The Twelve Days of Disney (A Christmas/Birthday TR) *UPDATE x2 2/12 COMPLETE!*

[holleypie]

MONDAY DECEMBER 3RD (PART 3)​

After I'd almost given him up for dead, Brian finally returned (to be fair, I'm pretty sure POTC's current wait time was 20 minutes, and less than 30 minutes had elapsed). I seriously needed a break from the baby, so I told Brian I wanted to do Big Thunder Mountain Railroad next (after I left the Halloween party on our last trip, Brian and Tom rode BTMR without me). We grabbed our first baby swap pass of the trip and I volunteered for the arduous task of waiting in the standby line alone. It was probably the first ride of my life where I did not care how long I had to wait in line, and the time just flew by. I stopped short of letting other people go ahead of me, but I briefly considered it.

I was hoping my darling son would be asleep when I exited the ride...but he wasn't. Also, he smelled foul. Brian hopped on BTMR with his rider swap pass while I went off in search of the nearest bathroom, which I think was Pecos Bill's.

After Brian rode, we headed to Columbia Harbour House for dinner (was that "dirty diaper" to "dinner" transition smooth enough for you?)

This is one of our regular restaurants, but I wanted to try something new this time, so I got the lighthouse sandwich.

I wasn't 100% confident in that choice, so I also ordered my standard vegetarian chili.

It was a lot of food. I shared with Luke and we only ended up eating about 2/3 of each. Between the hummus and the dressing in the broccoli slaw, the sandwich was just a lot...wetter than I was expecting. It was just fine, but I'll stick with the chili next time.

Brian got chicken nuggets. Again.

We tried a lot of new restaurants on this trip, so I devised a rating scale and made Brian rate all of the restaurants with me on the drive home.

Here is the scale we came up with:

4 stars: Loved it. Will definitely have again.
3 stars: Good. Would have again.
2 stars: Okay. Nothing special.
1 star: Bad. Just bad.

Because it's an old favorite, we obviously both rated CHH a 4. I would give the lighthouse sandwich itself a 2.5. I would have it again if it was my only vegetarian option, but when deciding between that and the chili, the chili will always win.

After dinner, Luke fell asleep. Hallelujah! I wanted to get on another ride, so we went over to Space Mountain. I let Brian do standby this time...because the fireworks were just starting, and I wanted to watch them. I'm so selfish. I was a little worried that the noise would wake Luke up...but not so worried that I went and hid in a gift shop. I'd missed Hallowishes in October so I really wanted to see Wishes! Fortunately, he slept through it.

When it was my turn to ride, I didn't have a long wait at all. The great thing about doing Space Mountain alone is that they almost always have extra seats to fill, so they call out for single riders and you get to skip ahead. I developed a much greater appreciation for Space Mountain on this trip. I feel comfortable listing it with Tower of Terror as one of my favorite rides.

Next, we walked over and looked in Big Top Souvenirs, because we realized we'd skipped it entirely last trip. It was pretty adorable. I love the snack counter in the center of the store.

About a week or two before our trip, I saw this seven-pin set on sale at the Disney Store for $10.

Individual pins are crazy expensive, so that's a pretty awesome deal. I intended to buy the pins for the purpose of trading, but then I realized...actually, they're pretty adorable. So I bought one set to keep and one to trade.

At Big Top Souvenirs, they had this super cute alternative to a pin board:

I traded for an "H" letter pin, and we gave them the pin of Chip and Dale with popcorn. I'll pretend we did that intentionally, to be cute, instead of just grabbing that one by chance and being amused by the coincidence.

I didn't take any more pictures, so I guess maybe we left soon after this. On our way out I traded with a CM at one of the kiosks right near the entrance for the "Y" letter pin. She asked me if I knew who the character was and I didn't, so she explained it to me.

I went to show it to Brian and told him what I'd learned. "This is Yesnid. He's a sorcerer. His name is 'Disney' spelled backwards."

"No," he said. "That is Yen Sid. His name is 'Disney' spelled backwards."

Oh, whatever. He's such a know-it-all.

Here are my pins for the day:

I can't remember when I bought that lock and key pin, but I love it so much. Normally when I see something I like, I have to mull it over before I buy it, but I bought this one without hesitation (it helped that my father-in-law had given me a Disney gift card for my birthday, plus I had that sweet 20% off merchandise discount). I maybe should have procrastinated a bit because Brian told me later, "I liked that pin too. I was actually going to buy it." Oh well. It'll look better on my corkboard anyway.

Here are Brian's pins so far:

The four on the right were from mystery packs. I'm not sure if he traded any or all of them away.

Day 2 Summary: It was nice to get settled in at AKL, and I was totally happy with our room. The Christmas decorations, even though I barely managed to get any pictures, gave the Magic Kingdom such a different feel. I was worried I wouldn't get a chance to see ANY fireworks on this trip, so it was great to see Wishes on our very first night. I'd wanted to get Luke's haircut today but we didn't end up having the time, so I completed 0/30 items on my birthday list. Great start!

 

[holleypie]

Great report so far. Love it
Luke is such a cutie

Thanks!

 

[clynngibson]

Hi!! I jumped over from my trip report to read yours! I only read the first post so far, but didn't want to forget what I wanted to say! LOL

I am so jealous you got to vacation for 2 weeks!! DH's schedule is changing so that we will both be working 7 on/7 off, so if we take vacation strategically, we'll both be off for 2 weeks together. 2 weeks in Disney would be awesome!! I'm trying to get him to agree to an October 2013 trip.

