Fizzle's tentative itinerary...

[fizzle75]

We will be returning to The World this November/December and I thought I would run our tentative itinerary by you fine folks so you can give us some advice. We will be taking my wife's cousin and her husband with us. Her cousin has never been to WDW and is very excited, her husband on the other hand has been before and didn't like it.

Christmastime is our absolute favorite time to be at WDW and we think this will be the perfect time to introduce her cousin to WDW and hopefully win her husband back from the dark side.

We are super frustrated, along with many others, that the hours still aren't posted for November or December. We're pretty when it comes to planning so not having the hours is freaking us out. Sunday was our 180 day mark so we figured we should go ahead and book our ADRs and start working on a tentative schedule. We will be staying at SSR again, it was definitely not our first choice but the two resorts we wanted most(WL & BW)were booked solid. SSR is a beautiful resort though and I'll just be tickled to be back at our home away from home.

SO...here's what we've worked out so far, please let me know what you think and if you think we should make any changes.

Friday, November 28th-We will be flying down and we should arrive at Orlando International around 3:00pm and hopefully be at SSR by 4:30pm or so. We have never done Hoop Dee Do but have always wanted to so the plan is to get settled into our room, give our guests a quick tour of the resort and then head over to MK, then hop either a bus or ferry over to Fort Wilderness so we can catch the last showing of Hoop Dee Doo. I know it can take some time getting to Pioneer Hall, are we allowing enough time?

Saturday, November 29th-Introduce our guests to the joys of the Magic Kingdom. We will be eating breakfast at Whispering Canyon(one of our favorites), knowing their personalities I think they'll love it. Does anybody know if Hickory still works there? She is hands down the best server there and we usually request her as our server but we haven't done WC in several trips so I don't know if she still works there.

We plan on wandering around WL for a little while taking in the gorgeous sights and sounds. Man, I love WL at Christmastime, I really wish you could have stayed there again this time. We will be eating dinner at Ohana.

Sunday, November 30th-Breakfast at the resort and then head over to Disney's Hollywood Studios. We will be doing the Fantasmic Dinner Package at Hollywood Brown Derby. I'm super excited about Toy Story Mania and I can't wait to ride it and catch Block Party Bash.

A quick question...Will they still be running the Hollywood Hollyday Parade this year and if so will be Block Party Bash be running on the same days?

Monday, December 1st- Head over to Epcot for breakfast at Sunshine Seasons. Focus mainly on Future World and make sure to catch the Lights of Winter and the tree lighting ceremony before we leave. I loooove Epcot during the holidays! We will be having dinner at Rose & Crown for the first time. We've always wanted to eat there but it has just never worked out in the past. We really want to get a table in the outdoor seating area so we will have a great view of Illuminations.

Another quick question...or two...Is the outdoor dining area at Rose & Crown really a great place to view Illuminations? I really want our guests' first time seeing Illuminations to be awesome so are we better off staying at Rose & Crown or should we try to find a better viewing location somewhere else around World Showcase Lagoon?

Tuesday, December 2nd-Breakfast at the resort and then book over to Animal Kingdom. We will spend all day at AK and then head over to AKL for dinner at Boma(we can't visit WDW without eating at Boma). We really want them to see the animals and the gorgeous design at AKL, it's especially awesome during the holidays.

Does anybody know why they stopped doing the edible Christmas village at Boma and if there are any plans to bring it back?

Wednesday, December 3rd-Day 2 at DHS. We plan on focusing on shows this day and we really want to catch the Harlem Gospel Choir this year since we missed them last year...assuming they're back again this year. We plan on ending the evening by spending some time taking in the Osborne Lights. I could spend hours just wandering around the streets of america taking in the amazing lights and listening to the brilliantly chosen seasonal tunes, and when the snow starts to fall...

Thursday, December 4th-Day 2 at AK. I definitely want to spend some time in Camp Minnie Mickey looking at the character themed christmas trees, listening to the carolers and hopefully getting some great character photos. We will probably leave after Mickey's Jingle Jungle Parade, we were in the lead car with Rafiki last year...maybe we'll get lucky again this year.
After the parade we will head over to the Grand Floridian to show our guests around the place, take in the gorgeous decorations and of course check out the Gingerbread house. After that we will high tail it over to WL for dinner at Artist Point.

Friday, December 5th-Day 2 at MK. We will be doing Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party this night, I can't wait!:sohappy: There's no place I'd rather be during the holidays than Main St. USA during MVMCP...except maybe World Showcase. Ok, never mind, it's a tie.

Saturday, December 6th- I'm assuming the Christmas Parade taping will be on this day so we plan on staying far away from MK. We plan on spending the entire day in World Showcase. I absolutely love World Showcase during the holidays, the street performers and storytellers are amazing. We will be doing the Candlelight Processional Dinner Package at either Biergarten or Le Chefs de France, we can't decide which, we love them both. Any thoughts?

Sunday, December 7th-Head back to the beautiful mountains of Western North Carolina...and immediately start wishing we were still at WDW.

We really want our guests to see Downtown Disney but we can't figure out when would be the best time to do it, any ideas?


So...that's our tentative itinerary folks, whaddaya think? We will be booking our ADRs tomorrow night, I'll post any changes we make. Any input would be greatly appreciated. I know my wife and I will have a great time but I really want her cousin and her husband to have a great time as well so I'm very open to suggestions. I would also love to know who will be there the same time we are, I would love to meet up and say hi.

Let me know what you think!:wave:

-Matt

 

[Kelsybelle]

I think your itinerary is toughtful and wonderful! I think your guests are going to have a blast and you'll probably get your cousin's husband back from the "dark side!" The only thing I think I can help with is that you definatley want to take the ferry over to the Fort Wilderness rather than taking a bus. The ferry brings you close to Pioneer Hall. From one itinerary maker to another, have a great time planning your wonderful vacation! :wave:

 

[fizzle75]

I think your itinerary is toughtful and wonderful! I think your guests are going to have a blast and you'll probably get your cousin's husband back from the "dark side!" The only thing I think I can help with is that you definatley want to take the ferry over to the Fort Wilderness rather than taking a bus. The ferry brings you close to Pioneer Hall. From one itinerary maker to another, have a great time planning your wonderful vacation! :wave:

Thanks for the advice, I was wondering which would be better. We spent a few hours wandering around Fort Wilderness during our last trip this past April but I still don't have a good grasp of it's layout. We just checked and the last showing of Hoop Dee Doo is at 9:30 which is much later than I thought it was. Do you think we should shoot for the 7:15 show instead?

 

[Kelsybelle]

After a long day of traveling and getting aquainted with your resort, I think I might suggest the earlier reservation rather than the later one. That way you'll be done with the dinner show around 9:00 ish and can maybe turn in a little early. That way your sure you and your guests will be rested and ready to go full steam ahead! As for me I'm always cooked the first day we get to WDW!

 

[fizzle75]

After a long day of traveling and getting aquainted with your resort, I think I might suggest the earlier reservation rather than the later one. That way you'll be done with the dinner show around 9:00 ish and can maybe turn in a little early. That way your sure you and your guests will be rested and ready to go full steam ahead! As for me I'm always cooked the first day we get to WDW!

That sounds like a good idea, I think we'll definitely shoot for the earlier show. How was the food at Hoop Dee Doo? Isn't it homestyle southern fare like fried chicken, biscuits and such?

 

[Kelsybelle]

The food is good and is just what you mentioned. The best is dessert, strawberry shortcake!

 

[dvitali]

I notice one problem: Please exchange thursday and Friday I believe MVMCP is Dec 4 not 5, Also Taping for the Christmas broadcast might be happening on Dec 5 also. If it like last year the show in the front of the castle will be on Friday and The Parade down main street will be saturday. I have MVMCP Ticket for Dec 2 and 4.
At Epcot take your guest to the Candellight Procession at the American Theather at 5, 6:45 or 8:15 pm. before Illumination (should not be miss).

 

[fizzle75]

I notice one problem: Please exchange thursday and Friday I believe MVMCP is Dec 4 not 5, Also Taping for the Christmas broadcast might be happening on Dec 5 also. If it like last year the show in the front of the castle will be on Friday and The Parade down main street will be saturday. I have MVMCP Ticket for Dec 2 and 4.
At Epcot take your guest to the Candellight Procession at the American Theather at 5, 6:45 or 8:15 pm. before Illumination (should not be miss).

We called last night to check on the available dates for MVMCP and the CM told us that tickets are available for December 5th.

We plan on calling tomorrow night to order our MVMCP tickets and book our ADRs, I'll let you know what I find out.

Although we plan on watching Illuminations earlier in the week we still definitely plan on catching one of the earlier showings of The Candlelight Processional so we can try to catch Illuminations again on our last night.

We usually don't book our Candlelight Processional Dinner until we've seen the list of narrators but we're throwing caution to the wind this time and booking without knowing the narrator for the night we book.

*crosses fingers and hopes for Steven Curtis Chapman or Kirk Cameron*


Thanks for the tips!:wave:

 

[JerseySkiddie]

i really liked biergarten last year for the cp dinner package because the band sang some christmas songs and the decorations were really nice. if i recall they gave a little spiel about how the christmas tree came from germany and had a little girl light the tree which was really adorable. we also wound up hanging out with the family we sat with and waiting in the cp line with them. maybe its just my german background but the germany pavilion is my favorite at christmas time.

have an awesome trip!

 

[fizzle75]

i really liked biergarten last year for the cp dinner package because the band sang some christmas songs and the decorations were really nice. if i recall they gave a little spiel about how the christmas tree came from germany and had a little girl light the tree which was really adorable. we also wound up hanging out with the family we sat with and waiting in the cp line with them. maybe its just my german background but the germany pavilion is my favorite at christmas time.

have an awesome trip!

We love Biergarten too! I was hoping that Biergarten did a little something extra for the holidays, thanks for sharing that info.

Now I'm torn...on one hand I like the food at Le Chefs de France better than Biergarten but I like the atmosphere at Biergarten better.:shrug:

Being the sentimental Christmas nut that I am I'll probably end up going with Biergarten now that I know that they add those holiday elements that you spoke of.

Thanks again for the tip.

 

[emmersandjack]

Hi Matt!

Quick scan of your itinerary and I especially like the Whispering Canyon Cafe idea. WL is soooo beautiful at Christmas.

I will come back and reread everything....but right now the Pen's just tied up the Wings and the Cup Finals are going into overtime. I'm a little peeved...so I will return when I can be more focused!

 

[Goofy's Girl]

Hi Fizzle,
I will be at AK on Dec. 4th also. Maybe we'll run into each other.
I'm the one who p.m. you and told you that my in laws live in Murphy, N.C.

 

[mrerk]

Thanks for the advice, I was wondering which would be better. We spent a few hours wandering around Fort Wilderness during our last trip this past April but I still don't have a good grasp of it's layout. We just checked and the last showing of Hoop Dee Doo is at 9:30 which is much later than I thought it was. Do you think we should shoot for the 7:15 show instead?

Definately take the ferry from the MK. The boat dock is at the North end of the resort, maybe a few minutes walk from Pioneer Hall and Hoop De Doo.

I've stayed there twice and still haven't figured out the busses. But I think they come in from the south and must travel all the way from S to N before coming up to PH.

 

[yankspy]

We will be returning to The World this November/December and I thought I would run our tentative itinerary by you fine folks so you can give us some advice. We will be taking my wife's cousin and her husband with us. Her cousin has never been to WDW and is very excited, her husband on the other hand has been before and didn't like it.

Christmastime is our absolute favorite time to be at WDW and we think this will be the perfect time to introduce her cousin to WDW and hopefully win her husband back from the dark side.

We are super frustrated, along with many others, that the hours still aren't posted for November or December. We're pretty when it comes to planning so not having the hours is freaking us out. Sunday was our 180 day mark so we figured we should go ahead and book our ADRs and start working on a tentative schedule. We will be staying at SSR again, it was definitely not our first choice but the two resorts we wanted most(WL & BW)were booked solid. SSR is a beautiful resort though and I'll just be tickled to be back at our home away from home.

SO...here's what we've worked out so far, please let me know what you think and if you think we should make any changes.

Friday, November 28th-We will be flying down and we should arrive at Orlando International around 3:00pm and hopefully be at SSR by 4:30pm or so. We have never done Hoop Dee Do but have always wanted to so the plan is to get settled into our room, give our guests a quick tour of the resort and then head over to MK, then hop either a bus or ferry over to Fort Wilderness so we can catch the last showing of Hoop Dee Doo. I know it can take some time getting to Pioneer Hall, are we allowing enough time?

Saturday, November 29th-Introduce our guests to the joys of the Magic Kingdom. We will be eating breakfast at Whispering Canyon(one of our favorites), knowing their personalities I think they'll love it. Does anybody know if Hickory still works there? She is hands down the best server there and we usually request her as our server but we haven't done WC in several trips so I don't know if she still works there.

