We held the surprise, but can we bear the weather?

[jason4024]

I have been told that if I do a pre-trip report, I need to do the full trip report, so here goes...

Table of Contents
Chapter 1 - The Pre-Trip Info
Chapter 2 - A "Paperwork" Issue?
Chapter 3 - Soarin' and Test Track, really? -
Chapter 4 - Feeling Very American...
Chapter 5 - Leslie's Birthday
Chapter 6 - A Gift from Raul?!?
Chapter 7 - Dinner with the Big Cheese.
Chapter 8 - Breakfast in the Palace
Chapter 9 - Still Called Magic Music Days?
Chapter 10 - To Infinity and Beyond!
Chapter 11 - A Two Week Safari
Chapter 12 - A DisDads Meet?
Chapter 13 - Would I Get DD on Everest?
Chapter 14 - Is He Gonna Faint?
Chapter 15 - Our First MVMCP
Chapter 16 - MVMCP, Continued
Chapter 17 - Who Doesn't Love a Parade?
Chapter 18 - A Leisurely Day at Epcot
Chapter 19 - Our Last Day Already?
Chapter 20 - Down to a Few Hours
Chapter 21 - All Our New Experiences

 

[jason4024]

The Gilberts invaded Disney in December, perfect timing, right? Not so much. It was cold, which we knew was going to happen, but the wind chill is insane in the Southeast. We were there 12/9-12/16, had a few scheduled DisMeets, and few unscheduled ones, and met lots of interesting people along the way. We also got some very cool surprises along the way, but I guess you will need to stay tuned for those.

Our trip varied slightly since the initial planning stages, but doesn't everybodies. We ended up getting better rates to fly on Thursday, instead of Friday. So we added the day and we were on our way.

We were scheduled on a 1pm flight out of Philadelphia on 12/9, which turned into a 2pm flight after we had already boarded the plane. We were told there was a paperwork issue, that needed to be taken care of. Turns out, the "paperwork issue" was that a law enforcement agent, transporting a prisoner didn't have all the ducks in a row. I understand these things happen, and was kind of glad that it was someone with knowledge of laws. It was handled pretty quickly and painlessly. Well, it was painless for almost everyone, except for my DW, because she already had to be medicated to fly, and this wasn't helping the cause at all. All in all, we made it to MCO only 20 minutes later than our original arrival time.

We made our way on the fake monorail at the airport out to the Magical Express, and went right onto our bus. There was about a 15-20 minute wait, before we were on our way. Not long after that, we were arriving at Pop Century. I was greeted by Michael from Arkansas, and he gave me all the info I needed to get through our room-only stay for our first night. We then headed off to our preferred room in the back of the Baloo and Mowgli building, which we were able to keep for the next 7 nights.

After some discussion about dinner, we decided to head to DTD and have dinner at the Rainforest Cafe. We have eaten at the one in Atlantic City, but this was our first time at DTD. We walked up to the counter and were given about a 20 minute wait for our table. We spent the time looking through the gift shop and taking some photos.

The kids had some grilled cheese and my wife and I split mozzerella sticks and wings appetizers. We continued our night with some browsing the shops and a visit with Santa.

The last photo did receive some consideration for our Christmas card. We decided this would be the best time to head back to the resort for some sleep. Tomorrow we had a long day at Epcot ahead of us.

Stay tuned - Our first surprise of the trip is coming very early tomorrow morning...

 

[dvczerfs]

great start jason!!!thats why we drive, theres not enough medication in the world to get dw in a plane. man you guys looked cold. after the holidays, let me know when you get lunch and ill meet up with you day. looking forward to reading more.

 

[prattpak]

Did he mention the cold yet? Did I miss the part about the cold?

 

[jason4024]

great start jason!!!thats why we drive, theres not enough medication in the world to get dw in a plane. man you guys looked cold. after the holidays, let me know when you get lunch and ill meet up with you day. looking forward to reading more.

My wife got much worse with flying after a scare in Hawaii. Plane got a little sideways when we landed in Honolulu in 2000. These pictures dont show the cold yet, but those are definitely coming.

Did he mention the cold yet? Did I miss the part about the cold?

Mark, I think you guys were bundled up than us when we met. HAHA! That picture is coming soon...

 

[jason4024]

We woke up Friday morning with a full day of Epcot ahead of us. We hoped to ride Soarin' and Test Track, while seeintg some characters along the way. The kids woke up at their normal 6:45 with an alarm clock, so they were ready to go. We began discussing breakfast, when I made a phone call to the Dining Line. We were looking for something at/near Epcot on the DDP. After some discussion, we were able to get into 1900 Park Fare at 10:30 that morning. SURPRISE #1 This was huge news for my DW, because we had been trying to get in there since our 180+10 window opened up. This was also our chance to see the Grand Floridian in all its holdiay grandure. So we got ready for the day, and made our way to the bus stop. We were able to get on the first bus out at 8am to Epcot. The morning was a little chilly, but we were good wth just our hoodies. Here is a pic of the kids and I at the Epcot RD, for the first time.

We were able to follow the mad rush to Soarin'. I did score some FP's for later in the day and then we got into the standby line. We had about a 15 minute wait before we were soarin over California. My DD was excited when she saw the hidden Mickey in the fireworks. I asked her if she saw the one on the golf ball too, but she didnt. After Soarin, we had a few minutes before we could get more fastpasses, so we headed over to our clam mobiles to ride Nemo. We came out of Nemo and went right to Test Track. I was able to get us FP's to use after our breakfast. We then made our way out of Epcot for our breakfast with Mary Poppins and Alice. We took the monorail to the TTC and we actually got on the Tron:Legacy one first. Then we transferred over to get on the MK loop to the Grand Floridian. Once we arrived, we had about a 5 minute wait before we were ushered over for our picture. We decided against this picture, because my DS was in a little bit of meltdown mode, because he hadn't eaten yet. While at breakfast we met these fine characters...

After breakfast, we walked around the GF for a while. I stopped to take a few pictures of the gingerbread house.

And then we did a family picture in front of the Christmas tree, which ended up being our Christmas card for this year.

After that we headed back over to the TTC, to get back to Epcot.

We went right toward Test Track, for our first time. Before riding, we grabbed another set of FP's for later. This ride was completely awesome. The kids both loved it. I took some video of if on my HDFlip, but havent uploaded those to YouTube yet. Once I upload our videos, I will create an update with all of them. Here are a few pics from the FP queue.

After Test Track, we made our way over to the World Showcase via the boat to Morroco.

While on the boat, we saw the Belle and the Beast were meeting in France. We also met Marie as well.

Continued in the next post...

 

[Emma's Dad]

An extra day?!? Whoohoo!! I'm sure that took some arm pulling there
Looking forward to hearing more!

 

[jason4024]

After meeting a few characters, we made our way around the WS, and stopped to watch the show at the American Adventure. The fife and drum corp is amazing. To see DD stand and take part in the Pledge of Allegiance was very emotional. I also looked around the crowd and there were tears welling up all over during the National Anthem, when someone would catch glimpse of a veteran saluting our flag. It felt great to see this show.

After the show, we continued our way around the World, and saw the standby line for the CP, was probably 1000 people deep by 3:15 in the afternoon. It didn't hurt that Whoopi Goldberg was the narrator that night.

Here are a few more pics from our journey...

We also go to meet Duffy for the first time.

We then made our way back to Future World and used our second FP's for test Track and Soarin' and also rode the Land for the first time.

At this point, the kids were getting kind of tired, so we chose to head back to Pop for the night. Tonight we ended up having dinner at Everything pop, I had the Chicken Alfredo, DW had the veggie lasagna and the kids had nuggets. We ate back in our room, cause Pop was kind of busy. We had an early day at DHS on Saturday and there is another surprise coming tomorrow.

Stay tuned...

 

[FreezinRafiki]

This one ended up being our Christmas card! Well, not this specific one, but one with us in it.

It's too bad we were that close and yet so far to be able to meet up. Great start to the TR - love the photos and can't wait for more!

 

[Captain_Oblivious]

Hey Jason, just followed you over here from the Dads Club. Nice start!

How come this wasn't the Christmas card?

 

[jason4024]

Hey Jason, just followed you over here from the Dads Club. Nice start!

How come this wasn't the Christmas card?

I thought about doing this one as a card for the DisDads club. I guess I have some time rto get it out yet, tight?

