Nineteen nights of MouseFest, Disney and Christmas - THREAD 4 - UPDATED 3/17 About This Page:

[Jillybean]

Wow! You guys packed in a ton of stuff for one evening! Resort hopping sounds like a blast!

Jill

[piratefreak]

What a fun-filled day. The pictures are so great, it is like being there all over again.

[PrincessSharon]

What a perfect ending to your evening. You really had a great view of Illuminations!

[mestitch]

What a great view of Illuminations!! I must say I'm !

[WDWfan]

Cheryl - I finally got caught back up with your TR. Sea World looked like so much fun. I really have a hard time leaving Disney property. I think one of these days I need to do a few days off site before I go over and experience US and SW and do some Orlando shopping.

I don't know the last time I visited the Contemporary (other than driving through it on the Monorail). I did Chef Mickey's many years ago when it was still at DTD. I do plan to eat at CG for the first time on my upcoming trip. After seeing your pictures I think I'll plan to spend some time exploring while I'm there.

[RobDVC]

Wow! You had a terrific view of IllumiNations!
Hope you were able to get the kids into the pilot's car of the monorail at some point.

[lauren-roxy]

Sounds like a great evening!!

[angiek1024]

Your pictures are great! Glad Mark's family enjoyed seeing the GF and Illuminations!

[BelmontBelle]

I'm glad Mark's family enjoyed resort hopping, it's a fun way to spend the evening. Watching the Illuminations from your balcony looked awesome too!

[chezp]

Tuesday 18 December – part one: enjoying a Yuletide Fantasy

This morning, we ha the Yuletide Fantasy tour with Mark’s mum and we were really looking forward to this, as we had failed to get inside the holiday warehouse last time we did this in 2004, as it was Christmas Eve and it was closed for the day.

As we set out, it looked like it would be a beautiful day:



We were at Epcot early and soon met up with Barb and found the rest of our group. The first surprise of the day was that James was once again our tour guide. He had been our guide last time and he was a lot of fun, so we knew we were in for a good time on today’s tour. The second surprise was that Marisa (marisag) was on our tour. I knew she was scheduled to be on the one yesterday and I nearly said to Mark this morning that it was a real shame she couldn’t be on this one. While this wasn’t the greatest way to meet up (the reason she missed the tour the day before is because she got stuck on the monorail for an hour and a half yesterday and never made the tour ) I was really pleased to see her.

We set off on the tour and it was backstage to board the coach over to Germany. James and his co-guide Jeanna did their best to keep us entertained with stories as we went, but all I was interested in was looking out of the window to see what I could see out there. There were some great sights, my favourite of all was seeing Epcot Imagineering. Now I would just love to get in there and see what’s going on there! There was also some of what I can only guess were this year’s Food and Wine Festival booths. There was one that had a thatched roof. Boy, that looked out of place there!

Soon we were back onstage and learning all about the traditions we have today that came from Germany. We went with Jeanna, as we thought that we might get some different stories to James and we did hear quite a few things that we hadn’t heard before.

We then walked into Italy and talked about the traditions they gave us and how the storyteller there, La Bafana, came to be. Then it was off to the American Adventure, where we discussed where poinsettias came from and how a lot of those traditions first came to the USA. While we stood there by the Christmas tree, a guy was doing maintenance on the flowerbeds. The train was running and we could all see what was going to happen. His foot was right on the track and, sure enough, we ended up with a derailment. It was kind of funny to see that. Because it was before opening time, we were asked not to take any photos and I respected that, which is why there are none for this portion of the tour.

We then went inside the American Adventure to talk about Hanukah and Kwanza and the origins of both those festivals.

Then it was across to our final stop for World Showcase, Japan, which you can tell from a quick glance around doesn’t really celebrate Christmas. Instead, we heard about their new year traditions and how they clean the house from top to bottom and make wishes for the following year. It was interesting that they’ve adopted some of the Christmas traditions from the west, as they manufacture a lot of things for Christmas and they like the look of things like cards, although it doesn’t mean anything to them.

