(Complete 4/20!) How Many Cookies Does One Couple Need? - Dec 2023 Trip Report

[Araminta18]

Naptime and the start of MVMCP - Friday, Dec 15, 2023 (part 7)​

Trevor got the eggs benedict:

I'm not an eggs benedict person really. I should try it sometimes. But Trevor liked this.

Honestly the real reason I booked the cafe (aside from decent reviews) was because I wanted to try the Strawberry Soup from 1900 Park Fare! I'd heard that since 1900 Park Fare was closed, sometimes you could get the strawberry soup here at the Grand Floridian Cafe. So I asked our server if they had it and she checked with the chef, but she said they had it. Yay!!

And then she brought out this:

womp womp - the normal soup of the day. I think this was butternut squash soup. It smelled good, but luckily our server came by right then and I asked about the strawberry soup and she brought me the right soup:

yay! This was basically a strawberry smoothie but it was delicious. I would definitely get it again.

Overall, not a bad lunch. And fun Grand Floridian atmosphere. Not sure if we'd necessarily come back. but it was enjoyable. If you're around, it's definitely not a bad choice.

After lunch though we were definitely flagging. It was 100% naptime! Our plan was to head back to the Contemporary. Though on our way back to the monorail I took more pictures:

I love this wreath with the swans!


This isn't Christmas but I love the carriage and the GF in the middle! So cute.

We didn't have a line to get on the monorail here (unlike at the Contemporary), which was nice. 10 minutes later we were at the Contemporary. Our plan was to go down to the second floor, near all the convention rooms, where they have a bunch of couches and things.

It was a great nap spot! At times a bit loud, and Trevor said he didn't sleep super well ( ) but I got a great nap. Highly recommend as a nap spot! Basically go to where you would check in for California Grill, but then turn to the right and keep going and you'll see these alcoves. It definitely helped us get a bit more energy for MVMCP that night.

So at 4:30, we headed over to Magic Kingdom for Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party!!

We didn't wait at all to check in (win for coming a bit after 4 pm ). Look at those adorable costumes on the CMs! Love it.

We ducked off to the side to dump a bunch of our stuff in a locker (pro tip ), and then headed in. I'd stacked up several fastpasses for us until 6 pm - Winnie the Pooh, Pirates, and Peter Pan - but first we had to go through the bypass!


Look at the toy soliders! At first I didn't think there was a line and then I looked to the left and saw the super long line to meet them, so we skipped that and kept walking.

Hello MVMCP bollard! We also got the really nice heavy toy soldier Christmas ornaments, so that was cool. I think I like the MNSHHP bypass better cause of the candy, but this was still great.

Next up, Pirates! Had to use our fastpass.

This is one of my favorite parts of Pirates, where you see the ship through the rock.

 

[Araminta18]

How Many Princesses and Princes Can We Meet? - Friday, Dec 15, 2023 (part 8)​

Pirates was great.

I was rocking my Mickey lightup necklace.

We got off Pirates at a little before 5:30, and so we headed over to Peter Pan to use our fastpass.

Look at this fastpass line!! That's crazy. So we skipped it, and decided to use our Winnie the Pooh fastpass instead. That was only about a 7/8 minute wait. Vs who knows how long for Peter Pan.

And we hadn't ridden Winnie the Pooh in a while, so that was nice.

Then this is where Tiffany's FOMO kicked in - we got off at 5:45, and while we could have tried to do Peter Pan/use our fastpass, I saw a couple people over by the castle walls there where the Princesses were supposed to be meeting with their princes, starting at 7. And so I was like "oh no we have to get in line!" I wanted to meet Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella, and they were supposed to be in the first set at 7 pm. Everything I'd read online had said that the lines for the princesses got pretty long, so I was like "aaah let's go get in line!" Trevor is such a saint, literally.

We ended up being about 3rd in line, behind 2 girls and ahead of this one other guy.

Eventually some other folks joined us but we all kind of knew who was in what order. We had a good time chatting and making friends to pass the time. We probably didn't need to get there that early, but it was nice to be sitting and enjoying the atmosphere, and then one of the two girls ahead of us - her mom came and essentially started the line for the 7:30 set with Snow White and Rapunzel and held spots for her daughter, the other gal, and me/Trevor. Yay! That was super nice of her. And we did check with the CMs about if we could do that and they didn't seem to care one way or the other, so I was pretty stoked. I'd wanted to meet all 4 princesses but wasn't sure if we'd be able to swing it. So that was super exciting.

And then the CMs came and had us all officially line up, so we were all talking, including with the people lined up for the 7:30 set (the one gal's mom, and the folks who'd lined up afterwards). Just so much general MVMCP excitement. A few minutes before 8 o'clock, some CMs came up and asked the first couple of us in line if we'd be ok letting a Make a Wish kid go in front of us to meet the princesses first. We all said of course, and then were asking wait - does the fact that you asked mean that sometimes people say no?! That's crazy! Apparently sometimes folks do say no and so the CMs will just slot the Make a Wish kid in front of the first party that says yes. But yea, we all were totally fine letting the Make a Wish kid go first. And then the CM gave us stickers so you know, win win.

