Trip Report Another Brifraz Live Christmas TR

Hello One and All and Welcome Aboard!

Brifraz and @MeffysMom clan is headed to WDW for the Christmas to New Years week - seems to be happening every other year (well, at least since 2015). As much as the crowds are always over the top, the weather generally is pretty good, decorations and special celebrations are wonderful, and... most importantly... as a couple of teachers with a college student daughter, we can all get out of work/school for the week without any big issues. I'm sure that many of you following along already know the crew, but regardless here we are.

Perhaps some of you don't recognize us? Or the giant wand on Spaceship Earth has you thrown off? Yup. That's us from our very first family trip in 2006. I'd say that one of us still looks pretty similar. Not quite so much the other two...

That first family trip in 2006 was when our daughter was just about 2 and a half and was my (not unlucky at all) 13th trip. Pretty sure that this time around will be trip number 42 for me, which means that I plan to sprinkle some good Douglas Adams references through the Trip Report.

Most of my reports start a few weeks or even months before the trip and I lay out some plans, get some feedback, revise those plans, change everything a couple times, and then finally get to the live Trip Reporting. This time, we're going to leave you hanging just a little more and keep the plans to ourselves, letting things unfold (somewhat) live as they happen. We hit the road for our 900+ mile journey south on Thursday afternoon and drive overnight and then enjoy whatever the World has to offer for the next seven days. Sadly, this does mean that we are coming home on December 30th and won't be able to enjoy NYE at Disney, but I think we've done that enough times and perhaps the insanity of NYE crowds for fireworks was a little more than we are ready to deal with right now.

But, I'd be remiss if I didn't give you some teases about the adventure coming your way!

Crepes, Kites, a Dessert Party, a Cirque, and a fancy shmancy WDW 50th dinner. Oh, there's a whole lot more coming your way but those are a random smattering of highlights from what we hope will be another epic adventure at WDW.

You just come along with me and have a good time. The Galaxy's a fun place. You'll need to have this fish in your ear.

 

[brifraz]

Hope everyone is having an amazing Christmas morning. Here at the Magic Kingdom the early hour is just done. We bussed here from OKW and got in line about 7:15am. The lines already filled the plaza almost completely. Gates opened at 7:30 and we headed toward the Tomorrowland rope. Lot of people!

The rope came down just a minute or two before 8am. The girls did Space Mountain first thing and despite the crowd they managed to be on the third train of the morning.

I avoided back pain and upset stomach by being THE first (and only) person on the people mover.

It was about 8:15 when we were both done so we helped Buzz fight the Evil Zurg. @MeffysMom had a pretty solid game.

We just had fun.

Next up was teacups for the girls while I continued to keep my stomach happy.

It was about 8:45am at this point and lines were growing so we did Small World as our last pre-opening activity. As a music teacher I feel obliged to point out that the instruments play better when actually touched.

The park is open now and it looks like we have about 20-30 minutes to wait for haunted mansion.

 

[myhappyplace]

Enjoying your report! Merry Christmas, enjoy yourselves!

 

[brifraz]

Okay, where were we? That's right - we were waiting in line for the Haunted Mansion. Although, I did skip over our quick visit to Sleepy Hollow to try to pick up a specialty drink to enjoy while in line for the Mansion. Except... the line for Sleepy Hollow was longer than the one for Haunted Mansion! So, we put in a mobile order for the next pick-up time, which was about 45 minutes from then which was - you guessed it, just enough time to go on Haunted Mansion!

Even though the wait was listed as 30 minutes, it was really only about 15 minutes and they wanted us to smoosh all three of us into one Doom Buggy, so we obliged. A little friendly, but fun!

And as soon as we got off, we headed back over to Sleepy Hollow to enjoy the view of the castle (courtesy of a Photopass friend) and then get the drink!

Lines were looking worse by the second, so we decided to just sit and enjoy a few minutes of peace and beverage and then visit Philharmagic to see the new scene. The drink was ginger and blackberry with a little mint and was delicious!

And as we sat enjoying our drink, a little parade happened by. Happy Christmas morning from the Magic Kingdom!

After the cavalcade had passed we did walk back into the growing throng in Fantasyland and managed to walk in right as the next showing of Philharmagic was about to start. I have not closely followed the updates there, but it would appear that in addition to the new scene from Coco, the projection was at a minimum cleaned up but more likely totally updated to some incredibly high resolution digital something-or-other. Whatever it was, it looked beautiful - a huge improvement - and very enjoyable. Philharmagic was one of our daughter's favorites way back when so we always enjoy it!

We then decided to head to Grand Floridian a little bit early for our lunch at the Cafe there. On the way out, though, we caught a trolley performance from the Dapper Dans who always impress.

We also did a quick bit of shopping (but no buying) in the Emporium before taking the brand new walking path over to the Grand Floridian. It was our first time on the path, which is quite nice and relaxing.

Despite all the warning signs and fencing, no alligators were spotted along the walk. See you at the Grand Floridian shortly!

 

[brifraz]

Of course, the first order of business in a visit to the Grand Floridian at holiday time is to check out the incredible tree and the gingerbread house. We definitely enjoyed the color updates of both to go with the 50th Anniversary theme. Also another good opportunity for creative pictures (sadly my huge panoramic of the tree is a bit larger than I can upload here)!

Once we were called for our 'brunch' at the Cafe we headed in - all definitely hungry! Our daughter started off with the shimmering lemonade for which a picture does not really do any justice. It was regular lemonade which you then added a berry/sugar flavored mickey head to which had edible glitter and the result was this:

In terms of food, we stuck with simple at this meal as @MeffysMom had the steak and eggs which was a perfectly cooked steak in her opinion and really hit the spot.

Our daughter basked in childhood with the huge Mickey waffle (which she coated with the awesome orange butter that they have).

And I went way off my normal script, but was very happy with the heirloom apple salad and the minestrone soup. No idea why that was my choice for today, but it really hit the spot.

Now very happily filled with food, we went on our usual tour of the holiday decorations of the monorail resorts. Sadly, Contemporary doesn't really have anything at all other than the occasional wreath and garland - most likely because of all the construction there this year? But Poly still lived up to things with a beautiful (but a bit small) tree in the lobby and lots of poinsettias all over the resort.

It was a bit past 1pm at this point and we wanted some down time today, so we caught the next boat back from the Poly to the Magic Kingdom so we could bus back to Old Key West. Now, back 'home' we are relaxing by the pool (there may be some napping involved) and then heading over to Disney Springs for some shopping and dinner at the Edison. But before I go, a couple pictures from the boat ride!

 

[brifraz]

Oh, by the way... we've never stayed in the South Point section of Old Key West, but the quiet pool certainly is quiet on this Christmas afternoon and the view from my seat is quite enjoyable as well!

 

[brifraz]

One last Happy Christmas to everyone out there. Afraid I'm a bit exhausted to do a full post tonight, but to summarize quickly - boat to Disney Springs, shopping, dinner and a show at the Edison. Now it's late and we have early alarms set to head to Hollywood Studios for the morning extra hour which starts at 7:30am. Promise some food, drink, and entertainment pictures tomorrow!!

 

[brifraz]

Okay, NOW I'm ready to provide the update from last night. It's amazing what some sleep will do for you. Granted, it is just after 5:30am and we are gearing up for Hollywood Studios, but being the morning person I am, this is prime time to get some stuff done!

After our nice and chilled out pool time, we got ourselves dressed (a little nicer than usual park attire) to head over to Disney Springs a bit after 5pm. We've done 4 trips in the times of Covid and while there are still things we really miss (Finding Nemo, the Musical is very high on that list), I think the thing that we might have missed the most was this view.

The boat from Old Key West to Disney Springs is definitely one of those things that for this family really makes us feel at home.

This next picture is a bit of a mixed bag of emotions. We do like the Edison and it was our dinner destination for the evening, BUT... looking at that building from the water and knowing the glory that it once was as The Adventurers Club does bring a tear to the eye.

Once docked at the marketplace end of Disney Springs, we did a full transit of the entire area. From the Christmas shop to the M&Ms shop (well, we didn't actually go in that one) we window shopped a lot, ventured inside a few places, and generally just took a leisurely stroll through Disney Springs. It was a bit crowded - nothing like Christmases past when we have been there, but still a good crowd. Our dinner reservation was late, 8:45pm, so we could see as much of the entertainment as possible. We checked in early to request a table nearest the stage and were seated a few minutes before our actual reservation time.

Food and drink pictures from down there are always a bit different as the lighting is VERY blue. But, here's our drinks followed by the fries, the chop salad, Beyond burger, and the grilled cheese (we shared the tomato soup).

The past few times we have been, the entertainment has been the same group, the American Sirens. They take modern pop tunes and perform them in a 1920s era hot jazz style - think slightly more jazzy than the Andrews Sisters doing Katy Perry and Justin Timberlake. It's a lot of fun. And this was the first time our daughter has seen them and as a fan of both the style, cool vocal harmony, and modern music, she was quite entertained.

We stayed through the last set, which meant we didn't catch the bus back to Old Key West until about 11pm. But pretty much all crashed out the minute we got into our room. And right about now, we are all hoping that we get some nap time this afternoon!! Well, it's after 6am which means we are getting ready to head out. See you later!

 

[brifraz]

2nd in line at cone drop!

Wait, cone drop isn’t a thing??

In the more normal early morning action, the crowd wasn’t too big when they opened up for Early Hours and about 90% of those at the front headed to Rise and just a few of us to Slinky. But now, 10 minutes to opening of attractions we are more normal. (we are likely getting on the first train)

Just a few families waiting for Midway Mania.

And, sadly, nobody was waiting for the Aliens.

Alright, t-minus 6 minutes to Slinky! See you some time soon?

 

[coachwnh]

Off to a great start. Enjoy your day at Hollywood Studios!

 

[brifraz]

Off to a great start. Enjoy your day at Hollywood Studios!

Early hour is treating us very well!

 

[amjt660]

Great TR so far!!

The ride down sounded like a major pain but glad you made it safely

The SOARIN pictures were good - I did not know that Disney CGI'd people legs into each scene!

sadly my huge panoramic of the tree is a bit larger than I can upload here)

I had similar issues with panoramic pictures
If you display it on your phone and do a screen shot it will reduce the memory size of the photo
You lose some resolution but at least we will get to see it!

Following along


Max

 

[brifraz]

Good later morning! Let’s talk about that Early Magic Hour or whatever they are calling it. 7:30-8:30am at Hollywood Studios was great. As you know we cone dropped the parking lot at 6:30 and we’re toward the front of the line for Slinky. We ended up on the second train, but got front rows!

After slinky, we dashed (see what I did there?) over to Midway Mania and pretty much walked right on. Here’s an action shot from the queue.

It was still before 8am so we grabbed a cinnamon roll and then headed to Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway. No wait at all - just had to wait a minute to finish the cinnamon roll.

Here comes conductor Goofy!

And, this little guy in the first scene is my favorite (okay, a lot of this ride is my favorite).

After MMRR we headed down Sunset Blvd and the girls did Rockin Roller Coaster, which they got off right at actual park opening.

There were certainly a lot more people coming in now, but we still did Tower of Terror with almost no wait.

Funny enough, Facebook reminded us this morning that 6 years ago today our daughter rope dropped Tower and we were the very first people on and got an elevator to ourselves.

We did some shopping as we left Sunset Blvd and then headed to Star Tours. There was a 5 or so minute wait but that was all. It was about 9:30am and we had done everything we hoped to do plus some (and our hope was to be done by 11am). 6 attractions in 2 hours during Christmas week is pretty awesome.

We drove over to Disney Spring to shop a bit and then we have brunch at noon at the Boathouse! It does make me sad that school groups still have not been able to return to performing at WDW. It was just under two years ago that I had 70+ kids performing on these stages.

Hope you are having an excellent Boxing Day or start to Kwanzaa!

 

[pkkurz]

Good later morning! Let’s talk about that Early Magic Hour or whatever they are calling it. 7:30-8:30am at Hollywood Studios was great. As you know we cone dropped the parking lot at 6:30 and we’re toward the front of the line for Slinky. We ended up on the second train, but got front rows!
View attachment 609978
View attachment 609979

After slinky, we dashed (see what I did there?) over to Midway Mania and pretty much walked right on. Here’s an action shot from the queue. View attachment 609980

It was still before 8am so we grabbed a cinnamon roll and then headed to Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway. No wait at all - just had to wait a minute to finish the cinnamon roll. View attachment 609971
Here comes conductor Goofy!
View attachment 609972
And, this little guy in the first scene is my favorite (okay, a lot of this ride is my favorite).
View attachment 609973

After MMRR we headed down Sunset Blvd and the girls did Rockin Roller Coaster, which they got off right at actual park opening.

