Where in Walt Disney World: Santa and His Flamingo Team

Where in Walt Disney World would you find Santa's Sleigh being pulled by a team of Flamingos?

ǝsɹnoƆ ɟloפ ǝɹnʇɐᴉuᴉW puɐlɹǝɯɯnS ɹǝʇuᴉM ǝɥʇ ʇ∀

Wordless Wednesday: Disney's Grand Floridian at Christmas

Photos: Barbie and Nick

 

Holiday Storytellers Around Epcot's World Showcase

by Nick

I love Santa Claus. Always have, I am, after all, named after the Saint himself.

I also enjoy hearing and reading about the various gift givers that different cultures have.
One of my very favorite things about the Holiday Around the World at Epcot is the storytellers that several of the countries have.

My wife, friends, and I caught as many of the offerings as possible on our recent trip, and I've shared a brief look in my trip reports, but I thought it appropriate to share a more in depth look at them on this Christmas Day.

Heading around to the right of World Showcase, we'll start with Father Christmas, who can be found in the United Kingdom.

Each pavilion's storyteller has a scroll describing customs and traditions from that country, and you can find appearance times in park guides.

Father Christmas shares a few of the traditions that started in the UK, such as the sending of Christmas Cards in 1843, and the hanging of mistletoe which dates back to the Druidic ceremonies of the Winter Solstice. 

Many storytellers also pose for photos with guests.

 

Left to right: Barbie, Nick, Father Christmas, Jill, Nicole, and Josh

Moving on to France, we find Père Noël, who delivers gifts to children on Christmas Eve.

He tells of the importance of the Creche, or Nativity Scene. Traditionally, candles are lit around the Creche, or a special Yule Log is burned on the fire.
He continues telling us of le reveillon, a feast after Midnight Mass, and how children set our shoes around the Christmas tree in anticipation of a visit from le Père Noël.

Continuing on to Japan, we learn about O-Shogatsu, the Japanese New Year. lasting from January 1st through the 3rd. An important symbol of the New Year is the Daruma Doll. There are no pupils in the Darumas eyes. The tradition is to make a wish, and paint a pupil in the left eye. If the wish comes true, you paint in the right pupil.

We'll come back to The American Adventure later. Our next stop for now will be Italy.
To me, the most heart wrenching tale of a gift bringer is that of the kind-hearted witch La Befana who arrives on the eve of the Epiphany, January 5th, to grant gifts to good children.

As her story goes, the Three Wise Men visited Befana at her home and asked if she knew where to find the baby Jesus. She did not, but offered them shelter for the night. The magi invited her to join them on the journey to find the baby Jesus, but she declined. Later, La Befana had a change of heart, and tried to search out the astrologers and Jesus. That night she was not able to find them, so to this day, La Befana is searching for the little baby. -sniff- This story gets me every time I hear it.

In Germany, we meet Helga, who teaches us how to say Merry Christmas in German. She explains how many Christmas traditions such as the advent calender and Christmas trees began in Germany. She also tells us of her first nutcracker.

Norway has, in my opinion, one of the most entertaining gift givers, Julenissen, the Christmas Gnome.

But before we meet him, we meet Sigrid, who cannot see Julenissen, only we, the audience can at first.

While we learn of the traditions of Christmas in farm communities in Norway, Julenissen gets up to mischief, and plays tricks on poor Sigrid, with the help of the audience, until, in the end, he reveals himself to her.

Back to The American Adventure, where Hanukkah and Kwanzaa are represented, both of which we never did get to see this trip.

Here, you won't hear a story from Santa, but instead, get to sit on his knee, and tell him what you'd like for Christmas. He is joined by Mrs. Claus.

Did we get our photos with Santa and Mrs. Claus? Of course!
In fact, Barbie made the dress she is wearing for just this occasion!

Regardless of how you celebrate, we wish you a happy and safe holiday, and Merry Christmas!

December '14 Walt Disney World Trip Report: Part 2

by Nick

Sunday, December 7th

After such a jam packed first day, we all slept in. We had made an ADR for breakfast at Whispering Canyon Cafe, the sit down restaurant located off of the main lobby of the Wilderness Lodge, the previous day.

Barbie and I were giving this restaurant another shot after a not so great experience on our last stay at the Lodge in 2011. Whispering Canyon has a reputation of being fun, along the lines of 50s Prime Time at Disney's Hollywood Studios, but on that first visit our service was very lackluster, with zero energy from our server.

This trip we had the good fortune of having Jeff as a server. He was a lot of fun, and spent a lot of time joking with us as well as having a real conversation.

 Jill and Jeff

The food was great, with everything being delicious. The bacon was not the standard flimsy bacon found at other establishments on Disney property.

