Wait, weren't you just at Disney World? An August '14 Pre-Trip Report *updated 8/24*

[shan23877]

Your trip is so close now!

Love all of your craftiness! I have the paper to attempt iron on transfers, but haven't actually done it yet. I love the way yours turned out. Is that what you used our do you have a screenprint set up?

Cute pictures of the kids. I can only assume that the goat has it coming.

 

[lovedonaldduck]

Looking forward to seeing your daily plans and how you will manage now that the kids officially outnumber the adults

 

[TheMaxRebo]

WOW!!!!! One more week!!!! I am sooooo excited for you guys and I am not even going LOL!!!! Emma looks soooo cute and Judi looks fantastic!!! She does not even look like she had a baby!!! I just love the shirts! My favorite hands down is the Mickey Star Wars one, that is great!!!!!

haha - it's great how we can get excited for other people's trips on here

Thank you - I am sure Judi will appreciate hearing that! I think she is doing pretty darn good!

Thanks! I saw that image and thought with Disney recently taking over Lucas, etc. along with the rumors of building more Star Wars attractions, likely in the Studios it was a good opportunity to wear that one.

So close! So close! Soooo cloooose!!

lol! Love that car seat rigging for Peter! I'm sure you'll get a few looks at the airport and atleast a a few families trying to duplicate themselves!

Yay for making t-shirts! The Minnie looks great! How did you do it? Painting or iron-ons?

I know - can't believe we are so close ... very exciting - if a bit nerve wracking

I hope it works out ... he can be such a handful that half the goal is to keep him contained.

I just used iron-ons for the shirts - pinted them out and ironed them on ... worked pretty well though I got ones for light colored shirts and tried on on a dark color and let's just say these really are only meant for light colors

 

[TheMaxRebo]

Sorry, I got a bit behind!

Love all of your outings! I think you must have inspired us, as we had a loaded weekend of zoo and Mall of America yesterday, then Children's Museum and Science Museum today! Whew, exhausted!

No problem ... though I have no idea why you haven't been able to keep yup

That is great you were getting out but I agree the outings are exhausting!

That Lego place looks awesome! And I bet Izzy would love that Duplo train! She has a Duplo train, actually, but it doesn't have tracks or move on its own. I might have to track down one of those ones!

I think we saw that one too but I figured this one would be cooler Actually, when I first showed this one to Peter he wanted nothing to do with it and was preoccupied with a real lego cargo train set. Which I agree was super cool, but as it was $200 it wasn't going to happen

It looks like the bassinet is a good choice. You are right, the Peapod is supposed to be used from 1-year-old on up, I think. When Izzy was little, we used our Fisher Price Rock 'n' Play all the time and brought it with when we travelled, but we never had to get on a plane at that age and I'm guessing your bassinet folds a lot smaller.

Thanks - hope it works out! It definitely collapses quite small and should fit in the luggage no problem - but we shall see

Good job rigging up the carseat to the luggage! Hope everything goes smoothly!

By the way, as someone in accounting, I'll agree that your job sounds kinda fun.

Anyway, so close to the trip now!!

I hope it goes smoothly too! The travel days are the ones I am most nervous about. In some ways it is good that we will have some "down" days once we get to Florida before Disney to get settled.

My job is kinda fun - plus as the deals are more strategic in nature we get to meet with the C-Suite of some pretty large corporations which, while stressful at times, is pretty interesting

 

[TheMaxRebo]

This means starting tomorrow I'll make sure to check this every day

Love the shirts. And I think Judi's shirt looks very cute too, so it all works.

Brilliant rig. Truly, I hope to be so innovative when I have children

Cool! I'll see you here

Thanks - I think it worked out and that her's is super cute ... Olivia was a fan too - and then asked why I wasn't making a shirt for her. Um, maybe because you have like 17 princess dresses already

Oh, having children brings out all sorts of inventiveness ... largely around containing them in defined areas. Of course this brings out high levels of ingenuity on their part in order to escape from said confined areas.

