~A XMAS STORY~decorations, crowds, pixies..AND A BLOODY NOSE~ACTUAL UPDATE 11/9 p190

[MA pigletfan]

YAY!!!! I am IN!!!
I love Anna's family xmas card..adorable!!!!!!!
Can't wait to hear about your trip...oh and that condo looks great!!

 

[CanadianWDWfan]

I have to agree with MeMom a baby is definitely better than Disney!

The christmas card is so cute and it really captures thier spirit. A great holiday memory for them.

I wanted to know if there was a pool at your rental property?

 

[nateryan]

I'm here! Can't wait to hear about another one of your trips.

Love their Christmas card. I used the same one with 3 pics of my boys this year (all 3 pics were taken in Florida.)

 

[Leleluvsdis]

I'm in... so I just recently started looking at the PTR and TR boards, but I am DEF HOOKED!!!

 

[IggyLans]

I love reading your trip reports... Actually I wasn't going to say anything, it feels a little stalker-ish....but we saw you guys at Epcot at TeppanEdo on Thursday, Dec 11, we were waiting to be seated, and you guys were leaving the restaurant, and then on Friday the 12th, at DHS by the Toy Story Mania ride. It was actually kind of neat to recognize someone from the DIS.... Great start to your TR!

 

[the_princess]

I'm in... can't wait to see more christmas pics...

 

[punkin413]

Oh my gosh! Their x-mas card is adorable!

yeah, i thought so to!

Dawn, having a baby trumps Disney any day.

i know, i know. and i'm REALLY excited about it. i will miss disney though. but i know i'll be back relatively soon. ray wants to go back in december of 2010. so maybe we'll be taking a baby with us then!

As cool as Disney is, she is right - a baby is better!

Luke's picture in the middle is very sweet.

i know. and i can't wait to take that baby to disney world!

i love that picture of luke - it shows him in a rare quiet moment.

checking in...........


I LOVE the picture of you on the speed racer thing!

thanks! i like that one too. i realized this trip that i'd never gotten a picture of myself on it. it was cold that night, especially speeding through the woods on that thing!

YAY!!!! I am IN!!!
I love Anna's family xmas card..adorable!!!!!!!
Can't wait to hear about your trip...oh and that condo looks great!!

yay....gina's here!

I have to agree with MeMom a baby is definitely better than Disney!

The christmas card is so cute and it really captures thier spirit. A great holiday memory for them.

I wanted to know if there was a pool at your rental property?

i know and i'm excited about the possibility of starting a family. i just know i will miss disney, but it will be worth it!

and i love their christmas card too!

yes, there was a pool and a hot tub adjacent to the property, but it was shared with other condos in the area. i didn't see it very close but it looked nice from a distance.

I'm here! Can't wait to hear about another one of your trips.

Love their Christmas card. I used the same one with 3 pics of my boys this year (all 3 pics were taken in Florida.)

thanks for joining in!

cool that you have the same card - great minds think alike!

I'm in... so I just recently started looking at the PTR and TR boards, but I am DEF HOOKED!!!

thanks for reading! glad to have you.

I love reading your trip reports... Actually I wasn't going to say anything, it feels a little stalker-ish....but we saw you guys at Epcot at TeppanEdo on Thursday, Dec 11, we were waiting to be seated, and you guys were leaving the restaurant, and then on Friday the 12th, at DHS by the Toy Story Mania ride. It was actually kind of neat to recognize someone from the DIS.... Great start to your TR!

oh, how cool! i wish you would've said something. i love meeting DISers! hope you enjoyed your dinner at teppan edo - we did! when did you see me outside of TSM? i hope it wasn't while we were getting fastpasses because i wasn't happy at that point! i know we walked by there several times though. we didn't actually ride the thing until like 7:45 that night!

 

[punkin413]

I'm in... can't wait to see more christmas pics...

thanks for reading!

 

[tinkgurl]

Dawn..just thought you'd like to know that I mentioned you in my TR already!

 

[punkin413]

Dawn..just thought you'd like to know that I mentioned you in my TR already!

i saw your update where you mentioned me and disney clothes. i just haven't had time to respond yet. thanks - i feel so special! and of course i love all your disney stuff too!!!

 

[tinkgurl]

i saw your update where you mentioned me and disney clothes. i just haven't had time to respond yet. thanks - i feel so special! and of course i love all your disney stuff too!!!

Haha, you're welcome! I just wanted to make sure you saw it so you'd feel recognized!

 

[punkin413]

so i just thought i'd start our first park day before i leave for nashville for christmas. i'm leaving tuesday after work and i knew tomorrow i wouldn't have time because i'll be busy packing and getting everything jammed into my car.

by the way, between anna and i we took over 2,000 pictures in 4 days....so get ready!

oh, and one more thing before i get started...i left my camera battery charger plugged into the outlet in the bathroom at the condo and the owner is so nice - he overnighted it to me and i'll get it tomorrow - in time for christmas! such a nice guy!!!

-----------------------------------------------
so when i left you we had hit the hay, very tired from our long and turbulent drive down to orlando. we didn't set any alarms for this day because i know i didn't get to bed until like 2:00 a.m. and ray and chris were up even later. i think i woke up around 9:00 and then woke ray up about 30 minutes later. we ate breakfast, showered and got ready to hit epcot! i checked the weather on the internet before we headed out and it said scattered thunderstorms until around 1:00....no biggie.

getting ready to hit epcot!

little did we know that the forecaster who typed in "scattered" on that forecast was an idiot!

we got there around 11:15 and we parked at the boardwalk because we wanted to see their christmas decorations first. when we got there it was drizzling but nothing horrible.

going into our first disney resort!

i LOVED the christmas decorations here! they're so bright and colorful, with lots of red and blue.

notice the guy snoozing in the chair!

here's the gazebo with donald and daisy. so cool!

i love all the little details......

the ingredients for the gazebo.....

the poinsettas outside were so pretty but we couldn't get good pictures because it was raining.

we had thought about eating lunch out on the boardwalk. there were a few choices out there: spoodles pizza window, the boardwalk bakery (which has sandwiches) and the little kiosks along the boardwalk. but it was raining and so that plan was down the drain. so instead we decided to head over to the beach club, look at their decorations, then go to beaches and cream for lunch. we were gonna head there anyway to get the kitchen sink - we'd just eat lunch there too and then have ice cream afterwards (everyone sharing a lunch, of course, to save room for all the ice cream!)

when we looked outside, it didn't look too bad, so we decided to forego the ponchos and just use our hoodies. ray and i walked under the awnings for as long as we could........

luke didn't seem to mind the rain.........

neither did this guy. and no, i didn't take this picture. i try not to look at the birds.

continued in next post: http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=29267423&postcount=53

 

[punkin413]

still so pretty, even in the rain!

look at all the birds!

as we walked the rain got heavier and HEAVIER....AND HEAVIER!!!!!! it was POURING by the time we got to the beach club.

thank goodness they had towels at the entrance to the beach club because we were SOAKED when we got there!

the first thing we saw was the gingerbread carousel. it smelled really good in there!

i took pictures of each individual horse....

and this guy named claus wasn't on the carousel for some reason....

the ingredients........

tink watched over the carousel again....she's everywhere!

they also had a pirate ship with captain jack sparrow....

and a castle with belle (snow white was on the other side)......

anna felt at home at the beach club!

here's one of the christmas trees. i didn't like it as much as the boardwalk - it was a little too pastel-y for me. but still very pretty!!!

ray insisted on getting us those disney parks ponchos. i hated spending money on those, but he wanted them. after he got those in the gift shop, we headed towards beaches and cream. we were all hungry! we got there and the hostess said it would be 45 minutes to an hour for a table. we were all really hungry and wanted to eat. plus by this time it was almost noon i knew if we waited for a table, THEN ate, we'd get a really late start at epcot. so we decided to bypass beaches and cream and the kitchen sink. i know....THE TRAGEDY!!!!!! i was really looking forward to it. but you know trips never go exactly how we plan and if we get upset at those things, we'd be miserable. so i just tell myself, "it's something you do next time."

so being that we were starving, i knew that the best CS at epcot in future would was sunshine seasons and we had to get fastpasses to soarin anyway, so we decided to trudge that way in the rain. anna and chris had to tie luke's poncho up at the bottom so it wouldn't drag, but he didn't mind at all - he loved it!

heading out into the DOWNPOUR!!!!!

that's all for now. up next....just how wet would we be by the time we get to the land? and a day at epcot!

 

[VandyFan10]

still so pretty, even in the rain!

It is....I love this resort too!! If I had my choice of DVC places I really don't know what I would choose. You know I love the Wilderness Lodge!! But I really like the Boardwalk too! And now they are building the new ones at the Contemporary they look REALLY nice. I would to stay there with a view of the castle . Even as much as I like these other resorts that just keeps creeping into my mind....it would be wonderful!!

I'm so sorry it rained so hard on you guys that day!

I also need to go back and look at my horses from last year and see if they made different ones

Great update! I'm so excited I'll get to see you in a few days!!!

 

[AussieAngel]

Check out the girl behind him totally posing for your photo too!! Maybe she was playing on the DIS boards on her laptop right at that very moment...

Fun start to your trip report, even if it was a bit rainy!

 

[MeMom]

I keep feeling like I need to grab a towel to read this report. Rain, rain, rain! I'm sorry you had to start out like that. We had none on our Thanksgiving trip. The ponchos were ready, but unused, so they're on call for the next trip -whether that ends up being in March (keep those fingers crossed!) or in July.

The decorations are neat. We didn't make it over to either of those resorts this trip, so it's nice to get to see the ones we missed.

That's a cute picture of Luke strolling along under the umbrella.

 

[Charleston Princess]

All that rain! What a bummer!!! Sorry that you missed the kitchen sink, but I would have been the same way -- I hate waiting, especially when I know I need to be heading to a park.

Out of curiosity, how long a walk do you think it was from the Boardwalk to the Beach Club, and then from the Beach Club to Epcot?

I love all the Christmas decorations -- especially the gingerbread carousel -- all that detailing really is just amazing!

 

[hlrababy]

Awww, what a wet start!!! The boardwalk looks gorgeous!! I would really like to go and visit there sometime!
I love the ship with Capt. Jack!! They really do go all out with the gingerbread houses!!!

 

[2xcited2sleep]

Hurrah! You started! Can't believe you're already on page 4! Where have I been?? Oh yeah, I was at Disney too but unfortunately I didn't see you guys. I did think about you guys often, though.

Especially with the birds. Is it just me or is the bird problem out of control? They were dive-bombing people in Epcot. It was scary!

So the condo looks great. Like CP/Jackie said, even better than the pictures in your PTR. Love the Mickey Paint Chip poster! There's an art project for us DIS'ers!

Love Anna, Chris and Luke's Christmas card! Looks like Luke liked the Jungle parade!

The rain. Was that Thursday the 11th? That's the day I arrived and I think it was a monsoon. Scattered my you-know-what! Sorry you didn't get to try Beaches 'n Cream but you know you'll be back and it's always fun to have new things to try!

Gotta love Beach Club w/ the towels out for people coming in from the rain. Ahh... the deluxe life!

I think you're off on your holiday travels tomorrow. Have a safe trip. We'll be looking forward to hearing more about Disney and your holiday when you get back. Merry Christmas!!!

 

[kschafer]

Wow, a wet start to Disney. You hate to be disappointed because after all...it's Disney, but it is a shame. Sorry you didn't get to have your Kitchen Sink. It's a good reminder that you can't possibly do it all so relax and have fun!

Question: when you park at the boardwalk to visit, do they not enforce the time limit?