My family and I celebrated our second Christmas in WDW last week. We stayed at the Wilderness Lodge and were there from Dec. 17 until Dec. 26. It may take me some time to complete this TR so please bear with me. :lol: I will try to keep it heavy on the pics and light on the narration. :animwink:
So... Off we go! We left snowy/rainy Boston on Wednesday morning, Dec. 17. We took the ME shuttle to WL and arrived there around 1:30 p.m. At check in, I asked if there were any openings for us to be the flag family and was told yes! (more on that later) Our room was ready, so we went to room 5053 and checked it out. We had a courtyard view with bunk beds. We were on the inner courtyard, near the springs. Very pretty view. After dumping our carryons we had lunch at Roaring Fork, then jumped on the boat to MK. Crowds were light and we did many of our favorite rides: PotC, HM, BTMRR, Cinderella's Carousel, and IASW.
Two major milestones were reached on this trip: DS (age 3) reached 40 inches in height for the first time! :sohappy: No more baby swap for Test Track, BTMRR, Splash Mountain, Soarin' or ToT! And DD (age 5) reached 44 inches in height for the first time. (DH is 6'5"; the kids definitely inherited his height, not mine) :lookaroun
We had plans to meet up with Dot (Uponastar) and Vince (Merhearted) and after a few cell phone calls, found them in front of the castle. We watched Cinderella's Holiday Wish, then found a spot in Frontierland to watch Spectromagic! It was so great to meet Dot and her husband George, and to see Vince again. After the parade, we were beat from being up since 5 a.m., so we said our goodbyes and headed back to WL.
From left to right: Dot, myself, and Vince. My kiddos in the front.
Tomorrow: MK in the morning, the Epcot for the afternoon/evening.
So... Off we go! We left snowy/rainy Boston on Wednesday morning, Dec. 17. We took the ME shuttle to WL and arrived there around 1:30 p.m. At check in, I asked if there were any openings for us to be the flag family and was told yes! (more on that later) Our room was ready, so we went to room 5053 and checked it out. We had a courtyard view with bunk beds. We were on the inner courtyard, near the springs. Very pretty view. After dumping our carryons we had lunch at Roaring Fork, then jumped on the boat to MK. Crowds were light and we did many of our favorite rides: PotC, HM, BTMRR, Cinderella's Carousel, and IASW.
Two major milestones were reached on this trip: DS (age 3) reached 40 inches in height for the first time! :sohappy: No more baby swap for Test Track, BTMRR, Splash Mountain, Soarin' or ToT! And DD (age 5) reached 44 inches in height for the first time. (DH is 6'5"; the kids definitely inherited his height, not mine) :lookaroun
We had plans to meet up with Dot (Uponastar) and Vince (Merhearted) and after a few cell phone calls, found them in front of the castle. We watched Cinderella's Holiday Wish, then found a spot in Frontierland to watch Spectromagic! It was so great to meet Dot and her husband George, and to see Vince again. After the parade, we were beat from being up since 5 a.m., so we said our goodbyes and headed back to WL.
From left to right: Dot, myself, and Vince. My kiddos in the front.
Tomorrow: MK in the morning, the Epcot for the afternoon/evening.
All the princesses, especially Mulan and Mary Poppins, were wonderfully in character with DD. After breakfast, we went right to Test Track and rode with about a 15 minute wait, the got FP's to ride again later. We saw Turtle Talk with Crush and rode Nemo, then went on Figment's ride. We saw the Dream Squad at the entrance and hoped we would win something, but no luck. The storytellers were starting around noon, so we went to WS and saw Canada's, France's, and the UK's. We had a Candelight Processional dinner ressie at Teppan Edo at 5:45 for the 8:15 show, so we spent the afternoon riding our favorites: SSE, Gran Fiesta Tour, and Maelstrom (not a fave but we still rode). We decided to bypass Soarin' this day because last year on Chrismtas, it was insane, even with FP's. Well, we were standing by the pin trading area when a woman approached us, said they were leaving for the day and offered us 4 FP's for Soarin'! :sohappy: We were very appreciative, and got to ride on Christmas Day after all. We then trudged back to Japan for dinner. The food was sooo good, but the wait (30 minutes past our ADR time) stunk, and it was a very long meal. After dinner, the kids were gassed, so we skipped the CP, and paid our earlier good fortune forward by giving another family our CP badges. :animwink: All in all, a very nice Christmas Day.
