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:

 

[lindawdw]

How fun that you got a night out at MK by yourself!

 

[Back!Elbow!Shoulders!]

I've been trying to talk the extended fam into a WDW trip in Oct. for our 40th anniversary and my daughter is putting the kibosh on it. Apparently little precious Una (crazy girl), didn't want to get on the little 5 min train ride at the Sacramento Zoo. Then wouldn't sit down, then threw a full lay on the ground hiss fit when she had to get off.
Aleisha told me she can't for one second picture Una tolerating anything at Disney this year.
I disagree but unless I kidnap the kid I'm not going to get my way.

That sucks. It’s so hard to predict what Una will or won’t do that far into the future but especially since you have to book stuff so far in advance nowadays I can see Aleisha’s reluctance to commit.

things change between now and October.

If not- lil BES asked to go back to Disney today. You could take her instead.

How fun that you got a night out at MK by yourself!

It was a lot of fun and a really sweet thing for DH to plan for. So despite some of the grumbling that I will be directing his way in upcoming posts he really is a good spouse.

 

[Back!Elbow!Shoulders!]

Sunday February 5th (Day 3):

Originally today was an MK day but I ended up switching to Epcot the day prior due to predictions of all day rain.

I had my BG fingers all ready at 7am and secured BG 38.

In my trip notes I wrote bath here but I don’t recall why. Typically we don’t bathe lil BES that early so perhaps there was a reason I blocked out.

Lil BES had breakfast in the room and we planned to eat at Epcot.

We got in the Skyliner line at 8:25 and despite how intimidating it looked we boarded in 10 minutes.

Upon entering Epcot we veered right to go to France for breakfast but soon realized that was everyone else’s plan too. Zut alors!

We abandoned that plan and got a donut, muffin and coffee at the Joffrey’s near Canada. I let lil BES run around while DH was in the Joffrey’s line. Lil BES saw an earthworm, many leaves and a few birds. Big excitement.

Hopped up on donut power lil BES proceeded to climb all of the stairs in the Canada pavilion. All of the stairs.

If it had been Timmy’s instead of Joffrey’s donuts I assume she would have been able to climb more stairs and climb them more politely.

We managed to get lil BES in the stroller with the lure () of seeing fish.

Nemo was a walk on and lil BES enjoyed it. It was almost time for my BG and I figured we would spend the remainder of the waiting at The Seas but it didn’t hold lil BES’s attention as long as I thought.

We strolled over to GotG. Lil BES seemed sleepy. My BG was called at 1030. DH said he would continue to stroll with lil BES in the hopes of eliciting a stroller nap.

He told me to text him when I was out and he would just text me a picture of where they were and I could find them. (Oh the advantages of having a Magician spouse.)

I entered the line at 10:37 and was off the ride by 11:20.

Spoiler: GotG queue pictures

We’re in the process of remodeling a bathroom and I snapped this in the GotG to add to my project ideas:

GotG was fantastic. Even aside from the theming it was a fun coaster. And despite all of the screens I didn’t get motion sick at all.

I text DH and got this pic as a response:

I took off to meet up with them.

Spoiler: Track #11:

 

[MickeyCB]

If not- lil BES asked to go back to Disney today. You could take her instead.

That is hilarious!! And good for her!

 

[fractal]

So glad you liked GotG-CR!

 

[Sillysidewalker]

If it had been Timmy’s instead of Joffrey’s donuts I assume she would have been able to climb more stairs and climb them more politely.

Got a chuckle out of this line. My daughter's hockey team may disagree. No apologies for checks.

 

[amjt660]

Hopped up on donut power lil BES proceeded to climb all of the stairs in the Canada pavilion. All of the stairs.

f it had been Timmy’s instead of Joffrey’s donuts I assume she would have been able to climb more stairs and climb them more politely.

Max

 

[Back!Elbow!Shoulders!]

Sunday February 5th (Day 3) Continued:

Our little crew reunited. Lil BES didn’t stroller nap for DH. They strolled. They toddled. They snacked.

I asked if they went to the playground and DH said no. It looked too chaotic.

DH declared that he wanted a break.

I decided lil BES and I would take our chances with the playground.

DH decided he would go off to sit down somewhere with the stroller.

Lil BES decided to pull me along the playground fence- away from the entrance and into Creations.

Creations seemed… okay? I didn’t really get to look at it much as I spent the entirety of my visit preventing lil BES from breaking things and putting away the toys she pulled down.

She loved all of the baby Yoda merch. Lil BES calls Grogu “baby”. She would excitedly point him out and loudly exclaim “BAY-BEEEEE!” The guests and CMs around seemed to really get a kick out of it.

Lil BES was also quite taken with Chewbacca. This is the beginning of her… tumultuous relationship with Chewie:

Finally got lil BES out of Creations with zero toys/stuffed animals purchased and zero things broken.

DH was apparently still resting so it was now onto the playground for real.

Taking lil BES to that Epcot playground reminded me a lot of taking our small doggo to a dog park. Neither had any idea that they were the smallest things there.

Lil BES was immediately attracted to the most dangerous and most popular playground equipment. And despite being well past her nap she showed no signs of slowing down.

During this and other times lil BES has been around older children, I am continually impressed with how the other kids are kind and considerate to babies and toddlers.

Eventually DH meandered back to us and we got lil BES to leave the playground.

We did a diaper change at the Odyssey. In the regular restrooms. (We never did enter a single Baby Care Station this trip )

It was now squarely lunch time for all and we set out for some food.

Spoiler: Track #12:

 

[RememberWhen]

My little one calls grogu “bunny!!” Due to the long ears. We can’t bear to correct her. It’s too cute.

 

[Tiki Traveler]

This last song!!

