A Splash Of Wonder & A Dash Of Christmas Cheer: A Trip Report With Pictures

[Disneygrl36]

Pretrip report/Chapter 1

Cast of characters
Me 39 Disney Geek Extraordinaire, fanatical planner & Chief Executive Officer of our WONDERful trip
DH 36 Disney Enthusiast & person who has had to put up with the CEO for the last 11 months through the trip planning phase & asks me one night before leaving “What do I need to do besides pack my stuff?”
DMom (it’s not appropriate to post one’s Mothers age if one wants to keep her happy) One who enjoys Disney who is coming along for the ride & will do whatever she is told by her “Disney Nazi” (her term of endearment for moa) daughter.
DDad (only fair not to post his age since we are not sharing Mom’s) No sort of Disney fan-in fact one of my Disney memories from my first trip at age 11 was him not even smiling at the Magic Kingdom….but he wanted to come along for the ride too once we started discussing this trip & most especially the cruise portion. We will see how he does & if he behaves he may be invited again in the future….if not we might pitch him over board for Tic Toc (the croc from Peter Pan-in case you didn’t get that) to devour.

So………..on with the story.
I started planning this trip 11 months ago. We had bought into the DVC & had extra points to use & I really wanted to use them on a cruise. We booked a 4 night Wonder cruise in January 2006 for Dec 3-7, 2006. We booked a category 7 stateroom with a Navigators verandah. We started discussing this trip & my Mom said she would like to join us so we put the down payment on her cabin as a birthday/Mother’s day & Christmas present. We booked her a category 11 room right down the hall from us. As Dad heard us talking & getting excited about the trip, he said “hey that might be fun” so after much discussion he decided to join us & he was added to Mom’s cabin.
We decided to fly in Saturday Dec 2nd & stay at the Boardwalk & spend the day in EPCOT. We will set sail on Sunday Dec 3rd & return to Walt Disney World Thursday Dec 7th when DDad will fly home & the rest of us will stay at Old Key West until we fly home on Sunday Dec 10th.

Our itinerary looks like this………
Sat Dec 2nd EPCOT-dinner at Le Cellier/Candlight Processional/Illuminations
Sun Dec 3rd Board the Disney Wonder to set sail for 4 nights of fun
Mon Dec 4th Nassau day-spa treatments & fun on the ship
Tues Dec 5th Castaway Cay day-fun on the beach/dinner at Palo/Pirate night
Wed Dec 6th Day at Sea-brunch at Palo
Thurs Dec 7th back to WDW/DTD/MK for Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party
Fri Dec 8th MGM-dinner at 50’s Primetime Café/DTD/Irish Pub or Jellyrolls
Sat Dec 9th AK/dinner at California Grill/Wishes from Observation Deck
Sun Dec 10th breakfast at Olivias/return home

It is now Friday Dec 1st at 5pm………I am all packed & ready to go. My DH has to pack still & my DMom has called me 2 or 3 times already to day to make sure she isn’t forgetting anything.

Here are a few pictures of packing.

Here is all the stuff you need for a proper Disney vacation (not clothes or makeup or any of that stuff)...this is the fun stuff.

These are cruise essentials---if you haven't go read Zweihund's trippie entitled Geeks on A Boat for more information on why we need ginger chews & Sleepydog25's trippie entitled All I Got Was a Lousy T-shirt for information on why you need a night light.

These are the photo mats that I am dropping off at guest services on the ship for the characters to autograph as a souvenir with chocolates as a treat for them (thanks for that idea Doc aka Sleepdog25's wife)...found that idea on the DIS too.

This is my sad Mr Potato Head waiting for me to bring back lots of cool Disney accesories for him.........

I’ll be back…………hopefully I haven’t lost you guys already & you will want to read more when I return & start telling the story.
A Splash of Wonder & a Dash of Christmas Cheer to you all…….

 

[StarCheryl]

Great start! Can't wait for more.

 

[Disneygrl36]

Hi StarCheryl
Wow, I have one reader so far & I haven't even left yet..........
See ya later.......
5:30am comes early............I'm outta here

 

[discruiselovers97]

This is looking GREAT!

