Toddling through WDW...updated 8/12 Ohana breakfast & photo session

[GinnyBear's_mom]

Hi everyone and welcome to my first trip report!

I think I read almost 100 different trip reports to prepare for our visit to WDW July 12-18th. So I thought I would give something back to the boards and create my own TR to help others. I am off for the summer, so I will have time to make plenty of updates (during Tigger’s naps of course) and post some of the 2000 pics that we took.

So the title of this TR is Toddling Through Disney World- we had three toddlers that we based this trip around and to all of the naysayers who don’t think it is worth the effort to bring toddlers to Disney- we had a BLAST!!!

First, the main cast of characters:

Me: 30, school librarian who loves all things Disney
DH: 34, never went to Disney until I dragged him there 2 years ago and now he can't wait until we have the money to make yearly trips.
DD:, will refer to as Tigger, just turned 1, she loves to bounce and is starting to walk, especially in the direction of any furry characters

and the supporting cast:

DM: my mom, aka Mimi,
DSF: my stepdad, aka Grandpa
DS: my sis, 30s, lives in Florida, yet rarely goes to Disney????
DBIL: my brother-in-law, 30s, first time to Disney as a Florida resident
DN#1:, my nephew, 2, will refer to as Pooh. He loves all things Pooh and Mickey’s Playhouse
DN#2: my nephew, 9 months, will refer to as Roo. He spent most of the time hanging around in a Baby Bjorn

so come along and sing a song and join our family! M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E!!!

 

[mickeystoontown]

I'm joinin' in! I have just over two weeks before we head back to Disney World. Besides my trip report, I need something to help me count down the days.

 

[GinnyBear's_mom]

Welcome aboard! I'm a fan of your TR

 

[GinnyBear's_mom]

The Drive Down- can’t we cast a spell on our daughter to make her sleep the whole way?

Before driving to Orlando, my sister somehow convinced us to “drop by her place” a mere 100 miles away from Disney on the west coast of Florida. Heck, what’s an extra 100 miles when you are already driving 1000? Anyway, DH liked this plan because that way we weren’t rushing to Disney and I signed on because it gave me an extra day with my cutie-pie nephews Pooh and Roo.

I was getting antsy and wanted to start my vacation so I started packing the car the day before we left and when I went back inside to grab Tigger’s pack n play I get a knock on the door. A construction worker tells me I have to move my car, they need to begin immediate emergency repaving of my street and since we live in a townhouse and don’t have a driveway, that’s where I am parked. They are ripping up the streets in almost my entire complex, now I have to park about 5 blocks away. My quick packing of the trunk now has me walking almost ¼ mile to my car. In 93 degree heat. This task is no longer getting me excited for Disney. But in order to avoid biting off my fingernails or repacking my suitaceses again, I trudge on. Afterwards I carry my 2 cats on the trek to my car, then Tigger and drop the cats off at Mimi’s house. Even though my mom is joining us on this trip, my grandmother lives with her and agreed to watch them for us.

The next day I wait for DH to get home from work while I clean my entire house top to bottom, again from my excited energy about starting my vacation. DH gets home about 6 and we plop Tigger in the car and we are on our way. Tigger had been a great night traveler in the car before, but she apparently left that behavior behind at home. She was great in the car until about 10pm. She suddenly wakes up crying and won’t go back to sleep. We pull over, change her, feed her, etc. She goes back to sleep and wakes up again every half hour. For some reason, she just can’t stay asleep.

We knew ahead of time that we wouldn’t be able to drive straight through, so we start looking for a hotel at about 1am. No luck. We stop at two exits in South Carolina and everything is booked. Apparently there was a softball tournament in the area and they had booked all of the rooms. After our 8th hotel, we finally find a room. And yes, you should be suspect of any hotel that has rooms available if all of the ones around it are booked. We were too tired to care. By the time we check in it is 1:30 am. We set up DD’s pack n play and conk out.

We woke up at 8:30 and that’s when I really saw the tragedy that was our hotel. I took a shower with the curtain open because I was afraid it would touch me. It was so gross! We quick pack up our stuff and as we walk outside we see the pool isn’t even filled! We couldn’t wait to leave that hotel behind.

We stopped for lunch in Jacksonville and while Tigger was playing in a McDonald’s playland we get a call from Mimi. The day before she couldn’t find one of our cats and then accidentally locked the cat in a spare bedroom overnight. Mimi happened to have had all of her clothes laid out on the bed in that room, ready to be packed. The cat peed all over the bed and her clothes. Mimi has expensive taste and some of her clothes were ruined even after washing them several times. We felt horrible! Mimi & Grandpa didn’t feel comfortable leaving the cats in the house, she thought they might pee in the room again since they had already marked it. They offer to pay to board the cats, Petsmat just needs our vet records saying the cats have their shots. Hmmm, the problems is they aren’t up on their shots. It has been a crazy year (as any first time parents know) and we kind of have neglected our cats shots since they are indoor pets. So we have to find someone to watch the cats at our house. A quick phone call to DH’s mom and she’s in- thankfully! Grandpa takes the cats back to our place and crisis averted.

The rest of our car ride to Sarasota was uneventful, thankfully. We arrived around 6 and my sis made us dinner and even let DD sleep in Roo’s crib (he bunked in a pack n play in their room). The next morning DBIL and sis even woke up with Tigger and let us sleep in. Awesome. We have time for a quick swim and then we head to Disney- FINALLY!

Just an hour and a half drive with darkening skies, but who cares, we’ll be in Disney by dinnertime! But would we need to build an ark to get there?

 

[GinnyBear's_mom]

So we had less than 50 miles to go on our ride from Sarasota to Disney and the skies opened up and it poured and poured. It rained so heavily that most cars were doing about 30 in a 65 mph zone. Eventually, I just couldn’t see anymore and we had to pull over. This storm will blow right over, we thought. If I had oars I would have paddled the car to Disney. We waited on the side of the road for about a half an hour. UGH!!! Finally the pouring sheets of rain slowed to a small waterfall from the sky and we continued on.

We met up with Mimi, Grandpa, DS, DBIL, Pooh and Roo at our 3 bedroom unit in Westgate. I had heard lots of bad things about the pressure their sales people put on you to buy their timeshares, but we never had anyone approach us.

We fed the kiddies and did what everyone with kids does on their first night in Disney- start off with a date night!! We had bribed Mimi and Grandpa to babysit (I’ll reveal their bribe later on) and my sis, DBIL, DH and I went to DHS…

Coming up… Date Night #1 (oh yeah, we had more than 1 ) at DHS

 

[GinnyBear's_mom]

Hmmmm, so our first day at Disney wasn't so much about the kids, but hey, they weren’t the ones who paid for the trip!

DH, sis, DBIL and I took a cab (Caesar’s Taxi) a little after 6:30 to DHS. We had an 8:20 ADR at Sci Fi and knew we would only be able to go on a ride or two. Before leaving a few of us indulged in some vodka and cranberry. By the time we got in it was 7 and we headed to RnRC (DH and I didn’t get the chance on our last trip in 2007 since we didn’t want to wait 2 hours to ride it). This time the wait was only 40 minutes- not too bad! But before we got in line we found a CM walking around selling Bud and Bud Light, so we each grabbed one to make the wait in line a little more bearable . Sis and I started talking about ToT and how sis hates free-fall rides but doesn’t mind ToT since it doesn’t do a straight free-fall, just a few stories at a time. I told her it was random and there was a possibility that it could do a free-fall from the top to the bottom. She disagreed. Anyway the line for RnRC moved pretty fast and I loved the ride. We realized we still had some time for ToT, which now only had a 20 minute wait.

Afterwards it was time for Sci Fi. I had heard mixed reviews about the place but I knew DH would really dig the theme since he is a horror movie buff.

Disclaimer: Pictures of food really gross me out – ever since I became pregnant almost 2 years ago I can’t stomach pics of food, (Red Lobster commercials cause me to change the channel) so you’ll have to get your fix on the food porn threads.

