A Very Lurkyloo Christmas is FINISHED! New 3/16: Last Day of the Trip!

[silverangel879]

YAY! I found another report from Lurkyloo!!!!

I don't know if I'm late to post this, but here it is...It was my wedding cake! It looks black but it was brown....

You maybe think, a part of being my Wedding Cake what is so special about it?....Look a little closer....Did you notice whom were the bride and groom?

 

[WriteDisney]

YAY! I found another report from Lurkyloo!!!!

I don't know if I'm late to post this, but here it is...It was my wedding cake! It looks black but it was brown....

You maybe think, a part of being my Wedding Cake what is so special about it?....Look a little closer....Did you notice whom were the bride and groom?

Love your cake!! It's awesome :

Luckyloo... thanks for posting that D23 tour! If we can't go at least we can live vicariously through your report! : I loved all the pics (someone beat me to it but I loved your "I got married at WDW" shirt ... did anyone on the tour comment on it?).. Interested to hear about what ADRs you guys are thinking about.

 

[lazydoxy66]

Carrie that was such a cool tour! You picked up some nice tokens at the Disney stores.

That Boston Cream Pie looked absolutely delicious!

Thanks for posting this!

 

[raider97]

Hi! I thought I would stop lurking on your trip report and stop in and say hello. This is my first Lurkyloo trip report. I LOVE all the cakes....

So here is my entry fee.... I made it back in March for my middle baby's 5th birthday.

And the cupcakes.... we also had purple polka dotted ones.

I look forward to reading more about your December planning. We are going in late December for our 10th anniversary (we disneymooned in Dec. 1999) and will also be celebrating my son's 4th birthday on the 21st.

Stephanie

 

[raider97]

Sorry those are so big... I am having trouble resizing them in photobucket tonight. I'll keep working on it.

Stephanie

 

[silverangel879]

Love your cake!! It's awesome :

Thanks a lot! It was so yummy too!

 

[LexisAuntieLala]

I too decided to stop lurking around your posts and to get into the action. With all the cake, Disney and humor, feel like I will be right at home! Look forward to reading more of your pretrippie! Looks like we may be in Disney at the same time before Christmas! Thank goodness for frequent flier miles and a great travel agent!!

 

[lurkyloo]

Just thought I'd come out of lurkdom to say how much I am enjoying your TR.

Thank you for posting about your D23 tour! How fantastic!

Someday, I'll get to Disneyland.

Oh, I hope so! It is definitely a must-see for any Disney fan, even if we only have 1 1/2 parks out here.... Thanks for coming out of lurkdom!

Loved the rest of your Studio Tour trip report! I'm so jealous that you got to shop the employee store. And nice to see the return of your fabulous hat

Yeah, I'm always looking for an excuse to wear that hat! What I need now is a fabulous hat BOX for my fabulous hat...

Loved the rest of your Carrie! It was so cool to see all the old stuff and to hear some of the stories.

I'm glad you enjoyed it! I love the old stuff too - that was my favorite part.

What an awesome experience (the tour AND the cake/pie!) Thanks for sharing it!

I actually had to google to see if Ward had an extra finger

I loved that! I can't believe none of the other Disney Legends thought to do something like that.

Hi Carrie! I've been crazy busy, but all caught up now. I loved your D23 tour report! I read the link to MouseChat from Twitter, then realized you had it all here - double the fun! I'm stalking you. (OOps! did I say that?) I mean following you on Twitter! I'm www.twitter/TammieManfull

We're heading out tomorrow for our trip, so maybe we'll see you at the Happiest Place on Earth!

Oh boy! I hope you're having fun at Disneyland! I wish I were there right now instead of on the couch procrastinating on piles of freelance work...

I have been gone for two weeks, hence two posts! Very cool photos on your tour, that must have been a really neat opportunity to see all the artifacts and to hear the historians, etc.

Also, thanks for the note on the pre-menu for the new Cat Cora restaurant -- I don't know about olive toast either! But the flavors sound promising otherwise!

