Our Rockn' Disney Vacation - December 2005 UPDATE 4/6: DAY 8

[skiingwife]

December 15 - 25, 2005

Cast:
Me: Melissa, fanatical trip planner and mom to 3 great boys.
DH: Steve, barely tolerated my year long planning, but in the end, just as excited as I am to get away.
DS1: Spencer, 13, first time to WDW. Loves thrill rides and relaxing in the sun.
DS2: Alex, 11, first time to WDW. Loves thrill rides and good food.
DS3: Nicholas, 7, first time to WDW. Loves thrill rides and swimming pools.

I began planning this trip in December 2004 when I was sitting home with my boys for 2 full weeks (Monday through Friday) of Christmas break. I told DH that, next year at Christmas, we have got to take a trip. He knew that I’d wanted to take the kids to Disney World for many years. We were just waiting until the littlest got a little older. Finally, with Nicholas being 6, we were ready. Hubby gave in and gave me the green light to plan.

The first thing I did was ask some of my friends at work for advice on trip planning. Luckily one of them pointed me to wdwinfo.com and this most informative discussion board. I spent the next few weeks reading thousands of posts on resort selections, restaurant reviews, and trip reports. I had been waiting so long for this Disney trip, so I decided to go all out with a deluxe resort. (We didn’t have much choice in the matter since we are a family of five.) But I wanted the best anyway. After careful identification of the end of value season and the start of holiday season in December, I made my selection of resorts and dates, making sure to take advantage of those low value season rates. It is so typical of me to have a hard time making up my mind, so rather than choose just one resort, I chose two: Polynesian from 12/16 – 12/19 and Yacht Club from 12/19 – 12/25.

With the resort booked, I bought the Unofficial Guide, continued researching the DIS, and subscribed to Tour Guide Mike. My DH asked if I was going to be planning this trip all year. YES, I am!!!! And in the end, he was darn glad I did. So, reservations made, only 350 days to wait! And in that 350 day time, I spent a lot of time lurking on the DIS, reading more trip reports, and planning our dining choices. I had this trip planned to the tee. It was going to be the greatest vacation ever! Here are the details:

Airfare: $140 round trip on Allegiant Air from Lansing to Sanford. I thought $750 for the 5 of us was a great deal.

Park Tickets: 8 day MYW base tickets bought through Ticketmania. I debated a long time on whether to get the Plus Option. Being that it was December and I didn’t know if it would be warm enough for the water parks, I just went with the base ticket knowing that I could add the plus option once we got there and saw that we would have warm days. I did not purchase the park hopper option because I didn’t see us going to more than one park a day, plus I didn’t want to spend the extra money. The tickets arrived in the mail very quickly with no problems. So excited to open up the big package and see the tickets!

Car: Rented a car from National/Alamo to get us from Sanford to Disney. Turned the car in the next day at the Car Care Center, which is pretty close to the Magic Kingdom. They gave us a shuttle ride back and we didn’t ride in a car again until 9 days later when we did another 1 day rental to get us back to the airport. This time we picked the car up at the Dolphin Hotel. I think our daily rates were about $50 and $60, so about $110 for the round trip.

First night: Our flight didn’t arrive until 9:30 p.m. December 15, so we stayed offsite the first night at the Hampton Inn on Palm Parkway. Palm Parkway is just across the street from the Downtown Disney entrance. The hotel was fine for one night and the free morning breakfast was good.

Next Up: Day 1 – Check in at the Polynesian and Epcot.

 

[rwenzel2]

I can't wait to read the rest of your trip report - I, too, made the decision at Christmas to go NEXT Christmas. I've wanted to do this since we went to WDW 5 years ago, and now I, too, am spending a whole year planning.

Hello, my name is Ruth, and I am a planaholic.....

 

[Minniespal]

Enjoyed reading your report ~ Can't wait for more.

 

[skiingwife]

Well, last night, by the time our flight arrived (1 hour late), we drove the 45 minutes or so from Sanford, and went through Taco Bell and McDonalds, it was about 11:30 by the time we got to bed. The plan for Friday had been to get up at 7 a.m., get to Polynesian by 8 a.m., and take the monorail to Epcot 15 minutes before park opening. I had read that these first days of our vacation would be the least crowded and that crowds would build as we got closer to Christmas. So I wanted to make the most of the low crowd days and be at Epcot early. Well, I was awake at 6:30, fired up and ready to go. But DH wanted to sleep, so did the boys. So I got my shower, got dressed, and laid back down, and waited. It would not be fun if the kids were tired so I let them sleep until 7:45. I had read about commando style touring, and knew that I didn’t want to do it. But we are following Tour Guide Mike so I had some rules that I wanted to stick to. We finally got out the door around 8:15. Not too far behind schedule.

We drove across the street to the WDW entrance. We were so excited to see the sign of Mickey and Minnie welcoming us to the World. I had no idea where this entrance led to but we soon found ourselves at Downtown Disney. Oh my gosh, there’s Downtown Disney; oh my gosh, there’s Typhoon Lagoon; oh my gosh, there’s Disney Quest. We were so excited to see all these little things. We were pointing at everything. Finally we got to the road that has the real entrance – the one I’d seen in so many pictures, the purple sign announcing the Magic Kingdom. We pull up to the attendant and say “We’re going to the Polynesian”. He said quite loudly something like “So, what do you want me to do?” I was startled and stunned, and then with a big smile he says “right hand lane – Have a Magical Day!” We realized he was joking with us and we all laughed. Whew.

