OUR DISNEY BUCKET LIST! Year of Disney CHAPTER I, **NEW X 1 12/29 CHEF MICKEY'S!

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I'm loving your Trip report!!
Don't worry you weren't the only one who didn't get why
people wanted to go to Walt Disney World.
I thought that it was only for little kids, until I went, I was in my early 30s then. I fell in love!!
I've been several times since then, and always can't wait to go back. My DS is turning 18 years soon but he still loves going. Even my DH who I never thought would love Disney, can't wait to get back this coming year.
POR is our favorite resort. We've haven't gotten to stay at WL yet, maybe someday, stayed at AKL, POFQ and CSR, but POR still our favorite. We'll be staying there in Sept.
Looking forward to reading updates of your Trip report.

I'm just glad we finally found out how much fun it is! We really loved POR-- it was a super-relaxing resort, and I wish I'd planned more time to hang out (we never made it to the pool!

 

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Following along!

Welcome!

 

[problemsolved]

We were at Wilderness Lodge early in December and LOVED our woods view bunkbed room...we had a perfect view of the MK Wishes fireworks every night! (of course, without music and no castle in the background). It was perfect for us as dd3 was ready for bed right around then every night.

 

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We woke up in our cozy room at POR feeling really refreshed-- good thing because it was the CRACK of dawn. We had somewhere important to be!



We had been greeted by the CUTEST towel animal I've ever seen the night before-- my husband borrowed back his reading glasses and headed out for some coffee from the food court while I got everybody up and dressed.



I saw this idea somewhere on the Dis-- muchos gracias to whomever this genius was I made a color-coded table before we left, and emailed myself each day's itinerary. Then before we hit the parks that day, I took a screen shot and saved it as my background on my phone. Then all I needed to do to remember all our dining and FP+ ressies was check my screen-- SO handy!



We were out the door and in the car EARLY-- we set the GPS for our destination and we were off for...

CHEF MICKEY'S!!!!

I had tried for months to get a breakfast ressie for CM's with no luck. The kids were asking about it on our bus ride back to POR the day before, and on a whim I checked the My Disney Experience app on my phone, and found a 7:05 reservation available. I knew it would need to be early in the vacay to make a reservation that early, and thank goodness for our car! There's no way we could have made it without it!

This was our second visit to CM's and we checked in (a few minutes late, despite my best efforts to get us there on time. 7:05 is EARLY!) We checked in, had our statue photo taken, and were seated really fast. I flew up to the buffet to grab some food before the characters started coming around.



First up-- Grady's favorite-- GOOFY! He lived up to his name, and signed our autograph books, flipped his ears around, and headed over to the next table.

Here's where I should say we were seated next to a group who was equal parts adorable and total buzz-kill for our own interactions. There was a huge table-- it looked like about 20 people, maybe college age or a tad bit older-- next to us. They were ADORABLE-- Japanese tourists with the most over-the-top Disney gear I've ever seen (seriously, a professional-grade telephoto lens that was painted to look like Minnie Mouse?) They put any level of excitement my children have ever felt at Disney to SHAME-- it was so much fun to watch. Unfortunately, the characters seemed either a bit shell-shocked or just pressed for time, and they spent about 15 minutes at that table and about 2 at ours, so our interactions were pleasant but nothing really memorable. Oh, well-- I thoroughly enjoyed watching them interact, and my kids were happy, so all was well



My husband looked at every breakfast buffet as yet another chance to eat his weight in smoked salmon...



And I had carbs. And then some more carbs.

The kids were too busy meeting characters to eat much, but I know they ate Mickey Waffles and fruit!



I LOVE how my kids (especially Grady) go in for the hug with their WHOLE being



Big CHEEEEEEEESE!!!!!



Donald came by-- Grady is brushing up on his Donald voice. It's.... coming along



I think JH especially appreciates Donald's semi-grumpy attitude
Minnie!



And here's a throwback to this same meet two years ago!



And with that, we paid up, packed up, and headed out to the car! We finally found the TTC (GPS fail!) and parked, trammed, and ran up the ramp to catch our first MONORAIL of the trip!!!

Stay tuned....

 

[mousehappync]

We were at Wilderness Lodge early in December and LOVED our woods view bunkbed room...we had a perfect view of the MK Wishes fireworks every night! (of course, without music and no castle in the background). It was perfect for us as dd3 was ready for bed right around then every night.

That makes me happy--- I'm hoping we will be able to see something with a wood's view!

 

[scottny]

You really were out the door early. Yikes!
Fun times at Chef Mickey’s.
Great pics.