The Double-and-a-half Trippie ** COMPLETED **

[Hedy]

Ugh, sorry about the bag issues.

 

[DisneyTabby]

I'm happy you got your bag back.

 

[SeptemberGirl]

Yeah for bag delivery!!!

 

[marivaid]

The next morning it took me quite a while to get ready. When I got to MK, the opening ceremony had already started.
I walked as fast as I could and managed to take a few pics and video, even though I was pretty far back.



How lucky was this family ??

They soon let us in, and I wanted to go straight to Tomorrowland but suddenly a wonderful cinnamony smell sneaked up on me. MMMMM Main Street Bakery !!!! I lost control of my feet and next thing I knew, was sitting in front of a french toast loaf and cranberry juice.
QUESTION : If the "french toast" is indeed french, why is it so hard to find it here ???

That thing was so incredibly good. But there are mirrors everywhere in the Bakery, and the last thing I wanted to see was myself eating.
So I put my head down and gobbled the loaf in a couple minutes.

Tomorrowland was deserted. In less than an hour, I rode Buzz twice, saw the Carousel of Progress and Laugh Floor Comedy Club.

Then I went to wait in front of the castle for the Dreams Come True show. Grumpy doesn't like that sort of thing and I'd never seen more than 2mns of it.

I snapped some pics while waiting....

... but soon Mickey & the Gang took the stage !

Eeek !!! Princesses. Scary.

As it turned out, I don't have that much patience than Grumpy. After about 5mns I started walking towards Liberty Square, snapping some pics on my way out.

Instead of going to Liberty Square, I took the little path that goes up to Fantasyland. It gets you, I think, between PhilarMagic and Snow White.

The Evil Stepmother & Stepsisters were there greeting guests ! I'd never seen them before that day. They were pretty cool, and definitely in character. They even got in a little "fight" over who was prettier for the photos !

Cute statue I'd never seen before.... it's incredible the amount of details you see when you're solo.

I went to see PhilarMagic, then got a FP for Peter Pan as the regular line was already over 30mns !!

It was then 11am and even though I wasn't the least bit hungry, I went into Pinocchio's Village Haus

and got myself some Figaro Fries AND a kids meal of mac'n'cheese. Way too much gooey food. I was feeling sleepy and thought some carbs would give me a boost. Didn't work All it did was make me feel sticky inside. I was glad I'd chosen grapes & grapes as sides for the kids meal, they tasted heavenly after all that goo.

I went on Small World and then Haunted Mansion without incident.

And then, with 2 more hours to go before the parade, I decided to try a new attraction : the Hall of Presidents.

Truth be told, I wanted to take a nap.

Well, I absolutely loved this show. It's a beautiful story about freedom, and American history. Thankfully, no animatronic got booed. I was almost ready to go back for seconds but decided to do some shopping and get a good seat for the parade instead.

The Christmas shop is awesome. When we in WDW in October I'd seen some Christmas hats with Stitch on top of a Christmas tree and wanted to buy one to wear when I'd go pick up Grumpy at the airport. They had them at the Christmas shop, but they cost $36!!!! It was way out of my budget for something I'd only wear once and stick on a shelf at home. They had a cute Mickey snowman hat there too that I thought Grumpy would like. Also, a Grumpy hat, but it was grey and very boring, unfortunately.

I bought an ornament for a friend and then went to the Americana shop on the other side of the street. They have a ton of stuff that Grumpy could use for her classes, including some cards about US States. I knew she'd been looking for something like that forever and made a note to come back.

Then I went to sit on one of the benches in front of LTT and waited for the parade. I still felt sleepy and sticky.

As if I hadn't had enough junk for the day, I decided I needed something fruity and cold to wake me up. Minnie strawberry bar ? Itzakadoozie ? The Itzakadoozies are good but way too big so I went for the Minnie bar. Yuck. It's real frozen juice, with seeds and all, the result is pretty mushy and it soon ended up in the trash. I took some pics of the people waiting for the parade to keep myself busy.

And finally Mickey was on his way !!

When the float with the Dwarves came, I tried to take a pic of Grumpy for Grumpy but he had his back to us. So, I have a pic of Grumpy's back.

