Disney Digest: The Travel

I had every intention of getting this post up last week, but last week was crazy busy around here as I continued my quest to redecorate our master bathroom. AND we are still in the midst of our paleo nutrition challenge (6 days left, but who’s counting?!). Oh, and I filled out a bajillion forms for kindergarten registration last Tuesday, Nora started swim lessons AND we had valentines to tackle last week, too. So yeah, crazy.

But I’m back with another installment of my Disney series. I figured that after the planning portion, the next logical thing to tackle is the travel itself. How did we get there? How did it go? How did we navigate the way? And most importantly, how was the flight with a 15-month-old toddler?!

As I mentioned in my planning post, we traveled from Sunday to Sunday. Our flight out of Buffalo was at a reasonable morning hour—9:35 a.m. We still had to get up and get out of the house early, but it wasn’t THAT early.

One of the major decisions we made regarding travel was to be willing to pay a little extra (if needed) for direct flights. We didn’t want to spend half a day getting down there, or try to keep Vivienne busy in an airport for any longer than we already had to. Avoiding a layover was really appealing. With the direct flight, our flight time was about 2 hours and 45 minutes, which isn’t horrible, but isn’t a cake walk with a small child, either.

We arrived at the airport with plenty of time to park in economy parking, take the shuttle with all of our baggage and other crap, check bags, get through the hell that is security with kids, and get to our gate. Nora was a champ. Vivienne started throwing fits as soon as we were inside of the airport. It’s like she knew we were about to confine her to a flying metal box for three hours. All she wanted to do was toddle around. I had to carry her kicking and screaming from the ticket counter, and I’m pretty sure she was flipping out as I carried her through security, too. At that point, the TSA agents were just like, OMG we don’t care if you have liquids, just gooooooo. Our ear drums! Take her away.

We flew Southwest on the way down, and JetBlue on the way back up. That’s not typical, of course, but it was the only way we could get direct flights both ways (the returning Southwest direct flight was already sold out by the time we booked), and it saved us a few dollars, too. Thankfully, both of these airlines have free checked bag allowances for each ticketed passenger, so we checked three full-sized suitcases—one for me, one for Michael, and one that the girls shared. Even then it was a tight fit to pack everything we all needed for a week! Michael, Nora and I also carried backpacks, and we had a small diaper bag full of, well, diapers and wipes, plus small toys, books, and other distractions for Vivienne.

Another big debate prior to our trip was what to do about a stroller. We contemplated bringing our structured backpack carrier (Osprey Poco Premium) for Vivienne to cart her around the airport that way, but then we realized we would be losing the luggage space of having one of us carry a full-sized backpack of our own. And then, of course, there was the debate about what we would use while we were on Disney property. We considered—for only a brief time—bringing our own double jogging stroller from home. But then we came to our senses and realized what a pain that would be to get into the airport, checked and/or through security, etc. and we nixed that idea quickly. We also considered bringing our single all-terrain stroller—a Bumbleride Indie—so that we could utilize the glider board for Nora to ride on. But the Indie, although not enormous, is not my idea of a “travel stroller,” so we decided against that as well.

We ended up bringing our lightweight “umbrella” type stroller for travel; it’s a Chicco Liteway. We’ve traveled with it many times before with Nora, so we knew it would work well. The only disadvantage was that Nora had to walk the entire time, and there can be a lot of walking—maybe more than we sometimes realize!—in airports. Especially in Orlando, which is really spread out. It didn’t help that after we landed, we initially went in the wrong direction and walked really far out of our way and then had to backtrack. She complained a little about her legs being tired, her backpack being heavy, etc. but she powered through when she needed to.

{Definitely showing off her Magic Band with this pose. She was thrilled to finally be allowed to put it on once we were in the Orlando airport!}

We ended up finding the Disney Welcome Center and we were swiftly “checked in” with our Magic Bands and whisked aboard a Disney Magical Express (the big buses that take you to and from the airport and your resort) to take us to Coronado Springs. It took maybe half an hour on the bus to get to the resort, but it was smooth sailing.

For our time at Disney, having Nora walk all over God’s creation in the parks was just NOT going to work. We knew this in advance. We rented a double stroller from Kingdom Strollers—a really nice City Mini GT Double—for the duration of our trip. We made the reservation and paid for it well in advance, and it was available for us to pick up at our hotel (at the bell hop) on the day of our arrival. The fee was reasonable, it was convenient to pick up and drop off, and it was a great stroller for getting both kids around in the parks. Although it would ALWAYS be better to be able to do the parks without a stroller at all (don’t have to worry about maneuvering in and out of crowds, parking it, etc.), this thing was our lifeline for the week. It was nice to have the storage underneath. The seat backs fully reclined, which was GREAT for Vivienne taking naps, which she did EVERY DAY. I didn’t know if we would ever achieve stroller naps with her, but we did, and it was lovely. :) And Nora spent a lot of time sitting in her side of it, too, taking a rest from the walking. It was also easy to fold and unfold to carry it on and off the Disney buses.