We'd all chosen the "All You Care to Eat Breakfast Skillet" pictured above, and we all did eat all we cared to, and then some.
After this stuffing, we all retired to our rooms for naps!

Barbie and I got up a couple of hours later, and dressed and made our way down to the main lobby to enjoy the decorations and get photos while we waited for our friend Nicole, who stayed for 3 nights with Josh and Jill, to arrive.

After Nicole arrived, we departed for Disney's Hollwood Studios.

Left to Right: Josh, Jill, Nicole, Barbie and me

We had reservations for the Frozen Holiday Premium Package, which I wrote about in greater detail here.

We checked in, got our lanyard and pass for the party, and headed to Rock n' Roller Coaster.

We then headed to For the First Time in Forever: A Frozen Sing-Along Celebration. If you are a fan of Frozen, this is a must do.

Afterwards we visited Wandering Oaken's Trading Post, the Frozen themed gift shop located in the back of the park, off Streets of America.

Just as The Osborne Family Spectacle of Dancing Lights began, we happened to be right next to the area where Santa Goofy comes out for photos with guests, and lucked out, as the line can be extremely long.

The Frozen themed dessert party took place at the end of Streets of America, with a terrific view of the Osborne Lights.

We stayed until the end of the party, at 830pm, and then meandered our way back to the front of the park, stopping for PhotoPass pics along the way.

Part 1 of the trip report can be found here.

Disney Trip Planning For a Party of Ten

By: Jacqueline aka Jersey Diva

Disney World did not know what hit them the first week of December 2012.  Jersey parents (2), Jersey sister and her family (4) and Jersey Diva and my family (4) arrived in Disney on December 1. I was the primary trip planner. Trying to take everyone's interests and ages into consideration was a bit tough, but I think it all worked out well.

Day #1
We arrived at our hotel, Pop Century, got our rooms and had some lunch.  After lunch, we hopped a bus to Animal Kingdom.  None of us had ever been there and we knew it was a park we didn't really want to spend a whole day in, so it made for a perfect "day we arrive" park.  Unfortunately, Expedition Everest and Kilimanjaro Safaris were both closed that day so we weren't really left with much to do.  We did have a reservation for the Tusker House, which we were all less than thrilled with, so after dinner we decided to head back to the hotel...it had been a very long day and we knew the rest of the week would be just as long.  

Day #2
Matching shirts day!!  I made all of our matching shirts because I wanted us to be "that family."  :)  We got many compliments on them, although I think most of the compliments were on my shirt because I had the Mickey head with the question mark on my belly. We left our hotel on a bus headed from Magic Kingdom.  We then walked over to the Contemporary Resort to have breakfast at Chef Mickey's and we were not disappointed one bit.  It was one of the best meals we had all week.

Can we just talk about the Breakfast Pizza real quick?  Oh my goodness!?!?!  How good is that stuff?  It's the only thing I ate the entire breakfast and I had to stop myself from eating more.  De-li-cious!

After a fun-filled breakfast with Goofy, Pluto (my favorite!), Mickey, Minnie and Donald, we headed to the Monorail for a little ride.  After a few monorail stops we were back at the Magic Kingdom.  We stayed and played at the Magic Kingdom for a few hours before heading back to the hotel for a nap for the little ones (and pregnant one) and swim for the older ones after a quick bite to eat.

After naps we headed to Epcot because we wanted to check out Illuminations.  What a show!?!?!  It's one of Jersey husband's favorites so it was a must on our list of things to do.  Unfortunately, the only child who saw it was youngest Jersey daughter(2).  The other three (6,4,1) were all sound asleep in their strollers.  Nonetheless, it was a great show and the adults enjoyed it.  Back to the hotel for sleepytime for all!

Seriously, how cute are these 4 in their matching shirts?

Day #3
We boarded a bus headed back to Epcot after breakfast at the hotel.  We weren't in any sort of rush because we didn't have dining reservations till 3 at Akershus in Norway.  We headed straight to Soarin' which only had a 30 min wait.  Myself, Jersey sister and the two younger ones sat this one out.  We did, however, do a Rider Swap so we could ride when the rest of the group came off. After Soarin' we headed over to ride Nemo.  That was all the kids were asking for that day, so how could we say no.  After Nemo, we thought it would be the perfect time to walk through the countries and get the kids to nap in their strollers.  Jersey husband, sister and brother-in-law decided to "drink around the world."  Since I couldn't partake, I thought I would "eat around the world." :)  Falafal anyone?  Not the best thing I have ever eaten, but I tried it and that's a lot for me. 

We finally arrived in Norway for our dining reservation at Akershus. The Jersey daughters were so excited to meet the princesses. 

