I See Castle!
So we did it. We successfully ventured to Disney World with our 18-month-old, in August, while one of us was 22 weeks pregnant, and had a great time. Honestly, we couldn't have wished for things to go any better. All-in-all, every convenience we spent paid a little extra for was completely worth it (staying at the Contemporary Resort, right by the Magic Kingdom, having monorail access at our resort, being able to see the Magic Kingdom from our balcony, etc.). Our only complaint is that we couldn't stay longer. It seriously almost feels like it didn't happen. But it did. And the memories are priceless, and I am so thankful we just did it. Oh, and I think Henry had a great time too. (Warning: this is going to be a long play-by-play. I don't want to forget anything!)We woke up at 3am Thursday night and started the drive. It's about 8 hours from here and we knew we'd have to stop a time or two. All-in-all, we made it in 9 hours. Pretty good. We had everything ready to go and literally picked Henry out of his crib, changed his diaper, and put him in his car seat, hoping he'd go right back to sleep. No dice. He actually didn't sleep the ENTIRE time. He sleeps all the time in the car, so it was sort of ridiculous, but I think he was just excited that he was going to Disney World ;) However, he was pretty happy, which was a blessing. For the first couple of hours he just rode quietly (half asleep probably, but his eyes were wide open). Then we had downloaded some movies to the Ipad for him to watch (Pooh and Mickey Mouse, of course), and that mesmerized him. We stopped for breakfast at Cracker Barrel in Savannah and we stopped on other time to stretch our legs, but that was it. He did really well, especially for not sleeping. He got a little grumpy at the end because he was so tired, but he would not let himself fall asleep!
We made it to our hotel around 12 noon. Check-in wasn't until 3pm, so we knew our room might not be ready, but we were hoping we'd get lucky. Not so much. However, we were all glad to be out of the car and it felt wonderful to be at Disney finally. We ate lunch at the hotel and did some exploring. Henry hung in there, but was so, so tired. As luck would have it, our room wasn't ready until 3:30pm. This was really the only "glitch" in the weekend. We were tired and a bit annoyed, admittedly, but it was what it was and we were just happy to have our room. They did set up a roll-away crib in the room for us, which worked out perfectly. With two queen beds in the room, we were able to create a little nook for the crib where Henry had some privacy. He was definitely "over-tired" at this point and had a bit of breakdown, but finally fell asleep. We let him nap for a bit so that he would actually make it through dinner.
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| Playing in the water-area at the hotel. |
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| Riding the monorail. |
Henry was up and ready to go Friday morning, as always. We had breakfast at the hotel and made it to the Magic Kingdom just before the gates opened. We actually were there in time for the opening ceremony, but the crowd was so big you really couldn't see much of it. We were starting to get a little nervous about the crowd, but once the gates opened and everyone dispersed inside, you realized that it really wasn't that many people. We were able to ride 5 rides in just over an hour, and we didn't have to wait in a single line! It was amazing. We rode Dumbo first. Henry did great. He really didn't know what was going on at all at that point, but he was happy. His favorite ride, by far, was It's a Small World. He was clapping his hands and dancing in the little boat by the end of it. We actually rode it again the next day because he loved it so much. We also rode the Little Mermaid ride, Winnie-the-Pooh (also cool, but a bit of a disappointment because it moved too quickly through the storyline), Peter Pan, Pirates of the Caribbean (I thought Henry was going to be scared, but he was just fine), and the Haunted Mansion (at this point, Henry was so tired, he actually fell asleep on Matt during the ride...lol). I might be leaving one or two out, but needless to say, we rode a lot. We knew we pretty much only had until lunchtime before it'd be time to let Henry nap, and since the lines were short, we got in as much as we could. Henry was mesmerized by most of the rides and it was a lot of fun.
We ended the morning with a quick trip to see Mickey. Henry didn't have much reaction to him then. I think he was so tired, and Matt held him the whole time, so he did fine. And we finally got to take a family picture with Mickey. We might look a little hot and tired, but that is one of those things you just have to do if you go to Disney, you know?
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| MICKEY MOUSE! |
We headed back to the hotel and made the (really smart) decision to just order lunch from the cafe in the bottom of the resort and take it up to our room. This gave everyone a chance to relax and refuel. We just sat Henry in his stroller with the tray on it and it made the perfect little highchair for him.
After lunch, Henry napped, I rested, and Matt spent some time by the pool. We had dinner reservations at the Garden Grill in EPCOT that night, so we headed to that park around 4pm. There isn't as much for Henry to do at EPCOT, but we still enjoyed riding a few rides before getting caught in a downpour. Luckily, it only lasted a little bit, and it actually drove us inside to the Nemo ride, which turned out to be really cool. Henry loved looking at the fish and the real aquariums that are part of it.
