It's the Spirit of the Season! You Can Feel it in the Air!

[disney<333]

Great update! I love the jumping picture of Emily, she looks so happy! The picture of Amy on the bed is hysterical. Can't wait to hear about the next morning, though!

Thanks! Both girls hate those pictures, but I think they're too funny. Amy has fun in Disney, but Emily really does LOVE it! She is always so happy when we go. Update coming! Week before break was INSANE!

Loving your TR so far, can't wait to see all the Christmas Magic in person!
I will tell you tho, that my DD knows the original Christopher Robin and Pooh. We own both movies but she loves the original The new one she'll watch for about 5 minutes then grab the other DVD case and go "Pooh, Pooh, Pooh" while handing it to me.

Thanks for coming over! That is too cute! My kids loved Pooh and Barney growing up! Barney is way forgotten about, but they still like Pooh.

The 'dead on the bed' picture is funny. That's us some nights, too.

I would love for them to bring back Stars and Cars!

And Spectro is supposedly coming back later this year!

The dead crowds that night were worth it. And believe it or not, Amy was the ring leader most of the night.
I haven't seen the new parade at DHS, but I don't think it's too popular. I'd rather have a more traditional parade vs. a show. Of course, Disney doesn't make their decisions based on me, but that would be nice. Also, I don't understand why they have so many dancers. If they're paying that many people anyway, why don't they just have more characters.
I heard about Spectro and can't wait!
*****************
I have a long-term sub job teaching first grade now, so that has been keeping me super busy. I never thought I would like first grade, but I LOVE it now and I can see myself being a first grade teacher. We're on break this week.
Brought the car in, took the girls to the mall and we saw the Lorax today as part of a mother-daughters day. Tomorrow night I'll be going to the beach to watch the sun set. On Thursday, Emily is having oral surgery to get six wisdom teeth taken out.

 

[disney<333]

The night before we got back at 1 and the plan for the next morning was to go to DHS for AM EMH at 8. I rallied the troops up at 6:15 and I got remarks such as "Nobody likes Hollywood" and "I'm too tired."

Fine. I am flexible. Last time I would of freaked, but I'm a different person now. I said I'll go by myself for a little while and we'll meet up somewhere. After all, It was Christmas Eve and I was in Disney World. It was freezing this morning, so I layered up and then was at the boat dock at 7:20. 10 minutes later Emily joins me. We waited our longest for the boat this time-- 20 minutes. The boats were always so amazing and so quick. From the Dolphin, we were at Hollywood in 7 seven minutes. Just one of the many reasons why I love the Swolphin.
On the boat, I was helping a family plan their day. It was their first time and I overheard them talking and they thought everything was a ride. I told them that many things in this park are a show and helped them put together a plan of attack. I told them about TSM and how they well fall in love with it and told them to ride, get, FPs, use FPS, get more, and save the rest for later. I think I made them feel overwhelmed.
We got to the park with 10 minutes to spare before EMH and people were already inside and the CMs were not checking room keys. Turns out DHS had already went rope drop-less. I was pretty irked then and expected an hour wait for TSM.

I never saw a crowd at DHS once this trip and we spent a lot of time here.

Looking good so far. I haven't been rear ended yet by a stroller. So far I'm living to tell the tale.

10 minutes and FPS at 10:00. We decided to ride first.

LOVE this queue.

My score:

Emily beat me. I guess I need more practice. I could play the wii game, but I much prefer more trips.

I saw Ed, but it didn't click then. I was thinking to myself "This guy is familiar. I know him. I've seen him somewhere". I could not figure it out and so I didn't say anything. Turns out I recognized him from MeMom's TRs and I'm friends with Chi-Chi on Facebook. Speaking of FB, I really hate the new timeline.
Back to Disney
I am not at this level quite yet.

We got two FPs for TSM at 10:20 and then we made our way here.

