Princess Peyton's First Trip...oh, and she is bringing mommy and daddy!

[PrincessPeyton]

Hello! Welcome to my first ever PTR...so sit back, relax, and enjoy the show...errr...I mean, trip report. Here's the basic stats:
Who: Me (Jaime), my husband (Wayne), and my DD2 daughter (Peyton)
What: Taking Peyton for her first trip to see The Mouse! Also, this will be mine and Wayne's first trip in over a decade! Boy have things changed!
When: August 28th to Sept 3rd
Where: Our home away from home during this adventure with be All-Star Movie
Why: Not that you need an excuse to visit the happiest place on Earth but we will be celebrating our 5 year anniversary and to celebrate Peyton's 2nd birthday!
Here is a picture of Peyton and Daddy when we went to see WALL-E, she loved it!

A little bit about how our trip came to be....Precisely at 7 am on April 11th, I called to book our 6 day/5 night trip. Why is this important? Because it was the first day the public could purchase a stay with FREE dining! Even though we got fantasic deal I still didn't exactly know how I was going to pay for it! But I don't care if I had to walk to Floriday from Pennsylvania with my husband and daughter on my back...WE WERE GOING TO DISNEY!

I, ofcourse, was a bit concerned about taking Peyton on her first trip since this will be her first big trip in her lifetime. While I am sure that she is a typical 2 year old, she sure does seem to get in more trouble then other 2 years old. Examples....

But I decided to face my fears head on, I booked the trip and started planning! Since we had free dining along with everyone else staying in Disney at that time, I knew I would have to plan our meals and quick! I basically went against what every tour book told us to do and planned go to the park that has Extra Magic Hours for that day. I decide to do this so that we could go back to our room and take a long refreshing nap in the middle of the day. For those who have had toddlers will agree, i would rather fight disney crowds instead of a tired 2 year old any day! So here is our trip plans so far....
Thursday, August 28 - Magic Kingdom - No ADR's
Friday, August 29 - Epcot - Akershus
Saturday, August 30 - Hollywood Studios - Hollywood and Vine and 50's Primetime Café
Sunday, August 31 - Cinderella's Royal Table
Monday, September 01 - Animal Kingdom - Yak and Yeti
Tuesday, September 02 - TBD
Wednesday, September 03 - TBD

So how does someone who has been planning for five months still don't know what they will be doing for TWO DAY? Well you see, someone was sending some extra pixie dust our way! if you notice at the beginning I was only planning our trip for 6 days/5 nights? I will have to explain later, it takes some complicated math and lots of big words that confused my husband! But my daughter is up from her nap so I will have to end this PTR for tonight!
Oh, i forgot the mention the purpose of this PTR is to get some tips and tricks from those who have traveled with toddlers before us to the World! so please sending them my way! TIA!
That's all for now, I will be writing more later!

 

[pandapooh]

Peyton is so cute !! I'm looking forward to hearing more about your plans, so i can steal them for my trip

 

[bellasmommy0]

You are going to have an amazing time!! We took my DD for her 3rd bday and the look in her eyes was beyond description. Something I will never forget. We went again last year when she was 5 and are going again in Dec. but it has never been the same as the 1st time when she was so tiny and believed in every part of it. The main thing I learned is to go at her pace and give her time for naps or you will have some serious meltdowns...we did!! It was also my 1st time and I was determined to do as much as possible! On my trip report are a few pics from our 1st time.

 

[PrincessPeyton]

Okay, I just have to vent before I continue my trip report....I have been without wireless for TWO DAYS! Doesn't Verizon realize that I am trying to plan my trip to Disney?
So last post I mentioned that we got to plan an extra day at Disney! When I booked my trip I didn't realize how expensive it would be for us to fly the day after Labor Day. So I talked my husband in staying another day by showing him some complex equations on how much we would save and assuring him that we could go at a slower pace if we just had more days! Never in all of my dreams did I think that All Star Movie wouldn't have every single day booked solid during Free Dining! But I called and got it! Plus free dining for that extra day!!!
Someone was definately sending some pixie dust our way!
For awhile I was super stressed out on how we would pay for our trip. As it turns out, I have an even better job then I thought! I work for a large consulting firm and I enjoy going into work everyday, I consider myself an extremely lucky person! Well we have rewards program and we can turn in our points for gift cards. I was able to use the gift card for my final payment of our trip! How cool is that? I loved my job before but I really love it now!!!
So my planning for this evening included purchasing temp tatoos our trip. I bought 3 sheets for 10 bucks. I thought it was a bit steep but better then the prices that SafetyTats has. I didn't put Peyton's name on there, just says "If lost call: (XXX)XXX-XXXX". I printed some off and will attach a picture in a bit. We are heading to Sesame Place later this week so I will be test their "water proofness".
Tomorrow's plans include scheduling our last two days and attempt to get good ADR's for those days. I don't know what park we will be at the last day, I am debating touring the other resorts so we can figure out where to stay next year (SHHHH....don't tell my husband!). Any suggestions on where a 2 year old would enjoy eating? I am thinking Crystal Palace but I am not too sure how she will do with the characters. So much to do, so little time!

COUNTDOWN TO DISNEY: 28 DAYS!!!

 

[PrincessPeyton]

I can't believe that we only have 20 days! In the past couple of days I was able to get a great deal our airfare. That was a huge weight off of my shoulders! I pre-ordered my PhotoPass CD, I am so excited for our photo session at Grand Floridian! I also tested out the temp tattoos that I made to see if they were water-proof. Good News, they are!
I have been psycho calling Disney Dining to get ADR for the extra day we added last minute. I really wanted Le Cellier or Chef Mickey but as you can imagine, they were all booked. So i settled for Whispering Canyon Cafe earlier today. I will keep calling but atleast we have a back-up.
And finally, I decided to keep our trip plans on index size cards and attach them with a binder ring. I wish i could say this was my great idea but I got the template from another DIS'er who was kind enough to share it with me. I am going to get them laminated later this week now I have our flight info. Here's our updated schedule:
Thursday, August 28 - Magic Kingdom - No ADR's
Friday, August 29 - Epcot - Akershus
Saturday, August 30 - Hollywood Studios - Hollywood and Vine and 50's Primetime Café
Sunday, August 31 - Cinderella's Royal Table
Monday, September 01 - Animal Kingdom - Yak and Yeti
Tuesday, September 02 - Epcot - Whispering Canyon Cafe
Wednesday, September 03 - TBD

20 DAYS.....I have to start packing!