Our Christmas Disneymoon 20th December-30th December 2011

Hi everyone.

I have been meaning to start this all week to cheer myself up- however I haven't been very well and then had an horrific time at my dentist yesterday which has delayed things further.

I am still in lots of pain, but want to start this tonight!

Ok so please see the link below for my pre-trip information:

http://forums.wdwmagic.com/showthread.php?t=823613

Me and my now husband James (still feels strange to say husband) got married on Saturday 17th December at 12noon in our little town Blackpool which is in the North West of England. We got married in church and had a lovely reception.

Here are some pictures (not official ones)

Saying our vows

You may kiss the bride

Love the above picture- very clever shot taken by one of my work colleagues.

Me and James with all our bridal party...


and finally.. my mum and dad bought me and james this from Florida for our wedding especially...

Sooo lovely!!

Anyway hope you like...

 

[sam_disney]

I'm not gonna lie, Backlot is another one of my favorite rides (which will be in refurb while I'm down... ), but I can't believe they switched it to voice-overs! That takes the magic out of it!

Exactly!! sooo annoying! They've done this on living with the land in epcot as well..x

 

[enchanted_belle]

Exactly!! sooo annoying! They've done this on living with the land in epcot as well..x

WHAT?! That's horrible!

 

[sam_disney]

We came out of the 50's prime time and it was time for our fastpasses on Toy Story... so we headed that way.

On the way I saw this brilliant tribute to the film Who framed roger rabbit...

Another hat picture...

We headed to the pixar area..

and on to Toy Story Midway Mania... LOVE THIS RIDE!!

Due to having fastpasses we couldn't look at the queue area for very long.. (not that I'm complaining- the wait is always ridiculous)

Grabbed the 3d specs...

And off we go... I really needed to beat James this time.. he won on Buzz and Men in Black...

AND THE WINNER IS...

YES!! I DID IT... I WON!

 

[sam_disney]

We decided to grab a bench to have another sit down for a while..

We then decided to head up to the muppets..

Had a quick look what was on at the theatre down that way,

After the muppets we had a quick look in the gift shop and I took some pictures- the building near the muppets is soo brilliant!

I love this picture...

Unfortunately after taking this picture I was nearly thrown off my feet. A little girl was pushing other children in a push chair and they came flying and nearly knocked me off my feet! I was so shocked! Anyway... the mum was like ohhhh sweetie watch where you're going! Now.. if this lady had said oh I'm sorry about that,, that would have been fine! But just to say that.. I was fuming! I must have looked at her with my death glare and she then apologised.. I said no its fine.. but I don't really think in these crowds its the best thing for letting your children do that! If it had been an elderly person or something.. ! anyway...

We then headed towards ...

It was time for the final showing of Beauty and the Beast- we decided to hit this and go to the later fantasmic show...

 

[sam_disney]

So off we went to the Beauty and The Beast show- Another show that I think is fabulous!!

I've seen the broadway version and this is usually as good- I just wish they did a little more on the story. eg the part about Belle's father? I love how it says- due to circumstances Belle found her way to an enchanted castle.. bit random! lol Then lumiere says.. she's lost her freedom and father all in one day. If I hadnt see the movie.. I wouldn't even know about the father.

Otherwise this is an excellent stage show..

Gaston was excellent...

Be our guest be our guest...

 

[sam_disney]

We had probably the best view I've ever had...

We were 3 rows from the front... fabulous!

I absolutely love the Gaston song... Kill the Beast.. not for the reasons of killing the beast lol Obviously Gaston is the baddie and all.. but I love the whole routine of it... with the torches and the dancers.. its just brilliant.

Anyway... to the finale.. I always wanted to wear that gold dress...

At the end Belle and the beast give a very lucky little girl a rose.. ! It was the most adorable thing... but unfortunately because she was sooo excited when she came back to her seat, she fell up the stairs! She was ok.. but she looked a little embarassed,...

Here we are coming out..

 

[sam_disney]

After coming out with the crowd singing along to Celine Dion and Peabo Bryson's version of Beauty and the Beast we made our way to the Osbourne Lights..