Anyway, we started with onion rings and spinach artichoke dip. The onion rings rocked!! The spinach dip was just OK, even TGI Friday’s makes a better one. DH and I split the ribs, while sis and DBIL split the Beef and Blue Salad. Both meals were good, but the beans that came with the ribs tasted completely undercooked. You can get the ribs with a side of vegetable something or other but our waiter Kevan strongly recommended that we stay away from it.

inside Sci Fi Dine In

DH and DBIL each had a few Blue Moons, I had a Lunar Landing (amaretto, peach schnapps and orange juice ) and sis had a Magical Star Cocktail (Organic Mango and Passion Fruit Liqueur, Parrot Bay Coconut Rum and Pineapple Juice). Both were awesome!! The Magical Star beat out the Lunar Landing just a smidge. And best of all DBIL and sis treated us to thank me for all of the planning I did for our Disney vacation- SCORE!!

my second Lunar Landing of the evening

We got an Oribiting Oreo (Oreo shake mixed with Godiva chocolate liqueur) to go and headed in the direction of Toy Story- the wait was 100 minutes! It was 9:30 and the park was closing at 10 so we headed to ToT again. Fantasmic was just letting out and sis had to take a bathroom break and I watched as the wait for ToT went from 13 minutes to 30 right before my eyes. UGH! We rode ToT knowing the lines would be closed for any more rides by the time we were done. And guess what?! The ride went as it usually does- up, down, up, down, then we went to the bottom the ghosts appear signaling the end of the ride and it waits a few seconds and all of a sudden we go shooting back up to the top again, down to the bottom – it was a great way to end the night. We walked back to the exit and took a few pics by the sorcerer’s hat. We called the cab after the pics and they arrived in the taxi area just as we did.

Coming up tomorrow- we finally let the toddlers experience Disney!!

 

[mickeystoontown]

What a great way to start a Disney vacation.....a little adult time without kids. Heck, what am I talking about? I've never had a moment alone at Disney without the kids. I guess I should have said, I envy you.

 

[GinnyBear's_mom]

What a great way to start a Disney vacation.....a little adult time without kids. Heck, what am I talking about? I've never had a moment alone at Disney without the kids. I guess I should have said, I envy you.

It was great to experience Disney on adult only time and kid time. DH and I are thinking about another trip with DD, but not the rest of our extended family. I guess we'll be back to the reality fo travelling with children- we were spoiled on this trip with all of our date nights!

 

[GinnyBear's_mom]

Our first full day in Disney was finally here! We were getting things started right with a visit to MK and an ADR at Crystal Palace at 8:00 with a 9:00 rope drop.

We left our hotel at 7:15 (with plenty of time to spare- or so I thought) and we were the first row of cars in the TTC parking lot. We were on the monorail by 7:30 and then began the first of many monorail problems that we would experience during our stay. We sat for 10 minutes randomly on the track after we pulled away from the TTC waiting for clearance. Then when we got to MK the doors of the monorail wouldn’t open! Don’t they understand? -The clock is ticking people!! Then we hear the welcome message to new passengers on the monorail. People were seriously freaking out that we were going to pull away from the station without letting us out! Finally the doors open and we run up the gates- we are missing precious time to take pics of the castle and empty Main Street before our ADR. Mimi’s ticket is giving an error message, 2,3,4 times and they finally let her through. We take a few pictures by the castle and then head over to CP.


me, DH and Tigger

so peaceful!

The food was great! Highlights included the vegetable frittata, smoked salmon, French toast and quinoa. Tigger has a few allergies (as do Pooh and Roo), so I asked one of the chefs what was in the quinoa (for those of you who never had it, quinoa is a grain) it was cooked with honey, apples, apple juice, brown sugar and raisins and was very yummy. Tigger had the quinoa (minus the raisins), yogurt, bananas and broken up cheese cubes for breakfast. The bananas were not out on the buffet and we mentioned it to our server and she brought some over immediately and let the kitchen know they needed to put some out. My sister asked the chefs what was in the potato casserole and there wasn’t anything Roo couldn’t have. Well, something must have snuck in there that Roo was allergic too because about 2 minutes after eating he started getting the tell-tale red rash around his mouth and he got super cranky and began spitting up. Roo spent the next 20 minutes on the bathroom with his mommy. Not a good start to the day for him. But we coulnd’t stay worried too long- The characters were on their way! They were all great with the kids. They tickled them and played peek a boo, it was a blast! And best of all DD wasn’t the least bit afraid of them!


DD and Pooh

At this point, my nephew had emerged from the bathroom and was not in a great mood and the characters put him over the edge. He flipped out when he saw Piglet. Poor Piglet! He covered his eyes and turned away, he felt so bad for making the baby cry.

Tigger meets Tigger!

My nephew started another round of spitting up and by this time he looked like he had poison ivy all over his mouth. By this point it was 9:00 and we had missed rope drop, but we were having fun (except for my youngest nephew and my sister of course) and didn’t mind. By the time we made it out of CP it was 9:30.

We had decided that today was going to be all about adventureland and Frontierland. The Magic Carpets of Aladdin was a 5 minute wait, but once we were loaded it was another 5 minute wait because someone had dropped their hat into the pool of water that surrounds the ride. We then went on Pirates of the Caribbean (another walk-on), I wasn't sure how Tigger would handle this ride since it is so dark, but she kept making her happy noises the whole time and I think she likes it more that Aladdin! Afterwards everyone but Grandpa and the kids went on Splash Mountain and BTMRR. They were both walk-ons. We made our way over to Country Bear Jamboree which the kids loved! My nephew Pooh (2 yrs) loved the bison head on the wall that talked. DD (1) clapped her hands whenever she heard the music. My nephew Roo used this time to get a well deserved nap and when the show was over, his rash was also gone.

Pooh, My sister and Mimi on Magic Carpets

Country Bear Jamboree

My sister and DBIL and Mimi decided to head back to the hotel, I think my sis was fried after the food allergy issue. It was about 11:15 and we decided to check out the Barbershop on Main Street to see if the wait would be too long for DD’s first haircut. We only had to wait about 25 minutes and we got to listen to the Dapper Dans which was a bonus. Our hairdresser worked her magic on our bouncing Tigger- she barely moved an inch during the haircut and of course she got covered in stickers and received her “First Haircut” Mickey ears and a certificate. We left the MK about 12pm to head back to the hotel for a nap.

Dapper Dans at the Barbershop

Resting on Grandpa on the monorail after a long day

 

[mickeystoontown]

Oh my goodness can it get any sweeter?!?! What beautiful memories and you're just now on your first full day at Disney.

 

[cmfranklyn]

So cute! Love the 9-18 month age! Can't wait for more!
Carole

 

[GinnyBear's_mom]

Oh my goodness can it get any sweeter?!?! What beautiful memories and you're just now on your first full day at Disney.

This first full day made all of the months of planning worthwhile . I had a difficult pregnancy and C-section last year and I when it got really bad I would visualize everything we would be doing in Disney to help make me feel better. It was unbelievable to finally get to experience all of the things that I had planned for so long

So cute! Love the 9-18 month age! Can't wait for more!

You should definitely get your fill of toddlers in this TR! Thanks for joining!

 

[that's nice]

Hi,
I just found your TR. You have some really great pics. I can't wait to hear more!

Tim

 

[GinnyBear's_mom]

Hi,
I just found your TR. You have some really great pics. I can't wait to hear more!

Tim

Thanks for reading along!

 

[jana616]

I'm in! We go 45 days from today, and your TR is getting me so excited! Can't wait to read more!

 

[GinnyBear's_mom]

On our second full day (Tuesday) we went to AK (our first of 2 days we would be spending there). We were there for rope drop and the morning crowds definitely seemed heavier than the ones at MK the day before, but not too many people seemed to be headed where we were. AK was a recommended park to visit that day according to touring plans.

We headed over to Asia and DBIL, DH, my sister and I got in line for EE while Grandpa and Mimi found a shadey spot for the kids.

