Most Wonderful Time Of Year - NY, Universal, DW - we are back!

[AussieTink]

14/12 Monday, It feels like we have been on the trip a while, but at the same time it's going quick.

Today is our last night at AOA, we woke up a bit later than usual and decided not to get the room cleaned as we had to pack all our bags tonight. Had some gluten free weetbix in the room for breakfast and we were on our way to HS again today. Lol we are there a lot - but it was mainly to ride Toy Story as much as possible!! I think it's another chilled out day again today. The only other FP we have is for Lights Motor Action which should be fun as we havn't seen it before. We haven't had much luck with getting additional FP after we use up the 3 pre-picked for the day, so I'm still tossing up whether the new FP system is an improvement or not.

We headed to wait for a bus, even got a seat on this one. AOA is really close to the Epcot area, about a 10 minute drive I'd say. We headed straight to Toy Story, and this time DSis had the highest score of the day!! This ride never gets old, we have a blast each time. We wandered around until it was time for Lights Motor Action. Well, this wasn't for us, we got pretty bored actually, so left halfway through it and went to lineup to see if Pluto would come out. Nope, it was Daisy and they didn't have a Photopass photographer, so we did some Christmas ornament shopping on our way out of the park.

It was about 2pm by time we got back to AOA, and we started to pack up. DMum and DSis were going to the reservation at Le Cellier, I opted to stay at the resort because they didn't have any vegetarian options on the menu that appealed to me. So, for dinner.....Gelato!!! Oh myyyyyyy goodness there were 5 scoops in the waffle bowl, and I ate it all up haha. I had a lazy night just hanging out in the room watching the Disney Channel lol. Tomorrow we are doing our final split stay resort - the Contemporary! It is also a non-park day, with some shopping at Disney Springs scheduled, a reservation at The Wave and tickets to MVMCP!! Steps: 8,540 (our lowest yet, nooo!!)

 

[LivingforDisney]

Thanks for the info about the memory maker.
Yes, this is a mostly Disney trip...
Arrive We'd Anaheim for 4 nights, going to meet my cousin that lives in L.A on Thurs in the park, our kids have never met, so should be nice.
Then 14 nights CBR, 5 nights Cabana Bay, 7 nights Disney Fantasy, 4 nights BWI.
My family, friends think I am nuts lol.

 

[cmarsh31]

Oh wow we probably did cross paths!! How cool! Did you enjoy BOG?

We had a great meal with a fantastic hostess and wonderful waiter - it was my Aunt's first time at Disney and she didn't have a button yet. They brought her a 1st visit one and Family Reunion ones for my mom, my other aunt, and me. My mom and I had lunch at BOG last year but my Aunts had never been there. We got a great pic with the Beast too!

 

[crazy Cat Lady]

I had to go back to the Poly to buy a new suitcase (to fit my shopping in haha)

Only one? Amateur! ;-)

Seriously though, great report, loving the read.

 

[AussieTink]

Thanks for the info about the memory maker.
Yes, this is a mostly Disney trip...
Arrive We'd Anaheim for 4 nights, going to meet my cousin that lives in L.A on Thurs in the park, our kids have never met, so should be nice.
Then 14 nights CBR, 5 nights Cabana Bay, 7 nights Disney Fantasy, 4 nights BWI.
My family, friends think I am nuts lol.

Wow your trip sounds AMAZING!!! Nuts no way! Have a fantastic time!!!

We had a great meal with a fantastic hostess and wonderful waiter - it was my Aunt's first time at Disney and she didn't have a button yet. They brought her a 1st visit one and Family Reunion ones for my mom, my other aunt, and me. My mom and I had lunch at BOG last year but my Aunts had never been there. We got a great pic with the Beast too!

Agree the waiter and hosts were great!! How lovely so spend that time with your family in a fantastic restaurant!!

Only one? Amateur! ;-)

Seriously though, great report, loving the read.

Hehehehe!!!!!!

 

[AussieTink]

15/12: We got up early and rang bell services as we were moving to the Contemporary today. And it was also DMums birthday!! It was a no park day today as we had tickets to MVMCP that night, so we went to Disney Springs.

We JUST missed the bus from AOA, so we got in line and waited 45 minutes for the next bus which had to be radioed in to come get everyone waiting. What a wait, we just wasted over an hour waiting and transporting to DS so were now behind time, bummer!!! Lesson learnt - if we miss the DS bus again we will taxi it.

