GADISNEYGIRL
<font color=red>Maelstromer!<br><font color=purple
- Joined
- Sep 8, 2003
- Messages
- 1,227
Hello all, we have been to WDW numerous times, but never with a toddler before...this was a last minute trip (we decided to go about 3 weeks ago). This was a quick trip, so I thought it'd be a good one to do a trip report for--this is my first trip report. 
Here we go!
WDW Guests: Me (Rhonda/Mommy), age 30, WDW veteran; Mark (husband/Daddy), age 31, WDW veteran; Wesley, age 19mos, first trip to WDW, LOVES Toy Story.
Hometown: Macon, GA
Length of trip: Wednesday night (ok, Thursday morning), September 10-Saturday, September 13.
Resort: All Star Movies
Pre-trip planning: Mark realized we had a free weekend (we have very few of those--he is a United Methodist Minister), asked if I wanted to go to the mountains. Well, we're going to the mountains for 10 days next month, so I suggested going to Orlando instead. Initially we weren't planning to visit the parks, as we always swore we would never go with children until they were old enough to walk all day by themselves! Thought Wesley would enjoy the Toy Story section of ASMo, and we could spend some time at Downtown Disney. Made reservations at ASMo, Thur-Sat. Then decided to go on Wed...changed reservations. CM we spoke with said she would have autographed Woody and Buzz pictures in our room for Wesley. Then decided to spring for 5 day parkhopper passes, use one day, save the rest for a "big" trip we're planning later. Then decided to make PS for a character breakfast at Chef Mickey's.
The trip: We had to be at church Wednesday night, so we didn't leave Macon until nearly 8pm. We arrived at All Star Movies around 1am. Wesley slept the whole way, hurray! Wesley and I stayed in the car while Mark checked in. Big disappointment--we're not in Toy Story, we're in Love Bug! No autographed pictures. No crib (which we requested both times we talked to CMs). In the room by 1:45. No crib until after 2am. Not a very good start to our stay. CM at desk told Mark if a TS room became available they would let us know in the morning. We go to bed, hoping this will be the case. Finally in bed around 2:45. Thankfully, Wesley goes right back to sleep. He wakes us up around 8am. A decent night's sleep, considering!
First full day--Character Breakfast, Checking out resorts: Wesley wakes us up at 8am. I get up to get him, and notice we have a message. Front desk called (time of call was 6am) to say that we can move to TS if we let them know by 10am. We call immediately, and arrange for them to pick up our luggage around 9:30. We get ready and drive to the Contemporary for our PS at Chef Mickey's. PS is at 11:15; we go early because we want to check out some of the other resorts this trip. Arrive at the Contemporary at 10, take Monorail to the Polynesian. It's nice, but we'd rather stay at the Contemporary again. Back to Chef Mickey's we go.
We weren't sure what Wesley's reaction would be to the characters. He liked seeing them from a distance, but we didn't know what he'd think once they were so close. Initially, he didn't like them at all! I believe Pluto was the first one by. Then came Chip and Dale. Minnie was next--she was wonderful! Mark and I have never been Minnie fans, but after this trip, all 3 of us have a "crush" on her!
She came over very slowly, so as not to startle him, and then played with him from a distance for a while. He had begun to warm up to her, and then she went on to another table. Mickey came by, Wesley was still a little unsure. During peak times, I guess all PS times will be crowded, but for us, 11:15 was perfect. We weren't rushed, and the characters had more time to interact with the kids. Most everyone had left, it was just us and one other family still there. Minnie came back, and probably spent 10 or 15 minutes with Wesley. Pluto, too. Mickey did come back by for a couple of minutes, but we really didn't see too much of him. Goofy was around more towards the end, as well. By the time we left, Wesley was giving high fives all around and kissing Minnie and Pluto. Very good experience for us!
