From the Sea to the World - Holiday Edition - Completed

I'm just struggling to keep up on everyone's reports so no quotes or big comments for me.

I am currently struggling to keep up with my own report!! :scared1:

I do like the specific merchandise. Why would I spend money at WDW when I can get the same thing at DL with a bigger discount and not have to ship it home or carry it in my suitcase?

:thumbsup2

Never been to Portabello's, but we probably won't. Fran isn't big on Italian, though I am.

Sorry, I guess this is one of the compromises that we make for our loved ones... And while Portobello's is really lovely, I would not say that it is a destination restaurant. Have you considered trying out the Boathouse at Downtown Disney? It is new and seems to get very good reviews.

I can't wait to see the Osborne lights! Hopefully this year!

I hope you get to see them this year, too! Especially that there are rumors that they might go on hiatus for a while soonish (not this year yet) due to DHS refurbishments...
 
Just dropping in to say Hi! :wave:

Hi!! :goodvibes

Semi caught up, but I have to admit I don't have the time or the motivation to spend enough time on the DIS anymore to stay fully up to date. :rolleyes1

Sorry to hear that. But I am finding it hard to stay up to date at the moment as well!

Yes, it is really hard to believe it has been almost 4 years since our shared Disney trip. Loved walking around AK with you and Katharina.......and the rest of the parks too. Great memories! :goodvibes

I agree!

When I saw your picture of the salt/pepper trash can shakers I was going to mention no surprise that a certain someone had to have them all......but Pat already beat me to it. ..... :rotfl2:

Oh, I knew that when I saw them!

And Mark, you also have your answer as to who needs 4 salt shakers except in this case it is 4 to complete the collection. ......and two additional ones that are actually used for salt and pepper. :faint:

Ok - kind of like the comic book nerds who get two issues of each, one for the bag and one to read...

Magdalene, in case I don't make it back before you leave I hope you and Katharina have a wonderful cruise! :thumbsup2

Thank you! The cruise was truly wonderful!
 
Let's see.... oopsies on the mis-directions, but it's understandable that with the construction there was extra time added. I don't think it was fair to blame yourselves- we can't think of absolutely EVERYTHING when planning for ourselves, let alone others too.

You are right. But still, you want to do something nice for your friends and not send them into mayhem! :goodvibes

I doubt I'll ever get to see the lights; going at Christmas just doesn't appeal to me right now. Maybe someday, but probably not before the Lights are thing of the past. But I do love the idea of moving the purple cat just to make it more of a treasure hunt.

I can see the lights being around for a long time. They might go away for some time due to construction, but they just got an upgrade to all LED lights. I think they are just too much of a crowd pleaser.

Mmmmm.... pizza Chicago-style. Yummy!!

Yes! I am already thinking of researching places that serve it in California so I can have it again this summer.

BOOOOOO for crappy car rental experiences! That is just so unacceptable if they want repeat business. With beater cars, they just aren't going to get that are they?

I guess their selling point is to be cheaper than the other car rental agencies. That usually brings people back...

The resort photos are just beautiful! I love all of the little gardens and parks scattered around for sure. And I agree with you, Michael! Late night swims are part of every WDW vacation I take and I'd hate to see that option taken away with overly concerned safety mongers. Seriously, parents watch your kids and let the rest of us enjoy our vacations!

SSR was surprisingly beautiful. I normally would never have considered it if it had not been our only choice. But I liked it much better than I thought. I think it is still very much at the bottom of WDW DVC resorts for me (I guess BLT is even lower, it has no appeal to me at all). But that is only because the other DVC properties are all so wonderful.
 
I'm late to the party, but this TR is great! Your pictures of Nuremberg earlier made me miss it soooooo much--I was just in Germany for two weeks and that was definitely my favourite city.

Thank you!! I am happy to hear that you enjoyed my home city that much!
 


Ok - kind of like the comic book nerds who get two issues of each, one for the bag and one to read...
Actually, more a case of someone knowing she would love them and selecting two (one for salt, one for pepper) as part of her Christmas presents.......... :rolleyes1 and then realizing she ordered a whole set at the same time for herself! :faint:

I do have to admit it never entered my mind to just get her the whole set because after all, who needs four salt/pepper shakers! :confused3 :o But at the same time, I also wasn't surprised to find she already thought she needed the whole set. :sad2: :laughing:
 
This TR is great! We are doing a Christmas cruise on the Fantasy next year. It seems we have similar cruising interests. I like reading your bf's comments too. Great idea for a TR.

