Note: Min's trip report is in Coral and Bill's comments are in Blue. In the Gallery links, pictures without a border link to the specific picture and those with a border link to a gallery of related pictures.

Prelude

We are taking my mom to WDW for Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party and the Mega-Mouse Meet. This is Min's story so I will let her tell it...

Let’s see where does this begin...

After our wonderfully awesome trip to celebrate my 30th birthday, I called my mother-in-law, Nancy, to see how she was doing and tell her about our trip. She sounded a little down and wished that she had been able to go along on the trip. She really sounded like she needed a Disney pick me up.

After the call, I asked Bill if we could take her to Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party? He said no, we didn't have the money for another Disney trip this year. So I went about my business and did not think twice about it.

Well, I guess I do have a small part to tell in this story... After thinking about the upcoming holidays, I decided that Min had hit upon something. A trip to WDW during the Christmas season would be a great surprise present for my mom. I looked over our holiday travel budget, did I tell you we have relatives all over the state so travel is a must during the holidays. I looked over our Christmas gift budget, how much were we planning to spend on Mom this Christmas. Then I looked over the outstanding invoices from my web design contracts, a few were open for work I had done before our vacation. I figured with a few tweaks to the budget and a couple of calls to some clients, we could swing a surprise trip to WDW for Mom's Christmas present.

When I got home on Tuesday (November 4th), I sat down at my computer to retrieve emails. Bill asks me to open the spreadsheet where we keep track of our household budget. I knew something was up when we started moving some money around and adding in deposits for his web contracts. I had figured out what was going on about the time he said we needed to make a few phone calls. So while I cooked a quick dinner, Bill got on the phone with Marge at Walt Disney Travel Company. She helped him book a room for three nights at Caribbean Beach Resort and get tickets for MVMCP.

I got up the next morning to see a note on our whiteboard that said it was 30 days 'til WDW for MVMCP and Mega Mouse Meet. When I looked at the web site, I saw that we had a new countdown clock running.

Bill called his Mom's boss and told her about the surprise. Nancy works for a florist and Bill use to work there about five years ago as a delivery driver. He arranged for Mom to get time off for the trip.

We will probably tell Mom about her Christmas surprise when we see her at Thanksgiving. After all, she does need some advance warning so she can pack...

The big surprise for Mom will be more than just this Christmas trip, we will be getting her a Florida Resident Seasonal Pass instead of a Park Hopper pass. Who knows what the new year holds in store for my mom, the WDW fan.

We are looking forward to seeing some of the All Ears™ staff and readers again and also getting to put some faces with names/handles of those we haven't met in person, yet. I am thinking about making me a "Min and Bill's Place" button to go along with my Guest of Honor name tag. I am trying to get Bill to wear either a button or name tag, as well.

Update - On the Sunday before our trip with the help of Trixie at Walt Disney Travel Company, we upgraded our resort to the Animal Kingdom Lodge.

Read Our Pre-Trip Plan for Min and Bill's Holiday Trip

Trip Report

December 4, 2003 - Thursday

Bill arranged to get off work at noon. He planned on being available to get his mom if she had any car problems and also get our car loaded before I got off at 5:30. Since things were slow at work, I ending up getting off early too. Bill picked me up a little after 2:00. We went home, finished packing and loaded the car. Bill wanted to be ready to leave as soon as his mom, Nancy, got here. She arrived a little after 4:00. We moved her stuff to our car and were off to Disney World. We stopped for gas and were on I-95 headed south by about 4:45. We had fun talking and catching up with Mom. About thirty minutes into the drive down, I could not wait any longer and asked Bill if we could give Mom her surprise. He said sure so we gave Mom her Christmas surprise present, a Florida Resident's Seasonal Pass. We explained the pass to her and that we planned on taking her on a few weekend trips in 2004. She was very happy as she is a big Disney World fan. She even wants to move to Orlando and work for Disney one day. We drove straight through with no stops. Traffic was not a problem and we got to Downtown Disney at about 7:15.

Traffic was definitely light. Compared to the problems we had on the drive down for our last trip in October, this drive was a dream. Having Mom along and surprising her with her seasonal pass was wonderful. When she is around Disney things, she is like a little kid.

We headed for the World of Disney store to find a camera fanny pack that Bill had seen on a previous trip for the new "toy."

