Disney Christmas Days 5 & 6

On Wednesday the kids and I headed back to the MK to play Sorcerers. We were determined to beat the game on medium! It was a wonderful morning!

It took us three rounds and we got a bit distracted jumping on some rides but we defeated 3 villains and earned the Novice level.

Master Sorcerer Indeed!

We had lunch reservations at the Poly where we were going to meet Mom so around noon we headed out just as the crowds were heading in. It had been a great morning!

Does anyone else have kids that act like complete squirrels the second they get on that monorail? If we get a compartment to ourselves it's like jungle-gym time!

The Poly was gorgeous. But then it always is! Less Christmassy than some of the other Deluxe resorts but then again the theming here doesn't really lend itself to Christmas...

We had an awesome lunch at Kona and our chef was a Paleo eater as well so he knew just what to cook for us!

Polynesian Wreath:

After some chill time back at the resort and a swim in the pool we headed back to the MK for normal fireworks and Wishes.

Another perfect evening! We were so lucky with weather on this trip!

Not too crowded!

We experimented with getting all our FP+ reservations in the evening. It worked really well! In the am everything was a walk-on since we were there for park opening and in the evening we were able to stroll around, ride some less popular attractions with little wait, and stroll right onto the headliners with our FP+ reservations. It'll be interesting to see how this all pans out after the new mine train opens...

We also got a FP+ for Main Street Electrical Parade. BEST DECISION EVER!!!! Our reserved spot was RIGHT in front of the Castle in the central hub in a roped-off area saved just for us. We got there about 20 mins ahead of time and had a perfect spot right on the parade route. Best thing was that as soon as the parade started they took up all the ropes so we had perfect views and then we got to stay right there for the Castle show AND Wishes, so for one FP+ it was like getting 3 things! Mom had a bench to sit on and when everyone came crowding in for Wishes the kids got to stand on the bench so they had perfect views for all 3 things...

What a spot!

This is the best vantage point I have EVER seen the parade from. And we got to see it at Christmas with the dreamlights on the castle.... awesome!

Did I mention it was a perfect spot?

We did make it through the rest of the evening awake and in good spirits but the same cannot be said of the bus ride home...

The next day was Epcot. I love this park. And I LOVE coming in through the International Gateway. Feels like the park is all yours!

Good morning Epcot!

THIS is why you get here for park opening:

We had a great time doing all the headliners in Future World: Mission Space, Test Track, Soarin' you name it. Then we headed to the Norway Pavilion at 10:45 so we would be the first ones in line to meet Anna and Elsa. Yeah..... that didn't pan out. Turns out that people had raced straight there at PARK OPENING and had been sitting for 2 hours waiting for them to show up at 11am. By the time we got there they were taking slots for the 1pm showing. So anyway you slice it Anna and Elsa are a 2 hour wait! I am not a 2 hour wait kind of girl and Thank God, neither are my kids so we ran into the Norway gift shop just hoping to sneak a peek. We were right there when Anna and Elsa came walking right through the shop past where we were standing and said "Good-morning!" to us on the way to their meet and greet area! So we didn't get to take a photo WITH them, but we got to take a photo of them AND get a nice greeting from them, and I'll take that over a 2 hour wait any day! The kids were psyched and we checked A&E off our list.

This is what Epcot felt like pretty much all day. I have never had a more mellow, uncrowded time!

We made our way around just popping into pavilions and checking out exhibits and shops:

And we got to listen to the Christmas Story-tellers in each pavilion! Here's the one in Italy:

Then we headed to France for our Candlelight Processional Lunch. If you get a meal package you get to go straight in to one of the evening shows without a 2+ hour wait. This was soooo worth doing! We had a fabulous meal and later the line for the CP stretched all the way back to Italy! And this was on an uncrowded day!

We went back to the resort for a break and a swim and then headed back into Epcot for the 5:30 CP. It was amazing, inspiring, and so worth the wait!

Our celebrity narrator was Edward James Olmos and he did a great job. If you don't know about the Candlelight Processional it's a narration of the Christmas Story straight out of the Bible, interspersed with the most amazing old-school carols sung by  this massive choir with a live orchestra.
I challenge anyone to go to this and not tear-up!

Afterwards I tried to take a sunset panoramic of my favorite park:

We had dinner in Morocco and then a traditional Scandinavian dessert in Norway. It was the perfect evening. We were headed to take one more ride on Soarin' when we saw that the meet and greet had NO LINES! So we charged in! Mickey was hysterical. He pushed the 3 of us to the side:

And had eyes only for Mom!

She was in heaven! He made such a fuss over her and made her feel so special!

Finally he let the rest of us in for a picture!

Then we got to meet my favorite guy!

Minnie was NONE TOO PLEASED to hear of Mom's special moment with Mickey. She finally forgave us though....

Then it was onto a special viewing area for Illuminations with the Christmas Tag. These two stood in awe for 20 minutes with their arms wrapped around each other. I could barely watch the show, I was having such a great time watching them. It could not have been a more perfect day.

Disney Christmas Day 4!

Day 4 was our "rest day". We knew we were headed to the Christmas party that night so we planned to chill around the resorts, get in a good nap, and then PARTY! We started the day with breakfast at Kouzzina. This breakfast pretty much knocked my socks off. I had turkey and sweet potato hash with poached eggs and arugula salad and it was AMAZING. Sasha and Teddy used the opportunity to score some Mickey waffles. I have to admit I had a bite of the little gluten-bombs. They are as good as I remember. Dammit.

After that we DRAGGED the kids to play mini-golf. They were totally against it. Said they would hate it, couldn't do golf, were allergic, you name it. They loved it and had a total blast. It's hard being right all the time...

We played the summer course and it was so much fun! All beachy and Christmassy at the same time. Kind of like Christmas in SA!

One of my fav holes was this one. You had to get your ball into a depression around this pole and then your ball went up the screw in the middle and popped out the top!

 On this one you had to shoot for the hole at the base of the tree through the gap in the train:

At the end a cast member gave the kids a free themed Christmas golf ball. They wanted to play more mini-golf right that second and begged us to take them to check out all the other mini-golf courses on property (there are 2 more!). I took the moral high-ground and didn't say "I told ya so!"

After golf we headed to the other side of the Epcot resort area to check out the Christmas displays at Yacht and Beach Club. It was a perfect day to ride the boats across the lake!

Yacht club had a huge Christmas train display!

There were so many cool little scenes all around the display that it took a good 10-15 minutes just to walk around and see them all. There was a mini-Radiator Springs, a Christmas town, and a mini-carnival:

Then we went over to Beach Club and they had a carousel made out of CHOCOLATE. Look at Sasha's face! That'll give you an idea of how good it smelled!

Each horse was different and incredibly detailed. And there were 14 little golden hidden Mickeys to find hidden in the display. We found them all!

The ingredient list!

One of the things that blew my mind about Christmas at Disney was the sheer volume of decorations everywhere and how none of them were generic or interchangeable. If you took a Disney fan to the massive Christmas storage building (which I picture being about as big as the warehouse at the end of Raiders of the Lost Arc) it would be pretty easy to point to a garland or wreath and say: That one is for Beach Club, that one is for the Grand Floridian, That one could only be for the Wilderness Lodge and all those are going to Animal Kingdom. EVERY garland and wreath at Yacht club contained some kind of theming with boats, compasses, anchors or helms, and at Beach club they all had starfish, shells, seahorses or little sandcastles. Beautiful!

I guess seeing those chocolate horses really turned on our sweet tooth and we were lucky enough to grab a walk-up at Beaches and Cream! The kids each wanted a "No Way Jose". I talked them into splitting one. Yeah, that was a good choice.

When you consider that for my kids one Oreo would be a pretty amazing treat, this thing was like a Christmas miracle!

Even Teddy and his massive sweet tooth was defeated by that Sundae. Good thing they shared!

After a fantastic nap (nothing like noshing on a load of carbs and then sleeping right?) We headed over to the Wilderness Lodge for dinner and then a boat ride to the party. I loved all the decorations at all the resorts, but WL was my absolute fav. It was so rustic and beautiful!

Love this place!

It was a beautiful night for a Christmas Party!

We hit the party on such a great night! It was perfectly crowded. Enough people to make it festive but no waits for rides or treats and no fighting through the crowds. They even gave us gluten-free cookies at the complementary snack stations!

We found a great place to watch the parade right before it started! (still glowing with the show!) And then just enjoyed the rest of the party.

Our car was at WL so we had to take the boat back there after the party. This turned out to be a plus as the busses and monorail were swamped. The lobby was nearly deserted and the Christmas Tree looked about a mile high! See those little teepees all over the tree that look tiny? They could EASILY fit an 18" American Girl Doll.

You can see one above Sasha's head for scale

Even though we did a lot, the pacing of the day seemed so mellow and with our mid-day nap it really did seem like the perfect "rest day" at Disney!