Babies to Baby Boomers- 9 WDW days filled w/ blunders, boo-boos & bliss. update 08-24

[lbuzz52]

We just returned from 9 days and 8 nights at Walt Disney World. We had a wonderful time, and are sad for it to be over.

This is my first trip report, so bear with me!! In this report, i'll share our expieriences with what should basically be considered as a group of newbies to WDW. Thanks to those here on the DIS, we were well informed on how to make this trip magical. But we still made a few mistakes. So join in with me as I relive the details of our trip.

Here's the details for those who haven't made it over to my PTR.....


WHO: 8 of us, spanning three generations.

There is me, Lauren. I'm a travel coordinator for a local family and
their pilots. You could basically decribe this as a personal travel
agent/ personal assistant/ accounting rep.
This year i turned 25 for the 5th time. I've previously been to WDW
three times, the last of which was in 1989. Therefore i consider myself
a Disney newbie.
I did most of the planning for this trip. I was so greatful for all the
information available here on the boards. without it i think i would
have pulled all of my hair out. I definetely wouldn't have been able to
get as much done as we did. My favorite Disney movies are
Aristocats, Mary Poppins, and Pete's Dragon.

Chris, my DH, is a couple years younger than me. He is a soux chef at
Flemings Prime Steakhouse. Yum!! Don't have one near you? Think of
Ruth's Chris. It similar to that but in my opinion way better!
This was his very first trip to Disney World. Becaue he didn't have any
Magical memories from his childhood, he didn't necessarily get my
excitement. But he went along with the plan becuase that's just what
kind of awesome dad and hubby he is. He is a fan of Eeyore.[/SIZE] [/SIZE]


here's a pic of us with my aunt and uncle. it's from a couple years ago, but you get the drift.




Maya is my dear 4 year old. She is quite
independent. And has to be
the best big sister ever. She is loving, emotional, friendly, sneaky,
cheerful, stubborn, and as silly as can be. I'd generally describe her
as a really good child who has her moments when she gets tired.
This was her first trip to WDW. We told her we were going 10 weeks
out, and she was beyond excited. We spent many evenings on
youtube watching videos of the rides. We also scouted out the
characters that we would possibly see. I think she told everyone she
saw, stranger or not, just how many more sleeps we had until we left. Her current favorites
are Ariel, Cinderella, and wizards of waverly place.


here's my independent daughter. yes, she dressed herself that day. and she does have on shorts.


oh, and she's also in a i'll pose if i want to, when i want to phase.



My sweet baby boy, James, turned 9 months at
the beginning of our
trip. He's a baby of extremes. He's either super happy with the
biggest smile on his face, or a huge grump. He loves to be held and
hates to nap. I really wasn't sure how he would do on this trip, and
was greatful to have extra helping hands if we needed.





these are both from around june or july



I'll call the rest the supporting cast. They will be included in this
trip but i'll be the only one supplying details and opinions, so that's
the title they get

First there are the grands- Nonni and PawPaw, my parents. They last
went to Disney in 1989, with me. They do everything they can to
help us out and are the most doting grandparents. They were so
excited to be able to share in their grandkids first Disney memories.

there's also my sister, Jenny. Again, the last trip was in 1989. And
finally, her son, Cayden, age 3. It was his first trip.



here's Cayden from a month or so ago.



When: Tuesday, October 27th to Wednesday, November 4th
Our dates included both Food and Wine and the MNSSHP

Where: Saratoga Springs Resort
After much deliberation, it was decided that it would be best to have
a villa for our group rather than 2 or 3 rooms. That would allow the
adults to be able to leave the rooms if the kids were sleeping.

Why: We had been discussing this trip for a year or so, but never really put
anything in the works. We knew that we wanted to go before my
daughter was in kindergarten, so we could take advantage of the off
season temperatures and crowds. Christmas was out of the running,
due to work schedules in our group. We were looking at September
or January 2010. In August, we saw very low airfares to Orlando
from our hometown. We checked our schedules, priced out the free
dining verses other discounts for our particular group, and we
measured our kids. we decided to jump on it for October 27, 2009.
That left less than 3 months for newbie planning. But it meant we
would have free dining, MNSSHP, and food and wine to experience.


Next up: Travel Day!!!

[that's nice]

YAY I'm 1st!!!!! I'll be following along!!!!! Great start!!!!!

[Disneymoon09]

I'm in!

[misskate]

I'm here too! Great start!!

[onelilspark]

I'm here

[cdhale]

Subscribing! Looks like fun!

[redsunfish]

I'm subscribing too. Looking forward to it!

[lbuzz52]

Originally Posted by that's nice

YAY I'm 1st!!!!! I'll be following along!!!!! Great start!!!!!

Originally Posted by Disneymoon09

I'm in!

