DISNEY DISNEY DISNEY!!!!
THE LONG AWAITED TRIP!
We held off on going to Disneyworld for 7 months. Partially, because we always go in September, since crowds are low, partially because we wanted Lexi to somewhat enjoy the experience. So when we got into our car and made that 3.5 hour drive, we were bursting with excitement and anticipation.
The big mystery and question was how Lexi would take to being away from home for 5 nights and dealing with the parks’ heat, people and stimulation. Based on her behavior prior to that day, I expected good things from this trip and it didn’t disappoint.
Day 1: Sunday.
For the first time in our lives, we actually packed the night before. And even with that preparation, it still took us till 1pm to finish putting things in the car. We are lame, I know. The plan was to take it easy on Sunday, settle in, walk around, go to the pool. Well, we were too excited to stay at the resort. Magic Kingdom had Extra Magic hours that evening (for resort guests) and they were running both the Spectromagic parade and the Wishes fireworks ( which only happens a few times a week), so we figured we’d grab some dinner and pop over to Magic Kingdom.
We booked our stay at the All Star Sports resort. When we go on short visits like that, it doesn’t really matter much to us where we stay as long as it’s on Disney campus. The rates are CRAZY cheap in September, especially for Florida residents or passholders (like $65/night cheap).
{A little note: Back before Lexi we’d go to Disney once every week or two, so we’d book our stays at the All Star resorts since we’d barely spend any time in the room. Now that Lexi is in the picture, it makes much more sense to stay at nicer resorts, because of the amount of time spent on premises rather than at the parks. Unfortunately, we didn’t realize that until we took this trip and sat in the hotel room for 4-5 hours a day.}
When we checked in, it turned out that their pool was closed for renovation, so we asked if we could be transferred to any other resort. After a few phone calls, we were re-directed to the POP CENTURY resort.
I had two outfits picked out for Lexi for each park and each day at the parks, one for the morning and one for the evening. Too bad we didn’t get to take good pictures of her in this cute onesie, but she looked like a little casual princess in it 🙂 I am wearing a Boob Design nursing shirt which is super convenient for nursing with a little pocket. I left my diaper bags at home and we only brought Andrew’s Diaper Dude bag you’re seeing in the picture.
I had booked a reservation at our favorite Boma, an african style buffet (Disney buffets are VERY different from your traditional ones). Boma is absolutely amazing when it comes to food. We love it so much that, despite the large number of great restaraunts on Disney property, we HAVE to visit it at least once when we are in the area. Just walking into the lobby of Animal Kingdom logde is a huge treat. We stayed there once for two weeks in a room with a savanah view and it was great! Our favorite Disney resort to stay in, closely followed by the French Quarter!
Lexi was eating up all the sights and sounds Animal Kingdom Lodge had to offer! She was really loving it, I could tell! No fuss, even after a 3 hour ride, just a happy little girl. She definitely drew a lot of attention, sitting in that chair, looking around and attempting to crawl.
Once we got seated, we took turns loading our plates with all kinds of vegetable, grain and bean goodness and I got a yummy squash soup for Lexi that tasted like dessert. She really enjoyed it, though it was messy and I am afraid that the onesie might be ruined forever (I hope not, though). Again, when we were done eating, this little girl was ALL OVER THE PLACE. Flirting with couples, crawling on my knees, giggling, grabbing things. It felt so normal and so awesome. At times I might compalin about Lexi’s lack of desire to sleep, but times like this I really appreciate her night owl nature and interest in everything. It was 7:40pm and she was not even close to being ready for bed.
When we were done, Andrew was going to change her diaper and I HAD to go to the bathroom. He figured he’d swap out her diaper really quick on the pad on the table in the lobby since she only peed in it. I lingered for a second before going just in time to see Lexi start to tinkle right as he pulled the diaper off. Hahahaha! FAIL! Sorry, Disney! Good lesson to always go to the bathroom to change her. We quickly wiped everything up & disinfected the table, but it was a good laugh. After I came back, I saw this adorable scene below. She is just SUCH an awesome little bookworm. The whole trip our go-to thing was books if we needed to calm her quickly.
We then quickly left, running almost late for the parade. The annoying thing about Magic Kingdom is that you have to leave your car at the transportation center, walk all the way from the parking lot to the station, then board a Ferry or a Monorail to get to the park. While we are not a stroller family when it comes to our preferred mode of transportation (I like to babywear, except for on walks, though I see that changing since Lexi is pretty heavy now), at Disney, a stroller is SIMPLY A MUST. But so is a carrier, in my opinion. More on that in a different post.
