Trip Report Wherever I go, she goes ***Completed***

(Here’s the pre-TR for anyone that would like it, otherwise I’m going to get right to it.)

I have enjoyed experiencing various “Disney firsts” on my previous trips but I don’t think I could have anticipated how different (in good and bad ways) a first Disney trip with a child would be.

I’m by no means a Disney expert but I’m certainly not a novice. I had naively assumed changing from a party of 2 to a party of 3 would be smooth given all of my past Disney experiences. I would say that wasn’t the case but that was as much due to some recent Disney changes as it was to lil BES.

Buckle up and be sure to keep your arms and legs inside the TR.

Who:

• Me (BES)
• DH (Magician’s assistant in training)
• Lil BES (our 19mo daughter. I briefly considered giving her first initial but I think it may be too easy to guess)

When:

February 3rd-9th 2023, will also be including Feb 2nd, our pre-travel day.

Where:

AoA Family Suites

Inspired by the GotG influence on the trip (and DH being a huge music nerd) I think I’d like to include a soundtrack with the TR as well. This TR is as much for me as for you all so I think it’ll be fun to look back at our current soundtrack someday. I’ll hide them in a spoiler tag though so it won’t be too annoying.

Spoiler: Track #1

Before lil BES was born we often referred to her as Kid A. Don’t be worried- this is probably the “weirdest” song on this playlist. But lil BES is a weird kid so it’s fitting:

 

[Tiki Traveler]

Never in a million years would I have imagined that I would enter a food court in a swimsuit. Let alone with my post-covid times, post-baby body. I wasn’t even sure if I was allowed to but I did it and no one said anything.

You are brave! At least I had a coverup on when we dashed into the Riverside food court to escape the rain last Nov. What really bothered me was I had nothing with me to fix my hair from swimming! I felt like a wet rat! I sat in the corner on a towel and DH got the food.

I wish I had looked as good as Debra Messing!

You’re a good mom to do that for your daughter!

 

[Back!Elbow!Shoulders!]

However - wearing your swimsuit in the food court?

You are brave! At least I had a coverup on when we dashed into the Riverside food court to escape the rain last Nov. What really bothered me was I had nothing with me to fix my hair from swimming! I felt like a wet rat! I sat in the corner on a towel and DH got the food.

I like you calling it brave rather than poorly planned. Thankfully I wasn’t wet or I probably wouldn’t have done it.

My swimsuit was swim tank and swim shorts. It was more form fitting than I would usually wear in public but it covered much more than some outfits I’ve seen in the parks.

 

[Back!Elbow!Shoulders!]

Monday February 6th (Day 4):

Everyone was up at 630. I mobile ordered breakfast and DH picked it up. My waffles got left behind. I think I just ended up eating whatever scrambled eggs lil BES didn’t eat.

Somehow we made it to the bus line by 745am. The line for MK was all of MK and HS bus lines and then it overflowed beyond that. . Through the power of bendy buses we were on a bus by 8am

I got stroller duty at the security check and we were all thru at 825am. Perfect. We made it just in time for early entry.

My goal was to Arty-Pooh.

We did. Well. Kinda. More like an Arty-Poo. We spent our coveted early time in the City Hall bathroom.

By the time we made our way to Fantasyland early entry was done and the Pooh wait time was already way too long for lil BES.

Instead we headed over to Dumbo which was still a walk on. (Thankfully the playground wasn’t open yet).

Dumbo is my favorite ride so I am glad it got to be lil BES’s MK first. She loved it and immediately wanted to ride again. I was more than happy to allow that.

We did Under the Sea twice in a row next. Lil BES was also very enthralled with this one. She wanted to go a third time but carrying a sizable toddler through that loooong line two times is my limit.

Next up was snack time at Cheshire Cafe. DH and I had coffee and we all split a Cat Tail

We headed back to Fantasyland to hop on the WDW Railroad and ended up doing a full loop. Lil BES enjoyed the ride but her nap time was approaching and she was fading fast.

Once back in her stroller lil BES quickly fell asleep. We decided to head out of MK and walk to GF or Poly for lunch.

Not the lil BES Castle pic I wanted but it is the one that I have. She’s very much asleep here:

Spoiler: Track #15:

I could barely get through this song without tearing up before lil BES. Now?

 

[RememberWhen]

Love the sleeping castle picture!

 

[Swissmiss]

I knew the Minnie cap would be a good purchase - she’s gotten good use out of it

 

[LSV]

Spoiler: Track #15:

undefined

Spoiler

Made the mistake of watching Dumbo while pregnant.

