Trip Report "Whoa!" Our Disney Trip through the eyes of our 15mo Old!

Hello everyone, we just got back from Disney on Saturday night, and I want to start my trip report before I start forgetting the little details. So here we go...I WILL be adding pictures, but the beginning of the trip report is being started while at work, so I will have to add them later!

First: Read my Pre trip Report Here: http://forums.wdwmagic.com/threads/...-for-mom-dad-babys-first-trip-sept-15.901000/

Thanks for reading along.. hope you enjoy!

When: 9/19-9/26
Where: Animal Kingdom Lodge
Who: Myself, My husband, and our 15 month old daughter Harper. Also, My Mom, Step Dad, and 5 year old Nephew.

Day1 Friday September 18th:
The day was finally here! The vacation that I had been looking forward to for TWO years. We had counted down from 400 something days, and now we were are at ZERO and within hours of departing. I worked a half day on Friday, but could barely concentrate at work. I kept staring at the clock on my computer wishing so 1pm. Finally, it rolled around. I changed into comfy pants, and met my husband outside since he picked me up. If you were reading along on my trip report, you will recall that my daughter Harper was sick, and I was feeling somewhat sick, but I didn't let it get me down! We were going to Disney World!! I hopped in the back seat and was ready to go! My parents had to wait for my Nephew to arrive so we drove across town and when to a vitamin store to get an energy drink I like before we left. At this point, I took command in the drivers seat, and we jumped right on I-81 to get the show on the road. Not long after, my parents were on their way too, we tried hard, but we just could not meet up together on the road. Eh, that's okay. We would work it out. I'm not sure of the exact route now, but we took 81 south, to 17 south and through some windy back roads with lots of winery's. We ended getting on I-95 at Fredericksburg, VA. The drive wasn't too bad, and I don't recall any issues at all.

We finally met up with my parents at the first rest stop once we got on 95. Harper had JUST fallen asleep when we stopped and she must have sensed it even though the car was running, because within minutes of stopping, she was awake. Well, crap... I needed her to nap, but she was up, so we got her out of the car and met my parents and walked inside. After quick bathroom stops, and a few minutes of leg stretching, we were back on the road ready to go!

(this is where I'm going to stop until I get access to my pictures!)

 

[ScarletBegonias]

I'm in!!

Yay! Thank you! More coming here in a bit! I'm on a roll today!

 

[ScarletBegonias]

Great start! Your daughter is so precious!

Thank you! We think so too!

 

[ScarletBegonias]

Great Pics!!

Thank you! We used cell phones, and a point and shoot, plus the Memory Maker pics! LOL

 

[ScarletBegonias]

Day 3 (Park Day 1, Magic Kingdom) September 20th Continued…

After leaving CP with full bellies, and being much happier now that we had some interaction with Tigger, Piglet, and Eeyore, we headed to meet Mickey at Town Hall (?) something like that! I can’t remember the name! LOL. We had a fast pass for this and I had no idea what we were in for. I asked my mom if it was the regular Mickey, or the talking one, and she said she didn’t know. She said that you don’t know what Mickey you are going to get. Well, much to my surprise, it was the talking Mickey!!! SO COOL! I cannot believe this was literally one of the first things we did while there. It was so magical for me! Harper just looked kind of confused at first, but then she loved him! We kept trying to get pictures and she could not stop staring at Mickey! It was so so cute! It made my day! ( I got video of this interaction, and hopefully I can post it! I just figured out the pics, so hopefully video isn’t much different).

On the way out I bought Minnie ears and immediately put them on! When we walked out of the shop there was some kind of little singing/dancing thing going on right outside of there and I just couldn’t help myself! I started skipping and dancing around with my ears on and a CM said something cute to me, but alas, I can’t remember what it was! I was happy! I was on vacation and had no cares in the world!!

I was worried because Harper seemed tired, but my child will not NAP. She will fight til the death, and just hates it. So I was anxious to see what would happen! Next we went to Monsters Inc. Laugh Factory. That was a lot of fun. We sat in the back incase Harps wound up and we needed to make a quick exit, but she did very well! I enjoyed it too. Luckily, being in the very back we were not picked to be “that guy” or anyone else they were making fun of!

