When a First timer Falls in Love…with Disney ✨Updated 3/19

[piglet1979]

I can't wait to hear more.

 

[PAsFab5]

I can't wait to hear more.

I love that your here friend

 

[mnmrmustard]

Awesome work volunteering with a dog rescue, my wife is contemplating doing something similar. We just adopted our latest 4-legged family member from a shelter just last month.

That bites when the GPS takes you into traffic instead of avoiding it - glad you made your flight despite the whole door alarm thing.

That driver situation was crazy, glad he calmed down. We have used a car service for Disneyland trips but used a shuttle service and Lyft at WDW/US.

We are a POP Century family when we stay on property and always enjoy taking some time strolling thru AoA. For your next trip I do recommend POP, having that dedicated transportation is so nice.

And we are very much missing Splash ourselves, but time and rides march on! Looking forward to seeing more of your trip

 

[PAsFab5]

The day when we figured out nobody could fold the stroller….part 2

So when I left off we were enjoying our first snack of the trip. We finished up and headed over to our next LL, Pirates. This is DD’s favorite ride in MK and it’s 2nd on my list, right under my beloved Haunted Mansion.

Where would it fall on L1 and L2’s list of favorite rides? Low…very low…in fact, it probably ranks under the bus rides to/from the park. Well, L1 liked it but was unable to enjoy it because L2 was FLIPPING OUT! I would have NEVER booked this is I thought for a second she would be scared…we even watched Youtube videos of it before our trip, but that didn’t help at all. She screamed and cried the entire time, I felt so bad.


Even now when I mention it she says shes NOT EVER going on it again and NEITHER IS ANYONE ELSE IN OUR FAMILY!!!! She has like this fear that we won’t make it back out alive if we go on Pirates, bless her heart. One day this will be hilarious because I am sure she will love it as a teen!!

We shared a pineapple upside-down cake Dole Whip after this and DD got a soft serve. The Dole Whip and pineapple cake at MK is good but its not half as good as the Pineapple cake and vanilla ice cream at AK!

We headed over to Dumbo next and DD did some pin trading while the 3 of us rode Dumbo. Then we rode again…and again….we logged 3 rides on Dumbo on our first day!

Then we went over to grab a fireworks spot! Now, we were about 30 minutes before the start of fireworks, so by Disney standards we were late. But…this was MANIC. It was a non-party night and you could tell! It was SO SO SO SO SOpacked. We got a “spot” to the right of the castle, right in front but good gravy we were PACKED in like sardines!!!

Fireworks started, DD and I sang along and I felt all the magic being at my favorite place with my family on such a special trip. My sister turned around about 10 minutes in and had tears streaming down her face…she said WHY AM I CRYING?!?!?! I said- this is just what it is.

I knew at that point she was about half way to being a Disney addict.

After fireworks we were starving and headed to Cosmic rays, which was not busy so we ordered at the counter. L1 and I got…Grilled chicken sandwiches, DD got a cheeseburger and L2 got chicken fingers.

At this point it was 9:30 and we all agreed that our wall had been hit. We finished our dinner and headed out to the buses to begin our arm wrestle with the stroller.
Picture on Main Street on the way out



The AoA line was huge- absolutely huge. All other lines were empty…this was a theme for the entire trip. I never experienced this at any other values, so I was a little shocked. We waited forever for a bus and I knew by the size of the line we would never make it on the first bus…and I was right the line was actually three buses full of people long…they finally began sending one bus after another but it took well over 30 minutes.

I recall bedtime being hectic and some tears were shed and I was concerned about our neighbors suspecting some type of violence was taking place in our room…but nobody called and L2 eventually settled and fell asleep!

Thanks for reading along- up next we will be heading to the runDisney expo and another day at MK!!!

 

[PAsFab5]

Awesome work volunteering with a dog rescue, my wife is contemplating doing something similar. We just adopted our latest 4-legged family member from a shelter just last month.

That bites when the GPS takes you into traffic instead of avoiding it - glad you made your flight despite the whole door alarm thing.

That driver situation was crazy, glad he calmed down. We have used a car service for Disneyland trips but used a shuttle service and Lyft at WDW/US.

We are a POP Century family when we stay on property and always enjoy taking some time strolling thru AoA. For your next trip I do recommend POP, having that dedicated transportation is so nice.

And we are very much missing Splash ourselves, but time and rides march on! Looking forward to seeing more of your trip

Thank you for adopting!!! There are so many needs at animals shelters…from making dog snacks to cat cuddling to dog walking-there is definitely something for everyone! And it’s very rewarding!

We love Pop we are staying in two rooms in October!! We are trying to stay there next month but I cannot get a AP discount…but I am not giving up-I check all the time!!

Thanks for following along!

 

[VAtink]

A bit late to the party but joining in! Can't wait to read more!

 

[eliseisawkward]

We didn’t do pirates, but I’m kind of glad we skipped it based on L2’s reaction! Mine would probably also find it scary.

I don’t think I’ve ever experienced a 3 bus back up. I hope that’s the only time you had to deal with it!!

 

[erinch]

Following.,

 

[PAsFab5]

A bit late to the party but joining in! Can't wait to read more!

So glad you are here!!

 

[PAsFab5]

Following.,

Welcome!!!

 

[PAsFab5]

Happy Halloween

This morning was Halloween!!! Hooray!! No better way to celebrate than at Disney!!

I set my alarm early enough that I could get ready for the day, eat breakfast and be on the first bus to the expo.

I attempted to quietly make a cup of coffee in the living area without waking L1 and L2 but I quickly realized this would in fact be impossible so I gave up and got ready without caffeine. A terrifying Halloween this was turning out to be!

