The Many Adventures of...A Family With a New Baby! Jan - Dec 2016! New 11/7!

I should be back tomorrow with another update from December's TR, but I wanted to pop in and say 1) Our October Disney trip was REALLY really awesome. So much so that I am just crunching numbers left and right to return, but with a nursling and zero time off it is hard to bite the bullet. I do, however, have my trip with Maya planned and it's almost ADR time for that one so I am going to write out those plans below! I'd love your input (it's been a while since I was on my own with a 2 year old!)

May 2018 with just Maya! She should be tall enough for Barnstormer by then!

Day 1 - fly in, pool time if early flight, then Disney Springs evening and dinner at the Boathouse (this dinner is for ME haha but I might swap out to Frontera Cocina or a new one, and hoping to have a stroller nap time to check out a couple new places for drinks / apps)

Day 2 - Brunch at Chef Mickeys then head to Magic Kingdom probably through the parade, then head out or stay for dinner. Haven't thought of a dinner, but possibly Pinocchio Village Haus - their vegan pizza was a HUGE hit with her this trip and I know she'd love it. With just her, we won't be doing any big rides so probably FP Peter Pan, Speedway and Buzz and do Barnstormer, Dumbo, Pooh, Ariel, Small world, carousel and TTA standby. I like sticking to one side of the park or the other so we aren't' running back and forth.

Day 3 - Garden Grill PPO BF, hop on Living with the land, Nemo, Figment, Donalds boat ride, then hop over to DHS where we'll have FP for Toy Story, Disney Jr show, and...maybe Frozen show? We'll have dinner at 50's Prime Time as I have heard they do amazing allergy meals / desserts. Also, hoping for an earlier opening of Toy Story land and if that's the case we'll spend more time at DHS.

Day 4 - Animal Kingdom park, we'll grab FP for Navi River Journey, Safari and meeting Mickey & Minnie, and do the Boneyard, Triceratops spin, the animal trails, Rafiki's Planet Watch. Head out for an early dinner at Sanaa (all but one of the sauces in their amazing Naan bread app is safe for her!)

Day 5 - Magic Kingdom, with lunch possibly at Skippers Canteen, stay for parade if we didn't already. Grab Dole Whips (safe!!) or maybe ice cream at the ice cream parlor.

Day 6 - Crystal Palace breakfast (BTW, Best character interaction meal in October, and Maya is in LOVE with Pooh <3 ) then more MK time. One of the nights 5/6 we might go back to Disney springs for dinner? Haven't figured that out yet lol. I feel like Im missing a ton of meals but then I don't really want to plan many with her.

Day 7 - EPCOT with FP's so we'll do the Frozen ride and Character spot and Spaceship earth then see World Showcase stuff. No meals planned but I am hoping the new Space-themed restaurant is open by then but that is probably far fetched?

Day 8 - Maybe Bon Voyage breakfast? Although thinking a buffet would be better for her allergies... then fly home

I'm glad you had a great trip! Wish we could have met up one day. It would have been awesome to meet you and the girls!

I was thinking of taking the girls by myself late spring next year too, but man that's intimidating. Piper was a little unsure of all the princesses, but loved Mickey and Minnie, so I'm hoping by our next trip she'll be a little less scared. I know you're a pro at it now, so any tips would be awesome.
 
So the cali grill waiter in june said it's a seasonal dish, so maybe it'll come back for winter? IDK. I'm a bit sad, but still looking forward to my birthday dinner
Did it come back for your birthday dinner?

That's interesting about the preschool teacher! Izzy was always great when left with me, btw <3
I'm glad she was good for you! And her teacher did say (on the very next class day) that she was great, so must have been a particularly off day.

I snuck a pic of Dug & Dugette's meals, despite not eating meat they look a lot more appetizing lol

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I remember them both being fairly good (we shared).

When it was time to ride, she took their hands and took them on a tea cup with her! This is one of my ALL TIME best Disney memories!
Yes, that was great! I had a vague memory of reading that she sometimes rides with kids, so the second I saw her approaching the ride, I started telling the girls they should go ask her to ride - so glad it worked out! Izzy still talks about that too! Definitely one of those extra magical experiences!

