8th Anniversary December Trip Day 2

[eeyorepoohfan]

Saturday December 11th
This is the only day we do early EMH this trip, we decided we should sleep a little more this year than last year! We get up around 6AM after little sleep last night and head to Everything POP to grab some pastry for breakfast (our normal routine every morning). I brought the Starbucks Via Carmel flavored for this trip, so yummy!! I need good coffee every day! We finish our breakfast then get to the line for Hollywood Studios. This trip we seemed to wait more than last year. Last year we must have timed things just right and never waited more than 5 minutes for a bus. This year it was usually 10-15 minutes. However, we lucked out and got a seat on a bus or monorail nearly every single time! I think we only stood 2-3 times the entire trip! We arrive just after the 8AM early entry. We head straight back to Toy Story, it's about 8:15AM now. The posted wait time is already 40 minutes and we can see the line inside. We just grab fastpasses. They are good after 10:30AM. We head off to Rockin Roller Coaster, less than a 5 minute wait. Great ride! Then off to Tower of Terror, again less than 5 minute wait! Lots of drops this time! We decide to stroll through the shops, something we didn't do here last year. It was fun to see all of the new things! Nothing purchased, we were just in the window shopping mood! We then went to walk through the updated "One Man's Dream". We walked through here last year. They did change quite a bit during the refurb! I really wanted to catch the movie since didn't have time last year. The next one said it would start in 8 minutes. So we looked around a little more. This was worth the wait, a great story! I've done a lot of research on Walt Disney over the years for class assignments. So I was familiar with much of it, but great to see! It was now time for our fastpasses, so off to Toy Story! We both scored around 130K, not our best but we still had a lot of fun! I was then on a mission to find this coffee shop I read about, Writers Shop. We eventually found it near the Streets of America. It's such a cute little place! We didn't get anything to eat or drink, but fun to stop by! We decide to go see the Muppets show since we didn't watch it last year. The next one started in 5 minutes, perfect! Cute show as always. We then slowly make our way to the exit. Stopping for pictures by the big tree on our way out.

Our friends are driving in from Ft. Meyers and will be in sometime this afternoon. They had mentioned they wanted to go to MK first and the Hollywood Studios to see the lights since they haven't been at Christmas before. So knowing this, we decide to head to the MK. We arrive after lunch (I think around 1PM or so). We are hungry so we head to Columbia Harbour House since we couldn't eat here last night. The line was long, but moved quickly. I think we had our food within 15 minutes. We head upstairs to eat. There is a CM at the stairs making sure your party is together before you can go up. We are able to grab a table by the window looking towards Fantasyland. The crowds are huge today for some reason. We were here the same dates last year and the crowds seemed bigger here this time. We each get a meal and share between us shrimp, fish, and nuggets. We get the apple crumble, which is very yummy and not too heavy feeling. I also got apples instead of fries, I felt I had enough grease on my plate already! Lunch finished then off to see what we can ride. It felt like we were walking into a wall of people!

We decide to walk toward Space Mountain to check on the wait time, 60 minutes. We pass for today. We decide to take the back walkway to Toontown to see it one last time. Man it was crowded! We took pictures of everything though! We walked through Mickey's house but didn't go see him here this time. We were going to walk through Minnie's house, but the line was out on the street and moving slow. We will catch it another day. After fighting the crowds here, we head over to grab a dole whip float, yummy!!! We got a call from our friends who were staying at AS Music. They got their room, but apparently it was already occupied! So they were heading back to the front desk. We decide to walk through the tree house while we wait. They call again and got a new room, this time it's a king bed and they have their 2 1/2 year old daughter with them. They are going to have to change rooms again. They call me back almost instantly and decide to just keep the room because they don't want to waste any more time. Since it's getting late and the Osborne lights will start soon, we decide to meet at Hollywood Studios. They drove themselves. I called them right after we got off our bus and they were walking up behind us!!! It was great to see them and finally meet their daughter!

Up next Day 2 part 2. Hollywood Studios, EPCOT, Magic Kingdom!

[faline]

Goodness, what an ordeal your friends had with their room!

For the most part, it seems like you had a rather relaxed day!

[pdrlkr]

Thanks for the Report!

[KylesMom]

Ouch - to bed late & an early rise today! You hit some of our favorites at DHS this morning - well worth that little sleep, IMO!

Wow, another family with room problems - it really sounds like this whole Disney software conversion has thrown a big monkey wrench into room assignments lately.

Great so far - looking forward to your report of the rest of the day!

[eeyorepoohfan]

Thankfully, this is the only day the really seemed like we were up late and up early the next day. We decided that sleep was important!

I'm hoping they get all of the kinks worked out with the reservation system quickly. I heard of a lot of problems. We were thankful that everything with our room assignment worked out just fine! Our friends have annual passes and have been for long weekends a few times this year and this is the first time they've had those problems. And hopefully the last!

[PrettyMinnie]

Starbucks in your room seems yummy. I love the caramel flavor as well! I'll have to find the coffee shop you mention on my next trip! Thanks for reporting!

[vizsla]

Thanks for the report.