Trip Report Brief and Live - WDW 12/28-1/1

Hello friends! And welcome to the latest in Brifraz's seemingly never-ending series of live trip reports. This time, bringing you a brief Pre-Trip from chilly Savannah, GA. What's that you say? You remember from the last 10 reports that we hail from Northern Maryland. That's great - thanks for following along! Well, this year, we had a family 'destination' Christmas in Savannah with our usual travellers - @MeffysMom and our 13yr old daughter - as well as my parents. So, today's drive is certainly much shorter than our usual 14+ hour trek.

However, we hope the excitement will be even bigger as this trip is a surprise to our daughter. She is all set for the 10 hour drive back home this morning. Bag is packet...comfy car clothes are on...and once we eat some breakfast we will be off! Last time we surprised her was in 2009 for her 5th birthday - the reveal being a giant Minnie Mouse in the car (on the way to the airport).

That ended up being perhaps our best trip ever as she was picked on her birthday to be the person who 'opened' Magic Kingdom. Not expecting anything like that to happen this time! And the reveal this time will be whenever she realizes we are going the wrong way on I-95. Not quite so grand, but a giant Minnie Mouse at almost 14 might be a bit odd.

Regardless, we have plans for the next four days and will let her edit and adjust once she knows. Some things we have include the Candlelight Processional, a visit to Harry Potter to see the projection show on Hogwarts, and possibly visiting all 4 parks (with at least one attraction per park) on New Year's Eve. Which will prove once and for all that we are totally insane. This will be our third NYE in the World (you can check out previous trip reports linked in my signature) and we are quite excited - and having a tough time acting like we are miserably getting ready for the drive home...

See you soon!

 

[21stamps]

Good morning! If the hotel wi-fi holds up for a couple minutes here come pictures from yesterday. By the way, I know people will be asking...yes, it's crowded. Yes, very. But with a good plan, all things are doable. If you look at yesterday, that was all done without even getting our FP+ until 3pm in the afternoon. We are off to a full day at Epcot this morning and hope to hit just about all the major attractions plus hear some holiday stories around World Showcase (and sample a few treats, too).

Here are the Princess and the Frog and Alice In Wonderland trees from Disney Springs.
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Our drinks and food from Art Smith (see above for what we got food-wise, the drinks are a distant memory is a 20 hour day).
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Three pictures from the Harry Potter Christmas castle projection show.
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And I leave you this morning with a shot of Cinderella Castle from last night! Have a great day.
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Wow, that food looks Delicious!!

 

[Jae99]

I am sorry to hear about your daughter. Definitely not the greatest way to end a good morning. I hope she feels better soon.

 

[brifraz]

I am sorry to hear about your daughter. Definitely not the greatest way to end a good morning. I hope she feels better soon.

Thanks. We stayed in the hotel all afternoon and evening. She seems to be doing better now and is hopeful to get out tomorrow, but we shall see...

 

[brifraz]

Hey everybody! Happy New Years Eve Eve. After yesterday's rough time, we were a little worried about what might happen today. Luckily about 11pm, we all finally got to some sound sleeping and this morning, whatever bug or food had hit seemed to be gone. So, after a light breakfast in the hotel, we headed to Hollywood Studios. Knowing full well that too much food or frivolity could result in a dangerous (and messy) situation, we took it pretty easy.

We got in just a couple minutes after park opening at 9am. For the first time in quite a while, we came through the 'main' entrance which meant an up close view of Star Wars construction - so I drove extra slowly! Once in the park, we stopped off at the 'jewelry' shop to pick up our Annual Pass holiday magnets and then went to the Frozen Sing-Along show. It's the third time we've seen the show and we learned after the first time to just watch the hosts during the songs - far more entertaining than seeing the Frozen clips for the 100th time.

After the show, we headed back to MuppetVision 3D, which I still feel is one of the highest quality shows on site. Good humor, good times. To encourage stomach recovery we stopped off for a bite and a drink (for the grownups) at Baseline Tap House. I feel like this is a nice little addition to the area - we always enjoyed Writer's Stop, but this is a nice change of pace feel and certainly will be more successful than Writer's Stop ever was. It was cool to see the shout out to the former occupants of the location in the decoration!

