Baby's First Trip! (Which she will obviously remember duh...)

Hi! I doubt many people are going to be interested in this thread, but I love reading the planning and trip reports on here, and I need a place to organize my thoughts so that my husband doesn't go crazy listening to my endless chattering. So here goes!

Disneyworld October 21-24th (3 Days with no Park Hopper)

Who: Me (J), my hubby (A), our baby girl (M) and my sweet mama (C). Baby M will be almost 5 months old at the time of our trip and this will be her first trip to the world, sort of. We took a babymoon in January 2017 to Disney when I was 22 weeks pregnant. Really looking forward to getting back to my happy place with my snuggly baby on the outside (and being able to ride the rides and have an adult beverage here and there)! Also, my mom has not been to Disney since I was a senior in high school (which was like a million years ago). She used to take us as kids all the time, so I know she is excited to be there for her granddaughter's first trip. I can't wait to show her how much has changed!

Where: Pop Century - we have two rooms and have requested adjoining, but I am super hoping that we get some of the refurbed rooms. Our kiddo is going to be sleeping in a pack and play and I like the idea that we can fold up the murphy bed and have more room to move around.

Why: This trip is a combo celebration. My hubs birthday is the day we arrive. Also, our 5 year wedding anniversary is in early November. We had planned to go to Hawaii to celebrate, but having a baby changes things and when A suggested a trip to the Food & Wine Festival, I agreed. Lastly, A is about to begin student teaching January, which will be a hold on our vacation plans for a little while. So we are going out with a bang at our favorite place!

So here's the deets...

Friday, October 20th - We are driving from KY with a 5 month old, so we think leaving Friday night and stopping in Macon, GA is a smart move. My mom is riding down in the car with us and we all have to work Friday morning. So our plan is to hit the road around 2 or 3 pm.

Saturday October 21st (A's Birthday!) - We are leaving Macon bright and early in an effort to get to the world in the early afternoon. We are hoping to play mini golf at Fantasia Gardens when we get there, or maybe just relax at the pool for a little bit, depending on the weather. That night we have dinner reservations at Whispering Canyon. None of us have been to WC before. A and I love Ohana and have been three times in the last 2 years, so this seemed like a similar but different experience.

Sunday October 22nd - Epcot for Food & Wine Festival: This will be our first park day and we are not doing park hoppers. That is unusual for us but we think with the baby it is a smart move. We are anticipating a slower pace this time around. No dining reservations on this day because we plan on eating just about everything in sight from the festival booths. This is also my mom's first time at F&W. She's kind of a foodie (and in no way a wino), so I think she will really enjoy it!

Monday October 23rd - Magic Kingdom: MY ALL TIME FAVE. I can't wait to take my daughter on Pete Pan, Small World, Pirates, etc. She's really advanced, so right now at 2 months she is sitting up almost unassisted and is extremely verbal. I think by 5 months she will be really aware of things and I am hoping to see her eyes sparkle at the magic. After weeks of trying, I managed to score lunch reservations at Be Our Guest today! I feel like I won the lottery. We are also very excited to see Happily Ever After on this night.

Tuesday October 24th - Animal Kingdom: My mom is flying home on this day because she has to get back to work, so she will have breakfast with us before hitting the DME. The rest of us are headed to Animal Kingdom. We are pumped to try out the new Pandora rides, and the restaurant. Sadly, we are also checking out this day. Our plan is load our car in the morning, check out, spend the day at the park, and then hit the road that night. Then we will stop somewhere on the way home to rest before getting back on Wednesday. I am trying to convince A to book one more night at Pop so that we can relax in the bubble a little longer but so far I have been unsuccessful.

We get to make our fast pass reservations next week and I am scheming already! I have read that when using rider swap, only one person needs the fast pass. I am thinking each adult can fast pass a different e-ticket and then we can all rider swap out. (So I would have one for Mine Train, mom gets one for Space, hubby gets on for BTMR). We know we want to do a character meet with Mickey and the baby so that will be one of our fast passes at MK. I will update my plans once I get the fast passes figured out, if for no other reason than to release my excited energy out into the internet instead of keeping it all bottled up!
 

MickeyMomV

Well-Known Member
I have read that when using rider swap, only one person needs the fast pass. I am thinking each adult can fast pass a different e-ticket and then we can all rider swap out. (So I would have one for Mine Train, mom gets one for Space, hubby gets on for BTMR). We know we want to do a character meet with Mickey and the baby so that will be one of our fast passes at MK. I will update my plans once I get the fast passes figured out, if for no other reason than to release my excited energy out into the internet instead of keeping it all bottled up!

