Trip Report The Worst Week: A December 2013/January 2014 Trip Report! *COMPLETE*

You all know the week I'm talking about.

The week that all the guidebooks and fan sites warn about...the parks are packed, Soarin' hits a 4-hour wait, and there are phase closings left and right. It's the week between Christmas and New Year's - the worst week to go to Disney World.

What kind of idiots would book a trip during this crazy, insane time??

Hi, I'm Shannon. Nice to meet ya.

See that guy in the picture with me? That's my husband, Will. He's sort of my favorite. WDW is my favorite place. I like to be in my favorite place with my favorite person.

But there's a catch. You see, this favorite person of mine is a teacher who coaches tennis. So for all of you that smugly say stuff along the lines of, "why not go during off-peak times," (is there even such a thing anymore?!) well, some of us can't. Seriously, like we wouldn't rather go during some random week in February or whatever??? In our case, it's summer or Christmastime for a longer trip. Those are the only options.*

We did the summer thing in June of 2011. It was hot and crowded, and Will swore we'd never do it again. The heat and humidity were too much. I agreed and set my sites on Christmas 2013 pretty much as soon as we got home from that hot, sticky trip. Yep, this trip had been planned (or at least thought about) for about 2.5 years! I'm ridiculous.

But this is where my crazy OCD planning began to shine. Right at the 11-month mark I had our resort reservation secured - no discounts are ever out for that time of year, but I was able to rent DVC points, which saved a RIDICULOUS chunk of change. We still had our APs and Tables in Wonderland card from earlier in the year, we booked flights on rewards points, and thanks to saving up our points on our Disney Visa we had just about enough rewards dollars to cover our food for the week. So as far as Disney trips go, this one was relatively cheap. And I of course woke up early at our 180-day mark to make reservations (19 ADRs! But would we keep them?! ) and grabbed some FP+ reservations at the 60-day mark or whatever. I also pored over the few Christmas-week trip reports on this and other Disney boards from fellow *idiots* like me, which were pretty hard to find...because most threads started with someone asking about traveling during this week didn't have actual USEFUL information, just snide replies along the lines of "cancel and book another week."* Um, thanks?

ANYWAY...I planned for and thought about this trip more than any other trip we've taken, and that's really saying something. But I'd say it paid off overall.

*Yes, I'm a little bitter about it. It just got really old to read how stupid people are for going during this time over and over. I promise the rest of the report won't be like this! Let's be friends?

 

[Ariel484]

thanks Shannon for your awesome report , and I think my favorite my marathon weekend trip was not only the race , but sunday right before wishes the celebrate magic projection show. and the frozen part ... which I had not seen until we came back from Disney last week me and mom went to see , prob. my new fav. Disney movie!

Thanks Todd!

I'm totally with you on the Frozen love. We saw it right before the trip (Christmas Eve, actually). Loved it!

First rate report! Your photos are so lovely! Thanks for taking the time to write up such a well written account!

Thank you so much for the kind words on the photos and the writing! I'm definitely trying to improve on both!

We just got back from our trip 12/27-1/1 and it was crazy. I could go on a whole rant about waiting 2 hours for the crystal palace on new years eve which we had reservations for. Positive side is that it was the first time I had ever had a 10:00pm dinner. Anyway just wanted to say it is good to have someone to sympathize with.

That sounds like a NIGHTMARE. I'm so sorry that happened to you! I hope your dinner was good after having to wait for it for so long!

P.S. your bloody nose probably did help hurry the room along. Judging by the fact that last year my brother had a stomach bug from UNIVERSAL FOOD and when we got to the Beach Club they had a room for us ready at 5:00 am. How I love the Beach Club

I'm sure it did! The CM probably didn't want me bleeding all over the lobby. What happened to your brother is, pretty much, my worst nightmare for a trip of any kind. That's what I kept telling myself all week with this cold..."at least it's not the flu or a stomach bug!"

