Our December Trip - Live Trip Report (Dec 4 - Dec 17, 2010)

[KellyWasHere]

We are in Disney! This is our ultimate Orlando trip. 7 days in Disney, 3 days at Universal/IOA. And by "our" I mean me (Kelly), my husband (Dave), Maggie (4 years), and Nora (22 months).

I'm writing this Trip Report for my own personal records, but thought I'd post it as it may be useful for anyone coming down to the area soon.

12/4

Started out around 7:45 am. Drove from PA to Orangeburg, SC. Drove through snow for the end of WV, all of VA and some NC. Snow stopped a little north of Charlotte. Guess my Uncle George was right, he always bragged that moving to Charlotte was a great move because it was just south of the "snow belt". Stopped at the Holiday Inn Express at Orangeburg. Nice hotel, loud hotel guests.

12/5

Left around 9. Made it to Orlando around 4. Stopped for dinner and grocery shopping, made it to Windsor Hills around 6:30. The condo is nice. I love having so much room and a kitchen and washer/dryer. The mattresses seem cheap and loud, but they aren't as uncomfortable as I thought they'd be.

12/6

First day in the parks! We went to Animal Kingdom. We were walking into the parks around 10. Goofy and Timon were out front taking pictures. We hopped in line for Goofy, at this point we didn't know Timon was not a regular in the parks? Swore I read that he was at Rafiki's Planet Watch. At any rate, got pics with Goofy, Nora LOVED him (a week ago she screamed bloody murder when we tried to get her picture with Santa). But she just wanted to give all the characters a quick hug before running back to me or Dave where she wanted us to hold her while she continued to look at the character. Maggie loved them just as much as last year. They had closed Timon's line at this point so we headed into the park. Hit Camp Mickey-Minnie for more character meets. Walked the Pangani Forest Trail while Nora slept. It was really nice but added too much walking to what was already a day filled with walking. I think we'll do it and the other walk when the girls are both old enough to walk the whole day by themselves. We say a Photopass photographer there and I asked if we could get our picture taken. Got it taken in front of the Jeep then she took one of those magic pictures, where Maggie is "holding" something. Can't wait to see what that is! We grabbed lunch at Tamu Tamu refreshments. Nora woke up at this point so we all get fed. We had FPs for Kilaminjaro Safaris, so we ride that next. The ride was so uncrowded that the FPs bought us nothing, except a further walk to the entrance. Ha, ha. The ride, and the driver, was the absolute best we have ever had. He was hysterical!! And the animals were so active.

Next we took the train to Rafiki's Planet Watch. We had never been. I found the train ride to be a bit odd. It's all fashioned, I thought, to look like an English train and train station from the 1930s. Then you're passing by real buildings with cars? It was weird. But Rafiki's Planet Watch was very fun. The girl's loved the indoor area. Met Rafiki then went to the petting zoo, then came back in to wait for Jiminy Cricket. We were sitting on a bench and saw him coming in. It went from, Here he comes, grab the bags so we can get in line!, to CRAP, he's heading straight for us. His area was right next to our bench. We had nothing out, no autograph books, no camera, nothing. He interacted with Maggie for a long time and we got no pictures of it. She loved it, he was really great with her.

We took the train back. At this point it is almost time for the parade so we go over and get a pretty decent spot near the front. The parade was alot of fun (I missed the "regular" songs, though) and Nora cried when Mickey was driving away. So we followed the parade (UGH!) and were going to go back to Camp Mickey-Minnie to try to get Pluto's autograph. Maggie fell asleep in the stroller so we decided to stop at Pizzafari for dinner. First time there and LOVED how the eating area was decorated. (Both Tamu Tamu and Pizzafari had those 20% off merchandise coupons on the receipt, score!) I ran out to talk to a CM and ask if Pluto was out and for how long. She told me he was in Dinoland with Goofy and they'd be out until 7:40 because the park was open until 8. ??? I asked if this was for all guests and she said yes. So we finished eating and started heading to Dinoland. It was about 5:00 at this point. On the way we headed to the character area with Pooh, Eeyore and Tigger. Everytime we have met Pooh in t he past it really was "meh". I think the one they were just ending their shift on a very hot day, and the other was at Crystal Palace and we were the last table on the character rotation. This Pooh was GREAT! He was playing alot with the kids in front of us. He gave Maggie all kinds of attention when it was her turn and when he saw his autograph page with his picture he went NUTS. Kissed both and drew a heart around his picture. It was great! Next over to the Pluto/Goofy meeting area. That was fun with the Greetings from Dinoland! backdrop. Told Maggie we'd ride Triceratop spin and then head back. There was no line so we rode 3 times. The last time they said that was the last spin for the night. Struck me as odd since it was only just 6 and I thought that CM told me it was open until 8. So we head for the park exit and everything was closed up. That CM just told me the wrong time. No problem because we did everything we wanted to.

We had a great time even though it was FREEZING. (I thought it would be no big deal since we're from PA, but it was COLD. And we were majorly bundled up.) From about noon - 3 the weather was pretty comfortable, but that's about it. I'm sure it didn't help that we were at the park where almost everything is outside!

Because today (12/7) is supposed to be the coldest day of our stay, we decided to switch our "free day" to today and do Universal/IOA on Thursday, Friday, Saturday. So today will be a little relaxing, a little Downtown Disney, and maybe go to see Tangled, which we have not seen yet!

 

[WDWisTheBest]

Good TR. Keep warm.

 

[madbutsexy]

Good TR. Keep warm.

too bad I don't fit in a suitcase, cuz I want to go

 

[KellyWasHere]

Thanks everyone! Found a Duffy bear and the 2 outfits I wanted (sarapi and kilt) at Once Upon a Toy. Excited, because another thread here said the outfits are hard to find.

 

[KellyWasHere]

The internet wasn't working for me yesterday morning, so here are the past 2 days.

12/8

The weather was much nicer this day. We got to Hollywood Studios a little after 9. Went to Toy Story Mania (OF COURSE) to get fast passes. Then we went to meet Buzz and Woody. Both Maggie and Nora love Toy Story. Nora carries these little Buzz and Woody and Jessie action figures with her wherever she goes. So of course she is kind of afraid of them when we see them. Maggie was hesitant at first too then went for it. It was chaotic, I felt like the handlers wanted to rush us through but the characters wanted to play. That's my least fav character meet, I think I remember it being that way last year too. Anyway, after that we went to the big hat to meet characters there. We met up with my mom and her friends and had a snack (pretzels and churros) while waiting for the characters to come back out. They did, and we met Piglet and Daisy, who both the girls wanted to meet. Those both went over well with both girls and were lots of fun.

Next, Maggie really wanted to RIDE something and since there aren't many rides in HS, we decided to go on The Great Movie Ride. That ride was just the hit of the day. She talked about it all day. She barely even talked about TSM once we got off of it. After that we went to Playhouse Disney, stopping to meet June first. After that we met Leo and Annie and Handy Manny. Then to the Animation Center to meet Lotso and Sorcerer Mickey.

It was getting to be time for our Mama Melrose dining reservation, so we headed over there. First time we've eaten there and it was ok. I split the wood grilled tuna and risotto with mom and Dave got the chicken flatbread. There was nothing wrong with it, but I wasn't blown away.

We headed over to The Little Mermaid after that. I had only seen this show one time, years and years ago when I had sat in the very last row. This time we had great seats only a few back from the front. It was a great show, but again, Maggie only talked about the bubbles then was back to talking about GMR.

The last characters we wanted to meet were Mike and Sulley. We headed over there and it was the best. Both girls ran over to hug Sulley, then when Nora went over to Mike she fell and started to cry. I picked her up and held her for a minute until she calmed down. Then she and Maggie were ready to get their picture taken. Nora was getting to be a pro at this point. She knew she had to go to the character, turn around, lean on him and say Cheese! Well it was just the cutest picture and the whole line said Awwww! One dad in line said Best picture I've seen all day. It was adorable.

After this we went for one more ride on GMR, then over to wait for the Osbourne Lights. They were great as always. Maggie ate cotton candy, Nora ate cookies and Dave and I split a hot cocoa. We headed back to the condo afterwards, got back around 6:30. Great day, we were even able to not wear coats for a few hours!


12/9

Islands of Adventure! It was very cold this morning! We had a 9 am reservation at Confisco Grille character breakfast. We're not a big fan of buffets, but we really wanted to meet the Grinch. So we got there right around 9. Very excited we could sit in a warm restaurant for a good long while. We get to our table right as the Cat in the Hat was coming out. He stopped to interact with the girls. Maggie loved it. Nora was being very shy. We sit down and I go up to grab some grub. Dave didn't want to leave the table because he was afraid Grinch would come over and he'd miss it. I wasn't worried because the characters always come around multiple times at all the Disney meals we went to. I got a big plate of food and got back to the table without missing anyone. Some of the Whos came up to the table and Nora was being super shy even with them. But they really were great with the girls. Talked to Maggie alot. The Grinch didn't seem to be going in any pattern and everytime we thought he was going to come over he didn't. Finally he did come over and ... it wasn't great. It seemed like he spent less than 2 minutes with us. And half of it he spent "knocking" some sense into me. I certainly didn't expect him to be nice to us because we had little kids, but I expected just as much time as those families who were only adults or had older kids, those were the ones he seemed to prefer, because he could joke around more. It wasn't too big a deal though. The Cat in the Hat came over and spent a ton of time with us. Nora was almost afraid of him. She was like a different kid this morning with the character interaction. Probably because she was stuck in the high chair and didn' t have an escape option, LOL.

Now, here is the weird part. None of the characters EVER came back to us. You know how Disney characters have "handlers", well the only fully costumed character here, The Cat, had a handler too, and I think it was the manager of the restaurant. He looked like some middle aged Italian mafia guy. We were right by where the characters came out and left, and one time The Cat came out and gave me a little shoulder rub and Mr Tough Guy said "Not there! Over here!" to get him to go to the right table. ??!?! Mr Tough Guy kept hugging all the waitresses too. It was just ......... odd. All the waitresses seemed so crazy busy. We never got refills when we asked for them and had to hunt down our check. Plus, when we tried to pay, we couldn't use our gift cards. They said we had to take them to guest services and change them out for Universal cash?? We thought that craziness was just at that one retaurant but it was everywhere. You couldn't use a Universal gift card anywhere in Universal Studios. I guess this was a whole jist of the day. The themeing, especially in Seuss-land and Harry Potter is PHENOMENAL. So many of the rides are outstanding. But the people who work there remind me alot of the kids who work at Kennywood ... some are really good but most just want you out of their face. And how everything is run in general just seems much less professional than at Disney. This never bothered us when we went without kids, because we could just quickly move from place to place and who cares how the workers are? But when you have small kids and are moving slower and have to ask for a little more help, it's much more noticeable.

So, after this we headed to the Seuss area, which was outstanding. The characters where also great, another Who came over to talk with Maggie. We rode Cat in the Hat. Great for Maggie, a little too much spinning and darkness for Nora. Then we rode the carousel and One Fish Two Fish (both girls loved these). Decided to do Meet the Grinch to see if we could get a better experience and we did! He was hysterical, screaming at people and being real Grinch-y. I had no idea what he'd do when we got up there. He had Maggie give him "five" and said "What do you have on your hands?? It's all STICKY!" and wiped it on Dave's coat and gave him a hard time about not wanting to get anything on his leather jacket. Then he talked really quiet to Nora and tried to get her to give him five. Told her she was really cute. Just perfect. Then we all got a great picture with him. Definitely a win. Next we did The High in the Sky Trolley ride. Nora was a bit too short so we used baby swap. That was great that Maggie got to ride twice in a row because we were NOT going to stand in that line again.

At this point, we decided to try the Spider-man ride with Maggie. Without having one of us go through the single rider line to refresh our memory on the ride. Big mistake. I think this is the only time she has ever cried on a ride. Way too scary for her. But then she and I rode on the Storm Force Accelatron 2 times and all was forgiven. After this I did a quick ride on Spider-man, then we headed to Jurassic Park. Maggie and Dave went into Camp Jurassic while I let Nora run around in the nearly desserted stroller parking area. Both girls had a blast. Had lunch at Thunder Falls Terrace which was pretty standard park food.

Afterwards we headed over to Harry Potter. It was amazing, and a real shame we didn't have time to really explore it all. Probably won't be able to really enjoy it until the girls are older. Maggie rode Flight of the Hippogriff a couple times with me and Dave and loved it. We bought some HP stamps for our Christmas cards and had them all (30) stamped at Owl Post. We then went to Honeydukes and got some jelly beans and fudge flies. Both were yum... Also, I think the weather being cold added to the coolness factor of Harry Potter. It would've been odd to see all the snow covered houses then have everyone there in shorts and flip flops and tank tops.

