Christmas, New Year's and a birthday = 10 Days of Magic

So I'm finally getting around to writing this trip report after having been home for almost a month. I think the main reason I've been putting it off for so long is because we've been having some nice weather up here in the New York area and writing about our trip to Disney will make me wish for nicer weather and that we were still down there. Maybe another reason for putting it off is that we know we're probably not going down there for another year or two since we've got a lot going on this year (I'm becoming an uncle in a couple weeks and my brother and his wife live in California, so a good amount of the vacation budget is being allocated to those visits. Hey, I'll take my first niece over a trip to Disney, plus in a few years I'll be able to go out that way and take her to Disneyland).

Anyway, enough of that stuff no one cares about, if you hadn't read the trip report Alex (Lexi, my girlfriend) wrote before we went down there then here it is. If you don't want to read it that's fine, here's a quick rundown. We were in WDW for the Food and Wine Festival in early October 2010. We discussed going around the same time as soon as we got back from that trip (which there is a short TR for floating around this site somewhere) but Alex said she wanted to go down for Christmas, "Christmas time, yeah that's fine" I would agree, but no. She wanted Christmas day, New Year's and her birthday (January 2), so we booked that the day after Thanksgiving 2010. Waiting thirteen months just to leave for your trip is a nightmare that I'm sure some of you have experienced. The only reason I say it's a nightmare is because WHO WANTS TO WAIT THIRTEEN MONTHS TO GO TO DISNEY AFTER YOU'VE BOOKED THE TRIP! Anyway, multiple ADR changes and one hotel switch later it was finally Christmas Eve.

Day One - Packing, Flying, Checking In and Magic Kingdom

Alex and I couldn't be more different when it comes to packing, so after we each finished our respective families' Christmas Eve gatherings and we exchanged our gifts to one another (I got her a Nook Tablet which I ended up using more on the trip than her, I love crossword puzzles sue me) I sat patiently on the bed with my bags (having been packed for four days) while Alex figured out what she needed to pack and then finally stuff things into her suitcase and carry-ons (yeah carry-ons because the airline industry hasn't figured out that most women are smart enough to use their 'personal' bag as another carry-on, usually one that's larger than their actual carry-on mini-suitcase). Needless to say she was successful and both of our bags were surprisingly under weight (we thought they'd be closer to 50lbs, they were nearer 30), who'd have thunk it?

Did I mention that she finished packing at about 1.30am Christmas morning? Our flight was at 6am. We had to be at the airport by 4:30 (honestly if you think you need to be there two hours prior for a domestic flight something in your head is off, and don't tell me that it's because of how crazy the airport gets because our flight was leaving out of JFK). That's all well and good, I can operate on very low levels of sleep and when Alex gets excited for something I'm surprised she sleeps at all, she makes up for it big time the next few mornings, and this was Disney World, our trip that was thirteen months in the making. Our Christmas, New Year's and her birthday that we'd been looking forward to since each of those events the previous year, we could have stayed up all night and still had the energy for our first day in the parks. We didn't though, we got about three hours each and Alex slept the entire plane ride down, me not so much. I can't sleep on planes because I have a fear of flying, despite how much I do it (or am willing to do it).

We don't have any pictures of us waiting to board the plane or sitting on the plane or even of the plane. Our very first picture of our vacation is this somewhat blurry beaut:

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We were staying at the Caribbean Beach Resort so we were on our way to the Magical Express Bus. I think the best part about flying in on Christmas day is that absolutely no one was on any of the lines of the ME and our bus had only six other people on it (in total, not groups). We had a great bus driver as well, we told us some fun stories, pointed out all the alligators he could see and even slowed down so we could get this picture:

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Curious that the picture we got while we were in a moving vehicle is less blurry than the picture we took while standing still. This may be a trend for the trip.

