A Disney Family Christmas 2009 - Trip Report - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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This is my first trip report! I have really enjoyed reading everyone else’s trip reports as we were getting ready for our trip, so I thought I would repay the favor and give it a try.
Trip Details:
Where: Walt Disney World Dates: December 23-30, 2009 Staying at: Radisson Celebration Resort
Family Introduction:
Me – Katherine, 26 I live in Minneapolis, MN with my DH Andrew. I work in process improvement for a finance department. I love all things Disney and really enjoy going to the parks. This was my 6th trip to WDW and I have been to DL once.
DH – Andrew, 29 He works in information security at the same company as me. Not necessarily a Disney person, but he loves me so he puts up with it. We went to WDW in September 2008 as a last minute trip when a hurricane ruined our plans for Key West. That was his first trip and I think he really had a good time. (I think it helped that the crowds were LOW).
DM – Michele Mom lives in North Dakota. She is a special education teacher and I get my love of planning vacations from her. She is always very organized and usually plans our family trips, but let me take the reins for this one.
DDad – Bob Dad lives in ND too. He is a psychologist and is always fun to have on a trip. He really enjoys our trips to Disney, but I wouldn’t call him a Disney-nut.
DSis – Beth, 23 Beth just moved back to ND after living in Minneapolis during college. She is in grad school right now for school counseling. She likes going to Disney, but is definitely not the planner type – lucky for her she has Mom and me.
DSisBF – Brent, 23 Brent lives in ND and works as a hunting manager at a local sports store. This was his first trip to WDW and he was definitely excited to try some of the big rides – up for anything!
Here is a photo of all of us at our wedding this past April:
I am working on sorting through photos – I hope to have the first installment up soon. Happy reading!
__________________
A dream is a wish your heart makes...
Katherine
Last edited by WishandDream; 01-06-2010 at 02:38 PM..
Reason: Photo add
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Our flight was scheduled for 10:10am. Andrew and I live right by the airport and used to travel a lot for work, so we don’t tend to get to the airport very early before a flight. But, they were forecasting ridiculous amounts of snow for us that day and we knew it was going to be one of the busiest travel days of the year so we left for the airport a little before 8.
When we got to the airport, I was glad we had arrived early, it was fairly busy. Thankfully we had checked in online and were able to pass the humungous line to check in and just went to the bag drop off window. We have learned to never go to the first security check you see and avoided some lines that way as well.
After some breakfast in the airport, we found out that our flight was delayed (via an app that Andrew had on his iphone – have I mentioned we are obsessed with our iphones?). I was a little concerned because we needed to get out of there before the 2 feet of snow they were predicting started (yeah, two feet).
Bad photo of us waiting for the plane
It turns out that they gave us a smaller plane than planned and they had to bump 40 people off our flight and that was the cause of the delay. Luckily we weren’t bumped and we made it to FL only a little later than planned.
We picked up our awesome white minivan for the week (this is sarcasm – my sister and I loathe minivans, probably because my mom drove the same white minivan for 16 years and only got rid of it this past summer). My Mom had bought some Christmas magnets at the dollar store and she put them on the van – this was to be festive and also to make it easier to find our van in the parking lots. It worked great the whole trip! Traffic wasn’t bad and we made it to our hotel area in about 15 minutes.
We had decided to stop at the grocery store before checking in so we could get some things for breakfast for the week. The unfortunate part is that we hadn’t eaten since breakfast at 9ish and it was now 4ish. I WAS STARVING. We tried to make it through the Publix as fast as possible and found a party sub in the deli that we picked up for our linner. We don’t have Publix in the Midwest and my inappropriate family though the name was hilarious – let’s just say it wasn’t being pronounced properly…gross me out, it is a grocery store people!
We finally made it to our hotel. Our past few trips to Disney, we stayed on property and we really enjoyed doing that. But, because finances are not the greatest this year, we decided to find a deal instead. I work for the company that owns Radisson, so I was able to get us a great rate plus we had points saved up to get one of the rooms free – kinda hard to pass up. The hotel is very nice and has a cool pool area.
We ate like crazy people because we were so hungry and decorated the rooms a bit and got ready for a night at the Magic Kingdom!
Next: Day 1 Continued...I thought this was the busy time of year?
__________________
A dream is a wish your heart makes...
Katherine
Last edited by WishandDream; 01-21-2010 at 04:33 PM..
Reason: add photo
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We got to the Magic Kingdom around 7:45 that night and the park was open until 1am. So, because we were staying off property (a new thing for my family) we were driving to the parks every day. I must say, I don't mind driving to the parks. We never waited long for a tram and our parking spots were never all that bad to walk to. I think, especially this time of year, it was faster than taking buses (if we were staying at Disney) because the lines looked long for the buses. And we didn’t have to leave so early to get to ADRs because we could estimate driving time easier.
Riding our first tram – driver, clear to you BEEP BEEP. (We heard that a lot...)
Our first glimpse of the MK of course is the castle across the SSL and it was AWESOME with the Christmas lights on it. It really does take your breath away and really puts you in the Christmas spirit. We took the monorail in and saw the humongous wreath on the side of the Contemporary – very cool.
