Merry Christmas from OKW! 12/23 - 29 Live TR

[Disneywedding2010]

Day 1 December 23, 2010

4:30am – Up before the crack of dawn to head to the airport. After getting dressed and locking up the house Terry showed up to take us to the airport. Luckily, the airport is only 20 minutes away and after Terry made a few wrong turns we got dropped off. Then we discovered we were at the wrong area to get checked in. So after what seemed like a mile long walk we found where we needed to be. I had done online check in and upgraded our tickets to first class so we didn’t have to pay for our one checked bag. They got me a wheelchair and we went to security. This is where I got worried thinking we were going to be in the line forever. The attendant whisked me to the front of the line and I went through security with no issues. They didn’t have the new screening machines at that particular gate but they are at DFW in other terminals.

The only issue we had was after I went through security and then they passed the wheelchair through. The TSA agent told my DF to put his stuff in a bin and follow behind me. This of course ticked the man off behind him and the man started complaining about how he had stood there for an hour. Now please realize my DF was only doing what he was told. My DF simply told the man, “I’m doing what I was told. You can talk to him (pointed to the TSA agent who told him to put his things in the bin and follow my wheelchair.) The TSA agent walked over when he saw that there was a problem and pushed the man’s things back and put my fiance’s bin through the belt. My fiancé then joined me a few minutes later. The whole process from being dropped off to reaching our gate took 45 minutes. We sat around talking for an hour and a half waiting to board the plane. The flight was uneventful other then the screaming 2 year old that was in the seat in front of us. Luckily I could blare my IPOD in my ear, lol.

11:30am – We arrive at Orlando and they immediately walked us down to Magic Express buses. We waited all of 5 minutes and then got onto the bus. The bus ride took about 20-30 minutes (wasn’t really paying attention) and we got lucky! Old Key West resort was the first stop! We got off the bus and immediately went to the check in counter. We were told our room was ready and that we could have the shuttle service take us (we didn’t rent a car.) Before getting to the room we stopped by Bell Services to get my wheelchair I rented and our Disney Vacation Club locker.

We got to our room and as soon as I walked in my jaw hit the floor! I’ve never stayed at this resort and I was impressed. I started taking pictures. We hung around the room for awhile before we went back down near the hospitality house and ate lunch at Olivia’s Café. We are on the deluxe dining plan so we had an appetizer, entrée, and dessert. DF had crabcakes for an appetizer, pasta with chicken that had spinach and mushrooms in it, and cheesecake for dessert. I had crab cakes for an appetizer, turkey club sandwich with French fries, and New York cheese cake for dessert. After lunch we went to the concierge desk to find out if our box was here that I had shipped last week. They said that in fact it was and they shuttled us back to our resort with the box.

I went and took a nap for a few hours while DF took the time to get the bigger box unloaded and the things into our Owner’s Locker. He also got our little tree up. There are no ornaments on it right now but it still really pretty with just the lights on it.

After waking up from my nap we got ready to head down to Downtown Disney. DF helped me into my chariot (lol) and we headed down to the bus stop. The bus driver got me loaded up and off we went! Within 20 minutes we were at Downtown Disney. We asked a cast member where T-Rex was and he gave us directions. Before heading that way I went into the Christmas store and got the ornament for DCWIFE’s kiddo. We then sat outside T-Rex and people watched until it was time to check in for dinner. The atmosphere of the restaurant reminded me very much of Rainforest Café. We were seated by a big Triceratops. We started talking and out of nowhere it started to move and ROAR. DF started laughing at me hysterically because I jumped about two feet up in the air, lol. We both had burgers and French fries. The burgers were pretty filling and I couldn’t even finish it. After leaving the restaurant we went to World of Disney and I got a sweatshirt and 2 Christmas t-shirts for us. I thought I had packed my sweatshirt but hadn’t and I wanted something to wear in addition to a t-shirt and my coat. After purchasing the items we headed to the best stop. We waited 20 minutes (we had just missed a bus). There were only about 12 people on the bus so it wasn’t that bad.

Once we got back to the room I decided I was going to take a bath in the Jacuzzi tub. All I can say is damn I wish I could take that tub home! LOL we’re getting ready to head to bed soon because we have an 8:15am breakfast reservation at Chef Mickey at Baylake Tower. Then we are getting on a bus and heading over to Hollywood Studios for the day.

 

[Disneywedding2010]

Day 2 December 24, 2010
MERRY CHRISTMAS EVE EVERYONE!

