Monday, December 2: Spent a good chunk of the day packing and otherwise getting ready to go to Walt Disney World in Florida with Mr. Karen. Very mixed feelings about that. Ron Desantis and his GOP supporters are awful, using tax money for evil. Why would I want to support that? But I live in Idaho, which isn’t a whole lot better (see the state board of ed banning DEI programs), and I know there are good people here. So I made peace with the trip in a “the enemy of my enemy is my friend” sort of way, given how DeSantis targeted Disney (not that a huge corporation like Disney can be anyone’s friend, really).

 

Tuesday, December 3: Spent the whole day getting from our home in north Idaho to our rental condo in Kissimmee. Definitely faster than the four or five days it would have taken to drive there, time we didn’t want to spend away from our mountain during ski season, but at a cost of giving up some of our freedom to the TSA and the airline and subjecting ourselves to other passengers who didn’t give a rip about anyone but themselves (we were among about three other masked folks on our flights). We did get a gift from the universe in the form of an empty seat between us on the longer flight to Atlanta, so that was something. We were delayed nearly an hour leaving out of Spokane, making our already close connection in Atlanta even closer. The flight attendants asked folks who didn’t have tight connections to stay in their seats until those of us who did could deplane, but of course that didn’t have any effect at all … the 26 rows ahead of us completely emptied out before we exited, and I know all those folks didn’t have tight connections. We made it, getting to the new gate after boarding had started, no thanks to our fellow passengers. Getting the rental car in Orlando took approximately forever, as it often does, but eventually we did make it to our home away from home for the next two weeks, falling into bed around 2 a.m. local time. (Yes, this is a lot of words for a daily photo, but since I’ve decided not to do a separate trip report, these daily photos have to tell the story.)

 
Wednesday, December 4: Slept in (something most serious Disney adults do not do on a park day). Got a same day lunch reservation for Sanaa, one of our favorite restaurants at Animal Kingdom Lodge, so started our day there, as we already had a park reservation for Animal Kingdom. I managed to lose my MagicBand between getting out of the car and boarding the bus to go to the park, but that was a minor blip in an otherwise pleasant day. We spent our park time in Dinoland, which is going away, and Pandora, where we were able to get on the headliner attraction (Flight of Passage) via the standby line because it wasn’t ridiculously long for a change.

 
Thursday, December 5: Parked at the TTC, took the ferry to Magic Kingdom (gawping at the intrusive Poliday Inn on the way) but instead of going in, took the boat to Wilderness Lodge for brunch at Whispering Canyon (booked the night before). Then returned to the Magic Kingdom and spent the rest of the day/evening there, including Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party, which we mostly used to do attractions with holiday theming and/or shorter lines. We put a priority on things that had been updated since our last visit (Country Bears, Tron, Tiana) and things that were going away before our next one (Liberty Belle, Tom Sawyer Island, tried but failed to do Big Thunder as it went down).

 
Friday, December 6: Started the day with a conveyor belt sushi lunch offsite. Tried to go to the Disney outlet but parking lot at the mall was super full with folks just cruising around looking for spaces, so we skipped that and went to our reservation at Hollywood Studios. That was really crowded, and Muppets went down while we were in the preshow, and it was just so frustrating that I grabbed an ADR for the Creperie and we went over to Epcot to have dinner before returning to the Studios for Fantasmic to end our day.

 
Saturday, December 7: Woke up just before 7a.m. to grab a virtual queue for Guardians; success! Bought Lightning Lane multipass though there was no Remy available because it looked like it was going to be crowded. Had breakfast at Ale & Compass at the Yacht Club, then proceeded to Epcot to use our lightning lanes and rode some things via standby when the lines weren’t too long. Ended the day with Luminous, which was better than Harmonious by a long shot.

 
Sunday, December 8: Spent some time in the Magic Kingdom before heading over to Coronado Springs to eat dinner at Toledo for the first time. I liked it a lot, maybe more than Topolino’s. The color-changing ceiling we sat under was a very nice touch. Charged the electric rental car we had while we ate, so that was nice. Returned to the condo after dinner to do laundry and get some rest.

 

*****
On this date in 2023: Christmas Eve Eve
2022: Nesting Dolls for Old People
2021: Old Spice
2020: Up Top
2019: Back Out There
2018: I’m a Pot Head
2017: Sometimes It’s the Little Things
2016: Human Popsicle
2015: Mountain Chic
2014: ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas Eve
2013: WDW Day 7: Downtown Disney and Christmas Party
2012: Sock Monkeys Wish They Knew How to Drive
2011: A Trip Down Memory Lane
2010: Headache
2009: True Then, True Now
2008: Pastel Jungle Quilt
2007: Contented
2006: Mr. Toasty & One Glove, All Alone
2005: Winter Count—September
2004: Snow Day
2003: Rail Fence Baby Quilt
2002: Quilting Outside the Lines