The Do's and Don'ts of my Disney Deluxe December!

[stephielela]

Loving it, and the pics are so great, you all look so happy. We were there at the same time, nice to hear your perspective of it all! It was my first trip at Christmas time and I loved it!

On the room request thing, I called my resort directly after I had done my on-line check in and they noted and were able to fu-fill my request, not sure if it was a one off or what, but calling seemed to work.

Look forward to hearing all about your trip! And your DS is cute as can be in all the pics.

Welcome, I am enjoying your report as well!
I think its so cool to read other TR's from the same time and see how people did things differently!

I should have called, but I did get most of what I wanted so it's all good.

Thanks, Jack was definitely NOT cute the whole trip, he has become very independent... more on that in later posts!

 

[stephielela]

Enjoying your trip report. I have been debating on trying the California Grill on our next trip.

It was a great experience! We timed it specifically for the fireworks, we knew they were at 9:30, and it seems that as long as you get in 2 hours or less before, you will still be enjoying your meal when it's time. They really draw out the courses and pace the meal well to accomodate the show.

 

[Queenofallthings]

Found your TR this evening! Can't wait to read more...your little man is more than cute!!!

 

[saralexander97]

I am soooo excited to read your TR because I will be taking a 2 1/2 year old in December 2011. I hope to get a lot of great tips =)

 

[thechesters420]

Love the do's and dont's!!

 

[luckylady]

Wow I don't think I would have been as great as you were with the plane delay, but I understand things happen(snow!) Jack is just to cute Great first day and can't wait(with popcorn) for first day park.

 

[ChildAtHeart82]

I'm here! And now I need to go back and read everything. I am so far behind on everyone's reports after our trip! I'm looking forward to hearing about everything and figuring out close our paths crossed on our Hollywood Studios day.

 

[ChildAtHeart82]

Caught up now! Glad you eventually made it despite the delays. I laughed about you getting a margarita in the airport. I definitely appreciate your strategy of coping with the stress. I'm glad you got your room requests. After our check-in, I kind of got the impression they ignored all of our carefully thought through room request as well. If we hadn't said anything, we would have ended up with two rooms in different buildings as far away from the building we requested as possible, when we had requested connecting rooms. The CM's were helpful at least.

California Grill looks amazing. It will definitely be a must-do for us on our next trip. Looking forward to reading more!

 

[leshunlenese]

im here! i certaintly want to try cali grill on my next trip!

 

[stephielela]

Found your TR this evening! Can't wait to read more...your little man is more than cute!!!

Welcome!!! Thanks so much, but I promise if you had sene the fit he threw when we tried to take him on Winnie the Pooh... you wouldn't think he was so cute!

I am soooo excited to read your TR because I will be taking a 2 1/2 year old in December 2011. I hope to get a lot of great tips =)

Wow, now the pressure is on I will give you my best advice! Welcome!

Love the do's and dont's!!

Welcome! I just felt that this trip was such a obvious lesson learning experience, I couldn't help but overanalyze and share!

Wow I don't think I would have been as great as you were with the plane delay, but I understand things happen(snow!) Jack is just to cute Great first day and can't wait(with popcorn) for first day park.

Well, if you ask my family, I was pretty witchy about it at times, but that was just the frustration at trying to get all 5 of us moving in the right direction at the same time! Jack certainly is photogenic, and knows how to charm people

Caught up now! Glad you eventually made it despite the delays. I laughed about you getting a margarita in the airport. I definitely appreciate your strategy of coping with the stress. I'm glad you got your room requests. After our check-in, I kind of got the impression they ignored all of our carefully thought through room request as well. If we hadn't said anything, we would have ended up with two rooms in different buildings as far away from the building we requested as possible, when we had requested connecting rooms. The CM's were helpful at least.

California Grill looks amazing. It will definitely be a must-do for us on our next trip. Looking forward to reading more!

Welcome over! Yes, when everything is falling apart, a nice dose of tequila puts life in perspective! Ok, maybe not all the time, but it helped this time. CG was great, I definitely reccomend it!

im here! i certaintly want to try cali grill on my next trip!

Welcome! It was AWESOME

 

[mermaid764]

Joining in

The Cali Grill looks wonderful, especially for the view of the fireworks....this is definitely on my must do for our next trip.

Your son is adorable and I can't wait to hear all about your vacation!

 

[stephielela]

Joining in

The Cali Grill looks wonderful, especially for the view of the fireworks....this is definitely on my must do for our next trip.

Your son is adorable and I can't wait to hear all about your vacation!

Welcome!! It is a unique view for the fireworks, it's pretty sweet! Thanks for the compliment about Jack!

 

[stephielela]

Happy New Year everyone!!! As part of my "resolutions" I started my new blog today! The link is in my signature!

 

[KELLY]

I'm a litle late but caught up! Enjoying your report. We were thinking of staying at CBR but I cannot stomach to pay another 700.00 for a room for 9 days.

 

[stephielela]

I'm a litle late but caught up! Enjoying your report. We were thinking of staying at CBR but I cannot stomach to pay another 700.00 for a room for 9 days.

