Trip Report A Grand and Very Merry Birthday at WDW! A DECEMBER 2017 VISIT! (UPDATED 5/15)

Ears to Disney · Apr 25, 2018

An early morning, this is usually how we start off our Disney visits. We got up around 2AM to get ourselves ready to head to the airport. We had decided to drive ourselves for this trip and park at the economy parking lot since it was so close to Christmas. Our return flight would be arriving in the very early morning of Christmas Eve and we did not want to keep our families away from sleep and preparations to cart us back and forth. We had not used the economy lot at the Buffalo airport before, so it was a new experience for us. We wanted to get there early enough to make sure that we would be able to get a shuttle to the departure gate. We arrived at the lot at 3AM and there was a shuttle there waiting to take guests over to the departure gate. Guess we did not need to get there as early as we did, but it was better to be safe than sorry! The only thing we had to contend with now was the long wait before our 5:15AM flight.

The Buffalo Airport is a small airport and they tend to not have too many early flights out, therefore they do not open up the restaurants until 5AM…and we were HUNGRY! Good thing I packed some Christmas cookies from a wonderful co-worker! Breakfast of Champions! Or the “Elf Diet” as I had called another day during our visit. Before we knew it, we were boarding the plane, and we were off! Next Stop…Orlando!

Sfy8aPr8IlRKMzk3cw89ET1mCy6c4ByAv9ymWol85uO6c0CQ5u364jgqAnGu7BcEkoxl9iRao-4S3R3I343ntQgwHmUoWTtzVM60chAi3MBNGehG-SXz4P4OB88kLmgK2zoS_FkLhSqYUYLRcEX-BXmMtFgv7hqgpEpF3UZX7GmQ0nDlwfX0ZkH4YxAXFnrR7ny7vcWWloOscK7fmv4Hwlxng2LJfWR0pxaF5ehmpkfJVUsbxa7scqFhp9dOrNo0dN-pTbSfCHZkq7fmc97kwSMmVTLaKtTLc-9gOvgo2XxkkK2CEJDB4WDBf1w2EDNbuEWKlhwaQEEsS44Q_QKa35jUDBaPCDLzWPRK9Z8BTWbVATx5-pIeEDn5WTo0RXbGjC4N6FMwBBn1tqHAKuyY3psvQ3uQc12QApgphIm-sqc9zDpZrRbsgmXxmoEO_VA_lsPAQLs5euZN7VAWD1gWdS7KgWU3MBYJZ08ouPABD9puUTR853SywYhzR-L3R4WoHnw1OJBne-D8yPrV2nFAV-Qx5bSQS28cLQbOHlW-AeRVLW0RgciIVJomEcVLztxGRPefcnm8caiFrVNYgnIyhsv6aUa3foOtEAK_4DY=w620-h826-no

The flight was early to arrive and smooth, like many other Southwest flights we have been on. This is why we keep flying with them. Nothing beats arriving at MCO earlier than anticipated! When we arrived we made our way down to the Magical Express, boarded a bus right away, and in about 10 minutes, we were headed to the most Magical Place on Earth! I was super excited to be arriving at the Grand Floridian, and actually staying there! It took awhile for it to sink in.

When we arrived, our room was not yet ready, but HAKUNA MATATA! We were on our way to DAK! We changed out of our pants from cold and snowy Buffalo and put on our shorts, stored our luggage with Bell Service, and made our way over to the buses.

On the way to the buses, we had to stop in to the main building at the Grand Floridian to catch a glimpse of the tree, gingerbread house, and of course get my Birthday button. On the way out we stopped to talk to Richard for a little while, wishing him a Merry Christmas! I did not get to take a picture with him though as our FP for Na’vi River Journey was fast approaching. Good thing we parted when we did, the line to get on the buses was INSANE! A very nice CM was there talking to each guest in the line stating that the Monorail was down and they were busing those from the Monorail over to the TTC and MK. For our “inconvenience” we were able to get an anytime FP for the park in which we were headed to. Of course they couldn’t be used for any Pandora attractions, but that’s OK!

Not too long after, a bus pulled up for DAK. We boarded and were on our way! It was weird not starting our visit out at MK, but on shorter visits, sometimes things have to be switched around a bit. We were in Disney and living it up, so all was good!

When we arrived at DAK, we headed straight for Pandora. We were able to look around a bit before getting in the FP queue for Na’vi and Oh. My. Goodness. Pandora is beautiful! It was our first time visiting since it opened and we were anxiously awaiting our arrival to the Valley or Mo’ara! It was definitely worth the wait! Our first thought was, “WOW! Look at the detail in everything!” The second thought was, “The area is kind of smaller than we had imagined it to be.” It seems as if the attractions take up a lot of room in the area.

The FP line was not long at all for Na’vi and soon after entering, we boarding our boat for our journey. I was on sensory overload! There was so much to look at, so many special effects, and the animatronic of the Shaman of Songs was amazingly fluid! The ride does not really have a “story”, but rather just takes you through this made up world. As with everything in Disney, make sure you are looking up!

After our ride on Na’vi, we were super hungry! We only had some Christmas cookies for breakfast after all! I had heard really good things about the Cheeseburger Pods at Satu’li Canteen so we decided to check it out! The restaurant itself is very nice inside. There is a lot of seating and the menu options are cool because they are different. The Cheeseburger Pods were just fine, Dan and I felt that they needed to add a little something to the meat because it was a little bland. Maybe it was just a bad batch. I would definitely give them another try. I always feel that way with Disney restaurants because you never know when it could be an off day or a bad batch of something. The star of the show came after our meal. We headed over to Pongu Pongu to grab the infamous “Night Blossom”. It was delicious, albeit very sweet. The Boba Balls were a nice touch on the top as well. They were fun to suck up through the straw! HAHA!

Stay tuned for more from our first day!

Ears to Disney · May 3, 2018

That anytime FP was burning a hole in our…erm…Magic Band, so we decided to go use it on EE! Of course we had to stop and take some pictures from across the river.

“I don’t think you’re ready, for this YETI!” I had told Dan. HAHA! Soon our train left the station and we were headed up the mountain.

We had a close call with the Yeti, but we had managed to escape its grasp. We decided to head over for another encounter…Dinosaur! I have always loved this ride because I love Dinosaurs and the era’s in which the inhabited the earth. I am a History person so any type of History fascinates me. You can tell the Christmas crowds were in full swing because the wait was INSANE! The line stretched the longest I have ever seen. We had an hour or so until our Safari FP so we decided to just wait it out. It moved a long well and we got to see the whole spiel in the queue in the main part of the building. I didn’t even know that this T-Rex was on the side of the building because I had only ever walked right in!

Oh…and WE MADE IT!! HAHA!

Next up, Safari! I did not take any photos because it is hard to juggle the “vloggie” (This is what we call our vlogging camera) and the phone. We had a great guide and he was very knowledgeable. I enjoy when there is a holding pattern out on the safari and the guide talks through it and finds other things to point out, you know you have a good one when that happens!

Since it was approaching 4PM and we still had not heard anything about our room yet, we decided to head back to the Grand and check to see if we could get a room soon. We were in need of a little relaxation since we had been up since 2AM. I mean, I don’t expect to get too much sleep in Disney, but we still had a night of fun ahead of us! ☺
We made it back to the Grand, stopped into the main building to go to the check–in desk to inquire about our room. We had done online check-in…or so we thought! When the CM looked up our reservation he said we had not been checked in yet so our Online Check-in must not have worked. OK. No biggie, but I have been hearing from a few people that theirs did not work either. Strange. So we were now officially “checked in” and we were off to the Villa building to our room. We had located our room and were getting so excited!! I tapped my MB, Mickey to Mickey, and………….Red light. Tried it again……………..Red light! Dan then tried his MB……………RED LIGHT! He tried it again………………….RED LIGHT!!! UGH! Dan being the sweet Husband he is, told me to wait there with the bags and he would go down and see what was going on. About 20 minutes later, Dan emerged. Mickey to Mickey…..green light! AND WE’RE IN! We decided to get the 2BR Villa for the special occasion, really for the huge soaker tub in the bathroom! LOL! I guess you only turn 30 once right? We used a good chunk of our DVC points for it, but it was worth it! The view alone was just beautiful! We could not really see the castle, but we could see Space Mountain, the Poly and Bungalows, BLT and the Contemporary. I could stay in this room forever! ....but, we had a very fun meet up to attend!

We got ourselves together and headed down to the boats. We walked through the lobby to get there and saw something so magical! Mickey and Minnie were meeting in the lobby in front of the tree decked out in their Victorian Christmas Finery! It was the cutest thing! Had the line not be stretched to infinity we would have got in it. See ya real soon Minnie and Mickey! Let’s finally make our way to MK!

We love boat rides on Bay Lake and Seven Seas Lagoon. It is definitely our favorite mode of transportation. We made our way down to the boat dock and were on our way to MK. We have arrived! The MK at Christmastime is just fantastic. The sights, the sounds, the pretty decorations. I can’t get enough. We have been able to visit every year since 2014 and some point during the Christmas season and I really have no plans of stopping this tradition. This was our first time using the security lines that are as you get off the boat and we have to say we like this a lot better because there are not as many people at a time going through. Much better crowd control. They have them at the resorts before you get on the Monorail now and also at the TTC. The only weird thing that we had found is that you go through security at the TTC before the Epcot Monorail, but also you get filtered into the normal security line when you get into Epcot. This must not have figured this one out yet.

We had plans to meet up with a few fellow vloggers who we have been friends with for a few years, but never have been able to meet them in person. They are “The Brookhart Project” on YouTube and they have moved from Chicago to Florida almost a year ago. Peter and Sarah are such great people and we were so glad that we were finally able to meet them and that we can call them friends. We spent the whole night with them, just walking around MK and watching HEA. This was mine and Dan’s first time seeing it and we LOVED it! I am still a hard core Wishes fan and that will never change, but HEA is great!

There was EMH at MK tonight, but we just couldn’t make it. We were so tired! Peter and Sarah had headed out and we decided to get some Casey’s for a late dinner (since we never really had anything to eat since Satu’li Canteen at lunch time). Casey’s is a first night tradition for us so we definitely had to get some. There were absolutely NO tables around Casey’s on this crazy busy night so of course we headed to the Hub Grass with our tray.

After we ate, we dragged ourselves away from the beauty of the Castle and headed for the boats. When we got back to our room, we were so tired. I think I just stood there in the shower for a long time before actually moving. We collapsed on the bed and we quickly fell asleep to Stacey giving us the “Must Dos”!

STAY TUNED FOR DAY 2!!

Ears to Disney · May 15, 2018

Hello everyone! Hope everyone is having a great day! Just wanted to strike up some conversation with everyone! :joyfull:

- What is your trip countdown? (We are at 164 Days, unless I convince Dan to take a long weekend visit for Toy Story Land opening. :happy:

We will be driving down from Buffalo and staying for two weeks! We are staying at FW Cabins for the first week and we are staying at AKL - Jambo House for the second week!)

- Have you ever visited Disneyland Resort? (We finally got to go in January 2018 and absolutely LOVED it!)

- What is your favorite WDW Resort? (Ours is WL followed closely by AKL!)

- What is your favorite WDW Restaurant? (We LOVE Trail's End for Breakfast. It is our "Must Do" every visit. We are excited that we are going twice during our October/November visit!)

- Have you ever worked at WDW? (We have not, but I would love to some day!)

- What is your favorite time to visit WDW? (Ours is definitely Christmas time! WDW is so magical at Christmas!)

Have a great week everyone! I will be back with the start of our second day soon! :joyfull:

Trip Report A Grand and Very Merry Birthday at WDW! A DECEMBER 2017 VISIT! (UPDATED 5/15)

Ears to Disney

Well-Known Member

Attachments

Ears to Disney

Well-Known Member

Ears to Disney

Well-Known Member