A Mickey's Very Merry "Holy Crap It's Cold" Trip Report 12/9-12/16

[Katie & Glen]

WHAT FUN!! I love the pictures on the teacups. I have always avoided that ride because spinning makes me sick but I might have to go now just to have those fun looking photos for myself . I am a photgrapher and I cannot believe I did not see that amazing opportunity for photos . Though I will have to take a motion sickness pill that day to go hey it worked on Mission Space last year, it will work for the tea cups... I hope .

Oh by the way I am in for the rest of the story

Your late start to a story sorta has me motivated to do a trippie form my September trip. Though with all my tickers at the bottom I would have no place for advertising for it

Welcome! I was hoping for some better shots on the teacups, but there is always next time.

 

[MEK]

All caught up again! Fun updates, although you guys looks a little cold! I visited one Thanksgiving when they had record breaking cold and I remember freezing at the AK and searching until I could find a cup of coffee that afternoon. It's not a good park to be cold in because most of the fun stuff is outdoors. to multiple EE rides.

100 times on ToT????? Is that possible????? I can't even imagine riding close to that many times. It is fun at night. I agree. Well, all rides are more fun and night. Even the inside ones seems darker to me at night (crazy, I know).

Waiting an hour for a bus at DTD is ridiculous. You poor thing.

You got some great pictures!

 

[Daddy_of_Princesses]

We went into a shop so I could grab a Mickey Santa hat since we forgot my hat and gloves at home. (hence the Stitch gloves). Glen decided he would like one too so we got one. Ethan didn’t want anything so we headed out to take some more pictures and then head to breakfast.

When we sat down, I looked around because I knew DaddyofPrincesses had a ressie this morning as well. We spotted them just as they finished up eating and were heading back into the park. DoP felt bad for the short encounter but I understood. Once we were done we just wanted to get out of there.

After breakfast we sent John, Glen & Ethan to go grab FP’s for the Safari and to find a potty. Pat and I hung around and we Saw Meeko from Pocahontas. I wanted to grab a picture but realized Glen had my camera oh well, I figured we would catch him later. Once the guys got back we headed into the Lion King theatre to see the show. It was amazing! We know we want to see that again.

I wanted a Mickey Santa Hat too, but I guess my head is too big, the hat was too tight. I really wanted it for the pictures with the characters.

The RainForest Cafe is nice, but by the end the animals making noise is a bit much. We must have just missed each other when Meeko was there. We were the last ones to see him before he went in for a biscuit. It was right after we met all the characters at Camp Minnie Micke. How were the lines to meet the characters when you saw them?

 

[Katie & Glen]

I wanted a Mickey Santa Hat too, but I guess my head is too big, the hat was too tight. I really wanted it for the pictures with the characters.

The RainForest Cafe is nice, but by the end the animals making noise is a bit much. We must have just missed each other when Meeko was there. We were the last ones to see him before he went in for a biscuit. It was right after we met all the characters at Camp Minnie Micke. How were the lines to meet the characters when you saw them?

We saw Mickey, Minnie & Goofy and the lines weren't too bad. I think we waited around 30 minutes total.

 

[Katie & Glen]

All caught up again! Fun updates, although you guys looks a little cold! I visited one Thanksgiving when they had record breaking cold and I remember freezing at the AK and searching until I could find a cup of coffee that afternoon. It's not a good park to be cold in because most of the fun stuff is outdoors. to multiple EE rides.

100 times on ToT????? Is that possible????? I can't even imagine riding close to that many times. It is fun at night. I agree. Well, all rides are more fun and night. Even the inside ones seems darker to me at night (crazy, I know).

Waiting an hour for a bus at DTD is ridiculous. You poor thing.

You got some great pictures!

For ToT, I was a teenager so what may seem like 100 times, was probably closer to 20, but that's my 16 year old memory for you. We thought we were hot stuff being able to go to the parks ourselves and ride whatever we wanted.

 

[Daddy_of_Princesses]

We saw Mickey, Minnie & Goofy and the lines weren't too bad. I think we waited around 30 minutes total.

When we were there the characters weren't even in their little huts since the lines were so short. I think the cold kept people away that day.

 

[Katie & Glen]

When we were there the characters weren't even in their little huts since the lines were so short. I think the cold kept people away that day.

Possibly - but getting to hug Mickey & Goofy was nice since they were giving off so much heat!

 

[Katie & Glen]

Welcome back to our trip report… sorry it took so long. We had some additional drama and life just has been very busy. This is Glen and I am trying to write this episode of our trip report - so please bear with me on this my first effort..

So, we ended our last installment with the decision to not get up early for our breakfast reservation at Tusker House. Instead, against all Katie’s pre-trip planning, we decided to spend the morning “sleeping in.” In reality, we got up about 20 min after our original planned time. The three of us met up with my dad at Mara at AKL and had breakfast. He headed back to his room for a bit and we were off to catch the MK bus. Of course the vacation gods decided that, since we messed with the schedule they would mess with us a little by having the bus pull out 10 sec before we got to the waiting area - just enough so we could see that we missed the bus. So we waited a while and eventually made it to the Magic Kingdom by around 10:30.

After going through the check in, We all quickly ran and got FPs for Space Mountain. We then headed over to the Haunted Mansion. Line was about 30 min long (the queue was outside the mansion gate). Once we got inside, we snuck over to the side where the door opens after the pre-show. Ethan rode with Granddad and Katie and I jumped in another cart and rode together (gotta protect my sweetie from those scary ghosts).

Then we ran over to ride Pirates. After we got out, we ran straight into our own little pirate battle.

After departing the Mansion, we headed over to ride Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin. My Dad met up with us on the way there. Since we didn’t have a FP, we knew it would be a long wait, and we weren’t completely disappointed - the wait time was around 40 minutes. Once in, we piled into the cart - Ethan and Grandad on one side and Katie and I on the other. Ethan excitedly explained to Grandad how the ride as the ride started forward. Apparently, Katie won, though I question the judges call on several shots…

After we got off Buzz Lightyear, it was time for lunch (boy, sleeping in and waiting in lines makes the morning go fast!!!).
So it was time to be off for lunch at Pinocchio Village Haus. We met up with Pat at the carousel and went in to eat. It was very busy, so Katie went to get a table while the rest of us went to get the food. Katie had the kid’s pizza, Ethan had the adult chicken salad, and I had something. Sorry, no food porn on this one. Food was good, I just don’t remember what I had.

After lunch, we headed off to see Mickey’s Philharmagic. I really enjoyed it, as I had never seen it previously – I especially loved the scenes from Fantasia. Ethan thought it was awesome.

After Philharmagic, we headed back over to ride the Haunted Mansion. This time, Ethan, Grandad and I rode together and Katie rode with Pat. Ethan enjoyed pointing out to Grandad all of the ghosts. My dad was very good in pretending he had never ridden it before (not mentioning that he had ridden it with Ethan’s cousins the previous year or that he knew where the ghosts were).

After Haunted Mansion, we ran to Space Mountain to hop on for another run to use our FP. Pat did not want to go on, so she sat outside and watched our bags. With the FP we had almost no wait. After we got out of Space Mountain, we started to head over towards the Tiki Room to catch the show.

While walking there, we saw a group of people gathered around a trash can that was talking to them. We got excited, as we realized this was “PUSH”!!! We took Ethan over and PUSH called out to Katie and Ethan and called them Brangelina (HAH!!). After an extended conversation with PUSH, we left him to play with the other people there and headed off to the Tiki Room.

After a great Tiki show, we went off to ride the Pirates. Katie and Pat didn’t want to go on the ride, so they ran to get a Dolewhip while we went on it. While the line was minimal, the ride itself got pretty backed up towards the end and the operators initiated intermittent stops during the ride, in an effort to keep things spread out and the ride flowing as smoothly as possible.

Now mind you, Katie had a detailed plan of what rides to go on and when – minimizing our wait times and maximizing the FP use. Sleeping in destroyed this plan, so we were sorta winging it at this point.

Next, we decided to go on the jungle cruise. This was the second time we had ridden it on this trip. The tour person we had this time was, by far, better than the first time we were on the cruise.

After the cruise, we ran over to BTM RR. We decided not to get a FP and only Ethan and I went on it. The wait was about 15 min and we sat all the way in the front – Ethan loved the view. After we got off the ride, we ran to meet up with the rest of the group.

Then we headed over to the Hub on Main Street to watch the “Celebrate” parade. Katie and Ethan went out and danced, while Grandad and I videotaped the silliness.

Once the parade was over, we got in position in the Hub to watch the castle lighting show. The lighting show was excellent, as usual. After the ceremony, we headed over to Cosmic Ray’s Starlight Café. As before, Katie gave me her order and she went over to get us a table while the rest of us got the food. It was crowded as all heck and we were there before the dinner menu, so we all got burgers and fries. Meanwhile, Katie was protecting our table like a mama dragon standing over its only egg. She fiercely fended off other predatory families with her laser beam eyes. And rightly so – she had a perfect location overlooking the dance party – and the show began just as we sat down.

Once we finished dinner, we went over to get our passes for the MVMCP. At this point, it had started to get colder, so we put on our PJs under our clothes (to act as long underwear) to keep us warm.

Shortly after we got changed, my father decided he was tired and very sore from all the walking and wanted to call it a day. So he headed back to the hotel. Katie, Ethan and I went to get some hot chocolate and cookies (YAY!!). We shopped for Katie’s Christmas PJs. We found them at the Emporium, on Main St. – much to Katie’s pleasure.

