"You Can't Outrun Me, Bacon!"-A Universal/Disney Holiday TR-Completed 1/23

[Raeven]

My name is Raeven!




I'm a Slytherin, love Guardians of the Galaxy (the title of this TR is one of my favorite lines in the new holiday special ), and it's been a long time since I've been to the parks around the holidays so I was really excited for this trip.

Another reason I was really excited for this trip is it was the first trip I took with my friend Kayleigh!



Kayleigh and I met when we both used to do Youtube videos a few years ago. Even though we both stopped making videos, we kept in contact. This summer we were discussing taking a trip so we could meet up, and decided to visit the parks during the holidays. This was a short trip so we only had a few days to work with, but I think we packed a lot into our days while still leaving a little down time so we could hang out. Kayleigh had only been to Disney once as a child, and had never been to Universal so this was basically her first trip, and I wanted to make sure she saw all the holiday offerings. As you can see she's a Slytherin too!



A little background: I've been taking trips to Disney and Universal since 2015 usually with my boyfriend Josh, but I haven't been around the holidays since 2018. So when Kayleigh and I started discussing taking a trip in December we decided it would be fun to go to the parks. Our trip was from Dec 1st-5th.



We wanted to enjoy the holiday offerings, but hopefully miss out on the larger crowds that arrive later in December. We divided the trip in half and stayed two nights at Universal, and two at Disney. We stayed at Aventura and Port Orleans Riverside.



We also attended our first Orlando Informer Event at Universal!



If you want to look back on the planning for this trip my PTR is here:
A Quick Christmas Trip!

And here's my DTR link:
"I Deserve Charcuterie!'-A Disney/Universal Holiday DTR

​

Stay tuned if you want to hear about:
-How our first Orlando Informer Event went/what we ate and did there
-Our bad luck with transportation
-What ride I will never ride again
-Reviews for the two hotels we stayed at
-How I like Cosmic Rewind after my second ride
-All the holiday experiences at Disney and Universal
-What our daily matching outfits looked like
-All the holiday treats we tried
-Our opinions on our MVMCP experience
-Delightful & odd Photopass pictures
-Our Genie+ experience with Epcot & Hollywood Studios on the same day
-All the decor we saw at the different resorts at Disney and Universal
-Our experience at the Green & Red Coconut Club

​

 

[Raeven]

Table of Contents
Travel Day
Thanos, the Jolly Snowman
Orlando Informer Event
A Cosmic Christmastime
The Night of Strange Photopass Pictures
Resort Hoppin' & Shoppin'
Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party
Last Day & Wrap Up Post​

 

[Raeven]

Travel Day

The day of the trip had finally arrived!



Our flights were later in the day but we had managed to get flights that arrived within 15 minutes of each other's. (Although mine boarded first because hers was shorter).

At the airport there was a pretty good size line for security (for the small airport I use at least). But I still had about an hour before boarding so I Facetimed Kayleigh while she was looking for her gate.



This is a horrible Facetime screenshot, but we discovered you could put these stickers on while you were chatting and we found it hilarious. I was talking to her with earphones in, but the guy closest to me definitely was looking at me like I was a weirdo for laughing at my phone.





Once she got to her gate it was about time for me to board. My flight was full, but luckily my seat partners weren't terrible. (Well the guy in the window seat kept making us get up so he could use the bathroom and then going last time! each time, but the girl in the middle just did homework and napped).


My only complaint about the flight was the take off was really rough, like it felt like we were being shot out of a cannon, and I've never felt that on a flight before. Maybe there was some bad weather on the way up, but the landing was more than a little bumpy too.

Once I got there, I waited between the terminals for Kayleigh. I was glad that space was there because she'd never been to the Orlando airport and I didn't want her to have to navigate too far since we were in different terminals.

Once we met up it was easy to navigate out since we didn't check any bags and we just had to call a Lyft. We made good time for our dinner reservation and were soon checking into the hotel.

I had booked another deluxe room at Aventura after our stay there last time. This one was on a slightly lower floor, and had a different view but looked mostly the same as the one Josh and I stayed in, in September.

Some pictures of the room:




And the view:







I preferred the view in our last room, but this was still cool; and I love the amount of light in these rooms. Our TV seemed even more centered towards the middle of nowhere (like in between both beds but still couldn't be seen from Kayleigh's bed), and we had a hard time with the wifi (as usual), and the TV (which was a new one). It kept freezing, and the channel guide and what was on never matched.