Next up we took a ride around on the People mover and that was pretty relaxing! It’s a nice breeze when you are riding through. Harper seemed to like it too! Next up we had a FP for 7DMT! My mom, Step dad, and nephew went first while we stayed with Harper, and then AJ and I went while my parents had her. I liked it a lot, but I’m SO glad we had a FP for it! I would not have liked standing in line for 70+ minutes for this! I’m sorry, but it’s just too short for all that time!!! Next, we did Peter Pan! My husband loved this too! Harper thought it was great too, and only got scared once in the beginning when it’s pretty dark! Of course next we did It’s A Small World! Harper was super tired by now but she perked up once we were on the ride. It was full of “See!!” and it was adorable!! I loved watching her. I used to kind of hate this ride when I was younger, but I enjoyed it this time!

We had lunch at Columbia Harbor House. It was packed! I got the gluten free chicken tenders and they were pretty good! Harper munched on French fries and still HAD NOT NAPPED! After that we stopped by the tangled restrooms to have a look see. Very pretty!

We were going to leave at this point because it was really hot and both kiddos were tired, but my Step dad REALLY wanted to do Haunted Mansion and we were right by there so we did it. Harper was a real bear in line. She kept trying to get down which I obviously can’t let her do, so she was a grumpy kid. She did okay on the ride but would grab my hands and put them around her in the darker spots. It did stop for a few minutes, but got started away pretty soon.

When we got off, I was starting to feel a little bad myself. I chugged some water and we were walking towards the exit when we saw it! Harper was ASLEEP!!!! It was 3pm and she was finally napping in the stroller! Well that changed things! My mom sat with her while the rest of us rode BTMRR! It was awesome! It’s longer than I remembered so that was cool! When we got off we got some PhotoPass pictures which my mom will need to send to me, and I’ll post when I get them. At this point we decided we better get going because we were coming back for MNSSHP! Harper woke up on the bus on the way back, so we went swimming instead because she had already napped!

We got up to the room and everyone changed into our clothes for MNSSHP! Everyone else in my group still had their super hero shirts except for me. I never found one I liked, so I had a Halloween Mickey shirt on! Harper had a little Anna Coronation dress/onesie thing. We went back down to catch another bus to MK.. I don’t specifically remember the ride there. It must have been uneventful! When we got there we scanned our bands, and got in. Everyone was dressed up and I felt kind of lame in my silly shirt! First thing we did was get some PhotoPass pictures on Main street!

Then we made our way to Tomorrowland and did the Buzz lightyear space ranger spin! It was pretty fun and harper had a fun time looking around! I really wanted to do Space Mountain, so mom watched Harper while AJ and I did it! We got on twice in row; we literally just walked on both times. This is my FAVORITE ride ever. I felt like a little kid. My first ride I got the very front seat. I squealed like a child the whole ride! The second time I let my Husband (who had never rode it before until tonight) ride in the front so he could get that experience! When I got off my step dad said he’d love to do it, so I went on with my Step dad and left my husband with Harps. She had done the people mover again while we were on Space! We checked out the Monster’s Dance Party. Man, those kids loved it. Harper? Not so much. She was tired again! We had dinner at Cosmic Rays. It was okay, but nothing to write home about. After that we decided to Dumbo! Harps and I, and my step dad and nephew did it! AJ doesn’t do tight circles or spinning, so we were on our own. We walked right on! We didn’t even stop at the interactive queue. However, our ride was hinky. We couldn’t go up or down, and it stopped midway through and then we started again, but it still wouldn’t go up or down. So it was kind of anti-climactic. We hadn’t realized we missed the parade at this point, but we did, which REALLY bums me out. We also did ZERO trick or treating, or any character meet ups. From what I’ve read, the lines were insane. We took advantage of walk on rides! At this point, we were practically running through the park to catch Hallowishes and the fireworks. I lost my mom and step dad and didn’t even try to catch them. We were just going our separate ways at this point. We saw Hallowishes and it was pretty cool! Harper was asleep in her stroller, but we stood and watched. So neat!! We then went and sat on the curb in front of Casey’s Corner THINKING we were getting a seat for the Parade (HA HA) but in fact the only thing left was the fireworks. I just KNEW they would wake Harper up and scare her, but I wanted to see them. She didn’t even blink. She slept all the way through them and AJ and I got to watch together! At the end, it was a mass exodus and it was only 10:30! Had harper not just woken up and crying, we would have stayed. The park had to have been completely empty until 12am. I could not believe how many people left at that time! Catching a bus tonight took FOREVER and my sleeping child was in my arms and incredibly heavy. I was getting so so frustrated waiting. When it finally came, 3 people in their motorized carts had to get on which took another 20 minutes. I think the entire line was cranky by this point. So, that’s it for Park day 1! We didn’t really do a lot of the Halloween stuff, but it was still really cool to see everyone and be a part of it!

