A Very Merry Disney Christmas Vacation- Dec. '14 TR- Updated 6/15 -Day 7

[hokieinpa]

Fun morning at Epcot!

Cute pictures at the Character Spot. I especially like the Minnie Princess pose!!

Too bad Spaceship Earth was closed! We didn't get to Mission Space last trip. Did you do Orange or Green?

Can't wait to hear about dinner and the Candlelight Processional! One of my Disney dreams!!

 

[ememtingle]

I'm with you...don't like the new Test Track.

Great photos with Mickey, Goofy and Minnie.

Spaceship Earth down? So rare.

You get a for doing Mission! I can't go on that at all. I'd rather go on EE.

Yeah we were really surprised that SE was down, that never happens!! And yeah I just LOVED old Test Track, this one is just too futuristic for me.

Just read your TR and I love seeing all of the Christmas stuff! I hope your semester is going well! My last semester was so stressful, but so fun!

Hi! Thanks for following along! And isn't Christmas at Disney the best?! And thanks! It's stressful, but I'm going to be so sad when it's all over.

Nice morning at Epcot! Love your character spot pictures

Thanks! How can you not love the Character Spot?!

Fun morning at Epcot!

Cute pictures at the Character Spot. I especially like the Minnie Princess pose!!

Too bad Spaceship Earth was closed! We didn't get to Mission Space last trip. Did you do Orange or Green?

Can't wait to hear about dinner and the Candlelight Processional! One of my Disney dreams!!

I love Minnie, she's the best. We've done both sides in the past. We did the green side first because I had never been on Mission Space and didn't really know what to expect. I'd suggest doing Green first because it doesn't spin so you don't feel the G-forces. And then if you're brave do the orange side. But we did orange side this time. And yes! Candlelight Processional was amazing, I took a lot of pictures and I had goosebumps the whole time.

 

[ememtingle]

December 19th Part 2: Beer, Lederhousens, and Pretzel Bread


Hi everyone! So it's time to continue our day at Epcot. So after Mission Space, it was time for our ADR in Germany. We were eating at Biergarten. This was a new experience for us! It was kind of weird having an ADR for lunch, we usually only make ADR's for dinner.
Anyways, our ADR was for 12:30 and we were using the Candlelight Processional Package. We were paying out of pocket for our lunch since it wasn't very expensive.

I think the Germany pavilion is so pretty!

We checked in and didn't have to wait too long before our buzzer went off.

We were escorted inside and were seated with two other families. One family of three adults, and then a married couple and their daughter.
After we were seated our waitress came over and took our drink orders. Eli ordered a 1/2 liter of the Oktoberfest beer and I just ordered a soda. I'm not a fan of beer and I was the only one at the table, besides the kid, who wasn't drinking beer.
After we got our drinks our waitress told us to go ahead and help ourselves to the buffet before the show started.
There was so much food!! Oh my goodness I was not prepared.

I loaded my plate up...Obviously.
Okay so I had macaroni and potato salad, German sausages, meatballs, green beans, there's some kind of sweet potato salad thing, and I got a side salad because I had to balance out my carbs (hehe) and PRETZEL BREAD. It was soooo yummy.

Eli had about the same thing as me, except he had pork schnitzel and a few other things.

He was very happy.

As soon as we sat down the show began! The band and singers started playing Christmas and other holiday music.

They played for about 30 minutes which was enough time to eat and get more food. Eli went back for seconds, I did not. I was so full! I had a few bites of dessert, but nothing really caught my interest.

The family sitting with us with the daughter was asking how many times we'd been to Disney, I told her I had been over 25 times and that Eli had been twice and she of course asked if it was just the two of us and she asked why would you come without kids. I told her yeah and that it's more fun without children because you can basically do whatever you want at your own speed.

The experience was really cool! And the Biergarten was a place I always wanted to try. The food was really good and I liked that it was a buffet because you get to try a little bit of everything. It ended up being about $35 each and we got our passes for Candlelight Processional.

Check back soon for more World Showcase adventures!

Next Post​

 

[missangelalexis]

Sounds like a great lunch! $35 is pretty reasonable, especially since you got a CP pass along with it!

