A 2009 Magical Christmas Trip Report - Big Announcement!

[raider97]

Day 2- Part 5 - December 18th, 2009

After dinner as we were leaving Fantasyland, James captured a few pictures of the castle from Fantasyland. I think they are really pretty.

Next, we headed out to the front of the castle to see the castle lighting ceremony. By the time we got out there the hub was already packed with people so we found a place along the bridge into Fantasyland (the side that runs right by Storytime with Belle). We were right up against the railings; it wasn’t a great view, but we were able to see the ceremony and the castle lighting. For some reason, I don’t have any pictures from the castle lighting. James did get this picture of the kids waiting for the lighting ceremony though. I LOVE it!

We admired the castle for a little while before we headed to Buzz Lightyear with my cousin’s family to use the fast passes we had picked up earlier in the day. Just as we arrived at the entrance, our friends from Houston and their boys showed up. They had flown in that same day and had eaten at the Grand Floridian before coming over to the party so they didn’t have fast passes. We went through the fast pass line while they jumped in the amazingly short standby line. Afterwards, we headed towards Peter Pan to use our other fast passes from earlier in the afternoon. I love this ride! It is one of my favorites. When we got off Derrick and his family was there along with my aunt, her stepdaughter-in-law, and her step-granddaughter.

We stopped for a minute to discuss the plan. I knew we needed to get over to Toontown if we had any hopes of seeing the fairies without a long line, but James wanted to take the kids on It’s a Small World since it was literally walk-on. It had just turned 7 p.m. so the party had just started. I relented and we all rode It’s a Small World. My kids just love this ride! I think they would be happy if we only rode this one over and over. After we got off, I herded everyone towards Toontown. We headed into the Judge’s Tent and were surprised to see Perla and Suzy. We stopped for a quick picture and autographs before heading into the Pixie Hollow line. We only had a few people in front of us; but that line moves really slow so I am sure it ended up taking us close to half an hour.

When we got up to the front we made the mistake of telling the CM working our whole party size. I think our interaction would have been a little better if we had broken up a bit. Don’t get me wrong, the interaction was great! But it is hard to interact on a one on one basis when there are 9 kids!! We met Silvermist, Tinkerbell, and Terrance. Unfortunately, I don’t have anything but group shots from Pixie Hollow and I don’t feel comfortable posting pictures of the other kids.

After we made it out of the fairies, we discussed what we wanted to do. Derrick and his family were looking to ride some rides since they had just made it into Magic Kingdom and my cousin’s wife and myself really wanted to meet the princesses with their princes. So we split up, they went and rode Goofy’s Barnstormer and we went and got into the princess line. This line was short and it only took about ten to fifteen minutes to get in. We got to meet Princess Aurora with Prince Phillip and Cinderella with Prince Charming!

After we left the Judges Tent we met back up with Derrick and his family and here is where I made my rookie mistake. I let them talk me into riding Dumbo!! I know during key party times a slow loading ride like Dumbo! What was I thinking!! Well, Derrick’s boys really wanted to ride it, and my cousin’s kids had ridden it earlier in the day and loved it so I gave in despite my better judgment. We had a lot of fun, but it killed a lot of our party time.

By the time we got off of Dumbo it was almost time for the fireworks to start. I really wanted to view them from in front of the castle, but as all my fellow disers know, by this time there was no way to get from Dumbo to the front of the castle! The routes around the castle had already been roped off and I knew that we wouldn’t make it through Tomorrowland or Liberty Square in time. So I backed our party back towards Dumbo and we got settled to watch the fireworks from Fantasyland.

The view was fantastic. The fireworks appeared to be right next to you, the only problem with our spot was you kind of felt like you were at a tennis match. Since the lower fireworks were to one side and the higher ones were to the other side. I love fireworks and our location didn’t bother me too much since I knew we would have more time next week to see Holiday Wishes from a location in front of the castle.

After the fireworks were over, we waited and waited for them to clear the area and drop the ropes. It seemed to take forever. This was the only time the crowds really bothered me! It was packed moving around in Fantasyland, wall to wall people. They finally dropped the ropes and we headed towards Tomorrowland and around the castle to find a spot on Main Street for the 2nd Christmas parade.

We ended up past the hub along the straight part of the street sitting behind the curb row. The nicest couple in front of us moved over a bit to make room for the kids on the curb. So three of the kids were sitting on the front row with them. The rest of us were behind them sitting with the Dad’s standing back a bit with the younger kids on their shoulders. We had to wait a bit for the parade to start so we went and got hot chocolate, cookies, and apples. The Cast Members also brought out hula-hoops for the kids. This made the time pass quickly. Here are the girls hula-hooping.