I'm in North Carolina and DH and I make fun of Biscuitville so much!!! We tried them once and the biscuits were hard and terrible! But, we decided maybe they were having an off day, so we gave them a second try. Wrong! Terrible again! If biscuit is gonna be in your name, please perfect your biscuits!! LOL

We totally missed South of the Border! Probably since we drove through the night. I will make sure to look for it next time! LOL Hilarious!!

Your DS is too cute! I love that smile!!!

 

[clynngibson]

I forgot to say that I packed the same way you did! I had a suitcase, DH had one, and the kids had one. Not to mention all our misc. stuff I decided we needed to take! lol We didn't wear one of the cold weather outfits I planned!!

 

[heaven2dc]

Luke is so adorable! Love the pics where he's exploring the AKL room - reminds me of my grandson on our first visit

Your trip sounds so perfect starting off with a relaxing vacation to HH and then your beautiful Savannah view room. The idea of wearing coordinating clothes is so fun - loved your Tinkerbell dress

 

[glennbo123]

Signing on! I love that picture of Brian and Luke playing checkers!

You guys always slip in some really funny pictures.

 

[holleypie]

Hi!! I jumped over from my trip report to read yours! I only read the first post so far, but didn't want to forget what I wanted to say! LOL

I am so jealous you got to vacation for 2 weeks!! DH's schedule is changing so that we will both be working 7 on/7 off, so if we take vacation strategically, we'll both be off for 2 weeks together. 2 weeks in Disney would be awesome!! I'm trying to get him to agree to an October 2013 trip.

I'm in North Carolina and DH and I make fun of Biscuitville so much!!! We tried them once and the biscuits were hard and terrible! But, we decided maybe they were having an off day, so we gave them a second try. Wrong! Terrible again! If biscuit is gonna be in your name, please perfect your biscuits!! LOL

We totally missed South of the Border! Probably since we drove through the night. I will make sure to look for it next time! LOL Hilarious!!

Your DS is too cute! I love that smile!!!

Thanks!

Yeah, the biscuit was pretty sad. And my favorite breakfast biscuit is Burger King, so my standards are probably REALLY low to begin with.

South of the Border is definitely a great place to stop and stretch your legs after you've been on the road for awhile. It's just so ridiculous.

I forgot to say that I packed the same way you did! I had a suitcase, DH had one, and the kids had one. Not to mention all our misc. stuff I decided we needed to take! lol We didn't wear one of the cold weather outfits I planned!!

I packed two or three jackets for Luke and four for myself. I would have been prepared for anything, including a real blizzard on Main Street.

Luke is so adorable! Love the pics where he's exploring the AKL room - reminds me of my grandson on our first visit

Your trip sounds so perfect starting off with a relaxing vacation to HH and then your beautiful Savannah view room. The idea of wearing coordinating clothes is so fun - loved your Tinkerbell dress

Thanks!

Picking out our outfits was fun, even though we didn't get to wear half of them. I need to buy Brian some more Disney clothes so he can play along.

Signing on! I love that picture of Brian and Luke playing checkers!

You guys always slip in some really funny pictures.

Welcome!

Brian sat Luke down in the chair and walked away and I was like, "OH MY GOD, WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" Haha. But it is a really cute picture, especially since Luke didn't slide out of the chair and fall on his face.

 

[holleypie]

TUESDAY DECEMBER 4TH​

On our first full day at Disney World, we took our time in the morning having breakfast and getting ready. We looked around Zawadi Marketplace and I bought myself a new pair of ears with the rest of my birthday gift card.

Then we got in the car and started off on a long journey...

...over to Animal Kingdom.

I LOVED the big Christmas tree out front, and I made Brian go take pictures while I waited in the bag check line.

Not sure where Pooh is!

Next, I took a picture to make sure my ears looked all right.

I love my ears but didn't end up wearing them much because they didn't match my shirt. Ha. I almost bought an animal print shirt at K-Mart before our trip, but I couldn't decide if it was tacky in a fun way or just...tacky.

We walked past a CM who doted on Luke and then asked me if I knew where the baby care center was. I've been there before, but I let her tell me anyway. We ended up passing her again five minutes later and had the exact same conversation, but this time Brian interrupted and told her we'd just talked to her. Now I'm having a memory of her having an alligator or a dinosaur puppet, and she bit Brian with it? Maybe I'm making this up. Actually, I think all of this might have happened on our SECOND Animal Kingdom day. Jump in any time, Brian.

Our destination:

Dinoland.

I'd bought Brian a "Carnivore" dinosaur shirt on our last trip to match my "Vegetarian" dino shirt, but it was the wrong size (not my fault--the hanger said the wrong size!). The receipt said that exchanges and returns were good for thirty days, and it had actually been more like 40, so I decided to just try my luck without the receipt, and not explicitly state that I'd bought the shirt in October.

We found the shirt in the appropriate size. We gave the woman the wrong-sized shirt and asked if we could exchange it. She asked if we had the receipt. We said no. She kind of shrugged. So we took the shirt and left. Easy enough!

(We'd had a dinosaur shirt for Luke to wear too, but it was long sleeves so he wore an animal-themed outfit instead).

For our first ride, we decided to do something we had skipped on our last trip. Well...that could be pretty much anything, because we were only at AK for a few hours on our departure day. Anyway, it was:

Dinosaur!

We got a rider swap pass, and Brian rode while I stayed with Luke. We walked around Dinoland for a bit, and then waited inside the gift shop for Brian.

For some reason, I didn't feel like doing Dinosaur right away. Instead, I had my eye on Primeval Whirl, so Brian waited with Luke while I rode. I was worried that, as a single rider, they might make me ride with strangers. I should not have worried. There was NOT ONE SINGLE PERSON in line. When the ride was over, they even asked me if I wanted to ride again. So I did. I mean, it would have been rude not to.

Brian decided to ride Primeval Whirl when I got off, so I took Luke on TriceraTop Spin. It was not very thrilling for either of us, but there was no line and it WAS more exciting than sitting on a bench!

When we got off TriceraTop Spin, I noticed an interesting character out for meeting and greeting.

IT WAS SANTA GOOFY.

As you probably recall, meeting Santa Goofy was on my birthday list. I had thought he was only at Hollywood Studios during the Osborne Lights, so that's where I had planned to meet him. In reality, Santa Goofy ended up being EVERYWHERE, but I didn't know that yet, so we hopped in line to meet him and Pluto. They took a break when it was nearly our turn, so I think this was actually the longest line we waited in all day.

I took some awful photos of the Christmas tree while we waited because I thought the ornaments were cute.

Then it was our turn. And I forgot to take my silly glasses off. Oops.

It was time for Luke to eat, so I found a bench on a quiet trail and fed him. After I sat down, I realized we were right across from this guy:

So people kept walking up to take pictures and it wasn't such a secluded spot, actually. Oh well.

Afterwards, Luke was quite happy.

I decided to take my turn on Dinosaur. I rode with a bunch of teenage girls and one teen boy. They were adorable. They made the boy sit on the end and one of the girls was like, "I rode this when I was eight, and my parents made me sit on the end, and it was the scariest moment of my life!"

Afterwards the guy was like, "...Yeah, that wasn't scary at all." Haha. It really wasn't. I remember it being scarier the first time I rode it, but I guess I was only scared because I didn't know what to expect.

Meanwhile, Brian and Luke were playing in the Boneyard.

After I met up with them, we unanimously decided it was time for lunch.

 

[holleypie]

TUESDAY OCTOBER 4TH (PART 2)​

We didn't have to leave Dinoland for lunch because we were going to...

Restaurantosaurus. This was a "new to us" restaurant but I had already scoped it out online and I knew what I wanted to order, and I knew that I wanted to head all the way to the back of the restaurant and eat in the Airstream booth.

I was so insistent on getting the Airstream booth, I left Brian to order and I went to secure it. I don't know why I worried. The place was absolutely empty.

The Airstream trailer was at the back of the basketball court. There were actually two booths, on either side of the jukebox.

I took pictures of the decor while I waited for Brian.

Brian came over a few minutes later...without food. He said that the vegetable sub couldn't come without onions. They told him it was "premade." Ewww. I hate onions, so he stayed with Luke and I went back up to the counter to see what I wanted instead. As it turns out, the vegetable sub was basically my only option, so I ordered it as-is and just picked the onions off.

Here it is:

And Brian ordered the bacon cheeseburger:

Maybe knowing it was "premade" had left me biased, but I was pretty disappointed with the sandwich. The zucchini was really mushy and I had to pull it off.

I gave Restaurantosaurus 2 stars. Brian gave it 2.5. So, I doubt we'll be back anytime soon. The decor was adorable, though! Definitely worth doing once.

After lunch, we were finally ready to head out of Dinoland.

Brian rode Expedition Everest first. We didn't get a rider swap pass because we planned to use the single rider line. Last time we did this, we practically walked on. Today? Not so much. I don't think we quite waited 20 minutes (current wait time for the standby line) but it was pretty close.

While I waited for Brian, I did some pin trading in the shop. I saw an orange bird which I wasn't sure if Brian or Tom needed, but I grabbed it anyway just in case. I also saw an adorable Donald Duck pin. They have this same design in rubber ducky form in the gift shops, and I'd thought about getting it but hadn't. Afterwards Brian informed me that it was part a series, so THEN we had to find the whole series. Oops.

While we're on the subject, here are Brian's pins for the day:

There's that orange bird again. I think that's the one he got in Hilton Head, then he misplaced it, then he found it today. Big Al and the Yeti were part of the Park Starz series. Big Al was the "revealed" pin, and the Yeti was a mystery pin.

After Everest, Brian wanted to do Kali River Rapids. I'm not a fan of water rides, so we didn't get a rider swap pass. Luke was asleep so I hung out in the shade near the Fast Pass distribution.

Does Brian even look wet in this picture? I can't remember.

Since Luke was sleeping and everything else we wanted to do at AK involved him, we decided to go back to the room for a rest break.

 

[Reddog1134]

Signing on! I love that picture of Brian and Luke playing checkers!

You guys always slip in some really funny pictures.

Brian sat Luke down in the chair and walked away and I was like, "OH MY GOD, WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" Haha. But it is a really cute picture, especially since Luke didn't slide out of the chair and fall on his face.

Notice that I am sitting slightly OUT of the chair with my foot planted in a "launch ready" position so I can spring into action of Luke makes a sudden move.

Thanks for stopping by Glenn.

 

[holleypie]

TUESDAY DECEMBER 4 (PART 3)​

Back at the room, Brian took a nap. Luke didn't sleep much longer, then after he'd had some time to crawl around the room and play, we took a walk around the resort and down to The Mara so I could buy my refillable mug.

Here's a better view of the Christmas tree at Jambo House, taken from the little bridge thingy on the fifth floor.

There was usually some kind of craft happening down there in the lobby, but it looked too old for Luke so we never stopped to check it out.

An ostrich lamp I'd never noticed before!

Outside.

I loved the giraffe elevator doors.

I walked in the wrong direction, so we had a lovely walk around the pool before we got to The Mara.

Back in the room, Brian woke up and I tried to discuss what we were going to do next. I think I was pushing to go back to Magic Kingdom and get Luke's haircut. Our plan for the evening was to tour the monorail resorts, so it would have been convenient. But Brian told me we couldn't go to Magic Kingdom...because I had a birthday surprise at 5pm.

Whaaaaaat? He hadn't mentioned any birthday surprises! Apparently he had scheduled a massage for me. I was so excited. I've only ever had massages on vacation and it's such a nice treat.

I asked Brian what we were going to do AFTER my massage...and he said I was going to watch the baby while he got his massage. Haha. Okay then.

Brian went down to the spa to see if we could bump our massages up by an hour and get an earlier start on our evening plans. That wasn't a problem. Brian asked if I wanted to go first or keep the 5pm appointment. Of course I went first. It was already almost 4 so I had to leave right away. Good thing I'd shaved my legs that morning!

The massage was great. Totally relaxing. The masseuse knew she was doing Brian's massage next so she asked if he was going to pay for both of them and I said yes. After I was finished, I saw Brian waiting just outside, so I started to leave. The guy at the front desk practically chased me down, thinking I wasn't going to pay. Ha.

While Brian got his massage, Luke and I played on the playground, then I took him to the arcade which was empty so I let him crawl around.

He was having a ball, and he didn't tell me he had already spent quite a bit of time in the arcade with Daddy. Then a bunch of kids showed up, so we left and played on a deck chair while we waited for Brian to be finished.

 

[holleypie]

TUESDAY DECEMBER 4 (PART 4)​

After resting and getting massaged, we were ready for an intense evening of resort hopping (#27 on my birthday list!) We parked at Magic Kingdom and jumped on the monorail. First stop?

Looks like the Polynesian Resort!

We've been here before to eat at Kona Cafe, so we were a little familiar with the resort.

We'd had an early lunch and we were ready for a bite to eat. #24 on my birthday list was "Have a Lapu Lapu at the Polynesian" so we headed upstairs to the Tambu Lounge, which unfortunately is also the Ohana waiting area so it was pretty crowded.

Luke was restless, so I fed him while we waited.

Then our beautiful Lapu Lapus arrived!

(I really wanted a picture of myself WITH the Lapu Lapu, because I love pineapples...but it seemed a little mean to put the baby down so I could pose with my alcohol.)

We also got an order of crisp breads and dips.

I loved the breads except for the one all the way on the left, which I didn't even bother finishing. I liked the dips in this order: Roasted red pepper hummus (center), baba ghanoush (left), and sun-dried tomato pesto (right). I think this was actually the first time I ever had baba ghanoush. I was pretty thrilled with the food and rated it a 3. Brian was not quite as impressed and gave it a 2.

After we'd each drank the contents of an entire pineapple and after I'd killed that bread and dip appetizer, we hopped back on the monorail.

Next stop:

Oh my goodness--this place is SWANKY. This was the first time I'd ever been there. Brian was there last year to pick my parents up after they had dinner at Victoria and Albert's. I'm not a swanky person, but I really loved it.

I mean, just look:

And, there was a band playing!

It kind of reminded me of the first time my parents ever took us to shop at Nordstrom when I was 13 (we were lower middle class so mostly shopped thrift stores and bargain bins) and I was so blown away that they had a REAL LIVE PIANO PLAYER. The fact that I just compared the Grand Floridian Resort to a mall department store should tell you how often I go to fancy places.

There is a Basin store inside the Grand Floridian, so I went there to buy some bath bombs, as I like to do on vacation. I'm pretty sure Brian went in a regular gift shop. I picked out the mickey head bath bomb, water lily, and I asked one of the girls working there to pick out a third one for me. She suggested her favorite, which was vanilla grapefruit.

My camera died, so Brian had to take the rest of the pictures for the evening. He does a better job; I don't know why he doesn't take ALL our pictures.

The Grand Floridian has a huge gingerbread house in the lobby. It's pretty spectacular.

In the elevator going back up, a woman started asking us about the Christmas party. I have no idea why she thought we looked like we knew anything about the party, but since we did, we told her all about it and suggested she could probably buy tickets at the resort.

We hopped back on the monorail and headed to the last stop: The Contemporary Resort.

I am continuously underwhelmed by the Contemporary. Most of the Christmas decorations seemed to be OUTSIDE so there wasn't even anything to look at.

They did have this gingerbread display inside, but we didn't get a great picture.

We thought about getting food at the Contempo Cafe, but I was pretty full from the breads and dips, and Brian didn't see anything he really wanted. So the Contemporary was basically a glorified bathroom break.

In the elevator back up to the monorail stop, we ran into that same woman from the Grand Floridian! She said she'd taken our advice and bought tickets to the Christmas party on the 6th.

Touring the monorail resorts to look at the Christmas decorations is a pretty commonly recommended activity on the Disboards, which is why I wanted to do it. I don't want to say it was a let down. But really...the decorations at the Polynesian and Contemporary weren't anything extraordinary. The Grand Floridian is the only resort I would recommend visiting (unless, of course, you've never been to the others and just want to check them out).

We took the monorail back to TTC and drove back to AKL. Brian went down to The Mara and got some food (chicken, probably) and brought me some pineapple but I was more tired than hungry so I went to bed and saved it for breakfast.

Day 3 Summary: We did a lot today! Animal Kingdom wasn't busy at all, so we did a lot in a short time. I was super excited about my surprise birthday massage. Touring the monorail resorts was fun, but I think that the only resort I would go out of my way for in the future would be The Grand Floridian. I also enjoyed our snacks (well, I guess it ended up being my dinner) at the Polynesian. I checked 3/30 items off my birthday list today.

 

[clynngibson]

The Grand Floridian is the resort I'm most upset that we skipped!!! It looks so beautiful!

 

[holleypie]

The Grand Floridian is the resort I'm most upset that we skipped!!! It looks so beautiful!

It really is! Even though I felt like a street urchin who didn't belong there, I'm getting really excited for the DVC expansion so we can afford to stay there someday.

 

[holleypie]

WEDNESDAY DECEMBER 5TH​

Because I like to be a little wild and crazy on vacation, I woke up at 7am on Wednesday and did a load of laundry. Brian had run out of clean shorts and I was up anyway. There were two washing machines and four dryers. The machines are free for DVC members, but detergent and dryer sheets were each $1. I'd brought two sample-size things of detergent that I had saved just for the trip, but I'd completely forgotten about dryer sheets. I figured that since dryer sheets cost about a nickel each in the real world, at Disney I would get five dryer sheets for a dollar. It was worse than I expected. I got two dryer sheets. TWO. The washing machine I used was some kind of high capacity behemoth, so all of our laundry fit into one load. And because I didn't want to waste both my dryer sheets at once, I crammed all of it into one dryer after it was finished washing.

I ate my pineapple and a Luna bar for breakfast, then fed Luke. When I went back to check on the laundry, of course the clothes were still wet and I had to turn it back on. I got myself and Luke dressed, then Brian retrieved the laundry and folded it.

Finally, we were ready to head to a park. Luke was so excited to find out where we were going today, he fell asleep in the car.

It's Epcot! My favorite!

The official opening day for Test Track wasn't until tomorrow, but we walked over to see if they were doing dress rehearsals.

Brian rode in the single rider line while I hung out with the baby, then we switched. As a person who was never a big fan of Test Track to begin with, I couldn't have been less impressed with the changes, although I can understand why someone who enjoys Test Track, or cars, or technology might find it interesting. The ride itself was basically the same, with the biggest difference being that you could "design your own car" and see how it performs against your companions' cars, which I didn't have the patience for or interest in doing. Maybe if I had done the ride with Brian my competitive nature would have kicked in and I would have cared about out-performing him. I did not care at all about out-performing the elderly couple I shared a car with.

When I came back, Luke was awake now so we ditched the stroller and headed over to The Land.

We were finally going to do our first ride as a family on this trip!

Normally I wouldn't have waited 15-20 minutes for this, but I wanted Luke to be able to do something. Unfortunately, he was more interested in eating so he spent most of the ride nursing. Okay then.

Since we were there, we decided to grab some food at Sunshine Seasons. We've eaten there before, so we knew it would be a solid choice.

I got the vegetable soup because I actually wasn't very hungry yet.

And Brian had....hmmm, maybe a pork chop and mashed potatoes?

The soup itself was just your ordinary vegetable soup, but because of the wide variety of foods I can actually eat here, I give Sunshine Seasons a 4. Brian enjoyed his food too and gave it a 3.5.

Next we did Journey into Imagination, which was more interesting than I remember. Luke seemed vaguely impressed, too.

Next we decided to get on...

The monorail. Yeah, it feels like we just got here, but we're already heading over to Magic Kingdom!

Actually, we took some Photopass pictures first. I had pre-ordered the CD and we were doing a woeful job of stopping for pictures. I wanted to make sure we at least got a nice family portrait at the front of each park, and I think these turned out pretty nice.

So. We took the monorail to Magic Kingdom.

Brian went here:

then to Guest Relations to pick up my sister's boyfriend's MVMCP ticket. He signed on for the trip just a few weeks before we left, so he'd bought his tickets after the rest of us had already gotten ours.

Meanwhile, I actually bothered to take some pictures of the tree today.

If you've been following along, you probably know what's happening next.

 

[holleypie]

WEDNESDAY DECEMBER 5TH (Part 2)​

The last time I was in the Harmony Barber Shop, I went with my teen sister and we waited for quite awhile. There was no sign-in sheet, so we had to stay vigilant and remember who had been waiting before us and after us to make sure we didn't get skipped. Honestly, it was entirely too stressful and I have no idea why there's no flipping sign-in sheet. The waiting area is also super small, so I was worried about how we were going to keep Luke entertained while we waited.

But when we walked in, I realized that would not be a problem. There were no customers in the barber shop at all, so Norma took Luke right away and plastered him with Mickey stickers.

You might be wondering why we're getting the kid's haircut when he barely has any hair to begin with. Well, it was long and shaggy around his ears, and was starting to look pretty ridiculous, so it needed to be trimmed. There obviously will not be any dramatic before and after photos.

Brian videotaped it while I took seven million pictures. I wasn't expecting to get sentimental about this, because I'm not sentimental about my own hair. I grow it out until it's pretty long, and then I cut it all off and start over, and it's just one of those cycle-of-life kind of things.

But watching MY BABY sit in the barber chair all by himself was completely different. I really thought one of us would have to hold him, but he just sat there like a big boy and got his hair cut.

Yes, I cried just a little.

After I was sure he wasn't going to freak out, I pulled the pacifier out of his mouth so I could actually get some pictures of his adorable face.

He wasn't crazy about the razor. Haha.

With the baby's first haircut package, you get these "First Haircut" mouse ears, and a lock of hair. And more Mickey stickers. A baby can NEVER have enough Mickey stickers.

Luke's legs look so weird in this picture.

Next, Luke and I took another trip to the baby care center. Meanwhile, Brian bought himself some Oswald ears:

Then we went over to Haunted Mansion. I was noticing now that Luke was MUCH more interested in the rides than he had been in October. He didn't get scared, though. Just looked around at everything.

After the ride, we got a pretzel and I asked Brian if he wanted to do some more at MK, or hop back to Epcot. Brian told me we weren't going to do either...because I had another birthday surprise.

Another surprise! A girl could get used to this. I told him I was going to be expecting a surprise every day of the trip now. He assured me this was the last one (Spoiler Alert: It really was).

I tried to get him to tell me what it was, but he wouldn't.

Was it something we were all going to do together?

Yes.

Was I dressed appropriately?

Yes.

Did we need to go back to Epcot and get the car?

No.

He admitted that he had forgotten about this surprise until we were already in Magic Kingdom. Haha. I'm glad he remembered!

On our way out of the park, we saw this poster:

I'm kind of in love with Tori Spelling, and I loved Sister, Sister, and there's nothing I love more than a cheesy TV movie, so I really wanted to see this. But it was coming on Sunday, the night that I had picked as my "night out."

Brian led the way to the resort launches.

And toward Fort Wilderness.

Soon, the boat came and we were on our way.

I still wasn't sure what we were doing. We'd been to Fort Wilderness last year for the Hoop De Doo Revue, but that wasn't something I thought Brian would surprise me with.

Do YOU know?

 

[holleypie]

WEDNESDAY DECEMBER 5TH (PART 3)​

After a nice little boat ride, we arrived.

Brian said the surprise wasn't happening until 5:30, and we arrived at 4:30, so we had an entire hour to kill. Brian didn't know exactly where we were supposed to go, so we walked around while he figured it out.

Festive golf cart. You can rent golf carts to get around the campground. When my family stayed there (without me!) they said the golf carts were imperative, and a lot of fun.

Brian went in here allegedly to ask for directions, but I'm sure he was checking out pins.

I checked out some nearby camper's decorations while I waited.

After Brian figured out where we needed to go, we sat on a bench outside of Pioneer Hall...and waited.

I went to the bathroom and changed Luke. When I came back, Brian was talking to a CM named Leslie from the DVC booth about pin trading (she actually snuck into the picture above). They talked for a LONG time. He told her the saga of the Saratoga Springs Resort pin (he collects pins from every resort we've stayed at, but he hadn't been able to find a SSR pin anywhere). She took down Brian's name and room number and said she would check her personal stash and let us know if she had one (we never heard from her, so I guess she didn't. Brian found one later on Ebay, though). I fed Luke and finally, at 5:15, Brian said we should get a move on.

When we stopped near this sign, I figured out what the surprise was. I'm practically Sherlock Holmes.

Sleigh ride! I'd heard about them before but for some reason I'd thought they'd stopped doing them.

We chatted with a guy who was hanging out waiting for some friends of his to finish dinner. He offered to take our picture.

Then a few minutes later...THE HORSES ARRIVED.

I got so excited because I hadn't realized there were going to be horses. I'm not sure what I thought the sleigh ride was going to be.

We found the woman in charge to check in. She found our name on her clipboard...and said our reservation wasn't until 6:30. Oh my goodness. Brian said he was pretty sure it was 5:30, but since he'd almost forgotten about the sleigh ride entirely, I was more inclined to believe the complete stranger with the clipboard. Fortunately they had an empty spot at 5:30 anyway, so they were able to bump us up. Woo hoo.

This was our horse Tom, with his magical glow-in-the-dark hooves.

I'm glad there was a blanket in the sleigh because I hadn't realized we were going to be gone all day, so Luke and I were both in shorts and didn't have jackets. (So when I asked Brian earlier if I was dressed appropriately...the correct answer was "no.")

Our driver was named Laurie and I liked her. I liked Tom, too. He was...stubborn. He walked off the path and started eating the grass. He would stop randomly and just hang out. It was pretty hilarious. Laurie played Christmas music for us. If we hadn't had a one-year-old in tow, some hot cocoa would have been very nice.

(Continued in next post)

 

[holleypie]

WEDNESDAY DECEMBER 5TH (PART 4)​

The sleigh ride goes around the campground, and the main attraction is the Christmas decorations that the campers themselves put up. It was hard to take pictures while we were moving, but here are a few.

This huge inflatable Mickey might have been the highlight of the whole ride. The guy was trying to inflate him, and he kept toppling over. Meanwhile, Laurie stopped the sleigh so we're just sitting there watching him. It was one of those things that really wasn't funny...but it was hilarious.

I think this might have been a train garden.

I really enjoyed the trip around the campground. Laurie chatted with a few people along the way, and told us about some campers that are there year after year, and it just seems like a fun, tight-knit place. I would love to camp there, someday.

When the sleigh ride was over, I was ready to head back to the room and rest a bit before we met up with my family. They were arriving tonight and we had plans to meet them at their resort for dinner.

"We have a really long way back to the car," Brian said. "We have to take the boat to Magic Kingdom, then the monorail to the TTC, then switch to the Epcot monorail, and then walk back to the car."

Oh...that's right. The car was still at Epcot.

"We don't have to do all that. We can just take a bus to Epcot. Actually, they have all those internal buses here so I guess we'll have to take two buses."

"I'll ask someone," Brian said. So he went and asked someone. They suggested it might be quicker to just go back the way we came. So we did.

We watched the Magic Kingdom fireworks from the dock while we waited for the boat back to Magic Kingdom, which was lovely. But...our timing couldn't have been worse. It was a party night so MK was closing promptly at 7pm. It was packed. After the boat ride, we waited forever for the monorail.

It took us two hours to get from Fort Wilderness back to AKL. In retrospect, I'm thinking the buses might have been a little quicker.

We had a snack back at the room, I changed Luke into his PJs, and then we waited for a call from my parents. They were going to call when they were getting on Magical Express. My sister and her boyfriend were staying in our room, but they were going to Art of Animation with the rest of the family. Hopefully. I wasn't sure how strict they were about that kind of thing.

My dad called and said they were on their way, so we headed out to Giordano's to pick up some pizzas. We waited about 30-40 minutes. Luke was asleep so I stayed in the car with him.

Giordano's is Chicago-style stuffed pizza. It's so huge, I can only eat one slice. I told Brian it would be a waste to eat there by ourselves, so that's why we ended up getting pizza with my family on their arrival night.

I didn't take any pictures that night, but here are our Giordano's pizzas from our 2011 trip:

After we had the pizzas, we headed to the Art of Animation.

Unfortunately, since it was night time I didn't get a chance to wander around and check everything out. But we did see the lobby.

I LOVED this tree. It was probably my second favorite of the whole trip, right behind Animal Kingdom's.

We met up with my family in the food court, bought some sodas, and ate our pizza. Luke was still asleep, so I just transferred his car seat to the stroller and pulled the shade down. To my mother's chagrin, he slept the whole time.

Tabby told us she'd forgotten to pack a toothbrush, so before we headed back to AKL I used this as an excuse to suggest a Target run. I had forgotten...

Are you ready for this?

...my bra.

Yeah. Well, I had a sports bra and a sleep bra, but not a REAL bra. I didn't even realize it until we got to AKL and I unpacked my whole suitcase.

We used TomTom to navigate to the closest Target, and fortunately he didn't lie to us this time. Tabby found a toothbrush and I found a bra on the clearance rack for $5. Score!

We drove back to AKL, and just as we pulled into the parking lot, the clock struck midnight.

My birthday was here!

 

[holleypie]

THURSDAY DECEMBER 6TH​

When the clock struck midnight and my birthday began, we were down in the parking lot just arriving back to AKL. Needless to say, I didn't get much sleep that night. I woke up at 5am to pump a bottle for Luke so he would have sustenance when my parents babysat him the next night. Then Luke woke up around 7 and ate. After that, everyone woke up and got dressed, and we went down to The Mara to refill our mugs. Then it was time for my birthday breakfast at Boma! (#3 on my birthday list).

We only waited a few minutes. The person who showed us to our seat saw my birthday button, then made us wait while she reprinted our ticket. It was definitely worth the effort because the waitress...didn't acknowledge it at all.

I've heard good things about this buffet and it didn't disappoint. I didn't take any food pictures (partly because it was Tommy's first meal with us and I didn't want him to think I was completely insane, and partly because buffet plates always look kind of sad). I remember that I had grilled tomato, asparagus, pap, quinoa, scrambled eggs, french toast, bread pudding, bagel, banana nut muffin, fruit salad, and jungle juice. Brian and I both rated Boma a 3.

I almost forgot about this part because I was so pleased with the food: The service was actually pretty abysmal. Probably the worst we had on this trip. The waitress disappeared and we were just sitting there forever waiting on the check. Luke was getting restless because it was nap time, so eventually I had Brian take him out, and Tabby and Tommy went to explore, and I sat there alone, seething and debating whether I should leave a terrible tip, or steal her pen.

After I finally paid and got out of there (without a new pen), I laid Luke down for a nap and then sat on the balcony drinking some hot cocoa. Brian and Tabby and Tommy continued to wander about the resort.

Brian took this lovely picture of the lobby:

After I finished my cocoa, I took a bath with one of my bath bombs. Then Luke woke up and we drove over to Downtown Disney to meet up with the family.

Until this day, I had done a GREAT job with my attitude on this trip. I hadn't been irritated (or irritating) AT ALL. Of course when the whole family got there...things changed.

On our way there, I called my mom to figure out what the plan was. Since it was my birthday, she wanted to buy me a dessert and sing happy birthday. I hadn't come up with a solid plan other than "let's meet up at Downtown Disney" pre-trip because I had erroneously assumed that either the woman who gave birth to me or the man I married would take charge and get me a cake. Obviously that didn't happen, so we were left with the nebulous "let's meet up at Downtown Disney" plan. My family was on the dining plan and had already had dessert with their lunch, and I didn't even WANT any dessert, so once I realized there really wasn't a plan, I told her she could just buy a cupcake for me later at Magic Kingdom.

So. We arrived:

And looked in some stores:

Then my mom called again, and she wanted us to get Luke's picture with Santa AT THAT VERY MOMENT so she could take a picture with her camera too. We agreed to meet in front of the World of Disney store.

Tabby and Tommy went off and did something else, and Brian, Luke, and I waited for the rest of the family. Brian decided he needed to go in the store while we were waiting, and then we had some minor drama about my refillable mug. If he was going to leave me alone with the baby, I wanted him to hold it for me (we had the umbrella stroller with us, not the swanky Jeep with the baskets and cup holder) in case I had to move the stroller or take Luke out of it. He thought he would be clever and show me how you could finagle the mug's handle onto the handle of the stroller. I didn't want any clever solutions, I just wanted him to hold the flipping mug for me. So I ended up keeping it and telling him to go away.

Of course, Luke got irritated while we were waiting and I had to take him out of the stroller. As we were pacing back and forth... I happened to turn and see my dad and sister standing around the corner. Seriously? I had told them EXACTLY where to meet me, and they were standing right around the corner. I had been waiting on them for 20 minutes at this point.

I grabbed the stroller (and my flipping mug) and walked over. My dad told me they had called me and left a message telling me to meet them there. I was so aggravated. Even more aggravated than I'd been about the mug. I'd been right around the corner for 20 minutes and they were going to stand there and wait for me to notice I had a message instead of just coming over and GETTING ME?

My dad said, "Mommy's waiting in line for you. She wants you to get your picture with Santa too because it's your birthday."

Okay. First, I wasn't going to jump in front of a bunch of people who had been waiting in line. Second, I had no idea where Brian was and I didn't want to take Luke to meet Santa for the first time without him. I called Brian and of course he didn't answer so I left a message. My mom was almost to the front of the line, so I was going to just hand her Luke and let her get his picture taken, and hopefully that would be the end of it. But then she GOT OUT OF LINE. UGH.

Brian still wasn't back but I went and got back at the end of the line with Luke and my mom. I didn't care anymore if he missed it, I just wanted to get it over with. Whenever a big group is involved, anything that should take 10 minutes ends up taking an hour, and I HATE that.

"Don't be annoyed with me," my mom said. "I just want to get your and Luke's picture with Santa Claus."

"I want his picture taken too," I told her. "I'm annoyed because you all left me standing there for 20 minutes, and now Brian's wandered off. It's just frustrating. Getting everyone together is like herding cats."

She gave me a stern look. "I would NEVER hurt cats."

Oh my God.

Santa took a break, so Brian made it back in time. And he had gift cards he had bought me for my birthday and Christmas, so I couldn't even yell at him. Well played, Brian.

Finally, Santa returned and we got our pictures. My sister had my camera, Brian had his camera, my mom had hers, and the PhotoPass photographer had theirs, so Luke's first visit with Santa Claus was well-documented.

I feel like I have to explain Luke's outfit, because he's wearing flowery shorts and a Green Lantern onesie, and that's fairly ridiculous. I had a pair of safari animal overalls I was going to put on him for breakfast that morning but they ended up being too small. So I was going to change him into a different outfit entirely but Brian had already put those shorts on over top of the Green Lantern onesie, and I was just too lazy to care. If I'd known we were meeting Santa, I would have cared.

Anyway. Getting Luke's picture with Santa was #25 off my birthday list, so I was on a roll today!

I couldn't handle much more excitement, so we split up again. Brian, Luke, and I headed to Earl of Sandwich to get my free birthday sandwich.

Of course, there were a few diversions along the way.

I was really fond of this tree!

I'm sure we made a stop in the pin trading store.

I had thought I would be too full from breakfast to have lunch and planned to take the sandwich to MK with me for later. But, for once I hadn't overdone it at a buffet and I was definitely hungry. Brian and I got sandwiches and ate outside.

I'm not even sure why, but we were all fairly cranky at this point. I think Brian's face is indicative of everyone's overall mood.

Now that I think about it, I guess we were just tired. Good thing we would be partying until midnight!

That's Brian's sandwich. I think it's roast beef?

I got my usual All-American minus meat and cranberries. Picture recycled from our October trip.

After lunch it was nearly time to head to Magic Kingdom for the Christmas party, so we called Tabby and Tommy and arranged to meet back up with them.

 

[SAT887]

Loving your updates and TR. It's funny to see the things parents do on vacation- like how you learn to just unplug phones to avoid that future mess! We left a pile of phones it seemed everywhere we went!

We stayed at AKL the first night of our trip and really enjoyed it- next time we go we are going to do a Savannah view. Have you stayed at Kidani too? I am not sure (if its even avail when we book) if we want to do Jambo vs Kidani yet.

Oh and traveling in groups! We had 8 of us and when we split up the same thing happened! Waiting, unanswered cell phones I finally got to the point where if we split up I just stayed put. So much easier.