On my very first visit to WDW in 1985, I bought that Mickey Mouse t-shirt. My first souvenir. It probably doesn't fit anymore, but I'll never get rid of it. I love that it is still available.

Very smart strapping the carseat to the bag! Are you bringing three carseats? I remember the baby days when you feel like you're packing everything but the kitchen sink!

Oh cool! I'm glad the shirt has some historical context - I love classic merchandise! I love that it is kind of an older style Mickey

Yes, we are brining 3 car seats ... well, two car seats and then a carrier we borrowed from a friend for Emma and then a base for the car that it fits into. Yeah, should be fun getting through security - another reason I am glad we opted for a smaller airpor vs like JFK or something

 

[TheMaxRebo]

yay for packing and planning your airport moves! It's tough with 2 parents and 3 kids I can imagine! Hopefully Peter will enjoy his car seat ride! If not, maybe you can rig up the car seat like I do with it on the back of the stroller?

Definitely going to look for that Duplo train set at DTD, if I can't find it there then I'll order it online. It looks like so much fun and the perfect size for Aria.

Looking forward to zooming through this week by reading your "This time in 1 week..." posts!! Mine have really helped me narrow down times and such.

We also did much of our packing list last night so today is ensuring we have everything and then heavy packing tomorrow. Hope things work out - otherwise I guess we will rig up something like you - but a big part of our current plan is to keep Peter confined in the car seat - otherwise just afraid won't have enough hands while carrying/dragging everything and to have a free one for him.

I am sure they will have it at DTD ... BTW - what we paid for it at the Lego Discovery Center was cheaper than what they had it on Amazon so definitely worth a shot (we paid $45 and I think Amazon was more like $70)

Must admit I stole, er, procured the idea a bit from you ... definitely hoping it will help us tihnk about things beyond our scheduled FP+ times

It's getting so close!!

I love the t-shirts! And I like the creativity with the car seat! We have enough trouble going through the airport with two adults and only one little one!

I know! I can almost taste those Mickey Waffles and Cupcakes and other Disney goodness!

Thanks! Dealing with everything at the airport is definitely the part of the trip I am least looking forward to ... just so much stuff and much of it will only be gate checked meaning we have to get through security. Hopefully traveling later will mean lower crowds, but guess we shall see.

 

[TheMaxRebo]

Your trip is so close now!

Love all of your craftiness! I have the paper to attempt iron on transfers, but haven't actually done it yet. I love the way yours turned out. Is that what you used our do you have a screenprint set up?

Cute pictures of the kids. I can only assume that the goat has it coming.

Thanks! For the shirts I used the iron on transfers - these were done using ones for light colored shirts. Last trip I used ones for dark colored shirts and I like how these feel better - but definitely limited to light colors. I tried one on a red shirt and it, um, didn't work out

Oh yeah, that goat had it coming. Though they moved on this morning to the train not only hitting the goat but a little girl duplo figure as well ... hopefully it doesn't escalate any further - our dogs and cats may not appreciate it

Looking forward to seeing your daily plans and how you will manage now that the kids officially outnumber the adults

Thanks! While the daily plans will provide some more details / goals, they definitely won't be to the minute or anything and we know we need to have some flexibility. Hopefully at least it will help prevent the whole "what do you want to do? I don't know, what do you want to do?" scenario

 

[Marsheliz]

Love how creative you are!!!

Love the pic of Judy with the older two and love the pic of Emma relaxing!!! AHH to be a newborn!

 

[TheMaxRebo]

Love how creative you are!!!

Love the pic of Judy with the older two and love the pic of Emma relaxing!!! AHH to be a newborn!

Thank you! Definitely try - and am glad to have Disney as a bit of a creative outlet

I know! I think that some times when she is screaming that "how bad can it be? You eat, sleep, and poop and get carted around all the time in super comfortable seats! You are basically Ceaser at this point."

