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

[skiingwife]

Thanks. Ticketmania said that they would deliver the next day, so I was surprised to see the tickets there the same day. YC brought them right to our room.

 

[2infinity&B-ond]

Your report has been great! We are planning a trip for similar dates for this December....and will be using TGM...it seems his advice worked for you...not many waits for attractions!! Can't wait to read more!

 

[shellbelle]

Can't wait to read more. Planning our Christmas 2006 trip. Thinking of subscribing to TGM.

 

[dismom9761]

I love your trip reports.I like seeing what your boys like and don't like.My two boys will be 11 yrs old and 9 yrs old when we go back.

 

[Sharon Esch]

WOW! What a great trip report. I also started thinking at Christmas time (05), along with DH to go. We are going December 23 - 30. I noticed you flew out of Lansing. How is that airline company and when did you make your airline reservations? I'm originally from Lansing, still in Michigan in Alpena.

 

[skiingwife]

Sharon, I only booked our flight 4 months in advance and I still got the $69 one way price. But now I see that fares for this December are starting at $99 so they've gone up. It was great flying out of Lansing. Check in was easy, no lines. And the same at Sanford. You just have to make the longer drive from Sanford to Disney, but we didn't mind it. Our Allegiant Air pilots were great. On the night we came home, there was quite a bit of snow coming down and we didn't see the runway or lights until just as we got over the airport, but our landing was so smooth. I'm normally a nervous flyer but I had nothing to worry about with Allegiant. Allegiant only has one flight each way - leaving Lansing around 7:00 pm and then leaving Sanford around 3 or 4 pm. But those times worked for us and, more importantly, it was a direct flight.

 

[Alicnwondrln]

wonderful reports

 

[dawnrose]

We also hope to go to WDW at Christmas time, but not until 2007...I love your hotel choices....That seems like the perfect combo...the Polynesian was our favorite when we were there last summer, but the BC/YC have always intrigued me because of location and the fabulous pool. It's good to hear that you were able to enjoy th pools so much, even in December. Thanx for all the great info...keep it coming...

 

[skiingwife]

I forgot to mention that as we were leaving MGM this afternoon, we happened upon some commotion on Hollywood Blvd. Oh my gosh, somebody is lying on the ground. Is she sick? No, she’s been hit a car. We stop to watch as two men are standing over her trying to figure out what to do. They proceed to draw an outline of her body on the ground with chalk. Is she dead? No, it’s Streetmosphere performers. I had heard about them on the DIS. My boys were a little unsure about what was happening, but as the two guys proceeded to make jokes about the lady, they caught on that it was all an act. I wish I’d had my video camera. If you see them, take a few minutes to stop and watch.

Also on Hollywood Blvd there were several photo pass photographers taking pictures with the Sorcerer Hat in the background.

So, we’re back to MGM for dinner at 50’s Prime Time. One of the travel channel shows had featured this restaurant. Of course, I taped all those travel channel shows and made my family watch them. And when my DH and boys saw what goes on at 50’s, they all told me that they DID NOT want to eat there. No way did they want someone telling them to keep their elbows off the table or to eat all their beans. DO NOT make reservations there. But of course I did. I’d read too many great reviews of the place. As we are heading towards 50’s, I’m told “this better not be the place where they make you eat your beans.” Too bad. We were seated right away and our waitress was none other than mom. Mom gives Alex the silverware and napkins and tells him to set the table. He actually liked this. After we ordered, she gave us a homework assignment – 10 Disney movies set in England. Mom also got the other tables in the room involved with us. It was fun. The food was great also – chicken and meatloaf. We all cleaned our plates except Spencer who didn’t like the green beans. He tried to hide them under his chicken bones but mom caught on and tried to feed him the beans. He laughed so hard at this. Then she led him to a doorway and made him put his nose against the doorway while mom led the whole restaurant in telling him to eat all his food. My family ended up loving all these antics and can’t wait to go back again. See once again, I was right. Of course, dessert was delicious and huge, especially dad’s sundae that Alex and I split.

We were so stuffed after 50’s that we couldn’t possibly get on RocknRoller Coaster yet so we took a walk back to the Osbourne Lights. I’ve never seen so many lights in my life. It was fun looking for the hidden Mickeys. There was a sign that told us how many hidden Mickey’s were in the lights. It was also really nice to see a nativity scene.

