Go Home, December. You're Drunk. - A December 2015 TR - COMPLETED

[WHIT1]

DAY 1
December 4th, 2015 - Friday
Travel/Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party

(*Note: I just wanted to share with ya'll that I'm sitting here listening to the soundtrack for the Festival of Fantasy parade in my headphones while I write this! Awaaaaay we goooo...)

The day was finally here! After 14 months of planning (and PTRing), is was really finally time to go!

My nails were done...

My bags were packed...

They were loaded with the essentials. Like this...

And of course...

A shiny brand new tiara!

By the time my grandfather got to my apartment to pick me up around 6:30am, I was pretty much like this...

We headed over to his house, where my Aunt Debby and Uncle Mark were staying. They'd driven in from where they live outside of Atlanta a couple days prior to spend a little time with my grandparents, and get their two dogs settled in (my Nana and Papa were pet-sitting for them for the week).

When I arrived, they were both up and ready to go, and the Dodge Journey were were borrowing from my grandparents was all loaded up with their things. Now I should fess up here that the first few days of the trip, I wasn't the shutterbug that I usually am. I think I was just distracted with talking to them and making sure they were okay that I kept missing photo ops that I would normally take, like our car all loaded up with our luggage and ready to roll! Apologies in advance for all the times this happened! (In some cases, I've substituted Googled pics! You'll know these because I have left any watermarks or tags to credit the source.)

So in went my bags (after a little rearranging), and then it was time to hit the road!

I took the first shift driving, since I was bouncy and wide awake. I got us from Beaufort to a small little Georgia town called St. Mary's, right above the Florida state line. We stopped in at the nice clean little truck stop there that I like to top off the gas tank, stretch our legs, pee, and grab drinks. Then it was back on the road with Uncle Mark behind the wheel. He works for Delta in Atlanta and is VERY used to the city traffic, so I was only more than happy to let him take us through Jacksonville and Orlando! Thankfully traffic was clear and it was a very uneventful trip.

And then we were driving under this beautiful thing (and YES, I actually took this one, since I wasn't driving myself for once!)...

YAAAAAY. And then next thing we knew, we were seeing this wonderful sight...

We got into the gorgeous lobby, and Mark and Debby hit the restroom while I got us checked in. Guess what? Our rooms were ready! Hooray! So we hopped back in the car, and drove around to the Little Mermaid section of the resort, found our rooms, and stowed our things inside.

This is where I was a VERY bad DISer, and didn't take any room pics... Not even the ubiquitous Room Number pic. I KNOW! BAD BAD BILLIE! Here's a googled pic, though...

Though I do wish had done pictures of at least my room, because I had an Accessible Room with roll-in shower like you see above (which I requested for the guaranteed fold-down seat in the shower... I always clean up and wash my hair at night, and sometimes after a day of theme parks, even with the ECV, my Lupus and Fibromyalgia leaves my legs very much in pain, as well as weak and unstable). I've not found online any really good photos of the wheelchair accessible LM rooms at AoA except for the one above, so I regret not taking the opportunity.

Mark and Debby took a little longer to get ready to head out than I did, so I went next door to their room and plopped on a bed and waited and chatted with them. It wasn't long though, maybe 15 minutes, and then we were hoofing it back up to the lobby to grab some lunch! We headed into...

It was pretty busy. I think it was getting close to 2pm about this time. I explained to Mark & Debby about the refillable mugs, so we grabbed our colors and made our lunch selections. I can't remember what Debby got, I think it was maybe a grilled chicken sandwich that she took the bun off of. (She has a gluten intolerance, so she's really limited at Counter Service places.) Mark got a burger, and after hearing so much good talk about it, I went for the Create-Your-Own-Pasta. And it was YUM! (I'll go into more detail in my Dining Report!)

The timing worked out really great, a we were all finished eating when I got the phone call from the guy from Walker Mobility, letting me know he was almost to the resort, and where to meet him. So we did, and he delivered my lovely pink princess ECV! He showed Uncle Mark how to break it down for taking it with us to Universal the next day (which was surprisingly simple), and then we headed towards the bus stop. As we got close, Aunt Debby realized she forgot to take one of her pills. NO PROBLEM! I asked her to tell me exactly where to find it in her room, took her MagicBand, and then me and my ECV flew back to the Little Mermaid section and retrieve it for her! Vroom vroom!

Once I got back to the bus stop, we hopped in line at the Magic Kingdom lane, and were on our way to MK for Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party!

Sadly this is where the photos stop, and since I don't take notes, my photos are usually how I recall details to write about in a TR! OOOPS!!! I remember that when we got there the lines just to get into the park were CRAY-CRAY, which made me nervous, but also gave me a moment to prepare.

The nice thing was they didn't make us wait until 4pm. I think we were in by 3:45pm, if memory serves. Which was GREAT, because our first FP+ window closed at 4:30pm, so we had plenty of time! So we strolled along Main Street, and then through the castle (at which point Aunt Debby goes "Where are you taking us?!" and I just laughed and told her to trust me).

Entering a very crowded Fantasyland, we veered to the left and approached our first FP+, one of the very few attractions that Aunt Debby asked for... It's a Small World. Those of you who have followed my previous reports know that I'm not a fan... But she was just so happy that it made me happy to ride it with her!

After that it was across the path to Peter Pan, followed by the Carousel (which was Debby's other request, as those are the only two attractions that she recalled from her one childhood visit), and then Mickey's Philharmagic! And somewhere along the line, I realized I wasn't taking any pictures, so I nabbed a selfie...

This is where the details start to get fuzzy. I think we went over to Journey of the Little Mermaid then, poked around in some shops, and then some questions about dinner arose. It was to be a quick-service dinner kind of night, so I pulled up a couple menus on my phone for Debby, and she thought Cosmic Ray's Starlight Cafe would be the best for her. We headed that way and had dinner, and they enjoyed being off their feet for a while.

At some point as part of MVMCP, a dance party had started in the restaurant, with a DJ and all. I was being a fool and raising the roof and just generally being a dancy goofy ridiculous mess.

After dinner, we headed back towards Main Street, and found ourselves in the hub. It was almost time for the first parade, so I asked a CM and was lead to a nearby wheelchair/ECV viewing area. I don't remember the time, but it was a bit of a wait, but finally the Once Upon a Christmastime parade started.

It was so cute! Followed by Celebrate the Magic and Holiday Wishes. Sigh. Loved it!

A bathroom break was then requested, so we meandered a bit and found one. Afterwards, while talking about what to do next, Debby admitted she was done. She wasn't feeling well and her feet were hurting, and she was ready to call it a night. It was only 9:30pm at this point, so naturally I was disappointed, but I understood, and as it was our first night, I didn't feel comfortable letting Mark & Debby make their way back to the room on their own. So I went ahead and left with them, and was back in my room relatively early. Before we left though, I stopped for a PhotoPass picture of all of us, but couldn't convince Debby (she insisted that she looked awful), so I got one on my own (looking awful and giving exactly zero craps about it)!

When I got back to the room, there was an opened package of Dasani water bottles sitting on the bed, bearing a sticky with my name. Then it dawned on me that I made a big oversight when I checked in that afternoon!

A couple weeks prior, I'd received a private message here on the DIS from the always wonderful and generous @NJlauren , who was actually going to be at Disney herself and leaving just a few days before my arrival. She was intending on doing a Garden Grocer order, and already predicting that they were going to probably have a lot of unused bottles of water leftover. She was thoughtful enough to message me and ask if I could use them during my trip, and if so, she would leave that at the front desk at AoA for me before they flew home on December 1st.

Yes yes yes! Funnily enough, I had actually been debating if I wanted to deal with lugging a case of water from home this time around, or just bite the bullet and buy an overpriced one at the resort. Her generous offer totally solved that dilemma! But then OF COURSE, I get there on my arrival day, and in all the excitement, totally forget to ask about them at the front desk. DOH! Thank goodness Disney is the BEST, and not only remembered for me, but slipped them covertly into my room while I was out at MK. Hooray!

Up Next... Universal Orlando, AoA, and Ohana!

 

[WHIT1]

I've been reading about your trips to WDW and now I understand why you are using a ECV . It made me so sad the way people treated you cause you look so healthy. I understand big time the pain and how unstable you can get with Lupus and Fibro, cause I have the sister to Lupus and also have Fibro. I do well in walking ,but my legs have been giving me pain lately. You keep up the good work and keep writing the great trip reports. I am going again this year cause I feel pretty good, but as you know Fibro is evil and can get you down. I have been to WDW since it opened and even got married there .So I have a lot trips under my belt and I want to keep going while I am able.

 

[WDisneyMom]

Hi Billie! Loved your TR and now I'm off to read your Dining Report seeing as I am up super late taking advantage of these last few vacation days.

I'll see you in February! Not in a weirdo way! I'm also doing my first 5K with friends and family so hopefully I will see you there! I started a PTR on another board and I'm thinking of adding it here as well but I can't figure out how to post the freaking pictures from my phone!

 

[TabGray]