Overall I think these room layouts are really cool, and the beds are really comfortable. I also love how compact the hotel is.

The only other issue we had with this room was the door to the bathroom. I'm going to guess it was damaged from the shower leaking or something because it was really hard to close, and if you did manage to close it, it was really hard to get open again. There were times when I thought Kayleigh was stuck in there from how hard she was pulling to get out.



We were headed out to Antojitos for dinner. I thought the fastest way would be to hop on Sapphire Falls' water taxi, but apparently the water taxis were under refurbishment this week. This was not something I was aware of when booking (and it seemed like a busy week to do yearly maintenance), and not something I heard reported on any of the park news sites I follow so I was a little surprised. Kayleigh was disappointed because it is a cool method of transportation and I'd kind of talked it up. I was also a little disappointed, despite the bus and walking path and it only being a few nights I think I would've booked a closer hotel to the parks if I knew ahead of time.

We ended up walking from there. It was a really nice night, and we got a cool view of Sapphire Falls Christmas tree as we walked.



We had a great dinner at Antojitos, and Citywalk wasn't crowded at all which made me hopeful for the rest of the trip.

Somehow the walk back to Sapphire Falls seemed 100x longer than the route we took there (it was not the same route), and seemed to go all around the outside of Sapphire Falls. But now we were headed to our second reservation at Strongwater Tavern for dessert and drinks.

Antojitos & Strongwater Tavern Review



We also got to take these drinks back to our room because we were still finishing them when Strongwater Tavern closed. We thought it was a little funny that they told us just to take the glasses with us back to our hotel though, but we were also a little bit tipsy.

So here's us with our glasses and the Christmas tree:







Back in the room we watched a Lifetime movie, and then went to sleep.

Next Up
Brunch at Toothsome & shopping in Disney Springs

​

 

[BroadwayHermione5]

I’m here! Can’t wait to read more!

 

[Lilias]

There are two paths! The one labeled Sapphire Falls is terrible and takes like 40 minutes!

You have to follow signage to Royal Pacific to find the path that goes by the Sapphire water taxis. Except that's still wonky because you might end up on the wrong side of Royal Pacific.

Someone needs to update the signage over there and add signs to Sapphire Falls water taxi or something I'm glad you guys survived it and didn't mess up your ankle on that hike like I did, haha. D:

 

[Raeven]

I’m here! Can’t wait to read more!​

thanks for following along!​

There are two paths! The one labeled Sapphire Falls is terrible and takes like 40 minutes!​

I thought so. I know the one I'd taken before and the one we took there past the water taxis was different. But this was so much longer it didn't make sense.​

Someone needs to update the signage over there and add signs to Sapphire Falls water taxi or something I'm glad you guys survived it and didn't mess up your ankle on that hike like I did, haha. D:​

I agree! The signs were weirdly confusing. Oh no I'm sorry about your ankle! ​

 

[Raeven]

Thanos, the Jolly Snowman

The good news about the room was aside from the air conditioning (the AC can be very loud in these rooms when it turns on and off) I didn't hear much noise at night. (I sleep with earplugs in on vacation because sometimes the hallway noise can be a lot, but we didn't really hear anything from the hallway the first night).

We were up early (well for how late we stayed up ) because we had a reservation at Toothsome!
These were our matching outfits for the day:





We actually got a lot of compliments on our Christmas Things shirts including one lady who saw us wearing them and immediately told her phone to Google where to buy them.

I told Josh I wanted to get this dragon and he said he thought it would be a little much...



How could a large steampunk dragon be a little much? (I was not actually considering buying it, but everyone I sent this to did tell me that was a good price).

We had a good meal at Toothsome that i wrote about in my DTR:
Toothsome Chocolate Emporium Review

Then we walked over to Portofino Bay.



Of all the hotels on property at Universal, this was the one I wanted to show Kayleigh the most. She absolutely loved the view in the harbor.


From Portofino Bay we caught a Lyft to Disney Springs.

I wasn't sure if we'd have free time on this day to go to DS, but was glad we did. There were a lot of treats we wanted to try there, and I didn't know how much time we'd have for shopping there in the upcoming days. I'm glad we took this day to go because there are so many things I don't think we'd have gotten to if we hadn't taken this trip to DS.

