Trip Reports

Time of Year: Summer
Travel Method: Personal Car
Resort: Plaza Hotel (Hotel Royal Plaza)
Accommodations
Ages Represented in Group: Infant, Pre-school, Adult
WDW Experience Represented in Group: Frequent
Comments: Jeanne and her husband traveled to WDW with their pre-school and infant children. Jeanne's report is full of useful information for folks that are visiting with young kids. The list of "do's and don'ts" at the end of the report is great, too.

Introduction / Travel

*NOTE: We bought the trip before we knew the baby was coming. I don't think I would deliberately bring an infant, but it really worked out OK

Well, we traveled pretty slowly with the baby, so day 1 wasn't really our first day of vacation, but it was our official first day in WDW so that is probably all anyone is interested in :-)

We got into Orlando at 2:15 on Thursday, June 26 and debated whether to try to check in to the Hotel Royal Plaza a little early (our confirmation papers said check in at 3:00) or go straight for a quick snack. Decided to check in. Bad Move. Major traffic and we got there to find out that check in had been changed to 4:00. I think they should have notified people with prior reservations when they changed the check in time. The room was nice enough, but not spectacular. I was glad we had gotten it at a discount rate as I would have been quite peeved if I had paid $100 or more!

Wasted quite a bit of time on a lot of little annoyances, but sometimes that is what vacation is all about. We could not believe the traffic!!

Had priority seating at Chef Mickeys for 7:30. Seated within 2 minutes. The characters were great. Really spent a lot of time visiting and very friendly. The baby just stared at all the colors and flashy decorations. Chef Mickey's was the only restaurant I found with the carrier type seats for infants as part of the high chair. He was able to eat some mashed potatoes and also a banana. (I brought food to all meals, but tried to find things to eat too). The air conditioning kept the room a good temperature and I was able to nurse him after dinner with a cover over us. The 4 year old was too excited by the characters to eat a thing! She wanted to make a cupcake with Goofy, but I knew she wouldn't eat it. I asked if it would be OK if she took it with her and they even brought a container so it wouldn't get squished.

Went up to the lounge and watched the fireworks. They were really nice from the lounge. Also enjoyed the electric water pageant as that was the first time we had seen it.

Back to the room and to bed for an early morning the next day.

Got up early Friday June 27 to go to the MK. The plan was to have a quick breakfast in the room, but we forgot to buy something. oops. Everyone munched on Ritz bits and we hurried out. We were supposed to be out the door at 8:00, but Dad is the slow poke of the bunch. The baby got a good nursing and some cereal and we were off. Didn't actually get into the MK until 8:45, but they seem to be sticking to opening time pretty closely lately so we were ready to stroll on in at rope drop. No mad rush today as we still didn't know if the 4 year old would be tall enough to ride anything.

We headed straight to Mickey's Toon Town to ride Goofy's rollercoaster because I theorized that this would get crowded quickly. Apparently I was wrong. The 4 year old and I were the only ones on it. Dad and baby waited behind and visited Minnie. We then headed back into Fantasyland and did the tea cups. The baby loved them! By the time we got to Dumbo it was already a 20 minute wait. Put him into the back pack for the first time. It was definitely the way to go; no one could have held him for 20 minutes!. Got some great pictures of him on his first Dumbo ride.

By now it was 9:50 and I asked when Ariel would be in the Grotto. Turned out that she arrived at 10:00 so we sat right down toward the head of the line. A. (the 4 year old) got quite cooled off. I nursed B. quickly off to the side. A. was thrilled to meet Ariel who was very charming.

Then on to the carousel, Mr. Toad's ride, Snow White and Peter Pan. BTW FWIW we are all pretty much in agreement that the Toad is one of the scariest rides around. I guess you expect to be scared on the other rides, but this is supposed to be a kiddy ride. A's favorite rides on the trip were Jaws, BTTF, King Kong, Star Tours and Body Wars and she hated the Toad because it was too scary! Go figure!

11:00 Lunch at the Columbia Harbor House. You just can't beat the Clam Chowder.

