**Are You Sure That Snow Is Fake?!**A December Disney Trip**8/5 The End & Souvenirs**

[CAStevens218]

We headed from mini golf over to the Magic Kingdom to go to Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party!! I had a few goals for the night: picture with the 7 dwarfs, parade, fireworks, cookies and cocoa! Those goals, we completed. I wanted to get pictures with more characters, but it was very crowded so we ended up skipping that.

Anyway, we had picked up our tickets at the concierge desk at AllStar Music, so we went right through the gates and entered the party! We headed right over to get in line for the dwarfs!

If I could go back, I would have done mini golf on a different day and gotten to the Magic Kingdom earlier, because we wasted far too much party time waiting for the 7 Dwarfs! If you are going to a party and want to meet them, get in line early so you don’t waste too much time!!

After our photo, we grabbed some food somewhere, and then we got some cookies and hot chocolate and went to wait for the Holiday Wishes show to start!

It was wonderful!

I just love the lights on the castle!

Tink! Gives me chills EVERY time!

Continued next post...

 

[CAStevens218]

After the fireworks, we stayed where we were to watch the parade! During the wait time, the Christmas show in front of the castle went on!

By this point, we were FREEZING, but I was determined to stick it out for the parade!

It was worth it!

Naughty chipmunks!

I would have stayed, but Ben gets cold much faster than me, so we headed out after the parade. Here are some pictures from the way out:

Snow! This is where the title of the trip report comes from! It was sooo cold that we jokingly wondered if the snow was fake!!??!!

All in all, I enjoyed the party, but would have enjoyed it more with a better plan. We couldn’t do anything about the weather, but we could have changed the way we did things. I would have stuck with the Magic Kingdom morning and the afternoon break, but then, instead of mini golf, I would have headed back to Magic Kingdom to eat, and then gotten in line for the Dwarfs a half hour prior to the start of the party. THEN, I would have gone to see Mickey and Minnie and other characters, depending on how much time we had. I probably would have kept the rest of the night the same, gotten cookies and hot chocolate and watched the fireworks and parade. I WOULD have moved a little farther down Main Street though. We watched from the hub, but it would have been good to grab a seat on Main Street and watch from there.

The point? We enjoyed outselves, we would do it again, but we would do it smarter next time!!

Next, the temperature finally rises for our last full day!!

 

[jc040404]

Ooohh.. I totally missed the mini golf update! That's something we've been trying to get to for ages, and we're planning the exact same one. LOVE that you're still undefeated! That little bridge incident was hilarious! I'm already planning to have the boys run and pose on it for a pic whenever we make it there.

Your party night so reminds me of our MK trip for the holiday parade & fireworks. Ours' just had MSEP instead of the nifty Christmas parade at night. Too bad that you didn't accomplish as much as you wanted, but there's always next time! It still sounds like you had a great time. Love the fake snow!

 

[CAStevens218]

Ooohh.. I totally missed the mini golf update! That's something we've been trying to get to for ages, and we're planning the exact same one. LOVE that you're still undefeated! That little bridge incident was hilarious! I'm already planning to have the boys run and pose on it for a pic whenever we make it there.

Your party night so reminds me of our MK trip for the holiday parade & fireworks. Ours' just had MSEP instead of the nifty Christmas parade at night. Too bad that you didn't accomplish as much as you wanted, but there's always next time! It still sounds like you had a great time. Love the fake snow!

I'm sure the boys will have a great time mini golfing! That course is really cute! I guess I just expect them to be EXCEPTIONAL at Disney, and I haven't found that to be the case. Oh well, we still like mini golfing so I'm sure we'll be back! We need to try the summer side of the course!

We still had a good time even though we didn't get quite as much done as we might have hoped! There will definitely be a next time in the future!!

 

[CAStevens218]

12/17/10 was the last full day of our trip and we were spending it at Animal Kingdom! I love this park, and for whatever reason it has ended up as the last full day of both of our trips. I would definitely love to spend more than one day exploring this park next time, even if it is just by adding another few hours or something! I’m going to make sure that happens on our honeymoon!

Anyway, we were up early and made it to the park just after rope drop.

I just love the tree at Animal Kingdom!

Our first destination was…Expedition Everest of course!!! On our way, we were distracted by these guys.

They were making such a RACKET!!!