I didn't realize it until later, but a photopass photographer had actually been taking photos during the ride too!
That was a great surprise to find that later in our Photopass! I also videotaped the whole ride if you ever want to feel really dizzy and disoriented while reflecting fondly, haha.

I love this shot! Aria kept asking me to put my hands up on rides, so I'm sure she did the same with Alice...and she obliged. Cute!

Sounds like a great trip with Maya to look forward to!
 
I'm so glad to hear that your recent trip was great!

Your plans for your trip with Maya sound perfect!

We're going in March and are hoping that Lola will be tall enough for Barnstormer, but we'll have to see. She is still so small!
 
I'm glad you had a great trip! Wish we could have met up one day. It would have been awesome to meet you and the girls!

I was thinking of taking the girls by myself late spring next year too, but man that's intimidating. Piper was a little unsure of all the princesses, but loved Mickey and Minnie, so I'm hoping by our next trip she'll be a little less scared. I know you're a pro at it now, so any tips would be awesome.

Just think of what the girls will enjoy and try to go at their pace! With just Aria I was able to go a lot faster, plus she is so easy to travel with and easygoing. Maya doesn't want to sit still so she LOVES the rides, has some favorite characters etc so our trip I'm planning on a few ADR's with those characters (Crystal Palace and Chef Mickeys) plus thinking of her favorite foods and where we can get those. The only thing I find tough about planning trips with multiple kiddos is dealing with the older one being able to ride things but unable to (hence why it was so awesome Dugette was able to take Aria on the big rides). I actually talked with Aria about this a couple weeks ago and she said she'd prefer to wait to go to Disney until we can all go / or I can take her solo / so she can ride the big stuff (vs if I took all of them by myself).

Did it come back for your birthday dinner?


I'm glad she was good for you! And her teacher did say (on the very next class day) that she was great, so must have been a particularly off day.


I remember them both being fairly good (we shared).


Yes, that was great! I had a vague memory of reading that she sometimes rides with kids, so the second I saw her approaching the ride, I started telling the girls they should go ask her to ride - so glad it worked out! Izzy still talks about that too! Definitely one of those extra magical experiences!


That was a great surprise to find that later in our Photopass! I also videotaped the whole ride if you ever want to feel really dizzy and disoriented while reflecting fondly, haha.


I love this shot! Aria kept asking me to put my hands up on rides, so I'm sure she did the same with Alice...and she obliged. Cute!

Sounds like a great trip with Maya to look forward to!

no, fish tacos still off the menu :-/

I'm so glad to hear that your recent trip was great!

Your plans for your trip with Maya sound perfect!

We're going in March and are hoping that Lola will be tall enough for Barnstormer, but we'll have to see. She is still so small!

Aww that'd be so fun!! I am excited to take Maya on that one, I think she's actually about 34" now so 35" should be totally manageable by may! I hope Lola will be for your trip!
 


December Day 5! I have to finish this before a whole year goes by haha! <3

This morning we had a leisurely morning as we were meeting up for a slightly later breakfast at Ohana with Dugette & Fam. But thanks to staying at Shades we got to walk over. Of course, we are up early always, so eventually I decided to do the walk over and check out the shops - which we discovered the main downstairs one didn't open until 9! boo. On our walk over:

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You can see it was finally warm enough to not need a jacket! Yay. We enjoyed checking out the holiday décor!

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Absolutely gorgeous Christmas tree!

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I still miss the center fountain thing :-/

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This picture looks like a kid took it, but I do not think I'd ask a kid to do so and I know Dugette wasn't here yet (for izzy to take it Lol). Anyway we got a little pic of us

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We couldn't check in yet, so the girls enjoyed playing with the bead necklaces

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Then once we checked in, the pager had a dead battery so we weren't called when the table was ready! They wouldn't let us have bread due to Maya's allergy until we expressly asked them to bring it which was a little annoying. We started off with some fruit bowls

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And Dugette surprised the girls with some Stitch stuffed animals <3

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I find the lighting in here tough for pictures, with all the bright windows - so sorry they are pretty bad! Pluto came over first

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This is what Maya thought of him

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I will say, she loves him now!

