I know, I know, that's the busiest time of year to go, but hear me out! Christmas sucks for us right about now! And we decided that instead of staying home and wallowing in our sorrow, we would go somewhere and try to keep ourselves busy. Christmas 2022 obviously sucked, but we were so numb at that point that it's all a blur. Then 2023 was horrific and felt like the first Christmas without Lily. Needless to say, I didn't feel like decorating nor celebrating, so we didn't do a whole lot that year. Last year, I still couldn't bring myself to decorate, but we tried to attend a few celebrations and ease back into things. My anniversary trip with Brian last year helped get me closer to remembering that I used to love Christmas and all the decorations, but I'm still not sure I would be able to decorate the house this year either, so now I won't have to worry about it too much! The boys don't necessarily want to go anywhere, but they grudgingly agreed to go with us when I promised we would make it as laid back and stress free as possible, which I know means we will miss seeing and doing a lot of things! As you can surmise from my picture, we are staying at Caribbean Beach again. I booked two (hopefully connecting) standard view 5th sleeper rooms. I am going to request to be in Trinidad again this year.
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Trip Report I May Have Done a Thing... (now the actual report)(and finished!)
- Thread starter TheMouseFan
- Start date
I know, I know, that's the busiest time of year to go, but hear me out! Christmas sucks for us right about now! And we decided that instead of staying home and wallowing in our sorrow, we would go somewhere and try to keep ourselves busy. Christmas 2022 obviously sucked, but we were so numb at that point that it's all a blur. Then 2023 was horrific and felt like the first Christmas without Lily. Needless to say, I didn't feel like decorating nor celebrating, so we didn't do a whole lot that year. Last year, I still couldn't bring myself to decorate, but we tried to attend a few celebrations and ease back into things. My anniversary trip with Brian last year helped get me closer to remembering that I used to love Christmas and all the decorations, but I'm still not sure I would be able to decorate the house this year either, so now I won't have to worry about it too much! The boys don't necessarily want to go anywhere, but they grudgingly agreed to go with us when I promised we would make it as laid back and stress free as possible, which I know means we will miss seeing and doing a lot of things! As you can surmise from my picture, we are staying at Caribbean Beach again. I booked two (hopefully connecting) standard view 5th sleeper rooms. I am going to request to be in Trinidad again this year.
Thank you!LOVE all of your Christmas decorations!
Wishing peace for your hearts (or as much peace as possible) to all of you.
Thanks!
Thanks!
Thanks!Merry Christmas. Have a fantastic time!
Merry Christmas from Animal Kingdom!
Merry Christmas from Magic Kingdom!
Swissmiss
Premium Member
Hmm. Looks like the only one smart enough to remember her sunglasses is you.
Tiggertoo56
Well-Known Member
Merry Christmas - hope you are enjoying your trip.
Merry Christmas from Epcot!
Merry Christmas from Hollywood Studios! We made it to all 4 parks! Hope everyone had a good day!
They were adamant that they were not waiting with me to get a pic with Santa Goofy! Little did they know he was at Hollywood and Vine!
We made it home! Lots of police presence today! I lost track of how many we saw in Florida and Georgia, 1 in Tennessee, 3 in Kentucky, and 3 in Ohio, but we made it with no incidents, no speeding tickets, and smooth sailing through Atlanta! I'll try to go through my pictures soon and start my report in the next couple of days since I took this next week off too.
I'm going to go ahead and just use this thread as the actual trip report now instead of starting a new one since I posted a few times throughout the trip.
A few thoughts prior to starting:
My sciatica was a minor inconvenience most of the time - I was fine when I was sitting most of the time, and it was tolerable as long as I was moving, but standing still was a major issue at times, so the preshows and stand by lines were a little painful sometimes. I survived and am no worse for the wear!
I knew going in that we would miss some things, but there were quite a few things we missed that I wanted to see: Fantasmic!, the Christmas parade, the new Starlight Parade, the Storytellers at Epcot, etc. Some of this was due to crowds and some was due to my pain level.
Some days were better than others for the number of pictures I took! Some days I was just trying to keep walking and didn't take as many and other times I was feeling fine and took lots. The crowd levels affected this as well because sometimes I just wasn't able to stop and get the pics I wanted.
The crowds weren't as bad as I had anticipated! Don't get me wrong, it was busy, but I just made sure to avoid the hub and MSUSA at MK, so it was very doable. Apparently, the crowds are significantly worse this week! Still not sure I would do this week again in the future!!
Ok, on to the trip!
Day 1 Saturday, Dec. 20
My goal was to be pulling out of the driveway by 8am since we had about 9 hours of driving this day. We ended up leaving closer to 7:30, so we were actually on the road by 8 after we stopped at Chick fil A for breakfast. We had quite a few areas of slow downs, but Atlanta was not actually too bad! We got to our hotel about 6pm, grabbed a quick dinner, and made it an early night.
Day 2 Sunday, Dec. 21 arrival day
We left the hotel at about 6:30 and stopped at Bucc-ee's for breakfast, getting on the road about 7 for our 5 hour trip. We stopped at the Florida Welcome Center and 3 hours later were driving under this:
Then soon were entering here:
We stopped by Old Port Royale to make sure they were working on connecting rooms for us. One quick pic on the way in:
It's a good thing I stopped because Logan and Owen's room wasn't completely checked in online, so the CM had to complete it for me so we could receive the gift cards that were part of our package. I was assured that we were getting connecting rooms in Trinidad, so we decided to head over to Disney Springs for lunch.
It was about 12:45 at this point, so unfortunately was prime eating time.
We decided on fish and chips and waited about 10 minutes in line since mobile ordering was not an option. We were lucky to get a table. It wasn't in the shade, but at least we had somewhere to sit!
A few thoughts prior to starting:
My sciatica was a minor inconvenience most of the time - I was fine when I was sitting most of the time, and it was tolerable as long as I was moving, but standing still was a major issue at times, so the preshows and stand by lines were a little painful sometimes. I survived and am no worse for the wear!
I knew going in that we would miss some things, but there were quite a few things we missed that I wanted to see: Fantasmic!, the Christmas parade, the new Starlight Parade, the Storytellers at Epcot, etc. Some of this was due to crowds and some was due to my pain level.
Some days were better than others for the number of pictures I took! Some days I was just trying to keep walking and didn't take as many and other times I was feeling fine and took lots. The crowd levels affected this as well because sometimes I just wasn't able to stop and get the pics I wanted.
The crowds weren't as bad as I had anticipated! Don't get me wrong, it was busy, but I just made sure to avoid the hub and MSUSA at MK, so it was very doable. Apparently, the crowds are significantly worse this week! Still not sure I would do this week again in the future!!
Ok, on to the trip!
Day 1 Saturday, Dec. 20
My goal was to be pulling out of the driveway by 8am since we had about 9 hours of driving this day. We ended up leaving closer to 7:30, so we were actually on the road by 8 after we stopped at Chick fil A for breakfast. We had quite a few areas of slow downs, but Atlanta was not actually too bad! We got to our hotel about 6pm, grabbed a quick dinner, and made it an early night.
Day 2 Sunday, Dec. 21 arrival day
We left the hotel at about 6:30 and stopped at Bucc-ee's for breakfast, getting on the road about 7 for our 5 hour trip. We stopped at the Florida Welcome Center and 3 hours later were driving under this:
Then soon were entering here:
We stopped by Old Port Royale to make sure they were working on connecting rooms for us. One quick pic on the way in:
It's a good thing I stopped because Logan and Owen's room wasn't completely checked in online, so the CM had to complete it for me so we could receive the gift cards that were part of our package. I was assured that we were getting connecting rooms in Trinidad, so we decided to head over to Disney Springs for lunch.
It was about 12:45 at this point, so unfortunately was prime eating time.
We decided on fish and chips and waited about 10 minutes in line since mobile ordering was not an option. We were lucky to get a table. It wasn't in the shade, but at least we had somewhere to sit!
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After eating, we decided to split up for a short time. Logan was looking for shorts. Despite the fact I have been asking since booking the trip way back when if anyone needed new clothing items, he just realized that he didn't have shorts that fit appropriately. Brian took the boys and they headed to Uniqlo and Under Armour while I headed to the actual Disney Stores. I had three things in mind that I wanted to purchase: a 2025 ornament, the glass tree and ball ornaments they have at Arribas Bros, and to look at the new Stitch line at Vera Bradley. I also was trying to get pics of the trees from the Christmas Tree Stroll as I went along. I know I missed some and I didn't get nearly as many pictures of the ones I did find because there were people sitting all around them and I had trouble getting to the different sides of them.
My first stop was Arribas Bros. They had the tree, but the selection of ball ornaments was pathetic. 12 come with the tree and they didn't even have 12 different ones. Not just 12 that I wanted, but not even 12 different ones. I was so disappointed as this is what I was really wanting to purchase.
My first stop was Arribas Bros. They had the tree, but the selection of ball ornaments was pathetic. 12 come with the tree and they didn't even have 12 different ones. Not just 12 that I wanted, but not even 12 different ones. I was so disappointed as this is what I was really wanting to purchase.