Your ULTIMATE SURVIVAL GUIDE to Disney World at Christmas Time! UPDATE x2 10/21

[kgoodb00]

Today at work I smelled something that smelled so familiar and all of a sudden I realized what it was and shouted...THIS SMELLS LIKE DISNEY WATER! I definitely got some weird looks So I knew I had to share this with some DISers who would appreciate what crazy emotions I was going through....ahh I miss disney water

 

[DisneyDreamerMN]

Joining really late...but I am all caught up!

 

[emsparkles]

I love your Christmas report Jess and your nails are so amazing, Im going to get little mickeys painted on them before I leave for my trip at the end of may!! Christmas time looks totes magical and would be great to go then but work restrictions and flight prices from the uk have always prevented me! I too have studied(it was a few years ago when I was 18) Musical theatre at a great theatre school here in England in a place called Liverpool! love all musicals espesh Disney ones!! Did you hear about the original voice of Jafar (johnathan freeman I think?!) in the Seattle previews for Aladdin?! I would have DIED for that!! hope you enjoy your trip in May and looking forward to the rest of your report! Have a frumpy time!!

 

[DisneyEars116]

Hi. I just love reading about your trips!! You are a fabulous writer !! My daughter (9yrs) thinks you are wonderful...and has adopted your "deer face" lol. Too cute. Anywho, we are heading to Disney World first part of December 2012 for my oldest daughters 10th birthday and my 2year olds first visit!! We are sooo very excited with the only draw back being its a 7 month wait...uggggh. Atleast we can Plan plan...and probably plan some more hahaha. Keep up the great reports and Thank you for sharing with us!! Oh...and I did want to ask what kind of camera you had...I always mess up my night pictures, and you captured the fireworks so well I was wondering what you used? Thanks!

 

[DisneyEars116]

 

[JessicaFaye508]

Today at work I smelled something that smelled so familiar and all of a sudden I realized what it was and shouted...THIS SMELLS LIKE DISNEY WATER! I definitely got some weird looks So I knew I had to share this with some DISers who would appreciate what crazy emotions I was going through....ahh I miss disney water

AHH that's wonderful! I wonder what it was haha. I totally would have understood you if I was there! Non-disney people just don't get it. I miss it too! Only one week left until I can smell it again!

Joining really late...but I am all caught up!

HOORAY! Thanks for reading everything! I'm glad you're here! I hope you continue to enjoy the future updates!

I love your Christmas report Jess and your nails are so amazing, Im going to get little mickeys painted on them before I leave for my trip at the end of may!! Christmas time looks totes magical and would be great to go then but work restrictions and flight prices from the uk have always prevented me! I too have studied(it was a few years ago when I was 18) Musical theatre at a great theatre school here in England in a place called Liverpool! love all musicals espesh Disney ones!! Did you hear about the original voice of Jafar (johnathan freeman I think?!) in the Seattle previews for Aladdin?! I would have DIED for that!! hope you enjoy your trip in May and looking forward to the rest of your report! Have a frumpy time!!

Thank you so much! Aww your nails will be really cute! That sounds perfect!

Christmas time at Disney in HEAVENLY. I love it so much! I'm sorry that you are unable to make it over there at that time of year. Maybe someday!

Aww that's so awesome! I bet that was a wonderful experience! I know that my school offers us the chance to study theatre in London over the summer after our junior year. I don't know if I'm going to be able to go, but that would be such an amazing opportunity!

Oh wow are you serious!? That's so cool!!

Thank you so much! Thanks for being here and reading!

Hi. I just love reading about your trips!! You are a fabulous writer !! My daughter (9yrs) thinks you are wonderful...and has adopted your "deer face" lol. Too cute. Anywho, we are heading to Disney World first part of December 2012 for my oldest daughters 10th birthday and my 2year olds first visit!! We are sooo very excited with the only draw back being its a 7 month wait...uggggh. Atleast we can Plan plan...and probably plan some more hahaha. Keep up the great reports and Thank you for sharing with us!! Oh...and I did want to ask what kind of camera you had...I always mess up my night pictures, and you captured the fireworks so well I was wondering what you used? Thanks!

Hi! Thank you so much for the compliments! Aww I'm so glad that the deer face is spreading to all ages!

Aww you guys are going to have an AMAZING time! It's so worth waiting to go if you get to go for Christmas - it's so magical! Do lots of planning! I'm sure by that time you will have all of the best restaurants booked! If you ever have any questions/need any planning help just let me know! I'm sure that this trip report will have lots of helpful tips for you though regarding the Christmas season!

My camera is a Nikon D3100. It's a DSLR camera so it's on the fancier side if you're willing to invest in it. But it's AMAZING and does a really fantastic job. It still is difficult for me to get nighttime shots because they get blurry very easily... but I do my best! I'm glad you like them!

Thank you so much for the comments! I hope you continue to enjoy the report!​

 

[JessicaFaye508]

I thought I'd do a little update today... because IN EXACTLY ONE WEEK KRISTEN AND I ARE GOING TO DISNEY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Chapter 37: Our "Joyful" Trip to Epcot
December 21st, 2011

I tweeted:
So sleepy. But must go to Epcot!! theres NO SLEEPING!

Epcot was our park of choice! HOORAY! My Mom and I were going to head over there and surprisingly Jonathan wanted to come along too! He never wants to go to the parks, but I think he was excited to be back in Disney! Dad stayed behind to take a nap since we got up so early that day.

Before getting to Epcot, we stopped at CVS and grabbed Jonathan some cold medicine. I noticed that they have a lot of Disney merchandise at the drug stores in the area but it's all so crappy. I wish it was cute because it's SO much cheaper than the actual park merchandise! It's such a shame.

Here's a picture of me in the car on our way to Epcot! I WAS SO HAPPY TO BE IN DISNEY!

We arrived in Epcot, parked in Create 47 and took the tram. It was Jonathan's first tram ride ever! He likes the Disney busses better, though. I'm very proud.

Welcome home everybody!

We walked through the gates at 4:08 pm, and we saw that Joyful was starting at 4:15 pm! We went right to the stage to see it.

Christmas Tip #18: Make sure you check out "Joyful" at Epcot, especially if you're into Gospel music. This show will definitely get you into the Christmas spirit!

If you have never heard of Joyful before, it is the Gospel choir that performs multiple times a day at Epcot during the Christmas season. It takes place on the stage behind the Fountain of Nations. It's in that little area where Future World is starting to get close to World Showcase.

We got there right on time and grabbed a spot up front. The show started and it was AWESOME! The energy level is just fantastic! All of the performers are very lively, smiling, and extremely talented!

They also kept the audience very involved! The girl with the poinsettias in her hair kept smiling at me - she was so cute! She was one of my favorites.

The blonde women in the front there reminded me a lot of Nat's mom, Bernie. Nat's Mom is the lead singer of a band, and this lady was rockin' out to the gospel music. Bernie would act the same exact way if she was up on that stage!

My other favorite performer was the second one in on the left with the afro. She made THE BEST facial expressions I have ever seen. Just look at the pictures and you'll see what I mean. I LOVED her.

Mid-Joyful Tweet:
Joyful concert at Epcot is EXCEPTIONAL I'm so glad we can just praise the lord in the middle of Epcot.

They played a lot of gospel songs I was unfamiliar with. However, they sang "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" and a "What Child is This?"/"Carol of the Bells" mash up which was really awesome.

I took some video clips of the songs so I could show you guys. I them together and the video is 46 seconds long, but I think it captures the performance pretty well. It was SO GOOD! I hope you like it!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4iVcoaN4bA&feature=plcp

My Mom loved this show SO much. She was crying because she thought it was so beautiful. She really wanted to bring my Dad back there to see it later in the trip!

I noticed (again) that Disney has AMAZING flowers during the Christmas season. Next to Flower and Garden Festival, I think this is the time of year that they pay most attention to their flowers. They're all so pretty!

After the show, we decided to go over to The Land pavilion. For some reason I felt like going on "The Circle of Life." I hadn't seen that in a while!

You know what I noticed this time around? I don't understand why there's a stage in front of the movie screen. It looks like the old "Food Rocks" setup (from my vague memory of it) but I know that was down where Soarin' is now. I can't recall if there was any other attraction in that space before Circle of Life or not? Hmm I don't know.

Anyways... that movie is so sad. And a little outdated. However, there are some GREAT one-liners in there. I just crack up at corny jokes like it's nobody's business. So I enjoyed myself.

We went on Living with the Land next. You know the part before the greenhouse when you're still inside? Have you ever noticed HOW GOOD IT SMELLS?! Oh my God. SO GOOD.

I also noticed...
The one Disney song I don't have on my iPod is the living with the land song they play when they have all of the movie clips. I want it.

I have no idea what it's called though and I don't know where I would get it from. But it's really cute. One day I will find it.

We made our way into the greenhouse section and there were lots of Christmas decorations! HOW ADORABLE IS THAT!?

I also noticed that the hidden mickey in the aqua culture section was not there! I hope it's back next time!

We left Epcot after that. The sun was setting and the sky was BEAUTIFUL!

This was the first of many amazing sunsets we saw on our trip. They were absolutely phenomenal!

I got a little picture happy, I hope you don't mind.

This is probably my favorite view of Spaceship Earth. I really cannot pass by without taking a picture. Or two. Or twenty.

I also took some pictures of this fountain because I usually forget to! I just needed to grab as many sunset shots as possible!

It was time to go back to the hotel and then go to DINNER!

Continued in Next Post​

 

[onelilspark]

For cheap Disney stuff, have you ever checked out the Disney Warehouse stores at the outlet?

 

[SheaBear]

I haven't searched for any music from Living with the Land but you could always try parktunes.com . If an attraction has a song it will list them, and then tell you if they are available for purchase from anyone.

 

[hollisterluva92]

I'm back! I am finally all caught up! I moved out of my dorm room last Sunday and now I'm back home for the summer so I finally have time to catch up on all of the TR's! Oh! I must say that I LOVE your youtube channel! I just subbed to you!

 

[kaileighbug]

Joyful looks like it would be a lot of fun. I am trying to find more time to spend in Epcot and this will help convince the little one since she likes music.

 

[__disneygirl]

AHHH! Okay this update just made me freak out. I miss Christmas at Disney SO MUCH! It's not even enough to just go back.. I MUST GO BACK DURING THE HOLIDAYS!! Very soon! It's funny how I never thought I'd go to Disney turning the holidays because it's so busy as it is, and now I feel like Christmas will not be the same without a Disney trip!

Watching your video of Joyful brought back so many memories! There were a couple different times we stopped to watch but unfortunately didn't catch a whole show. But they were AMAZING!

OMG I loved all the decorations on Living with the Land. I'm glad you got some good pics cause mine are mostly blurry, stupid camera!

Oh, Spaceship Earth, I will never get tired of staring at you! I actually think in all my trips from like 2006 on I have more pics of SSE than the castle even! It's so beautiful in its own way. AHH I want to go. ONE WEEK FROM NOW YOU'LL BE IN DISNEY!!!!!!! I can't wait for all your pics/videos/TR. If I can't go, you and Kristen going is the next best thing for me haha!!

 

[BobbleClank]

Jess,

I subscribed and caught up on your December trips. Reading through your TR one can't help but enjoy your love, excitement and overall giddiness for everything Disney. I look forward to checking your other TR's out as well. Keep believing in the MAGIC and sharing it with the world, you do it so well. With me reading your report it made me take the plunge and now my family and I are excited for December 2012.

Thanks, BobbleClank

 

[IheartDDuck]

The sky in your pictures just looks beautiful! That's my favorite time to be in a Disney park.

The movie that used to be in the theater before Circle of Life was called Symbiosis. But I don't know why it would have needed a stage.

 

[emma212010]

Oh man I wish I could get down there during Christmas! Joyful sounds amazing!!! I would love to see them in person. How cute that all of the plants are decorated for Christmas! Wow! Pretty Spaceship Earth pictures!

 

[flyergrad09]

I love Epcot at sunset... it's so gorgeous!

It's been a few years since I was in Epcot at Christmas, but the next time I go, I definitely want to check out Joyful! They're so talented!

I hate that the drug store Disney stuff is so junky! But I guess you get what you pay for.

 

[aras4007]

We caught the last few minutes of Joyful on our trip last year. They were amazing! And so fun!! I also LOVED the decorations on Living with the Land...its totally something you wouldn't expect at all. Can't wait to hear where you went for dinner!

 

[DisneyDreamerMN]

I love the fountain near the entrance! It is so pretty. I never knew they decorated Living with the Land! That's so cool. Now I need to go back during Christmas time.

 

[sue_88]

Those sunset pictures are just amazing!! And I really love the pic of you and your mom with all those yellow flowers. Very pretty!
I hope your brother started feeling better and had a good time too.

 

[lovegrumpy]

Your making me so wanna go back at Christmas time. We had a blast the one time we went. Can't wait to hear more.