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]

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.

Mickey waffles and cupcakes are better than most food...let's be honest. I feel your pain, I'm sitting here eating an apple right now.

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

Why thank you.

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

ACK! Thank you! Duh, I should have known that the cube thing was the tomato gelee...I mean, it says "tomato" right in the name.

 

[Ariel484]

But now, something else to be excited about...WINE!

I first read about the Jiko Wine Tasting on the Disney Food Blog. It's held each Wednesday and for about $30 one gets an hours-worth of wine education, including the opportunity to sample 3 wines along with some cheese and fruit. Over the last few years I've really started to prefer wine over beer and mixed drinks (except for certain instances...for example, when one hangs out in a cabana on Castaway Cay, it's much more fun to down Coronas rather than sitting there sipping red wine ). But I still know next to nothing about wine, so this was something I really wanted to check out. Will agreed to come along even though he's pretty much strictly a beer drinker.

And BONUS...it was at Jiko, right in our resort. We're quite fond of Jiko...it was our big, fancy dinner on our honeymoon in 2009. We also had Thanksgiving dinner there with Will's parents later that year.

I LOVE the decor in here. We have a room in our house with super high ceilings and I have no idea what to do with it. Maybe Jiko can sell me these birds and I can hang them up. That'll look totally normal in a tri-level in the Midwest, right?!

I think this display may have been made of chocolate...

Jiko's Christmas tree:

There ended up being 7 of us total in the "class." Our table was already set up and the tasting started at 3PM.

I'm pretty sure this is the same cheese plate served at dinner. The orange stuff next to the strawberries was some sort of honeysuckle. The purple cube thing by the crackers was actually another gelee, but unlike the Le Cellier one it was berry-flavored and tasty. To the right of the plate is a piece of paper with the names of our wines printed out for note-taking, along with a card describing the cheese plate.

Our tasting this afternoon was run by CM Marty and featured 3 red blends...the Black Pearl (cabernet/shiraz blend), The Left Bank (shiraz/merlot blend) and Thelema Mountain Red (shiraz, petit verdot, cabernet, merlot, grenach blend). Interestingly, they were all screw-top wines. Marty said that's something that used to be looked-down-on, but as the technology gets better and better more wines are going this route. The main reason being they want to prevent cork-tainted wine...where the wine bottle is stored on its side and some sort of bacteria grows in the cork, which they gets into the wine. Um, yuck. Anyway this was all welcome news to me as I'm kind of a dummy when it comes to uncorking a wine bottle. Screw-top wine, I can handle that no problem. I'm a champ.

So basically all of the wines looked like this...seemed kind of silly to take 3 separate pictures.

I can't remember all of what Marty said, but this was a really fun experience. He was super knowledgeable about wine in general, particularly South African wine and what regions of South Africa produce certain blends (best climates to grow certain grapes, how they're harvested, etc.). Apparently Jiko has done a lot for South African vineyards by bringing their wines to Disney and selling them. Whenever a South African wine distributor has new wine, they always call Jiko first. Pretty cool.

Anyway, the Black Pearl was far and away my favorite, followed by the Left Bank, then the Thelema Mountain Red. I mostly like white wines but I like smooth reds, and the Black Pearl was definitely smooth. I liked it so much that I've been trying to look into how to get it at home, and so far it looks like the only way I can get it is through an online dealer. Hmm...

So anyway, we basically sat there drinking our wine and listening to Marty talk. He also encouraged us to ask lots of questions. I wish I'd come up with more to ask, but I'm such a wine dummy I didn't even know where to start. I did come away from the experience knowing I like smoother reds with pronounced berry flavors, so that was good to know (so basically it sounds like I like wines that taste the most like juice ). Will really liked the tasting too...I think he's getting more into wine after this trip, especially reds. His favorite was the Left Bank.

HOWEVER...this was 3 tastings of wine. And, in general we do NOT drink very much. Will has a beer with dinner maybe 4 nights a week and I normally have one glass of wine per week. One PER WEEK. Soooo...by the end of this thing we were feeling goooood.

