YES, We really are going to Disney AGAIN!!!!

[MrsHeg]

So those of you who are familiar with the story of the Osborne lights also know about the cat. Well for the past two years I found it without any real problem, not so this year.

I told Grumpy what I was looking for but he was no help, I even resorted to asking the CM's, the first two I asked he no clue what I was talking about, finally I found an older gentleman who know about it and he gave me a clue, he said that this year it was down low and on the main street, so off we went to search again . . . . . .

Success! Grumpy was beginning to think I was nuts.

 

[PrincessLeighsDaddy]

I love your new photos Debbie!
Great video too! I sure wish that one year we would be able to go around Christmastime!

 

[MrsHeg]

After the lights we headed back to TOT, boy did we time that one wrong. Fantasmic had just let out and it was like trying to swim upstream, when we made it to TOT we couldn't get across the street to the gate, it probably took five minutes!!!!

We finally made it across and barely made it in the gate when we met the end of the fastpass line, after the ride we wer done for the evening. Magic Kingdom had extra magic hours the next morning and we wanted to get some rest and be there for rope drop, so we headed back to Pop.

I have heard that you can see Illuminations from Pop if you are in the 50's building facing the lake, that is where we were on the fourth floor so I went out on the balcony at 9:00 pm to check it out. This is what I saw,

 

[MrsHeg]

As we were watching the fireworks they appeared to be Wishes instead of Illuminations, especially when we saw heart shaped ones. Sure enough a little while later Illuminations started to the right of where we were watching,

We were watching Wishes and Illuminations at the same time,

This would have been a great spot to be on New Years Eve, you would have been able to see the fireworks at three parks at once!

Not the same as being there but neat all the less.

 

[MrsHeg]

I love your new photos Debbie!
Great video too! I sure wish that one year we would be able to go around Christmastime!

Thanks Tom, you're going to have a Magical trip in three weeks, I can't wait for your report!

 

[PrincessLeighsDaddy]

We are staying at POP. That looks like a great view of the fireworks. HMMM... I wonder if I should request 50's lake side, 4th floor?

 

[MrsHeg]

After the fireworks show I called it a night, Grumpy is a huge BAMA fan and found the Sugar Bowl on TV, I found out later that it was after midnight when he went to sleep, all that and they lost.

We made it for rope drop without any problem though, and one of the Women United opened the park,

This tree wasn't up when we visited in November,

This was probably my most crowded rope drop, but still much better than the previous day at Studios.

 

[MrsHeg]

We are staying at POP. That looks like a great view of the fireworks. HMMM... I wonder if I should request 50's lake side, 4th floor?

Wishes are pretty distant, but Illuminations seemed fairly close. Even though it's not preferred the walk wasn't bad, and being on the fourth floor you don't have anyone over head.

 

[MrsHeg]

We had another pleasant surprise at Pop Tom, I had originally tried to book this trip at Sports because we were there in August and the rooms had been refurbed and the mattresses were new and comfortable, the last few times we were at Pop I found the beds very uncomfortable, I was pleased to find new comfortable mattresses in the room, we slept quite well.

 

[tinknme]

We stopped and looked at the Signaatures and prints in front of the Great Movie Ride, we're definitely Travolta fans so I took this picture. I would hear about his son later that night, my heart breaks for the family.

I really need to take the time to look at these. I love the GMR & did not realize these were there

 

[PNO4TE]

Here's a short video, it's a little blurry but you get the picture

Thanks for posting this, Debbie! I just got my fix too. I have not seen the Osborne Lights in 3-4 years so have not seen them "dancing" yet. This year for sure!!

 

[MrsHeg]

We made it for EMH rope drop, but unfortunately they don't open frontierland for this. Space Mountain was out of the question with Grumpy's back to believe it or not our first stop was Peter Pan. Why, , because their was no line, , our Grandson really liked this one so I guess most of the kids do, but the line is always waay too long for me.

After PP we hopped over to Dumbo, I know, we're a bit "old" for these but we're kids at heart if that counts. Since we were "Flying" around the Magic Kingdom we decided to go to Astro Orbiter next,

I tried to take pictures while riding, but I ended up with a bunch of pictures of nothing but sky.

