Christmas at Disney World (12/22-1/4) About This Page:

[chezp]

Sending get well your way.

[Russi01]

Sorry to hear the boys were not feeling good. Hope they are on the mend soon!!

[Colexis Mom]

Sorry about the flu!

[KMB733]

Hope the boys are feeling better!

[B.M.]

Friday December 28th:

Today we were set for round two in the Magic Kingdom. The alarm was set for 6:30am and Wesley woke up fever free and feeling generally better, but certainly not 100 percent. I’ve kept ibuprofen and Tylenol in him to keep any fever or feeling bad away and it has worked pretty well because he hasn’t had any fever all day and has felt good for the most part other than feeling a bit weak.

We left the house around 7:15am and could definitely notice the crowds were picking up right off the bat because this was the first day there has been a line to pay to park in any of the parks. It wasn’t a long line though and we were parking in no time. Apparently there were monorail issues again this morning because we were directed to the buses. But at least they were aware of the problems in advance this time and we were on a bus and at the Magic Kingdom in no time.

The park opened at 8am and it was about 8:05am when we officially entered the park. We were able to get several photo pass pictures this morning and I was really excited about this as we hadn’t got any on our first MK day.

Our first official stop was at Sorcerer Mickey’s. We were told our game from the other day was still in progress and there was no need to start a new one. That was convenient and I was glad to know that for future reference. With that taken care of, we set out for Adventure land.

Our first stop was Tinker bell’s Nook where the boys were less than thrilled. It was 8:30am when we made it there and there was only a 15 minute wait posted and it didn’t even seem that long before we were meeting Silver mist and Tinker bell. I can’t wait to see the photo pass pictures.

Next we headed over to the Swiss Family Tree house. It wasn’t crowded by any means but it we didn’t have the place to ourselves either. I had forgotten how many stairs there were in there.

When we left the tree house, we headed for the Magic Carpets of Aladdin. We got to the carpets at 8:55am and only had a brief wait before we were flying over Adventure land; the kids enjoyed this more than I would have guessed.

At about 9am we were at the Tiki Room with a twelve minute wait till the next show. Wesley made a fast pass run with an ulterior motive to look out for a snack cart as he was “starving”. He made it back just before we were let in for the show.

At 9:45am we made it over to one of our favorite attractions; Pirates of the Caribbean. The wait time was posted at just ten minutes but it seemed a little longer than that. We enjoyed the ride though!

Next was a bathroom break. Wesley hadn’t found a snack cart earlier and settled for some cheese itz I had brought in.

After that we headed for the Jungle Cruise with a 15 minute wait. We enjoyed our (comedic) boat rideJ.

We arrived at the Country Bear Jamboree just before 10:30am and had twelve minutes till the next showing. This isn’t exactly our favorite show but we enjoyed it all the same.

We made it over to the Columbia Harbor House for lunch right at 11am. The kids all had chicken tenders and French fries. I wanted the anchors away sandwich but also wanted some shrimp. Dillon had said he wished they had a chicken/shrimp combo, but they didn’t. So I decided to order myself the kid’s anchors away meal and also got the shrimp platter with the intention that Dillon and Madilyn would help me eat the shrimp and I can always count on Wesley to finish off any fries… Well, every other day the kids have finished off every single bite of their food- usually asking for more afterwards. So, the one day I order an extra meal- no one has a big appetite . Dillon didn’t finish his meal and didn’t want any shrimp. Madilyn tried the shrimp but said it was too greasy. No worries though- as I finished off the shrimp . This was also Winston and Wesley’s first time not finishing their meals- so we had to ask for to go boxes. Turns out the kids anchors away sandwich is NOT the same as the adult one as it is served on that goldfish bread and without tomato; I will not make that mistake again! This is usually one of my favorite places to eat but we just thought it was ok at best today…

It was now 11:30am and the plan was to ride Small World, as it had been down on our previous Magic Kingdom day. Well, Small World had a 60 minute wait! Ummm, no thanks. Hopefully we can fit it in on our third and final MK day.

During lunch, I had been thinking that we had really managed to fit in a lot this morning (and this week in general)- but apparently everybody and their brother showed up to the Magic Kingdom during our lunch and they were all in Fantasyland!

We walked by Philharmagic and even though we weren’t looking to see the show, I took note of the 80 minute wait time. We were, however hoping to ride the Carousel- but the line was crazy long, I didn’t see the wait time but I knew by looking at the line that it wasn’t short. We also walked by Winnie the Pooh and even though we didn’t plan to ride, I took note of the 80 minute wait time. I also noticed the 30 minute wait for the Tea Cups.

At 11:52 we finally made our way to Barnstormer where we were able to ride despite the 80 minute wait using our fast passesJ.

