The Threefer - 3-in-one trip with two littles, Grandma, and Mum-Mum

[travelgirl06]

What began as an innocent family trip, one big "last" trip before we are dealing with a school calendar next year (eeek!) morphed itself into 3 vacations in one. A "Girls Trip" featuring me, my four-year-old DD, and my mom (aka Mum-Mum to my girls), a "Grandma trip" (me, 4-yo DD, DH, our 1.5 year old DD and DH's mom aka Grandma), and then the originally intended family vacation. 9 glorious days at WDW, 2 resort hotels (including a new favorite), plenty of food, typical toddler/preschooler "drama" , a few dates with DH (thanks Grandma!), an unanticipated "date" with my mom (thanks 7PM naptime , tons of pictures, and loads of memories.

If you want to read about the planning/what I thought might happen on the trip, check out my PTR here.
I was a bit of a slacker with photos on the PTR, but I vow to include more in my trip report .

I took plenty of notes during the trip, and I have a tendency to be a bit wordy, so if that bothers you, feel free to seek out an alternate TR for your reading enjoyment.

The Cast (largely 'borrowed' from my PTR, buslightly updated based on the trip).
Me - I am the (over) planner, and grew up going to WDW a little but with non-Disney parents. Luckily going to college in CA and meeting up with a bunch of Disney fans set me straight and I was reunited with all things Disney and got back to WDW as fast as I could. I am very excited to stay at one of my dream resorts (the Poly!!!), eat lots of good food, and be able to ride everything (last trip I was pregnant so had to skip thrill rides).
Favorite character: Ariel
Favorite ride: Soarin' (still)
Favorite park: MK

DH - he grew up with many visits to DL, this intially led to many debates of WDW vs. DL and ultimately a healthy appreciation of the pros and cons of both parks and a good excuse to visit both . He's a transportation engineer by day and majorly geeks out over all things transit - this Disney World Transportation System could be its own e-ticket attraction to him.
Favorite character: Baloo (we won't mention the time we met Baloo and got a photo pass taken and somehow it was lost in photoPass land never to be seen again - he may have asked multiple CMs if there was any way to find it... spoiler alert - we have another Baloo encounter this trip)
Favorite ride: Big thunder
Favorite park: Disneyland, but of the WDW parks - Epcot

DD4 - Audrey. This kid is creative, silly and a little bit shy with a good dose of 4-year-old sass. She loves all things Frozen (of course) and is excited to ride some big kid rides this trip. She is right at the 40" mark, so we're trying to temper expectations in case she doesn't make the cut-off. She's looking forward to the Casey Junior splashpad because one of the older vacation planning DVDs tells her she "doesn't even need a swimsuit" - the idea of getting wet in NORMAL clothes is fabulous to her.
Favorite character: Anna and Elsa (Rapunzel is close behind)
Favorite ride: Goofy Roller Coaster! (Which she hasn't been on yet...) & a few new faves!
Favorite park: MK

DD1 - Natalie. A very ambitious little sister who's always trying to keep up with the big kids. She's been practicing her 2-year-old 'tude lately, and we're excited to see what Natalie thinks of her first visit. Ok, we cheated a little and did "non-Disney Disney" (a no parks visit) when she was 2 months old, but she's never been to the parks and obviously doesn't remember the non-trip. She has no idea what to expect, but is very into the "Disneyland Fun" DVD and we've done lots of "practice fireworks" over the summer, so we think she'll figure it out.
Favorite character: Anna or 'Ella (they're easy to say!)
Favorite ride & park: TBD, but I'll guess Small World and MK, these

DMIL - Grandma. In all honesty, Grandma isn't a huge Disney fan, but she loves her granddaughters and enjoys traveling and is excited to join us on this adventure. She has 3 boys, so I think a chance to do "girly" stuff is a bit of a treat. She lives out of state, so time together is extra special. This is our first attempt at a vacation together, and we're all excited. She's also offered to watch the girls a little bit so DH and I can do some "date nights" which is awesome and we are very much looking forward to!

DM - Mum-Mum. A flight attendant who's had a hip and a knee replaced this year with the other knee in queue. My mom is joining Audrey and I for some "girl time" before the rest of the family comes and she heads back home. Girl trips are a tradition we started when I was little (with my grandma in-tow on some of them) and we are so excited to start doing them with Audrey (and Natalie, when she's a little older). WDW seems like the perfect gateway for us to start these adventures!

