Trip Report *COMPLETED* When We're Together - December 2021

"Sure it's nice to open a gift that's tied up with a perfect bow. But the greatest present of all was given to me long ago. It's something I would never trade, it's the family that we've made. 'Cause when we're together, I have everything on my list. And when we're together, I have all I've wished. All around the Christmas tree, there'll be dreams coming true. But when we're together, then my favorite gift is you."

"When We're Together" has held a special place in my heart since the first time I watched "Olaf's Frozen Adventure." It is even more special now that we have the gift that we prayed and wished for, for so long. I am so beyond thrilled to be preparing to take our son on his very first Disney trip, and I can't wait to take you all along with us!

Who: By this point, many of you know me (Katie) and my hubby Jason

And now we have a little sidekick, our son Lincoln! He will be six months old on this trip.

We will also be meeting up with some of my extended family while we're down there! My "Disney Aunt and Uncle" - they are FL residents and DVC owners; their son (my cousin) and his wife, and their son who is 8 months older than Lincoln. Not sure if I'll be posting any pics of the family on here, but you'll here about them I'm sure, so we'll call them Aunt D, Uncle B, C (my cousin), E (his wife), and CT (their son).

When: Saturday, December 11th - Thursday, December 16th! We normally do our holiday trip the week after Thanksgiving, but we postponed it this year so that we could meet up with the fam while they're down there.

Where: Pop Century! Remember when I said that I didn't think Pop was worth the extra money over an All Star Resort?

We did enjoy the Skyliner for getting to/from HS and Epcot, although I don't know that it's really worth the price jump from the All Stars to Pop.

Yeah, I ate my words as soon as we started planning this trip. We want to be on the Skyliner route, since you can push a stroller right onto the Skyliner. I wouldn't be surprised if we drive to AK and MK to avoid lugging a stroller onto the bus!

Why: A lot of people are probably questioning why anyone in their right minds would take a six-month-old to WDW. Well, first of all, I never said we were in our right minds. In all seriousness, this is something that we had discussed long before we even got pregnant. We've known for a while that our child would grow up going to WDW at least once a year (as long as we are able to financially make that happen ), so we never saw the point in waiting until they were "old enough" to go on their first trip. We've always said that we wanted to wait until our first child was at least six months old before taking them for the first time, and Lincoln will be conveniently turning six months old on December 5th. Not to mention, he'll be essentially free! No, he won't remember this trip, but Jason and I will never forget it. Plus, that's what photos and videos are for!

We've set our expectations for this trip basically on the floor. If we get on one ride at each park, great. If we have to cancel our dining reservations and eat at the Pop food court every night, no biggie. We know we'll be spending less time in the parks than we have in the past, we're just excited to be going back! By the time we go back, it will have been a little over a year since we returned from our last trip. This is the longest we've gone between trips, so we are ready to be back in the Disney bubble!

Up next: Dining reservations and general plans

 

[k8einwdw]

Happy that Lincoln is doing so well in his recovery! Wishing you all the best!

So glad everything with Lincoln's surgery went well!

I'm so glad Lincoln's surgery went well!

Thanks everyone!!!

 

[k8einwdw]

Monday, December 13th - Magic Kingdom Day

My day started bright and early this morning when *someone* woke up at 4am...thankfully, *someone* eventually went back to sleep, and let me sleep until 6:15. *Someone else* slept through the whole ordeal. Anywho, we got ready for the day, and left the room around 9:30ish.

Lincoln ‘fit check

As much as we would have loved to make it for rope drop, it just didn't work with L's naps - hopefully we can make it work this next trip, since he'll be older. We decided to drive to MK so that we could avoid the massive bus line at Pop. We upgraded to preferred parking. I think it cost us an extra $15? $20? Something like that. Either way, we felt like it was worth it, since the parking lot trams were not running at the time. We were parking right at 10:00, and after a diaper change, we were headed in to the park!

