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

[morgtroy]

This is the plan, the hope is to slow down and take it all in. We've done the comando style with dining plan, reservations to get to, tight schedule. This is to take in the holiday stuff, sure we'll ride the rides, but if we miss some, no biggie, we'll catch them next time. We'll eat when we get hungry. The only dining times to make are on our last day.
Again, if you know of any holiday thing, I'm leaving out, big or small, please let me know.

Day One
Arrival day
We won't get there until 4-ish.
So checkin and hit MK.
It will be packed, may catch some rides during first spectomagic,
then we'll catch the 2nd Spectro.
Maybe catch the judges tent to see Belle in her holiday dress.

Day Two
Epcot
Bright and early
Catch our favorite rides, & check out all the holiday decorations, and santas in WS.
Go back to room for a break
Come back to Epcot for earliest Candlelight Processional.
Catch the tree lighting ceremony

Day Three
AK
Go early.
Make sure to hit Camp Minnie Mickey to see characters in
their Christmas outfits, especially Santa Goofy. Love me some Goofy.
Leave early to rest then get ready for MVMCP.
But come back to catch AK parade then park hop over to MK
for the Christmas party.

Day Four
HS
Ride rides in the morning.
Parade
Then Osborne lights, possibly Fantasmic
May try to stay all day or if we rest, hit Downtown
Disney after Fantasmic.

Day Five
MK
Celebrating DD's Birthday
Crystal Palace Breakfast
Hit all rides we can early.
Parade at 3:00, go back to room.
Go back to MK catch Monorail stop at each resort to
take in Christmas decorations.
Eat at Park Fare
Check out the gingerbread house (buy a shingle, Thanks ToddyLu, and decorations.
After dinner, go to wilderness lodge to check out decorations
and Fort Wilderness.

Get lots of pics for my photopass.

Am I missing something?

 

[morgtroy]

I posted earlier that with my crazy life, 3 weeks would be a blink. Well here I am at 1 week and it was a blink. I've got a lot to do. I have these goals of things to get done before the trip. One of the goals was to get my Christmas tree up before the trip. I'm going to put our main tree up this weekend, but I had the idea last year to do a small disney tree. I had found some great deals on ornaments after Christmas. A friend of mine, who has a gift shop, sold me a "pencil" tree at a deal. He bought several new last year for his store and wasn't using this one. Pre-lite, snap together in 3 pieces. Gotta love that. I love my Disney tree. I put some red glitter sprigs at the top. You know fireworks.. but our tree is in need of a topper, that's going to be my souvenir this trip, to buy a tree topper.
Here are some pics though.

See the ribbons that I put our disney pins on. Having that tree up is putting me in the Disney Christmas mood.

I'm also starting to pull some things together for the trip. My new backpack... I watched this thing from the beginning of spring, thinking I'm not paying $25.00 for a backpack when I have a plain ole backpack that's fine. Then it went on sale for $12 something and with extra coupon, I had to have it. I love all the compartments, the fact that it's insulated..extra padding and keep my things dry.

I also made us some Christmas shirts to wear to the MVMCP. I think they turned out cute. Thanks dis for my starting design...I edited it a little. I also added a little Mickey and Minnie on the sleeves.

When we did the tree, I went ahead and gave the kids some pins I got for them to trade. Gotta love ebay. They are like me..."I really don't want to trade that one." But we decided on a few to trade. Here are our lanyards we're taking. DD is not sure about the "Minnie Girl" pin, so she said, only if I find a Minnie I like better will I trade that one. DS is the same over the Jungle book one. I've always called him my "Man Cub" so Mowgli is special, he's only going to trade for a "better Mowgli". Ha! Ha!
Last year we were very lucky to win Fast Passes to MK and Epcot and the Dream lanyard pin sets. Gotta keep an eye out for the dream team this trip, since that is getting ready to end.

I've also checked the forecast and it's looking super. Let's pray it stays great. Highs range from 66-78° and lows range from 47-55°. No rain in our days SO FAR.

