LoriMistress Dec 8th-19th 2007 Detailed Picture Trip Report!!! - Page 3 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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Great updates!! You've certainly had some luck with the dreams!! WOW!! I'm dying to know what DH thought of the fried Snickers bar! Can't wait to hear more
DH and I woke up at 6am to get up to head towards AK. We ate breakfast in our rooms. We were watching the news throughout our morning because of the weather; but the weatherman said there will be some light rain in the morning. We left for the bus station at 7:30am, and we arrived at AK by 7:55am. It barely sprinkled when we arrived at AK. That morning was a bit chilly, but not freezing. We killed time in the RFC gift shop. The RFC gate took a while to open, but when we arrived, we were in the front of the crowds. I told DH to meet me at EE, while I grabbed FPs. Again, myself and one other guy jogged through Dinoland. Surprising there were CMs with ropes to "control" the crowds (hence, myself and another guest.) We beat the crowds, again--grabbed our first pair of FPs. I waited for DH to arrive and we ride EE. The wait was about 5-10 minutes. After EE, we decided to ride it again, and it only took 10-15 minutes. After EE again, we decided to grab FPs for EE again, and check out some of the trails. I'm so bad with names (sorry), but we decided to check out the train where you see gorillas, we found the Dream Squad and won Dream Pins!!! AK and MGM/DHS were our lucky parks for this trip!!! At this point, we decided to go to KS. The line said it was 20 minutes, but it was less then 10 minutes.
After KS, we decided to ride EE twice by using our FPs. The lines for EE where about 45 minutes, and we only waited 5 minutes. DH kept on complimenting me about how smooth our vacation has been, and how we've barely waited in any lines. After EE, DH and I decided to call it a day, since it was almost noon. We arrived back to POP and ate lunch in their food court. I remember trying the Teramisu Twinkie (sp?) and it wasn't very good. (I'm going to stick with my chocolate cupcake and tie dye cheesecake.)
We decided to rest for a bit, and I warned DH to wear some warm clothing because it was going to be a bit chilly. And it was!!! We left POP at 3:45pm to head towards WL for our ADR at AP at 5:30pm. We arrived by ferryboat. We had never taken the ferry boat, and we just loved it! The travel is absolutely beautiful. By the time we arrived at WL (before 4:30pm), it was starting to get chilly. We explored the resort. It's absolutely beautiful. We arrived at AP exactly at 5:30pm (we lost track of time), and checked in. We waited about 10 minutes and were seated. We sat next to the window. It was extremely pretty, but before our food arrived, it was dark and you couldn't see much through the window. I ordered the buffalo and DH has the roast chicken. My buffalo was good, but it was a luke warm (you could tell my food was siting under a heat lamp for a while.) We didn't order any dessert. After dinner, we explored the resort for a bit, to kill some time, for our reservation for teh horse sleigh ride at the WL at 8pm. We met John & John the horse at 8am. The ride was very romantic. It was a bit dark, but also Christmasy as well. After the horse sleigh ride, we decided to head towards DTD and use our last PI tickets.
We did some last minute shopping (gifts for people for Christmas), and went to PI and checked the AC. We left around 11pm and it took the buses over 30 minutes before they arrived. We arrived at POP and slept.
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DH and I woke up at 6am to get ready for an extreme cold morning. It was 30 degrees today with 30 degree wind chill. It was freezing throughout the day and evening. I warned DH to wear a long sleeve shirt, because it will get cold. He ignored me. In fact, he decided to not pack a long sleeve shirt at all!!! Our plan was to head towards MGM/DHS for the morning and the late afternoon/evening we will be at Epcot. We arrived at the bus station at 7:25am and the bus didn't arrive until a bit later. But we arrived by 7:50am. We waited in front of MGM freezing our butts off. DH kept complaining about the cold and whining on why we always have to be at the parks early. While I'm trying to convince DH that being at the parks before opening will work in our favor--plus, this will be the last time we'll be at MGM/DHS. Around 8:20am a CM approuches us and asked if we would like to "open the parks" for the day!!! (Ironic, on our first trip in 2003 we also opened MGM as well!) Of course, DH and I said yes--because she also mentioned that we could lounge in the VIP room until it was time for us to "perform for the guests." So the wonderful CM took us into the parks and we got to sit around in their VIP room. DH was estatic; we were going to be warm!!! While we warmed up in the VIP, the CM went over what we would do:
We would "open the parks" by being in a small skit with other CMs to official start the park. Then the Director/CM will drive us to any attraction we want to ride first. DH and I chose RnRc. After we opened the park, we were the first to ride RnRc. It was great to be the first people on the ride, plus we had the entire limo to ourselves. We also got a free picture of us on RnRc as well.
