She's STILL too young to go! Christmas w/a 17mo! UPDATE 2/5!

[BrooklynnsMommy]

The first time Brooklynn met the fairies she just sat stood and stared at Iridessa. She was totally n character and asked Brooklynn if the cat had gotten her tongue then she got down and pretended to look in her mouth. brooklynn thought taht was pretty funny at almost 3 years old and that loosened hr up so she did great with Tink and Rosetta. She stills talks about Iridessa looking for "that cat in her mouth!"

 

[harleyquinn]

We have a DL and WDW version-watching the WDW one now. She got a flu shot this morning, and is really clingy, so I just crawled into my bed and put it in. I got them with rewards pts through disney movie rewards.

I didn't know there was a WDW version! I'll have to look for it!

I'm loving your trip report! We're planning on taking our DS for his first trip to the world when he is around 15 months old, so I'm getting a lot of valuable tips through reading your report!!! Can't wait for more.
_________
Maria Rose

Thanks! If you have any questions at all, please ask! I'm having a hard time remembering to to post tips this time!

The first time Brooklynn met the fairies she just sat stood and stared at Iridessa. She was totally n character and asked Brooklynn if the cat had gotten her tongue then she got down and pretended to look in her mouth. brooklynn thought taht was pretty funny at almost 3 years old and that loosened hr up so she did great with Tink and Rosetta. She stills talks about Iridessa looking for "that cat in her mouth!"

It was such a whirlwind for me! I can't wait to go again!

Updates coming!!

 

[harleyquinn]

December 19th Cont.
Now I really wish we had stopped and visited the Princesses too, but Lily didn’t have her special Cindy dress on (I thought it was too cold that morning) and I knew we’d be back, so we skipped it.

Instead of the Princesses, I decided to visit the Judge’s Tent for the first time. We waited a couple of minutes and were then led into the room that contained Mickey AND Minnie! Lily was very excited when she saw them and I had a lot of trouble containing her while we waited for the families in front of us. When it was our turn, I put her down and she walked right over to them and sat on the ground. She was quite clearly saying, “Well hello, let’s play.” It was too cute.

The photopass pictures came out better.

I can’t remember what was so funny, but it really was one of the best interactions of the trip. Lily was just sooo happy to see her favorite mice.

She really didn’t want to leave, but we moved on. We took some pictures of Mickey’s Christmas decorations, which didn’t turn out very well. I’ll post if there is a demand.

We still had time before our Peter FP, we were just flying through everything. So we hit one of Lily’s favorite rides, Cindy’s p Prince whoever) Carousel. It forever (well seemed like) to get spinning and Lily was getting sick of not moving, but she really enjoyed it. I’m pretty much sure were waited for it to start longer than the actual ride runs, but she was happy.

DH’s attempt to get us all in a picture:

Next we rode It’s a Small World. It was closed in August, so I was really looking forward to her reaction. Very smart of Disney to switch around the exit and entrance! She was a bit scared at the beginning and did the, “no, no, no” thing again, but once she saw the kids, she was enthralled. The ride moved a LOT slower than I remember, and we got stuck in an overload of boats at the end, but we all enjoyed it very much. I know some people can’t stand it, but to me IASW IS WDW.

We exited exactly when our FPs for Peter started. I was a bit worried about her reaction, since she wasn’t digging the dark aspects of the rides we had done so far. I actually ruled out Snow White before we even left for the trip, since that one scared her last time. They don’t put “Scary” in the title for no reason!

She clung to me for the ride and clearly didn’t really enjoy herself, but she didn’t freak out either.

I was starting to get really hungry and I swear it was getting colder as the morning progressed, so we decided to head over to Tomorrowland. We really like to eat at the Starlight Café. It was after 10:30 and I thought they were closed (they weren’t. The burger part was open, but not the others.) So we decided to ride the People Mover. I stopped and FP’d Buzz. On our way over we saw:

Stitch was the only character that Lily was really afraid of last time, but obviously she got over it. He even “ate” her head, and she just though he was hilarious. Stitch is always one of my favorite characters to meet, because he just about always does something funny. The first time we saw him, he picked his nose and wiped it on DH. Yes, he’s gross, but I love him. The image of him eating DD will stay with me forever (in a good way!)

Lily really loved the People Mover last time. It was very relaxing. This time it was very cold! The wind was blowing and we just all huddled together.

