Trip Report "When We're Together" - December 2024

So yall that read my trip report for May already know that we booked a bounceback offer before leaving WDW so that we could use those 2 free park tickets. Well, Disney should be proud to know that their "free" ticket plan worked and we are for sure returning to WDW in December - and this time I'm purchasing the MVMCP and Jollywood Night Tickets I just purchased plane tickets, party tickets, and travel insurance (if you know, you know LOL). This is the first time we've been more than once in a year so I'm super excited!! I told R that maybe it will help me get more comfortable on flights and maybe next time I can do one longer than 2 hours I am holding off on getting Mears until closer to the trip - I'm hoping that they release a Disney+ or Disney Visa room discount that has more selection than the bounceback offer at Riverside. I'm not complaining about Riverside though since it's our place but I would like to save a little extra money (or stay at AKL cheaper), if at all possible. This year's discount selection is not very good compared to past years.

When we went in December 2021 for the short 3 night stay, they didn't have the full Christmas Party just the abbreviated themed After Hours event. We loved it but I'm seriously looking forward to a full Christmas party though. And we've never done Jollywood Nights

 

[Wicked Sisters]

A cousin I've never met in person will be arriving in WDW right before we leave so I'm trying to make plans to meet up with her. Fingers crossed! I'm really hoping that the boats between POR and DS will be running while we're there to make transfers so much easier. I missed them not running in May because the lines for the POR were always so long at DS! Never did get the beignets. I realized that I also have to find time to resort hop between the resorts to see the Christmas decorations. I guess Epcot day will be the resorts there. I'll see the decor at AKL during Boma day. The GF and Poly either before MVMCP or Ohana day if I'm lucky enough to get an ADR. Any other Christmas decorated resort lobbies that I should try and see while there?

A cousin I've never met in person will be arriving in WDW right before we leave so I'm trying to make plans to meet up with her. Fingers crossed! I'm really hoping that the boats between POR and DS will be running while we're there to make transfers so much easier. I missed them not running in May because the lines for the POR were always so long at DS! Never did get the beignets. I realized that I also have to find time to resort hop between the resorts to see the Christmas decorations. I guess Epcot day will be the resorts there. I'll see the decor at AKL during Boma day. The GF and Poly either before MVMCP or Ohana day if I'm lucky enough to get an ADR. Any other Christmas decorated resort lobbies that I should try and see while there?

Wilderness Lodge looks like it’s really beautiful at Christmas by people’s photos. To me it looks amazing anytime as well.

 

[LeighM]

I feel so sad for you that your in laws don’t understand how you are feeling. My heart goes out to you.

I've learned to expect nothing from them after over 20 years with my husband. I closed the door to any closer relationship after my experience on the first Thanksgiving without my family. I feel bad for my husband though that his family and wife are so distant because I know it bothers him.

Wilderness Lodge looks like it’s really beautiful at Christmas by people’s photos. To me it looks amazing anytime as well.

That's where she's actually staying so I'm trying to figure out if we can make the timing work. She's arriving on Thursday, on my Epcot day, and then there's only Friday before I leave on Saturday. She didn't even know I existed until 8 years ago and always thought she was her grandmother's youngest grandchild. While technically I AM the youngest, I told her she could keep the title as she was the one with the relationship But our love of Disney World is the one thing that we actually have in common LOL. Well, besides our crazy anxieties and ability to hold a grudge like no one's business! Which proves how crazy what can actually be inherited.....

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

You should try to see the Yacht & Beach Club lobbies as well as the GF. Those are my favorites.

 

[LeighM]

You should try to see the Yacht & Beach Club lobbies as well as the GF. Those are my favorites.

Which Epcot resort had the gingerbread carousel? Because I think I meant to go to that one in 2021 and got distracted

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

Which Epcot resort had the gingerbread carousel? Because I think I meant to go to that one in 2021 and got distracted

Beach Club has the gingerbread carousel. Yacht Club in the past has had a large Christmas village, with a train, set up and I think last year they added a gingerbread lighthouse to the lobby.

