Trip Report Live Reporting Xmas Eve to New Year's

Welcome to the latest Brifraz live trip report. I'm sure there are many of you who have followed along with us in the past - this is our 10th WDW Trip Report (if you include the Aulani report, 11th). But, I am also sure that we have some new travelers along for the ride.

So...we are a team of 3. Our DD is now 11 years old and heading quickly for 12.

Most of the household activities revolve around music. I teach high school band and my daughter is fully immersed in it (she plays euphonium, tuba, and trombone in different bands at her school, plus piano at home and sings in school as well as a community chorus). Mrs. Brifraz is also a teacher, but she teaches English - we are in fact at rival high schools which makes things fun, and in a couple years our daughter will be at a third high school which considers both of ours to be rivals of a sort.

As a youth, I visited the World quite early on. My Great Aunt lived in Orlando as her first husband was a scientist with NASA and I got to visit DW quite early on. Sadly, those visits ended with my youth and it was not until I was out of college that I began to go back. In the 90s I did a number of trips with different friends until I took my girlfriend there in 1999 and to my great shock she has stayed with me ever since. We are approaching 15 years of marriage and this will be our 20th Disney trip together.

Usually, I give a full Pre-Trip report with lots of details of our plans, but this time, I'm going to let the surprises come with the live report that will be starting on 12/23.

But, I can't resist a little overview...coming up briefly...

 

[brifraz]

It just after 10am in Magic Kingdom and it's getting pretty crowded. Headliners are upwards of an hour wait. We just got off Splash (with FP+) and are really enjoying our Christmas morning. So, from our family to all of yours...

Merry Christmas! My gift to all of you will be pictures in a few hours.

 

[Plowboy]

How about now?

Looks like Safari Amber. We stayed at AKL in October and loved it. Enjoy your trip.



Still waiting for our room, but I think it'll be OK.

 

[brifraz]

Jealous - yes definitely. Have an amazing trip!!

If you get on Pirates can you check for the headless bride?
http://forums.wdwmagic.com/threads/potc-headless-bride.908250/

She appears to have now gotten ahead.

 

[brifraz]

OK, it's late afternoon on Christmas day and, as promised, Christmas pictures coming at you! As you saw, we started the morning at 6am, catching the bus to Magic Kingdom for the 7am EMH opening. There was a pretty decent crowd at opening, so we decided to bail on our plan to hit the Mine Train first - that's where everybody was headed. Here are the girls heading toward the castle. Bear in mind, we weren't at the very front at opening, but we were pretty darn close to it.


And this is the crowd as I looked back upon them from the castle.


So, we turned left after the castle and went to Peter Pan. Followed quickly by Winnie the Pooh, Teacups, and Ariel's Journey. No wait for any of them. In fact, in the midst of that, we met up with Alice and the Mad Hatter and chatted a bit in addition to getting signatures (yes, we are getting signatures this trip...but for a project - more on that at the end of the adventure). So, 4 rides and a meet and greet in the first hour. Right at regular park opening, 8am, we hit the Haunted Mansion followed by Pirates of the Caribbean, some shopping at the Christmas Shoppe, and a meet and greet with Tiana and Naveen. At this point, we still have not waited in a line for anything. In fact, we had time to chat quite a bit with Tiana and Naveen. Then we headed to Philharmagic, where there was a slight wait for the next show, but does that really count?

It's finally 9am, so we are going to our FP+ for Splash Mountain (which, by the way already had a 60 minute wait for standby). Enjoyable ride as always and not terribly soaked.


Then after a little pause (to allow time to pass), we hit Big Thunder with those FP+. At this point it is right about 10am and we have done 8 rides, a show, and 2 meet and greets and have spent maybe 10 minutes waiting for everything combined. And it's Christmas Day. And (as we learned later) Magic Kingdom is already at a phased closing at this point due to crowds.

We had about 45 minutes until our FP+ for the Jingle Jungle Cruise, so our daughter completed a Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom mission in Adventureland and we grabbed some popcorn for a snack. Also met up with a very nice family and traded some Sorcerers cards with them. We aren't really collecting them...but, maybe we are? It was time for our first trip on the Jungle Cruise with the Jingle overlay. Very enjoyable. Nice to hear a few different puns. And definitely enjoyed the visual enhancements.


So, it was 11:30am and time to get the heck out of the Magic Kingdom! Main Street was a little tough to navigate, but we made it out.


We monorailed over to Grand Floridian to check out the Gingerbread house and decorations. Once I have the MemoryPhotoMakerPass pictures downloaded, I will share some of those - got a great one in front of the tree at Grand Floridian. Then another monorail trip to the Contemporary for our Chef Mickey's brunch. Nice to have both breakfast and lunch foods and, again, collecting signatures. Mickey missed us on the first pass, so we caught him on our way out.


We then took a bus from Contemporary over to DowntownDisneyMarketplaceSpringsIsland to do some shopping. Our daughter bought herself a Cheshire Cat shoe ornament and had it personalized. She played the Cheshire Cat in her school play last year, so it is a favorite now. We bravely fought our way through World of Disney and the Lego Store (both were at the totally insane madhouse of humanity crowd level), picked up a couple Gelatos for a snack and then got the boat back to Old Key West. Which is where we now find our team! 2/3 are sound asleep waiting for an alarm in a little bit to head to the main pool and dinner via the Gurgling Suitcase, where we will be sharing some homemade cupcakes (yes, they travelled down with us) with one of our bartender friends. See you later!

 

[brifraz]

Later night wrap-up... once the girls were awake, we headed over to Conch Flats (the hospitality area - store, restaurant, boat docks, etc) and grabbed some food and some drinks at the Gurgling Suitcase. They were showing Muppet Christmas Carol out by the pool, so we had our drinks, chatted with people at the bar (and the bartender - Roberto is most excellent) and gave the staff their Christmas cupcakes.


Our daughter watched some of Christmas Carol and texted with some of her friends. Eventually, she and I both had a short swim and I spent a few minutes in the jacuzzi to loosen up some back muscles that are chronically angry. A nice relaxing evening - and now to bed before 9pm. Tomorrow will be another early morning - this time at Hollywood Studios. See you there!

 

[brifraz]

Alright! I fell asleep around 9pm last night (pretty much the minute I finished that post) and when the alarm went off this morning at 5am, I was ready to go! Nothing like a full night's sleep to re-energize. We are off to Hollywood Studios for 7am EMH. Hoping to hit the Hollywood Boulevard rides a couple times before 8am, then the rest of the park. Very excited for the Comedy Warehouse show at 11:30am. Many moons ago, I spent quite a few quality nights between the Adventurer's Club (80% of the time) and the Comedy Warehouse (20%) of the time. I'm sure it's not the same, but I expect a few old memories will be awakened. Also, our daughter's first visit to Sci-Fi Dine-In today for lunch.

 

[brifraz]

And this is DHS at 6:15am. Among the first in line. And they parked us with the CMs.

 

[brifraz]

And this is what being the first person on Tower of Terror looks like! Sorry for the things being a little blurry. She was moving fast!

 

[disneygeek 2069]

Loving this Christmas present of a trip report. And that picture from DHS took my breath away. I am so jealous.

 

[coachwnh]

Have another great day!!!!

 

[brifraz]

Plus front row on Great Movie Ride. Great job, Luigi!

 

[Zipadeelady]

Jealous? Most definitely!! Really enjoying your report, thanks for sharing. Also, I'm DH loves to hear about the beer flights and where to find good ones so keep me posted . Have a great day!

 

[brifraz]

Jealous? Most definitely!! Really enjoying your report, thanks for sharing. Also, I'm DH loves to hear about the beer flights and where to find good ones so keep me posted . Have a great day!

Well, if there are unique and interesting beers at WDW I will try to find them! My love of craft brews began in the 90s at the old Catwalk Bar with Fin du Monde. Loved that bar! Wish Studios still had a quiet secret hideaway like that!

 

[TTiiMM]

Thank you for taking the time to do another live trip report. Have an amazing day!

 

[brifraz]

Well, alright! It is midday on Saturday, December 26th and we have had one heck of a morning at DHS. As you saw above, we were the first people to get to Tower of Terror, heck, we were the first people into the park.


But the Tower was our primary destination. And, obviously, our daughter was through the roof excited (no, wait, that's the elevator at the Wonka factory). After that, we went over to Rockin' Roller Coaster and rode. You might have gathered already that the girls are much more into thrill rides than I am, but I am always game for the photo op.


When we exited, our daughter wanted a second ride and us parents wanted a couple minutes of recovery, so off she went into the single rider line. Just as she was about to board the next limo, the ride went down. So, now she has a Fastpass for anything in Studios at any time until 12/31. Not sure when she will use it and what for, but she is happy!

Now it was time for the Star Wars Launch Bay. Not being really in the mood for a 30 minute wait for a meet and greet, we just looked around and checked out the area. Pretty cool stuff. I found the need to stop for a drink for a couple minutes.


We left the Launch Bay and headed to our FP+ for Toy Story Midway Mania. @MeffysMom always wins in our family, but at least we sometimes can get somewhat close to her score (no we really don't - today our combined score only beat her by a little). Then we headed to the Watto's Grotto Star Wars shop and looked around. One of the quests of this trip is a new hooded sweatshirt for me and I have yet to find the exact one I'm looking for - hoping for a Star Wars one, but nothing has won me over yet. Then we rode Star Tours with the new experiences. Those keeping track, we had the new opening, Jakku, BB8, then Coruscant at the end.

Since it was about 10:30am at this point, we headed back to the Launch Bay to see if the Disney Visa Meet and Greet was open. Score! And, in case you were wondering - the Darth Vader meet is really good. He talks quite a bit with you.


We then met up with Sorcerer Mickey as we headed back to the Comedy Warehouse. Mickey did NOT like @MeffysMom's shirt with Kylo Ren, but was quite happy with my Millenium Falcon shirt.


It was time for the Comedy Warehouse show and (of course) we had a blast. It looked to us like 3/5 of the actors and the piano player were all actual vets from the old days at Pleasure Island. Regardless of who they were, they did a great job singing about useless Jokers, hosting a game show about underwater basket weaving, and singing about a bad xmas gift. We are hoping to catch another show some time this week.


It was getting to lunch time, so we headed to the Sci-Fi Dine-In for our ADRs. This was the first visit there for my wife and daughter and the reviews are consistent with the reviews from everyone forever. Food is OK, but nothing special. The experience is a ton of fun.


Then a little shopping and new flip-flops and another Pandora charm later we were headed to the Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular. Given the impending construction at DHS, I have a feeling this will be our last visit to this show. We will certainly miss it.


And then we came back to our room. By bus. Did I mention that we drove in this morning? And that we got there before they were parking people? And that our car is in Cast Member parking? Well...we did, we did, and it is. So, we left it there. Heading back tonight for dinner and a show (Fantasmic!) and we are hoping the good parking spot will give us a pretty easy escape.

See you either late tonight or tomorrow. Tomorrow is going to be a FULL day at Animal Kingdom. We plan to be there from open to close. We'll see if that is how things really end up happening.

 

[lostpro9het]

Tomorrow is going to be a FULL day at Animal Kingdom. We plan to be there from open to close. We'll see if that is how things really end up happening.

We'll be there for rope drop too! It's our "head home" day and we always get in about one Dino, PW, and about 4 EE before we head home!

 

[brifraz]

We'll be there for rope drop too! It's our "head home" day and we always get in about one Dino, PW, and about 4 EE before we head home!

We will be headed right to EE at opening. I'll ride it once, but the girls will likely do it twice. Then they will do Primeval Whirl at least once and maybe twice. After that anything is game! See you there!

 

[surfsupdon]

Cool to read, thanks for sharing.

We have done 12/26--1/2ish about 7 times, and your report is bringing back terrific memories. Keep having fun and staying a few steps ahead of the crowds.

 

[brifraz]

Minnie's Holiday Dine.

 

[brifraz]

After dinner, it was a quick visit to the new Sunset Showcase, Club Disney dance party. Pretty nice site and (at least at 7:30pm) pretty calm and somewhat empty. I'm sure it's only a matter of time before people realize it is back there and that their kids can dance with characters all day and night, but for now it was a fun visit. It is certainly a VERY well done space and could host a myriad of interesting events.

Then it was over to Fantasmic! which we haven't been to in a couple visits. Definitely noticed some of the lighting improvements that have come in the past years as well as the additions to the bubble projections from new films. Still not a big fan of the show, but it does entertain. I still find the Steamboat Willie scene with the random assortment of 'heroes' on the boat to be a bit odd. Should these characters really be hanging out together (and the size ratios are just a mess).



See you in the other Kingdom tomorrow - the Animal one.