The food is brought family style like Garden Grill (which I appreciate not having to get up!). But it isn't very good, or exciting. They really need something special here (Garden Grill has its amazing cinnamon roll thing plus the extra sauces for the waffles and salsa for eggs? makes it just special). The food here is very plain vanilla - bacon, eggs, home fries, waffles. Aria's plate:

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Mine -

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Not really great IMO.

I did have hot sauce packets which I used on my potatoes so they were decent.

Then Mickey came over!

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I'll spare you more Maya pics but she was NOT happy

Soon after they did a little train around the restaurant which Izzy & Aria went up to do!

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I picked up Maya so she could watch

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And finally lilo and stitch came over!

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The interaction with Lilo was fantastic! She loved playing with the stuffed animals too

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One of my favorite things about the meal though was that there was a photopass photographer along with Stitch!!! How awesome!!

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We even got a great group photo!!

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So breakfast was pretty good - but until they add in some good food I think I'm all set with going back! (Unless one of my kids develops an intense love of Lilo & Stitch I guess).

We all hopped on the monorail, but only went one stop over as we wanted to check out the GF Decorations!

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The gingerbread house is definitely impressive

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It was just opening up though so we decided to head over to the magic kingdom...









 
I have to say, I LOVE the new setup for bag check being dispursed. THIS is why! Look at this mess! We got off the monorail and had to wait a good 20 minutes or so just for the bags to be checked.

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Once we finally got in, Maya had fallen asleep in the stroller so on our way to our first fastpass at Peter Pan, we stopped for a couple pics of the big girls

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They were kind of awkward pics lol. it was bright

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Then we headed over to Peter Pan. After PP we had plans to split up where Dugette & fam & Aria were going to ride BTMRR and I had 1 FP for Pirates with Maya, so I decided to just wait around with her vs. waking her up. They went to ride. OF course 5 minutes later Maya woke up LOL

So we hopped on to ride together

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Then we made our way to our Pirates FP. Maya was a bit unsure of this ride

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Somehow we finished up before they were done riding though so we played in this play area by Splash while we waited

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At this point we split up for a bit, we had some extra FP's to use and so we planned to meet up later for our dinner at Chef Mickeys! First we had a HM FP to use.

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However we stood in this spot (which is at the entrance to the FP queue) for a good 10 minutes without moving so I decided to leave. Aria doesn't care for it anyway.

So instead, we got ice cream for lunch ;) (well you can see Maya ate a veggie packet so that was good)

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Maya really enjoyed the fruit bar!

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We may have also had cotton candy ... :-D haha

Then we went to use some more FP!! Jungle Cruise up first

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The girls enjoyed it and Maya was on a sugar rush

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Then we headed to the magic carpets! I am sad we didn't do this one in October!

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Ahh gone are the days of carrying around extra MB's!

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Aria didn't like splitting up from Izzy so she was a bit grumpy.

Next we headed to Ariel's ride which was fun - Maya was beyond tired though and was being pretty silly! So after the ride, I put her down for a nap in the stroller and headed next door to Gaston's for a treat. I also grabbed some snacks for the girls like apple slices and fruit.

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Continued!!

Next I thought it would be nice to find a shady spot to sit and relax and wait for the parade. Ear muffs came in handy and Maya had a decent nap which was great

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Aria had a ball playing with the girls sitting next to her

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Eventually the parade started and Maya woke up

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And then we joined to hoards attempting to get back to Fantasyland. I took this photo because this lady was just plain RUDE! She was like get out of our way and just barreled into people with the stroller. Anyway we had FPs to meet Cinderella and Elena -

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This is the first time we had met Elena and she was FANTASTIC! She talked to Aria about all sorts of stuff including the Jaquins (? sp?)

