GoofyGal1975.com

In December 2007 we skipped going to Disney and Mickey's Very Mery Christmas Party (MVMCP). January 2008 we made plans for a Disney Trip December 2008!!! We missed going to Disney for the holidays!!! We kept this trip a surprise to our son Brandon until May or June! He was happy to hear that we'd be going to the Party again! We told him we were staying at Pop Century, and he was OK with that. We actually had planned to stay at Animal Kingdom Villas in a studio room!!! We were able to keep this a secret until we were on the bus to the resort!!

****Skip to DAY TWO****

****Skip to Day TWO Part TWO****

****Skip to Day Three****

****Skip to day FOUR****

****See our PHOTO PASS PICTURES****

Cast of Characters; The Goofy Family:

Me, Heather,33 - Disney Fanatic; has over 100 trips to the world!! (Living in FL most of my life helped!!)

DH, Ed, 36 - Disney Lover, has many trips to Disney, loves planning a disney trip as much as I do! (I love that!!)

DS, Brandon, 13 - Disney lover and fanataic!! Has many many trips to Disney under his belt!

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December 4th, 2008 (Thursday)

We had packed almost everything the night before. We woke up at 3:30 am. Well, I woke up that early. Ed got up a little bit later, and Brandon got up at 4am. We had to leave the house at 4:30am!!! I had only slept a couple of hours that night! Brandon fell asleep at 6:30pm and was ready to go at 4am!! We left the house only a few minutes late, but it had started raining so we weren't able to drive as fast as we normally would. We got to the airport, parked, and got in the long line for secruity. After security we had very little time before we were to leave. The place we normally get bagels from was not serving them, so we just headed to the gate. We saw a stand selling bagels so we got them to go. Right after that it was time to board! We JUST made it!!! The flight was fine, a bit bumpy because of the weather. We ate our breakfast on the plane and before we knew it we were landing in Orlando!

This would be our first time using Disney's Magical Express buses and I was a bit nervous about it! We had our luggage with us (carried it on) and went in search of the DME check in center. (One lesson learned...I brought a bigger suitcase with me this time, thinking it was the one I normally carry on....waaaaaay too big!!!) We got turned around a bit but finally found the check in area!! Woo Hoo! I checked us in and then we headed to the red carpet to get in line. We were the only ones in line for the AKV. Now, remember earlier I mentioned that Brandon thought we were staying at Pop Century??? Well, I had to do some fast talking with him!! He heard me say Animal Kingdom Villas, and was confused. So I told him the lady at the desk told me to say that....LOL. He said "Ok". haha. Well, we waited in line about 5 minutes or less and then was aksed again what resort? They guided us to a bus and we were the only ones on it!

Again, we were asked like 2-3 more times what resort...gee....it's not easy to keep a secret around here!!! I started taking a picture of Ed and Brandon and a worker saw me and got on the bus and took our picture together!

After waiting a few minutes, our bus driver went to see if he could get the ok to leave with just us! We decided to go ahead and tell Brandon where we were staying...since the poor kid seemed pretty confused! We got the camera and video camera ready and got in place and then said, "Hey Brandon, do you want to know where we are staying???" He just looked at us. "We are staying at Animal Kingdome Lodge!!!!!" He was stunned into silence!! It took a few seconds for him to comprehend what we said, and he got excited!!! (a little miffed that we had pulled one over on him...heheheh), but he was really happy about it!!!

"What did you just say?????"

Brandon taking in what we just told him:

This smile made it worth staying at AKV!!!!!

A few minutes later our bus driver came to tell us we were special and had our own private bus!!!! The bus ride seemed to go pretty quick, and before we knew it we were pulling up to Animal Kingdom!!!! Woo Hoo!!! We were VERY excited! We got our luggage and headed into the resort. (We rode on Southwest Airlines and they don't have a deal with Disney to take our luggage to the resort for us. It was no big deal for us.)

We got in line to check in around 10am! Most people were checking out at that time. We were told that there were no rooms available in the area that was requested for us. (jmouse, our TA had requested a certain area for us at the resort.) The CM seemed to be nervous, worried that we would make a big deal about this. But we were in good moods and at Disney, so we just smiled and said, "No problem!" Our room was not ready yet, so we checked our luggage in at bell services...another first for us! It really works out great to do this! It was about 10:30am, and we looked around the lobby and then went to sit outside for a bit. We decided to wait and eat lunch at the resort at 11am before heading to a park. It was a bit early for lunch, but we had been up since 3:30am!!

At 11am we went to the Mara and got lunch. Brandon got chicken tenders(what the heck happened to the chicken tenders at Disney????? I'll post more on this later). Ed and I got burgers. After lunch we headed to the buses and went to Hollywood Studios! Our main goal here today would be to ride Toy Story Mania and see the Osborne lights.

We got to HS (Hollywood Studios) and headed straight to try to find Toy Story Mania. I started my Disney Comando walk/run and heard Brandon and Ed talking about me behind me! I didn't care...I wanted to see if there were any fast passes left or not!! NO FAST PASSES left! And it was before noon!!! So we get in the line to wait 50 minutes! We were going to ride this one way or another! It was HOT today and we had jeans on. (it had been in the low 30's when we left that morning). Even in line it was quite hot. We waited and waited and waited! Took a few pictures along the way.

My potato head was pretty cool! And he actually talks to guests waiting in the line in front of him.

Brandon had a thing about not wanting to be in too many pictures this trip! He opted out of a few photo pass pictures. Ed adn I actually made a joke out of it and said MANY times, "Hey Look...Photo Pass!", and Bran would respond with a loud "NO!". WE got a kick out of this!

We rounded the corner and grabbed our 3-D glasses. We walked up the first section of stairs and then a CM walked down and told us they were having Technical Difficulties and that we all needed to exit! OH MY! So we had to finish walking up the rest of the stairs, walk back down the stairs and exit. We did get a fast pass to use before 12/15/08! I was surprised that they shut it down so quickly and didn't just let us wait a bit. Well, needless to say we were a bit dissapointed that our first experience at Disney was a bust! We were worried that it would be closed till the end of the day and we wouldn't have time to get back to ride it.

We sat outside on a bench and tried to regroup. We weren't really upset, just a bit tired at this point. Brandon had kept asking when we could get in the room (even before we left the resort)! So we decided to call and see if the room was ready. Great news...it was a little after 1pm and it was ready!! So we decided to head back and check out the room and rest a bit. We stopped at a cart to get some water along the way. We were trying to figure out if our Key to the world card was activated yet, or if we should just use a credit card. The CM said we could have the two waters for free if we could name our favorite movie and 3 characters from it! We were kind of shocked and took a few seconds to think of anything. I said "The Santa Clause" and named Santa, Bernard and Comet. So we got two free waters!! This was pretty cool!! There was our Disney Magic!

We got on the bus and headed back to Animal Kingdom Lodge. We found our room and headed to the balcony to check out the animals! Brandon thought it was great to see some animals out there.

Here are some pictures from around the room:

Some pictures of the animals the greated us when we checked in:

I took a nap for about an hour while Ed and Brandon watched TV and the animals. We left the resort and headed back to Hollywood studios. First order of business again was to head towards Toy Story Mania! Comando style walk again! We see that it is open so we get in line for the fast passes. We were told that the wait for FP line was about 30 minutes, and stand-by line was 130 minutes!!! We made it through the line, grabbed our glasses and actually got on the ride this time!! Brandon wanted to ride with Ed, so I rode alone. This ride was AWESOME!! Even though I rode it by myself I was laughing and yelling out loud at the 3-d effects. I wish we could have rode this again on our trip! It is a new favorite for the Goofy Family!!!

It was time for dinner now, so we went in search of food. We went to the ABC commissionary where we have ate before...and the menu looked disgusting to us! Ugh! Ed reminded me about Pizza Planet so we went in search of that. After getting mixed up a bit, we finally found it. We each got a pizza and went out side to eat. It was cooling off then and we could hear the music from the Osborne lights! It was perfect! We noticed the time and realized we'd missed our chance to see Fantasimic! Oh well...we really didn't want to stress about anything on this trip...so we just kept saying "Oh well!" and went along our way.

After dinner, we found our way to the Osborne lights. We entered kind of in the middle of it, and the light & music show was just ending. It started "snowing" and we just walked around and took some pictures. We sang along with the songs and had a great time. The light and music show started again, and I took video of it. We continued to walk along and take pictures. We saw the light and music show one last time and recorded it again. I have to say it was great! This is the first year we've seen the lights move along with the music! What a great addition!!

