This report may be on interest to anyone travelling with small children, those staying at Port Orleans, or those considering the Disney Dining Plan (and of course to those who just enjoy reading about other people's Disney trips).
The title of this trip report comes from the Unofficial Guide's chapter regarding traveling to Walt Disney World with kids. We've been to WDW with kids before, but on this trip we had a 4-year-old and an infant. Over the course of a week, we all experienced plenty of ecstacy and agony.
Ordinarily, I wouldn't have been fool-hearty enough to attempt such a trip. We went in 2008 when my wife was pregnant with our youngest. The idea behind that trip was that it would be a farewell to Orlando until the kids were old enough to really enjoy it.
But then a unique opportunity arose. I detailed the entire experience of planning this trip in this thread: http://forums.wdwmagic.com/showthread.php?t=545256. If you feel like reading the background of how this trip came to be, go back and read-up. We'll wait for you.
For those who didn't bother going back to read the pre-trip thread, here's a rundown on the players:
Obviously, there's me. I'm the Disney fan in the family. More specifically, I'm the Disney parks nut. I had been to MK as a kid and Epcot as a teen. But I didn't get crazy about Disney until I went as an adult. My wife was a big fan of Mickey Mouse. But she'd never been to WDW. So when I planned our honeymoon, I figured we had to go to WDW. To be honest, I wasn't really looking forward to it. A few years later, I am here on the forums and my wife tolerates my Disney "obessession".
Then there's my wife, Mindy. I've pretty much told her story as relates to WDW. Honestly, she would prefer a more relaxing vacation than Disney World. Her idea of a vacation would be somewhere she can watch TV and swim. Yes, she can do both of those things at WDW. But I'm constantly dragging her out to the theme parks.
Joey, our oldest daughter is 4 (going on 5). She's a girly girl and can sometimes be shy. Other times, she loves the spotlight. This was her third trip to WDW and she has some memories of previous trips. Also, I prepared her for the trip by showing her lots of videos and pictures. Before we left, she was appointed as "the boss" of what we would and wouldn't ride.
Kara is the baby of the family. At the time we decided to take the trip, she was just a happy little bundle. She just sat and smiled at us. She was slow to start crawling, but once she did, she took off. At 10 months, she started walking. Now at 11 months, there's no stopping her. She wants to explore everything all the time!
In a supporting role, we have my younger brother. He was a cheerleader in college and taught cheerleading for many years after that. Now, he has moved into a more professional career. But he still judges cheerleading competitions from time to time. One of the reasons he does this is that he gets free trips to WDW.
One more note before I get into the trip itself, there will be pictures. But it will take me a little while to get to them. So, bear with me.
Wed, 3/17: Arrival Day
Arrival day was agony pure and simple. I won't get too deeply into the details here as they are too painful to relive. Also, I think I've blocked them from my memory. Things started off promisingly enough with a cab ride to the airport. Joey had been looking forward to riding in a taxi for a very long time. And she finally got her wish.
When we arrived at the airport, we were immediately hit with a baggage handling fee. $20 per bag for three checked bags for a total of $60. This came as a surprise to me as an infrequent traveler. In 2008 (our last flight) there had been no such charge.
I knew Delta had changed their policy, but I didn't worry too much because I had bought the tickets prior to the policy change and we had been grandfathered in. It turns out, the new charges were for carry-on bags. With no other options, I grumbled as I paid $60 for my bags to go on vacation with me. My wife fumed.
The bag fees were a minor hiccup compared to the flight itself. As I mentioned before, Kara had recently discovered walking. Ever since, she has been exploring her surroundings like crazy. So for her, sitting on our laps for two hours was not in the cards. When we wouldn't let her play on the floor of the plane, she launched into a screaming fit that lasted for most of the flight.
If you've ever been on a flight with a crying baby, you know it's torture. But trust me, it's far worse when the screaming baby is yours. Thankfully, all the guests around us were very gracious. If they were bothered, no one let on. And several started playing games of peek-a-boo or smiling and waving. This would usually stop the fits for a brief time.
When drinks came around, we got Kara some water. She likes drinking from bottles of water, but it tends to make a mess. In this case, the mess was on me. This was followed by a biscotti cookie. The cookie plus the water formed a kind of cinnamon-scented cement which bonded to my shirt for the rest of the night.
We arrived at the Orlando airport exhausted. But we were excited to leave the negative behind us and start enjoying our vacation. Thanks to Magical Express, we didn't have to worry about carting around luggage in addition to two tiny tikes. However, we did have our double stroller and some carry-ons.
