A Very Merry Disney Christmas Vacation- Dec. '14 TR- Updated 6/15 -Day 7

[ememtingle]

December 16th: Running Around the MK is my Favorite

Hello everyone!! Good lord I am getting really bad at keeping up with this...But today I'm going to do a pretty big update since I'm avoiding writing my final senior research project paper....whoops. It's been in the low 20's at school all week and I seriously wish I was at Disney World right now. So I'm wearing my Minnie ears and have my Princess Pandora station cranked up (yes my roommates are probably judging me).
Anyways, let's continue!

So after we finished up our dinner we decided to go back to Pirates to see if it was open, and it was!! We hopped in line and were very excited to finally have some good luck.
After about 10 minutes of waiting and being suuuuuper close to getting in the boat....the dreaded announcement came on...And it was closed. We were both very very disappointed.

We wanted to go on something before all the party shows started so we headed over to the People Mover which was open and running. Thank goodness!


And of course I had to snap some pictures!



These pictures don't even do it justice...It is so beautiful at Christmas.

So we got on the People Mover with no wait!

Paging mr. Morrow, Mr. Tom Morrow.

One of the main reasons we wanted to ride the People Mover was to check out if Space Mountain had finally opened...it was not..

It was getting close to Celebrate the Season show so we headed to find a good spot. They were checking wrist bands at this point to kick out the people who weren't attending the party.

We did have to do some shimming around strollers and people to get a standing spot. This was almost 20 minutes before the show started. We did get an ok viewing spot, and then the children started going up on parents shoulders....That is probably one of my biggest pet peeves at the parks. I'm 5'3, and when a dad put their toddler on their shoulder it is absolutely impossible for me or anyone to see. Anyways, done with that rant. So we did have to move spots a few times because it was very difficult to see.













I loved Celebrate the Seasons! It was so cute and I'm sorry these pictures aren't the best but I loved it.

So after Celebrate the Seasons we waited in the same place to watch Frozen Holiday Wish.















I do wish that the Fairy Godmother was lighting the castle, but Elsa did a great job too.

Next up on our list of things we wanted to was the Jingle Cruise.



I love Jungle Cruise so much, and mix Christmas into it and it makes it even better!! It helps when you have a really great skipper too. Oh my goodness, she was so fantastic.

I love our jingle cruise skipper.

After Jingle Cruise we went back over to Pirates and it was finally up and running. We hardly had to wait, maybe 10 minutes tops.
The park was busy, but it didn't feel super busy. The party was sold out, but the crowds were average. The weather, however, was pretty cold. I was pretty chilly in my long sleeve shirt.

After Pirates we cut through the shortcut that connects Adventureland to Liberty Square, I'm sure there's a name for that breezeway...But I was on the hunt for a MVMCP t-shirt and Eli wanted a Mickey Santa hat, because duh it's Christmas.

We bought our merchandise at Ye Olde Christmas Shoppe and then headed back over to Main Street, you know cutting through all the back ways behind the shop and came out at Casey's and then proceeded to cut through all of the stores on Main Street. We do that a lot...

Okay, check back soon to hear about the rest of our night at MVMCP and to see LOTS of firework pictures.

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[ememtingle]

December 16th Part 4: Yes I Cried a Few Times on Main Street


Okay, where we left off was us getting ready for Holiday Wishes! We got a pretty good spot near the Main Street Bakery.















I mean who doesn't love Main Street! And especially at Christmas.









I love Wishes so much, and how can you not love Holiday Wishes!!

















Yes I did cry just a little bit because it was so beautiful and magical and Christmasy.

Holiday wishes is amazing

Okay so as soon as Wishes ended, we had about an hour before the parade would start making it's way towards Main Street. So....we went to Space Mountain. Now, I am the kind of person who likes to save a good spot and not have to worry about it. Eli is not that kind of person. He's fine with standing and isn't in a rush. So I was a little panicky.

That brisk walk to space mountain though. #omg #stop #gettinghitwithkids

The wait for SM was 10 minutes and it didn't even take 10 minutes.