We were going to do Epcot rope drop, but just decided to stay put because the park was empty and then at 10:30 we would either get more TSM FPs so we could all ride at night and see F! and the lights or just use the 2 at that time.
So peaceful!

We decided to ride the new Star Wars for the first time. Will I chicken out when they close the doors?

 

[disney<333]

I don't know what this is, but there were some Star War fans freaking out over it, so I decided it was picture worthy.

The ride was walk-on, just had to wait for the next flight or whatever it is. My knowledge of Star Wars is non-existent. I just know that there is a character named Yoda, who speaks superb English.
While the line was short, I still found time to freak out. I don't do closed spaces and I don't like jerkiness and spinning. I used to get sick from it and I didn't want to find out if I still do. I was only riding it because Emily wanted to see the changes. There was a cute little pre show, but I was too nervous to learn what adventure I was about to embark on.
The CM came in to our box and did a quick check and then closed the doors on us!
Too late to turn back now. I got this. I didn't know who anybody was, but I still enjoyed it. E loved it and hated the old one. There are many more different rides on this, so we will need to ride more.
What a successful morning! It was 8:30 and we had already done TSM and Star Tours. Next, we decided to do the Muppets.
No one else had the same idea as us except for this man. I tried to get a picture with out anybody in it, but this man was just not having it.

Maybe I can photoshop him out.
Got rid of him, but now I have I have some different men.

Perhaps some of the money from park tickets goes towards this great cause.

It's Christmas Eve! Where is everybody! We practically had the theater to ourselves and enjoyed it as always. It doesn't compare to Philhar Magic, but it's still fun to see.
We got out and the Cars were lonely. A few people quickly fixed that problem by sprinting over to them. I never understand the rush when people run in Disney. Maybe if your bus is about to leave, but otherwise, no. The Cars aren't go to drive away. O.k, maybe they will, but not now. I have 5 minutes to wait.

Phineas and Ferb must of been trying to find Perry. It was on our list to meet them this trip, but we never got to it. There's always next time.

Where to next?

 

[MeMom]

Hello to Ed! He said 'they' (I guess the bosses) were really going to be watching out for cast members letting people in only during the correct times on Fastpasses. I hope the castmembers don't take a lot of heat from aggravated guests. I'm thinking the majority of people stayed fairly close to their permissible times, but maybe not, since they changed it.

I don't like FB timeline, either. I don't have it yet, but it's coming. It seems to like to jump around on my screen and doesn't scroll down smoothly. I'm not addicted to FB, though, so it's not that big of a deal. I check in usually daily to see about birthdays or see who is in WDW and is sharing pictures. I've probably checked more in the last few days because of the Fantasyland news.

Nice shots of an empty park. It can be done right, even when a bazillion other people are on property at the same time.

 

[disney<333]

Hello to Ed! He said 'they' (I guess the bosses) were really going to be watching out for cast members letting people in only during the correct times on Fastpasses. I hope the castmembers don't take a lot of heat from aggravated guests. I'm thinking the majority of people stayed fairly close to their permissible times, but maybe not, since they changed it.

I don't like FB timeline, either. I don't have it yet, but it's coming. It seems to like to jump around on my screen and doesn't scroll down smoothly. I'm not addicted to FB, though, so it's not that big of a deal. I check in usually daily to see about birthdays or see who is in WDW and is sharing pictures. I've probably checked more in the last few days because of the Fantasyland news.

Nice shots of an empty park. It can be done right, even when a bazillion other people are on property at the same time.

I feel bad for the CMs who will be receiving the heat. I've spent my night re-arranging my touring plan for inside the parks with the new FP policy and fantasyland for next trip while eating EOS. I'm finally satisfied with my plans. It isn't a strict plan it's just what we would tend to do and so we aren't hopping around the park like maniacs.
I have the same problem on my computer, too. I used to have a DIS FB and one for real life friends, but most of the people I actually care about deleted their account so I did the same. It is nice to keep up with friends I made on the DIS, though. Emily is the big FBer in my house. She is on it constantly.
I was terrified of the crowds for the Holiday week, but I never ran into any crowds and have never seen the park so empty before.

