Trip Report The Worst Week: A December 2013/January 2014 Trip Report! *COMPLETE*

You all know the week I'm talking about.

The week that all the guidebooks and fan sites warn about...the parks are packed, Soarin' hits a 4-hour wait, and there are phase closings left and right. It's the week between Christmas and New Year's - the worst week to go to Disney World.

What kind of idiots would book a trip during this crazy, insane time??

Hi, I'm Shannon. Nice to meet ya.

See that guy in the picture with me? That's my husband, Will. He's sort of my favorite. WDW is my favorite place. I like to be in my favorite place with my favorite person.

But there's a catch. You see, this favorite person of mine is a teacher who coaches tennis. So for all of you that smugly say stuff along the lines of, "why not go during off-peak times," (is there even such a thing anymore?!) well, some of us can't. Seriously, like we wouldn't rather go during some random week in February or whatever??? In our case, it's summer or Christmastime for a longer trip. Those are the only options.*

We did the summer thing in June of 2011. It was hot and crowded, and Will swore we'd never do it again. The heat and humidity were too much. I agreed and set my sites on Christmas 2013 pretty much as soon as we got home from that hot, sticky trip. Yep, this trip had been planned (or at least thought about) for about 2.5 years! I'm ridiculous.

But this is where my crazy OCD planning began to shine. Right at the 11-month mark I had our resort reservation secured - no discounts are ever out for that time of year, but I was able to rent DVC points, which saved a RIDICULOUS chunk of change. We still had our APs and Tables in Wonderland card from earlier in the year, we booked flights on rewards points, and thanks to saving up our points on our Disney Visa we had just about enough rewards dollars to cover our food for the week. So as far as Disney trips go, this one was relatively cheap. And I of course woke up early at our 180-day mark to make reservations (19 ADRs! But would we keep them?! ) and grabbed some FP+ reservations at the 60-day mark or whatever. I also pored over the few Christmas-week trip reports on this and other Disney boards from fellow *idiots* like me, which were pretty hard to find...because most threads started with someone asking about traveling during this week didn't have actual USEFUL information, just snide replies along the lines of "cancel and book another week."* Um, thanks?

ANYWAY...I planned for and thought about this trip more than any other trip we've taken, and that's really saying something. But I'd say it paid off overall.

*Yes, I'm a little bitter about it. It just got really old to read how stupid people are for going during this time over and over. I promise the rest of the report won't be like this! Let's be friends?

 

[tor29c]

Anxiously awaiting more info!! Specifically wait times, FP+. Good reporting so far.

 

[HollyBelle]

Hooray! Loving your report, Shannon. That intro shot of you and your man is super cute. Love it.
Your pictures of Sanaa and the AKL resorts are #awesome. I'm totally with you on the tree at the Animal Kingdom... definitely my favorite park tree of them all.

Looking forward to more awesomeness!

 

[Ariel484]

"Mr. Burn's vulture thing in the episode of "The Simpsons" where Homer is the president of the union...anyone?!"...yup, totally got this reference.

Further proof that you are awesome, Erin.

Always nice to see a trip report from you! And looks like I might end up following you on Instagram. I upgraded to an iPhone this fall and I've become "that person" when it comes to apps. But I digress...

What's your username?!

I do laugh at the people who are like "Are you CRAZY?!" when they find out someone is taking a trip to WDW post-Christmas. In my opinion it's all in how you plan. Glad you two were able to get into the swing of things once you got to the AKL despite being under the weather. Great stuff so far, looking forward to more!

I totally agree with you about the planning. I think people can get pretty mean about it sometimes, but what can you do? I guess I just need to avoid certain sections of this forum....

Yay!! Another report from you! I also love the AK tree the most. We were there in November, and I too meant to walk through Camp Minnie Mickey to see if the trees were up yet. Yep, I forgot also! Hopefully, they will put them up elsewhere and we will someday get back at Christmas time! Love your Mickey Christmas sweatshirt! I got the same one in November! Can't wait to read more!

I got some pictures of the CAmp Minnie-Mickey trees in November 2009 but that was with a much crappier camera, so I was hoping to do better this time around. Sadness. That is an excellent sweatshirt, isn't it?! It's soooo comfortable.

Loving your report!! I want to stay in AKL one day SOOO BADLY!!

AKL is great, I hope you get to stay there someday!

Following along!

Hi! Thanks!

LOVING your TR!!!
Sorry you & DH were under the weather ... glad you had a great trip despite it.
I loved AKL. We weren't as lucky as you with the room upgrade ... Standard view ... but still a beautiful resort!
Love Garden Grill ... we ALL loved it! I get every time I get a bill in Disney ...lol ... I may need to check out Tables in Wonderland Card ?
Can't wait to read/see more of your TR!!!

Thanks! I'm so grateful the sickness did bother us too much. Whew! AKL really blew us away that week, I think the quietness and seclusion of the place was just what we needed.

TiW was pretty great for us this week, but with the recent price increase to $100 and the addition of more black-out dates I'm not sure when we'll get it again. We definitely like it more than getting the dining plan, but one would need to spend $500 just to break even on the price and I don't think we'll do that this year.

Anxiously awaiting more info!! Specifically wait times, FP+. Good reporting so far.

Well, I can't say I have too much specific information on wait times. I didn't really write that much down...what do you want to know about FP+? We had a really great experience save for one instance that I'll post about later.

Hooray! Loving your report, Shannon. That intro shot of you and your man is super cute. Love it.
Your pictures of Sanaa and the AKL resorts are #awesome. I'm totally with you on the tree at the Animal Kingdom... definitely my favorite park tree of them all.

Looking forward to more awesomeness!

Thanks Holly! You just can't beat a good selfie.

Sanaa and AKL are just so photogenic. I was even inspired to bust out the tripod later in the week, which NEVER happens. I loooove the AK Christmas tree, the decorations are just so unique. It's the best.

 

[Ariel484]

After leaving Animal Kingdom we headed to the Wilderness Lodge bus stop and got to the resort at about 5:30PM.

We'd brought clothes to change into for dinner and still had a good 40 minutes or so to kill...so we just changed and hung out in the lobby. Ahhh...

Christmas Tree details!

We had another new-to-us dinner lined up for tonight...Artist Point.

I went into this one with some reservations...I'd read reviews that say it's great and reviews that say it's a "non-Signature Signature." But it's good to try new things, right?!

Love the decor here.

I believe the butter had black sea salt on top? Very good.

No idea what this is...knowing me it's probably a Riesling.

I believe Will had a Red Hook Amber, which he described as "okay."

I started off with Mixed Field Greens Salad...nothing amazing but pretty good. I really liked the cheese.

 

[Ariel484]

When we were originally looking at going to Artist Point I was really excited for a pork belly appetizer and a chicken dish I'd seen on the online menus. Unfortunately neither of those items were there that night, so I was kind of at a loss as to what to order. In the end I went with something I've never tried before: the cornish hen with savory fall bread pudding, duck confit, fried quail egg, brussels sprouts, butternut squash and port cassis reduction.

I'm at a loss as to how to describe this meal. I guess because it was...nondescript. Seriously, nothing special about it. All of the sides seemed to be randomly thrown onto the plate - none really complimented the other. I remember liking the vegetables and the quail egg. The bread pudding, which I'd been excited for, was pretty flavorless and I think I ate a bite or two. Ditto to the cornish hen. Boooooooo

Will went with the filet with creamed spinach, roasted roots, cabernet glaze and smokey blue cheese on top. You can see he's poised and ready to dig in!

We both agreed that his meal was way better than mine, but if not for the blue cheese topping the steak wouldn't have been anything special.

Overall we agreed that this meal was, by far, the most disappointing of our trip. It wasn't bad, but there was nothing "Signature" about it, except for the price. I mean...the bread and butter was our favorite part! That's just not right for a $100+ meal (even after Tables in Wonderland).