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She was very animated much like Rapunzel is

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It was such a fantastic meet that I agreed to purchase Elena's dress for Aria in the dump shop. LOL! It was 20% off thanks to the AP though...

We had FP's next to meet Ariel so headed over there and Aria insisted on wearing her new dress so I did a little line dance getting it on her.

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She was too cute afterwards walking around like this

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On our way to our next FP, we stopped for a few photos!

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And then we got this super cute solo pic of Maya

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After that fun it was time to walk over to the Contemporary! We had plans to have dinner at Chef Mickeys! Aria's new Elena dress came with stipulations that she still had to change into her Minnie dress for dinner haha! So we did that and then met up.







 


Before dinner we quickly checked out the holiday decorations!

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We checked in and didn't have to wait long, and in the meantime got a group picture


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I got really excited to see NERDS in a drink and ordered this (the non alcoholic version)

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Maya checked out her options thanks to the allergy friendly menu (I really appreciate having this!!)

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I took the girls up for some food and came back with this

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And mine looked like this. Man their pierogies are DELICIOUS

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My drink came too

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Mickey came over -

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Yeah not happy :-/

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Oh no!

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Double High Fives!

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Dug likes to joke with the characters and I think he did tonight but I don't remember them.

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You can tell Maya is reaching for me here - I am thankful the character fear seems to only hit my kiddos for a short time frame (from about 10 months - 18 months) and then they are good again because it's hard to juggle one who LOVES the characters and one (or two?) who is super afraid of them.

Minnie always seems to come last! LOL

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Aria showed off a twirl

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LOL had to go for dessert!!

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So did you think our evening was over?? NOPE!! We had plans to head back to the MK as we had some extra FP's to use - including another Elena meet now that Aria had the dress. That was a tough FP to get, I tried for quite some time and finally grabbed it!!

First though I got Maya into PJs hoping she would soon fall asleep in the stroller.

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Aria got dressed back into her Elena dress and we headed out

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Someone was wide awake and silly

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It didn't last long though, by the time we made it to Barnstormer, Maya was out. Dugette took the girls to ride

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And then we headed into Dumbo to let the girls play off some energy.

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There must have been something in the girl's dinners though, as they BOTH had accidents in here!! First Izzy, so they took her out to deal with that. Then Aria came to me! Considering she was almost 5 and hadn't had an accident in like 2.5 years, I was definitely not prepared. Thankfully Dugette came to the rescue and soon both girls were all cleaned up. So crazy!! Sorry if TMI but, now I always carry around a pair of undies haha.

I don't really remember the timing or how we figured out who would do what, but I got to bring Aria & Izzy on the TTA so that was fun!!

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Then we headed in to Meet Tiana and Rapunzel.

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Maya woke up when Rapunzel was checking her out (what a weird way to wake up right?)

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I don't think she was happy about it!!

Then about 10 minutes before Wishes started, we slid in to meet Cinderella and Elena. Aria went up to meet Cinderella but Izzy banged into one of the poles and was really upset :(

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Cinderella checked on her

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Then we met Elena again, this time she was much less animated

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We didn't have time to go around to the other side of the castle so we decided to watch Wishes from the backside. Dugette got Izzy some ice for her head too I think.

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Funny enough, Maya wanted out of the stroller, and little miss passed out IN the stroller

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Then Maya fell back asleep on the walk to the monorail. I was not a fan of the firework location and was sad to have missed seeing Wishes from the front, esp since we never saw it again :(

When we got back to the room I had to take a pic of this cuteness before putting the girls to bed

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After I got them in bed, I had to do some packing because we needed to check the suitcase in the morning and check out before heading over to a PPO BF!









 
2018 Updates!!

So on a whim I booked a 5 night surprise trip for Aria over her birthday in January :-D

We are changing things up majorly and I am almost thinking she can do without a stroller?! I'm staying at a VALUE (All Star Movies) but that might change depending on how much more a mod is. The main thing I am thinking about that is it will be too cool to go in the pool anyway. Round trip flights were $81 each so I priced out the vaca sans car (using ME, and DISNEY BUSES OMG). I might have a moment of clarity and change this up but for now that's the plan. I also got a decent AP discount which brought the room to about 100/night.