We didn't do the tree trail, but I did take pictures of the ones we passed. My favorite was the Guardians tree:



We went to the Marvel store first where we saw this ornament that for some reason has turned Thanos into a snowman.



I mean it still looks like he's trying to snap everyone out of existence, but he's now a jolly snowman!


We were headed to Jock Lindsey's Holiday Bar to try the hot cocoa flight!



It looked really cool inside!



Jock Lindsey's Holiday Bar/Daily Poutine Review



Although we were seated outside where we had a view of the amphicars.
And enjoyed the ambient noise of a bird screaming.

We shopped a bit more, and then decided to head to a resort. I figured we could Lyft back from whichever resort we went to, and check out some of their decor and snacks.



The first bus that came was for AKL which worked out great because I knew Kayleigh would love to see AKL, and despite having Boma on the last day I wasn't sure if that would work in our plans so I was glad we got the opportunity to see it now just in case.

The tree at AKL is one of my favorites.



Of all the deluxe resorts, I feel like AKL's tree is the largest and most centered in their lobby, and it looks really majestic and well lit.

They also had some gingerbread animals this year.

I love these ostrich lights.





We went to one of the viewing spots and saw a ton of animals out and about on the savannah.





Before leaving we also stopped in the gift shop where I grabbed my dad some gummy centipedes, and I think Kayleigh bought a few things too.

Poor Kayleigh was already ready for a nap, and did take a small one in the Lyft on the way back to the resort.



But it wouldn't be nap time for long because...

Next Up
We attend our first Orlando Informer Event!

​

 

[Raeven]

Our 1st Orlando Informer Event!

We decided to enter the event a little later so we could skip the lines and be closer to when the daytime guests left and the event started serving food, so we entered at 7 pm.
The wait to get in was only about 5 minutes at this time, and we headed over to the Tribute Store first.
I love the department store look of the facade.



But overall I was a little disappointed in the theming and merch especially when you compare it to the HHN tribute store. Some of the rooms were cute, but I felt like some of them could've been more themed.

There also wasn't any merch that I felt like I had to have. The shirts were relatively plain, and a lot of it was just ornaments. (Which I find to be too overpriced to buy at the parks and we have way too many anyway). Compared to the HHN merch (which I wanted all of and had a hard time picking between) it definitely seemed like they hadn't tried as hard with the Christmas merch.
We did take a picture with some of the photo ops throughout the store.





And I did enjoy the Earl the Squirrel room and photo op.
Someone offered to take a picture of us, but I clearly wasn't ready.



The first line we decided to wait in was for Finnegan's which I talked about here:

Orlando Informever Event Food Review

After we ate a little we headed to Diagon Alley.
We rode Gringotts which was a lot of fun as always, and Kayleigh really liked it.
We rode Men In Black next.
We got the left side track which I don't think I've ever been on before. I won, and Kayleigh said it was just because she didn't know to push the red button, but I told her I had 100,000 on her even before the button. Although since it was her first time playing I think she did a good job.



I had to copy this cat's pose because I found it hilarious.





We rode ET next, and this is the first time I've been on the ride since 2019 where ET was saying people's names.

The demonic growl of all our names made us laugh really hard.

We had to stop at the taco bar too.
Frakenstein and the Bride were out, and we got some pictures with them.



I also ended up buying the HHN Chucky shirt. I think it was available for sale this past year, but now that we know Chucky's having a house next year, I wanted to buy it for then.

We took the walkway to IOA, and rode the Seuss Trolley Ride on our way in.

I also showed Kayleigh this view:



Sadly, by the time we made it over to the Krampus themed shop, it was closed for the night, but I don't think the merch was anything too different from the other shops we'd seen. (The shirt with the Chucky store had some Krampus stuff too).

Most rides we'd been on that night we'd walked straight on, and we were making pretty good time. So we decided to wait in the line for Hagrid's which was 35 minutes.

Although it seemed longer because we left our phones in our lockers so we didn't have to worry about them falling out of our pockets. Kayleigh was nervous so I told her I'd take the bike this time.

