Verstehen
I break for the Nautilus
- Joined
- Jul 4, 2008
Introductions
Hello everyone! Thanks for joining me on this very special trip report. This was my daughter’s first multi day stay, at only seven weeks old.
Am I crazy, you may wonder? Probably.
But we did it anyway. And while it wasn’t the most productive trip, it was very special!
Before we get started, let me introduce you to myself and my traveling companions, and give you some context as to how this trip came to be, and why we decided to move forward with it. I’m not in the business of telling others what they should or should not do, but I will say that had our circumstances not been what they were, I probably would have waited until she was a bit older. With that said, I hope that this report is useful to visitors considering trips with their own newborns!
Let’s get started.
I’m your host and the main planner for our family. My name is Rachel and I’m 32. I was born and raised in upstate New York but I now live in Orlando, Florida. I’ve lived in various parts of Florida for almost ten years now, but in 2016 my husband and I moved to the Orlando neighborhood of College Park, which is located on the north end of the city, near Winter Park and downtown Orlando. It’s about 30 minutes away from Disney with no traffic, and up to an hour during busier times. College Park was featured on an episode of the Dis Unplugged’s Moving to the Magic segment, and I definitely recommend checking it out if you’re interested in learning more about this historic and unique part of the city.
I’m an annual passholder and visit quite frequently, usually for day trips. I’ve been a Disney World fan since I was a kid, and Disney definitely factored into my decision to move to Florida (that, and not having to buy snow tires). I work full time from home as a marketing manager for a software company, though as of this writing I’m still on maternity leave.
Joining me on this trip is my father.
He still lives in New York, where he is a semi-retired dentist and a volunteer firefighter. Yes, he’s in way better shape than I am. He purchased DVC in 2016 after selling a vacation home he owned. He purchased a contract at the Polynesian, and last year he purchased additional points at the Riviera. He was looking for an investment that would allow him to take regular vacations without having to maintain a property of his own, and DVC turned out to be just what he was looking for. It also saves me from having to host him while he’s in town. He typically comes twice a year, in January or February, and in September or October. We usually do 5 or 6 nights and I will join him as a sort of staycation. He’s big into Disney food and loves spending time at the hotel pools.
Traveling with my dad was my younger sister, Rebekah.
She’s 27 and also lives in New York, near my dad. She has a disability which affects her physical health pretty severely but for the most part she is able to live independently. She joins my dad for the January/February trips, as the weather during that time of year is much easier for her to handle. She loves Olaf and pretty much anything to do with Frozen, and she loves eating at the Prime Time Café.
And for the first time ever, we were joined by my daughter, April.
April was born on January 11th of this year and completely changed our lives. I don’t know what else to say about her except that I’m so thrilled I can bring her to Disney and I can’t wait to see if she becomes a fan.
Also joining us for part of this trip as a special guest is my husband.
He is not a Disney fan and typically does not come on these staycations except for one non-park day. He considered coming for this trip, but since taking paternity leave he’s out of PTO days for now and didn’t want to leave our dog alone. It was hard for him to be away from April for so long, but I made sure to send lots of pictures and we did Facetime a few times.
Now that you know who we are, let me share how this trip came about.
We do a Disney trip twice a year, as I mentioned. I did propose cancelling this one after finding out I was pregnant and realizing the timing was not ideal. I also proposed moving it further back. But my dad convinced me to keep it where it was. He was afraid if we pushed it too far then the weather would not work for my sister, and he wanted her to have a chance to meet her niece. He also told me that if I didn’t end up joining them for the whole trip, that was okay. I had a few people suggest I just commute from my house to Disney every day, but honestly, sitting in that I-4 traffic twice a day sounded way worse than just staying in a hotel.
This was actually not April’s first time at Disney. My husband and I brought her to Hollywood Studios about a week and a half before this trip when we met up with some out of town friends and tried to get on Rise of the Resistance (we didn’t make it on sadly). But this was her first multi-day visit.
I had people tell me this would be the easiest trip I’d take with my daughter, and other people tell me the opposite. In the end, I decided, what the heck. Being local the stakes were pretty low. So I packed up my stuff and headed over to the Polynesian from February 26th to March 2nd. I figured if it sucked, I could always just go home.
Spoiler alert, it didn’t suck! It wasn’t the best trip ever, but it didn’t suck by a long shot.
To conclude this intro, I’d like to just mention some overall tips that we found made our trip easier, or things we wish we would have done:
I’m sure I’ll have more thoughts of course, which I’ll share as the report goes on. But these were the big ones I wanted to get out of the way in advance.
Now with all that out of the way, I think it’s time to get this report started!
Hello everyone! Thanks for joining me on this very special trip report. This was my daughter’s first multi day stay, at only seven weeks old.
Am I crazy, you may wonder? Probably.
But we did it anyway. And while it wasn’t the most productive trip, it was very special!
