Trip Report COMPLETED: BEST (DISNEY) MONTH EVER !! - Dec 2016 - 2 Continents, 2 Resorts, 6 Parks !!

Hello to all the Disney Fans

As the title stipulates the month of December was a great Disney month for me and my family

Quick introduction - I am Max and I have been going to Disney since 1979. This trip report will detail trips 24 and 25 for me. (edit 1/17)

What: The first leg is a solo trip to Tokyo Disneyland and the second is a family trip to Walt Disney World.
Who: My DW (T) and 2 DD ( S 21 and C 19) and me (Max)
(I am using initials to type less and protect the innocent.
The star over my head in the shot below is awesome!!!

When: Dec 10 and 11 at TDR and Dec 23-30 at WDW
Why: Business trip from Dec 2-16 in Japan & family vacation in Florida.

This is my first full length trip report that I have attempted. In the past I have asked a few questions on the boards, and then posted a few details but never really went all in. The family has agreed to this one so here goes. I will try to use Doc Disney, Nicole and Longers amazing reports as motivation.

Just a few disclaimers (and I understand if I might lose most of my viewers but I have to be up front and honest)

#1 - I am Canadian (hence the honest and upfront approach - lol). So my viewpoints and opinions come from a different perspective at times. I will try to avoid political comments but sometimes the jokes are hard to pass on. (And I know the hat gives it away - I support the Blue Jays and that is the hat the team wears on Canada Day - Our birthday - 150 Years old in 2017!!)

#2 - I do not take a lot of food pictures - I am on a seefood diet - I see food and I eat it. I do not take the time to take a picture of it - I will have a few though.(The sound you hear is of all the "foodies" running for the exit)

#3 I do not own or use an expensive camera - all pictures will be either photo pass or iPhone. (the sound you now hear is of all the photographers leaving the building)

#4 Having been to TDR before (and being on a solo trip) and having been to WDW a few times I did not take a ton of pictures. Hopefully enough to tell the story. And my night time shots are limited (see point 3)

#5 I did not take a great notes (I know - Rookie mistake) but I will rely on my family to fill in the blanks for me.

Next Up : Background on the two trips and how them came to be

 

[MiniMax]

I guess it's about time for me to show up and start contributing. I am the second of Max's daughters (C) so yes that would be me, the super cool one, in the picture with the Seahawks hat. Definitely one of my better looks

 

[amjt660]

Part 2 Friday December 23
We had an early flight (7:15) but staying at the actual airport helped compensate.
Checking in was a struggle during this trip.
I had received a voucher from Delta back in May and used it for this trip.
Delta partners with WestJet so we went to the desk to try to resolve the issue and it took us 15 min to get our boarding passes.
(for some reason that I still have not figured out the delta tickets were paper tickets so I could not check in online the day before or even at the airport at the kiosks - the problems continued on the way home).
The line ups were crazy at the airport (2 days and last week day before Christmas).
Eventually we were on our way and landed at MCO around 10 am.

We picked up our rental car with no issues and drove to our resort. The Yacht Club!!

I took some pictures around the resort
We were able to check in and go to our room right away.
We stayed in 2051 - second level facing out toward the boardwalk.

The lobby was decorated for ..... wait for it..... Christmas!!!

That is S at the wheel steering the ship

For those who have not been to the Yacht Club a huge globe is located in the middle of the lobby.
And it spins!!!
It is a tradition, habit of mine to always touch and spin the globe every time I walk even remotely near it!!!

We were hungry so we went to eat in the Beach resort quick service.
This was not a great experience

You see our family has some special dietary needs.
T is allergic to / sensitive to dairy, corn, chocolate (I know - most of you are like WTH? - no chocolate!!)
I am similar with chocolate and dairy ( I do not have T's willpower though so I cheat and pay for it)
S is vegetarian (no meat, fish, etc but okay with eggs)
C has an allergy to Soy, Cranberries, Pineapple and Almonds.

The Soy allergy is a tough one - almost everything has either soy, soybean oil, soy lecithin (most chocolate!)
Almost every bread in a grocery store is made from soybean oil.

So as we try to grab lunch we run head on into the allergy - the Beach resort QS is not prepared at all.
It takes 20 minutes to figure out that she cannot eat almost all of the prepared food.
She picks out a salad , they go to the table service and get her some oil and vinegar (all salad dressings were a no go) and lunch is pretty much an exercise in futility

On the brighter side the rest of the trip went much better because our next stop was a drive to the local Publix in Celebration to find some food.
(this is the main reason why we do not use DME and rent a car every time we travel to WDW).

After a search of every bread product we found one package of pita that worked, loaded up on hummus and guacamole, cold cuts and headed back to the Yacht club.
So for the rest of the week we either had lunch back in the room or C packed some food and brought it into the park.

NOTE: The Disney Chefs at all of the table service restaurants were very helpful during the week. Disney has added allergy menus at most places and that really makes it easier.

Next Up : Magic Kingdom!!

 

[amjt660]

I guess it's about time for me to show up and start contributing. I am the second of Max's daughters (C) so yes that would be me, the super cool one, in the picture with the Seahawks hat. Definitely one of my better looks

Mini Max is in the house!!

(well literally she is in the same house as me as she is on a coop work term right now and is living at home)

The profile pic with the big Stitch is a tradition evey time we find one

Max

 

[amjt660]

Part 2 Friday Dec 23 cont'd
We waited around 20 min for a MK bus and arrived around 4 pm ish.
Our game plan for the entire trip was to book our FP for either late afternoon or evening.
Based on 2014 booking early was futile at Christmas because getting a 4th, 5th FP of any value just did not happen.
So we were going to show up early, ride standby, head back to the hotel and then use FP at night.

First up was a Pirate cruise followed by a tree house climb

Then came the first new even of the week - dinner at ...

I had the "tastes like chicken" and I am sure C or S will fill in the blanks on what other ate.
This was the first day for alcohol drinks at Skippers so we indulged with a glass of Riesling for each parent
(S is legal in the US and C is not (even though she can drink back home - 19 years old in Ontario Canada)
The meal was good for most - T was not a fan of her fish dish - too watery - almost like a soup
Overall a good experience - not as many laughs as I hoped for but we had some fun

(Note: the sign pic was taken after dinner)

When we got out it was dark so we had to take pics of the ice castle
As per my post in Tuvalu's TR we are not a fan of the Frozenification of the parks - it is not Elsa's castle!!

Again a reminder that all pictures are from an iPhone so quality is not so good.

Next up - FP utilization!!

 

[amjt660]

C just corrected me that we actually used a FP on Pirates before dinner.
After dinner we rode the Transit Authority and saw the Laugh Floor show
With C in engineering school I could not resist taking pics of the schematics

Our next FP was minetrain

I found the camera!
We then watched the Chistmas Wishes and then rode Big Thunder to finish off the night

Hopefully S and C have some pics to add from their phones.

Next up - Day 2 in the World

 

[LadyBelle]

Catching up on your report - loving it. One day I hope to make it to WDW during Christmas. I used to spend a couple Thanksgivings there back in the 80s, but never Christmas.

Looking forward to more!!

 

[amjt660]

Part 2 Saturday Dec 24 - Animal Kingdom
So before we get too far in I just want to express the great disappointment and anger with respect to Rivers of Light
I am glad that it is now ready to go but something that was planned for April should have been ready by December.
We had booked a dinner at Tiffens at 4:55 so that we could turn it into a ROL package once it was announced.
Thus ends the rant.

OK so we decided to take it slow and did not aim for an early start on this day. We had FP booked for late afternoon and evening.

We walked through a few shops and C found this friend

It was a beautiful day and I was able to get some good pics of theTree.

 

[amjt660]

We found the walkway to the tree of life and was able to get some close ups of the tree

 

[amjt660]

We walked toward Africa

Then we turned right and walked toward Asia (basically we just soaked in AK)

And then we found this ...... (see ROL rant in earlier post)

 

[amjt660]

Part 2 Sat Dec 24 cont'd - Dinosaur
We continued through Asia and entered Hester and Chester poorly themed Dinoland and rode Dinosaur.

OK lets take a closer look at the ride photo

Max, C and T look fine - S looks totally frightened
Middle row the teenager is trying to climb out over his mom and the sister is seriously OMG moment.

But check out the Dad!! Does he not realize a huge dino just jumped out at us from the right??????

This picture is priceless

 

[amjt660]

Next up we had lunch at Flame Tree - I was the only one who bought food - the girls brought food from the room.
After eating we decided to try to squeeze in both Nemo and Lion King shows.
Today was the Dash day - as you will hear about later
First up Nemo - because we showed up late we were sat down close on the right hand side.
In a couple of pics you will see the two CM who were signing the show.
While you take a look at the pics just keep swimming, go with the flow and explore the big blue world!!

We love this show (and listen to the CD at home quite often).
After the show we humped it over to Africa and ended up being in one of the last groups to make it in the standby line for Festival of the Lion King.
We sat in the Elephant section. This was our first time in the new theatre.
We all enjoyed it - sorry no pictures - again just wanted to soak it all in.

That truly was the theme of this trip - it was very busy so theme park commandos were replaced with wandering group
It was a slower pace but we stayed together(for the most part) and enjoyed it as a family.

 

[21stamps]

I'm bookmarking this. Can't wait to read it!