Welcome!! I know exactly what you mean, in fact I posted my opinion about CBR over on the CBR FAQ thread. I will probably repost it here as well later on.

 

[stephielela]

After our super long day I had decided to do the unthinkable- NOT get up early to go to MK for rope drop! I knew Jack needed some sleep and I also knew we would be doing RD at MK later on in the week. RD was at 9 so my dad and sister left about 8:15. (They later reported they were there in plenty of time for the opening show). It had been a pretty rough night sharing a bed with Jack, so I decided to call and see if they had rollaways. I went and hung out in my parent’s room with my mom so I wouldn’t wake Jack. CBR does in fact have rollaways. They charge $15 plus tax per night. A bit steep, but if it meant a better nights sleep, it was worth it for a few nights at least. Someone brought the rollaway about 30 minutes later while we were still being lazy.

We knew we had to leave for Epcot around 12-12:30 since we had a 1:50 pm ADR at Les Chefs. My mom and I both showered and got dressed and then I woke Jack up around 10 I think. We decided to walk over to OPR to pick up our mugs and something for Jack to eat, since he decided mini-muffins weren’t good (This is a recurring problem we have on vacations, since he always eats either frozen pancakes, frozen waffles, or eggs at home). Once we got there Jack decided he wanted a banana so we got our drinks and I paid OOP for his banana (I figured I wanted to use snack credits for things that cost more than $1.39) and we went to sit outside.

The forecast for this day said mid 70’s and it was going to likely be the warmest day we had, so we determined that if swimming was going to be done, it needed to get done this morning. We decided to walk around the island with the playground on our way back to Barbados, and of course we had to tear Jack away after about 15 minutes.

We got back to the room and my dad and sister were back and ready to head to the pool. We drove over to save time (we only had about 30 minutes to swim) and when we got there we scored some towels and a life jacket for Jack. Then we dipped our toes in and turned right around and left. Just kidding! I wish we could have. We got in the water (slooooowly) and then swam around with Jack. He didn’t want to go on any of the slides, and I think we lasted about 25 minutes before we were done. We drove back to the room and got dressed again and headed out!

 

[stephielela]

We headed over to Epcot, my favorite place in the world as well as the World. I L-O-V- E the World Showcase. Maybe it’s because I like to travel so much, but for whatever reason, I was looking forward to being in my happy place! We got parked and onto our first tram ride of the trip!

It seemed to be that almost every day we had to park at the very far end of the row. Some bad luck I guess. Anywho, we made our way inside, and we were a bit ahead of schedule so we glanced in a shop or two in future World, and opted to get a locker for our cold weather gear (we thought we might need it if we stayed for the late EMH’s). Then we headed towards France via Canada and the UK.

We glanced around a bit but we were pretty hungry so we decided to just go ahead and check in a bit early in hopes we would get seated earlier. It worked! In fact, we checked in early for a fair amount of our ADR’s and getting seated was NEVER a problem. I’m not sure there was ever a time that we got seated later than our ADR time by more than 5 minutes, which has not in the past been the case. I know that in August of ’09 we were seated 40 minutes after our ADR time for Crystal Palace, and the last time we had eaten at Les Chefs, it was a similar situation. I usually don’t mind because I know an ADR is not the same as a reservation, but I was very pleasantly surprised how smoothly all of our check ins were this time.
We got seated and our waiter came over shortly after and asked us if we were on the dining plan and if so which one. Then he explained to us what we could order. This got a little old, since we already knew what was covered in our plan, but I understand that there are a lot of people who are new to it, and the waiters need to know in order to ring it in right etc. It also seemed hit or miss as to whether or not Jack’s drinks were free. Most of the time we just shared food with him, and some places didn’t charge for his beverage, others didn’t. I was fine with paying for them, but it was confusing sometimes.
We all looked over the menu and knew pretty quickly what we wanted. We decided not to get alcoholic drinks because we were going to try the slushies from the kiosk later. I got the onion soup, the macaroni and cheese, and the crème brulee. My sister got the onion soup, the quiche, and the profiteroles. My mom had the cheese board (her experience at CG led her to do this several times), the crepe, and the profiteroles too. My dad had an appetizer that I can’t find, but it was a flatbread that was awesome! He had the croque monsieur and the crème brulee. Most of us enjoyed our food, but my dad wasn’t happy with is croque, he said it was too bready. Jack also refused to eat anything, but he drank a large glass of chocolate milk, so I wasn’t too worried. We also got to meet Remy which was pretty cute.

