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Post by Brian5581 on Dec 21, 2023 15:41:36 GMT -5
Thanks for the summary! Looking forward to the pictures.
I'm a fan of Winter Garden. Where did you dine?
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Post by MinnieMom on Dec 27, 2023 16:25:23 GMT -5
Hey Brian! You might enjoy Keke's Breakfast Cafe. 6526 Old Brick Road #130, Windermere - - no theming or anything, but lots of good food, great service and good pricing.
So, how did I do with the cost challenge? I went back to look at all my transactions. Here's the total of what I spent for the week, only excluding some Christmas gift shopping during the trip and the two charges covered 100% by credit card points (VRBO condo rental & Discovery Cove day ticket).
Dec 18 Dining Offsite Keke's Café Keke's $20.22
Dec 18 Dining Offsite Chick Fil A Chick $10.26
Dec 18 Cabana Disney Discovery Cove $71.51
Dec 16 Dining Disney Grand Floridan $19.26
Dec 15 Dining Disney AKL $25.11
Dec 12 Dining Universal Three Broomsticks UO $13.41
Dec 11 Dining Universal Leaky Cauldren UO $19.63
Dec 11 Good Offsite Aldi (Groceries) $76.55
Dec 11 Dining Disney Cap Cooks WDW $13.09
Dec 11 Dining Offsite Papa Johns $9.63
Dec 11 Hotel Hotel Extended Stay $87.06
Dec 11 Gas Gas Buc-ee's Buc-ee's $40.51
Dec 9 Dining Disney Poly Kona $8.27
Total: $414.51
Friend's Contribution: ($200)
Total Cash Cost: $214.51
Wow - even the little indulgences along the way didn't hurt the budget! Yes, I did a full week in Orlando visiting five different theme parks for less than $215 total cash cost for the week!
Could I repeat this? Well, yes. But only by using existing APs and grabbing some great deals on accommodations! I'm toying with another of these inexpensive trips. I could use the last of my Hilton points to do a solo trip of 4-5 nights sometime early in 2024, adding one more UP trip on this AP before it expires in April. Mostly I'm waiting to see if one of my waitlists for DCC come through for one of the other park party nights, as I'd prefer to include some WDW time in a trip.
Okay, photo time!
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Post by MinnieMom on Dec 27, 2023 17:05:42 GMT -5
Let's skip the first day at UO, because I didn't take any holiday photos there that day. Instead, let's start the photo trip with walking up to Poly for lunch and the first monorail holiday tour of the trip.  Hello Poly Christmas tree! You are small (relatively) but lovely. And, because it's Poly lobby, this tree smells great!  And the mid afternoon ressie that turned into desert - gotta love Kona cafe!  And then over to GF, to enjoy the holiday lobby there.  That's a seriously big tree.  |
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Post by MinnieMom on Dec 27, 2023 17:12:01 GMT -5
Even that multi-story tree sometimes seems to be more of a supporting playing in the GF holiday lobby - the real star is the gingerbread house.  So I tried posing with the star.  The birdcages always crack me up.  And another just because with the big tree, as the bridal party that was doing pics there when I first walked up had finished.  I skipped CR on this loop, heading back to Poly as it was a little past time to go check into the condo. So I stopped to check out this smaller Christmas tree on the second floor. So jolly!  The rest of that evening was a grocery run and settling in for the week. |
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Post by MinnieMom on Dec 27, 2023 17:16:27 GMT -5
Sunday was another UO day.  The store windows caught my eye on the walk in to the park.  The goal this visit was the Macy's Christmas Parade. I'd never seen it and really wanted to enjoy a Christmas Parade this holiday trip.  Entry excitment!   Then off to find a good spot by the tree to watch the festivities!  After getting the news the parade was cancelled for rain, I spent some time checking out the holiday displays in stores.   (with a random UP team member)   |
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Post by MinnieMom on Dec 27, 2023 17:20:04 GMT -5
I asked and found out that the Hogwarts show would go on rain or shine. So I made my way back over to IOA.  "You're a Mean One" - - DH loves this show!  Hello castle show! At least, side view from covered patio castle show. Well worth it for that night to avoid some of the rain.  And one more for good measure:  Dinner that night at Three Broomsticks. Looks better than it tasted.  But the frozen butterbeer was totally worth it!  As was the theming.  And that was it for that night. |
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Post by MinnieMom on Dec 27, 2023 17:25:08 GMT -5
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Post by MinnieMom on Dec 27, 2023 17:31:30 GMT -5
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Post by MinnieMom on Dec 27, 2023 17:40:15 GMT -5
My friend M was much later than planned. She arrived after midnight. So we both did our best to sleep in on Tuesday, an effort made difficult by the smoke alarm chirping with increasing volume around 2am. I reset it and crossed my fingers that fixed it. Eventually, we made our way over to SeaWorld for a couple hours that afternoon. The main SeaWorld tree is pretty. It is not as impressing as the big resort lobby trees at AK, GF or WL.  While M went off to ride Manta, I went to check out the aquarium.  This looked cooler in person. The photo is a bit lame.  Hello Ray!  Now I have waterfall envy. I totally want to figure out how to do a waterfall into the pond for Standing Pines. Maybe not phase 1 for budget reasons, but someday we will have a waterfall on property.  Anyone missing Splash Mountain during the redo might enjoy visiting Atlantis.  The trackless dark ride with the penguins is gone. This is very sad. That was my favorite ride in the park. Evidently, it's been gone for about 5 years. Wow, it's been a minute since I visited SeaWorld. A nice team member told me that the dark ride would be replaced by a family friendly coaster. He was excited that the baby penguin from the dark ride would be included in the new coater and mentioned they were shooting some promotional scenes for that new ride that day. Okay, I guess. RANT: What the what??? NO!!! SeaWorld does not need another coaster. It is full of coaster. It needs family friendly dark rides to be a full theme park. This is a dumb decision I think they will regret.  At least the critters are still a trip.  Another tour through stores checking out how to set up retail for holiday cheer.  This tree was generic. Very generic.  |
