Pre-Trip Who wants only ONE "once in a lifetime" Disney Christmas trip??!?!? We're going back baby!

Hello all my fellow Disney fans!

This is my first ever attempt at a pre-trip report but I loved writing my previous trip reports so much...

Find them here-

http://forums.wdwmagic.com/threads/...tsburgh-were-going-to-disney-world-tr.880815/

And here-

http://forums.wdwmagic.com/threads/...inally-had-our-disney-christmas-☀️☃☀️.908159/

...that I thought I would try my hand at a Pre-trip report this time! I'm desperately looking for ways to pass the time while waiting for our trip to hurry up and get here, so hopefully this will help. I can only look over our resort reservations and ADR's so many times!!!!!


So here are some details-

Who- myself, Michelle and my two kids Calvin age 8 and Claire age 6, my best friend Amy, and her two youngest kids Leionna age 12 and Landon age 9.
Here's Amy and I celebrating our birthday this year (mine is March 6th and hers is the 7th)

And here's Calvin, Claire, Leionna and Landon from last December-

We all went last year in December with the addition of Amy's husband and oldest daughter. We had been wishing that we could go again at Christmastime, but had been putting it off as we had said it would be a one time trip when we went the first time. Well, then we found out that Amy's husband had to go 8 hours away for 8 weeks this coming October and November for training since he had gotten a promotion to lieutenant in the fire department. My husband likes Disney when we go, but he doesn't love it like we do, and also he's a teacher and doesn't like to ask for days off other than our school breaks.

So we decided it would be the perfect time to go on a girls trip with just us and the kids! Amy's oldest is starting college next month and she can't get away for this trip so it's just the six of us.

When - November 12th - 22nd

Where - This is the part where I can barely contain how excited I am!!!!!
We decided on a whim to try to rent DVC points for a 2 bedroom villa instead of two hotel rooms. Well, we never thought we would get it, but Amy and I have both always wanted to stay at a monorail resort and last minute, the DVC Rental Store came through for us with a theme park view 2 bedroom villa at Bay Lake!!!!!! For less than what we paid for 2 rooms at the Beach Club last year! We were shocked as we had put the request in over a month before and didn't think we were going to get anything. I AM SO EXCITED FOR THIS RESORT! We have only ever stayed at Beach Club and Animal Kingdom Lodge and I cannot wait until we can just walk on over to the Magic Kingdom!

So we were staying at Bay Lake Tower from 11/12 - 11/19. Which is amazing and I'm so excited for it. But when we were planning at first, I had really wanted to stay at Wilderness Lodge. I fell in love with the lobby last year when we had lunch at Whispering Canyon Cafe. But once we got Bay Lake, I put Wilderness Lodge out of my mind.
But then....... we got a pin code and decided to add three nights onto the end of our trip and stay in connecting rooms with bunk beds at Wilderness Lodge!!!!

I can't even begin to explain how excited I am for this trip!!! We are surprising the kids with it, and it is getting harder and harder to keep this secret!

 

[myhappyplace]

Can't wait to read this!!! Don't know how soon after your trip that you'll be starting your report, but hubby and I are staying at Bay Lake for the first time starting 12/1, but no pressure

Loved your report last time, I remember loving your custom shirts you wore on your adorable kiddos!!

 

[mishel635]

Can't wait to read this!!! Don't know how soon after your trip that you'll be starting your report, but hubby and I are staying at Bay Lake for the first time starting 12/1, but no pressure

Loved your report last time, I remember loving your custom shirts you wore on your adorable kiddos!!

Thanks! Hopefully I will start my trip report before you are there!! And I am already having some matching shirts made for this trip as well!

 

[mishel635]

Luckily we were able to get most of our ADR's but we are still trying for a Cinderella's Royal Table dinner and Hoop de Doo dinner as well.
We have the deluxe dining as we have kids who are very good eaters and we consider our sit down meals a nice break and a big part of our vacation. Plus we like to do a few 2 credit meals every trip.

Here's what we have so far-

Saturday 11/12 -

Flight from Buffalo lands at 9:50am

Lunch- Chef Mickey's at 12:00pm

Dinner- Quick Service (hopefully at the pool!)

