Jingle Bells....AKL....Disney for 10 Whole Days! ** Updated June 2015: Videos Added**

[thornton0511]

Adventures in Adventureland….yup that's the title deal with it

So when I left off we had just finished lunch and were debating going back to the resort or staying in MK a little longer. A rest did sound good but there was still so much that we had not done. Decisions, decisions. We took a vote and decided to stay in the park a little longer….yay more Magic Kingdom!

As we were making our way out we caught the last part of Dream Along with Mickey
I really do WANT to see this show from start to finish. I have seen bits and pieces of it over the last few years. Here is the problem I think. This show is in the hub which is in the center of the Kingdom. When I stand in here and try to watch the show I get distracted by all that is going on in each of lands, which I am surrounded by, and inevitably wander off away from the show. Next thing you know I am in Tomorrowland blasting bad guys with my astro blaster or standing in line at Aloha Isle getting a dole whip. It's the whole Dug/squirrel complex I have going on. Maybe I should try horsey blinders…..

Anyways we decided to start with Adventureland since we had skipped a lot of attractions in this area before lunch. First up…..Swiss Family Treehouse. Here is how this went….

Ohhh a treehouse that you can go up, how exciting!

Look at how high up it goes that's pretty cool…..

Wait….what's with all the stairs……

Ummmmmm…..seriously?!

Lol. Whatever once you get up there its totally worth it.

I have always daydreamed about living like this…..until reality sets in and I realize that snakes and giant spiders can live in trees too, and then my dream is once again shattered…thanks reality…boo.

And what goes up, must come down. In the form of ten thousand more stairs. And yes DFIL is on his cell…not going to even go there.

Awww look it's the kitchen! That would be so cool!

Until you are busy making fruit salad and a tiger sneaks up on you and gobbles you up for lunch, and you had no time to escape up into the tree because Fritz was playing around with the retractable ladder again and did not leave it down for you. See how this goes…..

So after our treehouse adventure we happened to come across Aladdin's Magic Carpets. Oh boy! Except they are not magic carpets at all. Nope. They are carpets of death. This might be the only ride in WDW that I absolutely hate. And my family knows this, and they do not care. They think it's funny to watch mommy have a panic attack on a children's ride. True Story.
DFIL said pass though and that is all that I needed to hear. I decided to sit out with him and keep him company while the other four defied death on the "magic carpets"

Just look at those happy faces. Its fear in the form of laughter I tell you. This ride is not normal. Moving on.

We made our way around to this familiar ride. I love pirates….ARGH!!! The queue in this ride is one of the few that I have a distinct memory of from my trip here as a teen and its one of my favorites. Great memories!

Obviously!
Once again my camera sucks in darkness so no ride pics….pity I tell you.
It was now 3:15 and we were about in embark on what would be our last ride at MK on this particular day. We just did not know it quite yet. What does that mean? Oh the suspense…..

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[DisneyKid4Life]

"Adventures in Adventureland"... Hey works for me!!!

Trust me Jenn, you are absolutely not alone in having not seen Dream Along in its entirety. And the reasons you gave are prime reasons why. The only way to really see it beginning to end is to plan to be there before showtime, and commit and wait. Which is really hard to do with so much going on. Lets face it, the hub is often just a gateway to another land (after stopping and staring at the castle of course). BUT... once you DO watch it all the way through, you're gonna fall in love with it.

Hehe, well at least the Treehouse didn't have a wait!

Hahahahaha, Magic Carpets of Death.

Oooh Pirates. Yup, very memorable queue, but for me it's all about the Disney Water smell.

 

[EastYorkDisneyFan]

I've always thought if Disney wanted to be really ridiculous they could use Swiss family treehouse as a stand by queue for the jungle cruise.

 

[thornton0511]

"Adventures in Adventureland"... Hey works for me!!!

Trust me Jenn, you are absolutely not alone in having not seen Dream Along in its entirety. And the reasons you gave are prime reasons why. The only way to really see it beginning to end is to plan to be there before showtime, and commit and wait. Which is really hard to do with so much going on. Lets face it, the hub is often just a gateway to another land (after stopping and staring at the castle of course). BUT... once you DO watch it all the way through, you're gonna fall in love with it.

