The "I've Waited My Whole Life" Christmas Suprise Trip Report-Final/Video Update 2/21

[wvdislover]

Allyson! Poor thing. I'm so sorry you had a headache that night! Haven't you learned that you must have the following medications in your bags at all times?

Advil, Pepto, GasX, and Children's Tylenol. Don't get caught without 'em!!


NM

Don't forget the Tums, too!!!

 

[Weluvdisny]

I just love the pic of your DS with the kiss on his cheek from Aurora! It is priceless!!! Great trip report so far. My DS also got the big mason jar from WCC and he thought it was a hoot! Hope your headache is better for your next magical Disney day!

 

[Vannah]

How cool! I'm attempted to plan a not-yet-booked trip to Disney for either late November or early December, depending on our school sceduele. This TR is giving me lots of great ideas for it.

 

[ellebeegee]

Man, I love that picture of Grumpy in jail at WCC!! That is hilarious. I think that needs to be made into a poster. That would make a great gift for him.

And definitely, I would advise taking Tylenol (or my choice, Goody's powder) BEFORE any trip to WCC. That's not a good place to have a headache. I think ToT or RnRC would be preferable to WCC with a splitting head!

And you know I'm partial to girls, myself, but I have to agree that your little Goofy is the cutest guy ever!! Well, I'm also pretty soft on Melissa's Matthew, so I'll have to group them together for teh "cutest guy ever" category.

 

[Schachteles]

You have me in tears one minute and laughing the next...thank you so much for your GREAT writing...can't wait to hear more...it is making me ache to get back "home".

 

[Disneynut4ever]

Oh my gosh! When I began reading your TR this morning, I didn't realize you were still writing it. I NEED the ending. Keep writing... hurry!

But I really can't wait for the ending, so could you give me a quick summary of what happened when you got home? I mean -- we have totally thought of giving the gift of a Disney trip to the kids for Christmas, but what do you do about Christmas then? I mean, like your Goofy said, do you still get to open presents on Christmas? What about Santa? Does he still visit with gifts?

 

[czkmom]

Your trip report is so awesome! I can't sit down long enough to write one day....although I have most of my pictures now so maybe that will motivate me!

Your illuminations photos are great! Dusty must have had ours on the wrong setting as they are blurry and horrible......

My boys are still talking about your kids and "can we make plans to go on the boat with them again".......

Keep it coming!

Heather (czkmom)

 

[CHEK]

FANTASTIC!!, We too surprised our 2 daughter's last June, we are from the UK, we had the bag's packed & ready at my parents house, the taxi booked and the girls thought we were all, my parents included going out for the day to a swimming park!!, that was until we arrived at the airport!, and even then they weren't sure what we were doing there?, absolutely priceless!!.

 

[Quacktatty]

WCC looks like so much fun!!! I am scared to try it though - I know I will end up with one of those GIGANTIC sodas and the 100 bottles of ketchup

 

[eargal]

It took an hour but I'm up to date. You may proceed.

 

[CarolB]

I am enjoying your report so much....finally caught up on 9 pages tonight! Can't wait to read more.......

 

[4boysrus]

oooohhhh, Allyson...

I NEED MORE! lol. I've checked the thread so many times today that I've lost count.

hope we have the next installment coming soon.....

 

[MomofCKJ]

Thanks folks! I had knitting class tonight (love to knit!) and so now I am here to fill you in on...

Wednesday December 20

Another simply gorgeous day! I had been nervous about weather having read people talk about needing gloves and winter coats in December. We were blessed with 7 straight days of 78-80 sunny blue sky days and nights that sometimes needed a light sweatshirt and capris, other nights the shorts were still just fine. It was picture perfect weather, could not have asked for better!

So we are up and out the door early again, this time off to Epcot. I laughed at a different Trippie I was reading recently where the kids called it Apricot. That is Goofy. Before we ever went on the trip and he had seen the planning DVD a bunch of times he too called it Apricot. Made me chuckle!

Rode the bus, got dropped off a million miles from the gate and finally made it there. The lines were very long already to get through the turnstiles. We picked a line that was really a non line. You see when the line had gotton to where the ticket booths are some people had continued the line to the left and we got in that one. Well other people had veered right and that side was even longer and felt that they were the "real" line. So all of us in the "fake" line were up the creek. We hastily ran to another line and just hoped to get to Soarin' as quick as possible. I don't think my family had a clue yet as to how mad a dash it would be to Soarin'. I only did from my hours of reading the Dis. I knew we had to get there.