We arrive at the Polynesian, pull up to the Great Ceremonial Hall, get out and walk a few steps, and then I was stopped in my tracks – the smells, the sounds – it was like a tropical paradise. I had no idea it would be so beautiful, lush and green. There were waterfalls and tiki torches. It was like heaven and it made me cry. I had planned this trip for a year and it was finally here and it just hit me. (Actually, there were times when I didn’t know whether we would actually make the trip. After 6 months of planning, we found out that my mom has bladder cancer. That was in July 2005 and the first small town doctor who treated her gave her 6-12 months to live. 6 months would have been December, when we were supposed to be at WDW. We went for a 2nd opinion at the University of Michigan and the doctors there gave us hope and started her on chemotherapy. I figured our trip to WDW would not happen. But by the time August came around, her tumor had shrunk significantly, she didn’t have the pain anymore, and the cancer that had spread to her lungs was gone. She continued with the chemotherapy, and told me to continue with my vacation plans. So I booked our flights and purchased flight insurance (Travel Guard - $90 for the 5 of us) in case she was not doing well in December and we needed to cancel. Finally December arrives and she’s doing pretty well and it looks like we’ll be able to take this, by now, much needed vacation. So back to the Polynesian. I think part of the reason I was crying, besides the fact that the Polynesian was so beautiful, was the stress of the whole year had just caught up with me.

Anyway, we go inside, check in, our room is not ready yet but we’re in Fiji which is what I had requested because I wanted a new room. We get our leis, and then take a walk over to TTC to catch the Epcot monorail. As we are waiting for the Epcot monorail with only about 10 other people, we notice that the MK monorail waiting area is jam packed and everyone from the parking lot is heading that way. My DH asks where they are all going and says how glad he is that he’s not in that line. I quickly point out that we are following Tour Guide Mike and that we are going to avoid the crowds all week. Sure enough, we get to Epcot, not by opening but shortly after, and there is nobody there! It was practically empty. I knew Soarin’ was where we were going first but I wasn’t exactly sure where it was and we didn’t have a crowd to follow. But we found it, grabbed 5 fast passes, and then got in the standby line. I think we only waited about 15 minutes in line. We had just enough time to read the trivia questions as we waited. When we got to the area where they line you up, I asked to be in the first row. No problem. We ended up in the first row, middle section, front and center. The ride was awesome. We all loved it. I especially liked the pine smell and the scene where you swoop down behind the white water rafters. It was so exhilarating.

After Soarin’ our fast pass window was going to be up soon, so I directed DH and the boys to the Living with the Land ride, while I hustled over to Test Track to get fast passes. What an enjoyable walk that was – beautiful sunny skies, just warm enough that I wasn’t chilly, and taking in the sights of Epcot for the first time. I get our FPs and add them to the ones I already have for Soarin’. By the way, I bought this cool little holder for my FPs and tickets from PassPorter.com. It has a zippered section that I kept our room keys and money in, and a front see-thru section that I put my FPs in. I wore it around my neck. It was great for grabbing our tickets and FPs quickly. I think it was $13.

Back to the Land. The guys aren’t off the ride yet and it’s approaching 11:00, so I decided to grab lunch for all of us from Sunshine Seasons while I’m waiting for them. Just as I’m sitting down, here they come. DH and Nicholas liked the Land ride, but Spencer and Alex were bored with it. We had 3 kids meals with the chicken leg, mashed potatoes, carrots, applesauce and a drink ($5 each, I think? Great deal.) and a turkey and muenster foccacia sandwich for DH and I to split. The food was very good. Next, we rode Soarin’ again with FP (the standby line was up to 45 minutes now, if I remember correctly), then headed over to Test Track. As we are walking, I get our tickets out of my PassPorter so I can grab another set of FPs before we ride, and discover that one of our MYW tickets is missing. Let’s see – DH’s ticket was Cinderellabration; Spencer’s was Lights, Motor, Action; Alex’s was Soarin’; and Nick’s was Tree of Life child ticket. The one that was missing was mine! Tree of Life adult ticket. But we do not panic. I knew from reading the DIS that if I lost a ticket, I would be able to get it replaced. After all, Ticketmania had copied the backs of my tickets so I had the ticket numbers. First though, we looked around the TT FP machines to see if we can find it. A nice CM told me to ask the CM over at the entrance if any tickets had been turned in. So we did and she opened up a metal box and pulled out a stack of tickets. I guess I’m not the only one who loses tickets. I told her it was a Tree of Life ticket, so she locates one and we compare the ticket number to the numbers on the rest of our tickets and it’s obvious that it was my missing ticket. Hallelujah! Disney Magic!

Test Track was great. We loved the hide speed outside part. Then it was time for Mickey Bars! Next we went on Mission Space which my DH was leery about putting Nicholas on because he’d heard (not from me) that people get sick from this ride. But we had no problem, although it was pretty intense there at the beginning when you are taking off. I tried to look over at Nicholas to make sure he was alright and kept asking him if he was okay. Then I see him pushing buttons like crazy, doing his navigator job. He was loving it and he’s only 7.