 

[TheMaxRebo]

Pre Trip Report: Part 37 - 1 Week From Today: Arrival and MGM​

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We are officially 1 week away from arriving at Walt Disney World! Do the Dance!

As mentioned last post I will be doing a serise of "1 week from today ..." posts that will, well, hopefully be entertaining, but also will help me organize my thoughts and plans ... but I also very much welcome thoughts and opinions and will not take offense if you think my plan is not, um, optimal.

The plan for the day is to leave Boca Raton where we are staying with Judi's family after breakfast. It should take about 3 hours to get there - so hoping to arrive at around noon. Depending on how we are doing we will either stop for lunch on the way or after we arrive. And by arrive, I mean here:

(Ok, ok - they probably have updated the furniture since that picture was taken).

To say I am excited to stay here is an understatement ... it's honestly something I never thought we'd be able to do and just am happy we lucky enough to do it once. Also, we were watching Disney YouTubes today and Peter was ecstatic watching the ones of riding the Monorail - so the fact that they go through our hotel may actually blow his mind.

I am hopeful our room is ready when we get there - and if so we will just rest and relax in it for a bit.

If not we will check our luggage and then decide what we think we are up to doing. Hopefully they will at least be able to tell us it will be like 15 mins or 3 hours until the room is ready. If it will be a while we might try to head over to the park for the day and get some stuff done early and then come back for a rest before dinner.

What park are we going to this day? Why that would be MGM Studios of course!

I planned this for our arrival day because we only really have 3 full days at the park and 2 partial days and we knew we wanted to see Fantasmic! so doing this for the afternoon/evening of arrival day seemed like a good idea since there isn't a ton we want to do here.

Of course that was before the announced the Summer of Frozen events

Whether we go over early or if the room is ready probably head over at around 3 our plan is to first try and get tickets for the Frozen Singalong event as that sounds like it is really fun and one of the better parts of the Frozen Summer events.

Assuming we do we will adjust what times we go on the other attractions, but The FP+ we have scheduled before dinner are:

Star Tours: 2:50 - 3:50
Toy Story Mania: 3:50 -4:50

Hopefully before dinner, in addition to the Frozen Sing along I am hoping we will also be able to do Disney Jr Live! and/or meet Sophia the First and/or check out the Oaken’s Frozen Funland and maybe do some ice skating -which, for us, will feel like the first time in forever and probably look something like this:

and maybe one or more of us will want to build a snowman:

We then have a dinner ADR as part of the Fantasmic! dinner package at the Hollywood Brown Derby @ 5:10.

We have never eaten there before so definitely welcome any suggestions. Looking at the menu the Pork Chop and the Duck look good, and Judi will likely get the Lamb or a seafood option. All of the desserts sound really good - though I am sure we will get at least one of their signature grapefruit cake

After dinner we have one more FP+:

Tower of Terror: 7:05-8:05 ... we shall see how many of us go on this - not sure if I will get Olivia on this, might just be Judi and I taking turns.

We will also look to do any of the items we didn't get to before dinner and if time stop in One Man's Dream.

Then we have Fantasmic! which on this night is scheduled for 8:30 - so will get over there around 8.

Hopefully the batteries in our camera will last / I will remember to bring extra vs having to use our phone and getting wonderful pictures like this one:

After Fantasmic! ends we will hustle as best we can to try and get a view of the Frozen Fireworks which start at 9:15. I understand there is kind of a back exit way out of Fantasmic! that brings you out near the entrance and provides a really good view BUT I don't think we can get there and go get our parked stroller so we will have to see. I am really excited to see these fireworks though.

At this point we will see how we are doing. MGM actually has extra magic hours until 11:30 that night so we could try to get to anything we hadn't yet ... but I am guessing we will just head back to the resort and finish getting settled and, frankly, go to sleep as we have a pre-park breakfast ADR the next day!

