Christmas at Disney World (12/22-1/4) About This Page:

[Disney Dork]

Wow. I just read through your TR. I'm surprised with how much you have been able to do despite hearing how crowded DW is during Christmas week. I mentioned it to my husband and he said< "Don't even think about it." Sorry you have had so many illness issues. I hope everyone feels better for the rest of your trip.

[B.M.]

Monday December 31st:

Today we were set for Animal Kingdom. This was to be our second and final day in AK. I was starting to get worried if we were going to make it; as you know we were originally scheduled to visit Animal Kingdom on Saturday, but it rained so we switched to Epcot… Then we were going to go on Sunday, but Dillon was sick so we postponed it. But today we finally made it! I am so excited to say that everyone woke up feeling 100% today! That amoxicillin did wonders for Dillon and he was 100% back to normal as was WesleyJ.

Animal Kingdom was opening to the public at 8am. It had extra magic hours starting at 7am. I tried to avoid EMH hours, but AK had them three days in a row and it was simply unavoidable. We left the house at 7am and arrived at Animal Kingdom in no time.

Right off the bat things were weird. We were directed by parking attendants to drive through the grass and park right at the sidewalk in the grassy area just outside the park. I pulled down my window and said to an attendant- “I guess yall are expecting to be crazy busy if you are using the grass for parking”. He answered that yes, they were expecting to fill the parking lot. It was great for us though because we got the true definition of front row parking. We literally parked in front of the sidewalk as stone’s throw from bag checkJ.

It was 7:30am when we arrived at the park gates and they were directing resort guests to the right and regular ticket holders to the left to distinguish those who could get in for EMH I assumed. But to my surprise they immediately let us in when we approached the gate! So, we were in the park at 7:30amJ. This made for a great start!

We immediately headed for Dino land. Austin had been asking to ride Triceratop Spin. The other kids, including Winston (6) were not interested and wanted to take a spin on Prime Evil while we rode the spinning dinosaurs. Well, since they were just across from each other and the park was pretty well empty, I sent Dillon off with Madilyn and Winston to ride Prime evil while Wesley was going to stick with me and Austin on the spinning dinosaurs. Before we could board our Dinosaurs, the three amigos returned stating Winston couldn’t ride without an adult. Wesley offered to go- I wasn’t sure they would allow it and instructed them to come back if needed and I would go ride with him when we got off of Triceratop Spin. But I guess a 6’1 teenager makes for a suitable adult because they let him ride . Both of these rides had a zero wait time.

Up next was the attraction Austin had been dying to get into ever since we arrived at Disney World- the Boneyard! It was just shy of 8am when we arrived at the Boneyard and we literally had the entire place to ourselves. We set up camp in the big dig area and the kids went to town digging, especially Austin and Winston. I made myself comfortable knowing we’d be there a while. As 8:30am closed in, I started giving warnings that we would leave soon when another family finally joined us. Turns out they are from Michigan and when I told them we were visiting Michigan this coming summer they had all sorts of tourist information to share with me, so Austin lucked out that we got to stay a bit longer while I gathered some summer travel informationJ.

I finally dragged Austin out of the Boneyard and we set out for the Wildlife Express. We took the train over to the Conservation Area where the kids were able to pet a snake which Winston thought was about the coolest thing ever. Austin and Winston really enjoyed the petting zoo as well. At about 9:30am we made our way back to civilization via the Wildlife Express Train again.

The next Festival of the Lion King show wasn’t starting until 10:30am and we had a little time to spare. The Safari line was surprisingly short; I didn’t take note of the wait time- but I know it couldn’t have been more than ten minutes. I was so excited to get to ride this one more time as I just love this ride!

It was now 10:15am, so we walked quickly to the Festival of the Lion King where we were seated for the 10:30am showing. I just absolutely love this show! It is possibly my very favorite show in all of Disney World! I got a little teary watching it because of (1) the memories of watching it on our very first Disney trip- I can remember watching the show and thinking “wow, were here. We made it to Disney” and (2) for the fact that they are supposedly getting rid of the show.

It was now 11am and the kids were hungry. The kids (well mainly Wesley) had been asking to eat outside of the park, I think he was getting tired of these quick service meals. Wesley had been trying to convince me we could hold off and have a late lunch at the Golden Corral on the way home. I wasn’t sure the younger kids could hold out, so I had packed some sandwiches. So, we ate our sandwiches at some tables just outside Pizzafari. There was an ice cream cart just beside us and after eating our sandwiches, we got a snack- Dillon got a frozen banana which he didn’t love, I got my beloved Mickey bar, and Winston went with an almond crunch bar which he thoroughly enjoyed. The other three wanted to hold out for something different. After walking just a bit they spotted some more snack options. Wesley got frozen lemonade, Austin got a frozen coke, and Madilyn got the most delicious looking cupcake ever!

