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?!?

 

[LadyBelle]

I decided to time the actual wait time for Space Mountain. From the moment we entered, until the moment we were at the loading area - 21 minutes. We were directed to the Alpha Course. Thanks to reading tons of TRs, I knew where the camera would be. BUT, I didn’t want to pull a @Tuvalu just yet - I had all day.

I just can’t look!

I had great fun with this picture. I didn’t know that they had electronic exit signs until LaLa pointed it out. I think I was quoted as saying the trip was “out of this world.”

We headed back towards Main Street to grab lunch at Casey’s Corner. Before we got ther, I took this pic.

One can never have too many pics of the Castle!

I figured out where the crowds were - at Casey’s! Place was packed, both inside and out. My internal clock can’t eat later to avoid the crowds. I’d get a bit hangry. We each had the Mac & Cheese hot dog. Meh. So far, I’m not having much success with QS meals this trip.

Our FP for Splash Mountain had opened up, so we headed towards Frontierland. We totally came up with a great ride photo shot:

Thanks random Dude. I really didn’t want to be seen in the pic.

 

[Longers]

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,

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I still have yet to master this ride photo.

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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?

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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?

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

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

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As good as I could get.

Yum coke float! - cheers

 

[Bullseye1967]

Enjoying your TR! Merry Christmas!

 

[LadyBelle]

Merry Christmas Everyone!!

I have in my notes where we rode Barnstomer (which my niece thought was the shortest ride ever - and would have been upset if she had to wait in line for that) and Dumbo, but I can’t remember when in the day we rode it.

Now, onto a ride I was excited to go on:

While we were making our way through the standby line (listed at 10minutes), we ran into some stowaways

There was a couple ahead of us purposefully feeding them trail mix. She even said that she specifically brought the mix to feed the ducks and squirrels. Ma’am. There are SIGNS!!

Anyhoo, back to the Jingle Cruise!

Skipper Carly was appropriately Jolly and Punny.

The 8th Wonder of the World, Ladies and Gentlemen!

 

[LadyBelle]

It was time to pick up ther Bands for MVMCP.

We took a trip Under the Sea

And then we checked the wait time on 7DMT - looked to be 45 minutes. We figured that we’d take a spin while the regular day crowd finished their day. The wait turned out to be more like 70 minutes due to some train issues.

I love this ride, but I love it even more at night. Even though it was starting to be a chilly, chilly night.

We headed to try and find the spot where Sandy Claws would be and we came upon the first showing of the Frozen special:

We then headed to Columbia Harbor House for dinner. Finally a decent meal-Lobster Roll. Yummy!!

 

[LadyBelle]

Sunday, Continued

After we finished dinner, the party hadn’t yet officially started. So we headed towards Sandy Claws and noticed that the line was already super long. Jack Skellington is one of LaLa’s favorites, but she was not in the mood to stand in line. She wanted to go ride some rides, so off we went!

First stop: Space Mountain

We were directed to Alpha Course again. This time I was ready for my salute to @Tuvalu

LaLa asked if I meant to do that. If she only knew....

After that, we stopped for a photo pass pic

Then we headed to the plaza to watch the second Frozen spectacular

Not too great a view, but it was still amazing to see the castle lit for Christmas.

Afterwards, we headed towards BTMRR, and took a walk through Adventureland....right smack into the start of the first parade! D’oh!!

Not interested in seeing the first parade (we couldn’t even if we tried), we headed back to grab a snowman pretzel. It was a bit chilly for the snow cone for me. We made our way back to the parade starting point and wiggle our way closer to the cross way. BTMRR was currently sitting at a 10-minute wait.

Once we saw the end of the parade, we (and several hundred of our closest friends again) headed towards the railway.

The 10 minute wait quickly went to 45 minutes. But it is always worth the wait. I LOVE this ride at night.

 

[LadyBelle]

Once we finished BTMRR, we headed towards Splash Mountain, as it also showed a 10 minute wait.

We got in the last row again, but this time there was only a grandmother in front of us, so I wasn’t worried about being blocked out of another picture. In fact, just before we went down the drop, the lady called out to her grandkids in front “YOU SEE WHAT NANA DOES FOR YOU?”

This time we got wet! And I’m then cold, too. But I brought a cloth with us so we dried off as well as we could.

We conquered three mountains in one day - twice.

Up next: Mickey’s Bad Dad Joke and who doesn’t love a parade!!

 

[Tuvalu]

1. Thanks for the Space Mountain shout out.
2. On Splash you and LaLa look like you are ready to hurl!

 

[LadyBelle]

1. Thanks for the Space Mountain shout out.
2. On Splash you and LaLa look like you are ready to hurl!

Haha! I was trying to go for holding your breath when headed for splashdown.

 

[LadyBelle]

Okay, I am going to finish the TR before the year is over...

