Our Christmas Time Audition Adventure! (Updated 2/15!!)

[Merida]

I love the winter parade so much! I love seeing the characters in "different" costumes (instead of just the traditional movie costumes). And all the dancers are so good!

I'm glad someone's tried the fancy candy apples; I've only seen pictures but no reviews of them. I love browsing in the bakeries at Disney World, everything is so cute and perfect.

Boo on it being the last night though! I was thinking about it and I guess there isn't a DVD player in the rooms. I don't know why I thought there was; maybe too much reading about club level or cruise lines? I do wish there was some better stuff on the "normal" TVs, maybe some classic Disney shows or movies? It would be so cool to see Jett Jackson reruns while on vacation!

 

[katt789]

What a great TR! Looks like you had some great interactions with the characters - you and Sylvia remind me of me and my friends when we go to Disney - always a hoot! LOVE the parade photos, and yes, I agree, Boo To You beats out Once Upon a Christmastime! Anyways, what a wonderful ending to what seemed like a great trip!

Thanks!! And yeah we really did, character interaction is more than half the reason I go to disney, I love it!!

I hate the end of the last full day. You're always kind of dragging through the motions. At least you still had a breakfast and a rope drop to look forward to.

I have been on the bus when Bohemian Rhapsody came on. And I have sang very loudly.

Yay! I was glad we had something to do rather than just wait around, I've had many different experiences with times of flights now, and I feel a 1pm one that has enough time to sleep in & do a breakfast is a lot nicer than rushing, or having a 4 pm flight & doing nothing, and not having a hotel room from noon onwards

I love the winter parade so much! I love seeing the characters in "different" costumes (instead of just the traditional movie costumes). And all the dancers are so good!

I'm glad someone's tried the fancy candy apples; I've only seen pictures but no reviews of them. I love browsing in the bakeries at Disney World, everything is so cute and perfect.

Boo on it being the last night though! I was thinking about it and I guess there isn't a DVD player in the rooms. I don't know why I thought there was; maybe too much reading about club level or cruise lines? I do wish there was some better stuff on the "normal" TVs, maybe some classic Disney shows or movies? It would be so cool to see Jett Jackson reruns while on vacation!

I've always debated what to do with candy apples lol, I never know whether I should venture out and try something fancy, or just stick with plain, and the last thing you want to do is spend over $5 on a treat and hate it!

It bugs me that there aren't dvd's in the room, I mean, I love to watch Stacy, but I can't imagine that a kid on break/nap time wants to watch that or espn! It would be great if they had old disney shows or movies (if they played the old little mermaid & aladdin tv cartoons who knows how late for rope drop I'd be! )

 

[katt789]

So I've been realizing recently, that if I had bought an annual pass for my first trip, it would have covered all of my trips under it...and that would be a savings.

Park tix for a 5 day park hopper at WDW is $400

4 days park hopping at DL is $320.

An annual pass, so worth it. Hmm..I begin my pondering, I ask about it during this Dec trip, they say you can't do free dining with it. I do more research, you just have to buy the minimum days of tix, and can save that tix and put it toward your renewal next year.

Now, I'm thinking, I'm making a trip to DL with Nick & his famjam next Oct, and I want to go to DL myself...and audition over there...is there a pass that covers Cali & Florida?

WOWOOWEEWA...there is...

Premier Passport

Yup..it exists, and it would be a savings on my trips on how often I'm there. Simply 2 trips to Disneyland next year, and 2 to Disney world would be covered, and I'd be saving money. Those trips would be:

DLR: early spring
WDW: Late May/early June (solo maybe, with another audition)
DLR: Oct w/Nick
WDW: Food & wine (possibly with Sylvia, she wanted to go back for her bday)

However, I'm now wondering, if I've already booked a trip (Sept, with my mother) and I get this pass, would I be able to get any money back from that if I was to put my pass towards it? Does anyone know anything about this? Would I just have to cancel the package, and book just the room & tix separately, or could I just subtract from it? This part confuses me?