After lunch we looked around for a bit in France before going in to watch Impressions de France. That movie is SOOOOO outdated. Jack enjoyed it, but they really need to change it up a bit. After the show we looked around some more and I checked out a few perfumes in Givenchy. This is the only stand alone Givenchy store in the US. I found a perfume I liked, but I decided to wait till our second Epcot day since the set was about $80, and I wanted to be sure I liked it. We headed to the drink kiosk next, my mom got wine, my dad got a beer, I got a Grand Marnier slushie and my sister got the Grey Goose one which is actually lemon flavored. I liked hers best, but mine was pretty tasty too.
We decided to split up so my mom and sister could find a bathroom and I went with my dad over to Germany to get Jack a pretzel. We were walking over there and noticing the large amount of people already lining up for the 5pm Candlelight Processional. We decided we should meet back up at the end of the line, so we did, and they let us in shortly after. I think we got seats by about 4:30, and they were pretty close seats. Jack ate some pretzel while we waited for the show to start.

It was a great show. I had been worried that it wouldn’t be as nice with it still light outside, but it was fine. We have seen it before but it was still special. Thomas Gibson was our narrator and he did a great job. Jack was really good throughout the show and really seemed to enjoy it, which isn’t surprising since he loves music. It would have been nice to have been a little more towards the center because those trumpeters were LOUD. It was very nice though and we all enjoyed it.

We got done and out by about 5:50. We walked towards the Mexico end to see some sights before our 7:45 ADR and Le Cellier. We weren’t even remotely hungry yet. I tried to stop in Germany at Karamel Kuche but the line was out the door. Jack spent some time looking at the little train village.

We continued on to Mexico and went on the ride there. Jack loves Donald, so he enjoyed it. We shopped around a bit and then stopped in the Cava del Tequila and got a couple margaritas to go. We got a passion fruit one and a regular one. The passion fruit one was interesting, but ultimately I couldn’t drink much of it. My parents shared the other and they thought it was good, but not worth the price tag. It looked like a fun place to hang out, if you were childless, but a little crowded.

We walked around the bend towards Canada, stopping to try and get some juice for Jack. All we could get was lemonade. We finally got to Canada and decided to go see Oh Canada while we were waiting for our ADR time. By now it was dark and Jack got scared by the waterfall and started on a downward spiral. We made it through the film and went back out to check in. We did have to wait a few minutes here and Jack was quickly losing it. He was sitting in the stroller and started jumping around sloshing my margarita remnants everywhere! I got pretty upset, but luckily we got seated shortly after.

One thing I noticed for several reservations was that they put us at tiny tables. There were 4 adults and 1 child, but the routinely seemed to put us at a table for 4 and it got pretty crowded at times. Jack continued to be a troublemaker so once I knew what I was going to order, I took him out and we had a “talk”. He calmed down a bit and we went back in and was ok (not great, but better) for the rest of the meal.

Onto the food! I ordered the tomato stack, the mushroom filet and the chocolate moose. My dad ordered the roasted duck meatballs, the salt crusted prime rib and the chocolate whisky cake. My mom had the cheddar cheese soup, the new york strip and the chocolate moose. My sister also had the cheddar cheese soup and the chocolate moose, but I can’t remember what her entrée was. We ordered Jack a kids meal here to help him be happier, and because he kept saying he wanted a hot dog. We took all the desserts to go since we were tired and FULL. I loved every bit of my food, but NOTHING compares to the mushroom filet. It was amazing. It was a bit underdone for my taste, but I still LOVED it. Everyone tried it and agreed it was the best thing there.

After we were done we decided not to stick around for EMH’s so we headed back to CBR. We stopped by OPR for drinks and so I could add money to my gift card (long story, I will include in another post). We headed back to the room, got ready for the next day and ate a bit of the desserts. The Moose was tasty! We then went to bed since we had an early morning at AK!

Do's and Don'ts of Day 2!

DO book a Candlelight Processional Package. The line of people waiting at 3:30 pm just for standby was CRAZY. It's so much nicer to know you are going to have a seat regardless. Plus the CP is AMAZING and great for getting you into the holiday spirit.

DON'T sit on the railing in shows like Oh, Canada. The CM's specifically ask you not to and it's irritating. Especially if you are a grown man with children doing it. You are setting a bad example. And you are probably too heavy for it too.

DO try the shlushies in France!

DO whatever it takes to try the Mushroom Filet.

DON'T push 2 year olds too far. DO skip an early morning if you know your child needs sleep!

DO wait in line for Karamel Kuche. There is always a line, just do it, I wish I had!

 

[LisaKeys]

All caught up - and happy 2 have found your TR.

For me it's:

DO subscribe to your TR.

DON'T hesitate to watch for e-mail notifications.

 

[PrincessInOz]

DON'T forget to occassionally check all your subscribed threads in your User CP or you'll miss out on the start of a great TR.

DO sign up....even if you're late and on page 3!


All caught up and loving the TR!

 

[stephielela]

All caught up - and happy 2 have found your TR.

For me it's:

DO subscribe to your TR.

DON'T hesitate to watch for e-mail notifications.

Welcome!!! I'm so glad you are enjoying it!!

DON'T forget to occassionally check all your subscribed threads in your User CP or you'll miss out on the start of a great TR.

DO sign up....even if you're late and on page 3!


All caught up and loving the TR!

Haha, thanks for joining us!! I bet you are getting excited about your upcoming trip! And don't worry, I only just finished Day 2!