Celebrating Thanksgiving & Christmas - Disney style (11-19 to 11-29-08)

[KERdad06]

Welcome to our trip report! Before you read any further, we need to warn you, we are both usually thread killers, so we are hoping our trip does not bore anyone to death

We will be writing this trip report together, so it will be fun for us to re-live our trip and to remember what a fun time we had. This was our second WDW vacation and we went from November 20-29. Our first trip was in October 2006. Let us introduce ourselves:

Chad & Tami: We are a happily married “thirty-something” couple, we just celebrated our 15th wedding anniversary in December. We both work in the insurance industry, and Tami is lucky enough to work from home, which she loves being able to do. Chad is a more of a list writing, stressed out worry wart. Tami likes to do things tomorrow, but when it comes to Disney trip planning, she has become known as the “go to” person for any Disney World questions or planning strategies, she is a planning master.

DD13: Katie is in eighth grade. She is a straight A student and is athletic (she gets the brains from her mother, have no idea where she gets her athleticism). She decided on this trip that it is way un-cool to wear matching shirts that her mom made.

DD10: Emma is in fifth grade. She is also a great student, loves sports as well and is also artsy. She is the kind of child that can make a fun game out of anything, and she LOVES all things Tinkerbell.

DD5: Rachel is in Kindergarten. She is also as smart as a whip (I know, we all think our kids are the smartest), she is just a great natured girl, and everyone seems to attract to her. She loves the princesses, especially Cinderella.

Grandma: Chad’s Mom joined us again for this trip. She is a super person, and would do anything for us or the kids. She still works part time, and I think that keeps her active enough to keep up with us in the World. On our last trip, she sat with Rachel when Rachel was too short or young for the rides. This time around, Rachel wanted to go on ALL the rides, and Grandma (sometimes reluctantly) went on many of them with us.

On Wed. 11-19, we got on the road about 4:00 PM. We had a 4 hour drive ahead of us. We planned to stay overnight in Milwaukee because we had such an early flight the next morning. We ate at IHOP on the way down, and then made our way to the Best Western. The hotel was very nice, and was right across from the airport. It was also right next to a Dunkin Donuts, so we stopped for a snack on the way. We don’t have a lot of restaurant/snack choices where we live, so we have to take advantage of these things when we are by them!

Coming up…

Our flight and day 1 in the World!

 

[jordanyosh]

I'm a thread killer myself.....

I'll take the chance and join in....

And may I congratulate myself on being 1st to post.

 

[winkers]

Thread killers unite!!

 

[KERdad06]

I'm a thread killer myself.....

I'll take the chance and join in....

And may I congratulate myself on being 1st to post.

Yeah, the thread didn't automatically die!! Thanks for joining, and for being number 1!!

Thread killers unite!!

Thanks for joining in on our first TR!

 

[jordanyosh]

I'll stick around......see it's started already...The thread killing has begun.....

 

[snowwhite325]

I'm joining in I was in the world the same time as you so I am curious to see if I am in the background of any of your pictures!

 

[OhMari]

Hey,
fellow Wisconsite here.
4 hour down to Milwaukee.
I'm trying to figure out where you live.
It wouldn't be Eau Clare area because you probably would of flown out of Minneapolis.
I must be in the Wausau area and over towards the East like Oconto, Marinette.
Did you also stay in the Boardwalk area?. I recognize the Dolphine and Yacht Club in your pictures.

 

[KERdad06]

I'm joining in I was in the world the same time as you so I am curious to see if I am in the background of any of your pictures!

Glad to see you join! We'll try to post lots of pics...you never know

Hey,
fellow Wisconsite here.
4 hour down to Milwaukee.
I'm trying to figure out where you live.
It wouldn't be Eau Clare area because you probably would of flown out of Minneapolis.
I must be in the Wausau area and over towards the East like Oconto, Marinette.
Did you also stay in the Boardwalk area?. I recognize the Dolphine and Yacht Club in your pictures.

Hello! Boy, you are good We live just North of Wausau. What area are you from?

We didn't stay at the Boardwalk, maybe for a future trip if we keep saving our change We only visited the Boardwalk, had to have lunch at Beaches & Cream...and boy, was it good too!

 

[KERdad06]

Day 1 - 11-20-08

We woke up early, our hotel had a free breakfast buffet, so we took advantage of that. Our flight was at 8:00 AM, arriving in Orlando at 11:44 AM. We had a non stop flight with AirTran, our plane was newer and it was a great flight. We arrived on time and took the Magical Express to our hotel. Check in was pretty quick and we did get our adjoining rooms as requested. Once we found our rooms, we went and had lunch at the All Star Sports End Zone food court. (We are also on the DDP so we are taking full advantage of every snack, and meal we have, this is where our eating frenzy begins). To give you some background , we are both working really hard to lose weight. At this point Chad had lost over 70# and Tami had lost 64#. We have been watching what we eat and exercising regularly since April 2007 and this week in Florida is going to be quite a challenge with all of the awesome food and our dining reservations that we have made. We were hoping to make the best food choices possible, but once Chad had a double cheeseburger and Tami can get a dessert with every meal, we knew we were in trouble.

