We're 2 Empty-Nesters on the Deluxe DDP! December 2012 trip to Orlando....COMPLETE!!!!!

[ksromack]

Yeah.....I'm gunna do this thing!

So we get inside the building and see some lovely decorations, I adore the huge lighted Mickey wreath outside the building. It actually inspired me to make one of my own at home and it decorated our front door at POR this trip. Anyway, pictures..........









And the mammoth wreath from the outside of the building because we were actually TOO early for our ADRs:


So we go back inside because it's getting time......we are faced with this decision........


and we chose wisely!


Some crummy food pics......hey, it's still dark and I just woke up from a 2+ year nap!








and we can't forget these:


My plate: boy, i suppose it would have helped if i had taken notes.....wait a minute, I did take notes.....on my iPhone......but that was a phone ago and it's long gone now....in all actuality, this is why I take lots of pictures....to help me remember.
I know there is breakfast casserole and breakfast pizza and potatoes.......

We were seated somewhere fairly close to where my friends enter the room and first up was Goofy......followed by Mickey, Donald, and Minnie. I'll let my pictures do the talking






You know, Donald can really get down. I had no idea he had the moves......


Breakfast was pretty much over but Pluto hadn't greeted us yet.....so we had our 5th or 6th cup of coffee and out comes Pluto. I hear he was grooming his whiskers and when he greeted us I knew the rumors were true.....he whacked me a couple times with them!


Breakfast was over and we were happily full of food and love from the Fabulous Five. I don't know if you remembered (because it was, after all, over 2 years ago) but I was on a mission to eat lots of cupcakes this trip. No way could I eat anything now but we did get this puppy to go for a snack later. Next door to Chef Mickey was Contempo Cafe? Did I say that right? Anyway, rumor was they had a great cupcake and who am I to argue? I threw it in my bag and we ate it later because, you know, you never know when you will be hungry while on the Deluxe Disney Dining Plan (said NO ONE EVER).

 

[ksromack]

I want to update my post where I link each update but I can't remember HOW to do this....I know I click on the "link" icon but I can't remember how to type out a title for that link. Can anyone help a sista out? If so, pm me.....TIA!

So we left off with full bellies and happy hearts at the Contemporary. We hopped on the monorail to get to MK for rope drop. It was extremely froggy out (ribbit) and while it would have been an awesome effect for MNSSHP, I feared it would muck up the nice backdrop of Cindy's Castle........


Since we planned to dine at Ohana later in the trip (and I had never been there) we chose to hop off at the Poly to see where we would go when the need arose. Plus, it's Christmas time and we planned on checking our most of the deluxe resort decorations anyway. Warning.....this may upset folks who are not happy with the recent modifications to said resort.



Get in my belly:



I never was into the pins but managed to collect some night ones on this trip...so I guess I am actually into pins.


More decorations:


So we look at the time and realize if we don't get a move on we'll miss the welcome thing. So here we are:


I guess we aren't the only ones that wanted to catch the show:


Well, hello there, Mickey! It was nice of you to come (My Fair Lady reference)......




So they let us in and as you can see, there's an eerie fog looming ahead:





getting closer:


closest:


So I haven't talked about FP. At this point in disney park history they were pioneering the current FP methodology. We got to sign up for 3 FP for each day and the little green Mickey poles would light up and let you through......or not......when you scanned your KTTK. Our first FP was for Enchanted Tales With Belle. The whole New Fantasyland opened to the public on December 6, 2012 and here it was a whole 4 days later. I knew Belle would be drawing large crowds so we chose that as our first FP. On the way we see this:


And we're here. Notice there is a 20 minute wait time already.....this number will have grown by the time we are done:


The big guy's castle:



I guess we were too early for our FP because we walked around NFL a bit, BOG door:



So, we're inside Belle's house. I am amazed at the attention to detail:



Papa's invention blueprints:


More of the house:


In English, this book translates to Sleeping Beauty!


I couldn't find exactly where in France the village was located but judging from this picture of the inside of the house and the cuckoo clock, perhaps it was close to the German border?




The magical mirror:


more magic in the next post

 

[ksromack]

We left off with the magic mirror....and here's the magic mirror in action:


Now we are magically inside the story with Belle.

Wardrobe:


Hello, Lumiere:


Belle:


Tapestry hanging on the wall:


And I guess that's all I posted to photobucket of Belle...on to check out more of New Fantasyland.

Prince Eric's castle:



Peeping into what's behind the curtain:


Gaston's Tavern:




And our treat, LeFou's brew. IMHO, this is better than the Butterbeer at WWoHP.


So, before you were able to make ADRs for BOG lunch and before you could use a FP for it one would have to wait in a long line to partake in the grub. It was fairly early.....like not even 10:30am.....but there was actually a couple people in line. So, we wait too. Steve waited in line while I walked around and took some pictures.





so it's another picture of the gates and front door but it's so beautiful I think it deserves another look-see:


Inside, the stained glass:


It's a little dark inside as evidenced by my pic:


These guys are really strong.....I bet they have large lactic acid build-ups in their bloodstream (sorry, a little lab humor)


More to follow:

 

[ksromack]

We left off with the big guy holding up a weight-baring wall of the castle........

It's getting close to lunchtime and I'm back outside now, check out the line. You can't see from this pic but it wrapped around all the way to the left......




These guys were talking about us:


And we're inside at the podium:



Inside the Grand Ballroom:


And the Castle Gallery, or also known as the Music Box room. This is where we had lunch. You could choose which room you wanted to eat in for lunch. The Grand Ballroom was lovely but seemed very noisy and the West Wing is where we wanted to have dinner later in the trip, so we chose this room:





Our lunches were served in a cute tea cart....a little blurry:


Steve ordered the turkey sandwich with fries:


And I ordered the pork with mashed potatoes and green beans:


The silverware and beverage station......self serve:


I guess I neglected to take a picture of the dessert cart, shameful, I know! Fairly sure it involved a cupcake and I think I chose the strawberry one and Steve had the lemon one?

Let's check out more of the diningrooms:
Ballroom ceiling



West Wing:



Yeah, I got a little fancy with the coveted rose:


back in color:



on our way out of the restaurant, passing the ballroom again:


some detailing:



Outside again and more detailing:



So you've seen the 3 dining areas.....which one would you prefer to dine in? The West Wing was dark but gosh, it's exciting! We ate dinner in that room later in the trip....and we had this lunch in the music box room which was very fun and uplifting. The Grand Ballroom is big and has those awesome windows and beautiful ceiling but just walking through it it seemed so loud I know.....a lot of people like this room. I shouldn't judge.

Coming up next, more MK and a parade!

 

[ksromack]

More castle decorations. Loved the color theme. If you think it's special during the day for the holiday season, wait until you see it all lit up at night! I get misty-eyed just thinking about it.


And now a parade......it wasn't Celebrate a Dream Come True but I have no clue what it actually was.......I don't think we saw all of this one as it was already in progress as we tried to make our way out of the park. We had dinner ADRs at Rose and Crown for 3:50pm so I figured we would need to be on the monorail by 2:45. Tonight we will be seeing the Candle Light Processional and we had the package deal which granted us seats for the show.

Here's some less than satisfactory parade photos:




Where heading out of MK because not only do you have the evening planned for Epcot, but we have to check OUT of POR and back IN. Our first night was a room only reservation that we had to book as a room only because the free dining didn't start until the next day. So we had to go back to the resort to take care of this paperwork. Fortunately we were able to stay in the same room (which we must have known ahead of time, otherwise I wouldn't have spent the time decorating for Christmas). Yesterday when we checked in there was NO line. Today, not so much but of course it made sense, with the free dining and all. Steve went back to the room and I handled the job at hand. I'm much more patient than he is!


A CM walks around with these....you know, as a sort of a peace offering to make you feel happier about waiting so long:


So what do you do when you are in line and you've already eaten your warm cookie bar? You take pictures, of course! Notice I captured St. Louis in this one:


Port Orleans Riverside is really a beautiful resort. I assume it is also beautiful when it isn't Christmas time but golly, it sure is purty. Not sure how long I waited but I suppose I don't have any photographical evidence because the next thing you know, I'm smoochin' on my hubby at the pool, during our walk around the building.


Quiet pool by our building 18:


Yes, I'm a child......we (I) packed Mickey and Minnie.....and they were behaving themselves:


A daylight view of our little tree:


Boatwright's:


Lobby:


And magically we are transported to Epcot!


If you've never been to the World during the Christmas Holidays, please, I beg of you.....put it on your bucketlist! If you think WDW is magical you have to see it in all its glory. The decorations, the music, the World Showcase Storytelling.......it'd make a grown man cry.



I think it would have been really swell if they could have doctored up the big ball for Christmas. Maybe put a giant santa hat on it?


A Gospel Celebration......I'm guessing we were at the 2:15 show because it didn't look like we were in a hurry (judging from my pictures to follow). This group was FANTASTIC and they sang several songs we sing at my church (contemporary christian).




That little surprise concert really put me in the spirit so what better way to keep that high going? How about some sugar? YUM......love me some Beverly.



We need to take on a ride or something but before we do that let's have one more landscaping photo:


So, what shall we ride? I guess you'll have to wait to find out in the next post because I'm almost at my photo limit for this one!

 

[ksromack]

It's Journey to Imagination! I think this is a cute one.....and for those who haven't been, check these out.




Making our way into World Showcase we arrive at Canada first. I know we wanted to see the Storytellers but I don't think I had the timing worked out yet. Later I would take the times posted and figure out a map of sorts, so we could see all of them. The last time I was at WDW during this season my kids were 4 and 5 years old (which at this point, in 2012, was 14 years ago). We didn't get to see all of them then so I really wanted to see them all this time around.

We were too late for this one at 3:10 so we headed back to see if we could catch any of the storytellers before our ADR at Rose and Crown. We found ourselves in France.....and when in France....by golly, drink a Grey Goose slushie!


At this point it had been sprinkling and the little kiosk where they made the slushies was right there. I mean, c'mon.....it wouldn't be right to utilize its protection from the rain and not order a drink, right?

So the rain subsides and we figured we better giddy on up to the UK. Here's the schedule of the storytellers there:


And here's the big guy himself:



Feeling happy we check in for our early dinner. It may seem like all we do during this trip is eat, and that isn't a false statement. But sometimes we drink too:


I think Steve got a Half & Half and I got a Golden, here's the drink menu:


For starters they gave us some bread.....and we ate it like we hadn't eaten all day. Confession.....I took that paper underneath our bread and folded it up and put it in my bag. I still have it somewhere, longing to be used on a scrapbook page.


I guess I didn't take a picture of the menu which was really rude of me. I'll try to find an old menu online to see if I can title these pictures properly. First let me explain to those who aren't aware what a gastronomic event being on the Deluxe Dining Plan really is. You get THREE Table Service meals a day and 2 snacks. Deluxe means having an appetizer, entree, dessert, AND non-alcoholic beverage with lunch and dinner. It's a lot of food. So, I will continue with this meal.....and it's actually the first one we'll have while on the DxDDP (we paid OOP for the previous disney meals).

Steve's starter:

Roasted Sea Scallops-wilted baby spinach, tomato, and olive vinaigrette $10.99
The scallops is no longer on the appetizer menu from what I can see currently.

My starter:

Scotch Egg-golden fried hard-boiled egg, wrapped in sausage meat with mustard sauce $8.99

Steve's entree:

Fish and Chips-Rose & Crown signature dish. Beer battered and served with house-made tartar sauce $17.99

My entree:

Grilled tenderloin and fried fish-with Yorkshire pudding, mashed potato, seasonal vegetables, blue cheese butter and red wine sauce $26.99

Steve's dessert:

Sticky toffee pudding $5.49

and my dessert:

No sugar added lemon custard-with fresh berries $5.49

What a smashing dinner! We both agreed that this was someplace we'd like to come back to. You know, sometimes you leave a meal thinking or rather knowing that you'll never return? Well, this wasn't one of those places. On second thought, I might have just ordered the fish and chips by themselves. If we were paying out of pocket, that's what I would have done. Steve loves scallops and I'm hugely allergic to shellfish so when he can order something with a shell and from the sea, I encourage him to do so. The scottish egg appetizer was a fun thing to try and it was delicious, but I would have been just as happy with my fish....again, the dining plan allows for over eating. Still, I'm glad we did it just this once.

Are you in the mood for some music? I am! Let's listen to The British Revolution at the UK pavillion!


What fun they were! Here's some head banging:


Let's head on over to the American Gardens Theater in the American Pavillion.....that's where the Candlelight Processional is held. It's been spotty rain off and on all day long. Will the weather hold up?

On the way we see this:
Morocco


Japan:


And Miyuki, the candy maker in Japan:


and a close up:


Next up, Candlelight Processional! I was very happy to see that Jodi Benson, aka the voice of Ariel will be the Narrator for our show. Upon further research I noticed that Jodi had other connections with Disney. She was the voice of Lady in Lady and the Tramp II: Scamp's Adventure, Anita in 101 Dalmations: Patch's London Adventure and Sam on "camera" in Walt Disney Pictures' Enchanted. She was also the voice of Barbie in the Toy Story movies. She just seemed the perfect narrator to me. The Candlelight Processional is a very emotional telling of the Nativity, from the gospel of Luke. It seemed fitting that she, as a Christian woman would be delivering the stirring story to us all. I was a happy girl......to be continued.

