Chris's New Year's Trip Part 1

[chrisb26]

Day 1 – Friday January 2nd

On Friday morning I woke up around 3:50 in the morning to get ready for my flight which was leaving at 6:30 so I got up took a shower and was off to the airport. No major problems here the airport was pretty empty at that time of morning so I got threw security and everything pretty fast. My flight left on time and got in early! This is usually the case with Southwest which is why I love to fly with them. So after I got off the plane I headed over to DME. Now this was the first time for me flying down and checking in and everything by myself so I was a bit nervous that it would be difficult but it was very easy so I got my boarding thing to the DME and soon we were off! A short time later we arrived at Pop Century. My room wasn’t ready yet so I gave them my bag and was off.

I decided that I was just going to go around looking at all the decorations at the resorts on Friday since I was pretty sure it would still be very crowded in the parks I was just going to wait. So first I headed over to DTD to look at all the decorations it was very crowded at DTD I could barley walk through the World of Disney so I decided to go get some Lunch from McDonalds then headed over to the Pin shop and picked up some pins. After that I decided I would go over to the first resort. I went over to Animal Kingdom Lodge first. I really love that resort and would love to stay there one day the place is amazing. I liked it even more with the Christmas Decorations up. After walking around I decided to go out back to look at the animals however there were not many out there only a couple which I can’t remember the names of. I then headed back to the bus area to wait for a bus I didn’t really care which bus since I was just going to hop to a different resort so the first bus to pull up was the bus to DHS so I was off. After I arrived to DHS I decided to take a boat over towards the Yacht and Beach club. We made it over to Swan and Dolphin first. I looked around there and decided to walk over to Boardwalk as it was a pretty short distance away. The decorations at the Boardwalk resort were really cool. I love the garland with all the ornaments. They also had a Gingerbread gazebo with chocolate Donald and Daisy sculptures which were really cool. After the Boardwalk I went over to the Beach Club and looked at the Chocolate Carousel. That was really neat as well.

By this time my room at Pop was finally ready so I decided to head back over there. As I was walking up to my room the luggage guy was also there which was nice to have my luggage at the same time. I then decided to lie down for a while since I had been up since about 4 that morning. I took a nap on accident and woke up later then I wanted and realized I didn’t have all that much time left to do what I wanted. So I took a bus over to Epcot and took the Monorail over to the TTA and another Monorail towards the Grand Floridian. I was kind of worried when I looked at the castle since the Lights were not on yet. I really wanted to see those. So I looked at the Gingerbread house which was cool and pretty big although it looked pretty much the same as the last time I had scene it back in 2006. I then went back up to the monorail and saw that the lights on the castle had finally come on! I then went over to the Contemporary to look at the Pinocchio display and went into the new store and bought a pin. I then made my way to Polynesian. I walked around there for a while and got some dinner. I then went out to the beach to sit and wait for Wishes and the Electrical Water Pageant. As it approached 9 the EWP started however not in front of the Poly it was out in the middle of the water where the boats were all sitting then it backed up to Poly right as wishes started. It was really cool watching wishes from the beach. They were playing the music but I couldn’t really hear it. As I was watching Wishes the EWP all the sudden started to play so it was strange watching Wishes and the EWP at the same time. After Wishes I started to make my way back to Pop I went over to MK and caught a bus. I was worried it would take forever but surprisingly it was pretty quick and I made it on the first bus.

Day 2 - Saturday January 3rd Part 1

My aunt was arriving this morning to start her vacation she couldn’t get out on Friday due to work so I had just gone down alone. So before she came I headed back over to DTD.

I went down and looked around and was surprised to see all the decorations at Pop had come down over night. After looking around I decided to get to DTD early in the morning right after it opened and it was pretty empty there. I went into the Christmas Store and was happy to see all the ornaments were 50% off so I decided to get some ornaments since it was a pretty good deal and I’ve always liked them and thought they would look great on my Mickey Tree. After DTD I headed over for Wilderness Lodge since I had never been there. All the decorations had been taken down here as well I guess they did all the resorts that night. After that I headed back over to DTD before heading back to Pop to wait for my aunt. I decided to grab some lunch while waiting. Finally she arrived and we were off to Universal Studios.

[faline]

You're off to a good start! At least you got to see some of the decorations before they came down!

[Tiggerdog]

More please!

[JPL]

Sounds like a great start to your trip

[mouseketeer mom]

I too, have had the experience of watching Wishes and the EWP at the same time..Its weird, right?? Off to a great start!!

[chrisb26]

I too, have had the experience of watching Wishes and the EWP at the same time..Its weird, right?? Off to a great start!!

It is very weird. They had EWP playing without sound. It was pretty distracting. It was also a little annoying since I had never seen it before would have liked to have seen the show with the music and all. I did see it pretty well when it was in the middle of the water but it would have been nice to see a direct view.

[GrumpyFan]

So, what were crowds like?

[princessgirls]

Sounds like a great first day!

Thanks for the report!

Julie

[pdrlkr]

Thanks for the Report!

[WDWFanatic]

Good thing you had spent the day looking at the resort decorations. We love getting to see them also.

[terri.m]

Great report! Can't wait for the rest.

[yjgirl32]

Sounds awesome! Thanks for sharing.

[BluewaterBrad]

Good report! Lets have more!!