Our 1st Holiday Trip to WDW (COMPLETED 1/4/05) About This Page:

[LizardCop]

Excellent report and fantastic pictures!!!

[SharonK0527]

<font color="blue"> Day Seven, Saturday 12/4/04 (our last day) </font>
<font color="blue"> Breakfast with The Mouse </font>

We had already packed &amp; loaded everything in the car last night before bed. We were set for Express Checkout so this morning we finished getting ready and headed out the door, saying goodbye to Port Orleans French Quarter. We had a 9:20am PS at Chef Mickey's. Chef Mickey's is a must-do for us on every trip. This was our first time having breakfast here, as we usually do dinners. We drove over to the Contemporary and parked. As we were pulling in, the guard at the gate took our names and said "Oh Sharon Klein, I have a note here about her". Lee &amp; I looked at each other in surprise. The guard continued "Yeah, I hear she's a real wild one so you better keep control of her at Chef Mickey's". I played along and said "That's right, I just can't control myself when I get around Mickey". He laughed, told us to have fun, and waved us through the gates. I love CM's like him

Decorations in Contemporary lobby


We made our way upstairs to the restaurant and saw Goofy was out greeting people. Savannah met him and then we were immediately seated. No characters came by right away so we took turns going to the buffet. The food was good and Savannah loved the Mickey waffles. The first to come by the table was Chip, followed shortly after by Dale. Dale took a real liking to Savannah and ended up coming to the table several more times throughout the meal for more hugs &amp; kisses.

Pluto stopped by next, followed by The Mouse himself, then Minnie.

On our way out, we saw Dale in the lobby and Savannah stopped one last time to say goodbye to him. It was now about 11:00am and our flight was not until 2:50pm. We decided to leave the car parked at the Contemporary (we had a 3 hour parking pass) and take the monorail over to Magic Kingdom. We saw tons and tons of people in the monorails headed that way and wondered why so many people were headed to MK. Well, it didn't take us long to find out. As soon as we made our way inside the gates, we saw them - lights and cameras set up everywhere! There were also signs up announcing today was the day they were filming the Christmas parade which would air on ABC on Christmas Day. I have never seen such crowds before in my life!! Main Street was a sea of people. It was crazy!

Magic Kingdom Christmas Tree

Film equipment set up at Magic Kingdom




We fought our way down Main Street and turned by Casey's to head over to Liberty Square, away from the crowds. Throughout the day they were going to be filming portions of the parade then the parade would take place in it's entirety at 5:00pm. As we passed Casey's that was right where they had the booth set up where Regis Philbin and Kelly Ripa were sitting. The CM's in the area were not allowing people to stop and take pictures, we had to keep walking. But I managed to snap this picture quickly of Kelly Ripa:



Since we only had one hour in the park, we immediately headed over to Splash Mountain. The standby line was only about a 20 minute wait so we ran over to BTMRR and grabbed Fastpasses and then got in line for Splash Mountain. We noticed Brer Rabbit and Brer Bear were out signing autographs, but the line to see them was pretty long and we didn't have time to wait. The line for Splash Mountain moved pretty quickly and we took our last plunge into the Briar Patch for this trip. Afterwards we had about 10 minutes to kill before our fastpass window opened up. Thank God we got fastpasses for BTMRR!! The standby line was SO long!! With the fastpasses we walked right through the line with only about a 5 minute wait toward the end. We took our last wild ride on BTMRR and then it was time to head back to the front of the park. Again, we fought our way through the crowds and made it to the exit. We hopped on the monorail and went back over to the Contemporary. As we drove away, Savannah &amp; I waved goodbye to Magic Kingdom until next time. On the way to the airport, we stopped to fill up the tank with gas and returned the car to Budget (side note - after we got back from our trip, Budget claimed that we did not put gas in the car before we returned it and charged me to fill up the tank. I called their Customer Service department and faxed them a copy of the gas receipt and they refunded my money a few days later). Once inside the terminal, we stopped for Starbucks and headed to the gate. They were just getting ready to start boarding the plane. Because Savannah is still only 4 years old, we were able to pre-board Lee was joking that with Savannah turning 5 next year, we should start thinking about having another child so we can pre-board for 5 more years! Our flight home was uneventful - Savannah &amp; I napped almost the whole way. Lee stayed awake and played his hand-held Monopoly game. The weather was cold when we got back to Columbus, but no snow. It was good to be home and I can't wait for our next trip to Disney!! We're talking about going back in late February around the time of Lee's birthday but so far I haven't been able to find airfare that I'm happy with so I'm just going to keep looking.

<font color="blue"> The best thing today was </font> breakfast at Chef Mickey's
<font color="blue"> The worst thing today was </font> leaving Disney
<font color="blue"> The funniest thing today was </font> Dale at Chef Mickey's
<font color="blue"> Firsts for today: </font> seeing Magic Kingdom totally packed during the filming of the Christmas parade, breakfast (rather than dinner) at Chef Mickey's
<font color="blue"> The most magical moment today was </font> taking our last rides on Splash Mountain and BTMRR until next time

<font color="blue"> Thanks for reading my trip report. I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed sharing it with you. </font>

[Colexis Mom]

More great updates Sharon I the pictures of the Osborne Lights I'm sorry your trip is coming to an end

[Jillybean]

I've never seen the Osbourne Lights - - Wow! Thanks so much for sharing these pictures!

I love the story of you loving up on Eeyore! Good for you!

Jill

[luvnwdwgal]

Wonderful trip report Sharon!! Love the Osborne Lights pictures! Thanks for sharing your trip with us!!

[Caldercup]

Fantastic trip report - I just read the whole thing in one go and it was wonderful! Your pictures are fantastic and Savannah is a cutie-patootie!

I hope you get to go in February because I'd love to read another of your TRs really soon!
Eileen

[Tara O'Hara]

Sharon, thank yo uso much for sharing your wonderful adventures!! What a terrfic report!!

[poohsgirl]

[ QUOTE ]
Lexi &amp; Savannah hit it off instantly and it was like they had been best buddies their whole lives.

[/ QUOTE ]
<font color="purple"> I would expect nothing less from Savannah, she is such an outgoing child!
I loved your magical moment of watching Savannah interact with Cindy and the Prince!

How cool that you got to go to MVMCP twice! I have to visit WDW again during the holidays. I'm glad that you made the extra effort to see the Osborne Lights, my mom and I did too and we both said that it was so worth it! That more than anything really got me into the holiday mode.

Thanks for sharing your memories with us and I hope we get to meet up at another adventure in the future! </font>

[RocklandRVers]

Great report. I loved the quick pic of Kelly Ripa. You could become a paparazzi!

[karmic]

I thoroughly enjoyed reading your report. Great pictures!