It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year! Update: 1/21/14

[Suziannie]

Moving right along....after a nap for Ben and Vivien and a little TV watching (the Stacey "channel" in particular) for me we headed back out to Magic Kingdom. We got lucky and managed to get to the bus stop right when one was pulling up. Yay!

Once the bus stopped we hiked (literally what is with the bus stops being 34 miles away from the gates!) back into the Magic Kingdom and high tailed it to New Fantasyland!

Which we found really quickly and had like 40 min to spare before our reservation time. So...we wandered around aimlessly taking it all in.

I have to say I LOVE the changes and I hope Disney finds a way to so something similar to all the lands eventually. The little touches like the tracks in the pavement (none of the photos I have show it nicely) are just perfect!. That Tangled themed bathroom/charging station though is just amazing! Hard to believe it exists as a rest stop and not much more than that!

So eventually we headed back towards Beast's castle, stopping and taking in some sights along the way.

And before I knew it we were across the bridge and they were handing this to me:

Now here's where I admit that while I like Beauty and the Beast it's not my favorite. In fact I was a bit too old for it (in grade 8 or so) when it came out so I didn't see it until after I was out of high school and even then I could take it or leave it. So I don't know if it was the anticipation because of how hard I "worked" to get the reservation or what but I almost cried when we stepped into the ballroom. It's just amazing.

I mean talk about transporting you to another place and time. I hope the Imagineers on this got a bonus or something.

We were seated at our table and our waitress brought drinks soon after:

It was only 4:30 in the afternoon and blazing hot outside so we had water and iced tea. We're exciting people.

Every last detail is thought of here:

Right down to the way the waitress referred to the Beast as her Master.

Our food came, only mine is pictured for the most part.

French Onion soup:

It was good. But really once you melt a bunch of cheese on top of something it's going to be pretty tasty right?

I had the braised pork and it was fantastic! My husband got the steak and it too was good.

At this point the waitress came over and told us some details about the castle. Like they paid so much attention that the snow falling in the ballroom windows actually matches the snow pattern from the movie-flake for flake. That the cherubs on the ceiling are actually the Imagineers children and grandchildren. She also encouraged us to go walk around but asked that we wait until we were done with the meal to go see the Beast in his study.

I wandered around and wasn't terribly impressed with the Library room. I think because you can see the drink fountains for lunch fairly easily. In the other rooms there is NO evidence that this is also a quick service restaurant when you are there at dinner.

I took about 341235 pictures to get this shot and I *think* it's the right one. It's pretty hard to take a photo of a hologram that's under glass in a really dark room.

I came back to the table just in time for dessert!
We got...

The Master's Cupcake

A special Egg Nog cupcake we were told they only have on Christmas Party nights so that's fun.

And...

A little bit of the Grey Stuff!

You should try it, it's delicious

The desserts were great, but nothing you couldn't find a most cupcake shops I think. Not complaining at all though. The food overall was good and we'll be back.

Now for the eternal question...is it worth it to go for dinner or is lunch just as good? Well...I found out for myself. We were able to secure a Fastpass+ for another Magic Kingdom day so I'll post my thoughts on both when I get to Day 4.

Our ADR was at 4:35 and we were finished shortly after 6pm so really that's not too quick or too slow for a typical table service meal. I am really glad there's another table service option in the Magic Kingdom though.

Up next...Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party!

 

[Mjp935]

Hey, I am following!

Just so you know the reason the drink machines weren't hidden as well in the third dining room is because that room isn't normally open for dinner! Assuming you are talking about the room with the music box in the middle... They only use it is a high peak time!


Thanks


Mark

 

[Suziannie]

Looking back over my photos I realized that I DO have something negative to say about our Christmas party experience....there weren't enough Photopass photographers out. Just the standard ones in the normal places. Not terribly exciting.

But since it was a parade taping day the party was a little more crowded than normal Friday nights (or so we were told by a CM). So we adjusted our plans a bit. We had planned on some character meetings but the lines seemed too long before the party officially started so we decided to focus on rides.

That's the other nice thing about going with a two year old. She has no idea she "missed out" on meeting the Seven Dwarfs.

We were leaving Be Our Guest and headed over to Liberty Square to see my absolute favorite ride.

But OMG the bathroom area caught my eye again. So nice!!

