Joy From The World! A New Trip Report! 1/27 HUGE News!!!

[marDgreen88]

Wow, Wilderness Lodge is just gorgeous. Thanks for sharing those pics!

[mickeysmyboy]

Originally Posted by Mndisneygirl

Beautiful pictures of Osborne and WL!! We had to leave town right after Christmas and have been gone until last night, so I've felt like I missed a holiday week - so this was just what I needed!!!

I think I might like to stay at WL one of these days. Of course, I'd like to stay at all of them one day!!!

I'd also like to go without kids one day - unfortunately, my DH thinks we should wait until they're "gone out of the house". They aren't going anywhere for at least 8 years!!!! Sigh. So I will enjoy a trip without kids through you! Thanks!!!

I'm so sorry you missed out on Christmas week!! But, I'm glad my pics helped!

You definitely should stay at WL one day! I love it there!!

A kids free trip is so different then with the kids. It's so much more relaxing, so much more of going at your own pace, more eating great food instead of chicken nuggets, etc! It's just amazing!!

Originally Posted by 2xcited2sleep

No need to feel weird citing a favorite hallway here. I myself have a favorite hallway, scent, lobby chair and restroom...

Wilderness Lodge is positively gorgeous at holiday time. Glad you had an opportunity to take a photo tour but sorry it was at the butt crack of dawn while on vacation! Darn those internal clocks! But I do find that mine adjusts much more quickly to vacation than it does to a work schedule.

Great to hear positive reviews of Mama Melrose. I have yet to try it but it's definitely on "the list." I emailed you a recipe I tried recently for tomato vodka soup. So good with grilled cheese!!!

Thanks! I have lots of favorites all over WDW! Maybe that should be a post! hmmm...

I love WL anyway of the week but at the holidays it's just that much better!

It stinks to get up at the butt crack of dawn! But, I seem to getting better about that! I slept late this whole week! Woo too!!

I really enjoyed the meal at Mama Melrose! Thank you for the recipe! I can't wait to try it!!

Originally Posted by marDgreen88

Wow, Wilderness Lodge is just gorgeous. Thanks for sharing those pics!

[TanzUnited99]

Eek at the wait for Mama Melrose! I'm glad the food made the wait worthwhile.

Wow love the pics and video of the Osborne lights - they look amazing!!!

Also great pics of WL - it looks very festive with all the Christmas decorations.

[manntra]

Oooh I love your favorite hallway too!!! Thanks for the walking tour....seeing that I have never been there in person It really is a beautiful resort and between your and ME's stunning pictures I should get over there some day....although I think their # of villas is on the smaller side availability wise maybe.


Tracy

[Poolrat]

All caught up from trip to the world. I had a chance to walk over to the villas too. So pretty especially during the holidays.


The Osborne lights are empty during the hour the park is open and during EMH. My favorite time for maximum effect.

[tinacaplan]

Stopping in to say hello! I'll be back in a while to read more!

[glennbo123]

Signing on! Melissa, what a great TR title for a December trip.

Great pictures of all of the decorations, and especially Wilderness Lodge. I know just where that favorite hallway of yours is.

[jeremysdisneymom]

I'm here!

I love your pictures of the WL at Christmas! It is so beautiful there.

The Osborne lights were amazing this year. I loved them in LED.

Can't wait to read more.

[mickeysmyboy]

Originally Posted by TanzUnited99

Eek at the wait for Mama Melrose! I'm glad the food made the wait worthwhile.

Wow love the pics and video of the Osborne lights - they look amazing!!!

Also great pics of WL - it looks very festive with all the Christmas decorations.

It was a crazy wait for Mama Melrose! People were getting so cranky!

The Osborne lights are amazing!

I love, love, love WL at Christmas!!

Originally Posted by manntra

Oooh I love your favorite hallway too!!! Thanks for the walking tour....seeing that I have never been there in person It really is a beautiful resort and between your and ME's stunning pictures I should get over there some day....although I think their # of villas is on the smaller side availability wise maybe.


Tracy

I really love that hallway! You've never been to WL?! Ever?! At least you have to try Artist Point!

Originally Posted by Poolrat

All caught up from trip to the world. I had a chance to walk over to the villas too. So pretty especially during the holidays.


