A December Do-Over Trip for the Books!-Updated 12/2!

[JessM]

A December Do-Over Trip for the Books!

To all who come to this happy place: Welcome.

Welcome to this hopefully very entertaining pre-trip report!

Let me first start off with the who!

Im Jess, Im 24 years old but still a child at heart. I have a BS in Civil Engineering but I am currently working as a fuel system engineer. I fell into my job randomly but I love it! I also love Disney, skiing, hiking, boating, ie anything that will get me outdoors.

Ive been going to Disney since I was 4 years old. Ive been at least 20 times and its truly my happy place, my tired place as well, but mostly my happy place. Theres no sleeping in Disney! I normally only get down there for a few days, and this trip is no different, so I try to make the most of the time we are there!

Favorites:

Park: Magic Kingdom
Attraction: Everest
Movies: Tangled, Peter Pan, Aladdin, Lion King
Character: Rapunzel, Eugene, Peter Pan, Wendy

Mom, my wonderful Mother, and best friend, loves Disney almost as much as I do. She loves the rides and shows. She loves to travel and is always happy to go to Disney.

Favorites:

Park: Magic Kingdom
Attraction: BTMRR
Movies: Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast
Character: Ariel, Belle

Dad, he loves Disney as much as the rest of us. He loves the quality and value he feels we get from Disney vacations. He had made it possible for us to go pretty much every year since I was a child.

Favorites:

Park: Epcot
Attraction: World Showcase
Movies: Beauty and the Beast, Lion King, Aladdin
Character: Aladdin, Simba

My parents started and fueled my Disney obsession. They have been taking trips since the mid eighties and love Disney almost as much as I do. I have a very close relationship with my parents and they are some of my favorite travel companions. Sometimes, I even think they have more energy than I do. We all love to go, go, go at Disney.

Stay tuned for the Ws, plans, eats and other preparations!​

 

[JessM]

The W's!
The Itinerary!
Online Check In!
The ADRs
48 Days to Go! Magic Bands!
Tickets are Linked!
Magic Bands!
3 Days to Go!
-Updated 12/2!

Disney Prep/Phase 1 Griswald Family Christmas/Real Life!

The Plans!
Day 1! Travel and Epcot (With FP+)
Day 2! Universal and MVMCP (Hopefully!)
Day 3! Epcot and MK!
Day 4! MK and Epcot and HS!
Day 5! HS and MK!
Day 6! AK!

Real Life Updates:
Real Life Update 1: Weekend in NY!

 

[JessM]

The W’s!

Who: Scroll Up to my First Post!

What:

A 4 day Christmastime trip to Disney! With one day at Universal!

Where:

We decided we are going to stay on Disney property for our entire stay. We are hoping the lines won’t be too bad over at Universal and we won’t regret not staying on site. My Dad always rents a car so driving back and forth to Universal one day during our trip will be easy peasy. My Mom and I are insisting on starting and finishing with Disney anyways.

We are staying at the POP Century! I booked a preferred room for Spencer and I and my parents did the same for themselves.

I am hoping to get a room in the 50’s because I’ve never stayed over there. Cross your fingers for me!

My family used to always stay deluxe. But once my brother stopped coming to Disney with us, we never spent any time in the room, we traveled in December so we didn’t use the pools much, and even with just 3 of us we needed an extra bathroom. Conveniently, around the same time POP opened! We have been staying there pretty much ever since. We love the theming and feel of the resort. We also like having a full food court, we used to stay at the Beach Club and they don’t have much for grab and go breakfast. We don’t spend much time in the room as I said so the limited space the values provide works fine for us, plus its inexpensive enough that getting two rooms is no big deal. When I go with just my parents, my Mom and I actually share and we stick my Dad by himself, he snores haha!

When:

December 5th-December 10th, 2013!

Yay Christmas Trip!

We are flying SW out of our home airport at 11am December 5th and arriving at MCO at 5pm!