With full bellies, we now made our way to Asia. On the way over we noticed Expedition Everest was not working. We wanted to see Flights of Wonder, but the next show wasn’t till 1pm.

We were also planning to ride Kali River Rapids today, but I didn’t want to ride until just before we exited the park because I can’t stand walking around wet. Well, the kids all but begged to ride, so we did. Kali had a posted wait time of 20 minutes, but it was really about half that. While in line, I realized I forgot to pack our ponchos today. The kids didn’t want to wear them anyhow, but I did. During the line, I was seriously considering taking the chicken exit and letting the kids ride without me, but in the end I just went ahead and took my chances on getting wet. And we all know how that goes- the one person in the raft that doesn’t want to get wet, gets the wettest seat . So, water from the waterfall went all down my back and covered my left leg- but it still wasn’t too terrible. The sun had come out and I dried out pretty quickly.

We now headed over to Flights of Wonder. We still had about twenty minutes till the next showing. They let us in and actually had some pre show entertainment starting about 12:45. I knew I liked this show, but the kids ended up loving it more than I would have remembered/guessed. Winston was laughing hysterically during most of the entire show as were all the kids. It was so much fun and I’m so glad we made the time to see it!

We were now ready to head out of the park. The little kids were dying to check and see if Everest was up and running again. We didn’t have fast passes and I was worried that even if it was running, the line would be outrageous. It was 1:43pm when we made it over to Everest and sure enough the stand by line was posted at 55 minutes. The kids really wanted to get in one more ride, so we decided to go for it. Wesley and Dillon didn’t want to ride, so they went off in search of a turkey leg and would meet up with us afterwards. Well, we got in line and just kept walking and walking and walking…. I didn’t time the wait, but it turns out the wait time was very short! I think they had just got it back up and running and the posted wait time was way off.

We got through the line so quick, that Wesley had barely begun on his turkey leg when we met back up.

Austin requested to see it’s tough to be a bug one more time before we left for the day and it only had a 5 minute posted wait time at 2:10pm, so off we went. We enjoyed the showJ.

It was 2:30pm when we exited the park and there was a sign posted that the Magic Kingdom was filled to capacity. There was a guy at the gate complaining up a storm about it also. It was so nice to have a super short walk to our van that was parked just outside the gate in the grass- zero trouble finding the van this dayJ.

We made our way to the Golden Corral where they had a wide variety and we all really enjoyed it. But, I think Wesley had trouble getting his money’s worth after having eaten that big turkey leg just before we left the park…

It was about 4pm when we got back home. It is now nearing bedtime and I’m so glad to report that no one has felt sick today! I think we have finally put all this sickness behind usJ.

Tomorrow we are off to Hollywood Studio’s.

Thanks for following along everyone!

[Cam22]

Great AK day! You all really lucked out with the parking spot.

[MikeL]

Love how much you guys got done in 1 day

[patclairesmom]

Sounds like another terrific day. Happy New Year!

[chezp]

Great about the parking spot. I still can't believe how much you're packing in each day at such a busy time of the year.

[dutchdisneyfamily]

Sounds like a fantastic AK day. I'm glad everyone's feeling better! My uncle is down there right now and though my parents told him he needed to call me to help him plan, he of course, didn't. He sent them an email saying how much they hated it. Well duh. This is one vacation you have plan for or you'll spend most of it in lines or traffic. My mom enjoyed telling him "You should have talked to Amy". You sound like everything is going so well, despite the crowds. Oh and that guy complaining up a storm very well could have been my uncle lol.

[Colexis Mom]

Glad you had a great time at Epcot and AK! Glad everyone is feeling better! I hope it stays that way!

[KMB733]

Just getting caught up. Sorry about the nightmare with the prescriptions, but glad you got that all figured out. Sounds like a wonderful time at AK, and how lucky you were to score that parking space.

[B.M.]

Tuesday January 1st:

Today we were set for Hollywood Studios. The Studios weren’t opening until 9am, so we had a relaxing start to the day. The GPS had us arrive at a different entrance gate this morning. It was a small two lane entry into the parking and I was surprised to see that there was more than one entry/parking pay area at the park, but it seemed to still direct us into the same parking lot as we parked in Stage 43 which I believe is the same general area we parked at on our other Studios day. We were parked fairly close, but a tram pulled up so we hopped on.