I have never been to Vero Beach- it sounds lovely.
 
That is so interesting. I didn't know about that.

The purple cat is a really cute little extra!

I remember enjoying the food there also. And you did a much better job of taking pictures -- I must've been hungry because I didn't realize until much later that I had forgotten to take any of the food. Epic Dis-trip-reporter fail.

Makes me proud that I at least managed to document the food!! But it happens to the best of us to forget about that once in a while.

This picture was from earlier in the day.

And this one was from the evening. Somebody better check on that guy, sitting in front of the tree,...he may be dead. ;)

Oh!! I need to check what I did there...

Oooo, I like this picture! Nice one!!

Thanks!
 


First, I have really enjoyed reading your entire TR! We still have 225 days until our cruise next year, but reading this made me even more excited!

In regards to Hoop de Doo-- my DH and I went last September during our WDW honeymoon trip and had an absolute blast! I have seen it 4 or 5 times over the course of 30+ WDW visits, and it has never disappointed. DH loved it and requested we go again the next time we go to Disney. The food was great (omg cornbread and fried chicken) and the cast was so talented. It reminds of my first trip in '89 as a 5 year old, so I love the nostalgia of it, too.

I hope you are going to have a fabulous cruise!!

And happy to hear that the HDDR was a great success with you and your DH as well!
 
I hope you are having a magical trip. I can't wait to read all about it.

Thank you! It was really wonderful! First I need to sort out pictures and then Katharina needs to find the time to start writing. I think it will be a while...

I think they have come out great. I think this is where it becomes clear that Wilderness Lodge and Grand Californian are sister resorts. They both have difficult lighting for taking photos.

Thanks! Yes, the lighting is difficult. Somehow they managed to do it better at the AKL despite it being from the same architect

I can understand this. This is my one must do Fastpass for October.

I think you will find it not too difficult if you are flexible and only want one for one person.

I wondered about this at Disneyland. I don't remember the last row being empty on previous trips.

New boats, new problems...

This sounds really good. I have to try this out in October. Roughly how long does it take?

The Pirate adventure game was about 20 to 30 minutes I would say. Depends on how quick you are in finding the hints. We had huge troubles with one. But that was us being stupid.

That is good to know. I am not very good on coasters, but I am OK with BTMRR.

You will define on the 7DMT! DOn't worry!

This on the other hand scared me silly. It felt to me like it was going on for hours.

It is actually really short, but the spinning does add some unusual thrill!

Remind me to never take a boat trip with you. Joking aside, I would have been very annoyed as well and there was no need for the skipper to give you attitude.

I just hope that at some point we will start having many magical boat trips that will help us forget about those unmagical ones!

I am glad I am not the only person who does not do meat on the bone.

Strange people.... ;-)

That is good to know. It always felt strange that the version in California is pretty much always a walk on and yet this could draw lines of an hour plus.

One reason is fast pass. It always makes the standby line longer.

I am glad they improved it. I did this in 2013 and hated it. It felt half-heartedly cobbled together. I then did it at Disneyland last year and loved it and wondered if it was a genuine improvement or just the difference between DL and WDW.

I have no idea whether I just liked it better than you or if it had been improved at WDW. I would hope it is the later.

Anaheim has three now: Haunted Mansion Holiday, It's A Small World Holiday and Jingle Cruise.

You are right!
 
The Pirate adventure game was about 20 to 30 minutes I would say. Depends on how quick you are in finding the hints. We had huge troubles with one. But that was us being stupid.

Thanks. We had the same problem at Aulani in that we were looking for one hint in completely the wrong end of the resort.

Corinna
 
Have a great time! I can't wait to see the photos and report!

We had a fantastic time and hopefully will get a report started soon. I came back home with so many pictures!!

You both have very good taste in resorts.:thumbsup2

I guess just like you? :thumbsup2

Isn't it great when the timing works out in your favor?

Yes, I have often experienced how eating an early lunch really made such a big difference at WDW.

