A Very Merry December Trip Report with an Exciting Surprise!

hello everyone!! :wave: i hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season! i just returned from my trip to the world on the 17th and have finally found some time to get started on my trip report! its been an eventful month but very exciting.

here is a little background on this trip: the trip was originally to include myself, the boyfriend, my parents and my aunt and uncle and we were all going to stay at the yacht club with the deluxe dining plan (i got a 40% off resort stay pin code so i couldn't pass it up!). well, the family had to back out because my dad got a new job and couldn't justify taking a week off work when he had just started. so, now it was just me and wes (the boyfriend) booked in a resort that we normally wouldn't pay for and on the deluxe dining plan. since we had already been planning on paying all that money, i convinced wes that we treat ourselves and not switch to a less expense resort. since the next time i go with the fam we will most likely stay at the yc, i decided we should switch to the boardwalk instead. so after many emails to tammy, our wonderful kingdom konsultants agent, our trip was booked, dining reservations were made and we were ready for disney!

after booking our trip, we found out that wes' parents, grandma and grandma's boyfriend (yes, i said grandma's boyfriend :lol: ) would be in disney for part of our trip. originally we were going down dec. 12 - 17th but wes' dad suggested we come down 2 days early and stay with them for free. well i can't say no to 2 extra days at disney world! so our trip was now dec. 10 - 17th, with the first 2 nights at old key west and then on to the boardwalk.

i think that's enough explanation. now on with the trip report!


Day 1: Traveling to the World and Lots of Time Spent Waiting at DTD

so on friday december 10th, wes and i woke up around 5:15am to get ready to head to the airport. we said goodbye to our dog daisy and my aunt gave us a ride to the airport. we left the house at 6am, got to the airport at 6:08 and were sitting at our gate at 6:28am. i love living so close to the airport! :lol: we took off at 7:40am and had an uneventful flight. i basically slept the entire flight. i did manage to wake up in time to get some peanuts though! we landed a little early and were in line for dme at 9:27! we walked up to the line and a cast member came over immediately to let us on a bus.

you can see the cast member in the background coming over to let us on the bus. :lol: funny lady. we got to the okw at 10:05 and called wes' parents to see if they had checked in yet. it turns out they were still at the waffle house eating breakfast, so wes and i got in line to see if we could check in. it took us about 20 minutes to check in but we actually got there right in time because the line behind us was crazy long. our room wasn't ready so wes and i walked around the main building of the resort while we waited for his family to arrive.

 

[WishIWasAtWDW]

wes' family arrived about 10 minutes after we checked in. so we went to the lobby and chatted for a little bit while we waited for our room. well it was about 11:45 and i was starting to get pretty hungry. so i asked wes if we could go to dtd and go to the earl of sandwich! i heard such great things about the place from people on here so i really wanted to try it. so wes agreed and we took the ferry boat over to dtd. we got to dtd right at noon and made our way over to the earl of sandwich. we walked in the door over near once upon a toy and literally had to walk out the other door to stand at the end of the line. i knew the place got busy at lunchtime but dang. so we stood in line and 25 minutes later we had our food!

i got the earl's club and wes got the hawaiian bbq. we also got grapes, a fruit cup, chocolate pudding and 2 drinks. did i mention i was starving at this point? :lol:

the hawaiian bbq was soooo good! :slurp: my club was good but it didn't compare to the hawaiian bbq. mmmm so good!

while finishing up our food, wes' mom called and said they had also come over to dtd because they were tired of waiting at okw. so we headed over to the world of disney to meet up with them.

we met them in the christmas ornament section of the store. since i have an all disney christmas tree, this section of the store was bad news to my bank account :lol: i actually didn't do too much damage so i was proud of myself. i bought some of the tiny mickey ornaments that come in packs of 12 and then a little plush donald ornament.

 

[WishIWasAtWDW]

after wod, wes' grandma wanted to get a drink so we went over to raglan road. wes' dad stopped for a picture on our way over

we all wanted to go out to dinner that night but wes' family aren't big planners so they wouldn't tell me where they wanted to go so i couldn't make advance reservations. so when we got to raglan road, wes' dad suggested we eat at the rainforest cafe. so i immediately got on the phone and called to see if they would have anything available. luckily they did and we got a reservation for 7:15.

we ordered some drinks at raglan road and had a good time while we waited to get a call about our room.

me and wes

wes' grandma and her boyfriend

wes' parents

wes wanted to order one of their more unique beers and we saw some pretty interesting names. he ended up ordering the rogue dead guy but check out the title on the beer above that one. :lol:

and the label on the rogue dead guy was really interesting

 

[WishIWasAtWDW]

at 2 oclock we still hadn't heard anything so i told wes he should call okw to check. he called and they said the room still wasn't ready. at about 2:30 we decided we might as well head back to okw to wait for our room. so we took the ferry back to okw and all grabbed a seat in the lobby. slowly, all of us (except for wes) fell asleep in the lobby. :snore:

pete woke up while i was trying to take his picture. wes said he didn't want to nap because someone had to watch all of our stuff while we slept. i probably took a good 45 minute nap. finally at 4 oclock, wes' mom went up to the concierge to find out what was going on with our room. turns out our room had been ready for awhile but the system was showing that it still needed to be cleaned. wonderful. so at 4:12pm our room was finally ready!

we got to our room and the luggage wes and i had checked with dme tags still weren't in the room. so i called bell services to check to see if they made it to the resort. luckily they had and they were out on a cart with someone to deliver them. thank goodness. it is always my fear that my checked bags will go missing.

wes and i got the pull out couch so this was our room for the first 2 nights :lol:

 

[sweetpee_1993]

I loooove it!!!

First of all, :sohappy: for Grandma having a boyfriend. That's exactly what I want to be like when I grow up...er...get older...LOL!

Wes looks like his dad! Wow! See what you have to look forward to? Not bad at all, honey! ((fist bump))

Love the beer names. I think Raglan Road just made it's way onto the "to do next trip" list. I looooove me some beer...icky-pooh at all wine...so the colorful names & descriptions are riiiight up my alley! :slurp:

Nice room there. Bummer they made you wait so long. Grrrr! At least you got a nap. Naps are my friend.

Can't wait for more of your adventures... :sohappy:

 

[WishIWasAtWDW]

we were towards the outskirts of the resort and we were right on the water where the ferry boats take you to dtd

we had a little time to get settled in the room before we had to go back to dtd for our dinner at the rainforest cafe. since our reservation was at 7:15 we figured we should leave at 5:45 to make sure we had plenty of time to get there since we were taking the buses. we walked to the bus stop and saw a dtd bus just leaving. bummer. so we waited and saw every other bus except a dtd bus. isn't that always how it is though?! finally 2 dtd buses got there back to back and we got to dtd around 6:20. we decided to check in early to our reservation and we were seated at 6:40.

we were seated right by the elephants and informed of how they would make noises every 10 minutes. oh my goodness was it loud. i have never been a huge fan of the rainforest cafe and this visit verified that i wasn't missing much. here is our elephant friends that were directly behind us and you can tell wes really enjoyed their company.

service was pretty slow and our waiter was really goofy. he was very talkative but at least he was friendly. he kept telling us crazy stories every time he came to our table. they were really random stories about his life that came out of nowhere but again, at least he was friendly. :lol:

we ordered the quesadilla appetizer and they were good. nothing special but they were good.

i ordered the chicken parm which again was good but nothing special. it was a HUGE portion though! it was like i got 2 whole chickens!

wes got the pastalava which he said was good and really spicy.

dinner was good but i wouldn't go back. the prices were a little too high for what you were getting. the atmosphere is probably great for little kids but by the time we were done with dinner i was done with hearing elephants and rain storms. :lol: and who can forget that every time someone in the restaurant ordered a volcano dessert, the waiters would walk it to the table while screaming VOLCANO! by the time we got our check, pete (the grandma's boyfriend) was also screaming VOLCANO! :lol: needless to say, it was time to go.

 

[WishIWasAtWDW]

we left the rainforest cafe and went to the christmas store and then wes' fam wanted to head back to okw so his parents could go get some groceries. so wes and i hung around dtd and checked out some of the stores. i wanted to see tren-d since i hadn't seen it before. i think the decor in the store is cooler than some of the items they sell.

i loved these little dolls

after we saw tren-d, we were ready to head back to okw and get some sleep. so we caught a bus back and when we stopped at dtd westside, the driver had to switch with another driver. it seemed to take them a really long time to switch which was really weird. we got back to okw at about 9:30 and saw wes' parents just then leaving to go get groceries. so wes and i got ready for bed, assembled our pull out couch and were asleep around 10. sometime later, wes' parents returned from grocery shopping and unloaded the groceries in the kitchen which was basically where we were sleeping. wes woke up and said "what are you doing" to which his mom replied "putting groceries away" :lol: she seemed to be putting away every single water bottle they bought into the fridge and you know how crinkly water bottles are. it was pretty loud and crazy that they would need to refrigerate every single water bottle at 11 something at night but i shouldn't complain since i had a free room. and i made sure to only think these things in my head and not vocalize them :lol: oh the joys of staying with someone else's family!

that is it for day 1. more to come later. its pretty slow here at work so i should be updating a lot this week

 

[heartodisney]

Thanks for all the food pics...keep bringn' on! Great story on all the members of the trip...also..devil in the details of other pics..the Mickeys' in them!

 

[HollyBelle]

Oh please, oh please, oh please, let the surprise be what I think it is!!! :sohappy: Okay, now that I've gotten that out of my system, I was totally there the same week, 12-17. It's too bad we didn't cross paths. Or maybe we did, I'll have to start looking for us all bundled up in the background of your pictures.

...but i shouldn't complain since i had a free room. and i made sure to only think these things in my head and not vocalize them :lol: oh the joys of staying with someone else's family!

Oh my! I couldn't agree more with that statement... all of it. Sometimes it can be really hard to keep from vocalizing these things. I don't even dare do it in my own trip reports, because there's a strong possibility that someone out there is reading along! :ROFLOL:

I can't wait for more!

 

[stefan74]

Great trip report so far...can't wait to read more!

 

[Alison1975]

I'm in..great report already!!!

 

[sueuk]

Great pics and report - but hurry up with the surprise .

 

[jhoff3405]

I am sooooo jealous....seems as if I remember reading a report from September? And now Dec?
Looking forward to reading!

 

[WishIWasAtWDW]

I loooove it!!!

First of all, :sohappy: for Grandma having a boyfriend. That's exactly what I want to be like when I grow up...er...get older...LOL!

Wes looks like his dad! Wow! See what you have to look forward to? Not bad at all, honey! ((fist bump))

Love the beer names. I think Raglan Road just made it's way onto the "to do next trip" list. I looooove me some beer...icky-pooh at all wine...so the colorful names & descriptions are riiiight up my alley! :slurp:

Nice room there. Bummer they made you wait so long. Grrrr! At least you got a nap. Naps are my friend.

Can't wait for more of your adventures... :sohappy:

thanks sweetpee! :lol: props to wes' grandma for finding a boyfriend after her husband passed away last year. wes' dad was a little sad about it, but hey, if you are 80, you really can't wait that long to find a new boo. :ROFLOL:

raglan road was a cool spot to get some drinks. and yes, their beer list was very comical. if you have some time to kill, a visit to raglan road is worth the trip. its got a cool pub atmosphere and the beer descriptions alone will keep you entertained.

it was crazy how long we had to wait for our room. good thing i didn't care about taking a nap in public. i like naps too!

we had some good adventures this trip!! can't wait to write about them!

Thanks for all the food pics...keep bringn' on! Great story on all the members of the trip...also..devil in the details of other pics..the Mickeys' in them!

thanks heartodisney! there are way more food pictures in the near future. starting sunday we were on the deluxe dining plan, so we had appetizers, entrees and desserts for every meal. and you better believe i took a picture of them all!

 

[WishIWasAtWDW]

Oh please, oh please, oh please, let the surprise be what I think it is!!! :sohappy: Okay, now that I've gotten that out of my system, I was totally there the same week, 12-17. It's too bad we didn't cross paths. Or maybe we did, I'll have to start looking for us all bundled up in the background of your pictures.

Oh my! I couldn't agree more with that statement... all of it. Sometimes it can be really hard to keep from vocalizing these things. I don't even dare do it in my own trip reports, because there's a strong possibility that someone out there is reading along! :ROFLOL:

I can't wait for more!

thanks holly! you will just have to wait and see if you are correct in your guess!! :animwink: :lol: i thought you were down there the same week as us and i think i may have seen you at the boardwalk on the 17th. if it was you, you were walking into kouzzina. i wasn't positive it was you and i didn't want to go running into the restaurant screaming "holly" to a complete stranger. :lol:

its nice to hear i am not alone in the "vacationing with someone else's family is difficult" boat. :lol: but at least these families like disney world. could you imagine dating someone whose family didn't like disney world?!

Great trip report so far...can't wait to read more!

thanks stefan! way more to come!

I'm in..great report already!!!

thanks alison! i am glad you are enjoying the report.

Great pics and report - but hurry up with the surprise .

thanks sueuk! i took over 1000 pictures and got 200 on my photopass cd! and don't worry. the surprise is coming very soon!

I am sooooo jealous....seems as if I remember reading a report from September? And now Dec?
Looking forward to reading!

:lol: i know! i was spoiled this year with a trip in sept and dec! thanks for reading!

 

[WishIWasAtWDW]

Day 2: Christmas Decorations, Movies, and Rummy

after our not so restful night sleep on the pull out couch, we wake to hear the sounds of someone else's alarm...pete's alarm...at 6:30am the alarm goes off and then it turns off. then, it starts going off again. and it keeps going and going and going. finally the alarm stops and pete emerges from the master bedroom to wake up wes and his dad for golf. well its now about 7am and i am officially awake. we ask pete about his alarm and it turns out he thought he turned the alarm off but he really hit snooze. so he was in the bathroom when it started to go off again. :lol: again, another joy of staying with someone else's family and their grandma's boyfriend.

the boys were off to play golf and i was left in the living room waiting on wes' mom and grandma to wake up. so i did some channel surfing until they woke up. today, us girls were going to go check out the christmas decorations at the magic kingdom resorts. finally around 9:30am, we were off to the magic kingdom to go see the resorts!

we arrived at the magic kingdom and made our way to the monorail. first stop...the contemporary! i thought the contemporary's christmas decorations were a little lacking but i did think the tiny gingerbread contemporaries were cute.

it was back to the monorail and on to the next resort...the polynesian!

we checked out the bou-tiki. i thought these guys were so cute.

i love how all of the decorations at each resort reflect that resort. so get ready for a lot of close up pictures of christmas trees.

 

[WishIWasAtWDW]

on to the next stop on the monorail...the grand floridian.

after seeing all the monorail resorts, it was time to take the ferry over to the wilderness lodge! i was super excited to see these decorations. i had just stayed at the wl in sept and it became my new favorite resort! the christmas decorations did not disappoint!

 

[WishIWasAtWDW]

our tour of the magic kingdom resorts were over and i was very impressed with all of their christmas decorations. we headed back to okw around 1. the boys got back shortly after from their round of golf. wes asked if i wanted to go back to the earl of sandwich and i was so thankful that he did! i was starving and i really didn't want to eat any food in the room. so wes and i went to dtd to get some more great sandwiches! we got there around 2:30 and the line was considerably shorter then the day before.

this time i went with the blt, macaroni, grapes and wes got the hawaiian bbq again. my blt was good, but again it was no hawaiian bbq.

after lunch we took the ferry back to okw. we decided to stop by hank's rentals to rent some movies to watch later that day. we got tron and the sorcerer's apprentice. i had never seen tron and i thought the new tron legacy looked so i figured, i should probably watch the original. so we got our movies (free since wes' parents are dvc members ) we walked back to the room and i took some pictures at the main building on our way back.

 

[WishIWasAtWDW]

we got back to the room and wes' fam were all just sitting around watching tv and reading. they do a very different kind of disney vacation than my family. their vacations are filled with relaxation. what kind of disney vacation is that? :ROFLOL: i kid, i kid. we decided to watch tron before dinner. that movie was crazy bad :lol: it is so funny to think that at the time that movie came out, people thought that was so high tech. oh tron. what a funny movie.

after the movie, wes' mom made dinner and we had a nice little dinner in the room. after dinner, wes' family wanted to play rummy. well i have never played rummy before so they were trying to explain how to play. it was a very confusing start but once we started playing it was actually a lot of fun. i lost badly. very badly. :lol: but wes won the game so that was fun.

after rummy, wes' grandma and pete went to bed and we decided to watch the sorcerer's apprentice. wes' dad fell asleep during the movie and started snoring, but the rest of us enjoyed it. i just love nicolas cage movies. he is so corny with his jokes and his line delivery. so after the movie, wes and i pulled out our bed and were asleep around midnight.

tomorrow we were moving to the boardwalk and i couldn't be happier to have an actual bed and a place to unpack my clothes! i hate living out of a suitcase. its so hard to find stuff. tomorrow would also be our first day to visit the parks and i couldn't wait!!!

 

[HollyBelle]

thanks holly! you will just have to wait and see if you are correct in your guess!! :animwink: :lol: i thought you were down there the same week as us and i think i may have seen you at the boardwalk on the 17th. if it was you, you were walking into kouzzina. i wasn't positive it was you and i didn't want to go running into the restaurant screaming "holly" to a complete stranger. :lol:

its nice to hear i am not alone in the "vacationing with someone else's family is difficult" boat. :lol: but at least these families like disney world. could you imagine dating someone whose family didn't like disney world?!

That was totally me! We had breakfast there on our last day. It's really too bad you didn't come busting into Kouzzina shouting my name... that would've been awesome!

I'm looking forward to hearing your thoughts on the Boardwalk. I'm glad to hear that you and Wes decided to stick with a deluxe once the family backed out. Sometimes it's just worth it to splurge a little!