When we got dropped off by the tram I immediately noticed the mile long line to enter the park, most other days we had seen barely a line at all to enter the parks but this line was so long it started the second you went through bag check.

We noticed off to the far right they had brought some characters out; Minnie in a very pretty pink glittery dress and Donald & Daisy in some festive attire as well. We hopped in Minnie’s line first and the line was then closed to others, we were the last in line. Unfortunately, this meant they were closing Donald & Daisy’s line as well so we were unable to meet them next as I’d hoped.

By the time we were finished meeting Minnie it was about ten till 9am/park opening and they started letting folks in. The line moved at a steady pace and it wasn’t too long before we were inside the park.

This morning Wesley declared he wanted to audition for American Idol. I was floored; I never would have guessed he’d be interested in doing this. So, we headed straight for the auditions. While he auditioned, the younger kids wanted to ride Star Tours since it was directly across from the auditions and it only had a ten minute posted wait time and was really just a walk on. Unfortunately, Wesley was not chosen to participate in the show.

We now headed for the Animation Academy where we had less than a ten minute wait before the 9:30am class started. We drew Mickey Mouse and Austin had a mild meltdown over the lack of erasers and the frustration of not getting it to look the way he wanted.

We wanted to see the Little Mermaid next, but the next show wasn’t until 11:15am; for some reason I thought this was a continuous playing show. So, we left with plans to return for the 11:15am show.

We then headed to the Jack Sparrow experience that is new by Toy Story. It was 10:10am and there was a 10 minute wait. I have mixed feelings about this experience. In a lot of ways we all really enjoyed it, but it’s standing only and they crowd you in there making it difficult for young children to see unless they are in the very front. I would really like to see them elaborate on this a bit more and maybe turn it into a type of show with seating.

I took note of the 70 minute stand by wait time for TSM next door. We also took this time to pick up fast passes for later.

We wanted to eat lunch at this time, 10:30am and made our way to back lot express only to be told they don’t open till 11amL. The kids wanted to just sit at a table and wait, but I knew we’d miss our 11:15am Little Mermaid show.

So, we picked up some ice cream to hold us over. I got another delicious Mickey Bar, Winston got a Popsicle, and Dillon got a strawberry bar. The other three decided to get a snack later on.

After our snack break, we headed to the 11:15am Little Mermaid show. I liked this show even better than I had remembered.

We now headed back to the Back Lot Express for lunch where all the kids had chicken and fries and I had a burger and fries. Yummy. I noted that it was 12:10 when we finished up lunch.

We headed over to Tower of Terror where the wait time was posted at 80 minutes.

We also wanted to see the Beauty and the Beast Show that started at 1pm.

Wesley and Dillon had made a fast pass run right off the bat this morning and got us 3 fast passes for TOT and 3 fast passes for RRC.

Only Madilyn and Winston wanted to ride TOT, so the three of us set off to use our fast passes while Wesley, Dillon, and Austin picked up some slushy drinks and set off to get us good Beauty and the Beast seats.

The three of us loved Tower of Terror and especially enjoyed that it was a different drop sequence than the other day when we had rode.

We now headed over to Beauty & the Beast where we headed down front looking for the boys figuring they had saved us great seats as we knew they were among the first let into the show. Well, they had indeed saved us seats- on the very back row . Wesley likes to sit in the back so I don’t know why I was surprised. Madilyn and Winston got frozen lemonade to share during the show as well. When we bought it, we asked for an extra cup to split it and they just split it for us. Unfortunately, some very tall folks sat in front of us making it difficult to see but since we were in the very last row, the little kids simply sat on their knees and we were just fine. This was actually our first time ever seeing this show and I liked it a lot!

It was now time to use our three Rock and Roller Coaster fast passes. Now, I had not put enough thought into this one because I had three kids that wanted to ride and while I was more than willing to sit out the ride and let them ride it without me- Winston wasn’t allowed ride without an adultL. I really don’t know what I was thinking when I came up with this plan to get 3 fast passes. I was going to just let Austin & Madilyn use their fast passes and Winston and I would just wait for them (along with Wesley and Dillon who didn’t want to ride anyhow). This meant our third fast pass would go to waste, but I really didn’t mind that as much as I was worried Winston would have a meltdown over not being able to ride. The cast member realized our dilemma and offered us a fast pass so that we could all four ride even though we only had three fast passes. I was sooo appreciative. And I learned my lesson on thinking through future fast pass plans… At the time it had seemed like a good way to get the maximum use of our fast passes, but I hadn’t thought it out… Oh, and I did note that without the fast passes we would have had a 120 minute wait time!

