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?

 

[Ariel484]

Day 1: Saturday, December 28, 2013

Despite all of my meticulous planning, there were 2 things I couldn't control. The first was the weather...which was pretty great. Perfect for travel, and you just never know with these Ohio winters. The second was the health of both myself and Will at the start of this much-anticipated trip. We're both pretty healthy in general and get sick once a year or so, sometimes twice...and unfortunately that once-or-twice-a-year sickness was happening now. Will was just getting over a cold at the start of our trip, and it was just beginning for me. Normally when I get my once-or-twice-a-year-sickness it comes in the form of a sinus infection, and I was really nervous that this is what I was afflicted with once more. It wouldn't be anywhere near as bad as, say, a flu or something, but it would still make for a miserable trip.

Armed with plenty of decongestant and travel-packs of Kleenex we made the quick drive to the airport (the roads are pretty empty at 5AM on a Saturday...go figure) after a very poor night of sleep for the both of us, and our flight was pretty easy...just a little over 2 hours and we'd landed at MCO.

Our first Disney experience was less-than-magical. We were directed to our Magical Express bus, but someone had miscounted and the bus was already full by the time we'd boarded. After standing in the aisle for a bit we (and 6 other people) left the bus and returned to the Cast Members in the airport, who made us feel like it was OUR fault that this mix-up had occurred. Oookay? A few minutes later we were on a new bus en route to WDW watching the new, awful Magical Express video, DME TV. This was our second time seeing it...we're just not fans.

So overall this was not the greatest DME experience for us...and I think a lot of my crabbiness had to do with my feeling my sickness start to fully take hold. At some point that day Will commented that I'd probably sneezed more that day than I'd sneezed in the 9 years he's known me combined. I'm sure he was right.

The bus made stops at Pop and Art of Animation before pulling into our home for the week...Animal Kingdom Lodge!

After our poor experience with the CMs at MCO, Animal Kingdom Lodge made us feel like royalty...truly! As we stepped off the bus, a CM named Cody strolled up to us with an iPad in hand and greeted us by name. "Welcome home, Mr. and Mrs. Ariel484!" Okay, I know the Magic Bands had something to do with that, but it was still pretty freaking cool that he greeted us like that.

We walked into the lobby and Cody guided us to a couch, where we gratefully plopped down.

(One of many, MANY Instagram photos that will be popping up in this report...)

I have to say, this was by far the best check-in experience I've had at Disney. I think Cody could tell we were a bit of a mess, so having us sit comfortably while he ran around and took care of stuff was so, so nice. He was so great that I'm planning on sending an email to WDW singing his praises, the first time I've ever been moved to do so. There's no other way to describe it, we just really felt taken care-of.

Cody went over some stuff with us and apologized that our room was not yet ready (no need for an apology as we were there at noon and check-in wasn't until 4). After offering to find us a clean room (we declined) he circled our location on the map...and it looked to me like we had a savannah-view room, even though we'd paid for standard-view. Sweet!

I had one little issue I wanted Cody to look into before we took off for ADR #1 of the week. When I first dreamed up this trip, the idea of "lodge hopping" as @HollyBelle calls it was very appealing to me. We really love the dining options at Animal Kingdom Lodge, and Wilderness Lodge was Will's favorite as a kid, so a split-stay at Animal Kingdom Lodge and the Villas at Wilderness Lodge seemed to be just the ticket. I booked Animal Kingdom Lodge right at the 11-month mark and rented points for 12/28-12/31, and I remember feeling pretty ridiculous for booking so early. Then a few days later I tried to book VWL at the 11-month mark for the remainder of our stay and all of DVC, except for Saratoga, Old Key West and Animal Kingdom Lodge was full! I couldn't freaking believe it. Apparently I wasn't so ridiculous for wanting to book early. So I sadly made the second half of our reservation at Animal Kingdom Lodge, and I can't lie, this was pretty disappointing. I'd definitely been more excited about the Wilderness Lodge portion of our trip.

So my request to Cody was to link our two separate AKL reservations so that we wouldn't have to switch rooms. He left us and our sickness on the couch while he went to take care of it, and as I sat there in the huge, peaceful lobby, making my way through the many Kleenexes I'd brought with me, I felt myself start to fall in love with Animal Kingdom Lodge. Maybe a full week here would be pretty great.