While in line there was a girl in front of me with the BEST t-shirt. It was embroidered on the front "Friends don't let friends drink Pepsi".
I loved it and made sure to tell her. Her mom made her the shirt. Me thinks she could sell a bunch on ebay if Pepsi didn't find her too quickly!

So we of course get the slow line today. People's tickets are not going in right, they aren't using the right finger, a whole multitude of issues. FINALLY we get in and at this point we must carry Goofy if we are going to get to Soarin' before lunch. It is a bit of a hike, you know. So I pick him up and we speedwalk. Man he's heavy. I pass him off to Grumpy, much like a relay stick and I go on ahead with the girls. We finally make it to the building and go in, go down and grab FP for it and then get in the standby line. It was only 10 minutes at this point, thank goodness!

We were all excited for this as it was our first time. We saw the little video from Puddy, gosh he makes me laugh! Then we were let in. We were in the middle row. I knew we'd see feet but it wasn't that big a deal. We all got buckled, stowed our stuff and we were off. WOW! What a ride! Amazing feeling, it was just so cool. We all really loved it and Goofy just kept laughing the whole time. That is such a big part of the fun of the family trip to Disney, seeing your kids experience these awesome things and just burning those images on your heart.

After Soarin we decided to head over to Turtle Talk with Crush. As we got to the Pavilion the CM (from MA!) told us that we should see Nemo now, no wait, and that there had already been a lot of people going into Crush so we probably wouldn't make that first show. We followed her advice and walked through the very long, and very cool, queue for Nemo. We walked all the way to our Clamshell, there was no line. I loved this ride. I love the movie which might explain why. That and the fact that it was a walk on. If I had to wait more than 15 minutes for this ride I would not have enjoyed it as much. It is cute but not stand in long line worthy. It was fun though and I rode with Goofy and we both enjoyed seeing Nemo and friends.

After we exited and a CM was telling us to get in line for Crush and not be afraid of the line of people. He said the theater held 250 and it wouldn't be a long wait. Sign us up! They were letting in the 10am show at the time we got in line. We didn't have that long of a wait and got into the next show, was it 10:15 or something? It was something like that. While in line we played the "I went to Disney World and I saw a __________" game. It passed the time and kept my kids from doing gymnastics on the line dividers.

We got in and Bashful and Goofy wanted to go up front. Belle sat with us, again feeling too cool to be up front. Now we had talked to the kids in advance about what they would ask Crush if they got picked. I have fears about Goofy and what he will come out with. He is known to just blurt out whatever is on his mind at times and it can be very embarassing. At a basketball game last year he struck up a conversation with another Mom we were sitting near. We didn't know her but he was telling her our life story basically and then dropped the "Hey, do you have a baby in your belly?" bombshell. Thankfully she was a good sport but I was mortified. She was not pregnant, just a little pudgy. So I was terrified of what might come out in a room full of people.

The Crush show was awesome, we loved it! It is amazing how they do it and just so much fun! Several kids got picked and each time they asked Goofy had his hand high in the year and I could hear his voice shouting "Me, me!", really loud. Finally for the last kid picked they picked Goofy. Crush made a comment about him sounding like one of the seagulls outside yelling "'Mine Mine". Then he had this exchange:

Crush: Little dude, what is your name?
Goofy: (I must insert his real name here as the story won't work without it) Jagger
Crush: Jabber? That fits dude!

Goofy then asked what turtles ate. PHEW, he stuck to the preplanned question, embarassing moment averted! Crush told him and then asked what Goofy ate. He told him real people food. Crush asked for a little more info and Goofy told him chicken nuggets. Crush wanted to know what those were and Goofy told him they were chicken in a shell. "Oh,chicken on the half shell!" Crush said. Right on Dude!

It was very cute and we were glad one of our kids got to take part! We spent some time exploring the rest of the pavilion as our kids love animals and fish. We tried to see the manatees but they were out in their other section. We did catch the dolphin talk (wasn't really a show, not sure what to call it) and the girls liked that. We visited with Bruce:

and watched the fish.

