1/11/25-1/25/25: 2 weeks, 5 people, a million “it’s cold”s: our freezing but amazing trip: COMPLETED

[Psymonds]

View attachment 947458View attachment 947459

These photos of National always remind me of Long Beach before their expansion.... although long beach was a little more art deco

I'll be through there soon for a conference.

 

[disneydreamer1980]

These photos of National always remind me of Long Beach before their expansion.... although long beach was a little more art deco

I'll be through there soon for a conference.

We usually fly out of Baltimore/Washington International but flights were so much cheaper in and out of Reagan and it’s not far so we went through there this time. It’s a decent airport, smaller than most so easy to navigate. Never been to Long Beach airport (been to LAX though)

 

[Psymonds]

We usually fly out of Baltimore/Washington International but flights were so much cheaper in and out of Reagan and it’s not far so we went through there this time. It’s a decent airport, smaller than most so easy to navigate. Never been to Long Beach airport (been to LAX though)

I'm going to national harbor for a conference so it's easy, and alaska has a direct flight form SFO.
long beach in the old days was 4 gates and walk out to the planes, now it's got 10 or so gates, still air stairs.

lots of low key art deco details. They kept the old buidling but TSA and the gates are all out behind it now.

 

[disneydreamer1980]

I'm going to national harbor for a conference so it's easy, and alaska has a direct flight form SFO. View attachment 947716
long beach in the old days was 4 gates and walk out to the planes, now it's got 10 or so gates, still air stairs.

lots of low key art deco details. They kept the old buidling but TSA and the gates are all out behind it now.

National harbors a nice area, hopefully you’ll have a little bit of down time to check it out. And wow, the only airport I’ve ever been to where you board the plane with stairs outside like that was on the Cook Islands! I never knew there were any airports in America that still did that. That’s cool though.

 

[disneydreamer1980]

Wrap Up

I wanted to one last wrap-up post on our trip.
All in all, it was a magical trip. Although the weather really sucked, between the frequent rainy days and the bitter cold, we did have a few nice days in the first week of our trip. There was even a day or two where it was warm enough to swim!



Not that the weather stopped everybody. On one pretty cold day we saw a few people in the pool, even though the lifeguards were in coats! We were not expecting the level of cold we experienced on this trip. It literally snowed in parts of Florida while we were there; some days it was actually colder in Disney then it was back home, which was insane. It definitely put a damper on the night visits especially, having to walk around in coats and gloves. But other than our ruined fireworks dessert party, we still had a great time.

The last time we visited in January was 10 or more years ago. We usually go in Nov/Dec, so we were looking forward to a break from the Xmas decor and music at Disney, since that’s usually how we experience it. Now, I am a huge Xmas fan and a huge Disney fan, so Xmas in Disney is next level amazing. But, we see it so much that way that we were happy to see Disney as its normal, beautiful un-Xmas self. So we were very shocked to see Disney still decorated for Xmas in mid January!



Epcot was the only park not decorated, and I’m assuming it was because of the impending Festivslnof the Arts. AK was the only park that had Xmas music playing as well (or an Africanized version of it).



It felt really odd hearing Xmas music so far after the holiday. It didn’t last too long though, by the middle to end of our first week it was all gone.

In addition to seeing the parks without Xmas decor, another new thing to us were the Port Orleans resorts. When we originally booked the trip, we were going to arrive on Sunday. But I got to thinking how adding an extra day is always a great idea, lol, so I decided we would try a new-to-us resort for the night. We almost never get to stay at non-DVC resorts, so I decided for this one night, we’d try one. I was stuck between POR and Caribbean Beach, because they both are places we’ve never been, and they both sleep 5. I went with POR because it gets better reviews and it just looked really nice. It really is a beautiful resort.



It really gives you the feeling of being in the bayou. The grounds are beautiful and the attention to detail is amazing. The room was very well themed also.



Notice the frog prints/crowns on the headboard? And the cute lanterns for lights?
And the shipping crate that folds out into a bed? So cute.

The only thing is the room was small. Smaller than our BR studio.



