Velkommen! Touring Disney with my Norwegian friend! Dec. 2013 TR update 6/18/14

I like the wild mouse coasters. I find them to be serious giggle fit inducers.

Oh darn. I didn't even think of meeting the Pooh gang. I like these outfits better than at the Christmas party. Such cute hats.

I agree on the parade. Nothing great, but not terrible. Oh and I LOVE also nice and naughty list especially since Donald is on both :laughing:
 
I love all the characters in their Christmas-y scarves! So cute!!!

The naughty and nice lists made me giggle!!

That cupcake looks and sounds delicious.
 
Hi Becky. I just poked my head into your thread, got hooked and read all of it (ok, kinda skimmed some). Very cool that you got to meet up and tour DisneyWorld with your old penpal. :thumbsup2 I found it interesting that he didn't like to wait in lines -- my family hosted an exchange student from Belgium when I was a kid and a few years ago when my wife and I visited him there he took us to a restaurant...but because we'd have to wait 5 minutes, he changed his mind and took us to a different place across the street. He said that he would never wait to be seated at a restaurant!

Happy to have you here! That's really interesting about the exchange student too... I guess in Europe they have a different concept about waiting for things! Possibly because it's less crowded over there.

I like the wild mouse coasters. I find them to be serious giggle fit inducers.

Oh darn. I didn't even think of meeting the Pooh gang. I like these outfits better than at the Christmas party. Such cute hats.

I agree on the parade. Nothing great, but not terrible. Oh and I LOVE also nice and naughty list especially since Donald is on both :laughing:

Yes, their outfits were great! And I loved Donald's place on both lists~

I love all the characters in their Christmas-y scarves! So cute!!!

The naughty and nice lists made me giggle!!

That cupcake looks and sounds delicious.

They do a great job getting the characters all Christmas-y!
 
I love the pics of you with Tigger and your DH dancing with Chip! So cute!
Bummer they didn't get to ride Kali! I don't think it compares to the raft ride at our local amusement park, but it's still fun.
I've never been to WDW at Christmas, so I've never seen any of the Jingle Jammin parade, but I LOVE that Naughty/Nice list. Adorable!
I've been to a Rainforest Cafe in CT and totally agree TREX is better. I actually thought the food at TREX was fantastic!
Sounds like the perfect relaxing night!
 


Hi Becky! Catching up again … as usual.

Oh, I LOVE Tigger and Pooh in their Christmas attire!!! Characters wearing costumes make me so happy! :laughing: Oh, and Chip and Dale look adorable too! How fun!

I always think the Nemo show looks like it would be great. But every time, we think about doing it, we look at the times, and it’s just so long that we don’t stay and do it. Maybe next time…..

The CBR pool area looks great! And I love that you had a relaxing night - it's good to do that once in a while when on vacation. ;)
 
Fun pics with the characters.
Oh you should have had a Yak Attack. YUM!
Sounds like a good night except for the slow woman in front of you.
 
Hi Becky! I just joined in and I have to say I'm really enjoying your trip. Also it gives me the heads up about the passport (not that I need it, because I'm a US citizen but my DW is a Canadian so she'll need that) for the drinking.

Also, I was interested to learn about the drinking around the world. I just turned 21 in Feb so this will be the first trip I can drink. I don't know that I'll go full out (I'm a cheapo) but still you gave me lots of options to consider, so thanks for that ;) Glad you handled it well too.

And yay for meeting Tigger and Pooh! They're so cute in their holiday gear. But bummer about Kali for your DH and PP (I think Photopass every time I see that lol). That is a patch of bad luck.
 


I love the pics of you with Tigger and your DH dancing with Chip! So cute!
Bummer they didn't get to ride Kali! I don't think it compares to the raft ride at our local amusement park, but it's still fun.
I've never been to WDW at Christmas, so I've never seen any of the Jingle Jammin parade, but I LOVE that Naughty/Nice list. Adorable!
I've been to a Rainforest Cafe in CT and totally agree TREX is better. I actually thought the food at TREX was fantastic!
Sounds like the perfect relaxing night!

Yeah, we've been on some fun raft rides around here and I even though I haven't ridden Kali in awhile I remember it being pretty similar. I'm sorry they didn't get to do it though!