So we ran from the car to the center, all giddy, jumping around, messing around, racing with the parking lot train, boarded the monorail (2nd picture below) and arrived at Magic Kingdom. For the first time since getting pregnant. Ahhhh!
{Stroller – new lightweight Kiddy City N Move}
We missed you, dear!!!! I didn’t really take pictures of the parks much, since I have a gazillion of them from all the previous trips. This was all about Lexi and or experience together. But Magic Kingdom was in its autumn glory, covered in orange decorations and pumpkin lights. So beautiful!
It was nearing 9pm and Lexi was getting tired, finally. I moved her from the stroller into my Boba Air and we walked down Main street looking for a spot to watch the parade.
We missed the Spectromagic Mainstreet Electrical Parade but did catch it another day.
It was awesome and Lexi clearly enjoyed it. She was a bit iffy and a bit curious about it at first. There were a lot of serious faces, but towards the end she couldn’t resist fun music and twinkling lights and starting bouncing to the beat, clapping hands and smiling. I was too busy enjoying watching her have fun that I didn’t take any photos, except for a few snapshots on my cell.
I gotta say though, she was NOT as impressed by the fireworks as I’d think she would. First of all, the “BOOMS” in the air kind of scared her a bit. Not to the point of crying but she definitely was like” Ummm, what is that? Should I be afraid?” Then she started sort of getting into it when a {grown} kid next to us started bawling. Well, you might be aware that the way empathy works at this age is that they get scared and upset when they see someone else cry ( it’s a behavior that, I am sure, has also to do with imitation and making sense of the world as well, besides just built-in empathy).
So I had to nurse her a few times when she got a bit distressed due to the booms of the fireworks and the crying kid.
When the fireworks were done, Alexis was definitely ready to go to sleep (FINALLY!). She laid her head down on my shoulder ( a super recent development- I love it) and soon her eyes closed and she fell asleep. I transfered her into the stroller and we headed back to the monorail. While waiting for the train, we started talking to a family whose young daughter was also named Lexi ( it is CRAZY how many Lexis there were at Disney). Her grandfather was being loud and joked, pointing at Alexis, that nothing would wake her up now, “right?”. WRONG! She’s one of those “Sleep? What sleep?” babies. They didn’t look convinced since Lexi looked like she was passed out for good. So I thought to myself: “Maybe she IS so tired that nothing WILL wake her up?”. Well, as we were getting off the train to walk to our car, she did wake up. “That’s my girl!”, I thought “proudly” hahaha. Luckily, she went back to sleep in the car seat and had to be transferred out of it into the room after Andrew ran and prepared the bed.
So that was our first day at Disney. Lexi loved it, we loved it. And every day there was getting better and better as we were figuring out how to work the parks with a 7 months old.
Next up:
Disneyworld, Day 2: Animal Kingdom
59 comments
So glad Lexi had fun! My son’s first trip to Disney was at 3 weeks old. We are a Disney family through and through.
I wanted to let you know though that Magic Kingdom doesn’t have the Spectromagic parade anymore. They got rid of that a few years ago and brought back the Mainstreet Electrical Parade so that’s the one you saw!
I personally prefer Spectromagic and I hope they bring it back soon!
Yeah I know but mainstreet electrical just doesn’t sound as good as spectromagic lol
I wasn’t aware there was an actual difference in the parade though 🙂
Oh, can I ask – was it actually the Spectromagic parade or was it the Electrical Parade? i ask because they’re two different things and Spectromagic (and it’s accompanying music) were my FAVORITE but the last few times I was there they’d changed to a different electrical parade with different music, and I don’t see Spectromagic listed on their website either. Can you recall which it was for certain?
We are taking Hudson to his first nfl game in a week. I am beyond nervous! You see other people with babies at these kind of things frequently but the idea of taken your own is so intimidating. Glad Disney went so well! Wish us luck for a 4 hr football experience.
I think the first time is always scary. But then you’re like “yeah, I can handle this!” lol
“Note: No handicaps were harmed in the making of our memories”
….that’s a sightly offensive way of putting it. Hoping it’s just the language barrier…..
or a joke. One of the two. Lighten up, Lara 🙂
Actually, what you wrote is offensive. People with disabilities often struggle to get access to accessible hotel rooms, while you casually take one when you do not require it.
I am aware of that. That’s why I wrote the note saying that half the rooms there are handicap accessible and they give those out as normal rooms all the time.
I’m sure anyone who doesn’t need it wouldn’t just request one. Like when just the two of us would stay there we’d go for a room that was given to us (which more than half the time WAS a handicap accessible room). Now that Lexi is here and we need to make sure she doesn’t fall off, it’s different.
