Kelly & Johnny D's 12/17-12/28 Christmas Trip!

kellydisney · Dec 30, 2003

Epcot!!

So now we’re checked in, unpacked, and ready to go. Where to?? We decide on Epcot since we are going to MVMCP Thursday night and want to save our excitement for MK until then. So we drive to Epcot and park in the AAA parking lot that Johnny didn’t believe existed! We go up to guest services and pick up our Annual Passes!!! This is the first time either of us has had an AP and we were so excited to use the finger scanner (I know… takes a lot to amuse us…) We’re in and I can’t even explain how excited we both are. We met doing the College Program in 1999 and have been inseparable ever since. This is our favorite vacation spot because we fell in love here, we worked here and we lived here. It is so special to us. We’d love to have a Disney wedding but we will see!!! We first head to Mission Space, I have to ride this!! I get a fastpass and we head to the worlds for lunch. Johnny is the pickiest eater on earth! He is strictly Pizza, burgers, potatoes of any dry kind (ie. No mashed, no cheese), chicken (fingers or plain and dry ONLY), vegetables (frozen only) and absolutely no condiments please!! So we get him some chicken fingers and head to Morocco so that I can try the Tangerine Café (Sp?). I get the lamb thinking I’m being all risqué but I find out it’s a gyro without the pita bread. I love gyros so it was pretty good. I finished off with a piece of baklava from their bakery, sooo good! Definitely recommended for the Disney foodies out there! Oh yeah, by the way, we are usually pretty good about eating healthy and going to the gym but we did not watch the diet at ALL, not on any level, the entire 11 days… Johnny D. never gains weight. I came back 4 lbs heavier but enjoyed every bite! We then head off to Mission Space. I got on in no time with my fast pass and I was so excited I was talking to everyone in my pod and the father went to the same college as I started at freshman year, small world, it was a small school!! The family I was on with was so nice and it was a lot of fun. I did not get sick at all and was so paranoid I didn’t move except to hit my buttons when I was told! But I don’t think I would have gotten sick anyhow and I was so preoccupied with not getting sick that I really didn’t feel weightless or anything. I thought I’d have plenty of time to get to ride this but this was my only time since Christmas week was so packed!!! Oh well, there’s always next year! Next up: MGM

kellydisney · Dec 30, 2003

MGM & Antoine

We got fastpasses for Test Track, then we walked around and went into some shops, rode the Maelstrom and Mexico’s ride and went back and rode test track. After that, we decided to go to Super Walmart to get some things for our room and Johnny D. needed some sunglasses. So we hopped in the car and headed over there. This Super Walmart feels like home to me… I shopped here so much during the CP! We grabbed some goodies and soda for the room and sunglasses. We brought it back to the hotel and decided to go to MGM to see Fantasmic! When we got to the park I got fastpasses for RRC and TOT. We played Millionaire while we waited. JD got on last year into the hot seat so we wanted to get me into the hot seat this year. Not this time! Oh well. I then went on RRC which was AWESOME! JD doesn’t go on any fast rides, his equilibrium gets all out of whack and while he doesn’t get sick, he just will feel sick for the rest of the day. So he opted to skip the rides. I am trying to tell him that RRC isn’t that bad. He can go on Space Mountain which I think is way worse since it jerks you all over the place. I’m trying to convince him that RRC is a smooth ride. What do you guys think? My first ride on TOT was fun but the BEST ride was the 2nd elevator from the left in my opinion which I didn’t get to ride until later in the week. It was then time for Fantasmic! So we got into the show with no problems 45 minutes early and sat in the very front row! This is my favorite show on property (although very close to Illuminations). Do the Indians in the shows you’ve seen always seem to make mistakes while rowing the canoes? Almost every time I’ve seen this show (many many times) they have either almost collided or could not get their boats around in time. It’s funny to watch. After the show we headed out and drive over to my favorite resort, the Boardwalk, and ate dinner at ESPN while watching our beloved Boston Celtics battle our favorite player ANTOINE WALKER :sohappy: on the big screen. I had the hot wings and some sideline fries and JD had a plain chicken sandwich with fries. All in all I would have to say this was the perfect day!!