The meal was really nothing to write home about, don't get me wrong, it was edible, just wasn't the best of the week.  It was all worth it just to see youngest daughter's face when she got to meet Cinderella...

Priceless!

Jersey nephew was not at all thrilled by this meal but I had something special planned for him for the next day.  Gotta make sure everyone was happy.  After lunch/dinner we walked back through the countries again and then headed back to the hotel.  It was another long day for Jersey family and tomorrow was going to be a late one.

Day #4

After breakfast at the hotel, we headed out to Downtown Disney to do a little shopping and just have a relaxing morning.  At night, we were headed to Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party so we didn't want to over do it.  

Oldest Jersey daughter recieved some Disney gift cards for her birthday so she was excited to spend it and that's just what she did.  She bought these cool sunglasses.

We also got to take out picture with Santa, after barely any wait.  Youngest Jersey daughter was not so thrilled...she insisted on keeping her sunglasses on.

She also insisted on having mommy and daddy in the picture.  Small price to pay to get a picture with Santa. Afterwards, we all headed to T-Rex to have lunch.  Jersey nephew LOVED this place.
 

This made up for the whole Princess lunch/dinner the day before. :)  Let me say, this was a fantastic meal!  You got so much food and it was all so yummy.  Definitely worth a visit!  After lunch we headed back to the hotel for some naps and swimming.  

Next, we took the bus to Magic Kingdom for (Mickeys Very Merry Christmas Party) aka MVVCP.  What a wonderful experience.  The adults didn't get to see too much of the parade but the kids did (from atop our shoulders) and that's all that matters.  It wasn't even planned...we just happened upon it.  My favorite part of the whole party was Holiday Wishes!  What a fantastic, out of this world, wonderful, extraordinary (you get the idea) show.  We ended up setting up shop just off of Main Street and it was perfect!  We were in direct viewing of the castle and the "movies" they play on it.  Oldest Jersey daughter still talks about the "movies on the castle."  It was breathtaking!  We also had a 360 degree view of the fireworks.  Best show all week, hands down.

We left right after the show, since 2 of the 4 kids were already asleep.

Day #5

Time to visit Hollywood Studios.  Another of oldest Jersey daughter's favorites from the trip...Tower of Terror.  She would have gone on again and again had we had the time.  We spent the whole day in Hollywood Studios and did everything.  From the American Idol Experience to Disney Junior Live on Stage and everything in between.  Youngest daughter and I even took in Beauty and the Beast Live on stage.  She loved it!  After half a day of going strong we stopped for our dining reservation at Hollywood and Vine.  Another fantastic meal...seriously, we considered going back for dinner, it was THAT good.  The kids loved meeting Oso, Jake, Anne and Handy Manny.  Oldest daughter was dressed as Izzy and she was very happy when Jake pointed to her when someone asked where Izzy was....she still talks about it.

One requirement Jersey mother had for our trip was seeing the Osborne Family Lights.  That's it, that's all she wanted.  Well, she got her wish!  Another great show.  We have never seen SO many lights.  Another plus, all 4 of the kids were awake for it!  :)  We got there just in time for them to flip the switch and it was an experience I will never forget.  Jersey daughters' (and Jersey mother's) eyes lit up with the lights. Pictures cannot express just how beautiful of a site it truly was.

We stared at the lights for a bit and then headed back to the hotel for dinner and a movie for the older kids and bed for the younger kids (and the pregnant chick).  Another fun day for the books!

Day #6 - Last day :(

Sadly, it was our last day.  We decided the only place we would want to spend our last day is Magic Kingdom.  We had another wonderful day playing around in the Magic Kingdom and we stopped for lunch at Tony's Town Square Restaurant...another good choice!  Youngest Jersey daughter started to get crazy at the end of lunch (WAY past nap time so I took her outside for some air and to walk around a little bit.  I saw people starting to get in spot for the parade so I joined them and scored us the best "seats" on Main Street.  What a wonderful way to end our wonderful trip!

We got to say "Goodbye" to Mickey, face to face!  Can't beat that!  We hung around Magic Kingdom till around dinner time and then headed back to the hotel for dinner and bed...we had an early wake-up to head home.  

All in all, I think it's safe to say, I did well. :)  At least, my family thinks so.  Planning a trip for 10 people with 10 different ages, interests, etc. can seem like an impossible task.  It's not!! At least not at Disney World, the happiest place on earth!  We all had a wonderful time and wish we could do it again sooner rather than later.  Maybe once Jersey baby is old enough to appreciate it, we will do it all again...11 of us!

This article was originally posted on the Tips From the Disney Divas and Devos Blog, where Jersey Diva is a contributing writer.