It was then back into the coach and we carried on driving backstage, passing the other World Showcase countries. I love what they’ve done with the cast building. When we last saw it on the Undiscovered Future World tour in 2002, it didn’t look nearly so colourful. Now it’s got designs all over it illustrating countries from all over the world.

Our next stop was at the Studios, and on the way over there, James started to tell some truly awful jokes. My favourite was the one about Olive the other reindeer. You really had to be there for that one, but it was funny.

When we got there, we talked about the original version of Miracle on 34th Street and then the Osborne Lights. Much of this was pretty much what we had heard before on our last tour, but it was neat to find out where the black cat is hidden this year. The story behind the black cat, if you haven’t heard this before, is that it got put into the lights by accident when they were originally shipped down to Disney and the Osborne family now love to find where Disney put it every year. One thing I didn’t know was that these lights are the only Christmas decorations not looked after by the Holiday Team. These are the responsibility of the Studios maintenance, which was interesting.



It was back on to the coach and over to the Grand Floridian for a brief stop (and I mean brief!) to look at the Christmas tree, which is 40 feet high and the gingerbread house.


The Christmas decorations on the way in

With Marisa in front of the Christmas tree


After getting a small snack when we got back on the coach, which just about kept us going until lunch, we headed over to the bit that I really wanted to see, the holiday warehouse.

Last time we had rolled up here, the doors had been closed and locked. James told us there was no way that could happen again, as they now had keys to the place! This time was a big improvement, the doors were wide open and we were in. Yes, a lot of this place is empty, but there was still a lot here. The scale of the operation here is just breathtaking. They explained how everything had to be out by Thanksgiving and then starts coming back down in early January. Twenty six people are employed full time here and they get another 30 people in to help them when everything has to go up.

Some of the facts and figures we learnt – they deal with around 1,500 trees and 2,000 wreathes and everything is all catalogued on the shelves, with resorts and parks clearly marked. This place also serves the water parks, Downtown Disney, Disney’s Hilton Head Island and Vero Beach Resorts, the Disney Cruise terminal, Disney Wonder and Magic and Castaway Cay – oh and I think they said one of the buildings in Celebration as well. I was pretty impressed by the fact that the tree on board each of the ships goes up overnight, where they’re out at sea. I figured that it would be done while they were in port, but obviously not.

We walked around and James explained how they deal with lights. Essentially, they are all LED’s and last for five years, the life span of the trees. One set of lights is allowed for every branch of the tree – yes, you did read that right, for every branch of the tree!

The ornaments are all glued together when they come in to ensure that they don’t break apart and they’re then stuck on to the branches to stop any kids trying to grab them from the branches (and trust me, I did see Oliver tug at one ornament later in the vacation!) and all the ornaments last for five years as well. That’s quite a job that they have to do when everything comes in. You can see how these guys have year round jobs when you get into the details of how the holiday team works.

The trees are packed with all the decorations glued on to them and are then taken out in five or six pieces for the next year. It really was a fascinating visit and definitely lived up to my expectations. I’m so glad that we got to do this a second time. This element was well worth it on its own.

Next: boy, that’s strong!

[DoraDoug]

Great update Cheryl! I have always wondered how they kept the ornaments from falling off the tree or getting taken as a souvenier. That was really interesting. Thanks!

[Colexis Mom]

Glad you had a great time on the tour!! And how great that Marisa was on the same one More please

[marisag]

I have been waiting for you to post about that day You have such a great memory! You remember all the little details from the tour. Even though I was a bit unhappy the day before about missing the tour due to the monorail- I was glad at least I got to meet you

[emtpej]

I'll bet your fingers were twitching for your camera, with all the great stuff you saw!

[mestitch]

I have wanted to do that tour for awhile now. Thanks for sharing about it!! Glad you finally got to go in the warehouse!