“Shhh! You’re Ruining the Magic!” A Family’s First Disney Trip Report NEW 10/6

What a FUN update.

It's so nice you got to meet your husband's aunt that you'd not yet met.

So glad to read your positive review of BOG lunch. We've done dinner three times, and I am really looking forward to getting a FP+ for lunch for September (that chocolate cupcake rocks!).

You got some great rides in before you left for naptime.

Oh and I remember those few peaceful moments when I could get to a bathroom by myself.
 
What a FUN update.

It's so nice you got to meet your husband's aunt that you'd not yet met.

So glad to read your positive review of BOG lunch. We've done dinner three times, and I am really looking forward to getting a FP+ for lunch for September (that chocolate cupcake rocks!).

You got some great rides in before you left for naptime.

Oh and I remember those few peaceful moments when I could get to a bathroom by myself.

It was awesome to meet Crystal. What better way to get to know someone than by hanging at Disney together?

BOG lunch was so much fun. And yes...the cupcakes :love:

It's really amazing how as a mom, even a few stolen quiet moments can make all the difference!
Great update!

Thanks!
 


Friendship Day and Nighttime Adventures​


Alright, let’s get this day wrapped up!


If I recall correctly, everyone napped today. I laid down with Gigs to get him to sleep, and managed to get a few minutes rest myself. Ben isn’t a napper, so he went to get a drink with his mug. But I’m pretty sure he came back and laid down at the foot of the girls’ bed as well. I know that the alarm I had set woke us up, and that it was a struggle getting Becca up and out the door. She is difficult. She needs naps, but if she gets woken from them, she has a very hard time adjusting. So pretty much every afternoon, we had a screaming child all the way to the bus stop. She would eventually wake up enough and all would be fine.


So we wrestled with the three strollers (SUCH A PAIN!) and made our way back to the bus stop. Gigs and Bethany were happy to be returning. Actually…these pictures might have been from the morning. I don’t know.


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We made it back to the Magic Kingdom with about 40 minutes until dinner. Ben called his parents, and they were about to ride Pirates. We headed into Adventureland thinking that we might do the Jungle Cruise, but the wait was long. So was the Magic Carpets.

So, I led the family over to something that I knew would be empty. The Enchanted Tiki Room! Of course, we just missed a show, so we had to wait for a while anyway. No problem, I took the opportunity to boost my kids’ blood sugar with some fruit snacks.


The Tiki Room was…interesting. Everyone was mildly entertained. I thought it was cute, but became pretty distracted by the awful smell that was coming from my lap. When the show ended, I informed Ben that a diaper change was next on the itinerary.


MIL called and I said to meet up at our dinner destination: The Crystal Palace! I got us checked in and then asked where the nearest restroom was. They said I could just take him inside the restaurant, which was nice.

I finished taking care of that business and walked out right as the rest of the family was being led inside. Great timing! So we got seated and began the typical business of dealing with the shuffle of getting kids and adults fed while trying not to miss any characters. Character buffets are a lot of work!

I’m not going to spend a lot of time on this dinner. I’ll just say that it was my least favorite of the week. The service was not great, the character interaction was dull (and very slow…we almost left before seeing everyone because it was taking so very long), and the food was not good. I am one of the least picky people ever, and I actually felt hungry when we left. All that said, the kids had a great time.

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I didn't mean to cover Gigs' face, I think I was trying to get him to let go of Piglet.

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After dinner, Bethany was ready and raring to go on a ride. And not just any ride would do. She had a very specific ride in mind, which she had been asking about all day. You see, leading up to the trip, I had showed the girls youtube videos of the rides. My girls (especially Bethany) are like me, and like to know the details of things before they can feel comfortable. So I showed them ride videos to help them get excited. Well, Bethany watched Big Thunder Mountain over and over again and had been talking for months about how badly she wanted to ride it. As we were exiting Crystal Palace, I checked the wait times app and saw it was just 15 minutes.

The original plan was to hang out in Tomorrowland and do a few things before the fireworks, but this was one of those times where it was necessary to be flexible. But first, I took a picture of the beautiful castle.


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Then I led our crew back to Frontierland. Ben and I took Bethany up to the front, asked for a rider swap (first time), handed it to the Grands, and off we went. Bethany was BURSTING with excitement. She was just so, so happy.