Once done eating we checked out the gift shop and walked around the hotel a little. When we got back to our room our luggage had arrived! We spent time getting our room organized, some more than others. Our 10 year old is an organization freak, and she claimed 2 dresser drawers, 1 shelf and 1 cabinet before anybody else could even get a chance.

After a nice relaxing afternoon and a chance to get acquainted with the hotel, we ventured out on the Disney busses to see the best way to get to Coronado Springs to eat at the Pepper Market, we have heard good things about this and wanted to try it. We took the bus to Epcot, so we could get on the bus to get us to CSR. Once we figured out how Pepper Market worked everybody went in a different direction to get their meals. The 3 oldest adults had Chinese dishes, that all contained bourbon chicken, which was AWESOME! As you can see by the picture, Emma was considered an adult so she had the pizza, which was HUGE.

Once done eating our plan was to take the bus back to Epcot and then to our hotel from there. However, we were the only ones on the bus and his next stop was Winter Summerland and no one else got on there either, so he called in and told a little white lie that he picked us up from the golf course and asked if he could just take us to ASSP! We were so happy, because this saved us a lot of time.

Once we got back we walked around the resort a little bit more before going back to our room and getting ready for the next day.

Coming up: Day 2 - Beaches & Cream, Chef Mickey’s and MVMCP!

 

[winkers]

I can only dream of how wonderfull it must be to have an organized child...
I have 4 kids and not one of them can handle puttting things were they belong, let alone organizing something themself!

 

[DisneyBarlans]

We were at Disney Nov. 21-30th, and we also stayed at All Star Sports. How did you like it?

 

[KERdad06]

I can only dream of how wonderfull it must be to have an organized child...
I have 4 kids and not one of them can handle puttting things were they belong, let alone organizing something themself!

She certainly IS organized, in fact, as soon as the Christmas presents were opened, she wanted to put them in her room, and not leave them under the tree

We were at Disney Nov. 21-30th, and we also stayed at All Star Sports. How did you like it?

We loved it at Sports. The theming was great too. Last visit we stayed at Music, and we just thought Sports was a lot more "fun"! What building were you in? How did you like it?

 

[DisneyBarlans]

We liked it well enough, but our friends had to change rooms a couple of times. We were in Touchdown-great location, right next to the food court.

 

[disneymomof1]

Subbing, always love a good trip report with pics.

 

[mouseketeer70]

I'm in We were there same time as you. we were at SSR but the other families we were with were at ASSP.

 

[mouseketeer70]

Oh, and big huge CONGRATS on the weight loss. I am a WW lifetime member so I know how it feels at Disney, also known as foodie heaven. I never come back from a trip to the world having gained though. I guess all the walking, and walking, and walking, and walking....................and walking, and walking, and walking.............................................

 

[jordanyosh]

Those All Stars rooms look nice now that they are remodeled.

Congrats on the weight loss. Believe it or not I usually eat healthier at WDW than at home. I always like trying the vegetarian dishes and stay away from the fried food....Can't wait to hear how you did at WDW.

 

[MeMom]

Some of our days overlapped yours. We were at All-Star Music. If you looked out your window very early in the morning and saw some random woman walking around the resorts taking pictures of grass and trees and rabbits and empty swimming pools and weird angles of all the big icons...yeah, that was me. I get up early, so I walked all three All Stars several mornings while I waited for the others to get up and moving.

We had a great time! I hope you did, too. I'll look in the backgrounds of your pictures to see if I see any of us there. Surprisingly enough, on our July Fourth trip, another Diser did get a picture of us on the Poly beach. They came on our report, saw our pictures and the time we were there, and then found us in one of their pictures!

I look forward to reading more.

 

[KERdad06]

We liked it well enough, but our friends had to change rooms a couple of times. We were in Touchdown-great location, right next to the food court.

That's too bad that your friends had to change rooms, that stinks Being right next to the food court must have been nice, we weren't too far way though, only took a minute or two to get there for us.

Subbing, always love a good trip report with pics.

I'm in We were there same time as you. we were at SSR but the other families we were with were at ASSP.

Thanks for joining in!

Oh, and big huge CONGRATS on the weight loss. I am a WW lifetime member so I know how it feels at Disney, also known as foodie heaven. I never come back from a trip to the world having gained though. I guess all the walking, and walking, and walking, and walking....................and walking, and walking, and walking.............................................

That is GREAT that you don't gain while at WDW. At first I was going to say "You're lucky", but I know better, it's a LOT of hard work keeping it off!

Those All Stars rooms look nice now that they are remodeled.

