Trip Report 5 Adults vs 1 ten month old. Guess who won?!

Hi All!
Back from another stay at WDW and it was different for sure!
We had a new traveler with us and definitely did Disney differently for that reason and a few others.

I would like to give you guys a heads up before you read any further.
If you have read my trip report from last year you may be aware that my husband (Gary) is being treated for cancer and there are some references in here to how he is doing, because that changed a lot of how we toured this year.
If you are uncomfortable following along because not everything is pixie dust in this report, I will not in any way be offended if you click away. (I much prefer a sexy vampire book myself to a story that has moments of sadness)!
Luckily there were some great family/baby/children moments that brought us joy and new memories were made!

So with warning given and to those who are going to hang around, let's begin!

Our group consisted of myself, Cindy, my husband Gary, my son Seth, my daughter Aleisha our son-in-law Julio and our now 10 month old granddaughter Una. (And PS, she is a crazy girl)!!
We stayed at Bay Lake Oct. 21-27th.

Cast and crew (and one of my favorite pics of the whole trip).

To arrive at Disney everyone was coming from different places at different times. Gary and I headed down from Pittsburgh with an afternoon flight. We left around 2:15 pm and got in close to 4:40 pm-ish.
Us headed to the air side on our version of the monorail.

We had time to eat at Friday's (I think it was). Gary had some potato skins that he liked and I had a kids mac and cheese and french fries that I thought tasted pretty good.

In the meantime my little sleepy head was headed to Orlando from Sacramento with her mom. They started out at 6 am-ish, west coast time.

She did seem to perk up to her usual nosy self once they were on board!

One thing you will notice this trip is a disproportionate amount of baby pictures!

Seth headed down from Georgia, deciding to drive.

As crazy as it sounds, our 2 flights landed within 6 minutes of each other and we were able to meet Una and Aleisha as they got off of the monorail thing!
So excited to see this Mickey 50th wrap on one of the cars.

And Grandpap and Una's airport meet up!!

Julio wouldn't be arriving till the wee hours of Saturday am so we don't have any travel day pics of him.
Next up, is grabbing 800lbs of luggage and off to the Magic Bus!

 

[Darstarr]

DO NOT send a young man with a magic band in there without supervision. He bought, no lie, $120 worth of cookies. Who the H**l buys $120 worth of cookies?!
But Mom, I couldn't decide. And I gave them a tip.
Let me give you a tip boy.

 

[MickeyCB]

Agggghhhh!

 

[MickeyCB]

Day 5 Disney Springs continued..


Sorry this first part is txt heavy.

We were trying to be efficient and needed to get back at a reasonable time so Seth could get on the road. His drive runs about 5 1/2 hours to Savannah.

I find the jersey and am in line to pay for it. Aleisha comes in with the baby and I asked where Julio and her dad are. I don't know she says, Julio is out sitting on the red brick wall. Awesome. Except when we went out Gary is missing. Julio said he had no idea where Gary was.

Seth shows up with his fortune in cookies. No Gary. We start calling him on his phone. No answer. But, it is not uncommon for him to not answer his phone with multiple excuses for why he didn't.
So I tell Aleisha and Julio to sit tight. Seth is going to check around the outside of the store.
It's the proverbial herding cats at this point.
I go back around to the entrance of WOD to search the store. It's annoying to have to circle all the way around but they are still one way in and one way out.
He's not in the store. I start to seriously get concerned at this point because as I mentioned earlier he's starting to have cognitive problems that at the time we didn't know why.
Seth calls me. Apparently Gary answered his phone when Seth called him. "Mom, he's sitting in front of the Christmas store". He went all the way over there because he remembered we said we were going there next.
We all get over there and he is casually sitting at a table just chillin. Blaggghhhh!
It ends up he was ok, but for the rest of the trip I felt that we couldn't let him wander off on his own.

While we were there I wanted to pick up my large Mickey Mouse head ornament I get each year, and the 7DMT ear ornament (that @riverside offered to bring home a month ago), and that I told her oh don't bother I'll get one next month.
They told me at MK that the 50th large Mickey ornament would be available at the Disney Springs Christmas store.
They are all extra large size liars.

Not only didn't they have the 50th but they didn't have another single large Mickey head ornament when they usually have several styles to pick from. I was told as I saw on someone else's trip report on here, it would be about 18 months from now till they are restocked. I'm picturing all of those Mickey heads bobbing in the ocean as they try to escape the cargo ships.

