Christmas at Disney - A Pre-Trip Report!

[Eoywin]

Update - I had to postpone this trip until December 2019 because of a great deal of health issues over the summer.

Hello! My name is Mandy and I'm spending 2018 dreaming of Christmas! That's because my daughter, Emily, and I are heading to Disney World in the middle of December to experience all the Christmas magic!

We are going to be staying at Pop and planning on 5 days. We won't see everything but we are planning on doing the MVMCP and the Candlelight Processional. We also hope to check out Pandora at AK and Toy Story Land at DHS!

Our last trip was October 2016 and we got to experience Hurricane Matthew which was interesting but not horrible. So I'm really looking forward to going when it's not prime hurricane season!

There will be costumes (for Emily), ears (for both of us) and maybe an attempt at Disney Bounding for me!

 

[MiracleCream]

Following along! Will be going last week of November and reading up on anyone going during the Christmas season

 

[Eoywin]

Every trip we've made since my Disney honeymoon in 2006 has been in September / October. It will be very interesting to see Disney at another time of year.

Right now, I'm making tentative schedules and trying to decide on what ADR's to try and get. Once the Christmas party schedule is released, then the planning can go into high gear!

In the meantime, we will be watching Disney movies and I will finally, at some point before December, see Avatar!

 

[Eoywin]

Since it's Fat Tuesday, I decided to make pancakes for dinner tonight. Of course, they had to be Mickey pancakes Since every pancake in our house is make in the shape of Mickey anyway!

 

[SCSteve]

Following along. Cant wait to read your plans!

 

[Eoywin]

Mostly at this point we are just saving up - can't do much planning until the Christmas party dates are released. But last weekend we had a mini vacation in Lexington, KY. We went for the Lexington Comic Con!

My husband loves meeting celebrities and when we saw Chuck Norris was on the list, we knew we had to go! But my daughter was more excited to meet someone else - Tara Strong, the voice of Twilight Sparkle. She's done a lot of Disney characters over the years. Her most prominent Disney character was voicing Melody in The Little Mermaid II: Return to the Sea.

Here's a picture of us and Tara Strong!

 

[Eoywin]

Since the MVMCP ticket dates have come out, I have a plan! Of course, my plan is subject to change

Monday, December 10th – arrival day
Magic Kingdom
Dinner – Ohana

Tuesday, December 11th – MVMCP
Late Breakfast - Ohana

Wednesday, December 12th – Animal Kingdom
Breakfast or Lunch – Tusker House

Thursday, December 13th – Epcot
Breakfast – Akershus (CP package)
Late Lunch / Early Dinner– Coral Reef
Candlelight Processional

Friday, December 14th – Hollywood Studios
Late Lunch / Early Dinner – Whispering Canyon Cafe

Saturday, December 15th – Departure Day

 

[Eoywin]

We've been in the midst of end of the school year stuff. Tomorrow is my daughter's last day of 3rd grade!

My ADR wants are in the hands of my TA and our 180 days are next Wednesday. Once ADR's are in place, it's the long wait until it's time to pick our FP+'s.

We are planning on going to see Incredibles 2 in a few weeks - looks like it will be great! And sometimes this summer, I have to watch Avatar. I'm not sure why I missed it when it first came out - but we've owned it on Blu-Ray for years and I haven't watched it.

A few weeks ago, we went to see Solo and Avengers at the drive-in. They had a Star Wars costume contest and both my daughter and I got prizes!

 

[Eoywin]

Our ADR day was on Wednesday and my TA did a pretty good job. Got everything I wanted except for Ohana dinner. From what I've read, Ohana dinner the 2nd week in December is non-existent. I signed up for alerts and I grabbed a Crystal Palace ADR just in case I can't get Ohana before then.

This is what I have though!

Monday, December 10 - Crystal Palace at 2:20 pm

Tuesday, December 11 - Ohana - 10:40 am

Wednesday, December 12 - Tusker House - 11 pm

Thursday, December 13 - Whispering Canyon Cafe - 2:20 pm

Friday, December 14 - Akershus - 10.45 am

I am hoping to get a Coral Reef late lunch ADR with the CP package - but those aren't available to book yet.

 

[Eoywin]

This summer has been busy for us. My daughter and I went to Camp Pisgah for a special overnight called Camp Thanks A Lot - it's for girls who sell over a set amount of Girl Scout cookies. She had fun though I ended up feeling really sick.

Less than a week later, I ended up in the ER with really bad pain - ended up being a kidney stone. Then 2 days after that, we hit the road for a yearly trip to Michigan to see family. Now some people might call that a vacation but I don't. It's exhausting mostly because we spend a couple of days with my dad in Western Michigan (Holland) and then drive across the state to the Thumb where my husband's family is. Hubby and I stay for a couple of days and then we drive back to NC. Our kiddo stays for a while to play with her cousin's - she comes home in a couple of days.

So I've been recovering from being sick and the exhausting trip. But I did have our WDW trip on my mind. Yesterday, CP packages opened and I woke up to an email from my TA. She didn't get me our first pick (Akershus breakfast - she said those were sold out at 7 am) but got me a late lunch at the Coral Reef for the 6:45 show!

Now if I could snag an Ohana dinner for our first night - that would be wonderful. If not, we'll survive of course.

Now it's just waiting until it's time to start our countdown chain (128 days out is when we start) and then of course, FP+ picks at 60 days out.

Though I have something big coming up that isn't Disney related - Dragon Con is less than two months away!

 

[Eoywin]

Well, sadly this trip got postponed until December 2019 Once we get past Christmas and get into planning again, I'll post more here.

 

[Eoywin]

We have survived the 2018 holidays and I'm now thinking about Disney next December! We are 11 months away as of today.

While it was a huge bummer to have to move our trip back, it ended up being a good thing (I think). I ended up having to write and direct our church's Christmas and that took a lot of time in December. My husband also bought us season passes to Dollywood and we went to see the Christmas stuff there on the 26th. It was pretty cool! I'm looking forward to going to the water park there over the summer. Dollywood is two hours away, which is much closer than Disney, which is 10 hours away.

But I'm looking forward to planning out this trip! Having to postpone it means I'll have more money, and I was able to add an extra day. Right now, we have about 5 months until ADR day. I'll start figuring that out in the next few months.

Other than that, it's work, work, work to save, save, save. Plus we have other stuff going on too - we are going to two comic conventions this year (Lexington Comic Con in March and Dragon Con in August/September). We are going on a family vacation with my husband's family in June to Myrtle Beach and we have tickets to see Hugh Jackman in concert in July. Lots of fun stuff with Disney World being the end of the year.

Dollywood usually doesn't have characters but for Christmas they have Rudolph and their friends

 

[Eoywin]

It's been a while! Not much to post when you are just saving for the trip. But today, Christmas party tickets were released.

This solidifies my plans and it also shows me that I have to get park hoppers. We always go to the MK on our arrival day (we drive, do most of the driving the day before - it's going to take us less than 2 hours to get to Disney that morning). But our arrival day is also a party day.

So we'll check in (might try online check in), and head to MK. We'll do whatever ADR we have that night (hopefully Ohana but not holding my breath) and then hop to Epcot for a couple of hours. MK is my favorite park and Epcot is my daughter's favorite - we never have enough time for either so we will have more time this year.

Here's our schedule as of now!

Sunday, December 8th – Arrival Day – MK & Epcot

Monday, December 9th – Epcot

Tuesday, December 10th – Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party

Wednesday, December 11th – Animal Kingdom

Thursday, December 12th – MK & Epcot

Friday, December 13th – Hollywood Studios

Saturday, December 14th – Departure Day

 

[Eeyore daily]

The trip sounds really exciting! I can't wait to go in December! Have you gone during this time before?

 

[Eoywin]

The trip sounds really exciting! I can't wait to go in December! Have you gone during this time before?

I went the week of Christmas when I was 16 (back in 1993), but my daughter hasn't ever been for Christmas.

We are both excited to experience Christmas at Disney!

 

[Corrine 1973]

Joining in!!! It is my dream to someday go during Christmas. Unfortunately working retain and have 4 kids it is not a good time to go right now. But I vow one day I will do. I am so sorry you had to move your trip a year. I know how hard that can be. I am hoping that this Christmas will be full magic!!!

 

[Eoywin]

Joining in!!! It is my dream to someday go during Christmas. Unfortunately working retain and have 4 kids it is not a good time to go right now. But I vow one day I will do. I am so sorry you had to move your trip a year. I know how hard that can be. I am hoping that this Christmas will be full magic!!!

Thanks! I think it will be magical

 

[Eoywin]

My TA purchased our Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party tickets! I also had her add park hoppers to our tickets. It's about a month and a half until our 180 days / ADR reservations, which I'm a little anxious about.

I'm on a December 2019 planning group and several people have asked when the December discounts are going to be out. I honestly would be very surprised if there were any discounts in December this year. From what I've heard, the hotels are filling up because of Galaxy's Edge, so there would be no need for Disney to do any discounts.

I hope we can get some decent ADR's and fastpasses, but we shall see.

 

[pattyw]

Joining in! I love Christmas at Disney!!

Our favorite is the Candlelight Processional!

I'm glad you could reschedule the trip! Can't wait to hear all the details!

 

[Eoywin]

Joining in! I love Christmas at Disney!!

Our favorite is the Candlelight Processional!

I'm glad you could reschedule the trip! Can't wait to hear all the details!

Welcome!

I think the Candlelight Processional is the thing I'm most excited about!