Who the NJ Couple are: ErickainNJ and JarettK
Where we stayed: Pop Century, 80's building ground level, 3 rooms from the left of the Roger Rabbit icon (patio tables were closer to our room than the pool)
When we stayed: December 24-28, 2005
Purpose of the trip: Christmas stay (delayed 4th anniversary present) prior to heading to Cocoa, FL for a Misisons Conference
24th - We left NJ and headed to Philly around 1 pm, our flight was at 5:00 on Southwest on Christmas Eve. We got through security pretty easy and ended up with about 2 1/2 hours to kill. We sat at our gate and started watching Charlie and the Chocolate Factory until about 45 mins before we started to board. Boarding was a breeze, and we got on our way as soon as the last person was seated, we left about 2 mins from scheduled. Arrived in Orlando and went to pick up our luggage, we were using Magical Express but since it was Christmas Eve, we wanted to be sure to have our bags immediately. We got Magical Express figured out, boarded and we were on our way within about 5 mins of boarding. We had grabbed our santa hats from our suitcases as well as lighted necklaces, got them situated on our trip over to Pop. Once we arrived we got our luggage and stood in line to check in (about 15 mins) The CM was really nice and joking around with us. We had shipped a package to ourselves so he got that out for us. The route to our room seemed forever to go to, but as the next day came we figured out how to get to the store and food court a bit easier and shorter. Once to our woom we unpacked the box (it was full of Christmas items) and we got our room & window decked out. Then we left to do some picture taking around the resort. We were surprised at how many people didn't decorate their rooms, although there was 1 room that had a full size tree all decorated in their window. We grabbed dinner at Everything Pop and ordered the Penne Chicken Alfredo (which was awesome) and Tie-Dye Cheesecake. Headed to our room and called it a night.
25th - We were debating going to Magic Kingdom but after seeing the line at Pop for the buses (which btw came 3 at a time every 15 mins so the lines were moving) and with the overcast sky we decided to go to MGM instead. It was drizzling off and on for the first 2 hours. The advantage was it wasn't too crowded and they had lots of characters out. We stood in line for a picture with Pooh. There was Rafiki, Chip & Dale, Mickey, Minnie, Santa Goofy, Piglet, Eeyore and Timon. We headed into the Art Studio and walked around in there while it drizzled. We headed to the back and had the entire activities area to ourselves. They had a set for Chicken Little up for characters at 10, but it was only 9 am. So hubby took pics while I was playing some of the activities. The what character are you, I got Belle one time and than Mulan another. (Belle is my favorite princess) We headed outside and the rain stopped and Chicken Little was outside the door, we stole a pic and then headed off to Narnia. It started drizzling again and we put the ponchos on again (this was always happening because the cameras we had to have them covered) We got to the Narnia display and took our pic in front of the set and then headed to the line to get in, the display was just getting ready to reopen for the next show. The attraction is awesome and having seen the movie opening day, made all the parts of the attraction that much better. Went on the Great Movie Ride, our car died right when the robber jumps on the car and tried to start going again. We all were laughing because he was joking around about how this car won't go. Than he turned something and help up the handle. There were 3 CMs that came out to try and figure out what happened (we were stuck about 10-15 mins) Finally they got it figured out and we started going again. When the ride was almost over, we turned the last corner and the maintenance guys were standing in the dark waiting for our car to finally disembark so they could fix this problem. It was a fun ride, even better than the normal scripted ride. Had lunch at Pizza Planet and then went on the Backlot Tour. Everytime we go to MGM we have to go to Muppets 3-D. We headed to our hotel after, since it was getting close to dinner time and we had reservations at the MK. We got warmer shirts for the evening and headed over to MK around 5 pm. I stopped at the watch shop to see if I could get my wedding watch fixed, no one could help me out. We made the trek to Crystal Palace after taking a few pictures. We check in at 6:40 for dinner (reservations were 7:20) I sat on the porch, while hubby took more pictures. At 7:40 we were finally seated for dinner and had a nice Christmas Dinner buffet. Pooh, Piglet, Eeyore and Tigger made their way around the restaurant stopping at each table for pictures. We each got our pictures with each character but Tigger. Dinner was done at 9 pm and we headed out and couldn't get off the porch everyone was watching Wishes and the park was just a sea of people as far as you could see. When Wishes was done we ended up getting escorted through the Main Street stores to get to Main Street, we turned back around and heading to Liberty Square for the Haunted Mansion. We did a few rides and than at midnight we walked to the castle and the CM said that if we were resort guests to get the wristbands to allow us in the park until 3 am. We headed down to the old Swan boat dock and got the bands and then headed back to the castle so that hubby could see the murals inside the castle since it was closed off for the Christmas stage shows. We took some pics at Belle's Garden and then rode Snow White and Pooh. We took several pics of the castle and the statues in the circle near the castle and by this time it was already 2 am. We were beat and it was getting colder so we headed back to Pop.