Before we knew it the parade was starting! Unfortunately, by this time it had really started to sprinkle so I don’t have any pictures! But the parade was marvelous! We really enjoyed it. I loved the Gingerbread Men and the Toy Soldiers! I really feel this parade lives up to the hype. After the parade ended, my cousin’s family and my aunt and her family headed back to their resort. I wasn’t anxious to join the mass of people headed towards the buses so we decided to stay for a bit. Derrick and his family decided to stay with us and we headed by Crystal Palace into Adventureland towards Pirates of the Caribbean.

On the way, I noticed a character spot so we decided to step in to see who was out. Low and behold it was Jasmine and Aladdin with only a short line. So of course we decided to stop. There couldn’t have been more than three families in front of us! After the short stop with Jasmine and Aladdin we continued on our way to Pirates of the Caribbean. We were disappointed when we got there and the cast members out front told us the ride was down for the night.

So we headed on to check out the line for Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. The ride had a less than 10-minute wait; it actually ended up being almost walk-on. We left Christopher at the entrance with my mom and Jennifer stayed with their youngest (18 months). When we got to the top the boys were too frightened to get on. They have two older boys ages that are the same ages as our girls (7 and 5). They tend to be chicken hearts and just couldn’t do it. I am sure they will be thrill seekers before they know it! So they walked across the train and waited at the exit for us. James rode with Ashley and I rode with Haley. It was a lot of fun! This was Haley’s first big roller coaster. She really liked this one! I was happy. We headed down the ramp to those waiting and decided it was about time to head out. We made our way out of the park and to the buses. I couldn’t believe I had forgotten about the MVMCP merchandise. Oh, well there is always ebay right.

We got back to our room a little after midnight and headed straight to bed. The plan for tomorrow was to sleep in before heading to Animal Kingdom!

 

[ladybugmom]

What beautiful pictures of the girls!! And dinner at CRT looks very nice!! I loved reading all about MVMCP!! Glad you had a great time!

 

[praisehisname]

You were able to do a lot during the party! And I can't believe how many characters you got to meet; that's awesome! Isn't that parade amazing?!?

Denise

 

[DisneyMom14]

You guys had some great character pics and interaction!!!! I'm glad y'all had a good time!

 

[happenin2you]

Just wanted to let you know i just booked my dec 10 stay at the wilderness lodge!!!

 

[creativeamanda]

I saw your girls at the party! I saw them doing the hula hoops across the street!

 

[raider97]

What beautiful pictures of the girls!! And dinner at CRT looks very nice!! I loved reading all about MVMCP!! Glad you had a great time!

Thanks! We really had a great time at the party. I'm glad we decided to go! And CRT proved to be a wonderful pick for our anniversary dinner - very festive.

You were able to do a lot during the party! And I can't believe how many characters you got to meet; that's awesome! Isn't that parade amazing?!?

Denise

Thanks! It didn't seem like we did a lot, but once I started writing it all out I was surprised we did as much as we did, especially with a party of 19 that night.

I LOVED the parade!!

You guys had some great character pics and interaction!!!! I'm glad y'all had a good time!

We really did! We didn't get to the Character Connection in Epcot. I really liked your pictures from there! Maybe next time.

Just wanted to let you know i just booked my dec 10 stay at the wilderness lodge!!!

WooHoo!! I hope you are planning to start a pre-trip report. I can't wait to hear all about it.

I saw your girls at the party! I saw them doing the hula hoops across the street!

Yea!! I wasn't sure if you would have seen us since I knew you hit the 1st parade and we hit the 2nd. Cool that you saw us! The kids loved the party - what a wonderful atmosphere! I'll have to pop in on your pre-trip report!

 

[raider97]

A side note: I'm not sure if I mentioned it yet, but on Thursday night on our trip my kidneys were really bothering me. I tried to drink a lot of water over the next few days, but the pain continued to get worse. It really hurt a lot to walk, but I determined not to miss out on this trip that I had planned for so long!

Stephanie

 

[raider97]

Day 3 - Part 1 - December 19th, 2009

Well, the plan was to sleep in this morning… and we really did! We didn’t roll out of bed until after 11 a.m. By the time we showered at the hit the buses we didn’t arrive at Animal Kingdom until 1 p.m. and we hadn’t eaten yet!
We stopped out front for some photo pass pictures. I wish they would have turned out better, but my children are all squinters when the light is too bright so they aren’t as good as they could have been.

