Canwegosoon's First Christmas Trip 12/23-12/29 BWV/VWL

[canwegosoon]

Trip Report: First Time for Christmas

12/23 Depart NYC JFK with a 1-½ hour delay and heavy fog, to arrive at sunny FL@ noon! Make way to Magical Express counter; check in…no problems. Everything going great. Proceed to BWV for Check in(first stop). We arrive and the lobby is stunningand I mean stunning. There is punch and cookies-just enough to keep DH and kids busy. The gingerbread train display is very nice, trees stunning, just like home (if I had a million dollar salary). Line for check in is short 1-2 people ahead of us. We check in, with only one minor problem, DH had no signing privileges, but 8yo son did have signing privileges. It was fine DH kept both of those cards (we have AP’s so there wasn’t a ticket issue with that). As I am almost finished checking in, I slide over to bell services and pick up BWV #1 Christmas tree. The bell services gentleman did find the box no problem…thanks Bobbiwoz/wdwstar. And I got strange looks from DH. The kids were oblivious. We go upstairs to check out room. We were in room 5506,Stuido-the view was fantastic, NS and close to elevator(which I requested), but we heard no one.
By now it was almost 3, and had to get moving for our 3:50 ADR at Mama Melrose. The boys were wearing ½ leg zip off pants and short sleeve shirts, DH had jeans and a short sleeve shirt and I had a skirt and sweater set. I wish I had grabbed jackets to put in our carry on (but with carry on luggage stuffed with presents) there was no room. ME had not yet brought up our bags…which I knew (normally I have a change of clothes in carryon). We muddled through ok. OFF to MGM via boat, activated AP’s…and time to get over to MM. Arrived close to ontime (ok maybe 5 minutes late) waited 10 minutes or so to be seated. This is our first venture with the Dining Plan…I am nervous. My boys (8 yo) both got the Pizza, salad and sundaes. The pizza/salad were fair-ok, and the ice cream was great. DH and I got the steak/asparagus/polenta. This was excellent. For appetizers we had the bruchetta and calamari both were very good and kids liked nibbling on the apps as well. For dessert we had the warm mousse cake…also excellent. Our waitress was very nice and it was beautifully decorated for Christmas. Picked up a FP for Star tours and headed to Osborne Festival of Dancing Lights. It was good-and boys were thrilled with the falling snow. Off to Fantasmic. Saw Fantasmic from the FRONT Row---thank you DS! He really wanted it and we had arrived in plenty of time to get a good seat in the back…but you know- its a little thing in life (but fair warning don’t ever sit there unless you want to get wet). After show headed to Turkey Legs for a snack (we had not eaten lunch-so MM was a lunch/dinner). We got a Turkey Leg, a bag of chips and a soda on the meal plan (I kept the chips for the room) and it cost us 1 CS. DH and the boys split the turkey leg/soda (the Turkey legs freak me out). Tried to use STFP but they were closed…so my boys were disappointed. Did a little shopping on the way out of the park. Caught the boat to BW, but got out at the Dolphin/Swan and walked over the bridge-it is much faster.
Stopped by the Screnedoor (?name) and picked up a bag of bagels and box of doughnuts (2 snack credits for breakfast in the room) and a bottle of juice and 2L of Diet Coke(OOP). Up to room for bed. Saw Wishes and High Illuminations from the balcony- that was neat. Opened the “big box” and put up Christmas tree, lights, window clings, wreath, and stockings. My boys were thrilled. “Mommy how will Santa get in?” I said I am sure he will use the balcony. “Mommy we have to get cookies and milk tomorrow”….ok we will . A pretty perfect day!
They went to bed with the Christmas tree on just like at home.....

 

[mlill]

Proceed to BWV for Check in(first stop). We arrive and the lobby is stunningand I mean stunning.