 

[WDW Poly Princess]

Oooh, I'm so jealous! I'm snowed in, and you're on your way to Castaway Cay!

Have a great trip!

 

[serendipity]

Ohhh I love the start! Have fun and I anxiously await for more!

 

[FatherForce]

Subscribing....

 

[KatGarcia]

Lovin' the report! Kudos on your packing priorities!!!!

 

[UtahMama]

Have A Great Trip!!!

 

[Katy]

Can't wait to hear more about your trip....be safe and have fun!

 

[plgrn]

Subbing. We will be boarding the Wonder as you are leaving. Hope you have a wonderful time and I can't wait to read about your experiences.

 

[Blaynexox]

subscribing -- > Looks like its going to be a GREAT trippie! Your packing was so colorful! .. cant wait to hear all about it - i hope you have a ton of fun!

 

[Jennifer48]

anxiously awaiting your return!

 

[Disneygrl36]

I am back.............
I will be starting to write some & get some pictures uploaded. I am sooooooo tired, but we had a wonderful trip.
I will get going on the trippie soon as I get the cobwebs out of my weary head.
Thanks for reading so far.

 

[Disneygrl36]

I just wanted to say hello to everybody so far.
Thanks for coming along for the ride discruiselovers97, wdwpolyprincess, seredipity, katgarcia,katy,blaynexox,jennifer48. I hope I won't bore you all to tears....mine won't be a really funny trippie, but I hope to capture the spirit of the trip.
Plgrn....I hope you had as much fun on the Wonder as we did. I was so sad to leave it. We really enjoyed all the different areas of the ship & sampled a bit of everything. We booked another cruise while on board so I guess that means we gave it a big .
I can't believe I have 2 GREAT trip reporters reading along......I am not worthy to have FatherForce & Utahmama along for the ride.

I must say too......that I did not meet or see one Diser on this trip even though I had my LGMH attached to my fanny pack. Oh well....maybe next time.

I took the day off from work today to recuperate so I have gotten a start on the trip report.
SO HERE WE GO.............I do work a 5 day a week job as a nurse, so I will try to be timely with getting this thing written, but you may have to bear with me a bit. Sit back & enjoy.

 

[Disneygrl36]

We had a 7am flight out of Knoxville Tennessee. We all met up at the airport & needless to say we were a bit tired, but excited & ready to get the show on the road.
We had an uneventful flight….thank goodness.

DH looking out at a blanket of clouds.
Then we proceeded straight to Magical Express check-in & were soon on our way to the Boardwalk where we would spend one night before our 4 night cruise.
The Boardwalk looked beautiful all decked out for Christmas.

It is one of my favorite resorts not only for it’s beauty but it’s convenience to EPCOT. Our room was not ready, but we were certainly ready to get started having some fun, so we headed out for EPCOT. We had decided to spend this day there since my Dad had not been to WDW since there was only the Magic Kingdom & if you read the opening you know he is not a big Disney fan so I thought this park would be the best place to take him to show him that there is so much more to Walt Disney World than just kid stuff/Mickey Mouse. It was cool entering World Showcase before it opened up & seeing all the beautiful Christmas decorations.

We headed straight to the Land to get a fast pass for Soarin. Rode Living with the Land which continues to be one of my favorites even though it is good for you too (educational). We had our first Disney meal of the trip. We were doing the Disney Dining Plan for the first time. Lunch at Seasons was good & we were all starved since we had been up since 4:45am. We had ham & turkey sandwiches followed by Asian chocolate cake & a fruit tulip. This is the premier of our special friend who would be presenting our food (taken especially for the Disney food porn thread here on the DIS). Isn’t he cute????