Doesn't Cruella look a little... CruellO to you ???

Chip-or-Dale !! My favorite !!!

I was glad I'd stayed for the parade, but by the end of it I was feeling really yucky. So I decided to go back to ASMU for a nap, and to either go to Epcot or back to MK that night. It was only 4. There was plenty of time.

The bus was packed and it took a while to get back to the resort. I was feeling horrible. As soon as we got there, I jumped out and ran to the lobby, praying to God that they had restrooms in there.

God came through, and it's a good thing He did, because I spent the next 10mns on my knees. LOVELY. Good thing no one came in the whole time I was in there or they'd have been in for a treat.

When I felt it was safe to get up, I cleaned my face, stopped by the "gift" shop to buy water and Tylenol - some gifts - and walked to my room. Turned off all the lights, closed the curtains and snuggled into bed with Baby Glitter Stitch.

No tree lightning ceremony tonight. No MK, either. Grumpy called at some point and I told her I was feeling sick. She thought it was a good thing !
"Get it out of your system before I get there."

She had called me before getting on her taxi to the airport.
That's right, GRUMPY WAS COMING TOMORROW !!!!!

 

[marivaid]

I told myself I'd finish this TR no matter what. Obviously I'm either boring to death, or a terrible writer, OR BOTH, because TRs that haven't been updated in 6 months are still getting more views and comments than this one.

Jokes aside, it's becoming a bit embarassing to me. I've asked one of the mods if it's possible to delete a thread.

CPer'sMom,DisneyTabby, Hedy, my3disneygirls, SeptemberGirl thanks for taking the time to post comments. Without you guys I'd have been talking to msyelf for the last 8 months

 

[CPer'sMom]

CPer'sMom,DisneyTabby, Hedy, my3disneygirls, SeptemberGirl thanks for taking the time to post comments. Without you guys I'd have been talking to msyelf for the last 8 months

I LOVE your TRs! They are always so much fun to read - and you take some great pics! Boring? No way! You do a great job and I'm always glad when there's an update to the adventures of you & Grumpy I'm following your pre-TR and can't wait to read about your Disney visit with the 'newbies'.

I'm glad you are finding a bit of time to do some updates and hope you aren't working TOO much!

 

[SeptemberGirl]

Are you kidding? I love your TR! Really! Keep writing it, please!!!!


And now, to respond....


French toast - haven't you noticed we name everything that is yummy but bad for you "French"??? Fries, toast slathered in butter, the French Dip, which is really just beef and cheese and yummy fat...but soo good!

I love the pic of the hanging flowers.

I have never seen the entire Dreams Come True performance, but still want to! I guess it really is boring, huh?

The Evil Stepmothers and Sisters are awesome! I so want to see them!

Love that statue. I saw it on my Jan trip.

I love the Hall of Presidents, too. I go in for that stuff, I guess.

OMG, Cruella is totally in drag! Hahahaha!

I have thrown up in public places before...when we were in Jamesburg, VA, last year I got the flu and threw up in the bathroom. It was like 10am and I was crying because my parents, husband, and daughter were walking around and I was so upset I was puking and couldn't find them or tell them where I was. Can you imagine? This crying, puking woman? A guide came in and asked if I was alright, and what they looked like so she could find them for me...as I was throwing up. Poor girl, she had to be like 22. Thankfully my mom walked in, and the girl got to leave. Then my daughter (she was 2 then) needed to eat so they got her food and I moved to another bathroom closer to the food, to throw up...it was awful. I barely made it back to where we were staying, all of 10 mins away. That night was NYE and I had planned a nice dinner out, we were all on vacation, and I had to stay home alone while this family group of like 18 went out.

I feel your pain!

Next chapter???

 

[DisneyTabby]

You're trip reports are great! Don't give up on them. Keep up the great work. We're all here for you Can't wait to hear about Grumpy coming.

 

[StephSalyer]

I told myself I'd finish this TR no matter what. Obviously I'm either boring to death, or a terrible writer, OR BOTH, because TRs that haven't been updated in 6 months are still getting more views and comments than this one.

Jokes aside, it's becoming a bit embarassing to me. I've asked one of the mods if it's possible to delete a thread.

CPer'sMom,DisneyTabby, Hedy, my3disneygirls, SeptemberGirl thanks for taking the time to post comments. Without you guys I'd have been talking to msyelf for the last 8 months

Ok, you have shamed me. I will admit I have been following this thread and looking forward to the updates without posting comments. I LOVE your TR! I thank you for taking the time out to share your experience and your pictures, are by far, some of the best I have ever seen.

Steph

 

[marivaid]

Thanks everyone for the sweet comments !! I'm going to finish up this TR hopefully this month. Got my whole weekend for once so I'll have time to work on it.

P.S. : Today we got our DME package for April !!! I'd been feeling down, this brought me right back up. Although I think the UPS guy will never stop by our house again.

 

[Hedy]

Thanks everyone for the sweet comments !! I'm going to finish up this TR hopefully this month. Got my whole weekend for once so I'll have time to work on it.

P.S. : Today we got our DME package for April !!! I'd been feeling down, this brought me right back up. Although I think the UPS guy will never stop by our house again.

Yay DME tickets!

 

[DisneyTabby]

Thanks everyone for the sweet comments !! I'm going to finish up this TR hopefully this month. Got my whole weekend for once so I'll have time to work on it.

P.S. : Today we got our DME package for April !!! I'd been feeling down, this brought me right back up. Although I think the UPS guy will never stop by our house again.

YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[marivaid]

OMG, Cruella is totally in drag! Hahahaha!

OK so it's not just me. I may not have been able to prove the Tinkerbill theory, but there's no doubt about Cruello

It was like 10am and I was crying because my parents, husband, and daughter were walking around and I was so upset I was puking and couldn't find them or tell them where I was. Can you imagine? This crying, puking woman? A guide came in and asked if I was alright, and what they looked like so she could find them for me...as I was throwing up. Poor girl, she had to be like 22. Thankfully my mom walked in, and the girl got to leave. Then my daughter (she was 2 then) needed to eat so they got her food and I moved to another bathroom closer to the food, to throw up...it was awful. I barely made it back to where we were staying, all of 10 mins away. That night was NYE and I had planned a nice dinner out, we were all on vacation, and I had to stay home alone while this family group of like 18 went out.

I feel sooooooooooooo bad for you !!! What a way to spend NYE ! Did you ever figure out what made you so sick ?

 

[marivaid]

December 20th ! Grumpy Day ! I have to admit, I was very eager for her to get there. First, I hadn't seen her for close to 2 months. And it turned out that although I enjoyed the do-what-you-want-when-you-want part of a Solo trip, I wasn't to thrilled about the noone-to-talk-to-or-share-things-with part.

It was time for some Grumpiness

So I'd been there for over 3 days and had yet to set a foot in Epcot. My favorite park. Grumpy's favorite park. But I'd woken up too late (one of the reasons why I'll most likely never take illegal drugs - Tylenol alone gets me "high" for about 12 hours) and was still feeling a bit yucky.

Taking it easy for the rest of the day sounded like a good idea. Last July in WDW I'd been so sick, even though Grumpy didn't admit it, it did ruin part of our trip. For one thing, I hated BWI. Grumpy really liked it and said that maybe if I hadn't spent the 3 days there within arm's reach of a box of tissues and a trash can I would have appreciated it more. She may have a point.

So the plan was to stay at ASMU until check out time, then go check at WL, and probably go to Downtown Disney. I wanted to get us the crazy Christmas hats, but they were so expensive that I needed that 10% off we lucky AP holders get at World of Disney.

At ASMU I didn't do much. Put a load of laundry, took a long hot bath, and then when it got around 11am I called Luggage Services.

The guy who came to help me take my luggage down was really nice. We talked about the Values and I said that this was the quietest Value I'd ever stayed at.

"Movies' for families. Music is for adults. And Sports, welll...."
"Sports' for cheerleaders ?"

He said they had a few rowdy groups at Music recently and he was so glad he wasn't working full time at Sports because the CMs there deal with those kinds of problems on a daily basis.

We got to the main hall and he got me a cab.
"Airport?"
"No, Wilderness Lodge, please!"

I was really excited about WL. I'd heard so much about how beautiful it is at Christmas, and couldn't wait to see everything.

When I entered the resort, I stopped dead in my tracks and let out a "wow".

(That pic was actually taken later that day)

Breathtaking. The resort is very dark and it helps making it look even more cozy. A fire was burning in the fireplace. I could hear some light Christmassy music.

I wanted to move here forever.

There wasn't a soul at the front desk and I checked us in, explaining that my mother would be coming in that night. The CM upgraded us to Woods View !!Our room wasn't ready, so I went back outside and found the bus stops.
Soon enough I was on a bus to DTD.

WL shares buses with the Grand Floridian and it took a while for us to get to Downtown Disney. A small group of boys (I'm guessing 15-16 year olds) were talking very loudly in the back, mostly about sex and booze. There were a bunch of little kids on the bus and I could tell some of the moms were getting very annoyed. They shot disapproving looks at the boys, but it only seemed to make it worse.

Suddenly, as we were reentering the Fort Wilderness woody area, the bus stopped. The driver went to the back of the bus where the boys were and said loudly.

"Boys, do you know your way through the woods ? No ? Well then you better keep it down and use appropriate language until we get to our destination. Are we clear ?"

Disney Magic ! Poof, they turned into perfect little gentlemen. Yes, sir. Excuse us, sir. Have a nice day, sir.
Not a peep out of them for the rest of the ride.

Once we got to DTD I walked around and looked at the Christmas decorations. We never spend a whole lot of time in Downtown because it's such a money trap so I never noticed all the details.

One of the trees, this one was between Earl of Sandwich and the toy store.

I glanced at the toy store but did not go in. Dangerous territory.

Fulton's Crab House - I heard so much about this place from Buzz's TRs but never realized it was a BOAT !

At the World of Disney, Stitch was spitting water on kids below.

To tell you the truth I was dying to go and be spat on by Stitch.
Twenty-nine ! You're TWENTY-NINE ! I went inside to hat-hunt.

Boy is that store overwhelming. Two minutes there and I had completly forgotten what I came to get. Pins ? Shirts ? A watch ??
I actually left the store for a couple minutes to get away from the madness, went back in and straight to the Christmas display.

I knew I wanted the Christmas tree hat with Stitch on it but was hesitating for Grumpy. The grey Grumpy hat ? The red santa hat with Goofy ears ? Or the Mickey snowman ?
Well, they were out of the Goofy ones. The Grumpy was definitely too boring.
So I went for the snowman !

Grumpy was supposed to land at 12.30 and I tried calling her a couple times before getting in line to pay, with no success. So I got in line and waited. The store was really busy.

It was my turn to go when my phone rang. Grumpy. The reception was atrocious so I had to leave the line, put my stuff on a shelf and get out of the store again.
Grumpy's plane had landed in JFK ! She's gone through Immigration and Customs with no problem and was now waiting for her second flight.
We agreed to meet in front of the Disney store at the airport.
"Stay there ! I don't want to miss you and spend an hour in the airport."

Oh, I don't think seeing me will be a problem, Grumpy.
Cause I'll have this on my head

.... and it lights up,too !

They work fast at World of Disney. I had only been out for a couple minutes but when I came back in and went to retrieve my stuff, it was gone.
Argh.
Back to the Christmas display we go, pick up some hats, and a few Christmassy hair thingies.
I went to pay and asked for the AP discount - they do ask for ID so make sure to bring yours. The total only came to about $40 which I thought was odd considering my tree hat alone was $36.

"You counted everything ? The 2nd hat too ? Cause I'm buying both of them."
"All Christmas themed items are on sale today Ma'am"

YAY. And OUCH ! Ma'am ???????
That hurts, man.

I was so glad I'd waited to buy the hats. If I had gotten them just the day before they'd have cost twice as much. And now I had more money to buy more gifts !!

First I went to Disney Tails and bought treats for our cats and my sister's cat and dog. Then went to the 4 for $10 section at Mickey Mart.
They had way better stuff than what I'd seen there the last time.
I got a set of four Peter Pan glasses and a Christmassy plush for Jessi, a cute little white sequined stocking for Granny, and a Mickey head garland. Perfect to decorate our room before Grumpy got there !

Speaking of room, I called the number the CM gave me at WL and asked if our room was ready. It wasn't. Only 1.30pm, but I had to be back at ASMU around 4.30 to catch the DME to the airport.
Judging by how long it took to go from WL to DTD, I needed at least an hour to go from there to WL. So unless our room was going to be ready in the next hour or so, there wouldn't be enough time to prepare it.

I hadn't had a thing to eat since yesterday's pukorama and was feeling a bit hungry. My first thought was Earl of Sandwich but it was mobbed. Line out the door. I'm not waiting an hour in line for a sandwich.

Where did they put Wolfgang Puck Express ??? Ah,next to the Christmas store. Which is unbelievable, by the way.

Got myself a Chinois Chicken salad because it sounded fresh and light. It's a CS but they bring your food to you. My server was an older Asian man who was very nice, I didnt know how to leave a tip so I just handed it to him. Felt a bit awkward but I soon forgot about it because my salad was A-MA-ZING !

Lots of fresh greens, nice pieces of grilled chicken, and bits of wontons on top of it all. It was really good especially for CS prices.

At 2.30 I called WL back and the room still wasn't ready. Well that settled it. I took the bus back to ASMU instead.

To kill some time, I took some pics of the lobby decorations. Not bad for a Value ! They were having a gingerbread house contest and I voted

My one gripe about ASMU. Where the heck is Bon Jovi ?? I like the Beatles and Tim McGraw looks nice, whoever he is, but how can you have a MUSIC themed resort and no Jovi to be found anywhere ? Or Springsteen for that matter. Disney, what did New Jersey do to you ??

I took one last walk around the resort, got a drink at the food court, and spent some time in the gift shop. I like to collect pins from the resorts we've been at, but the All Stars pin is just ugly, plus not specific. It's not a snob thing - I have Pop Century's pin - but it was not a pin I wanted on my lanyard.

The DME bus showed up a little early. The driver complimented me (I only had my camera and shopping bags) "someone who knows how to pack!" ... Oh, if you only knew !!!

At the airport I looked at the shops and waited. According to the times board Grumpy's flight had landed, but no Grump yet.
Put my hat on, with the lights. And waited. Took it off. Turned the lights off and put it back on. I was getting a lot of attention because of it. Took it back off.

"Are you meeting someone?"

No I just like to sit and wait in an airport with a silly 16 inch hat on my head. That lights up.
The hat, not the head.

And I finally I see Grumpy. All dressed up in pink, dragging her as-big-as-allowed carry-on suitcase and a big bag too. We're going to need to go over that whole "personal item" thing again.

Quick, I turned on the lights and popped the hat back on. I see Grumpy scanning the room and suddenly her eyes POP.
She's seen the hat !!!

"You're not going to wear this all week, are you ?"

Instead of answering, I took the snowman hat out of its bag and put it on her head.

I can't believe I don't have a pic of this !!!!!! I'm so mad at myself now.

We walked to the Welcome center with both our hats on and everyone was tuning around to look at us.
We only took the hats off once we got on the bus because they were both so tall we were hitting the ceiling.

On the bus ride we chatted about family stuff. Apparently my dad had been even more of a pain in the butt as usual. She was so glad she'd decided to come and escape it for a week. We talked about Granny - who now regretted not coming. I told her about ASMU.

If they put on the video I don't recall it. We didn't stop talking the whole time (don't worry we were in the back and the bus was 3/4th empty anyway).

Grumpy did the exact same thing I'd done earlier when she entered WL.
This place is really incredible.

We went up to our room and I asked Grumpy to give me 2mns to take pics of our room before the storm hit.

Yes, that is Grumpy's snowman hat on the table !

She wanted to go grab a bite and look at the lobby some more. Also we needed to put her credit card on file so we could charge stuff to our room.

First stop, Roarin' Forks, which oddly enough was deserted at that time.
Grumpy chose her usual : pepperoni pizza. I had heard a lot about WL's fudge brownie so I took that.

We sat and started talking. Grumpy ate most of the pizza, like she was starving.

"Didn't they feed you on the plane ? How was your flight,anyway?"
"It was okay. The movie sucked though."
"What movie was it?"
"I have no idea. It looked really old. Something about a fat girl dancing."

A fat girl dancing ?? What the heck is she talking about ???
Could it be... oh, no,it couldn't.

"That girl, did she have dark hair ?"
"Yes, and she was ugly too!"

Oh, my Grumpy. Clueless Grumpy. I really missed that.
Realizing what the "old movie about a fat ugly dancing girl" she'd seen was, I started to laugh hysterically and choked on my drink. Good thing there weren't too many people in there because I was really making a spectacle of myself.

"What ???? Why ??? Why are you laughing, what did I say??"
"The ugly dancing girl.... that was John Travolta. You watched HAIRSPRAY!"

Look out people, Grumpy has entered the building!

 

[Hedy]

at Hairspray.

 

[Disney owl]

great trip reports, thanks

 

[StephSalyer]

Great update! You have an excellent gift for writing. I can actually see everything you write about. I truly look forward to your updates!

Oh and Hairspray..............

 

[marivaid]

When we started breathing again, we went to the front desk then Grumpy headed to the hot tub (the first thing she'd done when she got in the room was put her bathing suit on).

I had things to do !!!
My biggest bag was full of presents I'd gotten Grumpy while I was at the beach. Nothing expensive - most of it came from Ross or K-Mart. We like cheap stuff !

While Grumpy was in the hot tub (hopefully not sinking due to the pizza and half brownie she ate) I prepare the "gift area" on the table. First I stuck the Mickey Mart garland around the mirror then I got all the presents, gift boxes and bags out of the duffle. Put the gifts in the boxes/bags, and then stuffed her stocking with candy and cosmetics.

Tada, I present to you Grumpy's pre-Christmas present table :

I don't recall exactly what was in there. Mostly clothes (I'd warned Grumpy not to pack too much stuff as I had plenty for her to wear), an Eeyore purse, some candles and bazz fizzies.
Grumpy loves presents. ANY kind of presents

When she came back from the hot tub, she squealed like a little girl, quickly changed and opened all her presents. I was happy that she seemed to like them all (so much that she almost ate one of the chocolate bath fizzies). She put on her new Pink Panther PJs and went to bed.

I went online to chat with my friend for a while but soon drifted off to sleep myself.

In the morning we had an ADR for breakfast at Whispering Canyon for 8.40am. I wasn't sure we'd make it that early on Grumpy's first day but she was up much before me and had already gone to the pool by the time I woke up!

We got dressed - Grumpy in some of her new clothes - and went downstairs to the cowboy restaurant.

For once we were in the main room at WCC and part of the action ! First our server threw straws at us (never happened to us before and we liked it !). He joked around with us. Then, Grumpy noticed the cup of crayons on the table and for some reason almost started drawing on her napkin...

"Lady, LADY !!!!! You need more coffee !"
He brought Grumpy some Mickey things to color and told her to leave his napkins alone.

So, Grumpy colored !

We ordered one skillet and french toast. Grumpy was still starving and ate all the french toast (she's a cinnamon nut) plus a good part of the skillet. I though the skillet was good, especially the seasoned potatoes.

At one point there was an announcement "Does anybody have strawberry jam ? This here lady wants some strawberry jam !"

Everyone in the restaurant started looking for jam (there's a cup full of litte jam packets on each table). No one had any. So the servers brought the lady a whole box of strawberry jam packets !! And then a bunch of guests came to her table to get some for themselves.

Later during our breakfast, they asked for some honey for a little girl. We had some, so we each picked one and took it to the little girl. A lot of other guests did the same and she must have had at least 20 packets of honey !!

It was a very fun and nice way to start the day. When we left, we took some time to look at the lobby and take pics.

Then we went outside to look at the courtyard. It was a beautiful morning and we enjoyed just walking around looking at everything.

