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.

 

[cgersic]

I'm happily following along after missing the weekend on here! Merry late Christmas and I'm loving the photos! Everyone looks so happy! I am also a person that loves dueling pianos and I didn't realize that about the Boathouse. That's a must do for my next weekend jaunt!

 

[pkkurz]

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.
View attachment 610065

And they take requests! Of course, a visit to the Boathouse would not be complete without one of these for @MeffysMom!
View attachment 610063

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!
View attachment 610066

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.
View attachment 610067

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!?
View attachment 610069
View attachment 610070

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.
View attachment 610071

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.
View attachment 610068

Thanks for the recommendation. We have never been to the Boathouse and it was on our list to try. Never knew about the dueling pianos. I just booked us a Saturday brunch for our trip in late January. It looks like it will be right up our alley as we are old folks now.

 

[brifraz]

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 am also a person that loves dueling pianos and I didn't realize that about the Boathouse. That's a must do for my next weekend jaunt!

Thanks for the recommendation. We have never been to the Boathouse and it was on our list to try. Never knew about the dueling pianos. I just booked us a Saturday brunch for our trip in late January. It looks like it will be right up our alley as we are old folks now.

Just to be totally clear, there really isn't all that much dueling between the pianos. It's more of trading off pianos who assist each other at times on some songs and sing some harmony with each other. And, it is pretty dang enjoyable!

 

[brifraz]

Let's get caught up on Animal Kingdom this morning! After the girls finished their three tours of Everest, we headed to the Safari. The wait was showing at 20 minutes (and quickly jumped to 40), but we still only waited about 10-15. Highlights of this safari were a small (2 animal) stampede of wildebeests - they did make some pretty fast circuits of half the savannah, a couple of young giraffes out and about, three cheetahs all awake and active, and the wild dogs having some kind of party it appeared.

We then did the Gorilla Falls walk and got to enjoy some quality meerkat time (this was actually a picture from a bit after they were all hanging out together and playing a bit).

And some great breakfast time activity with the gorillas. There was a bit of sparring between a couple, but mama and her little one just sat and watched the proceedings. I just wish that the viewing window that you first come to was a little better shaded so the glare wasn't so bad in the mornings.

To continue our treks among the animals, we went over to Asia for the Maharajah Jungle Trek and caught up with an old friend. We've enjoyed a LOT of quality visits to the tigers - having seen the little cubs very close to when they were first born and many times between. Today, it was just mama hanging out and making sure everyone knew that she was still the boss.

Our plan was to then do some quick shopping and then grab early lunch at the Nomad Lounge. Sadly, after waiting for a few minutes for it to open, we were informed by a CM (from Baltimore, no less) that they were having some issues and likely would not be able to open until noon. And, as we walked away, it appeared that the issues must have been kitchen related as Pizzafari was also delayed in opening. So we decided to check out the new KiteTails show.

Definitely enjoyed some of the hijinks of the preshow characters, including Crush and Squirt.

The show itself was a nice diversion, but nothing all that amazing. We definitely enjoyed the stunt kites far more than the huge character ones and it was apparent from the noises all around us that the younger members of the audience were absolutely loving it.

At this point, it was getting close to noon and we were hungry and ready for a break, so it was time to head out of the park. But, first we had to visit with some incredibly cute friends in the Tree of Life area.

We headed back to Old Key West and grabbed some lunch at the Gurgling Suitcase. FYI - at the little hole in the wall bar, they do serve the entire menu from Olivia's table service so you can get quite a good deal of quality food. We always go with the pulled pork nachos which are served on their house made potato chips. After that, it was back to the room for some good rest and relaxation as well as getting some laundry done so we have clothes for the rest of the week. The girls have both been asleep for a couple of hours now, so I think it might be safe to start getting them ready for our evening at Epcot tonight. Late night bonus hours, here we come!

 

[brifraz]

Bright and early good morning from Old Key West. It's 6am and we are getting geared up for another Hollywood Studios morning. This time with the hopes of some activities in Batuu during our early hour (and maybe another cone drop experience!). As I'm sure many of you have experienced, the further into the trip... the harder it is to wake up in the morning... and especially after staying in Epcot until after midnight. So, I'm afraid the update from last night's adventure is going to have to wait until lunchtime or even a little later. Granted, time is an illusion and lunchtime is doubly so, but I'll do my best to get back here with the Epcot night adventure before too long! And, hopefully I'll have some live updates from Studios for you. But, in order to whet your appetite just a little - here's the nighttime, Christmas lit Living with the Land!

 

[brifraz]

The pre-early morning crowd seems a bit larger today than 2 days ago.

Hoping a larger percentage are headed to Slinky!!

 

[brifraz]

Wow. That was refreshing!

Yup, I got to rope drop the bathrooms!