There were certainly a lot more people coming in now, but we still did Tower of Terror with almost no wait.
View attachment 609974
View attachment 609975

Funny enough, Facebook reminded us this morning that 6 years ago today our daughter rope dropped Tower and we were the very first people on and got an elevator to ourselves.

We did some shopping as we left Sunset Blvd and then headed to Star Tours. There was a 5 or so minute wait but that was all. It was about 9:30am and we had done everything we hoped to do plus some (and our hope was to be done by 11am). 6 attractions in 2 hours during Christmas week is pretty awesome.

We drove over to Disney Spring to shop a bit and then we have brunch at noon at the Boathouse! It does make me sad that school groups still have not been able to return to performing at WDW. It was just under two years ago that I had 70+ kids performing on these stages.
View attachment 609976
View attachment 609977

Hope you are having an excellent Boxing Day or start to Kwanzaa!

I was there! Hopefully you will be able to return soon. I really miss seeing those performances. I saw a post about someones daughter’s choir coming to perform in late April, don’t know if that was true or not.

 

[brifraz]

I was there! Hopefully you will be able to return soon. I really miss seeing those performances. I saw a post about someones daughter’s choir coming to perform in late April, don’t know if that was true or not.

I’ve gotten info/sales pitches from a couple companies for April-May so I think that is most likely true!

 

[amjt660]

No wait at all - just had to wait a minute to finish the cinnamon roll.

Good call on the cinnamon roll...

Max

 

[Rundisneyprincess27]

Good later morning! Let’s talk about that Early Magic Hour or whatever they are calling it. 7:30-8:30am at Hollywood Studios was great. As you know we cone dropped the parking lot at 6:30 and we’re toward the front of the line for Slinky. We ended up on the second train, but got front rows!
View attachment 609978
View attachment 609979

After slinky, we dashed (see what I did there?) over to Midway Mania and pretty much walked right on. Here’s an action shot from the queue. View attachment 609980

It was still before 8am so we grabbed a cinnamon roll and then headed to Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway. No wait at all - just had to wait a minute to finish the cinnamon roll. View attachment 609971
Here comes conductor Goofy!
View attachment 609972
And, this little guy in the first scene is my favorite (okay, a lot of this ride is my favorite).
View attachment 609973

After MMRR we headed down Sunset Blvd and the girls did Rockin Roller Coaster, which they got off right at actual park opening.

There were certainly a lot more people coming in now, but we still did Tower of Terror with almost no wait.
View attachment 609974
View attachment 609975

Funny enough, Facebook reminded us this morning that 6 years ago today our daughter rope dropped Tower and we were the very first people on and got an elevator to ourselves.

We did some shopping as we left Sunset Blvd and then headed to Star Tours. There was a 5 or so minute wait but that was all. It was about 9:30am and we had done everything we hoped to do plus some (and our hope was to be done by 11am). 6 attractions in 2 hours during Christmas week is pretty awesome.

We drove over to Disney Spring to shop a bit and then we have brunch at noon at the Boathouse! It does make me sad that school groups still have not been able to return to performing at WDW. It was just under two years ago that I had 70+ kids performing on these stages.
View attachment 609976
View attachment 609977

Hope you are having an excellent Boxing Day or start to Kwanzaa!

I have a group of dancers from my dance studio who will be performing at Easter! When we applied mid-summer everything said performances would start back up again in 2022!

 

[brifraz]

After some down time in the room and at the pool and a drink at the Gurgling Suitcase, we find ourselves back at Magic Kingdom for some fireworks and a dessert party.

Our view:

 

[brifraz]

I believe I left you as we headed to Boathouse for our brunch there. For those who don't know, Boathouse does a live dueling piano brunch on the weekends and it is a lot of fun. Lots of songs for us older folks and a few newer ones as well - plus a ton of Disney songs.

And they take requests! Of course, a visit to the Boathouse would not be complete without one of these for @MeffysMom!

We always really enjoy our meals at the Boathouse and almost equally as often forget to get pictures of the food. Trust me, it looked great! I had the Mahi sandwich, @MeffysMom had the Sandwich King Burger (which is no longer on the menu, but they still made it for her), and our daughter had the Filet Mignon sliders - which are still EASILY the best food deal on property (two 2oz filets for $14 is pretty darn good even without the rolls and fries!!). Once again, full of food and much happier, we did a little bit more shopping and then headed back to the room for NAPS and the girls sat at the pool for a bit.

@MeffysMom and I then headed up to the hospitality house to visit with one of our CM friends, Lorna - a Gurgling Suitcase bartender from Glasgow, Scotland who has been at Disney for a LONG time. We always have a good time talking with her and sharing stories. And it doesn't hurt that we enjoy the Turtle Krawl and a Sunset Ale!

Around 6pm we hopped on a Magic Kingdom bus and headed to the park. We had booked the 'After Enchantment' dessert party so we checked in at Tomorrowland Terrace right around 7pm and headed to the viewing area to get a good spot. Obviously, you saw the spot in my earlier post. @MeffysMom took a couple hundred pictures of the show and I'm not going to sort through them now, but I'll try to remember to do that later and give you some fireworks pictures! In terms of a review of the show, I actually like it MUCH more than Happily Ever After, which I was never a big fan of. I always felt that HEA relied far too heavily on the projections and while this show has just as much projection with pretty long sequences without any fireworks. I think the pacing of this show is much better in terms of balance between projection and fireworks. I still think Wishes was a better show than either, but I'm also an old guy which means that older things are always better, right? And everyone has their own opinion!

The dessert party afterwards was nice. Having a glass of wine or two after a long day is certainly welcome and while the spread of desserts (and savory items) isn't as good as at some of the other parties we have been to at Hollywood Studios and Epcot, it was still pretty good.

For those interested, the party started right after the fireworks ended so about 8:20pm. Most people had already left by just a few minutes after 9pm (since the park still had a couple hours of open time), but we stuck around until the end at 9:30pm and each enjoyed three good plates full of deliciousness.

We then headed back into Fantasyland and visited with Tiana and Rapunzel, because... well, why not!?

And then it was time to do a few rides with little to no wait at all. Little Mermaid... walked right on. Pirates of the Caribbean showed a 15 minute wait... walked right on. And finished up our night with a ride on the Jingle Cruise which showed a 30 minute wait and we were on a boat in about 10. We could easily have done a couple more attractions, but we took our time getting around and also took a lot of fun pictures on the way. Exiting the park at a bit after 11pm, we were very happy to score a 50th bus back to Old Key West.

And I will leave you this morning as we head to Animal Kingdom (it's a few minutes after 6am) with this night shot of the castle in all it's splendor.

 

[brifraz]

Extra Morning Hour or whatever it is called has just ended here at Animal Kingdom and while our tally is not as impressive as yesterday, we did Flight of Passage and the girls just went in for their third ride on Everest.

They opened the gates at about 6:50 and then held at the bridge to the Tree of Life until about 6:57 and then held again at the bridge to Pandora until a few minutes after 7am.

I love all the theming in the line for Avatar. Excellent ‘World making.’

Make sure to look around a bit when you are in that queue. We ended up on the 2nd flight of the day.

I know I’ve been a bit slack in my Douglas Adams so far, but the Pandora mountain do seem to hang in the air in much the same way that bricks don’t.

As the girls raced to Everest, I hung out with these guys for a few minutes.

And for those who follow the status of Everest, the bird was happily perched on his stick!

 

[erstwo]

Thank you so much for mentioning the dueling pianos on the weekends at the Boathouse! My husband loves dueling piano shows, so we will have to check it out!
I mostly took about a 5 year break from these boards - and I have to say - I have chuckled at all of the comments about the new 50th MK fireworks show versus HEA. I remember all the fuss around the last change and how no one liked the new show when it replaced Wishes.
Like you, Wishes is the gold standard for me. I’m fact, I’m not sure I ever saw HEA all the way through. My son likes to ride BTMRR at WDW during the fireworks and I happily accompany him. Maybe it’s because Wishes was the fireworks show when our kids were little? (Mine are 18 and 15 now). All I know is - if I hear ‘starliiiight, staarbright - first star I see tonight’ it’s instant nostalgia for me! Not sure anything else will ever measure up!!
Loving the report! Helped pass the time for me yesterday while traveling to see family. Taking notes on your wife’s drink choices/ recommendations. We seem to have similar tastes!