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We were on a train in no time, and I was praying that she would actually enjoy it after hyping herself up so much. Well, no worries. She LOVED it. When we got off, she was jumping up and down yelling “THAT WAS SO MUCH FUN!!!” So imagine her delight when we said she could go again with grandma and grandpa.


After that excitement, we were still planning on heading back to the hub for the fireworks, but now Becca was upset that she didn’t get to ride. So, plan B again, we headed off to Pirates of the Caribbean! This was a walk on because it was so close to fireworks time. We all loved this ride. I think it’s amazing how it really feels like you are outside.


We finished our pirate-y adventure and I noticed that the Magic Carpets were also a walk on. This was something that Becca had wanted to ride, so we jumped on. Ben and I took Becca and Gigs. The awesome thing about this ride is that I got to see some of the castle projection show from it. Such a cool view! The bad thing was that the combination of the spinning, rise and fall, and tilting was a bit much for me. It threw off my inner ear or something and made me feel a little sick and jelly-legged. The kids loved having control of the levers, which made for an extra jerky ride!

After that spin, I had one more thing on my radar in Adventureland: a Dole whip! I adore pineapple, so this was #1 on my must try snack list. No one else wanted anything, so I got into line by myself. It was a super short line but a very long wait. I got a float with a pineapple/vanilla swirl.

The verdict? I thought it was really tasty, but it was a little chilly that night, and it was just a little too cold. It was huge, and even with Ben having a few bites, I just couldn’t finish it. I’m anticipating that it will be much warmer during our trip in October, so I plan to try it again.


The fireworks were starting at this point, so we just kind of wound our way around trying to find a spot to wait them out. Obviously we weren’t going to have a good view, but we wanted to not be caught in the mob when they ended. We ended up finding a spot in Liberty Square, I believe. It wasn’t a good view, but we could see some of it, and it was enough to capture the kids’ interest.

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I was a little sad that we hadn’t gotten to really see them, but it had been a fantastic evening, so it really was for the best.

After the fireworks we had a FP+ scheduled for Space Mountain. The grandparents, however, were done. They said that they had ridden Space while we were napping, and wanted to walk Crystal to the exit. Then they said something super awesome: that they would take the kids back with them and put them to bed. Yay!!! We had gone into the trip hoping that we would get a few hours of kid-free time, but didn’t want to assume or ask for it, so we were quite happy. The park was open til 11 that night, so we had about an hour and 45 minutes to play! (Warning, we took no pictures. I don't know why.)

We kissed the kids goodnight and wove our way back around the castle over to Tomorrowland to use our fastpasses. Ben was very excited to ride Space Mountain. Me? I was shaking in my boots.

I don’t do roller coasters. Ever. I don’t like heights. I don’t like drops.

The whole idea of it terrifies me. But, I had promised Ben years ago that if we ever went to Disney together, I would ride everything with him. So far I had survived and even enjoyed BTMRR and Barnstormer (don’t laugh, it goes kind of high on a very exposed track!) Now it was time to really test my limits. We scanned our way through the FP line and started the very long walk to the ride.

When it was time to load, I briefly entertained the idea of chickening out, but Ben was so excited and I didn’t want to ruin our special opportunity for a date night in the Magic Kingdom. So, I sucked it up and climbed in behind Ben. I think that was the worst part for me: not getting to sit next to him and hold onto his arm.

So, we took off. And I screamed. A lot. And I tried to remember to breathe slowly, and that helped a bit. But mostly screaming. The ride ended, and Ben is all smiles, and he asks me “Well, what did you think?” My answer? “I’d do it again.”

What do you know. It’s true what they say about Disney coasters. It really wasn’t bad. There were only a few little dips and no big drops, and being in the dark actually helped.


After that, we had no idea what to do, since I hadn’t been planning on any kid-free time that night. But we remembered that we had wanted to ride Haunted Mansion again, and thought it would be fun to do at night. So we scurried over there and had a great little ride. We also explored the queue a bit more than we had before.


I let Ben choose the next ride, and he decided that he really did want to ride Space again, and the wait was only listed at 15 or 20 minutes, so we went BACK over to Tomorrowland. I found it funny that I had designed our entire trip to avoid crisscrossing any parks, but as soon as it was just the two of us, that went straight out the window!