Plain & Simple, I *will* be getting this....it'll inspire me to go a whole lot more, and hey, $800 for unlimited access to both parks, all parks, all waterparks & DQ, like

As long as airfare doesn't get too ridiculous, it'll be a year of awesome Disney PARTAYS. So....if you're going to be there between March/April of this year & next year, let me know!

 

[ronnmel]

I don't know that much about passes, but my guess is you would have to "cancel" your September trip and just rebook it room only. I know you are talking about free dining, but since you'll have an annual pass you should instead just get a Tables in Wonderland card. I think in the end you would save so much more than getting free dining, especially since you could also book room-only using annual pass holder discounts.

But getting an annual pass, how exciting!!

 

[IheartDDuck]

I want the premier pass sobadsobadsobadsobad!

I can actually justify it in 2013 too, if I think about it long enough. We want to go to DLR and then to WDW probably twice, so it would be the perfect justification of cost.

Remember, with the annual pass, you don't get free dining, but you do get room rate discounts. You just have to wait for a little while for them to get released. For me, free dining is never worth it when I crunch the numbers, because I can get discounts with my annual.

 

[katt789]

I don't know that much about passes, but my guess is you would have to "cancel" your September trip and just rebook it room only. I know you are talking about free dining, but since you'll have an annual pass you should instead just get a Tables in Wonderland card. I think in the end you would save so much more than getting free dining, especially since you could also book room-only using annual pass holder discounts.

But getting an annual pass, how exciting!!

Yup, something I'm working on, there seems to be a way around it (maybe?) so I'm hoping I can work with it, but even if I have to pay for the sept trip, the premier pass still justifies itself with the rest of my trips

I want the premier pass sobadsobadsobadsobad!

I can actually justify it in 2013 too, if I think about it long enough. We want to go to DLR and then to WDW probably twice, so it would be the perfect justification of cost.

Remember, with the annual pass, you don't get free dining, but you do get room rate discounts. You just have to wait for a little while for them to get released. For me, free dining is never worth it when I crunch the numbers, because I can get discounts with my annual.

Exactly!! Thanks to them being valid starting the first day you use them, mine would go all the way through to next April at the latest, which means I could squeeze in another trip, hey, depending how my funds are it could turn into a "oh hey, this person on the dis is going down and wants to meet, sure, lets take the day off" kinda thing. Ive thought again & again about free dining, and as much as I do love it, it's honestly, having the dining paid for in advance that I like better, the dining plan is sometimes too much food. GAH i need this pass!!

 

[Merida]

Congrats on being able to get a premier pass! We looked into getting one as well, but we're still not sure if it'll be worth it (we tend to go to Florida more than CA). Even if you do have to drop free dining, you should be saving quite a bit in ticket costs, right? So that might make up for it! And you do get other discounts on food and such with the fancy passes, but it is hard to give up free food. Then again, those passes are so pretty..

I am really jealous of how often you get to go! I need to finish up school and get a real job with days off (Also, you know, a decent paycheck)! Are you thinking of doing another Christmas/winter trip?

 

[dara00]

how do you get free dining anyway?

 

[shan23877]

Lucky you! I'll look forward to hearing about a year's worth of trips!

 

[katt789]

Congrats on being able to get a premier pass! We looked into getting one as well, but we're still not sure if it'll be worth it (we tend to go to Florida more than CA). Even if you do have to drop free dining, you should be saving quite a bit in ticket costs, right? So that might make up for it! And you do get other discounts on food and such with the fancy passes, but it is hard to give up free food. Then again, those passes are so pretty..

I am really jealous of how often you get to go! I need to finish up school and get a real job with days off (Also, you know, a decent paycheck)! Are you thinking of doing another Christmas/winter trip?

Thanks!! I'm super excited, and it's looking more & more to getting the pass, I make enough trips to justify it anyway, so I may as well, right?! That, and I will still be making savings, and it will work out in the end!! And you're right the passes are gorgeous! Gah! I don't know how I do it, I really don't, I make the minimum wage thanks to being a server, and hey, dinner theatres don't make the greatest tips, thats for sure. And yes, I'll be back next Nov, (as you can see from the new ticker!Nov 5-12!!) Sylvia & I will be back, and if we hit up a Christmas party again, that's totes awesome!

Lucky you! I'll look forward to hearing about a year's worth of trips!

Ahahaha, thanks!! I'll be sure to keep ya updated! Especially if I end up in the World at the same time!

how do you get free dining anyway?

On the Disney website under the "special offers" tab it comes up every so often, keep an eye on that there, also the mousesavers newsletters, or anywhere on here. Generally its around the Sept or lower crowd times to get more ppl into the parks, keep an eye around the dis, they'll update ya too!

 

[katt789]

Ok! First off, I just want to say, I've been lagging in doing the last update of this TR (even though it's typed up & ready to go!) because I wanted to wait until I could start my solo trip TR before closing this one. And for that, I'm waiting for my photopass disc to get in...*le sigh* should have done digital copies... For those of you who know, I had supreme trouble getting the photopass disc last time & I'm really hoping it's here by the end of the week!!

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As for my other news!! Many of you are just going to hate me now but if you couldn't tell by my ticker, it is now OFFICIAL. I will be attending the Food & Wine Festival this year!

I will be going with Sylvia, and we're also celebrating her birthday (the big 2-1!!) We'll be down in the World November 5-12th, with one day at each Disney park, and 1 day over at Islands of Adventure for some Harry Potter fun!!

This time I'm going back down the hotel pyramid, as to make it cheap for Sylvia we'll stay at a Value, and I wanted to stay somewhere new, so we'll be at:

Now, if any of you know anything about which All Star would be the best, that would be GREAT (now, if the AoA is open, and not just family suites, that will be where we stay, but for now, All Stars it is!)

So, if anyone's down in the world for that week, be sure to let me know! We'd love to meet ya!!!

 

[dara00]

I'm planning to be there! When is Sylvia's b.day? Mine is Nov. 10 and I'm planning to do the 1/2 marathon the night of my b.day! I'm only going for a short trip, Friday-Sunday most likely, just my husband and me!

 

[katt789]

Sylvia's bday is the 9th! Thats awesome that you're doing the 1/2 marathon! I'm hoping on maybe doing a 5k at disney,but Im not sure if I could!

 

[IheartDDuck]

Awesome for the upcoming F&W trip and that you'll be returning with Sylvia. What a perfect place and time to celebrate 21.

 

[dara00]

Sylvia's bday is the 9th! Thats awesome that you're doing the 1/2 marathon! I'm hoping on maybe doing a 5k at disney,but Im not sure if I could!

there should be a 5K the morning of the 10th! you should try it, you can even walk!

 

[Amunet]

it is now OFFICIAL. I will be attending the Food & Wine Festival this year!

I am so envious! But also happy for you DH and I really want to go during the Food & Wine Festival and maybe even overlap it (if the dates work) with MNSSHP one year. So far, that is our ultimate dream of when to go

Be sure to take pictures of EVERYTHING you eat during the festival!

 

[nancyjvanwyk]

You are really going to enjoy the food and wine adventure!! we have gone 2 times and really enjoyed it. Also have stayed at the all star sports which was very nice and not overly crowded. I would stay there again if I was going for a quick trip down. My favorite is actually the Yacht club, so somehow in my mind I justify the extra expense by saying I am old and like to soak in a nice quiet hot tub after marching around the parks all day! But again, found the All Star Sports nice and the customer service was still Disney.

 

[MinnieMoose]

First off, I love the TR and plan on reading your others quite soon. I'm so jealous of your frequent trips to Disney! My husband and I plan on heading back September 16, so it sounds like we'll be there the same time as your surprise trip for your mom! We're so excited to try out MNSSHP!
Also, I don't think it'll be open for your Food and Wine Festival trip but AoA will have regular rooms and they're going to be Little Mermaid themed! I believe they don't open until next year though.

 

[katt789]

It's the last post of the TR!! (well...2nd last...) And I hope you all know what that means?!!?! YES!! As I got home from work last night, I found the photopass in my mail box from my solo trip! I have uploaded the first round of pics, and the TR will be started shortly!

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Sylvia & I allowed for a little bit of a sleep in the next day! We had a breakfast reservation at 10:45ish, and had originally planned for a stop over at Magic Kingdom to watch the rope drop show on our way, but decided that we’d rather sleep. Once we were awake, we threw the last couple of things into our bags, and headed down to the lobby to check out and leave our bags with luggage services before breakfast. They were quick to tag them & put our back-packs containing our lap tops in the locking cage, and before we knew it, we were on a bus to MK!

As we were transferring over to the monorail, we took a look over at the lines, and HOOLLLYY, you could tell it was the first day of Christmas vacation, and you could tell that MK was the park to avoid! The lines were horrendous, it was past 10 at this point, and the bag check lines and turnstile lines were WAYYY backed up. I wish I’d managed to get a picture of it, but clearly my mind was elsewhere. Which monorailed resort were we having breakfast at, you may ask? Well, maybe this will give you a nice hint:

That’s right, the Grand Floridian! And let me tell you, wow, this resort is gorgeous! It has such a beautiful upscale feel to it, I don’t know if I’d ever be able to stay here, it just feels too fancy! On the monorail on the way over, they definitely announced the wedding pavilion, and I died a little inside, if there’s anywhere I want to get married, it’s there. I just discovered all the Disney wedding/engagement things this past year, and fell in love with all of them, the stuff you can do is just incredible, and the wedding pavilion is so gorgeous!!

Sylvia & I headed over to our reservation and checked in (if any of you haven’t figured it out, yes, we were headed to 1900 Park Fare!) they gave us a buzzer, told us it would be a bit, and to wait. So, we wandered through the lobby taking some random pictures of all the awesome-ness!

Our wait was quite a while, or at least, felt like that, but eventually we were called in, and we headed into the restaurant. They seated us in that little corridor on the opposite side of the room from the door, which was fine at the start, but once pictures were being edited on photobucket, I noticed how much glare was coming from behind Sylvia in nearly all of them. Boourns. The characters were nowhere near us, so we headed up to the buffet to grab some food!

That one’s my plate, starting at the top going clockwise, we’ve got some bacon, salmon, ham, a sticky bun, potatoes, some kind of Danish, a croissant, and somewhere in there was the lobster eggs benedict. I give the food a 5/5 for here! They had a great selection of everything, and from what I can remember, I liked all of it! The potatoes were the best, I’ll have to say that for sure, the lobster eggs benedict didn’t really live up to the hype I had heard about it, but it was still really good! Here’s Sylvia’s plate:

Soon enough, we started with the characters. I have no notes from this day, and don’t remember a whole lot, so I’m just going to swing all the pics up and kinda do a review at the end.

Mary had originally come around when Sylvia had gone to get syrup for her pancakes, but made sure that she came back at a later point. Alice was meh, we both agreed that she could have been better, but was still good. There was a bit of a lull in characters, so I ran back to the buffet to get what I had forgotten. Strawberry soup!!

(I just have to jump in here & say, Tyler, who came on our last trip, and is a chef, saw that picture, and was outraged that they would serve something like that, as the plating had been horrible…I was quick to explain that it was me who did it & dribbled all over the side of the bowl )

We managed to get some pictures with both of us in them thanks to a man who was sitting across from us with his family, who was nice enough to offer to take pics with all of us in them. Tigger was great, right as I went to take the pic, he jumped infront of Sylvia to block her from the camera! Pooh was the regular Pooh, and Hatter, well, he took FOREVER to get over to the table. When he finally did, we had finished everything, paid the bill, and were literally just waiting on him. He was ok, nothing will ever beat the Hatter we met at MNSSHP last year. He asked our names, and when he found out I was “Katt” he hid the coffee pot from me, as that’s where the mouse is hiding in the movie.

