Trip Report *COMPLETED* A One-derful Birthday Celebration

Helloooooo humans! If you've read my last report, you'll remember that we took our then six-month-old to WDW, and it was a huge adjustment from the way we used to do Disney. It obviously didn't scare us off though, because we are getting ready to go back for more! I hope you all enjoy following along! Let's get down to business!

Who: The usual crew, me (Katie), my husband and Disney partner-in-crime for many many trips, Jason, and our son, Lincoln, PLUS my mom (we'll call her Grandmama), and my younger sister (we'll call her Auntie A, or A) - you may remember my mom and sis from my cruise TR. We're looking forward to having some extra hands to help with Lincoln, and Grandmama has even offered to take care of bedtime a couple nights so J and I can stay out late!

When: Monday, May 30th - Saturday, June 4th

Where: Port Orleans French Quarter! An all-time favorite for us. We'll miss having access to the Skyliner (makes it sooo much easier when you have a stroller), but I can't pass up a stay at POFQ, especially at the same price we paid to stay at Pop back in December.

Why: This kid is about to be ONE on June 5th! I cannot believe how quickly the past year has absolutely flown by. I cry every time I think about it, or look at pictures from when he was so tiny, so I'm sure I'll be an absolute wreck on his actual birthday.

Funnily enough, one of the first things I thought about when we found out we were pregnant is the fact that we're going to be stuck going to WDW in the summer if we want to celebrate his birthdays there. We've been in mid-May and September multiple times, so we're hoping it's not too much worse, as far as heat goes. We're also nervous about summer break crowds, but honestly, I don't think the crowd levels have felt "normal" since our last pre-COVID trip. I don't know if there's just an influx of people making up for cancelled 2020 trips, or if this is our new normal.

We are leaving two weeks from today, and I hope to post at least a couple more updates between now and then!

 

[cgersic]

Thank you for these pictures! The shiny eyes everyone has is making my heart smile!

 

[lindawdw]

Adorable pictures from your trip!!! Can't wait to hear all about it!

 

[Back!Elbow!Shoulders!]

I used those disposable Disney placemats this weekend and thought of you:

Thanks for letting me know they existed!

 

[k8einwdw]

 

[k8einwdw]

Hi friends! It's been...three months (???)...since we got back from our trip, and life has been a whirlwind. While we were at WDW, my company rolled out a new CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system, which we had virtually zero training on, so the month of June was spent trying to figure out how to do my job with a system I didn't know how to use. In July, my work bestie moved on to greener pastures (can't blame her), so the month of July was spent having to do my job and her job. In August, they hired her replacement, whom I had to train. I'm the seniormost member of my department aside from my supervisor, and unfortunately for me, I'm also a good teacher, so I get stuck training all of our new employees. And sometimes other branches' new employees. Now that our new addition is trained, I can finally take a breather and start working on this trip report. There have been so many times in the past three months that I've intended to hop on here and post an update, but life and work have just gotten in the way, and I feel awful about leaving everyone hanging.

In more exciting news, we've already booked our next trip, coming up in less than three months! So I had better get cracking on this trip report so I can get it finished up in time to start the next one!

 

[k8einwdw]

p.s. I'd be remiss if I didn't include some recent L updates and pics! He is talking (A LOT), walking (still a little hesitant on that front), and he is just the busiest little boy. He keeps us on our toes, but we love every minute of it!

 

[cgersic]

YAY for the update, photos, next trip, but my heavens the Cuteness!!!

 

[k8einwdw]

Monday, May 30th - Travel Day

We woke up at 4:15am, and hit the ground running. We had loaded up our luggage the night prior, and packed some of Lincoln's bigger items (formula, pack n play, pack n play mattress) in my mom's car, so all that was left to pack this morning was our "go bag" with last-minute items like toiletries, phone chargers, etc. We got dressed and ready to go, and Jason packed the last-minute items in the car while I got L out of bed and changed him into a clean diaper. We loaded him into his car seat last, and left him in his pajamas in hopes that he would fall back asleep. We were leaving the house right around 5:15, and L fell back asleep before we made it to the interstate.