Haunted Mansion-always a favorite although we stalled for quite a while in front of the guy with his dog. I think I'll hear that song much longer than small world. Took a ride on the Liberty square river boat and then hit the Tiki Room. The CMs running it did a good job of getting the crowd set up for the show so no one walked out. I must admit that it is cheezy, but still one of our favorites. The 4 year old remembers it from her first trip at 18 months. Plus it is very very air conditioned...something we needed. Also a very good place to nurse as it stays pretty dark.

It was definitely time for a trip to the baby center. He needed a "major" diaper change (as opposed the the wet diaper that was taken care of at lunch) and we all needed a break. We were planning on staking out a parade spot and setting the stroller up for everyone to nap, but then the thunder and lightening began. The parade was cancelled. So we did the GOH thing and then headed over to MGM.

Had a 4:30 reservation at the prime time for a "snack" but we were all starved so we had dinner instead. Without naps everyone was a little cranky so it became a pretty long break. The baby ate 2 jars of food and a serving of potatoes. He was still smiling and raring to go. The rest of us were really drooping though. The meal refreshed everyone so we headed out to see what was not crowded.

Did the great movie ride with about a 10 minute wait. Between Mary Poppins and the Wizard of Oz A. voted that the best ride so far. We whispered to her at some parts that it was make believe and she didn't look at the Alien. Then right into Muppet Vision which was even better. Boy that stuff is great!. Suddenly A. realized that she had taken her security blanket (actually a pillow case) out of the stroller and lost it. We searched and searched but couldn't find it. I was able to persuade her that it would turn up somewhere else and she was OK.

We checked out Star Tours and put on her "special" shoes (about a 1 inch heel) she was still a tad short, but they waved her through. It was great. Dad and baby were not interested. Headed over for the last show of Indiana Jones. What a line, but we got in. After 1 minute we all knew it was too much for the baby and dad took him out to wait. He had his first fussy time of the entire day and was rather glad to see Mom appear. We all sat down and he nursed under the fireworks and fell asleep.

Overall we found (not only today but for the whole trip) that the crowds were pretty awful at MK but not too bad elsewhere. It was the hottest it has ever been for us. (2 previous trips in June and July). We needed to plan carefully to get indoors frequently and go carefully. Both kids did even better then we dared to hope. YMMV, but our baby took it all in stride. Everyone stopped to comment on how cute he was and how adorable he looked fast asleep in the stroller. We brought our own. It is a sit and stand and the baby rode in the front and the 4 year old rode or stood on the back. Worked very well. In lines that looked more than 5 min. or so we put the baby in the back pack. The transfers were rough, but it was much better than carrying him!

Saturday June 28

Got to sleep a little later as this was Water Park day and we didn't need to rush quite as much to get there at rope drop. The 4 year old was not in the best of moods as her Beauty and the Beast pillow case (security blanket) had not been found the night before. Luckily for all of us she has several spare pillow cases that do in a pinch including a new one with Esmerelda. (The whole pillow case thing appeared out of the blue at about age 3. She likes to "pull" on them.) We reassured her that we would check with central lost and found later on in the day and that it would probably turn up.

Ate breakfast at Perkins right down the road from the hotel. Just outside WDW property and what a difference in price!! All of us split one breakfast of 3 eggs, 4 pancakes, bacon,... We also remembered to buy muffins to take back to the room for tomorrow's breakfast.

Pulled into the BB parking lot right at 9:00. A. (the 4 year old) was in the back saying she felt a little car sick. She does get nauesous occasionally, but rarely looses it. I had just taken the baby to nurse him one last time before we went into the park when I detected a note of urgency in her voice. Dad grabbed her quickly and took her into the parking lot just a little to late. He and she both got covered as did the Hunchback pillow case. (oh no). Luckily everyone was in their suits, so it was pretty easy to hose them off with water from the water jugs.

Obviously this threw our schedule off a little so the lines at the slides were already a little longer than we would have liked. I took the kids over to the kiddy area and Dad headed to hit what he could.

