Trip Report Mom, when will the bus get here? The kids’ first visit to Walt Disney World.

Hello everyone! I originally wrote this TR the day after we got back, mainly because every detail was still pretty fresh in my mind. It then sat for well over a week because I had to go through the almost 1,000 pictures we took. In going through said pictures, I realized there was quite a bit I forgot about! So this report has had a few revisions.

This is my first TR, so I hope you enjoy! I know I’ve enjoyed reading all of your reports and living vicariously through them! The title of this TR mainly refers to my impatient 5 year old asking me over and over when will the bus get here?

Here are the basics:
Me, DH, DD5(K) & DD21mo(E).
Monday, August 12th - Saturday, August 17th
All-Star Music family suite

A little backstory first:
I booked this trip back in February 2013 and the idea was to surprise my daughter(K) with the trip on her 5th birthday. It was so difficult not saying anything to her! I did make sure that she had Disney on the brain though. I would play 1997’s “Walt Disney Records presents The Official Album” in the car. ALL. THE. TIME. I would show K videos of Wishes or MSEP; You Tube videos of Expedition Everest and other rides. I would show her the pictures of other’s trip reports on wdwmagic! Any time she would ask if we could go, I would simply say “some day”.

Her 5th birthday was here and I could not wait to tell her! We had to be out of the house early that day, so there was no elaborate reveal. I had been collecting a bunch of Disney stuff from outgrown sales since March, so I put them in a Tinker Bell backpack. I bought a large chocolate chip muffin from Wegmans and stuck little Minnie Ears on it.

I had also hand made her birthday card. K can’t really read yet, so I used pictures in her card. The front had an outline of a Minnie Mouse head and here’s what the inside looked like:

She “read” the card, but still didn’t get it. My DH and I told her “we’re going to Walt Disney World!” She was so excited, but then immediately asked if we were leaving right now. I then had to burst her bubble and told her we were leaving in a week and a half.


We had a big birthday party for her that weekend complete with a Minnie Mouse/Princess cake.

As the days got closer, K got more and more excited. I was so happy that I could talk to her about it now!

OK, on to the actual TR!
DH was up in the Poconos 2 days before our trip for a softball tournament, which meant I was left at home to watch the girl’s and pack. That’s so much easier said than done, especially with E trying to unpack everything.
DH ended up coming home earlier than expected on Sunday, which was a huge relief! My parents also came over on Sunday and treated us to dinner so we wouldn’t have to cook or clean any dishes before we left.

The girls were in bed by 8pm. We wanted them to get as much sleep as possible because we needed to be out of the house by 5am on Monday morning. The plan was to finish packing and get to bed by midnight. What actually happened was I didn’t get to bed until 1:30am and DH didn’t get to sleep until 2am. Last minute stuff always gets in the way. We still had to charge the camera and clear out pictures, charge the tablets and get movies loaded on them. Oh, and clean out the car so there would be room for the luggage.

Stay tuned for day 1! Thanks for reading!

 

[happy76]

Monday August 12th

The plan: wake up at 4am and get the girls up at 4:30am. Leave the house at 5am to get to PHL by 6am for an 8am flight. Hah, yeah right!

I was up by 4:15am. I don’t think DH woke up until 4:30 and we didn’t get the girls up until close to 5am. I think we left the house by 5:40, only to have to turn around a few minutes later because I realized I forgot K’s birthday money and Disney gift card! Ugh!

So we were officially on the road by 6am. We got to PHL in about 45 min and parked the car in the economy lot. Security was a breeze, which was good because we were literally the last ones to board the plane! We were speed walking towards our gate and they were calling our name!

K absolutely loved the flight! This was her first plane ride and she thought it was awesome! She loved the feeling in her tummy when the plane started its descent. E was ok the 1st half of the flight, but the last 45 minutes she wanted off the plane. We couldn’t get her to sit still. She kicked the seat a few times and fought with K over toys. I tried a diaper change – I had no idea how teeny tiny the “changing table” was in the bathroom! I’m surprised nothing fell in the toilet! Snacks only worked for a bit. But she’s not quite 2 years old - it was to be expected. Hey, at least she wasn’t screaming and crying!

We landed around 10:20am, hopped on the faux monorail and headed to DME.

DH and K on the DME.

E sitting next to me on the DME with some snacks and my phone.

