Babies in Biz-nass Class

I'm going to start this post with a list of what we brought. It kind of felt like a lot of stuff, and I wish we could have brought less, but I think we basically needed/used everything we packed.  We decided to pack Sunday night, four days before we left.  We were 90%+ packed at that point and only added a few last minute items the morning of.

1 26-inch medium sized suitcase containing adult clothing and items (checked)
1 22-inch rolling carry on suitcase containing baby clothing and items (checked)
1 diaper bag (my carry on)
1 backpack (Joe's carry on)
1 $46 Cosco car seat purchased at Amazon especially for the trip because it was only 10 lbs (carry on)
2 adorable girls (carry on)

We decided to take a rental car to the airport because it was cheaper than parking or a car service and it would allow us to load the car and install the car seats the night before in order to minimize the chaos in the morning.  I had picked it up at the airport the day before we left since I happened to be there anyway.  It took about an hour to get to LAX in Thursday morning traffic around 8:30am which was bad but could have been much worse.

We stopped right outside the Delta terminal.  I stayed out with the car and VERY slowly unloaded the strollers and car seats while Joe ran into the terminal and checked the luggage and tried to pay the taxes for Lizzy's infant in arms seat.  Unlike domestic flights, babies under two typically have to pay the taxes at a minimum, which in this case was under $100.

It was taking them forever to figure out what was owed, so Joe came out and took the car.  I went back into the terminal and finished off the transaction and waited for Joe and Annie to come back from the National Car drop off facility via the bus.  Any trip that has a bus ride involved is good for Annie.  We got to go through the family security line before heading to the Delta Sky Club for some bagels and snacks to prep us for our long underground walk from Terminal 5 to 6.  Joe took Lizzy early and I got to make the trek on a golf cart with Annie which she also enjoyed.  Pretty easy to please.

The world's biggest boopter ready to go on a 24 hour adventure! Looks can be deceiving

When we went to our gate to board the plane at LAX, Joe happened to notice on the screen that someone else was assigned the seats we thought were ours. Worried that we might not get the Economy Comfort seats that we had planned on having Joe asked the gate agent what was going on and we found out that the flight had been oversold and we had been upgraded to Business Class. Heyo!! So, instead of 3 seats in coach we had 3 compartments with a ton of space and seats that fully reclined into lie flat beds.  This typically only happens on international flights when coach is oversold so this was extremely lucky, especially to have our entire group upgraded!  About an hour into the flight Lizzy fell asleep in her car seat and I enjoyed a full service meal and watched a movie. Aaaannnd, it was pretty much downhill from there :)

Lots of full-sized adults eyeing Annie's seat during boarding

Enjoying a couple of seconds of good behavior from Lizzy

Not enough of this during the flight

Smooth Sailing 2 hours in! Too bad it didn't last long...

Let's just say that Lizzy is NOT a good flier. She has the attention span of a gnat, will not watch a second of TV and does not like to sit still in general for more than 5 seconds at a time.

We tried to have some things for the girls to do on the flight.  Annie was so happy to have her bonky and the movies that we really didn't need much to keep her entertained.  We brought 5 or 6 little wrapped presents from the dollar bin at Target along with some activity packs with crayons and some stickers.  We had snacks and the iPads, but at the end of the day really wished we just had about 1,000 small stickers for them to play with.  That was just about the only thing that kept Lizzy busy for more that 5 or 10 seconds.  Definitely a lesson learned.

All she wanted to do was walk around in the aisles (couldn't really do that in business class) or climb back and forth over the divider between compartments. She was also crabby and tired but fought sleep the WHOLE time. She finally fell back asleep with about 3 hours left in the flight but it took a LOT to finally get her down. And even then she kept waking up and crying intermittently. Then she cried solidly for the last 10 minutes of the flight and it felt like an ETERNITY.

Annie sitting on the extra area in the Joe's seat while watching Wall-E

Good not great

Ditto

We had a short 2 hour layover in Tokyo and headed to the SkyClub for some quick snacks and diaper changes.  We brought multiple changes of clothes for them in the carry on, all of which were used on Lizzy.  Despite bringing what we felt were plenty of diapers for the trip, we had to take Annie's pull up off (which she kept dry the entire time!) and let her be bunsie-girl for the last 90 minutes of the flight so we could put Lizzy in it.  We then headed over to the gate and slummed it coach.  The flight from Tokyo to Singapore (about 8 hours) was a little better as Lizzy slept for a few hours at the beginning, but there were definitely times during the whole ordeal where we thought to ourselves, "nope, never again."