Anyways so the wait for the ride wasn't too bad. In fact it was just 10 min. With a two year old we decided to do the swap again so I left my husband near the bathrooms and I did the first round. Just as I rounded a corner in the really packed queue a CM opened up a gate and let me in the Fastpass side. Bonus! So I was the next group to see this lovely sight...

Don't worry I didn't use a flash. In fact I tried very hard to take a lot of photos while on this ride and I learned that I can do great still dark photos but add the moving component and I am not that good.

Once that was over my wonderful husband said I could take his turn! So I did!

About that time we thought we ought to start meandering over to get our wrist bands. Which is where I managed to snap this, my favorite shot of the trip:

For reference this is taken on one of the old Swan Boat docks. I have no idea if the area is opened regularly but it's a great POV for photos I think.

From here we headed over to Tomorrowland and got on the Tomorrowland Raceway, which had a 10 min wait but they handed us this:

I was looking forward to this ride because I wanted my daughter to "drive" I figured she'd get a kick out of it.

And she loved it. But OH the tears when we got off. SOoooo we went again. And then again after that one. Then they just let her ride on through. Once we finally finished there we took a spin of a different sort...

She liked this one too. We rode it 4 times, had to get off it each time but there was no waiting for this one.

We may have bought a treat for my daughter...

From there we did Winnie the Pooh twice, and even Peter Pan.

It was around that time that my husband realized he didn't have a Magic Band on. I was so angry!! Which really isn't fair to him. But...he took my daughter through the hot chocolate line while I used my phone to deactivate the bands. Not too shabby. We marked the time down with a screen shot on my phone and made it a point to stop by the front desk when we got to the hotel that night. Since we didn't have Fastpasses and we were already in the park we just didn't see the need to go all the way to Guest Services to get a new one right away.

It was about 8:30 by this time so we headed over to the Tomorrowland Terrace because we had Dessert Party reservations!!

Check in was fairly simple and we had a pretty good view from our table:

First round of treats:

They also had ice cream and a lovely CM to scoop it for us. At one point my daughter just wanted sprinkles and cherries. We gave in because...not sure why. But we did.

Before the fireworks started I took some photos:

Once the fireworks started I took about a dozen photos (none of which came out very nicely) then went to join my family in comfort at the table.

Vivien was really enjoying the show...

I'd do this party again, even on a special ticket night. It's a great view and after a long day in the parks it really makes a difference having a reserved seat PLUS snacks. The view really is nice, there's lot of space to move up at the rail-and you can still see from the tables when people do that.

Here's another shot of my family as the fireworks were wrapping up:

Once that was over we hung out a bit because the crowds were thick! It's also vey clear to me that it's true when they say a lot of people clear out after the fireworks.

Fighting that crowd was hard but eventually we did it and made our way over to Adventureland where we spotted Aladdin and Jasmine but didn't bother with the lines. Instead we rode the flying carpets 3 times. Then I think we went in the Tiki room as people were heading in right when we walked past. After that we did rider swap on Pirates with less than a 5 minute (AKA as long as it takes you to get through the queue area) wait each time. We skipped Jingle Cruise though. I don't know that it's ever worth it to me to wait more than 30 min for that one and the wait time was 40 at that point. Then we back tracked a bit. My daughter had been in a bit of a Toy Story phase before the trop so we stopped into Woody's dance party. It was empty!!

Vivien had a nice chat with Woody about his boots, he even showed the bottom to her but I missed the photo. Well...Jesse got close to see what was going on.

THIS guy was the star of the party though.

Fun!!

My daughter really enjoyed herself there, even if there isn't too much character interaction-no hugs just dancing. We all did actually. It was a great time! And far less busy than Goofy's party over in Tomorrowland.

We stayed in there until the parade was about to start and managed to get a pretty good spot to see it.

I took more video than photos but it's a great parade! I'm so happy we stayed for it. These guys had to be my favorites:

And after what seemed like an hour...Santa came by!

Vivien went back to sleep after this, we meandered our way out of the park via Big Thunder Mountain and a failed attempt at getting a Christmas Party pin. But we mostly took our time heading to the buses. May have something to do with the fact our sugar buzz had long worn off and it was almost midnight by this time.

We did remember to stop by the front desk on our way in and it only took them about 10 minutes to get my husbands band straightened out. In the meantime I grabbed some cold drinks for us and then we headed back to our room.

Those aren't our rooms but I totally love that pool area, and the night lighting is so cool!