I would want clarification on this as it does not sound right. It would seem to me that you would all need to have the fast pass on your MDE to get past the main fast pass touch point the first time.
 

amjt660

Well-Known Member
Following along

I do not have an answer for the swap question (mine are 20 and 22 so it has been awhile)

Max
 

DisNerd86

Member
Original Poster
I would want clarification on this as it does not sound right. It would seem to me that you would all need to have the fast pass on your MDE to get past the main fast pass touch point the first time.
I think anyone who rides the first time has to have a fastpass. Then when you check in at the fastpass point, you tell them you are doing rider swap and they give you a return ticket which 3 people can use. So as long as the first person is ok riding alone, the rest of us can come back and ride later as if we all had the fastpass. I haven't had this confirmed by an official Disney person, but have read on multiple blogs that this is how it works. Can anyone confirm? (If it doesn't work this way, no big deal. We definitely don't want to abuse the system or break any rules.)
 

newhorizons1

Well-Known Member
Yes, only one adult would need to fastpass an E ticket attraction. Per Disney's policy your entire party will need to go up (really just two adults and the child) and ask for the Rider Switch pass. At that point the adult with the fastpass can use that for the attraction while the other two wait. The other two adults can return through the fastpass line with the Rider Switch pass. Disney's policy states that only two guests are allowed back on the attraction with the Rider Switch pass. However, when I went in April we used Rider Switch for Soarin' and were able to take three back on.
 

DryerLintFan

Premium Member
Hi! I doubt many people are going to be interested in this thread, but I love reading the planning and trip reports on here, and I need a place to organize my thoughts so that my husband doesn't go crazy listening to my endless chattering. So here goes!

Disneyworld October 21-24th (3 Days with no Park Hopper)

Who: Me (J), my hubby (A), our baby girl (M) and my sweet mama (C). Baby M will be almost 5 months old at the time of our trip and this will be her first trip to the world, sort of. We took a babymoon in January 2017 to Disney when I was 22 weeks pregnant. Really looking forward to getting back to my happy place with my snuggly baby on the outside (and being able to ride the rides and have an adult beverage here and there)! Also, my mom has not been to Disney since I was a senior in high school (which was like a million years ago). She used to take us as kids all the time, so I know she is excited to be there for her granddaughter's first trip. I can't wait to show her how much has changed!

Where: Pop Century - we have two rooms and have requested adjoining, but I am super hoping that we get some of the refurbed rooms. Our kiddo is going to be sleeping in a pack and play and I like the idea that we can fold up the murphy bed and have more room to move around.

Why: This trip is a combo celebration. My hubs birthday is the day we arrive. Also, our 5 year wedding anniversary is in early November. We had planned to go to Hawaii to celebrate, but having a baby changes things and when A suggested a trip to the Food & Wine Festival, I agreed. Lastly, A is about to begin student teaching January, which will be a hold on our vacation plans for a little while. So we are going out with a bang at our favorite place!

So here's the deets...

Friday, October 20th - We are driving from KY with a 5 month old, so we think leaving Friday night and stopping in Macon, GA is a smart move. My mom is riding down in the car with us and we all have to work Friday morning. So our plan is to hit the road around 2 or 3 pm.

Saturday October 21st (A's Birthday!) - We are leaving Macon bright and early in an effort to get to the world in the early afternoon. We are hoping to play mini golf at Fantasia Gardens when we get there, or maybe just relax at the pool for a little bit, depending on the weather. That night we have dinner reservations at Whispering Canyon. None of us have been to WC before. A and I love Ohana and have been three times in the last 2 years, so this seemed like a similar but different experience.

Sunday October 22nd - Epcot for Food & Wine Festival: This will be our first park day and we are not doing park hoppers. That is unusual for us but we think with the baby it is a smart move. We are anticipating a slower pace this time around. No dining reservations on this day because we plan on eating just about everything in sight from the festival booths. This is also my mom's first time at F&W. She's kind of a foodie (and in no way a wino), so I think she will really enjoy it!

Monday October 23rd - Magic Kingdom: MY ALL TIME FAVE. I can't wait to take my daughter on Pete Pan, Small World, Pirates, etc. She's really advanced, so right now at 2 months she is sitting up almost unassisted and is extremely verbal. I think by 5 months she will be really aware of things and I am hoping to see her eyes sparkle at the magic. After weeks of trying, I managed to score lunch reservations at Be Our Guest today! I feel like I won the lottery. We are also very excited to see Happily Ever After on this night.