Hehe, well at least the Treehouse didn't have a wait!

Hahahahaha, Magic Carpets of Death.

Oooh Pirates. Yup, very memorable queue, but for me it's all about the Disney Water smell.

Ha no kidding on the treehouse wait time! oh my goodness I still cannot believe your pic with the wait time....that was craziness!

I'm telling you those magic carpets are dangerous lol

Oh the Disney water smell....I had forgotten about that. Nice.

 

[thornton0511]

I've always thought if Disney wanted to be really ridiculous they could use Swiss family treehouse as a stand by queue for the jungle cruise.

Now that would be something for sure Can your imagine? oh my goodness

 

[thornton0511]

Life Lesson #4: Ponchos

We had just gotten off Pirates and were headed to what would inevitably be our last ride at MK. Splash Mountain. I love this ride. Our kids hate the drop, yet every year we are able to talk them into one more time lol. Every stinking time I have been on this ride we always take the time to put on the stupid ponchos and we NEVER get wet. EVER. You can probably guess where this post is going.
I figured with it being December and all that the splash mountain gods would take that in consideration and the water spraying would be at an all time low. Plus we have NEVER gotten wet on this ride. So what do we say? We don’t need no stinking ponchos……famous last words I assure you.
DFIL and Cory were in the back, DH and Sydney in the middle, and that left DMIL and myself in the front. "It's okay" I assured my DMIL "the front is the best we will not get soaked up here…I promise" and she believed me. Heck I really thought I knew what I was talking about too. So here I was, in the front, with my camera and video camera ready to go all commando with no poncho. We did not even make it around the first bend without the stupid water cannons exploding in the water by us. I thought we were under some kind of attack! Come on people it's freaking December for goodness sake. Meanwhile some CM's are in a control room somewhere laughing it up at the people in the log without ponchos. Well so much for pictures and video. And is it just me or is the water level a bit higher now? We had water sloshing in our log anytime we made a turn.
At this point I am pretty much at the point of no return and decided to just make the best of it. And I love this ride so much. Before you knew it I was in my laughing place having a good ole time, singing and dancing along with Brer Rabbit….then came the drop

It was like being on one of those boats that goes up to Niagara Falls. Completely soaked. But not all of us…oh no. Only row #1 got wet. Everyone else got off dry. Epic failure. DMIL tried to make the best of it by laughing it off. I tried but I was so miserably wet. Needless to say there would be no more park touring at this point. Never ever think you will be okay without a poncho. If you have it packed WEAR IT!! If the ride says "you will get wet" guess what? Life Lessons people….life lessons.
I debated putting this pic on the post because it Is very unflattering, but I think the TR would not be an honest one without it so here goes…..

Yeah we were pretty soaked. And ladies I am sure you will understand when I tell you that my hair….goodness where do I start. I have very naturally wavy hair and humidity and water are like kryptonite to me. So this look was only going to get worse unless I got back quickly to the resort.
It was tragic but we survived lol. We were back on a bus and headed back to AKL around 4pm.


Continued next post…..
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[DisneyKid4Life]

Um, yeah, the front gets wet. BUT, it wasn't a lie because you believed it.

Oh my Goodness, you DID get pretty wet.

 

[scottny]

The only things I care for on the tour are the Star Wars props. LOL.
I know we got our tickets upgraded a few years ago at Jambo House at Concierge but it was a testing period. The next at SSR they said they no longer do it. I always go to DTD guest relations, always so much faster than a theme park.
Good thing you brought all the bands. Whatever a CM tells you to do, do the opposite. LOL
Glad to see she upgraded them for last years prices.
Glad dinner was good. I have eaten there once and it was good.
Sounds like a goodnight. Nice pics of Illuminations.
I have yet to see the welcome show. One day I will.
I agree about Little mermaid ride, they did a great job.
The first time we did Dumbo they gave us a pager and we waited maybe 15 minutes in the play area just watching. The 2nd time we had the choice of going into the play area or go right on the ride.
Lunch looked good. Love the interaction there.
LOl. IO love getting wet on the rides. I posted something similar but in U.S.
Great updates and pics.

