Turns out he wasn't too young - Oct-Nov 2016 9-day vacation to WDW

[imBryan]

I had never intended to write any sort of report on my trip last year, but seeing everyone else's reports inspired me to give it a shot. We have extensive documentation of the trip with my photos and my father-in-law's photos combined, and I have recently worked on a family video of the trip, so I'm still very familiar with all the details of the trip.

We are lucky enough to have parents who are DVC members, and because of my son's birth in 2014, vacation club points hadn't been used in over 2 years. This allowed us to bring the whole extended family along for a stay at the Boardwalk. For the purposes of this trip report, I may not talk a whole lot about other members of the family, as I don't think they all would all be comfortable with me sharing their vacations on the forum. Mostly we met up with them for dinners, back in the hotel, and in the pool. In the parks we all did our own thing most of the time, as it's too hard to coordinate rides with a million people at once.

Anyway, most of this trip report will be myself, my wife Elissa, and our son Owen who had just turned 2 years old. There may be some guest appearances by my wife's parents in the pictures.

We planned for this trip practically since my son was born, so we were very mentally prepared for it. This was my 9th trip to WDW, and probably Elissa's 20th. One notable planning detail was that we did not want to deal with stroller parking, so we splurged on a GB Pockit stroller. It folds as small as a purse, so I could take it on all of the rides except the coaster. The second notable planning detail is that we agreed to go at Owen's pace and take naps every day, no matter how much time we "wasted" not being in the parks. This also meant that most days we went to one park in the morning and a different park in the afternoon. There had been some question in our heads about if our son would be old enough to enjoy the parks, but he had the time of his life. He was very well-behaved, and still talks about the trip, especially when he sees photos.

Quick Links

October 29 - Airport, Boardwalk, Disney Springs
October 30 - Magic Kingdom & Epcot
October 31 - Halloween in Hollywood Studios, Epcot, and California Grill
November 1 - Boardwalk Pool, Animal Kingdom, and Tiffins
November 2 - Animal Kingdom, Epcot, Frozen Ever After
November 3 - Ohana, Epcot, Magic Kingdom
November 4 - Animal Kingdom and Epcot again
November 5 - Last park day - Magic Kingdom and Hollywood Studios again.
November 6 - Going home

 

[ChiefM]

We have a lot in common. I will have an almost 2 year old son when we go in September and I have been planning this trip since before he was born. We were initially suppose to do our trip when I retired but it was pushed back when we found out we were expecting. I am glad to hear your trip turned out great and I can't wait to take my little man. Looking forward to your trip report.

 

[imBryan]

Day 1 - October 29 - Airport, Boardwalk, Disney Springs

We had an early flight - don't remember how early, but it was still dark out when we left. We booked a taxi and had written that we needed a car seat. The taxi showed up on time, but FORGOT to bring a car seat. We had to choose between telling him to go home or putting one of our car seats in his car. He promised if we used our own car seat that he would return it to us when we got back. We got his details, put our car seat in his car, and off we went. I guess I'll let you all wait until the last day to find out if we got the seat back.

At the airport, Owen amused himself by pushing his stroller all around. This amusement lasted until the plane was to board. He was in a good mood.

We have a fairly short plane ride from NJ to Orlando, so one movie was all it took to get him through the flight. We don't normally let him watch anything while we're out, so it was a special treat for him. It's funny, though, he LOVES the music in Disney films, but he was totally okay to not wear headphones and just watch the screen with no sound. This is a kid who literally breaks out singing "Let's go fly a kite!", so I can't understand why he was okay with this, but he wasn't crying, so no need to question it too much.

I didn't take pictures of the Magical Express from Orlando or anything of that sort, mostly because I had my hands full with Owen, but we arrived at the Boardwalk and boy did it feel good to be back after over two years away! Owen had never stayed away from home before, so the entire concept was new to him.

After a rest in the hotel, it was off to Disney Springs. Owen may not look it, but he was ecstatic to be on the bus. He was having a tantrum when we wouldn't let him on the first bus that came. This became one of the major problems managing him: he wanted to get on any and every bus immediately. The concept of waiting for the right bus didn't sink in. Honestly, though, I think many of us are having a tantrum in our minds when the bus we want won't come.