We really love the food at TREX too! We've eaten there twice and really liked it both times. My parents enjoyed it as well when we took them, so despite the fact that there are haters out there we are big TREX fans!

Hi Becky! Catching up again … as usual.

Oh, I LOVE Tigger and Pooh in their Christmas attire!!! Characters wearing costumes make me so happy! :laughing: Oh, and Chip and Dale look adorable too! How fun!

I always think the Nemo show looks like it would be great. But every time, we think about doing it, we look at the times, and it’s just so long that we don’t stay and do it. Maybe next time…..

The CBR pool area looks great! And I love that you had a relaxing night - it's good to do that once in a while when on vacation. ;)

The Nemo show is definitely worth checking out... it is definitely cute and fun, if not my favorite thing there!

Yes, a relaxing night is definitely important with a Disney trip. I don't want to burn us out!

Fun pics with the characters.
Oh you should have had a Yak Attack. YUM!
Sounds like a good night except for the slow woman in front of you.

I definitely want to get a Yak Attack next time!

Even though the wait was so slow, at least it was our evening where we didn't have any plans, so I wasn't really stressing about the wait for the food. So that's a positive, at least!

Hi Becky! I just joined in and I have to say I'm really enjoying your trip. Also it gives me the heads up about the passport (not that I need it, because I'm a US citizen but my DW is a Canadian so she'll need that) for the drinking.

Also, I was interested to learn about the drinking around the world. I just turned 21 in Feb so this will be the first trip I can drink. I don't know that I'll go full out (I'm a cheapo) but still you gave me lots of options to consider, so thanks for that ;) Glad you handled it well too.

And yay for meeting Tigger and Pooh! They're so cute in their holiday gear. But bummer about Kali for your DH and PP (I think Photopass every time I see that lol). That is a patch of bad luck.

Welcome aboard! Glad I could give you a heads up about the passport situation, because it really is a pain to get stuck without it when you want a drink!

Drinking around the World is a lot of fun but yes, definitely expensive and something that we had to budget for! Even if you don't do all the countries you should definitely check out at least a few. If you're into a wine, they have a "wine trail" passport that you can buy for $20 and get tastes of different wines in three of the countries (I believe it's France, Italy, and Germany).
 
Subscribing decently late but still hopping on board!
Drinking around the world looks like it would hurt my wallet…I never would have imagined it would be so much. But it looks like you had an awesome time and the memories are definitely worth the price tag.
 
Subscribing decently late but still hopping on board!
Drinking around the world looks like it would hurt my wallet…I never would have imagined it would be so much. But it looks like you had an awesome time and the memories are definitely worth the price tag.

Glad you're joining in!

Yeah, that's one of the reasons why I chose to post all the prices and the money we spent on drinking around the world. I hear people talk about doing it all the time but when I was thinking about it I didn't know how much it would cost! So I figured I'd share that info :)
 
Hollywood Studios morning


For our last full day at Disney we were headed toward Hollywood Studios. The first sign of Christmas was the tree outside the park! I kind of wish they had done more to make it "Hollywood" themed. They could've done fun ornaments, like at Animal Kingdom.



Like always, Toy Story Mania was our first stop. And like always, DH beat me. It's one of my goals in life to eventually beat him in that game, but I don't know if it will ever happen! I'm always more accurate though :thumbsup2



Rockin' Roller Coaster was next, and I think PP was excited to do some thrill rides. We didn't tell him what was going to happen at the start of the ride and he loved it. DH always purposely makes a stupid face in the photos:



Then it was time for the moment of truth - Tower of Terror. PP and DH were super excited for it, but not me. Here's my history with ToT: it's always scared me a bit. When I was in high school with a group of friends they all tried to get me to go on but I put my foot down. One of them even literally picked me up and threw me over his shoulder trying to drag me on the ride! But I escaped, haha. When I went back in college with friends I finally decided to give it a go. While I appreciated the ride, I did not appreciate the feeling that it gave me in my stomach. All I wanted to do was get out of there! And then they told us we had been specially selected to ride the ride again without waiting. I tried to say "no thanks!" and get out of there, but they said it HAD to be a group of four, so my friends couldn't go again without me. So my friends begged me to do it again. :sad2: And because I'm so nice I did, but I was not happy.

