Trip Report My Very Merry Christmas Adventure - Full Report

Hello!!!

I am pleased to announce that it will not take me another 12 years to get back to WDW. In fact, I am now 31 days out from a last minute vacay! If I keep this up, I may be like @Tuvalu

Who: Me and my niece Lala
When: Saturday, Nov 25 - Tuesday Nov 28
Where: Port Orleans Riverside with QS DDP
Bonus: Tix to MVMCP

I have been having the Disney Blues ever since my last trip. Reading all the trip reports just added to the sadness. But, with some smart budgeting (and lack of Target Shopping), I am able to swing this quick trip. Plus, I have always wanted to see Disney at Christmas!

I've made a couple of Fast Passes, but I think this time, we may just go with the flow. IF I can do that!

Now...what to pack?!?

 

[Longers]

I am, thank you! Thought of you when riding BTMRR. no car ride pic though. Not brave enough to take my camera out yet!!

The main thing is to make memories - I hope you make 7DMT as planned and that the queues aren’t too bad - enjoy

 

[Pixieish]

I am, thank you! Thought of you when riding BTMRR. no car ride pic though. Not brave enough to take my camera out yet!!

Me either! My 11-year-old (who thinks he's going to be a YouTube star, lol) wants a Go-Pro. UGH.

 

[LadyBelle]

The main thing is to make memories - I hope you make 7DMT as planned and that the queues aren’t too bad - enjoy

Standing in the queue as we speak. Trains are acting up though. Other than this one, the queues have been amazing today.

 

[LadyBelle]

Happy Monday from EPCOT!

 

[LadyBelle]

Well, we are on the Tragical Express. What a great, well needed little WDW break.

 

[LadyBelle]

Hello everyone!! So so sorry to have delayed this - I hit the ground running when I returned to work. Between that, physical therapy for my tennis elbow, and general December crazies, this is the first time where I’ve been able to really sit down and not be exhausted.

Anyway....as Peter Pan might say....”Here we go!”

Friday, November 24
While a lot of people were fighting crowds for Black Friday deals, I slept in for a bit, then joined my parents for breakfast. I did a last minute check, making sure that I hadn’t missed anything. I then grabbed Jersey Mike’s and picked up LaLa. We headed towards our hotel near RDU. I’m not a big fan of I-40, so decided to try the back way, which added a few minutes, but we had plenty of time.

Settled in for the night with a good movie. Six AM wake up comes early!

 

[LadyBelle]

Saturday, November 25

Seeing as this was my first time traveling during the Thanksgiving holiday, I wasn’t sure how the crowd and security would be. So we gone up at six to travel the two minutes to RDU. For those who know the RDU airport, I wound up parking at RDU Central. My blood is too thin to have sat and waited for the Park & Ride that early!

Security was a breeze and we grabbed breakfast and waited for our flight, which wouldn’t board for nearly three hours. I’m a bit anxious when it comes to travel days.

Hello Southwest!

Tink & Tigger are ready!

 

[LadyBelle]

Saturday, Continued

We landed sometime after 11, grabbed the Fonorail, and headed towards DME. As you saw in my live-ish update, the line for DME stretched down towards the rental car counter. However, we moved towards the far right, and grabbed a shorter line. Scanned our magic bands and was sent to Aisle 9 - with virtually no line! Score one for Disney Magic. Checked my phone to see that our room was not quite ready. We waited about another 10-15 minutes and we were on the DME. Our driver was terrific - very lively and got the crowd in the bus excited. I think his name was Martin ( I apparently didn’t write that down). I was even more excited to find out that the bus would only be stopping at FQ & Riverside. That’s two for Disney Magic, and we hadn’t even gotten on property yet.

While listening to Gus, the room ready text came in. We were staying in Building 25. Pulling up the resort map, we saw that it was right there next to the West Depot - Magic Number Three! I have grown to appreciate being close to the bus stops for after a day in the parks, rather than being close to the main building.

We dropped our bags off, then walked back (yeah, I’m weird) to the food court for lunch. We both got the pasta - shrimp for me and chicken for LaLa. No pictures, though. Come to think of it, I don’t think I took pictures of any food this year (it was all QS and some repeats). At the check out, the CM, who sounded like she was t having a magical day, told us that we had snack on our dining plan ( If you know what I’m saying, she said). I agreed, and she then proceeded to basically force us to get a snack. A little bit of a loss of the earlier Magic, but I’m guessing the Magic came back around because snack credits weren’t charged. I still had the full compliment when checking.

Lunch was so-so for me. I wasn’t liking the wood-fire taste on the shrimp. LaLa like hers and took the left overs back to the room. Our first FP was for Dinosaur at 1:20. This trip, I was trying to not rush, knowing that we don’t have to get there right at 1:20 for the FP. It was a little after 1:00 when we headed to the West Depot. We saw that the bus for AK was due to arrive at 1:15....then 1:16....1:18... 1:20...During that time, we had Disney Springs, EPCOT, MK, HS buses all stop by the Depot. We may have even had a second EPCOT bus. Just a little strange.