We were checked into our room by noon. We were given 2 First Visit pins for the girls and 1 Birthday pin for K. They also gave K a coloring book with crayons and E a little Pooh plush. We picked up our rented Citi Mini double, which would prove to be invaluable during our trip!

I was really happy with our room and the location. We were in Calypso, building 1. Our room was on the 1st floor and it was in the back, so it was nice and quiet. There was plenty of room for the 4 of us, a pack n play and the double stroller. I loved having 2 bathrooms!

We headed over to Intermission for some lunch and I’m so glad we opted for the DDP! It was worth it just for the ADR’s we had planned for the week. I had no issues with the Rapid Fill mugs - it's really not that complicated.

We had not yet received our pack n play, so there would be no nap for E in the room. We decided to head over to MK since we had an ADR at Chef Mickey’s at 6:20pm.

K & E fell asleep on the bus.

I should have known right then and there that thing’s would not go well. It was 4pm when we arrived at MK. We got the girls in the stroller and immediately there was whining and general grumpiness.

 

[happy76]

I got my phone out all ready to record this magical moment. We turned onto Main Street and there it was! I just love seeing Cinderella’s Castle! It brings an instant smile to my face! I said “Look K, its Cinderella’s Castle”! Her response: “Yeah, I SEE it”. Well. OK. That’s not how I thought it would go. Brush it off, brush it off. She’s just really tired.

We headed over to Adventureland and the next show at the Enchanted Tiki Room was about to start. The A/C felt wonderful as the humidity for the week was about 900%. The girls really enjoyed it and the "thunderstorm" didn't seem to scare them too much. I hadn’t seen it since 1987! I think DH only liked it for the A/C. He can’t stand the song.

The Tiki gang seemed to wash away the grumpies as the girls were in a much better mood. We decided it was best to keep them in the stroller and simply walk through each land and give them a tour - ease them into the park.
We hopped on the resort monorail and headed over to the Contemporary. I just love riding the monorail. The sights, the sounds. Someday I will stay at a monorail resort.

We got to the Contemporary with plenty of time to spare. We parked the stroller and I went to check in, but they didn’t have my reservation. Now, I had called the week before and confirmed all ADR’s. I gave her the reservation # and it was not there. She was still able to get us in though, so all was well. We hung out for a while and looked out over the bay towards Fort Wilderness, got our Chef Mickey picture taken and then we were seated. The food was decent. DH said the ribs were good. I loaded up a plate with fruit because I knew the girls would devour it.

I decided to do Chef Mickey's the day we arrived because I thought it would be a good way to introduce the girls to the characters. K & E still watch Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, so they would be very familiar with everyone.

K was in awe when she saw the fab 5! She couldn’t contain her excitement!

E looks really excited. Can't you tell?

Ta-da!

K was also very surprised when she got a birthday cupcake!

We walked back to the bus stop and headed “home”. E was exhausted and passed out.

I stopped at the front desk to confirm the rest of our ADR’s and I’m so glad I did – some of them were in my maiden name? Huh. Overall, it was a good first day. The girls were real troopers and I was pleasantly surprised that there was no fussing about bedtime. Actually, they were great about bedtime during the entire trip. I think the white noise app on the tablet helped as well as them being together in the room.

Up next: Day 2 - breakfast with the Princesses!

 

[WDW_Princess24]

The girls are adorable, love the pics from Chef Mickey's! Looking forward to more!!

 

[Minx]

Great trip report, look forward to reading more. Your daughters are too cute!

 

[HouCuseChickie]

Great start!!! Love the cake! I've always wanted my girls to ask me to make them a cake with ears...but it never seems to work out that way. We had a similar wait time between our surprise reveal and actual trip time last trip too. The Citi Mini Double has also been quite the blessing on a couple of our trips. Can't wait to read more!!!

 

[Allie_Marie]

The girls are adorable!! Happy Belated Birthday K! I can't wait to continue!

 

[The_CEO]

Great trip report so far! I can't wait to see more!

 

[happy76]

The girls are adorable, love the pics from Chef Mickey's! Looking forward to more!!

Thank you! I loved your engagement trip report!

 

[happy76]

Great trip report, look forward to reading more. Your daughters are too cute!

Thank you!