Our flight home on December 10th isn’t until 6:30pm so we plan on going to a park most of the day!

This give us almost 4 full days at Disney (counting the evening 12/5 and the morning/afternoon 12/10) and one day at Universal!

I’m so excited! We normally fly in Thursday night too late to do anything, and take off early Tuesday. We get almost a whole extra day this way!

Why:

In December 2012, I headed down to Disney with Spencer, My parents and my Aunt and Uncle. I have been writing a trip report and its still in progress here: 3 Days, 2 "Adults", 1 Christmas Trip to Make DBF a Believer!

The trip in 2012 was originally supposed to just be Spencer and myself. My parents were set to go in October with my Aunt and Uncle. However, my Grandfather got sick and passed away around that same time so they had to postpone their trip. My parents were already thinking about joining Spencer and I, so they decided they would and my Aunt and Uncle agreed to come along as well. Great!

We got down to Disney and my aunt got sick. Her heart was beating like crazy, she felt faint, and she passed out one day. It was really scary! After 2 days in an Orlando area hospital they determined her potassium level was low, that was it, a few supplements and she felt much better! Sadly, at this point she, my uncle and my parents missed a good chunk of their vacation.
I felt bad for my folks sitting in the hospital while we were at Disney having fun. So we decided to do a do-over trip this year with just us! My Aunt and Uncle are great, and we love them to pieces, but we are excited to go just Spencer, myself and my parents.

We all love love love Disney (well maybe not Spencer so much but he’s getting there!) and we all can walk all day no problem, and we are all just go go go type people. We all travel very well together and we couldn’t be more excited to get this Do-Over trip on the road!

Stay Tuned for ADRs and the Plans! Outfits and Pre-Trip Purchases coming soon too!​

 

[wiigirl]

Following along!

 

[JessM]

Following along!

I can't wait to share more trip details!

 

[JessM]

Real Life Update #1

Weekend in New York!

Spencer and I spent a weekend in NYC recently and got some Disney walking training in! : )

At first the plan was to just drive down Saturday to Long Island for a Wedding Saturday night but we decided to drive down Friday and spend the night in Manhattan.

Spencer had just started work so we couldn’t leave early but we got there around 10:30pm Friday night. Spencer had a cold so we just checked in, valeted the car and went to sleep but we were planning on getting some sight seeing in before the wedding on Saturday!

We stayed at the Hampton Inn Times Square South, it was really nice!

The rooms in NYC are so small but nice!

Itty bitty sink!

We woke up on Saturday morning and had breakfast (free and delicious!). We gave our bags to the bellhop and took off into the city! I have only been to NYC twice so I was excited even though we were just going to walk around.

We walked the two blocks to Times Square and looked around…

Disney!

We went in the M&M store but moved on quickly. My main goal was to walk around Central Park. It’s the only “big” attraction I didn’t hit on my only tourist trip to the city.

We walked to the park and about half way around it. Around 2 hours total just walking, excellent Disney training!

The boathouse from 27 dresses I think?! Right?

Love this fountain, its in so many movies.

We left Central Park and started to wander back towards Times Square, but we, I mean I, wanted to go by Rockefeller plaza.

I want to see some sort of show in here someday!

Pretty bad selfie

Lego Plaza!

He’s in Disney too!

We wandered back to Time Square and stopped for lunch

Spencer got the biggest hot dog I’ve ever seen!

The food here was great, its off to the side by the Disney store!

We ate, walked around a little bit more and went to pick up our luggage. We had a Wedding to get too!

We drove the hour or so out to Long Island and checked into the Melville Hilton. We got upgraded to the executive level, so fancy!

The rooms were pretty nice too.

We showered, changed and headed over to the church for the wedding. It was a beautiful ceremony.

After the ceremony we came back to the hotel to freshen up and drop the car off. The lovely bride and groom arranged a shuttle for everyone staying at the Hilton to the reception. So convenient!

We headed to Cocktail hour first. And OMG food everywhere. I’ve never seen anything like it. It was too dark out on the patio to get any good pictures but oh my so much food! More Disney training here folks!

The Reception itself was beautiful

And they had a photobooth, SO much fun! If I every get married I'm having one... one that people are encouraged to visit more than once too ; )

We’re attractive right?

And the reception food was incredible. Look at that menu!

The salad was huge and fresh. I had the steak and it was perfect! So much food, it was an overload, like serious food coma.

And then dessert came…

This entire plate was to die for!

It was seriously so good!

We had such a great time at this wedding it was incredible! The only problem was I ate way too much and was so sleepy by the time it ended haha! I need to work this out before Disney ; )

I’ll get back to the trip plans on my next update!!​

 

[JessM]

The Itinerary!

Thursday December 5th:

Flight leaves at 11am!

I’m going to go into work for a couple hours until 9:30am, and then have my lovely co-workers give me a ride over to the airport.

My parents and I are taking the same flight and we will land in Orlando at 5pm!

I’m not sure when Spencer will be down yet but most likely he will come in on a late flight tonight and he will get stuck on the Magical Express to the resort haha!

We are getting a rental car so we will pick up our luggage and head over to the pick up the car!

I really wanted to do MVMCP tonight but I think since we would just barely make party time if everything when perfectly we will skip it for tonight. We will probably drop our stuff at the hotel and hit up Epcot or Downtown Disney. We may also go over to HS for the Osborne lights and then hit up Epcot for Illuminations. We may also hit up Jellyrolls at the end of the night, my parents have never been and I want to take them!

Friday December 6th: Universal/IOA! MVMCP??

Hopefully this will be our Universal day. Spencer really wants to ride Transformers so we will wait for him if he has to fly down Friday night because of work and go Saturday instead, but hopefully we can go Friday because I don’t want to spend money on an EP!

We are going to do both parks in one day because there is a lot of stuff we don’t have any interest in. We are mostly going for Harry Potter!

I’m thinking we may stay at Universal until 4pm and then head back to Disney and go to MVMCP. I really want to go and the more I look at Universal the less time I really want to spend there. Plus my Dad has decided he doesn’t want to spend anytime there, since it was his idea I’m not sure where all that came from but whatever.

I also may book the Hoop De Doo Revue for when we get back to property but only the 4pm or 8pm show are available, we’ll see I really want to see the decorations at Fort Wilderness!

Saturday December 7th: Epcot! And Magic Kingdom!

We will probably start out in Epcot this morning to do the big stuff, Soarin, TT, MS etc. We will most likely brave the MK crowds to see Wishes and the MSEP tonight or at least I will! We were originally planning on doing to CP tonight but Whoopi Goldberg is narrating and we weren’t huge fans of her last year.

We have an ADR on the monorail loop at 8pm, so we may just end up watching the Wishes from the Poly Beach and then heading into MK for the MSEP, or we may ditch the ADR all together! I also booked the Dessert Party for tonight so maybe we will ditch dinner and just get desserts instead!

Dessert Party 2012

Sunday December 8th: Magic Kingdom! And Epcot!

We are starting out our day at the MK, we will most likely spend the entire day there. We are heading to Epcot that evening for the CP and Illuminations! I booked a CP dinner package. We may even get crazy and head to HS for EMH!

Monday December 9th: Hollywood Studios! And Magic Kingdom!

We are going to start out at HS today. Spencer and I love TSM, RNRC and TOT. Oh what a fun morning! We may stay for the lights at 6pm, Wishes isn’t until 9 and the Dessert party is at 8. So we may see the lights tonight at 6pm and then head to MK if we don’t see them on Thursday.
Either way we will be at MK most of the evening, for the Wishes Dessert Party and the electrical parade if we don’t get a chance on Saturday.

Hopefully it will be warm this trip so we don’t look like this at the Dessert Party.

