10th Anniversary DVC Christmas Trip Report

Dec. 4
We start out at MK for rope drop (of course). I LOVE being at the park first thing in the morning. The energy is just amazing. This is a pretty chill day for us with the biggest morning plan being lunch at Pinocchio's Village Haus. Benn has been waiting to try these flatbreads that I have been raving about. I'm a super big fan of a Caprese salad and to be able to get this flavor on a super convenient flatbread at counter service prices is aces for me. This is a nap/pool break day and we'll probably pop over to Earl of Sandwich to grab dinner before going to see the Osbourne Lights for the first time!

Dec. 5
Rope Drop at MK at 8am (yay morning magic hours!!) I don't care if we have to stand in line at 8 in the morning. This is Be Our Guest lunch day. We'll also plan to catch the Dapper Dans and the Casey's Corner Pianist before we break for nap/pool. The evening is slated for EPCOT where we'll probably just grab some dinner at Sunshine Seasons between our future world FastPass+ reservations. My must-see if we haven't managed to catch them yet is the 7:15 Jeweled Dragon Acrobats performance. (I coach gymnastics, so stuff like this is a really big deal for me.)

Dec. 6
All day at Hollywood Studios most likely. Lunch at Pizza Planet (once again for the simple fact that Benn has never been and he loves pizza and arcades). Dinner probably at ABC Commissary. We'll probably see Fantasmic! on the 6th and try to catch Osbourne Lights again. The evening here could be kind of a crap shoot because it is a MVMCP night and the folks from DISUnplugged have rented out Pixar Place for their annual DISapalooza event and I'm not sure what time that area of the park will begin to shut down to accommodate the event and if other areas will be impacted. Maybe we'll just make this an early night.

Dec. 7
Our one and only Animal Kingdom day. We are planning to see Festival of the Lion King and try Dinosaur, both of which are new to us. We're trying to find a reason other than Kilimanjaro Safaris to go to AK. We've just not been that impressed with this park, which is weird because we both love animals and we love to go to the zoo and we find African and Asian culture interesting. I'm just not sure why this park has not resonated with us in the past. I've heard that the Jingle Jungle Parade is a don't miss, so we're planning on hanging around for that. After the parade, we'll probably hit Bahama Breeze again for dinner and then head to DTD or maybe back to DisneyQuest if it's awesome or maybe go hit some mini golf at Fantasia Gardens. We have a car on property because of using it to transport the boys on our arrival day, so I feel obligated to make use of it.

Dec. 8
This is an EPCOT rope drop day. Our FastPasses are for Test Track, Soarin', and Maelstrom (I know, it's a weird choice since the wait is only ever like 5 minutes, but we don't do Mission Space *shudder*, once per trip is enough for The Seas and EPCOT character spot, and we've seen Spaceship Earth plenty of times, so Maelstrom is basically all that's left. Dear Disney, maybe we could put something besides the 40-minute nap at the Universe of Energy? Or maybe we could put something in the Wonders of Life Pavilion or create Horizons 2.0?) This is our last EPCOT day and we are pretty much spending the entire day between EPCOT and Boardwalk. The goal is to see any remaining holiday storytellers and to see the Boardwalk are hotels decked out for Christmas. We'll probably do lunch at Boulangerie & Patisserie in France and dinner at La Cantina de San Angel because I love Mexican food and I think their "drawer full of churros" is hilarious.

Dec. 9
This is Benn's sleep-in day. We may head over to Magic Kingdom early, but probably we will start the day with our ADR at 1900 Park Fare at 11:15. I've been very excited about doing this particular character meal because it's Mary Poppins and Alice at the same place and there's pretty much nothing better in my world. This is also the day that we intend to see the Christmas decorations at the monorail resorts and the Wilderness Lodge. Our FastPasses are for BTMR, Splash (which we may not use pending weather), and the Rapunzel Meet & Greet. We may spend some time playing Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom and we'll probably just grab a hotdog at Casey's for dinner. On the to-do list for the evening are the Main Street Electrical Parade, the castle projection show, and Wishes! because this is our last night in WDW and I can't think of any better way to spend it.