 

[thornton0511]

Um, yeah, the front gets wet. BUT, it wasn't a lie because you believed it.

Oh my Goodness, you DID get pretty wet.

never without a poncho again.....never ever

 

[thornton0511]

The only things I care for on the tour are the Star Wars props. LOL.
and don't forget about the ship from flight of the navigator
I know we got our tickets upgraded a few years ago at Jambo House at Concierge but it was a testing period. The next at SSR they said they no longer do it. I always go to DTD guest relations, always so much faster than a theme park.
Ah DTD did not realize that! That would have been so much easier
Good thing you brought all the bands. Whatever a CM tells you to do, do the opposite. LOL
No kidding
Glad to see she upgraded them for last years prices.
Glad dinner was good. I have eaten there once and it was good.
Sounds like a goodnight. Nice pics of Illuminations.
Thank you!
I have yet to see the welcome show. One day I will.
Scott you seriously should try rope drop sometime
I agree about Little mermaid ride, they did a great job.
The first time we did Dumbo they gave us a pager and we waited maybe 15 minutes in the play area just watching. The 2nd time we had the choice of going into the play area or go right on the ride.
Lunch looked good. Love the interaction there.
LOl. IO love getting wet on the rides. I posted something similar but in U.S.
Great updates and pics.

Thank you Scott

 

[thornton0511]

An evening with Dancing Lights and Bonus Fastpasses
Once we had made it back to Jambo House and I had gotten changed and cleaned up a bit we decided to explore the resort a bit while the in laws took an afternoon nap. That's when we noticed these guys…

Does anyone know why AKL has donkys?! LOL!
We found an area that has night vision goggles that you can use to look at the savanna at night. I took a note of this for a later time to come back to. Soon enough we had wandered around enough and the sun had set. That meant it was time for us to park hop over to our evening park. Backtracking just a bit I had forgotten to mention that we had run into the CM that offered us the extra FP's for the evening before and he asked if we ended up using them. We told him thank you again but that we had only had enough time to use one for test track (which came in handy considering we had ended up missing our scheduled FP+ time) but we were grateful for the extra one that we were able to use for that ride. At that point he was kind enough to extend the other two fastpasses for today so that we could have time to use them. This was a very nice gesture, and even though he had kind of ticked me off the day before, he seemed to genuinely want to make us happy so that got him a few extra points in my book for sure!

So anyways getting back we were now headed to Hollywood Studios. The plan was to walk through the Osbourne Spectacle of the Lights and maybe catch a few rides and then head over to DTD for dinner later. The in laws had decided to skip the evening events seeing how MK had wiped them out pretty good and they wanted to hang out at the resort for the evening instead. So it was just the four of us. We arrived just after 7pm.

We made our way down toward the big blue hat. This was not a recommended night for HS because of evening EMH and the crowds seemed to prove that.

Since we had some bonus FP's we decided the smartest thing to do was to head over to TSM…obviously! 90 minute standby…not for us!!!!

At first we were a little confused by a line that seemed to be going into the FP entrance

Then we realized this was the line. Weird. Soon enough though it started to move quickly and we were in the building.

We made our way through the FP queue

And within minutes we were ready for some shootin

I rode with DH again and here were the results. Sigh. I really am not very good at this game, but I still enjoy it!

It was now about 7:45pm and we made our way over to Star Tours.

We only rode twice (thank goodness cause I can only take so many times in a row) and on the second one Sydney got to be the rebel spy!

So after this we decided since it was now after 8pm we would make our way over to see the lights. After figuring out the way around to the entrance behind Muppet Vision, past all of the road blocks, we were met at a big crowd of people that did not seem to be moving. The lights seemed to be dancing and everyone was at a standstill. I guess when this happens they stop letting people enter, since no one is moving. Well eventually we made our way in.