After one quick picture of Everest, we were on our way to take a few rides!

I absolutely LOVE riding Expedition Everest! Everything about it from the details of the line to the thrill of the ride itself get me all excited! We got to ride in the front car on our very first ride of the day and it was soooo much fun!!!! We rode it two or three times before we headed over to take a 2 week safari!

We got to see a baby giraffe!

Love this guy:

Cheetah!

We always have a great time on the safari!

Continued in next post...

 

[CAStevens218]

I’m pretty sure that we had Everest fastpasses to use after this. Just like at Hollywood Studios where we spend the day doing other attractions in between ToT and RRC fastpasses, we fit other attractions at Animal Kingdom in between Everest fastpasses! In this way, we get to ride it over and over but still see other things too! This probably wouldn’t work so well at a super busy time, but for our previous December and January trips it worked great!

Anyway, next we walked one of the trails. When we got to the gorillas, there wasn’t much going on, but just as we walked away we heard people start to ooh and ahh. We went back and this is what we saw:

The baby was soooooo cute!!!! I could have watched it all day!!!

I always make fun of Ben and tell him he has monkey arms because they are so long! Here is the proof!!!

The gorillas are so much fun to watch! I wish I knew what that guy was thinking!!

It looks like we must have had another ride on Everest coming up after that!

After a ride through the mountains, the day was actually getting warm and sunny! What a change from the recent weather we had been experiencing! Ben took the opportunity to convince me to ride Kali River Rapids!

On the way over…finally, short sleeves and sun glasses!!

We bought super expensive Disney ponchos from a stand near the ride before we went on. It was worth it to stay dry! Of course, the line was completely empty and we walked right on. We rode with a Spanish speaking family who had already gone around once and asked to stay on again. The grandfather looked to be relaxing and just enjoying the ride as he leaned back with his eyes closed!

Thankfully, with the help of the ponchos and a little bit of luck, we stayed pretty much dry. We got splashed a bit, but others on our raft got the brunt of the waves!

This was our first time on the ride and I was shocked at how short it is! It felt like it was over before it even started! What there is of it is a lot of fun and very well themed, but it seems like it should be a few minutes longer to me!

When we got off the ride we decided to stop while we were ahead and decided to make that our only ride of the day on Kali. We gave our ponchos away to some people who were just getting in line and headed off to see some more animals.

These bats are so creepy! One was crawling along the rope right toward us….yuck!

The tigers are gorgeous!

Continued in next post...

 

[CAStevens218]

Our next destination was…lunch at Yak & Yeti!!

We stopped to watch this cool fountain along the way:

We were seated on the second floor right next to a window! We had a great view of some landscaping and one of the walkways, so we got to people watch! It was hard to get a good shot of the whole view, but here is an idea…

After lunch, we headed back over…where else? To Everest! We planned on grabbing fastpasses, but were sad to see that they were gone. We figured, Oh well, we’ll just ride at the very end of the day through the stand-by line! However, that wasn’t necessary because some very nice young guys gave us their fastpasses! Love that Disney Magic! We decided it was karma for handing off our ponchos!

We had some time before those fastpasses could be used, so we headed over to check out Dinosaur!

I think this ride is a lot of fun!!

Afterwards, I was on a mission! We needed to find a certain dinosaur to take a picture with. You see, on a previous trip we came across it while walking around and I made Ben pose for a picture with it. Well, he did this strange pose, which made my family laugh when they saw the pictures! They said it looked like he was using the bathroom, but he says he was trying to make it look like he was in the dinosaur’s pouch? Like a kangaroo or something? I don’t know and I make no excuses for his ridiculousness, but I wanted to recreate the photo and send it to my cousin!!!

We walked around for a few minutes and finally I was able to snap this gem:

Yup, that’s my fiancé. I’m so proud.

Ben had been begging me alllll day to ride Primeval Whirl, but I can’t spin without getting seasick, so I just couldn’t do it! I finally convinced him to check it out by himself and I would wait and watch.

The line said 20 minutes but it took MUCH longer! What a slow line!!!!!!!

Finally, it was his turn.

He said it was okay, but not something he’d wait in line for again.

As we headed back toward Everest to use our fastpasses, I had to pose in the car!

This time I decided to snap some photos on the ride!

After our ride, we had a mission in mind. A picture with Santa Goofy!