After SM we still had some time so we went on Buzz Lightyear because the wait was 5 minutes. I think it took us less than 30 seconds to get on.


This ride photo kills me every time. Like, why do I look so serious...What is Eli looking at? Hahahaha. I love it so much.

Okay, Emily was starting to panic a little about timing.
After a quick bathroom break and stopping at the Tomorrowland Terrace for hot chocolate we made it back with lots of time to spare, but we still had to find a place to view the parade. I sent Eli down one side of Main Street and I was on the other side. I found a place to stand behind a family that was all sitting so it was perfect. Eli came back over and met me and I told him to hold our spot and I would run over to the Plaza Ice Cream Parlor for something sweet. I had seen the amazing Christmas party food and I needed something badly.



I chose the Christmas cookie ice cream sandwich with mint chocolate chip ice cream. Okay this thing was massive!! Me and Eli split it and still couldn't finish it. It was a snack credit and a great use of our snack credit too! We had to eat it with a spoon and then break off the cookie part.

Check back soon for Mickey's Once Upon a Christmastime Parade (still singing the song in my head) and for the rest of our night!

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[ursalita]

Great update! MK looks so beautiful at Christmastime, I hope to experience it someday. I'm glad you finally got to ride Pirates and Space Mountain finally. And with hardly any wait. I remember our last trip every time we walked past Pirates it was closed and we never did get a chance to ride it. It was fine, I just thought we had really rotten luck.

 

[ememtingle]

Great update! MK looks so beautiful at Christmastime, I hope to experience it someday. I'm glad you finally got to ride Pirates and Space Mountain finally. And with hardly any wait. I remember our last trip every time we walked past Pirates it was closed and we never did get a chance to ride it. It was fine, I just thought we had really rotten luck.

MK at Christmas is my favorite time to visit. The lights, the music, the everything! It's worth it. Yeah that is rotten luck with Pirates, it's one of my favorite rides at MK and we always have to go on it when we visit. It's just a classic, hopefully y'all will get to experience it on your next trip.

 

[missangelalexis]

I love Celebrate the Season, such a cute show. You got some great fireworks photos! Ah that would be me stressing about a spot too haha but at least you got to sneak in some rides with low wait times!

 

[ememtingle]

December 16th: Childhood Dream Coming True

Hello everyone! I'm here to finally finish up my MVMCP night with lots of parade photos (yay!) Also, I kind of have a love/hate relationship with new DisBoards. I have no idea where anything is, or how to format anything. Ugh it was a struggle but I figured it out.

Okay so after finding a great spot to view the parade from, all we had to do was wait and of course eat our giant cookie. I always forget that the parade has to make it's way through Fronterland before coming down Main Street. I was so tired at this point because we had been running around all day and I even changed into comfy flip flops.
Sidenote:: Yellow Box flip flops are so amazing and squishy I highly recommend them. I switched from my Nike's to my Yellow Boxes throughout the days in the parks. My feet would just feel so tight and constricted in my Nike's that I just needed to let them breathe.
Anyways...I had never seen the Mickey's Once Upon a Christmastime Parade so I was very very excited. Prepare yourself for an obnoxious amount of pictures, I am so in love with this parade now I cannot wait to see it again.












Elsa did help make it snow on Main Street too!







There was a lot of Frozen in the parade...I mean, I like it but I did think it was a little too much.


Growing up I remember seeing the gingerbreadmen on the TV parades. My child self was very very excited.


Hey Clarabelle!








What's a parade without Princesses!?






I was sad I didn't get a picture of Belle in her Christmas dress.








Childhood Emily was freaking out, I love the toy soldiers!


I was still freaking out.


And SANTA!!! (I KNOW HIM!)



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[ememtingle]

December 16th: Mine Train at Midnight

After the parade, we went back to Space Mountain to ride it one more time.



Riding in the front seat of SM is so scary to me, it's a surprise around every corner!

Okay so I can't really remember what we did next......Whoops. I think we saw Mickey's Philharmagic, and then went on Haunted Mansion.