Pirates and Pals Fireworks Voyage at 8:30 (my kids and I have never done this before so I'm super excited! They (we ) are Peter Pan obsessed too and have never met Peter Pan, Captain Hook or Smee before so I cannot wait for this! I actually threw them a Peter Pan themed birthday when they turned 3 and 5. Here's some pics-

My kids have been wanting to do this cruise since they heard about it a couple years ago so they are going to go crazy when they find out we are finally going!


Sunday 11/13-

Breakfast at Ohana 9:25am
Amy and her kids have done this before but my kids have only had dinner at Ohana. Can't wait to meet Lilo and Stitch!

Lunch- QS at the pool if the weather cooperates

Dinner- 1900 Park Fare at 4:00pm
My family has never done this. So excited to meet Lady Tremaine and her daughters. I hear they're hilarious!
And then we are heading to our first Mickey's Very Merry Christmas party of the trip!!!!

One of the reasons we are going again at Christmas was because we wanted to be able to do more than one Christmas party. Last year we were able to see all of the shows except the Tomorrowland Christmas Show and we didn't get up close for the castle lighting show because we had spots on Main St for the parade. But we didn't get to meet any of the characters. There just wasn't enough time. So this trip we are doing three Christmas parties! I know some people will think we are crazy but we all LOVED the Christmas party last year and it is worth it to us. We want to meet the Seven Dwarfs and Scrooge McDuck and Mary Poppins with Bert and the Penguins, and the Genie and Abu.... Wish us luck!!!!


Monday 11/14 Epcot day

Breakfast in the room- something small and quick because then we are heading to Epcot for the last day of the Food and Wine Festival!

Lunch- San Angel Inn at 11:45 mostly for the kids. Amy and I will be getting margaritas and snacking afterwards.

We will then be hopping on the monorail at 4:00 to the Polynesian for the kids to go to the Kids Club for the first time. That's another thing they've been asking to do but I always felt they were too young. Then Amy and I will be either heading to Trader Sams for a drink or two or back to Epcot and then to the Contemporary for sushi at California Grill and to watch Wishes. We have never been here before but hear it's amazing!

Tuesday 11/15

Quick breakfast in the room or grabbing something in the lobby. Then hopefully a pool day with QS at the pool and lounging before heading to our second Christmas party!

This is the night that we are trying to get a late lunch or early dinner at Cinderella's Royal Table. But we have a backup reservation at Kona Cafe and The Wave for now just in case. We can't decide between these two- does anyone who has been to either of them have any advice? We realize we may not be able to get CRT.

 

[Courtney6682]

WOW!! What an amazing trip you have planned!! The kids are too cute, can't wait to read more!
We use the kids clubs every trip...my daughter was 3 the first time she went and loved it. She's 16 now, but my 9 yr old step-daughter BEGS to go every night...LOVES IT!

 

[mishel635]

Okay. Sorry. Work keeps getting in the way of my pre-trip reporting!!!!!

So the rest of our plans so far are-

Wednesday 11/16 The new Disney Springs!

No park planned for today!

Breakfast at Chef Mickey's! I'm so excited to just walk over to the lobby for this ADR! It's the little things in life!

After breakfast we are planning to head over to Disney Springs to check out all the new shops and our old stand-bys- the Christmas shop, World of Disney, and our boys' favorite store- the Lego Store! We will most likely grab snacks throughout the day or something light and then we have-

An early dinner at T Rex! It's a bit loud for me for a restaurant, but the kids LOVE it! After dinner we are heading back to the resort to watch Wishes from our balconies! I heard they pipe the Wishes music into your room through a channel on theTV. I am so excited for this!!!

Thursday 11/17 Hollywood Studios

This is one of only two "morning til night" park days! We are planning on doing the Jedi training for our youngest three kiddos. Calvin is he only one who has done it before and he LOVED it! I have a feeling now that Claire has seen her brother do it, she will probably want to do it this time as well. She knew that Darth Maul was part of the show, and he is the one character out of all seven movies that she is actually afraid of, so she wouldn't do the training with Calvin last February. Our ADR's are-

Early breakfast at Hollywood and Vine. We realize the kids have mostly outgrown these shows (Claire still loves Sofia and Jake though) but we wanted the early ADR to get us in the park.

