Trip Report Hey Elsa...the cold really bothers the rest of us! A Christmas Time Report

Hello and Welcome!

For those who of you didn't join in on my Pre-Trip Report (and why the heck not may I ask!!!), thanks for joining in on my Trip Report.

I'm Michelle and I am your typical Disney Nut; born and raised to bleed Disney!

It's safe to say that I am more than a bit into and obsessed with all things Disney, but I can't see anyone reading this on here thinking that's a problem. My first trip to Disney World (or as I like to refer to it as "home"), was before I was 1 years old. In 1993 my family became DVC members at Old Key West and there began the start of my obsession.

My husband Ryan, on the other hand....not so much. I love him dearly (obviously), but I cannot fathom HOW he isn't as "into Disney" as I am; some peoples children **shakes head**. I will give him credit though, he tolerates and supports my obsession. For someone who "doesn't love Disney"...he sure has been on a lot of trips AND has even helped add visiting other Disney Parks into our "other travel" plans; yes, it shames me to say that I travel to other places than just the Disney Parks...I'd like to stay married LOL.

We recently (and by recently I mean January) returned from our most recent and (in my opinion) too short of a trip to Disney World. Although it was too short, I was so incredibly blessed to have had the chance to go AND to go during Christmas and New Years. Christmas happens to be my favorite time of the year, so I am thankful Ryan was willing to give up some family time and heard to warm and sunny Florida with me. Spoiler alert....it was cold LOL. Oh well, if I have to be cold (but still warmer than home in Toronto at the time), theres no place I'd rather be!

I am (secretly) working on plans to return home, but until I can make them more concrete and to deal with my Disney blues, I thought I'd share my last trip with you fine folks!

Let's get started with some details!

Who: Myself and my loving, amazing husband Ryan!

Where: Disney's Old Key West (original DVC home) and Cabana Bay when we moved over to the dark side, more commonly known as Universal Studios.

When: Tuesday December 26, 2017 - Thursday January 4, 2018

Why: Well....I guess the RIGHT answer is because we wanted to get out of the cold and be there during my favorite time of the year. The REAL answer is because (see picture below!) I cried, whined and threw a temper tantrum last Christmas when I was at home in my Disney PJ's, in my Mickey Santa Hat, drinking mimosa's out of my Disney Champagne glass while watching the Disney Christmas Parade at home and Ryan just didn't want to deal with me so he agreed to this trip LOL. AND WHY NOT GO TO DISNEY WHEN GIVEN THE OPPORTUNITY!

Without further delay....let's get this TR started!

 

[DryerLintFan]

Admittedly we checked in for our 5:00 pm dining reservation early, around 4:30 pm. The hostess who helped us did warn us that it was going to be a busy night so it was not likely we would be able to be seated early. We didn't have a problem with this as we were the ones who were early. She led us to a seating area inside and asked us to wait there until our names were called.

By now the weather had changed quite drastically and we needed to change into pants.

Then it was 5:00....then 5:10....then 5:20.....then at 5:27 I was about to go up to the check in desk to ask about our reservation which was for 27 minutes ago, but as I was walking up they called my name. Honestly, I think they forgot about us LOL because tons of people were being led in in front of our eyes.

My first impressions were that this place was beautifully designed - the check in area had this beautiful carved map on the wall, a ton of details everywhere. We were led to our table in one of the rooms towards the back of the restaurant, I think it was the Trek Gallery - we were sat at a table for two beside a booth that had this beautiful coloured flag piece of art. As we entered, we were really disappointed to see that the restaurant was basically empty, so were weren't sure why we couldn't have been sat early OR why we were seated nearly 30 minutes past our reservation time . Oh well, we were here now.