Cody came back to let us know that he'd come through - we'd be able to stay in the same room all week! Huzzah! With that taken care of, we gave him my phone number for the text service to let us know when the room would be ready (I didn't believe for a second that this would actually work...it never had in the past), dropped our carry-ons with Bell Services, and made the easy walk to Kidani Village for lunch.

Despite the fact that we weren’t feeling well, we were pretty giddy at this point. The Animal Kingdom Lodge area is so quiet and peaceful, and as addicted as I am to running Disney races I was really loving the fact that I didn’t have to rush off to an expo at this point. This was the first time since that hot June 2011 trip that I wasn't scrambling to cram everything in during a 3-4 day packed trip. In fact, over the first 72 hours or so of this trip I had to keep reminding myself that we had A WHOLE WEEK at WDW with no races! A WHOLE WEEK! It was awesome...the first Disney trip we've had in quite awhile that truly felt like a vacation.

 

[Ariel484]

We were also super excited to EAT! Dining at Disney is a big part of our trips, and we were starting off with one of our very favorites...Sanaa!

See the curved half-walls near the tables in the photo below? We had one of those right by our table and Will discovered that it was the perfect height to lean his head on during lunch and "rest his eyes" briefly ...remember, sickness + long travel day going on over here!

I'd have to put this up there as my favorite non-Signature Table Service Restaurant at WDW, along with Via Napoli.

Pretty cool bathrooms here...

I started my meal off with a mega-berry smoothie...my throat was feeling super dry and a wee bit sore, and this really hit the spot.

We also ordered the bread service, which came with 3 types of Naan (I think we got traditional, garlic and spicy?) and 3 dips (the yellow one is mango chutney, the dark red is something RIDICULOUSLY spicy, and the more orange-ish one is roasted red pepper hummus). All of the naan was really good, but we agreed that if we could do it again we'd order 3 portions of the hummus...I refused to go anywhere near the spicy stuff and Will said it was so spicy he pretty much couldn't eat it. The chutney was good, but the hummus was better.

Will and I both ordered the same entree (the first of a few times we'd do this over the course of the week)...the Slow Cooked option with Butter Chicken, Beef Short Ribs and the Basmati rice. It never looks like much when they bring it out, but it's super filling. I apologize for my awful, awful pictures of this delicious entree.

Our server informed us that the best way to experience the food was to dump everything on the larger plate and mix it with the rice.

The verdict? SO SO GOOD. We both ate until we were uncomfortably full, and I was so sad that 1. I couldn't finish my portion, and 2. I wouldn't have room for dessert. We'd have to try again!

And HUGE bonus for our meal...we saw the baby giraffe and the baby zebra on Sanaa's savannah. Too cute! I may have squealed...a lot.

(Baby zebra is lying down in this picture):

We settled our bill and headed back to Jambo.

Kidani's lobby is SO hard to photograph. Most of it is so dark and then the bright light comes in through the windows making it look like there's some sort of nuclear event going on outside. I guess a tripod would have helped...a lot.

Kidani's Christmas tree:

Some decorations...love how detailed the decorations were in ALL of the resorts we visited this week!

By now our early morning was catching up to us and I was concerned that we weren't going to get a much-needed nap before heading to Epcot that evening. Will was so out of it that he fell asleep on a couch in the Jambo lobby (I'd been able to sleep on the plane that morning but he'd had no such luck), and while checking with a Cast Member at the front desk about the status of our room my poor nose, which had been put through so much abuse over the past few days, began gushing blood. It was something I'd been expecting to happen due to the dry Ohio air and the sheer number of Kleenexes I'd been going through, but man...what timing. Embarrassing, yet slightly hilarious...luckily I had Kleenexes on me, and it was sort of funny because the CM turned away to check something, turned back, and there I am holding a pile of Kleenex up to my face. She offered me ice (I declined) and more Kleenex (I DID take her up on that) and I walked away wondering if my faucet of a nose would earn me more sympathy. Sure enough, I got a text about 15 minutes later (3:30ish) - our room was ready!

 

[Minnie Sue]

*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?

Haha, that's exactly how I felt when I was trying to find info about Christmas week trips!

 

[Maggie Mae]

Sorry your trip started out less than stellar! But it seems like you are on the upswing!! Enjoying this report so far!

