The Great Christmas Escape 12/11-12/15

[PrincessJulia25]

The Great Christmas Escape
December 11-15
Hello Everyone! This is my first ever trip report and I am so excited to relive my vacation! I did complete a pretrip report which is linked in my signature if you want some background on this trip.


Now let’s get started! I have so much to share with you all along with lots of pictures. But let’s start with introductions.


Julia (Me)


I have always been the planner of trips, even when I was much younger. I’ve done 3 Disney College Programs and I’m always thinking about the next trip. I work at a book store at home and save all my money to buy as many Disney things as I can!

Favorite Things: Country Bear Jamboree, Pirates of the Caribbean, Flight of Passage, Tower of Terror.

Dad (John)


My dad is the type that doesn’t get excited about trips until we arrive, then becomes a child. He is obsessed with Disney’s soft serve and we always seem to lose him in the parks. He works in IT and loves football.

Favorite Things: Pirates of the Caribbean, Splash Mountain, and Soarin’

Mom (Joan)


I got my love of Disney from my mom. She loves Figment and the Muppets and is always down for whatever crazy plans I have in store. She works as a day care teacher and loves to help me plan trips.

Favorite Things: Journey into Imagination with Figment, Kilamanjaro Safari, and Soarin’

Where:
Wilderness Lodge

When:
December 11- December 15
4 nights 5 days

Why:
Well, my family has had a very difficult year. My mom lost both of her parents within 8 months of each other. I have been working my life away since I got back from my college program. And none of us had really been feeling in the Christmas spirit. We were really dreading the holidays. So we thought what better way to try and feel some Christmas magic then going to our favorite place? So we booked it about 4 weeks out, which is something we had never done. But was well worth it!


Hightlights:
Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party- We really wanted to do this to get into the Holiday spirit! None of us had been before so we thought, why not?! And I really wanted to meet Big Al!
Pandora- My dad had not gotten the chance to experience Pandora, so I was so excited to take him and see his reaction. It did not disappoint!
Disney Vacation Club- We may or may not have went on a DVC tour. And we may or may not have became members.


I can’t wait to share the rest of my trip with you all! Stay tuned!

 

[TEAMJACOB]

I'm in and can't wait to hear all about it. Totally understand the planning part. Planning is half the fun. We are leaving in 2 days and we didn't decide to go until after Thanksgiving.

It will be our first time at Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party too. Bought a light up snowflake necklace to wear.

3 college programs! How wonderful. You should write a story about those.

 

[Raeven]

Following along! We were there around the same time.

 

[DLo]

Joining in and looking forward to reading about your trip. I am thinking of switching my current res to WL so want to see how you liked it. Also , planning is always my job too - no matter where we are traveling. I like researching and figuring out the best place to stay and what to do.

 

[PrincessJulia25]

Travel Day/ Day 1


On the 11th we woke up bright and early, around 4am and headed to the bus that would take us to the airport! Luckily, we live close to Boston so the airport is only about 20 minutes away. Once we arrived we checked out suitcase and hung out in the airport until our flight left at 6:30am.


After what felt like days, as plane rides do when you’re excited, we arrived in Orlando! Hooray! We got our luggage and headed down to go on the Magical Express! This was my first time being on it since 2014 so I was excited. I love watching the video they play that gets you all excited for what’s to come.



Being in Orlando feels right for me so I was beyond excited to be back. After about 15 minutes we boarded our bus and headed to Wilderness Lodge. We have never gotten the chance to stay in a deluxe resort as a family so we were all very excited (count how many times I say excited in this trip report haha). My parents had stayed at the Yacht Club on their honeymoon, and I stayed at Animal Kingdom Lodge with some other family a few years back. But we were thrilled to be staying there as a family. We arrived at the resort and got our bag from the bus and headed inside. We were immediately greeted by a cast member who offered us help with our bags, but we were to busy staring at all the decorations. The tree was absolutely stunning. All the decorations were beautiful, and we hadn’t been feeling in the Christmas spirit back home, but this made us feel Christmassy immediately.



After staring at all the decorations for a few minutes we went and checked in. Our room wasn’t ready yet, but we were starving so we didn’t mind. We went down to Roaring Forks, the quick service and got our mugs for the dining plan and got something to eat. The food was delicious. I got a tuna sandwich and it was one of the best I’ve ever had! We always get the dining plan, it’s east for us and we don’t have to worry about mon ey for food. It’s wonderful! After we ate, we had no idea how long it would take for our room so my parents went and explored the resort while I started on my makeup to get ready to head to the parks. While I was doing that we got the text that our room was ready for us! After getting a bit lost we finally found our room. It was a standard room at Wilderness with a pool view. I completely forgot to take photos of the room but I have a great one from off of our balcony!