Finally we went back to Seuss, and headed over to catch The Grinch Musical. It was a great show and I highly recommend it! The girls loved the whole thing, as did Dave and I. After that, Maggie and I rode Cat in the Hat a few more times then we all played in If I Ran the Zoo. I am still blown away by the incredible themeing there.

On the way out we stopped to get our pictures then check lost and found because I lost my jacket. No one had turned it in so I'm starting to suspect someone actually took my jacket. But we will see, we have 2 more days at Universal and I'll check l&f both days. Luckily I have another jacket with me and have a day or two before it gets really cold again.

 

[TheDisneyGirl]

Sounds like you are having a good time. AND you are the first person I've seen with a breakfast ADR for 9am...so glad to hear that! hahaha Waking up early, like today, is not fun! LOL

My girls would die to meet Sully and Mikey..they make me go on to the Disboards to create an email just to see their emoticons on here. LOL We introduced the movie to them a few months ago.. and they are their new character obsession of the week. LOL

Hope you find your jacket!

And I am in following! opcorn:

 

[KellyWasHere]

I DID find my jacket. It was finally there on our third and final day at Universal.

 

[KellyWasHere]

12/11

Last day at IOA. It was awesome. We went straight to Harry Potter. Forbidden Journey was 30 minutes, and the line moved FAST. Child swap was the bomb. Mom watched Maggie and Nora while Dave and I rode. I was so scared, I thought we were going to drop for real. I had my eyes closed for most of it. Dave always feels at least a little quesy after spinny and virtual reality rides, so he only wanted to ride that once. So I got to ride it a second time with mom. Which was awesome because I actually got to see what happened this time! Great ride, I really loved it.

We spent some more time at WWOHP. Got some frozen butterbeer which is soooo good! Maggie didn't want to ride Flight of the Hippogriff this time. Tried to shop a bit but the crowds were way crowded. It was a Saturday and beautiful weather (around 70) so lots and lots of people were out. We then went to Seuss and rode a bunch of those rides again. Ate at Mythos and that was a disaster. Both girls were so cranky and it was just miserable. After that mom rode Spider-man and Dave and I bought a Gryfindor scarf to share. Then we headed over to Universal, mom and Maggie rode the Woody Woodpecker coaster a couple times, Nora got her picture taken with the minions, and mom, Maggie, and I rode E.T. while Dave bought Nora an E.T. She was enthralled with him.

12/12

Magic Kingdom. We woke up early to take mom to Beach Club and try to get to the park when it opened at 8 am. Hahahahaha, yeah right. We got there at 9. Took the bus from mom's hotel. I forgot how much I don't like the buses. I don't think I'd ever stay onsite again. I don't know. Just find a condo with nicer mattresses and we'll be set, I think. Still not sure what Dave thinks about it all.

Well, we got to Magic Kingdom and it was packed. Touring plans was way off on that one. Maybe because it was the only warmer day this week. We rode Dumbo, then met Cinderella's step sisters and evil step mother. They were fun! Then Mary Poppins. The carousel was next. Put Nora in the stroller after that and she was asleep in a few minutes. So Dave and Maggie and I went on some rides while Nora slept. Mickey's Philharmagic and the Tea Cups. Tried to find some characters but didn't have any luck. It was getting majorly overcast and as we headed back to Peter Pan and It's a Small World it started to rain. We high tailed it to IASW and rode that. Then found mom, who was hiding out in an alcove with the still sleeping Nora. Mom, Maggie and I rode Peter Pan's Flight.

Next up was a 12:45 reservation at Liberty Tree Tavern. That was very nice and the girls were well behaved. It was still drizzling and not many characters were out. We rode Pirates of the Caribbean, the girls did well on that, and Magic Carpets, which I knew they'd like. We then found Ariel and got her autograph and picture. We found Princess Tiana's meet area and waited a half hour for her to come out, as the first ones in line. We didn't think she would come out because it was still drizzling off and on, but she and Naveen eventually did. Naveen came over to Maggie and said, "Are you first in line??" She said yes and he took her hand and hopped her over to the meet area. It was so cute! Then Nora hugged Naveen for a very long time, and Tiana joked, You do know he's married, right? It was fantastic! Great end to the day.