The Cast:
Me: 23, Disney Fanatic. Planned this trip inside out, first timer
Dh: 23, Likes Disney enough, didnt plan a second, been there 2 times with his family when he was young.
DD:3 daughter, first timer
Trip Details: Friday, December 8th, 2006 to Saturday, December 16, 2006
Staying at Pop Century Classic
Magic your way package plus dining, no park hopper 8 nights, 9 days, Also have mickeys very merry Christmas party tickets and Cirque du soleil tickets.
The Plan/itinerary:
Fri, Dec 8th : AK, Chef Mickeys
Sat, 9th: Epcot, Coral Reef as part of Candelight processional package
Sun, 10th: Epcot, Garden Grill
Mon, 11th: MK, 1900 Park Fare
Tues, 12th: Resort day, Mickeys very merry Christmas party
Wed, 13th: MGM studios, Mama Melrose Fantasmic package
Thurs, 14th: Downtown Disney Shopping, Cirque du soleil
Fri, 15th: MGM studios, Ohanas
Sat, 16th: Mk, Cinderellas royal Table dinner
TRIP REPORT NAVIGATION:
Pre-trip report: Post #1
Day 1, Fri, Dec. 8th AK and Chef Mickeys: Post #2 (part 1)
Day 1, Fri, Dec. 8th AK and Chef Mickeys: Post #3 (part 2)
Day 2, Sat, Dec. 9th Epcot and Coral Reef: Post #7
Day 3, Sun, Dec. 10th Epcot and Garden Grill: Post #8
Day 4, Mon, Dec. 11th MK and 1900 Park Fare: Post # 9 (part 1)
Day 4, Mon, Dec. 11th MK and 1900 Park Fare: Post # 10 (part 2)
Day 5, Tues, Dec. 12th MVMCP: Post # 11
Day 6, Wed, Dec. 13th, MGM studios, Mama Melrose: Post # 12
Day 7, Thurs, Dec. 14th, MgM studios, Cirque du soleil: Post # 13
Day 8, Fri, Dec. 15th: MGM studios, Ohana's: Post # 17
Random pictures from our trip: Post # 18 Day 9, Sat, Dec. 16th: Final Day, MK, CRT: # 20 (part 1)
Day 9, Saturday, December 16th, final day, MK, CRT post # 21
Pre trip Report:
Monday, November 6th, 2006
30 days to Go! Well, let me start off by saying, I am a total Disneyholic. I love love love anything Disney. About 6 years ago, I had absolutely no interest in Disney World at all. I knew nothing about it. Surely, Ive heard of Disney World, and the Cinderella Castle came to mind when someone spoke of Disney World but that was about it. I lived in NYC at the time and one afternoon, I was in my local library and I came across the travel section. I picked out a book titled Walt Disney World for Couples by Rick and Gayle Perlmutter. I dont know why, but I took the book off the shelf and checked it out of the library in addition to some other books I found. I read that book from cover to cover that night. I couldnt put it down. I immediately fell in love with Disney World. I talked to my boyfriend of a possible trip. He had already been there a few times with his extended family years ago. He told me he enjoyed it and wouldnt mind going back one day. At the time, we were still very young, so we didnt have the money and therefore, couldnt go. I continued to research and jot plans down for a trip that I would take one day. This became a hobby for me and I completely loved it. My boyfriend and I moved into our own apartment, and in 2003 we moved from New York City to Florida (not because of Disney, but because he wanted to be near his brother and things werent going so well in ny). Then I became pregnant. All plans of a trip went out the window for a while since I wouldnt even consider bringing an infant to WDW.
Finally, in 2006, we agreed that this would be the year. It wasnt easy though. We didnt have any extra money put away on the side and after waiting so long for my dream to come true, I wanted the trip to be my way. I didnt just want to visit each park one day, have one good meal and head home. No way! I wanted to go all the way. First, I had to decide how many days we could go, so I messed around with the Disney website to get estimates on what it would cost us. With a value resort, on the dining plan with no park hopper option, in a standard room, we were looking at around$2000 for the package alone for 8 nights. A few weeks later, after I had my heart set on 8 nights, my DBF said he may have a hard time with his job getting a 10 day vacation (8 days at disney, plus a day or 2 at home to rest from a hectic disney vacation) so, he told me we may have to take a day or two off the trip. I flipped out because I love Disney so much that a day or two to me meant that I wouldnt be able to do everything I wanted to. After my DBF saw how upset I was, he tried to work with his job and we can still go 8 nights. Hes the greatest, isnt he? I chose to do the dining plan- which I think is the most awesome thing Disney has ever came up with. At first, we were going to go in September or October, but then I remember how much I love Christmas (almost as much as Disney) and we decided to do December instead. Christmas and Disney together cant get better for me. (Although, Id never attempt to go Christmas week ) Its a true dream come true. After that, I decided that I wanted to do the Christmas party and Cirque du soleil too. (Remember: my way , Yes, I know Im spoiled ) so I took on a couple of extra hours at work and got the tickets. They just arrived a few days ago! I also looked into a dinner show and wanted to try the hoop dee doo revue, but I would have had to pay out of pocket, since I needed the dining plan credits for other restaurants and decided not to do it. After all, I live in Florida now, about 3 hours from Disney and I could always go back when we get the chance.
How I planned the trip:
I quickly realized when I picked up that first guide book how huge WDW really is. Over the years, Ive collected so much information that I call myself a Disney World expert even though Ive never been there, but yet, Im still learning new information all the time and since WDW changes so often, theres always new stuff to learn. Currently, I own about 6 WDW guidebooks (official and unofficial). Two of my favorites are: the unofficial guide and Passporter. I also have the planning VHS from Disney (from years back) and the newer DVD planning videos too. Once a day, I go to certain websites to see if anything is new or has changed so that I can update my notes. As soon as I made my first payment to WDW in February, I bought, a 3 ring binder. I needed a way to keep all my info organized. I read all the guidebooks, articles on the web, and spoke to people who have been to WDW to get as much info as possible. I kept sections in my binder for parks, dining, resorts, menus, etc. I know....pathetic. About 5 months ago, I made my dining reservations and put all the confirmation numbers together in my binder. Besides the binder, I copy and paste lots of info off the web in my Microsoft windows and save it in my documents. (I made a copy of all my information and put it on a disc too incase it got erased). I want to say that Im an obsessive planner. I want to make sure everything will be perfect on my trip. I dont want to worry about a lost reservation while there or not knowing where to find an attraction we want to ride. I memorized a lot of information and I have a general idea of all 4 of the parks layout. Then I came across the disboards. Ive never been a person to have discussions over the internet until recently. My BF has gotten tired of me talking about the trip all the time. (I mean all the time!) Hes not the type to plan or organize at all. He did help pay for our trip, but hes leaving the planning up to me, so when I came across the disboards, I had people to talk to about Disney. We all have something in common and thats our love for Disney. It was just wonderful. Now, at least I know Im not the only crazy Disneyholic out there. Many of my questions got answered too. The disboards helped with info so much. Im just so thankful to everyone. I have my mvmcp, and cirque tickets, my trip is paid in full, my ADRs are made. Now, the hardest part of all: Waiting ..
DAY 1, FRIDAY, DECEMBER 8TH : (PART 1)
AK, CHEF MICKEY’S AND OUR FIRST 2 ARGUMENTS (Yes, that is 2, not a typo) We left our apartment around 7:30am. I was worried about the drive and I knew that once we got there, I would be okay. I was worried about our 1996 Honda Accord. I just didn’t think the car would make it all the way to Orlando since we've had so many problems with it before. Wait….Disney isn’t even in Orlando. It’s past Orlando. That just makes it worse. It’s a longer drive than I thought. Oh well, we’ll make it, we’ll be fine. We’ll make it. A little over two hours later, we got to Pop Century around 10am. We couldn’t believe we were finally here. ……and yes, we made it. As soon as we went under that big Walt Disney World sign on I-4, I got so excited. DD was asleep, but I woke her and she had a smile on her face. We followed the signs to Pop Century and when we found it, Dh and I became children again. We’re finally here! OMG!!! My first impression of Pop was that it was very colorful and it called to you. DD was so excited. We parked our car and went into the lobby. As soon as you left your car, you could hear Christmas music playing and you felt like royalty going into such a nice hotel. It was also very clean. I also took note of the bus stops right out front incase we decided to take the bus to one of the parks one day instead of driving. We got on line to check in which wasn’t too long. I couldn’t get over how nice the lobby was. Even though it’s a value resort (and I’m sure the deluxe resorts are much prettier), it was just beautiful. Everything at check in went smoothly. The lobby had a big check in area. I requested a bottom floor room for the nights we got back and are too tired to go up the stairs which they gave us. The room wasn’t ready so the receptionist gave us a number to call later on. We scoped out the Christmas tree and got a pic. It was pretty.
We went into everything pop….the store and food court. It was quite busy in there. They had a lot of nice merchandise I wish I could buy. I’m one of those people who doesn’t like to go into a store without money or I’ll come out really upset that I couldn’t buy anything. Of course, I’ll get over it fast. I’m not that spoiled! I wanted to buy the refillable mugs cause we were very thirsty from the trip. We didn’t know that they were sold in the actual food court. We searched around the store section and couldn’t find them. Finally, DH asked a guy walking by with his cup where he got if from. We bought 2 refillable mugs and an autograph book and got drinks from the beverage station. There were lots of choices. From what I remember, its Coke, Sprite, diet coke, applejuice, orange fanta, and a few others. There was blue frozen coke too which my dd loved. I also saw that there was a very convienient mug wash station to wash your mug before refilling again. That came in very handy later on. Well…..at least I got the mugs and autograph book so I didn’t come out empty handed, but there was so much nice stuff: T-shirts, scrap books, coffee mugs, etc. Oh, why can’t I be rich? I probably would have been if I hadn’t spent so much money on this trip. Lol.
We went to AK which was easy to find. It only took a few minutes to drive there. We parked and took the tram. Since we were resort guests, we didn’t have to pay to park. I loved that since the parking fee was $10 per day. It was very very cold that day. Dh and I were freezing especially on the tram so I knew poor little DD must have been an icicle. I really wished we had put on a few extra sweaters.
When we arrived at AK, we saw the huge Christmas tree outside the entrance. It was very very nice. I was so excited and couldn’t wait to get into the 1st theme park. The first thing we saw when we got into the park was Chip! There was a long line. Wow. We saw a character! Even though I did a ton of research and I knew WDW had characters, you just get so amazed at seeing that 1st character. This is so cool!!!!!
We didn’t line up since we knew there were bigger things ahead. There was another character in the area too whom I didn’t even recognize.
As we made our way to Africa, we were amazed at the gorgeous tree of life. Dh really thought it was awesome. It’s hard to describe how beautiful it is with all those animal carvings in the trunk. It would be very hard to spot them all and would probably take all day to do so.
We went to Africa and got fastpasses for Kilimanjaro safaris. The stand by wait said 20 minutes. We were hungry and didn’t want to wait, plus I wanted to show Dh how the fastpass system worked right off the bat so we went with the fp, then headed over to Tusker house Restaurant for some lunch. The last time we ate was before we left home, so we were pretty hungry. It was probably just after 11am.
It was very busy, but the line went very fast. We ordered, but it was very hard to get a table. Eventually, we found a table in the back room. The restaurant had an African theme with African Cast members who were all very nice. I had the half chicken with mashed potatoes and cheesecake. DH got the chicken sandwich with fries and chocolate cake. DH didn’t want to even eat here at all because he’s not a chicken person, but he tried it for me. He wanted to go eat at pizzafari instead. I’m glad we didn’t. The chicken was excellent. I wasn’t too crazy about the potatoes or cheesecake. I found it a bit too sweet. DH liked the sandwich and fries. He thought the cake was a bit too rich.
