Yes, We're Satisfied With Our Care! October 2015 TR **NEW 8/21 Final Thoughts

[skier_pete]

Looks like you had a great last day - and sure got a lot done! Funny that you say you didn't care much for the mine car ride. The first time I rode it I wasn't super-impressed. It's sort of short and all. But after that, the 2nd & 3rd time I found it to be great fun. The animatronic section is very impressive, and the ride itself is a fun level of mild thrill with some great views of the park.

 

[TheMaxRebo]

I suppose a trip to WDW is a good excuse for falling behind

Your DH always gets great pictures but he really captured a lot of the details on Splash Mountain! And glad you got your ride in as well

I wish there was a way to get into that play area at Dumbo without having to wait on line if you don't want to ride at all. Also found this last trip that it would be nice if they allowed strollers as at one point my son wanted to play there but the baby was sleeping in the stroller and they wouldn't let us in and he threw a mini-fit about not being able to play (and his solution was that we should just leave the baby in the stroller outside by herself ... ah, brotherly love)

Sounds like a bit of a rough trip home after you landed - at least you had a truck vs a regular car so that probably helped! I can't believe that was your first day back after maternity leave ... at least you could tell your colleagues you were just tired because of the baby, not Disney

 

[khertz]

That's not good! I love the Welcome Show!



I love this photo of Paxton. He seems so happy and relaxed!

I just want to say a huge thank you for sharing this trip. It looks like you all had a fantastic time. Thanks to @DDuck4Life for the amazing photos. I am sure Paxton and Delilah will enjoy looking at the report in years to come. Although Delilah may not remember the trip first-hand you have captured some lovely memories of her First trip with some very cute photos. Looking forward to your next trip report.

I know! It's so tough to get two little ones up and out to the parks early enough to catch it too, so it was a real disappointment.

Thanks so much!! So glad you enjoyed it! And thank you for following along.

I hope she enjoys looking through these memories when she is a bit older!

Caught up on your last updates! You guys made the most of your last Disney morning. I wonder why they didn't do the full opening show?

Oh, shucks, you had to miss Country Bears AND Stitch this trip...what a disappointment!


That sounds like terrible weather to go home to. It was like the universe was mad at you for leaving Disney.
Man, getting up and going back to work the day after vacation AND the first time since maternity leave had to be rough!

It was pretty strange that the opening show was so abbreviated. Maybe something wrong with the train?

Haha! I know, two of my faaaaaaaaaves and DH did them without me! lol

I feel like we always have some kind of travel issues on our trips!! It's so stressful, but bad weather is especially scary when in the air or on the road.

It was AWFUL. I don't know what I was thinking! But clearly, I survived, and we had a great trip!

Thanks for sharing another fabulous trip report with us! It looks like you guys got a lot done on your last day. I am sorry you didn't get one more ride on the peoplemover but yay for both dole whip and ice cream on one day, that's how you do it as Disney

Thanks for following along!!

A Dole Whip and some Plaza ice cream are good enough consolation prizes for missing out on another spin on the People Mover.

When do you leave for your CP?? It must be soon, or maybe I missed your send off?!

What a fun trip report! You have an absolutely adorable family. I think you're a real trooper for taking a nursing baby too! Lucky kids!! Can't wait to read some of your other reports!

Thanks so much!

I was honestly terrified of taking DD so little, but it was not as bad as I had imagined at all. We had to take it a lot slower than usual, me especially since I spent a lot of time with the baby, but we were well overdue for a Disney trip so I couldn't see putting it off for another full year so I'm glad we did it!

 

[khertz]

Looks like you had a great last day - and sure got a lot done! Funny that you say you didn't care much for the mine car ride. The first time I rode it I wasn't super-impressed. It's sort of short and all. But after that, the 2nd & 3rd time I found it to be great fun. The animatronic section is very impressive, and the ride itself is a fun level of mild thrill with some great views of the park.

We definitely didn't slow down for our last day!

I did find Mine Train to be a lot more fun on later trips when DS agreed to ride with me. It's not a bad ride at all, I was just expecting more thrills, I guess. I think it was more the fact that it had been open for soooo long before we had a chance to ride that I had it built up to more than what it is in my mind. It was still fun, just not as fun as riding with the family.

I suppose a trip to WDW is a good excuse for falling behind

Your DH always gets great pictures but he really captured a lot of the details on Splash Mountain! And glad you got your ride in as well

I wish there was a way to get into that play area at Dumbo without having to wait on line if you don't want to ride at all. Also found this last trip that it would be nice if they allowed strollers as at one point my son wanted to play there but the baby was sleeping in the stroller and they wouldn't let us in and he threw a mini-fit about not being able to play (and his solution was that we should just leave the baby in the stroller outside by herself ... ah, brotherly love)

Sounds like a bit of a rough trip home after you landed - at least you had a truck vs a regular car so that probably helped! I can't believe that was your first day back after maternity leave ... at least you could tell your colleagues you were just tired because of the baby, not Disney

I'm so glad he kept out the camera for Splash for me, since that's my favorite ride! It's not something I would ever try to get pictures of on my phone when riding by myself.

