Chased By a Bear and a Trip to Urgent Care - A Very Merry Dis-mas 2016 TR! **Complete 2/23**

[xlsm]

Merry Christmas Eve and Happy Hanukkah to you all!!

Welcome back to old friends, and a warm welcome to new ones!

I'm xlsm, your trip reporter for this holiday adventure. Our family has never gone to Walt Disney World during the Christmas season before, so this was a very special visit for us.

If you want to read about any of our other trips, links are in my signature

This was truly a trip of firsts...our first resort stay anywhere other than Wilderness Lodge, lots of first restaurant experiences, and our first hard ticket event - Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party, and my first visit as an annual passholder.

So sit back, relax, and take a holiday stroll along the Boardwalk with us! I can't wait to share it with you!



Sounds fun, xlsm! But who are you people anyway??

I'm the S, a thirtysomething mom to boys X (13) and L (11), and wife to M.
I'm Disney to the core, emotional, mildly crazy, and equal parts anti-social/social butterfly. It all depends on the day!

The kids love to visit the parks, but X wishes I would plan more time for relaxing. I say, I'll relax when I'm dead! M was a Disney convert...he didn't understand my planning for our first visit as a family, but he is now fully onboard and truly enjoys our trips.

Ok, that's great...why should I stick around?

Because I'll give you a cookie!



Cookies? Sold!

I look forward to sharing our experiences with all of you...can't wait to dive in!

 

[xlsm]

Table of Contents:

Chapter One: We've got a long way to go, and a short time to get there
Chapter Two: Party Animals
Chapter Two Part Two
Chapter Two Part Three
Chapter Two Part Four
Chapter Two Part Five
Chapter Two Part Six

AP Magic Band arrival...new puck style

Chapter Three: Doctor, Doctor
Chapter Four: The Very Merriest Most Magically Mickey-est Night of the Year
Chapter Four Part Two
Chapter Four Part Three
Chapter Four Part Four

Chapter Five: Around the World in less than 80 days
Chapter Five Part Two
Chapter Five Part Three
Chapter Five Part Four

Chapter Six: There's Nothing Like a Homecoming
Chapter Six Part Two
Chapter Six Part Three
Chapter Six Part Four
Chapter Six Part Five

Chapter Seven: Character Meets and International Treats
Chapter Seven Part Two
Chapter Seven Part Three
Chapter Seven Part Four
Chapter Seven Part Five

Chapter Eight: Magical Days and Hollywood Nights
Chapter Eight Part Two
Chapter Eight Part Three
Chapter Eight Part Four

Chapter Nine: Bye, bye, bye

Chapter Ten: Til Next Time

 

[Princess Leia]

I'm here! Stockings are hung up. Looking forward to reading about your Christmas trip.

 

[HerbivoreMom]

I want to know about this bear and urgent care visit. Sounds exciting.

 

[ariane37]

Welcome back & Merry Christmas!!

 

[buzzrelly]

Joining in! I love reading reports with older kids (like mine)

 

[xlsm]

I'm here! Stockings are hung up. Looking forward to reading about your Christmas trip.

Hooray and welcome back to our craziness!!

I want to know about this bear and urgent care visit. Sounds exciting.

Thank you for joining in!! We had no shortage of excitement on this trip, lol!!

Welcome back & Merry Christmas!!

Merry Christmas back to you (a couple days late, but no less heartfelt and genuine!!)

Joining in! I love reading reports with older kids (like mine)

Hello and welcome! I'm the same way - I like seeing how other older kids enjoy the parks and the overall Disney experience!

 

[xlsm]

Good morning, Friends!!

Good morning back at ya, xlsm! Are you finally getting this TR up and going?

Yes, I am! It's a quick start, but a start nonetheless. I should be able to do a couple of updates throughout the day, and over this week. The kids are visiting the grandparents, and DH is back to work, so it's just me, no responsibilities, and a lap full of dogs.

Great! I can't wait to read all about it!

Will there be lions? Yes!
Will there be tigers? Sadly, no. We didn't end up on the Majarajah Jungle Trek
Will there be BEARS?? Oh yes! It's even in the title!



