It was cold. 

Up at 5:00AM.
Kids up at 6:15AM.

And it was cold. Brrr.

High for the day was projected to be 56F.  That means for like 11 minutes at 3:30PM it is a whopping 56F.  All the time leading up to that moment and leading out of that moment would be LESS than 56F.

As soon as we decided to go, we talked about Disneybounding.  We planned to bound as the Fab Five this day because in 2016 we managed this photo at the Visa Character Spot.

We hoped to meet these three together again

Well – the forecast didn’t lend itself to the clothes we planned to bound in.  We made the decision to wear our clothes until we met them, then change into something warmer.

Our plan was to Rope Drop Baymax, so I reasoned we didn’t need to be amongst the first people there.

We ended up getting there earlier than we ever needed to.

The Crowd Level was predicted to be a 3/10.

At 7:58AM we were on our way to security.

We were pretty close to the tapstiles where they kept us until 8:30ish.

8:38AM.  We were so cold.  There was a lot of wind there, too, with very little to break it up.

Rope drop saw people RUNNING – full on RUNNING to Soarin’!  I was shocked.  It wasn’t supposed to be that busy today….

We accidently overshot the door to Baymax… because it was closed and I thought to look behind Innoventions West.

This door looked attractive, but was also shut.  Just as I was calling her back, they opened it.

We were the second family through the queue, because another group got in as I was parking the stroller, etc.

The went wild for our costumes.  But we were sad they didn’t pose together anymore. 

We got directions to Baymax and made dreams come true.

And we delighted in meeting Joy.  (Sadness wasn’t there.)

We headed into the Land Pavilion and most of us changed clothes.
Somewhere in there we got a notice that our Test Track Fast Pass had converted into an any time/any attraction (except Frozen Ever After) Fast Pass.

We were on Soarin’ by 9:50AM and only had a 10 minute wait.

We rode Living with the Land, then Finding Nemo, then went to Turtle Talk with Crush.  That had a longer wait than I wanted.

We started that at 11:15AM.

Crush signaled out Katriel to speak with, “That little dude with a tie dye shell and hair going in both directions.”

He asked if she had a question and she asked, “What do turtles eat?”

“Food,” he answered.  Then he cheerfully added that they eat sea grass and that is why they are green.  Then he asked her what her favorite food is.

“Mac and cheese,” she replied.  Yes.  Yes it is. ♥

11:38AM

We considered Journey into Imagination at this point, but it said a 20 minute wait and there was no way…

By 11:45AM we were sitting in the upstairs of the mostly empty Electric Umbrella to eat our lunches out of the wind. 

We went to Mission Space, some on Orange and some on Green. 

12:21PM

Those of us on Green really enjoyed it.  Some of the Orange crowd were a little ~ um ~ green…  (irony!)

We then used our Fast Pass for Test Track.  We waxed poetic over the trips where John’s GM pass got us into the employee lounge and unlimited FP access.

12:47PM

It was SO COLD as we rushed through the chilly air.

We went on Spaceship Earth and I was poised to grab some same day dropped FPP.

But I couldn’t get any for Frozen Ever After and that was all I wanted.  I tried small groups and overlapping times and kept modifying, and, and, and, I couldn’t get them.

One thing I had been noticing was that the wait times were longer than I had thought they would be AND that the walkways were super crowded.  It was both Dapper Days weekend AND the end of the Food and Wine Festival. 

We went and met Elsa and Anna without too much of a wait.

2:24PM

2:37PM

Anna was pretty good.

Elsa was fabulous.

My kids really enjoyed asking the questions suggested by Kenny the Pirate.  They enjoyed their conversations, and I think the characters did as well, to be honest.

I’d heard good things about Kringla Bakery.

The treats were divine.  The coffee, not at all. 

This picture of the family was 3:06PM.

The picture of Elsa below was 4:57PM.

Shoot me now.