Finally we pulled up, and we high tailed it to DTech so we could make a phone case. Suuuuuuuper cute designs!! I had completely forgot about DTech and was kicking myself for already buying a case, but I couldn't pass up an adorable Toy Story case. It was only a 15-20 minute wait for the cases to be done so we browsed in the cool little marketplace they have there. Traded some pins with CMs and picked up the cases, and headed to the Erin McKenna NYC bakery - every single item is gluten and dairy free as well as being vegan. I got a cinnamon scroll with was yum, and DSis and DMum shared the Bakery Sink - cupcake and cupcake top; 2 donuts; brownie crumble and caramel. WOW - it was delicious!! We need to get that again!!

We wandered down the west side and back again while stopping in at the World of Disney and the pin trading store. We needed to get going so and I missed out on buying some prints to send home, so we will hopefully get to go back quickly to do that before we leave.

We bussed it over to the Contemporary and checked in. A less than magical experience and room location, a broken air conditioner, but we had to get ready for dinner at The Wave for 5pm. We raced down and waited to be seated. Dinner was quite nice, and we were soon finding the walkway over to MK for the party.

Oh wow it was hot, and we had brought cardigans with us which at the end of the night we wondered why we bothered!! We went straight to the pin location to buy that, then rode Haunted Mansion, Small World, Under the Sea and Dumbo. The castle show and fireworks were crazy crazy crowded and hot hot hot. People we just going insane and we were completely over it, especially when a tall man puts his kid on his shoulder right in front of you and you have a view of a childs behind in your face.The fireworks were lovely though.

Right after they finished we decided to get in line to see Scrooge, Donald, Minnie and Daisy in their holiday gear. Was quite a long line but I really wanted to meet Scrooge - loved him since Ducktails!! It was late, hot and we were tired so we decided to head home. We got to the front of the park as the start of the second parade was coming around so we stopped to see the new start, get showered in 'snow' and then left. DSis caught up with a CM she used to work with at the front desk, and we checked our air con had been fixed and headed to bed and set our alarms. Steps: 17,463

 

[AussieTink]

16/12 Wednesday. Sometimes we realise what a Disney bubble we have been living in. And also how being away, and getting back just before Christmas it makes it feel like we've "missed" December haha.

We woke up about 9am and DRAGGED ourselves out of bed and the room for our 10:15 breakfast reservation at The Wave. We were really tired from last night. I decided I do better getting up early and going to bed at a decent time, rather than staying out late at night. I think we were still half asleep while ordering breakfast.

Today our plan was a day at MK, but wowee it was 31 degrees at 11am......hot, humid and sweating we walked over to MK. The sun was burning, there was no clouds and no breeze and MK was a red day for crowds today. We quickly realised after walking down Main Street that we were not going to stay long at all. Got some castle photos then went to our FP for Cinderella and Rapunzel - they were really nice to meet!!

Stepping out to the hot outside weather confirmed it - we were not sticking around!! So we decided to quickly activate our Sorcerer of the MK game to get our new pack of cards, then walked, or more like staggered our way back to the Contemporary.

Up on the 4th floor was the gingerbread display which was really cute - was frozen themed! Walked through the store, picked up a few items and went back to the room to do some laundry as the laundry room was just across the hallway.

We couldn't believe the heat, DMum and DSis said it was like the heat they had in June in Florida, which is crazy as it's meant to be Winter! Thank goodness we packed shorts. We pretty much just busied ourselves until our 5:50 dinner reservation at the Grand Floridian Cafe.

It was just DMum and myself, so off to the monorail we went, a few stops later and we were checking in for our dinner and seated straight away. I was the difficult one tonight - gluten and dairy free and vegetarian - as there was no options for that on the menu she had to check with the chef, and I was given vegetable side dishes. Wasn't that fantastic, just some steamed beans and broccoli (the wave did a much better job with my dish the night before).

DMum and I browsed the shops and saw the gingerbread house, monorailed it back to Contemporary and tidied up our room so we could get mousekeeping done tomorrow. Steps: 9,103

 

[ColinA]

We have been comng to WDW for the last 21 years at the same time mid December to mid January and this last week has been the hottest and most humid I have ever seen it for this time. it is Florida after all. Predicted to get cooler by Friday.

 

[AussieTink]

We have been comng to WDW for the last 21 years at the same time mid December to mid January and this last week has been the hottest and most humid I have ever seen it for this time. it is Florida after all. Predicted to get cooler by Friday.

Agree, it has been the hottest out of the times we have been too. Wouldn't be too bad if it was cloudy and not as sunny! Florida is so funny with its weather, we are ready for the cool change tomorrow.

 

[AussieTink]

Thursday 17/12: 4 Parks in 1 day challenge! Woke up and raced out to the bus stop to find a practically empty AK bus waiting, score! We made the stop at the Wilderness Lodge and were off. We had all bought matching shirts the other day (nearing the end of the trip our clothes were getting crinkled and I know I couldn't be bothered ironing!!) so we wore them! Today also was the start of new security measures - metal detectors etc.

