Holiday Lights & Magic December 2013

[LB1122]

I wish your husband luck on his job hunt.

I had never heard of elf on a shelf until last Christmas. Too late to start that tradition. It sounds like you got some good stuff.

Funny you say it is too late...A good friend of mine got one as a wedding gift (they got married in November like us). The gift included a different fun thing for each holiday (By the way what a fun fun gift).

Anyhow. with no kids they figured they would not really like it until then...well they decided to play with it anyways and LOVE it. They take turns hiding it each night for each other. She is the reason we got one. You never know

 

[happybelle]

Good luck with the job hunt. I love the Elf on the Shelf, how fun to incorporate him in to your Disney planning.

 

[OregonMomToWDW]

Funny you say it is too late...A good friend of mine got one as a wedding gift (they got married in November like us). The gift included a different fun thing for each holiday (By the way what a fun fun gift).

Anyhow. with no kids they figured they would not really like it until then...well they decided to play with it anyways and LOVE it. They take turns hiding it each night for each other. She is the reason we got one. You never know

That is an idea. It might work. I will have to take a look at it and see if we could have fun with it. Thanks.

 

[vbeaudry]

Joining in!

We are also arriving on the 22nd but staying at CBR! This will be our first trip to disney world and we can not wait!!

Belle is also my favourite character. But I had no luck getting BOG reservation.

 

[LB1122]

Joining in!

We are also arriving on the 22nd but staying at CBR! This will be our first trip to disney world and we can not wait!!

Belle is also my favourite character. But I had no luck getting BOG reservation.

Very exciting first trip. A holiday Disney trip has been on my wish list for a long time so I can only imagine what it would be like as your first trip too...Talk about overloaded with emotions.

 

[vbeaudry]

DH keeps shaking his head at me, I'm constantly on the Dis researching. I just like to be organized and hear how crazy it is at that time of year. Just want to make the most of our time and really get to enjoy everything!!

 

[snuggly duckling]

Joining in!

We'll be there at the same time (just getting there a couple of days earlier.) We are also DxDDP people and have many of the same ADRs planned

So excited for Christmas at Disney!!

 

[LB1122]

WOW. Only 131 days until the magical trip. Recently I have been reading posts about preplanning and packing...THIS HAS ME WRITTEN ALL OVER IT!

I start thinking about packing way in advance. I make list and buy fun things to have ready for the trip whenever I see them on sale. My hubby thinks I am crazy whenever I say, "It's for the trip".

Curious about room decorations? Seeing as it will be Christmas I would like to decorate in a fun way once we are in the room, but not sure now much I really want to pack or maybe I will send some stuff. If you have any thoughts on this I would be happy to hear them.

Also, wondering if I should make plans for lunches on Christmas Day or just go with the flow?

 

[jewels1916]

Hi LB, joining in on your PTR! I'm going to be living vicariously through your trip! I visited WDW in December a few years ago and have been dying to go back during the holiday season ever since! I'm thinking it will finally happen in Dec 2014! But until then I can't wait to hear all about your plans!

Courtney

 

[LB1122]

Okay you can call me crazy...
but I could not do it. I could not take Cinderella, Merida, Belle or Rapunzel out of a Royal Guest Room for their holiday visit.





In order to switch to the free dining plan (thanks DIS and hubby being a planner) and stay under budget, we would have to stay at a different resort and I could not do it.

I should have called sooner, but at first we did to think our room was even an option for the free plan (in case you did not know if you arrive on one of the dates for free dining you whole trip is included)and by the time we called there were no more Royal Guest rooms open for this promo.

I KNOW..I could switch and the trip would still be magical and lets face it much less expensive - BUT this room was what we had been planning for as a special surprise for our daughter and we are still under our planned budget.

Am I nuts. I could still change to C. Springs, get the queen beds and free dining and save money... would you?

 

[LB1122]

We decided to make changes and we decided to go BIG.

Stay tuned!!

 

[LB1122]

Well I said we made some changes and that they were big and here is what we did. We will now be staying at...

Wilderness Lodge - Club Level

How did this happen? The last time I checked in I was saying I could not take my daughter out of the princess themed room even if it meant saving some money and getting free dining. Well, when we could not get the Royal Guest Rooms and free dining reservations we started talking and thinking and looking at our options.

1. Go for the less expensive room and get the free dining. More money for planning another trip in the Spring 2014.
2. Stay put - do nothing! (So thought this would be it)
3. Upgrade to a Deluxe room, spend more and put off planning next trip.

We decided to go back to the beginning and talk about the planning for this trip. The budget we planned before we found the Royal Guest Rooms was much higher due to that resort being a Moderate. - We could go higher and the lower rooms were not really on our radar anyways.

We talked about this being our Dream Trip. We both said Wilderness at Christmas would be amazing. We wanted that look and feel.

We talked about dear hubby not having another job right now and what that meant for future trip anyways - Spring 2014 most likely a no.

Most importantly, we asked our daughter about the rooms. We were so sure she would want the princess room and she said it was her favorite, until we showed her - The Bunk bed rooms and from then on we knew what we were going to do.



We rebooked - Good bye Port Orleans (we so will stay there sometime), hello Wilderness Lodge - Free Dining (we upgraded to Deluxe due to our dining plans) and in the end we went with Club Level to maximizes the experience (So what my hubby wanted!)

CRAZY? Maybe
AMAZING Totally!!!!

Now we will look at our dining closer and maybe make some changes and add in more ADRs. The room is no longer a surprise to her, but we got plenty up our sleeve.

 

[jewels1916]

Wow!!! That's like my dream trip! Lucky lucky!

 

[LB1122]

Wow!!! That's like my dream trip! Lucky lucky!

Thanks for saying this. It was such a hard choice at first, but we totally went for it. I look forward to sharing.

 

[LB1122]

With the change in our reservation we have gone back into our ADR's and planning and changed things up a bit. We really wanted to take advantage of the Deluxe Dining and Club Level Services. A few people asked us why were we still doing deluxe and the answer was 2 credit meals...

Sunday Dec 22
- Chef Mickey's for dinner (no change)

Monday Dec 23
- Liberty Tree Tavern for Lunch (Added for hubby)


Tuesday Dec 24 (no changes)
- Akershus for breakfast
- Candlelight Processional Dinner Package at Garden Grill - 2 credit meal

Wednesday December 25
- Crystal Palace for breakfast (no change)
- Artist Point for Dinner - 2 credit meal (We changed this from Tony's because we really wanted to eat at our hotel. We also thought this would be a more relaxing way to end Christmas.)

Thursday Dec 26
- Tusker House for Breakfast (Changed day we would be at Animal Kingdom)
- Le Cellier for dinner - 2 credit meal (no change)

Friday December 27
- Hollywood & Vine for lunch

- Cinderella's Royal Table for Dinner - 2 meal credits (Huge surprise for our daughter. It is a late reservation so we have plenty of time to get there from 6:30 Fantasmic show. She will flip!

Saturday Dec 28
- Whispering Canyon for Breakfast(Heard we had to eat here as it was so fun.)
- Be Our Guest for Dinner (no change)

Sunday December 29 (no change)
- O'hana for Breakfast

We will use 18 of our 21 credits at sit down meals. We love to eat and enjoy food, plus we love the idea of resting a bit at our table. We have plenty of time to enjoy the parks, but feel we are really using our meal plan to it's full advantage and will have some amazing food experiences.

Any thoughts??? I would love to hear.

 

[happybelle]

How exciting DH is getting what he wanted...love it. I would do this as well, you only live once.

 

[LB1122]

How exciting DH is getting what he wanted...love it. I would do this as well, you only live once.

He is very excited about Fantasmic and WL...I try and make him happy now and than so I get what I want as well!!!

 

[LB1122]

113 Days out today. Very excited to get to the under 100 mark. We are busy making packing lists and wish lists. So much fun to be had.

 

[LB1122]

Anything we get a chance to do Disney is fun as it build up to our trip.
Recently the Doc McStuffin's tour was at Navy Pier and we headed down to enjoy the day.

I am not complaining...okay I am a little...but they did not bring the character out for the event. She had been at 2 previous events (and gotten bad reviews for lines and crowd control I guess) and so she was "working in her clinic"

Lucky they gave out a sheet of information as soon as you got in line that told you she would not be there, but try explaining it to your children? There was one girl near us sobbing.

Over all the event was fun for my daughter. They had organized lines and entry times, several stations along the way including a dance area and give your stuffed toy a check up area. They even had doctor coats for the kids during this time.

They gave all kids a water bottle and a free photo with the photo screen.



Overall it was a great way to countdown to Disney for us. The line was about a 45-50 minutes wait so we called it training for our trip.

 

[LB1122]

We have official reached double digits I our count down. When you start counting down at the end of the last trip almost 4 years ago double digits is like major news.

This weekend we are celebrating with my whole family...including extended. My cousin (the bay of 6 and our former roommate) is getting married. Our daughter is serving as ring maiden and my niece as flower girl (you can probably imagine how excited grandma is for those photos tomorrow).It is great having everyone in town to wish the bride and groom well

I have been crafting all week for the final wedding touches (I did shower and bachelorette invites as well as table numbers, signs and more.) NOWI want to get to Disney crafting.

What Disney crafts do you make? Show and tell welcome. I am already started on a scrapbook and have many many more ideas.