I was getting texts left and right by this point. Both our friends and family had made it to the parks much earlier than we had. My aunt and her family headed to NASA today. Derrick and his family had been up and to the parks pretty early today and my cousin’s family had made it there before lunch. I texted both of them and told them we were going to grab lunch and I would text them when we were done.


We headed to Flame Tree BBQ….yummmmm! My mom and I both got the chicken platter that came with baked beans and cole slaw with chocolate cake for dessert. The kids all got the chicken drumstick platter with grapes and a cookie. James got the sliced turkey breast sandwich that came with cole slaw and I picked up a key lime pie for him for dessert. I sat them all down and got them started and then ran to get fast passes for Safari. Unfortunately, I walked quickly all the way there to find out….


All the fast passes were gone and my friends and family had already texted me that all the fast passes for Everest were gone too. It looked like it would be a challenging day and the park seemed really crowded especially for a TGM green day. Oh well, I headed back to our table and quickly finished up my lunch. It was good and I was starving!


We decided we would try and make it to the next showing of the Nemo. We have never seen this show and really wanted to this trip. We texted our family and friends to let them know our plans. Desi, my cousin’s wife, decided since they were on the other side of the park already that they would use their Safari fast passes. Derrick and his family said they would meet us there. We arrived at the Nemo stadium to find them already seating people. We ended up in the middle section against the wall. The seats worked out well and we really loved the show. It is really cute! Derrick and his family had made it into the show, but weren’t able to sit with us so we made plans to meet up with them after the show.


We headed out the back door and they showed up quickly. They had extra fast passes for Everest and wanted to know if we wanted to use them. Remember Derrick’s boys do not like thrill rides and neither does his wife, Jennifer. So he had picked up four fast passes, but only needed one to ride. So we headed towards Everest when we got there we were about to get in line when Ashley decides she needs a potty break so we head off to find bathrooms. Meanwhile, James and Derrick jump in line and my mom stays with Chris and Haley and Jennifer stays with her boys. When we got back from the bathrooms, we checked in to make sure everyone was doing alright and then jumped in line. None of us riding, but Derrick had ridden Everest before… and we loved it. Derrick informed me my husband screamed like a little girl when it started going backwards. Too funny! And it was a huge hit with Ashley and myself. She asked if we could go again as soon as we got off.


When Ashley and myself got off, we found all of them snacking on ice cream. We sat and enjoyed the treats before deciding our next step. Jennifer and Derrick decided they needed to get the boys back for naps so they decided to head out. I wanted to let the kids get their faces painted so we headed from Everest towards Safari. We stopped for a few photo pass pictures on the way. I wish we had gotten a whole group shot here too. I'm not sure why we didn't. I think my group was in an anti-picture mood today.

When we finally got to the face painting stand I was bummed to hear that we were too late for face painting. They had time for only one more person and since we had three we weren’t able to get in. I had planned to find another location to get their faces painted during the week, but unfortunately it never happened. A must-do on our next trip. We got a text from my cousin’s family that they were off the Safari and were wondering what our plans were. We mentioned we were headed towards the last Lion King Show and they said they would meet us there. While we were waiting for the theatre to open we decided to see Santa Goofy! All the other lines were really long, and the theatre was opening up so we skipped the rest. I wish we would have taken the time to see Minnie all dressed up for Christmas. She looked adorable!

We entered the theatre and headed towards some seats that ended up being the Lion Section. We had really good seats about 4 rows up. The show started out really cute, all the kids were enthralled and then I got the dreaded “Mommy, I need to use the bathroom”. The main floats with the animals had just come out so I asked if he could wait and he said “No” so we headed towards the Cast Member for our section. She directed us across our section to another Cast Member that directed us out. We headed to the bathrooms and then sat outside to wait for the show to end. While we were sitting there, I noticed my kidney pain was getting much worse. It was really starting to hurt when I walked.


But being the stubborn Disney person I am I refused to give in to the pain. When the show let out we joined the rest of our group. My cousin’s family was headed back to our resort with us so we could take the boat downtown for dinner and shopping. It was right around 6 p.m. when we headed out. We managed to get on the first bus and got off at the South Depot. I left my family here and headed to the room to pick up jackets, our stroller, and to look for some pain medicine.


And then I got lost….

 

[exwdwcm]

What great photos! we did the cool dude for our son and he was the same way- sort of tired and not smiling, i think it was overwhelming- but he enjoyed it. over a month later, and we can still see the red spots from the hidden mickey on the back of his head, it won't come out! your girls were simply beautiful!

