Who: Me, Myself & I – solo trips are the best!! When: December 1st – 12th Where: Disney’s Pop Century – AP room discount = $54/night Misc: Alamo rental car for 11 days = $220
This was my 3rd trip to “The World” for 2008 and I finally decided to get an annual pass and the Tables in Wonderland card – both VERY good decisions as they both paid for themselves this trip alone.
Overall – GREAT trip!! It was chilly the 1st week, but tolerable. Crowds were more than what I was used to, but manageable. MVMCP on the 9th was fun. Now on to the details & photos!
12/1 – travel Left Minneapolis airport at 7am and about 20 degrees on Air Tran and flew into Atlanta where a 2.5 hour layover awaited me. Landed at MCO around 330pm to a beautiful, mild, 60 degrees. Conclusion: NEVER fly into the Atlanta airport, it’s a nightmare!! Checked into Pop Century and they put me in room 6260 which is about as FAR away from the main hall as possible. BUT, it was a corner room and it was quiet my entire stay. Headed over to Downtown Disney, got my annual pass (AP) and Tables in Wonderland (TIW) card and stopped to mourn Pleasure Island once more (I was there the weekend they closed it)
12/2 – Universal Studios (US) Got to US around 9am and started the HIKE to the main entrance. I had purchased a 7-day/2 park ticket with the Blue Man Group add-on for about $135 which was a pretty good deal. Note: I have never been to US or IOA before so this was a brand new experience. Crowds were non-existent at US and I walked on to every ride with no wait.
Jimmy Neutron – good ride, love the ‘chicken dance’ at the end Shrek 4D – cute cute cute!! Love the pre-show Revenge of the Mummy – LOVE it – rode it 4x in a row Twister – kinda lame, even though I love the movie, being from the Midwest I was unimpressed with the attraction Terminator 2: 3-D – very entertaining. Love how the integrated the movie with the attraction Simpsons Ride – LOVE it – best themed attraction at US Men in Black – SO much better than Buzz Lightyear!! JAWS – ‘eh’ was kind of disappointed that they said no photos
Ate lunch at Hard Rock Café – Had a cheeseburger and Mashed potatoes, food was good.
12/3 – Islands of Adventure & Blue Man Group Again, got to US/IOA around 9am and enjoyed another HIKE to the main gate. I toured the park counter-clockwise. Again, crowds were NON-existent.
Seuss Landing – by far my FAVORITE thing at US/IOA – the theming here is AMAZING and SO cute!! Cat in the Hat – cute! Seuss Trolley – great way to get an aerial view of Seuss Landing Caro-Seuss-el – LOVED it!!!
Dueling Dragons – My favorite ride at US/IOA – I rode it 6x in a row from all possible views; front, back, middle on both sides. I prefer the “Fire” side to the “Ice” side. Jurassic Park – I loved the movie, I loved this section of the park!! River Adventure – it was chilly so I almost skipped the ride but I ended up not getting very wet. Great ride!! I skipped Toon Lagoon because that’s where it was the busiest. Spider Man – Great ride and great story, very enjoyable Hulk Coaster – WOOT!!! My 2nd favorite attraction at IOA Dr. Doom’s Fearfall – kinda lame, I’ve been on better freefall rides
Headed over to Margaritaville for dinner before Blue Man Group and had one of the best margaritas I’ve ever had. I also had the chicken alfredo which was very good too. Time for Blue Man Group – what can I say, it was a unique experience! I had a lot of fun at BMG and had some of the best seats in the house. Row 5, in the exact center of the theatre. I will definitely be checking out BMG again.
US/IOA Summary: When there are no lines, it’s a great park, but not great enough to buy an annual pass for. It’s worth checking out when something new gets added so the next time I’ll probably go won’t be until Harry Potter opens.
12/4 – this was my ‘off’ day, I headed to the Florida Mall, Festival Bay Mall & the former Belz Outlet Mall – it was a fabulous day of shopping J I headed over to EPCOT to check out the Christmas decorations.
12/5 – Segway Tour, EPCOT & Le Cellier I love EPCOT. Crowds were moderate IMHO because I’m used to going in May and September when the parks are empty. Did the 9:30am Segway tour with CMs Mary & Prachi. The girls were great despite 2 goofballs in my ‘class’ that weren’t paying attention. After I got the ‘hang’ of the Segway it was like second nature and I was zipping right along. It was neat having World Showcase to ourselves before the masses arrived and I will definitely be doing the Segway tour again!
Ride wait-times were manageable but fast passes were a must for Test Track and Soarin. I was going to check out Candlelight Processional but the lines were horrid and I have no patience so I meandered around World Showcase while the shows were going on. Headed over to England for World Showcase Players and low and behold I see a familiar adventurer – it was Blondie!!
Popped over to the Beach Club for lunch at Beaches & Cream and had the BEST cheeseburger on property! Got a chance to check out the holiday decorations too.
Also saw Italy WSP and Off Kilter. I had a very relaxing day at EPCOT. Dinner ressies at Le Cellier at 9:10pm and they said they were running about 15 minutes behind; I got seated around 9:30. Had the cheddar cheese soup which I finally asked for the recipe for and the prime rib. I was on the TIW and got 20% off my dinner which was nice.
12/6 – misc. Avoided MK like the plague due to the Xmas parade taping but I finally headed over to MK around 430pm to check things out. Crowds weren’t bad considering they had just shot the parade that morning. Caught the beginning of Billy Ray Cyrus playing at the castle stage and headed into Frontierland. DDCT parade was delayed until 5:30pm so I grabbed a coke, some popcorn and a spot of concrete in front of CBJ and waited for the parade to start.
After DDCT and headed to the hub to wait for the castle lighting ceremony as I have never seen it before. The show was cute and the castle lights are BEAUTIFUL, it even made me a little weepy.
12/7 – DHS (MGM Dangit!) & 50’s Prime Time & Fantasmic!
Picked up my friend Marci and headed to DHS around 10am. Caught Streetmosphere and ran into another fellow adventurer as Policeman Percival Peabody. He wrote my friend Marci a ticket even!
Got fast-passes for TSM and then made our way through the park. Due to chilly temps, on the back-lot tour they skipped the water-scene at the beginning. Caught the end of the Jedi Training Academy which is very cute and looks like a lot of fun if you’re an ankle-biter J
Block Party Bash – ‘eh’ in my opinion. It’s not a parade IMHO due to the stops. We had seats right in front of the ‘hat’ and while it was entertaining, it seemed long due to the stops the parade has.
50’s Prime Time – they were running about an hour behind and didn’t bother to tell us, which peeved me, but what the heck – I’m on vacation. I had 2 Pina Coladas at the Tune In Lounge, grabbed a piece of couch and waited for our names to be called. We were served quickly and I had my staple, the pot roast which was yummy!!
Fantasmic! – there were 2 shows of Fantasmic! Due to EMH so we caught the late show, we arrived about 30 minutes prior to show time and there was a MOB of people already for the theatre. We ended up getting in fairly quickly and sat in the middle section, right below the ‘accessible’ seating. Great seats! If it had been a little warmer, I would like to have been closer for some photos, but it was too chilly to be misted with water.
Osborne Lights – this is also the 1st time I’ve seen the Osborne lights and I was enchanted!! We grabbed some hot chocolate and watched the lights dance in the snow. I could’ve sat back there all night just watching the lights. This is definitely reason #1 to visit WDW during the holidays for me!
12/9 – MVMCP & Liberty Tree Marci visited me again and we slept in, did some shopping in Orlando and then headed over to the Magic Kingdom around 330pm for MVMCP. We had 4:30pm ressies at LTT and I wanted to get a head start. MVMCP was sold out according to the signs and I was dreading how busy the party would actually be. They started letting us in at 3:45pm and we headed over to Liberty Square to check in for dinner.
LTT – we were seated early and got to see Goofy (my favorite) right away. The food was fabulous as always and we over-stuffed ourselves on it! Character interaction was great for it being only 2 adult women at our table.
MVMCP – My favorite parts about MNSSHP are Hallowwishes and the Boo To You parade so my expectations were high for the Christmas fireworks and parade. I unfortunately was disappointed in both. While they were both very good, and I LOVED the toy soldiers in the parade, it just didn’t have the same appeal to me as the Halloween party does. We didn’t make it to “Twas the Night before Christmas” and I was sad about that but we got plenty of ride-time in which was great. For being a sold out party, the only ‘insanity’ was the hub before the fireworks. We went to the 2nd parade and snagged seats in front of Diamond Horseshoe.
