WDW Christmas Week Four Kids No Lines No Whines No Worries

[TwinkleKS]

Okay, I may have fudged a little bit on the title … we did have a few whines, but who doesn’t with little kids. This is my first trip report … I hope you all enjoy it!

I’ll start with a little background information.
The Cast of Characters:
Me … Female … age: over 30 under 40 
DH … Male … age: older than me , married 14 years
The Big Guy … DH’s son, i.e. my stepson. Age: 18
The Twins … identical … female … age: 5
The Little Guy … age: 3

Previous Disney Trips:
Me: twice as a child
Me, DH, The Big Guy: 2002 - Animal Kingdom Lodge (my parents came as well)
Me & DH: 2006 - Off property - World Quest Resort
Me (6 months pregnant), DH, The Big Guy, three teenage cousins: 2010 - All Star Music - Never Again (on so many levels) deluxe dining plan
Me, DH, The Twins, The Little Guy: November 2012 - Contemporary Resort (my parents came as well) deluxe dining plan
Me, DH, The Twins, The Little Guy: May 2013 - Grand Floridian Club Level, dining plan
This Trip: All of us in a cabin at Fort Wilderness, deluxe dining plan

For this trip, and the previous two trips, we have booked through and used the services of Ramon with Theme Park Concierges. The website can be found here: http://themeparkconcierges.com/. Ramon is a lifesaver. He can book everything for you, takes care of all of the ADRs (if you would like), helps with the kids, arranges Fast Passes, helps arrange your day, and can provide little extras for you as well. As we progress through the days, you will see some of this.

So why WDW for Christmas and why Fort Wilderness?
I have always wanted to go somewhere for Christmas. We spend a ton of money on presents and our kids already have everything. I thought that making memories on a trip would be a better choice. I also feel like on a trip we spend more time together. All of us are there (even The Big Guy), we are together 24/7 for the duration of the trip. The original plan was to go to Aulani in Hawaii. I actually had the rooms booked over a year ago. However, as I started looking at airfare, I realized that prices doubled during the Christmas holidays and in order to get the shortest flight (a must with three little ones) at the right time, it was going to cost me close to $2000 per person for the airline tickets (once you figured in the cost of luggage, etc.). So for 6 of us it was close to $12,000 just to fly. Now I spend money … but, I’ve been to Hawaii. I decided it wasn’t worth the money on the tickets. I started looking at alternatives and decided that in this instance, WDW was fairly economical, we knew we would have fun, and the flights were relatively inexpensive.

Why Fort Wilderness? I had heard about how the RV sites are decorated for Christmas and that sounded like something that might make it feel more like Christmas for everyone … being able to see the lights, etc. The cabins sleep six people, so the size worked. I won’t do the value resorts after a bad trip in 2010. So that made the cabins fairly economical.

Stay tuned for Day 0 ... travel day / MVMCP

 

[TwinkleKS]

Day 0 - Friday, December 20th - Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party

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It takes a while for us to get anywhere. We actually left our house on Day -1 and drove four hours to the nearest airport of any size. We began our flight at around 10:15 and had one stop over in Chicago. Arrival time at Orlando: 4:30ish.

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The plan … DH & the four kids would ride the Magical Express (who wants to lug all of those bags through the airport) and I would pick up the rental car (we have some off property stuff planned for this trip and I don’t like riding the Disney buss all of the time).

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First issue … We ALWAYS go to the wrong side for the Magical Express. There needs to be a person hitting me on the head when I exit the airplane to get me to the right side  Other than that, no issues.

With the rental car (albeit with no luggage), I beat the Magical Express by about 45 minutes. Fort Wilderness was the last stop according to DH.
Because I have super good luck checking in … I did get the slowest cast member. The CM was super sweet, just playing it all by the book and explaining everything to me in detail, like how the Deluxe Dining Plan works, which restaurants I could eat at, etc. Stuff that I didn’t really need to hear because I’ve been to WDW twice in the last year, and I have Ramon to take care of it for me anyway  So the check-in process took about 45 minutes.
We rented a golf cart for the duration of our stay from WDW as well. I have read on here that some people rent them offsite, and have read mixed reviews. While renting through WDW may be more expensive, it was super easy. I checked in, signed the rental agreement, they walked me to where the carts were, showed me how to use the cart, and off we drove (or I should say DH drove, The Big Guy and I went in the rental van).
Next Issue … I got lost Fort Wilderness is a little confusing, especially if you don’t pay attention to directions and don’t pick up a map. But by the second day we had it all figured out.

