Pre-Trip Wherever I go, she goes

A little over a year ago I 3D printed a tiny companion whom I will call lil BES.

In a little over 6 months I plan to take that wonderful child to WDW.

The TR title is a slightly altered quote from The Mandalorian. As a Star Wars fan and new parent I have accumulated a ton of baby Yoda stuff. I would say that baby Yoda is the only character that lil BES recognizes (sorry Mickey).

Although I am nowhere near as cool as Mando (or Armando as my autocorrect wants to call him) lil BES does share a lot of qualities with baby Yoda including:

Extreme cuteness

Love of snacking

Mischievousness

Lil BES is definitely going to be the wildcard for this trip so I am starting this pre-TR on the early side.

If the first year of parenting taught me one thing it’s to ask for help so I will be soliciting some advice from you all as I add this new chaos factor into my planning.

All of the (tentative) details:

When: early February 2023

Where: AoA family suite

Who: Me, the ever reluctant DH, and last but not least, lil BES:

(She’s the one on the right)

 

[joshsprincess921]

150 days!

Yesterday booked Sunshine Flyer for our airport transport. I was able to book lil BES a seat for free.Tthey do allow car seats on their buses per their FAQ.

I was able to book them and got them kid free special to. I can't wait to hear your review of them.

 

[Back!Elbow!Shoulders!]

I recommend the cosco scenera next for a travel seat. Lightweight for travel, can be both rear and forward facing, so should last you many years of travel. And relatively cheap as far as carseats go!

That was the one I have been eyeing. Good to have some confirmation. Thanks.

 

[Back!Elbow!Shoulders!]

101 days til our trip.

Not a whole lot of pretrip updates. Made park reservations. Got a travel car seat.

Mostly I just spend my non-working hours trying to get lil BES not to climb on too many things and to not eat rocks.

In addition to Baby Yoda I’ve found a second Disney character that delights lil BES:

 

[Darstarr]

 

[Back!Elbow!Shoulders!]

Got the dreaded “Your Flight Schedule Has Changed” email from Delta. Our arrival flight was pushed back a few hours.

Ended up switching to a flight a couple hours earlier than our original one so yay extra Disney time.

Oh but now the real reason for the update…

Lil BES had a good Halloween. *And* she kept her cowl on the entire time.

 

[Back!Elbow!Shoulders!]

Now that our arrival flight leaves in the morning I proposed staying at the hotel airport the night before the trip. Shockingly DH agreed.
Now we don’t have to rush, worry about snow or worry about traffic that morning.

A sweet bonus of this decision is valet airport parking.

It’s not too much more than just the regular covered airport parking and I think with lil BES in tow it’ll be worth every extra dollar.

In other slightly vacation related news, lil BES now has an ophthalmologist appointment the day before we leave.
We recently found out that she has some eye muscle issues in both eyes. She has to wear an eye patch a couple hours a day… indefinitely.

I’m hoping by this next appointment she will be trending in a good direction but I’m pretty sure we’ll still be patching during the trip.

The patches are admittedly adorable and she’s pretty good about wearing them but it breaks my heart a little when she says “ No no no!” when she sees me get the patch out for the day.

I’m hoping by February all of us will be so used to patching that it can be easily incorporated into the trip.

 

[Tiggerish]

Now that our arrival flight leaves in the morning I proposed staying at the hotel airport the night before the trip. Shockingly DH agreed.
Now we don’t have to rush, worry about snow or worry about traffic that morning.

A sweet bonus of this decision is valet airport parking.

View attachment 681854

It’s not too much more than just the regular covered airport parking and I think with lil BES in tow it’ll be worth every extra dollar.

In other slightly vacation related news, lil BES now has an ophthalmologist appointment the day before we leave.
We recently found out that she has some eye muscle issues in both eyes. She has to wear an eye patch a couple hours a day… indefinitely.

I’m hoping by this next appointment she will be trending in a good direction but I’m pretty sure we’ll still be patching during the trip.

The patches are admittedly adorable and she’s pretty good about wearing them but it breaks my heart a little when she says “ No no no!” when she sees me get the patch out for the day.

View attachment 681853

I’m hoping by February all of us will be so used to patching that it can be easily incorporated into the trip.

I don't know whether to give this a or a

Kudos for the airport hotel parking.

 

[Back!Elbow!Shoulders!]

I don't know whether to give this a or a

Kudos for the airport hotel parking.

Lol. I guess I shoulda separated that out. I say overall it is

I’m glad we caught the eye thing as early as we did. Her vision is good now but the patching will hopefully prevent or delay surgeries down the road.

 

[Tiggerish]

Lol. I guess I shoulda separated that out. I say overall it is

I’m glad we caught the eye thing as early as we did. Her vision is good now but the patching will hopefully prevent or delay surgeries down the road.