Once we arrived at the hotel we thanked our driver very much AND TIPPED HIM (I know there seems to be some debate over whether or not to do this but you should, especially if he handles any of your bags, tells you stories or does anything nice, like drive you from the airport to your resort). Upon entering the Custom House we were in awe of the place, it was much bigger than the pictures we'd seen made it out to be, and the Christmas decorations were the icing on the cake. We were thrilled to find out that our room was ready considering it was 9:30am by the time all was said and done.

A Christmas decoration:

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We headed to our room, which luckily was about a ten minute walk from the Custom House to put our carry-on luggage down. We hadn't checked the weather before we left New York so we were pretty surprised by the humidity that morning, as it had rained earlier, and the fact that it was about 85 degrees. We took it in stride though seeing as how we were staying on

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in room number

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We were lucky enough to have a corner room (I think "lucky enough" is the proper term even though our blinds were closed shut the entire trip, we hate when people walk by and look in the room, it's creepy and we don't handle creepiness well) that was only about a five minute walk to the nearest bus stop. We lucked out with the buses, we felt, since our stop was the last before exiting the resort for MK and AK, and there were only four more stops after us before exiting for Epcot and MGM (I'm calling it MGM this entire trip report so if you're going to complain stop reading now, we spend a lot of time there), if I'm remembering correctly any way. Also, our room was close enough to the next bus stop that after all the long days/nights in the parks we could get off at the first stop in the resort (Martinique, I believe) and walk back, depending where we were coming from. If Martinique wasn't the first stop than Barbados was the third. Granted, yes, we're young (enough, mid-20's) but after spending countless hours walking around the parks there's no way we want to walk or be on a bus any longer than we have to be. I digress.

After sitting around the room and enjoying the AC for a little while and debating whether or not to wait for our checked luggage (it got there very quickly when we stayed at AS Movies last time) we decided enough was enough because we didn't want to risk waiting in the room for two hours (or more, as I've read in some TRs), plus it's not like we could go for a dip in the quiet or main pool since our bathing suits (henceforth to be referred to as 'trunks') were in our luggage. So we got off our butts

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(me being fancy on my butt) and headed to the bus stop for our ride over to the Magic Kingdom. A moment we had waited for for a long time (I could say thirteen months hundreds of times in this TR but it's annoying even me thinking about it).

We finally arrived at the Magic Kingdom after a quick fifteen minutes bus ride that felt like an hour since we hadn't been there in so long. After walking from the drop off point to the entrance we realized maybe we made a huge mistake. Once we got past bag check though (where I almost picked up a stroller and threw that a woman kept pushing into our ankles, if I'm not moving up and you're behind me, you're not moving up) we just had to find the right line to get in to get into the park and so Disney could have our biometric signatures. We got on the shortest line that had only one big group (about ten people) in front of us. Well this was absolutely the worst line we could've picked, not one of the people in the group spoke english and they all had something with their ticket where every other person had to go to the ticket counter which left every person after that arguing with the other. This took about twenty minutes but once past that we were in! We did it!

Here's our first view from inside any of the parks:

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Not quite the Castle but we loved the ornaments on the tree, we would later get more photos of those as our time progressed but for now we were just excited to be in the park. Even more excited when we saw this:

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There's really no comparison for seeing the Castle for the first time on your trip. As we walked down Main Street and it got closer and closer (we were actually towards the end, front depending on how you like it when we took that picture because the wreaths hanging from the buildings on Main St would've been in the way otherwise) the excitement grew and grew. It was either excitement or hunger since we hadn't really eaten anything except maybe half a bag of chips on the plane and those weren't very yummy any way. So we headed over to Pecos Bill's for our first meal of the trip, we loved this place so much the last time we went that we couldn't wait to get back there and here's what we ordered:

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Two deluxe cheeseburgers (I had been debating this for a long time, I should've gone with the taco bowl since I love tacos). That one in the back with the superfluous amount of onions is mine, I love onions. As much as I wanted to love this burger I just couldn't, just as last year the bun seemed stale and unfortunately the one major thing I noticed this time around was that the burger patty tasted overwhelmingly like it was a frozen patty (obviously it is, but it's a huge bummer when you can tell it's been frozen). At least the fries and cheese sauce were outstanding as they usually are. I can't fault Pecos Bill's too much though given the fact that it was around 12:30pm on Christmas Day and the place was absolutely mobbed, I guess I was just upset that that was my first foray into dining at Disney World this trip. I felt horrible for the staff working their though as it seemed no one knew where to walk, where to order or where to eat. The worst of it was that no one knew of any order to getting the fixins from the fixins bar. It's simple, start at the where the toppings are and work your way towards the middle where the napkins are. Easy, both sides of the fixins bar are the same. No rocket science there.

After Pecos Bills we decided that since we were close to Pirates we may as well take a spin. I never thought that this would be our first ride of the trip, we're more inclined to head towards Tomorrowland, but it's how things worked out this time around:

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Look at those clouds, nice. Beautiful weather once we got over the humidity on this day. We still love this ride, although for me ever since they geared it towards the film it's just not the same. I think it's because Johnny Depp bothers me, the unpatriotic bum. Anyway, I've filled my picture quota for the post, there is much more to come. I hope you like the pictures posted here because Alex bought herself a new camera before we took this trip and we took well over 1,500 photos (I won't post nearly that many). There will be more plenty more trip report to come, although the NHL All-Star game has priority today.
 

ArtieJim

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
The rain didn't last too long and it gave us a little time to check out some of the shops, although nothing too interesting caught our eyes. The good thing about the rain was that it froze a lot of people in their tracks, I guess they didn't want to get too wet even though it wasn't raining very hard. We decided to head over to check in to the Hollywood Tower Hotel, why not?

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Alex wanted to get a picture while it was changed to the lit sign, it works much better at night, but she did her best.

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Does any one remember when they would actually update this?

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I went on this ride three times in about twenty minutes when I was down there with my family when I was younger, that sun dial must have said two minutes back then, before they got proper signage. I like this one much better though.

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Looks like the maids are on vacation.

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Alex sure does love her light fixtures:

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"Going up, sir."

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ArtieJim

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
We were on number two:

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See, I wasn't lying. Turns out that's one of the better spots to be.

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As we found out on this trip the express elevator is an actual elevator. We had no idea, we saw a CM leading someone into it, it was like any other elevator in the world. Boring.

Check out the one on the right, she's flexing her muscles at us, very frightening.

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I always like to look out at the park when the doors open, Alex, well she's looking at something and R2 is just along for the ride.

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I like this fountain, but fountains without water just confuse me.

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Through these doors the sun sets all the time.

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Next up was Rock n' Roller Coaster because it's right there. I can't say I like Aerosmith at all but it's a fun ride. I liked this door handle though.

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I knew there was a separate entrance for us.

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A month or so before we left for this trip I remember reading a thread where someone had a problem with "children" running their hands along the marbles on the marble doors. I saw "children" because it was later pointed out in that thread that it's actually the adults that do it the most, which is true. Anyway, we didn't get a picture of the door (I didn't want to be the guy holding up the line again) but I did make sure to run my hands up and down the marbles, that was for you person that complained about it! I hope you were in line with me.

Neon is still fun.

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I hear the L.A. Down Under Club is some kind of strange mix of depressed wannabe actors and Aussie people. They must drink a lot of cosmos and Foster's.

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ArtieJim

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
I like signs and stuff, get off my case. Plus it's easy to take pictures and zoom in as much as possible on this ride because you can rest the lens on the chain link fence and shoot through it. There's a photo tip for you.

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"Wash This Way." Hardy har har.

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We requested to be seated in the back, we took someone's advice from an earlier trip report who said it made it seem like the launch part takes forever. Request granted.

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She wasn't kidding, that was some launch. Not a lot of people know this about this next picture, the great American Paul Bunyan played a mean guitar. This was discovered somewhere in middle America and a bidding war sprung up between WDW and the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame.

