Trip Report We were on a (Disney) Break...

Helloo Everyone!

As our trip report title suggests after our last trip report in Sep 2022 we were most definitely NOT going to be visiting WDW for the foreseeable future.

We were determined!

And we failed

We lasted until June when we used some disney maths to figure it would be 'cheaper' for us to return to disney this year rather than a 2024 trip. I'm not going to lie to you, i dont remember the math and I'm pretty sure it wouldn't stand up to scrutiny but who cares! We had our next magical trip booked and we were the happiest people in the world.

If you've read one of our trip reports before welcome back! We can't wait to share our time with you all

If you are new here we are Tash, Adam and our toddler Tobias.

Tobias was 2 and a quarter years old at the time of the trip (yes hes a big boy!)

The time of the trip was 2 weeks from the 30th of September. We LOVE spooky season at disney although travelling with a toddler (and no babysitters) prevented us from doing all of the night time spooky events we would usually do.

Also yes it's taken us this long to have some free time to write our trip report. The tail end of 2023 was full of sickness in our house and we're finally on the up!

The aim of the trip was just to enjoy disney from a chilled perspective and go with the flow. We've learnt that trips to disney with a toddler go by their schedule and you best be prepared for all your plans to change last minute.

Our home from home this trip was Port Orleans French Quarter. It holds a special place in our hearts in that its the hotel we stayed in for our wedding in disney in 2019. We couldn't wait to return as a family of three and enjoy everything the hotel had to offer.

So sit back and enjoy our trip (keep your arms and legs inside the vehicle at all times). We hope you enjoy it as much as we will reliving it!

 

[Tashifer90]

I can't believe how grown up Tobias looks.

Haha! I know right? He's very tall for his age. I think when they showed us the growth diagram (or whatever it's called) he was in the 99th percentile for his age group! We're constantly having to get the next size up for everything, we even had to buy a bigger pram for this holiday especially!

 

[Tashifer90]

Reminds me of when I was younger. I remember drizzling honey on my spaghetti casserole and would put steak sauce in my mashed potatoes

I love it! This makes me think of the breakfast scene in Elf

 

[Tashifer90]

Sunday 1st October 2023

The dummy came out on Buzz Lightyear as someone was now getting very tired. Tasha very cruelly used this to her advantage to beat me at space ranger spin. She ended up with approx 200000 and i got 170000 whilst having only the one hand and try to coax Tobias to have a go!

We headed out after the ride and popped him in his pram and he was out like a light!

We thought we should grab a small snack whilst he snoozed so headed over to Caseys.

However i panicked and thought i was ordering just a couple of small hot dogs...

Turns out i was wrong... i thought it was expensive for what I thought I'd ordered lol

So with our now apparent huge feast, we took the weight off our feet whilst someone snoozed!

We had a bit of rain that tried to wake him up so ended up putting his rain cover on, but the nap gods were not on our side today, because right where we were sat the band decided to come out banging their drums right by where he was sleeping

Amazingly... He stayed asleep!


We did some fiddling with our Lightening lanes and then took a stroll over to big thunder and did rider switch. The left lane was closed whilst Tasha was waiting but as we switched over i got ushered into the left lane and pretty much walked on! there was a nice little area to wait just near the exit of Big Thunder where you could overlook Tom Sawer island.

After a while here Tobias did eventually wake up and was hungry for his lunch, our nearest stop was pecos bills, so we headed in there to grab him something. It usually takes him a while to wake up and get his appetite but eventually he wolfed the lot down.

No cutlery needed. When hes super hungry and he gets at taste he just shoves it in hand over fist

After Tobias had eaten we saw that the Tiki room was just about to start so dashed in as he is a big bird lover!
He enjoyed it for the most part, but after a while got a little fidgety and wanted to be out of his chair.

As we were nearby to pirates and it was a relatively short wait we thought we should head over and get Tobias on his first 'drop' ride for the holiday!

Not sure why we were banished to the back of the boat, we had all showered that day too!

We felt Tobias grip onto us a little more tightly as we headed down into the darkness but apart from that he seemed to enjoy it looking around and taking in the pirate life!

the prettiest pirate we've ever seen

One of our lightening lanes got turned into a multi experience pass, so we tried to get on Jungle Cruise, but apparently it was not a multi experience ride! So dashing in between the various showers of rain we went on Haunted mansion and this time decided to take Tobias through the stretch room part, even after the jump scare and the light came on he ended up smiling and clapping and for the most part enjoyed the ride as well!

