First Trip With Kids - MNSSHP - F&W Festival - Sept 2017 TR

[jrmint427]

I put together bags for the girls open over the course of the drive. I collected random stuff, stuff from the dollar store, some candy, playing cards, stuff like that. Then I put them all in numbered brown lunch bags. Then I had a sandwich baggie with pieces of paper and the same set of numbers on. And each hour of the drive they could pick a number and open a bag. They LOVED this!

That sounds like a fun game and a wonderful idea! I'd love to see what you included. I'm thinking sticker books, books that play music, lots of snacks... we have one "tablet" that the two have to share right now. I've seriously been thinking about getting the 2 year old her own just for our sanity on this trip :-D It might be worth it for 28 hours in a van! But I want non-screen entertainment for them too.

 

[StarWarsMomofGirls!]

So, I was looking for pictures for you and apartently I have done this 3 times now! I didn't even realize it!

Some of the things I ended up getting:

• Reward bracelets for good behavior - There were just different colors plastic braclets. And I kept them up front with me and if they had a good length of time with no complaining I would give one out. This ended up being a HUGE hit with them.
• Post its and pens
• Coloring stuff - I found this sticker by number book that the girls really liked, but the 2 year old wouldn't be able to do that just yet.
• Candy - I tried to find "diffferent types" of Candy. like this past trip I found gummies that made a hamburger. That ended up being fun to taste the different parts.
• Snacks
• Those silly squshy things you get in the dollar section. My girls love those stupid things and always ask for them and I always say no. So, they were SUPER excitied about them.
• My girls are a little older so, I did a package for each of them of doorables, another year it was shopkins...
• Mad Libs
• I took all of there "puzzle" erasers and took them apart and made them put them all back together.

Untitled
This was the haul of stuff from this past summer.

Here are all the bags bagged up with numbers on them.
Untitled

Untitled
Every time they would open up a bag, I would take pictures of them with the bag and then what was inside. It made it very cerimonious and added to the fun, I think.

I also had the girls make cereal necklaces to eat in the car. I got Cheerios, fruit loops and let them string them on string.
Untitled

Untitled
Our car, waiting to go. The timeline I made, and I got them those plastic lap desks to use to draw and stuff.

I also saw this on pintrest...
Untitled
They loved this, it's an organizer for beads or small stuff. And you fill it with different kinds of food.

Untitled
This is what Gwen choose.

The boxes can be a bit of a pain as there was no good place to put them when they weren't using them. But they liked using them. And ask for them for any long road trip.


And I have to say that MOST of these ideas came from Pintrest. Here is my board that I made.
https://www.pinterest.com/ariellasaucier/trip-i-road-trip/


The bags every hour or so, helped with the screen time, because they would watch something and then ask if it was time for another bag. It really helped break up the drive.

 

[jrmint427]

And I have to say that MOST of these ideas came from Pintrest. Here is my board that I made.
https://www.pinterest.com/ariellasaucier/trip-i-road-trip/


The bags every hour or so, helped with the screen time, because they would watch something and then ask if it was time for another bag. It really helped break up the drive.

Thank you SO much for all the ideas! I’m definitely checking out your Pinterest board too. This is exactly what I was hoping for - ideas to break up the inevitable screen time that I know we will rely on. The bags periodically seem like a great way to break things up and my girls always get excited for “new” things!

 

[StarWarsMomofGirls!]

Thank you SO much for all the ideas!

No problem. Good Luck! I am sure you will come up with some great things!

 

[jrmint427]

Flight of Wonder

After lunch we headed to Flight of Wonder. As I mentioned before, my husband has become more interested in birds. So while this show wasn't on the top of my list, it was a must-do for our family. We got to the show pretty early - we were probably the first family waiting outside. We chatted with a Cast Member and my daughter told her that, "Daddy loves birds." We watched the pre-show while we waited. Had we not gotten there early, I wouldn't have known there was a pre-show!



While we watched, the Cast Member we had been chatting with came over and told me that we could enter before everyone else. She said they would let us sit in the front row in the middle, as long as no wheel chairs came along and needed that row. That was so nice of her! Sure enough, they signaled to us and let us enter while the pre-show was still going on. We were all so excited to have such great seats!

I love the hidden Mickeys on the structure here:



We sat in the second row until closer to when the show started, and they let us move up to the front. That's the really nice CM in the background!



It was a great show! This bird recycled



The girls loved it too. It kept their attention!









After the show, we got to chat with the guy who had been on stage. We asked a few questions... but my daughter mostly just wanted to show him her bubble wand





I was so glad we watched this show! And I'm actually looking forward to see what changes they have made with the new Up! show. After the show it was FINALLY time to head to Pandora to go on the ride we had been waiting for all week!