Now if any of you have read any of my previous PTRs or TRs, you know I am not an "adventurous" eater at all - I've described my tastes similar to those of a 5 year old LOL (chicken fingers, pizza, mashed potatoes....etc.), so I knew in advance that this restaurant was not going to be my favourite, but I really wanted to give it a try AND Ryan is the complete opposite eater. He will try anything once and trying new and "exotic" foods is part of the deal in selling Disney trips to him LOL

For drinks, Ryan decided to go with the Exploration Beer Flight ($10) - First Magnitude Wakulla Hefeweizen, Kungaloosh Spiced Excursion Alex and Old Elephant Foot IPA. These were all new to him. I decided to go with a glass of wine. Here was the first "odd encounter" with our server - you'll see this is a reoccurring theme throughout our service. I wasn't familiar with any of the wines listed, so I asked him if he could suggest a red for me. He gave me a very grumpy and almost dismissive "I don't drink red" response. I asked if there was anything that seemed to be an extremely popular choice and again a rude response of "I don't know, everyone is different". Finally I was able to get a recommendation from him, which was for the Cabernet Concha y Toro from Chile ($13). It was only okay.

I also asked for two glasses of water at the time we ordered our drinks.

View attachment 274150

We also decided to get the Bread Service ($10) as an appetizer - Tadka, Smoked Baba Ghanoush, Blatjang. We really enjoyed the one from Sanaa on our last visit. This was only okay in both Ryan and my books...the one from Sanaa BLOW THIS ONE OUT OF THE WATER.

View attachment 274151

After the bread service was dropped off, we placed our orders for our meals.

While we ate we heard an odd conversation between our server and the couple sat next to us. The woman next to me had a similar "wine suggestion" experience to what I had, but the strangest part was when she placed her food order. She ordered something that came with sweet potato grits as the side. She asked to substitute that with pretty much anything as she explained she didn't like sweet potato or grits. The server bluntly told her "No, that's what it comes with". The woman looked shocked at his response and again explained that she wouldn't like it, but the server insisted "they are good, you will like it". The woman accepted this answer, let out a huge sigh and eye roll as the waiter walked away.

Never in my life had I heard such a rude response to a guest request when at Disney. I have also never heard of a server refusing to let a guest make substitutions to their meal. I myself had a fully customized meal at California Grill after working directly with our server to ensure I had a meal that I would enjoy. I was SHOCKED.

As mentioned before, I am not adventurous when it comes to food so nothing really appealed to me. I cannot count this as a negative towards Tiffins as I knew this going in AND I am really glad that Disney offers a wide variety of foods and tastes to its guests. I decided to go with the Apple Walnut Salad off the appetizer menu ($12), I mean how could you go wrong with this! Ryan decided to go with the Duo of Venison ($41) - Ethiopian coffee-infused venison, boerewors, soubise, chakalaka, tamarind, leek ash. At this point I again asked for two glasses of water as we hadn't received them yet.

Soon after, our food was dropped off by someone other than our server. Again, no water so we asked this server.

View attachment 274161

Here's my salad. It was small (which I was expecting as it was an appetizer and was only $12), but I was really disappointed that there were only 2 cubes of apple in my APPLE walnut salad. In addition, I found the dressing to be rather flavourless.

View attachment 274162
Here's Ryans Venison....ummm, where the rest of it LOL. I do understand that more Signature restaurants do "present" their food, but this looked strange to us...why is only 1/4 of the plate filled with food. We thought this was a HUGE rip off considering the $41 price tag for the meal. In addition, Ryan said it was cold when it arrived. We tried to flag down any server to let them know it arrived cold, but couldn't get anyones attention. He ended up eating it because Ryan is NOT a complainer at all.

Oh....and we were STILL waiting on water.

While we ate, our server NEVER came back to check in on us. Not long after we received our meal, we were done, we were upset with the service and experience and we waited for our server to come back. And waited. And waited. And waited.

FINALLY our server came back, but never asked how our meals were. Instead he just went straight to asking if we wanted dessert. We didn't.

I asked him if we could please have the water we had asked for now 4 times and the bill. The server didn't even flinch at the mention of water again.

Then we waited....and waited.

By now I was getting really upset as we were trying to make the 7:15 showing of Rivers of Light - this would be the only chance we could see it and it was on our MUST DO list as it would be a fist! Remember, we were sat at 5:27 pm, so this had been a VERY long meal and in our opinion a TERRIBLE experience.