 

[harleyquinn]

December 19th, Cont.
We headed over to eat. We were a couple of minutes early and it was really empty, so I followed Lily as she ran around. The chicken was sooo good, much better than when we’ve gone a little later in the day. Lily really enjoyed my chocolate cake dessert. Unfortunately, we’ve definitely being overdeveloping her sweet tooth lately.

If you’ve read the last report you know that one of the big successes of that trip was Lily’s behavior at the restaurants. As long as we had plenty of snacks, she was happy to sit and soak in the attention. This trip? Not so much.

She started squirming and was crabby almost right away. I could see that the Tiny Diner was going to be useless. She just tore it off the table and wanted to throw everything. So we ate fast!

We got out in one piece and used out Buzz FPs. We’ve decided that whoever controls the vehicle (and isn’t holding a baby) has a much better chance of getting a high score. I think I had under 1000 points? Lol

We headed toward the hub and there was a parade going on. I was surprised since it was nowhere near 3:00. It was the Move It, Shake It, Celebrate it parade. There were relatively few people around, and we never get to see the afternoon parade, so we stayed to watch. We had no idea that you actually get to move into the street around the castle hub and dance with the characters. I watched the stroller and took pictures and video while DH and DD had a blast. It was great!

I thought I took a lot more pictures, but I must have been filming instead. DH was very tired after dancing, but he really had a blast. He told me he got all teary at one point thinking about how awesome it was to be there dancing with his daughter. Awww.

Here’s a tip! Try to snag a spot near the opening into the Main street hub. If you can, get in the middle (where the statue of Walt is) instead of on the outside. There will be a float right in the intersection that has Goofy, Minnie and Mickey. When the dancing happens, you can dance with Goofy on the left side (facing Main Street) or M & M on the right. Otherwise you’ll dance with Frozone or Mr. Incredible near the entrance to Tomorrowland. I don’t know who was on the other side.

We decided to leave at this point, because Lily was tired and it was really cold. I stopped to take a couple of photos.

Crowds had picked up and I could tell it would be a very busy afternoon.

So I went through the turnstile to discover DH with a bemused grin on his face. He does this thing where he dances with Lily in her stroller—spins her around and makes her giggle. Well, he spun her only to discover:

She fell asleep! She only fell asleep once in her stroller on the last trip and didn’t stay that way long, so I figured she wouldn’t this time. I was wrong and this time she passed out. And she was OUT. So we reentered the park. There was no way I was going to pull her out and wake her up to get on the bus. We decided to hit the shops on Main Street, but they were really crowded. DH wanted me to buy something nice for myself this trip, so we were looking through the stores on the Bakery side (which we much less crowded). I don’t know how I never noticed the glass blowing place at the back of the glass store. It was nice and warm in the back so I pulled off the blanket and sat on the floor while DH looked around.
I had to take a picture of these. So cool.

Lily was still asleep and it was still early, probably 11:45 ish? So we walked back up through the Main street hub to see if Tiana was out.

In August we saw Tiana a couple of times, but never stopped to take a pic. For some reason, DH really wanted to get one this time, but we always showed up at the worst times. This time the CM told us she would be back in 15 minutes, which is too long to wait with a getting-crankier-by-the- second toddler. They had her gazebo all decked out.

As we got near the gazebo, Lily woke up. We decided to see if we could catch Country Bears and then leave. So we walked past Tiana’s gazebo and heading into Frontierland and came across:

I don’t know why that’s the only picture I have of the band. Lol And no, it wasn’t meant to be a rude gesture!

I had DH park over there to watch while I went shopping at the nearby Christmas store in order to get the blanket I was becoming obsessed with. It was getting really, really cold and I wanted to get the blanket deal. (Spend $40 and get the fleece throw for $15) We had gift cards to burn, and I knew I wanted to get DD her first stocking, which was $22, so spending another $18 should be easy right? I got her a Minnie stocking and looked around for something else to buy. I settled for the Mickey santa headband that was on clearance for $16.99

and grabbed some candy to make it to $40, but I really didn’t want the headband or the candy so I kept looking and agonizing. They had a small Nemo ornament that I probably should have picked up, but it was $12.99, which was way too much.

