Our Very Merry Kindschi Christmas Vacation Trip Report - UPDATED 4/23 - COMPLETE!! - Page 2 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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With the hustle and bustle of the Christmas season and travel behind us, I thought I would get started on my TR from our impromptu Christmas vacation to WDW! Before I start, I have to thank everyone for well wishes and pixies for good weather and safe travels. It worked! So, with that being said, on with the TR!
Day 1: Travel from Wisconsin to Philadelphia, then to Orlando
Well, our trip began a little earlier then planned. Wisconsin, along with most of the midwest was put under a Winter Storm Warning a full 24hrs. before the storm was to hit. So, being optimist about our travel plans, we decided to drive down to Chicago on Thursday night and stay near the airport rather than depend on the bus on Friday morning. We checked into our hotel in Chicago and set up vigil in front of the TV tuned into the Weather Channel and the local news stations. We kept track of the cancellations (over 500 when all was said and done! ) at O'Hare and called our airline's flight information hotline number several times throughout the night and early morning. When we went to bed, we were still scheduled to fly out at 7:45 the next morning. The next morning, nothing had changed with our flight so we headed out into the icy storm and made it to the airport at 5:30 a.m. We were set to leave "on time" and we were beginning to think that things were going a bit too smoothly. About 20 minutes before we were to board our plane they changed our gate number. Thinking we would board as soon as we got to the other gate, we hustled over to our new gate assignment...and waited, and sat, and waited some more . So much for smooth travel! Oh well, we were still leaving the airport at least! After an hour, we finally boarded our plane-hallelujah!! Oh, wait...deicing a plane takes awhile. And when you only have a small number of deicing trucks compared to the hundreds of planes that need deicing, it takes even longer :sigh: SOOOOO, after an hour of waiting at the gate and an hour waiting in the plane at the gate, we took off from Chicago. By this time we knew we had already missed our connecting flight in Philadelphia We decided we would fight that battle when it came time.
Well, we landed in Philly and were promptly directed to the customer service counter for US Air...along with 300 other people! However, as we waited to get to the counter two customer reps started at the end of the line handing out the newly printed boarding passes. But that was a very short lived "hurray" because as we got our new boarding passes they were for the next morning We also were given a coupon for $77 to stay at the HoJo for the night and told, "I don't know what else to tell you." WHAT? Are you not an airline CUSTOMER SERVICE representative!? Hello! This is when I said, "Well there are 3 other flights leaving for Orlando this afternoon, can we try to get on standby for any of those?" Duh!? She then replied with "You can try." and curtly walked away! So off we went to trek across the Philly airport...4 times, trying to get on another flight. Well, after a whole lot of rushing from one end of the airport to the other we got on a flight that was set to leave 4 hours later than we were actually suppose to be in Florida...oh well, at least we were going! So we waited some more while US Air patched together a crew for our flight.
Chris passing time in the airport
When we finally got in the air and got up above the clouds, we were greeted with the most beautiful sunset...I knew then that we would have a wonderful vacation!
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I feel sorry for those who live in the winter wonderland. But I'm surprise that all the eastern and nothern states didn't go south and west. But at lease Mr. Disney was wise about where to put his parks. And he wasn't alive when they plan Japan, Paris and Honk Hong one where it really snows.
Ok...I'm feeling quite sheepish right now ...can I still finish this TR now that it's been 2 months?! Holy cow has time flown by! I ran across all of my notes that I took while on our wonderful vacation yesterday and relized that I never finished this trip report. Anyone still interested?
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WDW - August 1997 Off Property
WDW - January 2005 AKL
WDW - May 2006 Pop Century
WDW- november-dec 2007 pop century
WDW- dec/jan 2009/2010 pop century
WDW- oct/nov 2012 art of animation
WDW- sept 2013 port Orleans riverside
WDW- july 2015 beach club
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Our Very Merry Kindschi Christmas: Updated 2/28/09
for all of your support and interest fellow PPs! Here's the next installment of our wonderful Christmas vacation to WDW. Since it's been awhile , here's a brief update of the pertinent details of our trip:
Who: me, Mandy (29), DH, Chris (31), and BFF Marcus (31)
What: spur of the moment Christmas vacation to WDW!
When: December 19th - 24th, 2008
Why: Um...it's Disney, of course!