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Guess who won the bidding war? (The answer is Hanes.)

I don't know why but we can never take too many pictures of this damn thing.

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We debated for about twenty minutes whether or not to eat here.

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We didn't.

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Alex wanted to get a photopass picture in front of ToT but the photographer was with a family and was taking quite a bit of photos so I took some pictures of my own while waiting.

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The sky really cleared up after that little shower that someone bought a poncho to avoid.
 

ArtieJim

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Still waiting for the photopass:

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Then it was our turn. You'd think after all that I'd post the picture of us that he took with our camera. It wasn't that good, so we didn't even keep it. We decided to head back by Star Tours since when we went earlier the area was packed so we weren't able to get a good shot of the sign and also wanted to get some lunch. On the way we saw these great crates that we'd never noticed before. The first from our favorite movie, the second from "the greatest movie ever made," which I don't fully agree with.

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Here's the sign I was hoping for. Heads up for that AT-AT behind it.

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After I finally got that picture it was time for lunch. We decided on Backlot Express because it had the most to choose from. Remember all those places that serve hot dogs that Alex and I declined to eat at because I wasn't interested in much there and she wouldn't eat anything there?

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Guess what I got? A hot dog! Backlot Express is a good place though because I was able to load up my hot dog with bbq sauce (that and cheese are my two favorite hot dog toppings, keep your mustard and ketchup Americana). That's also my sugar free applesauce, because I'm a child (it came with Alex's meal but she asked me to get fries). Alex had the kid's chicken nuggets with fries (ok, we're both children). We liked it here because it was so large and we were able to sit in one area right by the condiments and drinks (free refills) and it was fairly empty. I broke a cardinal Disney sin here though. I filled up my personal water bottle with the Gold Peak Iced Tea they had. In fairness it was with a bobble (great water bottle whose cap filters the water, perfect for going through WDW since their water fountains are disgusting) so I was getting extra purified iced tea, I felt kind of bad about it, but not so much considering what it cost for that little soda cup Alex got with her lunch (actually it was included with her kid's meal). Yep, I'm a thief.

We looked forward to catching the Muppets show on this trip, we never did though. Oh well, we've seen it.

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Yeah, that ship again.

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Never were able to get on here either, we just kept passing it up saying we'd "do it later." Oh well. Some day.

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Up next we decided to go into...

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... we couldn't wait, it was also under refurb last time we were down there. The next two posts is going to be of just pictures from inside, so deal with it.
 

ArtieJim

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
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Lets not forget this was all started by a duck. That's what he said, right? I'm joking, but Donald's the man.

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ArtieJim

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
I love things that have to do with the Space Age, especially earlier on. This was awesome for me.

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Now if this isn't creepy I'm not sure what is.

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Yeah it continues! Continues to the best place in the world!

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ArtieJim

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
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After all that we watched the film on Walt, which we rather enjoyed. I think it was in One Man's Dream that Alex really got to enjoy what it was like to be the person that holds the camera. I usually hold the camera and she asks me to take a lot of pictures while taking a ton myself, I don't think she realized how many I take until I would ask her to take a picture every five steps inside One Man's Dream. We loved it though, I thought it was awesome. After that we wanted to kill some time before the Osborne Family Lights started for the night.

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You could say we were having a barrel of monkeys today.

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This set has been hot since we were down there last time:

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I'm surprised it hasn't burned down by now.

Hello lady.

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We decided that we wanted to hang close to Streets of America so we sat and got ourselves a couple drinks and people watched. R2-D2 wanted to get in on the fun.

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I had a Sleigh Ride, minus the glow cube ($10.50 because there's a glow cube, no thanks) and Alex got a Bud Light, she likes to try different things as you can tell. After she had a sip of mine she was wishing she had ordered something else, the Sleigh Ride was great. It tasted like juice and had a healthy amount of booze in it, I watched the woman pour it out. Always a plus when you have a good amount of drink in your drink but it doesn't taste like alcohol. That's right, drink in your drink.

We forgot how early the Backlot Tour closed and I have no idea why we didn't remember how early it closed the rest of the time we were there. I love it, I know a lot of people don't, but I hope they don't get rid of it. Ever.

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Seventy proof is not very high octane, but I guess it depends who you're asking.

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ArtieJim

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
I really enjoyed this photo. I think it's hilarious.

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It's not really hilarious at all, but I think it is. While I was taking this a preteen girl walked by and said "I can't believe someone left their R2-D2 just sitting there." Had a finger been laid on R2 it would have hit the fan. You know what I'm talking about.

Next was another spin on TSMM. Take that sucka!

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Again, my butt was whipped.

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We had the sheriff this time:

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No one ever wants to deal with this.

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Here's the holiday menu from High Octane that we took a picture of as we made our way over to Streets of America.

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When we got there we saw that it was snowing! Snow! In Florida! And it was warm! I can dig snow like that, unlike right now it's snowing in Brooklyn. Great. Anway, snow!

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Just as Alex took that photo we heard the music come on, having never been to WDW during Christmas though we just figure, "oh more music," nope! I hope you guys like Christmas lights because we took a lot of pictures of the Osborne Family Lights. Here they are.

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ArtieJim

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
There's that hand again.

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I'm pretty sure I've seen elves coming out of the subway in New York, it's not as fun to see when they're real people.

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ArtieJim

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
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So while we're waiting in line for a photopass picture whatever song that came on over the speakers caused the CMs to break out into a dance. They even made the people who were being photographed wait. We were next on line, so we were happy that we could to take the above photos and a bunch more while we waited. The couple being photographed held there pose for about five minutes and then started dancing with the CMs.

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The Mickey head below on the fire escape was an American flag. It was pretty cool.

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ArtieJim

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
In case you thought I was lying about that Mickey head, we got a close up.

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Finally our turn for the photopass picture, no roaming hand.

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At that point we were finished with the lights for the time being. We wanted to check out the Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular, or as we called it, Indy.

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Alex was just doing what the sign said, she couldn't help the guy down there though.

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The people walking by when she did that thought she was crazy and then had no idea where the voice was coming from. Hey, read the sign folks. I love Indiana Jones, I've seen all four movies (yep, even the two that were crappy). George Lucas played a big part in my childhood movie experiences.

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ArtieJim

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
As I mentioned we ate here earlier, never got a picture of the sign though. Here it is:

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Next up was another spin on Star Tours. While heading up the fastpass line we were stopped and told not to move, next thing we know four stormtroopers ran past us onto the stage next to the line. It was awesome!

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I wanted to wait for Darth Vader to come out so I could take fifty more pictures to put on this trip report but people kept filing past us and we didn't want to wait forever to get on line since we had dinner to get to. Look, Johnny 5 again!

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I always liked this when I was younger as well, I'm sure I have some photos of it (remember when pictures were taken on film? This trip report would have two rolls worth and that's it). Know where in the ride it is?

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Check out the specs of my sweet ride.

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He's home.

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After we finished up our trip to Hoth we made our way to the exit so we could get on a bus for our dinner destination. There's Mickey, looking fancy at the crossroads (starring Brittney Spears). Not sure why we took this picture from so far away though.

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Goodbye tree.

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Hello bus stop, take me to my meal!

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In my next post is our review of dinner.

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It's good, read it.
 

surfsupdon

Well-Known Member
Great report, and glad you had fun!!

That week is my FAVORITE WEEK OF ALL to go to WDW. We have been lucky to have gone 6 separate times during that week.

Love being there for Christmas. My b'day (26th). New Years Eve. New Years Day.


And I miss Caribbean Beach--I grew up there. Looking forward to your final pictures on that last day you said you took some of the place.
 

ArtieJim

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
We arrived a few minutes before our ADR and were seated immediately which was nice, although at the same time we were hoping it would take a little while so we could wait in the lounge for a little. Turns out that didn't make a difference since the drink menu was the same in the lounge and restaurant. Upon being seated we were greeted with this bread and brown sugar butter.

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I can't say I was a fan of the butter although Alex loved it. Not for me, I like salty butter, the sweetness was strange to me. At least she liked it.

Here we have Alex's Magical Star Cocktail and my Habanero Margarita, or whatever it was.

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I was hoping the habanero would make the drink spicy. Nope, just tasted like a crappy margarita, oh well. We were more excited for the food than the drinks, so we weren't about to let some iffy drinks bother us. Alex had been waiting for this french onion soup for months and I went with the tomato bisque:

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I enjoyed the tomato bisque very much, I just wish I hadn't mixed in all of the goat cheese that was on top. I've never had goat cheese and it's not that it wasn't good mixed into the bisque, it was just too much, my fault. Alex said the french onion soup was "awesome! had the onion strings on top," that was her response just now. It was very good, the broth wasn't too light or too dark. Those are two major things that can mess up a french onion soup, they nailed it, the onion strings were a great touch as well.

Finally it was time for our meals, Alex got a well sized piece of prime rib with fries (she really likes fries).

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I think the only thing that bothered her about her order was that the meat was placed on top of the fries, which is strange especially considering she gets her meat rare and the fries were getting soggy quick. Here's her quick review since she's busy at work and I'm not busy at work:

"me: good, right?
Sent at 5:02 PM on Wednesday
Alex: awesome
underrated restarant that no one ever talks about on the boards
even when a specific post started asking where they could get prime rib i said turf club not one person acknowledged the restaurant"

So there you go.

I mulled over the menu quite a bit and after deciding that I didn't want to order the same thing as Alex (we try to avoid this as much as possible, because what fun is that) and I finally decided on the "Surf & Turf" Burger, I don't know why it's in quotes on the menu but it is so that's why it's in quotes on here. Look at this monster:

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That's a burger with lobster, bearnaise sauce and watercress on top. Ho Lee Crap. Do you know Ho Lee Crap? You should. I had been on the fence about ordering a burger here but when you combine meat (which is awesome) with lobster (which is awesome) and bearnaise (which is also awesome) you really can't go wrong. The Turf Club certainly did not go wrong with this burger. The fries were very good too, they were a nice blend of regular and sweet potato fries. I actually liked the sweet potato fries, Alex not so much, so it worked out but her prime rib was so big it didn't matter, she didn't eat too many.

We were so full after eating we passed on dessert (although I don't think we would've gotten it any way) and took our time leaving the grounds. We wanted to look around a bit but not stray too far, we actually stayed right around the main building/pool area. These next two are in the lounge, we were hoping to get in a game of pool or something but there were two kids with a drunk dad that had been there the entire time we were (longer since they playing as we walked in). You can actually see one of the kids in the reflection of the glass looking at me like I'm weird for taking a picture. I think you're weird, kid, for playing pool for so long, you're in Disney World and you're playing pool.

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These light fixtures in the Paddock Grill (I think that's what it is) were really cool:

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Here's one negative for the Turf Club; there's no bathroom in the restaurant. You have to go outside and walk through the Paddock Grill into the lobby and use that restroom. Strange. Also the Turf Club was a nice temperature inside but it was freezing in the rest of the building. It was odd.

This guy was just outside and I was going to try and get up and ride but Alex said absolutely not. I don't think it would have gone over so well with the staff so it's probably good that I listened to her. That statue is very large, I think it was life size, I always forget how large horses are.

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ArtieJim

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
And I miss Caribbean Beach--I grew up there. Looking forward to your final pictures on that last day you said you took some of the place.

We certainly did take a good amount, not as many as the other days, we were pictured out by that point, but we did get some good shots.
 

ArtieJim

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
I like old carriages, so this was up my alley:

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Here's Mr. Duck having some fun by the pool:

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And finally, here's this.

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After that we headed straight to Downtown Disney.

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There it is. We made it. What better place to check out first than the Christmas shop since it was Christmas time.

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I want a mantel just so I can put this on there (I guess you don't really need a mantel for it, you can put it any where really).

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Nine flying genies!

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Yep, nine.
 

ArtieJim

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Before we left we had been talking about what kind of candy we'd make at Goofy's Candy Company (they have that dip your treat in chocolate whatever thing) but since we got there after having eaten so much we decided against it tonight, unfortunately we never got around to doing it. Here it is:

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We thought these rice crispy treats were awesome:

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Not to mention these candy apples, snow men are so cool when they're made of anything but snow:

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I want a giant oreo right now, with a giant cup of milk to dunk it in.

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We liked these giant cakes, there's a lot of rice krispy stuff floating around this shop:

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This should be enough to deter thieves. Why does Goofy look like he's about to murder some one? I guess we know what he'd do for a Klondike bar.

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We continued our tour after that.

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ArtieJim

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
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The only reason I took a picture of this was because of the Mickey, why else would someone take a picture of a bench?

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This tree was very nice, right in front of the Earlich, whatever that is.

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Go get 'em boys.

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This thing was really cool, at night. When we saw it during the day we didn't think it was so great.

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Here's a street lamp:

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We got up close to it for a picture this time, not miles away like all the others.

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Beeker is a solid dude. If I knew how to skateboard I might have bought this deck (probably not and if it's a snowboard, I don't know how to snowboard either):

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Finally, here's this mirror:

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That is actually the last picture of the day. I'm pretty sure the battery died on the camera or else we'd have gotten at least a few more. Alex bought a bag later in that and after that we walked over to the gas station and picked up some beer and snacks for the room. It was a good call. Once we got back to the hotel we sat in a hammock on the beach for a bit but it had gotten pretty chilly that night so I didn't last too long out there (like five minutes).

Next time we delve into the Animal Kingdom and find out the true horror of a park at maximum capacity. Until next time, enjoy the over 200 pictures from our first day in MGM.
 

ArtieJim

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Day 4 - Animal Kingdom closed at capacity...

Crap. That about sums up the title for this day, we didn't mind too much when Magic Kingdom had filled to capacity on our first day, but this was miserable. On our fourth day we decided to go to the one park we hadn't been to yet:

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Yeah. I've made my feelings about AK known on the forum in the past, as cool as it is we really have no need to spend a full day here. We got to the park around eleven since our DME driver told us the numbers of people coming in through the DME (he was great) over the first few days of our trip and this day (December 28) had about 15,000 with the prior two days having a total of about 25,000. So yeah, we took our time getting to the park any way. Upon arrive the board outside said that MK was closed and that AK was close. I guess we just got in. They had a nice tree:

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Mr. Gets No Respect (as I like to call him) was all by his lonesome looking sad (because of the massive disrespect he gets daily):

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We got a few photopass pictures taken here, which I'll post eventually, they're all loaded up but I'm taking my time getting to those. We did have the photographer take this one though with the moppy head lion.

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Hey, see all these people? No body knows where the hell they're going when they get in the park so they either stand there looking around, very confused or walk but in no real direction.

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The Tree of Life is in that picture too somewhere above all those people. Don't worry, there are definitely more pictures of that. It's so cool, we love it. We spent a good half hour or so just looking to see how many animals we could find (not really find since they're pretty easy to spot).

Oh, hey Africa.

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We liked this roof:

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And this giant Budweiser frog.

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Now here's a fun feature in AK. The tallest summit above sea level on Earth. There she is, ain't she a beaut?

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Not long after entering the park and maneuvering around people we made our way to our destination.

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That was a quick journey. We were going hunting for some poachers and we took plenty of pictures along the way. Join us, won't you?
 

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