At one point during the trip through the airport, Kara pulled off one of her shoes. I scooped it up and put it in a carry-on bag. Later on, a couple stopped us and asked if we were missing a shoe. I assured them that we had the shoe in our bag. Until I looked and saw that the bag had a rip in it. We hadn't even made it out of the airport and we were down 1 shoe.
The shoe was a hand-me-down, so we decided to move on without it. Kara has a habit of tossing her shoes, so I never really understood the point of buying them anyway. She never wears them for more than a couple of minutes at a time.
When we got to Port Orleans, all the girls were tired. But I was still full of excitement. The resort was even more beautiful than it looked in pictures. It was sunny and cool. I was sure the tide would change once we got checked into our room.
The castmember at check-in was really taken with Kara. I had done on-line check-in, but it actually took a good ten minutes to complete the process because he kept stopping to play games with her. As a proud dad, I can't say as I minded. He gave her a sticker which she promptly ate (well, sucked on anyway).
We headed back to the room which was in building 28 in the Alligator Bayou section of the resort. It was a little challenging to find. The signs in Port Orleans aren't always as helpful as they could be. More than once during the trip, I took the scenic route to the room by accident. Usually, I didn't mind. But this time, we were all pretty tired.
When we got to the room, our bags weren't there. For me, this was not a big deal. I knew they were travelling separately from us. But apparently my wife didn't understand this when she packed. She had been counting on changing before we went out. So she wanted to stay in the room and wait on the bags to arrive. I didn't object as the idea of changing out of my cookie shirt was appealing.
After an hour or so, my wife reluctantly gave up on waiting for the bags. We had a lot to do and we were all getting hungry. Of course, I was still wearing a shirt covered in crushed up cookie cement. But with no idea how long we could be waiting, it seemed like a good idea to go get dinner.
The plan was to go to Downtown Disney. We were going to use our first counter service credits at Wolfgang Puck Express and then shop for an autograph book as I had promised Joey. Mindy and the girls would then head home and I would go to another resort to pick up our free tickets.
What we had not counted on was that Downtown Disney was packed. It was St Patrick's Day and even the counter service restaurants were standing room only. The line at Puck's was around the block. And my wife was now blaming me.
Mindy and the girls get especially grumpy when they are hungry. So I decided to try Earl of Sandwich thinking that the line would be shorter. I'm not sure if it was shorter or not, but it seemed to be moving faster. All the while, Joey was getting whinier, Kara was getting more fidgety and my wife was fuming.
I was trying to grab a table before we even got our food. But with two little kids in a double stroller, we had limited mobility. As soon as a table became available, someone else pushed through the crowd and grabbed it. No one took mercy on us.
After we got the food, I found an empty table outside. When I say it was empty, I mean it had been stripped of any and all chairs. But I noticed lots of people sitting at tables which were bigger than their party required (a theme that would run through most of our counter service experiences on this trip). I went from table to table asking for empty chairs. After being turned down a couple of times, I finally found a party that was willing to give up their empty chairs.
Finally, the day could turn around. Or so I thought. As soon as Joey saw her peanut butter and jelly sandwich, she started crying. She expected a pb&j on white bread with the crust cut off the way she would get it at home. Instead, she had a crusty, toasty thing that was completely foreign to her. She was inconsolable.
(The sandwich didn't go to waste. As would happen many times on the trip, Kara stepped up and finished Joey's meal.)
After our failed dinner, we went to World of Disney to buy the autograph book I had promised Joey. Joey and shopping go hand in hand. She would have been happy to stay in World of Disney all week. And after the pb&j debacle, I was happy to buy her something extra.
I showed her all of the autograph books and pens. She was very reluctant to commit to any one book or pen. Instead, she wanted to look at everything. Especially the toys. Unfortunately, I needed to see someone about our tickets and it was getting late.
My wife was still fuming about the entire situation, but she agreed to let me go pick up the theme park tickets. Long story short, I spent about two hours on Disney buses picking up the tickets. When I got back to the room, the girls were all asleep.
To my surprise, Joey had picked out an autograph book with Mickey and friends on it. I was sure she'd go for princesses or Tinker Bell. But instead she went for the old school autograph book with a matching Pluto pen. (more on this later). She also picked out a Vinylmation figure. (much more on this later).
Tired, weary and hoping to make it to Epcot by rope drop, I finally turned in to bed around 11:30.
Don't worry, folks. Things get a lot better on day 2. And we start taking pictures to break up all the text!
