My Little Mouseketeer's First Visit to the World (9/23 - 10/3)

Hello all…

First, a little background and a few caveats.

My girlie, Anastasia, looooves her Mickey. She’s been raised with the Mouse since she’s been born. Her first words were “Me-mou!” (or “Mickey Mouse!” for those of you who need a toddler-to-adult translation). At home she can spot a Mickey from 100 paces and go running to point it out to you. She only watches one show on TV every day, and that’s the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. It’s safe to say the girl’s obsessed.

So we brought her home for 10 nights…

The caveats:

This is going to be nothing like my prior trip reports… I’m so thick with Mommy-brain that I barely remember what we did this morning, let alone what we did the first few days we were here, and in exactly what order. This will be mostly pictures of my little one with her beloved characters. Not much artsy photography, because it’s hard to snap away when you’re trying to keep your little one from launching herself headfirst into one perilous situation after another. Just some cute pics for you, a little explanation to go with them.

I hope you enjoy!

 

[DisneyBunny]

We rode the boat over to the Polynesian for our dinner at ‘Ohana. This dinner went really well. She was in a decent mood. She ate a ton of Mac n cheese, the “egg noodles” (which were totally different from what I was expecting…these were more like lo mein) and was even scarfing down broccoli and peas that I popped out of their shells from the veggie stir fry. She loved watching all the entertainment. I however kinda wished we had a different table. We were seated right next to where they set up the limbo pole and were forever being jostled. Nothing like trying to discreetly eat messy food with people staring at you as they go limbo-ing by.


"Oooh! Camera!"

Snuggles with Mommy

Sporting her Lei

She hung in there for a good long while, but had had it by the time dessert came around. I scarfed down some ice cream and sauce- yum – and left the bread pudding to DH. What is it with bread pudding and family style dinners? Couldn’t they think of any other dessert? Oh well… I ‘m just not a fan. :shrug:

Anyways, we headed back to the villa to get ready for the next day – my birthday! :sohappy:

 

[joanna71985]

Aww, too cute! I'm surprised Donald picked her up- the characters don't really do that very often anymore.

In her favorite room - the white room -

Aww, look at her eyes! How many times did you ride Small World during the trip?

Snuggles with Mommy

Sporting her Lei

Anyways, we headed back to the villa to get ready for the next day – my birthday! :sohappy:

Aww, Bunny I love the first picture!! And she is so cute in the second!

I can't wait to hear about your birthday.

 

[HollyBelle]

This is such a great report. My colleagues think I'm crazy because when I have kids I plan on taking them to WDW at such a young age. They think it's a crazy idea... but little Anastasia proves otherwise.

I love that she loves the characters so much :sohappy:.

 

[TakeMeThere81]

So what did you do on your birthday?

 

[nibblesandbits]

Just wanted to note...she's been a little busy lately...hopefully she'll get the chance to finish this...but...a lot's been on her plate recently.

 

[DisneyBunny]

Yeah, it’s been a long while. I apologize for taking so dang long to finish this. Life has a nasty way of intervening sometimes, and I just never got around to putting the last few days of my trip report up. Sorry for taking so long! If anyone is still interested…

My birthday!

Oct 1

DH told me that I can do whatever I want for my birthday, so I decided to go back to the MK in the morning to ride a few favorites…I got to ride BTMRR all by myself and both tracks of Space Mountain. DH didn’t feel like baby swapping with me, because he said it was my birthday, so I got to do a lot of rides that I wouldn’t have done otherwise. We also hit IASW (again) Pooh, and headed over to Toontown. I wanted to see Mickey again, but the line was a bit long at this point, so we just toured Minnie’s house for a while. It’s so neat – I haven’t been there before, as far as I can remember, and it was a toddler’s paradise. (And her Mommy’s too – everything was bolted to the ground so she couldn’t break anything or hurt herself! Yay!)

I ran into Push... he wished me a happy birthday since I was sporting my pin ​

"Everything is bolted down!!"

"Hi Mommy!"

"There must be SOMETHING breakable around here!"

"I give up!"

It was getting late and we were out of milk to give her, so we stopped in Cosmic Ray’s for a carton of milk. She was getting pretty cranky and tired and we decided to head back to the room for her nap.

We made our way out of the park and headed up the express monorail walkway…only to find that it was blocked off. We asked what was going on and we were told that it was not in service because of the Bay Lake Towers construction. Grumbling we walked alllll the way around to the resort monorail station… and waited. And waited. And waited. We must have waited for 15-20 minutes…the really aggravating thing was that the express monorail WAS still running. It stopped twice to let off passengers… we asked about it it and another CM said that that monorail was only running one way. Um, it’s a LOOP. How does it run one way??? If you’re going one way, why can’t it take passengers with it?? I didn’t understand. At this point Anastasia was tired and hungry and I was out of ammo. Finally we get on a monorail. A very nice lady helped us entertain her on the way back to the TTC. Gave her a Chip and Dale sticker and everything. It really helped. Whoever you were, thank you!

By the time we got back to the car it was an hour and a half from when we decided to leave the park. It took an HOUR and a HALF to get from Cosmic Ray’s to our car. Oy.

But thankfully we got her to sleep, and I got to finish my book out on the deck.

 

[DisneyBunny]

After her nap we headed over to Epcot because we had dinner reservations at Tokyo Dining. Yum. I couldn’t wait to spend my birthday dinner there! We hadn’t really spent ANY time in the World Showcase so far this trip, which is really odd for us. Usually the WS is our favorite place to be. I love the sights sounds and flavors there, but sadly there’s just not too much to entertain a toddler up that way. So we slowly made our way around the countries.

First was the new Gran Fiesta tour. She loved it. Just like Small World, but not! I still miss the old song though…


"Ole!"

Then we stopped in Norway. I was a little nervous about taking her on Maelstrom, but braved it anyways. She handled the flume drop really well. I was thinking that it was bigger than the one at Pirates, and I was hoping she would tolerate it well. She did. No problems. Sadly I had to skip the movie at the end though… I love the WS movies… Maybe some day when she has an attention span of more than 5 minutes..


Our fierce Viking warrior...:lookaroun

Then we wandered around in China and Germany but had to skip Italy in order to make our ADR in time.


"I knight thee Sir... Daddy!"

 

[nibblesandbits]

Loving hearing about the rest sweetie!!! :kiss:

 

[DisneyBunny]

I was excited to see the changes that they had made when they remodeled the Japan restaurants… and I wasn’t disappointed! It was reeeeallly nice inside. SO quiet. I think we were only one of 4 tables filled in the whole place. We were seated right next to the window! Another perk of eating early! Our waitress was super nice, but we had the hardest time hearing her. She only spoke in a whisper. Still fantastic service and she was very attentive.


Our view!

Anastasia amused herself with the chopsticks while we pondered the menu.

I was kinda worried about what she was going to eat here, since most of the things that DH and I would be ordering aren’t exactly kid friendly. Finally we caved in and bought the overpriced $10 kids meal with the teriyaki chicken. It came in a little model of the Shink, which was cool. Still, WAY too little of a meal for $10. Plus she ate practically nothing off of it. I learned my lesson – next time I’m bringing one of those Gerber Graduates meals for her to eat.

Anastasia's Chicken

I ordered one of their bento boxes – the Ginza Gozan. SO good.

DH got the big sushi platter. Everything was fresh and delicious. I could have spent hours in the place. It was so peaceful. Not like the din that comes with Disney buffets…

I couldn't stop him from polishing off his tuna rolls before I could take a picture :lol:

When I thought they were bringing the check, our waitress and every other wait person in the entire restaurant brought over a piece of chocolate cake for me to eat while singing Happy Birthday. DH had made sure that they remembered. He was sweet. (and so was the cake!)

 

[DisneySam]

First was the new Gran Fiesta tour. She loved it. Just like Small World, but not! I still miss the old song though…


"Ole!"

Our firece Viking warrior...:lookaroun

SO CUTE! I LOVE the Viking one!

PS- I miss the el Rio de Tiempo song too, Bunny.

 

[DisneyBunny]

After dinner we took her back to the fountain so she could run around and burn off some of the energy she has so much of. She had a total blast. Everyone was enthralled with her. She ran and giggled and shrieked and played in the water for a long time. I was so very happy watching her. There’s nothing better than spending your birthday in the World with your DH, and watching your kid have the time of her life. It was one of life’s perfect moments… like you wish that you could just bottle that effervescent emotion for use later when life gets you down. One of my favorite memories of the trip.

I got the monorail in the shot too

When we got back to the villa and put the girl to bed, we were just settling in to watch some TV when there was a knock on the door…

It was one of the Disney Florist people delivering my birthday present from DH – a Mickey shaped box filled with a bottle of wine, two wine glasses, towels and a whole bunch of bath supplies. I nearly cried. It was too much. (really… DH got a talking to when I found out how much it cost! ) It was so sweet and thoughtful of him. The perfect ending to a wonderful day.

 

[nibblesandbits]

OMG! That was so sweet of Marc!!!! Such a wonderful present! (even if pricey!)

 

[wdwmomof3]

Awww. She is so adorable!! I love the pictures of her playing in the water, they are so cute. It sounds like you had a wonderful time at the World. :wave:

 

[sarabi]

Glad you're back! I've enjoyed reading your report so much! I have a little one about your mouseketeer's age, and I just love seeing how much fun she had in the Parks.

 

[Todd L]

I have been bringing my 2 kids to orlando for the past 12 years and it always seems that my greatest memories are watching my kids play in the fountains and pools. Its amazing to watch . Great report.

 

[belle15]

I have to say, I just read your entire report this morning and your little girl is so cute! She will never forget this, and trust me, when she is 17 she'll still watch the videos and love looking at pictures. I'm 17 and I do!!!

 

[joanna71985]

Anastasia amused herself with the chopsticks while we pondered the menu.

Oh my goodness, so cute!!

 

[TakeMeThere81]

I'm glad you got around to finishing your trip report! I agree about the precious moments, those are some of my most fond memories of our WDW vacations.

 

[DisneyBunny]

I'm glad you got around to finishing your trip report! I agree about the precious moments, those are some of my most fond memories of our WDW vacations.

:lookaroun

Uh, technically I've still got one day to go...

At this rate we'll be going down there again by the time I finish it :brick:

Maybe I'll just throw all the pictures up and call it done without much exposition. :lol:

 

[rbrower]

Thanks for the trip report!
I can't wait to read the rest of it!