OhDannyBoy
DISdad #850
- Joined
- Jan 10, 2014
- Messages
- 1,434
Hey Disboards!!
I've been wanting to join here to share my experience at EPCOT on Christmas Day.
It was such a wonderfully surprising experience that I just have to share!!
First, before Christmas of 2013, I had only been to EPCOT once and absolutely fell in love with it. My wife and I went the second week in January of 2011 to celebrate our first anniversary. i won't go into all the details, but we had a blast!! The German buffet rocks!!
Well my mom has been talking about going Disney for Christmas for at least the past 10 years. Unfortunately between finances and ridiculous schedules, getting everything ironed out proved to be quite the task.
Well we finally did it!! She asked which park we wanted to go to. We can only do 1 park due to funds and time. So I said EPCOT. So July of 2013 the trip was booked!! We don't live but a few hours from Orlando, so travel was no biggy.
Of course, me being me, I Googled what the crowds would be during Christmas day. Everything i read said the lines would be days and the crowds would look like some sort of zombie apocalypse. get there an hour early and run straight to Soarin!!
So on Christmas Day we follow what we heard and got to EPCOT at 7 AM. the gates were to open at 8 AM.
We were one of the first in line at the gate. Maybe 5 people in front of us. At 7:15ish AM, a Disney Employee asks for everyone's attention. He states that as a special Christmas Day gift to us, they were going to let everyone there so far into The Land Pavillion and that we could ride Soarin BEFORE THE PARK OPENED!!
This was incredible!! Everything I had read said I'd be waiting all day to ride this ride, and here we were, literally the first people to be loaded onto the ride!!
There was some sort of malfunction with a seat belt so we were delayed about 15 minutes before flight, but by 7:45 AM, on Christmas Day, my family and I were soaring high above California!!
By the time we got off of the ride, the main gates had opened. We went over to the Living Off the Land ride and were informed by the wonderful smiling operator of the ride that we were the first to ride for the day!! Yay!!
We walked around the pavilion for a bit then made our way to Test Track. It had a 20 minute posted wait time so we figured lets do it!!
This was the longest wait time of our day. We walked over to the mission space Mars thingy next and waited all of about 5 minutes. My mom regretted choosing the Orange side!!
We all agreed to skip the Ellen Power ride thing because it was too long of a ride and to be honest, kind of lame.
We walked around future land a bit more looking at the sights (the Nemo thing was neat) and even rode Figment (nostalgia on the part of my wife).
This was all done by 10:30 AM. I couldn't believe it!!
We made our way to the World Showcase and starting with Mexico, we made our way around the world, getting our passports stamped in each country, and had the traditional holiday greeting of each country written next to the stamp!!
Highlights of the World Showcase:
-starting the day at 10:30 AM with margaritas sounds crazy, but what the heck it's vacation!!
Thanks Mexico!! Unfortunately we didn't catch the holiday story part of Mexico.
- We didn't catch all, but the holiday stories in each country were awesome!! My favorite was Norway!! Norway had some kick butt strawberry rice pudding too!! Gut Jul
-China had a drink called Two Ducks Kissing or something like that. Basically really creamy coffee with Jim Beam. Delicious!! The Monkey King was a bit, well, odd. But the guy performing was very energetic and into it so it was awesome!!
-My mom had made reservations at the German Buffet as a surprise to me. My wife had told her how much I loved it!! I don't think I can eat strudel again for another year!! Helga's story of the Tannenbaum (SP) was nice too. Germany has awesome beer BTW.
-Italy. We didn't do much in Italy. Everyone was full. My mom had a glass of wine. The Holiday story was told by a witch which I found odd.
-The United States turned out to be pretty cool because we could see perfectly the Candle Light Processional from out front. Beer selection sucks though. Sam Adams or Yuengling. Oh well, the Processional was beautiful.
-Japan had some of the coolest buildings in the whole World Showcase. We drank Saki and watched the holiday performer. i have no idea what she said though. I shouldn't drink Saki.
-Morocco was another beautiful layout. The story of Ramadan was cool. the brought a bunch of kids up and had them dance. I had some fruity drink I didn't finish.
-France had some awesome pastries. Unfortunately we missed the holiday story here too. The creamcicle drink my wife had was delicious.
-The UK had a great live band playing holiday music. We missed this holiday story as well, but the music made up for it. Also, the hot cider was awesome!!
-Canada. Yup, it's Canada. Kind of boring. Moosehead beer rocks. Missed the holiday show here too.
All in all, this was an absolute awesome way to spend Christmas!!
I've been wanting to join here to share my experience at EPCOT on Christmas Day.
It was such a wonderfully surprising experience that I just have to share!!First, before Christmas of 2013, I had only been to EPCOT once and absolutely fell in love with it. My wife and I went the second week in January of 2011 to celebrate our first anniversary. i won't go into all the details, but we had a blast!! The German buffet rocks!!
Well my mom has been talking about going Disney for Christmas for at least the past 10 years. Unfortunately between finances and ridiculous schedules, getting everything ironed out proved to be quite the task.
Well we finally did it!! She asked which park we wanted to go to. We can only do 1 park due to funds and time. So I said EPCOT. So July of 2013 the trip was booked!! We don't live but a few hours from Orlando, so travel was no biggy.
Of course, me being me, I Googled what the crowds would be during Christmas day. Everything i read said the lines would be days and the crowds would look like some sort of zombie apocalypse. get there an hour early and run straight to Soarin!!
So on Christmas Day we follow what we heard and got to EPCOT at 7 AM. the gates were to open at 8 AM.
We were one of the first in line at the gate. Maybe 5 people in front of us. At 7:15ish AM, a Disney Employee asks for everyone's attention. He states that as a special Christmas Day gift to us, they were going to let everyone there so far into The Land Pavillion and that we could ride Soarin BEFORE THE PARK OPENED!!
This was incredible!! Everything I had read said I'd be waiting all day to ride this ride, and here we were, literally the first people to be loaded onto the ride!!
There was some sort of malfunction with a seat belt so we were delayed about 15 minutes before flight, but by 7:45 AM, on Christmas Day, my family and I were soaring high above California!!
By the time we got off of the ride, the main gates had opened. We went over to the Living Off the Land ride and were informed by the wonderful smiling operator of the ride that we were the first to ride for the day!! Yay!!
We walked around the pavilion for a bit then made our way to Test Track. It had a 20 minute posted wait time so we figured lets do it!!
This was the longest wait time of our day. We walked over to the mission space Mars thingy next and waited all of about 5 minutes. My mom regretted choosing the Orange side!!
We all agreed to skip the Ellen Power ride thing because it was too long of a ride and to be honest, kind of lame.
We walked around future land a bit more looking at the sights (the Nemo thing was neat) and even rode Figment (nostalgia on the part of my wife).
This was all done by 10:30 AM. I couldn't believe it!!
We made our way to the World Showcase and starting with Mexico, we made our way around the world, getting our passports stamped in each country, and had the traditional holiday greeting of each country written next to the stamp!!
Highlights of the World Showcase:
-starting the day at 10:30 AM with margaritas sounds crazy, but what the heck it's vacation!!
Thanks Mexico!! Unfortunately we didn't catch the holiday story part of Mexico. - We didn't catch all, but the holiday stories in each country were awesome!! My favorite was Norway!! Norway had some kick butt strawberry rice pudding too!! Gut Jul
-China had a drink called Two Ducks Kissing or something like that. Basically really creamy coffee with Jim Beam. Delicious!! The Monkey King was a bit, well, odd. But the guy performing was very energetic and into it so it was awesome!!
-My mom had made reservations at the German Buffet as a surprise to me. My wife had told her how much I loved it!! I don't think I can eat strudel again for another year!! Helga's story of the Tannenbaum (SP) was nice too. Germany has awesome beer BTW.
-Italy. We didn't do much in Italy. Everyone was full. My mom had a glass of wine. The Holiday story was told by a witch which I found odd.
-The United States turned out to be pretty cool because we could see perfectly the Candle Light Processional from out front. Beer selection sucks though. Sam Adams or Yuengling. Oh well, the Processional was beautiful.
-Japan had some of the coolest buildings in the whole World Showcase. We drank Saki and watched the holiday performer. i have no idea what she said though. I shouldn't drink Saki.
-Morocco was another beautiful layout. The story of Ramadan was cool. the brought a bunch of kids up and had them dance. I had some fruity drink I didn't finish.
-France had some awesome pastries. Unfortunately we missed the holiday story here too. The creamcicle drink my wife had was delicious.
-The UK had a great live band playing holiday music. We missed this holiday story as well, but the music made up for it. Also, the hot cider was awesome!!
-Canada. Yup, it's Canada. Kind of boring. Moosehead beer rocks. Missed the holiday show here too.
All in all, this was an absolute awesome way to spend Christmas!!
