Travel
— “to go on or as if on a trip or tour.”
-Merriam
Webster’s Dictionary
I got back from my Christmas trip well
over three months ago so this post is uber late, but I thought I would post it
anyway in case you’re ever thinking about going to Disney around Christmastime. I really enjoyed this trip so that also
influenced my decision to post this to share the joy of the trip. This was my first time going to Disney World
around Christmas, and I have to say this is probably my new favorite time to go
to Disney. I don’t think I’ll ever
forget this trip because it was so amazing!
Day
1: Arrival and Hollywood Studios
Of course, the first day of any vacation
involves traveling to the destination.
Because of the great flights we picked, my parents and I arrived in
Orlando around 10:30 in the morning so you can imagine how early in the morning
we left home. And after a hour drive, we
finally arrived at the Grand Floridian for our stay. I was so excited because it was the first
time I’ve ever seen the Grand decked out in all of its Christmas glory. And glorious it was. Every Disney hotel has a giant tree in the
lobby that matches the theme of the hotel itself. At check-in, our hotel room was ready, which
ended up being a slight upgrade. We also
grabbed some lunch, which included my favorite flatbread, from Gasparilla’s
Island Grill.
Our evening plans involved exploring the
newest addition to Walt Disney World:
Toy Story Land! I have been so
excited to visit this world since it was announced (even though I’m still said
they got rid of the Studio Backlot Tour).
After filling our tummies on the great food, we headed over to Hollywood
Studios and had our first glimpse of Toy Story Land. I was amazed!
It really did feel like you were shrunk to the size of toys and
transported into Andy’s backyard. We
only spent a little bit of time in Toy Story Land as we had FastPasses for the
Muppets and Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular.
I absolutely love watching the Indiana Jones show, and it never seems to
bore me after all of the times I’ve seen it.
We then returned to the land of all
things toys for our last FastPass of the day, Toy Story Mania. This is one of my mom and I’s favorite rides
at Disney. We then tried out Woody’s
Lunchbox, which has grilled cheese, brisket, and turkey sandwiches. It’s probably one of the best quick service
restaurants in Hollywood Studios. Because
of the popularity of the new rides in Toy Story Land, I couldn’t get a FastPass
for Slinky Dog Dash so we decided to wait in line for it. Let me tell you, it was totally worth the
hour and a half wait. Even my dad
thought so and he hates waiting in line for rides. If you go on it, you have to go on it in the
dark; it’s amazing! To finish out our
day in Hollywood Studios, we watched the Christmas show, Jingle Bell! Jingle
Bam!, which was really cute. It followed
two of Santa’s elves on a quest to find Santa in time for Christmas.
By the time the show was over, Hollywood
Studios was closed and everyone piled out of the park. Honestly, I’ve never stayed until park
closing so I wasn’t fully prepared for what ensued. It was really cool walking out of the park as
snow fell on Sunset Blvd. But once we
got out of the park, we found out the worst part of waiting until park close to
leave: the wait for buses back to our
hotel. Buses can only fit so many people
on them and they were not coming to the park as quickly as they needed to. However, our jammed packed first day was a success!
Day
2: Epcot
Most of our plans for this trip occurred
at night so the daily experience during this trip was very different. We woke up later and didn’t get to the parks
until the late morning/afternoon. Our
second day started with some great gluten free Mickey waffles from Gasparilla
Island Grill as usual and an exploration around the Grand Floridian to see all
of the Christmas decorations and the gingerbread house.
As of recently, it seems that we always
go to Epcot on our second day in Disney World.
Because of our lunch/dinner plans, I scheduled our FastPasses earlier in
the day for Living with the Land, Soarin’, and Journey Into Imagination with
Figment. I loved how Disney took the
whole theme of Christmas to heart in its decorations of Living with the Land. Poinsettias were abundant throughout the
ride, along with reindeer ears, presents, and Christmas trees. Disney’s level of detail is always on point.
We then made our way over to the World
Showcase for our dinner reservations at Biergarten as a part of the Candlelight
Processional Dining Package. My parents
and I had never eaten there before because we’re not super big into buffets,
but thought we would give it a try as it was one of the cheaper dining plan
options and other people had given it good reviews. We arrived and were promptly seated at a
communal table with two other parties.
When we made our reservations, I had indicated that I eat gluten-free,
and shortly after being seated, one of the chefs at the restaurant came over to
our table to discuss the gluten free options in the buffet. Surprisingly, I could eat a majority of it,
and the chef informed me he would provide me gluten free dessert options when I
was ready. I super enjoyed the food at
Biergarten, as did my parents even though my dad isn’t the biggest fan of
buffets. The buffet consisted of meat, fish,
potatoes, applesauce, pasta, salad, vegetables, etc. that were frequently refreshed
and tasted amazing.
At the top of every hour, the oompa band
came out to perform for the guests. We
were seated as close as you could get to the stage so we had a great view of
the show. I found this really
transported you into the having dinner in a courtyard during Oktoberfest vibe. Although I’m generally shy and reserved
person, I found it fun to sit with other families at dinner and have a more
communal vibe than normal dinners.
After dinner was over, we wanted to make
sure that we got a good spot in line for the Candlelight Processional in order
to get good seats. Of course what that
really meant was my mom and I went shopping in some of the nearby countries
while my dad held our place in line. And
by then, it was 5 pm and time for the Candlelight Processional to start. If you don’t know what the Candlelight
Processional is, it’s a show where a celebrity narrator tells the story of
Jesus’ birth while a Cast Member choir sings traditional Christmas songs (I didn’t
videotape this because I really wanted to stay in the moment for the show). We had the great privilege of seeing Gary Sinise
narrate the show. It truly left me
speechless on how good the show was; it exhibited the true meaning of Christmas
and was beautiful. If you’re interested
in seeing what it’s like, I highly suggest watching it on YouTube.
