Pre-Trip We have dipped our toes in, now ready to take the plunge.... Or not

Hello, I discovered this site a few months ago when we started planning our trip. I have asked a few questions here or there and have gotten some great help from y'all. I have also enjoyed reading a few trip reports and have learned a lot from them. After scheduling fast passes recently we have come close to firming up our itinerary and I had thought about posting it to get some feedback, then I thought why not try to do a trip report, so here goes.

Who- My wife and I (mid thirties) and our 2 daughters. Our oldest will turn 7 2 days before we leave and our youngest will be 4 1/2.

What- Our first true "Disney" vacation

When- Dec 9th through 15th

Where- Pop Century with 6 day park hopper tickets

Why- We have always wanted to do a full on stay on property multiple park day trip. Growing up I visited the Magic Kingdom a few times, always just for one day while visiting my grandparents who always spent the winter in an Orlando area campground. My wife went once as a teen with her family (she is not one to remember details) and did grad night when she graduated from high school. Back when we were engaged we ended up passing through and did one day at Magic Kingdom together and then a few years ago we were in the area again and did one night at MVMCP with my oldest daughter just before she turned 3. We really enjoyed the Christmas Party and one of the reasons we scheduled this trip at this time was to try to hit it again. So as the thread title says we are now ready to "take the plunge". Well maybe figuratively but not literally, my wife as an aversion to being wet and cold, so she has stated that there will be no water rides. However in the few times I have been I have never ridden Splash Mountain, so even if I have to sneak off and single rider that mountain I do plan to conquer it myself.

Ok so that is it for now, if anyone is interested I will try to post our daily itinerary soon and get some feedback from you seasoned veterans.

 

[RememberWhen]

Sounds like a fun time! My family will be down there the 21st-29th. You’re definitely going at the better time, but we couldn’t pull DS from school. Excited to hear about your trip!

 

[Rasstuss]

Sounds like a fun time! My family will be down there the 21st-29th. You’re definitely going at the better time, but we couldn’t pull DS from school. Excited to hear about your trip!

Thanks, we debated the school thing as well, but with the "free" dining offer and hopefully lighter crowds we decided to do it. My youngest is still in pre-k so absences don't count. Were just hoping that missing a week of 1st grade won't end up keeping our oldest from getting into Harvard.

 

[Spash007]

We'll be there the exact time as you, also taking advantage of free dining. What night are you going to MVMCP? We'll be there our first night on the 9th

 

[Rasstuss]

We'll be there the exact time as you, also taking advantage of free dining. What night are you going to MVMCP? We'll be there our first night on the 9th

We are doing MVMCP on Tuesday the 11th. Our plan is to not use a park hopper that day and use that morning to rest, then a late brunch at Chef Mickey and straight into MK from there for the party.

 

[Rasstuss]

Ok so here goes with the itinerary. I know this is long winded so if anybody takes the time to read all of this thanks! I am definitely the type who has a tendency to over plan but we know that ultimately this trip will be mandated by our 2 daughters. If they need more rest we will adjust the schedule accordingly and won't push them to do anything they aren't up to (although we do plan to bring a stroller and I'm not ashamed to "push" them in that way if keeping them off of their feet for a bit lets us get more done). Also a quick note, there are 2 things we didn't really schedule for that I know most people do and that is Disney Springs and Pool Time. We did spend a few hours in Disney Springs when we were there 4 years ago and it didn't really do much for us. Were not really the type that does shopping for fun. I know it may possibly be warm enough to swim in December but see above about my wife's feeling on being wet and cold. We have a pool at home as well so I don't think the girls will feel like they are missing out on anything.


Getting there- When we first booked we weren't sure about flying or driving but decided to drive because of the flexibility. The first week of the month is busy for me at work and I may be tying up loose ends right up until time to leave. We also may need the flexibility on the return. It should be about a nine hour drive, our girls are good in the car and are used to road trips longer than that. We will arrive on Saturday the 8th and have a room at the Baymont Inn in Celebration (I have seen positive reviews both here and elsewhere). We will basically treat this like a roadside stop and will probably just bring in an overnight bag with a change of clothes and won’t even unpack.