We think we may have figured out where the cameras are on this ride but we just smiled the whole way to make sure

Another ride breakdown on this one though, we ended up being stuck for a good 10 minutes in the part where the little lady is saying 'Come baaaaaack' which wasn't scary at all

Tobias did get bored by this point, so we put Moana on our phone to keep him entertained

We did try to get a photo pass outside the mansion but Tobias was to shy and kept hiding his face, so it was selfies all the way for us!

Now onwards to winnie the pooh!

To be continued...

 

[LeighM]

I love it! This makes me think of the breakfast scene in Elf

I've never actually watched that movie LOL. But in my defense, the steak sauce (A1 in particular) was very good in the potatoes. However, the honey on spaghetti wasn't good the last time I tried it - guess it doesn't work with the adult palate

 

[Tashifer90]

Sunday 1st October 2023 Continued...

We took a stroll of to Winnie the pooh with a quick bathroom break at the tangled restrooms on the way.

it was fortunate that with the lightning lane we only had to wait 5 mins before we were on the ride. We've always enjoyed the ride just because who doesn't love Winnie the pooh but seeing Tobias enjoy the ride was really magical. He loved the part where you bounce with tigger and he thought the heffalumps and woozles were really mesmerizing.

We didn't take any photos as we were enjoying the moment too much.

After Winnie the pooh we saw that the tea cups had a similar short wait so we hopped on board!



we all had a laugh as we spun around and it was over far too soon

Continuing our streak of fun rides we thought we would let Tobias have a go on the tomorrowland speedway. We decided that this time I would ride with Tobias and Adam would go ahead of us. It was nice to see Tobias enjoy driving but I'm not sure I would rate his driving skills

It started raining as we got into the cars but it didn't stop the fun

After this we were about ready to call it a day, we were thinking of waiting in line for Tobias to see Mickey but he was getting a little fed up in his pram and just wanted to run around like the loon he is!

But not before an obligatory photo in front of the castle!

We were having a gentle stroll back ot the bus stop until we saw our bus waiting so had to kick it into gear and run (Turns out the bus had not long got there and then we had to sit on the bus panting for a while whilst we waited for it to leave )

Tobias was naturally very happy to be on his favorite ride in Disney and had a big grin on his face all the way home.

Apart from the park his favorite place in Port Orleans was the fountain, he loved trying to steal all the coins out of it!

...and occasionally trying to climb in...

Then it was off to the park to burn off some energy!

Having a little area where he could run around so close to our hotel room was such a god send. We never worried about him having a late nap cause we always knew he could burn off any excess energy here at the end of the day.

Then it was back to the room for some chill time with Mummy whilst Daddy went to get food! We barely used mobile ordering the last few stays in Disney but travelling as just a three? It was an absolute must!

We did notice something weird with the Disney Junior TV show...

I get it... I was shocked when i found out Bluey was a girl too

To be continued...

 

[Tashifer90]

Sunday 1st October 2023

I went to pick up the order from Sassagoulas whilst Tasha and Tobias were watching Bluey.

Tasha and Tobias shared a pepperoni pizza and i got myself the Pollo Guisado it was a limited time menu item for hispanic and latin american heritage month, it consisted of Braised chicken, carrots, olives, jasmine rice, sweet plantains, and fried garlic cilantro. It. Tasted. Amazing...

You may also see i got some beignets... Be rude not to right?

Although i forgot to get cutlery so we were using Tobias's fork tonight!

Those plantains were so tasty!!

...and these two were loving their pizza!

He tried his best... But was ultimately defeated...

Then it was bath and bed!

But not before someone danced around the room with his mardi gras beads!

We flopped in bed around 9/10 pm ready for another fun day tomorrow!

 

[Tashifer90]

Monday 02nd October

Today was a designated R&R day! (We had scheduled these in throughout the holiday to make sure we wouldn't burn ourselves out and they actually became some of our favorite days!)

We slept in till around 7am (Super late i know!)

Tobias had his pre-breakfast of caramel pretzel bites and sweetie bits...