Had 11:30 ressies at the Hollywood Brown Derby for my annual Lunch with a Disney Imagineer program and I was very pleased! This was my 3rd Lw/I and the food was wonderful: Oyster Chowder, Cobb salad, Steak & Crème brulee. Jason, my imaginer was a blast and had so much to talk about that time just flew by. That and he was easy on the eyes too!! LOL
Jason:
Headed over to AK after my lunch and this was the warmest day of my trip, was about 80 degrees, which makes AK about 90 degrees!
Got there just in time for the Jingle Jungle parade so I grabbed a spot by Kilimanjaro to watch the parade. I love how Minnie’s float smells like hot chocolate!!
After the parade was over, I wanted to catch the last showing of Finding Nemo: The Musical so I booked it over to the theatre and got there just in time! I love love LOVE this show and it’s by far my favorite live show on property. It always makes me weepy when I hear the words “In the big blue world!”
I enjoyed EMH at AK because I got to ride Everest about 6 times in an hour until I was starting to turn green!
12/11 – Rain Rain Rain & Cirque Du Soleil
I woke up to a drizzly, but warm morning and due to the rain, didn’t feel like heading to the parks so I headed over to Downtown Disney just in time for the torrential downpour to begin. I was making my way towards House of Blues when I got stopped in front of Magnetron by none other than the Dream Squad!! They were handing out “Dream Ears” to all of us idiots that were out in the rain at DTD! After 5 trips during the YOMD I FINALLY won something!!! J
Ate lunch at House of Blues and then headed back to POP to start packing, and get into some dry clothes before Cirque. Now, I used to work at Cirque Du Soleil, in the box office, so I’ve seen the show about a zillion times but I still love it. I even have a tattoo of the Cirque logo on my back. I was in 203 FF seat #20, some of the BEST seats in the theatre and I was entranced for the next 90 minutes. I headed over to PI to see a bartender-friend of mine at the PI live bar and proceeded to kill the next few hours taking and drinking.
12/12 – Princess Breakfast @ Norway, EPCOT and time to leave
I utilized the airport check-in at Pop and dumped my luggage with them around 8am, my flight didn’t’ leave Orlando until 6pm so I had the whole day to kill. I had 10am ressies at Akershus (sp?) and arrived promptly and was seated promptly after my photo with Belle. Mulan, Jasmine, Snow White & Aurora were all very nice and I had a great breakfast.
I was just getting done with breakfast when they opened up world showcase so I headed around the world one last time for this trip. My roommate is a chocoholic so I stopped and picked up some chocolate from Germany, Italy and Japan for an early Christmas present for her. I wanted to see if Blondie was doing WSP that day and unfortunately he wasn’t there during the time I went. I leisurely made my way around EPCOT until it was time to head to the airport and wished Disney World ‘goodbye’ until March when I will hopefully be back for my birthday!
Summary: US/IOA – once a year trip, maybe WDW @ Christmas – LOVE the decorations & atmosphere. Osborne lights well worth it! Not sure if I’ll be going back in December any time soon though. MVMCP – I’m going to be skipping this event going forward, I prefer MNSSHP Annual Pass – PERFECT investment for a solo-traveler. As I said before, between the room, & merchandise discounts – it almost paid for itself Tables in Wonderland – Just about paid for itself as well, 20% off is a great investment and better than the DDP for me because I can’t eat as much food as the DDP offers Air Tran – great airline, love the XM radio! Alamo – can’t be the AP discount I got, I only paid about $20/day for my car
Loved your trip report. Great pictures! So glad a fellow S. Dakotan can get out of this crazy cold, snowy weather and go somewhere warm (and magical). I've never heard of the Tables in Wonderland. What is it exactly?
Loved your trip report. Great pictures! So glad a fellow S. Dakotan can get out of this crazy cold, snowy weather and go somewhere warm (and magical). I've never heard of the Tables in Wonderland. What is it exactly?
Tables in wonderland is a 20% off discount card for most table service locations. For me, ends up being cheaper than the DDP. Where in SD are you from?