We’d waited for Millennium Falcon twice, so we reasoned we could suck it up and wait for Frozen.  It said 60 minutes, so I figured it would be slightly less than that.

It wasn’t.  It was close to two hours.  I’ll say one hour and 40 minutes to be safe.

It was a beautiful ride.  And it was an indoor queue.  But our day fell apart right there on the streets of Arendelle.

Some rode the ride in the Mexico Pavilion while I tried to come up with a game plan.  That dumb ride is normally walk on and they waited 20 minutes for it.

We were cold and hungry – that sounds so funny!

But we WERE cold and we WERE hungry and I had no dinner plan, so we at in China.  It was yummy-ish.

6:07PM

We miserably walked around the countries not really doing anything but dodging crowds and popping in places to warm ourselves temporarily.  We had no energy to wait for Snow White, whom we had already met, and as we approached Aurora they were closing her queue. 

We got back to Future World and the Imagination Pavilion at 7:01PM.  Just that much too late to ride Figment ride. 

We were cold. 

So we left.

When I was planning our days out and trying to make them fit I found the “best” day to visit each of the parks during our time there.  I still had one more park day and figured we would like multiple visits to MK and HS to do everything.  When it came to my FPP day in September, I was not able to get Slinky Dog Dash on our first HS day, so that left me looking for it for Saturday. 

I also had noted that if we skipped the parade on our MK day on 11/12, that would free up touring time while other guests were busy watching the parade. 

In the end I planned to visit MK during the day until the end of the 2PM parade, and then hop to DHS.

I was able to get FPP for Slinky Dog Dash at 7PM.  I also had FPP for Indiana Jones and Voyage of the Little Mermaid show.

I was up by 5AM and woke my family around 6:15AM.

It was our smoothest transit to the MK as everyone was now well acquainted with the process. 

7:45AM

We had our security system down pat with all the people and bags. 

7:58AM

This time we meandered down Main Street having lots of Photo Pass pictures done.  We also paused to watch some of the morning entertainment.

We positioned our crew at the Adventureland spoke on the Hub and then Kelly and I backtracked to Main Street Bakery.

For someone who never visits a Starbucks at home, I was developing quite a habit.

The rope dropped happened at 8:50PM and our plan was to head to Big Thunder Mountain.  Pirates of the Caribbean was down, however, and everyone who was headed there also headed to Big Thunder Mountain. 

Marie made a split second decision (at the head of the pack) to head to Splash Mountain.  I had no desire to be wet and cold again, so Katriel, Tabitha and Marie went to Splash, while Stacy, Johanna and Johanna went to Big Thunder.  After the Splash crowd got off they rode on Big Thunder. 

Fun Fact – squirrels and ducks don’t eat mini M & M’s.

While Nan and I waited for them to get off Big Thunder, we watched squirrels investigate the contents of stroller after stroller.

From there we headed over to meet Aladdin and Jasmine.

The queue moved quickly, and dare I say Aladdin was dangerously close to falling out of character.  He might not be ready for Prime Time. 

Everyone but I went into Philharmagic.  I just stood around Fantasyland!

We’d really done everything once that we cared to do in MK, but it was hours until the parade.

We decided to go see how the line was for Merida. 

She was outstanding.  Totally engaging and had us laughing. 

We consulted my Kenny the Pirate app and saw the Jack Sparrow should be meeting back by the exit from Splash.  There was no one there, though a queue was forming.  We were just about to ask another guest when Chip and Dale started walking out.  These two were a hoot!  They were so playful and Chip went and posed the girls in the places he wanted them, then he stood just in front of them!

We decided to do a little shopping and look for desserts.  We went back to the Big Top where we’d seen beautiful treats days earlier.

We wanted to watch the parade from Main Street to be closer to the exit and we found a spot we liked at 1:13PM.  The four girls sat side by side on the curb while Nan and Kelly did some shopping and I stood behind them.  We kind of all talked and zoned out and I deleted some photos, etc.

