Our last first birthday - Final Thoughts

[IloveJack]

Our last first birthday
We've taken each of our kids to the World for their first birthday. Penelope, aka "Eppy," is our last. We decided to make it super-special, so we're spending two weeks at Disney, with 10 days in the parks.

Cast:
Susan, (me), 36, 11th trip
David (DH), 31, 9th trip
Sammie (DD), 8, 7th trip
Lily (DD), 5, 5th trip
Joey (DS), 3, 4th tip
Eppy (DD), turning 1, 1st trip
Connie (DMom), 65, 3rd trip
Sam, (DDad), 68, 3rd trip

Final Thoughts
I made a very poor choice in footwear. I am a cheap flip flops person. I am a diabetic and have mild neuropathy in my toes. It isn't noticeable unless I wear shoes that rub them, then my outer two toes (on each foot) will be numb for hours. So I very rarely wear tennis shoes. I bought some Tevas last Spring, knowing Disney was coming, and wore them all year. I never once had an issue with sore feet. However, 14 days of walking miles and miles, and worse, standing for hours, killed my feet. I wore my Tevas the first week, and could barely stand by the weekend. Mom gave me her New Balance shoes to keep for the rest of the trip. They were a size larger than I normally wear, but it kept my toes from rubbing, and they were comfortable. Still, any long periods of standing, and I was shuffling back and forth, trying to get some relief. It took 4-5 days after we got home for my feet to stop hurting constantly. I will know better next time.
I don't remember ever seeing a service animal in Disney World before this trip, but they were EVERYWHERE this time. And they weren't the typical gold retriever-type dog. Most were small, emotional therapy type dogs that people carried. I never saw one misbehave, but it was still a shock every time we passed one, since it was so weird to see them in the parks. I wonder what people do with them when they go on a ride?
Another odd thing about this trip was the number of times we saw CMs working to better the park during park hours. I don't ever remember them weeding the flower beds, or driving service trucks out onto the savannah on the safari, but they were out en masse. I was under the impression that most of that was done at night time, but maybe the parks are open too much now, or maybe I've just never noticed before.
All the touring plans that I read through (and mostly ignored, hehe) said that the first week would be easy on crowds and the second would be horrible, but we really didn't notice the crowds move in until 12/22. Of course, the parks would be inundated at the beginning of night time EMH, or at for the Christmas party, but for the most part, the crowds weren't any worse than we've encountered on our other trips. Now, would I want to have stayed two more days until Christmas, no way!
Speaking of touring plans, many of them were wrong about holiday activities, the Christmas parade during daylight hours being the most glaring one. It was difficult to find characters dressed for Christmas, even though many other websites said they'd be abundant. There were other instances of incorrect holiday info, but I'm drawing a blank right now. Other than the parade, it didn't bother us much.
As for characters in general, there seemed to be fewer of them. Or it could be that they are phasing out the older ones that I'm used to. Many of the characters that I expected to see just roaming no longer meet, and lots of the places that I "knew" we'd find characters were gone, plus the ones that are out often have very limited hours. We only saw Stitch once, and he used to be everywhere. We never saw Jessie, Terk, Meeko, Tweedle Dee/Dum, or any of the "roamers." I guess they've been retired to just parties.
We wasted many, many FP because we got tired of the schedule, and the tiers make FP at DHS and Epcot useless. Instead, we used morning EMH to our advantage for the bigger rides. In total, Sammie rode Everest 20 times over 2 days. Half of that was due to child swap, but even then, 10 times in 2 days is way better than FP. I wish they'd go back to the FP used to be, where you walk up to the ride and get one for an hour later, then you can get another and another. By choosing Frozen at Epcot, we couldn't get another FP for Soarin or Test Track, and none of the other rides needed a FP. We might have saved 5 minutes by using one. DHS is a little better, but not much. Plus, scheduling FPs around ADRs just becomes harder and harder, and we didn't want the stress on this trip.
Having said that, we weren't stressed at all. We absolutely loved being in the parks for so many days. We never felt rushed to get everything done. We didn't feel gypped when the stomach virus tore through the family and we missed a half day at DHS (or more in David and Joey's situation). I didn't get frustrated when the kids wanted to play or sit for a while, because there was always another day, or we'd already had a day. Obviously, we can't always do a 14 day trip, but this was far and beyond the most relaxing trip we've ever had at Disney. Normally we go home needed another vacation, but not this trip. We went home, straight into Christmas and then a birthday party, all within the next 2 days! And the trip wasn't much more expensive than our others. We'd gotten the campsite at a reduced price, since we'd had an issue on a previous trip, but even then, tent camping is fairly cheap, and the Fort's amenities are wonderful. Their swimming pool is way better than any of the value resorts! And though the busses seem to run slowly, they are rarely crowded. And tickets are better in bulk. I've been asked over and over how we afforded it, and I just explained that it was "buy 4 days, get 6 free" since a 1 day ticket is $100 and a 10 day ticket is $400.
Lastly, I will have to weigh the pros and cons before we do the dining plan again. The cost wasn't that big of a deal, as for the most part, we chose the more expensive character meals, and tried to eat smart. However, we wasted a ton of food. We haven't used the DP since our first child was born, because they all eat like birds, and they could have easily shared a meal between the three of them. Plus, who needs all those snacks?!? I broke the cardinal rule and bought bottled drinks with many of our snack credits, because we had them, might as well. I think next time, we'll go out-of-pocket, and I'll just put the money on a gift card, or something like that.
It was a wonderful trip, and a great ending to our first birthdays. It helped this emotional mom get over the hurdle of our "last first" much more easily. Instead of dreading it, I was looking forward to it. I'm already trying to talk David into repeating with each kid's tenth birthday. It keeps us at Disney every other year or so. He keeps saying he's had his fill of Disney for a while, but who knows, her birthday is in October, his favorite time of year to be there...

[ibelieveindisneymagic]

Thanks so much for sharing your trip, the good and the bad. I've loved reading it, help me to miss Disney a bit less until our next trip in May.

[JanetMegan]

Thanks so much for all of these. Not having kids at all makes it fun to read about others adventures I hope you can plan another trip soon. I love with one of those not so keen on Disney guys and we are headed back down in March

[MississippiDisneyFreak]

Sounds like a great trip overall. Thanks for posting

[faline]

I've greatly enjoyed your reports and am sorry they have now ended.

[thejens]

Thanks for sharing. I really enjoyed all of your reports!

[WDWFRK]

Thanks for sharing!! Great reports!!