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).
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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.
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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.
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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.
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She did seem to perk up to her usual nosy self once they were on board!
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One thing you will notice this trip is a disproportionate amount of baby pictures! 🤣
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Seth headed down from Georgia, deciding to drive.
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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.
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And Grandpap and Una's airport meet up!!
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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!
 

donaldtoo

Well-Known Member
You are the reason I got up the courage to take a baby this young on the trip. Still love the pic of your granddaughter on the Jungle Cruise! (I think that was her, correct)?

Oh my, thank you so much…!!! :)
And, yes, that is indeed Emy in the Jungle Cruise pic…!!!!! :happy:
So funny, because after I posted here, I was inspired to re-read my entire TR from that day, earlier…!!!!! :inlove:

Edit…May as well include the pic…..!!! :) 😉

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MickeyCB

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Before I begin our day 2 AK adventures I forgot to show you Una's reaction to Gary giving her a Steeler bear he brought for her. They had visited us in August and Gary gave her a bear then that she loved. But when she got home her dog Hera decided to eat it. She seems happy with this one!
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There may or may not have been a few more stuffed things purchased for our girl on this trip. (I didn't tell Aleisha this ahead of time because she yells at me for buying too much stuff for Una), but I had Seth bring a cardboard box along that I anticipated they might need headed back to Sac!😬

And one more pic (and the explanation for my nickname for this kid, crazy girl), is her testing out her crib for sturdiness before she was willing to sleep in it! Some of the pics I'm using in this report were screen shots off of my kids IG accounts, hence the words.
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And now off to AK!
 

donaldtoo

Well-Known Member
Before I begin our day 2 AK adventures I forgot to show you Una's reaction to Gary giving her a Steeler bear he brought for her. They had visited us in August and Gary gave her a bear then that she loved. But when she got home her dog Hera decided to eat it. She seems happy with this one!
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There may or may not have been a few more stuffed things purchased for our girl on this trip. (I didn't tell Aleisha this ahead of time because she yells at me for buying too much stuff for Una), but I had Seth bring a cardboard box along that I anticipated they might need headed back to Sac!😬

And one more pic (and the explanation for my nickname for this kid, crazy girl), is her testing out her crib for sturdiness before she was willing to sleep in it! Some of the pics I'm using in this report were screen shots off of my kids IG accounts, hence the words.
View attachment 598916

And now off to AK!

“Karate Kiddo”…?!!!!! :hilarious: 😉
 

MickeyCB

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
DAY 2-ANIMAL KINGDOM

I got up reasonably early to do one of my absolute favorite things at Disney.
And that is to have coffee on the balcony and watch the world wake up. (See what I did there)!🤣
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The sky changed color fairly rapidly. It was so pretty to watch.
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Pretty soon the crew was (mostly) up joining me for coffee.
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We got dressed in our appropriate AK gear and headed off to AK. We were meeting Aleisha's college roommate and her daughter for the day. It's a great story. Aleisha was team mates with this gal and one other and they have remained friends since. They all 3 had baby girls in 2020 within 4 months of each other!
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We met R (mom) and baby J at the front of the park, and look what she had for them to wear!! She got the moms and the babies matching T's and onesies! It was so cute!
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We decided since there was going to be a great deal of walking at this park and even though it was October it was about a 1000 degrees with humidity, that Gary would benefit from using a wheel chair. This went over like the proverbial object in the punch bowl. I can walk, I don't need it, etc. etc. We prevailed but it was painful.
Last year we discovered that Gary gets hypotensive and a little confused in the heat and with standing, and this actually worsened at home in the 1-2 weeks before the trip. So we used a combination of the wheel chair, lots of liquids (that he would refuse like a toddler) and we used the DAS pass again. Which turned out to be a life/trip saver because even with these things each day was shortened due to both baby and Gary fatigue.

Now a fun pic. Sarcasm. Ever try to get a bunch of people and babies to all smile, cooperate and look at the camera at this same time?
There was no lie 22 pics snapped by the poor CM who offered to take these, and this was the best of the bunch.
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We went over to FOP first and Aleisha, R and Gary rode first while Seth and I were on baby duty.
J was super chill, Una-not so much! When they came off of the ride, we rode.
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We mobile ordered and didn't have to wait too long, for lunch at Satuli Canteen. This was a wonderful respite from the heat. And again with all of the crazy I didn't even take one food pic. But I know we all got a bowl of some sort. Mine was the chicken one which I love. And of course we had both the blue and brown desserts!

After that we walked over to ride the Kilmanjaro Safaris and where I got almost no animal pictures but did get what would be one of my absolute favorite photos of the trip. This is Una seeing a bunch of giraffes hanging out under a tree. Mind blown!
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Little commentary on the philosophy of "taking your kids to Disney when they'll remember it". Every family will and should do what works best for them. Mine were 3 1/2 yrs each and what I thought was a fabulous age for enjoying/ functioning etc. They don't remember that, at all. (I barely do without the photos serving as reminders). But, I've got the pics and we had a blast at the time.
Una won't remember this the day after. But, she certainly responded to the many things she saw, and enjoyed so much. (And we enjoyed her reactions). It was a decision I will never regret.

Now J slept through a lot of the ride but when she woke Una decided to greet her with a kiss!
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After about 6 tries Gary decided to give a fake smile a try. (You don't want to see the other 5)
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After this we headed towards Everest.
 

MickeyCB

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
I'm in too. Glad I made page 2. Baby Girl is adorable, but the balcony pic had me reaching for blood pressure meds. Crazy girl is fearless! Hope Gary is well. He looks great in the pics. Cancer stinks (I'd say worse, but family forum).
Glad you're here, and yes my daughter took one look at that and was scolding me like I had something to do with the construction of the place!
Cancer does stink, and my sailor mouth has said quite a bit worse here at home!
 
Following!
WoW that baby is a wild one! 😂

I agree with you on the « take your kids to Disney whenever you feel like it » mantra…
My daughter’s first trip was before she turned two and everyone was telling us we should wait until she remembers more… but we have such fond memories of her being amazed at everything (and one million beautiful pics to remember!) plus her big brother was at that perfect age where everything is magical… had we waited, we would have never known how beautiful (yet tiring…) a trip with young kids can be! We are so glad we went when we had the chance, and it looks like the same for you!

Looking forward to reading more!
 

MickeyCB

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Following!
WoW that baby is a wild one! 😂

I agree with you on the « take your kids to Disney whenever you feel like it » mantra…
My daughter’s first trip was before she turned two and everyone was telling us we should wait until she remembers more… but we have such fond memories of her being amazed at everything (and one million beautiful pics to remember!) plus her big brother was at that perfect age where everything is magical… had we waited, we would have never known how beautiful (yet tiring…) a trip with young kids can be! We are so glad we went when we had the chance, and it looks like the same for you!

Looking forward to reading more!
She certainly is!
I'll bet you had a great time!
And, thanks for following along, more crazy to come!
 

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