She's a big sister and an expedition leader: A party of 8 with a 9 month old September 2016 TR

Wood Nymph · Sep 26, 2016

GrandCalifornian said:
We got ready slowly as Allie was still sleeping. We shared a plate of Strawberry Waffles, and it took a lot of willpower for us not to eat Allie's waffle while she was snoozing.

That strawberry waffle looks good. For some reason, I still haven't had the strawberry waffle, only a plain one. We'll have to correct that next trip.

GrandCalifornian said:
I helped explain what happened and what went wrong and she was able to make the changes so their passes expired a year from the first day of our trip instead of a couple of weeks away.

They are lucky that you were able to spot that right away. I bet that it would have been almost impossible to fix it next time they go to WDW.

GrandCalifornian said:
It seems in our first morning as Disney tour guides we had forgotten to tell everyone to eat breakfast, so they were getting hungry.

I guess they didn't know how much you love strawberry waffles.

ArielSRL · Sep 26, 2016

Beautiful, beautiful WL photos. And that's good to know on the buses. I think (if we do actually get to stay there) we'all take the bus to MK for rope drop and try the boats for midday breaks and returning at night!

Also may have to try the strawberry waffle! Yum!

Glad you guys got the pass situation sorted out.

Dumbo was one of my (now) four yr old's first ride back in 2012 (when he was 9.5m).

Good morning thus far!

GrandCalifornian · Sep 27, 2016

Wood Nymph said:
That strawberry waffle looks good. For some reason, I still haven't had the strawberry waffle, only a plain one. We'll have to correct that next trip.

Yes, you should. They offer the Mickey Waffle platters in Strawberry, Chocolate, and Banana. The Chocolate looks pretty good, but Strawberry is our go-to Roaring Fork breakfast. We also discovered the croissant sandwich this trip, which goes with them really well.

Wood Nymph said:
They are lucky that you were able to spot that right away. I bet that it would have been almost impossible to fix it next time they go to WDW.

Yeah, we had a good clue in the fact that it didn't cost as much as it should have. Usually it isn't hard to find a way for Disney to take your money. It would have been a mess if we didn't get it fixed, and they basically would have wasted $700 by upgrading a pass that was almost used up. This way they are good for another year at DL and could potentially come back to WDW within the year. This option looked pretty nice to us too, but we're not there yet...

ArielSRL said:
Beautiful, beautiful WL photos. And that's good to know on the buses. I think (if we do actually get to stay there) we'all take the bus to MK for rope drop and try the boats for midday breaks and returning at night!

Thanks. I don't think I'd ever get tired of taking WL pictures. That sounds like a plan for the bus and boat, and is how we usually do it. Don't miss out on the Blue Flag boats that do the circle on Bay Lake between WL, CR, and FW. We enjoy those and use them for access to the CR and the monorail.

ArielSRL said:
Also may have to try the strawberry waffle! Yum!

We love them. They have just become our go to breakfast at WL, and we usually share a plate but later on we might have gotten to each have one all to ourselves...

ArielSRL said:
Dumbo was one of my (now) four yr old's first ride back in 2012 (when he was 9.5m).

Yeah, it is a neat classic ride for a little one. The problem is Melissa usually won't ride it. It was neat that we all got to go together.

ArielSRL said:
Good morning thus far!

Yes, so far so good, but it is hard to go wrong getting to visit MK.

GrandCalifornian · Sep 28, 2016

When we left off we had just finished up a snack at Gaston's. Our plan for the day was to quickly visit MK before heading to Epcot where we had our Fastpasses, so we decided to work on heading that direction.

I was on a mission to find a salad that I had been craving for 2 years!

First we had to walk all the way through MK though, which we enjoyed. We did see one job to cross off the potential Disney Job list, because there's no way either of us would hang from a bucket and work on the castle.

oh heck no! That would be WAYY worse than Dumbo.

Walking down Main Street we could tell Melissa was happy, and niether of us remember exactly what was so exciting.

I was rejoicing in the fact that I didn't have to work maybe? Once we were out of the park we headed over to the Express monorail.

In all of our MK to Epcot resort hopping I don't think we had taken the express monorail before, because we usually want to stop at a resort. We did figure out the advantage of not having to go down and back up at the TTC, which was really slick.

Especially when pushing the beast that is the double stroller.

Soon we were at Epcot, and going through the bag check. The lines were short, and I happened to notice that the guard was from Ontario CA, which is very near our home town. I mentioned it to him, and we started talking. It turns out he went to High School with Brandy, and they still have some friends in common. Talk about a small world.

Not the actual Small World, that's in the Magic Kingdom and was currently being refurbed. We stopped for a photopass picture before heading over to Sunshine Seasons.

We got to the Land and everybody was hot and hungry, which makes it even nicer there. It was also a great way to introduce WDW Quick Service dining to the group.

Yes! We were able to find a table for everyone and much to my delight they still had the Quinoa salad!