 

[meggo819]

Conversation between me and my 2yo daughter, B:

B: I don’t want baby Lola.
Me, correcting: baby Yoda.
B: Lola
Me: Yo. Da.
B: Lo. La.

 

[headintheclouds]

Late but here! Love your TR so far! Lol @ leaving Creations with nothing broken. That’s how I’m going to feel when we go. Amina loves to touch everything. I can see her picking up toys and me following behind her picking them up after her.

And it’s amazing I’ve been to Disney all these years and never knew these playgrounds existed!

 

[BwlrBry212]

Conversation between me and my 2yo daughter, B:

B: I don’t want baby Lola.
Me, correcting: baby Yoda.
B: Lola
Me: Yo. Da.
B: Lo. La.

That conversation made me think of this.

 

[Back!Elbow!Shoulders!]

Late but here! Love your TR so far!

Welcome and glad you’re enjoying it!

Lol @ leaving Creations with nothing broken. That’s how I’m going to feel when we go. Amina loves to touch everything. I can see her picking up toys and me following behind her picking them up after her.

100% yes. The good thing about toddlers at this age in a store though is that they have no idea that any of the stuff could come home.

 

[Back!Elbow!Shoulders!]

Sunday February 5th (Day 3) Continued:

Normally I love the festival booths but trying to find food options that would be simultaneously good for a toddler and DH was tricky.

I grabbed a drink and sent DH to find what he wanted while I got lil BES situated with milk and snacks. Then I sipped on my enjoyable Neapolitan beer flight.

DH returned with some sort of beet dish and mushroom risotto. Neither lil BES or I liked the beets but the risotto was good.

Lil BES was looking hot but wasn’t interested in her stroller fan. Initially we started to head for The Land the AC but lil BES fell asleep so we kept on walking.

We ended up in France for QS crepes. We got a Ratatouille one and a berry one. Lil BES woke up just before our order was ready.

We ended eating our crepes on a bench near the Ratatouille entrance. We especially enjoyed the ratatouille crepe.

It was nearly 2pm when we decided to head back to AoA and started to make our way out of the park.

Daisy was out on the path to IG and had 2 kids in line to meet her.

Lil BES likes ducks and I figured this would be our best opportunity to gauge how character interactions would go...

It went so well. Daisy was so sweet and patient with her. She got lil BES to give her a high five and eventually a hug. A line was starting to build behind us but based on all of the “awwwws” I could hear I don’t think anyone minded that Daisy took her time with lil BES.

It was definitely a trip highlight for me and one that lil BES still likes to talk about and look at pictures of.

Initially lil BES called her “Dee Zee” (nowadays her pronunciation is more clear.) and would recall “Dee Zee hi!” “Dee Zee hug!” “Dee Zee bye!”

Spoiler: Track #13:

 

[lindawdw]

Such a sweet interaction with Daisy!

 

[Tiggerish]

The good thing about toddlers at this age in a store though is that they have no idea that any of the stuff could come home.

I feel like this insight is right up there with Plato and Aristotle.

It went so well. Daisy was so sweet and patient with her. She got lil BES to give her a high five and eventually a hug. A line was starting to build behind us but based on all of the “awwwws” I could hear I don’t think anyone minded that Daisy took her time with lil BES.

View attachment 707838

It was definitely a trip highlight for me and one that lil BES still likes to talk about and look at pictures of.

Initially lil BES called her “Dee Zee” (nowadays her pronunciation is more clear.) and would recall “Dee Zee hi!” “Dee Zee hug!” “Dee Zee bye!”

That looks like one of the greatest character interactions ever. I’m “awwww”ing here at my kitchen table

 

[Back!Elbow!Shoulders!]

I feel like this insight is right up there with Plato and Aristotle.

Haha. Thanks. Every day it becomes a little harder to out smart lil BES but whenever I manage to it feels like an epic parent life hack

That looks like one of the greatest character interactions ever. I’m “awwww”ing here at my kitchen table

It was a really good one. Especially since it was so unexpected. The funniest character interactions on the trip should be coming up soon.

 

[Back!Elbow!Shoulders!]

Sunday February 5th (Day 3) Continued:

After we said bye to “Dee Zee” we took our Skyliner back to AoA.

DH tolerates the Skyliner but doesn’t like it. I would classify him as “uneasy” around heights. (I add this in now because I have a picture from this particular Skyliner jaunt that captured his unease. ) He did comment after the trip on how convenient the Skyliner was.

Back at AoA I got lil BES and myself ready for some pool time. I didn’t figure DH would swim but I figured he would at least want to see lil BES’s first swim.

I figured wrong. Instead DH went off to do laundry.

(Remember that mysterious bath note from the morning? Now I recall we had an overnight diaper malfunction which led to the morning bath and the need to do some laundry)

I also figured DH would join us once the load was in progress but nope.

Lil BES and I went to the splash pad area of the main AoA pool. I thought that would be a good introduction and then I could see how she’d do in the actual pool. She loved the splash pad so much we never even attempted the pool.

Lil BES splashed for at least 30 minutes. Eventually we packed up and headed to get lil BES some dinner. It was already past lil BES’s normal dinner time so we went right to the food court instead of the room.

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.

We split a kid’s chicken and pasta dish. Lil BES loved it. Since it was vacation and mostly since I was so worried about her getting dehydrated I let lil BES have apple juice. She was thrilled.

We spent the rest of the evening in the room. The next day was our first MK day of the trip so my goal was to get there early.

Spoiler: Track #14:

This one is straight from lil BES’s bath time playlist:

 

[Tuvalu]

I had that exact kids pasta with chicken and green beans last week at POFQ! It was surprisingly good.

However - wearing your swimsuit in the food court?