Trip Report We were on a (Disney) Break...

Helloo Everyone!

As our trip report title suggests after our last trip report in Sep 2022 we were most definitely NOT going to be visiting WDW for the foreseeable future.

We were determined!

And we failed 😅

We lasted until June when we used some disney maths to figure it would be 'cheaper' for us to return to disney this year rather than a 2024 trip. I'm not going to lie to you, i dont remember the math and I'm pretty sure it wouldn't stand up to scrutiny but who cares! We had our next magical trip booked and we were the happiest people in the world.

If you've read one of our trip reports before welcome back! We can't wait to share our time with you all 😊

If you are new here we are Tash, Adam and our toddler Tobias.

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Tobias was 2 and a quarter years old at the time of the trip (yes hes a big boy!)

The time of the trip was 2 weeks from the 30th of September. We LOVE spooky season at disney although travelling with a toddler (and no babysitters) prevented us from doing all of the night time spooky events we would usually do.

Also yes it's taken us this long to have some free time to write our trip report. The tail end of 2023 was full of sickness in our house and we're finally on the up!

The aim of the trip was just to enjoy disney from a chilled perspective and go with the flow. We've learnt that trips to disney with a toddler go by their schedule and you best be prepared for all your plans to change last minute.

Our home from home this trip was Port Orleans French Quarter. It holds a special place in our hearts in that its the hotel we stayed in for our wedding in disney in 2019. We couldn't wait to return as a family of three and enjoy everything the hotel had to offer.

So sit back and enjoy our trip (keep your arms and legs inside the vehicle at all times). We hope you enjoy it as much as we will reliving it!
 
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Tashifer90

Tashifer90

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Thursday 28th September 2023

So to start off our journey you have to include travel day.

Our run up to our holiday was not smooth sailing. Adam was recovering from a kidney infection and Tobias had his first nursery bug (he'd started in September) and I was working far too much overtime. I guess you've got to pay for those Mickey pretzels somehow 😄

The day of travel started with a mad rush to finish packing. We both woke up with headaches and Tobias had a viral rash covering his body, we were off to a great start!

Mickeys cousin also thought he would visit our garage to start the magic early. Did you know that to prevent a mouse returning to your home you have to release it over 5 miles from your house? not a chore you want when you're trying to go on holiday.

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we named him mortimer after mickeys not so fun cousin

Tobias spent a few hours being spoiled at Grandma's whilst Adam loaded the car and I had a manicure.
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Tobias LOVE's his food as you can tell by the photo above.

The car was loaded and we were on our way. There's no better feeling than a perfectly packed car boot.
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At least we thought we were ready to go.. Our budgie Buzzby was going to stay at grandmas and we had an incident getting him into the car. He was fine but the car upholstery not so much...
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one quick hoover and we were finally off!
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Tobias was such a good boy on the journey to the hotel but fell asleep 15 minutes before we arrived. Let me tell you, he was not a happy bunny when we woke him up to go into the hotel.

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many cuddles later and a dose of pain relief a slightly happier boy decided to explore the hotel room. We had booked a budget hotel (Premier inn Runger Lane North if any of you end up flying from Manchester airport and need a place to stay) for the evening since we were only sleeping there. The room was fine and clean and had a bath for bedtime routine, we didn't need anything more than that.

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If only you could put children on a shelf when you need to get organised... oh wait.

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Don't worry we didn't keep him up there for long.

We went down to the hotel restaurant to get a meal before an early night all round.

Unfortunately Tobias was still not feeling his best...
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it turns out he was just really really hangry!
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Tobias devoured his pasta bolognese and a good share of our chips (fries for those from the other side of the pond). A special shout out goes to our server who brought him 5 straws for his juice and managed to cheer him up when he was being 'that child' in the restaurant. It was only 5pm so luckily the restaurant wasn't too full.

I had a chicken tikka masala and Adam had fish and chips. Both fairly standard british 'pub food'. Nothing to write home about but tasty enough.

We headed back to the room for an early night. After a bit of chill time and a splash in the bath we were all in bed by 8.45pm.
 
Disstevefan1

Disstevefan1

Well-Known Member
Tashifer90 said:
Helloo Everyone!

As our trip report title suggests after our last trip report in Sep 2022 we were most definitely NOT going to be visiting WDW for the foreseeable future.

We were determined!

And we failed 😅

We lasted until June when we used some disney maths to figure it would be 'cheaper' for us to return to disney this year rather than a 2024 trip. I'm not going to lie to you, i dont remember the math and I'm pretty sure it wouldn't stand up to scrutiny but who cares! We had our next magical trip booked and we were the happiest people in the world.

If you've read one of our trip reports before welcome back! We can't wait to share our time with you all 😊

If you are new here we are Tash, Adam and our toddler Tobias.

View attachment 766308

Tobias was 2 and a quarter years old at the time of the trip (yes hes a big boy!)

The time of the trip was 2 weeks from the 30th of September. We LOVE spooky season at disney although travelling with a toddler (and no babysitters) prevented us from doing all of the night time spooky events we would usually do.

Also yes it's taken us this long to have some free time to write our trip report. The tail end of 2023 was full of sickness in our house and we're finally on the up!

The aim of the trip was just to enjoy disney from a chilled perspective and go with the flow. We've learnt that trips to disney with a toddler go by their schedule and you best be prepared for all your plans to change last minute.

Our home from home this trip was Port Orleans French Quarter. It holds a special place in our hearts in that its the hotel we stayed in for our wedding in disney in 2019. We couldn't wait to return as a family of three and enjoy everything the hotel had to offer.