Afterwards, we decided to grab FPs for RnRc, and at this time the FP time was for 9:50am. Oh well, at least we got to ride RnRc first. From there, we rode ToT, which was about a 10 minute wait. From there, I wanted to ride TGMR before the line gets outragious but DH wanted to ride it later in the day. I tried to tell DH that it would be best to go on it now, but he really wanted to ride ST so we headed over there instead, which was about a 5 minute wait. Afterwards, we did M3D, which was a 5 minute wait. From there, we decided to go on TGMR but that took about 15-20 minutes to get on (and that was the longest line we ever waited in for a ride/attraction throughout our entire vacation). After the TGMR, we wanted something to eat, but it was around 10:30am and lunch wasn't being served in the park yet. So we went into the ABC Comentary and grabbed some breakfast. After breakfast we used our FPs, and looked at some shops and pick up some items. DH wanted his Indiana Jones hat, so we bought that. We also bought a MGM pin, gloves (it was cold that day), and a Donald Duck doll. From there, we decided to head back to POP to nap. I warned DH to not eat anything else, since we're going to be having an early dinner at 4:15pm at Marrakesh for our CP package.
We left POP at 3pm and headed towards Epcot. When we arrived, we decided to head straight to Marrakesh. While we arrived the WS draw bridge was raised so the world could get by (and I'm not kidding.) That took about 5 minutes.
From there, we arrived at Marrakesh. DH was whining about how he wasn't going to like the food. I re assured him that the food isn't spicy and he'll like it. We arrive and seated within minutes. The restaurant wasn't crowded at all and we had a wonderful CM, too bad I can't remember his name. DH had an appitizer of light fried pork rolls with cinnimon. And I had the Marrakesh soup which was the best soup I ever had!!! DH liked my soup so much that he was trying to eat my soup. For dinner DH had the lemon chicken, which he said was excellent and I had the beef skewers. My meal was also good, but I couldn't finish my meal--so DH finished my plate. For dessert, I'm not sure what we ordered, but I didn't care for the dessert. But DH enjoyed it. We love this restaurant we'll be eating there again. Before we left they had a band and a belly dancer came out; which was pretty entertaining.
From there, we decided to wait in the CP package line for our 6:15pm showing (I believe that was the correct time). There was already a line when we arrived (around 5:30pm). It was freezing!!! Though, it was pretty to watch the tree lighting ceremony from afar, everyone we encountered complained about how cold it was. [You have no idea how cold it got. I was wearing my thermal pajamas under my thick jeans, and long sleeve shirt. I was also wearing a thick sweater hooded jacket, with gloves, and a blacket wrapped around me and I was still freezing!!!] By the time we were able to get into CP, we decided to sit in the first aisle. Though, the view wouldn't be the greatest, but we were sitting under the stage lights, and that helped a little bit (but not much.) DH had our blacket on the seats, and another blacket wrapped around us. I barely got any pictures of the show. But it was great. Kirk Cameron the show, and he was the perfect man for the job.
After CP, we decided to buy some hot cocoa and cookies. And from there, we headed into some of the WS shops to attempt to stay warm, and to kill some time for Illuminations. By 8:30pm we decided to find a park bench, attempt to keep warm, and wait for Illuminations. We managed to help some newbies by reassuring them that the spot we had for Illuminations was a great spot (between Germany and China) the smoking area. DH and I don't smoke, but we didn't mind. Plus, we've found it's one of the best spots to watch Illuminations and it's wonderful to watch Holiday Wishes (great view of the firework show at MK).
After Illuminations, we said our goodbyes to Epcot and headed back to POP for some rest.