Day 1- We will be up early and check in online but may have to swing by Pop Century to figure out parking. We then plan to head to HS as there are EMH that morning. The girls are both excited about all the promo they have seen for Slinky Dog and have stated they want it to be their first ride. We’re hoping that stand by won't be too bad if we get there early enough and with the excitement of just getting there will make them more willing to wait it out. I'm also not convinced my youngest will actually want to ride once she sees it but it will be a good first test, if she decides not to then oh well, we'll just go with the flow. After that we have fast passes for Frozen Sing Along and Muppet Vision (not sure if these are really necessary), and at some point hope to meet Vamparina. We have lunch ADR at 50's Prime Time for 1:15 and after that will probably head out. I'm hoping that the room will be ready by the time we get to Pop, as it should be close to 3:00 at that point. The plan is to get in the room and rest and maybe a quick nap for the girls. That evening at some point we will head out to Epcot. If we can grab a fast pass or quick stand by ride we will but the main reason for this is a dinner ADR at Akershus at 8:25. I’m not sure how long dinner will take but by the time were done Illuminations should be in full swing. If we can catch some that we will. I’m also thinking the bus line may be backed up as the park closes so we may use our own car to get to Epcot that night.


Day 2- We will head to AK in the morning. There are EMH that morning but after what will probably be a somewhat late night we might not be up that early. We do have a 10:30 Fast Pass for FOTLK, 12:40 for the Safari, and 2:00 for Na’vi River. We hope to fit in lunch at Flame Tree in there as well. Originally the plan was just AK this day with maybe a mid-day break but we may try something else. Because of MVMCP we only have 2 nights where seeing Happily Ever After at MK is an option and this is one of them. Our hope is to get in on the Na’vi River fast pass as close to 2PM as possible, and then head back to the room, hopefully by 3:30 or so. That would give us a good 2 hours to rest/nap before we would have to start getting ready to go to MK. I was also able to get a Liberty Tree Tavern ADR for 7:10, so that would be dinner. Once again if we can grab a fast pass great but if all we end up doing is dinner and Happily Ever After that’s fine. Staying out late this night is actually something we want to do because the next morning the plan is to sleep in as late as possible and just chill.


Day 3- This will be our MVMCP day. We plan to take the morning to rest and relax and maybe even do something as boring as a load of laundry. We have a 2:15 Brunch ADR at Chef Mickey which will hopefully lead us right up to our 4:00 entrance to MVMCP. We were able to get fast passes for Jungle Cruise and BTMRR in the time between our entrance and the true start of the party. After that we plan to just enjoy the party, catch the parade, and ride what we can with the reduced crowds and see how late the girls are comfortable staying. No real plans for a meal after our late brunch, just snack our way through the evening.


Day 4- This was supposed to be our “full day” in HS even though we knew it would be more of a ¾ day with the late night at MVMCP the night before. We had planned HS on this day since we had seen it referred to as a “half” day park. This was before we decided to spend a half day there on arrival day. We have fast passes for TSMM and a “split” fast pass for myself and my oldest for RRC while my wife and youngest go to Beauty and the Beast Live (if we can use our fast pass quick enough we might be able to get from RRC into that same performance). We had (actually still have but will probably cancel) a lunch ADR at Sci Fi drive in but the real wrinkle in our plans for this day came just last week.


When we first starting planning my wife said all of her friends who have been kept talking about how great Ohana was. I looked into and thought it sounded great too and we decided to try to book it for dinner on our last night. However even at the 180 day mark there was nothing available (remember free dining promotion time). I found out about the touring plans reservation finder and put out a search. I didn’t have any luck so just for fun I extended the search for every night of our stay to see what was out there. No joke, I went back and looked at my texts and since June I have gotten 34 “hits” on an Ohana reservation, many of which I have tried to get as soon as I got the text, but to no avail. Until last week, when I was able to secure one for 4:10 on this day. At first I thought oh well that’s way too early for dinner and we will be at HS. Then I thought more about how we can just hop on a bus from HS to the Poly, and how we would have probably done most of what we want to in HS by that point with the extra half day on arrival so we may skip Sci-Fi and head off to Ohana that afternoon. If we do we will keep our options open after dinner. Maybe head back to HS for Fantasmic, maybe just head back to the room for the night. If we rest up and feel up to it there are EMH at MK that night as well.


Day 5- We are calling this “Princess Day” at MK. It will start with breakfast at BOG at 10:15, then off to the castle and a Bippidi Boppidi Boutique makeover for the girls. After that we have fast passes for 7DMT, Enchanted Tales with Belle, and VOTLM. Finally a dinner ADR at 1900 Park Fare at 6:30. My biggest concern here is there is no scheduled rest break between that 10:15 Breakfast and 6:30 dinner, but with the majority of the day being spent in fantasy land and not running back and forth we I hope they will be ok. I think by this time we should have a good feel for how much park time we can handle and if we have to adjust we will.



