Trip Report The "Could be better....could be worse" Trip Report - October 2018

Well....we've been back for almost two months and I've finally gotten our pictures organized! (Hard task when you're chasing around a one year old all day...especially because she learned how to climb on the couch by herself this week....Yayyy!!! )

A brief introduction before I get my FIRST EVER trip report started!

Who: Me (Megan), my husband (George), and our little princess (Ryleigh)

When: October 19th through October 22nd

Where: Grand Floridian

Why: Why not? Life has been a little rough lately and our Mickey loving daughter needed to go meet him!

For a more detailed intro, you can read my Pre-Trip here: The "After The Last 8 Months We've Had, We NEED This Trip" Pre-Trip Report

So bear with me during my first time writing a Trip Report and find out the following: Do George and I survive our first trip as parents??? Did Ryleigh love the characters??? Did I become a HEA convert??? Was the GF as glorious as I've been imagining for the last 26 years??? Just how many bite size cheesecakes did I eat at Chef Mickey's??? And on that note...

(And write a trip report!)

 

[youngdeb]

Hi everyone! I’d say I’m officially a trip report slacker! I’ve been following along on most of yours but have definitely been neglecting mine Maybe I'll try to make some time when Ryleigh goes to bed tonight Life with a toddler is just not forgiving sometimes Just wanted to jump on here and share my find at Kohl's today with all my Disney moms with little daughters (@sheriffwoody @ScarletBegonias @dryerlintfan and anyone else I forgot...maybe for Tuvalette and Tuvaleen @Tuvalu )

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Those are so adorable!

 

[Swissmiss]

Hi everyone! I’d say I’m officially a trip report slacker! I’ve been following along on most of yours but have definitely been neglecting mine Maybe I'll try to make some time when Ryleigh goes to bed tonight Life with a toddler is just not forgiving sometimes Just wanted to jump on here and share my find at Kohl's today with all my Disney moms with little daughters (@sheriffwoody @ScarletBegonias @dryerlintfan and anyone else I forgot...maybe for Tuvalette and Tuvaleen @Tuvalu )

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For all you moms with “Minnie” mes enjoy them while they are still “mini” - mine is only 13 but she has at least 4 inches on her mamma .

 

[Songbird76]

For all you moms with “Minnie” mes enjoy them while they are still “mini” - mine is only 13 but she has at least 4 inches on her mamma .

Mine turns 13 in just a couple of weeks and she's almost as tall as I am....not so mini anymore. But she still likes to match clothes with me sometimes and she does look a LOT like me. But I agree with the sentiment....enjoy them while they are still small!

 

[Swissmiss]

Mine turns 13 in just a couple of weeks and she's almost as tall as I am....not so mini anymore. But she still likes to match clothes with me sometimes and she does look a LOT like me. But I agree with the sentiment....enjoy them while they are still small!

I have to be honest - for once I’m REALLY hoping her feet grow again because I just bought her a good looking pair of sneakers that will be mIne as soon as she sizes up again

 

[DryerLintFan]

Hi everyone! I’d say I’m officially a trip report slacker! I’ve been following along on most of yours but have definitely been neglecting mine Maybe I'll try to make some time when Ryleigh goes to bed tonight Life with a toddler is just not forgiving sometimes Just wanted to jump on here and share my find at Kohl's today with all my Disney moms with little daughters (@sheriffwoody @ScarletBegonias @dryerlintfan and anyone else I forgot...maybe for Tuvalette and Tuvaleen @Tuvalu )

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Oh that's adorable!! I'll check it out this weekend! Thank you!!!

 

[Minnie1986]

Following.

 

[MegRuss626]

Ok....raise your hand if you are the worst trip reporter EVER in the history of WDWMagic....... My last post was January 22nd for Pete's sake!! I've been doing a lot of reading, commenting, and even participating in the great @Darstarr avocado/guacamole debate, but not a peep on my own report! I'm gonna blame it on the fact that I haven't even turned my laptop on since the beginning of June and all my pictures are on it. Hopefully you guys haven't forgotten who we are! How about we get back to seeing if we make it to our Chef Mickey's reservation on time!

 

[MegRuss626]

We finally "officially" arrived on property!!

The time stamp on this photo is 4:26. My thoughts....we're making great time to be at Chef Mickey's for our 5:55 reservation! After stops at Ft. Wilderness and the Poly, we finally pulled into my dream come true resort....

Those photos were taken at 4:50 and 4:57. I really wanted to see if we could switch rooms to a normal balcony but I knew we wouldn't have time. We've got an hour to do a quick wardrobe change and go two monorail stops! We can totally do that....Right.....

