Trip Report Last Trip To Endor - Our Merry New Year December Trip

We just returned from our trip to Walt Disney World that took place December 3 through December 9, 2016. Transportation from the airport to the resort was quick even with an afternoon flight time. There was no one in our line to get picked up. I can't say the same for some of the other resorts. It looked like people were going to have to wait a little while.
We decided to try a different resort this trip and not stay at the Animal Kingdom Lodge. We wanted to try a monorail resort this trip and booked a room at the Polynesian Villas. We were assigned the Pago Pago building / Third floor. The room was very large with two bathrooms. The grounds were beautifully done and had it's Christmas décor out. It was a short four or five minute walk to the main building that had several different offerings for food. We eat at Captain Cook's several times and the food was good.
The Pago Pago building was nice because we could walk to the TTC in less than four minutes to catch a quick ride to the Magic Kingdom or a less than ten minute ride to EPCOT.
I guess Saturday night is the party night at the Polynesian. It was packed with people everywhere having a good time. It did calm down the rest of the week. We walked over to the Grand Floridian to check out the resort and it was impressive with all of the Christmas décor.
We walked back over to the poly to get some snacks and watch the fireworks. We really enjoyed watching from the beach even more than at the parks. We hate dealing with everyone trying to get out of the parks at the same time. We turned in after that to get ready for day one at the parks - Magic Kingdom / EPCOT day.

 

[HauntedMansionFLA]

Park day number one - Magic kingdom rope drop (Sunday)

We took the monorail to the Magic Kingdom with no problems. We got to the front of the line and waited for the count down. I had never done a rope drop and it was fun. We were able to do a lot the first hour before the crowds started to show up. I'll get back to the crowds later.
List of rides the first hour:
Big Thunder Mountain ( which looked great)
Splash Mountain (The best I've seen it - in great shape)
Jingle Cruise
Pirates
Haunted Mansion (my favorite because I love Halloween)
It's a small world

I believe they let us in a couple of minutes early but I wasn't complaining. I'm a believer of the rope drop now.

From there we kept making our way around the park.
Next attractions were - Tales with Belle, Little Mermaid, Space Mountain (Fast pass), Haunted mansion (Fast Pass)
Lunch time at Cosmic Rays. I had a Grilled Chicken salad which was very good.
After lunch we had a Fast Pass for Big Thunder Mountain, we had reached the magical point of adding extra Fast Passes. We added Winnie the Pooh. By that time the crowds were insane. Lots of families everywhere. We decided to get ready for the 3:00 parade since there wouldn't be a night time parade. After the parade and the crowds getting worse, we decided to go back to the Poly for a short rest.

 

[HauntedMansionFLA]

 

[HauntedMansionFLA]

 

[A W Reezy]

We did rope drop at MK for the first time this year as well. It was quite an experience! Sounds like you got quite a bit in, in that first hour. Nice!

 

[HauntedMansionFLA]

We did rope drop at MK for the first time this year as well. It was quite an experience! Sounds like you got quite a bit in, in that first hour. Nice!

Yes, you think it's going to be crazy but it was organized well and people started to spread out to the different areas of the park. I just couldn't believe what we got in the first hour but I did a lot of homework and picked out the order that I thought would work best.

 

[A W Reezy]

Absolutely. Everyone (including myself), went towards Mine Train. Which I pretty much expected. Next time I'll use your philosophy and hit the left side of the park up first!

 

[HauntedMansionFLA]

Absolutely. Everyone (including myself), went towards Mine Train. Which I pretty much expected. Next time I'll use your philosophy and hit the left side of the park up first!

We did that on Wednesday and were 3rd and 4th in line.

 

[HauntedMansionFLA]

Absolutely. Everyone (including myself), went towards Mine Train. Which I pretty much expected. Next time I'll use your philosophy and hit the left side of the park up first!

Make sure you get a FastPass for the Mine train. We like the ride at night time better.

 

[HauntedMansionFLA]

Continue Day 1 at the parks - EPCOT in the evening.

We took the monorail over to EPCOT early evening. The Poly is such a good location to get to the parks. It would take us 15 minutes from walking out of our room to walking into the park. I was surprised that most attraction were little to no wait. The only two rides with a healthy wait times were Frozen and Soarin'. I was able to secure a FastPass earlier for Soarin' at 9:00. So, we were pleased with the idea that we were getting to ride it on day one. A lot of EPCOT seems like it's a bit outdated. It has so much potential which is sad. I forgot how big the park is until we spent time there. The one ride that seemed to be updated and was better than the last time was Nemo. We rode it three times during our trip. We hit our FastPass right at 9:00 for Soarin' and rode it again before the park closed. We jumped on the monorail back to The Poly to watch Wishes from the beach again. We accomplished a lot in our first day at the parks.