Who Needs Turkey?-Our Thanksgiving Trip to WDW w/lots of pics!~Now complete

[experiment_627]

Who Needs Turkey? - Our Thanksgiving Trip to WDW & MVMCP

Here’s a link to my rambling pre-trip report, but just a quick refresher of the cast of characters on here:

Me - Candy (27): Planner and researcher extraordinaire. I love researching and planning just about anything (I tend to have OCD tendencies when it comes to such things), so what could be better than planning a return trip to WDW! I had visited MK with my family when I was 7 & 16, but truly fell in love with all things Disney when DH and I spent our honeymoon at WDW in 2005.

DH - Stephan (32): Always a Disney fan. Lived in Vegas until he was 18 and made many trips to Disneyland before venturing to WDW with his father in 1995. It was his idea to honeymoon at Disney, and I am not sure he knew what he was getting himself into! Thanks hunny!

My favorite part of reading other trip reports is the pictures, so forgive me if I get a little photo happy.

November 21st & 22nd – Getting Ready & Travel Day

We finished getting everything packed up and car loaded the evening of the 21st, so that we could get up and hit the road ASAP on Wednesday morning. We were in bed by 8 pm with the alarm set for 2 am. I thought I might have a hard time getting to sleep, but I managed to get a few hours in. I know I woke up around 11:30 and Stephan was lying on his back, hands under his head, wide awake. He said, “Do you think it is too early to leave?” It was really cute. He was still awake when I rolled over around 1:45, and we decided it was time!

Since we had gotten everything ready and showered the night before, we were pulling out of the driveway at 2:18 am. We had to make a quick stop at Walgreens for some cough drops for Stephan’s scratchy throat. Here is a picture of Super Pooh anxiously waiting for Stephan to make his purchase and get back on the road. (We took our Stitch on our last trip, so Stephan decided it was Pooh’s turn.)

Even being the day before Thanksgiving, the trip was fairly uneventful and there was hardly any traffic at all. We only stopped once to get gas and change drivers, so about 10.5 hours later, we finally came upon this wonderful sight :

We had a split reservation (due to plans changing several times) and had requested a king bed, but when we went to check in, we were informed that they had a room for us that we could likely stay in the entire time if would be willing to have double beds instead of a king. We readily agreed. We have a queen at home that we have to share at least a third of with our cat, so I figured we wouldn’t be missing any of that extra space anyway. The girl who checked us in was still earning her ears, and our reservation seemed to confuse her a bit, but she got it worked out fairly quickly, so it was ok. As we walked away, Stephan said that he just knew she was going to start looking for the register journal any minute.

Our plan was to get our stuff to the room, grab a bite at Everything Pop, and catch a little nap before getting ready to head to our ADR at ‘Ohana. Here are a few shots from our room.

I was SO excited when I looked in our window to find we had a towel friend!

Excellent shot Stephan got of the view from our room one evening:

continued.....

 

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While Stephan took the luggage cart back to the front, I called the front desk to see if the surprise I ordered for him from WDW florist had arrived. It had and someone would bring it right over. Yay!! He has been talking about getting some gold ears since our honeymoon, but I figured now that it is a year of a million dreams, he would prefer the most current ones. There were also some cookies and a photo album in there. I tried to take a picture of the card, but it never came out right. It said, “Love ya, mean it!”

Modeling the ears:

We unloaded our luggage, got our refillable mugs (11 days of blue raspberry freezes for me!!!!) ate lunch, came back to our room, got in our PJs, and lay down. I rolled over and looked at Stephan, and he said in his best little boy voice, “I’m too excited to sleep!” I bounced up and said, “Me too! Let’s decorate our window and door.”

Stephan thought I was nuts wanting to bring stuff to decorate, but he quickly realized that I was not alone. I thought our window turned out quite well.

I also put a scrapbook page out for people to sign along with my LGMH. I forgot to take a picture when we put it up, but it was pretty full by the time we left thanks to other DISers and Pop staff.

We had some time to kill before heading over to the Poly, so we wandered around Pop taking in the sights and just generally being thrilled to be there. I kept saying all evening, “I can’t believe we are finally here!” It was great! I LOVE the Mr. & Mrs. Potato Heads!

Note the LGMH on Stephan’s bag. I wore one on mine the entire time too. What a good hubby!!

 

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We hoped a bus to MK and took the monorail over to the Poly. It is one of my favorite resorts. We hope to get to stay there one day. We had plenty of time to wander around and take some pictures.

We ran into a very nice and fun CM in the gift shop. She and Stephan kept trying to walk the same way while trying to get out of each other’s path (know what I mean?), and he said, “Fine. I was just trying to dance with you.” So, she grabbed him and they started dancing. It was really cute.

Finally, it was close enough to our ADR time to check in. We scored a couple of chairs in Tambu Lounge and had a drink while waiting on our table. Our buzzer went off around 8:30, and the gentleman who seated us informed us that we would have a window seat for Wishes. Sure enough, we were seating directly across from the castle. I couldn’t believe it. It was just the extra bit of pixie dust needed to start our trip off perfectly!

I plan on doing a dining report, so I won’t go into the food here, but OMG was it good! Just about dessert time, the lights dimmed and Wishes began. It was SO much fun! After we finished stuffing ourselves, we headed back to Pop and requested a Mickey/Stitch wake up call for 5:30 am.

Next up – Day 2: Giving Thanks at MK, DTD, and Pleasure Island

 

[Patio]

Great start to your trip. You guys are sooo cute, can't wait to see and read more.

 

[diseve]

Great report. Can't wait for more.

 

[mlill]

Awesome start of your TR! Putting a scrapbook page on the hotel room door is a GREAT idea! I've never decorated my door before, but I just might have to this time! Can't wait to read more!

Happy Holidays!
-Michelle

 

[redheaded mama]

I'm enjoying your report. We loved our Thanksgiving at WDW. We had such a great week. I'm loving reliving my trip through yours.

I'm waiting for more.

 

[jo28501]

You mean I can get the frozen raspberry drink in my refillable mug at Pop? I thought it was just soda and hot drinks?

I've never stayed on site but 5 weeks today I'll be checking into Pop

 

[experiment_627]

Great start to your trip. You guys are sooo cute, can't wait to see and read more.

Great report. Can't wait for more.

Awww, thanks!! I hope to get more written today!

Awesome start of your TR! Putting a scrapbook page on the hotel room door is a GREAT idea! I've never decorated my door before, but I just might have to this time! Can't wait to read more!

We really enjoyed coming back to the room each evening and seeing if we had any new signatures. I hope you have as much fun with it as we did! I'll definitely do it again next time!

 

[experiment_627]

I'm enjoying your report. We loved our Thanksgiving at WDW. We had such a great week. I'm loving reliving my trip through yours.

I'm waiting for more.

Isn't it a great time of year to go?? It was the perfect thing to get me in the holiday spirit!!

 

[experiment_627]

You mean I can get the frozen raspberry drink in my refillable mug at Pop? I thought it was just soda and hot drinks?

I've never stayed on site but 5 weeks today I'll be checking into Pop

I certainly hope frozen cokes/raspberry drinks are allowed because that is the only thing I got the entire time we were there. I'm really gonna if not.

We loved Pop! It was our first on site visit as well. I hope your stay is as magical as ours was!!

 

[OhMari]

We really enjoyed coming back to the room each evening and seeing if we had any new signatures. I hope you have as much fun with it as we did! I'll definitely do it again next time!

Did you want Dis'ers to sign your Mickey Head Christmas tree, or did you make something else?

That tree was really neat, have any idea's for Easter that I could make out of Mickey Heads?

 

[experiment_627]

Did you want Dis'ers to sign your Mickey Head Christmas tree, or did you make something else?

That tree was really neat, have any idea's for Easter that I could make out of Mickey Heads?

The tree was inside in our room window, but I put a scrapbook page on the door for people to sign.

Hmmm, I'm not sure about Easter unless you got pastels and made an egg or something like that. You could do white for a bunny or yellow and orange for a chick. I am not usually very creative, so I am not sure what made me think of the tree unless I read it somewhere on here (which I don't recall doing but is entirely possible!)

It was really fun, so enjoy whatever you come up with!

 

[serendipity]

I love it so far! You guys make such a nice couple. The rooms in the POP look really nice, we were considering staying there for our next trip! Anxiously awaiting more........

 

[experiment_627]

I love it so far! You guys make such a nice couple. The rooms in the POP look really nice, we were considering staying there for our next trip! Anxiously awaiting more........

Thanks!!!

We really liked POP.

Stay tuned...an update is coming tonight I hope!

Thanks for reading!!

 

[experiment_627]

Day 2: Giving Thanks at MK, DTD, and Pleasure Island

Stephan and I were both awake at least 15 minutes before our wake up call at 5:30. We were both super excited for our first day in the parks! Being Turkey Day, we knew that MK was going to be packed, but for some reason we both feel that we must begin and end our trip there, so our plan was to go for a couple hours and then figure out the rest of the day from there.

We waited on the call since neither of us had ever heard it. When it rang, he hit speaker phone, but it cut off after Stitch’s, “Goooood morning!!” We never could get the entire thing to work on speaker, but we both listened to it at least once during our stay. As you might have guessed by my screen name, we like Stitch, but I can certainly see how that could grate on your nerves first thing in the morning.

It takes me at least twice as long to get ready as it does Stephan, so he was looking forward to take a walk around the resort with his coffee each morning while I was getting ready, or as we refer to it, his “Zen moment”. I told him when we checked in that his job was to make sure I got my blue raspberry freezie each morning. I get out of the shower that first morning, and he is already gone, but my mug is still in the room. *sigh* Day 1, and he had already slacked off on his job. Turns out the freezie machine wasn’t working that morning anyway, so I couldn’t rib him about it too much. And he remembered me every other morning, so I can’t complain.

We had some friends that he really enjoyed each morning:

It was EMH at MK, so we hopped a bus over there and waited on the park to open. I just love the countdown and tossing of “pixie dust”! And I’ll admit once we started moving toward Main St. I got a huge lump in my throat and tears in my eyes when I saw this:

I am a total sap when I comes to Disney, I know.

Our first stop was at the bakery for some French Toast Loaf. Yummo! We made our way to Tomorrowland and by 8:30 the wait for Space Mountain was posted as 45 minutes, and the FastPass return was sometime after 11:30. Since we didn’t plan to be in the park that long, we decided to skip SM until later. We did Stitch, and hit Carousel of Progress. Stephan loves CoP! I think it is really cute, but he doesn’t feel like he has arrived until he has seen it. We sang along which I sure thrilled the other two families on board, but it was fun. He taunts me with that song at home because he knows that once I hear it, I’ll be singing it for at least three days, so it was great to actually hear it in person again. I actually have the entire ride on my desktop at home, and I’ll listen to it from time to time when I am in a bad mood. (See Disney sap comment above.)

We got our PhotoPass started on our way out of Tomorrowland. I knew it was there, but it still disappoints me to see the crane in our pictures.

Continued.....

 

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When we were on our honeymoon, It’s a Small World was closed for renovation, so we were looking forward to seeing what it is like now. We wandered over to Fantasyland and walked on. I don’t think I had been on IASW since I was 7, and I really enjoyed it. It was a lot brighter and glitterier than I remember for sure. Plus, that helped drive “There’s a Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow” out of my head a little bit.

There was no wait for Philharmagic, so we went to see it. I LOVE it! It is my favorite show type attraction at any of the parks. When I hear any of those songs, I can picture just where Donald is during each of them, and I wish I could smell that pie during “Be Our Guest”.

By then, it was a little past 11 o’clock, and it was getting really crowded, so we decided to go look at a couple resorts. We wanted to see the Christmas decorations at as many of them as we possibly could. We took the first bus that was there when we exited MK which was Old Key West. Their decorations weren’t all that exciting (or at least the ones we saw), but this was kinda neat:

We had just missed the Ferry, so we hopped the first bus to a park that came by which happened to be MGM. Once we got there, we decided we were hungry and took the boat over the Yacht & Beach Club to have lunch at Beaches and Cream. It seems like we spent a lot of time bus/boat riding now that I am typing this, but we had fun just kinda hanging out and flying by the seat of our pants that day.

We checked out the Yacht Club before eating lunch:

After having a sundae as big as my head (Milky Way) and Stephan finishing a banana split, we went over to the Beach Club to check out the carousel we have heard so much about.

We decided to head back to Pop to freshen up before our 5:45 ADR at Planet Hollywood. When we got to the room, Pooh had a new friend:

We walked around and took some shots of the Pop icons for awhile before catching a bus to DTD. This is my personal favorite:

We still had plenty of time before dinner, so we got off at the Marketplace and browsed through the shops. Some kind man saw me taking a picture of Stephan and offered to take one of the both of us with some of the holiday decorations. I thought we might use this one for our Christmas cards, but the sun was not cooperating.

There was a cross stitch kit (Cinderella Castle) I had been wanting, so we stopped at World of Disney (we had already been to the art store, but missed them there). I had been desperately trying to get my current project done, so I could start my new one as soon as we got home. I was saddened to learn that it has been discontinued. None of the current ones jumped out and grabbed me, so hopefully I’ll find something I like once some YOAMD ones come out. I now know I need to call and order these things rather than waiting until we return!

We checked in at Planet Hollywood and looked around at some of the memorabilia. Stephan has never been there, and we don’t have one anywhere near us, so he wanted to check it out. We sat on the second level, against the railing, directly across from the screen that shows movie clips and such. About halfway through the meal, Stephan started chuckling and leaned in to tell me that he was just about to ask the lady at the table next to us what she was staring at when he realized that she had been staring at the screen the entire time. I guess you had to be there, but it was really funny.

After dinner, we decided to check the Adventurers Club:

I’ll be the first to admit that I wasn’t too enthused about going from the descriptions I had read and what Stephan had told, but it was AWESOME! We were there when it opened at seven and had planned to stay a little while and then maybe check out some of the other clubs in PI, but we finally had to make ourselves leave a little after 10:30 because we were starting to get really tired. I swear my face hurt from laughing and smiling so much. If you like funny stuff, it is a definite not to be missed! I wish I had taken pictures, but I was having so much fun that I didn’t even think about it.

We took the bus back to Pop, had a piece of tie-dye cheesecake, and fell into bed around 11:30.

Next up: Breakfast at Park Faire, DisneyQuest, and a DIS encounter

 

[disndatworld]

Subscribing

 

[experiment_627]

I'm sorry it is taking me so long to post an update. I had my family Christmas party this weekend, and I am busy at work preparing to be off for 5 days. Yay!

I hope to get at least one more day finished before going out of town this weekend.

 

[experiment_627]

Day 3: Breakfast at Park Faire, DisneyQuest, and a DIS encounter
Mickey and Stitch woke us up at 6:30, we were ready and out the door by 7:30. We let Pooh be the keeper of our Mousekeeping envelopes, and this is what they were greeted with that day.

We headed to the Grand Floridian for breakfast at 1900 Park Fare. We had never been inside, and I must say, it is just as breathtaking as it is on the outside. We had a great breakfast and the character interaction was some of the best of the trip.

The Mad Hatter called Tigger over to show him Stephan’s shirt which has, “Please stand clear of the doors” on the front and “Por favor mantenganse alejado de las puertas” on the back. The CM got a kick out of it everywhere we went. In fact one PhotoPass photographer wanted a picture of it (this was later in the trip):

After breakfast, we wandered around hotel trying to take in all the sights.

The infamous gingerbread house:

Other decorations:

After we had our fill at the Grand Floridian, we went to Caribbean Beach Resort to check out their decorations. There wasn’t much to see there as far as Christmas stuff goes, but Stephan loved the tree because of the crab which gave him an excuse to talk around saying, “I pinch.”

We really thought this looked like a fun resort and one we might try to stay at someday. We played around in the gift shop for a little while.