 

[jrmint427]

Flight of Passage

I'll get right to it - this ride really was life changing! It lived up to the hype.

After the bird show, we headed back to Pandora. We booked our FP 65 days out and the best we could get was a 6:00pm FP. I know we were lucky to have a FOP FP at all! Pandora is really beautiful.



I was still amazed by the floating mountains.



This ride most likely would have made my dad motion sick, so he stayed with the girls again while the rest of us went on the ride (thanks, Dad!). My mom debated whether to ride but decided she would give it a try.



Even with a FP, it probably took us 20-30 minutes before we got on the ride. We had to wait awhile inside, and the pre-shows take longer than most other rides. It was torture having to wait to get to the real thing!

I was a little nervous about feeling claustrophobic in the ride but it wasn't bad at all. I forgot all about any uneasiness as soon as our ride started. My husband was in reach to hold hands, so that helped. I couldn't believe what they did with the trip through Pandora! I actually felt like I was flying. You could feel your banshee breathing underneath you and the smells made you feel like you were really there. We could hear everyone else ooo-ing and ahh-ing and saying, "This is the most amazing thing ever!" Everyone cheered after the ride and it was quite a high! We were so disappointed that we could only ride this once on our trip.

It was starting to get dark by the time we got off the ride. It was time to head over to River of Lights already!

 

[StarWarsMomofGirls!]

Everyone cheered after the ride and it was quite a high! We were so disappointed that we could only ride this once on our trip.

This is the hardest part of the headliner rides, that you want to ride them over and over again and you just can't.

Glad you guys liked it!

 

[jrmint427]

River of Lights

Seven of us had tickets to Rivers of Light with our Tusker House dining package, so we weren't worried about getting there too early. But Pat's aunts and uncle wanted to see the show too, and we got the tip that they needed to get in line pretty early to be able to get in on standby. I'm not sure if it really would have been necessary or not, but as soon as we were off FOP (around 7pm), they booked it over to get in line for the 8:15pm show.

Since we already had tickets, we took our time. The toddler was loving her bubble wand! I've since read that these things can really annoy other guests. I feel a little guilty after reading that, but not really - the majority of people we encountered had kids who loved playing with her bubbles too! And even one adult who happily skipped through her bubbles, making us all laugh



We stopped on our way to get a snack. It was about time we got some Mickey ice cream!



The toddler loved sharing ice cream with me and Grandma!



This was basically our dinner since we weren't hungry enough for a real dinner. I'm pretty sure I had other snacks on hand for the girls too. We then parked our stroller and went to find a seat, maybe 15 minutes before showtime. We had texted with the rest of our group, and they got in with no issues.

The show was fine. It was nice. I'm glad I saw it once. I think that about sums it up? It was pretty music and lights, but I couldn't see details of what was going on with the floats from where we were sitting and it didn't keep me engaged the way that Fantasmic or MK fireworks do. My husband liked it more than I did. It just didn't have the same "wow" factor for me. Pat would like to see it again on our next trip "if it works out" so I think that sums it up for us.





We headed out of the park after the show ended. We were getting to the end of a very long week!

 

[jrmint427]

Day Off / Disney Springs

We finally had a morning to sleep in! We didn't have any real plans until the evening (MNSSHP), which was nice. Our plan for the day was to sleep, maybe swim, and then go to Disney Springs until it was time to go to MNSSHP (for me and Pat) and my parents would stay with the girls to have dinner at DS. We were so lucky to have my parents stay with the girls so we could have a rare night out!

We definitely slept in. The time stamp on my pictures said we made it to the cafeteria at our resort at 9:30am. The breakfast was pretty good, but the pastry was the real highlight.





I have no idea what we did between breakfast and Disney Springs (where we arrived around 2pm). I know we talked about swimming but never did. I think we just relaxed in our rooms between 10:30 - 1pm and took our time getting ready. After 5 park days in a row (and 5 fairly early mornings), we were wiped out.

I had planned for us to have lunch at Disney Springs, but I don't think we got there until almost 2pm, so lunch ended up being more like snacks. I know we got coffee for some of the adults (I definitely did!), and I got some snack packs from Starbucks for the girls to snack on. But by the time I bought the food, the toddler was fast asleep.

I love walking through the Lego store when we visit Disney Springs. The bus dropped us off further away than I remembered this time, and the area did not look familiar since we hadn't been there since 2013. We walked through some cute shops on the way, and things started to look more familiar around the Lego store.





We always have to take our picture in front of this dragon.