Finally it was time to meet the princesses! Unfortunately they'd switched up the pairing so with Sleeping Beauty was Rapunzel instead of Cinderella, but at least it was still Sleeping Beauty! She's my favorite. I was hoping for her to be paired with Cinderella like she was before, but at least we'd made friends so I could still meet Cinderella and her prince.

We had a good meet and greet, talking about dresses and swords. I was honestly a my normal slightly overwhelmed awkward self. And I switched my shirt back to my Cinderella castle one (that was too hot earlier in the day) because I'd worn it especially for these meet and greets.


So cool just to meet Sleeping Beauty with her prince.

Then over to Rapunzel and Flynn!

We had lots of fun talking about Rapunzel's hair and flowers.



So fun. We hopped out of line, and then went looking for the gal whose Mom was holding our spot in line and she'd disappeared (along with her mom) but the ladies who were right behind her remembered us from all our chatting in line and were like "just get in, she was holding it for you anyways, we're totally good with that". So that was super super sweet of them. And so me and Trevor and the one other gal hopped in at about 7:10ish. I was so excited! And then right at 7:30 they switched and we got to meet Cinderella and her prince! We talked about her slipper and now I don't quite remember what else.

(to be continued... )

 

[Araminta18]

At Least 2 More Princesses - Friday, Dec 15, 2023 (part 9)​

Then Snow White and her prince! We saw them come out and were like - we should talk about the hat! Cause the prince has a pretty epic hat.

We *completely* forgot that Trevor was wearing a Grumpy shirt. Oops! The characters totally keyed off the shirt and we had a fun little interaction.



We were all done by 7:37 - we definitely got lucky with making friends in line and nice CMs, but I was so excited! Those character meets were the main ones I wanted to do. Woohoo! The one gal we'd been in line with since the beginning was heading over to meet Tiana and Naveen, and I was kind of on the fence about it (I wanted to get some photopass shots and some snacks) but she said she'd save us a spot if we ended up deciding to go over there. So off we went to get our snacks and pictures!

Pretty picture of the backside of the castle all decorated/lit up.

So pretty!

We headed over to Liberty Square, first for the snack! I wanted the Milk and Cookies for Santa: Brown Sugar Cookie Cake topped with Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Mousse, Milk Mousse, and Chocolate Chip cookies. I didn't remember what all was in it once I got it, so Trevor and I spent a good amount of time guessing what was in it but it was delicious. Loved it.

Trevor loves chocolate chip cookie dough stuff so we had to get it.

Then the photopass shot - they were doing Muppet Christmas Carol pictures!!

Love it.

Then since we were right there we decided hey, might as well meet Tiana and Naveen, and then the friend we'd made in the previous line saw us and waved us over! So that was super nice.

Tiana and Naveen were meeting in the little loading area of the Liberty Belle, so while were waiting we had a great view of the Haunted Mansion, which had an awesome lighting package.


Those are snowflakes on the the glass covered room there.

Then Tiana and Naveen came out! I felt a bit bad 'cause they were spending a good amount of time with each group, but it was super fun.

 

[Araminta18]

Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party Continued! - Friday, Dec 15, 2023 (part 10)​

We were talking about the beignets at Tiana's restaurant and Naveen making music and what instruments we could play to join in with the band. Totally random, but lots of fun.


It was an awesome meet and greet. And all of their outfits were just so cute!
ETA: I just found that I had done a voice memo about what we talked about with Tiana and Naveen! I forgot I did that: they wanted Trevor to play his harmonica, and he could join the band with Lewis, and then we went looking for Lewis to see if he was by the riverboats (he was not). But we decided we'd have beignets later too.

We finished at like 8:08, just in time for us to rush over to the hub to see the Frozen Holiday Surprise lighting show at the castle at 8:15. Woot!

We got a really decent spot for 5 minutes before.


This was super cute - we'd never seen the dreamlights in person so we didn't know what we were missing, and this was cute. I enjoyed it.

Trevor filmed it.

Our luck didn't last - right after the show it was time for the parade and we had a devil of a time getting a decent spot for the parade. We finally ended up in a spot in the hub that wasn't...amazing, but we made do. The problem was we wanted to break over to Tomorrowland after the parade so we didn't want to go over to Frontierland. We probably should have anyways, cause the spot we got was like 4 or 5 people back and then a guy on the front put his toddler on his shoulders. Which, if you're in the front row, is super rude in my opinion. But what can you do. Trevor and I both tried to film the parade.

I liked the parade - loved seeing the carriage with Cinderella, and we were on the wrong side to see the Sleeping Beauty, but it was kind of fun to be at the turn from the hub to Main Street as sometimes they did an extra dance or something. Also Mary Poppins and Chimney Sweep Bert! So much fun.

