GIRLS ONLY Trip... Deluxe style! With MULTIPLE Character sightings!!* FINISHED*

[Tinkermom76]

Ok here goes.... I have never done a trip report or a PTR before, but since I have decided to spend my non Disney time on the DIS I figure I better start so here goes...........

Before my Dec 09 trip I had been to Disney 3 times before, first time was when I was 13 in 1989 with my mom and we stayed in kissammee somewhere, next was in 1999 with my mom, my brother and 5 yr old DS and we stayed at CBR in building 51 (I remember that because our street address at the time was also 51) and the one before this one was in Feb 2008 with my mom, brother, DS14, DD6 and DD3 (group keeps getting bigger ) for this trip we stayed at the Nick Hotel and had no reservations for anything in Disney and I had never even heard of the DIS

Forward to spring 2009 and I was finally after a year putting my photo albums from Disney together and I decided I missed it so I searched online and I found the moms panel and the DIS boards. after a lot of reading I decided I wanted another trip but this time I was gonna do it RIGHT!I decided we could all go in January and this time we would stay on site.. before too long my brother couldn't get the time off, DS15 didn't want to go if DB wasn't going and my mom said she couldn't afford it I decided if it was just me and my 2 DD's then we were gonna go at my fav time of year..... Christmas!!!

My name is Natalie and I am a 33 yr old single mom who is in her 3rd year of college.

My 2 DD's Eryka 7 is a huge Cindy fan, always has been and always will be and Emma 5 is a fairy at heart and will love Tink forever (I hope)

I booked November 29-December 5 at the CR Garden Wing

And here we are:

 

[Tinkermom76]

I spent a lot of time doing research before this trip so I could make sure we got to do all the stuff we missed on our last trip when I knew nothing. We were gonna get 3 days at MK and I had some great ADR`s so here goes.......

Day 1 Nov 29...

Our flight leaves cold Toronto at 8:30 am which gets us to Disney nice and early. I got to use ME so I didn’t have to get my bags at MCO which was nice since I had 2 kids by myself. I found our way to ME counter (after asking a few different people) and we check in and got in a HUGE line for our bus, but the kids were happy to be there

We arrived at the CR and I had done online check in so we had no line. We were assigned room 5223 in the garden wing which had a great view of the pool

Our luggage was not there yet so we decided to hop on the monorail and check out the GF decorations. The decorations at the GF are not to be missed and I will definitely be seeing them again

After we looked around for a bit we hopped back on the monorail and back to the CR to see if our luggage had arrived yet, no such luck. That morning before we left cold Canada I had fallen when I got in the shower and wasn`t feeling well so I never shaved my legs and all the girls wanted to do was swim so I went and bought some razors and off to the pool we went. Swimming in December is Great!!! My DD7 loved the slide, but my little one is not a big fan of water so we hung out by the edge of the pool. After about an hour we headed back to the room and our luggage was there! We got dried off and changed into warmer clothes because I had booked the Pirates and Pals Cruise for that night, so off we went to the Contempo for some supper before the cruise.
We checked in for the cruise and we were assigned Hook`s boat. My DD5 was afraid of the characters last time we were here but this time she assured me she would not be afraid... HUH! She would not go anywhere near Hook or Smee so her sister was nice enough to take her autograph book (Tink one) up for them to sign and hook signed it and wrote Tink Stinks in it... now she really didn`t like him.
When we were getting ready to go down and get on the boat she finally decided he wasn`t so scary and I got a pic of her with him... Thank God, I was starting to worry she wouldn`t go near any of the characters

The cruise was sooooooo much fun and it was nice to see the fireworks on our first night without going into a park. When we got back to the dock Peter Pan was waiting for us so the girls got a pic with him then we headed to our room to go to bed.

It had been a long day but we had already had more fun than on our previous trip... I was really starting to think I had wasted a lot of money on that trip

 

[praisehisname]

Great start; can't wait to read more!

