Is that a character?! Quick, run the other way! A Nov/Dec Trip Report!

Welcome to my trip report – thanks in advance for taking time to read!

Now that the holidays have wrapped and we’re back to “normal” life, I thought it was about time I stopped reading about everyone else’s trip and get rolling on my report! I had so much fun writing my first report last spring that I decided to take another crack at it (I’ve linked my first report to my signature if you’re interested). Thanks for joining me on this adventure!

The Cast & StatsThe trip included me (Mike), DW (Chrissy) and DD (Addie). Addie turned two a couple weeks before we left, so this was her official “2nd Birthday Trip”!

Trip Dates: November 29 – December 6, 2011

Resort: Boardwalk Villas

Chrissy and I are both HUGE Disney fans. We were engaged in the Rose Garden at Cinderella castle in March 2002 (almost 10 years…yikes!) and spent our honeymoon in WDW and aboard the Disney Magic in October 2003. Since then, we’ve visited at least once or twice a year. The only trip that we ever had to be “postponed” was a holiday trip we had planned for December 2009 (I was going to sing in the Candlelight Processional!). We had it all booked and a couple weeks later found out that Chrissy was pregnant and our little princess was due in November. So, we decided to postpone until June 2010 and take her on her first Disney adventure when she was 7 months old. We had an incredible trip but decided to wait until she was two to take her again. There was no way we could wait that long to return, so last March the two of us had a little getaway in the world to satisfy us until this trip! (my trip report from that adventure is posted below!) Although we were really excited to take her back now that she was older, we were also very nervous about the “terrible two’s” rearing their ugly head!

 

[DisneyFan1003]

We left the shops and went down to see about the wait for the Princesses at Exposition Hall, thinking we might do better with another Cinderella meeting! The wait was posted at 40 minutes so we chose to try again the next day. Chrissy stopped to buy a couple holiday/MVMCP pins and it was time for Magic, Memories & You. I love that show – the music, etc. is fantastic! Holiday Wishes started shortly after that and Addie absolutely loved it. I experienced another “magic moment” standing in the middle of Main Street watching Wishes together – perfection. We both LOVE wishes and Holiday Wishes is even better – we have the CD at home and had been listening to it all season. We realized that it was Addie’s first official “in the park” MK fireworks show. On her first trip, we watched Wishes from the Top of the World Lounge at BLT and she fell asleep about 2 minutes into the show. It was a lot of fun watching it though her eyes and seeing her yell and clap when they ended.

By the time Wishes ended, it was obvious Addie was getting really tired. We were disappointed that we had missed all the characters and really only done one ride, but that’s life with a toddler. We vowed to plan another holiday trip at the same time of year and make sure Addie was able to enjoy the whole thing! We headed out of MK and were handed an ABC Family 25 Days of Christmas air freshener – a bit odd, but thanks anyway! Overall, MVMCP was great. We certainly did not get to take advantage of much, but loved the parade (Addie excluded!), the fireworks and the treats. I think that if she was older, or less afraid, we would have done better. Waiting for the parade, and the parade itself ate up a lot of our time. We knew there was no way Addie would be able to last too far into the night and we would have rather cut our night short than be stuck in the MK with a repeat meltdown!! When we got back to the bus stop, there was a YC/BC bus getting ready to leave. We hopped on that, got off at YC and walked back to BW.

We had Addie in bed by 11:00 and followed shortly afterwards! We made it through the day with no major episodes!! Chrissy and I hit the pillows happy, but both commented on the fact that Monday was our last full day. The “doom” of departure day was looming!

 

[ladydi]

Addie's Cinderella experience did make me cry! My daughter loved all the characters except face characters. Our breakthrough also came with Cinderella who in 20 seconds charmed a shaking girl out of my arms and had her sitting down and exchanging hugs! Cindy is still her favorite princess. What wondeful memories for you to have as well!

 

[joanna71985]

Aww, I'm sorry you didn't get much out of MVMCP! Hopefully she'll be more fond of characters next time

And yikes about the camera! I know exactly how you feel. I accidently "killed" my camera in 2009 when I dropped it before MNSSHP. The lense broke out of the camera (it was a point-and-shoot), and I was told it would cost a bundle to repair it, and no guarantees it would work. Well, I guess one good thing came out of it...I got my first DSLR a few weeks later

 

[fractal]

What a great trip report! I'm late to the party and trying to
catch up, but I'm thoroughly enjoying your narration and the
stories of Addie's adventures.

