Apparently I am worse than a drill sergeant!

[txtara]

Hello all! We just returned from Christmas week with the mouse. I do not have time for a long , drawn out trip report but thought I would leave a few of our experiences here for you. Let me start off by saying I was terrified of the crowd stories but was pleasantly surprised. I am one that wants to do everything...hence the title. We visited the parks on the 24th thru the 29th and had weather ranging from warm to OMG THIS IS NOT FLORIDA WEATHER! We stayed in a 2 bedroom condo at Westgate Lakes Resort. Have friends that own there and got us a deal that we just could not pass up. It was nice. We had an updated room overlooking the lake.

Monday 12/24: Started the morning at AK. Made "Rope Drop". We rode Safari, Dinosaur, EE, visited with Russell and Dug, and saw Bug's Life. Left at 10:45. Did not use a single fast pass. From there we went to EPCOT. We got FP's for Soarin, rode Nemo, saw Turtle Talk, and then made our way back to Germany for CP reservations.

Biergarten: YUMMY! We ate....well....everything...

After lunch...or the glutinous feast as I call it...we wandered the countries until it was time for the CP. I am soooo glad that we did the package because people had started lining up 3 hours before start. We saw Gary Sinise. It was just awesome. Brought most of us to tears.

When the Candelight Processional was over we jumped on the boat back to Future World, rode Soarin, Spaceship Earth, and Mission Space. Oh...we also got a snack at Sunshine Seasons after Soarin. The CP package also includes priority seating for Illuminations as well. That was stunning. They add a little extra for Christmas.

Overall, the crowds were not bad. AK was empty while we were there, however there were many people coming in as we left. Epcot was busy, but no different than a June day.

It was a wonderful Christmas Eve.

 

[txtara]

Christmas Day:
Today was Hollywood Studios! Yes, had the family out of the house at 7:15 again! As soon as we made it through bag check and the gates, I made my way to Toy Story. The wait was only 15 minutes so we got FP's and rode. Well, we ended up getting an extra ride! TSM two times in a row...Merry Christmas to us! Man did my arm hurt though. We continued on and got FP's for RR, rode Movie Ride, saw Little Mermaid, and then Lights, Motors, Action. When we walked in that morning they gave us FP's for the first show. It is a great show. After the show we went to RR and the Backlot Tour, and got FP's for Star Tours. We actually had FP's for Tower of Terror that we had let expire as we got held up elsewhere. I took my inlaws and 2 of my kids to the drawing class and my DH took the other daughter to see if they could use the FP's. I told him they would not let him use them...no way...no how....I read the boards...everyone says...wait..what?....yep! They let him use them. Oh, well. After that we rode Star Tours and got the heck out of dodge! We left the massive crowds that the afternoon brought and headed back to our condo for dinner.
After dinner we headed back to HS to see the lights and Fantasmic. The Osborne Lights are....wow....we stayed for at least 30 minutes. Just awesome. Do not miss them if you are there for the holidays. On the way to Fantasmic, my DD's used our Toy Story FP's from that morning. The ride actually shut down that morning so there FP's were good all day. We caught the 10 pm Fantasmic and headed home.

Another very long day...pretty sure I fell into a coma that night. Again, crowds were very manageable before 12 and after 7.

 

[txtara]

Wednesday 12/26: Magic Kingdom
I actually let us sleep in a little this day. Today is the day that I learned a valuable lesson regarding the MK at Christmas..will share that later.

I believe we got to into the MK around 10. My goal was to knock out Tomorrow Land first....and we did. Then the rain came. Or course I forgot the ponchos. I broke down and bought them...and then the rain stopped. JUST LIKE THAT! UGH! Anyway, we got FP's for Splash Mountain, watched the parade, rode Splash Mountain, and then headed out. Crazy crowds, crazy strollers, crazy scooters. We once again had dinner at home and headed back to the park. Only me, DH , DMIL, and DD went back that night. The rain had brought in a cold front so there was a mass exodus from the park. We did not get back in to the park until 8:30. We rode HM, Pirates, Jungle Cruise all walk on. We watched Celebrate the Magic and the Fireworks, rode Splash walk on, and then headed back out.

