2013 Holiday Trip

Forgot to tell you that Donald decided that he will be in the festive outfit for the season. So it is the Holiday Donald, all dressed up and ready to go, as you can see here.

He even has his Magic Band ready!

Zz.

{Yawn!} Is it morning already?

It's 3:30 am, and I'm awake, showered, packed, and ready to go. Still have another half an hour before we leave the house and make our way to the airport. Donald is already grumbling for being stuffed in my backpack.

Anyhow, my next transmission will be from the Most Magical Place on Earth!

Zz.

We had just landed and waiting for our luggage.

And yes, the weather is great!

Zz

Greetings from the most Magical Place on Earth!

We have made it back to our "home" at Saratoga Springs resort. The weather is perfect, and our room was ready. We have a room overlooking the lagoon and the construction at the former Pleasure Island.

Just finished packing and we plan on heading to Downtown Disney to pick up our annual pass renewal and then have lunch. After that, we may just take a nap and wait for our friends to show up on a later flight.

Zz.

Just got our annual pass renewal. At Wolfgang puck express having lunch.

Zz

We are back at our resort after spending the early afternoon at Downtown Disney. So here are some pictures.

Donald was anxious to get to the room. We had already done the online check-in.

When we got to downtown Disney, Mickey was back pouring water at the Marketplace

Donald waiting for our food at Wolfgang Puck Express

And here comes the food! This is the Greek salad.

I had the grilled veggie sandwich

While my other half had the spicy chicken pizza.

The food was good and the service was wonderful. It was a very good start to the vacation.

And now, I need a nap.

Zz.

View from our room at SSR.

It doesn't suck.

The only drawback, of course, is that the walkway to Downtown Disney is closed.

Zz.

Just got back from dinner at Dakshin, the South Indian restaurant at the Crossroad shopping strip. We like going there and the food is good (we love Indian food). We then did food shopping at a nearby Winn-Dixie, mainly to buy water and breakfast stuff and fruits.

We are back at our room, and are about to go to downtown Disney for the evening.

Zz.

Good morning.

Here are some reports and pictures from last night.

This is the night time view out of our room, overlooking downtown Disney.

We then walked to downtown Disney, even though the walk path in SSR is gone. We just walked along the street until we got to the outside sidewalk. It seems that a lot of guests are also doing that. It was barely a 5-minute walk from Congress Park.

The following are some sights and scenes around downtown Disney last night.

We went in the Christmas store. Here are a few of the merchandise that they had.

It was a good evening. We got back to our resort and were snugly in bed by 10:30 pm. Today, we will be at Epcot.

Zz.

We are back after a long day at Epcot.

Started out in mid morning. Epcot is decked out with the holiday decor.

But first things first, get a good coffee at the new Starbucks.

What goes better after coffee? Why a good dose of pop! We tested out the new series of drinks at the Club Cool.

Mickey and Minnie adorned the entrance to World Showcase.

Canada.

And that's just the beginning. Will report some more later after we get back from dinner and possibly explore a few more resorts.

Zz.

Continuing the report from today, we made our way to the Epcot resorts. Here we were crossing the bridge on our way to the Boardwalk.

This is the tree at the Boardwalk.

But the gingerbread house this year was a major disappointment. It wasn't the fun one they normally had with Donald stuck up the fireplace and stitch up to his tricks. It was rather a boring looking structure.

We didn't spend much time there and headed on to the Beach Club. They of course had their usual, wonderful carousel.

The Yacht Club had their usual display of an alpine village. They also had the big tree in the lobby.

We then headed back to World Showcase and had lunch at La Cantina. Service was slow because they seemed to have a technical problem. Also, the food quality is not as good as they were before. My tacos came with the meat and cilantro, but no onions as before.

Another disappointment was that the American Experience pavilion has no gingerbread house like previous years. It was usually in the front of the restaurant area, but as you can see, this year, nada!

Here's the tree at the entrance to World Showcase.

On the way out of Epcot, we did Spaceship Earth, and then stopped over at the Art of Disney store. I saw this figurine and had to really stop myself from buying it. It was adorable!

On the way back to SSR, we stopped at OKW to get pins.

Tomorrow, we will start very early at DHS. Then we plan on coming back to the resort, rest a bit till mid afternoon, and then head on to MK for our MVMCP. Should be a rather long day.

Zz.