Final and Complete Trip Report with Photos Updated 1/29 page 13

[KYCruiseCrazy]

Merry Christmas everyone!!

 

[KYCruiseCrazy]

Well it's Sunday morning and we did something else that we've never done while on vacation....We slept in until 10:30. I think it caught us both back up on the sleep we missed getting here.
This is what it looked like when we first got up.

A bit later in the morning

When we woke up the temperature outside was hangin around 70-73 degrees and while we were getting dressed we literally watched the front roll in bringing angry black clouds, heavy rain, high winds and much colder air. The animals on the savannah were even freaking out, running around as if trying to find a place to hide.

The front is here!!

We planned to do MGM, oops, I mean DHS, old habits die hard, but since I'd been watching the weather reports closely and knew that it was going to be getting rather cold we got dressed and headed off property to Walmart to pick up a couple long sleeved shirts. Gotta try to stay warm somehow.

On the way back from shopping we stopped by Pizza Hut and grabbed a pizza that we ate while watching Sunday afternoon football. How lucky am I that I have a DW that actually loves football as much as I do. We've played fantasy football together since we met and she's on the road to the playoffs this season, so it was important to catch some of the game scores.

Updating on the DIS

A game is a game for fantasy football players

After the first game ended, and the rain had seemed to stop or at least lighten up, we headed out to DHS. We parked all the way out in the Music lot , I guess the weather didn't stop many people from being here.

Before we left our room DW realized that she was missing one of her gloves out of her coat pocket so the first thing we did upon arriving at DHS was find a store that was selling gloves. We found some simple one size fits all gloves that cost $8.95/pair, with Mickey heads on the cuffs. DW made the comment that they probably wouldn't last the night, but amazingly enough, they lasted the entire trip and made the cold days much more bearable. She even discovered that she could send text messages with them on.

With warm hands we were now ready to enjoy our first and only !! We were getting some seriously strange looks from people for eating ice cream in 45 degree weather. We even got a photopass pic taken of us enjoying them.

We headed back toward TSM to see if, by any chance, there were fastpasses still available, of course there weren't, as usual, oh well, we were on our way to check out the Osborne Festival of Dancing Christmas Lights anyway .
We stopped and grabbed a couple of hot chocolates and arrived just in time for the lights to come on and the dancing to start . We wandered around up the Streets of America just watching the beautiful lights until they danced for a second time, where we saw this awesome family that was head banging through the entire song, it was so cool seeing them all let loose. When the song ended we headed back toward TSM.

When we passed by the first time the stand by line time was 100 minutes but when we got back it was down to 60 minutes so we got in line and a CM handed me one of those line time card thingys. The que for this ride has soooo much stuff to look at that the time just seems to fly by. We actually only stood in line for about 50 minutes and I creamed DW once again.

Bubblegum holding it together

 

[KYCruiseCrazy]

After we rode TSM we headed into One Man's Dream to check it out since it was refurbed since our last trip. We liked the new displays but I was disappointed to see that the Multi Plane Camera was downsized into a smaller glass display without the actual camera parts there. We didn't stay to see the film at the end as we've seen it several times and it doesn't compare to the dvd The Man Behind the Myth which gives you even more info about
Walt and his life.

By this time the pizza had worn off and we were hungry so we headed over to Rosie's Cafe on Sunset Blvd for some dinner. Rosie's has really good hamburgers, which we ate while trying not to blow away in the wind that had kicked back up.
Are the prices going up?

After refueling it was time to ride RnR. The stand by line time said 45 minutes but it only took about 25 minutes til we were strapped into our limo and launching down the track. This ride is a must do for coaster fans and we never pass up a chance to ride. After RnR it was time to take on the ToT, another must do at WDW. We've only ridden this ride in the dark 1 other time and the line was incredibly short since it was EMH. The ride was awesome as always.

By this time it was getting pretty cold out so we decided to head back to Kidani for a nice hot shower. We walked out like we always do, through the shops looking for gold Tigger earrings for DW. As usual we did not find any. Has anybody ever seen these, ANYWHERE? I swear we've looked all over WDW to no avail.

As I mentioned earlier we parked in the Music section of the parking lot so the tram ride back was long and COLD What is going on in Florida? Who ordered Arctic Winter? Oh well, I guess we will survive, at least it's not as cold as it is at home.

Where we parked at AKV

Stay tuned for day 4 coming up soon.

 

[AnnaS]

Thank you so much for sharing. Your pictures are great. Too bad it was a bit on the cold side.

Merry Christmas!

 

[clayfolks]

I am really enjoying your trip report. Thank you very much for posting it. Merry Christmas.

 

[Cyndibear]

Love the report. Great photo of RnR. Did you take that from the line or were you in the front seat of the next limo?

Cyndi

 

[KYCruiseCrazy]

Thank you so much for sharing. Your pictures are great. Too bad it was a bit on the cold side.

Merry Christmas!

It's colder in Ky right now then it was at WDW. It's a different type of cold.

I am really enjoying your trip report. Thank you very much for posting it. Merry Christmas.

Thank you for reading!!

Love the report. Great photo of RnR. Did you take that from the line or were you in the front seat of the next limo?

Cyndi

Standing in line. We were just having a great time.

 

[KYCruiseCrazy]

Time for some Monday Night Football!! Come on Man!!

 

[KYCruiseCrazy]

It's Monday morning and we noticed that there wasn't a single animal to be found on the Savannah outside our room. This is probably because it's freaking COLD out there.

Since we were staying at Kidani we had decided that we would use Disney transportation to AK. Why not? It's how we got there on Friday and we don't have to pay for gas. This sounds simple right? NOT Now we understand why people gripe about the buses at times. We stood out in the blustery cold wind, and I'm talking WIND that's blowing 20-25 mpg and the temp is around 32 degrees, waiting for a bus that NEVER came. Two buses came through going to MK, and 1 bus each to DHS and DTD, when DW couldn't stand it anymore and we headed for the car. We actually made it from the bus stop back underground to the car and OUT of the garage before an AK bus ever showed up. We passed it as we were approaching Jambo house.

We had been trying and trying, checking and checking to get a reservation for Tusker House for this morning but there wasn't anything available. We were hoping that the cold weather would keep some guests in their hotel rooms and we could grab a cancellation, but when we got there the check in line was a mile long so we didn't even try. Oh well, I guess we will live without eating here one trip.

The first thing we did after nixing the breakfast idea was head off on the Maharajah Jungle Trek so DW could get her tiger fix. We were disappointed to find out that it was way to cold for the bats to be out There was an older CM sitting there passing on the bad news while singing Christmas carols, and not to badly. The tigers did try to make up for it though. A female tiger jumped up on a window and scared the bejeezus out of some people. They screamed like a bunch of little girls. It was funny.

Next we went to ride EE and on the way we passed by Kali River Rapids. The ride was closed but there was a group of CM's hanging out there encouraging everyone to get their fast passes for later. You would have had to have been completely to ride Kali on this day. It was bad enough coming down the hill on EE bbbbbrrrrrrrrr.

We then headed into Dinoland to grab some lunch at Restaurantasaures and the timing was perfect. After we sat down with our meal the place was flooded with people. We ate bacon cheeseburgers then went to ride Dinosaur and Primeval Whirl. There's something about riding PW with a full belly.

We stood in line and had our picture taken with Goofy and Pluto and of course Goofy had to make a big deal out of all of my Goofy wear Then it was DW's turn to see her favorite so we wandered in the direction of Pooh and Friends meet n greet. We got there just in time as they cut off the line after the little boy that was behind us. When it was finally our turn Pooh was not very happy to see DW's bright orange Tigger jacket. He took off the green scarf he was wearing and wrapped it around her, covering up the word Tigger, before he would pose for a pic. Tigger on the other hand her jacket and they bounced together for the camera.

By this time DW's ears were frozen blocks of flesh attached to her head so we found a store that was selling toboggans and bought one for $16.95 . Scandalous price for a hat only marked with the number 28, but it made her feel much better and helped thaw her ears. It was now time to get in line for FOTLK. We both love this show and try not to miss it when we visit. The Tumble Monkeys are just hilarious. Of course we sat in our favorite seats, the Lion section.

After watching FOTLK, we got back in line to see some of the characters, we love the characters, and needless to say, when Santa Goofy saw me with all of my Goofy gear, he paraded me around Camp Minnie-Mickey. It was most exciting and a little embarrassing.

When the show ended we headed back toward Africa to grab a spot for viewing the parade. We like to stand on the right hand side of the bridge for this parade and sometimes we will double back and watch it when it comes back around. We sipped on hot chocolates while we waited and talked to a nice lady from Pennsylvania riding in an ECV. It was soooo COLD that the park was running way low on hot chocolate and I had to go searching to find any.

After the parade passed we decided to call it a day and we followed it to the exit path. The neatest part of spending the day in the high winds was getting to hear the bamboo creaking and humming as it moved in the wind. It actually frightened some people because they were afraid it would break and fall. I got a couple of cool bamboo pics at AK.

We decided to head over to Pop Century for dinner. Go figure, we are staying at a DVC villa and eating at a value resort. Hopefully, when we get there, we don't have the same dinning problems like we did on day 1. Well, it was our lucky day, we got dinner without a problem and got a few photo's from a photopass CM at PC. I've never seen this in the past at PC.
We drove back to the resort, warmed up with a hot shower then packed up as much as possible for the next days move to BLT. Stay tuned for Day 5 and our BLT adventures.

All photo's and video's will be in part 2 of this TR.

 

[KYCruiseCrazy]

Here is what bus we saw waiting before we left in the car

As you can see it was a bit chilly

I couldn't help but post this one

DW said to take this photo. I like it.

Here Kitty Kitty Kitty

DW before we rode EE

Here is the video link Click here

Me hanging with Goofy

Here are a few of DW with Pooh and Tigger

Goofy parading me around at Camp Minnie-Mickey

Here is the link to the Jammin jingle parade Click here

After dinner at Pop Century we got a photo taken

More to come at a later time. Happy New Year everyone and thanks for reading and LURKING!!

 

[PoohNFriends]

Love the character pics, especially the ones with your DW and Pooh & Tigger and you walking with Goofy. Can't wait for more TR and more pics!

 

[KYCruiseCrazy]

Love the character pics, especially the ones with your DW and Pooh & Tigger and you walking with Goofy. Can't wait for more TR and more pics!

Thanks for reading and enjoying.

 

[AnnaS]

So sorry to hear how cold it is. I hope it's a bit warmer now.

I also love the character pictures

 

[KYCruiseCrazy]

So sorry to hear how cold it is. I hope it's a bit warmer now.

I also love the character pictures

Yes it was cold down there. Too cold for Florida. Thanks for reading!!

 

[mtmbyck]

I thought I read Orlando is in the 70's now? Hope you get a few warm days!

 

[KYCruiseCrazy]

Happy New Year!!

We got up early this morning cause it's MOVIN DAY Although we are sad to say goodbye to Kidani we are excited to be checking in at BLT.

We've spent the last few months reading whatever we can find about BLT on these boards and we are excited to see for ourselves how "good" or "bad" it may be.

Bell Services came and picked up our luggage and Owners Locker and carted it all out to the car with me while DW went to the lobby to check out and pay our tab. Now we don't usually attach a CC to our account because we don't use our KTTW cards for charging. It just makes things simpler for the "bookkeeper" and we didn't this trip either, but if you remember from day 1 we were given a $100 credit and when DW paid for our massages the entire $150 went on the card leaving us with a little balance. No big deal.

By the time DW had completed that transaction I was waiting out front with the loaded car and off we went to BLT.

While DW checked in I gave our luggage to Bell Services so when our room was ready all we had to do was call for it.We had decided to add one more day to our park tickets so when we arrived at CR to check in DW was told that concierge could take care of that for us as well as attaching the tickets to our KTTW cards.

Of course our room wasn't ready, and due to the computer upgrades going on they WERE NOT able to do the attachment at that time. She did give us a card that would get us into a park only telling us to come back by 5pm to have it all taken care of. Well bummer we have an ADR for Crystal Palace at 5:00.

Oh well we're still having a good time and will just roll with the punches. There's not anything we can do about the computer problems anyway so why get frustrated about it.

We went back to the car and moved it over to the BLT parking lot, planning to do another WDW first for us and walk to MK. DW's cell phone had been on silence so she pulled it out to change that and low and behold the text message was there saying our room was ready.

Well we walked right back over to CR and waited for the same CM to be free to help us, so we wouldn't have to explain what was going on, and we got everything taken care of in a matter of moments. It seems the glitch that wouldn't let her add our park tickets in the first place was the fact that our room was available at the same time she was trying to do it.

So now we have our DDP and our park tickets all together on our KTTW cards.

We took the elevator to the 4th floor of CR and then walked over the walk way to BLT. It was nice to see that you have to have a KTTW card to get through the door to the walk way.

We were in room 8027 Bay Lake View and the first thing we noticed was how much smaller it was than AKV. Nice though, very modern. Right away we noticed a chunk of marble missing from a corner of the kitchen island.

What on earth was someone doing to chip MARBLE? Other little broken things we noticed were the master bedroom door stop was just lying on the carpet, and the sink stopper in the MB had the little silver stopper part just lying in the sink. Wear and tear we noticed outside of the room were broken floor tiles on the 5th floor near the walkway doors and a broken tile in the middle elevator that looked like someone was throwing a tantrum and kicked it several times.

None of these things would stop us from staying here again but so far our home resort is our favorite. The best part about BLT is location, location, location. It was great parking the car and using only our feet or the monorail for the rest of our trip, to get around.

After Bell Services arrived with our luggage we proceeded to walk to MK even though it was very crisp outside. We headed over to Adventureland and arrived just in time to see Mack coming out for the Capn' Jack Sparrow Pirate Tutorial. We had such a good time at this little show in 07' & 08' that we hung around and watched this one. They have built a permanent stage for the show since 08' so Mack doesn't have to wag around a cart anymore. At the end of the show Capn' Jack personally handed me 2 of the scrolls that they give out to the kids when they make them honorary pirates. Maybe it's because we were wearing our anniversary buttons.

After the show we jumped in line for POTC, a great ride as always and out of the cold. We then climbed on board the train in Frontierland and rode over to Toontown to see the Fairy's. The line was, of course, LONG but we stood there anyway waiting with all the little kids and their families. I struck up a conversation with the family behind us playing who's your favorite blank with their daughter. When it was finally our turn I was rewarded by getting to meet my favorite fairy from the films, Fawn.

DW got Tink to say hello to our DD14, on the video camera, because she was left at home and Tink thought that DD was IN the video camera. Those face characters sure do an excellent job.

Watch Tink Here.

After the fairies it was time to find Tigger, which we did, across from the Pooh ride. Tigger was thrilled again with DW's jacket and ears. We headed toward Fantasyland and saw a quartet of saxophone players, each with a different size and type of horn. They were playing Christmas carols and were very good. They insisted that DW join them for a picture.

Cinderella's carousel was our next stop and DW got to ride on Cindy's own horse. The horse looks like its been rode hard and could use a nice refurb.

Mickey's Philharmagic was next on our agenda. Of all of the 3D shows at WDW this one is our absolute favorite. Then it was on to the HM and luckily the refurb is only being done on the graveyard. This ride was part of the Keys to the Kingdom tour we took in 07' and a must do on every trip.

Next stop was the Hall of Presidents. We have both been looking forward to seeing this because the last time we were here in 08' it was closed for refurb to install the new President. The afternoon parade was going on outside so for several minutes we had the place pretty much to ourselves. When the parade ended the crowds flowed in. I must admit that even though DW and I are not Obama fans his HOP speech was quite good.

After HOP we wandered over to Main Street to do a little window shopping to kill some time until our 5pm ADR. DW finally found a new Tigger watch but all of the CM's were busy with other customers so she decided to wait until the next day to buy it. Still haven't been able to find any gold or silver Tigger earrings. I find it amazing that you can buy a hand crafted glass Cinderella's Castle for $35,000+ but they don't sell simple gold Tigger earrings. Heck we couldn't even find cheap metal Tigger earrings this year, or much of anything Tigger.

By this time it was getting close to 5 so we headed over to CP to check in. We requested to be seated near a window to hopefully get to see the castle lighting but we didn't get it. Instead we were seated at a table in the very center of the room. The characters start on the outside of the room and work their way into the center so we had time to grab a plate before they got to us. We aren't to impressed with the dinner choices at CP, neither one of us thinking it was worth $78 and DW never did get to see Tigger, one of our main reasons for eating here. He was at a table nearby when it was time for them to do the parade around the restaurant and then he never came back. She really wasn't upset by it as we're having breakfast here in the morning.

Tonight was a MVMCP night so we had to leave by 7pm and since it was really chilly after the sun went down we rode the monorail back to CR instead of walking. We walked back over to BLT, rode the elevator down to the 1st floor, spoke to the DVC CM's, showed our room key and were escorted to a different bank of elevators, where he inserted a card in the elevator control panel that allowed us access to the Top of The World. Membership does have its privileges.

It was really nice to be able to enjoy an adult beverage while waiting to watch Christmas Wishes from the roof of BLT. It was very very cold, and very very windy but the video turned our great. DW found a pillar to hide behind blocking most of the wind and the fireworks were awesome.

After the fireworks ended we went back to our room and took a nice warm shower then headed off to bed. We have an early breakfast ADR for Wednesday morning at CP.

I will be adding the photo's on the next post or 2 since there are several to share.

 

[KYCruiseCrazy]

DW was happy to be headed to BLT

Our room at BLT 8027

The view from the room

The train ride to Toontown

What we did at Toontown

DW getting to see Tigger

DW with the brass band

DW got on the best horse

What a great attraction at MK

See who is missing?

Lucky me

Home Sweet Home

Great view from up top pf BLT

All of the photo's were taken without a tripod

I need more practice to get better with my camera.

 

[Cyndibear]

Enjoying the report and photo's.

Cyndi

 

[KYCruiseCrazy]

Enjoying the report and photo's.

Cyndi

I'm glad you are still enjoying!!

 

[KYCruiseCrazy]

The Disney Dream is home. The Disney Dream is home!!