70 to Freezing in 7 hours. A Nov/Dec 2011 trip report. Updated 4/28

[Caretames1]

Wouldn't you just like to do a tree like Disney does? I'm so not creative, but it would be cool to have that.

 

[petals]

I know what you mean. I started writing up more of my TR in Word today and ended up with about 3 pages for not quite all of day 1. I'm going to have to do some edit work so that I don't bore everyone.

I'm just looking and Animal Kingdom was one of the days I prob took less pics so if that's like seven chapters long how long will the other days be Yay holding on to disney trip for lots of time to come

uh oh... not the blue bus???

Ah you'll have to wait and see where that story came from! I might get it posted tomorrow though.

Thanks for posting the pictures of the trees. We didn't get to spend a lot of time in Camp Minnie Mickey. That was something I was really looking forward to.

No bothers. I loved all the trees and xmas characters

I love those trees. I hope to someday see them!

Wouldn't you just like to do a tree like Disney does? I'm so not creative, but it would be cool to have that.

Those trees are amazing and the ones at the park entrances are just Huge! I so want a disney tree!

 

[petals]

Day 2, part 7:

So while we were wandering Camp Minnie Mickey I decided to go off and visit some old friends. Momma won't do character pics so she went off to find a bench to rest on. I went along first to see the number one duck:

In line for Donald there was a little one and her nanny. She must have only been about three if even but when I got to the top of the line Donald had to go for a snack and this little one thought he was going home and tried to follow him. I let her go ahead of me when he came back and while she was waiting she amused herself with the buttons which were all disney characters on my crocs!
Of course each of the Camp Minnie Mickey characters had their own Christmas trees as well. This was Donald's:

Next up was Thumper. I was super excited about him because last year I saw Miss Bunny and Thumper but Thumper went in for carrots just before I went to meet them and only Miss Bunny came out so this year I got his furry self:

After Thumper I finally got my Santa Goofy picture I had been wanting all day:

The pictures from Santa Goofy seemed a bit weird to me because they are all off centre but what I didn't cop was there was a sleigh to the side of Santa Goofy. It's not really good in any of my pics so maybe photopass ones will be better whenever they arrive. Goofy of course had his Christmas tree as well:

One of the good things about going to Disney without kids is the ability to slow things down and not rush to rides and whatever and take in what is around us and this includes watching people and sometimes over-hearing conversations that you really don't want to be listening to. In line for Minnie Mouse was a prime example of this as the couple behind me were rowing. he had been naughty and had been texting his old girlfriend and she had been looking through his phone catching him at this. Bad argument to be having in Minnie line. For some reason I don't have the Minnie pic on photobucket but I do have her Christmas tree:

Also in the Minnie and Mickey lines they had these super cute bird houses in the trees which again I want one for my garden:

Of course I couldn't leave Camp Minnie Mickey without visiting the best Mouse in the World:

He had his own Christmas tree as well:

After that we went to Festival of the Lion King and were in the giraffe section:

Last time I went to FOTLK they took in Simba and Pumba at the end before the audience left but this time they left them out so people could take pics with them. Of course Happy snappy got pics:

One thing I did notice as well was the all the park hours had changed from what was on the time sheets the week before I went over. When I had been planning it said Animal Kingdom would be open until 7 but when we got there they said it was open until 8. So after the Lion King we were going to go to Finding Nemo but when we read the times the shows stopped at 6 and it was only really coasters that were on until park close. We stopped at Flame Tree Barbecue for some food before we decided to head back towards Epcot for our hotel bus. I was keeping all the receipts for trip report purposes really but later on when I was back at the hotel I noticed the Flame Tree Barbecue receipt had a voucher on the end. You could get 20% off your purchases if you bought them before 12 noon in Mouse Gear in Epcot, Mickey's of Hollywood or Keystone Clothier in DHS, Island Mercentile at Animal Kingdom, The Emporium in Magic Kingdom and World of Disney at DTD and it was up until January 2nd. I thought it was cool and kinda made us keep watching all our receipts from then on!
Anyway that was a side note before we left Animal Kingdom we went to Lost and found because we still had the autograph book from the parade time and we went along and explained to the CM where we had found it and he told us that the lady had come in looking for it and he had her details so could now get it sent to her hotel for her. We were super happy about that because the little one was so sweet sharing her toys with Momma.

When we got to Epcot it was about 7.30 and our bus wasn't until 9. We didn't really want to go into the park so we sat on a bench watching Beethoven's Christmas movie on my ipod while we were waiting. At one point we decided to move from the bench over to our bus stop. So our hotel had given us a letter saying our bus stop was at Lane C 21 great! So we went to find lane 21... yeah it doesn't exist anymore because now the lanes are 25-52! Eh where's our bus going to be?

