Christmas at WDW!!!! (Dec. 21st-26th) It was CRAZY!!! *UPDATED! 1/13/07* (Day 4)

[Caribbeanprincess]

Hopefully i'm doing this trip report correctly, I think i'm following all the instructions...:confused3

Anyway, since I did no pre-trip report, i'm going to start with a small re-cap of details from the trip.

Intro:

Trip dates: Dec. 20th-Dec. 29th
Hotel: Offsite (Quality Inn Plaza, Int. Drive)
Disney days: Dec. 21st-26th
Special events: Mickey's Verry Merry Christmas Party, Dec. 21st

So, my mom and I decided to take a Christmas trip this year, because we hadn't had one in a few years. We decided to go to WDW mainly because my mom is a big Christmas fanatic and she wanted to see all the decorations and just enjoy Christmastime Disney style. We new it was going to be crazy and crowded, but we went ahead with it. Planning was done by the end of October and we were ready to go. I was incredibly excited, any Disney trip is cause of tremendous excitment for me. And so, on to Disney!!! :dance3:

[Caribbeanprincess]

The arrival:

Our flight to Orlando left at 8:30am, so the bad part of it was getting up at 5am in order to make the flight. I was falling asleep all the way to the airport. :rotfl: But, time went by fast; by the time we made it to the gate we were only an hour away from departing. The flight was very nice, calm, no turbulance. I tried to sleep, but I really couldn't, don't know why. So I just listened to my iPod and read some magazines. It seemed like it took forever to get to Orlando. We finally got there at around 11:30am (Orlando time) and we made it to the hotel. By the time we got there are room was ready, but my mom thought the building was too far away and because she has a back condition she asked to be changed, however there were no rooms available so we had to wait 'till check in time at 3pm. Luckly our hotel is just across the street from the Pointe Orlando shopping/entertainment center, so we went there and looked around stores and had some lunch at Johnny Rocket's. At 3 we got our room and got settled in. Then we made the mistake of ordering pizza to a nearby pizza place, and later that night I got sick. I guess the pizza didn't agree well with my stomach and I got really bad heartburn (which i've never had before) and was awake most of the night. :guilty: We had to call the doctor early morning the next day (and it was expensive...), but I got better by 9am and I was ready to go.

[Caribbeanprincess]

Day 1:

So I was sick and not feeling my best, but I wasn't about to let MVMCP tickets go to waste! So I sucked it up and went ahead to the Magic Kingdom. MK is my favorite park, so everytime we visit we go there on the first day. I was very, very excited about the party because i've never been to a special event before. And so we went. We got to the park at around 9:30am and it was very, very cold, especially during the ferry ride to the entrance. When we got there it was really un-crowded, not many people walking around and the wait times were quite calm. We immediately went to the Swiss Family Robinson treehouse (which I hadn't been to in 10 years) and then to Pirates of the Caribbean, which only had a wait time of 5 minutes. :eek: We also did Haunted Mansion (twice) with a wait of 15 minutes; by the way, I loved the new things in HM, especially the room of stairs, it seemed much more eerie. I really wanted to do Splash Mountain and Thunder Railroad, but because I was sick I decided to ride them on MK day #2. From there we made our way to Fantasyland and did Philarmagic. We watched the parade at 3pm and I absolutely loved it, it's probably one of the best parades i've seen in a while. We also had a perfect seat for it. Later at 4pm we watched the Dream Along with Mickey performance and returned to Fantasyland for some shopping. From there we went to Toontown and then returned to Fantasyland for Storytime with Belle, which I really enjoyed and I had a nice photo opportunity with Belle one of my fave of the princesses. After Storytime with Belle, we went to get our MVMCP wristbands and then had some dinner at the Tomorrowland Cafe (forgot the name, sorry!). We went along to Tomorrowland and did our little trip around with the Transit Authority. We saw the Wishes fireworks from a perfect spot in Tomorrowland, they were beautiful. At 7pm the crowds had mostly started to leave and it felt much lighter (even though the party was sold out). We tried to make it to see the 7pm Mickey's Night Before Christmas show, but it was already full, so we decided to head onto Peter Pan. After Peter Pan we headed over to Cinderella's Carrousel and I got on that and then we went to the dance party with Lady Tremaine, Drizella and Anastasia. Now that was FUN!!! :woohoo: I got right in there with the kids and started dancing to the Cha Cha Slide, I think it was one of the most fun moments i've ever had at WDW, and the characters were incredibly entertaining. I think we spent like 30-45 there. The dance party at the Tomorrowland Cafe wasn't as good though, so we just got some hot cocoa and cookies and headed for the parade. I was expecting an awsome parade, but I really didn't like it that much. It was too long and I didn't see many characters I wanted to see. The best part though were those wooden soldiers, everyone loved them. :cheer2: We were suppossed to stay for the 9:30pm fireworks, but it was very, very cold and I wasn't feeling very well, so we decided to leave for some much deserved rest. And that was the end of a very fun and upbeat day 1! :goodvibes

Onto the pictures of day 1!!!

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[Caribbeanprincess]

More pics from day 1!