I totally agree. I even asked if we had to wait in line if we just wanted to play, and was told yes. Seems silly, especially if there are not a ton of kids in there at the time. Haha Peter's response sounds like something Paxton would come up with too!! He sure loves his sister, until she is inhibiting his fun!

It was not the best weather to come home to, that's for sure. It's one of the times I REALLY wished we had a bigger airport with a direct flight closer to home! And going back to work the next day after 3 months off was pretty awful at the time, but I made it through the day! I'm just glad DH stayed home so that although I was sad to be leaving DD for the first time, it was not the tears I had on Tuesday morning when I had to drop her off at daycare for the first time!!

 

[RDawn]

Thanks for letting us tag along! What a wonderful way to wrap up maternity leave!

 

[khertz]

Thanks for letting us tag along! What a wonderful way to wrap up maternity leave!

Thanks for following!! It was a heck of a way to end a 3 month maternity leave, that's for sure! lol

 

[afwdwfan]

It was a fun ride, but I don’t know. I guess I had gotten it too hyped up in my mind, and it didn’t live up to that hype.

I think this is pretty much the standard summary of Mine Train. I agree 100%.

We went to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the DIS Unplugged podcast, attending the podcast taping and some of the other meets throughout the weekend.

I really hope you'll do a TR from this trip too!

Once DD was done eating, I had really wanted to get a ride in on the People Mover, but it was nearing time for us to leave for the airport and I was scared of getting stuck on a ride.

Oh that would be horrible. We can't go home, we're stuck on the Peoplemover.

I mean ice cream is good too, but I'm a little conflicted on how this decision played out.

Meanwhile, I had to get up early the next day for my first day back at work after a 3 month maternity leave! It was definitely not the most ideal timing to go back to work. But I survived!

Oh wow... just brutal!

As always I appreciated all the pictures. I couldn't help but wonder about all the Splash pictures. First of all, they look great, especially considering they were taken from a moving boat that rocks a little bit with the water. But that just seems really brave taking a nice camera on that ride and having it out taking pictures. I assume that's why Dustin was hunched down to protect the camera in the ride photo?

 

[khertz]

I think this is pretty much the standard summary of Mine Train. I agree 100%.

I really hope you'll do a TR from this trip too!

Oh that would be horrible. We can't go home, we're stuck on the Peoplemover.

I mean ice cream is good too, but I'm a little conflicted on how this decision played out.

Oh wow... just brutal!

As always I appreciated all the pictures. I couldn't help but wonder about all the Splash pictures. First of all, they look great, especially considering they were taken from a moving boat that rocks a little bit with the water. But that just seems really brave taking a nice camera on that ride and having it out taking pictures. I assume that's why Dustin was hunched down to protect the camera in the ride photo?

Mine Train ended up being a lot more fun later on when we rode with DS for the first time. Otherwise, it was just okay. Nicely themed, and the animatronics were great, but I kept waiting for it to get a little more thrilling and it never did!

Already working on it!

Haha I know, I know. If I didn't stress so much about missing flights, I would have gone for one more ride. Can't say that would be the worst way to miss a flight, though. The ice cream was an acceptable consolation prize.

Yeah. It sucked. But I lived to tell the tale.

I know!!! We rode it together in July and I was more nervous than he was about having the camera out! But I do appreciate that he lives on the edge a little bit in order to get me some ride photos on my favorite attraction!

 

[khertz]

Wow, sorry about the long gap between updates, y'all! And I do need to get caught up on my reading list as well. It's been a hectic couple of weeks around here. First, the Olympics were pretty much dominating all of our free time. Then last weekend we had a little bit of rain . We were pretty much trapped indoors for 4 straight days as it rained on us relentlessly, so we were all a bit stir crazy and our internet decided it was the best time to go out! Thankfully, our house remained intact. We met some of our neighbors who got stranded in our driveway during the worst of the flooding in our neighborhood, and had to come seek refuge inside for awhile until it cleared up a little. Some neighborhoods just minutes from ours were not so lucky, and they lost everything. It has been a bit of a disaster zone around here lately, as you may or may not have seen on the news. DS started his first day of Kindergarten last week on Wednesday but only half of the class went, then the second half went on Thursday, and they were all supposed to go on Friday but school was cancelled that day because of the storm, and they ended up cancelling this entire week as well. So he has had exactly one day of school since last Wednesday! And in the midst of all that, we got to play the fun game of, "Who is going to watch the kids while their schools are closed and we have to work?" Things finally seem to be getting back to normal for us this weekend, but our hearts are still heavy for those who were not as fortunate and who are still picking up the pieces. Please keep south Louisiana in your thoughts & prayers!
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Now, for that wrap-up post I was supposed to do ages ago... And kinda maybe forgot all about.