 

[KatMark]

I'm glad you enjoyed Biergarten. It used to be a must do for us, but then they changed the schnitzel from veal and/or pork to chicken and it was awful. I'm glad to hear it is back to Pork which is what it should be. Don't feel bad...I never drank beer when I went there either. I may have to put it back on the list.

 

[ememtingle]

Sounds like a great lunch! $35 is pretty reasonable, especially since you got a CP pass along with it!

Yeah we didn't mind paying! Especially because we got pretty great seats at CP!

I'm glad you enjoyed Biergarten. It used to be a must do for us, but then they changed the schnitzel from veal and/or pork to chicken and it was awful. I'm glad to hear it is back to Pork which is what it should be. Don't feel bad...I never drank beer when I went there either. I may have to put it back on the list.

I didn't try the schnitzel, but Eli said it was good. But it was pork schnitzel. And yeah we enjoyed it!

 

[ememtingle]

December 19th Part 3: Exploring (and falling asleep in) World Showcase

Hi everyone! Hope you guys are surviving this awful winter! We got almost 8 inches of snow, it was about -10, and we haven't had school all week! YAY! It's been great, and has been a great opportunity for me to catch up on HW, Netflix, and finally catch up on my senior research paper. I have about 25 pages now and my goal is to get about 40 and it's due Thursday. Whoops....I'm not freaking out...Okay maybe a little. Oh! Also, I've seriously enjoyed writing this TR, would y'all be interested in seeing a DCL TR from my Oct. '14 trip?? Let me know!
Okay enough about school, let's get back to Epcot!

So after lunch we figured we'd just hang out in World Showcase the rest of the afternoon since CP was at 5.
Well, we started back over in Mexico! We went over to La Cava del Tequila for margs! I sure do love a good margarita.
We had always wanted to try La Cava, but there had always been such a long wait! But it wasn't too bad this day.
Eli had the Jalapeño margarita and I had the classic margarita. I tried a sip of Eli's and it was so spicy!!! Oh my goodness!
After getting our margs we were back on the move!
Next we had to pay our tribute to Maelstrom....RIP. You will be missed.

Depressing....

We didn't do much in China, we walked around the shops and we were going to watch the acrobats, but they had just finished their set. We skipped Germany since we had just been there. We walked around the shops in Italy also. There was this World Showcase wine glass I wanted to get so badly, but I didn't. I was so sad! It had the pavilions on it and then under the pavilions it had their signature drinks. It was really really cute, I'm sad I didn't get it.

Next up was America, and we decided to see the American Adventure. It was getting kind of busy and we were getting kind of tired from all the walking and margs.
So we went inside the America pavilion. We watched Voices of Liberty before the show started.
So the American Adventure show is pretty long, and me and Eli both fell asleep....Oops.

After our quick nap, we stopped in Japan to walk around. Eli decided to get some sake. I am not a fan of sake...I think it tastes so weird! Eli went to Japan when he was in high school and really enjoys drinking it. Not for me, no thanks.
After Japan, we walked around Morocco. I like the Morocco pavilion, I think there's so much to see and so many hidden nooks in there. After Morocco it was onto France, my favorite pavilion.
I could seriously spend all day in France, it's so beautiful.
I decided to get a Grand Marnier slush. It was sooo yummy!!! Eli had gotten a vodka cranberry or something like that slush when we were at Food and Wine the year before, but the Grand Marnier was delish!
Eli stole a few sips of my drink, but I was not trying to take his sake. Ha ha.

I mean, what's not to LOVE?!

We sat on the bench for a while! People watching and enjoying the day!

After finishing our drinks, we went over to see Impressions de France.
We had to wait about 15 minutes for the next show, but we didn't mind. We never got a chance to see it when we visited the year before and it was always on the top of our to do list.

If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend it. It's gorgeous! The music is wonderful and getting to see all around France is amazing!
We didn't fall asleep this time...but we were both very relaxed and were getting sleepy.

To our surprise it was getting close to time to get seating for CP! It's amazing how fast the days go by at Disney. It' s like one minute it's noon, the next it's dinner time!

Check back soon for CP!!

Next Post​

 

[hokieinpa]

What a fun afternoon in WS! Biergarten looks good - I canceled our ADR there last trip after we decided just to have F&W goodies for dinner. But I'll have to try it on a future trip!