 

[ladybugmom]

Sounds like an exciting day!! I just LOVE both the Nemo and FOTLK shows!! So sorry to hear about your kidney pain. I hope it gets better for you!! My favorite picture is the one of Goofy all dressed in his Christmas outift and the kiddos!! Sooo cute!!

 

[happenin2you]

I just got all caught up! It looks you you've had an awesome time so far. The pictures are all so cute! You can really see their little personalities through their pictures, I love it. I;m so sad you missed out on the Lion King show, it's one of my favorites. We were in the giraffe section. But the Nemo show is so awesome it makes up for it.

As for my own trip, we booked the Wilderness Lodge woods view, we're going to request the north side of the building which I hear sometimes has a partial Magic Kingdom view, for Dec 9 through the 16 and we're going to rent a car and spend two days at Universal studios to see the new Wizarding World of Harry Potter. I'd love to do a trip report, and possibly a pre-trip report, but as you may have noticed, my current trip report is kind of at a stand still, and with school being so hectic and work, who knows if or when i'll have time to finish it. Here's hoping =)

I need to get back to my homework and head to bed, I have to work tomorrow. I'm continuing my French and Spanish classes, retaking an early American English literature class for a better grade to raise my GPA, and and education course in which I have to start making observations soon. I may have to scale back my work in order to be successful this semester... I hope I can make it through without cutting my work schedule so I can have plenty of spending money at Disney

 

[raider97]

What great photos! we did the cool dude for our son and he was the same way- sort of tired and not smiling, i think it was overwhelming- but he enjoyed it. over a month later, and we can still see the red spots from the hidden mickey on the back of his head, it won't come out! your girls were simply beautiful!

Thanks! They look so adorable with the Cool Dude hair. I just loved it! And I know what you mean... Chris had a slight hidden mickey in his hair for days! It just wouldn't seem to wash completely out!

 

[raider97]

Sounds like an exciting day!! I just LOVE both the Nemo and FOTLK shows!! So sorry to hear about your kidney pain. I hope it gets better for you!! My favorite picture is the one of Goofy all dressed in his Christmas outift and the kiddos!! Sooo cute!!

It was a fun day! Not quite how I had planned, but I was really good about not stressing out about it. We really liked the Nemo show and the rest of the family adored the FOTLK one too! Hopefully, Christopher and me will get to see the whole show next time. I LOVED Goofy dressed as Santa! I think he is my favorite holiday character!

I just got all caught up! It looks you you've had an awesome time so far. The pictures are all so cute! You can really see their little personalities through their pictures, I love it. I;m so sad you missed out on the Lion King show, it's one of my favorites. We were in the giraffe section. But the Nemo show is so awesome it makes up for it.

As for my own trip, we booked the Wilderness Lodge woods view, we're going to request the north side of the building which I hear sometimes has a partial Magic Kingdom view, for Dec 9 through the 16 and we're going to rent a car and spend two days at Universal studios to see the new Wizarding World of Harry Potter. I'd love to do a trip report, and possibly a pre-trip report, but as you may have noticed, my current trip report is kind of at a stand still, and with school being so hectic and work, who knows if or when i'll have time to finish it. Here's hoping =)

I need to get back to my homework and head to bed, I have to work tomorrow. I'm continuing my French and Spanish classes, retaking an early American English literature class for a better grade to raise my GPA, and and education course in which I have to start making observations soon. I may have to scale back my work in order to be successful this semester... I hope I can make it through without cutting my work schedule so I can have plenty of spending money at Disney

Thanks! We did have a great trip! I really need to get going on this trip report! Life just seemd to keep getting in the way. I really liked Nemo! I hope that I can get to see all of FOTLK next time!

The Wilderness Lodge at Christmas how beautiful!! And romantic! Did you convince your friends to come with you? That time period should be great weather and crowd-wise! I can't wait to hear all your plans! And to hear all about the Harry Potter World! That park looks like it is going to be amazing! I noticed they moved your trip report to the finished sections. It wouldn't let me post on it since it was closed so I am glad you checked in here!

I hope school is going well! lol on the not cutting your work schedule so it won't cut into your Disney money! I completely understand!!

 

[DisneyMom14]

Kidney pain Hope everything turned out all right.

 

[exwdwcm]

Thanks! They look so adorable with the Cool Dude hair. I just loved it! And I know what you mean... Chris had a slight hidden mickey in his hair for days! It just wouldn't seem to wash completely out!

i swear i still see a faded red spot and it is two months later!

can't wait to read more!