I remember experiencing that on my last ride! I got a lot wetter than I was expecting!

Somehow I really don't want to get icky Pirate water on me, but it seems to be a new feature of that ride at WDW now...

Sounds fun! I'm sure my kids will be on board.

Your kids would love the Pirate Adventure. The good thing is that it does not take very long.

I've heard that same complaint about the ride length several times now.

It really is quite a shame. I think if it were longer and had an additional show scene (as the one inside the mountain is really really well done), then this ride would have the potential to be considered one of the classic rides at the MK in the future. With it being so short, I am not sure whether it will stay so popular once the novelty has worn off.

50% off anything at WDW is unheard of! :eek:

Yes, CMs do get some good deals. But then the pay usually is not that great, so if you are struggling to make ends meet, 50% off something pricey might not be enough to make it affordable. I once went on Soarin when in our row was a manager with 4 custodial CMs and we talked and he said that they had never been on Soarin despite cleaning there daily. So he had decided to take them on the ride. These were 4 ladies who were all not originally from the US (according to their name tags). I got the impression that even though they worked at WDW and might have free access, going to WDW with their family for a day was something that just never seemed possible to them. It is always fun to go on Soarin with people who have never been on it, but these four ladies were so great fun! One of them was so scared at the beginning and by the end she was laughing so much because she loved it. It made me feel very humble that there are people at the place where I have so much fun who work hard to enable me to have fun and still they need a manager to give them a special treat to learn what it is about where they work.

Stay classy, buddy. Not exactly excellent customer service.

Somehow in my experiences the boat CMs are either excellent or really bad. Not sure why that is...

I can understand about ribs--I always feel like they require a lot of work and a lot of mess for very little meat. But I do love fried chicken.

:scared1: Ribs are one of the best things in the world!!

Yes! Now you have the antidote for Angry Boat Michael. :rotfl:

But I guess this means that we only can take a boat in the future if it is to go to HDDR!

Excellent! I need to see this show again sometime. It's been a long time.

Yes, it is definitely worth it!!

I agree. I used to stay in Fort Wilderness with my family all the time and there is so much to do there that feels like a nice bonus to the parks. I hope they never change that.

It seems like a beautiful place!

But I thought you were all friends!:rotfl:

Hey, Dumbo is a lot of fun!! :woohoo:
 
I know you are having a fabulous time on your cruise in Norway!!!!

You were right!

Hoop-de Doo is still on my list. I think a group would make it more fun.

Yes, I think it is a nice event to do with a group of people. Maybe you can convince @Steppesister to do it with you and @GoofyFan1515 next October?

Sorry about the boat- I do know they change the route every now and again but it is usually weather or someone not showing up for their shift. We missed quite a bit of the Halloween party due to a boat issue from WL. A storm caused one in Aug a couple of times. We opted for a bus after that. :rotfl2:

I understand weather issues. Sorry that you missed part of the party! And I guess bus is a safer bet for transportation from WL... If not as scenic.

I can do the chicken and for me it might be a beer night. :drinking1 Would have to check on the ribs and the veggie.

Sounds like a good plan!

It is on the list but when is the question.... :confused:

I know, it was on my list for a long time. I think this was the fourth trip after it was put on the list and we finally made it there.
 
Congratulations! I've only used my points there once, but we really enjoyed it!

I am not sure that I knew that you owned at WL as well. So, we are kind of neighbors then!

Hmmmm, I haven't been there since 1997. I'll have to check it out next year when we stay there again.

Wow, 1997 is a long time ago! Was DVC at WL already a thing then?

Fran likes to do that too. She makes Thousand Island with Ketchup, Mayo and relish for a dressing.

That is an interesting idea...

So do they not have Sorcerer's of Magic Kingdom in Adventureland any more? We did the Main Street Adventure and our next adventure was supposed to start in Adventureland.

Yes, they still have the Sorcerer's game as well. I never played that though, so I can't compare it.

That looks rather dreary for the Christmas Parade did they really film it that day because I don't remember it being rainy on the broadcast.

I have no idea what they did with the footage from that day. But I agree, it looked very dreary.

Yikes! I wouldn't wait more than 20 minutes for that ride.