We were in the 2700 loop. I have to admit I was a little sad, the lady in front of me checking in was upgraded to one of the two preferred cabins in the 100 loop and she didn’t even know why that was a bid deal. Alas, no upgrade for us

The cabins are not newly remodeled, the furniture is on the worn side, as DH said, they could use some dusting. But it worked really well for us. We were pleased. The bedroom had the bunk beds and a double bed. The Big Guy got the double bed and The Twins the bunk beds. The top one wasn’t too high, and it had a good rail on it, so no worries about falling out.
DH and I slept in the Murphy Bed that came out of the wall in the living room. It isn’t a King Sized bed, but it was adequate. We usually wear ourselves out at Disney and sleep pretty good. The Little Guy had a blow up toddler bed that we set on top of the couch and slid the couch up next to DH’s side of the bed. I am guessing this would work until maybe age 5 or 6. Not perfect, but The Twins and The Big Guy go to sleep fairly easily. The Little Guy is a pain to get to sleep. So for us, this arrangement word great.
If we were going to try to cook and eat at the cabins, I think we would have been cramped. We used the table space and the kitchen area to spread out our luggage. We kept the fridge (for bottled water) and the sink accessible.

Off to See Mickey
After quick trips to the bathroom, we were off to the Magic Kingdom. This was the last night of MVMCP and I had tickets bought in advanced. We took the golf cart down to the docks and boarded a boat to the Magic Kingdom. We pulled up right when the boat did, so no waiting.

Because we had been all day without a real meal, just snacks at the airport, I planned for supper at the last seating at Liberty Tree Tavern. Note: This is not a good way to get the most out of MVMCP. However, it allowed for us to eat and get our first feel of the Magic.

The Meal: Liberty Tree Tavern
As many of you know, this is a family style meal. It starts with a salad, then what they call the Patriot’s Platter with turkey breast, beef, pork, mashed potatoes, green beans, stuffing, and mac n cheese. For dessert they had a Christmas version of cake with ice cream on it and a gingerbread cookie.
We did ask for Ranch dressing instead of the vinaigrette that normally comes on the salad. I do not understand why Disney only serves fat free or low fat ranch dressing. I can’t stand the stuff. They are going to load me up with a ton of chocolate desserts, but won’t let me have my regular salad dressing.

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My overall take on Disney Dining: It is what it is Meaning you aren’t at a Michelin starred restaurant. You aren’t getting that kind of food (even if you feel you may be paying for it, lol). Some of the places are better than others. Some you go to because of the kids, the characters, the atmosphere. So if I say something is good or even great, don’t think that it compares to eating at French Laundry, Jean Georges’, Jaleo, Alina, etc. It doesn’t. For most of the places I judge it based on Applebee’s, TGI Friday’s, Red Lobster, etc. the major chain restaurants. Yes, I know Disney costs more, but as I said earlier, it is what it is

With that being said, Liberty Tree Tavern was good. The Big Guy and I really liked the gravy for some reason. The CM brought us extra gingerbread men at the end so each of the kids could have one. The menu can be a little iffy for smaller children. Mine liked the salad and ate the rolls. They don’t normally eat a lot of meat, so that didn’t work real well for them. For some reason only The Little Guy eats mashed potatoes. And it usually takes them a day or two to get used to the fact that Disney mac n cheese doesn’t look like mine (in other words it doesn’t come out of a box with powdered cheese, lol). The kids are hung up on the size of the macaroni noodles.

Back to the Magic
This was our second time at MVMCP, having gone in November 2012. We love it. If you want to watch the parade, especially on Main Street, it is crazy. If you want to walk on and off rides over and over again, it is wonderful.