 

[Ariel484]

So at this point we were a little over an hour or so away from our lunch ADR and needed a bus to Downtown Disney. I went to ask the Beach Club concierge what order the bus to Downtown Disney picked up. (SIDE NOTE: I may have already said this somewhere else, but this is an issue that's currently making me wary to book any future trips at an Epcot Resort - the bus sharing gets ridiculous! From what I remember the Boardwalk often shares with Yacht & Beach, and sometimes with Yacht & Beach AND Swan & Dolphin ...ridiculous to share that much with the nightly price of those rooms. If this has changed, someone PLEASE feel free to correct me! ).

Anyway...we didn't want to make a bunch of stops and were sort of aiming to get on the bus at whatever stop was the last one before Downtown Disney. It quickly became clear that the concierge had no idea what I was talking about, so we threw our hands up and caught the bus to Downtown Disney at the Beach Club. Sure enough, the bus headed to the Boardwalk, but it ended up so full that some of the Boardwalk guests waiting to board wouldn't fit and had to wait for the next bus. Good thing we got on where we did!

We don't really love going to Downtown Disney, just because it seems to take for-freaking-ever to get there from any resort (save, you know, Saratoga Springs, etc.). So we were very surprised when the bus headed right to Downtown Disney from the Boardwalk. Whatever water park the route shares with was closed for refurb - Blizzard Beach maybe? We ended up arriving much earlier than we had expected. That meant we had time for shoopppppiiinnnggggg!

First stop was the Christmas store to order a personalized ornament. They had an option to ship it to our resort, which we took advantage of so that we wouldn't need to return to DtD during that trip. We picked the ornament up a couple of days later in the AKL gift shop...here's what it ended up looking like:

First side:

Second side:

The green writing and green/red stars were added by the CM. The red Mickey heads, snowflakes and stripes were already there. Whenever I get one of these I always just put the dates on, along with some kind of description of the weekend (i.e. "Marathon Weekend 2013" or whatever). The more Christmassy Mickey seemed to get the point across.

After ordering the ornament we got an iced caramel latte from Ghiradelli to share - it wasn't as good as I'd remembered, wahhhh. I think we also took a lap through TrenD, Team Mickey and World of Disney. I don't remember it being super crowded anywhere. Eventually it was almost time for our lunch ADR, so we checked in at Raglan Road a bit before 1PM.

We were led to a very small table near a faux fireplace. There were two squishy arm chairs at the table, and once I sank into mine I thought I'd never leave. I may have been getting extra sleep but you know how it is when you're sick - just that constant grogginess. This chair felt like heaven.

And then I was dealt a major blow...the whole reason I'd booked this lunch was to get the awesome parmesan risotto I'd eaten here in 2011. And the risotto was on the menu...in butternut squash form. Noooooo...so sad! Okay, I wasn't ACTUALLY sad. I definitely appreciate it when restaurants change up their dishes seasonally, and I really thought that was a Signature-only thing. No clue Raglan Road did that...I found that sort of impressive!

Um. Hello.

Bread and Guinness reduction, yummm

 

[Ariel484]

I think the missed risotto opportunity ended up being a good thing. We had a big dinner coming up that evening and I was also starting to feel like we were eating ALL OF THE FOOD ALL OF THE TIME. So I took this opportunity to get a lighter lunch: Caesar salad with the soup of the day (potato, bacon and...cabbage, I think - all pureed together).

LOL Will

This lunch was nothing mind-blowing, but it definitely hit the spot. The soup was really good and the salad was so refreshing after all of the heavier food we'd been eating. Just a good, solid meal.

Crap. I forget what sandwich Will got. In looking at Raglan Road's menu I'm thinking it was the prosciutto and chicken sandwich...garlic parmesan & truffle oil skinny fries on the side.

This is quite an attractive portrait.

I think he thought the sandwich was good, but was definitely disappointed that the fries didn't have a ton of flavor. Also, neither of us got beers at lunch...just stuck to water. I feel like such a bad Irish lass.

