Well, we hope everyone is ok? It’s lockdown Part 2 here in the U.K. (that sounds like the worst sequel ever doesn’t it??). Its a funny time for all, so we’ve been keeping sane with what’s going on in Orlando. This time of year it’s “all change” literally over night, one day it’s Halloween then BOSH! It’s Christmas y’all! It’s fantastic just how fast they can change the parks.
To us it looks a little more subtle in places decoration wise, this may be due to the lack of availability of staff in these trying times. We try not to focus on the negatives at the moment so let’s take a swift detour away from that!
The parks have all started to convert to their Christmas themes and decorations, and it looks amazing as normal. Last night (Friday night) we were watching several live streams from the Magic kingdom (Ear to Ear Magic, Resort Tv1 and Allears.net ) and to say it was emotional is an understatement, even the Muppets were back in their windows! The cavalcades were next level with the dancing reindeers, toy soldiers, all our favourite characters and princesses in their winter scarves and Santa in his sleigh waving at us all! Even here in the U.K! Filling up just thinking about it.
The situation in Orlando can be very “fluid” some days restaurants are fully open the the next day they are closed without warning, same goes for rides and attractions. So always check your park app before you make plans, it’ll save on disappointment. There are so many little things popping up now for the Holidays. There are new shows and cavalcades and lots and lots of new snacks! (This part REALLY peaked our interest!). There’s the Pistachio Chai Tea float which is a soft serve ice cream over spiced Chai tea, with a red velvet cake pop adorning it. Over in Gaston’s Tavern you can find Belle’s Enchanted Christmas Tree, made of Macarons that have been stacked and interspersed with flavoured butter cream – oooh yes please. Over at the Orange Tree Tavern you can get the Orange Bird Christmas dessert, the “bird” is Orange scented white chocolate mousse, filled with Orange curd. That’s a LOT of orange… but we must admit it look as cute as a button. The very helpful and fantastic Chris and Susan from Ear to Ear Magic very kindly sacrificed themselves and tried all of the holiday snacks in Magic Kingdom to let us all know how yummy they are, as well as watching all of the cavalcades to film them for us all to see too. It’s their photos we are using (with permission of course) to show you the sort of yumminess available for the Holidays in WDW. Check out their vlogs for a full look at everything and as an added bonus Susan is singing along to the Christmas tunes during the cavalcades – oh they do make us smile, they are such lovely lovely people.
There are giant Christmas trees, garlands, floating baubles, Gertie has her Santa hat on over in Hollywood Studios (for those of you who don’t know Gertie is the dinosaur in Echo Lake). The 3D mapping light shows on the castle and Tower of Terror are back back back – hooray for that. More and more restaurants are popping up and opening up and increasing capacity. More Resorts are opening up too. All wonderful news. I think it’s going to be a great Holiday Season in WDW, which a couple of months ago seemed pretty unlikely. Oh when it’s dusk and the lights all come on – we have literally been filling up looking at it all, so magical.
As for the merchandise – where do you start. The Christmas ears are out! Yayyyyyyy. Only wish we could get hold of some, but we (well Tracey mainly obviously) are enjoying watching our friends wearing the holiday ears and showing us them in the stores as they wander around. There are holiday plushes, clothes, toys and decorations, candy and housewares, you name it they’ve got it – check out the Holiday limited edition popcorn bucket – all liberally sprinkled with Disney Holiday magic.
There are no gingerbread houses in the Resort Hotels this year, but no doubt the decorations and trees and holiday treats will in part make up for that.
Over in Universal the Holiday Season is getting going too. The Hot Butter beer has arrived. It’s an acquired taste… I’ve tried ‘’normal” and “frozen” and don’t think I’ll be trying the “hot” one… it’s just not for me. Sorry #notsorry. You can get it from The Leaky Cauldron and The Hopping Pot if it is your thing.
Seuss Landing decorated for Christmas looks even brighter than normal, even more Candy canes and bright lights. The Port of Entry has been decorated beautifully as has Universal Studios park. The decorations are looking splendid. Kings Cross and Diagon Alley are also decorated for the holidays and look fantastic.
No doubt all of the Halloween Treats will be replaced with Holiday Treats but we have yet to see anyone vlogging any of those, so maybe the Universal ones have not quite arrived. WDW did move pretty quickly into the Holiday season, but of course there was a lot more Halloween activity at Universal we think, with the HHN houses which were a wonderful surprise given that the HHN events were actually cancelled. The Tribute Store is now closed until next year so Holiday decorations, merchandise, treats, music and shows will be arriving daily. Not too mention the themed drinkies – both alcoholic and otherwise.
There’s a fantastic rumour going around that although the Macy’s Holiday Parade won’t be happening this year at Universal, due to social distancing etc, but that the giant inflatables will be up and available as a walk through so that they can control the numbers walking through and ensure everyone is safe. Sounds like a fantastic idea to us and will bring some holiday cheer to the parks so we hope it is true. We look forward to watching the next few weeks of vlogs that come out with all of our favourite vlogging friends checking everything out for us. You’d think we’d tire of watching them, but we don’t – we never do and we will laugh, cry, smile and clap along to all of them right up to the big ho ho ho itself.
But the BIIIIIGGGGG news out of Universal this week (and it’s not Christmas related) is…….. they are testing the Velocicoaster!! OMG – we thought it looked amazing from the start, just from the look of the track, then we saw the virtual rendering, then we saw the velociraptors being lifted in – and now we have SEEN the coaster being tested. Actually running on the track and tested. Honestly we are that excited about it. Cannot wait to see that opening up and the first riders who get to go on it.
Also this week over at WDW the ride cars for the Guardians of the Galaxy coaster were revealed – they look pretty snazzy too. Oh and also you can now snag a Rise of the Resistance Boarding Pass from 7am and you don’t have to actually be in the park. Fantastic news – no more leaping out of bed while it’s still dark and arriving at the park half asleep, or dealing with the follow up version of that which was a 10am opening when everyone turned up at Hollywood Studios at the same time so you all tripped over each other standing just inside the entrance and everyone trying to get a pass at the same time. Progress!
Right – that’s our little catch up and the start of the holiday season over in Orlando. Here in the UK we are a little limited for a few more weeks but we are hoping the Christmas season may still be a celebration, no doubt we will find a way. In the meantime we shall watch vlogs, sing along, laugh and clap along, and Tracey has made the Christmas mince pies this afternoon, so it does smell like Christmas in our house today and we may well have a little holiday themed treat ourselves this afternoon.
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