Trip of a lifetime.....Disney Christmas, Birthday, Food * BIG & final update!

[Minnie Sue Oz]

I can not wait for more of your TR. YOu are going tohave so much fun in October. We have gone during Halloween the past two years and have ahd so much fun. This year we decided to go for Christmas time.

Hi and thanks for coming along There is more to come so stay tuned!!!

And yes, I am sooooooo looking forward to Halloween. This will be the 3rd time I have visited..... the first time the park was just normal, the second time of course was Christmas, and now I get to see Halloween as well to round it off! I have seen lots of pics of the Halloween decorations and they do look great! I am sure I will get lots of pictures again to share for that TR!!!!

You will have lots of fun at Christmas........it just has this extra "magic" feel about it!

Take care

Sue

 

[princesszelda]

Hi and thanks for coming along There is more to come so stay tuned!!!

And yes, I am sooooooo looking forward to Halloween. This will be the 3rd time I have visited..... the first time the park was just normal, the second time of course was Christmas, and now I get to see Halloween as well to round it off! I have seen lots of pics of the Halloween decorations and they do look great! I am sure I will get lots of pictures again to share for that TR!!!!

You will have lots of fun at Christmas........it just has this extra "magic" feel about it!

Take care

Sue

My very first time to DL was Christmas Time. DH has never been when the park is all Christmas and extra magical. So I can not wait to see how much he likes it. The trip we are going on in two weeks is his first time with the park normal. He has only been three times and each time was around Halloween. So now he will be able to experience it all.

I will be waiting for your next installment. I am glad Girla nd yourself both had great birthdays in the park.

 

[Minnie Sue Oz]

My very first time to DL was Christmas Time. DH has never been when the park is all Christmas and extra magical. So I can not wait to see how much he likes it. The trip we are going on in two weeks is his first time with the park normal. He has only been three times and each time was around Halloween. So now he will be able to experience it all.

I will be waiting for your next installment. I am glad Girla nd yourself both had great birthdays in the park.

Wow, not long now til your visit to Disneyland.............I am soooo jealous!!!

The year has started off quite quickly so October won't take long to get here for us I am sure! Your DH is a bit like me with completing the "look" of DL this year! It is nice all the time...........just to be there is enough for me!!!! Christmas is magical though!!!
I must admit, one of the things I am most looking forward to is having pics done with characters in all their Halloween costumes!

As you would have seen from the TR so far, we just love having our pic taken with all the characters! There are some I have seen that only happen at Halloween, so that will be a blast to have them in the autograph books!

Yes, Girl and I really did have the best time on our Birthday, so much so that the DD wants to go for hers now and she is born in April!

Update soon ( I am hoping to be on this evening!!! )

Take Care
Sue

 

[princesszelda]

Yes, our trip is next week and I can not wait. Although I have a ton of things to do and I feel like I have no time to do it.

I am sure October will be here soon enough for you. We are thinking about going to Vegas in October. We were in Married in Vegas on Halloween. We try to go or do something each year for our anniversary. This would our first time going back since we got married.

I love character pictures as well. I met Maleficent in 2010 she is my favorite. I was so excited. I was sad that she was not out this year. I am hoping to get a lot of Character pictures this time around as well. I have a PTR going for this trip. I am hoping to add some pics before we go. I just never get on the computer when I am home.

I will be waiting for your update!

 

[Minnie Sue Oz]

Twas the night before Christmas
But we were not in the house
We were at Disneyland
Having fun with a mouse!!!

Will somebody please pinch me!!! I am in Disneyland on Christmas eve and I am not dreaming!!!

On with the day........

On arrival we were lucky enough to catch a couple of characters straight up.

And this was just a real fun bunch! The Mad Hatter commented on Laura's Indiana Jones hat and asked if she had a whip too in case she saw any bad guys!!! Laura replied she didn't so he told her she must use a very stern finger and proceded to point at every one to show us what he meant!! He was quite funny!

Off to Toontown we went to track down Minnie. When we arrived there were lots of people with the same idea and there was a line outside and down the side of Minnie's house. We were willing to wait as long as it took as thi was one photo op that was going to be a special one. It was finally time for DD to have her time with Minnie. We chatted with the CM and told her all about Laura and Girl and she thought it was just so special. The photo's we took are some of our most treasured from the whole trip. ( see Girl's post!!! )

Minnie's house

It was time to leave Minnie and her house so we wandered around Toontown and also rode Roger Rabbit's ride. It was the first time we had the opportunity to ride this one as it had been closed until now. It is lots of fun and I would have liked to go on again as there is so much to see and with the car spinning, I really only saw half!!!

Toontown

Goofy Gas!

Chip N Dale's tree house

The Toontown Christmas tree

Roger Rabbit's fountain

More Toontown

Time for a refreshment!

We headed off to Big Thunder Ranch........

Christmas tree in the area

We had never seen a real reindeer before, so were thrilled to see them!

And how lucky was this guy to be the pardoned turkey!!!

Scenery

A fast moving train!

Part 2 coming up!

 

[Zipcoed]

I have been reading and enjoying your report all morning! Has kept my mind occupied as I have medical test this afternoon I am nervous about! But, also because 2 weeks from today I will be in Disneyland and staying at the GCH! Your report has made me even more excited about my trip. Also enjoyed info and pics of San Diego as I will be going there also! Looking forward to the rest of your report!

 

[Minnie Sue Oz]

I have been reading and enjoying your report all morning! Has kept my mind occupied as I have medical test this afternoon I am nervous about! But, also because 2 weeks from today I will be in Disneyland and staying at the GCH! Your report has made me even more excited about my trip. Also enjoyed info and pics of San Diego as I will be going there also! Looking forward to the rest of your report!

Well hello there and welcome!

Thanks for reading and I am glad you have enjoyed our journey so far! I am happy I was able to make your day a little brighter as worrying about medical issues is never fun

Seems like you to have a trip to the happiest place on earth to keep your spirits up! I would just love to stay at the GCH one day, so you will have to let me know how it was!
San Diego is great too especially Seaworld, we had loads of fun there! We are going to do the zoo again though as we really missed so much due to the wet weather

Thanks again for coming along and there is more to come!

Take care and I hope all goes well with your test

Sue

 

[All About The Mouse]

Great trip report! Love all the pictures and Girl's little trip report was too fun!

Can't wait to read more!

 

[WDWJonasGirl]

I love it. I have a stuffed animal just like Laura's Minnie. Mine are Perry the Platypus and I have a Winnie the Pooh who wears his PJs.

 

[*sarah*]

Just joining in and read your entire TR in one sitting lol. Looks like you had an amazing trip!! I really want to make it to DL one day. Really enjoyed seeing the pics from Ariel's Grotto, I've already told dh that we will eat there whe we go! And ds would love to meet Max, I don't think he comes out much at WDW.

 

[Minnie Sue Oz]

Great trip report! Love all the pictures and Girl's little trip report was too fun!

Can't wait to read more!

Thanks so much for joining in and I am so glad you are enjoying reading the report.

And I agree that Girl did a very good job writing her own version

More soon

 

[Minnie Sue Oz]

Just joining in and read your entire TR in one sitting lol. Looks like you had an amazing trip!! I really want to make it to DL one day. Really enjoyed seeing the pics from Ariel's Grotto, I've already told dh that we will eat there whe we go! And ds would love to meet Max, I don't think he comes out much at WDW.

Hi there and welcome


Thanks for coming along! Wow, you read it all in one sitting, I am impressed
I must admit something I love to do to is to find a TR and read from start to finish in one go!

We actually saw Max at DL a couple of times and he was lots of fun. Ariels grotto was good for the characters that came out, however we were not too keen on the food. We are going to go for dinner next time rather than lunch to give it another try. My DH went to the ESPN zone that day as he said the football would be his thing and it is full of characters!!!

I have never been to WDW, but I think after we do the mother daughter trip we have planned for October, we may go Florida way for the next trip! I know the DD would just love to go to Harry Potter world too so that may be on the cards for 2014! It doesn't hurt to plan ahead!

More of the report to come soon!

 

[Minnie Sue Oz]

I love it. I have a stuffed animal just like Laura's Minnie. Mine are Perry the Platypus and I have a Winnie the Pooh who wears his PJs.

Winnie the Pooh in Pj's, now that is just too cute!!!

 

[Minnie Sue Oz]

I last left you on Christmas Eve as we were wandering around just taking it all in!

It was decided we would head over to New Orleans Square and maybe catch a ride on the mansion if the wait was no tooooo long! We had no sooner arrived in the area and we tipped off that Jack and Sally were on the way out. So we formed a hasty line and waited our turn. We were quite chuffed as Jack is a BIG favourite of ours and DD needed to see them for the mandatory autograph signing!

They were great! Jack chatted to us for quite a while and was especially impressed when I told him I loved what he had done with the mansion!!! Here they are with DD!

A couple of shots from inside.....

Have I mentioned this is my favourite?????

A funny thing happened whilst we were waiting in the area for Jack and Sally to come out! A cart for the DVC was being manned by a rather friendly CM! We got chatting to him and he was super happy as he said we were the only people he had seen that day that could actually pronounce his name correctly........Archimedes. He then asked us where we were from. When we said Australia, he was quite happy to tell us he had learnt some "Australian"!!! With this statement, he then said "hooroo" (pronounced who roo ) which is Aussie slang for goodbye or see you later!! He was quite impressed with himself and the DD and I were just giggling at his version of it! He then told DD that noone ever asked him to sign their autograph book, so of course, he signed Laura's!!!

Here they are all happy and smiley!!!

We saw him quite a few times again after that and he always yelled out "hooroo" whenever he saw us! Another wonderful CM experience for us!!!

We left the mansion and continued down to Pirates and were lucky enough to be in the area as Tiana was just comimg out to do a show and pose for a pic!

Another tick off the list of the charcaters in the autograph book!

There were so many people and we decided to just catch a few rides here and there as we wanted to get a good spot in front of the castle for the fireworks. We also stopped for a snack!!!

Mmmmmmmm Funnel Cake

And to top off a magical day, we were not disappointed...........

I just love the castle........................it really "IS" Disneyland to me. I remember I was very teary this night...............my family and I in the most wonderful place in the world at the most wonderful time of the year

Up next......Christmas Day and our final day

 

[zanzibar138]

What a magical Christmas Eve you had! And how awesome meeting Jack and Sally - I didn't even know they did appearances!

 

[MAGICFOR2]

So much magic with so many characters! You are having an awesome Merry Christmas so far.

 

[Minnie Sue Oz]

So much magic with so many characters! You are having an awesome Merry Christmas so far.

Yep, lots of magic

I must admit, one of the things DD was most looking forward too was meeting up with as many different characters as she could!!!

There were only a couple she really wanted that we missed.......one was the white rabbit and the other was Snoberella ( as she has been renamed in this house ), oops, I mean Cinderella!!!

We literally did everything we could to get to see her.................we did ALL the character breakfasts..........no Cinderella...................we did the Princess Fantasy Fare TWICE................no Cinderella..................we did the Princess character dining at Ariels grotto...............still no Cinderella

Needless to say she is first on the hit list for October!!!!

 

[WDWJonasGirl]

I loved the update!!

 

[Minnie Sue Oz]

Good morning and Merry Christmas!

Wow, Christmas Day and it was cold enough for a jacket........totally unheard of here in Australia.

So, you would think that we would just get up and head on over to Disneyland, after all, how could we have a tree with presents to open in a motel room..........well, this is how!!!!!

Complete with a visit from the man in the red suit!!! So, onto opening the pressies!!!

Rise and shine!

Old spud head.........now to get his Disney accessories from DCA!

Now where was that squirrel!!! Talking Dug!

And a very special present from Mum and Dad.................a piece from the Swarowski Lion King set..................Simba!

There were pressies for the big kids too and this brought about a squeal of delight from this Disney fan!!!

No time for games though, we have a date with the mouse. Now, I knew it was going to be busy, but nothing quite prepared me for just how crowded it was going to be

We took this opportunity though, to do a few things that had been on the list, but had always been passed over for other things. So, first off, we rode the rafts across to Pirates Lair on Tom Sawyer island. Plenty of room over there so we took our time and snapped pics along the way!

With bridges and tree houses and caves and skeletons, we had a great old time!!! And if you pump a lever hard enough you can even raise buried treasure....................

But watch out for what might come along for the ride!!!

Bloomimn' cockroaches me 'earties!!!!!

Arrgghhhh, there be the treasure!!!

A very nice CM offered to take our pic.

And again I had shirts made especially for Christmas day ( thanks again to those clever creative Disigners) although I don't think we saw DD's all day! Apparently it's a teen thing Wait until she sees what I have in store for Halloween

DD and her Mum!!!

It was back on to the raft and back to the mainland and time we were thinking for a snack. One of the things that I had read all about was the Billy Hill & the Hillbillies show at the Golden Horseshoe so we headed off in that direction. There was a bit of a wait until the next show, so we headed upstairs to grab a good vantage spot and DD took herself back downstairs to grab some ice cream.

Honestly, this was THE best peppermint choc chip ice cream I had ever tasted!!! It was just delicious!!!

Before we knew it, it was time for the show and I am so glad we saw it because it really did not disappoint! It was sooo funny and I will be catching it again in October for sure!

Inside the theatre.

And the show!

After the show, we headed out to Critter Country and met these guys whilst we were there!

Yay more autographs for the book!

Continued......

 

[Minnie Sue Oz]

For the rest of the day we just ambled round, did some shopping and then we ended the day with a meal at our favourite..........Big Thunder Ranch BBQ.......yummo!

The entertainment really got us in the Christmas Day spirit singing lots of fun carols and songs and getting everyone to join in, which of course, we were more than happy to do!

Yep, we lurve our BBQ........AND it was COLD so we had hot chocolate........another wonderful thing about a winter Christmas. I remember being as happy as any person could ever be right at that moment.

With full bellies, it was off to catch the fireworks and head back to the Ho Jo..............3 very happy Aussies!!!

The next day we had reservations for the Gospel brunch at the House of Blues in Downtown Disney.

This was just great and very authentic. We had a great time and the food was yummy too. Lots of crowd intercation made it even more fun!

Hubby got one of his favourite shirts from here too!!!

So, back to Disneyland we go. I ddin't really take too many pics at all the last couple of days of the trip as I wanted to have some time where I was not getting the cmera out every 5 minutes! So, here are some random shots taken.

The girl really does have an uncanny knack of tracking down all things Pirates!!!

And another for the autograph book!

A few night time pics.......

Snow Whites Grotto...................so pretty at night.

And the castle................

Other night time shots......

Window display in Fantasyland

And for our final day.......................

I remember how sad I was feeling to walk down main street for the last time........................but how happy I was to have spent so much time in my happy place.

The amount of people here this day was too many to even imagine Apparently is was a non block out day and they actually closed the park. So, we fif not do a lot at all as the lines to ride almost everything was an hour or more and as for fastpasse, well, we had a flight to catch!

So, we just soaked up the atmosphere, did some last minute shopping and took a few more pics.

Got in for one more on my favourite..................

Continued..............