So sit back and enjoy our trip (keep your arms and legs inside the vehicle at all times). We hope you enjoy it as much as we will reliving it!
Click to expand...
I have to admit, I love the Disney Math and have used it many times! Its very magical and shows anything is possible.
 
Wicked Sisters

Wicked Sisters

Well-Known Member
In the Parks
No
Loved reading your last report so really looking forward to this one. Just missed you as well because we flew back to uk on the 27th after spending 3 weeks there.
 
Tashifer90

Tashifer90

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Friday 29th September 2023

It was flight day!

We rushed around getting things packed whilst Tobias had a lovely relaxing morning eating his banana watching Cbeebies!
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(Note this isn't where he slept, he's not quite got the hang of sleeping by himself yet so one of us got in with him in the big bed)

But if you are travelling with a toddler that flails about in bed as much as our child, definitely get these!
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They are inflatable bed rails! Super compact when deflated. They didn't go too high so i was worried if they would be any good, but as you put them underneath the fitted sheet it sort of makes a curve on the bedding which made Tobias naturally roll back into the bed if he ever rolled that far in his sleep.

We planned to leave the hotel by 7am and we were all in the car by 7.30 am! Not bad at all for us! 😅

It was super chilly, and the the air was really damp from the night before, but the excitement of Disney kept us warm!

We decided to book the Meet and greet parking just to make our lives easier, with Tobias being a little more mobile than he was last time, we thought this would be the safer route. we dropped the car off just outside terminal two and it would be at arrivals when we returned. We managed to make it to the airport 10 mins before check in!

Much to Tobias's dismay we had to keep him in the pram whilst we waited to check in (No express check in cause yet again, Tasha was 'randomly' selected for additional screening.)
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The suitcases did prove useful at keeping him contained now and again...
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Once we had dropped off our bags we went through security. we had to have our bags searched as Tash had left her ipad in my backpack and i hadnt realised. Tobias's bag was also searched due to secret hand sanitiser we hadnt realised was in there. All in all we failed at being prepped for security 😅

After security we had to grab some breakfast because, predictably, Tobias was HANGRY! We dashed into Bridgewater exchange, one of the bigger pub like restaurants with a fairly large menu.

Tobias had to have a pre-breakfast snack whilst we waited for his main meal...
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Tasha ordered the Eggs Benedict which came with back bacon rashers and a very nice hollandaise sauce.
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I went for the Eggs bury-dict, whcih was the same but came with Black pudding! 🤤🤤
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If memory serves me correctly they didn't have a childrens menu so we just got him some pancakes and Jam (Weird choice i know) but Tobias loves Jam so he didn't mind lol
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Then it was time for Tobias's first ride of the holiday!

The adrenaline pumping, heart stopping, best ride Manchester has to offer... THE ESCALATOR!

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He loved riding on this and sitting down on the step whilst it was moving, but he especially loved getting in peoples way!

After some time of doing this and a (very) brief look in the shops (Mainly for snacks and water) we decided to head to the gate as it was getting closer to boarding time.

To be continued...
 

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Tashifer90

Tashifer90

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Friday 29th September 2023 - Continued

Walking down to the gate, we certainly felt like royalty. Manchester had put up these signs especially for us! It's like they knew Tobias was coming!

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It also gave Tobias an opportunity to burn off some energy on the long walk down there!
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All the movement managed to get his tea out of him the night before so that meant one less nappy to change in the airplane toilets! 💩

All the running around had done it's work a little too well, he fell asleep right before take off!
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You know how much the plane bounces around during take off, it just didn't seem to have any effect on him surprisingly 😂


We were also extremely lucky with where we were sat! The plane was i'd say around... 75% full? The seats behind us were absolutely rammed but for some reason no one was near us. (Although i guess i wouldn't want to be sat next to a child if i had the choice i suppose 🤣 )

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Another reason to fly Aer lingus i suppose!

Unfortunately aer lingus doesn't allow any foot rest / foot stool or anything that extends the seat out for you to lay your kids down onto, so we just ended up stacking a few backs at the base of the seat (Why that's acceptable and a blow up foot rest isn't i'll never know) So as much as he got some sleep he's just too long a toddler and the seats were just too small for him.
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I think we both managed to watch a movie whilst he slept and then we both watched half of another one whilst he was awake.

Thank god he's a big movie lover!
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I was flagging a little as you can tell 😅

I will say one thing though. Going to Disney with a toddler who can walk is much more fun than a baby that can't, however, flying with a baby that can't walk is easier that flying with a toddler who can. 😅

We had to take regular breaks for him to have a wander around the cabin, but the stewardesses were all really nice, and even when he wandered into the galley the stewardesses offered him some snacks and sweets which was nice of them.

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We did know that the gruffalo would keep him still for half an hour at least!
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It was so funny that the last flight we went on with him we had a massive box of toys to keep him entertained, we had brought some fidget toys this time, but he was more than happy to watch a movie, go for a wander, watch another movie, repeat. Daytime flying with a child is much easier than nighttime flying i think (night time return trip still to be reviewed!)

We landed at the new terminal at Orlando, it looks really nice with some indoor trees and plenty of light, not like a hotbox like terminal A (Unfortunately no photos pre immigration as they weren't allowed). The only bizarre thing was that despite everyone's best efforts to charge off the plane to get to the front of the queue we had to wait for our luggage before going through immigration? It just seemed like a very odd thing to do, instead of just waiting with your hand luggage we now had to queue for a good half an hour or so with three suitcases and a toddler? I was very happy with how much more quicker it was to get through, it just seemed like an odd way round to do it. All in all getting our luggage and getting through immigration was about an hour which i will take any day over the plus 4 hours you could wait at the old one.

We then headed out to our car and spent a good half an hour or so trying to figure out how to fit the car seat 😅


To be continued...
 

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