Yep, we have a new toy... we bought a digital camera at one of the day after Thanksgiving sales. No more waiting for film to be developed to see how the pictures turned out. We got a Kodak Easy Share 6330. It is not a super duper monster camera but it had the features that we were looking for with a very reasonable price tag. We picked up two 128 MB memory chips as well as getting a 64 MB memory chip free with the purchase of the camera. We also got a camera dock, two NiMH battery packs and a portable battery recharger.

Bill found the camera fanny pack that he wanted so we were done with World of Disney rather quickly. Everyone was hungry, so we decided it was time to find some food. After a quick discussion, we headed for the Rainforest Cafe. We took our time walking through Downtown Disney Marketplace admiring the beautiful decorations as we went. We almost lost Mom several times when she stopped to take a look around at the holiday displays and lights. The wait at Rainforest was about two hours, so we passed and headed over to Captain Jack’s. The wait there was about an hour. Since we were staying at the Animal Kingdom Lodge, we decided to head over and try to get into Boma. We also figured if we didn't get into Boma then we could eat at The Mara. We got to the hotel and unloaded our stuff. Bill went and parked the car while Mom and I checked in. We were upgraded from a standard view to a savannah view room. Our room, #4382, was located at the end of the Kudu Trail. Bill got back just as we finished checking in. He told bell services our room number and we began the trek to our room.

When Min said we were on the end of the Kudu Trail, she really means the end of the Kudu Trail. A quick check found that there was only one room between us the last hallway in the building. That room and the four along the last hallway were truly the "end of the trail." Little did we know that this would prove to be a boon in the morning.

Our luggage was brought up by bell services then we started the trek back to the lobby. A check of Boma showed that there was a 30 minute wait. Because of some recently diagnosed health issues, I needed food now so we decided to go to The Mara. Mom had the soup and salad combo. Bill had a grilled chicken sandwich and I had the double cheeseburger. Mom’s house salad was humongous and Bill helped her finish it. Mom also shared her soup with me and Bill. The soup was the cream of potato with bacon soup that I had had in October at Boma. It is the best soup that I have ever had and it was the best part of our meal at The Mara.

The "meal" at The Mara was not a very memorable one. Mom had the right idea, soup and salad was probably the best choice on the menu. Hindsight being 20:20, we should have called Boma from Downtown Disney and got a PS for after our check-in.

After our meal at Mara, we took a walk through Zawadi Marketplace. Bill saw a jacket that he liked but passed on buying it. Mom saw a few things that she liked and Bill made a couple of mental notes for possible souvenir purchases for her before we left. Next, we took a stroll out on Arusha Rock. It was dark out but we did see some Zebras and Giraffes walking around in the distance. A couple of Ankole cattle were sleeping right next to the rock area. It was getting late, so we headed back to the room. We talked about getting to try out the new camera the next day. Bill said that with the setting he had chose for the camera, we could take 375 pictures during our stay. I went to sleep but Mom and Bill stayed up and watched some TV before turning in for the night.

Yep, we had 375 pictures. The equivalent of about 14 rolls of 26 exposure film, plenty of pictures. Little did I know the allure of using a digital camera.

December 5, 2003 - Friday

Mom got up around 7:00 and took a shower. We got up when she was finished. I hopped in the shower while Mom and Bill went out on the balcony. They were surprised at the number of animals that were on the savannah outside. Bill took pictures of the animals with the new "toy." I joined them on the balcony after my shower. It was overcast and muggy outside. Bill reluctantly went back in to take a shower.

It was great. We were right at the end of the Sunset and Arusha Savannahs. There were Giraffes, Gazelles and a variety of birds on the Sunset Savannah and there were Wildebeests and Zebras on the Arusha Savannah. After getting some pictures of the animals on the Sunset Savannah, I went out on the stairs right around the corner from our room to get a better view of the Arusha Savannah and to take a few pictures of the animals there.

We had a PS for breakfast at Donald’s Breakfastosaurus. We caught the bus over to Animal Kingdom and headed for DinoLand USA. We arrived at the restaurant about ten minutes early. While we were waiting to be seated, we saw one of our favorite cast members, Robin, whom we had met back during the summer. When we were last here in October, we had asked about her and our server had told us that she had had a stroke and was not expected back at work for a while. Bill went over to talk with her and she how she was doing.