Park Day 2 will be Epcot.. Stay tuned!

 

[ScarletBegonias]

The beautiful castle!!!

Sleepy child during the dance party!

My non-enthused child on Dumbo! I swear, she's a SUPER happy kid! She just doesn't do well for photos!

 

[ScarletBegonias]

Day 4 (Park Day 2, EPCOT) September 21st


Okay! So this morning we had another ADR at Chef Mickey’s! I think it was at 9ish a.m. So we took a bus to MK, and jumped on the Monorail to get to the Contemporary. My nephew loves all things buses, trains, ect, so he was super excited to be on the monorail. I was glad to be on the monorail because I didn’t have to fold up the stroller. Holy cow does this thing become cumbersome after a while!!! On the way to the monorail, we caught the very end of the opening show (sorry, not sure the official name!) and it was neat! I was dancing along running up the monorail ramp and singing along. It was kind of a cool moment to see everyone up there dancing!


We waiting for a few minutes for the monorail to take off, and then we were off to Chef Mickey’s! When we were seated, once again the Chef came and took my mom and I to the buffet, to let us know what we could have. I LOVED that they had lox (smoked salmon) this is my very favorite and it so yummy! Harper ate like a champ this morning, and she actually stayed in the high chair the entire time. We found out that she loves yogurt, and cottage cheese. I kid you not, she’s eating in EVERY single picture with the characters. We didn’t even take her out of her high chair because she was being so good. We had barely been seated at our table when the first character came out! We could not believe how fast they came! After the poor experience at Crystal Palace the day before, this was a welcomed change! They came one after the other! It was awesome! The gluten free mickey waffles were awesome! (Crystal Palace, gave me what looked like an eggo waffle, which is not biggie, but the mickey ones were awesome!)

After breakfast, we got back on the Monorail and switched over to the Monorail that takes you to the parks. We got off in Epcot and went about our way! First stop was Figment, but it was not working, so we went over and did the Nemo ride, saw the aquarium, and all that. My nephew was really cranky today. He was not getting enough sleep and my mom was already talking about taking him back to the room! We had another FP for Soarin’ which was awesome! When we were going over the people kayaking in the river my husband joked and said it looked like we were going to kick them in the head, and without thinking, I pretended to kick, but actually kicked the woman next to me. Oooops! I said sorry and that I got a little out of hand. She didn’t seem to mind. {will add more pictures when I get home}


After that we had lunch at Seaons. I got some pork with rice and mashed potatoes with one of the best gluten free brownies I’ve ever had! Oh my…. Harper liked it too. At some point in the day we caught Figment again since they honored our fast pass all day. After that, the kids were tired, and it was REALLY hot, so we stopped at Starbucks for some coffee, and decided to head out later to see the countries (spoiler.. we didn’t). So back to the buses we went. We got back and AJ and Harper laid down for a nap. Being the introvert that I am, I needed some time to myself to unwind. I told AJ I was going to explore the resort and to text me when you wake up. I was gone for nearly two hours. I just walked everywhere. I rocked in some rocking chairs, saw the animals, sat by the pool! I really needed time to shut off for a bit and chill out. Being with your family 24/7 can get overwhelming sometimes. It was so refreshing. We decided because we were all tired and burnt out from the heat to just have a chill night at the resort. We got dinner at the mara, went swimming and went back up to watch a bit of cartoons before we went to bed.