Our time for Soarin' FPs was up. I told Grumpy to take the kids on it and I would run to Test Track to get FPs for after lunch. He didn't want to as he felt bad for me to miss Soarin' again. Really I didn't care, I would take one for the team but he insisted. So I told him to take the kids to Journey to Imagination and I would run to TT. I wish he had listened to me!!!

I ran to TT and got the FP. Then I ran to the stroller rental to get one. Now all week we had not gotton a stroller. Goofy kept up great with us and jumped on Grumpy's shoulders when he needed a break. He has not used a stroller since he was 2, just was not a stroller kid. I had intended to have to get one at Disney but after trying to go without one the first day and having him do really well we didn't bother. But Epcot is so big and I knew it would be so much walking so I grabbed one. Then I headed back towards Imagination where I should find my gang right?

I parked my new wheels, called Grumpy's cell and discovered they had decided to go to Honey I Shrunk the Audience. Okay, I'll wait outside. Figment was out so I got an autograph in Goofy's book. Then I sat myself on a bench and a la Dave from the old planning DVD I worked on relaxing. And waiting. A show let out but they were not in it. I called again. They aren't even in the show yet. Goodness, did they look at wait times before getting in this line? This is why I had suggested Journey to Imagination, I knew it would move fast. The problem was our ADR at Coral Reef for lunch was coming soon. I told Grumpy I would head over there and for them to meet me there.

I moseyed over to Coral Reef. I checked in and told them my party was coming. I waited maybe 5 minutes and was buzzed. I told them they were not here yet and they put us back in the rotation. I must have called Grumpy 3 times. They were entering the show, they were in the show, will this show ever end. Finally it finished and they hustled over. I was watching from the front of Coral Reef and saw Goofy bobbing up and down on Grumpy's shoulders. I bit my tongue and kept my "You were supposed to go to Journey into Imagination!" to myself. No harm and we were called immediately. We had a nice table, center of the room on the first tier up.

Our waiter was polite but not overly friendly. He had an amazing gift of remembering the entire order and never writing anything down. The kids loved the fish and the atmosphere here. We ordered them sprites with the glow ice cubes. They loved those! Our waiter told us how to shut them off and we have them at home now and just turn them on when we want to use them. The kids still get a kick out of them.

I had the Seafood and Crab Souffle, the Lobster Salad and the Chocolate Wave. The appetizer was good, the Salad really good and the Chocolate Wave wonderful! I was very happy with my meal. Grumpy had the shrimp cocktail, Caesar salad with scallops and the Chocolate Wave. He enjoyed his meal as well. And we all loved the bread, it was warm and hit the spot!

Bashful went with the Pita Pizza minus the chicken. Belle and Goofy I believe both had the grilled chicken. Goofy didn't want his appy so we got Fish Chowder and just let Bashful have it. She is my one child who will try any new food and she really enjoyed it. Belle and Goofy got Make Your Own Sundaes with their meal but since Bashful had ordered the other type of kids meal hers did not. We just ordered one for her so she wouldn't feel left out and when reviewing the bill he did not charge us for it. Very nice!

The best part? I FINALLY found good coffee! I had a Vanilla Cappachino and it was divine and delicious and long overdue!

Lunch over we went out and found our wheels. Goofy hopped in happily, shocker to me, and off we went. We were headed to Test Track as our FPs were up. Parked the stroller and in we went. Breezed through the FP line and in we went into our car. We had a young (maybe 12) year old girl single rider with us. It was her first time and she was a little scared. I told her no worries, it would be fun!

Everyone loved it, especially Goofy. Boys and cars, you can't really go wrong. The part with the truck gets me every time and yes I screamed! It was fun though, a lot of fun! The kids loved, what else, the part outside where you go really fast!

After this we walked over to the Body Wars pavilion. It is very sad to go in. So much is closed. It just amazes me that this one didn't work out. I remember visiting it long ago and just really enjoying it. Now it was just painful to be in. I was happy to have it open for a visit but sad to see what it had become.

Okay, so we walked on to Body Wars. Man is this one rough compared to Star Tours. We were thrown here, there and everywhere. It was really rough! After that we just sort of played around with the headphone things and other various little hands on stations. Those who needed to chase that white rabbit did so and then we left. I have heard it is closing for good in January. I wonder if that is true? As we left we passed a Dream Team member who again only had a "Hello" for us.

