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:

 

[Back!Elbow!Shoulders!]

Sorry....I really am excited for this, but I have corona and I'm headachy, sore, and exhausted, so this is all the energy I can muster. On the upside, I have plenty of time to devote to reading while I'm in quarantine! So yay.

Oh no!

Hope this TR can provide you some distraction then.

I’m always down for a BES TR!

A promotion from assistant to the magician. Nice!

He still has a lot to learn but he’s showing some initiative.

So happy to read about your trip but now I need a first initial.

It doesn't even need to be Lil BES's. I just want to play the guessing game.

And with a soundtrack!

Welcome!

following along


Max

(Of the border)

 

[Back!Elbow!Shoulders!]

Go Time - I'm in!

Well @fractal is here and he’s right. It’s go time.

 

[Back!Elbow!Shoulders!]

Thursday February 2nd (Day 0)

Started off my vacation sleeping in until lil BES’s normal wake up time and managed to sneak downstairs to have coffee and breakfast by myself.

Lil BES slept in all the way until 830am which is pretty late for her.

DH soon left to take our dog to a last minute vet appointment. (We joke our vet must have a nice boat named after our dog. At baseline she’s got a lot of allergy issues and leading up to the trip I was concerned that it may have progressed to skin infection. Again. )

Our spoiled dog:

DH got home in time from the vet for us all to go to lil BES’s ophthalmology appointment. Back in November we took lil BES in to have one of her eyes checked out. One seemed intermittently wonky.

It turned out she had eye muscle problems in both eyes. We had to put eye patches on her 2-3 hours a day. (That’s a lot of hours in toddler time.)

This was her follow up appointment. I was anticipating having to increase the patching time but the doctor said… “we were good for now with patching”

I asked what that meant- like good at the 2-3 hours a day or done good, etc.

He clarified that he meant no patching for now.

But he told us not to throw the patches away yet. He thought patching had done what they could for now, and that the true fix for her condition was still surgery. In summer 2024.

So we left the appointment with good and bad news.

No more patches but surgery and surgery sooner than I had anticipated. We have another visit this summer to reassess the timeline.

But let’s end the post on the good news- no more patches!!!

With all of our appointments done for the day it was time to head home, finish packing and really start our vacation.

Spoiler: Track #2:

Heard this one several times on the radio in the week leading up to the trip:

 

[Wicked Sisters]

Looking forward to this TR and so pleased lil Bes didn‘t need to have the patches put on during the holiday.

 

[amjt660]

Short term good news!!

Long term - wait and see - I have seen worse

And now on to the trip

Max

 

[Back!Elbow!Shoulders!]

Looking forward to this TR and so pleased lil Bes didn‘t need to have the patches put on during the holiday.

Short term good news!!

Long term - wait and see - I have seen worse

Very true. DH is good at reminding me to not to borrow trouble. I’d be less freaked out if it wasn’t both of her eyes though.

 

[Back!Elbow!Shoulders!]

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:

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:

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:

 

[MickeyCB]

I hate correcting a doctor’s math off the clock but you’re a very respectable #5

You know we can't do math, or spell, or write.

 

[RememberWhen]

Those kisses are the very best!

 

[Katiekitten]

I'm late but I am here now

 

[joshsprincess921]

Sweet pup. We have 2 pups with allergy problems, so I know how you feel. Between monthly shots and ear infections b/c the shots don't always do the job, I feel like I should take out a second mortgage!

 

[Swissmiss]

Sweet pup. We have 2 pups with allergy problems, so I know how you feel. Between monthly shots and ear infections b/c the shots don't always do the job, I feel like I should take out a second mortgage!

Is pet insurance not popular in the US? My yearly premium for my cats insurance is slightly less than the cost of their annual vaccinations, so I already come out ahead each year.

 

[Back!Elbow!Shoulders!]

You know we can't do math, or spell, or write.

Everyone has their strengths and weaknesses.

 

[Back!Elbow!Shoulders!]