So I would definitely recommend this experience to anyone wanting to learn a little more about wine. For $30 I thought it was a pretty good deal and would love to do it again - the neat thing about it is that the CM running the tasting (there are 2, Marty and one other) picks the wines beforehand sort of on a whim, so when we do it again it could be all whites, some whites and reds, or maybe 3 totally different reds than what we'd just tried...never the same 3. Very cool. Cheers!

 

[LindsayLoves]

I think this display may have been made of chocolate...

You should have tasted it to make sure it was chocolate for more accurate trip reporting

That cheese plate looks delish! I am glad to hear the the gelee worked out better this time around.

Also if you want to see how crazy serious wine can get look up the documentary "Som" on Netflix, the people on in the movie have palettes that are out of this world. Have you ever tasted "garden hose" in your wine or "dead rose petals"? Apparently these people can.

 

[Maryssa*]

WITTLE BABY ZEBWA SQUEEEEE

I got way too excited about that.

OH MY GOSSSHHHH. Did your man look at you like you were a crazy person when this happened, lol? Because I know that look well from when I squeal over cute animals.

 

[Ariel484]

You should have tasted it to make sure it was chocolate for more accurate trip reporting

My apologies to the trip report reading community for that oversight.

That cheese plate looks delish! I am glad to hear the the gelee worked out better this time around.

It was! The sort of melty-looking one all the way to the left was my favorite. I'm thinking it was some kind of brie?

Also if you want to see how crazy serious wine can get look up the documentary "Som" on Netflix, the people on in the movie have palettes that are out of this world. Have you ever tasted "garden hose" in your wine or "dead rose petals"? Apparently these people can.

Awesome, thanks for the recommendation! Haha, no, I have never tasted "garden hose" or "dead rose petals" in my wine. I mean, whaaaa? That's hilarious!

OH MY GOSSSHHHH. Did your man look at you like you were a crazy person when this happened, lol? Because I know that look well from when I squeal over cute animals.

He enjoyed seeing the baby zebra but wasn't quiiiiite as excited as I was. Who knows, he could have been looking at me like I was crazy and I didn't notice because I was too busy freaking out over the zebra!

 

[Tiggerish]

I love Black Pearl!! I discovered it a number of years ago at the Yachtsman Steakhouse and was able to find a few bottles at a local wine shop a couple years ago, and last year, I was at a different wine shop and they had quite a supply of it, so I bought a whole case!

Find a local wine shop and see if they can order it for you. I'll check on one of the bottles I have at home to find out who's the importer, that will probably help you find a shop that will order it.

I know you've mentioned making another trip during F&W Fest, and if you're starting to get into wine you'll enjoy the wine seminars. I find the cooking demonstrations to be a better value, though, as they started having one of the wine guys join in and pair a wine to the dish that's being demonstrated, and explain why the pairing works. You only get one wine with the cooking demo, while the wine seminars compare three wines, but they only give you crackers. Crackers < Real Food.

The baby zebra is adorable. Definitely squeal-worthy. How many pictures of him did you take? I would have taken dozens that would have all looked pretty much the same, but hey--baby zebra!!

 

[mishel635]

Still loving your trip report! And I love the wine tasting!!! I live in western New York in grape country and we have a wine trail with about 14 wineries so I'm a huge wine enthusiast!! (Sounds better than wine-o don't you think? ). If we are ever there without the kiddos we will definitely try it!

 

[Ariel484]

I love Black Pearl!! I discovered it a number of years ago at the Yachtsman Steakhouse and was able to find a few bottles at a local wine shop a couple years ago, and last year, I was at a different wine shop and they had quite a supply of it, so I bought a whole case!

Find a local wine shop and see if they can order it for you. I'll check on one of the bottles I have at home to find out who's the importer, that will probably help you find a shop that will order it.

Oh, that's so cool that you found it in a wine store near you! I actually DID end up order some (6 bottles) from some website - WineDeals.com or something similar, and it's supposed to be delivered TODAY! I'll be very surprised if that happens - I swear I selected the slowest shipping option - but even with that it came out to about $20 per bottle. If it's as good as we remember it being I'll definitely be interested in getting a case next time. And if the delivery option goes poorly for any reason I'm going to take your suggestion of calling around to get it ordered in.

I know you've mentioned making another trip during F&W Fest, and if you're starting to get into wine you'll enjoy the wine seminars. I find the cooking demonstrations to be a better value, though, as they started having one of the wine guys join in and pair a wine to the dish that's being demonstrated, and explain why the pairing works. You only get one wine with the cooking demo, while the wine seminars compare three wines, but they only give you crackers. Crackers < Real Food.

Yeah, I'm hoping to make a Food & Wine trip happen at some point...maybe not this year but definitely in the next couple of years. Thanks for letting me know that there's a wine pairing at the food demonstrations, I'll definitely keep that in mind! Crackers just would not cut it.

The baby zebra is adorable. Definitely squeal-worthy. How many pictures of him did you take? I would have taken dozens that would have all looked pretty much the same, but hey--baby zebra!!

I have at least 10 because we saw him again later!!

Still loving your trip report! And I love the wine tasting!!! I live in western New York in grape country and we have a wine trail with about 14 wineries so I'm a huge wine enthusiast!! (Sounds better than wine-o don't you think? ). If we are ever there without the kiddos we will definitely try it!

Thanks! That wine trail sounds so cool! Yes, wine enthusiast sounds good, I'd consider myself a wine enthusiast-in-training at this point (although we did throw around the term "wine-o" a lot on this trip ). The tasting was a very neat experience, I would definitely recommend it.

 

[Ariel484]

After our wine tasting we relaxed/sobered up in the room for awhile before hopping on a bus to Epcot. The plan for this evening (besides dinner) was to just walk around and sort of take it all in. Strolling around the World Showcase in the evening is one of my favorite things to do - we didn't look at any wait times or attempt to ride any rides. Also, I left the camera in the room again. It was so nice!

But before that, we had a late ADR at Via Napoli. We gave the hostess our name and sat down to wait. The park didn't seem super crowded, but we did see at least 5 parties attempt to get walk-ups that were turned away. One guy got pretty upset about it ("I paid all this money, I traveled all this way..." etc.). AWKWARD.

We were seated decently quickly and both decided to get individual pizzas. Will got the sausage/chorizo one and I got my usual pepperoni.

Instagram shot!

SOOOOOO GOOD. We love this place - I'd put it up there with Sanaa as our favorite non-Signature Table Service restaurant in WDW. I think we've been here 5 times or so now and it's always been pretty awesome. Plus, it was a relatively cheap (by Disney standards) meal, even though they didn't take my Tables in Wonderland card (so I was 1-for-4 in my attempts - not bad since I hadn't been expecting to be able to use it at all on 12/31 and 1/1). We'd both agreed that the wine tasting had helped us reach our alcohol quota for the day, so we stuck to water and were too full for dessert. So the meal cost about $50 with tip, which seemed like a bargain after our other dinners that week.

 

[Ariel484]

We had nothing specific on the agenda after dinner, but eventually we found ourselves in Japan...and I decided to Pick-A-Pearl!

This was one instance where I wish I'd had my camera with me - it was so fun! The CMs here were hilarious. They were just SO excited about everything! They made a really huge deal about everyone that picked their pearls - "Good job! That's such a beautiful pearl!" etc.

So I told the CM I wanted to do it and she (excitedly) handed me a ticket. The woman in front of me finished and it was my turn!

There were a few other guests around watching and the CM made some speech about the pearl picking process (I wish I'd paid better attention, but I was sort of nervous and overwhelmed at the number of people watching - I'm so dumb ). And then it was time for me to choose!