I talked with Robin for a short while. It turns out that she had not had a stroke but had been diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. The symptoms of which can mimic a stroke. She explained to me a little bit about MS and how she was doing before we were called for our seating. A personal note to Robin, we wish you the best and hope to see you again soon.

Unfortunately, we did not get seated with Robin but we had a great breakfast. The food was very good and we had fun with the characters, who were wearing their holiday outfits. After breakfast, we stopped on the bridge on the way to Discovery Island and took a picture of the Expedition Everest construction. While on the bridge, we had our first Mousefest encounter. Dennis from Atlanta and his two sons were wearing Mousefest t-shirts. We introduced ourselves and chatted for a bit before heading on to Discovery Island.

Hey folks, we have a first here... We actually bypassed the Pooh and Friends character greeting at the old boat dock right next to the bridge. I even made a point to ask Min if she wanted to get some pictures with Pooh and she said, "nope." I was shocked...  :)

We had some time to kill before the meet at Pizzafari, so we decided to see "It's Tough to be a Bug." Bill took picture after picture of the Tree of Life with the new "toy." Mom and I had to wait for him to catch up several times while we were going through the queue area. The attraction was neat as usual.

I really like this attraction. After seeing it a few times, I get just as much entertainment out of watching the audience's reaction as I do the show.

Afterwards, Bill continued to takes pictures. Parrots, Ring-Tailed Lemurs and Kangaroos were his subjects this time. It was getting close to the time for the Pizzafari meet, when Bill realized that he did not have a notepad for jotting down who we met at the meet. We ducked into Island Mercantile and picked up a pen and a notepad. Lilo and Stitch were outside in their Christmas outfits. Mom loves Stitch, so Bill got a picture of her with the two of them. Of course, we got our picture with them, too. After the pictures, we strolled across the path to Pizzafari. We arrived just in time to move to the back room because there were many more people than they had been expecting. The meet was neat. We met Bruce (Zazu) and said hello to Deb Wills. She gave us both big hugs and said that she was happy to see us again. We also met Bob Sehlinger of the Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World. The meet lasted about an hour with Bob and Deb answering questions about WDW. We saw Dennis from Atlanta, again. One of his sons won one of the door prize drawings. After the meet, we met a bunch of people that Bill chats with in the RADP IRC chat room on Wednesday nights.

Yep, I finally got to put some faces with names/handles for Susan, Kenny, JackM and Brian (tiggerguy).

Next, we made our way over to Festival of the Lion King. It was wonderful as usual. Mom loved the show as well as its new indoor venue. After the show, we walked around visiting with the characters in Camp Minnie-Mickey. We got pictures of the three of us with Donald, Mickey, Minnie and "Santa" Goofy. Bill got a picture of Mom with Koda and Kenai from Brother Bear. All around Camp Minnie-Mickey were Christmas trees "decorated" by the characters. Bill got pictures of Nemo's, Lilo's, Stitch's, Pooh's, Tigger's, Piglet's, Eeyore's, Donald's, Pluto's and Chip and Dale's Christmas trees. As we were leaving Camp Minnie-Mickey, Bill took a picture of Mom with Pluto. After the picture, Pluto took Mom around for a quick dance. Bill got a picture of them dancing as well. Back on Discovery Island, Bill continued with his photographic ways taking more pictures of the Tree of Life as well as some capybaras and a Galapagos turtle.

Remember, 375 pictures, plenty of shots, no worries... Well here we were only half way through the first day and I had shot 140 pictures... ah, the allure of using a digital camera...

After spending an hour or so circulating around the Tree of Life, we headed for Africa. We had reached Harambe village when I decided that I needed a rest before the party tonight. It was a little after 1:00 and our dinner PS was for 5:00, so that gave me a couple of hours to rest. Bill decided to go back to the room with me. Mom decided to continue onward, she really wanted to go on the safari. We agreed that she would meet us back at the room by 4:00. We headed for the front of the park and Mom soldiered on. On the way out of the park, Bill took a few more pictures.

Yep, finished filling up one of our 128 MB memory chips... 150 pictures in about 5 hours... I think we may need more memory chips, a laptop just isn't in the budget right now...  :)

We caught the bus back to the hotel. I could not sleep but I did lay down and rest for a hour or so. Bill sat out on the balcony watching the animals and, what else, taking more pictures.

