All tagged Baby Travel
I have to admit, this was the hardest reservation for us to get at Disney World during our trip in May 2021. We really wanted this our first day for lunch, but we never got it. So we kept the reservation we happened to find before our trip for one of our evenings at Epcot.
One of my favorites spots that we had dinner while in Pensacola in February was Crabs on the Beach. It was literally right next door to our hotel so we walked over (perfect when you have been in the car over 5 hours with a 3 year old!). It late and dark, but I saw a sign for a play area but we didn't get to see it. But I am sure that is great during the busier times when you are waiting to be seated. The atmosphere was nice and they offered both inside and outside seating which is great.
When we went to Disney back in August, I threw together a happy for her to take and keep her entertained during our car ride. Luckily with it being such a last minute trip I had a lot of these things stored away for a special occasion. I do that often.
My mom (Melody's Nana) travels for her job every week. She is able to bring family along with her on trips when it works out. Brad was out of town for work in early April. I knew far enough in advance that my mom was able to plan to be somewhere we could go. This is only our second trip with my mom. It is hard to travel with her with Melody because she doesn't have the best work hours for Melody's schedule. It is also best to travel places with driving distances too. We wanted to go somewhere on the coast, and with the options my mom had, Biloxi made the most sense. I really like going to Biloxi, but I hadn't been in about 5 years. So it was fun to revisit.
Before having Melody, we traveled all the time. Whether it was a visit to simply see family or small trips to the beach or even large trips to New York, traveling is a part of us. After having Melody, traveling did slow down, but we still traveled quite a bit. In the last six months we have tried to make an effort to slow down on traveling. But traveling cannot be avoided. So I decided to try and make it easier.
So we took Melody on her first trip to Walt Disney World back in February. I have been meaning to write a post about generally doing Disney with a baby, but the baby has been occupying my time and this post has fell to the bottom of the pile. Anyhow, it is quite different from all of my other Disney trips. We are actually planning another trip over the holidays, so I thought I should freshen up on Disney with a baby by finally writing this post!
In early September, we went to Destin, FL for a family beach trip with my in-laws. Brad's cousin was getting married there, so we decided to make it a full vacation. Melody's first beach trip was August 2016 when she was about 3 months old. She didn't get to spend too much time on the actual beach on that trip though. This would be the first trip where she was mobile and would get to experience the ocean and sand.
Our summer vacation this year was a trip back to the Opryland Resort. Brad and I have been a handful of times, and we even went last year at Christmas with Melody. Our experience this visit was much different than our trip at Christmas for a number of reasons. Melody is older and mobile; she eats more than baby food now; she doesn't have a cold; it was much warmer; the resort was far less crowded; and there was construction going on at the resort. We opted to go mid-August to avoid any of the out-of-school crowds that may also use this as a vacation resort. And to also help with the crowds, we decided to go in the middle of the week (Wednesday-Friday).
On our recent trip to Disney World, we knew we would be using our stroller A LOT due to having an 8 (almost 9) month old! If you have ever been to Disney, you may have noticed the sea of strollers. You are required to park your strollers a lot. You cannot take your strollers in most lines at the park or inside of a lot of the buildings. And in that sea of strollers, they all can start to look alike. We decided to make a stroller tag that would at least give it some distinction.
Today is part four of my trip report from our February visit to Disney World. You can find Part One, Two, and Three in previous posts. Just a reminder, this was Melody's first visit to Disney World. This was our third park day, and we decided to go to Hollywood Studios that morning. Our plan was to go to Animal Kingdom that evening. The night before we did decide to skip Animal Kingdom because we wanted to go back to Epcot. We also didn't quite follow the plan down to each ride, but overall we stayed on track. Check it out below!
Brad, Melody, and I just got back from Melody's first trip to Disney World!!! What is super funny about Melody going to Disney World at the age of 8 months old...Brad made a comment that we would never take a baby to Disney. He/She would have to be at least a few years old before going. Well Brad is the one who initiated this trip! We also used this trip as a visit to see Brad's grandparents who live only a few miles from Disney. I want to share some details that went into planning our trip. This is very basic. I plan to write more about doing Disney with a baby in future posts.
Recently, Melody and I went on a trip with my mom to South Carolina. We wanted to stay at a Hilton to get points, so we investigated different options. I knew staying in a hotel room with an infant was going to be different and possibly a struggle. We narrowed it down to Home2 Suites and Hampton Inn. Because we knew we would be spending a lot of time at the hotel during the day, we opted for the Hampton Inn because it had an indoor pool (which we never ended up using sadly). The Home2 Suites did have a full kitchen, but the room itself was going to be smaller than the Queen Suite at the Hampton Inn. The Hampton Inn was also fairly new, and it had the necessities. Below are some tips and tricks I discovered helped us while staying in small quarters with a baby!
So I did not want to make this post a "tips" post because what works for Brad and me will not necessarily work for everyone else. However, we have found a few things that does work for us when we travel with Melody. We have only taken three 'big' trips: two to Memphis (approximately 3.5 hours away) and one to Gulf Shores (approximately 6 hours away). Each trip seems to go easier than the last. I am sure as she continues to get older, we will have to tweak things.
Brad and I travel a lot. We decided while I was pregnant that we would not let a baby slow us down. We are really trying to stick to that goal after having Melody. Of course some trips are not realistic and traveling is definitely not as easy as before, but we are doing pretty good. We have a baby that loves the car, so that definitely makes traveling easier. One thing we faced on our first big travel (it was 3 1/2 hour trip to Brad's parents' house) was making Melody's bottles. We now usually make all of her bottles for the day in advance, but that has not and will not always be the case. I decided to make use of some of our breast pump supplies and create my own travel baby formula containers. Check it out below!
