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

[morgtroy]

This is the picture we used for our Christmas card this year. Katie is really growing fast.

 

[cheerky]

I hope you had a great trip. How were the crowds when you were there?
Our Katie is a handful. She's already spoiled. We got her all off schedule being off for the holidays. We are all off schedule too. I'm trying to get back in the work mode...as you can see, I'm not doing so well.
I'll post a pic of Katie below.

Awww....Katie is so adorable! Our Katie was a handful too. Retrievers are really smart. She'll learn quickly. Katie housebroke fast, never chewed anything and can go out off leash and come right back- so good and so sweet. I hope your Katie is just as good!
The crowds were light to moderate while we were there. They certainly picked up over the weekend (12/20-21) but never like spring break time. We stayed at the WL and loved it! Trust me, its worth every penny. We usually stay off-site to offset the expense of disney but I have a feeling we will be back at the Lodge. (Hopefully, next year same time!) The free dining promotion really helped us out.

 

[morgtroy]

Awww....Katie is so adorable! Our Katie was a handful too. Retrievers are really smart. She'll learn quickly. Katie housebroke fast, never chewed anything and can go out off leash and come right back- so good and so sweet. I hope your Katie is just as good!
The crowds were light to moderate while we were there. They certainly picked up over the weekend (12/20-21) but never like spring break time. We stayed at the WL and loved it! Trust me, its worth every penny. We usually stay off-site to offset the expense of disney but I have a feeling we will be back at the Lodge. (Hopefully, next year same time!) The free dining promotion really helped us out.

I hope our Katie will do good training, she's impressed me already, but we got her messed up with our off schedule last week.

Now you're worrying me... we are supposed to go back in March..I've never been in the spring, and I was thinking it would be crowded, but hoping it would not be like it was the weekend after Thanksgiving. At least Easter is in April this year, not March. I was able to get my last meal reservations today and had my pick of times at all the places I wanted, even Le Cellier and Ohana's. I hope that's a good sign that crowds won't be as bad But the new dining system is all crazy, so that may be why I got the reservations easy, who knows. The weekends are always so much more crowded than weekdays.

 

[OneTreeHillAddict]

Just stopping by to say Hi! I hope you and your family has a blessed Christmas!

 

[morgtroy]

Just stopping by to say Hi! I hope you and your family has a blessed Christmas!

Thanks for stopping by. I hope you and your family had a great Christmas too and have lots of "magic" in the New Year. Welcome Back, I checked last week to see that you were back, I'll be waiting to hear how your trip was and see all your pics. I'm sure you had a blast.

 

[morgtroy]

So when I left off, me and DD had took the boat to wilderness lodge and were going to Epcot to catch a little more of WS, for a couple hours while my MIL and DS went back to the room to rest a little before MVMCP.

We waited about 10 minutes at WL for the Epcot bus. As soon as we got there we went to the right to go around WS. I was hoping to catch some more of the holiday storytellers in each country since we only saw a couple on Sunday night when we were here for the candlelight processional.

Here are a few of the sights we saw along the way.

We even saw "The Beatles" for the first time. Loved it, they were really good.

We knew we really only had a couple hours, we too wanted to rest a little.
So our goal was to go to the Liberty Pavillon and then go back.
When we got there we saw Mr and Mrs. Claus. How Sweet.
But they were closing the line soon and they had spent the time with Santa at Downtown Disney. I was happy just to get their picture.

Then we caught the marching band..

We were starving at this point and I had read good things about the food here so we went inside to eat.

As we went in we saw this really cute, really large gingerbread house just inside. I would have never known it was there. And that's how I still feel about WS, that there's still so much there I haven't seen and don't know about, even after 3 trips

Me and DD split a hamburger and fries, we didn't want to eat too much since it wouldn't be too long til we ate again. The food was really good and a guy in front of me ordered a BBQ sandwich there that looked and smelled great. I'll have to try one of those next time.

Got a few more pics of the tree in the American area. It was so pretty.

Then we started back around the lagoon. I would have taken the boat back across, but it was on the other side. I knew it would be quicker to walk.

On the way out DD begged and pleaded to ride spaceship earth again. She just loved the little "us in the future" cartoons at the end. I finally agreed. She also wanted to ride TT, but I said, "No way, if your brother finds out that he'd be really mad at us." That's one reason he decided to go with my MIL to the room, we said we weren't riding rides we were going to WS.
So we just rode SE. Here are some more of our cartoons..

So back to the room to rest a little. Again, just as I enjoyed the time with my son on the night before when we stayed and rode TT, I had a great time with just me and my DD. We usually try to do this a little when we go as a family, have a little one on one time and it is great, makes each child feel special.

Up next, our last night, Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party!

 

[cheerky]

I hope our Katie will do good training, she's impressed me already, but we got her messed up with our off schedule last week.

Now you're worrying me... we are supposed to go back in March..I've never been in the spring, and I was thinking it would be crowded, but hoping it would not be like it was the weekend after Thanksgiving. At least Easter is in April this year, not March. I was able to get my last meal reservations today and had my pick of times at all the places I wanted, even Le Cellier and Ohana's. I hope that's a good sign that crowds won't be as bad But the new dining system is all crazy, so that may be why I got the reservations easy, who knows. The weekends are always so much more crowded than weekdays.

I think you'll be fine in March. Your not first-timers so you know the in's and out's of the parks. We've been in the spring many times during Easter week and not during Easter week. Easter time is the time to avoid. Have a great trip...where will you be staying this time?

 

[disneydusted]

The Epcot pictures were great! I like the rainbow in the fountain of nations. It's nice that you made fun memories with your daughter.

 

[morgtroy]

I think you'll be fine in March. Your not first-timers so you know the in's and out's of the parks. We've been in the spring many times during Easter week and not during Easter week. Easter time is the time to avoid. Have a great trip...where will you be staying this time?

Ok, thanks for the info. I've never been in the spring months. We're going for my birthday. We had actually made a reservation before I won the prize, but I changed it to DVC after we won. Right now we're scheduled for half week at Animal Kingdom Lodge and half week at Old Key West. I keep saying it, but I am so, so aware of how blessed I am and am soooo grateful for winning the prize, that's the only way this is possible.

The Epcot pictures were great! I like the rainbow in the fountain of nations. It's nice that you made fun memories with your daughter.

Thanks for your sweet comments. The rainbow was an added bonus in that pic My DD keeps wanting a trip with just the 2 of us, which would be super, but the guilt I'd have over my DS would be hard. My DH and DS are big sportsmen, if they planned a fishing/hunting trip for the same time, we MAY be able to pull it off.

 

[scottny]

great update and pics.

that is great how you spent time with each individually.

I agree there is a lot to at WS. Just another reason to go back.

 

[morgtroy]

Mickey's Very Merry, scratch that, very CROWDED Christmas party. Ok, I admit, I have been spoiled going in September on my past trips and had no crowds and pretty much walk on rides except on the weekends, then there was a little wait. But I kind of thought the special events were something they sold smaller amounts of tickets to, so you had a "private party" experience. I can hear some of you as you read this...

We still had fun, but this was the most crowded time of the entire trip. We did the Halloween party last year and had a blast at it, even though it rained really hard during part of it. And we had a good time at the Christmas party too. In fact, my kids still talk about the Dance party. And now that it's been about a month, the good things about it are what stand out in my mind, more than the crowds. The other challenge of the night was that it was down right FREEZING cold. I had packed some long sleeve shirts and a sweatshirt for us, but only light jackets. Well this night, as you'll see in some of my pics of others in the background called for, heavy coats and hats. I did see a couple people in shorts and thought, ok Lord, thank you for my light jacket.

We got there before the actual kickoff at 7:00, I think around 6:00. Here are some random shots early in the night.

And they had this set up that later Stitch was there for photos, but a family was trying to take separate pics of themselves and I volunteered to take their pic for them and they did the same for us.

We then tried to get in the Twas the night before Christmas first show and that wasn't going to happen. It was full, so we rode the transit authority train and we also did the Laugh Floor to be inside from the cold. Then we decided to get something to eat, but the line was already forming for the second show of Twas the Night before Christmas. So my MIL and DD waited in line there while me and DS hit Cosmic Rays for chicken nuggets and fries to bring back and eat while in line. When we got back the line was longer, they had ropes up, and I was worried we couldn't get to them, but they were standing beside a flower area so we walked down the curbing and got to them. They were worried we couldn't get to them or find them and the line had just started to move. I had stacked up the little cartons the food was in and had one drink, while DS carried 2 drinks. We managed pretty good. As soon as we got to them they started letting us in. We got pretty good seats, center section, a little over half way back. Everyone around us was loving our food.."wow, that smells good.." I felt a little guilty, but then again, it was great work to pull this off.
Sitting next to us was a nice family and we had just seen the dad on screen in the Laugh Floor. He was one of the people picked on in the audience. We told him we just caught you at the Laugh Floor. He handled it well.
So we finish our food and only wait a few minutes before the show starts. All the while it's getting colder and colder. Even all snuggled up in the Galaxy Theatre. The show starts and it was really cute.
Loved Mickey and Minnie in their jammies and I sure do love Santa Goofy.
Here are a few pics.

