Trip Report "Yes we are crazy! But it's Christmas & New Years in WDW"

First off. This is my first ever trip report and I am going to try and do it live. I make no promises that I will be posting by the hour, but I will do my best to keep everybody up to date on the craziness that this coming week will be.

My name is Jeff and I will be your guide for the next few days. I am lucky enough to have 2 of the greatest parents of all time. Who decided back in April that we needed to go to WDW for a Christmas vacation.

The cast for this trip is as follows: me (Jeff 40), my wife 44, DS 22, DD 11(first trip ever) and the greatest Nanny and Papa ever

We will be staying at All Star Music from the 25th of Dec until the 2nd of Jan.

We are driving down from Barrie, Ontario and will be departing from our current location

the Griswolds......ahhhh I mean the inlaws in just under 2 hrs to meet up with my parents and load the van and head South.

Thanks to the great people on this form we have lots of ADR's and a full slate of FP's booked (with no issues). We are fully aware of how busy it will be and have decided to take it as its given to us.

So sit back and enjoy what I am sure are going to be lots of great memories.

P.S. My wife and I decided to leave the fancy camera at home and enjoy WDW through our eyes and not our camera lens (so it will be Iphone pics that are posted)

 

[R W B]

Have fun on your trip! I'd like to spend Christmas Day in the parks one year.

I do a lot of cross country driving so I'm always curious as to way people take certain routes for certain drives. Not that their is a right/wrong answer but I was just wondering how you all drove down to end up outside of Atlanta? Caught I-75 in Detroit and drove down? If so, why not go through Buffalo and catch I-77/I-79/I-95, seems like its a more direct route? Like I said, no correct answer, I'm just curious.

Also, I totally understand leaving the nice camera at home especially since you have memory maker. iPhones are good enough lol.

 

[Jae99]

Will be looking forward to following along with you. I did my first trip report live In November (well I posted every night) and it took more time than I expected but I did it for everyone sat at home missing the Disney bubble! I have really bad withdrawal symptoms right now so I am hoping you can ease them have a magical time - looking forward to the pictures

I will do my best. I make no promises of the picture quality. We are not the greatest photographers out there.

 

[Jae99]

Have fun on your trip! I'd like to spend Christmas Day in the parks one year.

I do a lot of cross country driving so I'm always curious as to way people take certain routes for certain drives. Not that their is a right/wrong answer but I was just wondering how you all drove down to end up outside of Atlanta? Caught I-75 in Detroit and drove down? If so, why not go through Buffalo and catch I-77/I-79/I-95, seems like its a more direct route? Like I said, no correct answer, I'm just curious.

Also, I totally understand leaving the nice camera at home especially since you have memory maker. iPhones are good enough lol.

We actually took a bit of a hybrid route. We crossed into Buffalo and then followed I90 west along the bottom of Lake Erie and then cut SW to Columbus on Rte 271. We then followed the typical I71 I75 route most Ontarians take. The roads through the Virginias can be a bit dicey so we took the flatter route on 75.

 

[Jae99]

Up and ready to go just heading to load the can and we are on our way. Watch out Disney World here we come.

BTW.....fully recommend the Hampton Inn on I75 in Adairsville just north of Atlanta. Totally comfortable and super nice staff. They even brought a present to my daughter while we were eating the complimentary hot breakfast.

 

[Jae99]

And we are here!!!!!!

Just a quick post since everybody wants to get out the door and explore. No parks today, but we have dinner ressies at Raglan Road at 7:30. After that we are hoping any form of transportation to take us resort hopping to check out decorations.

Merry Christmas everyone!!!

 

[Aly Grant]

Merry Christmas!!! Glad you are enjoying the resort hopping!

 

[Jae99]

Day one is in the books. We visited DTD and did a little shopping followed by dinner at Raglan Road. DTD was crazy busy so we got to The restaurant early and grabbed some beers and listened to some tremendous live music.

I thought I would grab a couple of these and give a Christmas toast to @coachwnh. Dinner for me was the Lambo which was tremendous. For tender and ohh so delicious. After dinner we headed to the buses and ended up here

After a lovely walk around the resort it was decided that our beds were calling. So that leaves me here ready for bed and looking forward to tomorrow.

No promises for updates throughout the day tomorrow. The wifi has been very slow and I have had all kinds of problems getting anything to load.

Good night all!

 

[Jae99]

Good morning off to Animal kingdom.

 

[Tuvalu]

Good morning off to Animal kingdom.

Have fun!

 

[coachwnh]

Good morning off to Animal kingdom.

Have a great day, and thanks for the toast! On a Raglan Road kind of note, my wife and I got U2 tix for Boston in July. We also surprised our son with tix at Madison Square Garden in NYC to see them as well. So the Guinness and RR shout out was appreciated! And a Merry Christmas to you and your family! Hope you are able to enjoy the story tellers throughout WC in Epcot. One of my very favorite things to do in Disney at this time of the year. Have fun in AK today! Looking forward to more updates!

 

[Jae99]

Have a great day, and thanks for the toast! On a Raglan Road kind of note, my wife and I got U2 tix for Boston in July. We also surprised our son with tix at Madison Square Garden in NYC to see them as well. So the Guinness and RR shout out was appreciated! And a Merry Christmas to you and your family! Hope you are able to enjoy the story tellers throughout WC in Epcot. One of my very favorite things to do in Disney at this time of the year. Have fun in AK today! Looking forward to more updates!