I was in there for about 10 minutes, when DH and DD came in to find me. I showed the stocking to DD and she grabbed it and started sucking on Minnie’s nose. I knew then I should find something else to let her suck on, so I picked out the Christmas Tree Goofy plush that she’s clinging to in the photos of the Boardwalk giant chair. It was $14.99 (way too expensive, but he is really cute and she loved him!) and I grabbed a bag of chocolate covered pretzels. Whew! Quite a hectic shopping trip with a pretty full store.

DH also took this while they watched the band:

I snuggled the blanket around DD who was very happily munching on Goofy’s nose and the ornaments. That blanket got a LOT of use over the week. We did bring a small blanket from home to use for the stroller, but this one was much warmer.

I tried to find a picture of it and this is what I came up with:

I really hope that’s not it, because that’s the same blanket I bought in 2008. I swear the one we got has both castles on it (DL and WDW). I’ll have to look. I love them both, so it’s cool. They are light fleece, but super soft and warm. They have a weird smell to them that goes away with a wash. Both of them had it! (ETA: It's the same blanket from 2008. lol)

We headed over to the Country Bears, but it had a 12 minute wait, so we decided to save it for later and head out or maybe to Pirates? It’s the only reason I can think that we took the long way around past Splash Mountain, where I took this:

OMG! Had the crowds finally arrived (it had been a wonderful medium crowd afternoon, after a low crowd morning)? Nope the group you see near the back of the picture was a school. Once we got past them, it was better, but noticeably more crowded.

We skipped pirates, because it had a 15 minute wait and it was clear that Lily was done, so we headed to the exit. And we left for real this time!

 

[harleyquinn]

Well I hope someone is still reading.

December 19th, Cont.

At least we finally made it through MK, the rest of the day is pretty short.

We took a few more pictures back the resort. This is when I saw the giant chair and got stars in my eyes about taking pictures in it every year.

I was really worried, because I knew Lily needed another nap before dinner, and we only had about an hour before we had to walk over to Epcot for dinner at Le Cellier. She was wide awake and happy in the room, so we played and watched some Disney Channel.

Then it was off to dinner. This was our first experience walking over to Epcot and it was just as awesome as I thought it would be. I could tell that Lily was getting very close to naptime meltdown. One of the waitresses slathered her in stickers while we waited. She was so nice and Lily warmed up to her and lost a bit of her attitude. On the last trip Lily LOVED this meal, especially the pretzel bread. FLASHBACK!

So we ask our very friendly server to bring us all pretzel bread. Lily only ate a little and it was a very difficult meal. I managed to finish my SUPER yummy mushroom filet (oh, boy it was soooo good). She really started to lose it, so I told DH to order me a Moose to go and I took her out of her highchair and let her explore a bit.

Le Cellier is small and the staff moves very fast. We had witnessed a waitress zip out of the kitchen area and trip over a child that was near the door. He wasn’t in front of it, but over through a path that was much used by the staff. I didn’t want a repeat, so I took her outside. She had tons of fun walking around chasing some ducks and looking at the water. Chasing her was very tiring! It seemed to take forever, but DH finally appeared with my moose to go (he got one too, that I ate later in the week. Hehe)

He’s soo cute and nummy!

We had the first experience of forcing an unhappy toddler into her stroller. It wouldn’t be the last time. I really was unprepared for this behavior. Plenty of wonderful Dissers had warned me that the trip is very different when they start walking, but I really didn’t think the restaurants would be a big deal. They are. She hates to sit still for more than maybe 10 minutes. Nearly every meal was like this. There was nothing I could do to entertain her. Everything that worked so well before was now a complete failure. It wasn’t a deal breaker or so awful I would tell anyone with a toddler to never try it.

In hindsight, I definitely would have skipped the dining plan. Counter service locations are always loud and crazy and a restless toddler is a sight every few tables, but table service is different. Not to mention, we could have saved a lot of money, especially due to the 30% off counter service coupon that was available. If you really want to do the DP, make sure you’ve been eating out a lot near the trip. We hadn’t been since we were so busy.

You have to take time to let the toddler run wild. Maybe right before dinner? We never tried that.

So anyway, we headed out of the park. It was VERY crowded. EMH night and the last night of a sold out MVMCP, which meant MK was closed to anyone without a prepurchased ticket.

So we got thought the turnstile and I noticed that…DD was asleep again! So for the second time that day, we re-entered the park. Wrong choice. We should have just walked around the Boardwalk. It was so crowded. I’ve never seen WS that bad.

