Day 2 of Disney Xmas

Tey slept until about 9am then when she got up we set up our tree and decorated our room. Breakfast was cereal and oatmel in the room with some juice. I took some pics of view from our room, which I thought was great.

We headed out a little before 11 to drive to Universal Studios. I was a bit worried about the crowds when I realized that the Jaws/KingKong garage was closed and we ended up directed to the Spiderman/Cat in the Hat garage. But once we got into park, the crowds were big but not unmanageable and a lot of the rides had a 5-10 minute wait with the big ticket rides like Hulk roller coaster had a 30 minute wait. Dueling Drgaons also had a 5 minute wait. I think this was because part of Lost Continent section is closed for construction of Wizarding World of Harry Potter so people were getting confused by signs and directions.





The line for Grinchmas was huge though and it was a hot day so we just ended up sitting in the shade nearby and listening to the show though we could see part of it. Looked very cute. We may try to go back later this week as el kiddo is getting over both sinus and ear infections so she gets tired easy.


We walked around for awhile then went to eat a late lunch at Hard Rock Cafe. It was just ok. Our waiter was also just ok. No real personality. Nice enough but very automatic if you know what I mean. Which was a change from the girl who seated us who was very animated and chatty. After lunch Tey wanted to return to hotel to rest for a bit so off we went!

We took a nap and did not get up until 6pm. LOL. At that point Teyonna plugged in her Play Station and played for a bit while I organized some things and finished unpacking. We were going to go to Fantasmic or Illuminations but decided to just hang at the hotel so we walked down to the concierge to pick up Luau tickets and book a dinner for the next day then to Pepper Market for a bite to eat.

The tree in the lobby is gorgeous!

The concierge was not able to get us dinner at O'Hana's at all but she was able to get us a Cat 1 seating for Hoop Dee Do for the next day. I did Hoop Dee Doo for the first time this past fall with my friend Nikki and we had a blast. I think my daughter will really enjoy it as she likes slapstick and corny jokes. At Pepper Market we both went to The Wok, I got the Burbon Chicken and she got the combo plate of roasted pork and Spicy Kung Bao Chicken. Everything was good but I will say that the spicy chicken is SPICY...has a nice heat to it since I like spicy food but my daughter thought it was a little too spicy. So be aware.

We walked the grounds for a bit and were able to watch the higher flying fireworks from Illuminations at EPCOT which was very cool. It was a very nice night, just a slight chill and all we needed was a sweat jacket. Back to the room around 10pm, plug in the tree for a bit and that was it for the night.

Tomorrow: EPCOT, Hoop Dee Do Review

Check-in and MVMCP

Day 1 of Disney Divas Xmas 2008 Trip.
We did not hit the road until about 2pm as I was waiting for a delivery from UPS. We got caught in a traffic jam through Tampa but made it to Downtown Disney by 3:30. I switched out my Florida Resident 3 day pass for an Annual Pass and bought Tey's pass. We pulled into Coronado Springs at 3:50. I was wondering why the car line was so long to get through the gate and boy did I find out. The guard on duty was a very friendly and chatty fellow. Did I mention chatty? He must have talked to us for 7 minutes about I don't even remember what with the line of cars backing up behind us. He was so cheerful and happy it was hard to cut him off but he finally let us go. Check-in was not bad at all. There were maybe 4 people in line ahead of me and it moved fairly quickly. When it was my turn I chatted a bit with the cast member (Emma) and she commented on how tall Miss Tey is (she is 13 but stands just shy of 6'). I then asked her very nicely if there was any way to get one of the newly refurbed rooms and she was like let me see what I can do. She looked on the computer and then excused herself and spoke with someone else who pulled up another computer. When she came back she did not say anything until she was circling our room location on the map and saying we now have a waterview! (I booked standard) So we ended up in Casitas 1 on the 4th floor! YAY!!! We drove around to our building and I am now so very thankful that I went ahead and bought a small luggage cart! It was only $21 but it saved us extra trips to the car. We got all the big stuff (as we also bring a big plastic storage bin of decorations and small tree) in the first trip. The room is gorgeous! But I will say that I am not sure how long they will keep the all white bedding! While beautiful and rich looking with kids and adults spilling things etc, these will not be snowy white for long! I also really like the carpeting LOL. The desk chair was a tad uncomfortable though so I moved one of the ottamans over and use that at the desk. Anyways, we left out and headed to Winn Dixie real quick to stock up on snacks and breakfast items before going to the Magic Kingdom. Winn Dixie is only about 5 miles away if you go out Hotel Plaza Drive ( headed towards Goodings) but take a left instead of going straight. Follow around and Winn Dixie is on the right hand side. We got back to hotel around 6pm and brought in the last couple of small things along with the groceries. Then headed to the bus for Magic Kingdom as we had tickets for Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party (MVMCP). The wait was maybe 5 minutes and the bus was not packed but boy when we got to the park we hit it at wrong time as it was just gone 7pm so there were hoards of people trying to get through bag check and entrance turn styles. We had to go to will call window to pick up tickets and that line moved pretty fast. By the time we got tickets, the line for bag check and turnstyles were only 2-3 people deep! LOL. So lesson learned either get to park early or later not right at 7pm. I have to say that there is no better feeling than that first view of main street at night during Christmas time! Walking out onto the square and seeing the tree and the lights and snow and music and of course Cindy's Castle all lite up just does my heart good! We headed to Tomorrowland and rode Buzz Lightyear after a 5 minute wait. I totally kicked Tey's butt! We walked out and got right in line for the 8pm show of Twas the Night Before Xmas (this is a must see - too durn cute!). We got good seats and the show was entertaining as always. We then just walked around taking in the sights and sounds. Most of the big rides - The Mountains, Pirates etc all had maybe 10 minute wait. But I did notice that some of the more kid friendly ride - Snow White, Pooh etc had 20-30 minute waits. We got a couple churros and water in Fantasy land..I did notice that the lines for the free hot chocolate and cookies were pretty short and they seemed to have more locations than in the past. On to Haunted Mansion, which we literally just walked right in and on! The 8pm parade which ended up starting closer to 8:45pm was on then and by the time we came out of HM it was over, the line was backing up to Liberty Square! Good timing! We then walked through Frontier land and stopped at Pecos Bill for some chili cheese fries (yes it was junk food night) LOL. We realized that it was almost time for the 9:30 Wishes fireworks so we hightailed it to Mainstreet and got a spot right in front of Crystal Palace to watch. It wasn't too crowded where we were and we were able to sit which was nice! Tink is still so cute flying over. After the fireworks we were both exhausted and decided against staying for 10:30 parade so we headed to the shops to get our MVMCP 2008 pins. They had one little display and in the past on the last night of the party, the merchandise was marked down....not this year! Though they have marked all ornaments and tree skirts down 50%. I won't get into the argument I had with a CM about a misplaced sign. LOL. When we came out of the shops I realized it was only 10 minutes til parade time so we decided to wait as we have never caught the Xmas parade. We sat on the steps of city hall taking silly pictures: We had a great spot and alot of people had cleared out of the park so we had an unobstructed view of parade. My daughter loved it and it was so cool watching her face as each float turned the corner! It reminded me how young she really is as she comes across older than she is. I have a couple of video snippets from parade which I will post later. We hung around main street for a bit after the parade then caught the bus(standing room only) back to Coronado. Got back a little after midnight. Tomorrow: Universal Studios and Grinchmas, set up out Xmas tree and lights.

Christmas Prep

I finally finished making my Chrsitmas cards. LOL. Late as usual. One day I will stop procrastinating so damn much! But her are a couple of the ones I made:















We are just about packed for Disney. Just waiting for a package to be delivered and then we will hit the road. Can't wait! Teyonna is bouncing off the walls. She needs to go take a nap though since she was up until 3am and we have the Xmas Party at Magic Kingdom tonight until midnight. LOL.

I was able to get all of her gifts into one large duffle bag so that was good and all of our Xmas decorations for the hotel room fit into this plastic storage bin I bought except for the damn tree!!! It is just a smidge too long! Grrrr! Oh well. At least we are driving so not that big if a deal.

About to load up the car and get this show ont he road if only the UPS man would hurry up!!!

I will check in again from Disney.

Disney Divas Xmas 2008

This will be my daughter and I 4th Annual Disney Divas Xmas trip. For the last 3 years we stayed at the Polynesian but due to the economy and a desire to stay longer and do more we decided on Coronado springs. Plus my closest friend will be staying there with her family towards the end of our trip. I did put in a request for one of the newly refurbed rooms so we will see how that turns out. While the old rooms are more colorful, the newer rooms have the flat panel TVs fingers crossed

Old rooms

Newly refurbed room


We have very few things strictly planned out as we really like to just get up in morning and say hmmm what do we feel like doing today? LOL. But we do have a some ADRs: Garden View Tea, Cali Grill, Raglan Road, O'Hana's (our traditional Xmas Eve breakfast) and The Luau (our traditional Xmas Day dinner).
This year we do plan on spending at least a day at Universal Studios to check out Grinchmas.Other things that we would like to do are Fantasmic, Osborne Lights, Candlelight Processional ( on Xmas eve, we usually get some fried ice cream from funnel cake stand and grab a bench somewhere outside the American theater and listen), Downtown Disney. And how can I forget - our first night we will be attending MVMCP!

The excitement is mounting every day! Tomorrow is my last day of work until Jan 5th. And then I will spend Thursday finishing up Xmas shopping and running errands then we hit the road on Friday (it is only about 1 hr 15 minute drive).

As usual I will do daily trip reports live from the resort with my daughter giving some comments/observations from a young teen point of view!