Let me start off by saying that while our trip was amazing and magical that under the circumstances we had a few hiccups. Over all everyone had a great time, but we were absolutely exhausted by the end of our trip. So if you have a small child and are thinking about going to Disney soon, send me an email and I’ll let you know some tips and tricks of surviving your first trip to Disney! We decided last year we wanted to take our sweet girl to Disney World and arranged it to where all four of her grandparents could make the trip with us. It was a vacation we will always remember and I hope that she and the grandparents can look back on and treasure.
For some reason the blog up loader won’t take my 236 pictures, but if you follow this link you can see them all. Disney World Album on FB
First of all, we thought about flying to Orlando, but after seeing the prices for a family of 3 we decided to drive. Overall the drive down was fine. Sam got a little fussy and wanted to hold my hand most of the way, and only napped an hour, but she was happy watching Disney movies and listening to music we had downloaded from Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. We decided to stay at a hotel that night just a couple of hours outside of Orlando so that we could rest and get a fresh start the next day. BTW we do not bed share with Sam on a regular basis, main reason being is that she is a very active sleeper, so I spent most of my “restful” night with her foot either in my throat or face. lol.
Day 1 we got an early start at 6am which to us felt like 5 am and with the time change the week before Sam felt like it was 4am. Ouch! The drive was fine and we arrived at our beautiful resort right after 8 so we could check in, take our bags in and then head out to the park by 9. Our first day was spent in Animal Kingdom! It was busy, but incredible. We saw “It’s tough to be a bug”, then the Lion King show, then met Minnie Mouse, Donald Duck, Goofy, Chip & Dale then Mickey! Sam loved them all, but gave Minnie a big kiss on her nose and melted my heart! This was the moment I had been anticipating for months and it was all I had imagined it to be. After meeting the characters we got some lunch then used our fast pass to ride the Kilimanjaro Safari. It was amazing! We got to see so many animals up close and it felt like an actual safari! Sam loved the giraffes and elephants (we saw 2 babies!), but was exhausted and fell asleep after that. Only my child would fall asleep on a “ride”. lol Patrick and his dad rode Everest while we walked around with Sam asleep in the stroller for a bit, then when she woke up we rode the triceratops spin and watched the Nemo musical. By this point Sam was ready for a break so we went back to the hotel and enjoyed some time in the pool and a nice dinner. It was a fantastic first day!
Day 2 we slept in a little bit, but made sure we got to Magic Kingdom when it opened at 9. This was by far my favorite park with Sam. I had always been amazed by the beauty of the castle and loved how fun it was to still feel like a kid even when you are an adult here, but seeing her face light up at so many things, it took my breath away. We didn’t get to ride everything we wanted to, so next time we will spend 2 days just on this park, but we had a great day. We rode Snow White, Sam wasn’t a fan of the mean witch, then the Carousel, then went straight to Dumbo. Dumbo was having some periodic renovations so we were crossing our fingers that we would get to ride it because I knew it would be one of her favorites with her special affinity to elephants. When we got there I could have cried I was so excited that it was up and running. We waited in the 25 minute line, and the whole time Sam kept saying “elepant up!”. It was precious seeing how excited she was! We got in and enjoyed the ride. I honestly wish I could freeze that moment forever, I hope that I always remember how excited she was to be on that ride, I hope that I always remember that feeling of complete happiness of giving her exactly what she wanted. Just thinking about it makes me tear up, this is what Disney World is all about. It was perfect! After Dumbo we rode the tea cups, Winnie the Pooh (which she cried on because Pooh was scared), Buzz Lightyear, then saw the Monster’s Inc. Laugh factory show. By the way, this is where I re-learned a very valuable lesson. I always pack extra clothes for Sam, but the one time I didn’t have an extra outfit for myself, her diaper sprang a leak, so instead of watching the Monster’s Inc show I was concentrating on the fact that not only had she wet her pants, but mine as well. Never again! The rest of the trip my mom had a pair of pants in her bag for me just in case. lol I got Sam changed and my pants dried out, so we headed over to find some character spots. The really disappointing thing here was the line to meet Rapunzel, it was so incredibly long that we couldn’t even attempt to stand in line with a 2 year old for 2 hours! Sam loves “pincess punzel” but thankfully she didn’t realize what she was missing out on. I felt so badly that I couldn’t let Sam meet her, but Patrick saw that Jessie from toy story was with Woody by Splash Mountain so we decided to try for that. Funny thing is that Sam had been carrying around her Jessie doll the whole trip, she is a doll that Sam has always liked, but she has never carried another toy around as much as her baby Sammy doll, but on this trip she carried Jessie more than baby. We waited in line for about 25 minutes, not terrible, and thankfully Granna had some books in her bag to keep Sam occupied. When we got up to the front of the line Sam was so excited! She walked up to Jessie and gave her a hug and a kiss! My heart melted! Sam was a little apprehensive toward Woody but gave him a hug too. The character guide asked if we would like a marker so Jessie could sign Sam’s Jessie doll, and we were so happy, we didn’t have a marker with us but had thought about asking if we could do this. Jessie signed the doll’s hat and Sam said “thank you Jessie for coloring” and gave her another kiss and hug. It was obvious that the big Jessie thought she was adorable and she and Woody were so sweet oohing and awing and holding their hearts to show her how sweet she was. This and the Dumbo ride made the trip! After that we got some Mickey ice cream then while Patrick and I snuck off to ride Space Mountain with our fast pass, Sam and the grandparents watched part of a show and we made it back in time for the parade. After all of that we still went swimming at the hotel’s main pool. It was an incredible day!
Day 3 we booked a reservation for a Character Breakfast at Chef Mickey’s! I figured that since we did this the last time we went to Disney and it went over well with my nephews that it was a must! Sam was mesmerized by all of the characters coming around while she ate her Mickey waffle and strawberries, and her favorite here was definitely Pluto. We all had a great breakfast, but realized that we hadn’t gotten a family picture with Mickey. We asked our waiter if there was any way to get Mickey back and he made it happen! So thankful that all of the staff were so amazingly helpful and worked so hard to make sure we had what we needed. After breakfast we did some shopping at the hotel then found out that the monorail was shut down for a little while, so we all took a bus to Epcot. Sam was exhausted by this point and I really wish that I had realized it and just taken her to the hotel for a rest, but what’s done is done and we went into the park. We tried to narrow down what had to be done with our half day in the park, and decided that the character spot was the most logical place to go. There was a 40 minute wait, but it was inside, cool, and had tvs with old Mickey cartoons playing so we thought it was still a good idea especially since it looked like rain. About 20 minutes into our wait, Sam fell asleep. Boo! She didn’t get to see the characters, but we did get some funny pictures of them seeing her. This was the other major hiccup in our trip though, Sam is used to going to new places we go go go a lot, but the combination of a new place, lots of people, and Patrick just getting back from another business trip had my sweet girl experiencing some severe separation anxiety. She wanted held the entire time! Sam loves to walk, but here she would walk for a minute then have to be held for half an hour, no breaks, and no one but me. I know she loves me at least! lol. After the character meet, Patrick and his dad went to ride something while the rest of us went to the boat ride for the living land, Sam woke up and thoroughly enjoyed seeing all of the plants and kept naming fruits and vegetables. After that we did the Nemo ride, and talk time with Crush. At this point my parents decided to go on a back lot tour of Epcot’s gardens, and ended up getting some new ideas for their own garden. I’m glad they got to have some time to themselves. While they did this we went and had some delicious food from Germany and Patrick’s parents took a shopping break starting in China. Sam liked getting to eat outside in the rain, it was just drizzling on and off, and Patrick and I were just happy to get to share some German beer and a pretzel. We walked around for a bit and found a cart for gelato in Italy, and Sam thought it was “licious”. lol. We got rained on a little more and decided to call it a day. Sam got to relax a little at the hotel that night with her Granna and Mimi and Patrick and I went out and had dinner at an Irish pub in Downtown Disney. Overall we had a nice break, especially my arms, but while the food and music were good we were the unlucky ones whose reservation got skipped over so it took a lot longer than we had anticipated. Sam was asleep by the time we got back though, so all’s well that ends well.
Day 4 was our last day, and while I was sad to see our trip ending we were so tired I don’t know that we could have done another day! We went to Hollywood Studios and were excited for all of the Pixar stuff. We also decided to rent a stroller, and I was determined to make Sam sit in it because honestly my arms could not carry her anymore! We got fast passes right away for the Toy Story ride, which already had an 85 minute wait! We watched the Little Mermaid, then let the grandparents take Sam over to the Honey I shrunk the Kids playground while Patrick and I went to wait on the Tower of Terror ride. Unfortunately we had some bad luck again and the ride got closed down right as we got to the front of the line and had waited an hour! We got tickets to come back and ride later though, so that was good. We went and found everyone and got Sam’s picture made with Mike and Sully from Monster’s Inc. We waited for Disney Jr. to start and we were so glad we went to this show. Sam absolutely loved it, it was by far her favorite show and she clapped and danced and yelled out to the characters on stage. It was so fun to watch her get so excited, and it was kind of sad that I knew every song they sang. lol. After that we rushed over to the Toy Story ride and had a blast. I had beat Patrick’s score on Buzz Lightyear, so he was determined to beat me on this one, and he did, but Grandpa wiped the floor with us all! It was so fun to see all of the grandparents get into the ride and have such a good time being kids. Patrick and I ran and rode the Star Wars ride while Sam had a snack, and then we all got some lunch. By this time my sweet girl was done. I hated feeling like we kept pushing to do more stuff, but she really did enjoy everything until she was just so tired she couldn’t stand herself. Patrick and I took her back to the hotel and let her rest with us for a bit. My parents came back shortly after and took her to the pool so that she could get more swimming in, and we could go back and ride the Tower of Terror since we didn’t get to ride it earlier. She was having such a good time with them that we decided to grab a bite to eat and do some souvenir shopping too.
The next day we all got up, had breakfast together, and went to Ikea for a short trip just to get some bookshelves I had been eyeing for a long time. Our trip back was fine, Sam was in a great mood, just tired. She watched Tangled and the Toy Story movies the whole way home. The next day Sam slept for 16 1/2 hours, a new record for her! Overall, we had a wonderful trip. We had our little bumps which is to be expected when you are traveling with six adults and a 2 year old, but everyone had a good time, especially Sam. I’m so happy we got to take our sweet girl on this amazing trip, and look forward to taking her back in a few years.
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Dear God,
Thank you for everything you do for us. Thank you for this incredible opportunity to do something for our daughter that we will remember forever! Thank you for a safe trip, and for helping me to realize what is really important. This experience has made my life better, and makes me feel so incredibly blessed to be able to do things like this for Sam. Thank you for all that you do.
AMEN
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