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!

 

[Songbird76]

AK day cont.

We said our goodbyes to our friends and headed off to dinner. We didn't have far to go.
We went to the Rainforest Cafe about 20 feet away.
This was outside on the sidewalk and I almost missed it buzzing around.
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I can take or leave the Rainforest but Gary loves it and he thought Una would like it. He was correct she really enjoyed the fish tanks. I don't think she could really see the animals too well from our table.
The food was ok. What has become a recurring problem is Gary not eating and having weight loss. He ate about 10% of his meal. By the end of the trip he lost another 3 lbs.

We took a bus and went back to the room where Una took a little power, let's not be a monster, nap. But as Aleisha was also trying to keep her up a little more at night to hopefully sleep better we decided to walk over to the MK to take Una on It's a Small World.

Silly silly us. We arrived at the gates just as the fireworks were starting, and as it was a Boo Bash night, tons of people were already in the park, with a lot more arriving.
I was worried about how Una would react to the loud noises, but our fearless girl did this.
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Another of my favorite trip pics, this is what she was seeing!
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So we proceeded to act like salmon and swim north. Holy crowds Batman! It was solid humans from the train station to the castle with an itty bitty space on the right to walk towards the castle. I noticed the 50th store was open and not a single customer, so I grabbed Seth one of Star Bucks mugs they have for each park. He is a huge mug collector. It took me 2 minutes max. Our goal was to try to get to the ride before the park closed for regular hours and it literally felt like some kind of gladiator run!

We found one cross walk just as the crowd started to break up. I grabbed this shot as we were bolting across.
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We took a left at Casey's despite the encouragement of the CM's to go the other direction. They formed a human chain with those lights you see with people on the right heading to the castle, and people on the left towards the front of the park.
We finally broke free in front of the castle and swung to the left.
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We hung a right at the Hall of Presidents area and then another right up the hill (it was a small mountain in my estimation by now).
We threw the stoller in a parking area and made it to the entrance with about 3 minutes to spare. The CM waved us in and down the ramp we went.
We jumped onto an almost empty boat and I proceeded to have one of the best moments of my life.
As the boat entered the water and made the bend to the first of the doll scenes, little Una took her right hand and turned it palm up, as if "look at this"!!!! And she didn't move for the entire ride except to swivel her head non stop!
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And there boys and girls is why you have kids. So you can hopefully get one of these!!!

After that hectic run in, we were corralled to exit the park and we walked back to Bay Lake.
When we got to the parking lot I called Seth to stand in front of our windows because I was curious how high we were up from the outside. He grumbled but did it. Don't know if you can see him way up at the top, 4 floors down roughly center. I circled it on my phone pic but it didn't stay. Aleisha was also giving me the "come on Mom" sign. Whatever.
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When we got back Seth played with Una a little. He decided to sleep on the living room rollout because the night before when he slept in the 2nd bedroom Una apparently cried/screamed at 3 am for about 20 minutes and he was all, "nope" for tonight! Bay Lake has some nice thick walls and I didn't hear anything. He enjoys his niece. He only got to meet her in August but they seem to have bonded fairly quickly.
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I'm out of my picture allowance, so I will add one more separately.

Does food taste weird to Gary? When my mom was going through chemo, she said a lot of things tasted off, like some things had a metallic taste to her. She didn't want to eat much either.

Edit: I see you already discussed this. We ended up just feeding mom whatever sounded good to her, even if it was just a piece of blueberry pie, just to get her to eat SOMETHING. Hopefully you can find something that works for him!

 

[MickeyCB]

I'm joining in fabulously late, but I'm curious about these sexy vampire books. Do tell about your favorites.

Songbird I was waiting for you to comment on the book comment!
I can't say or would probably lose my good girl rep!
(And ps, glad you're here)!

 

[MickeyCB]

Does food taste weird to Gary? When my mom was going through chemo, she said a lot of things tasted off, like some things had a metallic taste to her. She didn't want to eat much either.

Edit: I see you already discussed this. We ended up just feeding mom whatever sounded good to her, even if it was just a piece of blueberry pie, just to get her to eat SOMETHING. Hopefully you can find something that works for him!

