Are we nuts??!!.......An ambitious Christmas trip (Update: Fooled you!)

[dlavender]

We are taking the plunge!

As someone who grew up in Central Florida, I always knew "better" than to visit WDW over the Christmas to New Years week. We live in Nashville now, and with price increases and our desire to take a longer visit this year than years past, we had to apply some "Disney math" to make it work. Here's how that goes, we wanted to spend about $5k for the whole week. This includes flights, food, souvenirs, tickets, everything. Last year, we spent about $1.5k on Christmas. We spent about $1k on our WDW trip last year. So now we are half way there!!! I'll be getting a bonus this year of around $2.5k, how convenient!!! See, once you apply "Disney math", there's no stopping you.
Enough about money, let's get to the intros, here's the fam:



This pic was taken 2 years ago, but I'm at work and wanted to get this party started.

At over 6ft tall, you've got the Disney fanatic of the family, and at the same time largest Disney criticizer in the southeast, me. My favorite ride, Space Mountain. It was better when Crazy Larry was in the Queue, but the ride is still great. (See how I can love and criticize at the same time, its a skill)

There's my DW who starting loving WDW about 10 years ago, coincidentally the year we were wed. Hmmm...

Our oldest, DD8, loves all things princesses! Her favorite ride: Space Mountain (definitely a daddy's girl).

DS4, bless his heart sandwiched in between two girls, is your typical boy. Rambunctious and loud, 24/7. His favorite ride is a three way tie, 7DMT, BTMRR, and Barnstormer. Duh

DD2, is the typical "when you think you've had two kids and have it all figured out" third child. She's all around awesome, but definitely lets you know she's around and can hold her own. Her favorite ride, Speedway.

The Trip:

When: As I stated, we are going Dec 25-29 25-30. DW has always wanted to gift the trip as a surprise on Christmas morning and then jump on a plane and go. I always thought it sounded cool, but those crowds. But, since we are going for more days than we normally do, I think we will make it out alive and really enjoy it. Or normal trips are 2 days, and we normally spend a night off site with family, making them extremely cheap and doable. Since we will be there for 5 6 days, and will be on site, it will be amazing.

Who: You already know

Where: POR, we got a great deal through a TA we learned about on these boards.

How: Disney math. Flying. 5 6 Day Hoppers. And the Disney Dining Plan

Dining: Since we axed the DDP, we are going to worry about dining as we get a little closer. Probably will only do 1 character meal, and grab some QS and meals at the resort. We'll be saving $1000 not doing the DDP, and we are using $300 of that to add on the extra night at the hotel and day to our tickets. That leaves $700 for meals. We will have to eat a little less "extravagantly", but we decided we'd rather have the extra time.

 

[danielocha30]

no you are not nuts! great plan and doing characters meals on DDP is the way to go. Good luck getting all your reservations and have a wonderful trip

 

[dlavender]

no you are not nuts! great plan and doing characters meals on DDP is the way to go. Good luck getting all your reservations and have a wonderful trip

Thanks!

That's going to be the tricky part. The accountant in me is going to have to squeeze every dollar from this. And I've never scheduled more than 1 or two ADRS, and this trip we will be scheduling at least 5.

I'll be researching and making our selections late June.

I'm open to any suggestions!

 

[danielocha30]

to maximize the value schedule most of your characters meal for dinner:
Arkeshus at EPCOT: one of the most expensive meals on property that still is One meal credit and it comes with a picture with Belle included.
Chef Mickey: Breakfast seems to be great here, while people don't rave about lunch or dinner, try for a early breakfast or late to use this meal as brunch being just a monorail ride from magic kingdom is great.
Crystal Palace: lunch or early dinner, nice break without leaving the park
Ohana: dinner doesn't have characters but is a great use for DDP credit

At animal kingdom you only have Tusker House, a safari version of chef mickey, try one table restaurants like Yak and Yeti for dinner.
Most characters meals have the same food for breakfast, try all three meal times and to get the most out of DDP stick with dinner and buffet

 

[dlavender]

I know its way, way, way early, well not really by DIS standards, but we are contemplating where we should eat Christmas dinner.

The plan, right now, is to get a flight out around noon, and be at WDW by 3ish. That would give us plenty of time to get anywhere we want for dinner.

Is CRT worth two credits, and has anyone eaten there for Christmas? Is there a better option?

 

[elaine amj]

We really enjoyed our short visit over Christmas It was crazy busy but more manageable than I thought - especially with FP. Helps if you are willing to be up at silly o'clock for RD.

As for CRT on Christmas Day - one thing to consider is if you want a traditional dinner with all the trimmings? I think you'd see that at Liberty Tavern, Trails End, maybe Mickey's Backyard BBQ (didn't they do something for Thanksgiving?), and I think Minnie's Seasonal Dine. (not sure where else).

