We rode Rise of the Resistance on Walt's Birthday on our first Mother/Daughter Trip! December 2019! Updated September 19th!

[buzzrelly]

DECEMBER 6, 2019
WORLD-SHOWCASING



Euphoric from her favorite pizza, Allie happily posed for me...



There were a couple things on my to-do list for EPCOT.
One was the LWTL holiday overlay,
the second thing on my list was to catch the Voices of Liberty in their Christmas garb

They were amazing, as always,
but it was extra fun to hear them singing Christmas Carols.

After that, Allie and I did a little World-Showcasing...


The last thing on my FotH list was to watch some of the storytellers around the world.
We started in France, but Allie was clearly bored and we didn't end up staying to watch much of this guy...


so instead, we went and got some yummy ice cream at Les Artisan des Glaces...

I got a chocolate on chocolate Macaron,
which really doesn't seem like something I would order, but it was good.


Allie got Mint Chocolate Chip, which is always her favorite flavor.


We stood and watched these guys while we enjoyed our snacks...



and then continued our walk around the world, enjoying the Christmas decorations...




When we got to Norway,
I made Allie stop and wait for the next show
because this was one I had been wanting to see for some time...

We sat and waited about 15 minutes for it to start and even she thought it was adorable.

We still had some time to kill before it was dark and our LWTL FP,
so we continued around World Showcase...​

 

[buzzrelly]

DECEMBER 6, 2019
GRAN FIESTA TOUR AND PHOTO SHOOT


Our wandering led us to Mexico so we ended up here...




Super cute, and I didn't realize Allie had never been on this before.
I forgot that when Nicholas, my mom and I went on this in 2016,
Allie sat in the temple coloring her Duffy cut out

We all got sick of standing there watching her color so we went on GFT.


After GFT, we walked over and got our AP magnets...


and since EPCOT was literally perfect this day,
we had to have a photo shoot...





This sky








By the time we were done with our photo shoot,
it was finally getting to be time for our LWTL FP.
That's next!

​

 

[buzzrelly]

DECEMBER 6, 2019
HAPPY HOLIDAYS FROM LIVING WITH THE LAND


I wanted to make sure it was good and dark for LWTL. This was taken at 6:12pm...


I believe this was the first year they did this and it was so awesome.
Definitely worth the wait!














Of course, I love LWTL on a normal day, but this was even better!
And you know I had to record it...

We decided to head out after this catch the monorail
to tour some monorail resort decorations.
I love these sidewalks all lit up...




Up next, our monorail resort tour!

​

 

[PlutosRHM55]

The Living With The Land holiday overlay was the one thing I'm kicking myself for missing. I even had a friend who worked that attraction and I still never got over there to see him working or riding it to see all the lights. I barely spent time at Epcot during the holidays this past year anyways so it makes sense but I'm still mad at myself. It looked stunning.

Pere Noel (the France storyteller) definitely is one I wouldn't spend time watching. Sigrid and Julenissen (sp?) are the best ones, glad you got to see them. La Befana in Italy also has a really unique story or the Nutcracker story in Germany, just so you know if you're gonna do this again lol

Ugh, the lights in the pavement. I miss them so much. I hate that they had to go along with all the rest of the Future World renovation. Hopefully luck has it that we're getting them back when the Fountain area is all cleaned up.

 

[Jenny Sanders]

This is the ONE request she's had since we started planning this October trip last year…
we got our October ADR…and when all the reservations were wiped out we lost it…
but I did manage to get it again…let's see if this trip actually happens

We have reservations here in 5 1/2 weeks. Last August, we had a bad experience but since its always been so good, Joe and I are giving it another shot.

Definitely worth the wait!

I would absolutely love to see this holiday overlay in person.

 

[pkondz]

Patrick looked a little off...

Perfect timing.

I purposely made LWTL for late so we could see the new Holiday overlay all lit up

Good plan!

This is the ONE request she's had since we started planning this October trip last year…

has nothing to do with the Italian waiters... I'm sure.

We ordered the bread with oil and I got balsamic on the side that was so delicious,
I could have licked the plate clean.

In fact, we couldn't wait to dig in and I totally forgot to take a picture
until we were half done!

Shows you were hungry.

We literally had a conversation with a couple to my right
and they were the ones who suggested I ask for the balsamic.

They is wise...

I'm guessing things look much different now.

I would imagine!

 

[disneyAndi14]

The Lwtl overlay looks really cool. I would love to see that
Via Napoli is one of our favorites, always a solid choice!

 

[suse66]

One was the LWTL holiday overlay,
the second thing on my list was to catch the Voices of Liberty in their Christmas garb

I loved the Voices....they were amazing!

We sat and waited about 15 minutes for it to start and even she thought it was adorable.

I loved them too but La Befana stole the show for me.

By the time we were done with our photo shoot,
it was finally getting to be time for our LWTL FP.
That's next!

The pictures are so cute! Sadly, I missed the holiday overlay on LWTL as I had an earlier FP then was at the Candlelight Processional.

I wanted to make sure it was good and dark for LWTL. This was taken at 6:12pm...

This is gorgeous!!!

 

[vamassey1]

I purposely made LWTL for late so we could see the new Holiday overlay all lit up

Yes! Me too.

This is the ONE request she's had since we started planning this October trip last year…
we got our October ADR…and when all the reservations were wiped out we lost it…
but I did manage to get it again…let's see if this trip actually happens

I really hope you make in October. I got an email today asking me to confirm.

Euphoric from her favorite pizza, Allie happily posed for me...

Looking very lovely.

There were a couple things on my to-do list for EPCOT.
One was the LWTL holiday overlay,
the second thing on my list was to catch the Voices of Liberty in their Christmas garb

Me too. I love VOL and their Christmas show was even better.

The last thing on my FotH list was to watch some of the storytellers around the world.
We started in France, but Allie was clearly bored and we didn't end up staying to watch much of this guy...

This ended up being the only show we saw.

We sat and waited about 15 minutes for it to start and even she thought it was adorable.

I missed this and really wanted to see it.

Super cute, and I didn't realize Allie had never been on this before.
I forgot that when Nicholas, my mom and I went on this in 2016,
Allie sat in the temple coloring her Duffy cut out

Cute memory.

and since EPCOT was literally perfect this day,
we had to have a photo shoot...

Beautiful photos. The sky really did look amazing along with the subjects.

I believe this was the first year they did this and it was so awesome.
Definitely worth the wait!

I think this was the second year but yes it was worth it.

I love these sidewalks all lit up...

Love this too, great pictures. I'm so sorry we missed them.

 

[buzzrelly]

The Living With The Land holiday overlay was the one thing I'm kicking myself for missing. I even had a friend who worked that attraction and I still never got over there to see him working or riding it to see all the lights. I barely spent time at Epcot during the holidays this past year anyways so it makes sense but I'm still mad at myself. It looked stunning.

Oh my gosh, yes, you missed out! That's surprising that you never got over to EPCOT for this, although I'm sure you were busy doing other things. You'll get back there someday!

Pere Noel (the France storyteller) definitely is one I wouldn't spend time watching. Sigrid and Julenissen (sp?) are the best ones, glad you got to see them. La Befana in Italy also has a really unique story or the Nutcracker story in Germany, just so you know if you're gonna do this again lol

Good to know! I'm sure when I go with my DH, we will see them ALL because he loves stuff like this and hates rides.

Ugh, the lights in the pavement. I miss them so much. I hate that they had to go along with all the rest of the Future World renovation. Hopefully luck has it that we're getting them back when the Fountain area is all cleaned up.

Aw, I didn't realize they were gone. I'm glad I took a minute to appreciate them then, and hopefully they'll be back

We have reservations here in 5 1/2 weeks. Last August, we had a bad experience but since its always been so good, Joe and I are giving it another shot.

We had one bad experience there years ago…Allie's dough was quite undercooked. But we've been many times since and love it. Glad you're giving it another shot!

I would absolutely love to see this holiday overlay in person.

Start planning for December 2021…there's quite a few of us looking to do the same!

has nothing to do with the Italian waiters... I'm sure.

Haha! It's hard not to notice that, isn't it?? As Allie and I were sitting there, I told her her boyfriend could get a job there! She informed me he's Sicilian and not Neapolitan, so I guess not!

The Lwtl overlay looks really cool. I would love to see that

I keep telling everyone…December 2021!

I loved them too but La Befana stole the show for me.

I missed that one but now I need to see it next year!

The pictures are so cute! Sadly, I missed the holiday overlay on LWTL as I had an earlier FP then was at the Candlelight Processional.

And I missed the CP so I guess we both need a do-over

I really hope you make in October. I got an email today asking me to confirm.

Stay tuned…I'm about to post a little update about that...

I think this was the second year but yes it was worth it.

I just hope it sticks around!

 

[buzzrelly]

PTR PLANS AND UPDATES!

Hello, all!

Before I get back to our Resort Monorail tour,
I just wanted to post a(n) quick update about what's happening with our trip planning.

You may or may not recall, but we have had our October 6-12th trip planned since last year. It was supposed to be a girl's trip with myself, Allie, my mom, and 5-year-old niece. My mom decided a while back that she wouldn't feel comfortable traveling at this point…understandably…so her and my niece will hopefully join us in April .