Finally our server came back with our bill....and our waters.

We paid our bill quickly and literally RAN over to Rivers of Light. We made it with 2 minutes to spare.

As we waited, we talked about our Tiffins experience. Overall, we were extremely disappointed in every aspect - the food wasn't great, the prices weren't great, the service was absolutely terrible and we were made to wait for extended periods of time unnecessarily. We did overhear the couple sat beside us mentioned above also comment on how terrible the server was and that their food had arrived "warm to cold". I am sure that our experience was largely hindered by our awful server, but we don't have any plans to return anytime soon. We DO want to give the lounge a chance, so hopefully we will have a much better experience there and it will motivate us to head back and give it another try. At this point and based on how much the meal cost us, we would 100% have been happier to have eaten at Restaurantosaurus or Flame Tree BBQ.

We made a mental note to make a complaint when we returned back to our hotel as this server had ruined not only our experience, but at the very least the experience of the couple beside us. Honestly, we forgot to do this though LOL. We did send an email complaint when we returned home, but never received any confirmation or response. Hopefully someone heard us and has done something to better train this server (or got rid of him).

I'm actually more surprised you didn't get a response to your email than I am about your bad dining experience. I emailed three times about cast members (good things) and got very detailed responses within 24 hours. It's shocking to me that they didn't email you back!!

 

[mlegerto]

I'm actually more surprised you didn't get a response to your email than I am about your bad dining experience. I emailed three times about cast members (good things) and got very detailed responses within 24 hours. It's shocking to me that they didn't email you back!!

I agree with you, I was actually quite shocked that I didn't get a response. I did say multiple times in my complaint that I wasn't looking for anything (because I wasn't), but that I wanted this to be a learning experience for them and the staff considering Tiffins is relatively new and I didn't want anyone else to have the same terrible experience we did. Still, I'd expect a response, but I guess I didn't follow up again either so I don't know.

 

[mlegerto]

Day 4 - Friday December 29, 2018 : So much fun, even without a park visit!

Today was a "rest day" between all of the craziness of the prior days. We had the chance to sleep in today, so we had set a backup alarm for 9:00 am JUST in case we really slept in - at home we are up at 4:45 am during the week so a normal sleep in for us is between 7:30 - 8:00 am.

Naturally we work up prior to our alarm and got ourselves showered and dressed. No need for breakfast in the room today as we had breakfast reservations! We jumped in the car at 10:00 am and headed towards the Poly for our 10:20 am reservation at Kona Cafe.

As usual, the Poly looked beautiful! I loved staying here on our honeymoon back in 2015 and we will be sure to return here again in the future! For now, visits and photos will have to do.

Ryan decided to order the press pot of Kona coffee ($9.00) and I went with the Lilikoi Mimosa ($10.25).

Ryan decided on the Seven Seas Samoan - Poached Eggs with Citrus Hollandaise Sauce on Pulled Pork and Turkey Hash with Mustard Greens and Tomatoes tossed in a Citrus Vinaigrette ($14) and I the 2 eggs any style plater - with Home-fried Potatoes and your choice of Ham, Spiced Ham, Bacon, or Sausage ($14).

Sorry, missed taking food photos!! The food was good and plenty though. We really enjoy having breakfast here. Before we left, we got two bags of Kona coffee to take home with us (1 by request of my brother who loves it and 1 for Ryan to enjoy).

From here, we decided to try our luck and head over to the Premium Outlets on Vineland - if you remember, we tried to go on our arrival day, but it was so full that they weren't letting anyone else in. Success this time though!

I found some great deals on a few items at Kate Spade and Michael Kors.

Kate Spade - Small Margareta Purse. Originally $379.00 USD, Purchased $89.00 USD.

Kate Spade - Neda Wallet. Originally $189.00 USD . Purchased $40.00 USD.

Michael Kors Lgewtz Tote. Originally $348.00 USD. Purchased $111.00 USD.

I loved my purchases and LOVED the prices even more! We later saw the Kate Spade items for nearly full price at the Kate Spade store at Disney Springs...couldn't believe that just 15 minutes away you could get such a better deal. We love visiting these outlets - we actually are planning to get as much Christmas shopping done when we visit in September!

After we were done wandering the outlets, we headed back to the hotel and made some sandwiches for lunch and took an afternoon nap. Is there really anything better than afternoon naps?!

 

[mlegerto]

Before we knew it, it was time to get ready to head out for the evening. We were heading to Disney Springs to so some more shopping, check out what was new since our last trip and to meet up with some friends for a dinner reservation - some of our friends have a place near Disney and they happened to be visiting at the same time (for their privacy I won't be posting any of their personal information or photos out of respect).

Disney Springs has changed so much since we last visited. We really enjoyed spending time here and wished we had scheduled more time to visit - we'll be sure to do that on our next trip. By now, it was getting really cold out so we had to keep ducking in to stores for some warmth.

We made a few purchases in Sephora, World of Disney (a sweatshirt for myself because it was freezing) and of course found time and room in our bellies for a cupcake from Sprinkles!

We really wanted to try the Cupcake ATM, but of course it was out of order! We finally decided on a Coconut Cupcake...by the way, it was delicious!

From there we headed over to Jock Lyndsey;s Hangerbar to meet up with our friends and grab a drink to start the night!

I am not sure what I had as I had just asked the bartender to make me her favourite drink, which she said she would, but it was something not on the menu.. It.was.delicious! Ryan decided on the Air Pirate's Mule - Creek Disney Select Single Barrel Reserve Bourbon and Fresh Lime Juice Topped with Fever-Tree Ginger Beer. Ryan really enjoyed this, even though it is not something he would normally order.

After drinks we headed to Homecomin' for our dinner reservation.

I ordered a Sweet Tea Moonshine - Sweet Tea, fresh-squeezed lemon and moonshine and the Famous Fried Chicken - Buttermilk-brined for 24 hours then perfectly fried and served with creamy mashed potatoes, a cheddar drop biscuit and love ($28.00). @Tuvalu , I do agree, this was REALLY good!

Ryan decided to go with the moonshine flight and Fried Catfish - Accompanied by hushpuppies, grits, and a side of remoulade ($22.00).

Our friends ordered the Shortribs and the Grouper.

Everyone really enjoyed their meals and there was PLENTY of food to go around.

After dinner we decided the night was still young, so we headed over to Port Orleans Riverside to catch the late Yeeha Bob show. If this is something you haven't done before, I HIGHLY recommend it. We all really enjoyed ourselves - and we saw groups made up of couples, friends and families all having a great time as well!

Our friends kindly drove us home just after midnight. It was a wonderful night and we were so happy to have had the chance to meet up with our friends in my favourite place. It was a FREEZING cold night, so I wish it were warmer, but a cold night in Disney is better than a warm night anywhere else LOL.

We had some quick showers and called it a night - we had a busy day ahead of us as we headed back to the parks!

Today's counts:
17,437 steps
14.49 kms

 

[prfctlyximprct]

Love your new pair of ears! Can never have too many

And I’m super super sad about your Tiffins experience! I wished Disney would have responded to you and made it right. I am afraid of their menu, but after hearing of your experience, I don’t think a trip to Tiffins is in my future makes my joe rohde loving heart and soul sad.

And how dare you not fall deeply and madly in love with rivers of light! I don’t think we can be friends anymore!

Just kidding. I don’t feel the love for Happily Ever After and seem to be alone in my sentiments, so I can see we all have varying Disney opinions!

So happy you are going back! Can you message Joe and tel him to book with you guys

 

[mlegerto]

Love your new pair of ears! Can never have too many

And I’m super super sad about your Tiffins experience! I wished Disney would have responded to you and made it right. I am afraid of their menu, but after hearing of your experience, I don’t think a trip to Tiffins is in my future makes my joe rohde loving heart and soul sad.

And how dare you not fall deeply and madly in love with rivers of light! I don’t think we can be friends anymore!

Just kidding. I don’t feel the love for Happily Ever After and seem to be alone in my sentiments, so I can see we all have varying Disney opinions!