I can sympathize w the fear of characters- both of my daughters
would freak out during fireworks so we never got to see a Disney
fireworks show until our last trip.

I'm really impressed with how you managed the trip with Addie.
Excellent parenting on your parts.

Sorry to read about your vomit encounters - kinda funny that they
were both adults.

The dapper Dan and Cinderella moments are priceless!
Looking forward to catching up and the rest of your trip!

 

[deb4him40]

My daughter, (who is 21 now and LOVES WDW), was so scared of characters when ____ was younger that I waited until she was 12 to take her to WDW. Now she can't get enough and enjoys all of the special events also. We've only done MVSHP, but hope to do MVMCP someday soon. Great trip report, and you are brave souls taking a toddler to WDW. LOL!!

 

[disneyny]

I am really enjoying your trip report. I can totally sympathize with the toddler meltdowns. We took my son at 9 months and he was an angel. Then last February we went and he had turned 2. It was a whole different experience. I had a moment on Main Street when I am sure everyone in Florida thought I was a horrible parent as I tried to control a raging 2 year old alone. We lost a shoe, spilled gold fish crackers all over the street and proceeded to create the hugest scene as people were rushing into the Magic Kingdom while we fought our way out. Somehow I got him to a boat and cried all the way back to the Wilderness Lodge because I felt like a failure! I think now that he is 3 it would be much better but those toddlers are very unpredictable and you never know when a meltdown will happen!

 

[tiaragirl]

Mike, awesome TR! The perfect break from my Soc studying..

Addie is adorable, and I'm so glad she got over the Princess hate! I probably would have been scared of Jasmine, too.. normally she's a babe but that one at CRT was questionable

The pictures of Addie with Cinder are actually the cutest thing I've ever seen - you're so lucky that the quality was good - and Cinder was one of the prettiest ones ever (I find she's often hit or miss). I teared up, not going to lie!

You've got some great family pictures too, particularly the EPCOT ones. Beauties!

Looking forward to the rest =)
Kenzie

 

[SyracuseOrange]

Great TR - the video of Dapper Dans is amazing!

 

[DisneyFan1003]

Addie's Cinderella experience did make me cry! My daughter loved all the characters except face characters. Our breakthrough also came with Cinderella who in 20 seconds charmed a shaking girl out of my arms and had her sitting down and exchanging hugs! Cindy is still her favorite princess. What wondeful memories for you to have as well!

Thanks! It was certainly one of those moments we'll never forget - probably even more special since she didn't like any of the other characters! As I mentioned before, the fact that it was not a planned moment made it that much better! :sohappy:

Thanks for reading!

Aww, I'm sorry you didn't get much out of MVMCP! Hopefully she'll be more fond of characters next time

And yikes about the camera! I know exactly how you feel. I accidently "killed" my camera in 2009 when I dropped it before MNSSHP. The lense broke out of the camera (it was a point-and-shoot), and I was told it would cost a bundle to repair it, and no guarantees it would work. Well, I guess one good thing came out of it...I got my first DSLR a few weeks later

Yeah, MVMCP was a bit of a bummer, but at no fault of Disney! It was a great event....it was just hard trying to avoid characters all night. We're going to attend the Hallween party this year, so we'll hope for better things!

Congrats on your camera accident leading to a new one! Fortunately, the damage wasn't too bad on mine and I've been able to use it. I'm actually taking it in on Friday to have it shipped to Nikon for repair - crossing my fingers it's not TOO expensive! :brick:

Hope you're enjoying the report....I've been so swamped I haven't had a chance to wrap it up. Hopefully in the next couple days!

 

[DisneyFan1003]

What a great trip report! I'm late to the party and trying to
catch up, but I'm thoroughly enjoying your narration and the
stories of Addie's adventures.

Thanks for joining the party! Glad you're enjoying the report and I appreciate the compliment on the narration! I really enjoyed your last report....the dialog between you and your kids was hysterical!

I can sympathize w the fear of characters- both of my daughters
would freak out during fireworks so we never got to see a Disney
fireworks show until our last trip.

The character episodes were disappointing, but I guess I shouldn't have been too surprised. We were both really happy with the fact that she didn't mind the fireworks. If we couldn't see characters, at least we could enjoy the evening shows!

