Christmas trip - Highs and Lows

[saintrob]

This is my first attempt at a review of a trip so hopefully it'll read reasonably well?

We normally stay for 12-14 days at Christmas but this was a shorter trip of 10 nights due to coinciding work and my DS finishing at university.

The Highs;

• The premium economy flight from Manchester - great experience in the Escape lounge, fabulous crew and through immigration in twenty minutes!
• I'd booked our first five nights at the BWI in a club level deluxe room - when we arrived at check in we were told that we'd been upgraded ( I assumed the CM meant to the deluxe room) He then said that it was to the vice presidential suite!!! I was literally jumping on the spot I was so excited! We've had over 20 plus trips to WDW and this is the first upgrade of any kind. The room was amazing!
  
• The CMs at the Innkeepers club. I'd read on the boards that they were some of the best and I can't say enough good things about them. Nothing was too much trouble. We'll be back.
• The weather! Hot, hot, and hotter. Afternoons around the pool became the norm.
• Epcot for the holidays - I love it! Nothing beats the storytellers especially the Mariachi band in Mexico and I did enjoy the new Canadian group. We didn't book the Candlelit Processional this year but had a wander past and the atmosphere was amazing.
• Magic Kingdom on Christmas morning - there's nowhere else I'd rather be. We always watch the parade at midday in the same place near the barbers shop and have for the last four years met the same people in the same spot!
• The Christmas decorations around the resorts - superb as always although we didn't make it to the Grand Floridian to see the Gingerbread House.
• Our last five nights at the Contemporary - this is one of our favourite resorts and we had Christmas dinner at the California Grill which was fabulous.
• The Osborne Lights Merry and Bright dessert party - I was a little reluctant to book this but am glad that we went ahead. The desserts were good as were the drinks, we had plenty of time to sit and relax before leaving the area to visit the lights. The souvenir blankets are a nice keepsake - was it worth the money? Probably not!
• A great bounceback offer which we've used for our summer/next Christmas trip!

The lows;

• People who don't listen/follow the instructions from the CMs. We saw this on numerous occasions especially when the CMs were trying to disperse the crowds.
  
• Children being allowed to 'drive' motorised scooters especially in crowds. We again saw many CMs try to stop this but largely this was ignored.

All in all, an amazing trip, yes it was busy but with the FP and planning, we managed to ride all the 'biggies' but also had a great deal of down time. Roll on summer!

 

[LiquidSunshine]

Sounds like a fantastic trip! The room upgrade, oh my!

We would love to do a Christmas trip some year.

 

[bex7583]

come on you need to share some pics of that room upgrade !!

 

[NikkiMouse]

Thank you for sharing your highs and lows. Sounds like a successful trip!

I would love to visit at Christmas time but I don't think I'd like the crowds!

Congratulations on the upgrade. A fantastic sparkling of Disney Magic

 

[Mrs Doubtfire]

come on you need to share some pics of that room upgrade !!

This was my exact thought!

Sounds like a wonderful trip

 

[dixonsontour]

ooh yes photos of the room please. What anupgrade, sounds like a fantastic trip

 

[tinkerpea]

You definitely can tell us about a room upgrade like that, and then not post pics lol
We all need a lookout that baby!!

I've wanted to go for Xmas for years, as I literally hate xmas in the UK ever since our family became alot smaller, and being military all of our other family members are far away from us.
However I need warm weather, and if always scares me that I'd get no pool time,I need it really warm to swim I'm useless!
Also I don't do cold evening's if It was cheap enough that it wasn't my main trip of the year, and I could fly over literally for 9-10 days over xmas I'd be very happy.
The crowds also terrify me!
My kids wouldn't cope with the crowds and waiting hours to get on rides.
And the pics I seen of this year was crazy....