So happy you are going back! Can you message Joe and tel him to book with you guys

Yah....I cannot lie, Tiffins was a huge disappointment. Not sure we will be willing to give this place a chance again, but we will try out the Lounge and hopefully that will be amazing and tempt us to give it another go.

HAHA...ROL was okay. I enjoyed it, it was nice...I just don't see the point of seeing it again. SORRY Dear!

I feel the same way as you do about HEA (Wishes! will always have my heart LOL), so it does go to show you that you can have different opinions of Disney attractions/shows, but still love it as a whole AND love the people in the community who may have differing opinions.

FRIENDS FOREVER Nikki LOL!

Ugh, I cannot wait to go back and it'll be September so it should be HOT HOT HOT....hopefully no hurricanes tho LOL. No problem, I'm getting on the phone with Joe now... I was able to sell another trip to Ryan so I feel pretty confident in my sales pitch right now . I mean it's just a weekend....and we have points so it's kind of like just going to our cottage for the long weekend (my pitch started something like that!)

 

[DryerLintFan]

Yah....I cannot lie, Tiffins was a huge disappointment. Not sure we will be willing to give this place a chance again, but we will try out the Lounge and hopefully that will be amazing and tempt us to give it another go.

HAHA...ROL was okay. I enjoyed it, it was nice...I just don't see the point of seeing it again. SORRY Dear!

I feel the same way as you do about HEA (Wishes! will always have my heart LOL), so it does go to show you that you can have different opinions of Disney attractions/shows, but still love it as a whole AND love the people in the community who may have differing opinions.

FRIENDS FOREVER Nikki LOL!

Ugh, I cannot wait to go back and it'll be September so it should be HOT HOT HOT....hopefully no hurricanes tho LOL. No problem, I'm getting on the phone with Joe now... I was able to sell another trip to Ryan so I feel pretty confident in my sales pitch right now . I mean it's just a weekend....and we have points so it's kind of like just going to our cottage for the long weekend (my pitch started something like that!)

We'll be heading back in September as well We're on the same Disney schedule, LOL

 

[mlegerto]

Day 5 - A full day for Magic Kingdom, Saturday December 30, 2017

We had plans to spend the full day at Magic Kingdom today!

Our alarm was set for 8:30 am, but I had a terrible sleep and found myself tossing and turning all night so I was up and out of bed long before our alarm. Being the nice wife that I am, I let Ryan sleep in until the alarm went off and he had full range of the washroom and shower to get ready because I was all ready to go!

One short hour later, we were heading down to the bus stop to wait for our magical carriage to MK! As usual, found some time to take photos while we waited.

The bus was packed by the time we made it through OKW, but we knew it wouldn't be long before we arrived for the most magical day! We heard the horns shortly, which meant we were pulling up to the MK bus depot. Before we knew it, we were skipping under the train station and waltzing down Main Street USA.

We walked past the castle and took a stop by the Cinderella fountain. We had to make an important phone call to a friend back home because it was his 30th birthday today!

When we ended our phone call, we stayed in the area for a few minutes and got to witness something so cute! There was a couple and the women was clearly quite pregnant. They were doing their gender reveal and had pulled aside a set of photopass photographers to capture the moment. I they had brought a letter with their babys gender noted to a cast member and had them pick and "pink" or "blue" mouse ears in a box wrapped up, then came to the castle and grabbed a photopass photographer to capture the moment they opened the box. They were having a little girl! It was so incredibly adorable, what moment to witness - they were over joyed.

A quick look at our watch told us that we had to get a move on, we had a fastpass to get to! We headed into Fantasyland to use our 10:35-11:35 am FP+ for Peter Pan.

Once we safely landed from our flight to Neverland, we made our way back to the hub to grad a seat for the 12:00 noon Once Upon a Christmas Time parade. We found a spot right where Main Street met the Hub. Ryan ran off to grab some Starbucks while I held our spots.

As usual, while waiting we took photos!

Ryan made it back JUST in time and the parade began!

 

[mlegerto]

We really enjoyed the parade and before we knew it, it was over! Perfect timing as our next Fastpass window just opened!