So, without further ado, in true Disney fashion....HERE WE GOOOOOOOO!!!



Our story begins where all good stories do...

Chapter One: We've got a long way to go, and a short time to get there (Travel Day)

First things first...our trip dates were 12/16 - 23, and we stayed in a water view room at The Boardwalk on the inn side. This was our first time staying anywhere other than the Wilderness Lodge (my home sweet home...that we almost switched to during the trip, but that's a story for a later post!). In fact, it was our first time setting foot in any of the Epcot area hotels. We usually stick to the MK area resorts for visiting and dining, since those are more convenient to the Lodge. I was so excited to explore a new area of Walt Disney World and branch out of my comfort zone a little.

Our travel day was Friday December 16th...the boys ended up missing three days of school for this trip. I had based our original dates (12/18 - 23) around last year's school calendar, but the school district revamped the school calendar this year and took a couple days off the beginning of winter break. Since they would be missing two days anyway, we extended the trip!

I'm not very good at getting nice pictures for travel day, so hang in there! Once we get to park days, the pictures are much better! (including one that X says should be in a brochure. He might have just been buttering me up for cash though, so don't get *too* excited ) Please don't judge the boring, mostly word post too much, ok??

We flew out of our local airport at noon, and had a short layover in Atlanta. Just enough time to get some lunch, use the restroom, and board our next flight. Everything went smoothly and easily, thank goodness! We had Auntie Anne's pretzels before our first flight, Popeye's Chicken in Atlanta, and then made our way to Orlando.

It was cloudy.



We landed on time in Orlando (actually, a few minutes early if I recall), visited the pretty tree



(FYI, if you've followed along with me before, you know X HATEEEESSS having his picture taken, so 90% of the ones with him in it, he's making a weird face, standing in a weird way, or frowning. He tortures me for torturing him, I guess .)

and hopped aboard the Fake-O-Rail (totally off topic, but there was a thread several months ago mocking people who call it the fake-o-rail...people get annoyed by the strangest things!)



We made the loooooonnnngg walk over to the Magical Express check in, scanned our bands a couple of times, and got on our bus to the Boardwalk!



Magic Band powers unite!



Our wait was short, less than ten minutes, and we were on the road and heading to the resorts. The three stops were Beach Club, Boardwalk, and Caribbean Beach. We were the second stop.

We pulled up to the Boardwalk



(I never managed to get a picture of the big archway that says Boardwalk. Boo!)

waited for DH's carry on to be pulled out of storage (still don't remember WHY we put it under there and didn't just hold it??)



and started inside to check in.



I always do online check in, but I have never received a text with our room number. Not one. Single. Time.
Our check in was easy, we got our room assignment and welcome packet, and headed to the elevator.

Before our trip, I followed the resort thread on the Boardwalk religiously. I kept up with every new post, I read and re-read the first few posts with details and hotel basics. I read all the comments about long hallways, and filed it away, but didn't actually believe they were as long as people said. I thought there was no way it could be as bad as they said, that it was a more minor inconvenience than anything else.

Folks.

Seriously.

They were not wrong. The hallways are FREAKING LONG. It was .17 miles from our room to the elevator. Yes, I tracked it on my apple watch.
I had based our room request on view. Don't do that. If you look at the Boardwalk itself, and you see the ESPN club, we were two rooms away from it. It was FAR. But, our view was quite lovely.



We were in room 3215.

We walked in and had a sweet surprise waiting.



We originally booked 488 days out, online. We added a pin code discount via phone, which is when we made our room request and stuff like that. DH was the one on the phone with them, and while they were chitchatting with him while inputting the trip dates and all that jazz, he had mentioned that he and the two boys had celebrated their birthdays twice while visiting, and I, the biggest Disney fan, had not. I guess they marked that down, because I had the balloon and Mickey card there for me!

L was getting the daybed...here it is in case anyone wants to see what it looks like:





It was decently sized. I tried it out, and I think I could have slept there fairly comfortably (I'm 5'8" for reference)

X got the other queen bed, and he only used a teeny tiny portion of it...he slept right on the edge the whole time, lol! He's 5'8" also, but only weighs in at 106lbs, so he doesn't take up a lot of space.