Hey, I switched memory chips and batteries... besides I only took about five pictures... well really about twenty but I sorted through and deleted some of them...  :)

Mom got back to the room a little after 3:30. We checked the weather report for the evening and then got ready for Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party. We had a dinner PS for 'Ohana, so we rode the bus to Magic Kingdom then caught the monorail to Polynesian. We got to see some of  the "Celebrating 75 Years" Mickeys that were outside the Magic Kingdom on our way up the hill to the monorail. It was our first time for dinner at 'Ohana. Mom had eaten here once before, so she got to be the "tour guide" for once. We got there about ten minutes after our PS time. It was very busy but we only had about a ten minute wait before being seated. We got our starters setup on the table's lazy susan then they brought around the meats. The food was good but we are both a maybe about going back anytime soon.

The place was nice but too noisy. We were on the aisle so we got a front row seat for the coconut races. As for the food, I enjoyed the different dipping sauces and the chicken wings. The steak, pork, turkey and shrimp was hit and miss. Some pieces were tender and moist, others were dry and overcooked. I agreed with Min, we will probably go back but I don't think it will be anytime soon.

After dinner, we caught the monorail to the party. I talked with a lady on the monorail who was riding an EVC and was going to the party as well. When we arrived at the Magic Kingdom, Bill took some pictures of our favorite "Celebrating 75 Years" Mickeys. While taking the pictures, he encountered some very rude teenagers. They were going under the partitioning ropes and climbing on the Mickeys. How RUDE!!

They had an adult with them, don't think that she was old enough to be their mom. She was encouraging them to climb on the statues so that she could take their pictures. I tried to explain that the ropes were there for a reason and that the statues were to be auctioned off for charity after the exhibition was over. She looked at me like I was crazy. I was really ticked off at their disrespect of the exhibit and me, so I called out for security and they took off. Grumble, mumble, frick and frack... I usually try to avoid letting others ruin the magic but this really irked me and it took me a while to calm down afterwards.

We got our wrist bands and picked up a few of the map guides for the party. We found out that they would be selling the MVMCP AP pass holder pins at the Town Square Exposition Hall at 7:00 PM. If was a little before 7:00, so Bill got in line while me and Mom looked around Town Square at the decorations. She is a major Christmas decorations buff. When we got back to the line, Bill was chatting with the couple in front of him. 

I had saw them earlier when we caught the bus at the Animal Kingdom Lodge. When I got in line behind them, I commented on the man's shirt commemorating rescue efforts during 9.11. This lead to further conversation and by the time Min and Mom returned we were chatting away.

Mom and I joined Bill in line. We waited in line for the pins for about forty minutes, chatting away the whole time with the couple. They were from New Jersey and Disney buffs, She especially loved Pluto. We each shared stories about our Disney experiences. We told them about our honeymoon and trips since then. They told us about their many trips including renewing their wedding vows at Disney. It was a great way to pass the time waiting for the pins. We ended up getting several pins from previous MVMCP parties this week as well as the AP pin. Then, we headed over to the Emporium to pick up the pin for tonight's MVMCP and ran into the couple from New Jersey again. We said hi again and got in line behind them.

When the lady pulled out her checkbook to pay for her pins, something about the checkbook caught my eye and I glanced down at it. The lady's name rang a bell but I could not place it and said her name out loud.

The lady smiled and said that's me. Then her husband introduced them as "Mike and Carol, not the Bradys, Chwal." The reason that Bill recognized her name is that she is an RADPer, Carol Chwal a.k.a. Pluto1978. We were speechless at this point. In all of our previous conversations that night, we had never exchanged names. Now once we had, we found we knew each other through RADP.

Yep, it's a small wor... oh, never mind...  :)

Mom and I looked around the Emporium for a little while. She was looking for a Santa hat with Mickey ears. Bill was out on Main Street in the "snow" snapping picture after picture. Mom found the hat she was looking for and we bought it for her. Next we wandered down Main Street looking for a place to watch the parade. Bill continued his photographic journey snapping many pictures on the way to the castle. Mom and I found a great place to watch the parade, it was right on the hub facing down Main Street. Unfortunately for us, the parade started in Frontierland. All in all, it was still a nice place to watch the parade. The parade was great and Bill got many pictures of it.