Needless to say, we were relived to finally arrive in Singapore at two in the morning.  We made it through immigration without any problems and our luggage was already out by the time we made it to baggage claim.  The taxi area was clearly marked and we waited for only a minute or two and then loaded all our stuff into the cab.  Both girls were very excited to be in a car without car seats so they enjoyed the 25 minute cab ride into the city.  There was no traffic at that time of the night and coupled with a very regulated and reasonably priced taxi service, it was a great introduction to the city.  We paid the cab fare with a credit card and the fun was about to begin!

"Oh, Is Your Family Moving to Japan?"

I was asked this question 3 times by flight attendants on our recent flight from Los Angeles to Tokyo.  Here is Joe's explanation (written by Joe himself!) of why we were "crazy" enough to take our family on vacation halfway around the world.

Back in the spring there was a big fare sale to Singapore on a number of airlines and since Delta was participating, we decided to take the plunge.  Coach round trip tickets from LAX routing through Tokyo Narita both ways were right around $600, which is a very good deal on that route.  We bought three tickets for Mary, Annie and me and took Lizzy as a lap child to save some money on the trip. Once we got to Singapore, we added a separate ticket on AirAsia to Bali, Indonesia.

This was a good deal for anyone looking to head to Singapore, but since the three us of had some level of status with Delta, it made it even better.  Here is how it broke down for me.
Fare was $600 with the following routing:

Route Flight miles
LAX-NRT 5,451
NRT-SIN 3,328
SIN-NRT 3,328
NRT-LAX 5,451

LAX - Los Angeles
NRT - Narita/Tokyo
SIN - Singapore

That is a total of 17,558 miles earned for the trip.  Anyone booking the trip would earn those.  Since I am a Delta Diamond member, I earn an additional 1.25x miles, earning me a total of 39,506 redeemable miles for the trip.  Valued at a penny a mile, that is $395 worth of miles for completing the trip.  If you use them wisely for domestic travel or use them for business class international travel, they are easily worth two cents a mile, for a value around $790.

There is also value to the Medallian Qualifying Miles (MQMs) that were earned.  Part of the reason I booked this was I was not certain I would travel enough to maintain my Diamond status so it is always nice to get a big chunk of those miles on one trip.  In this case, my cost per MQM (cpm) was 3.4, which is pretty good for a trip you would like to go on anyway.  There is a wide range of value placed on these, but 2 cents a piece could be reasonable.  It is worth noting that these only had value for me.  Without going into the details, these had no value at all to Mary and Annie because I gift them status (a benefit of Diamond status) instead of earning it through flying.

As a Gold, you get an additional 1x the miles instead of 1.25x, so Annie and Mary each ended up with 35,116, worth anywhere between $351 and $700.  As long as you have some flexibility for when you redeem the miles, it should be towards the high end of the range.  My general rule is 2.2 cents per mile or otherwise pay cash.

Another (small) perk of Diamond status is that it allows you to book Premium Economy seats at no additional cost for you and everyone on your itinerary.  To be clear, I am still not sure what is premium about them other than that they are immediately behind the business class section.  They are essentially the same seat as coach with a tiny extra amount of recline. They also have a bit of extra leg room.

We booked an aisle and a window seat in one row, in hopes of having the middle aisle seat open, and an aisle seat in the row behind.

So, we kinda sorta flew all the way to Singapore for a buy one, get one deal.  I would like to say "free" but since we parted with the money and only received a trip and miles in return, it really isn't free.  At a minimum, we could use the miles earned to redeem for airfare to Hawaii, so you could look at it as "pay $600 to fly to Singapore, get a free round trip flight to Hawaii."

Parts of the travel were torturous but now that it's over I'm definitely glad we did it. The girls did really well and everyone had a great time. Thanks, Joe, for planning all the travel and explaining it for all of us pea brains to understand!

More posts about the trip coming soon!

