Checking out the decorations at a lot of Disney Resorts!

Beaches and Cream and Kona Café!

Since we had been home very late the day before we decided to sleep in and try to have breakfast at Olivia’s. We arrived at Olivia’s at 10am and were seated right away. Tom had another Omelet, three eggs with bacon, tomatoes, peppers and cheese served with Breakfast Potatoes and Toast, while I tried the Poached Eggs and Hash served over Sweet Potato and Ham Hash with Toast.

Olivia’s has such a relaxed feel, we love to eat there and this time was no exception. Both breakfast options were VERY good. When we left we took the car and went to our neighbouring resort, Port Orleans French Quarter to have a look at their Christmas Decorations. While their we saw some groups of the Pop Warner Girls walking to their bus. The resort itself was decked out very nicely for Christmas, lots of wreaths, garlands and Christmas trees and loads of Poinsettias.

Our next stop was the Eagle Pines and Osprey Ridge sign. We had passed the sign numerous times without realizing that the “balls” were actually Christmas tree ornaments! So we had to stop and take a photo. And while we did so, we were joined by a few other families who did exactly the same.

The next resort we passed and stopped at was Fort Wilderness. After some confusion on where to get into the resort we drove around the resort and found it fascinating and even worth trying out once. I am not much for camping, but the cabins looked really nice and we really liked what we were seeing. Next resort on the way was the Wilderness Lodge. Everything looked very festive, the giant icon tree, the wreaths and garlands were wonderful. We spent quite some time checking out the store and restaurants and then had a very close look at the ornaments on the tree.

It is unbelievable how much detail goes into the decoration of every tree, theming it to the resort it will be in. We passed the entrance to Shades of Green, which had “deer” in their display, stopped and took some more photos.

Next stop Yacht Club Resort! We have fallen in love with the Yacht Club when we stayed there in 2006, so I was really looking forward to see their decorations. They had a whole wintery village displayed, complete with train, Santa Village and Gingerbread house. Their tree looked wonderful as well and again, everything was themed to fit the resort. We went outside and stolled along Stormalong Bay over to the Beach Club Resort.

Inside the lobby the first thing to catch our eyes was the gingerbread carousel. It was truly magnificent. We tried to find the 8 Hidden Mickeys on the carousel and finally succeeded. It was fun watching other people to find them too. Outside the resort even the walkways were decorated and we walked along the shore of Crescent Lake back to the Yacht Club Resort.

While walking and taking in the scenery we saw a plane writing into the sky. We sat on one of the benches and watched a while while Smilies and letters were being written onto a picture perfect sky.

Well, no visit to the Yacht and Beach Club Resorts is complete without a visit to Beaches and Cream.We were not really hungry so went for the ice-cream. Tom had the Classic Banana Split, a ripe banana, three scoops or ice cream (vanilla, chocolate, strawberry), pineapple, strawberry and marshmallow topping, finished off with hot fudge, butterscotch, toasted almonds, whipped cream and a cherry while I had the Old-Fashioned Sundae, 2 scoops of vanilla ice cream drenched with hot fudge topping, topped with whipped cream, toasted almonds, and a cherry. Heaven on earth! We both were not able to finish the portions though!

 We were too full to walk over to the Boardwalk, so we drove over to see their decorations as well.In addition to decorated trees, wreaths and garlands they had a gingerbread gazebo with more Hidden Mickeys to find. There were even able to watch a wedding being photographed. We then walked outside and relaxed in the rocking chairs, before we went down to the Boardwalk. By then it was time to go back to Old Key West, to get changed, because we had a dinner reservation at the Kona Café and wanted to attend another Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party lateron.We had time to take a shower and get changed and relaxed for some time on the balcony before we left again and drove to the Polynesian Resort.

We parked our car and were at the check in desk right before they opened the restaurant. We were given a beeper and wandered to check out the decorations, but we were seated about 5 minutes later. We decided to share the Pot Stickers, wok-seared duck dumplings with creamy ginger soy sauce, which were very yummy. Tom then decided on the Tuna Oscar served with fried green tomatoes, tempura-fried jumbo lump crab, and wasabi hollandaise while I tried the Pomegranate Barbecued Pork Chop served on pan-roasted fingerling potatoes and applewood smoked bacon braised Swiss chard. The portion was enormous!! And both dishes were very good.

Tom tried an Iced Cappuccino for dessert and I had the Banana Creme Brulee. After we had finished our dinner we took a few photos of their holiday displays, Gingerbread houses.

We then joined the queue for the Monorail to go over to the Magic Kingdom for Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party. This event was SOLD OUT!! And it felt like it! The Magic Kingdom was PACKED!!

It was already snowing on Main Street, when we tried to make our way up to the castle. Even though we had just eaten we made a stop at the Tomorrowland Terrace Noodle Station for some Hot Chocolate and Cookies and to let the first rush go by.  Like always and because the way towards the hub was blocked we went over towards Tomorrowland. .  We decided to go on the Peoplemover, which is an all time favourite and after that tried Space Mountain.

Well, even though the event was sold out the line was not too bad. Walked over to Mickey’s Toontown towards the quiet walk again and did some more shopping in the Judge’s tent. This time we were clever enough not to carry it with us, but have it delivered to the resort. No fun carrying mugs, Christmas ornaments and other breakables! After riding the honeypots and flying over London with Peter Pan we went back to Main Street to watch the fireworks.

Main Street was packed!!! But we still enjoyed the fireworks a lot. After more hot chocolate and cookies at the Crystal Palace we decided to walk over to Frontierland to watch the second parade. We were shocked to discover that a lot of people had had the same idea and tried to find a stop where we could see the parade. Even though it was so crowded, we really enjoyed it. Since we were close to the Haunted Mansion we decided to get in line and ride the doombuggies again. When we exited the ride the crowds had thinned out a bit and it was even more fun to be in the Magic Kingdom. We were both wearing our LED tags and got a lot of fun comments from the Cast Members and had a lot of laughs with them. There was still time to walk over to Big Thunder Mountain and that is what we did. We even got to ride Big Thunder twice!

But then it was really time to walk towards the exit. There were still people in Adventureland and Pirates was still open, but we were both tired and thought that the Cast Members wanted to go home as well. So we slowly walked down Main Street and there were still Cast Members smiling from ear to ear and waving goodbye with signs. We took the Resort Monorail to the Polynesian, walked to our car and drove back to Old Key West. Another night that we just fell into bed and went to sleep without problems.