Lunch at 50's Primetime- none of us have eaten here before so it should be a good one!

Dinner at Minnie's Holiday Dinner at Hollywood and Vine. We did this last December and loved it! The food was really good, the character interaction was top notch, and we got to meet Santa Goofy!!!!! What's not to love???

Last December-

I can't lie though- I'm pretty bummed there are no Osborne Lights to look at this year-
But to look on the bright side (or I guess I should say "the light side" ) I am super excited to see the Symphony in the Stars for the first time! We are completely Star Wars obsessed at our house- my husband and I were both huge fans as kids in the 70's and 80's and we have passed the love of all things Star Wars on to both of our kids. Really pumped for the fireworks!

Friday 11/18 MVMCP

Our third and final Mickey's Very Merry Christmas party! Today we are having-

Breakfast at 1900 Park Fare- we LOVE Alice and the Mad Hatter (and also strawberry soup and Bananas Foster pancakes, and sticky buns!). Nope, not excited about this at all!

We are then planning on hopefully some pool time before heading to Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique in Cinderella's Castle followed by dinner in the Beast's castle at 4:00 for Be Our Guest! I we have all had lunch at Be Our Guest but never dinner. We cannot wait to meet the Beast!

I really need to sit down and figure out which shows to catch and which characters to meet at the different Christmas parties. Two of the character meet and greets (Seven Dwarfs and Sandy Claws) are about a 45 minute to an hour long wait so I want to plan to do those at the beginning of the party. Good thing I love planning our Disney trips almost as much as I love experiencing them!

Saturday 11/19

Today we are checking out of Bay Lake Tower (Boooooo! ). Buuuuuuut......... because Amy and I are crazy and Disney obsessed, instead of going on the Tragical Express on this day like we had originally planned, we will give our bags to Bell services and send them on over to
The Wilderness Lodge!!!! (Yaaaaaaay! )

We are going to head to The Polynesian for

Breakfast at Kona Cafe to try Tonga Toast for the first time!!!! I hear it's amazing!

We are then heading to Wilderness Lodge for a pool day.

Grabbing lunch at Whispering Canyon Cafe at 2:30, heading to Chip n Dale's singalong campfire for the first time. I hear this is really cute and we all LOVE Chip n Dale.

We made a reservation at Trails End for a late dinner at 7:45. Anyone been here before? Going to make it an early night, hopefully an evening swim.

Sunday 11/20 Animal Kingdom

We have an early Whispering Canyon Cafe breakfast ADR but we might cancel it and grab QS if the Wilderness Lodge quick service looks good. We are then heading to Animal Kingdom!

We have a lunch ADR at Yak n Yeti (another new one for us!)

Dinner at Tusker House which we have all done before and love getting to me Safari Donald and friends and joining them in the parade!

I am hoping that Rivers of Light has opened by November but we will have to cross our fingers, wait and see.

Monday 11/21 Epcot?

What we had hoped to do this day was grab a QS breakfast whenever we wake up and head to Epcot. We were then going to snack around the world for lunch while collecting passport stamps. We may still do all this. However for dinner, we had planned to do Hoop de Doo Revue but we haven't been able to get an ADR despite trying at 180 days at 6:00 am. We will just keep trying but so far, no dice!
So we made a backup ADR at Le Cellier. Amy loves it there but the kids and I have never been. I will keep trying every day for Hoop De Doo though. Wish me luck!

And then, the saddest day of our trip that I already don't even want to think about.... Check out day....

Tuesday 11/22 Epcot

We are planning to grab a QS breakfast and then head to Epcot.

Grabbing lunch at Garden Grill. We have had dinner here twice but never lunch.

Then we will hop on the monorail and grab dinner at my favorite- OHANA!!!!!

After that we will have to head back to Wilderness Lodge to get the Tragical Express. Our flight leaves at 10pm so I'm hoping we won't have to catch it until 7:00.

Obviously we still need to make our FastPasses. We have about 40 more days until we can make them and is it crazy that I'm REALLY happy I don't have to stay up until midnight this time?

