Trip Report COMPLETED The More the Merrier - November/December 2020

k8einwdw · Aug 24, 2021

Thursday, December 3rd - Hollywood Studios Day - Continued

When I last left off, I was waiting for Jason to finish up at ROTR. The line was so long that they had them go through parts of the backstage area near the Muppets theater. He was texting me updates on his location as I was waiting for him, but when it got to be 6:45 and he hadn't even made it onto the ride yet, I knew there was no way we were making our Mama Melrose reservation at 6:50. I went up to the podium and let them know what was going on, and asked to cancel our reservation. Thankfully, they didn't charge us. Now, I had been looking forward to this meal ever since we booked it. I had been thinking about that dang steak and mac and cheese the entire trip. So did I shed a couple tears over having to miss this dinner? I may have. I blame it on the pregnancy hormones!

I sat near the Muppets fountain as I waited for Jason to exit Rise, and I thought for sure a CM was going to kick me out once it got to be after 7:00 (park closing), but no one said a word.

Finally, around 7:10, Jason emerged. Here is the part where I was planning on inserting some of the dozens of pictures he took of the queue and the attraction, but he deleted most of the photos from his camera roll to make room for baby pictures. I guess I can't blame him! So instead, I'll tell you that he was glad that I pushed him to get a boarding group, because he thought ROTR was incredibly immersive and impressive. He says I get to ride it while he entertains Lincoln on our next trip! He apologized profusely for making us miss dinner, and while I was definitely bummed, it wasn't his fault. I wouldn't make him miss Rise for dinner, especially since he had already been in line so long. So, we had to figure out where to go from there. Since the park was closed by the time he made it out, we decided to head to Disney Springs for dinner.

We trekked over to the bus stops, and found the nearest, non-crowded bus stop, which happened to be Wilderness Lodge. Once at Wilderness Lodge, we transferred busses to Disney Springs. When we arrived, we saw major lines at most of the quick service eateries, so we decided to head to the only spot in Disney Springs that offered Mobile Order - D-Luxe Burger. We ordered our food, and hung out on the rocking chairs at the Guest Services location just across from the restaurant while we waited for our order to be ready. It took 20 minutes for our order to be ready, which was surprising, since the indoor dining area was completely empty when we got there. We enjoyed a nice, quiet dinner with the dining area all to ourselves until one other couple came in and sat near us. For dinner, I got the Southern Burger, Jason got the Barbecue Burger, and we split a large order of fries.

We both enjoyed our burgers (I could only eat about half of mine) and the warmth of the indoors before heading back out into the chilly night air. We contemplated doing some shopping, but we planned to be back the next day, so we headed straight for the bus stops and back to Ft. Wilderness. Once we got to our cabin, we changed into our jammies and watched "Home Alone 2" on tv before heading to bed around 11:00. Even with Hollywood Studios being our lightest park day, we still managed to get plenty of steps in that day!

Up next: Our last park day

k8einwdw · Aug 25, 2021

Friday, December 4th - Magic Kingdom Day 2

I took very few notes this day, so prepare for the next few posts to be very photo heavy! We woke up for our last park day around 7:00 am, and while we were getting ready, we got some exciting news. I had gotten the NIPT (Non-Invasive Prenatal Testing) done at my 12-Week Prenatal Appointment the week prior, and we had been anxiously awaiting the results. The NIPT is a blood test that tests for chromosomal abnormalities, and it can also determine the gender of the baby. The entire trip, I had been obsessively checking my patient portal to see if my results had been uploaded, and while I was brushing my teeth, I saw that they were there! I ran to grab Jason so we could look at the results together. We were both ecstatic to finally know that we were having a boy so we could start calling him by his name! That also meant we could make a couple very special purchases on our last park day...

Once we had composed ourselves, we hopped in the golf cart around 8 am to head up to the Magic Kingdom boat launch. We managed to make it onto the first boat that came, and we were in the park before the 9 am opening. Since we had started our first MK day in Adventureland, we decided to switch things up and start this day in Tomorrowland. Since I obviously couldn't ride Space Mountain, we rope-dropped Buzz, and walked right on. No Galactic Hero for either of us, but I'll take any score that's six digits.

There was still no line when we got off, so we hopped right back on for a second round. Evidently I didn't take a picture of our scores.

I don't do Astro Orbiter, and Monster's Inc Laugh Floor and the Peoplemover were both still closed in December, so after we got off Buzz, we were done with Tomorrowland. We headed into Fantasyland next to hit up some of the rides we had skipped on our previous MK day. First up...

Hooray!

Next, we headed to Peter Pan. It was posted at a 20 minute wait, but we only waited 15.

After soaring over Neverland, we headed to It's a Small World. It was posted at a 20-minute wait, but we ended up waiting 35. This ride will have an extra special place in our hearts now, since it is the theme of our son's nursery! I took about a million pictures for nursery inspiration, but I'll only share a few here lol.

At this point, it was after 11:00 and baby was hungry, so we decided to head out of the park for a bit.

Up next: lunch and shopping!

k8einwdw · Aug 26, 2021

Friday, December 4th - Magic Kingdom Day 2 - Continued

A little after 11:00, we headed out of Magic Kingdom. We wanted to do some last-minute shopping, so we took the boat to Ft. Wilderness, hopped in our golf cart and drove up to the bus stop, and caught a bus to Disney Springs. Upon arrival, we made a beeline to Disney Days of Christmas to make a very special purchase...

The whole week, we'd been noticing that there were no pink Minnie Baby's First Christmas ornaments to be found at any of the stores on property. Seriously, we looked anywhere we saw ornaments. I guess it worked out that we had a Lincoln and not an Elsie, because I would have wanted the pink one if he'd been a girl! While we were at the customization counter, a woman in front of us was getting no less than 10 ornaments customized. I can't imagine how much she spent that day.

When we put in our customization order, we were quoted a 2-3 hour turnaround time, so we had some time to kill. Where better to kill time than in Disney Springs? First stop, lunch!

The Original 1762 for me, and the Holiday Turkey for Jason. I used to get the Holiday Turkey, but ever since a Capriotti's Sandwich Shop opened near us and I tried their version of the Thanksgiving sandwich, Earl's just doesn't do it for me anymore. After lunch, we shopped around at some of our favorite stores - Basin, Tren-D, The Marketplace Co-Op, Once Upon a Toy, Uniqlo, and of course, World of Disney. We did a lot of damage at World of Disney, but I'll be honest, I don't remember what all we got. Some things I do remember getting are one of the holiday spirit jerseys which you'll see me wear on our check-out day, a super cute Mickey stroller organizer, and this adorable onesie that Lincoln has already outgrown.

Always have to get a picture of the Lego dragon...

And I adore the peanut reindeer!

Once we got the update that our ornament was ready for pickup, we grabbed it and headed out of Disney Springs and back to Ft. Wilderness. Side note - I didn't realize how close Ft. Wilderness is to Disney Springs until this trip. It's such a short bus ride!

Up next: Back to MK for the night, and lots of tears

k8einwdw · Aug 27, 2021

Friday, December 4th - Magic Kingdom Day 2 - Continued

We headed back to Magic Kingdom for the night around 4:30.

Our first stop was The Chapeau, to make another very special purchase.

I think The Chapeau is currently closed, but in December, you had to wait in the line for The Confectionery in order to get to the hat shop, which we thought was strange. Thankfully, when you were returning to collect your personalized purchase, you could go right up to the door of The Chapeau to get it. Purchase made, we headed back into the park for a little more fun to wrap up our trip. Our first stop was Haunted Mansion, which was posted at a 30-minute wait. We got to admire the beautiful Rivers of America while we waited.

I have to admit, we always complain about not getting the "Nightmare Before Christmas" overlay on our Haunted Mansion during our holiday trips. Doesn't stop us from riding it though! We only had to wait about 15 minutes before it was our time to socialize with the grim, grinning ghosts.

We did not nail it.

After we fended off the hitchhiking ghosts, baby needed a potty break.

I was ready to get off my feet, so we took a break and watched the Country Bears.

And when in Frontierland, one must eat at Pecos Bill's. We ordered our food during the show and pressed "I'm Here" as soon as it was over, but we still had to wait a good 10-15 minutes before it was ready. Of course, everyone was huddled right outside the exit waiting for their food to be ready, which kind of defeats the purpose of making people mobile order their food... Anyway, we both had our usual nachos with beef, which were delicious as always. Enjoy this high quality picture - we always end up sitting in the darkest corner of the restaurant!