Next everyone said they were thirsty, so I told them we could get free Coke at Club Cool. It was a little tricky to find but we made it. I had mentioned this place to them but I hadn’t told them about the Beverly. We had a fun time trying the different flavors and when they got to the Beverly their reaction was just what I expected. Yuck! We checked out the merchandise which was fun and Spencer made his first purchase of the trip – a Coke basketball, which he and Alex proceeded to bounce and pass for the rest of our time at Epcot, driving me crazy.

Next we rode Spaceship Earth, which Nicholas enjoyed (I will find out that Nicholas enjoys everything on this trip – the thrill rides, the slow rides, the shows, the characters – he loves it all) but Spencer and Alex found it to be boring. Okay, we won’t go on the Land or Spaceship Earth again. It’s probably 2 or 3:00 now so I call back to the Polynesian and our room is ready so head back on the monorail, get the SUV and pull it up to the front of the Poly. The valet guy loads our luggage onto a golf car and tells us to hop on. What a fun and pleasant surprise that was. I thought only concierge guests got to ride on the golf cart. We get to our room and it is beautiful. It was bigger than I expected, the beds were really comfortable, and the tv was great. We stepped out on our first floor patio and could see the Grand Floridian. It wasn’t the greatest view, but it was okay.

The boys were all lying on the beds watching tv and relaxing, and we had a couple hours before our 6:00 ADR at Whispering Canyon, so DH and I made a quick run to a grocery store for water, pop, beer, milk, and snacks while we still had the SUV. We had to return it to the Car Care Center later this evening so we took this opportunity to get groceries.

The Wilderness Lodge was very pretty with Christmas decorations. There was a bell choir playing Christmas songs in the lobby. Nick liked playing with the Lincoln Logs at WCC but unfortunately for him we got called to our table within 5 minutes. Hedda Lettuce was a great waitress. I had nachos, Steve and Spencer had burgers, and Alex had the skillet which he chose from the children’s menu and, surprisingly, Hedda gave it to us at the children’s price. The bottomless shakes were really good and thick. From there it was back to the Polynesian where we turned in early because we WILL get up early to be at MK at opening.

Up next: Day 2 – Magic Kingdom.

 

[skiingwife]

Day 2: Magic Kingdom

We awoke at 7 a.m. to a wake up call from Mickey Mouse. And was Stitch on the phone also? It’s kind of hard to hear what they’re saying. When the phone rang, I told Nicholas to answer it. He listened and listened and then handed the phone to me and said no one was there. Finally, Mickey says wake up but Nicholas missed it. Tomorrow I’ll have him listen longer. We ate breakfast in the room then headed to MK on the monorail. I didn’t carry anything except for my digital camera and carrying case, so we avoided the bag check lines and headed straight up to the gate. After watching the opening ceremony, which was cute, we headed straight down Main Street USA and into Tomorrowland, along with many other hurrying people. Our destination, along with everyone else, was Space Mountain. I grabbed fast passes first and then we got into the standby line. The wait was almost nothing but it sure is a long walk. After that, we went to Buzz Lightyear. I told the boys some hints I’d read for scoring high points and they all scored higher than me! I think my gun was defective. We had a great time, so we rode again. In fact, I think we rode about 5 more times with no wait. Then we headed back to Space Mountain to use our fast passes. I think these were our two favorite rides of the park. Next we went up to Toontown to catch the WDW railroad which we took to Frontierland. It was a nice relaxing ride, and provided shelter from the light rain that was falling. As we waited for passengers to get on at Main Street, we looked out and saw hordes of people pouring in. The bag check and the ticket machine lines were way deep with people. I’m really glad we got to MK early and my family now realized that getting up early was a good thing.

Over at Frontierland, there was no line at all for Splash Mountain. I had bought the Song of the South movie on ebay, and Nicholas and I watched it a few times before our trip, so he was aware of the story of Br’er Rabbit. But the others weren’t. By the time we finished with the ride, Spencer was like, I’m gonna have to go home and watch that movie. Well, yes, I tried to get you to watch it before our trip. Anyway, we’re in the outside part of the ride where you see the big drop, and Spencer says Are we gonna go down that? His eyes were so big and wide. When the ride was over, everyone, even Spencer and Alex, said they loved that ride. I figured Nicholas would, because he loves every ride, but Spencer and Alex are a little harder to please. I was so happy that they loved it and wanted to go again. So we rode two more times with no wait. Then it was on to BTMRR which we liked but not as much as Splash. From there we grabbed some hotdogs from a cart in Frontierland and then went to the Haunted Mansion. I liked this ride and the boys did too, even though it wasn’t fast and didn’t have any drops. But I think they were starting to catch on to the fact that Disney isn’t just about thrill rides.

By now it was raining a little heavier and DH had been complaining about being cold and wanting to buy a sweatshirt, but there didn’t seem to be any places in Frontierland to buy one. So we continued around through Fantasyland, stopping to get a Peter Pan fast pass before going in to Philharmagic. I could not believe the line for Peter Pan. It was a 60 minute wait. Why would anyone wait that long when you could get a fast pass? It just amazes me. We hadn’t waited in any lines so far and we weren’t about to start. Philharmagic was great. I loved the music and it was so neat to watch Nicholas reaching out for the objects that appeared to be floating in the air. It was great fun. Next we did Peter Pan and then went through the castle and back to Main Street to shop for a sweatshirt. From the Emporium we found a sweatshirt for DH and a hooded pullover jacket for me. I wasn’t cold but I could always use a new jacket. Next we headed out because the crowds were getting heavy and we had ADRs at Kona Café at 1:30.

We didn’t get to Kona until almost 2:00 but they still seated us right away. Lunch was good but we’d been most looking forward to dessert – the kiddie cones and the chocolate torte cake. Delicious. Next it was back to our room for a break and then DH took the two older boys over to the Grand Floridian to use the weight room and I took Nicholas to the Volcano pool. It was a little chilly and still misty, but that didn’t matter. We spent the next hour or two swimming. Then the boys came back from the Grand Floridian where DH said they were almost done with their workouts when they were asked the boys’ ages and Alex was told he was too young and couldn’t use the equipment. So that was a little disappointing but I say who needs to work out on vacation anyway? Give it a break. So we swam a little more and then got ready to go back to the MK.

We took the boat across this time which was fun and quick. We hadn’t been to Adventureland yet so we went there first. First we got our picture taken with Rafiki and Timon just past the Adventureland entrance, and I swear Rafiki was trying to cop a feel. Maybe not, but he was tickling me. Then we did Swiss Family Treehouse which was hard to see in the dark, then Jungle Cruise, Pirates of the Caribbean and Alladin’s Carpets. Looking back, we could have skipped all of these. Jungle Cruise and POTC were the best of the four but probably not something we need to do again. By now the boys were getting a little grumpy so we decided we better get some food into them. We had dinner at Columbia Harbor House. The fish was pretty good and the servings were huge. Then to really get everyone back into a good mood, we went back to Splash. This did the trick. Now as we were walking to Splash, the parade had started but we planned to watch the second parade so we kept walking. Again Splash was a walk on, and when we our ride was over, there was still no line, so I asked if we could ride again and the CM said yes. Well, Nicholas thought it was the greatest thing ever that this CM let us go again. He kept repeating throughout the trip how the CM at Splash Mountain was his favorite CM. As we are heading out, we hear some noise like an explosion and look out to see the fireworks starting. Oh my gosh, how could I have forgotten about Wishes! This was to be our only night at MK and we were stuck in a log while Wishes was going on. But it was a really cloudy and overcast night, so Wishes weren’t so good anyway. You could only see a few of the fireworks. Most got lost in the clouds. Oh well, we’ll watch tomorrow night from the beach. Since we liked Splash so much, we ended up buying one of the pictures. We had so many to choose from since we rode it so much. The price was a little steep ($19 or $20) but it was cute. We had the picture sent to the Yacht Club where we would be moving to on Monday. I like the package delivery service. We watched Spectromagic which was really nice. I especially like the music. Then we headed back to the Polynesian for sleep.

Up Next: Day 3 – More Magic Kingdom, another lost ticket, and Ohana.

 

[TLinden16]

You are sure off to a great stat! You seemed to fit so much into your days. Can't wait to read the rest.

 

[kimwim8]

Great report so far! I'd love to see some pics!!

 

[skiingwife]

The plan for today was 8:05 ADR at Crystal Palace, spend the morning and early afternoon at MK, then back to the Polynesian to relax until our 7:00 dinner at Ohana. However, nothing went as planned and it turned out to be the worst day of our vacation, although it really wasn’t that bad.

We got a wake up call at 7:00 but no one wanted to get up. I was so looking forward to our breakfast with Pooh and seeing MK and the Castle before the park opened at 9. But since everyone was tired, we slept in until 8, ate a quick breakfast in the room, and managed to get to MK by about 9:15, which is later than I liked, but we’d done almost everything we wanted to do at MK yesterday, so we were just there to do our favorites again. Again, we got FP for Space and did Buzz Lightyear several times. Then the boys were hungry already so we went to the Main Street Bakery. We had croissant breakfast sandwiches, French toast loaf, and Krispy Kremes. The French toast loaf was awesome. You must try it.

Next we encountered our first characters of the trip. I know we could’ve seen them in our first two days, but our main focus was on doing the rides so we didn’t seek out the characters. On our way back to Space Mountain and Buzz Lightyear, we see Buzz Lightyear himself! What a thrill this was for all my boys. They thought Buzz was so cool and happily posed with him. Now this is an amazing thing to me, because when I first brought up the idea of a WDW vacation last year, my two older boys were pretty lukewarm. They didn’t realize what great rides could be found at the 4 parks, they didn’t realize the fun and delicious restaurants that we would experience, and they didn’t realize what a great time we would have. They thought WDW was only about lame characters, particularly a mouse. Their reply to my vacation idea was “Mom, we don’t want to have our picture taken with a mouse.” I said, “Come on, it’s gonna be great. There's a lot to do there.” No way, mom. “Fine, you don’t have to have your picture taken with a mouse. Nicholas will do it.” To which they said they don’t want their picture taken with ANY character. Fine, I said. So here we are with Buzz Lightyear and they are pretty stoked, high fiving Buzz, and smiling brightly for the camera. I knew they would. I was right, as usual!

Then we experienced our first Photo Pass photographer. I wish we had started this earlier on our trip, like the very first day, but I didn’t know what great pictures we would get and that we would be able to purchase a CD of all the photos for the bargain price of $99. I learned this on our very last night. I had seen a Photo Pass photographer taking pictures on Main Street yesterday and I asked her how long she would be there, and she must have thought I was dumb. She said all night. So I figured we’d come back but we never did, so we got no pictures of us in front of the castle. Now I know, just stop and get your picture taken. It only takes a few seconds. They even took pictures with my camera too. Anyway, we got our pictures taken with Mr. & Mrs. Incredible and Stitch. Again, ALL my boys were smiling brightly. It was fun.

After doing Space and Buzz a few more times, we went on the Tomorrowland Transit Authority. I thought this ride would be better than it was, but honestly, it was a little dull except the part inside Space. Probably won’t be doing that ride again. Next we walked over to Frontierland to ride Splash.

Now, it was a little rainy and cool again today, just like yesterday, and we were all a little tired. And to make matters worse, Splash is closed down and BTMRR has a half hour wait which we do even though my Tour Guide Mike voice is telling me not too. Then rather than go back and swim at the Volcano pool (which the boys would rather do even though it was chilly), I proceeded to drag them through the park. We took the train to Toon Town, walked through Mickey’s house, and waited in a 20 minute line for Goofy’s Barnstormer which was not worth the wait. (By the way, as we are FINALLY getting off Barnstormer, I see a familiar face going up the exit ramp and getting escorted onto the ride from the exit side. I do a double take and tell DH that I think that was Harry Hamlin and his daughter. He turned around and looked and agreed it was Harry. He was the Candlelight Processional narrator that night.)

Nicholas liked Toontown, of course, but Spencer and Alex were not into it. So they start picking on each other and doing that horse play stuff that boys do. It’s fine at home, but not out in public and especially not at Disney. Moms of boys will know what I was feeling. I ask them to stop but they don’t, and it continues. Of course, they get carried away and one of them ends up hurt and mad. Then I lose it and tell them all that we are going back to the hotel and I’m going to call the airport and get on the next flight home. I’m not going to spend this kind of money only to have them fighting in Disney World. Blah blah blah. Poor DH and Nicholas, they had been in Donald’s boat and didn’t know what was happening except that mom was losing it. So we head out with me walking waaaaay ahead, not wanting to talk to them. It was a very quiet monorail ride back and I was on the verge of tears. Once we got back to the room, DH had a talk with the boys. But I soon realized it was all my fault. I had gotten them up too early after a late night, I dragged them through the park without a plan, I took them on rides that were not worth waiting for (they were okay rides but the boys would have had a 100% better time back at the pool). I basically did not follow TGMike’s advice at all and it made for a miserable day. Never again. But we all took a much needed break, went swimming, and kissed and made up. I promised that the rest of the trip would be better - less rushing, more relaxing. I'm glad I learned this early. It's not a vacation if everyone is tired and not enjoying what they're doing.

Our dinner reservation was for 7:00 but by 4:30 we were all really hungry. So we headed up to Ohana at 5:00 to see if they could seat us early. They said they would seat the 5:00 people and see if they had any tables left. The waiting area was really packed so we didn’t get our hopes up. But 10 minutes later, our pager goes off. We are led to a great table, right next to the window looking out towards the castle. I ordered the drink I had been looking forward to all year, the Lapu Lapu. It was delicious. Now up until this point, we hadn’t really spent that much money on meals yet. All the meals were pretty reasonable by Disney standards, but other than Kona Café, we’d been doing mostly counter service. DH takes a look at the price of the meal that we are about to eat, and raises his eyebrows. I said don’t say a word, this is going to be great. So he didn’t say a word, but I knew he thought $26 each was a bit high. Sure enough, we loved the food – the salad, wings, veggies, potatoes, wonton chips were all good. But the shrimp was great! We ate the first bowl, then asked for another. DH loved the shrimp. He said that alone was worth the price of the meal. The meats were also very good. But the Bananas Foster put it over the top. That was incredible. We just wished we weren’t so stuffed and could eat more. Then besides the food, the Hawaiian singer was so much fun. We sang along to “I wanna go back, to my little grass shack…”, Nicholas learned to hula, he did the limbo and paraded around with maracas, and we learned the sign for Just Hang Loose which we would use often during our trip. We will definitely go back to Ohana. It was just what we needed after our dismal day.

From there we needed to walk off all that food, so we took the monorail over to the Grand Floridian to see the famous gingerbread house that we’d seen on the Food Channel. Just like at Wilderness Lodge last night, there was a bell choir here. The gingerbread house was really pretty and smelled wonderful. There was also a band on the upstairs level that was playing Christmas music. We listened to them for a while and they were good. It was fun to walk around this hotel, but it seemed a little formal for us.

Later that night we went out on the beach of the Polynesian to watch the Electric Water Parade and Wishes. Now I knew that watching Wishes from the Polynesian beach is pretty good. I’d seen pictures of them that people have posted on the DIS and they were huge and bright. But not so on this night. It was so cloudy and overcast that we couldn’t see anything. Every once in a while the clouds would turn red, but other than that, nothing. Not only did we miss Wishes last night, but we missed them again tonight. Oh well, that will give us something to come back for next year.

Oh, I forgot to mention one thing. While we were at MK, as I was getting fast passes, I discovered that one of our tickets is missing AGAIN! And AGAIN, it is my ticket. We check with the CMs at Buzz and Space, and neither had my ticket. They told me I could get it replaced at City Hall. So we go all the back to the front of the park to City Hall and tell the CM what happened. I showed her the other 4 tickets I had and told her what I thought was the missing ticket number. I told I had lost my ticket at Epcot on Friday, too but had luckily found it. No worries, she said. She printed me another ticket exactly like the original. I was truly amazed that Disney could help me so quickly even though my ticket came from Ticketmania. I guess one good thing about the biometric fingerprint system is that no one would be able to use my lost ticket.