Here are some pictures we took:

The park would be closing soon, so we headed out to the buses. We didn't have too long of a wait and we were back at Animal Kingdom. We stopped in at the gift shop and bought some water and snacks for our room, and thend headed upstairs. (we were in 5429). The Polar Express was on TV so we popped some popcorn and watched that movie. We set our alarm for an early wake up call and went to sleep!

It was a VERY long day...but it was great!!!

Coming up next...Animal Kingdom and Mickey's Very Mery Christmas Party!

We woke up around 7:30 am and got ready for our day at Animal Kingdom. Since we are staying at AKV, we HAD to spend some time at AK! Brandon watched animals from the balcony as we got ready. We got bagels at the Mara and then headed to the buses. We got to Animal Kingdom a little after 9am. This park is always a mess to get into!! Brandon decided he needed a hat since it was so sunny out, so we went into a shop before we even went through the ticket gates.

He found a visor that looked good on him, and we headed out of the store. We saw a Photo Pass person, "Oh, Photo Pass" and had our picture taken in front of the Christmas tree and the AK sign! Then it was finally time to acutally go IN the park! ha! Bran wanted to wanted to be the leader with the map today, so we followed him.

PHOTO PASS time!!! We got a great family shot on the bridge with Mount Everest in the back ground. (will post once I figure out our photo pass cd)

Hey, PHOTO PASS! Lilo and Stitch were out and Ed and I got our pictures taken with them!! (Brandon declined...but did take our pictures...once I figure out the photo pass pictures I'll add them!)

 We went to get fast passes for the Kilimanjaro Safari ride first. We then walked and took pictures on the Pangani Forrest Exploration Trail. We saw a hippo, gorillas and birds! While Ed was taking a picture of me and Brandon, there was a group of people getting ready to walk by. One lady put her two fingers behind Ed's head, and that made Brandon and I laugh! She said, "Hey, I made him smile!" Hahaha..(made me think of Jackie!) We got a kick out of it.

A gorrilla along the trail:

We still had a few minutes until our FP time, so we looked around in a shop. Now it was time for our two week safari ride! It was great!! Because it was morning and a bit cool, we saw lots of animals moving around!! We had a great time on the ride!

White Rhino:

Lion:

After the ride, we decided it was time for lunch. (Well, Brandon decided it was lunch time). We went in search for food. I know there was a place that DH and I ate at last time we were there, but I couldn't seem to find it. Turns out it was the Tusker House...but now this is a ADR bufett??? Since when??? We were told to go ahead and give our names for seating, that we didn't need an ADR today. But once we were told it was $20.00 per person, we got out of line! I'm not paying $60.00 for lunch!!! I'm dissapointed that we didn't get to have the great sandwich that we had before! So we decide to go off to DinoLand USA in search of food.

Hey, look...PHOTO PASS! We got in line for Pooh, Eeyore and Tigger!!! Brandon would NOT get in the picture! So he took pictures. On of the CM told him to come over to get a better view for the pic...and then somehow we talked him into getting in the picture for both Eeyore and Tigger!

 Now...off for some food!!

 We eat at  Restaurantosaurus. This is when we realize that Disney has done it again! UGH! What is going on with NO CHICKEN FINGERS?? just Chicken bites? They don't taste the same, and they didn't even have honey mustard sauce! The chicken fingers are a must for us at Disney. What a dissapointment.

PHOTO PASS TIME!! (Oh boy!) We saw Goofy and Pluto and we headed that way. They went in for a quick break and then only pluto came out! We were a bit sad to miss Goofy, but I had a pin that had jingle bells on it and Pluto had jingle bells...so we compared them! LOL I don't think Brandon got in this picture either! I had forgot to bring any paper with me on this trip, and needed something to write down my notes for the trip report. I found a great Tink Journal at the shop in DinoLand and bought it and some water.

It was now time to get in line for NEMO! We had not seen this yet and wanted to make sure we did on this trip. There were about 10 people in line ahead of us. We got in line, Ed called his mom to get an update on his grandparents (his grandpa is in the hospital) and to talk to her about meeting us tomorrow at the resort. Before you know it they let us walk towards the doors. We stood there for about 10 minutes or so. Then they let us in to be seated! There was two ladies and on man ahead of us...they went down to one set of seats, and I started to go into another a few rows up. Before I know it...one of those ladies is lunging at me and TRYING TO JUMP OVER THE BENCH SEAT TO GET IN THE ROW I WAS GOING IN! What?! Are you serious...we were the first 10 people in there and she's freaking out to get the seats i was almost about to sit down it??? She yelled....I"M SITTING THERE! I was like, OK SURE! I told her, kind of loudly, "Hey, I was actually sitting down, but if it means that much to you, by all means, take the darn seats!!!" My moto this trip, don't let anything stress me out...so I just let it go!