Just before all this happened, our server brought over a cupcake for Sylvia’s birthday, and we made sure to grab a pic of him doing the Brandi pose (specifically because he kind of looks like one of the bartenders at our work!) and then we were off!

Once we were back at Pop, I picked up my back pack from luggage services, and we found a nice little bench in the lobby to sit down at and attempt to finish watching Tangled before the ME came to pick us up. I’m not sure if we did finish it or not, but soon enough, the bus was there, and we were leaving our magical happy place.

Overall, the trip was another gooder, although I don’t think one can have a bad trip to WDW, I’m sure it could happen, but hey, thinking positive right? Sylvia was a great travel partner to have & I’m glad she was there, we travelled a lot in the same style, and she really just let me take the reins as I know what I’m doing when it comes to Disney (thank you disboards). I would definitely go down to audition again, and am currently planning on it near the end of May/June, it will also be a birthday trip to myself, and I’ll be sure to celebrate while I’m down there. (That being said, if any of you are planning to go around that time, let me know! Maybe we can meet up, ride a ride, have a quick snack together, etc).

I hope you have all enjoyed traveling along with Sylvia & I, and I’m glad you stuck through to see how everything went! I will most definitely be starting a TR on my solo trip soon (once the photopass gets here!) and will post a link for it in this TR so that you all know where to go!)

 

[katt789]

Reviews!
I find that it’s easiest for me to jumble all the reviews of everything together at the end of the TR, rather than do it after each day, or event, or meal. I try to remember to score the food as I go, but always end up forgetting! SO, here goes:

Overall Review
-The trip was awesome, as always! I’m sure you can have a bad trip to Disney, or have something bad happen at Disney, but as long as there’s some magic going on, it’s going to be awesome. December was an awesome time of year to go, still warm during the day, and you only needed a light sweater at night to keep you warm enough (and if you notice, I happen to be wearing my sweater most while we were inside…darn air conditioning, I freeze!!
-Crowds were VERY manageable, Sylvia pointed out numerous times (and to those we reminisced about the trip with) that I was some magic like creature who knew what to do & when to do it. We would be heading one way, and the crowds were heading another (thank you disboards!!). The only “WOW” moment we really even ever had was on the way to 1900 Park Fare, and seeing how crowded MK was on that last day (but it was the first Saturday of Christmas vacation!)

Pop Century
-I can’t stress enough how much I love this resort. It’s cheap, it’s an awesome resort, and hey, it helps that I know my way around it like the back of my hand. If you can’t request a room in the main area, a room in the 80’s/90’s is always the second best, as you can just jut across the parking lot to get to the busses/main building. Having not stayed at any other value resort, I can’t compare it, but I haven’t heard great things about the All Stars. Personally, I’ve now been spoiled by a deluxe, and understand why you would spend the extra money, but I’m super excited for the Art of Animation Resort to open, obviously, as they have Little Mermaid & Lion King suites. (anyway, I’m on a tangent now…) Pop is a great resort! Especially for only 2 ppl, if you were to have 4, it gets kinda crowded, but is still just a bed you’re sleeping in!

MVMCP
-The party was great, although Sylvia & I used it simply for more character hunting. I really wish they would have the princes out all the time (and I know I’m not the only one!) The hot chocolate & cookies/apple slices were awesome! (And I honestly preferred it to the trick or treating at MNSSHP, all that candy, I would never eat, and feel so bad about eating it, but with the hot chocolate, it was just enough and the cookies were delicious!) Overall, I completely & totally preferred Halloween, but I prefer that whole season overall in general, I would go to the party again though!

Food Reviews:
(these are just in the order that we ate them!)
Pop Century: Vegatarian Lasagna: not the first time I’ve eaten it, and won’t be the last. It’s super yummy, a little too cheesey, but a good sized portion for the price
-Carrot cake: AH-MAY-ZING. Obviously, I love the Disney carrot cake, it’s the greatest. Nearing the end of the day it is a little bit more dry, but still super delic!