After breakfast/lunch, we got the stroller from the car and walked to the Magic Kingdom. (Didn't go in the park.) We waited for the boat to Fort Wilderness and the Wilderness Lodge. Checked out the WL, decided that we want to stay here sometime. Wesley fell asleep on the boat ride over, so we explored a little in peace. Enjoyed the boat ride back. Wesley woke up when we were almost there. Had about a 30-45 min nap. We walked back to the car in the Contemporary parking lot, and drove to the Animal Kingdom Lodge. It was nice, and we saw a few animals, but it isn't someplace we really want to stay. Back to the hotel, checked into our new room. Toy Story section this time! Autographed picture of Woody, along with some balloons. No Buzz, but this was better than nothing. No crib again; called for one, and it was brought almost immediately. No crib sheet, though, just a regular sheet. Called for a crib sheet. They immediately brought us another regular sheet. We ended up just wrapping the regular sheet around the mattress. Got a quick drink from our cooler, then headed to the Boardwalk.
Walked around there for a little while, then took the ferry over to the Beach & Yacht Club. Had dinner at Beaches and Cream. We both had burgers, and then split a No Way Jose Sundae. Yum! Walked back over to the Boardwalk, then went to Downtown Disney. We were trying to find a Buzz or Woody T-shirt that Wesley could wear. No luck (all too big for him to wear now), but we did see lots of things that we wanted to buy before we left on Saturday. Back to the room...and we were all in bed before 9:30pm.
Second day--MK and Epcot: Mickey called at 6:00. We had also set the alarm for 6:30. It's a good thing, because we went back to sleep after the phone rang! Got up at 6:30, Wesley woke up when we started stirring. We all got ready, Mark went to the Food Court and got us breakfast. By 7:30, we were on the way to Epcot. We were going to park there and take the monorail to MK. We were the 2nd car into the lot! Rode on the monorail with 4 other people to MK. Had planned to ask if we could sit up front, but one of the other couples beat us to it. :-( Got to MK about 8:30. At 8:45, we got to celebrate the park opening, something we had never seen before. Guess we were never as early as we thought we were! The park opening was awesome! Great start to a great day!
Immediately headed for Tomorrowland. Had to wait a couple of minutes there before they officially opened. Made a beeline to Buzz Lightyear. Walked right on. Wesley was somewhat interested, but not overly impressed. Next walked on to TTA. He liked some of that, but not the parts in the dark. We talked to the CM at the Buzz Lightyear booth outside of SpaceRanger Spin, and he told us that Woody and Jessie were in the Goofy show at Diamond Horseshoe Review. Made a mental note of that! Walked on to Pooh, Peter Pan, Snow White and Small World. Wesley seemed to like Pooh, I guess since he is familiar with the characters, and was very interested in Small World. It's not quite even 10am yet! Head to Haunted Mansion. Gave Wesley a quick diaper change after that, and then went over to Pirates of the Carribbean. On the way, checked the time for Goofy's Jamboree--next show at 11am. After PoC, wait about 10min for Goofy's Jamboree. Great show! Wesley really enjoyed it, especially when Woody and Jessie came out. Got a few cute pictures there. He was too young to do the dances, but he had fun anyway. Next stop--ToonTown. We've never been in that area before, and we were pleasantly surprised. Waited about 2 minutes to see Minnie, Chip and Dale and Donald. Wesley did much better with the characters this time. Walked around again and went right in to see Pooh, Eeyore and Tigger. Got some really cute pictures. Walked through Minnie and Mickey's houses, decided not to wait in line to see Mickey. Head back towards Tomorrowland to have lunch at Cosmic Ray's. Find out that Buzz will appear at 12:50. Just enough time for lunch! After lunch (we both had Chicken Caesar Salads), we are right on time to see Buzz. Wesley was a bit afraid of Buzz, but we did get a couple of pictures. Head to Main Street to look in the shops, and then are on our way to Expo Hall to see if our character pictures are ready. Mickey, Minnie and Goofy are on Main Street. We get in line to see Minnie again, since we've had such good experiences with her. This was no different. She and Wesley exchanged kisses, we got a couple of pictures, then continued on our way to Expo Hall. The pictures aren't ready yet, but the CM there says we can come back in the morning (without using a ticket to actually get in the park) to look at them. We confirm this before we exit, and head for Epcot. (Mark insisted that this Minnie was the same one that we saw yesterday at Chef Mickey's--said he could tell by her legs. ?!? Okay, if he says so!)
