Trip Report The Two Goofs Holiday Special!- Now with February updates!

Hello again my friends. We’ve just returned from our short, action packed, trip to the world. We had the hap hap happiest Christmas since Bing Crosby tap danced with Danny fu- oh wait, wrong thread! Anyways we had a great trip!

When: December 6-9

Where: Grand Floridian

Why: Because we wanted to, and we were celebrating six years of wedded bliss!

Who: Myself and my wife, A.

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Featuring appearances by Bucky the popcorn bucket, The Orange Bird backpack, Chewbacca, Scrooge McDuck, Whoopi Goldberg, Creepy dancing reindeer, Sant Claus, @Nunu, and many more!

So just sit back, relax, and maybe try to stay warm if it’s -4 degrees outside(looking at you @ajrwdwgirl!).

Travel Day/ Day 1. December 5-6.

I had been working nights all week and A works during the day, so we didn’t get to spend any time together this entire week. This isn’t unusual for us, but it did make packing a bit tricky, as we had trouble keeping up with what was in which suitcase. Also being a man, I didn’t actually pack my suitcase until about an hour before we hit the road!

We handled a few errands at home and were westbound on the interstate by about 6:30 that evening.

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Our usual rest stop on the way to Dallas. Anyone who’s ever visited one will know why, it’s like the Disney World of gas stations! 🤣 It’s hard to tell from this photo, but that store is around 60,000 square feet of pristine clean awesomeness! It has 84 gas pumps and over 70 restroom stalls!

Anyways, we arrived at our good friends’ place on the outskirts of Dallas at around 8:30. We were sleeping here for the night to avoid leaving our house in the middle of the night,or paying for a hotel near the airport. We quickly went to bed for a few hours rest, and were up and ready to head to the airport around 4 the next morning.

We got dropped off at the airport around 430 for our 6 am flight. Normally this would leave plenty of time for a nap in the terminal, but for some reason security at Love field this day was SLOW! First they stopped the line to bring in the dog, but then when the dog arrived, they only let people through 2 at a time. We ended up being in line for nearly an hour. Fortunately we still had time to grab a bite at whataburger for breakfast, and catch a small nap at the gate.

Our plane boarded on time, and we were in the air a little ahead of schedule. We had the smoothest, fastest flight we’ve ever had to Orlando. With a strong tailwind, the flight tracker showed ground speeds of nearly 700 mph! We were at the gate an hour and 40 minutes after takeoff. Our chief flight attendant was the absolute best we’ve ever seen. He was a huge Disney nut and was super pumped to be working the Orlando flight(he even wore his ears), his safety spiel was hilarious, and as we taxied the runway at MCO he played a little Disney trivia with everyone. When he gave his farewell message, people were literally screaming and cheering for him!

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This was painfully accurate today, but we didn’t mind too much!

We were the last stop on the magical express, but we finally made it to the grand a little before 11 AM!

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The lobby is absolutely beautiful this time of the year!

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The gingerbread house is really incredible to see! This was my favorite of all the special lobby decorations that we saw!

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We grabbed a snack and headed outside to enjoy it.
 

Loco_driver

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Sunday December 8

After our early morning and late night out with friends the previous day, we slept in a little. And by a little, I mean 730. A made herself some coffee and enjoyed it on the balcony. I kept her company(I’m not a big Coffee drinker).
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It was shaping up to be another gorgeous day!

We slowly got ready and stopped by gasparilla grill for a coke(but what kind of coke @riverside? lol),before making our way to the bus stop. On the way a CM stopped and gave A a rose as an anniversary gift.

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Our destination for the morning was Animal Kingdom. Bag check and park entry must’ve been easy, since I have nothing that states otherwise in my notes.
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The puppets were out on discovery island, but were about to leave. We decided we’d try and see them later.

The live musicians were a nice touch.

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We headed in the direction of Dinoland. We had a FP for dinosaur that had just opened. Along the way we encountered Kevin!

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she was scared to cross the bridge into dinoland, so her handler had to hold her tiny little wing to get her across! It was hilarious!

In dinoland we noticed Daisy had no visitors, so we said hi.
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We did finally use our FP for dinosaur as well. No ride photo ever showed up, but I’m ok with that.

After dinosaur we met Scrooge McDuck
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Not pointing out my button, admiring the color of my shirt!

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We made our way back to Africa next to watch festival of the lion king. No photos for this either(I’m sensing a disturbing pattern here), but it was great as always. After the show we were both feeling famished. I made a mobile order at flame tree.
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We had our usual pulled pork mac and cheese. This is one of our favorite QS meals to get!

