Christmas 2021 trip report

[GBRforWDW]

❄​

This last year has been filled with Disney trips and earning points via Credit cards, so as we neared the end of the year, we thought why not use those points and visit Disney World one more time!

In this trip report, I'll go over the itenerary:

1. Points used
2. Flights/airports
   1. OMA MSP MCO - Dec. 19
   2. MCO ▶ ATL ▶ OMA - Dec. 25
3. Hotels
   1. Clarion Suites - Kissimmee Dec 19-20
   2. Cambria airport hotel - Orlando Dec 20 - 25
4. Parks
   1. Animal Kingdom - Dec 21
      1. Part 1
      2. Part 2
      3. Part 3
   2. Magic Kingdom - Dec 22
      1. Part 1
      2. Part 2
      3. Part 3
   3. Epcot - Dec 23
      1. Part 1
      2. Part 2
   4. Hollywood Studios - Dec 24
      1. Part 1​
      2. Part 2​
5. Restaurants
   1. Harambe Market
   2. FlameTree BBQ
   3. Storybook Dining at Artist Point
   4. Rose and Crown
   5. Space 220 lounge
   6. Woody's lunchbox
   7. Hollywood and Vine
   8. Topolinos

We had a lot of fun on our trip and look forward to sharing the details and pictures with you. Please feel free to follow along and make comments or ask questions! I love talking about our trips to Disney parks!

 

[GBRforWDW]

In early November, I put together a spreadsheet of dates with best flights, hotels, car rental and ticket prices.

The flights, we've been flying Delta for a few years now, were all over the place in terms of points, but we had a couple of good options; either late Monday Dec 20th to Christmas night for 16,000 points or Sunday Dec 19th to Christmas night for 20,000 points. As we debated pros and cons, we decided on Monday night, but by then the flight increased to 20,000 points. After a bit more discussion, we decided to go Sunday instead, might as well at the same rate. We weren't thrilled with a Christmas day return flight, but thought an evening flight would be ok.

For hotels, I earned enough points with Choice hotels to stay for an entire week or more for free. We chose the Clarion in Kissimmee as it was close to the park entrances. It was only 12,000 points per night, so we knew we'd have points for another trip. Seemed like a sensible place at the time.

When looking for tickets, I decided to go with a 3rd party company to purchase tickets as they were slightly less, I think I saved about $100 total. Fortunately we bought these early in November as we were able to get the park reservations secured before dates started selling out on the Disney Parks Reservation Calendar. I did hold off a bit on buying as I thought I needed to get my minimum spend requirement met on my new chase Sapphire in order to use for the tickets, but turned out I could only do a pay yourself back option, so it wouldn't have mattered. With this card, I was getting 100k points once I met the MSR, which ended up being $1000 plus points for other purchases, I ended up being able to pay myself back with $1100 of the $1800 we spent on tickets.

Up front, we were paying about $1000 out of pocket with our rental car payment, before food and other costs, which seemed like a pretty good deal when going to Disney World.

I've written more on how I have done credit card churning on my blog. Feel free to check it out if interested:
https://the360ofdisney.com/credit-card-churning/
You can also get a head start on some of our adventures. The blog is mainly to share my 360° pictures in an actual web viewer. It's become a fun hobby for me. So I'll focus more on my regular pictures here.

 

[GBRforWDW]

After getting the trip set up and finalized, we were already within 60 days to book dining reservations. So I started searching for things I thought we might want. After our Disneyland trip, I said Maybe we should slow up on sit down meals, but figured going Christmas week, we might appreciate having some dining reservations.

Early on, I was able to find a Candlelight Processional package from Biergarten for Dec 23rd and Hollywood and Vine for the 24th. I really wanted to switch those around. I would have like the CP on Christmas Eve. I set up some Touring Plans alerts for Topolinos breakfast and scace 220. Really wanted to see that restaurant.

Along the way, reservations opened for Storybook Dining at Artist Point. I set alarms to wake up for that one, but woke up 15 minutes late. Did score one for 430. A little early, but we'd work around it. Then out of nowhere, Space 220 lounge started offering reservations. I was only able to get 7:50 and we had the 7pm CP.

I ended up getting Touring Plans alerts for Topolinos Christmas morning breakfast and Oga's on Christmas Eve after I set that one up when we got the Space 220 reservation.

I also found a reservation for Edison's at Disney Springs for Monday the 20th,, so we were technically all set. Then a Rose and Crown CP opened and was spaced enough I could carry both until we decided which we should do, which we ended up not deciding until we were in Orlando to do R&C with an earlier CP time. This allowed us not to be rushed to Space 220.

This ended up being the extent of the dining reservations, the rest would be mobile order.

 

[GBRforWDW]

With all plans in place, we were ready to go! On Sunday December 19th, we finalized our packing and headed to the airport. Our hometown airport usually isn't too packed, but when we flew in August and had a 5:30am flight, there were long lines for bag check and security, so I wanted to make sure we got there in plenty of time. The lines we see here never ever resemble Orlando.

When we arrive, there's no line... At all. We head straight to the counter, they check our bags and kids booster seat (if you aren't aware and I'm realizing some aren't, kids seats and strollers fly free on nearly all airlines. It may be a bit of a chore at times but sure beats renting something you're not familiar with).

Head down to security and once again, no one there! Guess we just got lucky with the time of our flight, so we ended up having plenty of time to wait for our flight to get snacks and relax. I'm always nervous until this point usually for no reason other than I want us to get past security and be ready to board the plane.