It was at this point that I started panicking because I just remembered that there are two sides to Space Mountain and I didn’t know if we had been on the “worse” one before. So I was worried that we would be on the other side this time and that I would think it was scarier. Silly, but I worked myself up quite a bit, and then we ended up on the same side as before. I enjoyed the ride more this time because I wasn’t constantly waiting for something bad to happen!


We decided to do just one more thing at this point. Gigs can be difficult to put to bed in a hotel, and Ben’s phone had died so we were unreachable. We didn’t want to wear out our sitter at the beginning of the week, so we chose one final attraction before heading out of the park: Monsters Inc. Laugh Floor!
This was a great choice to end the night. We both love Monsters Inc and it was a great chance to sit and relax and laugh. We ended up sitting next to “That Guy” and he was a really great sport.


We meandered our way out of Tomorrowland, and Ben got sidetracked by the smell of the cinnamon roasted nuts. He decided to use his first snack credit.

A funny story from this purchase. Ben and I have a little inside joke where anytime someone says “Cinnamon”, we say “Thinnamon? I’m allergic to Thinnamon!” It’s a line from The Game Plan, which is a silly movie where the Rock finds out he has a daughter. She makes him cookies, and his tongue swells up when he eats one.

Anyway, as we were walking up to the kiosk, Ben said he wanted some cinnamon nuts. And I said, “You mean Thinnamon?” So we get up to the stand and there is one lady in line in front of us.

She says to the CM, “Yeth, I would like thome Thinnamon nuths, pleath.”

Now, I am NOT making fun of someone with a speech impediment. That’s not it all. But the fact that she said “Thinnamon” just like we always joke about it, combined with our exhaustion was too much. Ben just turned around slowly, with wide eyes, and whispered “Did that really just happen?” I just nodded and tried not to explode with laughter.

So yeah, that happened. And then we made our way to the bus stop and realized just how tired we were. We returned to our room to find my MIL reading and all of the kids asleep. Yay! Then we fell into bed and passed out. It had been a great day!​
 
Hi there :wave:
I just stumbled on your TR, have to say .... I love it :thumbsup2
What a magical first experience for you and your family. We had our first DW trip this past Christmas and my family loved it. Such a magical experience for the little ones. My DD4 still talks about meeting the princesses and going to BBB.
Sorry about the bad CP experience, we loved our breakfast....food was yummy and great interaction with Pooh and friends.
Can't wait to read on....:surfweb:
 
Going to the bathroom by yourself FTW! :cool1:

Big Thunder is my all time favorite ride on Earth! Your daughter has great taste!

I'm so happy you guys got some alone time. :lovestruc Disney Date! I love that you tried Space Mountain and ended up riding twice! Disney Magic :wizard:
 


What an absolutely wonderful update!

We have never done Crystal Palace for dinner. We do breakfast every year and love the food there and have had great character interaction. Unfortunately, we find ALL of the buffets at lunch or dinner at Disney to be awful and we've given up on them. But the kids looked enthralled with the characters and that's what it is all about.

So glad that the kids got to do some rides they wanted without too much wait. I LOVE Big Thunder Mountain and Mark does not let a trip end without us seeing the Tiki Birds at least once!

How wonderful you got some "date night" time with hubby. I'm glad you survived Space Mountain. I ride it once a year on my girls trips and that is it. At my age, it has just become too jerky for me.

Can't wait to see what the new day brings.
 
How great you got some alone time! We're going with my in laws the end of May and we have a "date night" scheduled for Epcot! Dinner and PM EMH on the to do list! Can't wait!

And I laughed a bit when you were talking about your Space mountain experience! I'm the same way! A big old chicken, but I told my family I would try to ride everything they do in our next trip! We'll see how that goes!

We had the same experience as you guys at Crystal Palace. We almost left without seeing piglet because it was taking too darn long!
 
Loving reading along. Your children are adorable!

Thanks for sharing :)


Thank you!

Hi there :wave:
I just stumbled on your TR, have to say .... I love it :thumbsup2
What a magical first experience for you and your family. We had our first DW trip this past Christmas and my family loved it. Such a magical experience for the little ones. My DD4 still talks about meeting the princesses and going to BBB.
Sorry about the bad CP experience, we loved our breakfast....food was yummy and great interaction with Pooh and friends.
Can't wait to read on....:surfweb:


Thank you! It really was a magical experience!