One thing that was really impressive about the room was all the plug ins!



This was one little strip, and then there were more by the tv, and even more by the lamp on the desk. Super useful when we had 9 million things to charge each night.

It was still pretty early and we were hungry, so we headed down to the Boardwalk to eat. We also had one Very Important Thing To Do. I had to go get my annual pass!!

We admired the tree outside



had some food at the Boardwalk Bakery (I had a fruit cup, DH had a roast beef sandwich, L had meatball sandwich, and X had turkey club with no sauce), bought refillable mugs (I have strong opinions on using these at the Boardwalk...that comes up later), and began walking to the International Gateway.

We saw fireworks on the way, so I had to take a blurry picture. It's a Disney requirement.



We all played Pokemon Go while walking, because yes, we are those people. There were a couple of people in front of me in line at Guest Services, but it went very quickly. I bought my pass (which was a little less than I'd expected it to be!) and paid with our Disney Visa Rewards Card, so it was really free, right??

DH asked if I wanted to go through the gates at Epcot just to say I'd used it, and I kind of wanted to, but I said no because I was ready for bed.

We headed back, and L and I decided to stop at the photobooth before going upstairs.



I look so tired! Because I was!!
We did a lot of these over the course of the trip!

We got upstairs and ready for bed, and X was complaining that his ears were still feeling weird from the plane, and they wouldn't pop right. (Uh oh. Foreshadowing.) I told him they would probably feel better in the morning, or after moving around more the next day, and we went to bed.

Our plan was to be up early in time for 8am EMH at the Animal Kingdom the next morning! I'll tell you all about that next time.

Thanks for hanging out with me! I'll have another update up later today sometime

 

[beckyx3]

I'm in! (Mostly just a silent observer but just wanted to join in early!) LOVE the Boardwalk area. Can't wait to read more!

 

[xlsm]

I'm in! (Mostly just a silent observer but just wanted to join in early!) LOVE the Boardwalk area. Can't wait to read more!

Welcome! I'm so glad you're here with us! It took us awhile to get used to the Boardwalk area, but we ended up liking it. More the area in general than the hotel itself, though, if I'm being honest. We didn't have the most magical hotel stay, but that'll come up along the way in the TR

 

[xlsm]

Hello again! I said I'd be back with another update today, so here I am! This very long chapter will cover our first day at the parks and include the Jingle Bell, Jingle Bam Dessert Party. I think I can get at least two parts of it up today.

Before I start the next installment, I forgot to mention something from arrival night.

When we got back to the room after our mini-tour of the Boardwalk outside and our trip over to Epcot guest services, Magical Express had delivered our bags. Well...they'd delivered MOST of our bags. Mine was missing. Of course it would be mine. Weirdly, as we were standing in the kitchen by the door to the garage to get in the car and go to the airport, I was finally putting our yellow ME tags on the bags, and for some reason, I felt compelled to put the one with my name on my husband's bag. It just struck me that his stuff would be the hardest to replace on our trip if anything happened, and maybe having the tag with my name on it (since I was the lead on the reservation because I have the MDE account), it might be less likely to get lost. Now, why I had that thought I don't know, but that bag and the kids' bag made it to the resort but the one with my clothes did NOT.

*sigh*

DH called the extension for transportation, and they told him that my bag had been scanned, but maybe the truck that held their bags filled up before mine got on it. The people on the phone assured him that my bag would arrive eventually.

Because I'm a paranoid freak as far as checked luggage is concerned, I had more than enough things packed in my carry on to get me through a couple of days if need be. I decided to take a shower and wash/dry my hair so I wouldn't take so much time in the morning, and as I was getting out, I heard the knock on the door. My bag had arrived.

My bag arrived wrapped in what basically amounts to the suitcase version of a body bag. Thick plastic sheeting was wrapped all around it. Someone somewhere, at the airport or with the ME baggage handling, had totally shredded the front pocket of my suitcase. Thankfully nothing inside the main compartment was damaged. My husband gives me a hard time because I am such a worrier, but because I AM such a worrier, I had prepared for something like this. So there! I win! I also get to buy a new suitcase.