In Disney Springs, we caught some live entertainment outside Raglan Road as we waited for people to arrive for dinner. We ate at Paradiso 37. It was alright. I know that Paradiso sometimes has awesome live music, but we were too early for that this time, I suspect.

He got a Mickey car in Disney Springs, which you can see him grasping here. This kid loves to jump, so of course he made every attempt to jump on the bed. He slept on the big bed with his mommy and some bedrails provided by the hotel. I slept on a pull-out bed. This is a studio. Honestly, I slept very well on the pull-out, despite it being a slab of wood with foam on it. I guess I like firm mattresses. Sleep on this trip came to us all very easily.​

 

[imBryan]

We have a lot in common. I will have an almost 2 year old son when we go in September and I have been planning this trip since before he was born. We were initially suppose to do our trip when I retired but it was pushed back when we found out we were expecting. I am glad to hear your trip turned out great and I can't wait to take my little man. Looking forward to your trip report.

Hope it goes well for you, too! I just added this to my original message that one of the major things we did to keep things running smoothly was retreating to the hotel in the afternoon to let him nap. In theory this allowed us to do less in the parks, but it kept him in a good mood. However, our son is also not much for sleeping in public. I know plenty of kids will just nap in their stroller, so it depends on your son. In any case, definitely go at his pace if you can!

 

[TXMNie]

Following along! We stayed at BWV for our honeymoon and loved it! Looking forward to reading more

 

[imBryan]

Day 2 - October 30 - Magic Kingdom & Epcot

As we walked up Main Street, he said "Wow" a whole lot. The face you see in this picture is his interested face. It's just hard to get a 2 year old to smile for every picture. That's Nemo he's chewing on.

First up was Jouney of the Little Mermaid. He loves The Little Mermaid, so he was definitely into this one. We did it twice on this trip! This is an excellent ride type for little ones.

Enchanted Tales was cool as always. They do such a good job making it feel like you're really meeting Belle. I don't think 2 is quite old enough to participate, but he was happy to just observe.

Small World was a big hit too, I think we did this twice on the trip as well. Once in a while he starts singing the song randomly.

We had to get a picture with Mary Poppins considering she was who kept him happy on the plane! I was surprised to see her in the Magic Kingdom since she has that spot in Epcot, but the line here was pretty short, and I think it was a better backdrop.

He liked the carousel so much that it became a problem every time we passed by it. We had headed back this way to meet up with one of his cousins, but that meeting wound up being very brief as they had some other plans.

We went over to Epcot for a nice walk back to the hotel to rest (making use of that Park Hopper!) We danced to the Irish music in the UK section on the way. Notice that he acquired a Simba in MK.

After a long nap, we took it easy and hung out around the resort. We headed over to the Beach Club to meet up with some family at Beaches and Cream. He enjoyed the arcade next door while we waited for a table. That concludes day 2!​

 

[macraven]

Checking in!

 

[imBryan]

Day 3 - October 31 - Halloween in Hollywood Studios, Epcot, and California Grill

Sometimes he wanted to be carried, so Elissa wore him. We were off to Hollywood Studios! Since we were staying at the Boardwalk we could just walk there. It was Halloween, so we had a costume for Owen, but I'll address that later.

Meeting Olaf was a must -we all love Frozen. Don't worry, we will see the sing-along later in the trip.

For the first time we thought it would be appropriate to check out the Disney Junior show. Ironically, this was one of Owen's least favorite attractions, though I should say that he almost exclusively watches movies, and only a couple times per week. He had seen Mickey and the gang in books and briefly at other kids' houses though. But that's fine. At least we had an excuse to see what this was all about. When you've been to the parks as often as we have, there isn't much you haven't done. One thing I don't get about this show in general is why the characters aren't raised higher up. There were plenty of times where I couldn't see whichever character was supposed to be talking, and I'm obviously about 10x as large as a child. I know that the actors underneath don't want to be seen, but I think they could have raised the characters a foot higher without being visible to the kids.