I realize the necessity of keeping people from "sneaking" into the park, but it really is inconvienent to have it set up the way they do. We really didn't want to have our 5 day hoppers stolen from our beach bags, yet we weren't really sure just how waterproof the little ziplock pouches were and didn't want them to get ruined. At the same time they won't let you get your hand stamped and then go put them in the car as you need both a stamp and a ticket to get back in. We used our favorite trick and stuck them in a wadded up diaper. (I realize that I just broadcast this to the world, but I wouldn't risk opening one of little B's dirty diapers even if I did think there were Disney tickets in it)

We were not impressed by BB. TL has it hands down in the kiddy department and Dad thought the slides were better too. Plus we all like the wave pool. Not only that, but we had specifically packed light and brought towels so we didn't have to wait in line. Turned out you had to wait in the same line anyway to get a life preserver. (This is not the case at any other water park I know). We had brought ones for the kids, but they would not let the 5 month old ride in his little boat as it was not "Attached". A helpful CM got us a life vest for him, but it was rather uncomfortable. We all ended up just sitting in the kiddy pool for a little while and then leaving. (BTW, just for the information of anyone who is curious, bathing suits are NOT made for nursing!! and water parks really don't have any dark, discrete out of the way places)

Had lunch at Friendlies (Why don't they have any of them in VA?) and headed over to Sea World for the afternoon. We saw the Key West dolphin show which was really great and the Mickey Finn show which was a rather strange musical offering that had nothing whatsoever to do with the theme of Sea Worldbut was very nicely air conditioned and dark enough to nurse privately. We also got to see the Shamu show which is just awsome. We visited the penguins and the sea lions. We had just parked ourselves at Shamu's Happy harbor for some serious playing for the 4 year old when the sky opened up. We jumped in the line for Terrors of the Deep (along with a whole bunch of other people).

Now this was kind of strange. A. was able to ride Star Tours, Body Wars, and all of the simulators at Universal, but Terrors of the Deep had the highest height requirement. I don't think it is nearly as bad as the other rides. Anyway we just all did the stationary seats instead. Apparently while we were in the ride something set off all the fire alarms and we were locked in the room for quite a while since the exit doors wouldn't function properly. Anyway I think that Sea World must get stuck hiring the people who can't get a job at Disney (sorry, hope I am not offending anyone). The workers were unable to handle the rain and the people. Tempers flared and all of the workers gave everyone conflicting directions. One person would send us one place and then when we got there someone else would yell at us all to go back. Very confusing.

We waited for the storm to pass, but it was obviously here to stay so we decided to try to catch the early bird at the Boston LobsterFest (which we had thoroughly enjoyed the last time). Unfortunately we couldn't find it. Hubby thought he remembered where it was, but no such luck. The traffic on 192 was AWFUL (yes, that is probably why we couldn't find it, since it isn't on 192), much worse than anyone remembered. Ended up eating a fairly late dinner at another all you can eat lobster etc. buffet which was very good and was actually on 192. (Darn, I can't remember the name). Back to the Hotel

Sunday June 29th was the full day at the MK. Up early and we ate our muffins in the room and hit the road. Made it for rope drop and walked quickly to splash mountain. A. had on her shoes with the largest heel we could find and 2 folded paper towels. With a very deep breath she made it!! Unfortunately she couldn't walk like that so I had to carry her through the line. Fortunately it was only about a 10-15 minute wait. She loved it! (She has been begging to ride since she was 2 ½). Wanted to ride again, but of course the line was already horiffic.

Hit the Jungle cruise with an absolutely wonderful CM. She had just the right timing to pull off all the corny jokes! Then off to the Pirates of Carribean which is a good as ever. Then we had 10:30 breakfast reservations at the Crystal Palace with Winnie the Pooh.

What a great breakfast!! I can't imagine anything anyone could want for breakfast that they didn't have. As this was to be our brunch we filled up. The characters spent the most time of any character meal and the way they wandered the room was well thought out. There was plenty of time to actually eat your food in between characters. Lots of cereals and fruits to choose from for the baby too! Eyore in particular spent lots of time enteraining him.

Walked out just in time to set up and watch the character show in the castle forecourt. It was nice, but the heat was so brutal we couldn't even stand and watch the show in the sun. Ended up sitting on the benches in the shade by the entrance to frontierland for a distant but acceptable view. We had almost signed up to be one of the families that walked around holding a sign with our first year of visit, but was glad we didn't as I think they roasted on that stage.