 

[let'sgo]

Great start--and I love the pictures! Can't wait to read more

 

[Tinkermom76]

Day 2 Nov 30.....

Today I woke up to Stitch yelling in the phone, I had never done this before so I did it every day. We had a ressie today at Akershus at 8:05 am so I got the girls up early and off we went. The monorail was empty and it took us no time at all to get to the TTC and then to Epcot. I really don`t think I will be able to stay anywhere but the monorail resorts ever again. I thought the decorations were beautiful.

I had only ever rushed through Epcot before so I had no Idea where I was going and I just followed the crowd. We found our way to Norway and checked in and our name was called in a few minutes. We met Belle and then we were seated. I got pancakes for the girls since they will not eat eggs. The food was ok but we were not here for the food, we were here to meet princesses and we did. We saw Snow White, Cinderella, Ariel and Aurora.

 

[Tinkermom76]

After breakfast we made our way back to Future world. We looked at the character spot in innoventions but it was the fab 5 in there and I knew we would meet them that night at Chef Mickey`s so we went into innoventions west and the kids found plenty to do in there, including putting themselves in a video game which they have not stopped playing since we got home. Then we went on the Nemo ride, the rest of the rides either the kids had no interest in or Emma was too small and since I was by myself I couldn`t take Eryka only Then we headed over to the World Showcase and the girls wanted to meet TONS of characters so we met Mulan, Marie, Snow White again, Aurora again, Jasmine and Aladdin, Belle in her blue dress, Pere Noel and Santa and Mrs. Claus.

More of this day later...............................

 

[creativeamanda]

Okay, I'm in! I am planning on a surprise trip for me and my 2 girls in December, so this will be sooo helpful!

 

[Tinkermom76]

Okay, I'm in! I am planning on a surprise trip for me and my 2 girls in December, so this will be sooo helpful!

The only thing I suggest is make restroom breaks a priority, we went after every major attraction and before any major attraction and I never had to get out of line to go

 

[kbheap]

I'm in. The trip report is off to a great start.

 

[Tinkermom76]

Great start; can't wait to read more!

I hope you enjoy reading it

Great start--and I love the pictures! Can't wait to read more

Thanks.. it was a new camera so there were a few mishaps during the trip

I'm in. The trip report is off to a great start.

Thank you.. I hope I do okay for my first one

 

[RinkyTinkyTinky]

Hi! I just read your TR! What a great picture with Santa and Mrs. Clause. So cute! Can't wait to read more!

 

[Tinkermom76]

Hi! I just read your TR! What a great picture with Santa and Mrs. Clause. So cute! Can't wait to read more!

Welcome aboard.. we can enjoy each others reports at the same time!

 

[Tinkermom76]

Back to day 2 of our girls only trip….

In my many many many hours of planning for this trip I had decided that on our Epcot day we would head over to Beaches and Cream at the Beach club for lunch, so at about 1pm we headed over there and although we weren’t very hungry since we had a big breakfast at Akershus, we managed to get down some fries. We took a walk around the beach club since I had heard people rave about the chocolate and gingerbread carousel and I wanted to check out SAB. Maybe one day when the girls are a couple years older I will stay there but right now they are too obsessed with MK so staying on the monorail is a better option, but the Beach Club is a beautiful resort and it is decorated beautifully. This is the time in the vacation where I had to remind the girls that this is my vacation as well as theirs and there are gonna be things (like check out resorts) that mommy wants to do and they will just have to grin and bear it. They were good after that and never gave me a hard time for the rest of the week.