We were in Fantasyland and decided to check out SDMT. The wait was 30 minutes, and we decided to wait since it would be the last ride of the night.
I didn't get any pictures of the queue. I was really tired, and my feet were killing me and I just wasn't in the mood to take pictures.



We both really enjoyed the ride. And it was cool doing it at night! The queue was great, there were so many details and I really wish I would've taken pictures of it. Oh well.

The party was over whenever we got off SDMT and so we decided to take it slow and head out of the park.


And of course take a million more castle pictures


Being obsessed is an understatement









We walked through the Emporium on the way out just to look at more merchandise and wait for the crowds to die down a little bit more.






Bye bye Magic Kingdom!

We waited in a ridiculous long line to get on the monorail to get to the TTC. Remember, we had parked there earlier in the day. It didn't take too long to get back to our car though.
We drove back to Coronado Springs and we both passed out, we were both so exhausted from our very long day and all of the sugar we had consumed.

Overall we had a great experience at MVMCP. We loved watching the parade and the shows and of course the speciality food they had to offer. We didn't get a chance to meet characters, which I was disappointed about but the lines were really long and we wanted to get some rides done too.
I totally recommend going to MVMCP at least once, the lines are short, the crowds are low and it's a lot of fun and a great way to get into the Christmas spirit.

Next time we will be going to Animal Kingdom! I'll do an update soon!

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[KatMark]

Okay...back and caught up (and still learning this new DIS system). Great pictures of the Christmas Show, Christmas Wishes (you are right...how can you not love it) and the parade. I have to say Wishes and the Parade were my favorite parts when we did the party. Love your ride photo and glad you found the hat and shirt.

I don't think we will do another one (we've done it twice). I really think they "oversell" it as a special event and you just can't get as much done as you want. We skipped rides last time so we could meet some characters and even that was too crowded.

I can't wait to hear about AK the next day.

 

[MrsForeverEeyore]

Reading your trip report and it is just wonderful! Your pictures are gorgeous, too!

 

[hokieinpa]

Great updates! I love all of the MVMCP pictures - especially the parade! And the Dream Lights are so beautiful!

We did MNSSHP and I agree that the short lines are the best part! We didn't meet many characters but I think you have to decide - rides or characters!

 

[CSAColl]

Oh my gosh! The guy behind Eli looks like Anthony Stewart Head (Giles from Buffy)! Those lights look amazing. I see 3 hidden Mickeys!

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[ememtingle]

Okay...back and caught up (and still learning this new DIS system). Great pictures of the Christmas Show, Christmas Wishes (you are right...how can you not love it) and the parade. I have to say Wishes and the Parade were my favorite parts when we did the party. Love your ride photo and glad you found the hat and shirt.

I don't think we will do another one (we've done it twice). I really think they "oversell" it as a special event and you just can't get as much done as you want. We skipped rides last time so we could meet some characters and even that was too crowded.

I can't wait to hear about AK the next day.

Yeah I totally agree about it being able to get as much done as you want. You really have to chose one thing over the other, which is very frustrating at times.

Reading your trip report and it is just wonderful! Your pictures are gorgeous, too!

Hi there! Thank you so much for following along! And thanks! My pictures were just taken with my iPhone 5 or my Cannon.

Great updates! I love all of the MVMCP pictures - especially the parade! And the Dream Lights are so beautiful!

We did MNSSHP and I agree that the short lines are the best part! We didn't meet many characters but I think you have to decide - rides or characters!

Yepp I totally agree on deciding to meet characters or rides. And all of the lights are so beautiful, the pictures honestly don't do it justice!

Oh my gosh! The guy behind Eli looks like Anthony Stewart Head (Giles from Buffy)! Those lights look amazing. I see 3 hidden Mickeys!

Oh my goodness, you're right!! That's so funny, great eye! And yepp, we found a ton of hidden Mickey's at Osborn Lights!

 

[ememtingle]

December 17 Pt. 1: The Wilderness Must Be Explored

Jambo! So today we are going to Animal Kingdom. I didn't take as many pictures as I usually take at the parks, so bare with me.
So we woke up and decided to drive to Animal Kingdom since it was just so much easier than getting the bus. We ate a quick breakfast at Peppers and then headed back to the car.
It was pretty warm so we were both wearing shorts (the first and only time the whole trip!).