 

[lindawdw]

Aww, glad you were able to get on a few good kid friendly rides before her nap! It's always nice to take a break over at the MK resorts.

 

[Darstarr]

Dumbo is my favorite ride so I am glad it got to be lil BES’s MK first. She loved it and immediately wanted to ride again. I was more than happy to allow that.

It is my belief that Dumbo should be every childs first Disney ride.

 

[Back!Elbow!Shoulders!]

Love the sleeping castle picture!

It’s a good one. You can’t see her little smushy cheeks but they’re there and cute and so smushy.

I knew the Minnie cap would be a good purchase - she’s gotten good use out of it

Oh yes. And I suspect she’ll get a lot of use out if it this summer too. Later in this trip she acquired her new favorite hat though...

Spoiler

Made the mistake of watching Dumbo while pregnant.

[/SPOILER

Oh no but understandable. I know I’ll be a hot mess when I envitably watch it with lil BES

 

[Back!Elbow!Shoulders!]

Aww, glad you were able to get on a few good kid friendly rides before her nap! It's always nice to take a break over at the MK resorts.

Me too. I mean on paper we didn’t “do” a lot in MK (or at any of the parks really) but lil BES had a great time.

It is my belief that Dumbo should be every childs first Disney ride.

 

[Back!Elbow!Shoulders!]

Monday February 6th (Day 4) Continued:

As we walked out of MK we got to hear The Dapper Dans. I thought about pausing to watch them too but didn’t want to risk waking up lil BES.

With lil BES still sound asleep in her stroller we were able to walk at our normal pace and made it to GF quickly.

It was lunch time and we ended up stopping at Gasparilla Island Grill- a Disney first for us.

I got the Blackened chicken sandwich

And DH got an (unpictured) Caprese Sandwich.

We both enjoyed our meals especially since lil BES slept the entire time.

At some point during lunch I saw I had a message on WDWMAGIC from the most magical of all magicians, Tuvalu.

She was arriving at WDW on our final park day and we made plans to meet up then.

After lunch we walked on to Poly and lil BES woke up. We hopped a monorail back to MK.

We were on a bus back to AoA by 1:20pm

Lil BES ate and then we did some more splash pad time. We also had drinks. A frozen jack and coke for me and a non-alcoholic Lava Smoothie for lil BES and DH.

DH is still coming to terms with how gross toddlers are. It ended up being solely lil BES’s smoothie pretty fast.

I would say equal amounts of smoothie ended up in her and on her so a quick bath was next on the agenda.

Then we prepared to head to DHS for the only time this trip. Lil BES really wanted to meet someone. Someone you couldn’t meet at another park.

Spoiler: Track #16:

Beethoven’s Fifth delights lil BES. Sometimes DH will use the opening “bah bah bah bum” to get her attention.

 

[MickeyCB]

DH is still coming to terms with how gross toddlers are. It ended up being solely lil BES’s smoothie pretty fast.

Backwash!

 

[Back!Elbow!Shoulders!]

Backwash!

She also may have stuck her grimey hand in it at some point.

 

[Back!Elbow!Shoulders!]

Monday February 6th (Day 4) Continued:

A little backstory for you all. Lil BES is generally pro-Star Wars but really likes Darth Vader. A lot.

We read books about him. She has Vader toys. If you ask her what Darth Vader says she makes makes a Vader breathing noise.

Naturally meeting Darth Vader seemed like a good idea. But it also seemed like a bad idea.

We didn’t want to make her any promises on meeting him so we kept it vague and said we were going to DHS to meet “Star Wars guys”.

Darth Vader had a 30 minute wait. BB-8 and Chewbacca both had a 15 minute wait.

Lil BES was quite excited to see Vader’s picture on the sign and wanted to meet him but it immediately clear that a 30 min line would not work.

Luckily these stairs had a zero minute wait.

So much climbing.

Eventually we left the M&G area and FaceTimed with my parents.

We had dinner at Docking Bay 7.

Kid’s space pasta:

My surprisingly spicy chicken:

Then I sneakily got an order of Outpost Mix popcorn to eat after lil BES was in bed. It’s one of my current favorite Disney snacks.

Next up was the Star Wars plush toy stand.

Lil BES was excited to see “guys” and scooped up Vi Moradi, Ashoka, Yoda, Chewie and Darth Vader.

I was strong and said she could only get one and she needed to say bye bye to the others. She put down everyone but Darth and then proceeded to give him a kiss.

We immediately bought that Vader and continued our hunt for more “guys.”

There was a droid on the Coca Cola stand. There wasn’t a line so we walked up to take a look at the “guy”. The CM very sweetly asked if we would like the droid to “pose” for a picture. We did. Lil BES was very impressed with it moving.