We were actually eating during the first parade, so we didn’t watch it. Upon exiting Liberty Tree Tavern, we were able to walk on to Pirates of the Caribbean, the Jungle Cruise, and the Magic Carpets of Aladdin (which we rode twice). There was NO wait for any of these rides. We experienced the same thing the previous year with the rides in Tomorrowland.

Our only limitation to what we rode was the fact that the little ones were getting tired. Supper was a little on the slow side, we had been up since around 6:00 AM, no naps, it was approaching 10:00 PM. So the decision was made to head back to Fort Wilderness. If it had been DH, me, and The Big Guy, we probably could have ridden every ride in the Magic Kingdom at least once before in a couple of hours.

And now for some Ramon magic: While we were enjoying MVMCP, Ramon and his elves went to our cabin and set up a Christmas tree, complete with decorations. Some of the decorations were very cute homemade ones with our names and pictures on them. The tree was one less thing we had to pack, and one more thing that made it even more like Christmas.

 

[NoOrdinaryPrincess]

Aww. What a nice start to a TR.

 

[TwinkleKS]

The big event for today … a stop at the BBB for The Twins and The Little Guy, followed by lunch at CRT.

We went to BBB. The girls had wanted to be princesses from Frozen because they already have many of the other costumes. BBB was completely out of Anna costumes. So one twin was Elsa at the other was Cinderella. I know there are issues with BBB having the correct costume in the correct size and decided to take our chances. The girls were not completely heartbroken and it really was not a big deal. If you have kids that will be devastated if they are not in a certain costume, I would say buy it ahead of time so you don’t have to worry.

The Little Guy was on the cranky side (hadn’t had much breakfast) and was having none of the Prince Charming package. The fairy godmothers in training said we had until the last twin was completed to have his hair spiked. We decided it wasn’t really that big of a deal, so we let him have the sword and the shield (which is all they charged us for). The real fairy godmother visited BBB while we were there and the twins had their pictures taken with her. One of the girls got upset (I think she was poked by a bobby pin) and they took her hair completely out for her and offered to restyle it in another style. We opted to brush it out. BBB only charged us for the cost of the costume even though they had spent a lot of time on her hair. We have done BBB before and were not upset on the lack of hairdo … we do it for the girls not ourselves.

As we were getting made up at BBB, Ramon went and picked up our autograph book (I had made one for the last trip and decided that this trip I wanted the princess one that held the 4x6 pictures in it). So we had the book ready for our trip to CRT.

Cinderella’s Royal Table
We were one of the first families in for lunch. As a party of six, we received two pictures with Cinderella. The Twins were in one picture, and The Big Guy in the other one. Then up we proceeded to the Royal Table.
This was our second trip to CRT. I have hear that they have a different chef from the last time we dined there (when the CM told us not to eat certain dishes). The little kids had fruit while the rest of us munched on the Chef’s Tasting Plate. There was a small spinach salad, some hummus, and a few slices of cheese. It was a decent tasting appetizer, however, I’m not sure if it was really big enough for three adults to share. If you were big eaters and / or hungry, you probably would want more of the items you enjoyed.

My little kids are really not big eaters, so I order something, they may or may not eat it, and we move on. I like that Disney is offering “healthier” choices. However, I wish at times that they would offer more of the non healthy “normal” food instead of trying to fancy it up. In other words, gives us a regular old chicken nugget with French fries option, or mac n cheese without throwing whole wheat noodles into the mix. But that’s just me.

I ordered the gnocchi with roasted vegetables for lunch. The actual gnocchi was pretty tasty. The Big Guy claimed his portion had too many veggies and not enough gnocchi, but I didn’t find that to be an issue with mine. Overall it was a successful dish (on the Disney Dining scale).

For dessert I had the dessert that was shaped like a clock. I can’t for the life of me remember what it was called. It tasted good though  The kids ordered one thing and then saw the trio of ice cream cones come out and changed their minds. The CM promptly brought them the new dessert.

The highlight of our meal was watching our first marriage proposal of the trip. It was very sweet and the bride to be was completely surprised.