If not, CRT on Christmas Day sounds lovely. Be careful about your dinner timing if you want to make sure you catch all the holiday shows at the Castle. I remember parking ourselves in the Hub for hours to catch all the shows. Its very packed but we staked out our spot and were able to sit all evening until Wishes.

As for whether CRT itself is worth it - that depends. Helps a lot that you are on DDP, which I gather is rare for you. CRT includes tips so nice not to have the extra OOP. And, if you/your wife/kids smile at the thought of eating in the Castle, I would do it. We skipped it on our first trip (did Akershus) and had no regrets as the Castle wasn't that important to us. Another trip, we had a lot of spare credits and decided to try it. I must say - there's a bit of magic at the thought of eating in THE Castle. We still smile a bit about that. Overall, we're rather pragmatic so unlikely to do it again unless we go with someone else who has Castle dreams. Really pleased we did it (especially back when you could still order however much you wanted for breakfast with no limits) but no rush to return. $30 for a kids plate with barely any food on it is pretty outrageous (I actually started laughing when I saw how empty the plate looked! My kids would have been starving afterwards - especially since they were not given any menu choices and had food on their plates they wouldn't eat).

 

[dlavender]

- No DDP

So...............I finally won, and we have dropped the DDP (I'm sure all 1 or 2 of readers of this PTR really care)

Instead, I've convinced DW that instead we can add on an extra day and still have about $700 to spend on food, and break even with what we were going to spend on the DDP. Being the busiest week of all time, I think we will need the flexibility that the DDP doesn't provide.

 

[Madonna3]

As someone who grew up in Central Florida, I always knew "better" than to visit WDW over the Christmas to New Years week

We took the plunge two years ago and no regrets. I actually wish I had hopped on the bandwagon sooner.

 

[Madonna3]

I know its way, way, way early, well not really by DIS standards, but we are contemplating where we should eat Christmas dinner.

The plan, right now, is to get a flight out around noon, and be at WDW by 3ish. That would give us plenty of time to get anywhere we want for dinner.

Is CRT worth two credits, and has anyone eaten there for Christmas? Is there a better option?

I'd literally eat like anywhere else.

Going to MK ON Christmas is insane. If I were you, I'd skip an Xmas park day and eat somewhere in a resort. Much better experience IMO. I would suggest booking a dessert party for Xmas day instead at MK if you really want to be there on Xmas. This was exceptionally helpful when we did it.

 

[Madonna3]

Also, is it possible to trade one of your park days for a MVMCP day? This imo was the best way to experience MK at Christmas and was the only day we went to MK on our Xmas tour.

 

[dlavender]

I'd literally eat like anywhere else.

Going to MK ON Christmas is insane. If I were you, I'd skip an Xmas park day and eat somewhere in a resort. Much better experience IMO. I would suggest booking a dessert party for Xmas day instead at MK if you really want to be there on Xmas. This was exceptionally helpful when we did it.

This was pretty much my thought on why we should cancel the DDP and not schedule character meals etc during this week. Too busy. We would be miserable trying to keep ourselves in parks to eat at just as busy restaurants. So no more CRT and with the extra day we can relax a little more.

 

[dlavender]

Also, is it possible to trade one of your park days for a MVMCP day? This imo was the best way to experience MK at Christmas and was the only day we went to MK on our Xmas tour.

I don't think the value is there. The 6th day adds like ~$60 per person while the mvmcp is like $90 I think. We will maximize early morning EMH and just go from there. But I could be wrong. I need to do a little research on that. Thanks for the advice!

 

[Madonna3]

I don't think the value is there. The 6th day adds like ~$60 per person while the mvmcp is like $90 I think. We will maximize early morning EMH and just go from there. But I could be wrong. I need to do a little research on that. Thanks for the advice!

While I see what you're saying about the cost, the low crowds and special shows should be counted into the value.

 

[Madonna3]

This was pretty much my thought on why we should cancel the DDP and not schedule character meals etc during this week. Too busy. We would be miserable trying to keep ourselves in parks to eat at just as busy restaurants. So no more CRT and with the extra day we can relax a little more.

Definitely consider that dessert party. We thought it was perfect. We only had to go to the Terrace and there we could stay in our own little bubble per se. Now granted, I have an AP and didn't burn a park day to do this, but all week will be busy for MK, so if it's in the budget, definitely consider a late QS lunch and then maybe this to finish out your night.

 

[dlavender]

Definitely consider that dessert party. We thought it was perfect. We only had to go to the Terrace and there we could stay in our own little bubble per se. Now granted, I have an AP and didn't burn a park day to do this, but all week will be busy for MK, so if it's in the budget, definitely consider a late QS lunch and then maybe this to finish out your night.

Love this idea! We will definitely look into it.

ETA we are also thinking about an evening with no kids(letting them do an in room babysitter or Disney club) and eating at the contemporary and doing a drink around the monorail loop evening. No ddp really frees us up. Even if we spend the same amount, I feel like we can be way more flexible with our plans.