Trip Report Our "Can we go again" Disney World Vacation 1/26-2/1 2019

Hello all! I love reading everyone's trip reports and now that we are back from our trip I am going to ease the pain of being back with a trip report! This was our two kiddos first trip (and hopefully not last) to Disney World. The last time my husband and I went was in September of 2012 for our honeymoon.
Cast:

Me - I am 31 years old and have been to Disney probably 7 times (don't remember 3 of them b/c I was so little) and love love love it! I have been dying to take my kids since I knew we were pregnant so this was exactly what I have been waiting for.
Husband - Aaron - 32 years old and has only been to Disney with me and as an adult. First trip in 2009. He loves the details of the parks.
Son - Joseph - 4.5 years old. He loves superheroes and rollercoasters
Daughter - Sadie - 2.5 years old. She loves princesses and the dumbo type rides. She wishes she was big enough to go on all the rides like bubby but she doesn't throw a fit about it.

Where and When: Pop Century building 8 (90's I believe) from 1/26-1/31 and B Resort for the night of 1/31 (more about that later)

YES! it was cold but at least it was warmer than what it was back at home. We had our ups and downs on this trip and I hope you are ready for it all!!!!

 

[Dave B]

Can't wait to hear about it

 

[Cetta]

I will be upfront about this....I did not take pictures of our food or scenery much. I was trying to be very present and just take it all in mentally instead of with pictures. We didn't really eat anything fancy anyway, we were on a budget and we came in way under what I thought we would spend so it was nice to be able to come back home and be able to pay our HOA dues and stock the pantry!

Day 1 - Saturday, January 26

Our flight was at 11:55am and we live about an hour away from the Indy airport so my goal was the leave the house by 9 at the latest. I took a half day off of work the day before to finalize all the packing and get the house ready for us being gone so it was a smooth morning. Sadie was ready to enjoy a week in her stroller, she helped me wipe it down before getting it in the truck.

we were surprising on the road before 9am which is unlike us since you know, we have two kids! Since it was so cold in Indiana and we were planning on leaving our truck in the economy lot, Aaron dropped us and the luggage off at the terminal and he went to park and take the shuttle to us. We did curbside luggage drop off so I didn't have to lug the luggage into the airport, it was nice to just do it right there! The kids enjoyed coloring little Disney sheets I printed from work, they were like quarter page sizes with some of their favorite characters...very convenient to have because I would just pull out one sheet each and one crayon so it wasn't a big mess...they even used them in lines later in the week.

When Aaron got back from parking the truck, we all went potty and go in the line to "stop, screen, go" (if you have little kids I totally suggest watching the youtube video from TSA about the screening process, my kids were so prepared because we have watched it a million times!). We were through TSA in no time (first day back from the government shutdown!) and the kids were excited to watch the planes from the window.

The kids had eaten breakfast but my husband and I were too busy in the morning to do it, so we went and got some hotdogs and tater tots while we waited for our plane. Joseph had my phone and took some silly pictures of us while we waited for our food.

 

[Cetta]

We boarding our Southwest flight during the family boarding which was awesome! It wasn't a full flight so no one was sitting with Joseph and I, Sadie eventually made her way to sit with us. I bought the kids new Disney Tsum Tsum on clearance at Meijer a couple days before so I gave it to them and they played with that most of the flight.

Sadie fell asleep about 20 minutes before we landed of course! but she was bright eyed when she woke up. We grab some fries from McDonalds and headed to Magical Express. We waited maybe 10-15 minutes before we boarded our bus (a boring Mears bus with no cool Disney characters )

Aaron and Joseph fell asleep as you can see...

 

[Cetta]

I got a room ready text as we were pulling into AOA so it was perfect timing. When we got to Pop we headed straight to our room, it was about 3:30pm, when we were walking through the lobby, a cast member was handing out go-go squeeze applesauce packets and my kids were super excited about them it's the little things. We took in the big figures and the kids ran around like it was the best place in the world, because it is.

We got to our room and put our stuff down and took a look around. Not sure what time we headed to the dining hall but our plan was for pizza and this is where we ran into our first non-magical event. I stood in the line to order pizza and was the only one in line but no one was coming to help me. I got frustrated and left the line and told my husband to stand in line. So he stood in line and the same thing, no one behind the counter was coming to help him and there were three cast members back there that seemed like they were doing nothing. Finally a guy came with a slip to pick up his pizza, so we asked him if this is where we order and he said yes, so we stayed in line. The guy got his pizza and the person just turned around and walked away....getting really annoyed now! So my husband said something, and they took his order and the guy behind him order as well. We went and paid, filled our drinks, and found a table and my husband went back to stand in line for pick up because they said it would be 10 minutes. The table the kids and I were sitting at could see my husband waiting. He was now behind the guy who ordered after us, they came up to him and handed him his pizza and once again ignored my husband standing there. My husband waited and waited and eventually he spoke up again and they brought him his pizza that was just sitting on a counter back there with three cast members standing there doing nothing. I wish I had checked the time from when we first stood in line to the time our pizza was finally handed to us because I am thinking it was an hour. I do know that from the time stamp on our paid receipt that it was 27 minutes from the time we paid to the time the pizza was handed to us when we were told it would be 10 minutes. I was just really frustrated at this point because I am pretty sure we were there almost an hour just waiting there. I probably should have said something to someone but at this point we were all starving and us adults were ed off. It was not a fun way to start our vacation. After we ate, we walked around AOA, the kids picked out their first toys, and us adults got drinks for the walk. We got back to our room hoping our luggage would be there and it wasn't. We called the luggage line but it just kept going on forever and ever. No one picked up after almost 20 minutes on hold. So I called the front desk and they told me I had to call luggage and I explained that no one was answering there. The told us that it can take up to 5 hours from the time we arrive at the resort to get our luggage. two out of three of our bags arrived at 7:55pm, I told the guy that I was missing one and he said that that was all he had. I was starting to panic because the bag missing had all the rain supplies and toiletries in it and it was going to pour the next day. Since the luggage phone line was no help I sent my husband down to the luggage counter where he said that line was insanely long. When it was his turn, they told him that they do have record of the three bags arriving and that the third bag is somewhere and they will deliver it. I am not sure what time it arrived but when we woke up it was there, my husband answered the door when me and the kids were sleeping. Day 1 is complete. My favorite part of the day was my dole whip rum drink, my kids favorite was picking out their toys at the AOA store, and my husbands was probably the nap he took on the bus lol. coming up....our first park day and lots and lots of rain!

 

[Rista1313]

Can't wait to read all about the rest of your time!

 

[Cetta]

January 27 - Magic Kingdom day!
It was morning EMH at Magic Kingdom that day, we entered the park around 8:05am and headed straight to Buzz. It was pouring and chilly this day so I didn't take any pictures of the castle or really anything while outside. I wanted to focus on Fantasyland that morning. We rode Buzz and this was the first time we heard the most repeated sentence of our trip..."can we go again?" so we....rode again.

Then we headed to Fantasyland and met the little mermaid, then rode her ride.

stopped under an awning across from the ride and snacked on some pringles and water. then we headed to Philharmagic and then stopped at the Tangled bathrooms, my kids love Tangled so they were so excited to see her tower but also a little disappointed that it was just a bathroom lol. Since we were talking about Tangled, we decided to go meet Tiana and Rapunzel (or as Sadie calls her Punzel).

Then we headed over to barnstormer because I had a fastpass that we didn't really need because the park was completely empty due to the rain. We never waited for a single thing all morning! My husband and son rode Barnstormer and we heard the "can we go again?" this time he asked if I could go with him, I wanted to but my husband told me that the lap bar is one piece, so I explained to my son I couldn't go but daddy will keep going. A little back story on that...we went to Dollywood last summer and Joseph wanted me to ride a small rollercoaster with him but they told me I couldn't because the lap bar didn't click twice...in short I was too fat and I wasn't about to deal with that again because it was pretty embarrassing and hard to explain to my own child. So I was only going to go on the rides that have two individual lap bars which happen to be the bigger coasters woohoo! They ended up riding barnstormer three times while Sadie and I went and met Daisy and Pluto...Sadie had to bring her popcorn with her! she seriously wouldn't go anywhere without that popcorn until it was done. I did convince her that I could hold it for her while she gave them hugs.

We met and decided that we have about an hour and half before our ADR at Chef Mickey so we will head to Pirates. On the way we got distracted by the short wait for Haunted Mansion so we hopped in there. We all rode in one buggy and I was surprised that my kids didn't get scared. They both thought it was pretty cool. When we got out we decided that we should probably just head to our ADR and do pirates at night. We headed to the exit of the park and hopped on the kids first ride on the monorail. Of course we arrived to our ADR early. We walked around the shop a little in the Contemporary.

We were seated about 5 minutes after our ADR time...pretty good. We sat down and the waitress came to get our drink order. She said that the characters were still about 10-15 minutes away so we had plenty of time to go get food...no joke....she turned around and walked away and Pluto came around the corner!

Aaron & Joseph went and got food while Sadie stood like this waiting for the next character to come visit.

 

[Cetta]

Sadie loves Minnie and when she came around the corner, my daughter lite up! She was so excited!

by this time we all had our food and the kids were thoroughly enjoying their fruit. Especially Joseph who was dipping his strawberries into strawberry yogurt!

Next up was Goofy who was very excited to see Aaron wearing a Goofy Tshirt!

Then #1 Donald came to visit!

Of course I was getting food when Mickey came to the table, good thing Aaron took a picture!

After lunch we decided it was time to go back to the room and nap while the rain continued to fall fall fall. It was only a half a day in and they were all sleepy...

 

[Cetta]

Overall I enjoyed Chef Mickey's, I guess I have a soft spot for it because we have visited there on the first full day of every trip I can remember. I hope to keep that a tradition for every trip we ever take...I hope to one day take my grandkids there! The food is ok, I tried the salmon and was not impressed, I didn't even take another bite. Aaron got the pork and I enjoyed the one bite I took. The hit was the Mickey Waffles of course.
Anyway, we got back to the room and stripped out of our wet clothes and all took a nap! We all got dressed (thank goodness I packed an extra outfit each because we needed it on our first day). I put Joseph's feet in plastic bags before I put his shoes on because the kids were playing in puddles when we were waiting for the bus earlier and they got soaked pretty bad. I put Sadie in her dress up Minnie shoes for the night. We headed straight to the bus stop and got to the Magic Kingdom around 6pm, we headed straight to Pecos Bill because I have been dying to try it since forever! I got the nachos, Aaron got the fajita platter, and the kids each got a uncrustable. We loved our food and talked about it the rest of the trip! Can't believe it took us this long to try it! Joseph ate all of his food and Sadie didn't even touch her uncustable, she just ate the cutie and applesauce packet. Then we headed to Pirates finally! The kids have been waiting for this and they were not disappointed! Sadie's favorite was the kitty cat scene and Joseph LOVED finding captain jack!
Then we went and grabbed a spot for the fireworks and of course tried to take some pictures in our ponchos.

It really started to rain as soon as the show started. Aaron cuddled Sadie so she would stay warm while Joseph stood by me and watched in amazement. He loved shouting which character was on the castle but the rain was hitting our faces pretty hard and it was cold. It was pretty hard for me to see out of my wet glasses but we all had a good time! It was a nice way to end our magically wet first full day!

 

[Cetta]

Monday - January 28
Today we split up I never thought we would do such a thing but it worked out financially. Aaron and Joseph left the Disney bubble to spend the day at Island of Adventure. Joseph is a big Avengers fan and Aaron is a life long fan of Jurassic Park (the theme song was our wedding song) so it was a perfect daddy/son day. They started their day on Super-Hero Island riding the Spider-Man twice in a row.

then they headed over to ride King Kong

They explored the Jurassic Park area but Joseph was too short to ride.

They stood in line for the Hippogriff ride the longest...I think he said it was almost an hour and of course when they got off Joseph wanted to ride again.

 

[Cetta]

After riding some rides they headed back to Super-Hero Island to meet Joseph's idols! He wore one of his four Spider-Man costumes that day because he knew he could meet Spider-Man and my husband said it couldn't have gone any better! Spider-Man welcomed Joseph with a "Hey Spidey!" and they just talked about the bad guys and I am kind of sad I missed it.

Then they met Captain America...and Spider-Joe tried to shot him with his web haha typical 4.5 yo who thinks he really is Spider-Man

I was hoping they would be able to meet one of Spider-Man's bad guys and they did! They were able to meet Green Goblin (my mom's favorite Spider-Man villain so Joseph couldn't wait to tell his Gramma) and Dr. Doom. Joseph said that Green Goblin was kind of scary which means he was doing a good job.

They went to Seuss land next...Joseph refused to go meet the Cat in The Hat but since no one else was in line, Cat in The Hat came to the window and they played at the window. Aaron said he was really impressed with how much Universal has improved their interactions. We went during our honeymoon and I remember just thinking that it was like any other theme park you visit back in the Midwest but he said that this time it was amazing and that they really improved the grounds, costumer service, and character interactions.

