Christmas at Disney World (12/22-1/4) - Page 2 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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There are other changes as well.
Why? Well, the world has changed. And change with it, we must. The lyrics to "We Go On" for IllumiNations say it best:
We go on to the joy and through the tears
We go on to discover new frontiers
Moving on with the current of the years.
We go on
Moving forward now as one
Moving on with a spirit born to run
Ever on with each rising sun.
To a new day, we go on.
It's time to move on and move forward.
PassPorter is a small business, and for many years it supported our family. But the world changed, print books took a backseat to the Internet, and for a long time now it has been unable to make ends meet. We've had to find new ways to support our family, which means new careers and less and less time available to devote to our first baby, PassPorter.
But eventually, we must move on and move forward. It is the right thing to do.
So we are retiring this newsletter, as we simply cannot keep up with it. Many thanks to Mouse Fan Travel who supported it all these years, to All Ears and MousePlanet who helped us with news, to our many article contributors, and -- most importantly -- to Sara Varney who edited our newsletter so wonderfully for years and years.
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If you miss us, you can still find some of us online. Sara started a new blog at DisneyParkPrincess.com -- I strongly urge you to visit and get on her mailing list. She IS the Disney park princess and knows Disney backward and forward. And I am blogging as well at JenniferMaker.com, which is a little craft blog I started a couple of years ago to make ends meet. You can see and hear me in my craft show at https://www.youtube.com/c/jennifermaker . Many PassPorter readers and fans are on Facebook, in groups they formed like the PassPorter Trip Reports and PassPorter Crafting Challenge (if you join, just let them know you read about it in the newsletter). And some of our most devoted community members started a forum of their own at Pixie Dust Lane and all are invited over.
So we encourage you to stay in touch with us and your fellow community members wherever works best for you!
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This was our first park day and we were scheduled for the Magic Kingdom. The park opens to the public at 8am, but had 7am EMH hours. I tried to avoid parks with EMH, but the MK has them every single day so there was no avoiding it. My alarm was set for 6am, but we woke up on our own a little before it went off- we are all naturally early risers. We headed out a bit after 6:30am.
This was my first time ever actually driving to a park since I’ve always stayed on site and used the buses. We arrived at the ticket and transportation center fairly quickly and with no problems. We were parked so close (in Aladdin 35/39); there was no need for a tram ride. We walked up to only a handful of people waiting for the monorail and this is where things went downhill…
To my surprise, they don’t run the monorail to the MK until about 15 minutes prior to opening; which means we had more than 30 minutes to just wait in line and freeze! Finally, finally, finally they open the gates for the monorail only to be told the monorail isn’t runningL. They then direct us to the ferry. We all aboard the ferry, it gets ready to pull out and they declare it is too foggy to navigate and close the ferry and we unload with the masses. We are now directed to buses taking us to the Magic Kingdom. It is now after opening time. We missed rope drop despite arriving a full hour prior to opening! We were so bummed…
I was so proud of the kids though, not a single one of the 8 kids complained, they all maintained their excitement. We finally arrived at the Magic Kingdom well after opening and made our way through bag check. We then head over to guest services; my nephew needed an assistance card due to Asperger’s and a breathing machine he kept in his stroller; we also asked for a card to allow his stroller to be counted as a wheelchair. Once that was done, we scanned our tickets and finally entered the Magic Kingdom!
Unfortunately, entering the park didn’t immediately change our bad luck. Our plan was to ride the train to Fantasyland where we would ride Dumbo. Well I’ve never rode the train with a “wheelchair” before and we could not find the handicap entrance. We circled all the way around, stopped twice to ask for directions to the ramp before finally finding it… Once we found the ramp, we were on the train in no time and finally on our way to Fantasyland!
Once we were off the train, a few folks needed a bathroom break and then finally at 8:45am (nearly an hour after park opening) we were able to ride Dumbo with only a ten minute wait posted, but it was actually a walk on. We did stop and spend about ten minutes in the new play area that all the younger kids really enjoyed. We all enjoyed our ride on Dumbo.
Up next, we headed to Under the Sea which had a posted wait time of 20 minutes. I thought that was pretty good for it to be a brand new attraction. I loved this ride!
We were then off to Winnie the Pooh, which also had a twenty minute, posted wait time. We all enjoyed this ride as well.
It was now 10am and we headed over to Philharmagic (one of my favorites). There was just 5 minutes till the next show, so we were watching the film in no time. Unfortunately, my nephew (3) got upset during the show and my BIL had to take him out. They were so quiet about it though, I didn’t realize they’d left early until afterwards.
It was now 10:30am and Peter Pan had a 45 minute posted wait time. At this ride, my sister and her family went through the handicap entrance and I fully expected her to get on before me and we were to meet outside the attraction. But somehow, we managed to get on before her and we got off the ride just minutes apart.