TTFN

 

[KatMark]

Love the t-shirts, especially the Minnie one and the Darth.

Your plans for the Studios sound great! Great FP choices and getting a little Frozen in there too. I can't comment on the Brown Derby with any good thoughts as we were, unfortunately, not fans.

And I had to laugh at your picture of the Contemporary.

 

[amberg93]

Great, I look forward to my children trying to escape in the airport

Hopefully all goes well on check in day and you can make all your plans without issue.

I haven't tried Brown Derby, so sorry I have no advice. I'm too picky to like anything there. Marie is intrigued by the grapefruit cake though, so...

But solid FP+ options. And I wish you luck trying to hit Fantasmic and the fireworks. We didn't want to risk it on SWW when trying to hit those fireworks, but I'm sure you'll manage.

See you tomorrow

 

[emmysmommy]

I love the vintage CR room photo! And MGM studios... yep, remember that and I still have a few of my own photos with those signs.

Yay for 1 week from today. Technically 6 days from today now.

 

[Marsheliz]

Sounds like great plans to me! I'm sure the monorail going through the resort will have him in awe!!

I love Fantasmic and that is cool that you have the dinner package as well. My dad has eaten at TBD a couple times and loved it.

I sure hope they keep the Frozen thing going! I swear we quote that movie multiple times in a day! )) I look forward to that part of your TR!

 

[AAshleySEG]

One week woohoo!

The plans look great to me! I think all of that is totally do-able!

So Hollywood Brown Derby! We have only eaten there one time and it was actually on our July trip! The Blue Lump Crab Spring Roll appetizer was awesome and delicious!!! Jeremy got the Char-Grilled Fliet of Beef and that was really good, much better than my salmon, sadly the fish was overcooked and the lentils were undercooked, but the flavor was fine, so maybe you guys would get lucky with that one? Our tablemate had the pork, but I didn't try it so I can't really comment, and then our other friend had the Cobb salad, which she really enjoyed! We had the grapefruit cake for dessert. It was good, but not as good as I expected it to be I guess? Now that I have had it, I wouldn't get it again, but at the time I remember liking it, so kind of mixed on that one.

I hope you guys enjoy it!! The atmosphere it really nice, it definitely transports you to somewhere different, it is really not even like you are inside the theme park anymore while you are in there!

 

[Imagineer5]

Sounds like a perfectly doable afternoon/evening and nice that you have left some open time for whatever else you want to do. Dinner will be wonderful at HBD, I'm sure! It's a wonderful relaxing restaurant. i can imagine wanting to head out at that time though, Olivia needs to rest up for what's to come in the morning!

 

[Dugette]

Sounds like a good first day plan and I like that you're keeping things flexible.

So awesome to be staying at the Contemporary - hope Peter loves the monorail coming through! We still haven't stayed there, but hope to someday!

Hope you can get singalong tickets. If not, I accidentally discovered the whole thing on youtube the other day - fun show!

I dug up my post on our first visit to the Brown Derby, back in 2010: http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=37161503&postcount=59 We really liked the Cobb Salad! We had it again on our December 2013 trip and it was still good, just haven't gotten to posting about that meal yet!

When you do Tower of Terror, if you want a quiet waiting area for the person with the baby, we found an empty hidden little area with benches kind-of across from the entrance to ToT. Very peaceful back there.

Hope you enjoy both nighttime shows! What a great way to end your first day at WDW!

 

[missangelalexis]

Sounds like an awesome first day! Your park plans sound great

 

[mommajo143]

Subbing - gotta get caught up but am hooked from post #1... OP & DH would make the best of pals. They use same logic. Lol

 

[MEK]

Woo hoo for 6 days until your trip! That is exciting.

So - that retro picture of the Contemporary is just so cool! Just think if you walked in the room and it still looked like that.

Your HS plans look great capped off with F!. Oooooh - that cake! Yum!