Kingdom Strollers was good to work with. We didn’t have any trouble at all with the stroller itself; it was clean, it was functional, it was well-equipped with a mini cooler and rain cover (which sadly, we needed to use multiple times—so glad we had it!). We also opted to order and pay for in advance a case of bottled water to be delivered with the stroller. Unfortunately, the water was not there when we went to pick up the stroller the day we arrived. I had to call them and get it straightened out, and it was kind of a pain. It was worth it, though, to have the case of water. Between it and the few waters we got in the parks, it lasted us the whole week. Anyway, even with the whole water snafu, I would still rent from Kingdom Strollers again.

Back to the flights themselves. Nora is at an age when she is completely happy sitting with the iPad and snacks for hours. If we really need to distract her, iPad it is. Easy. With Vivienne, we exhausted our entire bag of tricks—toys, books, straws, snacks, an old iPhone, iPad, diaper changes, etc.—in the course of the first 90 minutes of flight. After that, it was all about survival. At about the 2-hour mark, Vivienne was clearly overtired and started to flip out. I’m talking full blown screaming fest; she could not be calmed down. I forced her into a lying down position in my arms and “shhhh-ed” in her ear, rubbing her face with a lovey.

Eventually, she succumbed to the fatigue and passed out in my lap. Thank goodness. This was something else I would’ve bet she would never do—sleep in my lap (she’s just not a snuggler)—but she did! So, if you have a similar baby and you’re worried… there’s hope. :) All told, she probably only cried for 5-10 minutes (not bad, actually) and then she slept in my arms for the remainder of the flight. On the way home, it was pretty much the exact same scenario except that we exhausted our bag of tricks even more quickly, she was even MORE overtired, and she fought sleep for a little longer, but slept a little longer, too.

Our flight home left Orlando at 8:00 a.m. and woof. That was rough. The Disney Magical Express picked us up at 5:15 a.m. in front of the lobby, if that’s any indication. You don’t dictate that, by the way—Disney collects your flight information and schedules your pick-up time for you in order to get you to the airport in time. Good thing, too, because we found that the Orlando airport was crowded and slow-going, even that early on a Sunday morning. It took FOREVER—over an hour—to wait in line to check our baggage and then wait in line for security. It’s a good way to torture parents with small children after a week in Disney, I can tell you that. Anyway, if we had been left to our own devices for getting to the airport, I don’t know if we would’ve necessarily left ourselves enough time. So, listen to Disney. They know.

We had to wake our babies up before the sun on our departure morning. I felt so bad! Vivienne was in a deep, deep sleep and it was hard to disturb her. Poor kids. When we landed back in Buffalo and packed the kids into the car for the drive home, they were both sleeping within minutes.

I know I’m kind of jumping around a bit, but when we first arrived at the Orlando airport, it was clear that it was MUCH warmer than at home! In fact, the temperature was in the 80s, and we could feel it as soon as we got off the plane, even though we were in an air-conditioned airport. I also noticed that Vivienne was burning up (she actually had a fever, poor kid) so while Michael ran to the restroom, I actually stripped her right at the gate and changed her into shorts and a t-shirt. So that’s another tip—consider packing a quick change of clothes in your carry-on. I wore layers (I had a fleece on, but with a tank top underneath, and jeans) so I just took off my fleece and was fine.

Once we made it to our resort, it was around lunch time. We checked in and our room was not ready yet since it was early. So we went to the bell hop and had them hang onto all of our suitcases. Before we handed them over, I pulled out a change of clothes and a bathing suit for Nora and changed her into the outfit. Michael got his swim trunks out, too. I also changed into sandals myself, since it was HOT out! By this time, we were starving, so we went to an on-site quick service restaurant for lunch.

We didn’t plan anything for our first day, even though we were arriving early, and I think that was a good decision. It allowed us to take our time settling in. Plus, with the car ride, the airports, the flight, the bus ride—I think we had already had enough excitement for one day!

After lunch, we explored the property a bit, found the pool, and Nora and Michael went for a swim while I walked Vivienne in circles in the stroller to get her to nap again. The poor girl was still feverish and had no appetite (unusual for her). The above picture makes me tear up a little. Nora was SO.EXCITED. just to be there. We hadn’t even started the really fun stuff yet! And here is sick Vivienne… :( 

But if you’re going to be sick and snoozing, poolside on an 80+ degree day in Orlando is not a bad place to do that!

All told, the travel went smoothly. While we were gone, Buffalo got that crazy, record-breaking snowfall (7 feet. In November. SEVEN FEET!) so we were afraid of what we would be coming back to. We didn’t even have our snow brush in the car yet, and what if we had to dig the van out of 7 feet of snow when we got home?! But thankfully, the airport got barely a dusting. Weather is weird, y’all.