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:

 

[littleroo]

Wohoo another TR to look forward, too!! Can't wait!

 

[Tiki Traveler]

Thank you for taking the time to share your adventures with us! Re: the spoiler - Woo hoo!

 

[MickeyCB]

Lil BES in her personalized Daisy Duck birthday shirt courtesy of Grandma with one of her many many presents from Grandma:

I'm not allowed to Disney Grandma. I get the hairy eyeball from my daughter constantly. And actually got yelled at for buying her a Mickey kitchen for Christmas that she really liked.
But, I bought her a pair of Mickey rainboots that I gave her while she was here and Aleisha left them here. I solved that by the ole USPS!

Despite lil BES being so young on this trip it seemed to have a great impact on her. I don’t know if she’ll remember it in a few years but she remembers it now.

5 months after the trip she still talks about it unprompted several times a week.

“Beeeee Beeee Eight. Say hi. Go see him.”
My response is often “Someday.” or “Wouldn’t that be nice to see him again?”

Then she replies: “Put shoes on. Go there!”

When they visited us recently and Una was looking at the pictures I had around from our Oct. Hawaii trip, she kept saying, "wanna go waii!"
You and me both kid!

Thanks for sharing your adventures, it is so fun to follow along on other peoples trips.

 

[amjt660]

Great trip report
Thanks for sharing


Max

 

[Back!Elbow!Shoulders!]

I'm not allowed to Disney Grandma. I get the hairy eyeball from my daughter constantly. And actually got yelled at for buying her a Mickey kitchen for Christmas that she really liked.
But, I bought her a pair of Mickey rainboots that I gave her while she was here and Aleisha left them here. I solved that by the ole USPS!

That’s a shame. Especially the yelling. Unless it’s safety-related we don’t have any forbidden grandparent things.

All grandparents know of our preferences for no electronic toys and limited screentime. One grandma gleefully gives us noisy toys. The other introduced lil BES to Cocomelon Somehow the batteries to all of those toys disappeared and Mama’s phone “can’t do Cocomelon”

Maybe things will change as your granddaughters get older and have stronger preferences of their own.

 

[MickeyCB]

That’s a shame. Especially the yelling. Unless it’s safety-related we don’t have any forbidden grandparent things.

All grandparents know of our preferences for no electronic toys and limited screentime. One grandma gleefully gives us noisy toys. The other introduced lil BES to Cocomelon Somehow the batteries to all of those toys disappeared and Mama’s phone “can’t do Cocomelon”

Maybe things will change as your granddaughters get older and have stronger preferences of their own.

I shouldn't have used the word yelling.
It was more of a stern, quit sending these large Disney toys to my house.

And despite going to Disney many times herself and her daughter watching Disney+ a fair amount, knows who the princesses are etc., my daughter frowns upon my Disney obsession and desire to share.

 

[Sillysidewalker]

Loved every memory with Lil BES' sweet trip! Happy 2nd birthday. 2 is my favorite age tantrums and all. Enjoy and thank you for sharing with us!

 

[Swissmiss]

I shouldn't have used the word yelling.
It was more of a stern, quit sending these large Disney toys to my house.

And despite going to Disney many times herself and her daughter watching Disney+ a fair amount, knows who the princesses are etc., my daughter frowns upon my Disney obsession and desire to share.

I’m with @Back!Elbow!Shoulders! here - parents shouldn’t interfere with the grandparent-grandchild relationship and as a mother I was sad for you that you are being forced to hold back with your granddaughters.

 

[Back!Elbow!Shoulders!]

I shouldn't have used the word yelling.
It was more of a stern, quit sending these large Disney toys to my house.

And despite going to Disney many times herself and her daughter watching Disney+ a fair amount, knows who the princesses are etc., my daughter frowns upon my Disney obsession and desire to share.

I’m with @Back!Elbow!Shoulders! here - parents shouldn’t interfere with the grandparent-grandchild relationship and as a mother I was sad for you that you are being forced to hold back with your granddaughters.

If it’s a purely space related thing I’m on Aleisha’s side. It’s much easier to gift stuff than it is to find space for it all.

If it’s the types of stuff I’m on @MickeyCB ’s side. Especially before they have strong preferences it is a lot of fun to share things you like with a lil.

 

[k8einwdw]

Somehow the batteries to all of those toys disappeared and Mama’s phone “can’t do Cocomelon”

What a coincidence, Cocomelon doesn’t work on my phone either! Thank you for taking the time to finish this TR! Can’t wait for the next one!

 

[cgersic]

This was so much fun that I was glad it took longer to complete - and it leaves us off with the upcoming family trip!

 

[riverside]

Great TR & happy belated birthday to Lil BES!! And this didn’t take you long at all-compared to me!!

 

[Darstarr]

Great TR & happy belated birthday to Lil BES!! And this didn’t take you long at all-compared to me!!

 

[fractal]

Happy belated birthday to lil BES! Glad she'll be saying hi to BB8 soon


Thanks for the report and all the songs!

 

[Minnie1986]

Thursday February 2nd (Day 0) Continued:

Lil BES fell asleep on the way home from the doctor but woke up as DH got out of the car to drop off 1 (of the 3!!!) prescriptions for the dog at CVS.

