Trip Report Baby's 1st WDW Trip, Limo Ride, Stay at AOA and, Well, Just About Everything Else!

Well, hello there! This trip report is for our trip we took April 21-27. I know, late much? Between this trip and now, we had ANOTHER WDW trip, 2 birthdays, including a 1st birthday extravaganza, and busy days working and wrangling a toddler. I also wanted to have all the days posted on my blog first so I could make sure I had all my details straight and in order before posting here...mommy brain is in full effect over here!

I did post a Pre-trip report a while back, but most of the actual plans got rearranged once we were in WDW, so read at your own risk: http://forums.wdwmagic.com/threads/...-member-new-fantasyland-and-aoa-a-ptr.863451/

I'll start out with a repeat of the cast of this trip:

Me (Lynn) and my husband (Brett)
I'm a CPA and the planner of the family. He's a photographer and perpetual winner of Buzz Lightyear and Toy Story Mania. We live about 3.5 hours from WDW and are annual passholders and Tables in Wonderland members.

Trent: Our son was 10 months old when we went on this trip. It was his first WDW trip and trip in general. We are working hard to make him a Disney fanatic...one trip, and ridiculously adorable and cheesy photo at a time.

Day -1: Saturday

The day before our trip is Day minus 1…just a quick note about getting ready…

For the first time in as long as I can remember, we gave ourselves a day to prepare for our trip, instead of going the very next day after working. Well, I gave myself a day to prepare…Brett had a wedding to shoot for most of the day, so it was me and Trent holding down the fort.

And boy was he a needy little fella all day. I thought I never had enough time to prepare for trips before? HA! I had to pack and clean with him in my left arm for half the day…I’m surprised that arm doesn’t look like one of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s arms – Mr. Olympia style. Then, he wouldn’t take his naps without me being there, either. I guess it was nice the first time I got to nap with him

I was exhausted by the end of the day.

It’s like they know you have stuff to do, so they turn into this…



After a day of preparing, it was also nice to know we weren’t waking up at 4 in the morning like we usually do, so it meant that we might get at least a few hours of sleep. {Ha! Yeah, right!}



Day 1: Sunday

Like I just mentioned, it was nice to NOT be leaving at 3-4 in the morning to make it for rope-drop on the first day. Normally, we don’t see the point in paying for a hotel for a night if we won’t be there until late at night after work, so we tend to just leave really early on our first day.

This time, since we had planned on Trent’s first ever day at Disney World to be at Magic Kingdom on Monday, we left Sunday for travel, IKEA, checking in and dinner…a relaxing “get settled in” type of day.

I woke up around 7:30 to get ready and finish some of the last packing items that I didn’t get to do the night before. Then, Brett and Trent woke up shortly after. We wanted to leave by 9am, but in typical Svenson-family fashion, we left an hour later at 10. Adding getting Trent ready and feeding him to the mix, I knew we weren’t going to leave on time. When we say we want to leave at a particular time, we should just go ahead and add an hour to it from the get-go.

We hit up the drive-thru at McDonald’s (darn you Chick-Fil-A for being closed on Sundays!) for breakfast on the go. We purchased a season’s worth of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse to play on the iPad for Trent. We set up the iPad right in front of him and he watched about 2-3 episodes before falling asleep. Our road-trip was going great so far!

 

[Lynn1030]

On our way down Main Street, we stopped to watch a few minutes of the parade so Trent could see the lights and then we headed out of the park to the monorail and back to the hotel.

It was a fun, but rather exhausting day, which I find funny because we didn’t ride nearly as many rides as before we had a baby. It’s amazing how much your park plans change with a baby, but it was fantastic.

And now for a video I am so excited to share with you! We recorded the ENTIRE DAY at the park! We hooked up a GoPro to Trent's stroller and started from the moment we got out of the car in the parking lot all the way through to leaving the turnstiles at the end of the night (minus our midday break - I'm sure people aren't interested in seeing us nap...). So here it is, Trent's point of view of our day at MK in less than 14 minutes!!



We're off to a BBQ, so I will continue posting later! Thanks for reading!

 

[Gabe1]

It was your typical Disney buffet breakfast, nothing extraordinary. Apparently the strawberry soup is pretty famous, but we didn’t learn about that until after we left from the other people in the limo. Oh well. Has anyone else had it? Did we miss out? Strawberry soup sounds like a smoothie in a bowl to me...I don't know.

The Strawberry Soup is pretty darn yummy. Just saw a picture of it and now I want it. The little cutie would probably love it your next trip down.

 

[Lynn1030]

The Strawberry Soup is pretty darn yummy. Just saw a picture of it and now I want it. The little cutie would probably love it your next trip down.