This one ended up being our Christmas card! Well, not this specific one, but one with us in it.

It's too bad we were that close and yet so far to be able to meet up. Great start to the TR - love the photos and can't wait for more!

I am kinda glad my family isnt on your x-mas card, cause that would be wierd. HAHA. We will just have to meet up next time.

 

[reelmom]

Great start. Sorry it was so cold. I would rather brave the heat of summer than risk the chance of cold weather. I do not like the cold. Quick question for you. Do you like your HDFlip? I was looking for a small camera to take and was wondering about that one.

 

[BigTex71]

I also followed from the Dad's Club. Looking forwad to reading all about your great trip and the surprises that you are teasing about.

 

[jason4024]

Great start. Sorry it was so cold. I would rather brave the heat of summer than risk the chance of cold weather. I do not like the cold. Quick question for you. Do you like your HDFlip? I was looking for a small camera to take and was wondering about that one.

Thanks for reading. I LOVE my HD Flip. My stepmom bought it for us as an early christmas gift. It fits in my pocket, takes incredible video and was able to go from my pocket, to powered on, to recording in about 5 seconds. The only issue is the zoom is a digital zoom and not an optical. So the zoom is a little choppy. Just remember it does not do any stills, just video. You can pull stills from it, but not take individual shots.

I should have some videos up tomorrow that were taken with it. I will post them here, once they are up.

 

[lilpapsgirl]

Found your trip report and started reading. It looks like ya'll had a great time and I can't wait to read more. I am excited to hear all about your suprises. BTW, I love Pop Century! It's one of my top choices!!

 

[jason4024]

LESLIES' BIRTHDAY!!! I will keep her age a secret, even though she doesn't DIS. As she was told by TinkerBell, she is 6 in pixie years, by adding the numbers together. Today, we hit Hollywood Studios, to play some TSM. We were again on the first bus out of Pop Century. Got to DHS, about 730ish and waited to get through the entry. We were about 3rd or 4th row at the rope. At RD, we were part of the mad rush to get to TSM. I went to the FP line, while Leslie and the kids got into the standby line. I met up with them, just as they were heading inside the building. We waited about 20 minutes, before we were loading into the car.

This was the first time, that we let the kids ride together. I finished with a score of about 115,000 while Leslie has 142,000. I let her win, because it was her birthday. I am not sure what the kids had, but Kaylee was bragging about how she beat Kory. After our first ride, we decided to head over to the Art of Animation area. We met up with Handy Manny.

He was the only character meeting at this time, so we went back to the area around the hat, and caught up with Stitch

They had closed these lines, because the Disney Channel Rocks show was getting ready to begin. My kids are huge Disney Channel fans, so this was a must see for us. We took a few pics while waiting.

Then the show began. Kaylee and Kory even got up to dance with the performers. There is a full video of this show, but here are a few of the pics to hold you over.

Continuing on the next post with Sorcerer Mickey and another surprise...

 

[dvczerfs]

ok, i missed one day and 3 updates. great pics jason. good job on scoring park fare. you guys dont look to cold.

 

[Wherem I Now]

Hey, another DisDad TR!

This is definitely one of the faster moving TRs that I've seen and looks like fun so far. What a great surprise to get a Character Breakfast on the day of.

I have a sudden image of the cartoon opera singers from Bugs Bunny...

 

[jason4024]

When we left off, we were on our way into the Art of Animation building. We were there a little before 10 when Sorcerer Mickey was coming out. The kids colored for a while before getting in line.

Kaylee then saw someone come out of the animation class with their drawing. She immediately wanted to do it. Leslie and I thought it would be fun and since we have never done it before, we went for it.

After the class, Raul the animator, called Kaylee up after seeing her shirt, and gave us his rendering to give to her mommy. That was very thoughtful of him and we asked him to pose for a picture.

We then got in line to see Lotso, where it definitely smelled like strawberries.

We then made our way out to meet a few more characters and relax before the next Beauty and the Beast show.

Here are a few from the show, which surprisingly Kory loved!

We then headed out to the watch the Block Party Bash.

Next post - Chef Mickey's for Leslies' birthday dinner!

 

[reelmom]

I'm looking forward to your next update. We will be eating at Chef Mickey's for dinner for the first time in June.