Trip Report ‘Tis The Season For More Disney! *COMPLETED*

Fa la la la la
la la la LA

But let’s be honest.
Which season isn’t the season for more Disney?
In 2017 I have been fortunate to experience winter, spring and summer in the world.
And now the holidays!
Since December is such a festive time of year at the parks, I think two trips are in order....don’t you?

Trip #1
Cast: Tuvalu and Em
When: December 1-4, 2017
Where: Port Orleans Riverside
Why: A Jingle BAM Birthday 2.0

Join us as we attend our first MVMCP, wander around World Showcase like a couple of newbies, meet a forum friend and intentionally watch LOTS of fireworks....did we get to Illuminations this year?

You’ll have to wait and see.

 

[Tuvalu]

@LadyBelle first on the buzzer and correct!
One cinnamon bun for you!

BUT....

@MegRuss626 has photographic evidence!
A cinnamon bun plus a rose cupcake!!

Winnings paid the next time you see me in the MK.

 

[riverside]

Em and I felt the same way. A summer mixer (see what I did there?!) is definitely in the plans!

Looking forward to it!!

 

[riverside]

Ahhh....gotcha. I’m on the opposite end. We live in Avella (near Star Lake/Post Gazette Pavilion/First Niagara Pavilion/whatever it is now pavilion lol) It is DEF worth the road trip!

I still call it Star Lake all these years later!!(just like when the Civic Arena changed to the Mellon Arena-I still called it the Civic Arena)! I really have to like a band to go there though. One way in & the same way out—the traffic(mixed in with the rush hour traffic on the parkway going out) drives me nuts!! A family friend lives in Burgettstown right behind Star Lake & cringes all summer bc of the concerts!
When I make the road trip to the ice cream parlor I’ll let you know. Maybe we could meet up!!

 

[MegRuss626]

I still call it Star Lake all these years later!!(just like when the Civic Arena changed to the Mellon Arena-I still called it the Civic Arena)! I really have to like a band to go there though. One way in & the same way out—the traffic(mixed in with the rush hour traffic on the parkway going out) drives me nuts!! A family friend lives in Burgettstown right behind Star Lake & cringes all summer bc of the concerts!
When I make the road trip to the ice cream parlor I’ll let you know. Maybe we could meet up!!

Oh, it will always be Star Lake! I don’t mind the concerts there as long as I have seats (my husband and I have decided that at 31, we are just too old to mess with the lawn!) and splurge the $30 for preferred parking (makes it a slightly less terrible headache getting out). And yes, def let me know! WDWmagic meet up in Canonsburg, PA! I don’t know that I’ve discovered any others close to us (@fractal and @prfctlyximprct are in PA I think but on the other side?)

 

[Tuvalu]

Saturday, con’t

Birthday girl got to pick the first attraction of the day.

She’s a softie for Winnie just like me!
We always look around in the Hundred Acre Wood gift store afterwards, now that we have Tuvalette (and soon Tuvaleen) to shop for. I do wish this store carried adult Pooh apparel like it used to!

A quick glance at the Peter Pan standby sign (70 minutes) determined that our next attraction would be:

Practically #ShirleyStatus!

While on the Happiest Cruise That Ever Sailed (which DID display our names at the end ) I checked the app for wait times. The Wildest Ride in the Wilderness was showing a mere 15 minutes so we hoofed it over there next.

This line made us nervous but in reality in moved pretty quickly, since most of the queue inside was not in use.

I was so pleased to get this shot as we waited.

It’s been a long time since we’ve waited in the room with the bird cages. The Police song, Canary in a Coal Mine kept playing over and over in my head.

I could feel you with us, @Longers!

We had a BTMRR fastpass for later, but I decided to swap it out. FP pickins were slim, since it was Pop Warner/Cheerleader weekend.

 

[Longers]

Saturday, con’t

Birthday girl got to pick the first attraction of the day.
View attachment 254483
She’s a softie for Winnie just like me!
We always look around in the Hundred Acre Wood gift store afterwards, now that we have Tuvalette (and soon Tuvaleen) to shop for. I do wish this store carried adult Pooh apparel like it used to!

A quick glance at the Peter Pan standby sign (70 minutes) determined that our next attraction would be:
View attachment 254484
Practically #ShirleyStatus!

While on the Happiest Cruise That Ever Sailed (which DID display our names at the end ) I checked the app for wait times. The Wildest Ride in the Wilderness was showing a mere 15 minutes so we hoofed it over there next.

View attachment 254485
This line made us nervous but in reality in moved pretty quickly, since most of the queue inside was not in use.

I was so pleased to get this shot as we waited.
View attachment 254486

It’s been a long time since we’ve waited in the room with the bird cages. The Police song, Canary in a Coal Mine kept playing over and over in my head.
View attachment 254487

I could feel you with us, @Longers!
View attachment 254488

Great picture of BTMRR! One day I’ll get to ride it with you!

 

[Tuvalu]

Great picture of BTMRR! One day I’ll get to ride it with you!

I look forward to it!!!

 

[Longers]

I look forward to it!!!

Me too - I am going to try to keep track of how many times you ride it this year! - as this report is from Dec your still on zero! :

 

[Tuvalu]

On to our first FP.

I’d selected our fastpasses before buying tickets to MVMCP and even after I knew we’d be going to the party, I wasn’t sure which attractions we would get to do.

So though we’d ridden only 12 hours prior we found ourselves back here:

The “fast” pass was actually a “medium” pass since the line was backed up and moved slooowly.

GO DAWGS!!
Em actually has this shirt. I’m sure the gal in front of us was wearing it because the SEC Championship game was that night. Georgia beat Auburn which sent the Bulldogs to the Rose Bowl.....and a victory over Oklahoma State! (A nail-biting, anxiety-laden game I might add.) Now we face Alabama for the National Championship on Monday....Georgia fans need the bragging rights a victory would bring!!
(I figure if @Matty30 and @Doc Disney....among others....can discuss football in their TRs so can I! )

The sandman always makes us smile...coal eyes, mouth and a banana nose!

Our skipper was very funny and kept the puns coming quickly.
“Ladies and gentlemen....the one, the only....Jingle Bell Rock!”
“Oh look, here’s my apartment....sorry it’s a little plane.”
“Be very quiet and you can hear the humbugs.....bah, bah, bah!”

Later, Sam-ta!

I made Em take a picture of the chalkboard because it cracked me up.

 

[Tuvalu]

The extra time we spent at Jingle Cruise worked in our favor because by the time we exited our FP window for Pirates was open. For some reason I can’t find our Photopass picture but we were in the last row and unlikely we’d be recognizable anyway.

Birthday girl chose Columbia Harbor House for lunch. We decided to try mobile ordering since the park was pretty busy. It ended up being an excellent decision, as the line to order food was out the door when we arrived. We only waited 5 minutes to pick up our food.

The Megan and Mary special ~ chicken nuggets and fries.

Whenever I receive cole slaw when eating out, I have one taste and then it usually ends up in the trash. This cole slaw was magically delicious!

Em was able to snag a window table.

This was our view while we ate ~

It was a great spot for people-watching! We lingered quite a while.

 

[riverside]

Oh, it will always be Star Lake! I don’t mind the concerts there as long as I have seats (my husband and I have decided that at 31, we are just too old to mess with the lawn!) and splurge the $30 for preferred parking (makes it a slightly less terrible headache getting out). And yes, def let me know! WDWmagic meet up in Canonsburg, PA! I don’t know that I’ve discovered any others close to us (@fractal and @prfctlyximprct are in PA I think but on the other side?)

I like the lawn b/c it's good for people watching--& let me tell you I've seen some sights over the years!! I always get the preferred parking too-I learned the hard way after not getting out of there until 1:30 once when I was parked way in the back!!
I believe they are on the other side of the state. That will have to be a summer meet up for sure--with as cold as it is I can't think about ice cream right now!!

 

[Tuvalu]

“I’d like to go to Big Top Souvenirs,” said Birthday Girl.

No objections from me!

We came upon a lonely Photopass CM on our way there.

Lumiere was shocked that we did not dine at BOG....a favorite place for lunch....especially at Christmas....

It wasn’t for lack of an ADR....I found one....but Birthday Girl had wanted to be spontaneous for her bday lunch.

Big Top Souvenirs had the cutest holiday items. Em was immediately drawn to Goofy.

Look at him!

We didn’t buy him since we were tight on space in our carry-ons. I figured I could buy Goofy when I returned with Woody (who travels with a large suitcase) and surprise Em with him (as a thank you for caring for Poly and Kona.)

Spoiler alert: Apparently we weren’t the only ones who wanted Goofy. There wasn’t a Goofy to be found anywhere on property a couple weeks later.

You know it’s a busy day when standby for Little Mermaid is 45 minutes at 12:30 pm.

The BTMRR FP swap I made sure came in handy!

 

[Tuvalu]

Our original plan for the afternoon was to hop over to AK to see the Christmas tree and ride the Safari (or something else) with our 4th FP.

Silly me, thinking there would be FP availability for afternoon Safari ride....

....or anything else! The only FPs available were evening times for Dinosaur, Primeval Whirl, ITTBAB and RoL. Standby for the Safari was currently 90 minutes. Wait times for Pandora were absurd.

It made no sense to travel to a crowded park when we were already IN a crowded park. Plus the temperature was already a toasty 81 degrees and AK always feels 10 degrees warmer than it actually is....

So we went for a ride on the MPB instead.

Then we posed for a purple wall birthday selfie....

....followed by an over-exposed hub shot.

Festival of Fantasy was due to start soon and we decided to leave MK before getting caught in parade traffic. A POR bus was waiting for us and we were back at the resort in no time. We disembarked at the South Depot so we could check out Fulton’s gift store and grab a drink in the food court.

We liked this Goofy too!

Back in our room, Em took a short nap while I booked a couple of bounce back offers with a friendly and funny CM. We both freshened up for dinner before summoning Uber to whisk us to our destination.

Can you guess where we were going?

 

[12in12]

California Grill?

 

[LadyBelle]

@LadyBelle first on the buzzer and correct!
One cinnamon bun for you!

Winnings paid the next time you see me in the MK.

Woohoo!! I’ll hold you to it. Now, what are your dates again?

 

[blreinsel]

@LadyBelle first on the buzzer and correct!
One cinnamon bun for you!

BUT....

@MegRuss626 has photographic evidence!
A cinnamon bun plus a rose cupcake!!

Winnings paid the next time you see me in the MK.

Dang... I should have been quicker with an answer!

Whenever I receive cole slaw when eating out, I have one taste and then it usually ends up in the trash. This cole slaw was magically delicious!

I'm the same way and LOVED CHH's variation.


My guess is also Cali Grill.. and since photo evidence seems to win extra prizes...

 

[Matt and Kelly]

On to our first FP.

I’d selected our fastpasses before buying tickets to MVMCP and even after I knew we’d be going to the party, I wasn’t sure which attractions we would get to do.

So though we’d ridden only 12 hours prior we found ourselves back here:
View attachment 254489

The “fast” pass was actually a “medium” pass since the line was backed up and moved slooowly.
View attachment 254490
GO DAWGS!!
Em actually has this shirt. I’m sure the gal in front of us was wearing it because the SEC Championship game was that night. Georgia beat Auburn which sent the Bulldogs to the Rose Bowl.....and a victory over Oklahoma State! (A nail-biting, anxiety-laden game I might add.) Now we face Alabama for the National Championship on Monday....Georgia fans need the bragging rights a victory would bring!!
(I figure if @Matty30 and @Doc Disney....among others....can discuss football in their TRs so can I! )

The sandman always makes us smile...coal eyes, mouth and a banana nose!
View attachment 254491

View attachment 254492

Our skipper was very funny and kept the puns coming quickly.
“Ladies and gentlemen....the one, the only....Jingle Bell Rock!”
“Oh look, here’s my apartment....sorry it’s a little plane.”
“Be very quiet and you can hear the humbugs.....bah, bah, bah!”

Later, Sam-ta!
View attachment 254493

I made Em take a picture of the chalkboard because it cracked me up.
View attachment 254494

More football talk the better!

 

[SHP]

She was so sweet to remember Em’s birthday and brought her a chocolate bar from her hometown.
View attachment 254099

Em, did you love the Sarris candy? I grew up just a few miles from the factory and no other chocolate can compare for me.

 

[12in12]

Are you trying to steal my prize @blgauger ?
In fairness you would be able to collect a lot quicker then me.

 

[Tuvalu]

Woohoo!! I’ll hold you to it. Now, what are your dates again?

Next trip’s in April.