We also passed on dessert, which was tough to do after seeing multiple orders of the awesome Raglan Road bread pudding at the table next to ours. Maybe next time. So not an exactly earth-shattering lunch, but I think that's mostly a function of us ordering relatively simple stuff - we were pretty happy with it overall.

One interesting thing did happen when we got the bill for this meal. I've mentioned before that we were giving our Tables in Wonderland card a heckuva workout on this trip, and during the looooong planning phase I realized that we'd be blacked out on New Year's Eve AND New Year’'s Day (BOO to Tables in Wonderland blackout restrictions!! But that's for another thread).

But when our check came, I just sort of thought "eh, what the heck" and asked our server if they took Tables in Wonderland that day. And they did! So we saved ourselves an extra $5 (yep, the total cost for this meal was $25, which felt like a steal at the point) and I resolved to just ask our servers over the next 2 days if we could get the discount. Why not, right?!

 

[Ariel484]

After lunch we said farewell to Downtown Disney and headed back to AKL. Again, we had a quicker-than-expected bus ride, so that was awesome. This was also when we had our first - and last - Magic Band issue of the trip. Neither of our bands would open our room door. It was interesting because before we'd left that morning, I'd specifically made sure to test both of the new bands to make sure they worked, and they had. Now a few hours later they wouldn't for whatever reason.

So we headed down to the check-in desk and a CM (who seemed somewhat unsure of herself) spent about 5 minutes on them. Back to our room we went and voila! They worked perfectly. So there's the Magic Band drama for ya.

Once we were successfully back in the room we took our usual afternoon nap and showers. Then it was decision time.

When I'd made our ADRs, the second ADR I went for was one for dinner at 'Ohana this evening. Once that one was locked in I was pretty sure we wouldn't be able to change it - 'Ohana's one of the hardest ADRs to get at this point and we were going to be there at the busiest time of the year. Then this FP+ business started. I mentioned at the beginning of this thread that I'd done a lot of research for this trip, and one thing I had decided early on was that we were NOT going to Magic Kingdom (which actually close due to capacity during the afternoon on this day - also, apparently Space Mountain was up to a 220-minute wait!) or Epcot (apparently a 5-hour wait for Test Track -!!!, 4:10 wait for Soarin' and 60-minute wait for Spaceship Earth on this day) for New Year's Eve. Too much craziness. At the time, Animal Kingdom wasn't going to have late hours, so Hollywood Studios seemed like a good choice. When it was time to choose FP+ the attractions weren't tiered at the park yet and I scored FP+ for Toy Story, Rock & Rollercoaster and Tower of Terror. Unfortunately the Toy Story options were sparse and the only time I could get that somewhat made sense for us was 5-6PM...which would be before our dinner ADR. The other FP+ were for later that evening. So should we do Toy Story before dinner or would we be cutting it too close?

In the end...we went for it! Heck, we needed to get to the Polynesian, which meant switching buses at a park anyway...why not get in some Midway action on the way?!

So after the napping, showers and the bus ride we were cutting it close on our return time. I think we actually didn't even enter the park until 5:45. GO GO GO!

We made it! No dancing!

Time spent in the FP+ line...less than 5 minutes. Beautiful. I think this first round was my highest score of the week (126,000ish?). Will always kicks my butt on this ride. Also, per the WDWMagic Christmas 2013 phase closings thread (which is my source of almost all of these wait times and capacity closings, as I didn't feel like taking notes on that kind of stuff while we were there), this ride was out of FP+ by 9AM this day. 9 in the freaking morning! Flame me all you want, but I was so glad we were able to get FP+ this week!

 

[Zipadeelady]

My daughter was at Disney the same days you were with her High School Marching Band. So far the only days you've been at the same park on the same day is the 31st. Hope you didn't run into a group of 4-8 girls being rude or obnoxious. Really enjoying your report during this crazy busy time. Doesn't sound quite as bad as some have made it out to be.