We made it to the Animal Kingdom parking lot around 9:30. We knew the first ride we wanted to do was Expedition Everest, duh. On our last trip, we rode it five times in one day. We love it so much.



When we got into the park we headed straight over to Asia.


It's so weird seeing construction walls everywhere!

Animal Kingdom day means how many times can we ride Everest.

The wait for EE I think was 15 minutes, which isn't too bad. We didn't mind waiting because it's our favorite ride in the park.
After our first ride on Everest, we had our FP+ for Everest. So we walked right back on and rode it again!

Everest again!!

By the time we got off Everest, it was time for our next FP which was Dinosaur. We had some time to kill before, so we decided to ride Primeval Whirl since there was no wait.
We got to our FP at 11:40 so we were making great time getting exactly what we wanted to do.

Now...Let me tell you something about Dinosaur. It is still the only Disney ride that scares me to death! I don't know why, but I have always been afraid of this ride. I guess because the dinos are so in your face...I don't know but it scares me to death.


The look of pure terror.........Everyone else looks amused, and I'm over here having a heart attack.
Every time we ride it I go 'Oh I know what to expect, I know when the huge dino is going to jump out, blah blah blah' nope..never works.

Okay so after my minor heart attack, we headed to Finding Nemo the Musical!

Finally seeing Finding Nemo the Musical!!

We had never seen it! I wanted to see it on our last trip, but we didn't have time.
We made it just in time for the noon showing. Our seats were towards the middle all the way on the right side. It was really busy!!

But we both loved it! It was so cute and the music was great.

After the show it was time for lunch at Yak and Yeti quick service.

Y'all...I have no idea what my deal was this day and I hardly took any pictures! So I guess this is going to be a pretty quick day.

Okay, anyways. I had the ginger chicken with rice and banana pudding. Eli had the Korean stir-fry special. He said it was good, but nothing special. My food was good too, but we had better food at Flame Tree the year before.

The seating area at Yak and Yeti is very very small and limited at lunchtime. It's hard for two people because they don't have a lot of small tables and we didn't want to be "those people" who took up a whole table that could fit like six people.

After lunch we headed back over to EE to ride it...again. The obsession is too real!!

When we got off the ride for the third time, we were going to ride it again but the wait was 45 minutes! We didn't have for that nonsense... I suggested to go on Kilimanjaro Safaris since we hadn't even been to Africa or really anywhere else in the park.
We walked pretty slow around the park since we weren't in a rush.




The giraffes are my favorite part of the whole safari

We had a great safari guide, he knew so much and talked basically the entire time. He stopped a lot to let people take pictures.

We walked around Africa for a little bit and got a jalapeno stuffed cheese pretzel as we walked. That pretzel is one of my favorite snacks in AK.



And on our walk back to Asia we of course had to have a mini-photoshoot.
And of course Eli wearing the Castaway Cay shirt I got for him on my cruise.

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[missangelalexis]

Sounds like a nice day at AK so far! Love your photo of the giraffes on the safari- so beautiful!

 

[micandminforever]

The pictures of the giraffes are amazing, great job. I also love all the Christmas parade pictures. The older floats in the parade are my favorites, to me they are Disney and Christmas.

 

[KatMark]

Sorry...we were gone for the weekend and I'm slowly catching up again (I haven't even gotten to finish my TR like I wanted to by today or respond to the people who have subscribed to my PTR ).

What a great picture of the AK Christmas tree.

I'm sorry...but I just couldn't tour AK with you...I can't do EE anymore. But I could do Dinosaur numerous times.

And you did Primevil Hurl too?

Great pictures of the BEST animal on the planet -- the giraffe.

 

[ememtingle]

December 17 Pt. 2: Everest, a Dance Party, and More Food

Hello Everyone! Is it bad that I'm doing a DisBoard update instead of writing my senior research paper.....priorities people! This is going to be a pretty hefty update because I just have so much going on right now.
Okay so we left off after Eli and I had our mini photoshoot, we headed back over to Everest. It's an obsession.

