Christmas with Tour Guide Mike! - A Trip Report with pics *Updated 3/18/07*

[SueEllen]

Jessica,
It is so nice to read your report and see your pictures. Thank you for sharing them here. I'm glad the trip came to fruition for you and turned out so wonderful.

Congratulations on your engagement!!
Sue Ellen

 

[KangaFan]

So if you scream out "Mike" in bed, everything will be cool?

Hmmm . . . knowing DH he still might wonder

 

[j_lehr]

Sorry for the delay in updating...I am not really sure where the past week has gone?

Day 3 – 12/24/2006
MGM

Today was another amazing (I know I use that word a lot!!!) day. We got up bright and early (alarm went off at 5:40 am), we all got ready and went down and got breakfast in the food court together. We caught a bus to MGM with little wait (if any!) and got to the park around park opening.

We headed down Sunset Blvd and fast passed Tower of Terror and got in line for Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster twice without any wait. We then rode Tower of Terror using our fast passes. We stopped and had pictures taken by the photopass photographer in between.

Paul, Jessica and Nichole

Paul, Jessica and Nichole (the photographer told us to look like we were falling

We then decided to head towards the back of the park, grabbing fast passes for Star tours on the way (we ended up not getting to use these).

From there we got fast passes for the first show of Lights, Motor, Action!. On our way to these fast passes we ran into one of Paul's favorite characters (2nd to Tigger). Seriously, he is like a small child when it comes to this movie. He is constantly repeating the lines (and sounds!!)

Paul, Jessica and Nichole with Mater

While waiting for the show to start, we saw Voyage of Little Mermaid (very cute!). We went back right when they were starting to let in those with fast passes for Lights, Motor, Action! and enjoyed the break off our feet while waiting for the show to start. It was a neat show.

From there we saw Muppet Vision 3-D, which Nickie sat out on (her reason was because of some scary flashback of the theatre blowing up when she saw the show when she was 7 ), and then we ate lunch at the Backlot Express, which was average but not busy and another place to rest our tired feet. After lunch, we rode the Backlot Tour and went to The Magic of Disney Animation (the show was cute but the best part is after the show. You walk through the building and there are little snippets of information about how the characters became who they are and the best part, a drawing studio, where you can actually learn to the draw the characters. We came back after the parade and learned to draw Pluto and Donald Duck. I could spend all day just doing this.) The Incredible woman was in the lobby after the animation show.

Paul, Jessica and Nichole

We then went to see the parade. We lined up a bit too late so we didn’t get great photos but it was still neat and definitely puts you in the holiday spirit.

Ms Piggy

Minnie

After the parade we chose to go back to the drawing studio rather than see Beauty and the Beast. This was Nickie’s call – she loves to draw.

On our way to dinner, we finally got to see and get pictures with Mickey! Paul told Mickey that Nichole forgot the mouse trap so he was shaking his finger at her (of course, it was Paul's idea to bring a mousetrap...shame on Paul)

Paul, Jessica, Nichole and Mickey!

We ate dinner at 50’s Prime Time…good time, ok food, we definitely ate too much. A guy at the next table was instigating just as much...probably more than the waiters and we got into a mini food fight. Our waiter actually encouraged me to throw a spoonful of my sundae at the guy which he tried to catch in his mouth but misssed. While we were at dinner, it started to pour down rain. Lucky us, we packed ponchos (and thanks to a DIS tip, we bought them cheap before we left home ). Our nice waiter found out for us that the Dancing Lights were cancelled for the night. It was around 7 pm and we walked over to Fantasmic! There was no line but the cast members weren’t sure whether they would cancel the show, have a 10 minute “rain show” or have the full thing. We had never seen Fantasmic! and I didn’t want my first time to be a rain show. We decided it would be better to call it a night then wait in the rain for over an hour to find out it was cancelled.

The bus line was crowded and honestly this was the longest line we waited in our whole trip (rides, shows and busses included). But Disney being Disney, seemed to realize they were a bit backed up because of the rain and they sent over a Disney Cruise Line bus to help with the line. It was nice to get back to the room early…we relaxed a little, checked e mail and got to bed early.

Up next: Christmas at Animal Kingdom!

 

[DisneyJo]

Yeah I'm first thats because it's 11am over here so still early where you are!! Great day at MGM, pity about Fantasmic, hope you get to see it, but it's not worth an hours wait in the rain. And how early did you get up?? I couldn't get me up at that time let alone the family

Looking forward to more great days.

 

[Becky521]

Jessica
Congratulations on your engagement I love surprises - especially romantic ones!!

Also, congrats on actually keeping Nickie's trip a surprise. We also started in July to plan a surprise Christmas trip for our girls (one who also is 13 so I can relate to a lot of what you are saying). I think we stayed quiet about 3 hours and then were so excited we told them

We got caught in the Christmas Eve rain at AK waiting for FOTLK. Sounds like you had a fun trip. Us too. Thanks for sharing

 

[j_lehr]

Wow - I can't believe it's been more than 2 months since my last post My own family has nagged me about when I was going to post again and they were there! As some of your know, I got engaged the day we left for Disney and since we have been back, we have been busy busy busy with wedding plans! At any rate...sorry so very late...but I hope you enjoy none the less.