I continued to get ready, we were heading to Hollywood Studios! Which is my dad and my favorite park. Even though there isn’t much of it left Hollywood holds a special place in my heart as I worked there at my favorite ride. It’s my home. I love the vibe there and the theming of old Hollywood and I know in a few years it will be everyone’s favorite. Luckily, most of my friends still work in the parks so we don’t have to worry about tickets, my friend had sent us some complementary tickets. We went down and got on the bus! I was trying to hide my excitement because I was a cast member and had gone to the parks a million times so this was nothing, but after a few months of not going I was jumping up and down inside. We got off the bus and headed through security and to the gates! It was also decorated so beautiful, Hollywood had my favorite decorations for sure! We had no issues with our tickets and headed right inside. It was a bit crowded, as always on Hollywood Boulevard. I wanted to look in a couple of the shops as I was looking for one of the Christmas spirit jerseys. I figured they would be hard to come by and had plans to search in every park, and I had a back up shirt just in case I didn’t find it! But as luck would have it, I turned around and found it in the first store I walked in too! I ran over and grabbed on right away I was beyond happy! So that started off my day wonderfully. After that we went over and made a few fastpasses. We were able to get Rock n’ Rollercoaster, and Star Tours. It was about 3pm so were surprised we were able to get those. But since those FPs weren’t for a while we headed down to MuppetVision 3D. It’s one of my favorite 3D shows to see in any of the parks. I love the Muppets! After that we did some shopping and stopped to watch Jedi Training. I love watching all the kids fight Darth Vader. They had made some changes to the show since I left, so Kylo Ren came out with Darth Vader. I was shook. I am a huge Star Wars and dark side fan so I was beside myself.


Once that was over we walked around for a while, everything was pretty busy, but we enjoyed looking at all the decorations. I kept thinking “Oh we could do Great Movie Ride.” And would get sad every hour or so, so that was fun. It was hard to find things to do in Hollywood Studios, but it came time for our first FP. Which was for Rock n’ Rollercoaster. One of my favorite rides, not so much for my mom so she skipped out. Me and my dad went and they must have been down earlier that day because the fastpass line was poppin’! But as a former attractions cast member, I know not to be deceived by a long fastpass line, it will always be shorter than standby! So no worries on that, but as always the ride was incredibly fun and fast. We waited for the back, as always! I will never understand people who wait for the front on rollercoasters because you go so slow! The back is the way to go! After that we decided to wait in line for Tower of Terror, my home! The wait was only about 30 minutes but they did have some technical problems, so we waited a little longer, but nothing crazy. After that we did some more shopping, it was getting really, really cold so we went and got some sweaters for nighttime. But first took some photos of Echo Lake which had gorgeous decorations!



Gertie was decorated with a hat and it was all so adorable. Hollywood Studios really stepped it up! After that we went over to our Star Tours FP. I was very intrigued to see the new scenes and they did not disappoint! That ending scene was… OH MY GOD! I won’t spoil it, but go do it! By this time it was about 7 and we were getting tired but we really wanted to see the projection shows on Tower so we headed back to Sunset to watch. And boy were we entertained! It was so cute and beautiful. My favorite was when they transformed the Tower into the Hollywood Toy Hotel! I love Toy Story, and Tower so I was very happy! It also snowed on Sunset and it was so beautiful I wanted to cry. We had planned on staying for Jingle Bell, Jingle Bam, but we were exhausted! So, we decided to head back to Wilderness for the night. We got back and got some drinks in our mugs and some treats and headed back to the room. We were able to hear Happily Ever After from our room, which was so magical! And we could see the water pageant, and that was super cool as well!


Well that’s all for this update! I plan on posting again next week so keep a look out! Next Chapter will be Day 2 including Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party! Thanks for hanging out! Until next time!

 

[Ensusieasm]

I'll be reading along!

 

[Jenny Sanders]

Joining in...

 

[Pixie8913]

I loved reading all about your trip!

 

[PrincessJulia25]

Hi Everyone! Sorry I haven't posted in a long time, the holidays got really crazy with work! But I'm going to be working on my next post this week! Hopefully people are still interested in hearing about a Christmas trip! Talk to you all soon!!

 

[SCSteve]

Looking forward to your trip report! I always enjoy Christmas trip reports!

 

[missangelalexis]

Joining in! Your trip sounds like it was off to a great start

 

[mamamelody2]

Joining in.
Your dad's llama sweater is amazing!

 

[MiracleCream]

Hi Everyone! Sorry I haven't posted in a long time, the holidays got really crazy with work! But I'm going to be working on my next post this week! Hopefully people are still interested in hearing about a Christmas trip! Talk to you all soon!!

I can’t wait to read about it! I plan on going last week of November this year so I’m excited to read Christmas trip reports!