It was 40 degrees out that night and I was NOT prepared haha!

Tuesday December 10th: Animal Kingdom!

We are going to spend the day at AK since we can do everything we want leisurely before catching our flight at 6:30pm. We will likely pack up the luggage and put it in the car when we head to the park that morning and stay at AK til around 4. I haven’t made any ADRs for this day any suggestions? We finished AK last year easily by 2:30pm so I’d love to add a lunch ADR. Does BOMA do a late lunch? Is it any good?

Heading home : (

Unfortunately I can’t figure out where to stick MVMCP. I’m the only one who really wants to go so its been a hard sell. I’m tempted to just hang out at Universal Friday until 4ish and then head over to MK but that’s a long day. This is a short trip so we want to pack a lot of stuff in to a short time span. What do you guys think? If we hit MK for Wishes one night, maybe two can I get my fill haha?!​

 

[JessM]

Online Check In!

So I did online check in this morning. I got an error message but it looks like I checked in on my MDE dashboard. I'll try again tomorrow but does anyone know if now that it say "Modify Check In" instead of "Complete Online Check In" that's I'm actually checked in now??

I still can't customize my magicbands, I tried Hopefully that option will pop up soon! I wanna try them out.​

 

[JessM]

The ADRs!

I’ve booked a few ADRs for this trip. My parent’s aren’t big eaters so we don’t have many but I am excited anyways because we have some new things to try!

Thursday December 5th

Arrival Day: I didn’t make any ADRs for our arrival day. We won’t get in until 5pm. We will probably just grab some counter service at POP before heading out for the evening.


Friday December 6th

Universal/MVMCP (Hopefully!)

I’m not going to make any ADRs for this day either. I’m not sure how long we will be at Universal and if I do go to MVMCP then I’ll just grab some CS to maximize party time.

Saturday December 7th


Epcot and MK day

I have an 8:00pm Ohana reservation right now but I want to switch this out for a HDDR reservation. I’m hoping to get into the 6:45pm show, I’m still trying.

We love the HDDR and I think Spencer will enjoy the all you eat ribs haha!

I especially love the cornbread!

I’d also love to see the decorations at Fort Wilderness before heading over to MK for the evening!


Sunday December 8th

MK and Epcot Day

We are starting off our day at the Crystal Palace at 8:30am! I’m excited to grab some empty Main street Pics and meet Pooh and Friends

Crystal Palace on our last trip!

We also have the Garden Grill Booked as part of the CP package at 4pm. I’ve never been here before but I’m excited the food looks delicious.

And Mickey looks so cute in his overalls!

Monday December 9th

Hollywood Studios and MK again

I haven’t booked a lunch ADR yet but I think I’m going to book 50’s Primetime café. My Mom really wants to try it and I think a late lunch would set us up nicely to gorg on desserts later

Tonight will be the night we attend the Dessert Party I think, we have done
it twice before and I can't wait to do it again!

Spencer’s favorite!

Tuesday December 10th

Animal Kingdom

I haven’t booked any ADRs for today, I might book a lunch at TH to hold us over for the flight home. Any other suggestions??​

 

[DisneyKid4Life]

Hi Jess, finally checking out your December PTR. So glad you're getting a do-over.

Yup you are for sure packing as much in as possible. Of course I completely approve.

It's hard to advise whether to do the Christmas Party or not. Obviously regular Wishes is limited in December with all the parties. I too plan to see it as much as possible. The only thing I can say is that if you've never done a Disney party, they are pretty special. The fireworks are breathtaking with all the perimeter fireworks and the Christmas parade is fantastic too. Plus all the rare characters. Just the atmosphere is so amazing. It's too bad you're leaving on the 10th as quite a few Disers are at that party (me too). I certainly don't think you'd be disappointed in MVMCP. I know I loved in when I did it 4 years ago. I almost considered going twice this trip.

