Christmas 2005 - 1 crazed Disney fan drags family to the World

[pxlbarrel]

Trip Report (December 16-23, 2005) <--- ok, so it's a bit late...it takes time to get over the post-Mickey blues y'know.

The cast of characters:
Me (overaged kid)
My brother (overaged kid)
My parents (going because I told them to...well, I said to them in March 2004, "I booked a timeshare for December 2005 so we can go to Disney World again." and they said, "uh...ok."

Day 0
My trip report would not be complete if I don't mention the day before our flight out of Toronto. Well, it snowed...and snowed...and snowed that day. I was working that day and every chance I got, I ran to a window to look outside and pray to the sun gods to melt this horrible white stuff. I listened to the weather reports and had co-workers reassure me that our flight would leave the next day (and then there were the evil co-workers who assured me that I would be in Toronto for a long time...grrrrr.) My mom called the limo service and told them to come half an hour earlier than planned in case the roads were bad in the morning. (ugh, that meant leaving the house at 6:30 am) It took me 1.5 hours to drive home from work that day...a trip that normally takes half an hour. My brother had to make his way to my house so he took the commuter train instead of risk driving on the highway. We went to bed hoping the snow would stop.

Day 1
Morning came and the snow HAD stopped!! Woohoo...it looked promising. I went outside to shovel some of the snow so the limo could drive onto our driveway. Lo and behold, the driver was in our driveway at 6:30 sharp! And off we went...real fast...no traffic...NO SNOW! We got to the airport in record time...at 7:00...for our 10:15 flight. Well, at least our flight was on time! (ha!...sure it was...) We got to the gate and waited...and waited...and waited. There were sooooo many kids on our flight. We watched a few tantrums and even a shoving match between some kids. One little girl kept coming up to me to talk to me about the planes...soooo cute. She managed to sit down...on my carry-on. haha...luckily my camera was well protected in there. She was 2 years old ... but she was going to celebrate her birthday at WDW...only her parents hadn't told her where they were going yet. It was going to be a surprise. That's just so cool! Oh...by the way, it was now 11:30 am...and no, we're not on the plane yet. Well, it seems that our flight crew was stuck in Montreal. The little snowstorm we had the day before had moved into the Ottawa/Montreal area and our flight crew hadn't made it to Toronto yet. The West Jet guys made periodic announcements that the flight crew was now in the air, was circling the airport, had landed, was being rushed through U.S. immigration, etc. And when they finally got to the gate, the entire area applauded their arrival. LOL Oh well, our flight was only 3 hours late...at least it didn't get cancelled!

The late flight, though, ruined plans to go grocery shopping and eating outside the park before heading to Epcot that evening to watch Illuminations. We arrived in Orlando around 4:30 and proceeded to go up the elevator, go down the elevator, go up the elevator and go down the elevator trying to find the stupid National Car Rental garage. <sigh> They really out to put signs that WE can read. Y'know...telling us that we have to cross over before we go up. So we finally got to National where I had reserved a full size car (I had parents in the back seat, you think I'm gonna squeeze them into a smaller car and not hear from them???) This is where we did our Goldilocks and the 3 Bears routine. As we walked down the aisle of full sized cars we became that blonde break and enter artist. This car is too small, too big, trunk is too small, car is so ugly, etc. etc. We picked one car and when only 2 suitcases fit into it, we had to unload and find another one. A National employee told us we could pick from Emerald Aisle since we were paying more anyway...so off I ran to the aisle to pick out a Pontiac Torrent (a SUV!!!). So we load everything into the back, climb in, and turn the key. "Check Engine" light turned on and never went off. EVERYBODY OUT! And we went to the SUV next to us...but for some reason the luggage wouldn't fit the same way. (That happens when it's a Saturn Vue). EVERYBODY OUT! Next car is a Torrent but before we load everything in, I made sure the engine light was off. What a way to start a vacation!!!