Originally I'd wanted to try the signature berry cobbler for dessert, but we couldn't stomach adding more to the bill for such an expensive, so-so meal. Plus, we had other dessert plans on the horizon that evening. So we settled the bill and headed out. I’m glad we tried it but I think it's safe to say we won't be returning to Artist Point anytime soon.

More decorations:

 

[Duckberg]

GREAT photo presentation of your trip!
PS Like your Beagle!

 

[Ariel484]

GREAT photo presentation of your trip!
PS Like your Beagle!

Thank you! Especially for the kind words about the beagle!!

 

[GenerationX]

Very interesting report and great pics of AKL and Wilderness! The first time we had dinner at Boma, we decided it was a Must Do for every subsequent trip. We will have to hit Sanaa next time, too.

 

[DanStat]

I always love your food photos and how ambitious your plans are! It's terrible being sick – I couldn't imagine being sick at Disney! I really need to try Garden Grill at Epcot. Can't wait to read more!

 

[Ariel484]

Very interesting report and great pics of AKL and Wilderness! The first time we had dinner at Boma, we decided it was a Must Do for every subsequent trip. We will have to hit Sanaa next time, too.

Thank you so much! Definitely give Sanaa a shot. We've eaten there 3 times now and it's been fantastic during every visit.

I always love your food photos and how ambitious your plans are! It's terrible being sick – I couldn't imagine being sick at Disney! I really need to try Garden Grill at Epcot. Can't wait to read more!

Thanks! Yeah, we have been pretty lucky with not being sick at Disney, I guess it was bound to happen eventually. We tried to make the best of it. Thanks for reading!

 

[Ariel484]

We headed for the Wilderness Lodge boat dock and, after a short wait, were en route to the Magic Kingdom. I forget exactly what we did when we first arrived, but the main thing on our agenda was the Wishes Dessert Party.

This is something that I'd read about a bit and was never really interested in. I was cruising around the interwebz one day in early October and read that reservations had opened up just that morning. Basically I knew that it was really hard to get reservations for this event, and that we'd essentially be paying for unlimited dessert and a reserved spot for fireworks. Out of curiosity I went on Disney's website and checked our dates...a spot was open for this evening and I just grabbed it. Why not?! Trying new things! Plus, I like dessert and Will likes isolation from crowds (which made going to WDW during this week extra-risky )...so it seemed like a sure thing.

We headed to the Tomorrowland Terrace to check in...our confirmation had indicated we should get there at 9:10PM. I was surprised to find a line, but it moved quickly. We gave the CMs our names and they gave us bracelets and led us to our reserved table...but not just any table. The one table that was front-row, center. Best table available! Very nice surprise. I'm guessing this happened because I booked the date almost as soon as it opened up and AND there were only two of us.

The view during the Main Street Electrical Parade...this is really not the main reason to book this dessert party. You can barely see the floats from here.

We set our stuff down at our table and headed to the dessert line, which was pretty long. Here's my plate:

Let's see...starting at the bottom and going clockwise, there's the chocolate-covered strawberry, a brownie (I think this was my favorite thing), a small apple pie, a cupcake, another strawberry (these were the most popular desserts), a cannoli hiding behind the creme brûlée in the center, and a fruit tart. I know they also had tiramisu, key lime tarts, cookies, etc. I remember liking the strawberries, the brownie and the creme brûlée and being disappointed in the fruit tart. They also had some drink options...definitely water and lemonade, I think possibly iced tea, hot chocolate and coffee too? I forget.

We hung out for a bit eating our dessert, but I don't think either of us went back for seconds. Will especially was feeling sugar overload at one point. Eventually it was time to watch Celebrate the Magic! And this is where it became clear that the table assignment didn't really matter...everyone got up and headed up front to the railings to watch. We ended up in a pretty good position.

Again, tried not to take too many pictures, but I did grab a couple of videos. Love this show and love the "Frozen" addition!


In the weeks leading up to this party I'd been debating on whether I wanted to bring my tripod...I'm glad I didn't. We were separated from most of the crowds but I wouldn't have wanted to block the other dessert-partiers' views. Oh well.

And then Wishes! started at 10. It was the holiday version, which we'd never seen before. Tink flew right over us!


At one point I did try to take some pictures, but they turned out like this one below and I gave up quickly.

And then our party was over. We left pretty quickly and decided to pass up MK's Extra Magic Hours. Will was hurting from all of that sugar and I was still my sickey self, so we headed back to AKL for our second early night in a row.

Thoughts on the Dessert Party? It's another case of us not eating our money's worth. Getting into the party ended up costing about $60 total for the two of us, and while it's something that I'm glad we tried once, I'm pretty sure we won't do it again (man, how many times have I said that in this report already?! ). Having the view was cool, but I don't think it's my favorite Wishes! spot - I prefer being by the train station or watching from the Contemporary observation deck. Some day I'll have to try from the Polynesian beach (something I wanted to do during this trip but never managed to fit in) or Narcoossee's.

 

[Ariel484]

We made it back to AKL pretty quickly, and while Will hopped in the shower I headed back out to the empty lobby with my tripod to take some pictures. After taking an embarrassingly long time to figure out how to set the stupid thing up (first time using it...and only time on this trip, gee, GOOD THING I PACKED IT ) I finally got some shots.

From the 5th floor bridge:

Similar, not as good shot, but I seem to have caught someone using their flash on the ground level (technically the second floor I guess):

On the other side of the 5th floor:

This next one is definitely one of my favorites from the trip. I feel like every time we stepped into the lobby that week, one of us found some new detail to marvel at. First it was the thatched ceiling...then the Christmas Tree decorations...the artwork on display...the leaping antelopes (gazelles? Whatever) surrounding the floor one level up from the ground floor. And I think this picture captures a lot of that.

And I think this is when I started to not really regret the Wilderness Lodge portion of the trip falling through. We'd get to stay here and drink in all this detail for a WHOLE WEEK! Yay!

After my little photo shoot it was bedtime. I headed back to the room where Will and I discussed our plans for the next day. Not only had we been able to squeak in under the gun to get the non-tiered FP+...we'd also managed to make our ADRs before the new cancellation policy began. At that point we had a 7:30 ADR for Boma the next morning, but we were both still feeling pretty sluggish. So I hopped onto the MDE app (which I really liked having all week, but MAN OH MAN is it sloooooow) to cancel that ADR and re-book a later one - 9:45AM maybe? I was very glad I was able to do that without a penalty.

And with that taken care of, it was time for more NyQuil! Gooood night!

 

[Kirsty_UK]

Great TR!! I am coming to WDW for my first trip next year with some friends and I am trying to work on them that we should have a look around the different hotels!!! I love your photos, cant wait to read more!

 

[PartOfYourWorld]

I second you on the Animal Kingdom tree! It definitely is my favorite one!

Good to hear about Artist Pointe...I've looked into it before but never booked, don't think I will be either. we have a so-so restaurant coming up in May...we're trying Cape May for dinner, I've heard awful things and really good things. Figured we will give it a shot and see how it goes.

Anyways. I hear how you feel on the Dessert Party. My mom and I have done it twice now. It was really fun and had great desserts. But I don't think it will be something I do again a third time.

Aaand..you want to watch Wishes from the Poly beach you say? Something I"ve always wanted to do as well. Hoping to do that at least once since we're staying there...no excuses! You guys should all join!

Again, can't wait for more!

Haha, thanks Jess! Glad you told me to write it!

Yeah, it was bound to happen eventually I guess. Could have been much worse than a bad cold!

After this trip I'd have to say that AKL currently takes the top spot for me. We had a really fantastic week there.

Bwahahaha, oh Mike! I think meeting the fur characters is a lot more fun but I could see how a good-looking gentlemen like your husband would like the attention from the princesses! Totally check Garden Grill out at some point, I liked it a lot!

I really enjoyed Instagramming over the course of the week!! Good thing I did too since the camera didn't come out quite as often as usual.

Happy I could help with the convincing

Don't worry, someday I'll make him check it out I mean I booked Ohana for Feb without telling him until after haha. He won't mind.

Sometimes that's a good thing when the camera doesn't come out as much! Gotta enjoy having fun!

 

[MissingDisney]

Following....

 

[Jessica Meier]

Following along. And loving it! Making me really want to AKL.

 

[sweetpee_1993]

Shannon! I'm here! Gonna try to get all caught up. First, so sorry y'all started vacation feeling crumby. I think of it as part of paying our dues to the travel Gods. I've done it 3x's now. Never fun. Never easy. Always hurts my heart because I work so hard to make everything perfect only to have Mother Nature step in & snatch it away.

Definitely feelin' the AKL/V studio love! Our 2 little nights post Dream girls cruise in September were heavenly and we never left the resort. AKL/V is a destination unto itself. I'd go back just for the resort, no parks necessary here.

The DCL gingerbread ship! I've seen it! I got a sneaky-peek during its construction when it was still in the kitchen it came from. Wasn't it incredible?! I was blown away!

My hat is off to you with all the hitting of the right dates to make your ADRs & FP+ picks. I'm so clueless with the FP+ stuff. My brain just says "Um, no." LOL! I suppose if I should ever require this expertise I'll hit ya up for instructions. LOL!

I'm prob'ly one who would question why someone would knowingly go to the parks during known crazy times. Guilty. BUT, if that's when you can go that's when you can go. Nothing wrong with that. In 2009 I helped some of our dearest friends plan a trip with their 2 adult children & a soon-to-be son-in-law for Easter week. They soaked up all the info I gave them. Even with a solid week of history-making park closures due to capacity they came home having had what they described as the BEST trip they'd ever had. Knowledge is power. You know what you're doing. You have the tools to make what I would perceive as a nightmare (because I mostly dislike herds of people) into an incredible experience. Besides, when the numbers stack against you and everyone looks at you with that doubtful look..... Challenge accepted! Right? That's what my boys would say!

I think you're right, tho. When is it off-season at WDW nowadays?

Continuing to read....

 

[sweetpee_1993]

You know I'm totally feelin' you on leavin' the monster pup for vacation. I always stress tremendously over leaving Riley and think of her often when I'm gone. The boys all make fun because when I walk out of the kennel I'm always tearing up. I can't bear telling my baby goodbye. It rips my heart out! I do love seeing pics of your handsome fur-baby both in TRs & Instagram. I'm sure the world is pretty sick of my incessant pics of Riley, tho. HaHaHa!

There's nothing at all wrong with ditching the master plan for a solid sleep in! Vacation is heavenly because that's an option!

Rain on vacation.... Grrrrrr! I'm so over being rained upon! I'm so over it when I read about others being rained on I feel that grrrrr/over-it feeling for them, too! LOL!

Onto page 3!

Ps. When we stayed at AKL in Jan 2010 I don't recall any crazy bus issues then either. To this day I don't see what the big deal is when people comment about the transportation. It's not like it's that much difference. Even when staying closer to the action the buses often take longer roundabout weird routes. Then there's sometimes multiple stops to boot. So I'm with you on the transportation deal.

 

[sweetpee_1993]

Your lobby/tree photos are beautiful!

Tracey & I really love Boma breakfast. We didn't book any ADRs back in Sept, just popped in. It's a meal I feel is still okay for the price. Love those goat cheese scrambled eggs. POG juice with them is total heaven!

I feel ya on the dessert party. I never booked it because it seemed a bit much for desserts. It's even worse with the F! Dessert package at DL. I think it's like $60pp. As much as I'd love the reserved seating, no way I'm spending $240 for it. I don't need the sweets. Curious, do you recall seeing milk to drink? When we eat a lot of sweets milk is always the first thing we want but I don't think I've ever read anyone say they drank milk at the dessert party. Interesting.

 

[FlaggNL]

Wow, love this report!! Great pictures! The elephants seems to have soooo much fun