Alright, let's get moving on the next chapter shall we??

Chapter Two: Party Animals

We were heading to Animal Kingdom for morning extra magic hours, which started at 8am. We did not sleep well the night before at all. The Boardwalk area outside, which has such a pretty view, is LOUD. We could clearly hear the conversations of the people walking below, Illuminations and Star Wars fireworks, too. DH opened a white noise app on his computer and we tried to drown out the noise by listening to a rainstorm. It was well after midnight before i finally fell asleep, so when I heard the alarm go off in the morning, I was not ready!

DH got up first and showered, then headed down to the Boardwalk Bakery to get some things we wanted for breakfast and to refill the mugs while he was there. I asked for an iced coffee and told him not to worry about my mug. This is when we had a sinking feeling about how inconvenient it would be to get those mugs filled during the trip. Even if we just went down to the Belle Vue Lounge, it was still a far walk down and back.

This is where the first talk of moving over to the Wilderness Lodge happened. I was tempted to switch because I had slept so little the night before, but I said we should try to give the Boardwalk a fair shot. We hadn't even been there 24 hours yet, so we just needed to get into the new groove.

As everyone was showering and getting ready, I noticed that quite a bit of water was still in the bottom of the tub. I just attributed it to quick turnaround time between showers, and we left the room to go downstairs. The room was a disorganized wreck, and I didn't want housekeeping to come in with our suitcases spilling out all over, but we didn't have a "Do Not Disturb" sign. L grabbed the notepad from the desk and made our own, LOL! We sort of propped it up on the door handle, because we are classy, fancy, people.

We began our long trek to the elevator, and I grabbed just a quick couple of lobby pictures on the way out to the bus stop

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We'd all spend more time looking around later!

It was finally time to visit our first park of the trip!! How was everyone feeling???



Tired. Everyone was feeling very, very tired. But I managed to get a sort-of smile out of X



I had carefully dried my hair the night before, flat ironed it, and put it into a loose braid. I ran over it with the flat iron again this morning, but it was quickly apparent that I would again be on the losing end in the neverending battle of Florida vs. My Hair.

The gorgeous Christmas tree in front of the park eased the pain of my hair disaster, though!

The details. I can't even.




Bag check was quick, and they allowed us to scan in early, but then we got to stand in a clump with allllll these other people.



Even though it looks REALLY CROWDED, it wasn't that bad. We just kind of hung back and let the masses go in ahead of us, and took our time going in once they dropped the rope.

I saw this fun guy



On our way back to...



Africa of course! You've just gotta start a visit to the Animal Kingdom with the safari, after all. X stopped and took a picture of LITERALLY every single sign that said Harambe on it. Considering it's Harambe Village, there's a lot



Because we let the crowds disperse upon entry, we were able to enjoy a fairly empty Africa on our way back to Kilamanjaro Safari.



(I loved their holiday decorations around the park! Made from all kinds of stuff like bike tires, bottle caps, any kind of little fringe or string, and at night they lit up!)



I always take a million terrible pictures on safari, so I won't torture you with blurry critters, but here are a few...

Hippo:



Lion:



I had bad luck with the sun on this trip for some reason. I did a little editing just to lighten this lion picture up so you could see him a bit better on the top of his rock. I did mention that lions would be present in the TR, so I couldn't leave him out!

and finally...painted dogs. I want one.



We had a great safari driver, and he was very knowledgeable about the animals...like, I felt it was truly genuine knowledge, too, not like he had just memorized the script.

Our safari was enjoyable, even though it was lacking in giraffes. We only saw one, back in a corner eating something out of a bucket that was up high on a wall. Early morning is not great for giraffes, I guess. They're my favorite, so I was disappointed. I'm staying at Animal Kingdom Lodge in May, so I hope I can get a decent giraffe fix then!

The next item on our agenda was to chase the Yeti, so we were Asia bound!

I got my first clear shot of the Tree of Life...but again, bad sun angle.