 

[happy76]

Great start!!! Love the cake! I've always wanted my girls to ask me to make them a cake with ears...but it never seems to work out that way. We had a similar wait time between our surprise reveal and actual trip time last trip too. The Citi Mini Double has also been quite the blessing on a couple of our trips. Can't wait to read more!!!

Thank you so much! A friend of mine made the cake - I would never be able to do something like that! Although, I did come up with the design. The stroller was a pain for DH to lug around on the bus, but it was absolutely worth it!

 

[happy76]

The girls are adorable!! Happy Belated Birthday K! I can't wait to continue!

Thank you!

 

[happy76]

Great trip report so far! I can't wait to see more!

Thank you!

 

[happy76]

I'm so excited you're reading my trip report!!

OK, on to Tuesday August 13th.

We were up early again today. I had K get dressed in her Jasmine costume. This wasn't really a big deal because she often dresses up at home. Plus we were IN Disney World - of course you dress up in costume!

We boarded a bus to EPCOT - we had another surprise ADR planned!
I’ve never had the chance to go through EPCOT before opening, so it was awesome to walk under Spaceship Earth, past the fountain and over to Norway with no one else around. I almost felt like I was trespassing! I don’t think DH or the girls’ got it, but to me it was just so cool!

K figured out that we were going to see princesses, but she didn’t know that we were going to have breakfast with them.

I took some pics while we waited for our name to be called.

Window shopping. A girl can dream...

 

[happy76]

K was in awe of Belle! Absolutely mesmerized!

We were seated and I went right up to the buffet to load up on fruit and pastries. It's a good thing I went up when I did - the Princess parade was starting!

K was so happy that she was in Princess Aurora's group!

As soon as the parade was done, K was given a birthday card signed by all of the Princesses and another birthday cupcake!

Complete with Gummy Bears!

Only in Disney World is it perfectly acceptable to have a cupcake for breakfast.

The potato cheese type thing that came with the eggs, bacon and sausage was delicious! I could have eaten that until I puked!

Up first was Princess Aurora.

Followed by Cinderella. She was so sweet with E!

Snow White was next. This is one of my favorite pictures from our entire trip!

Last to visit our table was Ariel. K was particularly excited to meet her!

E looks thrilled, doesn't she?

Once breakfast was done, we slathered the girls in sunblock and made our way back to Future World.

 

[FlaggNL]

Wow! Love the report already! What a nice suprise! Love the princess pics!! The smile of your birthday girl

 

[LizC]

Aww, your girls are so cute! Love K's excitement at meeting the princesses. Can't wait till my little girl is at that age.

I'm looking forward to seeing how they enjoyed the rest of EPCOT, thanks for sharing!

 

[happy76]

The girls had a bit of pent-up energy to run off first. It was HOT out and that water looked so inviting!

A few pics I took along the way...

It was just after 9am and Spaceship Earth had maybe a 5 minute wait, so we parked the stroller and hopped on.

My poor attempt at an artistic shot.

K loved it! Her favorite part was deciding her future and playing the sweeper type game where you have to get all the energy to the city.

We took a stroll over to The Seas with Nemo and Friends - no wait! The girls really liked the ride. I think their favorite part (and mine) was going through the EAC with Crush. After the ride, we headed over to Turtle Talk with Crush. It was about a 15 minute wait, which was OK for K, but E was getting antsy.

K took a seat up front with the other kids while DH, E and I sat towards the back. E really had no interest in the show, except for occasionally looking up at Crush. K said she loved it and wanted to come back later so she could ask him a question!

After Turtle Talk, we walked around and looked at all of the marine life. The dolphins were a hit!

We couldn't leave without getting a picture with Bruce...

We were starting to get hungry for lunch and The Land was right there, so we decided to take a look. I should have paid attention to the time because it was just about noon and it was mobbed! We walked right back out and headed to the bus to go back to Music.

 

[happy76]

Wow! Love the report already! What a nice suprise! Love the princess pics!! The smile of your birthday girl

Thank you!

 

[happy76]

Aww, your girls are so cute! Love K's excitement at meeting the princesses. Can't wait till my little girl is at that age.

I'm looking forward to seeing how they enjoyed the rest of EPCOT, thanks for sharing!

Thank you! We're hoping to head back to Disney when E is about 4 & 1/2. That gives me 3 years to plan!