The thing I’ve learned about making things less stressful on vacation is to just go with the flow and everything will be fine. DF went to bed not feeling that great and we said we’d make a decision in the morning about our morning reservation. He woke up and wasn’t feeling that great so I canceled our reservation at Chef Mickey at Baylake Towers. We decided to just eat at Olivia’s Café. We first went to the general store and got DF some Claritin to help him feel better. Then we went to Olivia’s and got breakfast ordered. We once again had a great meal. I would honestly say it was probably the best breakfast so far that I’ve had on property. DF had an omelet, breakfast potatoes, and toast with a few cups of coffee. I had a piece of sliced ham and 3 buttermilk pancakes. The buttermilk pancakes were so big I was only able to eat one, lol.

After breakfast was finished we jumped on the bus and headed to Hollywood Studios. Since we had a late start to the day we didn’t get there til a little after 11am. The first ride of the day was the “great movie ride”. We were on within a matter of minutes with no wait whatsoever. This was a new ride for us that neither of us had been on. The second ride of the day was Muppet 3D. This is one that I have to do every time I go to Hollywood Studios. Yes, it maybe corny but it makes me laugh every time. This was DF’s first time on it. We then went to Lights, Motors, Action stunt show. This was the one thing I remember profoundly from my late husband and I’s trip in 2007. He loved that show and it was no different with DF. We took some awesome pictures.

Then we went to the streets of America and took pictures of the New York skyline. We sat there for awhile and just people watched while deciding what to do next. I was looking at the map and noticed that you could get pictures with the characters from Cars: Lightening McQueen and Tow Mater. After taking a few wrong turns we got to the right spot and snapped a picture to send to our neighbor’s son.

After the pictures were taken we went and checked in for our late lunch early dinner at Sci Fi Drive in theater. This restaurant is awesome! We had an awesome waitress by the name of Lindsey who was just very vibrant and bubbly. For dinner I had spinach artichoke dip for an appetizer, 8 ounce butler cut steak, mashed potatoes, and asparagus. Dessert was a hot fudge sundae. I had a milkshake as my drink. DF had onion rings for his appetizer, ribs, fries, and coleslaw for his entrée and a brownie with ice cream for dessert. He also had a milkshake as his drink. Once dinner was complete we went over to Rock n Rollin coaster. This roller coaster is based from the band Aerosmith. That was the longest line we had to wait in which was all of 30 minutes. Once the ride was done we went over to Osborne lights near the streets of America. This I can’t really describe. I was in complete awe.

Then we headed back over near Aerosmith and got in line for Fantasmic. We actually were going to skip it this time and just see it in May but the park wasn’t all that busy and we had done everything else we wanted to do. So we figured we’d give it a shot and we got lucky and were able to get in for the 8pm show. Once the show was over we hit up the candy store on Sunset Blvd and got some goodies with our snack credits. We he told me “You have 22 credits left” my jaw hit the floor, lol. “22 SNACK credits?” “Yes ma’am” ALLLLLLRIGHTYYYY THEN…

MAGICAL MOMENTS: Seeing Osborne lights for the first time ever.
Lindsey our awesome waitress at Sci Fi Dine In Theater

UNMAGICAL MOMENTS: DF was pushing me down a hill as we were getting ready to enter Fantasmic. Well you don’t have much control over how fast you are going down a hill. A guy cut him off and then stopped. DF accidently hit him and apologized. The guy just glared at him. People just seem to think people in wheelchairs don’t exist and it’s so annoying.

 

[Disneywedding2010]

Day 3 December 25, 2010 CHRISTMAS DAY!

Today we were up at 8 and lounged for about an hour before heading to Olivia’s Café for breakfast. Yes, we loved it so much the first time we decided to go back. We both had Olivia’s Breakfast special: eggs, toast, a breakfast meat, and breakfast potatoes. After breakfast we jumped on a bus to Magic Kingdom.

We arrived just shortly after 11, got through the gate and headed toward Adventure Land. However, because it was a mad house there today they rerouted us through a back cast members only area to wind us up in Tomorrowland. We wanted to ride Space Mountain but the wait was 3.5 hours!! NO THANKS.. So we did Monsters Inc the Laugh Floor. Then we did Stitch’s Great Escape. We then were going to do the People mover train type thing that takes you around Tomorrowland but we wound up going in the wrong direction. Once we noticed the mistake we said screw it. We weren’t going to fight the crowd. We then noticed a photopass photographer and go t our picture taken on one of the sides of the castle. We walked further down and found another photopass photographer. We took another picture in front of the castle just a different angle of it.

Then things got a little crazy, lol. We were headed to Adventure Land to ride The Jungle Cruise and Pirates of the Carribbean but DF took a wrong turn and we wound up in Frontier Land. We figured since it was getting to be lunch time that we’d just stop and eat. We both had cheeseburgers, fries, chocolate cake, and a soda. Once lunch was over we decided since we were in Frontier Land we’d ride Big Thunder Mountain Railroad (rollercoaster). We waited in the handicap line for about 20 – 30 minutes. I remember in all the times we’ve gone to Magic Kingdom I’d never been able to get DF on a rollercoaster. Then finally in July of 09 with the help of friends we got him on Big Thunder Mountan Railroad. Now it is his favorite ride at Magic Kingdom.
Once we were off the rollercoaster DF went and looked for a Christmas present for me. He got me a brand new Magic Kingdom ornament that they had just come out with this month. Then we went and saw the Hall of Presidents show.

We started walking toward another part of the park and we got stuck in the craziness of crowds because they were roping areas off for the Christmas parade. We got near the castle and decided to just stop and watch the parade. I believe DF got some pictures. I don’t know how well they turned out though. We went walking toward Adventure Land for the 3rd time thinking we were going to get to do the rides there but the crowds were insane. We decided to go back up near Magic Kingdom and wait for our dinner reservation at Crystal Palace. The Crystal Palace dinner was a buffet character dinner. The characters were Winnie the Pooh, Eeoyre, Piglet, and Tigger. We got some awesome pictures. Piglet hugged me so hard I thought he was going to choke me, lol.

Then after dinner we spent 2 hours sitting waiting for the parade and fireworks for the end of the night to start. I got a few pictures of the parade but I don’t know how well they turned out. We decided to skip the fireworks to go to Main Street Bakery and get some goodies. I had to get a cinnamon roll from there because my best friend Tanika said not only were they good but they were huge! After getting our goodies we headed toward the busses to head back to the resort.

Tomorrow’s plans consist of just relaxing at the resort and playing the day by ear.

Magical moments: Just being in the Christmas atmosphere
Not so magical: The crowds and all the rude people

 

[Disneywedding2010]

Day 4 December 26, 2010

Highlights of trip so far:

Everything has gone smoothly. We had no issues with checking in and so far all of our ADRs have gone smoothly. Our meals have on average taken anywhere from 45 to 60 minutes from beginning to end. The warmest day so far has been Christmas Day. The coldest day (so far) is today. Its been really windy. Its moments like this I’m glad I packed hats, gloves, sweatshirts, and our winter coats.

Today’s plans:
Today was our relaxation day. We pretty much just decided on a whim throughout the day what we would do. We slept in and missed breakfast. We were talking and realized after missing 2 breakfast reservations that the next time we do DxDp (if we decide that) we are going to book lunch and dinners. We went to Olivia’s for lunch. I’ve decided its easier to just eat at our resort for at least one meal because we’re not having to run around the property. The meal again was incredible. I had potato leek soup for an appetizer, pulled pork sandwich and fries for entrée, and cheesecake for dessert. DF had ribs for an appetizer (don’t remember the exact name on the menu), turkey club sandwich and fries for his entrée, and cheesecake for dessert.

After lunch we went to the general store and did some looking around and picked up a few things. As I was snapping pictures DF was talking to an older gentleman. We stood around for about 20 minutes just talking about the things we love about Disney. We then got on the internal shuttle and lounged for 90 minutes before heading down to Downtown Disney for our Planet Hollywood reservation.

We immediately were seated once we arrived. The restaurant was very crowded and lots of noise going on. I had no problem with it and was just taking in the atmosphere. I had never been to Planet Hollywood before. For my appetizer I had chicken tenders, we both had the new York strip steak and baked potato. Dessert we split a piece of strawberry cheesecake and she boxed up the second one for us to take back to our resort. We also brought back part of our appetizer.

Then that’s when plans changed for the evening. I started having chest pain on and off and I decided we’d just go back to the room. I told DF we’ll be on the monorail loop in the morning anyway for our Chef Mickey reservation we’ll just check out all the Christmas decorations then. DF drank a beer and then we departed for the resort.

Magical Moments: Visiting Planet Hollywood for the first time and just enjoying the day

Nonmagical Moments: VERY cold and chest pain

 

[luckylady]

Isn't it great to be at the world for Christmas? Three and a half hours is crazy, but the norm for that time. Enjpy your time there. Are you going to be there for New Years? If you are try DHS for the midnight fireworks. Both time we have been there they have been the best and longest.Get a seat early tho.

 

[wdwgirl03]

So jealous you are there right now. I love Disney at the holidays.

