Trip Report The Happiest Birthday on Earth!

Our last trip was February 2023 - an amazing first trip as a family of three!

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It was SUCH a great trip and we had so many amazing memories made together.

We decided our next trip would be right before Nora's 3rd birthday, December of 2024. We even booked right away as soon as we could! Art of Animation family suite from December 1st - December 7th of 2024.

Okay so... now what? We have to wait THAT LONG to go again?

Fast forward to late September of this year. Work was hard. Parenting was hard. Ian looks at me and says, "wouldn't it be cool to go to Disney just us for your birthday?" I mean... YEAH, DUH. But was it possible?! My birthday is November 7th!

We crunch some numbers. I am not typically an All-Star Resorts type of girly, but at just over a $100 a night.. this just might work. Now for flights. Somehow roundtrip flights from Boston to MCO are looking achievable.

Okay. Now what about the little 21-month-old who we are not going to haul down to Florida for a two-night trip? Quick call to my mom and she is on board to watch her!

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Sorry Nora - you'll be back in 2024!

So, buckle up for a whirlwind 2-night trip for my birthday. It was everything I could've asked for!! 😍
 
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Zipadeelady

Zipadeelady

Well-Known Member
Swissmiss said:
Ya got it all wrong. 😉 You bite into said hard shell, half of it falls to the floor (or worse, on your t-shirt right where you don’t need to call any more attention) and the ice cream drips down your hand.
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Ok, I'm not gonna lie. The above scenario has happened to me but...... it's still superior. You have to go into the Mickey Bar like going into the parks. You know there are going to be long lines, people that stop in the middle of the walkway, an obnoxious lady talking during your favorite ride. Just like you know there will be a delicious piece of hard shell that is going to sacrifice itself and jump. You prepare yourself for it.
 
Swissmiss

Swissmiss

Premium Member
Zipadeelady said:
Ok, I'm not gonna lie. The above scenario has happened to me but...... it's still superior. You have to go into the Mickey Bar like going into the parks. You know there are going to be long lines, people that stop in the middle of the walkway, an obnoxious lady talking during your favorite ride. Just like you know there will be a delicious piece of hard shell that is going to sacrifice itself and jump. You prepare yourself for it.
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The love is for the preparation remarks, not for mistakenly calling a Mickey Bar superior 😉
 
annienevells

annienevells

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
The battle of bar vs sandwich continues!

As does my TR!

After my DELICIOUS Mickey ice cream sandwich, we grabbed another LL.

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Little Mermaid time! The LL line was pretty long but not awful. One of the CMs here was a girl I follow on Tik Tok named Emily who reviews quick service locations at WDW! I was having a fan moment and told her I loved her Tik Tok 😅

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We made our way back to Tomorrowland.

As I type this I am realizing I left out a key part of our afternoon - we managed to get a BG for TRON! We were SO pumped and had been watching the BGs go by all afternoon.

It was getting close, hence the trek back to Tomorrowland.

We tried again for Laugh Floor and had no technical issues this time.

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Another must-do Disney snack for me is popcorn. My dad and I would ALWAYS share a box on our family trips growing up, so I sent him a picture.

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After our snack break it was time to get in line for TRON.

The sun was setting and looked beautiful from our vantage point.

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Another bonus of riding again - we actually got our photo!

We asked to wait for the front row and it was SO worth it and even better in the dark.

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We took a quick picture before heading on to our next stop.

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annienevells

annienevells

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Barnstormer with no line? Why not?!

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After our brief but fun ride with Goofy, we headed to the carousel with no wait.

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Ian told me I looked like a happy little kid in this.

After our ride on the carousel, we needed dinner before Happily Ever After. We were SO excited to finally see HEA again.

We went out over Pinocchio's for some flatbread pizzas.

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I have NO photos of the pizzas because as we sat down with our food an announcement came on saying that Main St was at capacity for HEA. I started freaking out. I didn't even want to eat. ALL I wanted for my birthday was to watch HEA again.

We ate what we could and then tried to find a last minute spot if possible.

I was a little upset at our location with the lamp post but just grateful that we were at the front of the castle PERIOD with these crowds.

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Yes - I DID cry. 😅

After wiping my happy tears, we decided to head to Small World.

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We were pumped that both of our names showed on the screens!

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cgersic

cgersic

Well-Known Member
Zipadeelady said:
Ok, I'm not gonna lie. The above scenario has happened to me but...... it's still superior. You have to go into the Mickey Bar like going into the parks. You know there are going to be long lines, people that stop in the middle of the walkway, an obnoxious lady talking during your favorite ride. Just like you know there will be a delicious piece of hard shell that is going to sacrifice itself and jump. You prepare yourself for it.
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It just happened to me on my last trip. I generally have one for breakfast, when my reflexes are still a little bit asleep, but I'll sacrifice the side piece for the rest of the thick, beautiful chocolate - score that the wayward piece didn't land on my clothes!
 
annienevells

annienevells

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
After IASW, we grabbed another LL for Haunted Mansion! But... we had some time to kill.

If we wanted to cross Pooh off our list, it was standby or nothing! The line probably took about 25 minutes.

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After, we decided to take a stroll through the castle to take some photos.

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It was still PRETTY darn busy in the park.

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We stopped to take a photo together because I loved how beautiful the castle looked!

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After our little photo shoot it was finally time for our HM LL.

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... did NOT nail it 😅

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S
 
annienevells

annienevells

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Once we were done visiting the happy haunts, we realized it was 10:15 PM. That meant we had been at the park nonstop for 15 hours. OUCH.

The park was open until 11, but we decided to slowly make our way to the bus and take lots of pictures on the way out.

Even with the exhaustion hitting me, I was getting emotional about our visit ending.

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As you can see, still TONS of people around even at that late hour.

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A little castle kiss moment, duh.

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The happiest birthday girl on earth!

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After about a million photos, we had to make our way out of the park.

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We got a bus back to All Star Sports pretty quickly and even managed to not fall asleep on the ride somehow LOL

Our flight the next day was not until 2:30 so we had planned to do breakfast at Cape May to try something new. Well.. after this marathon day we decided to just sleep in as late as possible and get breakfast from the food court (Mickey waffles anyone?!)

We both passed out immediately after showering.

One more final update after this :(
 
annienevells

annienevells

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
I was able to sleep until 830ish which is LATE for me.

Ian did not want to be disturbed so I quietly packed myself up and headed with my luggage to the pool. I told Ian to get checked out by 11 and meet me at the pool when he was ready.

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I had priorities before the pool opened: check my bag with bell services and WAFFLES.

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A perfect way to start the day!

I was also the very first person on the pool deck at 10 AM. I knew I was flying home to 10 degree weather, so this was a MUST.

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Once Ian pulled himself out of bed and made his way to me, we shared some early lunch.

Simple but really always hits the spot for us!

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With a bit more time to kill we played some arcade games and only got a LITTLE competitive with each other.

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Our Uber was quick to arrive when the time came, and we also made it through security super quickly.

Time for some supper before the journey home.

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The plane ride was uneventful. My dad picked us up in Boston and we made the haul home to Maine.

A couple of items purchased on the trip:

new sweatshirt for me, LOVE. 10/10

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We get a new ornament on every trip. This one is so pretty!

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And of course a stuffie for Nora. She has slept with Donald every night since 😍

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This trip was PERFECT. I have told Ian a million times that this was by far my best birthday ever. It was so fun and special to do this just the two of us. We love our time with Nora, but we also love our time alone together at our happy place.

I am a little sad that my next trip isn't for another 333 days (!), but lots of time to plan the perfect trip for Nora!

Thanks for following along!
 
Minnie1986

Minnie1986

Well-Known Member
annienevells said:
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It took quite a bit to get our photo in front of the tree and then I ended up hating most of the pictures they took! I requested a traditional castle photo before we moved on.

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Much better!

We were nearing the end of Early Entry. With our TRON ILL and Space LL, we decided to head to Tomorrowland.

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Let's start with Buzz!

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Ian crushes me EVERY TIME. Look at my concentration.. all for nothing 😅

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We headed straight to one of our all time favorites after Buzz

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I was REALLY feeling the birthday vibes in this moment and almost teared up!

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Is it just me, or does the blonde lady look like Cynthia (Angelica's doll) from Rugrats?
 
cgersic

cgersic

Well-Known Member
Happy birthday (late) Nora!! The birthday photos are just adorable :inlove: I'm so sorry to see this end because you can definitely see how much fun you had and it's been a blast following along with you. Thank you for taking the time to do it and cheers to another trip countdown!
Happy New Year GIF by HBO
 

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