The Osborne lights are empty during the hour the park is open and during EMH. My favorite time for maximum effect.

Welcome home!! I hope you had a great trip!

The lights weren't nearly as crowded this time as they were last year! I think a lot of people were at Fantasmic!

Originally Posted by tinacaplan

Stopping in to say hello! I'll be back in a while to read more!

Welcome!!

Originally Posted by glennbo123

Signing on! Melissa, what a great TR title for a December trip.

Great pictures of all of the decorations, and especially Wilderness Lodge. I know just where that favorite hallway of yours is.

Welcome!! I stole the title from a shirt! Not kidding!

I love WDW during the holidays! Especially WL!

Originally Posted by jeremysdisneymom

I'm here!

I love your pictures of the WL at Christmas! It is so beautiful there.

The Osborne lights were amazing this year. I loved them in LED.

Can't wait to read more.

Welcome!!

I totally agree about the lights!! They seemed more colorful!!

[mickeysmyboy]

So, while DH got ready I sat on the balcony and enjoyed another cup of coffee! Funny thing about the coffee! I made sure like 15 times before I packed up our Owners Lockers in October that I had coffee filters and sugar packets for coffee for this trip! I bought ground coffee at Dunkin Donuts and double and triple checked that I had packed it before we left home! Which I did! I even remembered to buy milk in the Merchantile the night before so I could have real coffee. BUT, the coffee maker in our room was a pod machine! Darn it!! I was kinda bummed! I decided to try the pod packets and if I hated it I would call housekeeping and ask for a different machine! But, the pods were quite good! So I was happy!

With DH ready it was time for breakfast! So we headed down to Roaring Forks! I believe DH got a breakfast platter while I got a fruit and a croissant, had to balance the good with a little bad

We sat outside because it was an absolutely beautiful morning! With full bellies and faces warmed by the beautiful morning sun we head down to the boat dock to get a ferry to the Contemporary!

Lets take a little holiday tour of the Contemporary shall we?

First, the pool!





Ahhhh, palm tree!



My favorite topiary!



I’ve seen this it many a TR!



The main building!



We went through the main building and I went outside for a minute…





The tree in the lobby!



Front desk, where I spent I ridiculous amount of time while checking in in October



Decorations!





Lobby light fixture!



Then we moved upstairs to see what we had really come to see! The holiday display!







LOVE the IASW people!







I also LOVED the Gingerbread Contemporary!



John, however, mocked me for taking a picture of it! I believe his comment was something about how next I’ll be taking pictures of gum on the ground or something like that! Boo!

Cute ornament trees in the shop!





I think next year my glue gun and I will create something of the sort!

Very nice wreath!



Having had our fill of the Contemporary we hopped on the monorail and headed to Poly!

CONTINUED NEXT POST...

[mickeysmyboy]

I really love Poly! Not as much as WL, but a lot! I just love the setting and I love that I feel like I’m in some tropical paradise, not a theme park Mecca! I wasn’t really feeling the tropical Christmas vibe though! It was more like Poly with a Christmas an a few decorations! Oh well!

Tree just inside the door from the monorail!









Tree downstairs!



A few decorations



Then we moved outside!






I LOVE Sunset Point! LOVE IT!







One of my favorite pics of the trip!



A little green guy who was enjoying that flower a lot



More Poly sites!





With our trip to Poly complete we hopped on the monorail and got off at the next stop! Ahhhh, GF! How beautiful you are!

CONTINUED NEXT POST...

[mickeysmyboy]

I was very much looking forward to seeing the tree and, of course, the Gingerbread House!

So, here goes!

A beautiful wreath just inside from the Monorail!



The tree!!!!



And the Gingerbread House!



I must admit, there were soooo many people it was a little hard to get close!

But, I did my best!


Notice the people inside the ropes!? Yeah, very nice!







I also did a little shopping!

I got online to get a few goodies to take home to the kids! The line wasn’t long, but it moved kinda slow. With the tiny little space inside the house for the shop there was only one girl working inside.

