Trip to Disney with 18 month old - Priceless...Well...

[KelleyD]

Not completely priceless. There was a pretty decent price tag attached but you know what I mean!

I returned on Monday and did a short dining review but am so missing our trip I thought I would post some thought over here.

You know what, heck with it, I will do a day by day report and you can all read what you would like!

Me, DH and DS (18 months)

My son like to watch playhouse disney, but his favorite on ther eis the wiggles. He has watched a bit of the rest but really only pays attention to them when there is music on.

Anyway point being I wasn't expecting him to "get" what was going on but we really wanted a vacation and I was looking forward to this. About a week before we left, I said hey bud, we are going to go to Disney. I must have said it in a really excited voice because he returned with Didney!

So from then on when we would say where are we going he would come out with Didney!

He is also a big plane fan - he can spot those things in the sky a mile away. So he knew he was getting to didney on the plane.

We were not on the free dining, but did go during that time and paid for the dxdp. I thought it would be too much but like the idea of the sit down lunches, hurband said go for it. So we did.

Departure - 9/17

My mom graciously said she would drive us to the airport at 4:30am. Wonderful lady. We loaded the car and the last thing to do was load my sleeping son. Hoping he would stay asleep (hah) he woke as soon as he was placed in his car and started clapping. He was so excited! It may have been excitement to see nana, but I think it was because of Didney!

Pretty uneventful trip and when we got off the plane my son exclaimed didney! Our first "ride" was the tram to the other terminal. Magical express counter was empty, we walked the red carpet to our bu, hopped right on and 2 minutes later away we go to the Wilderness Lodge.

 

[Bashful in TN]

We are going on a Disney Cruise next June and will spend a few days at WDW also. Our son will be 17 months then so I'm interested to see how your son did.

 

[KelleyD]

I'm interested to see how your son did.

He did really well. Not so much at meal times though...they could be trying. I am sure you will have a great time!

 

[KelleyD]

So we pull up to the WL and my husband and I look at eachother...looks like the Great Wolf Lodge. Seriously aside from the slides its very similar!

We get off the bus and stroll on inside. Very nice lobby. Very grand. I casually stroll over to the check-in - with no line - and well...check in. I corss my fingers and say is the room ready? Ummm no. Crud.

I know I know check in isnt until 3 but a girl can wish cant she?? I had requested a king and that was what I was going to get..yay...or so I thought.

I walked over to the Whispering Canyon arranged for an earlier lunch at 11:30. The we walked outside to see the sights. Holy cow its hot. I had checked my bags with the valet and didn't feel like going to get them to get my shorts out. My son saw a duck and bunny right away. He wanted to go right in the pool...except I had no idea where i packed my bathing suit.

After waiting for what seemed like forever and rethinking the whole first flight out thing we had lunch. I called after lunch, crossing my fingers for our room and yes!!! room 1023 was ready for us. Secretly wishing that there were 10 floors in the place (knowing that 7 was concierge) and wishing for that amazing upgrade, we were told where to find our 1st floor room - over by the roaring forks...yay.

I will admit I was not to thrilled at first. We didnt have a view of anything excpet the bushes in front of the pool. There was a connecting door into the next room - hate those if I dont need them. It seemd like it was going to be a very loud hallway. The stupid fan kept turning on whenever we walked by the bathroom. I regretted my request of a king. Apparently a majority of the kings are on the first floor?

My son took a nap, while I dealt with the miserable task of searching for our crib rental. Called for my bags and box. Told ok we will be right up. Heres the kicker - I had to unplug the phone because my son kept playing with it.

1/2 hour later no bags...plug phone back in i have a message. Its the bellman they cant bring my bags to me if i am not in the room. Call them again I am in the room - phone is unplugged. Oh ok they say. Really?? You say you will be right up then hang up just to call and check if I am still there??? What are we 10??? Bring the bags up I said I would be here.

Bellman brought my bag up from the valet - with no crib - or UPS box that the kid who answered the phone said i would have. Bellman looked at me like I was crazy...he said, "I guess if you want me to go look I can".

Forget it, I will do it myself. Go to the front desk - get my ups package, go to the bell desk, they look at me like I am crazy. Then someone says oh they put them with the electric scooters - he goes to look - nope not there.

OK go back to room and call rental company. Leave message and try to take a nap. Get a call back, crib is in luggage room (which I told bell man/lady) was delivered yesterday. Oh for petes sake people!!

Go downstairs to bell services. Oh you need to go outside to the valet people. Fine. Go there. They bring me into the luggage area - yep thats it. OK we will load it on a cart and have the bellman come and get it. Great! Finally.

Get up to my room - yep heres the call. This is bell services - what do you need? Really??? Again??? I need the crib and mattress - its already pre loaded on a cart. Oh ok - no luggage? No.

Whew - finally it was all done! But I needed a nap after all of that but it was time to get dressed and ready for our first night in MK. Where the real fun begins!!

 

[KelleyD]

So we get ready and head out the door. We head out the back door which is very close to the boat launch. Very nice. Liking this room a little better.

Nice boat ride and we are off. Go through bag check and then the most idiotic moronic moment of my life!!!

I was just high on the magic i guess, i dont know. I proceed to try to go through the turnstile with my stroller. Needless to say it didnt work.
It was just one of those moments...

Mush embarrasment later, we are through and on Main Street. Son is in stroller just taking it all in. I spot a photopass photog and we take our first pictures, compete with everyone else in the world as our background.

SO now that we are here, what do we do?? I spent so much time planning the dining I didn't plan anything in the parks. HUh. ok well lets just walk. And as my husband and I are standing there from the stroller comes this very loud "POOOOH!"

So I look up and not to far away is Poohs honeypot. OK kiddo ride it is. As we are on line ds sees that Pooh is actually there - with a long line. So all we then hear is Pooh Pooh Pooh. My husband and I look at eachother - we had no idea he even liked pooh, or knew who he was???

So after the ride - tiggers bouncing scared him a little, we had to go to dinner at CRT. During dinner there were a few pooh's from the boy so I said after dinner if pooh is still there we will go. He now added touch into his comments so it was pooh touch.

Out we went and yay pooh was still there...along with a long line. So I waited while DH took son to keep him occupied. Finally our turn to see pooh...and ehhhhh and cringing came from my boy. Ok so mom high fived pooh and we bypassed the rest of the guys. As soon as we left...pooh. pooh. Gotta love it!!

We then went on Small World. Caught the fireworks and left for the room. Great first day!

 

[Bashful in TN]

Finally our turn to see pooh...and ehhhhh and cringing came from my boy. Ok so mom high fived pooh and we bypassed the rest of the guys. As soon as we left...pooh. pooh. Gotta love it!!

I had to laugh when I read this. I keep imagining the same thing happening to us. Did your son ever warm up to the characters?

 

[hmontgomry]

Love it! I can't wait to read more. We are taking our 22 month old twins and I know we will all have the same crying at the characters. They love Pooh, but will not like to be too close I'm sure!

 

[julezdisney]

Very cute story about Pooh. I thought DD wouldn't do well at 2 w/characters and she really surprised me. The pix of her hugging everybody so tight are priceless. Can't wait to hear the rest of your trip!

 

[KelleyD]

Did your son ever warm up to the characters?

C'mon now thats like reading the last page of the story!! You will have to wait and see...

Love it! I can't wait to read more. We are taking our 22 month old twins and I know we will all have the same crying at the characters. They love Pooh, but will not like to be too close I'm sure!

It gets better I promise! And how much fin your trip will be!

The pix of her hugging everybody so tight are priceless.

Oh how cute...ok slight spoiler - this didn't happen on our trip...maybe next time?

And on with the story...

 

[KelleyD]

This day was our full day in MK. Inspired by the pooh episode yesterday, I was thrilled to tell the boy we would be having breakfast with pooh! Thats pretty much all he talked about on the boat ride over...I did a short review of dining on the dining board...

OK. So jungle cruise first. Pretty good although he paid way more attention to the cruise driver as opposed to the animals. She was pretty loud and chatty so he was kind of mesmerized I think.

So I forgot to mention while watching the fireworks the night before my son started clapping everytime he thought they were over. He was laying back in his stroller and would sit up and clap at a pause. Very Cute.

And something he continued with the end of every ride. I loved it. Next was Pirates - and he wasn't scared, which was all I cared about. Then on to the Tiki Room. I had never seen this. It was cute, funny and loud which made it very surprising when my son fell asleep during it!! Didn't bother to wake up at the finale either!

So with sleeping son in stroller we headed to main street so i could buy socks - of course I had chosen to wear the wrong shoes and a blister was starting...and we got our pressed penny book - my husband was obsessed with those and soon my son was also. Many a call to mama for money and many tears over miney (money) when it wasn't handed over.

Off to Toontown(?) for a frozen lemonade - because I forgot to bring my snack list and none of the workers knew where to get one except for there. But on the way son wakes up and we are in front of the speedway. Hop on a car real quick - son barely awake don't know if he really enjoyed this or not. But he really loves cars and there was no crying so I think all was well.

Off to Buzz and a short wait and away we go. Son didn't say much but did clap when it was over. Finally time to get the lemonades and we decided to pick up the train for a ride to frontierland where we would be having lunch at Liberty Tree.

Apparently the boy enjoys a frozen lemonade and took over my husbands on the train ride. Nice relaxing ride, son liked being on the choo choo and before you know it we are walking through a ton of people to get to LTT. While we wait all I hear is "duck! duck! touch duck!"

Ok people - we all know where this is going. Promised him that if after lunch was over if duck was still there we would touch. (this is donald by the way...not a random duck walking around). Of course donald was there so we waited on line. Get up to touch donald and....ehhh ehhh. crud! Ok how about mama high fives donald?? Ahhhh says son (translation. he doesn't say yes. He says ahhhh) So I high 5 we walk away and Duck! Touch! is coming out again. Ahhhhh....

We decide to leave, get some rest at the hotel and get ready for dinner.

After dinner we head back to MK and I don't think we went on any rides. I think we just saw spectromagic. Which he loved! Kept his attention the whole time! We left after that...everyone nice and tired.

 

[KelleyD]

OK so remember that whole thing about not planning the parks? This may have been a mistake...

Anyway off we go to Epcot. My plan was to rush over to soarin, get us fastpasses then head over to nemo. So i rush over to soarin, as my guys were heading to nemo and i get my fast passess and run - ok slight jog - back over to nemo - to see my husband sitting on the wall.

He's asleep isn't he?
Yep

Oh my...should have been my first clue to the coming down with something...

So i head back to Soarin, ride it. Huh...it was fun by I knew my husband wouldn't think it was great...head back to nemo and wait. And listed to all the people saying "mine, mine mine"...if you have been to the nemo ride you know exactly what i am talking about. If you haven't been there yet, you will see....

SO son finally wakes up and into nemo we go. It was cute, applause at the end and then up to the aquarium. That was neat, but I was done. Husband wanted to go see the crush movie thing. Now I saw this on the samantha brown show and I could not stand the way that turtle talked...ummm nah hon I don't really feel like waiting for it...

Off to Figment. That was fun, applause again. Then it was time for a very miserable lunch. After lunch it was apparent the boy needed to head back and so we did. I am pretty sure he fell asleep right away...

Dinner and then....oh yeah dinner was a bust...nose started running - we were in epcot again. MK was closed for the halloween party. This is where I noticed the large crowd. I guess there really is no other place to be on party night. So after dinner and an ice pop, husband wanted a frozen lemonade and i wanted the school bread from the bakery. SO he stood on line for his lemonade and i hiked it all the way to Norway - with the baby - through crowds of people...

Dang margarita line is long, man could have used that! Get to Norway, line at the bakery isn't too long...but why is it taking long?? C'mon people sandwiches really? Its late, its a bakery c'mon! Son starts flipping out, i finally get done, put him back in the stroller and start my way back to our meeting point.

It is at this point I should tell you I am a fast walker. Honestly, I cannot help it. I cannot mosey...I cannot wander. Weather I have someplace to be or not, I walk with a purpose...fast. But I am preety much the only person in Epcot that night walking with a purpose...and of course the handicap scooter in front of me comes to a complete stop.

