Happy Holidays in WDW, 2-year-old-style! Day 07: Christmas Day in AK and Mickey's Backyard BBQ

[nothingless]

December 25, 2018
[-- Trip Index --]

Today was Christmas Day! I'd planned this day out quite carefully because I knew it would be super busy everywhere, and I wanted to have a nice and relaxing Christmas in spite of the crowds. Spoiler alert: I succeeded - everyone agreed this was an awesome Christmas Day, the best we'd ever had!

We woke up bright and early - I'd booked Fastpasses in Animal Kingdom today, and our first one for the Kilimanjaro Safari was at 08:30. It was our second time in AK, and the first time for my brother and his family. My mom, however, woke up a bit sore and tired from all the walking so far, and decided to skip this morning, to save her energy for later in the day, and all the days ahead of us!

So only the 3 of us pulled up to the AK gates around 7:45 AM.


And we made our way to the Safari, stopping to look at some of the animals on the way. Once there, we had to wait a little bit on my brother since they were running late, but no worries - we all got on together soon enough. Safari Selfies!



Some giraffes very close to our truck!



We didn't see as many animals as we'd seen the last time - I think maybe because it was still quite cold this early! We sat down in Africa for coffees and pasties, and the kids ran around. Myla played peekaboo with Nina in the pram:


and we stopped by the Baby Care Center for clean nappies and a bottle for Nina:


Myla and Jesse thought it was hilarious and the best thing ever to all be on the changing tables at the same time haha!

We walked on to Pandora for our next FP, Navi'i River Journey. To my surprise, it was actually less crowded in AK than it had been on our previous day, the 23rd. We were better able to enjoy the beauty of Pandora, and my brother and sister-in-law were super impressed too - both love Avatar!





We all enjoyed the River Journey ride - it was a great one for the kids. In fact, Jesse loved it so much that he didn't want to get out of the boat, which led to a total toddler meltdown when we had to get off the ride. My brother had to literally carry him off while he was screaming bloody murder, and he did the whole throw-himself-on-the-floor thing where everyone was looking at them. We know Jesse has these super meltdowns from time to time - this was only his second day in the parks, and his third ever ride, so he was still getting used to the way it works and that you can't just stay seated in a ride. When they tried to calm him down, he was so angry he started running away, leading to my brother having to chase him down through the crowds. I know from experience he takes a little while to calm down, so we took the stroller with baby Nina, and sat down a little bit further away with Nina and Myla to give my brother and sister-in-law the time and space to help Jesse calm down.

He did eventually, and we headed on to our last FP of this morning, meeting Mickey and Minnie! The kids loved meeting them in their Christmas outfits, and we got some fab Photopass photos. Btw, I heard they no longer have the Christmas outfits on anymore from 2019 onwards - what a shame! Glad we managed to catch them on the last year.






After the meet, we decided to split up. The others were getting food and Nina needed another bottle, and we decided to head back to the apartment with some more photos on the way, and have a light lunch there so Myla could nap early - we had reservations for Mickey's Backyard BBQ at 4PM this afternoon for our Christmas dinner!

Got photos in front of the Tree Of Life:


and a bunch at the entrance:




Even though it's literally a 6 minute drive from AK to Windsor Hills, Myla managed to fall asleep - we carried her in and put her straight to bed where she had a brilliant nap. I was so chuffed, love it when a plan comes together!


By 14:15, Myla was awake and we'd all had a light lunch, and set off for Fort Wilderness. I'd decided to book Mickey's BBQ because we all wanted a character dinner for Christmas Day, but something laid back and casual, not a long sit-down dinner because that's just a no-go with 3 under 3. None of us are foodies, so the BBQ suited us perfectly! We pulled into Fort Wilderness by 14:45:


A bit early, since our reservation wasn't until 16:00, but we'd never visited FW, so wanted some time to look around.



In their matching Christmas outfits:


Looking at the horses



Sign selfie at the check-in queue!


Once again my brother was running WAY late. Luckily I was able to check in for them, and we went ahead and grabbed a table on the outside, so we could keep the stroller beside the table for Nina to sit/nap in. We noticed the Mickey & Minnie meet starting up right beside our table, so Michael and I headed over right away with Myla while my mom kept the table occupied - there was no queue yet, and it was good we did this, because the queue was massive the whole rest of the evening!

Myla got lots of special attention for her dress, which she loved, she was beaming that Mickey liked her dress!




Jessie and Woody were meeting on the other side of the pavillion, so Myla was very eager to go there next.



Then we sat down to eat, enjoying the awesome live music, entertainment, and dancing from our table.



We headed to the dance floor with the kids after eating, and all danced with Pluto, Goofy, Chip, and Dale - it was so much fun and the kids were having a ball...as were we, to be honest!



Time for ice creams to cool down


Nina was enjoying the music too!



And back for more dancing



At one point Myla noticed there was no queue for Woody and Jessie and ran right over.




Myla loves Nina lol


By now things were winding down, and we gathered our stuff and headed back to the bus that would take us to the parking at the front of FW. Jesse had another meltdown on the way to the bus, so this took considerably longer than we had anticipated - it seriously must have taken us over 45 minutes to walk the 3 minutes to the bus stop. Luckily, Myla and Nina were patient as ever, and we all just took it easy - we weren't in a hurry! After getting the bus and finding our car, we were back at the apartment in no time, ready for bed.

It's such a shame that they've cancelled Mickey's Backyard BBQ - all 5 of us adults agreed that we LOVED it, and would have loved to do it again some day - the food was yummy, and it was just so FUN! For our family, a truly perfect Christmas Day we'll treasure forever. <3

[Palm trees]

What a fabulous day, and I love your outfits!

[kansaskitty]

What a fantastic day! I’ve just gone to put that we must do this next time we visit then I’ve seen you write that they’ve cancelled it! What a shame it looks FANTASTIC for food and character interaction!

[nothingless]

Originally Posted by Palm trees

What a fabulous day, and I love your outfits!

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Thank you! We got so many compliments on them on the day as well! My daughter especially absolutely loved the attention haha!

Originally Posted by kansaskitty

What a fantastic day! I’ve just gone to put that we must do this next time we visit then I’ve seen you write that they’ve cancelled it! What a shame it looks FANTASTIC for food and character interaction!

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I KNOW! It's such a shame, we absolutely loved it and it was SO great for the kids, plus quite a lot of characters: Mickey, Minnie, Pluto, Goofy, Chip, Dale, Jessie, and Woody! Usually at WDW you only get 3-4 characters for any 1 meal! We'd so have done it a second time too, but unfortunately they demolished the whole pavilion where this was held to make way for the new DVC resort that's going up near FW. Fingers crossed they'll bring it back somehow when construction is finished!

[Joosebug1987]

What a fab Christmas day - I absolutely LOVE your Christmas dress :-) x

[pamatt]

What a perfect Xmas day! Living your Xmas outfits - can I ask where you got them all from? We're going next xmas so looking for inspiration!

[nothingless]

I have my own online store that I design these for!