After we got all settled in at Kidani, we decided to go see it snow in Celebration, FL. In my 30 trips to WDW, I've always wanted to visit Celebration, FL - known as a town developed by the Disney folks. I had heard it was a neat place to see, so two years ago when we were at Disney for Christmas, we planned to go to church on Christmas Eve and then go watch it snow in downtown Celebration.
However, on that trip 2 years ago, we put Celebration Hotel into our GPS and we began to drive. We drove around in places around Orlando we'd never been to before and suddenly found ourselves on a pretty desolate road. It was pitch dark and it was starting to get a little scary. When we could see, we realized we were driving down a dirt road surrounded by orange groves. No lights, no homes, no nothing in sight. Soon, our GPS said "go straight ahead and
GO OFF ROAD." It was then we knew for sure, we were not headed for Celebration. So our family joke about Celebration since then has been that if you try to head there, the GPS will take you "off road to be mugged or killed!"
So because of this, it took my family 2 years to "get over that" and want to try a visit to Celebration again.
So we had a very nice dinner at the bistro inside the Melia Hotel in Celebration. We had eaten there once before (its on the outskirts of Celebration, you can see it from Hwy. 192). I had a restaurant.com gift certificate for this place and once again, the food didn't disappoint. Sorry, I don't have any photos of this meal.
After dinner, we put the Celebration Hotel into our GPS once again and prayed.
This time, based on the traffic going the same direction we were going
it was obvious we were headed in the right direction this time. Let me tell you, Celebration was CROWDED!
It literally took about 30+ minutes to drive from the Melia to the downtown area of Celebration and then another 10 minutes or so to find a place to park. Now, normally this would probably be a 2-5 minute endeavor all told.
So, apparently we were NOT the only ones who knew of this wonderful town and their nightly "snow" downtown.
Once we parked and began strolling around, we were impressed! Let me just suffice it to say, it is now my goal to someday LIVE in Celebration, FL. Most beautiful town I've been to! In fact, DD20 and I went back a few days after Christmas and just drove around town during the day. Oh yeah, I wanna live here!
So, here are the photos from our wonderful night in Celebration.
DD's by the lake
The girls and I by the Celebration Town Christmas Tree
Town Center (where the snow falls)
They even had ice skating available. To me as a WI girl, "ice skating" on plastic seems odd, but the kids doing it seemed to be enjoying it. Plus, there was a long line to do it!
It's SNOWING!!
My girls by the fountain
Other activities included a train ride through town (LONG line for this)
Horse & carriage rides
They even had carolers wandering around
We also got ice cream from this adorable shop downtown (sorry no pics). AND then we wandered into the Celebration Hotel (it DOES exist GPS!). Gorgeous place!
Then we left. Overall, we spent 2 very pleasant hours at this event and enjoyed it very much. This will certainly be part of our Disney Christmas traditions in the future!
Up next - Hollywood Studios and the Osborne Family Lights!!
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