Pre-Trip Report: Walt Disney World Spring 2013

We’ve been leading up to this trip for a few months now and I hope you guys aren’t tired of hearing about it! We are 10 days away, so it’s almost go time…starting tomorrow I can start checking the weather for our trip using the 10 day forecast! It’s the little things, I tell ya.

We still have plenty to do, lists to write and shopping trips to go on. Of course, we had to make time for some photos!

I love reading the pre-trip reports and trip reports on the WDWMagic forums, so I decided to jump on that bandwagon and make one too!

It’s not the most detailed itinerary, but I thought it would be nearly impossible to plan too much with Trent.

Words cannot describe how excited we are for this trip with him. We’ve pretty much been shoving Disney and Mickey stuff at him since before he was born (like when I took my maternity photos at MK and Epcot!) so hopefully seeing Mickey, or any other character for that matter, won’t completely freak him out and force us to have a trip full of crying character photos. He knows who Mickey is because he loves Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, but seeing a cartoon or a stuffed animal and a real live character are two completely different things. Fingers crossed for that. We’re also trying to get him used to wearing hats so he’ll wear the Mickey ears we bought before he was born!

Having a baby added to the mix will definitely make things interesting. We understand that this trip will be much different than any trip we’ve ever had, and we LOVE that! We look forward to watching Trent experience everything for the first time. But we also know we will have to consider his naps (which he never takes at the same time, so we can’t even attempt to plan those out) and how he handles everything and that plans can change at any moment. I know plenty of people argue that kids won’t remember anything from trips this young, but that’s not stopping us from the experience of it all and that doesn’t mean he won’t have any less fun. I don’t remember every single second of every trip I’ve ever taken (especially after a few margaritas), but that doesn’t mean I didn’t have fun.

As I mentioned here, we are staying at Art of Animation for 4 nights in the Little Mermaid standard room and 2 nights in a Lion King suite. I plan on doing review videos of each room so anyone trying to decide between the two can see the differences. We will be venturing all over the resort to take photos and take in the scenery. We’ve been eyeing those poor empty buildings from across the lake at our usual resort, Pop Century, for years now and are so happy that they finally did something with them.

Also on the agenda is to check out New Fantasyland. I’ve never been on Dumbo and we were thinking that would be a good first ride for Trent. I thought POTC would be better and definitely more awesome for him to say, but figured we’d go with a classic children’s ride that would be easier to take video and photos. We’re pretty indecisive, so that could change by the time it happens! I also want to try some new-to-us food items, like a waffle sandwich (hmmm Chicken or Nutella?) and a ginormous cinnamon bun, as well as reunite with some old lovers of ours, like Dole Whips and sweet cream pretzels. Can you tell we like food?

Sunday: Drive down. We live about 3.5 hours away. We normally leave at the butt crack of dawn, but now that we have a wee guy with us, we’ll probably leave at a more normal hour. We’re hoping this will allow us to start the trip better rested than we do when we leave at 4 in the morning (although who am I kidding? “Rested” is no longer in my vocabulary since having a baby.). Before we enter the World, we’ll go to IKEA (we don’t have one in Tallahassee - I need to start a petition) and walk around for a little while for hours. We’ll eat lunch there or nearby and then take a quick trip to the Outlet Mall.

Then, we’ll check into AOA, wander around to take photos, video and to see all the new stuff. We may test out the pool if we have time. Dinner will be at Cape May Cafe for the seafood buffet (our first time there). Then, we’ll end the night at Downtown Disney and try to get to sleep at a normal hour so we can wake up early and make MK rope drop.

Monday: Holy crap, I can’t even contain myself over the excitement and anticipation of Trent’s first day at WDW. We’ll be getting up early for a quick breakfast at AOA, then plan on arriving with plenty of time to spare before rope drop. We barely got there on time when it was just the two of us, so this will be an effort, that’s for sure - wish us luck. We don’t have any particular plans, other than getting Trent on rides, having fun and recording it all. We’ll probably head back to AOA midday. We will end the night at the Tomorrowland Terrace Wishes Fireworks Dessert Party and the parade.

Tuesday: This will be a more liesurely wakeup than Monday. We’ll head to Hollywood Studios for an early lunch at 50′s Prime Time Cafe. We will definitely make sure to see Disney Junior Live! so he can see some of his favorite cartoon characters. We’ll end the night with Fantasmic!

Wednesday: We had vouchers for a tour from GetYourGuide, so we are getting picked up by a limo to be taken to the Grand Floridian for breakfast at 1900 Park Fare, which we’ve never been to. Then we’ll probably get dropped off at MK or Epcot. The limo will take us anywhere, but we were thinking we’d get the most benefit by being dropped off at MK as to avoid the parking lot, tram and monorail, since we always drive our own car to the parks. If we do get dropped off at MK, we will probably head over to Epcot at some point either for a little while or to end the night there.

Thursday: Today we are checking out of the Little Mermaid room and checking into the Lion King suite. We will be going to Animal Kingdom and would like to get there for opening, so we’ll probably either just put our stuff in the car or get the hotel to transfer it to the new room. I think AK will be great for Trent. He is fascinated by our dog and cat, so it will be fun to see how he reacts to other animals. We don’t have any plans for the evening after AK closes, but we’ll probably venture to another park for nighttime festivities.

Friday: We have our obligatory breakfast at Crystal Palace before MK opens, so we’ll arrive super early to get some photos in front of an empty castle. We’ll probably do a few things and then head over to Epcot again. I have my list ready of F&G food items I want to try and I think I’ll need at least 2 rounds to get it all.

Saturday: Check out. Boo. We’re leaving this day open to do anything we feel like we may have missed or didn’t get enough of during the week. In the past, by the time we get to the last day, sometimes we are enticed to head home early so we have time to relax before going back to work the next day. But since we don’t work Sundays, we’ll see how different we feel by this time.

“Probably” seems to be the word of the trip. I am fully aware of how having an infant may or may not change how we do things. I don’t want to plan too many things, like ADRs and specific park plans, knowing that we will have to see how he’s doing and go from there, but since we have Tables in Wonderland, we like utilizing it and getting our money’s worth.

I look forward to coming back and reporting on our trip! I plan on sharing photos and updates in real time over on our Facebook page, so you can Like the page and “travel with us” - I also plan on holding a spontaneous contest or two on Facebook with some potential Disney-related prizes, so Like us to get in on the fun! (FYI - Facebook is kind of weird about showing updates to everyone, so to make sure you see our updates, go to our page, click the Liked button right under the cover photo and make sure “Show in News Feed is Checked” - plus the more you like or comment on photos or status updates, the more likely it is that future updates will show up in your feed)

There will also be a giveaway when we return and it has to do with something we did on the trip!

Also, I added this photo over on the sidebar:

I’ve gotten some Walt Disney World questions over the past few months and I absolutely love answering them, so if you have a WDW question, just click there and send me your question! I’ll reply as soon as I can! You can also ask away in the comments!

Tomorrow, I’ll be posting about the new My Disney Experience app and online portal!

I’ve also started a partnership with Dad’s Guide to WDW, so I’ll be guest posting and sharing photos over there occasionally. Be sure to go check out his site, blog, Twitter and Facebook!