After lunch, we used the restroom convieniently located in the restaurant. Then it was time for our fastpass return at Kilimanjaro safaris. I expected a great ride from all the great reviews, but I was disappointed. It may have been because it was in the middle of the afternoon when the animals were hidden and asleep, but I’m not sure I’ll go again. The storyline was corny about the poachers. It was very cold which isn’t disney’s fault of course but we only saw a couple of giraffes and an elephant. The only thing I liked was the bumpy ride. I like bumpy rides. It was a long ride and DD was bored and cold.
Next, we were walking toward discovery island. I originally planned on touring the pangani forest exploration trail because I really like gorillas, but I know Dh doesn’t care for animal exhibits much, so we skipped it. As we were walking, we found the character landing at discovery island. It is sort of hidden. We went to take a look. We walked down a trail to find pooh, tigger and eeyore. Not many people knew about this place by the look of the lines, so we didn’t have to wait long at all.
We waited about 8 minutes and then got to see all 3 one at a time. We were also introduced to photopass and had our DD’s pics taken with each plus a family photo with each. Each character had his own photopass person. Each gave DD a hug and she immediately fell in love with the characters. I was a little worried at home that she might get scared of them since a lot of them are so big, but my worries quickly disappeared when she stated that she wanted to go see more characters.
We started to walk around thinking of the next thing to do. Now came the 1st small argument. I knew from planning my trip that tough to be a bug would not be appropriate for our DD, but DH insisted on us seeing it and said the DD would be just fine. I completely disagreed and was afraid DD wouldn't try any other 3d shows after this and I was looking forward to phillharmagic in MK and muppetvision in mgm.
After a few minutes of arguing about how scared DD would be, I gave in to prove to Dh that I was going to be right and we went into the tree to see it. We put on our glasses and I had a small talk with DD about everything being make believe. We took the long trail to the theater with me being mad at Dh the whole way. The only cool thing about it was that you got a close up view of the tree which I liked.
Now, I’m sure the show is great. But I really wish I could have watched it. You see, DD was freaking out through most of it that I didn’t get to pay any attention to it. I heard the guests laughing and having a good time, but I was too busy telling DD its all make believe, it will be ok, mommy’s here.
Of course, Dh watched it all and came out with in smiles telling me how awesome it was and asked me “ Did you like it? Wasn’t it awesome?” DH realized I was right about it being too scary for toddlers and admitted it afterwards. The show was way to scary for anyone under 6. I don’t mean to spoil it for anyone who hasn’t gone but there is a few seconds of complete darkness, then a huge fog of smoke and spiders fall from the ceiling. This even scared me a bit. I’m not really scared of the dark or anything, but being in a full theater with my terrified DD and not being able to see anything sets a bit of panic in. I do not recommend this show to anyone with small children and I will never let DD see it again unless she’s older and ready. What was Dh thinking??? Anyway, we got over it and moved on. After all, we are in Disney!
After tough to be a bug, we we were on our way to dinoland to catch the finding nemo musical at 12:45. On the way, we found devine. She was pretty cool. A crowd gathered around her to watch her walk up and down the walkway and disappear into the tree. I heard she likes to jump out of the trees and scare guests as they walk by, but we didn’t get to see anything like that. We just watched her walk around and move and I have to give that women credit. I just don’t think I’d be able to do that. I’d probably be too afraid of bugs. I would be like GET ALL THESE DAMN LEAVES OFF OF ME!!!
The line for the Nemo musical was very very long already so I didn’t think we’d even get in but it kept moving and we got the first row of seats in the very last section in the back. I expected to have big crowds at this attraction since it just recently became open to guests. These seats had no back part like the rest of the theater and my back hurt by the end of the show. I also had DD in my lap because she started to fall asleep. Honestly, I really looked forward to this a lot but I didn’t like it. It just wasn’t memorable. I can barely remember anything except for the jellyfish scene and the shark. Maybe if I was a bit closer to the stage and there wasn’t a thousand peoples heads in my view, I might have felt a bit differently, but it just wasn’t good enough. DH said he liked it, but its nowhere near the top of his list. DD saw most of it before falling asleep, and said she liked it.
After this, we went to camp Minnie mickey to visit some characters. First we saw Donald who had the shortest wait of all, maybe 5 minutes or so. Then we met Santa Goofy who had an under 10 minute wait. After Goofy, we lined up for Mickey. Yayyyy!!! We’re gonna meet Mickey Mouse. Our first time meeting Mickey mouse! I must have been more excited than DD.
After looking at minnie’s long long line, we wanted to skip it, but DD wouldn’t let us. Minnie is her favorite. The wait was about 20 minutes in the end so it wasn’t too bad. We met all 4 characters in about an hour. All the characters were dressed in holiday outfits.
Cool! The one thing I really liked was that it was very organized. Each character had their own little pavilion with a CM who would guide the guests and each family got a good 3-4 minutes with each character. It was really great.
On the way to the jingle jungle parade, we bumped into stitch. He was a lot of fun. The one thing he really liked was DD’s pen. We bought her a Winnih the pooh pen with sparkles inside of it that also lit up red when you wrote with it. A lot of the characters made a big fuss over it. Stitch loved the pen and kept shaking it. DD thought he was silly.
The parade was next on the plan. It started at 4pm and I wanted to make sure we would catch the 4:30 festival of the lion king since it was the last showing of the day and the park was closing at 5, plus we didn’t plan on coming back to AK after today since its only a 1 day park so we got a parade spot as close to the theater as possible. We waited about 15 to 20 min. and the parade started coming down the street. I really liked the music.Overall, the parade was just ok. The costumes were ok. We loved seeing so many characters, but I’m not sure I’d go through any trouble to watch it again.
The highlight of my day at AK to me was Festival of the lion king. We made it into the show right after the parade with no line to get it. Whew!We sat in the elephant section. I think this was the best show there. DH thinks that tough to be a bug was the best thing there though. The lion king show was just wonderful with acrobats, a fire juggler, characters and sort of a parade. It was nice and a very good ending to the day. I would highly recommend this show to anyone visiting AK.
In the end, AK ended up being my least favorite park of the whole trip. I don’t know exactly why. I believe it may be because it’s a park where you have to slow down and watch the details unfold. Unfortunately, being our 1st day at Disney, and wanting to do as much as possible, this wasn’t going to happen. We rushed to try to do everything. Plus, we only spent a half day here and skipped out on some things I wanted to try. I haven’t given up on AK yet though. I hope to go back in the future and give it another try.
Friday, December 8th, AK and Chef Mickeys (PART 2)
When we left AK, we drove back to pop to see if our hotel room was ready so I went into the lobby alone while Dh and DD waited in the car. The lady at the front desk seemed tired and had an attitude. She gave me our room number. We were in the 60’s building which was the building next to the lobby and was close by- walking distance. Now, I was very happy about this because I knew I’d get very thirsty in the mornings and I knew Dh liked to sleep in until the very last possible minute before we had to leave and I knew he wouldn’t get up to drive me over to the main building to get a refill in my refillable mug (I don’t drive) so I was happy to know I’d be able to walk over every morning. The only problem was: How? Where was the pathway to the lobby? I figured that I would figure it out later and not worry about it for now. We parked the car and went into our room. Dh was already tired and wanted to nap instead of bring all of the bags in, so I told him to nap and we would bring the bags in later on after our late dinner at Chef Mickeys.
The room had 2 full size beds which meant that I’d be sleeping with DD for the week while DH slept alone on the 2nd bed. This turned out ok. At home, we have a king size bed and DD sleeps with us a lot of nights instead of her own room, but I’m constantly on the edge of the big bed because DH loves to sleep in the middle of the bed and DD in between us leaving me all the way to the side. Lol. At least I got a break for 8 nights. The room also had a table with 2 chairs, a good size tv and drawer space, a night table and phone and of course the sink and bathroom area. There was a hair dryer and ironing board w/ iron. The mousekeeping was terrific. Everyday the room was very clean. We got new soap and shampoo every day and new towels. It was a very comfortable room. We also found a towel animal by the window.
While DH took a nap, I got all our stuff organized- Well, whatever we did bring in from the car. We had an ADR for Chef Mickey’s that night at the Contemporary at 9:10pm. You may think I’m crazy for having such a late dinner reservation especially with a child but the way I looked at it, we’d have the place almost to ourselves giving us extra character time. Besides this, I was very smart about our 1st day and planned it very carefully. You see, I knew we would be tired from the drive, so I planned AK for Day 1 since AK can be done in 1 day and since AK closes at 5pm which is nice and early. We didn’t have park hoppers so this guaranteed me that after AK, we couldn’t go to another park. It guaranteed me that we would have no choice but to go back to Pop to rest. I did this on purpose so that Dh and DD could take a nap and wouldn’t be cranky at dinner with the characters.
I sort of regret doing this dinner so late a bit and I’ll tell ya why……we left Pop around 8:20pm giving us 50 minutes to drive to the contemporary. I had no idea how difficult it was to drive around Disney property. We got lost several times despite reading the road signs and having a map. Instead of getting into MK resorts, we ended up in the MK parking lot which led to small argument #2….DH was very frustrated and while inside the Mk parking lot, he wanted me to walk over to the tram driver and ask directions. I would have had no problem with this except that the tram was pretty far away and looked like it was about to leave. I didn’t want to get almost all the way there, and then the tram take off which would make me look like an idiot so I disagreed at first asking Dh to drive over to the tram, but he was so frustrated that he said he wouldn’t move the car until I figured out how to get there. Yes, he can be very stubborn and childish at times. I got out of the car and proceeded to the tram…I was trying to do anything to avoid a big fight on our vacation. I was about 25 feet away when the tram took off....of course. I walked back to the car and Dh blamed me for taking so long to go ask the tram driver. We drove out of the lot. By the time we got to the restaurant, it was 9:25. The restaurant was closing at 10pm that night and only accepts seatings until around 9:30.
We eventually made it to the Contemporary and my first impression was that It was really pretty and it would be a hotel I would stay in if I could afford it. It somehow reminded me of a Manhattan building and being from NYC, I loved it. Years back, when I first started planning a Disney trip that never actually happened, my original first choice of a resort was the Contemporary. I fell in love with it. Years later, I decided to go with a value resort so that we could stay more nights instead in exchange for a few nights at a deluxe resort. We went inside, and it was just so pretty………..I found a CM and asked how to get to Chef Mickeys. She told us to take the elevator to the 4th floor. Now, I have a problem with elevators so I was very happy to hear that the escalator goes to the 4th floor. I just love this hotel!
At the podium, I had a very rude CM. I told her I had an ADR and I was very sorry for being late, but we got lost. With an attitude she told me that the tables were being cleared to close. Then she told us, she’ll see what she can do. She walked away and came back a few minutes later to tell us we can eat, but we won’t see the characters since they are closing soon and the characters have to leave. We were kind of disappointed but told her its fine. I wanted to request a booth or half booth, but I was almost afraid to ask since we were already late and the CM wasn’t very nice. What the hell? I asked anyway. She snickered that we couldn’t get a booth. I figured it would be ok. We were going to see the characters plenty of times during the trip and I shouldn’t sweat it. But I was a bit worried about DD seeing the characters miss our table while visiting others. I knew it would break her heart. We were told to wait in the lobby for a few minutes before being seated and while waiting we were called to get our picture done with the option to buy later. After the pics, we got seated in an almost empty room. We went to the buffet to see very few choices. There was like prime rib, ham, mashed potatoes, some other potatoes, some carrots and then you would walk down the buffet line to see the same choices being repeated. I got some prime rib, the parmesean mashed potatoes and some other potatoes. The prime rib was just ok. The potatoes were good….now I just can’t figure out the parmesean mashed potatoes. I heard so many wonderful reviews on how delicious these were. Honestly, I’ve made parmesean mashed potatoes at home when I heard about them from a Disney website before we left and I’m not trying to brag, but mine seemed so much better and way more cheesier. These were pretty cold and just ok. DH didn’t like the limited selections either. To our surprise, Mickey came by for a few minutes, then goofy and Pluto!!! We were so happy they came by even though the rude CM said they wouldn’t. By the time we tried getting some dessert, they were clearing the buffet away. DH managed to grab a couple of dessert items first which I didn’t care for. The lady who handles the characters came by and asked if we got to see all the characters. We told her we didn’t see Donald or Minnie yet. She said she would make sure they came by. She was very nice. They did all come by and we even got Pluto, goofy and Minnie all at once in 1 picture with our family!!! DD wanted an apple before we left but everything was already put away. The wonderful chef went out of his way into the kitchen to find her an apple and made her happy…..One of the reasons I love Disney is because they go out of their way so much for their guests. Overall, service was very good and we liked this restaurant with the exception of the rude CM at the podium.