Yep, at this point calories be calories!
But, it's very hard for my Dr head to see him eating ice cream and popcorn for dinner. We've had some rip roarin battles.

 

[MickeyCB]

Doing as well enough as a mom with teen drama can be doing . I just have to keep telling myself one day she will realize that the world is not out to get her and she might actually become again the sweet kid thst she once was.

It's so hard waiting for that moment when they realize you actually know things.

 

[Songbird76]

Songbird I was waiting for you to comment on the book comment!
I can't say or would probably lose my good girl rep!
(And ps, glad you're here)!

What can I say....I love books!! I know it's controversial, but I am a Twilight fan, and I read some Vampire Diaries before the TV series came out, which I never watched. I liked the first few, but lost interest when I had to wait for more to come out, so I never finished. And there was another one I read the first 3....I had to look it up because I couldn't for the life of me remember what they were called.....Sookie Stackhouse, by Charlaine Harris, but I didn't like those. That series has SOOOOO many books in it. I have a friend who was reading them and she said the writing was better than Twilight, so I tried them, but I just didn't like the plot lines. So many great books in the world, not enough time, so why waste it with books you don't enjoy?

 

[Songbird76]

Yep, at this point calories be calories!
But, it's very hard for my Dr head to see him eating ice cream and popcorn for dinner. We've had some rip roarin battles.

I'm sorry. That must be rough for all of you.

 

[MickeyCB]

DAY 4-HOLLYWOOD STUDIOS, AM

I woke up nice and early and got to do my favorite thing again. And that was to enjoy a cup of coffee on the balcony! (I adore balcony rooms if you haven't figured this out by now)!! I make the coffee the night before and it only takes a few minutes till it's ready and I go out for a few minutes of peace and quiet before we roll!

It's funny, because we've stayed on both sides of Bay Lake Towers and while this side is considered the "preferred" view because it's category is theme park, you definitely see a lot of parking lot. The lake side is just that the lake. But, I realized on this trip I pretty much ignored the parking lot, and loved watching the boats and monorails.
Oddly, one of my favorite other things is to hear the large boat horns, but I rarely heard them this trip. Not sure why.

We were all getting ready and Seth got recruited to give Una her breakfast. Believe it or not, he actually likes helping with her. This look was just them being irritated with me taking photos! On his IG account he had a similar pic of the 2 of them with a caption that says something like "POV we're judging you"!

We went down to the bus stop and didn't have to wait too long for a bus. I have a cute video of Una playing peek a boo but I don't know how to post videos.

This was a day where not all of our plans went off without a hitch. There were lots of hitches, but on this trip for the first time in forever, I think I learned to let it go a little better than I normally do!
We headed into the park and I was able to get the crew, who wasn't too tired yet, to take a few photopass photos.

But first, a non photopass photo of Una trying to get Uncle Seth to "smell my feet"! One of us is not amused.

And, not everyone understood the assignment!
But this is another of my favorite pics!

After our photoshoot we headed towards Toy Story Land to try to ride SDD.
Mickey makes an appearance!
Little over dressed in the 90 degree heat in my opinion....

SDD was down and they had no idea how long it would be so we decided to take our time and wander to GE where we had an early Oga's reservation. (10:55). Going with the idea that it's 5:00 somewhere!

I was so excited for Julio to see GE because he is a huge Star Wars fan, but he is also die hard original Star Wars.
Would the land and Oga's win him over? He loved it!

Next up a nice respite at Oga's!

 

[SandiSmiles]

You have a beautiful family, and I am really enjoying your trip report!

 

[MickeyCB]

You have a beautiful family, and I am really enjoying your trip report!

Thank you, and thanks for following along!

 

[cgersic]

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This is soooo fabulous in so many ways!!! Love it!

 

[erstwo]

Enjoying your report! I love your granddaughter's name. I received my undergraduate degree from the University of North Alabama (UNA) and UNA has had a live lion mascot (Leo) since the 1970's. In 2003, we got our first female lion mascot and she was named "Una"!

 

[Spash007]

I joined in late, but really enjoying! Also, I have to say Seth seems like a great uncle!

 

[MickeyCB]

This is soooo fabulous in so many ways!!! Love it!

