Trip Report *COMPLETED* The More the Merrier - November/December 2020

Hello friends!

We have been back from our most recent trip to WDW for over two months, but I have just wrapped up my September trip report, so I am a little delayed in starting this one. Nevertheless, I am excited to share this trip report with you, and hope you all enjoy following along! Let's get down to the nitty gritty!

When: Sunday, November 29th - Saturday, December 5th. Six nights! That's a long one for us.

Where: The Cabins at Fort Wilderness! If you read my trip report from September 2019, you may recall that we absolutely fell in love with Ft. Wilderness when we stayed there, and we were itching to go back! When I found a great deal on the cabins for our favorite week to go during the holidays, it was a no brainer!

Who: By this point, many of you already know me (Katie), and my husband Jason:

We also had another passenger along for the trip, which brings me to the reason for the title:

We are expecting! I am due with a baby boy in June! Due date right now is the 10th, but he's measuring a little big, so I'm hoping they'll move that up, because I'm not trying to give birth to a 10-pounder! . Some of you know that we struggled with infertility for a few years, so we are over the moon to finally be welcoming our firstborn. I was around 12/13 weeks pregnant while we were on this trip, so an alternate title for the TR could be "The One with All the HoRmOnEs."

And because I have made you wait so long for this TR, here's a bonus pic of Little Man. He does have a name, but we won't be sharing it until after he's born. And I'm not 100% decided on whether I want to share it on this platform...we'll see.

Doing Disney while pregnant was a totally different experience, and I hope that this trip report can shed some light on what that is like, in case any of you are planning future pregnancies, or traveling with a pregnant woman in the future.

I hope you all enjoy following along on our trip, and make plenty of popcorn, because this is going to be a long one!

 

[k8einwdw]

Monday, November 30th - Animal Kingdom Day - Continued

After dinner at House of Blues, we headed out to check out the Christmas Tree Stroll. We loved visiting the Christmas Tree Trail in years past, so we were excited that they put out a modified version for 2020! The good thing about House of Blues being alllll the way on one end of Disney Springs is that we were able to do the trail from one end to the other. First up was the parks-inspired tree. I loved the monorail going around the tree!

Next was the Haunted Mansion tree- the bride was super creepy!

Then the Frozen tree...

The Lion King tree...

The Fantasia tree...

The Mulan tree...

The Star Wars tree...

The Minnie Mouse tree...

The Pluto tree...

And I think those are all of the official Christmas Tree Stroll trees we saw. Looking at the map online, it looks like we missed the “Princess and the Frog” tree. That’s what we get for not picking up a map!

Up next: finishing up our night at Disney Springs

 

[k8einwdw]

Monday, November 30th - Animal Kingdom Day - Continued

After we checked out the Christmas Tree Stroll...well, 90% of it...we headed into World of Disney to do a little shopping. While we were there, we bought baby’s first souvenir of the trip.

We also had to get a picture of/with the main tree in DS. If I’m not mistaken, I think this was the only spot in WDW that had snoap in 2020!

The Toy Story tree outside of Once Upon a Toy may not have been part of the Christmas Tree Stroll, but it was our favorite! We loved the paper chain and the angel from “Toy Story that Time Forgot!“

Around 8:30, we decided to head back to Ft. Wilderness because we (mostly me) were exhausted! We got to ride in a Toy Story bus - we had great luck with the character wrap busses this trip!

We made it back to Ft. Wilderness in no time, and we were back in the cabin right around 9:00. We relaxed on the couch with a Christmas movie for about an hour, but then we were ready for bed. It had been a long, tiring day, and we had another one ahead of us in the morning!

Up next: Freezing in Magic Kingdom

 

[mpaulam]

That flatbread looked delicious!

 

[k8einwdw]

That flatbread looked delicious!

It really was!

 

[k8einwdw]

Tuesday, December 1st - Magic Kingdom Day

After a somewhat restful night's sleep (I don't think I've truly slept well since October), we awoke around 7:00 am to get ready for our day in Magic Kingdom. This was to be the coldest day of our trip, with lows in the 40s. Thankfully, we had dealt with similar weather on our trip this same week in 2018, so we knew what to expect. We bundled up, grabbed breakfast to take with us, and hopped in the golf cart to head up to the Magic Kingdom boat launch around 8:00.

When we got to the boat launch, there was a moderately long line of people waiting already. No biggie, they use the larger resort boats for Ft. Wilderness, right? Wrong. At least in the case of the first boat that arrived - it was one of the smaller boats that they typically use for the Grand Flo and Poly. We did not make it on the first boat, but thankfully the second was not too far behind it, and we made it into Magic Kingdom right around park opening at 9:00. We had not gotten a chance to eat our breakfast while we were waiting for the boat - since there were a lot of people around, I didn't feel comfortable taking my mask off. So, I had to go through security with opened, previously-toasted, now cold pop-tarts in my pocket. Once we did make it into the park, we stopped in that little alley next to Main St. Bakery to sit at one of the tables and scarf down our breakfast before heading on to our first attraction. Normally, we would start our day in Frontierland, but since I could not ride either attraction there, we headed to Adventureland first, and made it over to Jingle Cruise just as they were opening the ride for the day.

Since we were some of the first people on, it was a walk-on. We didn't have much time to admire the extra holiday theming in the queue, which was a bummer, since they didn't do Jingle Cruise in Disneyland in 2019. In no time, we were on a boat, and our cruise was underwater underway. While we enjoyed the extra merry schtick, the skipper did not point out Trader Samta, which we thought was strange. Maybe it was because they didn't have to stall to unload the boats in front of them?

After Jingle Cruise, we headed over to Pirates. The wait was posted at 15 minutes, but we kept walking all the way until the loading area, so it was more like 5 minutes for us. This is one ride that I was a little nervous about due to the drop, but I just braced my legs and lifted my bottom out of the seat slightly (like half an inch, I wasn't standing on the ride), so that my stomach did not get the brunt of the impact from the drop.

After Pirates, we decided to skip over Enchanted Tiki Room and the Magic Carpets, and head over to Liberty Square to ride Haunted Mansion. The wait was posted at 10 minutes, but it was basically a walk on roughly an hour after park opening. Unfortunately, the silly spooks lost our ride photo

After escaping with our lives, we popped into Memento Mori. Jason really wanted a Haunted Mansion Christmas ornament that had recently come out, but we did not have any luck finding it. Next up, we headed over to PhilharMagic, since we had not gotten to see it in September. We just barely made it into the next showing. After the show, Jason asked for a bathroom break, so naturally we stopped by the Tangled potties, because where else do you use the restroom in MK?

While I was waiting for him, I was digging through my bag for my sunglasses, and found my sunglasses case empty. I knew that I had them when I went through bag check. I tend to hang them on my shirt when I know I won’t be using them for a few minutes - did they fall off on Haunted Mansion? Panic started to set in, and I was dreading having to tell Jason that I lost my very expensive polarized Ray-Bans. Just as he started to walk out of the restroom, I reached up to fix my hair and realized...my sunglasses had been on my face the whole time. Pregnancy has made me both emotional AND dumb.

After I regained my composure, we decided to continue into Fantasyland. The lines for Small World and Peter Pan were already significantly backed up, so we headed further back into “New Fantasyland” (does anyone still call it that?). We headed unda da sea and made sure to wave on our way out!

Up next: Lunch and Tomorrowland

 

[MickeyCB]

After we checked out the Christmas Tree Stroll...well, 90% of it...we headed into World of Disney to do a little shopping. While we were there, we bought baby’s first souvenir of the trip.

Just LOVE that!!!!! If my daughter wasn't being such a pain about "too much Disney stuff" we would be hauling that out to Sacramento!!!

 

[Bullseye1967]

Just LOVE that!!!!! If my daughter wasn't being such a pain about "too much Disney stuff" we would be hauling that out to Sacramento!!!

What is this thing you speak of???????? That's just crazy talk!

 

[MickeyCB]

What is this thing you speak of???????? That's just crazy talk!

Oh heck yeah!! My response is, "as if"!

 

[Swissmiss]

Just LOVE that!!!!! If my daughter wasn't being such a pain about "too much Disney stuff" we would be hauling that out to Sacramento!!!

You just need to keep buying your cutie patootie Disney stuff until her mother gives up

 

[Darstarr]

Jason asked for a bathroom break, so naturally we stopped by the Tangled potties, because where else do you use the restroom in MK?

All of them

 

[k8einwdw]

Just LOVE that!!!!! If my daughter wasn't being such a pain about "too much Disney stuff" we would be hauling that out to Sacramento!!!

What is this thing you speak of???????? That's just crazy talk!

Oh heck yeah!! My response is, "as if"!

You just need to keep buying your cutie patootie Disney stuff until her mother gives up

I don’t know, I had to institute an embargo on the Baby Yoda stuff because it keeps showing up at our house

 

[MotherofaPrincessLover]

I lost two pairs of expensive sunglasses in Disney in a year and I am not one to lose things. Well, one pair I realized I had forgotten in the little pouch on Rise but those never showed up at the lost and found. I take cheap ones to Disney now...

 

[k8einwdw]

I lost two pairs of expensive sunglasses in Disney in a year and I am not one to lose things. Well, one pair I realized I had forgotten in the little pouch on Rise but those never showed up at the lost and found. I take cheap ones to Disney now...

I don't blame you!

 

[k8einwdw]

Tuesday, December 1st - Magic Kingdom Day - Continued

After our journey under the sea, it was shortly after 11:00, and we were both getting hungry for lunch. We had heard great things about the spicy chicken sandwich that Cosmic Ray's had brought out for the holiday season, so we decided to give it a try. We mobile ordered our food, and only had to wait about 5 minutes before it was ready for us to pick up. We grabbed our food, and were lucky enough to find a table near Sonny Eclipse - we don't often eat at Cosmic Ray's, but when we do, we always have to sit and watch him play for awhile. According to the menu, the sandwich came topped with pickle slaw - I love pickles and Jason does not, so we ordered our sandwiches accordingly. While we both thought the sandwich was delicious, I don't think the slaw tasted like pickles at all. It just tasted like regular coleslaw to me. If we were to get these sandwiches again (which we definitely will if they're still around!), I would get mine without the slaw and add pickles. It does look like this sandwich is still on the menu at Cosmic Ray's, so it must have been pretty popular!

After lunch, we decided to hit up a couple attractions in Tomorrowland before heading back to the room for a break. First up was Buzz Lightyear - this advertised a 35-minute wait (shortly before noon), and we found that to be accurate. Part of the queue was set up in the Monster's Inc Laugh Floor pre-show area, which was both funny and sad (sad for the CMs that have not been brought back due to Monster's Inc still being closed). We did not do nearly as well as we had in September - looks like we need a refresher on how to get Galactic Hero!

When I look at our ride photo, my eyes go straight to my hair - yeah I know, I'm vain. Pregnancy has completely messed with my hair texture, and I don't appreciate it! I miss the hair I had in this photo.

After failing miserably to defeat Zurg, we headed over to Carousel of Progress. We were surprised to find quite the crowd of people waiting to see it - is CoP the new Peoplemover? Has social media made it more popular than it used to be? Anyway, we didn't make it into the first group, so we had to wait a few minutes for our turn. I especially appreciate the "future" scene during the holiday season, and I made it a point to point out the Mickey nutcracker this time!

After Carousel of Progress, it was shortly after 1:00, so we decided to start making our way out of the park. We stopped in the Emporium to do some window shopping, and were met with the Mickey cavalcade on our way out of the store! I love that they incorporated the holiday parade soundtracks into the character cavalcades for Halloween and Christmas, it made losing the holiday parties sting a little less. Here's hoping MNSSHP and MVMCP will both be back in 2021!

After waving to Mickey, we popped in to the Confectionery to grab some treats before heading out to the boat launch. We both got Rice Krispie treats - I got my usual mouse-shaped, and Jason got the seasonal pecan pie flavored treat. Around 2:00, we were finally exiting the park and heading out to the boat launch. We had to wait a few minutes for a boat - this seemed to happen to us anytime we were leaving MK - but thankfully, the CMs that work down at the boat launch are fun to talk to. Soon enough, we were on our way back to the cabin for some R&R...and some tasty treats.

Up next: an evening in MK and the first tears of the trip

 

[mpaulam]

I LOVE your ears and mask!

 

[k8einwdw]

I LOVE your ears and mask!

Thank you!!

 

[k8einwdw]

Tuesday, December 1st - Magic Kingdom Day - Continued

After a nice break at the cabin, we had to head back to MK to make a 5:30 dinner reservation. I wanted to have time to get some pictures before dinner, so we left the cabin around 4:00 and headed back out to the MK boat launch. The boat was already there waiting for us, and we made it to MK shortly after 4:15.

We leisurely walked down Main St USA, admiring the holiday decorations along the way. I am so glad they decided to go all-out for Christmas, rather than skimping on the decorations like they did for Fall/Halloween.

When in Magic Kingdom, it's mandatory to take as many castle pics as possible.

But the real reason I wanted to get to MK early, was to get some extra special pictures. My cousin's wife had made a couple cute Disney onesies for us to take on the trip and get pictures with. I didn't use these for any baby announcements, since we were wearing masks, but they're fun pictures to have!

Up next: Disappointed at dinner

 

[k8einwdw]

Tuesday, December 1st - Magic Kingdom Day - Continued

After we took our pictures, we headed toward Liberty Square to check in for our dinner reservation at Liberty Tree Tavern. We still had a few minutes to kill before we could check in, so we decided to check out the Frontierland Trading Post. There was quite the line waiting outside to get in, but we had the time, so we stood in line. More than once, people would try to walk right into the store, I guess because they didn't see the long line of people waiting. So if you're heading to WDW anytime soon, here's your reminder to check for a line before you walk into a store! While we were in the area, we saw some familiar faces...

We checked in for our Liberty Tree Tavern reservation, and waited...and waited...and waited. 50 minutes, to be exact. There was quite the crowd gathered outside of the restaurant waiting for their table to be ready, and it was cold, so I may or may not have been a little cranky by the time we finally got seated. Where did we get seated?

Inside the Diamond Horseshoe. We had never eaten at LTT before, so we were both a little disappointed to be seated in the overflow area. Once we were seated, our server took our drink order, and brought out our salad, which was...meh. It was fine, but there are definitely better salads on property. Eventually, they brought out the full spread, which took up the. entire. table.

At one point during the meal, I was reaching for something on the table, and knocked my drink over with my elbow. Of course, it was full, and it ended up all over the table, my lap, and the floor. Being a hormonal pregnant woman, I may or may not have started crying a little when my drink spilled - I was able to compose myself pretty quickly though, so I didn't make a scene. Thankfully, most Disney guests are nice people, and we had multiple people bring over napkins to help us clean up the mess. Once that whole debacle was over, we tried to salvage the rest of the experience. I will say, I quite enjoyed the turkey, pot roast, and mac and cheese. Jason liked all of the meats. The best part of the meal though (for me at least), was the dessert.

I had been hearing about the Ooey Gooey Toffee Cake for years, and I definitely think it lived up to the hype. Jason wasn't crazy about it, which surprised me. He's not a huge chocolate person though, so it may have just been too chocolatey for him. After dessert, we settled our bill, and headed back out into MK shortly after 7:00. We had accomplished everything we wanted to that day, so we decided to head out for the night. But first, we stopped to admire the castle projections. As much as I miss the fireworks...okay, I miss the old Christmas fireworks...we both thought that the holiday projections on the castle were really fun.

As you can see, it was getting quite busy on Main St, so we were not too sad about leaving early.

We did stop to say goodnight to some friends on the way out, though!

We were walking out of MK just before 7:30, and headed out to the boat to go back to Ft. Wilderness. Once we got back, we headed back to the cabin to add some more layers for warmth, because we were headed out on a fun adventure! After layering up, we mobile-ordered some hot chocolates from the quick service, drove the golf cart up to grab them, and then sipped our hot chocolates while we drove the golf cart around the camper loops, admiring the holiday decorations that campers had put up. Some people stay at Fort Wilderness for multiple weeks at a time, and they go all out with the holiday decorations! Of course I didn't take any pictures, but it was a really fun way to spend the evening, and I'd highly recommend it to anyone who stays at Ft. Wilderness during the holidays!

We made it back to the cabin around 9:00, and relaxed with a Christmas movie before heading to bed. It had been a fun, cold day!

Up next: Breakfast at one of our faves

 

[k8einwdw]

Trip Report Commercial Break

Since we couldn’t make it to the Epcot Flower and Garden Festival this year, we decided to head down to our own little garden festival over the weekend.

There was no violet lemonade, but there were plenty of flowers, butterflies, and topiaries. If you’re ever in the Atlanta area in the spring, Callaway Gardens is a lovely place to visit. Also, their Christmas lights are SO GOOD - definitely a must-do if you find yourself in Atlanta during the holiday season

 

[k8einwdw]

Wednesday, December 2nd - Epcot Day

We woke up around 7:30 this morning to get ready for the day. While Epcot was not opening until Noon, we had breakfast plans! We left the room around 8:45, and made the quick drive over to the Polynesian.

We checked in as soon as we arrived, and we were seated shortly after 9:00. Our waitress took our drink orders - POG juice (or whatever they're calling it these days) for me, and a Kona coffee pressed pot for Jason. She quickly brought out my juice, and Jason's coffee, but no coffee cup. It ended up being another ten minutes before Jason finally got a coffee cup. For our food, I ordered the Pineapple Macadamia Pancakes, with no macadamia nuts. Sounds weird, I know, but they put so many macadamia nuts in the pancakes, and it makes them overly filling, in my opinion. So I basically got plain pancakes with the macadamia nut butter and pineapple on top. They were delicious, and I'll definitely order them this way again!

Jason ordered the Tonga Toast. He kept insisting that he had never had it before, but I know he did, because I remember taking a video of him pouring the strawberry puree on top. Of course, I couldn't find the proof to back up my argument, so Jason got Tonga Toast "for the first time." He really enjoyed it. I had a bite and it was definitely good, but a little too sweet for breakfast for me. We made sure to send my mom a picture of the Tonga Toast. She and her family stayed at the Poly back in 1980, and she has fond memories of eating Tonga Toast for breakfast every morning!

We left the Poly around 10:00, and headed back to the cabin to relax for a bit before heading out for the day.

Up next: In the big, blue world...I'm gonna go explore!