Still Dragging Out This Cruise Post

Ok, trying to fly through the rest of this trip so I can at least be caught up for our next one! So sorry for the horribly written, non proofread text. :)

Cruise Day 3, Continued

Playing on the magic interactive floor in the big kid's club

Later in the evening on Tuesday, we all went to check out  the kid's club on the ship. I can't remember what it was called, but it was the club for older kids. They have the Small World Nursery for babies and toddlers 3 and under, a younger kid's club, and an older kid's club. Once a child is 3 you can sign them into the kid's club and leave them there for as long as they want, for FREE!! The Nursery is still a steal at $6/hr for the first child and $5/hr for any additional children. All the clubs are amazing with tons of different activities and the supervision is great.

Before dinner that evening we did the rounds of meeting the characters, then we decided to send Lizzy back to the nursery since she was getting super tired by that point and would definitely not make it through dinner. This was a real life saver, because Annie is a dream to take out to dinner (knock on wood), so it was nice we could have a special evening with just her. That night we ate at Animator's Palate, which has an "animation" theme. Annie especially loved it because there were TVs and Crush the turtle would swim around the walls interacting with diners. My favorite part was the Mickey chairs, super cute!

Dinner at Animator's Palate

Day 4 

On Wednesday it was back to Castaway Cay, and this time Joe and Lizzy were able to join Annie and me on the island. We took the girls swimming in the ocean and they LOVED it. We also played in the splash pad and enjoyed another island BBQ.  

The girls with Chip and Dale on Castaway Cay

After lunch we went back on the ship and the girls took naps and then went to play at the nursery. (It sounds like sent them to the nursery a lot, doesn't it?? They really were not there very often!) While they were in the nursery Joe and I took the opportunity to enjoy a little bit of pool time alone. I even ordered a strawberry daiquiri, watch out! We also rode the Aqua Duck (giant water slide) together, really fun! After picking the girls up, Joe took Annie to one of the live shows while Lizzy and I walked around the shops. We attempted to bring Lizzy to dinner that night since it was our last night, but after 5 minutes of  her screeching, knocking everything in sight off of the table, spilling water and eating several pats of butter, we decided it was in everyone's best interest that we take her back to the nursery, where she promptly fell asleep.

Day 5, Disembarkation

Annie out cold amongst the chaos of trying to get packed up in the morning!

Of course the girls picked the ONE day we had to get up early to be off the ship to sleep in. We had to wake them at 9:30 and high tail it off, I think we were some of the last people to get off the boat.  It was a really easy process, we had placed our big luggage out in the hallway the evening before, so when we got off the ship we went to a baggage claim area to pick it up. One of the luggage attendants helped carry it all the way to our car in the parking garage. We then drove back to WDW and checked into the Grand Floridian, where we got upgraded to a room in one of the concierge buildings. It was a HUGE room with a separate sitting area where we set up the pack n play for Lizzy, and Annie slept in one of the big beds with rails that the hotel provided and set up for us.

Grand Floridian Room

After getting set up in our room we had lunch at the pool and Joe had to fly to Philadelphia to do some interviews. I took the girls back to the room for naps and then we took the Monorail to the Magic Kingdom. This was the point in the trip where I stopped taking pictures and notes so I am not exactly sure what went on, but I know that it was pretty crowded and miserable. After a nice relaxing Cruise with Joe there to help, taking the girls to the Magic Kingdom alone was A LOT of work. I think we only managed to make it on 1 or 2 rides before throwing in the towel.

One of the best things about a concierge room is the lounge where a selection of food and drinks were provided (free) throughout the day. It's especially nice when you have young ones because you can always get cold milk. The girls and I ate dinner there (really good selection of hot and cold items), they had their bath, we went for a walk around the resort and then it was bedtime. 

Joe thankfully came back the next afternoon and gave me some alone time at the pool which was amazing!! We spent Friday and Saturday nights at the Grand Floridian and got in some good time at the Magic Kingdom and headed back to Burbank on Sunday afternoon. It was really a GREAT trip and I know that the girls really enjoyed themselves. For the most part they were really well behaved despite being out of their normal routines and probably very tired a lot of the time. 