Thanks! It is amazing how hard it was to get everyone actually paying attention and get a decent photo!

 

[MickeyCB]

Enjoying your report! I love your granddaughter's name. I received my undergraduate degree from the University of North Alabama (UNA) and UNA has had a live lion mascot (Leo) since the 1970's. In 2003, we got our first female lion mascot and she was named "Una"!

Thanks for following!
And that is an awesome story about your mascot, and may well portend our future with our little lioness!
The origins of her name are apparently Irish. I believe there are several interpretations but they picked it as Una was a fairy (Sidhe) queen I believe.
As I've indicated several times in this trip report, I'm thinking her personality is leaning more towards your lion!

 

[MickeyCB]

I joined in late, but really enjoying! Also, I have to say Seth seems like a great uncle!

So glad you're here!
And he is really good with her.

 

[MickeyCB]

Hollywood Studios, cont.

We sauntered over to Oga's and checked in. I've learned if you go up to one of the CM's at the entrance and ask nicely (and are willing to wait), that you can get a booth. Standing for 45 minutes or so at a table wasn't going to work very well with Gary. (And if I'm honest I don't really like it either).

An interesting thing they've done since last year is split the booths in 2 with a plexiglass divider and while it was a little squished for us, all 4 adults and the baby fit on one half with Julio seated on a little stool in front of our side.

The nice CM took our photo when we asked.
And since it's Thanksgiving day as I type this, a toast to all of the Magicians out there!
We can play a little matching game. I don't remember who was drinking what, but the names of the drinks were-Bloody Rancor, Dagobah Slug Slinge, Fuzzy Taun Taun, Gold Squadron Lager, a Jet Juice and a Jabba Juice (that one was mine)!

Little Una while not a perfect sleeper will crash most anywhere!

We also ordered one of the Batuu Bits and a Charcuterie Board. I liked most of the things offered on these.

Mickey got to visit Oga's with us!

And a very funny one. Una woke up as we were finishing and Aleisha and Julio took her on a loop around the bar.
Una felt like she didn't get her share of the libations! "Hey barkeep"!!!
This pic is off of Aleisha's IG.

Now I have to go pretend to help cook the bird. (I am admittedly totally spoiled and Gary cooks all of the big stuff)!

 

[Back!Elbow!Shoulders!]

Hollywood Studios, cont.

We sauntered over to Oga's and checked in. I've learned if you go up to one of the CM's at the entrance and ask nicely (and are willing to wait), that you can get a booth. Standing for 45 minutes or so at a table wasn't going to work very well with Gary. (And if I'm honest I don't really like it either).

An interesting thing they've done since last year is split the booths in 2 with a plexiglass divider and while it was a little squished for us, all 4 adults and the baby fit on one half with Julio seated on a little stool in front of our side.
View attachment 602858

The nice CM took our photo when we asked.
And since it's Thanksgiving day as I type this, a toast to all of the Magicians out there!
We can play a little matching game. I don't remember who was drinking what, but the names of the drinks were-Bloody Rancor, Dagobah Slug Slinge, Fuzzy Taun Taun, Gold Squadron Lager, a Jet Juice and a Jabba Juice (that one was mine)!
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Little Una while not a perfect sleeper will crash most anywhere!
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We also ordered one of the Batuu Bits and a Charcuterie Board. I liked most of the things offered on these.
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Mickey got to visit Oga's with us!
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And a very funny one. Una woke up as we were finishing and Aleisha and Julio took her on a loop around the bar.
Una felt like she didn't get her share of the libations! "Hey barkeep"!!!
This pic is off of Aleisha's IG.
View attachment 602867

Now I have to go pretend to help cook the bird. (I am admittedly totally spoiled and Gary cooks all of the big stuff)!

That pic of Una at the bar is priceless.

 

[MickeyCB]

That pic of Una at the bar is priceless.

Thanks, Apparently the bartender and a few of the nearby patrons were all going along with it!

 

[LisaBelle]

Finally got caught up with your TR! Loved the pics of Una on It’s a Small World, at Chef Mickey’s and Oga’s! She is a cutie! I’m looking forward to the rest of your report!

 

[riverside]

I think the green onions on the charcuterie board are amazingly good!!
That picture of Una is the best!!