First Christmas trip thoughts

monorailrabbit

Rabbits Rabbits Everywhere!
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Jan 17, 2013
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I'm stuck at work today, so I thought I would cheer myself up by reminiscing on our recent trip and share some thoughts and tips we picked up!

Typically, we go in late Sep/early Oct and enjoy lower crowds. We were fully expecting a different experience this time, and were bracing ourselves for "crazy crowds." We went 12/10-12-17. Crowds were very manageable! We were pleasantly surprised! Longest wait was maybe 10 minutes - we made good use of our FP+ and @kennythepirate's AMAZING character locator! Never waited long for characters and saw everyone we wanted to see, including a few bonuses! We attended our first Christmas Party and were blown away! The parade was amazing - the character meets were wonderful, and we enjoyed the castle show and treats tremendously. One of the tips I wanted to share was to try and hit MK on a party night. Significantly less crowds! We had a dinner ressie on a party night and by 4:30 it was insanely crowded!! It was stressful trying to get out after dinner as Main Street was so packed you could barely move!

We stayed at CBR for the first time and have mixed feelings about it. We were rather disenchanted with front desk and bell services, which was a shame as that was our first impression, but the resort itself was wonderful! We spent an afternoon on the hammocks and caught Illuminations one night on the beach. The CM's at Old Port Royale were amazing and so kind - they saw that I had a lot of Genie pins and held some back for me on their pin board. One gentlemen had a special bag of pins he pulled out for me everyday - he told me he made sure he kept some good ones back for me!

We had several other "firsts" this trip. We did the Monorail Highway in the Sky Dine Around and I can't say enough good things about that. Everything was perfect - from the food, to the staff, to the people in our group - it was simply incredible! We also dined at CRT for the first time, and we were lucky enough to get a window at dinner! The food was wonderful, the princesses were great and the CM's were some of the nicest people I've ever encountered. We also tried GG for breakfast, typically we do dinner. We really enjoyed being some of the first folks in Epcot, and breakfast was amazing!! GG is our favorite restaurant on property - and now it's a must-do for breakfast! I highly recommend trying a pre-opening breakfast if you haven't - it's really awesome!!

Overall, I think we may have changed from fall to winter as far as our ideal vacation timing! The weather was perfect, crowds weren't bad at all, in fact some days felt less busy than October. Christmas was even more dominant than I expected, but not in a bad way! OMG the castle in the icicle lights!!!!! I really think this is one of the best trips we've ever had! Definitely hope we can come back during Christmas again!
 
Thanks for your review, mr, sounds like a great trip. And welcome home. Happy New Year.
 
Sounds like you had a wonderful time, which is great. However the title of your post being "First Christmas Trip" misled me into thinking you had actually visited during Christmas week. I imagine the crowds were quite a bit heavier last week than the week you visited.
 

I'm going glad you had a great trip. It really is the most magical time of year. Next year, if you do a December trip, I'd recommend looking into the same dates carefully. I think Christmas falling on a Sunday this year pushed back vacation dates for a lot of schools, causing crowds to be lighter than you expected, especially toward the end of your trip.


I'm so jealous you got to do the monorail dinner. That sounded so yummy. Did you all really have a dedicated monorail to get from resort to resort? At Christmas it must have been even more special getting to experience resort decorations, too.
 
I'm glad you had a great trip. We did a quick trip last December 12-15. It was our first winter trip, too and we loved it. We went in thinking we wanted to see the Christmas stuff once and be good. Of course now I want to go every December!!
 
I think the key to enjoy anytime you come is to just expect the worse with crowds and you get a pleasant surprise it was better than you expected. The opposite just makes you see everything negative the whole week and to me, really impacts mood and enjoyment in a very negative way.
 
I'm so jealous you got to do the monorail dinner. That sounded so yummy. Did you all really have a dedicated monorail to get from resort to resort? At Christmas it must have been even more special getting to experience resort decorations, too.

We did! We got a few not-so-pleasant glances from people when we walked past the line into our reserved car at the resorts! We ended up taking the ferry boat back to Contemporary for fireworks - and that was a nice end to it! We even suggested they make that a normal thing as opposed to taking the monorail back, as we got to catch the electric water pageant on the way!
 
Your trip sounds wonderful and magical! We just returned too; we were there Nov 29-Dec 9 and we were blown away by the Christmas season in WDW! My hubby doesn't want to go at any other time of year again! We loved it!
 
We also recently visited. This was the second time we visited in December. This time was Nov 30 - Dec 8th. Most of our WDW visits have been in early May. The weather in early December is fantastic. We had high 70s to low 80s everyday and mostly dry. One or two days it was a bit sticky but not awful. In May it is very nice but can get hot. I love the holiday decorations and the festivities. It has become one of my favorite times to visit as well. Glad you enjoyed.
 
We were there Dec. 19 thru 23rd, it was our first trip at that time of year as well. We enjoyed it but probably won't do it every year. We did feel the parks were more crowded than we were used to in Spring, summer and fall but it was manageable. We actually didn't book it until 3 weeks before and aren't really advance planners so had no FPs or ADRs booked in advance. We pretty much were able to ride what we wanted but our expectations were low and we had already decided this wasn't going to be a park/ride heavy trip. We loved going around all the deluxe resorts and seeing the decorations and took the opportunity to eat at restaurants we haven't tried before since we are normally there during F&G and F&W and tend to concentrate on the booths for food. I envy you getting to do the monorail meal, I looked every day, including the day we got there and was unable to get it so I'm hoping they extend it for our March trip.
 
I'm stuck at work today, so I thought I would cheer myself up by reminiscing on our recent trip and share some thoughts and tips we picked up!

Typically, we go in late Sep/early Oct and enjoy lower crowds. We were fully expecting a different experience this time, and were bracing ourselves for "crazy crowds." We went 12/10-12-17. Crowds were very manageable!
Glad you had a great trip but that week's crowds are not crazy at all. Should have been pretty much like your Sept/Oct trip quite honestly.
 
So jealous of the monorail trip too. Would love to have done that. We left just before it started (we were there for Thanksgiving)
 
I'm stuck at work today, so I thought I would cheer myself up by reminiscing on our recent trip and share some thoughts and tips we picked up!

Typically, we go in late Sep/early Oct and enjoy lower crowds. We were fully expecting a different experience this time, and were bracing ourselves for "crazy crowds." We went 12/10-12-17. Crowds were very manageable! We were pleasantly surprised! Longest wait was maybe 10 minutes - we made good use of our FP+ and @kennythepirate's AMAZING character locator! Never waited long for characters and saw everyone we wanted to see, including a few bonuses! We attended our first Christmas Party and were blown away! The parade was amazing - the character meets were wonderful, and we enjoyed the castle show and treats tremendously. One of the tips I wanted to share was to try and hit MK on a party night. Significantly less crowds! We had a dinner ressie on a party night and by 4:30 it was insanely crowded!! It was stressful trying to get out after dinner as Main Street was so packed you could barely move!

Glad I could help you make some great memories!
 
I'm glad you had a great trip. We did a quick trip last December 12-15. It was our first winter trip, too and we loved it. We went in thinking we wanted to see the Christmas stuff once and be good. Of course now I want to go every December!!
Ye
I think the key to enjoy anytime you come is to just expect the worse with crowds and you get a pleasant surprise it was better than you expected. The opposite just makes you see everything negative the whole week and to me, really impacts mood and enjoyment in a very negative way.
Agreed! I always tell first timers to expect lots and lots of crowds. If there aren't, then bonus, but to go in expecting that their won't be will lead to almost certain disappointment. It's all in expectation management.
 
I'm glad you had a great trip. We did a quick trip last December 12-15. It was our first winter trip, too and we loved it. We went in thinking we wanted to see the Christmas stuff once and be good. Of course now I want to go every December!!
Yep! We visit regularly, but usually in the spring and fall. We went December 1-9 of 15 to see all things Disney Christmas at least once and fell in LOVE with that time of year at WDW. So much so that when we returned from our October trip this year we decided we needed to take a quick trip again in December so we spent the 9th - 13th and had an absolute blast!
 

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