I was Rapunzel for MNSSHP and Pat changed later at the park to be Flynn Rider (who my daughter insists on calling Eugene). We were waiting for Pat's mom and aunts to arrive. They did such a fantastic job with their costumes, and made quite an entrance!



They seriously got SO much attention all night. Their costumes were amazing. I wished we had spent more time on our costumes! Just before our trip they suggested we dress as Aurora and Prince Philip, but we had already bought items for our Rapunzel/Flynn Rider costumes.



A Cast Member suggested they head to the Bibbidi Boppidi Boutique for fairy dust and professional pictures. It was starting to rain, so we took a quick picture together with the baby (the toddler was sleeping), and then waited for them to get some fairy dust and official pictures!



The three sisters were having a ball! At least one little girl wanted her picture taken with them. I think that is when a Cast Member told the sisters that they needed to make sure they were not impersonating Cast Members!





I was a little sad that the toddler was still sleeping when they came back. She never got to see them in their costumes! We were starting to cut it close for our 4:00pm dinner reservation at Jungle Navigation. We wanted to eat early so that we wouldn't miss out on party time. We rode with the aunts and uncle to Magic Kingdom. It was our first experience driving into the park. We had to take a tram from our parking area to the front of the park. It was raining but we were still so excited for the party!

We got to the park about half an hour earlier than we needed to, but I would rather be early than late. It took us a few minutes to figure out which line we needed to be in for our dining reservation. They let us into the park right at 4pm.

 

[jrmint427]

Jungle Navigation

When we first entered the park, the rain let up for just a little bit. It rained on and off all night long. We were soaked by the end of the night! But we enjoyed the moments when we had a break in the rain.

They had a few photo opportunities set up when we first entered the park and gave us a goody bag. Too bad Pat wasn't in his costume just yet!







We headed straight back to our reservation. We didn't have to wait too long for our table. I absolutely loved the theme at this restaurant! I especially loved all of the corny jokes from the servers. This instantly went on our must-do list for our next trip.

One of the managers (I think?) liked the sisters' costumes so much, he gave them each a grape soda. It wasn't until I watched Up months later that I finally understand that reference!



I ordered falafel for an appetizer and the Curried Vegetable Crew Stew for my main meal. The menu was just as fun as the restaurant!



The falafel was so good! I have to get this again next time.



Pat ordered some kind of fish. He doesn't remember what it was but says he would get it again



My curried stew was amazing. It was so much better than I expected it would be. I'm not sure what I expected, but I will definitely be ordering this again next time we go.



We each had a drink with dinner too. I had the Infamous Goose Sauvignon Blanc. We had great food, great company, and great entertainment at dinner. It was an awesome way to kick off what ended up being an almost 8 hour celebration at MNSSHP!

 

[Stasieki]

Happy to see you writing again. Love the costumes!

 

[StarWarsMomofGirls!]

Since we already had tickets, we took our time. The toddler was loving her bubble wand! I've since read that these things can really annoy other guests. I feel a little guilty after reading that, but not really - the majority of people we encountered had kids who loved playing with her bubbles too! And even one adult who happily skipped through her bubbles, making us all laugh

My daughter loves hers was well. And I get they can be a pain but they are better than the balloons in the face!

We were waiting for Pat's mom and aunts to arrive. They did such a fantastic job with their costumes, and made quite an entrance!

They most certainly did a great job!

 

[jrmint427]

Happy to see you writing again. Love the costumes!

Thank you for sticking with me months later :-D

And I get they can be a pain but they are better than the balloons in the face!

Haha yes! It's just part of the experience, right? Our bubble maker from last year broke at home so I have a feeling we'll be getting new ones at the park this year.

 

[jrmint427]

MNSSHP

The night was such a blur, I am mostly relying on my pictures to remember everything we did. We lasted almost 8 hours, so it was like we put in a full day at Magic Kingdom. It definitely made the party ticket worth it for so much entertainment!

After dinner we went on Big Thunder Mountain. It had been drizzling a little on and off but wasn't raining when we started going through the queue. There was no line at all, we were pretty much able to walk right onto the ride. We should have known. As soon as our train left the station, it started to POUR. Not just drizzle like it had been, but a complete downpour. I could barely see as we rode in the rain. It was still a fun ride, but we were soaked!

Afterwards, we ducked into the Pirates of the Caribbean gift shop. We thought we would wait out the rain, but it showed no signs of stopping. We eventually gave in and purchased ponchos at the gift shop. It was too late for my shoes though. I wore some (very comfortable) dress flats to go with my Rapunzel dress. They stay soaked the entire night. And then grew mold shortly after, but that is another story... I am still sad about losing those shoes to the rain!

Since we were there, we got in line to ride Pirates next. I don't think it was too long of a line, maybe 15-20 minutes. At this point I think other people were like us, looking for things to do indoors. We clearly were not prepared for the picture!



I think we rode Haunted Mansion next. It was a must do for the Halloween celebration! I don't think we had a very long wait at all for this ride.



We only did a little trick-or-treating. I think we went through two candy stations and lines for candy seemed as long as the lines for rides. It was good candy, but we decided we could get candy anywhere and skipped out on the rest of the trick or treat stations. It was raining on and off but we were still having a great time.



We knew we wanted to meet some of the rare characters this evening. The line for the Queen of Hearts, Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum wasn't terrible, so we decided to wait. It felt like a really long wait though. The Queen made me curtsy to her - I almost forgot my manners! She also borrowed one of the good fairies' wands to test it out. We had great fun with this group.







We tried several times throughout the night to ride Space Mountain. But the first two times we went by, it was down. We took a pic and moved on. I desperately wanted to ride Space Mountain before the end of our trip!



It was finally time for one of the events I was most excited to see - the Halloween parade! We knew we wanted to line up early, but we were a bit nervous because we weren't sure if the parade would take place due to the rain. I asked a cast member and they said it would, it just may be delayed and they may have to make a few changes to the acts. Sure enough, we did not get to see the headless horseman this night. But thankfully, the parade was still on! We lined up near the Frontier Arcade.



While we were waiting, a cast member came over and asked Pat's aunt to sign her bingo card. I forget what category she met (can't remember if she was actually looking for Good Fairies specifically). I thought it was so fun that the cast members were playing games like this at the party!



Up next... highlights from the parade!

 

[jrmint427]

I was most excited to see the Halloween parade! I was disappointed that we didn't get to see the headless horseman, but I don't think we missed much else. The song "Boo to You" is so catchy I still have it in my head today!



Most of my pictures didn't come out great, and they don't do the parade justice anyway. For this one, I put together some video clips to share. Hope you enjoy!

Boo to You Parade

 

[StarWarsMomofGirls!]

We didn't get to see the Headless Horseman either on our party night. It wasn't even raining, so I am not sure why but it is what it is. The parade is still pretty fun.

They are seriously too cute!

This is a great shot! you look like you are making the most of the rainy evening!

 

[jrmint427]

MNSSHP Fireworks

After the parade ended, we headed back to Fantasyland for another "Must Do" on our list - meeting the seven dwarfs! Pat's aunt is a huge fan of Grumpy and we wanted to take advantage of this rare character meet. We waited in line for awhile... and waited some more... and then I worried that we were going to miss the 10pm fireworks show. I really wanted to see the Halloween fireworks from the front of the castle. We went back and forth but ultimately decided to go watch the fireworks first and come back to see the dwarfs later.
We were probably a little too close to the castle for the best view, but we really enjoyed the show! I took a couple of pictures and video but mostly tried to just enjoy the experience.







Watching fireworks at the castle will always be a magical moment for me.

We were nearing the end of our night, and our party was exhausted. But we had two more things on our list before we could leave... the Seven Dwarfs and Space Mountain!

 

[jrmint427]

Seven Dwarfs and Space Mountain

We got back in line to meet the Seven Dwarfs. This was the longest line we waited in all night. The fireworks started at 10pm and the it was about 11pm when we finally met the Dwarfs. I remember squatting in line here... my feet were so sore at this point! I will spare you the picture, but just imagine what my feet looked like after 5 hours in wet shoes. So wrinkly with dirt filling the wrinkles. Sorry - but at least I'm not making you look at it.

As we got closer to the front of the line, our party had fun embarrassing Grumpy - his fan club was here and he wasn't having it!



Hi Grumpy!!



Poor guy... I'm sure he wished he could hide from us.



We each plotted in advance which dwarf we wanted to visit with. I picked Happy. We had some time to visit with our favorite dwarfs before we took a group picture.







They were a fun meet and worth the wait! There was only one thing left on my list for the night and that was Space Mountain. I knew I likely wasn't going to have time for it the next day, so this was my chance to ride. I was really hoping it wasn't still broken down. We walked that way and FINALLY the ride was up and running and the wait wasn't bad at all, maybe 10 minutes. The aunts and uncle decided to sit this one out, so Pat, his mom and I jumped in line. I was giddy with excitement!



The ride was just as fun as I remembered! I love zooming around and not knowing which way we're going next. As for my husband... well he said it was painful. He doesn't plan to ride on our next trip! But my MIL said she would ride with me

It was after 11:30pm and time to head out... but on our way, we passed Alice and the Mad Hatter. I had met them once before during the Disney Marathon and they were hilarious. The line wasn't long at all, so we decided to stop for one last picture.

I can't remember what witty thing Alice had just said to me here...




These two always crack me up! At the Marathon they did a bit on the shirt I was wearing, which had a carrot on it. The Mad Hatter said that must be why I was running - the White Rabbit was chasing me for my carrot!



According to my pictures it was around 11:45pm when we wrapped up. We headed to the exit. It was hard to be sad about leaving because we would be returning just 8 hours later!

 

[jrmint427]

Our last Magic Kingdom day also happened to be the toddler's 3rd birthday! The baby was going to turn 1 just a few days later, so we were celebrating both birthdays. Our day started out rainy, and Pat and I were pretty tired from the night before. But it was time to rally for one last day of fun! According to my pictures, we were at our bus stop just 7 hours after we left the park the night before.

I thought I had booked a pre-park opening breakfast just after 8am, but had somehow missed that park hours changed and the park actually opened at 8am this day. It was 9am when I made the booking. I was looking forward to family pictures with the castle in the background and not many people around us, but that clearly wasn't going to happen. It was rainy and dreary too. We still stopped for a few pictures on Main Street on our way to breakfast.



The toddler was clearly not in the mood for pictures.



Can you guess where we were headed from the girls' dresses?!



That's right, Cinderella's Royal Table! We were very excited for a birthday breakfast with some of the toddler's favorite princesses. I was glad this was at the end our trip, since it took her awhile to warm up to the characters. She was proud to tell everyone she was three!



We checked in and they called us shortly after to get in line for our picture with Cinderella. Our Photo Pass pictures didn't come out as well as I would have liked here (eyes closed in this example), but you can tell from the toddler's face she was excited to be dining with Cinderella.



The baby still wasn't sure about these strange people.



The toddler was grumpy and ready to eat.



After pictures were complete, they led us up a winding staircase to the dining room.



Stay tuned for more breakfast pictures and my thoughts on this restaurant...

 

[jrmint427]

Cinderella's Royal Table - Part 1

As we entered CRT, I was struck by how much smaller it felt to me than I had pictured it would be. I felt like we were a bit cramped at our table, and very close to the people next to us. It wouldn't have been an issue except for the fact that we were constantly getting up to take pictures with the characters. It felt a bit chaotic to me, and we didn't have much space for taking pictures. We also had to chase down a cast member each time or hope someone at a nearby table would take our picture. I know everyone raves about CRT, but it wasn't my favorite character dining experience.

On a positive note, the girls were lucky to spend their birthdays with three grandparents! And we were grateful the servers brought crayons for the girls to color with.



They brought out a plate of pastries for us to start with. I really liked these!



Aurora was the first to visit our table. The princess interactions here felt a bit rushed to me, but we did have time to get an autograph and a few pictures with each.



With each princess, one of the grandparents would take a picture of our family of four, and then we would look around for someone to take a picture of our group of seven.



It was hard not to get chairs, food, etc. in the way in the pictures.

I ordered what I believe was the baked vegetable quiche.



The kids meal was pretty basic, but the girls seemed to enjoy it.



Rapunzel stopped by next. We had already met her earlier in the trip, but since she had been the toddler's favorite princess at the time, I thought she would be more excited. Nope! No interest in pictures or long chats



Jasmine came to our table next. We had the best interaction with her. It seemed like she made more of an effort to really engage with the girls.





After Jasmine, our server brought cupcakes with blue frosting for both of the girls. We sang Happy Birthday and they enjoyed their treats!

We saw that Ariel was going to be the fourth princess. She was visiting at other tables and my daughter was so excited. Apparently Ariel was her new favorite princess. I was just happy the toddler wanted to meet one of the princesses! We had finished our food at this point, including the dessert, and we were just waiting for our turn with Ariel. And waiting. And waiting. And then she disappeared. I flagged down our waiter to see when she would be coming out again. He was very surprised that she had not been to our table and said it was going to be 15-20 minutes before she would be back again - the princesses were all on a break. I could tell they wanted us to leave so they could have the table. But my daughter really wanted to see Ariel. So I told them we were going to wait. They didn't seem happy about that (but didn't argue either), but I also wasn't happy that we were waiting because our table had been skipped.

They told us they would tell Ariel what had happened, and sure enough, when she came back out she stopped by our table first. It was worth the wait! My daughter was so happy. To be continued because I'm limited in the number of pictures I can post in each chapter!