The flight to Minneapolis was uneventful and quick. However when we landed we received a sad update regarding my grandpa. My grandparents contracted Covid around Thanksgiving. My grandma didn't seem too affected other than typically cold/flu symptoms. My grandpa had to go to the hospital a few days, but was released. Then a week later went back in for pneumonia. Leading up to the trip we were getting near daily updates including that morning. The family said he had ate some breakfast and was resting, so it seemed like at least for now he was ok. But I guess at some point, along with grandma and the doctors and nurses, my grandpa made the decision to have care terminated. At 93, he was just done with illness and losing eyesight, etc. So that was difficult to hear, but being in an airport away from home and not knowing exactly what that meant as far as timeline, etc, so we continued on.

At the Minneapolis airport, we had a 4 hour layover. Inside the terminal we were in, there's a kid play area where my daughter spent at least an hour playing. Many other kids came and went, but she was having a lot of fun. They have a giant plane and a tram and a few other things to play on.

On our flight to Orlando, we were flying over a city about an hour from where my grandparents live, so my daughter and I sent some love over to them. Was about the closest we could get to them. We landed in Orlando and got off the plane and felt the warm air. We were excited to be out of the northern cold weather, though to be fair the weather had been mild to that point.


Hello MCO!

The luggage was waiting for us when we got to baggage claim. Then we made our way to car rental where again not too many people were located. Was pretty quick getting out, which was good considering it was after 11 pm.

We drove to the hotel, Clarion Suites, in Kissimmee. Took about 25 minutes, but fairly easy to find. Shortly after getting checked in and luggage unloaded, into the room, we got the call from my dad that grandpa had passed on. Definitely wasn't expecting such a quick progression. We decided to sleep before trying to decide what to do. Wasn't going to be easy rearranging the plans after we'd already arrived in Florida.

Ultimately we Decided to keep the plans we already had. Part of our decision was based on my daughter having a tonsillectomy once we returned home, so we couldn't really extend our plans and didn't want her to have only negative things happening on her short school break. The other part was that we didn't have any good flight options to get us to the area of Illinois we needed to go and back in the short amount of time we had, most likely I would have went alone leaving the rest in Florida for a couple days. It was definitely difficult not being with family for the funeral, though we were also sort of surprised they were doing it 2 days before Christmas. We did find out the service was really short, Grandpa didn't want a long one, so in the end, that helped justify the decision not to go.

 

[GBRforWDW]

Monday morning, we had to find a place to go for a PCR test for my daughter as the doctor needed one for her tonsillectomy. Can I just say how dumb this is? We're doing a test for covid 1 week before a procedure, then we're spending 4 days at Disney theme parks and flying home.. And that's just not for us, anyone seeing a doctor needs this. Really a waste of test supplies.

Ok, so I'm scouring the CVS website trying to find an available time at an available location, starting near Disney and moving further and further away. Finally found one .. by the airport for a 10am timeslot. I get registered and try to get everyone out of bed and ready to go, meanwhile wife is arguing that theres gotta be a better time or spot. I asked her if she signed up for one, she didn't, so I said this is the best timeslot and place then.

On the way, she complains about the hotel room. I'm thinking, we got this free with points and we're right next to the parks for free, but she doesn't think she can survive here. There was a lot of visible mold in the bathroom and we have had issues in the past with Terrible air quality from those little air conditioner units that sit below the window of hotel rooms, collecting mold and mildew.

So she calls around and finds a room at the Cambria airport hotel. Unfortunately we didn't check out and pack our car with our stuff, so after we get the PCR test done, we head back to Kissimmee and do that. The front desk staff lets me know I have to contact choice hotels for a refund on the points.

I sent a message after getting settled in the new hotel. I heard back a couple days later that it was the wrong department but they were forwarding to the correct dept. I didn't hear back for 2 weeks, so I followed up. They wanted more info and after I gave it to them they did refund the points.

We pull up to the Cambria and realize it's a brand new hotel. Talking to the front desk staff, it just opened in the summer. I ask about pool restrictions, the Cambria in Anaheim is very strict on pool usage etc, he said nothing like that here, so that's good. Hotel room is only a little over $100 a night. Not bad, this hotel brand is very nice. We've enjoyed every stay we've had at the Cambria's.

These rooms have a central air system and each room has a thermostat to make you feel like you can control the room temp. Of course you can't, they want that control. The rest of the room is very nice. Beds are large and everything looks clean. Vinyl flooring throughout the main area. Large screen tv with local digital cable. Bathroom has a large walk in shower and a large vanity and mirror making it easy to spread out while getting ready.

After settling in, the kid is wanting to go swimming. My wife wants to rest, so I take kid down to the pool after stopping by the front desk for towels. We step into the pool and it is freeeeezing cold. There is no warmth to it at all. Of course, the temp is below 70° so probably not the best swim weather, but dang we're in Florida and would expect to be able to swim. It starts to rain a little bit, so we head back in. Boo weather.

I had a dining reservation for The Edison in Disney Springs. I keep wanting to go, but my wife is not one for doing everything every day at Disney. Also an hour later and it's raining pretty good, so we stay at the hotel to eat. They have a restaurant and bar in the lobby. The food turns out to be really good. Definitely worth it and even better to not drive 30 minutes for dinner, walk around in the cold for a bit then drive 30 minutes to get back.

Tomorrow is the first Disney day, so I'll start up a new post soon. For now, here's a link to my blog review of the hotel situation:

https://the360ofdisney.com/2021/12/26/orlando-offsite-hotel-report/

 

[GBRforWDW]

Ok, finally, the important part of this trip ..

Park Day #1 - Animal Kingdom - 12/21/2021

PART 1:
Our first park day has arrived and it's... Pouring down rain... That's ok, my wife scheduled a 9am chiropractor appointment to try to fix her neck/back issues. Looking at the radar, maybe there's a chance Disney World area will be clear by the time we arrive.

At 7am, I'm on Genie+ ready to make our first selection. I started refreshing as I knew we'd probably want an afternoon time slot to ensure we had plenty of time to arrive. It seemed to take awhile, but finally, Na'vi River Journey finally reached 1pm, so I selected that. After a bit, I noticed all the times went back to earlier in the morning. 10 minute rule coming into effect, so at least I had that time.

I had taken my computer to work a little on my part time job while there. Since it's be a few hours before we came close to leaving, I pulled that out and started working to keep my mind busy. Official park opening for the day was 8am, so I'd keep an eye on Flight of Passage as it hasn't sold out yet. The FoP return times just slowly creep along as the time gets closer to 8am. I'm thinking I have a chance as an offsite guest to grab this, woohoo... Until 7:58, the final pass goes. I am now realizing the last pass return time is 30 minutes before park closing. Ok, no big deal, it would have only been me riding as the kids not ready to try it and wife, even though she rode in January and loved it, doesn't think she can with her neck issues.

I keep working, wife slowly gets ready for her 9am appointment. It's only a mile up the road from our new hotel, so that worked out that we found one near by. I periodically refresh Genie+ just seeing if something opens, due to 10 minute rule. Fingers crossed, but nothing pops up. I eventually give up hard core checking, but due to fidgeting would occasionally open the phone and let Genie refresh. And then it happened, at about 9:06, 66 minutes after park opening, at least one time slot is available. I clicked on it and noticed several hours available to click, 10, 11 and 12 I believe. Not sure why but I just clicked 11 and then 11am thinking we'd have plenty of time to get there. Then immediately realizing our other Pandora ride is at 1. Too late, I already purchased, but I have a time!

At 10am, chiropractor was still hassling with insurance, but was close to being done. I make our second Genie+ picking up Festival of the Lion King at noon. All return times are slowly creeping along. Rain must be keeping people away. I then start getting myself and kid ready as well as our Disney bag, the bag where we'll keep everything we think we need for the park. We stuff it full, including a towel in case we need to wipe and seats down.

Wife finishes at chiro at 1015 and stops by CVS on the way back to the hotel to grab umbrellas and ponchos. We head to the lobby and hop in the car when she arrives. It's still raining. We get to Animal Kingdom around 10:45. Maybe we have time for me to get to go to Flight of Passage before our Lion King return time. We get the stroller out, loading it up while trying to control the umbrellas so things aren't getting wet. Somehow, my wife loses her phone in this madness. She had it right up until we parked. But we cannot find it. In the car, under the car, stroller, bag, nowhere to be found. Tried calling, nothing. After 15 minutes, we give up and start walking to the park. Surely we'll find it eventually.

By the time we're in the park and people use the restroom, it's between 11:20 and 11:30. Basically enough time to get to the Lion King check-in, so I decided skip FoP. Our shoes are already nice and wet by that time, barely being out of the car and in the park. Oh well at least we'll be inside for the show. Prior to Covid, we had only been to WDW once and never to Animal Kingdom. This was our second Covid trip, but first time with shows, so this is going to be our first opportunity at seeing the Festival of the Lion King.









The show was a lot of fun. Between the journey of the animatronic characters and the singing and dancing by the actors the show was very exciting to be a part of. I would love to watch it again to get more out of it, but the fire scene was probably my favorite part of the show.

As we were waiting to exit the show, we created a mobile order at Harambe Market since it was near by and we hadn't eaten much food. We make our way back to where I thought it was, find someone getting up from their table in a covered seating area. We sit down and wait to get notified the food is ready. Then I notice we're at the lounge outside of Tusker House. We decided to keep the table since it was covered, even though the rain had stopped for a bit. I walked to Harambe Market and grabbed our food. I had a chicken and rib bowl, my wife had a bowl of some sort and kid had chicken tenders with fries. I forgot the ketchup, so she had a rough go eating it, but survived. The chicken and ribs were pretty good, though a bit dry. They still had a good grilled flavor that made the meal enjoyable.


While we dined, I made our next Genie+ selection at 12:45. I technically could have made it as soon as we were in the theater for the Lion King show, but the times were still barely moving and I wasn't satisfied with the return times for anything. At lunch, Dinosaur had moved out past 5, so I grabbed that even though we really wanted to do safari, I just didn't think the return time was convenient, I think it was 1:30 and we were going to Pandora next, so we'd have to head to the front of the park and right back.

After lunch, we headed to Pandora... But I made a wrong turn! We found ourselves in front of the Tree of Life with a Winged Encounters show just about to get started. Perfect timing! We hadn't seen this before either, but it was really quick, almost hard to capture good pictures, but it was fun seeing so many colorful birds flying around.





we were sort of far away, but I was able to capture some great zoomed in images on my new phone. I ordered the Google Pixel 6 pro when they were first announced in October because I wanted a phone with better zoom. Those birds look pretty good, so I'd call it a success. The new phone has 20x zoom while the old was only 7x.

We also spotted our first golden statues of the trip in the area.







oh hello Tree of Life! Tried to get it centered between us, but failed miserably. We decided to hit up a gift shop to look for clean/dry socks for everyone as the rain had stopped, and our feet were soaked. I got themed socks. The birds from Nemo, with the word Mine all over them and some Incredibles socks. My daughter got Mickey and Minnie socks. It definitely felt good replacing wet socks with dry ones.

alright, this is a good time to end Part 1 of the Animal Kingdom day. My blog for Animal Kingdom mostly covers things that happened after this, so you can get a sneak peak on what we did after Pandora here:

https://the360ofdisney.com/2022/01/04/animal-kingdom-africa-360-photo-report/
I'll have part 2 including our time in Pandora up hopefully later today, but maybe tomorrow, depending on time available. Thanks for reading!

 

[GBRforWDW]

Park Day #1 - Animal Kingdom - 12/21/2021

PART 2:
After the bird show and grabbing socks, we made our way back to Pandora, parked the stroller by the Na'vi entrance and scanned into the Lightning Lane entrance. There was very few people in the LL line at this time, so we walked all the way through and was on the ride in under 5 minutes. It's such a neat ride with the bioluminescent colors and the screens with animals appearing all around. And of course the Shaman there to greet you with a song. It does feel incredibly short, but still fun.

After the ride, I grabbed the 360° camera as Pandora is the perfect place to grab those types of pictures. I can't really add 360 pics here, so check out my blog report to see each of the pictures:
https://the360ofdisney.com/2021/12/29/pandora-the-world-of-avatar-in-360/
If you read that first, you'll know this next part... As I mentioned in the last post, I missed my return time for Flight of Passage, mainly because my wife had the Dr appointment and by the time we got to the park, it was time for Festival of the Lion King. So, while we were back in Pandora, I talked with the cast member gate keepers of the FoP Lightning Lane and explained that I had a pass, showed them my email receipt etc and they asked if there were any extenuating circumstances that prevented me from getting there on time, so I let them know about the chiropractor appointment and that we just couldn't get there on time.

He was gracious and let me through! I was very excited, having never been on before. The line seemed backed up, I probably waited 15-20 minutes. When I was nearing the end but still had a good amount of people ahead, they were looking for a single rider. I waited until they got closer down to me to see if anyone further up was going Solo, but finally raised my hand, yay for skipping the line!

I was excited but nervous, I don't usually do great on motion rides and I knew that this was a lot of motion. We made it through the preshow rooms, I get into the ride vehicle and wow this thing is amazing. For me to deal with motion, I've trained myself to focus on something in the distance, so for the most part, that aspect isn't too bad. The ride itself is so cool though, wow! Incredible. Really really loved it.

Ok, after the ride, I caught back up with the family, but first I catch the character flotilla passing by on the river. I didn't have much time to get a picture, but was able to see Timon and Rafiki:


It was about 2:45 and almost time for next LL selection. I find a time for Kilimanjaro Safari at 3:20, but it won't let me select, too soon. There's a glitch with the screen that tells you you're too soon that affects some people, it doesn't include when you can choose again, so I try again and again, eventually seeing 3:25, then no more times available. Crap I missed out and the posted wait time was nearly an hour. We were just going to do some walking, but I refreshed again and got a 2:55 return time! Woohoo, no wait!

On the way over, we see the Tam Tam drummers of Harambe in the Africa village, so we stop and watch a bit.


There was a big crowd gathered around, which you can see in the 360 pix I took over here:
https://the360ofdisney.com/2022/01/04/animal-kingdom-africa-360-photo-report/
My wife was not interested in riding the safari ride vehicle with her neck issues, so my daughter and I rode without her. It seemed like there were lots of animals out and about after the rains finally subsided for the afternoon.









Also the waterfall was looking beautiful:



After the ride we caught back up with my wife as she waited near the ride entrance for us. I am going to stop for now and finish the day with a Part 3!

Thanks again for following Along!

 

[GBRforWDW]

Park Day #1 - Animal Kingdom - 12/21/2021

PART 3:
Ok, I'm back for the third and final part of our Animal Kingdom day. By this time, it was close to 4pm. The family was getting close to ready to leave, but figured we could squeeze in a KiteTails show while waiting for the Dinosaur Lightning Lane return time. I wrote up a blog post about KiteTails, including 360° pictures, so feel free to read more about it here:

http://the360ofdisney.com/2022/01/02/disney-kitetails-a-360-review/
It unfortunately started raining as soon as we sat down, but it was still a fun show to watch.


After the show, we headed to DinoLand for the Dinosaur Lightning Lane pass. I knew my wife would skip given her neck situation, so I convinced my daughter to join. She was back and forth, but eventually decided to go.







So, this was our first time riding and wow, a lot scarier than I'd imagined. She was a bit shell Shocked coming off the ride. A cast member asked her about the experience and if it was her first time. She then handed her a celebration button that said celebrating conquering Dinosaur, so that made her day and the ride worth it!



After the ride, we went to the dino play area. When we got there, someone mentioned wilderness explorers, so the cast member pointed us to the other side by going across the dino bridge! We get over there and the WE team left 10 minutes ago and we're in the sand pit after rain. . Of course the kid doesn't want to play on the non sand side. We told her 10 minutes as we were getting hungry and ready to leave the park.

We decided to go ahead and mobile order from FlameTree BBQ while she played since it was on the way out and we could eat before the Tree of Life Awakenings began. My wife and daughter decided to share the Mac n cheese and pulled pork dinner and I got chicken and ribs... For the second time today. Lol. And we also ordered the merry menegerie cupcake. This would be the closest we got to seeing the merry menagerie on the trip unfortunately. But the cupcake was actually pretty good. Cupcakes at Disney are always hit or miss.



On the way to tree of life, we had to get our dance on at the Encanto Themed stage area. Very cool imagery.



We then found ourselves amongst a very large crowd watching the show. While waiting for some to leave, we found Nemo and Dory!



I didn't get any actual pictures of the tree of life awakenings, but it was pretty cool how they told an animated story on the tree. I did try to get some 360 pictures, but they didn't turn out very well at all and prompted me to write the below post detailing the frustrations I experienced with the ball camera I had brought.

http://the360ofdisney.com/2022/01/07/my-review-of-the-panono-360-ball-camera/


That was the end of our day. We ended up leaving the park before 7pm with an 8pm closing.
Sneak peak: Next post contains a parade!

Thanks again for following along.

 

[GBRforWDW]

I tested positive for covid on Sunday This week and have the pneumonia that goes with it, so been resting instead of continuing my reports.

Park Day #2 - Magic Kingdom - 12/22/2021

PART 1:
As I mentioned earlier in the report, I selected this day as I had hoped the parade, fireworks, or shows would be moved from nighttime to daytime and only the parade got the daytime treatment. Upon waking up and scrolling through Genie+ to set my top attractions, I came across the parade as a Lightning Lane attraction! My first selection was going to be Jungle Cruise, but we were here for the parade, so I grabbed that at 7am. Unfortunately, some people that selected later in the day were cancelled without being notified by Disney.

At 8:30, when the park officially opened, I was able to grab an almost 9pm time for 7 dwarfs mine train. I didn't want to get that too close to the beginning or ending of the fireworks show at 8pm, so that was the time that worked. It helped that magic kingdom opened early and stayed open late over Christmas vacation. Our second genie+ at 1030 brought us Peter Pan at 6pm. Unfortunately Jungle Cruise was out past 9pm and I knew that wouldn't work for the family.

We left our hotel around 10am to try to get to the park by 11. We ended up getting to main street around 11:15, so decided first thing was to get ready for the parade, but did see a couple cavalcades along the way, including the 50th anniversary celebration cavalcade:

Heading up towards the castle, I was scanning the area trying to find an indication of the lightning lane area. We ended up with a tremendous view:

I also have a full blog post with a 360 picture and other pics of the parade:

http://the360ofdisney.com/2022/01/10/mickeys-very-merry-christmas-parade-review/
After the parade we rode small world and little mermaid standby while also grabbing a lightning lane pass for Dumbo around 2pm. The small world posted wait was 60 minutes, but we were on the boat in 20 minutes.



Little Mermaid posted at 30 minutes but also only took 20 minutes.



We then went to Dumbo for our Lightning Lane time. Standby was 30 minutes, but with LL we were on almost immediately. After checking in here, I grabbed a 7pm Buzz Lightyear pass that we ended up not using.







After Dumbo, we headed for the front of the park ready for a break, but first came across some Winnie the Pooh characters at the train station:



We also headed to the Main Street Theater to see Mickey in his 50th anniversary celebration outfit:



I was wearing my Mickey sweatshirt and did the spiderman meme where I pointed at Mickey and he followed suit, then busted me by pointing out my hands and face. Haha. It was fun.

I'll end part 1 here. Thanks again for following along!

 

[GBRforWDW]

Park Day #2 - Magic Kingdom - 12/22/2021

PART 2:
At this time, we left the park to head to the Wilderness Lodge to relax in the lobby before our dinner reservation at Storybook Dining.

I added some 360° pictures to my blog of the Wilderness Lodge lobby and back patio:

http://the360ofdisney.com/2022/01/16/storybook-dining-review/
In my opinion, it's definitely one of the coolest hotels at Disney. I love the wood construction and the massive fireplace.



In the lobby at Christmastime, they have some homemade treats for sale, cookies, snack mixes and hot chocolate. We grabbed a couple things to try, but overall it was nice to just relax for a bit.



At 4:30, we mad our way back to the restaurant, which is located just behind the lobby and to the left, almost behind the fireplace.



I was extremely excited for this restaurant, but it was fun to see my daughters eyes light up when she heard who we'd be having dinner with tonight.


Snow White was very friendly and my daughter loves getting her picture with her. Something we didn't realize before our trip but found out during was the character dining photo rules were just changed, so we could now stand in front of the characters to get pictures.


Dopey is so adorable. He was such a joy to watch. This interaction between him and grumpy was so much fun to watch:

My daughter did her very best to cheer up grumpy, but he was having none of it. So, we just enjoyed his presence. He did, however, get into the silly song:

The Queen was, um... Pleasant. . I really enjoyed watching her command her way around the restaurant and t one time walked straight up to a little girl dressed as Snow White. Unfortunately we were too far away to hear that conversation.

And of course, the food is the main reason we are here and it did not disappoint. I read so many good reviews that I was worried I'd be let down. That did not happen though, fortunately.


Storybook Dining is a 3 course Prix fixe meal. The appetizers and desserts are part of a shared experience, meaning they bring individual servings of all offerings for everyone at the table. Here I have plated up the Crispy Mushroom Bisque, Chilled Shrimp Salad and the Hunter's Pie. The bisque was really good, especially if you like mushrooms. It was mainly just a creamy soup, but there is at least 1 crisp mushroom in each bowl as well. The Shrimp Salad comes in a little glass container and served so cold, you can see chilled air moving around the jar, then watch is escape as you open the jar. Really neat effect. The Hunter's Pie was an interesting mixture of turkey, chicken, sauerkraut and cranberry. It was just ok for me.


For the main course, I finally was able to try what I'd been dreaming about since fall of 2019 when I made our 180 day ADRs for May 2020 trip cancelled by Covid. This is the Royal Prime Rib Roast. I could literally eat this every single meal. It was so good. The prime rib is tender and juicy and flavorful. The mashed potatoes and carrots are really delicious and a great side for the Prime Rib. The meal also comes with a very large dinner roll. It was light and fluffy and served warm and was really good.


The desserts are poison apples, a gooseberry tart, and the Miners Treasure. The apples are a dark chocolate covering a poisonous center. Definitely the highlight of the dessert trio. The Miner's Treasure was also really good. It's a cookies and cream filling with little chocolate gems. I personally was not interested in the Gooseberry Tart, but my wife enjoyed it and I think she ate all 3 for our table.

As far as restaurants, this was definitely a highlight of our trip. Everything about it was amazing and I'm looking forward to going back soon.

Thanks again for reading along. I'll have a part 3 to our Magic Kingdom day soon.

 

[GBRforWDW]

Park Day #2 - Magic Kingdom - 12/22/2021

PART 3:
After our Storybook Dining dinner, we headed back to the Magic Kingdom for a couple more rides and fireworks.

My blog report from the evening:
https://the360ofdisney.com/2022/01/24/magic-kingdom-evening-report/


Mickey, Minnie and friends were at the train station in their 50th anniversary celebration outfits.



We had 3 Genie+ passes lined up, plus I had an ILL$ for Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, but my wife was struggling with her neck/back issues, so we took it easy and just headed to Peter Pan, skipping a buzz lightyear pass. We ended up arriving late, but I talked to a CM and let him know he had a dining reservation and just got back, so they let us on. We really love this ride, getting to fly around in a pirate ship is such a cool idea.

After that, we still had an hour before the fireworks, so figured we'd go watch the Hall of Presidents show. I think we just missed the start of a show as we had to wait 20 minutes before the next showing. This was our first time seeing this show. It was fun to see all the President animatronics. After seeing it, I don't get why there's always an uproar to get rid of it. Regardless of who is President, there's still some great lessons to learn. Plus it's fun when all the Presidents are introduced and say hi or wave.



We finished up about 10 minutes before the fireworks show and found a spot next to the bridge by the Sleepy Hollow restaurant. Not the best view, but better than staking something out on Main Street. I love the projections on the castle. Amazes me what they can do.







Afterwards, we grabbed a snack from Pinocchio Village Haus while I waited for my ILL$ time. I headed to the ride about 5 minutes before my return time while DW and DD went to Philharmagic.



I got all the way into the ride vehicle before they told us the ride had broken down and we needed to exit. So I sat there staring at the mine train for 20 minutes while they fixed whatever was broken. I came close to leaving as I knew the family was wanting to get back to the hotel. Fortunately I stayed and was able to ride. Yay. Second time on that ride for me. I was alone in my row and a mother and daughter were ahead of me, they were rocking the vehicle a lot, so I joined in. We really got that car Swaying while in the mine cave.



After that we made the slow stroll down Main Street. Never seems to be enough time in that park. There's always so much to see and do.



After leaving the park, we hopped on the monorail to get back to the car.



Thanks again for reading along. Coming up next is a packed day at Epcot!

 

[GBRforWDW]

Park Day #3 - Epcot - 12/23/2021

PART 1:
On our Epcot day, my wife had another chiropractor appointment, so we let everyone sleep in a bit. However, I'm always up early, so I got ready for Genie+ and Remy boarding group drop. At 7am, my first priority was to get a Remy boarding pass in the virtual queue. I ended up with group 8. Perfect for someone wanting to go late. I then hopped over to Genie. We had a 12:15 lunch reservation, so was looking at Frozen Ever After, which was a regular Lightning Lane pass during Christmas. I refreshed until it was available for 1:30.


For 360° pix around Epcot, see my Epcot 360 World Showcase Photo Report:
http://the360ofdisney.com/2022/02/03/epcot-360-photo-report/
At 9am, I was notified that my Remy boarding group was called. Um, hey, the park opens at 9:30! I can't get in and I am not even on my way! I figured I'd try for a ILL$ for Remy anyway, so at 9:30, I was able to get a 6:30 time. Times were available as early as 5, but we had the Candlelight Processional at 5. Either way, lots of availability for offsite guests.



We arrived to our parking spot around 11:30. With a 9:30 park opening, I could make another LL selection. Spaceship Earth was available for an immediate return, but my wife was on an important phone call, so wanted to wait and see how long it'd be, if we had enough time to get to lunch. By the time she was done, the return time pushed out to noon and I didn't think that'd be enough time to ride then go to lunch, so I grabbed Soarin' for 3:40 instead.



Our lunch reservation was at Rose and Crown as part of the Candlelight Processional dinner package. After entering the park and grabbing a few pictures, we went straight to the restaurant.



We were seated on the patio with a great view of the Harmonius barges and other parts of the park. For the Candlelight Processional dinner package, you get a 3 course meal included in the price. I chose the cheese appetizer, fish n chips meal and sticky toffee pudding. All of them were pretty good.





After lunch, we headed over to the Norway Pavilion to ride Frozen Ever After. It was also time to select our next Lightning Lane pass, and was able to get Spaceship Earth for 2:25.



We walked all the way through the Lightning Lane without stopping and was on the ride almost immediately. I really like the Frozen ride. The ride through the story creates a fun adventure.

My daughter really likes the three caballeros, so we headed to the Mexico pavilion next. The line to get in was outside, but said it was a 15 minute wait. It definitely did take about 15 minutes to get all the way to the ride, which is a fun relaxing journey through Mexico.



Next we headed to SSE. The walkway to go from Mexico towards the front of the park was really crowded. Wall to wall people, so was a fun adventure walking through that. We got to SSE just a few minutes after the pass expired, but within the 15 minute grace period. Unfortunately, the ride just went down right as we got there. Since we were outside the hour, our pass didn't automatically convert. We had plenty of other things to do today, so we just let it go. Side note: SSE is a long walk from the world showcase. We'll definitely plan to do that on the way in or way out only, lol.



So instead, we headed to the land for the Soarin' Genie+ pass. We had never rode Soarin' before and the wife and kid Decided not to do it, so I went in by myself. For whatever reason, the Lightning Lane was really backed up. Took me over 35 minutes to get to the ride, which was easily the longest Lightning Lane wait time. But I really enjoyed the ride, so was worth the wait.





After that, it was time to get to the Candlelight Processional, which I'll leave for Part 2. Thanks again for following along.

Feel free to check out my Epcot blog post, it's pretty similar to this post:
http://the360ofdisney.com/2022/02/01/epcot-photo-report/

 

[GBRforWDW]

Park Day #3 - Epcot - 12/23/2021

PART 2:
After getting off Soarin', we had to book it over to the America pavilion as it was less than 15 minutes before 5 and show was at 5:15. The processional was really neat. Stephen Curtis Chapman was the narrator the night we were there. See my full review on my blog:

http://the360ofdisney.com/2022/02/07/2021-candlelight-processional-review/


After the processional, we had our Lightning Lane pass for Remy set for 6:30pm. We had some time, so we took a look around a few places before heading to the ride. The LL had very few people in it and we were on the ride in about 5 minutes.



Overall, it was a pretty fun ride. Somewhat comparable to Mickey and Minnie runaway railway with the trackless vehicles and use of screens and various effects. We really enjoyed it.



After the ride, we took the long way around the world showcase and got to see various effects of the Spaceship Earth light show. Here's one of the globe above and a video of more below:

Along the way, I pre-ordered 4 bags of caramel popcorn from karamell-Kuche in the German pavilion so I could just walk in, grab it and go.



Our final stop of the evening was the Space 220 lounge:



I got lucky with this reservation as Disney World had not offered reservations to the lounge initially, but opened it up to ADRs just a few weeks before our trip.

Check out the blog post to see more:
http://the360ofdisney.com/2022/02/10/space-220-lounge-review/
After that, we were getting tired, so decided to call it a night and head out. But first we stopped out front and enjoyed the ambiance of Spaceship Earth, listened to the music, etc.



We really enjoyed the added effects the lights brought to SSE. There's so many fun combinations of lights they can program in.

Up next is our Hollywood Studios day! Thanks again for following along.

 

[MaleficentMe]

Following! And look forward to reading more!

 

[GBRforWDW]

Following! And look forward to reading more!

Thank you for following along! I think I got sidetracked here, I'll get more written soon!

 

[GBRforWDW]

Park Day #4 - Hollywood Studios - 12/24/2021

PART 1:
On Christmas Eve, I let the family sleep in a bit while I got up early to book a Mickey and Minnie Runaway Railway LL. I refreshed until the time got out to 1pm as I figured that'd be a good time that we'd be there by. I also had no intentions of buying the Rise of the Resistance ILL. I had rode it once at Disney World in January and twice at Disneyland in August all with boarding groups. The rest of the family wasn't interested either, plus being offsite, not much of a chance anyway.

Once everyone was awake, my wife decided she needed more of a park break, so I'd take my daughter and we'd have some fun in toy story Land. We left the hotel around 10:15, so I had about 15 minutes before making the next LL, which I was able to grab a Toy Story Mania pass for noon. We got to the park around 10:45.



It's always exciting to walk in and see Mickey greeting us from high in the sky.



We headed straight back to Toy Story Land, which has always been our starting point for Hollywood Studios days.



Prior to heading into the park, I should have checked Woody's lunchbox. Instead, I waited until we were in the Alien Swirling Saucers queue and by then the return time was 1230.



I was hoping we'd be able to eat between AS2 and TSM, but oh well, we ordered and waited for the ride.





Gotta love the clawwwwwww!!!!! The posted wait was 35 minutes and that was pretty accurate that day. We were on by 11:40.

After Aliens we had about 20 minutes before TSM, so I grabbed a couple of 360 pictures from the land. You can see those and a few others on my blog here:

http://the360ofdisney.com/2022/02/27/hollywood-studios-360-photo-report/
And more pictures from our morning and lunch:

http://the360ofdisney.com/2022/02/26/hollywood-studios-photo-report/
I got the high score in our group, but my daughter keeps improving on hers. She just needs a faster and more accurate trigger pull.


We were skipping Slinky Dog, we rode in January and she wasn't a big fan. Gotta give it time. After TSM, we hung out more waiting for our lunch to be ready at Woody's lunchbox.



I'm not sure if this is still an issue, but it's probably the worst QS experience we've had at either of the Disney resort locations. When we checked in, we had to wait about 10 minutes before being notified it was ready, then we were directed to mobile pickup, where about 20 people were ahead of us. That line took 15-20 minutes to get through. The only positive was they didn't complain about my separate drink order. I forgot to order myself a drink at first, but went back in and got a 1245 return time for the drink.

Once we had our food, we tried to exit the way we came in because it was a short distance to our stroller. The CM would not let us out, I began to protest, but quickly realize it wasn't worth it, so we navigated through the busy dining area with our food in hand got to the stroller and are on our way out of TSL. Nice thing about the stroller was a place to set the food and eat on the run. We wanted to get to our 1pm MMRR ride before heading to a 2pm showing of Beauty and the Beast.

Neither of us were big fans of our lunch. She got the kids grilled cheese and I got the bbq sandwich. The bread was hard and the flavor not what we were expecting, so just a n overall bad experience for us this time. I'd complain about the overcrowded seating area, but we weren't planning to eat there after it took so long to get the food anyway, but the seating has always been full there on our trip. So hard to get a spot to sit down and eat. I did like the mystic portal frozen drink though. That was delicious, plus it was a hot day, so the ice drink was good for awhile.



After we ate some of our food, we got in line for the MMRR ride. We barely had a wait, getting to the part of the queue that ramps down towards the theater right away and that's where the LL meets with the regular queue. We got right in the theater, watched the preshow and boom, ride goes down.

We stood around for 20-30 minutes before they finally got us a recovery pass added back to our Magic band. The positive of this is it allowed us to be able to ride later after my wife arrives.

Wish I was back in Hollywood Studios, I always enjoy my time there, but I can't believe the queue lengths right now . Alright, that's all for this portion of the report. I'll be back with park 2 soon!

 

[GBRforWDW]

Park Day #4 - Hollywood Studios - 12/24/2021

PART 2:
After we left the ride area, my wife let me know she'd be there soon, but it was nearly time for our Beauty and the Beast LL showtime. So we walked down Sunset Boulevard and hung out a bit, enjoying the rest of the Mystic Portal Punch from Woody's Lunchbox. We had not seen the Beauty and the Beast play before, so it was exciting to have it back for this trip.







Overall, it's a beautiful stage setup and well done play. My daughter and I really enjoyed it.

As we were walking out, my wife texted that she was there, so we walked back down Sunset and grabbed our necessary Route 66 picture before waiting at the Hollywood boulevard intersection.



The Pixar Pals Cavalcade was getting ready to start, so we hung out there to watch it. I had my phone out to record it, but apparently forgot to verify it was on video, so I ended up taking a picture at the start and end of the parade while holding the phone up the entire time... Lol.

Our next LL pass was for Frozen, but we had some time before the show, so we went looking for some 50th anniversary statues.







We either missed Joe from Soul or just didn't get his picture, but I know he was in the same area.

We then headed to the theater to watch Frozen. We did see this on our first trip, but my daughter didn't want to watch during the January 2021 trip, so we watched it again this time.



I love the Christmastime shows as they bring Olaf out to celebrate That Time of Year.


Video of Olaf's performance:

After the show, it was time for our dinner reservation. We had an early time this time around. It was the only time I was able to come across, so it cut our afternoon a little short. I'll save that for the next post.

Thanks again for following along!

 

[Dashzap]

Great photos!

 

[GBRforWDW]

Park Day #4 - Hollywood Studios - 12/24/2021

PART 3:

After the Frozen show, we checked into our 4:05 dining reservation at Hollywood and Vine! This has been a dining reservation we've done every trip so far and the second time as non buffet.


It's always fun to see and spend a little one on one time with the characters. Especially since we were able to get pictures of our daughter with the characters this time. She always has so much fun.





The cast members were even able to take our picture at the front entrance this time in front of the themed display.


And as I was writing this, I remembered, today is the day full character greetings return to the parks! So next visit, we'll get to high five, shake hands and hug all our favorite characters!

After dinner, we went back to Mickey and Minnie Runaway Railway to use our anytime pass. It was great that we were all able to ride it.

After the ride, a character cavalcade was coming down Hollywood Boulevard. It was Mickey and Friends. I pulled out my phone, turned on the camera and verified I hit the video button this time. However, when I turned the phone sideways, apparently the app hadn't caught up, so it started the recording in vertical mode, so the whole video is sideways. Man, 0 for 2 on recording cavalcades that day. . Lol. I can't wait to use my new 360 camera so I don't have those problems.

We then headed down Sunset to see the Hollywood Hotel lit up for the holidays.



And we stopped by the Lightning McQueen Racing Academy. This was the first time we saw the show. It's a fun little show, though it'd be more exciting if Hollywood Studios also had the Radiator Springs Racers ride that Disneyland's California Adventure has.

After that, we were all kinda wore out. As much as I wanted to see the nighttime shows, we all decided it was best to head out so we could get back to the hotel and pack for the morning flight.



It was great to be back at Disney World for the Christmas time Celebrations. Always great to see the large Displays all over the resorts.



We did take a skyliner flight upon exiting the studios. It was our only chance this trip. Hopefully next time we can stay on the skyliner route again so we can fly more often!

Check out my blog post from the evening here:
http://the360ofdisney.com/2022/03/05/hollywood-studios-nighttime-report/

I also created a first time back guide, so if you haven't been back since the pandemic, or you know someone going for the first time, it's a good run down of what all is needed during trip planning:
http://the360ofdisney.com/2022/03/12/trip-planning-for-the-first-disney-trip/

I'll be heading to Disneyland and other places out there this summer, so be sure to follow my blog to see pictures from our there. As I mentioned above, I have a new 360 camera and it is pretty awesome. It also has video capabilities, so I'll be posting a lot to my YouTube channel. You can check it out here:

https://youtube.com/c/The360ofDisney

If you're interested in seeing these videos, please subscribe to the channel so you don't miss when I start posting the theme park videos!

Thanks for following my Christmas trip report! These last few got a little spaced out as life got in the way, sorry about that!

We'll see you all real soon!

 

[AMVmom]

Thank you for posting your trip report and all the wonderful pictures! You have a beautiful family and it sounds like you had a great time and I appreciated being able to enjoy Disney again through your report!