Now, 6 years later, I was willing to give it another go since it is DH's favorite ride. I was looking forward to seeing the queue again:





And surprisingly, I enjoyed it! I still find it feels a little funny for my stomach, and I don't know if I could do it more than once in one day (certainly not twice in a row!). But I did have fun and it's definitely exhilarating. Back when I rode it before I also didn't do roller coasters and now I love them, so maybe I've gotten a bit more used to thrill rides too. Here's the evidence (we're in the back left):



I wanted to make sure we got to the drawing academy, since that's one of my favorite things to do in Hollywood Studios, so we went there next. I was very happy that we got to draw Eeyore, because I hadn't done him yet! I'm not much of an artist on my own, but I'm a pretty good imitator so I love doing this and I think mine came out pretty well:



After drawing we were getting pretty hungry for lunch and decided to head to ABC Commissary. This may be my favorite CS location in HS. It's not great but they have a decent variety of items. And we chose a table next to a costume display for Once Upon a Time, one of my favorite TV shows!



After lunch we had a FP+ so that we could go on Toy Story again. I was hoping maybe I just needed to warm up a little to beat DH - but no such luck! Though my score improved a lot, so did his - he got 190,000 points!



It was at this point that we were trying to decide whether or not to take a midday break. I had originally planned to, and we had a late dinner. I figured we'd see maybe one or two of the three shows (Beauty and the Beast, Indy, and Lights Motors Action). But PP was really interested in seeing all three, so we decided to stay! Indiana Jones was up first, and we managed to get to the show right before it was starting. Even though we were way off to the side we were pretty far down, and I thought they were good seats!







While in the area we also did Star Tours. We grabbed a paper FP here. It was weird - the wait time was 30 minutes, but the FP return time was 5 minutes from when you got it! So it made a lot more sense to do that and we hardly waited at all.
 
You know, you're right. Pretty tree but a big missed opportunity on the theming.

Glad you at least liked ToT this time. There was a time (and not that long ago actually) when you couldn't drag me onto a thrill ride. Now you have to drag me off, lol.
 
I'm glad you were able to enjoy ToT! I refused to ride it for a long time but once I did I was hooked!! I'm always laughing like a lunatic in the ride photo!

Your Eeyore turned out great!!!

I love 'Once Upon a Time'. I tend to save up several episodes and watch them all at once. Hook :love:
 
Great update and pics.

That is great that TOT doesn't bother you anymore.
 
You know, you're right. Pretty tree but a big missed opportunity on the theming.

Glad you at least liked ToT this time. There was a time (and not that long ago actually) when you couldn't drag me onto a thrill ride. Now you have to drag me off, lol.

I feel the same way! I was so scared of thrill rides but now I love them!

I'm glad you were able to enjoy ToT! I refused to ride it for a long time but once I did I was hooked!! I'm always laughing like a lunatic in the ride photo!

Your Eeyore turned out great!!!

I love 'Once Upon a Time'. I tend to save up several episodes and watch them all at once. Hook :love:

Right?? ToT is not quite as bad as it seems. I don't know if you watched the finale for Once Upon a Time yet, but I loved most of it!!

Great update and pics.

That is great that TOT doesn't bother you anymore.

Thanks! I'm glad it doesn't bother me anymore either... especally since DH didn't want to do it without me, but it's his favorite and he would never ride it when we visited.
 
Hi Becky! How awesome that you decided to give ToT another chance - and (kind of) enjoyed it! I don’t suppose you’ll be doing any 13-rides-in-one-day days like Willow likes to do though. ;)

Sounds like a really great DHS day so far!
 
I still like the tree in HS even though it's not very well themed. It still looks very pretty.

Good call giving no warning. I did the same because it's more fun to be surprised.

My DW just got me on ToT this past week so I understand how you felt ;)

And being the winner in TSMM is overrated anyway.
 
Hi Becky! How awesome that you decided to give ToT another chance - and (kind of) enjoyed it! I don’t suppose you’ll be doing any 13-rides-in-one-day days like Willow likes to do though. ;)

Sounds like a really great DHS day so far!

Nooo, I would not be joining Willow for that many rides haha! She can handle more than I can!

I still like the tree in HS even though it's not very well themed. It still looks very pretty.

Good call giving no warning. I did the same because it's more fun to be surprised.

My DW just got me on ToT this past week so I understand how you felt ;)

And being the winner in TSMM is overrated anyway.