We had fun people watching while waiting for the show. Brandon had decided he wanted to record the show, so I gave him the video camera. I have to say I really enjoyed this show!! It was great! I'm gald we made sure to see it!! We were sitting in front, (not the very front), but the first section and we had the actors run right next to us.

After the show, we headed back to the resort. We wanted to have an hour or so to rest before heading to MVMCP tonight!!I wrote in my journal about our day at AK and rested my feet for a bit!

After resting for about an hour, we headed down to the buses around 4:30pm and waited about 25-30 minutes for a bus to the Magic Kingdom. This would be our longest wait for a bus all trip. They already had one area set up for MVMCP enterance. We used our MVMCP tickets and got our wrist bands! We noticed that the "hub" in front of the train station, where the Christmas Tree normally is, was all blocked off. Must have been for the Disney Parade taping that weekend.

We went into one of the shops to look at Passholder pins and MVMCP pins. The lady in front of was able to buy a MVMCP pin, but we in turn were told we had to wait for the party to actually start. OK.

We took a couple of pictures outside in an area we did back in 2005!

Me and Bran in 2005:

Me and Bran 2008:

Ed and Bran 2005 (look how short Bran looks!):

Heather & Ed 2005:

We went off to Liberty Tree Tavern for our dinner! I couldn't believe it, but the line to check in was out the door and around the corner! We checked in at 5:35pm for our 6pm dinner. We were called at 5:55pm. They usually call your family name " The Goofy Family, party of 3, your table is ready". But not this time. They did for a few people who didn't have pagers, but if you had a pager your name didn't get called like before.

Our server was Mark, and he was actually heading out on the 7 day Disney Cruise the next day! He was excited about it. He's been on 3 & 4 days, but never a 7 day! I bet he was happy to escape the craziness of the parks during the holidays!! This was Ed's first time eating here, mine and Brandon's 3rd time. This would be Brandon's first time actually eating the food they served! (he got chicken tenders and fries last time...not on the menu). We all LOVED this meal! I usually only ate the turkey before, boy was I missing some good meat! We had ham, turkey and beef strips. Stuffing, mac and cheese (yummy!!!) greenbeans and carrots, mashed potatoes and gravy. ALL of it was wonderfull!!! Apple cobbler and ice cream for dessert was yummy!  They even brought ds Ice cream on a different plate since he doesnt' like Apple Cobbler!

 Most of the characters came around before or food! It was great to get all the pictures out of the way before our main course was served!!! We saw Pluto, Chip and Dale, Goofy and Minnie Mouse! I had on a Minnie shirt, Minnie Christmas Pin, and Minnie Mouse Santa Hat. She thought that was great!! We actually had 2 visits with all the Characters!

Here are some Character shots we got:

this is a favorite of mine

This was a great meal for us! I was happy to see Brandon eating more choices finally, and to see Ed enjoy this meal for the first time! It was one of those great Goofy Family moments! We did decide, though, that if we do a sit down meal again before MVMCP, we would only do so if we could get a dinner no latter than 5pm!

We were done with dinner a little after 7pm, and this was the official begining of MVMCP! There were THOUSANDS of people leaving the park still, and it was quite a mess! We were heading towards Tomorrow Land, which is the only thing open at this point while they are trying to close the park. We wanted to go back to the store to get the pins we were looking at...but the crowds were crazy and we just decided to shop in another store.

Because we wanted to make sure we got MVMCP merchandise, we headed to Mikey's Star Traders first. There were no t-shirts left, but we had decided to get sweat shirts anyways. We grabbed 3 sweatshirts quickly, a lighted necklace for me, and went to the counter to get MVMCP Pins for each of us! Let me just say we were happy to be done with that and get out of the store! (oh, we also bought a MVMCP frame that was already on clearance? it matched our sweatshirts).

We made our way to view the 8pm showing of "'Twas the Night Before Christmas", our favorite show of the paty! I didn't take any pictures this time, just enjoyed the show!