 

[travelgirl06]

Going into Thursday my "goals" we're that we would all get there without major delays and hopefully make it to dinner at Raglan Road. I booked open table figuring if we didn't make it or were too tired we could adjust plans accordingly (important when dealing with flights from two different states slated to land in the late afternoon and a preschooler!)

I can be oh so slightly neurotic about getting to the airport early, if we're cutting it close I stress out. Luckily, Derek's schedule on this day was such that it accommodated dropping us off at my oh-so-early time requested (awesome that we had a drop-off and it met my time "requirements"). I was more than happy to drop my giant bag and the stroller (with the glorious DME tags) at the bag check counter and gladly nodded when the check-in agent reminded me that I wouldn't see them again until I got to my resort.

Being early and encountering minimal waits for check in and security, we had plenty of time to grab some tacos for lunch and relax a bit before our flight. Audrey made friends with a little girl at the gate and they happily chatted about going to Disney.

After a nearly 24-hour flight delay on my last trip (all stuck in layover airports), I was more than a bit anxious about the flight out. Luckily it was on time and there were no issues). On the flight, Audrey worked on her "projects", we had snacks and I even got a chance to read a little on the plane. All-in-all it was perfectly uneventful and dare I say, relaxing?

We found Mum-mum at the airport (after being distracted by all the signs for local attractions and the Goofy statue) and headed over the Magical Express. We had to wait a bit for a bus and then a bit more once we were on the bus, but they were playing cartoons (for Audrey) and had air conditioning (for the adults) so it wasn't an issue. I noticed it was a new-to-us video, but my mom and I were so busy chatting and I didn't watch it (I later asked DH about it, but he and his mom were chatting on their DME too, so I don't think he saw much of it either.)

Check in at the resort was super fast and the lady who checked us in was very sweet. We even got our room requests of 3rd floor and corner room. Looking out our windows, I felt like I was in a treehouse! The room was clean and very much met our needs, for the amount of time we spent there we were more than pleased. Derek, Audrey and I stayed at Pop Centurythe first night of our last trip and the room felt very small and the walks very long, but POFQ felt quite spacious for the three a of us and walking around was very manageable.

We recharged for a few minutes then headed over for the boat to DTD (or "Downtown" as the boat captains were referring to it on this trip). The boat pulled up shortly after we got there and we were on our way. The captain said it would take about 15 minutes (from my memory of last visit to POR, I was thinking it would be longer) but it was quite quick! A very pleasant ride and you get a nice breeze once you get moving. We checked out Saratoga Springs en route and once we came to the lake with the view of DTD the excitement mounted!

I know there is construction and had been reading about the new restaurants, etc. but had no idea what it would look like. It's already quite nice and I think when it's done it will be awesome! I think they've added some new pedestrian bridges, and walking traffic flow seemed better than on previous trips (but maybe there are just less people there due to construction). At any rate, I'm excited to see it evolve (but do still miss the Adventurer's Club!)

Having about 20 minutes until our reservation, we leisurely made our way towards Raglan Road. Audrey was so excited by all the Disney stuff and we stopped to take a lot of pictures. There were also several shops she wanted to check out, so we promised to shop after we ate. It was fun to see the pre-evening side - entertainment acts getting set up and the energy of transition from day to night.

We checked in At Raglan Road, and the hostess noted our request for a view of dancing and said it would be a few extra minutes - no problem . We went outside and decided to order a beer for the wait, by the time my mom got in the line at the outdoor bar,the buzzer went off. We wound up with a great pub-height table with a straight on view of dancing and the stage. I could not have asked for a better view.

Audrey got right to work coloring her kids menu and my mom and I ordered up some drinks - Irish beer for her, strawberry cucumber mojito for me, and pink lemonade for the little miss. For some reason they gave Audrey a mini pencil instead of crayons, I thought it was slightly weird but she LOVED it. It was the Labor Day weekend Great Irish Hootenanny, so they were alternating between live music (the band was from Dublin, I believe) and the dancing. The entertainment was all quite enjoyable and I get why this is a "must visit" for many. I wanted to order light so we would have room for dessert, so we split the scallop forest, a shepherds pie, and a side salad (Audrey got the kids macaroni - which was surprisingly good!). Everything was delicious (I especially loved the scallops!) and we wound up with way too much food - we brought at least half of the shepherd's pie back to our room! As we were finishing up one of the dancers came over to talk to Audrey; my little gal was too shy to actually talk to her, but it totally made her day! Although Miss Audrey did overcome her shyness enough to inform our sever, with a devilish grin that she was "taking the pencil home!" Overall, great food, wonderful server and lots of fun!