When we left there it was so cold, we ducked into Cosmic Rays because there was a dance party going on inside. My kids both LOVED this. The DJ here was wonderful. He showed them step by step in slow mo all the moves to the Thriller dance and Footloose, and Cupid Shuffle and many more. He'd show them the moves, then he'd start the music and do the dance. They had a blast here and it was inside and warm. Me and my MIL found a table and watched them dance for a while. My MIL was content to stay there because it was warm. It was nice, but I knew we were loosing precious time, so I asked her if she wanted to wait there and me and the kids would check the fairies line and Belle line and get us some cocoa and cookies. She said she would rather wait there. So we went to the Judges tent, the wait was like 60 minutes. I think everyone wanted to be inside. So we walked on through Fantasyland, picked up some cookies and cocoa, which was a pretty long line and took it back to Cosmic Rays. The kids danced some more. Here are some shots from the dance party.
The DJ

At one point he set up the soul train disco line and tried to explain it to the kids to go down in pairs dancing, then the next two would go down. They didn't fully understand this and there were some that just didn't want to dance down the line. It was funny. So the DJ was like, ok you go, then you go picking them out. Some of these kids were really getting down. And Chip, got out there with the hand behind the head and other arm holding his other leg and was smoking up the dance floor. I was impressed that he could do that in his outfit. It was so cute. My DS got out and did the Robot. I didn't get a good pic, but this is it.

They also did the Swing and DD and DS danced together, I had to get some pics of that. You know the brother sister relationship is on and off.

continued next post

 

[morgtroy]

By this time it was getting close to fireworks time. So even though we dreaded the cold, I wanted to see this. So we walked out the side of Cosmic Rays and walked about 5 feet and it was wall to wall people. So this was the moment in the trip I got a little disgusted. We didn't have a good viewing spot, and I felt like we were missing out on some of this party stuff. Knowing we really haven't ridden any rides. Just the laugh floor and the train. I learned from the Halloween party to just go for the party stuff, we rode the rides at other times during our trip. But after the fireworks started everyone must have moved and tightened up. Probably to warm up with some body heat It was so cold. So we got a little better view without the trees. The fireworks were amazing and we weren't as close to Tinkerbell this time as we were the first night we saw wishes, but we were still on that side and saw her good. Here are a few shots of the castle/fireworks.

And one of my favs of the castle

Up next the end of the Celebrate the Seasons and the Parade.

 

[morgtroy]

Sorry for some double posts and a couple pics are in opposite order. Photobucket is not viewing correctly for me today.

Just wanted to add:

Happy New Year Everyone.
Hope you have a great 2009 full of all of God's blessings,
including health, happiness, prosperity and peace.


Finishing projects is one of my resolutions, so I will wrap this TR up soon. I'm off to get down some decorations and get out house back in order.

Up next, as I said Celebrate the Seasons show, the parade and then I'll post our photopass pics and some final thoughts. Thanks for reading along.

 

[wdwgirl03]

Just found your trip report...I'm going to join in! The holidays really are a magical time in Disney World. I have to agree with you, the castle is amazing with the dream lights. That is so cool you won DVC for 3 years! It's also cool you stayed at Saratoga Springs...that's our home resort and we've usually been in Congress Park too! Looking forward to more!

 

[morgtroy]

Thanks for joining in. We really loved Saratoga Springs, it was so quiet and relaxing there. Loved the view from Congress Park too.
What is your favorite resort to stay at?

 

[OneTreeHillAddict]

Another great update! WS has so much to do. I LOVE it. Unfortunately I did not get to enjoy it as much as I wanted to this past trip. My daddy hated that walk and refused to leave without us. More on that later. I started my new TR. Check it out when ya get a chance.

 

[morgtroy]

Thanks for the link, I just checked it out and posted, can't wait to hear more.

 

[morgtroy]

So I left off we were watching the fireworks, when they were over it was wall to wall people. So, so crowded, of course we were there at the castle and main street so the most crowded place to be. It was so cold, my MIL and DS decided to head on back to the room. We really were cold, but me and DD decided to tough it out and try to see the parade. We had about 45 minutes to kill so after walking with them to the gate we walked back down to the castle and watched some of the "Celebrate the Seasons" show in front of the castle. I didn't take a lot of pics of this, but here are a few.

After that we went back to the entrance at the train station to watch the parade. We shivered and hugged and moved, whatever we could to stay warm. I never thought I'd say that from a trip to Florida. I have to say the rest of the trip was way better than puddles of sweat during the hot months, but the freezing cold that night was bad. The parade was really cute here are some random shots of it.

Love Mickey and Minnie. Especially Mickey in his red coat. How cute.

Way to go CM for getting into it.

confinued next post

 

[morgtroy]

Chip and Dale's float was a ski slope. They were so cute, they were having snowball fights.

Loved the white horses pulling Cinderella and PC.

The beast seemed to pose for this picture. I love it. Wished I could have gotten
one of Belle this good.

 

[morgtroy]

Sorry, me, my computer and photobucket are not seeing eye to eye right now. I'll fix the turned pics later, and add my comments back in. I've gotta run right now.

I'll continue the parade and wrap this baby up soon. Thanks for your patience.