Mico TR – First trip as parents!

[Boardwalk_bride]

As always, I have gotten so many helpful tips from these boards in planning our latest trip, so I hope this micro report back is useful!

Dates of Trip: Jan.25-Feb.1

Resort: AKL – Kidani/First night at Orlando Airport Hyatt. (AKL rented through David’s, so it was a DVC stay).

Who went: Me (34), DH (34), DD (turned 3 on trip); we live near Toronto. We are vegetarian.

Last Trip: Our 5th anniversary, April 2015.

Why did we go: We got married in Epcot in 2010, so we were thinking of a 2020 trip for our anniversary. Originally, we were going to do Disney Paris, as I have a work trip to the Netherlands in the spring. After realizing our DD got in for free as long as we arrived before her 3rd bday, along with the 3 hour flight vs. much longer to Paris, we decided 6 months in advance to go to WDW!

~Reviews~

Flight: Air Transat from Pearson. Normally we fly from Buffalo, but Air Transat was cheap, and we didn’t want to drive to Buffalo in January. AT is fine, would recommend.

Airport Hyatt: Very nice, clean and convenient. I’d actually say it is nicer than any deluxe resorts at Disney – without the theming of course.

Kidani: This was our 3rd stay at AKL – first at Kidani. I think I like Kidani better, as it seemed quieter. We had a one bedroom as we wanted the kitchen, laundry and separate sleeping area for DD (she goes to bed around 6:45 as she doesn’t nap). I love AKL – being near Jiko, Sanaa, and the animals is amazing. The only thing I don’t like is the “tourist factor” – by which I mean so many people come just for Sanaa which crowds up the lobby at dinner time. Of course, people have the right to do that (and I’ve done it) but it is a bit annoying when you are staying there.

DD loved the resort, but didn’t really look at the animals. She just loved being in a hotel.

Favourite Meals:

• Mine – Skipper Canteen (I ate the noodle salad, tried DH’s tofu stir fry thing, and my daughters tofu curry – all amazing).
• DH – I think Sanaa was his favourite. We ate there 3 times (once in the lounge, once in the restaurant, once take out to our room).
• DD – Jiko (her and I went to the lounge on our own while DH was at Star Wars). She loved the mac and cheese.

Least Favourite Meals:

• Mine – pretty much everything, except the soup, from Mara (I loved the soup).
• DH – also didn’t love Mara, but ate the falafel thing twice.
• DD – Satu’ll Canteen (sp??)

Favourite Snack:

• Mine – Italian Margarita,
• DH – Mickey pretzel, Beer from Norway (although I think it was actually from Iceland)
• Simba sunrise (I think – the Dole Whip in AK with red syrup)

Favourite Park:

• Mine – Magic Kingdom
• DH – Epcot
• DD – tie between Magic Kingdom and HS

Least Favourite – I don’t think DD really liked AK. She seemed to really like Epcot, but grew tired of it quickly. That said we went to AK our first day, when she was tired (and only did Pandora area, and she loved the boat ride) and our last day, when she was getting burnt out, and it rained all day.

Comments on January Visit:

• I thought this was low season – we both felt it was some of the heaviest crowds we have seen (we have gone twice in April, once early December, and once mid December leaving xmas eve). It was nuts! Especially HS.
• It was also too cold (even for us Canadians!) to swim in the pool. My DD went once (she loves swimming) and didn’t want to go back.
• I wouldn’t go again in January unless it was for the Marathon weekend (to race, that is).

Reflections on a 2/3 year old:

• If this was a once in a lifetime trip, we would have waited. We got married in WDW, so going every 5 or so years is essential for us! We loved watching her run around in our favourite place.
• She was MUCH braver than we anticipated and mostly more patient. She willingly waited in 30-40 min lines to see characters she wanted to see and rides she wanted to ride. Even when we encouraged her they were too long.
• She enjoyed every ride she went on, expect maybe the Toy Story one (I can’t remember the name – the arcade one). I forgot how jerky the ride was – she kept smacking her head .
• She LOVED the alien ride in TS.

Reflections on visiting with a child when you are used to visiting as adults only:

• Know, really know, it is going to be different! The hardest part for us was missing out on slow strolls in AK and Epcot with a beer.
• You’ll be going on rides on your own. We didn’t want to miss out on space mountain, thunder mountain, etc., so we had to split apart and try and find each other later
• Taking a half day to ourselves was essential. In fact, I’d probably do more next time. I spend 2pm to 8 pm in MK on my own. DH spent the same amount of time (plus some time in the morning) at HS alone. (He wanted to see Star Wars stuff, which I didn’t care about).
• Tips from other parents are so good, but know your child. Our child hardly used the stroller, didn’t nap at all (everyone said she would – and we saw kids of all ages passed out in strollers). I assumed she would because “everyone does” – her only nap was on the way home from the airport in the car yesterday.
• Be prepared to wait in lines for things you’d previously not cared about (for us that was characters, rides like Dumbo, etc). I went on Small World more on this trip than all my previous trips combined!
• Taking a day off when back. I’m off today to get laundry done, grocery shop, etc, while she is back to the daycare routine. It is even more helpful when you have a LO to take care of!

Our next trip? Unsure, but we will do something Disney in the next 3-5 years. We might take her to Disneyland Paris, or maybe an ABD, or maybe Hawaii or Disneyland. A lot of it depends on the exchange rate as well. If it suddenly became more favourable for us to travel to the US, we would go again sooner. I think we would either stay at AoA or POFQ. DH and I really want to do the Wine and Dine Half Marathon – if we did that we would book BW –assuming we could get grandparents to come with us.

I hope this is helpful!

 

[musika]

Comments on January Visit:

• I thought this was low season – we both felt it was some of the heaviest crowds we have seen (we have gone twice in April, once early December, and once mid December leaving xmas eve). It was nuts! Especially HS.
• It was also too cold (even for us Canadians!) to swim in the pool. My DD went once (she loves swimming) and didn’t want to go back.
• I wouldn’t go again in January unless it was for the Marathon weekend (to race, that is).

We were there the same week! And OMG, the crowds were nutty, 100% agree. I thought I had researched a moderate/low time to go - all the parks were out of fastpasses by like mid-afternoon while we were there! We got in the pool on Friday night right before we left to say we did, but it was definitely chilly. I think I preferred April to January.

 

[emilyrachael]

We were there the same week! We've gone this week the past few years and crowds are definitely up! I knew it would probably be too cold to swim (this week last year with a big cold snap across all of the eastern US - we were wearing out winter coats!) but I do wish it had been warm enough to swim to give the kids a break from the park.

My almost 2 year old hates the stroller, so he was barely in his, too! (minus when we made him use to for the longer walks across the park) He also only took super short naps in the park.

 

[Isabelle12345]

Very helpful! Thanks for sharing!