MVMCP 2013 Magic Mirror's First Christmas in The World!

The next morning we get up and head to Animal Kingdom Park
to jump another bus to AKL. The buses were side by side and
our timing was perfect. We arrived at AKL quickly.

Amy's migraine had come on pretty strong. We decided
to stay out of the heat (it was up in the 80's with full sun)
for the beginning of the day so AKL was the perfect
solution. Plus we have never been to AKL and I was so
excited to see it! It did not disappoint..I love AKL

We walked all over and checked out the various floors, gift shops
and outside spaces.

We had walked downstairs to the restaurant. We were the only people there except
for a CM Hostess at the counter. When she saw us, she hurried over to a bench
and started playing a drum. It was so nice! So we had a private concert and I
asked to take her picture.

We walked outside to see the animals..

We stopped at AKL's Arcade to use up our free tokens

We also stopped at the gift store....If you ever forget to buy something
at the Animal Kingdom Park- stop by the Lodge's Gift Store, they have some of the
same items for sale.

This great chair is out by the bonfire pit

By now we had easily spent several hours just wandering AKL.
So time to head to The Mara for lunch.
What a great quick service!

Amy had the Chicken Flatbread (chicken breast, berbere sauce,
mozzarella cheese, corn and zhoug sauce)

I had the Falafel Pita (warm pita with sun-dried tomato hummus,
cucumber, tomato, mixed greens with mint yogurt sauce) with
a side of cous cous.

They were fabulous!

For our sugar high Amy took the seasonal coconut filled
cupcake while I had the zebra chocolate butterfinger cupcake.
Both Winners!

Sadly, after lunch Amy's migraine was only worse.
At this point, the only thing she can do is go back to the room,
pull the shades, take her prescription meds which knock
her out for the rest of the day.

As much as she didn't want to go, she was starting to feel
miserable, and her migraines can last up to 3 days.
Knowing that Ashley Judd was the next night, she wanted
to be pro-active in her meds hoping to be up to getting
thru the next day for the Candlelight Processional.

There is nothing I can do for her but be quiet-
and there was nothing to do at All Star Sports to keep
me busy as I didn't want to swim in the pool, so we
decided Amy would go back to the room and I would
head to Epcot.

I had wanted to move thru Epcot at a slower pace to
take time to explore the gift shops so I could pick out
some pieces to bring back to decorate the guest bedroom.
This would give me the chance to do so.

So I got Amy back on a bus and I caught the next one to
Epcot. She texted me when she had gotten back and was
in bed, so I felt relaxed enough to start my Epcot adventure,
solo.

On the bus to Epcot I was beginning to realize just how nice
it would be to be lodging at AKL instead of All Stars. Not just for
luxury surroundings, but also for the activities.

If we had been staying at AKL I would have stayed at the resort.
This way I could be closer to check on Amy in the room but still
have something to do. I imagined myself at the bar with a cocktail..
then doing some reading on the savanna overlook. Perhaps an
enrichment class in the late afternoon where you can collect those
really cute little glass animal beads, a band was playing that night,
then I would go find those night vision binoculars to view the giraffes
after dark.

Aw well...something to keep in consideration for our next trip..

but now, I had arrived at Epcot!

I decided to shoot Alicemouse a text and come to find out, her husband
was not feeling well, so she said she would grab a nap then come meet
me at Epcot later in the day.

So I started at Canada and slowly took my time just walking around, enjoying
the flowers, listening to whatever activity I happened to come across and
shopping, shopping, shopping. It was a lovely day to just be meandering
the showcase with no particular time schedule.

The only irritation in my day was the continuing problems with my magic
band. By now I was practically begging every CM to just run my KTTKC
but they all insisted on the magic band. I tried repeatedly to tell them
it wouldn't work, it jams up their computers, etc. etc. In retrospect,
I should have probably just removed the band and hid it in my purse.
But of course I was still having that problem with the KTTKC where
it said I didn't have a room charge when I really did. It was sucking the
fun out of shopping. I considered just starting to use my debit card
but it felt so un-Disney like. At one point I had to repeat my problems
to three different CM's and finally a manager just to ring up my purchases.

Pluto was at the entrance, with barely a line..they were going to stop the line
in front of me while Pluto took a break, but when they guy heard I was solo
he felt bad for me and let me go thru too

Then I rode Spaceship Earth

Then off to take some pictures

I was ready for something to eat...oh the decisions!

I settled on Les Halles Boulangerie Patisserie... the ham and cheese
on a croissant

and that delightful raspberry/chocolate ambrosia YUM

I was tempted by the French Champagne, but I ended up passing it by..

And I ran into Remy!

I ventured on ...

I decided to stop for a Hidden Mickey Henna Tattoo

I have never walked thru the Japan gift shop- wow! It's huge!