Dec. 10
Finishing up our trip at Hollywood Studios most likely. We'll at the very least take one more ride on Toy Story and Star Tours before we head home. We have an 8:10pm flight, so we may end up hopping to another park for a bit. I have some FastPasses scheduled, but Touring Plans is predicting a crowd level of 2 and it's a Tuesday in early December. I'm thinking that even without FastPass, lines are not likely to be an issue.

Thanks for reading and indulging my procrastination posts. I should probably try to get some work done so that I can go on vacation in peace!! Trip report to follow some time before Christmas!

I know, right! It's worse than waiting for Christmas when you're a kid!! Have a fantastic trip, disneydoc! How long are you staying? I think if I remember correctly from mrhub's meet up posts that we're just going to miss each other.

Bahama Breeze is very good. The food tastes reasonably fresh and they have a lovely outdoor seating area (though maybe not for December!) It's close to Downtown Disney, so it's not too far to drive off property. I was in Orlando for "work" in June and we ate there three times! If you're renting a car, it's a great way to save a few dining dollars and still get good food. The only caveat is that the traffic on and off the exit gets a little hairy at times and the congestion seem to be kind of random.

That's a bummer, Annie. Hope you have a great trip, too and we'll try to catch you another time!

Thanks everyone! We'll be ticking over to the one-week mark in just over 30 minutes. Unfortunately, it's going to be an eventful week. I'm hosting one of those infernal direct sale jewelry parties on Sunday. I have two major real estate appointments on Monday. My grandmother's "boyfriend" passed away yesterday and the funeral is on Tuesday. My dad is doing cardiac testing and probably getting another stent on Wednesday. Thursday is Thanksgiving. Friday is deal with whatever crap I missed during the week. Saturday we fly!!

We've made a few last minute adjustments as we close in on the 3-day mark!!

We'll be trying to meet up with MagicMirror at MVMCP on Tuesday, Dec. 3 and on Sunday, Dec. 8, we're probably going to pop over to HS and try to meet up with karlipants areound Osbourne Lights.

I've been anticipating this trip for 17 months and I can't wait to have feet on the ground in Florida!

To quote my dear friend Peter Pan, "here we goooo!!!" (Incidentally, Peter Pan's Flight is always our first ride at Magic Kingdom.)

DAY 1: November 30

The week leading up to our trip was insane. On Sunday, Nov. 26, I had 20 ladies over to the house for a jewelry demonstration, which means that the weekend was spent cleaning the house, preparing the food, exerting the energy required to be a good hostess, etc. Our best friends just moved into their new house, so right after the party, we went to see how they were coming along with their unpacking. On Monday, I did two listing appointments and finalized paperwork on a third listing. My grandmother's boyfriend had passed away the week before, so on Tuesday, we attended his funeral and I did a showing on one of the houses I had just listed. On Wednesday, my dad had minor heart surgery. Somewhere in between I put together three virtual tours, shot and uploaded pictures of my new listings (in three different towns, of course), placed signs and lockboxes, and coached my regular 13.5 hour weekly schedule at our local gymnastics center. There was no way I was flying to Disney before I had seen Frozen, so we hit the theater at 9:30 Wednesday night. Thursday was Thanksgiving. We decided to divide and conquer this year, so Benn spent the day with his family in Maryland and I spent the day with my family in PA. Friday is kind of a blur. I showed the house a second time, did some last minute trip shopping, packed at some point, attempted to finish more of the Christmas shopping, finalized trip plans, organized travel documents, etc. Needless to say, when I finally got the opportunity, I slept in on Saturday morning! I actually ended up being glad that the cheapest flight I could get didn't take off until almost 3pm--especially since it takes us at least an hour to get to the closest airport. Luckily my parents had offered to drive us so we didn't need to allow extra time for parking. Our flight took off on time and it was smooth sailing to MCO. I actually fell asleep on the plane for the first time ever. (I only started flying three years ago and I still don't love the idea, but I was so exhausted that I didn't even care that we were hovering way above the ground and we were only a critical hit by a bird or an engine failure away from certain death.)