**I had problems uploading pics to photobucket tonight...so I will add them in later. Promise.

Day 4 – 12/25/2006 – Christmas!!
Animal Kingdom

We left this morning to go to mass at the Contemporary around 7 am. I thought I had read that it took 22 minutes to get to the Magic Kingdom from Pop Century but it takes about 12. We took a bus to the Magic Kingdom then took the monorail to the Contemporary. Mass was nice. The priest was funny and easy to listen to, but I was surprised because he began by throwing Disney under the bus because they wouldn’t let him come in and do Sunday mass. The only time of year that they are allowed in is on Christmas and Easter. The mass was held in the Fantasia Room.

We grabbed cinnamon rolls (which were yummy!) at the food court at Contemporary and then caught a bus to Animal Kingdom. We waited about ten minutes which isn’t long but longer then we had waited to go to any other park from our value resort so it felt long. They had to stop to pick up guests at the Wilderness Lodge which I actually loved because we got to see another resort, if only so brief from the outside.

At Animal Kingdom, we fast-passed Expedition Everest and also immediately rode it using the stand by line. The line said it was a 30 minute wait, however it wasn’t even 10. We then walked on Primeval Whirl – fun ride, but Paul said his bladder felt squashed. We went from there to Dinosaur which I thought was the most amazing ride!!! It was the only ride we actually got the ride photo. Unfortunately, Nickie had decided to sit that ride out. I am pretty sure she would have been scared! LOL

After Dinosaur, we went back and used our fast-passes for Expedition Everest. When we got off the ride it started to rain, and rained most of the day. We stopped to see Eeyore, Tigger and Pooh in their winter gear and got pictures. Paul LOVES Tigger and I LOVE Eeyore. Nickie used to love piglet but I think she is a bigger Tink and Pirate fan.

We then went to Pizzafari for lunch. Paul and I had the chicken parm sandwiches…absolutely the best lunch that we had the entire time we were at Disney. We went from there to see Festival of the Lion King…I loved it but I felt overwhelmed because I was trying to look everywhere and get pictures of everything and participate and sing but regardless it was a lot of fun. If I had had more time I definitely would have loved to go back and see that one again. We went from there to see It’s Tough to Be a Bug but it was closed due to technical problems and Finding Nemo – The Musical’s 2:30 show was cancelled because someone said the theatre flooded during the heavy rain. So we rode the Kilimanjaro Safari and we saw some animals then we rode Wildlife Express Train which was sort of neat although the cast member did not like his job and let it be known. We took it round trip and didn’t get off on the other side to do anything. We really only rode the train because Paul is a train fanatic and he said it was a real steam train. (he even works in the model railroad industry!) We made it back to It’s Tough to be a bug and got in this time. Unfortunately we were the first in line which meant we were on the end of a row but it was still a neat show. It just wasn’t as good as I remembered. Nickie also sat that one out; I think she remembered it being scary, again from when she was 7. From there we went back to see the next show of Finding Nemo – The Musical which was great. It was very similar to seeing The Lion King on Broadway, the way the actors controlled the puppets. It was a great way to end our day at the Animal Kingdom.

From the Animal Kingdom, we caught a bus to the Contemporary for our dinner reservation at Chef Mickey’s. Chef Mickey’s was great…we got to see Pluto, Minnie, Donald Duck, Santa Goofy and Mickey of course. The towel thing was fun. The food was average and the desserts were outstanding. I would do it again. I would love to try it for breakfast the next time.

We left there and took the monorail to the Grand Floridian to see the gingerbread house…very neat. Then we went back to the Magic Kingdom to catch a bus back to Pop Century. We thought about possibly going back to MGM to catch the lights since we didn’t see them the night before but the nice security guard at the Magic Kingdom checked for us and they were cancelled tonight too. So we headed back to the resort and exchanged stockings and got to bed around 11 pm.

Next Up: Day 5 @ Magic Kingdom and more pictures! Thanks for reading!

 

[meeko_33785]

Great report so far. That's so creative how you surprised your DD.

 

[AnninIowa]

Subcribing!!

 

[tksbaskets]

Great report. I'm looking forward to the rest of your trip. We were at WDW from 12/26 to 12/30. Fun to read about your trip.
TK

 

[KathyRN137]

Congratulations on your engagement!

Kathy

 

[BrerMama]

Great trip report! I'm really enjoying it. I'm a TGMer, too!

 

[NMAmy]

Love your report! Nichole is a beautiful girl--her hoodies remind me of my dd. I loved the scrapbook surprise and your surprise as well. Congratulations!

Can't wait to read more.

 

[schmoopypoo]

Just got caught up on this TR...Sounds like you guys had a wonderful time and Congratulations on the engagement! We were just down there in Nov 2006 and my BF proposed. It was too sweet. But i know how the planning goes. This past month is my first time back on the boards since I got back...almost 5 months ago!!! Time flies, but now we're planning a surprise trip for DD5...her first one!!! Anyways, cant wait to read the rest!