I think they grabbed some gifts for our three nephews before ubering back to Pop so we could have dinner together.

Next up....mommy and me day with my little princess!

 

[KellBelle]

Your family is beautiful! The smiles on your kids' faces with the characters are so genuine, that is what it's all about! Looking forward to reading the rest!

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

Too bad about the rain, but it looked like you were able to have fun anyway.

 

[amjt660]

I was not sure if I wanted to open up your post and invest myself into another TR...

Then I saw your adorable family in front of the castle and thought..

BRING IT!!!

I am following!!

Max

 

[Cetta]

Your family is beautiful! The smiles on your kids' faces with the characters are so genuine, that is what it's all about! Looking forward to reading the rest!

Thank you very much! Happy to have you along for the ride.

Too bad about the rain, but it looked like you were able to have fun anyway.

The rain has it pros and cons....cons being that we were wet and cold but the pros being we got on everything we wanted to with no waits. I actually wouldn't mind one rain day a trip where we just run from ride to ride that day then come back another day and really enjoy the small things at the parks.

I was not sure if I wanted to open up your post and invest myself into another TR...

Then I saw your adorable family in front of the castle and thought..

BRING IT!!!

I am following!!

Max

So happy to have you join us on our journey....there were some bumps but my kids never noticed them so they had the big smiles the whole time!

 

[Cetta]

Sadie and I started our day hanging in the hotel room getting the boys ready for their day. I had to show Aaron how to use the Uber app (by the way he has been totally against Ubering for a while now but he used it twice on his own while there and said he really enjoyed it and can't wait to use it at home) and make sure they had everything they needed for their day. Sadie didn't want to leave the room, she was too busy playing with her brother's new Guardians of the Galaxy figures but I finally convinced her that we should head out to start our day.

We stopped at the dining hall to grab something for the trip, she picked grapes and literally ate them on and off the rest of the day..."one at a time" she would say.

We were heading somewhere special for just us girls! First I stopped at the front desk to pay down our room charges with all the Disney gift cards we received for Christmas then we headed to the bus stop for Hollywood Studios. I have heard on previous trip reports about the walk to the entrance of Hollywood Studios from the buses and wow! I told my husband later that night that we needed to leave extra early to account for the walking we would have to do haha. Sadie and I weren't going to Hollywood Studios though, we headed to the boat dock to catch a nice ride. Sadie ate her grabs, played with her Punzel doll and loved looking out the window at the ducks while we journeyed to the Boardwalk. I have always wanted to go to the boardwalk resort, I grew up in NJ and spent many days and nights on the boardwalk and wanted to see how Disney did with theirs. Well it wasn't the same of course but I was happy that I was finally able to make it there. We had an ADR for Bon Voyage Breakfast at 11:30 but arrived at 11 and they were able to seat us right away. Sadie had been refusing the whole morning to put on her Punzel dress, but as soon as she saw that we were there to meet princesses she put it on right away.

I ordered just a meal for me because I knew that she would be too excited to eat a whole meal and we would just share. She didn't want to sit down at all! She stood next to me the whole time while I would feed her bites of what we had to eat. She was keeping an eye out for our next guess...

First was Rapunzel and Sadie didn't say much, I think she was still in shock or something, she did have a big smile on her face and gave her a big hug. It was cute!

Next up was Eugene, I mean Finn Ryder. This might have been my favorite interaction that I witnessed with my kids and a character. He talked to her about her pretty dress, invited her to the dance that they were having at the castle tonight, and then danced with her! It was adorable and I almost started to cry! It was really the best ever!

Next up was Ariel, Sadie thought it was so neat that she had a pin/broach/medallion (whatever you call it) on her dress just like she did. They talked about swimming a little but Sadie didn't say much again, mostly just nodding her head.

Our final guest was Prince Eric. He talked to her about swimming and boats. It was cute but still Sadie didn't talk. I could tell she was just amazed and shy. Both my kids are very shy at first and it takes them a while to be themselves around strangers. We signed Joseph up for karate in September and it took him 3 sessions before he would actually participate, but at home he runs around like a crazy man. So they need to get used to the situation before they can be themselves. Yet by the end of our week at Disney, Joseph was talking to strangers like they were his best friends, being the silly boy I know, so it was good to see them both being themselves by the end of the week.