I am confident that all the needs of handicap people were fulfilled especially considering the advance booking nature of Disney stays and the number of rooms available.
Doesn’t Lexi sleep between you guys? How would she fall off the bed in a queen but not in a king? Maybe I misunderstand, I don’t co-sleep so I am not sure how it works.
Yes, to be safe she has to sleep between us. However, a queen is so small that I do not feel that it is safe for both of us to sleep with Lexi wedged between us. I know some families have no choice and do it, but I just don’t feel comfortable doing that for Lexi’s safety.
Since then I found a really awesome siderail that we will be installing on our king size bed as well. She is mobile enough to even crawl over us at this point, so a side rail is now necessary.
You are contradicting yourself.
The only rooms with king size beds are handicap accessible rooms. Correct?
You state in your post that king size beds (which means handicap accessible rooms) are first come, first serve. You then state “You can either request it at check in and run the risk of them not having one, OR you can book a hand-cap accessible room which all have king size beds.”
If there are SO MANY handicap accessible rooms, why can’t you just request one upon check-in.
Simple- because you run the risk of them giving it to someone else who is NOT handicapped. All star rooms are usually booked ahead of time, and all people needing a handicap accessible room have one booked. Out of the ones left (there’s actually 96 handicap accessible rooms at that resort which puts the ratio to 1:19), they just give them out if a person asks for a king bed at check in ( since there’s no way to book a king non handicap room). Also they give them out to guests who don’t ask simply because they are available. We’ve stayed in a king bed room about 10 times without even requesting one. It’s really not that big of a deal at Disney.
No, just offensive. I’m a big fan of you and your website, but that was a really unfortunate word choice. In any case, I’m glad your trip went well.
Is the word handicap offensive? I thought it was an acceptable word. At least it’s used widely enough. What word should I use instead?
It was the use of “handicaps” as a descriptor which was offensive. You could have said that the needs of people who required handicapped rooms were met. Also, “handicap convention” comes across as dismissive. I know this wasn’t your intention, like I said, I am a big fan. I am hoping this is a simple case of lost in translation. Your English is far better than my Russian would ever be 🙂
See I had a feeling… I just don’t get the whole PC thing (that’s definitely a Russian thing. Things are called their names and people aren’t easily offended like it seems they are in America).
I personally think it’s silly that they designate a new word for something that is PC, then people use it to name call ANYWAYS, so IT becomes unacceptable and a new word is invented. One can’t keep up! Lol
I’ll change the wording as you suggest. Thanks!
P.s. “handicap convention” was a total joke. We gotta be able to joke around, don’t we?
How about “people in need of handicap rooms” instead of handicaps? Does that fulfill the purpose while keeping the sentence structure and the lighthearted manner of it intact? I hate to censor what I write in fear of offending someone (since people are so different, anything can offend anyone), because that would take away from the honesty (I either write what I think or edit and censor everything I write- there’s no middle ground). But I also don’t want to be rude or say things that are not socially acceptable. Thanks for the help! 🙂
yep, that sounds much better! Thanks for listening. BTW, I LOVE Boma. That soup is SOO good, we actually requested the recipe and make it at home now. It has a tragic amount of cream in it, but good for special occasions.
Oh no I didn’t think about cream! Can you share the recipe? I bet it can be changed to have no cream!
Frankly, as someone with a handicap, and someone whose husband is handicapped, I’m not really offended as much by the term as the casual arrogance of your attitude. You honestly have no idea whether using a handicapped accessible room inconvenienced someone with a handicap. You just assume it didn’t because of the volume of rooms. But you don’t know. And you also don’t know what it’s like to try to deal with a handicap in a non accessible room.
Sure, fine, get the accessible room if it meets your needs. They don’t require documentation or a prescription or anything to get them, so whatever. But please, don’t encourage all your readers to use them. Do the math. If everyone follows that line of thinking, those rooms will not be used by the people they were intended to serve.
Like I indicated earlier, it was not meant to be offensive or arrogant.
I didn’t just assume noone was inconvenienced. I know for a fact. It’s middle of the dead season, hotels aren’t booked up and the king beds are given away to guests other than handicapped ones. A 1:19 ratio of handicap acessible rooms pretty much ensures that even during the busy season, all the needs of handicap people are fullfilled.
As far a my tip, I might be naiive, but I would hope that people wouldn’t abuse the little tip I gave them, but instead use it in a real need. When you co-sleep, it’s difficult to travel, because of lack of king size beds and queen beds are too small to be safe with 2 parents. I did find a good side rail after I got home from the trip that covers the whole length of most beds, so that will be nice.
