Trip Report The trip where we ignored everyones advice and went to Disney for Christmas anyway

I am so glad that I didn’t listen to any of the advice we were given telling us it would be too crowded to have fun at Disney on Christmas, because we had so. much. fun!
Our vacation began last Sunday, the 22nd, when we arrived at the Wilderness Lodge for dinner at Whispering Canyon Café. I chose this place because I wanted to see the lodge during Christmas, and it did not disappoint! The tree was beautiful, Chip and Dale were under it taking photographs, and the whole building smelled like gingerbread thanks to the cabin in the back. We wandered the resort while waiting to be called for dinner, and the only letdown of the night was our stomachs as we realized we do not have the appetite required for this restaurant. We shouldn’t have ordered all we could eat, because it absolutely destroyed us! Still, we really enjoyed the atmosphere and would probably try it again.
We stayed off property for the first night, so we went to bed really early so we could check into Port Orleans French Quarter before starting our day at Animal Kingdom. We checked in early mostly because we needed to pick up our magic bands to get into the park. Wish we had ordered them to our home because that could have earned us an extra hour of sleep, but we learned from our mistake and will definitely do that next time!
We arrived at Animal Kingdom just before park opening, but we decided to go away from the crowd and ride Everest a few times instead of Flight of Passage. Unfortunately, the ride was down, so we rode on Dinosaur instead and got some coffee at Starbucks.
I hadn’t told my husband up to this point, but I finally let him in on the surprise that we would be doing the Wild Africa Trek this morning. He didn’t know what it was, but he could tell it was a big deal, and was really excited to try something new. The Wild Africa Trek was incredible! I loved getting close to the hippos, and the bridges were thrilling, but not scary. I have a slight fear of heights, but I guess I trust Disney because I felt completely comfortable crossing them. Going over the alligators was the most intimidating part. Our two guides were also incredibly funny and sweet, and they made the trek extra special. Our private breakfast over the Savannah was delicious, and I plan to make the juice for breakfast tomorrow morning if I can find the recipe.
If you enjoy Animal Kingdom, I would definitely recommend splurging on this. It was worth every penny!
After the trek, we stopped for snacks. I had the Most Beautiful Cake, and it was wonderful. I’m a huge fan of coconut desserts, so it was right up my alley. My husband got a meaty lunch, some sort of sausage, he seemed to enjoy it too, but I was too focused on my dessert to really ask.
We had fast passes for Everest and Kali River, so we did both of those before we did our second big splurge of the day: Ultimate Night of Thrills. This was basically a tour that gave you fast passes to every ride (except Kali River) and a delicious dinner, dessert, and drinks. We decided to try a tour like this since we expected the crowds to be higher during Christmas. I would have never done something like this otherwise, and honestly, I’m not sure it was entirely worth it. We did get to ride absolutely everything, and the meal for dinner was much larger and better than I expected, but I feel I could have managed what they did in just a little more time without the price tag. I don’t regret doing it though. It was really relaxing to ride every single thing without having to think of how to get there and how to find passes. It was probably the most relaxed I have ever felt on a Disney vacation, but I don’t plan to do it again.
After the tour, we rode Everest a few times again before heading over to Pandora for the fast pass I made for Flight of Passage. We ended our night there then headed to Port Orleans for an early bedtime. Before going to bed, we set our alarm for 4:10 so we could ride Rise of the Resistance the next day… I’ll write all about that tomorrow!

 

[MickeyCB]

Excited to follow along. We have been contemplating a Christmas trip so can't wait to hear about your experiences!

 

[Darstarr]

That sounds like an awesome day!!!
Cant wait to hear about the rest...
I recently did the Trek, as well, and ‘d it!!!

 

[themerebear6453]

Happy New Year everyone!

Looks like lots of fun was had at the parks last night- hopefully I’ll join in on that madness someday.

On to day two!

I woke up at 4 a.m. on Christmas Eve for our day at Hollywood Studios, but I was so nervous about getting a boarding pass that I honestly didn’t sleep too much the night before. Luckily, I felt wide awake and excited to start the day. I was completely ready to head out the door by 4:30, but I let my husband sleep until 5, and we were on our way by 5:10 and parked by 5:30. We were far from the first people there, and lined up just outside the ticket sale booths. There was so much energy in the air, and there was a fun mixture of people like me trying for their first time and people who were going back for their 5th ride. At 6:32 they let us inside the park, and my husband and I chose to line up on Hollywood Boulevard for Rockin Roller Coaster rather than face the crowds at Toy Story Land or Galaxies Edge. We figured we could get in a few rides without wait on Tower of Terror and RnRC before the day got too busy. Plus, we had a fastpass for Slinky Dog already lined up for 8:50 a.m.

At 6:59, everyone was anxiously waiting on their phones. I was ready to close and open the app as soon as 7 hit as I read that gets you best results. 7 a.m. hits, and it was so bizarre to hear the silence of everyone looking down and searching for passes rather than the rush you normally hear at rope drop. I was the first one in the crowd to get my group, 14! I was so excited that I did a little dance. The people standing directly next to me got group 64. It’s crazy how fast they were all going. – Note, I am a huge Star Wars fan, so this was like Christmas for me … especially because it was Christmas.

About 3 minutes later the actual rope drop occurred, and we were on and off Rockin Roller Coaster by 7:15 a.m. By the time we got off they ride, they had already called our group to board, so we decided not to ride Tower of Terror and went straight to Galaxies Edge for our first time.

I had not looked up anything about Galaxies Edge prior to going. I didn’t know what it looked like or what to expect at all. I did know about Oga’s and had made a reservation so we could try that at 1 p.m., but beyond that, all I knew was there were two rides and a place to make light sabers. I am so glad I went into the land blind, because it was a truly wonderful experience to discover everything on my own. I love how the land doesn’t have clear signs to the shops so you feel like you’re exploring a new world. I love all the little hidden secrets you can find, and I love how everyone was so deep into character, which made me feel like I was in the Star Wars universe.

We spent so much time in the Rise of the Resistance line taking pictures of me freaking out at little details. I wanted to take in the whole experience and really walked slowly past everything. It was also nice to get to see the entire line without having to wait in any of it. We walked straight to the pre-show room and again I freaked out a lot… I don’t want to write spoilers for the ride on here, but I will say we did not get to ride at this point. We made it nearly onto the ride when the ride shut down and we had to do an evacuation. This was a little disappointing, but the cast members remained in character the entire evacuation, which made for a fun experience. They gave us all day passes to return, and my husband and I got breakfast and decided to ride Toy Story Mania before our fast pass for Slinky. TSM had about a 20 minute wait at this point, and it was his first time riding. I was pretty annoyed that he beat me, but he seemed to love the ride. Slinky was much better than I expected. I think it’s a perfect first coaster for kids and still was thrilling enough for adults. Great family attraction.

Rise of the Resistance still wasn’t up after Slinky, so we used our fastpasses for Star Tours and Muppets (I moved the times up closer so we could do them back to back), then ate lunch before seeing that Rise was finally running again (this was at about 11:00).

Rise surpassed all expectations, and I had the most wonderful time riding it. I have no idea how some of those effects worked, and I can’t wait until our next vacation so I can do it all again. Honestly, I’m trying to stay vague because I think you should experience this for the first time spoiler free, but I could write for days about how much fun I had on that ride.

After rise, we explored Galaxies Edge a little, and I snagged fastpasses for Rockin Roller Coaster again. We rode it, Tower of Terror, and Alien Swirling Saucers all using fastpasses I was able to find before our reservation at Ogas at 1 p.m. We were also really lucky because our Rise of the Resistance return passes didn’t scan due to an error at the gate, so we were able to use those passes to ride Slinky a second time. I felt kind of guilty about this, like we were cheating the system, but not too guilty not to do it.

Oga’s was also a great experience. I was worried because there was a long line waiting outside and I knew there was limited seating, but they got me through the line in less than 5 minutes and I loved the feeling of standing at the bar. The atmosphere was beyond what I expected, the drinks were delicious- I absolutely love Fuzzy Tauntaun, and I would have stayed longer if there wasn’t a 2 drink limit.

After Oga’s, it was my husbands turn to surprise me. He had reservations at Savi’s for me to build a lightsaber! I wanted to do this so much, but I wasn’t prepared to spend the money. He absolutely insisted that I get one, and I’m so glad he did.

Savi’s is such a personal experience, and I teared up when I held up my saber for the first time. I enjoyed it a lot more than Rise of the Resistance, and we have made a promise to make a saber every trip from now on. We’re looking into the best way to display our collection now.

The rest of the night was me getting fastpasses, exploring Galaxies Edge, and watching the snow on Sunset Boulevard. The last thing we did was Smugglers Run when we saw the line drop down below 50 minutes. I absolutely refuse to wait in line for anything more than an hour now that I know how to work fast passes.

I loved getting an intimate look at the Millennium Falcon, and I was greatly surprised at how much I enjoyed this ride – my friends had told me it wasn’t that great. We had two kids piloting our ship, so we spent a lot of the ride crashing, but they were having a great time piloting, and I had a great time helping them fix the ship. My husband and I both wished we could have been pilots, but that just gives us a reason to go back again someday!

By 8 p.m., we had ridden everything in the park several times, and we headed back to our hotel for an early sleep. We wanted to wake up by 4:30 for our Christmas Day at Magic Kingdom!

 

[Minnesota disney fan]

Happily following along. It's fun to hear how others handle WDW at Christmastime. We always hear how crowded it is, so it's nice to hear from someone who was actually there. It's awesome that you got so many fp's!