So, I did what I absolutely resent doing, and am aware it just perpetuates the problem, I bought both on Ebay.
And it really sucks the fun out of a souvenir of your trip when you know some pirate had it in their grubby paws.
This is the 50th that I coveted so badly. And the 7DMT, that had I taken @riverside up on her generous offer to haul it back, it would have actually come from the MK. In my defense on that one, I thought it was much larger and didn't want her to have to lug it home.

I did actually get these at the Christmas store in MK. Aleisha found them for me. Love the vintage look.

So not only did we lose Gary but the Christmas store was a big bust.
Before we went into the store I suggested to Seth that he head back and start packing and that we would follow to see him off.

We left the Christmas store and headed back to the buses. We passed by Ghirardelli's and Aleisha and Gary wanted an icecream.
So after what was a stressful hour or so, Grandpap had fun giving Una not only her first taste of icecream, but Ghiradelli's!

After getting icecream we were able to walk without racing since Seth had gone ahead of us. He did txt us to tell us he waited at least 20 minutes for a bus.
This was a neat mural on a wall by WOD.

We waited a fair amount of time for a bus also. Luckily we were first in line so we were able to sit on the ride back. This one came by while we waited.

When we got back Seth had mostly packed up his gear and it was time to say goodbye.
Una loves her Uncle Seth.

We walked him down to see him off. As he is maturing, I'm getting to the point where I am more sad than happy to see him go!
Bye guy, safe travels!

After this long day, Aleisha and Julio have a date night tonight!

 

[Swissmiss]

Even before I read it, in my mind I said “OMG - her crew is like trying to herd cats”

And I can’t imagine how stressful it would be to have someone with minor cognitive issues at a place as large and crowded as WDW. I hope you are managing to find some time to recharge while dealing with Gary’s health issues - even strong women need someone to lean on from time to time

 

[Minnesota disney fan]

Sorry for the flood of "likes", Loves," and Wow's". I' m just now catching up on your awesome TR. I absolutely love the pictures of little Una. She seems like a little doll. It looks like such a fun,, family trip for you all. I'm so glad Gary got to go too, even though he was tired and struggling at times. He looked like he thoroughly enjoyed his little Una Can't wait for the rest of the TR.

 

[MickeyCB]

Even before I read it, in my mind I said “OMG - her crew is like trying to herd cats”

And I can’t imagine how stressful it would be to have someone with minor cognitive issues at a place as large and crowded as WDW. I hope you are managing to find some time to recharge while dealing with Gary’s health issues - even strong women need someone to lean on from time to time

It was all unexpected and so I was very unprepared.
And when you've been married for a verrryyy long time you don't always know when some one is trying to get on your nerves vs a real problem is brewing.

 

[MickeyCB]

Sorry for the flood of "likes", Loves," and Wow's". I' m just now catching up on your awesome TR. I absolutely love the pictures of little Una. She seems like a little doll. It looks like such a fun,, family trip for you all. I'm so glad Gary got to go too, even though he was tired and struggling at times. He looked like he thoroughly enjoyed his little Una Can't wait for the rest of the TR.

So glad you're here and following!
And I feel bad for how many photos of her I am posting, and realized as I am writing this how many we took of her and maybe not enough of the parks etc.
It was a fun trip, but it felt hectic. I'm not sure how to slow these trips down. I frequently leave with that same feeling.

 

[Swissmiss]

So glad you're here and following!
And I feel bad for how many photos of her I am posting, and realized as I am writing this how many we took of her and maybe not enough of the parks etc.
It was a fun trip, but it felt hectic. I'm not sure how to slow these trips down. I frequently leave with that same feeling.

We’ve all seen pictures of the parks - many times. But pictures of Una are unique

 

[MickeyCB]

Day 5 is finishing up!

Tonight as a treat for Aleisha and Julio I booked them dinner at the California grill just for fun and to celebrate their 2nd wedding anniversary that was 2 days before the trip. I had asked Seth and Gary and neither one wanted to attend so it was just them.

We offered to baby sit. But, I will confess to being a failure at baby sitting the 2 prior times I offered. I don't know if it's concern with following the mom's rules or just not having taken care of a baby for a long time. I do know with travel concerns with Covid and issues with Gary's health, we have not been able to see her nearly as often as we would like and aren't getting that concentrated grandparent time that would help us get to know her routine and such.
The first time was we drove up to meet them in Michigan when Una was 4 months, having offered to babysit while they went to a wedding. The problem was I offered to keep her over night and at midnight she was still wide awake playing games with Gary and I had to return her. And then when they came home in August she was just in a crossover with nursing and food and I was afraid she would starve while Aleisha met her friend for breakfast!

