Trip report: EMMs, DAS, and Easter, oh my!

First some general observations, then a full trip report!

Security Lines

We travel with a lot of medical supplies as well as regular toddler/kid supplies and a double stroller, so security has always been a bit of a mess in the past. This time I ordered mesh pencil pouches to organize our park bags. The security workers loved them and so did we! I literally just pulled all the mesh bags out on the table and showed them the empty bag and then stuffed them all right back into the bag and we were on our way. I also new medical stuff was in one color of bags and regular stuff was in another color. We also used two or three ziplocs for kids’ spare clothes and cooling towels.

Strollers

We brought our double City Mini with us from home. We flew Southwest and brought a gate check bag with us. It was awesome being able to gate check the double stroller. It made airport travel SO much easier this time! I love that SW lets us gate check a double, one of many reasons why we’ll keep flying with them.

DAS

My 5yo has some medical conditions that affect her neck and stamina in addition to ADD and SPD. We have used DAS in the past and so setting it up this time was super easy. We tried to do it at Liberty Square in MK, but bailed after 10 minutes when the line didn’t move at all. Main Street right before the parade had no wait and super simple.

Medical Supplies

The 5yo has a g-tube and needs a medical formula. We actually ordered a case of her formula off of Amazon two weeks before the trip and had it sent directly to the hotel. Super simple and less that we had to travel with. We do travel with a medical carryon filled with medications, extension tubing and spare g-tube, a few formula cartons, a nebulizer, inhalers, etc. etc. The formula requires extra screening and a pat down, but overall both airports were pretty good about everything.

Our new discovery this trip is that you can buy a battery powered or USB powered nebulizer!! I had just gotten over pneumonia and both myself and the two kiddos have bad asthma. The youngest doesn’t respond to albuterol, so he needs a nebulizer medication for his rescue med. Thankfully we didn’t have to use it this time. After our first trip in 2017 he had a hospital stay in the PICU for his asthma (as in we went from home airport to pediatrician to children’s hospital). So having a nebulizer with his rescue meds on the airplane gave us peace of mind. We did end up using the regular neb for both kids daily with the Florida heat and humidity, but that actually doubled as a sound machine and would put them both to sleep at night!

Easter time

We had been on family trips in June and August before, but hadn’t done a trip over a holiday yet. I had done a Disney trip over Easter as a little kid, but don’t remember much of it. DD5 doesn’t always do the best with crowds, so we were a little nervous about how she would do. We booked EMM for both MK and HS to help get some low crowd time. Turns out that since it was such a late Easter, the crowds didn’t really pick up for us until the Friday and Saturday before Easter. Personalized touring plans, same day FP drops, and knowledge from chat also really helped :slight_smile:

POFQ

This was our second time staying at POFQ and we really love the resort. We love how small it is, the one bus stop, and just the general vibe. The kids absolutely love the playground, splash pad, pool, and even the coloring station in the food court.

Food Allergies

DH has a gluten intolerance and can’t have cross contamination. On vacation we typically all eat gluten free so that way the kids don’t accidentally get him sick with cross contamination. The only place where the kids had gluten was at Tusker House and we decided it just wasn’t worth it after that.

We had success at these quick services: BOG (lunch x2–preorder works super well; braised pork, Beast/s feast, lemon raspberry puff), Cosmic Ray’s (bacon cheeseburger and rotisserie chicken), Pecos (carnita nachos), CHH (grilled salmon), Backlot Express (southwest salad with chicken and kid’s chicken strips).

We had Tusker House and Garden Grill for table service this time. We loved Tusker House. The chef was great and DH got waffles, fruit, bacon, sausage, and potatoes, all of which he really liked. The kids and I had gluten, and it was manageable with good hand washing, a change of clothes, and not sharing any food/drinks for the next day or two. That said, the kids are still pretty messy eaters and we’ll have them eat GF next time the whole trip.

We had heard great things about Garden Grill being GF. We just had the chef make a family sized skillet of GF food. Everything was good until they brought a second helping of waffles and sausage and the waffles were not GF. The side effects could have been much worse, but it was unpleasant for DH for the next few days. The manager comped the meal, but we will definitely not be going back again.