Well, I tried to anyway. Here is where I noticed one of the limitations of night time photography. In order to get enough light, the shutter speed for night shots is slower than normal. But for action shots, the shutter speed is higher than normal. I ended up getting a lot pictures of "darkness with streaks of light." Not one good shot of the parade.  :(

After the parade, all we had to do to watch the fireworks was turn around. It was the Wishes show. Our location on the hub was much better than in front of Crystal Palace where we had saw the show for the first time on my birthday trip in October. It made all the difference in the world. The music, the lights on the castle and the fireworks all were great.

I really enjoyed Wishes and look forward to seeing it again on a future trip.

It began to get cooler as the night went on. I was so glad that I had worn long sleeves and took my jacket. After the fireworks, we went to have our picture taken at Hall of Presidents. The line was too long, so were the lines for hot chocolate and cookies at Columbia Harbour House. We headed for Fantasyland and watched Mickey's Philharmagic. Mom liked it, but some of the high speed motion sequences bothered her. Mom was upset that "it's a small world" was not running, it is one of her Disney favorites. We tried to find Pooh and Friends dressed in their Christmas outfits, but no such luck. They were not at the Fantasyland Character Festival. Mickey's Toontown Fair was dead compared to how it was during the Halloween party. After coming up empty on our character search, Mom said that she wanted to see the Country Bears and Pirates of the Caribbean, so we headed back toward Frontierland. The line was still too long for cookies and hot chocolate but we did get our Christmas party picture taken at the Hall of Presidents. We saw the end of the second run of the Christmas parade in Frontierland, then crossed the street for the Country Bears Christmas Show.

I am a big Country Bear Jamboree fan and really liked the Christmas show. I especially liked Liverlips doing an Elvis Christmas song.

After the Bears, we headed over to Pirates. Our adventure in piracy ended a little before midnight and we headed for the front of the park. On our way out, we got some pictures with Genie and Baloo. Bill took pictures all the way down Main Street on the way out.

My second lesson it night time photography was learned at this time, stabilize the camera. Although the pictures looked pretty good in the little display window on the camera, we found almost all of them to be blurry when we viewed them on our computer at home. I ended up getting only three good shots out of the dozens I took at the Christmas party.

We ran into Mike and Carol again at the bus stop. We compared notes on the party with them on the ride back to the hotel. We all agreed that it was a neat experience and that we would do it again if given the chance.

I missed not getting any hot chocolate and cookies... but the parade and "snow" on Main Street was fantastic.

The gift shop was closed so we got some cold drinks from the vending machines on the way back to the room. We were all in bed by 1:00 AM.

December 6, 2003 - Saturday

We were all up and going by about 8:00 AM. Bill was out on the balcony taking pictures again while Mom and I got ready. Once I was ready, I went out on the balcony and shooed him into the room to get ready for breakfast. It was a lot colder this morning that it was yesterday. We had a PS for breakfast at Boma and after Bill was ready, we made our way down there. The food was great and the service was okay. We had the same server that we had in October.

She asked if we had been to Boma before, we said yes and mentioned that she had been our server on our last trip. To which she joking replied, "and you came back?" I almost choked trying not to laugh because her level of service might inspire some customers not to return.

We all had the frunch. I like it best over ice and I actually drank a whole glass of it this trip. Bill and Mom liked it, too. I love the breakfast pizza here. Mom liked the food especially the fruit and yogurt. Bill once again pigged out on the sausage biscuit curry dish and he was sweating up a storm before we left. We had planned on resort hopping this morning and taking a look at the decorations at Beach Club, Yacht Club and Boardwalk before the Mega Mouse Meet. However, at breakfast I asked if we could go to Disney Studios instead, Bill and Mom said it would be okay. After we finished breakfast, we went back to our room to get the camera and our jackets. It was definitely jacket weather this morning and the constant wind made it seem a lot colder. We caught the bus to the studios and after a quick security check were in the park. I picked up a schedule to see what time the first Beauty and the Beast show was for today and was disappointed to find that it was at the same time as the Mega Mouse Meet. We walked around the park and did a little shopping while trying to decide what to do next. Bill took pictures of the Christmas tree and the street decorations. The character greeting under the Hat was just ending when we got there. I wanted a picture with Pooh so we checked the schedule and found we had an hour to kill before the next greeting. We got our pictures taken with Lilo and Stitch. At the next character greeting, Bill got my picture with Pooh and Piglet dressed in their Christmas scarves.

