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]

it was now 11:30 and it was time for us to leave dhs and head to epcot.

we decided to take the ferry since we had already walked once today in this cold weather. so we boarded the ferry and i decided that i wanted a refill of soda. so we got off at the swan and dolphin and quickly walked to the boardwalk hoping that we could catch the same ferry to epcot. and even though we were walking quickly, i still managed to take some pictures. :lol:

when we got to the boardwalk, i ran ahead with our mugs to the boardwalk bakery. as we exited the ferry was just heading over to the boardwalk. awesome! i was so excited that my plan worked and i was able to get a refill and still catch the ferry. so we boarded the same ferry and got to epcot around 12:15. we had some time to kill before our 1:30 reservation at the rose and crown pub so we made our way to mexico to ride the gran fiesta tour.

after mexico, it was on to norway for a ride on maelstrom.

 

[WishIWasAtWDW]

and i noticed this sign in front of the church. st. olaf is where rose from the golden girls was from! i didn't realize that rose was norwegian! :lol: crazy cool!!

after norway, we walked around world showcase to the united kingdom for lunch. we checked in at the rose and crown at 1:18 and checked out the uk pavilion until our table was ready at 1:25.

i was really excited to try this restaurant. for appetizers, i got the cheese and fruit plate and wes got the potato and leek soup.

 

[WishIWasAtWDW]

i loved mine! how simple? a cheese and fruit plate was one of my favorite appetizers of the trip! :lol: what can i say?! i love cheese and fruit! :lol: wes really liked his soup. i tried some and it was also very good. he really liked my appetizer too.

for our entrees, i got the fish and chips and wes got the burger.

both were good. i was really excited to try fish and chips and i liked it but i don't know if i would order it again. i think i would probably try something else. again, we were stuffed for dessert but we ordered some anyway. i got the sticky toffee pudding and wes got the scotch cake.

again, both were good but we just couldn't finish them. we left the rose and crown and took a couple pictures in the uk on our way back through the international gateway.

 

[WishIWasAtWDW]

we went back to the boardwalk for a quick nap before we were going to head back to epcot to see the candlelight processional. we had a great quick nap and then left the bw at 4 for the 5 o'clock show. there was a crazy long line for the processional and i realized that we hadn't gotten there early enough. i had never seen this before so i wasn't sure how early we needed to get there. but we entered the line and just hoped that we would make it into this showing.

we just barely made it in the show and they had us sit on the little stone wall all the way over to the left side of the theater. the stone was really cold and there were still seats available so i couldn't figure out why we had to sit there. then we saw a bunch of people get up and leave which really made me mad since we could have had their seats! eventually the usher guys let us sit on some benches in the back that people had left so we had a slightly better view of the stage.

this was our first view.

and the second.

i enjoyed the processional but i wish we would have gotten better seats. now i now for next time that we need to get there at least and hour to an hour and a half early. lesson learned.

we headed back to the international gateway but stopped for some pictures first.

we then headed back to the boardwalk to get ready for our 6:45 dinner reservations at the yachtsman steakhouse. i was excited about this meal too. we got to the yc at 6:30 and checked in. we were seated 10 minutes later.

 

[WishIWasAtWDW]

for appetizers, i got a garden salad and wes got the assortment of cheeses.

my salad was good but wes' was better. i told you, we really like cheese! :lol: we had a lot of good cheese that day! for entrees, i got the filet mignon and wes got the ny strip.

both were delicious. wes still liked his steak at jiko best though. for dessert, i got the sorbet trio and wes got the yachtsman sundae. :slurp:

dinner did not disappoint. we had another great dinner. we were done with dinner around 8 and had a lot of time to kill before illuminations at 9:30. i didn't want to get there too early since it was sooooo cold. so we decided to check out the christmas decorations at the yacht and beach club.

