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.

B+D Epcot 1.JPG
MK Peoplemover.JPG


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...
8caf39a1-7033-4660-9a0e-0f0e88c52737.JPG


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.
 
Last edited:

brifraz

Marching along...
Premium Member
Original Poster
Good morning from Magic Kingdom! We gathered with the huge mass of humanity this morning to do Seven Dwarfs Mine Train. The rope was right at Cheshire Cat Cafe and we were again maybe a hundred or so people back. Once they opened up we dealt with the crush and ended up waiting about 20 minutes and it went quick since we had a family behind us with a college daughter doing College Program this summer so lots to chat about.

No great pics, but I enjoy the safety video so…
642A357B-D47B-42F5-8272-E3533246A0BD.jpeg


We then headed to Philharmagic to enjoy the new scene again!
A285C96C-3E8D-4930-A56F-1E0378616163.jpeg


Early Magic hour is about to end so we are at another rope waiting to head to Big Thunder. Until later!
 

cgersic

Well-Known Member
My first Cirque Du Soleil experience was the Mystere show when it first opened in Vegas. That show was all about crazy stuff going on the entire time. So enjoying your report and photos! Enjoy your day!
 

Lilofan

Well-Known Member
Sitting here at my work at home desk with my hoodie pulled up looking at grey skies, freezing in Connecticut and wishing I was you. :)
Your mission for today is to enjoy every moment of WDW and MK awesomeness for all of us out here struggling with the mundane day to day!!
I'd say apply that suntan lotion in Orlando. One can still get sunburned in low 80 degree winter temps .
 

brifraz

Marching along...
Premium Member
Original Poster
Sitting here at my work at home desk with my hoodie pulled up looking at grey skies, freezing in Connecticut and wishing I was you. :)
Your mission for today is to enjoy every moment of WDW and MK awesomeness for all of us out here struggling with the mundane day to day!!

I'd say apply that suntan lotion in Orlando. One can still get sunburned in low 80 degree winter temps .

So are you saying the mission for @brifraz should be as follows? :)

1. apply that suntan lotion
2. enjoy every moment of WDW and MK awesomeness

Either way, it's a solid plan!! :D:D

Absolutely enjoying every moment and not much suntan lotion needed. It’s the lowest sun angle of the year! As a guys who burns very easily, I generally don’t need lotion in late December when we are only doing 2-3 hours in the parks in full sun. But some good heat the past couple days - mid to upper 80s!
 

brifraz

Marching along...
Premium Member
Original Poster
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 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!

Hey @brifraz I just found out that our High School Band is performing at Disney Springs today!!

Yup, high school groups are definitely back!!
F3AC4B0D-546D-417B-97A5-741E4F278437.jpeg


Saw this group from Ohio and talked to a director of another group who was marching today. We think right now it might just be groups who had to cancel over the past 20 months, but it is just great to see kids out playing! Hope they all have great trips and can stay safe and healthy!
 

brifraz

Marching along...
Premium Member
Original Poster
It’s just after midnight and we are enjoying the heck out of late hours at Magic Kingdom. I’ll get you caught up later, but these hours have been very good to us! Got into the park around 10pm and we have done 8 attractions. 2 more before we head out!!
 

brifraz

Marching along...
Premium Member
Original Poster
I know, I know! I'm a bit behind. So, let's get caught up a bit on yesterday at Magic Kingdom and our excellent dinner as well.

Yesterday morning, I left you hanging as we 'rope dropped' Big Thunder Mountain at regular park opening of 9am. Most of the crowd did head that way, but we still only spent about 5 minutes or so in line before enjoying the wildest ride in the wilderness. Just like the past few days, once that regular park opening hit the crowds started to build quickly and lines jumped in length. Our plan was to head over to Tomorrowland for some TTA time. On the way across the hub was when we heard the (to me) obvious sounds of a high school marching band which definitely was a very good feeling! As I posted above, it was a group from Ohio and a little later in the morning we ran into the director of another group and I talked to him for a few minutes about their visit (postponed from over a year ago). We also decided to take a little pause for a snack on the way over to Tomorrowland.
IMG_6354.JPG


TTA is always a family favorite and nice to see the progress on Tron (although the pictures that Steve posted yesterday definitely bested mine!).
IMG_6361.JPG


Seeing as all the lines for attractions were now over half an hour, we went on the one thing that really never is! Carousel of Progress. Still hoping that someday they will redo the last scene and just have it show the technological innovations of the second half the 20th century and not be trying to predict the future!
IMG_6362.JPG


We were going to meet some 'Disney friends' of @MeffysMom for lunch, so we headed on out of the park at about 10am and made a quick boat trip to Grand Floridian to pick up some gingerbread. Couldn't resist another picture of the beautiful gingerbread house and the tree.
IMG_6367.JPG


We then monorailed back to Magic Kingdom and caught a bus to the Riviera, thus completing the a full quartet of Disney transportation in just over an hour (Peoplemover, boat, monorail, bus). Met up with the friends and enjoyed a nice lunch at the Bar Riva down by the pool there. Then it was back to the room for us via the Skyliner to Studios and then bus back to OKW (5 different Disney transportation modes, achieved!). We got in a nap and got ourselves into some nicer clothes so we could head over to California Grill for our dinner.
 
Last edited:

brifraz

Marching along...
Premium Member
Original Poster
Dinner at California Grill was exceptionally good! And I've got all the pictures to prove it. We all did the Prix fixe menu that they are currently doing to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of Magic Kingdom and the food really was excellent (and more plentiful than we expected).

Round One:

Sushi trio, duck l'orange pizza, and beef wontons.
IMG_6375.JPG

IMG_6376.JPG

IMG_6377.JPG


Main courses:

Pork tenderloin and the steak (both @MeffysMom and our daughter go the steak, so just one picture!)
IMG_6378.JPG

IMG_6381.JPG


After our main course, it was time to head outside to catch the fireworks which we did and really enjoyed them from that perspective.
IMG_6387.JPG

IMG_6406.JPG


Then back inside for some desserts. We've got the 5 Magical Bites, the Gran Marnier Creme Brulee, and the cheese plate.
IMG_6413.JPG

IMG_6415.JPG

IMG_6417.JPG


Then it was back over to Magic Kingdom for some night hour enjoyment. But, right now we need to get checked out of our room and head to Epcot to relax a bit over there before one last Magic Kingdom visit this evening and then the long drive home! See you later.
 

brifraz

Marching along...
Premium Member
Original Poster
It's 11:30am on Friday and I find myself back home in Maryland after having left Magic Kingdom at 7:30pm last night. But, I believe I left everyone hanging with Wednesday night and late night extra hours at Magic Kingdom. So, away we go!

After our excellent dinner at California Grill (although it certainly put a dent in the checkbook) we went back into Magic Kingdom. It was about 10pm when we got in, so there was one hour left of 'normal' hours prior to the start of the bonus time. First stop was right as we got into the park - a quick visit with Mickey in his 50th finest threads.
IMG_6432.JPG



And, I certainly enjoyed reading the signs in the waiting area before we got to meet up with Mickey. In particular this ad for an upcoming lecture with Goofy (and I sometimes fear that my students might feel my music theory lectures are similar).
IMG_2140.JPG


Next we headed over to Pirates of the Caribbean for a ride and did actually have to wait about 5 minutes before our sailing. It was almost actual closing time so we did one last 'pre-extra hours' ride and that was Haunted Mansion. The wait was '13' minutes so we got to walk right in and then right onto a doom buggy.
IMG_6433.JPG


Now the extra hours were upon us and so we headed to It's a Small World. Historically, my daughter and I nap during IASW when it is late at night, but this time I managed to stay awake and got my usual smile out of things.
IMG_2142.JPG


Our next attraction was Winnie the Pooh. Even these guys couldn't rain on our parade of attractions!
IMG_2143.JPG


Time for one more attraction in Fantasyland for this visit. Even though Seven Dwarfs was only showing a 30 minute wait at this point, we decided to go with the 0 minute wait of the teacups. I don't generally ride this one as the girls try pretty hard to spin as fast as possible and that does NOT work for me. But on this night, I got my own teacup and worked pretty hard to keep it from spinning at all - even if I was almost totally asleep.
IMG_2148.JPG

IMG_6435.JPG


Time to head to Tomorrowland and grab a quick (no wait) ride on Space Mountain. It does appear that I didn't quite get enough sleep on the Teacups!
3bb9a532-22ad-46b6-afb1-b2610a851a54.jpg


As we rode, the worklights in the TTA were turned on, so we got to see a little more of the SM ride structure. A certain engineering student in our trio was very interested in this, so the girls decided to ride a second time but sadly the lights were off by that point so they didn't quite get the cool views that we did on the first ride.

It was right around midnight and we were all pretty darn tired, plus we had done everything we had hoped to do plus a bit more in Magic Kingdom, so we did one last attraction and helped Buzz save the galaxy from Zurg. Our daughter got her highest score of all time on this ride and also won out of the three of us (each in our own ride vehicle). Not sure exactly why I didn't end up getting the high score...
2e9d849a-7914-4838-8e0e-ae3740529492.jpg


I do appreciate that one of the hard working folks at Photopass Central managed to get a Zurg target onto my head.

On the way out, we decided to get one nice picture of the 50th and holiday decorations on the train station. Can't wait for trains to be back!
IMG_6445.JPG


Just one more day to share with you and it was VERY light on attractions, but still heavy on a great time. Hope to get it posted soon!
 

Register on WDWMAGIC. This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.

Back
Top Bottom