When we arrived at MCO, we proceeded directly to the Dollar Car Rental desk. No Magical Express for us this trip! We had our own "bus" for the week. When they called this thing a "compact", they weren't messing around. It was almost as compact as a tin can, so we named it "the bus". From there, we drove north to pick up my dear friend Jordan who is a student at Full Sail University. He's a poor college student at the moment, so the only way we were going to get to see him is if we rented a car. We picked up Jordan and his boyfriend, Greg, and took them for groceries (and took ourselves for groceries). Originally, we were trying to get a dinner reservation for Planet Hollywood, but we decided to do it too late and I couldn't get an ADR. SO then the plan was to stop for dinner at Bahama Breeze and go up to Top of the World Lounge for fireworks. Well, travel time was a little bit longer than I had estimated and grocery shopping takes longer when you're not familiar with the store, so we were running short on time to make it to wishes. Burger King it is! Once were were fed and checked in, we headed over to Bay Lake Tower.

Driving and parking at BLT was so fast and easy! We had a parking pass for Saratoga Springs, so the guard waved us right in and we had no trouble finding a parking space. Thus began our week of feeling like VIP's. When we walked into the lobby and inquired about directions to Top of the World, we were carded (for our DVC member card, not our ID's) and given a ticket or some sort that we had to present to a person at a second checkpoint to gain access to the lounge. The lounge is small, but very nice. There was plenty of room for the crowd that had gathered that evening and the terrace is just beautiful. If you go up to Top of the World, I would recommend taking a light jacket or a sweatshirt because it was the one time during the week that I was chilly. In the pictures, we look very far away from MK, but it looks so close in person, especially since we are used to watching Wishes from all the way over at the Polynesian beach. We were close enough to actually see the castle transform during the Celebrate the Magic projection show.

After Wishes, we did the monorail resorts tour, looked at the Gingerbread tree and house (more on those later) and stopped at Polynesian for a Dole Whip. It was a great way to share some Disney magic with our friends without them having to buy a park ticket. We drove Jordan and Greg back to Winter Park and made out way back to Saratoga. At around 1am, we finally took a moment to study our surroundings and noticed that our studio room was substantially nicer than any other room we had ever rented on Disney property. Our private balcony (don't get those at the moderates!) overlooked one of the springs in "The Springs" section. Also, our room was the closest to the stairs and only two rooms away from the elevator. We were fortunate to have plentiful parking directly in front of our section all week and our building was very close to the check-in building/Artist's Palette food and shopping. We bought points here on resale and after reading up on the various DVC properties, I was hoping that we would be able to transfer our points all the time and would never have to actually stay here, but I was VERY pleasantly surprised by how much we both loved it here. We didn't have too much time to gush over our amazing room because it was time to rest up for park #1: Magic Kingdom!!

Preview	Attachment	Size
	"The Bus"	3.49 MB
	MK from Top of the World	1.84 MB
	GF Christmas Tree	2.4 MB
	Saratoga Springs	4.01 MB
	Saratoga Room	3.33 MB
	Saratoga Room View	3.59 MB

LOL!! We actually really grew to love this little car by the end of our stay and having a car on property was AWESOME! We had considered renting it for the day that we were seeing Jordan and then returning and taking Magical Express to the resort, but I'm so glad that we kept it. We had such a great time and the little car took on a personality all its own.

Hey Karli! That's awesome! What was your major and are you doing something with it?

I know the feeling, Karli. I graduated with a BA in Economics and I was so excited to get a job offer at the Federal Reserve "in my field." Dream job right? Not so much. Turns out it was in IT (seriously not my forte. i went to staff meetings and I was pretty sure that people were speaking a foreign language). My job function wasn't really IT related the salary was great relative to my home town, but cost of living was 3xs more! Also, it was boring. A not-very-well-trained monkey could have done my job with ease and there were very few days that I had more than 2-3 hours of real work to do. I'm much happier working out of my field in a place where I feel needed and I feel like I make a difference and where my pay is decent relative to the cost of living and I can afford to go to Disney!!

My friend, Jordan, is in Cinematography. I think he really has a talent for it and I hope he can get through all of the road blocks in the film industry and actually use his education. It's all he's ever wanted to do and he could be great someday!

DAY 2: December 1

We took the big bus today instead of our little bus. We were park hopping including MK and the whole parking at TTC makes taking the Disney bus an attractive offer.

MAGIC KINGDOM!!!! We decided to start at Magic Kingdom not only because it is our favorite park, but also because this was the only day of our trip when It's a Small World would be open. The first MK ride of any trip is always Peter Pan's Flight. It's our favorite non-thrill ride and with the line that forms there all day long, it's best tackled first thing!! We got to see some special Disney magic while we waited for our ride. There was a cutest little boy in front of us who was dressed as Peter Pan donning both a birthday button and a first visit button. His face was happier than anyone's I think I've ever seen! Here he was on his birthday on his first Disney trip riding his hero's ride. So sweet.

