The Craziness of WDW between Christmas & New Years-Wilderness Lodge, Merry Mixer

[franandaj]

Ok so that last update by me, made no sense but what were the entrees that you ate? Just curious?

 

[tksbaskets]

Just found your TR and I am enjoying reading about your trip. I love WDW at christmas time! I have been a couple of times and I hope to be able to go again sometime soon.

Disney at Christmas is really a great experience. Hope you get to do it again.

Ok so that last update by me, made no sense but what were the entrees that you ate? Just curious?

No worries - it made sense to me The one thing I didn't do this trip is write down what we had for meals. Hmm.. My bad. I keep a journal each day. I need to check out your reports. I like when people link in their signatures.

Thank you both for reading along!

 

[tksbaskets]

Time to use those morning PFs!

We went back to Tomorrowland through Frontierland to use our Space Mountain and Buzz FPs from earlier in the day (we snagged them before lunch if you recall)

Look who we saw on the way. The line for sittin' a spell with Woody and Jessie was WAY long. I was able to snap this picture between children.

Here is the 1:54 pm crowd in Frontierland.

Crossing into Fantasyland look who's taking a small break from signing autographs and walked right by us.

Beautiful afternoon! A bit warmer with a high of 55 and a low of 28. Yes my friends, this was warmer!

Remember the wait time for Peter Pan's Flight earlier in the day? Look now

Don't you just love the topiary art?

Once we made our way to Tomorrowland we all snagged Fastpasses for Buzz for later (it was a bit after 2 pm and our FP return time was 6:50 pm). Look at what else spit out with our Fastpasses!

We took advantage and used them to visit the Carousel of Progress although we wouldn't have had much of a wait anyway.

Enjoyed our spin on SM and DH liked riding Buzz.

We headed back to Liberty Square and the men indulged me for a few Photopass photos and I snapped a few of my own.

While waiting in line for PP photog:

Hey we found a PP in front of the castle (they are almost always there ) but the line was too long.

We crossed over the bridge to Liberty Square and this is the view looking back at the main hub.

We wandered a bit shopping and then decided to go to see The Hall of Presidents again. After we made our way to Colonial House for dinner. We really like that for a CS meal. LOTS of room for seating inside and a pretty darned tasty meal. DH and Donald got the fish and chips meal with an apple dumpling for dessert. Grumpy and I got the chicken/fish combo meal. We won We splurged and Donald got a bowl of chowder too which he proclaimed delish!

Very relaxing and yummy meal.

Back to Tomorrowland to ride Buzz. Of course you may notice my lack of score posting for this ride....I'm lucky to break from 'looser ranger' status...

Forgive me Buzz....I'm not who you need to help defeat the evil Emperor Zurg... My men folk may be of assistance...

Thank goodness we have this fiend behind bars!

Our final attraction of the evening was Stitch's Great Escape! This is where Alien Encounters used to be. WARNING: Do not take small children as this is NOT a feel good attraction. Stitch is in it and cute but it has that Alien feel to it still (dark, things stalking you and breathing in your ear as you are strapped into a chair) I don't think we'd do it again but wanted to say we'd been on the ride.

Since we had had such a long and tiring day rotfl we headed back to Wilderness Lodge via boat. We loved that the boats ran from MK to WL. The boys watched a classic James Bond movie (Sean Connery) and I journaled while DH was king of the clicker watching football and ESPN.

Next up: Our day at Animal Kingdom. What are those big machines with guards? Stay tuned to find out!

 

[kerri0616]

I'm really enjoying your TR! Great photos!

As a teacher with 2 sons of my own (will be 12 and 15), we are tentatively planning a trip this year for the week between Xmas and New Years. I have to tell you that my "spreadsheets" look almost identical to yours! I also do mine in columns with park hours, ADR's with ressie numbers, EMH's, etc! Then I laminate mine and cut them into strips, hole punch them, and put them on a big metal ring! Amazingly similar!!!

I do have a question...I noticed that you don't get hoppers (us either ) and you seemed to visit a park with morning EMH...were you happy with your strategy? Did you seek advice from TGM or just go to a park with the AM EMH? Also noticed that you used your TS credits for lunch and your CS credits for dinner mostly...did you like this strategy?

Thanks again for the great report and photos! Sorry it was so cold, but maybe it kept away some of the crowds!! I was really impressed with your success at getting FP for TSM and also riding in the standby. Nice work, pal

Kerri

 

[MeMom]

Great pictures!

I'm a teacher, so we go at the busy times, too. This year, we'll be there 4th of July week and Christmas to New Year, and we have done those before, so we know busy. You just have to prioritize, make good use of rope drops, and know that other people will be there, as well. Many other people.

We have stayed at Wilderness Lodge only once, but we visit nearly every trip to eat, shop, and take pictures. We were there just a few weeks ago sitting on the balcony in the rocking chairs just enjoying talking to each other and listening to the water flow by. It was a beautiful night to be at the Lodge.

I hope you enjoy many trips to come with your big boys. My kids are grown - two love to go and one only likes to go - but I am in heaven on the rare occasions when we are all there together.

I'm glad you took the picture of the 95 minute wait for Peter Pan. We only do it as a walk-on first thing in the morning. That picture reminds me of why it is so important for us to give good advice to people who don't go to WDW on a regular basis. I would hate to have any of my unknowing friends spend 95 minutes of their Magic Kingdom day waiting in that line!

 

[tksbaskets]

I'm really enjoying your TR! Great photos!

As a teacher with 2 sons of my own (will be 12 and 15), we are tentatively planning a trip this year for the week between Xmas and New Years. I have to tell you that my "spreadsheets" look almost identical to yours! I also do mine in columns with park hours, ADR's with ressie numbers, EMH's, etc! Then I laminate mine and cut them into strips, hole punch them, and put them on a big metal ring! Amazingly similar!!!

I do have a question...I noticed that you don't get hoppers (us either ) and you seemed to visit a park with morning EMH...were you happy with your strategy? Did you seek advice from TGM or just go to a park with the AM EMH? Also noticed that you used your TS credits for lunch and your CS credits for dinner mostly...did you like this strategy?

Thanks again for the great report and photos! Sorry it was so cold, but maybe it kept away some of the crowds!! I was really impressed with your success at getting FP for TSM and also riding in the standby. Nice work, pal

Kerri

Hi Kerri! We do get the park hopper option and sometimes use it (we do later in this report). I love your idea of laminating the day columns and putting in on a binder ring I will have to do this the next trip!

I base our schedule on EMH and have used the advise of The Unoffical Guide to WDW for touring plans. I think I pretty much have that memorized. It suggests which rides to do when. Of course Toy Story Mania trumps any guide and I would encourage you and your men folk to follow our lead for how to get as many spins as possible without spending HOURS in line. We averaged 4 rides each day we visited DHS. (two stand-by and two with fast passes) Fastpasses are usually all distributed by 11 am during this week.

We really enjoy having our sit-down meal at lunch time when we are in the parks. USUALLY we are there early and by 11:30 are ready for a bit of a break. We have the afternoon to walk off the meal and no one falls asleep in their $25 meal (ask me about Christmas at Chef Mickey some day). This leaves us much more flexible in the afternoon and evening.

Great pictures!

I'm a teacher, so we go at the busy times, too. This year, we'll be there 4th of July week and Christmas to New Year, and we have done those before, so we know busy. You just have to prioritize, make good use of rope drops, and know that other people will be there, as well. Many other people.

We have stayed at Wilderness Lodge only once, but we visit nearly every trip to eat, shop, and take pictures. We were there just a few weeks ago sitting on the balcony in the rocking chairs just enjoying talking to each other and listening to the water flow by. It was a beautiful night to be at the Lodge.

I hope you enjoy many trips to come with your big boys. My kids are grown - two love to go and one only likes to go - but I am in heaven on the rare occasions when we are all there together.

I'm glad you took the picture of the 95 minute wait for Peter Pan. We only do it as a walk-on first thing in the morning. That picture reminds me of why it is so important for us to give good advice to people who don't go to WDW on a regular basis. I would hate to have any of my unknowing friends spend 95 minutes of their Magic Kingdom day waiting in that line!

Hi MeMom. I agree forewarned is forearmed for Disney at crowded times! So nice to hear that your children still go to Disney with you. I'm in heaven when all our family is together too

I couldn't believe people would wait for over an hour and a half with small children to ride Peter Pan. Obviously they didn't read the DIS boards and get up early so that by the afternoon they were watching Mickey's Philharmagic and eating ice cream

Thanks for reading!

 

[deejdigsdis]

While waiting in line for PP photog:

I LOVE that! So Christmas-y and pretty! I also loved the family picture with Pirate Goofy. Very good choice for a Christmas card photo.

OK. 95 minutes for Peter Pan?!? Is it just like the one at Disneyland? That's my favorite Fantasyland ride...but you won't catch me in a 95 minute line to ride it. Yikes.

Glad to see that it warmed up for you.

 

[tksbaskets]

I LOVE that! So Christmas-y and pretty! I also loved the family picture with Pirate Goofy. Very good choice for a Christmas card photo.

OK. 95 minutes for Peter Pan?!? Is it just like the one at Disneyland? That's my favorite Fantasyland ride...but you won't catch me in a 95 minute line to ride it. Yikes.