Also, I've read that most people are getting the error message for check in. Based on that, everyone has said that if you have the "Modify Check In", you should be good. Of course I can't 100% confirm since I haven't done it myself just yet.

All your plans look great!!

 

[missangelalexis]

I'm here! It's so nice to see someone else so close to their family like I am Wow your plans sound so fun, you guys sure are going to do a lot! Fingers crossed that you get the 50s section at Pop!

 

[JessM]

Hi Jess, finally checking out your December PTR. So glad you're getting a do-over.

Yup you are for sure packing as much in as possible. Of course I completely approve.

It's hard to advise whether to do the Christmas Party or not. Obviously regular Wishes is limited in December with all the parties. I too plan to see it as much as possible. The only thing I can say is that if you've never done a Disney party, they are pretty special. The fireworks are breathtaking with all the perimeter fireworks and the Christmas parade is fantastic too. Plus all the rare characters. Just the atmosphere is so amazing. It's too bad you're leaving on the 10th as quite a few Disers are at that party (me too). I certainly don't think you'd be disappointed in MVMCP. I know I loved in when I did it 4 years ago. I almost considered going twice this trip.

Also, I've read that most people are getting the error message for check in. Based on that, everyone has said that if you have the "Modify Check In", you should be good. Of course I can't 100% confirm since I haven't done it myself just yet.

All your plans look great!!

I think I am going to go to the Christmas Party Friday, I think I'll pay for Spencer's ticket and make him go with me haha. I went to one back when I was 10 or 11 and loved it so I'm excited to go again. Basically, I want to meet Eugene and Rapunzel, that's a good reason to go right?!

I'm totally a Christmas junkie too, it will be great.

We are certainly packing it in but I think we'd have a hard time doing a leisurely Disney vacation so I'm good with it. My parents have the same motto that we'll sleep at home. Most of the time down there they are dragging me around!

I'm here! It's so nice to see someone else so close to their family like I am Wow your plans sound so fun, you guys sure are going to do a lot! Fingers crossed that you get the 50s section at Pop!

Thanks for following along! I love hanging with my parents and I totally don't mind going on vacation with them. A lot of my friends think I'm nuts but I'm good with it! I agree its nice to see someone who feels the way I do!

We are certainly doing a lot but my folks are a lot like me they don't like to sleep in Disney haha! They have more energy than I do when we are down there.

 

[JessM]

48 Days to Go!

Just stopping in for a quick update!

I was able to go online and finish my online check in and customize our magic bands yesterday!

I ordered mine and Spencer's yesterday afternoon. It was super easy and quick!

I also helped my parents get theirs ordered too.

I got my ticket linked and did some FP+ selections. Its was super easy!

HOWEVER

Of course I couldn't get my parents tickets to link. Go figure so after spending quite a bit of time on the phone with IT there is a heat ticket in with the Fix it Felix team so hopefully it will get fixed in the next week.

So I'm going to hold off on sharing our detailed plans and FP+ selections because I'm sure what I have will change when I finally get my parent's tickets linked and FPs selected.

We are all linked together though, so that's a step in the right direction.

Only 48 more days to go I can't wait!​

 

[missangelalexis]

Woo hoo for getting to customize your bands! Hopefully the ticket situation gets sorted out soon!

 

[JessicaKnits]

I'm totally in! I have always wanted to go in the fall or really anytime when the Christmas decorations are out, but unfortunately I can't, because of work. So I will live vicariously through your trip report when you get back! I'm also a huge New York nut, so I'm super jealous of your weekend trip!

 

[JessM]

Woo hoo for getting to customize your bands! Hopefully the ticket situation gets sorted out soon!

I'm too excited about the bands, I am that person who is always misplacing their ticket!

I'm totally in! I have always wanted to go in the fall or really anytime when the Christmas decorations are out, but unfortunately I can't, because of work. So I will live vicariously through your trip report when you get back! I'm also a huge New York nut, so I'm super jealous of your weekend trip!