I will keep posting on here - I have lots of questions and love tips and advice from fellow Disney fans!

 

[mishel635]

WOW!! What an amazing trip you have planned!! The kids are too cute, can't wait to read more!
We use the kids clubs every trip...my daughter was 3 the first time she went and loved it. She's 16 now, but my 9 yr old step-daughter BEGS to go every night...LOVES IT!

Thanks!!! I keep calling Amy and saying "Is this really real??? Are we seriously staying at Bay Lake AND Wilderness Lodge in three months?????" Still doesn't seem real!

That's good to hear about the Kids Club! I was a little nervous about it at first, but when the cast member was explaining the activities they do - crafts, science experiments, baking or decorating cookies, plus movies and video games and maybe a drop in by a character or two- all my worries went away!!!!
We can't wait for the kids to get to try it, and for Amy and I to have our first "adult" experience at the World!

 

[mishel635]

Doing the double digit dance allllll day long today!!!!!!

Woohoo!!!!!!!!

 

[FlaggNL]

Wow plans sounds and looks more than great! Enjoy the pre feelings as much as we always do!!

 

[mishel635]

Counting down til we can book our FastPasses! 6 more days!!!! Does anyone know if it's like ADR's as far as the split stay? Do we have to do our fastpassss for our first 7 night stay and then wait until the 60 day mark for our 3 night stay?

Also I have to share our first matching shirts-

SO excited!

 

[mishel635]

Fastpassses are booked! We got everything we wanted except Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. It's re-opening during our trip and there were no FastPasses available.

Also I don't normally complain, and I understand their purpose, but the FastPass tiers at Epcot are pretty frustrating. We are lucky enough to be going to Epcot twice so I got Frozen Ever After one day and Soarin the other day. We will just rush to Test Track first thing on one of our Epcot days and hope for a shorter line. But we're all set for Turtle Talk and Pixar short films and Journey with Figment thank goodness!

Also these came last week and made my day!!!!!!

We also had our shirts made for our first day when we fly out at 7:00 am-

Counting down the days and trying to be patient and keep this secret from my kids- who almost daily say "I can't wait til we can go to Disney again" or "the next time we get to go to Disney we should do (fill in the blank).

Also I figure if anyone can appreciate this, it's my fellow Disney obsessed people on here! My six year old has a unique career aspiration -

Although it does occasionally alternate with "Disney World bus driver".

 

[Matt and Kelly]

Wow great plans! The kids will be so excited. Hopefully you are able to book Cinderella's royal table. We rented dvc points this past trip for the Polynesian and it's amazing how much money you save doing it this way. Can't wait to hear all about it.

 

[mishel635]

Wow great plans! The kids will be so excited. Hopefully you are able to book Cinderella's royal table. We rented dvc points this past trip for the Polynesian and it's amazing how much money you save doing it this way. Can't wait to hear all about it.

Thanks! We actually were able to book Cinderella's last week with touring plan's reservation finder. SO happy!!!!
And I agree on renting points. This is the third time we've done it, with previous stays at Beach club and Animal Kingdom Lodge. Definitely the way to go if you can plan ahead of time!
Thanks for following along!

 

[mishel635]

Super exciting day today!!!! Look what came in the mail!

Also we decided to try the Jingle Bell dessert party. So on our Animal Kingdom day we will hop over to DHS for the dessert party.

And I have been calling EVERY DAY with no luck to change our Pirates and Pals cruise to another night so we can see the Star Wars fireworks on their last night 11/12. We haven't seen them yet and my Star Wars obsessed kids will LOVE them! I really want to do the Pirates and Pals cruise for the first time though so if I can't change dates, we will probably skip the fireworks.

Wish me luck!

 

[mishel635]

Cannot even believe my countdown is into the teens now!!!!!

Also we've gotten some more of our shirts-

Here's our shirts for the Pirates and Pals Firework Voyage-


Kids on the left, adults on the right-

We are still trying to get a different day for the Pirate cruise and also a Whispering Canyon Cafe dinner ADR. I keep expecting to get the same person every time I call to check!

 

[Jess G]

awesome!!!! we'll be in the world at the same time.. your plans look awesome!!!