Our weekends had been fully booked up until the time I was due, so we were originally planning on just taking photos in the studio and around town. But the plans on one of our weekends got cancelled, so we immediately started wondering if we should go to Disney to take maternity pictures. I was going to be 34 weeks at the time, so the big question was going to be whether I could handle all the walking and what to do if anything were to happen while being a few hours away from home.
I have yet to let the pregnancy hold me back in any capacity, so we decided to go for it!
The open weekend was only about 3 weeks away when we decided to go and luckily Pop Century had available rooms with a Florida Resident discount. We love Pop and it had been a while since we stayed there…and we were also excited to be able to take a sneak peek at the Art of Animation Resort across the lake that we would be staying at in October!
I decided to call and make the reservation instead of booking online for 2 reasons: 1) So I would only have to pay one night’s deposit and 2) so I could submit my special requests. Being 34 weeks pregnant and knowing I’d have my walking work cut out for me in the parks, I wanted to limit the amount of walking I did elsewhere, like at the hotel. I requested a Preferred room, so it would be close to the food court, and I also requested a first floor room in the 50′s building, so that we could be closer to the parking lot and I wouldn’t have to climb any stairs. Picky? No. Smart? Yes, thank you!
When we checked in, I was surprised to see that they honored our requests! Our room could have been a little closer, but I was happy with it.
Our trip started on a Friday, I wanted to limit the amount of time I was taking off of work since I’m saving everything for maternity leave, so we made our doctor’s appointment for 1:00pm to be the first person of the afternoon. We were out of there by 1:45, I grabbed lunch on the way home, we scarfed it down while packing up the bags into the car and we were on the road by 2:30. I had originally planned to leave by 3:00, so I was completely stunned to see us ahead of schedule. But our good timing was quickly ruined with some sloooow people on the road. 
We arrived at Pop at 6:45pm and went straight to check-in. Since we were already in the building, we ate dinner at the food court. We were surprised to actually have a difficult time choosing what we wanted because we didn’t see too many items that we wanted. We used to always like the variety of the food court when staying there in the past, but today we both ended up with parmesan crusted chicken. Mine was accompanied by a side salad and breadstick and Brett chose a side of Alfredo pasta and a breadstick. Both meals were good and somewhat healthy, so pats on the back for us.
We then brought our stuff to the room, changed into our “picture day” outfits for the night and headed out to Epcot! We chose Epcot because they were having their Extra Magic Hours until midnight that night and we wanted as much time in the parks over our 3 day span as we could.
When we arrived at Epcot, we went to Guest Services to purchase our Annual Passes and Tables in Wonderland card. After entering the park, we took some quick maternity photos over near the Land Pavilion.
{Below are just a few, to view them all and our other maternity photos, click HERE}
After that, we headed towards World Showcase since Illuminations was starting soon. We found a great spot right between America and China and enjoyed the show. We then slowly walked around World Showcase taking maternity photos. The night sky and bright lights on some of the buildings made for a nice background.
I grabbed a sweet cream pretzel (now available at the America pavilion, so not just at Magic Kingdom any more!) for us to share, then we slowly started walking towards the exit while Brett took more photos.
We left long before the midnight closing time…we must be getting old. Or it could be that we were up and had to work half the day before driving 4 hours. I know, excuses, excuses.
Day 2
On Saturday, we were up early for our 8:50am reservations at Crystal Palace in the Magic Kingdom. Trent had an entire monorail seat to himself!
We both really love the Crystal Palace (Tigger’s there!) but we booked an early breakfast there for a different reason this time. The park didn’t open until 9:00am, but we wanted to take photos in front of Cinderella’s Castle without the mob of people that’s usually standing in front of it throughout the day. Well, when you book a meal inside the park before it opens, they will let you in before everyone else. So even though our ADR wasn’t until 8:50, we got there at about 8:15 and immediately went in. It’s like having the park to yourself!
We then enjoyed our yummy breakfast. I laugh when I admit this but my favorite dish is from the kid’s buffet…Pooh’s Puffed Toast with whip cream. We ate so fast that we only had 1 character come by for a photo…Piglet!
Eeyore walked by but had 20 kids tugging and pulling because their parents don’t know how to control their kids or to let other people have their turn. Brett wasn’t at the table to take the photo anyway, so Eeyore and I waved at each other and had a special moment while he continued to walk to the next table. Poor Eeyore.
For the next few hours, we slowly wandered around the park to take photos. It is absolutely amazing how different your park experience can be when you are not doing what the crowds are doing. We weren’t there for rides and we actually sought out little nooks to take private photos. We just continued to feel like we were the only ones there.
We did manage to ride 2 rides the entire weekend: the Haunted Mansion and the Peoplemover.
