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

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

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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.

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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! 😬

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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
 
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Wicked Sisters

Well-Known Member
In the Parks
No
It’s amazing how quickly children recover from such major surgery. Lincoln is so cute and adorable. We look forward to your next family adventures in WDW.
 

k8einwdw

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Thank you everyone for the warm welcome back and well wishes for Lincoln! Now, where we?

Sunday, December 12th - Animal Kingdom Day - Continued

When I last left off, L had fallen asleep in his stroller while we were waiting for our Tusker House lunch reservation. The hostess warned us that he would probably wake up once we got into the restaurant, since it tended to be pretty loud in there, and she was correct. He lasted maybe 5 minutes in the stroller before he woke up, cranky. 🙃 L is not an easy one to go down for a nap, and once he is down, he does not want to be woken up. We transferred him from the stroller into a high chair so he could get a better look at his surroundings, but he was just not into it. What he was into, however, was the food.

I'm not sure if it's still this way, but in December of 2021, Tusker House had transitioned from a buffet into a family-style meal (which we prefer anyway). First up, the salad and bread service. The salad was fine, nothing thrilling. The bread service was like a smaller version of what you get at Sanaa. Pretty good!

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Lincoln did not last long in the high chair before he wanted to be held, so for the rest of the meal, we took turns eating and holding him. We got a visit from the Main Mouse himself...

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Then, the rest of the meal came out. Beef, pork, chicken, shrimp, roasted potatoes, rice, veggies, and mac and cheese. Both grown-ups loved the beef with chimichurri sauce, L enjoyed some roasted potato, and all three of us thought the mac and cheese was the best part of the meal!

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We were visited by the rest of the characters...

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And then we got this trio of desserts. The bee cake (on the right) was the cutest, but super rich. L did not partake in any of the desserts, but from the picture, it looks like he enjoyed a refreshing bottle.

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Once we had our fill, it was getting a little too close to the end of our Lightning Lane window for Kilimanjaro Safaris, L was getting increasingly cranky, and naturally, our server was nowhere to be found. Thankfully, when he did show up, he had the bill with him, and I was waiting, credit card, in hand, so that we could settle the bill and get the heck out of Dodge. I know *most* people are generally understanding when a baby is fussy in public, but it gives me so much anxiety being the mom of the fussy baby.

Thankfully, we were able to pay and get out of there with about 5 minutes to spare before the end of our Lighting Lane window, and it's a short walk from Tusker House to Kilimanjaro Safaris.

Up next: Snoozing on the Savanna
 

MickeyCB

Well-Known Member
He is sooo sweet! And isn't it crazy how resilient they are?! Thanks for sharing the update on his surgery and I'm enjoying the rest of your report.
Any plans for the next trip yet?
 

Songbird76

Well-Known Member
Hi everyone! I certainly didn't mean to go so long without updating, but as you all know, life happens! Work has been so hectic, but thankfully, management has finally hired us the additional employee we've been desperately needing for two years, so I'm finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel, and hoping I'll have more time to hop on here more often.

Mostly, I feel awful for not updating everyone on Lincoln's surgery. I am so thankful for the community here, and those of you that were thinking of and praying for us last month. Lincoln's surgery went great! We were told it would take 4-6 hours, and it took about 5.5 hours - longest 5.5 hours EVER. His neurosurgeon said that the suture was very tight around his brain, so they have given him plenty of room to grow. I will be thankful for his medical team for the rest of my life - they have truly given our son a chance to have a normal, healthy life. I will spare you the really sad pics with all of the tubes and wires hanging out of every limb, but here are some photos from before and after surgery...

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Lincoln's eyes were swollen shut for about 48 hours, but as soon as he could open his eyes and see everyone, he was on his way back to his usual wild self. His nurses absolutely adored him (who wouldn't?), and they let us go home a day early because he was doing so well! Since we've been home, he's been absolutely thriving. Growing way too big, starting to stand (supported), and trying really hard to crawl - right now he's doing an inchworm-army crawl combo that is hilarious, but it gets him around. Thank you again to everyone that has sent their well wishes. I truly cherish the friendships I've made here. 🥰
What a happy boy he is!! Glad the surgery went well and he seems to have recovered really quickly! My daughter never did crawl normally....she did that inch worm army crawl thing for several months and then just went straight from there to walking. My nephew scooted around on his butt. Whatever works to get them where they want to go!
 

k8einwdw

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
He is sooo sweet! And isn't it crazy how resilient they are?! Thanks for sharing the update on his surgery and I'm enjoying the rest of your report.
Any plans for the next trip yet?
It is absolutely crazy how quickly he bounced back. I was shocked when his neurosurgeon said I'd be fine to go back to work two weeks after his surgery, but sure enough, he was back to his normal self by then!
Such great news! Thank you for updating us and for all your wonderful reports! Following along.
Thank you for following along!
What a happy boy he is!! Glad the surgery went well and he seems to have recovered really quickly! My daughter never did crawl normally....she did that inch worm army crawl thing for several months and then just went straight from there to walking. My nephew scooted around on his butt. Whatever works to get them where they want to go!
I wouldn't be surprised if that's what L ends up doing - the way he's doing it now gets him where he needs to be!
 

k8einwdw

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Sunday, December 12th - Animal Kingdom Day - Continued

After we settled our bill at Tusker House, we made a beeline for Kilimanjaro Safaris, we just a few minutes to spare in our LL return time window. When we were leaving Tusker House, I put L in his carrier, rather than his stroller, because I would feel more secure on the bumpy safari with him strapped to me, plus it made it easier when we had to hand off our stroller halfway through the queue. The CM who parked our stroller noted that Lincoln was looking sleepy, and said that a lot of babies doze off during the safari.

Well...she was right. 😂

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Poor kid slept through his first Disney ride. J had pulled out the GoPro to try to get some cute video of L on his first safari, and instead, got a 20-minute snoozefest. 😴

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Oh well, there's always next time! We briefly considered hitting up the Gorilla Falls trail after getting off the safari, but L was still asleep, and Mama did not want to walk that entire trail in the heat with him strapped to her chest. Did I mention it was hot this trip? It was HOT for December. We decided to head back to the car, since we didn't have a sun hat for L, and didn't want to transfer him to the stroller and wake him up. He inherited Jason's porcelain skin, so I'm paranoid about him getting sunburned. We stopped to take some pics in front of the Tree of Life...

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And then we headed out of the park, less than five hours after we had arrived. Definitely one of our shorter park days, but we would learn over the course of the trip to take it slow and enjoy the time we got in the parks, even if it was less time than we were used to.

Up next: Fine Dining at Pop Century
 

k8einwdw

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Sunday, December 12th - Animal Kingdom Day - Continued

As we were walking out to our car at Animal Kingdom, Lincoln finally awoke from his nap, and he and I were both drenched in sweat from me wearing him in the carrier and walking around in the heat for so long. Amazingly, there were a few things I had forgotten when I packed 75% of the house for this trip, so we decided to save some money and hit up Target, rather than ordering through Instacart like we had the night before. L and I got a nice break in the AC in the car, while Jason ran in to grab what we needed. At the time of the trip, L was drinking primarily pumped breast milk, and I had ice packs to keep it cool on the ride down, but since the Pop rooms have mini fridges, we had no way to re-freeze them. I had made do by double-bagging some ice in ziploc bags to keep the milk cold when we were in the parks, but we needed more ziploc bags, among a few other things. Word to the wise - if you're reading this TR to prep for bringing a baby to Disney, and you'll need to keep pumped milk cold in the parks, you can get free cups of ice from virtually any quick service restaurant or food stand. Just get new ice throughout the day as it melts. Or better yet, invest in the Ceres Chill. Anywho, that's enough lactation talk for today. 😂

We got back to Pop around 3:30 pm, and walked around the gift shop for a bit before heading back to our room. I stopped in the food court to grab a Mickey bar on our way out, and couldn't resist snapping a pic with the Mickey phone.

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Once we were back in the room, we rested and let L play for a bit. We tried to get him to take one last nap for the day, but he wasn't having it.

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We had contemplated taking the Skyliner from Pop to CBR to have dinner, but Mr. Skipped-a-Nap was cranky, so we decided to stay at Pop and just grab dinner from the food court. J had a burger with bacon and pimento cheese, and I had the chicken parmesan. We split the famous tie-dye cheesecake. And L enjoyed some banana and teething crackers. In the last picture, he's trying to get the kids at the next table to notice him. 😂

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We even let Lincoln try a bite of the tie-dye cheesecake. He wasn't into it.

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After our fancy dinner, it was time to head back to the room and put a certain someone to bed.

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Up next: Baby's first Magic Kingdom visit!
 

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