We were now ready for some lunch. We headed just across the way to Pinocchio Village Haus. Several of the kids got pizza; the rest got chicken tenders and fries. My BIL and I both got the meatball sub with fries, but I thought it was ok at best. During lunch, we sat where we could overlook It’s a Small World; this is how we realized the ride wasn’t working. It had been next on our itinerary, but since it was down we had to skip it. Lunch was filling and we were now ready for the Haunted Mansion.
It was now 11:30am and the Haunted Mansion had a posted wait time of 30 minutes. A few of the little kids got scared in the stretching room, but we all made it out of the ride un-traumatized.
At this point, our two families split up. For my sister- this was going to be her only day at the Magic Kingdom and she needed to focus on “must” rides; since our trip was longer we wanted to ride everything that we could. So, while we headed over to the Riverboat and Hall of Presidents. My sister went to Adventure land.
The Riverboat departs on the hour and half hour. We arrived at 11:50am, so we had a ten minute wait. We enjoyed our leisurely ride on the river.
It was difficult to make our way to the Hall of Presidents because a Christmas parade was about to start. It was nearing 12:30 when we got to the Hall of Presidents and we had a ten minute wait till the next show. We relaxed inside on the benches.
After the show was over (which I truly enjoy), we caught the tail end of the parade. We were trying to get to Main Street, but the parade was just ending- so we stopped for two funnel cakes while the parade dissipated.
We got to the front of Main Street about 1:30pm. It was like swimming through people to get there as the crowds on Main Street were CRAZY. But to my surprise there was only a 15 minute posted wait time to see Mickey Mouse. And a 20 minute waits time for the Princesses. We decided to get fast passes. Mickey gave us a return time of 2:05pm and the princesses gave us a return time of 2:15pm. Also, Mickey gave us bonus fast passes for Dumbo that we did not use since we’d already rode.
In the meantime, we headed across the street for the Sorcerers of Mickey game. The kids were really excited to play, but the first place it wanted to send us was Fantasyland- so we put the game on hold for now.
We headed back across the street to Mickey’s theatre and picked up my photo pass plus card. I had ordered in advance and had to exchange my voucher for the card. This was quick and easy thankfully. We still had a few more minutes before we could use our Mickey fast passes. The wait time was now down to 10 minutes, so we just hopped in the standby line. By the time we’d seen Mickey we still had a bit before our princess fast passes were good. So, we walked over to the Confectionary and got some fudge. The kids also did some pin trading and we watched a bit of the dancing parade that came through Main Street before we were finally able to use our fast passes.
At, this time we decided to just call it a day. I told the kids our next Magic Kingdom day- we’d head straight for Sorcerers Mickey’s first thing so that we could play as we go through our day and they agreed that was the best plan.
My sister ended up leaving less than an hour behind us. During their time, they had went to Adventure land and walked through the Swiss Family Tree house. They said there were too many people in it, and because of it they were forced to move at a steady pace, whereas they would have liked to truly explore it.
They also rode Jungle Cruise at my recommendation and said they didn’t really enjoy it much. I was surprised.
They did, however love Pirates of the Caribbean.
Next, they headed to Frontier land and rode Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. My sister said it was a hit with the whole family.
They then took the train over to Fantasyland where they walked down to the Speedway cars. I had told her that ride was definitely not a must, but they kept spotting it when they were on other rides and insisted… Well, surprise surprise- they didn’t love it. But their younger ones did and that’s all that really matters.
At that time they scooted into Tomorrow land. They rode Space Mountain using the baby swap and declared it the best ride ever!
They also rode Buzz Light year and loved it; but said the baby slept through the whole ride- lol.
I had strongly urged them to see Monsters Inc.; but they just weren’t convinced plus she said the boys were now asking to leave.
They did stop on the way out for a photo pass pic in front of the castle, I had urged her not to miss that opportunity and she didn’t.
Since the baby was asleep, they now bailed on seeing Mickey as well and just headed on out of the park arriving at the vacation home about an hour after us.
We had hotdogs and hamburgers for dinner.
Despite the crappy start, it ended up being a great day!
Tomorrow is Epcot…
*I tried to upload a few pics, but the internet is too slow or something- so I'm giving up on pics for now...
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Dillon woke up at 1:30am complaining of a sore throat. He was running a temp, so I gave him some ibuprofen and he went back to bed. My gut was he had strep, as he’s had it in the past and he also had a headache which is the number one symptom my kids present with. I called the doctor’s office, unfortunately our regular doctor was not on call and the on-call doctor would not call us anything in. Dillon did start to feel better and also took some allergy meds, as we had forgotten it the last few days and he can’t manage long without it. I’m still not for sure what is going on with him, but for now we are just playing it by ear. I’d like to think/hope it’s just his allergies- but I don’t think that would cause the temperature…
Well, today we were heading to Epcot and it didn’t open until 9am. So, we didn’t need to leave until 8:00am. We parked, got through bag check and up to the entrance gates. They were already letting people in, but had it roped off just past Spaceship Earth. They ended up “dropping the rope” about 8:40am which was a welcome surprise.
