A Very Festive Do-Over - December 2024 (updated 6/23 - AK and Overnight at MCO)

[Disney102015]

Jollywood Nights​

Our plan for the night was Jollywood at Hollywood Studios. The kids were begging to try the Skyliner, so we decided that’s how we’d get there, even though it was far from the most efficient option. We were at the Epcot Skyliner station around 5:00, and getting to Hollywood Studios around 5:40. This was N’s first trip on the Skyliner – the man is not a fan of heights, so this was very brave of him!! (Several times, after dinner at Topolino’s, we have walked down to the Skyliner planning to head to a park, only to panic at the last second and end up calling a Lyft.) The kids had also never been on the Skyliner, and C was nervously talking non-stop, basically a stream of consciousness:

“Ohhh wow, we are really high. Oh no. We’re going higher. OH we are above water, I wonder if there are alligators down there, if we fall down, they’ll eat us. OH NO now we are over the road, we’ll crash if we fall down. Ohhhh we are going higher, oh no!”

N had his head in his hands and was begging C to stop talking – it was pretty funny. At the transfer station, an older couple joined us in our gondola and were telling us all about their trips with their (now grown) children. They were really nice and this was a good distraction to get N through the rest of the ride!

We got to Hollywood Studios and there was really no line to enter so that was great. We got to enter through a bypass area I had never seen before – the decorations and music were really cool. Even N commented how festive it was.

A note on bringing little kids to Jollywood: I’d say the event is definitely geared toward adults, but there was plenty for the kids to enjoy. We initially planned to make this a date night and to get a sitter for the kids. We have a friend of a friend who has babysat for our kids several times before on trips to Orlando, so we are pretty comfortable leaving them with her. Unfortunately she was away this weekend and couldn’t babysit. We looked into some of the agencies that offer babysitting services, but when we added up the price for 3 kids, versus the cost for 2 additional Jollywood tickets (since E didn’t need a ticket), it was actually slightly cheaper to just bring them along to Jollywood. A date night would’ve been nice, but given that it was a shorter trip, I’m glad we all stuck together for the night.

I had booked LLMP for the mix-in time – I was on the fence about doing this, but it was 100% worth it. We walked right onto Toy Story Midway Mania at 6:00 and were off by 6:20.



I love this ride – weirdly, my girls get a little nervous on it! I think because the spinning happens so fast and it kind of whips you around. Then it was time for Slinky, one of my absolute favorites. Only C and I rode this one – hopefully G will be tall enough next time. It was just getting dark and I had never ridden it when Toy Story Land was all lit up, so that was really cool to see. We were off in no time – less than 10 minutes after getting in the Lightning Lane.

We had booked Alien Swirling Saucers for earlier but it expired just as we were entering the park. We still tapped in about an hour and a half late, and it was no problem. E was tall enough for this so we all got to ride! We did wait about 20 minutes since only one side was running. G said, “This is faster than Mine Train!” Which…it objectively is not, haha.



I have a tradition of getting a photo of the kids in front of this big yellow ball, but didn't manage to get a very good one tonight!

We had also gotten a DAS for Minnie and Mickey’s Runaway Railway right when we entered the park, so we did that around 7:10. This ride has really grown on me and now it’s a must-do! We had gotten a lot done in just under an hour and a half, so buying LLMP was totally worth it to us.

Now we had to strategize the rest of our evening. We had originally planned to do the Nightmare Before Christmas show first (the kids LOVE this movie) but we were all a bit snacky so we asked the kids if they minded skipping the show, and they were all fine with it. We all got popcorn and then we headed to ABC Commissary for some of the Jollywood specialty items. I know we got the tacos and I think one other food item? Plus the coquito (which we always love) and the Oaxaca old fashioned (which neither of us liked).

I will say, I had seen a lot of good food reviews for Jollywood, and that wasn’t our experience at all – we didn’t like most of the food we tried. Maybe it was just an off night, or we chose the wrong things to try? Since the snacks were a bit of a bust, we grabbed some more popcorn next!