Afterwards was Owen's first sighting of a storm trooper in any form. He's definitely never seen Star Wars. The troopers are so hilarious. I forget what they said to us exactly, but something along the lines of that we could move along. We met with one of his cousins after this, and saw the Little Mermaid show together. I have no pictures of that. After a lot of just looking around the park with Owen, we went back to the hotel for another nap. Then on to Epcot.

Next stop: The Living Seas where we found Nemo and Dory. We were going to have dinner at the California Grill at the Contemporary later that night, so after the nap we decided to hang out in Future World so we'd be able to hop on a monorail when we were done. The Living Seas seemed like the best thing to show a 2 year old.

This one is from Elissa's dad's camera. I'm 99% sure this is the monorail ride to the Contemporary. Owen was SO eager to ride this thing.

We really enjoy the California Grill. There's such a huge variety of food, and the view can't be beat. It's probably better to come for the fireworks, but that would be too late for Owen. We'd done that on a previous trip anyway.

At this point you may have been wondering how we weren't dressed up for Halloween. Well even though Owen was obsessed with his Buzz Lightyear costume, and wanted to put it on, once he got it on he always found it to be extremely uncomfortable. Bummer. As for us, well I can't even remember what the rules are about adults dressing up, but our goal on the trip was just to survive taking a small child. Being there on Halloween was just a coincidence, really.

Back at the Boardwalk, we did take this photo to commemorate the holiday before going to bed.​

 

[imBryan]

Following along! We stayed at BWV for our honeymoon and loved it! Looking forward to reading more

Awesome, how was it? I proposed at the Boardwalk in 2008 and we also stayed there on our honeymoon in 2010. We do love it and it's also the home hotel for the DVC points that my in-laws get, and are kind enough to share with the family. I consider myself very lucky indeed.

 

[imBryan]

Day 4 - November 1 - Boardwalk Pool, Animal Kingdom, and Tiffins

We started off the day spending time with family in the pool. There were four of his cousins also present (not pictured), so it was a good bonding experience with family he never met before. I think that we took a nap after the pool. Owen napped so easily because most of what he was doing was a new experience for him.

Next up: Animal Kingdom. The first thing we did was the safari. I've done this so many times that I barely took any pictures of the animals. We had fun naming the animals with Owen.

We had reservations for an early dinner at Tiffins, which didn't exist the last time we had been here. Outside of the restaurant, there was a meet with Tarzan going on. This is the first time we'd seen Tarzan anywhere!

Owen tried feeding regurgitated food to Elissa. LOL

He was a little restless here, but we have worked really hard to get him used to having sit-down dinners with us, and most of the time it's paid off. The food? It was fancy. Not so good if you just want a burger and fries. Pretty great if you want to try something different.

I don't recall Owen being all that into Mickey and Minnie prior to this trip, but here is the moment that changed all that. They made a huge impression on him. We got in line for this M&G just to get a nice photo with Elissa's parents and her aunt, but it was life-altering for Owen. haha.

Next up: the kiddie playground. This thing also made a huge impression on Owen. We will be back here again later in the trip. He still jumps in excitement if you show him pictures of that playground.

The Triceratop Spin became another obsession for Owen. I would say that Animal Kingdom was his favorite park, despite the fact that he could only go on a couple rides. In fact, we wound up coming back the next day. Yep, this is all I have for day 4! I assume we went back to the hotel and relaxed after this. We were most certainly taking this trip at Owen's pace, but that's exactly what we expected, and it was keeping him happy and engaged.​

 

[macraven]

Your little is a cutie !!

Looking at the pics before I'm reading the post

Looks like you all had fun

 

[imBryan]

Your little is a cutie !!

Looking at the pics before I'm reading the post

Looks like you all had fun

Thanks! We did have a great time, and I can hardly wait to take Owen on more trips to Disney.

 

[imBryan]

Day 5 - November 2 - Animal Kingdom, Epcot, Frozen Ever After

Owen loved the Animal Kingdom so much that we decided to head back there on day 5. His enjoyment only continued

We caught two showings of this drum performance, and he was dancing the whole time. When I was younger and childless, I never gave this a second thought. It was just about finding a way around to get to the rest of the park. Suddenly this is a major highlight, and I understand the appeal when I see how happy it can make a kid.

As if there weren't enough trip highlights already for Owen, he also got to ride the train to Rafiki's...

where we also met Rafiki!

This is yet another thing I never saw the appeal of before which suddenly became a big deal when you have a kid in tow: petting the goats.

A better shot of the train. Owen was dying to get back on. This has to be the coolest thing for a toddler.

After a return trip to the hotel for a much-needed nap, it was back to Epcot for our fastpasses on Frozen Ever After. This is a screencap from the end of the line. Owen was crying because he saw the boat, and he wanted to get on immediately. Notice the zebra that he got in the Animal Kingdom.

We think this picture is absolutely hilarious, and Elissa uses it as her wallpaper on her computer. Don't worry about Owen, he just wasn't ready for the big drop. He loved this ride, and so did we. She's wearing her Maelstrom shirt because she also loved the old ride, but we agree that they did something amazing with this. The animatronics are perfect. It was also a bit more substantial than I thought it would be. They crammed a lot of Frozen goodness in with the space they had to work with.

A picture with the troll in the Norway gift shop has become a family tradition.

We had dinner with everyone at Morocco. We often end up eating here on trips because it's just so easy to get seated. I'm not sure why it's not more popular because the food is perfectly good, and the dancer is really good with the kids.

We had a big party with all the kids back at the hotel, but since I'm not posting all of their pictures, that will be all for this day's report.​

 

[macraven]

More great pics of "our boy"
Looking cute as a button

He looks so happy and interested in everything

Dad and mom look like they are having a blast also!

 

[TXMNie]

Awesome, how was it? I proposed at the Boardwalk in 2008 and we also stayed there on our honeymoon in 2010. We do love it and it's also the home hotel for the DVC points that my in-laws get, and are kind enough to share with the family. I consider myself very lucky indeed.

We really liked it! Loved being able to walk to Epcot and HS. We actually talked about how we wished we had a day without a park ticket so we could just explore and enjoy the resort at our leisure. Nice! My mom's DVC home resort is Wilderness Lodge (or is it Boulder Ridge now? Haha). We were lucky enough for her to let us use her points for our honeymoon which saved us a ton on out of pocket costs. It's nice to have family in the DVC, huh? We are very thankful!

He was a little restless here, but we have worked really hard to get him used to having sit-down dinners with us, and most of the time it's paid off. The food? It was fancy. Not so good if you just want a burger and fries. Pretty great if you want to try something different.

This is good to hear as a couple that does not have children yet but enjoys eating out and will probably have kiddos some point in the future! Glad to know sit down dining and kiddos can coexist!

The pure joy on Owen's face is priceless!

Hahaha This is awesome! Make sure you keep that in the baby book to pull out when he is older! Love it. Enjoying the report!

 

[JessP81]

Really enjoying your report so far. We are currently planning a trip for next year for our son's 2nd Birthday, so seeing someone's positive experience is awesome!

 

[imBryan]

Really enjoying your report so far. We are currently planning a trip for next year for our son's 2nd Birthday, so seeing someone's positive experience is awesome!

There are definitely a lot of little details about how we managed him and all the work we put into prepping him for being good in crowds, and we even did a test run in a local Sesame Place theme park, but it seems that it can be done. I'm fairly new here, so I'm not sure what the general consensus is on taking younger children. We found that for us, 2 years old absolutely worked out. I hope you find the same next year!

 

[imBryan]

We really liked it! Loved being able to walk to Epcot and HS. We actually talked about how we wished we had a day without a park ticket so we could just explore and enjoy the resort at our leisure. Nice! My mom's DVC home resort is Wilderness Lodge (or is it Boulder Ridge now? Haha). We were lucky enough for her to let us use her points for our honeymoon which saved us a ton on out of pocket costs. It's nice to have family in the DVC, huh? We are very thankful!

This is good to hear as a couple that does not have children yet but enjoys eating out and will probably have kiddos some point in the future! Glad to know sit down dining and kiddos can coexist!

The pure joy on Owen's face is priceless!

Hahaha This is awesome! Make sure you keep that in the baby book to pull out when he is older! Love it. Enjoying the report!

Glad you're enjoying the trip report. I should mention that one of the keys to successful eating out with him is ordering and eating quickly, unless we're at a place like Morocco where kids get a break from sitting to go dance. California Grill was also good because I could take him out the balcony to run around for a bit so he didn't get restless. But every kid is different. A lot of our relatives simply let their kid watch a show on their devices during dinner. That works, we just fear that if we make it an expectation that it'll make things worse in the long run. I do understand 100% why people do that, though, and I don't judge. Again, every kid is different! But we had FOUR kids at the age of two along with us to dinner on a few nights, and all of us managed. In Disney at least they expect kids, though there's a little more anxiety about it at a nicer place.

 

[imBryan]

Day 6 - November 3 - Ohana, Epcot, Magic Kingdom

We started off with breakfast at Ohana. I believe that we took an early bus to MK and then took a monorail over, but I'll have to ask Elissa.

I'd heard mixed things about Ohana for dinner, but it was great for breakfast with the kids. Just a lot of comfort food, and obviously the characters. Owen knew Lilo and Stitch prior to this, but Stitch became a real favorite of his after this trip. You may notice that Owen got a Mickey plush doll in the gift store prior to this meal.

Next we took a couple of monorails back to Epcot. We have some family with us here, and the plan was to ride Spaceship Earth together then head back to the hotel for a nap. I love how a toddler considers Disney transportation to be as good as a ride.

Obligatory Spaceship Earth shot. To our dismay, the photo feature on Spaceship Earth was not working when we went on it this time, otherwise I'd have a picture of whatever silly faces we made, but no luck. It does get fixed later in the trip.

On the way out, we took some pictures with Smee. We have gotten him before with Captain Hook near the Pirates ride, but never seen him in Epcot, and he had no line! Owen has no clue who he is, but seemed amused anyway.

After a nap, it was time for Magic Kingdom! We got caught in a stage show, but Owen was into it. This is another one of those things we didn't used to care about until we had a kid with us. They had already started the Christmas themed show.

I should say now that at some point we did go on Pirates with Owen, either this time or on Day 2, but he was really upset by the whole thing, and thus I didn't get any pictures. He had to sit on his mommy the whole ride cuddled up. Anyway, he loves Buzz Lightyear and Toy Story, so this ride was a much better experience. Unfortunately, you can barely see Owen in the Photopass picture because he's pointing to something.

Immediately after: waiting in line to meet Buzz! We got him a Buzz Lightyear toy in the gift shop. This is one of those things where you squeeze the legs and lights spin around his head.

He was a bit shy about the meet. This is a kid who shouts "TO INFINITY AND BEYOND" at random...meeting Buzz was a huge deal to him.

Do you suppose that Buzz was trying to give me bunny ears, or just giving a peace sign? haha.

This is one of the only rides we did without Owen. The Seven Dwarfs coaster was a ride we'd seen in construction on two trips, and it opened right after our last trip in 2014. We were a bit upset about the timing of it. Considering how often we go to Disney, we were really late to the party having our first ride at the end of 2016, but the wait was worth it. What a great mix of Disney magic and "thrill" ride. I know it's not quite on the level of a Six Flags coaster in terms of thrill, but the themeing can't be beat. My only complaint is that the seat was very snug.

We also met Ariel, whom Owen also loves. He's seen the movie a bunch of times, and seems to have the soundtrack memorized. When we came to Disney together for the first time in 2008, we met Ariel in her grotto, but that whole area was redone and removed. It's nice that she's meeting here again. I believe that we also rode the Little Mermaid ride again afterwards.

Now back to the hotel for some kind of dinner and bed. I'll have to ask Elissa what we did for dinner because it slips my mind.​

 

[imBryan]

In my last post I mentioned how long we felt like we had waited to ride the Dwarfs coaster. I just wanted to add a short supplementary post on that topic.

February 2013

In February 2013, we were in WDW and first caught a glimpse of the new coaster being built. Our next trip wouldn't be for over a year, so we were hopeful this would be done by then. Construction was clearly well under way, right? No luck. We came back in March 2014 and it was still not done. We were 2 months too early. Since we had our son later that year, we didn't come back until this trip I'm reporting here, and didn't ride it until November 2016 - 3 years and 9 months after we took the pictures above. Thankfully, the ride did not disappoint!​