Here is a pic from 2005:

Again, I had another moment of thinking how lucky we were to be here and how happy I was with our little "Goofy Family"! Brandon and I used to come to see this show when it was just the two of us, and now I have my husband and Bran has a father with him while enjoying this great event!! I really took in these moments on this trip!

After the show we noticed Buzz had a short wait, so we got in line. It stated a 20 minute wait, but it was less than 5 minutes!! Ed and Brandon rode together...they have fun riding and competing!! We got off and Brandon wanted to ride it again, so we got back in line and basically just walked right on...NO wait! Next was our favorite...the TTA! You can have the "Mountains", I'll take the TTA anytime! haha

Now, I wanted to get some Christmas pictures with the characters tonight! As you can tell, ds was NOT into the pictures so much this year. So, since he wanted to ride the Speedway Cars, I like any good mom would do, promised him he could ride it AFTER we got some character pictures!!! :-) We tried to get some pictures with Tinkerbell...but the line was long and the fireworks would be starting soon. Off to Mickey's house. The line was long but is WAS going to get at least one picture!!! I made friends with a little girl (who I met when leaving tinkerbells line) and they were right in front of us at Mickey's. We talked about Mickey and Minnie and other things! Too cute! Finally it was our turn and we got our picture with Mickey. It wasn't as great as I wanted, but at least we got it!

As we were leaving, the fireworks started. You really couldn't see too much because of all the trees, so we decided to let Brandon ride the cars. Ed headed off to get us some cookies and hot cocoa and I took some pictures and video of Brandon.

Once Brandon got off, he wanted to ride again. Since the line was really short, and he normally doesn't get a chance to drive the cars, we let him! He really enjoyed himself and that was the point of the trip!

We headed off to get more cookies and hot cocoa, since Brandon didn't get any the first time. We decided to walk over to Frontier Land and try to find a spot to view the 10:30 pm parade. My feet were killing me and I just wanted to sit! I spotted one corner of a bench up some stairs and I claimed it as my seat!! Brandon and Ed stood for a bit, and then sat on the stairs while we waited. It was already 10:15pm so we didn't have long to wait.

As the parade started, I looked around and can you believe it???? I saw Bulls Eye, Woody's Horse from Toy Story 2, standing right next to me watching the parade!!! WOW! I have to say, with my feet hurting, and things not going the way I wanted for tonight I was just a bit down in the dumps. Nothing serious, and I didn't let on...but just a bit out of sorts. Well, my spirits picked up when I realized we were watching the Christmas Parade with a Character!!!

Bulls Eye was in character the whole time! His CM told us that he had lots of friends in the parade he wanted to see tonight. Alot of the dancers and characters all looked very exited to see him standing there and either called out his name and waved or pointed and waved to him! Since he was sanding right next to me...it felt like the characters in the parade were waving at us too!

It was too funny...Goofy did a double take when he saw Bulls Eye!

Woody was very excited to see his horse! He waved and Bulls Eye started jumping up and down and clapping like crazy!!

When ever Bulls Eye saw horses and the reindeer, he would start jumping and clapping and waving and pointing to them! Too Cute!

Santa was happy to see him as well!

After the parade, I bought my Christmas Shuffle buddy's ornament!! We decided to leave now. We'd miss the show at the MK, but that was OK. Hey....what is that??? PHOTO PASS?? We had our pictures taken in front of the castle!!

I'll put in the photo pass pic of us once I figure it all out! We headed to the buses and had quite a bit of a wait. But there were only a few people in line ahead of us so at least we would be able to sit! Again, I was having issues with my feet! They were so swollen and hurting really bad. When we got back to the resort, ds fell asleep, I put my feet up and dh rubbed them a bit. He took his shower while I wrote in my journal. We fell alseep soon after that! What a busy day!!!

Up next, a visit from Ed's family, bagels, and DTD! Oh yeah, and Le Cellier too!!!

Today was going to be a slow day for us. Not really much park time. We wanted to make sure to visit with Ed's parents during the trip, and made the time today. We woke up at 8:15am. took our showers and Ed went to get coffee and ice. We got ready for the day and waited, and waited and waited for Ed's parents. We had told them a later time to get to the resort since we had been up late the night before. They finally made it to the room around 10:15am. They brought with them some yummy Dunkin donuts and bagels!! The bagels are our favorites, and we don't have any DD here in AL!!

We ate breakfast and he parents looked outside at some animals.

Ed and his Mom:

We watched our video of the Osborne lights and Nemo so his parents could see it. Brandon was very happy with his recording of Nemo! His parents went downstairs to smoke, and then we all headed to the bus for Downtown Disney. First we stopped to take some pictures in front of  AKL tree!

Bran, Gary, Donna and Ed:

Ed's mom uses a wheelchair, so we got on the bus first.

We looked through some stores and headed to World of Disney. OMG! What a complete mess! Thousands of people must have been in there. We kept loosing Ed's parents, and they don't own a cell phone. (Remember my moto this trip....not to stress....well....) We picked out a couple of things, and I just couldn't take it anymore.I knew I was heading for a anxiety attack so I gave the stuff to Ed and told him I'd be outside. Brandon came with me. There was some Irish dancers outside so it was crowded out there are well. I got a smoothie and Bran and I shared it. We found a space on a brick planter area and rested for a bit. Brandon watched some of the dancing. I called mom to remind her to check us in for our flight tomorrow.

I finally found DH, and then found his parents. We headed to Earl of Sandwich to get lunch. As usual the line was VERY long....but as we all know...those lines move really fast!! Brandon found seats for us and we ordered our lunch. We all enjoyed our lunch, including Brandon! (last time he didnt' like his!) After lunch we looked around a few more stores, including the Christmas store. We found some Mickey Head lighted "candy cane" type things. They were too big to bring on the plane, so we had it shipped home to us! (We just got them a couple days ago!)

We took the bus back to the resort quite a bit later than we had planned. I knew this would happen and just didn't stress over it. It meant that we really wouldn't be able to explore Epcot this trip but Ed was able to spend time with his family, and that is what really matters especially during the holidays, right? We all enjoyed our visit with his familiy.

After the in-laws left, we rested about 15-20 minutes. We took the bus to Epcot and what do we see??? PHOTO PASS!! Brandon was just thrilled with this find! After our photos we got in line for Spaceship Earth. We have always enjoyed this ride, nice and relaxing before walking all over the park. We really like the new ending with the questions and animation.

It started to rain as we made our way to the World Showcase, so I put on my hat and jacket. Ed and Bran declined to do so. (yet somehow I am the only one who came home really sick! Over a week later and I'm still sick!) We walked to Canada to try to check in at Le Cellier. We were about 50 minutes early and told it was too early to check in. It was still raining and there was no where to wait. We walked into a few stores in search of candy that DH loves! It's made in Canada and he hasn't found it anywhere else but Disney. To our dissapointment, they didn't have any. We did find one type in the Canada store so he bought a few!

We went back to Le Cellier and checked in about 20 minutes early. We were seated in 10 minutes. Emily was our server and she was great. She really loves her job, and after her college session she really wants to work higher up at Disney! She has her goals set! This was Brandon's first time here, and since he discovered that steak really was good last year, he was excited to eat some steak!! (we don't eat it very often!!)We all ordered NY Strip Steaks, Bran got mac and cheese and Ed and I got cream cheese mashed potatoes! Besides the mac & cheese ,which was horrible, everything else was DELICIOUS!!! We stuffed ourselves silly! The bread sticks were great, Brandon loved the pretzel bread! Ed & I shared an order of cheese soup to dip the bread in.

Here is Brandon jumping right into dinner:

After we rolled ourselves out of Le Cellier, we tried to decide what to do. My feet were still really bad, and the park would be closing very soon. We decided to head back to the resort. What is that up ahead??? Photo Pass??? GREAT! haha We had not only ONE but TWO different chances with the Photo Pass CM's! LOL

Our bus was there when we got there. The bus waited there a few minutes and we were able to see alot of the fireworks from Illuminations! While we were riding on the bus, we saw the rest of the fireworks! It was pretty cool to see it that way!

Back at the resort we stopped by the store to get water, nail clippers and popcorn. On the elevator I saw a women holding a dessert and I asked her if that was a zebra dome. She and another lady said that it was and it was SOOO good! So we dropped Bran and our purchases off in the room and headed down to the Mara to get these much raved about Zebra Domes. I also got ds his Mickey Bar that we never had a chance to get in the parks. Brandon didnd't like the Domes, Ed really liked them. To me, they were just ok. Nothing special. I don't know what I was thinking they would be like, but it didn't live up to the hype for me.