After Splash, we headed towards the front of the park. Holiday Wishes was about to start, but I had other plans. LaLa kept our spot, and I went to see the man.

I’ll spare you the head on shot, I look terrible.

Anyway, Mickey decided to tell a joke. To paraphrase: Why is Goofy afraid to be with Santa?

Why, Mickey?

Because he was CLAUStrophobic!

I loved this pic so much I used it for my Christmas card.

 

[LadyBelle]

After my visit, I rejoined LaLa. She said the fireworks were really good. LaLa had forgotten her coat, so I went in and bought her a Snuggie and we wrapped up. Here are some pics of my pics of the parade.

 

[LadyBelle]

More parade pics:

 

[LadyBelle]

We headed back to the resort for some shut eye.

Up Next: EPCOT

 

[LadyBelle]

Monday, November 27

Our final day began with this:

I’ll admit, that Tragical Express envelope looks nice.

Off we go to EPCOT!

Our first FP was to Soarin. We were lucky to get Theatre C, Bay C, Row 3. I wish I had seen the original Soarin, but this won will be mine, until they change it. I love the smells when you go over certain wonders of the world.

After Soarin, we then went to Living with the Land, as it didn’t have too long of a wait. For some reason, my mind had mushed together this ride with the Jungle Cruise. I wondered why I thought the shrimp tank was missing back in 2004.

I wish I had that good of a green thumb!

That would be kind of hard to carve at Halloween...

My lottery winnings would get me this water feature.

I love the little Christmas touches.

Hidden Mickey!

 

[LadyBelle]

So cute!!

We took a quick trip under the seas with Nemo and Friends and then headed to encourage our Imaginations.

We saw this cute topiary on the way to World Showcase.

 

[LadyBelle]

We headed left into the World Showcase, as LaLa was looking for some cough syrup and saw that they may have some First Aid Station. Finding none, we headed on our way. I offered to buy her a margarita to see if that would help, but she declined.

We stopped off for a little Grand Fiesta.

For some reason, I liked these flowers...

The line when we first arrived was a bit long-longest that I’ve ever seen. But it moved quickly.

We then ate lunch at Liberty Tree Tavern. We both had a hamburger. Exciting, right??

Just a couple of random pictures as we went back to Future World and walked around Mouse Gear.

 

[LadyBelle]

While we were waiting for our Test Track FP, we headed to see what Innovations had. We got there in time to see a science experiment in SpectacularLab

This is Frankie, the Intern. She was full of energy.

Now, I include this picture, because these girls were very excited about Science.

She is an actual scientist, studying at UCF is something that I couldn’t even try to pronounce.

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Yep, she is on an actual bed of nails.

And yes, she actually smashed that concrete block on the board (of nails) while laying in a bed of nails.

I would highly recommend going to see this (or any) experiment. It was way cool!!

 

[LadyBelle]

After SpectacularLab was finished, we sat and people watched for a while. I kept checking the wait time for Test Track, as the ride was down for a while. When to came back up, we (and several hundred of our friends again) headed towards TT. Once we finished, we hopped back on for our FP. Technical difficulties prevented us from getting one of our ride photos, but we we’re in the back row for one ride, and the front row for the other. I kind of like the front row better.

 

[LadyBelle]

We then headed towards the front of the park and took a little trip to Thank the Phonecians.

Being a little silly on the ride.

We then hopped a bus to Disney Springs because we thought the boat ride might be a little bit cold. And then I promptly got lost when we got there, trying to find Cookes of Dublin. And I was using the App.

Our table card. I photographed it because my parents just celebrated their 55th anniversary early that month.

I loved these ornaments. I’d put them in my own yard for Christmas.

Then a little desert to take back to the resort.

My sense of direction got better and I was able to find the bus stop on the way out. I think there were three Grand Floridian buses, and multiple All Stars before the Port Orlea s bus arrived. That was documented on SnapChat

When we go at back to the resort, our boarding passes were on our door in another Tragical Express envelope, but not as magical looking.

 

[LadyBelle]

Tuesday, November 28

Now it’s time to say goodbye....

We had a leisurely last breakfast in the World, than made our way out to the portico.

I’d rather be getting on this bus

than this one

But I know I’ll be back again someday.

Travel was without incident, even had a layover in Atlanta (thankfully we did not have to switch planes). We arrived at RDU early, but due to construction we had to be towed to the gate.

A few weeks ago, I received this lovely drawing to go along with Mickey from last year.

Thank you all for reading, liking, and commenting. It wasn’t a typical trip for me, nor a typical report with lots of photos (even though it’s only my second report). For those that are getting ready to hit WDW soon, have a Magical time and give the Big Guy a hug from me!

And send some Pixie Dust my way, I may have a chance to go in 2018.

Happy New Year Everyone!! May 2018 bring you joy, luck, and whatever else you need!!!