Up Next: Day 4 – A great day at Disney MGM Studios and moving to the Yacht Club.

 

[VanniGirl]

Looking forward to reading the rest.

 

[MOMOFMNM]

we loved the Poly too!!
we were in Fiji too!!

your report is great so far thanks...

how were the crowds and weather?

 

[byoung]

Great report, thanks.

 

[skiingwife]

It’s Monday, December 19. So far, we’ve had one pretty nice day and two rainy days. Today was going to be a nice day again as will the rest of the week. Nice for us means sunny and low-mid 70s. We usually started out wearing sweatshirts or light jackets and end up taking them off by noon. To me, the weather was perfect because we didn’t have to deal with the humidity and we didn’t get tired from the heat. Also, the crowds have not been too bad either, except MK was more crowded Sunday than it was Saturday.

Today is the day we move to the Yacht Club. I packed most of our stuff last night so we just had to throw our toiletries and pjs into a suitcase. We called for bell services to get our luggage at 8:00 and they came right away. We were at the bus stop by 8:10 for our first use of the Disney bus system. We only waited about 10 minutes for the MGM bus. We got to MGM by 8:40, which is exactly when I wanted to be there. We were near the front of the line and there weren’t many people there at that time. DH asked why we got there so early just to wait in line. By 9:00, there was a long line of people behind us and now DH was glad that we had gotten there early. They started letting us through the turnstile at about 10 to 9 and we got to go about 1 block to the rope. It felt like I was in a herd of cattle waiting to get out of the barn. If you plan on going to RnR or TOT, make sure you stay to the right. When they finally dropped the rope, it was a mad dash. Now I felt like I was in the running of the bulls. No one was listening to the CMs telling us to walk.

First we got FPs for RnR (return time was 9:20), then rode it with no wait in the standby line. My DH was bummed that he didn’t have time to stop and look at all the stuff that was in the cases. Too bad. We absolutely loved this ride. It’s our favorite in the whole World. We like Aerosmith so it was so cool to have their music blaring in our ears. This was Nicholas’ first upside down ride and he loved it. By the time we got off the ride and out of the gift shop, my fast pass window was open so I got another set of FPs for RnR (I’m now holding 2 sets). Then we headed over to ToT where we had about a 10 minute wait. Our elevator operator was that guy that I’ve seen on the Traval Channel show – the really spooky looking guy with the mustache. It was neat to see him in person – he’s evil. This ride was awesome. My little Passporter case that I was wearing around my neck flew up above my head on our first drop which was a big one. My stomach flew up too. What a rush. It was better than I expected. All of us wanted to ride again, except Nicholas. It was a little too scary for him.

Next we went back to RnR and used one set of FPs. By now the standby line was already 30 minutes. Again, I don’t know why people wait in those lines. The area was getting really busy now so we got a FP for ToT and then got out of there. We wanted to catch the first Millionaire show at 11:00. I thought we should get there early to make sure we got in, but we were almost the first ones there. The CM told us that we had time to go do something else and come back. He told us that Sorcerer Mickey was right next door, so that’s where we went. Just as we got inside, the CM told us that Mickey was going on a cheese break but would be back in 3 minutes. So we waited and it really was only 2-3 minutes. Now my boys, who swore they wouldn’t have their picture taken with a mouse, thought it was cool and smiled for the camera. The Photo pass photographer got some good shots, in fact we used one for our Christmas greeting cards when we got home.

Back to Millionaire which was really fun for all of us – even Nicholas who didn’t know all the answers but had fun guessing. I was number 3 on the first fastest finger question. That was the closest I came to getting in the hot seat. Afterwards it was time for our 11:30 ADR at SciFi. It was a little hard to find coming from Millionaire. On the way there we went down the streets of America and saw the Power Rangers. I’m so glad we had a reservation. They were turning away everyone who didn’t have one, saying there was nothing available for lunch or dinner. Yikes. This restaurant was one of our favorites! We had a car front and center of the movie screen. The atmosphere is so cool and the food was better than I expected. And after a pretty busy morning, it was nice to sit in the dark and relax. The boys didn’t take their eyes off the screen the whole time. It was a peaceful meal. Just after we put our order in, I ran over to Star Tours to get us a fastpass. By the time I got back, our food came out. DH and I split an order of onion rings and a reuben. It was delicious and we were both full. We let the boys order dessert so we could sit there longer.

Next we went to Lights Motor Action, which we all liked a lot. But man, what a long walk to get to our seats. We got there with about 5 minutes to spare so it was pretty full. We had to sit way at the far end and about ¾ of the way up, but we still had a good view of everything. We would see this show again. Next we used our Star Tours FP and did some shopping at Tattoine Traders for a long time. They had this neat thing where they take a picture of your face and then added the body of a Star Wars character to create a picture of you as a Star Wars character. It was really neat. DH and the boys did this and we ended up buying pictures of DH as Obi-wan, Spencer as Luke, and Nicholas as Anakin in the pod racer. I think these were about $38 each; a little pricey but a nice keepsake.