Those kisses are the very best!

So slobbery but so cute.

I'm late but I am here now

Sweet pup. We have 2 pups with allergy problems, so I know how you feel. Between monthly shots and ear infections b/c the shots don't always do the job, I feel like I should take out a second mortgage!

Awww. Poor doggos.

The cost is annoying but it is what it is. I feel so bad when I can tell she isn’t feeling well though. All those expensive meds worked though. She’s been feeling and looking better.

Is pet insurance not popular in the US? My yearly premium for my cats insurance is slightly less than the cost of their annual vaccinations, so I already come out ahead each year.

It wasn’t as common of thing when we got her years ago. Now unfortunately I don’t know if we could get coverage with her preexisting allergy issues. Definitely will consider with future pets.

 

[Back!Elbow!Shoulders!]

Sorry all. Was a busier week at work and home than I planned. One more long day 0 post and then onto less text, more pictures.

 

[Back!Elbow!Shoulders!]

Thursday February 2nd (Day 0) Continued:

Started our drive to the airport during what was now rush hour.

I decided we should stop for dinner on the way. Ended up at MOD pizza which is tasty but took longer than I had wanted.

Finally got back on road and was nearing the airport when some road debris came up from under the semi in front of us.

It made a bit of a noise as it went under the car and we thought we were good. Then a weird noise started.

Pulled off at the next exit and found a gas station. The verdict: whatever we ran over snagged on the plastic trim on a wheel well and that was it flapping around.

DH got a roll of Disney-priced duct tape and secured the flappy piece.

No more flapping noise.

We pressed on to the airport hotel and pulled up to the valet area at lil BES’s usual bedtime.

As we unloaded and secured lil BES in her umbrella stroller the valet brought a problem to my attention. Our return date didn’t match the number of parking days we had.

I had booked through a 3rd party website that only gave options of parking or no parking. No option for number of days.

Valet guy did something on the computer and told us to tell the front desk guy what happened. He said at worst we would have to pay the difference and perhaps the website would credit us. Luggage services whisked away our bags and promised to have them to our room shortly.

Front desk guy didn’t seem to care about the parking issue. He told us our room number and acknowledged our crib request. He said that it was probably in the room but if not to call the front desk.

Got to the room. No crib. No luggage. Very tired toddler.

Call made to front desk. Crib and luggage arrived quickly but it was already too late. It took quite a while to settle an overtired lil BES down.

During the bedtime meltdown I got an alert on my watch that the hotel has charged me $500. The room had been paid for months ago so that seemed excessive for a difference in parking.

After I finally got lil BES asleep and started to get ready for bed myself I realized I didn’t have my bite guard.

I wear one at night because I grind my teeth. My jaw gets really tense if I don’t wear it and it’s $500 to replace it.

I was certain I had packed it. Then I remembered lil BES had pulled my toiletries bag off the counter at home and my stuff went everywhere. I thought I had gathered up everything but perhaps I missed that. The case for it is bright blue so that seems unlikely. Then I had a terrible thought.

My bathroom is old and terrible and there’s a heat duct without a grate under my bathroom sink. Did the bite guard fall down there? Or could a curious toddler have dropped it in there?

I attempted to sleep I couldn’t help but think of the additional $1400 (plus whatever the car repair costs) that I had potentially spent that day and we hadn’t even left Michigan yet.

Certainly a less than magical way to start off the trip.

Spoiler: Track #4:

Filled with self doubt? There’s a song for that:

 

[Sillysidewalker]

Kids, cars and dogs.

I hope you got some sleep and you luck starts to improve!

 

[fractal]

Sorry about the triple whammy.

 

[BigDis]

Count me in!

 

[Back!Elbow!Shoulders!]

Kids, cars and dogs.

Haha! So true.

I hope you got some sleep and you luck starts to improve!

Well one of things happened…

And thanks!

Sorry about the triple whammy.

Thanks. That day certainty felt like:

Count me in!

Welcome! Consider yourself counted.