NYE Trip Report

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Mon, 01/09/2012 - 19:07

SquareAce

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NYE Trip Report

First. Thanks to all of the forum members who helped me make all of my trip plans.

We had a great time. We got to the MK about 9:30am NYE, and had a great time, until the bus ride back to all-star movies. I had one trooper that just couldn't make it til the midnight festivities. The castle was colored a deep red after midnight. The only time it was that color we noticed. We stayed until about 1:15am then stood in line for the bus for about 30min then a 40min ride to the resort. We finally got to bed around 4am, but up the next day early for HS.

HS was fun, we really enjoyed the 3D shows and other attractions. The kids wanted nothing to do with Rockin Roller Coaster or The Tower of Terror. I guess there's always a next time. Our favorite ride was Star Tours.

We spent the next day at AK. We got there early and rode Mt. Everest, but my son said that was the last time for him. The kids enjoyed digging for dinosaur bones, and we all really liked the safari. We were able to get most every thing done except the Nemo show. It was always a long wait. We got the kids back to the resort early to rest before Chef Mickey's later that night.

We then revisited MK on Tuesday. It was cold and windy, but we got to revisit some of our favorites and see a few more attractions that we missed on NYE.

The last two days were spent at Epcot. The whole family seemed to enjoy Epcot more than I expected. We rode Mission space 5 times, test track 3 times, and soarin 2 times. We had a great visit to all the countries at the world showcase and closed the place down both Wednesday and Thursday.

The whole trip was a blast, and we hope to do it again in the future. I posted a link to a video and some pics below. I will add a few pics soon of our autograph books that I made with tips from this fourm.

Countdown to new Years, and excerpts from fireworks. This is as close as we could get, but still perfect.

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Mon, 01/09/2012 - 19:17

JeffC

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You survived!! YAY!

Great pics, excellent video! Thanks for sharing. I think Disney is about only place where I can stay up that late! Ha! Kudos to the kiddoes for hanging in there as much as they did

Mon, 01/09/2012 - 19:25

Brad

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Great report and pics! I'm so impressed you braved the crowds!

SquareAce wrote:

We got to the MK about 9:30am NYE, and had a great time, until the bus ride back to all-star movies. I had one trooper that just couldn't make it til the midnight festivities.

This sounds like us. We always head to MK with plans to stay until close and eventually we decide sleep would be more fun.

Mon, 01/09/2012 - 19:27

Vettelover

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Great trip report and great pics, the castle and fireworks shot was super good, Thanks for taking the time to put it in print. You are right judging from that last pic, one of the little ones just could'd make it.

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Mon, 01/09/2012 - 20:18

SquareAce

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Vettelover wrote:

the castle and fireworks shot was super good

My DW deserves credit for that one. That was during Wishes on Tuesday night. We were actually sitting on the ground right in front of the castle.

Another pic from Wishes

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Mon, 01/09/2012 - 20:38

Kristen K.

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Fantastic! SO glad that you had a good time! How was the food? Where all did you end up eating, did you have a favorite?

Mon, 01/09/2012 - 23:37

JoAnn C

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Welcome back. great pictures and video

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Tue, 01/10/2012 - 02:59

Ollie

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Hello gorgeous castle!

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Tue, 01/10/2012 - 12:36

MrHub

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Welcome back and great trip report. Glad you had a great time. Love the pics.

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Tue, 01/10/2012 - 17:01

emmaanne

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wow! The castle fireworks picture is beautiful!!! Great shot!

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Wed, 01/11/2012 - 03:02

Jess

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Sounds like it was a great trip....I love the pics of the castle and the fireworks

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Wed, 01/11/2012 - 13:37

SquareAce

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Kristen K. wrote:

How was the food? Where all did you end up eating, did you have a favorite?

Our table service meals were at Crystal Palace, Boma, Chef Mickey's, Cinderella's RT, and Les Chefs de France. My self and DW liked the food at Crystal Palace best, but the kids really enjoyed the noodles and chicken from Les Chefs de France. The characters were great everywhere we went, excluding Boma of course.

As promised here are the pics of the autograph books I made for the kids. I got the idea from a post by Mirrasi, then changed it up a little to better suit or needs.

I picked up two 8.5" x 5.5" 3 ring binders, made insert sheets for the front, back and sides.

I found some cartoony pics online of all the characters we may meet, and added them to the book. I picked up some retractable sharpies for the characters to sign directly over their picture. Were are going to use clear sleeves to add pics of the characters with the kids on the opposite pages, along with other scrap bookable trinkets they picked up.

I added section separators with tabs to quickly find who we were looking for. The main characters and associated characters were in alphabetical order in sections titled, Classics, Hundred Acre Wood, Pixar, Princesses, and Blanks for the ones I missed.

Myself and DW bought a nice scrap book for our only souvenir.

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Wed, 01/11/2012 - 13:42

Kris1971

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Very cool scrapbooks! I may have to steal that idea when I take my niece and nephew in October.

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Wed, 01/11/2012 - 16:17

SquareAce

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Kris1971 wrote:

Very cool scrapbooks! I may have to steal that idea when I take my niece and nephew in October.

They worked out great. The 5.5" x 8.5" size was perfect for storing in our back pack. I setup a Word Doc in landscape and created 2 columns, then pasted the photos. The Word Doc ended up about 5MB. I saved it to Google Documents and the link is below. It doesn't show up properly in Google so you would have to click on file then download the original and open it in MS Word. I used MS Word Xp. A newer version of Word may also make it look different.

The images on the right are inverted so they would have the same amount of white space in the left margin of the book. I also used a slightly better than normal paper, that was a bit thicker, and less likely to bleed through.

Here's the link

or paste this into browser
https://docs.google.com/open?id=0BzFmENdPg0LRNTQ0NmVmMzktNmZlNS00NDc5LWFkMDItYjNlNTA1M2E0MzRm

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Wed, 01/11/2012 - 16:31

Lizzy_B

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What a fantastic TR! That castle pic is absolutely stunning! Thank you so much for sharing your impressions, and the autograph books as well. Somehow, seeing it firsthand makes NYE in WDW seem less intimidating. Beautiful family, by the way!

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Wed, 01/11/2012 - 17:43

SquareAce

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Lizzy_B wrote:

Somehow, seeing it firsthand makes NYE in WDW seem less intimidating.

It was very crowded, but the lines shortened up on the kiddy attractions around 7:00pm (aladin's carpet, monnster inc laugh factory, etc..).

It was however almost impossible to cross main street after 7:00. The back way through fantasyland was always the easy route to take. We had a terrible time trying to get to the Crystal Palace for our 7:30pm ADR from Tomorrow Land. They wouldn't let us cross main street, because a parade was starting, so we new by the time we went through fantasy land that the parade would be there. A cast member directed us toward the main entrance through an over flow "corridor", but then another cast member said we couldn't use the other "corridor" to adventure land, so we had to fight our way up main street.

Just be aware of the parade times and routes. I'm not sure when the MK filled to capacity, but I know it did. Plus you saw how far away from the castle we were for the fireworks. We could have gotten a great view from fantasyland, but I wanted to see the front of the castle, and be where the most people were. It was awesome being with that many people celebrating the New Year.

I would love to do it again.

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Wed, 01/11/2012 - 18:43

JeffC

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Those autograph books are Awe.Some! Brilliant and fun idea! I may steal it too

Wed, 01/11/2012 - 21:46

SquareAce

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JeffC wrote:

Those autograph books are Awe.Some! Brilliant and fun idea! I may steal it too

Thanks. I got the idea from this forum and just got a bit more elaborate with it, LOL.

There's a link a couple of posts back to some pages I already made. I good paper cutter and hole puncher is also a must have for this project.

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Tue, 01/17/2012 - 13:16

Jess

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Great job on the autograph book

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