 

[thiabelle]

It's really cool to see the pics from "so long ago!!" Miss the Main St. garlands. Great TR. We have done RPR as well but after our WDW portion. I love it all!!!!!!

 

[ksromack]

Wow, a whole hour since I updated.....lol!

I didn't take a picture of the queue for the Candlelight Processional, which will from here on end be refered to as CP. If you had the dinner package with reserved seating you lined up on the left side as you faced the theater......standby was on the right side. We didn't waste a whole lot of time after dinner. At first we thought we had plenty of time, given they were "reserved seats" but when we made our way around to the theater we saw a decent line already forming. Remember I said earlier that the weather was threatening? Well, I knew I wanted to take some pictures during the show but I didn't want my lens to get wet.....so we got in line with the others, thinking that if it DID rain, we'd be somewhat protected. I can't remember the configuration of the theater but if I remember correctly there was some protection from the elements at the stage area. We were attending the 6:45 show so I'm pretty sure we were lining up while the 5pm show was going on. I tried not to listen too much as I saw no point to start the tearing this early. As what usually happens to us at WDW I start chatting it up with anyone in line who will listen and my hubby pretends he doesn't speak English. I mean, I'm not annoying, just friendly. The people lined up with us were a nice family of women who I believe had a young lady attending a college in our area. I think it makes the waiting go faster when you have someone to talk to! Before you know it the theater is empty and it's time for us to enter. It seemed like we filled in the left, bottom side of the theater but the very front was reserved.....we ended up somewhat center and pretty close to the front. I did notice a guy a row in front of us with a tripod so I was hoping it wouldn't be in my way. Here's some pictures:


Trumpet players to the right side of the theater:


Strings:


drummer:


soloist:


and the choir:

A little about the choir and orchestra. It's a 50 piece orchestra but I'm not sure exactly where the musicians come from.....I do know that the choir is a combination of choirs from all over the country. I remember on one of our threads from the DIS boards someone's daughter was participating in the event. What an experience for a young girl!

close up:





It did rain some but we just wore our ponchos and tried to stay dry. I didn't take many pictures as my camera was not waterproof.

Now it's dark......and you would think we would be winding down our evening....but no, not this couple. I had everything I could think of planned for this trip. We wanted to take advantage of all the special events we could because, afterall, how many times do you get to WDW during the holiday season?

Our next adventure would be an Illuminations cruise. There's a thread on the board where people can post that they are looking to share a cruise and I answered one of those posts. I had never met any of these people but it was a fun time. Deb had organized us all and already had a reservation.....several of us from the board met up beforehand at the Yacht Club marina where we would cruise through the International Gateway and see Illuminations from the water! Isn't that wonderful? It is even more wonderful if it isn't raining and you aren't docked underneath a bridge where you really don't see much of Illuminations. It was still a very fun adventure. We had some snacks on the boat and our captain was full of wonderful facts about WDW. We went from the marina towards DHS then came back around and to Epcot for the show. Here are some pictures:



Fireworks:



Afterwards we decided to check out the decorations at Yacht Club





and outside:


Back at our resort. One of our windows. A little hint here. If you want your room to be a little brighter, ask for a corner room. At least at POR a corner room affords 2 windows.


A fuzzy picture of our door:



And that concludes our day.........
Up tomorrow: CRT anniversary celebrating breakfast, some MK rides, Liberty Tree Tavern Lunch, and MVMCP

 

[ksromack]

It's really cool to see the pics from "so long ago!!" Miss the Main St. garlands. Great TR. We have done RPR as well but after our WDW portion. I love it all!!!!!!

What? They don't have the Main St. garlands at Christmas?

 

[RedNoseMickey]

I have a family trip planned the first 2 weeks of December this year so I am enjoying your TR. I think I will copy your idea of decorating the room. I hope you finish your report soon as I am enjoying it.

 

[thiabelle]

They changed to wreaths due to the FOF floats- they are too tall to get under the garlands. It didn't look too bad just different. (And I don't like different!)

 

[Taraven87]

Thanks for all of the photos! I'm so excited to see "new" (not so new anymore!) Fantasyland for the first time this October. Now you've got me hungry for cupcakes

 

[ksromack]

I have a family trip planned the first 2 weeks of December this year so I am enjoying your TR. I think I will copy your idea of decorating the room. I hope you finish your report soon as I am enjoying it.