 

[WishIWasAtWDW]

the gingerbread carousel at the beach club was amazing! we had so much time to kill that we found all 11 hidden mickeys!

after we had killed an hour looking around, we headed to epcot to see illuminations!

we stopped to get some more photopass pictures.

we went over to canada to look around and try to find a spot for illuminations. i got this great picture of myself too! :lol:

we found a spot in canada that was just okay. i wanted to be close to the international gateway so we could make a quick getaway after illuminations was over. while waiting for illuminations i realized that i wanted a soft pretzel. so i told wes to wait there and i made my way to the americas pavilion to get me a soft pretzel! i saw there were some spots in france so i called wes and told him to go over there instead. when i got to america, i realized that the last candlelight processional was just ending so they had the way blocked for the singers to leave. so i had to wait a little bit for them to exit and then i made my way to get my pretzel! :slurp: i got my pretzel and made it back to france before illuminations started. we had a nice spot against a railing with only two people in front of our view. well as soon as illuminations start, this lady in front of me keeps moving her head. every time i would get situated where i could see, she would move her head again. and the thing that drove me crazy is no one was in front of her! so i told wes we had to move back. so we backed up away from the railing and i was able to enjoy the show a lot better. we didn't have a great spot but it was still very enjoyable.

 

[WishIWasAtWDW]

after illuminations, we went back through the international gateway and caught the ferry back to the boardwalk. again, it was way too cold to walk. wes' parents had dropped off some leftover diet pepsis they had in their room at okw so i could have them in our mini fridge. how thoughtful of them! i love diet pepsi but wdw only has coke products. so it was very nice of them! we also then decided to try to find the 14 hidden mickeys on the gingerbread house. we did find all of them but the way its set up at the boardwalk you have to walk outside to get to the other side of the gingerbread house.

once we found all the hidden mickeys we decided to head back to the room and go to bed.

only 1 and a half days left of our trip! still to come...mickey's very merry christmas party and our final day at epcot.

 

[Amber]

for our entrees, i got the fish and chips and wes got the burger.

i got the sticky toffee pudding and wes got the scotch cake.

LOL...our same food selections continue!! :lol:

 

[Tiggerish]

Still enjoying your report very much! Your pictures are great. I do the same thing, stop at every photopass photographer I see! What the heck, the more pictures on the CD, the less each one costs, right?

Oh, and your ring is absolutely beautiful. Have fun with the wedding planning!

 

[WishIWasAtWDW]

LOL...our same food selections continue!! :lol:

:lol: how funny! and cute dog in your picture!! is that a westie?? the reason i ask is that i have a westie named daisy!

Still enjoying your report very much! Your pictures are great. I do the same thing, stop at every photopass photographer I see! What the heck, the more pictures on the CD, the less each one costs, right?

Oh, and your ring is absolutely beautiful. Have fun with the wedding planning!

i'm glad you are enjoying the report! that is exactly why i stop at every photopass photographer! same thought process for me too! thanks about the ring! the wedding planning has been fun but somewhat stressful too. just a ton of things to think about!!

 

[WishIWasAtWDW]

Day 7: Relaxing Morning, Crazy Sighting and a Christmas Party

today was the day we were going to mickey's very merry christmas party! :sohappy: i was so excited to go to this christmas party since i had never been before. i love christmas time and i was really hoping the party would not disappoint.

we had a relaxing morning planned with breakfast at ohanas at 9:30. i had only been to ohanas once a long time ago so i was excited to eat there again. so we woke up around 8 and took our time getting ready. we left the bw at 8:48 and caught a bus to the mk. our bus also stopped at the swan and dolphin, which every other day wasn't a problem but today there were two scooters that had to load onto the bus and the people operating the scooters could not figure out how to park them on the bus. so it took quite some time before we got moving. we finally got to the poly at 9:35 and checked in at 9:39.

we took a seat in the chaotic waiting area and waited for our buzzer to go off.

we kept waiting and waiting and we still weren't called. i know we got there 9 minutes late for our reservation time, but it was getting a little ridiculous. at 10:15 we were finally seated. that was 45 minutes after our original reservation time. when we were seated i noticed that there were a TON of empty tables. that always drives me crazy since i used to be a hostess but i digress.

we had a nice little table by the window and we were very happy that they brought out some bread and fruit very quickly.

i was really excited to try this pog juice i have heard so much about and i really enjoyed it.

our food was brought out very quickly and it was all very good. i love breakfast food and i never eat any because i sleep in too late. so it always feels like vacation when i get some good breakfast food! :slurp:

mmmm mickey waffles! :slurp:

 