The funny thing is that I don't ever recall seeing it on the buffet. It was there because the other family had it, but my eyes probably just zoomed past it towards the bacon. If we go back there, I will be sure to try it, thanks for the tip.

 

[Lynn1030]

I love the video!!! So cute, and something you'll treasure forever. I have to ask - is Trent anti-shoes? It seems like after the first bit in the morning, he's like - nope, screw these Mom.

Haha what a good observation! Since he wasn't walking at that point, we hadn't ever really bothered with shoes at home, just every once in a while if we went out, so it wasn't something he was used to. Some of the mornings on the trip I would start him out with shoes, but they wouldn't last long...he would just wiggle them right off. He has a pair of sandals that he wears all the time now that he's walking, so next trip should be much different...hopefully lol.

 

[Lynn1030]

Time for Day 6, the last full day of our trip.

Day 6 – Friday

Looking back on this day seems like we barely did anything, but yet the day was packed…which is how I kind of felt about all the days now that I think about it. It was a beautiful start to the day, much much different than how we started the week.

It was another early day, as we had breakfast reservations at 8:50 at our favorite breakfast restaurant, Crystal Palace. Not only do we like the food (sure, most of it is typical breakfast items, but I can eat plates and plates full of the Pooh’s puffed pastry with strawberries and whipped cream {insert Homer Simpson drool face and sound here}), but I can get a photo with my favorite character, Tigger, without waiting in line aaaannnnddd it’s also how we get photos in the park before the crowds show up. Well worth the price to us.

We smugly smiled as we walked past the crowd into the empty park and right to the castle for some photos.

We had a list of photos we needed to take today and several of them were in front of the castle without anyone else in the photo, which was supposed to be similar to some of our maternity photos.

Trent was hit or miss when it came to smiling that morning, but luckily a cast member was changing the nearby trash can and stepped over to provide some entertainment. I <3 Disney. Even someone that deals with trash all day is willing to try to make a child smile.

 

[Lynn1030]

Our tummies were telling us it was time to go, so we made the short trek to Crystal Palace, where we only waited outside a few minutes before going in.

Continuing with the fun, Trent got to try new goodies from the buffet…and even tried some apple juice for the first time (gasp!). I love how kids under 3 eat free at buffets in WDW. There’s no way they’ll eat enough to make it worth it and they get to try new things. I think Trent was bored with food after we returned home from the trip. Us too, Trent…us too.

 

[Lynn1030]

Trent got to see his good buddies, Pooh and Tigger, again! He couldn't get enough of them!

 

[Lynn1030]

"Don't leave Tigger! Come back and play!"

"I'm not letting go!!"

He also loved meeting some new friends, Eeyore and Piglet!

 

[Lynn1030]

After seeing all the characters, we headed out into the hotness brewing outside. We walked to the train station where there happened to be a train waiting, so we jumped right on.

A few minutes into the ride, Trent assumed the nap position and it was lights out. He stayed asleep through the very energetic cast member on the loudspeaker, the crowds getting on and off, and even the train whistle.

This next set of photos perfectly illustrates his progression into sleep…

“I’m happy and ready to go!”

“Mom, when does the fun stuff start happening?”

“I’m going to make myself more comfortable.”

ZZZZZZzzzzzzz

 

[Lynn1030]

We got off at the Fantasyland station and simply wandered around while Trent slept in the stroller.

Splash Mountain had stopped and there were people walking around. I think I remember seeing the people that were in the boat in that area getting out and walking away. Gosh, that stinks...to be so close and you have to get off. I know what that's like, not fun...big bummer.

Sleepy baby...

I'm surprised we hadn't seen these before. We considered sending one to someone (or ourselves lol) and probably would have if it was earlier in our trip.

Well, look here! A photo of us! That never happens!

 

[WLBound]

I love the photos of your little guy at Crystal Palace. What a little sweetie! They are so good with little ones at that restaurant.

 

[Lynn1030]

I tried a Citrus Swirl for Dole Whip comparison purposes. It was good…orange juice and vanilla ice cream…you can’t really go wrong there. Brett usually gets the Dole Whip float and I get the Dole Whip swirl, but we didn’t get any at MK this trip. In fact, we got one at Epcot later today!

We had sat in Frontierland to enjoy our citrus swirl and felt the hot, humid air starting to bother us. One problem…a sleeping baby with a list of photos we still wanted to take. So I did the unthinkable and woke him up. Bad mommy.

Luckily, Trent was a happy little guy when he woke up. Mostly of me and Trent trying to recreate some of my maternity photos. Unfortunately, the sun was just too much...it was so bright I had a hard time keeping my eyes open for the camera! So maybe we'll try that again on a future trip. Here are a few that we took.