We plan on wandering around WL for a little while taking in the gorgeous sights and sounds. Man, I love WL at Christmastime, I really wish you could have stayed there again this time. We will be eating dinner at Ohana.

Sunday, November 30th-Breakfast at the resort and then head over to Disney's Hollywood Studios. We will be doing the Fantasmic Dinner Package at Hollywood Brown Derby. I'm super excited about Toy Story Mania and I can't wait to ride it and catch Block Party Bash.

A quick question...Will they still be running the Hollywood Hollyday Parade this year and if so will be Block Party Bash be running on the same days?

Monday, December 1st- Head over to Epcot for breakfast at Sunshine Seasons. Focus mainly on Future World and make sure to catch the Lights of Winter and the tree lighting ceremony before we leave. I loooove Epcot during the holidays! We will be having dinner at Rose & Crown for the first time. We've always wanted to eat there but it has just never worked out in the past. We really want to get a table in the outdoor seating area so we will have a great view of Illuminations.

Another quick question...or two...Is the outdoor dining area at Rose & Crown really a great place to view Illuminations? I really want our guests' first time seeing Illuminations to be awesome so are we better off staying at Rose & Crown or should we try to find a better viewing location somewhere else around World Showcase Lagoon?

Tuesday, December 2nd-Breakfast at the resort and then book over to Animal Kingdom. We will spend all day at AK and then head over to AKL for dinner at Boma(we can't visit WDW without eating at Boma). We really want them to see the animals and the gorgeous design at AKL, it's especially awesome during the holidays.

Does anybody know why they stopped doing the edible Christmas village at Boma and if there are any plans to bring it back?

Wednesday, December 3rd-Day 2 at DHS. We plan on focusing on shows this day and we really want to catch the Harlem Gospel Choir this year since we missed them last year...assuming they're back again this year. We plan on ending the evening by spending some time taking in the Osborne Lights. I could spend hours just wandering around the streets of america taking in the amazing lights and listening to the brilliantly chosen seasonal tunes, and when the snow starts to fall...

Thursday, December 4th-Day 2 at AK. I definitely want to spend some time in Camp Minnie Mickey looking at the character themed christmas trees, listening to the carolers and hopefully getting some great character photos. We will probably leave after Mickey's Jingle Jungle Parade, we were in the lead car with Rafiki last year...maybe we'll get lucky again this year.
After the parade we will head over to the Grand Floridian to show our guests around the place, take in the gorgeous decorations and of course check out the Gingerbread house. After that we will high tail it over to WL for dinner at Artist Point.

Friday, December 5th-Day 2 at MK. We will be doing Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party this night, I can't wait!:sohappy: There's no place I'd rather be during the holidays than Main St. USA during MVMCP...except maybe World Showcase. Ok, never mind, it's a tie.

Saturday, December 6th- I'm assuming the Christmas Parade taping will be on this day so we plan on staying far away from MK. We plan on spending the entire day in World Showcase. I absolutely love World Showcase during the holidays, the street performers and storytellers are amazing. We will be doing the Candlelight Processional Dinner Package at either Biergarten or Le Chefs de France, we can't decide which, we love them both. Any thoughts?

Sunday, December 7th-Head back to the beautiful mountains of Western North Carolina...and immediately start wishing we were still at WDW.

We really want our guests to see Downtown Disney but we can't figure out when would be the best time to do it, any ideas?


So...that's our tentative itinerary folks, whaddaya think? We will be booking our ADRs tomorrow night, I'll post any changes we make. Any input would be greatly appreciated. I know my wife and I will have a great time but I really want her cousin and her husband to have a great time as well so I'm very open to suggestions. I would also love to know who will be there the same time we are, I would love to meet up and say hi.

Let me know what you think!:wave:

-Matt

Perhaps you can do DTD after Artist's point. You can take the bus from there and perhaps walk back to Saratoga afterwards. BTW, I was also stuck with Saratoga on my last trip and I was pleasantly surprised.

 

[CAPTAIN HOOK]

We really want our guests to see Downtown Disney but we can't figure out when would be the best time to do it, any ideas?

You have two visits to DHS - the secomd visit appears to be just for The Osborne Lights. Why not incorporate the Lights in your first visit and hit DTD during the evening of your second DHS visit

 

[fizzle75]

Hi Matt!

Quick scan of your itinerary and I especially like the Whispering Canyon Cafe idea. WL is soooo beautiful at Christmas.

I will come back and reread everything....but right now the Pen's just tied up the Wings and the Cup Finals are going into overtime. I'm a little peeved...so I will return when I can be more focused!

Hiya Kiera, Glad to see you back on the boards!:wave: Yeah, we loooove WL during the holidays. We tried hard to book our stay there but it just didn't work out, hopefully we'll be able to book it next year. Even when we don't stay there we HAVE to swing by for a visit, you can't do WDW during the holidays and NOT visit WL!

Hi Fizzle,
I will be at AK on Dec. 4th also. Maybe we'll run into each other.
I'm the one who p.m. you and told you that my in laws live in Murphy, N.C.

That would be awesome! Let's try to make it happen, maybe we can get a pic in front of the Tree Of LIfe.

Definately take the ferry from the MK. The boat dock is at the North end of the resort, maybe a few minutes walk from Pioneer Hall and Hoop De Doo.

I've stayed there twice and still haven't figured out the busses. But I think they come in from the south and must travel all the way from S to N before coming up to PH.

We spent a few hours wandering around Fort Wilderness back in April and we loved the place. Being from the mountains of NC,it felt very "homey" to me. We were very confused by the bus system and had a hard time getting from one of the gift shops back to Pioneer Hall. I know the bus routes are based on the color of the buses but I'm still a little confused about it. We have taken the ferry from WL to MK on several different occasions. I love ferry rides at WDW and the ferry from WL to MK has to be my favorite.

Perhaps you can do DTD after Artist's point. You can take the bus from there and perhaps walk back to Saratoga afterwards. BTW, I was also stuck with Saratoga on my last trip and I was pleasantly surprised.

We first visited SSR in April of 2007 and I wasn't looking forward to it at all but was very pleasantly surprised. It's a beautiful resort with great rooms but it just lacks the Disney "magic" that the other resorts have.

Does anyone know if SSR does much decorating for the holidays?

You have two visits to DHS - the secomd visit appears to be just for The Osborne Lights. Why not incorporate the Lights in your first visit and hit DTD during the evening of your second DHS visit

We really don't like to go to DTD at night, we find it much more charming during the day(has anyone actually ever used the word charming to describe DTD?). We are hoping to spend a few hours there early one morning before we hit the parks.

We are doing Fantasmic on our first DHS night so we won't be able to devote the amount of time we would like to at the Osborne Lights, so we plan on seeing them on the second night as well as the Harlem Gospel Choir.

Will the choir be back again this year?

 

[fizzle75]

Yippeee,the hours for November and December are finally posted!!!:sohappy: Now that we actually have the hours we'll probably be tweaking our itenerary a little bit, I'll let you know if we make any changes.

Thanks again for all of the great advice so far.

 

[mitchk]

Hey man, how have you been? It's cool your going when all the Christmas stuff is going to be up. It's a shame were not going at the same time again. Have a great trip my man, I'll hit you up on myspace soon. BTW, I finally told Holly about the trip I planned in September, and to my surprise, she's just as excited about it as I am. Take care bro. :wave:

 

[fizzle75]

Hey man, how have you been? It's cool your going when all the Christmas stuff is going to be up. It's a shame were not going at the same time again. Have a great trip my man, I'll hit you up on myspace soon. BTW, I finally told Holly about the trip I planned in September, and to my surprise, she's just as excited about it as I am. Take care bro. :wave:

Awesome, I'm glad you're getting to go again this year! I hate that we didn't get to spend more time together in April, hopefully things will work out so we can meet up again and maybe grab some dinner. I don't think I told you but when we saw you and Holly in line at Test Track we were frantically trying to catch up with you so we could try to get in the same car for a Photopass pic, but the line was moving pretty fast that day and we totally lost track of you.:lol:

We love WDW during the holidays, it's the absolute best time to go, especially if you're a Christmas nut like me. Hopefully you'll get to go during the holidays sometime, I know you'll love it.

 

[mro415]

the intinerary looks great. I hope you have a great time.

I just would be careful with the fantasmic dinner package at the brown derby. I went and had horrible service, the food was just okay, and it rained and fantasmic didnt show so they told us too bad, and did not give us a voucher for the next night.

I am going for christmas the first time this year, really excited!!!! hope you have a great time!