I went with the broccoli beef, but I tasted the salad and it was really good. We also got Allie a kids meal and paid the $6 out of pocket, thus saving a QS credit for another $25+ meal like Melissa and I had.

The food was delicious.

For dessert we had a carmel apple cupcake and Mickey cheesecake, both of which were good.

Then we were ready for a boat ride, so we hopped on Living with The Land, which as an Agriculture major is one of Melissa's favorites.

At this point Grandma Nancy headed back to the hotel to take a break, and the rest of us continued on with our adventures.

Marshall really seemed to enjoy the boat and Allie loves the ride too.

After that we headed out of the Land because we had a 3:20 Fastpass in Norway. On the way across we stopped to introduce John and Brandy to Beverly, the lovely international Coke flavor that normal people can't stand.

It turns out Brandy and I are kindred spirits, we both like it!

It means I didn't get the reaction shot I was expecting. John and my Dad agree with me though, that it just isn't good.

It is so good, I would buy it if I could find it. Unfortunately according to Wikipedia it was discontinued in 2009.

Gag! Anyway, after the drink stop we continued on to Norway, where we were glad to have the Fastpass because the standby wait was almost in the triple digits.

We got a baby swap pass and Melissa waited with Marshall while Allie rode it with the rest of us.

Marshall and I hung out in the dump shop where it was cool. He had enough of being in the stroller so I let him out to cruise a bit and he found the Wall of Sven.

On the ride I was really impressed. It is neat how they re-themed an existing ride mechanism, and did what I thought was a really good job of it. Overall the ride seemed less scarry than Maelstrom, and Allie enjoyed it more.

After they came back Allie, John, and I used the rider swap. I really enjoyed the ride too and in hindsight Marshall could have probably ridden it but he was too busy sticking his fingers in electrical outlets and unshelfing the stuffed Svens.

Grandpa, Brandy, and I watched him while they rode and he had a ball playing on the floor. He was really getting into this Disney shopping stuff, so he'd fit right in with our group.

After we all thawed out we headed around World Showcase toward International Gateway.

Our trip was soon interrupted since the drawbridge was up for the Illuminations barges. It was pretty cool to see.

We watched them move the earth into the lagoon and then continued on our way. We paused briefly in Germany to check out the model trains.

Then we headed out of the park via the International Gateway entrance. It was after 4:00, and we had dinner reservations at Trail's End at FOrt Wilderness at 6:00, so our plan was to catch a MK bus from the Beach Club resort.

We had never taken a bus from Beach Club before so we weren't entirely familiar with where exactly the bus stop was. So we just followed the signs.... and followed the signs.... and followed them some more

Appearently they moved the bus stop to a temporary location, so we followed signs towards the old location, then through the parking lot back towards the temporary location. As we got there a MK bus was already there, and the driver waited for us.

He was super nice for waiting.

We got on the bus at 4:48 and to MK at 5:04. Then we walked to the boat dock where a large boat was headed to FW, but I instead chose to wait for a WL boat so I could stop by the hotel room and grab a camera battery. (Note the lack of pictures of this part of the day...)

He zoomed up the stairs and back before a boat even came. I had already told him that we'd leave him though.

Then I could have ran to FW and tried to catch you. Fortunately it didn't come to that, but there was a bit of a delay in the boats and one didn't show up until 6:00. We arrived at FW about 6:10, but had texted Grandma Nancy who was meeting us there.

We sat outside on a bench for a few minutes and then were seated. I was excited for this meal, because it is the one restaurant we have eaten at during every one of our WDW trips, and it is nice comfort food at the end of a busy day.

Two words: Baked Potato

I was thinking corn bread...that was a hit too. Despite being a buffet this is a meal that Melissa enjoys, and it really had something for everybody. We all ate way too much and then topped it off with soft serve ice cream on top of cobbler. Mmmm

Yummm it was all divine, I dont think there is any better comfort food than pulled pork on top of a baked potato.

Ribs. BBQ baby back ribs. Mmm. Anyway, after stuffing ourselves, we took Allie to play at the playground. The playground at FOrt WIlderness is one of our favorites, and there were quite a few kids having a ball on traditional playground equipment. Everything is just more fun at Disney.

Marshall really enjoyed swinging.

Then we headed to the buses to catch an internal FW bus to the Meadows area to see the Chip and Dale campfire. This was a new thing for us, since we've heard about ti for years but finally had a good time in the schedule to go see it.

Once we were left off at the stop we explored a bit to find out where we wanted to head. When we got there the campfire was in full swing and Allie went to go say hi to Chip and Dale.

There were kids roasting marshmallows on multiple fires and bleacher style seating. Chip and Dale made their way all around the bleachers, then there was some live music before the nightly movie, which was Toy Story. Like many others, we didn't stick around for the movie but it was a neat event.

After we left the campfire, we stopped by the Meadows Trading Post for some more Disney shopping. We love how each shop has slightly different things, and they all have plenty to look at.

We took an internal bus back towards the Settlement, where we decided to wait for a bus instead of walking to the boats. The bus came soon, and it was a quick trip to WL. We got back to the resort about 9:30 and considered swimming but decided to call it a night, but we had one more treat awaiting us...

Continued in the next update.

buddha112 · Sep 28, 2016

I am assuming Trails End is the same ribs as hoop dee do.. If that is the case then YUM!!!

ArielSRL · Sep 28, 2016

Sounds like a great MK/Epcot/Fort Wlderness day! You guys covered a lot of ground! I'm exhausted just reading about it.

We are hoping to do a Trail's End brunch on our departure day in June. Dinner sounds wonderful!

smiley519 · Sep 29, 2016

Joining in! I'm loving your TR so far and love the back-and-forth of having 2 narrators.

You guys also used a lot of different types of Disney transportation in one day!

Wood Nymph · Sep 29, 2016

It looks like everyone was in a good mood on your first full Disney day, especially Melissa. It must have been the strawberry waffle.

GrandCalifornian said:
We got to the Land and everybody was hot and hungry, which makes it even nicer there. It was also a great way to introduce WDW Quick Service dining to the group.

We ate here in June when we had the dining plan. I was finally able to get the strawberry shortcake that I've heard so much about. I used a snack credit, which was fun because it was free.

GrandCalifornian said:
On the ride I was really impressed. It is neat how they re-themed an existing ride mechanism, and did what I thought was a really good job of it. Overall the ride seemed less scarry than Maelstrom, and Allie enjoyed it more.

I've heard good things about this ride. We'll be experiencing it in just a few days.

GrandCalifornian said:
Our trip was soon interrupted since the drawbridge was up for the Illuminations barges. It was pretty cool to see.

That is very cool. I would love to see the drawbridge go up but we never seem to be in the World showcase when this happens.

GrandCalifornian said:
We had never taken a bus from Beach Club before so we weren't entirely familiar with where exactly the bus stop was. So we just followed the signs.... and followed the signs.... and followed them some more

You must have hit this right when they opened the temporary bus stop, since they didn't move the bus stop very long ago. It is supposed to be done in another week or so.

GrandCalifornian said:
Yummm it was all divine, I dont think there is any better comfort food than pulled pork on top of a baked potato.

I love Trail's End. We are planning to eat there in December. ::yes::

GrandCalifornian said:
The playground at Fort Wilderness is one of our favorites, and there were quite a few kids having a ball on traditional playground equipment.

This is a really nice playground. Is the fence new?

GrandCalifornian said:
After we left the campfire, we stopped by the Meadows Trading Post for some more Disney shopping. We love how each shop has slightly different things, and they all have plenty to look at.

The Chip and Dale Campfire looks cute. It looks like the Meadows Trading post has a bigger selection of toys than the Settlement Trading post has.

GrandCalifornian said:
We took an internal bus back towards the Settlement, where we decided to wait for a bus instead of walking to the boats. The bus came soon, and it was a quick trip to WL. We got back to the resort about 9:30 and considered swimming but decided to call it a night, but we had one more treat awaiting us...

Did they have buses running back to all the resorts for the Hoop Dee Doo crowd?

Your trip report is making me want to go back to WL. We are planning a spring break trip with my sister and she is interested in staying there. I hope that standard view is still the old woods view by March. A castle view would be awesome.

GrandCalifornian · Sep 29, 2016

buddha112 said:
I am assuming Trails End is the same ribs as hoop dee do.. If that is the case then YUM!!!

Yes, they share a kitchen with HDDR, although I actually prefer the TE ribs.

ArielSRL said:
Sounds like a great MK/Epcot/Fort Wlderness day! You guys covered a lot of ground! I'm exhausted just reading about it.

We are hoping to do a Trail's End brunch on our departure day in June. Dinner sounds wonderful!

It was a great first day. We love covering lots of ground.
We did TE brunch on our departure day in 2012. It is nice at breakfast, but I missed the ribs.

smiley519 said:
Joining in! I'm loving your TR so far and love the back-and-forth of having 2 narrators.

You guys also used a lot of different types of Disney transportation in one day!

Welcome! We are glad you are enjoying following along. We both have things we want to say, and this seems to work for us.

Wood Nymph said:
It looks like everyone was in a good mood on your first full Disney day, especially Melissa. It must have been the strawberry waffle.

Perhaps, or just the fact we got to spend the whole day at Disney. The immersion was just setting in.

Wood Nymph said:
We ate here in June when we had the dining plan. I was finally able to get the strawberry shortcake that I've heard so much about. I used a snack credit, which was fun because it was free.

We love it here and there is enough variety for any group.

Wood Nymph said:
I've heard good things about this ride. We'll be experiencing it in just a few days.

Enjoy, it is almost time!

Wood Nymph said:
That is very cool. I would love to see the drawbridge go up but we never seem to be in the World showcase when this happens.

I didn't remember it, but Melissa did. It was just about 4PM.

Wood Nymph said:
You must have hit this right when they opened the temporary bus stop, since they didn't move the bus stop very long ago. It is supposed to be done in another week or so.

I think we caught the first day.

Wood Nymph said:
I love Trail's End. We are planning to eat there in December.

This is a really nice playground. Is the fence new?

We love it too, and just have to do it every time. The fence at the playground is new, we are thinking after the Alligator issues.

Wood Nymph said:
The Chip and Dale Campfire looks cute. It looks like the Meadows Trading post has a bigger selection of toys than the Settlement Trading post has.

Did they have buses running back to all the resorts for the Hoop Dee Doo crowd?

The Meadows trading post is bigger and has longer hours than the Settlement one, so it was cool to check out.

The only buses we saw besides FW ones were to WL. My thought is they might run to WL and then MK, to allow connections to other resorts.

Wood Nymph said:
Your trip report is making me want to go back to WL. We are planning a spring break trip with my sister and she is interested in staying there. I hope that standard view is still the old woods view by March. A castle view would be awesome.

Sorry, we are a bad influence like that. We really want to go back to WL too and want Standard View if we can. There's no guarantee the castle view will be great, but the fireworks were nice from all three rooms. (And we'll talk more about that in the next update).

GrandCalifornian · Sep 30, 2016

We headed up to our rooms about 9:30 and I made a trip down to Roaring Fork for mug refills. Our location in the North Wing was really nice for Roaring Fork access, just go down the hall a little ways to the elevator that takes us to right next to it on the first floor. We made good use of this during our stay.

It was definitely my favorite room location yet, even without our lobby view.

In our room, we found that they had fixed our TV's Disney channels. We had called in the morning to report that our Stacy channel was freezing and wouldn't play, even though the normal TV channels were fine. The person on the phone asked if it would be ok to have a technician come out later in the day, or did we need someone immediately. I had said later would be fine, since I was slightly embarrassed at complaining about not having the Stacy channel, but then again we could have regular TV at home, we come to Disney for something different.

How else would we know what the Must Do's are?

Exactly! This was a Halloween Party night, and while we were sitting in the room getting ready for bed the fireworks started. We all went to the window and were fascinated at the view we had.

The fireworks show from the balcony was incredible and getting Allie to sleep while they were going off was impossible.

We just watched and took pictures, all the way up through the grand finale, which was particularly impressive since from where we were at we could see fireworks being launched from multiple points across the horizon. It was a neat view.

and a great end to our first full day at Disney. We had to get to bed though because we had alot in store for the next day!

Allie went to sleep pretty quickly after the fireworks, and we were in bed soon after.

The next morning I woke up a little after 5 AM and was too excited to sleep. I got up and put the GoPro on the charger and typed up some trip notes on my phone. I keep a list of what we did each day, because remembering what happened when when we go to write about it would be impossible without notes.

This morning it was donuts in the room for breakfast. We had plans to get over to AK in time for EMH.

I went downstairs and got mug refills at 6 AM, and then we got Allie up at 6:45. We always plan on making it to morning EMH at AK, but had never made it there when they opened. This time Melissa had come up with a brilliant plan to get Allie moving.

While we were shopping the day before Allie had wanted a charm bracelet. I knew that we had alot of early deadlines for the trip and made a deal with her that if we made it out of the room on time and with no meltdowns for each day she could pick out a charm. I am not above bribery.

It worked like a ...Charm...(Ok, that was bad) but it got her up, which isn't an easy task. We headed out of our room about 7:20 and met John and Brandy in the hall on our way to Roaring Fork for refills on the way to the bus.

I couldn't believe how easy it was to get her going with a little motivation.

We got to the buses at 7:29, and an AK bus arrived as scheduled at 7:31. Grandma and Grandpa weren't there when it pulled up, but made it just in time and the attendant made sure the driver waited for them. We got on the bus and were on our way straight to AK. The bus didn't stop at any other resort, and we arrived at AK at 7:47 which was a record travel time from WL for us.

We made our way through security and made it in the park! While it was still EMH!

We actually had to wait a couple of minutes at the gate and then we were on our way to the Safari ride at 8:00. We had fastpasses for it later in the morning, but thought we'd see what the animals were up to first thing

it was a great Safari, all of the animals were up, except the lions, they are never up. We got to see the new Spotted Dogs, they are super cute guys and the Cheetahs were even playing.

Then we did the walking trail and checked out all the animals, including the Gorillas who were playfull. Allie got to see the one that's about her age, which is always fun.

On the walking trail Allie was starting to get agitated and I could tell she needed some down time. She was getting frustrated with all of us adults.

After that we headed to grab some more breakfast at Kousifiri.

We found that their menu had changed, but we chose an elephant ear and a chocolate danish. The elephant ear was like the crust of a turnover, but all crust and a little hard for me. I enjoyed the danish though, and everyone liked getting the chance to eat.

I really enjoyed the elephant ear, but I was probably the only one. Allie really didn't like it and her attitude in general wasn't improving. I decided she just needed some time alone while everyone else rode the Safari again. We did some shopping.

While Melissa took Allie and Marshall shopping and Grandma Nancy went exploring on her own, Grandpa Jim, John, Brandy and I went for another Safari ride. With our fastpasses we got right on, and saw some more animals. The giraffes were particularly active, the lions not so much.

We did some shopping and adopted a Pluto for Marshall and a snap hugging thing Stitch for Allie.

We got a photopass pic and saw the bird flyover, which is pretty cool.

The macaw flyover is one of the most incredible things. We have grown so accustomed to seeing them as non-flying pets that seeing them cruising through the sky is pretty neat.

Then we headed to the trail to see the tigers.

The kids were pretty happy on the way over to Asia with their new friends.

At the Pangani trail, the tigers were the most active that I've seen. One was playing with a ball in the water trying to sink it.

We watched her play for quite a while and then made our way through. I wanted to get a picture of Allie by the tiger painting on the wall, we've done this every trip. As you can see she was less than thrilled.

At least we can see how much she's grown compared to the tiger in four years.

Instead of pushing the stroller through the trail I had put Marshall in the carrier and he was pretty darned hot and cranky too. So I started pouring water on his head to cool him off. He thought this was great fun and we were able to make it through the rest of the trail without a baby combustion.

Up next we had a date with a Yeti. But first we ran into a virtual friend.

While we were on the trail, I was messaging on the DIS with @WDWKOOK, who we know online from the WL FAQ thread. After years of following each other's posts online we were at WDW at the same time, and arranged to meet by Expedition Everest.

I think it freaked Allie out that this stranger knew her name.

Allie was pretty shy while we chatted, but Marshall was his usual outgoing self. We discussed WL, club level, and WDW in general before heading on our way. We did get a picture together, but darn it, this is how it came out...

We did get a clear shot of her shoes though.

After the DIS meet, it was time for our Fastpasses for Expedition Everest. We got another baby swap card while Melissa waited witht he kids and I rode with Grandpa, John, and Brandy. It was John's first time on the ride, and we didn't tell him anything about it, so I took pictures on the ride. He agreed it is a good one.

After the boys rode Everest we decided to save our rider switch pass for later because the kids were hot and I needed to nurse Marshall. So we headed over to Rafikis but on the way we found some icecream.

There's just something great about an icy cool treat when it is hot at AK. Our lunch reservation wasn't until 2:30, which was the earliest we could get with a party of 8, so we still had time to play. Allie loves petting the goats, and we knew there'd be air conditioning so we were off to Rafiki's.

On the way we saw Baloo.

Once we got off the train the adults and Marshall headed inside while I took Allie out to see her goats. She brushed and petted them, then looked at stuffed animals in the gift store.

Surprisingly there aren't alot of places to sit inside at Rafikis but we found some benches infront of a tv playing a loop about conservation.

After watching the entire loop about 4 times Marshall was ready to cruise.

I think Grandpa took a nap on the bench, and John and Brandy walked around inside to check out the exhibits. I sat the GoPro on the floor and Marshall crawled to it and picked it up and played with it, which made for some cute video.

On the way out of Rafiki's we stopped to see Chip and Dale. They are John's favorite so we had to wait in line. It turned out to be a great character interaction. Marshall loved them and they seemed to love him. Dale even came back for Marshall kisses after visiting with John and Brandy.

Up next, blood, blood and blood... (According to Allie)

smiley519 · Sep 30, 2016

Great update! I'm glad you were able to make it to EMH at AK. Those pictures of Marshall with Chip & Dale are just too precious!!

WDWKOOK · Sep 30, 2016

Oh my gwarsh! I got awfully behind due to my little vacation with just DH, for the first time since DD was born.

I always love how you take us step by step through your vacation and you don't leave out any fun details. Marshall definitely wins the easiest going baby in the World award!

Great in-flight photo of the macaws and that is the best shot of Marshall "biting" Dale's nose, or was that Chip? But, of all the thousands of photos you must take, I can't believe that one with me came out blurry hehe and thank you.

Wood Nymph · Sep 30, 2016

GrandCalifornian said:
We got to the buses at 7:29, and an AK bus arrived as scheduled at 7:31. Grandma and Grandpa weren't there when it pulled up, but made it just in time and the attendant made sure the driver waited for them. We got on the bus and were on our way straight to AK. The bus didn't stop at any other resort, and we arrived at AK at 7:47 which was a record travel time from WL for us.

I thought that the AK bus shared with CR? Had it stopped there first before moving on to WL? You are lucky that you got to AK on time. We never seem to make it for EMH.

GrandCalifornian said:
The macaw flyover is one of the most incredible things. We have grown so accustomed to seeing them as non-flying pets that seeing them cruising through the sky is pretty neat.

That is very cool. Is it a scheduled thing? I have never heard of it before.

GrandCalifornian said:
On the way out of Rafiki's we stopped to see Chip and Dale. They are John's favorite so we had to wait in line. It turned out to be a great character interaction. Marshall loved them and they seemed to love him. Dale even came back for Marshall kisses after visiting with John and Brandy.

