When we learned a few months ago that this year would be the
final season for the Osborne Lights at Disney's Hollywood Studios, we
immediately booked a trip to see them one last time. I'm really hoping they reappear somewhere
else in the future, but we weren't taking any chances!
For our Magic Bands for this trip, we chose Duchess and
Thomas O'Malley from The Aristocats:
We checked in at Port Orleans Riverside on Saturday morning and
our room was once again one of the Royal Guest Rooms, which we've been fortunate
to stay in twice before (click on that link for additional photos of the room). They are beautiful rooms! One common complaint that I despise reading
online is that Mousekeeping doesn't leave towel animals in the hotel
rooms. It is such a dumb thing to
complain about. When it happens, it's a
nice little surprise, but people who expect it are extremely annoying when they share their ridiculous outrage and disappointment. We never
expect anything beyond a clean room, so any additional surprises are fun to
discover when we return to the resort.
This time, we were gifted with an adorable little towel creature. Seriously, SO cute!
We went to MK for a lunch reservation at Be Our Guest, which is always
an amazing experience. Unfortunately,
the park was crazy busy, so we did a few things and then left – we saw Mickey's
Philharmagic, rode the Peoplemover, and admired the Christmas decorations. To be honest, we did not mind returning to our resort for a few hours; we took a nap because we knew we were going to have
a late night. After that, we had dinner over
at Art of Animation and then got beignets and a hand-scooped ice cream sandwich
at Port Orleans French Quarter.
We met a friend and his sweet girlfriend for drinks – you
might remember that Dean was the photographer at our vow renewal last year, but
we are actually friends now, so from here on out, I am just going to refer to
him as Dean, rather than "our photographer, Dean" because that now
sounds silly to me. The four of us met at Crew's Cup
Lounge at Yacht Club, and I really can't believe in 20+ years of visiting this
resort we have never been in there! Its
entire theme is crew – and because of my brother, we are a huge crew
family! They have a rowing shell suspended
from the ceiling, oars hung around the bar, and crew silhouettes along the
walls. We loved it in there and will
definitely be going back. Plus, seeing
Dean is always awesome and I wish we lived closer so we could hang out more
often.
After parting ways, we went to Jellyrolls because my beloved
Scotty was performing. As always, the
music was fantastic, and for it being a Saturday night, it was fairly quiet
crowd, which I will never complain about!
It was so great to catch up with Scotty and I enjoyed his banter with
Ray about me when I requested Taylor Swift (memorable line of the night: "Yes, Ray – women can be doctors
now!") Even though we were tired, we stayed until closing and Scotty
played me his jazzy rendition of "When You Wish Upon a Star" at the
end of the night. He is the absolute
best.
On Sunday, we slept in until 2 pm. It was glorious. I can't remember the last time we slept in
that late! If I had my way, I would
sleep from 4 am – 2 pm every day of the week because I think best at night and
I don't function particularly well in the morning. We again went over to Art of Animation for
lunch (it is my favorite food court at WDW) and then to Animal Kingdom Lodge to
check out the Christmas decorations over there before going to DHS. We had tickets to the Merry and
Bright Dessert Party, and it was awesome!
The dessert choices were delicious and we had a great view of the
Osborne Lights; the music, the lights, the snow…everything made for a perfect
evening. After the dessert party, we
spent several additional hours wandering around admiring the lights and I
really, really, really do hope Disney will find a new home for them in the
future.
On Monday, we spent part of the morning at Animal Kingdom
before our lunch reservation at Yak & Yeti.
Soooooo yum. After lunch, we went
back over to MK, and the crowds were even more insane than they'd been on
Saturday, but we enjoyed ourselves nonetheless.
The weather was gorgeous and the Christmas decorations add such ambiance
to an already magical place!
Later in the evening, we had the opportunity to check
something off our WDW bucket list! One
of my best friends had just arrived the day before for a week-long family trip
and they were staying in a grand villa at Bay Lake Tower. Just visiting the resort and seeing their
room would have been exciting enough, but we also got to watches Wishes from
Top of the World Lounge. Absolutely
amazing. Her family was so warm and
welcoming and we had a fabulous time hanging out with them; the lounge was
gorgeous and the view of Wishes cannot be beat. Afterwards, we went back to MK and stayed
until the park closed, by which time the park had cleared out. Such a memorable night!
On Tuesday, we checked out of our hotel and went over to
Epcot for the morning before spending the afternoon visiting different resorts
to admire the Christmas decorations. We
had an evening flight and were so glad to see our little gals when we got home!
Our annual passes will expire in early December, so it will
be a few months before we go back and renew them – especially now that I am
back teaching because my vacation time is rather limited!
However, I counted up all of the nights I spent at a WDW
hotel over the course of this year's annual passes (December 2014 through
this trip), and my total was 45 NIGHTS!!!
FORTY-FIVE!!! My highest total
ever! And if I include the three nights
at Disneyland Hotel in October, my total is 48 nights at a Disney hotel. Two things are abundantly clear: it was a very good year and I am incredibly lucky.
Happy Tails to you!