I've only ridden Hagrid's once before, and I remember liking it but not enough to wait 1+ hours for it. I clearly did not remember anything else about it or I wouldn't have rode it again. I don't know if it was being on the bike or what but it felt so fast. Like too fast for me. It was the way it accelerates and then like accelerates again if that makes sense, and it's so long it feels like it goes on forever. My leg was shaking when we stopped and I told Kayleigh I was traumatized. I don't think I'll be waiting in line for Hagrid's again.

Kayleigh on the other hand absolutely loved it.

But we did get some delicious Butterbeer.



We grabbed some snacks in Jurassic Park.



Which dinos tried to take from us.



The last ride we rode was Spiderman, and we got a button on the way out.



All in all I think our first Orlando Informer Event was a success. We tried a lot of the food we wanted, and got on all the rides I'd been planning for us to ride. It's definitely not enough time to ride everything, but we didn't want to go on all of the rides anyway. The lines were great, and I think we arrived at a good time. (And we still could've arrived early and got to a few more things). If there was another event like this going on while I was in Orlando again I'd definitely attend. And I think it was a great way to show someone the park for the first time.

We also decided to stop at the Red and Green Coconut Club on the way out of Citywalk.
For some reason it didn't compute to me that this was still an actual club? I just assumed it was a place to grab themed drinks and take pictures with the Christmas things.



Like the creepiest candle to ever exist:





We did decide to dance a little bit, and it was fun until a man tried to grab me. I'm not sure what he was doing but whatever it was he didn't need to grab me.



He didn't say anything so I'm not sure if I was in his way or he wanted to dance or what but he just walked towards me and tried to grab my arm. I got out of his way, and we decided to leave after that.

As we left a girl on the escalator (who was definitely far too drunk and who's family was waiting for her at the bottom) told me that she was "not a public nuisance, but the cops thought so but they were wrong". Ah, the joys of the top level of Citywalk late at night.

When we got back to the room we decided to both shower because we had to be up early the next day. It was already really late so I felt badly about how much noise I made drying my hair, but Kayleigh must've been very tired from our day because she told me the next day she didn't hear it at all and slept right through it.

Next Up
It's time to check into Port Orleans Riverside & we head to Epcot!

​

 

[schumigirl]

Raeven I`m so glad you enjoyed the OI event!! We thought it was amazing.

Sounds like you did alright with the rides and food....we wished we had sampled more, but ddin`t set aside any time....

And others have said the same thing about the Tribute Store.......different scenic decor dept design maybe. But glad you enjoyed the Red and Green Coconut Club......but wow on being grabbed!!! Never acceptable whatever the reason. Hope he was observed and removed.

And the girl on the escalator.....lol....you did attract them that night!!

Yes, it`s still a club, and doing rather better than it has for a few years since they began theming it seasonally, it had got a little quiet over the years.

I did enjoy reading about your evening......you both looked like you had so much fun.

 

[BroadwayHermione5]

Sounds like an awesome event minus the human grabbing you! You showed far more restraint then I would have!

 

[Raeven]

Raeven I`m so glad you enjoyed the OI event!! We thought it was amazing​

It was amazing! ​

Sounds like you did alright with the rides and food....we wished we had sampled more, but ddin`t set aside any time....​

I wish we tried a little more, but I was so full! I think we got to everything else though. ​

And others have said the same thing about the Tribute Store.......different scenic decor dept design maybe. But glad you enjoyed the Red and Green Coconut Club......but wow on being grabbed!!! Never acceptable whatever the reason. Hope he was observed and removed.​

Yeah the Tribute Store was pretty disappointing. I loved the decor in the Red and Green Coconut Club but yes that guy was out of line! ​

And the girl on the escalator.....lol....you did attract them that night!!​

Lol everyone on Citywalk that night was very drunk apparently. ​

Yes, it`s still a club, and doing rather better than it has for a few years since they began theming it seasonally, it had got a little quiet over the years.​

When I saw Youtube videos of people it looked more like a little sit down place, but I'm guessing a lot of the people that went for videos went earlier in the night when it was quieter. ​

I did enjoy reading about your evening......you both looked like you had so much fun.​

We really did! ​

Sounds like an awesome event minus the human grabbing you! You showed far more restraint then I would have!​

Haha yes! I think I was just in shock like did that really just happen ​

 

[Raeven]

A Cosmic Christmastime

This morning we were up bright and early at 7 am to make the Lightning Lane selections! (Well I was, I tried to let Kayleigh sleep till 8 am but I think my alarm may have woken her). I grabbed paid passes for Cosmic Rewind and Rise of the Resistance, and booked our first LL for Frozen Ever After. (Because we were going to both Epcot and HS this day I had an elaborate plan laid out for when to make LL's. Also if Disney thinks this system makes planning easier on the guest...they are wrong. I should not have to do this much math on vacation).