That was the theme for the rest of the day.

 

[LadyBelle]

Just as I was about to continue last night, the power went out in my neighborhood. So, let’s try this again.

Saturday, Continued

As we meandered through the line after our welcome introduction to the Dino Institue, we heard a bit of a commotion near the vehicles. There was a very angry newlywed up front who wanted a couple thrown off the ride for cutting in front of them, or pushing past them, saying that since they were first by the doors, they should have been first onto the ride. The woman was so upset that she had to be restrained by her husband. Those poor CM. The offended party was placed on the right and the other party on the left. I just prayed that we weren’t placed in the same vehicle as them. To me, everyone gets to ride the same ride - there is nothing special about being first onto a ride. I was trying to make sure that I didn’t lose LaLa in the shuffle.

So, back to the ride.

This was my first time riding Dinosaur. I liked it a lot. If they ever decide to refurbish it, they could retrofit it to some form of Indiana Jones ride (isn’t the vehicle le very similar to the ride at DL?) I think the archeologist would work in DinoLand.

However, I failed in trying for a good ride photo.

I have no idea what I was doing in there. However, the people behind me looked better!

As we wandered throughout DinoLand, I was looking for FastPasses, but none were really to be had that could take up the remaining time between then and our next FP for Na’vi River Journey. And the standby times were too long for LaLa’s liking. So we looked through the shops on our way to Pandora.

 

[LadyBelle]

I was surprised back in October that a FP was available for Na’vi River Journey. Since we had some time until our window opened, I took some pics.

And our Photopass pics

 

[LadyBelle]

I will have to agree with everyone in that Disney did a phenomenal job with this land. Having only seen the movie once, and not being a big fan of it, I still enjoyed the setup. And now that Disney has purchased 21st Century Fox, there may be room for expansion with this (pending James Cameron’s approval I assume).

Most of my pics of the ride didn’t turn out so great, plus I wanted to just soak in the atmosphere.

I was blown away by the animatronics of the Shaman. They really have come a long way from the animatronics of the Magic Kingdom.

After we finished, I was able to book a FP for TSMM at HS. So we headed towards the bus depot. We waiting for about 5 minutes before a HS bus came. I set one foot inside the bus and the bus driver said that he was full. So I backed off and waited for the next bus.

And waited.

And waited.

And waited.

Four EPCOT buses came and went before one HS bus. Is this normal?

As we were headed to HS, we were able to see the Slinky Coaster. Toy Story Land is going to be so amazing when it opens next summer.

Up Next: How Much Do I Love My Niece?

 

[LadyBelle]

Saturday, Continued

We made our way to TSMM. I got a little confused as they moved the FP line due to the construction. Looks like they’re moving the entrance one Toy Story Land is complete.

I love the props in this ride.

Winner!! LaLa claimed better accuracy, but it’s the final tally that counts!

 

[LadyBelle]

LaLa had asked earlier on our flight if I would ride either ToT or RRC. Checking the wait times, RRC was lengthy and ToT was down. Secretly I was thrilled. I am not a big fan of rides like that (see my pic of Everest from last year). I did keep checking the wait time as we looked through some shops on Sunset Boulevard. The wait time appeared at 20 minutes. So we (and several hundred of our friends) headed that way. Once we hit the standby line, the wait time jumped to 45 minutes-still a decent wait time for that ride to be.

My coworker saw this picture and asked why I took a picture of a lamp. She doesn’t understand lighting, does she @Doc Disney?

We were seated in the last row.

You can see the apprehension on my face, and LaLa’s sheer joy.

Good Lord, I screamed like one of those cheesy Sci-Fi movie actresses (it is Hollywood Studios) after all. I know it’s not a very long ride, but it felt like forever.

Fun fact: LaLa had tucked her sunglasses into her clutch. After the ride was over, the lady in the middle row on the right had her sunglasses. They had flung out and over. LaLa almost lost her clutch too.

Evidently, while we were checking into the hotel, Sunset Seasons Greeting was happening. We stepped into a crowd of people and a “snow” storm. We watched a little and let the snow cascade down - this may be the only snow I’ll see this year.

 

[LadyBelle]

We wound up at the ABC Commissary. It was packed.

Christmas cups!!

Wasn’t too impressed with the chicken fingers. Zero for Two on QS.

Up next?

A little trip around the galaxy. Standby time was only 45 minutes. We traveled behind Finn & the Falcon. My boyfriend Poe Dameron inlove: ) visited us and helped. We stopped by Crait & landed on (I think) the new plant at Gakaxy’s Edge.