Our usual Chick-Fil-A breakfast stop was opening late for Memorial Day (?), so we drove a little further than usual and stopped in Cordele, GA for breakfast. Still Chick-Fil-A - it's tradition!

After breakfast, we were back on the road until we stopped at our usual gas station in Jasper, FL for gas and a bathroom break. Normally, that would be our last stop before Disney, but we had to make an extra stop in Ocala this time around. L napped a good bit of the ride down, but while he was awake, I let him watch movies on our iPad. I also sat in the back with him for the first and last legs of the trip.

At 12:50 pm, we were pulling through the magical blue gates (still miss the old purple ones)! We headed straight for Port Orleans French Quarter upon arrival, although our room was not ready yet.

We took the opportunity to change Lincoln out of his pajamas and grab some lunch from the food court. It took over 20 minutes to get our food, and during that time, Grandmama and Auntie A arrived, and took over Lincoln duties while we waited for our food. I didn't take pics, but I had the Baton Rouge Burger, Jason had the Prime Rib Dip sandwich, and L had the kids mac and cheese. Right as we were done eating, we got the text that our room was ready, and about two minutes later, my mom got the text that their room was ready, so we checked out a luggage cart, loaded up everyone's stuff, and headed for the rooms!

I had requested first floor rooms, but we ended up on the second floor of Building 2, in rooms 2211 and 2212. It's not a huge deal, but it is a pain being on an upper floor with a stroller, since have to wait for the elevator every time we need to leave our room. I always forget to take room pics when we arrive, so let's hop forward a few days to our check-out day, when I finally took some pictures.

We're big fans of French Quarter, so they could have put us in a literal tent and we would have been happy (okay, maybe that's a stretch). But we did like the room. The A/C worked great which was super important this trip, and POFQ is one of the few remaining resorts that has ceiling fans in the rooms. That space to the left in the bathroom was a perfect fit for L's pack-n-play, so we were able to keep it in the same spot for the whole trip, rather than having to move it out of the way when we were using the vanity area in the bathroom. My only complaint with the Port Orleans resorts is that they still have a curtain separating the bedroom from the bathroom, so you can't really block out sound and noise like you can with the sliding doors at the other resorts. Overall though, we wouldn't hesitate to stay here again with Lincoln.

Up next: Dinner at Disney Springs

 

[k8einwdw]

YAY for the update, photos, next trip, but my heavens the Cuteness!!!

Thank you!

 

[k8einwdw]

Monday, May 30th - Travel Day - Continued

Once we had settled into our rooms, unpacked, and freshened up, and fed J a bottle, we hopped on the boat to Disney Springs around 4pm. The boat transportation to DS has to be one of our favorite parts about staying at POFQ. It's such a peaceful and scenic ride!

Once we were there, Jason made a beeline to Gideon's to get in the virtual queue...only there wasn't one...on Memorial Day? We were fully expecting a long wait, but he was able to hop right in line, and only had to wait about 15 minutes. This trip was not long after the Jif peanut butter recall, so they didn't have any of their peanut butter-based cookies, but he got two Frankenstein cookies, a cookies and cream cookie, and a coffee cake cookie, which we ate on throughout the duration of the trip. He also got two peanut butter cold brews, which they still had available, since their peanut butter syrup isn't made using Jif. The cookies and cream was our favorite this time around - we both said we could easily get a box of just those!

After we got our cookies, we poked around Uniqlo, where Grandmama bought Lincoln a Mickey shirt, and Auntie A bought herself a shirt. We also stopped in Tren-D, the Marketplace Co-Op, and Disney Days of Christmas We decided to wait until after dinner to stop in World of Disney, since that store always takes us a while to get through.

