"I Don't Cruise… I Jingle Cruise." --A New Year's PTR--

magichusky

Mouseketeer
Joined
Jul 13, 2010

As I always say (well, at least for the past 2 weeks), "the only way to cruise on into 2014 is to jingle cruise on in." Want to know something crrrazy?? We're going to WDW for the New Year! So hitch a ride on our Sea Racer (I'll explain what that means in just a second) and join the insanity. The text for this TR will be in "Maleficent Purple" so I hope you like it.

My mom and I are warriors and like to tour the parks rambo style. This is after years and years of conditioning at DL. We live in San Diego and didn't visit WDW until Christmas 2010. "Why fly all the way to Florida when we can drive to DL?" my mom would always ask. Now we are worldaholics and we LOVE it. We most recently visited this past July 4th. As I mentioned above, we're a little crazy. We're crazy because…

…we got crazy lucky and somehow were the only ones in our Wild Africa Trek tour group (HI Mandy & Josh!!!! The best trek guides in the world):



We're also crazy because… we rented a "Sea Racer" (one of those tiny speedboats) from the Poly and almost got run over by a Disney coast guard boat and I'm pretty sure we almost capsized (yes, those were 2 separate incidents during our one 45 min rental):



We of course avoided catastrophe due to my excellent captaining skills.

My name is Lauren and I'm in graduate school (by the end of January it will be DR. Lauren, my friends- mwahahaha). One of my recent hobbies is weightlifting and after a year of trying, I can finally do a pull-up (actually, I can now do 4!). That has absolutely nothing to do w/ Disney, but I'm so darn proud of myself that I had to put that one out there. I like castles and such things:



I also apparently have the wingspan of a vulture:



And I also enjoy being precariously suspended over crocodiles like Indiana Jones:



My mom, Maureen, is a 3rd grade teacher. She likes to watch "Castle" and we've also been known to have "24" DVD box set marathons well into the wee hours. Mom LOVES MouseGears!



I actually surprised her w/ the Wild Africa Trek on July 4th, and boy was she surprised:



But she LOVED it!!!!



Mom thinks that the Trek is the coolest thing we've ever done at WDW. After I finish freaking out about graduating on time, I'm planning on doing a very belated TR so I can share the rest of our Trek photos.

As I said earlier, we tour the parks rambo style. Usually when we're making our way to our next destination, our configuration is something like this:



Mom is a RUTHLESS power walker, my friends. And don't ram this woman w/ a stroller. There WILL be consequences.

Now for the itinerary! We only decided to do this trip at the beginning of November. Basically I had to stalk the Shades of Green online reservation website 24/7 for 2 weeks and scoop up cancellations. First I got the night of 1/1, then 1/3, then 1/2, and just today I FINALLY scored a room on New Year's Eve! We had a back-up 12/31 reservation at the WL, but we're relieved to be able to stay at SoG for the entirety of our trip. First, we didn't want to deal w/ the hassle of switching resorts, and truly 4 nights at SoG is a tiny bit less expensive than New Year's Eve at the WL. We love SoG b/c it's adjacent to the Poly and we love being on the monorail and eating breakfast at 'Ohana and Kona! We are so thankful to be able to enjoy SoG.

By the way, I have NO idea how we were able to score such AWESOME-POSSUM ADRs so late into the game. Because folks, there's pretty much nothing left at this point (ESPECIALLY on New Year's Eve). We would've been so disappointed if we had been locked out of 'Ohana and Le Cellier!!

The itinerary:



More to come!
 
I appreciate that hippo casually posing in the background of your very first photo. You two are all, "no big deal, we pose with hippos behind us all the time".

Remind me to never ride a boat that you are the captain of. :boat: (there is a boat emoticon! how adorable!)

Yes, love the Wild Africa Trek pictures! Especially the bridge ones.

I feel like I could get along with your mom, if only because I'm a hardcore power walker.

Um.... I promise not to tell anyone if you did, but uh, did you bribe someone to get those ADRs? Because they look amazing and I can't believe you were able to get them so close!
 
I'd love to read more about your trip. We're "tentatively" planning to stay at Shades of Green for New Year's this year.
 

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