It was supposed to be a springbreak trip but Christmas is better!! DECEMBER 2015!!

[jesridge]

****HUGE UPDATE***
All my plans have officially changed as FREE DINNING was offered during our Christmas break so we (REALLY I) decided to take advantage. It meant we had to downsize from a villa to All-Star Sports but I really ok with that cause...I'M going to see mickey for Christmas!!!
**Just upgraded us to Coronado Springs

***New Details***
Dates: December 19th-28th
Resort: Coronado Springs/Comfort Suites Universal

We havent been to Disney world in quite some time we have planned a few trips that we have had to cancel for one reason or another the last few years. DD & I did get to spend a day at Disneyland in November but it wasn't the same without my boys.



Cast of Characters:

Me~ I am a lover of all things Disney. I'm a currently a SAHM mom of two which means I'm a cook, maid, Chauffer and so much more. I am our officially Disney Trip planner as well as the planner for most of my family and friends.

Adam~ He's an Electrical Engineer and an HVAC Tech, he's an awesome husband and dad who pretty much just goes with flow when it comes to our trips and activities.

Jordan~ My 15 year old who I swear is still 5-6 at heart sometimes, he's made us watch Big Hero 6 a million times, he's a freshmen he plays Football, Soccer, Wrestles and Runs Track <--This is why I'm a Chauffer.

Brianna~ My 13 year old princess err..I mean queen. She's a 7th grader who participates and wins in Pageants. She is currently the National American Miss Indiana Preteen (this is why she and I went to Disney land she won a trip) She also runs cross country, cheers, plays soccer, sings, and is going ti be Cinderella in our school play.

****I will finish and add pictures later the queen needs me to take her to get Soccer Cleats and Lunch**

 

[jesridge]

I had intended to finish my post last week but got super busy so I'm going to finish it today, first up Pictures:
This is my DD at Disneyland in November My DS Jordan

My Husband

And Me

 

[jesridge]

I don't know why but adding those pictures took forever, anyways...
We are trying to decided which resort to stay at we have only ever stayed at Pop so we really want to stay somewhere new. Our top choices are:
Animal Kingdom
Poly
Beach Club
CBR
Yacht Club
and I really want to stay at Grand Floridian
I plan to spend the next few days weighing the pros and cons to at list trim it to our top two or three choices.
I also need to get started on my planning and budget binder. Si excited to get started on planning.

 

[jesridge]

Ok so a little background on us, our first Disney trip was in December 2006 it was all of ours first trip, which is pretty crazy since I was born in Orlando and lived there a pretty big chunk of my life, anyways when I planned that trip I had no clue that there were other parks and I had no idea about the resorts or anything, so we stayed offsite at a Days Inn and only spent one day at Disneyworld, while we were there I learned a whole lot about Disneyworld and when we returned in 2008 for my daughters 6th Birthday, DH did not come on this trip with us, we visited all the parks, had character dinners but we still stayed offsite because I wasn't really sold on the expense of staying onsite until July 2009. My husband and I spent a weekend a Disney without the kids, we went alone because we had never been on a trip alone and because neither of us had flown before so we wanted to be sure we were ok fliers before taking the kids on a plane, we stayed at Pop and Adam was hooked he didn't have to do any driving, we were more relaxed and immersed with Disney which I loved. Christmas 2009 we surprised our kids with another Disney trip this time we stayed at POP, we flew which at first freaked my DD out but she loved it once she was on the plane 2hrs to Disney vs 18hrs much better, we did stay offsite once more when I took my sister and niece with us in February 2010 mainly because niece had never been to florida before and we were visiting a lot of other places and family. In 2014 DD & I spent a day at Disneyland after she won the National American Miss Indiana pageant and got to represent Indiana at Nationals, we had fun but missed DH & DS.
It has now been 5 years since we visited Disney World and I hear a lot has changed we are super excited to head back.

 

[jesridge]

~Itinerary

 

[jesridge]

No Longer Relevant!!!

 

[jesridge]

Last night we did a few rough estimates (since our dates are not yet available on the Disney World website)
Right now I am pricing with waterparks, hopper and DDP but I'm not 100% sure on any of them except waterparks.

#1 CBR Preferred Room - $4574 for 7 Days/6 nights~7 day tickets + hopper/water parks and more and DDP
#2 BCR- almost $6418 for 7Days/6 nights~7 day tickets+ hopper /water parks and DDP
#3 AKL standard room $5668 For 7D/6N~7D TICKETS + HOPPER/WATER PARKS +DDP
#4 POLY standard room $6685 7D/6N~ 7D Tickets+hopper/water parks and DDP
#5 BWI Standard room $6347 7D/6N 7D tickets+hopper/water parks and DDP
#6 GF Gardenview $7192 7D/6N 7D Tickets+hopper/water parks +DDP
#7 SSR Deluxe Studio $5776 7D/6N 7D tickets +hopper/water parks +DDP
#8 SSR 1bedroom $6171 7D/6N 7D tickets+Waterparks +qsdp
#9 OKW deluxe studio $5776 7D/6N 7D tickets + hopper/water parks +ddp
#10 OKW 1bedroom $6171 7D/6N 7D tickets+Waterparks +qsdp

Decisions, decisions...Good thing we still have 11 months til our trip.

 

[jesridge]

No Longer Relevant

 

[jesridge]

Next years school calendar was sent to me yesterday, spring break will be first week of April!! Super Excited to finally have concrete dates!!!

 

[jesridge]

So..if you saw my title you will see that we decided to bump our trip up considerably... We were able to get Free Dinning this morning so I changed our plans for Christmas break!! I'm sure my husband was super thrilled to get my text this morning...with the BIG SURPRISE!! I'm Super excited we have been at Christmas time before so we know what to expect....We are staying at All-Star Sports (we've never stayed there before so any advice or reviews would be super helpful) DS has been wanting to stay there for a while so I guess he won this trip. I will do a better update later with some plans just wanted to do a small update because we changed our dates!!

 

[jesridge]

Finally got to talk to DH and he was agreeable with Christmas as long as I agreed to sit out a couple pageants DD wanted to do of course that's fine cause...Disney World, DD was also agreeable to the stipulation so we are all good!!! So excited it worked out for us to go in December. DD and DS have already chosen their magic band colors (They both imessaged me from school after I broke the awesome news) DD is yellow (surprised me) and DS picked pink (another surprise). We watched the Disney planning video on Saturday and DD said she didn't remember much..she remembered goliath pretending to cry when my DS asked for his autograph, she remembered DS "eating" a "bug" off one of the monkeys at the LION KING and she remembered meeting tigger...that's it, the last time we went she was 8 she's 13 now so hoping to build a few more memorable moments this time around. DS remembered lots of stuff from our previous trips and even at almost 16 he is super excited even asked if we were going to do the character meal at Hollywood and Vine...I had to tell him im not even sure they have it there anymore.....its been way way too long. So our project this week is to research the restaurants and make some decisions!!!

 

[bunnyboo]

Grats on getting FD!! During Christmas too!!
I wish I could see WDW with all the Christmas decorations, Christmas at DL is one of my favorite times to go. Hopefully someday.
You're right, I'm a flight attendant and flights are all VERY empty on Christmas Day. Should be easy for you guys to lie down and nap on the way back.

 

[jesridge]

I added a few days to our trip and a stay offsite near universal, so we can go to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter on the 26th and 27th. We are huge Harry Potter fans and have been wanting to go for a while, super excited about going (I haven't told DD & DS so it will be a surprise).

 

[HSMndLKfan92]

Joining in on the fun!

 

[jesridge]

Just upgrade us to a Mod. We will be at Coronado Springs!!!

 

[tyandskyesmom]

We will be at Caribbean Beach Dec 18 thru January 1 with free dining also...we have a 16 (turning 17 on the trip) year old football player, and 15 (will turn 16 just before the trip) year old, and an 11 year old dancer/future Broadway Performer/doctor. It will be our first Christmas trip although most of us have been many times before but it has been a long time coming on this one so it's going to be like new!

Happy Planning!

 

[jesridge]

And I'm finally back home to do some planning...DD had a Soccer game today, they suffered their first loss of the season it was a really hard game and she played awesome (despite getting her first ever penalty) so of course we had to go for pizza to celebrate a game well played. Hoping we get a win at tomorrows game.
Now on to planning...
First, I made another slight change we are now staying CSR Business Class after reading lots of posts stating that the room location was better, I thought I'd try and see if we could upgrade and still keep FD, we could and it only raised our cost $135 more so Business Class it is.

Second, We have been compiling a list of Dinning possibilities nothing decided yet but here's what we got so far:
Be Our Guest
Tuskers
Boma
California Grill
Ohana
Garden Grill
Akershus
1900 Park Fare

Most of these would be new to us...Decisions Decisions

Third...I need to do some research regarding Big Hero 6, DS loved this movie (yes even at almost 16 he's a little kid at heart)I need to find out if there are any attractions, meet and greets etc....


.......235 days to go!!!!

 

[jesridge]

Joining in on the fun!

Welcome!!

We will be at Caribbean Beach Dec 18 thru January 1 with free dining also...we have a 16 (turning 17 on the trip) year old football player, and 15 (will turn 16 just before the trip) year old, and an 11 year old dancer/future Broadway Performer/doctor. It will be our first Christmas trip although most of us have been many times before but it has been a long time coming on this one so it's going to be like new!

Happy Planning!

My DD used to want to be a Broadway Performer too but it just recently changed and now she wants to be a journalist and write children's books. We have been at Christmas one other time, it was a surprise trip, we loved it the decorations were beautiful I'm so excited to go again...Have Fun Planning your trip!!!

 

[HSMndLKfan92]

Second, We have been compiling a list of Dinning possibilities nothing decided yet but here's what we got so far:
Be Our Guest
Tuskers
Boma
California Grill
Ohana
Garden Grill
Akershus
1900 Park Fare

We've only been to BOG for lunch, but it's definitely a must-do.
We haven't been to Ohana in awhile. I'm going to say that they changed the menu at some point here.
Haven't been to Akershus since 2011, but I remember it being very very expensive. (Then again I was 18 and paying out of pocket for that one...)
We went to 1900 Park Fare in January and I was pleased with what their dinner menu had to offer.

If you haven't checked out the menus on allears.net, that might help you make decisions!

 

[jesridge]

We've only been to BOG for lunch, but it's definitely a must-do.
We haven't been to Ohana in awhile. I'm going to say that they changed the menu at some point here.
Haven't been to Akershus since 2011, but I remember it being very very expensive. (Then again I was 18 and paying out of pocket for that one...)
We went to 1900 Park Fare in January and I was pleased with what their dinner menu had to offer.

If you haven't checked out the menus on allears.net, that might help you make decisions!

I haven't looked at the menus on allears yet, I completely forgot they had the menus on there. Thanks!