We spoke with a CM regarding child swap procedures for the ride (Mimi and Grandpa said they wanted to ride too) and we were told to go through the ride, then go to the cashier in the EE store for a child swap pass. This really didn’t sound right to me, but we went through the line. While in line we were talking about child swap again and the family in front of us said they had received their child swap passes for EE the day before from the CM in front of the ride. We maybe had 10 people in line behind us so my sister decided to go back and clarify the issue with the CM. She said “excuse me” to the people in line behind us and went to see the CM, who apologized to her for the confusion and gave my sister child swap passes. My sister came back about 3 minutes later and said “excuse me” again to those in line and came to meet us in line. The family behind us started flipping out, saying that my sister should be thrown out of the park for cutting in line. My sis explained she was in line and came back and the husband is cursing at my sister (in front of his 2 elementary school children) that she is lying. The man turns to the people behind him (like they wanted to get dragged into this) and asks if my sister was in line and left. They agreed that my sis was there, then left and came back and told the man that he should probably calm down -now the man and his wife are screaming that the people behind them must be our friends. We just turned around and stopped listening to them. Every once in a while they would make a peep about how “line cutting should get you thrown out of the parks” and that we were lucky they weren’t going to tell on us. Fun start to the day.

The yeti was motionless (no swooping today) but the ride still rocked. After we rode, Grandpa chickened out so Mimi and my sister used the child swap passes. We (Mimi, DH, DBIL and I) then headed over to Kali River Rapids which was a walk-on. We got SOAKED! But we were dry by the time we finished walking through Maharajah Jungle Trek. Instead of pushing Tigger in her stroller all day, we decided to use our Chicco baby backpack so she could be up high and see everything. She loved it!! And when DH (who wore the backpack) was on the rides the backpack could "stand" so she didn't have to be taken in and out.

Mimi & Pooh walking through the Jungle Trek

We headed over to Dinoland (which seemed deserted) and waited just a few minutes for Triceratop Spin. My sister wanted to see the Nemo show, but since it is 40 minutes long and we were clsing in on lunchtime and naptime, we decided to forego it. Plus, we knew we were seeing the Festival of the Lion King on Thursday. It was getting pretty hot at this point (it was almost 11:30) so we decided to head back to the hotel. On our way out we were surprised to see DeVine- pictures don't do her justice!!

The kids spent the rest of the day napping and then in the hotel pool. The adults needed lots of rest since Wednesday was going to be spent drinking around the world in EPCOT!

 

[GinnyBear's_mom]

The original plan for Wednesday, our only EPCOT day was for DH, DBIL, my sister and I to drink around the world from 11 until dinner while Mimi and Grandpa watched the kids (and yes, the bribe we gave them really was worth the amount of babysitting they did- stay tuned for Thursday to find out what it was!). We chose to drink during the day because we had 8:15am ADRs at Tusker House the next day and didn’t want to be fighting off a hangover . I had made ADRs for the Biergarten at 12:05 and Le Cellier at 4:20. The two meals were scheduled closer together than I would have liked, but I figured with all of the drinking we would be starving. At around 8am my sister tells me she would rather wait until the evening to go to EPCOT which bummed me and DH out since we had really been looking forward to lunch at the Biergarten and I was looking forward to the mouse/moose at Le Cellier.

Mimi and Grandpa then decided to join us in the morning at EPCOT and then we would return after lunch and go back in the evening with DBIL and my sister. I cancelled my Le Cellier ADRs (it nearly killed me to do it) and we were on our way to Future World. We got there about 9:15 and saw some interesting skywriting…

We quick got in line for Soarin’ which was posted as a 40 minute wait and we maybe waited about 20 minutes. I love the pics that they project on the screens while you are waiting in line. I’m thinking of taking the trees from the one pic to use in a mural in our next baby’s room (ETA: about 2 years).

Close-up on the trees for our future baby's room

A few more scenes from Soarin'

Grandpa LOVED this ride, and wanted to hop right back in line but we wanted to have enough time to explore the World Showcase before our ADR. Since DH loves aquariums and the ride was a walk-on, we headed over to Nemo- the ride was stopped briefly in a very dark spot and a child in the clamshell next to us was getting very upset at being in the dark for so long. After about 5 minutes we got going again and after the ride we explored the aquarium for a bit.

Dory and Nemo!