We decided to just meander back to Launch Bay to see if the wait time for Vader had changed. Nope.

Lil BES was very much still interested in see more Star Wars guys but her bed time was also approaching. “Guys!?! Guys?!?”

Again we entered the Darth Vader line. This time we made it a few minutes before deciding to bail because lil BES saw the stairs again.

One set of these stairs popped up right near the line to meet BB-8. The sign said 15 minutes but really there was only one family ahead of us.

Lil BES was proudly carrying her Darth Vader toy and when it was time to meet BB-8 the attendant warned lil BES that BB-8 was a little afraid of Darth Vader.

She asked lil BES if she was on the Light side or the Dark side and offered her a Rebellion sticker. Lil BES immediately took the sticker and threw Darth Vader on the ground.

(All adults and even BB-8 had a good chuckle about that one.)

The BB-8 interaction was great. Lil BES was very interested. She even tried to him her new sticker. And eventually touched him and even said bye when we were done.

The CMs were fantastic here. They were all so good with lil BES and genuinely seemed to be having fun.

Riding high on our great experience with BB-8 we hopped right in line for Chewie.

We had maybe two groups ahead of us. At first it was going pretty well. Chewie was crouched down and lil BES gave him a high five and petted his fur.

At some point Chewie stood up and lil BES got a little scared. She immediately threw up her hand and said “Bye!”

Chewie tried to win her back over but got just another “Bye!” We shrugged and thanked Chewie and got on out of there.

If Chewie was too much it was clear that Vader would be waaay too much. So that was the end of our only DHS time this trip.

We made it back to AoA well past lil BES’s bedtime but got her down easily.

I enjoyed my secret SW popcorn while we watched some TV and then went to bed.

Spoiler: Track #17:

 

[fractal]

She asked lil BES if she was on the Light side or the Dark side and offered her a Rebellion sticker. Lil BES immediately took the sticker and threw Darth Vader on the ground.

That's hilarious!

 

[Back!Elbow!Shoulders!]

That's hilarious!

We are lucky enough to have it on video too.

She now refers to that plush Vader as “Guy”. She has another big plastic action figure one that is just called “Darf Vader”. Sometimes that one gets fancy:

 

[Back!Elbow!Shoulders!]

Tuesday February 7th (Day 5) Continued:

Today was another MK day. We were up at 6 but somehow left the room later than the day before. No big deal. Today was also the day I bit the bullet and bought Genie +.

The bus line was longer but went very quickly.

In the bus line I realized that lil BES and the next three kids ahead of us in line were all redheads. That was pretty cool.

By the time we got to MK and through security we had 5 minutes left of early entry.

First we rose the carousel. from lil BES but not good enough for her to demand a reride.

Then we were off to IASW. DH loathes this ride but went on it for lil BES’s sake. I did take some video of her on it. She looks… perplexed.

Then we used our LL for a Pooh. Lil BES more familiar with original Pooh from the A.A. Milne books so perhaps that contributed to her indifferent response to the ride.

After a quick diaper change we jumped in line for the Minnie and Daisy M&G in Storybook Circus. It had recently opened for the day but there was already a sizable line.

Lil BES was a little squirrelly in line. I think it was made worse by the fact that she could see the characters from the line.

We had a special reservation approaching. At the pace line was going it was going to be close.

As the couple ahead of us met Daisy it was announced that in 5 min the characters “had a quick meeting with Pete”

This M&G was Daisy then Minnie. Minnie was taking more time with guests than Daisy so she had a bit of a guest backlog.

After the couple ahead of us finished with Daisy (and with that 5 min warning still in play) we were told to wait a moment to see an otherwise free Daisy.

Miraculously we did get to see Daisy before her “quick meeting”. Lil BES was excited at first but then told Daisy “Bye!”

The people waiting for Minnie blocked the photo scan things so we couldn’t tap our photos in time.

Given lil BES’s lukewarm reaction to this Daisy, the additional wait for Minnie and our approaching reservation we decided to bail on Minnie.

I think our stroller was some somewhere near the Carousel. We didn’t have enough time to get it so I carried lil BES to the front of the park.

Spoiler: Track #17:

 

[Doberge]

Spoiler: Track #17:

This is the last of three songs I sing to my son every night.

 

[Loco_driver]

Then we used our LL for a Pooh

Oh man, you gotta pay to do that now!?

 

[Back!Elbow!Shoulders!]

Oh man, you gotta pay to do that now!?

Freudian slip, typo, or future Disney scheme. You decide.