We made it to Japan where I snapped this in the little museum area:

It was nice and quiet and warm in there and…yep, DD woke up briefly, but fell back asleep as we started moving. DH navigated the stroller through the crazy crowds and we made it back through the turnstiles before she woke up.

She played in the room for a bit, but fell asleep shortly after. We all turned in for an early night.

 

[BrooklynnsMommy]

It is definitely a different world once they start walking. We try to only do one or two table service meals during a 10 day trip and at least one of those is a character meal. We also love Whispering Canyon Cafe because it is loud and entertaining for kids, plus great food. I keep two containers of playdough in my bag (2 girls = 2 containers). Just the party favor size. The girls love it! It doesn't take up much room and is really easy to clean up.

 

[december]

Katie did really good at WCC on our June trip, sice as the PP said it is so rowdy in there. And she loved TRex. But our other meals were a disaster. Between my sister complaining and Katie screaming (especially when a character came close), I was ready to have a tantrum myself!

 

[harleyquinn]

It is definitely a different world once they start walking. We try to only do one or two table service meals during a 10 day trip and at least one of those is a character meal. We also love Whispering Canyon Cafe because it is loud and entertaining for kids, plus great food. I keep two containers of playdough in my bag (2 girls = 2 containers). Just the party favor size. The girls love it! It doesn't take up much room and is really easy to clean up.

Oh I love that idea, we haven't introduced Lily to playdough yet.

Katie did really good at WCC on our June trip, sice as the PP said it is so rowdy in there. And she loved TRex. But our other meals were a disaster. Between my sister complaining and Katie screaming (especially when a character came close), I was ready to have a tantrum myself!

I totally understand. You'll see that she did really well at the character meals, it was just the others that were hard.

 

[harleyquinn]

Monday, December 20

Today was an Epcot day. I decided if we managed to get up early enough, we could do the Character Spot, but it wasn’t a huge draw since we had done it 4 months earlier and would be seeing them all at various character meals. (Just a note if you think this way too…just remember that the Character Spot has the Fab 5 AND Photopass photogs, if that is important to you.)

So we walked in (no buses—yay!) around 9:20 or so and headed straight to Nemo. Lily just loves Nemo. Almost as much as she loves Mickey and the gang. We dressed much warmer this morning since we were no longer fooled by the warmer air outside our balcony. She got super excited as soon as she saw this:

She said, “Mine! Mine! Mine!”

We took time to take these pics since it’s her favorite and the best Nemo shot we got last time was:

As we were heading off I heard the CM say, “final loading for Turtle Talk.” So we made a b-line and ended up at the very back of the theatre, which turned out to be a very good thing. A family with a 10 month old boy was hanging out there with us and he made adorable (drooly) googily eyes at Lily. She wasn’t interested in robbing the cradle, so she patted him on the head and said, “boy.” She does the same thing with our cats. We always pet them and say, “good boy,” because they are so awesome with her. She often does this with other children now. She actually can say the whole phrase now and it’s really funny.

We had skipped Crush on the last trip, because I was sure she wouldn’t want to sit still. I’m sure we would have had a much better chance at staying back then, when she wasn’t walking than we did this time. It was clear from the start that we wouldn’t make it. So DH and I looked at each other and just nodded and we headed out.

Unfortunately, (or maybe fortunately) this single attraction changed the trip for us. We avoided any other show attractions. I’ll get to more detail later, but I wish we had at least tried one more time.

So we exited Crush and I suggested we just go ride Nemo again. In my opinion, Epcot has very little to offer a child this age. The Character Spot, Nemo and the Seas in general, and Figment are pretty much the only things we’ve done with her. I LOVE Universe of Energy, but there is no way I’m going on a 45 minute ride with a toddler! Innoventions has nothing to offer her. The Mexico ride and Malestrom are doable, but somehow we managed to miss them this time.

All that said, Epcot is worth the admission for the Character Spot (and the princess greetings in WS if you can hit them at the right time) and The Seas. My baby just loooves all the fish and the dolphins and Nemo.

So after the second ride we spent some time looking around, but it was starting to get a little crowded, and I prefer the Seas empty.

We walked over to Journey into Imagination. Lily was apprehensive again, but was okay by the end. She doesn’t like the smell area or the end with the big blast of air (but who really does? Did they really have to pick that smell?)

Lily was happy to run around the empty (and heavily under construction) Imageworks for a bit. She loved making music with Figment last time, but was totally uninterested this time, because it meant she had to be held. She just wanted to be free.

So we left and decided to head towards Japan for lunch. We love the orange chicken. We stopped and took a lot of photopass pictures. A pre-emptive note on my PP pictures…Lily’s in the stroller in nearly all of them. It was so hard this time to pull her out and her be willing to go back in. So our photo memories are more realistic! She was in the stroller, not in our arms anyway, right? *sigh* It was honestly worth it for her to be happier, but the pictures aren’t the best.
Some on the way to Japan pics:

So during our meal in Japan, Lily really lost it. She was ready for a nap. NOW! And was not willing to do it in the stroller like yesterday. So I held her for a bit, but even that wasn’t okay with her. So we (bad parents) forced her screaming into her stroller again and got the heck outta Dodge (or Japan, or whatever! ) Note about this. We noticed her schedule was completely off for some reason. She was tired and melting down MUCH earlier than she ever does. It was part of the reason we slept in and missed the Character Spot. We normally don’t have her out at naptime. We do take her out and let her sleep in the car if we have to, but we avoid public ridicule by being home when she’s tired. So we were just unprepared to be dealing with this around 11am every day. I’m sure you can see how difficult this made touring since 11 is prime early-lunch-before-a-few-more-rides time.

So big touring with a toddler tip. Expect the unexpected. You just can’t plan for everything, but you have to plan to go with the flow when necessary.

After a few minutes in the stroller, she was still crying, and I can’t deal with my baby crying (especially in public). Some people can. I wish I had a higher tolerance. So I pulled her back out and we sat down by the lagoon. I held her and sang to her, but she was clearly not going to fall asleep in the middle of WDW again.

You would never know how trying Lily was being from this:

I have another with her holding my Croc in her face. We were playing one of her favorite games, “Oh, that’s stinky!” lol Somehow that one didn’t get uploaded. While I entertained DD, DH took a few pics.

Lily decided she wanted to run around. So we stopped over here:

She would have happily spent the day here. If you aren’t familiar this is a big train village in World Showcase. She loved to run up the path and around and around and chase the trains. A couple of boys came over and were chasing the trains, and she started chasing them. It’s so funny how a tired, crying baby can turn into a super happy Toddler, when you actually let them toddle. I was told that time and again on my advice threads, but until that moment, watching her run around, I really didn’t get it. Plan toddle time!

We let her tire herself (and me) out, got her back in the stroller and back to the Boardwalk. We had a nice nap and some run around the room time. Oh and took these:

Next up: Back to Epcot for dinner. Will we manage a meal without a meltdown?

 

[Curiouser&curiouser!]

Great updates! Lots of good tips for when I go this year with my (then) 2 year old.

I wasn't planning on many sit down meals, and your description of Le Cellier has sealed the deal for me! We don't do to many normally at home anyway(It bugs me spending all that money, and then I gulp down a meal that I don't even enjoy! Boo to that!), so it won't be much of a change. We may do one or two over our 9 day trip, but that's it I think.

And I have made a mental note to let my toddler toddle!

 

[harleyquinn]

Great updates! Lots of good tips for when I go this year with my (then) 2 year old.

I wasn't planning on many sit down meals, and your description of Le Cellier has sealed the deal for me! We don't do to many normally at home anyway(It bugs me spending all that money, and then I gulp down a meal that I don't even enjoy! Boo to that!), so it won't be much of a change. We may do one or two over our 9 day trip, but that's it I think.

And I have made a mental note to let my toddler toddle!

With a 2yo you'll probably have a much better handle on your toddler's needs. Part of our issue was that Lily has only been toddling for about 2 months. And we just didn't get out as much in those 2 months to notice how different her behavior was. Of course, by 2, I'm sure something new will come up too!

And my next update might help you pick better choices for table dining!

 

[harleyquinn]

December 20, Cont.
We made it back into Epcot a little early for our reservation, so guess what we did?

Yep! Rode Nemo again! lol
By far Lily’s favorite meal in August was at the Garden Grill. It was a very special experience for us all and you really need to go read about it if you haven’t.

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2541257&page=5
(Post 65) I can’t figure out how to directly link to the post…
I learned a lot from that visit. Okay, not really, just mainly that I need to take more pictures instead of letting DH film everything. This is the only picture from that visit:

This time?