You could book DAS in the app during this event and I had tried to get a DAS for the 8:15 Holidays in Hollywood show, but only the 9:15 show was available so we changed up our plans a bit and grabbed spots for the Glisten ice skating show. I grabbed a sugar cookie martini while we waited – blech!! I couldn’t finish this, way too sweet and weirdly thick?


We all LOVED Glisten! It was a little goofy and cheesy, but so fun. The music was great, it’s so unique to see an ice skating show outdoors in Florida…I think this was a really fun addition. Next we popped by Baseline because we wanted to try a few drinks and snacks there, but after waiting in line a bit, we bailed since we were hoping to catch the 9:15 Holidays in Hollywood show.



Unfortunately, when we got to the end of Hollywood Boulevard, we pulled back the stroller canopies to find 3 sleeping children!! We were shocked! We asked, but we weren’t allowed to bring the strollers into the theater, and we didn’t think it was wise to wake the kids. N offered to sit with the sleeping kids while I went in to see the show, but we had planned to use C’s DAS, and from the line it wasn’t looking like I’d get into the 9:15 show standby. I think this was the only Jollywood thing I was really bummed to miss – we had watched the show on YouTube and it looked really fun. Oh well, what can you do!

We headed to Fairfax Faire for some additional food and drinks. We had been excited to try the popovers but they were just not good – we tried both kinds, but there was way too much breading, and they were weirdly chewy. However, we did love the Mistletoe Martini, which had vodka, elderflower, and cranberry juice, topped with cranberries and mint leaves. It looked very festive and was delicious too! It was a little challenging to maneuver two strollers plus the popovers plus the drinks – I saw a table of people just staring at me as I tried to make my way to my seat and was just praying I wouldn’t spill anything!

Next we popped over to the Tip Top Club. This was a blast! The music was awesome and it was just a really cool vibe. Again, just really unique to be hanging out right under the Tower of Terror. The specialty drinks here didn’t really appeal to me – I really don’t like tequila, and rum is not my favorite – so I had a glass of Prosecco. We hung out there for a little bit listening to the music and just relaxing, talking about how glad we were that we decided to do this event.

Then we decided we wanted one more Mistletoe Martini, so back to Fairfax Faire we went! Why not, right?? We found a quiet spot to sit and just hung out and chatted while we had our drinks – it ended up being a little date night after all!

We were both tired and decided to call it a night – the fireworks were going off behind us as we were leaving so that was neat. I had never walked back to the Boardwalk before so wasn’t sure how long it’d take – it was almost exactly 10 minutes to the edge of the Boardwalk property and maybe another 5 minutes to the main boardwalk area itself.

All in all, this was a super enjoyable day and evening! I’d do Jollywood Nights again in a heartbeat. MVMCP will always have a special place in my heart and I’m sure we’ll do it again, but I kind of lean toward Jollywood being the better fit for our family at the moment – we aren’t big character people so that isn’t a draw for us at MVMCP, but the shows, cocktails, and snacks really made Jollywood a big hit (even though we personally didn’t love the food items we tried – we’d give it another shot!) Plus the whole “vibe” of the event was just really fun and different – the jazzy Christmas music, people in really fun dress up outfits, etc. I am so glad we decided to do this and don’t regret bringing the kids at all.

Next up…back to Magic Kingdom!

 

[Disney102015]

Magic Kingdom and Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique​

Sunday dawned bright and early, but we were NOT ready to get up. The alarm went off around 6:30 as we had grand plans of rope dropping but G immediately asked if we could go back to sleep and I didn’t have the heart to say no! We snuggled up and went back to sleep.

We got up for good around 8:40 and scrambled to get ready, leaving the room by 9:00. The bus came at 9:12 and we were in the Starbucks line at Magic Kingdom by 9:40. I desperately needed some caffeine but after waiting 20 minutes (after ordering!), we had to bail, as we had a BBB reservation to get to. Hopefully someone got to enjoy the coffee I had to abandon!

G had a 10:05 Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique reservation, and we also had an 11:15 Cinderella’s Royal Table reservation. I knew we’d be tight on time - I didn’t book these at the 60-day mark, as I thought we’d skip both this trip. (G had done BBB and CRT on our trip last February.) But a week or two before the trip, she said she was most excited about 1) eating “fancy cookies” at MVMCP and 2) going to BBB and “eating with the princesses.” Needless to say, that had me scrambling for BBB and CRT reservations at the last minute, so I had to take what I could get!


Totally worth it.

Last time we did BBB, it was a loooong experience with a lot of waiting around. This time was more expedited, probably because I told them we had a reservation to get to. We still didn’t get to the makeover room in the castle until 10:30, but they had plenty of time to do her makeover and she was done by 11:00. This time, Baby E hung out with me while N and C went to do rides. They did SDMT with LLSP and Thunder Mountain with DAS. I thought E would be antsy waiting, but she actually loved watching the whole experience. She even took out my bun and tried to do my hair for me!



As we were wrapping up at BBB, I got a table ready text for CRT, which was weird because I hadn’t checked in yet and it was still 15 or so minutes before our reservation. But it didn’t really matter - N and C got there just in time and we headed inside. We met Cinderella first this time before heading upstairs.


Ahhhhhh the way she is looking at Cinderella!! Can I keep her 4 years old forever?!

The princess interactions were super quick this time around, but the kids didn’t seem to mind. And C was pleased with his sword.





Our last meal at CRT had been really good, which convinced us to book again, but it was just ok today. I had planned to cancel our dinner reservation for Yachtsman Steakhouse because I knew I’d get steak at CRT and figured I didn’t need TWO steaks in a day - but my meal at CRT was so mediocre that we decided to go to Yachtsman anyway. YOLO, I guess! The kids are usually pretty good at restaurants but I have to say, they were extra good today. Everyone was just in a great mood and very silly and giggly and I have really great memories of this meal, despite the mediocre food!

We finished up around 12:30 and made a quick stop at Sir Mickey’s to grab photos.



One of my favorite pictures of the trip. Sometimes I just look at pictures of the 3 of them and think...wow, how did I get so lucky??!





Ok but why does G look so angelic, while Baby E look so devious?!

Next we headed to Barnstormer with an LL - this was E’s first time and she seemed to like it! We still had to take turns riding because we had 3 little kids and only 2 adults. Then we went to Dumbo - our LL had expired but it wasn’t a problem - then Little Mermaid.

Next it was me and G’s turn to use our SDMT LL - she loved it again and I’m hoping I have a new roller coaster buddy!! We stopped by the sword in the stone but no one was lucky enough to pull it out.



We all laughed when Baby E marched herself up there to try!



We had had a Peter Pan LL that we missed that morning due to sleeping in. I didn’t know if they’d let us ride but the LL still appeared in MDE so I figured it was worth a try. The scanner flashed blue but I think the Cast Member took pity on us because they waved us through anyway.

After that, we grabbed our stroller from near the Carousel and headed for Frontierland. I was hoping to finally ride Tiana’s with a LL because it kept going down when I was there in June, but it wasn’t meant to be - the ride was down again. I said to N, “maybe we’ll hang out for a bit and see if it comes back up?” The nearest Cast Member overheard and said “NOPE!” I said “excuse me?” And he said, “if I were you, I’d just move on with your day.” Bit of a bummer, but I appreciated the honesty. Maybe E will be tall enough to ride by the time we finally get to go on it! With that, we were ready to wrap up our time at Magic Kingdom.

Next up…another lazy swim and the BEST meal of the trip!

 

[Stasieki]

Loving your TR. Your kiddos are precious. Brings be back to my trips when my kids were that age. The best of times! My girls are now 15 and 19 so trips look a bit different now. Still a blast with them but man nothing beats those younger years seeing the magic through their eyes.