kellydisney · Dec 30, 2003

We woke up around 9:30 am and took a really long time getting ready. We finally arrived at AK around 12pm. I love this park. It is so neat to see all of the cool animals all over the place. We were hungry so we headed over to the McDonald’s place in Dinoland and had some burgers. Then we rode Dinosaur! (maybe we should have reversed that!) Dinosaur is my probably my favorite ride in all of the parks. It is great and it scares me every time! Especially the end when you are coming back through and there is a giant dino coming right for your head. We then went on the little spinning dinos and JD came on with me (shock!) then when I was going for the rollercoaster, JD came with me again (this man is full of surprises!) All in all I would have to say that this year was the year of Johnny Daredevil, he even rode Space Mountain with me for the first time, twice!! I am so excited about this! JD loves the ball rolling game in dinoland so we played that a couple of times and I won! We then headed for The Lion King show, which we’ve never seen. It was a great show!! We were in the elephant section (fitting, since I was still stuffed with the giant burger I had at lunch!) I love the monkey acrobats and the guys on stilts. Great show for those of you who haven’t seen it. On our way out of Camp Minnie Mickey we got our photo taken with Lilo & Stitch (my favorite characters). We had the xmas party that night so we decided to go back to the Pop Century, nap since John was still tired, fax the rental info that I still hadn’t done and call our families to let them know we were alive. It cost $8 to fax my insurance to L&M from the Pop Century! I was shocked about this. $5 for the first page $3 each additional page. And even though we were using a calling card, each call was $.75 just in case some of you have never stayed on site (this was our first time!!) and didn’t know this info. With that out of the way it was off to MVMCP!!

kellydisney · Dec 30, 2003

MVMCP!!

If you haven’t done either of Disney’s special parties, Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party or Mickey’s Not So Very Scary Halloween Party in MK, try to plan your next trip around either of them, they are so much fun! Last year we did the Halloween party and we loved it. We both agreed the Halloween party is more fun, but I love Halloween so it’s all up to which holiday you like best. We got to MVMCP at 7 and got in right away. The event lasts from 7pm – 12am. We bought our tickets from Disney.com in advance. When we walked in, there were a ton of characters in the center of main street. There were 2 princesses, Snow White and Belle, signing autographs and taking pictures and they were passing a little girl back and fourth, which I thought was funny. Walking down main street for the first time was when it finally set in that we were in Disney enjoying our vacation that we planned for a little under a year!! I love main street, the smells, the sounds, it is the best overall feeling to be on main street USA. We got in line for our picture right away at the Hall of Presidents; I had just put on my makeup and wanted to look pretty before we rode Splash Mountain! Our picture was waiting for us in our mailbox when we got home so that was a good pick me up from the home again lows, it came out wicked nice! We then rode the Haunted Mansion and noticed the moving gravestone for the first time ever to the left of the entrance way. I can’t believe we never noticed it! When we walked in, we knew right away that we were with a rookie group because although the doorway was open to the next room, everyone just stood there asking the others where to go from there. I stepped ahead and walked into the room and the rookies followed suit. It was pretty funny. I love HM, it’s one of the best rides in all of the parks. I really liked the movie as well. It was fun to look around and see if we could find anything new. We didn’t eat dinner and I wasn’t too hungry so I took that opportunity for a Turkey Leg! These cannot be turkey. I just can’t believe that they are. I had a roommate in college who did the cp after me (I convinced her to go) and when she came back she didn’t have a good time, was put in Quick Service Food and turned evil on me, she told me that the turkey legs they made in the morning and it was a turkey bone with ham type substance wrapped around it and they injected it with something… not sure if she just wanted to make me paranoid or if there is any truth to this story. She said it was definitely not turkey. Tastes like ham to me. But I had about 10 bites which is all I can do with those and threw it out. Sounds like a waste I know but those puppies are filling and after too many bites they get sickening. I could never eat it to the bone! We went on a bunch more rides and saw Philharmagic for the first time. Amazing. It was so perfectly done! I loved the music and the magic carpet ride scene. We saw it 3 times on our trip it was so good! We went on Buzz Lightyear and this is the first time we saw a photo from it. Those are definitely not the most flattering photos ever!! I was concentrating so hard I looked ridiculous! Haha JD beat me of course. We went on the race cars which I had only been on once in my life when I was 11 or so. There has been talk on this board of taking that away… I now see why it is useful, kids love it! We went to main street, split an ice cream cookie sandwich at the bakery, and watched the parade. Went on a few more rides and then watched Wishes for the first time! I love this show! I love the music. The best part was the wicked stepmother’s mirror on the castle, that is great. They had perimeter fireworks which was so cool too! Another excellent day!! :xmas:

kellydisney · Dec 30, 2003

We woke up around 8:30 and got ready and went for breakfast at Sizzler. We love their breakfast buffet for $3.99. It’s right near the entrance of downtown Disney and everything is very fresh. After breakfast we headed to Epcot. We got a fastpass for Test Track and got a surprise fastpass to Honey I Shrunk the Audience…. Have you seen this?? This was our first surprise fastpass. So we went over to this then we went on Test Track. Then, since we didn’t pig out at the breakfast buffet, we decided to go to Canada for lunch at 2pm. We found out that we were the last priority seating and the restaurant was booked for the rest of the day! At lunch JD had the steak burger and fries and I had the Ceasar Salad with the cheddar cheese soup. The pretzel bread is so good too. We chatted with our waitress who was doing the CP for a year! She was of course from Canada and filled us in on the happenings of the CP and how she’s been doing. I love talking to cast members and especially CP’s. After lunch we went through the lands, there are now Monchichi’s in the Japan shop!!! For all of us 80’s children, this is huge news! I was so excited. I wanted to get one on my way home but I remembered where??? Oh yes… on the flight back to Boston. Lucky me! I did get a photo though which will hold me over until next year. After this, I have no idea what happened… a journal would have been nice. I know we didn’t stay out late since we had to be up for our Character Breakfast the next morning!!

kellydisney · Dec 30, 2003

We had a priority seating for our character breakfast at the Crystal Palace for 8:05 am. It was so cool to walk down main street with no crowd at all! The breakfast was fun. We love Winnie the Pooh. We got great photos with all of the characters. The food wasn't the best I'd eaten. I prefer the character breakfast at O'hana to this. The sausages at O'hana are amazing. The buffet though had anything you could imagine and we both really liked the puffed french toast. I liked the cheesey potato thing. Not sure what it was but it was great. After we stuffed ourselves like pigs, we stayed the rest of the afternoon between Adventureland and Frontierland. We rode splash mountain twice and thunder mountain twice. Went to see the country bears Christmas show, rode on the riverboat for the first time ever (can you believe this?? I worked in the Christmas Shoppe in Liberty Square and have never rode this ride!) and we went to Tom Sawyer's Island and played the first of many games of chess. Found a great, uncrowded bathroom in the fort on the island if any of you hate the disgusting stalls in the MK as much as I do! It was so much fun. On my way out, I made the biggest mistake ever. I ate 1/2 of one of those huge rice krispy treats with chocolate on them. We went back to the room for a nap (MVMCP was rough on our old bones! Just turned 25 you know :hurl: ) Well, I slept for an hour and then when I woke up, we were planning on going to see Illuminations. I woke up and was completely sick. Whatever I ate did not agree with me. I was sick for about an hour and a half and then fine again. Odd. So we went to play mini golf instead... or should I say PGA putt-putt at Fantasia Gardens! We didn't do that difficult course! That would have taken all night! I liked the easy course, especially the 2nd to last hole! It wasn't working at first and we didn't see the big brooms ready to soak you. John walked along the side to see what was supposed to happen. Thank god it was broken because the minute he stepped off, water everywhere! haha I wish he had stayed on just a minute longer... :goodnevil