Everest is totally worth the wait

So the wait for Everest was about 25 minutes but we didn't care to wait. While waiting in line I checked instagram and tweeted (a lot).

Give me all the Disney merchandise! Clothes, hates, jewelry, home good, all of it.

I like the queue at Everest because there's a lot to look at. Even if we had waited in it three times before!
After riding Everest for a forth time, we headed over to our final FP for the day. Which was meeting Christmas Mickey and Minnie. I was very very excited!!
Our FP was for 4:00, and we arrived right on time.
We waited about twenty minutes before being escorted into the room to meet them.
Let me tell you...This was honestly the best meet and great we had the whole trip. Here's why:
I was wearing my MVMCP shirt and when I hugged Mickey he pointed it out. I told him that we went last night and we had so much fun! And I told him he did a great job in the shows and the parade. He then started busting a move and so obviously I started dancing too! It holds such a special place in my heart, I'll never forget that.

And I can't even get over their outfits! How adorable is Minnie!!??

Me and Mickey busting a move

Sorry Eli, you definitely have some competition.

After meeting Mickey and Minnie, we headed back to....you guessed it, Everest.

Just gonna ride Everest until we have to go to dinner

And that's exactly what we did!

I even got brave and took a picture while on the ride. I'm always nervous to take pictures on any rides because I'm very clumsy and I'm afraid I'll drop my phone or something. But we did get to see the beginning of the sunset while riding!

We rode Everest three more times before leaving!

So I made a collage of all of our rides on Everest. We rode it a total of seven times, but I only have six pictures. I do not know why....

I am so ridiculous....I have no idea what I'm doing.

So after our last ride on Everest we began to head out of the park. We walked back around through Africa.

I was sad we didn't get a chance to see FoLK this trip!

But I loved seeing the new Harambe area, it's so cool and well themed.

After making a quick stop in a gift shop, we made our way to the main entrance.
We waited for the tram to take us to the parking lot. This trip made me realize how oblivious people are! There were a ton of empty rows on our tram and people were still just standing there waiting for the next tram. The guy working on the tram was even announcing "there's still tons of seats". Me and Eli were laughing really hard.

Sunset on the tram

We made it back to our car pretty quickly, since we were the first stop. And we started driving to...Drumroll please...
Animal Kingdom Lodge! YAY! We were eating at Sanaa!
Sanaa is the only restaurant, besides Contempo Cafe, that we ate at in our previous trip.

We parked in the Timon parking deck under the Kidani Village hotel. We took the elevator up and walked down the hallways by the rooms. I looked for hidden Mickey's in the carpet, because that's just what I do.

I love the way Animal Kingdom Lodge is themed, especially Kidani Village.

Boo-hoo, I miss Christmas

Our reservation was at 6:30 and we got there about fifteen minutes early. We ran into the bathrooms outside of Sanaa to change for dinner. We do love outfit changes. And I did get really good at changing clothes in Disney bathrooms. Also, if you've never been to the Sanaa bathrooms, you're missing out. They're gorgeous!!

Anyways, I changed into on of my favorite Lilly Pulitzer dresses for the occasion.

This dress was perfect for Sanaa because it had animals all over it! It's so cute.

Anyways, we were seated at a four-top table facing the windows. Even though the sun had set it was nice to pretend!

We had a very nice waiter who was very attentive. Eli had water and I had a glass of Reisling. I turned 21 in September, and it's still weird to me to be able to drink at a restaurant.
We knew we wanted to get the bread service because it was so delicious the last time.

For our naan service, we got garlic pickle, mango chutney, and coriander chutney. We had the garlic pickle and mango chutney on our last trip and are delicious. The mango chutney is very sweet with a little spicy kick, but not too spicy. The garlic pickle is amazing! It's pickled garlic, which sounds weird but it's whole cloves of garlic in this sweet/tangy sauce. The coriander chutney was new for us, our waiter recommended it, it was minty and had cilantro in it.
The "bread" we chose was garlic naan, traditional naan, and onion kucha. All of the naan's were delicious! I wish I had some right now.