We had safe and decent meals at POFQ: Jambalaya, bacon cheeseburger, chicken strips, beignets. That said the beignets were a little chewy this time, not as well made as last trip and one of the chefs had an attitude problem–actually heard her drop a ‘F*** me’ after another allergy order came in after ours. She was obviously overwhelmed and busy, but probably would have been better if she had waited until she was in the back before letting that fly.

For snacks we always love our refillable popcorn bucket, some dole whip, and then granola bars, fruit, etc. from Amazon Prime Now.

MK EMM breakfast was ok. Egg, sausage, potatoes (which were slightly burnt) and Van’s waffles (which were not warm enough). Basic hotel breakfast food. HS breakfast was awesome!! Loved the chilaquiles and the kids chicken, sweet potato tots, and chicken strips were pretty good too.

HS EMM breakfast was actually our best meal on property.

We also did Prime now and had tortillas, ham, cheese, fruit, GF bread, bagels, cream cheese, etc. in the room. PBJ sandwiches were an easy breakfast for us and much more on the go friendly than our previous go to of cereal or oatmeal.

Park Hopping

This was our first time park hopping with the kids and it worked really well! I was very surprised at how smooth hopping went and we actually hopped more than I had planned.

Next up: trip report by individual days!

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April 13: Arrival Day

As soon as we told the kids in the car that we were heading to Disney, DD5 insisted that the first thing she wanted to do was ride Slinky Dog! We were at WDW the week before TSL opened last year, so she hadn’t ridden it yet but I had shown her videos. All good and great, except we had EMM at MK the next morning. We got to the resort, ate some dinner, and nixed the idea of going to Disney Springs.

I took the kids to the playground while DH went to Epcot to activate our APs. They took our IDs, punched a bunch of stuff in the computer, and apparently did nothing. Our APs weren’t active which we discovered the next morning that the system had used our old non-expiring days instead of our APs and our memory maker wasn’t active. Thankfully MK Main Street Guest services got that all sorted out

We got the kids to bed and had a long chat with DD that we would be doing her favorite ride (7D) a lot in the morning and be happy about it and that if we had a good day, Mommy would try for SDD fast passes, but we’d have to wait and see.

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April 14: MK, HS

Caught the early bus to MK, around 6:15ish? No one else was on the bus with us. EMM went well, except we scared the pants off of the 2yo on 7D. He said he really wanted to go, but alas he REALLY didn’t like roller coasters. After the first ride on 7D together, we did princess meet and greets with little to no wait. Then we split and DD5 did 7D while DS2 did carrousel, PP, WtP, Tea cups, and meeting the princesses again (this was very close to rope drop and apparently when everyone else goes to meet the princesses. Don’t meet the princesses at 8:50 on EMM). My husband and I switched off who rode 7D and who went with the toddler. At the end of EMM I grabbed a DAS for 7D in case the 5yo wanted to ride again later, and especially in case I couldn’t get a SDD. We had just enough time to meet Ariel before breakfast. Breakfast was just ok.

The rest of the morning was Royal Faire show, Move it, Shake it, BOG lunch (came out to a soaking wet stroller because we forgot to put the cover on…we didn’t do that a second time!), SBC area and then Enchanted tales with Belle. I was in the middle of tube feeding DD as we were getting ready to to into ETWB and totally missed the 2:31 drop!! Thankfully I noticed as soon as we walked in the room and I jumped on MDE and just kept modifying at 2:35 and sure enough they dropped late, closer to 2:38 that day. I snagged us a 4:30 SDD FP!!! 5yo’s day was made!

We took care of DAS and AP/ticket business on the way out at Main Street GS and DD watched the FOF parade with DH while DS napped and I got the ticket stuff sorted.

DS slept all the way to HS and the first half of the time at studios. DD loved Slinky…the second time! (Thank goodness as we had EMM scheduled for later in the week.) It was more intense than we expected and we did have to put our arm around her to cradle her neck just a bit so her head wouldn’t bang on the back of the seat. Halfway through the first ride she told me she didn’t want to go again. I had to tell her we were about to launch again! After she got off she said she’d give it another try and did RS with DH. There was no way I was going to try DS on that after 7D that morning!!! She absolutely loved it the second time and was super excited for EMM later in the week. The rest of the evening was dinner at the resort and bedtime for the kids while we re-packed for AK the next day. Re-packing at night helped us make rope drop and made the mornings sooo much smoother!