Originally Posted by misskate

I'm here too! Great start!!

Originally Posted by onelilspark

I'm here

Originally Posted by cdhale

Subscribing! Looks like fun!

Originally Posted by redsunfish

I'm subscribing too. Looking forward to it!

glad to see all of your virtual faces!
hope to entertain you all!

[lbuzz52]

Just to let you know- I'm pretty sure I'm the slowest packer on earth. In my defense, we only have to pack once or twice a year, so I don’t really stay in practice. I got a little bit done the week prior to our departure- I got some of the random things pulled together. I sent a box of diapers, wipes, snacks, and formula. I had all the paperwork ready to go- boarding passes, Magical Express, touring plans, Photopass locations, etc, etc, etc.

But the weather changed early (for us) and I had to stop the preliminary packing to get out fall and winter. So I decided to take the day off before we left. I had to go in sunday for awhile instead to get some work trips squared away. My son usually goes to Mothers Day Out on Thursdays. I'd put in a request for him to go on Monday that week instead. I thought I'd knock the packing out Monday while I was kid free for 5 whole hours!! But they didn't end up having any room for him. Like I said before he likes to be held and doesn't nap well. So there went all the packing for that day.....

I ended up having to do it after the kids were in bed- and it took me five more hours!!! That means all together it took me more than 8 hours to pack! We took two suitcases, two carryons, 2 backpacks, a diaper bag, and a double stroller.

I got in bed about 3am and laid awake for about an hour. My head was just stewing over what I may have forgotten.

The next morning we got up, got dressed quickly, took some cold and sinus medicine, and drove out to the airport. We parked our car at my work and took the shuttle over to the terminal (yeah for free parking and a gated lot!). We got there about 8:35 am, and went straight to the Northwest counter.

I'd like to tell you that we went to the counter because we needed a form for baby in arms. (a baby flying with no seat doesn't have regular boarding pass). While that wouldn’t be lying, it wouldn’t be telling the whole truth. So I'll take this time to tell you the number one thing not to forget for a trip....
.............
...............
..............
............
............
..........
............
............
.............
...........
..............
.............
..............
..........
..........
...........
............
...........
..........
.............
..............
...........
.........
............
............
.............
..............
.............
..........
............
.........
..........
.............
............
............
............
............
.............
..........
............
IS THE SUSPENSE BUILDING YET?
.............
..........
.........
...........
...........
.............
...............
................
...........
..............
........
............
............
.............
.........
..........
...........
............
.............
...........
..............
............
..........
...........
.........
..........
...........
.........
............
.........
............
........
...........

DON'T FORGET TO SET YOUR ALARM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



Yep, by day 1 I knew that I would have to include the word "blunders" in my trip report title.

We woke up at 7:45 to the baby crying. My parents, and sister had been calling us for 30 minutes from the gate to my hangar at work. They were supposed to park there too, but needed me to let them in the gate. My husband and I had both put our cells on the chargers in the kitchen instead of the bedroom, so we wouldn't forget to pack them in the morning. so neither of us heard the multiple phone calls. I guess I had assumed that my husband had set the alarm when he went to bed. He had assumed that I would when I came to bed. In all our planning, we never discussed what time we needed to get up by.

So I called my mom back and told her where to leave her car and keys so that I could move her car into my gated area once we got to the airport. Needless to say, they were not happy. But they went ahead and took the shuttle over and made it thru security and to the gate in time for boarding.

When I went back inside my daughter was up as well, asking if it was time to leave for Disney. My husband and I decided to go ahead and go to the airport. We didn't want to upset our daughter and didn't even tell her exactly what was going on.

I knew that we would not make our flight- they won't take you less than 30 minutes prior to departure time. But I also knew from work flights that you can't make same day changes to a flight over the phone, it has to be in person.


So back to the northwest counter...
We got there about 8:35, and our flight departure was at 8:45. I expected to be charged the normal $150.00 + fare difference (which was showing at $200+) more per ticket. Well, I'm not sure if it was because our flight had not left yet, or if the woman wasn't sure what she was doing, but we only got charged $50/ticket. Whew! I can live with that.


We were at the counter for almost an hour. The original reservation was all 7 of us under one reservation number. Because some of our group were on the flight, and some were not, we had to be separated out and put into a second reservation number. So she did this and charged me my baggage and change fees. Well, first she did this backwards. She had the wrong people on the plane and the wrong people standing in front of her. Then she started over. Refund, recharge, etc, etc. Then she wasn't able to print a boarding pass for me. somehow the system had it that I checked in on the flight. She had to call the gate and get that straightened out.

Finally, we had our new reservation number, our new boarding passes, and the baby on board paperwork. And plenty of time to burn- the next non-stop wasn't until 1:40pm. There was one that connected thru Atlanta, but it didn't arrive until after the non-stop flight.