Yes, the tree is still pretty. And I guess I can't complain too much since HS has the best Christmas display with the Osborne lights!

How did you like ToT?
 
HS evening, Osborne Lights, and Hollywood Brown Derby

We wanted to hit up most of the other major attractions at HS before the Osborne Lights and our dinner reservations, so we headed to the Great Movie Ride next. We finally got the cowboy scene for once! It's usually the gangsters (which I hear is a common theme - apparently a lot of people experience the same thing. I've heard that for whatever reason, 75% of the time it's gangsters and 25% it's cowboys).





Then we made our way to Lights, Motors, Action. It's not something I would normally make a priority to see, but I thought PP might enjoy it. I mean, I think it's cool and all, but not something you can really watch over and over again. A cute show though.





Then we made our way over for the last Beauty and the Beast show of the day. Poor PP got stuck sitting next to a woman who talked his ear off for the 20 minutes before the show began - she heard his accent and started asking him where he was from, and when he said Norway it was immediately, "Oh! I have a friend who moved to Norway! Maybe you know her!" Because apparently there are people that think everyone in Norway knows everyone else :rolleyes: And she continued to tell him all about her friend, and her friend's kid, and we tried to save him but starting conversation but she kept butting back in. He was totally cool with it because he's such a nice guy - even when she whipped her phone out and tracked him down on facebook to send a friend request!

The show itself was great though, as it always is. PP really enjoyed it. He said to me afterward, "That was amazing. That's really what I thought Disney would be about." It just had so much Disney magic for him and that made it extra special for all of us :goodvibes



(I think this next pic is kind of funny because of the giant microphone sticking out of Belle's face):



Once the show was over it was finally dark enough to see the Osborne Lights! I was so excited for this. And honestly, it was really the highlight of the entire trip for me. The lights were just stunning, and completely entrancing. If you've never seen them you really must, because photos just don't do it justice (not that I didn't try!). And when the lights start dancing to the music it's just incredible. I could've stayed there for an hour easily just looking at everything, but due to the huge crowds you don't have that much time to spend.











To end our evening we had dinner reservations at the Hollywood Brown Derby. I'd heard such great things - and while the food was delicious, the service was less than stellar. Our server was incredibly slow, especially with drink refills, and not really very friendly. I'm wondering if this is a result of telling them we had TiW ahead of time so they know they get the 18% gratuity automatically. I know a lot of people say not to tell them, but sometimes they ask - "Will you be using any discounts this evening?" And I don't feel like I can lie about that.

I tried two of the Hollywood Brown Derby specialties and loved both - the Cobb Salad and the Grapefruit cake! More details on the food will be in my dining review when I update that, but for now here's some pics of the Brown Derby classics:





I hoped that we had a better experience at Brown Derby on our February trip, since DH and I had signed up to do Dine with an Imagineer. I plan to start a TR for that trip very soon, so you'll have to read it to find out if Brown Derby improved itself!

After dinner the park was closed, but they had extra magic hours going on so we rode Star Tours one more time:



As we were coming out we met up with one of our friends and her husband who happened to be visiting at the same time, and everyone wanted to go on Tower of Terror. I didn't have much of a desire to do it again, and I was starting to get really tired - it had been a long week! So I headed back to the room by myself to pack, since we had to get up early the next day. I'm not a party pooper, I just know better than to force myself to do things I don't really want to do and I know when to call it quits so I won't make myself miserable :) Apparently after they did ToT they also went on Rockin Roller Coaster before leaving. I packed everything up for DH and I and was just getting into bed when they came in. I was asleep by midnight - and we had to get up around 5am the next morning for the Magical Express!
 
she heard his accent and started asking him where he was from, and when he said Norway it was immediately, "Oh! I have a friend who moved to Norway! Maybe you know her!" Because apparently there are people that think everyone in Norway knows everyone else :rolleyes:

For some reason I want to start singing "It's a Small World" ;)

even when she whipped her phone out and tracked him down on facebook to send a friend request!

:scared1: THAT is crazy!!!!

I really want to try that grapefruit cake. It sounds so good!
 

GET A DISNEY VACATION QUOTE

Dreams Unlimited Travel is committed to providing you with the very best vacation planning experience possible. Our Vacation Planners are experts and will share their honest advice to help you have a magical vacation.

Let us help you with your next Disney Vacation!





Top