 

[Lynn1030]

Next, we did something that doesn't normally happen...I took the camera and took photos of Brett and Trent! They went on the carousel and Trent immediately grabbed the handles and was ready to go!

One photo we plan on taking at least once a year is Trent trying to pull the sword out of the stone. Just as we were taking the photo, a few cast members came up to start a show and they interacted with him. He looks confused lol.

On our way out, we stopped to dance a little at the parade.

 

[Lynn1030]

We took some more fun photos on the way out.

This Mickey was taller than Trent! Maybe he thought it was a live character and had to bite his nose.

The cast member selling balloons wasn't too thrilled that day. When we did my maternity photo in front of balloons, that cast member was so happy to help. This lady was like "Yeah, whatever" when I asked we could take a photo in front of the balloons. She must have gotten asked a lot that day? I don't know. And we even forked over $10 to buy one, so we weren't just using her for the photo!

Trent’s first Mickey balloon!

We took the monorail back and headed back to the hotel.

 

[Lynn1030]

We ate lunch in the food court at AOA and both got create-your-own chicken burgers. Brett didn’t like his because there was onion mixed in the meat, so he pretty much grossed himself out (he HATES onions) and then stayed hungry because he was mad about it.

After lunch, we swam in the Big Blue pool and then went back to the room for a nap.

Our evening itinerary led us to Epcot, since we hadn’t watched Illuminations yet this trip.

Phineas and Ferb!

"Where are we going next Mom?!"

Some more Flower & Garden Festival pretty-ness.

 

[Lynn1030]

We ate at Sunshine Seasons, a first for us. Brett got a chicken Caesar salad and I had lo mein and chicken (I think - we didn't get a photo of it).

And a strawberry shortcake to share (after seeing so many photos and never trying it, it was the first thing I thought of when we headed to Sunshine Seasons).

Trent probably ate most of it though

When it was time for Illuminations, we wanted to at least find a spot where we could sit and have the stroller in a good spot. We ended up sitting by one of the shops at the entrance to World Showcase, on the Canada side. We sat on the ledge by the gardens, facing away from the lake, but expecting to stand up and turn around when the show started.

We passed the time by enjoying a Dole Whip (Trent too - just wait for the video I'll be posting tomorrow...his reaction is priceless!) and we bought Trent a glow stick. We had brought a pack of glow necklaces for Trent instead of spending outrageous amounts on the Disney ones. I HIGHLY recommend this because they entertained the hell out of him. Just some advice though...wrap scotch tape around the connecting part of the necklace if you are giving one to a baby that likes to chew on everything. This way, they can't break it apart and get the small connector in their mouth and swallow it.

However, my curiosity got the best of me and I couldn’t resist going over to the cart full of glowy stuff to see the prices. I was shocked that they weren’t as expensive as I thought they were. I didn’t even walk over with my wallet, so I came back and told Brett to go pick out something. He came back with one of the sticks, since anything larger would be overwhelming.

When Illuminations started, I looked behind me to see that there was actually no one behind me, so I proceeded to put Trent on my shoulders. It only puts him a half a foot taller than me, so it’s not astronomically high, but it’s much higher than if I was holding him by my side.

I ended up taking him down a few minutes later into a more comfortable position. He enjoyed the show, which is just a guess by all the “ooohs” coming out of his mouth.

After the show, we headed out of the park along with the masses and headed back to the hotel.

 

[Lynn1030]

When we got back to the hotel, we noticed they were playing a movie on the big screen right outside our window…we had the perfect viewing spot!

Brett took the opportunity to take photos around the hotel while I gave Trent a bath. Then Trent and I went to the food court to get an iced vanilla latte (for me, not him ).

Trent and I hung out by the food court/pool while I enjoyed my coffee, hoping to catch Brett walking by. We didn’t see him so we walked back to our room. I let Trent crawl part of the way once we were in the hallway. Trent transitioned to 100% crawler while here. Before the trip, he would just crawl army style…scooting on his tummy and using his elbows and knees/feet to propel forward. But by halfway through the trip, he was crawling on hands and knees…and fast too!

 

[Lynn1030]

Here are some photos Brett took from around Art of Animation. It really is a nice place at night.

 

[Lynn1030]

We didn’t bother packing that night, since we knew we could save that for the next day before we checked out. We went to sleep knowing we would just wake up whenever…which was a glorious feeling after a week of early wake ups!

That's it for Day 6. Stay tuned for Day 7 and a compilation video of our entire trip! Thanks for reading!

 

[Gabe1]

How appropriate that he is following the paws on the carpet!

The other photo really surprises me, of the hallway walls. Other than the rug it reminds me of the basement in my DD's college dorm. The white walls and ceiling lack the warmth Disney resorts are known for.