Trip Report Yup, another holiday visit with Brifraz, LIVE!

It’s 11:45am on December 22nd, what have you been doing for the last 24 hours?

Well, if your are the Brifraz clan... you hosted/ran a concert in downtown Baltimore with 220 of your closest low brass friends. Yes, you guessed it, I am one of the coordinators for Merry TubaChristmas TuBaltimore. The event started with us setting things up in our rehearsal area at 1230 and then checking in those 220 friends, a brief rehearsal, and then the concert outside at the Baltimore Inner Harbor. While an obnoxious shot of all those tubas would be interesting for sure, I decided that I like this one of @MeffysMom watching the event.

The concert wrapped up at about 4pm and we hoofed it back to our car and hit the road. Yes, direct from the concert to the road. Which, for those who haven’t followed us before, means about 14 hours of I95 goodness. Despite some really tough traffic (and a couple accidents) in Northern Virginia, we made pretty darn good time and were piling out of the car at Hollywood Studios at 6:15am.

Turnstiles opened at about 6:45am and once inside, we (along with a few thousand new friends) sat on the MDE App waiting for 7am to hit and a chance at Rise of the Resistance boarding groups. Score! Group #28, booked at 7:01am. Heard from others that they were all gone by about 7:20am this morning, but I haven’t corroborated that information with any sources!

Knowing that boarding group would likely be called between 8am and 10am, we decided to stay in Studios. First up, we headed back to Tower of Terror and enjoyed a ride with almost zero wait.

After the ride, we debated doing Rockin Roller Coaster or waiting for something else, but decided food was a priority! In case I haven’t said it before, mobile ordering on MDE is the way to go. We headed to Woody’s Lunchbox, where there was a pretty decent line and since we ordered on the walk, our food was ready to go when we got there and we didn’t have to wait a minute. And we happily shared the holiday ‘pop tart’ and some tater tots.

Now it was time for our first visit to Batuu. We had decided to just try to walk the area this morning and pretty much stuck with that. Get the lay of the land, get a few pictures, walk through some shops, etc. I’m currently reading the Black Spire novel which sets up the land, so it was fun to see a number of connections. And, of course, we had to get the PhotoPass picture.

Oh, yeah. It was raining - not heavy, but consistent annoying drizzle. I’ve got our poncho trio hiding behind my back in this picture. Our boarding group was called at about 8:40am, so off to the ride we went. And, yes, what a ride it is. Pretty amazing stuff and thoroughly enjoyable.

After the ride, we had some FP+ to go enjoy at Animal Kingdom!

FP+ for Expedition Everest was first up at about 10:15am, then we had FP+ (not really needed) for Finding Nemo, which we always love. And, for a change, we sat up toward the front.

And were very pleasantly surprised to realize that the actor doing Bruce and assorted others was one of the old CMs from Adventurers Club, which we truly loved. Glad to see him still entertaining folks at Disney!

So, at 11:30am, we had hit a couple headliners at Hollywood Studios and a headliner and a major show at Animal Kingdom. Must be time to eat! See you soon.

 

[eliza61nyc]

Not a whole lot of pictures or more to add from last night, but it’s just after 6am and I think everybody is still asleep, so here’s what I’ve got!

First off, back a little ways into the afternoon and a shot of us all (you have to look REALLY closely) on Buzz.
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Sadly, we forgot to get food pictures at the Wave, but I can assure that the plates looked very nice and the food really was excellent! We haven’t been there very much over the years, but we certainly have enjoyed the quality of food when we have. At the Top of the World lounge, we just got some drinks and then relaxed and waited for the fireworks. Since the rain had pretty much gotten through, the temperature dropped quite a bit and there was a very chilly wind. Everyone who was up there waited until pretty much the last minute or so to go outside, but as always the view was rewarding. This was our first time seeing the next Holiday fireworks and we really liked them. Enough that we are hoping to figure out a night later in the week to go see them from the front.
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As soon as the fireworks ended, our crew headed to the Grand Floridian to check out the gingerbread house while the team inside Magic Kingdom finished their desserts and then just wandered toward the front of the park. The monorail was pretty packed, but we did manage to ride over and see the house and then ride to Magic Kingdom in by 11pm.
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We fully reunited for about 10 seconds before a new split started. @Meffysmom’s parents, aunt, and sister headed back to the room for the night while our core trio plus nephew stayed in Magic Kingdom for a quick nighttime ride of the Jingle Cruise, which he had not done before. And we all enjoyed (as always). Plus we managed to get a pretty good group shot in front of the castle.
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Now, it’s time to start getting ready to head to Epcot for rope drop! I’ll leave you with the beauty of the snow/ice covered castle.

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Gorgeous!! Thanks for sharing.
Merry Christmas to you and your family.

 

[brifraz]

In case anybody was wondering, 57 degrees and heavy mist in Epcot this morning. A little... yucky.

 

[brifraz]

You know it’s Christmas at Disney when Living with the Land is up to an hour wait!

with our FP+ we only waited about 10 minutes or so.

 

[brifraz]

I’d love to share with you a nice long post with lots of pictures about today’s Christmas Eve adventures in Epcot, but it’s 11pm, I’m very tired from being in Epcot since 8:15am and covering close to 9 miles of walking AND we are insane enough to be planning to get up by 5am and at Magic Kingdom for rope drop at 6am. So, today’s post is going to wait. I’ll likely have some time tomorrow evening and will bring you both today and tomorrow! I know, not quite so LIVE when I’m waiting a day, but....zzzzzzz....

 

[Duckberg]

NICE pics and lots of smiles, while having a Merry Disney Xmas

 

[krisri18]

Merry Christmas!

 

[brifraz]

7:50am - Merry Christmas from the Magic Kingdom! (Credit to my daughter again for picture and art)

Been here about 2 hours and done 7 attractions. About to ride #8 and then back to the room for Christmas morning with the family and breakfast!

 

[brifraz]

Okay, my fine WDWMagic friends. It’s time for a little holiday cheer from Brifraz and crew! So, let’s get started with Christmas Eve in Epcot. It was a long day, but a good time for sure!

The ‘branch’ of the crew that was up early for action was the core trio plus @meffysmom’s aunt.

They opened up the touch points at 8:30 or so and then had the rope drop to the left of Spaceship Earth. Got about 10 minutes of good Jammitors entertainment before rope drop. We headed immediately to Test Track and went to the single rider line so we could ride right away (and we didn’t really need to design any cars). It was a fun and somewhat eventful ride as we had a couple ride stops during. Next up was Frozen, but since the rest of the family was on their way in, I passed on the ride, but the girls enjoyes it (as always).

Did I mention earlier how miserable the weather was? As I waited under Spaceship Earth for everyone else, I can’t even begin to count the number of people I heard cursing at their phones - “this isn’t on radar, “what the .... is this rain.” Not a whole lot of holiday spirit when it’s 57 and misty/drizzly. Once all together, it was over to Garden Grill.

Always good, comfortable breakfast food. Any breakfast with potato barrels is a good one in my book! After breakfast, we had FP+ for Living with the Land and Soarin’. Much to our shock, the FP+ line for LwtL was wrapping around the Sunshine Seasons dining area and Standby was at 35 minutes (up to 55 minutes when we got off). After our 10 minute or so wait, we got to enjoy the relaxing boat ride!

And then it was time for some Soarin.’ Also, enjoyable as usual (and sitting all the way up top and in the middle, the Eiffel Tower doesn’t look quite so distorted). Next up were FP+ for Spaceship Earth, but my daughter needed a break so she and I headed to the DVC lounge in Imagination while the rest of the crew did the ride. When they were done, they joined us for a break and around 1pm, it was time to get going (and splitting up again). @Meffysmom’s sister and son headed over to DHS to walk around Galaxy’s Edge as he was a bit too excited to wait another couple days to get there. The rest of us just took our leisurely time getting around World Showcase - shopping here and there and grabbing a couple drinks with lots of sharing.

