December 2009 Trip

OK, it has been a packed trip so far, and I barely have any time to post my report. So here's a bit of catching up from a couple of days ago.

As promised, here are some pictures from the DVC Merry Member Mixer. It was a fun event and I'm glad Disney continues to do this even as they try to tighten their belt during this tough economic times. The event was held under a tent just outside the entrance to World Getway at World Showcase. There are all the early birds who stood in line almost an hour before the event opens.

Once inside, there were snacks and tables, and games, and characters, oh my!

Deevy Cee, the First Lady of DVC, was also there greeting all the members. And if you've read my blog, you would have known that she's in love with Donald.

Of course, there were also pin trading and preview of upcoming pins. Steven Miller was there to man the pin trading board.

It was a fun event, worth making the trip for.

Zz.

Hoola hoop contest.

Zz.

OK, so trying to catch up on some of the report, this is from our visit to AKL and dinner at Boma the other night. This series of pictures show the holiday decorations in the lobby of Jambo House.

Of course, I pointed out the hidden Mickey on the shield of the chandelier last time, but here is a shot of it again.

We had dinner at our most favorite place to eat - Boma.

Zz.

These are pictures from our "resort hopping" at the Polynesian and the Contemporary.

The first is the Polynesian where we stopped by to also have lunch at Kona Cafe.

Here are some sights around the lobby of the Polynesian

We then hopped on over to the Contemporary. They have this huge Mickey head wreath on the side facing BLT.

They also have their own Gingerbread house creation. It is themed to It's A Small World.

Zz.

This is a quick report from our first MVMCP and Wishes Dessert Party.

It was the wettest and coldest day/evening of our trip so far. It was raining as we got into the Magic Kingdom.

We still managed to do a few attractions, because most of them had no lines. It was also a good way to get out of the rain.

A couple of Disney artists were on hand to sign pins/vinylmations released during the event.

It was then time for the dessert party. It was just a stroke of luck that we had our dessert party on our first MVMCP on the day that it was rainy and cold. It gave us a dry place to sit down to view the parade and Holiday Wishes.

We then watched Holiday Wishes from our dessert party location.

The rain and humidity certainly created a lot of smoke. Considering the weather, it was still a fun party.

Zz.

These are some pictures from the World of Disney Doorbusters event for passholder last week. Even though it was rainy, and cold, hordes of shoppers showed up even at 4:30 am to stand in line and be the first 1000 to get a souvenir vinylmation.

Here are the crowds standing in line before the doors opened to get their wristbands.

We left after the doors open to go to the McDonalds at Crossroads to get some coffee/breakfast. When we came back, the line had grown considerably, so much so that it continued next to the street along the parking lot and snaked all the way towards Raglan Road.

Here's an eye in the sky looking down at all the crazy shoppers.

Once inside, it was a madhouse. Still, it was more orderly than last year when pandemonium broke out as deals were opened at various times and locations throughout the store. However, at the same time, there were that many items on sale, and some of the ones that were were not ones that we would normally buy. It wasn't as good in terms of sales as last year.

I spent barely $130, including my 10% passholder discount and ground shipping to send them back to Chicago. Considering that we both spent more $400 last year at this event, this wasn't much.

Zz.

We just finished our last night here at WDW. I probably will have to catch up on the trip report after I get back in cold, freezing, and snowy Chicago tomorrow evening.

We spent the day at Epcot, and watched Illuminations and the holiday tag for the 2nd time. It was a perfect night to see the show and a perfect ending to our vacation. Tomorrow, we will spend part of the morning/afternoon at the Studios before heading to the airport.

Zz.

We are all packed and ready to leave our "home". We'll spend the day at the Studios. We are crossing our fingers that all that bad weather in the Chicagoland area won't affect our late flight out.

Can't believe the vacation is over already. I usually get rather depressed as I'm about to leave, but this time is a bit different because I have a new house to go back to that I am still excited about. So there isn't that much sadness this time around.

I'll try to catch up on my report after I get back and recover a bit from this trip. It has been, for some reason, a rather exhausting one. But I still have plenty of kick-ass pictures, and maybe even a few complaints, about this trip. If you have an annual pass AND a Disney Visa credit card, you may want to pay attention closely to that one complain.

And oh, while I still remember it, DO NOT MISS "The Sum of All Thrills" at Innoventions East! They finally have a winner of an attraction inside Innoventions.

Zz.

I'm back, and even went to work today, but I'm still exhausted. So it'll be a while before I am in the mood to download all my pictures and continue with the trip report.

In the meantime, I had some "complaints" regarding the discounts given out at WDW during our trip. I've written them in my blog. So rather than repeating them, I'll just link to the entry here.

Zz.

One of the most surprising and exciting attraction we were on was "The Sum of all Thrills" at Innoventions East at Epcot. This is where you get to design your own ride, be it on a bobsled, roller coaster, or fighter jet. It is the tamest on a bobsled where you can't go upside down, and the most exciting on the fighter jet.

What the ride actually is is a simulation of what you design. You sit at the end of this giant thing that looks like a robotic arm, and it will then move based on your design. You use physics/engineering tools to design a ride that has all the necessary energy/speed. Once it has been shown to work, the info and identity of the ride is stored in a card that you were given.

You then bring the card to one of the ride arm. The seats at the end of the arm look like this:

They pull the thing over your head to completely enclosed the top half of your body. If you're claustrophobic, this might affect you. The enclosed section functions not only as the safety mechanism to keep you in your seat, but it also has a monitor to simulate your ride, and another small monitor that shows your your ride companion in the next seat.

And then, off you go! The arm moves up and down, swings you side to side, etc. depending on your design of the ride.

It was a fun attraction, and it could be educational, but you had only 2 minutes to design your ride, and there's no time to pay attention to the physics. We did this twice and will definitely go back and do it again.

Zz.

I know of at least one!

We did it twice. The first time, the wait was 10 mins, and the second time, the wait was 20 mins. Unfortunately, it doesn't load that fast, and if one of the "arm" breaks down (as what happened on our 2nd ride), then you also have to wait after you finished designing your ride.

Zz.

There were a lot of gingerbread houses all over WDW this year. Here's one. This is in the restaurant at the America pavilion at Epcot.

Of course, they were selling gingerbread cookies, and other cookies, out of the gingerbread house.

Zz.

We managed to see Illuminations twice on this trip, each time from different locations. This was probably the best angle we had of the two, and it was from the Italy Pavilion. So here are some pictures from it, which includes the holiday tag at the end.

This begins the holiday tag

It was a very, very satisfying show.

Zz.

I'll try to finish off my trip report in the next few posts here now that I have time to catch up and the holiday activities are tapering off.

These next few pictures are some random shots around DHS where we spent a couple of days there. This is, of course, the tree in front of the theme park.

We did the Animation drawing twice on this trip, getting to draw Mickey (profile) and an angry Donald.

Bumped into a few Playhouse Disney characters...

.. and of course, we did Toy Story Mania.

Zz.

We spend the evening at DHS.

.. and stayed for the Osborne Lights.

Zz.