Peoplemover is awesome - a nice relaxing ride with almost never a wait time. We wanted to take photos on the ride, and we did, but we didn’t use them since they weren’t what we pictured in our heads. Some photos just don’t work right if you don’t have someone else taking them. Have I mentioned how awesome Brett is for being able to not only take photos of me, but to also take the ones where he is in them too? He had to set up each shot and get everything in focus, then get in the photo, use a remote to take the photo and then go back to make sure it was ok. It definitely makes each photo take that much longer, but well worth it for us to have the entire weekend to take photos, as opposed to an hour or two that a payed photographer would give us.
Around 11:30, we decided it was getting a little too hot out, so we headed out of the park and did some shopping on the way out. I love my annual pass discount.
We took the boat back to the TTC this time for some more photo opportunities.
We took a nap at the hotel for a couple of hours, even Mr. Brett I-never-take-naps took a nap. We then changed and headed to the All-Star Movies Resort to take photos in the Toy Story section.
We got back to Magic Kingdom around 5:30. We saw the wait time to meet Mickey & Minnie was only 5 minutes, so we took the opportunity to take the photo we had planned for our 34 weeks progress photo!
I was drawn to the backed goodies.
Gigantic Rice Krispies Treat
Avengers Monorail
Avengers Monorail
We then took the train to Fantasyland and had dinner at Cosmic Rays. We also stopped to take photos of the Supermoon after it started getting dark.
By this time, the Main Street Electrical Parade was starting, so we wandered towards Main Street and found a spot by the bakery wall to watch. We asked the cast member that was next to us where would be a good spot to watch the fireworks that hasn’t already been taken…and she gave us the perfect spot that we would have never thought of. And even though the likelihood of any of us being there at the same time is very slim, I’m still not telling, but you may be able to figure it out just by looking at the photos!
So we assumed our spot and defended it against all the people that were trying to push us LOL. Even stroller pushers were no match for us!
We FINALLY got to see The Magic, The Memories and You light show on the castle, then it was time for Wishes!
I swear, one day I will have to spend some time thinking about what kind of Disney parent I want to be. Do I want to be the rude, inconsiderate of others parent that will do anything for my child to have the best time, even it means blocking the view of others by putting my kid on my shoulders to be 12 feet above the ground? Or do I want to be the smart parent that realizes timing is important and to show up early to find a good spot and that just holding your kid normally will still allow him or her to see the fireworks? Hmmm…time for payback or time to remember what it was like having a kid block your view? That one will require some serious thought.
As much as we had planned on staying at MK until it closed at 1am, after the fireworks Brett took a few photos and we headed back to the hotel. Man, we are lame preparing for having children. Haha that’s my story and I’m sticking to it.
After getting back to Pop, we grabbed some Powerade from the food court with our refillable mug, then headed to the Generation Gap Bridge for Brett to take photos of the supermoon and of the Art of Animation Resort.
Day 3
On our 3rd and final day, we gathered up our stuff, packed it up into the car and headed over to the Pop food court for breakfast. Brett had a breakfast wrap with potatoes and I had chocolate chip pancakes with bacon. Yum.
Our destination today was Epcot to take daytime photos. Nothing too exciting to report today. We walked around taking photos of us and all the Flower & Garden exhibits, including the butterfly garden.
We then had lunch at Via Napoli. Our original ADR was for 2pm, but we changed it the night before to 11:30 since it not one of the places that charges you if you cancel within 24 hours. We got seated so fast since they had just opened.
We enjoyed calamari with marinara sauce, mozzarella and tomato and a four cheese pizza. Via Napoli is one of our favorite places to eat even though the selection for us is limited, the food never disappoints.
Via Napoli
Via Napoli Calamari
Via Napoli Four Cheese Pizza
At this point, my feet hurt so bad from walking. We had planned on taking some photos at the Boardwalk, and we even walked down the International Gateway, but once we got to the bridge, we decided to turn around and head to the car and take some photos along the way.
After a very quick trip to IKEA (which was kind of disappointing compared to our trip there in February when we cleaned the place out), we headed home.
I couldn’t be happier to have such a nice, unique set of maternity photos. This is a special time for us that we wanted to take advantage of. And besides, do we even need an excuse to go to Disney any more?
The past few times we’ve gone, I kept saying “The next time we’re here, we’ll have a child with us” but the combination of us postponing getting pregnant or us getting impatient and wanting to go back to Disney again kept meaning that wasn’t true…but this time, IT WAS! As I am writing this, I am 37 weeks pregnant…there is no way we’re going back now! Our next trip is planned for October and we are looking forward to sharing it with our sweet little boy. 
To see all of our maternity photos, including more from around Disney World, view our Maternity Photo post!
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The Photographer's Wife Parenting, Disney, Travel, Reviews & Other Randomness