 

[LeighM]

Beach Club has the gingerbread carousel. Yacht Club in the past has had a large Christmas village, with a train, set up and I think last year they added a gingerbread lighthouse to the lobby.

Then that's one that I definitely want to try and visit while at Epcot. I'm debating whether I want to do Candlelight Processional but I'm waiting to see who the guest speakers are. I wanted to do that in 2021 but it was so hot and crowded that day that we decided against it.

 

[rshell68]

No hospital visits this time please!!

 

[LeighM]

No hospital visits this time please!!

Right?! LOL. I did buy trip insurance again just in case

 

[Swissmiss]

Right?! LOL. I did buy trip insurance again just in case

I’m just curious, do they not sell annual travel insurance in the US? Because when I looked into buying insurance for a trip once, I realized that it would cost the same (or possibly even more) than an annual travel policy, so I ended up getting that (and don’t need to worry about each individual trip any more).

 

[LeighM]

I’m just curious, do they not sell annual travel insurance in the US? Because when I looked into buying insurance for a trip once, I realized that it would cost the same (or possibly even less) than an annual travel policy, so I ended up getting that (and don’t need to worry about each individual trip any more).

I'm not sure whether they do or not. It's never been something that I would need as we usually only do one vacation a year. And we haven't taken an annual vacation since 2019. We're trying to plan our future vacations for 2025-2026. I want my first cruise with DCL in case it's the only one I can take due to sea sickness, etc. And I want to go to Vermont one autumn and he wants to go to Europe - either Spain (where his PR family was from originally) or Italy. So we need to sit down and see costs, budgets, etc. and prioritize to determine how it might work with whatever new house we are lucky enough to find. Depending on the house and economy, this December trip might be our last vacation for another long while

 

[Swissmiss]

I'm not sure whether they do or not. It's never been something that I would need as we usually only do one vacation a year. And we haven't taken an annual vacation since 2019. We're trying to plan our future vacations for 2025-2026. I want my first cruise with DCL in case it's the only one I can take due to sea sickness, etc. And I want to go to Vermont one autumn and he wants to go to Europe - either Spain (where his PR family was from originally) or Italy. So we need to sit down and see costs, budgets, etc. and prioritize to determine how it might work with whatever new house we are lucky enough to find. Depending on the house and economy, this December trip might be our last vacation for another long while

Just fixed my rather important error in my own post - I meant to say that a one trip policy was going to cost me the same or MORE than an annual policy.

 

[LeighM]

I requested hard copy tickets for the special events in December just to have more "free" momentos They finally arrived and I'm happy with the ones we received. It's actually feeling real now. Just a little over 4 months remaining. I'm beyond annoyed that JetBlue had to change their baggage policy (shoot, I haven't even gotten over their change in their boarding procedure!). I hate all the constant money grabbing and upselling. I tried getting the husband to agree to a road trip but he refused. I guess a 12+ hour drive over Thanksgiving holiday wasn't appealing to him LOL.

 

[Disstevefan1]

Is it bad that I'm trying to go into this trip with low expectations so that I don't have as much disappointment?

This is my methodology. We always go into a trip to WDW with low expectations such that if things just go OK I am more than happy.

 

[LeighM]

Long story short - JetBlue changed my flight info so I'm no longer on the first flight out. They cancelled the original reservations and booked me on the 2nd flight out which was at the same time. But I wanted the first flight out but I couldn't change it without cancelling the entire booking because I partially paid with points, but I couldn't cancel without paying almost double for the return trip back home. So I thought to extend my stay at WDW by one night and take the early flight out on Sunday morning. The Mears pick up time would be at 3AM. I called them to see if I could extend my stay at POR for one night - nope, booked. They were willing to extend the bounce back offer to me but the only rooms available were the expensive suites. Nope, not an option. There are some discounted rooms at a value for $230/night but that's too expensive for less than 12 hours in the room. Then I thought about one less night at POR and add Friday/Saturday nights somewhere else. No rooms available anywhere with the discounted rooms, just limited rack rate rooms. I asked the CM on the phone what the heck was happening that week, esp since Pop Warner is at Universal, and she said she had no danged idea but she's never seen anything like it before as that week is a historically low crowd one. She can only assume there are a lot of conferences booked around the resort. So now, I'm thinking the week is going to be a really busy one. Reminding myself - keep expectations low LOL.

