Trip Report It's a Jolly Holiday! *COMPLETED*

I am often asked, "What is your favorite time of year to go to Disney World?"

I used to answer late spring ~ warm but not miserable, little to no rain, manageable crowds. Then in 2009, I discovered the splendor of Disney of Christmastime ~ and have made an annual visit since. Now those of you who read the countdown thread might be thinking, "Hey, didn't you go last February?" Well, yes. "April?" Spring Break, of course. "June?" Had to celebrate the start of summer. "August?" Had to celebrate the end of summer. "September?" When your adult son asks you to go with him, you go! "November?" Quick getaway to celebrate DH's milestone birthday.

Which brings us back to....December!

(In case you think my frequency borders on lunacy, let me say I have fine company with @lostpro9het, @b33b33, @Doc Disney, @samantha788 and @gwhb75, among others ;).)

I have a love/hate relationship with going to WDW in December. While I LOVE being there, I HATE having one less week at home to decorate, shop, wrap presents, send Christmas cards, bake cookies, etc. And since this year we were due to arrive home on Christmas Eve, I needed to have everything ready for Christmas dinner too. Why don't I just eliminate a few things? Can't. Won't. I am under the curse of perfectionism! So I rush around like a mad woman for 3 weeks in order to have BOTH a perfect vacation AND a perfect Christmas! :confused:

This is probably a good time to confess that my Christmas tree is NOT perfect. You see, two summers ago we adopted an adorable kitten named Poly (yes, we named her after our favorite resort :cat:.) She is strictly an indoor cat. Having had cats before, we were surprised to discover that our new addition enjoyed climbing both our Christmas trees. Multiple times per day. Now last year this was merely a minor inconvenience, since Poly was still a kitten and didn't weigh much (read: she didn't cause much damage.) This year? Completely different story!! Bent branches, broken ornaments...on any given day, we didn't know what was going to end up as collateral damage next.

Can you spot her? For reference, we have 9 foot ceilings.
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And here she is in the living room tree:
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Anyhoo, I was able to complete all my Christmas and Disney preparations by December 16...the next morning we would start our Jolly Holiday!
 
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lostpro9het

lostpro9het

Well-Known Member
Tuvalu

Tuvalu

Premium Member
Original Poster
Before I go any further, let me introduce my vacation companions: DH, whom we'll call Woody, and DD, Em (@TrolleyFollower91). This was our third trip in 2015 as a trio (April and June were the others.) Em, along with her older brothers, was raised on Disney. Our family vacations were planned around school breaks, so we always experienced crowded parks (the exception being the brief period following 9/11.) Woody anxiously awaited the day when all three children were graduated and our Disney vacations would no longer dictated by a school schedule.

And then Em became a teacher.

So once again we find ourselves shoulder-to-shoulder with other school-calendar-driven folks, in order to make our daughter look like this:
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Note the professional camera...she is definitely the photog in the family! If there are any pics in this TR that look remarkably better than the ones taken with my iPhone 5, you can credit Em.

Em had to work a full day on December 18th, despite the fact that students were released for winter break the day before. Woody and I did not want to start our 8 hour drive south on a Friday night, so we decided to leave on Thursday morning (vacation creep, @lostpro9het :)). Em would fly down Friday evening.
 
Tuvalu

Tuvalu

Premium Member
Original Poster
Thursday, December 17
We have made this drive so many times that we wish we could just put the car on auto-pilot and go! Since we live outside Atlanta, departure time is crucial...anything later than 6:45 a.m. can add significant time to the journey. Woody and I were pulling out of the driveway at 6:10 a.m., in total darkness (sunrise was not until 7:35 a.m.) and heavy rain. The rain continued the whole way until our usual breakfast stop at ChickFilA in Macon.

After fueling our bodies with chicken burritos and our car with gas, we continued southward. I was driving since Woody had a few business calls to attend. We drove through some serious downpours in South Georgia ~ I was so happy to cross the border into the Sunshine State where there was no more rain!

I made a critical error in getting off the interstate in Gainesville at lunchtime. Gainesville is home to the University of Florida, and the exit road was congested with Gators. As I looked around for a lunch location, I spotted Bono's BBQ. "Let's eat there," I suggested. "We won't be eating BBQ at Disney." (A statement that would come back to bite me :in pain:!)

Bono's was just okay (we have a couple of excellent BBQ joints near us) and soon we were back on the highway for the final leg of our ride. We sailed under the glorious WDW arch a little past 2 p.m. and headed first to the Speedway (formerly Hess) by Boardwalk, since we had not fueled since breakfast. Woody had a 2:30 p.m. teleconference so we pulled into a parking space and he took his call.

