Trip Report ***COMPLETED*** We Must Be Crazy! - December 2019 TR

I’d say it’s probably been almost 2 years since you’ve seen a TR from me (sadly). My last trip in March 2018 with my college roommates contained 5 days jam-packed with everything we could possibly do. It was a fantastic trip. If you followed along with that TR, you might’ve remembered that I was in my sophomore year at Penn State then.

Here comes the scary part…I will be graduating from Penn State in one semester!!! I know, time flies. But this trip isn’t about me and my college friends, it’s time to bring this one back to the family.

Back in October, I received a text from my sister Victoria (who's currently a freshman at Ohio State) saying "We should go to Disney together over Christmas break". I seriously couldn't believe her. My sister and I have been talking about doing a sister’s-only trip for a very long time now. The last time we went to Disney World as a family, I was a senior in high school and she was a freshman. I’m now a senior in college and she just finished her first semester at Ohio State. So she’s finally old enough to be able to go on a trip with just me!

This is us...can you guess who's who?!

Of course, we first needed permission from our parents and to my surprise they couldn't be more thrilled to hear that we wanted to go on a trip together.
Unfortunately, with our college schedules being different, Victoria needed to be back at school on January 5th and I didn’t get home from school until December 20th, so doing anything before Christmas wasn’t an option and neither was doing anything after New Year’s. That's how we ended up making the crazy decision to visit WDW from December 28th-January 2nd...thus where the title comes from.

We've done Disney over Christmas once before, back in 2013 for my Sweet 16 trip. After that my dad vowed to never return until we had kids. But with me graduating soon, it seemed like our only option was to do it now so we went ahead and booked our trip. After getting back just a few days ago, I have to tell you...we definitely were crazy for doing this. But it was also the best six days I could've possibly imagined.

So I hope you're all excited to join me for this wild ride of a trip we had!

 

[danitaytay]

Yay for a found wallet! I sure hope your stuff is still in it!

Thank you, my whole family is so relieved!! I'm hoping that my license is in there most of all. The other stuff is easily replaceable.

That‘s great news! I hope most - if not all - of the items are in it

Thanks so much!! Me too! I really wish they told me what was in it

Glad to hear you might get all/most of your wallet back

I had to laugh at your "light sleeper" comments
My wife is the same - usually a light sleeper but at times she can/will fall asleep on the couch with the lights and tv on

I, however, have mastered the ability to fall asleep almost anywhere - part of being a Dad I think

Max

That's so funny! My parents are both the same, they will literally fall asleep anywhere. And Victoria has fallen asleep through hurricanes. I on the other hand can't fall asleep if someone is even watching TV downstairs. Guess I need to visit Disney more often to get some sleep in.

 

[Darstarr]

Yay for wallet being returned!
But, what the heck took them so long!!! It’s a wallet! All you need to know to find the owner is inside! Stupid cheap airline

 

[fizzieee]

A little late but following along! Sorry to hear that you lost your wallet.... I would've had major anxiety about that if it were me. Glad to hear that they found it though!!!

 

[epcotisbest]

Enjoying the trip report and looking forward to more.

 

[Katiekitten]

I’m glad they found your wallet! I’m following along and can’t wait to see what the rest of the trip had in store for you both.

 

[danitaytay]

Yay for wallet being returned!
But, what the heck took them so long!!! It’s a wallet! All you need to know to find the owner is inside! Stupid cheap airline

Thank you! And I know...last time we fly Frontier

A little late but following along! Sorry to hear that you lost your wallet.... I would've had major anxiety about that if it were me. Glad to hear that they found it though!!!

Thank you so much! It was definitely nerve-wracking but thankfully Victoria was there to keep me calm.

Enjoying the trip report and looking forward to more.

Thanks so much!!

I’m glad they found your wallet! I’m following along and can’t wait to see what the rest of the trip had in store for you both.

Thank you so much!

 

[danitaytay]

Hi everyone! I apologize for the short hiatus I had. I just came back up to school to start my last semester so things have been a bit crazy!
Before I start the TR, I just wanted to give a quick wallet update!!! On Thursday a package arrived at our front door and guess what it was...MY WALLET! I couldn't believe it! I opened it up to find that my cash, the gift cards, and my credit cards were gone but they left my license and insurance card in there. So of course I'm sad about the stolen items but really grateful that the most important things were still there. My boarding pass was also still in the wallet which confirms that it was taken in MCO because I didn't put my boarding pass back into my wallet until we got off the plane b/c I always just hold onto it to be safe.

