First Christmas Trip to Disney 12/07

[pjstevens]

It’s Christmas Day (well for us it is!!!!!)



My husband who is such the morning person was up by 6:30 and showered and went down to get his coffee. When we decided everyone needed to get up, we didn’t have the phone alarm, we had the ‘Daddy annoys you till you get up alarm’ He would get right on top of each of the kids and repeat again and again and again….. “It’s a magical day in Disney!” It was cute the first time, but again and again and again!!!! My kids are NOT morning people (not sure why that is, I always got up early with my father when I was little). My kids are GRUMPY when they first get up. We had a LOT planned today, so they had to get up and MOVE!!!

First the kids started on their stockings… (you can see by Tyler’s eyes he was NOT awake).



It was then time for Christmas with AubreJ

Tyler got Aubre a shot glass with Tinkerbell and her name on it (Tyler collects shot glasses, so he thinks everyone should).

Dale & Steph gave Aubre earrings (and maybe a necklace) that Stephanie made. She is very talented.

We gave Aubre a bracelet that my online friend Liz (her daughter is a cm at Epcot also) made. We also gave Aubre a digital photo keychain. I loaded it with all the pictures she loves; her dog, her school friends and our Disney trips.



It was now time to get moving… we had to get to Magic Kingdom so we could enjoy some of the rides before we had to get to the Grand Floridian for lunch and our photo shoot.

Up next…. Magic Kingdom!!!

 

[tinkerbell87512]

Tinkerbell,

Welcome aboard. We've done pj's for quite a few years and it's something I think they kids (as you can tell are all older now) still look forward too.

Hope to have another update tonight.

Heck I'm 20 and still look forward to getting my Chistmas eve pj's.

It's one tradition I look forward to passing along to my kids in the future.


Looks like you had a wonderful "Christmas" morning. Can't wait to hear about your time at the MK!

 

[pjstevens]

Yea, my photopass cd came today. I am uploading them to webshots so I can add them to my tr. Wanted to share our first Magic Kingdom photo since that is where I left off.

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[pjstevens]

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I love this sign, it just makes it all so real. We are really here!!!

At the TTC there was this beautiful pointsettia tree. I was surprised that there weren’t more ‘Christmas’ decorations outside of the park. When we had been there for MNSSHP they had mickey pumpkins and fall stuff all at the parking toll booths.

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We then got to go in this VERY SPECIAL ENTRANCE! Can you tell I am so proud of my daughter (and maybe a little jealous).

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Once we got in the park, this is what we saw

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Our first stop was the bakery! Of course, food. We’re on the dining plan, got to eat (really on dh had to eat, ds1 got a frozen coffee type drink), but we all just sat and waited.

As soon as we finished in the bakery, what did we see but this creation.

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Can you tell what it is??? (and if it’s you, sorry for not getting permission), but this was on somebody’s head!!! It’s a hat!!!!

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I love the castle (like most of the DISers here). It is just so beautiful.

 

[KimAshton]

What beautiful pictures. Is it just me or is Tink a little small?? Seriously in my pic you can barely tell she is there.

 

[pjstevens]

Kim

You're right, I seem to think Tink was larger in our older pics (but I haven't pulled them out to look yet).

What beautiful pictures. Is it just me or is Tink a little small?? Seriously in my pic you can barely tell she is there.

 

[pjstevens]

Ok, it’s the Saturday before Christmas and what am I doing???

Working on my TR instead of wrapping gifts (that I just bought this am); baking all the stuff I need to bake, cleaning my house…. Do you see that the list goes on and on, but no, I am here to write.

Last up, we saw the castle, boy is it beautiful, but you can’t tell during the day how much it is going to be transformed in the evening. (I can’t wait to see it).

We headed over to Adventureland and checked out the wait time for the Jungle Cruise. Knew we wanted to do this later this evening when it got dark, so we would probably grab a fast pass. We’re headed over to POC. But, we can’t get there!!! There is a crowd of people and stopped and watching. What are they watching? It’s Capt Jack!!!! This guy goes a wonderful impersonation of the REAL Capt Jack.