After mommy was done checking out the resort it was back to Epcot. I had to make a pit stop in China to pick up a rice hat for my DS15 (only thing he wanted and I should have painted a Mickey on it) then we made our way back to the monorail and back to the CR for a swim before our dinner at Chef Mickey’s.
Now this was our first time ever at CM’s and we had a blast. By the end of dinner the girls had almost filled their autograph books. Character meals are the way to go to meet a lot of characters with no lines!
All of the characters came by our table to visit and I had to get a pic of me with Pluto my favourite pup and the man at the table next to us was nice enough to take one for me. The ribs here were great and so was the cheesecake. This was the night I discovered glow cubes as well as the drink they came in

After dinner it was almost 8pm and I decided we should hop on the monorail and head back to Epcot to check out Illuminations which I had never seen. We go to the TTC and changed monorails and as I could see the Big Golf Ball as Emma calls it I noticed the kids were starting to fall asleep. Alright enough for today, we stayed on the monorail and headed back to the resort. The next day was AK and MVMCP so I figured an early night would be good.

Coming up…. MVMCP…. This was what I was most looking forward to!

 

[IATink]

Just found your report today. Great pictures! Looks like you had a great time. Can't wait to read more!

 

[Tinkermom76]

Just found your report today. Great pictures! Looks like you had a great time. Can't wait to read more!

Thank You.. we did have a great time, such a great time we are going back next December!!!

 

[Tinkermom76]

Happy New Year everyone!!!!!

 

[creativeamanda]

Happy New Year to you, too! I enjoyed your pictures from Chef Mickey--I've never gone in 4 trips!

 

[Tinkermom76]

Happy New Year to you, too! I enjoyed your pictures from Chef Mickey--I've never gone in 4 trips!

Oh you should try it. We did it twice this trip, once for dinner and once for breakfast. Breakfast is typical breakfast food but I really enjoyed dinner, I recommend the ribs and the cheesecake

 

[Tinkermom76]

Now on to day 3 of our girls trip….

This day was gonna be a long one so I was glad we made it a kinda early night the night before. We started the day with breakfast at 1900 Park Fare for Mary Poppins Supercalifragilistic breakfast. We got to see Mary Poppins, Mad Hatter, Alice, Pooh and Tigger. Emma got this little purple squirrel in the China pavilion the day before and it made the cutest squeak when you squeezed it and the characters all loved it, in fact Pooh Bear kept coming back to play with it.

After breakfast we hopped on the bus at the GF and headed over to Animal Kingdom. This is not really my kids favorite park so I only scheduled a half a day there. When we got there we headed straight for camp Minnie/Mickey. We watched the Lion King show and then went to see the characters in their Christmas clothes, Minnie, Mickey, Chip & Dale, Thumper and Mrs. Bunny and Daisy. We walked around the park a bit more and ran into a few more characters.

Next we headed back to the hotel for a swim and a rest before the thing I was looking forward to the most…………

 

[Tinkermom76]

So after a couple hours of resting at the hotel it was time for the whole reason I planned this trip… Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party!!!!

I was so excited about this since Christmas has always been my favorite holiday, I think it’s because all the lights are so beautiful.

I decided we were gonna try the CR-MK walkway since it might be busy leaving that night and that would be the easiest way to get back to the hotel. The walkway is convenient but I must admit that this night was the only night we used it since the monorail was so easy and stopped inside the hotel.

We arrived at MK at 4pm and got our wristbands. As soon as we entered I could see the castle and I finally felt like I was really at WDW! As we got on main street we caught the end of the Celebrate a Dream Come True Parade which had us up dancing and immediately immersed in Disney magic.

After the parade we made our way over to the Liberty Tree Tavern where we had dinner ressies. This place was packed and we had to wait about 20 minutes to be seated. We all really liked the food here, I especially loved the dessert!

After dinner we slowly made our way back to the castle where I got my favorite castle picture, the reflection and a photopass photographer took my favorite family photo of the week

We caught the end of the Dream Along With Mickey show and it was almost time for Cinderella’s Holiday Wish, so the girls and I found a spot in front of the castle to wait. This show was so cute and definitely worth seeing.

After the show (which I think they use to get non party goers to the front of the park) we headed over to Toontown. Emma is the biggest Tink fan in the world so although I knew we were missing out on party events we had to go to Pixie Hollow so she could meet her hero. The line was 45 minutes which really sucked but it was worth it to see Emma with Tinkerbell!

Continued in next post……