Ellie's First Trip to Disney

When Ellie was 6 weeks old she made her first visit to Disney. We have annual passes and were going to be in Orlando for another reason so we decided why not. I will say - when going to Disney in August with an infant a "whatever happens" attitude is what you have to have. We literally only did our fast pass and reserved activities and that was pretty much it. When it wasn't crazy hot it was rainy. But, we had a wonderful time!

Our first evening there started out a little later than expected - as we were literally buckling Ellie into her car seat I got a call my mom had a seizure. Caidyn and I went to the hospital to check on her and Brian and Ellie waited for us.

I have to share - Caidyn was so adorable in the car on the way there. She knew we were supposed to be leaving for Disney so when we didn't go we explained that Grandma was in the hospital and we had to make sure she was ok. I got out of the car as Brian was dropping me off and Caidyn was crying and adamant she was able to come make sure Grandma was ok, too!

After we made sure my mom was alright (the seizure was a complication of a sinus infection she was having - something common in people already prone to seizures) we were on the road. A few hours later than planned, but we were able to move our fast passes for that evening around to still make all our rides.

The highlight of that evening was Caidyn riding Star Tours! She was finally tall enough and her dad was so excited to take her! The ride lets out into the Star Wars store where Caidyn picked out her very first light saber!

She chose a custom purple light saber and of course Daddy had to get some pictures of her with it!

We also did rider swap for the first time that evening with the Toy Story Mania ride. It is actually "handheld infant" allowable, but as we were in line we saw some of the cars and it seemed a little more jerky than we wanted to hold Ellie on. It worked out great for Caidyn as she got to ride twice and it was nice for us that we could both enjoy the ride fully with Caidyn, not have one of us have to just hold Ellie while the other enjoyed the ride. It was definitely a rougher ride though - Caidyn's 3D glasses had gone sideways by the end of the ride!

I was wearing the perfect shirt for all of the drama that day. And of course, when I tried to get a cute photo of my girls and I they cranked out and made the photo even more perfect!

The shirt was a custom design from my favorite instagram shop - Gray Anchor Apparel! We also got our first family of four photo in a Disney park! They made it into a cute little video! Brian and Caidyn's shirts are from another favorite shop - especially for Disney gear - GlitterEverAfter! 

We ended up in our hotel room around 9:30 that evening and ordered take out Chinese for dinner. It had been a crazy day and we just wanted to relax. Plus, we had a big day the next day! Lunch reservations at Be Our Guest!

We got to the Magic Kingdom parking lot about an hour before our reservation, which should have been plenty of time. But of course Ellie needed to eat right as we arrived so we paused for that. The boat was closed for maintenance so we had to wait in a long line for the monorail, and, to top it off, it started pouring as we arrived to the park entrance. At Disney if you don't make your reservation they charge you $10 per person so we were running for it! Brian took Caidyn in the stroller through no bag security and Ellie was in the carrier and we waited to have our bag checked and then hopped from covered area to covered area making our way to the Beast's Castle! Lunch was actually really wonderful and Ellie hardly had a drop of water on her (the rest of us were soaked!). 

We tried the Grey Stuff, and it was delicious!

The rest of the day was relatively cool after that rain shower! We met Mickey, Cinderella, and Rapunzel, rode the carousel and the Winnie the Pooh ride, and saw the new castle show about friendship! 

The next day we went to Animal Kingdom. This was much easier to get to, but was MUCH warmer! Our first stop was the Baby Center - which was amazing. Air conditioned, right by a Starbucks, and had Frozen playing for Caidyn! I fed Ellie and we cooled off before our first fast pass - Finding Nemo! We also had a fast pass to meet Mickey and Minnie (Caidyn loves to meet characters! She actually plays pretend being characters and asks if you want to come meet her and then poses for pictures - its adorable!) and ride the safari. After Nemo we had an ice cream snack and hung out in the dinosaur area for a little bit so Caidyn could play! We then met Mickey our characters and had some lunch. The skies looked threatening after lunch and after being caught in the rain the previous day we decided to skip our safari fast pass (since it takes about 35 minutes + to do the whole thing) and went to the car. It turned out to be a great call since right after we got buckled and in the car the sky opened up! 

We had a super fun first visit to Disney with Ellie! We are going back next month for Caidyn's birthday with our cousins which will also be fun! Plus it is a weekend that is supposed to be one of the least crowded of the year - always a plus with toddlers and babies!