Trip Report Oh, the Places We go, The People We See

Welcome to my newest Trip Report. For those who don’t know me, I am Jen.

That’s my Daughter Claire with me.



We just got back from an amazing vacation with several family members.

We traveled Nov. 1st thru the 15th, 2012. We rested our headed at 6 different places on this trip, and though it wasn’t always easy to keep moving from place to place, I am happy to have tried some new resorts out and stayed at some familiar ones as well.



This trip came about over a year ago. My Mom’s cousin Vicki wanted to take a trip with her and my Aunt Mary. Her Daughter Katie also wanted to come along.

After some talking and planning it became a group of 16 traveling. I was elected ring leader since I have quite a bit of Disney experience.

Plans were made, some were changed, and some were a little slower at making decisions than others.

My husband Skip is what is known in the Disney groups as a resistor and he decided NOT to come along. He was not so happy about the amount of time I was going to be gone.



The dates for the cruise were set first, Nov 4 through the 8th on the Disney Dream. We all planned to arrive a day early and stay at the Residence Inn near the port. Soon I decided that I must add a few Disney days, and so did everyone else eventually. I thin decide…heck lets add some more, and Claire and I ended up staying 3 more days after the rest left.

Then after doing some research and with a heads up from my good Dis-friend Carey, I was alerted to the fact that the last Halloween party was on Nov. 2nd. How could I pass that chance up? So Claire and I decided to fly in a day earlier than everyone else to hit that party. Claire and I also decided to fly out of Columbus. My family lives near the Toledo, OH area, and the best direct flights are out of Detroit. My youngest sister, who was not going on the cruise, lives in Columbus, and I was able to get a decent priced direct flight from there, so Claire and I drove down Nov. 1 and spent the night before our early flight.



Plans were finally all set in stone and we just had to wait for our time to arrive. Not an easy task, but we all managed.



Let me introduce you to the crew. This is a picture of a picture. My sister has the CD with the actual digital copy, but hasn’t yet loaded it to the computer, so I had to go with this for now till I can get a copy.

In the back row, left to right, we have my parents, Joe and Paula, next to them is my Uncle Geoff. Next to Geoff is cousin Vicki and her son in law Thad. Next to Thad is Pete, Vicki’s husband and then me. Aunt Mary is on the end, she is married to Uncle Geoff and my Mother’s sister.

Down towards the front, left to right, is my nieces Alexis and Abby with their parents Rob and Gail. Gail is my sister. Front and center is Claire. Behind Claire are Jude, and Katie. Katie is married to Thad and is Pete and Vicki’s Daughter. And then we have baby Luke in the stroller. He is only about 9 months old and what a cutie he is.



This trip had the usual ups and downs that most every family will have, but I have to admit things went much smoother than I planned. We never felt the need to kill each other for the most part. LOL

We had several cruise newbies and several Disney World newbies as well.



Please join me in reliving a very magical trip with all the places we traveled and all the people we met along the way!

 

[jenseib]

We picked the wrong time to leave. I “think” the park was closing now or at least close to closing time and we were walking with the masses.


We headed over to the bus to MK. Well this was the plan for many people and the line was just unreal.
So we headed over to the resort buses and figured we would catch a bus to a monorail resort. Those lines were long too, but not as bad. I don’t remember which line we got in, but it took forever for a bus to come. I know I did some complaining. Eventually our bus came and we got off at the Contemporary and walked over to MK. I think this is what 90% of the people on this bus did as we walked over with a huge crowd of people.
We finally made it over to the MK. It had taken close to an hour to get there.

We stopped for a photopass.


As you can see in the background of those pictures, it was still very crowded here tonight.



We still had 3 counter service meals that needed to be used up before midnight. We were not really super hungry, but we decided to use them (or lose them) and get a bite to eat. We headed to Cosmic Rays. I think Claire wanted nuggets and that’s why we went there.

It was crowded in there too and we had people going slow in front of us. I think my patience were wearing thin too, so little things were irritating me, but we finally did get our food and sat down.

 

[jenseib]

We also used the 3rd and final credit for a crustable to take back with us.

We actually took the cookies and applesauce with us too. It all did eventually get eaten, I think some for breakfasts some mornings and some on our final day on the plane if I remember right. I do know the cookies got smashed, but they still were edible.
We then took off with no real plans.



The whole reason for coming here was just for the atmosphere of the castle and Christmas Décor.

 

[jenseib]

While roaming the park, we had to make another attempt at pulling out the sword.





Again we had no success.


We headed off to It’s a Small World then at Claire’s request.








I wish this was a better picture. I loved how the new castles walls are lit up.





And then at my request, we headed off to Pirates of the Caribbean.





And the Jungle Boats had a very little line, so we got in line there. Claire loves to ride this at night….well I do too.





It was now about 11, closing time, so we had to make our way to the front once again.

 

[jenseib]

I know I have said it several times now, but I just really LOVE the Christmas décor!











The shops windows were just adorable too.

 

[jenseib]

Off to the bus stop then and they were doing a great job and getting buses in and out tonight. For as busy as the park was and the amount of people leaving, I think it only took us 30 minutes at the most to get back to AoA.

We made it safely back to Art of Animation and of course I took a few pictures on the way back to the room.


























We made it back to our room. Let me tell you, after spending a full day, the walk back to the Little Mermaid section is long. I think it’s psychologically longer because it’s made outside instead of indoors.

Probably 7-10 minutes. Probably 5 if you walk fairly fast. But by the time we made it back there we were dead on our feet.

We quickly went to bed, though Claire did spend a few minutes with her Legos while I got ready for bed.

Soon we drifted off to dream land once again.


We had another full and wonderful day. I met up with Carey and Kadence once again and almost had another meet with Tim.

Oh the People We See.

We moved to yet another resort today and slept in the 6th bed of the trip.

Oh the Places We Go!

 

[farrellbarrel]

I love love love the Osborne lights!! I saw them Thanksgiving 2012 for the first time and it was one of the best nights of my life. I was with my best friends, the cast members were more than amazing. I love your TR and pictures!

 

[Disney80]

Wow! I am up to date and there is still some fun to be read about

Can't wait for the rest...

 

[PolynesianPrincess]

Love the pics of AOA!!

The Osborne Lights are my favorite part of Disney at the holidays. The lights are amazing!!

 

[jenseib]

I love love love the Osborne lights!! I saw them Thanksgiving 2012 for the first time and it was one of the best nights of my life. I was with my best friends, the cast members were more than amazing. I love your TR and pictures!

They are just amazing. I could just go every night and not have any issues with it. LOL

 

[jenseib]

Wow! I am up to date and there is still some fun to be read about

Can't wait for the rest...

LOL...I have a lot more yet to write...I just have been so busy lately that I can't keep up with it myself.

 

[jenseib]

Love the pics of AOA!!

The Osborne Lights are my favorite part of Disney at the holidays. The lights are amazing!!

Thanks.

Yes, they are just wonderful. There are rumors that this year will be the last, but I don't see that happening. I think they bring too many people to the parks.

 

[jenseib]

Nov. 12, 2012, Monday, Day 12




I believe I actually slept in a little longer today than 6 AM. I guess I was getting worn down. I showered and got ready for the day and let Claire sleep. I think a bomb could’ve gone off in the room and she would’ve slept through it.


Since we had a poolside room, I decided to go out around 7:15 and take a few pictures of the area while Claire slept.

 

[jenseib]

I had to take a peak in the laundry room.

 

[jenseib]

After about 15-20 minutes of walking around the pool I went back into the room and finished getting ready. It was then time to wake sleeping beauty. Slowly but surely she did get up and ready to start another big day.


We then made our way to the bus stop.










While waiting for the bus, the lady behind me asked if I was on the Nov. facebook group. I told her no….wait…yes I am. LOL! I don’t know what I was thinking when I said no. She told me her name, Jennifer, and I recognized it and we chatted a bit. She had recognized Claire’s top as I had posted it on the group back when I got it. I hadn’t been too active on it for a month or so prior to the trip though. I was busy writing my TR from the Sept cruise and honestly there were a couple of annoying people on there. Carey was on it was well and she can verify that we had a couple of whackos posting daily……like 70 times a day and with really dumb questions. Some people were changing ADRS EVERY SINGLE DAY, and adding in more just to have a snack and paying out of pocket to basically try as many restaurants as possible. And then there were other issues there too. And eventually there was a “fake” poster caught. Not sure what that was about ….why on earth would you make a fake name and pretend to be going to Disney?

Anyways, bus mojo was not with us this morning either. We had to wait quite a while for a AK bus to arrive. And we kept seeing buses that didn’t have park names on them. I think they were testing routes or drivers. Eventually I do believe we got on one of those buses because the wait was so long they directed one to take us over there.





We eventually made it over to AK.





We stopped for a few photopass pictures before we went in.








And I was sooooo excited to get this picture. It has been on my bucket list for quite some time.

 

[jenseib]

We then headed towards the entrance with a few pictures on the way.











Once we got into the park we stopped for another photopass picture.

 

[jenseib]

And on we went again.














I think you have a pretty good idea where we were heading.

 

[tare]

I love disney around Christmas time. Absolutely wonderful and magical!!!!

 

[jenseib]

Hi all, a quick update. My oldest daughter was in a severe car accident this weekend. She was thrown from the car and is in the hospital. She is doing OK, but she was hurt enough to warrant a weeks stay. She lucked out as the driver was killed and the other passenger thrown had head trauma, though we hear he is making progress as well. The 4th passenger was wearing a seat belt and has minor injuries. I will get back to this eventually, but right now my time is being mostly spent at the hospital.

 

[Disney80]

@jenseib OMG! Praying for your daugher's safe and speedy recovery.

I completely understand your need to focus on family at this time. Please do so and come back when you feel it's okay to do so.

No need to rush...

Sending you pixie dust your way...

 

[jenseib]

@jenseib OMG! Praying for your daugher's safe and speedy recovery.

I completely understand your need to focus on family at this time. Please do so and come back when you feel it's okay to do so.

No need to rush...

Sending you pixie dust your way...

Thanks. Things are still hectic, but they are becoming a bit more normal now, thank goodness.
Believe it or not, I was also in a car accident last week and paige was with me. We witnessed an accident in front of us and stopped but the guy behind us was not paying attention and didn't so we got hit fairly hard. I sent Paige to the ER to be checked and she had not reinjured anything and was let go. My car is totaled though and of course the guy didn't have insurance, so now I have to go look for a new car on top of all the other stuff going on.