Trip Report It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas! *COMPLETED*

The soothing croon of Michael Bublé kept reverberating in my mind as I pondered starting yet another trip report. Like summer, the Christmas season makes me happy. Going to WDW during the Christmas season makes me VERY HAPPY. The joy of sharing my trips with my WDWMAGIC friends makes me happier still. Thank you for the encouragement to keep on writing!

Holiday Vacation #1
When: November 16-23, 2019
Where: Disney’s Pop Century Resort and Disney’s Wilderness Lodge
Who: Tuvalu and Woody

Looky! I finally got a Magic Shot!

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Okay, so it’s a bit creepy. But it leaves no doubt that this was a CHRISTMAS trip.

In mid-November. :hilarious:

But hey, we had Halloween in August!

And yours truly was very excited to experience Christmas decor at the resorts and in 3 of the 4 parks. (Epcot was still in full “Food and Wine” mode.) It wasn’t always this festive in November. We’ve been this same week in the past and outside of MK, there was very little decorating completed. I was so disappointed the year we stayed at WL (very close to turkey day) and missed out on the holiday stuff. I was worried the same thing would happen again. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

Woody, on the other hand, is a “Let’s celebrate Thanksgiving before shifting our focus to Christmas” kind of guy. Growing up, his family did not put up their tree until CHRISTMAS EVE. (Can you imagine?!!) Over the years he has mellowed, thanks to my influence, and better tolerates the Christmas creep. Yet I was concerned that his inner Scrooge might reveal itself during this vacation.

I needn’t have worried. But I’m getting ahead of myself again.

Our week consisted of some new experiences and old experiences....some frustrations....some drama (of course!)....and a very magical meet.

Stay tuned.
 
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Rista1313

Rista1313

Well-Known Member
Tuvalu said:
You are very kind....and as they say in baseball, “good eye!” I was just as surprised to see a close-up of my mother on Great Christmas Light Fight. (Although I knew she was at the taping last year. She told me all about it and was especially excited to meet Carter Oosterhouse.)
Merry Christmas to you and your family! 🎄⭐
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Do you know which episode? We've only watched the first one so far, and I want to keep my eye out for her!
 
Tuvalu

Tuvalu

Premium Member
Original Poster
Monday, November 18

This post is dedicated to @93boomer, @DisneyGigi and @MissViv who inquired about the noise level in our room.

We had no complaints for the first 36 hours. No footsteps above us, no flushing toilets, no conversation leaks from adjoining rooms and no runners-by outside our room. In fact we hadn’t even given noise a thought because there wasn’t any.

Until 5:45 this morning.

Now it is not unusual for me to be awake at that early hour, except I had spent a restless night and had finally drifted off around 4. So I was startled from my slumber by LOUD chatter in BOTH rooms next to ours. It felt like I was back in my college dorm and everyone around me was partying. To make matters worse, fifteen minutes later both parties left their rooms and stood directly outside our window and carried on their conversations...now with each other! I can only assume they were traveling together and were up early for EMH. But they were incredibly thoughtless in not considering that others in the vicinity were sleeping!

Bottom line ~ if you have inconsiderate noisy neighbors, you will hear them regardless of what resort (value, moderate or deluxe) you are staying at.

The unfortunate thing was we had no plans to rope drop and were just gonna take our time before heading out. Thanks to noisy neighbors, we had plenty of time to be lazy. :rolleyes:

We breakfasted in the room and I booked a bounce back offer for spring. We left the room around 9 am and were welcomed by a complete cluster at the bus depot. Though there were two buses at the MK stop (one of which was a bendy bus) there were SO MANY PEOPLE and the line snaked in chaos. Woody quickly estimated that there would still be one (possibly two) more buses needed to accommodate the waiting guests.

We looked at each other and had the same thought. NO WAY.

Instead we turned around to find a DHS driver standing outside a brand new bus. The bus was empty. He was killing time. Apparently everyone heading for DHS had chosen the Skyliner.

Woody and I climbed aboard our private bus. It had that “new bus smell.” We were marveling at the new features (like charging ports) and as I started to take a picture the driver offered to take one of us. He was excited to have passengers!

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#ShirleyStatus secured, the driver pulled the bus away and we quickly arrived at DHS. Once there, we found the MK gate and waited briefly for our transfer. The whole trip took less time than if we had stayed at Pop and waited in the sea of humanity for our chance to board.

But we had yet to face the (temporary) security screening. :banghead:

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Well one of us did. Woody was able to sail through the No Bags side.

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MK has surpassed Epcot for worst security check.

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These walls aren’t helping, that’s for sure!

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