60th Birthday Celebration at Christmastime - Nov. 30-Dec. 4, 2016 UPDATE: Post #2

[dramadrew]

My dad and stepmom turned 60 this year and to celebrate, they are taking their children and grandchildren to Disney World! The only thing we have to pay for is our flight down, souvenirs, and fastpasses. It was a no brainer to accept this offer. We are going November 30-December 4, 2016. We are all staying at the Art of Animation Resort in the Lion King suites. We all have the dining plan.

Being a planner, it's been a struggle to get my family on board. In honesty, it isn't going to happen. All of them are going with the flow and won't even select what park to go to each day until they get down there. So ADR and FP selections are pretty much nonexistent for them. However, we have been encouraged to go off and do our own thing, we'll all be together for two family meals, so that is my plan. Hopefully some of them will join me on certain days, but it's now out of my hands. It's still tough to accept!

CAST OF CHARACTERS:
(Only including two as the report will be based our plan)


Andrew (Review Writer)


Aren't we Darling? by Andrew King, on Flickr

Favorite Disney Movie: The Lion King
Favorite Disney Attractions: Haunted Mansion and Splash Mountain
What To Look Forward to in this Trip: MVMCP and seeing the park through my nieces and nephews eyes. Also seeing the park at Christmastime!

Ryan (DH)

They got in! by Andrew King, on Flickr

Favorite Disney Movie: Beauty and the Beast
Favorite Disney Attractions: Haunted Mansion, Everest Expedition, and the Mountains.

Come join us for this trip. We've got a little over two months yet and I am sure to update until then.

 

[LadyEllie]

Joining in! Looking forward to your updates and how you navigate your planning resistant family. I feel your pain. You and DH look like fun people, so I know you'll have an awesome trip.

 

[dramadrew]

Preliminary Schedule

Wednesday, November 30:

• Arrive in Orlando around 8:40 AM
• Try to check into Art of Animation Resort or leave luggage.
• Arrive at Hollywood Studios around 10 AM-12 PM
• Tower of Terror 12:40 PM FP
• Possible Standby for Rockin' Rollercoaster
• Star Tours 1:55 PM FP
• Toy Story Mania 2:55 PM FPT
• Characterpalooza
• Take bus to Animal Kingdom late afternoon
• Enjoy nightlife at AK until closing at 7 PM
• Maybe a pit stop to AKL to see their Christmas tree
• Take bus to Polynesian Resort
• Dinner at 'Ohana at 9:20 PM
• Listen and watch Wishes from 'Ohana (depending on table location)
• If not tired, a quick walk through Magic Kingdom
• Head back to Art of Animation Resort

Thursday, December 1:

• Arrive at 8 AM for EMH
• RD to Frozen Ever After, standby line.
• Attempt standby for Soarin'
• Test Track 9:05 AM FP
• Spaceship Earth 10:10 AM FP
• Do attractions in front of EP.
• Family breakfast at Cape May Cafe at 10:45 AM
• Mission Space 1:40 PM FP
• World Showcase
• Dinner at La Hacienda at 6:30 PM
• IllumiNations

Friday, December 2:

• Day at Animal Kingdom
• K. Safari 9:50 AM FP
• Expedition Everest 11:15 AM FP
• Dinosaur 12:20 PM FP
• FOLK, and possibly the other shows
• Possible pit stop to Disney Springs with emphasis of meeting Coca Cola Polar Bear.
• Arrive to Magic Kingdom for MMVMCP!
• Try to meet Pooh & Gang and Mary Poppins & Gang
• Watch Castle Holiday Show and Parade

Saturday, December 3:

• Magic Kingdom Day
• Space Mountain 11:30 AM FP
• Splash Mountain 12:30 AM FP
• Mine Train 2:05 PM FP
• Festival of Fantasy Parade 3 PM
• Dinner at BOG at 4 PM
• Wrap up the day at MK

 

[LadyEllie]

Great trip plans. You have to make it to Candlelight Processional. It is Neil Patrick Harris's last day to narrate, I'm so jealous! They haven't announced the narrator for the day I'm going, Dec 22nd. Why don't you try a dining package at La Hacienda or San Angel, so you don't have to wait in line for hours. It would be an early dinner 4:30 to 5:30pm start, but you'll probably be hungry about then after the big brunch that morning.