So far I have grabbed:

- Early morning magic (this was so much fun on our last trip just the two of us!)
- Tusker House w/ Rivers of Light pkg
- Minnie Dine @ H&V w/ Fantasmic pkg
- Crystal Palace

I am thinking of going back to Frontera Cocina on the evening we spend in Disney Springs, and am crossing my fingers and toes that a Chef Mickeys and Bon Voyage bf open up!
 
I love that you managed to hit all the monorail resorts throughout your MK day. The GF during Christmastime is just gorgeous. Glad you were able to stop and admire it before heading to the park.

Too cute that Aria insisted on an Elena dress after the meet and greet. My good friend's daughter is currently obsessed with her. Since Landon has no interest in it, I've never seen an episode myself, but the dress looks beautiful.

The dinner at Chef Mickey's looks a lot better than I thought it would be. I ate breakfast there a few years ago and was not impressed. Perhaps dinner is the way to go.

Love all your shots on Main Street with the girls!
 
Whew--that took me several sittings to get through--great update! I'm with you on Ohana breakfast-- it's just so-so. I'd much rather eat at Kona if we are at the Poly. YUM! I think it's so neat that you and the Dug family are able to make sure both girls had a great time--Dis-friends FTW. That day looked really fun--but I want to see the pic of the rude stroller lady after the parade lol. I so wish we could squeeze in a Christmas trip some time to see the lobby decorations and the gingerbread house-- that looked really neat. And your CM dinner looks awesome--but do you think you got enough potatoes? Lol. I have no idea what Elena is about--she's new since our Disney Jr. days. Her dress is really pretty though--Aria looks so cute in hers! Sorry you never got to see Wishes again-- although I kind of like that viewing spot because the fireworks are more 360 degrees. But it would have been nice if your last viewing time was in front of the castle.

I saw your update about Jan--we are there 1/20-1/27 w a car if you need a ride:-). I like using Uber when we are there without one, though-- it's pretty inexpensive to get around. I brought Bubble Bum car seats that it flipped to the stroller just so we had something if necessary (def not ok for kids in 5-point seats though.). I did a Kindergarten trip with just an umbrella stroller, but I really just used it as a place to park the backpack. I actually parked the stroller near Town Hall in the MK and didn't even bother taking it into the actual park. It was nice to have it in Epcot, though; little legs can get tired there!
 
I love that you managed to hit all the monorail resorts throughout your MK day. The GF during Christmastime is just gorgeous. Glad you were able to stop and admire it before heading to the park.

Too cute that Aria insisted on an Elena dress after the meet and greet. My good friend's daughter is currently obsessed with her. Since Landon has no interest in it, I've never seen an episode myself, but the dress looks beautiful.

The dinner at Chef Mickey's looks a lot better than I thought it would be. I ate breakfast there a few years ago and was not impressed. Perhaps dinner is the way to go.

Love all your shots on Main Street with the girls!

The resorts are so gorgeous!! I was glad we made the time too! Elena is probably my favorite Disney Junior show, it's fun and seems to have a nice storyline for each episode.

I really enjoy Chef Mickeys and its one of our family favorites. I think I prefer dinner, although we had breakfast this last trip in October and it was good too? DH enjoys all the meat options for dinner.

Whew--that took me several sittings to get through--great update! I'm with you on Ohana breakfast-- it's just so-so. I'd much rather eat at Kona if we are at the Poly. YUM! I think it's so neat that you and the Dug family are able to make sure both girls had a great time--Dis-friends FTW. That day looked really fun--but I want to see the pic of the rude stroller lady after the parade lol. I so wish we could squeeze in a Christmas trip some time to see the lobby decorations and the gingerbread house-- that looked really neat. And your CM dinner looks awesome--but do you think you got enough potatoes? Lol. I have no idea what Elena is about--she's new since our Disney Jr. days. Her dress is really pretty though--Aria looks so cute in hers! Sorry you never got to see Wishes again-- although I kind of like that viewing spot because the fireworks are more 360 degrees. But it would have been nice if your last viewing time was in front of the castle.

I saw your update about Jan--we are there 1/20-1/27 w a car if you need a ride:-). I like using Uber when we are there without one, though-- it's pretty inexpensive to get around. I brought Bubble Bum car seats that it flipped to the stroller just so we had something if necessary (def not ok for kids in 5-point seats though.). I did a Kindergarten trip with just an umbrella stroller, but I really just used it as a place to park the backpack. I actually parked the stroller near Town Hall in the MK and didn't even bother taking it into the actual park. It was nice to have it in Epcot, though; little legs can get tired there!

I know, sorry! I just felt like getting the entire thing out in one go, which took a few hours on my end too lol!

Oh wow!! I'm having a heck of a time grabbing those last minute ADR's but otherwise super excited for the trip and forgot you'd be going then!! We get in late on the 25th but maybe we'll have some overlap on the 26th?? True about the umbrella stroller. IDK what to do. We sold ours, and sold the City Mini single otherwise I'd bring that. I don't really want to carry around stuff all day though so I kind of envisioned no outfit changes (blasphemy!!) and just carrying my phone and a couple cards. Since it'll just be the two of us we can go at a slower pace, but it might be pushing it? IDK.
 
I've caught up and it's making me wish a had a Christmas trip planned this year, first time since 2013 I haven't but next years is already planned. Your January trip sounds like it's shaping up to be great. Just a word of warning though, staying at the All-Stars and relying on buses only could make you swear off buses forever! I typically enjoy taking the bus versus driving but every time I've stayed all stars I end up driving so I would personally either move to moderate (nothing wrong the hotel itself, just better buses in my opinion), or plan for a car. Hope your reservations open up, at least with last minute trips you don't have to wait very long to go!
 
Oh wow!! I'm having a heck of a time grabbing those last minute ADR's but otherwise super excited for the trip and forgot you'd be going then!! We get in late on the 25th but maybe we'll have some overlap on the 26th??

We have a ppo CP that morning, which I might change if our Pandora plans get prioritized; I'm waiting until our FP window next week to really solidify plans. I've been really lucky with ADR's opening up a week or two before the trip-- will cross fingers for you! Would love to have a Dis-meet if that works out!
 
That was quite the update!!

Ohana breakfast looks fun, but the food does look pretty boring. Aria and Izzy looked like they really enjoyed it, though!

You guys had an extremely full day. I'm not surprised that Aria was passed out in the stroller by the time Wishes started!

That is so fun that you have a surprise birthday trip planned for Aria. $81 roundtrip - that is amazing - is that out of PVD? For our March trip (early March, not even spring break), tickets are crazy expensive so we are flying out of PVD and they are still over $400 each!

I bet you will be fine without a stroller!
 
This trip report is making me so excited to be at WDW in 19 days!! Our first time to wdw for Christmas time but we went to Disneyland for Christmas decorations 4 years ago.
 
I think the best things Ohana breakfast has going for it is that it's the only place to meet Lilo, and that they bring the food to you. The food itself is just ok. But it is really nice not having to worry about missing the characters to make a trip up to the buffet! We listened to a review of Garden Grill breakfast on a DIS podcast episode, and both DH and I are very interested in the cinnamon roll, so we might try that one next trip over Ohana.

Love monorail resort hopping during the holidays! GF is so gorgeous all decked out for Christmas!

Poor Maya with the characters. :( I definitely know your frustration of having one that loves them and one that doesn't. That was us in Disneyland earlier this year! Thankfully Delilah warmed up by the time we got to our one and only character meal. But the older girls look like they very much enjoyed it! I love the Minnie Mouse dresses!


Sorry this Elena was less animated. I had to stop and do a double take because I follow Elena's "friend" on Instagram and her sister is a DISer I follow!
 
Just getting caught up! So fun to see the adventures you all had, though I was exhausted just reading about it! Disappointing that some of the food wasn't up to par, especially at Be Our Guest. Can't wait to hear more!
 

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