With this accomplished, we realized that the Festival of the Lion King would be starting soon, so we decided to check it out!

This was a fun show! I can imagine that it would be great for getting out of the sun on a hot day! We climbed up to the top of the bleachers so we could lean against the back and it was a great rest!

One more post....

 

[CAStevens218]

I’m sure you can guess where we were headed next.

Animal Kingdom is so pretty at night! I’m determined to spend an evening extra magic hour night there someday!

We rode two or three times, until just about park closing time. We then made our way to the front to head out.

On our way, we ran into a group with a few little boys, and it was obvious that they had made their last ride Kali River Rapids! They were SOAKED, and repeating in unison, “I am freeeeezing, I am freeeeezing!” You could tell they were having a great time though! It was cute!

So many birds:

With one last shot of the tree, we were on our way back to All Star Music!

We had planned to spend the evening in Downtown Disney, but it didn’t really work out as planned. We freshened up and put on some warmer clothes at the hotel and headed out. When we got there, we got in line at Earl of Sandwich, and one of my contacts really started to bug me! It got really dry and felt like it was going to fall right out of my eye! I took it out and put it back in a few times, but nothing was working! I was pretty miserable!

We ate and then headed over to World of Disney to shop, but I was just exhausted and not feeling it. Plus, it was Friday night and Downtown Disney was SUPER CROWDED! Ben was sympathetic and agreed to head back to the hotel and save Downtown Disney for the next day before we headed to the airport.

I felt better when we got to the hotel, and we relaxed by watching some of the videos that Ben had taken and some tv.

It was a great day overall, I think the exhaustion of the whole trip just caught up with me by the time we got to Downtown Disney!

Next time:

Our last day

 

[jc040404]

Not the last day!

Lovin all your silly pics of Ben. You guys must have so much fun together! This looked like such a nice AK day. I can't believe you did that scary ride so many times though. You're completely nuts! I'm so afraid of even trying it! It looks so high!

Contact issues would make anyone's evening kinda icky. Glad you were able to just relax back at the resort & hope you're able to have a fun time before you leave instead!

 

[OllieDannyandMe]

Just found your trip report tonight and read the whole thing! I love it! You and Ben look so happy!

Thanks for sharing all the info. I found some good tips for future trips with my little girl. I am thinking about doing a pre-trip report for our visit next month. I will have to go look for your pre-trip report, too.

 

[CAStevens218]

Not the last day!

Lovin all your silly pics of Ben. You guys must have so much fun together! This looked like such a nice AK day. I can't believe you did that scary ride so many times though. You're completely nuts! I'm so afraid of even trying it! It looks so high!

Contact issues would make anyone's evening kinda icky. Glad you were able to just relax back at the resort & hope you're able to have a fun time before you leave instead!

HAHA just wait until Andrew is tall enough....then you'll have to conquer the mountain!!!!!

My contacts just get sooo dry sometimes! Its drives me crazy! Honestly, I just need to learn to suck it up and wear my glasses for the later parts of long days like that!

Just found your trip report tonight and read the whole thing! I love it! You and Ben look so happy!

Thanks for sharing all the info. I found some good tips for future trips with my little girl. I am thinking about doing a pre-trip report for our visit next month. I will have to go look for your pre-trip report, too.

Welcome!!!!! I'm glad you enjoyed reading! I will definitely keep my eye out for your pre-trip report and post a link here if/when I ever get around to a pre-trip report for my January trip! It looks like you have an amazing trip coming up soon! I'm sure Animal Kingdom Villas will be AMAZING!!!

 

[jc040404]

My contacts just get sooo dry sometimes! Its drives me crazy! Honestly, I just need to learn to suck it up and wear my glasses for the later parts of long days like that!

What brand do you use? I had that issue ALL the time when I tried Acuvue Oasys, the contacts that are supposed to be soo much better that way. They were so bad! I had one completely dry up and fall out once. Thank goodness I was at home and not driving or something that day! I'd so hate dealing with this while trying to have fun at WDW. Hope you can find something that works for you before you go back, even if you wear your glasses.

 

[CAStevens218]

What brand do you use? I had that issue ALL the time when I tried Acuvue Oasys, the contacts that are supposed to be soo much better that way. They were so bad! I had one completely dry up and fall out once. Thank goodness I was at home and not driving or something that day! I'd so hate dealing with this while trying to have fun at WDW. Hope you can find something that works for you before you go back, even if you wear your glasses.