So then Mike decided to join us. He wants to drive down, stay overnight at his friend's house in VA for a couple nights and then go see his mom in Ocala for a couple days before joining us. Allie and I have had plane tickets on Southwest but when SW changed our departure to a flight with a layover, I cancelled and got our money back…they'll refund you if it's something they change, otherwise you're stuck with travel credit. We still have our flight home, and I've been eyeing Jet Blue's flights down, one of which will be perfect for us, but I'm waiting to see if we can actually go since CT currently has a travel ban on anyone coming from a "hotspot" state, such as FL, meaning we would need to quarantine for two weeks on our arrival home. Not only that, but my work sent out an email stating that "anyone who travels to a hotspot state is required to quarantine for 14 days-no exceptions, before returning to work." Sigh. I get it…and honestly, unless FL starts getting their crap together soon, I probably wouldn't even want to travel there, but now, even if they do, I may not have a choice until this travel ban is over. I figure we have a month to see how things are going before we pull the plug on this….which would be trip #3 cancelled. It's kind of discouraging planning all these trips not knowing if they are actually going to happen, or not. But I will say, with each cancelled trip, it's gets easier. How sad is that? On a positive note, on the Disney Dish podcast this week, Len Testa said he spoke with many epidemiologists and they all said that FL passed their peak a couple weeks ago, so maybe things will start looking better soon. I really hope so, because honestly, from what I've seen and read, I think Disney is doing an amazing job with all this so I feel bad for them because they obviously can't control the rest of the state of FL.

Anyway, I don't know if I already said this, but if we do go, I was able to get CCV for all 7 nights. Seven nights, you say?? Well, yes. We have DVC points that are due to expire November 30, 2020 so I figured I could book an extra night at the beginning, October 5th, and then we don't have to wait to check-in the next day, we could head straight to the room. Although Mike is now saying that maybe he'll go check-in on the 5th anyway since we have the room! I told him that's fine but I need pictures before he messes it up! It also makes me think that, depending what's happening with Allie's school now, we may even be able to fly down at like 7pm on October 5th, as well.

Is everyone keeping up? Ugh.
It's like we have contingency plans for our contingency plans
And to think, I used to think coordinating ADRs with FPs was complicated!

Mike is REALLY excited about staying at CCV.
We have walked around there while visiting Geyser Point and he's always said he wants to stay here. I've stayed at WL once but never at CCV, so I'm excited to try it out too.

Sorry for writing so much!
Take a break from reading and enjoy some pictures of the lovely Wilderness Lodge






And of course we'll be hitting up Geyser Point because we all love the burgers there


If this trip actually happens, I'll post our park days and ADRs again!

In other news, Southwest released flights through April 11, 2021 yesterday. Since we have our reservation April 11th-April 18th, I went ahead and booked our flights down for myself, Allie, my mom and niece. Mike and Kaleb will drive or take a train and Nicholas may or may not come so we'll get his plane ticket at a later date.

I also converted all of our Southwest travel credits to Rapid Reward points since they never expire and are easier to use. However, we paid cash for these flights and will use the RR points for the return flights since I actually had a negative balance on my SW credit card that I wanted to use, plus they weren't super expensive for April. For the four of us BDL to MCO non-stop, it was $563…not terrible for Spring Break around here. Let's just hope everything is better by then and that SW actually keeps this flight schedule

We are staying in a 2-bedroom at BLT for that trip,
so let me leave you with some pictures of one of my favorite resorts.














Thanks for reading! I'll be back soon with our Monorail Resort tour update!
​

 

[vamassey1]

I really hope CT ends there travel restrictions for Florida. You've had to cancel so many trips. It's just not fair. I do understand the concern and need for the quarantine concerning your job.

You're plans sound really good. I hope they all work out.

 

[Jenny Sanders]

We had one bad experience there years ago…Allie's dough was quite undercooked. But we've been many times since and love it. Glad you're giving it another shot!

I actually just canceled Via Napoli (long story)...

Start planning for December 2021…there's quite a few of us looking to do the same!

OOOH! I hadn't heard anything about this...

FL passed their peak a couple weeks ago, so maybe things will start looking better soon. I really hope so, because honestly, from what I've seen and read, I think Disney is doing an amazing job with all this so I feel bad for them because they obviously can't control the rest of the state of FL.

My sister and Joe's parents said numbers are rapidly decreasing. So, this is a good sign!!!

 

[disneyAndi14]

My work has a different ban, if we fly and our around more than 50 people no matter where it is we have to quarantine for 14 days. Ugh!
If things are better by January we will be staying at CCV for the first time! I am super excited to stay there.
Andi will be able to have a drink with me at Geyser Point, yay!

 

[CruellaNY]

I was able to get CCV for all 7 nights.

Awesome! We've stayed at CCV once and loved it; but you know I'd probably enjoy any room attached to the WL lol.

I hope you guys get to go The travel bans are making situations for travel worse than when things were just shutting down but of course some of those bans are understandable. We're lucky Steve can work from home and I work from home so if the quarantine is still on next month and for our Nov. trip we're ok. I was worred that they wouldn't let Chris in school if we went to Florida even if he didn't but as of now school is all remote at least through Sept and I feel that will stick till January unfortunately but no need to worry I guess

 

[pkondz]

Haha! It's hard not to notice that, isn't it?? As Allie and I were sitting there, I told her her boyfriend could get a job there! She informed me he's Sicilian and not Neapolitan, so I guess not!

Well! I should think not!!!!

CT currently has a travel ban on anyone coming from a "hotspot" state, such as FL, meaning we would need to quarantine for two weeks on our arrival home. Not only that, but my work sent out an email stating that "anyone who travels to a hotspot state is required to quarantine for 14 days-no exceptions, before returning to work."

Yeah, my work is the same. And it'll be on your dime, not theirs.

In other news, Southwest released flights through April 11, 2021 yesterday. Since we have our reservation April 11th-April 18th, I went ahead and booked our flights down for myself, Allie, my mom and niece.

Good for you!

 

[missjackiemcg]

Southwest changed one of our flights to FL in July to have a layover, and then by the time our trip rolled around, it had been switched back to the original non-stop! So hard to make plans when everything is changing all over the place!

I really hope that you're able to take the rest of your planned trips!! Having to cancel another one would just be plain unfair

 

[buzzrelly]

I really hope CT ends there travel restrictions for Florida.

Me too!

You're plans sound really good. I hope they all work out.

I actually just canceled Via Napoli (long story)...

No! Let's hear it!

OOOH! I hadn't heard anything about this...

Well, now you have, so no excuses!

My sister and Joe's parents said numbers are rapidly decreasing. So, this is a good sign!!!

I look at the numbers every day too and it definitely seems that way.I'm praying they go down enough to lift the travel ban

My work has a different ban, if we fly and our around more than 50 people no matter where it is we have to quarantine for 14 days. Ugh!

Ugh. Why does work have to suck? It's not stressful enough being a nurse??

If things are better by January we will be staying at CCV for the first time! I am super excited to stay there.

Me too! I stayed in WL with @kastoney last May (seems like a lifetime ago ) but we were so busy we didn't really get to enjoy the resort much. With the way things are now, I definitely think we'd be relaxing more, and it seems like a lovely place to do that

Andi will be able to have a drink with me at Geyser Point, yay!

How fun! Allie is already planning her trip for her 21st Birthday…in 2024! She wants to be in EPCOT and drink around the world!

Awesome! We've stayed at CCV once and loved it; but you know I'd probably enjoy any room attached to the WL lol.

Of course! You're who I think of anytime I think of the WL

We're lucky Steve can work from home and I work from home so if the quarantine is still on next month and for our Nov. trip we're ok.

That is lucky! If I could go back and do it again, I would definitely choose a career where I'm non-essential!

but as of now school is all remote at least through Sept and I feel that will stick till January

Oh wow, really?? We are still planning on a hybrid model here for now. Allie will be in school on Mondays and Thursdays and online Tuesdays and Fridays. We'll see how long that lasts.

Yeah, my work is the same. And it'll be on your dime, not theirs.

Oh, of course. And I don't want to blow through 3 weeks worth of PTO to just sit around. I'm still hoping things change by then

Southwest changed one of our flights to FL in July to have a layover, and then by the time our trip rolled around, it had been switched back to the original non-stop!

Oh really? I don't know if that would happen around here…it appears as though SW has maybe ONE non-stop per week to MCO, for the moment.

I really hope that you're able to take the rest of your planned trips!! Having to cancel another one would just be plain unfair

I hope so too. It sucks for so many of us and for so many reasons

 

[Jenny Sanders]

Hi Kelly! Gia is spending a night with us now and her AP expired so we weren't able to add her to our park reservation, so now, we aren't going to Epcot our first day. We now have reservations at Trattoria at the BW.

 

[DouglasE]

Wow! You did so many great things on this trip. Rise of the Resistance/Star Wars Galaxy's Edge, Tony's Christmas Party, Living with the Land overlay, Voices of Liberty, checking out the resorts in their holiday gear I'm very impressed. Seeing your plans for upcoming trips remind me of the dilemma I always have. Which of my favorite eateries do I re-visit and what new restaurants do I get to experience. But if I'm going to have problems that is a problem I would like to have. I was so fortunate to have so many great meals on my last visit to WDW. Looking forward to your next installment.