That's exactly how we felt when we checked into BWV for our Christmas stay! Wasn't being at BWV for Christmas awesome?!? I'm glad the tree swap worked out for you! We also shared a tree with another DVC family, separate from the swap, and it was great! It's nice to see another person from the DVC December List that I kept updating all year, writing a TR!!! I'm looking forward to reading more!!!

-Michelle

 

[Lauralee131]

I can't wait to read more about your Magical holiday!!!

 

[canwegosoon]

Day 2
12/24 BWV-DH mid 30’s, me mid 40’s and 2 8yo boys. We get up late (of course)… DH says “we’re on vacation honey (and I could care less what all your research and TGM say about touring early) so lets just take it easy” . So needless to say I am feeling hurt . We leave hotel at 9:15-9:20, walk to the International Gateway, and arrive at Soarin about 9:45. Go right downstairs and get FP and go on Soarin (there was a 20 minute wait, and the FP were for 10:20). The wait was fine and the ride was good. I am nervous about the heights and we sat in row 1 so I knew we were even higher!) Thought that when we exited the ride, we would go again using the FP…but no one wanted to go a second time. So I gave the FP tickets away to another family of 4 (they looked stunned ). DH took kids on the new Nemo ride, and I was the FP runner, I checked the large tote board, and figured it would be better for us to get FP for TT. DH met me at the board near TT and we all proceeded to Mission Space. We did the green side (as one son has a heart defect)…well the boys loved it. I liked it a lot and had no problems with the broom closet feeling or the minor shaking. DH not so much, he was a little nauseous coming off the ride. We grabbed a pretzel and soda to calm his nerves and headed to TT. This time the ride was great (last trip the ride was constantly stopping). By now it is around noon. We decided to get lunch with some of us eating at Mexico and some at China counter service, but both lunches were great. Since I lost my gallbladder I am not much on the Chinese food...

At this point it was 12:30 and it was dawning on me how empty Epcot seemed. We did not catch any of the Santa Stories that I wanted to see (remember plans have been thrown out the window) instead we do our usual ritual of going to Japan and getting Yuigo-ho Cards, and picking a pearl. On the way I pick up treats from Santa at Germany and Japan. One of DS seems to be fading, so we head back to the room for 1:30 for a rest. Other son and I went to the pool for a quick dip, and back to room for a rest.

At 4:30 we left hotel and took boat to IG and then proceeded to Beirgarten for our 5:20 CP dinning reservation, when the sky opened up. Luckily we were headed inside for dinner. We had a lovely dinner, everything was great-met a very nice family. After Dinner we got on the huge line for the 8:15 show. I could not believe how long that line was. And when we were seated, we were just past the covering of the Pavilion, so I kept praying that there was no rain. Gary Senese(sp?) was great, and he gave a nice little update at the end. The crowd really seemed to be one with him. It was very nice. I am glad we did it, but I don’t think DH or kids cared one way or the other. I would highly recommend it again. Stayed for Illuminations on the Bridge, and walked home to BWV. Nice night…but we had some planning to do for Christmas morning.

Now it was time to prepare for Santa…I had gotten a cookie from the lobby in the afternoon, and I heard the Santa would drink Diet Coke if he had to . I put out the lettuce from the children’s salad at MM from the night before. Left the lights on and told the boys I was sure Santa had a key to the balcony. I put out the family gifts and the gifts from other families in the tree swap. They went to bed at around 1:30 trying to wait up for Santa. I got the Santa gifts out of the closet and got rid of the “treats” . Put a few things in the stockings that I had been collecting all day, and went to bed at 2pm(after adjusting the curtains of course)

 

[OhMari]

When you were telling us how your family got the turkey leg I was thinking that I just could not eat one, and then you said;

DH and the boys split the turkey leg/soda (the Turkey legs freak me out)

Can't wait to see how your christmas day went. I heard on our local news in Milwaukee WI that WDW saw record level crowds and people were being turned away and not let into the parks.

 

[FutureSailor]

More please!

 

[Gregory]

Hi, We haven't heard from you in some time. Are you still out there? We would love to read more. Greg.

 

[canwegosoon]

Sorry I got busy with something and then forgot all about it(I have done 2 trips since the start of this posting)-so I am sorry about the absence.

Day 3
Christmas morning:
Well as you can imagine eveything was so exciting..."Mom, Santa came...look the drapes are moved...look what he brought..." It was fun. We took it easy and had breakfast at 1900 parkfare. We did the tour of the Gingerbreadhouse at the GF, and a little shopping, we went on to the Poly and checked out the decorations there....so beautiful. One DS said Mom can we stay at the "rainforest hotel" some time...I said yes.

We took the monorail around the loop and got a front seat with a great driver-she was so much fun. We could see the people looking tired and wet, since it was raining again (infact there was a tornado warning for somewhere -but obviously not MK). We got off at MK, and said good by to our fantastic driver, and went to the busses. People leaving MK looked exhausted(this was around 2pm)- we happily were heading back to BWV for some arcade time(I was doing laundry and packing for our move tomorrow).

Everyone took a nap/rest...and we got ready for dinner and a Christmas tour of YC and BC at 4:30pm. YC was so beautiful with the sailboats on the tree-and the christmas display was beautiful-we even got christmas cookies there too. We went on the BC(they had the rugs up and the new furniture so it looked very different that our March trip there). The kids did some pin trading, and looking around. We had dinner at CMC-which again was great. We went back to the hotel and watched the fireworks from our balcony again--stunning. I am glad we stayed out of the parks today.


Day 4
My brother/SIL and nieces called and they are meeting us at DTD. So we called bellservices, and they came for pickup at 9am-and had everything ready to be shipped to VWL. We dressed moderatly shorts/capris/t-shirts and a light jackets or light sweaters. We did some shopping, had lunch at Mc Donalds(kids loved it) and rode the carosel. Purchased the cutest Cindrella and Snow white banks(they were rubbery) and perfect for little girls to play with without breaking-they were tall too, about 8" high. My Brother and DH and boys took his minivan and stroller to VWL and my SIL and nieces took the bus. We all were stunned to walk in an see the lobby at WL. It is breathtaking...the girls ran over to the little brook while I checked in. There was a lot of comotion while I was checking in(someone was getting very angry because he did not have a room), but we checked in and went to have an early dinner at the CS. I had so many credits left that most everyone had a meal(3 Adult meals and 3 kids meals- 4 of us split 2 meals) *** Note this was before the 2007 changes. There was a slight peoblem with our DDP on our VWL cards and I had to get that straightened out. The kids did a little pin trading.

We had a sleighride scheduled for 6:30, so after a walk around the pools and the lobby in DVC seciton(which was also stunningly beautiful). Kids played board games in the Iron Spike room,we went up to our studio with the rest of the family. We were shocked to not find our luggage at 5pm. I went down to bellservices to figure out the problem...6pm still no luggage....6:20 still no luggage(and it is now cold out-there is no way we can go on our sleighride without jeans and fleeces). 6:30 my brother and his family are leaving and Bellservices has gotten our bags-so I quickly get everyone ready, and Brother tells sleighride drive the problem on the way out. 6:35 we make the ride. We had a wonderful time(although it took a while for the adrenelin to leave) on the ride, but all the planning for a carriage ride and then problems with the luggage upsetting it was a real pain. But I learned I would never do that again. Our sleighride driver had been the stunt coord. for Indy Jones and played different parts-but I thought I reconized him as the Nazi Mechanic(which was one of his many roles over the years). We had a beautiful toasted honey colored horse with blonde mane. After the sleighride we went on to MK- saw spectro/wishes and stayed for the EMH's...we grabbed a bite at Pecos Bills to tide us over on the very long night. With the exception of the luggage problems, we had a great time.

 

[TheDISneyFamily]

Now THAT'S what I call taking a break from your TR! LOL! I'm glad you came back! We need to hear about your other trips, too.

Take care,
Michelle