The Speed Walkin',Triple Split Stay,Holly Jolly Holiday**NEW 1/12 Last Day

[jenbear123]

Welcome, welcome one and all.​

Here you will find a lengthy report about my recent trip to WDW, which might have been the best trip I have had yet.

Who:

Me - I'm a huge Disney fanatic. Love everything Disney. I literally gasp when I see anything related to Disney when I'm here at home. Love Disney food and trying new things. This trip was the first time I've been to Disney for christmas.

Bubba - Current cast member in Epcot at Le Cellier and my loving sister who I miss dearly. Her and I are like two peas in a pod that just love being together. She came to Disney looking for a new experience. Loves to drink wine. Her laugh is VERY contagious. She's also discovered a new love for blue cheese (yuck!)

When:

We were in the World November 19th to November 24th, 2009

Where:

2 nights Wilderness Lodge Villas
2 nights All Star Music
1 night Animal Kingdom Lodge

Yup, that's THREE resorts. Are we crazy? YES!

Why:

To see Bubba for the holiday season and to experience Disney in ways that I have never seen it before!

We ate lots of food at a variety of places, which I will also be reviewing here. Here are a few places you can expect to hear about:

Le Cellier
California Grill
The Wave
Sanaa
Rose & Crown
Tokyo Dining
Donald's Safari Breakfast at the Tusker House
Chefs de France

Were they everything I imagined them to be? Did we see Wishes from the top of the Contemporary? Were we able to enjoy Illuminations from the comfort of our table at Tokyo Dining? Stick around and you'll find out!

On top of everything, we also squeezed in some tours:

Wilderness Backtrail Adventure
The u n DISCOVERed Future World

PLUS!

Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party

Are we ready? Get set...... GO!!!!!!!

 

[jenbear123]

Table of Contents

Day 1: Let the Festivities begin!
Day 2: The Not-so-u n DISCOVERed Future World Tour - PART 1
End of Day 2: Dinner at the Wave + Illuminations
Day 3: "What did he say?"
Day 3: Le Cellier Lunch
Day 3: All Star Music Check-in
End of Day 3: Osbourne Lights & DTD
Day 4: Donald's Safari Breakfast
Day 4: Tour of ASMusic + Dinner at California Grill
Day 4: MK Late EMH
Day 5: Mission Implausible?http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=34786575&postcount=101
Day 5: Lunch at Sanaa + Another Speed Walkin' Adventure
End of Day 5: Dinner at Tokyo Dining
Last Day: Luggage Struggle & Tough Goodbyes

 

[MadilynnsMomma]

Yahoo!!! I tagged on at the end of your PTR, and here I am, Eager Beaver, first poster in you TR! Happy Thanksgiving!!!

 

[jenbear123]

Yahoo!!! I tagged on at the end of your PTR, and here I am, Eager Beaver, first poster in you TR! Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Yay! Welcome welcome! Happy Thanksgiving to you too! Sadly we celebrated our Canadian Thanksgiving in October but it's all good eat lots of turkey and stuffing for me. The parks must be PACKED today

 

[KatMark]

I'm here....bring it on.

 

[redlight]

I'm in.

 

[Rozz]

>>><<<

 

[jenbear123]

I'm here....bring it on.

Yay! Thanks for coming over!

I'm in.

Welcome!

>>><<<

Pass me some popcorn, would ya? Thanks for joining in


I'm in the process of uploading all the pictures (there's a LOT of them) so Day 1 should be up soon!

 

[jenbear123]

Woke up at 6am and put the coffee on. This was the only time I would be bright eyed and bushy tailed at this early in the morning as I knew I was going back to Walt Disney World!!! The weather was miserable and rainy as the sun slowly came up over the horizon. It made me a bit nervous about whether or not my flight was going to be delayed. I checked the flight status and was thankful to see it was still "on time". By 7am, we had the luggage thrown in the car and were on our way to the airport. I drove there since DBF was still half asleep I figured by the time we got to the airport, the caffeine from the coffee would have set in. After the luggage was unloaded from the car, we said our quick loving goodbyes.

I had checked in online but my Mac was being difficult when it came to printing the boarding pass. My printer kept cutting off one side of it So I went to the kiosk and printed a new one. Checking in and getting through customs was a breeze but the brakes slammed on once I reached security. Apparently all the x-ray machines (you know those big scanning machines that can see inside your carry on) were not working! D'OH! All the security officers had to manually check every single person's luggage by HAND. It was a nightmare. I was in good spirits though. I was going to Disney! Once I got through the chaos that was security screening, I was at my gate with an hour to spare. Flight departed on time, pretty much uneventful, and I arrived into Orlando right on time.

Now it was time for the mad dash. In case you missed my PTR, you will not know that I had a scheduled lunch ADR at Le Cellier for 2:30pm. By the time I had landed, I had 1 hour and 15 minutes to be sitting down at Le Cellier. Bubba's friend, Tink, came to pick me up at the airport to get to Epcot faster. When I came to the main terminal, Tink was holding this big yellow sign:

Tink was going to yell out "Hey you dirt bag" to get my attention (it was my sister's idea so it's not like I was going to get offended. We say things to each other that sound mean but we know we're joking so no feelings are hurt - moving on!) but instead she wrote it on the sign. She still got dirty looks from people as they walked by.

We had to wait nearly 25 minutes for my bag to come off the plane. By the time we got to Tink's car, it was 2:15pm. Getting to Le Cellier in time was not looking very promising. Tink put the pedal to the medal, driving safely but quickly

I was clearly on a Disney "high"

We still only got to Epcot at 2:40pm.

Already 15 minutes late. I still had to exchange my annual pass voucher for the real thing! AHHHHH! I ran up to the will call ticket window and finally got the REAL annual pass

Was so happy to get Pluto!!!!!

I had to go to Guest services to get my TIW card but we had no time for that. I could always get it after our meal. Tink and I sped walk alllllll the way to Le Cellier. I looked at the time: 3:05pm. We had to have checked in before 3:00pm to get in on the lunch seating. Crap.

Bubba's other friend, Lilo, was there waiting for us also. Lilo explained all the drama that had been going on. Apparently the seat assigner (Who will remain nameless as I was not pleased with him - he's now an ex-friend of Bubba's so he was already on my "seek revenge" list) had just sat Bubba with 6 people. We were five minutes late, FIVE! And he couldn't wait to seat her. There was no way we could get in to eat for lunch with Bubba as my server. I was so bummed. Lilo had tried to make him wait but, being the stubborn poo-poo head that he was, sat her anyway. UGH! First few hours of the trip and already something did not go to plan....sigh. Bubba had seen me though when I walked in to the restaurant and before I knew it, she was racing towards me for a BIG HUG! It was so amazing to see her again. I miss her... She couldn't hang around as she obviously had tables to serve!

Since I was absolutely starving not having eaten since 6:30am that morning, we had to get food. Tink, Lilo and I all decided to see if we could get a walk-in at the Rose and Crown. Have to say that it was pretty neat hanging out with Bubba's friends who were also from Canada. Felt like I knew them already for so long. We all got along very well.

We were able to get a walk-in at Rose & Crown with no wait at all. Being right between the lunch and dinner hour, the restaurant was practically empty. We were seated on the upper level, overlooking the Showcase Lagoon.

The view from our table

Our servers name was Christopher. He did a wonderful job with great suggestions on what to eat. I got a strawberry smoothie to drink. Sorry forgot to grab a photo. It was yummy though!

Tink's drink order was a bit more complicated. She requested the bartender (or smoothie maker person) to re-create a virgin Pina-Colava. It actually came out pretty good!

I can't remember what Lilo got to drink as I didn't get a picture of it. Probably another smoothie.

Once we placed our drink orders, Chris brought us these yummy buns

For an appetizer I got the Potato and Leek soup

This was SOOOOOOOO good. Really hit the spot in my what was empty stomach

Tink had the Scotch Eggs

This actually tasted much better than the description made it out to be. I recommended giving this one a try.

For an entree I got the staple Fish and Chips

The first bite of fish, I must say, was DISGUSTING. Maybe it was because I wasn't used to Disney food but it was a salty mess. It was all I could do to swallow. I tried to get it down with the tartar sauce but that stuff nearly made me gag. I hardly ate half of the fish and filled up on the fries. Perhaps I caught the tale end of the lunch hour fish.... YUCK!

Lilo got the Grilled Chicken Breast

It looked really yummy - at that point, anything seemed better than what was in front of me. She ate it all up so it must have been good!

Tink had the Corned Beef Sandwich

This is what I should have ordered. It looked light and a nice sized portion for lunch. Oh well, live and learn I guess. Tink said it was really yummy.

I didn't save the receipt for this meal but we all chipped in $20 to cover the bill and tip. The service was great though!

With our tummies full (except mine), we skipped on dessert and went back to Le Cellier to see if Bubba was finished work. When we got there, she was still running around like a chicken with it's head cut off, trying to finish everything off. All her tables had left (finally!) so she was just getting all set to leave. After about 5 minutes, she was ready to leave! Bubba had to go "backstage" to change into normal clothes. While she did that, Lilo, Tink and I went to Guest Services to buy my TIW card.

CONTINUED IN NEXT POST

 

[jenbear123]

The time was now pushing about 4:30pm. Tink, Lilo and I all planned to meet up with Bubba back at their residency. Somehow Bubba left way ahead of us so by the time we arrived at the residency, she was already packed up and ready to go! Next destination: Villas at Wilderness Lodge!

Bubba had checked in that morning but the room was no where near ready at that hour! She already had the room keys so we didn't have to go back to the front desk. I was so pumped when we pulled up at WL. I couldn't believe I was going to be staying here - in the villas no less! Lilo and Tink helped carry all our stuff up to our room. We were in room 3540 on the 3rd floor.

It took about a minute walk to get from the elevator to the room. Once we found our room, I opened the door and was amazed. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

The room was so big I didn't know which way to turn! We even had a washer and dryer!

Not like I would have time to do laundry anyway!

It was pushing 6:00pm and we wanted to get to MVMCP as soon as possible. Tink and Lilo left us as they too had to get ready for MVMCP. We planned to meet up for the parade later on. Bubba and I got changed into our holly jolly outfits for the party and were on our way!

We arrived at MK right on time for the party to start. We got wristbands as soon as we entered the park.

As soon as I saw Main Street, I was in Christmas overload. It was absolutely breathtaking

The castle took my breath away

The picture just doesn't do it justice.

The order of business was to get in all the rides we wanted, watch the fireworks, then get a spot for the later parade. First stop was Space Mountain as a little bird had told us that it was in soft opening. Quite a few people had already gotten on and ridden it so we thought we'd make this our first stop. But, to our dismay, we saw this once we got there:

No Space Mountain for us that night. Well, they couldn't guarantee that it would be up and running that night. You'll just have to wait and see if I did end up getting on it this trip.

After this disappointment, we needed some cheering up so we headed towards Mickey's ToonTown. Bubba grabbed a smoothie on the way.

The place was practically a ghost town by this point. We walked over to Mickey and Minnie's house and not long after, this popular guy was walking towards us:

There was practically no line to get a picture with the mouse, so we got in line to wait.

We slowly made our way over to Dumbo. As we walked, I couldn't believe the lack of crowds. It was one of the best times to be in MK. The only other time I've seen Mickey's ToonTown and Fantasyland this empty is at 9am as soon as the park opens! Before we got on Dumbo, we grabbed some free hot chocolate and x-mas cookies.

They were giving out two big cookies per person, which was great! So we rode Dumbo with attempts at the blurry Dumbo picture.

Meh. Could've been better....


CONTINUED IN NEXT POST

 

[jenbear123]

After Dumbo we hit Haunted Mansion and Splash Mountain - both of which are SO much better to ride at night. My butt got soaked when we rode Splash Mountain. We sat right in the front and when we went down the big hill, we got splashed!

Yes, I looked like I peed my pants ha ha Hey, I did say I was so excited I could pee my pants! Don't say I didn't warn you

We saw this on the pavement as we exited the ride

Once we got off Splash Mountain, we ran into the end of the first showing of the parade. Since we couldn't cross the parade path, we stood and watched the end. From what I saw, I couldn't wait to see the full thing! We bee lined it for POTC once the parade ended and walked right on. When we were leaving the POTC shop, we saw quite the horrific sight. An older man had somehow tipped backwards in his wheelchair. We hadn't seen him fall but he must have hit his head on the pavement. Poor man. He seemed okay though and was able to get to his feet but not without getting an earful from his wife. A cast member was there to make sure everything was okay. Thankfully the man was alright!