Around 5:00, I checked us in for our dinner reservation at Raglan Road, and they called us not ten minutes later. The last time J and I had eaten at Raglan Road was in December of 2020, and we were seated in the back corner, where we couldn't see the stage. This time, we were seated at the table right next to where we sat last time. A huge part of the draw of Raglan Road is the live entertainment, so it stinks that they have so many tables that can't see any of the action. None of us were terribly hungry after our late lunch, so we all only ate about half of our food. Jason ordered a Caesar salad that was served warm (?), I got the bangers and mash, Lincoln got the kids mac n cheese and broccoli, and I believe Grandmama and Auntie A both got the OMG burger. J barely picked at his salad, but I can't blame him...a warm salad? The rest of us enjoyed our food.

We've been working with L on using utensils. We started out loading food onto the spoon for him, and then handing him the spoon to feed himself. At one point during our meal, I was trying to hand L a spoonful of mac n cheese, and he yanked the spoon out of my hand, and sent mac n cheese flying through the air. Thankfully, it landed on the floor, and not on someone's head.

Once we had all had our fill, we paid our bill, and stopped for a few moments on our way out to watch the dancers. L was loving them!

After dinner, we did some more shopping, stopping in World of Disney, where I picked out some Crocs charms and the elusive iridescent purple 50th anniversary Starbucks tumbler. We also popped into Basin, where I picked up a few more bar soaps. Around 7:00, we had to head out so that we could get L bathed and and in bed at a decent time.

While I was putting L down, J went up to bell services to pick up an Instacart order I had placed earlier in the day. I had ordered breakfast foods, snacks, and bottled waters/Gatorades for the room, and the order had been delivered while we were at Disney Springs. When he arrived at Bell Services, they told him that the order wasn't there. He called me to let me know, and I told him to ask if there was any way they could check to see if it had been delivered to Riverside. Sure enough, they called Riverside, and our order was there. One of the CMs took a golf cart over to Riverside, and brought our order to our room for us, so all's well that ends well. Let this serve as a tip for those of you who plan on using Instacart for your trips, if your order shows delivered but Bell Services doesn't have it, ask them to check with the neighboring resorts. After that fiasco, J and I headed to bed around 10pm - we had an early day planned for the next day!

Up next: Animal Kingdom Day!

 

[Wicked Sisters]

We are staying at POFQ Sept 2023 for the first time at this hotel and just a silly question. Is it just a sheet on the bed to cover you or are there still blankets as I wondered if a sheet is warm enough with the A/C. Just wondered looking at the photo. Love the recent pics of Lincoln who looks so cheeky.

 

[k8einwdw]

We are staying at POFQ Sept 2023 for the first time at this hotel and just a silly question. Is it just a sheet on the bed to cover you or are there still blankets as I wondered if a sheet is warm enough with the A/C. Just wondered looking at the photo. Love the recent pics of Lincoln who looks so cheeky.

There is a blanket under the sheet you see on top, and extra blankets in the "closet" area of the bathroom as well!

 

[mpaulam]

What a great start to your trip! Lincoln is such a doll

 

[k8einwdw]

What a great start to your trip! Lincoln is such a doll

Thank you

 

[k8einwdw]

Tuesday, May 31st - Animal Kingdom Day

Lincoln was up around 5am this morning - that turned out to be a common theme for this trip. It was not a huge deal though, since I had planned on getting up at 5:30 anyway. I got him ready for the day, and then he hung out in Grandmama and Auntie A's room while J and I got ready. He modeled Grandmama's ears for the day...

We planned on leaving POFQ at 6:15 to make it for 7:00 Early Entry at Animal Kingdom, and we were walking out of the rooms at 6:28 - honestly, not bad with a little one. This was the view from outside of our rooms...

We decided to drive to the parks on this trip. It's just easier when you have a little one in a stroller. I feel like we'd be stressed out trying to wrangle Lincoln, get all of our stuff out of the bottom of the stroller, and fold the stroller to get on a bus, especially with a line of people waiting behind us. Not to mention, when you are driving, you're not at the mercy of the bus schedule. There is nothing worse than having to wait foreverrrr for a bus at the end of a long park day.

We all piled into my car and headed for Animal Kingdom. We made it to bag check just before 7:00. Once I had made it through, I pulled off to the side so I could book our first lightning lanes. I managed to score FoP for 7:35-8:35, and Kilimanjaro Safaris for 10:35-11:35. I would have preferred to get the safari for earlier, but we made do with what we got. We decided to head to Pandora first since we got an early LL for FoP, so we rope-dropped Na'Vi River Journey, which was less than a 5-minute wait. They crammed all five of us onto one row, so we learned to split into a party of three and a party of two after that tight squeeze.

After Na'Vi River Journey, we wandered around taking pictures for a bit while we waited for our LL window to open.

at 7:30, we told Grandmama and Auntie A to head to FoP first, since they hadn't ridden before. Jason and I hung back with Lincoln and fed him his breakfast - mini muffins and applesauce. He enjoyed watching the other little kids nearby that were waiting on bigger family members to come out of FoP.

Around 8:00, Grandmama and Auntie A emerged, and it was my and Jason's turn to ride! It was nice getting to ride together again, since we had ridden separately on our first trip with L back in December 2021.

Up next: Africa, Asia, Dinosaurs alive and well! You name it, it lives here, at Disney's Animal Kingdom park.

 

[k8einwdw]

Tuesday, May 31st - Animal Kingdom Day - Continued

After our banshee flight, we had a couple hours to kill before our Kilimanjaro Safaris return time, so we decided to hit up the rest of the park counter-clockwise, starting with DinoLand, or what's left of it. Dinosaur was listed at a 5-minute wait, so J, Auntie A, and I rode, while Grandmama happily waited outside with L who had fallen asleep in the stroller on the walk over. The Nemo show had still not reopened at this point, so after Dinosaur, we headed into Asia to hit up Everest.

Lincoln was still napping in his stroller, so Grandmama waited with him while Jason, Auntie A, and I rode Everest via the single rider line - we waited less than 10 minutes! L had awakened from his slumber while we were in line, so J and I took over baby duty while Grandmama and Auntie A took a turn riding. L was very interested in the Kite Tails show!

After we had all had our fill of Everest, we headed over to Maharajah Jungle Trek to hopefully see the tigers...

No tigers this time, but L did enjoy seeing the other animals along the trail. My mom captured a pic of me in my mom 'fit - I'll be sad when bike shorts and oversized t-shirts are out of style, because this was my uniform of choice this entire trip (er, this entire summer), complete with f@nny (really, that's a bad word?) pack. I distinctly remember when we used to tease my mom for wearing a f@nny pack to Disney, now here I am. Everything really does come full circle.

Up next: L's first (conscious) safari

 

[k8einwdw]

Tuesday, May 31st - Animal Kingdom Day - Continued

After walking through Maharajah Jungle Trek, it was time to head over to Africa for our 10:35-11:35 return time for Kilimanjaro Safaris! Thankfully, Lincoln was wide awake this time around! We all took turns entertaining him in line...

And he decided he wanted to ride in Auntie A's lap for the safari. He really took to her during this trip. She's in college two hours away, so he didn't get to spend much time with her for most of the first year of his life, but she came to see him a lot during the summer, and now he asks for her at least once a week.

L enjoyed looking at all of the different animals. I think he'll enjoy it even more on this next trip - we've been working with him on his animals and animal sounds, and he's starting to recognize some of the animals that you see on the safari.

Mama's favorite

After the safari, we decided to take the Wildlife Express train over to Rafiki's Planet Watch. We thought L would enjoy the train ride, and he did! He said "choo choo" at least a dozen times while we were on the train. We were hoping to see some of the animal care team working, since Auntie A is working on her degree in Animal Science, but no such luck. We strolled through the indoor animal exhibits, and then hopped back on the train.

While on the train, I mobile ordered Satu'Li Canteen for lunch. I didn't take any pics, but all of the grown-ups got bowls, J got the kids cheese quesadilla with a Cuties mandarin, and we all split a blueberry cheesecake for dessert. Everyone enjoyed their lunch except for Lincoln, who stuffed so much quesadilla in his mouth at once that he made himself throw up. Once we got L and his high chair cleaned up, I changed him into a clean shirt, and we walked through the shops in Discovery Island on our way out of the park.

Up next: A delicious dinner

 

[Back!Elbow!Shoulders!]

Everyone enjoyed their lunch except for Lincoln, who stuffed so much quesadilla in his mouth at once that he made himself throw up.

Had to lol at this.

It never ceases to amaze me when lil BES does something so well and so consistently and then totally doesn’t all of a sudden.

 

[k8einwdw]

It never ceases to amaze me when lil BES does something so well and so consistently and then totally doesn’t all of a sudden.

 

[k8einwdw]

Tuesday, May 31st - Animal Kingdom Day - Continued

Around 1:30 pm. It was roughly 1000 degrees, and we had done everything we wanted to do, so we decided to head out of Animal Kingdom. We had had issues with Lincoln's stroller fan all morning - it was coming unclipped from the stroller and falling off every few minutes. At first we thought L was messing with it, but then it happened when one of us was holding him outside of the stroller. We tried fastening it to a different part of the stroller, no dice. We decided to head out of the bubble to try to find one locally, because the ones they sell in the Disney gift shops have the same type of closure.

For reference, this is similar to what we have/had:

And this is the type we were looking for:

Auntie A had "forgotten" to pack a swimsuit, so she and Grandmama tagged along as well. There' s a Target right outside the gates in Flamingo Crossings, not far from AK, so we decided to try there first. Unfortunately, it's a teeny tiny Target, so no one had any luck. We navigated to the next closest Target in Kissimmee, where Auntie A wound up with a new swimsuit and a pair of shoes, and shampoo and conditioner... . J and I walked out empty-handed. We didn't feel like being price-gouged at Buy Buy Baby, and we couldn't find a decent one available via Prime Now, so we decided to work with what we had. We didn't end up having issues with it the rest of the week. I don't know if the walkways are "rougher" at AK than the other parks and maybe the fan was just being jostled around more, but I don't recall it falling off once at any of the other parks.

On our way back to POFQ, Lincoln fell asleep in the car seat, so J and I stayed back in the car while Grandmama and Auntie A headed back to the room. Once L woke up, the three of us headed back to the room to let L get out some energy and take a bottle. Around 4:30, we headed out for dinner - we had a 5:15 dinner reservation at Boma. We arrived at Jambo House, checked in via the app, and meandered around the gift shop and lobby while we waited to be called. In no time, we were called back to our table, which was situated right next to the start of the buffet line. It was definitely a convenient location, but we certainly felt like we were in a fish bowl the entire meal.

We all tried a good assortment of everything. Lincoln enjoyed chicken nuggets, mac n cheese, mashed potatoes, mixed vegetables, bobotie, corn pudding, hummus, cornbread, watermelon, fruit salad, and a couple bites of a mini cupcake. For a kid who's only in the 43rd percentile for weight, he can certainly eat an impressive amount of food.

My favorites for the meal were the corn pudding (in the black cup) and the ribs, and of course, the zebra domes. J's favorites were the corn pudding and the oxtail stew. This was our first time having dinner at Boma. You can't top their breakfast buffet, but this definitely won't be our last time coming for dinner!

After dinner, J, L, and I headed back to POFQ, while Grandmama and Auntie A took a bus over to MK. J and I bathed L and put him down for the night, and then I showered and got ready for bed in Grandmama and Auntie A's bathroom, so as not to wake Lincoln. Grandmama and Auntie A came back shortly after 9:00 - I had showed them how to use Genie+, but there wasn't much availability left at that time of the night, and the park was just too crowded for their liking, so they didn't stay very long. Not to worry though, we were headed back to MK in the morning!

Up next: Magic Kingdom Day