborah, thats where Lily got her middle name from. I sure do hope she loves Disney as much as I do!

Joining in! Your daughter is so cute! Congratulations.
I lived in Altamonte Springs for a while, but now live in S Florida. I took my DD for the first time at 5 weeks, so you beat me.

LOL 5 weeks is pretty impressive tho!

Holy Cow!!!! I am so out of the loop. I had no idea you got divorced or was having a baby....and she is such a doll! I'm so happy things are going good for you now.

I had been away from the DIS for a while, due to the stuff doing on with me. Things are def better now!

Subbing! I've already told you this on FB but your little one is gorgeous! I'd love to be so close to Disney where you can take day trips. Jealous!

HI! I am actually trying to get to WDW once a month this year, if I can! I really wanna go to the 24 hour leap year thing!!!

 

[KatGarcia]

So even with day trips there are changes....

We moved the breakfast to Saturday morning instead. I also told my BFF (one of the 2 birthday girls) what we were planning so we could make sure that day was good for her. H doesn';t know yet what we are doing, just that we are going somewhere for her's and her mom's birthdays. We are also now only 8, not 10.

Anyone know if I am supposed to count Lily as a guest?? I need the room to pull up the stroller so I figured add her as one of the 8??

Then I got to talking with a friend who is going (Allison) about tea, and mentioned the Grand Floridian Afternoon Tea.... so the girls are all going to tea that same afternoon! Well the girls and Allison's hubby, Bill, who loves tea. LOL. So a few of us will be going off somewhere else and we will be having afternoon tea. I am excited because I have never done it before!

Chris is coming to Tampa tomorrow and wen are meeting up with everyone early Saturday morning. I am so excited! I just hope the characters dont freak out Lily!

2 more sleeps till Disney!!!

 

[jenseib]

yep, babies count as a person for ADRs.
Have fun!!!!

 

[Poolrat]

Congrats Kat! Lily is beautiful.


So many changes for you Kat. I will say you do look happy. Good for you.

I can't wait to hear what the year brings.