 

[C.FERNIE]

wow looks like a beautiful start to your trip even if you were feeling a bit poorly! Can't wait for the rest of the report and hope you started to feel better!

 

[PolynesianPrincess]

YAY! I've been waiting for you to start this!!

So sorry you and the hubs weren't feeling well. Being sick in general is no fun but being sick on vacation is 10 times worse!!

 

[Ariel484]

Haha, that's exactly how I felt when I was trying to find info about Christmas week trips!

THANK YOU! I'm glad it's not just me!

Sorry your trip started out less than stellar! But it seems like you are on the upswing!! Enjoying this report so far!

Oh definitely. The first day was rough but overall we had a pretty great time, for sure.

wow looks like a beautiful start to your trip even if you were feeling a bit poorly! Can't wait for the rest of the report and hope you started to feel better!

We did...it took awhile but we did feel better. AKL is really quite beautiful, we loved it!

YAY! I've been waiting for you to start this!!

So sorry you and the hubs weren't feeling well. Being sick in general is no fun but being sick on vacation is 10 times worse!!

Yay Darolyn! You got a pretty good preview of the report from Instagram, I think.

Yeah, I think we handled it pretty well and tried to adopt the whole "at least we're in Disney!" attitude...but it definitely limited us in some ways. We still had a really great trip despite the sickness. And thankfully I just ended up with a bad cold, not the sinus infection I'd originally feared was developing.

 

[PolynesianPrincess]

I totally forgot to mention this before... Sanaa! NOM NOM NOM!! LOVE the bread appetizer there! That was the first place I ever tried humus! Ashley eats it frquently but I never wanted to have anything to do with it, but Ashley agreed to eat at Sanaa if I would try hummus. and I did and now I loooove it! I like the roasted red pepper the best but wasabi is giving it a run for it's money!

 

[Tiggerfanatic]

Enjoying your report so far. I want to stay there at some point (if I can drag myself away from the Contemporary!)

Sorry you were sick but it sounds like it didn't really slow you down. Anxiously awaiting the rest of the trip.

 

[joanna71985]

Following along!

 

[FlaggNL]

Great TR Also following along

 

[Ariel484]

I totally forgot to mention this before... Sanaa! NOM NOM NOM!! LOVE the bread appetizer there! That was the first place I ever tried humus! Ashley eats it frquently but I never wanted to have anything to do with it, but Ashley agreed to eat at Sanaa if I would try hummus. and I did and now I loooove it! I like the roasted red pepper the best but wasabi is giving it a run for it's money!

SANAA!! Isn't it just sooooo delicious? The definition of a hidden gem. I too discovered hummus late in life...never tried it until a few years ago because Will liked it. I have a pretty good recipe for it so I'll make it at home, but we also get some from the grocery store that is Roasted Pine Nut flavor (Sabre brand, I think). SO GOOD! Roasted red pepper is definitely my fave too, though.

Enjoying your report so far. I want to stay there at some point (if I can drag myself away from the Contemporary!)

Sorry you were sick but it sounds like it didn't really slow you down. Anxiously awaiting the rest of the trip.

Thanks Sherry! We may end up at the Contemporary on our next trip (well, Bay Lake Tower...sort of the same thing) for the first time ever. Glad to hear you like it. AKL is just so impressive, relaxing and quite. LOVE it.

We did our best to power through the sickness! We're tough!

Following along!

Hi Joanna!

Great TR Also following along

Thanks!

 

[FlaggNL]

Thanks!

Very welcome

 

[Ariel484]

Oops...forgot to mention that in between coming back from Sanaa and getting the text, I wandered around a bit. Will passed out on the couch.

Jambo House Christmas tree:

This lobby is just too cool.

I had grand plans of going to the gym that week (we'll see how that goes...) so I went to find where the gym was and stopped in at The Mara to grab a treat for Will.

This little green guy, in particular. Will likes his peppermint!

Okay, so I did this...THEN I went back to Jambo and got the nosebleed, THEN I got the room text. I woke Will up from his dead sleep (he seemed incredibly confused as to where he was and what was happening ) and we took the elevator up to the 5th floor to find our studio, room 5255 (a deluxe studio).

Welcome home!!

My one-and-only complaint about this room (and it can be said for any other room in AKL, I'm sure), is that the lighting was pretty terrible. But I guess it keeps with the theme? It also makes for pretty terrible photographs (again, should have used the tripod) and difficulty when trying to apply make-up and not come out looking like a clown.