Tuesday October 24th - Animal Kingdom: My mom is flying home on this day because she has to get back to work, so she will have breakfast with us before hitting the DME. The rest of us are headed to Animal Kingdom. We are pumped to try out the new Pandora rides, and the restaurant. Sadly, we are also checking out this day. Our plan is load our car in the morning, check out, spend the day at the park, and then hit the road that night. Then we will stop somewhere on the way home to rest before getting back on Wednesday. I am trying to convince A to book one more night at Pop so that we can relax in the bubble a little longer but so far I have been unsuccessful.

We get to make our fast pass reservations next week and I am scheming already! I have read that when using rider swap, only one person needs the fast pass. I am thinking each adult can fast pass a different e-ticket and then we can all rider swap out. (So I would have one for Mine Train, mom gets one for Space, hubby gets on for BTMR). We know we want to do a character meet with Mickey and the baby so that will be one of our fast passes at MK. I will update my plans once I get the fast passes figured out, if for no other reason than to release my excited energy out into the internet instead of keeping it all bottled up!

Five months old is the perfect age for a road trip. Really anything over about two months and under about 18 months is pretty easy peasy. The challenge comes when they get older and they need to have entertainment and constant snacks and they can bombard you over and over again with "I'm stuck mommy, I want out of my chair!!!" (I have a 2.5 year old, LOL)

Also, my daughter was highly aware as well. She stood up on her own around two months old, and held her head up on her own when she came out of the womb. She was always watching everyone and trying to figure out what was going on. It was really cute, but I would throw a caution out to you. Hyper aware babies like that get overstimulated pretty easily. We took my daughter to a hockey game when she was around five months old and she was wired. WIRED. You might consider trying babywearing, so that when your daughter gets overstimulated at Disney you can let her burrow into your chest and take a visual break from it all.
 

DisNerd86

Member
Original Poster
Yes, only one adult would need to fastpass an E ticket attraction. Per Disney's policy your entire party will need to go up (really just two adults and the child) and ask for the Rider Switch pass. At that point the adult with the fastpass can use that for the attraction while the other two wait. The other two adults can return through the fastpass line with the Rider Switch pass. Disney's policy states that only two guests are allowed back on the attraction with the Rider Switch pass. However, when I went in April we used Rider Switch for Soarin' and were able to take three back on.
Thanks! This is super helpful!
 

DisNerd86

Member
Original Poster
Five months old is the perfect age for a road trip. Really anything over about two months and under about 18 months is pretty easy peasy. The challenge comes when they get older and they need to have entertainment and constant snacks and they can bombard you over and over again with "I'm stuck mommy, I want out of my chair!!!" (I have a 2.5 year old, LOL)

Also, my daughter was highly aware as well. She stood up on her own around two months old, and held her head up on her own when she came out of the womb. She was always watching everyone and trying to figure out what was going on. It was really cute, but I would throw a caution out to you. Hyper aware babies like that get overstimulated pretty easily. We took my daughter to a hockey game when she was around five months old and she was wired. WIRED. You might consider trying babywearing, so that when your daughter gets overstimulated at Disney you can let her burrow into your chest and take a visual break from it all.

That is a really good point, which I had not thought about. I love wearing her in my baby wrap (and she seems to enjoy it as well) so I will definitely be bringing that along. My only complaint about babywearing is that it's been so hot where we live lately that it seems to overheat both of us. But I think Orlando in late October will (hopefully!) be a great temperature for it. Thanks for the tip!
 

MeeskaMooska0714

Well-Known Member
Can't wait to hear how your trip goes! I will take any tips you are able to provide as we are in the beginning stages of planning a trip for January with an almost 3 year old and a 14 month old. :)
 

MotherofaPrincessLover

Well-Known Member
I took my son to Disneyland when he was 4 months old. He was super easy. I feel our trip next month to Disney World when he'll be 21 months old is not going to be so easy...
 

DisNerd86

Member
Original Poster
We have fastpasses! (And i ordered a new lightweight, easy folding stroller. I can't believe how excited I was about this. Being a mom is weird.) So here are the plans...