 

[Disney102015]

Loving your TR. Your kiddos are precious. Brings be back to my trips when my kids were that age. The best of times! My girls are now 15 and 19 so trips look a bit different now. Still a blast with them but man nothing beats those younger years seeing the magic through their eyes.

Thank you so much!! It was definitely like seeing Disney World for the very first time, the first time we went with kids - just a totally different experience!

 

[Disney102015]

Yachtsman Steakhouse​

We were just wrapping up our day at Magic Kingdom and decided to head back for a swim. We headed for the bus around 2:55 - it was SUPER crowded around the entrance/exit, as I think a lot of people were already lining up for MVMCP. We waited about 20 minutes for a bus and hustled to get our swimsuits on as soon as we got back. It was a tad warmer today so that was nice! N and I also grabbed drinks from Leaping Libations.

After our swim we walked over to the Yacht Club. We were a little early so we grabbed a drink at Ale and Compass first. We also stopped in the Yacht Club lobby to check out the Christmas decor.


I love that G still had her fancy hair from BBB!

N and I hadn’t eaten at the Yachtsman since our first trip together back in 2015. (Hard to believe that’s a decade ago now!!! Wow, have I been on the Dis for a whole decade?! Holy moly! Happy anniversary, guys!) I had great memories of our meal here so I was pretty excited. It did NOT disappoint! Everything was excellent from the drinks to the apps to the meals. The kids also behaved really well so that was a plus. They’re usually pretty good while dining out but add in the Disney exhaustion and you never know what you’re going to get! I got the filet mignon with the sauce flight. All the sauces were so delicious but I think the blue cheese was my favorite.



N and I both got the same cocktail and really enjoyed it but I can’t seem to find it on the menu now and can’t remember what it was called. I also got a fancy glass of red wine with my steak which was amazing.


After dinner we walked over to the Beach Club to see the decor there - the carousel was pretty impressive!





We also grabbed hot chocolates at the little stand in the lobby. It was too hot to drink immediately and unfortunately G fell asleep before she got to drink hers. Oh well!



On the walk back to the Boardwalk my flip flop snapped. Believe it or not that’s not the first time this has happened to me at Disney!! The last time was at Animal Kingdom at the very beginning of a Moonlight Magic event, leading me to spend some exorbitant amount on Haunted Mansion Crocs. Luckily tonight I just had to get back to the hotel room so I just kind of hobbled along.


The Boardwalk area is so gorgeous at night.

All 3 kids were out cold when we got back to the room. We transferred everyone to their beds and everyone was quickly asleep!


Next up…our final park day at Animal Kingdom!

 

[Disney102015]

Animal Kingdom and Overnight at MCO​

My cell phone somehow wound up under the covers so I didn’t hear my alarm going off in the morning, oops!! We ended up sleeping in a bit! We had to pack up the room and couldn’t get a hold of bell services, so we lugged everything to the lobby around 10:15 then headed for the bus to Animal Kingdom.

N had a work call at 11:00 so we figured we’d mobile order to Pizzafari first and he could find a quiet corner for his call. This worked out mostly fine except I had to run back and forth from our table to the counter to get things a bunch of times. And, as had been the case at Via Napoli, the kid’s pizzas were no match for our kiddos’ appetites and I had to order a second round!

After everyone ate and N wrapped up his call, we headed toward the Safari, where we had a DAS. Thank goodness, because the standby wait was 70 minutes. We passed the Merry Menagerie on the way which was really cool to see, and decided to start at Gorilla Falls since it wasn’t quite time for the Safari yet. My kids really love all the trails at AK so we always try to make time for that.



We got on the Safari at 12:30 - it was a great ride except the people in the last row kept moving their kid from one adult’s lap to the other, which is not allowed. The driver reprimanded them a number of times and actually had to raise his voice at one point because they just wouldn’t stop. And the ride had to stop every time they did it so that was a bit frustrating!