We were already ready for another break so we headed over to the Hall of Presidents. I told the 4 year old that this would be a good place for a little nap and tried to help her get comfortable. Wouldn't you know, she loved it. Sat transfixed for the whole movie and got all excited about the presidents! Great place to nurse though!

Went over to Tomorrowland then for some of our favorite rides. (I guess we are in the minority here). Breezed through Dreamflight (Editor: Takeflight) and onto the Carousel of Progress. A. got all upset on the carousel wanting to know where the outer space part was. We finally realized that she actually recognized and remembered that they were the same family she had seen in Horizons when she was 2 ½ so we had to promise to see them in Epcot.

Headed back to Main Street to stake out a parade spot since we wanted to get to participate in something. A. got to dance with the fish in front of Ariels float and Dad shamelessly begged to be allowed to "dance with Pumbaa" (his absolute favorite character). Well, he didn't get that far, but he did get to beat a drum and frolic with some giraffes and antelopes.

The heat was brutal. That was the first time I really worried about the baby. He was beat red (not from sunburn, just from heat) and we kept giving him water and wetting him. It is a shame that you have to stake out a spot so far in advance of the actual parade time. Even with the heat, though, I must say that people were much more civilized that I had seen in the recent past. No pushing and shoving and yelling. We had a Brazillian tour group behind us and they were very excited and loud, but not rude or pushy. (We were pleasantly suprised to not run into any really rude people the whole trip. We had had real problems with this in the past). As an aside, I never realized that the tambourine could be played as such a musical instrument. One boy in the group was playing and others were singing along (in Portugese) and it was really very interesting to me. (yes they did stop before the parade).

The parade itself was unimpressive. Nice, and the interactive parts were a good touch, but not worth staking out a spot 45 minutes early. We then headed back to the hotel for a much needed rest.

Came back refreshed for a 7:30 seating at Cinderella's royal table. Cinderella was in the lobby and extremely friendly; spent a lot of time talking to A. and interacting.

Went to see the Lion King show (for Dad) and ride Small World (for kids) then Dad went to get a comfy spot for the late parade while I took A. over to ride the Astro Orbiter. I expected a bit of a wait, but not 45 min!! The staffing on the ride was terrible and the elevator concept just makes it worse. They had one CM running the whole upstairs part and it made everything take forever. I usually don't believe in waiting in line more than 15-20 minutes for anything, let alone a little nothing ride like the Astro Orbiters, but we had nothing else pressing so what the heck.

Got back to Frontierland and dad and baby just in time. Spectromagic is my favorite parade hands down. And that music! Why don't they put the real thing on tape. That is the song more than anything that transports us back to WDW. The 11 pm parade really is a lot less crowded. After the last twinkling lights disappeared we bopped in for the last Country Bear Jamboree of the night, and strolled out of the park. Good thing we took a break in the middle of the day! By the time we finally made our way out it really wasn't too long of a wait for the monorail back to the TTC. (For those of you who are wondering we had one last pillow case for the 4 year old, but made her leave it in the car this time!!) Next day on to MGM and Epcot.

Monday June 30

After our full (til midnight) day at the MK the night before we just couldn't make ourselves set the alarm to get up early in the morning. We actually only slept until about 8:15 or so, but it was was wonderful.

Nursed and fed the baby some cereal in the room and decided the rest of us could grab something in the park. [The last one in the bathroom flushed and the toilet began overflowing. We called 3 times and finally told the front desk on the way out that they were going to have a major problem if they didn't get someone up there soon as we had already used all the bath towels and bed linens]

Headed over to MGM. We didn't have a ton of stuff left that we wanted to see, but my only concern was to get into one of the first Little Mermaid shows. We hit about the 2nd one and were able to walk right in. That is, in all of our opinions, one of the best "shows" anywhere-if you know the story line. The 4 year old (A.) was transfigured and the 5 month old (B.) smiled and looked around. (By this point I was beginning to think that he was a little like Pavlov's dogs except he was conditioned to begin nursing as soon as he heard a CM announce , "and please no flash photography.)

By now it was close to 10 and everyone was starving so we went over to the Hollywood and Vine for breakfast. BIG MISTAKE. Like, hello everyone...they have a menu posted and they hand the food to you. Why does everyone have to stand in front of the server for 5 minutes deciding what they want? Why didn't they decide what they wanted during the 40 minute wait in the line? Seriously I think this was the longest line we waited in during our entire trip.