It was a LONG but truly awesome first day at Disney World!!

 

[Suziannie]

Hey, I am following!

Just so you know the reason the drink machines weren't hidden as well in the third dining room is because that room isn't normally open for dinner! Assuming you are talking about the room with the music box in the middle... They only use it is a high peak time!


Thanks


Mark

Yes, that's the room!

I didn't know that. Wow! Then I guess we lucked out in getting to see it that night. How cool!!

 

[DisneyLifer87]

Wow that dessert party has changed since we last went in 2010! I love the viewing even though it seems a little off center. The castle is lovely with those lights! I wish we could go during Xmas time

 

[Suziannie]

Wow that dessert party has changed since we last went in 2010! I love the viewing even though it seems a little off center. The castle is lovely with those lights! I wish we could go during Xmas time

I'm curious to hear how it's changed!

I'm probably going to make this how I see Wishes from now on, even though it's off center like you say I just really like the option of sitting or moving to the rail without people bumping into me or standing in front right when the show starts.

Christmas is certainly well worth it-IF you set your expectations right because for the most part it's fairly busy. We were lucky that we went in early December but still ran into some crowds because of the Christmas parade taping. Having said that it's worth saving both money and vacation time to go for Christmas there's just some extra magic in the air. I know we won't be able to make it a yearly tradition but maybe every 5 years we'll go for Christmas.

 

[Mjp935]

Yes, that's the room!

I didn't know that. Wow! Then I guess we lucked out in getting to see it that night. How cool!!

Yes, The beast usually closes that off for dinner and uses it for a grander entrance. I was very good friends with the Beast on my college program!

 

[Suziannie]

With such a late night on Friday. Not to mention an early start after a late night the day before we were pretty tired. And sore. I remember being rather sore.

We had a breakfast ADR at Cape May Cafe and while I really wanted to go I couldn't bear the thought of getting up. So...I got up and cancelled it (no charge!) and then told the family the plan. We did start moving around though. Around 10am I decided to take the rental car back. We'd held onto it to make the trip to the Beach Club resort a little smoother but since we skipped that....there was no reason to keep it. So I ran over to the Alamo return center near the Magic Kingdom and they gave me a ride back to Art of Animation. By 10:30 I was meeting up with my husband and daughter in Landscape of flavors for some breakfast. I'm pretty sure we both got the steak and egg sandwich but I don't have photos to show it. From there we meandered over to the buses.

Once again we got lucky and were off within 10 minutes. In that photo you can see the Woody doll we bought my daughter. She is in love with that doll and it's replaced her bunny she's always slept with.

Once at EPCOT our bands let us in with no issue.

We stopped for a few Photopass pictures too.

One of the Photopass photographers was especially sweet with Vivien:

She made Vivien's day by giving her quite a few stickers...and some for Woody too.

To say it was a beautiful is an understatement.

By this point we'd learned that several of our friends were still snowed or iced in. We live in Texas. That's rather unusual to say the least. But boy oh boy suddenly we were glad to be sweating in Florida!

I'd planned on an arrival sort of mid to late morning anyways so I didn't schedule Fastpasses until after noon. Which turned out to work beautifully. I really do love that even though the system is tiered you get to pre-plan Fastpasses. What a blessing for people who like to schedule lots of ADR's.

Our first Fastpass+ was for Mission Space so we went over there.

My husband had never been on it so I let him go first when the CM gave us our Rider Swap pass. I asked where he'd come out and we went over there. It was shady so first we went in the shop to look around and I bought a few things. The biggest purchase thought was a Buzz Lightyear to keep Woody company.

For whatever reason I'd completely forgotten about the area in Mission Space right before you get to the shop. I'm sure we would have been more comfortable in there but it was only about 15 min before my husband came out and it was my turn.

Once that was over we decided it was time to head to the World Showcase because we had an ADR for lunch so that's where we went.

We got there a bit early. We thought about getting in line to see Anna and Elsa but it was about a 45 min wait and we only had about 20 min to kill. So we just kind of wandered around.

Soon enough though we were inside and had met Belle. She was very sweet and I kind of regret not touching up my makeup. I look hot and sweaty. But happy. And that's what matters most.

I'm pretty sure my favorite part of Akershus is the salad bar. Yum!!