We had to hide these in the room as whenever he saw them he would not give up until he had them!

We headed to Sassagoulas for our 'proper' breakfast.

Tasha had the breakfast bagel, which was clearly very good because she already started eating it before i could get a photo!

It was Pancakes for Tobias...

He enjoyed them, but preferred to steal mine and Tashas Tater tots.

I had the loaded Totcho bowl, which was super tasty as well!

They were covered in a sausage gravy with bacon, cheese and chives. I thought it was ok but the gravy combined with the cheese was a bit too much and it also made the tots soggy. I'm glad i tried though!

We headed back to the room to get changed to head to the pool, we got there ten minutes after opening and it was completely empty!

We ordered his life jacket from amazon before we flew as we wanted to make sure he always had one that fitted well and it did a great job, we could leave him floating by himself for a couple of seconds before he realized he wasn't holding onto one of us.

We also saw a stoodge lifeguard test as well! A lifeguard dived into the water and dragged someone out and she was faking it and said how well he'd done, it was all very dramaful!

Tobias could not care less however...

Whilst this was all going Tasha was just enjoying her Mickey Bar by the pool!

Tobias was getting a little tired after all this so it was back to the room for nap time at 12:30 Tasha brought me back a mickey ice cream sandwich and a few drinks, we both ended up joining him and all woke up at 15:00!!

We got ourselves together and decided to get out for tea at red lobster!

We were surprised to see that Tobias wasn't super fussed about the biscuits, but that only meant more for us!

He was more than happy with his OJ

Both me and Tasha got lobster and shrimp. It was a Monday special where you got Lobster and Shrimp with a side for 20 USD so not to bad! It was amazing. I could have drunk the sauce by itself!

 

[Tashifer90]

Monday 02nd October - Continued

Tobias had the mini shrimp bites with some oranges segments which he seemed to enjoy as well! Along with stealing our fries!

We then popped to vineland quickly to see if we could get Tobias a waterproof sunhat for swimming (No joy but i did buy 5 UA t-shirts ) This was good as i had only brought 7 t shirts with the intention to buy more
We also went to target to see if we could get a water bottle for the parks to keep the water cool rather than drinking luke-warm water all day. Managed to find a contigo bottle which has served us very well since! We also bought a mini etch-a-sketch as we thought it might be a good distraction toy if we needed one whilst we were out and about.

we got back to the resort at about 7pm and it was perfect time for a play in the park during dusk.

slides are both thrilling and terrifying even when its a small one

if disney ever need a spiderman actor i think Tobias would be a shoe in!

This evening we discovered the only real downside to POFQ. Adam needed to take Tobias to change his nappy but could not find a single family changing room and there were no facilities even in the lobby complex. we were quite disappointed considering disney are usually so family friendly in all areas. Im secretly hoping that there is one and we just couldnt find it!

I took Tobias back to the room to get him to sleep whilst adam decided to treat himself to a cookie ice cream sandwich filled with three scoops of cookies and creme!

Adam thought that it was a top tier treat and much better than the baileys filled beignets. Apparently the OG ones still take the top of his list.

unsurprisingly there weren't any leftovers by the time he got back to the room but its ok as I had fallen asleep with Tobias. Adam decided to join us and it was an early night all round at 9.30pm

 

[Tiki Traveler]

Enjoying your report! Could you mention the photographer you had that took your wedding photos and then the photos w/the three of you your last trip? I think professional photos would be a wonderful keepsake. Thanks!

 

[Minnie1986]

Sunday 1st October 2023 Continued...

We took a stroll of to Winnie the pooh with a quick bathroom break at the tangled restrooms on the way.

it was fortunate that with the lightning lane we only had to wait 5 mins before we were on the ride. We've always enjoyed the ride just because who doesn't love Winnie the pooh but seeing Tobias enjoy the ride was really magical. He loved the part where you bounce with tigger and he thought the heffalumps and woozles were really mesmerizing.

We didn't take any photos as we were enjoying the moment too much.

After Winnie the pooh we saw that the tea cups had a similar short wait so we hopped on board!



we all had a laugh as we spun around and it was over far too soon

Continuing our streak of fun rides we thought we would let Tobias have a go on the tomorrowland speedway. We decided that this time I would ride with Tobias and Adam would go ahead of us. It was nice to see Tobias enjoy driving but I'm not sure I would rate his driving skills

View attachment 771936

View attachment 771937


It started raining as we got into the cars but it didn't stop the fun

View attachment 771938

After this we were about ready to call it a day, we were thinking of waiting in line for Tobias to see Mickey but he was getting a little fed up in his pram and just wanted to run around like the loon he is!