Dinner was delicious (except that we forgot to tell them that Henry would just eat off of my plate, and got charged for a Disney kids meal, which is *slightly* overpriced - didn't make that mistake again!). It was actually a character dinner with Mickey, Pluto, Chip & Dale. This was Henry's first real experience with the characters and his reaction was mixed. He didn't love them, but he didn't scream and cry either. He mostly just clung to me and looked at them. We did manage to get a few pictures though. We didn't stay in EPCOT too long after dinner (we actually didn't even make it to the "Around the World" part of the park), but headed back to the hotel. Henry had his bath and headed to bed. Matt and I sat on our balcony, enjoyed some desserts and watched the fireworks from the Magic Kingdom. It was a pretty spectacular show, as you'd expect.
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| View from our balcony. Pretty amazing, right? |
Saturday started with breakfast at the Crystal Palace in the Magic Kingdom with the Pooh characters. This reservation was totally worth it because we got to go into the Magic Kingdom before it was open to the public. It was so fun to see the castle and take pictures in front of it without fighting all the crowds. Henry loved the castle and kept saying, "I see castle!" This was his refrain for most of the trip, actually.
Breakfast was good, but the characters were slow to come around and we only saw Tigger and Piglet. Henry had about the same reaction as he did the night before. He didn't love them, but he wasn't terrified. We spotted Pooh and Eeyore from afar, and Henry did love when they played the Pooh songs and marched around the restaurant. Again, this meal was totally worth it just to get into the park early. Oh, and we got one of my favorite pictures of the trip with Tigger, so that was cool.
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| T-I-double g-er! |
We spent the morning at the Magic Kingdom riding more rides and enjoying the sites. We rode the Jungle Cruise, Aladdin's Carpets and a few others. It was sunny on Saturday, so things heated up a lot quicker than they did the day before. We started choosing rides based on whether or not they were indoors, which worked out as a nice way to keep us cool. Henry had the hang of things this time and really seem to enjoy the rides more. We kept our routine the same and headed back to the hotel for lunch in the room and a nap. It was so convenient to just be one monorail stop away from the hotel. Henry was a champ riding in his stroller and things went smoothly on all fronts.
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| The castle! |
Our dinner reservation that night was the new Be Our Guest restaurant in the Magic Kingdom (Matt spent a lot of time preceding the trip working out our reservations and FastPass selections so that everything was just so...and it did all work out wonderfully). This restaurant is really cool because it is located in the beast's castle (from Beauty and the Beast) and has a french theme. The meal was decent and the atmosphere was great. Henry was doing well, so we decided to just see how long he'd make it after dinner. The Magic Kingdom is so cool at night because everything lights up. He did great. We rode the train all the way around, Dumbo again, and even gave Matt a chance to ride Space Mountain. We stayed until 9pm and caught a glimpse of the light parade (one of my personal favorites). We didn't watch the whole thing though, because we knew better than to press our luck. Back to the hotel, bath and bedtime for Henry. Fireworks from the balcony for us. We were exhausted, and started to get sad that we already had to leave, but we had to admit that we had had a great two days.
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| A night-time shot with the castle. |
Sunday we ate breakfast and hit the road. The routine was about the same coming home, 9-hours total, stopped for lunch and one other time, and Henry did great. He actually slept this time, and enjoyed his movies for most of the rest of the time. Matt and I had fun re-living our favorite memories from the trip.
All-in-all it was so much fun, and I am so glad we did it. As I mentioned, Henry loved seeing the castle and riding the "choo-choo" (monorail). The monorail also came directly through our hotel, so that was always a big highlight for him. His favorite ride was It's a Small World (go figure), but he was pretty into Dumbo the second time we rode it. He definitely figured out who Mickey was and still points out every Mickey he sees. Disney is testing these new MagicBands which were really cool. We were able to pay for things, unlock our room door, get into the park and link our FastPasses all through our bracelets. It was super convenient. We locked our wallets in the room safe and didn't need them until we left. Like I said, staying on property and getting a room with a view was totally worth it. I cannot wait until we can go again (with 2 boys!). I know Henry won't remember it, but that wasn't really the point. It was mostly for me and Matt, and we will always remember it and the look on Henry's face as he took in all the new sites. I can't believe it is over. I am so ready to go back!
(We have so many pictures - I tried to pick some of the best ones to put here, but they are all my favorites, really!)
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