Trip Report Two Turkeys at WDW & Merrytime Disney Cruise November 2016

Hello! My husband and I (two turkeys) just got back from WDW & a Merrytime Disney Cruise and I thought I would share our adventures. All of you are welcome to read but I'm going to tag a few of you that I know have followed along before. (Or at least those I can remember.) I look forward to reading your reactions!


I have shared a few of our other adventures and if you are interested here are some links:

Disneyland
http://forums.wdwmagic.com/threads/disneyland-forever-july-2016.917141/
http://forums.wdwmagic.com/threads/back-to-disneyland-ringin-in-2016.909039/

Walt Disney World
http://forums.wdwmagic.com/threads/...ts-wdw-november-2015-lots-of-pictures.907613/
http://forums.wdwmagic.com/threads/movin-in-two-weeks-in-the-world.915373/
http://forums.wdwmagic.com/threads/springin-into-wdw-solo-march-2016.911995/

Introduction:
Who: Me (Amy) and my husband (Brad) We are the two turkeys.
Magic Band personalization: Me: Gobble '16 and Brad Stuffing, in honor of Thanksgiving
When: November 22-November 28
Where did we stay: All Star Sports

Backstory We have wanted to do a Christmas themed cruise for awhile, and in May of 2014 I booked us on a 3 night cruise in hopes that it would match up with my school's calendar. Luckily it it did. I figured I might have to take a personal day (which I did), and we would add in some time at WDW.

The Report
Tuesday November 22:
I teach in a rural northern Wisconsin school so school for our students is off the whole week of Thanksgiving, but we have teacher inservice Monday and Tuesday. In our district we are not supposed to take off inservice days. So being the rule follower that I am yet still wanting to get maximize my WDW time I book (months ahead of time) a flight leaving at 7:10pm on Tuesday night. I figure I am golden, I don't have to break the work rules, and I'll still get to Disney on Tuesday night giving me 2 full WDW days before the cruise. Leaving on a 7pm will be perfect for traveling from work to the airport and giving me the time cushion I like to give myself at the airport. Well, Delta airlines had other plans.

About 1 1/2 month before our flight, I get an email from Delta saying they cancelled my 7pm flight and moved me to a 5pm!!!:jawdrop::mad: This was not good! If I left work for the airport without asking to leave early I would make it to the airport (if things went perfectly) when my plane would be boarding! So long story short I went and talked to my boss, fully prepared to take unpaid time and all that. And luckily he was very understanding and he said he knew that I would easily make up the time/work since I usually come in to work about 1-1 1/2 early every day anyway, and I would not have to take unpaid or personal time. (which was good because I had already designated my other personal day for a WDW in March of 2017). So now the only thing I had to worry about was weather & traffic getting to the airport.

Well, wouldn't you know it, but the weather decided that there would be a wintry mix with mostly freezing rain starting at noon the day we flew out! :jawdrop::mad: Ok, so now I'm already "breaking" the rule of leaving early, but now the roads would be treacherous. And I HATE driving in bad weather. It all made this type A girl very anxious. So my boss said I could leave even a little earlier. Luckily the weather people were somewhat wrong and it was mostly rain on the way, and stayed mostly rain. But were were at the airport now about 3 1/2 hours early. But we were there and our plane was on time. It really was time to relax now.

Minneapolis has two terminal buildings and we were flying out of the big terminal and flying back to the smaller one (with the cheaper parking). So we parked at the smaller terminal and took the light rail train to the bigger one. It is a bit of a hassle but the train came shortly after we got the to platform and away we went.

Brad at the train platform
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We are on time for take off. The plane did have to go through de-icing, as did other planes. So we were 20 minutes late in take off because of waiting for de-icing, but we only landed about 5-10 minutes late.
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The plane is here, what you can't see to well in the pictures is the sleety-rain. It made me a little nervous, but the trucks were constantly spraying de-icer on the runways.
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We landed, YAY! And since we planned to drive to the cruise port we rented a car. This was our sweet ride. As usually hubby, tried to pick up the most beat up and scratched one in the lot. His theory is that then the rental car company can't prove the scratches are from us.
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It was dark then as we drove under the sign so my picture didn't turn out clear. I got this blurr, but in a way it is kind of trippy and cool with the blur.
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We were super hungry and we thought about going to Trader Sam's or Disney Springs for something but it was a little after 11:30 pm and figured we wouldn't have much time. So we parked at the All-Star Sports and went into the food court. We probably should have went to the McDonald's. We got chicken tenders and fries and they were definitely end of the night servings (a little cold and stale). But it was sustenance and then we could go right to our room.
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A couple pictures of the decorations at the Sports. They weren't anything spectacular like a gingerbread house, but I liked them.
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Our room was really close to the main building in the Touchdown section. So we were both happy. In June we had requested to be near transport at the Music and got stuck in the Broadway section which was a bit of a hike. So we unpacked and I put up a few Christmas decorations to spirit up the room.
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So after unpacking we went to bed. We were planning to maximize our WDW with early mornings and late nights. We figured we could relax on the cruise.

Tags:
@figmentfan423 , @MinnieM123 , @JenniferS , @Tuvalu , @PacNWTigger , @Gabe1 , @betty rose , @Songbird76 , @catmom46 , @BuddyThomas , @donaldtoo , @Cesar R M , @fractal , @Mr Ferret 88 , @MouseDreaming , @PUSH, @Wrangler-Rick, @sheriffwoody, @MOXOMUMD
 

ajrwdwgirl

Premium Member
Original Poster
These are the last pictures from the cruise. They are of our dinner at Animator's Palate. The dinner was fabulous. One of the appetizers were these wonderful black truffle and cheese little pastas. I ordered a double order, I thought they might put them in the same bowl, but no. Next time I kind of just wanted to order like 10 orders of this at my sole meal at Animator's Palate, but I don't want 10 bowls brought to me!

Black truffle purse pastas. These are so tasty, I really hate mushrooms, but for some reasons I just love black truffles. :inlove::hungry:
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Tomato and goat cheese tart.
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Veal chop (yum)
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Beef filet
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My sad face....why....the cruise is ending, my throat is scratchy, and the black truffle pasta is gone.
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The interactive Crush is fun, he only seems to interact with the kids though.
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Chocolate walnut cake (mine and it was yummy)
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Brad's sundae
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After dinner we wandered around the ship a little and then went to the 10:45 showing of Moana in the Walt Disney Theater. It was a good movie, however it was really late at night and I was getting sick so I kind of fell asleep for awhile during the movie. I don't think I missed much but Brad still likes to tease me about it. Apparently I asked him when I woke up why there was a big crab on the screen and he thinks that is hilarious. After the movie we had to finish up packing, we were going to leave the ship before breakfast tomorrow and take our bag with so we didn't have to set our bags out earlier for our steward to take them.
 

ajrwdwgirl

Premium Member
Original Poster
Last day. We decided to do the walk off the ship at 7am before breakfast. Our breakfast was some cookies we had ordered a day or so ago from room service. By about 7:30 am we were in our car having cleared customs and we were on our way to Epcot. We were flying back home, but our flight didn't leave until 8pm so we had plenty of time for fun at Epcot. It was sad to leave the ship and we were already looking forward to our June cruise!

The drive back to WDW was pretty uneventful and traffic wasn't too heavy at all. So we made it to Epcot around opening. And we headed to Frozen because we had a fp+ for Soarin' later. So a few shots on our way to Frozen and in Norway. Our wait for Frozen wasn't too bad, it ended up being around 15 minutes.
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We thought this was a lovely holiday set up in front of Mexico. We debated on if the holiday storyteller would be there later or if it would be used for a character meet and greet since it looked so nice. Guess what we saw there later? Strollers, lots and lots of strollers. This pretty little scene was later cluttered with a stroller parking lot. :(
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So after Frozen we headed back into Future World for our Soarin' fast pass and perhaps some breakfast. Those cookies just weren't getting the job done. We did take some pictures of the Christmas decor along the way.
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ajrwdwgirl

Premium Member
Original Poster
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We decided to get a little breakfast at Sunshine Seasons before Soarin'. I got a cinnamon roll french toast or bread pudding thing with bacon, and brad got it was sausage and potatoes too. It was okay, but not even close to the cinnamon roll french toast they used to have at Disneyland.
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After Soarin' we headed into World Showcase for Holidays Around the world. The goal for the rest of the day was to see the story tellers and eat some of the special holiday foods. We accomplished the task of seeing a lot of storytellers but not so much the eating. We ate some but Brad wasn't so hungry and the problem with the holiday foods available was that they were more meal (not smaller sizes like at food and wine) and they were heavy foods.

We started with the Voices of Liberty they were at the top of our must see list.
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There was a spot on a bench so I took that, and Brad happily sat on the floor near the singers to have a listen. After the Dapper Dans, his next live entertainment attraction at Disney are the Voices of Liberty. He is entranced with them as well. So here is the happy camper watching his group. He took a little video so he could post them on his Facebook page on Christmas Eve & Day.
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We do like the American Adventure show, but that is there all the time so we passed on that. Our focus was holiday stuff. Unfortunately Santa and Mrs. Claus were busy feeding reindeer or something. I wanted to go sit in the chairs but somebody that rhymes with "add" wouldn't let me.
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The tree in America was beautiful!
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The Kwanza storyteller was out front as we left, we didn't stop to listen because I wanted to head to China. I wanted to see the dragon dance, last time we were in Epcot with holiday storytellers it was still the Monkey king, so I really wanted to see the dragon.
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ajrwdwgirl

Premium Member
Original Poster
The main holiday around the world food we wanted was the sauerbraten in Germany. We love the stuff at the Biergaren, and I often recreate it at home. It was good, we didn't really care for the golden raisin on top but they were easy to pick off.
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Then just a couple minutes until the Chinese dragon.
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Lemons!
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Time for the Dragon! It was fun to watch!
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I think the scroll said Happy New Year.
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Up next more Epcot holiday fun!
 

MinnieM123

Premium Member
I love the cute holiday outfits you both wore!! You two are so funny with your mouse ears!! I like your scarf, too, in those pictures.

All the photos are great as usual. You have a good eye for composition and your pictures are getting better all the time.

One of my favorites from this most recent group (and actually, I have a few favorites) was the picture of the nutcracker in the shop window. I also liked the photo of the (common area ? with staircase) on the cruise ship, all decorated for Christmas (the tree was beautiful, too). That looked so pretty.

The Chinese dragon photos were very colorful !!
 

ajrwdwgirl

Premium Member
Original Poster
I love the cute holiday outfits you both wore!! You two are so funny with your mouse ears!! I like your scarf, too, in those pictures.

All the photos are great as usual. You have a good eye for composition and your pictures are getting better all the time.

One of my favorites from this most recent group (and actually, I have a few favorites) was the picture of the nutcracker in the shop window. I also liked the photo of the (common area ? with staircase) on the cruise ship, all decorated for Christmas (the tree was beautiful, too). That looked so pretty.

The Chinese dragon photos were very colorful !!

Thanks Minnie! I really appreciate your compliments! And those mouse ears were about $3 each from Hobby Lobby.
 

ajrwdwgirl

Premium Member
Original Poster
After China, Norway was next on our storyteller list. We had a little time to kill before the storyteller, about 15 minutes so I just snapped some random pictures.
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And Brad found a bench with this view.
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From the bench I noticed that the Mexico storyteller show was going on, so I went over and caught some of that. Unfortunately we never made it back for the full show. Which is too bad it looked like a lot of fun.
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On my way back to Norway, we saw some Vikings. These guys are a hoot! I'm glad Disney brought in these guys to interact with guests.
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Then we went to the stage for the storyteller, it was in the new area this year.
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ajrwdwgirl

Premium Member
Original Poster
I think the Norway storytellers are one of the best. I think it is a cute story and the interaction between the two tellers are very entertaining. And I don't say this just because I'm part Norwegian either. ;)
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Brad really wanted to watch the German storyteller so that was next on the agenda. Once we got there it was almost ready to start but it was in the full sun. Neither of us felt like standing in the sun, so across the promenade was a shady spot by the rail, we thought that it would be okay to watch from there. It was fine, we could see fine and hear okay. It was nice to be in the shade and have something to lean on. I guess we are getting old!
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Then we were off to France and I was excited about that because we were going to try the bouche de noel (yule log) dessert. I make a yule log for Christmas every year so I was very interested to try theirs.
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I think the ornaments France had out were super classy! I didn't take a picture but on our way back to Les Halles there were decorations strung up back there too. It really made it feel like I was in a town in France.
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ajrwdwgirl

Premium Member
Original Poster
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So we went to Les Halles to get the yule log and I took a picture of the croque monsieur. Mostly to remind myself that even though it looks good it is very disappointing to eat. It is always overtoasted and dry, however after eating the real thing in Paris which was amazing, it think it will never measure up.
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The yule log was good. The description said it was supposed to have some orange in it but I didn't taste it and neither did Brad. But that was fine, we wanted the chocolate flavor anyway.
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We took it out the the front area of France so we could see Pere Noel while we ate.
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BuddyThomas

Well-Known Member
We were up early for opening of MK, it opened at 9 am today. That was a good thing since we didn't get to sleep until after 12:30 am. I think we still got up around 5:30 am though. Hubby had never stayed at the Sports before so we walked around the resort for a bit, and played air hockey in the arcade before grabbing some breakfast.

Touchdown!
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It was fun to see all the steam that was rising off the pool, it isn't really that visible in the picture though.
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Surf's Up
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Me all smiles as the All Star.
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Inside the main hall.
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There was a fun photo op by the front desk. I let Brad have the larger trophy. But we were both winners we were at Disney!
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I guess I was more of a winner because my name end up in the display case (thanks magic bands!).
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I'm sorry I missed your report - I have been so busy with my new job - I am so happy to start reading it now!
 

BuddyThomas

Well-Known Member
The three of us before dinner.

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Inside the restaurant.
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The menu
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Everything was pretty tasty. Not quite as good as my homemade turkey dinner, but at least I didn't have to wash any dishes for this one!
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My beer
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The main platter. Brad was very pleased with the stuffing, although he said he prefers mine (my mom's recipe). He was pretty happy that he only had to compete with me for stuffing, my dad is not a stuffing fan. The turkey had a great light smoked flavor and the glaze on the ham was really great.
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Pumpkin pie. Yum!
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Those pictures were amazing!
 

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