kellydisney · Dec 30, 2003

Sunday was a blur during the day. I THINK we went to MGM but I’m not positive. That night, we went to Big River Grille & Brewing Works on the Boardwalk to meet my friend Jenn from the College Program! Jenn is from PA and we met before we did the CP through a web group for the Fall 99 College Program. We became fast friends and have kept in touch over the years. I’d forgotten how much fun she is! Dinner was just ok. I don’t recommend this restaurant. I got the Chicken Alfredo and Jenn got the Chicken Marinara. Hers was better but still kind of blah. JD just munched on chips and salsa (hold the salsa!). Jenn graduated and moved to Orlando and is now a 2nd grade teacher there! I think this is awesome. It takes guts to up and move to a new town with no roots there. She is doing very well. After dinner the three of us went to Jelly Rolls. If you haven’t been to Jelly Rolls (and are over 21) it is the best nighttime entertainment in all of Disney! They have dueling pianos and will play anything you ask them to play. They get the audience singing and dancing and it was so much fun. And on Sundays they have $1 bud light ponies. So it was a pretty cheap night! We requested a bunch of funny songs and they played most of them. At one point one of the piano players jumped off the stage and started to dance with me! My favorite was Africa by Toto I think? A VERY random song but they could play it, amazing! It was all fun and games, until the grossest couple in the world sat down in front of us. They kept making out. The girl looked at least 12 years younger than the guy. The guy was sleazy and kept looking back and checking Jenn and I out. Twice I caught him staring at me and then at my chest and then back at me and smiling. Then he’d make out with his girlfriend again. They requested “you can leave your hat on” and the piano players asked her on the stage. She did a strip tease. It was nauseating. At one point during the show, they were making out (they were in the front row) and it was so gross the piano players stopped and asked if they needed a room and if they were ok. I don’t understand how people can be like that in public. It was nasty to watch and impossible not to because they were right in front of our table in front of the stage. Oh well! To each his own. I tried to get into the Atlantic Dance on the way home just to see what it looks like but it was closed. Does anyone know much about this club?

kellydisney · Dec 31, 2003

Monday

We spent Monday in the Magic Kingdom. We took our time and strolled through the different worlds and we decided to try a new place to eat, the Harbor House in Liberty Square. If you want the quick food and don’t want to wait in line, go here! It wasn’t too crowded and you can eat upstairs away from the crowd and it so clean. We both got chicken fingers and fries. We went to the carousel to see the sword & the stone ceremony, but it didn’t happen which was odd because it was on the daily schedule for that time. We went to Toontown to get some photos with characters instead. John got his picture taken with Cinderella to add to our collection of JD with the princesses, quite the stud! Earlier in the day we saw the Queen of Hearts. We both went to get in the picture with her but she grabbed me and literally threw me into the railing leading to Adventurland, it was so funny! She then motioned to JD to lose me and go for her lol it was great! As we were walking away she motioned for him to call her! Back to Toontown, every year, for some reason, when we get our pictures back I am in one alone with a Penguin. We don’t even pay attention to the photos we take when we take them so it is pretty funny to get a random penguin photo every year. So this year I got my photo taken with 3 penguins! Haha I’m making a photo montage…

kellydisney · Dec 31, 2003

Tuesday it was supposed to be 75 ¡V 78 degrees so we thought it would be perfect for Blizzard Beach! This was where John did the CP in the Lottawatta Lodge. I love this park and really can¡¦t decide between BB and Typhoon Lagoon. They are both cool in different ways. We got there at 10:30 am and were met with the English and their speedos, heffalumps in bikinis, hair in places it really shouldn¡¦t be. Honestly, if you are avoiding the water parks because you are worried about looking bad in a bathing suit, don¡¦t!!! I am the queen of self conscious and after a few minutes and glances to my right and left, I felt like a million bucks. Problem with this day¡K we stayed for about 4 hours and went on all of the rides, but the sun was behind the clouds. So it was COLD!! Waiting in lines at the top of the mountain was almost painful. The best ride there is the family raft ride. I don¡¦t like summit plummet, unnecessary wedgies are not my thing ƒº On our way out, we had to eat at John¡¦s old stomping grounds. They used to have meals there that included drinks. This was the first year we¡¦ve eaten here that everything was separate. As soon as we stepped out of the park, guess what came out? The sun! Such is my life. We hopped in the car and headed home to get dressed. We then went to Animal Kingdom where we proceeded to spend all of our time in Dinoland. Like I said, Dinosaur is my favorite ride! So we went on it 3 times!! Then we played some games. John won the ball rolling game and got a giant dino. He gave it to a little boy who was playing with us. The little boy was so excited! Then I won the whack a dino, I am king of whack a mole, I win every time I play no matter what amusement park we are at, very odd! So I gave my giant dino to a little boy next to us. It¡¦s fun to do that, kids get so excited! We decided to go to dinner at the Olive Garden and then we headed to Winter/Summerland Golf. We did both courses and I have to say the summer course was the best of all 3 putt putts in Disney. John beat me both times but I got par on summer and blow par on winter! We will make it a tradition now to do these courses on vacation. And with the AP we got 50% off! Can¡¦t beat that ƒº

kellydisney · Dec 31, 2003

Wednesday, Christmas Eve!!

Let me tell you, it was so RELAXING and such a relief to spend the holidays at Disney. My parents are divorced. My grandparents are divorced. We have 5, yes that is right, 5 stops to make over the holidays. Certain people can't mix, it's a mess! So it was sooo nice to be with JD and spend the holiday the way we wanted for a change! Since Christmas day was going to be a mess with lots of kids the park being closed off to capacity at a certain time, we decided to start at MK. Lucky for us they switched the early entry days around and I believe it was this day that we got in early for Extra Magic Hour! You have to try this at least once if you go during a busy season! We rode Spaceship Earth, Astro Orbiter, Buzz Lightyear, Winnie the Pooh (still haven't seen Mr. Toad in there), Snow White, Philharmagic (John LOVES!), Peter Pan, Splash, Thunder Mountain all in that time frame and all with no wait!! It was excellent. We then got breakfast at Cosmic Ray's, not recommended as we paid $17 which is what we pay for lunch! I'd recommend going to the bakery on Main Street and waiting for lunch for something bigger. We rode the train, this was probably the ride we were on the most over the entire vacation. It is helpful during parade times especially and it's fun. Later in the day we went to the GF to see the decorations and the ginger bread house. We parked at the Poly and walked over. We stopped at the Spa, those prices are outrageous! $45 for a french manicure! I pay $20 at home and it includes the massage as well. But it might be a nice treat when we have extra money someday. We stopped at the wedding pavilion and someone was having their rehearsal. This is the wedding of my dreams, it would be perfect for us! So every time we go I like to stop and look to see if someone is getting married. Haven't seen anyone yet. At the Grand Floridian the gingerbread house was so cool, very huge! It looked like a couple of people may have tried to take a bite as a few gingerbread bricks were missing. We bought some bricks and ate them by the summerhouse. Then we walked over to the convention center at the grand to see the function rooms (hey, it's been 4 years, I'd better know what we want just in case!!

) those rooms are so beautiful! They were setting up for the WDW transportation Christmas party when we looked in and they invited us in and started answering questions about receptions! It was so cool. The room they were setting up was for 120 but they said put back one of the panels for a salon and it would be perfect for a party of 80 - 100. It was so gorgeous, you could tell it was going to be a great party with the huge dance floor being set up. On our way back we stopped to do a comparison of the convention center at the Boardwalk and again they were setting up for a WDW holiday party, not sure who's. These were much smaller tables, 4 per table, and candles were lit, a buffet table was set up it was so nice. They again invited us in and told us to do a buffet at our wedding haha I was like we aren't engaged! It was funny. On our way out we wanted to see another room. We tried to open the door but it was locked. Someone said "just a minute" and we didn't want to bother anohter person so we both booked it to the front and out to the car cracking up laughing the whole way. We went back to our resort. JD napped while I got ready for our PS at Ohana!

kellydisney · Dec 31, 2003

YUM

This was the best meal of the week. Possibly ever in my life. This was our first time here and it will now be our first and possibly even last meal of every vacation we take from now on! Our PS was for 8:20. We arrived and sat in the Tambu Lounge waiting for our table to be ready. I didn't ask to be near the windows or anything, I figured whatever we get we will be fine with. I just hoped we could see the fireworks! They sat us at the best table in there for 2! Sometimes, I think when you don't ask, you get better treatment. I know that when I was a CM I would give more to those who weren't expecting it. The seemed more deserving than someone making demands. We had a great view, the best! Our "cousin" who sat us said that we couldn't have gotten a better view if we'd asked!! They then came with the drinks and the lazy susan of goodies. My favorite were the wontons. So good! I ate 1/2 the bowl myself! Then came the skewers, shrimp, steak, pork, turkey, all fresh and so delicious! My favorite was the steak and pork and John loved the Turkey. Then the fireworks went off, they dimmed the lights and played the music to wishes. This was amazing to see from the Poly! I would definitely recommend a PS 1/2 hour before the fireworks, it was such a great end to our Christmas Eve dinner. We went home and went to bed, too much food makes us sleepy! :slurp: :snore:

kellydisney · Dec 31, 2003

Merry Christmas!!

Christmas day was awesome! We slept inbecause the parks from this point were open way late. We headed to Epcot, all signs for MK said FULL haha! It was 11am. So the traffic to get to Epcot was insane and there was a really bad accident at the turn going to Epcot, probably someone who saw MK full and tried to merge toward Epcot. It took us 20 minutes to get through the parking lot! haha It was funny. The cars were parked in EVERY SINGLE lot. We got fastpasses to Test Track and walked through all of the worlds (finally!) and ate in America, burger for me chicken sandwich for JD. His favorites are the style of Morocco and the shops in China and Japan and Le Cellier for restaurant. I love the style of Germany, shops in Japan, China & Italy, and the food in Mexico. The UK is cool too. We had a fastpass for test track so we rode that and then we went to see the living seas and the line was insane! So we rode spaceship earth (another insane line, 10 minutes to get on!) and went to MGM for a little while. I rode TOT, Got a caramel chocolate candy apple for Fantasmic later (a must on every trip!), put it in a bag and went on Millionaire again! Went to Fantasmic at 6:30 then back to Epcot to see Illuminations! Had dinner at the fast food mexican place for me. Illuminations was awesome! Then we walked back to our car (which now we had parked at the Boardwalk!) John stopped at Spoodles and got some pizza for him. We looked at the vacation club villas (so nice!!) and the pool which is smaller in person than in pictures. Then we called it a night! It was a great Christmas!

kellydisney · Dec 31, 2003

Friday

I woke up in a funk. I'm bummed that we are leaving on Sunday! How can the trip be almost over?? I felt this awful feeling of having to go home almost the entire vacation on and off in waves. Like 11 days in Disney wasn't enough for me (it's not hehe). We got up really early and park hopped between AK and Epcot since we wanted to have Wishes be our last show Saturday and it was early entry to MGM the next day and we wanted to take advantage so I could ride TOT and RNRC again. In AK we went on It's Tough to be A Bug finally! Great show, we were soaked and it was cold (65) so no fun lol

We did the safari and it was excellent, the elephant was right next to our car and so wasn't a rhino! It was definitely one of the best safari's. But no lion at the end. Must have been eating. Then we went to lunch at the Tusker House. I have wanted to go here since the special on the food network! I got the 1/2 chicken and mashed and John got the chicken sandwich with fries. It was just ok and I wished I got the sandwich instead. But at least I tried it! Then we headed to Epcot where we finished the worlds and visited our friends the Manatees in the Living Seas. I LOVE the manatees. They are like big floating loafs and so lovable I would love to hug them. I am a huge animal lover. We have two guinea pigs and treat them like children. While we were gone, one of our guinea pigs was sick so we called every day to check in on her. Manatees remind me of guinea pigs, they eat a ton and sleep alot! So very cute. We then went to Germany to get John a pretzel (he'd been eating the giant pretzels all week, another thing to add to his list of foods he will eat!) and I got some wafer cookies in the sweet shop. We then decided to wait in line to see the Candlelight Processional! Gary Sinise is a great actor so we both wanted to wait until he was doing it. I brought my video camera on the trip so I have him up close!! We also got alot of shots of "disney style", people who dress in a mix and match of messy clothing, mostly with mickey on them, and the christmas hats with ears on them (I'm sorry, these are just so tacky!) One lady we caught on film had white spandex shorts on, a big red poofy fleece christmas vest, mickey ear santa hat, big ankle socks, and green fleece mittens with santa heads bobbling off them. It was quite a sight!!! :lol: The Candlelight Processional was beautiful. We'd never seen it so it was a nice touch. After this, we decided to go to MGM to see Fantasmic one last time. So off to MGM we went. When we got there we met a really nice couple while having dinner (pizza & hot dog). They were from CA. They told us all about the fires this year, it sounded just awful. On a brighter note, his son was down for the big soccer tournaments that were going on at the Wide World of Sports. I wonder how his team did? We watched Fantasmic and went home, getting more sad by the minute since tomorrow was our last day!

kellydisney · Dec 31, 2003

Last Day!

Woke up a little later, so much for the Magic Hour. I was SO SICK my cold started on Christmas day and got worse. I'm a trooper though so I marched myself through the parks, coughing and blowing my nose (probably getting people sick) but it had to be done! We went to MGM and went on Muppet Vision 3D, love it! I got my picture taken with Miss Piggy! Played some games in Pizza Planet, went on Millionaire again twice! I came so close! I was 2nd on the board under the kid who went up and got to 32k. I would have kept going, I had all the right answers! Oh well

The kid did very well for a 14 year old! We went on the animation tour for the first time and being Saturday there was nothing to see in the rooms but it was really a great tour. I made Donald Duck at the end... but it didn't really look like him... it looked like a frog for some reason. Embarrassed, I tried to hide it from the perfect Donald Duck the 7 year old next to me was making. hehe Then we went to get lunch in the marketplace near TOT. Huge mistake it was so busy! We had to wait in line 20 minutes and sit on a wall to eat (burgers). Then we headed for MK. MK was so busy you could hardly walk. Next time we would have reversed the days because Saturday in MK is awful. Saturday in MK during the holidays is almost torture!! I got caramel corn and we walked around and people watched since the lines were insane (50 minutes for It's a small world!!) We went on the people mover and the 75 minute line for Space Mountain was explained when we went in and the lights were on with the ride stopped. It was really cool to see but it makes you even more scared to ride it! Is that story about the guy losing his head true or is that urban legend??? We then headed over to Toon Town, I'd begun collecting pressed pennies. So I got a baby Donald. We rode the Barnstormer, so fun!! then took the train back to Splash. We played checkers in Frontierland as some Chinese children who didn't speak english were watching over our board and commenting on our moves in chinese it was so funny since I had no idea what they were saying but I knew they were making fun of me when I made mistakes because they would laugh immediately and start talking really fast! hahahaha

Then as it got later people cleared out we had a fastpass for Splash at 10. We got there, no one in sight. We got on twice! Freezing, sick, but happy to have ridden twice!! we walked to Main Street to watch Wishes. It's such an excellent show! then we played Buzz again (still looked dumb in the picture!!) and went on HM. My gloves are now riding HM over and over and over as I forgot them on my way out! I got a cookie sandwich from Sleepy Hollow, it was my last pig out treat as Monday started my healthy eating again! And we shopped on Main Street. Our only purchases for ourselves aside from food all week were two freezer mugs, pooh pasta, mickey roni and cheese (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED) Illuminations Cd (had to have) and the Mickey backscratcher! haha

We were so tired we weren't even upset when we left.

kellydisney · Dec 31, 2003

Checkout and Goodbye Disney!

We got back to the hotel at 12am. I had made phone calls totalling $10 (.75 each call) and had to go to the front desk to pay while John packed our room up. This was the only glitch in the entire stay at Pop Century. I was in line for 15 minutes at almost 1am at this point since I had to pack before I left the room. And the cm's at the desk there were 5. 4 were shooting the breeze with people who were done checking in and 1 was having a problem with a guest's room. It was irritating to hear one of the girls just talking about how much she loves sea world as I was ready to sleep :brick: and it was only $10! I don' t know why they couldn't take my credit card over the phone?? Finally I checked out quickly and went to bed. We didn't get to bed until 1:30 am and we woke up at 5:30 am to make our flight home. We got to the airport at 6:30 for our 7:05 flight. Not good. I don't know why we thought we had more time! Huge lines to drop off the rental car (it's 6:30 am on Sunday, thought we'd have no problem) then we get into the airport and huge lines at SW! Oh no! Finally checked our luggage and we have 10 minutes to get over to the terminal via the monorail. Still have to go through the huge lines at security. We are running to security and I cut through to tell them we are 10 minutes to take off. Everyone was really nice EXCEPT security! There were two who didn't want to let us through sayign we didn't have anything written on our tickets. But the other two let us through and we booked it to the monorail got on. Now 5 minutes. We ran to the terminal, got our boarding pass and were on the flight, PHEW! But get this, we weren't even the last to board! Three more people were behind us! So we learned this vacation to give ourselves more time at the airports and never book a 7:05 am flight again!

This is the first time I've posted a trip report. I hope it wasn't too boring for you!!! We had an excellent time and if you have any questions feel free to ask! :wave:

NemoRocks78 · Dec 31, 2003

Great trip report Kelly! I enjoyed it a lot. Seems like you had a good time!

kellydisney · Jan 2, 2004

Thanks! We had so much fun

Have a great time on your January trip!!!

Disneynutcase · Jan 4, 2004

I agree. Great and very detailed trip report! Thank you...

A few questions, though...

How were the crowds prior to Christmas? It sounded like you didn't have too much of a hassle getting on rides and seeing what you wanted up until Christmas day.

My family is "discussing" doing WDW next Christmas vacation because its one of the few times during the year where everyone's vacation times seem to be the same. And since Christmas '04 will be almost dead in the middle of vacation--on a Saturday--we're thinking we should go the week prior to Christmas day and avoid the Christmas to New Years reputed mob scene.

Based on your vacation and the crowds you encountered, what would you recommend?

Were parks open early and staying open late during the week prior to Christmas?

Hope these aren't too many questions, but I'm reading trip reports--particularly the detailed ones like yours--to get some kind of gadge on what to do.

Our other option is 2nd week of June '05, but I've been told that it's rainy then and that it's not as fun as Christmas time at the "world."

Thanks.

kellydisney · Jan 5, 2004

Hey Disneynutcase!

Don't ever feel like you're asking me too many questions! I love talking about this stuff

I would definitely recommend what your family is discussing and going the week before Christmas. The parks weren't open until midnight, but MK closed at 9 - 10, Epcot 9:30, MGM 7 or 8:30 so it was perfect I thought because you can still go out after and enjoy the WDW resorts and other things outside the parks. I've never been in June so I'm not much help there. The crowds were not bad at all during the week before Christmas and even up to Christmas day. After Christmas day it was crazy! Thanks for asking and reading my LONG trip report!

Kelly

Kelly & Johnny D's 12/17-12/28 Christmas Trip!

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