Skipping Christmas- WDW Style! December 24-28!

[JB111107]

subscribing....so i can come back and read a little later when my head doesn't feel like it will explode I hate being sick. looks like you had a great time though. I'm looking forward to seeing it all

 

[wonderlanne]

excellent so far!!!

you guys are cute!

 

[Soarin08]

Thanks for the comments so far, guys!! I'll have the next installment up tonight. Wonderlanne, you're going to see in a bit that we're not as cute as we appear....

 

[luckylady]

Enjoying your TR. Sounds like you packed a lot in since you left home. Hmmm did santa visit you at disney?

 

[Humphrey Bear]

Great TR so far. Looking forward to the next installment.

 

[Family Fun Mom]

Subbing. Can't wait to hear all about it, Soarin!

 

[Nora03]

Soarin - I'm loving your trip report. You are a natural born writer. Your English prof must love you. We'll watch for your published material someday.

I loved the book "Skipping Christmas". Can't say I loved the movie as much, but that's usually the way. I can see that you love to read also.

We'll be here watching and waiting for more.

Happy New Year.

Nora

 

[Soarin08]

Soarin - I'm loving your trip report. You are a natural born writer. Your English prof must love you. We'll watch for your published material someday.

I loved the book "Skipping Christmas". Can't say I loved the movie as much, but that's usually the way. I can see that you love to read also.

We'll be here watching and waiting for more.

Happy New Year.

Nora

Yes my two English profs did love me. I passed English Composition I and II with 100 averages.

All righty..... next post is another piece of the report!! So hold on just a few minutes....

 

[Soarin08]

December 24, 2008​

An Evening at Magic Kingdom​

We got back from the Grand Floridian around 3pm and were finally able to check in at POR. We were in Alligator Bayou, Building 28, room #2823 (any DISers in that vacinity Christmas week?). I am absolutely in love with POR. It is GORGEOUS!! Being from Mississippi and also visiting New Orleans/Louisiana frequently, the lush Southern-style landscaping was all too familiar to me and made me feel completely at home. If I didn't know I was at WDW, I'd have thought I was back home in Mississippi, the landscaping and architecture was so close to how it is here! I liked the lazy atmosphere the resort emanated- almost a Tom Sawyer-like feel to POR.

We rested a bit before we headed to Magic Kingdom. Much to my dismay, my throat was getting more sore by the minute and my head was pounding!! I got a grand total of 4 hours of sleep the previous night, so that coupled with my raging sinuses made me totally miserable (oh yeah, and taking off my glasses at AK to watch It's Tough to be a Bug was a mistake too). My eyes truly felt like they were on fire!!! And so did my head and neck!! Ugh!!!! So far a night at MK wasn't sounding too magical.

~ADD Moment: I swear I will never attempt to sleep in a moving vehicle again. I go zero sleep and was contorted into a freakishly uncomfortable position- so neck cricks and a headache were sadly inevitable....

Anyways, here's some pics for you all to see-

For starters, Space Mountain as seen through the monorail window-

To my fellow DisCons who are reading this (I know like all of you are), here's that quote I love so much by Glenn Beck, the one that truly sums up everything about WDW:

It's amazing to walk through Disney. My favorite part of Disney is probably most people's least favorite part of Disney. My favorite part of Disney is Main Street. It's when you first walk through those gates and you get off the monorail and you walk through the gates and you get to see Main Street and you get to see the Castle. And the reason why it's my favorite part is because that's where the magic happens for me. The magic doesn't happen in the Pirates of the Caribbean, the magic doesn't happen on the, you know, "It's a small world" ride. The magic happens when you first walk in and you see that and I think the reason is because the magic of Disney is not in the audio-animatronics. The magic of Disney is you believe that the world is a happy place, it's the happiest place on Earth. You believe that people are good to each other. The Disney employee likes their job, or at least that's what you feel. They're good. They make you feel good. They are always smiling. Maybe it's fake. I don't know. But you feel good and you have that moment of magic where you feel like it can be this way. The magic is you're elevated into a higher place. You are elevated into a -- maybe it's a place of the past, maybe it's a place that never existed, it's just a place that we want to exist but it's a place to where people are good to each other.


Somehow I couldn't go any further till I posted that. Those sentences truly capture what the spirit of WDW is all about, to me.

Speaking of Main Street, here's some Main Street/Cinderella Castle pics-

We decided to immediately head to Haunted Mansion- more like I was absolutely about to die to ride (ummmm.... yeah, bad pun, I know).

~ADD Moment: I'm serious when I say the film version "The Haunted Mansion" is my favorite live-action Disney film, beating *gasp* Pirates. The POTC franchise was ruined for me after the awful 2nd and 3rd movies, so the 1st one ended up losing appeal in the process. Or maybe it's all due to the fact that I find Nathaniel Parker, who plays Master Gracey in "The Haunted Mansion," to be extremely good looking. Who knows.....