Day 1 - Epcot (We are hoping we can rope drop Frozen. I told my mom this and then had to explain what "rope drop" means. I think she is enjoying learning the lexicon!)
- Spaceship Earth: 10:05 - 11:05
- Soarin': 11:20 - 12:20
- Living with the Land: 12:35 - 1:35

Day 2 - Magic Kingdom (Each of the 3 adults has a different mountain fastpass so that we can rider swap)
- Meet Mickey at Town Square: 9:40 - 10:40 (fingers crossed my kid doesn't sleep through this. I would take smiles or screams for cute pictures, but sleeping will be less fun.)
- Peter Pan's Flight: 11:30 - 12:30
- 7DMT: 4:05 - 5:05
- BTMR: 4:30 - 5:30
- Space Mtn: 5:20 - 6:20

Day 3 - Animal Kingdom
- Kilimanjaro Safaris: 9:55 - 10:55
- Everest: 11:40 - 12:40
- Avatar Flight of Passage: 4:20 - 5:20

Now that we are in the 2 month window, I think about the trip daily and wonder if there is one more thing I can do to make it a little more magical. I am considering family shirts for our Magic Kingdom day. Any other suggestions?
 

DisNerd86

Member
Original Poster
We are officially 1 month from Disney and SO MUCH has happened!

The biggest thing so far is that we are being joined by my 17 year old niece. My mom called me 2 days ago and said "you know, I probably spoke out of turn here, but I invited E to come with us to Disney. Are you mad?" My husband and I immediately smiled - we love my niece so much. She is just like us (kind of weird and nerdy, but totally awesome and cool). We jumped at the chance to have her tag along. Not only will it be a help with the baby, but she and I will have a ball together! My husband also loves her, and I think he is really excited about having a ride buddy that isn't my mom :rolleyes:

So once her mom and dad approved the plan, I called Disney and got our reservation updated. It was the last day to finalize magic bands and I didn't want her to have to wear a plain one if I could avoid it. I added her to my mom's room, then added an extra night on to their room. We had planned on having my mom stay in our room the last night of the trip because she is flying out early, but it makes more sense to keep her room now since she got a later flight and E will be joining us in the parks on our final day. Now my mission:
1. Get this kid some fastpasses!
2. Add her to our dining reservations!
3. Try not to freak out and stay focused on work for one more month!!!

Adding E to my mom's room was easy peasy. Then things got complicated. I was able to make fast passes for her in the same general time slots that we already had passes, with the exception of Peter Pan. I was thinking my best bet would be to rebook everyone for a time slot later in the day, but I was very nervous about cancelling our existing times because what if we couldn't all get booked together later. It was in the depths of this dilemma that I realized another problem.

My mom is only on a 2 day ticket because she is flying home early on Tuesday. Hubs and I are on a 3 days ticket with plans to hit Animal Kingdom on Tuesday. When I added E to my mom's room, I knew I was only adding her on for 2 days because we weren't sure if she would stay with us or fly home early. Well of course she wants to stay and hang with us for the extra day. So I though "no biggie, I will call and add a day to her ticket. No problem! I am a Disney planning genius!" (That last part may be a bit exaggerated, but what can I say - I am riding high!)

So today I called Disney. They told me that everyone in the same room has to have the same type and length of ticket. If we want to add a day, they could only do it on property once we check in :banghead: I was super bummed about this because I knew that meant no fast passes for E at Animal Kingdom.

I also needed to get one more person added to each of the two dining reservations I had made. (I tried doing this the day before but the rep that transferred me from the resort services must have accidentally hung up on me.) Anywho - they got my Whispering Canyon reservation rebooked without any problem. That made sense because going from 3 to 4 at a sit down restaurant makes practically no difference (we were already at a 4 top table I am guessing). But things didn't go nearly as well with our Be Our Guest lunch reservations. She said they can't just add one more person. We either have to rebook for 4, or make a 1 person reservation in the same time window. Of course, neither of those options are available...So we have to wait and see and keep our fingers crossed that something opens up. I am staying optimistic!

While on the line with dining, I had a stroke of genius. I had them transfer me back to resort services and reassign my niece to our room. The nice gentleman I spoke with took care of it without any problems, and I have now made fastpasses for my niece to correspond with our existing Animal Kingdom reservations. And even better, he transferred me to Internet Services and that nice lady helped link my MDE account with my mom's. She consolidated our somewhat haphazard fast pass time windows AND...PUT MY NIECE IN OUR PETER PAN TIME SLOT! I am so relieved. Disney customer service is really top of the line and if you are kind and patient with them, they will go out of their way to make your vacation better. Now if only they can find me that 4th spot at BOG...

See you soon Disney!
 

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