It was time to head over to the seating area in front of the Plaza to meet up with the other DISser’s. We found a few (surprise!!). Lenora (Poppygirl) and Natalie (Tinkermom76) were both their with their entourage. We all headed over to Main Street to pick our spot for the parade and fireworks.

While we were still talking to everyone in the meet area, Natalie’s daughter walked up to Ethan and said. “Hi, I’m Eryka – what’s your name??” And the rest, as they say, is history. The two of them were inseparable the rest of the night…

We then claimed our spot on Main Street. The Girls posed for a photo in front of the Castle, while we waited for the fireworks.

Ethan and Eryka watched the fireworks together.

After the fireworks, we held our spot and ran and got more hot chocolate and cookies for the kids (and us). Natalie ran across the street to Casey’s Corner and got a soda for Eryka. I took Eryka and Ethan to the bathrooms for a quick pit stop during the lull.

Then Ethan and Eryka watched the parade together.

After the Parade, we were deciding if we wanted to go back to the room and call it a night or go on some more rides. Ethan said he wanted to go on Space Mountain and use our 4 FPs. Eryka told Ethan she had never been on it and asked if she could come with him. Ethan was, of course, heavily in favor of this. Katie told her that she had to ask her mom. With some hesitation, Natalie decided that we were relatively safe and somewhat normal and that Eryka could go with us. We ran off to space mountain and got in line –

What line there was consisted of the 4 of us until we got pretty far inside where they split the queue.

Ethan and Eryka were in the front of the 1st car, with Katie behind them and I was in the front seat of the second car.

After we got off SM, we met up with Natalie and started heading out. At the entrance, I went upstairs to get some last minute photos before calling it a night….

 

[DISNEYaddict4evr]

HI Glen!

Ah to be young ... the photo of them holding hands is adorable
Great update. I am excited seeing all the christmas decor. I visited on Halloween last year (don't get me wrong is was very cool to see the mickey pumpkins), the first time I had ever been to WDW not during Christmas. When I got home I felt like I hadn't even been there, it just wasn't the same. I am very excited that my pictures from my trip got mom mom all excited cause now I get to go back this Christmas

 

[Tinkermom76]

Safe and normal is what I decided you were Nah I just figured if you kept her long enough you would meet the real Eryka, then you would hunt me down and return her!

You didn't put the pic of us ladies in front of the castle

Good to see you getting in on the updates too Glen!!! Great job!!!

 

[Katie & Glen]

Safe and normal is what I decided you were Nah I just figured if you kept her long enough you would meet the real Eryka, then you would hunt me down and return her!

You didn't put the pic of us ladies in front of the castle

Good to see you getting in on the updates too Glen!!! Great job!!!

Natalie, I swore we saw the real Eryka, but by then it was too late.. the two of them got along too well... we were doomed...

As for the ladies pic.. I swore I added it,... I will go back and check..

What do you mean its not there?? I see it. not sure why you didn't

 

[Tinkermom76]

Natalie, I swore we saw the real Eryka, but by then it was too late.. the two of them got along too well... we were doomed...

As for the ladies pic.. I swore I added it,... I will go back and check..

What do you mean its not there?? I see it. not sure why you didn't

Good save!!!!

 

[Katie & Glen]

OK, I know we are delayed in getting these last updates out. We’ve been pretty busy these last few weeks. So without further ado, here is our second to last day.

Our day begins bright and early as usual for this trip. We have an 8am breakfast reservation at Hollywood & Vine (need to load up on energy for the TSM run!). Once up we have my FiL (John) meet us in the lobby to hop a bus to DHS. I think we waited maybe 5 minutes for a bus and it was almost empty. We get to DHS and line up in the ADR line. Of course there are people without ADR’s trying to stand in line and argue with the CM’s that they need to get in early to get to TSM. We were maybe 20 families back in line and once the CM’s got through, there was 3 families in front of us.

So we get into the park and check in at H&V. We had a 5 minute wait before we got seated since they were still trying to open up. We all really enjoyed the breakfast buffet here. I was super happy to be able to get my Mickey waffles with the strawberry topping here. I’ve been missing these for a long time. I had these for breakfast everyday on my last trip in 2007.

So all the characters came around, Ethan could have cared less but humored me and took some pictures.

Once we finished breakfast we had about 10 minutes before I got to take part in the herding to TSM. The boys were going to take their time walking there and meet me at the end of the street. As we were waiting we saw Stitch come out. Poor little guy didn’t know which way to go to cause some trouble.

So now I can finally line up with the rest of the TSM crazed people. I must say, I was proud of myself, I stayed pretty close to the front the whole time. At one point I joked and said I felt like a cow being herded, well some other people felt the same way and almost simultaneously we all MOOOOOOOOed. Of course everyone found it hysterical. So we finally get to the FP machines at TSM and I get all of our FP’s and our return time is for 11:30am. Ok, I can deal with that. I get out of the FP area and the guys are right there. Ethan wanted to try and ride it quick, so we get in what we think is the line. Wrong! CM’s come out and say to move along. The ride is down and they don’t know when it will be running today. WHAT?! You mean I just wasted my time getting FP’s for a ride that is down?

So Glen talks me down from the ledge so to speak and we decide to we will check back later and see if the ride is up and running. We walk on over to Backlot Tour. This was really lackluster. I never rode this in its hayday so to speak, but I was really disappointed. The boys were as well. We took our time after the ride looking at all the costumes and memorabilia.

From here we decided to go on the Great Movie Ride. We had the gangster scene this time around. The driver left a lot to be desired, but hey, it killed 20 minutes and it was warm. Did I mention it was still freezing today? Oh, I didn’t! Sorry about that! We were freeeeeeezzzzzzing! So when we got outside, Glen gave me a confused look. I said we got to experience both action scenes in the same trip! I let on about how excited I was the first time we rode earlier in the trip with the cowboy scene since it was the first time I got to see it.

From here we decided to go over to the animation building and see the show. It was neat. We decided not to wait for an animation class. Glen’s dad was getting grumpy already. We moved on over to see what characters were out and they all had really long lines. Ethan decided no one was worth waiting that long for. After this, we sent my FiL back to the hotel so we could tour in peace. We told him to meet up with us for dinner.

After this we decided to just wander around a bit. We realized we didn’t get to do the Indy show on our last day here so we hopped on over for that. Glen and Ethan really enjoyed the show. I always love it. After the Indy show we walked over to Backlot Express and grabbed some lunch.

After lunch we walked back over to TSM and it was up and running. We got in the FP line and had a 25 minute wait. We enjoyed the ride, but we really don’t get what all the fuss is about. We all agreed we will not be part of a herd to get FP’s next time.

We decided to wander on down to RnR and ToT at this point. We grabbed a FP for RnR and went over to ride ToT. We were all good on ToT after one ride since lunch still hadn’t fully settled. By this point the park had started to get crowded and we had a wait for our RnR FP’s so we just strolled around. We didn’t get any pictures but we goofed off in some of the stores and just took in the sights. Our FP time finally came up for RnR so we headed back for a ride. We enjoyed this just as much as the first time.

It was getting close to our dinner reservation time so we headed on over to Mama Melrose. On our way FiL called and said he was there waiting. Once we got over there Glen got us checked in. We had a 20 minute wait for our table. I have to say I was really disappointed in Mama Melrose. The service was poor and the food was mediocre. We had to ask repeatedly for drink refills and the waitress just seemed to not care.

After our disappointing dinner, we headed over to see the lights. I could stay here for hours just watching but Glen said they started to give him a headache after a while. I told him next time we come back at Christmas time, he can go do whatever while I come watch the lights. We got a really nice PhotoPass shot of the three of us.

After about an hour, we decided to head back to the resort since we were leaving the next day and needed to pack. On our way out, we got a nice shot in front of the Sorcerers Hat.

So hopefully I can get our last chapter out this weekend to wrap this puppy up.

 

[Tinkermom76]

YAY an upate!!!

I am really getting tired of the TSM dash for FP's too
I don't understand why they don't add another one, it's ridiclous

I think from now on we will get the FP when we get there at a leisurely pace and ride it once

I could watch the lights all day too, but the kids usually cut me off pretty quick

 

[Katie & Glen]

YAY an upate!!!

I am really getting tired of the TSM dash for FP's too
I don't understand why they don't add another one, it's ridiclous

I think from now on we will get the FP when we get there at a leisurely pace and ride it once

I could watch the lights all day too, but the kids usually cut me off pretty quick

Well, now we know to plan a trip together so we can watch the lights all we want and the kids can go off an do what they want. And yes, I include Glen with the kids.

 

[Tinkermom76]

Well, now we know to plan a trip together so we can watch the lights all we want and the kids can go off an do what they want. And yes, I include Glen with the kids.

I thought we were planning for October, no lights then

 

[Katie & Glen]

We are still planning for next October, but I mean a few years down the road. Must go back for Christmas time.

 

[Tinkermom76]

We are still planning for next October, but I mean a few years down the road. Must go back for Christmas time.

LOL ok

 

[Shannon84]

I am sad I just found your report now so I wasnt able to follow along with each update, but I have really enjoyed it while speed reading Your pictures are great!! I have never seen that magic shot with Stitch coming out of the present before, too cute!!

 

[DISNEYaddict4evr]

What a great pic of the lights, makes me excited to back this year I am praying it is not as cold