Trip Report I Horsey again

We’ve been home from Walt Disney World for a little over two weeks now and the holidays have passed. It’s time for what has become my post-trip tradition of writing our trip report.

We always take our best photos at Hollywood Studio.


If you read our previous reports, you know that we have previously visited WDW in November. Given the amount of crowds last year, we decided to change to a December trip. We made sure to steer clear of the Holiday crowds however. I mean we are not crazy, even though we do enjoy a good country bear jamboree.


Our trip began on December 8th. My super-organized wife Sara (I say that in a good way – mostly) had worked the previous week or so packing up her stuff as well as the kids’ things. Here is a photo of our cat Oliver asking us if he can on December 7th.

Ollie gets his name because he came from a “free kittens” box at a yard sale in our development. He has a sister we named Jasmine who is harder to get to stay still for a photo. Much to Sara’s dismay, I have continuously put my foot down and forbidden our cats from coming on vacation with us. Taking care of two children tends to be hard enough.


On December 8th, I stayed home with an off-day from work while Sara and Makayla went to daycare (Sara is a teacher there) and Luke went to Kindergarten. Yes, Luke is our big Kindergartner this year. I took December 8th to pack my things, which hadn’t been started yet. Sara and I are very opposite in this way. Sara and Makayla came home around 1:30, and Sara and I loaded the car while Makayla napped. Around 3:45 Luke returned from school, and after a quick potty break for him we were on our way.


After a 40 minute wait to eat a Chipotle in Leesburg, VA, and a bunch of Paw Patrol episodes on our DVD player later (both kids’ current favorite show) we arrived at the Hampton Inn in Emporia, VA, our home for the first night.


We quickly settled in for the night and prepared for bed. Luke always enjoys spending nights away, he seems them as adventures. So it took a little bit of time to get him wound down, but we ended up sleeping well. The next morning, both kids insisted on “helping me load the car again.

After a quick breakfast at the hotel, we were on our way. Here is Makayla enjoying her yogurt.

Friday, December 9th was an all-day drive affair. It included a Pizza Hut lunch in South Carolina, and a stop at the Florida Welcome Center 10 minutes after it had closed – no free orange juice for us. Makayla was terribly afraid of this dolphin statue. She would not go near it. She kept saying “Dolphin bite me.” As far as we know, she’s never had a negative run-in with a dolphin before, so I’m not really sure where this came from, but she would not go near the thing. At least Luke was willing to take his photo here.

Once we were back in the car, we hit a little traffic around Jacksonville, then made our way to I-4. As we turned onto I-4, the navigation on Sara’s phone told us we were about an hour and 15 minutes away. About 15 minutes later, a recheck told us we were about an hour and 45 minutes away. It usually seems like Disney keeps getting further away from us due to our excitement, but this time we found out there was a massive accident on I-4 closing the left three lanes.


We ended up having a major delay through Orlando, and instead of arriving around 8, we ended up not getting to our hotel until almost 9:30. We had hoped to stay at the Hampton Inn near Disney (Hampton is a long-time favorite of our family), but found out they were booked for the night. So we ended up next door at the Quality Inn and Suites, which thankfully had an opening (though for a little bit more money). Both kids helped by pulling their suitcases this time.

Luke loved the fact that we had two rooms – it is a suite after all.

After a quick game of hide and seek – yes Luke deemed the room was big enough we had to play hide and seek, we got the kids to bed. We were ready to begin our Disney adventure the next day.

 

[Lyear]

We woke up around 7am on Saturday, December 10th. Today was our check-in day at All-Star Music. Luke was back and forth between wanting to get going, and wanting to watch Disney Junior on TV. We don’t get the Disney Junior channel at home, so this is a nice perk for the kids when we travel.


Quality Suites had a nice breakfast set-up, which included Mickey Waffles. It also included coffee for me. Sara later told me that she noticed one family taking all the apples from the buffet to their table and placing them in their bag. Someone must be deathly afraid of doctors in that family.


