1st Timers to the World Christmas Trip - Updated 08/24 (COMPLETED!!!) About This Page:

[taopiglet]

Introduction and Plans
<font color="blue">Hello everyone….well, it’s been 8 months since our trip to the World in December 2004 and I am finally getting around to writing a trip report. Why so long? Well, I got busy once we returned and kept putting it off (excuses, excuses, excuses).

Also, I could see that everyone else was writing their post-Christmas trip reports in January/February and figured that it would be a lot more helpful to post a Disney Christmas Trip Report when other people are in the midst of planning their own Christmas Trips for this year. Hopefully, if you are in the middle of making your November/December plans for the World, this trip report will answer some of your questions.

A couple of other benefits of this trip report is that I have already written the entire thing, so there should be no wondering if I will ever finish it. However, since it does take some time to add the pictures, I will most likely not post it all at once (but pretty quickly). Also, plenty of pictures!!

First off, I will re-post my post to the Planning Board from October 14th of last year. That way, you can see what our plans were and how they changed. I hope you enjoy this report and feel free to ask any questions.

The Players:
Dave - 39, been to Disneyland (1981/87), EuroDisney (as it was called when I went in 1990), and to be honest I have been to Epcot once in 1999 but only for a couple of hours, so I don't really count it.

Mike - 35, never been to Disney, even though he has lived 7 hours away from WDW his entire life. </font>

The "Original Plans" (from October 2004):

I remember when I was in 3rd grade (about 1973) we had to pick a state to do a project on. I picked Florida because I knew Disney was there (I don't know how I knew this as I was young, it had just recently opened, and I lived in Texas). But, I knew that one day I would go there. I don't know why it has taken over 30 years to go, but I did have small doses of the other Disney parks over my life (as noted above).

When I first started thinking about this trip, I found the wealth of information daunting. One of the first things I found was a Transportation Grid that showed the various/many trasnportation options around the World. Needless to say, I found it overwhelming. How was I possibly going to figure all this out? I never knew there were so many options.

Finally, after reading hundreds of posts and trip reports, it all started coming together and it was time to make some reservations. Of course, Christmas time was always the first choice as we wanted to see all the decorations. On August 2nd, I received one of those ubiquitous e-mails from Disney (that only a mysterious segment of people seem to get) offering great rates for the time frame we wanted to go. So, I made my first call to Disney.

I ended up with some pretty good rates:
Beach Club - 3 nights ($199 per night)
Wilderness Lodge - 4 nights ($129 per night)

Later on I added a Universal Resort (Annual Pass Rate):
Royal Pacific Resort - 4 nights ($129 per night)

OK. That last one isn't Disney, but we definitely wanted to spend some time at Universal while we were in Orlando.

So, I got all the reservations made, bought Annual Passes to both Disney and Universal, and just recently started making my PSs (thanks to all of you on Passporter for all the suggestions).

Anyway, our final plans were as follows (at least final until I changed them)

December 7-19, 2004

Tuesday - Leave Atlanta early (real early) and make the drive to Orlando. These first four nights we will be staying at the Royal Pacific Resort at Universal (it was recommended to do Universal before Disney - on these boards - so as to avoid a post-Disney letdown). Once we arrive (hopefully just after noon), we will check-in, get our Annual Passes from the e-ticket machines (already paid for) and enjoy the parks.

Wednesday - Universal Studios/Islands of Adventure (park hopping) and pool time (if it's warm enough). Finish the day off with reservations at Emeril's Tchoup Chop.

Thursday - Possibly a Sea World day depending on how much we are enjoying Universal. Dinner at Nascar Cafe (no reservations yet) as I've heard their ribs are really good and we are always in search of the perfect "fall off the bone" rib.

Friday - Last full day at Universal. Relax, enjoy the parks.

Saturday - Finish up any last rides at Universal and check out of RPR. Pick up Annual Passes (already paid for) at Downtown Disney. Drive over to Beach Club to check in. Spend our first day hopping between Epcot and Studios. Fantasmic Dinner Package (Mama Melrose's). Illuminations after Fantasmic (if we can make it).