Tune in later for a very special update on our friend…….
After lunch, we SOARed over California………you just gotta love the smell of those orange groves & getting to take a special trip over Walt’s original Magic Kingdom. I think my Dad was really impressed with this……..see I had a plan to make sure I started him out with some of the best things Disney had to offer…food & great rides. We went over to get a fast pass for Test Track & then decided to take a trip to Mars (except DMom who doesn’t do thrill rides for the most part….stay tuned to see which one she will ride). I had not the best experience on my first ride on Mission Space back in 2004 so I decided to opt for the green (weenie) side as did DDad while DH went for the full thrill. I enjoyed the watered down version much better & DDad who has some issues with vertigo did fine too. Next up, a classic………..Spaceship Earth. I love it & sincerely hope they don’t ever change it too much. We then visited The Seas with Nemo & friends. I really enjoyed the seagulls outside “mine, mine, mine” would be repeated many times later in the day. I thought they did a great job with the new overlay except it seemed like to me that there weren't nearly as many fish in the aquarium.

I loved how it appeared like Nemo, etc were in the tank with the other fish though & Peach’s appeal for help was really cute. We went back to Test Track & had a fun ride…DDad loves cars so this really appealed to him. We even found a hidden Mickey.

We went on over to World Showcase as it was starting to be close to dinner time & rode the Rio Del Tiempo in Mexico, browsed in the UK where we ran into one of my favorites Mary Poppins.

See how red my face is...that comes from having on jeans & a long sleeve shirt when it is humid & hot in Florida....but I should just blame it on the excitement of meeting Mary.
After jolly old England we traveled to Germany where DH & I sampled the Gluhwein (a warm spiced red wine which was really good, but would have been better if it wasn’t so warm outside…much warmer than we thought it would be…..we wished for that weather later on).

Then we headed to Canada for dinner at Le Cellier. Dinner was superb. It is so nice when a restaurant lives up to your expectations. Everyone else had salads & I had the mozerella tomato stack ( I love tomatos) & we all had the mushroom filet except DMom who is skeered of mushrooms & she had HUGE steak too!

We also had a variety of desserts that were all yummy. We really enjoyed the atmosphere here as well. We were all stuffed but happy!!!! Since we had dined in Canada, we felt it only fair to watch O Canada & once again realized how beautiful our northern neighbor’s country is. We wanted DDad to see the American Adventure so that is where we went next…..I always get a bit of a lump in my throat & something in my eye with this one especially during the montage of famous Americans at the end. Of course, no trip to EPCOT would be complete without a ride on MAELSTROM with the mandatory viewing of the film as well….I know there are those of you out there that walk right through…you know who you are, but I always stop & watch the film because I like to have to whole experience. Much to my horror the sweaters that I have coveted in the Puffin’s Roost for years were discovered to be made in China (thanks Dad for that detective work now I don’t feel so bad for not wanting to spend $400 on them).We had a browse through the shops in France next where DMom had to buy something for my Francophile brother for Christmas. DH & I had to have our customary glass of French spirits…he had a Cabernet & I had Kir Noel—after that we were feeling very festive.
Now it was time to find a spot to watch Illuminations. We chose the bridge between France & the UK because then we could make a quick exit out the International Gateway. The show was spectacular made even more wonderful than usual by the wonderful special holiday ending with “Let there be peace on Earth.” Fantastico!!!!!

DMom & DDad in front of the tree at EPCOT.

We were tired with a capital T by now, so we took a nice leisurely walk back to the Boardwalk & after being at Walt Disney World approximately 12 hours already, finally made it to our spacious 2 bedroom DVC accommodations & went to bed.

Whew........a packed first day!!!!
Next up…………we head to Port Canaveral & begin the Splash of Wonder part of this adventure.
ALSO....
Here's Mr Potato Head with a few new accesories. Doesn't he already look happier??

 

[OhMari]

Great start to your TR. I didn't know you could get the dining plan for one evening.

 

[discruiselovers97]

Looking Great So Far! I couldn't wait for you to come back!

 

[Fairy_Tale_Bride]

Loving it! Loving it!
We also ate at Le Cellier! I'll be getting to that later in the Trippie!
I love your Sorcerer Mickey showing off the food! Too cute! That is so some thing I would do!
I also love your bowl of Disney antennas! What a great idea!
I also saw the pic you took inside the new "Finding Nemo" ride. I took one photo outside in line of the clam shells and got yelled at! I'm glad you were able to get a pic! It doesn't look so great when it's not in the dark!

 

[Blaynexox]

im loving the trip report. Great start!! --> I cant wait to go in Feb. and get my potato head accessories!!