On to the Rides …
We didn’t ride anything until after BBB, lunch at CRT, and the BBB pictures. I am guessing it was probably after 1:30 before we got started. Even with that late start time, with Ramon’s expert guidance from place to place an the use of FP+ we were able to ride and / or see the following:

Splash Mountain - only one twin braved the ride. While we didn’t wait in line, this is when we began to notice the huge amount of people trying to go through the FP line with no FP. I have never noticed it as bad as it was this trip. I don’t know if people were confused on FP+, didn’t read the signs or what …

Afternoon Parade - we had front row seats and walked straight from Peter Pan’s flight to the parade. It worked out great! The little ones lounged in their strollers eating popsicles and watching the parade.

Peter Pan’s Flight

Enchanted Tales with Belle - The Big Guy was one of the soldiers, one twin was the Beast, and the other twin was Chip. The Little Guy was being cranky so DH took him to Gaston’s Tavern for a “beer”.

Under the Sea - Journey of The Little Mermaid

Prince Charming Regal Carrousel - The Twins love this carrousel. They beg to go on it over and over every trip. Luckily there is almost never a line for it.

The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh - yippee!! No line for Winnie the Pooh. This is one of the rides it seems that we always wait for.

Mad Tea Party - Another must do for The Twins. I made The Big Guy take them … the tea cups make me dizzy.

Walt Disney World Railroad - A great break for everyone and guaranteed to cheer up The Little Guy. He loves trains.

Tomorrowland Speedway - This is the first time we had driven the cars with the little kids. I forgot how tiny those cars are.

Tomorrowland Transit Authority PeopleMover - Another kid favorite and a good break for the rest of us.

Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin

Monsters, Inc. Laugh Room -We had a great show this time. None of the people in the audience were acting the way that you would expect them to. Mike was getting a little stumped.

Town Square Theater - Meeting Mickey Mouse - If you haven’t heard Mickey talk yet, this is a must do. He does a great job of interacting, picks up on birthday pins, etc.

And now for the final meal …

We use the Deluxe Dining plan because it is prepaid and it makes life easier on us. I don’t worry on the cost savings or anything like that. Normally I (or Ramon) schedule two table service meals a day. We eat snacks or stop at a quick service if we get hungry in between. We also go heavy on the character meals. The kids really enjoy meeting all of the characters and the meals are a great way to do it.

This was our third trip to Be Our Guest. We ate there during the soft opening for annual pass holders last November, and with a FP for lunch in May.
I had the potato leek soup, the pan seared salmon on leek fondue, and The Grey Stuff. The French Onion Soup is a BOG specialty and is very good, however, I prefer the creamier texture of the potato leek soup. The salmon was okay. Not the best, but edible. The Grey Stuff is very good, although I think that some of the cupcakes are actually better.

I ordered the kids pasta and marinara. This is one of the items that I wish was presented a little differently. My kids love spaghetti and marinara sauce, but put the marinara on elbow macaroni and they refuse to eat it. I did order the macaroni and sauce separate, which they were happy to do. That way the kids could eat it as mac n cheese (or buttered noodles) or they could have the marinara sauce. I also substituted the pomme frittes (French Fries) instead of the veggie.

Then it was time to meet the Beast. I had been watching and there were only a few people in line to meet him at a time, so that concept seems to be working out. From what I noticed the Beast didn’t seem to be interacting too much with people, but it could have been the end of a long night for him.

After supper we were off to the boats for our ride back to the Fort. When we returned we finished decorating the outside of our cabin. Thanks to Southwest and their two free bags per person policy, we had a 12 foot Santa & Snowman, Mike, Sulley, Mickey, and Minnie blow ups. As well as lights to string on the porch and on our golf cart. Next year we are bringing more golf cart decorations!

Limitations: We could have rolled out of bed quite a bit earlier and rode all of the rides we missed, or added more rides if we had forgone the BBB appointment. There were also hours at the end of the day we could have stayed for but chose not to. With this being our third trip in 13 months and knowing we are planning on returning, we didn’t feel the need to squeeze out every extra magic hour. The last trip we made all of the EMH was when we took the teenagers in 2010. Thanks again to Ramon for ushering us around and making sure that we made the most out of the time we had in the park.

 

[TwinkleKS]

This is when we decided we move slllloooooly on vacation. Normally, the kids are up at 5:45 and I drop them off on my way to work. Disney time we are running an hour or two later and for some reason it takes everyone two hours to get dressed … or so it seems.