Okay, maybe that was after we got in line for Rise. We are maybe 100 people into the line with at least a thousand more behind us. And they just let us know that opening will be delayed. No idea how long. Should be fun!

 

[brifraz]

Not much wait at all. Off the ride at 8:05 and once the queue was open at 7:37 we never really even paused. The line when we went in extended to the Batuu bathrooms and then back all the way to the Taphouse.

The app is not working for wait times this morning. It’s showing Rise as down and Falcon and Slinky at 5 minutes. We are now in the Falcon line and it’s showing 30 minutes. I suspect Slinky is over an hour. So we shall see how the morning progresses.

 

[brifraz]

Update - wait times are now working. Slinky at 90 and Rise at 140 minutes.

 

[coachwnh]

Great start again! Enjoy the day at Hollywood Studios.

 

[brifraz]

Okay, we are now on a LARGE afternoon break today. One of the nice things we have done on this trip is to take longer afternoon breaks than usual - and today is the longest. Having now done 4 Christmas visits to WDW, we know what the crowds are like and how much we can get done, so we planned for some longer breaks and the couple of really good early mornings that we have had definitely have made that possible. But, that's today! I still need to catch you up on last night.

We got into Epcot some time around 6:30pm and headed right in to get some dinner. Well, after a picture (or two)...

Seeing as it was pretty late for us to be eating dinner (we are almost always eating by 6pm at the latest at home), we headed right to World Showcase to grab some small plates - but were inspired on the way in to visit Living with the Land one last time for this trip (posted that picture already). We did have to wait about 5 minutes to get on a boat, but that was all. Now on to the food! Starting with our daughter getting the scallops from the Canada kiosk (plus the cookie there) and then with @MeffysMom and I getting the full house from the Mexico kiosk - beef barbacoa tamale, chorizo and bean tostada, and tres leches churros. Everything was really good, but we dug in before we got any pictures!! Sorry about that.

With no real plans for the evening except trying to see Harmonious from our usual spot at the edge of USA nearest Japan, we spent some time just walking around and shopping and also sat and relaxed for a bit in the small hidden seating area in Japan (behind Kaki Gori) and listened to the Candlelight Processional from a distance. Around 8:30 or so, we grabbed our usual spot. The demand for space was a bit high for that early, but everyone ended up okay! While we sat, we did venture out for some more food... and, despite all the high quality offerings - we got a Mickey pretzel and that hideously delicious cheese dip. That cheese dip has got to be some of the worst food ever created and yet I still find myself wanting to lick out the little cup...

Anyway, the second viewing of Harmonious was far better than the first. Having the center ring actually working made for a MUCH better show, but... still really not much of a fan. As I said a couple nights ago, the technology is AMAZING and incredibly beautiful, but it just seems like a show of 'we figured out this cool thing, let's do it' with no real thought to the storytelling. There are some moments that work very well, but they are pretty few and far between for this family. I guarantee we will watch it many more times as it really is incredible to look at, but it just doesn't reach any deeper than that. Here are a couple pretty pictures, though!

As soon as the fireworks had ended, we were into the evening bonus extra hours of magical stuff. Yeah, I really have no clue what it is supposed to be called. We headed right to Remy, which was showing only a 5 minute wait. By the time we got there, so had a few hundred other folks who had been watching Harmonious so the wait immediately jumped up to 30 minutes. We still only waited about 10 at most. And, Remy was definitely better the second time riding it as well. It's not quite as incredible of an attraction as Mickey and Minnie's or Rise of the Resistance are for me, but it definitely is cute and well done. And certainly worth just a 10 minute wait!!

As we left, it was nice to see that back area cleared out pretty much - all the folks rushing back from Harmonious were now in the queue, so we got a nice empty street shot of the backside of the Eiffel tower.

From there, it was walk-on time (or at least close to it). We headed to Frozen first and while the sign and the app said the wait was 25 minutes, we walked right onto a boat with only a slight pause at the load area. Then to Test Track which had been showing 20-30 minute waits all morning. All we had to wait for was... the next design studio room to open up. And after the design room, there was zero wait to get into a car. Although the linking up of car design and the 'sim car' part of the ride didn't work we still enjoyed our ride greatly.

The girls were ready for some Mission:Space at this point and I was pretty much done (remember who got those two plus hour naps - yeah, that wasn't me), I headed back to the car while they enjoyed Mission:Space Orange. Not that I would have done it with them had I been wide awake as the Orange side definitely makes me quite unhappy.

So we did 4 major attractions in the hour and forty-five minutes after the end of the fireworks. Had we been moving faster and with more purpose and intent, we could easily have done a couple more. But we did enjoy just walking slowly through the park and taking in the night ambience! It was back to the room and very quickly to sleep so we could at least get about 4.5 hours of sleep before this morning at Hollywood Studios.

 

[brifraz]

But, I promised live trip reporting - of which a little bit did happen this morning! And that means I've got to get caught up on things from this morning!

As I posted, the crowds were looking a bit more extreme this morning than a couple days ago and that was absolutely true. For Rise, as you saw, we got toward the front of the crowd and enjoyed our ride as always. In both the 'shuttle' pre-show and the interrogation room, we were with people who had never ridden and it was quite entertaining to watch them while we enjoyed ourselves! And a couple more ride pictures. First another action show of Bek and then the angle that nobody ever looks when you enter the Star Destroyer.

Having helped secure the base on Batuu or whatever it is that really is your goal in this one, we headed to the Millenium Falcon. As I mentioned it was only showing a 5 minute wait on the app, but a 30 minute wait on the sign. We ended up spending about 15 minutes in line. We rode with a family who also had never ridden before and they got both pilots chairs, so we were relegated to a gunner and two engineers. Much to our surprise, we had a really good game as a group and it was a lot of fun as always. Once done with that, we considered heading down Sunset Blvd for Rockin' and Tower, but wait times for both were now over an hour!! And this was just a minute or so after normal opening time. Luckily, we were pretty hungry so a visit to Woody's Lunchbox was a perfect diversion.

Can't beat some tots in the morning! And those 'pop tarts' were very good - apple cinnamon for the holidays. Did I mention that the crowds were pretty significant this morning? Well, by 9:30am we were looking at nothing shorter than 50 minutes which was for Star Tours. Which meant it was the perfect time for one of my all time favorite attractions anywhere. And, thanks to Chuck, everything was ready to go (actually we got the full pre-show which makes me quite happy).

The humor of Muppet Vision is perhaps one of my favorite things in the world. And, thanks to the big crowds in the park, we were in a FULL THEATRE! Which meant some great crowd response and that adds greatly to the experience. And, I highly recommend watching the penguins and Statler and Waldorf as much as you can. They react in great ways to the screen and the action.

As you can tell, we were sitting right up front! And following the Muppets, it was time to get the heck out of the park. In fact, in case I haven't mentioned the crowds - at that point, the line for Alien Swirling Saucers was over an hour and Midway Mania was almost 2 hours. And this line:

Yup, that's the line for Joffrey's coffee near the Incredibles area. And that was from about 9:45am. As we exited the park, the Starbucks line was in full interior weave AND down the front steps with a full back and forth on the sidewalk. I'm not even willing to wait more than about 30 minutes for anything and a cup of coffee... no way I'd be waiting an hour plus for that!!!

Tonight is dinner at Raglan Road and then some Cirque time. But maybe I'll manage to get a nap in first. And one last holiday picture from Studios before we leave.

 

[Lilofan]

But, I promised live trip reporting - of which a little bit did happen this morning! And that means I've got to get caught up on things from this morning!

As I posted, the crowds were looking a bit more extreme this morning than a couple days ago and that was absolutely true. For Rise, as you saw, we got toward the front of the crowd and enjoyed our ride as always. In both the 'shuttle' pre-show and the interrogation room, we were with people who had never ridden and it was quite entertaining to watch them while we enjoyed ourselves! And a couple more ride pictures. First another action show of Bek and then the angle that nobody ever looks when you enter the Star Destroyer.
View attachment 610285
View attachment 610286

Having helped secure the base on Batuu or whatever it is that really is your goal in this one, we headed to the Millenium Falcon. As I mentioned it was only showing a 5 minute wait on the app, but a 30 minute wait on the sign. We ended up spending about 15 minutes in line. We rode with a family who also had never ridden before and they got both pilots chairs, so we were relegated to a gunner and two engineers. Much to our surprise, we had a really good game as a group and it was a lot of fun as always. Once done with that, we considered heading down Sunset Blvd for Rockin' and Tower, but wait times for both were now over an hour!! And this was just a minute or so after normal opening time. Luckily, we were pretty hungry so a visit to Woody's Lunchbox was a perfect diversion.
View attachment 610287

Can't beat some tots in the morning! And those 'pop tarts' were very good - apple cinnamon for the holidays. Did I mention that the crowds were pretty significant this morning? Well, by 9:30am we were looking at nothing shorter than 50 minutes which was for Star Tours. Which meant it was the perfect time for one of my all time favorite attractions anywhere. And, thanks to Chuck, everything was ready to go (actually we got the full pre-show which makes me quite happy).
View attachment 610283

The humor of Muppet Vision is perhaps one of my favorite things in the world. And, thanks to the big crowds in the park, we were in a FULL THEATRE! Which meant some great crowd response and that adds greatly to the experience. And, I highly recommend watching the penguins and Statler and Waldorf as much as you can. They react in great ways to the screen and the action.
View attachment 610288

As you can tell, we were sitting right up front! And following the Muppets, it was time to get the heck out of the park. In fact, in case I haven't mentioned the crowds - at that point, the line for Alien Swirling Saucers was over an hour and Midway Mania was almost 2 hours. And this line:
View attachment 610282

Yup, that's the line for Joffrey's coffee near the Incredibles area. And that was from about 9:45am. As we exited the park, the Starbucks line was in full interior weave AND down the front steps with a full back and forth on the sidewalk. I'm not even willing to wait more than about 30 minutes for anything and a cup of coffee... no way I'd be waiting an hour plus for that!!!

Tonight is dinner at Raglan Road and then some Cirque time. But maybe I'll manage to get a nap in first. And one last holiday picture from Studios before we leave.

View attachment 610289

A Muppets 3D attraction tidbit , at the pre show interior hallway there is a sign saying " key under mat ". You lift the mat and there is actually a key stuck underneath the mat!

 

[ShookieJones]

Great LTR - Don't sweat the delay in posting, I was jumping around so much in my LTR I gave everyone whiplash. Having fun is your first objective, this LTR is a little further down the list. Either way, thanks for sharing and we're having a great time following along and living vicariously through your report! Enjoy!

 

[brifraz]

A Muppets 3D attraction tidbit , at the pre show interior hallway there is a sign saying " key under mat ". You lift the mat and there is actually a key stuck underneath the mat!

We do it almost every time! I think we told our daughter about that when she was 4 or 5 and it was a highlight for her until just a few years ago.

I also have pictures of all the old signs from the exterior weave (sadly all gone now) and the descriptions of 3D and the ‘muppets science’ is genius!

 

[brifraz]

Raglan Road time!!

 

[brifraz]

Once again coming at you bright and early in the morning with the wrap up from last night. Not a whole lot of pictures or story to tell about it. As you saw already, we had dinner at Raglan Road. Which is something that happens almost every single trip that we take. And there isn't a ton of variety to what we get... the onion rings to start off with (plus the amazing bread and guinness reduction that they have) followed by shepherd's pie, the chicken pie, and fish and chips. The onion rings are always so photogenic that we got a picture of them, but sadly the main courses will have to stay in your imagination (or just read some of my old trip reports where I'm sure you can find a picture of all three of those).

After dinner, we stopped in a couple shops as we made our way over to Cirque du Soliel. My wife and I went to La Nouba about 10 years ago and did really enjoy the show, but we haven't been since and our daughter's only experience with Cirque is the parody of it in an episode of Phineas and Ferb - she was a little disappointed that there wouldn't be someone diving into a pool of mud in the real thing.

As with any Cirque du Soliel, there's a little bit of weirdness and quite a few moments of 'how the heck did they do that.' It's really an enjoyable show and has a bit more story to it than La Nouba (IMHO) which I think draws you in more. If you go to see it as some point make sure to get there a bit early - the 'pre-show' is very entertaining. That pillow in the middle of the stage is a real star!

We definitely enjoyed the night and also enjoyed getting back to our room around 11pm and getting more than 5 hours of sleep! Now it's almost 6:30am which means it's time for us to catch a bus to Magic Kingdom.

 

[coachwnh]

Have a great day at Magic Kingdom

 

[Lilofan]

Once again coming at you bright and early in the morning with the wrap up from last night. Not a whole lot of pictures or story to tell about it. As you saw already, we had dinner at Raglan Road. Which is something that happens almost every single trip that we take. And there isn't a ton of variety to what we get... the onion rings to start off with (plus the amazing bread and guinness reduction that they have) followed by shepherd's pie, the chicken pie, and fish and chips. The onion rings are always so photogenic that we got a picture of them, but sadly the main courses will have to stay in your imagination (or just read some of my old trip reports where I'm sure you can find a picture of all three of those).
View attachment 610422

After dinner, we stopped in a couple shops as we made our way over to Cirque du Soliel. My wife and I went to La Nouba about 10 years ago and did really enjoy the show, but we haven't been since and our daughter's only experience with Cirque is the parody of it in an episode of Phineas and Ferb - she was a little disappointed that there wouldn't be someone diving into a pool of mud in the real thing.

View attachment 610424

As with any Cirque du Soliel, there's a little bit of weirdness and quite a few moments of 'how the heck did they do that.' It's really an enjoyable show and has a bit more story to it than La Nouba (IMHO) which I think draws you in more. If you go to see it as some point make sure to get there a bit early - the 'pre-show' is very entertaining. That pillow in the middle of the stage is a real star!

View attachment 610423

We definitely enjoyed the night and also enjoyed getting back to our room around 11pm and getting more than 5 hours of sleep! Now it's almost 6:30am which means it's time for us to catch a bus to Magic Kingdom.

Great info on your vacation from dawn to late night. Maybe you need a vacation after your vacation!

 

[BigDis]

Enjoying the report. Great job. Looking forward to reading more!