[WishIWasAtWDW]

so remember i said we were seated at 10:15... and we were finished at 10:36. we are so quick with our meals its crazy. we were done eating so fast that we hadn't seen any characters yet. so we sat there for a little bit longer since we saw mickey on his way.

and lilo was right behind mickey so we waited to get our picture with her too.

after that, we left the poly and headed over to the grand floridian because i wanted to show wes the decorations and get some pictures in front of the tree. wes was really impressed with the grand floridian. and i found out that he had never been in there before! crazy! we saw a photopass person over at the tree so we got a couple quick pictures.

after the gf, we decided to head back to the bw. so we hopped on the monorail and got off at the mk to wait for a bus. this took forever. again, every other bus went by except ours. then a bw bus showed up and they had to unload 2 scooters which added on to the time that we had to stand outside in the cold. i understand people needing scooters but i just get crabby when i have to stand in the cold. damn that cold weather. :lol:

we got back to the bw around 12:30 and it was time to start packing. i hate having to pack but i wouldn't have much time tomorrow since we were going to epcot and then back to the bw to catch the dme. after we packed and showered, we got ready to head over to the beach club for some beaches and cream! :slurp:

we got over there around 1:30 and put our names on the wait list. the temperature was finally warming up! woo hoo! :sohappy: i think it was close to 70 degrees! so we took a seat in the sun and enjoyed the warm weather while we waited for our table.

 

[WishIWasAtWDW]

a table was ready at 1:45 and we got a nice seat by the jukebox.

for appetizers, i got a bowl of chili and wes got some fries. no pictures of the fries, sorry. :lol:

for entrees, i got the hot dog with fries and wes got the the turkey sandwich with fruit. mmm :slurp: my hot dog was very good!

 

[WishIWasAtWDW]

now it was time for dessert and this place does not mess around! i got the strawberry shortcake and wes got the no way jose. these desserts were HUGE! and very yummy.

wes was a little sad at the amount of dessert he would have to try and eat. :lol:

he did his best to finish it but he had to throw in the towel. we finished lunch feeling very full and had time to kill before we could head to the mk at 4. and since it was finally a nice day out, we decided to take a leisurely stroll around the epcot resorts.

this spot will always have a special place in my heart since wes proposed on the other side of the christmas tree!

we looped back around to the yacht club and decided to take a seat inside for a little bit while we killed some more time before getting a bus to the mk. we got to the mk a little before 4 and entered the park with our christmas party tickets.

 

[WishIWasAtWDW]

we headed straight to tomorrowland to get a fp for space mountain. we still had those dvc fastpasses from wes' parents and today was the last day that they worked so we wanted to take advantage of them. so we got our sm fp and then went for a ride on the peoplemover! we had a nice relaxing ride around tomorrowland in the warm weather.

after that we decided to get a fp for buzz, since we could without wasting our only fp for the hour and then went to get a photopass picture.

we had time for one more ride before our 5:25 reservation at the crystal palace. so we went over to adventureland for a ride on potc. i love this ride. such a classic. we then went to check in at the crystal palace. i was excited to try this place since i had never been before. the check in procedure was chaotic though. i told wes i would check in and he could go wait somewhere a little less crazy. we checked in and the hostess said that they were running 20 minutes behind on reservations because they were waiting for tables to get up. which is funny because you can see into the restaurant and there were a TON of empty tables. again, with the empty tables at restaurants that are buffets! i don't get it.

so i checked in and went to go stand with wes a little farther away from the door of the restaurant.

so when i went over to where wes was standing he told me that there was some pure craziness going on behind us. apparently a daughter had done something to her brother and the mom asked her what happened. i guess the mom didn't believe her daughter because wes said that the mom then kept calling the daughter a liar. and then (this is the craziest!) the mom said to the daughter "i would have had a better vacation if i hadn't brought my daughter. i swear to god i would." how do you say that to your child?! it was crazy! the daughter was probably 10 or 11. so by the time i got over to wes, the daughter was crying over by herself while the mom kept laughing with her friends about the situation. then the dad started yelling at the daughter that she better knock it off or she would have to deal with him. it was unreal! and that was the first crazy sighting we had that day.

so after our viewing of a jerry springer episode, we were called for our table.
i have to say, i was really disappointed with our meal. i am not a big buffet person so i should have known that i wouldn't like it but i had heard good things. i didn't even take any pictures because there was just nothing special about it. but we did get our picture with tigger.

