Disney World for Thanksgiving November 2009

Walt Disney World November 09

Pictures:

From Walt Disney World November 2009

Cast of Characters:
Me, Diane, 57
Hubby, Jim, 61
Son, Chris, 36
We just spent 4 days at the world, me, Hubby and son. WE had a wonderful time, but as some one said, BOY WAS IT CROWDED

We headed for Disney World ON Thanksgiving November 25, 2009. We left the house near 630 am, to go pick up Chris, our son. We were on the road by 715am.

We arrived Thursday morning near 9 AM, At All Star Sports, we had done the on line check in, there was a couple in front of us so we had to wait, the regular line only had one person in line also, never saw it so empty, it took only minutes to check in and our room was ready. We unloaded the car; I decorated our room window with Christmas things I had brought, had a snack or two and headed out to Disney Hollywood Studio. WOW was it busy, we tried to get into the artist studio to do some drawings, and the line was so long it looked like it would be way over an hour; the fast passes were gone for Toy Story. We did not wait. We did the back lots tour and they did not have the guests get wet with the water pouring out of the tubs, it was cold, I guess, it was near 50°s, warming up to near 60 in a few hours, so then we got to go to Lights, Motor, Action Stunt show. We really enjoy the show, but we had an added bonus, the cart/truck to held the air bag from one of the cars to fly through the air had a broken axle, they had to spend a bit of time scrubbing the asphalt where bearing grease had leaked out of the housing, they did finally get the truck/cart out of the way and the show went on, but they had to use scrubbers to clean the paved areas, for it would be a hazard on the cars spinning around. The show went on and it was fun as usual.
We ate lunch at the BackLot Express. Found a prop from “Roger Rabbit” there, the Toon Patrol car. Plus many other props, but had never noticed the car before. Walking around to see if the line at Toy Story was any better, NOT, we did Journey into Narnia, then Indiana Jones. It is always still amusing when the audience member is a plant, and they pick on him, a fun show. Went to the Muppet’s 3-D, then off to see the lights of the Osborne Family Spectacle of Dancing Lights on the Streets of America, I love them, and it seemed this year they had different music, we stayed for a while and just love the snow coming down. There is a hidden Mickey I have never noticed before, in the smoke of the Mickey lite Train, the smoke moves on along the length of the train, lighting up in separate sections, and the second section has a hidden Mickey. I never did get a picture of that section lit, but I tried.

Back to our room, we bought two Thanksgiving meals from the Food court at the All Star Sports and took it to our room, we had packed drinks and eggnog and snacks, so we 3 split the two meals, it was more than enough, and it was nice that we had turkey and dressing and mashed potatoes and green beans and cranberry and pumpkin pie and apple pie, it was just perfect, no work, we got to relax back at our room and toss the dishes.

The next day, Friday, we headed for the Magic Kingdom. Tried to get there for the rope drop, but the bus took a while to pick us up at the Hotel, so we missed it by about 10 minutes. But oh what a neat site, the Christmas decorations at the Magic Kingdom, In the front of the Train Station is a HUGE Mickey Ornament with plants, just so neat.. It still takes my breath away, and we have been making it for the Christmas decorations for many many years. We just strolled along taking it all in, taking pictures, it is just like wow. Strolled through the shops and just admired all the goodies, then we had breakfast at the Main Street Bakery, we carry bagels and buy drinks and fruit, to make our trip affordable. We rode the People Mover, AKA: Transit Authority, it was fun to ride it and go into Space Mountain, since I do not ride it, and I call it the People mover, because we heard the voice telling us that it was a great People watching spot on the People Mover, We had gotten fast passes for Buzz Lightyear, and rode that. Then headed back to our hotel, Chris wanted to go into Orlando and check out a “black Friday” sale at a Coral Shop, so we went back to the room, ate lunch and got the car and headed off Disney Property, traffic was heavy, but OK, we went, we saw, we went back to Disney property and stopped at Down Town Disney, walked all around spent several hours there, My husband ordered a T-shirt in the Haines T-shirt place, but it would be two more hours, we wanted to ride the Balloon but it was too windy, so we took fun pictures with us “holding” it up and then our hotel and parked the car and headed back to the Magic Kingdom. We watched Mickey and Minnie’s stage show in front of the castle and then headed for Pirates of the Caribbean, there was a long line, but that was ok, all lines were long and then made our way over to Mickey’s ToonTown, we rode Goofy’s Barn Stormer, toured Mickey’s and Minnie houses, and aimed back to the Castle to watch Cinderella’s lighting of the Castle, it was cute, I had NEVER seen that before, the castle was AMAZING, I have seen it each year, and it still takes my breath away. We then did Mickey’s PhilharMagic, always a great show. I was trying to remember what used to be in that building, but I believe it was a Lion King show. Just not sure. We then watched Stitches stage show over by Space Mountain, meantime our son had gotten a fast pass for Space Mountain much earlier, so he rode the New and Improved Space Mountain, he says it is darker than it used to be and the Queue has more interactive things, but do not remember what else he said, we are too old to ride those kinds of rides, it hurts. We secured our spot in front of the castle for the fireworks; we tend to be in different places each time we go, this time we were right there down front, you miss some of the lower fireworks, but it was fun to see them different and we could see Tinker Bell real good, she just waved and waved as she flew out of site. The fireworks of course are amazing and sometimes the lights to the castle are on, and like WOW, it is so beautiful. We strolled through some shops and then took a cruise on the Jungle, it has been a long time since we did it after dark, it was very empty, I think we had 6 on our boat, but it was fun, as always. Then back to our Hotel. Somewhere in there we did eat dinner at Cosmic Rays Starlight Café. Back to our room.