I love that my annual pass includes photopass...that was a huge savings immediately, because we always buy Memory Maker. Unfortunately, we didn't find any photographers out this morning.

So we just kept moving, and soon...she was on the horizon. Everest.



I have to say, I was incredibly disappointed that Rivers of Light did not come into being in time for our trip. The theater they've built for it is insanely beautiful though. I am BEYOND happy to have those walls down and a gorgeous view across the water again.

Part Two coming soon!

 

[MickeyReeds]

I've enjoyed reading your trip report so far!

 

[xlsm]

Chapter Two Part Two

We kept marching toward our mountainous goal

Anyone else in love with all the signage and notices sticking up all over the place?? Is it just me??



We had no fastpasses for this morning, so it was standby city, Sweetheart. Luckily, that early, it was still walk on. We admired the details in the standby line:



(I always say this in my head like the Abominable Snowman in Monsters, Inc. Welcome to the Himalayas!!)



X did not want to ride, but we made a deal last year that he has to ride it AT LEAST every other time we ride. He skipped it last year, so it was time to ride. He looks very unhappy, but he actually enjoys the ride while laughing and smiling. It's more just something he likes to argue with me about.



There was a pause for family selfies (it's just what we do!)

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and then kept moving forward.

Goodbye, Asia...



and hello DinoRama!


X and DH didn't feel like taking a whirl on Primeval Hurl with me and L, so they went into the shop instead. X was starting to complain that his ear was starting to hurt, and didn't feel like spinning around.

So, L and I walked on up for our spin in the time machine. We followed the rules and didn't pick up any hitchhiking dinosaurs.

We DID stop at another photobooth though! I love that these are included with photopass!!



The best part is, you get the digital version of the photo strip AND the individual pictures. I'm happy about that, because it means I have my favorite one all on its own:



(I put my hair in braids before Everest, if I recall. Maybe after. I just know it was to a point where I could no longer manage it down!)

After our supermodelish photo shoot, we went to meet up with our two other guys. We walked through the shop, but didn't see them right away (turns out they were right outside). I did see THIS guy, though...



Santasaurus! Does he say, "Roar, roar, roar" instead of "Ho, ho, ho"?? Inquiring minds want to know!

I looked at the times guide and realized we were not going to be able to meet Santa Goofy and Pluto. They weren't going to be meeting until around 10:50 (I'm pretty sure, I don't have the guide in front of me, but I know it was just outside of what would work with our timeline). I was sad! We stood by the giant snowman outside their meet area anyway though. I took a picture of the kids next to it, and then tried to get a family selfie in front of it. I failed spectacularly enough that a woman passing by offered to take one of all of us. Thank you, nice lady!!



We returned the favor for her family, and found a hidden Mickey:



We said thank you and goodbye to our photo friend, and walked over to Dinosaur. The line was posted at 20 minutes, and it took the whole wait time. It was starting to warm up, so the wait was not super comfortable

Oh look. It's a carnotaurus. *Yawn*



I think they should make the photo op where the giant carnotaurus head is up above you looking down. I feel like it would get a better reaction shot. But what do I know??

When we finished, we had enough time to do the last thing on our to do list before heading to lunch. The wait to meet Mickey and Minnie at Adventurer's Outpost was posted at 25 minutes, but we only waited maybe ten.



Guys, this was the weirdest meet ever (at least until we met Baymax later in the week).

We walked in, and there was a family in front of us with two daughters. You'd think it would be lively and fun, right? No. It was deathly silent in there. The kids were smiling awkwardly, the photographer wasn't saying a word, just blank facedly shooting pictures...The mom was kind of directing them, like, "give Mickey the book." "Smile."
...and then they just picked up their stuff and shuffled out. It was so odd!

I couldn't handle that business! It was our turn and I marched right up and started talking to them, "Oh Minnie, I love your sweater! Are you guys ready for Christmas? I have you on my watch!", etc...Mickey and Minnie seemed to appreciate the effort, and were much more animated and playful.

And the photographer still just stood there with a blank look on his face taking photos.



I wanted to be out of the park and heading to a bus by 11am, and we were right on schedule as we left our visit with our two main mice.

