Christmas Time With Mickey - 1st Trip Offsite - Dec 17-23 Completed

[mommykds]

It was time for the castle lighting!

After the lighting we took baby steps up to BTM. It was shoulder to shoulder people. We made it up there just 15 minutes too early for our FP time so we took a ride on the WDW Railroad. It was a nice break from the crowds. We took it once around & then it was time for BTM which is so much more fun in the dark than in the daytime.

Ok enough crowds, so we take the train back to Main Street & then the boat over to the GF to see the gingerbread house & decorations.

Hidden Mickey on the GF gingerbread house.

We had a great day at the MK, everyone was tired & ready to go back to the room. So off to the TCC & then back to the hotel. The next day we were planning an Epcot day and the first time at the Candlelight Processional.

 

[Kimmy]

Wow, it did look very crowded. Did the parks reach capacity at all while you were there? I'm thinking of going Easter 2011, and I know it is going to be crazy crowded. Great picture of the castle.

 

[mommykds]

Unbelievably the Magic Kingdom did not close due to capacity. I did read when I got home that they opened another entrance by tomorrowland (I think) to alleviate some of the congestion.

We will be heading back this Easter so I assume the crowds would be roughly the same.

Thanks for following along!

 

[mommykds]

Sunday, December 20

Today we planned to go to Epcot & to the Candlelight Processional. We were looking forward to this as Whoopi Goldberg would be our narrator & we have never been to the CP before.

So we get to Epcot at just after park opening. Our first stop is Test Track. We get FP's & then ride standby with no wait..sweet! Actually the preview doors were open so we walked quickly pass Bill & Sherri doing their talk. My kids love TT more than Soarin so we had to hit this biggie first.

After TT we went to Innoventions. My kids could stay here ALL day long. They did the Great Piggy Bank Adventure, Wheres the Fire, & Storm Struck. No one would do Sum of All Thrills with me so we skipped that...Chickens! I wanted to see the decorations at the Beach Club so we headed over there around 11am. The park was stil good crowd-wise. So off to the Beach Club. (BC holds a special place in my heart, firstly because of the awesome CM's we have met there, & secondly, our very best trip of all time happened there in 2006 when all the stars were aligned just right & we had the most magical trip ever. The location is wonderful as well & we are hoping to stay at the BC this summer. We had lunch at Beaches & Cream & the toured the resort & said hi to some CM friends.

Hidden Mickey at Beaches & Cream

 

[mommykds]

Kids dessert at Beaches & Cream

Chocolate carosel in the Beach Club lobby. They had a video playing were you could see how the assembled the carosel which was cool.

 

[mommykds]

We were going to check out the holiday decorations at the Boardwalk Inn but the kids were itching to get back into Epcot so off we went to the world showcase. Our plan was to see all the holiday storytellers which we did all except for the one in Italy.

I had booked the CP with Biergarten dinner. Now I have always liked Biergarten but the last time we went we had less than friendly tablemates so we decided to stop going for awhile. Well the least expensive CP package was at..you guessed it, Biergarten. For a family of 5 it was alot of money so I chose the Biergarten & hoped for the best. We got there at 4pm for a 4:15 adr. The place was mobbed. The CM said it should be too long as we came early..great. So we waited & waited & waited...Normally I wouldn't be upset but the CP was at 6:45pm & I heard you had to line up early even with the CP package so I was starting to panic. I went back to the host & she acted like I just walked up for the first time. They must have mixed up something because she said I would have to wait because we were late. Huh? Well anyway I expressed my concern that we had the CP after this & after another 20 minutes we finally got seated. Again we had less than friendly tablemates. We smiled, said hello & got nothing..nada. The food was delicious & the server was very friendly, however this is the last time we go to Biergarten. So we leave (There was no show either that night) & go to end of the line for the package holders which was past the Tori in Japan! (This was about 6pm) Thankfully we got in & got a seat. The show was wonderful. Whoopi was great & the conductor stole the show IMHO. He was so animated & into his work that it was quite enjoyable to watch. It was freezing & now I was glad that I was lugging around that heavy backpack with gloves, hats, jackets all day just for this moment.

 

[mommykds]

 

[mommykds]

After the CP was decided not to stay for Illuminations, the park was crowded & we were all frozen so we started our way back to FW, one last ride on Spaceship Earth & then it was time to go.

The next day we were planning on going to MK but figured that it would be even more crowded than the other day as it was getting closer to Christmas. We changed plans for another Epcot day. Before we left I canceled my Kona adr & was able to snag a lunch adr at Chef de France lunch for the next day.

Back to the room, showers, & bed. The Comfort Inn LBV is literally up against the I4 & the first night I could not sleep because of the noise..tonight I had NO trouble falling asleep!. We all were Disney-tired & everyone konked out right away.

 

[sherylcin]

I am loving your Christmas Trip Report. And that castle picture has to be one of the best I've ever seen. Beautiful!!

I've always wanted to go pre-Christmas but haven't made it yet. I did make it last year after Christmas just in time to see the Osbourne Lights before they took them down and I was awestruck. I'm a real sucker for fireworks and anything with lots of lights so I loved the displays. There were a few Christmas decorations still up but not many so I am loving all the pictures.

Looking forward to the rest!

P.S. Sorry about your experience at Biergarten. It's one of our absolute favorites but our group (includes my husband, kids and grandkids) is big enough to fill a large table by ourselves so we haven't encountered the rude tablemate problem.

 

[mommykds]

I am loving your Christmas Trip Report. And that castle picture has to be one of the best I've ever seen. Beautiful!!

I've always wanted to go pre-Christmas but haven't made it yet. I did make it last year after Christmas just in time to see the Osbourne Lights before they took them down and I was awestruck. I'm a real sucker for fireworks and anything with lots of lights so I loved the displays. There were a few Christmas decorations still up but not many so I am loving all the pictures.

Looking forward to the rest!

P.S. Sorry about your experience at Biergarten. It's one of our absolute favorites but our group (includes my husband, kids and grandkids) is big enough to fill a large table by ourselves so we haven't encountered the rude tablemate problem.

Thank you!

I guess should say that I would go back to Biergarten if we had enough in our party to make up a whole table but since its always just us 5 we always share. Sharing is fine as long as the folks can crack a smile!

 

[mommykds]

Monday December 21

On to our second Epcot day. My kids had been so good about getting up early this trip...they are pretty good but usually by day 3 they are pooped and not as easy to wake. So we all get into the car, take a 10 minutes ride to Epcot & we get there just in time for park opening. Todays plan was to hit Soarin twice so we went to get FP's for Soarin & ride standby. The wait wait about 10-15 minutes alittle after 9am. Since our adr for Chefs de France was not until 2:00pm we decided to have some breakfast at Sunshine Seasons. We took our time & just people watched. After we ate out crossionts, muffins, & bagels we headed out to Innoventions. And after that we were hoping to catch every storyteller in the world showcase. This turned out to be one of the highlights of our trip. The storytellers were great & it was fun to see how each country celebrates this time of year.
Canada - He comes in like a lumberjack & continues to dress into his red jacket & hat while he is telling the story of Christmas in Canada.

France - Pere Noel
My youngest DD (9) is enamored with anything French so seeing Pere Noel was high on her list.

Hannukah in America

Our kids wanted to stay & play dreydl.

We stayed to hear the Voices of Liberty sing Christmas carols..beautiful.

 

[mommykds]

Of course we had to see the real Santa. The wait was long but moving well & this was the first year we had not taken a picture with Santa so we waited.
My DS asked for a laptop...Santa just looked at me & told him "well that is a very big gift, I hope you were good this year." My youngest DD replied when Santa asked her what she wanted for Christmas "I like to be surprised so anything would be nice". Even my 14 year old DD got up & chatting with Santa.

 

[mommykds]

We stopped for our lunch at 1:30pm at Chefs. My kids love this place & always ask to return each trip. Lunch works better for us than dinner we like the choices better. The restaurant is bright & cheery & very french feeling. We have always had great service & this time was no exception.

Remy stopped by & squeaked the song "Happy Birthday" to my DD's. They are 5 years apart but their birthdays are days apart.

We were given bread & butter...we ordered the cheese plate as an appetizer.

My DH got the french onion soup. He said it was delicious.

Macaroni & cheese. This was ok, not too flavorful.

Ham & cheese sandwich. My DD gobbled this up quickly.

 

[sherylcin]

Great pictures again! The food pictures from Chef's are making me hungry. We always make room in our schedule for a lunch in France as well. Hoping they're still doing Remy next January when we're there but even if they're not, we'll go back for the food alone!

 

[mommykds]

Great pictures again! The food pictures from Chef's are making me hungry. We always make room in our schedule for a lunch in France as well. Hoping they're still doing Remy next January when we're there but even if they're not, we'll go back for the food alone!

I would love it if they kept Remy, it's just such a cute thing to do. It makes the place even more kid friendly too.

 

[mommykds]

After lunch we made our way around the World Showcase to check out the decorations.

My DH liked this tree with all the glass beer mug ornaments in Germany.

We had to go buy a pickle ornament in Germany after reading about it on this DISboard. We did hide it on the tree & let the child who found it open the first present. Here is the what they have posted in the store.

Beautiful ornaments - Nutcracker.

 

[mommykds]

We took a ride on Maelstrom & Three Caballeros. We used a FP for Maelstrom as the wait was over 30 minutes however no wait for Three Caballeros. We check out the new tequila bar in the Mexico pavilion. Very cool. As there were no kids in there at the time we decided to pass but it looks like a great place to get a drink & relax.

So we were off to see more storytellers. They were all good but the Tres Reyos Magos were the best.

China - Monkey King

We managed to see all the storytellers except for the one in Italy. We all enjoyed hearing about the way each country celebrates. By this time we (again) decided to skip Illuminations. It was chilly & we had been at Epcot all day. Must have been around 8pm we left. Of course we had to hit Spaceship Earth one more time. My kids wanted to play the games after the ride so we hung around until park almost pak close anyway.

Next up...our last day at Disneyworld...Time for Animal Kingdom.

 

[mommykds]

December 22

This was our last full day at the world. Todays's plan was to go to Animal Kingdom. We did not go to AK on our last trip so the kids were chomping at the bit to ride Everest. Now my oldest DD(14) is scared of ToT & won't ride, my DS(10) won't go on Splash Mountain anymore because he does not like to get wet, my youngest DD(9) will not even go near Haunted Mansion, so I find it amazing that they will all ride Expedition Everest & several times too. I will ride anything so I will take what I can get!

It was harder to get up today & my teen DD wanted to know when we had a "sleep in day". On long trip yes, on this trip no! We left our hotel & again took the less than 10 minute drive to the park. We got to AK before park opening. I drove over to the diamond AAA parking & the CM there told me that AAA was closed since the park was going to be at capacity that day! She said I had to go back out & get back on the main line to park. Meanwhile the other CM was letting people in the AAA spots if they had their passes. Anyway we go through all that & finally another CM points us to the AAA spots anyway..Ok so we are prepared that the park is going to be crazy but wow!!! That was the most amount of people I have ever seen at the gates of the AK. So I hold my kids hands & DH takes the EE march to get FP's (I forgot they have the main machine for FP's) I have never even seen the FP machine & not sure where it is so we took the walk to Dinoland while DH got the FP's.

 

[mommykds]

We rode Primevil Whirl twice & by then DH was back. The kids went on Tricerotops Spin while DH & I sat on the bench. He had brought me a coffee & a cherry danish. We figured we'd do the standby line for EE now so at least we could ride twice that day. Standby was posted as 30 mintes but it was more like 20mins & the ride queue is so interesting anyway....DS rode with me & we got the front row.

Looking down towards the boardwalk & Epcot.

Everest is such an overall good ride, well themed, & just fun espcially when you go backwards in the dark..so cool.

 

[mommykds]

Some more pictures of AK. The crowds were massive. However we did alot & the day went very well with careful planning. If you are planning a trips at Christmas I do not want to scare you off, we really did have a great time & would do it again.

We decided on an early lunch at Yak & Yeti. The food was good but pretty much like chinese take out you could get at home. We have to try the table service restaurant someday as we love this kind of food. The outside seating was really filling up by the time we were done. Always pays to eat lunch early. We wandered around some more until it was time for the safari.