Surprise Disney Trip!

For about a year and a half, I had been thinking that taking Curran to Disney World for a birthday trip, just the two of us, would be really fun. She has always asked about going for her birthday, but I told her that there was no way we would ever do that- it's too hot and too crowded in July. Well I started thinking more seriously about it when I started my travel agent job. I figured that it would be easy and a good excuse to try out some new {to me} things with just two of us. And I have struggled to make good quality time for Curran lately, so I was really just so excited about having some special one on one time with her.

So when we were there as a family in January, we got a really good bounce back offer for a room discount, so I called and got a room booked for Curran and me! I was SO excited about this trip and could not wait for it to get here! My plan was to surprise her the night before we left with our MagicBands and plane tickets. I asked Christopher if Sallie Cate could spend the night with them so she wouldn't get upset when Curran opened her present and so she would be too busy having fun to care that we were leaving. I dropped SC at Sissy's and told her I was leaving town and would be back Sunday night. I figured she would find out about Disney after we got back and I would just deal with the fallout then.

I gave C her present, and to say she was surprised is an understatement! She was SO excited, and both of us had lots of happy tears! I wish I could post the videos here. My in laws came in town to keep Baby John, so they gave her her birthday present- a new Belle dress and shoes for the trip! She was so excited and kept saying "I can't believe it. I just can't believe it!" I was really really sad {and a bit anxious} about leaving baby John, but I knew he was in good hands with the Quinns and big John.

All packed and ready to go!

We had an 8:35 am flight out on Thursday morning. John dropped us at the airport, and we were on our way!

I had some free drink vouchers from Southwest that were burning a whole in my pocket. The idea of a Mimosa was good, but turbulence combined with the fact that I hadn't eaten made it not such a great idea. But I was in full vacation mode at this point!

I love the quick flight to Orlando! It was so nice to land by 11am!

Curran wanted to pose with HP too. :)

We stopped at a store to grab a Coke for me and a few snacks, and then hopped on the tram headed towards the Magical Express!

We waited in line for probably 10 minutes and then our bus was ready! We actually got a text from the resort saying our room was ready while we were waiting in line. That was the earliest we've ever had a room ready. 

On the bus and ready to go! And let me stop at this point and say that Curran was such a trooper any time I wanted a picture. And she asked for lots of photos to be taken as well. I could only imagine the looks and attitude I would be getting from SC if I tried to take this many pics of her. :/

Here we are! We had first row seats on the bus so we had a good view of the sign! But the bus driver didn't even announce it was coming up...normally they do. Thankfully C was paying attention or else I would've missed it.

We stayed at Wilderness Lodge for the first time, and I was so excited to check it out! Here is what Disney's site says about WL:

Escape to the rustic majesty of America’s Great Northwest. Inspired by turn-of-the-century National Park lodges, Disney’s Wilderness Lodge celebrates American craftsmanship and honors the beauty of the untamed wilderness. Soak in the splendor of the great outdoors, from nature trails through pine forests to rocking chairs that overlook a murmuring creek. Inside, discover towering totem poles, headdresses and more, and enjoy the rustic elegance of the stone hearth and roaring fireplace.

We stopped by the front desk to get a resort map and pick up our stroller from the bellhop, and then headed up to our room. We Face Timed with John, and Curran gave him a tour of our room and the resort.

the lobby

our room

We had a courtyard view room, and it was nice to be able to see the lagoon as well!

Curran wanted to pose by the Mickey totem pole. :) 

Wandering around the resort

We stopped by Roaring Fork, the quick service restaurant at WL, to get our refillable drink mugs that come with the Disney Dining Plan, and C scoped out the desserts for later. 

We decided we would just eat at the pool, so we went back to our room to put on our swim suits and I pumped. I decided to just dump out my milk since there wasn't a way to freeze it, and I wasn't sure there was a good way to keep up with it at the parks. That was hard to do, but I knew it would be way harder to deal with it! I packed our swim suits in our carry-on bag since I knew our luggage would take a while to be delivered to our room, so we got dressed and headed down to the new Geyser Point restaurant.

We opted for burgers from the quick service window, and they are SO good! I was very pleasantly surprised. I was also absolutely famished, but I think they would have been just as delicious even if I wasn't starving. :) We ordered our food to go and sat at the bar overlooking the lagoon {you can't tell in this pic}. After we ate, I ordered a cocktail from the bar and then we headed to the pool.

C is in there somewhere! :)

Playing some pool games before the storm came in.

We got some good swim time in. Curran wanted me to go down the slide with her, so I did that and she played in the splash pad area too. About 30 minutes before we needed to leave the pool, a huge thunderstorm started rolling through, so they quickly cleared the pool deck. We headed inside, and C picked out a treat to take back to the room.

She then took a bath and we freshened up for dinner. The boats weren't running because of lightning in the area, so we headed down to the bus stop to catch the Magic Kingdom bus.

Curran had a 5:00pm appointment at the Ivy Trellis Salon at the Grand Floridian before a 6:35pm dinner at 1900 Park Fare. I wanted to try out something different from Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique, and I also didn't want to take up our limited park time with a BBB appt, so this was a great option for us!. We got off the bus, and I debated taking a boat {which were now up and running} versus the monorail to get over to the GF.

On the monorail

I went with monorail but should've gone with boat. I forget how long each stop on the monorail takes {really not all that long but when you're in a hurry, it feels like forever}, and the GF is the last stop leaving MK. We were running pretty late for the appointment so I tried to call, but you can't find a direct phone number anywhere. We finally made it around 5:30 I think, and I felt so bad, but they were nice about it. Ivy Trellis is a very, very basic salon. It has NONE of the fanfare of BBB. I immediately had an internal panic and was so hoping Curran wouldn't be upset. But unlike BBB, she could pick whatever hair do she wanted, so she chose a "Belle" 'do. They did add glitter and a crown to her hair and did her makeup and nails afterward.

Ready to get primped and pampered!

All done!

 When we walked out, I nervously asked Curran what she thought and she said she LOVED it!! She said she liked it better than BBB since she got to pick her own hairstyle. I was SO glad she was happy, but I wouldn't recommend it for everyone. There is no photographer in the salon like BBB, but there is a PhotoPass photographer located upstairs on the mezzanine, so that was a good place to take some pics.

Curran loves the Magic Shots! :)

I took C outside for a few pictures, and then we headed towards 1900 Park Fare.

A nice cast member walked by and offered to take pictures of both of us. 

Then we headed back inside to check in for our dinner reservation. I had ordered Curran one of the new Mickey cakes for her birthday, and I was impressed that the hostess got one of her helpers to take Curran off to the side to show her something so she could ask me about the cake order without Curran over-hearing. I was very grateful! The hostess told us it was going to be a long wait, but then I got a text almost immediately saying our table was ready. This was out first time to eat dinner at 1900 Park Fare; we have done breakfast here a few times and it's one of our very favorites! So I was excited to try out dinner with Cinderella, Prince Charming, the Stepmother, and Stepsisters.

Her eyes were a bit bigger than her tummy! She gets so excited waiting on the characters that she can hardly eat! I always forget this beforehand, and it also frustrates me. {Just because those meals are so expensive and I don't want her to say she's hungry when we leave!}

Meeting her very first prince! She was smitten! :)

 We both really enjoyed the food and the character interactions. The stepmother and stepsisters were particularly hilarious. Curran was dressed as Belle {obviously} so when Anastasia was talking to her and asking about her castle and said "Everything in your house talks! Sounds like a migraine to me." Curran was so tickled. And there was this family from the UK sitting next to us and the boy was probably around 13 and was MORTIFIED every time a character came over to their table and tried to talk to him. So their interactions were entertaining to us too. At one point one of the sisters said something to him about "fromage" {I guess}, because then she rolled her eyes over her shoulder towards us and said "That's French for cheese. Belle should've picked up on that."

Lady Tremaine was posing Curran and was making she looked "just so."

I love the interaction at character meals, and this place was so fun. I will say that our service was not great. At all. It was very slow, and I practically had to beg them to refill my water. It took forever for them to bring out the birthday cake I had ordered for C! I finally had to ask another waiter to tell our waitress to bring it because she was chomping at the bit to get dessert, and I couldn't stall her any longer.  She was very surprised and excited! In my excitement to order the cake, I kind of forgot that she's not the biggest fan of cake. Haha! She did like the hard chocolate parts {ears, buttons, tail} and ate all those up. I knew it would be more than then two of us could eat anyway, but it was more about the thought and making the evening special. I took the leftovers back to our room so we {I} could snack on it there.

Posing with the glass slipper after dinner.

After dinner, I was trying to get my PhotoPass pictures to load, and realized I didn't have Memory Maker on my account. I had requested it when I booked our room, and I could've sworn it was linked. So after 30 minutes on the phone trying to figure it all out, I had to purchase it for full price and was not happy. But Curran was so sweet to be patient with me, and she enjoyed the orchestra playing upstairs while I was on the phone.

After that got taken care of, we walked over to the Polynesian to watch the fireworks from the beach. The GF beach does not pipe the music in but I knew the Poly did. So we walked over and found a cozy spot to watch. I was SO bummed there wasn't any music and couldn't figure out why. Well, it turns out we were on the wrong beach. I was just not super familiar with that resort and didn't realize there was more than one beach area. As we were walking to catch the boat from the Poly back to Wilderness Lodge after the fireworks were over, we passed the correct beach where everyone was leaving after having seen and *heard* the show. Oh well.

We took the boat over to the Magic Kingdom and then hopped on the boat going to WL. We were so tired after a day of travel {and I had not slept at all the night before}, so we were very happy to crawl into our beds. C loves the Disney infomericals that play on the room TVs, so that's what she wanted to watch before bed. :) She makes me laugh! We had a truly wonderful day and made so many special memories! I couldn't wait to day 2!