After dinner, we headed into Adventureland for one last ride. We decided on Jingle Cruise, which was posted at a 40-minute wait. While we were in line, some security officers arrived and started looking around one of the docks with flashlights, before disappearing backstage. We never did figure out what they were looking for. We ended up waiting the full 40 minutes this time around. No pictures this time, but we always enjoy Jungle/Jingle Cruise in the dark.

Up next: A bittersweet "See Ya Real Soon"

k8einwdw · Aug 30, 2021

Friday, December 4th - Magic Kingdom Day 2 - Continued

After our ride on the Jingle Cruise, we were ready to start making our way out of the park. We stopped to watch the castle projections for a few minutes...

And then we stopped and sat under the Christmas tree on Main Street for a while to soak in the atmosphere for the last time as just the two of us. It was here that the tears started flowing. It's hard to put into words what I was feeling, but I'll try. On the one hand, I was so beyond thankful to finally be pregnant after nearly five years of infertility. For years, we've watched families with young children at Disney and imagined what it will be like to bring our own. We are so excited to introduce him to the magic of the Disney parks, and we have so many firsts to look forward to. But on the other hand, there was also a sadness knowing that our Disney trips will never be the same again. We've had twelve incredible, memorable Disney trips just the two of us, and believe me, I know we are beyond privileged to be able to say that. In order for a new chapter to begin, the current one must end, and sitting under that Christmas tree, I was overwhelmed with emotion at the closing of that chapter in our lives.

After I had collected myself, we stopped by the Chapeau to collect our purchase from earlier...

And said "See Ya Real Soon" to Magic Kingdom. I cried again as we were walking out of the park, and Jason was so patient with me as I processed all of my emotions. It's hard to believe that the next time we are standing in this spot, we will be holding our son!

Once I was ready to leave, we headed back to Ft. Wilderness via the boat launch, and headed back to our cabin to pack up and try to get to bed at a decent hour.

Up next: A "Grand" morning on our check-out day

muddyrivers · Aug 31, 2021

Your description of your flood of emotions actually makes total sense! I may not be a pregnant woman but that feeling of one chapter ending and another one beginning can be overwhelming. I am one for nostalgia and am always apprehensive about what is to come. Luckily this report is being written in hindsight and you now know how great the new chapter of your life is!

cgersic · Aug 31, 2021

You made me cry too!!! What a beautiful way to put it into words. I can't wait to see the family photo!

k8einwdw · Aug 31, 2021

muddyrivers said:
Your description of your flood of emotions actually makes total sense! I may not be a pregnant woman but that feeling of one chapter ending and another one beginning can be overwhelming. I am one for nostalgia and am always apprehensive about what is to come. Luckily this report is being written in hindsight and you now know how great the new chapter of your life is!

cgersic said:
You made me cry too!!! What a beautiful way to put it into words. I can't wait to see the family photo!

Thank you both! We are so happy in this season in our life, and we can't wait to introduce our mini mousketeer to Disney!

k8einwdw · Aug 31, 2021

Saturday, December 5th - Check-Out Day

We woke up bright and early this morning to get dressed and ready, finish packing, and load up the car. Once we had done a sweep or two of the cabin to make sure we hadn't forgotten anything, I drove the golf cart up to the golf cart return area, and Jason followed behind in the car. Once I had parked the cart and dropped the keys into the drop box, we bid adieu to Fort Wilderness.

If you've read my previous trip reports, you may remember that we always do a table service breakfast on our check-out day as a way to ease ourselves out of the magic, rather than waking up early and immediately leaving the bubble. This time around, we had a 9:00 am breakfast reservation at Grand Floridian Cafe. We left the Fort around 8:30. It's a short drive, so we made it to the Grand with time to spare before I could check us in.

While we were waiting, we admired some of the holiday decorations around the lobby. Of course, we missed the life-size gingerbread house, but the Grand is always so beautiful at Christmastime.

Up next: Breakfast and the trip home

k8einwdw · Aug 31, 2021

Saturday, December 5th - Check-Out Day - Continued

We were called up shortly after 9:00, and seated at a table by a window. Outside our window was a family with a darling little girl around 2 or 3, and we enjoyed being entertained by her antics while we ate.

We both wore cozy spirit jerseys for the ride home - Jason wore his Haunted Mansion spirit jersey, and I wore the holiday one that I had purchased on this trip.

Jason ordered a coffee, and I ordered a cranberry juice. Baby boy did not let me drink coffee while I was pregnant. You better believe that we went through the Starbucks drive-thru on our way home from the hospital so I could get a cold brew.

Anyway, back to breakfast. They started us with biscuits and the Grand Flo Café citrus butter...

And then Jason and I both ordered the Chicken and Waffles for our entrée. The chicken was fried in a cornflake batter. This was actually my first time ever having chicken and waffles, and I have to say I enjoy both things more when they are separate. I loved the waffle by itself with the syrup, but syrup on fried chicken was just too weird for me. Jason, on the other hand, has not stopped talking about this meal since we left. He loved it! Neither of us could finish though - it was a LOT of food!

After we had eaten our fill and paid our bill, it was time to hit the road. But first, I had to stop to take a pic of the mini gingerbread house that they had put inside the café. I'm glad they incorporated the gingerbread house in some way, and I hope that the full-size one will be back this year!

We left the Grand Floridian shortly after 10:00 to make the 7-ish hour drive home. We stopped in Warner Robbins, GA on the way home to visit the newly-opened Buc-ee's. I think it had been open less than a week at that point, and boy was it CROWDED! I told Jason when we left that I think the crowd there was bigger than any crowd we had encountered at WDW that week! And of course, over half weren't wearing masks.

So we got what we wanted, used the very clean restrooms, and got out of there as quickly as we could. We said we'll probably make that a stop on our Disney trips from now on - hopefully it won't be as crowded every time!

And that's our trip! We made it home early that evening, and I was already starting to think about Lincoln's first trip. Thank you all so much for being so patient with me as it's taken six long months to finish this report!

Up next: Final thoughts

Back!Elbow!Shoulders! · Aug 31, 2021

Your sentiments on your final park day totally made sense. I had similar feelings. It’s weird to be both elated and a bit sad knowing from here on out all of your vacations will be different. I’m thinking there will be far more positive differences though.

Hope your final thoughts include when you’re thinking about having Lincoln’s first trip. (I am thinking no sooner than 18 months for lil BES. Especially since we’d have to fly.)

MickeyCB · Sep 1, 2021

k8einwdw said:

Thank you for sharing your trip and congratulations again on your new bundle of joy!
We're very excited to be taking our new grandbaby to Disney in October, even though she will only be 10 months old.
And, please tell me this is a photo of that truck pulling in to that spot, not parked like that?!

k8einwdw · Sep 2, 2021

Back!Elbow!Shoulders! said:
Your sentiments on your final park day totally made sense. I had similar feelings. It’s weird to be both elated and a bit sad knowing from here on out all of your vacations will be different. I’m thinking there will be far more positive differences though.

Hope your final thoughts include when you’re thinking about having Lincoln’s first trip. (I am thinking no sooner than 18 months for lil BES. Especially since we’d have to fly.)

Oh I'm 100% positive that I won't feel sad about the way things used to be when we take Lincoln for the first (and second, and third...) time. We'll be taking him a lot sooner, but we have the luxury of living within reasonable driving distance. No way I could take him on a plane when he's really little.

MickeyCB said:
Thank you for sharing your trip and congratulations again on your new bundle of joy!
We're very excited to be taking our new grandbaby to Disney in October, even though she will only be 10 months old.
And, please tell me this is a photo of that truck pulling in to that spot, not parked like that?!

Thank you, and I bet you're so excited for that trip! I hope you'll be doing a TR! And yes, I believe they were either pulling in or out.

k8einwdw · Sep 2, 2021

Final Thoughts:

This part is a lot easier when I don't drag my feet writing the report.

This trip was 9 months ago now, and a lot of life has happened since then, so a lot of it feels like a blur if I'm being honest!

Resort: We've stayed in the Ft. Wilderness cabins before and LOVED them, and this trip was no exception. We love how peaceful and secluded it feels, we love how friendly Ft. Wilderness guests always are, and we love having the boat transportation to MK. I think if we could only stay at one Disney resort for the rest of our lives, Ft. Wilderness would probably be it, or at least be a top contender. We're already anticipating staying at the cabins with Lincoln one day (when he is much older and able to stay put in the golf cart).

Weather: This is the third trip that we've done the week after Thanksgiving, and all three times, there has been a cold snap during our dates. Thankfully, we know to expect it now, and we pack plenty of layers. Not to mention, it's so much more comfortable to wear a mask when it's chilly outside. I'd rather be cold than hot any day, so we don't mind it!