Yes! It will be interesting to hear how people like the place. I kinda wish they'd done more with the decor than throw a couple new tchotchkes on the shelves and call it a day. But I was never interested in eating anything besides breakfast at Spoodles, so maybe this'll become a new dinner favorite!

Very cool tour of D23, I loved all the pictures and details from the tour. Your dessert looked yummy! Not sure the rest of the meal looked all that appetizing though. Love the look of the outside of the restaurant. Thanks for sharing.

Thanks for reading! Yes, it's funny - yesterday I was reading about one of the auction lots at the D23 Expo that includes a meal at the Smoke House, and it said something like "Be sure to to try the world-famous garlic bread" and I was like... really? World-famous? Chewy underbaked bread coated in salty neon-orange powder?

All caught up again & excited for you for the special DIS party you get to go to in Dec.

I read your D23 report on MiceChat & then found it here (after I sent you a pm about it). You got to see so much more of the Studios than we did on our ABD Backstage Magic.....we totally did not get to see the ink & paint tunnel or the hallway with the offices of the GREATEST animators of all time or the archives. ABD better improve that part after these D23 events or they might have some sore customers if they know what a great tour you guys got.

That's an interesting point, because, yeah, you guys on ABD are paying customers! But, if it makes you feel any better, I am totally jealous that you got to see inside Walt's apartment on Main Street. That's something most of us will prolly never get a chance to see.

YAY! I found another report from Lurkyloo!!!!

I don't know if I'm late to post this, but here it is...It was my wedding cake! It looks black but it was brown....


You maybe think, a part of being my Wedding Cake what is so special about it?....Look a little closer....Did you notice whom were the bride and groom?

Great pictures! I LOVE the Wall-E and Eve bride and groom! Her veil is so cute I showed Patrick, and he loved them too. Thanks for posting those.

Luckyloo... thanks for posting that D23 tour! If we can't go at least we can live vicariously through your report!I loved all the pics (someone beat me to it but I loved your "I got married at WDW" shirt ... did anyone on the tour comment on it?).. Interested to hear about what ADRs you guys are thinking about.

Nobody said *anything* about my shirt and, worst of all, we didn't get ANY free desserts! I wore it cuz I figured it was the only place I could get away with it outside Disney - little did I know the kerfuffle it would cause in my pre-trip report!

I have to make ADRs in just a few weeks, so I'll try to get some together to post soon!

Carrie that was such a cool tour! You picked up some nice tokens at the Disney stores.

That Boston Cream Pie looked absolutely delicious!

Thanks for posting this!

Well thanks for reading it! I wish the DIS at least had Smell-O-Vision so I could share the sensory experience of all these cakes with you guys...

Hi! I thought I would stop lurking on your trip report and stop in and say hello. This is my first Lurkyloo trip report. I LOVE all the cakes....

So here is my entry fee.... I made it back in March for my middle baby's 5th birthday.

And the cupcakes.... we also had purple polka dotted ones.


I look forward to reading more about your December planning. We are going in late December for our 10th anniversary (we disneymooned in Dec. 1999) and will also be celebrating my son's 4th birthday on the 21st.

Stephanie

Great cakes - thanks for posting! Congratulations on your anniversary! What a great way to celebrate. Be sure to note it on all your ADRs and to wear the free anniversary pins. At the very least, you'll get lots of congrats.

Are you going to get a cake or do anything special to celebrate?

Sorry those are so big... I am having trouble resizing them in photobucket tonight. I'll keep working on it.

Stephanie

No problem - when it comes to photos, I say the bigger the better!

I too decided to stop lurking around your posts and to get into the action. With all the cake, Disney and humor, feel like I will be right at home! Look forward to reading more of your pretrippie! Looks like we may be in Disney at the same time before Christmas! Thank goodness for frequent flier miles and a great travel agent!!

Welcome out of lurkdom! How cool that you get a December Disney trip too. I feel like by going then we are getting in on some kind of club, cuz it seems like a really popular, special time to go.

 

[lurkyloo]

OK, before I knuckle down and get to work on my real work, I thought I might post an update about my latest trip-related conundrum.

Candlelight Processional at Epcot is turning into another MVMCP for me - super expensive and something I'm not even sure is worth it. I feel like we should go and we should do the dinner package so we don't have to wait in line for 2 hours, but they're changing everything up this year and it's getting even more hard to decide.

According to this thread and Stitch Kingdom, this year Disney is jacking up the prices, only offering one dinner slot, requiring you to order off a set menu, and including a special IllumiNations viewing area for dinner package participants based on the time that they see the show. (They're also making all meals - even lunch, even at the Biergarten - cost 2 table-service credits, which doesn't affect us but is understandably making many people hoppin' mad).

The prices are

Tier 1 (Biergarten, Garden Grill)
$32.00 - lunch
$44.99 - dinner

Tier 2 (San Angel Inn, Nine Dragons Restaurant, Rose and Crown, Restaurant Marrakesh)
$38.99 - lunch
$44.99 - dinner (may actually be $48.99 and SK has it wrong)

Tier 3 (Le Cellier Steakhouse, Chefs de France, Teppan Edo and Tokyo Dining, Tutto Italia, Coral Reef)
$51.99 - lunch
$58.99 - dinner
$60.99 - 8:15 dinner

And, according to people on the DIS, having a dinner package doesn't guarantee you a seat in a certain section, it just means you get let in a few minutes early - you still have to stand in a line, just not quite as long a line.

At first I was like, well, we'll just go for lunch at the Biergarten so we can do it as cheaply as possible. But the idea of paying $64 to eat clammy coldcuts just makes me So then I was like, well maybe we should pay a little bit more and get a meal I actually like at Le Cellier. But the price for ONE person at a Tier 2 or Tier 3 restaurant is as much as we usually spend for TWO, since we like to split meals, and we would be restricted to what's on the set menu!

Also, although they haven't released the locations yet, I am thinking that the latest, most expensive showing of CP is going to include a better IllumiNations viewing spot just because, logistically, you aren't going to have time to walk over to some crummy viewing spot like Norway. In fact, it would make the most sense for them to herd us into the prime viewing spot at Italy because it's right next to the theater.... Hmmmm....

My theory is that the first lunch CP package people will be stuck with the Norway ghetto, the middle lunch people will get an OK viewing spot like Morocco or France, and the dinner people will get Italy....

In the end, we'll prolly end up paying $45/person to eat at Biergarten for the last seating so we can hopefully get a great view of IllumiNations after the Candlelight Processional.... This dang thing better be worth it!

 

[JustMickey]

OK, before I knuckle down and get to work on my real work, I thought I might post an update about my latest trip-related conundrum.

Candlelight Processional at Epcot is turning into another MVMCP for me - super expensive and something I'm not even sure is worth it. I feel like we should go and we should do the dinner package so we don't have to wait in line for 2 hours, but they're changing everything up this year and it's getting even more hard to decide.

WOW! That is really a pain. I haven't seen the CP, and would like to someday, but if it's going to be that much of a hassle I would just skip it. It might be a nice show but there are so many other Christmas-y things in EPCOT and the other parks that it would not be worth it to me.

Thanks for sharing your trip to the Disney studios, too. Looks fun!

 

[cdotla]

Wow - what a treat! Just caught up after vacation and LOVED your segments about your D23 tour!!! Thanks so much for posting this.

Loved the shoots...I assume most were taken with the new camera?

And love that you are still wearing your Audrey Hat!

 

[knewton64]

Wow - what a treat! Just caught up after vacation and LOVED your segments about your D23 tour!!! Thanks so much for posting this.

Loved the shoots...I assume most were taken with the new camera?

And love that you are still wearing your Audrey Hat!

....life just wudn't be the same w/o seeing that Audrey Hat.

 

[Happydog]

You were not kidding about the #!$##*!* Candlelight Processsional. I don't know if I should "thank you" for the thread link on the subject -- before I read it, I was blissfully unaware planning my CP night at Le Cellier on Xmas Eve..... NOT. *sigh* Well, keep us posted!

 

[annnewjerz]

Candlelight Processional at Epcot is turning into another MVMCP for me - super expensive and something I'm not even sure is worth it. I feel like we should go and we should do the dinner package so we don't have to wait in line for 2 hours, but they're changing everything up this year and it's getting even more hard to decide.

I decided that I'm not going to do a dinner package. With the (pretty solid) rumor being that they are going to charge 2 credits, plus the fact that I have to eat earlier than I want AND wait in like for probably 45 minutes just makes it not worth it to me. I think the plan will be to watch/listen to some of the show from outside of the theater and move along to explore the rest of the World Showcase.

When we first started planning our trip for December, the CP was a must do for me, but the more I started trying to figure out times, dining options, prices, wait times, etc. the more I decided it probably just isn't something I want to do.

The fact that they have the stones to charge 2 credits per person for a restaurant that usually costs 1 is bad enough (if it's confirmed)---but adding in the wait times, dinner times, etc. it just got to be a little nuts. So unless the "official" information from Disney is way different, I think viewing it from outside the theater will be acceptable for my group.

........and, that extra $25 per person we aren't spending on a cruddy meal we didn't want to eat in the first place just to get seated in an open-air theater can be used to get into the DHS party

 

[NeverlandClub23]

We did the CP dining package once (when tip, appetizer, entree, dessert, and drink were included and the prices weren't so high) and have gone to the CP without being on the package twice. The first time we ever went (without the dining package) we waited in this hour long line before getting in. That was horrible. Especially because you're just standing there thinking all of the other things you could do with that hour or just before you start to go in the lady in front of you was really just holding the spot for her 20 person group that comes in as they start letting people into the theater. The second time we did the CP package and our dinner (at Chefs de France) ended up going so late that we didn't make it over to the theater until they had already started letting in the rest of the people. We still were able to get pretty good seats. The last time we hadn't even intended on going we just happened to be by the theater when they were letting people in so we got in line and got decent seats (of course, it started raining about halfway into the show). There's also quite a few people standing along the back watching (not a ton as there were plenty of open spots). These are just my experiences with the CP though and they were always on like a Tuesday or Wednesday (second week of December). I can't imagine what it's like during the weekend or Christmas week.

The Illuminations area may be worth it for the price alone! (although, haven't you seen Illuminations enough from special, closed off spots? how about joining us regular folk on the walkways with trees and poles in the way? Not that I'm jealous...)

Welcome to the special Christmas WDW club!

 

[polynesianbride]

Hi Lurkyloo! I have lurked in many of your other TR's (especially your wedding- as I am in the planning phase for my own DFTW) but decided to come out of lurkdom and say hello! I'm looking forward to following your Dec trip as my wedding will be in Dec 2010 so I can see the Lurkyloo method to Christmas at Disney before trying it on my own! Can't wait to follow your plans

 

[polynesianbride]

Oh I almost forgot... for my admission price I will paying in the form of the bride and groom cookies my FMIL recently made for me

 

[GreatBiscuit]

Hey LL! Loved the studios update. How cool is that? Good luck on the whole Epcot dining dilemas. I'm sure whatever you wind up doing will be an adventure!

 

[lazydoxy66]

...Well thanks for reading it! I wish the DIS at least had Smell-O-Vision so I could share the sensory experience of all these cakes with you guys...

Forget Smell-O-Vision! I want Taste-O-Rama!

Too bad about the CP deal. I agree with some of the others - too much hassle. Although I will bet money that most people who have done it would say, "You need to try it once."

 

[lurkyloo]

WOW! That is really a pain. I haven't seen the CP, and would like to someday, but if it's going to be that much of a hassle I would just skip it. It might be a nice show but there are so many other Christmas-y things in EPCOT and the other parks that it would not be worth it to me.

I'd be interested in learning more about the less-advertised Christmas-y stuff in Epcot! Like, I guess there are Santas of the World and maybe storytellers? I'm sure AllEars.net probably has a page about it somewhere... I'm just lazy!

