It's like Christmas threw up... And I love it - A December 2015 TR! - Update 2/14

[jollygreen]

Hello, all! Welcome to my December 2015 trip report! I’m still (relatively) new to these boards, I’m more of a lurker than a poster. My name is Stephanie and I traveled with my friend Meghan. We’ve known each other since first grade and were roommates in college. I even work with her mom at one of my jobs!

This trip was my second one to Disney. My first trip was in August of 2014, it was a split trip between there and Universal (this trip was also with Meghan). Only had 2 days at Disney then. After coming back from that trip I really wanted to go for a longer time and not have to rush (doing 4 parks in 2 days is tiring), Meghan had been to Disney a few times growing up but I never went as a kid and neither of us had been around Christmas and we both wanted to go. So we started talking about going again and by October of 2014, we already had another trip planned! We booked this trip at the end of January 2015 right after both of us got our first jobs after graduating from college.

It was a great trip and we got so much done! Looking forward to sharing it with you!




This pretty much sums up our friendship. (I’m the brunette, Meghan is the blonde)


Who: Me (Stephanie) & my best friend Meghan
Where: Port Orleans French Quarter
When: Dec. 5-12
Why: Why not? Also, Christmas Disney. And a belated birthday trip for me!




I'm 24 and grew up in the St. Louis area, moved to Columbia, MO for college and moved back home after graduating in Dec. 2014. I currently work in medical records at a local hospital and am in the process of applying to different programs so I can experience the joy of school all over again…

Favorite Park: Toss-up between Magic Kingdom and Hollywood Studios. Or Epcot. And Animal Kingdom. I just really like all of them…
Favorite Character: Jack Skellington, Donald, and Goofy
Favorite Princess: Mulan
Favorite Movie: Lady & the Tramp, Fox & the Hound, Nightmare Before Christmas
Favorite Ride: Expedition Everest, Tower of Terror, and Rock n Roller Coaster
Favorite Show: Fantasmic!




Meghan is 23 and also grew up in the STL area and moved to Columbia for college and then moved back home after graduating (we have eerily similar lives…). She works as a tech in a physical therapy office and is currently applying for grad school.

Favorite Park: Epcot
Favorite Character: Tarzan & Hercules
Favorite Princess: Mulan & Merida
Favorite Movie: Lion King, Hercules, Tarzan, Brave
Favorite Ride: Expedition Everest & Test Track
Favorite Show: Fantasmic!

 

[jollygreen]

Intro
Arrival Day & DAP
Day 1, Part 1
Day 1, Part 2
Day 2, Part 1
Day 2, Part 2
Day 3, Part 1
Day 3, Part 2

 

[jollygreen]

Arrival Day & DISapalooza!

Woke up on Dec. 5th at 4:30am and had my mom drive me over to Meghan’s house to pick her up and then headed to the airport. Got there around 5:40am? Something like that. Checking luggage and going through security were a breeze. Stopped by Dunkin’ Donuts to grab some breakfast and made our way to our gate to wait! Our flight was at 7:30am, the wait went by pretty quickly and we got to board before we knew it.

Landed at MCO around 11am and found our way to the Magical Express. We had to wait for about 15 minutes or so. Once we got on the bus, the drive to the resort went by quickly. The bus pulled into POFQ around noon and we made our way over to check in. I can’t recall their names, but we had two lovely CMs check us in, one was earning her ears! When I booked the hotel, I chose a standard view, but there weren’t any ready yet, so we got upgraded to a garden view! That was a great way to start the trip, who doesn’t love some pixie dust right off the bat? We went to our room and dropped some stuff off and then went down to the dock to take a ferry to Disney Springs.





We spent a couple hours in DS and then headed back to the resort. We wanted to shower and relax some before going to Diagon Alley for DISapalooza. The bus for that didn’t show up until after 8:30pm and the event was said to start at 9:00. But we got there and had a great time! Rode Escape from Gringotts 4 or 5 times with no wait, got some complimentary butterbeer and ice cream, wandered the shops, went to Ollivander’s (where Meghan was chosen!) bought some interactive wands and played around with those the rest of the night. It was a really fun night! We both love Universal too and were bummed we couldn’t do both this trip, so this was a nice little compromise of sorts for us.










We got back to our room around 1am and crashed. We had to be up early the next morning for our first park day at Animal Kingdom!!

 

[jollygreen]

Day 1: Animal Kingdom – Dec. 6

First park day!! Woke up bright and early at 6am so we could get to AK for EMH at 8am. We got ready for the day, grabbed some breakfast bars, and made it to the bust stop by 6:45. I don’t recall when the bus came, but we were through security and waiting to be let in by 7:30. This was the crowd 25 minutes before RD:



It was dead. The part was pretty empty until around noonish. But anyway, Meghan and I were at the front and a lovely CM named Terry talked to us and he noticed my birthday button and asked if I wanted to be the “special birthday princess.” Of course I said yes, and I got to be the first official person to enter the park for the day! Wooo! They started letting people in around 7:45? Something like that. Since it was empty we got some pictures in front of the Tree of Life.




They started walking people back to the rides around 8:55. We went directly to Expedition Everest and rode 4 times within the first 20 minutes.



We could have done more, but we decided to head over to the DinoLand area to ride Dinosaur and just wander around for a bit. We rode Dinosaur close to 8:30 and then rode Primeval Whirl and Triceratop Spin. After leaving DinoLand we made our way through the Maharajah trail. Around 10, were off to our first FP+ of the day!




There were some giraffes pretending to be trees, but you can't fool me!





I believe after we did Safari we went to the Finding Nemo Musical (which was cute) and then used our second FP+ for EE! No idea where that picture is, I just noticed it was missing… So we got to ride EE 5 times in one day! It’s one of my favorite rides, so I’m glad we got to ride it a lot. Would have loved to ride it even more, but there were other things to do.

Around 12:30 we went over to Tusker House, we had 1:00 lunch reservation. We waited for about 15 minutes, it was nice to be able to sit for a bit since we had been going non-stop since we woke up. When we got seated Daisy was almost to our table, so despite being hungry we waited for a few minutes. After we met with Daisy, they had the little parade with the kids so we went and got food. It took longer than expected because there were so many things I wanted to eat. We loaded up our plates and went back to our table to discover we had just missed Donald! I was a little disappointed but was more concerned with stuffing my face. The samosas have got to be one of my favorite things there. I don’t recall how many I ate, but I would gladly eat more. Mickey and Goofy made their wait to our table, I think Goofy was my favorite, I liked his poses with both me and Meghan.




I ate waaaay too much but it was so good. After overindulging in delicious food, we took a leisurely stroll through the Pangani trail. When we felt less likely to explode or get sick, we went to our third FP+ for Dinosaur around 2:30.



I think I do a pretty good “scared” face. Meghan's isn't so bad either.

 

[jollygreen]

Day 1 Cont. – AK and Epcot, Round 1

Festival of the Lion King was next on our agenda. It was a great show! I believe we were giraffes. And after that we checked out It’s Tough to be a Bug, I enjoyed this as well, but I think I enjoyed the crying children more. I found that hilarious, is that bad? Eh.

At this point we had ridden and done everything we wanted to do, it was around 3:30 and we weren’t quite ready to leave, so we decided to check out Rafiki’s Planet Watch since neither of us had been there before. We wandered through the Conservation Station and met everyone’s favorite mandrill!



We went to the Affection Section next, where we were greeted by a very vocal little donkey. We also petted some sheep, which I had never done before. I love how soft they are! Before leaving Rafiki’s, we stopped to meet Chip & Dale. They did have to leave to go have a little snack of pecan pie, but it was a pretty short wait.



