kevind2112
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Jun 12, 2006
- Messages
- 236
Our family booked this trip very early in 2021. The more news that came out of Disney during the year, the less excited we were to go. Price hikes, less open, Genie+, angry crowds, short staffed. It all left a bad taste in our mouth. But we figured this may be the last family trip for a long time, we went ahead and decided to go anyway.
What started out as a trip with some trepidation and general blah turned out to be possibly the best Disney trip we've taken. There was intrigue, guest stars, cast member heroics, and an engagement!
The players:
Kevin: That's me. The husband and father
Cat: My wife.
Caitlin: Our oldest daughter (mid-20s)
Chris: Her boyfriend (mid-20s)
Kellianne: Our youngest daughter (21)
Matt: Kellianne's best friend (22)
We are all from Massachusetts. For the 4 core family members, this is our 6th trip, the other 5 happening in 2005, 2006, 2007, 2015 & 2016. So it's been about 5 years since our last trip.
The situation:
My wife and are flying down on December 23rd, landing in Orlando around 12:00pm. We were staying until January 1, flying back home that day (this is important WAY later in this trip report). We are staying at All-Star Music. We will have 3 days to ourselves before the rest of the family arrives.
The 4 "kids" are driving down on December 25th in the afternoon, planning to arrive mid-afternoon on the 26th. They are staying off-site, about 20 minutes away in a timeshare.
I will share Day 1 here, and add to this thread by day. I was really good about documenting our days until about day 7, when I just gave up. So the first part of this trip report will be pretty detailed, while the back half may end up being a bit fuzzy.
Day 1 (Dec 23) - We spent the night at a hotel near the airport. We were able to leave our car there for the duration of the trip at no extra fee. Finally working up a bit of excitement about the trip, we slept little. Up early, and to the airport by 7:00am for a 9:30am flight.
No issues flying. No issues at MCO. Grabbed our luggage and headed to the Magical Express area. Sad that this is the last time we'll be using this. We've used it on all of our past 5 trips. Get to the hotel, check in no issues. Man it felt good to be on a Disney property again. We've spent a few of our last trips at the All-Stars. We are park warriors, so we don't mind staying at a value. The sites and smells and sounds put us right into vacation mode! Getting excited!
We quickly check in, drop our luggage, change into our Disney tourist attire, and head out for Epcot. I had this day fully planned out, since it would be an afternoon and evening in the park. I booked a dinner at Biergarten, someplace we've never eaten before, but were eager to try. We purchased the Processional dinner package, as we are also big fans. Got to Epcot around 4:00. Spaceship Earth is closed, bummer. So we decided to hit Soarin'. Only a 15 minute wait, so why not.
After that we headed over to Germany for dinner. Biergarten is a really cool place! We loved most of the food, and the entertainment was great! We were full, but not stuffed, when we left. We stopped to watch the trains for a bit, then off to France for Remy's. I had purchased it earlier today before we got on on our flight. I just wanted to make sure we got on it, and it fit right in between dinner and the processional. We really liked it! Really cute.
After that it was time to get in line for the processional. Waited about 20 minutes, spoke to a number of others in line about our trips, etc... Entered the theater, and watched the show. Maybe it's because of everything that's been going on lately, but it was pretty emotional actually being there. It was a great show.
Once that was done, we were pretty tired from the long day, and decided not to stay for Harmonious. We would have plenty of time to see it later in the trip. We headed back to the hotel for the night. On the way out we watched Spaceship Earth for about 15 minutes. It's gorgeous! Pictures and videos do not do it justice. The lights are just amazing!
A couple of things we noticed on day one. 1) Almost everyone was following the masking rules. Masks indoors, mostly maskless outdoors. That was a good sign for the week, since we were pretty concerned about COVID, and with Omicron trending up at the time, we were pretty nervous about how the next 10 days were going to go. 2) The park was not busy AT ALL. By the time we left the processional world showcase was almost deserted. It was almost a shame to leave such an empty park, but we were wiped! This would end up being a surprising trend over the next several days. After reading about crowd horror stories from the last week, we were pleasantly surprised.