26th - We slept in late. So we decided to hit Animal Kingdom today, since we were going to Hoop Dee Doo that night. Only 3 characters were out near the front today when we arrived. We took some pics of the Tree of Life and headed to get a fastpass for A Bug's Life. We had time to kill so we went to McDonald's for a quick bite. The lines were crazy and finding a table was hard. I found the table while Jarett got the food ordered. We headed to Kilamanjaro Safari and the wait for forever (sign said it was 45 mins), we stood in line for 2 hours, finally got on the ride and after that we were going to leave as there is not much to do at AK that we like. Well the parade had started and the main routes out were crowded and roped off. We tried to get through Asia before the parade came and the main exit out from there was blocked as well. We ended up walking all the way to Everest and going across the bridge there in order to reach the way out. Once through that are we had a major traffic jam cause the parade was now here. We pushed our way past and finally reached the exit. We hopped our bus and got back to the resort in time to relax for 30 mins and download pics we headed to MK so we could take the boat over to Fort Wilderness for dinner. We got on the boat and headed over, finally found out how to get checked in (huge line for that) and than had to goto the ticket window for our tickets to get in. One good thing came out of that wait, I ended up stepping on a 50th anniversary pin that got stuck in my shoe, it wasn't scratched or anything so I took it. Once inside we were seated at a 2 person table to the side of the piano player. The show was great and the food was pretty good as well. We left Fort Wilderness and hit Contemporary to take some pics of the decorations, than went to the Poly and Grand Floridan for pics and we than headed back to Pop.
27th - Slept in a little today, then went to get our rental car. This was Epcot day, as we were having dinner here later today. I wanted to see Imagination and Living Seas and Jarett wanted to ride Soarin' and Mission Space. Our first stop was for Soarin' to get a fastpass, don't remember that pavillion being so busy in a long time. We got our passes at 11 and return time was 4:30-5:30, so we hit Imagination then headed to Living Seas, took lots of pics of the characters outside and than headed inside. We took a bunch of pics of the sea life inside and than got a snack since we had to wait in line for Talk with Crush. The show continues every 20 mins, so after standing for about 30-45 mins we saw the sign and decided we were going to be sitting, as our feet were starting to hurt from just standing in line all the time. So we sat down after the line moved up due to a new show starting. Many others followed us, as they were tired of standing too and since we had at least 20 mins to wait for the next show. Finally we got up to the front and waiting to enter, when the doors are shut the show is full, so we have another 20 mins to wait. My husband went to sit down and this CM came over and said you can't sit down, it's a safety hazard. He explained that we have 20 mins to wait and have been waiting already 2 hours and his feet hurt and such. This woman is getting really nasty and ready to kick us out. Well she didn't say anything to the people right next to her that were sitting down so we were getting mad about that. She walked away and didn't appear again until the next show was letting in (finally we were getting in) The show is cute and once over we headed to Innoventions and also Club Cool to try the foreign sodas. Jarett tried all of them, I tried all but Beverly, we both liked the watermelon one. We went over to Wonders of Life for probably the last time. The CM at the bottom of the hill said come to WOL in it's final week. We sat waiting for Cranium Command to start and talking to the CM running that. Not many people in WOL at this time, by the time we came out of CC the place was a little busier. By this time we headed over to Soarin' as Energy was standby of 1 hour. We got onto Soarin' with not much of a wait since we had fastpasses, the standby line was 150 mins long. Once we left there we headed to World Showcase since dinner was at 6 at Marrakesh. We took the boat over and went to check in, the line was about 25 mins long to just check in. We waited for about another 20 mins and finally got seated. The place was packed. I had chicken kebobs and Jarett had beef kebobs, we both had Sahara Splashes and dessert was assorted and a puffed pastry layers with cream (don't remember the name now). After that we got the last boat of the night over to Future World. We had Mission Space fastpasses but we were both tired and after dinner Jarett didn't want to ride MS. (I wasn't going to go on it anyway) so we went to MS and tried to find someone waiting to go on, we gave them to some kids that just walked up. The wait was 30 mins otherwise. We did laundry once we got back to the resort and decided we would hit the pool, it was cold outside, but the pool wasn't much better, it was heated but still too cold to us. It was enough to take the swelling away from our feet though so it felt good. We waited for the laundry to finish, packed a little and than headed for bed.
28th - We checked out today. We slept in until 9 and check out is at 11. Had most of the things packed up the night before. We loaded the car and then went to grab breakfast, I finally got to have a Disney waffle (was Pop not a Mickey) we hit the bus for Downtown Disney as I had a certificate for a free pin from Kelloggs. We spent about 1 hour at DTD and then headed back to the resort to get our final snacks (we had 4 left on our card to use up) and to get our car and head to Cocoa for the Missions Conference.
