Trip Report **COMPLETED** A Grand Christmas Trip (in November!)

Hey all! We have been back for about a week now so I will slowly work on my Trip Report :) Not sure if anyone even knew I went on this trip aside from people who follow me on IG and snapchat :joyfull:

Who?
Who else...my Mom (Mary) and I (Megan)
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When?
November 16-19

Where?
The Grand Floridian :) First time stay for us....and won't be the last! We fell in love! :inlove:
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Why?
We wanted to see the Christmas decorations...and well, why not?

T-1 Day November 15, 2017
We had a very early morning flight so instead of making my Dad get up early to drive us we planned on staying at a hotel across the street from the airport the night before. For some reason this plan continued to morph and we decided we should eat at the Cracker Barrel before going to the hotel. I have no idea why but it felt like a thing people do before Disney trips and we had never been before so why not?
So, after a busy day at work I headed to my parents house and we packed up the car and drove off to dinner.
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My Mom and I both got the Southern Chicken biscuits
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We both got Mac and Cheese and she got fries while I got hashbrown casserole (which had a bit too much onion for my taste).
My Dad got the chicken fried chicken (with mashed potatoes and hashbrown casserole) just because it seemed like a thing people eat in the South/at Cracker Barrel. I don't know...we are very Northern :)
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Yum!!! I have no idea why it took us so long to eat at Cracker Barrel but we really enjoyed it! It was way too much food though, my Mom and I should have shared. My Dad ate the rest of it over 2 meals the next day :joyfull:
Is it a visit to Cracker Barrel without a rocking chair picture?
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Anyway, after dinner my Dad drove us to the hotel and dropped us off. The worker was like "where are you visiting from?!" and we sheepishly said we were from here and just staying over for an early flight :p
We dropped our stuff off in our room and headed to the bar for a drink but it was full of business men who were sitting every other seat and we didn't feel like asking someone to move over or having to make awkward/polite small talk so we went back to the room. :p I talk to people all day long...sometimes I just don't want to talk anymore!
This is the only picture I have of the room because I thought it was funny that the phone was extra old :)
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We watched some TV then went off to bed early.....only we didn't. We were on the first floor and could hear everything outside including cars parking, backing up beeping, etc etc. :banghead:

Day 1 November 16, 2017
After a very eventful night of minimal sleep we both got up around 3:30 to get ready. We have an early flight coming up in a few months and we, after some discussion, decided it was not worth staying at the hotel the night before again. Too hard to sleep. If I am going to have to get up early I would rather it be from my own bed (because yes I still have a bed at my parents house...because I'm the baby child aka the most important :joyfull:) :hilarious:
I know you guys think these pictures are weird but its our tradition!
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Next up: flight time
 

Songbird76

Well-Known Member
I've seen several Christmas TRs with people wearing the Christmas light necklaces...is that something they give out with the party or is everyone just buying the same necklace? And why does your mom's have Mickey Ears and yours doesn't? Are there more designs?
 

Doc Disney

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
I will get to WDW during Christmas season one day! But, for now, I'll have to live it through others trip reports :)

Its so much better in person! I don't think pictures do it justice!

I am loving your photos of the GF, Gingerbread house and MVMCP! Christmas at Disney is at the top of my Disney bucket list. Until I get there it is great to see it through the lens of your camera!

It is all so beautiful! A must see in person :)
 

Doc Disney

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
I've seen several Christmas TRs with people wearing the Christmas light necklaces...is that something they give out with the party or is everyone just buying the same necklace? And why does your mom's have Mickey Ears and yours doesn't? Are there more designs?

You can buy them...I think they are like $15 :) Mine are from last year and my Moms are from this year...last year they didnt have the Mickey option. So the plain and the Mickey ones are the only options. You better believe she rubbed it in my face that she had Mickey ones :joyfull: On a side note they sell the plain ones at the Dollar Tree....for a dollar obviously :inlove:
 

Doc Disney

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Day 2 continued
After Dumbo we checked around to see if any character lines for the party were forming yet and aside from the 7 Dwarves (which we briefly considered) none were so we hopped in the regular Minnie and Daisy lines
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We did a bit of shopping for Christmas Party merchandise in the Big Top gift shop since that seems to be the place with most of the stuff :)
When we were done there were still no lines out and about so we decided to eat some dinner. We originally thought Casey's but it was insane over there because of the castle lighting show so we headed back to Cosmic Rays.
We both got chicken nuggets, but more importantly we also got some plastic cheese for the first time. The Disney Food Blog always talks about the "plastic cheese" and how good it is so we wanted to check it out (it was originally why we tried Casey's because thats what they usually post about).
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It was yummy cheese! At least we thought so :)
Hello Sonny!
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After our dinner we grabbed a cookie from the Cosmic Rays cookie stop (it was a snickerdoodle I believe...we didn't care for it) and headed over to get in line for a M and G. For about 2 years I have been saying I wanted to meet Scrooge McDuck so we got in his line! A good amount of the line formed while we were eating so it appeared as if we were in for a decent wait.
We entertained ourselves by Facetiming our family and taking random pictures :)
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In the end I think we waited about an hour and 20 minutes which was a bit surprising because the line did not look that long but is was VERY slow going. It felt slower because there was an annoying girl behind us who was a self proclaimed "Disney expert" and we all know how those usually go....:oops:
Anyway, finally it was our turn!
I asked Scrooge McDuck how much money he had and he held up 4 fingers so I said $4? He motioned that he had more than that and eventually we got up to over 400 billion dollars :joyfull::joyfull:. Meanwhile, Donald was mad that my Mom had Mickeys on her necklace instead of Donalds :D:p
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They actually did spend quite a bit of time with us so I think it was worth the wait! We finished about 15 minutes before the first parade (we are too old to stay up for the second parade:rolleyes:) so we rushed over to Main Street to see what we could find for viewing. Ah actually maybe we got a cookie from Pete's Silly Side Show first which were peppermint and turned out to be our favorites :)
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Next up: parade
 

Doc Disney

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Day 2 continued
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Obviously since we slid over very close to parade time there were not many options for viewing. I didn't see anyone standing up the concrete seating things (around the hub grass) like we did last year so I thought I would try it out. I didnt get yelled at, and everyone around me followed suit, so it worked out :joyfull:
Seeing as how we were far away my pictures aren't great but I will share a few.
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After the parade we decided to check out Club Tinsel at Cosmic Rays. It was actually really fun! This bear was cracking us up :joyfull:
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Next up: more party
 
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Doc Disney

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Day 2 continued
Club Tinsel continued
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My hair was a mess like I was actually out clubbing :joyfull:
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We did some treat hoping after this, watched some of the Tomorrowland stage show, rode the people mover and headed back to Main Street for Holiday Wishes :)
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Soon enough Holiday Wishes started. My pictures aren't great because there were a ton of people in front of us so I will only share a few.
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I agree with @blgauger that Holiday Wishes is pretty meh...plus its weird that its still called Wishes anyway :) I think both these fireworks and Hallowishes could use an update :oops:
Its so pretty when it snows :)
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Before heading out we took some Photopass pictures
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After this it was back to the Grand Floridian and off to bed. It was another successful and fun party :)

Next up: Day 3
 

amjt660

Well-Known Member
Another agreeing opinion from me on Holiday Wishes
I watched it for the first time in 2010 and really enjoyed it
(bought the CD for home)
Went back in 2014 - no change
Went back in 2016 - no change

C'mon WDW - get with the program and refresh your shows/FW/parades more often like the other Disney parks do.

And.. Go Bills!!
(not really a Bills fan - more ABP - anybody but Patriots)

