Trip Report Two Turkeys at WDW & Merrytime Disney Cruise November 2016

Hello! My husband and I (two turkeys) just got back from WDW & a Merrytime Disney Cruise and I thought I would share our adventures. All of you are welcome to read but I'm going to tag a few of you that I know have followed along before. (Or at least those I can remember.) I look forward to reading your reactions!


I have shared a few of our other adventures and if you are interested here are some links:

Disneyland
http://forums.wdwmagic.com/threads/disneyland-forever-july-2016.917141/
http://forums.wdwmagic.com/threads/back-to-disneyland-ringin-in-2016.909039/

Walt Disney World
http://forums.wdwmagic.com/threads/...ts-wdw-november-2015-lots-of-pictures.907613/
http://forums.wdwmagic.com/threads/movin-in-two-weeks-in-the-world.915373/
http://forums.wdwmagic.com/threads/springin-into-wdw-solo-march-2016.911995/

Introduction:
Who: Me (Amy) and my husband (Brad) We are the two turkeys.
Magic Band personalization: Me: Gobble '16 and Brad Stuffing, in honor of Thanksgiving
When: November 22-November 28
Where did we stay: All Star Sports

Backstory We have wanted to do a Christmas themed cruise for awhile, and in May of 2014 I booked us on a 3 night cruise in hopes that it would match up with my school's calendar. Luckily it it did. I figured I might have to take a personal day (which I did), and we would add in some time at WDW.

The Report
Tuesday November 22:
I teach in a rural northern Wisconsin school so school for our students is off the whole week of Thanksgiving, but we have teacher inservice Monday and Tuesday. In our district we are not supposed to take off inservice days. So being the rule follower that I am yet still wanting to get maximize my WDW time I book (months ahead of time) a flight leaving at 7:10pm on Tuesday night. I figure I am golden, I don't have to break the work rules, and I'll still get to Disney on Tuesday night giving me 2 full WDW days before the cruise. Leaving on a 7pm will be perfect for traveling from work to the airport and giving me the time cushion I like to give myself at the airport. Well, Delta airlines had other plans.

About 1 1/2 month before our flight, I get an email from Delta saying they cancelled my 7pm flight and moved me to a 5pm!!!:jawdrop::mad: This was not good! If I left work for the airport without asking to leave early I would make it to the airport (if things went perfectly) when my plane would be boarding! So long story short I went and talked to my boss, fully prepared to take unpaid time and all that. And luckily he was very understanding and he said he knew that I would easily make up the time/work since I usually come in to work about 1-1 1/2 early every day anyway, and I would not have to take unpaid or personal time. (which was good because I had already designated my other personal day for a WDW in March of 2017). So now the only thing I had to worry about was weather & traffic getting to the airport.

Well, wouldn't you know it, but the weather decided that there would be a wintry mix with mostly freezing rain starting at noon the day we flew out! :jawdrop::mad: Ok, so now I'm already "breaking" the rule of leaving early, but now the roads would be treacherous. And I HATE driving in bad weather. It all made this type A girl very anxious. So my boss said I could leave even a little earlier. Luckily the weather people were somewhat wrong and it was mostly rain on the way, and stayed mostly rain. But were were at the airport now about 3 1/2 hours early. But we were there and our plane was on time. It really was time to relax now.

Minneapolis has two terminal buildings and we were flying out of the big terminal and flying back to the smaller one (with the cheaper parking). So we parked at the smaller terminal and took the light rail train to the bigger one. It is a bit of a hassle but the train came shortly after we got the to platform and away we went.