 

[tmkinney]

Hey, I just found your report. Love the Christmas tree and the shirts you made, very cute. Did I mention I'm totally jealous you will be in Disney in a week?!

I love the backpack too, just hope yours fairs better than mine did!!

 

[morgtroy]

Thanks. I hope the backpack holds up too. After you told me about the straps I tried to tug on them to see if they seemed weak. I also thought about sewing them to reinforce them, but the insulated part would probably not fit in my machine. They didn't seem weak, but that doesn't mean they won't come apart later. I actually read someone else's TR and they had similar problems with their backpack. Oh well.

We are getting excited about the trip.

 

[morgtroy]

Ok, in just a few days, we'll hear those special words..."Welcome Home"
First we'll see this wonderful sight (after several hours in the car)

We'll check in and check out our beautiful resort. Hoping with that we get our room request. I'll meet up with my DVC friend.

Then we'll head over to MK and see this for the first time this trip.

We'll probably ride some rides and then catch this...

Then we'll catch wishes...

I'm like everyone else, by the castle.

But all these gorgeous sites will be decorated for the holidays, which I've never seen. Can't wait.

 

[morgtroy]

Next day we'll hit Epcot. Love Epcot in the mornings..We love all the rides in FW and then there's nothing like having WS to yourself when it opens.
I may let the kids do the passports this time. I hope to spend more time in each country. We hit it all last time but I have to admit, the first half of WS we spent lots of time in each country, but the 2nd half we just went through kind of hurried.
But this will be a nice sight early in the morning.

We'll have to hit our favorite ride.

And then our others favorites.

And don't forget Soarin, sorry I don't really have a pic for that one.

We'll have to hit the:

And all the while, keep our eyes peeled for the Dream team. No really, who doesn't love winning something, but I'm not going expecting it. We were so very blessed with year of a million dreams last time, if we don't see them that's ok. Thanks Disney, that was a wonderful promotion, we have really enjoyed it.

We'll catch some lunch in WS, not sure where yet...and enjoy all this.

Maybe we'll run into these:

Can't miss the school bread at the Kringla Bakery. Love that.

And later we'll catch the candlelight processional and the tree lighting ceremony.

 

[morgtroy]

Can't wait to see this...

And catch some of our favorites here like the safari

and hopefully this time we'll all ride..

and then the rest of our favorites..

Maybe we'll see these...

And we have to try to catch this, our favorite show. love the music...

We'll try to go back and rest and come back later for the parade and then park hop over to MVMCP..Yipppeeee


Firsts this trip for AK will be...
All the Christmas decorations..
Camp Minnie Mickey (we've been but now when they have all the themed trees or the characters dressed in Christmas attire)
All ride Expedition Everest (we'll see?)
The Christmas parade.

We've never done the train ride to rafitki's planet watch

 

[morgtroy]

Can't get used to this "Hollywood Studios" thing.
But like all the parks, I love this one early in the morning. We'll have to race to Toy Story mania, can't wait to try that, then it's off to RNRRC, we're all planning to ride that one this time.

They're brave now, we'lll see when we get there. My DD, sometimes known as "chicken little" thinks she's up for everything, except maybe tower of terror. The height thing scares her. But we'll see.

Which way will we go next?

Love the characters at HS...

Funny story here, last year while waiting for the parade, one of the street performers pointed my DD out and asked her to come out, he needed her to help him make a commercial about popcorn He told her to say "This is the best tasting popcorn I've ever had." He got this other lady to turn the camera. Then he told her take 2, add a laugh at the end, so she did. Of course she was giggling the whole time. He then gave my hubby a fake hundred to "pay her agent" and gave her an academy award necklace with a little trophy on the end. It was very cute. Here's the guy, he was great.

Love a parade, we'll have to catch it this time, they changed to the block party parade after our last trip.

Love the balloons before the parades.

Firsts for this coming trip at HS:

All the holiday stuff, especially Osborne lights.
Toy Story Mania
We want to do the drawing class.
High School Musical, (they weren't performing last trip, they were changing over for High School Musical 2. Hope they aren't changing for 3 this time. )
All of us ride RNRRC, and hopefully Tower of Terror.
See the Sorcerer Mickey, (he's so cute)

 

[morgtroy]

I'm throwing all this at you, I've got to cook and pack today
Seeing these old pics gets me excited. I'll keep it going for all you lurkers. Thanks for checking this out...
This day will be my DD's special day. We will celebrate her birthday this day. Her actual birthday will be the following week. This trip came together quick and there wasnt' any DVC availability on her birthday.

We'll start with a before park opening

With a trip to

I started to cancel this a few times, since we have a dining for dinner this night, but decided to keep it. We'll finish up our last day with a bang.

Then we'll hit all our favs...

Found the dream team here last trip and won FP for MK.

'

Not my favorite, but the kids love it.

We'll have to get our jokes ready...

Maybe see the show..

Or run into some characters..
Maybe stop here for some figero fries. Yummy

And of course all the while take tons of pics of the castle

We'll catch the parade then go back and rest. Then we'll go back to MK to catch the monorail and do a resort tour stoppping at each to get some Christmas decoration pics. Until we get to GF, where we'll have dinner at 1900 park fare. And do a little shopping. I want to check out the spa shop with the bath balls and let DD make her own lipgloss.
Then we'll go back to MK catch the bus or boat to WL so I can see allt he decorations there. Love the WL, I hope to stay there on a future trip sometime.

Firsts this trip for MK...
Well, all the Christmas things.
Meet and greet with tinkerbell.
Hit the Make your own ears store.
Try a tinkerbell slushy..
Tom Sawyer Island

 

[morgtroy]

That's it, I won't get a chance to post again before we leave.
Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
I hope you all have great time with your families for Thanksgiving.
I know we all have so much to be thankful for.
God is a great God and worthy to be praised.

Pray for our traveling safety and I'll post when we return.

 

[bellasmommy0]

That's it, I won't get a chance to post again before we leave.
Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
I hope you all have great time with your families for Thanksgiving.
I know we all have so much to be thankful for.
God is a great God and worthy to be praised.

Pray for our traveling safety and I'll post when we return.

Have a great trip!! Happy thanksgiving!!

 

[morgtroy]

We had a great time, I've started a TR in a new links see below in my signature. I hope I can do this and keep it updated...keep in mind I'm a newbie at this TR stuff...
Go to the new link, I already posted a couple pics.
Thanks for reading.

 

[morgtroy]

Hi everyone, I'm back...and very tired I might add. We had a wonderful time. The "world" was so, so beautiful with all the decorations.
I'll have to gather myself and get my real life, back into swing.
But let me just start by saying OH MY GOSH, THE CASTLE WAS SO, SO GORGEOUS, and you'll be able to tell that by the thousands of pics I took of it.
And the characters in the holiday wear. So darn cute.

As with any Disney trip, there's always one or two things you didn't fit in and that just keeps you coming back or saying, ok, we'll get it next time.
I am a disney freak...

I took so, so many pictures of all the decorations. So hope you come on board for the ride.

 

[bellasmommy0]

I am in! We leave on Saturday morning, and I am so excited I cant contain myself..so any pics I see of yours today and tommorow are going to make it worse!!! Glad you had a great trip!!

 

[MiaBella05]

subscribing

 

[heaven2dc]

Count me in too!! I'll be there in 8 days and can hardly wait to see all the holiday decorations!

 

[morgtroy]

Our trip started with a 9.5 hr drive. Not something I'd want to do every week or even every month, but now and then not too bad. Considering gas has come down so much, I think it only costed between $75.00 and $80.00 to get there and back. If were just 2 of us going, I'd fly, but more than 2 it's hard to justify the cost. That and you can take pretty much anything you want in the car.

We arrived around 3 something. As some of you know from following my pretrip, I won an amazing prize, use of DVC points for 3 years. And I have to admit I'm still so, so blown away by this. I feel very humbled. lucky and blessed by this. I have to say it again, God has blessed me over and above anything I could ever deserve and in so many ways outside of winning this prize.

So this was my first stay using the points. Really this trip came to be because of the points. I had booked a trip for March for my big birthday and a week or so after booking it, I got the call about the prize.
I've felt extremely lucky to just stay at a value resort inside disney world in the past, so this DVC stuff is just amazing...

The trip came together quickly, I've always wanted to go while the world was decorated for Christmas and I had heard the 1st or 2nd week in Dec was a good time to go. So I called and got a room at Saratoga Springs.
We got there with no trouble at all, great traffic and I love the GPS telling me to keep right or keep left as the road/lanes change and merge.
So we see this first.

Then we see the resort and drive up to hear the sweetest words "Welcome home." Saratoga springs is a really pretty resort. It is a large resort and I wasn't sure what section we'd get. I entered the beautiful lobby to see the huge Christmas tree and decorations. I let the kids take some pictures while I checked in.

It only took a few minutes, the CM was great and said "Congratulations, I see you're a winner." She also gave my DD a birthday pin since we were essentially celebrating her birthday this trip. Her actual birthday is this week.

Guess what section we got...."Congress Park". It ended up being a great section for us. We brought food and planned on eating in the room for breakfast and light suppers. The room was really nice and the view was terrific. I'll post some more pics of the Congress Park area later.
And you walked out of our patio doors

to this view....

Downtown disney across the lake.

I will have to say if you plan on using the food court any I don't think you'd want to be in the Congress park section. It's really too far to walk to the main building. But we didn't miss that at all. We also didn't even use the pool. We were busy on our warmer days and didn't have any desire to use the pool on the cooler days. But each section has it's own pool. I'll post some pics of the pools later.
The kids and I even walked to Downtown Disney one night. A really short walk from Congress Park. I have to say the main thing I noticed about Saratoga Springs is how quiet and peaceful it is there. As I've only stayed at Value resorts where everyone there is using the food court, lobby area and the same bus stop. All merging to the same spot. Saratoga springs was not this way. Only 6-10 other people at the bus stop with us and that's about all the people we saw in and around the hotel. Bus stop was right out front of our building. The bus system was not a problem for us during our stay, however I could see it being more of an issue in the peak of summer crowds. On the way to the parks, Congress parks was the 4th stop, and the bus only stopped once at Springs section before heading on to the parks. On the way back the bus stopped at Grandstand, then paddock then Carosel, then congress park and I asssume then springs. Wasn't a problem during our stay. And one super thing about Saratoga springs is the bus stops leaving the parks were all super close, 2nd 3rd or 4th stop. That was my main complaint about Pop Century, the bus stop at all the parks was pretty much the last shelter at the parks.
So enough about the resort...we jump the bus to Magic Kingdom. I knew it would be crowded Friday and Sat and hoped for lower crowds the rest of our stay. Tonight was a Spectromagic night, which was the real reason we were starting off in MK.

Can't you just here the MK music kicking in on the bus?
Here's a few pics of our first looks at MK...

And this guy was out front.

Was it crowded? Did we get to see Spectromagic? Tune in next time when I say.."How long is the wait time?"

 

[MAGICFOR2]

I'm subbing! Congratulations on your win - looks like it couldn't have happened for nicer people! Your trip looks beautiful so far! We are owners at SSR - love it!

 

[MJAJmom]

I'm here for the show!!! I want to see all the christmas decorations. Did you go to MVMCP?? The entrance of MK is so pretty with all the wreaths and garland.

 

[OhMari]

I see that they have added more flower decorations in front of the MK. The Mickey head made with poinsettia's were not there Nov. 12th yet.

I looked for your link to your pre-trip. How did you win the DVC for 3 years? Was it part of the YOAMD?