So we were standing obviously looking a bit lost and confused because the security guard came over to ask us if we needed help and we told him about our bus and asked were lane 21 would be. He added up and figured it would probably be lane 45. He said he would check though because he had a folder in his office with all the hotel buses and what lane they would be in so he asked what hotel which we told him then he said and what colour is your bus. Momma went It was white! at the same time that I went Blue! and we got a confused look from the security guard. Momma kept going it was white I'm sure it was white. I was like eh nope it was navy blue and security guard eventually went yeah the bus for that hotel is normally blue!
He eventually confirmed that it was lane 45 and we did manage to get our big white-blue bus but from then on everytime I saw the bus coming I'd go joking Look Momma the big white Disney bus is coming! It's also where the title option "All aboard the big white bus for Nov/Dec trip report" came from!

And that was Day 2! The park crowds didn't really bother us for Black Friday and only wait time I noticed although we didn't go on it was Everest was 45 minute wait time.


Next up My Magical Happy place I am back!!!

 

[jenseib]

I love all the little trees. I hope someday to see them for myself

 

[afwdwfan]

It looks like you had a good time meeting the characters. I really wish we had made it that far before nap time...

I'm glad you were able to find the right bus so that you could get back to your hotel.

Those 20% coupons were nice to have. We noticed them and made use of them. Just shows you how much they mark everything up to begin with though.

 

[petals]

I love all the little trees. I hope someday to see them for myself

Good excuse to go! I want to get back to Disney asap

It looks like you had a good time meeting the characters. I really wish we had made it that far before nap time...

I'm glad you were able to find the right bus so that you could get back to your hotel.

Those 20% coupons were nice to have. We noticed them and made use of them. Just shows you how much they mark everything up to begin with though.

I loved the characters in their Xmas outfits. When I went up to Minnie she was dancing to the Xmas music in the background they were really cute in the Xmas outfits though.

Bus was confusing but I thought it was funny with the white bus!

I loved those vouchers we saved so much and could then buy so much more

 

[archdandy]

I loved all the different tree's at AK! I wish I could have been there for Christmas! I can't wait to read the rest of your trip.

 

[petals]

I loved all the different tree's at AK! I wish I could have been there for Christmas! I can't wait to read the rest of your trip.

There's loads more to come I just put the Day 3 pics back on the computer to edit them and so far there's 187 but I know there's few on the video camera I need to grab for the story as well and yeah Everyone should visit Disney at Christmas time it's just amazing!

 

[Caretames1]

That would have been so neat to have the chance to photgraph the FOTLK floats after the show!


And people arguing in line to so dumb! Go home and fight, I'm here to enjoy my day!

 

[petals]

That would have been so neat to have the chance to photgraph the FOTLK floats after the show!

I know I've never seen them leave them out like that before. Was totally cool!

And people arguing in line to so dumb! Go home and fight, I'm here to enjoy my day!

Defo there should be rule no arguing in character line!
The Lady did tell her other half she was done with the trip and wanted to go home now but like hello xmas minnie is in front of you smile and be happy

 

[amandaw]

Joining in to hear about your Disney adventure!

Great start so far!

 

[petals]

Joining in to hear about your Disney adventure!

Great start so far!

Welcome and Thank you.



There'll be more soon I'm not sure when though. I'm waitinf for photopass to arrive to start my dvd making of the holiday and I'll have more pics from the video then no doubt
Tomorrow I go back to college though so life is back to busy. Have two essays to do which </start rant> I really don't see why they are part of our course considering our course is Radio and Television production and in Radio and Television all scripts are kept as short as possible so I'll never be writing 3000 word essays and wonder what i'm gaining by doing them for the course </end rant> And I'm back to dancing soon

 

[amandaw]

Welcome and Thank you.



There'll be more soon I'm not sure when though. I'm waitinf for photopass to arrive to start my dvd making of the holiday and I'll have more pics from the video then no doubt
Tomorrow I go back to college though so life is back to busy. Have two essays to do which </start rant> I really don't see why they are part of our course considering our course is Radio and Television production and in Radio and Television all scripts are kept as short as possible so I'll never be writing 3000 word essays and wonder what i'm gaining by doing them for the course </end rant> And I'm back to dancing soon

Don't you just hate it when real life gets in the way of DIS fun? I know I do! And I don't blame you one bit about your rant! I'd feel the same way about a 3000 word essay. Best of luck with it!

 

[petals]

Don't you just hate it when real life gets in the way of DIS fun? I know I do! And I don't blame you one bit about your rant! I'd feel the same way about a 3000 word essay. Best of luck with it!

I just think they're pointless considering the idea of the course is to train us for the radio and television industry and nowhere in that industry will I have to write a 3000 word essay!

 

[petals]

This week has been zzzzzz! It's been so hard to get back into things and I'm pretty sure I've missed morning train all but one morning January is a crappy time for our family anyway as we have family anniversary's in January. It's my dad's anniversary today! I was also having chest pains and I've so far written 100 words of my first 3000 word essay but whatever! What I did do was more important because I edited pics for another update... see next post. One good thing my lecturer is unknownly incouraging my photo addiction He said we should take photos of everything we do and have camera with us at all times (like I need incouragement) My class couldn't get over the 3000 pics and think I'm obsessed and couldn't believe I wouldn't be the only adult as crazy into disney and queuing for characters as me!

I still don't have photopass cd

and I still can't get my Magic in the streets cd to play in my computer

 

[petals]

Day 3, Part 1:
Saturday 26th November 2011

Anyone thinking of going in November/December this year this day was obviously falling in Thanksgiving weekend and there was no Christmas party on in the park but there was a few surprises throughout the day so if you didn't want to shell out extra money for the Christmas party this might be a good day to visit the parks?!

Anyways we got up early. Our hotel had two bues to the parks in the morning one at 8.30am and one at 12.30. We got the early one all the time for obvious reasons. We went out to reception and pretty soon our big white-blue bus arrived to take us to the land where dreams come true and this morning I was super excited because I was going to my uber magical happy place! We got to Epcot shortly after 9 and took the Monorail to Ticket and Transportation centre:

Quick stop for a pic:

and then in our own Disney tradition we got the Ferryboat over to the most Magical Kingdom on earth (probably) for the first time this trip:

first view of Mickey's house:

Soon we arrived at my magical happy place (it was a quarter to ten when we arrived I zoomed in on the clock ):

We went around the corner and little miss snappy here got way overwhelmed! So many decorations, I was in my happy place, so many lights, I was in my happy place, what direction to go first, I was in my happy place! *runs around in excited circles to wear down excitement.* and then cue alot of picture taking:

I like how I got a little rainbow in the corner of this pic:

One of first things I noticed about Magic Kingdom was no 45 ft Christmas tree this year. Instead was this:

It was still cute though! And then Lookie the castle through all those wreaths:

MOMMA WE'RE IN THE MAGICAL PLACE WHERE ALL WORRIES GO AWAY!!! Before I had a melt down I took Momma's ticket because she won't queue for characters and went off to get these fastpasses:

Then in order to calm down and try decide what direction to go in next we headed for the Emporium:

I took that pic and then heard music start outside so ran out to see these guys:

Doesn't the lady with the green skirt on the end look like she has no feet in that pic! but yay another disney ambition filled. I'd never seen them before and hoped to see them and was not expecting them to be out then but there ya go. When they finished we went back inside to finish looking and picture taking:

See the Mickey Mouse that was the Christmas outfit for 2011 on the plushies. I then took pictures of some of the cute window displays:

Again when I was looking up park hours it said Magic Kingdom would be open this day until 10pm but when we got the park times on the day it said the park was going to be open until 12am! So I left the decision on how long we stayed with Momma as it would determine the rest of the evening. We could get taxi back to hotel or else leave park early and get our hotel bus at 10.30. I left her to think that over for a while and we headed up towards the hub:

my artsy pic:

Next up Shake your tail feather!

 

[amandaw]

I love Christmas time at Disney! Isn't it the best?

I wonder why they didn't have the big tree up at the front.

Can't wait to hear what all you did in MK!

 

[Caretames1]

I may be wrong, but I think the big wasn't there because they take it down for the parade taping the first weekend in December. Maybe the little tree was there as decor until then?


Nice decor photos! I can't wait until I can see it for myself. Good catch on the singers!

 

[afwdwfan]

That's right. The big tree goes up after they film the parade. We didn't get to see it either.

Great pictures. I always love that first moment when you arrive in the Magic Kingdom. Such a great feeling.

 

[amandaw]

I may be wrong, but I think the big wasn't there because they take it down for the parade taping the first weekend in December. Maybe the little tree was there as decor until then?

Ahhh....that makes sense. Thanks for the info! My family does the 2nd week in December, so I've always seen it up. Didn't think about the parade.