 

[LeighM]

Since this is an election year and my husband's big family Thanksgiving, I tried to convince him to start our vacation early and spend Thanksgiving at WDW but so far I have been unsuccessful LOL. My doctor can probably prescribe me something really relaxing It seems like election year holidays are always the worse! But I went ahead and purchased Memory Maker (fingers crossed we don't get rained out) and Mears transport. Has anyone ever had pics taken at the photo studio in Disney Springs? I'm going to do my best to not forget to utilize it this trip

 

[Tiki Traveler]

Since this is an election year and my husband's big family Thanksgiving, I tried to convince him to start our vacation early and spend Thanksgiving at WDW but so far I have been unsuccessful LOL. My doctor can probably prescribe me something really relaxing It seems like election year holidays are always the worse! But I went ahead and purchased Memory Maker (fingers crossed we don't get rained out) and Mears transport. Has anyone ever had pics taken at the photo studio in Disney Springs? I'm going to do my best to not forget to utilize it this t

Trip Report - 50 Firsts for the 50th Anniversary *Completed*

Hi Everyone! First time trip reporter here. This is all I expected for DW’s 50th Anniversary. I even sent a text to my children in college about how we were celebrating the 50th Anniversary via Happy Meals. But dreams do come true and in November 2022 my DH annd I were able to experience the...

forums.wdwmagic.com

DH and I had photos taken there in Nov. 22. Above is the link to the trip report.

Some thoughts:

- I believe you can choose five backgrounds. They will suggest backgrounds to move things along. I suggested one specific background and they did incorporate it.
- If we do it again I am going to have everyone (which may be just DH and me) pick favorite backgrounds beforehand. I love the Tiki Room so it would be fun to have that!
- For the “real“ seasonal background be aware of your posture. They had us sit on a bench and all the shots were bad. We definitely weren’t looking our best.

It’s free so why not have some fun w/it!

 

[pkkurz]

Since this is an election year and my husband's big family Thanksgiving, I tried to convince him to start our vacation early and spend Thanksgiving at WDW but so far I have been unsuccessful LOL. My doctor can probably prescribe me something really relaxing It seems like election year holidays are always the worse! But I went ahead and purchased Memory Maker (fingers crossed we don't get rained out) and Mears transport. Has anyone ever had pics taken at the photo studio in Disney Springs? I'm going to do my best to not forget to utilize it this trip

We did in 2019. Lots of fun.

 

[LeighM]

Great pictures! I definitely want to do this during our trip. The trip totally snuck up on me and I am woefully unprepared!!! But at least I'm setting the bar low this trip LOL. Things have NOT been going smoothly over here so it is what it is at this point. At least I finished my prednisone treatment before the trip I'm trying to figure out what I want to do on our Epcot day. I'm currently one of those reservation hoarders. I have an early lunch ADR for Space 220, a late lunch at Spice Road Table for the Candlelight Processional, and a normal dinner time for Biergarten. The husband said he wasn't sure he wanted to see the Processional and I'm feeling indifferent towards all of it. I've always wanted to do Biergarten during the holidays because of the setting and the show but I'm concerned it's going to be too crowded due to the CP dinner packages. Anyone been there recently that can talk about Biergarten?