After HM, we had our usual MK supper- a turkey leg (OMG!!! love them!!), cheese and crackers (which were smuggled in), and Cokes (darn my family for not drinking Diet Coke- I hate regular Coca-Coca). My throat was literally on fire now, so much so that I simply nibbled a few crackers and only ate a little of the turkey that I usually devour in ravenous rapture. My dad gave me some Sudafed, but unfortunately that opened my head up and made it hurt even worse!!

After dinner, we wandered around the park checking the times on various attractions. We were walking around Fantasyland when we noticed the wait time for Mickey's PhilharMagic, an attraction we'd always overlooked, had a wait time of a mere 10 minutes (one of our guidebooks includes a list of attractions favored by celebs- John Corbett, a favorite of mine and my mom's, gave a glowing review of PhilharMagic in the book so we figured it had to be good). We decided to try it and wow...... I have never experienced a show at WDW like that before!! If you've never done PhilharMagic- DO IT!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was visually stunning yet funny and touching to me.

Next stop on our list was Tomorrowland. It was already approaching 7pm and we were all exhausted, so we decided Tomorrowland would be our last stop for the evening. I of course made a beeline for Space Mountain- only to be met with a 90 minute wait time and no FPs available!!!!!!! It was at this time that the Tomorrowland Transit Authority caught my eye- I told my mom she might enjoy it, since it was an aerial tour of Tomorrowland and included a route through SM (which she wasn't going to ride after the EE fiasco). The line at TTA was non-existant, so we got on almost immediately. TTA is another minor attraction I highly encourage you all to do- it's quite long, relaxing, and a great way to get off your feet and rest for awhile. The route through SM is amazing- I got to see the loading area as well as the actual ride (which looks extremely fun).

After TTA, we decided to attempt to ride Buzz Lightyear- however, the 40 minute wait discouraged us from doing so. We were all tired and starting to get rather cranky- and if I couldn't get to the hotel and go to sleep, my head was going to explode!!!!!!!

And so the curtain falls on day one at WDW.... day two coming soon!

 

[wonderlanne]

 

[#1hockeymom]

Great report so far! Now I have a face for your name. You don't look a thing like Glenn Beck?! I like the pic of you and your sibs together!

 

[debbieandroo]

Yeah, rub it in about Mickey's PhilHarmagic, will you?!?!?? That's going to be down for refurb during the month of January! And I had heard so many wonderful things about it....

I didn't know Nathaniel Parker was in "The Haunted Mansion" - I will definitely have to look that up - it would worth figuring out how to hook up my dvd player.

Great report and I'm sorry that you weren't feeling well....

 

[wardfamily1]

Soarin', I LOVE that Glenn Beck quote!!! That's exactly how I feel too. In fact, whenever we go to WDW, MK absolutely MUST be the first park we go to because of that feeling!

Keep up the great work, I'm looking forward to the next installment.

 

[Zippa D Doodah]

Good stuff! I'm hoping to find out you felt better the next day.

 

[loco4dis]

Great TR so far, Soarin'! It has a certain literary quality, and some intrigue as well. I always envy people like you who can do such detailed trip reports. By day 2 of my Disney trips, I can't recall where I've been or where I'm going. I'm just on exhausted auto-pilot at that point! Seriously, I sometimes can't even remember where we've eaten until someone reminds me! Do you take notes?

Anyhoo, I love the detail.

 

[wonderlanne]

 

[*KeepMovingForward*]

I'm a big fan of Main Street, so I get the fascination. I also have a thing for Nathaniel Parker...I thought I was the only one who thought he was quite the looker. Your pictures are great...keep it all coming!

 

[Soarin08]

Great report so far! Now I have a face for your name. You don't look a thing like Glenn Beck?! I like the pic of you and your sibs together!

No, of course I don't look a thing like Glenn! What gave you that impression?

Yeah, rub it in about Mickey's PhilHarmagic, will you?!?!?? That's going to be down for refurb during the month of January! And I had heard so many wonderful things about it....

I didn't know Nathaniel Parker was in "The Haunted Mansion" - I will definitely have to look that up - it would worth figuring out how to hook up my dvd player.

Great report and I'm sorry that you weren't feeling well....

I didn't know it was going to be down next month!! That totally sucks!!

Soarin', I LOVE that Glenn Beck quote!!! That's exactly how I feel too. In fact, whenever we go to WDW, MK absolutely MUST be the first park we go to because of that feeling!

Keep up the great work, I'm looking forward to the next installment.

Great TR so far, Soarin'! It has a certain literary quality, and some intrigue as well. I always envy people like you who can do such detailed trip reports. By day 2 of my Disney trips, I can't recall where I've been or where I'm going. I'm just on exhausted auto-pilot at that point! Seriously, I sometimes can't even remember where we've eaten until someone reminds me! Do you take notes?

Anyhoo, I love the detail.

Take notes? No. I'm just picky about details. Somehow I'm able to remember everything.

Ok guys, more coming..... in a few.

 

[blestmom]

Great trip report! I'm really enjoying reading it. I hope you get to feeling better...

 

[MeghansMommy]

More more!!! The kids and I are really loving it so far. I soooooooo wanna go again. Maybe if we get a bunch of debt paid off this year, we can go in 2010. Keep it coming!!!