I can't wait until we have the opportunity to do another Disney Cruise, it will be even better when Lizzy is a bit older and more independent. Becherer/Fleming/Koutnik/Hattman/Birmingham Family Vacay 2013, anyone?? :)

More Cruising

Cruise Day 2

Monday morning we arrived at Castaway Cay in the Bahamas. After breakfast at Cabanas, the buffet restaurant on the 11th deck, we left Lizzy to take a nap in the room while Annie and I disembarked to check out the island. I've never been on a cruise that takes you to actual port cities, so I don't have anything to compare it to, but Castaway Cay was pretty great! There is a nice beach, a few shops, some bars, a place to rent bikes, over 3 miles of trails, and lots of other recreation activities like snorkeling, para sailing and jet skiing. Annie and I played it safe and just went to the splash pad. We then ate a barbecue lunch and for some reason I think the food on the island is much better than the food on the boat. They had a ton of traditional bbq offerings like hamburgers, hot dogs, chicken, ribs, salads, corn on the cob, chips and cookies. They also had soft serve machines! I think Annie ate an average of 2 ice cream cones a day on the trip.

After lunch we boarded the ship again and brought the girls to the "It's a Small World Nursery." I was really impressed with the childcare on the cruise and the childcare workers were extremely nice and friendly. I felt really comfortable leaving the girls there, and I think they had a good time, too. The nursery had a play area in the front with a ton of toys and then a separate room in the back with dimmed lights, cribs and rockers. While the girls played at the nursery I went and worked out at the gym and took a shower. I know that is a lame way to use up the babysitting time, but Joe had to work and it was nice to have a little break! Later on in the evening we ended up putting Lizzy back in the nursery while we went to dinner because she didn't get a good afternoon nap that day and there was no way she would have made it through dinner. We had dinner at the Royal Palace again that night and I really wish I would have taken a picture of the menu or written down what we ate for dinner...sorry, Diz!  But again, it was less than spectacular. On the bright side, one of the desserts on the children's menu was a Mickey ice cream bar so that is what Joe and Annie got every night for dessert. Amazing!

Some "friends" were visiting the nursery when I picked Lizzy up after dinner. She was less than thrilled

True or false - Peter Pan is the creepiest Disney character in person

After picking Lizzy up there was a really fun "pirate party" on the pool deck and a very impressive fireworks show. It was neat to think about the fact that we were watching a huge fireworks show out in the middle of the ocean!

There was a special gift waiting for us in our room every night after dinner. I can't tell you what they all were in case they are re-gifted during this year's White Elephant

Cruise Day 3

The next day (Tuesday) we were at sea. After eating at the breakfast buffet (decent), Annie and I went swimming while Lizzy took her morning nap.  It was so fun getting to spend all that time with Annie, she is at such a good age for this kind of stuff! We alternated between swimming in the Mickey shaped pool and Nemo's splash pad, and then Annie dined on a lunch of chicken nuggets while watching Cinderella on the big screen at the pool. Toddler heaven!

Eating Mickey Waffles for breakfast! Not a bad view

Doing a little golfing after breakfast

Speaking of toddler heaven, later in the day we stumbled onto a "character dance party" and I really have to imagine that it was the best 20 minutes of Annie's life thus far. Pictures don't do it justice!

Wow, these posts take way longer than expected to complete. Almost halfway through the cruise - more coming soon!

Bon Voyage! Day 1

On to the good stuff - the cruise itself! First off I want to say that since this cruise was chartered for DVC members it had very low occupancy (70%) and an unusually small number of children. This was all great news! It never really felt crowded to me, and since there were so few kids, it was never a problem to check the girls into childcare and the lines to meet the characters were always short.

When you walk onto the ship, they announce your family over the loudspeaker and there are a bunch of employees lining the entrance applauding you, kind of cheesy but fun. Joe had to go to a work event after boarding, so I took the girls up to get some ice cream where we ran into some "friends!"

We then changed into our swimming suits and headed over to the children's splash area called Nemo's Reef. Unfortunately you have to be potty trained in order to swim in the regular pools so Lizzy had to stick to the splash pad. It's a nice, safe option for babies, and the water was really warm. The girls loved it!

After we were all splashed out we grabbed lunch from one of the Cars themed quick serve windows. These take out places are open almost all day/night long and offer a variety of options. They serve pizza, burgers, hot dogs, chicken, french fries, sandwiches, wraps, salads and fresh fruit. While unlimited food anytime you want it may sound amazing, I hate to say that the food was not great. I might even go as far to say that the pizza was bad. 

Tastes pretty good to me, mom!