We made our way back to the main part of the park and headed for the exit, but not before stopping for some pictures! The photographer insisted on doing a “princess” pose:



After leaving AK, we hopped on a bus and went to Epcot, or as my mother calls it, Apricot. This would end up being our first of four visits to Epcot. We arrived at Epcot around 5:30. I want to say we rode Spaceship Earth first, but I’m not sure. I just know we rode it that night.



I do know that we did see Captain EO as it was its last night. I think we ended up seeing the second to last showing. We rode Figment next and then made our way to Mexico, where we did the Gran Fiesta Tour.




After that, we grabbed some dinner at La Cantina, I had chicken tacos and a frozen margarita. I wasn’t expecting the margarita to be as large as it was. We ended up having to stand and eat because there were no tables available. Every time a table would open up, some other group would swoop in out of nowhere and take it. We ended up doing a quick circuit around the Showcase, we didn’t really stop to explore since we were both pretty tired. We ended up leaving right after IllumiNations started. We also stopped for a couple pictures on the way out.





We got back to the hotel around 10:30 (maybe), showered, watched some cartoons, and passed out. I’m pretty sure we fell asleep with the TV on. Neither of us recall turning it off, does it turn off by itself after so long?

Overall, it was a very successful first day. It really set the tone for the rest of the trip. At AK we ended up doing a lot of walking from one end of the park to the other. We ended up with over 35K steps that day, which ended up being the most steps/day all week.

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

Hi there! Reading along. We were there almost the exact same dates.

Love that your friend got chosen at Ollivander's, seems that adults get chosen there more frequently now than when the Harry Potter section first opened.

 

[jollygreen]

Hi there! Reading along. We were there almost the exact same dates.

Love that your friend got chosen at Ollivander's, seems that adults get chosen there more frequently now than when the Harry Potter section first opened.

Maybe we passed each other at some point!

She loved it too! There were only 4 or 5 other people in there and they were all adults. It was pretty cool!

 

[cafox1985]

Hi! Reading along as well! I'm from the St Louis area too!

 

[jollygreen]

Hi! Reading along as well! I'm from the St Louis area too!

Hello! Thanks for joining in! It's nice to see others from the area, don't think I've seen too many people from the STL area here.

 

[jollygreen]

Day 2: Hollywood Studios

Woke up at 7am for our second park day! We both got ready quickly and were down at the bus stop around 7:45. We got to HS around 8:20 and were let in and made our way to Sunset Boulevard to wait for RnR. I think they started leading us back there between 8:40-45, judging from the ride photos. The first one was taken at 8:50.





We were rode it twice with little to no wait and probably could have ridden it more but we headed over to ToT. We were not ready for this picture...



After that, we stopped by Starring Rolls and got some breakfast cupcakes. I got the BB-8 one and Meghan got Darth Vader, they were both delicious. When we finished those, we headed over to the Great Movie Ride and took a trip through the movies. Neither of us had ridden it before (this actually turned out to be a trip of firsts for both of us) and we enjoyed it. By that time it was around 10 so we went back to ToT for our FP there.



I’m pretty sure we went and saw Voyage of the Little Mermaid next and then went and rode TSMM with our FP (I won!). We ended up wandering around for a little bit and made our way to The Muppets. After watching that, we had a lunch reservation at Sci-Fi for 12:45. I really like sitting in the little cars.





We finished eating around 1:45 and went to see the Indiana Jones since we were both really full and didn’t feel like moving. By the time Indy ended it was time for our 3rd FP of the day, Star Tours! I love this ride and I’m bummed we only got to ride it once during the whole trip.

