A December Trip, MVMCP, Candlelight Processional, plus I FINALLY saw the Lion!

[rndmr2]

Hello, everyone! Welcome to my latest Trip Report! It's been a while since I was last in the World (2014) and that's too long! I did get some of a Disney Fix over those years, I was in Disneyland Paris in 2019 and Disneyland in 2022. There are TR's for those trips in my sig below. (The DL one is not finished but it's been so long I think a lot is changed).

If you don't know us, I will make introductions. I am Danielle, I am 52 years old and I am the big Disney fan of the family, I have been to Disney World a bunch of times since I was about 12. I am a nurse, I work as Nursing Supervisor in a Nursing Home/Rehab here in Western NY. We actually just moved to a different town in the same area a few months ago. We have been moving in bits and pieces and we actually had movers bring the last of our main furniture today! We are excited to have actual furniture in the living room. We have been living with Camp Chairs and tray tables for the most part since May.

My Husband is Tim. He is 49 years old (He'll be 50 this coming May) and he has been a few times since he met me. He works as a Cleaner/Janitor at the local Elementary School. Since we moved, he is now in Walking distance from the School, which is really convenient since he doesn't drive (Seizures). It's been great for him not having to worry about rides, etc.

This trip came about when we started talking about vacations and I really wanted to go back to Disney. I had been thinking about going in the Fall, I love the Fall decorations, the Mickey pumpkins everywhere, etc. But my hubby said he wanted to see it with Christmas decorations so I went about booking a December trip. We went December 10th to 17th and stayed at All Star Movies. We got tickets for the Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party and then when they went on sale I got the Candlelight Processional Dining Package (at the Garden Grill) on one of the Nights that Henry Winkler was narrating. (Spoiler, he did a beautiful Job).

We had a really fun trip, the weather was great for the most part although it cot cool at night (Downright cold at least one night). So sit back and I hope to make the report an interesting read. Here is a quick pic of us to start. (Hope this works)

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[rndmr2]

Day 0
Tuesday Dec 9th

I had to work the weekend of the 6th, 7th and Monday the 8th. I work every other weekend and I work all the Mondays so when it's my weekend I do 3 in a row. The issue with 3 in a row is they are 16 hour shifts. I work 3pm till 7:30am and Since I almost never get out on time I don't get a heck of a lot of sleep between them (4-5 hours). So I basically am unable to do anything all weekend because I have to maximize what little sleep I get. So I came out of work on Tuesday morning at about 8am and went home and crashed for a few hours. The other thing with this schedule is that at that point I hadn't PACKED anything! I had done all the laundry and had it all together but nothing was in the suitcase. Luckily my husband had packed his things so I just had to do mine which I did after I had slept a few hours.

We were leaving on Wednesday but our flight was at 6am so I booked a room at the hotel that is right by the airport, the Fairfield Inn. We left the house at about 6, stopped at the drive through to get a quick dinner to eat in the room. Checked in, parked the car in the parking lot and took the shuttle back to the hotel. We watched a little TV and went to sleep pretty early because we had to get up at 3:45.

Day 1
Wed Dec 10th

That alarm came too fast. We woke up and got ready and went to breakfast. The full hot breakfast with eggs and all that started at 6 but they had a cold breakfast that started at 4. I had cereal, chocolate milk, and a danish. I also had a yogurt but I took that with me and ate it at the gate. Tim had bagels and cream cheese and OJ. We walked to the airport (it is right across the street) and it was lightly snowing. Took about 20-30 minutes to get through security. It was pretty busy for a small airport. We got to our gate and everything was fine at first, boarded on time and pulled back from the gate but then they said we had to get de-iced but there was a line of planes waiting to get on the "De-icing pad" Apparently Rochester airport only has one of these "Pads". I don't know Rochester is a small airport and all but it is also in the middle of snow country, you would think they would have more than one. By the time we finally took off it was after the time we were supposed to have landed in DC. Luckily we didn't miss our connection. Here is a pic of the "De- icing truck"

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In the air

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Our connection was in DC (Dulles) and we took off on time and even landed a few minutes early. We got an Uber to get to ASMo and it came pretty quick. We got there about 2:15. The lady from Bell services came and took our bags to hold them until our room was ready. We went to get a quick bite to eat at the food court. We got a message that our room was ready while we were eating and went to tell Bell services our room # and they said they would take them to the room.

A couple pics from the Resort Lobby

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I did a mobile order for our food. I went to buy the refillable mugs while we waited for the food to be ready. I feel we got our money's worth from them. We debated on whether to get a dining plan, I initially thought it would be too expensive and that we would never eat that much, that we could share things, etc. Well, we didn't end up sharing things most of the time because we usually wanted different things. I haven't done the full calculation yet but I think we might have been better off getting at least the quick serve plan.

I had Sesame chicken and Tim had an Italian sandwich. I ordered the special Holiday dessert, the Gingerbread cake for us to share.

A couple pics of our dinner and then of the room. We were in the Herbie the Love Bug section.

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Outlets and USB's on both sides of the bed. The one on my side wasn't working.

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We took a nap in the room for a couple hours then I put in an Instacart order for a few snacks and drink packets for the room. We went to bell services to double check that they would keep it until we were ready. We went to the food court again and refilled our mugs. I went in the store for a bit, I bought a pair of Christmassy ears. (I had one pair that I got in California and brought those , with me in this trip but they were just purple sparkly ones). These looked like red and white striped candies. While we were at the table, I went into the "Chat" section of the App and asked about that outlet that wasn't working. That worked out really well, they came and fixed it while we were at the food court. After that we got our stuff from Bell Services and went back to the room. We were going to Epcot the next day.

 

[bobbiwoz]

I’m enjoying your report!