 

[mlegerto]

We ran back over to Fantasyland as we had a FP+ for Seven Dwarfs Mine Train for 12:05 - 1:05 pm and it was already 1:00 pm!

No problem though, we made it without any issues - so thankful for the grace period given on FPs! This was the first time we had the chance to ride SDMT - on our honeymoon trip we had 2 FPs and both times it ended up closing due to weather issues.

We thought it was a lot of fun and the animatronics are really well done, but agree with everyone elses comments on how short it is. We were thankful that we had a FP because the standby line was 2.50 hours at this point in the day. Ryan is 6 foot tall and even though he is slender, he found the ride seat to be quite tight, but we were both able to ride it with no issues.

We still had some time before our lunch reservation, so we headed over to one of our favorites, PhilharMagic! The standby line was roughly 40 minutes, but lines were long everywhere so we decided to join the herd.

As usual, we really enjoyed our time with Mickey and the gang. We still had a little time before our ADR, so we headed over towards Gaston's Tavern area to check it out and we were hopeful to meet the man himself!

We stopped to treat ourselves to Lefews brew.

We thought it was only okay - were done with it by the time we were half way through it. We prefer Butterbeer over at Universal - don't shoot me!

We enjoyed our drink while in line to meet Gaston. We had a great meet and greet, he was so in character. I asked him how things were going in "wooing" Belle and he told me "Fantastic, we are getting married tonight!" He wasn't so happy with me when I broke the news to him that she told me she'd never marry him and that I was heading over to Beasts castle soon to have dinner with the happy couple.

He didn't take the news too well.....but then he saw his reflection in something passing by so he was soon okay again!

Finally it was time for our lunch ADR at Be Out Guest! We had pre-ordered using the mobile ordering on the app. We decided to share our meal and decided on a French Onion Soup, Carved Turney Sandwich with Fries and a Grey Stuff cupcake We went up to the counter to pay and then found ourselves a seat in the Rose Galley.

 

[mlegerto]

We hadn't eaten in this room before and it was really nice - less crowded and less noisy! When our food came, the server forgot our soup. We waited a few minutes and it still hadn't come so we started on our sandwich. When we were nearly done our sandwich, our soup finally came out. Unfortunately it was only warm at this point - not sure if we were forgotten about or if things weren't being freshly prepared anymore because lunch service was almost over?

\

We felt like the portion size of the sandwich and fries had gone down since we last ate - last time we both ordered our own meal and left with nearly half left, this time we shared and felt like we could have eaten more. But we can't really complain because that meant we had room for more food later!

While we ate, we grabbed another FP for Monsters Inc. in just 15 minutes, so we headed that way next! But of course, there is still time for photos on our way out of BOG.

To Tomorrowland we go!

We made it over to Tomorrowland and scanned in for our Monsters Inc. Laughfloor FP. While we waited for the show to start, we were able to grab another FP for Splash Mountain at 5:05 pm.

The show was great! Once we got out, we still had some time to kill so we headed over to the PeopleMover to take a tour though Tomorrowland! Tomorrowland was PACKED and we had about a 25 minute line up for the PeopleMover, but eventually made it.

While we were on the PeopleMover we realized how cold it was getting out, the temperature had drastically dropped.

Once we got off, we re-thought our FP for Splash Mountain...it was getting quite cold to get wet so we changed our FP to take a ride on a honeypot with Winnie! Back to Fantasyland for us!

 

[mlegerto]

On our way to Winnie, we passed by the Tea Cups and as usual....took some more photos!

While in line for Winnie, we were able to grab another FP for Journey into the Little Mermaid - score! Even though it was a really busy day, we were able to continually get extra FPs through the app, so make sure you always check!

We had some time to kill still, so of course we headed back to the Hub to take some photos for our collection.

 

[mlegerto]

Back towards Fantasyland we go!

I think this time of day is PERFECT for photos, the lighting is so beautiful!

Next we dove under the sea to visit some friends.

While in line for Little Mermaid, we were able to grab another FP at 6:05 for Dumbo. After our swim, we headed towards Storybook Circus for a fly on an old friend.

