Gowder Family Disney Trip Report

[pgowder]

My wife Kelli and I are in Orlando now celebrating my 30th Birthday. \

We drove down last Saturday from South Carolina. We took our time and saw 4 of Florida's lighthouses on the way.

Sunday we spent at IOA. Thier Grinchmas shows and decorations are incredible. A must see!
This park is the only one we have ever been in that even comes close to rivaling Disney for theming. The coasters are also World Class!

Monday we had breakfast at the Grand Floridian. The food was great and the characters did a great job! The resort is beautifully decorated with a huge tree in the center! We've uploaded a few pictures at:

http://www.powwows.com/disney

If you click on the picture of the tree, you can see my wife there. That will give you an idea of the size.

We spent the rest of Monday at our resort, relaxing. Then went to Downtown Disney.

Today we took the Backstage Magic Tour.

After debating about whether this tour would be worth the money or ruin the Magic, we are definately glad we did it. Worth every penny and we'd do again next trip!

If you have been to Disney a few times, this is a great tour! Susan, our guide, did a great job. We had also read many reviews of these tours and heard that somethings were taken off. Well we did get to see some things that we didn't expect. And it really enhanced the Magic. We now have a renewed appreciation for all the work the castmembers put into thier jobs.

We are going on the Yuletide tour in the morning and we'll post more later.

Thanks!

 

[josierac]

Thanks for posting. Nice day so far. Liked your pictures, the Suess area looks great.

 

[kathymc]

cool pictues - can't wait to see those trees!

 

[luvmy2sams]

Can't wait to read more about your trip. DH, DD & I will be there next year to celebrate my 31st birthday...it'll be hard to top!

 

[pgowder]

Wednesday, December 5th, we took the Yultide tour.

This tour was only a half day, but still pack full of information.

We visited Epcot and discussed the different Yultide celebration throughout the world. We went to several of the country pavillions and look at their decorations. The time in Epcot was at about 11:00, so the World Showcase had not yet open. We had it all to ourselves. And, we were allowed to take some pictures and it was nice to take them freely without people walking around.

After Epcot, we visited Wilderness Lodge and Grand Floridian. Both of these are beautifully decorated for the holidays.

Our last stop was Christmas Services. These folks are amazing. With a team of just 25, they create all the decorations for all 4 parks, 17 resorts, Cruise Line, Downtown Disney and all stores in the parks.

One drawback to both of the tours was that because of the Press Events for we did not get to go into MGM. With two days of tours and MVMCP, we only bought a one day pass, so we missed MGM completly. We were hoping to get to see the Osborne lights.

 

[pgowder]

On Thursday we visited Sea World.

We enjoyed the shows--Shamu, Dolphins, and Pets. The rest of the park, though, was disappointing. The park was dirty, food was bad, etc.

I did ride Kraken. A good coaster, but somewhat overrated. I had ride again coupons, but the ride operators would not let me use them. In fact the second time, I asked before I got on, and they said I could use them. After the ride, however, I was still told I couldn't use them. After being treated rudely by the ride operators, we went to guest services to alert them of the issue. We were given front of line passes for Busch Gardens, which worked out great!

We left Sea World early, and went back to rest up for the evening.

That evening we attended Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party.

What a blast!

We arrived early and thought we would have to wait outside the park since there were still thousands inside from earlier in the day. However, we were allowed in and ushered into Tommorrow Land. This area of the park was open only to MVMCP guests. So we were able to ride Space Mountain and Buzz Light Year before the Party even started, and that was a nice surprise. At 7:00, they opened the rest of the park.

The Party was somewhat crowed, but not terribly.

We walked over to Adventureland and had our picture taken and enjoyed hot chocolate and cookies in the 75 degree weather!

The Christmas Parade was great! One of the highlights of the trip was during the parade. We we first arrived at Magic Kingdom, we went to Guest Services to get a birthday button for me. I was greeted throughout the evening with Happy Birthday wishes from the Cast Members. And, during the parade, Mrs. Claus, leaned over and wished me Happy Birthday!

The fireworks were also a surprise. At first we were somewhat dissapointed. We were standing in front of the Castle and most of the fireworks were not high enough to see. As they went on, the height increased. The ending, though, was incredible. Having fireworks exploding all around you at the same time is quite a sight!

We were also able to see the Twas the Night Before Christmas Show, and we really enjoyed that also!

MVMCP is another must do during the Holidays!

 

[nativetxn]

What great photos. I can tell you were having a great time from the wonderful smiles on your faces.

We enjoyed MVMCP too.

Thanks for the link!

Katholyn

 

[pumba]

You did alot and saw alot.......thanks again

 

[pgowder]

Thanks pumba, but we did even more!

On Friday we headed to Epcot. We were finally able to see our Leave a Legacy picture--pretty cool!!

We spent all of our time in the World Showcase since on our last visit we spent most of the time in Future World.

We enjoyed watching American Adventure again after having seen how it works on the Backstage Magic Tour.

Epcot was filled with special performances that day such as the American Vibe, Japanese Drums, etc. It seemed like everywhere you went there was something special going on!

The parade was good, but since we had seen it as Tapestry of Nations, it wasn't as exciting.

We used the Priority Seating for the 6:45 showing of the Candlelight Processional. Since it started raing at about 5:30, we hurried as fast as we could for the line to get a seat under the cover. We were near the front and the line quickly grew. If you are going, get in line early!

The Processional was definately one of the highlights of the trip. I don't think there were many dry eyes in the house after 'Let There Be Peace on Earth'.

After the Processional, we headed over to Canada for our meal. We were told to arrive early, but quickly found out that it doesn't matter. We had reservations for 8:50. We arrived at 8:10. We were told it didn't matter that we were here early and that we would be seated, best case, 20 minutes after our PS time. The manager on duty, Mitchell was extremely rude to us. We asked to get our $$ back, and was told there was nothing the resturant could do. We tried calling the phone line, but nobody was there to help us! So finally we were seated at about 9:50 we were seated. Keep in mind that the park closed at 9:30! There were several tables of cast members around us, who got great service from multiple servers. We however, had slow service and ended up taking most of the food and desert home.

Despite the problems with dining, we would still highly recommend the Candlelight Processional package. Maybe try someplace else or get an earlier time.

 

[CrzyforPiglet]

Hello there,

Thanks for your trip report. Me and my dh are going next december so I love hearing reports from people who went this year. What caught my eye on your report is the Yuletide tour in Epcot. How did you reserve that?

Thanks!!

 

[pgowder]

We called 1-407-WDW Tour.


http://disney.go.com/disneyinstitute/behindscenes.html

 

[swankybeth]

Thanks for the report! The pictures were awesome. Thanks for sharing them with us.