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
This is one of the best reports I've read I love all the pictures,they're so different from what I normally take pics of so it's nice to see things a little differently.The little stories you tell make it fun too,looking forward to reading more,thanks for posting:)

Thanks! Sorry it's taking so long, I didn't realize how time consuming copy and pasting all these links for the photos is on top of the writing. I still have five and a half days to write about!
 

enchanted_belle

Active Member
I love your TR, I just sat here and read everything so far (so much I could comment on but... I don't have an hour to do so! :ROFLOL: ). Your pictures are so unique! Can't wait for another update. :)
 

ArtieJim

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
What do we have to do to ride in one of these gondolas? It wouldn't be a very long ride, just one spin around the tiny canal in Italy, under the bridge. It would probably take five minutes. I'm guessing $200 if I understand WDW prices.

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I sure wish we'd noticed that pole directly in front of SSE so we could've taken another picture. That would have been another picture that we have of SSE from this trip:

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I think I started to get a little carried away with the camera by the time we hit Italy, but at least we have some pictures that we normally wouldn't have such as these next three:

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Especially like a floating glass of prosecco, blurry as it may be:

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And to keep the theme of lighting fixtures going Alex snapped this one while we were in the mask shop:

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Some of those masks sure are creepy, although I'd love to get one. Any one want to get a paper mache class going with me and we can recreate them? I think it'd be a good team building exercise. Team wdwmagic.com. This tree is mocking that idea by having so many masks on it:

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Here are a couple of stairs, yep stairs. What goes on up there? Conga lines?

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I really can't get over the detail that goes in to all the stuff at WDW, I don't think I ever will and I've been going since I was a little kid. It's so cool:

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ArtieJim

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
When we were down at WDW last time during the Food and Wine Festival we would stop and stand at one of the high top tables they had all around the World Showcase and there would always be a friendly duck or two looking for food that they certainly weren't getting from us. We were able to get unsettling close to them, I'm used to them quacking and running away where I come from, but we noticed two more this time.

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I guess the food was the other way.

Here's a darker picture of Canada from across the way, the globe is towards the right and they hadn't lit the giant torches yet so we like this one:

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While looking at the ducks we took some more pictures and there was a group nearby that seemed to be on the drinking journey that we were on, although they had to have been on their second lap, luckily for us one of the girls had her wits about her enough to see we weren't doing much and asked if we wanted a picture. We gratefully said yes and she snapped this one:

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Thank you miss. We appreciate it very much, this is one of the better pictures we have of the two of us from the trip.

After taking our time through Italy it was on to my favorite, Germany! German beer, German food. Yes please. We stopped at the glass hut, whatever you like to call it so I could check these guys out:

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I want to be a burgermeister, a cheeseburgermeister. We thought this next one was especially clever:

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Do they sell it in the PoC gift shop? I think it'd make much more sense in there. Here's one I must have liked but don't remember for the life of me what it says, interesting that I'd like a Mickey mug that much, I've always liked other characters more than him (especially Goofy, Pluto and Donald):

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Deutschland!

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This is some clock. If this thing is for sale I'd like to know how you expect to get it back with you, it's gotta weigh like 200 pounds!

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I always wish these were less expensive, but hey, what can ya do?

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ArtieJim

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Based on this sign I think they should be called "krugs" not "steins."

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I know a few people that this clock would be perfect for, Ted Nugent being on top of that list:

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I'm not sure what's going on here, but I do know that it seems there's a dog biting the heel of the horse on the left side and another trying to do the same on the right:

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If this hat could double as an actual mug I would have bought it. Too bad:

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That's my, I wish this were filled with real beer face.

Here's George, showing that dragon who's boss, protecting the schattenjagers:

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My favorite shop:

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This is not my favorite shop, but it has a very nice sign:

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Oh wait, this is my favorite:

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Because I get these there:

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Yum. This is Hovels, which is pretty good, Alex told me it was the one I enjoyed the most when I ordered the beer flight at Biergarten the other night so I took her word for it. I thought I had liked another one, but hey, they were all pretty tasty if you like Bavarian beer. It was nice and rich in flavor, give it a try.