(Me making LL passes).

After getting ready and grabbing some breakfast at Starbucks, we Lyfted over to our next hotel....

Port Orleans Riverside!
For right now we were just storing our suitcases though because we were headed to Epcot! (And of course the minute we got on a bus our room was ready ).

Our first stop was to take some pictures because this is the first trip in awhile I'd bought Photopass for.




We were wearing our matching Guardians outfits today in honor of riding Cosmic Rewind!


We entered the park a little later than I thought so we had to head straight for Cosmic Rewind.

Initially I was not planning on riding, just waiting in line with Kayleigh and watching the pre show because I got dizzy the last time I rode. But at the last minute I decided I wanted to ride, and I'm glad I did. I tried keeping my eyes open for more of it this time, and I didn't get dizzy at all! It was actually really fun. I don't know if it was keeping my eyes open more or just it being easier to ride once you know what to expect, but I didn't feel weird at all when I came off the ride. I also didn't mind the Christmas overlay/music, and overall am not sure why so many people were upset about it. I do wish they used music from the Christmas special, but didn't mind the song and didn't think it affected the experience on the ride itself.

We also saw these cute little ride vehicles with Rocket and Groot in them, and had to buy them:



I thought for sure the ride photo would show how much fun I was having...but it does not.



And Kayleigh is just a blur of hair.



So we took some more pictures outside of the ride, and this one is my favorite:



Because it also shows our Rocket and Groot Christmas socks!

We also love this one because they didn't really tell us what was going on and said look over there it's Groot!



And we're just sort of staring right at the side of him.



We had to hurry over to Frozen Ever After next. One thing that annoys me about LL is that it's not easy to change the times around without canceling the whole pass and rebooking, and sometimes the time you're going to be in a certain part of the park can be hard to predict. (Although right after we came home I think they announced you can modify times now). I feel like modifying FP was easier, and the fact that they couldn't overlap at all made them easier to space out.

But we made it! And got to watch Sven and Olaf's staring contest.

And take a ride photo where it looks like we're having two very different experiences.



When we left the ride we noticed the World Showcase was packed, like wall to wall people. We ended up going inside the Mexico pavilion, but it was so crowded that I decided to give up on our trip around the world and just focus on rides. (Originally I thought we'd have time for rides and then snacking around the world. But once we got there I realized we'd probably only have time for one, and since World Showcase was so crowded, we weren't hungry yet, and it was Kayleigh's first time; I decided it would be best to just focus on Future World).

We did grab a few snacks from the Holiday Hearth Dessert booth though:
The next LL I had was for Soarin' in a little bit so we decided to do Figment on the way.

Kayleigh was a little confused when I tried to explain that Figment is his own thing, and he's not Spyro , but we did both love his little Christmas sweater.



On Soarin' we were treated to the older couple next to us exclaiming "IT'S WINSTON!" whenever they saw a polar bear. We both had no idea what they were talking about and googled it afterwards. This was what came up:




I have never heard of this, but maybe it's bigger somewhere else?

I think Kayleigh was a little apprehensive about Soarin' when she first saw the seats, but she ended up loving it.

We also decided to Live with the Land for a bit.


And go under the seas with Nemo.



And finally we went on Spaceship Earth on our way out. This was the longest wait we'd had that day (15 minutes) so I think we utilized our LL's well. (At this point I'd already started making LL's for HS at night and before we got there I'd grabbed ones for Runaway Railway, Toy Story Midway Mania, and Alien Swirling Saucers).





We had a great day at Epcot, and got on all of the rides we had planned. We're talking about making this trip a yearly thing, and if we go next year we'll do more of the festival.


Next Up
We check into our room and head to Hollywood Studios & Disney Springs!


​

 

[schumigirl]

You do NOT look like you`re having fun on the Frozen boat thingy......yes, two different experiences.

Nice Photopass pictures too........

 

[Raeven]

The Night of Strange Photopass Pictures

We got back and checked into our Port Orleans Riverside. We were in a preferred room so we were just a few steps outside of the food court.

