Sorry for going MIA! The weekend was packed full of stuff and now Aria has her very first fever and I had to go to work bc I actually have a lot to do! Ugh! Andrew's home with her but I plan to leave early. Poor cookie. She has a terrible cough too.
Hello! I love your report! Aria is just beautiful and the photos are all fantastic. I especially love the one of her meeting Tigger!
Aww thank you!! She loved Tigger! We need to do CP again now that she has the hang of meeting characters!
Baby's asleep, so finally have a chance to comment!
I love the start of your day at the Poly! And Kona...yummy! It reinforces to me why we're paying a premium to stay there on our next trip. Love that place!
Cute pictures from Spaceship Earth! I'll have to keep that (holding the baby up) in mind for our trip.
I really like the pictures from in front of the Nemo ride...super cute.
We have never taken that shark picture on any of our trips. I guess I'd better add that to the list for next time!
Smart home wasn't there last trip, either, so we may have to check it out.
I'm glad to see Biergarten went pretty well. That's on our future ADR list. We went once, but I was getting over being sick and could hardly eat anything. So, I'd like to try it and it seems like a fun place for a little one, with the show and all. Hopefully we'll get better table-mates than you had!
I wasn't sure if we should stay late to see Illuminations, as I've heard bad things about disrupting little ones' sleep schedules, but Dug is all for it. So, I'm thinking we may try it. When we go, it will have the Christmas tag too, which is great. We're thinking about watching from La Hacienda, as we've done that before and loved it. Interested to see how Aria did (assuming you make it to Illuminations another day).
Hope your camera is okay!
Obviously it will depend on your baby, but Aria was perfectly fine being woken up - she went right back to sleep. Obviously it was either that or being back at the room by 7 every night to get her to bed, which I just wasnt willing to do unless necessary. Even with her sleeping in the stroller by 7:30, she still needed to be transferred to a car seat/hotel/whatever at some point you know.
We love La Hacienda, I am planning to have dinner there and watch Illuminations from there in March with my mom. Only problem with a baby is letting her sleep in her stroller - they may not allow the stroller inside (probably not, it's pretty tight) so baby would have to stay up through dinner and Illuminations, whereas if you plan to have an earlier dinner and then watch Illuminations from around the lagoon she could be sleeping in the stroller...just a thought!
I made the Biergarten ressie for exactly that reason! I should have made it for a little later, since we were through eating by the time the entertainment started and Aria was getting a little antsy. I think it started at 1:15 - a 12:40 ADR would have been perfect.
I would love to stay at the Poly one day but just can't cough up the $$$. I can stay at Shades of Green in walking distance to the Poly for $130, or stay at any
DVC studio for about $160/night average, so it is just difficult to pay that much! I would love to though, it is a FUN resort!
So much to comment on- but first I thought I'd give you a Disney fan's perspective of Shade of Green, since you are eligible to stay there. It is a nice resort. Its pretty on the outside, its very well kept up, and its a great location. You can walk to the Poly and take only Disney transportation (which is primarily what I've done), but it isn't a short walk, more like 15 or so minutes. Shades does have its own transportation, but its on a set schedule and not very convenient. Its also nice because there is a starbucks cart (yay good coffee!), and the food there is very inexpensive. If you are looking for a cheap breakfast buffet around property, you can't do better than Shades. The rooms are also HUGE, which is a big plus, just as large as those at the Poly. You get EMH, but you don't get package shipping or a KTTWC. The resort also does not have a Disney feel at all, its more like a swan or dolphin. It also has a lot of military people, which is pretty obvious, but we don't stay there because DH likes to get away from all that while on vacation.
I've stayed there solo and had a great trip, depending on the season and the AP discounts, I've gotten it cheaper than the All Stars. I think the big appeal is for larger families, since it is WAY less than a deluxe, you're on property, and you can sleep 5.
Anyway- I'm sorry your day was not as productive as you planned. I completely understand, I never feel like I get half as much done as I would like. I'm glad you ended up finding food you liked at Biergarten, I know you were concerned about that!
I would also have gotten frustrated at going back to the room to relax, I would feel like I had spent so much time traveling back and forth and not getting much actual relaxing done.
Aria is super cute in all her pictures, I love seeing all her outfits! I'm glad she really enjoyed the Seas and Turtle talk, and awesome that she was so good at all the restaurants! It gives me hope for this baby!
Thank you for your insight!! I'm not totally opposed to it, and I have been inside to buy tickets, so I agree the grounds are beautiful! Nice to hear how big the rooms are, that is a huge plus! Maybe if I squeeze in a birthday trip before my AP's expire I will consider staying there. The rooms just look so UGLY inside, at least from the dated photos they have on the website. I don't mind a longer walk, it is nice to be able to walk to the monorail, and package pickup isn't a deal killer (and being able to take advantage of the EMH is really nice, I love morning EMH's!).
It didn't help there was just so much I wanted to do with Aria, that while she was awake I wanted to be in the parks - though I really did enjoy pool time with her too. Andrew would be happy napping in the room though. I wish he'd be happy going back ALONE to do it! Hahaha.
Thank you! She was great at the restaurants - I mean, it helps they are disney restaurants with tons of kids, she certainly wasn't mute at the meals, but overall I don't think we ever had to remove her from the restaurant (which we would do if she were to cry or be super loud or whatnot). She chattered about a little bit, but nothing that loud. And turtle talk was so fun I want to fit it into our weekend December trip!
I'm glad you enjoyed Biergarten. We actually had to give up our reservation because it was POURING the day we were supposed to go and we were all drenched and cold, so we canceled and left Epcot.
Aw sorry to hear you had to give it up, at least there isn't a CC guarantee! What's worse is the pouring rain!! We were only rained out briefly, and after the first couple of days it dried right out.