But not before an obligatory photo in front of the castle!
View attachment 771939

We were having a gentle stroll back ot the bus stop until we saw our bus waiting so had to kick it into gear and run (Turns out the bus had not long got there and then we had to sit on the bus panting for a while whilst we waited for it to leave )

Tobias was naturally very happy to be on his favorite ride in Disney and had a big grin on his face all the way home.

Apart from the park his favorite place in Port Orleans was the fountain, he loved trying to steal all the coins out of it!
View attachment 771940

...and occasionally trying to climb in...

View attachment 771941

Then it was off to the park to burn off some energy!

View attachment 771942

Having a little area where he could run around so close to our hotel room was such a god send. We never worried about him having a late nap cause we always knew he could burn off any excess energy here at the end of the day.

Then it was back to the room for some chill time with Mummy whilst Daddy went to get food! We barely used mobile ordering the last few stays in Disney but travelling as just a three? It was an absolute must!

We did notice something weird with the Disney Junior TV show...

View attachment 771944
I get it... I was shocked when i found out Bluey was a girl too

To be continued...

I was absolutely flabbergasted when I found out that Bluey was a girl!

 

[Tashifer90]

Enjoying your report! Could you mention the photographer you had that took your wedding photos and then the photos w/the three of you your last trip? I think professional photos would be a wonderful keepsake. Thanks!

It was Stephanie Caldwell photography, she was absolutely brilliant, really good for group wedding photos and just generally a very, very nice person! (Sorry about the slow reply btw, we are rubbish at doing this trip report regularly lol)

 

[Tashifer90]

Tuesday 03rd October

We were up and out of the room by 08:20! Despite me dozing back off with Tobias in the morning

We made our way to the bus stop with me making short diversion to refill the water-bottles. The backpack definitely felt much heavier with 1.5 litres in there! Especially when Tasha called me to run to the bus stop cause it had already arrived!

Annoyingly the bus was absolutely rammed full so i had to stand holding Tobias (Who decided to do his best octopus impression) whilst on the bus. My arms were dying by the time we got to Hollywood studios!
Although if i did that every day i bet i would come back from holiday in great shape!

We got to the back of the queue at 08:53 exactly when it dawn on us we were resort guests! So dashed around the outside of the queue narrowly avoiding the 40 minute wait!

We were literally at the end of Hollywood boulevard as they let everyone in so we hightailed it to the back of the park!

We hopped on swirling saucers and enjoyed the cool breeze as we got swung around!

He loved it so much

Then it was on to Midway Mania! Wasn't sure if Tobias would like it but he enjoyed wearing the 3D glasses for sure!

Despite Tasha trying to get her agent saboteur (Tobias) to distract me i still managed to get best in vehicle.

I will always put my child before anything in life.
But loosing on Midway mania? That is not one of those things...

Tobias was devasted to be loosing his 3D glasses only to be replaced with a pair of Mums 'Basic' sunglasses

Also note... Not even midday and i had practically soaked through my T-shirt... I'm not sure how many more Florida holidays i can survive!

Tobias was usually very good with his reigns back home. But apparently Disney was the place he started to do his 'Passive' protest... As soon as the reigns came on. He very calmly laid himself down and would not move untill he was 'Freed'

We finally coerced him to come with us as the Disney Junior dance party was about to start. We've never taking him to anything like this before and he just enjoyed running around at the back of the room and attempting to rush up on stage

After this is was LL time for rocking roller-coaster! Tasha went first and me and Tobias chilled out eating biscuits

I was getting used to the single rider life, and was getting fairly good with my small talk to feel less awkward

Photo limit reached! To be continued...

 

[Tashifer90]

Tuesday 03rd October - Continued

After our ride and his biscuits, Tobias was seeming a little sleepy so i walked him around Galaxy's edge whilst Tasha did Smugglers run, she got unlucky with her team as they had no engineers (This is now my favorite class to be!)

I got a gunner and i don't think i did... Too bad?

Tobias eventually didn't end up going to sleep (We're still rubbish at predicting when he's tired these days)

So we decided to take him on Muppet vision 3D (He loves watching the Furchester at home) but naturally throughout the entire performance he could barely keep his head up!

After we got him back int he pram he went straight off to sleep so we took time to relax in backlot express to keep him cool with the AC and free refills with coke!
I got the Cuban sandwich cause i absolutely loved it last time, however i was absolutely mortified to learn they didn't do these with plantain chips anymore

However we made our money back with a ridiclious amount of refills cause he snoozed for a good hour!

We took it in turns doing star tours whilst he snoozed too, but neither of us got to be the rebel spy...

Tobias woke up and made short work of an uncrustable and then we headed over to Mickeys runaway, his face was a picture!

It was however an abysmal day for ride closures in Hollywood studios today, Rocking Rollercoaster went down 3 times, Slinky dog was down 2 times (That we saw) Same for Mickeys Runway, we even took Tobias into lightening Mcqueens racing academy and he sat still and enjoyed it so much but that even stopped working whilst we were in there, so the poor kid couldn't even enjoy that!

Although he still was very much enjoying himself at least!

Eventually we took him back to swirling saucers cause he loved it so much and at this rate it was the only working ride in HS!

Time was ticking on by and our reservation for roundhouse rodeo bbq was coming up so we checked in and waited to be called.

The lighting was very blue inside!

Tobias was very fond of the biscuits naturally!

The chilli jam they did with these paird perfectly!

We went for the smoked selection which was Evil Dr. Smoked Ribs | Buttercup's Beef Brisket | There’s a Sausage in my Boot - Fire-grilled Pork Sausage | BBQ Chicken - with Style! | Buckin’ Baked Beans.

Food was good for the most part, some of it smelt a little to 'farmy' for me if you get what i mean? I enjoyed the meal but between Woodys and whispering canyon, i'd pick whispering canyon every time no question.

The freezes that occasionally occurred were very enjoyable though!

We did also go a good 20 mins or so after our desserts and then longer just waiting for the bill which i thought was a little strange for Disney, but our server was always more than pleasant.

After this we used our LL for slinky, but with all the ride closures it gradually started getting busier and busier. Tasha got on in about 15 minutes and we did rider swap. I treated Tobias to something from the toybox whilst we waited for Tasha to fly by.

Then it was my turn but even with the LL it was going to be a 45 minutes wait, thinking this would be wayyy to much time to wait on top of the time it took for Tasha to ride, guest services adjusted this so i could use this next time we went there at least. Not sure about you guys but i don't ever remember the fast pass system being this bad? Or has Disney just gotten even busier over the years? I'm not sure.

We got the bus back to the resort and chatted to a lovely couple from Alabama.

Got back to our room to find Ariel stretched out on our bed!

Then it was off to bed and get our appetites ready for chef mickeys in the morning!

 

[Adventure]

I think because you mentioned Slinky was down a few times that day it caused the LL back up from everyone who couldn't use theirs earlier in the day. System usually still works well. Great pictures!

 

[Tashifer90]

I think because you mentioned Slinky was down a few times that day it caused the LL back up from everyone who couldn't use theirs earlier in the day. System usually still works well. Great pictures!

It definitely was difficult to get on all the rides that day! The gremlins were doing their business in Hollywood studios that day!

 

[Tashifer90]

Wednesday 04th October

We were up and out by 0800! A new personal best for us with Tobias!

Having had such a good experience taking Tobias to Chef Mickeys when he was 1, we were looking forward to doing this again. Boy oh boy... was he on his most adorable behavior!

I started off with the usual array of tasty treats.

Plenty of tots, waffle, scrambled eggs, bacon, the AMAZING hash browns and some french toast.

Tobias was making short work of his breakfast too!

He was initially very shy to meet the big man himself

and was in fact more excited to see the monorail whenever it passed through!

He was then VERY curious to see what was inside Donald's bill!

I think Tasha was more happy to see Donald than Tobias!

He was very interested in in Goofy's buttons

He then tried to offer Minnie some of his juice (It was actually my juice, apparently orange juice wasn't fancy enough for him and he wanted my POG juice!)

I think Minnie has always been his favorite. He even leaned in for a hug.