At 1:50PM a man loudly asked me to move my stroller.  I looked back.  My stroller was next to me and I was a long way from stroller parking of any kind.  I noticed he had a stroller with him.  I wasn’t sure what he wanted so I said, “Pardon me?”  He brusquely said, “Can you move the stroller; you’re taking up a lot of room.”

I clumsily turned my stroller 90 degrees, from a parallel position to a perpendicular position.  I didn’t move my body, nor did Nan or Kelly who had long since returned. 

From this point on I hear the guy and the woman he was with occasionally say things loudly about how we weren’t making room for his kid, etc.  Thousands of people on Main Street and he’s commenting on my family? Nan is known for defending her parade spots like a boss and I was hoping this guy wasn’t going to push her too far. 

At 2:00PM the crowd starts standing up in places and by 2:05PM my girls were also standing.  This is when the guy starts really talking trash about me and my girls and how rude we are to make it so his kid can’t see.  He went on and on for almost 10 minutes.  The parade was just coming into sight.  I calmly turned to him and asked him what he was talking about.  He suddenly became very deferential and mumbled that it was fine, everything was fine.   I didn’t stop.  I was now Mama Bear.  I politely pointed out that for the last ten minutes he was speaking harshly about my girls and saying how rude they were.  I explained that we’d been here for an hour to secure our positions and we weren’t going to move.  He guffawed, “Oh what?  You think I should wait here for an hour with my five year old?! That’s not gonna happen.”  I pointed out I was traveling with a six year old and that my kids have often waited an hour to enjoy the parade.

“Well, good for you.  You’re still rude.”

With every calm fiber I could muster I sweetly replied, “We are not rude, sir; we are wise.” 

Meanwhile my sister was giving his female travel companion her perspective.

And then we enjoyed the same exact parade – MINUS a fire-breathing Maleficent – that we watched 3½ years ago.

Let me tell you – it was getting cold.  Not necessarily Rochester cold, but cold to spend the entire day outside not dressed for the weather. 

Somewhere over the last few weeks, I’d come to realize I had not scheduled a time to watch the regular night time fireworks, “Happily Ever After.”  Given that we’d accomplished so much at HS the other day, I reasoned that we could head to HS until after we rode Slinky Dog Dash and then come back to MK for the fireworks. 

Because it is such a hassle to get from the TTC parking lot and over to MK our best option seemed to be to catch the bus from MK to HS and then back again later.  Friends from the message board I visit helped me figure out the logistics.

Waiting for the bus was cold.  Then folding and loading the stroller was a headache.  But we got over to HS and through security in about an hour.  The only FPP we intended to use was the Slinky Dog one.

It was getting colder and colder so I suggested we head over to the Star Wars Launch Bay which was indoors.  As I went to park the stroller I realized something was happening.  Sure enough, I look over and Storm Troopers are marching over toward the entrance where I’d just left my family.  I started to grab my phone as I got closer and –boy- was I glad I did!  Johanna was protecting the Launch Bay!

As Rey arrived she thanked Johanna for helping!

https://youtu.be/4rztGbKIX6w

3:45PM

Johanna was then presented with a certificate.

She was carrying it and we were congratulating her on what she’d done on our way in.  A CM saw her carrying it and informed us that we could show it to the CMs at the queue for Chewbacca and they’d let us right in.  They also said the CMs at Darth Vadar might also let us in there at the head of the line, too.

They did.

We met both in minutes.

It was great for time… but we did end up back out in the cold!

We headed for a place to meet some surprise characters. 

We hung around to see if anyone else came, but it was Jasmine again, so we decided to see about shopping.  I was thinking about buying something warmer for Katriel to wear.  Nothing jumped out at me, so we moved on to dinner.

We chose Backlot again, because it has refills on pop and it is indoor seating.

We ate until almost 6PM.

We unanimously decided to take another run on the Millennium Falcon.

From there we went to our ride on Slinky Dog Dash.

So fun.  Over so fast.

Then – our night fell apart.

