Woo hoo, we made it to the most magical place on earth! 🙂 We stayed at the The Campsites at Disney’s Fort Wilderness Resort for three nights while we visited the Magic Kingdom and Epcot Parks. I was most interested in checking out the Christmas decorations that I’ve heard people talk about, so while Randy and I waited for Marissa’s flight to land at the Orlando airport, we went around to a handful of other Disney resorts to check them out. There were definitely some cool trees and gingerbread/chocolate decorations, so we weren’t disappointed! Since you have to be registered at the Disney Resort in order to park there, we used Disney transportation to get around. And since most of their transportation goes from the parks to the resorts and not from resort to resort, we spent about 3-4 hours traveling and taking pics. By the time we were done, we had used all their modes of transportation: Boat, Monorail, Bus and Ferry. Plus we walked around the Boardwalk area to see a few of the resorts. We had never taken the time to see the other resorts and enjoyed looking at their normal decor as well as the Christmas ones.
We grabbed a quick bite to eat at D-Luxe Burger in Disney Springs before heading to the airport. Yay! After much anticipation, Marissa finally joined us to RV for a couple of weeks!! On our way back to the RV, we drove around the campground to look at other people’s Christmas decorations. I had heard they rival Disney’s professional decor and we agree. We kept wondering how some people fit all the decorations in their RV — some had a LOT of stuff. The last pic was a bit blurry, but I included it here to show how massive one site’s decor was. The bear that is hugging/attacking Marissa was a fuzzy inflatable that moved his arms back and forth. Fun!
The next morning, we woke up bright and early to get a spot in Guardian of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind‘s virtual queue. Thankfully, we got a spot and didn’t have to pay extra for a Lightning Lane pass. We decided to save time by driving to Epcot instead of taking the bus, since we got free parking with staying at a Disney resort. I had read up on several “rope drop” strategies and figured out what we wanted to do during the 30 minutes of early admission to resort guests, to save time standing in lines later. I was super disappointed to find the Frozen ride closed when we got there, even though they had not updated the app to show its status as closed. Argh! It was further back in the park, so we had basically just wasted the effort of waking up early to be at the front of at least one attraction’s long line. Such a bummer! But we headed back to other rides that we also wanted to do and got a few done before lines got terribly long. Guardian of the Galaxy was definitely a fun ride! I also really liked Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure, Mission: Space, Test Track and Soarin’ Around the World.
Back in the World Showcase, we walked around the countries to catch most of entertainment in the various countries that was part of the International Festival of the Holidays. We also ate a buffet lunch and watched a show at Germany’s Biergarten Restaurant. That meal was part of a dining package to guarantee us seats at the Candlelight Processional, so we wouldn’t have to stand in line too long to get in. We ate dinner in China, at Lotus Blossom Cafe, after talking to a girl who said it was her favorite place in Epcot. We also splurged and got some caramel popcorn and cookies at Karamell-Küche. Yum!!
I was pleasantly surprised to hear the REAL Christmas story told throughout the park, through stories, music and scripture reading. Of course, it was all extremely well done and very impressive. Gloria Estefan was the narrator for the processional and did a nice job reading, but the orchestra and singers were superb! (Video clip at the bottom) I especially liked the trumpet players, who had longer than normal trumpets for an added dramatic affect.
To top off our time at Epcot, we watched the laser/firework/water show called Harmonious. It’s hard to describe the show, with SO much going on at once, but it is truly spectacular. Disney describes it as “an innovative combination of floating giant screens, choreographed moving fountains, lights, pyrotechnics and lasers in a 360-degree view.” (Video clip at the bottom)
We spent our last full day at Disney in the Magic Kingdom. After a quick bus ride to the campground’s marina, we rode the boat to the park’s entrance. Unlike our start at Epcot, our strategy at Magic Kingdom worked like a charm! We walked onto four rides, then waited in short lines for several rides before having to wait in any long lines. We also stopped to watch a couple of parades and shows during the day. The only ride we would have liked to do, but didn’t want to wait over an hour to do was the Seven Drawfs Mine Train. But we enjoyed Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and Space Mountain (my favorite!), so we were satisfied.
We ate lunch at Columbia Harbour House and dinner at Cosmic Ray’s Starlight Café. I had no idea just how packed the area would get in front of the castle before the 8:30pm fireworks show (definitely more crowded than previous years we’d visited). We saw people starting to stake out their spots around 6:00pm, but we wanted to ride Space Mountain and eat dinner before the show. Both took longer than expected, so the area was totally packed and roped off by the time we got back. So many people!!! We eventually found a spot that was good enough to watch, but it was off to the side and had trees in the way a bit. Oh well! It was still a great day.
Whew! That was a busy few days, but I’m glad to have gotten the chance to see Disney lit up with Christmas decorations. I can check that item off my bucket list now! 🙂
0 Comments