Then it was Plutos turn for a visit and Tobias wanted to grab his tongue!

But all was forgiven and he gave him a High 5 in the end.

To be continued...

 

[Tashifer90]

Wednesday 04th October - Continued

After waving goodbye to Pluto we grabbed our second course!

I'll be honest, i cannot remember what most of the stuff on my plate was, but it was all delicious!

The Ham was super tasty!

Then I had some Banana Brioche loaf (I think that's what it was i forgot to write down what we had in all the excitement but again it was yummy)

After all this breakfast Tobias burnt off his energy running around contemporary, stirring things then eventually needing his nappy changing haha! There was a queue for the family changing so i took him into the mens toilets and just had to change him out in the open in there unfortunately! Not ideal for Number 2's but you do what you gotta!

After that we got on the monorail and headed to to Magic Kingdom!

It was super hot today and super busy as well!

Although we did manage to get a good photo in front of the castle!

Photos like these are hard to come by! As evidenced below...

We then headed onto the TTA and it started to have it's effect on someone...

Not me and Tasha, we're always tired!

Luckily he managed to tough it out and stayed awake throughout!

We made our way to Dumbo, mainly just to use the play area, but then it broke down which halted the queue to the play area, so with Tobias getting a bit fed up of queuing we headed back outside to the splash area for him to run around in.

it was very hot and we both took turns resting whilst Tobias ran around.

After this we took the train ride, which was super awkward to get on with the pram for some reason, but we managed.

Although we were all feeling the heat by this point!

A short walk later and Tobias was out like a light so we took refuge in Pecos Bills whilst he snoozed!

Already with the mansplaying!

After some serious re-hydration and some nachos (Of course) we regrouped. We were starting to feel frazzled and irritated so a cool drink and a sit down in the shade made all the difference to are attitudes for the rest of the day. We took a slow walk over to space mountain to rider swap, this ride unfortunately was closed as we arrived, so we grabbed an ice cream and waited for a while, but no news on it opening so as Tobias was coming round we were about to head to winnie the pooh then that broke down too, even carousel of progress went down!

with options severely limited we decided to hop on Buzz lightyear and this time Tashas agent saboteur worked!!

Absolutely shameful tactics being used here...

We then thought we would take him to watch mickeys philarmagic, this was down as well, thought we'd rider swap for big thunder and... yep you guessed it... down as well!

We headed over to the teacups which he absolutely loved as always!

we thought we would use our multi experience pass on pirates but... Yep... It was down! Not sure what affect we had on the parks, but if you ever want to get any rides done, make sure you don't go when we're there!

So we quickly took him on Aladdin which i think actually stopped early whilst we were on it cause it also broke down

We decided to head straight over to Jungle cruise, and had a great time on that instead!

To be continued...

 

[Tashifer90]

Wednesday 04th October - Continued

Jungle cruise was a big hit for Tobias, he just loved looking at all the fake animals!

By this time Pirates was back open and we managed to quickly jump onboard!

Tobias gripped our hands a bit tightly for the drop but loved the rest of the experience!

We thought we should call time on the day in Magic Kingdom, the ride closures had got to us a bit too much so we thought best to head back and get ready for dinner! You always get one day like this at Disney so hopefully we were just getting ours done and out the way early!

Tobias is a huge lover of pasta (It's all Tasha could really stomach whilst she was pregnant with him)
So there was really only one place on the menu for us.. Olive garden!

And we could not resist getting these amazing breadsticks!

Tobias was very happy with the children's portion sizes in olive garden!

Eating is very serious business for him

I got myself a seafood linguine, it was amazing, but there was so much of it!

Tasha got the same, we wished we had gotten a side or something to share instead after seeing the portion sizes.

Tobias made a significant dent in his portion!

Then it was back to the hotel to collapse in bed ready for a day at Typhoon lagoon tomorrow!

 

[erstwo]

Tobias is always on his most adorable behavior! He is just too cute.
So sorry about all the rides going down.

 

[Tiki Traveler]

It was Stephanie Caldwell photography, she was absolutely brilliant, really good for group wedding photos and just generally a very, very nice person! (Sorry about the slow reply btw, we are rubbish at doing this trip report regularly lol)

Thank you for the info! No worries about the reply time. We have no set plans at this moment but I would love to do this someday!