Trip Report The One Where Elsa Followed Us To WDW

If I don't start this now... I never will!

When: December 3-11, 2024
Why: Our annual trip with our little family. We usually go late January/early February, but wanted a Christmas trip!
Where: Art of Animation Lion King family suite
Who: Me (Annie), my husband Ian, and my 2-year-old Nora (she turns 3 on NYE!)

I took SO SO many photos, I hope you are all ready LOL

Without further ado..

Our trip week kicked off with a rough start. On Sunday, we took Nora to see Moana 2. She did so well and LOVED it.

We got home and I proceeded to have the most violent food poisoning of my life for the next 30ish hours. SO AWFUL. I kept crying thinking it wouldn't be over in time for our trip. Somehow, I was okay on Tuesday morning when we got up to get ready to go to the airport but it was touch and go for a while there!!

Our flight was at noon out of Boston, so my dad picked us up around 8 to head from Maine to Boston.

We traveled in matching sweatshirts

We got into the city and through security pretty easily.

We checked two bags that weighed in at EXACTLY 50 pounds each. I guess this is the last trip we can get away with no suitcase for Nora!

Speaking of Nora, she was a huge fan of the escalators and moving walkways in the airport.

Once we found our gate and ensured it existed, we went to the play area to let her blow off some steam.

After running around like a chicken with her head cut off, it was time for some donuts from Dunkin.

We had more than enough time as things had been running very smoothly. We headed back to let Nora do some more playing before boarding.

We do not board early because I do not need MORE time with a toddler in a confined space lol

Ian got the carseat loaded up and soon we were taking off.

We do not do screens at home apart from family movies together, so the seatback TV kept Nora entertained the entire flight. I personally wished she would've napped, but she was an angel, and I was grateful lol

3 hours later we made it to MCO around 4 PM!

Nora was excited about the "monorail"

to be continued!

 

[Minnie1986]

Time for possibly my favorite picture and total personality photo of my child:

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I now use this picture as a meme when texting with Ian LOL

Finally she was all done and waving to her royal subjects.

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She loved the gifts she received as well.

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We headed over to get some pictures taken.

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This one!!!!

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We loved this experience for our family and Nora. These moments are fleeting and childhood is too short so I love that we will have these memories forever.

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Nora's facial expression in that one photo just gave me the laugh that I desperately needed today; so a big thanks to her for me

 

[Minnie1986]

We had planned to walk the path back to the bus at MK, but it was POURING so we decided to take the monorail. Except... so did everyone else. We survived the wait, but it took awhile.

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Nora started falling asleep on the ride.

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Luckily the rain stopped by the time we got off back at MK. We said a sad goodbye to MK!

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We got to the AoA bus stop and the line was LONG. Like.. end of the night long. We couldn't figure out what was going on until we heard someone say they had been waiting an hour and a half. WHAT?!

We were running REALLY short on time, so we decided to run over to the Pop bus. We got dirty looks from folks in the AoA line and someone yelled out "WHERE DO YOU THINK YOU ALL ARE GOING??"

Excuse me, I do not need to answer to you.

We got on a Pop bus within 5 minutes.

We really had to book it back to AoA (through the rain) once we got back as we were really pushing it on time to get our Uber to the airport.

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It was a mad rush, but we made it to our Uber.

Of course, Nora fell asleep 5 minutes from the airport lol

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Security was a breeze and we were approaching our gate before long.

Time for a snack!

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And then... we find out our flight has been delayed an hour.

Then 2 hours.

And on and on.

AHHHHHH. I tried to walk Nora around in the stroller to get her to fall asleep but she refused of course. So it was just managing her in a packed airport for HOURS.

This is how she felt about it:

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I was trying to keep my dad updated as he was picking us up back in Boston.

We eventually made it on the flight many hours later.

Nora once again refused to sleep, but she was happy watching a movie or two.

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We eventually made it home around 1 AM, and had to work the next day ugggghhhh but we survived.