We asked L what he thought of the castle - he was unimpressed. We didn't tarry long, because we had a FastPass LL return time to make! We decided to take L on a classic for his first ride at MK - Dumbo! Thankfully, he actually stayed awake this time! We took video on the ride, so no photos, but L really enjoyed looking around, especially at the water at the base of the ride.

After Dumbo, we took a quick bottle break in the covered sitting area back by Pete's Silly Sideshow. There was only one other family in there, so it was nice and quiet, and there were fans to keep you cool.

After L finished his bottle, we headed over to Liberty Square to meet up with some of my family that were in WDW at the same time as us - I think I mentioned it way back in the pre-trip section of the report, but my aunt, uncle, cousin, cousin's wife, and their son, who is 7-8 months older than Lincoln, were all down there at the same time as us. They were over at Sleepy Hollow having a snack, so we sat and talked with them for close to an hour. On the walk over, L had fallen asleep in the stroller, and managed to sleep through the whole conversation, as well as the two cavalcades that passed. They had to leave for a LL reservation, so we mobile ordered lunch from Pecos Bill's. While we were waiting outside for our order to be ready, another cavalcade passed by. And L slept through it yet again.

Once our order was ready, we headed inside, and I grabbed a table while J grabbed our food. As always, we ended up at the only table I could find, in the darkest part of the restaurant. Seriously, we always end up in the same dark corner! We both ordered our usual beef nachos, which hit the spot as usual!

Up next: The hit of the trip

 

[Back!Elbow!Shoulders!]

Monday, December 13th - Magic Kingdom Day

My day started bright and early this morning when *someone* woke up at 4am...thankfully, *someone* eventually went back to sleep, and let me sleep until 6:15. *Someone else* slept through the whole ordeal.

This never ceases to amaze me. DH sleeps closer to the baby monitor and closer to lil BES’s room but somehow he rarely hears her at night.

 

[k8einwdw]

This never ceases to amaze me. DH sleeps closer to the baby monitor and closer to lil BES’s room but somehow he rarely hears her at night.

I'm convinced it's a scam, and all of the men are in on it.

 

[k8einwdw]

Monday, December 13th - Magic Kingdom Day - Continued

After we finished up lunch, we mobile-ordered a Tropical Serenade float (POG juice with coconut soft serve) from Aloha Isle. We headed over there to find a HUGE line. "Good thing we mobile-ordered!" I said...except that the huge line was for mobile order pickup. Jason waited in line, while I waited patiently for a spot to open up on one of the ledges where people sit outside of Aloha Isle. A spot opened up, so I sat down, and placed Jason's backpack next to me so that he would have somewhere to sit after he got out of line. I had L in front of me in the stroller (still asleep). After a few minutes, two women came over, stepped past L in the stroller, and moved Jason's backpack to sit *directly* next to me. Like zero room between them and me. I looked over and opened my mouth to say something, but I was interrupted with "we'll just be here for a second." There were not there for a second. They proceeded to hem and haw over what they should order, and one of them insisted that there was a Dole Whip with rum. I didn't feel bad for not letting her know that they don't sell alcohol at quick-service spots in MK. Eventually, L woke up and I got tired of being around the rude girls, so I got up to see what was taking so long in line.

While we were at lunch, I made a LL reservation for Small World, and we were cutting it close to the end of the window. I motioned for J to just get out of line, but he said it would only be another minute. Eventually, after what felt like forever, he finally emerged from the line with our float, and we ate it as we were walking over to Fantasyland. We did enjoy it, but I think we both preferred the Kakamora float (coconut soft serve, pineapple juice, and blue curacao) that was at Aloha Isle in 2020. Once we had our fill, we found a spot to park our stroller in Fantasyland, and headed in to Small World for our LL reservation.

Since Lincoln's nursery is It's a Small World themed, this was a must-do for us. And he absolutely loved it! He was mesmerized throughout the entire ride.