Another new thing this year is that I bought our tickets from a discount ticket website that we have access to through work. I was nervous about them because I had never used this company before and when the tickets arrived at our house the envelope was ripped (like a shark took a bit out of it ripped) and the printing on the tickets was a little off so that Mickey and the gang looked like they were in 3D. So, going up to the gates for the first time was a little nerve wracking – but they worked fine whew! Once inside, we stopped and took a few photos on Main Street and I stopped at guest services and got my Disney Visa rewards card. I think I had around $250 – sweet!
With the toy soldiers right by the train station.
I love the popcorn on the big tree on Main Street. We saw a special about how they make these ornaments and it is so amazing.
I love all the decorations – like this hidden Mickey wreath that is on all the lamps.
Of course, the lovely castle (purple version). J
And the family with the castle (blue version).
Continued in next post
__________________
A dream is a wish your heart makes...
Katherine
Last edited by Jennifer Marx; 07-16-2010 at 01:21 PM..
Reason: fp50
Day 1, Part 2 - Wednesday, December 23, 2009 (cont.)
We decided our first ride should be Pirates of the Caribbean as it is a family favorite. We love going on this ride when we have a boat to ourselves because we like to sing along. Anyway, we headed over to Adventureland and were pleased to see that Pirates was a walk-on. I was excited for my family to see all of the updates and I think they really enjoyed them. Next we had to play with a few things in the gift shop, including trying on pirate hats.
The nice thing about no line is you can play in the queue.
The boys were told to make pirate faces and this is what I get. Dad – actually really good, Brent – you look confused or constipated, Andrew – do you have something in your eye?
Aren’t we adorable?
We decided that since the crowds were so low, we should get some of the big rides in tonight in case we didn’t get a chance later in the week. So, we headed over to Splash Mountain. Considering that it was only in the 50s and dark we were not surprised to see no wait here. Gotta love being from Minnesota/North Dakota – we don’t care! Great ride on Splash – I took my sweatshirt off and put it under my shirt to keep it dry. I also ducked my head when we hit so I faired pretty well. My sister and her boyfriend sat up front and were definitely the wettest, but nothing so bad that it ruined their night (and I enjoyed laughing at them).
Next up was BTMRR – this one actually had a little bit of a wait (all of 15-20 minutes), but we knew that number would only go up later in the week so we waited in line. Other than the annoying group of children behind me that kept running into me, the line moved fairly well and we were soon up to the ramp to get to the trains. But as soon as we got to the ramp, the ride shut down and they announced that it would not be coming back up – LAME! But the good news, is that we qualified into the close enough to get on the ride category and got free fast passes for any ride at Magic Kingdom until 12/31!
At this point we were all starving again (why do we do that to ourselves?), so we headed in search of food. I wanted Columbia Harbour House, but I was vetoed and we ended up at Pinocchio Village Haus. Andrew and I had the pepperoni pizza; not bad but nothing special. Beth had the Caesar salad with chicken and really liked it. Brent had the chicken nuggets and my parents split a meatball sub. The best part (aside from finally eating – I was about to pass out) was that we got a table by the window to IASW and enjoyed watching the boats drive by and guilting people into waving at us.
When we were done, a few members of the fam had to use the rest room so we waited outside by the side exit. We had heard Wished going on while we were eating but didn’t realize it was still going on when we exited. We caught some of the end and it is definitely a different experience watching Wishes in Fantasyland. There were fireworks in front of us and behind us.
At this point we decided to squeeze as many rides in a possible. So, first we backtracked to the HM. This is another family favorite and it would be the first time my family had seen the updates – less than 5 min wait and it was great. I love this ride at night!
Next was Snow White (5 min wait) – I don’t think we had done this one is a while and it is definitely kinda creepy. On our way to Tomorrowland we did the teacups. I do not handle spinning well AT ALL. My Mom is the same way, so we sucked it up and took a cup together. While everyone else was spinning as fast as they could we were turning the wheel in the opposite direction to get it to stop spinning hehehe. Mom and I made it and everyone else had a wonderful time making themselves dizzy as you can see below.
We started Tomorrowland with Buzz (10 min wait) and I did not do so well. I hate it when Andrew beats me – he loves to rub it in. Next was Stitch (5 min wait) – you have to do it at least once, especially with a newbie. It was okay as usual. This ride has so much potential – just not quite there.
We finished the night with the Speedway (10 min wait). I don’t know what was wrong with Brent’s car but Beth and I were behind him and had to keep breaking to not run into him. Speedway was okay – my Dad remarked that this ride was so much more fun when we were little and it was such a treat to drive a car.
At this point it was around midnight and although the park was open a little longer, we were tired from a long travel day so we headed out. We had an awesome night in the park tonight. Hardly any lines (which surprised us) and the excitement of finally being at WDW made it wonderful.
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Gotta love being from Minnesota/North Dakota – we don’t care! Great ride on Splash – I took my sweatshirt off and put it under my shirt to keep it dry. I also ducked my head when we hit so I faired pretty well. My sister and her boyfriend sat up front and were definitely the wettest, but nothing so bad that it ruined their night (and I enjoyed laughing at them).
But the good news, is that we qualified into the close enough to get on the ride category and got free fast passes for any ride at Magic Kingdom until 12/31! 
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