No park for us today. Grumpy had shopping withdrawal and needed an outlet fix, fast. It was the only day we could go shop because of the holidays coming up and other plans we'd made.

So after our little walk we took a cab to the Premium Outlets, our favorite shopping place in Orlando. First thing first, we went straight to Coach where we spent a good part of our shopping money. Because while we like cheap stuff, we also appreciate a good Coach (Or two. Well, in that case four. But I disgress).

When we ran out of money, we called for a cab to take us back to WL. Our driver thought we'd said Fort Wilderness and got lost. Several times.

Back at WL, Grumpy went straight to the pool while I went online to do some work.

Then we got ready for our dinner at.... Whispering Canyon

Grumpy wore a shirt I'd brought her especially for that dinner that said "Everybody loves a cowboy". The CM at the podium noticed it and teased Grumpy about it.

Our server was, I think, Bobby the Kid, and he was okay but didn't really play the game with us. Grumpy didn't care because she's one of those people who goes to WCC for the food. The woman likes her pork ribs !!!

I made her take the Canyon Margarita because I wanted the glass.
How far does that straw go ??

Gnawing Grumpy, the image of daintiness.

After our meal, we were stuffed. We had a sleigh ride booked at 8pm and Grumpy wanted to relax, so she went upstairs and I stayed in the lobby for a while to take photos then went shopping a bit.

I picked a "moose spit" soap for my sister, a shirt for a friend and the Wilderness Lodge pin for myself and went to pay.
My credit card was declined.
Well, it was bound to happen.

"Oh, that stupid French bank ! What have they done now ?" I whined.
And charged my purchases on the room key.

In the room, I found Grumpy sprawled on the bed. She didn't want to move.
Stupid sleigh ride, she said. No wanna go.

WHY didn't I listen to her ????????

Instead I lied and told her they'd charge our room if we didn't show up so we might as well go since we were going to pay for it anyway.

We found the sleigh and the horse, Dave (who calls a horse Dave???) and got in the carriage. On the way to the woods, I realized that we were taking the same path as the cars. There were two or three cars stuck behind us waiting for the horse to get out of the way !! And he was going SLOW.

It was a bit embarassing but we laughed it off. Surely, it would get better.

We got in the woods. And saw woods. Thrilling... Once in a while our driver would chat a bit with us but there wasn't much to talk about. All I could think about was Blair Witch... and how much a witch would lighten up that ride.

We turned around and went back towards the resort, then suddenly our horse stopped moving. He had to go, our driver said. We waited for a while then the driver turned off the Christmas music that was playing from some boombox and magically, Dave peed. For at least two minutes straight. Doesn't seem like much but believe me, when you're sitting in a sleigh in the middle of the woods it feels a lot longer.
And to think we could have missed that!!!!!!

Here's Grumpy on the way back doing her "I'm having so much fun when do we get out of here" face.

The horse takes the path the buses use and we had 2 buses and 4 cars stuck behind us. It seemed to last forever. I was incredibly embarassed, it was pathetic. As soon as we got back to the resort we jumped out of the sleigh, Grumpy paid the driver and we escaped as fast as we could.

"That was soooooooo LAME !!!!!"
"WHY did you book this ???"
"I thought it would be fun !All the people on the DIS said it was fun!"
"That board is stupid."
"Say that again and I'm putting you right back on the sleigh."

Grumpy went to the hot tub to recover and I stayed upstairs to repack my stuff.

BANG ! Double Bang !!
Fireworks !!!!!!!

I could see the fireworks from the last Christmas Party from my window!!
It was really great to watch but my pics didnt turn out good.

Grumpy came back and told me she'd seen the fireworks from the hot tub too.

Since we had quite a few things planned for the next day (an early breakfast, switching resorts and two parks) we went to sleep rather early.

But not before Grumpy made me swear on both our cats that there was no other sleigh ride planned for this trip.

 

[DisneyTabby]

We'll know not to do the sleigh ride in December. We have no patience to sit through that.

 

[*KeepMovingForward*]

Yikes...who knew the sleigh ride would be that lame? Okay, so I am cured from wanting to venture on one of those now. Sleigh ride aside, sounds like you guys were having a lot of fun!