We decided at this point to visit World Showcase and see a few countries. We started in Mexico. I love the countries. I always have. I love the foods, the people, the merchandise, all of it. This trip we didn't see all the countries or even get a lot of time in them and that is a regret. But a good reason to go back soon right?

So we rode the boat in Mexico. Kids liked it. It is a bit dated. Okay a lot dated. The video of the people in the hot tub, when is that from? 1974? Yes it is time for an update folks! But the kids like it, so it was all good. After we wandered around pretending we were in Mexico, checking out the wares and I scooted across the street for a Margarita. I got regular but after wished I had gotton strawberry. It just wasn't doing it for me so I threw out like half of it. Live and learn!

Requisite sombrero picture!

My three caballeros! And shameless plug here, see Goofy's overalls? With Squirt painted on the front? I painted them. Freehand. Yup, I did 'em!

We moved on, we had a long trip from Mexico to Norway. Come on kids, we are going on a long journey, halfway around the world, it will be long, it will be...oh we are here already! Got to love travelling the world in a few footsteps.

I wanted to try some delish Norwegian baked good but really I was full and so was everyone else. So we passed. The line for Maelstrom was 30 minutes. 30minutes??? And though yes it IS a Fastpass we weren't going to do it. We caught a wee bit of the Norwegian Santa but the kids wanted to hoof it over to China. So we did. Here they played with the marionette puppets. They toyed with buying one but decided not to. Probably for the best, I could see them getting the strings all tangled up in no time flat.

We were all getting tired so we needed to figure out what to do. I really wanted to get some chocolates in Germany for a Christmas gift for my cousin so we decided to go that far. Once we reached it Grumpy pulled up a bench with Bashful and Goofy while Belle came with me. We picked out a box of chocolates plus a small thing of those little square chocolates, Riesen maybe, for me and a bag of Gummy Bears for Grumpy. Paid up and off we went. We stopped at the African Outpost and Goofy had a Root Beer Float while the girls had ice cream I believe. We just missed the acrobats in China. I was sad to have missed it, I know the kids would have enjoyed it.

Our World Showcase time was not well planned and it felt it. We didn't see much and we wandered too much. Next trip I definately want to plan an afternoon out to better use time here. The kids had started Kidcot masks in Mexico but we never got them stamped anywhere else. We were just very disorganized in WS. We were "them" this afternoon (inside joke to TGMers).

So we headed towards the exit. Such a big park, so much walking. We walked and walked and walked. Returned the stroller and continued our trek to the buses. We should have had a Sherpa guide with us the walk is so freaking long to the Pop bus stop.

5 tired people got on the bus and headed back. We needed some rest.

The original evening plan was to go back, rest, eat and go hit evening EMH at Animal Kingdom. That was not sounding like a good idea anymore. I suggested that after a little rest perhaps just Belle and I go to AK. As the night went on though it was apparent that she too could use an early night. My kids are early to bed kids on a regular basis. They are in bed at 8pm each night, whether it is a weeknight or weekend. They just have always been like this. So these late nights were taking their toll. We finally decided to take a little rest and then eat at Pop and go swim. That pleased the gang as they love the pool and swimming in December, even better!

So we rested and then went over to Pop. People had unusual dinner requests tonight. Belle had cereal and a yogurt parfait. Bashful had a fruit cup and Goofy had cereal. Huh? Whatever. I had a Cheeseburger and fries and Grumpy decided to eat later.

We then went to the pool. I put my toe in and that was it for me. By this time the sun was down and the pool felt colder to me than it did the other day. The other 4 went in and I just sat on the side. Goofy struck up a conversation with a nice man from Wisconsin who was there with his son. What a sport this guy was because Goofy just wanted to talk his ear off. So they talked quite a bit about this and that, with him you just never know what the topic of the day will be.

With enough swimming done they jumped out into towels and we went back to the room. Showers, jammies and bed in that order. Grumpy went to the Food Court and brought back something to eat. We watched a little TV and I printed the rest of my photos. I didn't mention that I like to make my own Christmas cards each year. Well this year my bright idea was to make them, address them, stamp them and bring them to Disney. Then take a good picture and using my little Kodak Printing Dock print them, glue them on the cards and send them out. Sounds good in theory right? So I was stuck printing 65 pictures and glueing them to my cards. Ugh. The Printing Dock is not fast so this took a while but I got most of them done this evening. The rest would wait till tomorrow. Side note, I have already purchased cards to use next year as this experience has turned me off from making cards again for some time.