I'm really impressed with how you managed the trip with Addie.
Excellent parenting on your parts.

Thanks for that compliment - always nice to hear! Before we had Addie, we'd see kids in the middle of meltdowns and wonder why the parents couldn't do something about it. Funny how your perspective totally changes when you have a kid and YOU are the one trying to deal with a meltdown! I guess we handled it as best we could....just glad it wasn't TOO often!

Sorry to read about your vomit encounters - kinda funny that they
were both adults.

Yeah, that was just weird! The one on the bus was the worst - at least we didn't get hit! :ROFLOL:

The dapper Dan and Cinderella moments are priceless!
Looking forward to catching up and the rest of your trip!

Thanks! Both of those moments were just amazing and I'm glad we have them both captured in pictures/video for Addie to enjoy when she gets older. It's those types of moments that keep us coming back!

Enjoy the rest of the report - hoping to wrap it up in the next day or so. Life just keeps getting in the way of me trying to finish up! Thanks for reading!

My daughter, (who is 21 now and LOVES WDW), was so scared of characters when ____ was younger that I waited until she was 12 to take her to WDW. Now she can't get enough and enjoys all of the special events also. We've only done MVSHP, but hope to do MVMCP someday soon. Great trip report, and you are brave souls taking a toddler to WDW. LOL!!

Thanks! We never thought an infant would be easier than a toddler - we were wrong! At 7 months, she just sat in her stroller and chilled out. This time, she had an actual opinion! The nerve of some kids!! :ROFLOL:

Hoping for better character encounters this fall....keeping my fingers crossed. Thanks for reading!

 

[DisneyFan1003]

I am really enjoying your trip report. I can totally sympathize with the toddler meltdowns. We took my son at 9 months and he was an angel. Then last February we went and he had turned 2. It was a whole different experience. I had a moment on Main Street when I am sure everyone in Florida thought I was a horrible parent as I tried to control a raging 2 year old alone. We lost a shoe, spilled gold fish crackers all over the street and proceeded to create the hugest scene as people were rushing into the Magic Kingdom while we fought our way out. Somehow I got him to a boat and cried all the way back to the Wilderness Lodge because I felt like a failure! I think now that he is 3 it would be much better but those toddlers are very unpredictable and you never know when a meltdown will happen!

Thanks for the sympathy! I laugh now thinking of all the "been there, done that" looks I got from sympathetic parents walking by as we tried to calm her down! In the end, we take the blame for a lot of it - she got pretty far off her schedule for meals/naps. She can do that from time to time, but several days in a row were just too much. She'll be a couple weeks away from 3 when we head back this fall, so hoping we have less of that. Thanks for sharing your story...makes me feel better!!

Glad you're enjoying the report....should be wrapping up soon!

Mike, awesome TR! The perfect break from my Soc studying..

Addie is adorable, and I'm so glad she got over the Princess hate! I probably would have been scared of Jasmine, too.. normally she's a babe but that one at CRT was questionable

Thanks! Glad I could offer a little study break for you! :ROFLOL: I use these reports at work all the time as a little mental break!

Yeah, that Jasmine was not the greatest - and it didn't help Addie wasn't familiar with her. However, I will say that she was really sweet and now Addie at least knows who she is!

The pictures of Addie with Cinder are actually the cutest thing I've ever seen - you're so lucky that the quality was good - and Cinder was one of the prettiest ones ever (I find she's often hit or miss). I teared up, not going to lie!

I love that picture....it's in a frame at home! I'm glad it was outside too - makes for a much nicer picture. Chrissy keeps giving me crap because she got THE shot of the whole trip with my new expensive camera! We were both impressed she got such a great picture since she's hardly used that camera. Props to her!

And, agreed - that Cinderella was pretty exceptional. We've seen them from time-to-time and they're just "ok". This one was beautiful and SOOOOO good with Addie. Can't thank her enough!

You've got some great family pictures too, particularly the EPCOT ones. Beauties!

Looking forward to the rest =)
Kenzie

Thanks Kenzie! We were really happy with the PhotoPass pictures this time. Considering how hard it can be to keep Addie's focus for a picture, they came out pretty well!

The rest of the report should be up soon! Thanks for reading!

Great TR - the video of Dapper Dans is amazing!

