DizMe
Here we gooooo...
- Joined
- Jun 4, 2007
- Messages
- 9,417
Just got back from a trip with my sister for our traditional DLR holiday jaunt. We were there Dec 7-10th and had a BLAST!!! We laughed about how nice it was to be kids again, although skipping around sure isn't as comfortable as it once was 
Highlights:
GCH. We love this hotel. This year, we were put in the DVC area, which was new to us. We weren't in a villa but we were in that wing. It's a little farther away from the lobby and entrances, but it did have a fun view. Here is our 3rd floor room view:
They had a beautiful tree in the lobby and Santa was on one side of it. We had our picture taken with Santa, of course! There was also a huge (real) gingerbread house that took tons of ingredients to make and weighed something like 500 lbs. It had a fireplace that really looked like it was burning!
I had gotten an invitation to do a DVC tour that earned us a $50 gift card so we headed over to the DVC office after some shopping. Our guy was very nice and seemed to like us because he ran back at the end and brought us out 6 fast passes! We had also gotten a fast pass each as part of our AP hotel reservation so that gave us 8 FPs for our stay. Since we were right there, we decided to go to Trader Sam's and we had so much fun goofing around. My sister decided to join the tiki totem, which is one of those things that sounds like a great idea after a Tiki Tiki Tiki Tiki Tiki Rum or two:
We had a reservation at Jazz Kitchen and that was fantastic as usual! I love dining outdoors there and I'm not a big fan of the inside area because it's so loud. We had a wonderful table and our meal (we split the beef medallions) and dessert (shared the double chocolate bread pudding and still couldn't eat it all) were delicious. Finished the night at DCA as the Candlelight Processional was going on in DL.
The next morning, we had early entry to DCA and got a coffee at Fiddler, Fifer and Practical. As we were leaving, the CM outside told us to go get our candy cane wrist bands! I'd completely forgotten about that so we just lucked into it! We went over and rode Soarin' (no line) and came back at 9:30 to pick up our candy canes, which were still warm! They're beautiful and what a treat to watch them make them by hand.
Thanks to my AWESOME friend, we had lunch reservations at Club 33 so we headed over to DL. We were ushered upstairs and to our lovely table by a balcony window. It was so hard to decide what to order, but our waitress (my favorite!) told us in an aside that they still had some of the special Candlelight Processional dinner entree if we wanted that (it wasn't on the menu). Of course, I couldn't pass up the chance to try it and OMG!!!! It was amazing!!! It was some kind of short rib meal with a wine reduction sauce but not being a foodie, I couldn't tell you the details. I did, however, get a picture of what it looked like
We went with the 3-course rather than 4-course meal, which was a very good idea as it was a lot of food!! In addition to my entree, I had blue crab with cheesy artichoke stuff that you spread on crostini (is that the right word?) and a fabulous warm apple pie with white cheddar ice cream (a lot tastier than it sounds). My sister had a smoked chicken ravioli entree, 5-onion soup, and the same apple pie. All of it was exceptional although the crab stuff was too rich for me so I gave some of it to my sister.
Then, WOW!!! A darling group of carolers came in dressed in Dickens era outfits. They came to our table first and asked if we had any requests, so I said Good King Wenceslas and they immediately broke into 4-part harmony. Beautiful!! They went around the room, to each table, and that was a treat.
Right after that, we were visited by Mickey and Minnie in their holiday garb!
And if that wasn't enough, in walked Bob Gurr (Disney legend) with a friend! I had met him a few times and had a drink with him before, so I went over to say hello. We asked to have a picture with him and surprised him with this, which we had secretly planned ahead of time:
That got a lot of people laughing and we ended up feeling like the whole room was a party of friends. How fun is that???!!!
I bought this really pretty compact from the display case and my sister got some ears. I now wish I'd gotten some because we went over and had her name put on them later in Frontierland. I have a pair at home but I don't have my name on them as I thought you couldn't do that.
The next night we had reservations at Carthay Circle. We had a drink in the lounge first and then, as we had requested, we got a balcony seat! It was awesome!! We could see the parade below and then later, the lights of the Christmas tree across from us. This was our dining view:
The rest of the trip involved shopping, riding rides, and watching shows. I finally got to see the Beauty and the Beast show after missing it every other visit
On our last night, we had dessert by the fireplace in the Napa Rose lounge. If you've never tried their hot chocolate, OMG. You MUST. It's made from a premium chocolate bar and it includes 3 little pastries made for you right then in the kitchen. We had a tiny little raspberry pastry twist, a little cream-filled beignet, and an almond cookie.