Do you have any pictures of OKW? My sister and I are staying there in March and I'd love to see some if you did.

 

[oOJulieOo]

joining in!

 

[stephielela]

subbing! hoping the chest pains went away!

 

[exwdwcm]

found you!! so glad you are having a good time so far. so it was really crazy at MK on the 25th? how many more days do you have? hope they are fantastic!

 

[taramoz]

Enjoying reading!!!

 

[Disneywedding2010]

So jealous you are there right now. I love Disney at the holidays.

Do you have any pictures of OKW? My sister and I are staying there in March and I'd love to see some if you did.

Welcome! Yes, I have some of OKW. We stayed in a one bedroom. I'll post them in a few minutes. There aren't any pictures on the thread right now. We just got home tonight. So I'm going to post the other days of the trip here in a few. I came home each night and wrote the day's events up in Word. I was so exhausted each night I just forgot to post them.

 

[Disneywedding2010]

Day 5 December 27, 2010

Today was our Epcot day. We had a Chef Mickey reservation at Baylake Tower. We were a few minutes late considering we had to jump from bus to two different monorails. I’ve come to the conclusion that breakfast buffets at Disney aren’t anything to write home to mom about. However, the character interaction in a warm room is a lot better then standing in line out in the cold at one of the parks.

After breakfast we walked around Baylake so I could get some pictures. Then we got on the monorail and went over to Grand Floridian and took pictures of the Christmas tree and huge gingerbread house. We then jumped back on the monorail and went to Epcot.
Once we were in Epcot we headed toward the World Showcase. We stopped in Canada and listened to the tail end of the Christmas storyteller. Then we sat and talked and then watched the band that included a drummer, guitarist, and bag piper. It was really cool. We then continued walking the World Showcase and continued taking pictures. We got a photopass picture in front of the Eifel Tower and in front of a fountain. I can’t remember what country we were in for it, lol. Belle and Beast were in France taking pictures and I wanted to get one in memory of Maddie. However, the cast member said they were done for that time frame and they’d be back around 4:30. Well, that idea went out the window because we had a 4pm reservation at Le Cellier in Canada. After walking the rest of the Showcase, taking a bathroom break, and sitting around people watching it was time to check in. DF misunderstood me when I said check in was at 4:10. He walked up to the podium at 4 and checked us in. Within 5 minutes we were being escorted into the restaurant.

Appetizers for us both were the world famous cheddar soup that I had been hearing about on the Disboards. We both enjoyed the soup and I even found a cookbook at the general store at Old Key West that had the recipe in it. We both had the New York strip with au gratin potatoes for our entrée. The steak was better at Le Cellier then at Planet Hollywood. Dessert I had campfire Smore which was definitely interesting. DF had the Whiskey chocolate cake.

Once dinner was done we headed out of the park and jumped on a bus and headed back to the resort. That trip to Epcot was DF’s first and he said he wanted to come back in May when it was warmer. We are definitely not spending as much time in the parks since of the bitter cold temperatures. We packed accordingly for the trip but the wind here is just cutting through you it is so cold,

Magical Moments: Bill, the cast member at Chef Mickey was very nice. When we first arrived we were asked if I could transfer out of my chair. I told them “Yes, I can.” Well we walked a few feet and met Bill. He introduced himself and said he was going to make sure that they could get a table for us on the first floor. “I don’t want you to have to walk stairs.” He also asked us if we were newly weds. I told him “No, what would make you think that?” His response was, “Because you both are all smiles and you look genuinely happy.” It made me smile and put me in a good mood the whole day.

Epcot wasn’t all that busy

Not so magical moments: Cold weather

 

[Disneywedding2010]

Day 6 December 28, 2010
Today we were going to go to Animal Kingdom and to Captain’s Grille for breakfast. However, we decided we needed to spend the morning figuring out how we were going to get everything packed and situated. It never fails every time we go to Disney we wind up coming home with more luggage then what we left with. This trip was no different than the previous ones.

We have an owner’s locker that we put stuff in and it’s then kept in a warehouse. Then when our next trip rolls around they bring it to us. It’s called an Owner’s Locker. Well, no matter how much reshuffling DF did we just couldn’t get everything organized. So we called the company and got another Owner’s Locker. It arrived later on that day when we arrived home from Downtown Disney.

Once we got everything situated we went out for lunch. Its been 24 hours so I don’t remember what we had off hand, lol. Once lunch was over we decided we’d go back to Downtown Disney instead of Animal Kingdom because we wanted to do some more shopping. I had 2 Merry Christmas 2010 shirts made. We bought some pins for our lanyards and 5 picture frames to frame our photopass pictures. We then headed back to the hotel for dinner.