Stepped off the bus about 10:00am and noticed the new metal detectors straight away. And of course I got picked to be randomly tested, somehow someone in our family is nearly always selected for these kind of things.

Since it was our challenge day we decided to get photos in each park, so stopped by the photopass guy at the tree of life - he was super into his job and got us some nice pics and even one with tinkerbell on my hand! DSis really wanted to meet Pluto so we trekked down to DinoLand and got 3rd place in line - they were late coming out but Santa Goofy and Reindeer Pluto were great. Next it was Tough to be a Bug - Hopper is such an awesome animatronic there. Lots of kids screaming, crying and bring scared in this one!! We had finished our first park, grabbed a AK magnet to commemorate our challenge and left the park.

Bus to HS was a long wait, but we were soon disembarking for the park at midday. DMum got selected for the metal detector. We had a FP for ...... You guessed it - Toy Story!! DSis and I weirdly got exactly the same score!! Conquered this park so we walked over to Epcot - hmmmm might've been a bad idea in this heat, but we got there faster than the boat.

I went straight to France to get my last chocolate mousse, and met up with the others at the American pavilion. They had a shortage on gluten free chicken tenders so we got a different brand (not as good as what we have been having) so was a bit disappointed in lunch. The lines for rides were a bit too long and the humidity was getting to us, so we got our photopass photos, bid farewell to Epcot and lined up for the monorail to MK. We transferred at the TTC and were walking through main street at 4:30!

4 parks in 1 day had been a success!!! It wasn't too crowded strangely, so we got our new packs of sorcerer cards, then got some photos in front of the castle, and even got to meet Merida. It was getting quite busy when we decided to leave - walked back to the Contemporary to pickup our package from the parks the previous day and went back to the room. We got room service, packed up and ready for an early morning. We are hoping to get to MK to see the show before rope drop! Steps: 17,952

 

[Aussie Wendy]

Pity the weather was so hot though sounds like you coped with it on your challenge day. Did it feel like you got to see each park or more like you were travelling all the time? With the weather as hot as it's been you could have had some pool time! Nooo farewell to WDW almost.

 

[AussieTink]

Pity the weather was so hot though sounds like you coped with it on your challenge day. Did it feel like you got to see each park or more like you were travelling all the time? With the weather as hot as it's been you could have had some pool time! Nooo farewell to WDW almost.

Yeah it was a very warm trip, probably the nicest weather was while at Universal. Today was very cold though. 4 Parks in 1 day was a lot of travelling but went well - the heat made us not do as much though.

 

[AussieTink]

I havent had time to do the daily reports sorry!! Currently at LAX waiting for our flight which has been delayed - nooo!!! We just want to get home - hopefully they make up time in the air...
The flight from orlando to lax was long and had a horrible lady behind us who had a cold and was openly coughing (like that awful flu like cough) without covering her mouth at all. Thanks for making us all probably catch a cold lady. Far out.

We couldnt believe today was our last day, but at the same time we wanted to go home. Already planning a next trip sometime - January/February crowd calendars look ok!!

Will update with photos etc when get home - which will probably end up updating after christmas since we arrive Monday and drive home Tues/Weds.

 

[PrincessInOz]

I havent had time to do the daily reports sorry!! Currently at LAX waiting for our flight which has been delayed - nooo!!! We just want to get home - hopefully they make up time in the air...
The flight from orlando to lax was long and had a horrible lady behind us who had a cold and was openly coughing (like that awful flu like cough) without covering her mouth at all. Thanks for making us all probably catch a cold lady. Far out.

We couldnt believe today was our last day, but at the same time we wanted to go home. Already planning a next trip sometime - January/February crowd calendars look ok!!

Will update with photos etc when get home - which will probably end up updating after christmas since we arrive Monday and drive home Tues/Weds.

Hope you're safely home!

 

[AussieTink]

Hope you're safely home!

Thanks PrincessInOz we are in Aus, bit jetlagged and tired though.

 

[AussieTink]

Hi everyone!

Thanks for following my trip report! We are back in Aus, bit weary and tired. Had a great trip overall - will do a proper report with photos probably after Christmas. Haven't even looked at photos yet or unpacked!! It is sort of crazy being back so close to Christmas.

I hope you all have a lovely Christmas and get some time to relax. Will update with our thoughts soon, what we would and wouldn't do again, thanks again for following!!!

 

[Aussie Wendy]

Thanks Aussie Tink - I look forward to a proper TR in due course (I am still working on mine from October!) Have a great Christmas - it's tomorrow - aah!