Merry Christmas to you and your family as well. Those concerts will be a blast. Most of the musicians were doing covers of U2 last night while we were enjoying our beverages and dinner. Definitely a great place to go for dinner and a drink. We will be at Epcot on the 29th and 31st. Looking forward to it all.

 

[coachwnh]

Merry Christmas to you and your family as well. Those concerts will be a blast. Most of the musicians were doing covers of U2 last night while we were enjoying our beverages and dinner. Definitely a great place to go for dinner and a drink. We will be at Epcot on the 29th and 31st. Looking forward to it all.

Enjoy the rest of your trip!

 

[Jae99]

Animal Kingdom was a blast! We got to the park about 8:30, but were delayed when the pin codes for our MB's weren't working. It was fixed quick and we were on our way.

Our first FP was for Dinosaur at 9:00. The standby line was only 10 minutes but the FP saved us some time, after Dinosaur we walked onto Primeval Whirl. What a fun little ride. Nothing extravagant, but we had a blast and a ton of laughs. Dinosaur was great. Loved the pre-show and had fun on the ride. It was more extreme than I thought it would be.

After Dinosaur we wandered our way through the park enjoying the surroundings and the theming of the park. It is really beautiful. We stopped in at Its Tough to be a Bug and walked right into the show and had front and centre seats. Most of us enjoyed it, but DD didn't like it at all.

After the bug show we made our way to the Safari for our 10:20 FP. What a totally enjoyable ride we a good guide who seemed full of knowledge. We even had some giraffes block the road and give us an up close view. After the Safari we made our way through the Pagani Forest Trail and then headed for lunch at Pizzafari. It was good, nothing blow you your mind awesome, but tasty.

After lunch we were heading for Expedition Everest, but noticed that Kali River Rapids had a 10 min standby line. We ended up walking right on. After the Rapids we made our way to Everest for our 12:40 FP, which we walked right through and onto the ride again.

I am loving FP+, so smooth and easy.

 

[Jae99]

Well we have rested and relaxed back at the resort for a while. Swam, showered and had a couple of drinks. We are off to Hoop - Dee - Doo for 6:15 and will then head to Wilderness Lodge and then over to MK for EMH.

I will have more pics of AK and MK later tonight or early morning.

 

[Zipadeelady]

So happy your doing a live report! I would love to be there right now, even with all the crowds.

 

[coachwnh]

Hope you're enjoying a great night at MK!

 

[Jae99]

All I can say about last night is HOOP-DEE-DOO!!!!!!!!!!!

Ok one more thing!

It was AWESOME!!!!!

Nuff said.

Oh yeah we did also hit up the MK. We took the boat from Fort Wilderness and got to the MK just as the fireworks were about to start. It was the most insane thing I have ever witnessed. Not the fireworks but the insanity that was the crowd.

TOTALLY unbelievable. We skipped watching because we have the dessert party booked for Sunday Night. We tried to work our way through the crowd towards Tomorrowland. We managed to glimpse the fireworks and got right into the preshow for Monsters inc Laugh Floor.

Very funny show. We followed that by helping Buzz Lightyear defeat Emperor Zurg. We waited for about 25 to get on but thought it was totally reasonable for the amount of people in the park.

We followed Buzz by walking onto Carousel of Progress. Loved it, was even surprised that my 11 yr old DD enjoyed it. Very corny show.

After CP we worked our way through Fantasyland towards Adventureland stopping for my mom, wife and DD to take a spin on the teacups. Another walkon by the way. We finished up the night by taking a trip on the Jingle Cruise. What a fun ride. I loved how they mixed Christmas into the ride from the queue to the jokes from the skipper.

We were out of the park and walked onto our bus before 1 am and quickly back at the resort and into bed.

Sorry there are no pics but my iPad is acting weird this morning.

We are off to Hollywood Studios today for the full day.

 

[Doc Disney]

Glad to hear you loved Hoop Dee Doo! My family is eating there for this first time in February and it took some convincing on my part to get them there so I hope they enjoy it Love live trip reports! Can't wait to read more

 

[coachwnh]

All I can say about last night is HOOP-DEE-DOO!!!!!!!!!!!

Ok one more thing!

It was AWESOME!!!!!

Totally agree! One of out favorites!

Have fun in HS today. Looking forward to hearing and seeing more!

 

[Jae99]

Another great day in the books! It was Hollywood Studios today! We had FP's booked for ToT, Star Tours and TSMM. We all when joyed everyone of the FP's, I still can't get over how smoothly the whole MB thing is going.

We were also able to view One Mans Dream, Muppet Vision 3D, LMA and GMR. My wife and son were also able to ride RnRC twice on the single rider line.

I was able to get the Fantasmic Dinner Package at Mama Melrose. What a tremendous meal. I had the steak, which was perfect. The wife and kids had the chicken parm and my parents had the fish and pork dish. Everyone was impressed with the meal and we're even more thrilled when our seats ended up being front and centre for the show.

We ended the night by visiting the Osborne spectacle of lights. What a truly breathtaking sight. We even had a CM tell us the story of how the lights became reality.

It turned out to be a tremendous day but we decided we would switch or FP's we had booked there later in our trip for another park. It is most definitely a one day park at most. We did miss doing a couple of things, but nothing that we felt was a must do.

It's off to MK tomorrow.