Joy in the World, A Christmastime TR of sorts. Lots of pics.

[morgtroy]

At the entrance

We make our way to one of our favorite rides

We had a very short wait, was more like just a slow down..

It was such a pretty day. I told them to go ahead and ride mission space and I'd run get soarin fast passes. Man there was a line and our return time was 12:30 I believe..
So we rode a few more rides and messed around in innoventions.

We also did Honey I shrunk the audience, for the first time. It was closed for refurbishment before.

The kids love the dolphins and sea turtles.

Love the "hidden mickey" in the tank

We did where's the fire and Troy played on some of the games. And we ran into these 2.

We took a break and had some of the little PB and J sandwiches for lunch.

Then we went to do the The land ride and it would be time for Soarin.
They even had a Christmas tree in the land.

Now it was time for Soarin

So we ride, get middle row. All morning my DD has said her stomach doesn't feel great. She doesn't handle greasy foods, but we were pretty sure she had not had anything greasy.
We were getting ready to head back to the room to rest and on the way out of the Land, my DD gets sick, Not a nice thing.. I told the CM so they could get a clean up crew and luckily she was able to wipe up with the wipes I had in the bag. She felt a little sluggish the rest of the day but other than that was fine. We headed out any way and she took a good nap in the room.
I have to say thank the good Lord that she did not get sick while we were on Soarin. That would have been so horrible

Continued in next post

 

[morgtroy]

She felt better thank goodness, so we were hoping it was just something she ate.
I have to also add that first thing this morning we ran into the Dream Team member that gave us the Dream Lanyards last year. He is so super nice and remembered us and we talked for a while. He said they should be giving something away in the next hour, to keep our eyes open for him.
We saw very little of the dream team, or very little evidence of them. I only saw a few people with fast passes and one family with dream ears. I know it's winding down. But on our way out we ran into him and another CM again. My son was trading pins with the other cm and he traded for a Minnie 08 for his sister. She had gone to the bathroom with my MIL. When our guy heard he traded for his sister he gave him a tinkerbell pin for spreading the magic.
Here's a pic of it.

On our way out the kids posed for another pic.

So how did the rest of the day go? Will we be able to come back for Candlelight processional tonight?

 

[morgtroy]

We have gone there for Christmas..twice. Once in 2002 and after I said I'd never go at Christmas again found ourselves there again in 2004. I'm thinking first week in Dec should be no crowds.

Yes, I do not think I'd want to be there Christmas week, I can't imagine how the crowds would be. I was a little surprised thinking the crowds would be lighter than they were on Mon. Tue. (first week of Dec.) but then again, I've only gone in Sept. I went with the mindset to just take in all the Christmas stuff I could and it was wonderful.

 

[scottny]

Hi,
Just read your report and loving it. I will be there on Saturday (hoping crowds won;t be too bad) and loving the decorations and cannot wait to see them in person.

Thanks for sharing.

And you can never post too many pics.

 

[morgtroy]

Hi,
Just read your report and loving it. I will be there on Saturday (hoping crowds won;t be too bad) and loving the decorations and cannot wait to see them in person.

Thanks for sharing.

And you can never post too many pics.

Thanks, I know you can't wait to get there. I hope you have a magical trip.

 

[MJAJmom]

I love all the christmas decorations at MK and Epcot. This year we went to MNSSHP and I'm thinking about going to MVMCP next year to see all the holiday decorations. Everything looks so festive!

 

[morgtroy]

I love all the christmas decorations at MK and Epcot. This year we went to MNSSHP and I'm thinking about going to MVMCP next year to see all the holiday decorations. Everything looks so festive!

I'll post more about the MVMCP later. We had done MNSSHP last fall. We had a lot of fun but it started raining and made for a wet time. But we still enjoyed it. Nothing like Trick or treating in the Magic Kingdom We still sing the "Boo to you and you and you and ... " music from the Halloween parade. I have some good and bad on MVMCP, stay tuned.

 

[scottny]

Thanks, I know you can't wait to get there. I hope you have a magical trip.

Thank you.

 

[OneTreeHillAddict]

Oh Epcot is gorgeous! I love the way it's decorated!!! Thanks for taking so many great pictures. I'm sorry to hear your DD got sick. Poor baby. That's not good. (At least it was after the ride) My baby is crazy over the Pluto decor. I have to agree, it's the cutest thing I've seen all day.

How'd you like HISTA? I can't stand it. I wish they'd put something a little less dated in there. To think it offers a fast pass!? That one and Drew Carey's thing can go away any time now and I wont shed a tear.

 

[heaven2dc]

Hi,
Just read your report and loving it. I will be there on Saturday (hoping crowds won;t be too bad) and loving the decorations and cannot wait to see them in person.

Thanks for sharing.

And you can never post too many pics.

I will be arriving on Saturday too! Altho no plans yet for which park since I will be by myself the first 4 days but Epcot is always my fav and first one I want to see. My DS15 was supposed to join me on this trip & we originally had plans to go to Epcot & eat lunch at Teppan Edo but now that he's not going, I have no plans

Hope you have a fun trip - 3 days, 19 hours and 28 mins to go!!

 

[morgtroy]

I forgot to mention we rode spaceship earth. It was closed for refurb last time. We got a kick out of our futures at the end
Here's a few pics.

I had also grabbed FP for Test Track before we left to use that night when we came back.
So we go back to the room and rest a while. DD took a good long nap. No fever or anything so we assumed it was just something she ate. She said she felt better was ready to go. That's my disney girl
We head to epcot.

Go do TT at night. this ride

The kids had to try out the cars. Notice the parade wave on DD.

Then we head over to WS. Get first looks of the decorations and lighted arch and tree, wow!
so pretty.

So very pretty

Continued next post

 

[morgtroy]

We are trying to get to Candlelight proc. I had orginally hoped to go to the earliest show, but with DD nap and stuff we didn't get back as early as I hoped. So we eat at Catina CS in Mexico and race to the America Theatre. I stopped off at Kringla (sp?) bakery in Norway. I had to get some school bread. Ended up with school bread, sweet pretzel for kids, and a Creme horn to bring home for hubby.
The Norway story tellers were out, so the kids and my MIL stayed out and listened to them. They took these pics.

I had a really good one of the kids with them, but didn't get it uploaded.

Here are some pics from inside the bakery. Their decorations.

I don't remember where these guys were at.

We dash on over to the America Theatre and it's filling up. A CM asks us how many are in our party, we say 4, she says I think we'll get you in. I sure hope we get in. She proceeded to say, if we get everyone in, it will be the first time tonight. So the first 2 shows they turned away. Guess it worked out we didn't make it to the early show.
So we get in, but do have a seat in the back. That's fine, we have a seat. It was such a pretty, and moving show. I love that Disney reads the Christmas story and the choir was wonderful. It was very moving. John O'Hurley was the narrator that night. Great voice for the job. Being the Seinfeld freak that I am, he will forever be Mr. Peterman.
I tried to get a few good pics.

After the processional we head around WS to to pick a spot for Illuminations. Here are some sights along the way.
America

I'll post the illuminations pics after this post. But here are a few more pics of things as we left Epcot after Illuminations.

Again, the tree up front.

 

[morgtroy]

I have to say that both Wishes and Illuminations seemed to go on forever this time. I don't know if it's because it was still Thanksgiving week. I'm sure they do more during a holiday week, than my past trips in Sept. But it was so very pretty.
Who wants pictures and lots of them?

WOW, it was so wonderful. Just when I thought it was over they added a part about our upcoming year and played a peace on earth song and more fireworks. It was amazing. These are some of my favorite pics from this trip.

 

[OneTreeHillAddict]

Epcot is so beautiful!!! I can not wait to see it myself. Seems like EVERYTHING is decorated over there!

 

[disneydusted]

I just found your report. What an incredible gift you guys have been given... awesome! I've been enjoying your pictures, I didn't know that the castle changed colors when it has its "icing" on, very pretty!

 

[morgtroy]

I left off we were leaving Epcot late. DD had done fine the rest of the day. We're on the bus headed back to Saratoga. Halfway thru the stops at Saratoga my DS says, "I don't feel so good." So I talk him out of it, wait a few minutes, we're almost there.... You know how we moms do.
We make it, get off the bus and head to the room. He gets sick on the way Then he says he feels fine. We get ready for bed. Then the next morning we get up. Everyone says they are fine ready to go. So I put a bag in my backpack just in case anyone gets sick again. We had one more small incident with my DS, but that was it. They were better and if it was a bug, my MIL and I didn't get it, even after sharing drinks with the kids before it all happened.

So we get to AK to see their tree.

I love the lions on this tree. We stopped for some photopass pics.

Then off to the safari.
This guy was following along playing jingle bells.

Then we ran into this guy on the way out.

 

[morgtroy]

We then went to Camp Minnie Mickey

The themed trees were really cute. I don't know what they are, sorry I didn't take notes. But this was Minnie's tree, (limited view)

This was pluto's tree.

This is goofy's

This was Lilo's tree. I got a real kick out of it. The Elvis 45, and the surfboards and Lilo's doll on top. Too cute

This was stitch's tree

I think this is Mulan's tree

This was Donald's tree

We had a lot of fun with the characters.

 

[scottny]

great update and pics.

I am so excited to see the decorations, thanks for posting them.

 

[OneTreeHillAddict]

Again EXCELLENT pictures! So many trees at the AK! Love it! I love how the characters are all dressed up too. I hate that the kids got sick but luckily it was over fast. Maybe it was something they ate?

 

[morgtroy]

We ran into Pocahontas on our way out.

And the kids did some more pin trading. They really enjoyed that this time.

So we had hit camp Minnie Mickey so we go over to FP EE. We haven't ridden this before and were really looking forward to it.

Our return time was 1:30. So we went to Dino land, rode Triceratop Spin and the Dinosaur ride. The wait for Primeval Whirl was like 1 hr. (that's a slow mover.) It started to rain while we were on Triceratop Spin, but not bad.

Then it was raining harder as we ducked into Dinosaur ride.

Our ride photo is so funny. My DD had a death grip on my arm. I asked her to look for the finger marks on my arm when we got off.

When we came out, sun was shining? So we were hungry, the kids wanted to play, so I let my MIL go with them in the boneyard. She sat at the entrance, one way in, one way out. I ran in restaurantsaurus to grab the kids happy meals and me and MIL were going to grab lunch at Flame tree.
I got the happy meals, come out to get them to go to flame tree. DD can't find DS and MIL hasn't seen him lately. What? I told DD to walk back through the playground and look again. MIL is looking around the ground level play area. No sign of him.
So I get MIL to come out and I start frantically looking for him. DD said she checked the dig part already. I asked a CM he said check the dig area, usually if they get missing that's where they're at. Ok but it's already been checked. I keep telling myselft there's one way in and one way out. He has to be in here. I was about to flip out. I got to the dig area and didn't see him, but I walked all the way down the steps and there he was. Thank goodness. I was fussing at him and he was like, I was just digging.
So, if you ever loose your kid in the boneyard, go all the way down the steps in the dig zone. If they are playing near the wall part, you can't see them unless you go all the way down.
So we go on to flame tree and eat. I had a BBQ sandwich, MIL had a turkey sandwich. We both thought they were good. The kids were back to normal and ate all their food.
We still had a little time before EE fastpass, so we went to bugs life.

Love this show. MIL let out a few little screams. She had not done this one.

We came out of Bugs Life to a monsoon (sp?) rain storm. With some thunder and winds.
We poncho-ed up and headed out but it was aweful. So we ducked under a gift shop awning for a few minutes, then ducked in the gift shop later with everyone else. One guy asked me, "Where did you get that poncho?" As he was headed to buy the expensive ones in the gift shop. I said I brought it from home. He was like "smart". I didn't have the heart to tell him it was a 2 pk at the dollar store for $1.00. Someone in front of me bought a few ponchos and I heard the total. Sixty something. Ouuch!

The rain eased up a little and we weren't planning on staying much past lunch, we were going to MVMCP tonight. So we head for the buses, that we weren't going to ride EE. (Missed it last time because of rain)
So as we're leaving the rain is hard again, wind is rough. There was a even a small tree down in the jungle area as we were leaving the park
So even with ponchos we were soaked. Shoes sloshing, capris wet. My DS says this stinks, meaning being soaked and not getting to ride EE.
I looked around at all the wet people at the bus stop, I told my MIL, "it could be worse, we could be like the lady behind us, have white tank top on and no poncho."

So we head back to the room. I'm getting worried about MVMCP. The weather was a little crazy, they even had tornado watches out. We got rained on at MNSSHP last time, we still had fun, but we were wet. So I make some calls to see if there's a way to change our tickets to the Tues night party since we'll still be here for that one. They told me I'd have to got to MK to guest services and see. So we decide, if they will change them we will. It would mean we'd have to cancel Park Fare on Tues night, but we'd try to get in somewhere tonight if we can?
So we go to MK. It had stopped raining for the moment but started sprinkling again. So Guest services changed the tickets, no problem.
Continued in next post.