I would have a very hard to time to wait for anything longer than 45 minutes or maybe an hour.

This is good information. Rarely are we more than a party of 2 but hopefully next Spring, there will be four of us.

it is useful if you want to do last minute changes to things.

This sounds like Andy's report, but I'm not sure if you're following that one. Scary that the boats run aground or crash into things that often!

No, I am not following his report. Sounds like there are others with boat issues as well.

Thanks for the pictures! It looks delicious. We are going to eat here next April/May trip and it is making me excited to see the show and eat there.

I think you will really enjoy food and show!

I hope you had a great time on the cruise with Katharina, and I'm looking forward to hearing about your trip to Arendelle!

Thanks! We had a great time and hopefully we will get a trip report started soon!
 
You decribed HDDR to a tee! Extremely funny and WELL worth the money- even at full price. We've been twice and loved it both times. I'm SO glad you did too.
The food was delicious and the show a riot.

I think it was your last trip report that really convinced me that this is something I want to do. And I totally agree that it is well worth the money.

I really would love Jingle Cruise. Hopefully someday I'll make it there at Christmas. We'll see.

It was a lot of fun!

Traditionally, we have crappy luck with the boats in that area too. The waits are forever, and once you're on the ride is often FREEZING and wet. Better management would do them well. Bummer it tinkered with Michael's mood, but glad he recovered nicely. Sangria does that.

I always wonder how people say the prefer the boats over the busses. I have found both (as well as the monorail) to have issues on a regular basis.
 
Welcome home to you both!

Welcome home! I hope you both had a great time!

Welcome Home!!! Hope you had a wonderful time?

So glad you had a great time! Looking forward to hearing all about it!

YAY!! Welcome Home, Friends! I hope your trip was everything you've dreamed it would be! Looking forward to your tales.

Welcome back, Magdalene and Katharina!
Looks like it has been a great cruise. Can't wait to hear all about it.

Thank you for all the welcome backs!! And sorry for taking so long to get back to you on this thread!
 
The oddest thing. When I am on your TR, my top banners disappear, and I can't use the "watched threads" link. Weird. Anyway, welcome home again. Loved the reply on the Autobahn. Good stuff. I saw a HORRIBLE accident on a highway in Spain once in which the car was absolutely unrecognizable as one. Life Flight was there on the oppoisite side...

Yes, it is the Cruise Line Trip Report forum that has the top buttons on the bottom...

Here is another Interesting fact. If you want to do this in California you must drive it over 7500 miles in Europe. We learned the hard way when we bought a car from out of state with only 4800 miles on it. When we went to register it, they called it a "new" car and told us it was illegal to register in CA. One of those laws that the car dealerships lobbied to get on the books so that consumers could not go to Arizona, Nevada, or Oregon to buy cars.

I think it's the whole Cruise Line Forum. All the TRs that I'm following in this forum have that quirk.

I think it is only the TR subform under Cruise Line.

That is an interesting rule you have in California with regard to other states. I know that we used to have rules like that here in Europe with regard to other European countries, but those had to be abolished under the Single European Market within the EU. It is not uncommon here that people buy their cars (or fridges or whatever) in another European country to save money.

Strange! I wonder if they even know...?

No, I don't think they know. The cruise line forum has not had a specific moderator for a long time, so I guess as long as nobody tells them, they won't notice. I should really send an email to the webmaster.
Wow what a special treat to get an actual Katharina TR!:banana: I'll be looking forward to my bat signal invite. :goodvibes

I have seen this many times when reading TRs also. If you scroll completely to the bottom of the thread you should discover the "header" has become a "footer" and find the watched threads link there. Just another in a long list of inconveniences you have to discover/work around on this wonderful new DIS upgrade. ....... :headache: :mad:

I am sure that an invite can be arranged!!

And the header becoming a footer issue is annoying, but I guess it is just some faulty code that no one has bothered to report to those being responsible for it. So, I am going to report it now! :thumbsup2

Got it! And I too would love a link or PM. :)

Of course!
 
All caught up! Loving your detailed TR. Thank you.

Welcome! Great to hear that you are enjoying it!

This TR is great! We are doing a Christmas cruise on the Fantasy next year. It seems we have similar cruising interests. I like reading your bf's comments too. Great idea for a TR.