We drove to Silver Lakes resort which is about 5 minutes from AK. We checked into our 3 bedroom and it was already 6:00 pm. Ugh...no grocery shopping...and what about dinner??? Illuminations was at 9 pm and I knew I wanted to see that first (sort of a tradition...start with Illuminations and all is right with the World). So I managed to convince everybody that we'd save time if we had dinner in Epcot...maybe the food court in the Land. hehe...they agreed. We drove to Epcot and by the time we reached Spaceship Earth, it was already 6:45 and that's when I remembered that FW closes at 7pm. I told my parents this and my mom said, "Why don't we eat at the Chinese restaurant?" oooooooooooooh...ok!!! (Now, just remember though...we're Chinese so when we eat at a Chinese restaurant, my parents become the harshest critics on the face of the World...so this could be dangerous.) As we walked toward China, I kept reminding them that we didn't have ADRs so it might take a while to get seated. Undaunted (and hungry) they kept walking faster and faster. Until we got to the pin trading station. We stopped to get the cards for the pin treasure hunt (you go to various stations in WDW to get a stamp and then you turn it in at the DD pin store for a free holiday pin.)

I got up to the podium at Nine Dragons and asked how long it would be to seat the four of us considering we had no ressies. (There were a whack of people in the waiting area.) The CM looked at her seating plan and had the hostess seat us right away!! Woohoo...this day is finally working for us. We ordered the sampler meal which included soup, appetizers, main dishes and red bean ice cream. My parents struck up a conversation with our waiter. My mom liked telling everybody about the snow storm. ha!

Hot and Sour soup

We hustled out of there after our delicious meal (my parents actually liked it!! yay!) and walked towards Germany to find a place to sit for Illuminations. Boy, it was crowded. Nothing like the last time we were there (2003 - but two weeks before Christmas, not one like this year). We found a park bench (under a tree!!) so while my parents sat and waited, I picked a spot away from the tree to photograph the show. My brother wandered to Morrocco to look around but came back just before the show started. We watched the Holiday Wishes fireworks from a distance (how neat is that!!??). And then...Illuminations started...my favourite fireworks in the whole world. And bonus...Holiday edition!!!!! The music was wonderful for the holiday edition and fireworks were spectacular. I kick myself for not bringing my videotape. Oh...wait...my digital camera can take 3 minute spurts of video! D'OH. Next time...next time...

We left the park and decided to go grocery shopping at the Publix near the resort (so we've been awake for 18 hours, what's another hour if you need food?) Holy crap, how come oranges are so expensive...in FLORIDA??? We bought our supply of snacks and breakfast foods and finally got back to the resort. We slept well that night. LOL

Day 2
I only have time to do the first bit of Day 2 before I need to go to bed. I'll try to continue this tomorrow.

Day 2 started by turning on the televison to see what kind of weather we'd be getting. Well, forget that idea. 3 local stations = 3 different weather reports. I might as well have got a psychic to tell me what the weater would be like. Day 2 was to be spent at Disney/MGM. We had ressies for Hollywood and Vine (Fantasmic Dinner Package). The second we entered the the park (got there late - 11 am), it started to rain. Geeez...what kind of luck is that. We stood under some cover and put our $1 ponchos on. Luckily, it wasn't raining too hard. We went to the pin trading station under the Sorcerer's hat to get our cards stamped. Then it was off to...ugh, I don't remember now. We ended up going to a variety of rides/shows but it's all muddled because we'd go to one show and find out we'd have to wait 45 minutes so we'd go off to a ride and find out the line was a bit longer than we wanted. LOL In that mess, we managed to get our photo taken with Chicken Little and Ugly Duckling (yes! Our first character photo and we didn't even have to stalk them!!!) I also managed to eat my first Mickey Ears ice cream bar. Ok, it was cold outside and rainy but you gotta eat those ears.