On the way I took a quick picture of the Tips Board..

And on to the Osbourne Lights..

The osbourne lights are seriously out of this world.. breathtaking... every amazing word you can think of! Its brilliant! I could probably be there all night watching it.

The snow was coming down.. it is soooo magical!

We decided to get in the photopass queue...

took an arms length picture...

A kind lady than offered to take our picture..

Took lots of pictures while we waited..

The lights decided to dance again... it was seriously amazing!

 

[Meeko's Mom]

Great Trip Report & Congrats on getting married!! :sohappy:

 

[sam_disney]

We did seem to be waiting ages for the photopass..

more pictures I took while we waited...

Finally it was our turn..

Then we made our way back to Fantasmic..

 

[sam_disney]

The other group were still coming out of fantasmic so we had to queue to get in ..

After waiting a while, we were let in and grabbed our seats...

By the time we had got in.. there was only 15 minutes to wait, which was great!

Then it began..

I adore Fantasmic.. I'd heard rumours on here that the lift was broken and I was worried I was going to be disappointed! There was no need to worry - it was amazing as usual. I had a little cry at one point.. the reason for this is because Fantasmic opened the week I first went to Florida with my family. I think I just suddenly missed them- I've never been without them before and it hit me that we were away from home and it was christmas eve.

Anyway.. I love this part..

Then the ending came the lift worked.. and Mickey appeared magically at the bottom..

It was an amazing end to a perfect christmas eve!!

Next up- CHRISTMAS DAY at Epcot....

 

[enchanted_belle]

Swoon! My favorite story/movie/show/etc of all time. :sohappy:

 

[sam_disney]

* here's a few pictures from christmas eve that I forgot to add in...

Me doing... new york new york-

And a quick visit to the honey I shrunk the audience playground

Ok so next... christmas day!

 

[clee687]

Thanks for the additional info on the trail rides at Fort Wilderness! You didn't make it any easier to choose, but did help me make a decision! I have put BOTH the carriage ride and the wagon/hay ride on my list of things to do next visit! Problem solved...thanks! I 100% agree with you on the Backlot Tour! I feel like I'm not seeing any backlot out there now. I also hate all the recorded spiels everywhere (WDW buses too). I'm not sure why I dislike them so much when I used to complain because I couldn't understand some of the cast members when they were saying them??? But it does bother me a lot! Love your report! Great way to start the marriage!!

 

[sam_disney]

Thanks for the additional info on the trail rides at Fort Wilderness! You didn't make it any easier to choose, but did help me make a decision! I have put BOTH the carriage ride and the wagon/hay ride on my list of things to do next visit! Problem solved...thanks! I 100% agree with you on the Backlot Tour! I feel like I'm not seeing any backlot out there now. I also hate all the recorded spiels everywhere (WDW buses too). I'm not sure why I dislike them so much when I used to complain because I couldn't understand some of the cast members when they were saying them??? But it does bother me a lot! Love your report! Great way to start the marriage!!

lol You're welcome! Sorry I couldn't help make you decide.. but the hay ride looked so much fun!

Yeah I agree about the voice overs.. I just think it misses that personal touch.
lol and the disney buses are so funny.. 'we are on our way to Disney's Hollywood Studios... we'll be there soon!' and on the way back.. 'we're on our way to disney's port orleans riverside resort.. we'll be home soon!' the first time you hear it- i love it.. by the end of the trip I hate it!

Thanks for reading!! Its nice to relive it! xx

 

[sam_disney]

Day 5- Christmas Day

We had prebooked the candleight processional dinner package for christmas day and therefore we chose Epcot as the park to be at on christmas day.

Epcot is a particular favourite park of mine. It was the first park I ever visited in 1998!

We got up to make use of the Extra Magic Hours from 8-9am.

The bus came finally.. after again being the last one to arrive...

We arrived at Epcot at about 8:45am- so we had only 15 minutes till none resort park guests would be let in to the park.

As we went through bag check.. we noticed the queue to get in to non disney resort guests... glad we werent in that queue...