 

[LeighM]

I do plan on doing a trip report but it will be slow going. I'm having technology issues again. By the time I'm able to get this thing finished, I won't remember much of anything LOL. I kept having pen issues and wasn't able to write in my travel journal but for one night. Thanks to the frigid weather while we were there, I didn't end up in the ER so that's a major positive There were a few lows while we were there but for the most part it was a very good trip! It wasn't as magical to me as the December 2021 trip but still one of my favorite trips. R said it was because we stayed at Riverside again, and he probably isn't wrong! We're now thinking of planning a Disney Cruise and I have a bounceback offer booked for September just in case. Although, I am thinking about changing it to the week before Christmas based on what looks like low waits at the parks this week! Anyone else stalk the MDE app to check wait times after returning from a trip? Or is that just me??

 

[LeighM]

Day 1 - Travel and Jollywood Nights

Leading up to the trip, I had to do a full house cleaning and multiple loads of laundry. I wasn't going to put up any Christmas trees this year but I saw a pink/rose gold flower set at Home Goods that I fell in love with so I had to use them in a new color theme this year.

I finally got my pink ornament tree!!! I used the more classic colors on the upstairs pencil tree.

We have a lot of our Disney items in the upstairs loft. I like how Olaf is peaking around the Christmas tree

I had to take something to get me to sleep since I never can the night before a flight and it was going to be a loooooong day ahead. And it worked! We were up at 5:30AM and out of the house by 6:30AM. We were leaving on a Monday morning so we were trying to avoid rush hour traffic around Richmond. We had no issues and arrived at RIC on time, found a great parking spot in the garage, and walked right to TSA PreCheck. The expected colder weather changed up our packing plans and I had to take both a personal item and carry on because I ordered my self the wrong packing cubes - but R got everything to fit using the correct cubes I purchased for him so he only had the personal item. It was a full flight and I refused to pay extra for early boarding but we still got C boarding group.

The plane boarded on time and it was a full flight. We had a nice stranger in our row who wasn't weird at all (unlike the woman on the return flight but that is for another day!).

I remembered to bring my extra earphones for R so he watched the new Beetlejuice movie while I watched Dirty Dancing. We landed a little bit early. And here's the shocker!!! For once, no one immediately stood up when the plane stopped. No one crowded the aisle trying to get off first. No butts in faces. Everyone stayed seated until it was their turn to get carry ons and leave. It was the most polite and orderly process that I've ever seen! R was totally speechless. It was a great way to end a smooth flight.

We made our way thru Terminal C to find the Mears area.

There were only a few groups waiting. Unfortunately for us, we had to wait 45 minutes for our bus!! We saw other resort buses come and go multiple times. Why you wonder? We got stuck waiting for someone who paid to Express to go to POR. And we had to wait for them to land. As soon as they arrived in the area, the POR bus came within 10 minutes and we got to be dropped off first. And I made sure R and I got on the bus before them since we had to wait so dang long

The drive to POR didn't last long at all but I really do miss the Magical Express. These Mears buses just don't do it for me. Soon, we were pulling into the drive.

We still didn't have our room assignment so we had to get into the line in the lobby. I remember when they had CM's at every station helping guests and today they only had 3. While waiting, we got the room assignment but since we were next in line, we stayed to get our buttons and room key for a souvenir. I had requested building 85 to not be in one of the pet buildings. When I booked the room, I booked the category that used to be Alligator Bayou but they have changed the categories again so I had to be in one of the mansion buildings. And I do love 85.

I still remember our very first visit here in 2012 and how wowed I was by the lobby. I still am and it feels like we're home whenever we step through those doors!

We made our way to our room. It was in a great location close to both brides - short walk to the bridge to Ole Man Island when we wanted QS, a short walk to the other bridge if we wanted to take the boat to DS or walk to POFQ, and close to the East Depot.

The room is starting to show it's age and needs to be refurbished but everything was clean and the beds and pillows were comfy. We also didn't have a connecting door and that made my quiet loving heart happy! I had to rush to shower and get ready since it was going to be a late night at HS. After making record time, we were on our way to DS so that R could get his Polite Pig as the first meal of the trip.

Up next - Disney Springs, resort hopping, and Jollywood Nights.