“I have imagination ice cream please?” A February 2025 Trip Report (Updated 2/20)

[eliseisawkward]

You know how you plan and worry, you make a plan b, you make a plan c, and somehow the thing that “goes wrong” you never planned for? Well that happened and yet somehow this was the most magical Disney trip I’ve ever taken.

This was my 3 year olds very first visit to Walt Disney World, so of course I wanted it to be absolutely magical. And it was! We decided to keep it short and sweet, 4 nights at the Beach Club Resort, 2-day park hoppers. We focused on Epcot and Magic Kingdom, with one resort day in the middle.

Your cast of characters:


Me, Elise! I’m a scientist in my daily life. At Disney, I’m the planner. My favorite time of year to travel is Winter when I’m trying to escape the cold of Pennsylvania.



Joining me is my husband, Derek. He reluctantly agreed to this trip, as he does to most of my plans. And then he always has an excellent time.



And last, but certainly not least: Noodle. She’s 3 and loves all things Princess. Top 3 are Elsa, Ariel, and Moana (but “she’s NOT a princess!”). This trip is really all about her and making her first trip memorable. (Photo disclaimer: we were stopped for lunch and waiting for Dad to bring us our food!)

So buckle up, for a wonderful short and sweet first family trip.

1. Travel Day
2. Off to an Early Start
3. Ears and a Meal
4. Apricot

 

[Sarahh1027]

Wow you’re back already! I didnt realize your trip was first thing in February. I’m so glad it was such a magical time and can’t wait to hear all about it!

 

[eliseisawkward]

Wow you’re back already! I didnt realize your trip was first thing in February. I’m so glad it was such a magical time and can’t wait to hear all about it!

Technically we are still in Florida. But we left Disney yesterday so I figured I could get started here! I can’t wait to share our trip!

 

[disneyAndi14]

I’m joining in! Excited to hear all about it!

 

[eliseisawkward]

I’m joining in! Excited to hear all about it!

Welcome, welcome!!

 

[eliseisawkward]

Let’s start with our travel day shall we?

My 3 yo is an excellent sleeper, has been her whole life. We keep her schedule extremely consistent. So of course on Sunday she woke up early. Noodle was so excited she couldn’t sleep! She turned her light on and played quietly until I got her at 7 (her usual wake time).




Unfortunately for Noodle, our flight wasn’t until 2:45. So we spent the morning finishing up our packing, then dropping our medically complicated cat off at the vet for boarding while we were gone.

We packed a lunch for in the car for Noodle, Derek and I managed to eat quickly before we left. We were into the car at noon, Noodle ate her lunch the whole way to The Parking Spot. Parking was smooth, the shuttle to the airport was quick.

Derek dropped off our checked bag and we headed to security. We have TSA pre, so security was smooth sailing.

Noodle drew us some pictures while we waited to board. Behold: a dinosaur in a rainstorm and a Christmas tree!




Our flight was uneventful, Noodle studied up on airplane safety then watched Frozen 2.





We landed, got our room ready text 1 minute after switching our phones out of airplane mode, collected our checked bag, then picked up our rental car from Hertz. We stopped at Target on the way to pick up an order I had placed the day prior. Then made our way to Beach Club Resort!

Parked and brought everything up in one trip (this was quite a juggle) and quickly fed Noodle “snack dinner” from all the random foods we had on hand. Got Noodle into bed, where she sang to her baby doll for 20 minutes before finally falling asleep.

I went downstairs to get caprese sandwiches from the Marketplace for Derek and I, and also collected the scooter we rented for our stay (Derek is recovering from multiple knee surgeries and cannot walk long distances or stand for long periods of time). We ate our sandwiches and called it a night. Or at least I did, no idea how late Derek was up…

 

[Sarahh1027]

Sounds like a successful travel day! Noodle’s drawings are adorable

 

[eliseisawkward]

Sounds like a successful travel day! Noodle’s drawings are adorable

That drawing tablet was seriously the hero of our trip. We brought it everywhere, and it provided so much entertainment!

 

[disneyAndi14]

Noodle sounds like Andi, she was always a great sleeper and could easily keep herself occupied. I miss little Andi!
Sounds like a pretty smooth travel day!
I love the Epcot resorts, it is a wonderful location!