We got a DAS for Dinosaur since C loves it and we weren’t sure if this would be our last chance to ride it. We also got a rider swap in case he wanted to ride again. But, turns out he didn’t - he said it was way scarier than he remembered, haha.


I've been taking pics of the kids in front of this dino for years...sad it'll be gone by our next trip!!



Way back in 2021. We'll have to find another spot to take "milestone" photos.

It was time to head back to the resort and we decided to splurge on a Minnie Van in the hopes we’d have time for a swim. We were back at the resort just before 2:00 and swam for a little over an hour.



Then we got everyone dried off and headed to the store to use up our last few snack credits on candy. (We did pretty well with the dining plan this time around and didn’t have many snack credits, or any meals, leftover.) We still had a little time to kill so grabbed one more margarita on the boardwalk before grabbing our luggage and heading out front for our 4:00 Mears reservation. We also dropped our stroller at bell services - for some reason I hadn’t been able to schedule a pickup time for the rental after like 3pm and I knew we were going to AK that day, so I just scheduled the stroller pickup for the next morning and left it at bell services, and this worked fine.


We waited, and waited, and waited… and Mears finally arrived around 4:40. Kind of annoying! We usually splurge on private transport when we arrive in Orlando (when we are all anxious to get to Disney ASAP!) but save a bit of money by taking Mears back to the airport. This experience might have me rethinking that, though…

So, I don’t know if I’ve mentioned this in the trip report yet but a week or two before the trip, N had a work obligation pop up and had to change his flight to that evening, instead of the next morning. I looked into changing all 5 of us to the evening flight and it was going to be over $700 - yikes!! Not happening. I was going to have to be super brave and fly home solo with the 3 kids! Luckily we had already booked the Hyatt at MCO for that evening so I wouldn’t have too far to go the next morning. Our Mears bus made one stop at Jambo House then we were pulling up to the airport at about 5:40. We said goodbye to N at terminal C - the kids were a little bewildered as they didn’t fully understand why he wasn’t staying with us.

Then we got to the terminal where you get off the bus for the Hyatt. We had sent N with the big suitcase but I still had a good amount of luggage, and a double stroller, to wrangle with the kids, so it was a little rough, but we made it! We got checked in and dropped our bags in the room. The kids were absolutely WILD - I think they were maybe delirious with exhaustion. Baby E kept picking up the hotel room phone and playing with it. I got it back from her and hung up…only for it to start ringing a moment later.

“….Hello?”


“Ma’am, are emergency services needed in your hotel room?”


“…no?”


“We just got a call from this room on the emergency line.”​

Baby E!!!! I was mortified. I apologized profusely then hauled the kids out of the room for dinner. Meanwhile N let us know he was all checked in and thru security for his flight. We could’ve gone to explore food options in the airport but I decided to stick with the hotel restaurant - it just seemed like the easiest option.

Or so I thought. On the quick elevator ride down, E broke away from me and ran her hands down the bank of elevator buttons before I could stop her. The SAME VOICE from the phone came over the intercom.

“911, what is your emergency?”


“OH MY GOD. I am so so so sorry. It’s me again, my toddler hit the button, I AM SO SO SO SORRY.”​

You cannot make this up. Clearly I was outnumbered!! Needless to say I treated myself to a cocktail at dinner. The meal was pretty expensive which is probably to be expected from an airport hotel restaurant but our waitress was awesome and the food was pretty good.



We made it back to the room without anyone calling 911, thank goodness. I thought I’d have trouble falling asleep since I was anxious about flying as usual, plus a little anxiety about getting the 3 kids through the travel day alone, but everyone was so tired that we all fell asleep quickly. Baby E did roll off the bed at one point during the night and cried, but I scooped her up and cuddled her and she quickly fell back to sleep!


Next up…flying home solo with 3 kids!

 

[13littledogs]

You were brave! I felt anxiety just thinking about being alone with three kids at the airport. Good job you