You feel like you were there, right?
It’s amazing how much she’s changed in 4 months.
That was her first Oreo ever. I think I need to send the first picture to Nabisco.

On the last trip, she loved to give everyone kisses. This time when I told her to give kisses, she would stick out her cheek or forehead so the character would kiss her. She wasn’t interested in Chip, because she saw Pluto first, so she kept barking at Chip. It was really funny. Of course, once Pluto came over, she refused to bark.

The food was just eh again, but our waitress was very nice. My favorite food parts of GG are that they have sweet tea and the kids dessert, so you see I don’t love the food. But the best part? Jen was there too! (you have read ther other report by now right?) I saw her walk by in the distance and got very excited. I had told her we were coming back, but she said she would be gone by December. So I asked my waitress if she could ask Jen to come over. When she walked up to the table I knew she didn’t remember, but that totally didn’t matter. I explained to her that she had made the other meal the best of the trip and that I really appreciated it. I can’t believe she was there!

Lily had zero meltdowns during this meal and loved seeing the characters. I thought maybe the other meals were bad timing and things would be better.

After dinner we headed out and hit Nemo again. I know, seriously? She really, really loves it. What can I say?
We took this (and tons of PP pics)

And we caught Off Kilter!! I had walked by them once or twice before, but this time we actually stopped and heard 1.75 songs!

Lily clapped and waved her arms

It was really cold and we had some other things in mind to do.

We headed back to see if Lily might take another nap. She was super happy and wired (Oreo’s anyone?) Monday night is her late night at home. I don’t get home until after 9 from work and she rarely goes to sleep without me. So we decided to try something crazy… We went back to Epcot for Illuminations. Lily had never seen Disney fireworks. She liked the ones we saw on the Fourth of July and she really liked watching them on TV. Plus we were a short walk to them and the resort. We figured we’d watch from the International gateway bridge and duck out at the end or if she wasn’t happy.

So we made it into the park just in time for her to….fall asleep in her stroller. Lol We were about 25 minutes early, so we decided to grab a spot on the bridge and then we prepared ourselves. She was going to wake up for sure, so we decided we’d see if we could get her to stay in the stroller (because she was in love with the fireworks and they made her happy) or much, much, much more likely, we’d pull her out as soon as she woke up and see if we could get her happy about them. And worst case? We’d pull her out, she would freak and we’d carry her back to the resort.

I’m sure you can guess what happened. She woke up unhappy right away, so DH grabbed her, but she wanted me. She was okay at first with the fireworks, but the globe part was so boring, it made her antsy and she was sleepy. The fireworks started bothering her a lot and she started crying. NO gift tag was worth bugging her this much, so we headed out. DH and I took turns carrying her back. We got to see a lot of the high fireworks from a few different spots along the boardwalk.

On the way back, DH decided that he must stop and get some root beer for his refillable mug. I had a really ugly moment. In hindsight it wasn’t that big of a deal. But for some reason, I got it in my head that once the fireworks ended the BW would be mobbed by thousands of people exiting and we might have to wait for the elevator to get our very tired (but doing ok now) baby back to the room. In my mind he was being crazy selfish and I was super mad. We waited in line behind a couple of guys ordering some pizza at the pizza window and I just said, “I can’t believe you!”

They finished ordering and chatting and one of the guys turned around and said, “I can’t believe you, I can’t believe you!” rolling his eyes and not looking at us. I was actually chastised by his behavior, though he was rude. So rude dude on the Boardwalk, sorry I bothered you so much that you felt the need to mock me to my face (without actually looking me in the face). Had he looked at me, I would have laughed and probably apologized, because I really was being an idiot. And for a moment my anger spiked even more, but I was so surprised by his behavior that I just shut up and laughed about it later.

We made it away from the pizza place just as the (pretty light) crowd started coming onto the Boardwalk and got in an elevator right away. Lily passed back out and we were done for the night. (oh and I apologized to DH for making a big deal out of nothing.)

Did I ever mention that about the Boardwalk? The only way to get to the Boardwalk with a stroller was through an elevator? There is one single elevator on the Inn side that comes out by the Belle Vue Lounge. We found that the night we arrived and I had to stop and ask to make sure it wasn’t the only way. The only other way is the bank of 3 elevators that luckily was right by our room. I just can’t imagine being stuck way out in the far reaches of the resort and walking through the hallways every night.