 

[jollygreen]

Day 2: HS & Epcot, Round 2

Still feeling all Star Wars-y, we decided to go check out Launch Bay (this was more for me than Meghan since at that point she’d never seen a Star Wars movie). We ended up seeing the little film, it was only a 10 minute wait or so, and then looked at some of the props and memorabilia. By the time we made it to where Chewie and Vader were meeting, the signs said Chewie had a 25 minute wait and Vader had a 30 minute wait. I knew Meghan wasn’t that into it, so I initially chose to just meet Chewie since his wait was shorter. We ended up only waiting for about 10 minutes (yay!) until we got to meet everyone’s favorite wookiee. Since that wait was so short we did end up meeting Vader too, his was was about 15-20 minutes. It was pretty fun, after we took pictures he accused me of being a Jedi (if only…).






We worked our way through the rest of LB and I got to trade with a jawa and got one of the aliens from Toy Story. By the time we left LB, it was around 4:30 so we headed over to see Beauty and the Beast’s 5:00 show (which we ended up getting an addition FP for apparently…). That ended up being the last time we did in HS. On our way out we stopped for a couple pictures.





After leaving HS, we went over to the ferry to hop over to our second park of the day! Back to Epcot!! We went to Epcot a lot that week…

Anyway, we ended up stopping by a kiosk and getting a FP for Spaceship Earth. But first we took a trip with Nemo and Friends and wandered through the aquarium. We used our FP after that and then walked through the WS. We ended up catching the little presentations in Norway and Italy for Julenissen and La Befana, these were pretty neat! I wish we could have seen more of them during this trip.





We continued our leisurely pace through the WS and I think we left around 9pm. We were both tired and wanted to get some sleep since the next day was going to be a looooong one.

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

we stopped by Starring Rolls and got some breakfast cupcakes. I got the BB-8 one and Meghan got Darth Vader,

I wish i had made time and room in my stomach for Starring Rolls. The cupcakes are so yummy and I would have loved a Star Wars cupcake!

this was more for me than Meghan since at that point she’d never seen a Star Wars movie).

I am always amazed when i come across people who have never seen Star Wars. i didn't think it was possible to grow up in North America and not have seen it. That being said my own mother had never seen Star Wars until a few years ago. I guess I just view it as so embedded in our culture. How do people understand all the Star Wars references that are thrown around casually in tv/movies/everyday life without having seen them?

 

[Mooghan]

I wish i had made time and room in my stomach for Starring Rolls. The cupcakes are so yummy and I would have loved a Star Wars cupcake!



I am always amazed when i come across people who have never seen Star Wars. i didn't think it was possible to grow up in North America and not have seen it. That being said my own mother had never seen Star Wars until a few years ago. I guess I just view it as so embedded in our culture. How do people understand all the Star Wars references that are thrown around casually in tv/movies/everyday life without having seen them?

Hi! It's Meghan, I finally got an account. I honestly don't know how I didn't see a Star War movie until last month. My dad said that he saw one or two of them but was never a huge fan, and I'm not sure if my mom has seen any either. I'm kinda a trivia nerd so I understand a lot of the references. I guess watching all of those other tv shows, like the Simpsons, King of the Hill, and Family Guy really paid off!

 

[jollygreen]

The cupcakes are so yummy and I would have loved a Star Wars cupcake!

We purposefully ate light breakfasts to have room for these. They were amaaaazing! Super sweet though, one was definitely my limit.

I am always amazed when i come across people who have never seen Star Wars.

You better believe I dragged her to Force Awakens! And now I'm making her watch the others too. She never saw Lord of the Rings either until I made her watch those too.

Hi! It's Meghan

Hi, Meghan!

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

I'm kinda a trivia nerd so I understand a lot of the references. I guess watching all of those other tv shows, like the Simpsons, King of the Hill, and Family Guy really paid off!

Hi Meghan! Yes, I suppose it is hard to escape some knowledge of Star Wars with all the attention it gets in other media. What is your verdict after seeing the movies? Are you a Star Wars lover now?

You better believe I dragged her to Force Awakens! And now I'm making her watch the others too. She never saw Lord of the Rings either until I made her watch those too.

No LOTR either!

 

[Mooghan]

Hi Meghan! Yes, I suppose it is hard to escape some knowledge of Star Wars with all the attention it gets in other media. What is your verdict after seeing the movies? Are you a Star Wars lover now?