Here's an interesting fact about this clock tower, at 10:04 pm on November 12, 1955 it was struck by lightning... wait a minute. Nevermind, wrong clock tower:

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ArtieJim

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
We wanted to go into the Christmas shop because last year we got an ornament from the place in Downtown Disney and Alex wanted to check out what they had in here. I can tell it, it was a good amount of German stuff, although this seems pretty ambiguous:

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If you're curious about the pickle tree, don't ask me, I don't know the deal. All I know is that when I was much younger (younger than eight) we would go to my uncle's house for Christmas Eve every year and we'd always play "find the pickle." Sounds like something that would land an uncle in jail, but my aunt would hide one of these pickle ornaments in the tree and the first kid (there were like four at the time) to find it would win a prize. Like, a piece of chocolate or something. Needless to say, I never liked the game and it has made me despise pickles to the point where if they come on a plate of my food I won't be able to eat the food if the juices leak and touch the food. There's a fun fact about me:

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But seriously, it's a friggin' pickle tree. What the hell? Light fixture!

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I could have turned this TR into a drinking game, every time you see a light fixture drink. If that were the case I would hope no one would read this entire TR in one sitting (I hope no one does that any way, your eyes might melt). Here is my favorite stein that I saw the entire trip, if only it weren't $160:

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Not quite sure how the mechanics of it worked though, as you can see:

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Alex found a blown glass ornament that she liked a lot so she picked that up. At some point while she was online and had the camera on her wrist one of the CMs noticed it and started talking to her about it. Alex loves this camera and it was this trip was the first time either of us really got to use it and fool around with it (as I've probably mentioned) so Alex raved to the CM about the camera. Eventually the CM wanted to play with it as well so she said she wanted to take some pictures and one of them was of us, which was nice:

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I think Alex talked her into buying that one, the CM justified it when Alex told her the price she got it for and the CM figured how many euros it was. Silly euro. Next up was the wine shop!

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Neither of us particularly like wine but we definitely like monkeys!

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And reindeer, but mostly monkeys:

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After looking around the wine shop for, oh two minutes, we saw someone order the wine flight and that's when we talked ourselves into getting one. This was a terrible idea:

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ArtieJim

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Here is our flight:

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Now I have to be honest, I have no idea which is which, but the three we ordered were Gunderloch "Diva" Spatlese Riesling, the apple wine and the ice wine. They were all super sweet and not for us. We don't even really like wine that much, we were just curious to try the apple wine and the ice wine, since we've heard a lot about ice wine recently. I'll stick to bier. Beer! Or wine, here's some info on it:

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Once we decided we were finished here we wanted to go back over to Biergarten so we could get a few pictures of the waiting area, and so that I could get a brautwurst, because I love them. Here are those pictures:

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I love it in here. I'd just hang out in here all the time, they have brats and beer very close, not to mention nice scenery.

Drink! I mean, light fixture!

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And here is my brautwurst, krauted up with mustard underneath it. That bun fell apart after two minutes, the brat was gone after five. What's up:

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Here's the last picture looking at Germany, I promise, especially since they're all basically the same. Except this is a Bavarian castle, not Neuschwanstein though:

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We were off once again on our trip around the world. This time to Outpost! Outpost?

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Africa? What's the deal here? Are they trying to give all the African glory to Animal Kingdom? I mean Morocco is just across the way and that's in Africa. I don't get it, but they do have plenty of these guys:

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ArtieJim

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
I think that last picture was actually one of a light fixture primarily, so you know the deal. Drinks!

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I got a Safari Amber (left) and Alex got a Landshark. Landshark is good stuff, it's like America's Corona or something. Jimmy Buffet's anyway. The Safari was nice, nothing too over powering about it, nice hopsy finish. It's all over Animal Kingdom from what I understand but I didn't have any there, give it a try.

Don't drink any drive, unless it's one of those many Coca-Colas back there:

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They sure like Coke at the Outpost:

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See what I'm saying?

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Unless it's the Columbian Outpost, they have a lot of coca down there, don't there? Light fixture!

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We didn't spend too much time at the Outpost since the shop was small and we saw what there was to see so it was on to China. As with most of the pavilions on our last trip we didn't spend any time in this one so we really wanted to explore it this time.

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What could this be?

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Here's a bit of a blurry picture across the way of Italy and America:

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And Canada, again.