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April 15: AK, EP

We did EMH at AK. We took the first bus and would not have made FOP RD. We planned not to do FOP this trip and instead do EE since it had been 10 years since DH and I had a chance to ride that. We started with the first safari of the morning and had to wait for A LOT of the animals to move off the path. We all love the safari. Then we spent time on Gorilla Falls trail and DD5 got to start Wilderness Explorers. After the trail we listened to the Harambe drummers and then headed over to FOTLK show. We grabbed a FP for it since we didn’t end up needing our safari FP. Not really needed, but we didn’t have a lot to spend our FPs on. After FOTLK we did Tusker House at 10:35, perfect timing and an awesome meal! After that we met Mickey and Minnie with a FP (DS2 was upset we didn’t see Minnie at TH, so that worked out to be an awesome plan). Then we headed for dinoland. The kiddos spent a chunk of time in the boneyard digging and then doing slides while DH and I traded off turns going on EE. By this time the kids were tired, and so were we so we headed back to the resort for resting and swimming. I had originally thought about doing Typhoon Lagoon this afternoon since DD had a freebie with our MVT tickets and we have tons of old non-expiring water park tickets, but it was just way easier to swim at the resort and the kids loved it.

Since both kids took a decent rest/nap, and were still raring to go in the evening, we headed over to Epcot. We hadn’t planned to get there until Thursday. We did SSE, since that is a favorite of DD. I had grabbed a FP for Soarin’ so we rider swapped that. We made it out with under 5 minutes to spare before Illuminations started. DS fell asleep while waiting for DD5 to do the first ride on Soarin’ and was out for the night, so he missed it, but DD was super excited to see fireworks.

April 16: MK

This was the day of meltdowns after a late evening. We got a ton done: Space Mountain RS while kids did AOx3 and BLSRS x4?. We rode Trolley up Main Street, watched some of the trolley show, did the magic carpets, RS splash, ate at CHH. At this point both kiddos were over tired, so we got them down for nap. Liberty Belle was up next, but doesn’t allow strollers so we did that later in the trip. At this point we decided it just wasn’t worth it to stick around and maybe try coming back later. DD woke up about 10 minutes later on the way out of the park still a grump. We ended up having a sensory meltdown by the time we got back to the resort. We had an early evening and just did some swimming and playing at the playground. Early bedtime since the next morning was EMM!

April 17: HS, MK

I watched the app all morning as we were getting ready and nothing ever appeared for a HS bus. We walked out to the front lobby area by about 6:15 and when Minnie Van service opened at 6:30 we grabbed one. By the time we left FQ at 6:45 there was still no HS bus, so Minnie Van was the right way to go.

For HS EMM rope drope, I left DS with DH and the stroller while I took DD towards the stairs. Everyone with strollers had to go to the left down the ramp and that seriously slowed those people down. DD and I rode SDD once and then met up with DH and DS to meet Jessie and Woody. It was less than a 5 min wait since everyone was in the SDD line. After that we switched off riding SDD with DD or riding AS2/TSMM with DS. DD rode Slinky 8x during EMM, the last few being total walk on. The very last ride there was literally no one else in the que. DS rode AS2 at least 4x and TSMM at least 2-3x. They only ran one side of AS2, so that did make it so there was a bit of a wait.

At the end of EMM we all rode TSMM once together (DD5 first time, she loved it as long as we put an arm around her to cradle her head/neck). Then we met Mickey and Minnie and went over to breakfast. This was by far our favorite meal of the trip. We ate so much that we only had popcorn once and then nachos at 10pm! We’ll definitely do EMM for TSL again in August, it was so worth it.

After breakfast we did BaTB and then had FP for SDD, so we went and RS it and DD rode twice more. Then we left for a break. Both kids napped this afternoon and we both rested too, so we decided to do MK in the evening. We met up with one of my high school and college friends who is now a cast member! We all had a good time doing Dumbo (and the much requested play area). I got FP for Barnstormer and Buzz, so we did those. Then the kids got their first Mickey Bar! After that we did FP for Splash (I won big time with late night lotto the night before with WtP constantly going down…we didn’t even use all the extra FP we had). Then the adults took turns doing BTMRR. This made DD really upset. She was jealous that she couldn’t go on the ride with our friend and that there is a roller coaster she can’t do. I think it was worse because she’s tall enough for it, but can’t ride it due to her neck. By the time we were done with BTMRR the fireworks were starting, so we watched from the bridge by the popcorn cart. You can’t see projections, but the kids got to see fireworks so they were ecstatic. They fell asleep within 5 minutes of it ending, so we did BTMRR and some nachos from Pecos Bill before grabbing more popcorn and heading out.