Day 6- We will head to Epcot this morning as we have Fast Passes for FEA, Nemo and Friends and Spaceship Earth all before noon. After that we will probably take a break then hope to return to world showcase at some point. If we keep the above schedule we will have used all of our table service dining credits by this point but I think we will probably have plenty of quick service and snack credits left. I think world showcase would be a good place to use some of those up and get a few things to share as we go through.


Day 7 (Departure day)- We had initially planned on just heading home this morning, but when we added the MVMCP tickets that gave us an extra day on our park hoppers to use here. We had a extra day at home to recover before going back to work and school so we decided to spend at least a half day in the parks here before getting back on the road. We thought we would just keep this morning open to hit whatever we had missed out on up to this point, but then when it came time to book fast passes there was availability for FOP so I grabbed those. I went ahead and got fast passes for Everest and ITTBAB that morning as well. We could be done with FOP as early as 11:30 that morning and start to head out and head home. If we want to stay longer we can, but at some point we plan to knock out at least half of that 9 hour drive home that night.

 

[amjt660]

A very full and detailed plan - be prepared to switch up based on how everyone is feeling - Just remember that you cannot do it all!!
Your Mickey party day plan is good - semi chill day will be good at that point of the trip

I hope you have a great time and enjoy the Christmas events and decorations

Max

 

[Rasstuss]

Thought I would update since we our just over a week out, and add some pics of the cast of characters.

This is us with our oldest daughter on our one night visit in 2014, when she was just shy of turning 3

And here she is the past Halloween as Elsa, she will be turning 7 this coming Thursday.

And this is my youngest daughter who is 4 (with older sis hiding behind her) as Vamparina.

We did have a snafu at the 30 day mark where our fast passes for our departure day (which included FOP) were cancelled due to a "system glitch". To make a long story short after spending about an hour on the phone on 2 different occasions they were restored. In MDE it now lists them as "All Day" fast passes which I'm assuming means we can use them at any time instead of just during a designated hour. I also got our Akershus dinner ADR on arrival night moved up from 8:25 to 6:40 so hopefully we can maybe get a ride in after and then still catch all of Illuminations that way. Magic Bands have arrived but we haven't shown them to the girls yet, thinking our Elf on the Shelf might deliver them sometime next week.

 

[NessNewt]

Thought I would update since we our just over a week out, and add some pics of the cast of characters.

This is us with our oldest daughter on our one night visit in 2014, when she was just shy of turning 3

View attachment 329435

And here she is the past Halloween as Elsa, she will be turning 7 this coming Thursday.
View attachment 329437

And this is my youngest daughter who is 4 (with older sis hiding behind her) as Vamparina.

View attachment 329441

We did have a snafu at the 30 day mark where our fast passes for our departure day (which included FOP) were cancelled due to a "system glitch". To make a long story short after spending about an hour on the phone on 2 different occasions they were restored. In MDE it now lists them as "All Day" fast passes which I'm assuming means we can use them at any time instead of just during a designated hour. I also got our Akershus dinner ADR on arrival night moved up from 8:25 to 6:40 so hopefully we can maybe get a ride in after and then still catch all of Illuminations that way. Magic Bands have arrived but we haven't shown them to the girls yet, thinking our Elf on the Shelf might deliver them sometime next week.

My 5 year old had that same costume for Vampirina this year, and my oldest went as Anna! Your girls have excellent tastes.

 

[MinnieM123]

Wishing you and your family a fun vacation! Just a few thoughts: add in some extra travel time from point A to point B, when using WDW transportation. There may be unexpected crowds, delays in buses, monorails, etc. That way, you won't be stressed out if you're trying to make an ADR, and transport is running behind.

Secondly, flexibility is key when visiting the parks, as on any given day, you (or a member of the family) might not be "up" for a particular activity, that is on your planning schedule. Sometimes, you may just want to go with the flow--especially with kids. (You might want to lead them to a fun attraction, while they might be more interested in watching an impromptu juggling act, for example.)

Please also realize that attractions break down from time to time, and this can throw a monkey wrench into the best prepared plans you may have. (And don't forget the weather--some outdoor attractions shut down during rainstorms.)

Regardless, your vacation will be a success, even if there are a few bumps in the road. Every family has a good time.