104 days ‘til Christmas vacation (Apologies to Phineas and Ferb)

[snuggly duckling]

Welcome to my second attempt at a pre-trip report. I started one for our Christmas trip last year but got busy / distracted and well, yeah.

Now, as I plan another Christmas trip this year, I am kicking myself for not keeping up with it last year. I wish I could recall the logic behind some of the decisions we made last time around, but oh well.

We learned a ton last year on how to survive the busiest and (most wonderful) time of the year at WDW and are incorporating that knowledge this year.



So here goes!

Introductions shamelessly copied, I mean efficiently repurposed and refreshed lovingly (refurbished, if you will), from last year’s PTR:


“Sorry, Blondie. I don't do backstory, however I am becoming very interested in yours”

The cast of characters includes me, DH, DS7, and DD5. We live just outside Philadelphia. I work in the marketing department at a bank and DH is a hematologist.

DH went to WDW with his family once in 1986.

Though often promised by my parents growing up, I didn’t go to WDW for the first time until my junior year in college.

We went again on our honeymoon.

Some friends convinced us to do a joint family trip with them in 2012. And it started. We had so much fun, we did it again in 2013. Then after a painful extended family Christmas experience in 2012, our little family decided to go again for Christmas in 2013. And then we upgraded those tickets to Annual Passes.

So in 2014, we’ve hit the World hard. DH and I went on a grown-ups only trip for my birthday in January. DH and DD5 went on a daddy/daughter trip in April. In August, DH randomly had a job interview in Tampa and drove to the parks just to play for a few hours beforehand. My mommy/buddy trip with DS7 later in August turned into a family plus friends trip once the Villains Unleashed party was announced. (Don’t worry, we stayed a few extra days so we still got our special bonding time!)

As you can see, we’ve developed into full-on, crazy Disney addicts. Disney movies. Disney Channel. Disney Store. Staples in our household. DH and I listen to podcasts. I obsess over the DIS. He obsessively follows Disney-types on Twitter. The kids are even into it. They love to watch attraction videos on YouTube. We’ll watch a bunch after dinner, taking turns picking what to watch next. They even know to clarify if they want to watch the CA or FL version of a ride. Their favorite time-passing game is playing “Guess the Disney ride, character, or restaurant” – a 20-questions style game. We listen to the pink Attractions CD from the Disney Classics box set in the car constantly (though we are alternating with the Frozen soundtrack, currently.) DD5 knows more words to the Haunted Mansion song than I do. We try every juice from the grocery store to try to have Jungle Juice at home. You get the idea.


"You're my favorite deputy."

Some of our Disney faves:

Me:
Favorite Disney movies: The Fox and the Hound, Alice in Wonderland, Finding Nemo, Tangled, Frozen
Favorite Disney characters: Cheshire Cat, Stitch, Flynn Rider
Favorite WDW attractions: It’s a Small World, Carousel of Progress, Haunted Mansion, Jungle Cruise, Kilimanjaro Safaris, the Celebrate the Magic projection show

DH:
Favorite Disney movies: Dumbo, WALL-E, Up, Emperor's New Groove
Favorite Disney characters: the Dodo from Alice in Wonderland, Jiminy Cricket
Favorite WDW attractions: Expedition Everest, Maelstrom, Wishes

DS7:
Favorite Disney movies: Cars, Planes, Monsters Inc, Monsters University
Favorite Disney characters: Buzz Lightyear, Mickey, Donald, Goofy
Favorite WDW attractions: Test Track, Tomorrowland Speedway, Carousel of Progress, Peoplemover, 7 Dwarfs Mine Train, Barnstormer

DD5:
Favorite Disney movies: Alice in Wonderland, The Little Mermaid, Nightmare Before Christmas, Enchanted, Frozen
Favorite Disney characters: Ariel, Elsa, Jack Skellington & Sally
Favorite WDW attractions: It’s a Small World, Soarin’, Living with the Land


“Ain’t got time for messing around and it’s not my style”