No LOTR either!

Believe me, I'm kinda nerdish and I have no idea how I didn't see those movies for so long. I really liked the Force Awakens, and I like original Star Wars movie too, now to see the others ones!

 

[jollygreen]

Finally updating!!! I didn't realize it's been over a month since my last update, whoops! Here we go!

Day 3: MAGIC KINGDOM!!!

We visited every park before making our way to MK. I don't think we planned it this way, it's just how it turned out. This day also happened to be our MVMCP day! We ended up being here for about 15 hours, it was great!


Let's see, we made it to MK in time to see the welcome show and then once we were let into the park we headed over towards Adventureland! I believe our first ride ended up being Splash Mountain, where we got a log to ourselves!



My memory is a bit fuzzy so things might be out of order. It looks like we were on Splash at 9:09am! We got pretty wet on that ride so we rode BTMR to dry off after. I’m fairly certain we made our way back to Adventureland and rode POTC and then Aladdin. After that it was time for our first FP+, Space Mountain around 10:30am! So we had to trek allllll the way over to Tomorrowland. When we got there, standby was pretty short so we did that first and then used our FP.




(wrong way, Meghan!)

After Space Mountain, I’m pretty sure we headed to Monsters Inc. and the Stitch. Monsters Inc. was pretty funny and Stitch was meh. I knew it wouldn’t be great, but I still wanted to see it for myself. Next on the agenda was the Carousel of Progress! We both loved it and ended up doing it 3 times during the week (and I’m actually watching/listening to it on youtube now…). After taking a trip through time, we made our way to Haunted Mansion, which is always good. Next up was our second FP+, Splash Mountain!



When that was done, we were hungry and wet, so we stopped by Sleepy Hollow for funnel cake and waffles and found a spot in the sun to relax.


So. Good.

After stuffing our faces, we wandered down to the Chapeau and got some ears! I got the R2D2 ones and Meghan got Christmas ones. While her ears were getting embroidered, we went over to Buzz and used our third FP+. We made our way back to the Chapeau to pick up Meghan’s ears afterwards and then made a fourth FP+ for Pooh. I want to say that at this point it was around 3pm and the Pooh FP+ wasn’t until around 5pm. In between these, we did Mickey’s PhilharMagic and rode the Little Mermaid. We also picked up our wrist bands for MVMCP. After getting our bands, we rode IASW and Dumbo and used our FP+ for Pooh.

 

[jollygreen]

Day 3: Part 2

Dinner at Pinocchio Village Haus was next where we ate some pretty good flatbreads. After dinner, it was time to travel through Africa on the Jingle Cruise! We made our way to the hub next to see the Frozen Holiday Wish, which we didn’t really get to see since everyone put their kids on their shoulders. The castle looked great, though!



After fighting our way out of the hub, we went to ride Peter Pan! I think the wait was about half an hour? It wasn’t too long, I remember that. We did the teacups next, which is always fun! I love getting it to spin as fast as possible. We made our way to Main Street next to see Holiday Wishes and Celebrate the Magic. It wasn’t crowded at all and we had a good view!





When that ended, we grabbed a spot on the curb to wait for the 10:30 parade.









After the parade we went back to Storybook Circus to meet Scrooge, Donald, Daisy, and Minnie! We were some of the last people let in line. I ended up tripping over my feet when walking up to Donald, so he was nice enough to hold onto my arm so it wouldn’t happen again.





By the time that was done, we had been at the park for 15 hours. We were happy with all that we got done that day and headed to the bus stop and back to the hotel where we took quick showers and passed out in bed.

 

[dromio42]

We were at Disapalooza too! such a fun night. It was my only visit to Universal this trip, but my husband did get to go a few more times.

 

[jollygreen]

We were at Disapalooza too! such a fun night.

I know! It was a lot of fun, I wish it could have lasted longer.