We spent our first holiday at WDW last year and had a fantastic time. We decided on Christmas dinner at Gaylord Palms Villa de Flora after it was recommended to me on this board. It was great, plenty of food and we booked tickets for ICE afterwards. My children loved it being so cold on Christmas Day.
Although we stayed on site and had tickets for Disney parks, our favourite place for Christmas was Seaworld. It was AMAZING and in my opinion knocked spots off Disney at Christmas. The shows were the best I have seen in Florida and O'Wondrous night made me cry it was so moving! We booked a kids go free package on the Seaworld website and it worked out so much cheaper than just buying tickets from the UK. It also gave us accommodation at the Renaissance just next to seaworld parking lot and 14 days admission to Seaworld and Aquatica. It was a fantastic hotel, very spacious rooms and all recently renovated. We didn't actually stay there, however we checked in before Seaworld opened, dropped off swimming costumes and warm clothes for the evening and grabbed our front of line passes(also included in the package). When it got too hot and we started flagging soon after lunch, we returned to the hotel, enjoyed the lovely pool and kids splash area, had showers and headed back refreshed for an amazing evening.
Being able to stay until the end was an amazing experience. If we would have left earlier it wouldn't have been the same. We were last on the Polor express train and had the simulator and Santa all to ourselves! we saw all the shows, another favourite was the ice skating show with all the dancing trees in the background finished off with fireworks. We then walked amongst the thousands of tiny lights in the trees, through a desserted Seaworld back to the entrance where the elves mesmerised my children and made up a dance with them. I'll never forget them sat talking about them on Christmas Eve as if they were good friends of theirs.
When we left, the snow was falling and the Christmas songs playing. A memory that will live with us all forever. My only regret - not doing it on Christmas Eve.
The other thing we LOVED was visiting Celebration. We got there just before dusk for the children to play, then as it got dark the music started to play and the 'snow' started to fall. We sat at the bakery and watched all the children play as the horse drawn carriages ride past. Afterwards we drove around taking in the magnificent houses decorated for Christmas.
We started our Christmas Eve, evening at the Grand Floridian, seeing Mickey and Minnie in their Christmas finery, smelling the gingerbread house as we wandered around, listening to the band and soaking up the atmosphere. We also did a horses drawn 'Sleigh' ride at the Fort Wilderness campground looking at all the Christmas lights at the camp grounds! it was such a lovely thing to do. We did book this up though as soon as we were able to via WDW reservations and we didn't pay as much as you pay on the day. It does book up quickly.
Another thing we enjoyed doing Christmas Eve morning was to make the gingerbread house up that we had bought at
Walmart. The whole family got involved and it was a great thing to do. On Christmas Eve all the resorts have a gingerbread house competition for the different departments - housekeeping, front desk, maintenance etc and you have to vote for your favourite.
We also enjoyed visiting all the resorts in the evenings to see the gingerbread houses, carousel etc, meet the characters in their Christmas costumes and to hear the carol singers. I think the resorts themselves are far more Christmassy than the parks. Having said that though, Epcot was great and we were able too around the world (so to speak) listening to all the Christmas traditions told by the santa's in their traditional costumes.
The one thing you will encounter though during Christmas week, staying in a villa will be the traffic!! On site, you are reasonably OK. It when we ventured outside WDW the traffic was terrible and it would take us an hour to do a journey that would otherwise take 10 minutes, unless it was at 8.30am!
Saying that though, it's a small price to pay for such an amazing experience. I'd do it again in a flash.
Have an amazing time and enjoy the planning!