I got a drink since the lines were too long in Mexico when we walked by:

Sooner than later we started having some guests drop by our table:

Vivien wasn't terribly impressed with Cinderella.

But she did try to give Snow White a hug so my husband got a photo of us both:

But then Ariel came by and Vivien got so excited. She jumped up and tried to give Ariel some of her broccoli, Ariel politely declined but did add that she prefers broccoli to seaweed.

She also asked too see her feet, and Ariel showed her shoes, which were really nice actually. Should have got a photo of that.

Our food came. Can't remember what my husband got (thinking we got the same thing though). I got the salmon.

This was actually one of my favorite meals all trip.

When dessert came my daughter snatched the chocolate off the plate I'm lucky I got a photo of it. My favorite this time was the apple cake though.

Akershus is always one of my favorites though, and yet again it was just wonderful. Personally I like it better than Cinderella's Royal Table and the fact that it's much easier to get into doesn't hurt either. But I think the food is better here even if it's not in a castle.

While we were eating my husband and I discussed our remaining Fastpasses. I had managed to get ours booked before the tiering took effect so I actually had Soarin and Test Track. But...maybe it was because we were moving a little slower than normal but neither seemed really appealing. Also it just seemed like more work since we have to split up for each. Maybe if they let you through the line together but whatever. So we changed things around a bit. Which limited our chances quite a bit. Overall line times wasn't that long though but we wanted to focus on some things we could do together. First up...since we were in Norway was Malestrom. Which oddly neither of us had done before.

We did have a small problem though. Even though I know I changed the Fastpass+ for both of us, when we got up there to actually get on the ride mine wouldn't work. Since we were together they just waved us off though, at both checkpoints. So it was a non-issue and soon we were climbing in a boat.

What a fun ride!! Definitely a must do for us from now on.

From there we headed out of Norway (the line for Anna and Elsa was now over 2 hours-should have gone earlier!) and headed over to China for a drink but more on that later

 

[Suziannie]

I was very good friends with the Beast on my college program!

Wow! That's awesome!!

 

[emmysmommy]

Hi there! I'm following along as I'm always nosey about others' whose trips were when we traveled. We arrived on 12/5 as well and did one of the MVMCPs. I completely agree with your observation that there were not enough PP photographers. Even for some of the character Meet & Greets there were no PP photogs.

Your trip thus far looks fantastic!

 

[Suziannie]

Hi there! I'm following along as I'm always nosey about others' whose trips were when we traveled. We arrived on 12/5 as well and did one of the MVMCPs. I completely agree with your observation that there were not enough PP photographers. Even for some of the character Meet & Greets there were no PP photogs.

Your trip thus far looks fantastic!

Thank you!!

The lack of PP photographers at the character greetings is actually why we didn't bother stopping at any of them on party nights. With the exception of Santa of course. I'm still surprised that as heavily as they were selling Photopass+ and now Memory Maker they'd have way more out in general, especially on special nights but I guess there's a reason.

 

[Suziannie]

We got of Maelstrom and took our time in the shop. But didn't see anything that struck our fancy. Too stuffed to try out anything at the bakery, and too hot to stand in line to see Elsa and Anna we decided to head to China for a quick drink.

No pictures though. I got a slush and my husband got some hot tea I think. By the time we had drinks in hand Vivien was fast asleep so we decided to take our time and see a few things, do some shopping and just have a nice afternoon. I'd re-booked the remaining Fastpass+ for early evening to allow for us to make it around the world. Actually I forgot to mention that somehow when I re-did the Fastpass+ it allowed me to pick 3 for each of us, even though we used one on Mission Space. Nice bonus.

Anyways, we made some nice progress. Vivien woke up a few times, but dozed nicely. We did get some Christmas shopping done too.

Germany!

I bought one of these for our tree (not my photo, I'm lazy).

My husband lived in Germany for several years while he was in the Army and grew to love it there, but has a special love for pretzels so this was a fitting addition to our tree.

We had plans on seeing the Candlelight Processional but around 4 pm when we walked over to see where it was the line was insane. And I know that when not open it would look really bad but we figured that with about an hour until the first show we'd need to get in line and it was a big MAYBE because I'm sure the people that did the dining package for it weren't also standing in line. So we skipped it.

Japan ! I bought a few little trinkets in the store but to be honest I didn't see anything in there that I couldn't get either in Chinatown here in Dallas (which isn't saying much given the size of our "Chinatown" or on Amazon for cheaper than what they were charging.

In fact we felt the same way in Germany. My husband is a big soccer fan and wanted to replace his jersey there since shipping can be pricey from the German website. But the jersey's in there were about $20 more expensive than they are online. It was the other way around in 2011 when we were there last time. So we left empty handed.

In France I got a slush while my husband watched the holiday story teller, Pere Noel. Wonderful story!!

We wandered around in France for a bit and stopped by because according to several articles I'd read I needed to try this from L'Artisan des Glaces:

And it did not disappoint! Holy cow. It was between this and the warm brioche ice cream sandwich and I tried to convince my husband to try that but he was determined to pick out his own food.

Anyways...moving along we stopped for some photos.

Then moved on into the United Kingdom where we bought some tea and a few candy bars.

I'm Canadian so we went into Canada of course and I decided to NOT buy a case of Coffee Crisp and Wonderbar like I did last time I was there. I was pregnant and the poor kid took pity on me when I said they were pretty much all I was craving so he brought me a fresh case of each. It wasn't cheap...but it was so worth it!.

By this time it was getting close to our Fastpass window so we took the rose garden path and headed over to The Seas. I snapped a few photos on the way though.

By this point my daughter was fairly well rested so we were able to see quite a bit.

We did Nemo first and again had the same problem we did back on Maelstrom. My husband had a reservation and I didn't but since we were a group they waived us through. At the second check point they said "Well we can see where you made the change to yours but it just didn't take." But again it was about a 30 second delay and we were on the ride within a minute or so.

She loved it of course. Actually we all did. It's a cute ride.

OF course right after we got off we had to go see Crush. The wait was only 5 min.

Vivien seemed to enjoy it but I really wonder if she understood that Crush was talking to us instead of it being a movie. It's hard to tell.

Next up we decided to hit The Land and see how Living with the Land and Soarin were doing.

I took this outside of the pavillion:

Once inside we spotted this:

Which I only took a few photos off because of the amount of people hanging around. It was in kind of an odd spot and creating a sort of bottleneck.

We hopped on Living with the Land first-no wait at all.

This has to be one of my favorites at EPCOT too. Love that ride! But there didn't seem to be nearly as many veggies as there normally are. I guess they must have just done the harvest.

Then did Soarin with only about a 15 minute wait for him, and around a 10 minute wait for me. Not too shabby if you ask me!

We had one final Fastpass+ for Spaceship Earth. So we headed over there...
via Club Cool.

But I'm a Smart Watermelon fan and my husband loves Mezzo Mix so we weren't exactly pleased with the new choices. The melon one is pretty good though. But I'll miss the Smart Watermelon.

And finally we made it over to Spaceship Earth where of course we didn't need our Fastpass+ BUT we scanned them anyway and low and behold...same issue. Same being waved through. Same 30 second or so delay. But overall it was fine. That was the worst experience with the bands/Fastpass+ and apparently it was either our fault (user error) OR due to spotty indoor coverage and poor wi-fi. Who can say but I have to hand it to the CMs at EPCOT each knew exactly what to do and we were on our way with little bother each time.

We were at the front of the park and despite having a fair bit of energy we decided to call it a night and took the long long long hike back to the Art of Animation bus stop.

We were back at Art of Animation within 30 min thanks to a bus showing up pretty much as we were walking into the line. We decided to take our food "to go" and enjoyed it in our suite.

No photos...but Ben got a pizza, which of course was good. I tried the butter chicken with paneer spinach. Both were ok, but I eat a fair bit of Indian food so I wasn't terribly impressed or turned off from it. We also went back and got two cute Christmasy Mickey mugs filled with gelato.
Looking back I really wish we'd gone back for two more so we'd have a set but I guess there's always next year. Also they are tiny. Like about 1/4 cup of coffee would fit inside so I'm not sure what I'd do with more.

We ended the evening quietly reading, which has always been my favorite way to end a good day. I was surprised to see they made up the murphy bed, I was fully expecting it to be in the same state that it was when we'd put it back in it's place in the morning. I guess they're trained to check it every day.

And that's our second day at Disney World!

Next up....Crystal Palace to start the day and visiting Santa to end it!

 

[Suziannie]

We were up bright and early,and with some ease thanks to our early relaxing night the day before and we were out and on a bus by 7:30.

