2022 December – Days 4-5 Disney World

For the next two and a half days, we will be in Disney World!

I’ll also post more pics on my Instagram (adventures_by_anne), so follow along there too.

Day 4

Waking up in Disney World is always magical! Today, we’re starting with the Magic Kingdom.

The beautiful holiday decorations make this park even more magical!

As soon as we got in, the Mickey calvacade started coming down Main Street. Great timing!

After soaking in the magic and pinching ourselves that we’re at Disney World, we took a ton more pictures and made our way to lunch at Skipper Canteen (technically called Jungle Navigation Co. LTD Skipper Canteen, but that’s way too long to type each time). LoL

It’s themed after the Jungle Cruise ride, and yes, the servers continue the puns. You can play along if you’d like. We like it here because it’s not the typical theme park food, but don’t worry, nothing odd either. They just give them odd names. I recommend you give it a try if you’ve never been.

Time to walk around, do some rides, see some shows? This will be a more chill trip, let’s just see what magical fun we come across. We’re just happy to be here.

Since we were in the area, and lines weren’t too long (didn’t get Genie+ today since we weren’t aiming to do a ton of rides), we did the Pirates of the Caribbean ride and saw the Country Bears show, which is also good for a little air conditioning sit-down break.

We just soaked in the atmosphere and took some more pictures around Adventureland and Frontierland.

* Did you hear that Splash Mountain is closing for retheming to Tiana’s Bayou Adventure on Jan 23, 2023? It’s slated to reopen in late 2024, so if you want to ride it one last time with the current theme, go soon!

We continued walking around and noticed that there was a stage show starting in front of the castle when we got to the hub, so we stopped to watch. It’s always good fun to see Mickey and friends!

Then, we made our way over to Tomorrowland and did the PeopleMover ride and saw the Carousel of Progress, another good spot to sit awhile in AC. But, they’re both classics that you just should do anyway.

While we were on the PeopleMover, we were able to get a good view of the Tron construction too. It’s definitely coming along! They’ve announced that it will open in the Spring of 2023! Videos of the one in Shanghai Disney look so cool, so I can’t wait to ride this one.

Check out more gorgeous decorations around the park.

As luck would have it, the afternoon Festival of Fantasy parade was about to start, so we found a spot along Main Street for it.

That was a good way to end our day at Magic Kingdom for now. We’ll be back!

We want to hop over to the monorail resorts to check out the holiday decorations there. They always have huge gingerbread houses and other beautiful decor at the resorts too, so be sure to check them out.

To the monorail! First stop, the Contemporary Resort!

After a yummy treat there, we’re off to the Grand Floridian Resort because it was almost time for our dinner reservation! It’s a new-to-us place, so we’re very excited. Any guesses?

We’re dining at Citricos! We’ve heard great things about it, but it just never worked out with our schedule on past trips, so now’s the time finally! It’s a beautiful restaurant on the second floor of the Grand Floridian, decorated in an upscale Mary Poppins theme.

The food was delicious!!! This might be our new favorite Disney restaurant! Wow!

Of course, we can’t leave the resort without a few more pics of the beautiful decor.

Since tonight is the only night during our trip when the Magic Kingdom is open late, because it doesn’t have a Christmas party, we wanted to go back in to see everything lit up and see the Enchantment fireworks show. It’s almost time, so let’s hurry!

So beautiful!!!

What a great way to end a great day at the Magic Kingdom! Hopefully, you felt like you were with us and enjoyed it too.

Time to go back to Pop Century! Good night!

Day 5

We’re taking the Skyliner Gondolas to EPCOT!

EPCOT is beautifully decorated for the Festival of the Holidays. There are unique holiday foods, storytellers for each countries’ holiday traditions, and other holiday activities. We love the festivals at EPCOT!

Mini Buc-ee came along today and had to try several treats.

He met several characters too.

And rode a bunch of rides!

Phew, after all that, it was time for a late lunch at Le Cellier in Canada. We just opted for some favorite appetizers (poutine and cheddar cheese soup) this time since we’ve been snacking around the park, but the filet and other entrees here are delicious too!

Well, we need to walk off all that food, so let’s go check out more beautiful sites around the park.

Of course, the most beautiful sight of all at EPCOT is Spaceship Earth!

This evening is one of the nights with a Candlelight Processional show, so we watched a bit. Each Christmas season, EPCOT does a show/concert of the story of the birth of Christ, narrated by a celebrity, with songs sung by the EPCOT choir and sometimes, guest choirs.

It takes place 2-3 times a night on select nights with different celebrity narrators each night. Check the Disney site for a listing of show times, dates, and narrators. It’s always a beautiful event. Try to catch one if you’re there during the holidays.

Time for more snacks! Have you ever smelled the caramel as you walked by Germany? How can you resist?!? We got some caramel popcorn, fudge, and a cookie for the rest of our trip, didn’t eat all these tonight, as tempted to as we were. I’m a sucker for caramel though, so I had to. LoL

EPCOT is so beautiful lit up at night. We just soaked in the sights as we strolled around the countries of the World Showcase.

While in Japan, we found another cute buddy to join our road trip! Meet Yoko – cause she’s an egg yolk – from the Japanese Gudetama friends series.

Ok, time for dinner! Tonight, we have reservations at another new-to-us place, right out on the Boardwalk, so we’ll head out the back entrance of EPCOT. We’re going to the Flying Fish restaurant! This is another one that we’ve been meaning to try forever.

First off, the decor is beautiful, but then, we got our food and OMG! Everything was soooo good! We got the pork belly appetizer and filet and potato wrapped snapper entrees. Wow, wow, wow! This might even have Citricos beat from last night! Or a very close tie! It’s definitely up there now as one of our favorites! Yum!!

With our bellies stuffed, we took the Skyliner back to Pop. What a great ending to another great day!