Crowds: I probably said this in my September 2020 trip report, but we thought that the parks were actually more crowded than they usually are the week after Thanksgiving. We always purposely avoid going during school breaks so that the crowds aren't toooo bad, but we found that for both of our 2020 trips, that didn't work out the way it normally does. I think that a lot of families that had kids in virtual school were going down to Disney, having their kids do virtual school at the hotel, and then spending the rest of the time in the parks. Can't say I blame them, I'd do the same thing in their situation.

I will say, I'm glad we did this trip at the tail end of my first trimester/beginning of my second trimester, because Mama got BIG toward the end, and I would have been so miserable going later in my pregnancy. We were originally planning on doing a Disney Babymoon in March of this year, but ended up scrapping the idea after the December trip. At the end of each day, my lower back, hips, and feet hurt so badly, and I knew it would only get worse the later it got in my pregnancy.

All in all, we had a wonderful trip, and it was so special to be there carrying our child, dreaming about what our next trip will look like with a bebe in tow. Thank you all for reading along, and I can't wait to share the next one with you! In the meantime, I'll be living vicariously through everyone else's trip reports!

k8einwdw · Sep 3, 2021

BONUS

I meant to show you guys the pictures of L's It's a Small World nursery...

My mom and sister were a huge help in bringing the accent wall to real life from a sketch I had drawn:

I made the clock face out of a large Styrofoam disc, white posterboard, silver and gold glittery scrapbook paper, and gold paint. I was originally planning on buying a working wooden clock with the Small World face design, but didn't want to hang something that heavy that close to the crib.

We found these really cool map drawer pulls at Hobby Lobby, we thought they matched the theme perfectly!

The gallery wall above his changing table has pictures I bought from an Etsy shop called ArtofJup. She has other Disney-themed prints as well. L has learned how to kick the bottom row of pictures during his diaper changes, and has even managed to pee on one in a way that it got inside the frame.

I bought the cheap spice racks from Ikea and painted them white, and we hung them up on his wall as bookshelves. He has tons of books, so we try to rotate them out every month or so.

And here are some pictures of the whole nursery put together! I love how it turned out!

KellBelle · Sep 3, 2021

Absolutely adorable! You guys should be so proud of how beautiful it turned out!

Back!Elbow!Shoulders! · Sep 3, 2021

That really looks fantastic! Great job!

Songbird76 · Sep 7, 2021

k8einwdw said:
BONUS

I meant to show you guys the pictures of L's It's a Small World nursery...

My mom and sister were a huge help in bringing the accent wall to real life from a sketch I had drawn:

View attachment 584421

I made the clock face out of a large Styrofoam disc, white posterboard, silver and gold glittery scrapbook paper, and gold paint. I was originally planning on buying a working wooden clock with the Small World face design, but didn't want to hang something that heavy that close to the crib.

View attachment 584422

We found these really cool map drawer pulls at Hobby Lobby, we thought they matched the theme perfectly!

View attachment 584424

The gallery wall above his changing table has pictures I bought from an Etsy shop called ArtofJup. She has other Disney-themed prints as well. L has learned how to kick the bottom row of pictures during his diaper changes, and has even managed to pee on one in a way that it got inside the frame.

View attachment 584425

I bought the cheap spice racks from Ikea and painted them white, and we hung them up on his wall as bookshelves. He has tons of books, so we try to rotate them out every month or so.

View attachment 584426

And here are some pictures of the whole nursery put together! I love how it turned out!

View attachment 584427
View attachment 584428
View attachment 584429

It looks amazing!! My daughter loves the rug!

cgersic · Sep 7, 2021

LOVE the nursery and the wall and clock turned out soooo good!

k8einwdw · Sep 8, 2021

KellBelle said:
Absolutely adorable! You guys should be so proud of how beautiful it turned out!

Back!Elbow!Shoulders! said:
That really looks fantastic! Great job!

Songbird76 said:
It looks amazing!! My daughter loves the rug!

cgersic said:
LOVE the nursery and the wall and clock turned out soooo good!

Thank you, everyone! :inlove:

Trip Report *COMPLETED* The More the Merrier - November/December 2020

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Trip Report COMPLETED The More the Merrier - November/December 2020