Max
 

Doc Disney

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Day 4 November 18, 2017
This morning we got up around 7 am. We briefly discussed the night before that if we woke up early we would rope drop Mickey Mouse so we could see him for his Birthday so we quickly got dressed and headed to the monorail. Oh, also our Tragical Express letter came. Thank goodness I read on Facebook that they were pushing pick up time an hour earlier due to construction, new TSA guidelines and Christmas traffic so I wasn't too blind sided but our pick up time was even earlier pushing us to 4.5 hours before our flight :jawdrop: I tried not to be too crabby about it but seeing as how we likely had TSA precheck I knew we were in for a long airport wait. But, the anxious part of me was worried it would be insane and would be safer taking the DME instead of an Uber. Anyway spoiler alert we had a LONG airport wait the next day :joyfull:
I forgot that it was Dapper Day but it became super apparent on the monorail. I think it looks cool but I do agree with @blgauger that it gets old fast! The dapper folks tend to just linger everywhere :oops:
Anyway we got right into Mickeys line (along with everyone else - especially Dappers) so we prepared for a long wait. At some point my Mom got out of line to go to the bathroom and the line didn't move the whole time she was gone. Of course right as she was walking in the line started to move and instead of people being nice like 3 families cut us while I was opening the rope for her :facepalm:
Anyway all in all we waited about an hour!
Mickey was on a break when we got into the room and when he came in we all sang Happy Birthday!
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Mickey told us that he was better now that we were there and wanted us to act like pirates. He also made a joke about pirates liking cookie jarrrrrrrs :joyfull: That Mickey!
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It was totally worth the wait to see Mickey on his Birthday!
We noticed this Singer sewing machine when we were walking out so I took a picture for my Dad. He just found a base of one for me and is making it into a table so it was neat to see :)
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I made a breakfast reservation while in line for Mickey so we strolled down Main Street to kill some time before the reservation time :)
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We also happened to see the Trolley Show !
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Next up: breakfast
 

Doc Disney

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Day 3 continued
More Trolley Show - so cute for Christmastime!
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Anyway, we checked into breakfast...at the Crystal Palace! They never seat you on time there so we settled on the porch to wait
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Eventually we were seated and Tigger came by right away. Our waiter, Kyle (who was awesome BTW) took our photo for us :)
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We realized we were in for a wait since all the characters had just passed us (seems like bad timing seating wise) so we had ample time at the buffet without worrying about missing the characters :)
I don't like my food touching :joyfull:
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My Mom's plate
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Showing my second plate just for Pooh's French Toast. Clearly I tend to only eat cheese and carbs haha
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Next up: more CP
 

Doc Disney

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Another agreeing opinion from me on Holiday Wishes
I watched it for the first time in 2010 and really enjoyed it
(bought the CD for home)
Went back in 2014 - no change
Went back in 2016 - no change

C'mon WDW - get with the program and refresh your shows/FW/parades more often like the other Disney parks do.

And.. Go Bills!!
(not really a Bills fan - more ABP - anybody but Patriots)

Max

Well then that makes you a Bills fan today! Yea, it is odd that the other parks tend to update more often. I usually dont like change (Wishes leaving nearly killed me) but Holiday Wishes needs to go !
 

DryerLintFan

Premium Member
Day 3 continued
More Trolley Show - so cute for Christmastime!
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Anyway, we checked into breakfast...at the Crystal Palace! They never seat you on time there so we settled on the porch to wait
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Eventually we were seated and Tigger came by right away. Our waiter, Kyle (who was awesome BTW) took our photo for us :)
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We realized we were in for a wait since all the characters had just passed us (seems like bad timing seating wise) so we had ample time at the buffet without worrying about missing the characters :)
I don't like my food touching :joyfull:
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My Mom's plate
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Showing my second plate just for Pooh's French Toast. Clearly I tend to only eat cheese and carbs haha
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Next up: more CP

My mom has a working Singer treadle!! She made a lot of our clothes and our doll clothes on it when I was growing up. So random that there's one in magic kingdom!!
 
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Doc Disney

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Ah, I have lost my notebook somewhere (maybe at my parent's house) so I will do a short post from memory until I find it :)
Day 3 continued
We watched the parade go around and I took some pictures in case we decided to skip out before meeting some of the characters :)
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Piglet did come around shortly after
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My Mom's favorite character is Winnie the Pooh so we decided to wait for him as well. Our waiter, Kyle, was super apologetic about our wait and chatted with us for a good amount of the time which was nice!
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Pooh is so cute! Well worth the wait :)
In the end we already missed one FP and we were on the verge of missing another so we sadly decided to leave and miss out on Eeyore. To be fair they do warn you when you sit you can be there for up to 2 hours but it was just odd that they sat us and all the characters had visibly JUST missed our table. Still, we will definitely be back to CP for breakfast!
Our first FP (other than the Peter Pan one we missed) was for BTMR so we headed over there :)
This is the only picture I have apparently
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I feel like we must have taken the train since I can't imagine where else this picture is from :joyfull:
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Next up was Jingle Cruise! As much as I don't really care for Jungle Cruise the Jingle Cruise feels like a must do for Christmas
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Next up: More Jingle Cruise
 

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