This was SUCH an amazing trip. I had not gone through my IVF transfer for my pregnancy yet but did shortly after this trip. I've already been dreaming about what our first trip as a family of 4 will look like.

Real quick look at our new ornaments. We get a new one on every trip! Nora picked Dumbo and we picked the Skyliner because of all the fun we had on it this trip.

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Thank you all again for reading. Next Wednesday, March 5th, I will be doing my 24 hour Disney trip with my mom!! Stay tuned for that super short TR lol

We got dirty looks from folks in the AoA line and someone yelled out "WHERE DO YOU THINK YOU ALL ARE GOING??"

For anyone to give you dirty looks, let alone have the NERVE to say this to you all in insane! People do this all the time, and just because they hadn't thought of it, doesn't mean they get to take it out on you three! I guess misery really does love company; glad you all made you Uber!

 

[Minnie1986]

Today was LL booking day for our 24 hour trip! We will probably arrive around 1030 and need to leave by 7.

I couldn’t get an ILL for 7DMT like I hoped and Tiana was all gone but I’m fairly happy with what we ended up with. I mostly wanted one for right when we got there so we could immediately book another.

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Mostly looking forward to a slow pace, snacks and sunshine! And time with my mama

This sounds like so much fun. Can't wait to read about it!

 

[Minnie1986]

Another baby update for those interested...

Time to start saving up to be doing BBB x2 in the future!!

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Hooray for baby girl #2!

 

[Minnie1986]

Tacking on my 24 hour trip to the end of this one in the spirit of laziness LOL

When: March 5, 2025
Why: Christmas present from Ian!
Who: me and my mama!

I specifically booked this "there and back" trip strategically on a Wednesday because that is (WAS) a day Ian worked remotely so could drop/pick Nora up from school with no problem. Until the executive order to return to work happened and messed up all our plans (he's literally an engineer who sits at his desk all day working on spreadsheets BUT I digress.....). Ian ended up having to take the day off entirely just to make this work which was a bummer

ANYWAY.

My alarm went off at 1:45 AM and I was a bit tired, but the excitement got me going.


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We were flying Frontier out of Boston to Orlando (a $90 round trip flight!!), so I had to find a personal item small enough to fit their standards.

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This bag did the trick. I actually received it in the mail from DVC the day before!

My mom picked me up at 230 and we had a quiet drive from Maine to Boston. Even though it is SPENDY to park at Logan, we were doing so for less than 24 hours so opted to do for ease and accessibility.

Security was a breeze at 4 AM, despite the fact that they were all still in a morning meeting
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Quick selfie before finding our gate.

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I was so hungry but NOTHING was open. Truly... nothing. Not Hudson News, not Dunkin, nothing. Our flight boarded at 5:15 and a Hudson News finally opened at 5. We quickly grabbed something because I was HUNGRY and didn't just want a snack.

I painfully paid $10 for this mini bagel and mushy fruit
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I got our ticket cards out at this time, something I am not used to because Ian and I always do Magic Bands!

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Boarding was also pretty quick, and I kindly gave my mom the window seat lol

She pulled her book out and had to show me the bookmark she was using. It was one I made her in 1997
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The flight was pretty uneventful. We ended up with an empty middle seat between us, so despite the tight Frontier quarters we were not as squished as we could've been.

Our flight landed around 930, and we hopped off to change into some FL appropriate clothes. Excuse my dogs barking in the below pic, I took it to brag to Ian that I was in shorts haha
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Let's hit the fonorail and get to MK!

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I specifically ordered a Minnie Van on Lyft so we could be dropped off at the entrance of MK. The quote on the trip showed us that would be our drop off and SAID Minnie Van.

Well.. a regular SUV picked us up. Okay...

The ride was quick though, and we were crossed into friendly territory soon enough.

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If you hadn't included the year, I would've sworn the photo on the bookmark was of Nora!