I once again had my helpers while loading the car.

And Sara took Luke’s photo while I was checking out at the hotel. Spoiler alert- this would become a very popular ride.

By 8:30 we were on our way to All Star Music. We arrived very shortly, then ran into this…

What a line!!! The photo really doesn't give it much justice. We were the last family in the queue space, and very quickly a line formed outside the queue beside us. From my count, they had two attendants checking people in, and one seemed to be running into major problems. Our plan was to keep Makayla in her stroller during this process. Makayla did not approve of this plan. She quickly became bored, and bored turned to screaming, and screaming turned to shoe-throwing, her two-year old way of protesting. Sara took this time to buy autograph books at the gift shop and take some photos while I stood in place in line.

After what seemed like 2 hours with a screaming child, but was likely about a half hour, we were finally motioned up to the counter to check in. Check in itself went smoothly. Not surprisingly, our rooms were not ready. We had planned to take our full van to Epcot this day, so this wasn’t an issue. However, as we were exiting, I did realize I forgot to get our parking pass. Seeing that the line to check in was still about the same length, I hopped in the concierge line, and the cast member there was more than happy to give me a parking pass. With that we were out the door and on our way to Epcot.

 

[Lyear]

The ride to Epcot is a very quick one from All-Star, and, for me, it seems my “you’re in Disney World” moment comes when I see the Swan and Dolphin resorts on the way to Epcot. Despite our long check in experience, we arrived at the part about 30-45 minutes after it had opened. We parked and loaded our gear, and we were off to Epcot. It’s so nice to be back!!!

Before entering Epcot, we had another experience with a long line, at bag check. Maybe it’s that I have a thing about lines and crowds. Or maybe it’s because we’re traveling with a 5 year old and a 2 year old and need to pack prepared for every contingency. Either way, I was not a fan of bag check this year. I understand completely the role it plays in keeping everyone safe, and I’m thankful for Disney’s awareness of this, but it seemed each time we went to the parks we had to nearly completely empty our bags to get through, then find a bench or open spot on the other side to re-pack our things. I’m not sure there’s a better solution out there, but I don’t remember bag check being quite as much of a hassle previously.


Anyway, my frustration quickly melted away as we were inside Epcot and on our way to Spaceship Earth, which is always the first ride of our Disney vacation. After parking the stroller and a quick potty stop, we were there. Luke sat with Sara, and I saw with Makayla. Makayla had a little trick for me. During the language selection, I had selected English. Makayla saw that it was a touch screen and quickly reached up and hit it, changing our selection from English to Spanish just as the selection was locked in. So yes, Makayla and I were about to view the past and future…en espanol. It was an interesting experience, seeing the familiar sights, but having no idea what was being said. Sara took some photos of their future

After learning what our future would be if we spoke Spanish, Luke wanted to play the game he enjoyed last year. Since there was essentially no wait this early, he got to enjoy it again.

Makayla was very upset that she didn’t get to play, and continuously tried to get in the game by moving Luke’s gear shift. That of course make Luke upset, and the game was filled with his screams of “MAKAYLA!!!” Ultimately, good won out and Luke accomplished his mission.


We had a good bit of time as our next fastpass was not for another hour, so Sara wanted to ride Ellen’s energy adventure. I’m really not sure what she sees in this ride, but it’s something she wants to do every year. This year especially since it might be the last time we are able to ride it. This certainly is one ride I wouldn’t be too upset if they replaced it with something new. A few photos on the way.

Got to love the blue sky of Epcot, right? And some obligatory photos of dinosaurs, which put a pretty good scare into both kids, I had done my duty for the year and gone on Ellen’s energy adventure.

We made our way to the Land for our next fastpass – Living with the Land. Somewhat surprisingly, Luke had talked about this ride a few times heading into our trip, so he was happy to do it on our first day. It was nice to see the greenhouses decorated for the holidays, and we made sure to point out the Garden Grill restaurant to Luke, where we had breakfast reservations later in our visit.

After exiting the building, I grabbed our stroller, and came back to find the kids enthralled with these ducks.

Like, seriously, they both wanted to stay there and see what the ducks were doing. Sara and I were both saying “um, you know we have ducks at our house too.” “You know we are in Disney, right?” But honestly, whatever your kids enjoy, right??? So we stayed and watched the duck for a few minutes. It was a good reminder to me that it’s good to take things slow and relax. It would be a good lesion through the rest of our trip. And what better place to do this than in Epcot where the landscaping and design is top notch.


After a bit, the duck became boring and we loaded up into the stroller, and made our way to World Showcase.

 

[mcstensrud]

I can not see your photos?
Can anyone else?

 

[DimpledDevil18]

I'm enjoying your trip report, but none of your photos are showing up in your posts.

 

[MinnieM123]

I can't see the photos either.

 

[Lyear]

I can not see your photos?
Can anyone else?

I'm enjoying your trip report, but none of your photos are showing up in your posts.

I can't see the photos either.

Thanks for letting me know. Sara actually told me about this as I was falling asleep last night, but this is my first chance to correct it. After becoming increasingly frustrated with the functionality of Flickr and Photobucket, I decided to try Google photos this year to host our pics. Apparently it has some issues with embedding photos onto other sites. I think the problem is fixed, but let me know if there's any other problems. Thanks for following along.

 

[Gabe1]

Woot! Pic's are sticking!

 

[Lyear]

Following Living with the Land, we did a quick potty stop and applied some sunscreen, and soon we were in World Showcase. On the way, Luke began to tell us he was hungry. And by tell us, I mean he used that lovely whiny voice all 5 year old boys seem to have to repeat over and over, "I'm hungry...I'm hungry...I'm hungry." It was about noon at this point, and we had reservations in Mexico around 5:30. Our plan was to get some snacks along the way, so as we entered Canada, we found a popcorn stand, and Luke, Makayla, and Sara all enjoyed a popcorn. I personally can't stand the way popcorn gets stuck in your teeth so I abstained. I know, gross. Hopefully I didn't just ruin popcorn for anyone.

We found a spot by the water to eat. Luke soon learned that the birds of World Showcase liked popcorn as well. So as we sat next to a sign that said not to feed the birds, and despite our constant telling him no, he continously snuck popcorn through the bars onto the grassy area next to the water. There's that little troublemaker streak to him that I both admire and despise. He wasn't as stealthy as he thought though since about 5 birds would instantly flock to wherever he was throwing the popcorn. Thankfully, there were other families around with children doing the same thing.

Once the popcorn was emptied we checked out the pavilion. We had about 13 minutes until the show, so Luke, Makayla, and I did a little exploring.

If you haven't figured it out yet, I am far from a professional photographer. We had already moved on in our day before I truly examined this picture, and clearly I got the lighting wrong, with the nice shadow going right through Makayla's face. Luke really enjoyed how the waterfall would create mist that you walked through.

As for the show, neither kid was that entertained. Sara and I enjoyed it though. After a bit we walked out and visited the Kidcot station. Both kids colored a Duffy.

This is a really nice program they have throughout WS, even if our kids weren't the biggest fans at the time. At each country they got to talk to a resident of that country, and the kidcot cast members impressed me with how talkative and interactive they were. At the end of the day, they had Duffy's that looked like this (Luke's is on the top, Makayla's is on the bottom)...

After exploring England a bit, we stopped at France for some yummy French pastries. I got the chocolate chip brioche, Sara got a chocolate chip cookie, and Luke got a strawberry tart. All were delicious as we shared with each other. Makayla had fallen asleep in her stroller, so she unfortunately was unable to share with us. We did have trouble finding a place to eat our yummy treats, as every table was full, and even outside every corner and curb area appeared to be taken as well. We did eventually find a spot near a trash can...Yay!

Luke had no interest in seeing the France movie, insisting that he only wanted to ride more rides. Sara was really bummed at this since it's been a long time since she saw the movie and was really looking forward to it, but we decided since the movie is really not made for young children we would skip it. We continued walking through the other countries. In Morocco, Luke liked the architecture and I have to tip my hat the the kidcot gentleman here who was interactive above and beyond all the others with talking to the kids one on one. He wrote out his section to "Hero Luke" and "Princess Makayla."

After Morocco, we stopped by Japan to see the gardens, and listened just for a bit to the Voices of Liberty, who were singing Christmas carols instead of their usual patriotic songs. It was around this point that Makayla woke up from her short nap. We then made a quick stop at Italy's kidcot station, and then on to Germany where Sara stopped by the Karamel store for a sweat snack. Since she was in a long line, I took the kids over to the waterfront to look at the water as a way to pass the time. As we stood there, a cast member came up to use with a soft pretzel, asking if we wanted it for free since it had cracked in the cooking process. SCORE!!! We stayed by the water and shared the giant pretzel and caramel, chocolate snack.

Luke had been very good for a five year old in world showcase, but he continuously let us know that he wanted to do more rides. We still had about an hour and a half before our dinner reservation in Mexico, so we decided we would delay China, Norway, and Mexico until after our dinner, and head back over to future world. Safe to say Luke was happy with the decision.

 

[Lyear]

Woot! Pic's are sticking!

Yay!!!

 

[Gabe1]

Yay!!!

Last one of the last post disappeared but the balance is intact.

Loving your report. My kids now young adults grew up Disney like yours are now. Our worlds changed when they came about. Years and years before we could ride the rides as a family unit as our kids were 5 years apart. Still awesome trips we had and looks like you and your family are doing the same.

 

[fractal]

Following along. Crazy check-in line!

My kids used to love ducks as well. I used to think they were communicating with them in a strange way.

Would love to hear the Voices of Liberty sing Christmas Carols. very cool!

 

[Lyear]

Last one of the last post disappeared but the balance is intact.

Loving your report. My kids now young adults grew up Disney like yours are now. Our worlds changed when they came about. Years and years before we could ride the rides as a family unit as our kids were 5 years apart. Still awesome trips we had and looks like you and your family are doing the same.

That's great that you had that time together as a family. Our goal is to go every year, and this is year two. We'll see what the future holds. We ran into the height restriction issue on rides later in our trip. Makayla is willing to go on any ride, but doesn't meet a lot of height requirements yet. Thank goodness for rider swap.

Following along. Crazy check-in line!

My kids used to love ducks as well. I used to think they were communicating with them in a strange way.

Would love to hear the Voices of Liberty sing Christmas Carols. very cool!

I used to love feeding ducks as a kid, but I don't remember ever enjoying just watching them. We only got to listen to one Voices of Liberty Christmas song unfortunately. We had listening to them in our plans because Luke has recently really liked the Star Spangled Banner. He'll randomly be singing it while walking around the house. But by the time we made it there Luke had had enough of the world showcase. He was sort of in an "I'm in Disney World, why am I not riding rides" mood. Add in that Makayla was pretty fussy having just woken up, and we were concerned that our family was a distraction to other people around us. But the song we listened to was very good.

 

[Lyear]

We decided to walk back to future world and to the Mission Space playground. This was on our must-do list going into our trip. If you happened to read our last report, you may remember that this playground was the source of some major drama for our family last year. We went to the playground but didn't plan out enough time, and the result was a major Luke temper tantrum as we tried to pull him out of the playground, after what admittedly was a very short time. Thankfully this year we had plenty of time to play.

On the way, we walked past the cool station misters outside of Test Track, and Luke really wanted to go in.

The sodas in the car don't come out

All the water in this area comes out as a mist, but Luke got really soaked. He loved it.

Then it was on to the playground.
Here's a happy face

Makayla was a little upset that she couldn't go into the high tubes, but she found ways to occupy her time.

And the cute sibling shot

The playground inside Mission Space actually goes 3 levels high, and the 3rd level is inside a rocket ship which you can't see into from the ground. I haven't seen the inside of the rocket ship myself (it was tempting to get in and climb around, but I decided I would act like an adult). The rocket must be exciting because a lot of kids would spend a lot of time in there. In the time we were there, we had two mom's get fairly panicked when they couldn't find their sons, only to have them be inside the rocket ship.

We ended up spending about 45 minutes at that playground. Luke enjoyed a chance to play after being bored in World Showcase, and Sara and I enjoyed having a moment to sit. As our dinner time was approaching, we were able to get the kids out of the playground and on the way to Mexico. And of course, on the way we had to stop at the cool station again

He was pretty cold when it came time to eat in the air conditioned, indoor, San Angel Inn.

 

[MinnieM123]

I enjoyed your previous TR, and I'm loving this one now, too! It's amazing to me how much the two children have grown since the last one (in other words, with little kids in general, it's easy to see changes in them, even from some months ago).

Following along--can't wait for more!

 

[Lyear]

I enjoyed your previous TR, and I'm loving this one now, too! It's amazing to me how much the two children have grown since the last one (in other words, with little kids in general, it's easy to see changes in them, even from some months ago).

Following along--can't wait for more!

Thanks for following along. Glad you are enjoying it. Before this trip, I went back and glanced at my last report, and it was amazing to see how different the kids looked. At that point Makayla was just learning how to walk, and now she's running and jumping. Time flies, so they say.

 

[Lyear]

On this site, I enjoy reading the reports of vacationers who are adventurous in their dining choices, always trying new restaurants and being bold with their food choices. I admire the courage of these people, but our choices always seem to be just the opposite. Case in point, Sara and I have eaten in Mexico at the San Angel Inn on the first night of our last three trips. As we were planning our reservations in advance of this trip, we talked about whether we wanted to switch it up, since Epcot is full of great restaurants. But we came back to the fact that we enjoy San Angel Inn so much that we didn't want to give it up. So here we were yet again heading to Mexico for our first meal.

There weren't a lot of people waiting, so we were able to grab a bench as our table was prepared.

When they called our names, they led us to the best of the best tables in the restaurant. Right by the water, looking out to the temple and volcano.

We had a small concern about Makayla, who loves to throw things from the table, especially during one of her two year old tantrums. We could imagine silverware, or even plates, going into the water. Thankfully our fears were not realized as both kids were very good throughout dinner.

Our server came quickly and was very pleasant. I ordered the Plato Vegetarian, Sara got the cheese enchiladas, and Luke got a cheese quesadilla with ride. While we waited, Luke was coloring and completing the maze on his kids' menu.

I took some photos. Sara would learn to love my candid dinner photos.

We were also watching the boats go by in the Rio del Tiempo. Luke was busy checking out the numbers on each boat. He rides bus 23 to school, so 23 has become his favorite number. There was a small fiesta at our table when we saw boat 23 coming.

Our food arrived. Here is my plate.

and Sara's

and Luke's

We all shared some of ours with Makayla, and with each other. We all agreed it was delicious. It's always tough when you get to that point where your stomach is so full, but you want to keep eating because it tastes amazing.

As we were finishing and waiting to order dessert, I started waving to the people going by in the boat. Luke thought this was totally embarrassing, or weird, or something like that, and tried to grab my hand every time I waved at a boat. This became a fun little game as I would wave behind his chair, or above his head, etc. We did have a few boats wave back at us, the majority did not . In fairness, I think most people were checking out the volcano.

For dessert, Luke got ice cream off the children's menu, Sara ordered a Bavarian cream dessert, and I got some sort of cheesecake. No dessert photos. We all tried each others and agreed they were good. Another great dining experience in Mexico. I'm sure next year we'll be wondering whether we want to do Mexico again or try something else. My guess is Mexico will win.