WRONG!!!
Our magic bands wouldn't open the door!!! I tried both of our bands and using the app as our key....nada! George found a phone in the lobby of our building to call the front desk and politely tell them that we need to make a reservation. And we proceed to wait.....and wait.....and wait..... AND wait! I was very close to stripping Ryleigh and myself down to change right there in the hallway! Luckily, a CM happened to be walking in the hall and let us into our room. We changed VERY quickly and went running for the monorail. We were finally on our way to make our reservation....Right....

WRONG!!!
We indeed got on the monorail and waited and waited and waited some more. I think they finally announced the delay was because they were putting another one on the track? So while waiting, 2 out of the 3 people in our party were hangry messes...and one of them was NOT our one year old!

That photo was taken at 6:02. We were still at the GF and our reservation WAS at 5:55. George and I made the game plan that once we arrived at the Contemporary, he would run ahead to check us in and I would make my way down on the elevator. Fun story about the guy in the background....he was a butthead! When we arrived at the Contemporary, George ran and I waited for my turn to get off the monorail. As soon as they put the ramp down, that guy floored his scooter. He took the stroller with him and didn't even blink an eye when the tire on our stroller made a cracking sound. Thankfully, another man on the monorail saw this and stepped in to help me get our stroller untangled so speed racer could continue on his merry way. Funny enough, I wound up on the elevator with him and you bet I gave the back of his head the stinkiest stink eye I could manage!

Thankfully , we were still able to be seated. We got our text around 6:30 that our table was ready. It was time for Ryleigh to meet the Fab 5!!

 

[MegRuss626]

Now, if you're expecting see lots of food photos, you will be sadly disappointed. We were hangry...I'm new to trip reporting so I didn't always think to take photos...basically boils down to one photo of food.

Hi, I'm Megan and I'm a picky eater who eats like a small child and doesn't like her food to touch. My other plates had macaroni and cheese and tater tots. That pot roast was some of THE BEST pot roast I have ever eaten!! I think I had two helpings. We had great service too! Dan from Orlando was the right amount of attentive, our drinks never went dry (my husband's restaurant pet peeve), and our used plates were promptly cleared (my restaurant pet peeve). The characters came around at a good pace. First up, the main man himself....

There's that face of indifference again! Goofy joined us shortly after...

Wasn't too crazy about Goofy being behind her!

 

[MegRuss626]

Minnie was up next...

And finally, a personal favorite of hers...DONALD!

She was thrilled....just kidding! Indifferent once again!

Ryleigh hanging out while we waited for Pluto to make his way around!

She apparently did not want him to touch her! Next up....desserts!!

I have a pretty big sweet tooth and rice krispie treats and cheesecake are some of my faves!! See that little bite-size cheesecake in the middle, I ate....

5!! And I have no REGERTS!!

 

[MegRuss626]

How about we wrap up this day! (8 months after it started! )

Dinner overall took took a little over an hour which isn't too bad for a character buffet! We had an uneventful trip back to the GF. We had to stop at the front desk to re-request a pack n play for our room and to pick up the few items we ordered from Garden Grocer. *Side note - I highly recommend Garden Grocer especially with a little one. They arrived promptly and prices weren't too crazy. They accidentally bought the wrong kind of Ryleigh's yogurt and by the next day, the had delivered the correct kind.
While at dinner, George and I talked about how we wanted to handle the room situation. Granted we got a room we weren't crazy about in a building we didn't request but we did manage to get a king size bed! Prior to the trip, I read those are hard to come by at GF and are mainly in the main building. Having one bed made more room for Ryleigh to play when in the room and we wouldn't have to squish the pack n play in. We decided that we could live with the dormer room so that we had a little more room. Could be better, could be worse right?

George gave Ryleigh a bath and I went down to get our refillable mugs. I was hoping for the Halloween version but fate was not on my side. My first impression of Gasparilla Grill was....small? They did have the fun coke machines though! We watched some of HalloWishes cry then it was bed time for all of us!

Next up, Ryleigh's first visit to the Magic Kingdom!! (I promise it won't take another 8 months!)

 

[MegRuss626]

Saturday, October 20th

You know what they say...I'm only a morning person when I'm in Disney! Because I am not a morning person by any means but I was up around 7:25. I rolled over to find George had barricaded himself on his side of the king size bed (we have a queen at home)

Ryleigh is like me in the sleep department so she still looked like this at 8:00

George and I quietly got ready so she could sleep as long as possible. He went down to get us some Mickey waffles to eat in the room (again, no food pic) while I got Ryleigh ready for her first day!! I had shirts made for the duration of our trip so today was "Princess Day". By 9:15, we were ready to hit the parks!

Her shirt says "I'm 99% sure I'm a Disney Princess" We had no monorail issues this morning and were seeing this sight by 9:45!

Our first stop was for the obligatory end of main street castle photo pass naturally!

My shirt says "My favorite Disney princess calls me Mommy" and George's shirt says "My favorite Disney princesses are my wife and daughter". After our photos, we had to introduce Ryleigh to the Emporium! She immediately gravitated to the wall of stuffed animals.

Despite having a million of the classic Mickey at home already, he was who we ultimately left the store with!

 

[MegRuss626]

Finally, it was time for our first FP...Peter Pan! We made our way up Main Street towards Fantasyland.

(note the illegal selfie stick)

I had to get a pic of my castle ears with the castle obviously!

We scanned in for our FP and went soaring over Neverland!

How did Ryleigh like her first Disney ride? If you guessed she was pretty indifferent, you are correct! Next up, we decided to do the stand-by line for Dumbo. I always read about the play area while you wait so what's more perfect for a toddler? Well, I learned it's not that glorious. When I asked the CM at the checkpoint how it works, she basically told me it's like getting out of line to play. We opted to just finish our 20 minute wait and soon enough Ryleigh was riding on her first flying elephant!

(How you wait in line with a Toddler...germs don't exist in Disney right?)

Hey...there's something new...she's indifferent! After visiting Dumbo, we decided it was time for a diaper change before our next FP. Here's my note to families with toddlers who can hopefully learn from our trip....my thought process went something like this...Ryleigh a month or so before our trip developed a fear of being changed in bathrooms with loud automatic hand dryers. Understandable when you are little and multiple ones are being used at the same time...those suckers are loud! So we decided to wait for the companion bathroom at the New Fantasyland bathrooms. We waited a good 5-10 minutes for it to be available to find out there's no changing tables in those bathrooms! So lesson learned...Disney companion bathrooms are not family bathrooms...who knew Off to the baby center by Crystal Palace we went! I must say, the baby centers are set up so nice! They're quiet, cool, and have so many amenities. We only utilized the changing area. It was a room with 6-8 cushioned changing tables with disposable pads on the shelf underneath. It worked out great for my hand dryer fearing child! Time for our next FP! But first, a pic of one of the stroller signs I made.

Speaking of strollers, I forgot to mention my first lesson about Disney and strollers when we rode Peter Pan. First, stroller parking near the ride can be at capacity. I went to use the one closet to PP which was by the Tangled bathrooms. A CM told me it was full and I had to park elsewhere. The things you learn! I walked back over by the carousel and found a space in their "parking lot". Now, upon exiting PP, we walked over to get the stroller except it was GONE! Minor panic mode set in and we went off searching for our missing stroller. It had been moved to another area on the other side of the carousel and I'm very glad I made the signs so we could easily spot it. I would highly recommend attaching something on your stroller to make it stand out. 98% of those things are black with wheels so it might be a little difficult without something attached.

Next up, we were off to meet the mouse who started it all...Mickey! (But not the talking one...just a tiny bit bitter...never met him myself and REALLY wanted Ryleigh to meet him) While waiting in line, I apparently decided to take a photo of my MB holder

Big thanks to @sheriffwoody for this idea! I was nice to be able to wear only my watch but still have my magic band or vice versa. We probably got 5 or 6 compliments on them by other guests during our trip! I highly recommend them if you're a watch or Fitbit wearer!

 

[MegRuss626]

Our wait for Mickey wasn't too bad with the FP. Ryleigh lights up every time she saw Mickey at home...how would this meet and greet go? Indifference for the win! I kept telling myself at least she isn't afraid and crying...could be better, could be worse!

And some PP pictures...

After our meet and greet, it was time for our BOG lunch reservation! I was looking forward to this lunch because when we went in 2016, the food was not the greatest. George was nervous because I made "illegal" reservations aka I made two separate single reservations because I couldn't find one for two people. We had pre-ordered so getting into the restaurant and to a seat were no issue. The delivery of the food was a bit weird. We were technically two separate transactions plus our cupcakes were rung up separately as well. So, a we had a food delivery cart come to our table 4 times total. I am happy to say that my turkey sandwich was back to its normally wonderful self! And I even remembered a picture!!

George had the beef sandwich and Ryleigh has an uncrustable that we brought with us!

BOG actually got a smile out of her!! We had a great lunch and it was nice to be out of the heat! I don't think I've mentioned yet but for the middle of October, IT WAS HOT! And crowded which is what you hear from anyone who visits WDW these days!