I did a mobile order for my breakfast and when I went to leave L1 was awake. I made sure she knew how to mobile order breakfast for everyone and I was on my way.

I got a kids Mickey waffle meal and a coffee. It was so good…those first Mickey waffles of the trip just taste extra good!

I refilled my coffee and headed out to the buses. I was the 3rd person in line. I did not record exact times but I believe the first bus was 30 minutes late

The entire time in line I was thinking-I would pay a ridiculous amount of money to have my bib and race shirt delivered to my hotel. Honestly the run Disney expo is the biggest waste of time. You lose out on park time and it’s just so time consuming! Disney needs to offer a delivery service-they would make money and also save on buses!! Ok end Run Disney rant!!!

The bus finally came and we were at the expo in no time. It was such a gorgeous day, the sun felt so nice and I was soaking up the atmosphere as I walked into the expo.

I got through expo pretty quickly, there was a issue with DDs registration and her being a minor and something I forgot to do but I got it resolved by standing in some lines and chatting with cast members. We were in corral A which I was super excited about!!

Went for my second walk over to get our race shirts and I was back off to the buses.

Returning to the hotel, I found everyone ready for the day-hooray!

We headed to the buses to start our daily stroller wrestle and I do remember we waited a long time for a MK bus because I invented a game with L2 involving the buses and which character we would see next on the buses. At the time it was just a way to pass time but when my sister went back in January and stayed offsite she said L2 kept asking “what type of bus do you think we will ride tonight?!?” It’s crazy what small memories stick with kids!

We were in the gates of MK and the first things we saw was Mickey had a 10 minute wait-so no better time to meet the Mouse himself then right now! There were only 2 other families in front of us and I was so excited for L2 to meet her first character.

It went really well at first and then when Mickey touched her hand she panicked and screamed, but thankfully it was short lived and she calmed down quickly when Mickey responded with being embarrassed and trying to comfort her. She had no other issues with any characters the rest of the trip thankfully.

Mulan was meeting right outside of Mickeys theater so we stopped to see her and this interaction was fantastic!

Next we went to the teacups and we all had a great time!

Up next was The Little Mermaid, which was a walk on. L2 was in LOVE with the ride!! She had never watched the movie but was absolutely head over heels for the ride. We told her we would come back and do it again!

Then we had a LL for Seven Dwarfs, we did rider swap for this and DD and L1 went first while L2 and I had a snack. Then DD and I went on and L1 and L2 went on The Little Mermaid ride.
DD wanted a drink and a snack so she got a slushy and beniets from The Friars Nook. These were not very good but the ice water was cold and DD liked her slushy.

I noticed the Princesses were a 20 minute wait so I texted L1 and she said the CMs were allowing them to go through the Little Mermaid over and over again because there was not wait! But they would be over after the ride they were on.

The princess wait was really only about 10 minutes, which was great.

The meet and greet with Cinderella was spectacular and absolutely magical. We were all crying. This was when my sister turned into a lover of Disney.

Elena of Avalar was also meeting and did a great job. I honestly don’t know much about her and neither is anyone else in our group but she was so sweet with L2.

We had a LL for space mountain next and did rider swap. I asked L2 what she wanted to do and she said “look at those flowers over there” and pointed to the flower beds…and since I am her aunt and usually let her do whatever she wants I said sure and we smelled all the flowers and talked about them.

L1 and DD were done with space mountain quickly and DD and I went next. It was a great ride as always but I am afraid my body is getting too old to be traveling into space…I keep saying that but keep riding it each trip, I think I forget about the pain!

Next we had a LL for Tomorrowland speedway and DD was the driver, which is ironic because she always is the driver in our real life too because she has her learners permit. This situation was much easier on my nerves though!! L1 and L2 liked the speedway and L2 was asking to go again but the standby line was long so we told her maybe later.


After the speedway we went over to Dumbo and rode once before using a LL on Barnstormer.

At this point it was close to 6 and a party night so we started over towards our dinner reservation at Crystal Palace.

Since we were not party guests we got special bands that announced that we needed kicked out directly after we finished eating.

This was the first time any of us had been at this restaurant and the food was very good! I remember the meats being a favorite for most of us as well as the desserts.

Piglet and Tigger came around quickly and the interaction was great. We waited on Eeyore long after we got our check, but Pooh was nowhere in sight the entire meal.



We found our server after we paid and asked if there was anyway we could see Pooh and she said he was meeting up front as we exited, so this was great news!

The interaction was great and this was a perfect way to end the evening.

We got some great photopass pictures on our way out and said goodbye to the castle until next time!

I took advantage of no line at guest services to convert our 4 day tickets to annual passes for DD and I and my sister added a day to her 3 day ticket, because our departing flight got moved to later in the evening, leaving us time for another park day!

The CM was so patient with me and my 1,612 gift cards, bless him. And just like that DD and I were pass holders for the year!

The bus line was shorter tonight, but still the longest of any resort. We all got a seat so that was good but it was packed!

Back at the hotel DD and I got all our stuff ready for our 2am wake-up because tomorrow was race day!!!!!

I hope you will join us for a 2am wake up and lots of memories

 

[Woth2982]

Joining in! Those first visits with littles are so magical. My dad hated Disney until he went with my kids last September. Now he wants to go again! Probably helps we did a "mostly" resort trip in Sept and spent a lot of time at the pool lol.

 

[eliseisawkward]

My toddler was also a huge fan of the Little Mermaid ride! I wish we had gotten back to ride it again, she would have been happy to ride it over and over again.

 

[FrozenMagic]

Love reading your summaries! Makes me want to keep a detailed log when I go so I don’t forget all the big and small memories!