What started out as a trip with some trepidation and general blah turned out to be possibly the best Disney trip we've taken. There was intrigue, guest stars, cast member heroics, and an engagement!
The players:
Kevin: That's me. The husband and father
Cat: My wife.
Caitlin: Our oldest daughter (mid-20s)
Chris: Her boyfriend (mid-20s)
Kellianne: Our youngest daughter (21)
Matt: Kellianne's best friend (22)
We are all from Massachusetts. For the 4 core family members, this is our 6th trip, the other 5 happening in 2005, 2006, 2007, 2015 & 2016. So it's been about 5 years since our last trip.
The situation:
My wife and are flying down on December 23rd, landing in Orlando around 12:00pm. We were staying until January 1, flying back home that day (this is important WAY later in this trip report). We are staying at All-Star Music. We will have 3 days to ourselves before the rest of the family arrives.
The 4 "kids" are driving down on December 25th in the afternoon, planning to arrive mid-afternoon on the 26th. They are staying off-site, about 20 minutes away in a timeshare.
I will share Day 1 here, and add to this thread by day. I was really good about documenting our days until about day 7, when I just gave up. So the first part of this trip report will be pretty detailed, while the back half may end up being a bit fuzzy.
Day 1 (Dec 23) - We spent the night at a hotel near the airport. We were able to leave our car there for the duration of the trip at no extra fee. Finally working up a bit of excitement about the trip, we slept little. Up early, and to the airport by 7:00am for a 9:30am flight.
No issues flying. No issues at MCO. Grabbed our luggage and headed to the Magical Express area. Sad that this is the last time we'll be using this. We've used it on all of our past 5 trips. Get to the hotel, check in no issues. Man it felt good to be on a Disney property again. We've spent a few of our last trips at the All-Stars. We are park warriors, so we don't mind staying at a value. The sites and smells and sounds put us right into vacation mode! Getting excited!
We quickly check in, drop our luggage, change into our Disney tourist attire, and head out for Epcot. I had this day fully planned out, since it would be an afternoon and evening in the park. I booked a dinner at Biergarten, someplace we've never eaten before, but were eager to try. We purchased the Processional dinner package, as we are also big fans. Got to Epcot around 4:00. Spaceship Earth is closed, bummer. So we decided to hit Soarin'. Only a 15 minute wait, so why not.
After that we headed over to Germany for dinner. Biergarten is a really cool place! We loved most of the food, and the entertainment was great! We were full, but not stuffed, when we left. We stopped to watch the trains for a bit, then off to France for Remy's. I had purchased it earlier today before we got on on our flight. I just wanted to make sure we got on it, and it fit right in between dinner and the processional. We really liked it! Really cute.
After that it was time to get in line for the processional. Waited about 20 minutes, spoke to a number of others in line about our trips, etc... Entered the theater, and watched the show. Maybe it's because of everything that's been going on lately, but it was pretty emotional actually being there. It was a great show.
Once that was done, we were pretty tired from the long day, and decided not to stay for Harmonious. We would have plenty of time to see it later in the trip. We headed back to the hotel for the night. On the way out we watched Spaceship Earth for about 15 minutes. It's gorgeous! Pictures and videos do not do it justice. The lights are just amazing!
A couple of things we noticed on day one. 1) Almost everyone was following the masking rules. Masks indoors, mostly maskless outdoors. That was a good sign for the week, since we were pretty concerned about COVID, and with Omicron trending up at the time, we were pretty nervous about how the next 10 days were going to go. 2) The park was not busy AT ALL. By the time we left the processional world showcase was almost deserted. It was almost a shame to leave such an empty park, but we were wiped! This would end up being a surprising trend over the next several days. After reading about crowd horror stories from the last week, we were pleasantly surprised.
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reliving my own Christmastime trip from 2018.