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Right as it was getting ready to finish up, we made a bee line to

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It said a five minute wait!!! WOOHOO! We head in and get way down near the front and it just STOPS!!! What’s going on? There was some sort of ‘mechanical problem’ and we had to wait (couldn’t turn around now, people lining up a long way behind us). So we wait!!! Can you tell DS1 and DIL like to have their pics taken

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I don’t think it took more that five or ten minutes and things were running smoothly again. We never sat in the front seat on Pirates (guess timing, just never got that seat). Needless to say, I did not know the front seat gets wet on the little drop. We all enjoyed our ride. Afterwards, we saw a photopass photographer and I saw he was doing the Capt Hook shot and could only talk one of our crew into this shot.

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We then headed over to Jungle Cruise to grab our fast passes for later. We then decided to do Swiss Family Treehouse. We haven’t done this in at least seven years. It was a beautiful day and you could see so far away from up there.

Afterwards, it was time to head over to the Grand Floridian.

Up next, lunch at the Grand Floridian Café and our family Photo Session.

 

[pjstevens]

Ok, off to lunch at the Grand Floridian Café. We leave MK and head to the monorail. DD says, ‘why don’t we walk, its just over there’? Side note here DD is very athletic (she was a competitive gymnast until a back injury. She also did high school swim team and field and track. Needless to say, she lives for going to the Y to work out and misses that terribly while living at Disney as they have such a small workout room at Vista… Ok, sorry, back to story. DH being the loving dad that he is, says, sure I’ll walk with you. The rest of us decide we are taking the monorail. (Lunch is in 15 minutes). As we are walking up the monorail hill, you can see it coming!!! Woohoo, no waiting. We walked up towards the front and the cm there asked where we were from (we all had our matching white polos on for the photo shoot at the GF. I asked if we could sit up front (we have NEVER gotten to sit up front). He said he’d have to check to make sure that the people in there now were getting off there at the MK. He comes back a few seconds later and says YES!!! But, they can only accomadate four people. That’s fine, cause there are only four of us. Right then, DD and DH walk up behind us. They weren’t sure if there was a walk way all the way around to the GF and they saw the monorail coming. So now there are six of us again. Being the kind mom, I say, let the kids sit up there, but pass my camera on so they can take some photos.

They took these nice pics….



And then these!!!!

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Love my kids!!?? But they love to take weird pics.

The other monorail coming & Space Mountain




Arriving at the Grand Floridian




THE TREE!!!!!

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This place is so beautiful. This is my dream to some day take a vacation and stay at a deluxe. I couldn’t get over how beautifully this resort was decorated.

We walked around looking for the GF Café. Not sure where it was, we actually walked around in circles. Of course we had to stop to see the Gingerbread house.

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We finally found the Café and put our names in. We were seated almost immediately. The place was pretty empty, but that would soon change. The food here was delicious as all sit downs seem to be, but the service was slow. From the time we sat until we got our main entrée was an hour. This was the longest we’d waited anywhere and it was lunch. I don’t think anyone ordered a special requested item.

For appetizers DH had the Crab Cakes (loved them), DD got the Mediterranean Sampler, she really liked that; DIL got the Tomato-Basil Soup, which as I mentioned before, she likes anything so no problem here. DS2 got the salad PLAIN (no dressing), DS1 didn’t get anything for an appetizer and I had the French Onion Soup. I honestly had never had it, but it looked so good. I ate most of the cheese off the top (the best part). The soup itself was ok, but I didn’t eat much of that.

For our main entrée, DH had Cobb Salad, DD had Rustic Chicken Sandwich (I think); DIL had the Cobb Salad also, DS1 and DS2 both had the New York Strip and I had the Angus Chuck Burger. All was very good, but as I mentioned it took a long time until we got our main items. So long that we were NOT able to have dessert since our photo shoot was at 1:30.

We actually had ordered dessert, but it looked like it was going to take too long, so we cancelled them. I headed up to check us in at the Photo pass counter on the second floor. By the time the rest of the crew got up there, our photographer was almost ready.

Up next, our actual Photo Shoot.

 

[pjstevens]

I got to the photo pass counter and checked us in. The cm gave me a receipt to go into the gift shop (next door) and pay for our ‘sitting’ with the photographer. Well, knowing that our DD gets a special holiday discount (40% at that time) off a LOT of purchases, we asked if this item was discountable. After a couple moments, the manager confirmed that yes, indeed, she could get her discount on this. So our fee was just over $15 (normally $50, but $25 if you prepay the cd). So needless to say, we got a great deal.

I want to tell you that we had some awesome photos done with our photographer at the GF. In all she took about 60 photos, but by the time I added borders and such, we had 111 on this section. I have added just a few below, but if you’d like to see them all, I’ve put them in a separate album on my webshots account. Here is a link to that album... Our Grand Floridian Photo Shoot

We started with a basic shot on the second floor with the tree in the background.



then a couples shot



Then we headed outside, down near the pool (and fountain area)





Just Aubre


We moved onto the porch area… Just the guys




All of us



DH and our kids






We then moved down to the beach (we saw a bride and groom having a photoshoot with their photographer, not a photopass photographer).








Then it was back inside infront of the TREE

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[jeminni]

Great trip report and beautiful family pics. I'll be going next december for my 1st time at Christmas,( many other trips but never to see the Christmas decorations), I can't wait.

 

[pjstevens]

Bridget,

Welcome aboard. We had so much fun, having never been at this time of year. The other day the Travel Channel had a the Disney Holiday special.... so many things we still didnt' see!!! Darn, I need to go again!

Great trip report and beautiful family pics. I'll be going next december for my 1st time at Christmas,( many other trips but never to see the Christmas decorations), I can't wait.

 

[Traveliz]

Great report!

The pictures are wonderful!

I have to say though it is weird to see my creations in your pictures but very cool nonetheless.

As for me I can't wait - just a few more days until our visit to the World!

Liz

 

[pjstevens]

Liz,

I am so jealous!!! You'll have a wonderful time. Aubre is counting down, sadly to her ending date. She's excited to be coming home, but not excited to be leaving Disney. She just got her schedule for next week, she works the 31st til 1am and then the 1st at 9am!!! She's was online complaining to me, but I think just to vent. She's been very fortunate to have had great schedules, so this isn't a big deal.

Great report!

The pictures are wonderful!

I have to say though it is weird to see my creations in your pictures but very cool nonetheless.

As for me I can't wait - just a few more days until our visit to the World!

Liz

 

[scottny]

Just found this and it is a great report. the pics are great also. I checked out your GF photopass and they came out really nice.
Looking forward to the rest of it.

 

[Traveliz]

Liz,

I am so jealous!!! You'll have a wonderful time. Aubre is counting down, sadly to her ending date. She's excited to be coming home, but not excited to be leaving Disney. She just got her schedule for next week, she works the 31st til 1am and then the 1st at 9am!!! She's was online complaining to me, but I think just to vent. She's been very fortunate to have had great schedules, so this isn't a big deal.

Chloe works til 1:30 am on NYE but doesn't go in til 12:15 on the 1st so that isn't too bad.

CHloe is excited to see us all but is really glad to be extending and I doubt she will ever come home for any length of time willingly -- she really likes it there.

Liz

 

[pjstevens]

Welcome aboard Scott. We had a lot of fun doing the GF photo shoot. I am the picture taker in the family, so I don't really get in many pics (nor do I like too) but this was good, so there is proof I was there, lol

I see you'll be back in the World real soon. Can't wait to read all about your trip (I was following along earlier in the pre-trip stage, but stopped all my emails when we went away back in October and never got caught up). I'll have to stop by again.

Just found this and it is a great report. the pics are great also. I checked out your GF photopass and they came out really nice.
Looking forward to the rest of it.

 

[cdotla]

Love the GF Photo Shoot!

Great TR!

 

[heavenleigh412]

We were there at the same time! (I don't know why it amazes me to keep running across people that were there when we were, it's not like we had the parks to ourselves! )

What beautiful pictures at the GF, I didn't even know you could do that! (something else to plan for our next trip!)

I am really enjoying reading along.

Merry Christmas to you and your whole family!

 

[pjstevens]

Thanks so much for stopping by. I know what you mean though, it amazes me all the reports I'm reading about those that were there when we were. I wish we all walked around with a big signs... I'm a Diser.

I found out about the GF Photo thing on here (of course where else would you find anything Disney out).

I wish you and your famiy a very Merry Christmas also.

We were there at the same time! (I don't know why it amazes me to keep running across people that were there when we were, it's not like we had the parks to ourselves! )

What beautiful pictures at the GF, I didn't even know you could do that! (something else to plan for our next trip!)

I am really enjoying reading along.

Merry Christmas to you and your whole family!

 

[pjstevens]

Thanks for joining along. I'll try to get another update posted today (amazing how long it takes to 'relive' the experience.

Love the GF Photo Shoot!

Great TR!