A VERY Fun Day

Our friend Leslie is a Disney addict. She came by it honestly, having grown up in Florida and making many trips as a child to Disney World. Since their marriage, she has created another addict in her husband Bill. So we had two premier guides today for a visit to check out the Christmas decorations at the Disney hotels. We started out at the main parking lot, then took a tram to the monorail. We took the monorail to the Floridian, perhaps the classiest of the hotels. They have this incredible gingerbread house in the lobby.

Note the size of the house -- compared to those people that walked in front of me! The chimney of the house actually smoked --

Outside of the hotel, they were roasting -- and giving away -- chestnuts. None of us had ever eaten one before.

You had to peel away the outside husk... They are fairly soft and mealy. We all decided they were definitely an acquired taste --

The grounds of the hotel have some beautiful topiaries -- I loved this one of Mary Poppins --

In the middle of the lobby was this several stories tall, exquisite Christmas tree --

From the Floridian, we took the monorail to the Contemporary Hotel to see another gingerbread creation --

and gingerbread tree --

Then we took a boat ride over to Fort Wilderness, the Disney campground. We took a "sleigh" buggy horse ride around the RV Park to see all of the incredible and elaborate decorations done by the people staying in the park. We really lucked out as Leslie had tried to make reservations for the ride, but they were sold out. Talking to the concierge, Bill discovered that one of the four carriages did not take reservations, so we got to ride after all.

After eating the chicken salad picnic that Leslie had fixed for us, we took another boat ride over to the Polynesian Resort where we planned to watch the evening fireworks. We could see the castle of the Magic Kingdom across the way --

While we were sitting on the beach at the Polynesian, we watched the Fantasmic Water Light Show out on the lagoon. King Trident with his seahorse steeds --

The octopus waving his arms --

And a dinosaur having a little snack -- 

We were in a great spot to watch the fireworks. I didn't get any pictures, but Leslie did, and maybe I can show some of them on tomorrow's blog.

After the fireworks, we walked back from the Polynesian to take the tram back to the parking lot. By the time we got back to their place and from there to Auntie Violet, it was midnight. But it was a VERY fun day!