We had an 8am ADR at Donald's set the next day at Animal Kingdom. This would be an OOP as it was extra. At this point it was not clear if we should keep it. People were very tired. Would getting up even earlier be a good idea? How would it impact the day? We decided to play it by ear and went to bed. If we were all up early and feeling good we would go, if not we would call and cancel.

Next up: do we go to Donalds? and dinner with the Canadians!

 

[MomofCKJ]

Allyson! Poor thing. I'm so sorry you had a headache that night! Haven't you learned that you must have the following medications in your bags at all times?

Advil, Pepto, GasX, and Children's Tylenol. Don't get caught without 'em!!


NM

Yup, my bad. All I had with me was kids' cough medicine. So not helpful in this situation!

 

[MomofCKJ]

I am loving your trip report so much! Yes, so much in fact that you have inspired me to plan another trip back to the World asap!! I already love it, but try not to burn out the DH too much, but I think I have him talked into it! We have a DS7 and a DD14, so I don't see any reason to wait!

Thanks again for the inspiration - keep up with the awesome trip report!

Hey,happy to help!

 

[MomofCKJ]

Oh my gosh! When I began reading your TR this morning, I didn't realize you were still writing it. I NEED the ending. Keep writing... hurry!

But I really can't wait for the ending, so could you give me a quick summary of what happened when you got home? I mean -- we have totally thought of giving the gift of a Disney trip to the kids for Christmas, but what do you do about Christmas then? I mean, like your Goofy said, do you still get to open presents on Christmas? What about Santa? Does he still visit with gifts?

Well my goal is to finish this by Thursday (I said a month, the 11th is Th) but I'll answer your questions.
We had to have something to open on Christmas, I mean it would have been awful to wake up to nothing. But this and all that came with it (I bought a lot of things like new PJs, jewelry for the girls, etc that they used on the trip and got on the trip) was really their gift.

So each kid had a Santa gift but it wasn't anything super ginormous. Goofy had the Playmobil pirate ship, Bashful had a Rescue Pet and Belle got a Gameboy game. In addition they each had like 3-4 smaller gifts. One thing I got each girl was a scrapbook and a slew of Disney supplies so they can each make their own vacation scrapbook. So quantity wise it was much lighter than usual years but you know what? It was fine! The couple things we had gotton them were things they really liked.

They also had gifts from extended family so they had plenty to open over the course of the week when we attended various family events.

I would do a trip at Christmas again in a heartbeat. It sure beat being overwhelmed with a bunch of stuff that they will forget about in a month. The trip is something we talk about all the time and they'll have those memories forever!

Allyson

 

[MomofCKJ]

YAY! too bad it only takes a few minutes to read it.....now i have to wait another day for more!

we have lunch on our first full day scheduled at Whipering Canyon Cafe. My boys love places with a lively atmosphere, so I'm thinking that they'll really enjoy this!!

Oh Melissa, I guarantee you the boys will love WCC! Love it!

 

[MomofCKJ]

Allyson I am really enjoying your trip report. (and thanks for reading ours) We too watch AFV every week so I will be looking for your video. I have no sound on my computer but even silent, it was pretty funny.

I got all teary eyed at the picture of Goofy with Red Power Ranger. I love girls - love my girls, your girls are very cute. But I have a soft spot in my heart for little boys and oh my gosh Goofy is one of the cutest ever.

So far we haven't been at the same parks the same day. I love reading about other people's adventures and love of Disney. Thanks for sharing
Becky (the real one)

Awww, thanks Becky! We think Goofy is pretty darn cute too. And he really has so much personality, he definately brings laughter wherever he goes.

Allyson

 

[MomofCKJ]

Your trip report is so awesome! I can't sit down long enough to write one day....although I have most of my pictures now so maybe that will motivate me!

Your illuminations photos are great! Dusty must have had ours on the wrong setting as they are blurry and horrible......

My boys are still talking about your kids and "can we make plans to go on the boat with them again".......

Keep it coming!

Heather (czkmom)

I hope you are going to write one when you have time, I would love to read it!

And isn't it funny? My kids talk about yours too! They made quite an impression in that hour or so we spent together!

 

[Blaynexox]

ooh I like to knit too! Great installment! Sounds like you had a good time at Turtle Talk w. Crush! Cant wait to read more!