Brad at the train platform
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We are on time for take off. The plane did have to go through de-icing, as did other planes. So we were 20 minutes late in take off because of waiting for de-icing, but we only landed about 5-10 minutes late.
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The plane is here, what you can't see to well in the pictures is the sleety-rain. It made me a little nervous, but the trucks were constantly spraying de-icer on the runways.
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We landed, YAY! And since we planned to drive to the cruise port we rented a car. This was our sweet ride. As usually hubby, tried to pick up the most beat up and scratched one in the lot. His theory is that then the rental car company can't prove the scratches are from us.
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It was dark then as we drove under the sign so my picture didn't turn out clear. I got this blurr, but in a way it is kind of trippy and cool with the blur.
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We were super hungry and we thought about going to Trader Sam's or Disney Springs for something but it was a little after 11:30 pm and figured we wouldn't have much time. So we parked at the All-Star Sports and went into the food court. We probably should have went to the McDonald's. We got chicken tenders and fries and they were definitely end of the night servings (a little cold and stale). But it was sustenance and then we could go right to our room.
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A couple pictures of the decorations at the Sports. They weren't anything spectacular like a gingerbread house, but I liked them.
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Our room was really close to the main building in the Touchdown section. So we were both happy. In June we had requested to be near transport at the Music and got stuck in the Broadway section which was a bit of a hike. So we unpacked and I put up a few Christmas decorations to spirit up the room.
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So after unpacking we went to bed. We were planning to maximize our WDW with early mornings and late nights. We figured we could relax on the cruise.

Tags:
@figmentfan423 , @MinnieM123 , @JenniferS , @Tuvalu , @PacNWTigger , @Gabe1 , @betty rose , @Songbird76 , @catmom46 , @BuddyThomas , @donaldtoo , @Cesar R M , @fractal , @Mr Ferret 88 , @MouseDreaming , @PUSH, @Wrangler-Rick, @sheriffwoody, @MOXOMUMD
 

ajrwdwgirl

Premium Member
Original Poster
Wow! You guys really did a lot! The food on the cruise looked amazing! I would have gained 75 lbs!

I loved the character pics, their Christmas outfits were adorable and Your Santa scarf is so cute:)

I think we walked so much at WDW it compensated a little for all the cruise food, or maybe not. But my pants still fit okay so that was all I was concerned about!:):joyfull:
 

ajrwdwgirl

Premium Member
Original Poster
Sorry for the delay in my trip report, but just a few more pictures from our last day at Epcot.

We had planned on eating at a lot of the Holiday Around the World stands, but only at at one. I had wanted to eat at the Alpine on because I think they had fondue, but Brad wasn't hungry. :( So we just continued to Italy to watch our last story teller, La Befana.
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Then we decided to walk over to the Yacht and Beach Club to check out their holiday decorations. Brad was excited for the Yacht Club's decorations because in years past they had a big village set up the lobby, and he sets up his own village in our house at Christmas. Alas, the Yacht Club did not have the village set up so I had a sad Brad on my hands. :arghh::cry:
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The Beach Club did not disappoint in their decorations. The gingerbread carousel was enchanting.
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ajrwdwgirl

Premium Member
Original Poster
After looking at the carousel we wandered back into Epcot and headed out to the car. We decided to go over to Disney Springs for a little bit. Brad was magically hungry by the time we walked out of Epcot and wanted to go to Morimoto's or Frontera.

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We ended up going to Morimoto Street Food and the food was great. We got teriyaki bao buns, cold sesame noodles, and some ribs.
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The view from the seating area.
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After eating there really wasn't a lot of time to do any wandering so we headed to the airport. The drive went smoothly and soon the car was returned, the bags were checked and we headed through security. Security literally took 5 minutes, which was shocking.

Needless to say it was a terrific vacation and we made a lot of great memories. I hope you enjoyed my report! Thanks for reading!

Coming up soon....Brad's First Flower & Garden Festival!
 

ajrwdwgirl

Premium Member
Original Poster
Did Yacht Club have the train set running? Not sure if that's what you meant by villages. We never made it over to Yacht so if all it had was a tree, I'm glad we didn't make a special trip.

I guess to me it was a village with a train running through it. :) But no they didn't have it set up, they said there were mechanical difficulties with it. :confused: I just don't think they wanted to put it up.
 

Ciara

Well-Known Member
Great report! I really love how you take close up and far away photos, really catch all the details :) also disney cruises seem to have a lot to offer! You've definitely sparked my interest :D
 

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