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[disneydreamer1980]

Wrap Up continued


Although the room was a little small, it was functional and very cute. I don’t think we’d be able to spend a week or two there, due to the size with all 5 of us in there, but for a night or two it’s fine. I also wasnt happy about the lack of elevators. We had to (or DH and Bell Services had to) lug all of our stuff up the stairs because there was no elevator in our building. Other than these two issues, the resort was perfect.

One great thing about POR is its proximity to POFQ, and we took advantage of that by visiting FQ during our short stay at POR.



The theming here is awesome. Emma was not happy with me on our day there because she really wanted to swim in the FQ pool, because it looked so awesome, but there wasn’t time.



She brought that up repeatedly throughout the trip lol.

There were really nice areas to sit and enjoy the scenery here. We sat a while near this fountain.



The grounds were awesome and the buildings were too.




We’ve been a lot of places in the world but never New Orleans. So it was cool to somewhat experience a bit of it here.

And of course the food was good. Especially those beignets, omg they’re good!



There were a lot of marathon runners at the two PO resorts. We saw lots of them in the food courts at each resort. Must be popular places for marathoners to stay.

We really enjoyed our little bit of time at POR, and would like to visit there again in future trips. Our main resort of the trip though, was Wilderness lodge.



A beautiful resort. We stayed in the DVC building, Boulder Ridge, which is just a short, covered, wooden walkway away from the main building.



When the Bell Services CM at POR saw we were heading to WL next, he said “PO is really nice but WL is just amazing, you’re in for a real treat.” And he was right.

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[disneydreamer1980]

Wrap Up continued

This was our first time staying at WL/BR, although we’ve visited before. We absolutely loved it. I’d say, WL, AKL and Poly are the three best themed and most beautiful resorts. When you walk into WL lobby, your breath stops for a second.



The huge fireplace is eye catching



As is the bridge over the indoor stream



And there’s just so much in there to see. It’s almost a museum with all the Native artifacts and old things they have.



It was awesome getting to see this beautiful lobby every day. And the grounds were beautiful too.



Our building, Boulder Ridge, was just as beautiful inside.




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[disneydreamer1980]

Wrap Up

Boulder Ridge held some of Walt Disney’s actual possessions.



It was awesome to check everything out there, it was like staying in a museum.

Our room was a deluxe studio, on the fourth floor. It slept all five of us.





Here’s our balcony:



Here’s our views from that balcony:

To the left


Straight ahead


To the right


This room had great views. We also could watch and hear the electrical water pageant from our room.

Although we were a bit cramped and sharing one bathroom really sucked, it was sort of nice being in the same room together. We don’t get to see the older girls as much as we’d like to at home, with everyone being so busy, so it was nice to be together like that. It was also fun to watch movies together. We watched a movie most nights, with everyone laying in bed. It was fun.



We watched Wreck it Ralph on our first night in the studio. For some reason I took a picture of it lol.

WL also has great food. Geyser Point is awesome and that bison burger is so good. We didn’t try the Artist point (although we did eat here years ago before it was rethemed), but it looked beautiful. Roaring Fork was good and served its purpose well. And Whispering Canyon was awesome-good food and fun atmosphere. Gabe loved the Cowboy and Native American chairs.



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[disneydreamer1980]

Wrap Up continued

I want to also mention transportation from WL. There were of course busses, and the boat. The bus stop was very close to the BR building. Only a short walk away. And we had very good luck with bus timing this trip, for the most part. Of course we did only have like 2 wrapped busses all trip which was odd. Maybe they’re moving towards plain busses? I don’t know but I hope not.



We did share busses frequently, with either FW or the Contemporary. Thst was kind of annoying, but for the most part the busses were quick and effective.

The boat was only for going to MK and other resorts. We didn’t always take it to the MK because it could be very cold out on the water and we only once got the big, enclosed boat


We usually got one of these smaller obes


But the boat to MK is super convenient because not only is the dock directly in front of the park entrance but you also have your own security. Very nice.



All in all, we loved WL/BR and will definitely stay there again. I’m so happy we got to stay here.

Now, I want to go over our dining. There were a lot of changes to our ADRs. There were several days where we canceled or changed because of changes in plans or what we wanted to do. But our favorite meal of the trip for the food was the Tusker House.

That blue bread pudding was soooo good!

Our favorite quick service was Columbia Harbor House



Good food with great views.

My favorite food though was that Pull the Boxty from Raglan Road. The rest of that meal was just ok but this was amazing. I’ve been trying to find copycat recipes online with no luck.



I bought a lot of discounted gift cards before this trip and I vastly overestimated our food budget. We ended up cutting out some of our more expensive planned meals last minute (because we just didn’t want to eat there or we were somewhere else) and didn’t have as many snacks as I thought we would (budgeted for 2 per day per person) so we had a lot of money left on our giftcards at the end of the trip. Not a bad problem to have! Thank God they don’t expire lol.

We also all got new MB+s before this trip. It was fun to see them randomly light up or vibrate, especially in time to shows and the nighttime spectaculars. We also enjoyed playing with the golden statues with them. That was lots of fun. Sometimes it’s the little things



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[disneydreamer1980]

Wrap Up continued

This is the first trip we did an After Hours event. We’ve done Xmas parties, but this is a whole different thing. It’s way better. We will definitely be doing this again. Of course it’s awesome having little to no lines for rides and getting “free” drinks and snacks, but for me it’s worth the money just to feel like you have the park to yourself. Sometimes we’d walk a few minutes and see no one. It was awesome.



Beautifully empty MK

Extended evening hours were great too (at mk at least) and almost as empty as AH at times.

EEH at Epcot aren’t as good though imo.

Speaking of Epcot, this was our very first Festival of the Arts!



It was fun, but the lines to do a lot of the activities were long so we didn’t do them, so I feel like we didn’t get the full experience. I prefer Flower and Garden and the Holiday festival though.

There are two things we did this trip that we haven’t done in years. One was Tom Sawyers Island. Being that it won’t be around much longer I’m really glad we visited it. It was a lot of fun.

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The other thing is the MK train.



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[disneydreamer1980]

Wrap Up continued

Not only is the train convenient for getting around the park without having to walk but you see a lot of cool stuff. I’d totally forgotten about that part of it.


Scene from the train

The parks were great as always. The kids had a blast on the rides as usual



Lots of walking, as usual


And lots of magical family time



There were a few things we wanted to do that we never got around to (bird show at AK, conservation station at AK, beauty and the beast at DHS are the biggest ones I can think of) but we’ve done them before and we’ll get to them next time.

One negative thing would be the groups of Brazilian teenagers literally running around the park. They’re kids, I don’t blame them, but where’s the adult supervision? I was almost knocked over by some once in AK near Everest and I saw an older lady arguing with an adult leader of the group once near RnRC because someone from the group had ran into her husband and knocked his food and drink out of his hand. They jump off of a ride and immediately start running to wherever they’re going. There were A LOT of these groups in the parks, so beware if you go in January you may encounter them.





We bought a lot of souvenirs this trip. Gabe got a light saber, a Pandoran spear, a pirates of the Caribbean battleship Gabe, Lego sets and more. The girls got stuffed animals, Mickey ears, slippers, Lego sets, a bunch of stuff from Mitsukoshi and a lot more. DH only got the jacket, and I got my mug, a jacket, a spirit jersey and a bunch of other things. We also had to buy a small suitcase to bring souvenirs home in. There was one thing I forgot to buy though. I have a tradition of buying a refillable mug each trip, but somehow I forgot to do that this trip.


Some of my “collection” lol.

This trip was amazing and I’m sad it had to end. We loved our resort, had a great time in the parks, ate a lot of food and had a lot of fun, and other than the weather there’s not a thing I’d change about this trip. I’ll always remember this trip as our freezing but amazing trip, and I know my family will always remember this trip that way too.




Thanks for coming along with me and my family on our trip. It’s been a whole lot of fun. If anyone has any questions or comments about anything, I’d be happy to reply.

 

[ThreeBoyMama]

I enjoyed your report. Thanks for sharing!

 

[jo-jo]

Sorry to see it end. It was wonderful, I felt every "this was so good or fun" and every "we froze to death" remark.

Now, when do you start writing your preplanning trip report?????? You already have some gift cards, so it can't be too far off, right? And to quote the great Gabe......"when are we going to disney again , Mom".

Thank you again for taking the time to post. It's a lot of work.

 

[disneydreamer1980]

Sorry to see it end. It was wonderful, I felt every "this was so good or fun" and every "we froze to death" remark.