We had received our Magical Express bus information for our flight in the morning. Before heading to the restaurant we stopped and talked to Bell Services about the specifics that needed to be done for the morning. After dinner we went to the concierage desk to make sure our annual passes were going to work for in May. This is where the night got interesting to say the least. While the cast member was helping us figure out the situation a very drunk man was in the lobby and cursing very loudly to the cast member that was helping him. From what we could gather he was so drunk that he didn’t realize that when the buses are going through Old Key West that there are several stops they stop at. When your stop comes you get off and go to your room. He was complaining because apparently he said the driver made him get off and he had to walk a long distance to his room. He started cursing profanities and how he paid good money to stay at the resort and blah blah blah. We just stood there and were laughing under our breath.

After the man walked out the manager came over to help us with our annual pass situation. It was showing in the computer that they were there but there was confusion with why they were put on our room key and not an actual annual pass. So they paid for our round trip cab to go down to guest relations and get the issue resolved. After dealing with the cast member for 30 minutes at downtown Disney (he was very helpful) we got it figured out. When we came back we had them check to make sure our room key would work for us to get into our room. The manager noticed we had quite a few snack credits left and escorted us to the general store on property and showed us what we could buy with our snack credits. 17 snack credits later we were walking out of the general store with a TON of candy and cookies. If we would have had to pay for it all it would of come out to 47 dollars, lol.

After that we went back to the room, packed the last few items, and hit the hay. 6am came rather quickly.

Magical Moments: Enjoying the beautiful day at DTD

Not so magical: Dealing with the annual passes issue

**I know some of you know about the things I wrote about and I may be sounding silly explaining them but I just copy and pasted this from my blog. So some of these things my family doesn't know about so that's why they are explained.**

 

[Disneywedding2010]

Isn't it great to be at the world for Christmas? Three and a half hours is crazy, but the norm for that time. Enjpy your time there. Are you going to be there for New Years? If you are try DHS for the midnight fireworks. Both time we have been there they have been the best and longest.Get a seat early tho.

We arrived home today. We have a towing business so NYE is a very busy night for us.

 

[Disneywedding2010]

subbing! hoping the chest pains went away!

Welcome! It went away as soon as I got back to the room and took some medication and laid down for a bit.

 

[Disneywedding2010]

I loved that tub and even joked with DF about putting one in our house .

 

[Disneywedding2010]

I'll post our photopass pictures when the CD arrives

]

T-REX restaurant that we ate at the night we arrived

Dinosaur next to our table. The first time it moved and roared I jumped about two feet in the air. No, T-Rex is NOT on the dining plan.

Christmas tree at Hollywood Studios

The Great Movie Ride

Piglet and Eeyore

Pooh and Eeyore

Tigger and Eeyore

Chip

Dale

Show we went to

We didn't ride it this trip DF was having issues that day with his back.

Osborne lights

[/QUOTE]

I have a ton more pictures then this but just selected a few. We got a photopass picture in front of the Fantasmic hat.

 

[Disneywedding2010]

Gingerbread Christmas tree at Contemporary Resort

Biggest Christmas wreath on property

One of the small Christmas trees at the Contemporary resort

Christmas tree at Contemporary Resort entrance

One of the trees at the Grand Floridian hotel

Christmas tree in Grand Floridian lobby

More of Grand Floridian Lobby

Life size gingerbread house

 

[luckylady]

Oh man I would love to stay in a room like that,but i would have to rent points from someone. Thos are some great pictures. Welcome home.

 

[Disneywedding2010]

Oh man I would love to stay in a room like that,but i would have to rent points from someone. Thos are some great pictures. Welcome home.

We had run out of points for the year and it was a last minute trip that we planned in March. I started paying on it almost immediately and then when my tax refund came in I paid the remainder of it off. I swore after this trip I'm never paying OOP for a Disney trip again.

The holidays are hard for me because my 2 year old daughter and husband were killed in 2008 when we were hit head on my a drunk driver. Out of everyone that was involved I was the only survivor.

During this trip we talked about making it an annual thing. I told DF we didn't have to go exactly around Christmas but maybe within the first two weeks of December. Hey, I'm learning things thanks to the Disboards. I told him if we did in fact want to do it around this exact time frame again that we'd avoid MK on Christmas Day. I for the most part followed the touring plan except that day. I knew we wouldn't get to ride many rides. However, I just wanted to be there for the atmosphere. Yes, it was crazy busy but we weren't in a real rush. We're coming back in May (on points ) so whatever we didn't get to ride or do we'll do then.