Congrats on the weight loss. Believe it or not I usually eat healthier at WDW than at home. I always like trying the vegetarian dishes and stay away from the fried food....Can't wait to hear how you did at WDW.

Thanks! I actually used vacation as my excuse to eat some "unhealthy" choices. But, I controlled myself a lot too, could have been a LOT worse!

Some of our days overlapped yours. We were at All-Star Music. If you looked out your window very early in the morning and saw some random woman walking around the resorts taking pictures of grass and trees and rabbits and empty swimming pools and weird angles of all the big icons...yeah, that was me. I get up early, so I walked all three All Stars several mornings while I waited for the others to get up and moving.

We had a great time! I hope you did, too. I'll look in the backgrounds of your pictures to see if I see any of us there. Surprisingly enough, on our July Fourth trip, another Diser did get a picture of us on the Poly beach. They came on our report, saw our pictures and the time we were there, and then found us in one of their pictures!

I look forward to reading more.

Too funny! I can say I saw some 'strange' people, but I don't think we saw you. Although, we probably would have known it was a Diser if you were taking those kinds of pics.

We did have a great time, glad to hear you did as well. You'll have to let me know if you find yourselves in any of our pics.

 

[KERdad06]

Welcome to Day 2! Friday 11-21-08

We had a nice relaxing morning, and we were able to sleep in a little. Since we were in the Hoops building, Grandma bought the girls a Disney basketball so that we, I mean, they could see if they could make a basket in the oversized hoops. It was a neat idea, and we all had fun playing around outside. Chad, Tami & Katie were able to make a basket, Emma almost did, and Rachel gave it a good shot.

After that, we made our way to the Boardwalk. We took the bus to DHS, and then took the boat to the Boardwalk. It was so nice, and decorated so neat for Christmas.

We wanted to go back to Beaches & Cream on this trip, so we planned to go there today for an early lunch. We went there on our last trip late one night to try the Kitchen Sink. I remember the place was packed that night, but we got in, and not only did we get to eat the kitchen sink, the girls got to help make it! They each got certificates for a Magical Moment for helping.

(Pics from 2006, we were a little, well, heavier then…)

We mentioned that to our server on this trip, and she said they quit letting the kids help, sounded like they maybe ran into some issues with it, so they don’t allow it anymore. Some of us had chicken for lunch, and some of us had double cheeseburgers, if I remember right, we got the fries and also onion rings. I can remember how good it all was, we all enjoyed it. The kids ordered malts and they were grinning from ear to ear the whole lunch.

The best part was yet to come. DESSERT! Emma and Chad had the Fudge Mud Slide…

Katie & Tami had the No Way Jose…

Rachel had the Mickey Mouse Sundae…

and Grandma had the Classic Banana Split…

Everything was awesome, from the atmosphere, to the server, to the dessert. If you’ve never been here, you MUST try it!

We then toured the Boardwalk, and visited the hotels. We visited the gingerbread carousel at the Yacht & Beach club. It was amazing to see that much work put into the carousel.

We then made our way back to DHS via the walkway, it was a beautiful walk. We had such a great time.

We then went back to the hotel to get some swimming time in before we needed to get ready for our 5:05 reservations at Chef Mickey’s.

Tami had made matching shirts for all of us to wear at the party, thanks to some helpful Disers on the Creative Disigns boards on the Dis. They turned out pretty neat, and got a lot of attention.

Chef Mickey’s is always a fun time too. We ate here for breakfast on our last trip, so we decided to give Supper a try. It was good, the kids enjoyed the characters, and even Katie and Grandma got into the napkin twirling!

After supper, we made our way over to Magic Kingdom for our first park visit of the trip, and Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party! We loved all of the Christmas decorations, and seeing the castle in real life was as beautiful as we read it would be.

Tami wanted to make sure to get in some Christmas festivities, so we made our way over to the Mickey’s Twas the Night Before Christmas show.

A magical moment happened for us at the show to start off the night, although it wasn’t quite so magical for some other people at the show. Here’s what happened. We were going to sit down in the theater, but we were near the back because it had filled up so quickly. As we were sitting down, a very nice cast member told us to come up front. He seated us in the second row back. Apparently, they had saved this row of seats right behind the handicapped row, but did not need that much seating for wheelchairs, etc. So, he had us sit down. Boy, did we hear it from the people sitting behind us. I guess they had been sitting there, and had been asked to move, and then here we come…taking THEIR seats. One guy said, maybe if we all wore matching shirts, they would have let us stay there. It was pretty funny…but we felt special, and, got great seats for the show!

Then we went on as many rides as we could…

and also stopped along the way for hot chocolate & cookies.

The kids got their first glimpse of Tinkerbell, and we toured the new Pixie Hollow. Emma is in love with Tinkerbell, so this was especially awesome for her.

CONTINUED.................