However what I didn't realize was that these buildings don't have elevators. Since we had our bags and were on the 2nd floor we spent some time looking for an elevator before I googled it and found out they don't exist in these buildings. At least it was only one flight of stairs.

Here's our room:





I'll give a little review because this was my first time staying here. The look of the rooms never really appealed to me in this hotel and the rates were usually higher than Coronado Springs so I'd never really looked into it before. (Although I did stay at French Quarter a couple years ago). But we snagged a pretty good rate a few weeks before leaving for a preferred room. We didn't have any issues with our room, and it was located pretty conveniently within our hotel. Everything was clean, and overall I enjoyed our stay.

We didn't use the hotel transportation as much as I'd hoped (we ended up using Lyft more), but it was fine when we did use it. Our hotel wasn't super decorated, but the tree in the lobby was nice. We had decent food at the food court, and the gift shop was pretty large. Sadly, we never made it over to French Quarter for beignets or got to ride the water taxi/boat to DS though.

We didn't have much time to relax this day, because we had to get ready for our night at Hollywood Studios!
This time we had matching Rookie sweaters (it's a show we both watch on ABC where Nathan Fillon is a cop so we joked he was now a Disney princess since Disney owns ABC ) and Christmas corgi leggings.

We took a Lyft and soon we were there!



We decided to take some pictures on the way in, and there were some very interesting poses suggested to us.

This was "laugh and hold your belly".



The kid in the corner knows this is a very strange pose too.

It probably wasn't a good sign that the Photopass photographer was laughing too.

(Btw I have no idea why the sweaters say "Merry Christmas Boo" since that is not a phrase ever uttered on that show, but that's part of why we thought the sweaters were so funny).

We rode Runaway Railway which Kayleigh thought was cute. I liked it a little better the 2nd time riding, but still miss the Great Movie Ride.
Then we headed to Toy Story Land.
And I won Midway Mania! (But it was very close).



We also rode Alien Swirling Saucers, and caught part of the Movie Magic show.



During this time one of the Fantasmic showings was going on so the park was starting to empty out.
We got some more pictures. The first few are fine except for some of them being randomly turned sideways.




Then they took a few odd ones.


I also noticed afterwards that none of the pictures really got the tree in the background which is what we were hoping to get pictures in front of.

We also took our own picture with Gertie.



Before hurrying over to our Rise of the Resistance LL. This was our last one of the night and it ended a couple minutes before closing. We made it just in time, but when we got there they were telling everyone it was down and closed for the night....

I guess me riding a Star Wars ride just isn't meant to be.

We weren't super disappointed, but a little bit because I've heard so much about how cool this ride is, and neither of us had ever experienced it. Everyone we talked to said it's great, but it goes down all the time. (So basically "it's great when it's working"). I love that Disney is trying new things with rides and it must be cool if everyone loves it, but I can't help but think a ride like that shouldn't have issues so frequently.

We also did receive a refund for the LL, but it took a couple of days to go through.

We were headed to Disney Springs now for a late dinner, and decided to call a Minnie Van so we could get dropped off at the front of DS. I don't know if it's because the service had only semi recently come back or not, but if you're going to take a Minnie Van I'd just keep in mind that they aren't instant. We used them twice on this trip and each time they took between 20-25 minutes to arrive. We had over an hour to get to our reservation though so we didn't mind waiting.
We grabbed some desserts at Amorette's and shopped around a bit before our dinner at Homecomin'.

Homecomin, Festival of the Holidays, etc Review

We were trying to find the dock for the water taxi back to our resort (not realizing it closes after a certain time), and on the way out stopped to take some pictures in Trex Cafe because Kayleigh loves dinosaurs.



Or well she used too... what we didn't realize was this dinosaur moved, and it scared her badly.
I knew some of them moved, but not that one. She said it felt like it was touching her back so she jumped up and yelled so loud everyone looked at her. We laughed so hard people must've thought we were crazy.



It turns out the first photo I took was also a Live photo so we technically have a video of it happening. We must've watched it a dozen times later that night.



We also grabbed a bunch of soap at Basin to give as gifts or with gifts during the holidays, and the Stitch on top of World of Disney spit water all over me.
We did end up finding out the water taxi dock was closed at this time, and they sent us to the buses where we rode a bus that was a combination of people from hotels that normally have boats/water taxis. Luckily, we were the first stop.

Back in the room we watched some random late night Jeopardy.
We both still had to shower and have our snacks so we ended up pushing our breakfast a little later the next day.

I was also able to get my phone to cast to the TV so we watched the Guardians Christmas special (which is where the title of this TR comes from) while we ate our desserts.



Next Up
We go resort hopping near at the Magic Kingdom resorts!

​

 

[Raeven]

You do NOT look like you`re having fun on the Frozen boat thingy......yes, two different experiences.​

My butt got splashed with water and I was sitting in a puddle. ​

 

[BroadwayHermione5]

Love all the decor!

POR is a lovely resort and the room refurbs a few years back did wonders. The one downside is it’s so big!

Loved the socks!

What was with the photopass photographers.

I also feel like ROTR should stop LL after a certain time, but they should’ve honored it or given you an LL for another day (that’s what my friend had happen to him and his family).

 

[Raeven]

POR is a lovely resort and the room refurbs a few years back did wonders. The one downside is it’s so big!​

It is a lovely resort! I'm glad we were so close to the main building, if it wasn't a preferred room that was available when we booked I think we might've picked somewhere else because of the size. ​

Loved the socks!​

Thank you! ​

What was with the photopass photographers.​

I don't know, we had some odd ones that day. ​

I also feel like ROTR should stop LL after a certain time, but they should’ve honored it or given you an LL for another day (that’s what my friend had happen to him and his family).​

They probably shouldn't have them so close to closing time. Honestly, we didn't have another day we could use them and they're more expensive than the other LL's so I was happy to get a refund. The thing is the refund took so long to go through when the CM's told everyone it should be instant that I was afraid I'd have to call them and deal with it later. ​

 

[Raeven]

Resort Hoppin' & Shoppin'

This morning we slept in a little and headed to the Grand Floridian for brunch.




Grand Floridian Cafe & Holiday Resort Snacks Review



Because of the line for the GF’s
Christmas treats being so long we decided to check out the display at the Contemporary. So off on the monorail we went!



Here's the display at the Contemporary:



What we ended up buying:



(I review these in my DTR post too).

As well as this gingerbread martini we had at Outer Rim.



& these hot chocolate bombs.



There actually ended up being no line for the snacks at the Contemporary so I think this was a wise choice, and Kayleigh loved seeing the monorail come through the building.

Our last stop was the Polynesian.
There weren't any Christmas snacks there at the time we went, and there wasn't a ton of Christmas decor, but I did think the tree was cute.



We ended up doing some shopping.
We bought a lot of these Hawaiian macadamia dipped cookies to give as gifts. I actually kept some for myself too, but I haven't tried them yet.



We didn't do a ton early on this day, and I think that was a good thing because we had a very busy prior day, and MVMCP was coming up that night. It still wasn't entirely a relaxing day, but we did get to do some holiday shopping and snacking. I was also glad I got to show Kayleigh the monorail resorts because they often have some of the best displays/decorations.

If we'd had more time I would've liked to show her the Wilderness Lodge too, and taken her to the barn at Ft Wilderness with the horses. Maybe next year we'll get to stop at those resorts.

To complete our day of shopping we also stopped at our resort's gift shop because we would be leaving the next day before it opened.

They had some resort specific merch that I thought was really cute including this travel mug.



Back in our room we had a little time, but we had to get ready for MVMCP. We had ended up deciding not to go in at 4pm, but to arrive for our 6pm reservation at Crystal Palace. When we were almost ready we called a Minnie Van, but like the previous time we did have to wait about 20 minutes. (Which worked out okay because we were able to continue getting ready in the room for a little before walking to the main building since we were only a few steps away).

Next Up
We head to Crystal Palace & MVMCP!

​

 

[BroadwayHermione5]

Where was this respite specific merch years ago?!?!? Literally all the good merch came out right before and then after the pandemic! That POR travel mug has my name written all over it lmao!

And you can never go wrong with shopping

 

[Raeven]

Where was this respite specific merch years ago?!?!? Literally all the good merch came out right before and then after the pandemic! That POR travel mug has my name written all over it lmao!

And you can never go wrong with shopping ​

I don't know! I always like seeing it, but usually there isn't much of it.

You can't. ​