Over the years, we’ve honed a pretty solid strategy that works really well for us. First off, we are DxDDP people. We love food. We love sit-down meals. We love knocking out character visits while we eat. We also like the added benefit of a little down time for the kids (and us!) to be off our feet. We use the time to strategize the next chunk of the day. We’ve toyed with using the regular dining plan but we just can’t seem to make it work. We can never trim the list of table-service meals we want to do short enough. I run the numbers to pay for any extra TS meals OOP and it never makes much sense. QS meals also drive me crazy and stress me out. The few times we’ve tried have been disastrous (for me at least.) I dislike crowds. I dislike chaos. And I especially dislike crowds of chaos. And that’s what attempting to eat QS always feels like to me. People wandering aimlessly, not paying attention to their surroundings, getting in each other’s way, zig-zagging around trying to get everything they need to feed their army of children. I avoid the rest areas on the New Jersey Turnpike for the same reason. But that’s just my crazy. Anyway. We are rope-droppers so we eat breakfast while we wait. Then, we book an ADR in the park of the day for late breakfast / early lunch (around 10:30 or 11:30 am.) We leave the middle of the day open, so we can go back to the resort to rest, or just keep playing in the park, generally on less popular attractions. We’ll do a dinner ADR around 5:00 or 6:00 pm and then we rock out in the parks as long as we (more so the kids) can tolerate it. The kids are troopers and have logged many rope drop to park close days.

So that’s us. I hope you'll stay and play with us!

Table of Contents:

Part 1: Sorry, I was a little vague on the details.
Part 2: Oh, no. We're going to be late. And on the first day!
Part 3: This is going to be my best Christmas party ever.
Part 4: The next day, there was a line of flies outside the tent went on forever!
Part 5: All was well, another day saved, when... his cape snagged on a missile fin!
Part 6: Time to start another day.
Part 7: I think you've had enough tea for today.
Part 8: Me, on vacation? On Christmas Eve?
Part 9: Oh, what a merry Christmas day!
Part 10: And Oozma Kappa live to scare another day.
Part 11: Are you in need of any assistance today, sir?
Part 12: See you back home real soon.
Part 13: No, no, no, no. All together. Now!
Part 14: Fine. Now I'm the bad guy.
Part 15: Oops. Sorry. Sorry. I'm sorry. I didn't...
Part 16: You just have to give yourself some time. You're still a seed.
Part 17: Yeah, be prepared. We'll be prepared. For what?
Part 18: Well, I think Dad has made some excellent progress today.
Part 19: Did you ever see such a beautiful dress?
Part 20: That's it. Ta ta! Oh, and thank you for shopping at the Crafty Carver!
Part 21: That's what I'm trying to tell you. It's complicated.
Part 22: I use antlers in all of my decorating.
Part 23: And may my dreams come true.
Part 24: I could get used to a view like this.
Part 25: There's frost in every window. Oh, I can't believe my eyes.
Part 26: Oh, I'm sorry, but a lady does have to pack a few things, you know.
Part 27: Then I'll stretch, maybe sketch. Take a climb, sew a dress.
Part 28: I don't know, it's awfully crafty.
Part 29: But I just paid it off.
Part 30: You look great. You do something different with your side view mirrors?
Part 31: Dear Santy Claus, I'm Billy Brown. Here's a list I've jotted down.
Part 32: I wish I'd have got his autograph.
Part 33: You can tell a lot about a woman by the contents of her purse
Part 34: I've been up for hours.
Part 35: Okay. So what we do here is we give the target a quick flyover...
Part 36: Just a few things left to pack, and we'll be...
Part 37: Good- WHAT? How could he change it?
Part 38: That was cool! Can I get your autograph?
Part 39: I'm packing you an extra pair of shoes and your angry eyes just in case.
Part 40: But in the end, we will get your little Penny.
Part 41: We got to get out of here. l got to start packing.
Part 42: It's precious to me, that thing is this.. my ..it's my ticket to a better life.
Part 43: It's here! No, it isn't, it's here!

I am going to attempt to title each post with a similarly-themed Disney movie quote. See if you know the movie they're from!!

 

[JoeyEmmaMomma]

Excited to follow along!

 

[Suziannie]

Following along from the December Facebook group!

 

[snuggly duckling]

So here are the high-level details for the trip:

We fly out of Philly bright and early on Thursday, December 18th. Last Christmas we got a cheap flight out of Wilmington, DE on Frontier, but they were super slow releasing their schedule this year. We found a great price on US Airways and jumped on it. We live only a few miles from PHL so it works out great. Frontier was nice because parking in Wilmington is free, but we're glad to be flying from a bigger airport for a winter flight (more resources, more flights in case of bad weather) so we will happily pay for airport parking!

We are staying for 10 nights in a Preferred room at Caribbean Beach with free dining, which we will upgrade to DxDDP. We have annual passes that will cover this entire stay, but we will use the park tickets associated with this trip to cover part of our our annual pass renewal (yay!!) for next year. CBR is the only moderate we haven't tried. We LOVE POFQ and POR. We stayed at CSR last Christmas but did not enjoy it. Hoping the preferred location helps us enjoy CBR a little more.

Once we get to WDW, we won't leave the property until our late flight back to Philly on Sunday, December 28th. We get almost 11 full days of Christmas Disney fun!!

I will do a day by day breakdown over the next few days...

 

[diskids2]

Following!

 

[victoriam1119]

Subbing! I'm excited to see what ADR's you have planned! We aren't doing the DxDP this year but we plan on it for our trip next year!

 

[becnbrymom]

Following from the December Fb group too! Excited to hear all the details.

 

[AmyKat]

Following from the December FB group. DH and I are staying at CBR for the first time this year too. We leave the day before you get there. If I have any bottled water left over, maybe I can pass it along.

 

[snuggly duckling]

Yay! Followers! Welcome!

 

[snuggly duckling]

DORY
Hey! Look, everybody!

SQUIRT
I know that dude. It's the Jellyman.

DORY
Well, go on, jump on him.

TURTLE KIDS
Turtle pile!

MARLIN
W-w-wai-wait--

TURTLE KID 1
Are you funny?

TURTLE KID 2
Where's your shell?

MARLIN
Hold on, I need to breathe--

TURTLE KID 3
Are you running away?

TURTLE KID 4
Did you really cross the jellyfish forest?

TURTLE KID 5
Did they sting you?

MARLIN
One at a time!

TURTLE KID 6
Mr. Fish, did you die?

DORY
Sorry. I was a little vague on the details.


Part 2 is coming up soon!

 

[OhioStateBuckeye]

Joining in! Such an exciting time of the year to go!

Did you say you guys got to experience the villains party? What did you think about it?

I like all the Disney/Pixar quotes

 

[snuggly duckling]

Welcome! We did do Villains Unleashed. It was a bit of a letdown but we made the best of it. I need to edit and download our Photopass pics and then I will do a recap on here!

 

[snuggly duckling]

So here's the more detailed look at day 1 of our 11-ish day Disney Christmas adventure. I'm still working on FP+ selections, but will share my thoughts so far. Last year I did detailed touring plans too, Not sure if I will do that again this year. Aww, who am I kidding? I totally will.

Day #1, Thursday, December 18th

We leave bright and early in the morning. Our flight leaves Philly at 6:50 am. Even though we live less than 8 miles from the airport, DH is an antsy flyer so he will have us leaving the house by 4:30 am. Somehow a 4:00 am wake-up call is tolerable when you're headed to Disney!

We are scheduled to land at MCO at 9:20 am and will take the Magical Express to CBR. Unless DH gets his way. He is obsessed with the idea of renting a car since everyone he follows on Twitter does. Seems like a hassle (car seats, ugh) and waste of money to me. We've never had an issue with the buses, but we'll see...

We're booked for a Preferred room at CBR. We're interested to see how we like the resort. We LOVE POFQ and POR. We did not like CSR last Christmas, but we were in a standard room and were very far away from the main building. I need to do some research to decide where to request, but right now I am leaning toward asking for a ground-floor room in Martinique over Trinidad South. On the to-do list!

If our room is ready, we'll check in. If not, we'll ditch our carry-on with bell services and head for the park. Destination #1 is.....

EPCOT!

EPCOT has become somewhat of a day 1 tradition for us. No particular reason, it's just worked out that way.

If all goes to plan, we'll be in the park around 11:30. We will book our FP+ for 11:30, 12:30, and 1:30. Probably for Spaceship Earth, Soarin', and Maelstrom. EPCOT is tricky with the tiering because of course, DS's favorite ride is Test Track and DD's favorite is Soarin'. At least DS is now old enough to use the single rider line, so we'll opt to use our tier 1 FP+ at Soarin'.

To allow for potential delays with the morning's air travel, our first ADR of the day is not until 2:30 at San Angel Inn. I know it gets a bad rap around the boards, but we like it. Jalapeno margarita... mmmmmm.

We will try to do as much as possible early in the trip, while the crowds are still low. Day #1 is only a crowd level 4 according to Josh, so we can rock out a bunch of attractions now. We'll save the holiday storytellers etc. for later in the the trip.

We have a dinner ADR at Akershus at 8:00 pm, another accidental day 1 tradition. DD loves all the princesses of course, but DS secretly loves it too. Depending on how long dinner takes, we may be able to get out in time to catch Illuminations. (If not, we'll be at EPCOT again.)

Then back to CBR to settle in (and decorate the room!) while the kids crash.

 

[snuggly duckling]

It's Dalmatian Day! 101 days to go!

Will be back tomorrow with Day 2 of our trip!

 

[snuggly duckling]

Here is the more detailed look at day 2:

Day #2, Friday, December 19th

With our first full day on this trip we are headed to…

MAGIC KINGDOM!

Right now the park is scheduled to open at 9, and based on last year, I would expect it to stay that way. We will be rope dropping, so we’ll be out at the bus stop around 7:30 am and should be at the park by 8:00. We will eat breakfast while we wait for rope drop (granola bars, poptarts, etc.) It’s a crowd level 5 here per Josh and MK is his most recommended park because of the final MVMCP later that night. Should be a good day.

I don’t know where we’ll start yet. The kids gravitate to Fantasyland and Tomorrowland, but you can get so much done in Adventureland and Frontierland at this hour. We will have to work on that for our more detailed touring plan. But we’ll either go to the right or the left and stay there until lunch.

Our first ADR of the day is at Crystal Palace at 11:30 am. Buffets are a good choice with my kids. Sometimes they pick and hardly eat anything. Other times they eat their weight in Mickey waffles. And who doesn’t love Pooh and friends?!?

FP+ priorities will probably be 7DMT, Peter Pan, and ETWB. Anna and Elsa are a priority (we waited 2.5 hours last Christmas day in Epcot!) but we will save them for later in the week, on BBB day, which will hopefully make them easier to obtain. Again the logic here is to do as many top tier attractions now, while crowds are still light, because starting the next day, the hordes will be arriving. If we do Fantasyland / Tomorrowland in the morning, we’ll do Adventureland / Frontierland in the afternoon, and vice versa. Seeing the Festival of Fantasy parade is a top priority because this will be the only chance (MK will switch to the Christmas parade starting the next day.)

It is an MVMCP night and we are staying for the party. (Yay! We had so much fun last year!) We have an early dinner ADR at CRT at 4:25 pm. This way we are well positioned to get in our first MVMCP character line as soon as we’re done eating, likely the 7 Dwarfs, but that could change depending on the character situation. They definitely seemed to shake things up character-wise for MNSSHP so we are curious to see what, if any, changes happen for the Christmas party. (Aside, I know they ditched the princes in PFTH for Halloween, but how cool would it be if Kristoff was MVMCP-exclusive. I can dream!)

Our MVMCP strategy is very character-focused. We figure we can see the parade and fireworks any day over the rest of our trip, though we may stop to catch the second parade if it’s convenient. It is fun at night! We missed Jack Sparrow last year so hopefully we will make it there this year. And DH is holding out hope for Jack Skellington (in his Santa suit) and Sally to meet at MVMCP. (He can dream too!)

We will see how far the kids make it. Last year, they made it all the way past midnight, from rope drop – 16 hours in the MK!

 

[snuggly duckling]

LINGUINI
Morning, little Chef. Rise and sh--

--and suddenly realizes REMY IS GONE.

LINGUINI
Idiot! I knew this would happen! I let a rat into my place and tell him what’s mine is his?

Linguini yanks open the refrigerator door and looks inside.

LINGUINI
Eggs GONE! STUPID! He’s stolen food and hit the road! What’d I expect? That’s what I get for trusting a ra-

As Linguini moves around the tiny alcove HE SEES----REMY, quite pleased with himself as he cooks omelettes on the hotplate. Two places have been set at the tiny table.

LINGUINI
Wh--? Hey. What-- is that for me?

Remy nods and deftly (but with considerable effort) sets the large omelette onto Linguini’s plate. Linguini sits and puts a forkful into his mouth.

LINGUINI
It’s good. What’d you put in this?

Remy holds up basil leaf

LINGUINI
Where’d you get that?

Remy moves to the window and points to the roof garden of a nearby flat. Linguini looks down at the enterprising rat.

LINGUINI
Look. It’s delicious. But don’t steal. I’ll buy some spices, okay?

Remy shrugs and turns to eat. Linguini glances at his clock.

LINGUINI
Oh no. We’re gonna be late, and on the first day!


Part 4 / Day 3 coming up soon!

 

[snuggly duckling]

MINNIE
Hello? Hi, Mickey. It's me. How's everything going for the party?

MICKEY
Almost done. This is going to be my best Christmas party ever.

MINNIE
Mickey, you're not overdoing it again, are you?

MICKEY
No, no. I've cut way back this year. Less is more, I always say. Aw, Minnie, you're going to love it.

 

[snuggly duckling]

Here is the more detailed look at day 3:

Day #3, Saturday, December 20th

Getting up on day 3 might be a little painful, after the late night at MVMCP. But it’s really no different than what DH and I do normally at home. We plan to be up and at the bus stop by 7:15 am for a pre-park opening ADR at…

ANIMAL KINGDOM!

(Hmmm. Maybe we should take a cab so we can sleep in later and get there faster. Or maybe I give in and let DH rent a car!)

