Winter Wonderland in Sunny Orlando Dec 2009 PTR~NEW 12/18 We're Back! TR Link Posted!

It's funny that you mention that St. Pete show in '05. I was living in Florida at the time, and had tickets for both the Orlando and St. Pete shows. I would have been there, too if it weren't for stupid Hurricane Wilma.

I met them at a M&G at a music store back in 2000. It was a quick signing at a table sort of thing, but at least I can say I've done it. :thumbsup2

I'm not actually going to be at the parks full time. I'll be down in Florida for about ten days total, starting with Thanksgiving in Lakeland with family, and that's where we'll be for most of our time. We're spending a few days in Miami, and taking a day or two to come over for the Christmas party and Ice at Gaylord Palms before we leave on 12/5.

Even though we won't cross paths, have fun at the Christmas party! :santa:
 
Wednesday December 9th will be DAY 6! Another Universal Studios day. We'll probably use this day to tackle Islands of Adventure, my favorite! Must-dos are the Incredible Hulk Coaster, Dueling Dragons, and Jurassic Park River Adventure. We'll grab lunch in the parks, and maybe head to Universal Studios in the afternoon since IOA doesn't seem to take as much time. Definitely need to be there in time for the Macy's Holiday Parade at 5 pm. Excited for that!

After the parks, we'll head to The Melting Pot for dinner at 7:00 pm. I'm already thinking about what I want to order! Last time, DH and I shared a salad, entree, and dessert course for a set price. We liked most of it, but some of the meat wasn't our favorite. So I think this time, we're going to skip the salad, go for a individual entree, and share a dessert course. Very much looking forward to the s'mores chocolate fondue for dessert!!

DAY 7 will be Thursday December 10th at Animal Kingdom! The goal is to make it for rope drop and hit Expedition Everest immediately. My favorite Disney coaster, by far! Other must-dos are Kilimanjaro Safari, and the nature trails. I'm sure I'll get dragged onto Dinosaur, even though it terrifies me...it always makes for a pretty funny picture, if nothing else.

Ideally, I'd like to be able to stay and see the Jingle Jungle Parade at 3:45, but it may not be feasible since our evening plans are to hop to DHS for Fantasmic at 6:30. This is top priority for my mom, not so much for me and DH. I'm still not sure if we're even going to go to the show or just wander around DHS until it's over. But when it's over, we'll be cruising the Streets of America to take in the Osbourne Lights!

:woohoo: 9 DAYS LEFT!! :woohoo:
 
Oh man, single digit dance!

I am a bit jealous of you going to Uni and IOA...someday!

We love Melting Pot...they built one here in Buffalo, but we have yet to go. Sometime soon I think.
 
Oh man, single digit dance!

I am a bit jealous of you going to Uni and IOA...someday!

We love Melting Pot...they built one here in Buffalo, but we have yet to go. Sometime soon I think.

:dance3:

I posted that as my facebook status, and didn't realize how much it really needs a dancing banana to get the point across! :banana:

Someday you'll make it to US/IOA, and probably by that time they'll have even cooler stuff than they do now! I have to say though, I really miss King Kong!!

The closest Melting Pot is in Baton Rouge, which is only about an hour away from us, but we rarely feel like driving an hour each way for dinner. We lucked out finding one that was literally on the way to our resort from Universal.
 

Wow!! You've planned it all out! :thumbsup2 Your plans look great! I'm really anxious for your US day--Michael and I want to go there next time! I can't believe you're leaving SOOOO soon!!! :dance3::yay::woohoo:
 
Wow!! You've planned it all out! :thumbsup2 Your plans look great! I'm really anxious for your US day--Michael and I want to go there next time! I can't believe you're leaving SOOOO soon!!! :dance3::yay::woohoo:

Thanks!

I don't think we could ever do Disney and NOT do Universal, with DH being as big of a fan as he is. If you do go next time & have the money, spend a couple days at one of their resorts. Not only are they beautiful (we have stayed at both Hard Rock and Royal Pacific), but you can't beat the 5 minute walk to the parks and using your room key as your express pass for almost every single attraction! I'm just sad we are missing out on Wizarding World of Harry Potter by a few months. :sad1: All the more reason to go again soon!

I can't believe I'm leaving so soon either!! :yay:
 
So close!! :yay:

I think our first 2 days are the same! :laughing:

The last time I went to Universal was when Simpson ride opened. Went on it 3 times, it was great! I would put it in the TR; it was part of your experience, still magical.

I'm not Catholic anymore, but I heard about Mary, Queen of Universe Church and how stunning it was. Anywhere, I go, I usually visit a church. So much beauty there. Of course, having seen the Vatican, it may take alot to top that one. :lmao:

Cool on the Mears & rental booking - sounds like great deals. :goodvibes
 
So close!! :yay:

I think our first 2 days are the same! :laughing:

The last time I went to Universal was when Simpson ride opened. Went on it 3 times, it was great! I would put it in the TR; it was part of your experience, still magical.

I'm not Catholic anymore, but I heard about Mary, Queen of Universe Church and how stunning it was. Anywhere, I go, I usually visit a church. So much beauty there. Of course, having seen the Vatican, it may take alot to top that one. :lmao:

Cool on the Mears & rental booking - sounds like great deals. :goodvibes

I would LOVE to see the Vatican! I have been wanting to visit Italy for such a long time now. I love all the history, the art, the architecture...Jealous!!