So a great day with a no so great ending. AK is coming!

 

[LaurenLC]

I am diligently reading both of your trip reports now because all of a sudden I am terrified of our May trip! I'm really excited, but it just hit me today that we will be taking an 11 month old to Disney World and I need all the tips I can get!

 

[BrooklynnsMommy]

We haven't done Garden Grill yet. It is on our ADR list for this summer. I have heard several people say the food is just okay.

 

[RooRach0906]

I am diligently reading both of your trip reports now because all of a sudden I am terrified of our May trip! I'm really excited, but it just hit me today that we will be taking an 11 month old to Disney World and I need all the tips I can get!

Lauren when are you going in May?? We are going to Orlando in May and will be doing one day at the mouse!
Sarah~ Sorry to hijack! I got the bear at TRU! I am loving your report!! I love how Lily is with the characters I hope Annabelle is like that.

 

[harleyquinn]

I am diligently reading both of your trip reports now because all of a sudden I am terrified of our May trip! I'm really excited, but it just hit me today that we will be taking an 11 month old to Disney World and I need all the tips I can get!

I tried to put everything you never to think to ask in the first one, but if you think of anything, let me know. I hope it's helpful!

We haven't done Garden Grill yet. It is on our ADR list for this summer. I have heard several people say the food is just okay.

I love the salad. I forgot about that. They DRENCH it in dressing, so I asked for it on the side and it was sooo much better. It's kind of a cobb salad. yum!

Lauren when are you going in May?? We are going to Orlando in May and will be doing one day at the mouse!
Sarah~ Sorry to hijack! I got the bear at TRU! I am loving your report!! I love how Lily is with the characters I hope Annabelle is like that.

Feel free to talk to each other! Not a hijack at all! lol We almost bought the same one for Lily, but she already has too many bears.

 

[harleyquinn]

Tuesday, December 21
The night before, DH and I discussed my plan for Ak, which was to try and see all three shows, Lion King, Nemo and Flights of Wonder if we could fit it in. DH was insistent that she wouldn’t be able to handle any of them and would just want to run around. After our experience with Crush, I reluctantly agreed that the shows could wait for her to get older. I really wanted to try Nemo anyway since she is so in love with it, but I envisioned her running through the aisle and tripping one of the performers. So my big 2 day AK plan turned into, “Ummm…what is there to do at AK?” lol

This allowed us to sleep in again since there wasn’t any need to get there early. When we got to the bus stop the CM told us it would be 10-15 minutes before the bus came, but it pulled up about 1 minute later! I think it’s sweet that BW had a CM there in the mornings and some other times of the day. I know they frequently entertain the kiddos and give stickers and things, but we weren’t at the bus stop very often. We stopped at the Swan and Dolphin and were on our way. It took a bit, and I was glad we weren’t trying to get there earlier as we would have had to get to the bus stop a lot earlier than I like to be conscious.

We made our way into the park around 9:30.

The Lion King was about to start, so I told DH we should go to Camp Minnie/Mickey and try to see the character greetings. BEST IDEA EVER! If you have a young child, who you think may not make it through the show or want the perfect time to see a TON of characters with no wait, head to CMM when the Lion King is showing.

We saw all of the following with no wait at all.

Every main character had a tree. They were sweet.

Some of the best PP pics were here, because the CMs and characters took plenty of time with us. For some reason Lily decided that she needed to rest her head on Minnie.

I have to talk about this next one. My FIL loves everything Disney, but especially Donald Duck. He does Donald’s voice perfectly. Sometimes it scares Lily, sometimes she loves it. Right now she’s Donald obsessed and can clearly say “Donald Duck,” which is exactly what she did when she saw him down the path. He was the last one we saw and, she was so much happier to see him than anyone else.

By the time we got to poor Turk, Lily just wanted to go back and hang out with Donald.

Well, we’re less than an hour into the day, but I think I need a new post!

 

[harleyquinn]

December 21 Cont.
Next, I headed over to FP the safari, while DD and DH played with the drums. The standby time said 15 minutes, but the queue was way out onto the walk ways. The FP return time was 45 minutes later. I didn’t realize that the train to Rafiki’s Planet Watch (our next destination) was right next to the safari, so I had to go back and get my drummers.

