First (kind of) Trip to WDW -Mom (me!) and Toddler- 5/1/23-5/5/23

[Nicnicnic.nic]

Hello everyone! This is my first trip report. I grew up in LA so, as a kid, I'd go to Disneyland at least once a year. I then went to Magic Kingdom for the day once as a child (spur of the moment due to a very delayed flight). And then as an adult (in 2016) I was invited to a weekend at Animal Kingdom with one day at Magic Kingdom but I did none of the planning. That is all of my WDW experience......UNTIL NOW!!!!!

Ok so for this trip I took my daughter (3.5 yo) and myself (31 yo....don't know if it's customary to put my age as well or not but it's my first trip report so we'll see how many faux pas I can accomplish). I decided to leave my son (1 yo) at home with their dad (we recently separated which is kind of also why I planned this trip because I had been really wanting to go for a long time and I finally could decide how to spend my money so there you go Disney just take it) because I thought it would just be too stressful with two young children and I didn't think he would mind. But he is definitely coming next time.

Ok so here we're my preliminary plans:
I live in Richmond, Virginia but I booked us a direct flight to Orlando out of Dulles (Washington DC) airport. I did this because:
1. we could leave really early and thus get there really early
2. If a flight was delayed or cancelled then I thought it'd be easier to get a new one out of a larger airport
And the biggest reason....
3. I had a united flight credit and couldn't get a direct flight with united out of the Richmond airport

So here's the outline:
Day 1:
Travel Day: drive 2 hrs to DC, fly from Dulles to Orlando, sunshine flyer to art of animation
Day 2:
Hollywood Studios
Day 3:
Resort Day
Day 4:
Magic Kingdom
Day 5:
Character breakfast, travel back home

 

[Nicnicnic.nic]

Ok let's do this! Day one!



I hope I do this picture thing right. We left at 3am. I picked out these matching shirts without her approval. She hates matching with me but she was so tired that she didn't notice we were matching until we were at the airport. Ok I'm just going to post this to make sure the picture formatting is good.

 

[Nicnicnic.nic]

Looks good to me. Let us continue. So we made it to the airport. I had reserved us parking in the attached garage ahead of time. Very easy. I thought a lot about logistics ahead of time since it was just me and my little one. She doesn't use a stroller at home but I decided (after my daughter asked about it after watching some vlogs) to bring the stroller. I am soooo thankful I had that. She was too tired to function at the airport at 5ish am for one and it was quite a walk from the garage (even though attached) to security. Plus I was able to stuff her rolly bag in the pouch under the stroller. I then had a backpack on my back and my rolly carryon with a extra large tote bag on top of that. It all felt very doable honestly.


I was so excited walking through the airport. I had not managed to go to sleep early the night before so I was running on about 3 hrs of sleep but it didn't matter because we were going to WDW!!!!!!

I don't like checking bags so I didn't. I had a minor internal freak out while waiting for security because I didn't bring any documents for my daughter and hadn't researched if she needed something to prove I was her guardian or her identity but it was fine. After security I got a coffee and she picked out a snack. By this time it was probably around 7ish.


Cheetos for breakfast??? Sure! We're on vacation!

I learned the cut off for boarding early was 2yo.... The last time I flew with her she was under 2yo. But we managed and I really had no trouble with anything. I gate checked the stroller but everything else came on with us.

The whole flight was just about 2 hours. We both napped briefly after take off. The feeling of take off always always makes me sleepy. I don't know why but apparently it has the same effect on my daughter. She also colored a little during the flight. Nothing exciting. She felt a little nauseous but not too bad. I had given her Dramamine before the car ride as she is very prone to nausea. (I'm also prone to nausea...I also felt a little nauseous if anyone cares to know.)

And then we were in Orlando!!!!!!!!

 

[ThreeBoyMama]

Sounds like a great start! Looking forward to hearing more

 

[Nicnicnic.nic]

We made our way to the bus area. At first I accidentally brought us to MEARS because for some reason I thought sunshine flyer bought out MEARS but then I was pointed to the correct area. We got a paper crown and was told to wait until our resort was called. I didn't time it but it felt like we waited under 15 min. The waiting area was not magical but our tickets were very cheap. ($12/ticket) So for this price id definitely do it again. For a more expensive price probably not.



This is a picture of the waiting area but it's hard to see since it's mostly my daughter lol. But there were no chairs.