This was a bit of a fiasco. I was standing in the sun, Min and the characters were standing in the shadows. After trying twice to get a good picture, I tried to explain to the attendant what was wrong. Either she did not understand me or wasn't listening to what I was saying. I was really frustrated, after all Pooh is Min favorite character. Since the other folks in line were wondering what the hold up was, I took one more shot and we moved on. Oh well, I did manage to salvage one of the shots with a little brightness and contrast adjustments when we got home. Am I complaining too much on this trip, first the disrespectful teens and now this? Maybe I am starting to get a little crabby, now that I am on the upper side of forty.

He also got a couple of pictures of Min and Bill's Dockside Dinner. We showed Mom how to see the Hidden Mickey made by the Min and Bill's sign and two portholes on the ship. A check of the watch showed that it was time to start heading over to the Dolphin for the Mega Mouse Meet. At the boat dock we saw two ladies that we had seen yesterday at the Pizzafari meet, so we introduced ourselves and stuck up a conversation with Kay and Krista from Texas. We arrived at the Dolphin and found the Mega Mouse Meet room. We signed in and were given name tags. We met so many people. We saw Bruce (Zazu), again. At the All Ears Net table, we said hi to Deb Wills and Deb Martin Koma (dcdeb) as well as Jack Marshall (JackM). We also got to meet Anita Answer and Gloria from Miami. We met Len from Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World and Jennifer Watson from Passporter. Mom sat down and talked with Allyson Keaney from the What Would Walt Do? web site. Bill met some more of the folks he chats with on the RADP IRC channel.

Let see... I saw Kenny, Susan, Brian (tiggerguy), Keith and his wife Cindy, again. I also got to meet Donna (Cinder), Andrea (Tigerlily), Cathy (CBock), Ben Geiger  (tanuki), Tracy (Flutter) and TonyP.

We met some more of RADPers like JenKatt and Jeff, who were in charge of The Great Race. Bruce introduced us to Kitty (Bashful). We meet Shawna's spouse but unfortunately could not catch up with Shawna. Bill was "beaded" by one of the Beadzilians, no less that the mighty Paragon herself. MickeyMom and Major Woody were working at one of the registration tables and Jan (Praline) was working at the greeting table at the front. We also met Kathy (Figaro) and Den as well as Sue (WDW1972) in the lobby area. We stayed at the meet for about an hour and a half before we realized that it was just not Mom's element. We said our goodbyes and heading for the door. On the way out, we met Lori (BriarRose), another RADPer.

The Mega Mouse Meet had a lot more attendees than the Pizzafari meet at Animal Kingdom. A few too many people for my taste but it was great getting to put faces to some of the names and handles I see on RADP. Still missed a few folks that I was looking forward to meeting, maybe next year...

We caught the boat to the International Gateway after a very cold and windy wait. On the boat, we saw a lady wearing a Mousefest name tag. After getting off the boat, Bill approached her and introduced himself.

Check off another name on the need to meet list, it was RADPer Ann Labuda.

We chatted with Ann for a few minutes before entering the park. We saw Princess Aurora standing all by herself just inside the park and Bill got a picture of me with her. My ears were cold so I decided I wanted Santa Hat with Pooh ears that I had seen someone wearing at the party last night. Since Pooh hangs out in England, we headed in that direction in search of the hat. Unfortunately, they had no such hat and suggested we look at Mouse Gear so we headed for Future World. On the way, Mom stopped for some coffee near Canada so we took a break and listened to Alberta Bound for a few songs.

They were pretty good. I am still looking forward to seeing Off Kilter but we always seem to go to Epcot on the days that they are not performing.

We decided to check for the hat at the gift shops at Showcase Plaza, no luck there either. When we exited the gift shop, the Characters on Holiday were outside in Showcase Plaza. Bill got some pictures of me with Chip and Dale, Robin Hood and Friar Tuck and King Louie. He also got a picture of Mom with Meeko. I decided that my ears were not going to freeze off anytime soon, so we headed for Mexico instead of Mouse Gear. Mom really likes the inside of the Mexico pavilion. Maybe one day we will take her to lunch at San Angel Inn. We rode El Rio del Tiempo and then headed out. Out front, we got to hear the holiday story of the Three Kings and Bill got a picture of them after the story. Next we headed over to Norway and rode the Maelstrom. Afterwards, we tried to find Bill a new Helly Hansen jacket.