There was the nicest CM ever at the counter. Several women
were looking at the handmade glass hair combs (beautiful by the way)
and the CM took her hair down and demonstrated how to wrap
your hair and utilize the comb. She then held a mirror for the
customer and guided her thru doing it on her own hair.

I watched her assist two different customers, always with patience
and a smile. She was so fluent and delicate in doing her own hair
that it was hard not to laugh when the customer tried to do theirs
with clumsy, fumbling hands..but they both turned out fairly well
in the end.

I had picked out a hand paddle fan, relatively inexpensive at only
$5 but I thought it would be a nice addition to the guest bedroom
at home. I saw they had a sign at the desk that they would add
your name in Japanese to anything you bought. I asked if she
would do this and she said yes.

She had me write my name and Amy's name on a piece of paper.
She had me speak our names and she repeated it back.
Then she wrote it out and explained that basically their language
is syllable based. So as she was writing she would pronounce the
syllables.

It was the best learning experience ever!

After the fan was done, she carefully packaged it between cardboard and
then insisted on writing the interpretation of our names down in English
and Japanese so I could keep it with the fan and remember who's name
belonged to who.

She was really an amazing CM. (yes I left a comment card for her, and many others
during our trip)

I passed that terrible princess, Snow White
(where is The Queen when you need her?)

and then Alicemouse had arrived!
So off to Mexico I went !

I had the churro's with caramel sauce...
very yummy!

Then we had a great laugh...Where else could you wipe
your face on a napkin and the grease mark was a Mickey Mouse
shaped head?!?!?!?!?

Darkness was falling, we wandered around so I could finish my shopping..

We found this great artist painting in the Mexico pavilion-

We enjoyed some Holiday Spirits

I had the mulled wine...it was pretty good until it cooled off, when it started
to taste bitter.

At Germany I was running around trying to remember where the apple caramel
strudel was sold at but the stores were closing. Instead we went to
Karamelle Kuche where I was able to get that heavenly caramel popcorn to go!

We had caught a glimpse of Ashley Judd

Alicemouse was so awesome that she invited me to the Top of the World
to view fireworks...

Ohhhhh I was sooo tempted! But it was almost 9:30p and I wanted to
take some food back for Amy in case she was up to eat something so I
passed and we headed out to beat the rush. But thank you Alicemouse!!!

So back to the buses we went

I had texted Amy and she wanted a yogurt and part of a chicken wrap.
I could get that in the Grab-n-Go at All Stars. So I jumped off the bus
and went there. As I went to check out and use the dining plan,
I had more problems with the Magic Bands and KTTKC. It had been
a long days of problems and I couldn't take it anymore.

So at 10pm I marched myself back to the front desk and after
a brief summary was given a manager.

This manager was wonderful. After examining the options, it came down
to he would have to manually delete our entire reservation. Then re-load
the reservation, the charges, everything. Then re-program our existing
bands. He offered to have it all sent to my room but with Amy not
feeling well I didn't want that. I offered to come back but after texting
with Amy who was still down for the count anyway, I decided to wait
in the lobby. It took about an hour but it was well worth it to have it
fixed.

While I was there, a young boy was being attended to by the paramedics.
I don't know what happened, but he appeared to be very sick. The
paramedics were so good to the family, explaining how Disney guests
do not pay for ambulance transports and they would assist them in
getting to the hospital. I felt so bad for the boy-I hope he ended up
being ok.

So after about an hour, I got my Magic Band back. The amazing
thing was they didn't need Amy's as it would just sync like pixie dust.
I asked for a new KTTKC for back up, but that's when I was told
they had stopped issuing the cards on Monday. So it was all up
to the Magic Band. He did let me keep my old KTTKC when I asked,
so I could use it for a keepsake.

I took our food and went back to the room. The Magic Band opened my room
door which was a great start! I got Amy to eat a little bit and she
went back to bed. The next day was a big day for her-it was
Ashley Judd day!

The next morning Amy woke up with a dull thud in her head.
We had FP+ set for Future world between 9am-Noon.
I had them spaced so we could do one right after another.
So we made it to Epcot and started with Spaceship Earth.

Next was Test Track...it kept stopping...I think it stopped about 5x before we got
in the car. Even in the FP+ lane it took us about 45 minutes. I hate to think of
what it was if you were in the regular line which was already a 90 minute wait
before all the stops.

If you thought my TOT picture was bad-this one will really crack you up!
I loved Test Track but my hair kept getting in my face so I tried to hold it
back so I could see..the resulting image is far from flattering!

We stopped outside of Soarin to grab breakfast at Sunshine Season's Food Court-
It was greasy, uninspiring and pretty basic, but it was food.

Next we did Soarin, literally walking right on with our FP+.. Love that ride!

We jumped right on The Land. I never get tired of going thru the "green house".