We have an 8:00 am ADR at Tusker House. This is one of our family’s favorite meals in WDW. The buffet is wonderful. Jungle juice is wonderful. And it puts us in a good spot to head right to Kilimanjaro Safaris right after breakfast.

After the safari, we will probably hit Expedition Everest (or as it is known at our house, the Yeti.) DD5 might actually be tall enough by December, but it will take some serious bribery to get her on. DS7 and I will do it once. DH will use the single-rider line and ride it a few times in a row. (Again trying to front-load the activities into the first part of the trip before the crowds get too heavy. Josh has a crowd level 7 on this day, with AK as the most recommended park.)

We will probably use FP+ for a second safari in the afternoon, FOTLK, and I don’t know, maybe the Finding Nemo show?

We are deviating from our standard 2 ADRs a day approach. We actually have 3 booked today, because we couldn’t narrow it down.

We have lunch at Yak and Yeti at 1:30 pm. If we are tired, we can go back to the resort after we eat for a rest. But we did the same thing last year and lasted in AK until park close. AK is really cool at night. And it’s generally empty.

We have a dinner ADR booked at Sanaa for 7:55 pm. We’ve never been so we are super excited to try something we’ve heard such good things about. I wish we could have gotten a slightly earlier time, but I’ll keep trying!

AK is slated to close at 6:00 pm right now. Last year it got bumped out to 7:00. Assuming we don’t go back for a resort break, we’ll stay in AK until close and then head to AKL. If we’ve got time to kill in between, we can just explore AKL for a bit. We really want to stay there someday!

And then back “home” to bed for an early night.

Though MK is open until 2 am… If one of the grown-ups wants to head to MK, the other can take the kids back for the night.

 

[snuggly duckling]

P.T. FLEA
Ah, guys, I've been lookin' all over for ya!

Flaming Death is a huge hit!

I'm serious. Word of mouth got around.

The next day, there was a line of flies outside the tent went on forever!

It must have been a foot long!

So, I figured it out. You guys burn me twice a night, I take a day off to heal, and then we do it all over again!

We'll be the top circus act in the business!

Part 5 / Day 4 coming right up!

 

[snuggly duckling]

Here is the more detailed look at day 4:

Day #4, Sunday, December 21st

Well, we’ve been to EPCOT, MK, and AK, so today’s destination is…

HOLLYWOOD STUDIOS!

Right now HS is slated to open at 9:00 am, but it may open at 8:00 based on last year. Either way, we will be rope dropping again.

Like many families, we will be swiftly walking to two destinations first thing: Toy Story and Jedi Training sign-ups. Not sure which order to do here. I’m leaning towards TSMM first and then heading to JTA sign-ups. I know JTA will fill up fast, but last year they seemed to double capacity by having two sets of kids each session, one battling Vader on stage and another battling Maul down below. Since we plan to be in the park the entire day, it doesn’t really matter if we’re in a later JTA show. I just don’t want to miss it because both kids are interested in doing it this time. (DD5 has stated that she will be fighting Vader in Princess Leia hair and her Elsa dress.)

We’ll trying to do as much as possible in the morning, but will need to be flexible for JTA. DS7 is finally tall enough for RNRC so we’ll see if he’ll be brave enough to try it. He loves the LMA! stunt show so we’ll do that. DD5 loves all the “girl” shows – Beauty & the Beast, Voyage of the Little Mermaid, and Disney Jr. so we will probably do all of those. I would like to do the Backlot Tour since we’ve never done it. But who knows if it will even be there! Likely FP+ will be TSMM, TOT, and either Star Tours or the Frozen sing-along if it’s still there.

We have a Fantasmic! package ADR at Mama Melrose at 12:00 pm. We would have preferred Hollywood Brown Derby but nothing was available, even at 180+10. Will continue to try, but we’ll be fine either way.

In the afternoon, we will continue to work our way through rides and shows. Even though it is a full park day, HS results in a lot of sitting.

With the F! package, we will attend the first show of the night, which I anticipate being at 6:30 pm. We have a dinner ADR at Sci-Fi at 8:00 pm. Sci-Fi is one of my absolute favorite restaurants at WDW. I love the atmosphere, the cars, the fried dill pickles, the habanero lime margarita. DD5 has never been but she’s super excited about the concept and talks about it ALL the time.

After dinner, we will hit another attraction or two and then wander through the Osborne Lights until park close (right now at 8:00 pm, but I expect it to be 10:00 pm.) We can always head out earlier if we’re exhausted.

4 days, 4 parks. And still a week of fun to go. Oh, and a little thing called Christmas.