Oh and also, I think what you might not understand (I didn’t really explain it clearly) is that the handicap rooms there aren’t specifically reserved for handicapped people. They ARE available to handicapped people and have a roll out shower, but they are freely given to people requesting a king at check in, or other guests. Because of the high number of rooms like that, they don’t make it a big deal whether they give you a handicap accessible room or not. And half the time you get one anyways. Had it been anywhere else but Disney, I’d never even think about requesting a handicap accessible room. It’s just I know how their all star resorts work.
Thanks for changing it. 🙂 It’s the fact that saying “handicaps” dismisses what they are – people first – and blankets them as JUST handicapped. If that makes sense?
Yeah I get it now. I think I was just going off the word handicap accessible rooms. But it’s used as an adjective here rather than a noun which is what escaped me the first time.
I think it was a funny way of acknowledging what was probably passing through some people’s minds “oh you used up a handicap room and didn’t need it?” . She’s aware of how many rooms are available and wanted to share the tip with everybody else that you would most likely not be taking a room away from someone who needed it
Precisely, Amanda!
awww it looks like Lexi did really enjoy it (at least Day 1 so far). We too are staying at Disney All Start Sports when we go in October. Im a little nervous though, my baby boy will only be about 4.5 months when we go. We kind of planned it around Epcots Food & Wine Festival for us adults since the baby cant really do much, but were thinking about maybe going to Mickeys Not So Scary Halloween party too.
Cant wait to see how you all did at Animal Kingdom!
the sweet life of a southern wife
Definitely no need to abandon babywearing due to her weight! Sounds like it’s about time to switch to a back carry which you can do in either of the Bobas you have. I have a Boba 2G and been back carrying my daughter since she was 6 months old. She’s now 18 months old and since her goal in life is to run into traffic, I suspect we’ll be wearing for a while longer. Absolutely love toddlerwearing!
She JUST started being ok with back carry. For just a short period of time. Her biggest issue is she can’t see as well. But I’m definitely not done with baby wearing- I love it too much!
If seeing is her issue, then you might want to try a high back carry in a mei tai or woven wrap. Just a suggestion. My daughter refused to be carried face in at 3 months and I didn’t want to carry face out so we did a lot of slings until she got big enough to back carry. I really wish I had had a mei tei during that stage. (Unfortunately, finances were an issue.) She’s always just leaned around us to see what was going on.
Good suggestion! Thanks!
More more! I love this post. It looks like a fun time.
We have never brought a stroller to Disney and still wear our kids who are over 40 lbs. You can do it!
The word handicap isn’t offensive, how you referred to them is. My co worker spent the first 25 year of her life in Russia and she gasped when she read it, so I don’t think you can blame Russia on your insensitivity.
Hi, Elena! I am sort of new to your blog & enjoy reading your posts! We have very different parenting styles which is why I enjoy the information you put on your blog- it has been enlightening learning about different products/concepts from you. Just wanted to let you know that you have a new follower 🙂 If you don’t mind divulging- where did you get that adorable onesie for Lexi?
Thanks, Erin! 🙂
I got the onesie from Zulily. I had to go look up the brand, it’s Hula Mula.
You mentioned wishing that you could do a suite so that Lexi could be in bedroom while you and Andrew hung out in the living room area- are you able to leave her in the big bed by herself? Are there rails involved or something? Or does she just not move around a lot in the bed? I was just wondering, b/c we tried co-sleeping when our son was first born, but he quickly learned to roll. So while we can have him sleep in the bed with us, we were not able to leave him to sleep in our (king-sized) bed by himself by the time he was four months old- he would just roll and roll till he rolled off the bed.
She doesn’t tend to roll too much when she’s asleep and I am ALWAYS on her monitor when she is sleeping. We did get rails now, anyways, for the night, so it will be even safer.
Here is the butternut squash soup. I wouldn’t get too worried about the cream. It was a special event!!
3 ounces unsalted butter
11 ounces butternut squash, cut in chunks
salt and pepper (to taste)
8 ounces water
8 ounces heavy cream
8 ounces milk
2 tablespoons sugar, adjust if needed
1 teaspoon ginger (ground)
1 teaspoon nutmeg (ground)
1 teaspoon cinnamon (ground)
1 teaspoon coriander (ground)
1 tablespoon cornstarch
2 ounces water
3 ounces American cheese
1. In a small pot, melt the butter and pour over the squash. Season squash with salt and pepper and roast in 325-degree oven for 45 minutes (I use a dutch oven for this recipe, as it transfers easily from the oven to the stove).
2. In a kettle, mix squash with water. Add heavy cream and milk and puree using an immersion blender. Add sugar, ginger, nutmeg, cinnamon, and coriander.
3. Make a slurry with the cornstarch and add to the soup.
4. Add the American cheese and continue mixing until smooth.
5. Adjust seasoning. I like about double the amount of ginger
Ouch! 🙂 lol I guess there will be quite a few changes to the recipe to adapt it to our diet 🙁 I now need to forget I fed Lexi the soup 🙂
Thanks for the recipe, hope I can make it vegan (ish) and keep it as good as it was at Boma.
Maybe no cheese and silken tofu?? Is soy ok?? It will give the creamy-ness.
Definitely no American cheese. I have to check out soy for babies. We’ve been staying away from it.
Soy is alright for 7 months and up (according to the book I have found to be a reliable reference – super baby food by Ruth yaron). however, there are possible ties to increases in estrogen from large amounts of soy so I would just feed to to any little one, or any person, in moderation.
Except for the whole bean it suggests waiting until 9 months
Yes estrogen is what I had read a while ago. Ok good to know!
You could easily leave out the diary, and substitute coconut milk and vegetable stock instead. Fresh ginger would be a lot nicer too. It might not taste the same, but it would be a pretty nice soupl
What a doll! That’s fun you went on a vacation with Lexi…and great that she enjoyed it. I’ve heard Disney World and Disneyland are two entirely different experiences. Unfortunately I’m only familiar with Disneyland, and I can’t wait to take Lillian some day. But we’re waiting till she’s at least four so she can experience some of the rides, since that’s what Josh and I love about Disneyland. Do you and Andrew take turns on rides at Disneyworld, or is that not the main attraction for you?
By the way, thanks for the siderail tip you let me know about…I looked it up and it WOULD be perfect, except they only made it 17 inches tall 🙁 Our mattress itself is 15 inches tall! There’s no way that would keep Lillian secure. 🙁 Maybe I’m misunderstanding the product description though. You’ll have to let me know what it’s like on a bed!
We love the rides, but Disney for us is more about the experience since the rides are really designed for the kids. (Universal is a different story, their rides are our favorite). So we took Lexi knowing we won’t get to go on many attractions. Disneyworld does have enough rides for babies, though, so we did out fair share of them.
Re siderail: I think you might misunderstand something. We’ll be installing ours this weekend, so I’ll let you know. I’ll post it on instagram and tag you. I know our mattress is 10 inches so we’ll see.
omg soooo cute! I wiah i lived near disney so i could take theo there. One day we will get there!!! She is such a precious little soul. We alsmost exclusivley babywear too. My stroller drives me nuts!
You should definitely take Theo there! We use the stroller on walks and while running, but anything else I find it easier to babywear. It was great to have a stroller at Disney though, definitely helped A LOT! Especially for a baby who doesn’t walk or stand yet.
I think it’s great you are exposing her to new situations, although I can’t say I would make a baby listen to fireworks. It just seems insensitive to force their little ears to hear noises like that.
Did you cut your hair off or did you have extensions in before?
Yeah I got a haircut.
DisneywoooooorlD! :)))))
The picture of Lexi sitting on your husband’s lab looking at the camera is so precious.
So, it sounded like she didn’t mind the fireworks until the other child started crying. I took my son to see his first fireworks during the 4th (he was only 3.5 mo at the time) and I was worried that they would scare him but he actually loved it. We were far enough away that the booms weren’t so bad and he absolutely loved the colors.
I actually thought she’d like fireworks more than she did. She had been starting to develop a fear of loud noises like hairdryer or vaccuum (which where it all started with). SO I think she wasn’t as fond of fireworks as she would have been normally because of that.
O…M…G… Disney is my FAVORITE place in the entire world. Love, love, love this post! I cannot wait to take Benjamin there – and, try that Boma restaurant – it sounds to die for!!!!
Great, great photos, as always. You’ll have to share your tricks on how to take night photos!
Maybe I’m not seeing the big picture here, but I just don’t understand why people are being so offended by what you said… Maybe they need to go back and reitereate what your exacly saying! None the less, Lexi is freakin adorable! I love watching her grow… I have a 24 month old who is too very big for his age, and she reminds me alot of her accomplishments and milestones like him too.:)
We stayed at the Animal Kingdom resort for a week when we went on our honeymoon 4 year ago. We also got the savannah view, so neat to wake up to each morning and the hotel itself was pretty beautiful.