After that ride, I needed to find something warm, as it had gotten cool & I left my jacket in the room. I found a cute Christmas Shirt, but in my haste to purchase, I think I got a man’s Medium instead of a woman’s. At least I had enough room in the sleeves!

(Photo courtesy of the Shop Disney Parks App)

 

[Doc Disney]

My coworker saw this picture and asked why I took a picture of a lamp. She doesn’t understand lighting, does she @Doc Disney?

psshtt...who wouldn't take a picture of a lamp at Disney
Can't wait to read more!

 

[LadyBelle]

We cut through a projection show and headed towards Fantasmic. We wound up in the Hades section. While waiting, we caught the Jingle Bell, Jingle Bam fireworks. In the Witch(?) section, they were very enthusiastic. They wanted to start a wave and it worked, somewhat. As the wave came to Hades, it sort of died down. There was a very excited group behind us who were grooving to the pre-show music.

Sorry for the short and sort of bad quality of the pics.

After Fantasmic ended, we walked out into another snowfall (our 3rd if the night) and started our way towards the exit. I spied an open shortcut and we hung a left. It took us right to the exit and we made it to the bus stop in no time. I asked LaLa if she wanted to pop over to MK, as it was open until midnight. But we both agreed it was along day, so we headed to the Riverside bus stop. Thanks to the shortcut, we were some of the first people there and a bus came relatively quickly.

New (to me) toiletries scent at Riverside. Time for some shut eye.

Up Next: My Happy Place

 

[Rista1313]

I'm in! Can't wait to hear more!

 

[LadyBelle]

Sunday, November 26

LaLa was battling a cold throughout the trip. Luckily the Disney Magic had me sleeping solidly throughout the night and woke up about 7:30.

Now, while I am still firmly on the camp of Team No Handle, I will concede that the handles are beneficial when carrying two drinks and cinnamon rolls back to the room for breakfast. LaLa paired her cinnamon roll with leftover chicken Alfredo.

Oh yes. MK here we come!!

@Tuvalu was kind enough to loan me her Shirley status on the bus to MK.

Although the bus driver totally shut the doors and took off from the West Depot as a family was running and yelling for him to stop.

Somehow no one else was ready to go to MK and we had the bus totally to ourselves.

I was checking the wait times, as we had FP for BTMRR, PoC, and Splash. I was amazed that the wait times were so minimal this early. Especially since the park would be closing early for the Christmas party.

So good to have this back and running, right @Longers? Still love this ride. We’ll see you later Big Thunder!

After this, LaLa (normally quiet when asked what to do next) asked if we could ride Small World. Another short wait time, so we headed that way.

I think I have more SW pics, but they on my regular camera and I haven’t downloaded them yet.
The interactive goodbye was working. LaLa was surprised and asked how they knew. I pointed to the MB and said “Disney knows everything”

Meanwhile, I canceled our FO for Pirates, as the standby time was still as 10 minutes. We went to visit some. Happy Haunts. Wonder if one of us will make the 1,000th guest?

While we were in the stretching room, we were next to some band kids. As the room stretched, one of them asked if the floor was going to drop out from under us. And then gasped a bit when the lights went out. I couldn’t quite tell if he was being serious or sarcastic.

After our ride, I check Pirates again. The wait time was up to 20 minutes - still great for Sunday. We headed over there.

Our ride photo never appeared. Probably a good thing.

Up Next, who wins this round?

 

[blreinsel]

I have the same shirt! I'm also pretty sure that I got a mens on accident because the sleeves are HUGE are me. It's super annoying and I'm constantly pushing them up and trying to manage them!

 

[LadyBelle]

Sunday, Continued

We headed over to Buzz, as it had only a 15 minute wait. Again, a bit of a surprise that we jumped on. Just as we hopped onto the ride, it stopped. Why couldn’t it have stopped in front of s target to rack up some points?! Oh well,

I still have yet to master this ride photo.

I still have yet to master this ride, either. But, winner!! Poor LaLa could not make up for losing at TSMM.

LaLa had left her sunglasses back at the resort, so we looked around a couple of Tomorrowland’s shops to see if she could find a pair.

Based on the day, we were taking a chance on Space Mountain wait times shrinking. Other the 7DMT, most standby times were fairly reasonable. LaLa was hoping that we could get to see the Panthers game on the NFL app, so she said that she would stand in lines longer than an hour and pass the time by watching the game.

We didn’t have any success finding a pair of sunglasses yet, so we went to grab a snack. Our snack?

A Coke float! I love these. And, a little bit of a toast to @Longers

We then took a nice little break on The People Mover. Will Tom Morrow ever answer his page?

My first attempt at getting a castle pic from the ride.

The wait times had gone to 40 minutes, we’ll see you soon!

As good as I could get.