For convenience (and to kill time before our first ever FP+, we hit It's a Small World next. I love this ride because it makes me feel like I'm taking a trip through time because there is so much Disney history about the creation of the ride and it's so immersive and beautifully done. Benn used to hate Small World, but he's coming around! Our first FP+ was for Enchanted Tales with Belle and I picked it largely because I wasn't sure how "little kid-ish" it was going to be and I didn't want to wait an hour and then be disappointed--I especially didn't want to wait and then have Benn disappointed. He loves Disney, but not nearly as much as I do and if something is borderline cheesy, he's out. Well, we were pleasantly surprised to discover that there is plenty of fantastic storytelling, charm, and character to be equally entertaining to children and adults. Our second FP+ was for Under the Sea and my first impression holds. I wouldn't wait in line for this ride. I have an appreciation for the creativity and craftsmanship (I do like the enhanced animatronic technology) that went into every aspect of this ride, but I remain underwhelmed and uninspired by a ride through that is all too similar to The Seas with Nemo. Call my nostalgic, but I still like Snow White's Scary Adventures better. Our last FP+ for the day was Big Thunder Mountain--my favorite Disney coaster. I'm going to say that I rode it 5 times this trip. I haven't counted officially, but that sounds accurate. We hopped a quick ride on Pirates and then headed off for EPCOT!

Lunch was at Biergarten (YUMM!!!) with the reserved seating for that night's Candlelight Processional with Gary Sinise. I'm not a huge regular fish fan except for Salmon, but there was a Cod dish on the buffet that was fabulous. Then of course there's my real reason for choosing Biergarten--Schnitzel and Meatballs!! We also particularly enjoyed the Christmas flair to the entertainment. After lunch, we stopped to see Helga, the holiday storyteller in Germany. She was just magnificent. It doesn't hurt that her presentation was about my favorite holiday story--The Nutcracker.

Next we were off to Italy and we happened to catch Sergio the Juggler who was just delightful. Then while we waited for La Befana, the Christmas Witch, we were treated to the Ziti Sisters who not only entertained us, but upon learning that we were celebrating our 10th anniversary, staged an impromptu vow renewal for us!! This turned out to be one of the highlights of our trip! La Befana was also amazing. I gained a new appreciation for the Italian pavilion on this trip. We usually don't eat Italian food out; we don't drink wine (although I made an exception on this trip--that's another day); and neither of us care for overwhelming perfumes, so we usually swing by Italy, snap a few pictures to prove we were there, and then go get bratwurst.

Those of you following along on your World Showcase map can probably figure out that the American pavilion was next. The Hanukah storyteller was one of the weaker presentations that we saw. The story is interesting, but the presenter that we happened to see was a bit sing-songy and over smiley. Voices of Liberty, on the other hand, was magnificent.

We caught the tale of the Daruma and other New Year's traditions in Japan and then realized how long the dining package line already was for Candlelight and decided to get in line! Candlelight Processional was lovely and quite impressive. I don't know that I would devote that much of my trip to doing it again. I did choir/chorus for a long time and I much more enjoy singing along than listening. Just like I don't like to go to the symphony. I don't think that my ears are finely tuned enough to care about the difference in quality between recorded music and live music and I get antsy sitting and listening for a long time. So, I can appreciate Candlelight for the splendor that it is and I'm glad we saw it, but it wouldn't top my list of must-do agains.

Making our way around the rest of the World Showcase, we listened to the story of Ramadan in Morocco with a very engaging storyteller. This is one of my must-see recommendations for the holidays. The storytellers are great in general, but the man who was presenting in Morocco was fabulous! Afterwards, we stopped for dinner at Tangierine Cafe. We split a chicken and lamb combo platter and it was quite tasty. I prefer other EPCOT counter service, but it was a nice change of pace.

We caught Father Christmas and British Revolution in UK and saw O'Canada before heading back to Saratoga Springs. We skipped IllumiNations to beat the park close rush because we had a FP+ for reserved viewing later in the week.

Pictures to follow...