Princess Mommy, the Munchkin, and their Prince: Our first visit to the World!

[PrincessMommyLM]

Hi! (shyly comes out of hiding after a year or so of lurking under a different user name (Mommy2Aedan)...)

I have finally (and a bit belatedly) decided to come out of lurkdom and post a trip report from our vacation in December... Yes, it is a bit late... But I promise I will update QUICKLY!!!!

I realized the other day that I was beginning to forget some of the little details of our trip ! I did journal quite a bit while on our vacation, fully intending to come back and put everything into a trip report here. However, shortly after we returned, my grandmother passed away and life decended into chaos for a bit... so I am just now finally at a point where I feel "Disney-ish" again and am ready to organize those late-night journal scribblings into a full-fledged trip report! Hopefully, the process will help me remember some of those wonderful Disney details again AND get me (and others) super excited for our upcoming trips!

First up... the basic introductions:

The Princess:(Me, Lauren, 25) self and family-proclaimed princess... I will admit that I am a bit spoiled and that I like it that way, but luckily my family does too! I teach theatre arts and generally have been a Disney nut ever since I could walk, talk, and focus on a TV screen... However, my parents are not big vacationers (and my dad HATES crowds) so I had (gasp!) Never been to Disney World. Luckily my sweet prince was ready to fix all that. FYI for the sake of this report: In general, I love anything well-themed and/or fantasy/ fairy-tale related (read: Princess), consider food/restaurants one of the most important aspects of a trip, and am horrendously jealous of all the little girls who get to play in BBB (Okay, so that last one has no bearing on this whatsoever, but I still had to throw it in there!)

The Munchkin: (DS,Aedan, 2) Okay, I'll admit... between DH and I, Munchkin never stood much chance at NOT being a Disney fan. I would like to say we let him display his own preferences and all that, but really the TV has been playing Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and Disney Classics since before he was a year old... Still, Aedan LOVES Mickey Mouse, Lion King, Nemo, Cars, Dumbo, and Winnie the Pooh. He tolerates the rest (read: princesses) pretty well for Mommy's sake. Like any preschool-aged boy, he also loves trains, airplanes, buses, and basically anything that moves on wheels. On this trip, we also discovered that Aedan has a particular affinity for Donald... who knew?

The Prince: (DH, Matt, 26) The one Disney veteran of our family... I maintain it doesn't really count... he was 8. They did not stay or really even EAT on property. (See... I told you I was kind of a snob...) HE maintains that he knows the parks soooo much better than I do and has some sort of level of inside knowledge that I am alienated from... Sad thing? He's usually right. His memory is killer and he really did know when and where to go 90% of the time... Matt loves rollercoasters, thrill rides, and amusement parks of any kind but is smart enough to know that Disney is in a whole other category than other theme parks! His favorites are Tomorrowland, Epcot, and the other more "educational" attractions of Disney and admitted to tearing up at the Hall of Presidents.

The Basics: flying to and from Orlando using ME, 6 Day Base tickets, 6 nights at Pop Century, and a LOT of fun!

Be back soon to start the real action of the report with PICTURES!!!!! (We took several THOUSAND on the trip... the Prince is also an ameteur photographer so I have lots to share!!!!)

...going off to hide again now and hope for some followers...

 

[mickeystoontown]

Hey there! I wanna join your party! I often say that trip reports and pictures are what keep me sane until my next Disney vacation. Thanks for your contribution to my sanity.

Looking forward to hearing all the details.

Lisa

 

[harleyquinn]

What were your dates?

Can't wait to see the pics!

 

[PrincessMommyLM]

Lisa - glad to help keep you sane (or at least try!) You don't have too much waiting left though! Less than two months? Woohoo!

Sarah - we were there December 11th - 17th... Looks like you will be there NEXT Christmas-time! I LOVED all the special Christmas "stuff" - and it was so wonderful with a little one in tow!

I plan on posting day #1 in the morning, but for now, here's a couple of teaser pics...

 

[dellasgirl]

Count us in!
Can't wait to read the report

 

[lbuzz52]

I'm in!
Your ds is such a cutie!!

 

[Tnkrbelle565]

I'm in

 

[PrincessMommyLM]

Sorry to have been MIA yesterday... real life needed some attention, unfortunately.

On to day #1... Honestly, I really shouldn't count this as a full day, since I actually taught a full day at school and all we did was travel and check in to the hotel... but I have some REALLY cute pics, so I am including it!!!

My wonderful aunt offered to drive us to the airport so we could avoid parking fees ! When the Munchkin and Daddy (aka Prince) made it to her house, she also had this "Thomas" sticker book as a travel present for Aedan.... (Note his fabulous Mickey apparel in the pic and the stuffed Mickey he never put down!):

Now, at this point, I have to offer a small side story... "Thomas" is my proof that the Munchkin has not totally been brainwashed by me and is allowed to express his own preferences... I HATE Thomas. Completely. Totally. But the Munchkin ADORES him. We have a few things at home, but he has practically every train in existance at my aunt's house. (He is basically her only grandchild) So of course he loved this book... And, of course, I was a little bitter that he wanted to play with it over the backpack full of wonderful, DISNEY themed books and toys I had packed for him . Nevertheless, please note that while I may be a princess who likes things her own way, I DO let my son express his own opinions... grudgingly. Stupid Thomas.

Anyway, My sweet aunt, along with the Prince and the Munchkin picked me up from work and we headed off to the airport... the conversation went something like this:

Me: Aedan, are you ready to fly on an airplane? (this was his first flight)

Munchkin: No, mommy. I fly on a heli-copper!

Me: Sweetie, a helicopter can't take us all the way to Disney World. We have to fly on an airplane to go visit Mickey.

Munchkin: No! I not want to fly on an airplane! I want to fly on a heli-copper!

Unfortunately, this had been going on for WEEKS... I was starting to get a little concerned that there might be a meltdown when he did in fact have to ride on the airplaine...

We made it to the airport and checked our baggage without any issues so decided we had time for a quick ride on the airport'd underground train before going through security. The "train" is actually an almost exact copy of a Disney monorail so we thought it was a fitting beginning to the trip, especially since the Munchkin loves trains so much... We ended up with a car labeled "5" and the Thomas-obsessed creature that had temporariy taken over my child insisted on telling us the whole time that we were riding in "James" (another character for the show who is also #5). He also recited a large portion of the rest of the Thomas gang as we rode... "Thomas number one! BlahBlahBlah (I don't know their names!) number two!" etc. I have to admit it was really cute, even if I do hate that stupid tank engine.

Next up was security. Aedan was a little upset at having to get out of his stroller, take off his Mickey jacket, and put all of his belongings on the conveyor, but they had a seperate line for families with young children and it went fairly quickly. Since we STILL had time to kill (and to think, I had been worried about getting to the airport on time after work...) we decided to get dinner. We found a table right by a window where Aedan could watch the planes and he alternated between saying “love mickey!” and hugging his mickey mouse plush and pointing out the window saying “airplanes at airport! Aedan like that! Aedan HAPPY!”:

Needless to say he did not eat much dinner!

We then walked around the shops in the terminal for a while. A toy shop had Dora and Diego’s Dinosaur Adventure playing in a cute little TV nook and Aedan sat and watched that for quite a while.

There was also a mouse-like mascot outside of the toy shop that I made Aedan pose with as a forshadowing of things to come on our vacation (and much cuter mice!)

In a last ditch effort to convince our Munchkin that airplanes really were an acceptable means of transportation, I bought him this little plane from the toy shop:

I don't know if it was this toy or just the general excitement, but I never heard another word about a helicopter!

We played around the gate area with the toy plane, meeting another family heading to Disney World. Aedan did not quite understand the concept that we could BOTH be going and kept telling the little girl. “Nooooo! AEDAN go to Dinny Woord! Not you go Dinny Woord! Aedan go to Dinny Woord!” Poor thing! Before long, it was time to board the plane. Quick shot before stashing away the camera:

Take-off was a bit of a disaster. Aedan went through FIVE packets of fruit snacks and gummy candies waiting to take off!!! He did not like that he had to sit on his bottom and not his knees, that he had to wear a seatbelt, and that he could not watch Mickey Mouse on the IPOD. At one point he really wanted into Mommy’s lap – it was so hard to have to tell him no!!! Once the flight was in progress, though, he sat very nicely in his seat, watching a Mickey Christmas movie with headphones. We looked like quite the tech-savvy family with the Prince listening to music via his phone and fiddling with the in-flight on demand games, the Munchkin zoned out with the I-Pod and the Princess typing away on my netbook. We eventually also discovered some fun free Winnie the Pooh games on the in-flight on-demand that Aedan enjoyed as well. “I play Winnie! Tigger, Winnie de Pooh, Pigget!”

After an un-eventful flight, we landed in Orlando. I was very excited by the Mickey balloon at the stroller claim...

I was actually obsessed with these balloons the whole trip and I really wanted one from the MK... but even princesses have their limits and I had to admit that it really was not a logical purchase...

By this point, the Munchkin was falling asleep and we were pretty tired ourselves. Luckily, we only waited about 20 minutes for a ME bus and were thrilled to find out that our resort (Pop) would be the first stop! After a cute little video onboard the ME welcoming us to the happiest place on earth, we soon saw this:

Hooray!!!! We're There!!! Finally!!!

I am ashamed to admit that I have no pictures from the rest of the night... We were really, really tired.

I will, however, go ahead and give you my basic feelings about Pop... We knew from the very beginning that we absolutely would stay on property. We never considered other options. That said, we also knew that we would be spending most of our time in the parks so the Prince suggested we stick to a value resort... Now, being a true Princess, I was not particularly thrilled with this plan from the beginning. Princesses like fancy hotels. However, I saw the logic in it and also thought that the Munchkin would probably like the bright colors and huge icons of Pop... He did, and we had great service. We were in the 50's section, tried 2 of the three pools, and enjoyed the food court several times. The bus service was always prompt and we liked having a dedicated bus just to our resort... But we won't stay at Pop again unless we are really tight on cash. The room itself was a bit of a dissapointment. Very small and without the perfect little details that make Disney...well, magical! Plus, the walls were very, very thin. We could hear when the tv was on or the phone rang next door. It didn't really bother us as we had very considerate neighbors, but it just didn't feel as special and magical as I wanted for our Disney time. We visited the Poly for breakfast later in the trip and the Prince and I are both pretty convinced that next time around, it will be worth the extra $ to stay in that tropical paradise!

More to come soon!

-

 

[Tnkrbelle565]

You did get some super cute pics

We feel the same way about POP. It's ok....but

 

[megandbrandon]

Yay! I'm excited to read this report. We have our own little munchkin that will be turning 1 at the end of the month! Where did the past year go? Anyways, we plan on taking him next Spring or Fall so he will either just be 2 or 2 1/2 when we go. It will be nice to see how your trip goes as we start planning ours.

By the way, your little guy is adorable!

 

[dellasgirl]

Love the picture of the Walt Disney World sign at night-do you know i have never seen it at night in spite of all our trips-very pretty.
on the subject of Thomas-my DS(now 18) loved Thomas also-encouraged by his granddaddy-a lover of all things trains-Have you taken him to see Thomas?
Here at home we have a transportation museum(mostly trains) that once a year has a visit from Thomas and friends-
Looking forward to your first full day

 

[heaven2dc]

Munchkin is adorable with his Mickey hoodie and plush Mickey! I'm glad you got settled in for the night and am anxious to see where you went your first day. I have a question for you tho - have you considered renting points for your next visit? We have rented points for a studio at BWV with a boardwalk view for $90/night. We considered staying at a Value or Mod on our next trip but it was more affordable renting points. The Value would have been comparable in price and even less expensive if I was able to use a PIN code but the Mods were even pricier even with a code. Just food for thought (only problem is Poly isn't one of the DVC resorts - yet )

 

[PrincessMommyLM]

You did get some super cute pics

We feel the same way about POP. It's ok....but

Yep - there was nothing really awful about it and some things were actually really cute! However, I'm willing to pay more to get more, if that makes sense!

Yay! I'm excited to read this report. We have our own little munchkin that will be turning 1 at the end of the month! Where did the past year go? Anyways, we plan on taking him next Spring or Fall so he will either just be 2 or 2 1/2 when we go. It will be nice to see how your trip goes as we start planning ours.

By the way, your little guy is adorable!

Awww! Thanks! We think he's pretty cute too! 2 1/2 was a GREAT age to go! We did almost everything as a family, and Aedan loved almost all of it!

on the subject of Thomas-my DS(now 18) loved Thomas also-encouraged by his granddaddy-a lover of all things trains-Have you taken him to see Thomas?
Here at home we have a transportation museum(mostly trains) that once a year has a visit from Thomas and friends-
Looking forward to your first full day

We are planning on it in October (right before our DLR trip... and I have a show going up the first weekend in November... yikes!)

Munchkin is adorable with his Mickey hoodie and plush Mickey! I'm glad you got settled in for the night and am anxious to see where you went your first day. I have a question for you tho - have you considered renting points for your next visit? We have rented points for a studio at BWV with a boardwalk view for $90/night. We considered staying at a Value or Mod on our next trip but it was more affordable renting points. The Value would have been comparable in price and even less expensive if I was able to use a PIN code but the Mods were even pricier even with a code. Just food for thought (only problem is Poly isn't one of the DVC resorts - yet )

Thanks! I am actually theming all our outfits from now on... I got a little overwhelmed this first time and really just did Aedan, but on our next trip I am hoping we will all match! (the Prince will looooove that, I'm sure! )
I honestly was not aware that "renting" points was even a possibility until very recently. We will probably look into it, but honestly I have my heart set on a deluxe next time around (probably December 2011) as it will probably be our last trip for a couple of years since we are planning on munchkin #2 sometime soon after. It sounds like you got a GREAT deal though! I will definitely keep it in mind for future trips.



I spent the weekend nursing two sick boys, but should be able to get at least the beginnings of day #1 up this afternoon! Thanks everyone!

 

[PrincessMommyLM]

The 6:45 a.m. alarm came reeeeaaaallly early the next morning... but we were determined to be at the Magic Kingdom with time to spare!!! I carefully considered our park schedule and read tons of tips, so I know that there are plenty of people out there who think MK should be the last park on your schedule, not the first, but I simply couldn't wait any longer!!! Sooo... we were up at 6:45 to have breakfast and be at the MK for opening.

The Munchkin was NOT feeling very perky this morning (note that he was so out of it that we didn't even get him into pjs the night before!):

The resort was pretty dead when we ventured out about 7:30:

But we did meet these little feathered friends!

Munchkin thought it was really special that the ducks got to swim in the swimming pool, too!

First up was breakfast at Pop...

This first morning, the Mickey waffles were a little cold and dissapointing. However, the rest of our trip, all our breakfasts were delicious so it made up for it!

Before long, we were 1st in line for the MK bus. Our (still sleepy but eager) Disney explorer:

We were at the MK in no time at all and some of the very first through security. This attempt at a Train Station shot (Munchkin didn't want to sit still) shows you how empty it was:

I would ABSOLUTELY reccomend waking up the extra half hour early to be among the first though security! We had so much time to just soak up the magic, had a great spot to see the opening show, etc. It was a fabulous start to our first morning!

We got our "1st Visit" Buttons at guest relations and then Munchkin was the first to discover this "hidden" Mickey out front (complete with pixie dust!)

He had a lot of fun!

Balancing on the wall (he ran back and forth for quite a while!):

Exploring with Mommy and his Mickey backpack:

Speaking of the backpack (with, yes, a tail/"leash") - this thing was AWESOME! I was really hesitant about it... I am a very hands on, "attatched" mommy and the idea of a "kid-leash" seemed almost mean to me! However, Aedan was sooooo attached to his Mickey backpack. He would cry when we took it off and ask for it first thing every morning. It was great in the parks for letting him explore some while not taking up all our hands (so he/we could carry drinks, look at exhibits, etc.) I LOVED it and will definitely use it on our fall trip as well!!!

Christmas Decorations out front:

Opening Show:

Reaction to Mickey arriving:

And then we were in!!!! I think I am quickly approaching my photo limit so I will start in on the next section of the day in a new post!

-

 

[PrincessMommyLM]

So... in we go through the tunnels to see:

As a first-time visiter, I was so impressed by the anticipation created as you wait out front, then go through the tunnel, then curve around before you see the castle... I would have expected it to be looming the whole time. As it is, you get this amazing, magical moment when it finally comes into view:

Heading into the tunnel to wait for rope drop (you can see we lingered a while out in front of the castle as quite a few more hard-core guests got in front of us!):

It was a very short wait and then we were all pixie-dusted by the BB fairy godmothers on our way into Fantasyland. Our first stop? DUMBO!!!!! We weren't sure if we could all three squeeze into an elephant (later we found we could!), so the Prince stayed out to take pics - I'm so glad he did!

Yes, I know that Dumbo is a cliche first choice, but my favorite movie as a preschooler was Dumbo and elephants are still my favorite animal. I was also super excited to get my favorite color elephant the first time! (the peachy pink, not the brighter one... it almost matches the color of my bridesmaid dresses!) Munchkin loved flying on Dumbo and was sad to leave... Thus begun our now tradition of saying "bye bye" to Dumbo and petting his ear as we leave. By the time our last day rolled around, Aedan was petting every ear as he walked past to exit the ride saying "bye bye Dumbo! I love you! I miss you!" Soooo cute!

Next up was Peter Pan as the line was still nonexistant and we knew it would get long later. As we entered the line, Munchkin looks across the walkway and cries out "No!!!! Small World!!!!!"

Ummm... Wait! This kid has never been to Disney before! How does he know this? Oh... wait... the Disneyland singalong video he's been watching for a year... I guess that did sink in!

Poor Munchkin had to wait, though as that walk-on Peter Pan line was just too good to miss!

I LOVE LOVE LOVED Peter Pan but Munchkin was not impressed. I don't know if it was the dark or simply that he wanted on "Small World", but he never came around to Peter. He didn't cry, but he never wanted to ride again... (so we only made him one other time )

Next, of course, was "Small World." And, yes, Munchkin loved it as much as he thought he would. I think we rode it 8 times over the course of our visit.

With that (albeit short) update, I have to leave you for now! Real Life calls! More day #1 soon!

-

 

[burlzgurl]

Oh what a treat.
Thanks so Much for Sharing!