So right after the parade, we headed over to Tomorrowland. We were a bit too slow to catch a short line for Space Mountain so we headed to Tomorrowland Speedway for the holiday overlay and that we only had to wait about 10 minutes for. Not bad! It was exactly 10 minutes.

The decorations were fun - I liked them.

I also ended up in a race with the little boy driving on the next track - he was super in to it so i let him win but then at the end his track was backed up (to pull into the load/unload spot) and mine wasn't so I ended up winning. Oh well!

Trevor filmed it:

We decided to go ahead and do the Tea Cups since we were right there, and hey had a holiday overlay. We only had to wait one rotation, which was nice.

Tea cups is always fun, though the overlay seemed pretty similar to the MNSSHP overlay.

We got off at 9:35, and the next plan we had was to catch the fireworks at 10, so we started heading towards the hub from the Tomorrowland pathway, but we passed Auntie Gravity's so we ducked in and got the "Lump of Coal in Your Stocking": Cookies ‘n’ cream milkshake topped with whipped cream, cookies ‘n’ cream crumbles, and a chocolate doughnut hole.

This wasn't anything super special, but it was good. I'd get it again.

Then we went looking for a fireworks spot! We actually got really lucky - I found a spot against the fence, next to the area blocked off for handicapped people, where we could sit/lean. Nice! Made up a bit for the not great spot for the parade.

Would we like the fireworks? You'll have to wait and see!

 

[Araminta18]

Skip Tron on a Party Night - Friday, Dec 15, 2023 (part 11)​

Well you don't have to wait thaaaaaaaaat long.


I *LOVED* this show. I thought the fireworks were amazing, and the music - just the whole thing. Trevor was less enthusiastic cause he's like "all disney fireworks shows are great" but legit I think this is my new favorite. So good.

I also didn't realize Trevor had filmed this until I was putting together all the photos and videos for this trip report. So that was a nice surprise.

After the fireworks, we managed to get this photo op with a pretty short wait:

But it was a strategic error. By the time we'd finished this photo, the line for Space Mountain had grown a lot, so we decided to use our Tron boarding group (even though the original plan was to do Space first and then Tron).

Tron actually didn't have too bad a line - still longer than I would have wanted, but not horrible. It was 25 minutes from the time we got in line outside to this point:

Then another 5 before we got on the ride. But we were feeling good - we figured we'd get off a little bit after 11 and then we could ride Space and that was basically everything we wanted to do.

Right after we got on board, Trevor was trying to take a picture in the room right before the launch. But I didn't realize that he had strategized this and thought he was taking a picture without taking into account that there would be a launch in a minute, and what we resulted was this gem:

That's my "OH MY GOSH TREVOR IS GOING TO LOSE HIS PHONE!" panicked face. Spoiler alert, it was fine.

Great ride, as always.

At 11:05 (just as planned!) we headed over to Space Mountain.

Only to see that line of CMs out front which you know is never a good thing. It was down. Womp womp.

So, we decided to get some cookies! We went to the Lunching Pad and got "cider" and a sugar cookie.

I think they also had hot chocolate and chocolate chip cookies so we got that too.

(that's a total of 3 cookies for the night, in case you're counting - the first one was the one on the Milk and Cookies for Santa ).

We then figured we'd just hang out by Space Mountain hoping we could jump in line right quick when it re-opened. But 15 min later, at about 11:25, the CMs were kind enough to tell us that it was down for the night and wouldn't be coming back up. Womp womp. I was actually really disappointed - this was the one holiday overlay I was really looking forward to! We probably should have done it earlier, but I was figuring the line would be less later in the night. Course the downside is it could go down, and it did. Oh well!

With half an hour left in the party, what would we do?

Basically, cookies and whatever caught our eye! We actually headed over to Fantasyland to get the Tinkerbell lantern photo op. We had to ask several CMs where the photo op was cause we didn't see it where the map said it should be, and then eventually we found it! The poor CM must have been tired, she was sitting and kind of had the lantern under her cloak so you couldn't really see it. Oops. But it was a fun photo!

 

[Araminta18]

Cookies and Hot Dogs! - Friday, Dec 15, 2023 (part 12)​

After the Tinkerbell photo op, we were right there by Pinocchio so of course we popped in and got a cookie - we got red velvet and hot chocolate.


We were kind of sort of on a quest now to get the frosted sugar cookie but everywhere seemed to be out! Oh well, don't worry - that wouldn't stop us from looking.

We kept meandering around the park and found a stop at Columbia Harbor House:

In there we got more hot chocolate and a snickerdoodle cookie:

They gave us two cookies.

We kept heading into Frontierland, and we found the Reindeer Wranglers!

But then we decided I'd go look for more cookies while Trevor stayed and watched more of the Reindeer Wranglers:

I got to see a nearly deserted Adventureland:

Love the lights at the Jungle Cruise!


And this bit of lighting at Pirates:

The cookie stop by Pirates didn't have the sugar cookies, so I didn't get more cookies (realizing this now...what was I thinking?!). Trevor was having fun with the Reindeer Wranglers but I was hungry, and it was about 5 minutes before the party ended, so I decided to place a mobile order from Casey's to get some actual food, since we hadn't really eaten real food since our lunch back at 1:30 pm. I think this might be the very first time I've actually eaten at Casey's!

I had to take a pic of their cute Christmas decorations:


I got the hot dog:

and corn dogs:


I got a seat right there with a great view of the castle stage, so I got to kind of see the Mickey's Most Merriest Celebration that started at 11:55pm.

Not too shabby!

I settled in to eat and called Trevor to let him know where I was. The food was...fine. Nothing super special; I probably wouldn't eat there again (the nuggets were kind of weird). But it was real food and I was hungry, so not too bad.

 

[Araminta18]

How to End MVMCP - Friday, Dec 15, 2023 (part 13)​

That castle stage show is trippy - Clarabelle singing "All I Want for Christmas is You" is...weird. But it was nice to sit and relax and eat. Trevor found me a little after midnight and had some food, but then it was time to make our way out and head back to the resort!

So pretty with the tree there.

Of course we had to get a bunch of photopass shots:

Santa!


I love this little Tink magic shot.

And then we were able to get a shot with the tree as well, though it did turn out a bit blurry.

Sad. But still cool.

This is where I yet again made a strategic error. I guess it had to balance out after meeting 5 princesses + princes early on in the night! We decided to head in to Guest Relations and see if there was any possibility to get a chance to come back on another party just to ride Space Mountain.

Christmas countdown first!

The CM was super nice, but nothing to be done to get us back to a party to just ride Space. I'm still bummed about that. She did give us a fastpass for the next day at Hollywood, which was super sweet. But it took a while, and by the time we left, they'd closed the line for pictures in front of the tree. Dang, should have done that first. Oh well!

The tree is super pretty. I took more pictures as we left.

hello toy soldiers!


Farewell train station!

We'd had a great MVMCP - great meet and greets, yummy snacks, great entertainment...really the only downside was Space Mountain going down. But it was lots of fun. I'm glad we did it.

At the bus, we only had to wait 3 or 4 minutes, before one came, but it was SUPER full. I think we had to stand which was...rough. But 20 minutes later (ick so long) we were back at the hotel and basically fell into bed. I was definitely glad that our room was so close to the bus stop that night!

Fun with Metrics:
Steps walked: 23,419 steps (10.2 miles)
Ride count: 11 (Tron x2, Jingle Cruise, Big Thunder x2, Haunted Mansion, Space, Pirates, Winnie the Pooh, Tomorrowland Speedway, Tea Cups)
Savings due to AP discount: $17.33 (merch + 10% at Grand Floridian Cafe)
Cookie count: 11 (Trevor and I each got one from the various stops then the one from the milk/cookies for Santa)

 

[Araminta18]

Two rides on BTMRR sounds like a good plan to me!

I’m apparently not a HM purist either… I’m quite excited to see the hatbox ghost!

Yay! Hatbox Ghost enthusiasts unite! It is such a cool effect - I hope you love it!

 

[jrmint427]

Also, anyone else love the new security where you just walk through the scanners? It goes SO MUCH faster now! A+ 10 out of 10.

Yes! It was so much quicker on our last trip.

I loved reading about the Christmas party and seeing all the holiday decorations! It’s so cool you got to meet the princesses with their princes and so many at one time. You’re making me want to plan a holiday trip despite the crazy crowds that time of year!

 

[Araminta18]

Yes! It was so much quicker on our last trip.

I loved reading about the Christmas party and seeing all the holiday decorations! It’s so cool you got to meet the princesses with their princes and so many at one time. You’re making me want to plan a holiday trip despite the crazy crowds that time of year!

The new security screening is like the one thing we have better than Disneyland...but I'll take it

Oooh plan a holiday trip! Do it! The crowds weren't that bad until later in the trip - like the 18th/19th it got bad but before that it wasn't bad at all.

 

[Araminta18]

Rainy Morning at Hollywood Studios - Saturday, Dec 16, 2023 (part 1)​

Today was an interesting day - it was the one day we were supposed to get a TON of rain all day, and then also that night was our Jollywood Night party. So the plan was to do Hollywood Studios all day - go in the morning, take a nap, then dinner at Yachtsman's Steakhouse, then Jollywood Nights! You'll have to wait and see what actually happened.

We decided to forgo Genie+ today, hoping that the rain would keep the crowds away from our Hollywood Studios day. So we slept in a bit and made it to the bus stop at 8:57 am, and at 9:24 we were in the park!

Definitely a rainy day...we hadn't yet broken out the ponchos though, as we were heading to a ride first. What ride? Mickey and Minnie! Yes, we were going for proximity.

I didn't get a picture of how long the standby wait was, but after 10 minutes, we were at the merge point, so not too bad!

I finally got a picture of "The Nutcracker" poster in the room where Daisy teaches dance lessons - I love it!

I didn't say it was a good picture.

After MMRR, we were heading to breakfast at Woody's lunchbox. The rides were shorter lines but still not quite the walkons we were hoping for. It was admittedly a dumb hope. But as we were heading to Toy Story Land, guess who we saw out meeting?

Chip and Dale and Daisy!

This was fun - they seemed a bit bored, being undercover because of the rain. We had fun watching them for a minute - you can see the rain in my video. Glad my phone is waterproof! I was also excited to see them in Christmas outfits!


They weren't the only ones in Christmas outfits - lookit Woody's scarf and those fun ornaments on the sign! Seeing the Christmas decorations at Hollywood Studios was definitely something I wanted to do - I couldn't wait to see them all lit up at night.

No photographers out, so you get a selfie.

Then, breakfast!! Honestly, I think Woody's Lunchbox is one of the best quick service places at all of DisneyWorld, not just Hollywood Studios. Fight me.

We got a breakfast bowl to split, and some milk and some waters. This was delicious, and just the right size for the two of us to share. Love it.

And of course, had to get the hot chocolate tart, which was also yummy. All the tarts are a bit dry for my taste, but we had milk with this one so that helped.

After breakfast, we decided to do Toy Story Mania - it was posting a 15 minute wait! It was about that - maybe a few minutes longer. But the nice part of doing the standby line was getting to see Mr Potato Head!

We always do the fastpass line so we never get to see him. Of course this time though he wasn't really doing much. Naturally.

Trevor took this video after I'd moved forward in line - I hate holding up the line!

By 10:33 (thanks picture timestamp), we were on the ride!


Now, who do you think will win? Trevor may be a hufflepuff but the man is competitive. And of course I'm definitely competitive...

Sorry, that's the picture limit so you'll have to wait til the next post! #sorrynotsorry

 

[jrmint427]

Honestly, I think Woody's Lunchbox is one of the best quick service places at all of DisneyWorld, not just Hollywood Studios. Fight me.

No fights here, I also think it is one of the best! I’d probably only put Satuli Canteen above it and it might be tied with Docking Bay 7. It’s a must do on every trip for us.

 

[Araminta18]

No fights here, I also think it is one of the best! I’d probably only put Satuli Canteen above it and it might be tied with Docking Bay 7. It’s a must do on every trip for us.

Oooh we haven't had Satuli Canteen since 2018 - we tend to go for Nomad Lounge when we are hungry in Animal Kingdom. May have to try there again in May! But yes, Woody's is amazing. Docking Bay 7 is also really good - surprisingly so!

 

[Araminta18]

Pivot! - Saturday, Dec 16, 2023 (part 2)​

Guys, I won! 135,300 to Trevor's 127,100.

But that wasn't the most exciting part - the most exciting part was:

I got best in vehicle!!!!! That doesn't happen very often so I'm always VERY excited when I manage to get it. Never yet got best this hour or best today or best this month, but someday! (LOL probably not - how do you even get 300k, much less 500k?! I've looked up the tips but man, still no way).

It had kind of let up on the rain a little bit so we decided to use our fastpass from last night and head to Slinky Dog!

On the way we saw these cute little alien ornaments. I love them! I wonder if you can buy small versions of them?

Slinky Dog had a pretty short fastpass line - it was about 5 minutes before we were on the ride.



We definitely got a bit wet! Rain on a roller coaster stings a bit, but worth it.

At this point, it was just before 11 am, and Rise was posting a 45 minute wait so we were like "heck yes! let's do it!". We made our way over there, and made a brief stop at the gift shop kiosk thing there, cause Trevor found a bag that he thoughts was neat (I know, y'all are shocked. Trevor, a bag? nooooooo ), and then hopped in line for Rise.

It was 11:15 when we made it in and this was where we caught up with the line - my first inkling that maybe it wasn't quite as short as I had hoped it would be! I was hoping 45 min would be an exaggeration.

Right as we got inside though, I checked my email to find an email from Disney about Jollywood Nights that night: they were canceling because of the weather! We weren't too sad about that - Jollywood Nights in the rain didn't sound super fun though I thought maybe that would keep the crowds away. But I immediately hopped online to book Jollywood Nights for Dec 18th (that's always why I try and book the event the first time it's offered during my trip dates, so I can do it again if something happens. ), and switched our Yachtsman's Steakhouse dinner to the 18th as well. No issues getting all that done, and then we had to figure out what to do with the rest of our day! I'd been wanting to get our AP magnets from Animal Kingdom before they stopped distributing them (or ran out), so we decided to head to Disney Springs to get lunch at Jock Lindsay's and then head to Animal Kingdom for the magnets and to watch Tree of Life Awakenings. Pivot!

At least that passed some of the time in line. We were moving pretty good and then it felt like we stopped for chunks of time. We had fun looking at the theming and playing the game in the queue (scanning the codes to "open" the boxes).

We made it to the merge point/first pre-show room at 12:03 - a little over 45 minutes. Not too bad! Gonna be honest it felt longer than that. LOL

But we were up for a surprise in the Stormtrooper hangar bay -

Notice anything different?

Real stormtroopers hanging about! That was pretty neat - never seen that before. I do wonder why - maybe they couldn't wander the land in the rain so they just had them hang out here? It was pretty cool.

We got off the ride at 12:24, and one of the other things we (I ) wanted to do was see the Frozen singalong with the holiday tag. The next show was at 12:30, and we were like "we can make it!" so we speedwalked over there...in the rain...not our finest decision, but we made it!! We snuck in at 12:29.

Pretty far back, but in the center!

Aaand picture limit again...I'll be back shortly! Did we keep to our new plan to head to Disney Springs? Or did we get suckered in by something else?

 

[Araminta18]

From Frozen to Indy - Saturday, Dec 16, 2023 (part 3)​

The Frozen singalong is always hilarious - if you haven't done it (or haven't done it in a while), definitely go! It's super funny for adults as well because of the storytellers/historians they have.

And the holiday tag was super cute too - I'm so glad we got to see it.


Done with the show at 1, we had to do one last ride before we left -

Star Tours! Bonus shot of Trevor in his poncho. Also guys - my best pro tip: buy a bunch of cheap ponchos from amazon or the dollar store, so that you can use it and then throw it away, vs having to carry a wet poncho around with you all day.

Star Tours was a walk on, as you'd expect. Trevor loves this ride - don't ask me why! I enjoy it but Trevor LOVES it.

We got the Rise of Skywalker scenes this time - the water planet with the Death Star wreckage, then the Star Destroyers, then ended with Batuu. No Naboo!! Crazy - we almost ALWAYS get Naboo. It threw me off to not get Naboo.

Then I wanted to quickly check out the Tower of Terror gift shop, because I have a problem. I didn't end up buying anything (I thought about it ), but it was raining so hard that Trevor didn't want to come with me so he stayed in the shops there on Sunset Boulevard. He did end up buying some stuff...they had an Avengers windbreaker type jacket and shorts of that same material, so he bought them both. I bought nothing *virtuous smile*.

At that point it was about 2 pm, and we were hungry, so we called a lyft and headed to Disney springs! We made it at about 2:20. I do not like where the uber/lyft drop off is at Disney Springs - its all over by the Rainforest Cafe and its so far from the main area. But we put on our ponchos and booked it over there. Trevor got in line at Jock Lindsay's, cause there was indeed a line, while I went to check on the line for Gideons. Would there be more cookies?!

HA no. The virtual queue was 4 HOURS. I guess on a rainy day everyone goes to Disney Springs! We ended up waiting about 15 minutes at Jock Lindsays - after 10 min or so we made it in this entryway so we were undercover.

We got seated so quickly because we were willing to eat outside on the patio. The rain was mostly coming straight down, because it wasn't too windy, so we were ok with it. I would have preferred indoors but didn't really want to wait anymore. We were hungry!


We weren't getting wet seated here but our whole table was covered with a fine mist. Oh well! At least we weren't too cold. And there was some fun decorations outside too.

We ordered right away - first up, drinks!

I got the Antidote: Sprite and Maraschino Cherry Juice; Trevor got the Poisonless Dart: Soda Water with Mint, Simple Syrup, and fresh Lime Juice. Both yummy.

Then our first food item - we focused on a lot of the holiday items, as you'll see:

Naughty or Nice Deviled Eggs: Crispy Ham and Sweet Honey Glazed (Nice) or Spicy Honey Glazed (Naughty). We got the nice eggs. These were super yummy, but I'm a sucker for deviled eggs anyways.

 

[Araminta18]

Who Knew Jock Lindsay's Has the Best Decorations? - Saturday Dec 16, 2023 (part 4)​

Ok, more food!

Next up was the O’ Ham N’ Cheese Trees: Puff pastry, Pitt ham, cheddar cheese, garlic herb butter, and sugar plum jam:

Aren't they cute? But they came in a fun presentation:

Gotta love the smoky presentation. These were super yummy too. I love the cheese star on top.

Then I got the Churrasco: Grilled Flank Steak served with Pumpkin Seed Chimichurri, Fried Sweet Plantains, and Spicy Aji Amarillo Peanut Sauce

This wasn't great - small portion for the price and not super well-cooked. I may be a bit picky since I lived in Brazil for a while and had real churrasco but i wouldn't get this again.

Trevor got the loaded pretzel:

This was good, though Trevor would have preferred to just get the normal pretzel without all the accoutrements - they were fine, just unnecessary.

Overall, a delicious meal and a lot of food. I was so glad we made it, especially cause on our way out we got to see the inside decorations which were awesome.




Isn't it just so cool? I love it all. A+.

At 3:45, we were at the bus stop, ready to head back to the resort. The one nice thing about staying at Saratoga Springs is that the bus stop from Disney Springs is one of the very first stops. Woot! And 5 minutes later our fun Galaxy's Edge-themed bus pulled up.

It took a bit to get back to the room - not sure why. And Trevor was on the fence about coming with me to Animal Kingdom, cause it was wet and getting wetter, but he eventually decided to just go with me and try it. We were back at the bus stop at 4:40 - no time for a nap, what with AK closing at 7 pm!

Trevor rocking his fun new Avengers jacket that he's hoping is somewhat waterproof. We'll find out!!

 

[Araminta18]

Is There Anyone at Animal Kingdom? - Saturday Dec 16, 2023 (part 5)​

The bus came right at 4:40 - we got super lucky with the time! But that was the end of our bus luck - I don't know what the driver was smoking but it took us 35 minutes to get to Animal Kingdom. It's a 15 minute drive - maybe 20 minutes - crazy!! Not sure what was going on. But eventually we made it. And I made somewhat good use of the time - I was checking wait times on the app -

Look at those wait times - 10 min for Flight of Passage!

With that, I decided to message guest services in the app and see if I could get a refund on the Lightning Lane I'd purchased earlier for Flight of Passage, because obviously we didn't need it. They were kind of enough to refund it, though with lots of comments about how they're non-refundable blah blah blah. I was just grateful they refunded it this time!

Finally we arrived and got our first glimpse of the AK tree -

It was definitely raining steadily!

Our first stop? Heading over to Dinoland to get our magnets!

Hi Gertie! I love the santa hat and beard.


Just some pictures of the theming in Dinoland. I love those little light up Christmas trees.


There was (unsurprisingly) no line for the magnets, so we got our magnets and decided to hop in line for Dinosaur! It was basically a walk on, but right as we got to the front of the line - to this point here:

It broke down and we got kicked out.

That's the second time in a row that we've tried to ride it and it broke down. Sadness! We cut our losses, and decided to head over to Flight of Passage!

Pretty view of the Tree of Life.

Pandora was basically empty, and was still only a 10 minute wait, so off we went! I couldn't believe it, though obviously it was the weather.

Love this shot from within the queue.

We waited for seat 7/8 so we could be in the middle - and by "waited" it was like, what, a minute or two? Not bad at all. And of course an awesome ride. Then when we got off, I decided if you don't ask you don't get anything, so I asked if we could re-ride and they said yes!! We got our own theatre!


BRILLIANT. Love it.

I also finally remembered to do the thing that I've been wanting to do for a while - set your phone up in the bins to record video and you can see just how much the Flight of Passage theatre moves around.

The ride starts at 2:10, if you're curious. It's so neat to see! You really move a ton in that ride.

When we got off, they asked if we wanted to ride again - and if we'd been able to skip the pre-show we probably would have. But they said we couldn't skip the pre-show (legally? which seems weird), so we bailed and decided to head over to Expedition Everest, which had been down but now was back up. Woot! It was 6:40 pm - would we make it before it closes at 7 pm?

 

[Araminta18]

Can We Get Front Row on Everest? - Saturday Dec 16, 2023 (part 6)​

We had to take a picture of the Christmas decorations in Pandora as we passed:

It's on the mech suit, which makes sense.

Then we passed the fun mural wall, and for the holidays it had the merry menagerie!

I love this mural - if they sold it as a print I would absolutely buy it. Does anyone know if they do?

Poor Trevor, I was hurrying him along back to Everest but he stopped and got this awesome picture:

I love the lights on the mountain there - so cool.

And to your shock, we made it! We got the last row on this first ride.


No poncho for Trevor with his jacket, but I was definitely rocking the poncho. We got stung quite a bit by the rain, but that didn't stop us from going around for one last time before they closed!

We tried to get front row, but we would have had to wait another go round and the CM didn't want to let us, so backrow again! Not that we were complaining.

Do we look a bit wet? Or just me while Trevor looks pleasantly windblown but not wet? Don't know how he did that.

Sleeping for the ride photo.

We got off that ride at 7:05, but when we exited they were still letting people in, so OF COURSE we got in line for a third time. The CM said they stayed open a bit because they had a temporary closure earlier so wanted to make some magic. Yay! And this time, we got the front row!!

We were the only ones on the train, and the last riders of the night -- see?

Tried to get a better picture to show you the entirely empty train.

WOOHOO!

Trevor was an awesome sport about it, but he was also having a great time. I'm so glad he rides the coasters with me now. This was an awesome way to end the night - two back to back rides on Flight of Passage and then 3 back to back rides on Everest. Despite the rain this was awesome.

 

[Araminta18]

Tiffany Does Crazy Things in Pursuit of Bread - Saturday Dec 16, 2023 (part 7)​

Off the ride, with the park closed, we made our way to the front of the park. Look at how pretty the park looks!


I love the reflection in the wet pavement. Just so pretty.

And at the front of the park we managed to catch some of the Tree of Life Awakenings show! I just plopped on down to watch it because I couldn't get more wet at this point.