Where we stayed: Pop Century, 80's building ground level, 3 rooms from the left of the Roger Rabbit icon (patio tables were closer to our room than the pool)
When we stayed: December 24-28, 2005
Purpose of the trip: Christmas stay (delayed 4th anniversary present) prior to heading to Cocoa, FL for a Misisons Conference
24th - We left NJ and headed to Philly around 1 pm, our flight was at 5:00 on Southwest on Christmas Eve. We got through security pretty easy and ended up with about 2 1/2 hours to kill. We sat at our gate and started watching Charlie and the Chocolate Factory until about 45 mins before we started to board. Boarding was a breeze, and we got on our way as soon as the last person was seated, we left about 2 mins from scheduled. Arrived in Orlando and went to pick up our luggage, we were using Magical Express but since it was Christmas Eve, we wanted to be sure to have our bags immediately. We got Magical Express figured out, boarded and we were on our way within about 5 mins of boarding. We had grabbed our santa hats from our suitcases as well as lighted necklaces, got them situated on our trip over to Pop. Once we arrived we got our luggage and stood in line to check in (about 15 mins) The CM was really nice and joking around with us. We had shipped a package to ourselves so he got that out for us. The route to our room seemed forever to go to, but as the next day came we figured out how to get to the store and food court a bit easier and shorter. Once to our woom we unpacked the box (it was full of Christmas items) and we got our room & window decked out. Then we left to do some picture taking around the resort. We were surprised at how many people didn't decorate their rooms, although there was 1 room that had a full size tree all decorated in their window. We grabbed dinner at Everything Pop and ordered the Penne Chicken Alfredo (which was awesome) and Tie-Dye Cheesecake. Headed to our room and called it a night.
25th - We were debating going to Magic Kingdom but after seeing the line at Pop for the buses (which btw came 3 at a time every 15 mins so the lines were moving) and with the overcast sky we decided to go to MGM instead. It was drizzling off and on for the first 2 hours. The advantage was it wasn't too crowded and they had lots of characters out. We stood in line for a picture with Pooh. There was Rafiki, Chip & Dale, Mickey, Minnie, Santa Goofy, Piglet, Eeyore and Timon. We headed into the Art Studio and walked around in there while it drizzled. We headed to the back and had the entire activities area to ourselves. They had a set for Chicken Little up for characters at 10, but it was only 9 am. So hubby took pics while I was playing some of the activities. The what character are you, I got Belle one time and than Mulan another. (Belle is my favorite princess) We headed outside and the rain stopped and Chicken Little was outside the door, we stole a pic and then headed off to Narnia. It started drizzling again and we put the ponchos on again (this was always happening because the cameras we had to have them covered) We got to the Narnia display and took our pic in front of the set and then headed to the line to get in, the display was just getting ready to reopen for the next show. The attraction is awesome and having seen the movie opening day, made all the parts of the attraction that much better. Went on the Great Movie Ride, our car died right when the robber jumps on the car and tried to start going again. We all were laughing because he was joking around about how this car won't go. Than he turned something and help up the handle. There were 3 CMs that came out to try and figure out what happened (we were stuck about 10-15 mins) Finally they got it figured out and we started going again. When the ride was almost over, we turned the last corner and the maintenance guys were standing in the dark waiting for our car to finally disembark so they could fix this problem. It was a fun ride, even better than the normal scripted ride. Had lunch at Pizza Planet and then went on the Backlot Tour. Everytime we go to MGM we have to go to Muppets 3-D. We headed to our hotel after, since it was getting close to dinner time and we had reservations at the MK. We got warmer shirts for the evening and headed over to MK around 5 pm. I stopped at the watch shop to see if I could get my wedding watch fixed, no one could help me out. We made the trek to Crystal Palace after taking a few pictures. We check in at 6:40 for dinner (reservations were 7:20) I sat on the porch, while hubby took more pictures. At 7:40 we were finally seated for dinner and had a nice Christmas Dinner buffet. Pooh, Piglet, Eeyore and Tigger made their way around the restaurant stopping at each table for pictures. We each got our pictures with each character but Tigger. Dinner was done at 9 pm and we headed out and couldn't get off the porch everyone was watching Wishes and the park was just a sea of people as far as you could see. When Wishes was done we ended up getting escorted through the Main Street stores to get to Main Street, we turned back around and heading to Liberty Square for the Haunted Mansion. We did a few rides and than at midnight we walked to the castle and the CM said that if we were resort guests to get the wristbands to allow us in the park until 3 am. We headed down to the old Swan boat dock and got the bands and then headed back to the castle so that hubby could see the murals inside the castle since it was closed off for the Christmas stage shows. We took some pics at Belle's Garden and then rode Snow White and Pooh. We took several pics of the castle and the statues in the circle near the castle and by this time it was already 2 am. We were beat and it was getting colder so we headed back to Pop.
26th - We slept in late. So we decided to hit Animal Kingdom today, since we were going to Hoop Dee Doo that night. Only 3 characters were out near the front today when we arrived. We took some pics of the Tree of Life and headed to get a fastpass for A Bug's Life. We had time to kill so we went to McDonald's for a quick bite. The lines were crazy and finding a table was hard. I found the table while Jarett got the food ordered. We headed to Kilamanjaro Safari and the wait for forever (sign said it was 45 mins), we stood in line for 2 hours, finally got on the ride and after that we were going to leave as there is not much to do at AK that we like. Well the parade had started and the main routes out were crowded and roped off. We tried to get through Asia before the parade came and the main exit out from there was blocked as well. We ended up walking all the way to Everest and going across the bridge there in order to reach the way out. Once through that are we had a major traffic jam cause the parade was now here. We pushed our way past and finally reached the exit. We hopped our bus and got back to the resort in time to relax for 30 mins and download pics we headed to MK so we could take the boat over to Fort Wilderness for dinner. We got on the boat and headed over, finally found out how to get checked in (huge line for that) and than had to goto the ticket window for our tickets to get in. One good thing came out of that wait, I ended up stepping on a 50th anniversary pin that got stuck in my shoe, it wasn't scratched or anything so I took it. Once inside we were seated at a 2 person table to the side of the piano player. The show was great and the food was pretty good as well. We left Fort Wilderness and hit Contemporary to take some pics of the decorations, than went to the Poly and Grand Floridan for pics and we than headed back to Pop.
27th - Slept in a little today, then went to get our rental car. This was Epcot day, as we were having dinner here later today. I wanted to see Imagination and Living Seas and Jarett wanted to ride Soarin' and Mission Space. Our first stop was for Soarin' to get a fastpass, don't remember that pavillion being so busy in a long time. We got our passes at 11 and return time was 4:30-5:30, so we hit Imagination then headed to Living Seas, took lots of pics of the characters outside and than headed inside. We took a bunch of pics of the sea life inside and than got a snack since we had to wait in line for Talk with Crush. The show continues every 20 mins, so after standing for about 30-45 mins we saw the sign and decided we were going to be sitting, as our feet were starting to hurt from just standing in line all the time. So we sat down after the line moved up due to a new show starting. Many others followed us, as they were tired of standing too and since we had at least 20 mins to wait for the next show. Finally we got up to the front and waiting to enter, when the doors are shut the show is full, so we have another 20 mins to wait. My husband went to sit down and this CM came over and said you can't sit down, it's a safety hazard. He explained that we have 20 mins to wait and have been waiting already 2 hours and his feet hurt and such. This woman is getting really nasty and ready to kick us out. Well she didn't say anything to the people right next to her that were sitting down so we were getting mad about that. She walked away and didn't appear again until the next show was letting in (finally we were getting in) The show is cute and once over we headed to Innoventions and also Club Cool to try the foreign sodas. Jarett tried all of them, I tried all but Beverly, we both liked the watermelon one. We went over to Wonders of Life for probably the last time. The CM at the bottom of the hill said come to WOL in it's final week. We sat waiting for Cranium Command to start and talking to the CM running that. Not many people in WOL at this time, by the time we came out of CC the place was a little busier. By this time we headed over to Soarin' as Energy was standby of 1 hour. We got onto Soarin' with not much of a wait since we had fastpasses, the standby line was 150 mins long. Once we left there we headed to World Showcase since dinner was at 6 at Marrakesh. We took the boat over and went to check in, the line was about 25 mins long to just check in. We waited for about another 20 mins and finally got seated. The place was packed. I had chicken kebobs and Jarett had beef kebobs, we both had Sahara Splashes and dessert was assorted and a puffed pastry layers with cream (don't remember the name now). After that we got the last boat of the night over to Future World. We had Mission Space fastpasses but we were both tired and after dinner Jarett didn't want to ride MS. (I wasn't going to go on it anyway) so we went to MS and tried to find someone waiting to go on, we gave them to some kids that just walked up. The wait was 30 mins otherwise. We did laundry once we got back to the resort and decided we would hit the pool, it was cold outside, but the pool wasn't much better, it was heated but still too cold to us. It was enough to take the swelling away from our feet though so it felt good. We waited for the laundry to finish, packed a little and than headed for bed.
28th - We checked out today. We slept in until 9 and check out is at 11. Had most of the things packed up the night before. We loaded the car and then went to grab breakfast, I finally got to have a Disney waffle (was Pop not a Mickey) we hit the bus for Downtown Disney as I had a certificate for a free pin from Kelloggs. We spent about 1 hour at DTD and then headed back to the resort to get our final snacks (we had 4 left on our card to use up) and to get our car and head to Cocoa for the Missions Conference.
:lol: :lol: 