We could have bought a banana for the baby, but just gave him baby food.

The food here was pretty good and not too (by Disney standards) overpriced. Everyone also needed a potty break so it ended up being a rather substantial break.

Once we left we decided we'd better just sit down and get set for the 11:30 Hero to Zero parade. Once again the sun was brutal. As an aside I think that MGM has the best shade on the parade route but we were to late to catch any.

We were all in pretty much agreement that the parade was a little heavy in the zero department. To be kind we have not seen the movie, but it really was extremely short and pretty lame all around.

We then headed over to see the 101 Dalmations backstage thing. Wow!! we got to bring the stroller into something. I think this is an excellent idea certainly for handicap access, but it was helpful for strollers as well. B. did very well in his backpack, but the transfers were rough. This was cute and interesting, but a little hard for little ones to see clearly. I also felt parts of it were rather slow moving.

I had miscalculated a bit and we got out of 101 at 12:28 and there was no realistic way we were going to get to the 12:30 Hunchback show-we started to jog and then slowed back down and visited characters all along that backlot street. A. got to meet Mary Poppins and Burt as well as Pochahantas and Meeko. She was especially pleased that she had worn her Pochantas outfit. It was kind of funny though, we had spent so much time explaining how the big characters didn't talk that she was a little taken aback whenever one of the "people" spoke to her.

Decided to do the backstage tour. I like the new Catastrophe Canyon much better. This one was a bit of a tease though they let us bring the strollers in and then half way through told us we had to unload for the tram ride. B. was asleep and it just didn't seem worth it so we bailed out.

We were on our way to the Honey I Shrunk the Kids play area when we realized that the huge lines in front of us were for the Toy Story greeting. Well, Buzz is one of the few characters that A. really wanted to meet so we joined the queue. This one was something. They were moving everyone through at breakneck speed. The CMs were announcing to have your cameras set and your autograph books open to the page. They did a good job of making sure no one cut line or hogged all the time, but it is so much more "magical" when the characters interact a little. We don't do the autograph thing, and I guess Buzz and Woody would have a hard time holding a pen, but it still seemed kind of tacky that they used a rubber stamp.

By now it was time for the 2:00 HOND show and quite honestly we really could have just bugged out entirely but A. really wanted to see it. It was pretty crowded and I felt like it was hard to see where we were sitting (left upper rows). I ended up with A. on my lap the whole time and Dad had B. on his so we were definitely sweating. Actually gave in and spent around $4 for a bottle of that sport drink. (we had been just drinking water most of the time) It was actually pretty refreshing. The show itself was only OK (probably because we couldn't see most of it) They had some good ideas but the implementation was a little rough.

On the way out we hit the lost and found and were reminded that we needed to call central lost and found. (duh) They tried to call for us, but it was busy. Still no word on the missing pillow case...

Over to Epcot for the rest of the day. We had 4:00 PS at the Nine Dragons for lunch. Between a diaper change, nursing and traffic we barely made it. What a great lunch it started out to be. Both kids were completely out in the stroller and it was wonderfully air conditioned. We split an appetizer of dumplings and a soup and a drink and then were all set to go to town on the treasure duck when B. woke up. He decided he really liked rice and we were OK when A. woke up. She was Grumpy, Sleepy and a few other dwarves whose names I shouldn't write in a family newsgroup. We rushed through the rest of the meal and decided that we would go back to the hotel for the rest of the day.

On the way out A. spotted the interactive fountain and begged to go in. We had actually planned for this so she stripped down to her suit and away she went. Even the 5 month old got to be held standing in the spray on the edge. 30 minutes was enough to refresh everyone and we decided to wander around Future World for a bit.

A small part of me had held out hope for a test track soft opening, but it didn't happen. We hit the Universe of Energy. Much improved. The dinosaurs continue to be great and the movie is a lot less heavy handed and much more entertaining.