Our plan (haha!) was for Wesley to go to sleep on the way to Epcot, and we would go walk around the World Showcase. As it turned out, he was still awake when we arrived, so we walked on to Spaceship Earth. He fell asleep just as the ride ended, so we put him in the stroller and headed to WS, as planned. We had time to walk through the shops and enjoy the atmosphere while he got a good nap (about an hour). While in the UK, we discovered that Pooh and Eeyore were in one of the stores. We asked if they would lean down over the stroller, looking at him while he slept. Cute pictures! In France, we ran into Belle and the Beast--another great picture. In Morocco, we found Jasmine just sitting in one of the shops--yet another terrific picture! Wesley woke up about the time we got to Norway, so we rode the Maelstrom. Then it was back to Future World to finish up things there. Rode Journey Into Imagination. Wesley liked Figment! Then we did The Land--Wesley didn't like this very much. It is usually one of our favorites, but our guide kept seemingly getting lost with her lines. On to The Living Seas. We thought Wesley would like this, and we were right! He enjoyed "touching" the fish as they swam past. We spent more time there than we normally would have. We were trying to decide which international cuisine to try for dinner. We debated between Canada, Germany and Morrocco, but finally decided on Germany's Biergarten. The food was great, and we really enjoyed the atmosphere. However, we made the mistake of ordering a large Oktoberfest beer each--the beer was good, but it was one liter!! Neither of us were able to finish it, but overall the meal was terrific. I needed to sit for a few minutes after all the food, so we grabbed a bench for about 10 minutes. Then on to Mexico. Wesley enjoyed this too, maybe because it is similar to Small World in places. Then we walked all the way back to UK, because I was hoping to find a Paddington Bear, but no such luck. We're tired, and ready to call it a day. Besides, Mark has a blister! Back to the room we go. All of Wesley's Toy Story toys and stuffed animals are waiting for us in the window. Cute! We spend some time "debriefing" the day, looking at our pictures (we have a digital camera) and unwinding. All are in bed by 10pm.
Day Three-Downtown Disney and home: Wesley let us sleep "late"--about 8:30am! We got up and ready, and packed up. Mark got himself some breakfast and me some coffee, then loaded the car. We tell Andy's room goodbye, then drive back to the Contemporary. Here we hop a ride on the monorail to the MK, speak to the Security CM, and he calls for an escort to take us to Expo Hall to check on our pictures. Another Security CM arrives immediately and walks with us to Expo Hall--tells us he'll be waiting out front when we're done. We take a look at our pictures, and choose a package for the Minnie picture. Head out front, see Security CM talking to the ice cream lady. Tell him we're done. He says, Oh, I thought maybe you'd want to do a little shopping on Main Street. We're thinking, gee, we could've gone all over the park, and he wouldn't have even known! But we've done our looking on Main Street, it's time to head to Downtown Disney. We say goodbye to the MK, take a last trip to the Contemporary (where we almost got to sit in the front again, but the family who was in there didn't get off at the MK) and drove to DD. We wandered through World of Disney and Once Upon a Toy, then went to the Christmas Store. We picked out stockings (Victorian Mickey & Minnie for Mark and me, a Mickey for Wesley) and left them to be embroidered. Had lunch at Wolfgang Puck's Express. Mark had a sandwich, I had Pumpkin Ravioli. Then we splurged on some Creme Brulee. More wandering around the stores, where we finally made some purchases (previously all we'd bought was a Mickey baseball cap with ears and some Buzz tennis shoes, both for Wesley)--in addition to the stockings, we got the Toy Story Storybook ornaments, some other Toy Story ornaments and some character balls. We're doing one of our Christmas trees with all Disney ornaments, so we wanted to be sure we'd have enough. We generally buy ornaments as our souvenirs, anyway. At Once Upon a Toy we buy a Buzz Lightyear for Wesley, and a talking Jessie doll (he already has a Woody and a Slinky dog). We gave him Buzz in the car for the trip home, but Jessie will be a Christmas gift. We also buy a small plush Mickey and Minnie. At World of Disney, Mark and I finally decide on a mug, some Mickey cocoa and a couple of other small items. We finished with a milkshake from Ghirardelli's (I think this was the longest line we waited in the entire trip!), and were on our way. Arrived home about 9pm, got Wesley to bed and got mostly unpacked. Wish we were going back this weekend!