We headed straight for Soarin. It had a posted wait time of 20 minutes and we were about to board by just after 9am. This is one of my very favorite rides!
Next, we headed to Living with the Land. It had a posted wait time of 10 minutes, but was easily a walk on.
It was 9:50am when we made our way to Circle of Life and we had just missed the next show, so we had a 15 minute wait. While waiting, Dillon spotted the pressed penny machines. One of them ate his money, but he was able to get the other one.
Also, while waiting my sister and her family decided they really were not interested in the shows, so they headed out to the Nemo ride. When we exited Circle of Life, I took note that the Soarin standby line was now up to 75 minutes.
We both finished about the same time, around 10:30am and headed for lunch at the Electric Umbrella. It was also about this time that we realized Dillon had lost his cell phone. We tried calling it but it went straight to voice mail. For lunch, all my kids had the chicken tenders with fries and I had the bacon cheeseburger. It was yummy. It was a nice lunch other than Austin pouting over my not allowing him more time to pin trade, but thankfully his sour mood was short lived. Also, during lunch my sister said she and the baby were not feeling so hotL.
After lunch, we headed off to World Showcase and my sister was off to the Character Spot. On our way into World Showcase we stopped off and picked up our Phineas and Ferb mission phones.
We made our way to Mexico and rode the Grand Fiesta ride which was a walk-on. We also stopped by the kidcot station where the kids got a Ferb to color and got their Mexico stamps.
Next, we headed to Norway. We got in line for Maelstrom with a ten minute wait listed, but the wait time quickly changed to 25 minutesL. We enjoyed it all the same. It was nearly 12:30 when we stopped at the Norway kid cot station where the kids did some more coloring and got some more stamps.
We then headed for China where we enjoyed the kid cot station, reflections of china, and a little exploring.
At 1:30pm we headed over to Test Track where there was a 140 minute standby time and a 50 minute single rider line! After riding, we were ready to call it a day.
We stopped by guest services on our way out of the park to check on Dillon’s phone. No luckL. They did give us a number to call and see if it turns up later.
On the way out, we finally spotted some photo pass photographers. We had been on the lookout all day and they had been nowhere to be found until now.
My sister stayed in the park just a little bit longer than we did. While we were separated they rode Test Track, Mission Space, Mexico Fiesta boat ride, Maelstrom, Journey into imagination, and met some characters.
It was a great day, but we were spent!
We had been all over the place as to the best way to do Christmas. I never ever do anything other than Christmas morning. However, we also go through gifts very slowly opening one at the time. Meaning, it was not realistic to have our traditional Christmas morning and still make it to the parks for opening. Not to mention, we weren’t sure the kids would want to immediately abandon their gifts for the parks. So, we decided to celebrate Christmas on Christmas Eve. Once my sister was back to the vacation home, we sorted our gifts and began opening. It was a wonderful way to celebrate Christmas. Afterwards, we had chicken sandwiches and French fries for dinner- not a traditional Christmas meal, but yummy all the same.
We were so busy with Christmas, I forgot to call back about Dillon’s phone until nearly 8pm at which time the lost and found was closed. So, I’ll try to call about it tomorrow.
Tomorrow we are planning to go to Hollywood Studio’s. This will be a long day for us as we plan to stay in the park all day so that we can see Fantasmic! Ideally, we would leave around lunch and head back that evening for the show. But due to it being Christmas Eve, I’m worried the park will close to capacity and we won’t be able to get back in. So, we will just stay put for the entire day. My sister, however has decided to sleep in a bit and catch up with us at the park around noon to make their day a little shorter/easier. I briefly considered doing the same, but it’s just too hard for me to resist going to the parks first thing; were already up so early I can’t see just sitting around waiting to leave….
A little side note that I forgot to mention yesterday; when we met Cinderella the boys were not so excited and it showed. So, Cinderella told Madilyn that she thought they’d be a great match with her evil step sisters since they had so much in common. LOL.
Merry Christmas everyone and thanks for following along!
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Sounds like you got a lot done!! Hope you're enjoying Christmas at DHS. Pixies that Dillion is feeling better and that someone turned in his cell phone!
PassPorter's Free-Book to Walt Disney World It’s hard to believe anything is free at Walt Disney World; but there are actually a number of things you can get or do for little to no cost. This e-book documents over 200 free or cheap tips to do before you go and after you arrive. You could save a considerable amount of money following these tips. Perhaps more importantly; you can discover overlooked attractions and little-known details most people whiz by on their way to spend money. Click here to see free sample pages from the e-book! Get this popular e-book free of extra charges when you join the PassPorter's Club for as little as $4.95. A club pass includes access to all our other e-books; e-worksheets; super-size photos; and more! This e-book is also available for separate purchase in the PassPorter Online Store for just $5.95.
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