By that point the rooms were ready and the luggage had been delivered, so we went to our state room on the 10th deck to check things out and get unpacked. We were super lucky to have been put in a Deluxe Family Room that had some extra space and a balcony. It was HUGE by cruise standards and I never once felt claustrophobic. We had a queen size bed and a couch that converted into a bed, plus a pack n play in the corner for Lizzy. My favorite feature of the room was the curtain that you could pull to separate the bedroom area from the living room area, so we could keep the girls somewhat separate if they didn't sleep at the same time. 

View from the entry way. Bathroom to my left. Separate areas for shower and toilet

After unpacking we had to convene for a mandatory emergency drill in an auditorium. After confirming everyone was present by scanning key cards, they gave a short presentation about emergency protocol, life boats, life vests, etc. We then went back the room for much needed naps. I guess at some point during naptime the boat started to move, but we didn't even realize it! 

Joe had a business dinner that evening at one of the nicer restaurants, Palo, so SUPER MOM took both girls to our 8:15 dinner at The Royal Palace. The people sitting at the table next to us looked at me like I was crazy when I showed up alone and wrestled Annie and Lizzy into high chairs. I was thrilled when Joe finally showed up halfway through the dinner. At the sit down dinners all the food and soft drinks are included, and you order off a regular menu. But again, the food is less than spectacular and I would say we left most of the dinners still hungry. They also have a children's menu offering all the standard kids fare.

After dinner we met some characters (becoming a very regular occurrence, to Annie's delight) and then called it a night. Not bad for our first day!

DVC Member Cruise and Walt Disney World, Part 1

LAX to MCO and Cruise Departure

Yes, our vacation was so amazing it's going to require separate (very detailed) blog posts! Since a big part of writing these posts (in addition to sharing with family) is for Joe and me to have a record to look back on someday, I wanted to include as much as I could about our trip, and I apologize in advance for all of the probably very boring details. It's helpful for us to look back on some of the travel stuff to see what worked and what didn't. So here it goes....

I'm sure you all know this already, but Joe was invited on the Disney Vacation Club 4-night 5-day Member Cruise to do a little bit of work. He was allowed to bring along up to three guests and since he doesn't have any friends, the girls and I got to come along! Joe and I had done a quick 2-night cruise on the Disney Dream (a new ship in 2011), but this was our first time bringing any babies along.

After packing EVERYTHING up the night before, we left the house in a Hyundia Santa Fe (hey Flemings!) rental car at 6am on Saturday morning for LAX. Side note: You need a lot of stuff to travel with 2 kids... not sure how you guys do it with 3 or more! Joe was kind enough to give me his seat in first class (1B) while he sat in the back with BOTH girls, and I have to say it was the most relaxing five hours I've experienced in a while. We bought Elizabeth her own seat on the plane and brought her car seat along, which was a God send. She is VERY rambunctious these days so it was perfect that she could be strapped in for most of the trip. Plus it gave her a nice place to fall asleep.  The girls both behaved extremely well and I received lots of compliments from passengers deplaning about how good they were, and how great Joe was with them!

And before I forget, here is what we brought:

• 2 car seats (checked one, brought one on plane)
• 2 small rolling suitcases (both checked)
• 1 giant duffel (checked)
• Joe's backpack (carry on)
• Mary's diaper bag (carry on)
• 1 double stroller (gate checked)
• Ergo carrier (carry on)

Catching a wink on the flight

Super-flier opening her airplane snack box

One funny blip - when Joe had to take Lizzy back for a diaper change (I must have been too busy in first class watching Battleship with my noise-canceling Bose headphones on whilst eating a delicious breakfast to notice what was going on back there in steerage), he left Annie buckled into her aisle seat watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. When he returned, Annie had unbuckled herself, climbed over into Lizzy's car seat by the window, found Lizzy's pacifier and fallen asleep.

We arrived in Orlando around 4pm and checked into the Hyatt Regency Orlando Airport hotel to stay for the night since the cruise didn't leave til the next day. Joe used a Diamond confirmed suite upgrade and we received an amazing suite with a bedroom, huge living and dining area, 2 bathrooms and a kitchen. Probably larger than our house.

Didn't take any good pictures of our room, but it was great! 

