Making Magical Christmas Memories with Mickey TR Dec 17-27 Update 7-1-10
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061706 · 07-01-2010, 04:58 PM

I seriously cannot believe I have waited this long to right this TR. I mean Christmas seems like years ago by now. J

You can find my pretrip report here: http://www.passporterboards.com/foru...ml#post3047543

Sorry it has taken me this long. I’ve been so excited to finally do a TR, but never got a lot of free time to start it. So now I do, so here goes!

First, I would like to say we had an absolutely amazing time. I will give my pros and cons conclusion at the end of the TR. Second, I can say we will NEVER ever go to Disney at Christmas ever ever again…EVER. Wayyyyy too busy. I give props to those that have gone around Christmas and go again. I don’t think I could survive another one.

Ok, now onto the TR.
We had Christmas with my family at our house the Saturday before we left and my parents got Gracie some really cute Disney shirts to wear as well as a beach towel with princesses on it. Such a great time. Sad for me at the end realizing that I would not be spending my Christmas day with them.

My car aced the inspection to take to Disney, so we were ready to go.

December 21,2009
Micah (DH) got home around 2pm, just in time for Gracie’s nap. I pretty much had the car ready and packed to go. Il’s also arrived about this time as well. I gave Gracie her milk and we were on the road.

We were almost to the interstate about 5mins away from home, when DH remembers he forgot a jacket and sweatshirt, which in December at Disney is a must to bring. So, we had to walkie talk to the IL’s that we had to turn around and retrieve them. Sidenote: We will no longer allow Il’s to bring walkie talkies on vacation with us. We will text from now on. J Those things get annoying.

So we retrieved the jacket and sweatshirt we were on our way it was about 2:30 by now. Gracie dozed off about 2:35pm. It was an uneventful trip. No traffic, stopped a few times to change Gracie and stretch a bit. One thing DH and I have more realized is how much your road trips do change with a child. She was a great traveler and did so well. DH and I just never did much stopping at rest stops or taking our time. We were always go go go. With Gracie in the picture…she’s our number one priority now. So when she would start to fuss, we would stop.
I think we stopped at a Wendy’s for supper around 6:30pm.

We stopped around 10pm in Georgia(not exactly sure of the town) and stayed at a nice Jameson Inn. We were so extremely tired. We all fell asleep around 10:30pm. Gracie did well in her pack in play and slept the whole night.
We got up around 8. Micah went and grabbed two coffees, an apple juice, two blueberry muffins and two chocolate muffins from the continental breakfast. Gracie just loves blueberry muffins so this was perfect. We headed out around 9am.

Again, an uneventful drive. We stopped at a Mcdonalds in Valdosta for lunch.
Then we got to Orlando. I must say that I am one of those passengers that looks at the atlas the whole drive just to pass the time and know exactly where we are at. DH and Il’s are so fixed on these “tom toms”. Anyways, it was dark and I could not wait to see the Walt Disney World sign when we were getting close. I kept telling Gracie “ it’s almost here it’s almost here, look for the sign.” Il’s tom tom is a new updated one and they gave us there old one. Our tom tom was telling us to continue on the interstate. For some reason we see IL’s who are driving in front of us getting off the first exit up ahead. So, we followed. For some reason their tom tom headed us down some suburban back way. I was so sad that we did not get to see the Walt Disney World sign. L I told DH we would never listen to a tom tom again…funny thing is..fil’s name is Tom as well.

So we entered the backway to Port Orleans Riverside and it took us around to the front around 7pm. We were sooo excited to finally be here! Gracie was soaked to no other, so I had to change her really quick. DH and Il’s went in to get us checked in. It was nicely decorated for Christmas, not too over the top.
We waited in a small line to get checked in.

Fil took Gracie over by the small chairs so she could watch some tv. I just love that little children’s area.
We were checked in and were happy to get the rooms Il’s requested. Magnolia Bend Building #5 Parterre Place room #9531. Perfect location. Small walk to the bridge that gets you to the main building. I would say a five minute walk. We had a great view of the river as well. A quiet pool was just a few feet away from our room but far enough away we never heard any noise from anyone swimming.
Here is Gracie Jumping on the bed.

Our Mickey towel

　
Room was a great size. We moved the table a bit closer to the window so that we could set up Gracie’s pack an play next to it. That was pretty much the only place we could set it up.
We headed over to Riverside Mill food court to get some supper. By now it was about 8:30. We had a very late supper for us. Gracie and I both split chicken strips and mac n cheese. I wasn’t very hungry b/c I was soooo excited we were finally here! I believe Micah got a cheese pizza. After supper, we took a look around Fulton’s General store and got some milk for Gracie for our stay. We took the milk back to the room and then took the boat to Downtown Disney.
We just looked around a bit at Downtown Disney…the place was packed, an ongoing thing at anything Disney around Christmas. Il’s got Gracie a pink Winnie the Pooh shirt with Eeyore and Tigger on it as well. This was b/c were would be having breakfast with them the next morning at the Crystal Palace at 8:15am.
We hopped another boat back(very very very cold at night in December). I set up our Christmas tree and put some decorations in the windows.

　

We were in bed around 10:30pm. Slept great again.

Coming up…….Gracie’s first encounter with Characters.
　