We were all beyond excited to visit Disney World during Christmas time. We had decided to make it a triple birthday celebration. Hope‘s birthday being December 22, mine December 28 and Ross is January 3. It was the perfect celebration. Although it was strange not to be accompanied by Julia. My sweet gorl had too much school work to do and could not get away to come with us.
I’ll be honest, I took zero notes on this trip. I don’t know what I was thinking… so I’m going directly from memory.
I helped out with Ross the morning we were leaving. We had a late flight out. I was hoping we could make it on an earlier one. We managed to get to the airport and switch to the earlier flight. I was happy because that meant we could head to downtown Disney and have some Blaze Pizza. Oops sorry… Disney Springs.
At the airport, we ended up having a couple of hours before our flight and we were starving, so (after a quick stop at the Lego Store) we stopped and got something to eat at Flavortown - Guy Fieri‘s kitchen and bar. I’ll be honest, the food was really good, but it was so expensive!
We walked through Andy’s backyard and made our way into another galaxy.
We rode Millennium Falcon, which Ross does not like it all. I think it’s a very fun. But like TSMM, I can’t quite understand the game part of it.
After riding, I stopped over to get one of the cold brews...
This has become one of my favorites!
We had time before our return window for RoTR, so we walked over to visit our Muppet friends. The Muppets just aren’t a favorite of mine (sorry!). But it’s a cute show.
Then it was back too bad too to take on the new order!
Hope wanted to see the Mickey short Vacation Fun. I have to say, I like this little show better than the Muppets! Lol.
And of course, who could visit Hollywood Studios without paying a visit to Potatoland!
Then I had to fulfill a promise to Julia, who wanted to see her beloved Gertie in her Christmas hat. I was only too happy to oblige, but I missed my big girl! I wished she could be there with us.
Time to fly upside down and then maybe my least favorite attraction, ToT. I just hate the freefall. I think this is one of Ross’s favorites only because he loves seeing my face in the picture.
...we were surprised to see a surprise character greeting. There were about four characters lined up. But we had our sites on one in particular.
It was very cool. Eeyore is one of my all-time favorites, but he’s only at the character breakfast at Crystal Palace, which we really don’t do anymore.
We also got to see Chip and Dale hanging around and entertaining the guests.
Of course we had to meet one of Hope‘s favorites. I think it’s hilarious how a few years ago, she screamed and cried when she saw the monsters. And now Mike Wazowski is her all-time favorite! It’s kind of sad that he doesn’t meet anymore. She is really hoping, as am I, and Julia, that when and if Monsters Inc. Land opens up, he will be come back and make an appearance.
It was time for dinner and our stomachs were rumbling. Ross actually requested this next meal, as he really enjoyed it when we were there in September. Hope was very excited to go back. I wasn’t, because I just don’t enjoy the all you can eat meals anymore. I just eat way too much! Yet, off we went to dine in Andy’s backyard.
I felt bad because Ross was looking forward to this meal, and he started to have a headache and not feel so well during dinner. He actually left and went back to the hotel to lie down for a while before the dessert arrived.
The meal itself was good, but like I said, I just find that I stuff myself too much.
And no - Hope did not consume Forky! lol But I did wrap it up and take it with us.
Hope and I were on our own, and since we haven’t seen Frozen show, and I knew it was a special ending, we headed that way.
I really enjoyed the ending. It was a nice change up from what we were used to and I thought they did a great time with it. I really like that some attractions do the holiday overlays it mixes things up and makes it exciting.
I was missing Ross and felt bad that he wasn’t feeling well. Part of me wanted to go back to the hotel, but I knew this would be our only time at HS and I knew Hope really wanted to see Fantasmic!
We returned to Toy Story Land and did TSMM again followed by Slinky Dog. I have to say… Slinky is awesome at night! Maybe it’s the lights at night, but WOW I really do enjoy it more!
We took our time walking around since we still had some time until Fanyasmik! Hope wanted to ride Star Tours and since I knew there would be no line we headed that way. We enjoyed the new scenes!
We started to make our way over to the show, but there was still some time to go. There had been an earlier showing that night and I wasn't worried about it being beyond crowded, so I decided to let Hope have her pick of what to do. She really want to go on MMRR one more time. I was shocked it was basically a walk on.
As we approached the theater, Little Miss tried convincing me to ride ToT one more time. I stood my ground - I couldn't do it. So we compromised...
It was about this time that I got a text from Ross that said he slept a little bit and was feeling much better and was on his way back to watch Fantasmic! with us. He met us outside the entrance and we were able to get great seats just a few minutes before the show started. There was actually an an entire section all the way to the right of us that remained empty!
And I’m so happy to report that there was no rain, thunder, or lightning, or any other interruption. Fantasmic! remains my favorite show!
As we exited the park, we got on a bus to The Grand Floridian because we still hadn’t seen the gingerbread house there.
Ross still didn’t understand my fascination with all the gingerbread. But alas, he went along and did not complain (too much).
It was so beautiful! I was sad that we got there too late to purchase anything as it was closed. Still, it was amazing to see!
I told Ross to try to appreciate it along with the glorious tree…. I mean, how can you not the love Christmas tree in the lobby?
I have to say, as we were walking around the tree’s beauty, a family was taking a picture. I was too consumed with the tree and didn’t notice, so my darling husband tried to motion me out of the way. Unfortunately, he tripped and lunged forward. He caught himself thankfully, but he almost plunged right into the tree! What Tik-Tok that would have been!
Ross was hungry so he asked where GF counter service was. We made our way to Gasparilla Grill, and it took me a while to find it. I didn’t realize that you had to actually walk outside the building. Ross had not eaten a lot at dinner and was hungry. We settled in for a snack and I got some sort of coffee, which was very good.
After we enjoyed our snack and embracing Ross’s new loved for the rideshare, we called a Lyft to bring us back to All Star Movies.
Toy Story Mania did used to be called Toy Story Midway Mania (and still is called that at Disneyland). I think they changed the name when Toy Story Land opened, but I'm not 100% sure on that.