Thanks for following along! I'm so glad I can go to Disney pretty much whenever, I have a super flexible work schedule. Hopefully my trip report will not disappoint! I <3 NYC, I wish it wasn't so expensive i would go way more often!

 

[JessM]

Tickets are all Linked!

I called Disney again today, I was on hold for an hour but they finally got my parent's tickets linked Can I just say how much I love and hate the Disney hold music? Hello Soarin Score stuck in my head the rest of the day!

I was able to copy over my FP+ reservations so it worked! MDE wasn't functioning completely today so we are going to finalize our plans tomorrow, then I will share them with all of you!​

 

[JessM]

Day 1 Plans!

Travel and Epcot Day!

The plan today is to get up and get my butt to work early! Hopefully around 7am to finish up some last minute things before heading home around 9:15am!

My parents are going to meet me at my condo where they will leave their car for the rest of the week. After a teary good bye to baby Baxter and we’ll grab a taxi to the airport to begin our adventure.

Baxter while I was packing for Disney last year.

We are flying SW (first time out of our home town!) and we take off at 11am. Hopefully everything will go smoothly and we’ll land in Orlando at 5pm!

We are checking bags so my Mom and I will stop and grab those off the carousel while my Dad goes and picks up the rental car from Dollar.

Before long we will see this!

Then its straight to POP!

We love POP and this is our 5th or 6th time staying here. I requested the
50’s section so hopefully we will get our requests! It’s the only section I don’t think I’ve stayed in yet.

Pictures of POP from a trip back in HS

Hopefully we will be checking in around 6:30pm : )
After we check in we’ll drop our bags and head straight out to Epcot!

We will most likely drive over.

If we get extremely lucky timing wise we’ll be visiting the Character Spot with FP+ between 6-7pm. What better way to kick off the trip then by meeting the main Mouse himself!

Next up we have FP+ for TT between 7-8pm, none of us have been on the new ride yet so I’m excited!

My Dad and I will most likely ride MS before we hit up Soarin with FP+ between 8-9pm.

This plan may end up just being my Mom and I as I wouldn’t be surprised if my Dad runs to see the CP, whatever more rides for us!
We may try to ride Living with the Land or Nemo are Soarin before we grab a spot for Illuminations around 9:15pm for the 9:30pm show!

If this all works out I might be a FP+ believer! Haha, but seriously getting to pre-book two of Epcot’s best rides for a late arrival is awesome!
We may stop into the Dueling Pianos bar at the Boardwalk before calling it a night, I really want to take my parents but we’ll probably be wiped out!

Dueling Pianos last year

It will be off to bed when we get back to the hotel to prep for our first full day!


Spencer still hasn't decided if he will join us for the trip at all yet, no one wants to be the first one at a new job to go on vaca! If he does join us he'll be flying in tonight around 9:30pm and be taking DME to POP! I hope he can join us but its not looking promising right now ​

 

[JessicaKnits]

Oh I totally hope you get to check out JellyRolls!! I have planned to go on both of my previous trips and the first time, we got stuck in a torrential downpour in Downtown Disney, even with a poncho on I got totally soaked because the rain was hitting the ground so hard that it bounced up underneath the poncho. So I was in no mood at that point.

The second time we were just too exhausted from our long day. It was over 90 that day in March, which was a record high for Florida that day!

I hope it works out for you and then you can report back on how it went!

 

[DisneyKid4Life]

Holy cow, you're actually working on travel day? No way I could do that.

Haha, I love those POP pictures. I just sat here giggling at how far away you are in the pics. It does give a good perspective of the size of the icons though.

Sounds like a good first day. Admittedly, the ability to pre-book a FP for late is quite cool. I tended to do that a lot. Go to one park in the morning when the waits are low before heading to another with FP's already in hand. From that perspective I do like the FP+.

I sure do hope Spencer gets to meet you there, but I fully get not wanting to take vacation so early in a job. Still hoping it somehow works out.