I love that you both fell asleep during American Adventure. I haven't seen that in a few years. It's good but after a long morning walking around and a yummy margarita in your tummy...it's a good place for a quick nap too!

Can't wait to hear about CP!

 

[missangelalexis]

Sounds like such a nice afternoon!!!

 

[KatMark]

A fun afternoon of strolling the countries, enjoying an adult beverage (and my favorite -- the Grand Mariner Slush) and people watching from a bench. It doesn't get much better than that.

 

[ememtingle]

December 19th Part 4: Candlelight Processional

Hey everyone! Sorry for the hiatus, but I'm on Spring Break! Finally! It's so great to be home and have time to catch up.
Okay so it's time for the Candlelight Processional. This is just going to be a quick update and then I'll do another one finishing up our night at Epcot.
So the show started at 5 and Eli and I got in line at about 4:30 or so. There were so many people in line to get in it was unreal! Like the people who weren't using the CP dining package. I would seriously recommend using that because there were hardly letting anyone waiting in line inside.
We were escorted to the second row on the left side so we had great seats. We watched the orchestra line up and warm up. Soon after, the choir began to line up. It was really cool watching everyone line up and set up.

Our guest narrator was Ana Gasteyer from SNL.

As you can see, we were pretty close.

So basically the whole entire performance was amazing! Ana would read for a few minutes and then the orchestra and choir would begin to perform. I cannot even put into words the performance, it was fantastic.

I tired not to take too many pictures because I wanted to enjoy the experience. It was amazing y'all. If you're going during the holiday season, seriously try to work out seeing a show!

After we left, me and Eli were just so impressed. I don't remember how long the performance lasted, but the music and the singing was just so wonderful. I would totally see it again.

Next Post
​

 

[KatMark]

We LOVED THE Candlelight Processional when we saw it in 2013. It was a favorite and we would do it again in a heartbeat as well. The only thing is I felt bad for the people who kept passing out on stage under the hot lights (plus it was rather warm the night we went as well).

 

[ememtingle]

December 19th Part 5: French Food, Mickey Yoga pants, and Soarin' over California

Remember that time I promised I would update a lot this week....And I didn't. Whoops. I've been so busy spending time with my family and traveling during Spring Break. It's currently 76 degrees in SC and I'm not looking forward to heading back up the mountain. I hope you all had a great week too!

So after an awesome CP experience, we had some time to kill before out dinner reservation. We started making our way through World Showcase to head over to Future World. I stopped at a bathroom so I could change my shirt and shoes for dinner. I got really good at changing in the bathrooms by this point. I was starving, because I am always hungry, and since we didn't have dinner reservations for over an hour I thought might as well. So I got in line at the Refreshment Port for a cronut. There was a group of high school guys in front of me who were taking forever to decide what they wanted. And Eli left me to go to the bathroom while I waited in line. I asked him if he wanted anything to eat and he kept going oh no no we're eating soon yada-yada. After I paid and walked over to him his eyes got huge and he was begging for bites.
It was delicious!! It was hot and sweet and flakey!

After my snack it was photoshoot time. Because who doesn't love a good photopass photoshoot?

Next it was SSE time! Any excuse to ride SSE is good enough for me.

We got our own car which I always love.

After SSE it was time to head over to France for dinner! We checked into Chefs de France for our reservation. There were a lot of people waiting outside, and we probably waited 15 minutes before being seated. There was a two top that they kept calling their name and after a while, the host took us to what would've been their table. It was right by the window in the "patio" look area looking outside. It was perfect.

It was packed!! And the servers were not as attentive as I would've liked. Our waiter just kept disappearing for long periods of time which was very annoying. We ate at Monsieur Paul on our last trip so we had very high hopes for France because of our amazing dinner upstairs.

We decided to both ordered off the Prix-Fixe menu which included an appetizer, entree, and dessert for $40. And you can use this while on the dining plan! There are three appetizers you can chose from, four entrees, and any dessert on the menu. So it does give you limited options.
Our waiter brought me a soda and Eli a water and then brought bread. Who doesn't love bread?!

For our appetizer, we both ordered the lobster bisque which was very thick soup. It had large chunks of lobster and it was really good!
Next was the main course, I ordered the beef short ribs with polenta.