Anyway, I was determined to redeem myself. So I was given explicit directions on how to bathe, feed, read and get a baby down to sleep.
It was awful.
This is my little boo bear, in jail, sobbing her heart out. They were those deep, can't catch your breath cries.
I was warned by the mom to not go in or everything would fall apart.
So for 20 heart wrenching minutes I watched her sob, and how this is possible I have no idea, but she was sitting up at the end, sleeping and somehow not falling over!
When she finally did flop over I was afraid she was going to suffocate but then I have a little video of her finally laying on her side with those horrible, sniff, sniff, sniff noises you make after a hard cry.
I decided to go with the advice of my good friend from med school, "if they're crying they're breathing".

In the meantime this was Gary helping. Enjoying the popcorn we brought him back from the Boo Bash the night before.

Then Aleisha sent this pic that made it all worthwhile!
They were so excited. They said when they were being taken to their table that they just kept walking and walking and were so delighted when they were seated here!
Their reservation was for 7:20 so it worked out perfectly. They went out to watch the fireworks at some point during their dinner, as apparently did a lot of the other diners.

And it was hilarious, they know my obsession with paper and were able to bring me home those 50th commemorative menus. She said they were going to lie and tell me they stole them for me so I would be more appreciative of their efforts. But, they decided to fess up. I don't accept (most) stolen goods.
This by the way is a picture of my paper loot from the trip. Those Halloween tattoos are the ones we got from the Boo Bash event.

After Una finally fell asleep I sat out on the balcony enjoying the sites. I caught the tail end of the Water Pageant and the monorails had lights under them as part of the 50th celebration.

I had mentioned before that one of Julio's main goals was to try and sample the food and drinks at Epcot and they were considering going over there after dinner. But, as it turns out their dinner lasted fairly long and they decided they were done for the evening.
It was a shame because it was one of the nights Epcot was open late to some resort guests.
They also said that their dinner, the drinks and appetizers were absolutely delicious!

I decided after my traumatic babysitting episode that I was tired and headed to bed. Tomorrow is our last full day and we're headed back to AK since Julio didn't get to see it yet.

 

[MickeyCB]

DAY 6 AK DAY, AGAIN

We woke up and took our time getting rolling. I of course could be found, you guessed it, watching the sun come up on the monorails!
This would be our last day to enjoy the balcony and view.
That just doesn't get old.

Everyone woke up and joined me on the balcony. It would be our last day to see these guys till December.

We had a breakfast reservation for Whispering Canyon and decided to cancel it when Gary wasn't feeling so well. In retrospect I wish I had kept it because Gary absolutely adores MT the waitress there. I don't know if she returned post covid, but she was always there for breakfast in the past. This was taken during my birthday trip in 2019.

We ordered food from the Contempo again and I went and got it and we ate in the room. It was pretty good for quick service in my opinion.

I forgot that we had brought Una unicorn ears and tried them on her. Those stayed on her head exactly 32 seconds.

That's ok. Stitch really like them!

We got dressed and headed down to the bus stop to catch the bus to AK. Bus service wasn't too bad this week. I think maybe we waited 15 minutes, maybe 20 minutes at the max for various buses. We like to use Uber a lot when we are there, but with the baby we stuck to Disney transportation.
I really wish they would set up some kind of queue system. It drives me bonkers when the bus pulls up and people just rush the doors, even if you've been waiting before them.

Again with the climbing! Her birthday is in 2 weeks and Aleisha said 2 of her friends are chipping in on a climbing thing for her which should be perfect!

We entered the park and headed to one of the family's favorites. The Safari!

 

[MickeyCB]

Day 6 AK day continues...

We got on the Safari with a minimal wait, maybe 15 minutes.
I don't remember what animal or animals that were here but Una went nuts over them! Aleisha had a time trying to keep her restrained.
It was such a joy watching her enjoy the new sites and sounds. And while they haven't kept Una completely isolated with the pandemic, she certainly hasn't had the normal first year that a baby gets to enjoy.