After dinner, we left the restaurant and checked out the little gift shop right there on the 4th floor of the contemporary. They had some cute things. Especially the plush Disney dolls. Outside the gift shop, we took some pictures of ourselves and then made our way back downstairs. On the way out, we noticed the amazing Christmas display of Pinocchio and Geppetto made all of chocolate. I wish we could have just jumped in and ate it all.
We went back to pop after getting lost and ending up in fort wilderness, and got a good nights rest.
Our highlights of the day:
Festival of the lion king
Meeting our first characters
Meeting all the characters at chef mickeys
DAY 2, SATURDAY, DECEMBER 9:
EPCOT, Au Gratin potatoes….and Dh wants to alter my plan!!!!We got up late on purpose. I wanted to stay in Epcot until closing to watch illuminations and I knew if we did open to close, Dh and DD would get cranky and want to go nap at the hotel, so we all slept in and left for everything pop around 11am ish and used 1 snack credit each at the food court.
Then we went to epcot. I had my fears about epcot. We were going to epcot on both Saturday and Sunday so I wasn’t so sure how crowds would be. I don’t handle crowds well at all, I was also concerned that DH or DD wouldn’t like this park and think its “boring”, but I wouldn’t let that stop us. We arrived to the park around 1pm.
We walked to the entrance since we didn’t park that far from it and the tram had just left. The “big ball” was very impressive. DD liked it. The impression I got from the entrance was that Epcot was futureistic which I guess was what they were looking for when they made epcot and named the front part, future world.
The first thing we tried was spaceship earth. It was a walk on. At first, when you go up and its dark, DD got very scared and started crying. DH gave her his cell phone so she could use the light to see. She got better. I loved the scene at the very top with the planetarium. Beautiful. All the scenes were done really well. There was smells to accompany the scenes. On the way back down, I had no idea that you go down backwards and neither I or DD liked this very much. It was very steep, but yet gentle and relaxing. Overall, the ride was well done and one of my favorites so far.
Next, Dh wanted to do the figment ride – Journey into imagination with figment. On our way there, we spotted Ice station cool and from planning, I knew about Beverly, the Italian Coke and I wanted Dh to try it just so I could see his face. After trying several, I told him next was Beverly. He spit it out. It was funny. I tried a few as did DD. We only liked 1 or 2.
We got to the figment ride in imagination. DD3 was terrified of the whole ride even though it wasn’t really scary. The ride wasn’t really worth it but DH loves figment for some weird reason. I would never wait longer than 5 minutes for this ride. It was a walk on. I think he loves it so much because it was one of his favorite rides as a child when he visited Disney with his family. Through the planning phase for this trip, all I kept hearing was We’re gonna see the purple dragon right? Which park is he in? What day are we gonna do that ride? That’s as far as he went with planning in advance though. I did the rest.
We tried going to the new Nemo ride at the living seas, but there was a 30 minute wait so we went to the land instead and saw the circle of life. This had some nice photography in it, but DD got bored and it wasn’t that good. The theater was cool and relaxing though.
After this, it was time for dinner at the Coral Reef. We had an early ADR at 3:30 so that we could do the 6:15 Candelight processional and still see illuminations without rushing. On our way, we stopped for this photo op inside the living seas.
We went into the lobby area and there were a few people on line to check into the podium. The lobby had a lot of families waiting despite it being only 3:30pm. I expected a long wait but we were called in about 3 minutes. We were escorted to the dining room and saw the very nice view of the tank. I forgot to make a special request. I didn’t want to sit right by the tank because I knew from the disboards and several reviews I read that sometimes kids hang around at the tank to see the fish and get in diners way so I wanted to sit in a both on the 1st level closest to the tank instead, but forgot. Oh well. We were seated in the middle tier between the tank and the back of the restaurant. The view was pretty good but DD had to stand on her chair to see well. It was kind of dim but well enough to see everything and everyone. The server came out and introduced himself and started with our drinks. We didn’t get anything alcoholic. Just soft drinks. DH likes a drink now and then with his meal but we didn’t want to spend more than what we spent on the dining plan. The waiter gave us a few minutes to pick an appetizer. I had the Caesar salad and DH got the shrimp cocktail. The server thoroughly explained what the ingredients were in both. Appetizers were served pretty quickly. Next, we both got the steak and potatoes. I have to say, I was worried about this place from bad reviews but I think it was one of the best meals all week. The steak was cooked perfectly and had great flavor. Then there was a slight misunderstanding……before eating his potatoes, DH asked the server what kind of potatoes they were and the server replied “rotten potatoes” and left. DH looks at me like WHAT??? Did he just say rotten potatoes????? I told DH that maybe its just potatoes we never heard of before and that’s what its called. They just looked like regular potatoes though. So, DH still didn’t try them. When the server came back to check on things, DH asked again “What kind of potatoes did you say these were?” and the server said again “rotten potatoes” Afterwards he asks me “ You’ve never made these for him at home? And I said no. Then he said “Yeah, they’re gratin potatoes, I can’t believe you’ve never had them before” and we laughed and told him we thought he said rotten potatoes. DH was like “oh, I thought you put rotten potatoes on my plate” (as a joke) The server didn’t even laugh at all. He just looked at us funny and walked away. Me and DH thought it was hilarious though. For dessert, I got cheesecake with a peach liquid on top and DH got the chocolate wave. Cheesecake was pretty good. DH said chocolate wave was amazing. Overall, it was an excellent meal for food and service. I’d go back without hesitation. Here are some pics in the restaurant:
The Chocolate wave dessert:
After dinner, we decided to see the new Nemo attraction. The wait was still 30 min. but most of the wait times we already experienced were shorter than what was posted so we were hoping it was actually 15 minutes. We probably waited about 20 minutes, but the line kept moving. The one thing I didn’t mind was that even though some waits were a bit long (like 20 min. or so) they kept moving. We were never stationary in one spot for more than a minute in any line. There were a lot of people and the waiting area kept winding us around and around and around. Eventually we got into a clam, but we didn’t like the ride very much. It wasn’t that good. You could see Nemo and his fellow characters swimming around in the huge tank among the fish, but there was nothing wow about it. The part with crush in the EAC was actually a bit dizzying so I kept focus on my legs and not what was going on outside the clam. Overall, it was just okay. Not worth a long wait.
We headed back over to the land pavilion since I wanted to ride living with the land and since it was right next door. I considered getting a fp, but it turned out the wait was so short that we wouldn’t need it. We got on the living with the land boat ride with about a 5 minute wait. The ride was good and relaxing. We saw several scenes. The ones that stick out are the house with the dog on the porch and the last one with all the plants growing. I also remember a storm in the beginning of the ride.
When the boat ride was over, we made our way to World Showcase. World Showcase is really beautiful. Seeing all those countries so close together was really nice. You could tell each country was carefully researched. I’ve never been outside of the US before, but I’m sure each country was reminiscent of the actual country. The music was beautiful. The people were so cultured. There was gorgeous gardens and it really was gorgeous on this beautiful cool night.
It was just before 6pm and we were scheduled to see the 6:45pm candelight processional. As we got closer to the theater, we noticed the standby line for the candelight was about 3 countries long. Thank goodness I got the dinner package. Dh couldn’t believe how many people were lined up for this show and how long the line was and honestly, neither could I. The dinner package line was still pretty long too, but the line kept moving fast and we were seated within 15 minutes of getting on the line. We were seated up close about 3 rows away from the stage on the left side. I probably would have preffered seats a few rows back and maybe in the center since you get a better view of the stage but DH loves to run up front and grab seats close to the stage wherever we go. (Except at the movies…..he loves the middle of the theater there). The show started and the chorus sang each song really well. By the end of the performance, I realized that although I liked it, I wasn’t crazy about it. I hoped it would have been better after all the excellent reviews. DH found it boring. DD got restless during the show and wouldn’t sit still. Our narrarator was Steven Curtis Chapman. He was a good narrarator. When he came out, I was excited even though I am not a big fan of his. I really don’t know much of his work, but he is a celebrity and I’ve never ever seen a celebrity before live….only on TV, so this was just cool to me. I liked “Do you hear what I hear” and I forget the name of it, but a song with Angels in the title right before “Do you hear what I hear”.
After the CP, Dh and DD had to use the bathroom, so we went across the way to the American Adventure building and on the side they had restrooms. When they were done, we weren’t sure what to do next. I knew that during the day, WS has a lot of live street acts, but at night, what can you do? There was only 2 rides and most of the street acts were done for the day, so we just started browsing some of the countries. First came Italy. I’m Italian and this was nice since I’ve never actually been to Italy, but hope to see one day. I knew it was the closest I'd get to Italy for now. It was really cool.
We took a quick peek in the China Garden and then proceeded to Norway which is where my DD bought herself a light up Mickey doll for the dark rides with her very own money I had her save up before the trip. We got to Mexico, we looked around in the plaza for some souvenirs but didn’t get anything. Instead, we rode el rio del tiempo, the boat ride in mexico. I like it’s a small world and this was sort of like it so I thought it was cool and cute. It was very relaxing and we got to see a bit of Mexican culture. After the ride, Dh found a black Mexican outfit he wanted to try on.
We went around to France and rested at the water fountain a bit. I really wanted to explore France in depth, but there wasn’t much time until Illuminations and I knew we had to find a spot soon since people were already lining up around the WS lagoon.
While we were looking for an illuminations spot when we got a little something extra. Believe it or not, we got to watch the space shuttle take off from Kenedy space center and go up to the sky and into outer space. We didn’t even know it was going to happen until a crowd started to form and people started clapping and getting all excited. It was really neat and a little something we never expected to see. I didn’t think it was viewable from Epcot!
We found a spot near Morrocco and unfortunately, there were some trees blocking our view. While waiting, Dh sat DD on the small gate that goes all around the lagoon, and I wasn’t sure if we were allowed to do that, but Dh said it would be fine but a CM came over and told us she had to get down. We took her down, and the CM stood right behind us the whole time making sure we didn’t put her back up. This annoyed me, because even though we shouldn’t have had her sit up there, we didn’t do it again and he just stood there to babysit us. I didn’t like that. He should have been walking around telling other guests not to do the same. We saw several people sitting on the gate but he didn't move. Whether he left or not, we wouldn’t have put DD back on the gate.
Anyway, I was really looking forward to Illuminations and they were gonna have Holiday illuminations tonight so I was sure it was going to be really good. Illuminations started at 9:30pm and I tried really hard to pay good attention to the show, but DD was terrified of all the firework noise so I had to do the mommy thing and comfort her and keep telling her everything was fine. The big ball of fire was awesome and at first we thought something went wrong, but the show went on so I’m sure it was part of the show. Overall, it was good, but in the end I liked Wishes much better at MK which I’ll get to later on.
In some of my pics, the date stamp was messed up so the date is wrong...sorry.
On the way out, we saw the beautiful lights of winter archway and grabbed a pic.
On our way out of Epcot, Dh asked where we were going tomorrow and I told him we would be coming back to Epcot. Dh didn’t care for epcot much so he insisted that we take on Mgm tomorrow. After all my careful research and planning, I didn’t want to do that. I wanted to stick to schedule. One of my big reasons to do Epcot on Sunday was because it is such a big park and even though crowds might pick up, we wouldn’t notice as much because the crowds would be dispersed all around the huge park. Plus, I had an ADR for the Garden Grill that I did not want to miss and we don’t have park hopper so I was completely against it and not to mention we still had a lot more things to do in Epcot. There’s no way I would miss turtle talk with crush or the wonders of life which may be closed forever in just a few more weeks. No live street entertainment in the countries??? I was not going to have it. I know Dh and I know that he would try his best to convince me that 1 day at epcot was enough and that we shouldn’t come back later in the vacation. Is he crazy??? Of course, it ended up being a fight but he eventually gave in and let me have my way after I kept telling him how long and hard I've planning this trip. Oh well. We got over it and kept went on with our vacation. I was still on cloud 9 since I was in Disneyworld.
We somehow found our way back to Pop and went against our rule to not pay anything out of pocket. Dh was hungry so he got a cheeseburger and after he ate, we were dead tired so we went to bed.
Today's highlights:
Spaceship earth
illuminations
DAY 3, SUNDAY, DECEMBER 10TH
EPCOT….AND A NOT SO GREAT DINNER AT THE GARDEN GRILL DH and I love to sleep in at home so our bodies aren’t used to getting up at 8am to go to a theme park. Even DD sleeps in. (We let her go to bed late so that she will sleep in on purpose). This is how we like it since both of us work later on in the day. We had snacks at Pop before going to epcot around 11am. Upon arriving, Dh got a mission space fp for himself. Dh loves the big thrill rides. I on the other hand wouldn’t get on mission space if someone gave me a thousand dollars. (Maybe a million though. Lol ) I like the rides with detail like Peter Pan’s flight, the haunted mansion, pirates, etc, Dh likes rollercoasters that go upside down and corkscrews like rock n’ roller coaster. While we waited for his fp return, we went to the wonders of life pavilion. Now this was intresting. All year long this pavilion had been closed and wasn’t expected to ever open again. All of a sudden 2 weeks or so before our trip, we hear the stunning news that its opening thanksgiving week until after Christmas. I couldn’t believe it. This very well may have been our only chance to see the wonders of life ever.
First we saw cranium command. It was good. Funny. For some reason, DD was scared when the smoke poured out of the brain. Probably because of the smoke from tough to be a bug – thanks Dh, I love you! I got lost with the storyline a few times, so at some parts, people were laughing and I couldn’t understand why. I wish it wasn’t closing down though, because I would have liked to see it again.
With the making of me right next door, we decided to give it a try. Kind of boring and needs updating. I just don’t think its up to Disney to be teaching kids where they come from….its a theme park!!! To me, it just doesn’t fit in with the whole Disney theming. What were they thinking????
DD played in the Wonders of life exhibits. They had some cool stuff here. If we had more time, we probably would have taken a while to explore. There was a playground area and some interesting hands on things for kids and adults.
Here is DD playing in the wonders of life pavilion:
It was then time for Dh to go on Mission space and so he went on (in the orange team) and loved it. Before he went on, I pleaded with him to do the green team which is less intense and since I heard that people have actually died on this ride, but he didn’t listen. I think he was glad that I talked him into going back to epcot today since he enjoyed MS so much but he would never admit that. Lol. He was the engineer and he made a friend on the ride who happen to think he was a real astronaut and really going into outer space. How does he meet these people???
From here, we went to China. We wanted to see the dragon legend acrobats since I heard they were very good. While waiting, Dh told me his stomach was kind of messed up from mission space and he needed to eat something to settle it. The closest place was lotus blossom, the little café in China. I went in and bought 2 eggrolls for $3.50 out of pocket. I took a bite and they were fantastic. Such good flavor and there was meat inside!! Yummy.
We were seated on the floor on a red carpet while we were waiting and enjoying our egg rolls. The performance began and we couldn’t believe these were young children doing such amazing acrobatics. The dragon legend acrobats ended up being very good and we’re glad we saw them. These were like 8 year olds….its a must see.
Next, we went to America because I wanted DD to meet Santa and Mrs. Claus. At first, we couldn’t figure out where the meet and greet was and we couldn’t find anyone to ask. After a while, a CM told us where to go. We waited about 20 minutes for them to come out and met them. Mrs. Claus seemed grouchy. For some reason, both Santa and Mrs. Clause looked very familiar. I wonder If Mrs. Clause played the fairy godmother somewhere else in the park, even though I hadn’t met the fairy godmother yet. She just looked like a fairy godmother. Santa….I had no idea why he looked familiar.
It was time to go back to future world since we had an ADR for the Garden Grill, on the way we saw Snow White and Dopey in Germany. We got on the line (about 15 min wait) to see her. She was the first princess we met. Of all characters, I love the princesses. If I lived in Orlando, I’d probably try to be a princess at WDW. They are so pretty and nice. (I kind of look like a Belle. Lol). We got our pics and autographs and moved on. By the way….I think DD’s favorite princess is Snow white.
Earlier when we passed Mexico, we saw the tres caballeros, but they had to leave so we just missed them. The CM told us they would be back at 3pm so we lined up around 2:55 to meet them. There was only 1 couple in front of us and we still had time before dinner. We met them and they were so cool.
I chose the Garden Grill because of the characters chip n’ dale and Pluto and because the restaurant rotates past scenes from the land. Unfortunately, the food wasn’t very good at all. It was just edible. Server was very nice and we didn’t have to wait much for a table but overall, it wasn’t very enjoyable. Chip, Dale and Pluto were awesome. Mickey wasn’t into character much and went by fast. They all visited several times. When my Dh was on his cell talking to his cousin, Pluto came by and tried to take the phone away from him which was cute since he wasn't giving pluto his attention. Dh also called Dale by Chip’s name and Dale told my Dh he was naughty for getting them confused. I was a little nervous too because Dh and DD went to the bathroom and left me alone and they were gone for like 15 minutes. I wasn’t sure if they got lost or what, so I had a mini panic attack, but Dale saw me by myself being lonely and came to sit with me and he pretended to eat my DD’s food. He was really sweet.
Before leaving epcot, we saw turtle talk with crush which we all liked. Crush was pretty funny. Dd didn’t want to sit up front with the other kids cause she was shy, but the show was pretty good and I’m glad we watched it. Crush is funny and its neat how he interacts with the audience. Our favorite part was when he crashed into the glass.
We left Epcot early and went back to pop to turn in for the night. We planned on being at MK at opening tomorrow morning.
Today's highlights:
Meeting some new characters
Dragon legend acrobats
Mission space (for Dh)
DAY 4, MONDAY, DECEMBER 11TH
MAGIC KINGDOM, DTD, AND 1900 PARK FARE (PART 1)
Yay….My first time in the Magic Kingdom!!! I was smart enough to know to get to Mk early. I already knew this was going to be my favorite and DD’s favorite park. We got up at 7:30am. I wanted to get there by opening. By the time we left, it was around 8:20am. We had a fast breakfast in our room so we didn’t have to waste any more time. We got to ride the monorail for the first time. It was nice, but I'm a little claustrophobic so I was a little scared of being stuck in there and it breaking down. (I never take elevators or go on planes) We arrived at MK around 9:03 so the park already opened and people had a 3 minute head start. Darnit!!! We approached mainstreet and saw the Cinderella Castle. It was gorgeous. Of course I’ve seen it in pictures, but its much prettier in real life. It still had the crane there from the construction. They were changing the color and doing touch ups.
We walked down mainstreet and went to fantasyland. I was a bit worried because I heard MK could get really crowded on a Monday, but it actually wasn’t too bad at all. In Fantasyland, I knew to do Dumbo first. We went to Dumbo and got on with a 5 minute wait. I wish the seat on Dumbo was a bit bigger cause we all sat together and it was uncomfortable. DD loved it and so did I.
After dumbo, we got on the Pooh ride. Cute.
Again, the date is wrong on some of my pics.
After this, we went on Peter Pan.
We all loved this ride and it turned out to be DD’s favorite. We ended up riding 3 times by the time the trip ended. It was nice.
After Peter Pan, we went to see phillharmagic. This is one of my very favorites. I loved it from start to finish. I wanted to do this again, but never had the chance. The only problem I had with this was that it was too short. Dh said it was ok, Dd got scared when it went dark, but tried grabbing the 3d objects in front of her. Then we rode It’s a small world.
After It’s a small world, we tried Snow white’s scary Adventures. All of the guidebooks warn you about how scary it is for toddlers, but I couldn’t figure out what was so scary about it. DD was fine. It wasn't scary at all!
It was really really relaxing. I loved this too. Then we rode Cinderella’s golden carousel and I found it to be very magical even for adults. Very cute and relaxing. We were done with fantasyland in an hour and a half. Whooooo! Fantasyland was amazing and turned out to be my favorite “land” in MK.
From Fantasyland, we went over to toontown fair. It was almost 10:30 and I knew toontown opened at 10am, so I hoped for small lines and that’s what I got. We got on line for Barnstormer. I’ve never been on a roller coaster so even a kiddie one looked a little scary to me. Plus, you heard screaming so it must have been a little rough. I had to sit alone since each seat only fit 2. Dh wanted to sit with DD so I had no choice. I told myself that if they’d let a 3 year old on, it couldn’t be so bad. As I waited on the line, we watched the coaster go by really fast and do hard turns. Yikes…..I got into the seat right infront of my Dh and DD and we took off. Whoa…….this is fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuun!!!!!!!! I was screaming my head off the whole 25 seconds, but it was so much fun. Dh and DD were laughing but no screaming. I’m just a big chicken. Then we went to Minnie’s house and Mickey’s house. We liked Minnie’s better.
The line to meet mickey in the judge’s tent was pretty long so we skipped it. We already met him at dinner anyway. From here, we proceeded to the hall of fame. I wasn’t going to stop here but Dh got this obsession to try to meet every Disney character possible. We hadn’t met the princesses yet except for Snow white so we had to try. DD was dressed in her snow white gown so I opted to go. We waited for 20 minutes and got to meet Snow white, Cinderella and Belle. They were so beautiful in their gowns. Snow white was the best. She cuddled with DD and spoke with her for a while. She sounded just like the snow white from the movie. I’m so glad I didn’t skip this.
After this, we went to lunch at Cosmic Ray’s. I loved this place. Dh of course got in line for a burger and fries. I went on line for the half chicken and ribs combo. You had to wait on separate lines which I didn’t like, but overall the place was great. My food came with mashed potatoes and carrots and for dessert I got chocolate cake. Dh also got chocolate cake for dessert. The food was so good. The chicken was moist and juicy. Yummmmmy!! The ribs were just ok, they were a bit spicy for me. Dh ate all his food. The chocolate cake was a bit too rich. This place was busy and we enjoyed the alien sonny eclipse. Dh got on space mt. after lunch with only a 10 minute wait. By now, it was around noon. We grabbed a buzz fp (which only had a 20 min. wait) and rode the transit authority.
Nobody warned me about the dark part in the TTA. DD got a bit scared and wanted Dh’s cell again for the light. You would think this is a calm relaxing ride for all, but it can actually scare a small child. This was a very relaxing ride and we enjoyed the view of tomorrowland.
As we approached the Buzz ride, somebody gave us 2 buzz fastpasses that they weren’t going to use. Cool. We rode buzz which was fun. When we got off, we decided to spread the magic and give our 2 fastpasses away.
At the carousel of progress, the real Buzz character was available for meet and greet so we got on line. He got down on his knee and kissed DD’s hand because she was princess snow white.
I had no intention of seeing the carousel of progress, but Dh wanted to give it a try so we went in. It turned out to be one of my favorites. I really liked it. It was very nice and relaxing. The last scene is memorable.
I couldn’t believe how much we accomplished in just a few hours. We decided to go to the other end of the park and see some more there. We went to the haunted mansion next. I was worried about DD getting scared here. I knew it wasn’t scary, that it was actually funny, but I was still worried. Thankfully, she wasn’t scared at all. I enjoyed it and really looked forward to this ride, but it wasn’t in my top 5. Still very good though. DD loved the part where the ghost sits in the doombuggy with you.
Monday, Dec. 11 th Con't. MK and 1900 Park Fare (PART 2)
From here, we went to see the country bear jamboree. Now, this one I just can’t figure out. I just don’t understand how this is still running at all. Half the theater including my Dh and DD fell asleep during this show. I was bored to death. I couldn’t wait for it to be over. There was a family next to us and the Dad was actually snoring loudly. The wife had to nudge him to wake him so he would stop…. I had just wasted 15 minutes of my life that I can’t ever get back.
When we finally got out, it started to rain. Dh wanted to stay in the park, but I wanted to head back and get some rest before dinner. I told him we still had 2 more days here and plenty of time to finish. He wasn’t tired at all.
I thought we were going back to Pop, but instead ended up at Downtown Disney. We browsed some shops and ended up buying a few things. At Mickey’s Mart (the $10 and under store, which was very hard to find) we bought some toys for Dd and a few mugs for friends back home that were actually 4 for $10. The cashier was so nice and helped us out a lot.
We saw the lego family and dragon thing in the water which was so cool. How do they do that???...and what is that thing in the sky in the background??...Wierd.
I wanted to stop at Days of Christmas for some items and ended up spending most of our souvenir money there. We bought ornaments of all the Disney princesses with their prince, tinkerbell, Donald and daisny and of course mickey and Minnie. They were $12 each so we spent quite a bit. We got back to the hotel to change my daughter into her Cinderella gown since we were going to 1900 Park fare to meet Cinderella for dinner.
We got to the Grand Floridian to find that self parking was pretty far from the entrance. We even had some trouble finding self parking. Then we had to walk through the parking lot and across the street to the main building. Once inside, the restaurant was very close by. We waited about 5 minutes for our table. While waiting we checked out the lobby of the resort. It was gorgeous. To me, it was stunning.
There was also an impressive Gingerbread house that was lifesize. The Christmas tree had yellow lights though, which didn’t look right. We saw the gingerbread house display which was impressive. Once inside the restaurant, we noticed it was very very busy. Every table had a family in it. The food on the buffet was excellent. There were many choices here and I found this amazing pasta with shrimp in it that I loved. Very creamy. Dh found some chicken that he ate a lot of. As far as the characters go, we had some problems. The mice came around frequently and spent quite a bit of time with us. Cinderella only came once and for about a minute. She was pretty and polite, but she was very rushed. We had to meet the fairy godmother out in the hallway so I took DD to meet her and use the bathroom. The prince was a completely different story. We had finished our meal and he hadn’t come by yet. Service was pretty bad. Our plates were piled up. Refills were slow and the server tried to rush us to pay with our dining card so he could clear the table. I politely told him we hadn’t met the prince yet and he told us that the prince should be around soon. We waited and he came by again for our card. I told him we still haven’t seen the prince and if it was possible for him to try to get him over here before we left. He told us he would try to find the person who handles the characters. He never did, instead he disappeared into the kitchen. The prince finally was in sight, but he went to every table but ours. DD was getting very impatient. He eventually made it to our table. He was very sweet. We got his autograph and pic with DD, then it was mommy’s turn. He treated me like a princess. Dh should hang around him more often. Lol. Overall, the characters were ok, and food was good so I guess I might try it again. Here are some pics:
We got back to pop and went to bed. It was a long day!
Today's highlights:
All of fantasyland
Meeting princesses
First time at MK!
Coming up next.......Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party and ducks try to follow us back to our room.
DAY 5, TUESDAY, DECEMBER 12TH MVMCP AND OUR VALUABLES ALMOST GET STOLEN! [/SIZE]We got up around 11am today and went down to the food court to get some lunch. Dh got .you guess it, a burger with fries and chocolate cake. I got the chicken parm with penne alfredo and marshmallow cheesecake. (I love my cheesecake) Dhs food was just an average burger and fries. My food was very good. The chicken was a thick peace of breast and the pasta was good too. Cheesecake was good but I didnt care for the marshmallow chocolate topping.
After lunch, we toured our resort for a while. I wanted to see all the big cartoon icons and stuff and get some pics. Here at Pop, we came upon hourglass lake. First, all we saw was the other half on Pop that isn't finished yet across the lake. They still have a lot of work to do there. As we walked along the lake area, we came upon some ducks in the water at Generation gap bridge. As we passed by, they came out of the water and started to follow us. DD thought this was hysterical. She enjoyed herself and those ducks so much. It was about to rain so we started to walk back to our room only to realize the ducks came out of the water and started to follow us back! Dh went to try to find some food for them but it started to rain so we just went back to our room to rest. This was so much fun! This is just a little extra magic to add on to our wonderful vacation!
We went to MK around 4pm for the Christmas party. First, we went to Adventureland and rode the Magic Carpets of Aladdin. The Camels didnt spit water while we were there that day. Dont know why. It was warm out. Cute ride, just like Dumbo.
Then we rode the jungle cruise on a 10 minute wait. The line was deceiving. Every time you thought you were going to get on the boat, a new line appeared. The line kept moving though and we didnt wait long. I looked forward to this ride while I planned the trip, but I honestly didnt care for it and wouldnt mind if I never rode again.
After this we went to Pirates of the Caribbean. I loved it. Im a big fan of both Pirates of the Caribbean movies and I liked seeing Captain Jack Sparrow in the ride. Dh liked it better before the refurb. The drop was just good enough for me. Not too scary, but it was dark. DD didnt get scared at all. This ride is one of disneys best in my opinion.
After we got out, we found Captain Hook and Mr. Smee doing meet and greets across from Pirates, so we got in line. There was a guy behind us who was traveling solo and he asked Dh to take his picture when he got his turn. Dh told him sure of course. I loved to see that though. A grown man traveling solo to WDW. Thats cool. You dont see many of them and it shows what kind of place WDW really is and that anyone can fall in love with it. Anyway, moving on .we got up to captain hook and he tried to take our jewelry. He wanted to fight Dh for his gold chain. It was fun to watch captain hook try to take our valuables. Dh decided to play around and tell them tick tock, tick tock. Captain hook made a gesture that he was going to cut of Dhs head. It was so fun. When we were done, the man traveling solo went up while Dh took his pic and captain hook tried to take his souvenirs and leave with it. He was so cool and one of the 1st characters to really be into his character so well.
After we met Hook, we made our way to the fantasyland area and met Uncle Scrooge. A rare character? Yes!
From here, we were walking towards mainstreet to find a wishes spot. As we approached the castle, the dream along with mickey show was taking place on the castle stage. We watched and it was actually pretty good. Unfortunately, we left before the ending to beat the crowd. It got really crowded by the show and I guess because people knew wishes was starting soon. After the show, we squeezed our way over to the bridge to tomorrowland and sat down for Wishes. DD fell asleep waiting which turned out good since shes scared of the fireworks anyway. During the amazing wishes, I got that one moment during your trip when you realize your in Disney World. I just loved Wishes. Its one of my favorites. Illuminations was good, but to me, Wishes was much better. It might have just been the Castle that made it better, but overall, I just liked it better. Now, I consider Wishes 3rd favorite thing at WDW. It comes right behind Cirque du soleil and fantasmic. We actually got to see Wishes twice tongiht. They had the 1st one on for regular day guests, and the 2nd during the party.
After Wishes, we made our way to tomorrowlands galaxy palace theater for the twas the night before Christmas show. We got there at 6:30 and the show didnt start until 7pm. The theater was already almost full, but we got good seats. The show was great. Were so glad we caught it and made the cost of the mvmcp tickets a little more understandable. Unfortunately, pics werent coming out too good.
After this, we went over to Pecos Bills Café for some dinner. I got the bbq pork sandwich which came with beans and Dh got the burger and fries. For dessert, I had the peanut butter brownie mousse and Dh got grapes. They dont list grapes on the menu, but if you ask, they are available as dessert. We sat outside and were able to catch the 8:15 parade-Mickey's very merry christmas parade, from our table. I just LOVE that parade. Its my favorite of all the parades. I didnt grab many pics now because I was going to catch the 10:45 parade anyway and we were trying to eat. My sandwich was ok. They went a little heavy on the bbq sauce. Dessert was good. Dh didnt say anything about his burger so I guess it was good. DD loved the grapes.
After this, we were walking and found a meet and greet for Belle and Beast. The line was very long. We decided to get on to meet them since we missed them in Epcot. After being on line for 10 minutes, a CM comes by to tell us they are going to switch to Snow white and her prince. Wed already met snow white twice so we decided to get off the line. The CM said Belle would be back at 10pm. By that time, I looked at my watch and realized we had to run to find a spot for the 9:30 holiday wishes. By the time we got near the castle, the show started and I was very frustrated because we couldnt find a good spot. We decided to stop and try to see as much as possible. There was a large tree in the way, so you could only see the bigger higher fireworks. DD was scared and I had to stand up and hold her the whole time while she faced tomorrowland and hid her head in my shoulder. My arms were killing me by the time the show was over. We headed back to meet Belle and Beast. The line was very long. While waiting, Dh went to get some cocoa and cookies for him and DD.
I think that Beast really liked Belle in real life because he kept trying to grab her or something and she kind of laughed and told him to behave. Lol. DD kept telling me she was scared of beast before the trip, but she cuddled with him here and wasnt scared at all. Whew!
Next, we went to get a parade spot and was able to find one. The parade of course was wonderful. I think I could watch it 10 times in a row and still not get bored. It is a must see!!
I got a little thirsty and I wanted to try the cocoa so I went inside the diamond horseshoe place and we were so lucky cause while there, Woody from Toy story and his horse, bullseye came out and we pretty much had them to ourselves. Jessie from toy story came out too after a while. After about 5 minutes, people started coming in and it got more crowded. (note: date is wrong on the pics. It should say 12/12/06). These characters were fantastic. They were also into character very well. Woody kept pretending to fall and be still like a toy when a human got too close. It was amazing. He kept playing around with bullseye too. The greatest part was that there was no one inside except us, the CM's and the characters!!! Soon after, a few people started coming in.
The park was almost closing after the parade, so we wanted to get a couple of rides in before we left. We rode Snow white, Peter pan and pooh again. On Pooh, we saw Tigger and Piglet get on one of the vehicles with kids to ride with them. After the ride, we tried to meet with them (we still havent met piglet), but they had to leave. Going down mainstreet, we got to see snow. It was beautiful. It reminded me of back home when I was a kid in NYC. Before we left, we went over to expo hall to find out about the 50% off photopass that was included with the party. I heard about the room in the back with photo cutouts that you can get your picture with and we went to take a look. The place was empty so not many people must know about it. Here are the pics we took:
There were 4 cutouts all together! The best part is that it's free and that even though there were lines in the front, we were all alone back there. There was also a small theater in the same room with old Mickey cartoons.
We left MK and got to the parking lot to find out our car wouldnt start. There goes the magic out the window. Our battery had died and we were stuck there. Within 5 minutes, Disney security came by and gave us a jump start. The car turned on and we thankfully were able to get back to pop safely. Thank God for those wonderful security people. They are amazing.
highlights of the day:
the ducks
captain hook
Woody and Bullseye
Wishes: AMAZING
the christmas parade
DAY 6, WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 13TH
MGM, AND DH GETS LOST IN ORLANDO!
We got up around noon. We went to mgm late since we were going to stay until close and I wanted to make sure we were all wide awake for Fantasmic tonight. Unfortunately, the car wouldnt start again so Dh calls security but they didnt show. They arent so amazing anymore! Just kidding! Well, while we were waiting for security to show, I decided to go to everything pop to grab something to eat. When I got to the entrance to the main lobby, I saw some cop cars, Disney security and an ambulance so something must have happened and thats probably why no one showed to help with our car. After an hour, we decided to take the bus and deal with the car later when we got back. I had a ADR for Mama Melrose at 3:30 and It was around 1pm. If we didnt show, then our credit card would be charged as no shows since I got the fantasmic package. Once we got on the bus, we realized we should have been taking the bus every day since it was easy and saves gas money. By the time we arrived, it was actually 1:40. We went over to see the 2pm Indiana jones show.
Honestly, I could take it or leave it. I thought it was a guy show and that girls wouldnt be crazy over this show. It was a stunt show, but I dont like that they kept stopping to explain how the stunts were done. The one great part I remember is how we thought one of the extras was an audience member when he was actually a stunt man part of the show....they tricked us!
Even though Dh has been here before, he never got to see this. This ended up being one of Dhs favorite shows at Mgm. He liked it. DD got a bit scared since its very loud at times.
On our way out, I heard a guest ask a CM about Spectromagic and the CM told her that Spectromagic wasnt in MGM, it was in Epcot. I couldnt believe my ears. I think the CMs need to be trained a bit better. I mean they are great and they are the sweetest people, but you should at least know which park the parades are in. SpectroMagic is actually in Magic Kingdom. I could understand if he didnt know where the swiss family treehouse is, but common- spectromagic is a popular parade.
After Indy Jones, we were walking around and found a small shop outside with some cool Indiana jones hats and we got this awesome pic taken by a CM at the shop.
There wasn't much time left because we had dinner reservations at 3:30 at mama Melrose for the fantasmic package and it was almost 3pm so we weren't sure what to do. I didnt want to risk being late to dinner so we found a spot on some steps for the parade. Dh doesnt really like the parades much, but he enjoyed this one cause it had characters that you usually dont see like power rangers, mike and sully from monsters inc, mulan, and some villans. I'm just glad we didn't skip it. The parade was pretty cool because of the pixar characters that you barely ever see, but I dont think it was my favorite. The mvmcp parade last night was outstanding. By the way, the parade was called the Hollywood Holly Day parade (the xmas version).
From here, we had to go to dinner. I was surprised to see that we were given the regular menu and not the fantasmic menu. I thought this was a mistake, but it wasnt. You must now order from the regular menu. It turned out good for us since we love calamari and the fantasmic menu doesnt offer calamari. For appetizers, both me and Dh got the calamari. It was sooooo good. For entrees, I ordered the penne alla vodka and Dh ordered the veal osso busco. Both entrees werent too great. The pasta needed more flavor and Dh said he didint like the flavor of the veal. The server told us the veal was the best entrée in the restaurant. Desserts were much better. I had the ricotta cheesecake and Dh had gelato. The cheesecake was amazing. It was the best cheesecake Ive ever had in my life and Ive had many. I think this made our trip to Mama Melrose worth it. We probably wont go again but I just wish I had the recepie for that cheesecake!
After dinner, we tried to go see beauty and the beast, live on stage. Beauty and the Beast is one of my favorite Disney movies, so I was looking forward to this. To my surprise, the theater was closed for the week. I had no prior warning. We decided to do Voyage of the little mermaid. This was actually really adorable. The theater was cool and misty and dark so it was very relaxing. The only problem I had was that when Ariel sang Part of your world, I felt like they adjusted the song for the show somehow and I didnt care for it. I love the movie version and I just didnt care for this one at all. Maybe Ariel was singing it live and it was just the actress playing ariel that had a higher voice. I dont know ..Overall, great show and a must see at Mgm.
Then we tried the Great movie ride. The wait was 25 minutes, but Dh said he wanted to go anyway. We didnt think wed actually wait 25 minutes, since they usually exaggerate the wait time. In fact all week, the wait time posted was almost always longer than the actual wait. None of the lines we stood in were a stand still either. All lines kept continuously moving. This line actually ended up being about 20 minutes in the end. While waiting on line, we watched trailers from old movies. A lot of the movies were too old for us to know anything about them.
We finally got into the tram. The ride seemed cool in the 1st few scenes. I loved seeing Mary poppins up in the air with her umbrella. Everything was going fine until we got to the live scene where the CMs shoot with the pistols and act out. We were watching the scene when the power went out and we got stuck. At first we thought it was part of the ride, but the man infront of us told us hes been on this many times before and this wasnt supposed to happen. It was completely dark and kind of creepy. I mean we were in the last row of the tram and to our left was John Wayne on a horse which of course just looked like a shadow of guy on a horse. The CM who tours with you had a flash light and people had the Cell lights on so it wasnt too bad after our eyes adjusted to the darkeness. The very nice people in the row infront of us asked if DD was okay and if we needed to borrow their keychain light, but dd was okay. DD didnt really understand what was going on. Some other CMs came in and told us that a fuse blew or something and that we couldnt proceed with the ride. After a while, things start going through your head like did something bad happen? Is there a fire? Is the tram behind us stuck too or is it going to plow into our tram? Eventually, after about 10 minutes, the lights came back on, and somehow the CM was able to move the tram forward a bit and we were about to enter the alien scene, but I guess the power wasnt completely restored and we still couldnt do anything so we had to be escorted out of the attraction. On our way out, Dh took some pics of the scenes with the light on and we could see a lot of the detail.
We were hoping to get some fastpasses for our trouble, but nothing. It sucks that we had to wait 25 min. for a ride that broke down and we didnt even get an apology or fp. Bummer!
By now, it was time to get lined up for Fantasmic. This show was incredible. The best weve seen so far all week. It ended up being 2nd best of the trip with Cirque du soleil coming in 1st. More on Cirque later. I was glad to have gotten the dinner package for the peace of mind but the walk for the special entrance to the theater was way too long. It was ridiculous. After walking all day, this wasnt too much fun. I was surprised to see that the seats were all very good even though we were required to be seated in the witch section all the way to the right of the huge stadium. Overall, we had very good seats with just a 2 rows of people infront of us. The only complaint I have about the seating is that I think that the people who get the package and actually pay extra money to get the package should have been a priority for seating. They should have sat us in the middle since were paying. Those who are just walk ins should be sitting in the sides or the back. Oh well
A few minutes before the show, a group of 3 young guys wanted to start the wave and they did. It was pretty cool watching the whole stadium doing it and we knew who started it!
All of the scenes in the show were phenomenal. It was so amazing. I cant compare fantasmic to anything. It was just great. I did think they overdid it with the water screens though. It was excellent, but I just think they did it too much. A few times is okay, but on and off during the whole show ..I dont know.
The part with the princesses going by on the boats almost brought on tears. It was just wonderful from start to finish. The boat with all the characters at the end was a great addition to this show too. Some of the best scenes was the Pocahontas scene and the dragon. Excellent. DD loved it. Something that surprised me though, was that it wasnt all cute and cuddley. There were some scary parts especially for children. Some noises were way too loud. Here are some pics.
From here, we rushed over to see the Osborne lights. I didnt plan on seeing the lights tonight because I didnt want to rush through them since I knew the park was closing 30 minutes after fantasmic finished, but we still went. Dh was tired and wanted to go back to the car to try to fix it, but he agreed that this was the last thing to do and it would only be a few more minutes. I knew from the disboards that it was very possible to see the lights after fantasmic and that it was actually encouraged by CMs so we did.
They were very nice and we got to watch them dance which was pretty cool. This was the first year they would actually dance and not be still lights.
I was amazed at how pretty it was and it sort of reminded me of home (nyc) since we were on the streets of new york at mgm. It even snowed and it wasnt crowded.
Dh started to get very cranky because he wanted to get the car fixed so we headed back and thats when all the trouble started.
We wanted a snack and Dh was worried about our car not starting so DD and I went to the food court while Dh tried to get security again to help with our car. When DD and I got back, we tried to bring Dh a doughnut (a whole box of entenman's which we purchased with 1 dining plan snack credit) , but he was gone. We couldnt find him anywhere. I guessed that he got the car started and tried to go find a walmart for a new battery because thats what he thought was wrong with it on the way home on the bus. 45 minutes went by and still no word from Dh. I kind of worried a little, so I used the room phone to call his cell phone. He told me that the security got him a jump start and sent him to a walmart for a new car battery. He told me he somehow ended up lost in Kissimmee somewhere. He told me to call him back in an hour. So, I called him back and he told me he was having lots of trouble. Eventually he got back and told me what happened. It turns out that Dh got lost finding the walmart in the first place. When he found it, he tried to get a battery, and the department that sells the battery was closed since it was late. Dh asked a person who works there if he could get a battery and the guy said no because it was closed. Dh tried to get back to us, but the car of course, wouldnt start. He kept trying to start it and it wouldnt. A security guard for walmart kept passing him by and wouldnt help. I guess everyone isnt as wonderful as Disney staff. Dh went back inside and explained the situation and eventually got the battery. He doesnt know anything about cars, but he managed to get it started. He tried getting back to Pop again, and he needed to pay .75 to get onto the highway in a toll, but didnt have any change. He only had credit cards. They wouldnt let him pass. By now, Dh was really frustrated. He backed up and tried getting change at some stores, but no one would. He had to buy something and get change. He got onto the highway and got lost again. He finally got back, but was furious at the night he had. Thank goodness the car was fine after all that. We all went to bed trying to rest before going back to Mgm the next day.
highlights of the day:
Fantasmic....the most wonderful show!
Voyage of the little mermaid
DAY 7, THURSDAY, DECEMBER 14TH
MGM STUDIOS, CIRQUE DU SOLEIL
Today we originally were going to go to the Magic Kingdom for extra magic hour mornings. We were too tired to even get up for extra magic hours not to mention we only did a few things at MGM yesterday, so we wanted to get some more done so we went to MGM instead. I sort of wished I had park hopper so that we could take advantage of some Extra Magic hours but oh well. We arrived at MGM around 11am. Thankfully, Dh was back to his normal mood. The car apparently is taken care of. We took the bus even though the car was working since it was very convienient and easy plus the upside is that we wouldn't get lost. Upon arriving, Dh got a rock n roller coaster fp, then he rode tower of terror twice which had a 10 minute wait. Wow. Have we been lucky with wait times or what??? He made a friend named Roy on tower of terror. Then they ended up riding rock n roller together too. Of course, I didn't ride either since I'm scared to get on either one of them but I also had DD. He loved being able to do the thrill rides together one after the other and thought both were amazing. He wouldnt stop raving about how great those rides were.
From here, DD wanted to meet Sully and mike wazowski from monsters inc. We headed over to the garage where they hang out. DD was disappointed that mike wazowski was not there. She only got to meet sully and he didnt do autographs either, just pictures. Line went by very fast. He was huge!....but not into character much.
Next, we watched playhouse Disney live on stage which was cute, but not for adults- just kids. I say this because its one of those shows thats ONLY for kids. I cant picture a group of adults without children going to see this show. DD was pretty shy about it and wouldnt go to the front to dance with the kids. Kids did love it though. They had bubbles falling from the ceiling and characters on stage. Some of the characters were too small though so they were hard to see. The bear was huge though!
From here, we proceeded to the backlot tour. It was kind of cool seeing the props from the movies, and catastrophe canyon was alright, but overall, we found it boring. These are the cages from pirates of the Caribbean.
And the catastrophe canyon part of the tour which was the most exciting part, although not great. Dh got a little wet. I purposely put him on the left side of the tram when we boarded because I knew he would get wet.
After the backlot tour, it started to rain. We started to get hungry but we wanted to stay near the lights motors action stadium because we wanted to see this and the last show was going to start soon. We found a small shop nearby the backlot tour with some snacks so we just got a bag of chips to share and a drink. As we were walking to the stadium, it started coming down in buckets so we started running to the covered parts. One of my biggest fears about the trip was that I was afraid one of us would get sick during this trip. It could be one of the worst things to happen with all my ADRs that had credit card holds and all. Plus, we were going to go see Cirque later on today and I paid a pretty penny for those seats. Two years ago in August we came to Orlando for a wedding and the day of the wedding, I had to stay in the hotel because I got a fever and sore throat. I think I would die if this happened during this trip. I did bring a lot of medications just in case though like Tylenol and Dayquil.
I didnt like walking up all those bleachers while it was pouring raining. I was relieved that we would be covered, but Dh went up way to high. I felt like I was going to slip and fall down. People were also standing in our way as we were going up leaning against the railings, so a few times I wasnt even able to hold on as we were making our way to our seats. The show was able to go on even in the rain. They were questioning the safety of the cars and drivers at one point, but the rain slowed down and they were gonna go on with the show.
Dh loved this show. The cars did some amazing tricks and some parts were excellent, but (yes, theres a but) it was way too long and not enough exciting parts. A lot of it was explaining how the tricks were done and this was borring. Sort of like Indiana jones. DD was bored too and I think she wanted it to be over. It was waaaaayyyy too long!
Next, we had lunch at toy story pizza planet. I hadnt planned on eating here, but the smell from this place as you passed outside was really good so we decided to try it. I originally wanted to try toluca turkey co. where they sell those giant turkey legs, but Dh doesnt like turkey so I just gave in. It turned out to be a pleasant surprise. Foodwise, I got the woody deal with a cheese pizza, side salad and drink. Dh got the buzz deal with pepperoni pizza, salad and drink. For dessert, I had the choc. Chip cookie, Dh got the rice crispy treat. Pizza was good. Salad was very fresh. I liked the fact that you could get your own dressing since I like a lot of dressing on my salad. Cookie was good. Dh liked the rice crispy treat. While I finished eating, Dh took DD to play some of the arcades. In the end, it was hard to pull Dh out of this place, but we enjoyed it. He especially enjoyed the boxing game and he had a sweat by the time we left. We had a lot of fun and it definitely wont be our last time at this place!
After lunch, we still had a little time left before we had to leave for Downtown Disney for Cirque so I know I wanted to see muppetvision 3D and it was close by. It was excellent. A good 3D show without any scares. Characters were cute and cuddley and there was some live characters too! The preshow was hysterical. Dh and DD loved it too! The key is really under the mat when you enter this attraction. How Cool! When we left, we got some pics of DD at the fountain outside and Dh and DD got a pic with the huge Kermit.
From here, we went to the hotel to rest before cirque. We decided we would be back to MGM tomorrow again. I didnt think we needed another day, but Dh loves this park so much. MK would be saved for the last day- Saturday. We only had a few more things to do in mgm and I now I really regret not doing park hoppers because we would be using the whole day at mgm and not sharing it with another park. After resting at pop, it was time to go to the Westside of downtown Disney for Cirque. It was hard to wake up Dh but there was no way I was going to miss this. Ive heard nothing but awesome reviews about cirque du soleil.
Time was passing quickly and I was worried about being late. I had heard to arrive at least 30 min. early for a funny preshow and that if you werent in your seats by 15 min. before the show, they would sell your seats to someone else. I dont know if this is true or not, but nonetheless, I wanted to get there fast. We got ready and went to the car. Unfortunately, we got lost again which made matters worse. We still had about 45 min. before the show started and about 15 min. before the preshow and although I knew it couldnt be too far, we were still after all lost. I told Dh we should try to go back to Pop and then take the DTD bus from there. Even if it took 20 min. to arrive, wed still make it before the show started. He agreed. On our way back, we saw a sign that said Downtown Disney, straight ahead. Whew! No need to get the bus, just follow that sign. We eventually got there and still had time to spare before the preshow.
I was a bit worried about our seating because I got the cheap seats and I didnt want the performers to look like ants. I was relieved to see the theater wasnt that big and that we had a very good view even though we were 3 rows from the very back. We were in category 3, section 206, row JJ. The seats were very good. A lot of the action took place in the air anyway so we didnt have to strain our necks to look up and see. Dh and I kept talking about how those people down below in the first few rows paid so much more than we did, and we all have an excellent view.
The preshow was awesome. Some clowns came out and warmed up the audience. They were very very funny and we thought they did a fantastic job.
The show itself is like nothing Ive ever seen before. Its hard to describe it, but there were acrobats, little asian girls who must have been around the ages of 5 to 12 doing some amazing tricks, clowns, a guy who was swinging around in the air, a bunch of people doing tricks on a set that looked like a building which they were climbing up and down like nothing, people balancing on a wire up in the air, and amazing music. I cant believe how AMAZING this show was.
Overall, we both agreed that Cirque du soleil was the best thing we did all week and was worth every single penny we paid for it. In fact, (and this isnt something I never hear) Dh, said he would have paid more. Trust me, thats saying something about this show. It was excellent and everyone should see it. Dont expect your average circus with animals. There were no animals in this show, but it was just amazing. They were very strict about pictures though.
Something I do want to mention though, they were very strict about photography. Every time someone tried to sneak a pic, security came to them and told them no more pictures. I find it weird since they have the show on DVD anyway. The show was so good, I want to buy the DVD myself especially since I didnt get any pics.
When the show was over, we went back to pop and got some dinner. By now, we were starving. We went to everything pop and ate, then went to bed.
Highlights of the Day:
Cirque du soleil- The best thing all week by far!!!!
Muppetvision 3D
Tower of Terror and Rock n' Roller for DH.
Coming up next:
Our final day at Mgm and a great dinner at Ohana's!
DAY 8, FRIDAY, DECEMBER 15TH
MGM YET AGAIN, POLYNESIAN RESORT AND ANOTHER ARGUMENT….WHY???? This morning was pretty bad. Dh and I were arguing because he wouldn’t get up. Dh LOVES to sleep. He could sleep for 18 hours straight and still not want to get up. I got upset because we were leaving tomorrow and I wanted to make the most of our last 2 days. I know we were almost finished with MGM, but I didn’t want to stay in our room and wait for Dh to get up when he felt like it....after all, he may not get up for hours! We’re on a vacation at Walt Disney World. This is supposed to be a memorable once in a lifetime vacation and I have to deal with this???? I want to have fun!!! I got DD and myself ready and after repeated attempts of trying to get Dh out of bed, I told him we were going to take the bus and leave him. He thought we were playing around so he just stayed in bed. DD and I went to the bus stop and waited. I figured he would get up and follow us. After we waited 15 minutes and I watched 2 buses go by, I went back to the room. He hadn’t even budged. I started yelling at him and he told me that he wasn’t going to go anywhere with me acting that way and that now he wanted us to go alone without him. I was so upset and needed to calm down so I calmly asked Dh to go with us since DD was upset because she wanted her father to go with us and she saw us arguing (which I feel horrible for ) and he agreed as long as I became happy again.
After waiting for Dh to take a shower and get ready we got on the bus to Mgm. We arrived around noon.
First, we saw the magic of Disney animation. Surprisingly, it was very good. I really had a bad outlook on this attraction and thought it would be boring after reading the descriptions in the guidebooks. I had no intention of visiting, but we didn’t have much left to do in Mgm and I had a whole day here so might as well give it a try. First, there was a show with mushu, not the real character, we just see him on a screen. I think it would have been better if the real Mushu character came out though. Then, we got to meet the incredibles. Mr. incredible and Mrs. Incredible. Actually all 4 members of the incredibles family was there, but the lines got long to meet them and they only would be out for a little while so we only did the parents. I’m not an Incredibles fan, but Dh is, so he took a pic alone with Mr. Incredible and then took a pic of him and DD alone with Mrs. Incredible.
In this same area, there were some intresting exhibits where you could see which character you resemble the most, or hear yourself sing a Disney song or even paint a character. We choose to paint flounder from the little mermaid and it was fun. I was surprised at how cool and fun the exhibits were. Everyone should make time in their day to see the magic of Disney animation.
We skipped the drawing part since you had to wait 15 minutes so we proceeded to the store. If I ever become rich, this is where you’ll find me. This store was amazing. It had some wonderful artwork that I wish I could one day have. The figurines of the characters were great too. I’m not a big fan of art, sculputures or paintings, but the Disney art in this store was unbelievable.
Next, we tried our 2nd attempt at the Great movie ride. It went fine this time. Alien scene wasn’t too scary for DD. The scene with the wizard of oz was cool and I liked the end where they show the movies on the screen. I’m so glad the ride didn’t break down this time because it was actually good.
We got hungry so we decided to grab some lunch at Backlot express. Dh and I both got the double cheeseburger. I got the cheesecake, and Dh got the strawberry parfait for desserts. We found a table but it ended up being too hot inside, so we got a table outside instead. Burgers were very good as were fries. Desserts were pretty good too. There was some problem at the counter though when we ordered. Our receipt number got mixed up and it took forever to get our food, but everything was straightened out and we were able to enjoy our meal. We only came to eat, but we were able to see the parade again from our table. For some reason, Dh was still hungry after eating so he wanted to get an ice cream from a vendor, but the parade wouldn’t let us cross to get it.
After the parade, Dh rode star tours but didn’t like it much. I guess after Tower of Terror and Rock n’ Roller, this didn’t thrill him as much. He watches the star tours movies and stuff, but he’s not a huge fan.
He didn’t say much about it and I wouldn’t ride since I had DD and I knew it was sort of a thrill ride. My only concern was that Dh just ate and I worried about him having motion sickness on the ride. It turned out he was fine and just “didn’t care for the ride”
After Dh rode star tours, we looked at our times guide and noticed it was time to see Cars from the Cars movie so we lined up to see them. Before they came out, a few other families lined up and one lady told me she knew how this works….she said they put everyone in a circle, then the cars drive around in the middle of the circle and afterwards, they just let everyone go up to the cars, but not in any order or in any line. You just go right up and hope that someone doesn’t stomp all over you or your children! What????!!!! Are they crazy? Why would Disney do this in such a way?
The cars finally came out and we got some pics but we left before the crazy meet and greet. I didn’t want to be trampled. They were actually cool with moving eyes and everything. DD liked them. She did want to meet them but I told her we couldn’t because we had to go somewhere else. Here are the pics we took:
We were able to get some silly pics of me wearing a stitch hat in a shop while we waited for the Cars too.
We then went over to see One Man’s Dream. This was another attraction I wasn’t going to loose sleep over If I missed. I ended up loving it!!! It was actually very good. It was mostly the story of Walt Disney’s life. A CM gave us a questionnaire when we entered and told us if we answered all the questions right, they’d give us a souvenir certificate at the end.
We got to learn a lot about Walt as we completed the questionnaire, and it wasn’t even the least bit boring. There were only 8 or so questions I think. I was worried about the last one regarding the cruise ships, but we got it right in the end. All of the answers could be found in the walk through of the attraction. It was nice and intresting. The movie at the end was very good too. We answered all the questions and got them all right! Yayyy! I’m glad we didn’t skip it….plus we got a cool souvenir….our certificate for answering the questions right. From here, we decided to go back to pop to pack our stuff and rest before going to the Polynesian resort for the electrical water pageant and dinner.
DD and I tried to go back to visit the ducks while Dh napped, again. The ducks didn’t come out at all this time and DD and I were disappointed. They were so much fun on Tuesday so we gave up and went back to our room. I started packing most of our stuff while DD napped and waited for time to go by until we had to leave.
Around 8pm, we went to the Polynesian resort. I was looking forward to seeing this beautiful resort and I hope that one day, that I will have the opportunity to stay here. I know- I think I said the same thing about the Contemporary and the Grand Floridian! I had an ADR for Ohana’s at 9:15. I chose this time because I wanted to catch the electrical water pageant at 9pm from the poly beach before dinner and I heard the pageant was only a few minutes long.
Thankfully, we were starting to learn our way around and didn't get lost. Of course, we were learning our way around now that it was almost time to leave and go back home!
We made our way to the beach and relaxed on a hammock while we waited for the pageant to start. DD got a little dirty in the sand, but thankfully not too bad. We grabbed a few pics while waiting for the pageant to start. Unfortunately, we couldn’t get any pics of the actual pageant because it was too far and we left before it ended because we were afraid we’d miss our dinner reservation. This is us hanging out at the Polynesian beach before the electrical water pageant:
We found our way back to the lobby area and the restaurant, Ohana’s was upstairs.
At the podium, I remembered that tonight was a mvmcp night at MK and if we got a window table, we would get a view of holiday wishes at 9:30 from our table in the restaurant! How great would it be if we were granted a window table and got to view the fireworks again! That would just be icing on the cake! Extra Magic! Luckily, after waiting about 5 min. our table was ready and we were able to get a table near the window with 1 table in between us and the window. It was good enough for me!
Soon after we were seated, the fireworks started. I was a bit disappointed. There were some trees in the way and the people at the window tables could have cared less that the fireworks were even on. Strange…..but anyway, after watching them, I’ve made a note to myself that the best place to watch the MK fireworks is in MK! They were no where near as good as actually being in the park.
Soon the food started to come. First was salad and wontons with 3 dipping sauces. I don’t like wontons so I just ate some salad which was good. Dh doesn’t like any dressing on his salad and he didn’t want salad anyway so he just waited for the next course.
Next, we got Chicken wings and shrimp. The chicken wings were outstanding. I should have asked for the recepie. Dh agreed they were really good. Shrimp was okay. A few minutes later, the meats started coming out. The meats were very tasty and good. . The steak was the best and Dh loved it even though it still had some pink inside which usually grosses him out. We didn’t care much for the sausage. They kept bringing more out every so often, but we were so full we couldn’t even get seconds. DD didn’t like the food much so we also ordered her chicken strips with fries. The portion was way too big for a child and looked like an adult size plate.
The meats were accompanied by potatoes and veggies. The potatoes were the best I’d ever eaten. Just wonderful. We didn’t try the veggie’s but they looked good. Even dessert was very very good which I didn’t think I was going to like. All I can remember was bananas foster sauce, and caramel.
I can’t remember what it was called. I usually don’t even try stuff like that, but it was good. This was the best meal so far all week and ended up being Dh’s favorite of our trip. Just outstanding. Service was also fantastic. We loved how the servers called us cousins. The only disappointment was that I had heard that every so often games were played and there was no entertainment. Maybe because it was late.
At the end, DD wanted those little umbrella’s they stick in your drinks, and the server brought her a bunch. Dh loved how they called us cousins and he played along. The only thing we didn’t like about this was that we wanted to pay for DD’s meal out of pocket instead of using the dining plan and it ended up costing 11.99 for a child’s chicken strip meal. It was a huge portion but it wasn’t worth 11.99! Overall, we will definitely return next trip, was one of the best meals all week. Here is a pic of the "child's meal"
We visited the shop in the hotel and they had some nice things but we didn't buy anything. There was a statue and DD pretended to pick its nose. I have a pic somewhere but I can't find it. Although I didn't want to leave to go back to Pop, we eventually did. This was our last night and it was great!
Before going to bed, we stopped at everything pop to get our mugs refilled and Dh bought a hat. I think it actually fits him well. It is a hat that says “grumpy” on it. He’s wanted it since day 1 when we saw it the first time we came into the store so he finally convinced himself to buy it.
We all went to bed after browsing the store.
Thankyou for reading. Have a magical night!!!
Highlights of the day:
Ohana's
The magic of Disney animation
One man's dream
Day 9, Saturday, December 16th. Our Last Day at the world. MK, CRT Dinner. I was really sad when I got up being that this was our last day. I didn’t want it to ever end. My sister in law told me that 9 days would be too long and that by this day, I would miss home so much….not true. Why would I want to go home? At Disney, I have all the fun I want, eat like kings, don’t have to cook or clean or anything….its just great but I guess it has to end.
We had to go down to the main hall to check out. First, we finished packing and put all our stuff in the car. Then while Dh and DD went to the arcade in the lobby, I checked us out. I had to pay for phone charges for the night Dh got lost in Kissimmee which came out to $10 or so. I had to call him from our room to his cell once to find out where he was. I met up with them in the arcade and they were having a really good time playing the games. Dh said he wished he knew about this place earlier in the trip so that he could have spent some time here. DD won some tickets so she could pick a small prize. I wanted to hurry but they were taking forever picking out a prize. I was getting really impatient. I wanted to go to Mk and spend every possible last second I could there. Our tickets expired at midnight and Mk was open until 11pm, but Dh said we had to leave right after dinner so we could get home at a decent time. He was afraid he’d be too tired to drive home that late after a long day in the park. After DD picked out some sort of cheap bracelet, we headed over to MK.
The parking lot to Mk was already packed and the line to park was long. (That’s right….there was a line to park your car ). It was Saturday, and I expected to have our longest lines today. We parked and went over to take the monorail to the entrance. The line for the monorail was unbelievable. The ferry was closed so we had to wait. Why would the ferry be closed with all of these people trying to get over to the park? After a few minutes, the ferry opened and hundreds of people ran, pushed and shoved their way to the boat. I didn't feel like getting trampled, and even Dh didn't want to get caught in the stampede so we slowly and calmly walked to the boat after all the crazy people ran ahead and it was actually a nice ride. You got to see the Grand Floridian, contemporary and Polynesian resorts. We grabbed some pics on the ferry. At first I was worried that we'd have to wait for another ferry, but it was big enough to hold a lot of people. We went up on the top deck towards the back to find a quiet spot. I know it would be a few extra minutes to get to MK, but.....oh well.
Here are the pictures of the resorts as we passed them by on the ferry:
When we finally arrived, we made our way to fantasyland. DD wanted to ride peter pan again, but the wait was 30 minutes. Darn!!!We got a fastpass with the return of 3:15pm. I guess 30 min. isn’t that long, but since we were spoiled all week with barely any waits, this seemed really bad to us. All of fantasyland had waits of at least 30 minutes or more. It was crazy. We went over to adventureland hearing DD whine about not getting to ride peter pan. She didn’t understand that we were coming back later. Everything had long lines, so we went to try the swiss family treehouse which didn’t have a line. It was kinda cool but a lot of climbing.
View from the top of Swiss family treehouse:
Here is us getting out of the treehouse.
After this, we saw the enchanted tiki birds. This was ok. Kind of weird and unusual. I heard that the storm may scare young children, but DD was fine. This was just a strange show. I don’t think I’ll go out of my way for it, ever. I actually wanted it to be over fast. While waiting in the queue, I realized something strange- people were actually skipping infront of us to get to the doors so they could be the first ones in...and it wasn't just one family, it was several different groups. I don't understand why when all the seats have the same view. Why push and shove your way to the front?
Anyway, we wanted to do some shopping before we left. We only had a few more hours until dinner and after dinner, we were going to leave and we wanted to get something to bring back home.
On our way to shopping, we saw timon and rafiki from lion king and lined up for a pic. By the time it was our turn, they had to leave, so we had to wait until they got back and we were the first family to see them.
We went to mainstreet to do some shopping at the emporium. I fell in love with a snowglobe type thing with the Cinderella castle and many characters on it. Unfortunately, it was expensive. Dh still was going to buy it for me, but when I found out that it didn’t play a song, I didn’t want it anymore. We saw that the afternoon parade was about to start and we didn’t want to get stuck on mainstreet so we tried to get back to fantasyland, but it was too late. We couldn’t cross over to the other side, so we just watched the parade. I had no intention of watching this parade, but I actually liked the song and of course, I loved the float with Cinderella and her
prince and the fairy godmother. Cinderella always amazes me with her appearance. I especially loved the horses and carriage she was in during the Christmas parade. Just amazing.
All plans of a trip went out the window for a while since I wouldnt even consider bringing an infant to WDW. 
At first, we were going to go in September or October, but then I remember how much I love Christmas (almost as much as Disney) and we decided to do December instead. 
Christmas and Disney together cant get better for me. (Although, Id never attempt to go Christmas week 
) Its a true dream come true. After that, I decided that I wanted to do the Christmas party and Cirque du soleil too. (Remember: my way , Yes, I know Im spoiled ) so I took on a couple of extra hours at work and got the tickets. They just arrived a few days ago! 
I also looked into a dinner show and wanted to try the hoop dee doo revue, but I would have had to pay out of pocket, since I needed the dining plan credits for other restaurants and decided not to do it.
After all, I live in Florida now, about 3 hours from Disney and I could always go back when we get the chance. 
It’s a longer drive than I thought. Oh well, we’ll make it, we’ll be fine. We’ll make it. A little over two hours later, we got to Pop Century around 10am. We couldn’t believe we were finally here. ……and yes, we made it.
DD was asleep, but I woke her and she had a smile on her face. We followed the signs to Pop Century and when we found it, Dh and I became children again. We’re finally here! OMG!!! 
My first impression of Pop was that it was very colorful and it called to you. DD was so excited. We parked our car and went into the lobby. As soon as you left your car, you could hear Christmas music playing and you felt like royalty going into such a nice hotel. It was also very clean. I also took note of the bus stops right out front incase we decided to take the bus to one of the parks one day instead of driving. We got on line to check in which wasn’t too long. I couldn’t get over how nice the lobby was. Even though it’s a value resort (and I’m sure the deluxe resorts are much prettier), it was just beautiful. 
It may have been because it was in the middle of the afternoon when the animals were hidden and asleep, but I’m not sure I’ll go again. The storyline was corny about the poachers. It was very cold which isn’t disney’s fault of course but we only saw a couple of giraffes and an elephant. The only thing I liked was the bumpy ride. I like bumpy rides. 
The show was way to scary for anyone under 6. I don’t mean to spoil it for anyone who hasn’t gone but there is a few seconds of complete darkness, then a huge fog of smoke and spiders fall from the ceiling. This even scared me a bit. I’m not really scared of the dark or anything, but being in a full theater with my terrified DD and not being able to see anything sets a bit of panic in. 
I also had DD in my lap because she started to fall asleep. Honestly, I really looked forward to this a lot but I didn’t like it. It just wasn’t memorable. I can barely remember anything except for the jellyfish scene and the shark. 
I knew we would be tired from the drive, so I planned AK for Day 1 since AK can be done in 1 day and since AK closes at 5pm which is nice and early. We didn’t have park hoppers so this guaranteed me that after AK, we couldn’t go to another park. It guaranteed me that we would have no choice but to go back to Pop to rest. I did this on purpose so that Dh and DD could take a nap and wouldn’t be cranky at dinner with the characters. 
For dessert, I got cheesecake with a peach liquid on top and DH got the chocolate wave. Cheesecake was pretty good. DH said chocolate wave was amazing. Overall, it was an excellent meal for food and service. I’d go back without hesitation. Here are some pics in the restaurant:
Dh also called Dale by Chip’s name and Dale told my Dh he was naughty for getting them confused. I was a little nervous too because Dh and DD went to the bathroom and left me alone and they were gone for like 15 minutes. I wasn’t sure if they got lost or what, so I had a mini panic attack, but Dale saw me by myself being lonely and came to sit with me and he pretended to eat my DD’s food. He was really sweet. 
They were so beautiful in their gowns. Snow white was the best. She cuddled with DD and spoke with her for a while. She sounded just like the snow white from the movie. I’m so glad I didn’t skip this.
DD kept telling me she was scared of beast before the trip, but she cuddled with him here and wasnt scared at all. Whew!
This was the first year they would actually dance and not be still lights.