After Small World, we headed out of the park and back to the car so that we could get an AC break, and I could pump. While we were out there, we noticed that a car had their engine running. It was running when we went out, and it was running when we headed back into the park half an hour later. We didn't see anyone in the car either, so it seems like someone accidentally left their engine running all day. When we headed back into the park, it was around 3:30, and we wanted to try to do one last thing before we headed out for the day. We debated on going over to the Peoplemover, but the app was showing a long wait. As I do every trip, I remarked to Jason -"Remember when the Peoplemover wasn't so popular and you could just walk on anytime you wanted?" Those were the days...

Instead of doing the Peoplemover, we decided to take L to meet Mickey! The wait was pretty short, and it's a rite of passage. As you can see, he didn't know what to think. Mickey was so interactive though, and played peek-a-boo with him. We got some video of the interaction, which I'm sure we'll cherish forever, but you'll have to settle for the pictures!

Up next: Wrapping up our time in Magic Kingdom

 

[k8einwdw]

Monday, December 13th - Magic Kingdom Day - Continued

After meeting Mickey, we were greeted at the train station by some Hundred Acre Woods friends....

And we admired the 50th Anniversary holiday decorations. They added some extra gold into the holiday decor -it's a nice touch, but I don't think we'll be sad when the pre-anniversary decorations return.

We were hungry for a snack, so we headed to our favorite snack stop in MK - the Adventureland Egg Roll cart! We got two spring rolls - one of the original Cheeseburger flavor, and one of the 50th Anniversary flavor, which is a pastrami and cheese. They have gotten expensive - $10 for two of them...but they were really good! We both really enjoyed both flavors.

While we were in the hub area, we had to get some castle pics. @amjt660 you'll enjoy zooming in on the first one.

We also admired some of the golden statues. I want to find a checklist so we can try to spot all of them before they go away!

And that wrapped up our day in MK. Two attractions, one character meet, one meal, and two snacks in six hours. Pre-Lincoln, we would have accomplished a lot more in that time frame, but he is teaching us to take things slow and enjoy the small moments.

Up next: Dinner at CBR

 

[amjt660]

@amjt660 you'll enjoy zooming in on the first one.

She is at the wrong park - she wants to be here

Max

 

[Darstarr]

View attachment 628587

She is at the wrong park - she wants to be here

View attachment 628589



Max

 

[k8einwdw]

Monday, December 13th - Magic Kingdom Day - Continued

We left MK around 4:30 pm, and drove back to Pop. We hung out in the room for a little bit before heading out for dinner. We decided to hop on the Skyliner and head over to CBR to have dinner at the Banana Cabana lounge. Lincoln LOVED the Skyliner!

We stayed at CBR back in May 2018 when they were constructing the Skyliner and the central area of the resort was under construction, so it looked quite a bit different from what we remembered. And we forgot how big that place is! It was quite the walk to get from the Skyliner station to the restaurant, but we very well could have inadvertently taken the long way. Once we finally made it over there, we were seated right away. Before we left Pop, we stopped by the food court and grabbed a side of green beans and a banana for L's dinner, so we let him eat while we were waiting for our food.

For drinks, I got the Pink Guava Colada, which was delicious. J is not super into the fruity, frozen drinks. It would appear that he got a beer of some sort. For our food, we decided to share some appetizers, rather than ordering entrees. We got the pull-apart rolls, the jerk chicken wings, and the queso and chips. Surprisingly, the pull-apart rolls were our favorite part of the meal! They're served with a guava butter and an onion jam, both of which were really tasty. The queso was queso - hard to mess up (unless you're Chipotle...). The wings were also good! L was not a fan of his green beans. We tried several different varieties of green beans on him before we found out that he likes the plain old canned kind.