Aleisha face timed with me yesterday and Una (who isn't one year old yet), was climbing to the top of the jungle gym thing at the park and laughing with 2 little boys who were there. Simple pleasures.

By the time we finished the Safari she had passed out again. It was really hot so Aleisha very gently unwrapped her from the baby carry thing and got her to sleep in the buggy.

With her sleeping we took a leisurely walk towards Pandora to ride FOP.
We ran into these guys on our way over.
I love these little mini shows they've put together.

We got over to Pandora and found a shaded area right outside the Canteen and parked it.
Aleisha and Julio rode FOP first while Gary and I watched the kid.

She. Does. Not. Stop.
We wrangled her into the buggy where she played for a little while.

Then she found a rain poncho. She was waving it back and forth at Gary. "Look Grandpap, we're good if it rains"!!

Grandpap, you want a cheerio"?
They really are buddies!

Gary and I then took our turn riding and I'm glad he got to ride it again. It is currently his favorite ride at Disney.
When we came out Aleisha and Julio had got a beer or two, and a large Mickey pretzel. We sat and enjoyed that for a few minutes. (Actually we enjoyed it), we had to practically shove some down Gary's throat as he was refusing to eat or drink any of it. Aleisha said, "Dad, when have you not liked a pretzel and beer"?! He finally grudgingly ate a small chunk.

After that we went into the store by the exit. I talked him into these 2 shirts. He almost never buys himself anything. And it is funny, today I wasn't paying attention, but he pointed out to me that he was wearing the green shirt.

 

[MickeyCB]

Day 6 AK day continues..

After that we rode NRJ. Una was fascinated with the lights, music and particularly liked the Shaman animatronic.

Aleisha took this of us. I think it's a nice photo.

This is what a lot of the photos that didn't make the trip report really looked like!
Ahhh good times!

We walked over to Dinosaur which they all rode while Una and I hung out. Then we headed out of the park as we had a dinner reservation to get to.
We stopped at the Mercantile stores for a quick look because Seth had asked us to pick him up the AK Starbucks 50th mug. He had collected the other 3 after our first AK day and asked us to grab one for him. Aleisha was told they were only sold at the Starbucks so she ran over there and Una and I went into the store where surprisingly I found one of the large Mickey Mouse head ornaments I love. Odd place to find one but I grabbed it.
What was even more fun is that I didn't realize till I got it home that it lights up!! That was a delightful surprise!

After this we stopped for some quick photo pass photos at Aleisha's insistence. Me, queen of photos, was annoyed because we were cutting it close to our reservation time and she (while it annoys her to do so, will admit that she is chronically late).
But, I'm glad we did and will post them next.

Right now I have to stop and go watch my Steelers. They are visiting @Minnesota disney fan's home turf tonight!

 

[Back!Elbow!Shoulders!]

Anyway, I was determined to redeem myself. So I was given explicit directions on how to bathe, feed, read and get a baby down to sleep.
It was awful.
This is my little boo bear, in jail, sobbing her heart out. They were those deep, can't catch your breath cries.
I was warned by the mom to not go in or everything would fall apart.
So for 20 heart wrenching minutes I watched her sob, and how this is possible I have no idea, but she was sitting up at the end, sleeping and somehow not falling over!
When she finally did flop over I was afraid she was going to suffocate but then I have a little video of her finally laying on her side with those horrible, sniff, sniff, sniff noises you make after a hard cry.
I decided to go with the advice of my good friend from med school, "if they're crying they're breathing"..

I felt this post very hard. We started sleep training this week. It is awful. (But it seems to be working.)

And although I don’t think either of them would admit it to us I think both of lil BES’s grandmas have had similar experiences to yours while babysitting. Even the grandma that sees her pretty regularly.

 

[Swissmiss]

I felt this post very hard. We started sleep training this week. It is awful. (But it seems to be working.)

And although I don’t think either of them would admit it to us I think both of lil BES’s grandmas have had similar experiences to yours while babysitting. Even the grandma that sees her pretty regularly.

Reading both posts, I have to be honest and say I was blessed when it came to my DD going to sleep - from day 1 she just went to sleep when I put her down. The universe however decided that consequently I would need to suffer during her teenage years … I would have preferred a poor sleeper

 

[cgersic]

Yes, the photos are fabulous and I'm glad you added the "real life" one. It really made me laugh out loud.

 

[MickeyCB]

I felt this post very hard. We started sleep training this week. It is awful. (But it seems to be working.)