So our flight schedule-

Switched from:
Depart at 8:45
Arrive MCO at 11:40

To:
Depart at 1:40
Arrive MCO at 4:40


While we didn't like it, we didn't have much choice. Our plans for that day included hanging out at Downtown Disney and an Ohana's ADR at 6:45pm. At least we weren't missing anything. We had originally contemplated making this the day we went to MNSSHP. Thankfully we had decided against that.

We then went over to Blues restaurant and got Maya some breakfast. They were out of biscuits, so continental breakfast it was.



Maya and her continental breakfast


Those are the only two options on the breakfast menu. We chose that restaurant because it is the only smoking place in the airport, and you are required to buy something to smoke there. So her fruit and yogurt bought us the entry we needed until our departure time. Maya was in such a good mood i decided to snap some additional pictures. So i said smile!



yep, this is what i got!



eventually i got this with a lot of begging



here's James, i think my flash blinded him, ha!


After that, we piddled our way up to the gate. I fed and nursed the baby, while Maya played with this princess set that was similar to dress up- you pick a hardback picture of a princess, place stickers (dress, wand, crown, etc) where you want them, and then use a burnishing tool to scrape making the stickers fill with glittery goodness.



Here's James and chris watching as the magical paper transforms. yep, neither were exactly excited to be there.


After Maya got bored she moved on to a preschool workbook.



Still had about 2 hours until departure so we walked over to the food court and Chris and I each grabbed a personal pizza for our "brunch". We took our sweet time eating, then made our way for a smoke break, diaper change, and potty break.

We wandered back up to the gate only to see the departure time was delayed by thirty minutes. I called to update my parents. We weren't panicking about the ADR yet, because my flights have a little bit of a buffer time in them. But the baby was getting cranky. We were waiting to get on the plane with him before we fed him again and tried to get him to sleep. We had to utilize the Moby wrap in order to have enough hands to get all our junk on the plane. I also wasn't sure if the takeoff would bother him so I wanted to have a bottle for him to suck on. I just wasn't sure he'd be able to make it if we had any additional departure delays.


Next up-
Was the flight delayed again? And the rest of our travel day.

[that's nice]

WOW! Forgetting to set the alarm is almost as bad as forgetting park tickets!!!

If the plane was still there they couldn't let you on? I'm assuming they filled your seats with stand-by flyers???

I hope you made your 'Ohana ADR!!!!!

[cdhale]

I totally understand about the alarm thing... twice on mornings I was flying I did the switching of the am/pm thing. The first time I made the flight (holiday travel, the plane probably left late). The second time (and this one was a business trip, flying down and back the same day to see a client), not so much. Glad it sounds like it all worked out!

[lbuzz52]

Originally Posted by that's nice

WOW! Forgetting to set the alarm is almost as bad as forgetting park tickets!!!

If the plane was still there they couldn't let you on? I'm assuming they filled your seats with stand-by flyers???

I hope you made your 'Ohana ADR!!!!!

yeah, i was so worried about forgetting the paperwork i forgot i had to get up first to use it.

we were only at the counter ten minutes before the scheduled departure. by that point, most cargo and passenger doors are closed. we still had to go thru security and then make it down to our gate. and i seriously wasn't exxagerating that the lady took almost an hour to get our stuff switched. poor lady, she would ask another ticket agent a question, she would get help, then the 2nd agent would help a new customer, and my agent would immediately have another question. so we'd wait for the 2nd agent to finish and then start the process again.

as for ohana's
did we? or did we not? stay tuned.....

Originally Posted by cdhale

I totally understand about the alarm thing... twice on mornings I was flying I did the switching of the am/pm thing. The first time I made the flight (holiday travel, the plane probably left late). The second time (and this one was a business trip, flying down and back the same day to see a client), not so much. Glad it sounds like it all worked out!

i am so happy to hear that! i can admit to you- but only because my dh wont come on here- it wasn't my first time. a couple of years ago, dh was in Florida for business. my dd and i were supposed to come and visit him. our flight was 6xx am (what was i thinking????? with a 2 year old????) so maybe that's why my dd never asked any additional questions on this trip? maybe she thinks you have to sit at the airport for hours for all Florida flights at any rate, i never told my DH. i figured i'd never hear the end of it! thank goodness we have our own mad money accounts too or i'd have been busted then!

[mchelle77]

Subbing for now ... I'll be back to catch up!

[praisehisname]

I'm in! Can't wait to hear more!

[redsunfish]

Oh my goodness......not hearing the alarm or not setting it right is my worst fear!!!

It's never happened to me but then again I always set 3 alarms (And did so on my last trip to Disney in Oct too!) If the main alarm didn't get me I still had both my cell and my DH's cell!

I hope you made your ADR and I'm looking forward to more trip report!!!!