 

[Gurt]

I have the same thing with food nothing can touch, it has to be eaten in a certain order, my parents thought it was a faze that I would grow out of but I didn't, the 1st time Chris's mum invited me for for a meal the 1st thing I said was 'she knows I am a freak doesn't she'? people think I odd I like to think unique!

 

[MegRuss626]

I have the same thing with food nothing can touch, it has to be eaten in a certain order, my parents thought it was a faze that I would grow out of but I didn't, the 1st time Chris's mum invited me for for a meal the 1st thing I said was 'she knows I am a freak doesn't she'? people think I odd I like to think unique!

I totally get it! I don't have a certain order I follow but I do tend to eat one thing at a time. Beings that I'm 32, I don't think I'm going to outgrow it either!

 

[MegRuss626]

Now that our bellies were full, I had a M&G that I had to attend.
*Small sad backstory: I have danced my entire life. I started when I was 3, danced until I graduated high school, and this is my 15th year of teaching at the studio I danced at. The studio is owned by two wonderful sisters who after spending 4-5 days a week with (in and out of the studio) for 20+ years, they are basically like second mothers to me. On October 20, 2017, we sadly lost the younger of the two very unexpectedly. It was a crushing loss for our studio and for me personally. When we booked this trip, I realized we would be in the MK on that day a year later. Her absolute favorite Disney character was Goofy. Before every trip I took, she would always tell me to make sure I told Goofy hello for her. So I knew that I had to make sure I saw Goofy on this day to say hello for her.
Therefore, our next stop would be to visit Goofy in the circus tent area of New Fantasyland. I think it was around a 20 minute was for Goofy and Donald so it wasn't too bad. If you're still playing "How will Ryleigh react?", the answer is....say it with me...INDIFFERENT!

Donald thought it was funny that she was taking off!

I call those ones "Don't let that duck touch me Dad!" Up next was Goofy!

She at least touched him but she wasn't about to take her eyes off of him!

After our M&G, we hit up the circus tent gift shop! Here is where we found a highlight of Ryleigh's trip....

$16 well spent.... I will say she still plays with it at home. We've had to replace the batteries once already and just yesterday I was explaining to her that its not nice to turn it on and let it smack Mommy because it hurts. Next up was our third FP of the day...Pooh!

Of course our new beloved toy went with us. That photo was taken at 1:59 and by 2:16, we had this sight...

Nap in the parks! Score! Mommy and Daddy can now take turns riding a grown up ride or two! Great plan except it was hotter than hot and stupidly crowded! Lines were really long and we were melting. We walked around for about 20 minutes before either one of us wanted to fess up that we just wanted to go back to the room for a break. So break time it was! By 3:00, we were on the monorail!

Next up, a third highlight for Ryleigh where she would have been content staying for the duration of our trip. It starts with a P and ends with an OOL!

 

[MegRuss626]

If you guessed we were going to the pool, you are correct! Ryleigh woke up refreshed from her nap and was ready to go!

My little water baby LOVED her time at the pool. It was really refreshing and much needed on this hot day for us adults too. We stayed for about 45 minutes before we headed back to the room to get ready to head back to the parks. Ryleigh liked the zero entry because every time we would put her down to dry her off, she would run right back in!

No face of indifference to be found!

Stalker photo of a bride walking through the resort!

We finally got her out of the water, refreshed with an outfit change, and headed back into the parks! First up, PP time!

I really like this one but I wish the photographer would have said "Hey Dad, you're covering the baby's face!"

I was able to get a 4th FP for Small World (they were slim pickings today) so we headed there next! I was able to park the stroller next to the Tangled bathrooms and we were on our way!

Like almost every toddler in the history of Disney, she was a fan! She spent the ride clapping along!

We got off the ride to found our stroller wet. Apparently, while on the ride, there an been an infamous Florida couple minute rain. Our convo went as follows
Me: Oh man, the stroller is all wet!!
George: really?
Me: Yeah...now what do we do?
George: Ya know, I checked the weather app while we were parking the stroller and saw there was a chance of rain.
Me: And you didn't feel that needed to be mentioned?!?!?!?!
George: Hmm...guess I should have?

It was right then and there that we made an official family rule for Disney. If you see rain is forecasted, tell someone! We had a stroller poncho that I would have put over it had I known. That husband of mine sometimes...he's lucky he's cute!

 

[Tuvalu]

How old was Ryleigh during your trip?

 

[MegRuss626]

How old was Ryleigh during your trip?

She was just shy of 16 months. It’s kind of bittersweet looking at the photos now because she has already changed so much!