Now, when do you start writing your preplanning trip report?????? You already have some gift cards, so it can't be too far off, right? And to quote the great Gabe......"when are we going to disney again , Mom".

Thank you again for taking the time to post. It's a lot of work.

Thank you so much! It was a lot of fun to write this and relive the trip, and I’m glad you enjoyed it. As for our next trip, as of now we’re planning on going the last week of February into the first week of March, staying at Boardwalk or Poly, depending on who goes. Still working out the details but this trip will include Universal. We usually visit Universal the first or last 2-3 days of our trip, but we didn’t this time and all the kids missed it. Gabes a big Harry Potter fan and a big How to Train your Dragon fan, so he’s excited to go to the new Epic Universe at Universal. He’s also not very happy our next trips “so far away” but we have some other trips planned between now and then to different places, so at least he’ll have something else to look forward to before then. He’s most excited about going to Myrtle Beach this summer, he loves it there. In the meantime, to scratch our “Disney itch”, we’ll do monthly “Disney nights” where we watch a Disney movie, eat food themed to the movie, in a room decorated themed to the movie. It’s a lot of fun and because of these Disney nights my kids have seen just about every Disney movie, even the older more obscure ones, like Swiss Family Robinson. I think I posted some pics of a few of the Disney nights in my pre-trip report. That pre-trip report has the wrong picture of one of my daughters that was supposed to go on the trip, because originally she was supposed to go instead of Isabella. It also has an old pic of DH because that’s the one he wanted me to put on there lol. Anyway, I’m glad you enjoyed coming along on our trip and thanks for all of the great comments!

 

[disneydreamer1980]

I’m not sure how to insert a link to my pre-trip report, so hopefully this works. For anyone interested in how my trip lined up with my my pre-trip report.
https://www.disboards.com/threads/f...n-about-disney-so-i’m-starting-a-ptr.3953215/

 

[Paulaparm]

I really enjoyed reading this. Thanks for sharing!

 

[happysavermp]

Loved your trip report! We are a family of 5 that also stays in one room. I can’t believe that set up has worked for us every year so far seeing as all three kids have their own bedroom at home and range in age from 12-19. Must be Disney Magic! We bought the 14 day ticket for the first time to use this summer as we are going for 13 days. Normally we buy the 10 day ticket but the 14 day ticket was such a better deal! So glad your family had such a great time! Thanks for sharing!

 

[disneydreamer1980]

Loved your trip report! We are a family of 5 that also stays in one room. I can’t believe that set up has worked for us every year so far seeing as all three kids have their own bedroom at home and range in age from 12-19. Must be Disney Magic! We bought the 14 day ticket for the first time to use this summer as we are going for 13 days. Normally we buy the 10 day ticket but the 14 day ticket was such a better deal! So glad your family had such a great time! Thanks for sharing!

Thsnjs so much! That ticket is a great deal, and you’ll have tickets to the water park which will be nice in the summer! And 5 people in one room sounds a lot worse than it is. Like I said in my report, I actually enjoyed being so close together sometimes. And it’s much cheaper than getting 2 rooms or a multi bedroom villa, so you can stay longer! The closest to going in the summer we’ve ever done was May. Have a great trip and stay cool! I guess you’ll be there during Foid and Wine? That should be awesome! Have a great trip!

 

[Counting Stars]

What a wonderful trip report! Thanks so much for taking the time to share it- I am sure the discomfort of the temperatures will add to how memorable the trip will be over the years Some of our clearest memories from trips with our family are the "opps!" experiences that we can now laugh about. Love your wrap up as well. Thanks for sharing.

 

[disneydreamer1980]

What a wonderful trip report! Thanks so much for taking the time to share it- I am sure the discomfort of the temperatures will add to how memorable the trip will be over the years Some of our clearest memories from trips with our family are the "opps!" experiences that we can now laugh about. Love your wrap up as well. Thanks for sharing.

Thanks so much! And for sure this trip will be all the more memorable because of the freezing cold. And “oops” experiences making trips memorable is so true, I clearly remember one trip as a child where my father loaded the dishwasher in Old Key West and put in dish soap instead of dishwasher detergent and the entire kitchen area filled with bubbles lol. We still talk about that all these years later. Thanks again, glad you enjoyed the report!