After completing a full circuit, we decided to start grabbing some food from the Holiday kiosks - Tostada from Mexico, Arepas from the Three Kings Feast, Cheese fondue/bread bowl from Germany, and Latkes from L’Chaim. All quite good stuff! By the time we had finished eating and wandering, we were back in America and back up to full strength with all 8. That meant it must be almost time for our Candlelight Processional show (6:45pm). It really is a great show every time and we loved it. As a music teacher, I certainly have a lot of respect for the quality of the show - especially considering that they are performing it 2-3 times daily for a few weeks.

After the show, most of the group was about ready for rest, so they headed back to Old Key West while our core trio with @Meffysmom’s father and nephew stuck around for the new fireworks. Didn’t take any pictures since it was our first time seeing it - sorry! And, I’m still not sure exactly what I think. It’s not bad at all, but I don’t know if I really like it. Another viewing or two and I’ll know for certain what I’m thinking! As a HUGE fan of Illuminations, it’s tough to deal with the change. But it is a pretty good show and the classic Epcot music is pretty fun.

As we were walking out, I noticed people heading toward the Land - that’s right, it was EMH!! So, we hopped over to ride the night version of Living with the Land before heading out. Pretty fun!

And that was it for the night! We were back in the room and getting to sleep around 11pm. I’ll try to get this morning’s action posted by later today. It was a great morning with lots of attractions before 9am!

 

[brifraz]

Okay, let’s get you caught up on this Christmas Day! First off, it may come as some surprise, but the parks are pretty crowded. And Disney Springs tonight was even more crowded. I know what you are thinking - christmas week is usually a not that busy of a time, right? Well, I’m afraid you’ve been misguided in that. Now that I’ve got my full sarcasm out of the way here’s how today went.

We got to Magic Kingdom a little before 6am. Yes, you read that right. And, it wasn’t Extra Magic - regular opening today was at 6am. First up was the all important Christmas morning picture.

Then we found ourselves at the rope drop for Tomorrowland and headed with the masses back to Space Mountain. I say masses, but it actually wasn’t that bad. In fact, after we rode together, the girls went right back into line and rode a second time while I grabbed some drinks from Main Street Bakery.

As soon as they finished their second ride, they headed to another attraction that I tend to avoid and did their usual attempt to break their ride vehicle.

Now slightly dizzy, the girls took a couple minutes to enjoy their hot beverages and then we visited with Ariel. Yes, we know it isn’t the most amazing attractions and the ending makes very little sense without the movie, but it’s still fun and we enjoy it. Next up was a quick visit to Pooh and his honey pots before heading to Frontierland. Bear in mind that we’ve been in the park a little over an hour at this point and done a headliner twice and three smaller attractions as well. Now in Frontierland, we debated riding Splash in the chilly morning air and quickly came to our senses and rode Big Thunder Mountain instead. As you can tell, we were having a little goofy selfie fun on this Christmas morning!

We did some quick checks of the wait times and decided to continue our circuit of the park with a visit to Adventureland. Got a quick, fun, family photo in front of some pirate-y looking things. So, we all put on our best pirate faces!

And this was great practice for us to be able to do those faces on Pirates of the Caribbean!

I’m not really sure about the hooks that the girls appear to have grown this morning. Our last adventure of the morning was still just a couple hours after arriving and it was our third Jungle Cruise of this visit.

So, we found ourselves back in our room and making Christmas breakfast by 9am. Conveniently before the masses began to really descend upon Magic Kingdom. We picked up some eggs in the Hospitality House here at OKW and had them for breakfast, followed by some present opening. At about 11:30am we started to head to Animal Kingdom.

Today was not the best of transportation days for Disney. We waited well over 30 minutes for that bus. Also, waited about 30 for Disney Springs bus tonight (three times, more on that shortly) and I waited a good 30+ minutes for the boat form Disney Springs back to OKW. Not their finest work.

But by 1pm we were in Animal Kingdom and riding our safari FP+. Lots of good giraffe and elephant action, but i don’t have any pictures (yet). Our crew was moving a bit slow today (everyone a bit exhausted), so we just slow walked over to Dinosaur (1:40 FP+), but since our core trio aren’t big fans of the ride, we stayed in Dino-rama and had a little fun.

And, don’t ask me why (because I really don’t know), but I always win at Whack-a-Moletypecreature. So, we have a new friend.

After they had finished on Dinosaur, we crossed the park for some food and drinks at Situli Canteen and then some wandering around Pandora. Pretty sure this is the first time on the trip that we’ve gotten a picture with the full crew!

And pretty soon after, we rode on some Ikran at Flight of Passage - lots of fun. And quite enjoyable hearing/watching folks who are new to the ride! Ride complete, we headed back to OKW to rest for a few minutes and then head to Disney Springs for a little shopping. See you there!

 

[brifraz]

Christmas afternoon, and varying levels of hunger and exhaustion.. so, just @MeffysMom and I headed to Disney Springs to grab some dinner with the rest of the crew planning to join about an hour later after some down time. Here was the first prolonged wait for a bus. We actually gave up after about 20 minutes and started to walk to Hospitality House to catch the boat, only to have a bus drive up right as we passed another bus stop. So we took it.

Disney Springs was pretty crazy (Grapefruit garage was full, Lime was VERY close, and the line of cars to get into Orange was nuts) - but thanks to the new bus lanes we got in pretty quickly. We had a plan A, B, and C for dinner but got lucky and Plan A worked out! So we enjoyed a couple drinks and some food at Jock Lindsey’s (maybe just so we could go when it is all holiday-d up).

Now that we were full of good food, the rest of the crew was on their way (after a similar 30 minute plus bus wait) and we met up at the bus stop. This is where my active night ended as I didn’t really need any shopping and wanted to get back to the room and chill a bit. But, transportation had other plans. I waited about 30 minutes for a boat to OKW and then when it arrived, they had some kind of issues with a replacement ship captain not showing up... But, I did get back to OKW and that brings me up to now! The rest of the team did their shopping and then tried to catch the bus back and had another 30+ minute wait. They are now back in the room at 10pm and we are about to get to sleep as we have alarms set for 4:30am so we can be at DHS pre-rope drop (which is at 6am) and hopefully get a Rise of the Resistance boarding pass. See you tomorrow!!!

 

[Back!Elbow!Shoulders!]

Really enjoying your TR so far. That SM photo is fantastic @MeffysMom

 

[brifraz]

4:40am. Time to catch a bus to Studios!

 

[brifraz]

5:20am. Lines are past ticket kiosks. But not too far past

 

[brifraz]

Major issues this morning. 3 of our group got into boarding group 31. Other 3 are showing as not in park. Hundreds of very angry folks. We are at the GET umbrella by Star Tours which has a line past ABC commissary.

 

[brifraz]

Major issues this morning. 3 of our group got into boarding group 31. Other 3 are showing as not in park. Hundreds of very angry folks. We are at the GET umbrella by Star Tours which has a line past ABC commissary.

GET got our other 3 in group 100. Not cool. Went to guest relations and they got us together in 31.

While @MeffysMom and I had been dealing with that, the other 4 got in Millenium Falcon line. Once we had things figured out, they were close to getting in (hour wait) so we did single rider and got to ride about 5 minutes after them.

Group 31 got called at 7:30am and we are slowly going through the ruins/base now.

 

[KellBelle]

Late to join, but really enjoying your report!

 

[MeffysMom]

Really enjoying your TR so far. That SM photo is fantastic @MeffysMom

Thanks!

 

[brifraz]

Okay, so let’s start over with the chaos of this morning. Caught the bus just before 5am here at OKW. We unloaded and were in line at about 5:20am. The line at that point was well beyond the ticket kiosk area and starting to approach the security checkpoint.

By 5:35, it was fully packed to the security checkpoint and at about 5:40am, they opened the tapstiles. The masses entered (and us with them) and then became gathered on Hollywood Blvd. And waited. Of course, the excitement and anticipation was palpable. Every announcement caused the crowd to actually become silent (which never happens, right?). 6am arrives! And, nothing. No cheers of excitement from the first few to get in. No “We got it!” But lots of people saying “It says I’m not in the park” and “Refresh again” and “Did you tap in?” It was not a happy crowd. People began moving to the Guest Experience Team umbrella toward the Chinese Theater. And then more people. And then people began massing at any cast member they could find. 3 of our 6 got booked in group #31, but the other 3 were ‘not in the park.’ We walked toward Galaxy’s Edge and stopped at the GET umbrella across from Star Tours. It was quite the line. We sent 4 of our crew to do Millenium Falcon while @MeffysMom and I waited in line. Then about 10 minutes in... “Make sure you have the Magicbands for all of your party” was announced through the line. Meffysmom ran to get them while I stayed in line. About 6:30ish, we got to front of that line and he booked the 3 who didn’t get in with group #100. Not too happy with this, we contemplated going to join them at Millenium Falcon, but instead went to Guest Services by the park entrance to try to get things fixed up.

By about 6:50am, we were finally all together in group #31. By this point, I think that every Guest Relations CM within a 20 minute drive had been called in because there was more blue/red plaid on display than I have ever seen in a park. And TONS of managers and other higher ups. It was pretty impressive. Hopefully whatever glitch happened can be resolved!

It was just after 7am and the rest of the crew was already well into the Millenium Falcon building so the two of us asked about single rider and went ahead into that line. Turns out, we both ended up riding just about 5 minutes apart at 7:15ish. Here’s a shot of us in the waiting room, and much happier than we had been 5-10 minutes earlier.

As mentioned above, group #31 got called at about 7:30am and we were ready to go. It really is a great ride and I love the variety of experience that is involved. We had a very good cast member this morning as we waited for the ‘detention block’ room. Asking questions of our group and responding very well.

Ride complete and it was time to get our group back up to full strength as @meffysmom’s parents got to the park and met us outside Star Tours. Oh, yeah, we had a FP+ for 8:10am for Star Tours - in all the anarchy, that was tough to remember! Much as I enjoy the new segments, I’m not a huge fan of when it isn’t on any kind of random because I like being a little surprised by the ride!

Once we had helped defeat the (SPOILER ALERT) fleet of the resurrected emporer, we needed sustenance and didn’t want to deal with lines. It was after 9am, so we headed to ABC Commissary, and while the food isn’t the highest of quality, bacon cheeseburgers and chicken sandwiches are the best late breakfast...or just the only late breakfast! It was once again time for our crew to split up as the core trio wanted to do Rockin Roller Coaster and the rest didn’t. So they headed back to Batuu to do some shopping (nephew is a crazy Star Wars fan and had lots of relatives to buy him stuff!!) while we went to ride with our FP+.

At about 10:30am, we were headed back to Galaxy’s Edge. As we walked, there were a couple stanchions with a rope between them in the middle of the path with a CM standing guard. Being the snarky folks we are, we queue’d up. Then had a good chat with her about the cracks in the pavement (which apparently is a bit of an issue).

Back with our full crew, we headed to our reservation at Oga’s Cantina for some drinks and fun. And quite a good time was had by all. Lots of fun sharing the foam from the Fuzzy Tauntaun drink with everyone to see people’s reactions to their tongue/lips getting ‘fuzzy.’