I'd heard that sometimes a person can get really lucky and pick an oyster with 2 pearls, and I was really hoping that would happen here. Either that or I'd get a silvery/grey pearl. I'm really into the color grey lately, for whatever reason - I swear I'm not a depressing person or anything, just like the color a lot. I'd seen suggestions online to pick the ugliest, hairiest looking oyster, but I forget what picking an oyster like that was supposed to help you get - a bigger pearl? two pearls? Who knows. But it seemed like some sort of strategy so I went with it. I found an ugly, hairy oyster and the CM fished it out. She taught me to count down from 3 in Japanese (of course now I don't remember how to do it) and then opened the oyster. The result?

A silvery grey pearl! So I got one of my wishes!

It was so hilarious because the CMs FLIPPED OUT. I know they have to make a big show of it because there are other guests around and they want to make it seem exciting so others will do it too, but they really did sort of make me feel like I accomplished something. All of that hard work I did looking at the oysters and pointing to one really paid off! They were even asking me what my secret was, since I guess a small percentage (5-10%) of the pearls are silvery grey (others are the traditional white or have a more pink sheen).

They cleaned and measured my pearl (6.75mm) and asked if they could show it to the others guests (I said yes - again, I'm sure they want to drum up excitement so others will participate). After the pearl is picked and cleaned you can either take it with you or have them put a setting on it. As you can see in the picture I opted to have them put the setting on. There was one I'd seen online that I liked where the pearl sits in small "cage" shaped like Cinderella's Carriage (similar to this one), but it was HUGE in person. I'm pretty minimal when it comes to jewelry and I just wanted something sort of simple and small - that huge (to me) Carriage one did not fit the bill. Will helped me pick out the winning setting (it's white gold with cubic zirconia) and the CMs gave me a ticket to come back at 8:45PM, just before park closing, to pick it up.

I have to say, I felt sort of silly wanting to try this but I'm really glad that I did! It was a fun memory and now I have something Disney that I can wear that isn't obviously Disney at all. The cost to pick the pearl was $17, and getting the setting added was about $30 I think. They told me to let the setting dry overnight (part of attaching it to the pearl involves using glue) and said if I have any issues I can bring it back. I haven't actually worn the pearl yet because I still need to get a chain - the ones in the pavilion were $100+ and I didn't feel like spending that much just then! Hopefully I can find something good and more affordable here at home.

 

[Ariel484]

In between the initial pearl picking and returning back to Japan to get the finished pearl/setting, we just walked around a bit. The weather had been pretty decent all week - I think we were in jeans and sweatshirts at this point - and Epcot wasn't super crowded. They were also playing the Illuminations pre-show music, which I LOVE. It was pretty much a perfect evening, and we didn't ride any rides or see any of the movies or anything. We just walked around and hung out together. One of my only regrets from this trip is that we didn't do more of this at the other parks - Hollywood Studios and Animal Kingdom in particular. The times we went there we always had FP+ set up and were just zipping from attraction to attraction, and I wish we'd gone to those parks with zero FP+ at least once. Just to walk around and do nothing...if that makes sense. Definitely something I want to do in the future.

We grabbed ice cream cones from the crepes stand in France (YUUUUMMMMM) and picked up the pearl before making our way out of the park in hopes of beating the crowds. Illuminations began as we were leaving, so we got to see a good portion of that.

Pre-firework:

FIREWORK!

Our bus pulled up pretty quickly and we were back at AKL. Hooray! By now we'd had 5+ hours to detox from our wine tasting, so we headed to Victoria Falls in AKL for a late-night drink.

Chocolate Martini for me! I forget what Will had.

This was gooood ...tasted like chocolate milk! Also - the CM took our Tables in Wonderland card here! Woohoo!

So that was the end to our first day of 2014 - having drinks in an awesome bar/lounge area and talking about how great the trip had been so far and how much we were loving Animal Kingdom Lodge. I think we hung out there for at least an hour or so. Pretty great way to end the day.

 

[prfctlyximprct]

i remember they said it sounds like son knee itchy! to countdown in japan haha

 

[LisaBelle]

Really enjoying your TR. Chocolate martini looks heavenly. Love the setting you chose for your pearl. Your report makes me want to try picking my own pearl on our next visit.

 

[cfry06]

I love pick-a-pearl! I felt a little silly too, but it was so very fun! I have now done it twice. I may have to try one more time...I would love a silver/gray pearl! How pretty! Great pick .

Enjoying the report, thanks for sharing!

 

[Ariel484]

i remember they said it sounds like son knee itchy! to countdown in japan haha

YES! That was it! You paid better attention than I did!

Really enjoying your TR. Chocolate martini looks heavenly. Love the setting you chose for your pearl. Your report makes me want to try picking my own pearl on our next visit.

Thank you! The chocolate martini was quite lovely...just like dessert.

The pearl Picking was very fun and not too expensive! My only regret is that I didn't have the camera there to take pictures. The Japan CMs really make it a fun event.

I love pick-a-pearl! I felt a little silly too, but it was so very fun! I have now done it twice. I may have to try one more time...I would love a silver/gray pearl! How pretty! Great pick .

Enjoying the report, thanks for sharing!

I could see myself doing the pearl picking again! It was a very cool experience. Thank you for reading!

 

[FlaggNL]

love the pearl And off course the rest of the TR!!

 

[Ariel484]

love the pearl And off course the rest of the TR!!

Thanks!

 

[Ariel484]

Day 6: Thursday, January 2, 2014

GOOD MORNING! NO SLEEPING!

After a quick breakfast at The Mara (egg croissant thing for Will, banana + muffin for me, coffee for all) we were back at the Magic Kingdom.

Good morning!

By now I was really enjoying not lugging my camera around, so once again, I didn't bring it with me. I also didn't take notes, so I can't totally remember what we did this morning. Bad trip reporter!

PEOPLE.

Once again, Main Street was slightly nuts. And once again, as soon as we left Main Street we found we could breathe again.

Again, I can't totally remember what happened when, but I'm pretty sure that this was the day we tried 2 classic Tomorrowland attractions for the first time. Both were walk-ons. We really liked one and really, really did not like the other...and I almost don't want to name them because you guys won't want to be my friends anymore. So I'll just leave it at that.

We also did Philharmagic! One of my favorites!

 

[Ariel484]

But today's main attraction was a new experience for us - lunch at Liberty Tree Tavern. This one, like Garden Grill (and The Plaza, which was bumped from our list this time) has been on my to-try list for awhile.

We were given the a la carte menu for lunch and we put in our orders. Will ordered the Freedom Pasta (fusilli pasta with veggies in a cream sauce - the names of the dishes at this place were slightly hilarious to me) and I went with the pot roast (debating between that and the "Declaration Salad" - LOL!). No pictures, oops!

We both really liked our meals! Will's pasta was very, very good - the portion was so big that I think he was intimidated by it. We were definitely close to hitting a food wall at this point. The pot roast was really tender (could pull it apart with my fork) and the sauce was so rich and savory. Really great with the veggies. Two thumbs up!

During the meal we could see parts of the the parade through the window across the way from us. At the time I didn't realize that this was one of the last performances of Celebrate a Dream Come True. Maybe it actually was THE last one? Not sure...but if I had known maybe I would have made more of an effort to actually watch it, as we had never seen it before. Ah well. I'll have to watch it on YouTube or something.

Despite the threat of a food wall, I HAD to try the Ooey Gooey Toffee cake.

So good I wanted to cry. One of my favorite desserts at WDW.

I'd have to say that this place was a pleasant surprise. This was our first-ever Table Service meal at the Magic Kingdom and I think we weren't expecting much since MK Table Services seem to get somewhat negative reviews. I'm not sure we’ll go back for lunch (again - cost), however, the lunch menu is more appealing to us than the all-you-can-eat dinner option. So who knows. But this was a very good lunch!

 

[farrellbarrel]

I love it so far! The pictures are great!!!