And although I don’t think either of them would admit it to us I think both of lil BES’s grandmas have had similar experiences to yours while babysitting. Even the grandma that sees her pretty regularly.

They had to do the sleep training with Una a few months back. I'm not a hundred percent sure but it sounds a lot like what we did back in the day. That was to just let them cry while you held a pillow over your head!!
But, in all seriousness, they also said it worked within a week or so.

And thanks for the grandma comment. It's weird when you're a grandparent because you think to yourself, we obviously did this before, what's the problem now?

 

[MickeyCB]

Reading both posts, I have to be honest and say I was blessed when it came to my DD going to sleep - from day 1 she just went to sleep when I put her down. The universe however decided that consequently I would need to suffer during her teenage years … I would have preferred a poor sleeper

I'm guessing with the stories you've told of your relationship and the sensibility of this girl that she'll be yours again soon!

 

[MickeyCB]

Yes, the photos are fabulous and I'm glad you added the "real life" one. It really made me laugh out loud.

Sort of like a trip report blooper section!

 

[MickeyCB]

Day 6 AK day continues...

As we were leaving the park we stopped for a few (a lot) photo pass photos.

And commentary from Una. What in the heck are you people doing?!

And one very epic Lion King fail!

And from earlier in Pandora. A photo pass photographer happened by when I was trying to take what turned into our bloopers and offered to take these.

 

[MickeyCB]

Day 6 Off to Boma!

This was one of those wild runs to the bus moments.
As we rounded the bend to the bus stops a bus for the AK lodge was waiting.
We put our plan into action!
We ran (sort of), I threw bags at people, Julio swooped down and grabbed Una and as we approached the bus folded the stroller! I think we looked like one of the Nascar pit crews personally!

I didn't realize that our reservation coincided with the restaurant opening for the evening. We probably only waited about 5 minutes and were seated.
By the time we left the waiting area was packed.
We've eaten at Boma before. I thought it was good, but not sure how memorable I would rate it this time. There are certainly lots of items to choose from and I'm very happy to say that I finally got to eat one of the zebra domes and it was delicious. .

This was taken on our way out, back towards the buffet.

We stopped in the resort store on our way out but didn't see anything of interest.
We then walked down to the bus stop to wait on a MK bus. We figured we would walk from the bus stop at MK back to BayLake.

Their bus stop has areas divided for the different busses. But, a bus was pulling up with an Epcot sign on it so we ignored it. Then all of a sudden realized it changed to MK! We didn't quite have to do the Nascar thing again. The bus was super crowded. I'm assuming it stopped at the first AK bus stop before ours.

But, at Disney I've always said, I would rather be standing on a bus headed to my location, than standing stationary waiting for another!

I will say that one of the things that burns my buns is when a family will have really small children take up a whole seat when the bus is full instead of picking up a kid and putting them on your lap. Totally grinds my gears. And this did occur on this bus. Rant over.

We got to chatting with a nice family on the way over and this young mom offered Gary her seat, he refused, and we all stood talking during our trip to MK.
It turns out they were headed to MK for a Boo Bash event and I was jealous. Gary was feeling reasonably well that night, it was sunny and probably only 70 degrees! Oh well.

We got to MK, said goodbye to our new friends and headed back to the resort.
Aleisha and Julio's ME pickup was for 6:20am the next morning so they were going to pack up.

I was the baby sitter while they packed. Una was having a blast with the empty boxes and paper. She found the roll of paper towels under the counter.
"Grandma," she says, "these are 2 ply!"

The funniest part happened next. You really can't trust this Grandma too much. You see the Landshark box in the picture above?
I step away for literally 3 seconds and look back and she has her arm jammed through the hand hole with the box stuck on her arm. She's flailing around like a racoon in a trap! But, surprisingly not yelling or crying. Just had a, get this off of me look.

After they got a good dent in their packing we sat on the balcony for our last night of fireworks.

I have the absolute cutest little video of Una standing on Aleisha's lap. Every time there was a burst she would sort of make a running motion with flapping arms and also make an accompanying noise, sort of like a motorcycle engine. It was hilarious! I don't know how to post a video or would put it on here.

After that they did a little more packing and I did some as well. We would be leaving later than them, but I wanted to get a head start on our packing.
And then we hit the hay. Boy those king beds feel good after a long Disney day!
Tomorrow is our last day and we'll head to MK one more time before we depart.