We stopped for a photopass photographer out by the Christmas tree at the park entrance



(My hair! Oy! This is the best one...most of the others, my hair is blowing around giving me weird tentacle looking things across my face.)

and went to the Animal Kingdom Lodge bus stop. We had a view of the backside of Pandora (the cousin to the backside of water, for all you Jungle Cruise fans out there )




I'm so excited to see the finished product on my trip in October!!

Anyway...the bus showed up pretty quickly and we hopped on board for our first visit to Animal Kingdom Lodge! Our end goal was Kidani Village and lunch at Sanaa...that'll be coming in the next update. I'll try to get that up tomorrow!

See you real soon!

 

[xlsm]

I've enjoyed reading your trip report so far!

Thank you so much!! I'm happy to have you here following along

 

[a742246]

I am in...... I love seeing people happy!

 

[xlsm]

I am in...... I love seeing people happy!

Hello and welcome!! I can't promise we'll be happy the whole time, but for a solid 80%, sure!! I'm glad you're here with us

 

[alliebelle3]

Loving your TR so far! I hope things turn around for you at the BoardWalk... it's one of my favorite places to stay!

 

[ariane37]

I don't know where to start! Except with the BW stuff Yeah, those hallways are long. Remember last year, when we had that awesome room right off the elevator with the view of SE and Illuminations? And then sewage appeared and we were moved basically to a room in the state of Georgia ???? I don't know exactly how far the walk to the elevator was mileage wise but it was over 6 minutes. Then we had to walk out to transportation or food. So no mugs for us that trip. It was way better at BC last month and WAY better at WL. Even when we stayed at AKL it was really good, and people say those hallways can be long but our room was HOURS closer to the elevators than our 2nd room at BWV!!!
Your view is very pretty but I can imagine the noise and that sucks It's like I've said a million times, you can't beat the location of the Epcot resorts............
I have to laugh with you on your hair, which doesn't look bad at all BTW! Nov. is about the only month mine is manageable in Fla., but that's not to say it's decent looking every day in Nov. Steve talks about moving to Florida when Chris goes to college. I'm like what???? do you know what I'll look like on a regular basis?????
Jealous you got to meet Mickey and Minnie in their Christmas sweaters! As you'll find out we missed all the characters in their holiday outfits this time unfortunately.
I'm glad you're enjoying all the Christmas decor so far Not looking forward to hearing more on X's hurting ear (which I know about anyway).......

 

[Raeven]

In fact, it was our first time setting foot in any of the Epcot area hotels. We usually stick to the MK area resorts for visiting and dining, since those are more convenient to the Lodge. I was so excited to explore a new area of Walt Disney World and branch out of my comfort zone a little.

I've never stayed at an Epcot area resort either, but they look cool.

I had based our room request on view. Don't do that. If you look at the Boardwalk itself, and you see the ESPN club, we were two rooms away from it. It was FAR. But, our view was quite lovely.

Yuck too far. But the view is sooo pretty.

We headed back, and L and I decided to stop at the photobooth before going upstairs.

We did that Photobooth too the lighting was not flattering.

Because I'm a paranoid freak as far as checked luggage is concerned, I had more than enough things packed in my carry on to get me through a couple of days if need be.

Me too!

The Boardwalk area outside, which has such a pretty view, is LOUD. We could clearly hear the conversations of the people walking below, Illuminations and Star Wars fireworks, too.

Also yuck.

but we didn't have a "Do Not Disturb" sign. L grabbed the notepad from the desk and made our own, LOL! We sort of propped it up on the door handle, because we are classy, fancy, people.

We've had to do this before too!

I had carefully dried my hair the night before, flat ironed it, and put it into a loose braid. I ran over it with the flat iron again this morning, but it was quickly apparent that I would again be on the losing end in the neverending battle of Florida vs. My Hair.

Same.

I think they should make the photo op where the giant carnotaurus head is up above you looking down. I feel like it would get a better reaction shot. But what do I know??

I agree. My reaction is kind of like yours I just looked mildly amused

 

[Stitch808]

Joining in. I too was disappointed that Rivers of Light was not up and running.