With two visits now under our belt, we’ve had tastes of most of the drinks, and I must say, they have done an excellent job of mixology! After our drinks, we casually walked through some of the area and @Meffysmom’s father had to answer a few questions.

Next up was our nephew’s appointment at the Droid Depot where he made a custom R2 unit. I just chilled outside and enjoyed the steady stream of stormtroopers (try saying that 10 times fast) and their comments toward the folks standing around. After that, we hit a few of the shops on the way out of the park and some souvenirs were obtained.

It was around 2pm at this point and time to relax at Old Key West and for @meffysmom’s aunt to get the Magical Express. For some, this meant a nap. For three of us (myself, Meffysmom, and her father) it meant a visit to the Gurgling Suitcase with our good friend, the bartender Robert K (Roberto). Much deserved after the morning and much enjoyed.

And that bring us up to now. Some folks are still sleeping, our core trio is chilling by the ‘quiet’ pool at Turtle Pond (and OKW) and the aunt is on her way to MCO. It looks like we are going to take a trip to Magic Kingdom tonight to grab some late dinner and maybe a ride or two (oh, and shopping...always the shopping with this crew).

See you later!

 

[brifraz]

Good Morning from Old Key West! It’s just a bit past 6am - wow, did I ever sleep in! No...seriously, 6am is pretty impressive, I rarely make it past 5:30am even after yesterday’s marathon day (actually, only about 8.5 miles...but in 19 hours).

Before I jump into last night’s foray in the Magic Kingdom, I do have one more picture to share from the morning in Studios. As a bit of a Star Wars nerd, I’ve read most of the novels (both Legends and current canon) and there is a novel setting up Galaxy’s Edge. So, if anybody else is fully nerding out with me here...I’m pretty sure that this PhotoPass picture is in front of the remains of Vi Moradi’s crash site.

And, by the way, if you didn’t know... Anakin Skywalker visited Batuu both during the Clone Wars and again after he became Darth Vader - I looked for evidence of those visits, but didn’t come across any. I plan to read up online about hidden things before our next visit.

So, last night! About 7:30, 6 of us (no father-in-law, and the Aunt was well on her way back to Seattle) headed back to Magic Kingdom for their last theme park time of the trip (core trio still has another couple days). We had gotten a FP+ for Haunted Mansion after our 3 in Studios were used up, so after a little shopping at the Emporium, we headed back there. My daughter and I tried to replicate our pose from Rockin’ Roller Coaster earlier in the day and I’d say we pulled it off pretty well (scroll up a post to see the earlier one).

After our visit to the happy haunts, we strolled over to Friar’s Nook for a bite to eat before they closed and then hit It’s A Small World (for their final attraction of the visit) and got one last ‘selfie’ of the family on a ride (I say ‘selfie’ since I was the one reaching, but just got @MeffysMom’s blood relatives in the shot).

All that was left after that was a quick dash over to Space Mountain - not to ride, but to grab a shirt that they had seen in the gift shop and wanted to pick up. Of course, it was pretty close to 10pm at this point, so we had a unique vantage point for the fireworks.

It’s like they were designed to be viewed over the Speedway and TTA! And, the combination of the Christmas ‘rock’ being played at the Speedway with the fireworks music coming from the rest of Tomorrowland was...let’s just say unique.

Caught the bus back to OKW and everyone was getting some much needed rest by about 11:30pm.

Today we have a slower morning, waiting to send off the California branch of the team and then perhaps heading to Epcot before a tour of the Riviera with DVC and perhaps some evening time at Studios (Toy Story Land has been sadly neglected so far this trip). Then Saturday we might try another Rise of the Resistance morning, although I have read that the park entry SNAFU repeated itself this morning. Yikes!

See you sooner (or later)!

 

[brifraz]

Much as I’d love to give you today’s recap now... I’m pretty wiped out and getting up early tomorrow for a little DHS before coming back to pack and check out.

so, I suspect it will be a couple days before you get our last couple days. See you Sunday!