She wouldn’t complete her nap at home so instead of finishing packing while she napped I had a tired toddler “assist” me.

DH packed by himself. And gave the dog a bath. And showered. And did all of his pre-trip house cleaning.

Meanwhile lil BES and I:

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My mom came over to help me and to pick up the dog. We ended up talking about the eye appointment so I didn’t get any packing done while she was there. It was very helpful to have her take the dog instead of us having to stop to drop her off.

DH went to pick up the dog’s prescription. That one cost $90 which put our total dog bill for the day at nearly $400.

DH really wanted to load up the car but I was still making sure we had everything and making sure it was in the correct luggage.

The must-have stuff had to go in the carry on bag:

• the baby monitor
• sound machine
• Osito*
• Osito’s back-up hats.*

*Osito and one of his hats:
View attachment 698242

And I wanted to triple check that the diaper bag was appropriately stocked with all the diapers and snacks we needed to get to Disney.

Finally gave DH the okay to load bags and warm up the car.

Lil BES was in quite a mood and it was difficult to change her diaper and get her shoes on.

I wanted to arrive at the airport hotel at 4pm. It was already 5pm and we were still at home.

I was already starting to wonder if this trip was really worth all of this hassle.

Then lil BES gave me an unprompted slobbery kiss.

And soon we started out journey to the airport hotel.

Spoiler: Track #3:

Heading to a hotel in the metro Detroit area, I think this tune my some of my Detroit favs would be appropriate:

The mayheim gif just made my day

 

[Minnie1986]

Saturday February 4th (Day 2):

Lil BES slept pretty well. She woke up once but I think only because the sound machine must have got shifted to being on a timer. It had turned off and the neighbors were making noise.

Our across-the-hall neighbors had a “The Party is Here!” sign on their door which is never a good sign.

They weren’t terrible neighbors but I think they were split between multiple suites and were constantly going between rooms and slamming doors.

We were all up by 630am. (That’s sleeping in for me and just a little early for DH and lil BES.)

Lil BES had a banana, cheerios and milk.

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I assumed DH would go get our breakfast but DH announced that all he needed was a granola bar.

I put DH on stroller duty for all of the bus trips. I think he was relieved to not have to restrain and entertain lil BES.

Lil BES did really well on the bus though. You could tell she was just taking it all in.

We got to AK a little after 8am. DH did the regular security with our bags and I took lil BES through the stroller line.

The security person asked if I could take her out. I said “ok” with my mouth but perhaps not with the rest of my face as the process of getting her back in the stroller isn’t magical.

The security person quickly said that they have to ask but that could decline. Which I then did very politely. Never got asked to take her out at another park though.

We did the Safari first. Posted 30 min wait but it was far less. Lil BES really liked it. She was very still but would point and make comments. No pictures as I was focused on holding lil BES.

We didn’t see any giraffes. Zero. We did make up for it with a good deal of Woofs and KeyKeys. Lil BES and I were on the left so we could easily see the African wild dogs. The cheetah and out and easy to see too.

The coolest thing on this particular Safari was that one of the lionesses was standing on a rock and making a lot of noise.

Did Gorilla Falls next. Lil BES loved all the fish and birds.

View attachment 701591

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We attempted to wait to get up to the glass to see the baby gorilla. Lil BES wanted food instead but didn’t want it bad enough to hurry. She walked the rest of the way through Gorilla Falls. Very very slowly.

View attachment 701593

We grabbed coffee, a breakfast sandwich and croissant from Kusafiri bakery and ate in that seating area between the bathrooms and Tamu Tamu.

We didn’t want to put our real name on the stroller placard so we picked the name of our favorite fictional family, the Bluth Family. Here’s the only pic seemed to have gotten of it:

View attachment 701594

And we attached a yellow bow tie on it for identification.

View attachment 701595

Spoiler: Track #8:

LOVE Arrested Development

 

[Minnie1986]

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.

View attachment 707837

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.

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!”

Spoiler: Track #13:

is lil BES's hair red, or am I seeing things?

 

[Back!Elbow!Shoulders!]

is lil BES's hair red, or am I seeing things?

Oh it’s definitely red. And she’s got the personality to go with it.

 

[Minnie1986]

Oh it’s definitely red. And she’s got the personality to go with it.

Gotta love a fiery red head!

 

[Minnie1986]

You're doing great! Honestly, I think most of us have had weak moments at Disney. I think everyone in my family has snapped at everyone else at least once at Disney World, and in my daughter's case multiple times both ways. We spend the whole week physiologically swimming upstream with diet, sleep, and physical body demands. Then add in a tired person or a hungry person or a pestering kid or an annoying kid or an ungrateful/spoiled kid or a disagreeing spouse. Or we feel off ourselves. Then it's not like home and we're all sharing a room without space to chill. The whole experience is sensory overload and I always return exhausted and saying we need to make some changes before going back. And then our feelings of wanting to sleep for a week go away and we reflect on how awesome the whole trip was and we plan the next one without the sweeping reforms I promised myself.

I didn't know Walk the Moon did more than Anna Sun.

It sounds like you did an amazing job wrangling a toddler in such an engage space, while still keeping it together; my hats off to you!. I took my godson for his 8th birthday, and was ready to pull my hair out by the end of day one.