Wow - what a treat! Just caught up after vacation and LOVED your segments about your D23 tour!!! Thanks so much for posting this.

Loved the shoots...I assume most were taken with the new camera?

Yes! Patrick got to use his new camera some more, which he loved.

....life just wudn't be the same w/o seeing that Audrey Hat.

I need to find more excuses to wear it - I love that thing!

You were not kidding about the #!$##*!* Candlelight Processsional. I don't know if I should "thank you" for the thread link on the subject -- before I read it, I was blissfully unaware planning my CP night at Le Cellier on Xmas Eve..... NOT. *sigh* Well, keep us posted!

Sorry! You've prolly seen by now that they actually aren't making us order off a fixed menu, which is good at least. I'm still on the fence. I don't mind paying if we'll have a measurably better experience, but if we still have to show up early and wait in line... what's the point?

I decided that I'm not going to do a dinner package. With the (pretty solid) rumor being that they are going to charge 2 credits, plus the fact that I have to eat earlier than I want AND wait in like for probably 45 minutes just makes it not worth it to me. I think the plan will be to watch/listen to some of the show from outside of the theater and move along to explore the rest of the World Showcase.

When we first started planning our trip for December, the CP was a must do for me, but the more I started trying to figure out times, dining options, prices, wait times, etc. the more I decided it probably just isn't something I want to do.

I like your reasoning here - they make it so dang complicated to figure out, half the people are gonna give up. Although one rumor I heard was that this was Disney's goal by raising prices/credits, since soooo many people buy the packages that it was too many to handle....

........and, that extra $25 per person we aren't spending on a cruddy meal we didn't want to eat in the first place just to get seated in an open-air theater can be used to get into the DHS party

We did the CP dining package once (when tip, appetizer, entree, dessert, and drink were included and the prices weren't so high) and have gone to the CP without being on the package twice. The first time we ever went (without the dining package) we waited in this hour long line before getting in. That was horrible. Especially because you're just standing there thinking all of the other things you could do with that hour or just before you start to go in the lady in front of you was really just holding the spot for her 20 person group that comes in as they start letting people into the theater.

This would SO happen to me...

The second time we did the CP package and our dinner (at Chefs de France) ended up going so late that we didn't make it over to the theater until they had already started letting in the rest of the people.

We still were able to get pretty good seats.

Whew!

The Illuminations area may be worth it for the price alone! (although, haven't you seen Illuminations enough from special, closed off spots? how about joining us regular folk on the walkways with trees and poles in the way? Not that I'm jealous...)

Welcome to the special Christmas WDW club!

Hey, now, I've seen IllumiNations from plenty of bad spots, like by a lamppost peering over the rope in France at a completely empty patio that they wouldn't let us into even though the party that reserved it never showed up. And Norway!

But at least I can say I'm a member of the special WDW Christmas club now...

Hi Lurkyloo! I have lurked in many of your other TR's (especially your wedding- as I am in the planning phase for my own DFTW) but decided to come out of lurkdom and say hello! I'm looking forward to following your Dec trip as my wedding will be in Dec 2010 so I can see the Lurkyloo method to Christmas at Disney before trying it on my own! Can't wait to follow your plans

Hi! Welcome out of lurkdom! Oh I hope I get lots of good tips for you to use on your wedding trip. I'll be sure to do all the wrong things so you know what not to do. Thanks for the cookie pix - you are lucky to have a FMIL who can bake!

Hey LL! Loved the studios update. How cool is that? Good luck on the whole Epcot dining dilemas. I'm sure whatever you wind up doing will be an adventure!

Thanks - and thanks for putting it in perspective. How easily I forget that even a bad day in Disney will be better than a day in the real world....

Forget Smell-O-Vision! I want Taste-O-Rama!

Too bad about the CP deal. I agree with some of the others - too much hassle. Although I will bet money that most people who have done it would say, "You need to try it once."

Yes - that's the thing that's getting me: I feel like I need to try all these things that people say are so great!

Also, I *love* "Taste-O-Rama"! When will some bright young kid invent that?