That is adorable. Babies are so cute. :lovestruc

We had a great interaction with Minnie Mouse when our daughter was 8 months old. It is one of our favorite memories. ::yes::

GrandCalifornian said:
While we were on the trail, I was messaging on the DIS with @WDWKOOK, who we know online from the WL FAQ thread. After years of following each other's posts online we were at WDW at the same time, and arranged to meet by Expedition Everest.

That was really nice to meet Kook.

I would love to meet her, too.

GrandCalifornian · Sep 30, 2016

smiley519 said:
Great update! I'm glad you were able to make it to EMH at AK. Those pictures of Marshall with Chip & Dale are just too precious!!

Thanks, we're glad you enjoyed it. It was neat to get to take full advantage of EMH at AK, and in this case our fourth time trying finally worked out as planned. We usually make it before regular park open, but making the EMH opening was nice. Chip and Dale were cute, and Dale really liked Marshall. They had no problem holding him bu themselves, and motioned for me to get out of the way. It was cute and everyone was happy.

WDWKOOK said:
Oh my gwarsh! I got awfully behind due to my little vacation with just DH, for the first time since DD was born.

I always love how you take us step by step through your vacation and you don't leave out any fun details. Marshall definitely wins the easiest going baby in the World award!

Hopefully you had a nice vacation, this time with some company. Perhaps you two could plan a WL trip soon... We're glad that you enjoy following along. We have a blast going over all the cool stuff we did, and the weird little things are some of the most fun. Marshall is seriously the most chill baby, which is just great. He definitely goes with the flow.

WDWKOOK said:
Great in-flight photo of the macaws and that is the best shot of Marshall "biting" Dale's nose, or was that Chip? But, of all the thousands of photos you must take, I can't believe that one with me came out blurry hehe and thank you.

It was Dale's nose, because Chip's is black like a chocolate chip. That's how I remember it. We got to see them a lot this trip, but that time Dale really had something going with Marshall. We'll have meet to try again for a photo together sometime. You never know what could happen.

Wood Nymph said:
I thought that the AK bus shared with CR? Had it stopped there first before moving on to WL? You are lucky that you got to AK on time. We never seem to make it for EMH.

We were surprised when the bus didn't head for the Contemporary. It was fairly full, and my guess is that they rerouted it and sent another bus to pick up at CR. We did stop at CR on the way to AK later in the trip.

Wood Nymph said:
That is very cool. Is it a scheduled thing? I have never heard of it before.

We saw them do the flight when they just started it a couple of years ago. It was something they were trying out and the birds were somewhat scattered. Now if seems quite refined and they stick together well. It happens on the island a few times a day, and I believe it was near the top of the hour. It is a pretty quick thing, it would be easy to miss.

Wood Nymph said:
That is adorable. Babies are so cute. We had a great interaction with Minnie Mouse when our daughter was 8 months old. It is one of our favorite memories.

Seeing Marshall interact with the characters was one of the highlights of our trip. Being so young and having his personality he wasn't scared of them at all, and thought they were really neat. There's some neat interactions to come...

Wood Nymph said:
That was really nice to meet Kook. I would love to meet her, too.

It was really cool, I'm glad we worked out the timing. WDW is so huge it would be easy to be there at the same time and not see each other, but we're glad it all worked out. She's super nice, just like you'd expect.

CuteAsMinnie · Sep 30, 2016

Great update! I love how those of us living vicariously through you really feel like we are traveling along with you! Thanks!!! Also LOVE the way you adjust your schedule to the needs the kids. That has always been our secret to awesome vacations. It still works as they get older too until its time to activate the 'ignore' button around the age of ______. And.... Really LOVE the pic with you folks and KOOK!!!!

cyndiloveswalt · Sep 30, 2016

Love reading trip reports but don't often comment. But after seeing your picture of Marshall with his new Pluto just had to say that my DS12 got the same Pluto at about the same age and he still has him in his bed. Pluto looks very loved these days!!
Your trip sounds like it was great so far! Can't wait to read more!!

ArielSRL · Oct 1, 2016

Love that you finally made a EMH and I'm glad Marshall is so chill! Great idea on the charm bracelet bribery! For the boys, they are pretty good about getting up and out, but, just in case, I may have to give them a few Legos a day from the new sets I'm sure we will buy on our first evening (at DS).

Again, another productive morning! I'm glad Marshall was easy to nurse. My oldest wasn't so I pumped for him so I had to do that while at Disney in 2012. My youngest was very easy but I never took him to Disney while nursing.

Glad you got a Dis meet up! Looking forward to more.

GrandCalifornian · Oct 3, 2016

CuteAsMinnie said:
Great update! I love how those of us living vicariously through you really feel like we are traveling along with you! Thanks!!! Also LOVE the way you adjust your schedule to the needs the kids. That has always been our secret to awesome vacations. It still works as they get older too until its time to activate the 'ignore' button around the age of ______. And.... Really LOVE the pic with you folks and KOOK!!!!