It actually stopped raining by 1:30 or so. We went to find some turkey legs but they had run out! They told us to come back in 30 minutes. Forget that! We got hot dogs instead. (We shoulda waited for the legs.) My mom, ever the health food freak...until she sees fries, runs over to the McFries to get a bunch. Nothing like a little trans fat to keep you going in the park. hehehe

Ok, the rest tomorrow...I'm going to bed now....Stay tuned for the second part of day 2

 

[Poohstar]

Thanks for sharing. Love your picture of the illuminations. Look forward to read more.

 

[NJOYURLIFE]

Nice flow to your report. Please share more.

 

[Kristina]

Perfect! Here I am planning our first Christmas trip so this will be fun reading . I am so curious about all the little details so keep up the good work, can't wait to read more!

 

[TLinden16]

Great start! I'm glad that your flight eventually left and didn't get cancelled. Oh, and I'm glad that Nine Dragons got your mom's seal of approval--that's one of my favorites.

Thanks for posting.

Karen

 

[pxlbarrel]

Day 2 continued

After our artery clogging meal of hot dog (we split two dogs and fries) we decided to go to head over to Muppet 3D theatre. I'm going to admit that this day was not the best planned. I'm usually a park commando but since this was our 3rd trip in 5 years, I didn't plan it was tightly as I could have. Consequently, we were all over the place at Disney/MGM. After the Muppets, we wandered took some photos around the Miss Piggy fountain and then went into Pizza Planet to look around. We were more curious about the prices than anything. lol

It was about this time that the parade started...without us sitting somewhere watching it. I didn't realize (where was my planning???) that this was actually a different parade than what we had seen last time. We noticed it was different when it went past us as we walked towards the Sorcerer's hat. Ack! Too late...the throngs of people lining up for the parade were so thick, there was no way we'd be able to watch it. Not only that, our ADR for Hollywood and Vine was for 4:10. We'd have to fight through that crowd after the parade ended just to get to there. Meanwhile...ugh, we managed to bypass the two stunt shows (Indy and the cars one) because the timing was off. That's one thing about the Fantasmic Dinner package...they schedule you so early when the show starts at 7 pm. We had made sure we didn't eat much at lunch because of the early dinner date but it also meant that we had missed a few shows. If we had planned it better, we probably should have gone to see some of the shows earlier instead of wandering around on the other side of the park waiting for Little Mermaid or looking at the Narnia exhibit, which was nothing but film clips from the movie.

We managed to squeeze our way to Hollywood and Vine in time for our ressie. It was pretty good! My mom loved the turkey stew. Our waiter was a bit unsure of his Disney history though. My mom, ever the conversationalist, tried to talk to him about Walt and the fact that no Disney runs the company anymore. <sigh> I don't know why...she just did. LOL Our poor waiter, who hadn't realized there would be a quiz at our table, blanked out. He was a great guy though. Without us even thinking about it, he suggested that my parents take some hot drinks with them to Fantasmic. So he came back with hot tea for my mom and coffee for my dad. Now...that's very considerate and very helpful.

We walked slowly toward the Fantasmic dinner entrance (near the front of the park) looking at the store windows as we passed by. My brother loved the Tinker Bell display in one window and took a photo of it.

It was a long walk through the back area to get to the special seating. We were so full from the dinner that we walked sooo slowly. I think a few families passed us on the way up there. The seating area wasn't too full yet so we were able to pick anywhere we wanted. The regular seating had much more people. Seating filled up quickly though.

The first photo below was taken at 6:30 and the next photo at 7:00 just before Fantasmic started.

While we waited, we amused ourselves by watching all the parents shell out money for those twirly light thingies. We mentally calculated how much Disney was making on those.

We love Fantasmic. I love the music, the special effects, the fireworks. Everything that is Fantasmic is wonderful. We had a great view and there was nobody with an oversized Christmas hat in front of us. A few years ago, somebody with the Sorcerer's hat sat in front of us. We asked them if they could take the hat off during the show but they refused. It was very annoying to have an obstructed view like that!