Y'know what's kinda funny? I had my annual eye test two weeks ago and was told that the muscles of my right eye aren't keeping up with the left.

Redheads.

 

[MickeyCB]

The patches are admittedly adorable and she’s pretty good about wearing them but it breaks my heart a little when she says “ No no no!” when she sees me get the patch out for the day.

I imagine it's so hard. My heart has always gone out to parents who have to do things for their babies to make them better that the little ones don't understand.

 

[Back!Elbow!Shoulders!]

Y'know what's kinda funny? I had my annual eye test two weeks ago and was told that the muscles of my right eye aren't keeping up with the left.

Redheads.

What a coincidence. Perhaps it is a redhead thing. Although for better or worse people seem to attribute a lot of stuff to red hair.

I imagine it's so hard. My heart has always gone out to parents who have to do things for their babies to make them better that the little ones don't understand.

We know we are very lucky that lil BES is healthy but overall and that this is minor in comparison to what some families go through.

It’s good that she’s so young that we don’t have to worry about her getting teased a school etc but its bad in that she doesn’t understand at all why we’re doing this to her.

We’re trying something to make the patch removal process more comfortable and hopefully that will make her less weary to let us put it on.

 

[Back!Elbow!Shoulders!]

So I’m realizing that my 60 day mark is tomorrow.

I initially had tomorrow off but now am working to help out a coworker. Not looking forward to navigating Disney IT whilst working but hey it may be easier than while training to wrangle a toddler.

The only thing I would like to book is lil BES’s first haircut.

Lil BES is pretty chill at restaurants so DH is agreeable to booking a TS or two but I haven’t figured out where.

As much as I’d like Sanaa or Boma I don’t want to deal with transportation to AKL.

I don’t know how she’ll do with characters so I’m reluctant to book any characters dining.

So perhaps I’ll just wing it tomorrow. Or we’ll just try for last minute ones when we’re there?

Anyone have an toddler friendly suggestions?

 

[MickeyCB]

Anyone have an toddler friendly suggestions?

Chef Mickey's!! Una loved it at 10 months old and when we were at Aulani she was 20 months old and was super into the characters.

 

[Darstarr]

Not looking forward to navigating Disney IT

No “buts” necessary!!!

 

[Back!Elbow!Shoulders!]

Chef Mickey's!! Una loved it at 10 months old and when we were at Aulani she was 20 months old and was super into the characters.

Hmmm. I guess I could try and then cancel if she seems scared by characters.

 

[nickys]

What about Crystal Palace? Again there are characters though.

Otherwise choose somewhere you both like or want to try. Most places will be toddler friendly.

 

[Songbird76]

Hmmm. I guess I could try and then cancel if she seems scared by characters.

They changed the cancelation policy on most of the restaurants. You can now cancel up to 2 hours before your reservation without getting a no-show fee, so you have a LOT more wiggle room with that than you used to. Crystal Palace might also be a good one....Pooh and friends are usually a hit with the toddler age. But honestly, I think you'd be ok at most of the restaurants...it IS Disney. Unless you are going to some upscale place like Victoria and Albert's or Monssieur Paul's, I think it's alright. Those are the ones with age limits....and I wouldn't go to like California Grill, but most of the non-signature restaurants should be toddler-friendly. I took my kids to Tony's Town Square when E was 4 and A was 2....that was fine. We also did Akershus that trip. A wouldn't eat the pizza there, so my husband ended up leaving the park to go get a bag of doritos in the car for him, but I think most kids are fine with the pizza there, and I think they have mac n' cheese, too, but A won't eat that either.

 

[Back!Elbow!Shoulders!]

So how did my 60 mark day go?

The day as a whole?

It was a rough shift. Like a no break and stayed over 2 hours rough. Made even worse by the fact that it was supposed to be my day off.

A bright spot the my day was that I did get a first haircut appointment at Harmony Barbershop for our second MK day.

I didn’t think about it or look at ADRs until after lil BES went to bed and I was recovering from my day:

There was a lot of availability when I looked but I had a hard time trying to figure what times/locations would work for us.

DH was little help. If it were up to him all of our food would be from Epcot food booths.

He did suggest focusing on food we wouldn’t likely to be able to get a home.

So that’s how I arrived at an ADR for Sebastian’s. It’s not a food type we eat often and it’ll be easy to get to.

I’m still thinking about Morimoto or maybe Jaleo but I think anything else, including character meals, will be last minute decisions. Hopefully the new cancellation window will work in our favor.

 

[Loco_driver]

So that’s how I arrived at an ADR for Sebastian’s.

 

[Back!Elbow!Shoulders!]

Got a special package in the mail this week:

And tomorrow we’re flying to GA for some holiday time with the in-laws.