Sunday - Breakfast at Boma's, check out the Lodge, spend the day at Animal Kingdom. Return to Beach Club early and spend some time at Stormalong. Dinner PS at O'Hana. Watch fireworks from Poly beach after dinner.

Monday - Kona Breakfast (Tonga Toast). Our first day to experience the Magic Kingdom. Dinner PS at California Grill (hopefully with a window seat for Wishes).

Tuesday - Segway Tour (ssshhh! it's a surprise) in the morning. Morning at EPCOT, check out of Beach Club and move over to Wilderness Lodge, afternoon at Studios (late lunch PS at 50's Prime Time). MVMCP tonight, playing dinner by ear (will either eat our way around World Showcase or counter service in MK before MVMCP).

Wednesday - Sleep in after MVMCP. Lunch PS at Rose and Crown. Candlelight Processional Dinner Package (Le Cellier). Hmmm...Must be an EPCOT day.

Thursday - No breakfast PS, Lunch PS at Concourse Steakhouse, Resort hopping, MK, who knows. We will end up at Port Orleans Riverside so we can take the boat to DTD for our showing of La Nouba. Dinner at Earl of Sandwich or Puck's for some sushi. Spend the evening at Pleasure Island (Adventurer's Club, Warehouse, etc).

Friday - Sleep in after night at Pleasure Island. Lunch PS at Marrakesh. Dinner PS at Hoop Dee Doo Review. This is our day to do whatever we missed or want to do over.

Saturday - Our day to leave. We will pick a park, enjoy a couple of last attractions, have lunch, then drive back to Atlanta.

Sunday - Day off back at home to do laundry and relax before going back to work. We have found that we always need a day off before going back to work as it is just too much of a shock to the system not to.

<font color="blue">Well, that was our plans. We had a great time and now that I got the intros and plans out of the way I can start on the REAL trip report (8 months late). </font>

[RobDVC]

Can't wait to read about your trip.

[taopiglet]

And They’re Off or The First of many changes
<font color="blue">Our original plan:
Tuesday (Dec 7, 2004) - Leave Atlanta early (real early) and make the drive to Orlando. These first four nights we will be staying at the Royal Pacific Resort at Universal (it was recommended to do Universal before Disney - on these boards - so as to avoid a post-Disney letdown). Once we arrive (hopefully just after noon), we will check-in, get our Annual Passes from the e-ticket machines (already paid for) and enjoy the parks.

What really happened:
Monday (Dec 6, 2004) – We decided to leave a day early, after work. For some weird reason, I didn’t feel like taking Monday off even though I had plenty of vacation time at work. It was sort of a last minute decision to leave after work anyway. This way we could split of the drive from Atlanta to Orlando.

We were both able to get home by about 4:00 pm on Monday and finished our packing and were on the road by 6:00 pm. We didn’t really have a stop in mind, but figured that Valdosta, Georgia was a good midway point.

The drive was pretty uneventful and we arrived in Valdosta around 10:00 pm and started looking for a hotel (did I say that this was a last minute decision?). Well, after a full workday and a full evening of driving, we were both tired and weren’t seeing any hotels that looked very nice, so we kept passing exits. We finally decided that we were coming to the end of Valdosta and just took a random exit that seemed to have several hotels (all kind of nasty).

We ended up at some sort of rundown motel, but we were tired and it was cheap. The room was stinky, the bed was hard as a rock and there was traffic just outside the room. We had a couple of drinks to help us sleep and were soon off to a fitful night’s sleep.

Tuesday (December 7, 2004)
Weather – a beautiful day with temps reaching into the upper 70s
Needless to say, we were up at the crack of dawn thanks to the traffic and hard bed. We loaded up the car, checked out and went to Shoney’s (next door) for a quick breakfast buffet. We said goodbye to Valdosta and good riddance to the fleabag motel. We were on the road again by about 8:00 am.

