Yo Ho, Yo Ho, A Pirate's Life For Me...a December 2012 TR

Welcome to my TR. Let me cover some of the basics first in case you haven't read my PTR. I am Amy, a 39 year old veterinarian. This trip was planned last minute (about 60 days out) and the dates were Dec. 9-14, 2012. We stayed at CBR in a pirate room. We being me, my mom, and my 4 (almost 5) year old son, Owen.

Our flight left Dayton at 11:16am. We arrived at the airport at 9:30am and quickly made it through security. We stopped at the coffee shop for some OJ and potato chips for Owen. He had already eaten a good breakfast before leaving home, I promise! We had a little time at the gate before we had to gate check our stroller and were able to check our carry-on luggage after attaching our DME tags to it.

We loaded on the plane and were quickly pulling away from the gate. Owen was so excited to be flying again.

We had an uneventful flight. The flight attendants were very playful that day. They had a prize available for the person with the oldest penny, they had Christmas trivia questions for the kids, and they had someone sing the Oscar Mayer song for a prize. It was enjoyable and helped pass the time.
We landed in Orlando a few minutes early, and quickly made our way to DME. We were shown to this line:

We waited about 10 minutes for our bus, which was a cruise line bus. Owen was excited to watch everything that was going on outside.

Then he just crashed.

A few pictures on the way to CBR:

And then we were there!

 

[sam_disney]

just caught up on this trip report!! Fabulous pictures xxx

 

[TheMouseFan]

just caught up on this trip report!! Fabulous pictures xxx

Thanks for reading!

 

[journ116]

Same here...all caught up and am enjoying it immensely!

 

[TheMouseFan]

Same here...all caught up and am enjoying it immensely!

Thank you so much!

 

[Jennibelle]

He looks so cute with the princesses. Loving all your pictures!

 

[TheMouseFan]

He looks so cute with the princesses. Loving all your pictures!

Thank you so much! He really enjoyed meeting all of them. He was tracking them around the dining room just waiting for them to come over to us and then would get all giddy when they were at the table next to us!

 

[TheMouseFan]

After breakfast with the princesses, we used our FP for Philharmagic. Owen complained that he didn't want to do it, but then he loved every minute of it!
Then we tried to use our FP for Peter Pan, but it was down. So we walked across the way and rode this instead.

Peter Pan was still down when we came out, so we took Owen to ride the attraction that he had been talking about from the moment I told him we were going to WDW.

I'm not sure why he was so fascinated with riding it, but he was and he really enjoyed it!
Then back into Fantasyland to ride Peter Pan which was back up and running. Owen wasn't too impressed this year. Last year it was his favorite and we had to ride it multiple times.
Then we headed back into New Fantasyland because I forgot that the FP for Under the Sea were beside Philharmagic. So I took a few pics and we headed back to get the FP.

 

[TheMouseFan]

Then it was time to head over to Storybook Circus with a stop along the way to ride:

Owen wanted to spin fast. I told him that was not a good idea unless he wanted to be wearing my breakfast! He was nice and kept the spinning to a minimum!
Then we finally made our way into:

First up was:

Owen loved the play area!

He was upset when it was time to actually get on the ride!

 

[TheMouseFan]

Then we headed over to The Barnstormer getting a few pics on the way.

Unfortunately, it was down and Owen was not a happy camper! We got FP for later and headed to Pete's Silly Sideshow.

 

[TheMouseFan]

On the way out of the store, a CM was letting kids jump through a ring of fire! Sorry the pic is blurry.

Owen got a kick out of it, and got extra stickers from the CM since he had his birthday button on!

 

[TheMouseFan]

Then we hopped in line to see Pooh and Tigger.

Then I believe we went and used our FP for Under the Sea. Then we came back and used this:

A CM at the bus stop that morning had given it to him.
He opted to use it for:

Next up:

It was a walk on, but I managed to get a few pics along the way.

Then a few during the ride.

It wasn't the smoothest ride, so most of my pics turned out blurry! Good thing he won't really be driving for quite a few more years!
Next was Buzz.

 

[TheMouseFan]

Then we had a relaxing ride on:

Then over to finally ride The Barnstormer.

Owen loved it!!

 

[TheMouseFan]

Then we were getting hungry, so we stopped into Pinocchio Village Haus and found a table overlooking it's a small world. I ordered the cheese flatbread pizza.

It was good. My mom an Owen split an order of chicken nuggets. While we were eating, it began to pour outside. We had a good view of everyone running into it's a small world to get out of the rain!! We just sat there and waited it out, then headed over to the other side of the park.

I just noticed the rainbow in these pictures! How cool!
We finally made it to:

And rode:

After exiting, we caught the last Pirate Tutorial of the day.

Owen was upset that he didn't get to participate, but he got over it quickly!
We tried to ride this:

but the line was horrendous, so we grabbed FP and stopped to see this instead.

Owen wasn't very impressed! My mom enjoyed it though. Then we headed back over to Jungle Cruise. It was too early for us to use our FP, but standby was only 10 minutes, so we hopped in line. Owen was fascinated by the tarantula.

Then we bought popcorn and found a seat for the parade.

 

[TheMouseFan]

We found a seat on the curb in the hub and made ourselves comfortable to wait for the parade. Then Owen started getting antsy, so I took him to get some PP pics done while my mom held our spot.

Then I got this pic on the way back to our spot.

Just as we got comfortable again, Owen decided he needed a potty break, so we went to Tommorowland Terrace. We saw the lighting of the castle on the way back.

Then I conned Owen into going for another PP pic in front of the lit castle, with a few of my own pics thrown in too. He was not very happy with me!!

Then we were finally back in our spot for good to watch the parade. I was able to get pics of the castle a few different colors while we waited.

 

[TheMouseFan]

Then MSEP started. Owen was enthralled, and had to make sure that I was taking note of each and every float!

 

[TheMouseFan]

After the parade ended, we moved onto MSUSA for Celebrate the Magic and Wishes.
I think this is my favorite color scheme of the castle.

Owen was fading fast!

Unfortunatley, he couldn't see Celebrate the Magic very well, so he didn't really enjoy it.
I was able to get a few decent pictures.

 

[TheMouseFan]

Then it was over and we waited a short time for Wishes.

I didn't realize how foggy it was getting until the first of the fireworks went off.

Up next...our last park day, AK.

 

[TheMouseFan]

Now on to our last park day.
We were up early today and had a quick bite in the room. I opened the door for us to go to the bus stop and we had a DME envelope hanging on our door. This doesn't usually happen until the end of the day. They couldn't confirm our flight information, therefore, we had to call to get our DME pick up time and there were no boarding passes included. So back inside we went! I called and got our pick up time, but I would have to go to the Custom House to get our boarding passes. Nothing like a little stress to start your last full day!!
So off we went to AK.
I loved their Christmas tree!

 

[TheMouseFan]

Then we started on our way to the turnstiles.

Then they let us in, and we waited again at the rope! A few pics on the way in and while we were waiting.

 

[TheMouseFan]

Owen was in such a hurry to get to Kilimanjaro Safaris, that I couldn't even take any pictures along the way!!
We quickly arrived and walked right on. We had a good driver who provided lots of interesting information. Such as, this is a bloat of hippos.

I couldn't believe the number of birds in this tree!

He also informed us that this is a flamboyance of flamingos. This information came in handy when we rode again later. Our driver was very impressed that I knew the answer when she asked, until I told her we had already been through once today!