 

[happenin2you]

The Wilderness Lodge at Christmas how beautiful!! And romantic! Did you convince your friends to come with you? That time period should be great weather and crowd-wise! I can't wait to hear all your plans! And to hear all about the Harry Potter World! That park looks like it is going to be amazing! I noticed they moved your trip report to the finished sections. It wouldn't let me post on it since it was closed so I am glad you checked in here!

I hope school is going well! lol on the not cutting your work schedule so it won't cut into your Disney money! I completely understand!!

Apparently I'm no so great at keeping up with the whole trip report thing... Oh well.... Maybe next time. In the meantime, though, I am anxiously awaiting your next installment.

 

[praisehisname]

I'm glad you were able to score a ride on Everest after all! Hope the kidney pain got better. I've had kidney infections and stones, so I know the pain can be bad!

 

[raider97]

So sorry this update has taken me soooo long! We have been pretty busy. Both of the girls are in Girl Scouts this year (two different troops). Ashley is in brownies and Haley is a daisy scout. Well, we have spent the last few weeks selling and delivering Girl Scout cookies. Add to that we have all been sick and the last few weeks have flown by. Ashley is now completely over double ear infections, Haley is the in middle of pink eye medicine (yuck!!) and Christopher is coming off a lower bronchial infection. Not a fun month or so around here!

I'm working on an update right now!

Stephanie

 

[raider97]

So when I left off we had just arrived at Port Orleans and we were headed towards Downtown Disney... James was trying to convince me that we should take the evening off, but I was determined to make it to our dinner reservations.

So off I went in the dark to our room. I should have taken a map, but I was in a hurry. Let me step back a moment and tell you all that I had never been from our lobby to our room during the daytime, in fact I had never walked from the lobby to our room at all. The first night we had been taken to our room by bell services in a golf cart so even though I thought I knew where I was going I didn't. Port Orleans is pretty dark at night and even during the day the winding paths can get you lost if you aren't paying attention. Well, I got lost, turned around, add to that I wasn't feeling well and I was a mess! I ended up finding our building, but somehow I ended up on the back of it and where our room should have been it wasn't. I walked and walked and walked. I started second guessing our room number and finally stopped to call DH on my cell phone, crying none the less, about how I couldn't find the room and I wasn't sure about the number. He calmed me down and told me the same number I had been looking for, while I was on the phone with him I turned another corner, and there was our room! Thank goodness! I was spent!

I grabbed the jackets, stroller, and took one of the antibiotics I had thrown in on a whim at home. I had come down with a sinus infections back in October and then two days later the flu so they had me stop the antibiotics and start tamiflu so I had almost a whole precription of amoxcillian left. Thank goodness I had the foresight to throw the bottle in when I was packing.

I headed back towards the lobby and thankfully I didn't get lost on the way back. I grabbed the rest of our party and we walked down to the water taxi ramp. Having a stroke of good luck a boat was just pulling up as we were walking down. We really enjoyed the boat ride to Downtown Disney. It is such a relaxing ride.

When we got to Downtown Disney we quickly made our way to T-Rex for our 8 p.m. reservation. There was some confuion about our reservations, but they were quickly worked out and we were seated at one reall long table. It ended up being my family and my mom and Desi's family. Derrick and his family had gotten to T-Rex early and were already seated and eating. They finished up and went shopping. We had a nie dinner here, my mom had a hamburger, James had the chicken fried steak, and I had the fried shrimp. All the kids had cheese pizzas. We thought everything was good, not great, but I think you go here for the atmosphere most anyways. We were seated outside the ice room right near the t-rex. Christopher really loved dinosaurs and I had booked this reservation because I thought he would love it. I wasn't wrong he did love it!

After dinner, Desi and her family decided to go shopping. I was feeling pretty miserable, in fact I had decided if I wasn't feeling much better soon I would be headed to an emergency clinic, but I toughed it out for a bit longer. My mom took the kids and let them Build a Dinosaur. Ashley picked out a Parasaurolophus. Haley picked out Apatosaurus Pink. And Christopher picked out a T-Rex. The kids loved picking out their dinosaurs!! While they were doing that I picked up a t-shirt from the gift shop that has all the dinosaur skeletons on it for Christopher's birthday.

After we finished up in T-Rex, James asked me what our plan was. I said we should go shopping, but James convinced me that since I wasn't feeling well, we should just go back to the room. I agreed with him and we headed to the bus stop. We took the bus back to Port Orleans and it was almost midnight before we fell into bed.