So we arrived at Hollywood Studios in time for lunch at Hollywood & Vine. Our ADR was for 11:15. They were switching over to lunch and we didn’t get seated until 11:45. Normally, we wait a little while even with ADRs. However, this time there were no other people waiting. They were just totally emptying out and then switching over to lunch. This is the only buffet restaurant that we have eaten at where we have noticed them doing this. Truthfully, it was a little on the annoying side because we just wanted to grab a quick buffet bite and go ride rides.

We did have great character interaction as we were the only ones sitting in our section for at least 15 minutes. Which brings me to another point … I noticed a lot of empty tables this trip. Which I thought was odd for what is supposedly the busiest time of the year at WDW. I can only remember one or two meals where every table was actually full. Most of the time there were numerous empty tables.

The food is standard buffet fare. Nothing special, nothing bad. It’s fairly quick and easy, the kids saw Jake, Oso, Junie (Little Einsteins), and Handy Manny.

After lunch it was ride time. We rode / saw the following:
Star Tours - The Little Guy seemed to like this one. That or he liked the light saber Daddy bought him for riding it.

Face Painting - and so it begins. The Twins LOVE to have their faces painted. The last trip we made it until the last day without a painted face. This trip they were on the lookout for all of the face painting stops. Out of the faces we had painted this trip, the ones at Hollywood Studios (by Star Wars) turned out the best.

Character Meet n’ Greets - Sofia the First, Fro Zone & Mr. Incredible, Wreck it Ralph & Vanellope - Sofia was the only character we waited for, and even then it was maybe a ten minute wait (which we did right before Disney Junior Live). Sorcerer Mickey was also inside signing, but we passed him up as we had already met Mickey once this trip and knew we would see him at future character meals.

Voyage of The Little Mermaid - We walked in and sat in the front row. Note: you get wet in the front row. Not soaked or anything … but a nice little sprinkle.

Disney Junior Live - Another kid favorite. I enjoyed the updated characters with Sofia the First and Doc McStuffins.

Beauty and the Beast - Fourth row seats (thank you Ramon).

Rock n Roller Coaster - The Big Guy went with Ramon on this one. This was one of the only waits of the trip (approximately 20 minutes) in the single rider line. One of the benefits of having Ramon with us … if The Big Guy wants to ride on something that the rest of us don’t like, Ramon will go with him Or he is happy to wait with the little ones if we want to ride one that they aren’t big enough to ride. Plus, on the trips that The Big Guy hasn’t gone on, having Ramon allows for us to ride two, two and two on many of the rides, where every little person gets a big person.

The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror

The Great Movie Ride - always timed around nap time for The Little Guy

The Hollywood Brown Derby
We got the Fantasmic dinner package. I had enough table service credits, I didn’t want to wait for a seat to Fantasmic, I like the Brown Derby. We arrived at 4:15 … the reservation was for 3:30 (I think). They told us they didn’t know if they could get us out of there in time to get in line for Fantasmic. I know that they want to make absolutely sure you make it on time … but we knew what we wanted to eat and didn’t think we needed over two hours to eat dinner. So … did it take almost the entire time … Yes. We ordered all three courses as soon as we got there, but had to wait 15-20 minutes between each course. I know some groups of adults like this, it gives them time to talk, etc. However, we were there with three kids. We just wanted to eat. Also, this was another restaurant that we noticed did not have many people eating at it. Over half of the tables were empty. Yet when we left there were a lot of people waiting for a table. I’m not sure what the entire thought process is on this.

I had the potato and leek soup, cobb salad, and chocolate three ways. All three of which were good. Nothing great, in my opinion, but nice solid options. The Big Guy ordered the noodle bowl, said it was gross, and ate the other kid’s fish sticks that they didn’t eat. He said they were pretty tasty fish sticks.

Osborne Lights - We had everything timed perfectly where we walked out of the Brown Derby to the Osborne Lights right when they were getting ready to start. I was the only one in the group that could claim they had seen the lights on the Osborne house in Little Rock. I prefer the Disney version. The kids loved it. Warning, the street is a little crowded during the show.

Fantasmic - We headed straight from the lighting ceremony to the first seating of Fantasmic. We chose to sit out of the water zone and enjoyed the show. I could see where it could be a little intense for smaller children, but ours seemed to be okay with it.

At this time we made the choice to go on back to the cabin. We had a FP for Toy Story Mania that we chose not to use. The kids wanted to drive around and see the lights at the Fort and we were planning on leaving early for Universal the next morning.

Limitations: We could have arrived earlier and stayed later. We stood in no lines and pretty much did everything we wanted to do. In my opinion, thanks again to Ramon’s expert planning.

 

[OhMari]

Glad you enjoyed the cabins. We had them booked, but rescheduled to CSR.

I heard a few other people say, they noticed empty tables. Some felt there were not enough CM's working either. I have a hard time believing this, since you hear how college students try to get jobs there and other people need jobs. Or it could be that if you want to book an ADR you have to do it with a credit card and many people do not want to do this.

 

[TwinkleKS]

The cabins worked well for us, but I admit there are some places that are in a little bit better shape. But, there are also some resorts that I feel are even more worn than the cabins were.

I'm not sure what the deal was on the empty tables. I have never seen so many that were empty and I have gone at a lot slower times of the year than at Christmas. Maybe the credit card changes have something to do with it. I know that there were places like Chef Mickey's and CRT that were opening up the day before if you checked on the MDE app ...

 

[TwinkleKS]

Trail’s End
We started the day with an early breakfast at Trail’s End. I wanted to make use of our dining plan credits yet get to Universal fairly early, so we were there right around 7:30. Trail’s End has a very good breakfast buffet. Nothing fancy, but the food always seems fresher, hotter, cleaner than at many of the other Disney buffets. I’m sure it has something to do with the fact that Trail’s End is less crowded. The kids ate strawberrys and fruit loops. I had eggs, smoked corn beef hash, bacon (that was actually crisp), biscuits and gravy, and the french toast bread pudding (yummy).

The Drive

Then we were off to Universal. And the only real line of our trip. THE LINE TO THE PARKING LOT!! OMG!!! It took us an hour to get near the entrance. We decided to do valet parking after seeing there was a huge line to get into the parking lot and figured the cost would pay for itself. When we got up to turn into the valet parking, there was a man with a tiny sign turning people away saying that the lot was full. Why was this not posted sooner???? So then we had to turn around and get back in the line for regular parking. Overall it two us about 2 1/2 hours to get from the Fort and parked at Universal. Normally this takes 15-30 minutes tops. It was crazy.
Once we got in the parking garage there were a ton of spaces. Once we got in the park it didn’t seem unusually crowded. The parking situation was really the only line and it was a TOTAL mess.


We rode the following:
Ramon has a concierge pass for Universal. Universal has a program for tour guides. It is my understanding that they have to be registered with the state, pay an annual fee to Universal, take classes that Universal offers, etc. It looks different that their guest access pass and allows the tour guide / concierge to use the Express lane on every line one time per day for up to six guests. Yes, you can buy an Express pass at Universal, but I believe it was costing over $250 per person the day we were there. We didn’t pay any extra.

Caro-Seuss-el - yes, The Twins have a carousel obsession
The Cat in the Hat - The Big Guy had a birthday button on and they sang happy birthday to him over the loud speaker
One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish - you will get wet
Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey - No waiting in line …. Yippee!! Also my favorite ride … even if I did keep my eyes closed the entire time.

Three Broomsticks
We ate lunch at Three Broomsticks. While it looked like there was a huge line, Ramon assured us that looks were deceiving there. It took us about ten minutes from the beginning of the line to sitting down with our food. I ate the shepherd’s pie. It wasn’t too bad.

Camp Jurassic - We let the kids run around at Camp Jurassic for a while. There were a lot of people in the area at the time and I didn’t feel really good about letting them run too much, it was hard to see where everything was, there we a lot of older kids, and there was no real obvious controlled entrance / exit area.
The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man - I actually set this one out with a twin who was having a popcorn meltdown. She needed popcorn RIGHT NOW!
Face Painting - They did a pretty good job but it didn’t seem quite as good as the one job at Hollywood Studios.
Despicable Me Minion Mayhem - As a special treat from Ramon we were able to have a meet and greet and pictures taken with two of the minions and one of them escorted us to the line for the ride. The kids were shy at the time, but haven’t been able to quit talking about it since then.
Transformers: The Ride 3D - I like to be able to follow the story line of a ride. I know, I’m weird. There was a little too much going on with this ride. The Big Guy liked the ride better than Spider Man, but agreed that there was a lot going on.

Macy’s Parade - Nobody does a parade like Disney. The Macy’s parade seemed worn. The cast members weren’t smiling, it just was not magical.


Narcoossee’s
We made reservations for supper at Narcoosee in part to celebrate The Big Guy turning 18 earlier in the month. We had to wait a little while for our table, but we were placed at the perfect table for watching the evening fireworks at the Magic Kingdom. Cinderella’s castle was right in front of our table. In the end, we asked for our desserts to go and did not watch the fireworks from Narcoossee’s because the little ones were simply getting too tired and we didn’t want them to start complaining and ruin other people’s meals.

Narcoossee’s was also the site of our second marriage proposal. I have to admit, it was a little more subdued that the one at CRT and the CM did not seem as excited for the happy couple as they did at CRT. But the groom to be had ordered a beautiful cake for the occasion - so that was fun to see.

Now on to the food … I had the Maine Lobster Bisque, it was very good and the Two Pound Steamed Main Lobster. Truthfully, the lobster was a little on the chewy side, which happens with steamed lobsters. The Big Guy had a butter poached lobster tail with his filet and you could definitely tell the difference. I also had my lobster stuffed with the jumbo lump crab stuffing … I enjoyed the stuffing more than the lobster. I substituted and asked for the mashed potatoes as the side because they were raved about on the menu … well, that was a little disappointment, they were rather bland mashed potatoes.

As a special surprise, Ramon had arranged for us to have a custom made birthday cake waiting for us when we arrived back at our cabin. It was a yummy red velvet concoction.

Limitations: The drive to Universal definitely cut into our day - that was two hours of prime ride time we didn’t get to enjoy. The reservation at Narcoossee’s kept us from staying at Universal a little bit later as well. Being on the Dining Plan, we wanted to try to eat two meals a day on plan.

 

[wiigirl]

Following along!

 

[Jackiemarie21]

I am following along! We are considering the cabins for our July 2015 trip. I haven't seen very many TRs that include them so I am excited to find your TR! Loving everything so far.

 

[TwinkleKS]

I am following along! We are considering the cabins for our July 2015 trip. I haven't seen very many TRs that include them so I am excited to find your TR! Loving everything so far.

Thanks! We had a great time at the Fort. I was surprised at how much we liked it. Our previous stay was at GF and I didn't think it was that nice so I was afraid I wouldn't like the Fort. The stuff is definitely worn, but the atmosphere is so great. We really felt like we were at a home for Christmas versus in a hotel. It was nice not to worry about people hearing every noise the kids made.

 

[TwinkleKS]

We had previously decided that we would spend Christmas Day outside of the parks hanging out at Fort Wilderness.

Santa brought everyone one present and new billfold with spending money, which we found under our beautiful tree when we woke up on Christmas morning. He also left a big stocking full of candy.

The plan was to head to the Contemporary for one of the Church services, followed by brunch at Chef Mickey’s. We drove our golf cart down to the docks and hopped right on to a boat headed directly to the Contemporary. We arrived just in time for the 10:15 Catholic Mass. Full disclosure, we aren't Catholic, but mass was an hour later than the Protestant service :

The service was held in one of the large ballrooms of the Contemporary. It was refreshing to see that the ballroom was full. There were people in all modes of dress – from Sunday best to Disney best. It was a pretty traditional Christmas service with the Christmas story and traditional songs. The Priest was from the nearby Basilica and gave a wonderful homily. Everyone at Mass was very nice … all of the locals helping and all of the visitors. People were totally understanding of all of the kids with shushing parents (like us) and everyone felt welcome. You could tell that there were staunch Catholics there that could recite every response in their sleep as well as non-Catholics like us that just wanted a Church service on Christmas.