The sauce is a Cabernet sauce. The short ribs were very tender and really good. The polenta was very flavorful.

Eli ordered the broiled salmon with bacon and lentils. I didn't try a bite of his, but he said it was good.

After our entree, it was time for dessert.
I cannot for the life of me remember what Eli ordered! I would ask him, but he's on a four hour bike ride right now. I think it was the creme brulee, but I'm not sure.

I ordered the Puff choux with vanilla ice cream and chocolate sauce. So the puffs themselves weren't sweet, but the chocolate and the ice cream were (obviously).

The dessert was really good! Overall the dinner was good. The food was tasty, the service not so much. Our waiter was not attentive at all and kept disappearing and Eli would see him just chatting away at the bar. It was crowded and very loud which usually doesn't bother me, but I was getting drained from the long day and the long week. Also it was that time of the month (which I didn't know until we left dinner...more on that(sorry any men reading this for the TMI)) and I was just not in the mood for it. But overall it was a tasty meal and we might go back in the future, we might go back for lunch just to see the difference.

After dinner it was getting close to time for our final FP+, Illuminations! But before I had to make a quick trip at Mouse Gears to get some new leggings....sorry TMI I know I know. So yeah I had to buy almost $50 Mickey yoga leggings because of the surprise I got but hey they're really cute and very comfy! I wear them all the time!
Me and Eli split up before I went to Mouse Gears. I told him to go ahead and get to the FP+ area while I went over and changed.
Mouse Gears was a mess, there were a ton of people because the park was closing soon but there were EMH that night. I didn't know where the pants were and almost had to buy just regular sweats. I couldn't find anything else and I was like oh great I'm going to spend $30 on sweatpants I'm never going to wear again. However, I did find these really cute yoga leggings. They're capris and they're soooooo cozy!! I'm so glad that I found them.
So I did have to wait in line forever to check out and Illuminations was about to start and I just knew I was going to miss it. Which was fine because I had already seen it once this week and I had more important business to take care of.
After I changed I headed over to the FP+ area for Illuminations, it was about halfway over by the time I went over there and I didn't even bother scanning my band to get in. I stood in about the same area as we did the last time we watched it.

After the fireworks Eli and I met up again. I was a little crabby, for obvious reasons, but I wanted to make the most out of EMH. So we went straight over to Test Track. There was about a 20 minute wait. I had not ridden it at night since it was old Test Track so it was really neat getting to do that!

Next up was Soarin'. There was a 45-50 minute wait for it, but we wanted to ride it so we stuck it out. We have always done FP+ on Soarin so it was cool getting to wait in line, even though the queue is nothing special. I like when queues have a lot of detail and lots of stuff to look at so you can play eye spy or look for hidden Mickey's.
Now, all of the times we have ridden Soarin', we always get the front row...This time ended that streak. We got the back row, so sad I know. But it was still a great experience! I love Soarin', it's one of my favorite rides. It scares me because I am terrified of heights, but I love the musics and the smells.
Oh so my dad has this soap at his house that smells exactly like the evergreen tree smell in Soarin!! I used it the other day and Disney nostalgia hit me hard.

Anyways, by the time we exited Soarin' we had time for one more ride and we decided to ride Test Track again. The wait wasn't long because we got in line with ten mins to spare.

We walked very slowly out of the park because we were so sad to leave. Epcot is my favorite park (MK very very very close second).

Bye Epcot, Love you

We had to wait for two busses before getting onto one. As soon as we got back to the hotel we fell right asleep. We were both so exhausted.

Okay we are on the home stretch! One more magical day at the parks! A very very very full day at the Magic Kingdom! Hint, we are there until 3am! I also have over 150 pictures from this day!
So check back soon for an update!​

 

[hokieinpa]

Your CP experience sounds amazing! My dream would be Neil Patrick Harris - maybe one day, right??

I'm sorry the service wasn't great at dinner but the food looks yummy! It can be so frustrating to see your server just relaxing when you need something!

Can't wait to read about your last (long!) day at MK!!

 

[ememtingle]

Oh my goodness y'all it has been FOREVER!! But I'm here and I'm ready to FINALLY update you guys on my last day at Disney during my December trip!
So a whole lot has happened since I last updated. I graduated from college! WHOOOO!!