Here we are boarding the bus. The driver helped us put our bags under the bus which was very nice. And we got the first 2 seats right behind the driver which was very close to the TV which my daughter appreciated. There was a woman in the seats across from us but she said she'd move to make way for my husband. I told her she didn't have to move that it was just me and my daughter but I think the face I made, made her embarrassed and she moved anyway. I was little worried about going to WDW as a freshly single mom. I thought there would lots of these moments (spoiler: this was the only one) or I'd get sad seeing a lot of happy nuclear families (spoiler: nope. And when I saw parents fighting I was happy it was just us.) But back to the bus....





My daughter was very happy with the cartoons. And I was very happy to look out the window. I kept looking in all ponds hoping to see an alligator. Oh well..... AND THEN




I teared up. AND THEN....




I was still tearing up.

 

[Nicnicnic.nic]

We were the first stop! Got our bags. Had my daughter tip the driver and we were headed to the lobby! My daughter kept pointing at the characters and shouting their names. The excitement of the first day of a much much much anticipated trip is the best feeling in the world.




I spent a lot of time researching the different hotels. I wanted a really in your face Disney for my daughter but an aesthetic I still thought was beautifully done with a good pool and good transportation and this hotel really stands above the rest and it's a value. I really can't believe it. I had a good experience the entire time we were here. The only things that would make it better is a slide in the pool and better transportation to magic kingdom but you can't have it all. I booked us the little mermaid standard room.


I thought someone might want to see this.


My daughter thought this little TV area was the coolest. I let her stay here while I checked in. From the check in area you have a direct line of sight to the TV area. Even if you're waiting in the line. Smart Disney.

A CM approached me while I was in line with an ipad and I asked about early check in and how to use the magic bands I had bought ahead of time. And she figured out it was our first time and there was more pleasant small talk about our trip that I can't remember but she was truly very nice and friendly BUT THEN she asked if I was ok with a free upgrade then our room would be ready now. WHAAAT. (I asked again to make sure it was complimentary. I knew how much more the suite rooms are compared to little mermaid.) And then she gave me the choice of lion king or cars! I chose cars.... mostly due to its location but I also like the decor more. I watched many vlogs before the trip.

And we were off to our SUITE!!!!! She was just as excited to look at everything as I was.

A suite for 1 adult and 1 toddler feels really extravagant. What a great start.

 

[MinnieFan4ever]

What a great start! PIXIE DUST!

 

[Counting Stars]

Wow, Wow, Wow! I am so delighted you were pixie dusted on your very first trip! That is wonderful. With such a great start I know this will be a terrific trip. Looking forward to reading more....

 

[MamaMouse0920]

What an amazing start to your trip!! Can't wait to read more!

 

[Nicnicnic.nic]

On the way to our room, we passed the pool. So of course my daughter wanted to go to the pool. But she hadn't had anything to eat since her breakfast of Cheetos, so I told her we had to eat first. My daughter is a very picky eater and just in general not a huge fan of it. She there's nothing she wants to eat she just won't eat. Or if there's something she wants to do, she won't. So my strategy was to be a little more firm than usual for this trip because there's always something more fun at WDW. I told her I was hungry and we had to stay together and she had to wait for me to be done eating before we could swim. I also told her she had to eat a little something so she had enough energy to swim a long time. If there's anyone else out there reading this who has experience with a picky eater, any advice would be welcome. Because it's an almost daily struggle, especially if I don't let her eat junk 3 times per day.



Anyway, so we went to the food court. I bought a refillable mug in the gift shop on the way to the food court (because I didn't know I could buy it in the food court). Visually, I thought it was really nice. The different seating areas have art from the different movies. And there's TVs with Disney Junior but it was always too loud to hear it. It would be cool if there were little speakers on the tables that you could either turn on or off so you could hear the TV.




The food was pretty good for value resort food court food. After my daughter ate 1/3 of my fries and 1/2 her pizza she danced around the table and looked at the art until I told her I was done. She really liked the water cup with the coffee cup lid. She's been using sippy cups or water bottles for years but lately she's wanted to "drink like a grown up" which for her means if we are out she wants to use the same type of cup as me. These coffee cups were very easy for her to use.

Ok now to get ready for the pool!





Do not bring a floaties to a Disney resort. As soon as we got to the pool (we went to the big blue pool) we were told only infants were allowed to use infant floats. DD (I'm tired of writing my daughter) took it well though. She hadn't been in a pool with me since September. And she goes to swim class every week so she wanted to show me all her moves. Plus theres water coming off of giant jelly fish. Plus there's a splash pad with all the finding Nemo characters. Mostly though I swam around the pool holding. She brought her pool ball (which is about the size of a tangerine and floats) so shed throw it and we would swim toward it and shed grab it. I also brought a disposable water proof camera so I was taking a lot of pictures.