Next we watched the Holly Days parade which was really cute and the music and characters were fun. But Nicholas ended up crying. He does this thing where he plays with his hair – on the back top of his head, he likes to twirl his hair in his fingers. So he has this Alfalfa thing going on with his hair sticking up. Anyway, here comes the evil queen from Snow White. She’s walking right towards us. She stops, gives Nicholas the evil eye, and then starts picking at his hair. It was hilarious to us because we are always telling Nicholas to stop playing with his hair because it looks bad, and her she is picking at it with a look of disgust on her face. She finally rolled her eyes and left. But poor Nicholas started to cry. He didn’t want to see the queen ever again. I had to promise him that I wouldn’t let her do that anymore.

We had a Fantasmic package reservation at Hollywood & Vine for 4:30, but we just weren’t hungry yet. So we checked in and asked if it would be possible for us to go ride a few rides and come back later. The CM told us that she would mark us down as checked in and told us to go do what we wanted to do and come back by 5:15. That was perfect. We went and used our RnR and ToT fastpasses and came back at 5:15. By then we were all starving. We all really liked this restaurant. I had read that it was noisy and cafeteria-like, and the food wasn’t good. But we actually enjoyed it and the food was very good. (You can read my dining reviews if you want more details.) By then it was time for Fantasmic. We loved this show but DH thought the part with the villains was a little too long. What a great ending to a great day.

So we had just spent a full day at MGM, from opening until close, and we still hadn’t seen it all. We hadn’t done Muppets, Indiana Jones, Beauty & the Beast, Animation, or Backlot Tour. But even after a full day, we were not tired out like we were after MK. MGM is a lot smaller and you have less walking to do, plus there are a lot of sit-down shows that give your feet a break. We all agreed that this was definitely our favorite park. They asked if we would be coming back to MGM this week. Good thing that I planned for us to come back for another full day on Wednesday.

So it’s 8:00 and we haven’t even been to the Yacht Club yet. I thought that at some point during the day, we would have taken a break and went over and checked in. But we didn’t have time and we were never in need of a break. The line for the boat was huge and a boat had just left, so Spencer and I decided that we would walk back to the YC and see whether walking was quicker than the boat. Well, we were almost to the Boardwalk Hotel by the time the next boat went by us toward MGM. So walking was a lot faster and it was only about 20 minutes.

Wow – the YC lobby was really nice. It was very rich and elegant but not too stuffy. The Christmas tree was beautiful and the large train set was really neat. I checked in and was given a partial water view room, first floor, facing the main courtyard on the lake side. It was really close to the lobby and Stormalong Bay which was nice. They brought our luggage right over and I was happy that all of it was accounted for. We sat on our patio and waited for DH, Alex and Nicholas to arrive. Finally we see them coming up the walk and call to them to come in through our patio.

Our room was decorated in blue and white with a nautical theme. It was very bright and airy. DH and the boys all said they liked this room better than our Polynesian room, which was dark and brown. I think I liked it better too. The beds were very comfortable. It seemed like they had the same pillow-top kind of mattresses that our Polynesian room had. We unpacked and settled in for 6 nights.

The boys were all watching tv and playing with some toys they had bought (I think they were putting together model cars that they had bought at the Test Track store on Friday). So DH and I decided to go check out the hot tub at the quiet pool. We were the only two people there! And we noticed that most of the rooms on this side of the resort were dark, so I took that as a good sign that crowds were still low. As we were enjoying the hot tub, we were surprised to hear some loud bangs. Illuminations! I hadn’t realized that we were so close to Epcot. We were able to see some of the fireworks from the hot tub. We get back to our room and Nicholas was sound asleep. What a great ending to a great day.

Up Next: Day 4 - A relaxing morning and Epcot in the Afternoon.

 

[heaven2dc]

What a great fun-filled 3 days you've had! Am enjoying your reports

 

[jennymouse]

I'm really enjoying your report! I know it's hard not to fall into the commando thing and having a meltdown when things don't go as planned but it happens to the best of us. So don't beat yourself up over it. I've been several times and it still happens to me if I don't watch out.lol It usually take about three days to get into that relaxed vacation mode...every time I go. Don't you just love the Epcot resort area?! I do! Looking forward to reading more; you've kept me entertained on my slow day here at work.lol

 

[kathymc]

enjoying your report - glad you days got better!

 

[skiingwife]

Tuesday December 20 - This was a take it easy day for us. We slept in until around 10:00, then got up and walked over to the Boardwalk to have breakfast at Spoodles. But we got there after 10:30 and they had stopped serving breakfast, so instead we went to the Boardwalk Bakery and had breakfast burritos, breakfast sandwiches, chocolate croissants, krispy kremes. Then we went back to the YC, changed into our swim suits and checked out Stormalong Bay for the first time. Wow, what a great pool. It was huge. The kids liked the sandy bottom, the long slide, the lazy river (which is really deep in spots), and the hot tubs, one of which was really hot! It was so nice to sit and relax with my boys. We decided that this was definitely what we needed after a long 1/2 a year and some hard days of school. We wondered why we hadn't done this a long time ago?

DH, Spencer and Alex went to check out the health club and see if it would be a problem for the boys to work out (the Grand Floridian wouldn't let them). The CM there said it was no problem and he offered a lot of good personal training advice to DH. I think they went back two more times during the week. It was a nice facility.