DH and I woke up at 6am and got ready for our ADR for 8:05am at MK. We arrived at 7:25am and the bus took off literally right in front of us. We were running (about two yards away) and the bus driver wasn't going to wait for us, and there were about seven people on the bus. We waited for about 5-10 minutes and another bus arrived. We arrived by 7:50am to MK. We arrived at Crystal Palace, and only waited about 10 minutes until we were seated. The CMs were nice, but not as attentive as last time. But that was fine by us. We were able to have seconds, see all the characters, and leave before RD. We waited in front of TL and we chatted with some nice CMs who eventually took us to the front of the line at SM. I wasn't able to grab FPs in time, but that was fine by DH and myself. We were planning on going to MVMCP and mainly focus on rides/attractions. MK was very managable during the morning; not that many crowds during the first few hours.
After we rode SM, we decided to go on the Rockets. There were only four people (including DH and myself), and we had our own rocket. There was no waits; literally a walk on. After the Rockets, we decided to hit Buzz Lightyear; which was a walk on. From there, we decided to hit TT early. We took the secret path (as usual), and we were the only ones waiting at TT. We had some nice character interaction with Mickey and Pluto. We saw the Dream Squad walk into Judge's Tent. I was hoping to get another dream. We waited inline for the princesses for over fifteen minutes, while there was no line for the other characters (because Goofy and Minnie were still walking around TT.) Goofy & Minnie walked thru the line and let only a small group of people through, but the long line for the princesses still wasn't moving. From there, we met the princesses, but the DT wasn't for the princess section; it was for the other character. DH didn't want to wait in line in hopes of getting a dream, so we moved along to FL. We rode Snow White (walk on), and rode PP, which was a walk on. From there, we rode HM, walked over to and grabbed FPs for BTMRR and rode BTMRR. From there we rode POTC. At that point, we decided to use our FPs for SM. And from there, we decided to look in some shops and kill some time for our other FPs to come by. Around 11am we used our FPs for BTMRR. From there, we decided to head back to POP and get some rest. DH and I both got the chocolate cupcakes for a snack. This time, we wanted to use one of our dinner ADRs in MK.
We left POP at 3:30pm to head to MK for MVMCP and to eat dinner at The Plaza Restaurant for our 4:30pm ADR. We arrived at MK at 4pm. We walked up to Plaza Restaurant, and were seated within minutes. We had a nice view of Cinderella's Castle. DH and I both ordered the roast beef sandwich, but it wasn't very good. DH and I were a bit disappointed with the food, but it wasn't the worst meal we had. After our ADR, we rode JC, which was about a 10 minute wait. After JC, we found a great spot in the rose garden and waited for the Castle Light Show, and Wishes. We saw a proposal in the rose garden, which was so romantic. The CM let the newly engaged couple a private seating in the rose garden.
After the Castle Light Show and Wishes, we decided to hit some rides. We went over to FL, and did Mickey's Philarmagic, IASW, and Snow White with no waits. From there, we went over to FL and rode SM and BTMRR with no waits. We trekked over to POTC. From there, we walked over to TL and rode on SM (with no waits), and Buzz Lightyear. We grabbed some hot cocoa and cookies and sat around MS:USA. The first parade, started, and we had a great view of the floats from in MS:USA. We enjoyed the "snow" and watched the parade. From there, we focused on getting our pictures taken around MS and in front of the castle. From there we decided to walk into some shops, and waited for Holiday Wishes. When the fireworks were done, we decided to hit some more rides. We hit BTMRR, and decided to hit POTC before the 2nd parade start. After POTC, we waited at FL where the second parade started. We had a great view, and watched the parade again. For some reason, DH and I ended up watching both parades, and we didn't want to watch it. (We still have the song from the parade stuck in our heads.)
From there, we hit HM, and stayed mainly around FL and TL. We stayed until midnight, and DH was too tired to wait until the crowds thinned out. We went back to POP where we did little packing.
We woke up at 7am. Today we had to leave WDW and head back home. DH and I were so depressed. We packed, and left several bottled water in front of people's rooms as a nice token. We grabbed breakfast at POP, and we checked out. We met Sunray Transportation early in front of POP. Sunray Transporation were absolutely wonderful and have made this trip stress-free. They were early, and very helpful. He was kind enough to helped us with our bags. And to top it all off, they were cheap as well ($82 for roundtrip + 1/2 hour grocery stop). We arrived at MCO, checked our luggage and had flew about 7-8 hours until we arrived back home.
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Wow, thanks again everyone for reading my thread. I learned a lot on how to plan my vacations from reading other peoples' trip reports so I had to repay the favor. I hope my report helps others.
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