April 18: EP

We got to Epcot on the first bus and weren’t too far behind when security started, but it was slow going. We made it through tap styles after rope drop. This was a bummer, but not much we could do. We made our way to FEA, but it was down. No DAS since no wait time. A&E meet and greet doesn’t happen during EMH. So we headed back to Soarin’. Got a RS. DS had a fit because he couldn’t ride, but was all better once we were on his favorite ride LWTL, even better when that broke down and we got to sloooowly float through the fish tunnel–trip made for him! Then we went to switch and DD wouldn’t ride Soarin’ again because her brother couldn’t ride with her…leftover feelings from the night before. I had ridden earlier in the week, so no big deal.

We rode LWTL as a family while I rearranged all of our FP. We grabbed a DAS for character spot, I got a FP for FEA for later in the day and we went and used our first one at SSE. We made it back to character spot and then headed to breakfast at Garden Grill. DH got glutened at breakfast, which was a big disappointment. We did figment next since that’s one of DH’s favorites. After that we made our way to FEA FP. A&E line was too long, I had totally forgotten that it was not open for EMH, so we missed them this trip which is a bummer since they’re DD’s favorite. But the line was out of the que and no DAS since there’s no FP. We did see them later in the week at the sing a long, so not a total bust. At this point the kids were squirmy, so we took them to play at the new Bo Peep playground which is great while I did some shopping. Then I took the kids back to the hotel before the rain really got going while DH got a quick ride in on Test Track.

We called it an early night and just did dinner, playground, etc. since we had 7am EMH the next day.

April 19: MK, EP

We were ready to go for 7am EMH at MK, but there were still pick up trucks on Main Street. We finally got in around 7:15. A lot of people were just crazy because they had to wait the extra 15 minutes and there was more pushing and chaos than we had seen previously. We decided to stop for a non-sweaty morning picture in front of the castles and let all the chaos go around us. By the time we got over to Space we figured it would be a 20-30 minute wait, but nope, Space was down! Sure made stopping for a castle pic more worth it. We did AO and BLSRS as a family. Then we did teacups, carrousel, 7D FP, grabbed a 7D DAS, did UtS, met up with our CM friend and did 7D again, met some princesses, rode the Liberty Belle, ate lunch at BOG, met the fairy godmother, saw Move it Shake it again, and then met Mickey and Minnie.

We like to eat in the music room at BOG because it’s the most calm, but it was closed for the breakfast/lunch changeover. I just said that’s a bummer, what do you want to do to my husband. The CM guarding the room suggested the West Wing and I told her that was a no go with DD’s SPD and fear of thunderstorms, and the lady said no problem and let us into the music room anyway–pixie dust that probably saved us from a meltdown or two.

After MK we lucked out with the timing of both monorails and made it over to Epcot. Both kids slept the whole way over and then some. They woke up in time to enjoy Nemo, the seas and turtle talk. Then we made it over to Club cool just in time for the skies to open and just completely downpour. I grabbed us character spot FP and we went out the back and bypassed the rain and went in through the back hallway. After character spot we called it a day and headed back to the resort for the evening.

April 20: HS, MK

We made rope drop for TSL and avoided Slinky since we had a 9:30 FP. We did AS2 several times and it was ok for DD as long as I put my arm around her. Both kids loved it! Then we did RS for Slinky and the 2yo demanded TSMM (animal ride pull string!!!). So I waited 30 min. With him standby and just had my DH take DD on Slinky twice and use my RS instead. Then we all did TSMM together using DAS that we set up before RS. We saw the frozen show, ate at Backlot Express and then headed back to resort to rest. Later in the afternoon we met up with our friend at MK. We did splash while DS/DH had one of our longest waits at the carrousel and grabbed a DAS for barnstormer. We then met up on TSI for a while. Then we caught a Hoedown show and headed over to barnstormer and a long wait to get into Dumbo playground. After Dumbo we said goodbye to our friend and grabbed dinner at Cosmic Ray’s. We had just enough time to do our Buzz FP and then make it to the purple rocks for fireworks to end the night!