I got one about ten years ago at Epcot and it is perfect for Florida winters (the teal-colored jacket I am wearing in the pictures from this trip). It is starting to get a little worn out so I figured what the heck, why not get a new one. One comparable to my old one was a bit too pricey, so we passed on it for now. Maybe when the old one finally falls to tatters.

Since dinner was still a few hours away, we stopped for snacks at the Kringla Bakeri Og Kafe. I had the chocolate mousse cake, Mom had the raspberry cheese cake and Bill had the school bread.

I am not a big fan of coconut but the school bread had gotten good reviews from various RADPers and All Ears folks so I decided to give it a try. After all, the coconut was on the outside so I could always scrape it off... I thoroughly enjoyed it, even the coconut. My only complaint was that it was too big. I only ate about half of it. Mom and Min ate some too but there was still a lot of it left. The three of us could have probably split it and been fine. 

After our snack, we saw Norway's Christmas storyteller pass by and followed him to the storytelling area. We listened to his story and Bill got a picture of him. Afterwards, we decided to see the other storytellers and headed for China. It was about an hour until the next show and my ears were starting to get cold again, so we turned around and headed for Mouse Gear. Once there, we found out that the hat I was looking for was from a previous year and was no longer available. I opted for a Santa hat with Minnie ears. We did a little more shopping. Bill got some gloves and then we headed back out into the park. When I put on my new hat, Bill said that I looked like Aunt Jemima. I was so glad to have it that I was not the least bit upset by his comment. I can safely say that the hat kept me from getting an earache. We checked out Test Track but the line was too long and the Fastpass return time was during our dinner time. It was almost time for the tree lighting ceremony, so we grabbed a bench on one of the walkways between the Odyssey and the white arches. Bill had the 'Ohana camera out taking some of the most beautiful pictures of the tree and decorations.

I was finally getting down the process for taking pictures at night. It was in this group of pictures that my favorite picture of the trip was taken. It is the one with the arches and Christmas tree with their reflections in the water. It is the first picture in the Epcot Holiday Photo Gallery and is named "reflection."

While walking around and taking pictures, Mom said that her hands were starting to get cold so we got her some gloves, too. It was about 30 minutes before our PS time for dinner at the Garden Grill, so we headed over to The Land pavilion to ride Living with the Land. After the boat ride, we headed upstairs for dinner. We were seated about fifteen minutes after our arrival which was about five minutes after our PS time. We had the good fortune of having Steve as our server, he is one of the best at Garden Grill. We remembered having him before and chuckled a little when we pinned it down to our last trip with Mom in June 2002. We asked if Allison, the chef, was working tonight. Steve said she was, so we asked him to tell her hi for us. A few minutes later, Allison came out and talked with us. She remembered us from our October trip. Mom wanted the maple butter recipe. Allison got our email address and said she would send it to us. When Steve came back to the table, Allison in a joking manner apologized and said that if we had let her know that we were coming back, she would have made arrangements to get us someone other than Steve. Allison came by the table several more times during our meal and kidded around with Steve some more. We really pigged out tonight. We had three of the family sized bowls of salads between the three of us. We reordered several rounds of the different meats and vegetables. We even managed to save a little room for some ice cream for dessert. Since me and Bill had plenty of pictures of us with the characters here, we only took pictures of Mom and the characters. They were great clowning around with Mom. All in all we had a wonderful dinner.

It was a great meal. After dinner, I told Steve that we thought that he was one of the better servers at Garden Grill. As we were walking out, he brought Allison over so that I could tell her how we felt about Steve's service. I guess he had to get one last dig at her for all the times she had picked on him during dinner.

After dinner, Bill took so more pictures of the park at night. My hands were cold, so we got me some gloves.

Now the whole gang was wearing gloves... Ah, the perils on being thin blooded Floridians when the temperature drops...

We found a place to sit for Illuminations. It was near our usual spot next to the boat dock by Mexico. I was cold, the bench was cold, my butt was cold.