The only other issue we had were our obnoxious neighbors that moved in after New Year's...hardly AKL's fault. We'll get to them later.

Tile detail over the kitchenette sink:

DOUBLE SINKS! Not something you see in every DVC studio villa!

I didn't get a picture of the toilet/shower area...use your imagination. You got this.

Sure enough, we did have a savannah view (the Sunset Savanna I think?):

It definitely wasn't the best view, but we certainly weren't complaining since we'd paid for a standard-view room. If I'd paid for a savannah-view and gotten this one though...well, I wouldn't have been thrilled. Those birds (which we dubbed "Burns Birds" because they reminded us of Mr. Burn's vulture thing in the episode of "The Simpsons" where Homer is the president of the union...anyone?!) were there all week. Other than then we mostly had a couple of cattle and some ostriches...and occasionally a family of zebras, which was pretty exciting. I'm not sure what the fenced-off, cleared out area is at the bottom of the picture. But overall this was, for the most part, a perfectly-located room - not too far from the lobby but far enough that it was pretty quiet until our loud friends next-door moved in. And by reserving a standard-view room we'd been assuming we'd be looking out onto a parking lot...so this was much better than what we'd been expecting.

So we were in our room at about 3:30, 3:45. Will got in bed and was asleep within minutes. I don't think I tried to sleep - instead I unpacked and took a shower. I'm one of those people that HAS to unpack everything when I stay in a hotel. Before going to sleep Will agreed that it was probably best to just bag our Test Track FP+ (5-6PM return window). FP+ you say? Why yes. I was all over booking those bad boys and managed to sneak in before Disney decided to tier the offerings at Epcot and Hollywood Studios. So we had a pretty solid line-up for this week. I'll discuss how having these impacted our trip a little more as the report goes on (SPOILER ALERT: thumbs up! ).

 

[Kristia]

Too many trip reports, too little time! I seriously neglect this section even though it is one of my favorites because once I start reading I don't want to stop! Bummer you guys were both feeling under the weather but woo hoo for a trip that is just a vacation! Can't wait to hear more! Message me your instagram name too please! I just finally upgraded my phone so I am on there now but I have only put up a couple pics so far.

 

[Ariel484]

Eventually Will awoke from his nap feeling decently rested and we grabbed a bus to Epcot (surprisingly short ride...10 minutes I think? Very pleased). Time for a new-to-us restaurant...the Garden Grill!

We arrived in The Land (which was crowded but not totally packed) and checked in a bit before our 6:15 ADR time. I was surprised to see a temporary bar set up across from the Garden Grill check-in area - only there until New Year's Eve. It was weird. They also had a gingerbread display that included a gingerbread DCL cruise ship that I am totally kicking myself for not taking a picture of. I was definitely off my picture-taking game during this trip...I blame my sickness.

Anyhoo...we got seated and were on the second level of the restaurant. So we couldn't look directly down into Living With the Land. I'm sure we could have requested it but we weren't super interested in waiting longer to get a first-level table. Maybe some other time.

I see what they did there!

I always do a pretty terrible job of remembering the names of our servers...this trip was no exception. Kim (???) fulfilled our requests to leave the fish off of the plate (we're not seafood eaters, so we try to be upfront about that to not waste the food) and bring us the kid's macaroni and cheese (okay, that was my request ). It was interesting sitting in the rotating restaurant...if we were looking at each other it wasn't obvious that we were rotating at all, but if we look out at the Living With the Land scenery it was slightly dizzying. Maybe the cold meds contributed to that.

Eats!

Bread with Maple Butter...literally butter sitting in maple syrup. Odd. As an aside we rarely eat real butter at home (I experimented with vegetarianism a year ago and started trying out Earth Balance - a vegan, non-dairy butter substitute, and that's what we're used to now) so this stuff tasted amazing to us. And bread is always good. Also, the over-the-table lights at Garden Grill made for pretty nice photos, I thought. Minimal editing required!

Supposedly this salad has ingredients from The Land greenhouses. I wish the menu had gone into more detail as to what exactly came from the greenhouses. The salad was really good!

Next up, the seafood-less entree. I didn’t try the turkey and stuffing...Will did and deemed it "meh."

The veggies were good...I forget what they were. Squash and carrots...whatever was in season at the time. The meat was shockingly good and the potatoes were sooo creamy and delicious. As a wee Irish lass I'm a sucker for good mashed potatoes.

Kid’s mac and cheese with goldfish! Is this Stouffer's mac and cheese? Either way, the addition of goldfish to said mac and cheese is BRILLIANT. BRILLIANT, I tell you!

We also each got a water and I think I got a Coke as well (which was included in the meal price). I rarely drink the stuff at home but on vacation, all bets are off!

Overall we were pretty surprised at how good the food was here. We don't normally do "all you care to enjoy" meals because we just don't think the food tastes as good (not that we're, like, super sophisticated foodies or whatever), and we never eat our money's worth. And these kinds of meals are EXPENSIVE. But I'd classify this meal as one of the better "all you can eat" meals we've had at Disney.

And don’t forget, there are characters here!

Holy under-eye bags, Batman! Someone is tired! (And needs to invest in a good eye cream, let's be honest. )

In our limited experience with character meals we have definitely found that characters mostly don't seem to know what to do with two childless adults. I'd say Mickey and Dale fell into that category here - just a handshake for Will, fake kiss for me and a pose...par for the course. But Pluto and Chip - ALL STARS!

Chip was the best! He came over for a smooch and a picture and Will was having trouble with the camera (trying to take the pictures without realizing that the camera was turned off). I forget exactly what Chip did in response but clearly I thought it was funny.

And over to Will..."it's okay you messed up, buddy!"

Smooch!

Next up Pluto joined in on the fun. I'm sure I've mentioned it here many times, but we have a dog who is...how can I say this without sounding nuts? Let's just say, we love the little guy to pieces (for evidence check my Instagram feed, where he's the star ). One of the big downsides of these Disney trips is that we need to leave him for a few days, and this was going to be one of the longer stretches where he'd be gone. Here he is on his way to "doggy camp":

In the weeks/days leading up to the trip we were pretty torn up about being apart from him for that long (I know it's weird...just go with it). So when Pluto came to play Will started telling him about our monster pup. Pluto proceeded to "lick" us and give us kisses, all while telling us that he'd like to stay with us and share dinner...alas, it wasn't meant to be. But at least we got some quality pup time in! What a nice dog!

Time for dessert!

Harvest skillet cake with vanilla whipped cream...baked with blueberries, blackberries and raspberries, if I remember correctly. Warm, not overly-sweet...delicious.

In the end we were pretty happy with this meal, but I'm not sure when we'll do it again for one reason: even with the Tables in Wonderland discount it was EXPENSIVE. We rarely do character/all-you-can-eat meals, and I think we just forgot how much it was going to cost. Getting the bill was a pretty big shock. So that's a big DUH on my part...OCD planner fail! But I'm glad we tried it - Garden Grill had been on my to-do list for quite awhile, and if we decide to do another character meal this one will definitely be our top choice.

 

[Ariel484]

Too many trip reports, too little time! I seriously neglect this section even though it is one of my favorites because once I start reading I don't want to stop! Bummer you guys were both feeling under the weather but woo hoo for a trip that is just a vacation! Can't wait to hear more! Message me your instagram name too please! I just finally upgraded my phone so I am on there now but I have only put up a couple pics so far.

I totally neglect this section too! I'm try to be better about that.

I knew you'd understand about having a trip that is *just* a vacation. Darn those addicting runDisney races!!! Seriously though, without a race (or races) this trip felt like it went on for ages. Loved it.

My Instagram name is _shannymac4 Mostly dog and Disney pictures, haha!

 

[Kristia]

I totally neglect this section too! I'm try to be better about that.

I knew you'd understand about having a trip that is *just* a vacation. Darn those addicting runDisney races!!! Seriously though, without a race (or races) this trip felt like it went on for ages. Loved it.

My Instagram name is _shannymac4 Mostly dog and Disney pictures, haha!

Mine is SupersonicSNJ and I only have 2 pics up so far and I think I signed up last month. Totally pathetic. Mine will probably be dogs, cats, horses and Disney mostly lol!

 

[samantha_cheri]

I'm loving your report so far, please keep posting
I'm a huge fan of AKL, I wish I could stay there more. And I've never eaten at Garden Grill, maybe I'll have to make room for it on my next trip!