We went straight in... I love the Epcot Ball.. I remember spotting it for the first time in 1998.. couldn;t believe I was really at disney world!!

I love the whole set up of Epcot- future world and the world showcase- they're just brilliant!

We headed straight to the land, to ride Soarin and grab fastpasses to go on it again later in the day...

When we got in to the land we saw this cute gingerbread village...

We particularly liked this one...

 

[sam_disney]

When we got to Soarin it said there was a 15 mins wait.. so obviously we went straight on it.. James was filming away..

We turned the corner into the queue and there was just nobody in sight.. not something you ever see for Soarin.. its usually queued all the way back..

We got straight into the waiting part to the queue and straight on the ride.. it was great! We rode soarin.. then decided to grab some breakfast in sunshine seasons..

I took a few pictures ..

I grabbed a bagel, while James had a croissant.

James rung his mum and dad to wish them a merry christmas...

Then we opened all our christmas cards from my family and his...

My family were amazing.. I had a little cry because I realised how much I missed them all.. ! My family had put dollars in our cards- so we decided to spend them in mouse gears later....

As we were next to it , we decided to head to one of James' favourite rides...
I really enjoy this ride!! James is a landscape gardener so he really enjoys the plants etc on this ride..

We then grabbed fastpasses for Soarin.. so we could ride later..

 

[sam_disney]

After riding Soarin again...

We headed to TEST TRACK to grab some fastpasses or ride it if it wasn't too busy...

On the way I grabbed a picture with the fountains..

On to Test Track- the queue was quite long so we opted for fastpassess..

We then headed to another favourite... Ellen's universe of energy!

After Ellen we found ourselves hungry again! we had reservations at the rose and crown for 4:10pm so we didn't want to eat too much!

So James went to grab another muffin to share..

Yum yum yum!

We then headed towards my mum's favourite ride.. Spaceship Earth...

I saw this great flower display on the way..

James loved this..

There's the famous ball again..

 

[sam_disney]

Another arms length picture..

Before we headed for the ball we had a little look in the disney art shop. There was a lady inside talking about heading over to MK and the artist was explaining that it was probably closed now due to the amount of crowds... ( We were warned not to even bother trying to go to MK and thats why we chose Epcot.. !)
Anyway we then headed for spaceship earth....

The queue for spaceship earth was very big by now.. but as it keeps moving.. I dont mind waiting for it!

As we were in the queue we noted this...

Glad we chose EPCOT! lol

After queuing for about 40 minutes- we decided to head for a little walk around the gardens near to innoventions..

We took some great pictures and really enjoyed just being in the world at christmas! The weather was still hot.. ! (you can tell with what we're wearing!)

I loved this picture.. as I took a picture of James I realised if he put his hand up, he looked like he was putting the star or angel on top of the christmas tree,, lol

 

[PartOfYourWorld]

I have to say I loooooove the arms length picture of you two in front of Spaceship Earth! It's really cute!!

 

[foreverbelle]

OK so this may be long...fyi..

I love the whole Beauty and the Beast, obviously it is my favorite of all time, and every year I make my husband sit through it. Thankfully I sit there in silence with a smile on my face and manage not to sing (LOL) I know its cheesy and there are things that could be better. But I still have to see it anyway.

And the Christmas lights look fantabulous. Amazing....you guys look like you had so much fun. And you seem to have run into some fantastic people to take pics of you throughout your trip. How nice is it to have pics that aren't at arm lengths all the time.

I haven't seen Fantasmic in awhile. I need to add that to my list of things I want to do again on the next trip. Yes I do.

Your thoughts on your family had me tearing up. Really, because your right I can't imagine being away-especially that far-from my family over the holidays. And while I sit here and read this, I almost forgot you were away and on your honeymoon, and that it was in fact the holidays. But how nice was it that you guys got to sit there and open cards on Christmas day in the middle of the park.

Holy cow, that line for non-resort guest is incredibly. Don't think I will be staying off property during the holidays for that reason shall I ever get the chance to go down during the holidays.

Still loving the report!