I have never been to Vero Beach- it sounds lovely.

Hello fellow Norway cruiser! Welcome to my trip report! Hope you are going to enjoy your Christmas cruise on the Fantasy. It is going to be quite a different experience from Norway - first of all it should be warmer. However, I think both cruises were just wonderful, so hopefully you will enjoy them equally as well!
 
A Very Merry Party

December 9

This day was going to be the day of the Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party. Therefore I did not have a park ticket until I could enter the MK with the MVMCP ticket at 4pm.

First, my sincere apologies in the delay between installments of this riveting tale. I'm not quite sure what took so long, but I seem to have delusions that I was on a cruise to some faraway kingdom to meet the royalty (Anna and Elsa were their name) who ruled. There might have also been a snowman who likes warm hugs and dreams of summer and .... oh ... I nodded off to sleep again. Back to your regularly scheduled programming.

Yes, as you can see, someone is still bitter that @nodnol and I did not take him to Norway with us... I guess that is why he wants to be included in writing our trip report... Not sure what kind of stuff he would invent about our tales if we let him co-author.

So, the perfect day to sleep in! And then we decided to head over to the pool for a morning swim. Well, I swam. Michael sat in the hot tub. For the Floridian the weather was not warm enough for a pool. But I thought it was lovely to have the pool all to myself! I even tried out the water slide – fun, but short. We also got some breakfast at the pool since the small food location there was open selling hot drinks and pastries. We might have been naughty and not followed rules and had our coffee while enjoying the hot tub. It was a great start to the day!

It was likely somewhere between 49-53 when we made it to the pool. That is, indeed, too cold for a Floridian to do anything but soak in a jacuzzi so that is what I did. I don't recall eating or drinking anything myself.

I am pretty sure Michael had a coffee, too. But he might have been to sleepy to remember - or it might be that Disney coffee is not memorable enough.

Then we headed out into the real world where we had to pick up a prescription for Michael and jeans for my brother in law. We went to an outlet mall that also had a Disney outlet to pick up the jeans. Jeans are so unbelievably cheaper in the US, and at the outlets you are looking at a price that is about 1/3 or 1/4 of what they would cost here in Germany. So, I have a standing order to pick some up every time I am in the US. The Disney outlet was a bit disappointing, somehow I did not really find anything that I wanted. We also had something for lunch at the food court at the outlet mall, if I remember correctly.

It's been too long. She doesn't remember correctly. I don't recall at all. I'm fairly certain we had some fast food off-property (I hear the gasps now!) I just don't recall. I don't think it was Wendy's or Chick-Fil-A ... but I absolutely don't remember this afternoon at all beyond the outlets. Beyond leaving and getting a phone call from Germany in the car and then dropping M off back at the Levi's Outlet. I also recall the LBV Disney Character Premiere outlet having nothing much. I think I got a pin ... maybe! ... I I were reading this trip report, I'd be sound asleep now!

Ok, to clear up the big question of what we had for lunch: Michael and I took the time to discuss this over the phone as we knew that you readers would hate not knowing exactly what we ate that day! We came to the conclusion that we were in the food court – but just to use the rest room. We actually had been at lunch before going to the mall and had been at Fuddruckers http://www.fuddruckers.com. I really liked the burger there and the nice thing is that they have a very nice condiment bar with stuff to put on your burger. Good place!

And the thing that Michael mentions about phone calls from Germany is in relation to the jeans buying operation. My brother in law had given me instructions to buy black jeans. But these were out. So, I tried to send him a text, but the texts were not going out. So, I gave him a call (for nearly one dollar per minute…), but got his voice mail. When we were just leaving the parking garage he called back (receiving his phone call cost one dollar per minute as well) and said that he would then like to get blue jeans. So, that’s why I went back. And even with paying stupid international roaming fees (they really are nothing else than a rip off!) the jeans were a fantastic deal!

And then it was time to get ready for the Christmas party! We somehow managed to take far too much time with all the boring shopping that we did not get there until well after 4pm.

It was before 5. But definitely after 4.

Oh, and we stopped at the lobby before we left as well. I am wondering whether this was when I went to pick up my little something that Mickey was not able to leave in the room for us because we had the “Do not disturb” sign out (we got a phone call with that message at some point) or whether I had walked to the lobby earlier that morning. It turned out to be a very nice birthday card! In 2011 I had done a trip with Katharina to celebrate my 40th birthday and somehow I felt that my birthday was not really being acknowledged. This time all three Disney places (Vero Beach, Fantasy and SSR) did something special for me for my birthday. It was really nice!!

40?!?!! That was the first time we met! You told me you were 27!!!!

(don't believe him - something seems to have gotten to him recently... Might be old age...)

The reason for the stop in the lobby was also that Michael wanted to file a complaint about the boat guy from the previous day. So, he spoke to the lady at the Lobby Concierge desk who was quite nice about it and then she got her manager. I think because she thought that the manager should be the one to hear our story. The manager was very nice and told us that she was going to pass on our concern about how the HDDR guests need to be able to rely on the transportation that WDW offers to get to the show in a timely manner and that if there is an issue, this needs to be communicated in a better way. I think we both would have felt so much better if the boat guy had just made an announcement about how due to whatever issue things were being changed around and that they are aware that people need to get to the show and that they would do everything to get us there on time. The manager was really nice and offered us a voucher for a free cab ride if we thought that we could use that. At first we were a bit at a loss as we had the car, but then we thought that this actually would make getting back from the party so much easier as we could just walk over to the Contemporary and get a taxi from there and would not have to deal with getting to the parking lot on a crowded monorail or taking the crowded bus back to the resort.

Both CMs were excellent. And the free cab ride back from the Party was nice. I left my email so that a Transportation manager could contact me directly. I was 98% sure that no one would. I was correct.

Once at the MK we were kind of in a hurry to get on the Jingle Cruise as we wanted to see it during daylight and it was quickly fading, And I am sorry, but it appears that I did not take any more pictures of that. I think we were rushing to get to the MK and somehow this kind of put me out of a picture taking mood. We might even have been in a hurry to get there because we had a FP+…

Didn't we have on for the Dwarfs coaster too? This day is so hazy to me beyond that I really enjoyed the party.

I am pretty sure that we did not have a Dwarf FP+ as those were all gone by the time we decided to go to the party that day... We had not planned to be at the MK that day originally.

The first picture of the day I have is of the castle lighting ceremony with Anna and Elsa, but you can’t really see them in my pictures.

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This was quite neat. And it was still part of the normal operating day of the MK, not yet party time.

We decided that we should get some food before the party starts, so that we then can take part in the party fun without having to find a place to eat (and also, a lot of the restaurants were not open during the party). We ended up going to Pinocchio’s Village Haus.

I had the meatball sub and Michael an Italian sub which came with turkey and cheese and vegetables.

I thought it had ham and salami and cheese, but no turkey. .... It was very good, so naturally it was taken off the menu.

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He loved his sandwich. I was not so sure. I had tried a meatball sub at Earl of Sandwich once and was underwhelmed, but I am not a fan of Earl of Sandwich sandwiches, so I thought I try it here as I love the idea of a meatball sub. But somehow I felt that it was very dry despite the tomato sauce. I decided that while I love the idea, I seem to not enjoy the reality of a meatball sub. I loved the fries though, I like Disney fries (as compared to Michael who doesn’t).

I have a coupon for a free sub at Earl that expires tomorrow and the closest one that isn't in a turnpike service plaza, where they don't take them anyway, is 45 minutes away, so I don't think I'm having that freebie! I generally think Earl is perfectly fine, but just that. Much like Dole Whips and the MK, they are greatly overrated by many people in the fan community!

While we were sitting there and eating our meal (once we had found a table as half the tables were taken by one person sitting there waiting for their party to go and get food…) it turned 7pm and the party started. Well, there was an announcement to that effect and that was it. But I had seen that one of the stations that was going to distribute hot chocolate and cookies was actually the Pinocchio’s Village Haus, so I went and got us some dessert:

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The chocolate was more luke warm then hot and it was the typical watery drink, but it was nice enough. The cookie was actually surprisingly tasty!

I love chocolate in all its many forms and flavors except for the hot stuff. Can't stand it and never have liked it since childhood. Way too sweet in almost a medicinal way. I am convinced that hot chocolate really isn't chocolate at all but an evil Communist plot!

