3 WDW Trips in 6 months: August, October and December Reports *Completed*

You always seem to have the best luck with rare characters (wasn't it you that found Megara from Hercules last time?) so I can't wait to see who you got to meet.

Yep that was us. You have a great memory! :) I won't say who we met but I will say that Caitlin was so excited it was as if she were meeting a movie star :rotfl2: but I guess since it was Disneyworld she kinda was :goodvibes
 
Wow! I am amazed that Epcot crowds were so light on a soggy day! :umbrella: That's the first park our family would head to if the weatherman was calling for 100% chance of rain!

(We could spend hours inside Innoventions, couldn't you?)

Oh well, that was fine and dandy for your touring!

Double Wow on meeting Snow White's Prince Charming! I've never seen him before, with or without his princess!


Kathy

The crowds will start showing up pretty soon. I think that initial 8am downour just kept most of the rope drop crowd away. By afternoon, they started arriving and eventually made it to World Showcase. Having such low crowds in the morning was really a great way to start the day.


Yep that was us. You have a great memory! :) I won't say who we met but I will say that Caitlin was so excited it was as if she were meeting a movie star :rotfl2: but I guess since it was Disneyworld she kinda was :goodvibes

Looking forward to finding out who Caitlin was so excited about as well as hearing about the rest of your trip. :)
 
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After our detour to Italy, we headed back to Germany to do some exploring around the courtyard before lunch at the Biergarten. The Christmas shop looked very festive for the Season.


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If I had to pick a most festive-looking pavilion in EPCOT for Christmas, I might pick Germany. It always looks great.


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It was getting close to our ADR time, so we headed to the Biergarten and it wasn’t long before we were seated.


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The atmosphere here is great. I love the quaint setting that always looks like it’s nighttime. Of course, the Christmas lights make it look even prettier. The buffet was also very good this time around. The only thing that wasn’t all that great was one of side dishes- some sort of pickled fruit (maybe apples?). Nobody seemed to care for that, but everything else was great. The desserts were fantastic as well, especially the Bavarian Cheese Cake and Apple Strudel.


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After a while, the Oktoberfest Musikanten took the stage to perform. Along with a number of songs from their usual set, the worked in a number of Holiday-themed songs as well including traditional bell ringing. Very festive and fun!


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After a wonderful time at the Biergarten, we prepared to leave Germany for other destinations of World Showcase.


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On our way out, we caught a glimpse of what kind of adventures would await us after lunch. Earlier in the morning, Mom and Dad picked up a pass for Kim Possible, and the CMs were helpful in giving them a time and location that wouldn’t interfere with our Biergarten ADR. By now, it was our time to check in at the Team Possible field station in Italy and pick up our Kimmunicator.


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At the KP station, again, we were assigned our Kimmunicator and were asked if we had played before and which countries have we done yet. Again, the CMs were very helpful and gave us the option of trying Japan, which we had not done before. With Kimmunicator in hand and mission ready, we were on our way to Japan.



Next chapter: Our adventures in Japan and Holiday celebrations in America
 
Great pictures of Germany! :thumbsup2 Glad you enjoyed Biergarten. Twice we have had adrs there and then missed it. Looking forward to hearing how you like Kim Possible. We love it!
 

Great pictures from Biergarten. We've never eaten there but it seems like a lot of people really enjoy it. Love how it was all decorated for Christmas.
 
Great pictures of Germany! :thumbsup2 Glad you enjoyed Biergarten. Twice we have had adrs there and then missed it. Looking forward to hearing how you like Kim Possible. We love it!


Thanks Dawn. We all really enjoyed Kim Possible when we did in in August. You'll find out how we thought the Japan stacked up to the ones we did in August as soon as I get the next chapter up.


Great pictures from Biergarten. We've never eaten there but it seems like a lot of people really enjoy it. Love how it was all decorated for Christmas.

We always seem to enjoy the Biergarten. It's always very fun and festive- especially at Christmastime.
 
I've never tried Biergarten but Marc went as a kid and he wants to go there again. It just hasn't appealed to me but it does look really pretty inside. Maybe I can be a good sport and try it. :rotfl2:
 
I've never tried Biergarten but Marc went as a kid and he wants to go there again. It just hasn't appealed to me but it does look really pretty inside. Maybe I can be a good sport and try it. :rotfl2:

I really enjoy Biergarten. I'd recommend giving it a try. :thumbsup2

On a slightly off-topic note, I just saw your new ticker. Riverside, huh? Sounds exciting!
 
If I had to pick a most festive-looking pavilion in EPCOT for Christmas, I might pick Germany. It always looks great.

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Wow! Your Biergarten pictures turned out great! And I agree... the Bavarian cheesecake and apple struedel are yummy!

Germany is always so pretty, but expecially at Christmastime!


Kathy
 
Wow! Your Biergarten pictures turned out great! And I agree... the Bavarian cheesecake and apple struedel are yummy!

Germany is always so pretty, but expecially at Christmastime!


Kathy

Thanks Kathy. :) It's really hard to beat Germany at Christmas as far as how festive it looks for the season, which is why we always seem to gravitate going to the Biergarten on our December trips. It's nice to be able to spend the extra time there to enjoy the pavillion and some of the Holiday entertainment at the restaurant too.
 
As we were on our way to Japan to help Kim Possible and Ron Stoppable defeat super villains, we decided to stop and look around the American Adventure and see some of the Holiday decorations before continuing our mission.


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Inside the fast food restaurant, the giant gingerbread house was all set up.


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Outside, the American Adventure tree was standing in the courtyard.


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Not surprisingly, there was at least one hidden Mickey among the decorations.


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The side of the pavilion nearer to Japan was all done up as Santa’s Village complete with a number of little booths selling Christmas items. While we were there, Imani the Kwanzaa storyteller showed up and explained some of the traditions of the Holiday. We had never seen this presentation before, so it was interesting to hear more about Kwanzaa.


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Next, we moved on to Japan to contact Wade and receive our mission. Turned out we were on the lookout for a baby robot that was wreaking havoc around the country. The mission was alright, but I don’t think any of us were as impressed with it quite was much as the missions we did in August. It didn’t seem to have the same charm that the ones in France, Germany and China had.


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Wade brought us to the Koi Pond to perform a special task. Of course, we stopped and watched the fish for a while too.


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Sorry for the slight spoiler, but here’s the robot we were on the search for- Baby Bebe. I thought she was the coolest part of the mission. I won’t give away where we found her, but I will say that it was fairly neat to see an animatronic just pop out of nowhere like this. After the mission, we weren’t given the option of picking another one (the first sign that the crowds were starting to return after a relatively quiet morning), so we dropped of our Kimmunicator and headed on.



Next chapter: More rain and frequent changes in plans
 
Nice pictures of the Kwanzaa storyteller. We loved listening to all the storytellers.

The park must have been really busy because when we've done KP we've gotten to keep it as long as we wanted.
 
Nice pictures of the Kwanzaa storyteller. We loved listening to all the storytellers.

The park must have been really busy because when we've done KP we've gotten to keep it as long as we wanted.

Thanks Dawn. :)

I was pretty surprised that they didn't give us the option of doing another mission. Even in August, we were always given at least a couple choices. :confused3
 
I really enjoy Biergarten. I'd recommend giving it a try. :thumbsup2

On a slightly off-topic note, I just saw your new ticker. Riverside, huh? Sounds exciting!

Yes, Riverside. I've already changed my ticker. :rotfl2: We are looking to do a short 4 night trip. I'm going back to school and won't be getting much time off but with working full time and going to school at night I need some sort of Disney vacation to look forward too! Once plans get a little more concrete I will probably start a Trip Report.

The Kwanza lady looks very animated, looks like a good storyteller!

I've seen a lot of Kim Possible gadgets around WS and it makes me want to do one of the missions. It's probably a neat way to look at things that you don't always notice.
 
Yes, Riverside. I've already changed my ticker. :rotfl2: We are looking to do a short 4 night trip. I'm going back to school and won't be getting much time off but with working full time and going to school at night I need some sort of Disney vacation to look forward too! Once plans get a little more concrete I will probably start a Trip Report.

The Kwanza lady looks very animated, looks like a good storyteller!

I've seen a lot of Kim Possible gadgets around WS and it makes me want to do one of the missions. It's probably a neat way to look at things that you don't always notice.

Wow, congrats on the trip and going back to school. Sounds like you've got some exciting adventures this year. :thumbsup2

The Kwanzaa storyteller was fantastic. Probably one of the best we saw (although they were all very good). And yes, Kim Possible is really a great way to check out the details in the countries-plus you get a bunch of surprises like robots of supervillains popping up in unexpected places. :laughing: The whole experience is really well done. I'd really recommend giving it a try.
 
Out of all of the chapters for this trip report, this has been the one I have been dreading the most. Not that it was necessarily a bad part of the trip, but we really had to roll with the punches and keep changing the plans that it can get a bit confusing to follow. Hopefully, the way I’ve written it out is clear enough to understand.


Just to set the stage, here’s a look at what our original plan was for the rest of the day at EPCOT:

  1. Make our way to Future World to see the next performance of the Christmas show “Joyful! A Gospel Celebration of the Season” at the Fountain Stage.
  2. Go to Mexico to see Los Tres Reyes Magos aka The Three Kings storytelling in Mexico (a special request from Mom)
  3. Go to The American Adventure to see the Candlelight Processional


We still had some time before we needed to be in Future World for the show so Buzz, Mom and I planned to get there by continuing the walk around the lagoon and exploring a few countries on the way while Dad decided that he would rather take the Friendship Boat across and meet us later in Future World.


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Mom, Buzz and my next stop was France, my favorite of the World Showcase pavilions. Like the others, it too was decorated for the Season.


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One of my favorite little nooks in the pavilion- Belle’s Library.


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A glimpse at the Beauty and the Beast inspired window in the Library.


After looking around France a bit, I decided to do a little searching for characters and headed over to the United Kingdom. Since I hadn’t seen Mary Poppins on my last few trips, I got in line to see her. Shortly after this, it began to rain again and the CMs assisting Mary attempted to bring Mary, Alice in Wonderland (who was nearby) and both of their lines across the pavilion and into the toy shops to continue the meet-and-greets in as close to an orderly manner as possible. It was a bit on the confusing side with the three lines (one for Mary, one for Alice and one for Pooh and Tigger) all getting confused in the small space and spilling out through the gift shop. I give the CMs credit for trying to make it work, but did they ever have their work cut out for them! At one point, the characters just began going down their lines just doing autographs and no photos, so, not really caring about autographs, I decided to give up and thought I might try to see Mary a little later once she was doing photos again.


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After unsuccessfully meeting Mary Poppins, I found Buzz and Mom. By now, the rain had stopped again and Father Christmas came out to do some storytelling.


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After the storytelling, I tried again to see if things were a little less chaotic with Mary Poppins, but it turned out that her line was now closed and that she would be back in 20 minutes- about the same time the Joyful! Gospel show was going to start. Since the times for that, the Kings and Candlelight all interfered with Mary’s schedule for the rest of the day, meeting her seemed pretty unlikely.


Leaving the UK, we continued on towards Future World to meet up with Dad and, wouldn’t you know it, it started to rain again- harder than before. Being hopeful that the rain would let up, we stuck around for a bit near Club Cool, but, alas, the performance was cancelled. With “Joyful” not being an option at the moment, we came up with a new plan:


  1. Go to Mexico to see if the Three Kings would still come out in the rain (maybe they’d be indoors?)
  2. If the weather clears up, see the next (and last) performance of the day for “Joyful”
  3. Go to American Adventure for Candlelight Processional


Mom, Dad and Buzz decided went to Mexico, but I was pretty sure that the Kings didn’t come out in the rain, so I took the opportunity to return to the United Kingdom and see if I could finally meet Mary after all.


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By now, Mary and Alice were doing their meet-and-greet together which cut down the confusion somewhat, and things seemed to be running much smoother. Plus, having the two of them together made for a nice photo opportunity. While I was in the United Kingdom, I got a phone call from Buzz saying that, much to my surprise, the Kings were indeed out in Mexico, so I went to join the rest of the family.


It turns out that after Buzz called, they found out that they were just out walking around the indoor marketplace and not doing their storytelling, which Mom really wanted to see. As long as we were in Mexico anyway, we decided to take the chance to do some exploring including looking in the new tequila bar to see what it looks like. Mom even did some shopping and bought a new angel ornament for the family's Christmas tree.


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An otter sculpture from the gallery in the entryway.


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Surprisingly, while we were in Mexico, the rain stopped, the sun came out, and we saw the first bit of blue sky of the whole day! This brought another revised set of plans:

  1. Hang out in Mexico for about 20 minutes while waiting for the next Three Kings storytelling
  2. Go to Future World just in time for the last performance on “Joyful”
  3. Go to American Adventure for Candlelight Processional


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A Christmas piñata.


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While waiting, we decided to ride the Gran Fiesta Tour again. There was a somewhat longer line than we usually tend to see, but it was fast moving.


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The Three Caballeros.


After the ride, we headed outside thinking that we might be able to get a few photos outside before the Three Kings came out only to find the blue skies again gone and that the rain had returned! This brought one last change in the plans:

  1. Throw all other plans out the window and go to American Adventure for the last performance on Voices of Liberty- a group we know will be out rain or shine



Next chapter: Entertainment around EPCOT
 
It sounds like it could have been a really frustrating day but that you all stayed flexible and just rolled with it! :thumbsup2 Hope the rest of your day went smoother! :goodvibes
 
Flexibility is certainly the key when the weather musses up your plans! :thumbsup2

Sorry Mom didn't get her Three Kings wish...

But persistance paid off with Alice and Mary!

What a great Father Christmas... he really looks the part!


Kathy
 












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