I on the other hand went into the gift shop to look around. There were a few things that Min and Mom had liked when we were in there earlier in the day. I got Mom a plush of Figment dressed as a Christmas tree and Min a plush of Pooh dressed as a Christmas ornament as well as a plush of Minnie in a Victorian Christmas dress.

Illuminations was great as usual. Afterwards, we headed out to the bus stop and caught the bus back to the hotel. We stopped at the Zawadi Marketplace for some cold drinks and a few souvenirs/Christmas gifts. When we got to our room, we found that Mousekeeping had left us a little friend, an elephant made out of hand towels and wash clothes. I was tired so I went to bed, Bill and Mom stayed up watching television.

I caught some of the Kansas State-Oklahoma football game. By the time I turned off the TV, both Min and Mom were sawing logs.

December 7, 2003 - Sunday

I woke up around 9:00 AM. Mom was already awake but was still in bed. When I woke up, she got up and hit the shower. I woke Bill up and once again he headed for the balcony.

More animals, more pictures... While Min was in the shower, I went out on the stairs and got a few more pictures from there.

After we were all packed and ready we called bell services to come pick up our luggage. They said it would be about twenty minutes. Bill went to get the car about fifteen minutes later.

On the way to the parking lot, I came upon a couple that were trying to figure out where they had parked their car. I made a joke about the hardest thing to do at Disney was to find your car in your resort parking lot. After all you usually park in the dark and then don't go to the parking area again until several days later. They laughed and continued their search. Several minutes later, I was stumped as well. I swore that I remembered where the car was but when I got to that location, it wasn't there. I started to panic because I had not put the resort parking pass in the window of the car when we checked-in. Oh boy, how was I going to explain to Min that Disney had towed our car. What a way to end our trip. I headed back towards the hotel trying to figure out who I would need to talk to about finding our car when I looked up and there it was. I had the right area and the right road but I had been looking on the wrong side of the road. It was on the right instead of the left. We had parked in the same area but on the left side of the road in October. I got in the car and drove up to the loading/unloading area to wait for Min and Mom.

Mom and I waited about twenty more minutes after Bill left before the bellman arrived. We went downstairs and got the car loaded. Bill tipped the bellman and we were off to Downtown Disney. We parked by the Marketplace and did a little shopping. We went through the Lego store, Mom wanted to look for something for some of the grandkids. Next was World of Disney, it was jam packed. You could hardly move around without bumping into someone. Bill had to exchange a shirt that we had bought on our October trip or we would have just turned around and walked right out. Mom and I were offered a sample of the Disney hot chocolate. We both had the white chocolate flavor, mine was purple colored and hers was pink. We both liked it. Bill finally got the shirt exchanged and picked up another shirt as well. I picked up a couple of Christmas presents.

I think the wait at the cash register at World of Disney was the longest wait time we experienced this whole trip...  :)

Bill tried the hot chocolate on the way out of the store. He liked it, too. Next we went stopped at Ghirardelli's then it was on to Arribas Brothers and Team Mickey. Mom loved Once Upon a Toy. Then we stopped at Disney's Pin Traders. We were looking for a "The Magical Place To Be... 2003" pin. We thought we had gotten one on one of our earlier trips this year, so we did not buy one in October. Then when we got home we found that we did not have it. All of our searches for one on this trip had turned up empty and Pin Traders was our last hope. All they had in the "The Magical Place To Be... 2003" style was a "build a pin." So I got one of those and had Pooh and Minnie Mouse put on it. We also got an Animal Kingdom Lodge pin with Chip and Dale on it. Next we stopped at Pooh's Corner. I found a couple of things I wanted and Bill bought them for me. Afterwards, we went over to the Disney at Home store to show Mom all the different Disney things for the home. We stopped in at the Christmas shop but it was more crowded than World of Disney, so we left pretty quickly. A quick check of the watch showed it to be about 1:00 PM and we wanted to be on the road by about 2:00, so we headed back to the car.  We went over to House of Blues on the Westside for lunch. The food was up to its usual good standards. Our server, Kim, was the same server that we had had in October. She remembered us and the sweet tea incident. We finished lunch and were on the road by 2:00. We arrived home in Jacksonville at about 4:30 and Mom was on her way to Tallahassee by 4:45.

Great trip. Christmas time at Disney was wonderful. Mousefest was fun, too.

Overall, we had a great time. We loved having Mom with us and look forward to taking her on another trip or two next year.