Christmas trip 2017; Animal Kingdom, Hollywood Studios

So, I have to admit that while the previous two days had been typed up and just never published, this final day was not written before now....a full two years since this trip.  With it only being one day, I didn't want to ignore it all together, but I definitely don't remember all the details.  If you've followed along, you will know that this was originally our checkout day and we had planned on starting home today, so I think I had booked fastpasses for flight of passage, just in case we wanted to stop on our way out of town.  Looking back at our photos, I'm guessing we picked up passes for everest and kali the night before after we decided to stay another full day.

8:00

It looks like the park opened at 8:00 and we started at  Na'vi River Journey, attraction #1.  

You can see LittleCJC decided to sport her new reindeer headband that she got from our friends that we visited the night before.  By 8:39 we had made our way to Triceratop Spin, attraction #2.

Patrick decided to ride Primeval Whirl, attraction #3 while we were here.

I don't have a picture of me on it, so I'm assuming I didn't ride, which is only sad now (2 years later) knowing that I probably never will again.  After leaving dinoland, we circled around to Asia.

9:00

Patrick and I both took a ride on Expedition Everest, attraction #4 and #5.

LittleCJC had to check, but unfortunately, antlers don't count with the ride attendants checking the height requirements.

Even though it was cool enough this morning for Patrick to still be in his pullover, we all rode Kali River Rapids, attraction #6.

The things we do for our kids, right?  At this point, we trekked across the park to use our fastpasses in the land of Pandora.

10:00

While Patrick and I both rode Flight of Passage, attraction #7 and #8, LittleCJC passed the time by exploring the land.

She also tried on some of the native headgear,

and had some ice cream.

After Pandora, we decided to make a stop at Starbucks.

11:00-1:00

I'm missing any pictures from this time block to confirm what we did.  The obvious idea though, is that we ate some lunch, and my thought is that we first rode safari (probably with a fastpass that we picked up or else this was our third instead of Kali) and then went back to Pandora for Satu'li Canteen.  After lunch, we hopped over to Hollywood Studios for Littlecjc's current favorite, Toy Story Mania.

The entrance and line had already changed from our last day here in preparations for the upcoming Toy Story Land changes.  On this day, there were no fastpasses and the standby line was mostly outside wrapping down and around that dead end street where the Dinoco car was set up for pictures.  Even though you could only really reach this photo opt from the Toy Story Mania line, Disney kept a photopass photographer here, which made the line situation a little better than it otherwise could have been.

2:00

Right at 2:00 we eventually made it onto Toy Story Mania, attraction #9.  Now that Littlecjc is getting a little older, she is starting to understand her choices.  Like wanting to ride TSM means standing in a long line.  When we got off and asked what she wanted to do next, she chose to stand in line again, this time to meet Woody and Buzz, characters #1 and #2.

3:00

The only other ride option for Littlecjc here was Star Tours, attraction #10.

With both rides done, we decided it was time to meet some characters.  First up, Olaf, character #3.

We were actually then on our way to visit Mickey and Minnie, when we came across Chip and Dale, characters #4 and #5 looking spiffy in their holiday spirit.

We still made it to Minnie, character #6

and Mickey, character #7.

4:00

We decided to rush over to the Beauty and Beast stage show.  We missed the opening scene and were seated way in the back, but that was okay with us since we weren't sure if Littlecjc would stay in her seat.  She did though, and thought our seats were fun.

After the show we were making our way to the front of the park and stopped to watch the citizens of Hollywood.

5:00

Patrick and I decided we should leave the parks early this evening, because we still hadn't taken Littlecjc to the pool and she had been asking every time we passed it.  We also didn't want to be out too late since we decided to drive home all in one day now.  After Littlecjc had a bit of a meltdown at the front of the park realizing we were serious about leaving the park for the final time this trip, her and Daddy had a cute moment where she apologized and he carried her out.

We ended the night at the pool, where Littlecjc had a great time, even if I did find it very cold.

The hotel had these lifejackets and Littlecjc thought it was great getting to wear one.  

Christmas trip 2017, Day 6: Magic Kingdom

We had an early start this day, as the park opened at 8, with an extra magic hour that morning allowing us to enter at 7.  We of course were there at rope drop and rushed with the crowd to the mine train.  Here's a picture of some holiday decor in front of the main gate.

7:00

With a very brief delay, we were still on the ride by 7:15, making Seven Dwarfs Mine Train attraction #1.

When we finished here, we hurried off to Peter Pan's Flight, attraction #2, which thankfully still had a short wait.  By now, we were well overdue to meet some princesses, so we decided that it was time for a trip to Fairytale Princess Hall.  We met Cinderella, character #1,

Elena, character #2

Rapunzel, character #3

and Tiana, character #4.

If you don't know, you actually meet 2 princesses at a time here, but as there was absolutely no lines we walked through both sides quickly.  Littlecjc loved meeting everyone and showing off her new baby giraffe that she had acquired the day before.  It was cute as almost all of the princesses tried to help her name it, but she claims to not like any of the names they suggested.  To this day, I still don't think she has ever actually named this giraffe, but I think she can still tell me at least one of the suggestions.

After going through both sides of the hall, we took a little spin on the Carousel, attraction #3.

8:00

Our next stop was a visit with Ariel, character #5 since Littlecjc had to show off her dress.

We then decided to make a little stop in at Gaston's Tavern for one of those giant cinnamon rolls.

With bellies refueled, we made our way to Adventureland to ride Jingle Cruise, attraction #4.

9:00

We stayed in Adventureland and rode Pirates, attraction #5, knowing that it would be the final time that we would see the bride auction scene.

We had fastpasses for Big Thunder later in the day, but with the early park opening, lines were still short, so we decided to go through standby and change our later fastpass to something else.  So, Big Thunder Mountain became attraction #6.  Littlecjc loved that her new giraffe had his own seat here.

10:00

Littlecjc then suckered her daddy into an ice cream snack.

While here, we attempted to change our fastpass and realized that there really wasn't much left for us to grab or else we truly let Littlecjc pick since we ended up with a fastpass for tea cups.  You know it's the end of your trip when we go with this choice during the middle of the day.  By now, we were ready to use our first fastpass of the day on Seven Dwarfs Mine Train.  However, on the way there, Littlecjc decided she really needed to ride It's A Small World, attraction #7.  We of course obliged, and why wouldn't we?  Look at that face and tell me it's not worth singing that song for the rest of the day.

With our happy cruise done, we were able to continue onto our fastpass destination Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, attraction #8.

11:00

While back in Fantasyland, we opted to take in Mickey's Philharmagic, attraction #9.  As we were waiting for the show to start, a castmember told us there was a hidden mickey in the room.  Do you see it?

When our show here finished, it was time for another fastpass.  We headed back to Frontierland for Splash Mountain, attraction #10.  Look at those arms way up!

When exiting the ride, there is a small play area which Littlecjc could not pass up.  We let her play for a little bit while we decided what we wanted to do next.  We had actually been continually trying to modify our final fastpass and this is when we actually decided to just stick with those tea cups.  We also decided that we would take a little break as we were able to pick up a lunch dining reservation at the Skipper Canteen.

12:00

Our next hour was basically then spent eating lunch.  When we did finish,  we made it to the front of the castle in time for a 1:00 stage show.

1:00

After watching Mickey's Friendship show here at the castle, we decided to just go ahead and find a seat here in front of the castle for the upcoming parade.

Littlecjc ended up loving this.  If you've ever sat down before a parade here, you know that they usually have some type of pre-parade entertainment.  On this day it was a large group of cheerleaders that handed out pompoms before their arrival.  Littlecjc was entertained as the cheerleaders passed, but she loved that pompom and it entertained her until the parade started and longer.

2:00

As you know, the parade steps off at the start time in Frontierland, so it was a little after 2 by time it reached the castle, meaning most of this hour was spent watching the Festival of Fantasy parade.

3:00

When the parade ended, we made our way into Fantasyland and took advantage of our fastpass at Mad Tea Party, attraction #11.

After scanning our bands, we decided to pick up one last fastpass for the Barnstormer.  However, we also noticed that Pooh and Tigger were not out but that only one person was waiting for their queue to open.  So, we checked the time of their arrival on the app and decided to wait and meet them.  We've actually never stopped here before and I'm really glad it worked out this time.  Littlecjc had a great time during our interactions with both Winnie the Pooh, character #6 and Tigger, character #7, since they both loved her new giraffe.

After our time here, we made our way to the circus and rode The Barnstormer, attraction #12 with our last fastpass.  We had decided to make this our last ride of the day since we had evening plans with some local friends outside of the parks and we wanted to make sure we had plenty of time for transportation.  However, before leaving the park today, we stopped on Main Street to take a picture.

This photo seemed a little random as we were leaving, but I ended up loving it since Littlecjc is showing off everything she accumulated on this trip.

This was originally our last day planned in the park, but being passholders it is super tempting to extend any trip when possible.  Another reason for giving ourselves extra time today was so that Patrick could talk to the hotel staff and see if we could stay in our room an extra night.  Fortunately, everything worked out and not needing to switch rooms or even hotels made it a no-brainer and we decided to stay another night.  So, look out for Day 7, coming up.

Christmas trip 2017, Day 5: Hollywood Studios, Epcot, Animal Kingdom

This was the day we had originally devoted to be our Hollywood Studios day, but after our successful hopping around yesterday, we did that again this day.  Hollywood Studios opened at 9 today, but we were actually a little late getting going this morning.  At 8:30, we stopped in at the lobby to take a picture with this Christmas tree.

Our fastpasses this day were Toy Story Mania (10:05-11:05) Star Tours (11:05-12:05) and Tower of Terror (12:20-1:20.)  Since we missed the opening rush, we decided to start our day with some characters.

9:00

When we made it to the park, we went to the Star Wars Launch Bay where we met Kylo Ren, character #1.

We then decided to meet BB8, character #2.

I don't remember how long Chewbacca's line was by now, but we decided to leave the Launch Bay and try again later.  As leaving, Littlecjc noticed that Jake had hardly no line, so character #3, became Jake.

10:00

We started to make our way to Toy Story Mania, but decided to stop off first for one more character meet and greet with Star Lord and Baby Groot, characters #4 & 5.

After a quick look at the Toy Story Land model, we moved on to Toy Story Mania, attraction #1.

With a little time available before we could use our next faspass, we gave in to Littlecjc's wants of some ice cream.  This time we chose the Mickey shaped sandwich.

11:00

After our snack, we made our way over to Star Tours, attraction #2 where we used our second fastpass.

I think I mentioned in last week's post how Littlecjc was enthralled with the Jedi Training show this trip.  So, since we were here, we decided to stop in at Backlot for some lunch where we could easily watch the show again.

12:00

With lunch out of the way and a little time before our next fp, we decided to take a look at the single rider line for Rock'n Roller Coaster.  We stopped along the way for these fun pictures.

Sometimes, the single rider line here is hard to tell what kind of wait you've got, but we decided to take a chance and it worked out.  I rode first while obtaining a rider swap and then we switched allowing Patrick to ride.  So Rock'n Roller Coaster was attraction #3 & 4.  

1:00

By the time we were both done with this ride, we were well into our allotted time for our next fastpass at Tower of Terror.  Littlecjc decided that she did not want to ride this today, so I rode it thinking that maybe she would want to follow.  She did not, so my solo ride on Tower of Terror was attraction #5.

Instead of getting on the ride, Littlecjc did have some fun in the gift shop.

With all the rides done, it was time for a few more characters.  We headed back to the Disney Jr area and met with Pluto, character #6.

Sofia, character #7

and Doc McStuffins, character #8

 2:00

We made it through all those quickly, so we made our way inside the Star Wars Launch Bay and discovered the wait was much better now so we met Chewie, character #9.

We were feeling pretty accomplished at this point, and debating our options when we realized that Disney Jr Live was about to begin.  We asked Littlecjc and she said yes, so we decided to head in and decide from there, which made 

Disney Jr Live, attraction #6.

This is a cute show, especially for young ones, but there is one major downside....the only seating is the ground.

3:00

After the show, we decided to hit up Starbucks to re hydrate.  With drinks in hand we were able to watch the March of the First Order pass by before making our way back to Star Tours where we were able to visit with a dear friend that was working the gift shop.

After our visit, we decided to hop on a bus headed to Epcot.

4:00

While entering at Epcot, a nice guest that was leaving handed us a rider swap pass that we decided to immediately use for Test Track, attraction #7.

5:00

At some point, I believe while still at Hollywood Studios, we were able to pick up fastpasses for Soarin, attraction #8.

Somehow, on our previous days at Animal Kingdom, we had acquired two rider swap passes for Flight of Passage that were only good through today.  Not wanting them to go to waste, we decided to hop on another bus and travel to Animal Kingdom.

6:00 - 7:00

Upon arriving, we headed straight to Animal Kingdom where Patrick rode first and then we swapped, making Flight of Passage, attraction #9 and 10.

While I was still riding FOP, Patrick decided to take the begging Littlecjc over to her favorite "circle boats" for a ride (or two) on Kali River Rapids, attraction #11, and 12.  There was hardly anyone in the park, let alone on this attraction this late so they rode straight through twice.  I think Littlecjc then remembered about the safari ride and she asked dad to take her.  It was getting close to closing by now so they headed towards the entrance and called me a few times to let me know what was going on before eventually making their way into the attraction where they sat on the last jeep of the night waiting for anyone that might run in at the last minute.  This worked out great for me, because when I got out of FOP, I saw the missed calls and messages and started power walking as fast as possible.  I tried calling back a few times, but I never got an answer.  I just kept walking as fast as I could hoping that I would make it before a castmember told me to turn around due to park closing.  As I hustled to the ride entrance the castmembers standing there told me I made it and that the jeep with my family was still waiting at the loading area.  Sure enough, they were just sitting there and I think one family may have even entered after me.  We were laughing about our evening and even joking about how we probably wouldn't even see anything on this evening safari, but it was actually great and this Kilimanjaro Safari was attraction #13.  The lions were very vocal and being the only jeep out, our castmember really took his time.  Littlecjc also decided that hearing the lions was all she really needed, as she passed out just after seeing them.  This was actually a really fun way to end the night, and I'll probably remember this for a really long time.  

We may have spent more time hopping today, but for this point in our Disney trip and our overall Disney journey it was a perfect day for us.  We still took in 13 attractions and 9 characters.