EPCOT candlelight processional

I had heard that the Candlelight Processional at EPCOT was amazing so it ended up on my list of things to do while at Disney for the holidays.  After getting up early for a run I dragged Luke out of bed to make the most of our day at EPCOT.  They had this cute holiday display made of gingerbread and confections.

 We went on the Living with the Land boat ride that shows you innovative ways they are working on growing crops and such.  They had a few touches of holiday in the attraction with a sand-man.

 I loved the Santa Mickey hat with attached scarf/mittens but I didn't need it so it stayed in the store.  It is awfully cute though.

 Luke went on this attraction.  Basically you have a few minutes to build your own ride and then you scan your MagicBand and hop into a pod thing that flings you around with your ride on a screen in front of you.  He gave it a big thumbs up and would have probably done it again if it wasn't a half hour wait for 1 minute of ride (plus I sat there bored since it's not my thing).

 After his thrilling attraction we sat down to watch some holiday Gospel thing they had nearby.  Apparently the action of his thrill ride was too much for him and he fell asleep on my shoulder.  I showed him the picture when we a got home and he was in denial and does not recall the incident.

 To ensure that we were going to have seats for the Candlelight Processional we booked a dinner package at the Germany Biergarten.  Food was a buffet and was delicious.  We were even treated to some entertainment.  I highly recommend the Biergarten for anyone visiting EPCOT.  With our dinner we were guaranteed seats at the 6:45 show of the Processional and did not have to stand in the standby line for hours with no guarantee of getting into any of the 3 shows (people wait for 6 hours in that line and still don't get into a show sometimes).

 After our feast we walked to a few more countries before standing in line for 30 minutes to be let in to our Candlelight show.  It was a perfect evening with the temps cooling off into the low 70's.

 I highly suggest catching the Candlelight Processional.  The chorus is amazing and the 50 piece orchestra and celebrity guest narrator are the icing on the cake.  We had Sigourney Weaver as our narrator for the night.  Amy Grant and Neil Patrick Harris are among some of the other narrators during the holiday season.

 And a little video of the Candlelight Processional as the choir was leaving at the end of the show.  Amazing and I had such a great time at Disney for the Holidays.  Now to check it out for Halloween and...well, any time of the year.

Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party

We decided not to get a park ticket to Magic Kingdom for the day since we would be allowed to enter the park at 4 pm for the Party and stay til midnight (plus I'd be back in January and Disney is more of my thing).

 They had a Mickey and Minnie snowman standing on top of the entrance gates on the road to the park.  Once we arrived by bus we went to the will call booth to get our tickets put on our bands.

 We were then given special wrist bands to wear in addition to our MagicBands so that we would be allowed to stay in the park when the closed it at 7 for the Party.  Love the outfits they were wearing.  Their giant candy cane striped bows were attached to a headband.

 First on the agenda was to hit up our fastpass attractions and check out the decorations during the day since they look different at night all lit up.  I was in love.  I had seen most of the decorations before but to have holiday music playing made the wow factor for me.

 They had filmed the Christmas day parade earlier in the day as well as the previous two days.  It was crowded but not as bad as I was expecting.  Of course our first fastpass was for Dumbo.  There wasn't really a line though.  I like the no line at Dumbo thing lately, it is really working out in my favor.

 Although everything was decorated and holiday music was playing I can say it just didn't "feel" like Christmas was only 17 days away since it was warm (hello 70's) and I am used to cold days and usually some snow.

 The castle looked absolutely stunning draped in icicle lights and the Christmas parade did not disappoint.  I think it might have been better during the day though.  I still enjoyed the music and the holiday magic that only Disney can bring.

 We had dancing candy makers and bakers and gingerbread men.

 

 We watched the parade from near the hub area (so we were kind of by the Castle) and if we had been on Main Street it would have been snowing on us.  Later that night we walked down the snowy Main Street and I soaked up every minute of it.  Snow is really beautiful when you aren't shivering from the cold.

 Our Party came with cookies (snicker doodles) and cocoa.  I ate a lot of cookies and drank a lot of cocoa.  Luke was tired and I know it wasn't really his cup of tea but he was a trooper and let me wander around all night and do whatever I wanted.  If I wanted to watch a show he just found somewhere to sit down and such until I was ready to move on.

 One of my favorite parts of the evening was the Jingle Cruise.  They decorated the line area and added in some new jokes with holiday references.  I loved it.  We probably would have gone for a second trip through the rivers of the world if it weren't for the fact that the line grew significantly and there was a lot more that I wanted to see and do.  The part of the cruise where they are chanting and dancing about were apparently carolers so our skipper told us to duck and pretend that no one was home and maybe they'd go away.  She was "milking" the jokes for all they were worth, especially the one about Ginger the croc that snaps.

 After I watched the Totally Tomorrowland Christmas we called it a night and headed for the bus.  It was about 11:30 and the park closed at midnight.  I figured we'd miss the rush of the party leaving.  I did walk extra slow through the snow on Main Street though as we left.  Just thinking of the music, lights and snow now puts a huge smile on my face.