Once we scanned in for Dumbo, we grabbed another FP for Big Thunder at 8:50 pm.

By now, we were hungry again so we decided to make our way to the front of the park to grab something from Casey's corner. We decided to split the Corn Dog Nugget meal and a coke. D-E-L-I-C-I-O-U-S!

 

[mlegerto]

While we enjoyed our meal, the 6:30 viewing of fireworks went off, so we had a great show to go with a great meal.

We then fought the crowds - and I mean fought the crowds, it was nearly impossible moving anywhere near the hub, to head into Adventureland for a ride on Pirates.

The standby line was posted at 50 minutes, but we decided to get in line because we didn't know when else we would have a chance. Thankfully we only waited 25 minutes before crossing through the seas.

It was COLD out by now and we still had some time before our next fastpass. We decided to head over to Buzz to give our best shot at defeating Zerg and becoming Galactic Heros. Buzz had a posted time of 65 minutes, but we jumped in line hoping it would move quickly. The line ended up being 45 minutes, but a lot of that was waiting outside and by now it was becoming REALLY cold!

Just look at that concentration LOL

No Galactic Hero this time

Finally it was time for our Big Thunder Mountain FP. As usual, it was a ton of fun and most definitely the wildest ride in the wilderness!

We still had some time before our next activity, so we headed over to Haunted Mansion next.

Again there was a long wait time posted, 35 minutes in this case, but we had just about an hour before we could check in for our Dessert Party reservation so we hoped in line. We ended up waiting 20 minutes. Such a great attraction, this always brings back such fond memories of riding with my dad as a child.

Next we headed over to the Tomorrowland Terrace to check in for our Dessert party. We were greeted, given light up glasses and taken to our table. Then we were told to have at the buffet...you don't need to tell us twice!

When we were sufficiently stuffed, we headed over to the Garden Viewing area to claim our spot. We were able to get a spot front and centre, but it was freezing cold at this point. I had never been so happy to have had a blanket packed in our backup as I was in this moment.

 

[mlegerto]

They had a DJ playing in the Hub leading up to the firework show, so we tried our best to keep our spirits high and danced a bit to try and stay warm...did I mention that it was freezing cold At least we had this beauty to look at!

Finally the fireworks started at 11:50 on and they were beautiful. The 360 firework part was spectacular!

When the show was done, we wanted to get some nighttime photopass photos taken, but it was a mad house! We dashed into some stores to do some browsing and shopping to let the crowds disperse a bit.

Eventually we were able to get some photos taken on our way out of the park.

And just like that, our full day at Magic Kingdom was over. We were exhausted and it had been such a long day, but we had such a great day. We DO wish that it were warmer.....but this was the start of the freeze to come.

We found ourselves dragging ourselves into our room at 1:35 am. Quick shower to warm ourselves up and then flopped right back into bed. We had another busy day to come so we needed our rest!

Todays Count:
19.09 KM
22,903 steps

Till tomorrow!

 

[Rista1313]

Why did the fireworks start so late? Don’t they usually start at 9?

 

[Tuvalu]

Why did the fireworks start so late? Don’t they usually start at 9?

MK does the special NYE fireworks show on both Dec 30 & 31.

 

[mlegerto]

Why did the fireworks start so late? Don’t they usually start at 9?

Great question Rista...I should have been more clear! We were visiting on December 30th and MK does their NYE firework show on both the 30th and 31st! We had joined in on the Fantasy in the Sky NYE Firework Dessert Party which is why it was much later than normal firework show time.

MK does the special NYE fireworks show on both Dec 30 & 31.

Thanks for confirming for me Tuvalu!

 

[mlegerto]

Day 6 - The last one of the year, Sunday December 31, 2017

Legs were tired this morning, but we had to push through as we had another busy day ahead of us. For once we slept in until our alarm went off right at 8:30 am. We rolled out of bed, cleaned ourselves up and had a little breakfast snack in the room before heading down to the bus stop for 10:00 am.

As usual, we killed some time waiting for the bus by taking some photos of our surroundings. Old Key West is a beautiful resort - my personal and emotional attachment does make me a bit biased I will admit!

We didn't have to wait too long as our chariot soon arrived to whisk us off to EPCOT. The ride over to EPCOT took forever - we were at a dead stop, then barely moving the whole time we were trying to get off of the highway heading towards the EPCOT gates. Our total ride to EPCOT (from the time we left OKW) was 57 minutes! I had NEVER seen it this busy and take so long to enter the park on Disney transportation, but I guess that's what happens on NYE.

I was freaking out just a bit because we were already halfway through our first FP of the day and we were just getting off the bus. The line to get through security and scan our bands was also long, clearly because the mass amount of people trying to get in at the same time.

By the time we entered, we were already 17 minutes LATE for our first FP on Spaceship Earth. I PRAYED that my clock was faster than the Disney clocks, sadly they were not, but we had a super sweet cast member that let us in anyways once we explained the situation - they said that we weren't the first to note how long it took just to get into the bus depot so they took pity on us!

As usual we enjoyed our history lesson, but because of the delay entering the park then using our first FP we were now late for our second FP of the day. We weren't in the mood to play this "running behind" game all day and we didn't want to take advantage of the kindness of the Cast Members by constantly asking if we could use our FPs late, so we decided to forgo our second FP - which was for Disney Pixar Shorts. We tried to get another one for later in the day, but there were NO FP's available at all for the day and the standby line was approaching 60 minutes, so we decided to pass.

BUT THAT'S OKAY, that meant we now had some time for photos and a stop at Starbucks for Ryan!

Spaceship Earth wall photo!

After some chill time and Starbucks, it was time to head towards World Showcase for our next FP, Frozen Ever After. This is a first for us so we were excited to experience something "new".

The ride was good, but I'm not sure it's wait the ridiculously long standby lines we've seen leading up to this trip, but we were glad to get the chance to ride it.

We had to bypass some countries in order to get to our lunch ADR in Italy. We were craving some pizza!

 

[mlegerto]

We checked in to Via Napoli at 1:15 and had a few minute wait before being called in.

We decided to split a large half quattro formaggi and half pepperoni pizza ($35). Ryan decided to order the Italian Beer Flight - Moretti lager, Moretti la rossa, seasonal selection ($15) and I decided to stick with just water as we had some plans for the rest of the day that required quite a few drinks . Our waiter seemed a little annoyed that we were just "splitting" something and that I hadn't gotten anything off menu to drink - he kept trying to press an appetizer or drink on me, but eventually got the message that I didn't want anything!

We were then told that our DVC discount would not be applied today as this was considered a black out date - I don't ever recall hearing this before, has anyone else experienced this? We weren't going to fight it because we didn't mind all that much, just found it odd as I had never been told that before.

Everything was good, but I feel like I am getting a bit over Via Napoli. I never leave here feeling like the service was outstanding (or really even better than "good") so I think it might be on the chopping block for our next trip so we can try other options.

After lunch we headed over to the American Adventure to watch the 2:35 showing of Voices of Liberty. They were fantastic! We really enjoyed this experience and highly recommend it to everyone wandering the World Showcase.

We then headed over to China to try and watch the Jewel Dragon Acrobat show - they had moved it inside of the temple, not sure way maybe because the weather wasn't very warm. We easily got into the temple, but we would not see the show at all with all of the people standing so we decided to bow out and leave just a few minutes into the show. So we just enjoyed the pavilion a wee bit.

We found this little guy working on his tan!

It was 3:30 by now and the park was starting to fill up, so we decided now was a good time to start our next adventure, Drinks Around the World!

Stop 1: Mexico - Avocado Margarita ($14.75). We aren't big tequila drinkers and they were quite expensive, so we decided to split one.

It was good, kind of a strange texture and taste. Ryan really wasn't too much of a fan, so I am glad that we decided just to get one to share!

Stop 2: Norway. Initially we skipped this country, but were sure to come back later at night (when it was much colder out) to get a Viking Coffee for Ryan ($10.25) and a school bread to share ($3.49).