[staceyheis]

Cast: Me and 5DD (Madeline)
Dates: Nov. 30 - Dec. 7
Riverside

I will take a stab at this since I enjoyed reading so many other TRs in preparation for our trip.

Negatives: 3 hours from landing to arrival at Riverside via ME; very rude park guests; Not one "have a magical day" the entire week; very cold Christmas party (42 degrees); Disney bus transportation to and from MK

Positives: Disney bus transportation to and from every other park; great corner hotel room; towel animals daily; Christmas parade and fireworks; arriving at parks at opening.

Now, for the details (or what I can remember). We arrived during a tornado watch - high winds and rain. When we got to the hotel, our room was not ready (we weren't expecting it to be) so we checked our bags, donned our raincoats and were the only two on the bus to Epcot. We were have dinner at Princess Storybook Dining. We started our day at The Seas and rode Nemo (no wait), saw the dolphins, manatees, and talked Turtle with Crush. We then headed to dinner. It was okay. The princesses seemed very rushed and we had an awful table (which I noticed was the norm for parties of 2 in the character dining experiences). However, my daughter was thrilled to see Snow White and Mulan and seemed to really enjoy it. She was too excited to eat. I had the lamb shank and it was pretty good. Sorry, no food pics - couldn't do pics, work the camera, have the autograph book ready, and watch a 5 year old!!

Next, we rode the rides at Norway and Mexico. My daughter really liked the boat ride in Mexico!! Then it was back to the hotel for a fairly early night as we wanted to make rope drop at MK on Monday. No issues with bus - no wait, not crowded, very pleasant bus driver who made sure we knew how to get to our room. We had a Mickey bowtie towel animal awaiting us in our room.

Monday - major bus issues in the AM. We were at the bus stop by 7:45 AM - along with many other people. After trying to get on a bus for an hour (they came, just overcrowded and am not willing to push everyone to get on), we caught a cab. Not my preferred way to spend $15 but we arrived just at rope drop. We were able to ride Peter Pan, IASW, Tea Cups (2x), Pooh, PoC and Splash by noon. No waits. It was great. We then did Stitch and Monsters Laugh Floor before my DD's appointment at BBB. She seemed subdued. Her fairygodmother in training didn't really talk to her so it was kind of odd. She loved the look and posed in front of the Castle for quite a few pics. Then, we hopped on the boat for GF where we had dinner with Cindy and gals at 1900 Park Fare. We really had a good time and Madeline really enjoyed the time with the stepsisters. They called her Sparkles and took some of the glitter off her cheeks and added it to theirs because their mother doesn't let them have sparkles. After dinner, we tried to go back to MK to ride IASW again but it was parade time and so we saw the ElectroMagic parade and tried to get back to FantasyLand with no luck. So back to hotel for early morning at AK!!

I'll try to write more tomorrow. I hope I'm not boring you all!

[allirella]

Originally Posted by staceyheis

Negatives: 3 hours from landing to arrival at Riverside via ME; very rude park guests; Not one "have a magical day" the entire week; very cold Christmas party (42 degrees); Disney bus transportation to and from MK

Oooh, so sorry to hear the negatives. Can't wait to read about the highlights!

[alilmagical32]

Sounds like despite some problems you and DD had a magical trip! Can't wait to hear more and see some pictures!

[PrincessJill]

Great start to your TR! Can't wait to read more!!

[mickeysgirlz]

Sounds magical so far (despite the COLD weather and bus issues!) Can't wait to see pictures! My DDs loved the BBB . . . we went to the DTD one though, before the castle one was open!

[gabes_mommy]

Thanks for sharing! I'm waiting for more.

[Dopey]

Not one "have a magical day"?
Actually no one has ever said that to me either but I think I didn't miss it because all the CM's except for this one grumpy old fart were very pleasant

[Willbegone]

TRs can NEVER be boring! That is odd that the Fairy Godmother In Training didn't really talk. The one my DD had at DTD talked her ears off! Don't they look just so beautiful when they are done! Can't wait for more!

[staceyheis]

Here's a link to a picture post BBB - My Disney Snow Globe. I haven't even downloaded the pics yet so not sure when I will update TR with pictures.

Going back to Monday nite's dinner - we really enjoyed the Cinderella interaction at this venue. We had done dinner at the Castle last year and while we love being in the castle, we really like the character interactions at 1900 Park Fare. It was also much cheaper!!


Tues morning we were up early and had no issues with the bus. We were at AK in plenty of time and were able to enjoy rope drop. We really enjoyed it and walked right onto the safari. We saw quite a few rhinos, elephants and hippos. We had breakfast at Tusker House so that we could dine with Donald and Daisy. My daughter was so excited. She refused to leave the table to get food (or let me leave) until we saw all of the characters. The food was good and the buffet was very spacious, not crowded at all. I really enjoyed the setup here (and after our week, have become quite the expert on buffet meals!). After breakfast, we headed to the Lion King show. Even though we saw it just last year, it seemed fresh and the voices of the performers are amazing.

It was then back to the hotel for a nap for us as we had tickets to MVMCP that night and dinner reservations at Crystal Palace. Crystal Palace was fun and the character interaction was excellent. Our server left quite a bit to be desired. It took 20 minutes to get the bill so we missed the lighting of the castle ceremony. But, we did not let that set back our evening. It was, however, quite cold and we were in several layers. I had to buy my DD mittens as her hands were ice cold. Luckily, we had our winter coats as we are from Ohio and we needed them!! We rode a few rides and caught Philharmagic to warm up. We then headed to Main Street for the fireworks. It was packed!! We did get to see Tinker Bell fly from the castle which was a first for me. Madeline was enthralled. We had met TinkerBell at Pixie Hollow on Monday morning (I think I forgot to mention that yesterday) and now she can't get enough Tink!! Or other fairies for that matter. We then staked out a place for the parade. It was absolutely freezing!! She ended up snuggling on my lap for about 20 minutes trying to get warm waiting for the parade. Then she woke up when the parade started.

I love this parade! Cinderella's carriage being pulled by the ponies, Clarabell making gingerbread cookies that smell like gingerbread, Goofy as Santa.. Unfortunately, no pictures as my daughter was on my lap the whole time and I couldn't get any photos. If anyone has any pictures of the Christmas parade, I would love pictures.

Anyways, at the end of the parade, we headed to the bus depot which was packed. Seeing how it was very late and we were very tired, we walked over to the Contemporary and caught a cab home. Money well spent!!

More tomorrow!!

[poohbe66]

Wow sounds like so much fun! Great tr so far can't wait to read more

[tinkerbelle24]

Great TR. Looking foward to reading more. I love 1900 park fare as well. Lady Termaine scares me but the sisters are a hoot.

[mickeysgirlz]

This is just what I need to get through the next few days . . . can't wait to see Disney at Christmas time!

What other characters are at Tusker House?

[alilmagical32]

I believe I have quite a few parade pics somewhere, PM me your email address and I will send them your way!

[emamasa]

sounds like a wonderful trip so far!!!

[staceyheis]

Next installment - Wed. - we headed to Hollywood Studios. No bus issues whatsoever. After sleeping, we arrived at HS at 10:45 and headed straight for Fastpasses for Toy Story Mania - luckily they weren't out - our return time was 5:00. We then went to animation studio to see Bolt and friends. The line took a while because Bolt, Mittens and Hamster (sorry, forgot the name) were really taking their time to interact with the kids and have fun). They were quite funny. After that, we headed over to watch HSM3. We sat on the side but right by the dancers. They tried to get my DD5 out there but she would have none of it!! I enjoyed people watching during the show. It was amazing how many parents (me included) could sing right along!! We then grabbed a snack (because my DD never wanted to stop long enought to eat except at dinner time) and went to watch Beauty and the Beast. What a great show. We then went on the Great Movie Ride (my first time - it was fun) and then The Little Mermaid show. We then wasted some time around Muppets and watched Muppets (it so doesn't compare to Philharmagic) and then off to Toy Story Mania. Our fastpass still had us waiting 30 minutes (which was a little problem because we had 5:30 reservations at Mama Melrose's - I think that was the name - I keep wanting to call it Mama Mia's!). We really enjoyed the ride and understand the hype. I was afraid I would be disappointed but wasn't. I don't remember our scores. We wanted to ride it again but it had a 90 minute wait. So off to dinner.

I was pleasantly surprised by dinner. Our waiter was nice and attentive to our table (not some of the larger ones around us) and our food was good. My daughter had penne with alfredo and I had Pork Marsala. It was quite good. We were celebrating my DD's birthday so they brought her a chef's hat and she got to make her own sundae. She loved it. Once I figure out the picture thing, I will post the photo of her making it. It has great fun.

We then headed out to Osbourne Lights - how festive. We enjoyed walking through that (although I was disappointed we couldn't see Fantasmic - still haven't seen it). Then back to the hotel. Bus was right there and very uncrowded.

Thursday was a surprise for my DD5. I was taking her to the My Disney Girl Princess Tea at GF. As we were walking from the boat dock (we had taken the bus to MK - no problems), we saw Cinderella's coach being pulled by horses. I can't imagine how fantastic a Disney wedding would be (maybe someday). We would have enjoyed the tea more with different people at our table. The one mother talked the whole time so we missed some of what Rose Petal was saying (we also sat right next to the piano player so it was hard to hear anyways). And one of the other girls really didn't want to be there (I believe she had just turned 4) and didn't understand why she couldn't just run around so she whined/cried through most of it. My daughter just sat there in awe. She really wanted to know if Rose Petal's story was true. She was also very excited about all of the gifts. We both enjoyed the food and tea but it was really about the experience, not the food. I thought she was going to cry when Aurora came out. She wasn't expecting it at all. Overall, we really enjoyed it and would recommend it but it really is a one time experience (as I explained to my DD when she asked if we could do it again the next day)! We then headed via monorail to Epcot as we were having dinner at Coral Reef.

We went on Mission Space first as there was no wait. We had never done that before. We loved our pictures at the end and enjoyed playing around in the sphere! We got fastpasses for Soarin' and went into Honey I Shrunk the Audience and then headed towards the countries. We only made it to the UK and there were street players there that were hilarous. That took us up to dinner time. Off to Coral Reef. Service was good. My food was good but lukewarm at best so I sent it back. It was their special which was a mild whitefish (you can tell this was not a foodie trip this time). The best part was the Butterscotch Creme Brulee. After dinner, we did the Seas again - walked onto Nemo and then off to the best ride - Soarin. We ended up in the front row which was awesome. I can't tell you how much I love that ride. The couple beside me had never been on it and it was fun listening to their reactions. We then decided it was time to head back to our home away from home - again, no bus issues. We had more towel animals when we got back to our room and my DD's dolls and animals had all been arranged. It was great to come home to!!