I'd figured on lots of travel time because we didn't want to be late for our 8:45 reservation but also wanted to take our time getting up Main St and over to the Crystal Palace.

Soon enough we were waiting in line to get in at the rope.

I've never been there where they were so orderly about it. The CM asked that we stand in a line, but routed the line against the building, but most importantly in the shade. I wish I'd got his name, he said he'd been working there for 15 years and was having the time of his life there. It showed. He was sprinkling Mickey confetti on the kids waiting and really doing a great job of entertaining us with corny jokes. CM's like this really do make a difference.

Once inside I was impressed to see the big tents were gone.

We were able to take some nice photos though.

We found a lonely Photopass guy and got some nice shots from this session.

I really enjoy being in the park so early, which is why even though I really don't think breakfast at most table service places is worth the effort to get there super early I always try for one early morning Magic Kingdom day.

Vivien loved the little statues around the hub. Especially "Phoofee" who's one of her favorites right now.

Here's the photo that made a hard core Disneyland lover friend of mine admit that Magic Kingdom is just prettier than Disneyland:

Before too long we were inside the restaurant and helping ourselves to some yummy foods. This was our first Crystal Palace breakfast and I have to say that the selection is really good. I'd rather do this than Cinderella's Table (which is normally where we've been for breakfast in the Magic Kingdom).

We must have been in a good spot because within an hour all 4 characters came by.

Once again Vivien tried to share her food with them, but mostly she was so happy to meet them all. Especially Pooh.

It took a while for our bill to come, but it did. And once again they let Vivien share from our plates with no charge so that was nice. She ate a lot at this place so I was sure they would have charged us. For the record I was a-ok with any place that did that. If she eats we should pay. But her eating for free was a nice bonus.

Once we were all settled up we headed over to Adventureland. As soon as Vivien saw the magic carpets she wanted to go on them. So we did.

Then we went again. From there we decided to take the Jungle Cruise, which was actually the reason we went to Adventureland first. We didn't want to do it that night and lines had been long with the Jingle Cruise overlay. We had no wait, and because we did everything twice...we turned right around and rode it again with no wait.

Vivien was really impressed with it though. We had the best Skipper I've ever had on that ride the first time, and we got to sit right up front. The second time we were in the middle. Now I'll say this....I'm not sure what the point of the whole Jingle Cruise overlay thing was. There just wasn't a lot of effort put into it from our perspective. Maybe it's better at night? I don't know.

We decided to do Tiki Room again and Vivien was less than impressed this time round. We weren't surprised when we noticed she was asleep a few minutes after getting her back in the stroller. Since she was asleep we decided to head over to Pirates and ride that. We took turns there, and the wait was minimal. My turn though I sat behind two photographers. One with an iPad and one with a nicer camera. They wouldn't stop taking pictures and used a flash the whole time. I didn't say anything. But OMG. I did manage to grab a few with NO flash. It's hard though, even with the ride stopped. I read on the Disney Photo Blog that it can take a skilled photographer several attempts-like riding 10 times in a row taking tons of photos each time and only come out with a handful of good ones. I have a new appreciation for those dark ride photos now! And a goal for our next trip I think.

We had a Fastpass+ for the Little Mermaid ride so we beelined it over there next. Such a pretty area!

And that's my last photo of the castle because we had Fastpass we totally missed the "good" part of the queue. Sort of disappointing. But walking onto the ride made up for it! Vivien liked it but wasn't interested in riding again, which surprised us. So we headed over to Gaston's for a bit of a break and a cool drink.

The line was insane! But worth it!

It was packed so I didn't bother with any photos inside.

By then our last Fastpass+ window of the day was opening up and we headed over to see Belle.

This is another one where having a Fastpass means you miss the "good" part of the queue. I have no idea what the inside of the cottage looks like, but we only had to wait about 5 minutes before they let us in the mirror room so no complaints. Honestly though if Vivien was older we would have gone back through both this one and the Little Mermaid I think. I think the queue, and the way they set it up helps to build the excitement. I'm not sure why the Fastpass lines for these basically skip it all, but I guess there's no other way to have them there.

Again with no flash, my camera cast an odd orange glow so I'll need to figure out how to correct that!

We had a great seat though. I felt that Vivien was a bit young to participate, she's rather shy so I knew she wouldn't once up there anyways. But she seemed to like the show. We still got some great photos afterwards though. She was last since all the other kids were part of the show so she spent a little more time with Belle.