Next up.. Universal Studios!!! (with a bit of a bummer twist…)

 

[PineapplePrincess]

Enjoying your TR and your photos very much! I love, love, love those ears! I'm assuming they are only out at Halloween as I looked for them in July. Purple and green are DD17's favorite colors.

 

[ScarletBegonias]

Enjoying your TR and your photos very much! I love, love, love those ears! I'm assuming they are only out at Halloween as I looked for them in July. Purple and green are DD17's favorite colors.

I do believe they are halloween colors! I loved them as soon as I saw them! I wore them almost all week. Thanks for reading along!

 

[ScarletBegonias]

Here are some more pictures from Epcot (park day 2) This first one is favorite of mine!

on the monorail...

She fell asleep right before Turtle Talk with Crush which I LOVED!

Lunch here was one of the better meals of the week.

Playing!

 

[Figment Forever]

Oh my gosh - Harper is so adorable! You have such a beautiful family! I wasn't that trilled with the GF waffles at CP either. Awesome trip report - can't wait to read more!

 

[ScarletBegonias]

Day 4 (Park day 3, Universal Studios) September 22nd:
AJ and I are HUGE Harry Potter fans, and as soon as we knew we were going to Disney, we knew going to Universal was non-negotiable. My mom and step dad had told us that they would take Harper for the day so that we could go and get the day in and we'd all go back on Friday (our extra day) So we dropped Harper off early, and headed out in our car to Universal. The directions were ridiculous and wrong, but we figured out how to get in and park. It seemed like it took forever to get into the park, but we got to the ticket counter to buy our tickets. My mom had given us money for these tickets but with the two day two park pass we were $77 short, so we paid that on our account and moved into the park.

First we walked though the Simpsons stuff, and then over to the area by Kings crest station. We kept seeing these people walking into this one section and i'm totally stupid for not figuring it out but it was going into Diagon Alley! Once we got through to the other side AJ's face looked like a small child. He was so so stoked to be seeing this!

First stop was to the Leaky Cauldron because we didn't have time to eat before we left. We went up and ordered and waited for someone to bring our food to us. I will say, these were the WORST gluten free pancakes i've ever had in my life! Come on, Universal! I can buy a better mix at the grocery store! Yuck! I suffered through them, but it was made up for by the pumpkin juice. It was SO delicious. AJ and I split it, but it was hard to not drink it all!

So we moved on from there and went to the Gringott's ride. We got to the door and they told us we couldn't take any bags and everything had to be stored in the "free" lockers. These lockers are a total PITA, and if you don't know how to use them, you'll lock your stuff in a locker that wasn't assigned to you (i did it. ugh). Everyone piles into these tiny spaces and it's the most stressful thing ever, so i just started having AJ do it. No idea why you couldn't take your stuff with you, but whatever. The line for Gringott's was amazing. It was just like the movie. The ride was okay. I personally don't care for things that require 3D glasses because I wear glasses. They never seem to be just right with my vision. Either way, it was a great start to HP stuff! We walked around Diagon Alley and checked out some of the stores. We decided we should take the Hogwarts Express over to the other park and check out Hogsmeade! The train ride wait was kind of long, but it was well worth it. Love how they do the train! don't want to ruin any surprises for anyone! When we got over to Hogsmeade, we realized it was way less shady over here and very hot. We went right to Harry Potter and the forbidden journey. We only had to wait about 20 minutes and the queue was amazing. It was just like you were in the castle. The ride itself WAS AMAZING. Amazing enough that after wandering around and doing the dueling dragons ride, that we did it again! We also did Flight of the Hippogriff which was cute, but literally like 20 seconds, and we waited too long for it. We did end up getting butter beer and it was pretty good, but I only had a sip. We spent a good bit of time in both HP areas, but were surprised how small they actually were. We still had plenty of time to spare so we left and went on to other things. We did Spiderman, some weird terrible water flume ride, Jurassic park & men in black. We decided at the end of the day that we didn't really want to come back. *gasp!* I just really wanted to get back to Magic Kingdom, but I felt horrible because my mom paid for our tickets!
When we got back we were EXHAUSTED!!!