After a couple hours I was pretty tired and I started noticing her swallowing water so I told her it was time to go get cleaned up and do something else. She was sad to leave but I promised we'd be back.


Next time I'm buying a pool bag for the trip. I felt a little silly using this plastic bag as our pool bag.

 

[Sacahara]

Picky eater here: My mom found that if she pretended that all of the food was hers and I couldn't have anything and talked about how good it was and how sad it was that I couldn't eat any of it (while looking away) that I would 'steal' her food and eat it. Not sure if it'd work for your DD, but it might if she's wanting to copy your drinking cup, she might want to copy your eating.

 

[Nicnicnic.nic]

Picky eater here: My mom found that if she pretended that all of the food was hers and I couldn't have anything and talked about how good it was and how sad it was that I couldn't eat any of it (while looking away) that I would 'steal' her food and eat it. Not sure if it'd work for your DD, but it might if she's wanting to copy your drinking cup, she might want to copy your eating.

I'm going to try this! Thanks.

 

[Bama Mom]

wow what a great start to the trip.

 

[Nicnicnic.nic]

We showered and got dressed. I didn't have any real plans for the rest of the day. I wanted to check out the Riviera (because it looks so beautiful in vlogs) and use the skyline for the first time and just go slow and stop at anything that looked fun. Well.....here some fun things for a 3yo.....


Btw...she plays with this on a pretty regular basis because it's at her hair salon.


There was either a turtle or a bird down there.


Our first skyliner!!!!! What a cool way to get around. DD liked to point at the passing gondolas and shout the names of the characters (if she knew them) and ask me the names if she didn't know them.



And now Riviera! This really is a beautiful resort.



First I got a coffee at Le Petit Cafe. I wanted to get a pastry but nothing really spoke to me (especially at those prices). And then DD said she wanted a snack so we went downstairs to their quick service. We stopped at looked at all the artwork on the way. Really beautiful.




This is the area to change diapers in the bathroom. Marble! Beautiful. Like everywhere we went just beautiful.


Again I don't know why she liked these so much when we have them at home but here we are again.


Goodbye beautiful Riviera!

Now it's time to go back to our hotel to play, explore and s'mores!

 

[Nicnicnic.nic]

On the skyliner back to Art of Animation...


Don't we look like pros already

And then we were on the hunt for pride rock for some s'mores.



I just think it's so cool that s'mores are offered every night for free. It was my daughter's first time. She knows that fire is dangerous and usually isn't allowed to be close to it so she took the putting the marshmallows into the fire part very seriously. Of course she didn't want to eat any of the marshmallows she cooked but she did try half of an uncooked marshmallow.



Then we looked for elephant graveyard playground but we found it was closed for refurbish so we went to the finding Nemo playground.


Slides and ...


Slides....and


Slides!!!!!
Dd's favorite thing to do at the playground is go on the slide so it was pretty cool to have a playground of all slides.

It was starting to get late so I mobile ordered some food from the food court. I then let DD either a visit to the gift shop to pick a souvenir or a trip to the arcade. She chose arcade.



I don't remember what I got DD. Probably Mac n cheese or cheerios. Next time I'm bringing more groceries for the kids. The price of the kids food is pretty high and DD doesn't like it any more than her regular food.


This was some sort of Asian inspired chicken, veggies and rice. It was actually sooo good. I think I got it again. I also got a little bottle of wine... although I didn't finish it by the end of the trip.



It was a very very long but amazing first day. Whenever I think about it, it makes me happy. The excitement of WDW but also the extended one on one time (without baby brother) with DD for the first time since the separation. I hope we stay travel buddies forever.

 

[nw6675]

I love your report so much! Such a sweet trip to remember.

 

[erinch]

Such a lovely report!

 

[footballmouse]

 

[snikki]

What an amazing start to your trip and awesome pixie dust upgrade!

Enjoy the 1 on 1 time with DD. My daughter is a teenager and we do mom/daughter trips. I really enjoy it. They grow up so fast.

 

[Nicnicnic.nic]

Day 2! Hollywood studios day!

Ok so I had never been to Hollywood Studios before. (Before this trip I had been to Disneyland many times during childhood, 2 or 3 times California Adventure and 2x magic kingdom) I knew I wanted to take her to MK but for the 2nd park I chose HS over AK and Epcot because of the skyliner access and all the shows at HS. DD and I have been to the Frozen and Aladin off Broadway plays and we both enjoyed them a lot so I thought she would definitely like all the shows at HS. I wasn't sure if DD was going to like rides or not because the last time I took her to a local amusement park she did not like the rides right away.

Anyway. Very excited for this. I wish I could remember times better here it goes.