That's about the same time we were there...I really crammed a lot of celebrating into our 8 nights at WDW. I do have a goal to work on my tr every night......fingers crossed!

They changed to wreaths due to the FOF floats- they are too tall to get under the garlands. It didn't look too bad just different. (And I don't like different!)

Ah, I see. I'm not too terribly fond of different either.

Thanks for all of the photos! I'm so excited to see "new" (not so new anymore!) Fantasyland for the first time this October. Now you've got me hungry for cupcakes

We're excited to ride 7dmt and regarding cupcakes...well, I've never met a cupcake I didn't like.

 

[ksromack]

I have a family trip planned the first 2 weeks of December this year so I am enjoying your TR. I think I will copy your idea of decorating the room. I hope you finish your report soon as I am enjoying it.

I can't remember if I mentioned it in the beginning of my TR or not but I ordered the mini tree at walmart dot com along with a case of water and some snacks....and maybe the lights. I may have brought the lights from home. Anyway, I left the tree and all the lights in the room when we left. It wasn't that expensive and I hoped that the people who had the room after us would enjoy it. I did keep my ornaments...I hand made those and they sit on a little tree on my nightstand year 'round. That's right, I rock a disney tree all the time.

 

[RedNoseMickey]

I can't remember if I mentioned it in the beginning of my TR or not but I ordered the mini tree at walmart dot com along with a case of water and some snacks....and maybe the lights. I may have brought the lights from home. Anyway, I left the tree and all the lights in the room when we left. It wasn't that expensive and I hoped that the people who had the room after us would enjoy it. I did keep my ornaments...I hand made those and they sit on a little tree on my nightstand year 'round. That's right, I rock a disney tree all the time.

I'm not sure if I can order things in the States as I live in the UK. I might just pack some stuff. We have 2 rooms at AKL so would need quite a few things but than that might be a good excuse to go shopping at Disney. And I love that you have a year round tree!

 

[ksromack]

Okay, so we left off with day 3 of our vacation. We had an action packed day yesterday and another one planned for day 4. This morning MK opens at 9am and we have 8:05am CRT ADRs. Yeah! Today we will be celebrating my birthday . We jump on the resort bus and it's still a tad bit dark outside:


Since it's before park opening we need to enter through a special gate. At this point in time that entrance was all the way to the left...notice the sweet little princesses at the front? I wonder if they are eating at CRT? I don't think I saw them there.


We enter a little bit before 8am and head down an EMPTY Main Street. We would find a photopass photographer a couple times before we entered the castle but I'm not including those photos, mainly because they are located on a disc somewhere unknown to me at this moment. Here's City Hall all decked out...


Just like yesterday, it's very foggy this morning. I rather like the look:


And the castle:


And Partners:


We're walking, we're walking......through these doors.........


And here we are!


I resized a bunch of these photos today, just playing with it to see what looks best. I personally like bigger photos but I know it makes my report longer so we'll see what this looks like today. I've included this particular photo to encourage everyone to include food allergies. They really do pay attention to what you indicate on your reservations. I have a bad shellfish allergy and maybe some people would say, "well, geesh Kathy, don't eat shellfish then".....but sometimes menu items have an ingredient unbeknownst to us. At almost every single table service restaurant the chef personally came out to our table to make sure I wasn't ordering something with a secret shellfish component. It was very reassuring!


Upon entering the castle you have your photos taken with Cinderella then you make your way up the stairs to the dining room. At this point the photographer brings the printed package of photos to your table while you are dining. I think that's a real perk. We sit at a lovely table for 2 right by the window that looks out over the back of the castle. We sit down and a menu is provided....and for young (or young at heart) men, a sword is given and for the ladies, a wand.


A couple of pictures inside the dining hall:


And the view out of the window by our table:


Look, here's our souvenirs:


The first course it brought to the table and includes a nice variety of pastries/breads:


So Steve ordered the Lobster and Crab Crepes:

Warm, cheese filled crepes topped with spinach, sauteed lobster and blue crab meat with a poached egg on top and draped in Hollandaise sauce.

And I ordered the Steak and Eggs:

Grilled fillet mignon on a mild Chipotle, caramelized onion frittata, served with our signature rosemary-lemon roasted potatoes.

I have no words for how good our meal was. The potatoes were crispy on the outside and yummy soft on the inside. The steak was decent, too! I didn't eat much of the pastries because I knew we were going to have a filling meal. Steve liked his meal as well, although he isn't a huge fan of crepes, he said they were very flavorful. Sadly, it doesn't look like either of our entrees are currently on the breakfast menu.