 

[ScarletBegonias]

Oh my gosh - Harper is so adorable! You have such a beautiful family! I wasn't that trilled with the GF waffles at CP either. Awesome trip report - can't wait to read more!

Those waffles were ehhhhh. I really think they are eggo! Apparently they make a GF waffle now..

 

[ScarletBegonias]

Some more HP/Uni pictures...

 

[ScarletBegonias]

Day 6 (Park Day 4, DHS) September 23rd

Today is my mom’s birthday! So lucky of her that she gets to celebrate in her favorite place in the whole world!

So this was the first day that we did not have an ADR anywhere for breakfast. We make our way down to The Mara for breakfast and it’s slammed! I am already hungry and know that my gluten free meal is going to take longer than everyone else’s. The chef this morning wasn’t very nice. He just asked me what I wanted and then told me to wait. Okay. After waiting a long time, we get over to the tables to see that my parents are also here so we sit with them and eat. We brought our stuff with us so that we could head right to Hollywood Studios from breakfast.

And we’re off! We stopped at blizzard beach first. I didn’t notice any one get off, but I guess a few people did. The girl sitting next to me on the bus was feeling really queasy (we were facing backwards). I’m glad we got off the bus soon after that! Anyone who knows me knows I have an irrational fear of people throwing up (which I saw SEVERAL times on this trip.. go figure, right?)

First stop in the park was TSMM which we had a FP for! It was pretty darn cool. Harper didn’t know what was going on because she wouldn’t wear her 3D glasses, but she still seemed to like looking around! AJ kicked my butt. I don’t remember our actual scores, but his was 6digits and mine was not…

We had a FP for the Disney Jr. show but for some reason ended up missing it, so we went to see the Muppets 3D show instead. It was cute, but another 3D show for Harper was iffy. She really wanted to get down on because I was just holding her on my lap. Luckily she made through the whole thing without running away. After that our two groups parted ways, and we stopped to put some sunblock on Harper and ended up talking to an older couple from PA for a long time. They were very nice and told us they had twins, and how traveling “back in the day” with babies wasn’t as easy as it is now! My Mom and her group happened to run back into us, so we decided to go get lunch at the ABC Commissary. The lines were crazy, and the gluten free food took a very long time. I didn’t feel hungry, but ate a good bit of the meal. My mom was starting to look like she didn’t feel good. Oh no! Not on her birthday! Next up was Star Tours which we had a FP for as well. My parents went first, and we got Harper asleep in her stroller, and then we went next while they watched her. This little boy next to us in line said “are we really going to space!?” his dad kept saying “yes!” it was really cute. I really liked the ride. I was worried because I had just eaten lunch, but it was really fun. AJ and I hit Rockin’ Rollercoaster next. We decided to do the single rider line since we did not have a FP. We only waited about 7 minutes. Not bad! We didn’t ride together, but we were on the same Limo! Harper was STILL napping after that so we had some photopass pictures taken.

We got some coffee, and Harper had a Popsicle once she woke up. We let her wonder around a bit while I bought her some ears and got them embroidered. She wanted nothing to do with them, so I wore them on the bus ride back to the hotel.

I feel like this is all we did in DHS. No ToT because the wait line was 105 minutes and we had no FP. Bummer!!! We were going to Epcot tonight for my mom’s birthday dinner at Spice Road Table, so we went ahead and left the park. I think we went swimming when we got back! We swam almost every day.

 

[ScarletBegonias]

Day 6 (Park Day 4, Epcot) September 23rd Continued!