We should have had time.

We would have had time.

But we had some who wanted to hunt for desserts.

And we waited too long for them.

Then our group got terribly separated.

And we had to wait in such a long line for the bus that we didn’t make it onto the first one and had to wait for another one.

And everyone was very cold and shivering!!

And we arrived at MK and cleared security JUST as the fireworks started and I knew that some members of my group would revolt if I pushed us into the park into a crowd and then had to fight a crowd to get back out to the monorail.

Instead we just proceeded to the monorail and back to our van and back to our rental.

Oh the weather outside….

Rainy, but thankfully warmish.

Kelly 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. 

Marie did her apologetics homework.

Katriel and Tab 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!

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.

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.

The dinner was everything we hoped it would be.

The food was delicious and the characters were delightful!!

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

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

Katriel asked her why she used an apple to poison Snow White and she said she didn’t know what Katriel 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.

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.

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.

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 Marie came and took my spot so I could shop.  I didn’t really find anything I wanted, but Nan and Nene 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.

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

Me dropping into work for a bit. 

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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 Nan headed back to get her phone.  It took them almost 45 minutes. 

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.

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

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

We regrouped in time to watch Belle together.

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

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

 

Next thing you know, Marie 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.

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.

We were off by 8:55PM

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

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.

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.

We found a planter Nan 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.

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.

It was after midnight before we got on the monorail. 

We were on the road a little after 7AM with a quick stop at Walmart which was conveniently located between our house and WDW.

We cleared security by 7:49AM

We were about a dozen people back from the tapstiles at 7:57AM.

I had the stroller and was about the fourth “row” back from the rope, with the rest of my party at the front of the rope or just behind them in the second “row.”

Each girl was invited out to welcome the crowd.  Katriel went first, but I only recorded hers as a video.

Behind us was an amazing sea of human beings.

I tried to take a photo or two as we were walked to Toy Story Land at 8:53AM

I started to get pushed further and further back and then had to park my stroller, no less.

My family was all separated and I started to wonder if I would even try for the ride through.

In the end, the girls ended up riding in the third train out, and Nan and Nene in the fourth and me in the sixth. 

It was an amazing ride.  I was off by 9:11 AM.

Katriel spotted Jessie, whom she was dressed as, so we queued in her line.  Kelly, Marie, Johanna and Nan rode Alien Swirling Saucers.

I took some photos as Tab waited in line with Katriel.

Today Marie bounded as Snow White and Tab as Bolt.  The family actually got off the line before we met Jessie.

It was finally time to meet Jessie.

We headed over to use our first FPP for Rock N Roller Coaster.  Everyone but Nan went on.  Then Marie and Kelly went to Tower of Terror and the rest of us went to watch Lightning McQueen Racing Academy and Beauty and the Beast.  While in there, I got a text from Nigel that he’d just been advised that the class for spring semester he was on the wait list for now had room.  I missed part of the show registering him… LOL. 

Marie and Kelly missed their chance to tap into Beauty and Beast and therefore didn’t discharge their FPP.  I had to visit a Guest Experience Team Kiosk to get it off.  I didn’t want to wait to see if it fell off, because I wanted to grab some same day FPP at the 12:01PM drop.

We ate lunch while watching the Star Wars stage show and tapped in to our FPP for Frozen Sing-a-Long 6 minutes early.  Kelly’s phone worked better than mind, so we poised ourselves to grab FPP at 12:01PM and got a set of Toy Story Midway Mania for later.  Then we sat back and enjoyed the sing along.  It had a slightly holiday tweaked theme that made it a lot of fun.

From there we enjoyed Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular and then Muppets.  It was only 66F.  I don’t think I’ve mentioned yet that the weather forecast started tanking just after we got to Florida…

We headed back to Toy Story Land for our Fast Pass.

We were off the ride by 2:40PM so I picked up another set for later.  I could have had FPP for Slinky Dog again for three of us, but try as I might I couldn’t get all seven of us back on.