CROWDS: Reading on Disney planning groups on Facebook leading up to this trip had me pretty nervous about crowds, because the parks had been more busy than usual lately in the months leading up to our arrival. It was noticeably more crowded this trip than we have experience on previous trips at the same time of year. I guess the word has gotten out about late October trips! Going in prepared helped us not to be affected by the increase in crowds, though. Having gone so many times by now, we have backup plans in place if lines are too long. Our Universal days were nice because we had the unlimited EP, so crowds didn't really matter much there, but it spoiled us to where FP+ just didn't seem like that much of a perk anymore. It made us change the way we planned future trips in that we now save our Universal portion of the trip for the end so that we can hop from ride to ride with little to no wait!

WEATHER: It was HOT and HUMID! Another thing we have gotten spoiled to was the late October weather we typically enjoy on our trips where it is hot during the day, but the humidity is low so it is more bearable and cools off when the sun goes down. This trip, we may as well have been there in the middle of summer! It was probably made worse for me because I was wearing DD 90% of the time, so having another warm body snuggled into me at all times only made the heat more palpable.

RESORT: We had another great stay at Bonnet Creek! I just can't complain about this place. The units are perfectly sized for our growing family, and we love having the space to spread out. We didn't get to enjoy the resort as much as I would have liked, but we just love staying here. As for Universal, our first stay at Hard Rock as a family was fantastic! It had been a long time since I had stayed here for the first time on a trip with my parents. I enjoyed that for a standard hotel room, we had plenty of space. And it's tough to beat that close proximity to Universal and the benefit of unlimited Express Pass.

MNSSHP: We had really debated doing the party since we were going to have DD with us. Although it wasn't a perfect night, we had a GREAT time, and I can't wait to do the party again this year! I think we did pretty well for how late we stayed even if we didn't make it all the way until midnight. It was tougher dealing with the later start times for the nighttime parades and fireworks, though. We got to meet the characters we wanted, got plenty of Trick or Treat time in, saw the parade and Hallowishes, and got to meet up with some other DIS'ers, plus the costumes were a big hit, so I'd say that's a successful party!

MISCELLANEOUS: I was very nervous going into this trip with an 11 week old baby. We had not attempted Disney with DS until he had made a year old, and he was a more demanding infant because we dealt with a lot of reflux and spitting up. So planning this trip without knowing what kind of baby DD would be made me really worried that we would regret it. I can't say how happy I am we decided to take this trip anyway! She was practically a dream traveler with only a few moments of unhappiness. She was mostly content to nap in the carrier or stroller. I did miss out on more with DS just because I had to spend a lot of time tending to her, but I think we tried our best to make the most of the time we were all 4 able to spend together, so that balanced it out.

We also got to experience a lot of firsts on this trip! Our first trip to Splitsville was a great success, and a really fun way to spend the morning before going to MNSSHP without having to use park admission. Plus getting to take DS on some new-to-him rides for the first time was so awesome. I loved getting to take him on Test Track and Soarin' for the first time! His reactions to both were priceless.

Overall, it was a wonderful trip! Not without its trying moments, to be sure, but still amazing. It was definitely a different experience to go with a preschooler and a newborn, but I'm so happy we decided to stick with our plan instead of canceling because it ended up being so much fun and a trip we still talk about!

Since this trip wrapped up, we have been several more times thanks to the APs we upgraded to on this very trip. In case you missed them, we went in November 2015 to say farewell to the Osborne Lights which you can read about here: I Just Want to See the Dancing Lights Gleam!

And we went again in February 2016 with a big group of family to celebrate Mardi Gras in WDW with what seemed like the rest of the Gulf Coast that had off of school. That TR is still in progress, and you can follow along with it here: Laissez Le Bon Temps Rouler: Mardi Gras With the Mouse!

Finally, we have since taken 2 other short trips. In May, we drove down for a few days to see the Flower & Garden Festival for the first time. And then in July, DH and I snuck away for a few days without the kids to celebrate the DIS Unplugged's 10th Anniversary at their Mega Meet event. I'm currently working on updates for both of those TRs at the same time, so when I get a bit ahead on writing, I can start posting. So keep an eye out for those!

And of course, once again THANK YOU to everyone who took the time to read my updates and comment! It's so fun to relive our trips by writing these TRs, but even more fun to interact with everyone who gets any enjoyment out of them.

 

[Dugette]

As always, thanks for sharing your trip report! So glad that it all was worthwhile, taking a newborn and all. It must have been so fun to see DS enjoy some of the big rides for the first time...can't wait to experience that myself.

So glad that you and your home made it through the storm okay. Sounds like it was really awful!

Will be following your other reports - can't believe how many times you've been since this trip!

 

[rdkeim]

I really enjoyed following along on another khertz TR! I've been reading your TR's since your first trip with your DS. You make traveling with an infant look easy. Wish I would have been braver when my kids were that age. We've been to WDW many times but never in October. Going for MNSSHP is on my bucket list! Thanks for taking the time to share your trips with us and a thank you to your DH for the wonderful pictures!

 

[missangelalexis]

So glad you guys remained safe and no damage to your house

I enjoyed reading your recap! I am so glad this trip worked out for you and that DD was a wonderful traveller!

I look forward to hearing about those 2 short trips!