Afterwards, we headed to hotel #1 ~ Hilton Bonnet Creek ~ a free night's stay thanks to Hilton points. We were given a corner room on the 18th floor, the top floor of the hotel.

This was our view:
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You can recognize Tower of Terror in the top photo, and in the far left is Exhibition:Everest. We could also see Epcot and MK off to the right out of our window (but couldn't get a decent pic.) A room with a 4 theme park view, sweet! Above is Pop Century/Art of Animation and Wide World of Sports.
 
S

samantha788

Well-Known Member
Tuvalu said:
Now those of you who read the countdown thread might be thinking, "Hey, didn't you go last February?" Well, yes. "April?" Spring Break, of course. "June?" Had to celebrate the start of summer. "August?" Had to celebrate the end of summer. "September?" When your adult son asks you to go with him, you go! "November?" Quick getaway to celebrate DH's milestone birthday.

Which brings us back to....December!

(In case you think my frequency borders on lunacy, let me say I have fine company with @lostpro9het, @b33b33, @Doc Disney, @samantha788 and @gwhb75, among others ;).)
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I love this, it's so true:) can't wait to read the rest!
 
Tuvalu

Tuvalu

Premium Member
Original Poster
After one final business call, Woody and I headed to Beach Club. We had plans to meet old friends at Cape May for dinner. M&K live locally and we try to get together with them each time we're at WDW. As we walked into the Beach Club lobby, we were greeted by the 2,015 piece gingerbread carousel:
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Love the horseshoes!
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We were a bit early, so we decided to walk over to the Yacht Club and see the train display:
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We were disappointed that the train was not operating :(.

On our walk back to the Beach Club, we spied this little guy in the hallway:
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M&K met us at Cape May; it is one of their favorite Disney restaurants. Woody and I are not seafood eaters, but there were plenty of options on the buffet for us. I was too busy enjoying the food and conversation and forgot to take pictures. :facepalm:

A nice evening was had by all and we parted ways shortly after 8 p.m. Woody and I attempted to make our way back to the Hilton, which is an easy 5-10 minute drive from Beach Club ~ but due to the Star Wars premiere party at DHS, there were several lane closures and we ended up in the Epcot parking lot! We turned around and set out again for Buena Vista Drive ~ unfortunately we turned left instead of right and got stuck in Disney Springs traffic hell! That mistake cost us over 30 minutes in time and frustration.

Happily, we made it back to our room in the nick of time to watch Holiday Illuminations. What we didn't expect to see was Holiday Wishes, running concurrently with Illuminations! It was amazing being able to watch both shows simultaneously from our 18th floor window! This fireworks junkie went to sleep happy :).

But more was yet to come...the first boom of the 12:45 a.m. Symphony in the Stars show awakened me, and I flew to the window to watch another incredible show! And the best part ~ when it was over, I walked only a few steps and climbed to bed. No crowds, no long bus line, no traffic. Perfection!

Fireworks count: 3 shows, 1 night
 
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TheMouseFan

TheMouseFan

Well-Known Member
Yay!! Another report! Love that your cat likes to climb the trees! We have only had one year where one of ours climbed, we came home to find the entire tree knocked over on its side. I'm guessing the cat didn't like the falling sensation, because it hasn't happened again! So awesome that you got to see all of the fireworks from your room! Can't wait to read more!
 
Tuvalu

Tuvalu

Premium Member
Original Poster
Friday, December 18
I am a morning person by nature and find it especially difficult to sleep in when visiting the world, no matter what time I fell asleep the night prior ~ the excitement of what a Disney day will bring causes my lids to pop open early! Thus it was no surprise when I glanced at the clock and saw it was 5:40 a.m. ~ time to get up!

Woody is not a morning person, though he will sweetly get up first and get himself ready when we vacation with Em. When it is just the two of us, I like to let him sleep in. And that is what I did this morning. I even went down to the coffee shop in the lobby to get us a quick breakfast.

He had a 9 a.m. call, and we decided to hang in the room until his business was completed. It was raining outside, so we were not in a hurry to venture out anyway. I opened our drapes and saw this:
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The lifeguards had just finished their towel creation. With the rain, those towels would quickly be a soggy mess!

Let me say that the Hilton Bonnet Creek has an awesome pool area that rivals Stormalong Bay (without the sand bottom.) There is a long lazy river, waterfalls, zero-entry kids area, two hot tubs and spray fountains. (Sorry I don't have more pictures.) We have enjoyed the pool on previous visits. I don't imagine the pool saw much activity today due to the yucky weather.
 
LisaBelle

LisaBelle

Well-Known Member
Tuvalu said:
We are flying down Thursday evening, and will hit the expo Friday morning before going to MK. Flying home Monday evening. Hope our paths cross! :)
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It would be great if our paths cross. We are going to the expo Thursday. Also on Thursday we will be at both AK & HS. Friday will be Epcot after our race. Saturday Universal & Sunday MK. I will be on the look out for you & your daughter just in case any of our plans change. I wish her good luck in her races!
 
Tuvalu

Tuvalu

Premium Member
Original Poster
LisaBelle said:
It would be great if our paths cross. We are going to the expo Thursday. Also on Thursday we will be at both AK & HS. Friday will be Epcot after our race. Saturday Universal & Sunday MK. I will be on the look out for you & your daughter just in case any of our plans change. I wish her good luck in her races!
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We have a dinner ADR at San Angel on Friday night and will be at MK on Sunday, so you never know!

Have fun at the 5K...you'll be surprised at what a fabulous fifty body can do :happy:.
 
Tuvalu

Tuvalu

Premium Member
Original Poster
Friday (con't)
We left the Hilton around 10 a.m. and arrived shortly at my FAVORITE resort to stay in during the holiday season ~ Wilderness Lodge!! (Wait a minute...the gal with the Polynesian avatar and name prefers another resort?? Sorry Poly, but a tropical theme does not do much for me at Christmas.)

This, however, just screams "Festive Wonderland":
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I especially enjoy walking from the bus stop to the Lodge at night. The garland over the covered walkway is illuminated by white lights which are so warm and welcoming:
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In contrast, here is the tree at the Poly:
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Not even in the same league ;).

So you can imagine how ready I was to "get my Christmas on" upon our WL arrival. I had done online check-in...twice actually, since Disney had emailed me two days earlier to offer the "Direct to Room" text option. Having used the "Direct to Room" option before, I kept waiting for the text that said, "Sorry your room is not quite ready yet" or "Your room is ready, it is room xxxx." But I had not received a text. Or an email, for that matter. Which meant we were going to have to ask at the front desk if we were indeed "checked in."

We approached the cast member at the online check-in station. And here's where technology (more likely DISNEY technology) let us down. Not only was there no record of our online check-in, we had to go through the entire check-in process ~ including credit card info and choosing a PIN (we have not had to select a PIN since we first established it over two years ago; the PIN has always followed us through our resort stays.) The cast member also assumed it was our first WL stay, as she went into great detail about the location of the amenities, restaurant hours, transportation, etc. She never stopped to take a breath and we thought it would be rude to interrupt her.

Was our room ready? Of course not...but I was promised a text when it was.:rolleyes:
 
LisaBelle

LisaBelle

Well-Known Member
Tuvalu said:
We have a dinner ADR at San Angel on Friday night and will be at MK on Sunday, so you never know!

Have fun at the 5K...you'll be surprised at what a fabulous fifty body can do :happy:.
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I will watch for you. I am really excited for the 5k. I had my best run last night. Not faster but better stamina.
 
Tuvalu

Tuvalu

Premium Member
Original Poster
It was absolutely pouring when we got to the bus stop. Thankfully there is a large covered waiting area. New transportation monitors have been installed:
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Oddly, the wait time for the MK bus was not listed. (We would notice throughout the week that the wait time for the MK bus would only appear sporadically.) Though we had a Be Our Guest ADR to make, we were hoping for the rain to cease (or at least be less intense) by the time we arrived at the MK. Fifteen minutes later we were on our way and the rain slowed to a drizzle!

We got our first look at the metal detectors that were installed the previous day, but we were not asked to walk through one. We kind of booked it down Main Street, as we did not want to be late for our lunch ADR. There was no line to check in at the BOG booth, nor was there a line on the bridge; we were able to walk right inside to the cashier, since we had pre-ordered our food.

We quickly realized that no lines outside meant everyone was seated inside, and there were no available tables! Nothing in the West Wing. Ditto for Ballroom. Even our go-to room, the Rose Gallery, had nada. We awkwardly walked around the restaurant, trying not to look like vultures ready to dive at the first open table. Finally, I spied a cast member preparing to clear a table by the Christmas tree and we dove in!
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We sat adjacent to this table.

For lunch, Woody had the carved turkey sandwich and I had the braised pork. We really enjoy the lunch entrees at BOG and have eaten here nearly a dozen times. We conclude each meal with The Master's Cupcake (Must. Have. The Grey Stuff!) No sharing...we each devour our own. :hungry:

I just adore the ornaments on this tree:
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