 

[Cetta]

We paid our bill and I left a big tip (since Sadie didn't eat I felt bad so I tipped 50% of what our bill was). Then we headed to the boardwalk's bus station to catch a ride to Disney Springs. Sadie played with her new Ariel and Rapunzel toys and danced a lot while we waited.

I was on a mission to do something the boys wouldn't want to do....SHOPPING! We live in Indiana, the home of Vera Bradley and I had been dying to get a Disney Vera bag but I knew they would be way more then I would want to spend. I usually go to Fort Wayne during their outlet sale every year to buy my Vera purses at nice discounts so paying full prices of over $100 for a bag wasn't going to happen.

We picked out a Disney Vera lanyard for Nana because she has been a Vera fan since before it was cool and we of course took some pictures to send to her. I did buy myself a wristlet, I figured it was better than nothing and Mommy needs to treat herself sometimes too!

Sadie wanted to hold the bag and people just kept saying how cute she was. I knew she was getting tired so I only had one more stop before we headed back to our room...Coca Cola store to meet the bear! I guess Sadie might have been too guy to know who he is but she loves her "bear books" at home so I thought she would like the big bear.

That was all we did for our girls day out. I knew that Sadie would need a good nap so we headed back to our room. When we got there she refused to take off her dress or lay down. She insisted on playing with Joseph's Guardians toys again. I let her play while I watched Stacey and eventually Sadie came up to me and told me she was ready to nap....still in her dress.

We woke up about 20 minutes before Aaron and Joseph came back from Universal. They brought Sadie a Maggie stuffed toy from The Simpsons. Of course she had no idea who she was but when Sadie was little Aaron used to call her "my little Maggie" so it was fitting that her daddy picked that our for her. We went to the dining hall and had dinner then came back to the room. Aaron wanted a drink so he headed back down to the bar to grab something, but when he got there it was closed, they told him it was because it was too cold out. Um ok, so people don't like drinking if it is cold out? We only got a drink once from the hotel bar because it was closed pretty much the whole week. While he was down there, I noticed on the receipt from our room charges from me paying with our gift cards that we were being charged for parking. I asked him if he could go to the front desk and talk to them about it. Well they refunded two out of the three charges and kept charging us through out the week. In all I ended up calling about it three times plus Aaron's stop at the front desk and they still owe us for two nights parking. I was a little disappointed in Disney's costumer service this trip but it also might be that I didn't speak up enough or something. Maybe if I went down instead of my husband things might have been resolved the first time. I guess if you want something done, do it yourself. Anyway, Sadie was snuggling with her Maggie before bed that night. The boys had a very busy day and us girls had a nice relaxing day. It was perfect!

 

[KBLovedDisney]

After riding some rides they headed back to Super-Hero Island to meet Joseph's idols! He wore one of his four Spider-Man costumes that day because he knew he could meet Spider-Man and my husband said it couldn't have gone any better! Spider-Man welcomed Joseph with a "Hey Spidey!" and they just talked about the bad guys and I am kind of sad I missed it.
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Then they met Captain America...and Spider-Joe tried to shot him with his web haha typical 4.5 yo who thinks he really is Spider-Man
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I was hoping they would be able to meet one of Spider-Man's bad guys and they did! They were able to meet Green Goblin (my mom's favorite Spider-Man villain so Joseph couldn't wait to tell his Gramma) and Dr. Doom. Joseph said that Green Goblin was kind of scary which means he was doing a good job.
View attachment 348001
They went to Seuss land next...Joseph refused to go meet the Cat in The Hat but since no one else was in line, Cat in The Hat came to the window and they played at the window. Aaron said he was really impressed with how much Universal has improved their interactions. We went during our honeymoon and I remember just thinking that it was like any other theme park you visit back in the Midwest but he said that this time it was amazing and that they really improved the grounds, costumer service, and character interactions.
View attachment 348003View attachment 348002
I think they grabbed some gifts for our three nephews before ubering back to Pop so we could have dinner together.
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Next up....mommy and me day with my little princess!

Omg that part with Cat in the Hat coming to the window to see your son was sooo freakin adorable

 

[Cetta]

Omg that part with Cat in the Hat coming to the window to see your son was sooo freakin adorable

I know, I was kind of sad that I missed that but happy my husband actually got pictures!

 

[Roanlady]

Your kids are so cute, making memories together is the best.