Disneyland, Wdw, Universal & Disney Cruise 2015-2016

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Dec 25th - Woohoo Xmas Day and we are at WDW

 

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As you can see there were only a few gifts under our Xmas tree, but we were having such a wonderful time it didn't matter.
Today we had our ADR for the 4pm show Hoop De Hoo and then a Holiday sleigh ride booked for 6.30pm.
As we were not sure how long it would take us to reach the campgrounds where the Hoop De Doo. Show is, we had breakfast and we left CBR at around midday.
We caught a bus to MK, wow the crowds lined up to get in ...ugh, so glad we were not doing a park today.
Then we hopped on a ferry straight away and we were off to Fort Wilderness.
Once there we hopped on a bus, there was a large gift shop, so we got off there and then walked around and looked at the RV's , most of them were decorated, so this was pretty cool.
It was really, really hot today, so we walked a bit back to where we first caught the bus, but then hopped on one to finish the trip.
We still had a while to wait, in reality we left CBR way to early, but hey at least we had a good look around.
We then got a cold drink and sat in some cool rocking chairs, people watching.
Then it was time to check in for the show.
It was a really fun show, great food and so much food.
I am glad we decided to do this today.
After the show, we had to wait about 30 mins for our sligh ride.
That was fun, it was now dark so most of the rv's had lights up, and if I remember correctly there was carols playing whilst on the sleigh.
It was a very enjoyable Chrismas Day.
Our sleigh ride photo didn't come out too good, I should have taken it with my camera not the iPad. Oh well

 

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Christmas Day

 

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26th Dec - MK
As we had 6 fast passes each we didn't leave CBR till around 10am. Tonight at MK we were going to the fireworks dessert party.
We had a adr at The Plaza Resturant which we paid for out of pocket.
Arriving in the MK we could see it was very crowded, anyhow we got some photos done with the photographer in front of the castle and some done with the reindeers and elf and then headed to lunch.
Plaza Rest was nice and we all had a great meal.
We then headed to sdmt and used one of the free fp's, I think we used the other 2 on splash & btm.
Our other 3 we're for pirates, btm and jungle cruise.
The lines were looooong for most rides, but we were happy, we got to do quite a few rides, saw the Xmas show and another show in front of the castle.
We stopped at some time and the 4 of us shared a Mickey Pants Sundae, as we wanted the cute little container it came in.
We had to be at Tomorrowland Terrace at 6pm, so when we got there, people were lined up. We didn't want to stand in line for a hour, so just went for a walk around and went back at 6.30pm, they let us in at 6.55pm
We were given a good table near the railing. The desserts were very nice and plenty of them.
We all also received a Mickey Xmas drink holder.
It was nice sitting there watching the castle pre show and fireworks, which of course we're wonderful.
People did get up from their seats and stand at the railing,my kids did.
It was a very enjoyable night.
We then had a few more rides waiting for some if the crowd to leave the park and then made our way home.
I loved waiting for the bus hearing the Xmas carols playing.
MK again tomorrow and another birthday.

 

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Dec 27th - Happy Birthday Claire
I think we left CBR around 10am, it seemed like this was the time we always left, we only managed one early morning and we seemed to prefer to stay later at the parks.
At the end of this day, we had pretty much been on every ride at MK, and some a few times.
Tonight we were dining in Cinderellas Castle, so exciting lol.
My daughter didn't know until a few hours before, I could tell she was excited, though she tried to hide it, but she didn't stop smiling when she found out.
You are never to old to meet a princess!
Funnily on our first day in MK, I said to her you know you can have dinner in the castle. She said oh really, that would be so nice. I said oh well, I didn't book it,because I thought you would think you are too old for that now lol.
Cinderellas Royal Table was beautiful, the meal was one of the best I had on the trip.
Our server was wonderful.
We had photos with Cinderella downstairs, then Snow White, Aurora, Ariel and Jazmin at the table.
I had ordered before we left home a glass slipper & they bring it to the table on a white plate with rose petals. Pretty special.
I also ordered her a chocolate slipper dessert and for my son a chocolate slipper crown dessert. They cost $12.50 each.
The waiters sang Happy Birthday and it was a beautiful night.
When we left the Castle the fireworks had just started, so of course we went off to do some rides.
I think this night we stayed and watched the late electrical street parade, a favourite of mine.
Will add some photos seperate.

 

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Birthday, this is the bed at CBR, as you can see it's not. That long.

 

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View attachment 150227

 

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Sorry don't know why the photos are coming up twice. I don't know if it's just me, but the page keeps loading.

 

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Dec 28th
Today was a rest day after spending 2 days at MK.
Anyhow, we got up, probably did some washing, had a swim and lunch.
In the afternoon we decided to go and have a look at Beach and Yacht club resorts.
Don't know if this was the best way to get there, but we caught a bus to HS and then the boat from there, it was a nice relaxing trip.
Wow how nice are these 2 resorts, we had a wander around, saw the beautiful hand made gingerbread carousel, sat down on the beach.
We took our refillable mugs with us, was a good idea.
Anyhow after a couple of hours we got the bus to MK and then around to the Polynesian for our adr at O'Hana.
Wow, I thought GF was my favourite, then the beach club, but the Polynesian was beautiful.
Onto O'Hana, food galore.
These disney resturants sure don't let you go hungry.
First was bread, salad and noodles, then cam the massive skewers of chicken, shrimp and steak.
Then they came back with more, I don't know how, but we managed to eat the dessert as well.
Beautiful food , great night.
We then waddled down to have a look at the pool area.
I knew that the Water light parade was due to start at 9pm, so we walked down to the beach area, sat on a bench and watched. It is a small electrical light parade on the water on barges, wasn't very long but it was cute.
We caught the monorail back to MK, I did suggest to walk, but got the evil eye. Then the bus to CBR.
Tomorrow , early start for Epcot.

 

[lffam]

Dec 28th
Today was a rest day after spending 2 days at MK.
Anyhow, we got up, probably did some washing, had a swim and lunch.
In the afternoon we decided to go and have a look at Beach and Yacht club resorts.
Don't know if this was the best way to get there, but we caught a bus to HS and then the boat from there, it was a nice relaxing trip.
Wow how nice are these 2 resorts, we had a wander around, saw the beautiful hand made carousel, sat down on the beach.
We took our refillable mugs with us, was a good idea.
Anyhow after a couple of hours we got the bus to MK and then around to the Polynesian for our adr at O'Hana.
Wow, I thought GF was my favourite, then the beach club, but the Polynesian was beautiful.
Onto O'Hana, food galore.
These disney resturants sure don't let you go hungry.
First was bread, salad and noodles, then cam the massive skewers of chicken, shrimp and steak.
Then they came back with more, I don't know how, but we managed to eat the dessert as well.
Beautiful food , great night.
We then waddled down to have a look at the pool area.
We caught the monorail back to MK, I did suggest to walk, but got the evil eye. Then the bus to CBR.
Tomorrow , early start for Epcot.

Did you go look at the Boardwalk Inn also? I love the location of these three resorts. We stayed st BW and could walk to both HS and Epcot ants that's a great bonus for us.

 

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No, the reason being we stayed there for the last 4 nights of our trip after the cruise.
It was lovely there. We only walked to Epcot and agree that was a bonus not having to get a bus.

 

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Dec 29th - Epcot
Well today we got to Epcot around 9.30am. We were intending to go earlier and ride Soarin, but that didn't happen.
The wait for Soarin when we got there was close to 2 hours, needless to say we didn't bother! We had already done it whilst at DL.
We had FP for Spaceship Earth, The Seas with Nemo and our favourite Test Track.
We managed the first 2 quite quickly, so had a wander around the park and then to TT, where we all did single rider prior to using our FP.
From here we walked to the Worlds, first into Canada and then UK, where we stopped for fish n chips.
By then the kids said they had had enough and we're going back to the resort for a swim. They detoured to TT and rode that again before leaving.
One good thing about taking teenagers, they can make their own way back to the resort.
Anyhow, my sister and I stayed for a couple of more hours and then headed home.
Our adr tonight was for Raglan Road at Disney Springs.
We left for there late afternoon, it was very crowded, Raglan Road was a good resturants, we had a table close to the stage,,so got a good view of the Irish dancers.
The meal was great and as usual big.
I was grateful for the free dining plan we received with our reservation, We ate at some great places and we were able to choose anything off the menu. Sure made a difference to our spending money.
I think we stayed to around 10pm, there was plenty going on in the way of music, dancing ect.

 

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Dec 30th Epcot and HS
My sister and I were up early, so we decided to go to Epcot for a couple of hours. Kids slept!
Anyhow we managed to do Soarin, had some breakfast and then did TT twice on single rider.
We had FP for later in the day at Hollywood STudios.
Went back to CBR , got the kids up and the were we're off to HS
Yep, it was crowded, and it was hot.
The lines for most things were long and nobody could be bothered standing in line, so we just wandered around, looked in the shops.
We had fp for Toy Story Mania, Star Tours and the Little MErmaid . We had managed to do everything on the 21st as it wasn't as crowded, so I was happy we managed to fit in the shows as well prior, because today was way too crowded.
I think we spent quite a bit of our day, sitting and people watching lol.
The main reason we were there was for our adr at Hollywood & Vine, Minnie's XMas Dinner.
We had a short wait to be seated, firstly though a photo with Goofy.
This was a buffet, plenty of variety, the desserts were amazing!
Anyhow we had photo with, Donald, Daisy, Mickey,Minnie and we had fun.
Oops, how could I forget. Of course we saw the Osborne Lights again tonight. How could you not. It was a lot more crowded than the 21st, but manageable.
I will put up smephotos

 

[lffam]

Sounds like you guys made great use of single rider and early mornings at the parks that's great especially at that time of year. I could see that having teens who can look after themselves to that degree would make things easier and more flexible to manage time separately at some times.

 

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I hope this all isn't sounding too boring.
We had such a amazing time, though it did take a lot of planning, with the adr's and fast passes. Working out where to go on what day.
But I am pleased to say all were happy with my dining choices and FP choices. Mind you the other 3 made no imput, just said you do it, you are good at planning.
So for you that have been to WDW, you would know for me to write in detail on every day, it would take me months.
I didnt want to write a hour by hour diary of what we did every day.
For those that haven't been, every day is different.
Just because we conquered the whole off HS in one day, when you go you might not.
We had no trouble with buses, always got a seat leaving the park, yes some days there was a wait for buses, some days not.
If you intend on visiting, my advice give yourself plenty of time. Our holiday was relaxed, we gave ourselves "free time" so to speak. We had intended to do a few early mornings, managed 1 in first half of trip and 1 at end.
Getting up at 5am wasn't for us, we preferred to stay late.
Anyhow back to the report, next is Animal Kingdom.

 

[LivingforDisney]

Sounds like you guys made great use of single rider and early mornings at the parks that's great especially at that time of year. I could see that having teens who can look after themselves to that degree would make things easier and more flexible to manage time separately at some times.

Yes, we did use single rider quite a bit at the parks.
As for early morning entry that didn't happen as much as I had planned lol.
But we had 8 day park tickets, so we managed to ride everything, from Dumbo at MK to Everest at AK.
To be honest the crowds were not as bad as I was imagining them to be , the stories I read & photos I saw taken at Xmas scared me.
That's why I didn't plan a park day for Xmas eve, day or nye.

 

[lffam]

I hope this all isn't sounding too boring.
We had such a amazing time, though it did take a lot of planning, with the adr's and fast passes. Working out where to go on what day.
But I am pleased to say all were happy with my dining choices and FP choices. Mind you the other 3 made no imput, just said you do it, you are good at planning.
So for you that have been to WDW, you would know for me to write in detail on every day, it would take me months.
I didnt want to write a hour by hour diary of what we did every day.
For those that haven't been, every day is different.
Just because we conquered the whole off HS in one day, when you go you might not.
We had no trouble with buses, always got a seat leaving the park, yes some days there was a wait for buses, some days not.
If you intend on visiting, my advice give yourself plenty of time. Our holiday was relaxed, we gave ourselves "free time" so to speak. We had intended to do a few early mornings, managed 1 in first half of trip and 1 at end.
Getting up at 5am wasn't for us, we preferred to stay late.
Anyhow back to the report, next is Animal Kingdom.

Not boring at all! Thank you for sharing your experiences.

Your last paragraph there is great advice and how we like to enjoy the parks also

 

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