jmcdonnell04
"It's Time to Remember the Magic"
- Joined
- Aug 31, 2004
We are suppose to be on a break. After getting 4 trips to Disneyworld from Easter 2013 to Easter 2014 on our Annual passes, we take a year off from our DVC vacations and then do it again. When they announced that this would be the last year for the Osborne Lights, then we had to make a special visit. This was in September when I booked a 1 bedroom at Saratoga Springs and then weekly I started massaging the reservation by changing a day here and there from the Boardwalk, Bay Lake Tower and the Grand Floridian. My DW was not too happy to possibly changing rooms every day in the beginning but with a little luck and pixie dust we left on our trip with 3 nights at the GF and 3 nights at BLT in a 1 bedroom from December 17-23.
Our cast of characters is me, DW and our two daughters (20 & 16) so yes that answers the question that your children should love Disney when they get older. This will be our 20th year as DVC members. My oldest daughter would be home from college for our pre-Christmas visit but our junior in high school was throwing some wrenches into the scheduling-- More like Dad did not factor in performing at Christmas concerts when I booked our trip. No worries, Dad and college daughter would drive down to Florida leaving Tuesday Dec 15th and Mom and high schooler would fly down one-way on Thursday night, Dec 17th.
We leave work early Tuesday and get on the road at 3 pm and make it Macon, GA by midnight. Get back on the road at 9 am and then we are faced with the dilemma. In order to make our 2:30 Fastpass for Frozen Sing-Along, we will have to forego going to hotel and head straight for Hollywood Studios. This is the only nice thing I will say about the new FastPass system is being able to have fastpasses on your arrival day. Back to the show. First time seeing the show in the American Idol theater. The historians are very funny and I love the show's ending. We are hungry since we did not have lunch so we go the commissary and share one meal because dinner reservations are at 5:30 at the Brown Derby. We hit the Great Movie Ride and then our Toy Story Mania fastpass at 4:30 pm and then watch the 5 pm show of my all-time favorite movie, Beauty and the Beast.
The Brown Derby is not normally in our dining rotation but it has been so long that I barely remember
what the inside looks like or what is on the menu except the Cobb Salad. Did not see any celebrities except for the wall pictures and my daughter and I had a very nice $ 100 dinner. Now I remember why we do not eat there. We had steak and pork dinners and everything was very nice so OK to splurge now and then.
After dinner we go to the Tower of Terror and then over to the Osborne lights. They are spectacular but I can not write too much about them because we did not have the whole family. I will call Wednesday's visit a sneak peek. It was very crowded since the park was closing soon but we saw the dancing lights to music a couple of times.
We headed back to the car at 8 pm and drove the 100 yards from Studio entrance to the Boardwalk Villas for one night at a studio. The Boardwalk was decorated very nice for Christmas and the studio was very nice with a new large screen TV. I was asleep by 10 pm.
.....Day one completed successfully for the reconnaissance party
Tomorrow is EPCOT and trip to the airport
Our cast of characters is me, DW and our two daughters (20 & 16) so yes that answers the question that your children should love Disney when they get older. This will be our 20th year as DVC members. My oldest daughter would be home from college for our pre-Christmas visit but our junior in high school was throwing some wrenches into the scheduling-- More like Dad did not factor in performing at Christmas concerts when I booked our trip. No worries, Dad and college daughter would drive down to Florida leaving Tuesday Dec 15th and Mom and high schooler would fly down one-way on Thursday night, Dec 17th.
We leave work early Tuesday and get on the road at 3 pm and make it Macon, GA by midnight. Get back on the road at 9 am and then we are faced with the dilemma. In order to make our 2:30 Fastpass for Frozen Sing-Along, we will have to forego going to hotel and head straight for Hollywood Studios. This is the only nice thing I will say about the new FastPass system is being able to have fastpasses on your arrival day. Back to the show. First time seeing the show in the American Idol theater. The historians are very funny and I love the show's ending. We are hungry since we did not have lunch so we go the commissary and share one meal because dinner reservations are at 5:30 at the Brown Derby. We hit the Great Movie Ride and then our Toy Story Mania fastpass at 4:30 pm and then watch the 5 pm show of my all-time favorite movie, Beauty and the Beast.
The Brown Derby is not normally in our dining rotation but it has been so long that I barely remember
what the inside looks like or what is on the menu except the Cobb Salad. Did not see any celebrities except for the wall pictures and my daughter and I had a very nice $ 100 dinner. Now I remember why we do not eat there. We had steak and pork dinners and everything was very nice so OK to splurge now and then.
After dinner we go to the Tower of Terror and then over to the Osborne lights. They are spectacular but I can not write too much about them because we did not have the whole family. I will call Wednesday's visit a sneak peek. It was very crowded since the park was closing soon but we saw the dancing lights to music a couple of times.
We headed back to the car at 8 pm and drove the 100 yards from Studio entrance to the Boardwalk Villas for one night at a studio. The Boardwalk was decorated very nice for Christmas and the studio was very nice with a new large screen TV. I was asleep by 10 pm.
.....Day one completed successfully for the reconnaissance party
Tomorrow is EPCOT and trip to the airport