Most Magical Moments: Park Opening at MK; all the great character pictures we got while Wesley was sleeping in his stroller; the time with Minnie at Chef Mickey's; hearing Wesley say "Woody" and "Buzz" with such excitement every time we entered Andy's Room...experiencing WDW with our child. Looking forward to our next trip!
Other notes: Although we liked the looks of the ASMo, we were a bit disappointed in some of the service-okay, so we were late checking in, and they couldn't guarantee a Toy Story room--but to have to wait for a crib at that time of night, not have a crib sheet the second day, and not have the pictures we were promised...these things were not quite up to the Disney standards we're accustomed to. Of course, we've done things backwards, staying at a Deluxe resort previously, then going to a Value resort...but Wesley did enjoy Andy's room, and that was the most important thing this trip.
This was a great time of year to go, to us. We literally walked on to every single ride. When we were back at MK Saturday morning to get our pictures, it was packed. Definitely, a weekday is better than a weekend! It was still warm, but since we're from GA, we're accustomed to the heat--and it was by no means unbearable! You always run the risk of hurricanes and associated weather this time of year, but we were fortunate. Not even the standard afternoon showers this trip.
We were somewhat unsure about taking this trip with a toddler. After experiencing it, I'd have to say it really just depends on the child. Wesley is very laid back and easygoing, and is accustomed to being dragged everywhere with us. He does not have temper tantrums or meltdowns, and he didn't on this trip. He enjoyed most things we did, and we deliberately chose not to do baby swaps on our favorite rides (Mountains, etc.), because we wanted this to all be about Wesley. The only thing we regret not doing was going to MGM to Al's Toy Barn, to see Woody, Jessie and Bullseye. Oh, well, next trip! Overall, it was a terrific, magical experience, for ALL of us, I think!
Here we go!WDW Guests: Me (Rhonda/Mommy), age 30, WDW veteran; Mark (husband/Daddy), age 31, WDW veteran; Wesley, age 19mos, first trip to WDW, LOVES Toy Story.
Hometown: Macon, GA
Length of trip: Wednesday night (ok, Thursday morning), September 10-Saturday, September 13.
Resort: All Star Movies
Pre-trip planning: Mark realized we had a free weekend (we have very few of those--he is a United Methodist Minister), asked if I wanted to go to the mountains. Well, we're going to the mountains for 10 days next month, so I suggested going to Orlando instead. Initially we weren't planning to visit the parks, as we always swore we would never go with children until they were old enough to walk all day by themselves! Thought Wesley would enjoy the Toy Story section of ASMo, and we could spend some time at Downtown Disney. Made reservations at ASMo, Thur-Sat. Then decided to go on Wed...changed reservations. CM we spoke with said she would have autographed Woody and Buzz pictures in our room for Wesley. Then decided to spring for 5 day parkhopper passes, use one day, save the rest for a "big" trip we're planning later. Then decided to make PS for a character breakfast at Chef Mickey's.
The trip: We had to be at church Wednesday night, so we didn't leave Macon until nearly 8pm. We arrived at All Star Movies around 1am. Wesley slept the whole way, hurray! Wesley and I stayed in the car while Mark checked in. Big disappointment--we're not in Toy Story, we're in Love Bug! No autographed pictures. No crib (which we requested both times we talked to CMs). In the room by 1:45. No crib until after 2am. Not a very good start to our stay. CM at desk told Mark if a TS room became available they would let us know in the morning. We go to bed, hoping this will be the case. Finally in bed around 2:45. Thankfully, Wesley goes right back to sleep. He wakes us up around 8am. A decent night's sleep, considering!