There were quite a lot of people here but it was still a very cool experience. The fake snow falling was pretty cool too. The only thing was that it was not particularly cool this evening and so we had to use our imagination and pretend that it was cold out. So it made it a little strange to here Christmas music and have falling snow while we were wearing shorts and tank tops. I guess that Disney has not quite figured out how to control the weather inside the Disney bubble yet lol.
So anyways we walked around for about half an hour and decided that we had seen enough and it was time to get to DTD for some WPE. This would be a new one for us and one that I was really excited to try. The problem is that for some reason Disney does not have buses that go directly from the parks to DTD. I know that they were testing this from AK but not sure what became of that.
So I had to figure out the best way to get there from where we were…..and we all know how well this type of thinking works out after our little adventure to beaches and cream a few nights ago. Oh boy. Would I be able to put my Disney ninja skills to work and get us there, or would it be another epic failure….
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[Poohbear77]

Aww.. I love the last picture of the kids with their arms around each other. Such special memories

I'm really enjoying your report. You have an awesome family, and its great that your children were able to share this time with their grandparents. They will always remember it.

 

[thornton0511]

The Million Mile Walk to Downtown Disney

Okay so at 8:30pm we had decided to leave HS and made our way to the bus stops. The only thing I could think of was to catch a bus to a resort close to DTD. I knew that Saratoga Springs was close enough that you could see the resort from across the water at DTD and that they had a walkway to DTD. So that is the bus we decided to take. So far so good.
As soon as we got to the bus stop DS decided he had to go. Ugh. My kids for some reason have no in between time when they need to go. They are literally fine one minute and then out of the blue "I gotta go now" and they are doing the pee pee dance. Drives me crazy. DH left to go back to the park entrance to find a bathroom with DS while Sydney and I waited at the bus stop. And waited. And waited. Finally they made it back and I had never been happier for a Disney bus to take more than "20 minutes". No bus has arrived in the time they were gone, and trust me they were gone for a while.
Eventually a bus did arrive and we made our way to Saratoga. When we arrived for some reason we just got off at the first stop, which happened to be the Grandstand I think. I don't know why, seemed like the thing to do at the time, and honestly I guess I did not realize the gigantic size of this resort at the time. Holy cow! As soon as we got off DH asked "now what". Ummmmm……..find the lobby? We found a map of the resort and that is when we realized how big this place was. Sigh. Here we go again. Thankfully we spotted a CM on a golf cart and asked her how to get to the lobby. This was going to be a nice long walk. I really wanted her to invite us to hop on the golf cart and she would just drive us but alas she did not and we got to walking.
Eventually we made our way to the lobby located at the Carriage House. It was 9:15pm, are you taking note of the times? By this time we all had to go and were doing the pee pee dance. I figured while I was here I might as well take a picture of the lobby.

This was an older resort but it seemed very nice. The pure size of it reminded me a lot of CBR, only deluxe version. So now that we were at the lobby I had the genius idea that we should take the walkway to DTD. Seriously I wish one of you had been there to slap some sense into me and just get on a stupid bus lol. We found the walkway and proceeded down the trail past the golf course….strange and eerie this path was at night. We were also the only known beings on the trail too. I think we walked like a million miles to get to DTD. My feet were so sore at this point and my poor kids were exhausted. Once again I felt like I had let my family down, thinking I knew what the heck I was doing. I didn't have a clue.
Finally we had made it to DTD….only we were on the West Side! UGH are you SERIOUS right now?! Why oh why were we having suck unfortunate luck with this stuff. We all just felt so helpless at this point. It had been such a long day with no break and we were just tired. Plain and simple.
By 9:40 we had reached a boat that was leaving to make stops to the other points of DTD. Thank you Disney for having boat taxis! It felt so good to sit and have a boat breeze. We made our way toward Marketplace, making sure to get a picture of the scary high Characters In Flight Balloon

And finally we had arrived!

We ordered our food and sat down at 10:00pm. We had left HS an hour and a half ago….good grief. Another life lesson at Disney folks.
Continued next post……
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[thornton0511]

WPE…..NOM NOM NOM

We had gone though such an ordeal to get here, but now we were here and that is all that mattered! We had ordered our food and took our table thingy with us

Once we found a table we realized how incredibly cold the restaurant was. It was like I can't think straight cold. So we opted to move outside where the temperature was so much better! Then the food came and the nom noms could begin. First up DD's food…

Sydney went with the kids cheese pizza, milk to drink, and an incredibly yummy and large brownie for her dessert.
The rest of us all went with the same adult entrée….