After doing RocknRoller Coaster one last time, we walked back to YC. The boats are a nice and relaxing way to get back to YC, but as we found out on Monday night, the line can be very long (especially right after Fantasmic lets out) and the boats only come every 10 or 15 minutes. I don’t know if I mentioned this, but on Monday, we went to the boat launch to catch a ride, but the line was really, really long and the boat had just left. So we decided to catch a bus back to YC. (I know what you’re saying – there is no bus from MGM to YC.) We went from one end of the bus stop all the way to the other end searching for the YC bus. How could I have forgotten? That’s when DH, Alex and Nicholas got back in the boat line while Spencer and I walked. It was a lot faster for us to walk than to have to wait for the next boat or two. I’d say it was about a 20 minute walk and it seemed like a safe walk even though not that many people were around.

Up Next: Day 7 – Animal Kingdom

 

[frankenpooh]

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.

LOL! I am the worst packer and do something like this every trip. Sometimes it's underwear, sometimes it's socks, sometimes it's pants...

Great trip report! My boys are 13 and 10, so it's fun to read about your experiences with your kids. I'm glad the older guys decided they weren't too cool for Disney!

 

[jennymouse]

The last time we were at BCV which was over Thanksgiving, the lines for the boats were always long. I've seen them get a little long after Fantasmic but I'd never seen long lines for boats on the Yacht & Beach Club dock but they where a couple times during that visit. We ended up walking to MGM a few times and it's not a bad walk at all. We kind of enjoyed it.

 

[skiingwife]

Wow, it's been over a month since I last posted. Hope I can remember the rest of the trip.

The plan for today was Animal Kingdom. We've been to MK twice, Epcot twice, and MGM twice, and finally we are making it to AK. But we are sticking with our plan of going to the parks on non-EMH days. Steve and the boys eat whatever food is left in the room, but it isn't much. We take the bus from YC to Animal Kingdom and it's not as bad of a drive as I expected. We drove by Blizzard Beach - wow what a big slide that Summit Plummet is. Wish it was open. We arrive at AK before opening but there is already a crowd of people in front of us. After rope drop, I go by myself (well not by myself; with about 2000 other people) back to the Safari to get fastpasses, while Steve take the boys to Dinoland. About 2 minutes into my walk, I get a call on my cell phone from them. They're hungry and need food right away. Thinking fast, I tell them to go into Dinoland, as I originally directed, and go to Donald's Breakfastasaurus. Put our name in and I'll be there in about 10 minutes. I get our fastpasses and then proceed on a leisurely walk back to dinoland by way of the walkway to Asia. It was peaceful and deserted and it was going to be a beautiful day. I get another phone call. They are in and seated already. We really had a nice time at Donald's. The food was fresh and hot and the breakfast pizza was delicious. The characters were cute in their camping attire. But what really made it great was our waiter Neil. He was hilarious and really had a fun time with us. He got us good - one time, he brought a tray of cups of "hot chocolate" to us and "accidentally" spilled the tray on Spencer as he offered one to him. Spencer jumped a mile. We cracked up upon seeing the cups were empty. Another time, he offered to take our picture. We all got together and proceeded to get hit by his water-squirting camera. And another time, he offered me ketchup, and oops, squirted it at me. I jumped out of my seat before I realized it was fake. It was just a lot of fun and the best waiter of our whole trip. It's hard to not leave a big tip with a water like Neil.

From there we rode Dinosaur with no wait - fun, but a pretty bumpy ride. Then we got a fast pass for Primevil Whirl and headed out to Kali River Rapids. We all wore the ponchos I bought, but for some reason, DH and Alex still got wet. To hear DH husband tell it, he was soaked. I looked at him and saw a few water spots on his jeans. What a sissy. They got off but the rest of us went again. It was a fun ride. Next we went on the Pangani Trail. There wasn't much happening at this early hour: only 2 bats were out and they weren't moving, the tigers weren't moving, and we didn't see any other animals.

Next we made our way to Tough to be a Bug which was really fun. We all loved it. I never felt the bees sting on the seats though. I wish we had more time to see the tree of life as we walked in. We didn't really get a chance to see all the beautiful carvings of animals. Something to do next time, I guess. It was about at this time that Spencer found a cool hat that he absolutely had to buy. It was black with what looked orange and lime green dreadlocks. I can't think of how to describe it but that's what they looked like. He sure got a lot of looks. Spencer ran back to dinoland and got another set of fastpasses for Primevil Whirl and then we made our way over to the safari. The walkway from Asia to Africa is nice and cool and offered great views of the tree of life. And we also got to see DeVine, who I'd heard about and seen pictures of. I pointed her out and we stood and watched her for about 5 minutes. The boys thought she was strange, weird, gross. I thought she was exotic and like something from Lost In Space.