From there we went to explore Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge.  Kelly had a reservation for Oga’s Cantina (no way we could get one for all of us) at 3:55PM. 

While she visited the Cantina we went and met Olaf.

She texted us when she was done and some of them rode Star Tours while Nan and I shopped a little.

We then had an early dinner.  It’s an unpopular restaurant, but we’ve enjoyed Backlot Express in the past.  I like they have refills on the pop so we ate there again.

After dinner we decided we’d wait the 50 minutes to ride Millennium Falcon: Smuggler’s Run.  We boarded around 6:05PM.  It was the Best decision.  We had a blast!!  I think it helps a lot that our family filled the capsule and we loved cheering and yelling to one another.  Even the little two who have never seen a movie were totally into it. 

When we were done the park had been plunged into darkness.  We headed back to Toy Story Land to start our hunt for treats and ride Toy Story Midway Mania again.  It is such a great ride.

Nene bought Katriel a refillable popcorn bucket.  Johanna and I found treats at Starbucks.

My carrot cake “cookie” was every bit as amazing as I’d been advised and was honestly too big for me to finish myself.

This was my second day in a row enjoying a Venti Cafe Mocha.

Katriel and I rode Alien Swirling Saucers that we’d missed in the AM. 

At 8:31PM we went to enjoy some projections.  The park was wonderfully uncrowded.  There was lots of room as people continued to arrive right up until the fireworks started. 

Guests remained seated for the Jingle Bell, Jingle Bam which started at 9.

These blew us away.  So many lesser known Disney movies were included in the show.  It was exceptional, in our opinions.

 

We headed out around 9:15PM

I was awake before my 5AM alarm.  I was up and at ‘em and started morning prep.  Kelly and Nan were up by 6AM and then it was time to get the girls up.  Our plan for this day was to Disneybound as the characters from Winnie the Pooh.

Breakfast at 6:33 AM.

On our way I got in the wrong lane and got us a little behind.

We finally got to the Transportation and Ticket Center and got on the proper monorail, only to have it experience technical difficulties.  We were instructed to disembark at the Polynesian Resort and told to stay close to the security area so that we would be able to re-enter the next monorail as soon as it arrived.  All of these delays were messing with our ability to be first in line to Rope Drop the 7 Dwarfs Mine Train ride we hoped to Rope Drop.

We finally got to Magic Kingdom and did not stop to properly admire any of the decorations.  We hurried to the spot people were queuing for RD.  After I stood there a few minutes and processed our position, I decided to forgo this plan for this morning.

We moved over to the Adventureland side of the Hub and waited over there until they RDed around 8:50AM.

From there we headed to Splash Mountain because Big Thunder Mountain Railroad was closed.

I got soaked!

We then went to use our first FPP for Jungle Jingle Cruise, which was EXCELLENT.  We had the funniest skipper.

We waited a whopping 7 or 8 minutes for Magic Carpets of Aladdin and some were complaining… We’ve been spoiled.

We went to Monsters Inc. Laugh Floor and Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin and then decided to eat our lunch.  I admit that at first I was willing to acknowledge that it is a little “sad” or even “pathetic” to pack a lunch.  Nuh – uh.  No way.  It is now my favorite thing.  Our breaks were super short.  No ordering and waiting, etc.,  It was so easy.

We went and rode Dumbo and from the air my girls spotted Pluto coming out.  So as soon as we got off we headed directly over to where he was walking.

We were the only ones in that area, and he quickly engaged Katriel.  They danced and then he walked her up and around to a closed food trailer.  He pretended to want to eat something.  It was a few minutes before anyone else joined our grouping.

We finished our visit with him and then went inside to meet Goofy and Donald.

We rode the Little Mermaid ride and opted to skip Tea Cups.

Around 2PM we decided to find some treats.

J and K went for the Arenedelle Aqua ice cream – cotton candy flavored with Mickey Head candies.

M had a Minnie’s Gingerbread treat.

We had done so much already, we decided to bite the bullet and queue for the 7  Dwarfs Mine Train.

And after 50 minutes we were next up for the ride.

And it went down.

They made multiple announcements about it being down and many people left the line.  We stayed put.  After about 10 minutes they now announced it was down and everyone would get FPP for later.  The park was only open until 6PM so we weren’t sure if we’d get to use them or not.

We queued to meet Pooh Bear and Tigger.  This took a long time, but there was no way we wanted to miss meeting them.

Kelly and Marie went to ride Haunted Mansion and the rest of us went to meet Tiana and Rapunzel.  They were both excellent and engaging.

Tab and I decided we wanted our treats for the day.  She wanted an iced coffee and I wanted a Dole Whip.

At 5PM we decided again to try 7 Dwarves and we were on in just a few minutes.

As we inched closer to closing time we rode the Tomorrowland Speedway and looked on in excitement as they started to roll out the special items for Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party (MVMCP) starting at 7PM.  We had tickets for Thursday, 11/14.

We left at 6PM and rode the monorail around and around.  LOL.  It seemed that way. 

We went to the Contemporary Resort to look at decorations (not many yet) and have dinner.  Dinner was really good and the Cast Member (CM) helped me work our meals to maximize food for the two youngest at the cheapest price point. 

From there we rode around to the Grand Floridian which was beautiful.  For just a moment I could actually catch myself wishing we were staying in such a luxurious hotel.  It was gorgeous.

Then I remembered that behind each door was a hotel room and how much I don’t love hotel rooms, and it wasn’t so hard to not want to stay there anymore…

A cast member noticed us admiring the tile work in the floor and then proceeded to give us a tour.  Meanwhile the band was extraordinary.  I’m glad we stopped here!

Finally we circled back to the Transportation and Ticket Center and took a parting picture of each girl next to the character she had bounded for the day. ♥

Late last summer Marie mentioned how she would love to see Walt Disney World at Christmas time.  I quickly responded with, “I’m sure we will, someday.”  Then I realized that once she started at community college she wouldn’t be able to leave during the holiday season.  Or she’d be limited to the school breaks, which would mean terrible crowds.  So I started to do some research into what it would cost to visit WDW in the 2019 Christmas season.  The numbers looked doable, so I just set to pray about it.

In December 2019, I heard about Traveling Homeschoolers from a friend at church.

In February, the dates and prices were posted on the Traveling Homeschoolers website.  They were traveling in November and were affordable.  I had to wait for airfare costs.  I booked a campsite on Disney property (which we would never actually stay at) to allow for early access to Fast Passes (FPP).

In May, Southwest posted their fares and they were out of my budget.  I looked again a week later and they were now in my range!

Meanwhile, I churned 5 credit cards to earn money to cover many of the costs.

In August, I found a rental house that exceeded my expectations for the low budget I set.

Autoslash helped me to find a rental van in our range.

We told the girls in September.

Monday morning I drove John to work at 6:30 AM.  I came home and placed grocery orders for ALDI and Walmart in the 34747 zip code to be delivered to our rental house in the evening.

At 10:30 AM I picked up Nan and Kelly, and then we picked up John.  He had us to the airport by 11:10 AM.

They watched Toy Story 4 while I watched Endgame.

We navigated MCO easily.

We found our rental car, but had to really WORK to get all our luggage into the Dodge Caravan.

We headed to Kissimmee area for Chick-fil-A.

Then a quick stop at a junky Dollar Tree and off to our rental house on Santee Drive.

Our rental stroller was already there, and our groceries came right on time. 

We dug into making lunches for the next day.

Originally our goal was to make lunches each of the first five days in an effort to save money, and then we would buy lunches toward the end of vacation.  I wanted to make sure we could buy some of the special (and $) treats Disney makes.

We hit bed around 9:30 PM.  I shared with Johanna.  Nan and Katriel had a room.  Marie and Tab had a room.  And Kelly had her own room.