There were a few strollers lined up by the entrance and it’s a train, so I figured we couldn’t take the stroller. You can. A few people had there’s when we got to the station, so I headed back out to get ours. My memory of RPW was very hazy. I knew it had a petting area and Lily LOVES our local one. We had only done it on our very first trip. I would remember why we skipped it soon. As I was coming back with the stroller, the train was just about to leave and we missed it. The next train pulled up less than 5 minutes later.

Lily loved the train. It was worth the time just for her excitement coming and going. She bounced up and down and did a lot of pointing and “see, see!” Apparently you only bring your stroller so you can bring it down the short path to the train and then down the other short path to the RPW area. I don’t think you can actually take it into the conservation station, but I could be wrong. In hindsight, it would have been easier to leave the stroller and carry her.

We headed straight to the petting area. *sigh* How can Disney get something so easy so terribly wrong? I’m sure there is some reason they only have one animal out to pet, but it’s lame. So we got to pet goats. Yippee!

They were cute and all, but eh. There are two little roped off areas that display a bunch of signs that read, “We are taking a break, please leave us alone.” (or something like that lol) Everyone ignored the signs. There were 3-5 goats actually out and about that we were supposed to be petting, but everyone’s attention was on these two.

They were head butting and Lily thought it was hilarious. Around the outskirts there was a pig, an ostrich, and a llama. At least we think that’s what they were. In another nod to failure, there are no signs proclaiming what any of the animals actually are. After a few minutes we headed out and washed our hands (Lily liked that part too). We went into the conservation station and saw…

Which Lily enjoyed and…

Which Lily did not enjoy! Ha! And that was our super grand tour of Rafiki’s Awesomely Amazing Planet Watch. I now remembered exactly why we haven’t been back there in 7 years. This may be the single biggest time waster at WDW. We rode the train back, which Lily loved and headed straight into the FP queue for the safari. Again we parked our stroller and then had to go back and get it since the safari parking is along the queue. (We should have just parked it where we had it).

I have been on around 10 previous safaris. This was by far the best. There were scores of new babies and so many up close encounters. And no pictures. DH filmed most of it. I was too busy hanging onto DD for dear life. I had it in my head that the majority of the ride was bumpy, when in reality it was only the really fast bit at the end. The rest of this particular safari was very, very slow. The animals really wanted to greet us. On one occasion a Momma rhino and baby walked across the road in front of our vehicle. The baby was taking his sweet time until big Daddy rhino came running up behind the baby. The baby quickly ran after momma. It was too cute. Lily really loved the fast bumpy part at the end. It was awesome.

We took our time on the way out and did the jungle trek. The path was really crowded and the animals weren’t all that active. I did manage a few photos of this guy

We stepped out of the trek and it was wall to wall people. It was insane! We could barely walk. So we decided to get the heck out of the park, but once we got clear of that section of the park, it wasn’t bad at all. Busy, be not insane. Since we had no idea if we had any counter service options on the Board Walk and we were all hungry, we decided to stop at Pizzafari. Inside was the most freakishly well-organized counter service experience I have ever seen.

Instead of having the giant mass of people sort of waiting in lines, they had it roped off and a CM sent you into line. It was great. After getting the food, a CM showed us to a table. They seemed to have a system of filling up each section. It was extremely busy and chaotic, but it was super controlled chaos. We shared a table with some very sweet girls who entertained Lily. We actually had a very good meal and Lily was happy.

Afterwards, we headed out of the park. It was getting really crowded and we were done. Hard to believe we did so little, yet wasted so much time! Lol All in all it was a successful morning and Lily had lots of fun, which was what really counts.

Up next: DHS for some lights and bites!

 

[december]

I love the picture with her head on Minnie! Katie loves Donald too. All the fab 4 are Donald right now, Mickey is Donald, Minnie is Donald, Daisy and Donald are Donald, Goofy and Pluto are "PupPup"

Katie loved both shows in AK at 13 mos. Lion King is so awesome, and I can't imagine missing it! Nemo show has bubbles coming down through the whole show, and she loved that!

We did Rafiki's our first trip in 2006. Since then we ride the train up, then ride the train back (never get off.....).

 

[december]

Katie loves looking at your pics. She is fighting me now to see them. She waves at Goofy, told her to "stop that" when she saw your little one kissing Donald, and growls when she sees the gorilla!