 Merry Christmas to All and to All a Goodnight!

It's a Disney Christmas

After our Cruise we took a few days to check out Disney for the Holidays.  Love!  I was a little disappointed since I figured there would be more decorations but it was still amazing.  I was expecting more since I've seen decorations at various stages when at Disney for the races in January.  Still amazing though.  We stayed at the Pop Century resort.  Apparently so did a bunch of Pop Warner Cheerleaders and Football Players.  They were rowdy by the pool the one night at 11pm and I was trying to sleep so I could get up early for my long run the next day and then hit up the park early.

 After we checked in we headed over to the Grand Floridian to see the life size gingerbread house display.  It did not disappoint.  Entering the lobby doors you could smell gingerbread.

 The details on the house were amazing and were made of confections.  The flowers were "edible" materials, not silk ones glued on.

 There was even smoke that they had coming out of the chimney.  I treated myself to a "shingle" at the bakery window (they sell gingerbread goodies out of the house).  It was ok tasting but not the gingerbread I am used too.  Not super strong gingerbread flavor and kind of soft (I like mine a little crunchier and flavorful).

 We took a little time to look at the decorations before resort hopping to check out others that we had read about displays and such.

 A quick trip on the monorail landed us at the Contemporary for the gingerbread tree in the main concourse.  The tree was very tall and they also had confections available to purchase here as well (though we passed, the shingle was quite large).

 

 From here we walked to the Magic Kingdom and hopped a bus to the Boardwalk Resort area.  I knew they had a display and a Gingerbread Carousel nearby.  There was a fairly large miniature Christmas village with lots of nods to Disney.

 And a short walk down the Boardwalk we were treated to the Carousel made of gingerbread.

 They have some very talented bakers and artists.  I get frustrated with my little house after about an hour.  I can only imagine the time and effort put forth to make such an amazing display that is only going to last just over a month and be destroyed.  After our confectionary stops (all the resorts had cute theme decorations but I could tell Luke was over it) we headed to Down Town Disney for some shopping and dinner.

 We ended up at the Rainforest Cafe Lava Lounge outside.  It was a little bit of a wait but an absolutely picture perfect evening to be eating outside.

Very excited about my 16 mile run the next morning and Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party!

Back to Back Sea days

Kuddos to Carnival for the entertainment during our 2 days at sea before returning to Port Canaveral.  I was excited to end the cruise part of our vacation and begin the Disney part of our vacation.  What did we do for two days at sea? A few drinks

 I participated in the Rubber Chicken Olympics because let's face it, when will I ever do that again?  We basically had to go ask people to give us stuff that they would get back.  Last person to return was eliminated.  I lost when it was time to get lemonade since I didn't know we were allowed to go into the cafeteria and thought we had to get it from the pool deck.  Oh well.

 After the "Olympics" they had a man come out to carve ice.  He finished the Chief in about 15 minutes.  He has been working on the skill for over 15 years and his father and grandfather are also sculptors.

 Being the old fuddy duddies we are we played Bingo. We did not win but we had fun watching how competitive the other people were.  Oh, you don't like that they are playing a different way for just one game and you have a mini-fit the rest of Bingo.  (I moved and made it overly dramatic on purpose--then Luke almost won which made them even more feisty about the game).  Bingo Drama!

 We went to a show before dinner the one night.  It was the newlywed game with couples from the cruise ship ranging in marriage years from 4 days ago to 27 years and 58 years.  We were late to dinner but it was totally worth it.  Think of the Newlywed Game show and that was basically what happened.

 We enjoyed just hanging around and relaxing.  One evening we stayed in our cabin and watched The Internship on the "movie channel."  They have 4 movies each day and they play on different channels. Then we had our late dinner followed by the comedy club.  We loved going to see the comedians.  They were very funny with everything.  The one went on about husbands and wives and cold feet.  We barely kept it together since my feet are always like popsicles.  Apparently this is common with most people cause the room was in stitches.

 Luke enjoyed this chocolate lava cake thing practically nightly after dinner.  I had sorbet and hot cocoa.  Even if I didn't ask for the cocoa they brought it for me after 3 days of ordering it.  Amazing attention to detail.

 Our last day I tossed in the laundry and we lived in our swim suits for most of the day while the laundry processed.  We were in the sun about an hour with full SPF 70 on and I had enough of it so we moved to the shade and just read our books there.  Not that it was hot with the ocean breeze but I just can't lay in the sun without getting bored (plus the pages of the book are extremely bright in the sun).

 We went to the Lanai deck for a BBQ cookout for lunch.  We should have definitely done this on one of the other days.  Delicious and fresh cooked compared to the lunch buffet on the Lido deck.

 Sunset on our last day... it actually was nice this day since the clouds weren't too low to actually see the sun.

 And I woke up to the beautiful sunrise and next to the Disney Fantasy ship (Dumbo!).  It was Disney day and I was excited.

 We had to wait for-ev-er to be called to exit the ship.  We were issued tags 34 out of 35.  Next time we will carry our own bags instead of having them "on a table" in a huge waiting area by customs.

Next stop:  DISNEY!!!