Now, the entire reason we ventured over to Banana Cabana was because we wanted to try their bread pudding. It was created by the former head chef at 'Ohana, and was supposedly as good, if not better. Unfortunately, Lincoln was starting to get tired and cranky, so we cut our meal short, and headed back to the room to get him down for the night. Don't worry, we enjoyed a late-night Gideon's cookie for dessert!

And that's all for our Magic Kingdom Day!

Up next: Hollywood Studios Day...will Katie finally get on ROTR?

 

[meggo819]

hard to mess up (unless you're Chipotle

True story!

 

[riverside]

True story!

Their food is the pits….

 

[meggo819]

Their food is the pits….

In general, I don’t have a problem with Chipotle. But man, that queso they introduced was bad!!

 

[Songbird76]

I'm convinced it's a scam, and all of the men are in on it.

Totally! My son used to wake up at 4:30am every day and my husband would "sleep" right through it. I'd have to shake him really hard for a while before he would acknowledge anything and take a turn. Usually it was just easier to get up myself and take care of it, because I couldn't get back to sleep after that anyway.

 

[Songbird76]

Monday, December 13th - Magic Kingdom Day - Continued

After we finished up lunch, we mobile-ordered a Tropical Serenade float (POG juice with coconut soft serve) from Aloha Isle. We headed over there to find a HUGE line. "Good thing we mobile-ordered!" I said...except that the huge line was for mobile order pickup. Jason waited in line, while I waited patiently for a spot to open up on one of the ledges where people sit outside of Aloha Isle. A spot opened up, so I sat down, and placed Jason's backpack next to me so that he would have somewhere to sit after he got out of line. I had L in front of me in the stroller (still asleep). After a few minutes, two women came over, stepped past L in the stroller, and moved Jason's backpack to sit *directly* next to me. Like zero room between them and me. I looked over and opened my mouth to say something, but I was interrupted with "we'll just be here for a second." There were not there for a second. They proceeded to hem and haw over what they should order, and one of them insisted that there was a Dole Whip with rum. I didn't feel bad for not letting her know that they don't sell alcohol at quick-service spots in MK. Eventually, L woke up and I got tired of being around the rude girls, so I got up to see what was taking so long in line.

While we were at lunch, I made a LL reservation for Small World, and we were cutting it close to the end of the window. I motioned for J to just get out of line, but he said it would only be another minute. Eventually, after what felt like forever, he finally emerged from the line with our float, and we ate it as we were walking over to Fantasyland. We did enjoy it, but I think we both preferred the Kakamora float (coconut soft serve, pineapple juice, and blue curacao) that was at Aloha Isle in 2020. Once we had our fill, we found a spot to park our stroller in Fantasyland, and headed in to Small World for our LL reservation.

View attachment 628410

Since Lincoln's nursery is It's a Small World themed, this was a must-do for us. And he absolutely loved it! He was mesmerized throughout the entire ride.

View attachment 628411
View attachment 628412
View attachment 628413

After Small World, we headed out of the park and back to the car so that we could get an AC break, and I could pump. While we were out there, we noticed that a car had their engine running. It was running when we went out, and it was running when we headed back into the park half an hour later. We didn't see anyone in the car either, so it seems like someone accidentally left their engine running all day. When we headed back into the park, it was around 3:30, and we wanted to try to do one last thing before we headed out for the day. We debated on going over to the Peoplemover, but the app was showing a long wait. As I do every trip, I remarked to Jason -"Remember when the Peoplemover wasn't so popular and you could just walk on anytime you wanted?" Those were the days...

Instead of doing the Peoplemover, we decided to take L to meet Mickey! The wait was pretty short, and it's a rite of passage. As you can see, he didn't know what to think. Mickey was so interactive though, and played peek-a-boo with him. We got some video of the interaction, which I'm sure we'll cherish forever, but you'll have to settle for the pictures!

View attachment 628414
View attachment 628415

Up next: Wrapping up our time in Magic Kingdom

I can't believe they had the audacity to move the backpack with you sitting right there! I would have at least asked if it was ok if we sat for a few minutes! You don't touch other people's belongings!

 

[k8einwdw]

Their food is the pits….

In general, I don’t have a problem with Chipotle. But man, that queso they introduced was bad!!

I like Chipotle, but their original queso was gross! The one they have now is a little better, but still not my favorite.

Totally! My son used to wake up at 4:30am every day and my husband would "sleep" right through it. I'd have to shake him really hard for a while before he would acknowledge anything and take a turn. Usually it was just easier to get up myself and take care of it, because I couldn't get back to sleep after that anyway.

I don't get how they can't hear it!

I can't believe they had the audacity to move the backpack with you sitting right there! I would have at least asked if it was ok if we sat for a few minutes! You don't touch other people's belongings!

I was stunned. I guess they forgot their manners.

 

[k8einwdw]

Tuesday, December 14th - Hollywood Studios Day

Lincoln let me "sleep in" until almost 5:30 this morning. At 7:00, I was able to secure ILL reservations for both Rise of the Resistance and Runaway Railway! My aunt texted me to let me know that they had also gotten reservations, for around the same time, and suggested that we ride together. After L's first nap, we got ready to head out for the day.

Lincoln 'fit check...

We left the room a little after 10:00, and headed to the Skyliner. Lincoln enjoyed the Skyliner even more during the day, since he could look out at everything.

Mama ear check...

We made it into the park a little after 10:30. Our reservation for MMRR was for 10:30-11:30. I texted my aunt to let her know we were in the park. I didn't hear back from her right away, so we decided to kill some time meandering around.

We got some frozen cokes...

And saw Santa!

By that point, it was 11:20, and I still had not heard back from my aunt, so we decided to just head into MMRR. We parked the stroller, and headed up to the LL entrance, just to see my family...walking out. They rode without us. I gave her the benefit of the doubt...maybe she just hadn't been looking at her phone. We talked for a few minutes before we headed in to the ride, and she said to text her when we got off.

I transferred Lincoln into the carrier for this ride, since I knew it was a little jerky. As you can see, he was not a fan! He didn't cry, but the poor kid was holding on for dear life! I'm hoping he'll enjoy it more next time.

We got off of MMRR, and I texted my aunt to let her know we were off. She said that they were sitting in the Hollywood Brown Derby outdoor lounge. I told her we needed to change Lincoln's diaper, so we were going to head up to the baby care center, and we'd be right back. By the time we got back to Brown Derby, they were gone. No text. No heads up. Needless to say, my feelings were hurt. Bear in mind, I had not seen any of these people since pre-pandemic, and I changed the original dates of our trip so that we could be down here at the same time as them.

I was upset, but I didn't want to let it ruin our vacation, so we pressed on. I told Jason that if they wanted to see us, they could make the effort. By this time, it was time for our ROTR reservation. When my aunt texted me that morning, she said that she and my uncle would take the boys (Lincoln and my cousin's son) while my cousin, his wife, Jason, and I rode together. Since we had been ditched by my family, Jason and I were now going to have to take turns riding. No big deal, that was the original plan anyway. Only...when we got back there, the entrance to ROTR was blocked off. The ride was down. Again.

If you've read my past couple trip reports, you may remember that I have terrible luck with ROTR. In September 2020, I was not able to get a boarding group. In December 2020, I was pregnant, so I did not ride. Jason got a boarding group, but the ride was down most of the day, so he ended up waiting in line 1.5 hours after his boarding group was called, and we missed our dinner reservation. Now I had finally secured a reservation for both of us to ride, and it was down. We decided to walk around Galaxy's Edge for a bit and grab some lunch from Ronto Roasters, in hopes that it would open back up by the time we were done eating. No such luck. After lunch, we decided to just abandon ship and head back to Pop. I was already upset, it was hot, and it was just going to make me madder to sit there in the heat waiting for ROTR to open back up. So, third time was not the charm for us. I still have not ridden ROTR.

Up next: Attempting to salvage the day

 

[Tuvalu]

We ALL understand if you felt like Kevin.

 

[k8einwdw]

We ALL understand if you felt like Kevin.

I'm over it now, but I definitely felt like Kevin at the time.

 

[Songbird76]

Tuesday, December 14th - Hollywood Studios Day

Lincoln let me "sleep in" until almost 5:30 this morning. At 7:00, I was able to secure ILL reservations for both Rise of the Resistance and Runaway Railway! My aunt texted me to let me know that they had also gotten reservations, for around the same time, and suggested that we ride together. After L's first nap, we got ready to head out for the day.

Lincoln 'fit check...

View attachment 629120

We left the room a little after 10:00, and headed to the Skyliner. Lincoln enjoyed the Skyliner even more during the day, since he could look out at everything.

Mama ear check...

View attachment 629121

We made it into the park a little after 10:30. Our reservation for MMRR was for 10:30-11:30. I texted my aunt to let her know we were in the park. I didn't hear back from her right away, so we decided to kill some time meandering around.

View attachment 629123
View attachment 629124
View attachment 629125

We got some frozen cokes...

View attachment 629126

And saw Santa!

View attachment 629127

By that point, it was 11:20, and I still had not heard back from my aunt, so we decided to just head into MMRR. We parked the stroller, and headed up to the LL entrance, just to see my family...walking out. They rode without us. I gave her the benefit of the doubt...maybe she just hadn't been looking at her phone. We talked for a few minutes before we headed in to the ride, and she said to text her when we got off.

View attachment 629128

I transferred Lincoln into the carrier for this ride, since I knew it was a little jerky. As you can see, he was not a fan! He didn't cry, but the poor kid was holding on for dear life! I'm hoping he'll enjoy it more next time.

View attachment 629131
View attachment 629136

We got off of MMRR, and I texted my aunt to let her know we were off. She said that they were sitting in the Hollywood Brown Derby outdoor lounge. I told her we needed to change Lincoln's diaper, so we were going to head up to the baby care center, and we'd be right back. By the time we got back to Brown Derby, they were gone. No text. No heads up. Needless to say, my feelings were hurt. Bear in mind, I had not seen any of these people since pre-pandemic, and I changed the original dates of our trip so that we could be down here at the same time as them.

I was upset, but I didn't want to let it ruin our vacation, so we pressed on. I told Jason that if they wanted to see us, they could make the effort. By this time, it was time for our ROTR reservation. When my aunt texted me that morning, she said that she and my uncle would take the boys (Lincoln and my cousin's son) while my cousin, his wife, Jason, and I rode together. Since we had been ditched by my family, Jason and I were now going to have to take turns riding. No big deal, that was the original plan anyway. Only...when we got back there, the entrance to ROTR was blocked off. The ride was down. Again.

If you've read my past couple trip reports, you may remember that I have terrible luck with ROTR. In September 2020, I was not able to get a boarding group. In December 2020, I was pregnant, so I did not ride. Jason got a boarding group, but the ride was down most of the day, so he ended up waiting in line 1.5 hours after his boarding group was called, and we missed our dinner reservation. Now I had finally secured a reservation for both of us to ride, and it was down. We decided to walk around Galaxy's Edge for a bit and grab some lunch from Ronto Roasters, in hopes that it would open back up by the time we were done eating. No such luck. After lunch, we decided to just abandon ship and head back to Pop. I was already upset, it was hot, and it was just going to make me madder to sit there in the heat waiting for ROTR to open back up. So, third time was not the charm for us. I still have not ridden ROTR.

Up next: Attempting to salvage the day

That's incredibly rude and inconsiderate of your family. I'm so sorry they ditched you.

 

[Darstarr]

The queso was queso - hard to mess up (unless you're Chipotle...).