Trip Report Let in snoap, let it snoap, let in snoap *Completed*

Soooooo we landed back in a grey, cold London a week ago. It’s hardly stopped raining since and I miss Disney! Time to start my trip report
It’s my first attempt so go easy on me
I now realise what detailed notes some must make to share such fabulous reports with us all..... I did not make fab notes so let’s see how this goes!

My pre-trip is here: https://forums.wdwmagic.com/threads/the-trip-reports-made-me-do-it.961639/#post-8956121


But the key bits summarised are:
Who: Me and M
Why: I wanted to do a Disney Christmas, but not Christmas week! We also celebrated 15 years together during the holiday.
When: 29th November- 9th December
Where: Animal Kingdom Lodge

A preview pic to break up the text lol

 

[Oh bother!]

Sunday 8th December..... our last full day

We got up about 8.30, a lay in compared to most of the trip!

M went to get tea whilst I started to think about packing.... including packing all the extra items we had now acquired for Christmas presents!

We spent the next hour or two packing and relaxing on the balcony

I checked our tragical notice and we were getting collected at 12.40 the next day. Slightly later than I calculated but we still did the right thing to change park plans after our flight was changed.

As at 10am the day before we left we had 4 TS, 4 QS and 27 snacks to use! I had just packed 12 lots of sweets from theQS meals we had already changed in!!

Once we were ready I ordered an Uber to take us to the Grand Floridian. I know I won’t be going again at Christmas any time soon so I wanted to make sure I saw the Gingerbread house. The reception area was crazy busy when we arrived!

But I soon got to see the house...

And I had worn my gingerbread dress to match

Turned out I matched the tree more closely!

The tree was a real beauty

The details were lovely. I enjoyed my first trip to the Floridian and was very pleased to see all the Christmassy touches.
I did suggest we might use some snack credits at the ginger bread shop but M was not on board with that.... something about him carrying them all day in the heat

Once we had our fill (ok me, M truly could not get excited about a gingerbread house) it was time to get the monorail to visitwith more gingerbread.

We were quickly aboard monorail green

I took this purely as a memory aid!

We arrived at the contemporary to visit the Cinderella meets small world house

Then it was finally time for the real reason we were here.... Brunch!

 

[Cetta]

I absolutely love the picture of you sitting in front of that beautiful wall in AK. Just so beautiful! Also your outfits are amazing everyday!

 

[Oh bother!]

I absolutely love the picture of you sitting in front of that beautiful wall in AK. Just so beautiful! Also your outfits are amazing everyday!

Thank you... I did get one or two odd looks for sitting down! And thank you for the outfit complement.... I realised a while ago that trying to force myself into “park wear” that I don’t like at home was a mistake! There’s few Disney rides where a skirt is awkward

 

[Oh bother!]

Sunday brunch time....

We took the lift up to California Grill and were told our table would be a few minutes so we should grab a drink and a seat in the lounge.

I did not need telling twice!

We enjoyed the music and view for 10 mins or so before we were seated

Once we were seated our excellent server Jim came over and introduced himself and the person helping him today (I didn’t write name down but think he must have been in training).

He asked if we had dined here before and when we said yes just pointed out some new options... including his recommendation we started with this....

Flambé cake with bourbon or something.... I don’t remember and will blame the free flowing bubbles!

We decided to enjoy some of the buffet. I don’t think I took pictures of everything

We had a lot more than this plate would have you believe!

Whilst we were picking our main courses Jim reminded us to order our drink as we were using dining plan. I was a little confused as last year we were told that if we ordered another drink it would stop our mimosa top up. Jim assured us the only way mimosas stopped was if we said no or they pour until we fall.... well Jim I don’t say no to bottomless bubbles

Nor do I say no to additional cocktails so to the Bloody Mary bar I went!

The candid bacon garnish was amazing!

M does not like bloody Mary’s so ordered off the menu... I think maybe a lemon drop martini?

 

[Oh bother!]

Whilst we waited for our mains we headed out to take some pictures. There was some confusion over which observation areas were open, in the end everyone ignored the closed signs!

Time for more food....

M had lobster benedict, I went for the chicken katsu and we had some pancakes “to share”

M loved his. I really liked my noodles but something about the chicken wasn’t really to my taste. So I ate the noodles and more than my fair share of the pancakes!

We were sooooo full by now!
Dessert came but we asked them to box it as we couldn’t manage another bite!

Whilst we were settling the bill Jim asked if we had any questions and was eager for us to take advantage of his Disney planning knowledge. We chatter for a bit about our plans for visiting for the 50th. It was nice to see that Jim really was a Disney fan, he wasn’t just being helpful.

We browsed the shops on our back to the monorail but no purchases.

As we went to go through monorail security I was puzzled as to why M had shoved the dessert box in his rucksack..... except he hadn’t. So this is where we discovered we each thought the other had it..... and it was in fact left at California Grill

Oh well I wasn’t going back for it!
After a ride on monorail coral and on peach we arrived at Epcot.

We stopped for more “golf ball” pictures

No escaping the construction walls.... they make appearances in many of this trips Epcot pictures!

 

[Oh bother!]

Pluto was meeting in his winter ear warmers..... totally necessary in the heat today

And it was finally time for me to go see Lou and little Joe

We spent about 30 mins watching them.... I could stay here all day. M had already got fed up when we went to the downstairs viewing area and was standing at the back playing on his phone.

I realised we would miss our completely essential Figment FP if we didn’t leave, so we headed out.

No picture though

M had a FP for Mission:Space. I don’t do this ride.

I went to Test track for a return time but it was down so I went at sat by the exit of MS waiting for M.

I moved our later TT FP forward hoping it would turn into multi experience. Instead TT came back up so we went to use the FP. It wasn’t a particularly quick line!

 

[Nunu]

Pluto was meeting in his winter ear warmers..... totally necessary in the heat today
View attachment 446481
And it was finally time for me to go see Lou and little Joe

View attachment 446483View attachment 446484View attachment 446485View attachment 446486View attachment 446487
We spent about 30 mins watching them.... I could stay here all day. M had already got fed up when we went to the downstairs viewing area and was standing at the back playing on his phone.

I realised we would miss our completely essential Figment FP if we didn’t leave, so we headed out.

No picture though

M had a FP for Mission:Space. I don’t do this ride.

I went to Test track for a return time but it was down so I went at sat by the exit of MS waiting for M.

I moved our later TT FP forward hoping it would turn into multi experience. Instead TT came back up so we went to use the FP. It wasn’t a particularly quick line!
View attachment 446488View attachment 446491

Nice pictures of the manatees eating their "salad". I take my time watching them, and the dolphins too!

 

[Oh bother!]

Nice pictures of the manatees eating their "salad". I take my time watching them, and the dolphins too!

Thank you. I was so disappointed that I missed them as I got their bed time wrong earlier in the trip, so I wanted to take lots of time today!

If you haven’t had the opportunity to do it previously I highly recommend the crystal river swim with manatee tours. We found the company we did it with were very respectful of the manatees space, there were not 100s of people or boats crowding them but it was lovely to see the manatees in the wild.

 

[Oh bother!]

I hadn’t had nearly enough time in the World Showcase this trip so that was the plan for the rest of the evening.

We started in Mexico

We browsed the pavilion but didn’t buy anything or any drinks.

next up was Norway.

We had a terrible view of the holiday entertainment.

It was interesting but we did come in part way through. There were a lot of animal noises being made and cows seemed to be baa-ing. We decided to continue our walk at that point!

No pictures in China bit we spent a fair amount of time browsing before deciding it was time for some more food and beer.

M always gets beer in Germany and we got cake as well!

We watched a few minutes of the show here as well.

We browsed Christmas decorations in Germany but nothing took my fancy.

I’m always perfectly happy having a stroll around the show case pavilions but it’s rare I purchase much other than booze!

As M had enjoyed his beer I was ready for a cocktail.

In Morocco I stopped for the poinsettia cocktail which I was a big fan of!

We shared the lamb which was fab

and the chicken which I didn’t love but M was enjoying so he finished it.

 

[Oh bother!]

We stopped for the photopass opportunity with this cute light

M got a sultan cocktail and we continued around the world

The Candlelight professional was just starting so we stopped to watch from behind the ropes.
pictures are not great as we were so far back and poorly positioned

We only watched a few minutes as M made incredibly clear he was bored. We are not religious and he was not enjoying the show. I would have liked to watch a little more.

But neveremind.

M cheered up when he got pastrami on rye. I didn’t try this as it’s not really my thing

We got some more photos around the show case

As we were in France there was one treat I had to get!

We tried the turkey, it was ok but not terribly exciting.

 

[Oh bother!]

We walked fairly quickly through the U.K. but stopped for a lantern picture

I do not like how these came out! I have a giant arm

We decided we would try and make it back to the contemporary to watch the fireworks so skipped through Canada.

We stopped for a final tree photo and I got a little over excited when it showed up with an effect on the lights

We caught the monorail to the Contemporary.... it seemed to be taken ages and we were cutting it close to firework time!

This is the monorail where I was on the same carriage as @Nunu but wasn’t brave enough to say hi, especially in case I was actually saying hi to someone that was not she!!

When we finally got to the Contemporary we practically ran up to Cali grill! No time to grab a drink the first firework was set off as we stepped foot on to the balcony.

Pictures aren’t great....

It was a party night so we saw the Christmas show again. I was excited to see this again for our final night.

It was getting chilly but we did a quick selfie before heading in

I decided we would walk back to the MK buses.... not sure why! I was shocked to see how many people were leaving the party already, especially when I’d squeezed every last minute out of it just the week before!

We waited a while and the bus was busy. I don’t know why I didn’t go with the first instinct and Uber back!

We got back at settled in for our last night

 

[Oh bother!]

Monday 9th ..... our last day

I was not happy this morning! I didn’t feel like I’d done everything I wanted and didn’t feel ready to come home.
Let’s be honest though I could be there a month and I’d still sulk about leaving!

Anyway, time to make the most of our last few hours!

Whilst I did final packing M went to get tea and changed another QS to take home snacks for me to pack in the suitcase.

We checked out and bag dropped before heading to the parks for the final time.

When our flight moves forwards, twice, to 5 hours earlier than my original booking I knew my plan for a magic kingdom morning wasn’t going to work. We had decided to finish up at AK as it’s such a short ride to the hotel.

Luckily a bus was waiting for us and we were at the park around 8am.

I was very careful not to overdo it this morning as I knew I had a long flight ahead of me. I waited in Harambe village and people watched whilst M got a return time for FoP.

Then we headed for a final Safari

We got very held up as the giraffes were happily stopping on the road ways. We got some good pictures when we started to move again though

Sorry for the Giraffe overload!!

 

[Oh bother!]

Once our Safari was over it was time for breakfast.

We shared our giant cookie, me getting ever sadder that it was the last day where it was acceptable for breakfast to be 99% sugar.

We took a few pictures whilst the seating area was so empty. I love all the little details at AK.

My plan today was to try and walk more or less in one direction rather than a usual dash all over the place, so headed towards Everest next.

We stopped for a photopass photographer on the way

There’s a rare and shocking sight.... nope not Kaa, my legs in shorts!

We joined the Everest queue but as we did it jumped from a 15 minute wait to 45! We didn’t have time for that today and had plenty of turns on Everest during after hours so we bailed.

We headed towards our dinosaur FP instead.

I don’t know how I thought this was going to look, but it wasn’t like this !

Anyway we found our Dino..... with no ride photo again!

We had an Everest FP but skipped it, as it went against my walk in one direction plan.

We didn’t take so many photos this day but it was pandora next.

We used our FoP return time, used two snack credits buying pandora rice crispy “ pods” which would be useful Christmas treats for some or the kids in the family.

Then it was time for lunch and if you are near Pandora there’s only one QS choice for us!

The food was good as always! But here’s our dining plan status an hour and 20 minutes before we are meant to be on the tragical!

We headed to discovery island and redeemed 10 more snack credits on packaged sweets and chocolate. This gave us a final look at the beautiful Christmas editions

 

[Oh bother!]

We used the last two snack credits for a treat to enjoy on the way to the bus.

The bus was quick as is normally the case between AK and AKL. M retrieved the luggage whilst I exchanged our final WS meal for three more snacks.

M went to refill our mugs for the last time whilst I found room for 15 more snacks in our luggage!

Far to soon it was time to throw away the mugs (we never bring them back) and board the magical express. We collected more passengers from pop and AoA and had a smooth trip to the airport.

We flew back premium so checked in very quickly. We browsed the airport shops, including the Disney Stores just in case I hadn’t bought enough!

Security was suggesting it would be chaos with long waits but we got through in a much shorter time than they said. We changed into jeans for the flight knowing it would not be short weather when we arrived at Gatwick.

I was peckish so had a quick Burger King.

Then we were on the plane, although a perk of premium was a glass of fizz whilst everyone boarded

No falcon plane for us today though.

We had an uneventful flight but arrived to a damp, grey London.

In case you wonder what all those snack credits looked like....

 

[Oh bother!]

Final thoughts....

I miss Disney

We had a great trip and I get more and more organised with every visit meaning we get more done. I still felt we missed a few things, but nothing that important I guess.

It wasn’t until I got home and unpacked the disposable ponchos that I realised we escaped without a single drop of rain!

We absolutely loved after hours. The Christmas party was exactly what I expected, no it’s not empty but we got plenty done and the castle with fairy lights is up there with my favourite Disney memories!

So far M says we cannot come back to WDW until 2021, when I am determined to be there October 1st. We will do a couple of days in Paris though as I need my Disney fix!

Things thatI noticed this trip....

I read a lot of comments on the state of rubbish etc in the parks, I noticed guests really do behave terribly! Is putting your used trays by a bin so hard? How about not dropping stuff before you find a bin.

I also noticed an increase in selfish behaviour. This isn’t a Disney problem though!!

This trip was harder for me. Some of my pain issues have been harder to manage more recently and I did notice that, especially, after a few days I did get more exhausted. I noticed it was a lot worse than at DLR or DLP but I think that’s purely the size of Disney World! Hoping that will all be under control by 2021.

Overall we had a fab time, until we come back I’ll get my little bits of every day Disney with plenty of Disney outfits, working my way through the snacks and living vicariously through all your trip reports!

See ya real soon....

 

[MickeyCB]

Thanks for sharing, it was fun reading along!

 

[Nunu]

Glad you and M enjoyed your time at the "World". Next time, don't hesitate to say "hello"!

Thank you for sharing your trip with us.

 

[k8einwdw]

Thank you for sharing your trip with us!

 

[riverside]

Such a fun TR!! Thanks for sharing!!

 

[sheriffwoody]

I loved reading about your trip!! What's your instagram handle? I may already follow you and just don't see you in my feed. I gotta remedy that!