We had a delightful Chick fil a lunch, naps, and a walk around the airport. Oh, in our brand new double maclaren! A purchase mainly for the trip. Really loved it. Super easy to fold and compact. Anyway - after our walk the girls had their baths and we had a quick room service dinner of pepperoni pizza, hummus and veggies, and spaghetti and meatballs for the girls.  Shortly after, the girls went to bed and I used the hotel gym (would be 1 of only 2 times on the vacation that I worked out.) It was small but nice with views of the terminal and had all the essential equipment.

Orlando Airport = almost as good as Disney World!

Eating dinner! Annie now thinks she can make food appear by picking up the phone and "ordering it."

We all got some good sleep that night and the next morning Joe went to get the rental car, a 2012 Toyota Sequoia which was so large he could barely park it, brought down the luggage and installed the car seats while I stayed with girls. We had a really good breakfast at one of the Hyatt restaurants, Hemispheres. It was extra good because it was free for Diamond members. Let's be honest, we all know that if it wasn't free we would have been eating sausage biscuits off the dollar menu. Now that I think about it, that is an equally delicious option.

Only people in the restaurant!  

All of this part of the trip was particularly fun for me to experience because I got to see what Joe does on a regular basis on his business trips to WDW (tough life, Joe!) I got to sit in his seat on the plane, stay in the hotel he frequents, and eat his favorite breakfast (scrambled eggs, breakfast potatoes, ham and a bowl of berries).  Nice to be able to see that part of his life! And I think equally fun for him to be able to share it with us.

We then loaded everyone up into the car and did the quick 40 minute drive to Port Canaveral to get on the ship! After checking our bags with a bellman, Joe parked the car/truck in the garage ($75 for parking) and I brought the girls into the cruise terminal where we got in line to see Minnie. Since the state rooms aren't ready immediately when you board, they take your luggage before you board so you don't have to haul it around the ship for the first few hours. When the rooms are ready, your bags are waiting for you there. After we got our picture with Minnie, we proceeded to the check in line which was empty by that point. I think we were the last wave to board. At check in they collect all the proper paper work and signatures, check your passports and take your picture for you room key card, called your "Key to the World Card".  In addition to being used as a key you can use it for charging and you need it to get on and off the ship at any ports. Annie's picture was a real gem as she was throwing a temper tantrum at the moment. Every time her card was scanned during the trip the employee would laugh at the picture of a screaming toddler that popped up on the screen.

Stopping for a quick pic with Minnie Mouse in the terminal before boarding the ship

We then boarded and set sail for Castaway Cay, Disney's private island in the Bahamas. More to come soon!! Please try to keep your anticipation under control. :)

Also, I will be putting a ton more pictures on Picasa and Facebook soon.

Elizabeth's Birthday and Grandma Alice's Visit

Can't believe my little Elizabeth is ONE year old already! Hard to imagine that she was a tiny newborn last summer, this has definitely been the fastest year of my life so far. Since we were planning on trip to Disneyland with Grandma on Sunday and Monday (Lizzy's actual birthday) we did a small celebration at home on Saturday with Auntie JuJu.

See food, open mouth. Classic Lizzy.

Big sister Annie was nice to help Elizabeth open her presents, and then claim them as her own. 

Just a few more pictures of the birthday girl :)

Not quite a walker yet

Lizzy's new trick: fish face

On Sunday Grandma arrived and we headed down to Disneyland for the night. We took in a few attractions at California Adventure that night and returned the next morning for Disneyland. 

Sisters ready for a day at the park!

We hit the jackpot and had a Minnie Mouse sighting as soon as entering the park on Monday morning! Annie has NO fear when it comes to characters.

The day turned out to be very hot and crowded, and I don't think poor Lizzy had a very good time on her first birthday. I don't think we'll be back to DL until the temperatures get a little cooler and the crowds thin out in the fall.

Joe had to head out of town the next day for a quick trip to Japan, but luckily Grandma was in town for a week to help us out! We had lots of fun visiting the zoo and Kidspace Museum in Pasadena.

Annie would spend ALL day at the petting zoo if I let her! She was lying on top of the goats at one point saying "I love him so much!"

Having fun in the toddler room at Kidspace!

Learning about Bugs with Grandma

Check out Annie on that hog

Sisters playing

Sweet Lizzy

Hope to have more exciting adventures to share soon!