Trip Report An Anniversary/Birthday Trip to Remember, December 2024

We're back!! And there were many memorable things about our trip, some fantastic and some not so great things, but overall a wonderful trip!

Quick overview:
Who: me (Amy) and my husband, Brian
Why: we were celebrating our 25th anniversary and 50th birthdays, just 1 year late!
Where: Caribbean Beach Resort, Jamaica building 42
When: December 6-11, 2024

We had a later flight out of Columbus, so left our house about 3pm and made it in plenty of time for Brian to nap before we had to board!

We were scheduled to depart at 5:45, so got to see the sunset from the ground and the air.

I was unlucky enough to have a young child behind me that kicked my chair the entire 2 hour flight until about 10 minutes before we started our descent. We asked nicely and the flight attendant asked nicely and the mom continued to sleep with her earbuds in, so in addition to the kicking, we got to constantly hear "mom, mom"! Longest two hour flight ever!

I was worried about having to check a bag, but it made it MCO with us and in good condition, so that was a relief! Our driver met us and we were soon on our way and seeing these:

We got our room ready text while on the way. We were booked into a water/pool view 5th sleeper since that was all that available using the Bounceback offer for our dates. I had requested Jamaica and that our water view be of Barefoot Bay and not a pool. I also requested to be near the Skyliner. Yay, all of my requests were granted!!

 

[TheMouseFan]

Then another boat ride, this time to the Contemporary.

 

[TheMouseFan]

Construction on the new resort:

We got off at the Contemporary and walked to MK.

 

[Tuvalu]

While I love the gingerbread house and the giant tree in the lobby, I do not like the way everything is set up. They had the gingerbread house roped off quite a ways out from it (understandably), but then that ran right into the PP line for the tree and you basically had to walk all the way around the lobby to see all sides of the house since people just camped out at the rope instead of looking and moving on. I guess I am also just less tolerant of crowds and rude people as I get older.

This is exactly why Em and I passed on visiting the GF on our recent trip.

 

[luvinthemajik]

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While I love the gingerbread house and the giant tree in the lobby, I do not like the way everything is set up. They had the gingerbread house roped off quite a ways out from it (understandably), but then that ran right into the PP line for the tree and you basically had to walk all the way around the lobby to see all sides of the house since people just camped out at the rope instead of looking and moving on. I guess I am also just less tolerant of crowds and rude people as I get older.

I feel you...and I'm most assuredly " older"
Crowds=rudeness, lack of manners and no common sense.
I'm glad you got to see some of the beauty that's on display around the resorts.
That bit of magic can often be a balm for jangled nerves.
Thank you for your wonderful pics,and Happy holidays!

 

[TheMouseFan]

This is exactly why Em and I passed on visiting the GF on our recent trip.

I did not remember it being this bad last time we were there in December, but that was 6 years ago and plenty of time for things to change. I can't even imagine how bad it must be now that it is closer to Christmas.

I feel you...and I'm most assuredly " older"
Crowds=rudeness, lack of manners and no common sense.
I'm glad you got to see some of the beauty that's on display around the resorts.
That bit of magic can often be a balm for jangled nerves.
Thank you for your wonderful pics,and Happy holidays!

Thankfully, our plan was to spend a lot of time resort hopping to check out the decorations and less time on rides in the parks for this particular trip! Happy holidays!!

 

[TheMouseFan]

Next we headed back into Magic Kingdom.

Brian needed to make a pitstop, so he headed there while I got some more pics.

As I was standing here waiting for Brian, they had a countdown and then turned the lights on the tree on. It's hard to see because it was still light out, but you can see the lights if you look hard enough.

Then we headed up MSUSA to find some PP photographers.

 

[TheMouseFan]

Then we did some shopping and I took some pics near the castle.

 

[TheMouseFan]

Brian wanted to check out one of the stores in Tomorrowland, so we headed there next.

We has a LL for BTMR so I could ride it in the dark, but I did not want to fight the crowds to get over there and then fight again to get back for the dessert party, so I cancelled it. We headed to Tomorrowland Terrace and hopped in line to check in for the Seats and Treats Dessert Party. It moved quickly once they started checking everyone in at 7pm. We got a seat right in the front with this view:

It was perfect!! We watched the projections for a few, then filled our plates. Sorry about the blurry pic!

And Brian took a quick nap before the fireworks started!

 

[TheMouseFan]

Lots of fireworks pics coming up!

 

[TheMouseFan]

 

[TheMouseFan]

The dessert party was way more than we should have paid for it, but in my mind it was worth every penny to not fight the crowds to get a decent viewing spot. They were announcing that MSUSA and the hub were near capacity while we were still waiting to check into the party. And shortly after we were seated they announced they were at capacity and you could watch from Frontierland or Fantasyland.

We sat for a little while to let the first rush of people leave for the busses. Eventually we could see that they were using the Main Street bypass to get people to the front of the park, so we used that and it really wasn't too bad once we were in front of the train station and heading to the busses. We had a bus waiting for us and we were on our way shortly.

I was very happy to find all 5 of the pins this day that I was looking for in June and couldn't find the Epcot one.

Some thoughts on our first day of using LLMP - I wasn't very impressed. I was able to modify our time for Tiana's the very first day I did the scheduling, but then beyond that, even the day of, I was unable to modify anything earlier. There were very few attractions left that could be booked in the near future, all were available for late afternoon or evening (even after my 8:40am Pirates LL). And we would have been crossing back and forth all day long to book next availables. I'm sure we'll use it again when we go back with the boys, but other than being guaranteed my ride on Tiana's, we didn't really need it at all for what we wanted to ride and how we had our day planned out. Despite all of that, we had a great first day in the parks.

 

[TheMouseFan]

Sunday, December 8, 2024 DHS

We didn't have to get up quite as early today since early entry didn't start until 8:30. We left the room about 7:40 to head to the Skyliner. It was in the upper 40s again this morning, but the high was supposed to be in the mid 70s, so I went with jeans, t-shirt, and flip flops with my sweat jacket to start the day.

 

[TheMouseFan]

We made it to DHS very quickly. I absolutely love using the Skyliner!

I had to get my bag checked even though I was holding my umbrella and glasses case out in front of me! So I sent Brian on ahead to get in line. Luckily, my bag check was quick and I was soon in line with him.

 

[TheMouseFan]

Once we were in, we headed for Sunset Blvd.

 

[TheMouseFan]

Then we joined the short line to wait for ToT to open. We were plenty early, so lots of time for pics!

 

[TheMouseFan]

Two last pics before the line started moving.

 

[TheMouseFan]

Merry Christmas to everyone! We still aren't really into celebrating Christmas again yet, so it's been a really low key day for us and I thought I would use the day off to do some more reporting even though no one will be reading today.

The line started moving and we were quickly making our way through the queue.

 

[TheMouseFan]

 

[TheMouseFan]

Brian looked really distressed as we exited the elevator. I thought he was physically ill, but if you see in our ride pic, the rider in front of him was a young girl with long blonde hair that kept hitting his leg during the drop sequence and it really set him off. It's mind boggling what sets us off sometimes, but we took a few minutes to sit quietly, then were ready to move on. He made his way to the bathroom while I spent way too much money in the gift shop (and they didn't even have everything that I had wanted to purchase)!

And a quick pic of the sign on the way out since someone was standing in front of it when we entered the line.

 

[TheMouseFan]

It was still early entry time, so our plan was to have breakfast and then hit our first LL of the day.

I wanted Mickey waffles, so stopped here while Brian went to get himself some kind of fruit.

He found us a seat with a view.

My waffles and bacon were delicious! Brian did share with me, but I ate most of it. He had gone to Anaheim Produce stand to get a banana. When he went to check out, the CM told him that the price for a single banana was a rip off and to please just take the banana! Brian was not sure what to think about this, but he took his banana and left.

We sat for a few letting out food digest, then headed for our first LL.