I took some pictures inside the restaurant as I really had not been in there very often before:

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We then went towards the hub to watch Celebrate the Season, which is a show on the castle stage.

Castle with Christmas lights:

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My only halfway decent picture of the show:

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The show was really neat and fun and I was happy that we watched it.

We went back to the Jingle Cruise again (since it is something that is not around normally, we felt that we should go on it multiple times). We saw trader Sam-ta!

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I think it was on this cruise where our skipper tried to make a joke and asked whether anyone knew which river was Santa’s favourite river. One guy in the boat immediately said: The Amazon – it comes with free shipping. The whole boat laughed, but the skipper did not as that was not the correct answer! As you can see, it is the one joke that stuck in my mind, so it was either really good or really bad!

I do recall that. It was very funny. But the skippers were all excellent doing the Christmas version. I really enjoyed it.

We went on Pirates again, this time with no wait (the people are just in line to show their party wristbands, I think):

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And then we watched a little piratey Christmas show:

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I tried some more pictures of the castle with Christmas lights on:

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I think this was the spot from where we watched Celebrate the Magic. This is a projection show on the castle that is shown before Wishes everyday. After Celebrate the Magic we moved behind the castle to see Christmas Wishes from there. While the normal Wishes were great from back there, I did not enjoy Christmas Wishes from there as much. Too often there was stuff happening on the castle and with the big fireworks at the same time. However, Christmas Wishes is one of the show that has the so called perimeter fireworks. This means that they shoot of fireworks all around the park. Those were great to see from where we were!

I think we killed some time in between with some of the Fantasyland dark rides and maybe the Haunted Mansion and then it was time to line up for the Christmas parade. We stood directly next to the Diamond Horseshoe and there was a character dance party inside, so I had a look:

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It was the Country Bears!

I really enjoyed the parade to my surprise as I am usually not a big parade person. The only other one that I really enjoyed so far was the Halloween parade.

Yes, it was a nice parade. I hadn't seen it since 2012 and they had changed it considerably, even simply placing different characters in different places.

I am sure that we went on some more rides, but it was getting colder and colder. I was starting to get very cold. Oh – and besides being cold. We still felt like we were on a ship. Remember, this was Tuesday by now and there were moments when both of us could clearly feel how the whole Magic Kingdom was moving!! It was very disconcerting!

We ended the day with some shopping.I thought they had some really neat Christmas stuff that year, a lot of it had a kind of retro vibe. I loved these ornaments, but did not know how I would get them back to Germany without breaking them. But we ended up each getting a pin from the party. They are only sold at the party and are quite neat. I got the one with Mickey and Minnie and Michael got the one with Donald.

And then it was time for one last look down Main Street:

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We left the park and walked over to the Contemporary. We decided that before we would get a taxi with our voucher, we should check out the Christmas display inside. You cannot really call it a gingerbread house, but it is made out of gingerbread:

We may know one of the individuals responsible for the display and wanted to pay our respects knowing that at midnight it wouldn't be surrounded by masses of screaming kids -- and parents!

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I don’t know, but to me these displays are a bit disconcerting (I was thinking the same about the one on the Fantasy). I just think of all the food that someone could have eaten and that will be thrown out at the end of the holiday season.

We finally went down to the bellmen stand and they called a cab for us. The cab driver delivered us to our resort without any problem and we fell into bed. We had more exciting things waiting for us tomorrow!

REAL magical things, even!

Up Next: Meeting the Goblins
 
Great update Magdalene!! Timed perfectly too, I am on the Dis this weekend :rotfl2:I have never eaten at Pinnochio House , but have thought about it numerous times , we just never seem to be near there at lunch time, and we do love CHH!!! I also gues I have never been inside the Diamond Horseshoes as I don't remember that dance floor at all !! We always go to the dance in Tommorow land with the Incredibles . I really have to make a trip at Christmas again. Did they stop the Osborne Lights or not ????
 
For a lazy day, you got a lot done. I have never liked jeans, but I would always bring some back for my sister in the past for the same reason. I loved all the photos of the castle. I will never be able to get enough of the castle all lit up. Did they not have the gingerbread Christmas tree at the Contemporary last year?

Corinna
 

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