I'll post Day 2 as soon as possible. Thanks for reading.
The title of this trip report comes from the Unofficial Guide's chapter regarding traveling to Walt Disney World with kids. We've been to WDW with kids before, but on this trip we had a 4-year-old and an infant. Over the course of a week, we all experienced plenty of ecstacy and agony.
Ordinarily, I wouldn't have been fool-hearty enough to attempt such a trip. We went in 2008 when my wife was pregnant with our youngest. The idea behind that trip was that it would be a farewell to Orlando until the kids were old enough to really enjoy it.
But then a unique opportunity arose. I detailed the entire experience of planning this trip in this thread: http://forums.wdwmagic.com/showthread.php?t=545256. If you feel like reading the background of how this trip came to be, go back and read-up. We'll wait for you.
For those who didn't bother going back to read the pre-trip thread, here's a rundown on the players:
Obviously, there's me. I'm the Disney fan in the family. More specifically, I'm the Disney parks nut. I had been to MK as a kid and Epcot as a teen. But I didn't get crazy about Disney until I went as an adult. My wife was a big fan of Mickey Mouse. But she'd never been to WDW. So when I planned our honeymoon, I figured we had to go to WDW. To be honest, I wasn't really looking forward to it. A few years later, I am here on the forums and my wife tolerates my Disney "obessession".
Then there's my wife, Mindy. I've pretty much told her story as relates to WDW. Honestly, she would prefer a more relaxing vacation than Disney World. Her idea of a vacation would be somewhere she can watch TV and swim. Yes, she can do both of those things at WDW. But I'm constantly dragging her out to the theme parks.
Joey, our oldest daughter is 4 (going on 5). She's a girly girl and can sometimes be shy. Other times, she loves the spotlight. This was her third trip to WDW and she has some memories of previous trips. Also, I prepared her for the trip by showing her lots of videos and pictures. Before we left, she was appointed as "the boss" of what we would and wouldn't ride.
Kara is the baby of the family. At the time we decided to take the trip, she was just a happy little bundle. She just sat and smiled at us. She was slow to start crawling, but once she did, she took off. At 10 months, she started walking. Now at 11 months, there's no stopping her. She wants to explore everything all the time!
In a supporting role, we have my younger brother. He was a cheerleader in college and taught cheerleading for many years after that. Now, he has moved into a more professional career. But he still judges cheerleading competitions from time to time. One of the reasons he does this is that he gets free trips to WDW.
One more note before I get into the trip itself, there will be pictures. But it will take me a little while to get to them. So, bear with me.
Wed, 3/17: Arrival Day
Arrival day was agony pure and simple. I won't get too deeply into the details here as they are too painful to relive. Also, I think I've blocked them from my memory. Things started off promisingly enough with a cab ride to the airport. Joey had been looking forward to riding in a taxi for a very long time. And she finally got her wish.
When we arrived at the airport, we were immediately hit with a baggage handling fee. $20 per bag for three checked bags for a total of $60. This came as a surprise to me as an infrequent traveler. In 2008 (our last flight) there had been no such charge.
I knew Delta had changed their policy, but I didn't worry too much because I had bought the tickets prior to the policy change and we had been grandfathered in. It turns out, the new charges were for carry-on bags. With no other options, I grumbled as I paid $60 for my bags to go on vacation with me. My wife fumed.
The bag fees were a minor hiccup compared to the flight itself. As I mentioned before, Kara had recently discovered walking. Ever since, she has been exploring her surroundings like crazy. So for her, sitting on our laps for two hours was not in the cards. When we wouldn't let her play on the floor of the plane, she launched into a screaming fit that lasted for most of the flight.
If you've ever been on a flight with a crying baby, you know it's torture. But trust me, it's far worse when the screaming baby is yours. Thankfully, all the guests around us were very gracious. If they were bothered, no one let on. And several started playing games of peek-a-boo or smiling and waving. This would usually stop the fits for a brief time.
When drinks came around, we got Kara some water. She likes drinking from bottles of water, but it tends to make a mess. In this case, the mess was on me. This was followed by a biscotti cookie. The cookie plus the water formed a kind of cinnamon-scented cement which bonded to my shirt for the rest of the night.
We arrived at the Orlando airport exhausted. But we were excited to leave the negative behind us and start enjoying our vacation. Thanks to Magical Express, we didn't have to worry about carting around luggage in addition to two tiny tikes. However, we did have our double stroller and some carry-ons.
At one point during the trip through the airport, Kara pulled off one of her shoes. I scooped it up and put it in a carry-on bag. Later on, a couple stopped us and asked if we were missing a shoe. I assured them that we had the shoe in our bag. Until I looked and saw that the bag had a rip in it. We hadn't even made it out of the airport and we were down 1 shoe.
The shoe was a hand-me-down, so we decided to move on without it. Kara has a habit of tossing her shoes, so I never really understood the point of buying them anyway. She never wears them for more than a couple of minutes at a time.
When we got to Port Orleans, all the girls were tired. But I was still full of excitement. The resort was even more beautiful than it looked in pictures. It was sunny and cool. I was sure the tide would change once we got checked into our room.
The castmember at check-in was really taken with Kara. I had done on-line check-in, but it actually took a good ten minutes to complete the process because he kept stopping to play games with her. As a proud dad, I can't say as I minded. He gave her a sticker which she promptly ate (well, sucked on anyway).
We headed back to the room which was in building 28 in the Alligator Bayou section of the resort. It was a little challenging to find. The signs in Port Orleans aren't always as helpful as they could be. More than once during the trip, I took the scenic route to the room by accident. Usually, I didn't mind. But this time, we were all pretty tired.
When we got to the room, our bags weren't there. For me, this was not a big deal. I knew they were travelling separately from us. But apparently my wife didn't understand this when she packed. She had been counting on changing before we went out. So she wanted to stay in the room and wait on the bags to arrive. I didn't object as the idea of changing out of my cookie shirt was appealing.
After an hour or so, my wife reluctantly gave up on waiting for the bags. We had a lot to do and we were all getting hungry. Of course, I was still wearing a shirt covered in crushed up cookie cement. But with no idea how long we could be waiting, it seemed like a good idea to go get dinner.
The plan was to go to Downtown Disney. We were going to use our first counter service credits at Wolfgang Puck Express and then shop for an autograph book as I had promised Joey. Mindy and the girls would then head home and I would go to another resort to pick up our free tickets.
What we had not counted on was that Downtown Disney was packed. It was St Patrick's Day and even the counter service restaurants were standing room only. The line at Puck's was around the block. And my wife was now blaming me.
Mindy and the girls get especially grumpy when they are hungry. So I decided to try Earl of Sandwich thinking that the line would be shorter. I'm not sure if it was shorter or not, but it seemed to be moving faster. All the while, Joey was getting whinier, Kara was getting more fidgety and my wife was fuming.
I was trying to grab a table before we even got our food. But with two little kids in a double stroller, we had limited mobility. As soon as a table became available, someone else pushed through the crowd and grabbed it. No one took mercy on us.
After we got the food, I found an empty table outside. When I say it was empty, I mean it had been stripped of any and all chairs. But I noticed lots of people sitting at tables which were bigger than their party required (a theme that would run through most of our counter service experiences on this trip). I went from table to table asking for empty chairs. After being turned down a couple of times, I finally found a party that was willing to give up their empty chairs.
Finally, the day could turn around. Or so I thought. As soon as Joey saw her peanut butter and jelly sandwich, she started crying. She expected a pb&j on white bread with the crust cut off the way she would get it at home. Instead, she had a crusty, toasty thing that was completely foreign to her. She was inconsolable.
(The sandwich didn't go to waste. As would happen many times on the trip, Kara stepped up and finished Joey's meal.)
After our failed dinner, we went to World of Disney to buy the autograph book I had promised Joey. Joey and shopping go hand in hand. She would have been happy to stay in World of Disney all week. And after the pb&j debacle, I was happy to buy her something extra.
I showed her all of the autograph books and pens. She was very reluctant to commit to any one book or pen. Instead, she wanted to look at everything. Especially the toys. Unfortunately, I needed to see someone about our tickets and it was getting late.
My wife was still fuming about the entire situation, but she agreed to let me go pick up the theme park tickets. Long story short, I spent about two hours on Disney buses picking up the tickets. When I got back to the room, the girls were all asleep.
To my surprise, Joey had picked out an autograph book with Mickey and friends on it. I was sure she'd go for princesses or Tinker Bell. But instead she went for the old school autograph book with a matching Pluto pen. (more on this later). She also picked out a Vinylmation figure. (much more on this later).
Tired, weary and hoping to make it to Epcot by rope drop, I finally turned in to bed around 11:30.
Don't worry, folks. Things get a lot better on day 2. And we start taking pictures to break up all the text!
I'll post Day 2 as soon as possible. Thanks for reading.
