***Official December 2022 Thread***

[mickey916]

Thank you!!! Same to you!! I hope you had a wonderful trip!!!!

Thank you! It was spectacular! Thank you for being a "bad influence"...enjoy!

 

[Smugpugmug]

Okay, we FINALLY made it to Beach Club! The Auto Train arrived late (and had other problems which were kinda crappy), but it's so wonderful to be here. The resort is gorgeous with the decorations and the gingerbread carousel. Now we're waiting to be seated at Beaches and Cream.

 

[gadget118]

Just got to Ft Wilderness yesterday evening- the decorations people put up here are no joke! The kids did the hokey pokey with chip and dale at the big campfire and we tucked in for an early morning at MK.

We almost didn't make it into MK this morning- DS16 forgot his magic band and both DH and I had no id on us. We rope dropped Fantasyland and mine train was down so we did peter pan and pooh. I think it was then I looked at the phone and saw that 6 rides were down! We did dumbo and mermaid then haunted mansion when it came back up and barnstormer when it came back up. I think SD mine train was still down at this point. Lines started to get long so we hopped on the regular train before the parade. (Santa!!). We had the toon town circus tables all to ourselves for lunch, then did carousel of progress.

Then, we got our Disney magic. As we left we happened upon the Calvalcade, ended up following it out of the park, dancing all the way. I hope every day is this good!

 

[Disturbia]

Just got to Ft Wilderness yesterday evening- the decorations people put up here are no joke! The kids did the hokey pokey with chip and dale at the big campfire and we tucked in for an early morning at MK.

We almost didn't make it into MK this morning- DS16 forgot his magic band and both DH and I had no id on us. We rope dropped Fantasyland and mine train was down so we did peter pan and pooh. I think it was then I looked at the phone and saw that 6 rides were down! We did dumbo and mermaid then haunted mansion when it came back up and barnstormer when it came back up. I think SD mine train was still down at this point. Lines started to get long so we hopped on the regular train before the parade. (Santa!!). We had the toon town circus tables all to ourselves for lunch, then did carousel of progress.

Then, we got our Disney magic. As we left we happened upon the Calvalcade, ended up following it out of the park, dancing all the way. I hope every day is this good!

We have a sleigh ride booked on our only AK day and we were debating whether it was worth the runaround (7:25 Sleigh ride (internal bus); 9 pm Boma and then back to Poly for fireworks)

Do the pony rides start at 11 am? Was hoping to take the younger kids pony riding but dad and big sister will be riding horses at the same time.

 

[Smugpugmug]

I wish everyone a Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays and a happy new year! My family and I did a monorail bar crawl today - Contemporary and Polynesian weren't too bad crowd wise but Grand Floridian was a little hectic lol. Now we're on our way to dinner. Also we grabbed a last minute reservation at Kona Cafe and it was pretty good. WAY better than it was pre refurb where I thought it was mediocre. Hope everyone had a great day today! (That's me at the Polynesian tree btw)

 

[Disturbia]

I wish everyone a Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays and a happy new year! My family and I did a monorail bar crawl today - Contemporary and Polynesian weren't too bad crowd wise but Grand Floridian was a little hectic lol. Now we're on our way to dinner. Also we grabbed a last minute reservation at Kona Cafe and it was pretty good. WAY better than it was pre refurb where I thought it was mediocre. Hope everyone had a great day today! (That's me at the Polynesian tree btw)

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year to you & your family as well!

 

[elaine amj]

It’s COLD out there!!!!

We had a delish Christmas Eve dinner at Sebastian’s last night. Service was rather crappy but the food was soooo good it made up for it.

I was a bit annoyed every single dish (including rolls and salad) showed up at the same time after we had been sitting there starving for half an hour but too hungry to let them take the entrees away lol! My mother was so hungry she begged the waiter for rolls twice during our long wait and was rebuffed sternly each time. Them he promised to keep our hot water filled and a couple of times we waited 10+ mins. Still, we loved the food so much we were able to overlook all that.