When we left the amphitheatre, I glanced at my watch and noticed it was a few minutes before 8:00 pm...park closing time. So I hustled the group to the other side of the park for the Osborne Lights. We got there in time and managed to walk around for a while. They weren't rushing anybody so maybe they kept the park open a bit longer so everybody could enjoy the lights. And boy, it seemed like everybody was there to enjoy them. The last time my brother and I had seen the lights, they were on the backlot street. When we came with our parents in 2003, they didn't have the lights up...this after I had hyped it to my mom. The lights are now on the city street lots. They're impressive but I think I liked it better when they were on fake houses.

*

It's still spectacular and we wouldn't have missed it no matter what. There's something about Christmas at Disney World that just makes you forget about the world outside. We love it.

We spent a long time just wandering the streets and taking photos. We even found Herbie the Love Bug sittng amongst the lights. Our favourite talking car...<sigh> Where's Dean Jones when you need him, eh? I also remembered my digital camera takes short video spurts so I took some video footage of the lights in action. My parents were very impressed by the lights and the crowds! It was crowded but what do you expect of Saturday night.

We were ready to go home after this. Tomorrow, day 3, was to be spent in Animal Kingdom with dinnner at Boma.

Day 3 when I come home from work!

 

[jackdis]

I am enjoying your trip report so far. Love the pictures, too! Can't wait to read more.

 

[OhMari]

Wow, you take great pictures, thanks for sharing.

 

[NJOYURLIFE]

Awesome pictures!

 

[pumba]

what wonderful shots you did.......thanks so much for getting those posted for us to see.........

 

[Minniespal]

Enjoying reading your reports ~ lovely piccies too

 

[pxlbarrel]

Thanks!

I think everybody should do a trip report a few months after coming back. It's nice to relive the fun times!

 

[MomofCKJ]

Enjoying your report! We are going Dec 15-22 and it is cool to see how it was last year at that time. I think I am getting more and more excited about seeing it all decked out for Christmas!

Allyson

 

[pxlbarrel]

Day 3

The day started with the daily check of the weather but I have to wonder why we even do this. Every station is different. <sigh> Breakfast in the timeshare and off we go to Animal Kingdom. It's about 10 pm when we leave the timeshare (we haven't been early to a park yet!...ugh...I must return my commando stripes.)

Some of you know this already but Silver Lakes Resorts is about 5 minutes from Animal Kingdom. We took the back way out of the resort and was at the gates of AK in presto time. Now...in the past few years that we've come to AK, we've always been there before the park opened for breakfast with Donald so there's never really been a lot of people in the parking lot when we've arrived. Eeeek...there are TONS of cars in the parking lot. <sigh> No walking to the front gate this year. We hopped onto a parking tram for the short trip to the gate. The weather was greyish but dry. In 2003, we nearly drowned at AK. There had been a downpour and we were stranded in one of the shops. We finally left the park after being stuck for 1 hour. We ended up back at AK later in the trip. We were hoping that this would NOT be repeated again.

The first thing we did was head to Kilimanjaro Safari to get a fast pass. We then had an hour to kill. We watched some of the African dancers (that was fun)

My mom and I headed toward the shops where she tried on a variety of safari hats and fell in love with a beaded sweater with elephants on it. However, the $100 price tag was enough to make her put it back quickly Oh well.

While we hung around the area, we saw a group of people being told about various things around the park. Thinking they were some sort of special tour, I tried to eavesdrop on their leader's talk. Alas, I'm not very stealthy and they found me out. The leader asked if there was anything she coudl do for me. Uh...noooo...just listening. She told me that this was a group of new castmembers and this was their orientation. LOL Ohhh...ok...then perhaps she could tell me what those weird things hanging from the tree were? (They looked like sausages hanging from the tree.) She didn't know. lol Oh well.

Safari Time! We headed down the fast pass lane...passing all the people in the regular line. I don't know why they aren't using the fast pass but their loss is our gain. Off we go to find Big Red and the poachers. Somebody can confirm or deny but are they driving those things faster than they were 5 years ago? It just seems like they're zooming through the safari. I have a pretty good camera and I was unable to take any good photos because we were moving so fast.

I really enjoyed the safari despite being driven at warp speed. It was a grey, dreary day and the animals seem to love it that way. A lot of them were out that morning. Giraffes, lions, antelope, hippos, vultures, you name it we saw them. The only animal we didn't see was the ostriches. We did see one of their eggs though...wow...they're HUGE. The highlight of the safari was when everybody started "ewwwwwwww"ing and laughing. Toilet humour often garners such response. There, in full glory, was one of the elephants pooping in front of us. Giant plops here and there. Truly an ew-inspiring site.

With Big Red and Little Red safe and sound, we headed towards It's Tough to be a Bug. Our family LOVES the 3D movies. My dad can't hear very much so these 3D movies are great for him...he really likes the smellovision ones too. yuck. lol There's only 1 thing I don't like ... it's when the dry ice fog comes at me. It sometimes makes me catch my breath. Not really found of that feeling.

After Bug, we decided it was time to eat before going to Tarzan Rocks. (You start to see a trend here...it's ride, ride, eat, eat, eat...) We went to the Flame Tree BBQ. One of our favourite places. My mom had the rack of ribs (mmmmmmmm....they're so yummy). My brother and dad both had half a chicken. I had the pulled pork sandwich. All yummy and surprisingly affordable.

Ok, we picked Tarzan Rocks over Lion King because we had seen Lion King before and never Tarzan Rocks. I think we all wished we had picked Lion King. We weren't really enthralled by Tarzan. The best part of it was lining up and looking at Expedition Everest towering in the distance. We actually left early. Maybe we're too old to enjoy the rock music. ha

We went to Dinosaur to get fast passes so that we could ride it after the parade. Then it was off to secure seating for the Jingle Jangle Parade. It started to sprinkle a bit but it didn't last too long. The first place we sat, a CM came along and told us we couldn't sit there for the parade so we moved to another place to sit. How lucky! It was in front of a store. Woohoo. So while my brother and dad held our positions, my mom and I went into the shop to look around. Funny how the 2005 branded items were 50% off already. While playing with giant Mickey hands, I noticed more people around our seating area so I went back outside to help keep our seats. It always amazes me how people think they can squeeze 2 kids, 1 big stroller and themselves into a space big enough for 1 person. <sigh> They eventually left when it became clear that I wasn't going to be squeezed out. We'd been sitting there for 30 minutes already with 30 minutes more to wait. Our neighbours in the area were two families from the UK. Coincidentally, one of them was thinking of moving to Canada and asked my mom about two cities near us. LOL Cool! (It's a small world by the way, we saw them a few days later in MK).

The parade was hopping and we had the perfect seats. We were sitting on a rock wall so while it was a bit hard, at least we were seated.

After the parade, we fought the crowd (everybody seemed to be leaving the park) and headed for Dinoland so we could ride Dinosaur. The last time I rode this was in 2000. I don't really like the ride but my parents hadn't ever been on it before. Before we got on the ride, I stuffed tissue in my ears. I find Dinosaur to be deafening. My ears rang the last time I was on it. I also find it a bit jarring. I much prefer the Indiana Jones ride at Disneyland. So off we went to run from dinosaurs. The kleenex helped a lot. My parents and brother came out there and could not believe how loud it was. Well, I warned them!!

It was around 4:30 now and we had ressies at Boma for 6:30. We decided to head back to the resort and rest a bit before heading off to AKL. <sigh> 5 minutes later we were resting in our timeshare.

We found our way to AKL (another 5 minute drive ). Wow...what a place!

Down to Boma we went. We waited a while...about 30 minutes past our original ADR time and then was seated in a cramp table in a dark area. It wasn't the best seating at all. There was no room to move (bad idea for a buffet) and I couldn't really see what I was eating. It was just dim over our table. Our waitress was very nice. She warned us that we should take small amounts of food to taste since a lot of the food was starchy and would fill us up faster. Hmmm...ok....

OK, I've mentioned it in various foodie threads on these boards that we did not like Boma. It just wasn't to our liking. I liked the 3 different kinds of hummus and flatbread that was there and I liked the desserts. The prime rib was ok too. But, it just wasn't as nice a buffet that I thought it would be. My mom said she liked Hollywood and Vine better. I couldn't disagree with her. I liked the zebra domes and I told my mom that people raved about them so she ate them too. Quite the achievement since she doesn't like tira misu! She loved the zebra domes. LOL

After dinner, we walked out to the back to see if we could see any animals in the dark. We saw white birds that slept with their heads on their backs ... made them look headless! And out in the distance we could make out the distinctive black and white stripes of two zebras. I wish we had come here earlier when there was still light.

We, of course, had to visit the gift shop before we left. We wandered about for a while and I bought a Stitch dangler. Believe it or not...my first souvenir of the trip (other than little stir sticks I took from Hollywood and Vine - great for scrapbooking btw). I'm saving most of my money for the Character Warehouses in a few days.

We called it a night at that point and went back to the resort. The next day was Epcot day and our first Candleight Processional.

 

[javamom]

Good trip! You are the first reporter that I have read that liked Nine Dragons and didn't like Boma. I have come to learn though that you will get mixed reviews about everything. Enjoying your report.

 

[OhMari]

I know life gets in the way-next installment please.

I thought for sure someone would know what those sausages were hanging from the tree. They almost look like banana's, but banana's, grow in bunches. Maybe it is a large White Bean Tree.

 

[Grammyof2]

Your pictures are great. Can't wait to be at Disney at Christmas.

 

[pxlbarrel]

Well, I had about 20 minutes of writing when I accidentally hit the back button on my stupid mouse and all was lost.

D'oh

I'll try to re-write the next installment tomorrow.

 

[pxlbarrel]

Day 4 Epcot

Our 4th day in Orlando was to be spent at Epcot. We had Candlelight Processional dinner ressies for 5:20 pm at Le Cellier so I was really looking forward to this day.

The day started with breakfast in the timeshare and a relatively late start to the day it was...we got to Epcot around 11 am. I tried to get everybody into the car early but we just can't seem to get there for the park opening. <sigh> Still, we managed to park close enough that we didn't need a tram to the entrance. We walked past the kennel and saw various little pooches being walked around before being led in for a day of incarceration.

As we entered the park, my mom kept saying she wanted to go on Spaceship Earth but the lineup was incredibly long. Instead we got a locker to put our bags, jackets and umbrellas. We had sandwiches too but we kept them with us. We were going to eat light because of the dinner at Le Cellier. Ha! Will we ever learn?

Afterwards, I took my dad to Guest Services so we could get one of the hearing assistance devices. The CM gave it to my dad and told him how to turn it on. I was hoping for more instruction but it never came. We thought he could try it out during the China movie. By the time we got back to where we left my brother and mom, the line for Spaceship Earth had died down so we walked right onto it. Ok...it was dark, I was reclined for some of it, and I fell asleep during part of the ride!! Ugh...these vacations can be so tiring!!

Our next destination was Mission Space. My parents decided not to ride it (they wimped out two years ago too) so it was just my brother and I. I love this ride. I love everything about it including the multiple warnings from when you first see the ride from a distance. LOL I must admit that this time round, I seemed a bit more wobbly after riding it. Must be getting old or something. After the ride, we rushed to an open post card station to send a post card to a friend at work. Never pass this up. It's a great way to tell the friends back home that you're having fun and they're not!

We collected our parents and decided we'd better get a fast pass for Soaring. So off we went to The Land. Holy cow...talk about your crowded pavillions. It was never this crowded before. It was 11:30 and we managed to get a fast pass for 4:30. We thought this worked out well since we could ride it, collect our stuff and head for Canada for our dinner. Perfect timing! After getting our fast pass my mom wanted to ride on "the ride to the vegetables"...well, that's what she calls the ride...and it's so ingrained on us that we never actually know what the ride is actually called. And I'm drawing a blank on it right now! Anyway the vegetable ride line was long...very long. I think it took us about 45 minutes or so to get into the little boat. We made friends with a couple from Kentucky who knew nothing about the CP but seemed to very interested after I told them about it. Ha...me...Miss Knowitall who has never even been to a CP yet. ha

My mom loves this ride and if I had known, I would have signed us up for the Seeds tour. Oh well, there's always next time. Don't you wish your vegetable garden could be grown so cleanly and with such grand results!??

It was now around 12:30 so we decided to have lunch at Seasons. We picked a table and my dad took out the sandwiches while my mom and I went to get some soup. LOL...when my mom goes to get extras to supplement our lunches, she really gets too much food. We ended up getting asian chicken noodle soup bowls...y'know...the bowls that people usually eat as their main meal? Ha...so much for eating light.

So after our rather "light" lunch, my mom wanted to see Honey I Shrunk the Audience. We just missed the showing before us...they closed the line just as we got to the front. Arggh...so we decided to wait for the next one. After a while, they told us that there were technical difficulties so it might take a while for the next performance. ugh...we decide not to wait for it and headed for the Imagination Station so that we could have some fun with our favourite purple dragon. This was only my second time riding this the ride and that music is as bad as It's a Small World. LOL

We headed to The Living Seas afterwards but not for too long. We just looked around the first floor aquariums and looked at the huge line to go see Crush. We had no patience so we left. We had our photo taken with Nemo (the statue). Actually, it was Nemo's dad that we had our photo take with.

At this point, we thought we'd better head for the International Showcase since it was almost mid-afternoon. We headed out of this area but then spied the Character area and instead headed inside to get our photos taken with Mickey, Minnie, Chip and Dale, Pluto, Goofy and Donald Duck. This was great. I've got some great family shots with the first family of Mouse. Yay!

When we left the characters, we headed for the International Showcase area but I made a detour into the Coke station. We tried a few of the flavours...avoiding Beverly (fool me once....) A few tiny cups of refreshing liquid and we were off to the International Showcase.

We bypassed Mexico and headed directly to China. We wanted to see the Hong Kong Disneyland display. We were looking around when I noticed the crowd in the waiting area had disappeared so I gathered the family and we headed inside to watch the movie. My dad and I started trying to figure out how to work the hearing assistance device. We couldn't get it to work no matter what we did. It wasn't working with his hearing aid at all. My dad ended up not using it and we didn't try it anywhere else after that. He missed too much of the movie fiddling with it so he decided he'd rather not do that again. What a big disappointment.

We wandered out of China just as some acrobats were setting up. We have no interest in watching Chinese acrobats (I have video tape of my mom, many years ago, watching acrobats at a Hong Kong amusement park...saying quite clearly into the camera... "This is so boring." LOL We went into some shops in Germany and I ended up buying my mom a Mickey Mouse ring for her Christmas present. LOL I asked her many times if she was sure that was what she wanted since this was kinda out of character for her but she was in the Disney swing of things and said, "Yep! That's what I want." haha...Pixie dust! Ain't it wonderful?

My dad glanced over at the Biergarten menu and asked why we weren't eating there instead of Le Cellier. Now, my parents live in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada which is known for one of the biggest Octoberfest festivals in the world outside of Germany....so why in the world would he want to eat there??? LOL They don't even like German food!! I think my dad was getting hungry. haha It was now 4:00 and I was wondering if we could possibly walk all the way around and back to the Land by 4:30 (our Soaring fast passes!) when I spied the little boat that takes you back to Mexico. So we hopped onto it and headed across the lagoon. Although we didn't go to Morocco, Japan, France or England, it was ok because we had never taken this boat before. We actually got to do something new!

The Soaring line was so long. It was up to 1.5 hours. Thank goodness for fast pass. We had warned my mom about it since she's wary of any rides that may have height and/or motion sickness possibilties. We were worried for nothing. She loved it and so did we. My brother and I had been on the ride in California so this was old hat for us but my parents were enthralled. She wanted to ride it again until I pointed out the snaking line that went on forever. It's too bad we didn't get to the park as it opened...we could have rode on it and then gotten a fast pass to ride on it again. Oh well.

We got our jackets out of the locker because we knew it would get cooler at night when we watched the Candlelight Procession. We then hoofed it to Canada for a well drooled over dinner. They were turning people away who didn't have ressies so we felt quite smug when we got taken to our table. haha...being anal has its advantages. Alas, they led us to a table that had a lightbulb missing from above. We were so in the dark I couldn't read the menu. The waitress brought over a battery operated lantern and plunked it in the middle of the table. It brought a bit of illumination but not a lot. Oh well, we're here for the tasting not the seeing. Let me first say that if we hadn't done the CP package, we would never have eaten at this wonderful restaurant. It was soooo delicious. We started off with appetizers: wasabi shrimp cocktail for my parents and I, stacked tomato for my brother. The breadsticks were so yummy but filling so I had to pace myself on those. Then came the main course. I had the Le Cellier mushroom filet mignon. My dad had the 14 oz steak. My brother and mom had the smaller filet mignon. They were soooo good. The steaks were so tender my mouth is watering just thinking about them. My mom was so impressed by the quality of the food.

Oh...before I forget...the lantern battery died at some point and we had no light at all. Our waitress found some batteries and replaced them and it was brighter than before. The other waitresses pointed at our table and laughed. They remarked that they loved our camp-out dinner. hahaha

My mom had eyed the desserts as soon as we came in. She ordered the Club Chocolate Cake. I ordered the maple creme brule and my brother and dad ordered the raspberry sorbets. Yummmmmm is all I can say about the creme brule. It was soooo good. I tried a bit of my mom's cake and WOWWEE...I'm going back there for sure!!!!! Again, if it hadn't been for the CP package, we would never have tried out Le Cellier. The food and the service was the highlight of our trip.

We were still early for our 8:15 CP performance but we left to line up anyway. Good thing too since the line was already forming but not so bad. We were just past the Japan pavilion when we lined up. Our narrator that evening was Marlee Matlin and boy, she was good. Although we don't understand sign language, her performance was very moving. The music, the lighting, the choir...everything was perfect. I recommend CP for anybody who goes at Christmas. We will definitely do that again. It really gets you into the mood (if all the other Christmas decorations don't do it!) I have to also say that this is about the only event in WDW that actually mentions Christmas and not Holiday as a substitute word. I'm not a very religious person but I found CP to be rather comforting.

After the CP, we went to stake out some positions to watch Illuminations again. I can't get enough of those fireworks. This time, we scattered. My dad and I took one position in front of Germany and my mom and brother went a bit closer to Italy for their spot. I had a plan. I would take my photographs of the regular Illuminations (again) but when Holiday Illuminations started, I would switch my digital camera into the movie mode and take a video of it. Sounds like a good plan, eh? It was until 3 minutes of Holiday fireworks had gone by. Seems like my camera only takes video in 3 minute spurts....so as the firworks raced toward the finale, my camera stopped videoing it. Ack...I only noticed it afterwards. <sigh> Still, I got most of it...just not the finale. ARrrrrrrrgh. Oh well....this was the first time I'd actually used that feature so...I guess it's not bad. ha

We took our time leaving Epcot and strolled out with the huge crowds. It was a wonderful day and a more remarkable evening.

Day 5 was ... Magic Kingdom and breakfast at the Crystal Palace (yes! We have to get there before park opening this time!)

To be continued...