Hope that didn't make any readers too hungry or thirsty! We then headed out of the park slowly but surely, checking out some of the Star Wars stage show along the way. Then we drove to Grand Floridian for some light lunch - and because of the ease of parking there to visit Magic Kingdom. We made sure to enjoy the decorations and the infamous gingerbread castle.

We actually took a quick break while there and the girls both napped a little by the quiet pool before we monorailed over to Magic Kingdom for the rest of the afternoon. Crowd-wise it was pretty nuts. Not the worst we've ever seen it, but pretty comparable to July 3 and I would suspect it was pretty close to a phased closing. First thing we did was to visit the Christmas Shoppe to get a gift for a friend. By good chance, we caught the show just outside right at 2:45pm. Very glad, as I love these shows. Some of the best new writing that we've seen at Disney in a few years (and some very entertaining characters for sure!).

We then headed to Adventureland for a visit to a very full Tiki Room followed by our FP+ (booked yesterday) for Jingle Jungle Cruise. We had almost an hour to kill before our next FP+, so we went ahead through the standby line for Pirates. It was listed as 45 minutes and took almost exactly that which meant we could slowly walk to Haunted Mansion and be there just in time for those FP+. So, in just 2.5 hours on one of the most crowded days of the year, we did 4 attractions and saw one show - not bad!

At this point, we found a spot to watch fireworks (early show of Fantasy in the Sky was 6:30pm). Maybe it doesn't look ideal at first...

But it ended up being a great spot as all three of us were leaning to the sides of that friendly little lamp post. Actually, once we got the spot, we did the 'mobile ordering' of some dinner from Cosmic Ray's. What a great thing the mobile ordering is! No waiting in line at all and our food was ready within 5 minutes of placing the order. Awesome! I'm really shocked that more people aren't doing it. When I picked up the food, the regular lines were all at least 10 people deep, but the mobile pick-up was simply walk up and claim your food. Once we ate, it was just about showtime. And what a great show it was! In terms of 'plot' it certainly doesn't rival the newer shows, but great fireworks and lots of fun to watch, plus the great perimeter New Years finale. Just a couple of the hundred plus pictures that we got between the three of us.

Now, it's just a few minutes after 9pm and we are getting to sleep! Tomorrow is going to be a long day with a plan in place to hit all four parks in one day on one of the three busiest days of the year - just to say we did it. It would appear that we are, in fact, insane.

 

[Jae99]

Hey everybody! Happy New Years Eve Eve. After yesterday's rough time, we were a little worried about what might happen today. Luckily about 11pm, we all finally got to some sound sleeping and this morning, whatever bug or food had hit seemed to be gone. So, after a light breakfast in the hotel, we headed to Hollywood Studios. Knowing full well that too much food or frivolity could result in a dangerous (and messy) situation, we took it pretty easy.

We got in just a couple minutes after park opening at 9am. For the first time in quite a while, we came through the 'main' entrance which meant an up close view of Star Wars construction - so I drove extra slowly! Once in the park, we stopped off at the 'jewelry' shop to pick up our Annual Pass holiday magnets and then went to the Frozen Sing-Along show. It's the third time we've seen the show and we learned after the first time to just watch the hosts during the songs - far more entertaining than seeing the Frozen clips for the 100th time.
View attachment 253246
After the show, we headed back to MuppetVision 3D, which I still feel is one of the highest quality shows on site. Good humor, good times. To encourage stomach recovery we stopped off for a bite and a drink (for the grownups) at Baseline Tap House. I feel like this is a nice little addition to the area - we always enjoyed Writer's Stop, but this is a nice change of pace feel and certainly will be more successful than Writer's Stop ever was. It was cool to see the shout out to the former occupants of the location in the decoration!
View attachment 253250

Hope that didn't make any readers too hungry or thirsty! We then headed out of the park slowly but surely, checking out some of the Star Wars stage show along the way. Then we drove to Grand Floridian for some light lunch - and because of the ease of parking there to visit Magic Kingdom. We made sure to enjoy the decorations and the infamous gingerbread castle.
View attachment 253244 View attachment 253245

We actually took a quick break while there and the girls both napped a little by the quiet pool before we monorailed over to Magic Kingdom for the rest of the afternoon. Crowd-wise it was pretty nuts. Not the worst we've ever seen it, but pretty comparable to July 3 and I would suspect it was pretty close to a phased closing. First thing we did was to visit the Christmas Shoppe to get a gift for a friend. By good chance, we caught the show just outside right at 2:45pm. Very glad, as I love these shows. Some of the best new writing that we've seen at Disney in a few years (and some very entertaining characters for sure!).
View attachment 253243

We then headed to Adventureland for a visit to a very full Tiki Room followed by our FP+ (booked yesterday) for Jingle Jungle Cruise. We had almost an hour to kill before our next FP+, so we went ahead through the standby line for Pirates. It was listed as 45 minutes and took almost exactly that which meant we could slowly walk to Haunted Mansion and be there just in time for those FP+. So, in just 2.5 hours on one of the most crowded days of the year, we did 4 attractions and saw one show - not bad!

At this point, we found a spot to watch fireworks (early show of Fantasy in the Sky was 6:30pm). Maybe it doesn't look ideal at first...
View attachment 253247

But it ended up being a great spot as all three of us were leaning to the sides of that friendly little lamp post. Actually, once we got the spot, we did the 'mobile ordering' of some dinner from Cosmic Ray's. What a great thing the mobile ordering is! No waiting in line at all and our food was ready within 5 minutes of placing the order. Awesome! I'm really shocked that more people aren't doing it. When I picked up the food, the regular lines were all at least 10 people deep, but the mobile pick-up was simply walk up and claim your food. Once we ate, it was just about showtime. And what a great show it was! In terms of 'plot' it certainly doesn't rival the newer shows, but great fireworks and lots of fun to watch, plus the great perimeter New Years finale. Just a couple of the hundred plus pictures that we got between the three of us.
View attachment 253249 View attachment 253248

Now, it's just a few minutes after 9pm and we are getting to sleep! Tomorrow is going to be a long day with a plan in place to hit all four parks in one day on one of the three busiest days of the year - just to say we did it. It would appear that we are, in fact, insane.

I am happy that your daughter is feeling better. It sounds like you had a great day!

Mobile ordering seems to be a great addition. My family being from Canada it makes for a tough choice to use the mobile ordering. Having credit card charges added on top of the exchange rate adds to the cost. Hopefully Disney can make it so we can use dining plan points or somehow have it linked to our room.

Have a great New Years Eve.

 

[brifraz]

Good morning! Since I know that a good 95% of you following along are planners like I am...here's the plan! Let's see how it works in action-

7am Leave the hotel and head to Animal Kingdom for 8am opening
8am Safari, then FP+ for Primeval Whirl (depending on stomach situations)
9am FP+ for Flight of Passage - yes, we got FP+ for Flight of Passage YESTERDAY. They really do become available. Then walk around Pandora a bit.
10:30am Finding Nemo: The Musical (again, with FP+), show is at 11am
11:45am Back to the car and driving to the Boardwalk
12:15pm Lunch somewhere on the Boardwalk, then 2pm catch a bus to Magic Kingdom - obviously depending on phased closing situation
3pm Magic Kingdom - grab a seat at the train station or in front of the barbershop to watch the Christmas parade
4pm Monorail to Epcot and casually wander through Epcot (while at the Boardwalk, we will try to secure an FP+ for something!)
6:30pm Illuminations (with Peace on Earth tag)
7pm Walk or boat to Hollywood Studios and find a spot to watch Jingle Bell, Jingle Bam! at 8pm
8:30pm Hopefully do something in Studios (again after trying to secure an FP+)
10pm Star Wars Galactic something or other Dessert Party (which really is a dinner party, too with the food they have)
11:50pm Star Wars fireworks with NYE tag
12:45am Hopefully back in our hotel for an all-too-short sleep before tomorrow's 14+ hour drive...

 

[brifraz]

Good morning from Animal Kingdom. We bailed out on Primeval Whirl for stomach safety and just did the Safari first thing. Fun ride with the added bonus of a tire blow out just past the monkeys! After a short delay we kept moving (thank you double tires!). Post safari we took a slow walk to Pandora.

And we just enjoyed our FP+ for Flight of Passage. All stomachs report in happy! And we are having some fruit at Situli canteen before heading across the park for Finding Nemo.

 

[Zipadeelady]

That sounds exhausting!! Score on the FOP FP's! Hope your able to get everything done. The band kids are at Epcot today.

 

[brifraz]

That sounds exhausting!! Score on the FOP FP's! Hope your able to get everything done. The band kids are at Epcot today.

We hope to be there around 4:30 until Illuminations. If I see a bunch of band kids (yes, I can recognize band kids at 100 paces) I'll say hello from "Zipitidoda".

 

[Zipadeelady]

We hope to be there around 4:30 until Illuminations. If I see a bunch of band kids (yes, I can recognize band kids at 100 paces) I'll say hello from "Zipitidoda".

They are from Northern Indiana. I've got two there, a long blond and a gangly boy but there are a lot of each of those in the band. They will also be in the workshop from 5-8:30 so you might be in the clear for most of the night.

Have a great time and good luck with your 4 park adventure.

 

[brifraz]

Boardwalk parking was full, so we parked at Studios and are taking a bus 'home' for lunch at Old Key West. And, yes, we know MK is at Phase B. Still okay for us to insanely go in for the parade.

 

[brifraz]

Hey all! It's Epcot time for the brifraz clan. We did lunch at the Gurgling Suitcase at OKW (pics later) and then headed to Magic Kingdom for the parade. From our usual spot in front of the barbershop.

The we caught the monorail to Epcot and bobbed and weaved our way to the Japan/Morocco border to sit and wait for 6:30 Illuminations.

 

[dclfan]

Hey all! It's Epcot time for the brifraz clan. We did lunch at the Gurgling Suitcase at OKW (pics later) and then headed to Magic Kingdom for the parade. From our usual spot in front of the barbershop.

The we caught the monorail to Epcot and bobbed and weaved our way to the Japan/Morocco border to sit and wait for 6:30 Illuminations.

You are doing excellent on your 4 parks in one day trek. Only one left to go. I was a little unsure if you were going to make it to MK. Can't wait to read more. I am living vicariously though you and your family from my couch. Have a great New Years!

 

[brifraz]

Good morning and Happy New Year. It's a little before 6am on 1/1. Yes, we did it. All 4 parks, 3 fireworks shows (and the last one was a double), a parade, and at least a trillion strollers bumped into my ankles. Now it's time to hit the road back to a high of 13 degrees at home. Hoping for a smooth drive home. Lots of pictures and more info either tonight or tomorrow evening.

 

[Nemo14]

Safe travels!

 

[coachwnh]

Have a safe trip. Thanks for the live updates. Looking forward to the pictures.

 

[Zipadeelady]

Thanks for posting!

 

[brifraz]

Finally found ourselves back here in our reverse icebox at about 10pm last night - of course, the kids had to be taught today...no rest for the weary! I'll be posting New Years Eve in at least 2 (and likely 3) parts as I go through all the hundreds of pictures!

So, let's start off by going back to Animal Kingdom on New Year's Eve.

As mentioned above, we got in right at opening and headed back to the Safari right away. Overall a good safari. Usually, the wild dogs are pretty tame when we visit, so it was fun to see them out and pacing in a line through the enclosure as we went by.

Then, as per usual, the giraffes were hanging out in the middle of the savannah. Two adults and one youth were out, but this was by far the most photogenic!

Just after the savannah, as we past the monkeys was when the tire blew out on the jeep, so we had a little break there before continuing on. While the monkeys were out and about (we saw the baby with at least two adults), we didn't really get a great picture of those. The elephant area was strangely inactive and we didn't see any of the troop! But, of course, the safari-karma made up for it with a posing lion.

After the safari, we headed to Pandora and after taking lots of pictures and experimenting with some iPhone 7 camera features, we rode Flight of Passage (which, let me just mention again...we got FP+ for less than 48 hours earlier) and then headed back to Asia. The main reason to head all the way to the back of the park was to try to see the new tiger cubs and we were NOT disappointed. Both were out and being very playful as we stood and watched for about 5-10 minutes. The glass and distance made it a little tough to get great pictures, but here they are with their mother.

And on the other side, dad was pacing very agressively in his enclosure.

After the safari, we used FP+ to go watch Finding Nemo: The Musical. The theatre wasn't quite packed, but we still were glad to have FP+ so we got our favorite seats, right behind the aisle that goes across the theatre. We were a little disappointed in some of the cast (definitely not the best Marlin we've seen and the Crush was pretty rough), but...and I hope someone can verify this... we feel pretty confident that the Bruce/swordfish/head of silver fish school was played by Blondie (Karl O.) from the Adventurer's Club. If any of you AC fans out there have been to Nemo recently and can verify if that was him, that would be great.

Anyway, after Nemo was when we left Animal Kingdom and headed to the Boardwalk. As mentioned before, it was at that time that we learned that the parking lot was totally full, so we decided to park at Hollywood Studios and instead of trying to get in someplace on the Boardwalk to eat, we took the bus 'home' to Old Key West for some drinks and a light lunch. We do enjoy the staff and the laid back attitude of the Gurgling Suitcase lounge.

After lunch it was time to hit park #2 for the day, the Magic Kingdom. I'll have those pictures and full story either later tonight or tomorrow evening!

 

[brifraz]

So, we caught the bus from OKW to Magic Kingdom. Certainly a good call as the cars were lined up solid from the parking entrance all the way down World Drive and past Epcot Center Drive (seeing it from the monorail as we left). It was a simple plan - go in, watch the parade, get out. They were at Phase B closing, but since we were coming from a resort and have annual passes, no questions were asked! Right as we entered, they were handing out sugar cookies with mint and chocolate chips - we assume leftovers from the last Christmas Party or even just from Christmas itself. Regardless, free and yummy!

Took up residence at our usual spot, right in front of the barbershop. Not sure if anyone else likes to set-up shop there, but it seems as if there are always a couple CMs watching from there (and sometimes more than a couple) as well as family members of parade CMs. This time was no exception to that rule as a relative of the parade's Tiana and also one of the dwarves (not sure which) were right in the area as well as a trio of CMs who were taking pictures by the thousands (one had 2 quite impressive cameras and was only shooting the face characters and dancers). Got a couple pictures from the parade to post - even though I'm sure everyone here has about a thousand of their own!

I do love that have some live musicians playing along with the parade music. As a high school band director that warms my heart to see!

As soon as the parade was over, we headed out and caught the monorail back to TTC and then the monorail to Epcot. Similar to MK, we had only one real goal in Epcot and that was Illuminations with the Peace on Earth tag.

Our usual spot for that is between Japan and America, but at 5pm, that area was already full up (for the 6:30pm Illuminations) so we took up residence between Japan and Morocco. Illuminations is far and away my favorite show of any type at Disney and while I will be happy to see a new show that is supposed to come soon, I will definitely miss the music and spectacle of this show. Can't tell you how much I'll miss that music - the people around me each time we see it likely get a bit annoyed by my singing along! Just one picture to share here, from the ending of the tag.

When the show was over, we once again braved the chaos of the main path and headed to International Gateway to catch the boat to Hollywood Studios. And that post will be coming soon....

 

[brifraz]

Sorry for the slight delay...I thought everybody knew that coming soon meant in a day and a half?

When last you were with the Brifraz clan, we were getting onto the boat to Hollywood Studios for our 4th park on New Year's Eve. Obviously, by that time and after 3 other parks, things were getting a bit blurry!

Right as we got in, it was getting close to time for Jingle Bell, Jingle Bam fireworks/projection show (along with the 'salute to live action Disney movies' which we didn't know about). We took up a spot pretty middle of the road just past the turn off for Hollywood Blvd. I have to say, I really enjoyed the show - good use of projection and silly, fun little story. And LASERS for the win!

When the show was over, we headed to Toy Story Midway Mania, which we had gotten FP+ for during our lunch break. Nice surprises with FP+ all around on this trip. As usual, @MeffysMom got the highest score in our car by a ton. Then we walked over to Hollywood Blvd to watch a little of the projections on the Tower of Terror which were nice, but pretty unimpressive. While it wasn't quite time yet, we headed to Launch Bay to get ready for the dessert party (and by 'get ready' I really mean sit down on a cushioned bench inside and relax). As always, the dessert party was great with nice drinks, good food, and more than enough for anyone to satisfy their hunger!

At about 11:20pm, it was time to head to the show. Much to our surprise, the seating area for the party was RIGHT IN FRONT of the Chinese Theatre. Very up close - which meant not the ideal firework viewing, but great view of the projections (and the huge crowd behind us).

There was also a short NYE fireworks show that came first with a huge projected countdown, which was a great bonus. At this point it was nearing 12:30am and we were headed to the 20 minute parking lot exit and then back to the hotel. Final wrap-ups coming this weekend!!