You mentioned Cape May as a family meal, which is the second?

 

[dramadrew]

I actually have an early appointment to I think it's La Hacienda. I'm on the dining program, would the dining package cost extra? Our second big family meal is Be Our Guest on our last night together.

 

[LadyEllie]

Candlelight Processional Dining Package is two table service credits. Out-of-pocket for La Hacienda package would be $76.50, and includes appetizers, entrée, dessert and non-alcoholic beverage. You would need to change your current reservation over to the dining package.

 

[dramadrew]

Candlelight Processional Dining Package is two table service credits. Out-of-pocket for La Hacienda package would be $76.50, and includes appetizers, entrée, dessert and non-alcoholic beverage. You would need to change your current reservation over to the dining package.

I will pass on this then. I already spent extra money on the Christmas Party in MK. This isn't a necessity. Thanks for the information!

 

[dramadrew]

Fastpasses are in place. I even had my stepsister make some for her family, her brothers family, and for the grandparents. I set some in place for my sister to match mine on a couple of days. My schedule seems kind of opposite of my step family, but we still have family meals together. And you never know what could change with the flexibility of park hoppers!

 

[LadyEllie]

Oh my gosh! You performed a miracle by getting your non-planning family to do some planning! Glad to here about your Fastpass success. My date is this Wednesday. Wish me luck!

 

[dramadrew]

Oh my gosh! You performed a miracle by getting your non-planning family to do some planning! Glad to here about your Fastpass success. My date is this Wednesday. Wish me luck!

Best of luck! Yes, my stepsister called me and she mentioned how they went down for a day a couple years ago with no plan and it was a nightmare. So she got her family on board!

 

[dramadrew]

Haunted Mansion will now be closed our whole trip. Our little hearts are breaking! Another challenge we have is when to go to Hollywood Studios for their night show. May park hop on our EP or MK day and return to original park after that.

 

[dramadrew]

Now comes to the challenge for DH and I to squeeze in Jingle Bells, Jingle BAM or Disney Springs. I'm trying to let go of something because I don't want the trip rushed because I planned too much. I was going to do JBJB after BOG on Saturday, but I don't want to rush through that dinner. And I always enjoy ending a Disney trip in the Magic Kingdom. I'm thinking maybe doing it during our Epcot day, we'll be there for EMH so I'm sure we can get a lot done. If we push back our La Hacienda dinner to 9:15, we could make it back to EP by then and watch Illuminations in the restaurant.

 

[dramadrew]

Who doesn't need a trip to WDW right about now? My manager is there this week at a conference and will hit MK on Sunday. My supervisor is going a few days before me with her family. They just decided this yesterday. Something's in the water!

 

[LadyEllie]

Getting closer!!!! i can feel your excitement growing.

I'm packing in too much for our trip too. Realizing I may miss JBJB because we may be too tired. So much to do in too little time.

 

[dramadrew]

Getting closer!!!! i can feel your excitement growing.

I'm packing in too much for our trip too. Realizing I may miss JBJB because we may be too tired. So much to do in too little time.

We nixed it after the bad reviews. I like park hopping, but I don't want to make the trip stressful either. So we'll just stay at Epcot on Thursday.

 

[LadyEllie]

You are just a few days out now! How exciting!?! Have a magical trip.

 

[MrsIncredibleNY]

Following! Your trip is so close, how exciting!

Preliminary Schedule

Wednesday, November 30:

• Arrive in Orlando around 8:40 AM
• Try to check into Art of Animation Resort or leave luggage.
• Arrive at Hollywood Studios around 10 AM-12 PM
• Tower of Terror 12:40 PM FP
• Possible Standby for Rockin' Rollercoaster
• Star Tours 1:55 PM FP
• Toy Story Mania 2:55 PM FPT
• Characterpalooza
• Take bus to Animal Kingdom late afternoon
• Enjoy nightlife at AK until closing at 7 PM
• Maybe a pit stop to AKL to see their Christmas tree
• Take bus to Polynesian Resort
• Dinner at 'Ohana at 9:20 PM
• Listen and watch Wishes from 'Ohana (depending on table location)
• If not tired, a quick walk through Magic Kingdom
• Head back to Art of Animation Resort

MK is open til 1 a.m. that night so I would totally try to stay out late if i were you but I'm not sure how you operate on little sleep.

 

[dramadrew]

Following! Your trip is so close, how exciting!



MK is open til 1 a.m. that night so I would totally try to stay out late if i were you but I'm not sure how you operate on little sleep.

I could probably do it, but DH may be tuckered out. We have to get up like 4:30 AM too so I don't want to push it. So I'm going to play it by ear. Hopefully with an earlier dinner, we can get a walk around in still.

 

[dramadrew]

So I haven't checked today, but a good chunk of our family hasn't received their luggage tags for the Magical Express. So my stepmother worries and messages our TA who messages me to ask I repeat to my stepmom what she told them about alternative plans so my SM is convinced. So I have that prearrival stress. Then my sister calls me up because my parents are stressing her out with, "Well have you done this?" so she has to check that I already did for her, which of course I did. Then the parents go through in their lets plan last minute and want all the grandkids with them on the first night. But my sister and niece planned Universal on the first day. My father's reasoning was, "Well that's the only night MK is open late." .... As I think in my head I sent them an email with hours and we're doing our family dinner Saturday night at MK because it's open late. So I had to shoot them a message to remind them of that and how if my niece does a park on Wednesday, she can't do one on Sunday with her mom as they planned. I probably won't be able to be comfortable until I know everyone made it to their destined park come Wednesday. May need a few drinks around the World. ;-)

 

[dramadrew]

Before I start getting into the review, here are some highlights from the trip:

• The Art of Animation Resort was awesome and I adored all the sketches in the common areas and even the hotel room.
• Although we did not get to see Betty Shambles, DH did chat with Norma Desmond who said he was naughty and wouldn't get what he wanted for Christmas. She made a random comment she was going to Sea World the next day and my DH asked if she was Shamu (later explained the star attraction). She responded, "Are you calling me OLD or FAT? I am NOT FAT. I am under tall!"
• The sunset safari was beautiful and we saw some of their night animals, like the hyenas. The lions were active too.
• Riding EE in the dark was a blast and it made the Yeti at the end stick out more which made it scarier. I also enjoyed the tree of life coming alive with light projections.
• Dinner at 'Ohana was AMAZING. We adored their bread and bread pudding dessert!
• We were first in line for Frozen Ever After. We were asked if we were there for Akersus (?) breakfast and we said we were waiting for FEA. They were shocked they did rope drop so early, before 8 AM and we had to wait. We both enjoyed the ride, even if though we liked Maelstrom.
• La Befana was an excellent holiday storyteller.
• Festival of Lion King was an great show and we were glad to see it this time around.
• At the Christmas party we met the Pooh Gang and both loved the stage show and parade. Clarabelle Cow made it in a lot of my photos.
• Snow on Main Street is wonderful.
• Haunted Mansion did indeed open back up on 12/2 and DH was thrilled. We also loved Memento Mori!
• BOG is even better during Christmas. The Beast was quite a fan of DH who said he loved him. He even requested they get a photo separately. Watch out Belle!
• Hokey Pokey - ing with Clarabelle Cow was the icing on the cake. I probably had more interaction with the CM by me than her, but darn it we got some fun photos.