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[tinawv]

Sounds like the beginnings of a great trip report. I hope you started feeling better. There is nothing worse than being sick at WDW. Looking forward to more. :)

[Caribbeanprincess]

Day 2:

Day 2 was MGM Studios day. I was feeling much, much better Thank God. The day, however, wasn't much better. It was dreadfully cold the morning of December 22nd, I swear it was around 50 degrees by the time we got to the park. It was also extremely cloudy and there was absolutely no sunlight until after 2pm. But anyways, we got there and headed directly for some rides. We did Great Movie Ride first, by this day the parks were already starting to get very crowded, probably because it was a Saturday, and the wait time was 40 minutes, but the line moved quite quickly and it didn't feel that long. We then headed to the animation courtyard and got some Fast Passes for Voyage to the Little Mermaid for 12pm. While we waited for those we saw the High School Musical 2 performance (yay! :woohoo: ) and then headed over to Star Tours(wait 20 minutes). We then headed back to Animation Courtyard and did Voyage to the Little Mermaid (my personal favorite). After Voyage we headed for the 1pm Beauty and the Beast show (another personal fave) and then to see the parade. I got very irritable during the parade because we managed to find a great space and then the people in front of of us decided to stand during the whole parade even though they were in front. That always annoys me. :sad2: But, I loved the parade, mainly because I got to see princess Giselle front and center and I'm quite "Enchanted obssessed at the moment". We then headed for Narnia and then to Muppets 3-D and the NY streets. I also got a Fast Pass for Star Tours since the wait time was now 40 minutes. We were gettin picked up at 8pm, so we decided to go over and watch the Harlem Choir at 6pm and then head for the Osborne Lights. The choir was fantastic and it was lots of fun to sing along to some Christmas songs. I even got to sing with them for a bit. :yay: We decided not to do Fantasmic again this year because it was just way too cold and we were tired, so we headed over to see the Osborne Lights. Now that was a spectacle. I think the whole Christmas trip was just worth it to see those lights dancing. It took my breath away. Before leaving I went over to Mickey's of Hollywood and got a "Best Boyfriend" award for my boyfriend back at home. And that was the end of day 2 at MGM Studios.

Now onto Day 2 pics!!!

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More to come soon!

[Caribbeanprincess]

Day 3:

So day 3 was Animal Kingdom day, it was also Dec. 23, so the crowds were starting to pick up. The day was foggy and cloudy, but not as cold as day 2. We arrived at the park at the usual time of 9:30am and headed directly to the Tree of Life and It's Tough to be a Bug. Wait time was only 5 minutes. Because i'm a Dinosaur ride fan we headed there next and I did the ride 3 times with a wait of only 15 minutes. On the third time I bought my first ride picture, I had to, my face was too hilarious. :rotfl: After Dinosaur we decided to have lunch at the nearby McDonald's before heading to a showing of Finding Nemo: The Musical. We arrived 45 minutes before the show and the line already streched to the carnival area of Dinoland USA. Luckly we got in and got good seats, though the theater closed soon afterwards and half the people were stuck outside. Now this show was worth the entire trip to AK, it's fantastic! It was my first time seeing the show and I was blown away. The songs, the actors and, most of all, the scenery was incredible. I can't wait to see it again on my next trip! From there we headed toward Everest. I really wanted to get on, but wait time was 120 minutes and Fast Passes were out, so we headed over to Harambe to do the safari, unfortunately, since the last safari left at 4:30, the line was 90 minutes and again there were no Fast Passes available. So we headed to the Jungle Trek to kill some time before the parade. We found good spots for the parade right in front of Fast Pass distribution for It's Tough to be a Bug. But like the day before, the people in front of us decided to stand up at the beginning of the parade and blocked our view. :snooty: So we had to stand up also... Since we were getting picked up at 8pm, we headed for the 5pm showing of Festival of the Lion King and then did the line for a photo with Minnie. We still had to hours left before leaving, so we headed over to Rainforest Cafe for some yummy dinner and then we headed back to our hotel for some needed rest before the next day's adventure...Christmas Eve at Epcot! :scared1:

Pics of Day 3!

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[Caribbeanprincess]

Day 4:

Day 4 was our EPCOT day and also Christmas Eve, so it was - for lack of a word - crazy! Crowds had been quite bearable until that day. We arrived quite late to begin with, our transportation left us there at 10:30am, we should have asked her to pick us up earlier. We went in quite easily, the security lines weren't long, but once inside we noticed the LONG lines for every single ride. I'm a big 'SOARIN fan, so the first thing we did when we arrived was head to The Land pavillion to get some fast passes. The stand-by line was 120 minutes and our fast passes were for 6-7pm. Since we were already there, we decided to do the boat tour, the line was short and my mom really wanted to go on it, so we did. After that we headed to Spaceship Earth which had it's soft opening a few days earlier. The line was 1 hour long (my longest Spaceship Earth line ever). I quite liked the changes, as I always thought the ride was a bit outdated. I loved the ending with the pictures of the riders and the interactive after-ride area. I can't wait to ride it again once all the changes are done. We then headed over to The Seas with Nemo and Friends. I really, really liked the Clammobile ride, maybe because I love nemo, but it was just very fun (even though the ride stopped 5 times). We saw some the dolphin exhibition and then started to head over to World Showcase. We were planning to do the "Ellen ride", but the wait was 45 minutes and we decided it wasn't worth it. We did the boat ride at the Mexico pavillion, i'm so glad they revamped it, it's much better and entertaining. We also saw the Three Kings at Mexico, it was a very nice touch to see a home tradition. From there on we headed out to each of the pavillions stopping to look at the shops and buy some stuff. At the US pavillion we saw Santa and I got a lovely pic with him and Mrs. Claus. I took a little more time at the Japan pavillion because i'm a big anime/manga fan, and I was looking for some souvenirs I may not find at home. We then took the boat for Future World to do our 6pm 'SOARIN fast pass and on the way saw the tree lighting, then we headed back to World Showcase to do the pavillions we hadn't seen. After some shopping in the UK, we headed over to Morocco and had some dinner at their self-service restaurant. I love their food! :lovestruc By that time it had gotten very, very cold. We were going to stay for Illuminations, but decided to leave earlier. We then had some nice Christmas Eve snacks and went to bed.

Some pics of day 4!

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More to come soon!