Crystal Palace was a bit disappointing, but no big deal. I have heard better things about breakfast.


Going to the bathroom by yourself FTW! :cool1:

Big Thunder is my all time favorite ride on Earth! Your daughter has great taste!

I'm so happy you guys got some alone time. :lovestruc Disney Date! I love that you tried Space Mountain and ended up riding twice! Disney Magic :wizard:



I loved Big Thunder too. We laughed through the whole ride.

Disney Dates are the BEST.


What an absolutely wonderful update!

We have never done Crystal Palace for dinner. We do breakfast every year and love the food there and have had great character interaction. Unfortunately, we find ALL of the buffets at lunch or dinner at Disney to be awful and we've given up on them. But the kids looked enthralled with the characters and that's what it is all about.

So glad that the kids got to do some rides they wanted without too much wait. I LOVE Big Thunder Mountain and Mark does not let a trip end without us seeing the Tiki Birds at least once!

How wonderful you got some "date night" time with hubby. I'm glad you survived Space Mountain. I ride it once a year on my girls trips and that is it. At my age, it has just become too jerky for me.

Can't wait to see what the new day brings.


Crystal Palace was one of two dinner buffets that I just really didn't enjoy. The others I found enough to eat to be satisfied. But it really was just for the kids. We won't be doing ANY buffets on our Oct trip.

The rides that evening were so much fun! I really loved riding BTMRR in the dark.

I had read that Space Mountain was jerky, but didn't think so...until I woke up the next morning and was sooooo sore. :lmao:



Thanks for reading!
p-=
How great you got some alone time! We're going with my in laws the end of May and we have a "date night" scheduled for Epcot! Dinner and PM EMH on the to do list! Can't wait!

And I laughed a bit when you were talking about your Space mountain experience! I'm the same way! A big old chicken, but I told my family I would try to ride everything they do in our next trip! We'll see how that goes!

We had the same experience as you guys at Crystal Palace. We almost left without seeing piglet because it was taking too darn long!

Date night in Epcot sounds fabulous! It quickly became DH's and my favorite park, but we didn't have enough time there. We will be spending LOTS of time there on our kid-free trip!

From one ride chicken to another, I'll say that everything I tried was less scary and more fun than I thought, and I did everything twice. There is ONE thing that I ended up chickening out on though...stay tuned to find out what ;)

Sorry you had a similar time at CP. We almost left without seeing Tigger, and then he was a bit of a disappointment anyway :/
 
just catching up - Becca has to be the cutest "beast" ever

oh gosh - just so scary when one of the kids wanders off, even if just for a minute. Glad you found Becca relatively soon (even in each minute probably felt like an hour)

Glad you enjoyed BOG - we really liked it, though we had the same thing that getting a spot and getting everyone settled and silverware, etc. was a bit of a chore - just very crowded

Glad the kids held up ok to HM (though perhaps not as well as they originally presented) ... my DD did not do so well with it - I think scenarios that are set up to be scary really freak her out ... she very much just wants the "Happy Ending" part and not bother with the conflict :rotfl:

That's a cute picture of the two girls conked out

Bummer that you didn't enjoy CP that much. We've only done it for breakfast and have loved it but from what I read the lunch and dinner food isn't as good or at lease more hit or miss.

Yeah that Bethany loved BTMR!

You are nicer than us in not asking for a few kid-free hours. :rotfl2: We took my in-laws and knew going in we would ask for that ... fortunately no problems and they were happy too

Good job outta you handling Space Mountain not once but twice! And it is funny/great that as soon as the kids are out of the picture the plans go out the window too!

All in all - sounds like a great evening!
 
I am really enjoying reading about your trip. Your kids are so adorable! I can not tell you how many times I have freaked myself out while waiting in line for a roller coaster. In fact, there was one trip when we got Fast Passes for Space Mountain, and my husband was so excited! It is his favorite ride. I was fine with going until we got to the front of the line. Something happened and I just couldn't do it. I told my husband he could go without me, but he wouldn't do it. So we walked all the way back to the entrance. He was a little sad.
 
just found this and love it! We were at POR last time we went (5 years ago!) and will be at CSR in June (SOOOO ready to go back!). POR was lovely. Can't wait to read more!
 