 

[disney<333]

Meandering through the park. Where we'll end up, who knows.

Emily isn't a big fan of GMR, but she agreed to do it because it had been a while. We walked right on.

I don't think we're in Kansas anymore. There's no place like Disney World. There's no place like Disney World.

The guy next to me doesn't look all that excited to be traveling through Hollywood's best.

We did Little Mermaid next. It had been a while since we did this once, too. We like it, it's just it's hard to get in because we try to get in as many spins on TSM as we can.
We had about a 20 minute wait because we just missed a show.

During the show, Mitch called. I called him back when we got out and he said he took Amy to Epcot and they just got off TT. I asked him if I should get more TSM FPs so we can all ride at night and he said yes. We got the two FPS for TSM (only had 2 tickets) and then tried to get in line for some characters in front of the hat, but they had all just closed. Instead we got a snack to share. Popcorn and lemonade in a cute Christmas souvenir mug. We munched our way out of the park. Such a good snack.
It was 10:30 and in just 2 and a half hours we had done:
TSM and gotten two sets of FPS
Star Tours
Muppets
Met the Cars
GMR and
Voyage
A boat was pulling up just as we were and we got seats. Back to the Dolphin in 8 minutes. It was freezing when we left the room in the morning, but now it was pool and tank top weather. We went up to the room and put on Stacy. Mitch and Amy came back a few minutes later. Mitch's knee was really bothering room. We decided to rest at the resort for a while. It was only 11:00, but we had already gotten so much done. Housekeeping had already come. I fell asleep and there was a knock on the door. It was HK bringing up our water bottles. The HK opened the door and saw me in bed and said "Good morning. Sorry to wake you" Oh, honey. I had already been up them and at 'em for a long time.

 

[disney<333]

A little background information on Mitch's knee:
He has a stationary bike in his home office that he rides everyday. Two days before the trip he was doing his routine work out and called me while I was in Target. He asked me to buy him epson salt and pain killers. Not the phone call you want to receive from your hubby two days before a vacation that entails a lot of working. He stayed off it until we left and wore his brace while in the parks. The first two days he did well, but this morning it was hurting again. After resting it and having a pretty leisure morning, we decided to all go back to DHS. It was about noon at this point. We went down to the boat dock and were in the park in 10 minutes! Amazing!!

First order of business was Amy's favorite attraction-- TOT? NO!
TSM? Nope.
The drawing academy. She loves this and would do it all day if we would let her. I always remind her that I have my Masters in teaching kids how to draw, but she says "This is better, no offense, Mommy". None taken, Honey. We do paint together sometimes, but she just likes to do it for fun and doesn't like advice.
We had to wait about half an hour for this, but Mitch found a bench to sit on. His knee decided that he was done before our first attraction. Poor baby! I felt so bad for him. He decided that he would do the class and then leave by himself.
We went in, took our seats, and learned that we would be drawing Carl Frederkson. (The old man from Pixar's UP!)
I didn't take any pictures, but Amy did on her phone. When she gets to Disney, she is all excited and takes a picture of about every sign and tree as we arrive, the drawing class, and when she goes off alone with Mitch. The day we leave, she regrets not taking pictures and proceeds to take a picture of every footstep again. This is every single trip!

Mr. Frederckson started out as this:

and ended up like this:

Maybe now he'll be Happy and not Grumpy.
Mitch decided to leave and I asked him if he wanted me to go with him. He said he was just going to go to sleep and preferred to have the bed to himself to stretch.
The girls and I decided to go to Pizza Planet for lunch.
We went there with Pizza in mind because after all, it does have the word "Pizza" in its name. BUT! They have meatball subs now!! If you've never had, Disney's meatball subs then you are missing out. It's my favorite food in all of Disney. A little FYI- I don't care how little hungry you or your kid are-- never get the meatball sub off of the Kids' Menu. That sucker is TINY! I mean it's about an inch and a half long and only has one meatball and just enough bread to cover that one meatball. I am not exaggerating. I sent the girls upstairs to go find a table. While waiting for the food, an Indian man decided that he was going to be-friend me. He shook my hand as he said hello and goodbye. This man will make an appearance MORE THAN ONCE!

After lunch, we decided to go see the Backlot Tour. It has been a while since we did this, too.

While waiting in line, I remembered why the family is never invited to Disney. Behind us, there was a mom, daughter, and grandma in her ECV. Grandma decided that princess ride on her lap in the ECV. Princess was about 10. See a problem? Mom said no, but Grandma was not hearing it. Things got heated between the two and they kept telling one another that they were embarrassing each other.
When we reached the front, I asked the CM if they needed any volunteers for the show and he said they did! I had wanted to do this for so long. The girls were so excited that I was going to be in it. I was going to hand them my bag, but the CM told me their was a locker for my stuff. My bag had THEY camera in it! Whoopsie!! No pics of me in the show, so I guess I will have to do it again. There are 4 volunteers in each show. You are taken backstage and you are instructed to take off anything that is not water friendly and put it in the locker. You are given the key to your locker and you wear it around your neck. Next, you are given a rain jacket, pants, and shoes. It was our director's first show and she was so excited. We all received our rolls. I was mechanic. (The person on the phone!) You are given instructions. I was told to look in front of me no matter what and pretend to be talking. Appearance numero uno from Indian man--while I was in the show he yelled my name numerous times and waved at me until he had my attention. My clothes were completely covered in blue rain gear and I had the hood on as tight as it goes. AND he was in the back row.
It was so fun! I think I had the wettest roll, but when I took off the rain gear, I was a 100% dry. Volunteering does not make you wait any longer. I was reunited with the girls and we loaded into our tram.

It was hot and the girls wanted to go in the pool, so we decided to leave until the evening. Christmas Eve Evening.

 

[oboedm]

Great update! I love a deserted DHS. I always get turned around and/or completely lost there, and it much easier to navigate with less people! I don't know who designed that park, but they obviously didn't look to the Magic Kingdom and Epcot as a model (unfortunately!).

 

[disney<333]

I have time for a quick update before a meeting.
The crowds were starting to pick up along with the temperature, so we decided to leave.

We stopped for Mickey ice cream on the way out. We got back to the room at 3:30 and Mitch was sleeping. I left him a note saying we were going down to the pool. Pool was empty. We stayed for about an hour and a half and then I left the girls to dry off and I think they were playing volleyball with some other kids and went up to the room to discuss dinner with Mitch. We had an ADR for 6:45 at Garden Grove, but Mitch wasn't feeling it. He was tired from the pain killers and just wanted to stay in the room. We thought getting food delivered seemed like a good idea. I called downstairs and got a recommendation for an Italian Restaurant in the area. I asked them if they were delivering tonight since it was Christmas Eve. They said yes so I placed my order and they said I had to come down to the lobby at 6. I went down at 6 and nothing. The Dolphin had a wonderful Christmas Eve feel. There was a piano player playing Christmas music and people were arriving all dressed up to eat in the resort. The idea of seeing the DHS lights on Christmas Eve made me excited. It didn't matter if we didn't have fancy dining plans. Christmas isn't really our Holiday anyway. Mitch is half Catholic and half Jewish, but he was raised Jewish. I am a 100% Jewish.
I called a couple of times and their line was busy. Finally at 6:40 the food came. Bad idea! We wanted to see 8:00 F! We set up our picnic area in the room.

Food was ehh. It was nice to be together as a family, though. And we saved about $150 from not eating at Garden Grove. We laughed a lot, but I don't remember over what. Mitch decided he was going to go to bed for the night and the girls and I hurried to get ready to go back to DHS. We got to the boat dock at 7:20 for an 8:00 F! We were hoping to get in, but it wouldn't be the end of the world if we didn't. The CM cut the boat off RIGHT AFTER US! The Dad behind us had a huge meltdown! He claimed that the CM had just ruined his family's vacation. The CM said it was impossible for his family to get on. Somehow they got on.
We skipped bag check, walked with passion to the Fantasmic theater, and it WAS EMPTY!!!! 20 minutes until show time on Christmas Eve!
We sat on the left side of the middle section.

People were being seated right up until show time and the theater did not fill up. I hadn't seen F! in forever. It just never worked out for us when they only showed it twice a week. I wasn't planning on seeing it this trip either. The girls claimed to have never seen, but we took them when they were little.
It started and we were all like this:
It was amazing!! All of this time we were missing out! In 26 minutes I fell in love! It is a must do every time from now on.

 

[disney<333]

Great update! I love a deserted DHS. I always get turned around and/or completely lost there, and it much easier to navigate with less people! I don't know who designed that park, but they obviously didn't look to the Magic Kingdom and Epcot as a model (unfortunately!).

I was confused in DHS at the beginning, but I spent so much time there that now I can walk around there with a blind fold. AK, on the other hand, I get completely lost in. We haven't had a good day there with decent weather in about 3 years. We spent a whooping 1.5 hours there this trip and it was such a zoo!

 

[MHTeacher]

Just read through your report! I'm so glad you got to go and celebrate Emily's 16th birthday!

Unbelievable being able to walk into Fantasmic! 20 minutes before show time! I love F! I'm glad you fell in love with it again!

 

[MeMom]

Awww, for me???
You shouldn't have.
But I'm glad you did!


Good to know about Fantasmic for Christmas Eve for future trips. Much better than long lines and heat and being smooshed together on the benches with strangers.

 

[disney<333]

I said I wasn't going to take any pictures and just enjoy it. That lasted for about .2 seconds. Most of the pics came out blurry, but hopefully it still takes you there like it does for me.

This is as far as Photobucket is going to let me go and of course it's when I was going to try to finish Christmas Eve and moving onto Christmas day!
Hope everybody is having a good weekend.

 

[disney<333]

Just read through your report! I'm so glad you got to go and celebrate Emily's 16th birthday!

Unbelievable being able to walk into Fantasmic! 20 minutes before show time! I love F! I'm glad you fell in love with it again!

Thanks for joining, Michelle! She was so excited to go for her sweet sixteen since she has been begging for years. I didn't think we were going to get to go because we usually go Thanksgiving, (her b-day is a week before) but Mitch was out of the country on business right until Thanksgiving. I was so excited when he brought up the idea to get APs and go Christmas week!
It's a must do every trip from now on! We got super lucky with the crowds and knew what we were doing. This trip was my favorite trip ever!

Awww, for me???
You shouldn't have.
But I'm glad you did!


Good to know about Fantasmic for Christmas Eve for future trips. Much better than long lines and heat and being smooshed together on the benches with strangers.

I know how much you love your palm trees! I guess I'm spoiled to them! No matter what season it is, whenever I open my blinds, there are palm trees!
I can't remember how bad the other parks were on C Eve! I have an app on my phone where I can check the wait times and I did it constantly to see if we were right on our park pick. I check it even when I'm not at Disney. Yes, I know! I have problems, but it's o.k.
DHS had such a nice Chistmas-y Eve feel!

 

[disney<333]

I got Photobucket figured out, so we can continue!

We got up and started to leave with 2 minutes left so we could avoid the crowds. We weren't in anybody's way. We almost missed out on the finale! We thought it couldn't get any better and then Mickey stands up on the top of the mountain and Emily said "This is why we go to Disney!" Yup, you said it.
A little story- before, we were watching the Lion King and there was a commercial on for Universal. Everybody except Amy was yelling "Boo"! And E said "Everything the sun touches is Disney and that dark shadow is Universal. We must never go there"! Do I have her brainwashed or what?! Amy came back with "It's not hot in the shadow and they have Dr. Seuss and Harry Potter"!Amy likes Universal and Disney the same. She's going to IOA on her 8th grade field trip in May and played with the band in Uni back in December.

The waits were

The stage was blocking the hat this week, so it was hard to get pics of it.

We went here to go use our FPs!

I rode alone and the girls went together. I tried to find someone alone to give them the leftover FP from Mitch, but nobody was alone on Christmas Eve, so it ended up being a souvie. How often do you come home with TSM FPs?!

Isn't this cute!?

Next we went back to Art of Animation and it looked like this.

Mickey was gone, but Pooh and Eeyore were still out and they had only 2 people in line, so we got in! This is where we had a mini melt down. Amy saw the door open to a drawing class and got out of line to go see if we could get in. The CM told her there was room for 3 and went to go get us and then by the time we got over there, it was too late! Amy was upset and refused to meet the Pooh gang. A CM saw her upset and let her choose any pin from his necklace to let her keep. This made my pin trader very happy! Amy felt that she was too old to meet Pooh, but once she was hugging them, she was in love!

Each character took a girl and started dancing with them! It was so cute!! The handler said they were prom dates!

Then Amy pointed out the fact that there was honey on top to Pooh and Pooh wanted that honey! He was jumping up, trying to get it. Eeyore got down on his hands and knees and motioned for Pooh to stand on top of him! So funny!

For some reason, the rest of the pics from the meet are not showing up, so I'll have to come back to them. They're super cute and some of my favs from the trip. We had such great character interaction that lasted for about 5 minutes. We went to the gift shop and then came back to wait for the last drawing class of the night.
We drew Pooh!

When we came out the park was officially closed, but there was still some action going on! Christmas music was going and there were announcements about Santa coming! You could feel the spirit in the air! Mulch was getting ready to perform in front of the hat, but first we had something else to see.

 

[disney<333]

The lights were so bright and they were dancing! It was snowing as well! Who said you can't have a white Christmas in Florida?! It was so magical seeing the lights on Christmas Eve.

I got a little snappy happy, in case you couldn't tell. I highly recommend seeing the lights after the park closes! They are still on and dancing along with the music. The CMs don't kick you out.
We made our way towards the front of the park.

Mulch was playing Christmas music in front of the hat and they were super energetic! Everybody was dancing and we joined in! They played a few encores and then we went into Starring Rolls for a snack and some milk. We then made our way to the boat dock because we did not want to miss the last one. It was about 10:40 at this point.

A friendship boat was at the dock waiting for us and it was very friendly. The CM said "My Christmas gift to you can either be I can shut up or we can play Disney Trivia" Disney Trivia won! The questions were hard! The girls kept looking at me for the answers and I did not know! The guy next to me was googling the answers and the CM called him out. We got back to the Dolphin and it was super quiet. I guess everybody was already sleeping waiting for Santa.
Coming up next: Christmas Day!! We deviate from the plan again, but boy is it worth it!!
BECAUSE:

 

[jpmandan]

 

[oboedm]

Your pictures of the Osborn lights are great! Thanks for the tip about going by after the park closes! I am sure it is much less crowded! Crowds make me stressed. Can't even go to Ikea without getting claustrophobic.

 

[disney<333]

I will get an update up this weekend!

Your pictures of the Osborn lights are great! Thanks for the tip about going by after the park closes! I am sure it is much less crowded! Crowds make me stressed. Can't even go to Ikea without getting claustrophobic.

Glad to help! It's so much easier to enjoy the lights without the crowds. Not that they were hard to enjoy, to begin with. Don't even get me started about crowds of any kind! I only go grocery shopping early in the morning or after 8!

 

[tofubeast]

Loving the TR!! We are going in December (first time for the holidays) and I can't wait! I can't believe how low the crowds were during your stay with it being so close to Christmas. Wow!! Can't wait to see how you scored that pic with the Fab 5!!!