After Mass it was time for Chef Mickey’s.

Chef Mickey’s
We have eaten dinner at Chef Mickey’s on a previous visit. We thought it was okay. Standard Disney buffet fare, nothing special. I have to say that the Christmas Day brunch was much better than the previous visit – actually one of the better buffets this trip. The food was hot and fresh. The prime rib actually tasted and appeared to be prime rib, versus overcooked roast beef. The only negative was they didn’t have the ice cream machines on for dessert

The lady seating us got confused and put us in the wrong section so that we were out of rotation for all of the characters. We didn’t even ask (because we had many autographs by then anyway), but the server and handlers went out of their way to make sure we saw every character. When we were done eating, they took us to the side and brought over the two characters we missed because we were seated out of rotation.

Afternoon
We had previously decided that we would spend Christmas Day afternoon swimming in the pool … because not everyone can say they went swimming outside on Christmas Day! Luckily the weather cooperated. It was in the high 70’s, possibly even reached 80 and the sun came out at just the right time. We went to the pool at the meadows. They have a small kiddie area, but our three littlest were happier in the big pool. There were plenty of lifejackets so the twins were going everyplace. There were a lot of kids activities going on just outside of the pool, but the twins were loving the slide. The pool wasn’t too full, but there was a sweet boy about the girls age that was going down the slide and they became fast friends and went down it over and over that afternoon. In case you are wondering, the water was warm. And it was warm enough outside we were not freezing when we got out.

Before too long it was time to change and head to Mickey’s Backyard BBQ

Mickey’s Backyard BBQ
First things first … the arrival was a little weird. They had all of the characters line up at different spots along the “trail” on the way to where the BBQ is held. Some people got in line to meet the characters. As we were walking thru they told us not to wait in line to meet the characters, that we would have time to meet them all and they would go around to see us during the BBQ (which I knew from reading on here simply wasn’t true).

There is character interaction during the BBQ. Some of the characters dance, and some of them go to different areas where you can leave your seat and go stand in line to get an autograph. You probably could have seen every character if you wanted to (but you might not have been able to eat much, lol). It seemed a little unorganized. The characters were in their Christmas Carol outfits and Scrooge McDuck was present, which I believe is a rarity. It is my understanding that there were more characters than usual for the Christmas Day BBQ.

The band played country music. It was loud, but I like country music, so no issues there. There was also a man doing rope tricks, which most of the kids seemed to enjoy.

Because it was Christmas there was smoked turkey and pumpkin pie, which I don’t believe is on the normal menu. The food was okay. Nothing really great. The meat was rather dry. It was still a fun experience and I would probably do it again, but the food was nothing impressive. The Big Guy, The Little Guy and I were getting into the free ice cream freezer. It was full of Itzakadoozles and ice cream Mickey’s. I think we each ate a couple of those. They do serve beer (Bud Light and some dark larger I hadn’t heard of) and wine at the dinner. If you are concerned about this, I really didn’t see people go up for more than one or two drinks and it was definitely not a drunken atmosphere (we sat by the bar).

Trails End To Go
The Little Guy had fallen asleep right when we walked in and woke up halfway through the mealtime. Other than eating dessert, he was cranky from just waking up at didn’t eat much. When the BBQ was over, I suggested letting the kids play in the playground and ordering a To Go pizza from Trails End. The kids played for 15-20 minutes while we waited for the pizza. It was piping hot when we got it. We took it back to the cabin and the little kids gobbled it up. You would think they had never seen pepperoni pizza before. I snagged a couple of bites, and I must admit it was a good pizza (of course anything that doesn’t taste like Pizza Hut is usually good to me).

We finished up the day with another golf cart ride to look at the Christmas lights.

Grocery Delivery Service
I forgot to mention this earlier, but we had also had groceries delivered to our cabin from the Meadows Trading Post. We wanted some bottled water, milk, and a couple of snacks. This actually worked quite well and was not terribly overpriced for the few items we needed. We called one morning before we left and the order was in our room when we returned from the parks that day. They have a fairly limited selection, but if you really only need bottled water and milk for the kids, I’d use the service for ease.

 

[TX Momof2]

Thanks for the review!