Cavatappi Chicken Alfredo, minus the peas and with the bacon on the side. Soda to drink, and for dessert….

Crème Brulee ….of course! I think Cory's opted for a brownie.
This meal was so good y'all. After all the effort to get here it was so worth it. Yummy in my tummy! Now for some reason after dinner we must have been so delirious that DH asked if I wanted to go over to the World of Disney and get the Mickey's crocs that I had my eye on the other day. Seriously? Yeah! Why not…clearly we need no sleep at this point. And so we were off. This is craziness you guys.
We get there and they do not have my size. Of course. And no one seems to know anything about these shoes. For example do you have any more somewhere, maybe in the back or another department….and so on. Finally we took a pair and ended up in a section with villain décor and asked a nice CM behind the counter. She got on the phone and checked with someone. They were pulling up a pair in my size on their inventory, or something and were having someone bring them to where we were. Great. So in the meantime she went ahead and rang us up with the pair we had in our hand. Then we waited. And waited. We were getting good at this game. While we waited another CM came up and somehow we got to talking with these two and found out they were both in the DCP! Always a cool conversation to have and I wish I had known about this when I was that age!
At some point we found out that the pair apparently did not exist. Sigh. But and ever helpful CM did a little calling around and found that they had a pair in my size at the African outpost place in Epcot….that's random. And BTW let's just go ahead and put it out there that I do not have like ginormo feet or anything so that was not the issue here. Lol I wear a 7 1/2…..just so you know. Anyways we made the return on the shoes and left empty handed.
We headed back to the bus stop and at 11:45pm we were on a bus headed home to Jambo. What a long but exciting day…..

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[thornton0511]

Aww.. I love the last picture of the kids with their arms around each other. Such special memories

I'm really enjoying your report. You have an awesome family, and its great that your children were able to share this time with their grandparents. They will always remember it.

You are so sweet! Thank you very much. My sister and I had the opportunity to go to WDW with our grandparents when I was 14 and I will never forget it! I took with me some of the best memories....and also a love for Disney! We felt so blessed to have my kids grandparents join us for this trip and I am so glad that my kids, and my in laws, will now get to have these memories for the rest of their lives. It's a pretty cool thing.

 

[DisneyKid4Life]

Nice to hear that CM really did seem to want to help. Looks like the FP's came in handy too.

That's so cool she was the Rebel Spy!!!

Aww Jenn, that picture of your kids from behind looking out at the lights. THAT is a keeper. Honestly that is the most adorable thing. You need to frame that one.

Hehe, while your travel plans were I'm sure very painful, I have to admit I get a little excited now whenever I hear you're going from A to B just becuase I know the journey will be epic. Sorry about that. On the bright side, at least you worked up more of an appetite when you finally arrived, and everybody's smiling.

 

[thornton0511]

Nice to hear that CM really did seem to want to help. Looks like the FP's came in handy too.

That's so cool she was the Rebel Spy!!!

Aww Jenn, that picture of your kids from behind looking out at the lights. THAT is a keeper. Honestly that is the most adorable thing. You need to frame that one.

Hehe, while your travel plans were I'm sure very painful, I have to admit I get a little excited now whenever I hear you're going from A to B just becuase I know the journey will be epic. Sorry about that. On the bright side, at least you worked up more of an appetite when you finally arrived, and everybody's smiling.

Ha Ha Ha very funny Rob! Lol you are so right though. I did say that this trip was an adventure, and that is not a lie!

 

[thornton0511]

A Morning at Epcot

Today was Monday, December 9th. It was an Epcot morning. We were still pretty tired from our late night but when in Disney the excitement succeeds the sleepiness, most of the time. We were up and eating breakfast at 7:45am. I went with the breakfast of champions….obviously.

And yes this is my carrot cake cookie from Saturday and I had just now gotten around to eating it. Do not judge me lol. During breakfast we decided to see what friendly neighbors we had visiting. There were quite a few today!

We were wanting to get to Epcot as close to park opening as possible but not really rushing to get there this morning either. We ended up getting there just a little after 9am.