We walked through Casey Junior’s Soak Station where all the fountains were turned off due to the cold weather. I’ve got to say, I think I liked Donald’s boat a LOT better!

Next, we were heading to Frontier land where we had fast passes that were not quite ripe. We wanted to take the train, but wouldn’t you know there was a long line for that also! I asked the lady how long the wait was. Her answer was “not long”. I asked- “under ten minutes?” and she replied “more like twenty”. I responded that I guess it’d be better to just walk. She said due to the crowded walkways it was still quicker to wait for the train. Hmmm…. I wasn’t truly convinced that was true, but given we had time to spare waiting for our fast passes to ripen, I figured we would just wait it out. I didn’t take note of what time we got in line, but we got on the train at 12:40, I think it took every bit of that twenty minutesL.

We finally got on the train and made it to Frontier land. At 12:54 there was a 75 minute wait for Splash Mountain and a 120 minute wait for Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. We wanted to ride Big Thunder first and make Splash Mountain our last ride before leaving the park so that we wouldn’t be walking around wet, but our fast passes dictated otherwise.

So, we were off to get wet on Splash Mountain. We had a great ride and didn’t get near as wet as expected. As a precaution I had worn my poncho but my kids were excited to get a little wet!

Up next was a quick ride on Thunder Mountain which we all loved before heading out of the park for the day. We hadn’t got as much done as I’d hoped but it was simply too crowded. After lunch, there were really no tolerable lines so you could only ride things you had fast passes for.

On the way out of the park, I took note that the Tinker bell line was now up to a 65 minute wait at 1:50pm- I’m glad we had gotten that out of the way first thing.

We took the monorail back to the parking lot and once in the van we tried to find the lost and found to retrieve Dillon’s cell phone. We had a horrible time finding it and once we did finally find it, we kicked our selves because we could just walked to it on the way out of the park, I didn’t realize it was so close-lol.

On the way back to the vacation home, I spotted a dollar tree so we stopped and picked up some more ponchos. We also stopped to pick up some more breakfast foods. It ended up being 4pm before we made it back to the vacation home.

I was so glad that Wesley was feeling well enough to go to the parks today! I am really impressed with how well that Tami-flu works because at times today I’ve went past Wesley’s scheduled medicine time and he has still ran zero fever, so I think the worst is truly behind him. I think it also helped that he had the flu vaccine, everything I’ve read says that if you get the flu after having gotten the vaccine- your sickness is much milder and you are sick for a shorter amount of time. Whatever the case, I’m just glad he’s on the mend.

Tomorrow we are scheduled for our second and final day at the Animal Kingdom. But it’s calling for a high chance of rain so I’m seriously considering changing it to Epcot and saving Animal Kingdom for the following day. We can manage Future World just fine in the rain, and hopefully it lets up in the afternoon for some World Showcase time; plus we have a third day allotted for Epcot to make up for anything we may miss due to the rain whereas this is our last chance with Animal Kingdom…

Thanks for following along everyone!

[Cam22]

You all really accomplished a lot at MK before 2:00 . Glad you finally found the lost and found. I'm quite familiar with it since I lost my cell phone at WDW once upon a time. It unfortunately was never returned.

[chezp]

Wow, you're certainly getting a lot done, and having been at the Disneyland Park at pretty much the same time, it's interesting to see how the various wait times compare....

[dwonderz]

Wow - you got a lot done !

[KMB733]

You certainly got a lot done at MK! Glad Wesley was feeling well enough to go to the parks! Hope the rain stays away!

[shazza]

You're getting a lot done with those crowd levels! Hope everyone continues to feel better.

[Colexis Mom]

You got a lot done at MK despite the crowds!

[Russi01]

Looks like you got alot done to me. Glad that everyone is feeling better and you guys got the cell phone back. Can't wait to read more!

[B.M.]

Saturday December 29th:

The original plan for today was the Animal Kingdom. But like I mentioned yesterday they were calling for a high chance of rain and I decided Epcot was a better choice. So, we just swapped the days and will wait and go to Animal Kingdom tomorrow.

So, we were headed out around 7am and arrived at the parks shortly thereafter. We parked in Imagine 63. We joined the line for the gates to open and didn’t have to wait too long as the park opened about ten minutes early. It opened about 7:50am and was supposed to open at 8am. Unfortunately we picked the line that had issues; both with the CM and the people trying to get through. I kept thinking we should switch lines, but then I was hesitant and someone else would beat me to it… We were only about a dozen people deep in line when the gates opened and it took a full ten minutes plus to get to the front of the lineL.

Wesley ran off for fast passes and we all met back up at the Sum of all Thrills. It was 8:10 and the wait time was posted at 15 minutes. Wesley built his own coaster, Madilyn built her own, Dillon and Winston shared, and Austin made one for the two of us. It was fun, but a short ride.

There wasn’t much else for us to do on that side of Innoventions, so we headed to the other side for some firehouse fun and piggy bank savings fun; two games that we both enjoy. When we exited Innoventions, it was sprinkling and a few of us adorned our ponchos.

At 9:15am, we headed off to Spaceship Earth. The line looked long and I was concerned despite the wait time was only posted as 5 minutes. I need not worry because it was really just a walk on. Apparently a bunch of people simply approached the ride at once making it look worse than it was. It was a fun ride that ended showing us our bright futuresJ.

When we exited Spaceship Earth, the sprinkling was picking up. Wesley was dying to visit club cool, so we made a dash for it. I’m picky about my drinks, so there wasn’t much sampling from me but the kids enjoyed it.

We now made our way to Universe of Energy where there was a 5 minute wait at 9:50am. We enjoyed the ride, but I had forgotten how long it was and we were really pushing it time wise for our fast passes for Mission Space.

At 10:30am, Mission Space had a 35 minute wait for Green team and a 50 minute wait for Orange team. I was thankful that our fast passes were accepted despite being a few minutes overdue. The kids really wanted to go for the intense orange side and I was hesitant. All but Winston had rode the green side before and been fine, but I was hesitant to put Winston on the intense version without trying out the mild one first. I asked the attendant if there was much of a difference and she said the only difference was that on the intense side, you can feel the g-forces. So, I reluctantly went for it. Wesley sat the ride out and the three older ones rode in one ship and Winston and I rode in another with another couple. It was a great ride and we all enjoyed it! From now on, I’m sure we will stick with the intense sideJ.

At 11am, we made a bathroom stop on the way into World Showcase. Wesley made another fast pass run and we met up in America. The rest of us took the 11:15am friendship boat ride and Wesley still beat us there.

We went to Liberty Inn for lunch. Dillon’s throat was hurting and Wesley simply wasn’t hungry for lunch yet- so they both just had frozen cokes. Madilyn and Austin got chicken nuggets and fries. Winston had a chili dog with fries and I got the BBQ sandwich with fries. The BBQ sandwich was sooo yummy! I was worried about Dillon, as his throat had been completely better the last few days- he said he feels otherwise fine, just the new sore throat; I just hope today is the end of it!

After lunch we wanted to see the American Adventure, but it wasn’t showing until 12:45 so we headed to explore in the meantime. We stopped to get a new Phineas and Ferb adventure which directed us to Germany where we were able to save the world and stop by the Kid cot station for a stamp and some coloring.

After all that we had to make a mad dash to get back into America in time for the 12:45 American Adventure showing. We made it back just in the nick of time. I really enjoy this show! It was 1:21pm when we exited and headed over to the American Kid cot station where we got some more stamps and enjoyed some more coloring. While the little kids enjoyed the kid cot station, Wesley and Dillon got frozen lemonade. Wesley went on and on about how great it was, so I decided I needed one also which then meant so did the little kids . I decided to just get two drinks for the four of us and asked for two empty cups to split them and they were happy to give them to me.

So, we all enjoyed our frozen drinks as we headed out for more exploring. We now headed into Italy where we explored spent some additional time in the kid cot station. Madilyn kept “messing up” on her coloring and starting over .

Next, we spent some time in Japan exploring and visiting the kid cot station.

It was 2:20pm when we headed into Morocco for some exploring and kid cot fun.

At 2:30pm we took the friendship boat back to Future World.

At 2:48pm we went Soarin’ over California before leaving the park. A sign was posted that all fast passes had been distributed for the day and the current wait time was 150 minutes. I was glad we had fast passes. I also took note of a 30 minute wait time posted for Living with the Land.

It was 3:30pm when we officially exited the park. Wesley and Dillon were now ready to eat, so I pulled through and got them McDonalds and we also stopped by for a gallon of milk before making our way to the vacation home for the night.

Austin has been complaining of his ear some today and I’m getting worried he may have an ear infection. I gave him some ibuprofen around lunch time and he hasn’t complained since, so I hope we can keep it at bay at least until we get back home next week….

It’s hard to believe our vacation is already half way overL. I hope we can spend this last week in a slow motion frame of mind…

Thanks for following along everyone!

[B.M.]

Originally Posted by chezp

Wow, you're certainly getting a lot done, and having been at the Disneyland Park at pretty much the same time, it's interesting to see how the various wait times compare....

So which seems busier just out of curiosity; Disney World or Disney Land?

[Cam22]

Another great day! to keep everyone well!