Saturday the next day we had to go back to Down Town Disney to get the T-shirt Jim had ordered. We got there before the shops opened, but that was ok, we strolled around taking in the Christmas decorations. Chris has stayed in bed, so he got extra sleep. We got back to the hotel and headed on to Epcot, we got our fast passes for Soaring, it was noon time, so the return time was 9 pm, and we were the end of the fast passes. We then found the new ride, Sum of all Thrills. We had fun making the ride, Chris picked out the curviest and upside downiest, and fastest things he could, so Jim and Chris went on the ride, I chickened out. They had a ball, it as fun to watch, having watched others, I was surprised at how much theirs machine moved, and other people were like wow, look at that one, they loved it, and I loved that I could chicken out.
We rode Test Track as single riders, and Chris went on Mission Space. We love seeing the new cars in the show room at Test Track. We spent time at Living Seas, OH I just realized it is no longer called the Living Seas, it is The Seas with Nemo & Friends, never noticed that, I know the claim shell ride is very fun of fun Nemo things, just never noticed the name of the whole thing was changed. We then started going around the countries, Stopped in Canada for the movie, it is just so beautiful, and stopped a listened to Off Kilter, then on to the UK, Had to see Pooh and friends, and then father time in the court yard. Then on to Paris and saw Pere’ Noel, listened to him and had my picture taken with him. We went in and out of all the countries and listened to the music of the season as we went around. WE headed towards Spaceship Earth but stopped and had ice cream cones first, it was good ice cream, even with it cold outside, by now it must have been about 50°, we enjoyed our ice cream and went on to ride Spaceship earth, with no wait, when we came in the line was 60 minutes. It is fun with the interactive screen on the ride now and I actually got to send the little video home to my email, I have never gotten close enough to the screens to find out that it was even possible to do so, it has been so busy. Then on to our Soaring fast passes, it was 9 pm by now, and the fireworks started at 930, so we got to do our ride and made it out towards the middle before the lights all went out and watched the fireworks with very tall palm trees in our way, but it was nice and the added “Let there be Peace on earth” for the holidays was WONDERFUL, much more than the first part, and just so moving. Then on to our room by way of the busses, a bus was waiting so we got right on it. We enjoy coming back to our room, I have the window decorated and lights come on with a timer so our room is very festive, and we were on the ground floor by the elevators, so I know others enjoyed our lights, but I forgot to take any pictures of the window, that is a first.

The next morning was check out time, I had to pack up, and we recently got a small car, traded in a gas guzzler for a economy car, and packing up is a chore in itself, for 3 adults to fit in the car for the 120 miles drive home. So we did manage just fine and then off to the Animal Kingdom, we leave AK for the last day, it closes early, we read 5 pm, but it was extended to 7. Our car is with us and we have a two hour ride home. (and work the next day.) We get into the Animal Kingdom, and I of course spot Stitch and have my picture taken with him, Jim and Chris do not want to, but I convince then they need to take pictures with my camera and then Stitch gets into the act and uses his finger to draw them two into the pictures, it was cute, everyone was laughing at them. We proceeds to the Safari to get fast passes, then head on over to the bird show, one of our favorite shows to see. We saw the vine lady in the walk area, she is just so neat to see, seems like she is finally out more, not sure of her schedule, but seems like we hardly saw her for a year, now we have seen her each time we go. WE just love the bird show, all those magnificent birds up close and personal. We head back for our fast pass times and see the vine lady again, not sure what she is called, but it is neat. WE really enjoy the safari ride, sometimes it seems like they are really rushing it through, you can hardly get a picture in, but still so fun to see the wild elephants and giraffes and hippos and so on, it is fun. Then we do the Pangani Forest exploration trail I just love all the animals, the gorillas and birds, the Meerkats. We then head over to Tuff to be a Bug, always a favorite and the most fun I think is the new people who get poked and sprayed and air blown on them, their reaction just makes it so much fun, beside the fun of the 3-D interactive show. We get our fast passes for Expedition Everest and then go see Nemo, Always so much fun, I just love how they do this show, sometimes I find myself watching the actor and other times the character prop that they are holding, it is so much fun and a wonderful show, and I am glad they enclosed it when they converted it from Tarzan and added AC, I do miss Tarzan but Nemo is a wonderful show. We did our fast passes to Expedition Everest, Then ate at the Flame Tree and sit by the water to watch the mountain and listen to the screams of people on the ride, this time there was a lot of egrets and cranes and ducks wanting hand outs at the tables, one big bird almost took someone’s food right off the plate, it was incredible, I chased them off the pavilion. No one else did. This is where we had seen an alligator when we were there in September, but did not spot him this time; He was small, like a 2 footer. We did the Maharajah Jungle trek, I really love the BIG cats, and they were all sleeping this time of the day. We did see the end of the Jungle parade also, I love Mickey. WE then did the character spot the is just by the bridge from DinoLand, I got my picture taken with Pooh, Eeyore and Tigger in their Christmas attire, I can not tell you how many times I walked by this spot and never noticed the character sign, and since I found it a few years ago, I always go it is always the three of them and always short lines. Oh what fun, then we decided to leave and hit the road it was near 5pm, and we wanted to get home since everyone but me had to work early the next morning.

It was a great get away for the holiday, very crowded parks, especially the Magic Kingdom, my mom had passes away a few weeks before and we needed a get away, I did, I needed to get away, we had also lost my sons wife 2 years ago, so we needed a huge change in our Thanksgiving holiday, and it was fun.



Diane Porter