After this it was time to head over to frontierland, the massive crowd that was ahead of us was unreal, so we hit the fastpass machine for Thunder and decided to wait for a fastpass for Splash. We've been often enough that we don't feel it's necessary to wait in extremely long lines for anything. We fought the crowd and continued "flying", this time it was on a Magic Carpet.

This is frontierland just after opening, you can imagine what it was like that afternoon!

 

[MrsHeg]

When our Thunder fastpass time was up we got fastpasses for Splash and rode Thunder, we lucked out and got the last car, it's much more fun back there and it looked like this would be our only ride this trip.

We killed time before Splash looking for matching T shirts for our May trip, you wouldn't think it would be hard to find matching shirts in the kids and adult sizes, I guess on hands were low due to the 40% off sale. We managed to find one eventually, and headed back to Splash for our fastpass. The wait time was over an hour, with lines winding all through the yard, it's been a few years since I've even seen lines that long.

Here's our Redneck picture,

We always try and lean towards the outside if there's a small child behind us, but this time it didn't work, I still blocked the little one behind me.

 

[MrsHeg]

We didn't have an ADR for a meal this day, we had never been to ESPN and we wanted to give them a try, and they don't take ADR's. After Splash we decided to take the bus over to the Boardwalk and have a late lunch at ESPN, here's a look at the Main Street crowd as we were leaving,

 

[MrsHeg]

The Boardwalk was pleasantly uncrowded and peaceful, our wait to get in ESPN was pretty short and the service was great.

We both had appetizers, I had the Nachos and Grumpy had the chili, both of these were really good, the Nachos were HUGE, definitely made to share.

For our meals Grumpy had the ribs and I had the Ceasar salad with grilled chicken, after the massive amount of nachos I couldn't finish the salad. Grumpy enjoyed the ribs. We strolled around after lunch and enjoyed the atmosphere before taking the boat over to Studios. We had a long drive the next day and wanted to see Illuminations that night, not to mention the fact that Grumpy had stayed up to watch the Sugar bowl, so we decided to head back to the resort for a nap.

Like many other people these unfinished buildings fascinate me, I just don't understand.

 

[MrsHeg]

After our naps we headed over to Epcot, like the other parks it was crazy crowded, even the shops were packed. We had a light dinner at Electric Umbrella and staked out a spot for Illuminations, we were early enough to get a good spot on the bridge just before you enter Mexico.

Right before time for the show several people tried to crowd their way into our spot, even to the point where I was being bumped into quite a bit, but being stubborn like I am I wasn't budging, Grumpy didn't either. I don't mind sharing but RUDE is RUDE no matter how you slice it.

The show was great as always, I spotted some beach towels I liked at a stand on the way out so we stopped in Mousegears to look for them, talk about a Madhouse, we did buy a couple at 40% off, they'll come in handy for our next trip in May.

The next morning it was time to head back home, it wasn't long before we saw this again,

 

[MrsHeg]

I'm not sure what event was going on but the sky was dotted with hot air balloons,

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

Great report, Debbie!
DS likes to find the cat, too.

 

[MrsHeg]

We were following another Disney family that morning,

Here's some final thoughts as I finally wrap up this trip report,

I'm glad that we gave the short trip a trial run, it let us know that it's totally doable if we can make our work schedules fit. Since Grumpy is insisting that we renew our AP's I'm sure there will be a few more in our future.

As far as Christmas week and the week after, it's definitely not for us, we love Disney but the crowds were insane. We're at a point in our lifes that our children are grown and we can sneak away during the times when kids are in school and that's what we'll do unless we are taking the extended family.

We had originally planned to take our DGS in February during Mardi Gras week, it's a big thing here and the kids are out of school for three days so we figured two days wouldn't be a big deal, then we found out our DGD will be making her appearance on Feb. 20th so we had to postpone until May. We'll be there the 23rd through the 30th, I'm sure ther will be crowds but hopefully nothing like we just saw. We'll be making a side trip to Sea World this time, I think DGS will really enjoy it.

Thanks for reading along.

 

[MrsHeg]

Great report, Debbie!
DS likes to find the cat, too.

I was surprised that so many CM's were clueless about it, Grumpy thought I was nuts after the second one had no clue what I was talking about!