Our last FP window for Everest was opening soon, so we started that way.
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I guess the girl in the front got bored?
 

MinnieM123

Premium Member
Your pictures are so much fun! I think that "Kevin" is a hoot. :happy:

I like Daisy, too, as she doesn't get included in nearly as many visitor photos, as the other characters. I always tend to gravitate toward the classic characters first, but also enjoy seeing the newer ones as well.

Anyway, your TR is very upbeat, and I look forward to seeing your updates. Really makes my day! :)
 

Loco_driver

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Your pictures are so much fun! I think that "Kevin" is a hoot. :happy:

I like Daisy, too, as she doesn't get included in nearly as many visitor photos, as the other characters. I always tend to gravitate toward the classic characters first, but also enjoy seeing the newer ones as well.

Anyway, your TR is very upbeat, and I look forward to seeing your updates. Really makes my day! :)
Thanks for your kind comments! We will do most characters as long as there’s little to no line, which is why we rarely meet Mickey outside of character meals. I really wish they did more roaming characters like Kevin. The interactions are much more natural and fun. I love the country bears in Frontierland for that reason!
Dr. Pepper??🤞🤞🤞
Haha. No just regular Coca-Cola this time!
 

MickeyCB

Well-Known Member
Saturday December 7 continued.

We left DHS and had to make a decision on how to get back to Epcot. Unfortunately the boat launch was packed, with no boat in sight, and the skyline was doing skyliner things and not moving. I ordered a Lyft to go to beach club. Luckily the driver was already at DHS and pulled up just a few seconds later. He must’ve sensed we were in a hurry, as we left the parking lot at about 50 mph! We made it to beach club in no time at all and power walked through IG to the America pavilion. We were seated with 5 minutes to spare!

Our view was obstructed a bit by a tree, but we were just glad to get in on time!

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Whoopi Goldberg was the host that evening.

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She did a very good job.

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This was our first time seeing the show, we both really enjoyed it. We exited the show to full fledged “Epcot festival Saturday night”. We worked our way through the crowds toward the front exit to get on the monorail.

We eventually made it back to our room to get freshened up, and to just relax for a bit before heading over to bay lake tower.

What on earth could we be doing over at BLT, since we aren’t even DVC members you ask?


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We were there to meet our new friend @Nunu of course!
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Bucky finally makes an appearance!

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It was so great to meet Nunu and Frank. We hung out at top of the world lounge for hours laughing and talking like we were old friends! Such great, sweet people!

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Anyone who can meet a fellow magician should do so! I promise most of us don’t bite! A was a little on the fence about meeting strangers, but I convinced her if anything crazy happened I could take Nunu and frank down! 🤣 She left that night with a new friend!

We enjoyed the views while we chatted.
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Eventually we had to leave top of the world because it was closing time. We headed down to the monorail and bid our new friends goodbye.

The lobby at grand Floridian was nice and quiet when we returned.
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We went back to our room and crashed for the night. One of our best Disney days ever!
You packed a heck of a lot into one day!!!
 

Loco_driver

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Sunday December 8 continued.

We browsed the gift shop at Everest for a bit before going back over to dinoland. There was a holiday ice cream sandwich I wanted to try at Dino Bites.

I am a sucker for anything peppermint!
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It was hard to eat, but delicious! A tried it and liked it as well.

We started making our way toward the park exit. The puppets were out on discovery island, so we checked them out for a bit.

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They did a great job of interacting with people. Everyone around us seemed to really enjoy it!

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These little guys were very mischievous, they kept following A everywhere she went!
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All this figures were beautifully crafted, and the puppeteers did a great job!

The decorations in the area were nice.
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I was really impressed with the holiday decorations and entertainment offered at AK. I wish we would’ve had time to come check things out after dark.

We continued out the park, stopping for pictures by the Christmas tree.

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Eeyore is really special to us. We had a dog who had a few health problems. One of his issues was his hips. It caused him to walk like Eeyore. That plus his floppy ears caused us to always refer to him as our Eeyore. He passed away a few years ago, so whenever we see an Eeyore it always reminds us of him and is a little bittersweet.
 

MinnieM123

Premium Member
Sunday December 8 continued.

We browsed the gift shop at Everest for a bit before going back over to dinoland. There was a holiday ice cream sandwich I wanted to try at Dino Bites.

I am a sucker for anything peppermint!
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It was hard to eat, but delicious! A tried it and liked it as well.

We started making our way toward the park exit. The puppets were out on discovery island, so we checked them out for a bit.

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They did a great job of interacting with people. Everyone around us seemed to really enjoy it!

