Two Trips for 2023! (PTR + Dec TR)-Completed 12/22

[Raeven]

So we've been back for about a week and a half, and I wanted to share a little of the trip here. I've decided not to do a full trip report, and more of a summary like last time. But I'm just going to include it at the end of this PTR since this was our last trip for the year.

Also this is definitely a trip where a lot of our plans didn't go right, but we tried to make the best of things.

To start with we arrived at Aventura around 4 pm. We took some time to get settled in, and exchange Christmas gifts. We were back in one of the deluxe rooms at Aventura, and I always love staying in those. I honestly wish we'd stayed the whole trip in this hotel (though it wasn't really possible with our plans), but I'll get to that later.



We had plans to get dinner at Vivo and see the new Hunger Games movie the first night.

When we checked in at Vivo, they said it would be a bit of a wait so we went to the Universal Store, it didn't seem busy at all, but 20 minutes later when they still hadn't called us we decided to check in with them. They seated us immediately, but kind of had an attitude about it? They sat us at this table where the light above it was flickering constantly. All the other tables that had lights like that, had them off. I almost feel like they sat us there because they were upset we asked to be seated? Because eventually someone came by and was like "oh is that light bothering you?" And I said yes because Kayleigh was getting a headache, and I figured they could shut it off like the other tables but instead they moved us all the way across the restaurant.

That was all very weird, but I think it was for the best because everyone we had interacted with so far seemed to have an attitude, and the waiter in our new section was incredibly nice and we didn't have any other issues.

Our bread:



For an appetizer we got:

Fried Ricotta
rosemary lemon ricotta lightly breaded and fried, house made tomato sauce, basil, ricotta salata



This was so good!

I got the:

Parmigiano
marinara, mozzarella, linguine, chicken



Same as the other times I've had this it was really good. I will say a few pieces of my linguine were super overcooked and hard, but the chicken was cheesy and delicious.

Kayleigh got the:

Lasagna
pasta layers, bolognese, Parmesan, mozzarella, creamy white sauce



She said this was very good, and I'm kind of curious what this tasted like because I've never had a lasagna with white sauce before.

After our delicious meal we headed to the theater, and this is where we hit our first snag. We went to buy tickets, and every seat was sold out but the front row. There was no way we were going to sit that close to the screen, but it was also kind of a long movie so we were unsure we'd have another time to see it. There was also nothing else playing around the same time that we wanted to see. We had a reservation for dessert booked for when the movie would've gotten out, but were unable to change it to any earlier.

Despite the low crowds there was no reservation open anytime soon for anywhere we could get dessert and drinks. The only place that had any reservation open within the next hour was Amatista. If you remember my past dining reports we've had such bad experiences there that it was the one restaurant I swore to never go to again, and I'd even been telling Kayleigh about it on the way to Citywalk. But she wanted to go and I figured the desserts probably weren't so bad, so we headed over.

We got some drinks. She got a wine, and I got the:

HAVANA COLADA
Bacardi 8 yr, cream of coconut, pineapple purée, Myers’s Dark Rum



The drink was good, and the service was better than other times at Amatista, but our waiter wasn't around a lot, and there was probably 30-40 minutes between when our drinks came out and when the dessert did.

For dessert Kayleigh got a chocolate/raspberry mousse (which I didn't get a picture of), and.I got the:

CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKE LAVA CAKE
Chocolate chip cookie filled with dark chocolate fudge ganache.



This was pretty good, and I don't think there was really a way to screw this up. But I will say it seemed like something they just warmed up in the microwave.



So though this trip to Amatista didn't completely redeem it in my eyes and I won't be hurrying back there, it was at least better than my last visit.

Next Up

A trip to the Rainforest Cafe ​

 

[Raeven]

We slept in a little the next day, and then we went to Disney Springs.

The first of our matching shirts:



I love this one, we thought it was so funny.

We went to a few stores, and then grabbed our favorite poutine at The Daily Poutine.



Although the birds also really wanted our poutine.



We had made a reservation at Rainforest Cafe to get drinks and an appetizer. I've actually never been to a Rainforest Cafe, and was curious to see one.

To go along with the retro vibe of Rainforest Cafe we decided to take some photobooth pictures where we absolutely weren't looking in the first one.



While I don't think the food's going to win any awards here, I thought the theming was fun; and enjoyed it.





We had some delicious drinks which came with souvenir cups to take home.

Mine was the: ​

Rainbow Colada​

Captain Morgan Original Spiced Rum, strawberries, bananas, piña colada mix, pineapple juice



We also got the:
​

Spinach & Artichoke Dip​

This was pretty good too. I would say the Rainforest Cafe is a good place for drinks and appetizers.

The shop had some cute things too. I got a gingerbread plush to use as Christmas decor, and this shirt to use as pajamas:



This shirt felt very 90's and I loved it.

Then we got a few things at Basin, and stopped for our first Photopass pictures.



Next Up
We head to the Orlando Informer Event! ​

 

[Raeven]

Later that night we had our 2nd Orlando Informer Event. Our matching shirts for tonight were Krampus themed:



This year the email said check in would be at Islands of Adventure so we booked a reservation at Mythos for 6:30 pm, and headed out at 5:45 pm. But as you already know nothing went as planned on this trip so we never made it there. We went to check in at Islands of Adventure only to find there was no check in set up there, and no one working there seemed to know what was going on. The check in was actually through the area where the HHN tour check in was, and seemed to be in one of the soundstages in Universal Studios. (No idea why the email said you had to check in at IOA and enter there first).



By the time we got through the whole check in, we would have had to run through IOA, and we still would've been late. (And since they kept sending us texts that they closed at 7pm and not to be late, we ended up just canceling). I was disappointed because I really wanted to show Kayleigh the banana chocolate gooey cake, but at least we had free food to look forward to in under two hours.



Our first stop was the Tribute Store. It was a cute set up, but I'm never that crazy about the Christmas merch because I don't feel like they put as much effort into it as they do the HHN merch. I also overall prefer the NY location for the store instead of this one, but I'm not sure they plan to put the store back in that location again.

Here's some pictures of the inside:









I think I liked Earl's room best.

The check out area was also smaller and very crowded.

We had decided to get some snacks to hold us over before the food started at 8pm. We got these three macarons because they were all adorable and sounded good.





And these chocolate cake bites that looked like lumps of coal.



Out of the macarons, I think the pistachio was actually my favorite. The chocolate was okay, and exactly what you'd expect. But the strawberry cheesecake tasted really weird and artificial which surprised me because I thought that'd be my favorite.

And the "lumps of coal" were extremely chocolate-y, but in a good way and very moist.

Continued in next post ​

 

[Raeven]

We continued over to Men In Black next. The ride briefly went down while we were in line, but luckily came back up before we could consider leaving.



In the interest of full disclosure and nothing more, I will tell you I won.

I also really liked this tree in the gift shop. I don't remember it being there in previous years.



Next we headed to Diagon Alley!



We rode Escape from Gringotts and grabbed some Butterbeer when the food service started.



This was Kayleigh's biggest "must do" since last year, because she loved it so much.



Kayleigh also really wanted to grab some food so we settled on Richter's Burger Co. (Although I did warn her the QS burgers probably wouldn't be that good).

However I did not anticipate The Great Ketchup Disaster of 2023.



I squeezed a packet too hard that I don't think I opened enough, and most of the ketchup kind of exploded out. It missed me and was mostly on the table which was easy enough to clean, but some also landed in my Butterbeer.



The burgers were also terrible, but at least they were free.

We then went to the Fast and Furious area. Since my last trip when the Fast and Furious ride was open, I have now seen all the movies. They are incredibly ridiculous, and I actually loved most of them. But I still cannot recognize any types of cars. I do however know who all the people are in the movies now.





Kayleigh declared the ride fun, but I'm not sure how much weight that carries since I've never heard her say a bad thing about any ride we go on/movie we watch etc.

I will say during the event the pre-shows were a little more fun since the employees seemed to have the freedom to joke around a bit more.

We also paid $10 to make this for some reason, but I love it.



Continued in next post ​

 

[Raeven]

As we were heading out we ran into the Orlando Informer mascot, who it looks like Kayleigh was trying to violently hug from this picture.



To my surprise when we walked by a stand in the NY area they had pizza skulls! I was so excited to see these outside of HHN, so we each got one.



We were also able to do Villain Con for the first time.



It was fun, but I do think it's strange the guns are so heavy. I was also not great at standing on my little circle the whole time, and accidentally whacked Kayleigh with my gun at one point, but she did win.



We headed over to IOA next where King Julien was looking a little lonely with no one in his line so we decided to take a picture with him.



For December it was incredibly humid so my hair was not faring too well at this point.

We also got some Moose/Goose Juice from from the stand in the Seuss area. We thought they'd be more sample sized than this, but they weren't too bad. Just not good enough to drink an entire one of that size. I did prefer the green apple one, and Kayleigh preferred the orange so we picked well at least.



As we were walking through Hogsmeade we caught the castle light show.



We spent some time in the Jurassic Park area and ate some popcorn, but sadly Kong was down when we got there.

So we headed over to Spiderman.



We decided to leave before the very end of the event because we had an early morning tomorrow. But we did grab some Cinnabon on the way out (which was kind of gross like it'd been sitting out all night), and I showed Kayleigh how terrifying the Cat in the Hat ride was.



All in all we had another great Orlando Informer Event. We got a lot done/rode everything we wanted too, and got to try some of the food. There were no waits for anything we did, and even the two character meets we did had 0 line.

Next Up
We head over to Disney​

 

[KathyM2]

Looks like a fun event!! Happy holidays to you!!

 

[Raeven]

Looks like a fun event!! Happy holidays to you!!​

You too!​

 

[Raeven]

Today we had to wake up early to purchase Genie+, check out of our Universal hotel, and head over to Animal Kingdom Lodge for breakfast.


(I always love the tree at AKL).

We had purchased these Spiderman spirit jerseys during the event last night.



I felt like breakfast at Boma was better than the last time Josh and I went, but still not as good as it used to be. At least this time the bread pudding was fresh, and the tray was full when I got to it.



After breakfast we headed to Animal Kingdom. Enjoy the last picture before the humidity attacked!



Honestly the humidity was just as bad if not worse than September for most of our trip. One of the reasons I like going in December better is even when its hot it usually isn't humid as well, but this time it was awful. By the end of our trip Kayleigh actually ended up with a terrible heat rash which was not an issue we had the year before.

We had a Lightning Lane for Na'vi River Journey first.



We took some strange Photopass pictures.



Were almost run over by this polar bear piloted by these two men.



And said hi to Santa.



We headed over to ride Dinosaur next, but stopped to meet some Christmas/dinosaur chipmunks.



I love this.



Sadly, when we went to ride Dinosaur we got right up to the ride and then it broke down. It was a "major malfunction" so they cleared everyone out. Expedition Everest was also down most of the day. As a result of all this, and maybe because it was also Saturday, the park was incredibly crowded.

Continued in next post ​

 

[Raeven]

Our next LL was for the safari.




We saw a lot of animals, and it was a really good safari. We did have some kids behind us who pretty much refused to sit down which made the driver stop a lot, but I feel like most of the animals were out and about.







Next I wasn't sure what to make an LL for. Dinosaur going down had given us a guaranteed one that we were going to use when it was running again, so I made one the Animation Experience. I thought it would be nice to get some air conditioning, and Kayleigh loves drawing so I thought she'd find it fun.



We also watched some goats fighting for control of this bridge.



Waiting in line for the Animation Experience.



My drawing:



I actually thought it came out decently close to the picture, but I did draw the shapes of some things a little off.

Kayleigh's:


(She was not done shading yet so don't tell her I shared this. )

Afterwards, we were finally able to get on Dinosaur. Kayleigh loved it, and I was glad we could experience it again before it closed for good. I wish it hadn't gone down the first time so we didn't have to keep trekking all the way across the park though.

We also tried to get into Tiffins to get some churros, but the waitlist was full.

Finally around 3:17 pm we got the text our room was ready so off we went. I was glad I got to show Kayleigh Animal Kingdom, but by the end of the day she understood what I meant when I said I felt like it was the hottest park. For what tickets and Genie+ on top of it costs now, I thought it was crazy that half the major attractions were down at one point.

Later that night we had plans to go to Wolfgang Puck's which I was excited about because I've never been. And since you know our plans were just working out then you can guess that I've still never been. Our Uber got caught in the absolute worst traffic, and we were in it so long that if we went to the restaurant and they could get us in, then we would miss our movie. (We ended up deciding to see the Hunger Games movie this night instead, and of course we'd pre-bought tickets just in case. Although this theater was much bigger than the one it was playing in at Universal).

So we had an hour and nowhere to eat. Normally, I'd say that wouldn't be too hard to find something in DS, but it was the worst I've ever seen crowds there. It was like wall to wall people with barely any room to move or breathe. I've been in DS on many different days of the week/many different times of the year even on Saturdays and I've never seen it like this before. We managed to fight our way through to the Daily Poutine, and get some food. There was nowhere to sit really, but we found somewhere so we didn't have to carry it through the crowd. Then we had to fight our way back through to the movie theater.




We both loved the movie though! We'd read the book for the Hunger Games prequel so we both knew what to expect, and the movie was pretty true to the book.

We then did experience our first All Star Movies resort bus (more on the hotel in another post), which was a horrible experience. On the way back all the All Star hotels, Coronado Springs, and AKL guests were all packed into the same bus. We ended up standing for the whole drive (which was very long because we were the 2nd to last hotel and they went to all of CSR's stops). And then they went to the All Star hotels out of order somehow? And the driver didn't tell us when we got to ours, so we almost missed our stop.

Overall this day was probably the worst crowds I have ever seen at Disney. I have never seen it this crowded this time of year (which is why we picked this week). But AK and DS were both horrible. Luckily, for the most part we had mostly events like MVMCP and Jollywood Nights left. But honestly, after that experience I realized I need a break from Disney. I think somewhere on this trip I started feeling like I paid so much (and it's been going up all the time), and then to pay for the ever increasing LL's just to get on a few rides, but then rides were constantly down, the crowds were horrible, etc. And I just realized I wasn't having fun at the parks anymore. (And I wanted Kayleigh to have a good time so I felt horrible for being grumpy). But after DS that night we talked about doing something else next year especially since we'd done all the Christmas events/parks already.​

 

[schumigirl]

Lordy, you did have a few things go wrong didn`t you!!!

Vivo was certainly surprising, but glad you enjoyed the food, we tried that dessert from Amatista up in SW, not for me but at least you didn`t have a dreadful experience there....I remember your last meal and no, it wasn`t good.

You did a lot despite the set backs......and I agree, that humidity at times this year when we were there was like September, we commented several times it was as bad as September!!!

And crowds, yes, we went to DS on a Saturday night and it was crammed full and wall to wall people, couldn`t believe how cramped it was. But, we did enjoy our visit with friends.

Did poor Kayleigh ever recover from the hallucinogenic experience that is the Cat in the Hat ride

The tribute store was cute, have to say we don`t buy much merchandise either at Christmas, but the store was nice.

Nice food pics too.....I often wonder why Richter Burgers are consistently so bad! We first tried them in 2007 and they were awful then!!

 

[Raeven]

Lordy, you did have a few things go wrong didn`t you!!!​

We really did We ended up cancelling all of our dining reservations at this point, and just making new ones as we went. ​

Vivo was certainly surprising, but glad you enjoyed the food, we tried that dessert from Amatista up in SW, not for me but at least you didn`t have a dreadful experience there....I remember your last meal and no, it wasn`t good.​

Eh I've been there before and while the food was always good, I've had mixed results on the service. Yeah, it was not the best dessert, but it wasn't a complete disaster. ​

You did a lot despite the set backs......and I agree, that humidity at times this year when we were there was like September, we commented several times it was as bad as September!!!​

It was so bad this year! ​

And crowds, yes, we went to DS on a Saturday night and it was crammed full and wall to wall people, couldn`t believe how cramped it was. But, we did enjoy our visit with friends.​

It was insane! Some people were telling me Saturdays are just like that, but I've been on Saturdays and in December before and never seen it this bad. ​

Did poor Kayleigh ever recover from the hallucinogenic experience that is the Cat in the Hat ride ​

I'm not sure one can ever recover from the sights in that ride ​

The tribute store was cute, have to say we don`t buy much merchandise either at Christmas, but the store was nice.​

Yeah, it was cute. The checkout was a bit weird. I liked the larger area better in the other location though.​

Nice food pics too.....I often wonder why Richter Burgers are consistently so bad! We first tried them in 2007 and they were awful then!!​

Thank you! I think all the QS burgers around the parks just aren't very good. I tried a Krusty Burger at the last event and it also was pretty bad. It wouldn't have been my choice, but Kayleigh said she was hungry and didn't want to look for anywhere else. At least it was free ​

 

[Raeven]

After the previous night we decided the plans we'd made before coming just weren't working out, and we'd cancel those dining plans and then just make new ones as we went. We also decided to sleep in a bit and take it easier during the day since it was going to be really hot again.

So this morning we stayed in bed a bit, and watched Fight Club. (Which is my favorite movie, but Kayleigh had never seen it).

Here is a picture of her reaction to the twist in the movie:





Btw we could not get the TV to work when we chose a station, but we could cast from my phone (but it only seemed to work with movies I already owned) which is why we were a bit limited in our selections.

Because we wanted to go to the Epcot resort area, and they usually have availability we booked a lunch at Ale and Compass.



Although they do not serve the delicious truffle fries at lunch, we still had a good meal at Ale and Compass.

I think Ale and Compass is a hidden gem. I'd been there around when it first opened and remember thinking it was nothing special and then we didn't go again for awhile. But this year, Josh and I ended up going there for dinner, and it was one of the best meals of our trip. It was also really good for lunch too.

One thing I love is the Parker House rolls appetizer.



Instead of a burger this time, we opted for the grilled cheese with tomato soup that can be found on the lunch menu.



This was amazing!



We also took a walk over to the Boardwalk for dessert, and because I didn't get a chance to show Kayleigh that area last year.



I loved all the details in this little gingerbread house!

Also have some scary nanny chairs:



From the Boardwalk Deli I got a Peppermint Cheesecake Brownie, and Kayleigh got the 50th Celebration Brownie.



Mine was alright. The peppermint flavor was very light/kind of weird. I think it was mostly in the cheesecake, but it also didn't really taste like cheesecake. The brownie was better than the one Kayleigh had imo (which seemed less fluffy), but I didn't think either dessert was great. I had assumed this was just the Cheesecake Brownie they always had with some minty flavoring, but it didn't taste like it at all.

Back at our hotel we stopped in the gift shop. Give your best guess what these are for:



If you said anything except a small bundle of stockings to hold your silverware than you are incorrect!



I assume it's for dinner parties or something? But why would anyone spend $40 on a bundle of small silverware stockings? My favorite game was sending this to everyone I know and asking what they thought it was for. No one guessed correctly.

I also want to add my review of All Star Movies here:

So we ended up switching from The Swan to All Star Movies because it saved us $500 a night, and while I don't regret doing that; I would also never stay at any of the All Star hotels again. I mostly wish we could've stayed at Aventura the whole time, but with all the late night events at Disney it seemed smartest to stay on property those days.

The transportation was awful. It was sometimes just for our hotel, but often shared with the other All Star hotels and even occasionally more in the area. We frequently had to stand for long trips on buses. You may save money, but you'll end up Ubering more.

The main building was pretty cool. I liked the movie theming (which is why I picked that hotel), and I felt like the gift shop was pretty large and had a lot of things. I didn't eat in the food court or swim in the pool so I can't judge those though.

We were in a preferred room in the Fantasia section so we were only a short walk from our room (which I liked), and our building did have elevators this year. I wasn't crazy about the theming in the section we were in, but we were near the 101 Dalmatian areas which looked cute, and we went to visit it later on.

Our room was alright. It was similar to the Pop Century rooms I'd stayed in a few years ago, although I will say maybe not as clean (there were stains splashed on the bathroom wall/more dust etc). The bathroom had a good amount of counter space, but the shower pressure was terrible. The beds were fine though, and aside from the TV not working unless we casted to it, we didn't really have any issues with the room itself. I've heard people say the walls are pretty thin, and they probably are; but it was no noisier than our apartment complex so that didn't really bother me too much.

I think that was the weirdest was late at night we'd keep hearing these sounds like that sounded like someone trying to open or outside the door. I think it was the building settling or other people going into nearby rooms maybe. It almost sounded like someone was hitting a door, but one time I looked outside and no one was there. That was probably the worst part of the room. Overall I wouldn't say it's a bad place to stay especially if it saves that much money, but it's not a hotel I'd choose to stay at again. ​

 

[Raeven]

Tonight we were going to Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party!

Our first stop was to get food at Cosmic Ray's. Here's a blurry picture of some chicken tenders:



We collected a few cookies, rode Buzz, the Peoplemover, and the Little Mermaid.



The cookies were all really good this year, and I feel like the flavors were an improvement over last year's.

We also stopped for some of this tater tot poutine.



The meat was kind of a pot roast, and it a little spicy with the jalapeños and stuff on top. While I wish the cheese curds were a little more melty, it was really good.

We headed to the Haunted Mansion next where we got scared by some ghosts.



Including the new Hatbox Ghost:



We were also the only people that were excited to ride Pirates according to this photo.



We didn't really spend any time watching the fireworks, parade, or stage shows because we'd seen them last year, but we got on a lot of rides.



Including 7dmt, which I look like I'm having too much fun on.



We experienced some snoap on Main St.



And finally got a decent picture in our Double Trouble shirts.



Next Up
Epcot & Jollywood Nights​

 

[BroadwayHermione5]

One of these days I’ll have to get to ale and compass!

 

[Raeven]

Today we were going to Epcot!

We did make some LL's, but we're mainly going for the Festival of the Holidays. However much like the previous year, our first two LL's were way too close together and I couldn't change the one for Cosmic Rewind so we just had to head straight in and run between them because the Test Track line took about 30 mins despite the LL.

As I mentioned above our first stop was Test Track. It seemed Test Track basically operates as a LL only attraction at this point, which didn't really help the lines.

This is our car:



Super powerful, but somehow lost in every category

And you can't actually see our faces in the ride photo at all:



We hurried over to Cosmic Rewind, and made it right at the end of our grace period, like literally the exact minute.

I kind of seem to have my eyes open in the picture!



Although the ride made us a bit dizzy this time.

It was another hot day so after resting a bit, and taking another picture where we aren't looking in the right spot for Groot, we decided to get some food.



At Holiday Hearth we got the toffee brittle and Twix frozen hot cocoa.



The toffee was nearly impossible to bite into, and was not very good as far as toffee goes. But the frozen hot cocoa was kind of nice. It didn't really taste like Twix, but it wasn't bad.

In Germany we got the fondue bowls with veggies and a hard cider.



The ciders were good, and melted cheese is always delicious. I was glad it came in a bread bowl because the veggies were very sad, and they didn't even give me one potato.

Because it was a bit crowded in the area and we saw some people sharing tables, we decided we'd take one side of a table that had only one person at it who looked like they were done eating. But I guess she was actually saving the table for her family member who was getting the food, and when she got there even though we both had half the table they proceeded to loudly whisper about us and how weird we were for trying to use half the table even though we never bothered them or were anywhere near them.

We also stopped to get some caramel treats, but I didn't want anything too melt-y so we ended up with one of the caramel butter bars and a caramel chocolate covered s'more.



These were pretty good, but I think I should've just gotten a caramel since the s'more was just as hard to eat.

We'd planned to get to more food, but at this point we were pretty full, and Epcot was becoming more crowded since the night's celebrity narrator was John Stamos. We shopped around the rest of the World Showcase, and made our last LL for Soarin' on the way out.

We wanted to go back and rest a bit before Jollywood Nights.

And here's a few photos of the 101 Dalmatians section near us:



Kayleigh decided this would be our TV pose.



Why does Pongo kind of look like he could unhinge his jaw and eat us?



Continued in next post ​

 

[Raeven]

We were headed to Jollywood Nights!



I think these were our best Christmas outfits. And we finally had a cooler night to wear them on.



The first order of business was to find a photopass photographer to show off our outfits. Where apparently I became a ballerina.





We were hungry so we decided to head to ABC Commissary which had the best menu in my opinion.

We got one of everything, but were a little disappointed in the super small size of each dish. Yes, the prices probably should've told us that, and I could've read a review of the food before I went; but I guess I didn't expect all the food to be in mini portions.



I didn't care for the mushroom tacos, but the birria tacos and chicken empanadas were pretty good. I also really liked the custard dessert, the mexican hot chocolate cake was just okay.

We were also hoping they still had The Rookie poster up because we had our sweatshirts again, but this year it looks like they took it down. They did however have the Celebrity Jeopardy poster up.



In search of more food and some rides we headed over towards the Toy Story area.



We got these Buffalo Chicken Spring Rolls. Which were also a bit tiny compared to the Magic Kingdom eggrolls, but still good.



We headed to Toy Story Midway Mania next. This said the wait time was 10 minutes, but ended up eating up a lot of our time because the wait was actually 40 minutes. I think we probably would've had a shorter wait if we'd gone during the day honestly.



We did get on Slinky Dog much quicker though, and as you can tell by my face I still don't like it. I think it goes too high.



Continued in next post ​

 

[Raeven]

Before leaving the area we decided to grab some (thankfully normal sized) Totchos from Woody's Lunchbox.



Delicious as always, though Kayleigh did almost drop them and some sour cream and cheese went into her purse pocket.

Wanting to show off our outfits with the sweatshirts now we stopped for another photopass. Instead we got this strange one where I think they forgot to add in whatever was supposed to be on the ground.



We stopped to get a Gertie cookie which was honestly too cute to eat.



It also wasn't good, but we definitely bought this just to take a picture with it anyway.



At this point we were nearing the end of the event and decided in order to avoid another bus fiasco we were going to skip the nighttime show. Most character lines left were too long so we grabbed a few more photopass photos.





All in all we enjoyed Jollywood Nights. I know it doesn't look like we got to a lot, but we got to all the things we wanted to do and had a good time. I only wished they had more normal sized food portions, and that the wait for Midway Mania was shorter. The cooler weather definitely helped too, and I'm glad we did the event despite the original negative reviews.

Back at the hotel we had to do these sheet masks while wearing our Gremlins shirts.



They were somehow even more terrifying than I thought they'd be.



Before leaving the next morning we had breakfast at Kona Cafe where we wore matching Hawaiian Christmas shirts.



Breakfast was pretty good. I got the Tonga Toast and Kayleigh got a standard breakfast.



We went to the airport shortly afterwards, and as we were in the Uber Kayleigh bragged she hadn't fallen asleep on any rides anywhere this time. (Last year she fell asleep the first day in an Uber ). She then proceeded to fall asleep all the way the airport. When we got there we were in the same terminal leaving around the same time so we were able to stay together when navigating the airport which made things easier.

And that's it for our December trip! There were a lot of good, fun moments despite many things not going as planned. The weather was awful though, and the crowds made me rethink some future plans though.

Happy Holidays to everyone reading along!

My next trip to Orlando isn't until September for HHN so I don't know when I'll be on the boards next. So far I'm planning to visit Kayleigh in her home state in March for a few days to sightsee and attend the Horrorhound Convention (my first horror convention), and Josh and I are planning our usual HHN trip. Some other trips have been discussed, but I haven't planned anything out yet. ​

 

[ofcabbagesandkings]

Thanks for sharing your experience with the two ticketed events at WDW. UO has sent some survey questions lately that has me worried they are considering gating the Xmas entertainment behind a hard ticket event and I really hope they don’t do that. We loved how everything was included in our regular tickets and it does feel like such a better value compared to WDW especially with the ride downtime over there which we experienced as well on our last visits to Epcot and AK. Disney has just gotten so expensive while offering less and less IMO.

 

[disneyAndi14]

Enjoyed your trip report. I love all your matching shirts!
I was at Disney 12/7-12/11 and I was shocked how busy it was. I thought it was way busier than the year before.
i didn’t do any of the ticketed events while I was there so I enjoyed hearing about yours!
Thanks for sharing!

 

[BroadwayHermione5]

Thanks for your experience and awesome photos!

Happy to hear you enjoyed Jollywood! (Also ABC Commissary what happened? Looked like it wasn’t the normal menu offered!)