The drive to Orlando was once again uneventful. Of course, I kept an eye out the first 20 miles or so to see if we could have gotten a better hotel if we had gone further that night. However, it turned out to be a good thing we stopped when we did, because there was nothing for miles after the fleabag motel exit.

Once we reached the Florida Turnpike, we knew we were getting close and the excitement was building. We finally arrived in Orlando around lunch time and started looking for a Car Wash (this is one of Mike’s must dos when we arrive somewhere, he must wash the car) and a Wal Mart (another must do to stock up on Cokes and Snacks). We also tried to find a cheap fan at Wal Mart as we are both used to sleeping with the noise, but couldn’t find one that we liked. After our two mandatory stops, we were hungry, so decided to stop at a Denny’s Diner for a quick bite on our way to Universal.

Let me say at this point, that I know this is a Disney trip report on a Disney board, but I feel that the Universal portion is important to our overall trip. Also, anyone who is going on a Disney vacation should really spend a day or two at Universal as it is a beautiful resort with a lot of great things to do. You are really missing out if you don’t take in a couple of their attractions (Spiderman, The Mummy, MIB, and Ripsaw Falls to name just a few).

Anyway, we arrived at our home for the next 4 nights, Royal Pacific Resort.





This was the perfect resort for us as it was quiet and beautiful. We pulled up to the valet and started offloading all our bags. It’s amazing how much more stuff you take when you are driving when you don’t have to worry about dragging it through airports. Anyway, valet done, we went into the beautiful lobby and started the check-in process.

I approached the front desk and asked for a King Size bed. The lady behind the front counter informed me a room had already been assigned and I requested it. You see, about 3 months before I had been doing some research on Royal Pacific to see what rooms were best. I had narrowed it down to one particular room (1733) that was at the end of a hallway that was close to the boat launch and had a view of the parks and river. I didn’t realize it at the time I requested it, but this location had a special benefit (you’ll find out what that was later). Anyway, I had called reservations months before and requested that exact room, and surprise, we had gotten it. I guess you could call it our first Magic Moment, but since we’re not at Disney yet it doesn’t really count.

View from our room:


Once we had received our luggage (they were right on our heels), we unpacked and made our way down the walkway to the park, a walk we would take many times in the next few days. One note about this walkway is that, although beautiful, it has this annoying bend in it that takes you out of the way and makes the walk unnecessarily long. The first couple of times it’s nice, but after 5-6 times you feel like jumping in the river and swimming across that section.
On the walkway from Royal Pacific to Universal:

The unnecessary curve in the path:


Finally, we made it to our first park, Islands of Adventure and started looking for the little electronic ticket kiosks with no luck. We had purchased Annual Passes and had our voucher (e-mail) so we just took that to the entrance and they pointed us to Guest Relations where they validated them and pointed us to the place to get the actual passes inside the park.

Once all that administrative stuff was done, it was time for the Adventure to Begin.

As you can see the park was kind of empty (YAY!):

We started by going right toward the Hulk.

This was one of the longer roller coasters we had been on and was great fun, but seemed to pale when compared to some of the other great rides in the park.

Next up was Spiderman.

Now I knew this was supposed to a unique ride experience, but I had avoided reading too much about it. Well, Mike and I both agree that it was one of the best rides we rode the entire trip, and we probably rode it at least 15 times over the course of the next 4 days. Luckily, because of the time of the year and our “Front of the Line” privilege for staying on site, we never had to wait more that a couple of minutes. Spiderman was just amazing!!

Since the exit for Spiderman lets you out right at the entrance of Dr. Doom, we decided to try it next.


Now, let me just tell you that I hate heights and this is one of those tower type rides that I try to avoid. But, I wasn’t going to let that stop me (Mike was amazed I was willing to go on). Once again, no line…which was probably a good thing. We got strapped into our seats and had our “fear extracted” by Dr. Doom. Well, it must have really worked, because I really liked it and ended up riding it several more times over the course of the trip.

We decided to do a couple of more rides, including:

Ripsaw Falls – the best log type ride ever.

The queue was really neat and, although a long walk, there was no line to speak of. The ride itself was also long with lots of turns and small drops. This ride will get you soaked before you even get to the big drop. The big drop was great in the way there was a little hill at the bottom of it. Thankfully, for being December, it wasn’t terribly cold outside, but it was cool.
Along our way, we met some colorful characters:




NOTE: Just for the record...not our kids

Bilge Rat Barges - Since we were already wet, we decided to go on this white water raft ride. Let me say again, this is the best white water raft type ride. It was really long with lots of drops, twists, and turns. Of course, we got soaked.

By this time it was getting late and we were wet, so it was time for the walk back to the resort (after a quick stop at the Christmas store in Islands of Adventure to get ornaments for our tree). We had a shower and a drink and headed for City Walk to find something to eat.

During my research, I had read that the Nascar café had great ribs. Being rib connoisseurs, we had to check it out. Well, the ribs were very good, but didn’t really like the atmosphere (sorry, but we are not Nascar fans and it was kind of loud).

After that, we walked around City Walk and saw some street performers (who we would see several more times) and decided to call it a night after another walk down the infamous path back to Royal Pacific.

Next up: A long day or “You didn’t tell us about the benefit of your room”
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[Desiree]

Your plans sound great - looking forward to more!

[RobDVC]

That's pretty cool that you got the EXACT room you requested! Guess there's something to be said about planning far in advance. The park looks pretty empty, glad you got your money's worth out of that day!

[taopiglet]

<font color="blue">Our original plan:
Wednesday - Universal Studios/Islands of Adventure (park hopping) and pool time (if it's warm enough). Finish the day off with reservations at Emeril's Tchoup Chop.

What really happened:
Wednesday (December 8, 2004)
Weather – Another beautiful day with temps reaching into the low 80s
We woke up bright and early to spend the first part of the day at Universal Studios. We headed down the elevators and walked over to the boat dock (no path this morning since Studios is on the far side of the lagoon) and waited. After about 10 minutes, a boat finally arrives and we head down the river, to the lagoon and are off in no time. We head into City Walk so I can grab a Cinnabon (love cinnamon rolls). Mike’s not hungry yet.


We stop for the obligatory photo by the Universal Globe:




We offer to take pictures for several other people. We are in no hurry since it is still about 15 minutes before opening and crowds are light. We arrive at the gate with a very small crowd.

I grab a park map, although we hardly used it. Once the gates opened we just casually walked down the street and went into the first thing we saw, Shrek 4D. Let me say that I love the Shrek movies. Right now, I have 3 Shreks on my work desk (one is a bobble head) and one Donkey (along with Darth Tater and Woody from Toy Story). The pre-show in this one was great. If you get there and they are letting people into the theater, hang back and enjoy the pre-show as it helps to setup the actual show. Overall, Shrek 4D was great fun, but we only ended up doing it this one time.

After we get out, we head for The Mummy.

Once again, I had tried to not read too much about it as I wanted it to be a surprise. Let me just say that this was the BEST RIDE EVER (tied with Spiderman). It’s one surprise after another. You MUST do this ride if you are in the Orlando area. We probably did this about 15 times over the course of the vacation (thanks to “front of the line” access). Which reminds me, if you do plan on going to Universal during your vacation, make sure you stay at one of their resorts for at least one night to get the “front of the line” access. It’s the best thing.

We gradually worked our way around the park riding the following:

Back to the Future – a great simulator ride, but starting to show its age. The pre-show and the way they line people up is kind of weird. I still loved this ride (as I do all simulator rides).


MIB (Men in Black) –A great shooter type ride.

This is one of our first shooter rides and we both had pretty low scores trying to figure it out. Of course, after we got off we went right back on and bettered our score, well, my score got a lot better anyway. Mike’s not the shooter kind of person. This was great fun.

It was time for lunch and based on my research, decided on Capt Quint’s Seafood and Chowder house (counter service). We tried some fried fish/shrimp combo and clam chowder. This was probably the worst meal experience of the entire trip. The chowder was tasteless and the fried fish and shrimp were extra greasy. We only ate about half and threw the rest away.
Don't eat here (Capt Quints):


We continued on our ride quest:

ET -

It was down when we first went over but we had a good time talking to the employee informing everyone it was down. We asked her if it was too much of a kiddie ride for two grown men. She said we should do it and people liked the fact that ET says your name??? at the end. We didn’t really understand, but decided we would return later which we did and really liked it. It’s a great dark ride and ET does say your name at the end. You see, you tell the ride operator before you get on your “bike” your name and they enter it into the system, then when your “bike” passes ET in the last scene, he thanks everyone by name. It’s kind of cool, but hard to understand him.

Animal Planet Live –



a cute live animal show that we saw part of while waiting for ET to become operational.

Working our way out, we hit Terminator 2 (a neat live action/4D experience), Jaws, Twister (kind of silly), Earthquake (neat live action/special effects presentation, but showing it’s age), Jimmy Neutron (fun for kids), and the Monster Makeup show (kind of corny but hey, everything’s fun when you are on vacation).
Jaws Boat:


Making friends with Lucy and Ricky:


Trying on some wigs:




It was time to head back to the resort and it was getting hot, so we headed for the boat dock and waited forever for a boat (30 minutes). When it finally came, it was a relief. I was tired and unwilling to walk the path with the unnecessary bend in it. We finally arrive back at our room and rest.

We decide to hit Islands of Adventure before dinner just to ride the wet rides and come right back. It was then that I discovered the neat benefit of our room. We could sit at our window and watch for the boat coming toward the resort. Once we saw it come around the bend, we had to blast out of our room, run down the 4 flights of stairs right by our room and do a fast walk to the dock. We could get there just as the boat was loading and were on our way in no time. We did this several times and it worked every time, although we did cut it close a couple of times.


After we had taken our soaking rides on Bilge Rat Barges and Ripsaw Falls, we headed back to the room, via the path with the unnecessary bend to dry off. We changed into our swim suits and hit the pool and pool bar before our dinner reservations at Emeril’s Tchoup Chop.
Royal Pacific Pool:


After the pool, we headed back to the room and showered, had a drink and headed to Tchoup Chop. Despite having reservations, we still had to wait about 30 minutes. Despite the wait, this was a great meal. I had the Chef’s recommended menu which included an appetizer, main course and dessert for one prize while Mike chose a Filet from the menu. We shared the appetizer and each had a Filet, although they were cooked differently with different sides. The dessert wasn’t really that good (can’t remember what it was); however, overall it was a GREAT meal.

After Emeril’s, it was getting late, so off to bed.
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[Bellaciavo]

We stayed at the Royal Pacific in 2003, our view was very similiar to your's. It is a beautiful resort. And yes, FOTL access is the best. Thanks for the pictures. Can't wait to read more.
Karen

[jakenjess]

I'm really enjoying your report. Looking forward to more!

[Colexis Mom]

What a great start to your report Love the view from your room And the rest of your pictures are fantastic (love the wig ones )!

More please

[taopiglet]

<font color="blue">Our original plan:
Thursday - Possibly a Sea World day depending on how much we are enjoying Universal. Dinner at Nascar Cafe (no reservations yet) as I've heard their ribs are really good and we are always in search of the perfect "fall off the bone" rib.

What really happened:
Thursday (December 9, 2004)
Weather – another great day in the low 80s, but starting to cool off a little.

Courtyard inside the lobby of Royal Pacific:




We just played it by ear today. We started off with Islands of Adventure catching all the rides that we had missed so far and of course riding a few of our favorites like Spiderman, Dr Doom, Hulk, and Deuling Dragons numerous times before moving on the areas of the park we hadn’t explored yet.

Entry Area at Islands of Adventure:


We caught the following rides:

Jurassic Park River Adventure –

fun, but seemed short and you really don’t get too wet on this one unless you are in the front and it was still little more than a splash. We only rode this once the entire time, so that should give you an indication of how we felt about it.

Jurassic Park Area:




Dueling Dragons – Another ride we road multiple times. This is one of those rides that you have to ride in the front car at least once as it makes the passing of the other train more dramatic. We rode both trains, front, back, middle, etc.

Cat in the Hat –

Another fun “dark” ride (it’s not really that dark).

Seuss Landing (decorated for Grinchmas:


I loved how this area was themed (such attention to detail) Ignore my big balding head:


The Seuss Carousel:


More Seuss Landing:


We were getting hungry at this point, so decided to stop at Mythos (a great restaurant):




Inside Mythos:

I had read a lot of good things about this and wanted to give it a try. This was a great restaurant. The theming inside is incredible. The decorator’s worked overtime in here. The food was incredibly good. We had the Maine Lobster Corn Bisque (yummy), Tempura Shrimp Sushi (also yummy) and the Wrap of the day (chicken and bacon).

Another cool restaurant is Enchanted Oak, we never ate here, but will next time:

We continued exploring the Islands after lunch and decided on a fluke to try Poseidon’s Fury:



I hadn’t read good things about this, but we were bored. There was a short wait until the next show, so we caught the tail end of the Eighth Voyage of Sinbad nearby. This was a funny and cute stunt type show. After Sinbad, we headed back over to Poseidon’s Fury and embarked on our adventure. Poseidon’s Fury is a live action “show” with lots of special effects and moving from room to room. The last room is incredible. One minute you are in a small enclosed room, then there is a flash, darkness, and within a couple of seconds you are in a HUGE room. It’s as if the walls and ceilings just magically disappeared. This is where the final “battle” takes place utilizing all kinds of effects including the water screens. As the final battle ends, once again the room goes dark and a mere handful a seconds later the walls and ceilings have reappeared and you are back in the small room. A GREAT show and must do.

Just outside Poseidon’s adventure is an “interactive” fountain that will talk to you/make fun of you and generally get you wet.





It’s fun to stand back and watch all the kids interact with the fountain (it will talk back to you and have a complete conversation). We probably stood there for at least 45 minutes having a great time just watching the kids and adults be surprised by sprays of water.

By this time it was time for another dose of Spiderman, Dr Doom and Hulk. We worked our way over to that side of the park. After our rides, we left after another stop in the Christmas store for more ornaments. We are crazy about Christmas and our tree at home typically droops with all the ornaments we put on it.

Christmas Tree in Royal Pacific Lobby:


Another walk on the path back to the room to swim, shower and rest. After we had our rest, we walked back to City Walk where we decided to eat at Margaritaville and have a couple of Maragritas:

We took in the street performers again (same show as the other nite) which includes a lot of talented people (stilt walker, magician, break dancing, power pogo sticks, mime, etc).

After our night at City Walk, we returned to the room for a night of rest.
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[coffeechef]

You are so right about the Mummys Revenge. I rode that about 7X in one day. 3x in a row at one point as there was no line. I also loved Spiderman &amp; the hulk. Did them several times. Can't wait to hear more of your trip report.

[taopiglet]

<font color="blue">Our original plan:
Friday - Last full day at Universal. Relax, enjoy the parks.

What really happened:
Friday (December 10, 2004)
Weather: another great day with highs in the high 70s
This was our last full day at Universal (tomorrow we attack Disney). Not much new on this day. We just hit both the Studios and Islands and hit all our favorite rides once again (ok maybe 5-6 times for our favorites).

A couple of characters we ran into:






Admittedly, 4 nights was probably one night too many for Universal. However, tonight was the first night of the Macy’s Christmas Parade at Universal Studios. We ended our day at the Studios with a couple of more rides on The Mummy followed by watching the parade. Now, maybe we just aren’t parade people, because while it was fun, we didn’t get much out of it.








We took one more run to the Christmas store in Islands of Adventure, and then a return back to Royal Pacific. Tomorrow’s our big first day at Disney.
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[RobDVC]

Great trip report! I love the pictures you took.

[Colexis Mom]

More great updates Can't wait to hear about your travels at Disney

[taopiglet]

Thanks for all the comments so far. It's a lot of fun reliving our vacation from last year. I'll keep it coming and should have our first day at Disney up next.