 

[WishIWasAtWDW]

we weren't going to wait any longer for any other character since we really didn't want to waste any more time in there. so we left and just caught the lighting of the castle! i was so bummed that we missed the full show for the crystal palace. bummer.

we then went to try to get a fp for btmrr but they were all out. and wes somehow talked me into riding splash mountain. i love this ride and it could possibly be my favorite but it was going to get cold again that night and i didn't want to get my clothes wet. so wes, being the wonderful fiance that he is, gave me his backpack to use as a shield. so we had a fun ride and on the drop i ducked down below the backpack and didn't get a drop of water on me. wes got hit pretty good in the face but luckily his clothes didn't get wet. :lol:

we then went back over to tomorrowland to use our space mountain and buzz fastpasses. then we decided to see the first showing of a totally tomorrowland christmas!! we got some great seats right behind some strollers so we knew that no one would block our view.

then we saw the second craziest sighting of the night! there were these two kids in front of the stroller we were standing behind who all of the sudden started slapping each other. these kids were probably 4 years old, at most and they were full on slapping each other in the face! there was a family sitting next to them and the kids kept bumping into the dad from that family. the dad kept telling the kids to stop hitting each other but they wouldn't listen. the dad then started looking around and asking who the kids belonged to. soon everyone around the kids were looking around trying to find their parents but we didn't see anyone. the kids kept going at it and started pulling each other's hair in between slaps to the face. finally the dad from the family sitting next to them got a cast member to come over. the cast member said he couldn't do anything about the kids but they were still fighting and there were other young kids around just staring in horror as these two kids kept attacking each other. then as this whole exchange is going on, i look down to the right and i notice that there is a family who looks like they might belong to these kids. i keep looking at the dad and then at the kids and back at the dad and then at the kids like "hey, are you going to do anything about your children?!" finally, the dad asks the cast member if there is a problem and the dad from the other family says "yea, your kids are attacking each other over here" so the kids move back with their parents and the parents don't do anything except make the kids sit on either side of them. it was the craziest sighting of the night! it was quite a preshow!! :lol: and then the actual show began! thank god!! :lol:

 

[WishIWasAtWDW]

i really enjoyed the show! it really got me in the christmas spirit! the songs were cute and i loved all the dance moves. :xmas:

we then went and got some cookies and hot chocolate. :slurp: very good! then i wanted to go see minnie and mickey in toontown so we went over there and checked out mickey and minnie's houses before meeting them.

 

[WishIWasAtWDW]

on our way out of toontown we saw pooh and piglet so i said, what the heck! let's wait in their line.

right as we were about to leave, pooh noticed wes' button, gave him a hug and then piglet asked to see my ring. the interaction was so cute and i was happy to see that the photopass photographer caught the whole thing.

it was then time to go to the hub to see the fireworks! i was super excited since we had already gotten a preview at the california grill. so we found a great location right in the middle of the hub.

the fireworks were AMAZING! they were so good!! i then wanted to see the 10:05 castle stage show but it was way too crowded so we went over to frontierland to see the parade.

the parade was really good! i like the halloween parade better but the christmas parade was really good too! after the parade, we raced over to btmrr to see if we could ride it at least once this trip. and we were in luck! there was only a 15 minute wait. so i pushed my mickey santa hat down as far as i could since it had gotten cold again and i didn't want to take it off. :lol: we had a fun, chilly ride on btmrr and i was glad that it was our last ride at the mk for our trip!

 

[WishIWasAtWDW]

we then went back to the hub for the final castle show of the night. it was a wonderful show!!

it was a great way to end our night at the christmas party!! we then decided to start heading out of the park and stopping at some photopass photographers along the way.

we left the park a little before midnight and i was very sad to leave! tomorrow was our last day at the world and it had been such a magical trip that i didn't want it to end!

one final installment to come!!

 

[Amber]

:lol: how funny! and cute dog in your picture!! is that a westie?? the reason i ask is that i have a westie named daisy!

Ok now this is getting weird...that's my Westie, her name is Evey (named after Natalie Portman's character in V for Vendetta) and she just turned 3 but she's still a puppy in that picture. :lol:

First the same food and now the same kind of dog!! :ROFLOL::ROFLOL: