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
We were kind of hungry after the drone show so we decided to see if we could get into Art Smith's Homecoming. There were no immediate seating but we put our name on the list, they said it might be about 40 minutes (this Brad would wait for). In the end we found a spot at the bar and decided to just eat at the bar. The meal was FANTASTIC! It is now one of our top restaurants at WDW as a whole.

I got a beer, I loved the glass. Brad got a rum and Coke, to those of you that have read my other trip reports...no surprise there!
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Cheers!
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We got the hush puppies to start. They came with a pimento cheese spread and a jalapeno jelly. We were a little scared of the jelly at first but everything together was a great combination.
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We both got the fried chicken. I got all white meat with the mashed potatoes and Brad got all dark meat with mac and cheese. It is the juiciest chicken I've ever had. And to get a bite of the chicken, mashed potato & gravy, and a little of Art Smith's special hot sauce....it was heavenly.

My chicken
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Brad's chicken...
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The carnage.
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A look at the restaurant after leaving.
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We left super stuffed, it is what refer to as Biergarten full. We once ate too much at the Biergarten and upon leaving the restaurant we walked about 50 feet and had to sit down. But no time to sit down today plus we thought walking, even if we walked slowly would make us feel better. So we went to check out the tree trail. We went in not expecting much and we were pleased with our experience.

We liked the decorated and themed trees. We are suckers for Christmas trees (we have 10 of them in our house, 3 in the living room). It was also fun to hear the Christmas music and have the snow machines going. So here are a few trees.
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ajrwdwgirl

Premium Member
Original Poster
After the tree trail we headed to the Polynesian. We wanted to check out Trader Sam's to see if it was decorated or had holiday drink specials like the Disneyland one did last Christmas.

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Trader Sam's was pretty dead, no problem finding a seat. The staff was great with their antics and there were a few decorations, but no special holiday drinks.
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We did like that the volcanoes erupted with snow!
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ajrwdwgirl

Premium Member
Original Poster
I think the Tree Trail looks a lot better at night, with the lights on the trees against the evening darkness. (I've seen photos of the Tree Trail during the day and it just looked tacky.)

I was more impressed with the trees than I thought I would be. I had seen pictures of them during the day too and I wasn't impressed. In the end I'm glad that we were able to see them at night.
 

ajrwdwgirl

Premium Member
Original Poster
We went over to the Magic Kingdom. Our goal was to be there by 10:45 pm for the new Once Upon a Time show. We made it there with some time to spare and wander around Main Street. The decorations were just lovely.

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And then some shots from the new show. I'm not a big Mrs. Potts/Angela Landsbury fan but I still enjoyed the show. Even though Frozen was featured I liked how it didn't only focus on Elsa as I like Anna better.
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ajrwdwgirl

Premium Member
Original Poster
I had a little bad timing with this picture, but in the end I kind of like that just the towers are lit.
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After the show we rode the peoplemover. As we cruised past the castle on the Peoplemover I saw something intriguing so after the TTA I had to check it out...
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Sorry for the blurry picture, but I confirmed what I saw on the peoplemover. I found a lit hidden Mickey on the castle, it was on the side facing Tomorrowland. I was pretty proud of myself for finding it. Usually Brad is the one who finds hidden Mickey's.
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Since we were close to the teacups, I took a spin. Brad doesn't like spinny rides so he watched.

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Then we got some water and relaxed a bit in Fantasyland. I was diggin' the holiday soft drink cups.
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Then we rode the wild carousel.
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It was then midnight and closing time. I thought it was cool that I was taking the picture of the castle at midnight, but unlike Cinderella I did not run away!
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ajrwdwgirl

Premium Member
Original Poster
Thanksgiving DAY! We were meeting my dad for lunch today but we spent the morning at Epcot!

The Christmas topiaries are so cute!
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The line to get in looked kind of long, but it went fast.
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Brad in line.
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We were let in a few minutes before official opening, so we took some time for pictures as everyone rushed forward to closed off area (rope drop).
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We had fast passes for Soarin' later and we didn't feel like doing the long haul for Frozen so first stop was Test Track! We've never been through the standby queue since the redesign, always single rider or fast pass so this was new.
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My car. It was the top design in our car. I think Brad was a little miffed that he didn't win.
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