I moved to Greenville, South Carolina and moved in with my dad for the time being. I am currently in a training program to become a manager at a local restaurant group down here as well. So a lot has been going on. Eli also graduated and moved back home to Nashville, TN and is currently in an after college program at Northwestern Mutual. So we're doing this whole long distance thing for a while.
But! I'm so sorry to keep you guys out of the loop, I was just so incredibly busy these last few months. But I start my new job on Monday, so I figured I'd update y'all as much as I could today and tomorrow!
Okay so stay tuned for an update!! ​

 

[hokieinpa]

Congratulations!

I can imagine life has been busy with graduation and the new job - exciting times!

 

[ememtingle]

December 20th Part 1: Best Day Ever!

Hi everyone, as promised here I am to (finally) update y'all on our last day at Disney World. Okay let's get started.
Eli and I got up around 7:15 so we could make it to the Magic Kingdom right at rope drop. The Magic Kingdom had EMH until 3am, so we were prepared for a very long day. We skipped breakfast and went straight to the car so we could drive over. Driving our car was so much easier than taking the bus we found, especially if you know you're going to be leaving in the middle of the day.
Up early for magic kingdom, and it's our last day.
We arrived to the Magic Kingdom right as the Welcome Show was starting. We were in line to scan our magic bands and they stopped the line because of the welcome show. After a few tears (yes, we always cry during the welcome show...) we were ready to make our way over to Space Mountain.

After a short wait at Space Mountain, next up was to head over to Fantasyland. The wait for Peter Pan was really short, and I really wanted to see the new queue.
It's sad when you want to wait in line to see the new Peter Pan queue.

Well, we didn't get to see too much of the queue because it was 8:30 and hardly anyone was in line. The last time we were at Disney, Peter Pan was closed for referb so I didn't want to miss the opportunity of going on it. Growing up, I always loved going on Peter Pan, it's such a classic Disney dark ride. Eli agreed and loved it.
After flying to Neverland, we had some time to kill before our first FP+ so what better way to *kill* time then go on the Haunted Mansion.

After the Haunted Mansion, it was time for our FP+ which was to meet Rapunzel and Cinderella!!! Okay, I was excited, Eli was a good sport and went with me.
Okay, let's go back a few months to my cruise. Okay so I have always loved Tangled, it's by far one of my favorite Disney movies. I love Rapunzel too! Well, before my cruise last October I saw that she was going to be on my cruise and I was so excited. And that was literally the only princess I wanted to meet. Well....She had gone back to see Flynn or something because she was not there! And I was SO disappointed. And we didn't get a chance to see her the last time we were at Disney or at MVMCP (when she AND Flynn were there). But anyways, today was the day. I was so excited (as any 21 year old would be meeting their fav princess) and was even wearing my Pascal bow!

We talked about my braid and my Pascal bow and she told me that Pascal likes to hang out in her hair too. I told her I loved her dress and asked how Flynn was. LOVE LOVE LOVE her.

Next up was of course Cinderella.

She noticed the bow on my shirt and then she showed me her shoes, which had bows on them, so cute. She told me she had to keep both of them on. She said her stepsisters always try to take them from her. She then asked if my prince, Eli, likes to ballroom dance and he chimed in from behind the photopass photographer and said "no". It was so funny!

I told her that we were having a great day in her kingdom today and she gave me a huge hug goodbye.

After meeting my favs, I wanted to find Cinderella's wishing well. I had always seen pictures of it, but never actually saw it in person. If you take a path right next to Sir Mickey's, it's right there! It's pretty cool. And obviously a perfect place for pictures.

Next up, we leave the park for our ADR and then spend the rest of the day running around the Magic Kingdom.

Next Post ​

 

[missangelalexis]

Congratulations on graduating!!

Fun morning at MK

 

[hokieinpa]

What a fun morning at MK!

I love the shots of you and Rapunzel. I'm really hoping we get the chance to see her and Flynn at MVMCP.

And the wishing well is a great spot! I'll have to find that next trip - it seems like a nice quiet area and great background for pictures!

 

[KatMark]

Congrats on the graduation. It sounds like a fun morning at the MK.

One of my favorite pictures of all time of my little girls from our girls trip is by that wishing well.