This lead me to the most annoying experience (aside from DH’s love affair with his phone) of the trip! A family got online behind me. Mom and 2 teenagers, a boy and a girl. We moved up in line and they started discussing how the house was made and talking about the wood base, blah, blah, blah. Then they decided to debate the edibleness of the house! UGH! So, sister dares brother to break a piece off and taste it! SAY WHAT?! Mom says nothing! The brother takes the dare and does it! Yup, it’s gingerbread! They all chuckle! Including Mom! Yup!!

So we move forward a little more and the 2 adorable older ladies in front of me really enjoy spending time at the window and picking out their purchases! Fine by me because they were super sweet, super nice and just generally in awe of the Gingerbread House and GF in general! Because of the arrangement of the house and the counter there is room for 2 or 3 people to be comfortably at the counter at a time. I was able to look while they did their thing and once one of the ladies had happily made her purchase I was able to start picking things up! 3 each of 2 different types of chocolate lollipops, 3 shingles and something for DH, can’t remember what!

The whole time I stood at the counter with the 2 ladies in front of me the annoying family behind me was reaching over me, around me, bumping me and evening rubbing up against my purse! Really?! I was tempted to ask them if A) they where in some sort of hurry and needed to go ahead of or B) were trying to mug me or something! But, I refrained! The sad thing is, I reallllllllly loved the gingerbread houses they had for sale! I really wanted to ask the girl if and how they shipped them! But, I just wanted to get off the line and away from Incredibly Annoying Family!

With my purchases in hand we were off to tour the grounds of GF!

First a few more christmas tree pics..







Then outside...









During our tour we both realized that we were getting hungry but it was nowhere near our 12:50 lunch adr at GF Café. But we headed over and found the place empty and were seated immediately!

I believe we opted to pay cash for this ADR but I could be wrong! I can’t remember! We both ordered Crab Cakes for an appetizer! They were very good! For lunch we both got the rustic chicken sandwich. DH thought it was very good, I thought it was meh! I didn’t like the marinade! It made the chicken very wet. When it was time we dessert we debated having dessert at all, but decided to go for it! It was vacation afterall and we had no dinner arrangements for the evening!

I ordered Chocolate Hazlenut Mousse Cake. DH ordered New York Style Lemon Cheesecake, without the lemon! Not kidding here folks! The waitress and I chuckled! I felt kinda bad laughing. DH is a simple kinda guy, especially when it comes to food! He wanted cheesecake, not lemon. I explained to him that the lemon was baked into the cheesecake and they really meet that request! He was ok with that and as it turned out, he really the cheesecake! I also really enjoyed my cake!

Then it was time to head back to WL! We took the monorail to MK and got off and took the boat!

Back at WL it was time to relax it a beautiful and serene setting! But would there be poolside drinks involved!?

[marDgreen88]

Oh my goodness, the monorail resorts are SO pretty! I love the Christmas decorations!

Okay, SERIOUSLY? I can't believe that kid's mom just let him deface Disney property... not to mention the fact that it wasn't like the gingerbread was brand new and who knows what (or who) could have touched it! That's just outrageous.

Anyways... great update! All the pictures were great.

[mickeysmyboy]

Originally Posted by marDgreen88

Oh my goodness, the monorail resorts are SO pretty! I love the Christmas decorations!

Okay, SERIOUSLY? I can't believe that kid's mom just let him deface Disney property... not to mention the fact that it wasn't like the gingerbread was brand new and who knows what (or who) could have touched it! That's just outrageous.

Anyways... great update! All the pictures were great.

Aren't they pretty?! LOVE them!

RIGHT?! Honestly, I should have mentioned that very same thing! Because after want to scream at them for doing it the next thought I had was, the house has been up for a fews now, the gingerbread isn't fresh, 9 million different people from 9 million different places have been through here and potential touch the house. I'm one of those "don't touch that!" kinda mom's! I was completely skeeved out! I kinda hope he got sick from it

[MEK]

Well, I am reading your update without benefit of the pictures and I am sure they are totally lovely. We also managed to visit the GF and the gingerbread house this trip. We, however, did not have time for the Poly. Boo! I was actually shocked at how short the line was. Uggghhhhh to that annoying family. That would make me want to get out of that line ASAP too!

It sounds like you had a lovely morning/afternoon. My short trip did not afford me a chance to spend much time outside of the parks, but it certainly sounds wonderful.