For our main course, I had the lamb shank. It came with turnip/carrot mash, brussel sprouts, and an amazing sauce! The meat was tender and well seasoned. I ate every single bite.

Eli had the surf and turf, which came with steak and shrimp. It came in a sauce and chick-pees. It looked really good and I tried some of his steak and it was very well seasoned as well.

That's what Sanaa does an amazing job of, seasoning and spices. I usually don't like spicy foods and I have never had an issue here.

For dessert, I had spice apple samsoas, which are basically apple pies. They were so cute and really good. They came with chocolate and caramel dipping sauce.

Eli had the dessert trio which came with chocolate mousse, banana cheesecake, and something else..I can't remember.

With our dessert, I ordered a coffee and Eli ordered a cappachino, since our dining plan includes a non-alcoholic beverage and we're not real big soda drinkers we thought coffee was a smart way to use this. Last trip I would drink about half of my soda but mostly drink water with dinner.

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[ememtingle]

December 17th Part 2: Resort Hopping and Getting Lost

So after finishing up dinner, we went back to our car and drove over to the Animal Kingdom Lodge to look at the spectacular lobby. We parked our car in the guest parking lot and headed into the resort.

We walked around the lobby and the store for a little bit. Our next move was to go resort hopping!

I really loved the decorations at this hotel, they were gorgeous.

We hopped on first bus that came, which was Magic Kingdom. There were a ton of people on the bus!

We arrived at the MK bus station and went right over to the Port Orleans bus, which had just pulled in! We got really lucky this night with transportation.

There was two other families on the bus with us. I had never been to Port Orleans and I was really excited to see it!
On the bus with us was this family of two women and four girls, they were cousins I think.
One of the girls, probably 14 years old, was bashing the MK! I was eavesdropping so hard, she goes "I don't like the rides, I don't care" I was so tempted to say something, but I didn't. I mean, who doesn't love the MK!?!?!?!?! HELLLOOOO!!!!
Okay so anyways, we made it to Port Orleans Riverside! We had no idea what stop to get off at, and then finally we stopped at the main stop. We walked around the lobby, we watched Yehaa Bob for a few minutes, and walked throught the gift shop. We then started walking around outside and saw the gorgeous rooms!! I wanted to stay there so badly! It was gorgeous!
We then made our way over to the French Quarter. Eli loved French Quarter better than Riverside. We both agreed that the theming was amazing and there was so much detail.

There was hardly anyone around which was awesome!

It had gotten pretty chilly out as we were walking around outside. We both packed jackets though just in case.

After walking all around both resorts, we got on the boat by the French Quarter pool to head to Downtown Disney.
We made it just in time for the boat! We ran to catch it, and I mean seriously running.

It was really weird being on the boat at night, especially by Saratoga Springs, there's hardly any lights when you're on the water. We went by the treehouses and everything which was really cool!

We had been to Saratoga Springs one other time, but it was only to tour DVC.
Saratoga Springs is my Nana's home resort. We walked around and even went into the lobby. We got lost, typical.

After wandering around the resort for a while, we got a bus to DTD and then another bus to Animal Kingdom Lodge. We didn't have to wait long for both busses, which was great because I was exhausted!

I honestly fell in LOVE with Port Orleans, I had stayed at Dixie Landings when I was little, but I don't remember it at all.

Honestly we had a fantastic day, running around, not really having that big of a plan. We got to explore four resorts in one night! Which was really cool and a lot of fun.

Check back next time when we head back to Hollywood Studios bright and early!

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[hokieinpa]

What a great day at AK! Did I count 7 rides on EE? Love the collage too!

Sounds like a great meet with Mickey and Minnie!

Dinner looks like it was yummy! And what a great night resort hopping! I think POR and POFQ are beautiful - great theming!

And I totally would have eavesdropped on that girl on the MK bus! Who doesn't like MK??

 

[accountingbabe08]

Great reviews.. everest is my favorite