Spent a good amount of time in the Wonders of Life. The Making of Me was enjoyed by A. since the whole mommy's having a baby thing was so fresh in her mind. We walked right onto Body Wars and she absolutely adored it. For the most part it was her favorite ride. Dad hates simulator rides, though, so we didn't even have to switch off. Did Cranium Command and Food rocks. Both cute, but not phenomenal. The noise volume in these shows is a bit much. Once again it got dark and B. nursed, but I tried to keep my hands over his ears as I really wondered if it could do damage. Finished off with Horizons. Empty as usual, which is a shame because it really is a decent ride and could be OK with some updating. A. was very pleased to see the Carousel of Progress family again.

Decided to make it an early night and headed out of the park for a cheap dinner. On the way we stopped by the Hotel to make sure they had cleaned up the mess in the bathroom. They hadn't. Told them they needed to and went to dinner. Returned at 9...the floor was still soaked (into the hallway, to the balcony, and we later found out through all the management offices...I guess they took several hours to finally get someone up there). Promised to take care of it. Nothing. At 10 we finally demanded a new room. At 11:40 they finally offered one at which point the kids were asleep and we had an early next day. So much for an early night...oh well. Tomorrow Universal.

Tuesday July 1

Left very early for the character breakfast at Universal.

Several things about Universal were impressive right off the bat. The parking garage is a nice concept. No more stroller shuffling to catch the tram. The moving corridors were nice too, although most people walked on them, they still were a nice touch. I will say it seemed like the entrance to the park was several miles from the actual parking area.

The breakfast was nicely done. As an aside, even though we had to make reservations no one ever checked them. In fact, we ended up sharing a table with another family. We went to the counter for the food which was all you could eat and pretty good, but they predished the plates so you had to take what you got. A. (4) picked at what she got so they let us take a box of cereal for later which worked out well. Lots of characters: Yogi and Boo Boo, Fred, Barney, and Scooby doo. They were very interactive and moved quickly around the room. I got a free ice cream since my birthday was later in the week (forgot to go back and get it, rats). We also got a hand stamp good to jump the ET line up until 10:00.

Finished breakfast with a good jump on the crowd. Went straight into Back to the Future. A. didn't have her "I need to grow another inch" shoes with her, but the attendants were much more lax than at WDW. BTTF became her absolute favorite ride. In fact she loved everything at Universal.

Next Jaws. Again walked right on. Again the kids loved it. The baby just giggled and cooed. In another few months we would have had to switch off, but he mostly just ignored everything. The shark isn't terribly real, but the suspense is pretty well built up. Next was King Kong. Waited under 5 minutes. Some graffitti in there! Again the ride isn't too realistic, but well done otherwise.

It was getting close to 10 so we went to ET. The pass is a bit of a misrepresentation. We got to jump the outside line, but still had to wait in the inside one. The total wait was about 10 minutes, but on a really busy day it could be a lot worse. Don't know what all the fuss is about. I thought it was kind of dumb and so did A. They don't have the gondalas anymore (maybe for handicapped guests, but not for babies). We were going to switch off, but A. wasn't interested in riding again and dad didn't want to.

The Funtastic World of Hanna Barbera was next. Waited about 15 minutes on this one. I like the animated simulator concept. I do think that Universal has the edge on the simulators. Checked out the line to Terminator...forget it! Walked through I love Lucy and then headed to the Beatlejuice Graveyard Review. I guess I am a little on the conservative side, but we found parts of the show offensive. I am fairly certain the sexual jokes and innuendos (really bad spelling there) went right over the 4 year old's head, but I did not think it was family entertainment. The music part was only OK. I know I will be in the minority on this...but I guess a little forewarning would have helped us.

The Animal Actor Show was next. Very funny and well done-but where was the pig? Major bummer. Headed over to Fievel's playland. Hot Hot Hot! The Barney indoor play area was air conditioned and much nicer. We had just missed one show and had to wait about 45 min. for the next one, but it was worth it. I am not a big fan of the purple one, but the show was well done, cute, dark and air-conditioned (Although the preshow was plain old stupid). Also a good place to nurse.

We left at 2ish to grab a bite to eat and to check on our hotel situation. To spare the gory details we did not finish at the Royal Plaza until after 7:00. One good thing was that we got to call the central lost and found at WDW and low and behold THE PILLOW CASE WAS FOUND. We pick it up tomorrow!!!

