The OFFICIAL December 2014 - Christmas Magic

[Deputyjc]

Booked for Nov 30th- Dec 7th in a 2bdrm villa @ SSR. This will be our first trip during the holiday season and also our kids first trip with the Grandparents. Really looking forward to this trip with only 289 days to go.

 

[cheerful chickadee]

We're thinking of planning an early December trip for this year too! Not sure of our dates yet as we want to avoid pop warner week and I'm not sure when that will be yet. Tentatively we're thinking November 30th- December 8th. I'm worried about air fare right after thanksgiving, is it crazy high?

 

[MomTo3PrincessesInNJ]

We're going back for a long weekend!!

We were in the World 12/14-17 and can't wait to go back around the same time this year.

We'll be staying at POR (again) from 12/13-16. We'll go to MVMCP on the 14th (assuming they follow the same schedule as last year) and get a hopper for 12/15.

Our oldest DD turns 9 on the 15th, so we'll have to have a special dinner that night. Last time we did 1900PF and we all enjoyed it, but we want to try somewhere new.

We are DDP people -- until we have our oldest becomes a Disney adult, then maybe not!

 

[mcorey41]

We are going December 1-8 and staying at AoA. It'll be my first trip in 17 yrs and my first as a parent. Our daughters will be 13 months and almost 3 and my parents and sisters family will be joining us. I am beyond excited!

 

[rileyroo120]

Tentatively planning a trip for Nov 30-Dec 6. My biggest concern is the airport and ticket prices? Are airline tickets generally super high right after thanksgiving? I am having a hard time pricing it out because most airlines aren't booking for that late in the year yet. I am also concerned about airport crowds. Will it be crazy busy? For travel over thanksgiving weekend, which day would be my best bet, crowd wise?

 

[jcemom]

Tentatively planning a trip for Nov 30-Dec 6. My biggest concern is the airport and ticket prices? Are airline tickets generally super high right after thanksgiving? I am having a hard time pricing it out because most airlines aren't booking for that late in the year yet. I am also concerned about airport crowds. Will it be crazy busy? For travel over thanksgiving weekend, which day would be my best bet, crowd wise?

I wish I had been able to check ticket prices over Thanksgiving weekend last year. I'm sure prices will be higher than normal but just how high I don't know.

From what I've read, the best days to fly (lower cost and lower crowds) are Thursday and Friday. The worst days are Wednesday before Thanksgiving and Sunday after. I don't have firsthand experience with this (yet) but it sounds logical to me. Everyone would be trying to get where they're going before Thanksgiving, and trying to get home before work/school the following week.

 

[rileyroo120]

Thanks jcemom!

 

[fishhunter]

We'll be there 12/19 through 12/29 at CBR. My family and I have stayed twice during the Christmas season but never actually through Christmas. It will be a total surprise to the kids (14, 10). I would like to tell them when we actually leave and are on the road, but I'm not sure how I'm going to get around explaining the fact we have so much luggage packed. Any suggestions?

 

[MomTo3PrincessesInNJ]

I would like to tell them when we actually leave and are on the road, but I'm not sure how I'm going to get around explaining the fact we have so much luggage packed. Any suggestions?

We didn't really hide our luggage. We always keep it in a closet. All I did was pack the bag and put it back where it is usually stored. I would wait until the kids we asleep to move stuff around, but it wasn't really hard. They weren't expecting ANYHTING, so they weren't really looking for clues.

Also, we're not people who pack weeks in advance. I usually do it the night or 2 before. I also buy a lot of new clothes for our trips, so the girls wouldn't really notice any clothing "missing."

We have a minivan so the luggage would fit in the trunk without them even knowing it was there. If that is NOT that case for you, you would need a cover story about the luggage in the car, but that's not hard. Say you are lettign a friend borrow it for an upcoming trip and you need to drop it off at their house or something.

Good luck! My girls LOVE being surprised. We asked them this last time if they want to know about any future trips and they all agreed that they would rather be surprised the day of!

 

[AmyKat]

We just booked a bounceback for just DH & me. We are staying at POFQ from Decemer 11 - 15. I'm really excited, but I might chicken out at the idea of leaving the kids.

 

[Redarrow5150]

Let me set this up for you. We decided in January of 2011 that we would be going to WDW for Christmas. It was tough not telling the kids but gave very little hints. For example one of my daughters I sent her free WDW maps in the mail. Finally about a week before we are to go and surprise them my wife takes them to McDonalds for dinner and they say to her..."you never surprise us for xmas and when are we going to Disney again? I said to my wife THEY HAVE to know why are they asking these questions!! She said they don't know. Finally we tell them they can open ONE present before xmas if they have good report cards...(no problem good students) and here is the what happend.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IUY6XDhtHFM

We'll be there 12/19 through 12/29 at CBR. My family and I have stayed twice during the Christmas season but never actually through Christmas. It will be a total surprise to the kids (14, 10). I would like to tell them when we actually leave and are on the road, but I'm not sure how I'm going to get around explaining the fact we have so much luggage packed. Any suggestions?

 

[RescueAidSociety]

My fiance and I are booked for our Christmas WDW trip! We will be at the Art of Animation from November 30 - December 6! As always with every planned trip to WDW we CANNOT wait!

 

[BDL]

I don't know who has already secured their tickets or not, but in case you missed it, Disney did their annual price raising yesterday.

 

[lovingeire]

We did a surprise trip in Dec '12. Our kids do an advent calendar with activities every year and they pulled a "clue" from it to get their surprise. Watching these videos makes me want to plan a surprise trip again soon, but I've already spilled the beans on our possible Dec trip this year. I wanted to make sure we surprised the oldest once while he was still young enough. Next surprise will be when the little one in the video is old enough to understand the surprise. (Because he asks to go to Disney World almost daily!)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NoGQvgnxmUA

 

[DisneyQueen1320]

I can't decide when to go. We booked at AKV from Nov 26 to Dec 7, but our family really loves Thanksgiving at our house. So we are thinking of going from 12/12 to 12/21. I'm wondering if airfare will be cheaper as well.

 

[bigjrfan88]

You can almost guarantee that the airfare will be cheaper for your departure, but with a return flight on 12/21 it may be a wash since thats really close to Xmas.

 

[PeanutButterMom]

Hey ya'll! I'm coming over here because we just decided to do THIS December instead of NEXT December (2015). We're currently working through David's to rent a BLT studio for a short trip, December 12-15.

We just went on our first trip this past October, and totally caught the bug. We're also planning a normal trip (last one was 9 nights) for May 2015 for our 10th anniversary!

Anyway, as a bit of an introduction:

I'm Heather, I have a DH who HATED all things WDW, right up until the last day of our trip, when he looked at me and said, "So, when we come back..." ---> He's the one who brought up this December trip in the first place, and he's really excited to help with the planning this time around - he refused to listen or talk about ANYthing before. It's so much fun! His birthday is also the 14th, so we'll be at the world for his big day

PeanutButter (henceforth known as PB) is my daughter, she just turned 8. She's a special snowflake We like to say she's got some quirks to her that just make her interesting to be around. She's been in gymnastics since she was 3 , but is slowly working her way towards tumbling She loves art and after the Olympics is totally into skiing - DH just bought her her own skis this past weekend .

Jelly is my son, he turned 5 on Tuesday He loves superheroes and StarWars and hockey. He started playing Dek hockey last spring and will play again this year along with T-ball. He starts Kindergarten in the fall. According to him, the only thing he remembers about our trip was Tower of Terror (his favorite) and eating ice cream. That means we have to go back!

Also, I'll look through, but is there a facebook group? I'm one of the mods of the DISers Oct 2013 group, and we're still really active and great, but I'd like to make some new friends too!

 

[PeanutButterMom]

We'll be there 12/19 through 12/29 at CBR. My family and I have stayed twice during the Christmas season but never actually through Christmas. It will be a total surprise to the kids (14, 10). I would like to tell them when we actually leave and are on the road, but I'm not sure how I'm going to get around explaining the fact we have so much luggage packed. Any suggestions?

Our last trip, we mega-planned starting almost 2 years out. I had a HUGE countdown paper chain (we started it at over 300 days - that was a lot of paper-taping!). The kids knew every. single. aspect. of the trip. This year, they have NO IDEA. We told them we didn't know when we'd get to go back, probably Dec 2015 (which was our tentative date before we planned this mini-trip).

My basic plan, depending on flight times, is to not tell them... at all. We're flying out Friday AM, and I think I'm just going to get them up and ready for school as usual, tell them DH is going to work later (he's a contractor, so that won't confuse them). We drive a minivan, so I'll put suitcases in behind the 3rd row and they'll never see them.

PB KIND OF really likes her schedule and her routine, but she's so WDW-obsessed I think she'll handle it OK.

 

[Crazyhorse]

12/7-12/13/2014. Grand Floridian, Outer Building, Theme Park View.

I'm hoping sometime in August that there will be a "special" to knock the rate down a bit. It's been a long time since we've stayed at the Grand Flo; we've been concentrating on the Boardwalk/BC/YC for the last few years. It's time to try something different. My husband is a huge Magic Kingdom fan..me, not so much. I do question why we're doing an MK resort.....I'm hoping the GF experience makes up for all the travel time between my favorite EPCOT.

 

[AmyKat]

We did a surprise trip when my DDs were 6 and almost 3. I think they were just too young. I didn't get the reaction I wanted when Cinderella called and told them we were going to Disney and flying on a plane (first plane ride for both). All that planning and they were kind of like, "ok. whatever."

Then we got there and I hadn't been able to "prepare their attitudes". It was a miserable first day. It got better, but whining kids in Disney is one of my biggest pet peeves. Seriously, it's Disney and you think you have something worth whining over??

Plus, my DDs really like being part of the planning and, for me, planning is half the fun. I missed having their input and I think they felt left out.

So, no more surprises for us.

As far as bags go, we told the kids we were going to the beach. My mom has a condo at the beach so that's not unusual. Disney clothes and beach clothes aren't much different. I just slid in the walking shoes when they were looking. We needed DD6 to know we were going out of town because she was going to miss school and needed to get her assignments.

I'm all for a FB group. We have one for my Feb 2014 trip. I'm loving see all the pictures from the people that are still there. It's easier to post pictures on FB than on here, I think.