 

[DLo]

Popping over from your PTR. Looking forward to reading more .

 

[Sarahh1027]

That drawing tablet was seriously the hero of our trip. We brought it everywhere, and it provided so much entertainment!

I plan on putting drawing tablets in my kids Easter baskets since we leave 20 days later!

 

[eliseisawkward]

Noodle sounds like Andi, she was always a great sleeper and could easily keep herself occupied. I miss little Andi!
Sounds like a pretty smooth travel day!
I love the Epcot resorts, it is a wonderful location!

Turns out I love the Epcot area too! I wasn’t sure I would, but it was great!

I bet little Andi was just the cutest!!

 

[eliseisawkward]

Popping over from your PTR. Looking forward to reading more .

Welcome!!!

 

[erinch]

Awesome start!

 

[eliseisawkward]

Did I mention my daughter is a good sleeper? She totally is. Which is why when she started singing to herself (quietly) at 5:30am I was surprised. I laid in bed ignoring her for an hour when she announced “I’m too excited to sleep!” So we got up and started getting ready at 6:30.

We all got dressed and ate some of the food we had from Target (yogurt, breakfast bars, some fruit) while I packed the day bag with emergency toddler snacks.

We headed down to the bus stop and caught the bus that was waiting there, jam packed full of people headed to…. Magic Kingdom!!!

We got through security easily… well Noodle and I did. Derek got flagged for additional security. Apparently his head alerted? The guy doing the additional check was as confused as Derek and just waved him through. We scanned in for the first time and made our way down Main Street.




One of the Cast Members informed us that he forgot the castle that morning. He apologized and assured us it was on its way.

At this point it’s a little past 8, and early entry starts at 8:30. So we headed toward Fantasyland, scanned our group in for early entry and joined quite the crowd.




The wait for rope drop wasn’t too bad. Noodle sat in her stroller for most of the wait, occasionally getting up to dance. Then the flood gates opened and we made our way to Noodle’s first ride: Peter Pan’s Flight!

We ditched the stroller by the carousel on the way to the queue. Noodle kept asking why we were in the line so long, she wanted to get on that boat! But the inside part of the queue was magical enough to keep her entertained.

The ride is too dark for selfies, but we were on and off the ride before 9. Noodle loved it! Her only complaint was that it was “too short” and she wanted to ride more. I offered her the carousel as her next ride and that was an enthusiastic yes. She loves a carousel.




Round and round we went, time stamp says we took pictures at 9:03. After our circuitous journey, we decided to hop in line for It’s a Small World. I wish I could share the videos with you all, because let me tell you: this was my favorite. Noodle apparently knows all the words (presumably from daycare) and there are HAND MOTIONS when she sings it. She was enthralled the entire time. Truly a magical experience.

At this point we decided to pop into a store to look at some ears. Noodle asked us about them after seeing so many people wearing them and we had already agreed that she could have a pair. So off we went to see what ears there were to be had.

 

[eliseisawkward]

When I left off, we were on a mission to find some ears! I decided we should stop in Sir Mickey’s to see what they had as far as ears and also to offer Noodle the chance to acquire some pixie dust! She watched 2 people get their pixie dust and decided against it.

I remembered to grab her a 1st visit button while she looked at ear options. She like the princess ears, but said she wanted Rapunzel ears. If you know anything about Rapunzel ears, you’ll know these ones sell out fast. They didn’t have any at Sir Mickey’s so we popped over to Fantasy Faire to check their stock. Still no luck. We decided to pause for a quick snack.

After some fruit snacks and veggie straws we made our way to Under the Sea: Journey of the Little Mermaid.




We were on and off quickly and checked the time. It was almost 10:30 and we had “lunch” reservations outside the park at 12:10. We decided to check some stores on the way out of the park and catch a bus to our reservation since we weren’t sure how long it would take to catch a bus. In hindsight, we could have hopped on at least one more ride on our way out, but lines were starting to get a little longer and we didn’t want to be late!

We stopped at a few store on the way out asking about Rapunzel ears. When we popped into Main Street Cinema we encountered someone restocking ears and she was able to let us know that the Rapunzel Ears were sold out property wide. I explained what that meant and Noodle was surprisingly fine with it. She just said “ok! I pick rainbow ears!” And boy did she mean rainbow ears…




Ok. Ears acquired, we headed for the bus stop to… Riviera! We had a breakfast at lunchtime reservation for Topolino’s Terrace.

But first… some music signaled something was about to happen. I looked up and saw The Adventure Friends Cavalcade headed our way, so we decided to watch that before leaving the park. Noodle danced a bit and watched the cavalcade. She loved seeing Moana and Bruno best.

We caught a bus at 11, and were at the Riviera quite early for our reservation. We wandered around to look at the resort, then made our way up to Topolino’s to check in early. We were seated about 25 minutes before our reservation. I really appreciate how flexible most meal reservations are.

Our server was excellent and I got POG juice, Derek got orange juice and Noodle ordered some milk. Our assortment of baked goodies came along with our drinks shortly before our first character stopped by: Minnie Mouse!

Noodle ordered the waffle dippers, Derek and I ordered the wild mushroom scramble and the bread pudding brûlée and split both. The dippers were a huge hit, because Noodle could make a huge mess with them. Also the Minnie waffle made her so so so happy.



We were soon visited by Daisy, then Donald.




And finally the mouse himself: Mickey!




After all 4 visits, we had plenty of time to finish our meal. And we got a little extra bonus when Minnie stopped by a second time (Minnie is Noodle’s favorite! I think our server may have said something.)

After our meal, we made our way to the Skyliner. Hopped on the Epcot line pretty quickly, and were soon at the international gateway. I mentioned we could walk or take the boat to Beach Club and Noodle voted boat. Since her vote was the only vote that mattered, we took a boat.



Once we were back at Beach Club, Derek stopped at the front desk to ask if they had any step stools available for the room. They made a note and said they would send one up for us. As soon as we got up to the room, someone stopped by with the cutest little wooden step stool. Noddle was happy because now she could reach the sink on her own.

Noodle doesn’t really nap anymore, but we wanted her to at least rest. We changed her out of her chocolate sauce covered clothing and into something clean. She crashed HARD and we let her nap from 2-3:30.

 

[Sarahh1027]

Great day so far!! Topolino’s looks like a win! Happy Noodle found ears that she loved despite her #1 being sold out and happy for you that she napped

 

[eliseisawkward]

Great day so far!! Topolino’s looks like a win! Happy Noodle found ears that she loved despite her #1 being sold out and happy for you that she napped

Topolino's was so good! I would happily do it again. The character interactions were great, and not having to get up for a buffet with a 3 year old puts it very solidly above Chef Mickey's for now.

 

[eliseisawkward]

Noodle started stirring in her sleep at 3:30, so we actually woke her up from her nap. We’ve always woken her from naps to keep bedtime reasonable, and this nap being later than she used to nap put bedtime around 9:30 or 10. Which is perfect, and gives us more time at….

APRICOT! (this is what Noodle called Epcot the whole time we were there)

We walked to Epcot, and Noodle politely requested we go immediately to the Moana garden. She had actually been asking about it from the moment she woke up, so I promised her we would do it first thing after nap. And really when she says please it’s impossible to say no.

This garden is an EXCELLENT addition to Epcot. It’s great for littles, and we went through it twice in a row. Noodle would have stayed there all day.














No complaints, 11 out of 10 stars. It’s starting to look like Apricot might top Magic Kingdom for Noodle.

I wanted to do Nemo next, but Noodle said she did not want to ride Nemo. I think she was afraid of it? We actually haven’t finished to movie with her because it’s “too scary” and she’s worried Nemo and his dad will never see each other again. Nothing I say to her will convince her to finish the movie.

So instead we headed over to Living with the Land. It’s always a nice, calm trip through the green houses and Noodle loved every second of it. She is 100000% my daughter.




After Living with the Land, Noodle had a lot of questions about farming. So we decided to grab a snack and answer approximately 6242617 questions. We got a parfait with a bunch of different berries in it, I don’t remember exactly what. But we all enjoyed it along with nutrigrain bars and I think Noodle had apple sauce too. (Toddler moms know, pouches and bars must always be on hand)