December Trip Planning

[jblrn2b]

I was going to add on to another post who asked about crowds but I realized I had so many questions.

Is it too crazy to take my family at that time? For us it doesn't matter because we will have been there three times in 2009 and we know we'll be back if we missed something.

What fun things does everyone do? Explain Candelight Processional and any tips for it?

What does everyone do for Christmas Dinner?

Thanks all for your help.

 

[CraftyMouse]

I was going to add on to another post who asked about crowds but I realized I had so many questions.

Is it too crazy to take my family at that time? For us it doesn't matter because we will have been there three times in 2009 and we know we'll be back if we missed something.
Not at all! You don't mention when in December you are planning for, but he first two weeks are fairly quiet at WDW. If you're talking about Christmas/NYE itself then yes, that will be a very busy time...but if you're crazy then so are we! We'll be there for the New Year this year. We fully anticipate huge crowds, but we're excited to be going for the big night. We've been so many times that it's no big deal if we don't get to do something. We're just going to enjoy the atmosphere!

What fun things does everyone do? Explain Candelight Processional and any tips for it?
The Candelight Processional is the telling of the Christmas Story with choral selections from a full choir. It is absolutely beautiful and you need not be religious (we are not) to enjoy it. There are guest narrators every year. The list for this year's narrators is at www.allearsnet.com. Next year's narrators should be announced sometime in late-Summer/early-Fall 2009. If you want to be guaranteed a seat then book the Dinner Package. For the cost of the package you get dinner at an EPCOT restaurant and guaranteed seating at the show. If you'd rather not do the Dinner Package then line up at least 45 minutes before show time. Fifteen minutes before show time they will let those waiting fill any available seats.

My favorite thing at WDW during December is Holidays Around the World. Each country in World Showcase shares its holiday traditions, including their version of Santa Claus.

Other things to do include visiting the parks/resorts to see their holiday decorations, the Christmas parade at the MK, the holiday version of the AK parade, and lots of little things throughout the property.

What does everyone do for Christmas Dinner?
We won't be there for Christmas itself but next year we'll be there for Thanksgiving. I plan to make a full dinner in our villa and we're just going to relax and enjoy the day. If we were going to be there for Christmas and wanted to dine out I would probably choose Artist Point (WL). For NYE dinner this year we're eating at the San Angel Inn in Mexico at EPCOT (another of our favorites!).

Thanks all for your help.

Hope that helps!

While we wouldn't normally choose holiday times to visit WDW, now that DD16 is in college we have no other choice (we won't go in the summer!). We've had many years of going off-season though (we homeschooled) so I guess it's our payback!

Have fun planning!

 

[JaxFLBear]

Disney has a holiday webpage. Check it out if you want at: disneyworld.com/holidays

 

[Spear3909]

I agree with the earlier post - just enjoy the atmosphere! Crowds are high (we went the week after Christmas and were there for NYE two years ago) but we just dealt with it. We have school age children and are tied down to summer vacation and breaks throughout the year. Only nice thing about summer is the really late Extra Magic hours that help you beat the heat.

 

[dgaston]

We just don't have enough points to stay onsite over the holidays, so we have rented a pool villa at either Windsor Hills or Windsor Palms with extended family from Iowa or California. I order a turkey dinner with trimmings from Publix Deli and fix a few things to personalize our Christmas dinner -- in our case, it's the proverbial green bean casserole, our particular sweet potato recipe, and my pumpkin pie.

We made reservations for the CP for Christmas Eve--just wonderful.

On Christmas Day we toured the gingerbread houses at all of the deluxes except AK and the Contemporary. We managed to use all forms of Disney transportation -- boats, busses, monorail. And my CA brother is a train nut, so just to say he'd been in MK on Christmas, we rode the train around the MK.

I also strongly recommend TourguideMike for his Best Days, Best Parks Chart for a busy time like the holidays (even with all my experience, I love it).