We decided such Amy still wasn't feeling well, that we would stay inside the air conditioning
and out of the sun as much as we could. We wandered around and enjoyed the decorations

We went on Imagine! Then headed to Captain EO.
By the time we had gotten out of Captain EO, Amy was feeling pretty bad
again. We debated the bus to the resort to nap and back to Epcot, but
we had ADR's for the Candlelight Processional Package and we didn't
want to be late. There is a bench just outside of Captain EO which
was in the shade. I convinced her to lay on it and she fell to sleep
for about an hour while I sat with her. It was a great location because
as people would come out, I'd get hit with that great cold air plus
there isn't really anything there, so people would just walk by and
keep walking out of the area. After she got up, she felt a little better.

We headed to The Seas with Nemo & Friends. What a great time
we had! We watched the jelly fish and the turtle..and some SCUBA
divers in the tank. We lucked out and were able to watch a
dolphin training session...it was really relaxing..what a great time!

Due to my allocated memory storage on Photo Bucket almost being
used up... I am not going to attach the dolphin or jellyfish videos here.
If you would like to see them you can go to my Facebook page
(link below in my signature line) and see more pics and videos
from this trip as I will be continuously uploading.

After we had spent a few hours in the Aquarium area
we headed to the UK for Rose & Crown Pub for our dinner
reservations.

Next up- Food Pictures!

We both had the traditional Fish & Chips

Amy had the seasonal soup which was a potato based soup-she said it was delicious

I had the Frisee & Apple Salad with stilton, candied nuts, & craisins dried cranberry vinaigrette.
Wonderful!

Then we topped it off with my Sticky Toffee Pudding (highly recommend)

and Amy had a strawberry & vanilla ice cream sundae

It was such a pretty night!

After we were done, be headed right to the Processional. The previous show was just starting
so we were about an hour early. We were so early we were in line, but we couldn't line all
the way up by the ropes because the CM's wouldn't let us. So about 15 minutes later,
they opened the ropes and we filed in. We had the nicest people on both sides of us
and it really helped the time go faster having them to talk to. We were probably about
20 people back.

We could also see Ashley Judd from where we were in line-but it didn't detract from
our excitement to see her again!

When the lines opened it was a free for all when the line hit the top of the seating area.
But we were so close to the front it didn't matter, we had our pick of seats.
We sat about 3 rows back so we could see over the orchestra and went straight to
the center.. perfect seating!

A view from our seat without the zoom:

Presenting ~ Ashley Judd!

Ashley was incredible!
She smiles, she bopped her head with the music,
she sang along at times (you couldn't hear her voice)
, she had a great strong speaking voice with inflection..
she even blundered a couple words but she corrected
them and it made her seem even more human. She joked
about how she had just brushed her teeth before coming
out but then she had to have one more slice of Via Napoli
Pizza. She also told us Nelson Mandela had passed away..
there was a collective gasp in the audience...she had kind
words to say about him. It was a great experience..
Ashley and the entire group put on a very moving
presentation..I loved how they took traditional christmas
songs but changed the beats, layered the verses and
spiced them up a bit......

I'm working on getting some of her video clips up on FB.

After that, we went back to the resort.
The next day was our "day off" ...
we went to Downtown Disney and used our free
Disney Quest passes.

So I agree with Alicemouse on Disney Quest......it was nice to not
drop quarters in every five minutes...but for us it wouldn't be worth
the $50+ admission. They did give us a band for the day so we could
come and go if we wanted.

We played the "old school" pin ball games
for awhile. Amy did really good on the virtual pinball game where you are
the pinball (quite an aerobic workout!) but the other games were just ok.

We were still avoiding the sun/heat so we used our dining credit for a
quick bite. Bland hotdog, stale nachos, nothing to write home about.

The snack seating area was cute...decked out with an Alice in Wonderland
theme...oversized furniture and cheshire cats!

Eventually the sun was going down so we ventured out, did some shopping
and enjoyed the sights and sounds of downtown disney.

Splitsville had a man singing outside in the bar area, bar was empty
yet, but he sang really good. We hung around a bit to listen.

We had dinner ADR's at Planet Hollywood. This had been a request
by Amy as she had really liked it on our previous trip. She even
got the same thing, Spaghetti Pomodoro.

It wasn't as good as last time...not sure why..but it didn't taste the same.
Even though the place was almost empty, they sat us in an area where the waiters
gathered..so it was distracting listening to them laugh, talk and horse play around
right by our table. Our server changed shifts while we were waiting on our food.
She did come out to introduce her replacement but our food order got lost.
We sat there forever (seems to be my luck this vacation) before Amy's came
up but my salad took 10 more minutes.

I had the peach salad.

This was an out of pocket dinner such we only had the free quick service.
It hurt to drop the $50+ for such a disappointing meal all the way around.
If it doesn't go out, we wont' be back for it.

We continued wandering...checked out the future Starbucks store plans: