Trip Report One lump or two? A last minute Holiday trip.

Hello All - I haven’t attempted a trip report since probably February of 2022. Before that it was probably a 2016 trip.

But I have a last minute trip coming up and I’ve been practicing my trip reporting skills on holiday get away to NYC this weekend - so going to attempt to document our Disney trip between Christmas and New Year’s. (Yes, that right. We are crazy enough to attempt it). We have been before, so we know what to expect and have mentally readied ourselves for the crowds.

The attendees:
From my immediate family, it will just be my daughter and myself. Photo from a past trip:

I have loved this bow headband since it first hit the shelves many years ago. But it’s the bane of my family’s existence and they wish I would get rid of it. I now only wear it to MK. But….Hard to miss me/ easy to find me in MK!

My sister in law and my nieces will join us as well, but I’ll probably keep them out of the photos.

This trip came about last week. After Christmas, We are headed down to visit my father in law in Florida near-ish Orlando. My husband and son decided to add on a day to go fishing with my brother in law. So my sister in law and I decided to head to the parks!

We are staying offsite - Doubletree Disney Springs area. Never stayed here before and it’s been years since we stayed offsite - so we will see how this goes!

There was some miscommunication with the number of park days - my sister in law purchased one day tickets, while I purchased two day tickets. . So that’s the trip title. ML (my daughter) and I may make it into the parks two days or it might be just the one day. We have reservations for Epcot the first day and MK the second. We shall see how many times we make it through the turnstiles!

 

[Bullseye1967]

That makes sense! I have the oldest phone in the family - I need that extra battery pack so I guess it’s extra security screening for me forever!

If you take it out of your bag and hold it in front of you, when you walk through screening, you won't get pulled to the side.

 

[erstwo]

I went back and checked - the photo of the entrance to Guardians is time stamped 4:17. This photo I took when we exited is time stamped 6:12.
So roughly 2 hours later, we emerged to a beautiful twilight.
For those interested- we got ‘One Way or Another‘ on our virtual queue trip across the galaxy.
This despite me trying to manifest ‘Everybody Wants to Rule the World’

Really loving these light bars too. I’m not sure if I took any good photos but when spaceship earth was lit up in peppermint colors; these light bars matched it in red and white stripes. It was (dare I say it?) magical.

We were starving. My daughter loves a snack so we stopped at the first holiday festival booth we found.

And ordered the whole menu.

No picture of the cookie - but it was all delicious!

Onward to World Showcase!

To the left to the left….

Half eaten mojito pork and (what I think was). apple margarita. Pork was good. Margarita was just okay. Really only ‘good’ if you had the whipped cream with each sip. Which can be hard to accomplish.

We headed inside Mexico to witness the madness. And it was actual madness. Whew. I was glad this wasn’t a trip where we were taking someone for the first time and trying to accomplish it all.

Next up - more booths, annother round of Guardians and Luminous!

 

[Zipadeelady]

I went back and checked - the photo of the entrance to Guardians is time stamped 4:17. This photo I took when we exited is time stamped 6:12.
So roughly 2 hours later, we emerged to a beautiful twilight.
For those interested- we got ‘One Way or Another‘ on our virtual queue trip across the galaxy.
This despite me trying to manifest ‘Everybody Wants to Rule the World’
View attachment 761000
Really loving these light bars too. I’m not sure if I took any good photos but when spaceship earth was lit up in peppermint colors; these light bars matched it in red and white stripes. It was (dare I say it?) magical.

We were starving. My daughter loves a snack so we stopped at the first holiday festival booth we found.
View attachment 761003
And ordered the whole menu. View attachment 761005
View attachment 761002View attachment 761001
No picture of the cookie - but it was all delicious!

Onward to World Showcase!
View attachment 761004
To the left to the left….
View attachment 761003
View attachment 761006
Half eaten mojito pork and (what I think was). apple margarita. Pork was good. Margarita was just okay. Really only ‘good’ if you had the whipped cream with each sip. Which can be hard to accomplish.

We headed inside Mexico to witness the madness. And it was actual madness. Whew. I was glad this wasn’t a trip where we were taking someone for the first time and trying to accomplish it all.
View attachment 761008
Next up - more booths, annother round of Guardians and Luminous!

One Way or Another isn't bad. I mean it's not I Ran but much better than Everybody Wants to Rule the World. Are you in a conspiracy since @Darstarr is no longer here?

 

[erstwo]

One Way or Another isn't bad. I mean it's not I Ran but much better than Everybody Wants to Rule the World. Are you in a conspiracy since @Darstarr is no longer here?

No conspiracy! It’s just my favorite. I feel like whatever song you have the first time you ride - becomes synonymous with the ride in your mind.
And circling the planets while ‘Everybody Wants to Rule the world’ played was ultra cool!

 

[erstwo]

Day 3 - 12/28 continued

We kept moving around the World Showcase. One thing my daughter and I noticed - it was SUPER dark. Like, so dark I almost couldn’t see my feet or the sidewalk in front of me. Has it always been this dark along the World Showcase path(s)?

We stumbled along dodging crowds / abrupt stoppers and strollers - and enjoying a few sights. We stopped to see the church in Norway.

Than another snack:

Delicious and probably my favorite of everything we tried.
My daughter also had the Boba (no picture) and liked it.
We went to the Germany booth and had the cheese bread bowl and Glühwein. No photos there either because that cheese gets ALL OVER everything. But it was very tasty!

We retraced our steps back to Guardians - glad to be inside and out of the cold - our ILL wait time was only about 30 minutes entry to exit. Entered at 7:21. Exited at 7:55.
Our song was ‘September’. We loved that we were able to ride twice. (Confidential to everyone but the Disney number crunchers -Totally worth the $34 to us!)

I had one request - so we headed left this time - walking around an endless set of construction walls. (How are there still so many walls when so much has opened??)
And ended up here:

I very much wanted to see the holiday overlay! It did not disappoint.
Photos of things you have seen before:

We considered Soarin but we still had a few food booths we wanted to visit.

When we exited back into the cold - I could see we had time for one more thing before a final bite to eat and Luminous.
Sure enough we soon found ourselves at Journey through Water. Something I didn’t think we’d have time for this trip.

 

[erstwo]

When I tell you we power walked through Moana - I mean we practically ran. so all of my photos are super blurry.
Fireworks weren’t until 9:30 - which gave us the time we needed for a short visit. But there was so much to see!

As far as impressions go - my daughter really wanted to stay and go back through and enjoy it. She engaged me in a debate about fireworks vs waterworks. But ultimately decided that the cold temps meant it would be better to return to Moana on another trip.
Everyone in there seemed to be having a blast though. Big kids, little kids, teens, whole families working together to ‘make a wave’ etc. We are Excited to explore in more detail in the future!

We left Journey through Water and at the Port of Entry we took a right this time. We walked past Canada.
Spent some time in England:

And then I believe we ended up in Japan because I definitely had this noodle bowl.

It was just ‘okay’ as far as noodle bowls go.

My daughter wanted three items from Italy, so I headed there while she saved our fireworks spot.

When I arrived in Italy - the booth was closed! At 9:10?
No idea what happened there. Maybe they sold out? Their menu did look very tasty.

I did get to see the very end of the Candlelight Processional in my way to Italy and back though!

Back in Japan (after waiting for the Processional choir to cross from the pavilion to backstage) we took our spot to watch Luminous.

I’m sure it’s not breaking news that Japan isn’t the very best viewing spot for Luminous but I thought I’d mention it for anyone reading who might be researching for a future trip. It wasn’t bad, it just wasn’t great. However- for our purposes- it suited just fine. We weren’t in a massive crowd, had almost nothing blocking our view and could wait until the last minute to grab our spot.

I really liked Luminous. I think It’s hard for those of us with so many memories tied to Illuminations: RoE to ‘love’ a new show.
But I can honestly say I really liked it.

The first song (an original??) was very well done - I teared up a little. I was sniffling again during the mash up with ‘Remember Me’ It was the last song they kept it in the ‘like’ category for me. It almost brought it home, but not quite.

After the fireworks, we retraced our steps back to our car and headed to our hotel.

We saw these ACME cones along the way, and it cracked me up. Almost like what used to be Reedy Creek has employed Bugs bunny or Wylie Coyote??

 

[erstwo]

As previously mentioned, we stayed at the Doubletree Disney Springs. This was my in -laws choice. It has just undergone an extensive renovation and that appealed to them.
We arrived very late to our room, so I’m going to use website photos here, but I can tell you this accurately represented what the room we checked into looked like.
Worth nothing that our room was ready at 4pm (right on the dot of check in time) even though we were arriving late after being at the parks.
It has strong Contemporary vibes outside and in:

This is my photo of the elevator hallway on the 4th floor.

It was very clean.

We loved this little console table with a mirror above right outside the bathroom for doing make up and hair.

We might have been the first people to stay in our room since the renovation- as our neatly folded towels were brand new - as in still had the inspection sticker on them. Which also meant they had never been washed. . But it was late and we were tired so we persevered knowing we could get (actually) clean towels in the morning.

My husband is the king of getting the best view, which - at this hotel- involved a view towards Disney Springs as opposed to the highway.

We didn’t have time for many amenities but they had great coffee free for guests in the mornings, a nice little store, and - by the view from our room - there seemed to be tennis courts as well?

There was also this awesome option for tipping which I have never seen before.

Loved this even though I had cash. It’s rarer that people carry cash these days!

Up next - 12/29 at MK!

 

[Zipadeelady]

No conspiracy! It’s just my favorite. I feel like whatever song you have the first time you ride - becomes synonymous with the ride in your mind.
And circling the planets while ‘Everybody Wants to Rule the world’ played was ultra cool!

Me too. I tease but I Ran was the first song I had when I road Guardians and now none of the others seem to compare.

 

[MinnieM123]

As previously mentioned, we stayed at the Doubletree Disney Springs. This was my in -laws choice. It has just undergone an extensive renovation and that appealed to them.
We arrived very late to our room, so I’m going to use website photos here, but I can tell you this accurately represented what the room we checked into looked like.

Wow -- what a spacious suite! That must have been a nice surprise for all. The renovations look great!

 

[rshell68]

I’m not sure what it is I put in my backpack that causes this, but I always get the extra security screening. I guess I’m just special??

I was going to tease it was your oversized Minnie ears until you said you forgot them

 

[cgersic]

You girls got a lot done in one afternoon/evening! I can't believe the queue for LWTL was that empty - my sister and I went there a few weeks ago and I purposely waited until dark to show her, and when we walked in the building the entire queue was jam packed and spilling out towards the restaurant. So thank you for those photos!

 

[k8einwdw]

I think It’s hard for those of us with so many memories tied to Illuminations: RoE to ‘love’ a new show.

Agreed, nothing has compared to IllumiNations thus far!

 

[Disstevefan1]

Day 1 (?) As mentioned previously, the point of our trip to Florida was to see family. So although we landed in Orlando -it wasn’t our final destination on our first night. Or even our second night. I’ll call 12/26 Day 1 but we won’t arrive at WDW until 12/28.

Our flight in was delayed by 2 hours. Not unexpected the day after Christmas. And we were notified of the delay about 8 hours before our flight - which was nice. I had extra time to wrap up things at home before we left for the airport. Flight was smooth and uneventful - soon we were walking on familiar carpet
View attachment 760877
How long do we think this carpet will last? I feel like it’s been around since at least 2009??
We rode the fonorail over to the main terminal.
We arrived around 11 pm so the airport was mostly empty.
View attachment 760878
View attachment 760879

Picked up our rental car (Budget Fastbreak for those who might want to know - no problems), stuck our SunPass on the windshield and headed even further south.

But first, a stop requested by my son:
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The Wawa! Oh to be young and able to eat 5 meals a day!

We LOVE WaWa!! My problem is I can’t leave there without spending $50 on junk I didn’t even know I wanted

 

[erstwo]

Me too. I tease but I Ran was the first song I had when I road Guardians and now none of the others seem to compare.

I’m sure it would never happen - even on the slowest day of the year - but the dream would be for Guardians to have a regular queue and be able to ride it over And over to see which one we like best!

Wow -- what a spacious suite! That must have been a nice surprise for all. The renovations look great!

They really did a good job!

I was going to tease it was your oversized Minnie ears until you said you forgot them

I know!

You girls got a lot done in one afternoon/evening! I can't believe the queue for LWTL was that empty - my sister and I went there a few weeks ago and I purposely waited until dark to show her, and when we walked in the building the entire queue was jam packed and spilling out towards the restaurant. So thank you for those photos!

We did - we were very happy with our evening. So crazy how the wait times vary each day. I’m not sure if it rained in Orlando or not that morning but it was very rainy in the part of Florida we started the day in - we thought maybe the parks were less crowded due to rain and cold?

Agreed, nothing has compared to IllumiNations thus far!

We LOVE WaWa!! My problem is I can’t leave there without spending $50 on junk I didn’t even know I wanted

Us too! And so many good snacks. We always over buy.

 

[erstwo]

Day 4 - 12/29

On the way back to the hotel the night before we’d had the ‘what time should we get there’ discussion with my sister in law and nieces. One niece lobbied hard for a later arrival time. The Park opened at 8:00, but she wanted to leave the hotel around 9:00.

My daughter wanted to get there early then come back for a nap in the middle of the day and then go back and enjoy the later evening hours.

Ultimately, we just decided that we should get when we wanted and communicate when we were leaving with each other in the morning.

We were pretty tired so we set our alarms for 6:50. Sure enough, my daughter had the fast fingers again and secured our Tron boarding group.

I went ahead and purchased Genie plus for all 5 of us. But when I went to make our first lightning line, I was having all kinds of problems with the app. I sent a message to the helpdesk, but they didn’t reply for almost an hour. By the time I got the reply the issue was resolved.

We got up and got ready. We navigated over to MK and soon enough we joined the crowds waiting to get in the parking. This was at 9:32

Believe it or not, this took less than 10 minutes.
Then it was on to the ferry, where we hid behind the smokestack because we were freezing. It was a brisk 40 something degrees that morning.

We made it through the gates by 10:30.

We stopped in the bakery for ‘breakfast’ for my daughter. I forget how pretty it is in there now.

And speaking of pretty - this never gets old.

First ride of the day?

Teacups!
Then it was time for some ‘real’ food

I had the Greek salad and my daughter had the chicken tenders. No photo of the chicken tenders.

 

[erstwo]

Day 4 continues…

We had the loveliest view at lunch

And Sonny Eclipse was up and running and serenading us as we ate!

Worth mentioning that although the parks were crowded - we were allowed in before our order was ready and allowed to get a table before we had our food. I know others have had issues with these things recently so thought i’d bring it up.

While we were eating my sister-in-law and my nieces were arriving. They had Ubered from our hotel to the Contemporary and were walking toward MK.

They joined us at Cosmic Rays and we came up with a plan. My nieces really wanted to get in line for Tron. We were 10 boarding groups away from our slot and my nieces, who have ridden before - said there is a long ‘pre-line’ before you can tap in. My sister-in-law was sitting this one out as her knee was hurting.
So we left her in a comfortable spot and headed that way.

The nieces were right about the long line to tap in, unfortunately the line wasn’t quite long enough. We were boarding group 68 and only group 62 had been called by the time we got to the front.
So, back down the ramp we went.

We saw some friends:

And decided on Astro orbiter while we waited. The wait time was posted at 40 minutes but we were off the ride in 30.
My sister in law (not the one in the parks with me!) lent me her little round collapsing stool thing for the day. It was so great! We all took turns using it.

ETA: this is a Snapchat photo taken by my child. I feel like- even though I don’t have a Snapchat account- I must star in 25% of the photos on there based on how many times a day my kids ‘include’ me in one. At least I’m not driving, showing my triple chin or chewing my food in this one! IYKYK right??
On the ride:

Had a snack and loved these bottles!

Then it was time for Tron!

 

[MinnieM123]

And Sonny Eclipse was up and running and serenading us as we ate!

Despite the fact that Cosmic Ray's menu isn't at the top of the park's QS locations, I enjoy that place! Always got a chuckle out of Sonny Eclipse, serenading the patrons!

 

[erstwo]

I don't have any photos from Tron. I should actually have a LOT of photos from waiting in line for Tron. I'll explain.

Day 4 continues.......

We made our way back up to Tron. Made it through the long-ish 'pre line' and tapped in. Right about then, my sister-in-law decided her knee was hurting so badly, she needed to go back to the hotel. No problem, but my sister-in-law had our jackets and it was really cold outside.

I backtracked out of the line and explained the situation to the CM at the front. He kindly gave me a ILL so that I could get back in line and meet the girls in the locker room! I was so thrilled. He didn't have to do that but it was really appreciated. I went back down the ramp, met my sister-in-law, got the jackets and headed through the ILL line and pretty much straight into the locker room!
Which is where I should have taken the photos, but I didn't want it to look like I was taking photos of other people....

Anyway - I still had to wait about 15 minutes for the girls to make their way through the virtual queue. Once we met up and got our things stowed in our locker it was pretty fast moving! I LOVED the ride - but it wasn't as good as say - Guardians. So glad that MK has an additional roller coaster though!

And speaking of roller coasters - Space Mountain was next for us. We tapped into LL and headed straight up the ramp.

To my surprise, we got to see the holiday overlay! I must admit I like the swirling stars and complete darkness a lot more, but at least I got a chance to experience the holiday version of the ride as well.

Even though we hadn't gotten up super early, we were all dragging. My daughter was ready to eat again. We headed to Pinocchio Village Haus. I got the buffalo chicken flatbread and the other 3 all got chicken tenders (not pictured) Delicous as always!

Our next LL was for Pirates so we headed that way.

After Pirates, we decided to head back to the hotel to warm up and hopefully let the crowds die down a little.

Main Street was madness.

Ferrying again.

Always a lovely view. And the sun felt so good since we were so very cold!

This might be a silly one - but I love knowing what shoes people wear in the parks besides tennis/ gym shoes. I wore my Rothy's for the first time and they were great. I have Amazon dupes of these too and I bet they would have had the same result as they are identical.