Contrast that to today’s $50+ pp Christmas brunch at Tapa Toro. Service was great but food was blah. The famous paella was heavily oversalted. Oh well, we made the best of it and enjoyed ourselves - it was just rather wildly overpriced.

Then we watched Avatar 2 in 4DX at Regal Pointe Orlando. WOW!!!! It was basically a 3hr rollercoaster ride lol. I did not expect it to shake us so much. Worked great for our family though and we loved it.

 

[mickey916]

We have a sleigh ride booked on our only AK day and we were debating whether it was worth the runaround (7:25 Sleigh ride (internal bus); 9 pm Boma and then back to Poly for fireworks)

Do the pony rides start at 11 am? Was hoping to take the younger kids pony riding but dad and big sister will be riding horses at the same time.

We did the sleigh ride a couple weeks ago. While we enjoyed it, I think it sounds like a lot to squeeze in with your other plans. I would skip it.

 

[gadget118]

Animal kingdom 4 hour 25 min posted wait this morning

 

[elaine amj]

My DH and DD said Epcot was busy this morning. But they had no problems doing the things they wanted to do and avoided the crowd. They even took the time to play with some of the video games after Spaceship Earth

 

[JJ2017]

My DH and DD said Epcot was busy this morning. But they had no problems doing the things they wanted to do and avoided the crowd. They even took the time to play with some of the video games after Spaceship Earth

For the first time ever we didn’t rope drop. Arrived at the Epcot parking area around 9:45. Walked in and realized Guardians was down and everything else seemed packed. We headed to WS instead and it also felt packed but all of a sudden our BG was called and after we rode Guardians everything seemed thinned out. We did all the headliners, ate at all the booths we wanted to and kids did their Olaf scavenger hunt. It wound up being our fave Epcot day yet!

 

[elaine amj]

This morning I sent Dh and DD21 off by themselves again. This time booking them at 11:30am lunch at Beaches and Cream, expecting them to arrive to check in early at 11am. Not surprisingly, they didn’t get there until 11:30am.

And then at lunch, they EACH bought $15 shakes with souvenir mugs rather than sundaes! We have zero need for souvenir mugs lol. DH happily drank all his but DD (as is typical) only managed half. My mistake for mentioning the shake in the first place lol. I had expected them to share a sundae. But they were happily ordering without Mom watching the wallet haha!

They really enjoyed their lunch so it was worth it Way better than Skipper’s Canteen last night where apparently their server was not very friendly throughout the meal.

Then instead of going into Epcot, they did a loop on the Skyliner as DD has never been on it. They did tap in to Epcot as I warned them they needed to in case they want to hop somewhere else tonight.

Killing my frugal soul to know we are burning so many days of her park tickets… at least they are the UK 14 day tix and they cost about $688 (after exchange) so similar enough to a 7 day hopper.

I am hanging out with DS in the room as he only has a 7 day ticket.

Tomorrow, we have reservations at Ale and Compass for brunch, then I want to check out the Christmas storytellers in Epcot before DH’s daily nap.

Then I am super excited as we got a last min booking for a 3:45pm Capture Your Moment at Magic Kingdom!

 

[Disturbia]

Just got moving from ORD on Mears (Spirit). Sat 40 mins on the tarmac then had to wait for people who had connections; spent another hour trying to juggle kids through the airport and trying to see if the stroller was salvageable. Our Joovy Caboose ultralight’s tire was completely torn off by Spirit. Already exhausted. Ordered a new one off of Amazon and it wont be delivered until Friday ($250). Now trying to figure out how to rent a stroller or buy umbrella ones for the next two days.

 

[elaine amj]

Just got moving from ORD on Mears (Spirit). Sat 40 mins on the tarmac then had to wait for people who had connections; spent another hour trying to juggle kids through the airport and trying to see if the stroller was salvageable. Our Joovy Caboose ultralight’s tire was completely torn off by Spirit. Already exhausted. Ordered a new one off of Amazon and it wont be delivered until Friday ($250). Now trying to figure out how to rent a stroller or buy umbrella ones for the next two days.

Ack!!! That is an awful way to start your vacation! Hope you guys get some rest today to recover.

 

[elaine amj]

Well, after doing great for a couple of days, DD is sick again And so am I now. On the good side, it’s definitely not covid (I brought rapid tests). Nor any of this year’s common flus as I got my booster + the flu shot a week before coming.

We’re likely canceling tomorrow’s NYEE plans at MK. What a bummer.

DD has only used maybe 7-8 days of her 14 day ticket. This trip has been rather a bust.

Thankfully our family has remained in relatively good spirits and we are focused on rest and recovery.

 

[mickey916]

Well, after doing great for a couple of days, DD is sick again And so am I now. On the good side, it’s definitely not covid (I brought rapid tests). Nor any of this year’s common flus as I got my booster + the flu shot a week before coming.

We’re likely canceling tomorrow’s NYEE plans at MK. What a bummer.

DD has only used maybe 7-8 days of her 14 day ticket. This trip has been rather a bust.

Thankfully our family has remained in relatively good spirits and we are focused on rest and recovery.

Sorry to hear about illness interrupting your trip. You may want to repeat the covid tests in a couple days. I know of many people who test negative two or three times before it registers positive.

 

[DeeBee3]

Just wanted to say Happy New Year to everyone! We just got back from a great trip. Wilderness Lodge was beautiful (of course) and we were all in the Christmas spirit. It sure was cold Christmas weekend, but being from NY we had all our winter stuff and we think it lowered the crowds a bit. We didn't notice a huge influx until after Christmas day.

Enjoy your time if you are still there this weekend!

 

[elaine amj]

Hope those who were able to celebrate had an awesome time!

We pulled the plug on Dec 29 after another rough night, cancelled the last 2 nights of our hotel reservations and started the drive home to Canada early. Stopped at Disney Springs where a CM was kind enough to give my DD a special code to return to use the rest of the 6 unused days of her ticket at some point in the future. Also threw in 3 waterpark days (DD is entitled to 13 waterpark days but we are happy enough to get any). This really really lessened the sting of leaving early. (As well as all the wasted days laying in bed at the condo).

On Dec 31 we woke up in a hotel in Atlanta and I was increasingly worried that neither DD and I were getting better so I called our Canadian travel insurance (took about 30 mins on the phone for DD’s insurance and another 30 mins for mine) and took us off to the Urgent Care nearby. Took us another hour to deal with all the insurance paperwork before we were finally registered.

Got a battery of tests - flu, strep, covid.

Turns out I have covid although DD continues to test negative (they think she prob had it first and is now testing negative). I also got a chest xray to be safe and my lungs are clear.

The urgent care was able to bill our insurance directly so that was good. Shocked that our meds cost only about $16 for steroids and cough suppressant. I can claim that on insurance too anyway.

After the visit, we hit the road again and are now in Kentucky where we stayed another night.

DD and I have the most horrible hacking coughs in the world. So far DH and DS are fine and may escape this. We are masking up with N95s, have booked separate hotel rooms for the boys and in the van, we keep our back vents open for ventilation.

To add to all the disappointments, DS’ ski trip this coming week looks like it is getting rained out. Only on exact two days he was planning to go.

We had a family Christmas planned tomorrow upon our return but when we were about to notify the family I have covid, they reported that my SIL having chemo now has a bad case of covid and is in the hospital for meds.

What a holiday season!

Some day (maybe next year?) I am determined to come back and have NYE at Disney again. It really is the best party anywhere.

In the meantime, DH and I are due to drive back to Orlando in about 10-12 days after his next round of cancer treatments back home. Really longing to be back in Florida again. We are approaching colder weather and I am not liking it lol!