Glad to see that it warmed up for you.

Hi Deej,
Pretty much JUST like DL's ride. It is also my favorite ride in Fantasyland but my threshold is 20 minutes or less.

Yes, this day was positively balmy!

Should be posting more tonight (notice the little wiggle room I gave myself?)

 

[deejdigsdis]

Should be posting more tonight (notice the little wiggle room I gave myself?)

Actually, I did notice! Looking forward to it.

 

[tksbaskets]

Wednesday December 29, 2010 Animal Kingdom

We had decided to be at Animal Kingdom as close to Extra Magic Hours as we could so the night before I went to Roaring Forks and picked out a selection of muffins to sustain the family this morning.

Sarge rousted the troops at 5:50 am and we were out the door at 6:35 am. We were at the gate just a few minutes after 7 am. It was COLD again this morning and Donald was glad he was now sporting a heavier sweat shirt with a hood!

I do believe that is the sun coming up

We were making tracks for Expedition Everest and on our way saw our first of many 'heat machines'. These were positioned all around the park to heat the foliage and help the wild life. The hooded smurfs to the right of the pics are my guys.

Remember that Sarge gets a bit motion sick? He headed to the FP distribution for EE while Donald, Grumpy, and I got in the stand-by line.

The line was moving at a pretty good clip so I didn't have a lot of opportunity to snap photos. Don't despair, I did take a few as we walked briskly by. The queue for this ride is really fun and has a lot to see. You walk outside around a fountain with prayer flags and artifacts.

Next the line takes you through expedition headquarters:

It's warmer in here too!

Deluxe accommodations:

LOVE this ride It was COLD when we were coming down the side of the mountain. The SB line was still pretty short when we got off so the three of us high-fived and got right back in line.

Yep still cold on the descent!

It was now 7:50 am and we'd snagged our EE FPs and taken two rides stand-by. You've got to love extra magic hours

We took a left out of EE, picked up a really sweet DH that let us ride twice without him, and over the bridge to Dinoland USA and a ride on DINOSAUR. We walked briskly right onto this ride too! For DL fans, think Indiana Jones. It is the same track and ride vehicle.

Oh my, can you believe they caught our totally candid reactions to the meat eater trying to devour us???

Again we were fascinated by these warming machines. Tried to get the security cast member to let us warm our hands a bit but was told no go. DH is demonstrating that he could see his breath.

It was only a few minutes after 8 and our next scheduled stop was the first show of Flights of Wonder at 10:30 am. This is DH favorite show at AK. We love it every time we see it. We decided to head back across Discovery River and head into Africa and to ride Kilimanjaro Safaris. Walk with us won't you?

Quick stop in DinoLand for Grumpy's obligatory shot in this little car.

The 8:10 am 'crowd'

SO pretty:

Next up: Safari, FOW take one, and a very yummy lunch!

 

[deejdigsdis]

We took a left out of EE, picked up a really sweet DH that let us ride twice without him, and over the bridge to Dinoland USA and a ride on DINOSAUR. We walked briskly right onto this ride too! For DL fans, think Indiana Jones. It is the same track and ride vehicle.

Oh my, can you believe they caught our totally candid reactions to the meat eater trying to devour us???

I love this picture! The people in the row in front of you kind of look like they are watching a basketball game that isn't going their way or something. They definitely don't look like they are on a ride. You guys, however, look like you are very much involved in the ride. Love it!

A few days ago we watched the 40-ish minute show on Netflix about Animal Kingdom. We didn't know much about it before watching that, so it was fun to see this update. On the show we saw the roller coaster going forward, stopping, and then going backward. Does it go backward back through the whole thing, or is it just for a bit? We couldn't really tell. It looks like a really fun ride.

Were the temps just ridiculously below normal for that time of year?

 

[tksbaskets]

I love this picture! The people in the row in front of you kind of look like they are watching a basketball game that isn't going their way or something. They definitely don't look like they are on a ride. You guys, however, look like you are very much involved in the ride. Love it!

A few days ago we watched the 40-ish minute show on Netflix about Animal Kingdom. We didn't know much about it before watching that, so it was fun to see this update. On the show we saw the roller coaster going forward, stopping, and then going backward. Does it go backward back through the whole thing, or is it just for a bit? We couldn't really tell.

Were the temps just ridiculously below normal for that time of year?

We experienced record low temps. Usually pretty nice upper 60's low 70's.

EE spends a short amount of time going backwards in the middle of the ride. It is really fun but can put DH out for the day if he rides it. I'll have a few more pics for you of that ride later in the day's report. It is the boys favorite ride at AK (mine too). DH likes Flights of Wonder so it all evens out~

Thanks for reading Deej! Do you have any plans to visit WDW? Have you ever?

 

[tksbaskets]

Ah, nothing like a safari on a cold morning.

We went past EE and headed to Africa. On our way we found a bundled up Photopass Photog:

Snagged a safari FP for later and hopped in the stand-by line. We were quickly at the boarding area. Here comes our Safari vehicle!

I think most of the animals were too cold to move about this morning but we did see a few out and about. It amazes me that you really don't see fences.

Where the giraffes usually are...

Always fun to see:

I guess there are some heated rocks in the lion area. This lion was roaring - pretty sweet. We could see steam rising off him/the rock.

We thought the heated rock was a good idea but settled for hot chocolate in Africa.

We did a little shopping then took off for Asia again (yes, back and forth) to see the first Flights of Wonder show. We passed by EE and picked up another fastpass (had to wait a bit until our safari fp said we could get another).

Here we are at DH favorite AK show:

This would be our first of three FOW shows this day. It was a bit dark this show so I'll post pics from the afternoon. Our brunch reservations were for 11:30 am at Tusker House Restaurant so guess what?? Back to Africa.

Tusker house had a great character breakfast but I wasn't able to get reservations for breakfast. We enjoyed the lunch every bit as much. Very relaxing and a wonderful variety of foods. Care for a peek?

YUM! More later. We are huge University of Michigan hockey fans and the NCAA Regional Finals start in an hour. GO BLUE!

 

[amyamya]

You were so kind to send me maps a couple of years ago so when I saw your TR I had to read. It's great. Love seeing a family having such a great time!! Can't wait for more!

 

[tksbaskets]

You were so kind to send me maps a couple of years ago so when I saw your TR I had to read. It's great. Love seeing a family having such a great time!! Can't wait for more!

I was happy to send them. Planning is half the fun Thank you for your kind words and following along.

 

[tksbaskets]

Ah, the sun!

After lunch we went back to Asia for a few more rides on Expedition Everest. If you were keeping track we had 8 fastpasses (one for each of us). Since DH wasn't riding Donald, Grumpy, and I rode twice and then I sent the boys back on.

Here is what DH did while we were riding! The 57 degree day seemed like a heat wave

LOVIN' the Disney FP system! Look at the S/B wait

OH NO! What happened to the track???

I kept thinking I was going to see Donald and Grumpy coming down so let's just say this is them....

We told DH he had to get up from basking in the sun so we could use our Safari FPs before the 3 pm FOW. Much nicer ride, many more animals and our driver was really fun. Think Jungle Cruise on wheels!

Back at our second show of FOW. The naturalist changes each show but Guano Joe is the same. We love this naturalist and his bird. Very well trained and sweet (the bird that is)

Guano Joe is back left.

Right outside of FOW is a SUPER place to watch Mickey's Jingle Jungle Parade. The parade was really fun even for older visitors. Many cool puppets. I guess that is what we'd call them. Watch with me (just hum your favorite Disney song in your head).

Shake it Chip and Dale~

Love the jungle wear:

Mug for the camera~

Continued next post....

 

[tksbaskets]

If your eyes haven't glazed over yet here are the last parade photos:

We enjoyed the last show of the day of FOW and then headed back to Discovery Island.

Quick stop for the PP photographer:

We headed back to EE so I could buy a new fleece. Then did a bit more shopping. Look who was by the Island Merchantile on Discovery Island.

Last PP of the day:

We headed back to Wilderness Lodge and was back by 6:30 pm. We grabbed a CS dinner at Roaring Forks (home made chips - YUMMMMM) and Grumpy and Donald continued the Bond theme checking out a couple of movies.

Next up: Sleep in and a day at EPCOT

 

[not_Joanna_eggs]

Great pictures! Going early in the morning was the best tip we received for dodging the crowds. We didn't see any heating machines, that's crazy. Bummer they wouldn't let you warm your hands on them.

 

[nat1234]

I'm really liking your TR. Your pictures are wonderful. I can't believe some of the crowds that you experienced on your trip. But all of you still managed to get so much done. That takes planning.

 

[tksbaskets]

Great pictures! Going early in the morning was the best tip we received for dodging the crowds. We didn't see any heating machines, that's crazy. Bummer they wouldn't let you warm your hands on them.

Yes, the early DIS family gets the fastpasses! Those warmers were extreme. Probably would have torched my eyebrows right off. Hence the security cast members.

I'm really liking your TR. Your pictures are wonderful. I can't believe some of the crowds that you experienced on your trip. But all of you still managed to get so much done. That takes planning.

Thank you for your kind words! Planning is key when going at such popular times of the year. Thanks for reading!