 

[erstwo]

Day 4 continues...
Back at the hotel, we had a nice rest, changed into warmer clothes and then headed back to MK. This time, only one of my nieces decided to return with us. We Ubered from our hotel to the Contemporary and then walked to the MK.

After tapping in and walking through the tunnel, we emerged to some beautiful sights.

It's easy to forget how stunning the front of the park is at night during the holidays.
These photos don't even do it 10% of justice of course, but it was so striking - it makes me want to leave in the middle of the day and come back every trip just so I can get this magic feeling again.

Our first stop was first aid - 10 out of 10 as always. My daughter had an old cut on her heel and her band aid wasn't going to make it through the rest of the night. The nurses had her signed in and fixed up in two seconds. They said it had been QUITE a day in First Aid and we overheard them discussing the fastest route out of the park when their shift ended. LOL

We arrived back in the park around 7:30, and still managed to snag - what I thought was - a pretty good viewing spot for the fireworks.

I caught this photo of a dad holding up his daughter to view the fireworks. These are the best Disney moments to me.

I really liked Minnie's fireworks.
Next up was...... more food! (Maybe I should have named this TR 'the tour of all the MK QS places?")
And we were in the mood for Pecos Bill.
ETA - also by this photo - I see we stopped by and got a Dole Whip on our way to Pecos Bill.

:Toss, Toss: (IYKYK )
I got the chicken rice bowl. My daughter got the fajita platter and my niece got kids mac and cheese. No food pictures this time. We were hungry and the lighting was bad.

After dinner (second dinner?) we headed to the wildest ride in the wilderness. We got there just before our LL time, so we waited for about 25 minutes in the standby line and then went right back on in the LL.
For standby, we chose the left side. For LL, we chose the right. And I'm here to tell you - if you're in a hurry - always go left! Maybe it's just me, but it always seems slower on the right!
But we weren't in a hurry and enjoyed seeing both sides back to back.

After riding BTMRR twice, we were so cold we couldn't feel our hands. So we decided we only wanted one more ride for the night and headed towards Seven Dwarfs.

 

[erstwo]

Day 4 continued-

The wait time for Seven Dwarfs was posted at 65 minutes for standby when we got in line. Ultimately, we waited about 45.
My photo pass photos from the ride never turned up.

Once off the ride, it was roughly 11:00. Even with an hour to go, the girls were content with their day. They requested some shopping on the way out of the park, so we headed towards the Emporium.

Still loving the park at night. There was a stage show going on. I know we all say this - but those performers are world class. It was cold, the crowd was smaller than usual but the performers were giving it their all!

I took a little detour on the way to the Emporium. Yes - I know I said it was freezing cold outside (because it was!) but tradition is tradition.

I stopped at the Ice Cream Parlor and I regret nothing. . Ice cream sundaes just taste better here.

My daughter and my niece finished their purchases and we had one last stop on our way out. Guest services.

I forgot to mention that on one of my trips up and down the ramp to Tron I realized I had lost my prescription sunglasses. I’m pretty sure I left them on the tea cups. I probably should have stopped by there directly but decided to check lost and found instead.

The poor CM at the desk was clearly at the end of a long night. There were two people in front of me - one was a rather nice man who took the QR code card agreeably after the CM did the courtesy check. The other was a very confrontational man who had lost his wallet.
After the CM went in the back and checked for his wallet - and the CM returned to give the standard reply of ‘I’m sorry, but I don’t see anything matching that description in the back. Please use this card and follow the instructions to create a report about your missing item. The man insisted that the CM needed to go back and check again because he had a very unique wallet and it would be easy for the CM to see it. There were a few rounds of this where the CM agreed it would be easy for him to spot IF it were back there however, it was not in the back for him to locate. Finally the man left in a huff.

So I approached the desk and let the CM know I was missing some generic, Costco prescription sunglasses. Looked him dead in the eye and said ‘I’m sure you’ll be able to find them in the 2000 other pairs of sunglasses people lost in the park today’ And then we both just kind of cracked up a little. My daughter told the CM she was sorry he had to deal with the guy before us - and he said no worries - all in a days work. 🩷
Of course, my glasses weren’t back there either. So I’ve filed my report and we shall see!

I had one more task at Guest services - I had purchased Genie + for all 5 of us that morning, but if you’ll remember - my sister-in-law left the park after a couple of hours. I asked about a refund and after a few clicks to confirm that she had not used any LL, I received one! Win!

On our way out:

We walked to the Contemporary and this was our final photo of the night before our Uber picked us up:

And that wraps up our Disney portion! I have a few final thoughts that I’ll share later. Happy weekend everyone!!