After POTC, we headed over to Jungle Cruise as I really wanted to ride it at night. Then came disappointment #2 - it was closed for the party. DARN! I hoped that I would get another opportunity later in the trip.

Time was ticking by and we noticed that we should start looking for a spot for the fireworks. Bubba had to grab some munchies as she hadn't even eaten dinner! I felt bad because she kept having to eat junk but it didn't seem to bother her. We didn't wait long until the fireworks show started

It was an amazing show. I had tears in my eyes by the end of it. I was just so happy to be there, with my sister, during such a festive time in Disney World. I couldn't have been happier.


Once the fireworks were finished, we did some shopping on Main street. I had to get myself a MVMCP pin with my fav characters

Bubba was on the hunt for music from the party, which she was able to get as well. We had to ask a cast member before we were able to find it though!

Once we finished shopping, we grabbed a spot for the parade right outside the Confectionery. A nice family sat down beside us and were trying to get photos of themselves. I offered to take a picture of all three of them in front of the castle. The gentleman said I probably took their christmas card right then and there! Have to say I felt pretty good about my photography skills at that point. Lilo and Tink soon made an appearance and took a seat beside us. The gentleman who I had just taken a picture of their family offered to take a picture of all 4 of us.

Lilo and Tink told us that Space Mountain had opened again and that they had already ridden it! Bubba and I would make a stop there right after the parade for sure! Then before we knew it the parade was coming down Main Street.

These ponies were not happy. They kept gnawing at their bits and just did not want anything to do with the parade. I'm sure they just wanted to go to sleep!

The toy soldiers freaked me out!!! If anybody has seen Santa Clause 2 or 3 (can't remember which) you'll know why! The parade was another tear jerker for me. I just could not believe I was there. It was simply magical. Especially when it started "snowing".

We parted ways with Lilo and Tink to head over to Space Mountain. IT WAS OPEN!!!!!!! To our surprise it was a walk on too!

The ride wasn't noticeably different. It was still just as rough and jerky as before. The queue and loading area have been completely revamped. To see all the changes, check out the article at AllEars.net HERE

This was a good time to end our night. We had accomplished all the rides we wanted (except Jungle Cruise) and seen everything we wanted to at the party. By this point we were exhausted so we took the boat back to WL and went straight to sleep! It was a perfect start to our Very Merry Disney vacation

Up Next:

U n DISCOVERED Future World Tour
Surprise Lunch at Chefs de France
Delectable dinner at the Wave

 

[Elevationist]

Jen! I'm here now! I'm really going to enjoy following along for the next few days until my own trip!! Off to start reading now!

 

[praisehisname]

Great report so far!

 

[jenbear123]

Jen! I'm here now! I'm really going to enjoy following along for the next few days until my own trip!! Off to start reading now!
[/IMG]

Woot woot Now that Billie has arrived, the real party can start Thanks for joining in! I'll try and feed that excitement of yours the best I can

Great report so far!

Thank you!

 

[Soopafly]

Im in That Pluto looks great, was it drawn on the ground with something? Looks cool but sticky haha.

 

[KatMark]

Jen, great start to your report.

 

[ixmnrs]

Subscribing,

I just love reading comprehensive trip reports, especially from fellow Canadians. As for the speedwalking title; I hear you...my wife always says I owe her a new pair of running shoes after every Disney trip.

 

[jenbear123]

Jen, great start to your report.

Thanks More to come!

Subscribing,

I just love reading comprehensive trip reports, especially from fellow Canadians. As for the speedwalking title; I hear you...my wife always says I owe her a new pair of running shoes after every Disney trip.

Hello fellow Canuck No matter what, whenever we're in Disney, we're ALWAYS speed walking somewhere (no running in the parks!) Good way to get our exercise. Thanks for joining in

 

[lovegrumpy]

Love it so far.

 

[bballdiva]

Completely enjoying your report..I've always dreamed of going at Christmas time