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Alex brought glow sticks with her because she doesn't want to buy them for ten times as much in the parks, so here she is with her glow bracelet in front of a Chinese building:

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ArtieJim

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
I highly suggest going in here if you haven't or if you have the time, we thought the stuff in here was really cool:

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Whatever this was splitting the staircase was pretty cool too, we couldn't get a good shot of the entire thing but here's our best:

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We didn't get any drinks here, I had the Tsingtao beer last time and it just wasn't for me, besides Alex and I were still working on our drinks from the Outpost. Nothing wrong with that. Gan bay (cheers)!

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I think the tomb warriors are one of the coolest archaeological finds there has ever been, I figure this is as close as I'm going to get to the real thing, go check it out!

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Look at this one!

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It took us a little while to get in, obviously, no line, we just took our time. I made a friend.

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The tiger, not the guy sleeping to the left of it. Check these out:

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I'm not sure if this is a light fixture or a speaker or something different entirely, but if you're playing the new game I've made this into than it's player's choice:

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ArtieJim

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Hello!

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I'm going to buy this thing one time or other:

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Is this one light fixture or six? Take your pick:

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She knocked for a little bit, but no one was home. Unless, you're not supposed to knock on doors in China. If so, oops:

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This is a fun telephone sign. Interestingly enough there is actually a telephone below it, it didn't look like it worked any more. Pay phones, the sad, uncool, older cousin of the cell phone:

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That is a lot of light fixtures. I hope your glass is full:

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Drinky birds:

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Look at this get up, aren't pandas an extremely endangered species?

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ArtieJim

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
At least I made friends with one:

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I'll take the panda tree over the pickle tree any day, damn pickles:

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Two lights! This is mostly a buddha picture though I believe, not sure what I'm doing back there though. Maybe trying to make friends with the guy behind me wearing the red flannel. Flannel party:

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China has their own Andry Warhol I guess:

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After taking a few laps through the store we decided we had had enough China and moved on to Norway. Norway! Vikings! This building!

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And this one!

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We finally! caught up to one of the pavilions Santas. This guy was pretty frightening though, kind of happy we didn't see all the other Santas:

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This was just above and beyond Santa, or who ever that guy actually was:

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If this pretzel were real, I'd eat the entire thing:

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Maybe it is, they're salted treats, they, in essence, never go bad. Delicious.
 

ArtieJim

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Another light! This is actually more of the Puffin's Roost sign since though, quite possible the best named store in all of Walt Disney World (you know it is):

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We decided to slow down a bit, and what better way to do that while in Norway than by riding the Maelstrom. Heads up!

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Heads up indeed:

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We almost got number one, but not quite, just the first losers. Remember that kids:

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Enjoy the ride through Norway as seen from the cameras eye without a flash (as you'll notice a huge chunk missing as a result):

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I love the end of this ride:

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This guy has some beak on him, you can really get up there:

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ArtieJim

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Viking fight!

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Real viking, so bad that he turned himself into a wooden statue just so people knew not to mess around wherever he ended up. Forever:

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Here's the viking's front door:

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It was time for me to get my last mug of the day (I didn't get Canada's today since we started here and I didn't get any Moosehead today, curiously enough):

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Filled with Carlsberg, quite good. I've actually started drinking Carlsberg since I've gotten home from this trip. It's like a good Budweiser almost.

At least I know where to go if I ever find myself in a battle I know where to go for a shield:

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Look how mossy this tree is! We couldn't get over it:

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Morocco, the Eiffel Tower and the Swan and/or Dolphin off in the distance:

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We finished up in Norway way and made our way into Mexico. Hola:

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Little girl, little sombrero:

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This is the last one I noticed, I definitely missed a lot of them:

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ArtieJim

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Mexico indeed!

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This little area is where we saw the three magi after we got our picture with Mexican Donald the other day. That's a lot of lanterns:

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Alex was a big fan of this tree, it was orange!

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We decided to go in so we could get some pictures inside the pyramid, and so I could go to Cava del Tequila. Here are some of the pictures from inside:

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Lights! I knew what to do when I saw those:

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That right there, friends, is a jalapeno margarita. When I see or hear the word jalapeno I think "spice." This was not spicy at all, so I was kind of disappointed, it tasted like a somewhat sweet margarita. Alex ordered a Sol, which is (one of) her favorite beer, so it was nice she was able to get one of those at least once on this trip. The bartenders in here were a good time as well, they kept making fun of me for carrying Alex's purse, but hey, go with it. They also talked me into getting a Blood Orange margarita. It wasn't much of a talking in to though, I asked what their strongest was, they said the Blood Orange, I said I'll have one. Waaaay to sweet. I should have just stuck with a plain old margarita when we were here, but you live and learn (for next time). We also spotted these guys hanging out:

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ArtieJim

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
And these!

