Christmas trip

[footballmouse]

Ok people, tell me everything I need to see or do for a Xmas trip. Going the first week of December, it will be me and my 3 sons, ages 17, 19 & 24, and one of their girlfriends. Staying offsite, will be there for 4 full days, late flight on the 5th day so I'm tossing around the idea of going to Disney Springs departure day. This is their first trip during xmas but we've been many, many other times, although the girlfriend has never been. My son knows he will take her down separately at another time in a few years so what we don't see, they can catch another time.

Is the MVMCP worth it? What about the dinner package at Epcot? Trying to stay within a budget, no dining plan this time, only eating one sit down meal at the park, the rest of the dinners will be offsite (hitting up CiCi's, McDonald's & Taco Bell) and bringing in food for the day.

Let me hear from all the Disney Xmas experts. I'm thinking this will be my last trip in a very, very, very long time, until grandkids come into the picture.

Thanks for help & advice.

 

[loves to dive]

We have been going the week before Christmas the past few years and love to do a tour of all the deluxe resorts to look at the decorations. If you have to pick, just do either the monorail loop or the BW loop. You can do either of those in about 2 hours. Make sure you go to all the parks at night, they are really beautiful all lit up. Epcot has story tellers around WS who tell stories about their country traditions. We have never been to either the Halloween or Christmas party, my son (grown) isn't big on stage shows or parades and it's not worth the extra money just for different fireworks at Christmas for us or candy we wouldn't eat any way at Halloween.

 

[bigmac5]

We are hoping to go the first week in Dec for 6 nights. we will have 3 park tickets and MVMCP. We plan to do Jingle bell Jingle Bam desert party and the Candle light processional dinner. Also will be doing a day of resort hoping and our first day(and maybe our last) at Disney springs. I want to see the Christmas tree trail...even though it doesn't' get great reviews. Don't think I will do Christmas at Disney again so want to do as much as I can.

 

[DisneyWishes14]

Ok people, tell me everything I need to see or do for a Xmas trip. Going the first week of December, it will be me and my 3 sons, ages 17, 19 & 24, and one of their girlfriends. Staying offsite, will be there for 4 full days, late flight on the 5th day so I'm tossing around the idea of going to Disney Springs departure day. This is their first trip during xmas but we've been many, many other times, although the girlfriend has never been. My son knows he will take her down separately at another time in a few years so what we don't see, they can catch another time.

Is the MVMCP worth it? What about the dinner package at Epcot? Trying to stay within a budget, no dining plan this time, only eating one sit down meal at the park, the rest of the dinners will be offsite (hitting up CiCi's, McDonald's & Taco Bell) and bringing in food for the day.

Let me hear from all the Disney Xmas experts. I'm thinking this will be my last trip in a very, very, very long time, until grandkids come into the picture.

Thanks for help & advice.

I think you can experience a lot of what WDW has to offer at Christmas without spending a lot on extras like the party or CP package. We went to MVMCP last year, and, honestly, I felt the DHS decorations, holiday offerings in EP and the deluxe resort decorations were better than the party and those are all free or included with your park ticket. If you want to eat TS in EP and see CP, maybe spring for the package, but I would look for the least expensive possible.

 

[Chrislovesdisney]

We loved everything at Epcot (including thr candlelight processional - we did the dinner package) and just enjoying all the decorations around everywhere else. We didn’t pay for any other events and didn’t feel like we were missing out on anything. Enjoy!

 

[dachsie]

Check to see who will be the narrator for the Candlelight processional. If Neil Patrick Harris, then if you want to see it, you will need a CP package as his tend to fill up quickly

 

[footballmouse]

It isn’t him, they just have TBD

 

[themommy]

Christmas is awesome at Disney! We went to the party and the processional. They were both amazing! My dream had always been to see it snow on Main Street. I got that at the party and it was so worth it. I had tears running down my cheeks when it started and DH looked at me, wiped my tears away and said “Merry Christmas baby”. It still makes me tear up just thinking about it. That to me was priceless. I’d say if you can spring for the price, do both things at least once!

I forgot to add something: If any of you have a Chase Visa you can get a discount on the party tickets.

 

[Mome Rath]

For me, I like the processional better than the party, but I do think to experience Disney at Christmastime, you should at least pick one to do. I think the dining package for the CP is worth it, as you need to eat anyway. The hotels are definitely beautiful, I'd pick either the Monorail hotels to check out and/or the Boardwalk area hotels.

 

[swanwed6206]

We did not love the candlelight processional (left early)- but really enjoyed the party in MK. I liked the cookies and hot chocolate, the fake snow, and the parade. Plus running around hitting all the rides at night is great! Christmas in Disney is awesome so have fun!! Also don’t forget to get a T shirt only sold at the party.

 

[kiford]

We like MVMCP and usually do it when we go. We usually go the first week or so of December; this year will be the first time we're going between Christmas and New Year's and MVMCP ends before that so that's a bit disappointing to me. We also love to do resort hopping for the decorations and the gingerbread constructions. Make sure to include the Swan and Dolphin in the resort hopping - they do a nice job too even if it's not Disney doing it. Each country in Epcot World Showcase has a special Christmas thing like story tellers or music so we like to wander about and just enjoy that.