 

[Lyear]

As we left the restaurant, we stopped by the Mexico kidcot station, then walked over to the boat ride. We did it twice because both kids liked it and the wait was short. Makayla really enjoyed seeing Donald, who she calls Quack Quack. As we road along, there was a constant, repeating "quack quack," "quack quack," "quack quack." They also both liked the fireworks on the ceiling at the end.

It was now time for final fastpass of the day, Frozen ever after. We walked to Norway, parked the stroller and did a quick potty stop, then entered the fastpass queue. Sara grabbed a few photos of the queue area, but we pretty much walked straight onto the ride so there wasn't a lot of time.

The ride experience was pretty much what I expected, since we had heard that the track was the same as Maelstrom. Sara and I both through the animatronics were amazing. Like best we've ever seen amazing. Would definitely riding this ride just to experience the animatronics alone. In addition, it was my first of many, many times hearing "Let It Go" during the week, so there's that.

Once we finished, Luke really wanted to do it again. We explained to him that without using fastpass it would be over an hour wait, and he was undaunted. But Sara and I knew we were not going to wait that long, so Luke had to be grumpy for a bit. Thankfully it passed quickly. We found the Kidcot station near the ride exit in the gift shop, then made our way over to China to complete our Duffy's.

At this point, we had about an hour before Illuminations started. We realized we had left Luke's earmuffs in the car (Loud noises have never been Luke's favorite thing, so we have a pair of earmuffs for him and for Makayla). We knew he would be very upset if he had to sit through fireworks without his earmuffs, so I decided I would walk out to the parking lot to get the earmuffs while Sara took both kids on Nemo by herself. Bless her soul. I made sure to leave all the bags on the stroller so I could do an easy out and back in. It was relatively quick, but allowed them to do Nemo twice and spend some time checking out the fish in the tanks. They also got shark photos.

I texted Sara as I was entering the park, and we met at the stroller outside of the seas and headed back to World Showcase. Seriously, so much walking on this day. We found a spot to watch Illuminations outside of Norway. I parked the stroller beside a bench where a man and his wife were seated. I checked to make sure it was not in their way, and the man said it wasn't, but then ranted to me about how there better not be anyone who gets in front of him, because someone got in front of him during Wishes and ruined the experience. *awkward* I agreed that it was frustrating when people block your view, excused myself, and found the family. They were already snuggled in ready to go.

And here are all of us (on the poor quality iphone selfie camera).

Since it was so close to Christmas, we got a special Holiday ending to Illuminations that emphasized peace on earth. Its finale was an enormous amount of white fireworks that spanned from end to end of the lagoon. Sara said it was like they gathered all the fireworks in the state of Florida and set them off at once. Very impressive.

 

[Lyear]

After the show, we waited for the crowd to thin a bit, then made our way to the exit. At some point in the past year, they began projecting "good night" onto SSE in the different languages of World Showcase. I liked it. So did Luke.

We made it to the car and back to All Star Music. They had texted me the room number during the day. We were once again in the Broadway section. Our room ended up being very close to the piano pool, which unfortunately was closed for refurbishment while we were there. After finding the room, I took a few trips back and forth from room to car to room with the stroller bringing in all our luggage. The kids surprisingly did not fall asleep right away, but it wasn't long until we were all settled and asleep for the night.

 

[MinnieM123]

As we were finishing and waiting to order dessert, I started waving to the people going by in the boat. Luke thought this was totally embarrassing, or weird, or something like that, and tried to grab my hand every time I waved at a boat.

Luke is hilarious! That kid cracks me up!! (Love how he thought your behavior was uncouth!)

Oh, by the way, you were so lucky to get that prime viewing table. I've always wanted to have dinner there, watching the people go by in the boat. I think the Mexico pavilion has some of the nicest atmosphere.