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Post by MinnieMom on Dec 27, 2023 17:47:45 GMT -5
After SeaWorld, we stopped by Cheesecake Factory to pick up desert.  We considered dinner, but there was so much food waiting in the condo we opted just to take a couple of cheesecake slices to go.  Another night of smoke alarms led me to ask for maintenance help. They showed up as we left to go check into AKL for the night. I'd have to check, but I thought I booked a standard view room. There were plenty of animals to enjoy from the balcony though!  I could not get the Alexa device to work. Ah well.  Staying AKL is always nice!  I could not decide on tasty or healthy for lunch. So I got both, then took left overs back to the room. That worked out, as we wound up snacking on those leftovers later that afternoon before the party.  Enjoying the lobby!  I enjoyed flipping through this book in the room. Then I thought about germs and had to go scrub my hands. The pandemic impacted us all in weird ways I guess.  The fun fake trees in AK and AKL crack me up every time!!  More critters!  And this may be my favorite Christmas Tree ever. It so giant and so gorgeous!  |
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Post by MinnieMom on Dec 27, 2023 17:51:01 GMT -5
Then we grabbed a bus over to HS to take the gondola over to Boardwalk resorts, with a stop at Riva for my first visit to that resort.  Riva's tree is underwhelming.  But surprise character encounters are fun!  Bar Riva. Yes! I'll go back here to order pizza from cafe next door. The cocktail was "mh" at best. Or maybe I just was not in a mood to drink. That's very possible as well.  Here's a fun yard game we could incorporate into Standing Pines!!  Pretty.  Hello Tink! Photo for mom-in-law, who loves the fairy.  |
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Post by MinnieMom on Dec 27, 2023 17:55:40 GMT -5
Check out these simple lamppost decoration. I like! Yep, thinking we will do something similar for Standing Pines.  And this is exactly what I've been thinking for our volleyball court. Including the oak, but that will take us some time to grow!  Hello my friend! It's good to see the carousel again!  Beach Club has a simple tree, but it fits the theme of the resort.  |
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Post by MinnieMom on Dec 27, 2023 19:14:48 GMT -5
Yacht Club was a new resort to visit for holiday lobby decorations. We almost skipped it, just because I didn't have any memories associated with the resort. I'm so glad we walked that little extra. I love Christmas villages and trains. Yes, I've stopped for long periods of time to watch the mini trains near the Germany pavilion in Epcot. Yes, our annual Christmas village display takes up more floor space at home than the Christmas tree. So perhaps it is not a surprise that I have a new favorite holiday lobby with Yacht Club!  Not only is the display awesome in total, these little vignettes that tell their own stories are impressive. I love that Frozen rated a spot in this display!  In fact, I enjoyed this lobby so much I did multiple videos of the display. If I do the trip video, those will feature. Let's leave some space here to come back and add video of the train and village display, just in case. The Christmas tree was nice. The sailboats were on the nose perfect for the lobby theme.  But the entire view of the Christmas village, with the lighthouse now in the background for a more reasonable forced perspective size, kept drawing me back. This is a fantastic display.  DD and I pulled out about half of our family Christmas village before I left for this week in FL. While I was away, DD arranged all the little houses and trees and people. She did such a great job! In fact, I used our village as the family Christmas image this year. I cannot be counted on for Christmas cards, but do try to get out a little Christmas image every year via text. Next year, I think we will pull out the entire village. While some of the favorite pieces will stay with us, we could use many of the pieces as the focal point of the clubhouse holiday decorations for Standing Pines. Watching others enjoy our family tradition could be a blast! |
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Post by MinnieMom on Dec 27, 2023 19:22:42 GMT -5
After Yacht club, we booked it back to AKL to chill and charge phones before the party. We checked in around sunset. The best visual in AK for the party was the Tree of Life with the lights. Simply lovely. And also this may be the largest Christmas tree in existence for those few moments it is lit up as a giant tree.  And here's my favorite ride of the night - the complementary scooter.  And the obligatory party snack/game coupons:  Which we exchanged over the night for pretzels and popcorn and more popcorn.  I seem to remember doing one of the first AK parties for DVC a few years back. I thought they served hot dogs out of Pizzafari then. Does anyone else remember that or did I make it up? Because we were doing just about everything that was open for the night, we sat through It's A Bug's Life. I hope this theater does transition to a Zootopia show. That could be a really fun change!  Hello Buddy! Seen Olaf running around anywhere this season?  All too soon, the party ended. It was time to farewell Animal Kingdom for now.  Or maybe not - - I spent the last 30-45 minutes of the party watching the Tree of Life. Here's a bonus photo from that solo viewing time while my friend went back for her second Flight of Passage!  |
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Post by MinnieMom on Dec 27, 2023 19:25:09 GMT -5
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