Count me in!! We didnt really enjoy Crystal Palace the last time we were there in November. Can't wait to hear more about your trip!!
 
Looks like you had a great lunch at BoG!

And what a great time in Fantasyland!

Awww - I love the naptime pic.

Too bad about CP - we have always had a pretty fun time there. I do agree though that character buffets are a LOT of work! :laughing:

Oh, BTMRR - one of my absolute favorite Disney rides! :woohoo:

What a GREAT MK evening - both the family time and the no-kid time. How cool of the grandparents!!! :woohoo:
 
Joining in. Your kids are similar in age to mine, so I love the perspective for my upcoming trip.
 
just catching up - Becca has to be the cutest "beast" ever

She was super cute, and somehow got even cuter when she turned all shy. I felt bad for laughing at her.

oh gosh - just so scary when one of the kids wanders off, even if just for a minute. Glad you found Becca relatively soon (even in each minute probably felt like an hour)

Pretty sure my heart stopped for a minute. No fun.


Glad you enjoyed BOG - we really liked it, though we had the same thing that getting a spot and getting everyone settled and silverware, etc. was a bit of a chore - just very crowded

That is the one upside I can see to going for dinner, but the food doesn't seem all that appealing and the ADR is a pain to procure.

Glad the kids held up ok to HM (though perhaps not as well as they originally presented) ... my DD did not do so well with it - I think scenarios that are set up to be scary really freak her out ... she very much just wants the "Happy Ending" part and not bother with the conflict :rotfl:

Smart girl!


That's a cute picture of the two girls conked out

I love that picture. I don't remember who took it though.

Bummer that you didn't enjoy CP that much. We've only done it for breakfast and have loved it but from what I read the lunch and dinner food isn't as good or at lease more hit or miss.

Breakfast looks good, but we are more of the breakfast-on-the-run type. Oh well!

Yeah that Bethany loved BTMR!

You are nicer than us in not asking for a few kid-free hours. :rotfl2: We took my in-laws and knew going in we would ask for that ... fortunately no problems and they were happy too


Having grandparents there is the best! We just didn't want to ask because they were already paying for everything. Didn't want to seem like we were taking advantage.

Good job outta you handling Space Mountain not once but twice! And it is funny/great that as soon as the kids are out of the picture the plans go out the window too!

Space Mountain was scary but fun. It was great to add some flexibility to our super planned week.
All in all - sounds like a great evening!

I am really enjoying reading about your trip. Your kids are so adorable! I can not tell you how many times I have freaked myself out while waiting in line for a roller coaster. In fact, there was one trip when we got Fast Passes for Space Mountain, and my husband was so excited! It is his favorite ride. I was fine with going until we got to the front of the line. Something happened and I just couldn't do it. I told my husband he could go without me, but he wouldn't do it. So we walked all the way back to the entrance. He was a little sad.


Awww, that is exactly what I was hoping to avoid. We are going to spend a few days at Universal on our fall trip, and I have already told him that there are many things that I will not be riding, but that I will expect him to go on without me. I don't want him to miss out.

just found this and love it! We were at POR last time we went (5 years ago!) and will be at CSR in June (SOOOO ready to go back!). POR was lovely. Can't wait to read more!


Thanks for joining in! We loved POR. CSR has me intrigued too. It looks beautiful.

Thinnamon! How funny!:rotfl:

We thought it was very funny. :lmao:

Count me in!! We didnt really enjoy Crystal Palace the last time we were there in November. Can't wait to hear more about your trip!!

Thanks for joining in!

Looks like you had a great lunch at BoG!

And what a great time in Fantasyland!

Awww - I love the naptime pic.

Too bad about CP - we have always had a pretty fun time there. I do agree though that character buffets are a LOT of work! :laughing:

Oh, BTMRR - one of my absolute favorite Disney rides! :woohoo:

What a GREAT MK evening - both the family time and the no-kid time. How cool of the grandparents!!! :woohoo:


It was a really great day. I was on such a Disney high at the end of the night!

Joining in. Your kids are similar in age to mine, so I love the perspective for my upcoming trip.

Thanks for joining! I read a lot of reports about families with young kids when planning my trip too!
 

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