Thank you! SOOOOO happy we had the video camera handy for that one because we had no warning they were going to sing. And, unlike the Cinderella moment, a photo just doesn't do justice to the Dapper Dans!

Thank you for reading!

 

[plaz10]

Wow your whole fam is so adorable (ok really Addie more than anyone but you guys are a cute family.)

I hope that picture of you guys w/your mickey santa hats and Addie in front of the castle was your Christmas card! Really fantastic photo! Definitely frame worthy!

Loving your TR! Can't wait to read more

 

[mamamouse]

AWe booo I dread "home time"

 

[DisneyFan1003]

Wow your whole fam is so adorable (ok really Addie more than anyone but you guys are a cute family.)

I hope that picture of you guys w/your mickey santa hats and Addie in front of the castle was your Christmas card! Really fantastic photo! Definitely frame worthy!

Loving your TR! Can't wait to read more

Thanks and sorry for the long delay! Thank you for the compliments on our "family cuteness" ! :ROFLOL:

Unfortunately, we had ordered our cards before leaving for Disney (don't ask me why - guess I never figured we get a picture that good!)!

AWe booo I dread "home time"

I know.....departure day is the worst! At least we had already booked the next trip - the countdown is on! :sohappy:

 

[DisneyFan1003]

My apologies to anyone who has been following my report! Work and home have been insane over the last couple weeks, so my final installment is way overdue!

ENJOY!

 

[DisneyFan1003]

Day 7 – Monday, December 5
The Last Day!! (Cue the ominous music now)

Somehow, Addie must have known that we were entering our last day as she woke up crying at 4:00 in the morning! We got her back to sleep around 4:30, but found it difficult to fall back to sleep ourselves. Not really the way we wanted to start the day! Everyone was up again around 7:00 and we enjoyed breakfast in the room. I was walking back from the Kitchen when I saw that most dreaded of sights at WDW – the DME papers had been slid under our door. I quickly picked them up and stashed them out of sight so they could not taint the atmosphere before embarking on our last day.

We took off towards the bus stop around 8:30. For the second day in a row, there was a Disney Transportation rep working the bus stop – she was a lot of fun and was in the middle of conducting a little trivia contest when our bus arrived after only waiting for 5 minutes – it was time to tackle the Animal Kingdom for the first time this trip! The weather was absolutely beautiful that day. They were calling for a high in the mid-70’s and a nice breeze was keeping the air moving. Quite a change from the last time we had taken Addie to AK in June 2010. The heat index had been 110 that day and the humidity was so high that all of our pictures from the day look foggy!

 

[DisneyFan1003]

We arrived at AK and quickly made our way through bag check and tickets – first stop was a safari ride! The first time we took Addie, it was so hot that we couldn’t really enjoy it and the animals had all taken shelter. This time, the animals were out in full force and she was loving it. It was cool to watch it through her eyes – pointing at different animals left and right. When she saw the elephants, we thought her head would explode! We had a great tour guide and she kept the ride quite entertaining. Thankfully everyone on the ride was really into watching for animals and taking pictures – we’ve often been stuck in a truck with some obnoxious people arguing or talking so loud you can’t hear over them. Not this time!

 

[DisneyFan1003]

When we arrived back in the village, we did a bit of shopping, enjoyed some of the musicians and grabbed a PhotoPass picture. Around 10:00, we headed towards Africa to get in line for the 10:30 Nemo show. Addie is a huge Nemo fan and we both LOVE the show, so we were really looking forward to watching her reaction. The first time she saw the show, she fell asleep after about 2 minutes – we were hoping for more this time around. Other than a few obnoxious tour groups, the wait wasn’t bad and were inside in no time. We had great seats along a center aisle in the lower bowl. Addie had fun playing and touching the “water” (along the sides of the sound booth and stage ramps).

The show started, her eyes popped and she was glued until it ended – no character freak outs!! She couldn’t take it all in fast enough and we were having a blast. Addie kept waiving to the characters and when Dory passed by she shrieked “That’s Dory!!!” For some reason, the show always seems to get to me a bit – maybe it’s the music, or because I was a theater brat growing up, but there’s just something about it. By the time we got to the end, watching Addie blow goodbye kisses to everyone as they were leaving the stage, I was a bit choked up. In my mind, another perfect little moment!
After the show, we made a pit stop in the Baby Care Center, grabbed another ornament for the tree and decided that we should head back for lunch and a nap before we pressed our luck. I hated to leave so early because I really wanted to take her to FotLK and try to grab a single rider on EE, but the last few days had taught us that naptime was a must. We stopped for another PhotoPass shot and sadly waived good-bye to the Tree of Life.

 

[DisneyFan1003]

Addie was enthralled by all the birds on our way out and we had a hard time prying her away.

We were headed to the bus stop by 11:30 and, again, our bus arrived after 5 minutes. We hopped off the bus at the Swan and enjoyed the weather as we strolled back to BW. Addie declared “Shoulders Daddy” and so I gave her a ride all the way down the boardwalk…I didn’t realize just how long a walk that was! Lol!! Thankfully, she was also content to just walk and hold my hand! We decided to grab some pizza at the Boardwalk Pizza Window for lunch. Chrissy grabbed a table on the BW and we enjoyed a great lunch and the beautiful weather. The boardwalk was rather quiet at that time, so we were able to just relax and enjoy our final lunch at WDW.

We were back up in our room shortly before 1:00 and Addie was down for a nap by 1:00. When we got back to the room, we noticed some new guests had arrived in the villa across the hall and put a Christmas wreath on their door. I thought it was a really cool idea – they had candy tied to the wreath and attached a pair of scissors. The sign invited people to cut off a piece of candy and enjoy. I think we’ll steal that idea for next time!

We decided to start the depressing task of packing while she napped. I absolutely hate trying to pack the night before we leave and figured were stuck in the room anyway, so why not just get it over? Again, the beauty of the 1br villa is that we were able to pop in a movie and pack while Addie was out cold in the next room! We were able to get everything packed, except for stuff we needed the next morning, and enjoy a little snooze ourselves. I got up around 3 and realized Addie was still sleeping, so we both started making a little noise trying to get her up and moving. As much as we wanted her to have a good nap, it had already been 2 hours and the clock was ticking on this vacation! She must have been really tired because, despite all of our noise, she didn’t wake up until 4:00! Originally, we had ADR’s for dinner at Crystal Palace that night. Chrissy and I agreed that we did not want to push things with a character dinner, so I reluctantly cancelled. Addie triumphs over the characters again! Not wanting to waste any more time, we quickly grabbed our stuff and headed to the bus stop – the MK was waiting!

 

[DisneyFan1003]

The bus took about 15 minutes to arrive but once we stopped at the Dolphin, things ground to a halt. No one there knew where they were going or what they were doing. There was a very large party travelling together who were not all at the bus stop when the bus arrived. To the frustration of everyone already on the bus, the driver agreed to wait as they called the missing family members and told them to rush. We didn’t arrive at the MK until almost 5:00 – so the process had taken nearly an hour. No matter…we were there and ready to soak up some last moments of magic.

Chrissy noticed that the wait time for the Princesses in their new “home” at Expo Hall was rather short. Since we had skipped all attempts to meet characters that morning at AK, we decided to take a shot. The line moved quickly and, as soon as we entered the room, we both knew we had made the right choice. Addie was bouncing up and down and pointing at Cinderella, Aurora and Belle. The best part was, this was “Yellow Belle” (as she liked to call her). There had been some disappointment at the princess lunch when “Blue Belle” came out, so Addie could hardly contain herself. Cinderella was first and Addie practically knocked her over and talked to her like she should remember her from their encounter at EPCOT on Saturday! I could be wrong, but I’m pretty sure it’s the same Cinderella from Saturday, which is an odd coincidence!

Belle was next and Addie could barely stand still waiting for her turn. She talked all about her yellow dress and kept saying “love you” over and over. It was awesome! Unfortunately, when it was time to say “goodbye” to Belle, Addie started to cry and look at us like “how can you take me away from Yellow Belle?!” We both felt bad for Aurora – she was sitting there waiving and waiting to see Addie, who clearly wanted to head back to see Belle. When Chrissy told Addie that Aurora wanted to see her, Addie turned around, ran to Aurora, fell into her lap and sobbed like “do you have any idea how sad it is that I have to see you and not Yellow Bell?!” Poor Aurora! She was so cool though – she was holding Addie and rocking with her and eventually got a smile. By the time we walked out, Addie was waving and blowing kisses to all of them – Chrissy and I were thrilled to end the trip on a happy character note!