So after our day at DHS, we went back to the hotel and swam for a bit and then headed back up to get ready for Epcot for Mom’s birthday dinner! I had a friend that I met in in an online group who was also in Disney and we decided that we MUST meet up! She has a little girl two months older than Harper, so that was on the agenda tonight as well!

We were waiting at the bus stop and it’s starting to rain a little bit. It was really the only rain we had seen the entire trip, so we couldn’t really complain! We get to Epcot we first got some more photopass pictures! We didn’t take Harper out of the stroller because it’s SO hard to get her back in the stroller. As you can tell, she wanted OUT!

We then started making our way through World Showcase. We started in Canada where my Step dad and Husband picked up a beer. It was still raining a little bit, but not very hard. We met my friend in England and we talked for a while! It was a lot of fun to finally meet in person and our gals kind of ran around together! (Both were tired), so we parted ways.

Next we walked over to see the Beach and Yacht Club resorts. Wow! They were gorgeous. Okay, now we have to go back into the parks and do bag check again! Luckily there was no one in line. We got some pictures taken in France and then made our way to Morocco. We were a tad early, so we walked around for a few minutes first.

I will admit, I was a little nervous about this meal, and how tired Harper was at this point, but she did pretty well. I got the iced mint tea and it was delicious!!! My mom and I got the olive and hummus appetizer, but without crackers because of our gluten allergies.

It was still delicious and Harper even liked the hummus too. For my main course, I ordered the coriander crusted lamb. It came with rice, and slices of squash in a tomato sauce. It was DELICIOUS. I think it was in the top 2 of the best meals I’ve EVER had! My whole family was saying that’s a pretty bold statement, but it was true.

Everyone else’s meal looked pretty good too. We were now waiting for IllumiNations to start. I’m not sure if I saw this ten years ago when I went, but it was very neat. Harper didn’t really care for the fireworks and was looking pretty tired, so my mom took her in the restaurant and walked around until they were over.

What a great evening! The service at Spice Road Table was magnificent. The waiter was wonderful and they were very attentive. They did bring the whole restaurant over and were singing happy birthday to my mom! They remembered about the allergy and brought her ice cream! How nice of them!

After that we walked through the very deserted rest of the countries! It was actually very cool to see without a ton of people, and at night. However, by the time we got to the bus, I was starting to feel pretty sick. The bus ride back was kind of horrible. I looked at my phone the whole time to distract myself, but then that started to just make things worse. By the time we got to our room, I was sure I was going to be sick. I tried to lie down, but it made it worse, so I ended up sleeping sitting up. When I woke up, I was fine, and glad it was just a fluke. I think I just ate WAYYY too much and we were walking too fast around the countries.

Next up.. Animal Kingdom.. minus one person!?

 

[Figgy1]

Great TR and thank you for the warning about UNI's waffles! I'll make sure to eat breakfast before going there! BTW great ears!

 

[ScarletBegonias]

Great TR and thank you for the warning about UNI's waffles! I'll make sure to eat breakfast before going there! BTW great ears!

Thank you!! I loved those ears! Even though they squeezed my head, I wore them all week!

 

[Mom@disney]

Wow, you are on a roll! Harper looks really happy in the pictures and you got a lot done with a toddler.
My oldest loves Harry Potter and is itching to get to Universal just for that.
Next time you ever go to DisneyWorld during Halloween you must see the parade...it's great!
I hope nobody got sick!

 

[ScarletBegonias]

Wow, you are on a roll! Harper looks really happy in the pictures and you got a lot done with a toddler.
My oldest loves Harry Potter and is itching to get to Universal just for that.
Next time you ever go to DisneyWorld during Halloween you must see the parade...it's great!
I hope nobody got sick!

Thank you!! Really trying to crank it out while I remember everything! I feel like we missed a lot, but we did what we could do with our toddler in tow! I would love to go back for Halloween again! I am so bummed we missed the parade!

 

[Ciara]

Loving it so far! Following along of course