The wait for Safari was 40 minutes, but we walked right on with our fastpasses. Again, we are asking ourselves, why are all these people waiting in line? Don't they know about fastpasses? From there we got some snacks and walked back to see the bird show. We used to have a parrot so we're bird fans. This show was really fun and kept my boys' interest a lot more than I thought it would. They all actually liked it. It's amazing how they train those birds.

Then we rode Primevil Whirl twice with our fastpasses (this ride had us cracking up - it was just plain fun); saw Festival of the Lion King (awesome!), ate lunch at Pizzafari (pizzas were really good), and watched the Jammin Jungle Parade. By now, everyone wanted to leave. While we had an enjoyable day, it was a lot of walking, and we were getting tired. So we took the bus back to YC around 4:00 and spent the rest of the afternoon at the pool.

For dinner, we walked across to the boardwalk to ESPN. First we watched some entertainment on the boardwalk. This guy was standing on one of the top rungs of a tall ladder and was walking over some poor volunteer who was laying on the ground. It was pretty scairy! On to ESPN where we shared nachos and hot wings. Wow - $16 for a pitcher of beer. That's steep. Then went back over to Beaches & Cream for a couple No Way Jose's. These are the best sundaes ever. It was a great day.

Next up: Friday - Downtown Disney and Disney Quest.

 

[frankenpooh]

Thanks for picking back up. Your readers haven't forgotten! We are just back ourselves, and I can't wait to write up our trip (after the laundry, groceries, etc., etc. Boo!).

 

[Skwinkles]

Awesome trip report! Can't wait to read how the rest of the trip went...

 

[MomofCKJ]

Thanks for adding more! We are going Dec 15-22 and so I especially love reading about reports over that time period. I am using TGM too. It sounds like you had a lot of luck. Did you find that the crowds were lighter earlier in your week?

Allyson

 

[skiingwife]

It’s Friday, December 23. We wake up to nice sunny skies, albeit a little chilly, but it will warm up today. We are lazy and take the Friendship boat over to Spoodles for breakfast again. My boys love the Mickey waffles. Spoodles turned out to be a nice place to have breakfast, but next time I’d like to try Yacht Club Galley. For some reason we never made it there. After breakfast we hopped on the bus to Downtown Disney. Today we’re going to use the Disney Quest tickets that I ordered from Ticketmania on Wednesday. I figured that the crowds in the parks should be pretty heavy by today with kids out of school now for Christmas break, so I thought this would be a good day for DQ. (However, the front desk clerk at the YC told me that they were only at about 30% capacity this week. This seemed to be true because the pool was never that busy nor was the lobby.

Three things can be said about Disney Quest:

First, my boys (13, 11, and 7) loved it. They were in heaven playing the Star Wars video games, the basketball shooting games, the rifle/hunting games, and the safari/roping game down on the bottom floor. As much as you can play without coins! It was great. Meanwhile, DH and I had fun with the oldies – Ms. Pacman, Centipede, Dig Dug, Galaga.

Second, it was very easy to get lost from each other. I knew that my boys were at the basketball game, for example, but if I left them, I’ll be darned if I could remember what floor it was on and how to get there. The stairs are in different locations on each floor and the floors are all laid out differently. It was very confusing to me.

Third, this place is loud! After 4 hours, I had to get out of there before I went deaf from all the noise.

So we left and walked all the way down to the Marketplace at the other end. It’s a long walk but fortunately the weather was nice. We went to the Lego store, the World of Disney store, and the much anticipated Once Upon a Toy store. We spent at least an hour looking at all the Mr. Potato Head parts and trying to see how many pieces we could stuff into a box. The CM encouraged us to use every bit of space we could in the box. He said, we’ll know we’ve done a good job if we don’t hear any rattling when we shake the box. We were up for the challenge. I think we packed almost every part into that box, including the buzz light year base, two buzz guns, the goofy ears, the Donald hat, and much more. It was fun. Spencer had fun on the little computer-type thing designing potato heads and printing off the cards. I’m saving those to put in our scrapbook.

Next we went to Earl Of Sandwich, which I’d heard so much about. The sandwiches were very good. Afterwards, Nicholas wanted to go back and play at Disney Quest some more, so DH took him back there while Spencer and Alex and I shopped some more. We met up a few hours later, got some food from McDonalds, and took the bus back to the YC where we just chilled out in our room and played with the new toys we’d bought.

Next up: Christmas Eve – At last, the Candlelight Processional with Jim Caviziel.

 

[dismom9761]

I think I may have to work in a trip to DQ for my boys this trip. Thanks for continuing with the report.