View attachment 435312
These little guys were very mischievous, they kept following A everywhere she went!
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All this figures were beautifully crafted, and the puppeteers did a great job!

The decorations in the area were nice.
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I was really impressed with the holiday decorations and entertainment offered at AK. I wish we would’ve had time to come check things out after dark.

We continued out the park, stopping for pictures by the Christmas tree.

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Eeyore is really special to us. We had a dog who had a few health problems. One of his issues was his hips. It caused him to walk like Eeyore. That plus his floppy ears caused us to always refer to him as our Eeyore. He passed away a few years ago, so whenever we see an Eeyore it always reminds us of him and is a little bittersweet.

Sorry to hear about your dog. Even with a few years passing, it's still hard, especially around the holidays. :(
 

Loco_driver

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Sunday December 8 continued.

We made it back to our room and took a small nap, the previous days activities having taken a toll on us. We awoke feeling fresh. We hopped on a monorail and a few minutes later we were tapping our bands at the magic kingdom!

The entrance and town square area was absolutely swamped with people trying to get into the party! We had bought our tickets before we attended the Halloween party. You may remember that we didn’t have the best time at the Halloween party, mostly due to the overwhelming crowds. I feared we were in for a similar experience. Things calmed down considerably once we made it to the hub.
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This trip was the best luck we’ve ever had with the weather! Not a drop of rain fell, and it never got warmer than about 85 degrees!

I checked MDE for any fastpass availability.
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Small world was immediately available.
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This has recently became a must do for A. She’ll get no argument out of me!

I checked for more FPs after small world, and was rewarded with splash mountain! We stopped in Frontierland for our party wrist bands before visiting Brer Rabbit and company.
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Bucky joined us in the park that evening too!

I made a FP for mermaid while waiting for splash. Into fantasyland we went. The FP was surprisingly useful, as the standby queue was full!

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We went unda da sea in no time at all.

FP distribution had ended at this point. The park would be closing in about 30 minutes. We continued on around to Tomorrowland to take a spin on CoP before it closed for the night.

Peoplemover was being evacuated.
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I noticed some minor scrim damage on CoP from the previous days incident involving a guest getting on stage.

I’m sure many of you know what’s missing from this photo too.
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Luckily there appeared to be no major damage done.

After our trip through the 20th century we made our way over to Adventureland to set sail with pirates.
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Bucky came along for the adventure here too!

The party was officially starting at this point. We made our way around the various cookie stations. I never did get to make use of Bucky as an actual popcorn bucket. However, Bucky did make for a fantastic Christmas cookie container!!!

We ended up over by cosmic rays and stopped in to watch the creepy dancing polar bears for a few minutes!
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The children really seemed to love this bear! I should note that crowds felt much more manageable at this party(which was sold out) than at our Halloween party. Everyone had plenty of breathing room, and attraction wait times didn’t appear to be too bad at all with the exception of the space mountain and speedway holiday overlays.
 

Loco_driver

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Sunday December 8 continued.

After the polar bear party there was a Tomorrowland Christmas show about to begin.
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It was.....odd. But still somewhat enjoyable.

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Stich becomes Santa after he murders him? I don’t know my memory is a bit fuzzy.

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There was a lot of snoap!

We took a spin on the peoplemover next. It was really nice to see the decorations along the speedway, and to get a taste of the space mountain Christmas! We contemplated trying space mountain, but my back was still a bit sore, so I didn’t want to risk making it worse. Peoplemover was a good alternative!

I should also mention that early that morning while riding the bus to animal kingdom, I made us reservations for the garden view dessert party that night. I really wanted a good spot to watch the new fireworks show, and I don’t do well with those crowds in the hub at all! This turned out to be a fantastic decision. We checked in for the party after our peoplemover ride.

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The peppermint cheesecake on the left was amazing(i think I had about 10 of these)! The strawberry was as expected. Whatever Olaf is on was gross.
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Took this one just for @Rista1313!

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They brought this out for us! The server felt bad because one of the cupcakes fell over. We told her not to worry, we were just thankful for her kind gesture!! Also not pictured from the party was the dozen or so cheeseburger spring rolls I consumed!🤣

We eventually made our way over to the reserved viewing area. We did this party in the summer, so I knew the viewing area was a good one!

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The party was not full, so everyone had plenty of room to stretch out and get comfortable.
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It’s hard to tell in this photo(featuring Bucky!) but we also had a decent view of the Mickey and Minnie stage show that took place before the fireworks. We also caught the end of the first parade, but would be watching the second one later.
 

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