April 21, Easter: resort and departure

The kids woke up and found their Easter treats in the room. Then we did the candy scramble at the resort and lawn games which the kids absolutely loved. The kids played on the playground for a bit and we grabbed lunch from the food court before heading to DME. Overall it was a great trip and we felt like we accomplished almost everything we wanted to and more (fireworks x3!! We didn’t think we’d make any evenings!).

Looking forward to heading back in August, which made leaving this time easier. Ask any questions you have!

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WOW! That’s the view from the purple rocks? No more hub madness for me! Thanks for taking the time to write up this trip report. It was a fabulous read :slight_smile:

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We got a spot about 10 minutes before show time. We were actually across the path under the monsters inc. roof, so not right up at the rocks.

We watched right from the rocks by the purple wall and except for the off center fireworks its a great view. We wandered in there 5-10 mins before it started so a great last minute spot!

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Sorry your DH was gluttened. That’s quite dangerous.

Loved reading your trip report. Sounds like you got a lot accomplished!

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Thanks! Fortunately DH knew as soon as he took a bite that it was wrong and spat it all out, so the reaction wasn’t quite as bad as it could have been, but definitely uncomfortable and not fun. I think that we’ll pass on seconds of any kind in the future. I think it also didn’t help that we were towards the end of breakfast and they seemed to be rushing and trying to get switched over to lunch.

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Great trip report! Love the mesh pencil bags, and going to plan on the purple rocks (near the purple wall, right?). I thought I saw on lines that someone got asked to leave that area because it’s a walkway…does that sound possible? I’ve never seen the projections and would really like to, but I know my family won’t be willing or able to stake out a spot in the hub and the desert parties aren’t very celiac-friendly. Oh yeah–thanks for the reviews re gluten. The rest of us eat gluten and just don’t share water bottles, etc, with my wife who has celiac, but your husband seems more sensitive.
Glad you had a good trip!

There was an awesome view right by the purple wall that was being blocked off by a cast member. We were a little further down, closer to the entrance to tommorow land.

Bingo, thanks. I’d be thrilled with the view you had, so hopefully we can replicate it! Thanks.

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Been meaning to reply here for a while now. Thank you so much for this report! We are going in October and will be utilizing DAS for DS2. It is so valuable to me to hear about others’ experiences with this, as well as traveling with special needs in general. I’ll be using some of your other strategies as well (late night lotto, etc.), so I thoroughly enjoyed your report. Thanks again!

Glad you found it helpful! Traveling with kiddos with special needs can be more complicated and stressful, but it’s so worth it! The memories are priceless as well as just getting to spend quality time as a family. My SN kiddo has also made huge gains in several areas (eating and many social/emotional areas) all three times we’ve brought her to Disney World!

Any tips for bringing a nebulizer, packets of liquid albuterol for the nebulizer, and inhalers through security at the airport? Do I just need to tell the airport employee at the security check that we have these medical items in our carryons? And then give them our pouches with the albuterol and inhalers for inspection/XRay?

My daughter has viral induced asthma so her doc recommended we bring these items with us.

It’s easier if you put all the medical stuff into one bag. That bag doesn’t count towards your number of carry-ons. We use packing cubes and put the vials, inhaler, chamber, etc. into one cube (or Ziploc). The nebulizer parts go in a second packing cube and if you are bringing a normal size (8"x8" or so) nebulizer then that by itself without the tubing.

When you get to security just tell the first person you have a bag with some medical supplies. You’ll put the nebulizer by itself in a tub (unless it’s the small travel size, then it can stay in the medical bag). The bag might get pulled to the side for extra screening after the X-ray. Usually they don’t make a fuss about Albuterol vials, they might just need to open the outer box/packaging to see through the clear vials. If they ask if you can open a vial for them you can decline because it would no longer be usable and they would do a pat down.

A lot of times our nebulizer meds don’t even get pulled for extra screening though. We travel with gtube formula and that gets us stuck for extra screening.

Give yourself extra time for security just in case you get someone who gives you a hard time, but I’d guess it will only take you an extra 10 minutes through security usually.

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Thanks! That is very helpful! This is our first time traveling with this stuff.

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