Oh jeez I say as I swerve to the left and continue on...I hear him mutter something about not following so close...hey buddy if i was taht close i would have rode on the back of the thing...

But really its not just the scooters...its the people who just completely stop in the the middle of the walkway...just stop. Hey folks would you stop your car in the middle of the road to think about where you want to go next???

OK as you might tell I was getting a tad cranky at that point...get to the meeting spot and ummm babe?? where are you. I proceed to tell my son then in 2 mins. we are leaving his dad behind...

So along comes husband - he had just gotten his lemonade. In fact when i looked at the receipts - I had mine before he had his...yikes!

So off we go another day complete!

 

[KelleyD]

Well my son woke up a few times in the night, crying, flailing about. Felt bad for the people next to us. We did everything we could to calm him down and get him back to sleep. Rough night.

Asked husband if he wanted to cancel breakfast. But today was breakfast with Jo Jo and son was saying Jo Jo so we went.

I know this isn't a dining report, but today was our breakthru! We were waiting for our table and son kept saying Jo JO, Jo Jo. SO in we go and guess who is right near our table?? Jo Jo!!!! Yes I know you all guessed but it was kind of easy.

So of course no camera ready but so was thrilled! And you know what??? As I was holding him he wanted to touch - her nose. So he polked her nose - Yes he touched her! Gave her a high five and basically just loved being near her. Oh what a happy moment!!

So all he talked about was jo jo. he saw goliath, poked his nose and gave him a high 5. So now we were cool with the characters!

Left breakfast and headed for the Toy Story fast passes. Crud already for return time of 1-2. Jeez that was quick. Then we went over to the playhouse disney show. Ok - complaint coming.

SO heres the deal. people start lining up way early for this. So we did to. You really, really want the front for this show. Anyway while we are waiting there Jo Jo and Goliath walk by. So they go stand on the corner for a greet - and no one was on line. So I debated, but my son was still talking about jo jo...so we left my husband in line and went to see jo jo. Of course it took a little longer then i would have liked because those darn autograph books take so long and then they started letting people in o the show. SO a few quick nose pokes and high fives and we were heading into the show.

OK. SO you have to sit on the floor for the show. So small kids in the back will have a hard time seeing. Then after waiting in that horrible heat for so long, you are finally sitting and they announce - if you can see any green flooring then you need to move in and squeeze together!

Ugggg c'mon people. really??? We are all seaty as it is I am not going to touch the person next to me! SO the show starts and the puppets come from the ground - making it very difficult to see if there is an adult in front of you. Half way through, son starts waving bye-bye. This means he is done. SO i tell husband lets go. He says no he is enjoying it. Son starts saying bye bye again. So i look at husband and say - lets go.

See when my son is done he says bye bye and wants to leave. its that simple. If you wait to long he will start getting upset and antsy. In this situation I did not mind leaving so we left...then the meltdown. Son was feeling terrible, teeth were bothering him, nose was bothering him.

So i got son some apple juice and water and tossed it into a bottle and he sat in his stroller. We walked around and he fell asleep.

After he woke up, he was feeling maybe a little better so we went on the great movie ride, big applause at the end from son. Then on to Toy Story. That was a fun ride. Would have been nice to get 2 times on that. After that we headed out of the park and went swimming in the pool.

Dinner tonight was with pooh which was fun. We saw pooh right away and there was no ehhh at all. nose pokes, high fives it was fun. When son was done eating I let him out of his high chair and he took off running! I chased after him and he was yelling Tigga, Tigga, Tigga!! Hah so funny!! Tigger was on a break, but when he came out he saw son and walked toward him, son ran behind me. Hah so much for bravery!

Left dinner and while everyone was getting ready for spectromagic, we rode pirates twice in a row! Second time was in the front row with no one else in the boat!! What a great view!

We left soon after. What a great night.

 

[Bashful in TN]

Sorry I just now got a chance to catch up with your trip report. I'm so glad your son finally warmed up to the charcters. I'm hoping for the same in June.