Trip Report *Completed* It took 10 years, but we finally had our Disney Christmas!!! ☀️☃☀️

Hello everyone! Just got back from the world last week after an absolutely magical six nights at the Beach Club!!!! This is only my second trip report but I loved writing the first one so much,
(http://forums.wdwmagic.com/threads/...tsburgh-were-going-to-disney-world-tr.880815/ ) and I don't want to forget anything about our very Merry Christmas trip!

A little background info on this trip- first of all, I'm Michelle and a lover of all things Disney! Our last full trip to Disney was February 2014 ( we did Ohana and Mickey's Backyard BBQ while in Florida in March 2015 but never went to the parks)

My husband Kevin stayed home this time ( he's a teacher and didn't feel right asking for extra time off ) so I brought my two kids Calvin, 7, and Claire, 5. We went with my best friend Amy, her husband Tony, and their three kids, Lilly 17, Leionna 12, and Landon 8.

The planning for this trip actually started 10 years ago. When we were 25 years old, Amy and I took Lilly, who was seven, to Disney World for the first time. While at the Christmas store at downtown Disney, we vowed to come back in a few years at Christmas time since Disney and Christmas are two of our favorite things!

Well, fast-forward 10 years, and weddings and more kids, and surgeries and other trips had taken precedence over our Disney Christmas trip. We realized that Lilly was going to be a senior in high school and it was now or never if we were going to bring all of our kids! So this past spring we took the plunge and booked our trip for six nights at the Beach Club, complete with tickets to MVMCP, the Osborne Lights Dessert Party, Minnie's Holiday Dine, and a Candlelight Processional package with Neil Patrick Harris as the narrator! We were not messing around!

Here's a photo from our trip in 2005-

And here's all of our kids, ready for our Disney Christmas trip!!!!

Leionna had broken her foot during dance class about three weeks before our trip so we were going to be wheeling her around for the next week! We decorated her wheelchair with her name and Christmas lights and got a bunch of characters to sign her cast though, so we made the best of it!

 

[mishel635]

I am enjoying your report! I would love to visit at Christmas! Love your Tinkerbell surprises. Looking forward to reading more!

Thanks for following along!

Looks like you had a wonderful trip!! Out of curiosity, what weren the dates of your trip? We are going next year from Dec 1-5.

Thank you! We were there December 2nd - 8th.

 

[mishel635]

We decided to grab some popcorn to snack on while we waited for the parade to start.

I couldn't resist this Elf Mickey!

And Claire wanted the Snow White bucket-

So cute!!!

We got to see Elsa light up the castle (although we were too far away to see the show in front of the castle)

We then settled in at the spot Amy had gotten for us, snacked for a bit, and then the kids were off and running!!!

There were cast members, I mean elves, getting kids to play on Main Street. It's these little touches that put Disney above everyone else, in my opinion. "Kids are going to get antsy waiting around for the parade? Throw some balls in the air, play some games and let them run around like crazy!"

It's snowing in Florida!!!!!!


I know it might seem silly, especially since we live near Buffalo- one of the snow capitals of the country, but we all LOVED the fake snow. There was just something so magical about it snowing on Main Street in the Magic Kingdom!

 

[mishel635]

Here are a few more pics from us hanging out before the parade...

I love how much fun they were having in this video.... Not a care in the world!



I couldn't get over how gorgeous the castle was!!!

Before the lights...

And after!

So excited for the parade! (MAYBE as excited as Amy and I were to finally see it!!! )

Pure joy!!!!!

I love the new videos!



And then it was time!!!!! The parade was finally starting! It had started to rain a bit, so we grabbed out our ponchos and went on with the night! A little rain wasn't stopping us!




Mickey and Minnie!

Olaf!!!!

A (blurry) high five from Kristoff!!!!

Anna and Elsa!

 

[mishel635]

Wreck it Ralph!

Vanellope!

Chip n Dale!

Another blurry high five!!!!

Clarabelle!!!

My favorite... Goofy!!!

The Seven Dwarfs!!!!

 

[FlaggNL]

WoW! What a report! Great to be in the world in Christmas season! It is on our wishlist for the future! Next time will be Halloween season again, but as soon as Sacha (daugther) is finished with education in the future we will be in the world during Christmas season! Thanks for sharing and absolutely following along!

 

[mishel635]

Of course since we just saw the Seven Dwarfs, you know who's next.... Snow White and her prince!

Lots of dancers and dancing characters in between floats. I really wish it hadn't been raining so I could have recorded the whole parade- it really was the best parade I've ever seen.

Next up- Woody and Jessie!

My kids were going crazy. They were OBSESSED with Toy Story for years! They had a joint Toy Story themed birthday party when they turned 2 and 4, and this is actually one of my favorite pictures from our trip two years ago-

It still makes me want to cry just remembering it.


Next up was my absolute favorite part of the parade- the toy soldiers!

They were so awesome!!! I can't even imagine the dedication and practice it must take to do something like that!

 

[LisaBelle]

Have never been to Disney at Christmas, but hope to one day. LOVE the pictures of the parade. The Toy Soldiers looked awesome. Thanks for sharing!

 

[mishel635]

Santa's reindeer...

The big guy himself... SANTA!!!!!!

After the parade we headed up to the castle for Celebrate the Magic and Holiday Wishes. It was still sprinkling, so the kids got into the double jogger, I covered them up with the rain cover, and they both promptly fell asleep while we were waiting for the show to start. I was glad they got some rest since we still had until midnight to enjoy the Magic Kingdom

They both woke up in time for Celebrate the Magic, which was amazing of course!!

 

[mishel635]

It had stopped raining during Holiday Wishes so we got rid of our ponchos and decided to check out the Seven Dwarfs to see if the line wasn't too bad. The cast member working the line said it would be at least 45 minutes, which isn't too bad, but Lilly and Leionna wanted to ride Space Mountain (10 minute wait) and I wanted to check out the Tomorrowland Character Dance Party and the acapella group Voiceplay, so we took a quick pic of the Dwarfs and headed to Tomorrowland...

Bye Dwarfs!!!!! It was great seeing you in the parade, but I promise, I will meet you someday!

We grabbed a Photopass photo-

The character party ended up being Phineas and Ferb, who my kids don't really care for, so we skipped that and headed to Space Mountain and the Tomorrowland Stage. Voiceplay was really good!!

We then headed to the castle for the Celebrate the Season show which was fantastic!!!!! Second only to the parade as my favorite part of Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party! So without further ado, here's a ridiculous amount of pictures!

Santa Goofy!!!!

 

[mishel635]

Mickey's gift to Minnie- a ballerina performing the Nutcracker

And then Nutcracker Mickey!

Of course Donald Duck had to try and upstage Mickey!

Chip n Dale!

 

[mishel635]

We were all already mesmerized by this amazing show, and then there were fireworks and they lit up the castle again!

Such a great show!!

We decided we were ready for some more of those free cookies and cocoa and found a giant glowing candy cane to light our way...

Delicious!!!

We then decided to get a few more rides in before they kicked us out! Another round on Buzz, Tomorrowland People Mover (one of our favorites) and a flight over the streets of London- a five minute wait for Peter Pan... Unheard of. Just a side note- the new queue is great!!!!

Peter Pan selfie at midnight!!!!

They were troopers!!!!! We stopped for a few more Photopass pics on our way out-

OLAF!!!!!!!!

 

[mishel635]

I can only laugh at this next one-

Poor little Claire is just a little too short!

We made our way back down Main Street and grabbed a snack. Mickey ice cream bars at midnight- only at Disney World!!!

Headed out towards our bus stop, waited about five minutes and we were on our way.

Got back to the Beach Club and went straight to bed... We had another exciting day planned for Friday. Some shopping at the newly renamed Disney Springs in the morning, some pool time when we got back and then seeing the Osborne lights for the first time at the Merry and Bright Dessert Party!!!!

Woke up the next morning to a note from Goofy-

We had a breakfast ADR at Trattorio al Forno so we walked over to the Boardwalk. Breakfast was good. The kids all had Mickey waffles and fruit. Amy and I had some mimosas that were good but not very generous. I had the breakfast pizza which was delicious. Amy had the poached eggs over polenta. She said they were good, but she probably wouldn't order them again.

We headed to the Boardwalk bus stop and grabbed a bus to Disney Springs. Our bus driver was awesome!!!! She made us sing Christmas carols before she would start driving the bus and then led us through several different songs on our ride. Hilarious! I'm so bummed that I didn't get a video though!!

Made it to Disney Springs and bought some great ornaments at the Christmas store.

We hit up the World of Disney and the Lego Store but it was a really warm day and Stormalong Bay was calling our names!

Had to stop and see Buzz!

Aarghhhh matey!!!!!

Lego store!!!

An hour later, I was lounging on a chaise, ordering a frozen margarita, with this view...

I love the Beach Club!

We spent about two hours at the pool, ordered lunch from Hurricane Hanna's - the adults all ordered the seafood roll which was okay. I have spent a good amount of time on Cape Cod though so I'm pretty biased - nobody does a lobster roll like they do on the Cape!
The kids got burgers and fries in a sand pail with a shovel which they loved.

Next up- the Merry and Bright Dessert party and the Osborne Lights!!

 

[mishel635]

We headed up to our rooms- we had a Dessert Party to get ready for!!!


We went down to the dock and the lighthouse at the Yacht Club to catch the boat to DHS.

The first boat that came didn't have enough room for us so we waited for the next one. We were worried about making our FastPass for Toy Story Midway Mania, especially since the kids and I had never ridden it, but we made it there just in time!!!!

And now I understand why there's always a ridiculously long line- what a fun ride!!!!!

I love the attention to detail!

Grabbed some hot dogs from a food truck near the Dessert Party queue and before we knew it, we were in!!!!!

This dessert party was SO worth the money! We sat and ate and drank and got to watch all the Osborne Lights song "performances".

The kids were so excited about this one..


Love this one!


There were an awful lot of sing alongs going on at our tables... I couldn't resist grabbing a video of this one-


We used our 3D glasses often- they made all the lights look like candy canes!

We completely forgot to get our Annual Pass ones though! Does anyone know what they did?

The desserts were delicious!!!!

They also had buttered popcorn gelato with apple pie and pecan pie.
The drinks were okay but pretty sweet. Amy and I discovered they would give us shots of Baileys at the bar for our coffee. Delicious!!!!

We got our tickets and grabbed our stadium blankets.

They were cute- just a plain fleece blanket with Osborne Spectacle of Dancing Lights 2015 printed on it. We got one of each - red, black and blue. Definitely a great keepsake with this being the last year!

We stayed for almost the entire time of the dessert party and then headed into the massive herd of people on the Streets of America!!!

We grabbed our shirts-

We liked these better than the short sleeved red AP ones. Coming from WNY, we don't usually wear short sleeves at Christmastime.

 

[mishel635]

We wanted an ornament but they were completely sold out. I ended up buying one on EBay -

I hope so!!!!

I was seriously overwhelmed by how happy I was experiencing these with my kids. Knowing that this might be the last year to enjoy them (I hope not, but right now it seems that way) I was feeling extremely grateful that we were able to finally make this trip happen this year. When they announced that it was the last year, we had already booked our trip, and I'm SO glad we did.

My kids were passed out before we made it to the end of the street.

This was why I rented a double stroller even though we don't really use one even for Claire anymore at home. They weren't in it often, but if they got tired, or if the crowds were really bad, like after parades and shows and at the Osborne Lights, it made things SO much easier. Plus we walked between six and ten miles everyday. That's a lot of miles for Claire's little five year old legs! Can you tell which days we were at Disney????

We made our way back to the room, put the kids to bed, grabbed some adult beverages, and hit up the quiet pool and hot tub for a bit.

I love a good nighttime swim!

Didn't stay too late though- we were exhausted and had an ADR at Chef Mickey's at 9:15!


Woke up to this-

A note from Chef Mickey! I was excited for this breakfast. I love the atmosphere at Chef Mickey's- especially the monorail coming right through the building and just how much fun it is.

Saw this when we came in- so cute!

 

[mishel635]

We made our way to check in and I was surprised to see the statue of Mickey was gone and replaced with pictures with Pluto! What a great change!

Such a fun atmosphere at Chef Mickey's. We love it and it is a must have ADR for our trips!

Made our way to our table and grabbed some breakfast. I know it's nothing special, but everything we try here is always good.
There's some fruit under there somewhere right????

Much healthier!!!!

Before we knew it, Minnie was visiting!

Next up- Donald!!!! My kids love him. He always does something to make us laugh. This time he was tapping his foot and pointing at his imaginary watch when Calvin hadn't switched his page in his autograph book from Minnie's signature.

Goofy hugs!!!!! My favorite!

 

[mishel635]

And finally...... MICKEY!!!!!!

He loved our Santa hat ears!

Of course a visit to Chef Mickey's just wouldn't feel right without some serious napkin twirling!

We also had the characters sign these while we were at Chef Mickey's - it's now on a shelf in my living room!

Everything was very good. We were all stuffed full of Mickey waffles! Our plan was to take the monorail to see the Grand Floridian's gingerbread house and tree and then take the monorail back to Epcot and walk to the Beach Club, but the monorail was down. So we looked at the Frozen themed gingerbread display in the Contemporary-

We shopped for a bit- I don't know why but I love the shops there. We then let the kids do a couple pressed pennies but the monorail was still down so we decided to grab another cab back to the Beach Club for some pool time before our Ohana ADR at 5pm, and a night at Magic Kingdom as it was open until midnight!!!

 

[mishel635]

We spent a few hours at Stormalong Bay-

The kids had another lunch out of a sand bucket from Hurricane Hanna's - they love these!!

We then were lucky enough to experience another pool party with Raouf!!!! Anyone who has spent time at Stormalong Bay has probably seen Raouf. Our cocktail waitress said he's been in charge of pool activities for at least ten years. When we were here the last time, there was a sandcastle building contest. Today we got to enjoy a Disney Junior Pool Party! Complete with trivia, sing alongs and dance alongs!

Seriously he's just wonderful and so good at what he does. You can tell he really enjoys it!

We spent a bit of time on the water slides-

Grabbed some Mickey bars-

And then we headed up to our room for a quick nap before an evening of Ohana and the Magic Kingdom!!!!

 

[mishel635]

We grabbed a cab to the Polynesian. Claire was all ready for the coconut race!

Ohana is hands down my favorite meal at the World. Sanaa is a close second, but Ohana is number one for me. The salad, the noodles, the dumplings, the chicken wings, all the meats. Not to mention the best dessert ever. Plus the atmosphere is just great. This is another must do for us every trip. We even came here last spring break for dinner one night even though we had rented a house and weren't going to any of the parks during that trip. So good.

The monorail was up and running now, so we decided to check out the Grand Floridian before we headed to the Magic Kingdom.

The amazing tree-

Some Photopass pictures-

The Gingerbread house! It seriously smelled amazing in here!!!!

We then made our way to Magic Kingdom! We had fast passes for the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, Meeting Anna and Elsa, and Big Thunder Mountain!

These were the only photopasss pictures that I wasn't impressed with that week- too many people walking directly behind the area and we were pretty far from the camera. No big deal though.

I LOVE this guy! Hello sir. Too funny.

The first glimpse never gets old! Especially at night, it gets me every time.

 

[ScarletBegonias]

I am LOVING your TR!!! I love Christmas so much, and would love to come for Christmas some day when my daughter is a bit older.

Thanks for sharing!

 

[mishel635]

First stop was Big Thunder Mountain!!! My daughter LOVED it. Calvin didn't like how bumpy it was.
We then stopped at Pirates and used our extra FastPass from when we got stuck on the Jingle Cruise. Had to stop for a quick sword fight in the Pirates store-

We then headed over to Seven Dwarfs Minetrain. I don't know why, but I love this ride so much more at night!

Calvin's face in this picture is hysterical to me!!!! He actually loved this ride believe it or not.

And then it was time for what Claire had been SO excited to do for months!!!! Meeting Anna and Elsa for the first time! When we were at the World in 2014, they had just started the meet and greet in Norway and the wait was four hours so we didn't meet them.

Curtsying...

Claire with her perfectly placed Princess hands.

Signing Leionna's cast

Anna was funny and kind of goofy- just like the movie. She was great!

Mesmerized by the Queen....

Elsa was great too! They both signed ornaments for us and even though it was a little rushed, we still had time with each of them.