Dreams Come True - Our 1st Family WDW TRip Report - Completed w/Photos - Updated 10/7 - Page 3 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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To answer your question about characters not talking - we told our kids they need their voices for the parades/shows, etc. and since children come from all over the world, they don't want to hurt anyone's feelings by not speaking their language so they don't talk!
I'm going to try and upload photos now...wish me luck!
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That uploading picture business could be addictive! Here's one more of my lovely daughter with her puppy. The pic on the previous post of Abby w/the straws was at WCC.
We awoke that morning with a call from Pooh asking hm to meet him and the gang for breakfast. OKay, it wasn't Pooh but we forgot to create an invite for this breakfast so we went with the phone call idea! Our ressie was at like 9;20 or so and LOEMH was from 8- 9 so I wnated to get up and moving to catch some of that. THe kids ended up skipping around with CP, Wendy and PP outside Peter Pan's Flight! It was so special and cool! As you might know, my kids LOVE, LOVE, LOVE PP and we always play him at home...so this was so much fun! I never expected when I told all of you how much the kids love those characters that we would see them as much as we did. A dream come true for everyone!
After the skipping around we really had to head to CP. I was a bit disappointed in how long we waited to be seated - like 30 minutes! Every character meal seemed to have a component of a little bit of chaos waiting to be seated. Anyway, it was beautiful inside and thank God we were seated before DS really lost his mind! One tip - bring some snaack or milk while waiting to be seated!!! The food was yummy and the kids LOVED the characters. Tigger was so much fun jumping up and down and the kids loved hugging everyone. My DH and I loved eating! This one took about 1:15 or so - then it was off to more MK. We had originally scheduled this to be an Epcot day but I changed it for LOEMH and to have more MK time. You can never have enough!
We rode PP twice, SW (which both kids adored and my son kept pointing at everything he saw and Abby thought the kids were all real!), Dumbo (special to me as I have a fave pic of me and my dad and sister on this ride when I was 6 so I couldn't wait to snap a dad and kids pic on this trip!!). After Dumbo the skies REALLY opened up for like 30 minutes. Ahh....relief momentarily from the heat! We ate at Pinocchio's restaurant then hit the Winnie the Pook ride and the kids loved this one (soo cute!) and the Pooh playgound. We couldn't get 'em out of there! The kids met Ariel at the grotto and got a nice cool down there as well. We tried the HM but no luck getting them on. Abs remembered it was the same "spooky" music from Halloween night and she wanted out of there as quickly as possible.
We all napped then it was off to Epcot and Akerhaus. Ariel was the "featured" princess (boo hoo, no Belle so we knew we HAD to meet her on Friday - our last day!) and Abby was excited to see her with legs (hee, hee!) She was jumping off her seat when the other 3 princesses came in - Cindy, Jasmine, Aurora (who Abby had not met yet and told us she had to meet her before we could head for home!). Meal wasn't much to write home about but again...we were on a princess mission! The kids liked her snap on glow CH and Tinkerbelle
After the princesses it was rain poncho time and Nemo time. There was no line so we hopped on twice! Then we spent like 2 hours looking at the fish, dophins and sharks in the tanks, going through the Bruce's section, checking out the labs upstairs, doing Kidcot, etc. My DH and I never thought we would spend that much time there but it really is very cool Did I mention Crush OMG! That was so much fun!!!! Really neat to see him talking with the kids. I think the grown ups enjoyed it as much ore more than the little dudes and dudettes!
Next up is our last day. Was supposed to be MGM but everyone voted for more MK. We HAD to find Buzz...and did we ever! And, of course MK had in store one last magical moment we are still talking (and singing) about!!
Seems you're having a great time so far!!! I'm curious about some things that can help me imagine what our first trip with the girls is going to be. I see you didn't return to the hotel for naps. Did the kids got along with that just fine? Did you experienced any major meltdowns because of that or do you think that taking it slow and relaxing compensates the lack of napping? Did you liked Pinochio's? What do you eat? Woud you recommend having a characther breakfast and then characther dinner on the same day? Was it a good experience?
for asking so much questions. I am in desperate need of some disney-for-pre-schoolers-wisdom!!!!
Your trip sounds fun. You mentioned wanting to stay at the Wilderness Lodge. We have stayed ther twice (DVC) and LOVED it!!! We wanted to stay there on our Christmas trip but they were all booked so we are staying at Saratogo Springs. We stayed ther once before and it's not as exciting but at least we got a room.
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WDW - August 1997 Off Property
WDW - January 2005 AKL
WDW - May 2006 Pop Century
WDW- november-dec 2007 pop century
WDW- dec/jan 2009/2010 pop century
WDW- oct/nov 2012 art of animation
WDW- sept 2013 port Orleans riverside
WDW- july 2015 beach club
Seems you're having a great time so far!!! I'm curious about some things that can help me imagine what our first trip with the girls is going to be. I see you didn't return to the hotel for naps. Did the kids got along with that just fine? Did you experienced any major meltdowns because of that or do you think that taking it slow and relaxing compensates the lack of napping? Did you liked Pinochio's? What do you eat? Woud you recommend having a characther breakfast and then characther dinner on the same day? Was it a good experience?
for asking so much questions. I am in desperate need of some disney-for-pre-schoolers-wisdom!!!!
Looking forward for your next installment.
Isa
I think one character meal a day was enough for my kids. They got so caught up at the character meals it was tough to get them to eat! PLus, it does take time awy from the parks.
As far as Pinocchio's...we had a turkey panini which was a welcome change from chicken nuggets, pizza, hot dogs, etc!
And yes... while I did not want to necessarily take the time for naps before the trip, once we were there I realized naps are a must!!! Sometimes we were pretty beat as well from the heat, etc. so the break was good and it gave us enough gas to stay up late for the parade, fireworks, or swimming at the hotel. The kids got to bed around 11 or so every night which is waaaaayyyy off from their normal schedule. But, they did sleep in a bit and they did take longer naps.
There are lots of people on this board who helped me plan with preschoolers so ask away! THat's what we are all here for - to help each other. I hope to finish this TR tomorrow and I'm gonna upload the doggie pic since I can see i did not and you asked to see it.
Ok...in the home stretch now. We're onto Friday and a change up day. Alex had not met Buzz yet and Abby had yet to meet two of the princesses so we had things to accomplish at MK!
We got Buzz right across from his ride. We asked a CM and they told us that's where he would be. Yea! Knock one off the list. The BUzz ride is sooo cute! My son LOVED it! There was not a line so we hopped it at least 3 times!!!
Now we had to find Belle. She is usually in ToonTown but not that day! Argh! We had to go to Storybook Garden and since we had a little time...we hopped Goofy's Barnstormer. Whoa. I must be getting old. I actually felt a little on the nauseaus side . I felt bad because my son was waiting with my DH for me to ride it with him and I just couldn't do it. I know...throw things at me. I am a whimp!!
Onto Storybook Garden. I went with Alex to meet Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum outside that tea party ride while DH and Abby camped out at the garden. It was sooo hot! I have never seen my kids sweat so much! Whew. Belle stayed afterwards to sign and get pics taken so we were thrilled again - knock another one off the list! We're letting the magic happen now!
We tried to catch the Dream Along w/Mickey stage show but it stopped a few minutes in due to MInnie's mic problems! Oh well.. It was so cute and Abby loved shouting out with Mickey!
We had ressies at for lunch at Tony's Town Square and it was quite good. Waitstaff was excellent and we loved the lady and the tramp atmosphere. We also caught Snow White right outside TTS - by the double doors way in back - around noon with only one other person in line! -- for a princess!!!!! Needless to say, we were thrilled and the waitstaff held our food nice and warm until we came back in. We picked the restaurant b/c we had asked a CM the day before where SW is and we knew that was our one and only shot since she was not at Akerhaus. Yippee!
Then it was onto Fantasyland and the last chance to hop all the rides the kids loved. Small World for Alex and Peter Pan for Abby. Winnie the pooh, Snow White's Scary Adventures (even though the witch freaked out Alex a bit).
On the way out of the park and back to the hotel for packing and one more swim...we saw the afteroon parade. Abby heard as Minnie went by "Just believe and if you imagine...just believe and your dreams will come true." She shouted "I believe, Minnie, I believe!" I have to say...my DH and I looed at each other and just cried!
****IT WAS THE MAGIC MOMENT OF THE TRIP - MAYBE OF THE ENTIRE YEAR!*****
Abby GETS IT - she gets the magic of Disney! What else is there to say????? MISSION ACCOMPLISHED !
All in all, we accomplished everything I wanted to in this trip - it's amazing!
- Met all the princesses except Mulan and Pocahantas
- Met MIckey and the gang
- Met Pooh and the gang
- Hopped all the rides in Fantasyland
- Met PP and the gang
- Hit all the fun rides in Adventureland
- Saw Woody's roundup (did I mention that??)
- Met Buzz
- Did plenty of swimming
- Went with the flow and let the magic happen
Tips for us next time: - Plan some dinner ADRs for after 7
- Stay in a resort where they have at least one known good restaurant so we don't always have to venture out if we don't want to
- Have that resort be on the monorail or travel by boat for more fun access (though NO complaints about bad bus service )
- Continue to leave at least one day off from the parks, but DTD is ok!
- Try new character meals but keep Chef Mickey and Pooh (and CRT)
- Try for an early morning breakfast (before 9 ) or scout out a place in MK for breakfast that is safe for outnut allergic DD
- If we do MNSSHP, don't make it for the first night of arrival!
- See the nighttime firworks show and definitely see Spectromagic
- Bring along the battery operated handheld fan/water spritzer I bought frm our local state fair! It was like $17 there! Holy smackers!!!!
- Try some of the big kid rides with our kids (since they will be older..but then ag.. so will we! )
Anyway - that's it. So many of you were so helpful and I just LOVE this board! Our next trip will be in 2 years but I ain't goin' anywhere!
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This one took about 1:15 or so - then it was off to more MK. We had originally scheduled this to be an Epcot day but I changed it for LOEMH and to have more MK time. You can never have enough!
for asking so much questions. I am in desperate need of some disney-for-pre-schoolers-wisdom!!!!
Robyn
. I felt bad because my son was waiting with my DH for me to ride it with him and I just couldn't do it. I know...throw things at me. I am a whimp!! 
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