Valuable lesson of the day:
At Christmas get to the Magic Kingdom when it opens. Leave at 12. Come back at 7.

 

[txtara]

Thursday 12/27:
Back to the Magic Kingdom. This morning we are doing Fantasy Land. Pretty sure we were running a little late this morning. We saw Philharmagic, rode PeterPan, and wandered into New Fantasyland. Oh....did I mention it was cold? Thank goodness the sun was out. Ok. the New Fantasyland was...well.....overwhelming. Got some LeFou's Brew...which was yummy by the way...and continued to wander around towards Dumbo. Apparently everyone in the Magic Kingdom had the same idea. I started feeling claustrophobic. So, I left. I never did ride Dumbo or anything else in there. Maybe next time.

So, crowds were crazy.Wait times were crazy. What did we do? We saw shows. Went to Hall of Presidents, Tiki Room, and rode the Riverboat. Then we left. We did catch the Move it! Street Party on the way out. We again had dinner and came back later. That night it was COLD! Shivering cold! We again rode Jungle Cruise, Haunted Mansion, and Pirates. We had more of a wait but nothing horrible. Crowds were definitely heavier. Tonight we watched the MSEP, Celebrate the Magic, and the Fireworks. Afterwards we rode IASM and headed out. We were popsicles by then.

 

[txtara]

Friday 12/28:

So today was my inlaws last day at the parks. I decided we would head back over to AK and see some of the shows over there. We did not get there until about 10. We saw Lion King, took some pictures with the characters in Camp Minnie/Mickey, and then toured the Pangani Forest Trail. We had lunch today in the park. We had been bringing sandwiches in everyday but today ate at Flame Tree. The food was great. No complaints from anyone. After lunch we saw the bird show, the parade, did the Jungle Trek and then headed out. After dinner that night it started to rain...well pour. Me and my 2 oldest DD's grabbed the ponchos and headed out to HS for a few hours. My middle DD wanted to ride Tower of Terror again and the oldest wanted to see the lights again. So super mom to the rescue. We were also able to see the new Capt Jack attraction also. I rather enjoyed it. Feels like Johnny Depp is right there in that room! We took our wet selves home and crashed for the night.

Tomorrow is our last day and I still have not ridden Test Track....lets do this!

 

[txtara]

Saturday 12/29:

Ok....walked into EPCOT at 8. ME and oldest DD ran to TT and got FP's. I sent the rest of the family to Soarin to wait for us there. We get there and they are nowhere to be found. Surely they did not get lost. No one is answering phones, texts.....nothing. So, me and the DD get in line. It is only a 10 minute wait. While we are standing in line my DD goes on Facebook and my DH had posted that he was riding Soarin with no wait...yep....they rode without us!!! Anyway, after Soarin we rode the Land, and then TT. Since we had not had breakfast we decided to head over to France to eat. My youngest DD picked up the Agent P adventure on the way there. Funniest thing happened in France....my DH ran into an employee that he had gone to high school with. Anyway, after our snack and Agent P we hopped the monorail over to the GF to check out the sites. This is where crazy begins...we left the GF by monorail, got the bus to AKL, had lunched and walked around, bus to Epcot, walked through to the International Gateway, boat to Beach Club, and then bus back to MK. Got on the train to FronteirLand and got FP's for BTMR. My oldest had been looking for this sweatshirt and could not find it in her size. They check for us and find it at AK. So, what did we do? We hopped the monorail to the TTC, then a bus to AK. Thank the lord the store outside the entrance had the sweatshirt. Right back on the bus to the TTC, on the monorail, and then dinner at MK. Used the FP's for BTMR, rode Splash one last time, watched the castle show and fireworks one last time, and then rode HM one last time. After that crazy day it was time to say good bye to Disney.

We had a great trip. Then next morning my oldest informs me that I am worse than summer marching band. I will take that as a compliment.

Yes, Christmas crowds can be crazy but we never waited longer than 15 minutes for any ride. Have a plan and it can be done. Honestly, I will take Christmas crowds over summer heat anyday.