*UPDATED!! EPISODE 4 W/ PICS!!!* Will it be a Merry Christmas afterall? December 2005

[DISYachtC5]

Episode 1: Introduction

Okay, here we go..

Our mother has been a member of the Disboards since June 2005, and well, she hasn’t exactly posted a lot since joining (as you can clearly see ). It’s time to change that, so as a result, we, her daughters (Denise & Ally) with a little help from her son (Nick), are going to write about our trip to WDW that we took in December 2005. Sorry it’s a little belated, but we just decided to do it now. Let’s see how much we can remember..

First off this trip has been 10 years in the making. Way back in December 1995, our parents won a trip to WDW and ever since, the 3 of us have begged to go at Christmastime. Also, you should take note of a beloved great grandfather who always wished to take his great grandchildren during Christmas. None of us ever thought that our Christmas trip would take 10 years to come, but after our great grandfather’s passing in July 2004, we no longer had any reason not to go.

Let’s begin with the planning stage shall we..

We began planning our “Christmas Extravaganza” in March 2005, and we managed to get everything in order, granted there were a few bumps in the road though. For example our plane schedule was changed numerous times, but in the end worked out to our advantage, giving us an extra day in the world. Everything else was minor, but things of that nature are to be expected when traveling with a party of 8.

Trip dates: December 22-30, 2005

The “characters” of our family:
Tony – Dad
Cindy – Mom
Denise – Daughter #1
Ally – Daughter #2
Nick – Son
Joe – Grandpa
Lois – Grandma
Pam – Aunt

Next Episode: Day 1!!

 

[Beana9802]

Oh, I have always wanted to go during Christmas time...thank you for this TR. I am excited to hear all about the festivities! Great Idea!

 

[Grammyof2]

Ready to hear all about your Christmas trip.

 

[pumba]

me too.........Christmas is awesome......but anxious to hear about your trip

 

[MomofCKJ]

Looking forward to your report! We are going the week before Christmas this year so it is fun to hear all about what to expect that time of year!

Allyson

 

[DISYachtC5]

Episode 2: Day 1 (December 22)

Let’s see..

After having a rather sleepless night (partially due to our over-nervous mother), we woke up on a frigid cold, Connecticut morning at the crack of dawn. Actually, it wasn’t even dawn yet as the sun was no where near ready to rise (it was about 3:30 am). After rushing around and gathering every last minute thing we could think of and our dad shoving our over-stuffed suitcases in the trunk, we managed to get out the door and pile into the car in a very timely matter. Once in the car, our mother, who is a compulsive plane ticket-checker, began counting and checking and recounting and rechecking the tickets while almost doing a role-call by reading off all the names. This drives our dad crazy for obvious reasons. After all this, we finally arrived at VIP, the place we were stowing our car during our trip. We were kindly greeted by a man who was in need of some dental work and told us that our shuttle would be arriving shortly and to wait outside. We couldn’t help but to laugh as it was maybe 4:30 in the morning and about 10 degrees outside. We gladly followed our dad into the office in search of warmth as we were dressed for a warmer climate. We stood in what they called an office for like 20 minutes when we finally saw the shuttle come around the bend. We then rushed outside as we didn’t want others to get onto the shuttle before us (we were there WAY before they were).

Once everything was settled into the shuttle we were on our way to the airport, where we met up with our grandparents, aunt, and Nick (he stayed the night with them to help). After we got our boarding passes and waited in a huge line at the security check, we could finally sit down at McDonalds for some long overdue breakfast (we needed some energy). After eating we made our way to the Delta Song waiting area and all along the way, we gazed at the beautiful decorations. We all know what happens next: we sit on an airplane in cramped seats, and await our arrival to Orlando Airport.

Once off the plane we were once again greeted by wonderful Christmas decorations as we rushed to the baggage claim. The 8 of us got our 9 suitcases and countless carry-ons and purses and went to Alamo car rental. We got a tan trailblazer (we ran up and down the aisles to find the “perfect” one). We piled our bags in and made our way to the Disney “money vacuum” (otherwise known as the Disney welcome arch/gateway).

"The Chosen One" aka: The Trailblazer

We arrived in fashion at the Yacht Club where the same valet guy that we see every summer greeted us and welcomed us back yet again. We then strolled into the lobby and were amazed by the decorations (they were much better than the ones at the airport needless to say). In the lobby there was garland draped all along the balconies, a train set assembled on a table, and a large Christmas tree in the center of the room.

Yacht Club Christmas tree

Close-up of Yacht Club Christmas tree

Yacht Club lobby balconies

After this our mom and grandma fussed around to get the perfect room (this is always a major event in our vacation) while the rest of us went to the gift shop to get our first taste of Disney shopping. Once the room situation was settled we went up to our rooms and called for our luggage and our Christmas tree that we had ordered from the Disney Florist before we left home. While we waited we decorated our balcony with garland and lights that we had brought from home.

Our Disney Florist Christmas Tree

Our decorated balconies (they look better at night)

We then went to Downtown Disney and did a little shopping and we ate lunch at Wolfgang Puck Express, which half of our family enjoyed, while the other half didn’t particularly care for it. We spent a few hours there and then headed to back to the Yacht Club. We then headed to Epcot, as we passed through the International Gateway; we were amazed to see all the Christmas decorations. We walked to the front of World Showcase to see the tree lighting. We then proceeded to walk around World Showcase to see all the decorations. We stopped to get a snack in America, where we had to purchase a commerative mug from the gingerbread house. When we were done it was a bit chilly so some of us were in a hurry to get back to the hotel as quickly as possible, while others wanted to walk a bit slower to take in the surroundings.

Epcot decorations (more pics to come later)

On our walk back to our hotel from the International Gateway we could not help but comment on our fantastic balcony decorating job that we had done earlier, that could be seen once you walked over the hill and back onto the Boardwalk loop. Due to the chilly weather we were yet again in search of warmth and decided to head into the Beach Club to check out their holiday decorations. They had a large gingerbread carousel, with hidden mickeys, like the Yacht Club they too had garland around the upper balconies and a few smaller trees around the lobby.

Beach Club gingerbread carousel

We returned to our rooms, put our pj’s on and fell asleep quickly.

Next Episode: Day 2!!

 

[a*lil*bit*goofy]

and just like that, i am hooked! great start! looking forward to reading more, and i love your decorations!!! did disney staff say anything about it or was it all 'ok'? I think that was a great idea! keep writing, i will be waiting. :O)

 

[Minniespal]

Can't wait to read more ~ Lovely piccies

 

[heaven2dc]

Love your writing style - and just like A*Little*Bit*Goofy says, I'm hooked too! I can see already you will be added to one of my fav's list!

 

[OhMari]

Wow, great job with the pictures. Hope you continue.

 

[Beana9802]

COOL! You even decorated your balconies! I am so jealous! Keem em' coming!

 

[Goofy'sFriend]

LOVE reading your report. We are planning our first trip at Christmastime.........looking forward to your next episode!!

 

[DISYachtC5]

did disney staff say anything about it or was it all 'ok'?

No, the Disney staff had no problem with our decorations. We left the garland lit all day and night. We put our tree in the window and left it lit all night (we turned it off during the day). As we walked around other resorts, you could see that other people had lights in the windows and garland on their balconies. We saw decorated rooms at Wilderness Lodge, Comtemporary, Polynesian, Boardwalk, Beach Club, and Swan. At the Boardwalk, someone had put the blow-up decorations (Santa & snowman) on their balcony.

Decorations we saw at Wilderness Lodge. They're hard to see, but they had draped light-up snowflakes on their balcony.

 

[Goofy'sFriend]

Do you mind if I ask how much your Christmas tree from Disney Florist was? Also, was it real or artificial? Thanks

 

[DISYachtC5]

Do you mind if I ask how much your Christmas tree from Disney Florist was? Also, was it real or artificial? Thanks

The Christmas tree cost $250, it's artificial and is about 4 feet tall. Originally we didn't want to buy it as we were going to bring a small tree and decorations from home and assemble it in the room. But when it came down to it, we decided it was too much work to bring it all from home (it meant yet another suitcase). So we opted for the Disney Florist one. We ordered it about a month in advance and they said that it would be ready and waiting at the hotel when we arrive. Once we were settled in our rooms, we called the front desk to have someone bring it up, and they even set it up for us in the rooms. On the tree there was a hidden pin and a hidden mickey (if you look closely on the tree between mickey's hand and the the gold ornament you can see the hidden mickey). The best part was that they would ship the tree home for us. So a few weeks after we returned home, it arrived fully assembled. There were a few broken ornaments, but they gladly sent replacements after we called. The tree's in our cellar right now and we plan on setting up this Christmas.

 

[Goofy'sFriend]

That is so neat.........thanks for sharing. I will look into doing this as well......kind of pricey, but it's really cute.

 

[DISYachtC5]

Episode 3: Day 2 (December 23)

We woke up fairly early as we wanted to get to Animal Kingdom before it even opened. Usually during our summer trips our parents arrange a stop at McDonald’s, but this time we passed on that. We arrived at Animal Kingdom way before it opened and we were one of the first cars to pull into a parking spot. We walked slowly towards the entrance of AK, enjoying the cool air (as it would have been freezing at home). Once we saw the tree everyone that had a camera seemed to stop and take pictures of it. There was also garland along the top of the AK welcome/entrance sign as you go into the park. Some of our family wondered away from the group as we like to say. They were headed towards the Rainforest Café. In all of our trips to Disney we had never eaten there or even walked through the gift shop. We walked around the gift shop in hopes of killing some time before the park opened, then somehow some of the older members of our travel party (i.e. the grandparents) decided that we should get some breakfast there. We put our name in and were seated almost immediately; the restaurant was almost completely empty except for a few other tables. We ordered our food and got up to walk around and see the atmosphere, there were gorillas and cheetahs wearing Santa hats. After we finished eating we walked out the back entrance of the Rainforest Café and were pleased to see that they have their own separate entrance to the park, with no line or wait! We walked right through and were into the park in no time.

Animal Kingdom tree & entrance

Rainforest Cafe animals

We walked right past everything in the beginning of the park and headed straight to Camp Minnie-Mickey, this was also a first for our family (usually we head to the Kilimanjaro Safaris), but this trip we wanted to get some pictures with the characters dressed in their Christmas best. Upon arriving in Camp Minnie-Mickey there still were not many people around and we walked around taking some pictures of the different decorations. There was also some live entertainment, there was a group singing different Christmas songs. We then got in line to see Mickey there was a short line but nothing that took longer then say five minutes. We had what seemed like a hundred pictures taken and then moved on to Minnie, Donald (we were a little disappointed with his Christmas outfit, it didn’t seem very Christmassy at all), and then finally Goofy. As we began walking back towards the rest of the park we were surprised to see that the crowd had not picked up much.

The singing group

Camp Minnie-Mickey decorations

We were not really sure of where to go from there seeing our normal AK routine had been changed. We decided as a group to head towards Dinoland. Along the way we saw signs for more characters. We decided to stop (this was odd for our family because we haven’t really done the whole character thing in a couple of years) and after walking down the extremely long path to get them we were greeted by another short line. Here we had our pictures taken with Pooh, Tigger, Eeyore, and Piglet all dressed in Christmas outfits. Unlike with the other characters these ones were all set up in a row so you only had to wait in one line and as you finished with one you went right on to the next one. We were pleased with this especially because we all remembered how it was back in the day when we were younger and it was almost a fight to either get a picture or autograph.

We then continued on our way to Dinoland where we walked right on to Dinosaur and the Primeval Whirl without any problems. In this area of the park they had rather tinselly decorations, but they were cool because they were different from any of the other decorations that we had seen up until this point. As we were sitting there waiting for Ally and Nick to finish playing some games we were able to see one of the performing groups that comes out (can’t remember what they were called), they did a few stunts that our grandfather found to be amusing.

Dinoland snowman

The performing group's golf cart

As soon as they were done we began the walk towards Africa. As we walked along the path, we decided to pass on everything in Asia (its one of those areas where during the summer 3 out of the 8 of us ride Kali River Rapids while the rest of us sit on a bench and wait. Seeing it was a little colder than it is during the summer no one really was all that interested in getting wet.) Lets just say as we turned the corner into Africa we sure found out where all the people were. The area was packed. We decided to pass on doing a fast pass for the safari and just waited in the standby line, it was about a 45 minute wait. That to us didn’t seem to take that long at all. We got on and began our safari we saw a lot more animals then we had seen in previous trips (probably because it was cooler out) which was cool. We were a little disappointed in our driver though; we tend to like the ones that are a little more crazy and wild. Then the ladies of the group decided that they wanted to poke around in some of the shops, as they headed back towards Discovery Island.

Some of the animals we saw on the safari

Some of the store decorations

During our summer trips we usually head to Pizzafari to get something for lunch where either half of us like the pizza and the other half like the hot Italian sandwich. For a few minutes we thought that we were going to pass on this stop, but we should have known better seeing our family has a hard time passing up an opportunity to eat. By this time it was a little after lunch time so we didn’t think that it would be that crowded anymore, but we still had a bit of a hard time finding a table that could seat all 8 of us. While eating we discussed what to do next. Seeing it was around 2 pm and we knew that the parade started at 3:45 pm which meant that if we would want a good seat we were going to have to start scoping it out when we left Pizzafari.

Continued in next post

 

[DISYachtC5]

Episode 3: Day 2 Continued..

Upon leaving Pizzafari half of the group decided to head back to the Yacht club to get a little rest seeing we still had quite the day ahead of us. We (Ally & Denise) and our mom and dad decided to stay for the parade, another first in many years. We walked around looking for a seat but came across Chip and Dale and decided to have our pictures taken with them. We then got a seat at a table right outside of the Island Mercantile and began the over hour wait for the parade, which was fine seeing we did some good people watching. What amazed us was that as the parade time grew closer and closer how rude other people get. I mean we had been sitting there at that point for over and hour and people wanted to come up and practically sit between your legs. At least we were not the only people that noticed this, the British family sitting next to us also had an issue with it. Again as the parade passed by we were amazed at the detail of everything, from what the characters and floats were decorated with right down to what they drivers were wearing, everything seemed to match. We did get quite a few chuckles with the floats that carried different families, at first we thought it would be cool to be one of those families, but then we saw how funny they looked wearing the hats that were provided to them and we decided that we would rather just watch the parade than be in it. Especially when we saw how boring it must be because one kid was picking his nose (literally). As each float came by we took some pictures.

Some pictures of the parade

As soon as the parade passed we began the trek out of AK, going on our usual route through the Oasis so we could walk over the little bridge and jump on it and make our mom mad (we do this every time and you would think by now she would just walk the regular way around, but she still follows). By this time we had to walk rather fast seeing it was already after 4pm and we had a 5:15pm dinner reservation at Primetime Café in MGM.

We had no problem getting to MGM, but the parking was definetly an issue. They directed us to one of the back parking areas and wanted to us to go all the way down to the end, but our dad decided otherwise because as we drove by each row we saw numerous empty parking spots. He finally decided to just drive over the cones and park. Even though we were in one of the back parking lots we had a great spot right at the end of one of the rows near where the tram picks up and drops you off. The 4 of us got on the tram and were at the entrance to MGM in no time.

MGM entrance

Once inside we made our way to the Primetime Café and met up with our grandparents, aunt and Nick who had already been there waiting for us. Our mom went and checked in at the restaurant and we had to wait about 15-20 minutes for our table to be ready. We were seated in corner booth that was a little cramped, but that was okay because the laughter began as soon as our waitress arrived (I believe her name was aunt Cindy) As we ordered our drinks she gave us each a rather funny and for some of us, fitting name. We all enjoyed what we ordered, except Nick, he seemed to have a bit of an issue eating his green beans and was forced to go and stand with his nose to the wall for all to see. The only thing that bothered us was that we asked two or three times for Aunt Cindy (waitress) to take a group picture of us all eating there and she seemed to keep ignoring us. Finally when she did, it turned out to be a very blurry picture. Also there was a rather amusing lady at the table next to ours. Throughout our meal and hers, she would not be quiet and it seemed like the entire restaurant could hear her conversations. After making some rather stupid and obnoxious comments, she said the one thing that our family repeated the rest of our trip, "eat until you feel like you're gonna puke" (she said that to her young son when he didn't want to finish his meal). It was hilarious.

As soon as we were done eating we (Ally, Denise and of course Nick) could not wait to see the Spectacle of Lights. As we rounded the corner we not only saw all of the lights, but also the huge crowd. We began taking pictures of everything. We made are way around to the Al’s Toy Barn area where they had a couple of characters out. We waited in line to have a group picture taken with Pluto. We have so many pictures from this part of our vacation it isn’t funny. We continued walking and noticed people walking around with what looked like lighted plastic mugs, we decided that we had to find where they were coming from. We noticed a lady selling them and let’s just say that $40 bucks and 4 cups later we had light up plastic mugs filled with gross hot chocolate too. We then proceeded down what seemed to be the main street and by then they had little snow flakes falling (you didn't want to catch them on your tongue though..they were soap suds). They had a couple of photopass opportunities set up that we took advantage of. Around this time we decided that it was really crowded and that we would come back another night to see what we missed.

Only some of our MGM pictures (a lot more to come..)

We got back to the YC, valeted our car and headed into the lobby, where they had hot apple cider and cookies. The cider was really hot and the cookies were not really anything to brag about. But like our father said what do you want for free! We headed up to our room and sat out on our balcony to watch Illuminations and then went quickly to sleep.

Next Episode: Day 3

 

[OhMari]

Enjoying your report and pictures. I am a person too that will wait over an hour for a parade. But I think people really don't realize that I have been sitting at this spot for over an hour and they come in and they just want you to move over for them. Unless you tell them, they have no clue, most just stumble on the parade and want a great viewing spot. Maybe WDW needs to make certain parts of the parade route like Fantasic only for people that get there an hour ahead and get your hand stamped or something. But I suppose that would start fights. I just wish something could be done with this situation.

 

[DISYachtC5]

Episode 4: Day 3 (December 24)

Again on this morning, we woke up early because we wanted to make it to EPCOT before the park opened. We left the room and walked to the International Gateway where we had to wait outside the turnstiles, they were not even letting people in yet. Ten minutes later we were able to go through the turnstiles and walk up the hill, to find that we could go no further until 9am. Finally after waiting about 15 minutes we were able to continue on our journey to Soarin just like everyone else it seemed. About half way there our mom and aunt decided that it would be a good idea if everyone gave Ally and Nick their tickets so they could go ahead and get fastpasses for Test Track while the rest of us continued towards Soarin. We arrived at the Land Pavilion rather quickly and just had to wait for Ally and Nick to meet us there. A few minutes later and we were standing in line for Soarin, even though the park had just opened it already had a 20 minute wait. This was our second time riding Soarin and we thought that maybe the first time we missed something because we didn’t really enjoy it or quite understand what all the fuss was about. Well we are sad to report that we still can not figure out what the fuss is about, plus it was hard to enjoy through our mom’s yelling because we guess at some point during the past year she has developed a fear of heights. We then started our walk towards Test Track because it was about time for us to use our fastpasses. Before we could make it there though the hunger bug had struck some of us and we stopped at the Electric Umbrella to get something small for breakfast. Those of us that finished quicker then the rest went over to Mousegear to look around. We then met up with everyone else again and went to ride Test Track. We walked right on with our fastpasses. All 8 of us really enjoy this ride.

Mousegear decorations

After Test Track we figured we would skip the rest of Future World and head towards the World Showcase so we could try and see the Holidays Around the World. Along the way we stopped to take a few pictures of the decorations.

Some of the decorations we saw

It was one of our goals to see each speaker in each country. Though from looking at the times schedule it seemed that it was going to be a little complicated. Seeing as each country has a specific time for their speakers and they don’t exactly go in any order they kind of skip around a little bit. (We thought it would have been better if you were able to start in one country and go all the way around and see each one.)

We started off on this adventure in Mexico where we went inside the pavilion and looked around, they had some banners on the outside and on the inside they had garland with brightly colored lights along the railings and lamp posts. Outside our Dad and Aunt purchased margaritas that no one really seemed to care for. Next we stopped in Norway, which we thought was very nicely decorated with almost a “woodsy” look. We walked right onto Maelstrom with out any wait. China, was up next and this was going to be the first country that we would be able to see a speaker, we saw the Monkey King. He was a little bit on the crazy and energetic side. He also made a point of picking on Denise for her slow photo taking skills, which the rest of the family got quite the kick out of. He was definitely a character he actually pulled someone out of the crowd and made them do this really funny/odd looking dance.

Mexico decorations (bad picture)

Norway decorations

The Monkey King

We then moved on to Germany. There really wasn’t Santa so to speak, instead they had two people that came out to speak about Germany’s Christmas traditions. Towards the end of their presentation they had a Nutcracker come out. As a family we decided that Germany was the best decorated country with Norway coming in close second.

Germany presentation

Germany decorations

Even the little village in Germany was decorated

We continued on our way to Italy where we had about a 20 minute wait until we were able to see La Befana. So we looked through all of the shops. This is where we (Ally & Denise) also decided to start a mask, from the KidCot Station. We know we are a little old, but we thought why not, especially after going on many trips and always seeing people carrying them around. We became very particular about the color of the pieces that were added; we strictly wanted to stick to a red and green theme. After Italy we split up and went on our separate ways for lunch. We continued through The American Adventure, Morocco, Japan and France taking in the sights, adding to our masks, while also being able to catch some of the speakers and getting pictures.

Italy decorations

La Befana