First full day--Character Breakfast, Checking out resorts: Wesley wakes us up at 8am. I get up to get him, and notice we have a message. Front desk called (time of call was 6am) to say that we can move to TS if we let them know by 10am. We call immediately, and arrange for them to pick up our luggage around 9:30. We get ready and drive to the Contemporary for our PS at Chef Mickey's. PS is at 11:15; we go early because we want to check out some of the other resorts this trip. Arrive at the Contemporary at 10, take Monorail to the Polynesian. It's nice, but we'd rather stay at the Contemporary again. Back to Chef Mickey's we go.
We weren't sure what Wesley's reaction would be to the characters. He liked seeing them from a distance, but we didn't know what he'd think once they were so close. Initially, he didn't like them at all! I believe Pluto was the first one by. Then came Chip and Dale. Minnie was next--she was wonderful! Mark and I have never been Minnie fans, but after this trip, all 3 of us have a "crush" on her!
She came over very slowly, so as not to startle him, and then played with him from a distance for a while. He had begun to warm up to her, and then she went on to another table. Mickey came by, Wesley was still a little unsure. During peak times, I guess all PS times will be crowded, but for us, 11:15 was perfect. We weren't rushed, and the characters had more time to interact with the kids. Most everyone had left, it was just us and one other family still there. Minnie came back, and probably spent 10 or 15 minutes with Wesley. Pluto, too. Mickey did come back by for a couple of minutes, but we really didn't see too much of him. Goofy was around more towards the end, as well. By the time we left, Wesley was giving high fives all around and kissing Minnie and Pluto. Very good experience for us!After breakfast/lunch, we got the stroller from the car and walked to the Magic Kingdom. (Didn't go in the park.) We waited for the boat to Fort Wilderness and the Wilderness Lodge. Checked out the WL, decided that we want to stay here sometime. Wesley fell asleep on the boat ride over, so we explored a little in peace. Enjoyed the boat ride back. Wesley woke up when we were almost there. Had about a 30-45 min nap. We walked back to the car in the Contemporary parking lot, and drove to the Animal Kingdom Lodge. It was nice, and we saw a few animals, but it isn't someplace we really want to stay. Back to the hotel, checked into our new room. Toy Story section this time! Autographed picture of Woody, along with some balloons. No Buzz, but this was better than nothing. No crib again; called for one, and it was brought almost immediately. No crib sheet, though, just a regular sheet. Called for a crib sheet. They immediately brought us another regular sheet. We ended up just wrapping the regular sheet around the mattress. Got a quick drink from our cooler, then headed to the Boardwalk.
Walked around there for a little while, then took the ferry over to the Beach & Yacht Club. Had dinner at Beaches and Cream. We both had burgers, and then split a No Way Jose Sundae. Yum! Walked back over to the Boardwalk, then went to Downtown Disney. We were trying to find a Buzz or Woody T-shirt that Wesley could wear. No luck (all too big for him to wear now), but we did see lots of things that we wanted to buy before we left on Saturday. Back to the room...and we were all in bed before 9:30pm.
Second day--MK and Epcot: Mickey called at 6:00. We had also set the alarm for 6:30. It's a good thing, because we went back to sleep after the phone rang! Got up at 6:30, Wesley woke up when we started stirring. We all got ready, Mark went to the Food Court and got us breakfast. By 7:30, we were on the way to Epcot. We were going to park there and take the monorail to MK. We were the 2nd car into the lot! Rode on the monorail with 4 other people to MK. Had planned to ask if we could sit up front, but one of the other couples beat us to it. :-( Got to MK about 8:30. At 8:45, we got to celebrate the park opening, something we had never seen before. Guess we were never as early as we thought we were! The park opening was awesome! Great start to a great day!