So we were celebrating my birthday and our anniversary on this trip and I had read all about the chocolate slipper desserts. I like chocolate let's order this as a birthday cake! So we did. We also got the sparkling cider to toast our anniversary and we got the engraved glasses for a souvenir. We still use these glasses! After our meal our server brought us brand new glasses and packaged them all up so we could transport them home without worrying about them breaking. She was a peach!


And here's a close up of the slipper:


The princesses were coming around in the middle of all of this and we were visited by Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, Ariel, and Jasmine. Here's one of the pics:


We are full and ready to start our day at MK. On our way back down the stairs we see this:


We head of the magical castle and take a peek inside the gift shop where Sleeping Beauty's dress is housed....it was fun to see it change from blue to pink as you hear the godmother's arguing over which color is best:




continued in next post......

 

[ksromack]

Okay, I had the entire next post all copied and ready to paste when it disappeared......so I'm retyping this now but it's not nearly as clever as it was originally.

So we make our way out of Fantasyland because we have place to go and Fast Passes to use......I originally indicated that we had 3 in this new FP technology trial run but it looks like we have 4 today......which rides would we use FPs for? We head in this direction:


Is it Stitch's Great Escape?


no..........

Is it People Mover?


Well, we DO ride the People Mover because let's face it, it's a fun ride. I could ride this all day long. Where else could you cover so much ground without getting a blister?
We see all of this:


That was fun but now it's time for a FP. Let's check out this new fangled technology. We wave our KTTK over the little MM pole:

and it's turns green.......green means go.......I didn't take any pictures in SM.....because let's face it, they never turn out. It was fun.....and Steve didn't pull anything. A little background on that.....Steve had cervical neck fusion almost a year ago and we didn't want to break anything up inside there. Good news, he survived!

After SM we rode Buzz with our second FP. I'm a terrible game player...I mean these kind of games. I can play a mean game of Scrabble.......or Trivial Pursuit.......but video game stuff, no way. Clearly I didn't disappoint with my scoring:


Since we were already in Tomorrowland I wanted to check out where the Wishes Dessert Party was going to be. We're doing that tomorrow night and I wanted to know where to go for it. We found this, which pretty much told us.....


Let's check out some pretties:



Look, it's the Trolley show:


Main Street:


Windows:


Signage:


Balloons!


Looks like another FP:


Oops, I lied! As I look at my spreadsheet from this trip (yes, i make spreadsheets....and it's a good thing too because I can't find any of my notes from this trip......spreadsheets are a good thing, and so is my google drive)........I digress. It looks like Buzz was our first FP and SM was our second one. Here we go
one picture, one little picture from Space Mountain......

Wow. we haven't eaten anything in like 3 hours......what's up with that? I think it's time for a treat. What should we get?


Look how happy we are:


You know, as I look at these pictures I notice how bare the park looks! It's close to noon now and not too many people are in my pictures. It must be because tonight is a party night. Yes! We're going to our first party at WDW. I think most people agree that because MK closes at 7pm on a party night that folks tend to use that day to visit another park, especially if that park has late EMHs. It looks like Epcot opened an hour earlier today so perhaps people are there? It never matters to us. I have always gotten hoppers because we never know where we're going to end up. At the 180 mark you don't even know park hours (they often change them, I've noticed). We did quite a bit of zig-zagging this trip and that was okay because we had 8 nights and our kids are grown and out of the house......we're empty nesters!

 

[ksromack]

Let's just look at a few pictures......not many words:


Duck crossing:


Time for a little mermaid:
[URL=http://s64.photobucket.com/user/amcgraw16/media/Kathy%20Romacks%20Album/WDW%202012%20day%204%2012-11-12/IMG_2189_zps6a2c33ac.jpg.html][/URL]

How about handsome oaf?



Oh, gosh.......It's a Small World is up ahead. It's my favorite ride. I take lots of pictures inside this ride. I will refrain from posting all of them tomorrow. You still have time to run....or put me on mute.

 

[Fairy Floss]

Better late than never
....and just in time for my planning (for next May)
Thank you for coming back to it

 

[rndmr2]

Fun report! Glad you are continuing it. I have been a couple times at Christmas and I love it during that time. We were there for actual Christmas, though and it is REALLY crowded those days. I think it's better to go earlier in the month like you did, that's what I'll do next time too. I had hopes of a Fall or early December trip this year but it's really up in the air now.