Day (er...evening) 1: Feet on the ground...and...GO! Magic Kingdom for MVMCP
Well, after a very frustrating and stressful day full of cancelled or delayed flights, we finally made it to MCO-albeit 5 hours later than planned. I don't think I've ever been more excited to be in an airport as I was as we deplaned at Orlando International!!! Originally, we had planned our flight so that we would arrive in Orlando just before Marcus (BFF) and we would meet up with him, pick up the rental car, check in at our resort, Bonnet Creek (BC), and head off to MVMCP at 4 p.m. BUT...plans changed! I called BC to get Marcus listed as a guest so he could check in since he was flying in from TN and his flight was on time. Bless his heart , he went and picked up groceries, did some shopping at DTD and hung around until our plane finally landed at 7:15 or so. We called him as soon as we had our luggage and he headed in from the cell phone lot at MCO. He arrived at curbside to pick us up in a matter of minutes and we were off to MK. We had decided to not even go to the resort, but instead go straight to MVMCP since we had missed so much already! So off we went.
Chris (DH) decided he would change into shorts in the back of the car and me...well, lets just say that if you open up the front and back passenger doors on a car, it makes a nice little changing room! We are from WI after all, so there was no way we were staying in our winter duds of jeans, long-sleeved shirts, and sweatshirts! Not to mention, it was actually quite humid in Orlando that night! Anywho, after being a quick change artist, we headed off to the monorail (yes, I changed in the parking lot of the TTC!).
Me and DH on the monorail on the way to MVMCP!
After a quick ride on the highway in the sky, we were at the gates of the MK. Ahhh, we had finally made it! Of course, to the grumbles of the boys , I had to stop and take some pics of the MVMCP signage and the train depot all decorated and lit up for the festivities.
Since we arrived at MK at 8:45 we knew we had to move quick in order to get a spot for Wishes and something to eat. We were ! So we stopped at our favorite place for a hot dog and fries-none other than Casey's! We got our food and happened upon some benches on the porch of Crystal Palace that had wonderful views of the castle. As we ate I was trying to get a good picture of the iced-out castle and happened to get on of the better pics I've ever gotten of the beginning of Wishes!
Holiday Wishes!
We watched Holiday Wishes as we finished our dinner, had a quick desert of cocoa and cookies, and then headed off to Adventureland for Pirates and some character hunting. We ran across Abu and Genie right as we crossed into Adventureland. We had never had a chance to see Abu so we got in line. DH was VERY excited! Genie is his favorite and he Abu, so he was on cloud 9 to find both together!
DH, Genie, Abu, BFF, and me at MVMCP. Why didn't I wear red?
After riding POTC, we headed to Liberty Square for HM. I love riding HM at night! It makes it much more "scary"! We enjoyed a stroll through Fantasyland, rode IASM (it seems sacreligious to not ride this each and every time we go to WDW!) I took some great close up pics of the castle on my favorite pathway between Fantasyland and Tomorrowland, where you can find Cinder's wishing well.
Absolutely magical!
We found a SLEW of characters out and about in the Fantasyland area. Snow White and Prince Charming, Donald Duck, Scrooge McDuck, Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum, Alice and the Mad Hatter, and the Queen of Hearts were all more than happy to take pics and sign autographs for us.
Well, let me back up for a minute. The Queen of Hearts was hilarious! She had me laughing so hard. To begin with, if you've ever tried to get a picture with her, she can be quite a snot! She doesn't stand still for anyone and will make you bow to her in exchange for an autograph. So after following her for a minute DH took her by her arm and led her back to where her "handler" was waiting. She didn't appreciate this and insisted that we all bow. Me and BFF did, but DH refused and she popped her collar and put up her dukes! She was ready to box with DH! It was hilarious! So finally, DH decided he would actually like a pic and autograph, so he bowed. She conceded and snatched the pen and book out of DH's hand! Then, the pen wouldn't work . She promptly pitched it over her shoulder into the bushes!!!! After signing our book, BFF wanted his book signed. This about put her over the edge, but she did it and we finally got a picture taken with her! It's a great memory from this trip!
Us with the Queen of Hearts
Because of all of our character hunting we didn't make it to Main Street for the parade, but with is being the last MVMCP of the season, we knew the parade would be featured during the day in the parks. (I learned this thanks to the wonderful PPs on this site!!! ) So it allowed us to find some of those characters you don't see a lot with little to no wait. We knew we'd be back at MK for at least one more full day so we didn't sweat not seeing the parade that night. So after we had collected as many signatures and pics from Fantasyland as possible, we headed back to TT to see who was back there. We loved how Minnie and Mickey's houses were decorated for the season, but decided that waiting in those lines to get pics with them were not worth the wait. Minnie's line was through the backyard, all the way through the house and almost back to the front door! and Mickey's was about 1/2 as long!!! No thanks! But I was able to get a couple of pics between guests of just them. I was a sniper photographer that night!
Mickey in his Christmas best!
After catching Santa Goofy back by Goofy's Barnstormer, we started making our way back to Main Street. The party was coming to a close and we knew we still wanted to stop at the candy shop and look for pins and t-shirts for MVMCP at the Emporium. We made it back to Main Street while most people were still trying to get on just one more ride and had a pretty easy time getting a really cute MVMCP pin and Jiminy stuffed character for DH (we get a different one on each trip-Jiminy was the pick this time!) at the Emporium. We didn't like any of the shirts for MVMCP so we passed on those. As we left the Emporium we were greeted with falling snow and the scent of chocolate chip cookies on Main Street. I like the snow in Orlando better then the kind we get up here in WI! We took some time taking some pics of the tree, the castle and all of us enjoying the magic of The Kingdom and then headed over to the monorail for our ride back to the TTC. We made it back to BC by about 1:30. We promptly flopped into bed and fell fast asleep! Whew! What a night!
Man that so cool with the Queen of hearts I love act out the role with the characters. I would of laugh watching you guys. Also these picture are really making me excited to be there when it November. I be you were all pooped out when you got to the hotel, what time did you wake up the next morning?
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It worked! So, with that being said, on with the TR!
) at O'Hare and called our airline's flight information hotline number several times throughout the night and early morning. When we went to bed, we were still scheduled to fly out at 7:45 the next morning. The next morning, nothing had changed with our flight so we headed out into the icy storm and made it to the airport at 5:30 a.m. We were set to leave "on time" and we were beginning to think that things were going a bit too smoothly. About 20 minutes before we were to board our plane they changed our gate number. Thinking we would board as soon as we got to the other gate, we hustled over to our new gate assignment...and waited, and sat, and waited some more 
. So much for smooth travel! Oh well, we were still leaving the airport at least! After an hour, we finally boarded our plane-hallelujah!! Oh, wait...deicing a plane takes awhile. And when you only have a small number of deicing trucks compared to the hundreds of planes that need deicing, it takes even longer :sigh: SOOOOO, after an hour of waiting at the gate and an hour waiting in the plane at the gate, we took off from Chicago. By this time we knew we had already missed our connecting flight in Philadelphia 
We decided we would fight that battle when it came time. 
But that was a very short lived "hurray" because as we got our new boarding passes they were for the next morning 
We also were given a coupon for $77 to stay at the HoJo for the night and told, "I don't know what else to tell you." 
WHAT? Are you not an airline CUSTOMER SERVICE representative!? Hello! 
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I will continue with my TR this weekend, promise! Don't lose faith!
At Disney World I can visit Japan. Please check-out my web site for wheelchair travel, 
...can I still finish this TR now that it's been 2 months?! Holy cow has time flown by! I ran across all of my notes that I took while on our wonderful vacation yesterday and relized that I never finished this trip report. Anyone still interested?
Disney Magic - Oct 2015
, here's a brief update of the pertinent details of our trip:
Originally, we had planned our flight so that we would arrive in Orlando just before Marcus (BFF) and we would meet up with him, pick up the rental car, check in at our resort, Bonnet Creek (BC), and head off to MVMCP at 4 p.m. BUT...plans changed! I called BC to get Marcus listed as a guest so he could check in since he was flying in from TN and his flight was on time. Bless his heart 
, he went and picked up groceries, did some shopping at DTD and hung around until our plane finally landed at 7:15 or so. We called him as soon as we had our luggage and he headed in from the cell phone lot at MCO. He arrived at curbside to pick us up in a matter of minutes and we were off to MK. We had decided to not even go to the resort, but instead go straight to MVMCP since we had missed so much already! 
We are from WI after all, so there was no way we were staying in our winter duds of jeans, long-sleeved shirts, and sweatshirts! Not to mention, it was actually quite humid in Orlando that night! Anywho, after being a quick change artist, we headed off to the monorail (yes, I changed in the parking lot of the TTC!).
! So we stopped at our favorite place for a hot dog and fries-none other than Casey's! We got our food and happened upon some benches on the porch of Crystal Palace that had wonderful views of the castle. As we ate I was trying to get a good picture of the iced-out castle and happened to get on of the better pics I've ever gotten of the beginning of Wishes!
She was ready to box with DH! It was hilarious! So finally, DH decided he would actually like a pic and autograph, so he bowed. 
. She promptly pitched it over her shoulder into the bushes!!!! 
and we knew we still wanted to stop at the candy shop and look for pins and t-shirts for MVMCP at the Emporium. We made it back to Main Street while most people were still trying to get on just one more ride and had a pretty easy time getting a really cute MVMCP pin and Jiminy stuffed character for DH (we get a different one on each trip-Jiminy was the pick this time!) at the Emporium. We didn't like any of the shirts for MVMCP so we passed on those. As we left the Emporium we were greeted with falling snow and the scent of chocolate chip cookies on Main Street. I like the snow in Orlando better then the kind we get up here in WI! 
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