They ARE Acuvue Oasys!!!! I'm definitely going to have to ask about trying a new brand...I'm going to the eye doctor soon!!

 

[CAStevens218]

Well, here it is, our very last day! This was Saturday, 12/18/10. The weather was not great that day, which made it a little easier to head home!

It was a chilly but pretty morning as we made our way to the Magic Kingdom for breakfast at Crystal Palace:

This had originally been a pre-opening 810AM ADR, but they changed the opening time to 8AM, which completely ruined my plan! We decided to keep the reservation though, which worked out because we decided to leave MK after our breakfast and do some shopping at Downtown Disney!

We watched the opening show, and as we headed toward the restaurant, it started to rain. Very cold, cold rain!

Inside it was nice and warm. We got a great table near the food.

Ben came back with such a huge plate I had to take a picture. He said he wanted to get everything in one trip so he didn’t have to get up and go back! but also...

For the record, he ate the entire plate.

The characters came by in a timely manner. We saw them all before we were done eating.

The character visits were very quick here, which is fine for us. Piglet did sit down next to me for a picture as you can see, and Tigger snuck up behind Ben when he got to our table!

I thought the food here was very good, and we will probably go back someday!

When we finished eating, we went outside and contemplated our next move. We thought about riding Space Mountain, but since it was rainy out, we decided to just head back the hotel, check our luggage and do some shopping at Downtown Disney.

This plan ended up working out really well because the resort airline check-in line was SUPER long and slow! We finally got rid of our baggage and hopped on a Downtown Disney bus!

We did a ton of shopping here! I got some great tea at the kitchen store, and we got a bunch of stuff at World of Disney! We also used up our extra snack credits at Goofy’s! Yum!!!!!

Soon, it was time to head back to the hotel for our Magical Express pick up. When we got back we had about an hour to kill, so we camped out in the food court. We used up our remaining counter service credits on some lunch and just relaxed. We had a great vacation, but we were exhausted and ready to go home!

Our one mission before leaving was to give away the extra trading pins we had brought along. We knew we wouldn’t be back for a while, so we wanted someone to make good use of them! We ended up spotting a little girl and her mom wearing lanyards, so I went up and asked if they would like to use our extra pins. They were so excited, and told us that they had just bought their pins and lanyards that morning! They were just starting out their vacation, and I was happy to pass off my extra traders and told the little girl to trade for something good!

Finally, it was time to get on the Magical Express and head back to the airport. We got there with plenty of time, and the security line only took about five minutes. We just relaxed at our gate until it was time to board.

When we sat down, the little girl behind us had a Mickey balloon. I didn’t think anything of it, but the flight attendants were concerned that it would pop due to the altitude. They discussed it with the captain, and he said they could keep it but they had to sit all the way in the back so that the balloon wouldn’t be blocking the flight attendants view of the cabin. The girl’s grandmother put up quite a stink about it, but finally moved back. Other than that (the balloon didn’t pop by the way), it was an uneventful flight home (just how I like it), and soon we were back in at the airport in Providence ready to head home!

This was a fabulous trip despite the cold! I can’t wait to head back for the half marathon in January! I’m excited to show everything to my dad and brother as well! We went on a family trip in the 90’s, and my dad had a great time but hasn’t been back since. I don’t think he will remember much, and my brother was very young so I doubt he remembers anything! I’m sure we’ll have a great time!!! I hope some of you will join me for a pre-trip report! I need some serious help deciding on a resort!!!!!!

This trip report isn’t over yet though! Up next: Souvenir Pictures!!

 

[jc040404]

Love that picture of you with Piglet! So cute!! The sky looks awesome that morning, too. It made me think of cotton candy. Yummy! (So does Ben's mountain of Crystal Palace treats actually.. I think I'm hungry!)

Stinks about the rain issues, but it sounds like a really nice last day all the same. So sweet that you were able to give the pins to someone who just got there. What an awesome way for their trip to begin, right?

I can't believe granny got upset over needing to move back with the balloon. I haven't been on a plane in a few years, but I don't think I'd hesitate to do whatever was needed to make the flight safe for everyone. It is a little funny that a Mickey balloon caused so much trouble though. Glad it didn't pop!

Can't wait to see what you bought!

 

[CAStevens218]

Alright, last post and final thoughts!

First, souvenirs!

Here are our purchases from Harry Potter:

Gryffindor Blanket:

Chocolate Frog and Card (Ravenclaw):

Butterbeer Mug:

House Cups Set:

Time Turner Key Chain:

Next, this is not something I got from Disney, but I received it from shutterfly as a special offer when I bought Ben’s video camera from Best Buy. It was completely free except for shipping, and it is a 20 page photo book. It came out beautifully, and I will definitely pay for them in the future!!

Back to the Disney purchases!

Vinylmation:

Before we left I bought one from the Disney Store website and got the Herbie the Love Bug. I traded that for the Strawberry one in the gift shop at the end of Tower of Terror. The other two were purchased at the Poly before our breakfast at Kona. We liked them so we didn’t trade them away!

Tower of Terror Mug:

Magnet:

Tea!

The directions are adorable!

Cheshire cat mug:

Winnie the Pooh mug (sorry for all the pictures, but I want to show the whole thing!):

2010 picture frame ($7.99 on clearance!!)

Other picture frame:

You’ll notice that the frames are still in the package 7 months later! We are going to get our own place this fall, and it seemed safest just to keep them packaged up until we move!

Continued in next post...

 

[CAStevens218]

2010 ornament ($4.99 on clearance!!)

Souvenir golf ball from Winter Summerland Mini Golf:

And finally, here are the pins we ended up with!!

Ben got a bunch of nice mugs and cups, but they are at his house, so no pictures of those!

That’s it!! When all was said and done, this was a fabulous trip! The cold cramped our style a bit, but we managed to have a great time anyway! We are definitely ready to try WDW in the warmer months though! Our next trip will be in January for the half marathon, but after that comes our honeymoon. We are getting married on 7/22/2012, and depending on what kind of job I get, we will either head down the day after the wedding or postpone the honeymoon until September so we can do the Halloween Party!

We are ready to upgrade from Value to Moderate and Deluxe hotels for sure! Don’t get me wrong, we could always go and stay at a value and have a fabulous time and return over and over, but, given the opportunity, we want to try Port Orleans Riverside, Animal Kingdom Lodge, Beach Club, and maybe someday, the Polynesian! However, after the looooong walk to our room at All Star Music, I can definitely tell you that I will pay for a preferred room at values and moderates in the future! No more hiking to our rooms for us!!!

Thanks for reading along! I’m feeling pretty motivated at the moment, so I think I’ll go start a thread for a pre-trip report for our January trip! I’ll post the link here soon!! [/COLOR][/B][/FONT]

 

[CAStevens218]

Love that picture of you with Piglet! So cute!! The sky looks awesome that morning, too. It made me think of cotton candy. Yummy! (So does Ben's mountain of Crystal Palace treats actually.. I think I'm hungry!)

Stinks about the rain issues, but it sounds like a really nice last day all the same. So sweet that you were able to give the pins to someone who just got there. What an awesome way for their trip to begin, right?

I can't believe granny got upset over needing to move back with the balloon. I haven't been on a plane in a few years, but I don't think I'd hesitate to do whatever was needed to make the flight safe for everyone. It is a little funny that a Mickey balloon caused so much trouble though. Glad it didn't pop!

Can't wait to see what you bought!

The Piglet picture is definitely one of my favorites from the trip!!

It really was a pretty morning until the rain started! It worked out well since we hadn't gotten to do Downtown Disney the night before, so shopping was the perfect solution to a rainy day! Plus, cold rain makes it much easier to come home than a beautiful sunny day would have!

That grandmother was cranky! She kept saying "Its my granddaughters balloon", like she had no responsibility for it. She made it sound like they should just move the kid to the back with her balloon and leave the grandmother where she was!!! It was actually quite entertaining to listen to. I can't remember if I wrote this in the update, but the flight attendant ended up saying "I have (insert number here) other people to take care of and your balloon is not high on my priority list!!"

 

[CAStevens218]

Here is the link to my January 2012 Pre-Trip report! I hope some of you will come help me plan!

~~Flying 1000 Miles to Run 13~~A January 2012 Pre-Trip Report and Training Log​