We have gotten lucky in our deals so far, and haven't had to pay full price for most things, which is good considering how quickly this vacation is adding up!
 
DAY 8 will be Friday December 11th, which also happens to be the last day we'll be spending with our parents. It is also the morning we'll have to check out of our 3 bedroom suite at Bonnet Creek and move to a 1 bedroom.

Up first is an early breakfast at Chef Mickey's! I'm very excited about this, as it will be my first ever character meal. Originally, I wanted this breakfast to get a picture with Mickey without having to wait in line. But when I realized he will be dressed up for the Christmas party, in his Christmas sweater at AK, and available (maybe) for the Visa Meet & Greet, it more became about the character breakfast since it looks like I'll be standing in line for Mickey several times on this vacation!

After breakfast, we'll hopefully take the monorail to the MK (if we are moving early enough in the morning to park at TTC instead of at the Contemporary). We'll spend the morning there doing anything we want. But since it's a night with MVMCP, we probably won't stay past early afternoon. After that, we are leaving it up to our parents where they want to go since it's their last day. But they are thinking they may want to start driving early that evening and possibly stop overnight before getting back home Saturday morning. If they decide to call it quits early, DH and I will likely head to whatever park we are in the mood for. We may possibly head back to DTD that night for another ride on Characters in Flight at night, do some more shopping, and grab dinner.

Saturday December 12th is DAY 9! Before heading to a park, we'll need to catch a shuttle to the TTC from our hotel and make our way to Disney's Car Care Center to pick up our rental car. After that, we hit the road for our last Universal Studios/Islands of Adventure day! I'm thinking we'll have accomplished everything at both parks on our previous day, so this will be a day to ride our favorites over and over again. I think we'll probably have dinner at a CS in the parks, or we may eat at City Walk, probably at The Hard Rock. I love that place!

After the parks, since they close pretty early, we may stop on our way back to the resort for a game of mini-golf at Pirate's Cove Adventure golf. Or if we feel like our wallet is going to cry in pain from opening it again, we may just play mini-golf at the resort, where I think it's free? And relax in the lazy river if it isn't too cold. I'm sure we'll probably need it by then!

Friday I'll post about our last two days. :sad1:

But yay, only :woohoo: 8 MORE DAYS!! :woohoo:
 
It makes me sad to write about our last two days, and the vacation isn't even here yet! :sad2:

But moving on...DAY 10 will be on Sunday December 13th. Our first order of business will be to arrive at the Magic Kingdom very early for our Keys to the Kingdom Tour at 8:30 am! I'm SO excited about this, because it is something I didn't even know about before the DIS and may never have done if I hadn't read about it here! DH and I spent a lot of time researching all of the different backstage tours and really wanted to do Backstage Magic, but didn't want to spend so much and have so little park time once the tour was over. So instead, we settled for KTTK, and are both excited about it! I'm also chomping at the bit to get those early morning castle & Main Street photos without anyone else in them.

We'll have lunch at Columbia Harbour House during the tour, which should finish around 1:30 or 2. We may stay in the Magic Kingdom that afternoon, but I'm thinking we'll probably hop somewhere else to spend our last day in MK instead. So the afternoon will be a free for all so that we can visit some of our favorite rides again. We'll have to go to Mass at 6 pm that night, then head back to the resort to pack up our stuff.

Our last day is DAY 11, Monday December 14th. :sad1: We'll get up early and check out of the resort room, and bring our rental car back to the Car Care Center. After that, I'm imagining our last day in MK, but we might be MK'd out at that point, who knows? This day will be our one truly spontaneous day where we do whatever we want whenever we decide to do it. We just have to be back at Bonnet Creek between 3:30 and 4 to catch our Mears shuttle back to the airport. :scared: I'm not going to be a happy camper when that time creeps up on us!

Our flight home leaves at 7:10 pm, and then my mom will be coming to pick us up from the airport to bring us to her house for the night. In the morning, we'll have to get in our car and drive to Mississippi to gather up our cats and all their stuff, and start the drive back home and back to reality. How's this for a slap in the face? We officially get HOME (as in our own house) on Tuesday, and Wednesday I'm back at work! It's going to be oh so hard to get up early that morning knowing I'm not heading to a day of Disney magic, but instead heading to a day at work.

But then I can come home and start my TR!

DH is on his way home from the rig at this moment. This week will be busy, but hey, 1 week from today, I'll be landing at MCO and starting my Disney vacation!!! :dance3: :woohoo: :yay: :cheer2: :banana:
 
Just a quick update before we fly out tomorrow morning!! :banana: :banana:

We made it to my mom's no problem. Dropped off the kitties at my mother-in-law's house. I'm really trying not to worry about them too much. :laughing:

We were supposed to then have dinner at my aunt & uncle's house, but they are having some drama, so unfortunately, that fell through. It might be for the better though because we were able to get to my mom's & shower at a decent time. I doubt I'll even be able to sleep though!!


WE ARE LEAVING IN THE MORNING!!!

See y'all when we get back for the TR!! :woohoo: :dance3: :yay: :woohoo:
 
omg, I click on your TR randomly and I find all this Hanson stuff! haha. I love them; I saw them in Orlando this year.

Have fun on your trip!!
 












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