Before we get started, let me introduce you to myself and my traveling companions, and give you some context as to how this trip came to be, and why we decided to move forward with it. I’m not in the business of telling others what they should or should not do, but I will say that had our circumstances not been what they were, I probably would have waited until she was a bit older. With that said, I hope that this report is useful to visitors considering trips with their own newborns!
Let’s get started.
I’m your host and the main planner for our family. My name is Rachel and I’m 32. I was born and raised in upstate New York but I now live in Orlando, Florida. I’ve lived in various parts of Florida for almost ten years now, but in 2016 my husband and I moved to the Orlando neighborhood of College Park, which is located on the north end of the city, near Winter Park and downtown Orlando. It’s about 30 minutes away from Disney with no traffic, and up to an hour during busier times. College Park was featured on an episode of the Dis Unplugged’s Moving to the Magic segment, and I definitely recommend checking it out if you’re interested in learning more about this historic and unique part of the city.
I’m an annual passholder and visit quite frequently, usually for day trips. I’ve been a Disney World fan since I was a kid, and Disney definitely factored into my decision to move to Florida (that, and not having to buy snow tires). I work full time from home as a marketing manager for a software company, though as of this writing I’m still on maternity leave.
Joining me on this trip is my father.
He still lives in New York, where he is a semi-retired dentist and a volunteer firefighter. Yes, he’s in way better shape than I am. He purchased DVC in 2016 after selling a vacation home he owned. He purchased a contract at the Polynesian, and last year he purchased additional points at the Riviera. He was looking for an investment that would allow him to take regular vacations without having to maintain a property of his own, and DVC turned out to be just what he was looking for. It also saves me from having to host him while he’s in town. He typically comes twice a year, in January or February, and in September or October. We usually do 5 or 6 nights and I will join him as a sort of staycation. He’s big into Disney food and loves spending time at the hotel pools.
Traveling with my dad was my younger sister, Rebekah.
She’s 27 and also lives in New York, near my dad. She has a disability which affects her physical health pretty severely but for the most part she is able to live independently. She joins my dad for the January/February trips, as the weather during that time of year is much easier for her to handle. She loves Olaf and pretty much anything to do with Frozen, and she loves eating at the Prime Time Café.
And for the first time ever, we were joined by my daughter, April.
April was born on January 11th of this year and completely changed our lives. I don’t know what else to say about her except that I’m so thrilled I can bring her to Disney and I can’t wait to see if she becomes a fan.
Also joining us for part of this trip as a special guest is my husband.
He is not a Disney fan and typically does not come on these staycations except for one non-park day. He considered coming for this trip, but since taking paternity leave he’s out of PTO days for now and didn’t want to leave our dog alone. It was hard for him to be away from April for so long, but I made sure to send lots of pictures and we did Facetime a few times.
Now that you know who we are, let me share how this trip came about.
We do a Disney trip twice a year, as I mentioned. I did propose cancelling this one after finding out I was pregnant and realizing the timing was not ideal. I also proposed moving it further back. But my dad convinced me to keep it where it was. He was afraid if we pushed it too far then the weather would not work for my sister, and he wanted her to have a chance to meet her niece. He also told me that if I didn’t end up joining them for the whole trip, that was okay. I had a few people suggest I just commute from my house to Disney every day, but honestly, sitting in that I-4 traffic twice a day sounded way worse than just staying in a hotel.
This was actually not April’s first time at Disney. My husband and I brought her to Hollywood Studios about a week and a half before this trip when we met up with some out of town friends and tried to get on Rise of the Resistance (we didn’t make it on sadly). But this was her first multi-day visit.
I had people tell me this would be the easiest trip I’d take with my daughter, and other people tell me the opposite. In the end, I decided, what the heck. Being local the stakes were pretty low. So I packed up my stuff and headed over to the Polynesian from February 26th to March 2nd. I figured if it sucked, I could always just go home.
Spoiler alert, it didn’t suck! It wasn’t the best trip ever, but it didn’t suck by a long shot.
To conclude this intro, I’d like to just mention some overall tips that we found made our trip easier, or things we wish we would have done:
- Babywearing. We ended up not even bringing the stroller some days because wearing her was so much more convenient. It made meals much easier, it made it easy to feed her, and it meant we didn’t have to constantly park the stroller. You definitely need to practice beforehand, and find the carrier that’s right for you and your baby. There are a lot of options. I personally loved the ring sling, and it was the only carrier we ended up using. I also brought my Tula structured carrier as a backup, but we didn’t end up using it.
- Use the baby care centers. The nursing room at the Magic Kingdom is amazing, and it’s so nice to have a place to change your baby other than the cold hard surfaces in the bathrooms.
- Be prepared for EVERYONE to ask how old your baby is. Everyone. Even Mickey Mouse.
- Don’t use Amazon for grocery delivery. This isn’t related to the baby, but we had a bad experience with them and I would not recommend them if you want to have groceries delivered to your hotel.
I’m sure I’ll have more thoughts of course, which I’ll share as the report goes on. But these were the big ones I wanted to get out of the way in advance.
Now with all that out of the way, I think it’s time to get this report started!
Last edited: