Qwerty and Company's Quasi-Commando Christmas Caper 11/11-11/21

I’m posting on my last day in my trip report today or tomorrow, but I was there with my son and we did a 4 park challenge. We had t-shirts made for the event, and the characters were amazing at noticing our shirts. I can’t wait to read more of your trip report.

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I will be reading yours soon.
I stopped looking at reports during the period with the amazingly long hours. I was super sad that we didn’t get those long hours. We have no trouble getting up early and I could have made those hours work out really well for us.

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I’m reading too. :smile: The villa looks lovely. We usually rent a 3-4 bedroom when we travel, it is so nice to have all that space. Except at Disney, then we all cram into 1 room to be onsite. But everywhere else, love having all the space.

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following and enjoying

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I’m reading and enjoying it!!

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Thanks for reading @betsyrina2 @Wahoohokie @goofygal315 and @Figment20 !

DD just reminded me we rode IASW the first MK day… oops. I guess not taking a photo was my mistake! LOL.

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MVMCP day!
WOOO HOOOOO

Finally – the day of all days. This is the day for Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party!

And I was feeling TERRIBLE.

Back track — I haven’t slept more than 4-5 broken hours since 11/4 and now it is 11/14. I was so sleep deprived, so at bedtime last night I took a half of a Benadryl, and hoped I’d sleep. And I didn’t. This wonderful day that I have been looking forward to for months and I was dragging. I reached out to a few praying friends and pressed on.

We made chicken salad in the morning and packed up a beautiful lunch. At 10:15AM we were entering Orlando Vineyard Premium Outlets and found the Character Warehouse store, hoping for some wonderful finds. As soon as we got there I grabbed a spot in line. There were close to 40 people ahead of me. The rest of the family took time shopping and after a while DD15 came and took my spot so I could shop. I didn’t really find anything I wanted, but Dmom and Dsis each found a few things. From there we headed over to Disney Springs.

Disney Springs is much different than it used to be in terms of parking. OY. We parked our van, got out, and realized we weren’t in the Marketplace side. We ventured on a little and I was rewarded with this beauty.

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Kids took turns trying on a gauntlet – two picked Thanos and two picked Ironman.
There’s a lot you could read into that…

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Me dropping into work for a bit. Winking smile

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We found a map to determine how far we were from the Christmas Tree Trail and I said something like, “As if,” and we went back to the van and drove over.

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Somewhere about this point I sat on a wall and started to cry. Here it was this day I’d looked forward to and paid dearly for and I felt terrible. I usually roll with fatigue, but today it was daunting. I dusted myself off and we proceeded.

Disney Springs was so nicely decorated.

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Christmas Tree Trail did not disappoint. It was beautiful. And there was a roving PhotoPass photographer who helped me with the app a little, too.

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We went back to the van and pulled out our lunch and something wonderful happened. I started to feel GREAT. This is 1:36PM.

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We went back to the house for some people to change and for me to snap a photo of my fabulous touring plan.

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I wonder now if it was a Benadryl hangover…

AT 3:26PM we were on the ferry on the way to Magic Kingdom. As we were waiting for the park to start admitting party guests my sister realized she’d left her phone in the car at the TTC. If you’ve ever been to MK you know there is no quick “run to the car.” She and DMom headed back to get her phone. It took them almost 45 minutes. Sad smile

We were in at 3:40PM and got our bracelets. We had FPP for Peter Pan, Enchanted Tales with Belle, and the many adventures of Winnie the Pooh.

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We got our first treats as we used the bypass sidewalk behind main street. We stopped for a few PhotoPass photos, too.

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We were keeping tabs with DMom and Dsis as they made their route. We rode Peter Pan and watched Philharmagic and rode the Carrousel.

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We regrouped in time to watch Belle together.

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DD15 left us at 5:50 to go queue to meet Jack Skellington and Sally Ragdoll.

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The rest of us went to Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, and DD13 changed her outfit. We found three treat stations and had a PhotoPass taken.

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Next thing you know, DD15 was catching up with us to ride Space Mountain with the Christmas overlay.

We hurried to see Mickey’s Most Merriest Celebration arriving just as it started. The four kids hurried to the front of the stage, while the three adults stayed back.

Then off to more treats.

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We hurried to Tomorrowland for the Christmas show. It was SO SHORT!

We went to the Speedway at 8:45PM with the Christmas overlay. And I scooted to buy myself a shirt.

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We were off by 8:55PM

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We did the Monsters Christmas show at 9:40PM which was essentially the same show with minor changes to the script.

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Then the 10PM fireworks. We walked right up to the hub. I would say about 5-10% of my visibility was obscured because I didn’t queue earlier. It was worth it to do more. We were all EXTREMELY delighted by the show. It was MUCH longer than we expected (maybe because the MMMC and TTCS were so short). It was elegant and festive and so excellent.

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When the show was over it was raining lightly. There really wasn’t much left to do. We moved over to Frontierland for where we wanted to watch the parade. On the way we saw Mary Poppins and Bert.

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We found a planter Dmom could sit on and just waited for the parade. We’d really done everything and we were getting tired.

The parade was excellent. It was so pretty and fun.

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Imagine my horror the next day when I realized the settings on my camera were hosed up. Honestly – I am way over camera issues (Grand Canyon 2018 – I’m looking at you).

We hurried over to 7DMT after the parade and had gotten almost to the front of the line when the stupid ride went down AGAIN. Grrrrr. So we hurried over to Peter Pan and everyone but I rode it.

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It was after midnight before we got on the monorail.

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Glad you felt better as the day went on!! Your DS pictures are making me think we need to add a stop there on our next trip. The trees are adorable!

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Slower Day - in the BEST kind of way!

Oh the weather outside….
Rainy, but thankfully warmish.

Dsis and I were up by 7AM so I could have her out the door early. I dropped her at 8:40AM at Animal Kingdom. I stopped at Walmart to buy some more lunch meat and protein bars and Coca~Cola. We’d be enjoying our treats so much we decided we’d pack a lunch every day.

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DD15 did her apologetics homework.

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DD6 and DD13 both took luxurious baths in the giant master bathtub.

Then three of them went for a swim. It wasn’t hot-hot, but it was muggy and the pool came with free heat!

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Around 3:30PM we headed over to Animal Kingdom to pick up Kelly and we headed over to Wilderness Lodge for our dinner at Artist Point.

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I didn’t tell the girls until a few hours before; I didn’t know if we were going to keep it until the night before.

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The dinner was everything we hoped it would be.

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The food was delicious and the characters were delightful!!

When we lined up to meet the Evil Queen we met a CM with the same name as DD9. She pronounces her name the same way, and they were both wearing purple glasses and had their hair up in buns. Both of them beamed!

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The queen was excellent. She was somewhat scary, to be honest!

DD6 asked her why she used an apple to poison Snow White and she said she didn’t know what DD6 was talking about, and that she’d never do such a thing. How she stays in character is unbelievable!

Dessert was amazing.
I ate the purple one first imagining it would be nasty-sweet. It was not. It was scrumptious. The little green one is Gooseberry Pie – like in the movie. The little apple is a truffle. And it was all so good. Everyone got one of each.

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We had enough Disney reward dollars to pay for this. If we hadn’t gone here, we could have five or six lunches in the parks, but it was worth the fun experience.

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We poked around Wilderness Lodge more, yet they didn’t have much out yet for decorations.

From there we headed to Animal Kingdom Lodge, but they had no decorations out yet. We did visit with a docent (?) preparing to hold a teaching session.

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Just here for the pictures…:rofl::rofl:
Loving your report.

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I wish I’d taken better photos of the trees. They were beautiful in their level of detail. I was feeling very badly at that point and just wanted to lie on the pavement and sleep.

My girls loved the nuances on each tree.

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Honestly - that’s how I roll. I am working on the text on my blog b/c my kids often look at the blog at later times. I’d be happier just throwing the photos into an album like the good old days!

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Me! Me! I’m reading along too!! I’m so glad those prayers were answered and you got to enjoy the party! I’m 5 days out and bursting at the seams!! Seeing your pictures has me so excited!!

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Could you tell me the crowd level for HS? It’s be useful to show these pictures to my husband to illustrate what to expect.

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It was a CL4, though had been projected lower. It was very manageable! Honestly, I’m surprised. It felt less than that! It was one of our most successful days!

I’m reading! But I need to go to sleep now. I can’t wait to read more. What a detailed post with beautiful pictures! When do you find time to homeschool, work, and blog!?!

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I work per diem and I blog just for my family! And I’m always far behind! I’m being intentional about documenting the trip this weekend before real life starts in earnest and I forget it all!!

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Following and enjoying!!

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Finished reading up to this point. Lots of photos! I like it when trip reports have lots of photos. Makes me feel like we’re along for the ride.

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Following along and enjoying the report!

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