We didn't want the day to be a total bust, so we grabbed fast food drive through and decided to try to catch what we had missed at Universal. Got on line to see the Nick tour. Do not do this ever!!! It took almost an hour and a half to get through the line and see a boring tour. Luckily we had B, in the backpack. We had to leave in the middle to hunt down a bathroom for A. and then she didn't want to sit with the other kids....perhaps the people at the Royal Plaza had soured us, but we were unimpressed.

Decided to catch the last of the Terminator 3D. Another deceptive line. Looked pretty short but took forever. The pre-show was very well done and the acting was excellent. The show itself was phenomenal, but I regretted bringing A. into it. Dad and baby waited outside, which is good because it was fairly loud. Anyway, when they rate something PG-13 at Universal they mean it. It was not terribly gory and she seemed unphased by it, but it was not something I would have exposed her to otherwise. I guess I thought that since she had handled Jaws etc. she would be fine. Basically she took the 3d glasses off when it got to intense, but the effects were incredible. I would really like to do it agin without kids. Vacation winds down tomorrow at Epcot

Wednesday July 2, (Happy birthday to me)

We planned to get out early for a day at Epcot to get to Honey I shrunk the Audience before it got too crowded, but we were really experiencing vacation burnout. I was still battling with the CFI people and the Royal Plaza people so we didn't leave until after 9:00. We had 11:00 lunch reservations, so we just had a cookie and a banana each and left it at that.

Headed over to Imagination hoping the line for Honey I Shrunk the Audience wasn't too bad...Wrongo Mary Lou. Did Figment instead. Oh what the heck it is one of our favorite rides so we did it twice. It wasn't like there was any wait. Then we spent a good long time in the Imageworks. Thisis really great, but the maintanence is poor. Lots of things weren't working at all. :-( Went over to Norway for lunch. I have tried to convince the rest of the family to eat here before without any luck but I finally got my way. Well you rad guys didn't disappoint me. IT was very good. Lots of food everyone would eat and I bravely tried some "interesting" things and also liked them. A. (4) is an adventerous eater so she really enjoyed it. B. got to have mashed rutabega...a first for him for sure, but it made pretty good baby food.

Major pet peeve...why no changing tables in the restaurant rest rooms? I don't think I should have had to haul him across the courtyard. The diaper was a real mess, so I behaved. But I was quite tempted to just change him on the table in the middle of the restaurant. That really burns me up. The same thing happened at Nine Dragons the day before. This was also the first place I felt a little uncomfortable nursing him. I have a special cover and am quite discreete, but maybe it just isn't done in Norway?

Rode the troll ride. They could make that one a lot longer. I don't mind the movie much. (finished the rush nursing job from lunch) but why didn't they make it a pre-show? Back tracked to Mexico to see The Three Cabelleros and ride It's a small world.. er I mean the River of Time. The Mexican pavillion has great atmosphere. A. surprised us all by loving Epcot. She wanted to walk through all the shops and asked questions in a great amount of detail.

Went back to China to catch the movie. Very very interesting and I highly recommend it to anyone who isn't wearing a 20lb baby on their back. We then hoofed it over to France to see Esmarelda and Quasimoto. They were great, but Esmarelda sounded like Fran Fine (the Nanny). A. didn't mind, but we adults were in stitches.

We lucked out and found out that if you are within the first 10 or so people at the character greeting in France, you can get to U.K. and be among the last 10 or so people to see the characters there so we got to see Alice, the Mad Hatter and TweedleDum. TweedleDum was probably the best character we saw the whole visit. Very friendly and interactive.

A look at the time made us decide to see if Future World had emptied out a bit.

Went into the Land and watched Circle of Life, Food Rocks, and rode the boat. A. had a million questions. We grabbed a snack and did a potty break. Kind of a funny thing happened when one of the cleaning CMs came over and fussed over the baby. A. looked at her and said, "Don't you think you are forgetting someone" Now A. is very picky and extremely concerned about the cleanliness of restrooms. (Also usually very vocal about it) so when she found out that this woman was one of the people who kept them spotless she was very impressed. I think this was as exciting as meeting Mickey himself.

Went to see if the crowds had thinned down. It really hadn't, but we decide that if we were going to see HISTA we better just get in line. Sure enough it was about a 20 min. wait to get in and see the Kodak commercial preshow. Still a great show. B. fussed in a show for the first time of the whole trip. Didn't really know what to do. It's not like you can just get up and leave without disturbing people. The show is so loud I don't think he really bothered anyone, but as a mom, you feel bad. We spent some time just playing and giggling and talking with him afterwards and he was happy. Did Spaceship Earth which we had bypassed on the way in. Time was slipping away, so we headed back to the World Showcase without checkng out the communications center. (Did pick up our ATT true rewards lithograph...do you know how much it costs to frame all of these "free lithos"?)

Yakitori House for Dinner. Our all time favorite. Reasonable, tasty and plenty of it. By the time we left it was getting close to IllumiNations time. Hoped to catch the last showing of American Adeventure, but we would have missed IllumiNations to do it. I think we should have done AA. The fireworks for the new show were great, but I thought the music didn't seem to go anywhere. Of course we didn't see a lot of the laser stuff from where we were on the boat dock. Wish they could make the show viewing better.

We strolled out planning to take a monorail to the MK and pick up the pillow case at the lost and found. Wrong on several counts. First the monorails were horribly crowded so we ended up driving. Secondly I had not listened very well as the lost and found closed at 7. They promised they would mail it to me if I couldn't get the pillow case the next day. A. was heartbroken. She had done fine without it, but having it that close and then seeing me walk out empty handed was hard.

One very tired family trouped back to the Hotel the last major day of vacation over.

Just a few odd thoughts here and there

I think that the Disney Village is a better place to begin the trip then to end it. We were just too tired out to shop. We left all the souveneiring until the end and we probably saved some money because no one could walk any further.
Definitely go to the character warehouse at the Belz Mall, especially if you have kids. A. got a Beauty and the Beast dress that was less than half off and some great Pocahantas Barbie-type clothes for 1.50 each set.
We did something that worked well for A. (she is 4) to earn souveneir money. Each day she could earn up to 5 "disney dollars" that could only be spent on the trip. We wanted her to work for, earn, and spend her own money, but we didn't want to to be spent on junk before the trip or to be lost. Several people had talked about using actual Disney Dollars, but she could still lose those. What we did is made our own dollars (scrap paper with Mickey ears on them) and gave those out. When she bought anything she would count them out for the clerk like real money and then I would charge the item to my credit card.
WDW and the MK in particular are definitely getting dirtier. I noticed chipping, peeling paint and lots of litter...some obviously several days old. I do think that the workers are trying to keep up with it; I just think that people are slobs these days. It used to be that CMs had to deal with occasional litter and normal wear and tear. Now they are supposed to clean up after people who just don't give a hoot.
The tour groups (Brazillian and others) were MUCH better behaved than in the past. Whatever Disney is doing to crack down on them it is working!!
Certainly YMMV, and my kids are unique but B (5 months) did great. We had to slow the pace down, and I wonder just how may people got video of him nursing despite my efforts to be discrete; however, he just was kind of along for the ride. If there was light and movement he smiled at it and if it was dark he went to sleep.
As far as the 4 year old went she just eats this stuff up. Her favorite park was Epcot followed closely by Universal Studios. She loved all the scary rides and walking through the countries and shopping. The sciencey type displays also got her attention. I don't think that most 4 year olds are like this, but neither should you believe all the info that says that young kids can't get anything out of Epcot. You need to know your own children.
There are lots of dark shows and out of the way places to nurse in most Disney parks, the water parks are an exception (plus bathing suits are rough). Most buffets have something that can be mashed and eaten by a young baby and crackers were available at the other restaurants. A stroller is good, but a backpack is a necessity if your child can't stand. Holding him in our arms while in line would have been impossible.
Two adults and a young child can easily split an entree and have enough to eat. (You will have to eat your salad, finish you veggies and eat the bread too). Then you will have enough room for desert. Drink lots of water. It's cheap and healthy.
I personally would never stay at the Hotel Royal Plaza again or any other hotel owned by CFI (Westgate Vacation Villas, Club Orlando, Westgate Lakes, The Seasons Resort, Westgate Towers).

Jeanne Westphalen

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