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When we finished up in here it was just about time for Illuminations to start, so we went outside and we got some snacks for the show:

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I'd been looking forward to the tacos de carne for quite some time and everything was great, except the corn tortilla. I really just don't like corn tortilla, so it was unfortunate that that got in the way, for me. If you like corn tortilla than this will be a home run, but just not for me. Alex got the nachos, which were awesome with the pico de gallo and cheese sauce. That may or may not be the end of my blood orange margarita over there. The reason I'm not positive is, you know that saying, "liquor before beer, you're in the clear; beer before liquor, you've never been sicker?" Well, lets just say I didn't get sick, but I don't remember much after that. So here are pictures from Illuminations! Some are blurry, but you should be used to that by now:

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ArtieJim

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
We like these more:

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And here's France to round it out:

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After Illuminations Alex told me went for a spin on Test Track, probably for the best that I don't remember it, since I'm not a big fan of that ride. I'm excited for that refurb that I think I read an actual article about and not a hundred posts about how there was this rumor that a friend of a friend heard. After TT we went on SSE (of course we do!) to which Alex made sure that she got the video emailed to herself so she could email it to me. Email it she did, but I have been unable to actually open it. I still have the email, so maybe some day.

I hope you enjoyed day five of our trip! Sorry for taking so long to finally write about it and then actually finish writing about it. Day six is on its way, although I'm going to be travelling/away for nine of the next twelve days so I'll try my best to keep working on this TR during that time.
 

mamamouse

Well-Known Member
Goodstuff,2 questions though 1) that POTC beer mug was that in Germany???? and In the earlier part of your report I saw a pic of Donald pinatas ,were they actually for sale or just a decoration(my 6 yr old would love that at her bday) can't wait to see what else is on the agenda.
 

ArtieJim

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Goodstuff,2 questions though 1) that POTC beer mug was that in Germany???? and In the earlier part of your report I saw a pic of Donald pinatas ,were they actually for sale or just a decoration(my 6 yr old would love that at her bday) can't wait to see what else is on the agenda.

The POTC mug was in Germany, they have that little hut that sells all sorts of glassware closer to the lagoon, not actually inside the pavilion. If you're entering Germany from Italy (like World War II) it's on the left side. They have some other really great stuff there.

The Donald pinatas are definitely for sale. They had a bunch of them inside the pyramid at Mexico. I wanted to buy one, but I really have no use for pinatas, and I was worried about it being crushed in my suitcase.
 

ArtieJim

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Finally on to Day 6...

Sorry for the long delay, but I finally got to go see my niece out in San Diego for a weekend and then after being home for two days after that was in Chicago for another weekend. Now I'm back and here we go!

All we had planned today was another one of our long awaited dinner ADRs and the Magic Kingdom New Year's Eve fireworks show (even though it was December 30). We had plenty of time before those started so we decided to spend some time in the Magic Kingdom, by way of the Epcot monorail since the Epcot bus came first and we were in no rush to go any where.

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I was taking picture after picture of SSE from behind the gate while the CM watched me for a bit and then finally said, "you know, I won't mind if you take them from in front of the gate." This allowed me to get one I liked:

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We played a game every time we were on the monorail where we tried to get as many decent pictures as we good, by decent we meant not blurry. We got a few, this one was taunting us:

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I'd like to take a ride in this little guy one day, maybe when it isn't so much to watch the fireworks from it:

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These look more fun though:

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And one day we will stay here:

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One day.

Finally inside we got this picture:

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Today is the only day Alex let me wear a Hawaiian shirt (foreshadowing), there goes that hand again. My mom always tells me not to take pictures when I'm wearing sunglasses, but it was so bright that advice ruined the picture!

Then it was time for a simple lunch, we didn't want to eat too much throughout the day since we knew we had a lot of food coming to us later that night, can't get much simpler than an American classic (that's German):

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