Immediately headed for Tomorrowland. Had to wait a couple of minutes there before they officially opened. Made a beeline to Buzz Lightyear. Walked right on. Wesley was somewhat interested, but not overly impressed. Next walked on to TTA. He liked some of that, but not the parts in the dark. We talked to the CM at the Buzz Lightyear booth outside of SpaceRanger Spin, and he told us that Woody and Jessie were in the Goofy show at Diamond Horseshoe Review. Made a mental note of that! Walked on to Pooh, Peter Pan, Snow White and Small World. Wesley seemed to like Pooh, I guess since he is familiar with the characters, and was very interested in Small World. It's not quite even 10am yet! Head to Haunted Mansion. Gave Wesley a quick diaper change after that, and then went over to Pirates of the Carribbean. On the way, checked the time for Goofy's Jamboree--next show at 11am. After PoC, wait about 10min for Goofy's Jamboree. Great show! Wesley really enjoyed it, especially when Woody and Jessie came out. Got a few cute pictures there. He was too young to do the dances, but he had fun anyway. Next stop--ToonTown. We've never been in that area before, and we were pleasantly surprised. Waited about 2 minutes to see Minnie, Chip and Dale and Donald. Wesley did much better with the characters this time. Walked around again and went right in to see Pooh, Eeyore and Tigger. Got some really cute pictures. Walked through Minnie and Mickey's houses, decided not to wait in line to see Mickey. Head back towards Tomorrowland to have lunch at Cosmic Ray's. Find out that Buzz will appear at 12:50. Just enough time for lunch! After lunch (we both had Chicken Caesar Salads), we are right on time to see Buzz. Wesley was a bit afraid of Buzz, but we did get a couple of pictures. Head to Main Street to look in the shops, and then are on our way to Expo Hall to see if our character pictures are ready. Mickey, Minnie and Goofy are on Main Street. We get in line to see Minnie again, since we've had such good experiences with her. This was no different. She and Wesley exchanged kisses, we got a couple of pictures, then continued on our way to Expo Hall. The pictures aren't ready yet, but the CM there says we can come back in the morning (without using a ticket to actually get in the park) to look at them. We confirm this before we exit, and head for Epcot. (Mark insisted that this Minnie was the same one that we saw yesterday at Chef Mickey's--said he could tell by her legs. ?!? Okay, if he says so!)
Our plan (haha!) was for Wesley to go to sleep on the way to Epcot, and we would go walk around the World Showcase. As it turned out, he was still awake when we arrived, so we walked on to Spaceship Earth. He fell asleep just as the ride ended, so we put him in the stroller and headed to WS, as planned. We had time to walk through the shops and enjoy the atmosphere while he got a good nap (about an hour). While in the UK, we discovered that Pooh and Eeyore were in one of the stores. We asked if they would lean down over the stroller, looking at him while he slept. Cute pictures! In France, we ran into Belle and the Beast--another great picture. In Morocco, we found Jasmine just sitting in one of the shops--yet another terrific picture! Wesley woke up about the time we got to Norway, so we rode the Maelstrom. Then it was back to Future World to finish up things there. Rode Journey Into Imagination. Wesley liked Figment! Then we did The Land--Wesley didn't like this very much. It is usually one of our favorites, but our guide kept seemingly getting lost with her lines. On to The Living Seas. We thought Wesley would like this, and we were right! He enjoyed "touching" the fish as they swam past. We spent more time there than we normally would have. We were trying to decide which international cuisine to try for dinner. We debated between Canada, Germany and Morrocco, but finally decided on Germany's Biergarten. The food was great, and we really enjoyed the atmosphere. However, we made the mistake of ordering a large Oktoberfest beer each--the beer was good, but it was one liter!! Neither of us were able to finish it, but overall the meal was terrific. I needed to sit for a few minutes after all the food, so we grabbed a bench for about 10 minutes. Then on to Mexico. Wesley enjoyed this too, maybe because it is similar to Small World in places. Then we walked all the way back to UK, because I was hoping to find a Paddington Bear, but no such luck. We're tired, and ready to call it a day. Besides, Mark has a blister! Back to the room we go. All of Wesley's Toy Story toys and stuffed animals are waiting for us in the window. Cute! We spend some time "debriefing" the day, looking at our pictures (we have a digital camera) and unwinding. All are in bed by 10pm.
Day Three-Downtown Disney and home: Wesley let us sleep "late"--about 8:30am! We got up and ready, and packed up. Mark got himself some breakfast and me some coffee, then loaded the car. We tell Andy's room goodbye, then drive back to the Contemporary. Here we hop a ride on the monorail to the MK, speak to the Security CM, and he calls for an escort to take us to Expo Hall to check on our pictures. Another Security CM arrives immediately and walks with us to Expo Hall--tells us he'll be waiting out front when we're done. We take a look at our pictures, and choose a package for the Minnie picture. Head out front, see Security CM talking to the ice cream lady. Tell him we're done. He says, Oh, I thought maybe you'd want to do a little shopping on Main Street. We're thinking, gee, we could've gone all over the park, and he wouldn't have even known! But we've done our looking on Main Street, it's time to head to Downtown Disney. We say goodbye to the MK, take a last trip to the Contemporary (where we almost got to sit in the front again, but the family who was in there didn't get off at the MK) and drove to DD. We wandered through World of Disney and Once Upon a Toy, then went to the Christmas Store. We picked out stockings (Victorian Mickey & Minnie for Mark and me, a Mickey for Wesley) and left them to be embroidered. Had lunch at Wolfgang Puck's Express. Mark had a sandwich, I had Pumpkin Ravioli. Then we splurged on some Creme Brulee. More wandering around the stores, where we finally made some purchases (previously all we'd bought was a Mickey baseball cap with ears and some Buzz tennis shoes, both for Wesley)--in addition to the stockings, we got the Toy Story Storybook ornaments, some other Toy Story ornaments and some character balls. We're doing one of our Christmas trees with all Disney ornaments, so we wanted to be sure we'd have enough.
We generally buy ornaments as our souvenirs, anyway. At Once Upon a Toy we buy a Buzz Lightyear for Wesley, and a talking Jessie doll (he already has a Woody and a Slinky dog). We gave him Buzz in the car for the trip home, but Jessie will be a Christmas gift. We also buy a small plush Mickey and Minnie. At World of Disney, Mark and I finally decide on a mug, some Mickey cocoa and a couple of other small items. We finished with a milkshake from Ghirardelli's (I think this was the longest line we waited in the entire trip!), and were on our way. Arrived home about 9pm, got Wesley to bed and got mostly unpacked. Wish we were going back this weekend! Most Magical Moments: Park Opening at MK; all the great character pictures we got while Wesley was sleeping in his stroller; the time with Minnie at Chef Mickey's; hearing Wesley say "Woody" and "Buzz" with such excitement every time we entered Andy's Room...experiencing WDW with our child. Looking forward to our next trip!
Other notes: Although we liked the looks of the ASMo, we were a bit disappointed in some of the service-okay, so we were late checking in, and they couldn't guarantee a Toy Story room--but to have to wait for a crib at that time of night, not have a crib sheet the second day, and not have the pictures we were promised...these things were not quite up to the Disney standards we're accustomed to. Of course, we've done things backwards, staying at a Deluxe resort previously, then going to a Value resort...but Wesley did enjoy Andy's room, and that was the most important thing this trip.
This was a great time of year to go, to us. We literally walked on to every single ride. When we were back at MK Saturday morning to get our pictures, it was packed. Definitely, a weekday is better than a weekend! It was still warm, but since we're from GA, we're accustomed to the heat--and it was by no means unbearable! You always run the risk of hurricanes and associated weather this time of year, but we were fortunate. Not even the standard afternoon showers this trip.
We were somewhat unsure about taking this trip with a toddler. After experiencing it, I'd have to say it really just depends on the child. Wesley is very laid back and easygoing, and is accustomed to being dragged everywhere with us. He does not have temper tantrums or meltdowns, and he didn't on this trip. He enjoyed most things we did, and we deliberately chose not to do baby swaps on our favorite rides (Mountains, etc.), because we wanted this to all be about Wesley. The only thing we regret not doing was going to MGM to Al's Toy Barn, to see Woody, Jessie and Bullseye. Oh, well, next trip! Overall, it was a terrific, magical experience, for ALL of us, I think!