She asked about Belle's Papa. And also told her that she liked to read books. Which is when Belle pulled her in for a warm hug.

I was so impressed with my daughter who doesn't ever talk to people when she first meets them.

By the time we left there it was nearly noon. We'd done quite a bit for the day already! We had a lunch reservation at the Grand Floridian so we headed out to the monorail to do that. Which will be covered in my next post...

 

[JulieODC]

Fun update! I just posted an almost identical set of pictures of our CP breakfast

 

[oneprincessjo]

I'm in!!! Loving this! We got an 8:30 res at The Crystal Palace later this month. Can't wait to get a few pics of the park before it opens. My daughter will be just under 2 and a half when we arrive on the 23rd!

 

[katt789]

Yay ! Lots of reading to do! Lol. I will completely admit that I was tearing up the first time I was in BOG’s ballroom, it’s just so magical and amazing I couldn’t believe it! I love BOG, I find dinner is better, especially for the atmosphere, but lunch will do for me too! I thought the cupcakes were incredible!! Though I had the strawberry cream cheese one, the grey stuff one, and the lemon meringue one, and they’re more specialty than the regular ones I guess? I dunno, cupcakes are my love! Lol


Glad you guys had a fun time so far at the party. The dessert party looks like a blast, it’s definitely something that I want to do one of these days! Ah, the toy story dance party, it’s always so empty and its actually so much fun! loL. Weird that we were at the same party and did like, none of the same things! Lol. We’d done the party on Tues too, and didn’t really care for the parade or fireworks (we’re more Halloween people lol) so we really did characters all night!

It was only 45 mins for Anna & Elsa!? Wow how times have changed with it being vacation times! Lol, I really hope the waits go back down by next week! I really do enjoy Akershus, it’s a nice change from CRT, and I prefer Belle to Jasmine anyways haha! Glad you liked the food and had a fun time!

That snack looks delightfully yummy!! Looks like a great day at Epcot, and a nice relaxing evening to end off with!

CP is probably my favorite breakfast place! I haven’t done CRT for breakfast yet, but CP is just so great and awesome and I love the choices for food! We never managed to get onto the Jingle Cruise, which made me sad, but hey, I’ll see the regular one in a few months!

Looks like you guys had a pretty great morning at MK!

 

[LB1122]

Love reading about your trip. You were there right before we were for Christmas and it is so fun right.

Looks like you had some great ADR's so far and it is great to see how easy it was for you guys to ride swap with the fastpass system.

Following along for the rest

 

[Suziannie]

Fun update! I just posted an almost identical set of pictures of our CP breakfast

Thanks!

I'll have to go check yours out

 

[Suziannie]

I'm in!!! Loving this! We got an 8:30 res at The Crystal Palace later this month. Can't wait to get a few pics of the park before it opens. My daughter will be just under 2 and a half when we arrive on the 23rd!

I think 2 1/2 is perfect for Crystal Palace. You guys are going to have a ball!! It's a great breakfast too!

 

[Suziannie]

Yay ! Lots of reading to do! Lol. I will completely admit that I was tearing up the first time I was in BOG’s ballroom, it’s just so magical and amazing I couldn’t believe it! I love BOG, I find dinner is better, especially for the atmosphere, but lunch will do for me too! I thought the cupcakes were incredible!! Though I had the strawberry cream cheese one, the grey stuff one, and the lemon meringue one, and they’re more specialty than the regular ones I guess? I dunno, cupcakes are my love! Lol

We had the cream puffs when we (Spoiler Alert) went for lunch. They were good! But yeah, it's completely overwhelming in there. In a good way!!

Glad you guys had a fun time so far at the party. The dessert party looks like a blast, it’s definitely something that I want to do one of these days!
I can't say enough good things about the dessert party. Best $60 (for two people) we spent at Disney I think. We'll make it a must do at least on our next trip for sure.

I really do enjoy Akershus, it’s a nice change from CRT, and I prefer Belle to Jasmine anyways haha! Glad you liked the food and had a fun time!
Last time we were at Akershus for dinner Jamine was there. That night it was Aurora, Ariel, Belle of course, Cinderella and Jasmine. I was actually surprised (and pleased) to see Snow White there.

Looks like you guys had a pretty great morning at MK!

We really did! It was a great start to our day.