Thank you so much. We're glad you're enjoying it. It is funny how we do a lot of planning, but make sure that we can be flexible to keep the kids happy. It all came together very well on this trip. We're glad to have you all along for the trip as well.

cyndiloveswalt said:
Love reading trip reports but don't often comment. But after seeing your picture of Marshall with his new Pluto just had to say that my DS12 got the same Pluto at about the same age and he still has him in his bed. Pluto looks very loved these days!!
Your trip sounds like it was great so far! Can't wait to read more!!

Welcome, and thanks for commenting. I'm glad you're enjoying the report. Allie has an Eeyore that she got about the same age and we put a small dog harness on him to keep him in the stroller. He still is in Allie's bed every night, and had to come along on the trip as well.

ArielSRL said:
Love that you finally made a EMH and I'm glad Marshall is so chill! Great idea on the charm bracelet bribery! For the boys, they are pretty good about getting up and out, but, just in case, I may have to give them a few Legos a day from the new sets I'm sure we will buy on our first evening (at DS).

Again, another productive morning! I'm glad Marshall was easy to nurse. My oldest wasn't so I pumped for him so I had to do that while at Disney in 2012. My youngest was very easy but I never took him to Disney while nursing.

Glad you got a Dis meet up! Looking forward to more.

We were happy to take full advantage of EMH, and AK was a great place to do it. It is amazing how well the bracelet bribery worked, and she has a fun collection of souvenirs at the end. Legos could work well too. Allie is really into the thing where you can build a set of three custom mini figures. We did that later in the trip... Not much keeps Marshall from eating, he's obviously pretty good at it. We didn't do WDW with Allie nursing, but she did well at DLR.

GrandCalifornian · Oct 4, 2016

We made our way successfully from Rafiki's on the train back to Africa, and then made the walk over to Asia and arrived slightly ahead of schedule for our 2:00 ADR at Yak and Yeti. This was our hardest ADR to get, in that 2:00 was the best lunch time we could get for a party of 8.

We waited outside for a minute to gather our group and while we were waiting a little boy was playing with his brother and hit his head on the big bell that's right outside the door.

It was just the wrong height and cut his forehead and it was bleeding. It wasn't horrible, but did drip a bit on the ground and the poor kid was prety upset.

I watched for a minute and mom seemed to have things under control but the puddle of blood was getting larger so I went inside and let them know what had happened.

It turned out the family spoke Portuguese, and in true Disney fashion they found a Cast Member that spoke Portuguese from the restaurant in under a minute. Soon after they called us saying our tables were ready. They had split up our party due to its size, and we wound up with two tables for four that were near each other. This annoyed me a bit because we did have a reservation for 8, but it was the best they could do and we're all friends so John and Brandy ate with my parents and we had a little bit of seclusion for our immediate family.

It worked out just fine and gave Paul and I a minute to catch up. It's amazing how much tag teaming we did during the trip and it was a great chance for us to regroup.

That's true. It was one of many times during the trip where I was like "Hi, what have you been up to?" where usually the two of us are together all the time and don't need to catch up. It is just busier with the bigger group. The food at Yak and Yeti was excellent as always, and I went with my ususal ribs.

I got a noodle dish that was really good and Marshall really enjoyed sharing it too.

Brandy got the Kobe Cheeseburger, and I think it was one of his favorite food items of the trip.

I wasn't quite as impressed as usual with Yak and Yeti, but it was really good. The desserts were impressive, and we went with our usual combination of the Cream Cheese wontons and...

MANGO PIE! It could be my favorite Disney dessert.

I always have a hard time remembering what it is, because it reminds me of slightly flavored cheesecake, but it is great, and we shareed both desserts. My favorite here is the wontons though.

It is hard to choose a bad dessert anywhere in Disneyworld but these two in particular are in the top 5 on property as far as I'm concerned.

Yes, and it remains in strong contention for my favorite Table Service restaurant overall. It is a must do for us.

After we ate, we decided to head out of the park and back to the resort. We had fastpasses for Kali River Rapids, but nobody really wanted to wait around for them so we shopped on our way to the buses.

on our way out of the park we got a few large scattered rain drips like the sky could open up soon. The breeze that came along with the raindrops helped cool things off alot. On the island we talked with a CM about the Babirusas. We learned everything there is to know about these wild porcines however I remember none of the details except they were hoping for baby babirusas.

On our way to the buses, we were talking about wanting to check out the Contemporary since we hadn't been there yet, and since our bus was shared with theirs we could just ride it over there. Grandma and Grandpa had headed back ahead of us, so it was just the 6 of us left. We got on the bus at 4:37, and made it to WL at 4:52 but stayed on and got to CR at 5:00.

Marshall had fallen asleep at lunch and was still napping when we got to the Contemporary which made for peaceful meandering. We filled our mugs and hit the giftshop.

It was nice having our mugs with us from the morning, and they were easier to carry in the stroller cupholders since they were the new style without handles. We enjoyed shopping at all three gift shops at the Contemporary.

I saw a watch I liked, but wasn't sure if it was "Mickey" enough to justify the cost.