 

[PartOfYourWorld]

Ugh I hate going to DtD by bus! It always takes forever! And I hear ya on the bus situation from the EPCOT resorts....they take forever, in May we would get off at like the Swan and Dolphin and walk it was much faster. And I figured for this coming may if we want to go to the Magic Kingdom....we just go to EPCOT in the morning and take the monorail over! Nice scenery vs. a bus! But we'll see.

Can I ask a question...how did Will fit that sandwich in his mouth..in the picture it looks HUGE!

Score for a quick ride on TSMM! Usually if you're two people they send you up that right side staircase too. It's happened every time to me with my mom and when I went with Mike for a while now.

 

[Ariel484]

My daughter was at Disney the same days you were with her High School Marching Band. So far the only days you've been at the same park on the same day is the 31st. Hope you didn't run into a group of 4-8 girls being rude or obnoxious. Really enjoying your report during this crazy busy time. Doesn't sound quite as bad as some have made it out to be.

You know, I think there were a lot of HS marching bands there when we were...including the one from the school where Will teaches! We never managed to run into them though. Don't worry, I don't recall running into rude or obnoxious groups of girls.

It really wasn't that bad, but I think that's mostly due to how we approached it - we went into the trip expecting the crowds and knowing we wouldn't get a ton of rides in (even though we ended up with more than we expected thanks to FP+). This trip was very much more about "taking it all in," visiting the resorts, having great dinners, booking other experiences, etc.

Ugh I hate going to DtD by bus! It always takes forever! And I hear ya on the bus situation from the EPCOT resorts....they take forever, in May we would get off at like the Swan and Dolphin and walk it was much faster. And I figured for this coming may if we want to go to the Magic Kingdom....we just go to EPCOT in the morning and take the monorail over! Nice scenery vs. a bus! But we'll see.

We've done the Swan and Dolphin trick too. You monorail route is a good idea, the bus sharing is just so ridiculous!

Can I ask a question...how did Will fit that sandwich in his mouth..in the picture it looks HUGE!

Haha! It's just the presentation that makes it look huge, it's a regular-sized sandwich cut in half with one half stacked on top of the other. He still had a little trouble with it since we were getting so full by that point!

Score for a quick ride on TSMM! Usually if you're two people they send you up that right side staircase too. It's happened every time to me with my mom and when I went with Mike for a while now.

They sent us that way later in the week but not this time. I love when they do that though!

 

[Ariel484]

And just like that, we said TTFN to Hollywood. Time to eat again!

We caught a bus to the Polynesian and checked in for our 'Ohana ADR. I didn't take any pictures this time since we'd just eaten here the month before...except for this one. Check out Will's girly drink (the pink one!):

The orange one is mine...an Island Sunset, of course. I can't for the life of my remember what Will got (a Mcccaw something?), but I know he liked it.

Since reports are always better with pictures I'm going to cheat and put in the 'Ohana pictures I grabbed on our last trip. Everything was the same.

Love the newer mango salad dressing.

Our favorite non-dessert course!

No pictures of the meats since they always look gross to me in pictures. I stuck to the chicken and beef.

DESSERT!

After the meal was over we both agreed that we need a break from this place. The food is still good but doesn't seem QUITE as good as it used to be (ETA: At least I think, Will has informed me that he does not agree!), and for me personally, I hate coming away from a restaurant feeling uncomfortably full, which always seems to happen here. Plus, this was the trip of us starting to really freak out over those all-you-can-eat prices (unlike Raglan Road, 'Ohana turned down my Tables in Wonderland attempt, as I thought they would). So nothing bad happened at this meal, but we've eaten here on our last 4 trips in a row. I think it's time for us to try other places for awhile.

