"Mommy, this time it's all of our first times." April 28-May 3 TR

[skier_pete]

Thanks and to my TR!



Ooooo I'm jealous! That's the week I want to go! The crowd levels are really low according to touringplans.com...and our anniversary is on Labor Day this year! We went for our honeymoon in 2003 and it was awesome!

Thanks...by the way, we also went the week before Labor Day in 2008 when our DD was 5. It is a great time to go crowd-wise, though Labor Day weekend itself the crowds bumped up a bit + Free dining. The one thing to be aware of is to manage expectations. The heat of the day, especially with a little one, requires a break during the day pretty much every day. And the weather CAN completely trash your plans. We got lucky, but just before we arrive (August 23rd) it had POURED for 4 straight days thanks to a hurricane set up in the gulf. (I just looked it up, it was Fay.) Then at the end of our trip, we caught the edge of Gustav...it gave us 1/2 a day of pouring rain, and another day that was super-windy.

Here's a link to an old thread that I posted at the end of that trip with some more immediate comments:
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1940672

As others have pointed out on the DIS, the parks aren't crowded, but the restaurants are...if you are even THINKING about going for FD, get your ADRs set...you can always cancel them later!

 

[MadiMouse]

Another great update! Jilly looked soooo happy with Minnie and Mickey! My DD loves to interact with the characters, too. I usually do Character meals so that we can meet all of the characters/autographs. I do not have any character meals planned for our next trip and we are only doing two parks. I guess I will have to brave the character lines at the park!

 

[martinolichfamily]

Great update from AK! Great pics w/Mickey & Minnie!
Meeting characters was my DD favorite thing to do at WDW!

 

[oboedm]

we also went the week before Labor Day in 2008 when our DD was 5. It is a great time to go crowd-wise, though Labor Day weekend itself the crowds bumped up a bit + Free dining. The one thing to be aware of is to manage expectations. The heat of the day, especially with a little one, requires a break during the day pretty much every day. And the weather CAN completely trash your plans.

Thanks for the information, skier_pete! I really appreciate it. I told my SIL that we would go back each day for a nap at the hotel-- we did that last year and it worked out perfectly. Although we live in AZ and are used to heat, the humidity wore us down quickly. I think we have most of our ADRs in place-- although I am sure I will tinker with them from now until then. Too many restaurants look good.

Thanks for the link to you question/answer session.

 

[jenniferkeala808]

Hey Jen! Great update of AK! It's Tough to be a Bug is a little scary for little kids but great job to Jilly for staying the entire time!!! She's sooo cute! Glad you got to watch the Lion King this time...it was an awesome show wasn't it?? Awww, love those pics of Jilly with Minnie and Mickey! She looks so excited!! Can't wait for more!

 

[Peter Pan Fan 22]

I love the pic of Jilly walking ahead of you. It's like she's saying "C'mon guys, hurry up! There are things to do and characters to see!"

Festival of the Lion King is great! I think I've always been into the shows more than the rides, even as a kid.

 

[KayMouse]

I love the pics of her feeding the benches! Too Cute! And FOTLK is one of the main things I want to see at AK, so it was nice to see pics of it! Great job! I can't wait to see more!

 

[DisMomAmy]

All caught up!! You guys were having a very magical morning at Animal Kingdom!! I love that you got picked for a magical moment at Flights of Wonder & then got to see DiVine!

I love, love, love Festival of the Lion King... we didn't see it this year, so I'm looking forward to seeing it in September/October.

And for the record, I've been known to plan "maybe" trips too! My fall girls weekend trip started as a maybe and now it's really happening!

 

[jillyb]

I love FotLK. Last night the girls and I were talking about what we want to do on our November trip. I asked Alison if she wanted to see it. She said "no". I knew she and DH didn't really like it all that much when we saw it before so that wasn't a surprise. What was a surprise is that Hannah didn't remember seeing it! And, since she didn't remember seeing it she said she didn't want to this time. Oh well...I was thinking of cutting it out of the itinerary anyway so that helps me in my planning.

Love the pictures of Jilly with the characters! You can tell she was on But my favorite picture is the one where she's kissing the tip of her Daddy's nose. That is just the sweetest picture!

 

[disney<333]

Joining in! I'm loving your TR! Great pictures! I take a lot of pictures too while at Disney. Jilly is adorable! Such a poser. Looks like a great trip so far! I'm loving how much you are getting done. Can you give me the link for the tye-die Mickey shirts? My girls would love those. Tye-Die is the thing for them right now.
Hope you get to go in September. I priced out a trip at POP for labor day week and it was only 82$ a night plus free dining. Just need to talk DH into it.

 

[littlelovebug]

Thanks...by the way, we also went the week before Labor Day in 2008 when our DD was 5. It is a great time to go crowd-wise, though Labor Day weekend itself the crowds bumped up a bit + Free dining. The one thing to be aware of is to manage expectations. The heat of the day, especially with a little one, requires a break during the day pretty much every day. And the weather CAN completely trash your plans. We got lucky, but just before we arrive (August 23rd) it had POURED for 4 straight days thanks to a hurricane set up in the gulf. (I just looked it up, it was Fay.) Then at the end of our trip, we caught the edge of Gustav...it gave us 1/2 a day of pouring rain, and another day that was super-windy.

Here's a link to an old thread that I posted at the end of that trip with some more immediate comments:
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1940672

As others have pointed out on the DIS, the parks aren't crowded, but the restaurants are...if you are even THINKING about going for FD, get your ADRs set...you can always cancel them later!

Thanks Pete! We went in September for our honeymoon and just loved it! They didn't have free dining though so I know it would be more crowded now. And don't worry, I made my ADRs weeks ago!!!!

Another great update! Jilly looked soooo happy with Minnie and Mickey! My DD loves to interact with the characters, too. I usually do Character meals so that we can meet all of the characters/autographs. I do not have any character meals planned for our next trip and we are only doing two parks. I guess I will have to brave the character lines at the park!

Luckily we got onto all of the rides pretty quickly so it wasn't so bad waiting in character lines. The line for the Fairies was definitely the longest, and we got there right before they opened!!

Great update from AK! Great pics w/Mickey & Minnie!
Meeting characters was my DD favorite thing to do at WDW!

It was a ton of fun meeting the characters. I'm so glad she liked it, and I'm sure she's going to treasure her autograph/photo book forever!

Hey Jen! Great update of AK! It's Tough to be a Bug is a little scary for little kids but great job to Jilly for staying the entire time!!! She's sooo cute! Glad you got to watch the Lion King this time...it was an awesome show wasn't it?? Awww, love those pics of Jilly with Minnie and Mickey! She looks so excited!! Can't wait for more!

Thanks, Keala! I was pretty sure Jilly would hate ITTBAB, but I figured it was worth a try... I don't think she was too traumatized, maybe I can even get her on it again one day (soon???)...

I love the pic of Jilly walking ahead of you. It's like she's saying "C'mon guys, hurry up! There are things to do and characters to see!"

Festival of the Lion King is great! I think I've always been into the shows more than the rides, even as a kid.

I almost didn't post that pic but I'm glad you saw the same thing I did!!! FOTLK is definitely a show I can't miss...well, unless it's closed and I have no choice...

I love the pics of her feeding the benches! Too Cute! And FOTLK is one of the main things I want to see at AK, so it was nice to see pics of it! Great job! I can't wait to see more!

More soon, I promise!! Maybe I'll even get to day three eventually...

All caught up!! You guys were having a very magical morning at Animal Kingdom!! I love that you got picked for a magical moment at Flights of Wonder & then got to see DiVine!

I love, love, love Festival of the Lion King... we didn't see it this year, so I'm looking forward to seeing it in September/October.

And for the record, I've been known to plan "maybe" trips too! My fall girls weekend trip started as a maybe and now it's really happening!

That's awesome that your trip is happening! Maybe I will be so lucky! Thanks for following along!

I love FotLK. Last night the girls and I were talking about what we want to do on our November trip. I asked Alison if she wanted to see it. She said "no". I knew she and DH didn't really like it all that much when we saw it before so that wasn't a surprise. What was a surprise is that Hannah didn't remember seeing it! And, since she didn't remember seeing it she said she didn't want to this time. Oh well...I was thinking of cutting it out of the itinerary anyway so that helps me in my planning.

Love the pictures of Jilly with the characters! You can tell she was on But my favorite picture is the one where she's kissing the tip of her Daddy's nose. That is just the sweetest picture!

I'm sad that you won't get to see FOTLK... I'd make them go anyway...lol...

That's one of my favorite pics too! They were both so happy to just BE there!!!

Joining in! I'm loving your TR! Great pictures! I take a lot of pictures too while at Disney. Jilly is adorable! Such a poser. Looks like a great trip so far! I'm loving how much you are getting done. Can you give me the link for the tye-die Mickey shirts? My girls would love those. Tye-Die is the thing for them right now.
Hope you get to go in September. I priced out a trip at POP for labor day week and it was only 82$ a night plus free dining. Just need to talk DH into it.

Hello there! for joining in! Here is the link for the tie dye:

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1210609

I really hope we get to go back too. I thought about checking out POP too, but I really want to spend some more time checking out POR. If we can't make that happen, I might just try to stay with my cousins in Orlando (I guess the free room would offset the free dining...). You'll read more about them later!!!

 

[littlelovebug]

Hello all! Sorry I haven't been updating regularly! In addition to work, my mom is in town, the local theme park is open, and we were invited to four family parties over the weekend!!! To top it all off, we have a new neighbor with a five-year old daughter and she is Jilly's "best friend," so we've been hanging out with them a lot!

I thought you all would get a kick out of what Jilly did the other day. She was out on the back porch with my sister, and as I walked out the door, she clasped her hands together, scrunched up her eyes, tilted her head back to the stars and said, "I wish, I wish, I wish, I wish...I could go BACK to Disney World!!!"

Then Jed said, "Well if your mom has her way we'll be there in a few months..."

I'll try to upload some more pictures and post another update tonight!!

Happy Memorial Day!!

 

[littlelovebug]

By 1:30, we were pretty much starving, so we headed over to Flame Tree Barbecue. Jed snapped a few cute pics of Jilly while we were in line, and then the very friendly cast member took our order.

The cast member at the window recommended that we walk down to the end of the path so that we could sit by the water and listen to the occasional screams of the Everest riders. We took his advice and sat under the nice shelter to enjoy our lunch. We had a friend join us...

I had a barbecue chicken salad with key lime pie, sweet tea, and a paper straw. Mine was delicious and I loved everything.

Jilly had a hot dog with grapes, a cookie, chocolate milk, and a paper straw. It looked good…for a hot dog…but she nibbled at it while we waited somewhat impatiently and finally ate most of it (she acted like she was afraid of the birds that kept coming near our table, but she will make any excuse not to eat). We saved the grapes and cookie for a later snack. She finished her milk before her straw could even get soggy!

Jed had ribs with baked beans, cole slaw, key lime pie and water. (No paper straw for him.) He said the ribs and cole slaw were just okay, but the beans were really good. His favorite part, though, was the Bud Light. In fact, I think he stopped for another one when we were leaving…

I'm not really sure what he's saying here, but I like it.

We stopped so I could get Jed and Jilly’s picture in front of “Mt. Everest” and they were really hamming it up…especially Jed!

We stopped to watch the Village Beatniks again and my little dancer was really feeling the beat!

 

[disney<333]

I love the pictures in front of Everest! Flame Tree used to be really good but now I get less and less impressed with it every time we go. The ribs at Cosmic Rays made my dd sick last trip so I would like to avoid Flame Tree next trip, just to be on the safe side. Maybe we'll try Yak and Yeti. Looks like you had great weather.

 

[MadiMouse]

I love the way Jilly is enjoying herself and dancing around! We love Flametree BBQ but the birds will darn near take your food from you! Lol. I'm not a beer drinker but Jed's beer looks yummy! lol

 

[Cory's Gal]

Great pics Jen!!! Jilly's faces crack me up!! I love that she "wishes" to go back to Disney World. Gabe asks every day, and he and Helen "play" Disney World. I love that it leaves such a positive and magical impression on our kiddos!!! The tie-dye Mickey shirts are awesome too!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[jenniferkeala808]

awww Jilly is just sooo adorable! I'm glad she's wishing to go back to WDW! Who wouldn't?! LOL. I'm just loving those pictures of Jilly and Jed! And that picture of her dancing to the Village Beatniks?! Awesome!! Can't wait for more!

 

[longing2Batdisney]

what a fun filled day so far! I look forward to traveling just the three of us...you guys look so relaxed and just enjoying one another as you go. Ashton was afraid of the bugs last year but he did great this year (I think he knew what to expect this year--although he did sit on my lap-so no stinging or exiting bugs for him either)...
Jilly looks so excited about everything! it really makes the magic even more magical!
I really hope you guys are able to go back this year!
Connie

 

[tinkgurl]

Aw.. I love the pics of Jilly dancing to the band. We always make sure to stop and enjoy things like that. So many people just keep walking past and don't even give them the time of the day.

 

[irishdancer86]

Jilyy's definitely feeling the rythmn! love how she's just dancing and enjoying every aspect of the parks, and i'm sure you's had just as much fun watching her! your flame tree barbecue lunch looks really good, i'm torn between there and pizzafari!

i'm gonna show DBF a picture of Jed's ribs and bud, then the decision might be out of my hands!