Earlier, when Ed had walked his parents out of the resort, I had started packing up DS and my stuff. Now I finished packing most everything, and Ed started that way we wouldn't have to do it tomorrow morning. We just relaxed the rest of the evening.

Note: we never did recieve our Magical Express paperwork in the room like they told us we would. Ed called down to the front desk and was transferred to DME to confirm our pick up time for tomorrow. We would be picked up at 2:05pm. We were told to go to valet parking the next day after check out to get a voucher for the bus.

Up Next: Check out day, Breakfast at Boma, Lost hat

I don't have any notes from today, but there wasn't much to make note of! It was a sad day for us, a day to check out and get back to reality.

Today we had an 8:30am ADR for Boma's for breakfast. Ed and I had breakfast here one time and really enjoyed it. Ed's parents were joining us, and he told them to be at our room by 7:30am (since they were kinda late the day before). Well, they showed up bright and early at 7:30 and we were not ready yet. We left our room around 8:15 and only had a few mintues to wait before we were called. This was the first sit down meal at Disney for Ed's parents. I think they really enjoyed it!

The breakfast did not dissapoint. I found scones similar to those at the GF Tea Room...and I was hooked! Yum!

Brandon has decided to try something new again! Over the past year he has FINALLY tried new things to eat! Seriously....he just now tried waffels and pancakes! (he used to eat waffels when he was a toddler but he doesn't remember it!) Anyways...here he is...I just had to take a picture!

After breakfast we went to the AKL shop and did some last minute shopping. I gave my stuff to Ed and went to check on Bran and finish packing. We had decided to check our luggage this time, since my bag was way to big! So with all our purchases, we went ahead and got a tote bag for $10.00 as a promotion at the shop. We used this as a carry on and it worked out great. (Good idea My Love!!) Ed's mom bought us each pins and gave them to us before we left.

At 10:59:59 am we checked out of our room! We went to the lobby to wait until our 2pm bus pick up time. We did check our two suitcases with Bell Services so we didn't have to worry about them. We just relaxed and talked with the in-laws.

At one point Ed took Bran to the arcade to get him a card to waste some time. That made Bran's day! Oh, we also bought our Photo Pass CD right at the resort! I think this is GREAT! No waiting in huge lines at the parks. (I know you can preorder them, but we didn't want to do that this time). Thre free 5 x 7 pictures come with the CD, and we decided to buy an extra one for Ed's parents. Our cm gave us that 4th picture for free!!! Some Disney Magic on our last day!!

We took a few pictures for random families who were trying to get their pictures in front of the tree. I took a little nap, I was tired! Finally it was time to get our luggage and wait for the bus. We got loaded onto the bus and went to Pop to pick up a TON of people!! We were on the first drop off, and our luggage was right out front. We got in line to check our luggage and print out our boarding passes. It was a long line but it moved pretty fast.

We got a quick lunch at McDonalds (only good thing open) and headed for security. Once we got done with security we got on the tram and Brandon asks, "Mom, where is my hat???" Um...I have NO idea! He was SO upset that he lost his hat! We're not really sure where he lost it. We know he had it on for the bus ride. He may have taken it off to see the DME video better. Or he may have left it at security. I felt so bad for him because he actually spend his own money on this and he really liked this hat. If I wasn't so sick the past 2 weeks, I would have called DME and the airport, or at least called and ordered him a new one! I wish I knew someone who was going to Disney soon so they could pick one of for me to give him!

We had the smoothest flight home! Everyone was commenting on it as we were getting off. We had a bit of a wait for our luggage, and then we were on our way back home in the COLD!!

We stopped by KFC to get dinner, and mom cooked some sides for us.

We have to say thanks to my mom who gave us each $100.00 as an early Christmas present so we could have fun at Disney! Brandon got plenty of pins! I think he actually went over his amount...but that was OK. Also, Ed's mom paid for our DD Bagels, our Lunch at Earls, and our Breakfast at Boma's! She also gave us some money that covered our dinner at Le Cellier! Thanks so much!!!

This trip was really needed for us! We just needed that escape from the real world that happens every time you step foot on Disney Property! We were thisclose to canceling this trip at one point and I'm so glad we didn't! I was so happy to see Brandon smiling and happy and enjoying himself!

CLICK HERE TO SEE OUR PHOTO PASS PICTURES!!!

I'll also post a link to the pictures we took soon!

THANKS FOR READING OUR TRIP REPORT!!