After reading others trip reports and enjoying looking at all the wonderful pictures i have decided to write my own trip report. I am fairly new to Disney and took my first trip this past December with my boyfriend and our 3 year old son. We had started planning for this trip in 2008 and came across WDW magic which helped in all of my planning.
Making the trip happen was a lot of hard work. My boyfriend is a franchisse of a convenience store where i work as well. Even though we can set our own schedule we had to line up reliable and trustworthy staff and find someone to take care of things while we were gone so we would know things were taken care of and we wouldn't have to worry too much while on vacation. This was only our second vacation away from the store since we started with the store in 2003. So we were due!
My boyfriend let me do all the planning. I decided on everything we did and where we ate. I had to check out all the menues for the restaurants because my boyfriend is a very picky eater as well he is a complainer. I wanted him to have a good time and not find anything to complain about. I chose the first week of December so we could see all the Christmas decorations and i read the crowds were low at this time. I chose All Star Movies because my son is a huge Toy Story fan and i knew he would enjoy seeing the larger then life Buzz and Woody.We got the free quick service dining plan but i upgraded to the regular dining plan so we could do some character meals
Now if someone could help me out and explain how to post pictures on here i will be all set.
Cohen loved the clam shells and wanted to go on it again so Chris took him again. I waited on a bench by the exit. While i was waiting i took a few pics of this little guy.
We went to the Land next. We didn't do Soarin because Cohen wasn't tall enough yet. We did do Living with the Land and The Circle of Life which i found both to be very interesting and informative. By this time we were getting hungry and decided to head back to the resort for lunch and have a nap because we were still pretty tired from the full day we had before. We had another day planned for Epcot later on in the week.
When we got back to our room we found this waiting in our window from Mousekeeping.
Later on while we were having a nap we awoke to a loud bang. I guess we found a way to take the balloon home afterall.
After our nap we got ready for dinner. We had tickets to Mickey's Backyard BBQ. Despite some negative reviews i booked anyways. I wanted to try it out for myself.We took the boat over from Magic Kingdom. We got there early which was great because we got to get some pictures taken with the characters. We had really great seats up by the dance floor. The food was great and i went up several times. Chris really enjoyed the show because he's a big country music fan, i loved the Christmas songs and Cohen liked the rope tricks. Cohen was a little shy to dance with the characters but me and him got up a few times to dance. We had a really great time and i really want to go back again on our next trip.
We headed out at 7:00am to catch the bus to Hollywood Studios. Luckily a bus came right alonng and we got there at like 7:30. We had breakfast reservations for 8:00 at Hollywood & Vine. I was so relieved we wouldn't be late for these reservations. Cohen was quite shy of the characters here except for Special agent OSO and i realized it was probably because Handy Manny, June and Leo all look like poeple where all the other characters were animals. He warmed up to them near the end though. What a great breakfast. Large variety and we got sit right close to the buffet. They also put on a great show and we found it very entertaining. This was Chris's favorite restaurant on the trip.
When we finished breakfast it was 9:05 and i wanted to go get fast passes for Toy Story. I couldn't believe the crowd of people already in the park and the line just for fast passes was rediculously long so i decided to try after. I didn't want to wait too long though because i was scared there wouldn't be any left. We ran into some characters and decided to take some pictures.
I headed back over to see how the fast pass lane was doing and i noticed no one was there. I was scared we missed our chance. Luckily there were still some available for 5:45. Wow what a wait.Oh well i was just glad to get some. it seems to be a very popular ride. We noticed Voyage of the Little Mermaid was ggoing to start in 5 minutes so we decided to do that first. I was so excited because The Little Mermaid is my favorite Disney Movie.
What a great show. We didn't really have a plan for this day, we decided to just walk around and take in things along the way that interested us.
We decided to try out the Backlot Tour. The special affects at the beginning was great for keeping Cohen's intrest but the rest was kind of boring for him and he whined almost the whole time. Except when we saw the truck. He liked the truck. We probably won't do the Backlot Tour on a future visit.
We had lunch at Pizza Planet. It was really loud and busy. Cohen started to get really cranky so i took him outside to find a table while Chris got our food. I found a really quiet corner where we wouldn't bother anyone.
After we ate i took Cohen to the Honey I Shrunk the Kids movie Set Adventure. I let him run around and play so he would tire himself out.Chris went over to watch The Lights Motor Action Extreme stunt Show. I let Cohen play awhile then got him in his stroller and he fell right asleep. So i took a little walk around waiting for Chris to get back. When Chris got back we just walked around and headed over to find a spot for Block Party Bash. We positioned our self not realizing we were right under a speaker. Boy was it loud. As loud as it was Cohen didn't wake up once. He slept through the whole thing. He tired himself out good.
We had reservations for 4:00 at Sci-Fi. I was really excited about this because i knew Cohen would love sitting ina car and eating food. He was cranky at first because he had just woken up but he finally came around. The big hit for him was the souvineer cup with the light up Buzz. I had onion rings which were delicious and we had a great experience. I fogot to mention earlier that my son has a peanut allergy and at all the restaurants we went to except for the BBQ, the chef would come out before hand and let us know which items were safe and which ones to avoid. I thought this was a great help because it was something i was worried about.
It was time to use our Fast Passes for Toy Story. I see why this ride is so popular. It was so much fun. I wish we had of had a chance to do it again.
The final score. Cohen's is on the left, mine on the right. I don't remember Chris's score but i know he beat us.
After Toy Story we headed over to Playhouse Disney Live On stage. I didn't want Cohen to miss out on this. What a great show. even Chris liked it. Now during our Character meets Cohen noticed that they never talked, he just though they were shy. Well when the puppets came out talking and singing he got so excied. He started laughing and yelling "They're talking, they're talking" over and over again. And jumping up and down. People thought this was hilarious and they couldn't stop laughing at him. I finally got him calmed down. But thats all he talked about the rest of the trip about how the characters finally talked.
Before we left the park we went to check out the Osbornes Spectacle of dancing Lights. I was so glad i chose December to come. Seeing all the Christmas decorations was great. The lights were unbelievable!
On our way out of the park we noticed Buzz and Woody. and even though the line seemed long we decided to wait anyways. Cohen is a huge Toy Story fan and he never got to meet them yet. We waited in line for like an hour and when it was finally our turn Cohen changed his mind and got scared and shy. So me and Chris got our pictures with them.
By our fourth day the weather started to change and became cool. We had to put on our sweaters for touring. We had 8:00 breakfast reservations for Donalds Safari Breakfast. I really enjoyed my time here. The food was delicious. Cohen loved getting to see Daisy. I can't wait to go back here again.
Goofy was being silly and tryin to cover Cohen's face.
Right after breakfast we headed to the Safaris. I had read that the animals are most active in the morning so i wanted to do this first. What a bumpy ride but very enjoyable.
I couldn't get very many pictures because the ride was so bumpy. i was scared my camera was going to fly out of my hand. After the Safaris we took a walk around the Pangani Exploration Trail.
Then we tried out Kali River Rapids. I had some ponchos in my backpack but we weren't thinking and left the backpack with the stroller. When we got down there we seen everyone wearing their ponchos. I was going to run back and get them but Chris told me to never mind. Well we got drenched. Luckily the sun came out to dry us off but it was still chilly. And i was wearing jeans so of course i stayed wet almost until it was time to leave.
We passed by Everest because Cohen wasn't quite tall enough to ride yet and i don't think he would have wanted to if he could. He found Goofys barnstormer scary. We went to Dinoland for a bit until the next showing of Finding Nemo. Finding Nemo was a great show. We sat right by the bar so they were always running in front of us.
Its good you got so many pictures of toon down fair since it is now saddly :lookaroun gone. You stayed at all star movies?> Did you like it i have been there a good 9 times since 2008 but ALWAYS stay at pop centry. This is my honey moon so i thought i was make it special and change it up. I am in a preffered room in 101 dalmations.
After Finding Nemo we went and got some lunch. We ate at Restaurantosaurus. What a nice little place. I loved how they served Cohen's meal in a pail that he got to take home with him. We had to wait forever in line though. This woman in front of us was ordering for a team or something and she was paying for each meal indiviually which took an awfully long time.
After lunch we stayed in Dinoland for a bit then went to A Bugs Life. What a great show. I was so surprised near the end when it feels like bugs crawling under your bum that i screamed.
We then went looking for a place to watch Mickey;s Jingle Jungle parade. we found a nice shadey place and sat down. There was no one in front of us so we had a great view of the whole thing.
After the parade we went back to the resort and had some supper. We then went to Downtown Disney for awhile but we didn't stay long because Cohen was getting cranky so we called it a night and went to bed early.
Such a great report! For a first-timer you got a lot of great reservations. Donald's Safari Breakfast is a favorite of my family, too. Looooved the shy picture of Cohen when you and your bf got pics w/Buzz & Woody. That was just adorable. He's such a little cutie!
Its good you got so many pictures of toon down fair since it is now saddly :lookaroun gone. You stayed at all star movies?> Did you like it i have been there a good 9 times since 2008 but ALWAYS stay at pop centry. This is my honey moon so i thought i was make it special and change it up. I am in a preffered room in 101 dalmations.
We had a preffered room in the Fantasia building. I liked where are room was located and it's a very nice resort. The only thing i didn't like was the tranportation. You share a bus with the other 2 all star resorts and we were always the last to get on and the last to get off.
Today chris wanted to do The Richard Petty Driving Experience. Just the ride-a-long because you didn't need reservations for that. We had no idea where we were going. I suggested a cab but Chris didn't want to. Someone told us that you can catch a shuttle from The Magic Kingdom so we got on a bus and headed over. While Chris went to information to find out about it, it stared to pour down rain. He came back all disappointed and said we were suppose to book a shuttle pick up time. He decide to scrap the idea because it seemed like a hassle to him and it was raining. So we went downtown instead. I stopped in to the Design a tee first and made Christmas Shirts for me and Cohen to wear to Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party that night. Chris didn't want one. I think he was still ina crappy mood over the Richard Petty Driving Experience. We went to One Apon a Toy. i bought Cohen one of the big Potato Heads to fill up with pieces. I think Chris had more fun with that. He spent an hour rearranging the pieces inside to fill all the gaps as best as he could. At least he was in a better mood.Then we did the Lego Store. I stayed with Cohen for awhile while he built with the lego and Chris wet somewhere to get cigars for a friend of ours. Then we headed back to the resort to have a rest before the party.