By this time it was 11 so we headed over to the World Showcase.


EPCOT was absolutely dead that morning, so we had a nice leisurely stroll in and out of the shops. In England’s toy store they had my absolute favorite candy bar- a Crunchie!! For those of you who haven’t had one it is honeycomb wrapped in chocolate. It is very hard to find them where I live- I fell in love with them during my spring break in London my freshman year in college. I never could wake up early enough to make breakfast at our hotel before our tours of the city began, so I would grab a Crunchie candy bar from a vending machine in the hotel lobby. At the toy store it cost about $2.50, but I probably would have paid $5 for it! They also had a bunch of Thomas the Tank Engine accessories on clearance – about 30 to 50% off regular price. The only ones I can remember seeing were the water tower and a turntable type gizmo for the tracks.

It was about 11:30 in this pic and England was deserted

While in Germany we saw a CM pruning the bushes of the miniature railroad town. He has to clip them all with scissors!!! It looked like back-breaking work, but if course he said (in a thick German accent) that he didn’t mind the work. We went to the Biergarten at 11:45 and checked in and received one of those blinky “your table is ready” alert thingys and we explored the rest of Germany. The blinky worked throughout all of Germany. We saw crazy expensive cuckoo clocks (the large ones in the pic cost $1800!).

Our blinky thing went off while we were in the German Christmas store and we were introduced to a couple with 2 elementary school children. They were our table mates and we were the first ones seated that day! Before seating they ask if you can climb steps since there is tiered seating so all can see the band. Nils was our waiter and he said he enjoyed the food, he was from Northern Germany and this was mainly food from Southern Germany so it wasn’t what he was used to eating. DH had the beer flight, Grandpa had 16 oz becks which was in a specific type of beer glass that made it looked like WAY more than 16oz. We really enjoyed the pork shank gratin- awesome, and the jaegersauce over the pork veinerschnitzel. The spaetzel was drier than others that I have had in German restaurants. Red cabbage was very good as was potato leek soup. We stayed an extra 15 minutes or so after we had finished eating to see the Oompah Band and they were entertaining. The desserts were OK, not as good as the main course. We all loved our meal.

DH said this was his favorite meal of the trip

We headed back to the hotel so we could rest up a bit before heading back to EPCOT to drink around the world that evening .

 

[GinnyBear's_mom]

I'm in! We go 45 days from today, and your TR is getting me so excited! Can't wait to read more!

Yay! Thanks for joining me on my TR

 

[that's nice]

We spoke with a CM regarding child swap procedures for the ride (Mimi and Grandpa said they wanted to ride too) and we were told to go through the ride, then go to the cashier in the EE store for a child swap pass. This really didn’t sound right to me, but we went through the line. While in line we were talking about child swap again and the family in front of us said they had received their child swap passes for EE the day before from the CM in front of the ride. We maybe had 10 people in line behind us so my sister decided to go back and clarify the issue with the CM. She said “excuse me” to the people in line behind us and went to see the CM, who apologized to her for the confusion and gave my sister child swap passes. My sister came back about 3 minutes later and said “excuse me” again to those in line and came to meet us in line. The family behind us started flipping out, saying that my sister should be thrown out of the park for cutting in line. My sis explained she was in line and came back and the husband is cursing at my sister (in front of his 2 elementary school children) that she is lying. The man turns to the people behind him (like they wanted to get dragged into this) and asks if my sister was in line and left. They agreed that my sis was there, then left and came back and told the man that he should probably calm down -now the man and his wife are screaming that the people behind them must be our friends. We just turned around and stopped listening to them. Every once in a while they would make a peep about how “line cutting should get you thrown out of the parks” and that we were lucky they weren’t going to tell on us. Fun start to the day.

You gotta love ppl like this. Didn't they see your sister pass them on the way back out? These ppl need to just chill out. Nice example cursing in front of his young kids. Thats where you just have to keep smiling and just ignore them!!!!

 

[GinnyBear's_mom]

Thats where you just have to keep smiling and just ignore them!!!!

I think sometimes people like this WANT to argue! Maybe they are used to having stress at work and go through withdrawl on vacation