 

[Ariel484]

After we ate and then headed back to Hollywood for New Year's Eve! Hollywood Boulevard was pretty crowded - there was a DJ spinning tunes on a stage in front of the hat. Once we got past the BAH it wasn't bad at all. I'm pretty sure there was a location set up where we could get hats and noisemakers (SO annoying to hear those things over and over for the rest of the trip! ) but we never really looked.

Our next FP+ time wasn’t until 10-11PM, which I did on purpose so we'd have lots of time to recover from 'Ohana. So our first stop was Muppet Vision 3D...always a classic, and with a 5-minute wait to boot!

After Muppets we strolled over to look at the Osborne Lights, Will's first time seeing them in person. I didn't take any pictures (in fact now that I think about it I didn't take my camera with me at all this evening - GASP So all of these photos are phone pictures) but they were just as awesome as usual. I also found the Writer's Stop for the first time...I've always heard about it but never knew where it was. If I wasn't so full from dinner I may have gotten a treat there. Also, I know this is the rumored location for the DHS Starbucks, which seems odds to me. It's so small and out of the way! Plus, it's such a cool and unique place within the parks...I hope they don't make it into the DHS Starbucks and do to it what they did to the Main Street Bakery (and this is coming from someone that is VERY much in favor of having Starbucks in the parks).

Anyway...it was now time for our Rock & Rollercoaster FP+ (I think we were closer to the end of our return window at 11PM). We headed to Sunset and...there were people. A lot of people. And a HUGE line for FP+ along with a 150-minute standby. I'm sorry, but WHO waits that long for RNR?! Isn't that ride, like, less than 2 minutes long???

So this would be our one FP+ issue of the trip (although this morning I did think of a second FP+ issue, but I'm still undecided as to how I feel about it...let's discuss later, yes?). Anyway, the giant line wasn't because of FP+ logistics or MyMagic+ screwing up our vacation or anything like that. Nope, it turns out RNR was down and had been for quite a bit, so no one was riding - no one in FP+, no one in standby, not even Mickey Mouse himself. We debated waiting it out and actually hopped in line a few minutes later when the ride came back up, but we didn't last very long - the ride broke down AGAIN so we gave up and left. Plus, if a ride is breaking down over and over within the same short timeframe, maaaaayyyybe I don't really wanna ride it just then, ya know?!

Luckily our next FP+ return window opened up afterward for our very favorite - the Tower of Terror! How appropriate that this would be our final ride of the year.

Amazing as usual. I screamed and clapped like a gleeful child.

So by now it was, I don't know, 11:45 or so? Once again, we were planning to stay for fireworks...once again, we bagged it and left early. I'd had grand visions of us watching the fireworks and then staying until park closing (2AM) but we're old and we were still sick (well, I still was)...just wasn't gonna happen. We got a bus back to AKL and spent our first few minutes of 2014 on that Disney bus heading back to the lodge. It was kind of neat because as we headed back we could see the fireworks from each of the parks, sans crowds. Not bad, not bad.

 

[Ariel484]

When we arrived back at the resort, these was actually a band playing in the lobby and the ground was covered in confetti! It had never occurred to us to see what the resort was doing for New Year's Eve. I wish we'd asked at check-in...if we had I think we may have gotten earlier FP+ at the Studios and then headed back to ring in the new year at the lodge. Something to remember for next time. I wonder if all of the resorts have special New Year's activities?

We got back to the room I ran around taking pictures of the details I liked best in our room for INSTAGRAM! Woohoo!

Shower tiles:

The sink tile again:

Bedspread:

Edge of the TV cabinet:

Lizard/snake mirror...this was probably my favorite thing:

Carpeting:

One thing I repeatedly did on this day - and every day of this trip before it - was remind myself that WE DIDN'T HAVE TO LEAVE YET! My brain is so tuned in to those race trip schedules where we're in and out in 4 days or whatever. And here we were at the end of day 4 and the trip was only half over!! WOOHOO!

After my little photo shoot we finally feasted on our cupcakes...here's Will's. It's the Seasonal Cupcake from The Mara (vanilla with peppermint icing), the one I grabbed for him on check-in day. Love the candy cane sprinkles.

He liked it! Chocolate filling I think?

Here's mine from the Boardwalk Bakery...the Strawberry Cupcake. It has fruit on it so it's health food.

OM NOM NOM NOM! I pretty much love anything with strawberry in it, so this is definitely a winner! Not quite as good as the Red Velvet Cupcake from Starring Rolls in DHS (nothing in life is), but definitely #2 on my list.

I think if we hadn't been sickies we would have maybe grabbed some champagne to toast the New Year. Toasting with cupcakes wasn't half bad, though. Bye-bye 2013!

 

[PolynesianPrincess]

So I really SHOULD be getting ahead of my work since I'm off for 4 days next week BUT - trip reports are so much better!!

I hear ya on the all you care to enjoy places. I never feel like I eat enough. I know at character meals, we usually say we're ppaying for the character interaction and not the food, so those make me feel a little better about justifying the cost. We're letting our APs lapse after they expire so therefor, no TIW card anymore either until I become a Florida resident. I think after we're done with the TIW card, the higher priced places we will stay away from. Then again, we don't really have many WDW plans this year other than one night before our cruise in November and 1 night after. We plan on doing the Christmas party and the Jingle Jungle 5k, but other than that, no parks. I feel until they start adding new things, there isn't a reason to go back as often, as much as I LOVE WDW

Ummm, hello strawberry cupcake! We're checking into BWV on Saturday and guess what my snack of choice will be? Yup! Strawberry cupcake!! Yummo!!

 

[Tiggerish]

Ohhhh, those cupcakes look good!! Glad you pointed out that the sprinkles were actually shaped like candy canes--how cute is that??

Makes sense that the resorts would have NYE celebrations. At least you enjoyed your midnight watching fireworks on the bus.

 

[Ariel484]

So I really SHOULD be getting ahead of my work since I'm off for 4 days next week BUT - trip reports are so much better!!

Yeah they are! Who cares about work?!

I hear ya on the all you care to enjoy places. I never feel like I eat enough. I know at character meals, we usually say we're ppaying for the character interaction and not the food, so those make me feel a little better about justifying the cost. We're letting our APs lapse after they expire so therefor, no TIW card anymore either until I become a Florida resident. I think after we're done with the TIW card, the higher priced places we will stay away from. Then again, we don't really have many WDW plans this year other than one night before our cruise in November and 1 night after. We plan on doing the Christmas party and the Jingle Jungle 5k, but other than that, no parks. I feel until they start adding new things, there isn't a reason to go back as often, as much as I LOVE WDW

Ah, see, for us, we're paying more for the food than the characters. I've heard many times that Garden Grill is good (and it was!) so that's why I wanted to try it. If they had an a la carte menu, that would be super. Oh well! TiW isn't going to work for us this coming year either, unfortunately. I'll have an annual pass again but I don't think we'll be spending enough on our Table Service meals to break even, especially now that it costs $100 for the TiW card. Oh well.

Ummm, hello strawberry cupcake! We're checking into BWV on Saturday and guess what my snack of choice will be? Yup! Strawberry cupcake!! Yummo!!

YES YOU MUST. That one has been on my list to try for years...literally. I think it used to be a seasonal offering in the spring but they must have it there all the time now! It was soooo good.

Ohhhh, those cupcakes look good!! Glad you pointed out that the sprinkles were actually shaped like candy canes--how cute is that??

Makes sense that the resorts would have NYE celebrations. At least you enjoyed your midnight watching fireworks on the bus.

Yes to the cupcakes! I had more I wanted to try on this trip but, sadly, these were the only ones we got.

Honestly, it never occurred to me that the resorts would have NYE stuff. I new the Grand Floridian had something but I never thought to ask at AKL. Next time, for sure!

 

[diddy_mouse]

I totally agree about the bus sharing at the Epcot resorts! I adore that area but I hate knowing that the buses get you nowhere fast. I think the last time we tried the buses from Yacht & Beach was way back in '07 and we were trying to get to DTD. To me, that is the hardest place to get to and from on property unless you take the boat from POFQ/Riverside or walk from Saratoga. /end rant

Ohana looked delicious as usual. I really need to make an ADR there and keep it.

Fantastic details from The Lodge.

Oh and that feeling when you realize you still have vacation days left?

 

[Bam Bam]

I am loving your report! It is making me need a trip to the world really bad Your puppy is just adorable!Just wanted to chime in to let you know that I'm loving it so far and your only half done!

 

[PartOfYourWorld]

We've done the Swan and Dolphin trick too. You monorail route is a good idea, the bus sharing is just so ridiculous!

Haha! It's just the presentation that makes it look huge, it's a regular-sized sandwich cut in half with one half stacked on top of the other. He still had a little trouble with it since we were getting so full by that point!

They sent us that way later in the week but not this time. I love when they do that though!

haha I guess looks can be deceiving! Different way to present a sandwich.

Even though your pictures from Ohana were from another trip, I am excited to try it out for dinner as a celebratory dinner after the Princess Half! I've never been for dinner so it all looks sooo yummy!

And I had to go back at that candy cane sprinkled cupcake when I read Siobhans post, because at first I didn't realize the sprinkles were actually shaped like candy canes!

 

[Ariel484]

I totally agree about the bus sharing at the Epcot resorts! I adore that area but I hate knowing that the buses get you nowhere fast. I think the last time we tried the buses from Yacht & Beach was way back in '07 and we were trying to get to DTD. To me, that is the hardest place to get to and from on property unless you take the boat from POFQ/Riverside or walk from Saratoga. /end rant

I mean, right?? That's really the only thing that's kept me from wanting to return to an Epcot resort for our past couple of trips (well, that and price). DtD is always a challenge - I've done the POFQ/RS boat and the Saratoga walk and those were the only times it was somewhat bearable!

Ohana looked delicious as usual. I really need to make an ADR there and keep it.

Haha, there's always one that gets bumped from the list! For me it's The Plaza - I've really wanted to try that place for quite awhile and it always just misses making the cut.

Fantastic details from The Lodge.

Thanks! Love that place!

Oh and that feeling when you realize you still have vacation days left?

YESSSSS. It was the best!

I am loving your report! It is making me need a trip to the world really bad Your puppy is just adorable!Just wanted to chime in to let you know that I'm loving it so far and your only half done!

Thank you for reading, and for the kind words regarding the pup! I think he is quite adorable too! And hooray, only half done!!!

haha I guess looks can be deceiving! Different way to present a sandwich.

Even though your pictures from Ohana were from another trip, I am excited to try it out for dinner as a celebratory dinner after the Princess Half! I've never been for dinner so it all looks sooo yummy!

Ooh, that's a good one to pick for a celebratory race dinner! The only time I ever felt like I was able to eat my money's worth at 'Ohana was last year when we had dinner there the evening between the WDW Half and Full Marathons!

And I had to go back at that candy cane sprinkled cupcake when I read Siobhans post, because at first I didn't realize the sprinkles were actually shaped like candy canes!

It's those Disney Details, my friend!

 

[Ariel484]

Day 5: Wednesday, January 1, 2014

We started the year off waking up in Walt Disney World! That's a sign of good things to come, right?!

One bad thing...this was my third planned day at the gym that I skipped out on. 0-3. Maybe not the best way to start the new year.

ANYWAY...we slept in again, but not as late as some of the other days. A little after 9 we were down at The Mara ready to feast on these beauties:

YUUUMMMMM.

After breakfast we headed back to the Studios for another round of Midway Mania!

Kick me off the boards if you want, but we were HUGE fans of having FP+ on this trip. Yes, it sucks making "ride appointments" weeks in advance. Yes, it required some micro-managing on my part ahead of time. But when I originally was planning this trip I knew we'd had to get to the parks at rope drop every day and run to the Fastpass machines if we wanted to ride certain attractions without a crazy wait time. FP+ allowed us to *GASP* sleep in, yet still be able to ride the E-tickets without huge waits. It was so incredibly valuable during such a busy week where we ended up unexpectedly needing the extra sleep (I've been trying not to mention it too much in the report, because it would get old to hear it every other sentence, but I was still struggling with this awful cold of mine). This morning, for example, we had a Toy Story FP+ with a return time of 9:25AM - 10:25AM...so we casually arrived at the park at 10 and were on the ride mere minutes later. It was pretty awesome.

After Toy Story we headed to drawing class!

This is one of our favorite things to do in WDW. This time the CM leading the class spent a loooong time asking what characters everyone had already drawn so he could pick one that not a lot of people had done yet...which was nice but left us crunched for time when it came to the actual drawing part. We ended up drawing Carl Fredrickson, a new one for both of us. These drawings never come out super-well, but it's still a really fun thing to do. Yay!

Our next FP+ was for Tower of Terror (10:25AM-11:25AM return window). LOVE. Here I am clapping like a happy child (front row all the way to the left in the long-sleeved grey shirt):

Last in our line-up was Rock & Rollercoaster, which was actually working today. I have to face facts on this one...I just really do not love this ride. It's SO short and the launch at the beginning gives me a freaking heart attack. I like the rest of it though. I'm good for about one RNR ride per trip.

 

[Ariel484]

With our Hollywood morning done, we left the park and made the walk to Epcot. We hadn't been to Le Cellier since, I think, 2011 (we've always thought it was overrated) but after enjoying our Food & Wine samples from the Canada stand so much during Food & Wine the month before I'd made us an ADR for lunch about two weeks before the trip. We arrived and were seated at about 12:35PM.

When I'd first made the ADR I was sort of thinking/hoping we'd each get the cheddar cheese soup and split a filet. But we just weren't hungry enough for that, so we changed things up a bit.

First we put in an order for the Heirloom Tomato - house-made mozzarella, tomato gelee, lavash, micro basil, vinegar. Neither of us are huge fans of tomato, but we do like caprese salads, which is what this sounded like to us when we read the menu. Here's what came out:

WHERE'S ALL THE MOZZARELLA?! So sad. We later agreed that if we could go back in time we'd pick something else! We did eat what was there though...the tomatoes were okay and the small portions of mozzarella were good. Will tried the lavash tomato gelee (the white cube-like thing on the left-hand side of the plate - thanks @LindsayLoves for the correction! ) and described it as "tomato-flavored Jell-o." I decided to avoid that one.

For our "entrees" we both got a bowl of the cheddar cheese soup. Yum! Our server was awesome and brought us lots of pretzel bread.

This was a good lunch but just another one that solidified our desire to stick to counter service lunches and breakfasts from now on. Glad we tried it though. Also, they did not take my Tables in Wonderland card. Still blacked out!

After lunch we walked through Epcot and out to the bus stop...we were back at Jambo in time for a short nap (still necessary...I think my sickness was starting to go away by now though, so yay! ). I woke up just in time to see something very exciting from our window...BABY ZEBRA!

Mom zebra...had the wrong lens on my camera, unfortunately, so I had to crop the crap out of these.

WITTLE BABY ZEBWA SQUEEEEE

I got way too excited about that.

 

[LindsayLoves]

Your food photos are killing me, which is partly my fault for checking in with your report right before lunchtime. As a rule Mickey waffles and cupcakes will always be wayyyy better than my lame brought from home salad.

I am also glad that your vacation isn't over after 3-4 days, more fantastic photos to look forward to.

Just a heads up the lavash is the bread/cracker type thing propped up next to the tomatoes.