Once we were done upstairs at the CR, we headed out toward the boat dock. We got a picture with the metal Mickey, then got on a Blue flag boat to Fort Wilderness at 6:12.

It got to Fort Wilderness at 6:16, where it started sprinkling.

It was more accurately raining on one side of the boat but not the other. Poor John and Brandy picked the wrong side of the boat.

On the way we also got a view of the new restaurant they are building at WL to go with the Villas expansion. We are thinking it will be a Quick Service place to expand on the QS capacity of the resort by having it as well as Roaring Fork.

As we got to WL the rain let up, and we had a dry walk up to our rooms, and we were there by 6:30.

We decided to hang out in the rooms for a little bit before heading out again. Allie worked on homework, Marshall played on the floor, and I iced my ankle which I had twisted the weekend before the trip.

We got a nice sunset shot of the castle too:

It was some good downtime but it didn't take long before we were experiencing some cabin fever.

I like the short breaks at the room. It doesn't take long before we are ready to be out and about again, but we head out refreshed. We all headed out at 7:30 and caught a bus for Disney Springs (still Downtown Disney to me) at 7:45.

It was pretty disorienting when the bus pulled up and dropped us off, everything was NEW!

I can not recall ever feeling that lost at Disney. We roughly knew where we should have been, but nothing was familiar at all. It felt like we were at an outlet mall near home, not at our beloved Downtown Disney. We walked through the new stuff and were pleasantly surprised when we got to the World of Disney store. Poof, we were right back in our familiar zone, having crossed through what just two years ago was just a parking lot and now had sprung into a full scale mall.

It was a strange experience. We never really got over and finished exploring all of the new stuff but it did feel very much like some of the outdoor malls which we have many of around us.

We then walked to a familiar dinner destination, one of our very favorite Quick Service spots: Wolfgang Puck Express

Lunch had officially worn off and we were all ready for dinner.

I had my usual here as well, the meatloaf sandwich.

Allie and Grandma shared a cheese pizza, which Allie really enjoyed and was talking about just the other day.

I had pasta and it was amazing, Marshall enjoyed it too. For dessert we split a cheesecake. It makes me sad they no longer have the creme brule here. It was one of my favorites. They do brulee the top of the cheesecake though so it kinda makes up for it.

After dinner, we headed to the art store to see if they still had Marshall's dumbo print, because that was where we had seen it and I inadvertently put the plan for his existence into motion.

Plus we needed to own it now, we have the baby, and the babys room so...

The only issue is it wasn't there. At least the one we remembered wasn't. They had a more expensive framed one that seemed close but wasn't exactly what we remembered, and it was $400.

Very much out of our budget and really not the same. We even questioned if it was the same print, it just looked different. So we left empty handed and went over to pick out our traditional personalized Christmas ornament.

We get one special personalized ornament every trip, and they are some of our very favorites on the tree each year. We knew that the special thing about this year's trip was that it was Marshall's first, so that was our plan. While Melissa waited in line to drop it off for personalization, I got some pictures of the kids playing with the stuffed Mickeys and Minnies.

Marshall quickly grew tired and fussy and the personalization line moves sooo sloowww. So I left Paul to finish up and took Marsh outside to nurse and chillax.

By the time I got to the front of the line it was after 10 PM, and I forgot to tell them we wanted it shipped to our resort. The guy said it would be ready at 11 tonight, and since it was less than an hour I figured that'd work well.

Paul took Allie to ride the carousel because she had been so patient waiting.

It blows me away how much she wants to ride this little carousel. It is tiny, and not particularly special, but she loves it and wants to ride it every time, and as a Daddy I provide the $3.

Then we went around to World of Disney.

It surprised us that they had taken away some of the World of Disney store for the Starbucks, but it still is a massive store, and it was fun to show it to Brandy and John who thought the World of DIsney at DLR was big. It had to be getting pretty late, but Allie insisted on posing with mouse ears:

I ran back to the christmas store to get there before they closed at 11 hoping they had gotten our ornament done. They had it done and sitting on the personalization table, and I picked it up at 10:50. Then I ran back across to World of Disney and met back up with everyone. Since it was late we decided to head back, and got to the bus stop at 11:12 and on a bus at 11:19. We then got "home" to WL at 11:38 PM, successfully finishing off what must have been the longest day of the trip.

In the room we opened up the ornament to take a look at it, and got a picture of Marshall sleeping with it.

WhoDatDisney · Oct 4, 2016

GrandCalifornian said:
In our room, we found that they had fixed our TV's Disney channels. We had called in the morning to report that our Stacy channel was freezing and wouldn't play, even though the normal TV channels were fine. The person on the phone asked if it would be ok to have a technician come out later in the day, or did we need someone immediately. I had said later would be fine, since I was slightly embarrassed at complaining about not having the Stacy channel, but then again we could have regular TV at home, we come to Disney for something different.

We are the same way. The first thing we do when we get to our room is turn on must do Disney. The kids actually watch it as they go to sleep.

She's a big sister and an expedition leader: A party of 8 with a 9 month old September 2016 TR

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