Artistic shot with Bambi.

Testing out the waterproof-ness of Trevor's camera:

Not too bad! We waited for another show after this one but it never came - we must have seen the last show of the night. But we did duck into the gift shop and I got a Magical Menagerie shirt and a baby penguin stuffed animal/hand puppet, cause 1. heading back to the room so I wouldn't have to carry them all day if I bought them when we came to AK during the day and 2. first rule of Disney souvenir shopping - if you see it and want it, buy it. Cause you never know if it will still be there when you come back around!

At this point it was about 7:50, and we were wet and cold, so back to the hotel we went!

Hello AK tree all lit up!

So pretty.

As we got near the buses a CM asked us where we were going and when we told him he walked us to a bus and told the bus to take us to Saratoga Springs, so we got our own bus! Woohoo!

We got back to the hotel about 15 minutes later, and then 'cause I'm absolutely insane, I hopped on a bus and then took the boat to Disney Springs! I'll tell you why in a minute but first - why were the boats running in the rain? No idea, but they were.

And yes, I was the only person crazy enough to be on the boat. LOL

Made it to Disney Springs at 8:55 - where was I heading? The new restaurant Eet by Maneet! I'd seen a couple reviews of their bread service with the dips and was like heck yes. And tonight was a good night for it - we'd had a late lunch so we weren't starving but we could eat. So I was like I'll duck over and get it to go! By 9:01, I had this baby in hand:

I was gonna take the bus or the boat back, but since I was right by the uber pick up I was like you know, forget it - and grabbed an uber back to the room. Kept me out of the rain as much as possible! I was back at the room by 9:16 pm - not too bad at all!

And the bread service was delicious. eet Bread Service with Pimento Whipped Paneer: buttered naan, garlic naan, pimento whipped paneer cheese, masala vegetable sticks, indian pickle, coriander honey, chutneys. Not gonna lie I really wanted this for the whipped paneer cheese but the whole thing was delicious. Definitely worth it.

I'm going to leave you with one more (possibly TMI) photo of my bruise from Tron - it purpled up a bit more on this next day:

The things I do to ride rides!

Tomorrow, Trevor was heading to Universal for the day and I was not quite sure what to do...you'll have to wait and see!

Fun with Metrics:
Steps walked: 21,013 steps (8.6 miles)
Ride count: 10 (MM Runaway Railway, Toy Story Midway Mania, Slinky, Rise of the Resistance, Frozen Singalong, Flight of Passage x2, Expedition Everest x3)
Savings due to AP discount: $46.60 (merch)
Cookie count: 0 (unless the hot chocolate tart at Woody's Lunchbox counts?)

 

[jrmint427]

I got best in vehicle!!!!!

Way to go!! That's a big accomplishment! I don't think I've ever gotten it because my husband always scores higher than me.

I'd been wanting to get our AP magnets from Animal Kingdom before they stopped distributing them (or ran out), so we decided to head to Disney Springs to get lunch at Jock Lindsay's and then head to Animal Kingdom for the magnets and to watch Tree of Life Awakenings. Pivot!

It's great you were able to switch to another night and come up with a quick plan B!

Notice anything different?

How cool! Did the stormtroopers interact with you in there? That would have startled me!

The Frozen singalong is always hilarious - if you haven't done it (or haven't done it in a while), definitely go! It's super funny for adults as well because of the storytellers/historians they have.

The historians are the best! I love that the jokes change every time based on the historians.

Star Tours was a walk on, as you'd expect. Trevor loves this ride - don't ask me why! I enjoy it but Trevor LOVES it.

I skipped Star Tours on our past few trips but LOVED it on this last trip. I know it usually has short waits and isn't a must-do for everyone, but I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it now.

Would there be more cookies?!

HA no. The virtual queue was 4 HOURS.

Oh no! I wonder how long the VQ can get, that's the longest I've heard.

That's the second time in a row that we've tried to ride it and it broke down. Sadness!

That is sad! Dinosaur isn't a ride I typically hear about breaking down frequently.

Then when we got off, I decided if you don't ask you don't get anything, so I asked if we could re-ride and they said yes!! We got our own theatre!

How cool! Good for you for asking!

I also finally remembered to do the thing that I've been wanting to do for a while - set your phone up in the bins to record video and you can see just how much the Flight of Passage theatre moves around.

Thank you for sharing this! I had no idea how much we were moving during this ride. I can see it's a lot!

But they said we couldn't skip the pre-show (legally? which seems weird),

Hm, I'm trying to remember if there are safety reminders in the pre-show? But if you had just watched it, I'm not sure.

We were the only ones on the train, and the last riders of the night -- see?

That would have been a little eerie! But really cool to get that picture!

Off the ride, with the park closed, we made our way to the front of the park. Look at how pretty the park looks!

AK is the most beautiful park!

I'm going to leave you with one more (possibly TMI) photo of my bruise from Tron - it purpled up a bit more on this next day:

Ouch!!