Guess what? There weren't any Bads or Uglies!! It was a fun fun fun trip, and I can't wait to do it again next year!!
Highlights:
GCH. We love this hotel. This year, we were put in the DVC area, which was new to us. We weren't in a villa but we were in that wing. It's a little farther away from the lobby and entrances, but it did have a fun view. Here is our 3rd floor room view:
They had a beautiful tree in the lobby and Santa was on one side of it. We had our picture taken with Santa, of course! There was also a huge (real) gingerbread house that took tons of ingredients to make and weighed something like 500 lbs. It had a fireplace that really looked like it was burning!
I had gotten an invitation to do a DVC tour that earned us a $50 gift card so we headed over to the DVC office after some shopping. Our guy was very nice and seemed to like us because he ran back at the end and brought us out 6 fast passes! We had also gotten a fast pass each as part of our AP hotel reservation so that gave us 8 FPs for our stay. Since we were right there, we decided to go to Trader Sam's and we had so much fun goofing around. My sister decided to join the tiki totem, which is one of those things that sounds like a great idea after a Tiki Tiki Tiki Tiki Tiki Rum or two:
We had a reservation at Jazz Kitchen and that was fantastic as usual! I love dining outdoors there and I'm not a big fan of the inside area because it's so loud. We had a wonderful table and our meal (we split the beef medallions) and dessert (shared the double chocolate bread pudding and still couldn't eat it all) were delicious. Finished the night at DCA as the Candlelight Processional was going on in DL.
The next morning, we had early entry to DCA and got a coffee at Fiddler, Fifer and Practical. As we were leaving, the CM outside told us to go get our candy cane wrist bands! I'd completely forgotten about that so we just lucked into it! We went over and rode Soarin' (no line) and came back at 9:30 to pick up our candy canes, which were still warm! They're beautiful and what a treat to watch them make them by hand.
Thanks to my AWESOME friend, we had lunch reservations at Club 33 so we headed over to DL. We were ushered upstairs and to our lovely table by a balcony window. It was so hard to decide what to order, but our waitress (my favorite!) told us in an aside that they still had some of the special Candlelight Processional dinner entree if we wanted that (it wasn't on the menu). Of course, I couldn't pass up the chance to try it and OMG!!!! It was amazing!!! It was some kind of short rib meal with a wine reduction sauce but not being a foodie, I couldn't tell you the details. I did, however, get a picture of what it looked like
We went with the 3-course rather than 4-course meal, which was a very good idea as it was a lot of food!! In addition to my entree, I had blue crab with cheesy artichoke stuff that you spread on crostini (is that the right word?) and a fabulous warm apple pie with white cheddar ice cream (a lot tastier than it sounds). My sister had a smoked chicken ravioli entree, 5-onion soup, and the same apple pie. All of it was exceptional although the crab stuff was too rich for me so I gave some of it to my sister.
Then, WOW!!! A darling group of carolers came in dressed in Dickens era outfits. They came to our table first and asked if we had any requests, so I said Good King Wenceslas and they immediately broke into 4-part harmony. Beautiful!! They went around the room, to each table, and that was a treat.
Right after that, we were visited by Mickey and Minnie in their holiday garb!
And if that wasn't enough, in walked Bob Gurr (Disney legend) with a friend! I had met him a few times and had a drink with him before, so I went over to say hello. We asked to have a picture with him and surprised him with this, which we had secretly planned ahead of time:
That got a lot of people laughing and we ended up feeling like the whole room was a party of friends. How fun is that???!!!
I bought this really pretty compact from the display case and my sister got some ears. I now wish I'd gotten some because we went over and had her name put on them later in Frontierland. I have a pair at home but I don't have my name on them as I thought you couldn't do that.
The next night we had reservations at Carthay Circle. We had a drink in the lounge first and then, as we had requested, we got a balcony seat! It was awesome!! We could see the parade below and then later, the lights of the Christmas tree across from us. This was our dining view:
The rest of the trip involved shopping, riding rides, and watching shows. I finally got to see the Beauty and the Beast show after missing it every other visit
On our last night, we had dessert by the fireplace in the Napa Rose lounge. If you've never tried their hot chocolate, OMG. You MUST. It's made from a premium chocolate bar and it includes 3 little pastries made for you right then in the kitchen. We had a tiny little raspberry pastry twist, a little cream-filled beignet, and an almond cookie.
Guess what? There weren't any Bads or Uglies!! It was a fun fun fun trip, and I can't wait to do it again next year!!
Love the photo with Bob! What a cutie he is, and seems like such a sweet man. Sounds like you had a dream trip! And now, hot chocolate at Napa Rose is on my to do list! Thank you 