We now headed to the Pixar Countdown Parade where we were certainly not in the front; we did have a view of the parade though. Unfortunately at the last minute a somewhat rude family shoved their way in between us and our view. They had one child up on the gate completely obstructing our view, so after a bit I told the child he couldn’t be on the gate and once he got off of it, we could see again although I would have preferred the child move altogether from “our” spot, but at least he was off the gate so that we could still see. This experience reminded me why we don’t do a lot of parades, people are so aggressive and rude and if you aren’t willing to be aggressive or rude back (and we are not) there is just no way to completely enjoy the experience. I did get some decent video of the parade though and we did enjoy it.

It was 3:20pm when the parade was over and we were all ready for a drink. The weather had warmed up a good bit and was leaving us thirsty.

After getting some soft drinks, we headed over to the Honey I shrunk the Kids playground. We had a hard time finding it, but the little boys really enjoyed it. Unfortunately, we couldn’t stay in there to long because Madilyn and I were excited to catch the 4pm American Idol show.

We made it back to American Idol just before 4pm and there were still plenty of seats left. As a matter of fact even once the doors closed there were several completely empty rows in the back. They had some really talented folks up there, but it was an easy decision at least for me. I really wished we could stay and see the finale show, but we were generally ready to leave the park. Austin requested to see the Great Movie Ride once more, but the line was really long. I’m unsure what the wait time was posted as, but I could tell it wasn’t short. So, we just headed out.

I didn’t put it in my notes, so I’m unsure of the time- but we did get one more ride on Toy Story Mania in using our fast passes. This was definitely a day where you couldn’t ride the major attractions without fast passes unless you were willing to wait a really, really long time. Wesley is so fast (especially compared to me); I’m grateful he’s willing to be our official “fast pass runner”J.

This was our very last day in Hollywood Studio’s for the trip. We never made it to Disney Junior Live, the kids didn’t show any interest in it, and so we just didn’t do it. I had also really wanted to see Disney Channel Rocks, but we just didn’t make the time for it either. But we did get in some “extra” rides on our favorites today; I’m glad we had allotted a second day here as it was truly needed.

Tomorrow we are off to the Magic Kingdom!

[dwonderz]

Sounds like another jam-packed day !

Glad the boys are doing better again! Have a good day at MK!

[Cam22]

A very busy day! Glad you still got to ride TSMM!

[chezp]

You managed to get a lot done at the Studios. I am so with you about the parades - that's exactly why we don't do many of them these days. Oh and the route you went into the Studios is the route we often take from the Beach Club when we drive there. For future reference, there is also a bag check to the side of the entrance (the left as you look at the entrance). We know as we often see it walking up from the parking lot. There's rarely ever much of a wait there, as the trams stop beyond that.

[B.M.]

Two things I forgot in yesterday's report....

We all had on our matching shirts that have our name on them and the year in the Mickey ear..... Well they had a lot of street performers out yesterday and as we walked by; the lady says "Oh, there you are Madilyn- we've been waiting for you" and pulls her right in- LOL. Then she says "now, remind me how old you are?" and the guy says "for goodness sake her age is right there on her shirt, she is two thousand and twelve" and they banter about that a bit before the lady looks over and spots Austin and says " oh, there is your husband, Austin... come on over Austin". to which they both start saying nooo, nooo gross that's my brother/sister and the lady doesn't skip a beat and says "you are right, you are gross to have married your brother" LOL. It was sooooo hillarious! They ended up having them act out a whole skit and then they did a second shorter one with Winston as well. It was too funny!!

Austin had been eyeing this Jedi Mickey at the Magic Kingdom, but we was waiting to get it towards the end of the trip in case he seen something he liked better; he was excited to see that DHS had them as well so we went ahead and bought that and he is now on cloud 9.... the only thing is he is convinced he wants Jedi Mickey to go with us into the Magic Kingdom this morning and I'm a little hesitant; hopefully we don't loose him .

We are off to the MK in just a few minutes; just waiting for the shirts we are wearing today to come out of the dryer....

[chezp]

Hope you're having a great time at the Magic Kingdom!