GAH! I love you EPCOT! AKFJSDREISDSKF!! Our first line of business was grabbing some paper fastpasses. Our FP+ selections were at our evening park for today. So DH took a left with our KTTWC to grab TT passes and I took the rest of the family to get Soarin FP's with our Disney tickets.

With fastpasses in hand we had a little bit of time to kill sooooo……

Since we were already here we decided to take a boat trip!

It was now 9:30 and we were headed to Living with the Land.

Hidden Minnie and a Christmas tree!

Hidden Mickey!

I love this ride and even though I do find it quite boring it's so relaxing and nice and cool during the warmer months!

Continued next post....



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[thornton0511]

The Shortest Ride with the Longest Queue

After this it was nearing 10am and only had 30 minutes until our TT FP were going to expire so we headed over to the other side of the park.

Even though we were using the FP line we had learned from the other night that it would be a long ride from start to finish with the new queue. No worries, because we were in no real rush this morning, and that made for a nice change of pace.


We patiently waited for the door to open up so that we could design our cars.

Once inside Cory got to work on his car.

This was the end product

And this was Sydney's….clearly.

Again we enjoyed our ride and I was even brave enough to pull the video camera out on this one. I believe Sydney's car won the race lol!

After the ride the kids took a few minutes to play with some sort of thing that let you race the car you designed around a miniature track or something. It was now almost 10:30am and we needed to head back across the park to use our Soarin' FP's
Continued next post…
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[thornton0511]

Soarin, Big Blue World, and the Beverly

After racing around the track at 60mph we started to make our way back to the Land Pavilion, stopping first to witness the pure awesomeness of the music synced fountains. It was now about 10:40 and we still had plenty of time before our Soarin' FP were to expire so I decided now would be a good time to take a little detour….to Club Cool.
I did this with my family on our first trip in 2011 but apparently they had not remembered the Beverly? How they could have blocked that from their memory was beyond me, but that would just make this more fun because I now had more victims..hehehehehe. I told everyone to try any flavor they wanted but to save the Beverly for last because it had the BEST aftertaste and some of the other might not be so good so it would be better to save the best one for last. I am such a liar. So everyone had their share of samples and it was now time for……THE BEVERLY. I had my camera and video camera ready for action as I did the count down, and here is the picture…..

DFIL…oh my goodness…..PRICELESS! On a side note every year we get home from our trip I put all of our pics together and make a shutterfly photo book of our trip and also a Disney home video. I just now finished the photo book and hope to get started on the video soon. I am a bit of a perfectionist with this and it takes forever, but totally worth it to have our memories stored like this. So hopefully when I get this done I can post it with this TR for anyone who wants to see. I have to be careful though because the one I made last year youtube took down because of the music I has attached to it. Whoops. If I can figure a way to post the ones from our past trips I will try to do that also. Anyways getting back….

It was now 11am and time for Soarin'. We have NEVER been on this ride. We actually braved all the way to the loading area where you watch the video last year and I chickened out at the last minute. The family followed me. We are not a heights loving family and I get dizzy just standing on a chair lol. But we had decided this year no matter what we were riding this. And so like any chicken we opted for the 3rd row….

Poor Sydney's got blinded by the flash. Meanwhile I had a death grip on the handle bars and yes I even used the extra strap to make sure that I did not slide out of the chair to an uncertain death below.
Overall I really did enjoy the ride. I just cannot relax enough up there to fully enjoy it. All of the family on the other hand loved it! They all wanted to sit on the top row the next time. Lol have fun…not me…nope I will stick to the back row thank you!

We next headed over to The Living Seas to take a journey with a little clown fish named Nemo. This is one of my DH's favorite rides…lol. He always gets teary eyed when they all sing about the big blue world at the end. I love him.

Afterward we stopped to take a peek at the aquariums.

Sydney's newest thing this year was the realization that the world is full of hidden Mickey's. She got really excited anytime she found a new one. So awesome. Thank you Disney!

At some point we found out that the manatee's were getting feed so we headed up there to check that out. We stood there for like 10 seconds looking at them and noticed a very bad smell. The manatees were very stinky. Needless to say we did not stick around and left.
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