Anyways...onto day 2!
Sunday, December 29th:
My alarm went off at 6:45 and I was feeling majorly refreshed and excited for our first day in the parks. Of course, Victoria was in a bad mood because Ohio State lost. I was ready by 7:30 but Victoria takes much longer. The two of us are not breakfast people so by 7:45 we were out the door and off to the bus stop!

And of course…it was downpouring outside. When I say downpour it was no joke. We could barely see in front of us. The weather forecast had predicted this but said it wasn’t supposed to last all day so we were crossing our fingers.

The bus arrived at 8:05 and it seemed like the rain might indeed have deterred a lot of people from leaving earlier because there were not many people on the bus. We were at the park by 8:20 and it was absolutely pouring. Our mom had packed us ponchos she bought from Walmart a while back so we slipped them on.

Because of the rain, security was super fast and we were walking under the train station in no time. Unfortunately this wasn’t the kind of first view of Main Street and the castle we wanted but we were still so excited.

Our first stop of the day was Guest Relations. To make things as short as possible, I suffer from multiple chronic pain conditions. Standing for long periods of time tend to be very difficult for me and of course the day before we left for the trip, my symptoms had a major flare up and lasted for pretty much the whole duration of the trip. When we went to Disney for the first time after I was diagnosed my doctor wrote me a letter to see if we could get accommodations so I could enjoy myself more and that’s when we discovered DAS. It was a lifesaver. So we headed to guest relations with my letter in hand and the CM helping us couldn’t be nicer. I was already in the system from my last trip so they just needed to take an updated pictures and send us on our way.

We got our first glimpse of the castle in the pouring rain and despite the weather, it was still beautiful! Unfortunately it was way too wet to take my phone out for pictures. We had also decided this trip to skip out on photopass for the first time because Victoria absolutely hates taking pictures so it would’ve been a waste of our money to get it and then barely use it.

The only picture of the castle we have...courtesy of Snapchat!

As tradition, we always head off to Tomorrowland first when we get to MK. Buzz had a 5 minute wait so of course that was going to be our first ride of the trip! I was definitely a little rusty.

Victoria was on the left, I was on the right. I did badly, but man did she do awful.

I checked MDE and it said that Peter Pan had a 25 minute wait and we knew that wouldn’t last long so we ran over to Fantasyland. On the way there we took a spin on the tea cups because there was literally nobody in line.

Some lovely poncho selfies.

After stumbling off the ride it was off to Neverland! At this point the rain kept going from pouring to drizzling and then back to pouring. We would take our ponchos off, then the rain would start back up again so we’d have to put them back on. As we got off Peter Pan we rounded the corner and saw Peter and Wendy with no line! Victoria really doesn’t like character interactions but I begged her and she complied.

We had an absolutely amazing interaction with them! They both loved the “pixie dust” sparkles we both had on our nails.

Across the way IASW had a 15 minute wait and as much as we dislike it, it’s our mom’s favorite so we had to endure it to pay homage to her. After the song was thoroughly stuck in our heads, it was time for Haunted Mansion.

There were so many coins in the water! Since I had no wallet...no coins

The rain was really doing wonders for wait times. At this point it was only 10 AM and we’d done so much, and HM only had a 15 minute wait. Victoria always gets so annoyed when I recite the entire elevator speech word-for-word. That’s what happens when you go to WDW with a parks nerd.

I was really impressed with how this photo came out, for just an iPhone!

After escaping the hitchhiking ghosts, it was time for our first FP, Space Mountain! The moment we stepped off of HM the sun began to shine and the rain was no more. As excited as we were to not have to wear our ponchos anymore, we knew this probably meant the wait times were gonna start to skyrocket.

When we got to SM the standby wait was 150 minutes and the FP line was very long. It ended up moving extremely quickly but we played Heads Up to pass the time. That’s always our favorite wait-killer and people always love joining in.

Coming up...magical parade hugs!

 

[Swissmiss]

Oh I remember the rain from Sunday morning - I participated in the Beignet Fun Run at POFQ... it was sort of drizzling a bit as I walked over 7:30ish and by the time the run started, it was pouring. I came to peace with running in the rain a couple of years ago, except for when I don’t have a hat on to keep my glasses somewhat free of raindrops. I had no hat during the Beignet Fun Run . But the beignets you get at the end were worth it

 

[Swissmiss]

And I should have added: really glad you at least got your wallet and license back.

 

[fizzieee]

I LOVE playing Heads Up with my siblings while waiting in line at WDW too! It just makes me so happy that other people in line get such a kick out of it, and we always seem to make friends whenever we play it.

Loving your TR so far! Glad that you guys had a blast despite the rain!

 

[danitaytay]

Oh I remember the rain from Sunday morning - I participated in the Beignet Fun Run at POFQ... it was sort of drizzling a bit as I walked over 7:30ish and by the time the run started, it was pouring. I came to peace with running in the rain a couple of years ago, except for when I don’t have a hat on to keep my glasses somewhat free of raindrops. I had no hat during the Beignet Fun Run . But the beignets you get at the end were worth it

Oh my goodness...that definitely sounds like a crazy time and I can't imagine running in that downpour! I give you major props!!! I need to try the beignets sometime because now I'm hungry, lol!

I LOVE playing Heads Up with my siblings while waiting in line at WDW too! It just makes me so happy that other people in line get such a kick out of it, and we always seem to make friends whenever we play it.

Loving your TR so far! Glad that you guys had a blast despite the rain!

Yes!!! It's seriously the best! And a great way to meet new people while in line.
Thank you so much for following along

 

[danitaytay]

Sunday continued...

I checked MDE after Space and saw that Voyage of the Little Mermaid only had a 15-minute wait so we headed to the queue. The app definitely wasn’t right because we waited around 35 minutes but after a morning of no waits I wasn’t complaining.

It was starting to get pretty hot outside as the sun was finally shining so it was time for our first treat of the day! Victoria has this weird love for the pickles in a bag at the parks so she grabbed one of those while I got a frozen coke for us to share. It was definitely a bit difficult to drink with the new paper straws but I really appreciated Disney’s efforts to make better choices for our planet!

Can you tell how genuinely happy she was with her pickle?!

We had a FP coming up at Thunder so we decided to head towards Frontierland. On our way I saw a guy wearing a Penn State shirt so I naturally called out “We are!”. I got my first “Penn State” back and I was very excited. We still had some time until our FP and the Very Merry Christmas Parade was about to stop so we found the perfect spot across from Liberty Tree Tavern to watch the parade.

Victoria and I both loved the parade! It was adorable! But my far the best part was when Pooh saw me recording some of the parade on my GoPro and ran over to me and gave me the biggest hug. It warmed my heart because I feel like sometimes adults don’t get as much love from the characters as kids do.

After watching the parade it was just 12:30 and our FP window for Thunder was open. We had a blast riding the wildest ride in the wilderness! At this point it was getting super hot out, we were both sweating!

I must have gotten a DAS return time for SDMT sometime earlier because I have it written in my notes that that’s where we headed next. The air-conditioned part of the queue felt so amazing. After our ride, our stomachs were grumbling so I placed a mobile order at Pecos Bills and we walked back over towards Adventureland.

This was the first time this trip where I tried to mobile order and there was an error with the app. After a few tries though it usually did work.

On our way into Pecos Bills we saw a man taking a nap on one of the ledges with no shoes on…it definitely wasn’t a pretty sight. I also grabbed a Splash Mountain return time for later on.

I sent Victoria to find a table while I picked up the food. It was absolutely packed though. I met up with her and we walked for ages with the heavy tray searching for a table. We ended up settling sitting on a ledge until an older couple waved us over and told us they were leaving. Our feet definitely needed the rest so we really appreciated it.

Our lovely ledge before we moved to the table.

I got the chicken rice bowl with guac while Victoria got the children’s mac and cheese with one of those slushy drinks. Even after loading mine up with stuff from the toppings bar it still wasn’t that good. Oh well, at least we were full.

Everything is better with guac!

Just as we were leaving the rain started to come down again, except it was completely sunny outside. We made a beeline straight for Philarmagic because it had a 10-minute wait and it kept us out of the rain. By the time we got out of the show it had stopped raining already. Gotta love Florida weather.

The upside-down 3D glasses pic is a tradition of ours we've had since we were little girls when Victoria accidentally wore hers for the entire show like this. We take a picture each time we put them on for our mom!

 

[danitaytay]

Sunday continued...

Our return time for Splash had passed so we headed on over to hopefully cool off. It definitely worked because we got absolutely soaked! The best part about it all though is that we got more wet from the splash of a boat coming down the big drop than us going down it ourselves.

My hair was not looking pretty afterwards...

We had a little time before our last FP and the long day was starting to impact my pain levels so we decided to head to Gaston’s Tavern for a rest. I got myself a LeFou’s Brew because I’d heard so many mixed things about it. I still haven’t decided if I liked it or not. It kind of tasted like a caramel apple to me, but at least it was refreshing.

Our FP window for Seven Dwarves opened up at 4:10 so we headed over to scan in. While going through the FP line I scanned the MDE app and snagged a 4thFP for Pooh at 6:30.

Victoria was starting to tire out after our ride so she had me mobile order her a dole whip. I told myself that since I just had the LeFou’s Brew I would save mine for our second day at MK. I was definitely drooling a bit though as she ate hers. She was nice enough to give me a spoonful or two.

We browsed some of the gift shops in Adventureland while she finished her dole whip. I thought this little Stitch was the cutest thing!

I also saw a Hei Hei plush I felt I needed to have but Victoria insisted otherwise. So I just decided to take a selfie with it instead.

Pirates had a decent enough wait so we hopped on line afterwards. For some reason we decided to go cross-park to Tomorrowland afterwards for Monsters Inc Laugh Floor. I sent in a holiday joke, but sadly it wasn’t used. I do prefer the regular show over the holiday overlay though. I also grabbed a return time for Space while we were there.

This door made me laugh out loud.

Also since the sun was finally out, I was able to get a decent castle picture!

We still had some time before Pooh so we walked over to Dumbo which only had a 15 minute wait. I thought this sign looked so cool at night.

At 6:45 we scanned our bands to see Pooh and friends. It’s one of my favorite dark rides at Disney!

While we waited in line I also got another FP for Thunder for 10:50. It was then back over for our return time at Space. Our bodies were getting really tired but it was only 7. That was our telltale sign it was time for dinner so I placed a mobile order at Cosmic Rays.

I ordered Victoria a cheeseburger and myself a children’s chicken nuggets and I went to substitute one of the two sides for French fries but I guess they made a mistake and gave me two sides of French fries! Our entire tray was just full of them, but I can’t complain because they’re so good.

Would you like some chicken with your fries?
When we got to Cosmic Ray’s I said to Victoria, “Let’s go get a table by Sonny Ray!”. She looked at me so confused. So I just said “You’ll see.”
I don’t think she knew what to think of him, but nonetheless we enjoyed listening to his “set” while we rested our feet and ate dinner. We also got plenty of pickles from the toppings bar.

Victoria had never been on Carousel of Progress so that was our after dinner stop. I truly didn’t mean to, but with the lights being off I just sort of dosed off the entire time. It definitely gave me the boost of energy I needed though. Victoria loved CoP though!

 

[MickeyCB]

Very late, but all caught up and enjoying your report very much!

 

[danitaytay]

Very late, but all caught up and enjoying your report very much!

Thanks for joining along!!

 

[danitaytay]

Sunday continued...
We wanted to get a good spot to watch the fireworks so we started to head towards Main Street and decided to make a quick stop at the Confectionary first.

Seeing the castle all lit up like this is one of my favorite parts about visiting for the holidays.

Main Street was also looking all lit up and beautiful!

I got myself a Mickey gingerbread cookie and Victoria got an $11 Minnie caramel apple that she absolutely wasted. I told her not to get it but she doesn’t listen.

Whoops...sorry! Couldn't resist a bite before I took a picture!

We got a really good spot near the castle to watch the fireworks but everyone was stepping all over us. We watched the Mickey Christmas stage show and I’m going to be completely honest…that was probably one of the cringiest things I’ve ever seen. It just wasn’t for me. Especially the whole cell phone part, it just felt really out of place for Disney.

A while after the show I got a notification from MDE thanking us for watching the stage show. Were they tracking our location?! So creepy! I got a few other texts like this throughout the trip and they just weirded me out.

Minnie’s Christmastime Fireworks were absolutely amazing. We both loved them!

I didn't take a ton of pictures because I was honestly just in awe of the fireworks.
It was very difficult getting through the masses out of the hub afterwards so we veered off towards Adventureland. Pirates only had a 10-minute wait and we had some time until our Thunder FP so we decided to take another ride.

After that it was time for Thunder. We absolutely love riding it at night! We requested the back row and it seriously was wild.

At this point it was a little after 11 and we were wiped so we decided to forgo staying until 12 and leave the park. Remember the bus disaster I mentioned earlier in the TR? This was just the first one. Coronado Springs without a doubt had the longest line out of every resort. There had to be at least 150 people in line. However, 4 Pop Century buses showed up with absolutely nobody waiting in line before even one bus for us showed up.

People were getting angry. There was a lot of screaming, and I truly felt bad for the bus attendants because they were trying to do everything to figure the situation out, but it took 30 minutes for just one bus to come. And then they decided to refigure the lines for boarding which allowed a ton of people to cut us. We ended up finally getting on the second bus that arrived 10 minutes afterwards and got back to the resort a little after midnight.

Day Two Summary:
Total Miles Walked: 12.1 miles
Bad: The rain in the morning
Good: The rain = barely any lines in the morning
Surprised by: how amazing the Christmas fireworks were
Today we tried: staying at the park for 15 hours
The result…exhausting!
In one word today was…jam-packed!

 

[danitaytay]

Monday, December 30th:
Our alarm went off at 7. It was definitely a bit hard getting out of bed but somehow I managed to get ready (shower and all) by 7:45 and it took Victoria 45 minutes just to do her makeup.

We were out the door by 8, once again no breakfast for us. It took a while for a bus to come but we were at the park a little after 8:30. As we were about to enter the park I got a text from my mom saying she found the receipts to the gift cards I bought and was going to call Disney to see if it was possible to cancel the physical gift cards and still return the money to me. Updates to come!

I absolutely love the AK tree! As you can see, it was a bit cloudy this morning. We were just hoping it'd clear up and the rain in the forecast would go away...

Our first stop as we entered was of course pictures in front of the Tree.

EMH started at 8 so we headed straight to Pandora to get a return time for FoP. And I kid you not, at 8:45 in the morning, FoP was already at a 4 hour wait. I believe that the highest wait time it got to during the day was 4 ½ hours and the lowest was 3.

On our way out of Pandora I saw this awesome wall and of course needed a picture with it. I love cool Disney walls!

I also saw this shirt at a kiosk and it made me laugh so hard. Nothing is more true...

We had some time to kill before our first FP so we decided to see if the single rider line for Everest wasn’t bad. As we were walking towards Asia, I turned my head for a brief second and saw someone sitting at a table that looked an awful lot like one of my friends from Penn State who also happened to be from LI. I called out her name and sure enough it was her! We caught up for a while and then made tentative plans to meet up on NYE in Epcot.

After saying goodbye, we were back off towards Everest. From the point we entered the single rider line it said it would be a 50 minute wait but I don’t even think we waited 15! And on top of that…I got the front row! Victoria was very jealous because EE is her favorite ride at all of the parks.

Front row selfies! Sorry Victoria...

Our FP window for the safari had just opened up so it was off to Africa. I have a tradition of always singing “Waka Waka” when we enter Africa for the first time. Victoria was not having it, such a party pooper.

These guys were so playful this morning. They love putting on a show for us.

Coming up...will there be elephants?!

 

[myhappyplace]

Chiming in here, right after reading your introduction post, to say that I recall reading your past trip and enjoyed it very much. I also can't even imagine having an Ohio State and Penn State student in the same household!!! (We Are!)

*goes back to catch up*

 

[danitaytay]

Chiming in here, right after reading your introduction post, to say that I recall reading your past trip and enjoyed it very much. I also can't even imagine having an Ohio State and Penn State student in the same household!!! (We Are!)

*goes back to catch up*

That is so sweet, thank you so much!!!
And trust me, I know...it's never easy. I went to the PSU/OSU basketball game yesterday (where we destroyed Ohio State) and my sister was being such a sore loser!

 

[danitaytay]

Monday continued...
I have to say this was probably the best safari I’d ever been on! Almost every single animal was out. We got to see all of the elephants which had me screaming because I absolutely love elephants. I’m actually an animal science major and my dream is to be a zookeeper at AK someday so I was just in heaven the entire safari.
I got so many great pictures so I'll only include a few...

All the giraffes were crossing the path together. It was adorable!

After our safari we decided to take a stroll through the Wild Africa Trek. All of the gorillas were out to play and they were being so funny! We also got to see baby Grace and she was just so precious.
At one point they were all fighting over who got to sit in the bowl so one of the keepers brought out another one for them to sit in and they started chasing each other around for it!

It was only around 10:30 but we were getting peckish so Victoria grabbed some popcorn while I got chicken dumplings from Mr. Kumals. They were okay but $6 for 3 dumplings…really?! We sat and relaxed for a bit because the wait times were absolutely insane. It was a 50 minute wait for Tough to Be a Bug and 80 minutes for Dinosaur.

We love overpriced Disney snacks!

Our 2nd FP for Everest opened up at 11:30 so we stopped for some pictures first and then headed to scan our bands. Keep track, this was our second time riding Everest today and it was only 11:30.

We had another great ride on Everest...no front row for us this time though.