 

[sheriffwoody]

The Soy allergy is a tough one

I used to have a lunch exchange with a friend of mine who is gluten, dairy and soy free and the soy was always the hardest thing to find substitutes for. Thank goodness for coconut aminos!

Still very much enjoying your report!

 

[amjt660]

I'm bookmarking this. Can't wait to read it!

I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoy reading your trip report

Max

 

[amjt660]

I used to have a lunch exchange with a friend of mine who is gluten, dairy and soy free and the soy was always the hardest thing to find substitutes for. Thank goodness for coconut aminos!

Still very much enjoying your report!

I am glad you are still following along and thank you for the coconut amino tip
We have never tried but a quick google search makes it sound very interesting

Max

 

[amjt660]

Part 2 Sat Dec 24 cont'd
After the Lion King show we wandered into Africa and checked the Safari ride and it was only 15min
Animal Kingdom was not too busy on this day ( we determined that it was probably the fact that a lot of schools went right to the 23rd so many vacationers were probably still at home or in transit on the 24/25th

No pics of the safari - with the jostling of the truck and my low level camera phone they usually do not turn out.

Our guide was funny - the line that stood out the most was

"That sign says ROW ADD CLOW SEED DUH - that is swahili for GO AROUND"
(the sign said Road Closed)

The animals were out and we got a good view of the lions on the rocks.

After the safari we rode Everest with our 2nd FP

Ride photo from Everest - at least I was excited!

We then had some photo pass pics

After Everest we headed over toward Pandora and checked in at Tiffins.
We had some time so we had a drink on the balcony of the Nomad lounge
As I have stated on other TRs I strongly recommend visiting both the lounge and the restaurant.
I had the Waygu Strip Loin and Braised Short Rib
It was ridiculously expensive and equally delicious.
As I said to the server - tell the chef I can die happy- I do not know if I can eat anything better.

We rode the Safari again (using FP) and then caught the tree lighting ceremony
And then we decided to head back to the hotel.

Once at the hotel we walked to Epcot and entered through the International gateway (one of the benefits of staying at YC)

We noticed the Soarin line was not too long on the app so we went to the land.

Now this was our first ride on the new version and we had all tried to not spoil it by watching videos in advance.

I must say I was extremely disappointed in the new version.
The CGI is out of control and so noticeable.
It does not have the feel that you are really gliding around the world because parts are so fake.
If they took out all of the transitions it would be better.
(end of rant)

When we got out of Soaring we had very little time for our next adventure
Frozen Ever After was showing 90 minute wait but we only had 13 min until Illuminations started.
We called BS on the app and started our dash through the not so busy Future World and then much busier World Showcase
We showed up with literally seconds to spare and ended up being the last to ride
Total weight time you ask? 20 min
This was the only time T and S rode this ride all week

And we loved it - Count me in the group that sees this as an improvement in entertainment value (but a lowering of the bar in educational value by putting a make believe land in World Showcase).

When we got out Illuminations was done and the park was emptying out
We headed back to YC and called it a night

 

[sheriffwoody]

I am glad you are still following along and thank you for the coconut amino tip
We have never tried but a quick google search makes it sound very interesting

Max

Oh yes you should try it! It's an excellent sub for soy sauce. I think it's just as tasty.

 

[Doc Disney]

On the Thursday we drove for an hour to the Toronto airport (Pearson) and checked into the Sheraton at the airport .

Random question. Did you have to pay to park your car if you were staying at the Sheraton? I'm flying out of Toronto to the Dominican and we are driving there the night before. Looking for a good hotel option Have been to Toronto several times but never the airport!

 

[amjt660]

Catching up on your report - loving it. One day I hope to make it to WDW during Christmas. I used to spend a couple Thanksgivings there back in the 80s, but never Christmas.

Looking forward to more!!

Hi LadyBelle
I think you should try one Christmas (where you actually are in the bubble on Christmas Day) but I would not suggest doing it more than once.
We have now done 3 in a row and while it is great to be in WDW it is just so darn busy.
We do it out of necessity to have a trip with all 4 of us in attendance

Thanks
Max

 

[amjt660]

Random question. Did you have to pay to park your car if you were staying at the Sheraton? I'm flying out of Toronto to the Dominican and we are driving there the night before. Looking for a good hotel option Have been to Toronto several times but never the airport!

Hi Doc
Great question - not random at all
I was able to book a one night stay with 8 days of parking (park and fly) for the 22-23rd and then returned on the 30th.

Normally if you book a room the parking is separate so just go on the Sheraton website and look for park/fly options

And I hope you got a good deal on your Dominican package because I find flying out of Pearson to be expensive.
A lot of us Canucks come to your Buffalo airport to avoid the extremely high taxes that you are charged for flying out of TO.


Max