A Disney Family Christmas 2009 - Trip Report - Page 2 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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We slept in a little this morning so we wouldn’t be worn out at the beginning of the vacation. Andrew and I had the unfortunate surprise of finding out our shower didn’t work. Luckily Mom and Dad had finished already and we used theirs. I was a little concerned that the hotel would be short of help on Christmas Eve, but by the time we got home that night it was fixed.
One thing I want to mention and I don’t remember when it got started so I will put it in here: somehow on all of our vacations, we always seem to come up with a catch phrase for that trip. It doesn’t happen on purpose but someone always seems to get something started. This trip it was my Dad’s doing. I think they had just watched The Santa Clause 2 right before they came because he kept saying “I like it” in the voice of the robot Santa when he is talking about hot cocoa (I hope some of you know what I am talking about). So, on this trip, whenever we liked a ride or food or really anytime we could find an excuse we would bring out the “I liked it”s. This was a lot of fun and gives us something to remember about the vacation.
Anyway, today we knew the parks would be a bit busier and we had an ADR in Epcot tonight so we just decided to do Epcot all day and no worry about the parks filling up. We got to Epcot around 10:30. You could tell that it was going to be a busy day, people were pouring into the park. We stopped right away a got a few photos by SSE and with the plants in that area.
I knew we needed to get over to The Land to get some Soarin’ FPs right away. So after the photos we headed over there and everyone waited outside while I got FP for 3:30-4:30. Wow, glad we got over there right away – those things were going quick! Since we were over on this side already we decided to do Honey, I Shrunk the Audience (5 min wait). By now we were getting a little hungry, so we decided to stroll over toward Mexico.
On the way, we of course had to stop at Club Cool. This is definitely one of the neatest things in Epcot. I am glad they made it a permanent attraction. Who can resist giving Beverly to a newbie? Hehe While we were there, my sister and her boyfriend were looking at the build-a-cup option they had. I went over to see what they were like and Beth asked me a question about something. I had just filled up a cup with the ginger pop (to get rid of the Beverly taste) and I pointed out something to her with the hand that was holding the cup…you can guess where this is going. She motioned at the same time and knocked my cup all over the floor and the cup display. I was really embarrassed – apparently I could have used one of the build-a-cups – they have lids! We profusely apologized to the worked that had to come clean it up and then boogied out of there.
Some Beverly faces for your entertainment...
__________________
A dream is a wish your heart makes...
Katherine
Last edited by WishandDream; 02-05-2010 at 05:23 PM..
Thanks everyone! Sorry I meant to post the continuation earlier. Here it is!
Day 2, Thursday, December 24, 2009 (part 2)
So, we got to Mexico and decided to eat at the Cantina here. One interesting thing Andrew and I noticed is that there was another booth set up by the pyramid that was serving food too. It was labeled as Mexico City and so I gathered that this was a leftover booth from the F&WF that they left out for the busy holiday season. I didn’t see any others in any of the other countries – who knows. Could be too because I just read that they are shutting the Cantina down for renovations soon.
The line at the booth was shorter and the food looked more interesting so Andrew and I went there. We had ADRs for 3:30 so we didn’t want to eat too much and chose to split the beef taquitos platter. We also got some guacamole and chips to share. Everyone else got the Chilaquiles con Pollo from the Cantina. Mom had found a table right on the water and we had a great lunch. Everyone loved their food.
This was also the beginning of our small attend to drink around the world. We knew it would probably extend over a few days, but we tried to get new drinks in the countries we visited. For lunch, the boys got Dos Equis and us girls all split a margarita. All very good.
As everyone else was finishing lunch, I booked it over to Test Track to look into fast passes. It was actually getting a little warm at this point and I even worked up a sweat during my fast walk over there. I got in line behind some people who didn’t know what they were doing (we ran into this A LOT) – no you can’t get more than one fast pass until the time on your current one says you can, no you can’t get multiple fast passes with one ticket, etc, etc – really people, it is not that hard! (okay, rant over) The FPs were for 6-7. Not ideal, but I felt lucky to get them.
I met back up with everyone else and we decided to explore the Mexico pavilion a bit more. I don’t think I had ever been in the pyramid, so we ventured in there and found the Tequileria. My dad is a big fan of trying new and/or strange alcohol so he was like a kid in a candy store looking through their tequila menu. I was still hot from the walk to get FPs so the comfy couches and A/C was nice. The boys ended up with some sort of scorpion mescal (I think the bottle had a scorpion in it). I tried a little and it seemed quite nice for tequila. There was some other one they were looking at that I think had a snake or something in it and the CM told them to drink at your own risk because of the craziness that could be in the bottle with the tequila – ew.
The boys enjoying their tequila.
After tequila, next stop was the Gran Fiesta Tour. I don’t remember ever riding this before – so it was neat to see something new. I like the screens and the ride is nice and relaxing. We headed out after that and found Donald outside. Since this was Brent’s first visit, he had never had a character experience before. We kept joking that we were going to make him get every single character’s autograph, but he is lucky we are nice and didn’t follow through. He was excited to get some photos though and the line was fairly short.
When we got up to Donald we made the three guys take a photo with him. I guess this is a good time to explain our t-shirts for the day. My parents and sister had been shopping at Wal-mart right before leaving and they found a bunch of Christmas t-shirts and bought one for everybody. My mom was wearing one that said ‘Naughty’, Beth had the ‘Nice’ one (yeah right!), and mine said ‘Spice’ (my choice between Sugar and Spice). The boys’ were all characters: Dad’s said ‘Bah Humbug’ with Grumpy, Brent had ‘Season to Rock’ with Snoopy, and Andrew had ‘Season’s Beatings’ with Animal. Donald noticed their shirts and was trying to get them to pose like the characters on their shirts. Of course none of the guys had a clue what Donald was trying to do. Finally I stepped in and explained and this is the photo that resulted:
Donald was a lot of fun and a great first character interaction for Brent.
We bypassed Norway, knowing we would be back later, and decided to check out more of China for the first time. We watching the 360 movie and then walked through the pavilion with the soldiers. I loved all of it and it definitely puts China on my bucket list.
We paused in Germany for a photo and Brent got a beer in a neat souvenir mug (check Germany off the drink around the world list), bypassed Italy, and stopped in the USA for some photos. We were trying to keep a good pace because we needed to be in Morocco at 3:30. We stopped in Japan and caught the end of the Candy-making demonstration. She really is amazing and so quick! We also grabbed a bench and watched the drummers. This is so neat and I am amazed at the stamina they must have to be able to do that – my arms would be so sore!
Some photos from our trip around (half of) the world:
Finally, we made our way into Morocco just as it was starting to rain. Mo’rockin was playing and we listened a few minutes until the rain started to pick up. Then we headed in toward Restaurant Marrekesh. On our way in, we passed Jasmine and Aladdin heading to do a greet (this will come into play later).
Here is mom's paparazzi shot of them:
I was excited about eating here because Andrew and I ate here last year and really enjoyed our meal. It was also the only restaurant he requested that we eat at again. Unfortunately we were all still not hungry because we ate a little too much at lunch (even though we tried not to!) But we gave it the good old try to find the room.
Beth and Brent:
We made our reservation as part of the Candlelight Processional package, so the price was preset. I think eating at Restaurant Marrekesh is one of the better deals, you get a lot of great food and it is in the second price tier. Andrew and I ended up getting the same thing we had last year, chicken kebab for me and chicken couscous for him. We also split the appetizer platter for two that had hummus, tabouli, and a bunch of other items. I also keep the drink around the world going with a glass of Moroccan wine – very good. The rest of the family got one of the feasts (Marrekesh or Royal feast). It was SO much food, but it was awesome.
Chicken kebab:
Chicken couscous:
I must say, my family was a little wary of eating a non-traditional meal for Christmas Eve. But, I think they all really liked it. I think it helps that my mom’s family is Lebanese and the Moroccan food has some similarities, so some of it wasn’t all that different from what we would have had anyway. We ended with some desserts – the feasts came with a baklava sampler and Andrew and I chose to split the Bastilla, which was crispy pastry topped with almonds and this awesome pudding/custard. Even though we were so full we ate the whole thing.
Bastilla:
So, I mentioned that we saw Aladdin and Jasmine outside in the market. Well, while we were eating, all of a sudden we hear someone say to us “Hey guys, I like your shirts” and we turn and see Jasmine leading Aladdin back into the kitchen right next to us. We all busted out laughing because it was so random. I thought it was very in character for Aladdin – especially with Jasmine dragging him back. I guess our shirts were a hit!
Up next: what kind of seats will we get for the CP?
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Luckily Mom and Dad had finished already and we used theirs. I was a little concerned that the hotel would be short of help on Christmas Eve, but by the time we got home that night it was fixed. 
Who can resist giving Beverly to a newbie? Hehe 
While we were there, my sister and her boyfriend were looking at the build-a-cup option they had. I went over to see what they were like and Beth asked me a question about something. I had just filled up a cup with the ginger pop (to get rid of the Beverly taste) and I pointed out something to her with the hand that was holding the cup…you can guess where this is going. She motioned at the same time and knocked my cup all over the floor and the cup display. I was really embarrassed – apparently I could have used one of the build-a-cups – they have lids! We profusely apologized to the worked that had to come clean it up and then boogied out of there.
Deb
PassPorter Guide Author
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