While they worked out, I threw some laundry in. Actually I did a load of laundry back at the Polynesian too. I can't believe how fast we went through clothes. I should have packed more pants and less shorts, because the boys only wore shorts one day and I didn't wear them any days. So I needed to wash our pants and long sleeve shirts. And at the Polynesian, part of the reason I needed to do laundry was to wash Nicholas' underwear. In fanatically planning this trip, I had our clothes laid out for about a month before we left, and I kept checking my list and adding to the pile of clothes. So what did I forget? Underwear for Nicholas! He only had the pair he was wearing and one other pair. So at the Polynesian, I washed them, but then just went to the Boutiki to see if I could buy some. Yikes, $12 for 3 pair. Oh well, they were cute - Mickey soccer and Mickey baseball, and they even glow in the dark.

Finally we left Stormalong Bay and went over to Epcot. We went in through the International Gateway which was a really short 5 minute walk. I love this part of staying at YC - so close to Epcot. We went to get a Soarin fast pass but they were all given out and the wait was 90 minutes, so no Soarin for us. That's what we get for not arriving until 4:00. But we did do Test Track and Honey I Shrunk the Audience. It was awesome riding TT at night, much more fun than during the day on the outside part. I definitely recommend riding it at night. Then we made our way over to Mexico for dinner at San Angel. DH and I had eaten here 18 years ago on our honeymoon, so I wanted to go back again. It was just as I remembered it. The boys loved the marketplace area. Unfortunately they called us so quickly and we didn't have much time to shop. Our food was pretty good, especially the margaritas. The boys had the non-alcholic margaritas and thought they were pretty cool. We rode the boat ride and I felt like I was back in the 70's. It was a nice relaxing ride but is it still like that in Mexico? I don't know.

From there we walked around World Showcase and found a spot for Illuminations over near Germany. We had a really good view. Having never seen Illuminations, it was way better than I expected. It was more than just a fireworks show. The spinning globe with the different scenes and the music were incredible. What a great show. We'll be back to watch it later again this week for sure.

That was it for that day. We didn't do much but that was just what we needed to recharge. Because tomorrow we're going back to MGM for another full day.

Up next: Day 6 - More MGM and 50's Prime Time.

 

[kimwim8]

Great trip report! Keep em' coming.

 

[skiingwife]

It's Wednesday, December 21 and we're going back to Disney MGM Studios today. Spencer, Alex and I got up and took the boat and arrived by 8:45. So far we have never had to wait more than a few minutes for a boat at the Yacht Club. They seem to have a lot of boats running. DH and Nicholas slept in a little but are going to meet us for the 10:00 Beauty and the Beast show. I told them to be there by 9:45 to catch Four for a Dollar. Of course, I'd never seen them myself, but I'd read on the DIS that they were awesome.

The first thing we do is get 3 fast passes for RocknRoller Coaster and then ride standby. So awesome. Then we do ToT and then back to RnR. Our fastpass time was up already (at 9:20) so I got 3 more fast passes, which means I'm now holding 6 so when DH and Nicholas arrive we have enough for all of us (and one to spare) to ride without a wait.

Next I sent Spencer and Alex in to B&B to get us seats while I went down to Starring Rolls Bakery to pick up some breakfast: bananas, muffins, and juice. The muffins were really delicious. We ate while waiting for the show to start. Four for a Dollar were really good. My boys thought they were stage workers coming out to check the mikes but were surprised when they started speaking and then singing. They only sang 4 songs. I wish they would have sang more. They had such great harmony. Here is a link to their website. Click on the video and you can see them actually performing at MGM. My DH bought me their Christmas CD before we left. How sweet.

Next we went back to WWTBAM. Today WWTBAM had a different MC and host than we had on Monday. I liked the Monday host and MC better, but it was still a lot of fun. Now it was 11:30, and again I had reservations for Sci Fi, which we had already eaten at on Monday. When I was planning our trip, I made ADRs for both days because I wasn't sure which day we would be at MGM and was hoping one of the days we would be a Typhoon Lagoon if the weather was good. So anyway I told DH and the boys that we could eat at Sci Fi again if they wanted to. It was a unanimous yes. We love that restaurant and enjoyed it just as much again today. This time DH and I split the turkey sandwich and fries, which was not as good as the reuben. It was nice that the waitress gave us this on two plates with us each getting our own dish of the cucumber melon salad (delicious) and a lot of fries.

Next we decided to go back to the YC and spend the afternoon at Stormalong Bay. Like I said, I had hoped we would be able to go to Typhoon Lagoon (and possibly Blizzard Beach on Christmas Day), but not knowing how the weather would be, I only purchased the base MYW tickets knowing that I could add the plus option once we got here and saw that we would be having warm days. But it was already Wednesday and the forecast for the rest of our trip was sunny but only high 60's and low 70's. Not quite warm enough the water parks. But we did want to go Disney Quest. So while we were on the boat, I put in a call to Ticketmania and ordered up some Disney Quest tickets to be delivered to the YC. Ticketmania was great - I called them around 1:00 and they delivered the tickets to the YC around 7:00 that same day. Talk about great service. They charged $10 for delivery, but I saved at least $10 on each ticket. I think the adult price through them was $21?

More later - back to MGM for the evening.

 

[DizznyChick]

i love your trip report-and great tip about ticketmania

 

[Kirby]

Enjoying your trip report.....eagerly awaiting more!