Of course, I had to do everything
related to Christmas while at Disney World so that included Chip and Dale’s
Christmas Tree Spree. Since it’s Disney,
you had to pay for a map and stickers that required you to search every country
pavilion for the location of the Christmas wreath that had Chip and Dale with a
Christmas decoration. For the rest of
the night, my parents and I went on a quest to find which stickers went with
each location. After finding all of the correct
locations, I traded in my map for a set of Minnie Mouse Christmas cards. For $6, it was a fun adventure that allowed
us to see all of the holiday decorations for each country. On our way out of the park, we stopped by the
Character Spot to see Joy and Sadness, who are both so adorable (Sadness loved
that we had on similar sweaters), and went on Soarin’ for the second time. That rounded out a great day at Epcot, where
we got to see everything we wanted to except for some of the holiday
performers.
Day
3: Magic Kingdom and Mickey’s Very Merry
Christmas Party
When planning our trip to Disney World,
I had a plan to mimic what would be our plans for Christmas Eve and Christmas
Day since we were there the week before.
Normally, we keep our Christmas Eve traditions more solemn and religious
and then bust out the secular traditions on Christmas Day. So that meant the only thing to do exactly
one week before Christmas was to attend Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas
Party. And the party is an all-night
experience so we took our time getting ready this morning and grabbed some
breakfast at the Grand prior to heading to Magic Kingdom. The gingerbread house actually sells gluten
free breakfast breads so of course I had to try one of these. I had the apple-cranberry bread, which is
made at Erin McKenna Bakery, and it was sooo yummy.
We got to Magic Kingdom a few hours
before the start of party so we took advantage of those hours with our
FastPasses for Big Thunder Mountain, Splash Mountain, and Seven Dwarves’ Mine
Train. We also had a quick late lunch at
The Plaza Restaurant, where I had my favorite salad, their Chicken Strawberry
Salad. My dad and I also took advantage
of the All You Can Drink milkshakes for $9.
This might sound like a bad deal but when they say all you can drink, it
really is all you can drink. In addition
to the full glass, you also get a metal overflow tumbler, which is about two more
refills of the glass, and then you can even ask for more! That’s probably the only thing I think is
accurately priced at Disney World, especially if you split it with someone
else, like I did with my mom (I don’t think Disney condones this behavior, but
oh well).
Then it was time for the party to
begin. We headed to the front of the
park to grab our party wristbands, which are required in order to stay in the
park. One of the first party-related
things we did was get our party-specific Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom cards,
which change every year and this year were The Enchanted Tiki Room
inspired. To begin the party, we headed
to the Storybook Circus to see probably the coolest characters I’ve ever
met: The Seven Dwarves in their
Christmas finest. We waited for about an
hour and twenty minutes to see them, but they’re hidden characters that only
come out for parties so we had to see them.
They’re super cute and really funny to meet. The most notable parts of the party are the
abundance of snacks and entertainment going on throughout the park. We spent a lot of the beginning of the party heading
around the park collecting our free treats, including hot chocolate, eggnog,
Dove chocolate, various assortments of cookies, and more. To take a break from this, we went on Jingle
Cruise, which is the Christmas version of the super punny Jungle Cruise. The Christmas overlay finds our lovely
skippers away from home in the middle of the jungle during Christmas time and
shows how they celebrate while trying to survive. I highly recommend this ride during
Christmas.
By this point of the night, a majority
of the families with children were leaving the park so we headed to the entertainment
for the party since less children meant less people at the shows. We took in the major shows at the castle,
like the Frozen castle lighting and Mickey’s Most Merriest Celebration. I
thought these shows were pretty cute and super Christmas-y. The first showings of the party shows are highly
attended at the first time so it’s easier to find places to watch unless you
snag a seat super early. We got to stand
right at the stage for Mickey’s Most Merriest Celebration, which was pretty awesome.
It was then time for the best part of
the night, the Christmas Parade. If you’ve
watched the Christmas Day Parade on ABC, it’s the same parade only at night and
you get to experience the “snow” on Main Street. We ended up getting seats right on Main
Street so we had an unobstructed view of the parade. I find the parade to be even better in person
and it was so cool seeing the parade floats up close (btw, the Olaf float is
the same one that was used in the Frozen parade in Hollywood Studios a few years
ago during their Frozen Summer Fun event).
And with that, we ended our night at the Magic Kingdom and went back to
our hotel room to get some rest.
Day
4: Animal Kingdom
Because we had a super late night the
night before, we ended up getting up pretty late. And since my second favorite hotel at Disney
is the Wilderness Lodge, we decided to head over for breakfast and to see what
the decorations look like there for Christmas.
We grabbed a quick breakfast at Roaring Fork and then continued our tour
of the Wilderness. If you’re looking for
a Christmas vibe anywhere in the resort, the Wilderness Lodge is definitely
where it is at. I absolutely loved their
decorations and whole Christmas aesthetic.
From there, we took a bus to Animal Kingdom where we had FastPasses for
the day.
Personally, Animal Kingdom is not my
favorite park at Disney World, but I really wanted to see everything holiday
related there was to see at the parks.
When we first got to the park, I convinced my parents to get a Dole Whip
to see if it was any different from the ones in Magic Kingdom and at the Polynesian. Spoiler alert, we found it to be extremely
different but still really good. We then
went on Kilimanjaro Safaris, which I love because of the amount of animals you
get to see and all of the fun facts you learn about the different animals on
safari. After we arrived back from the
middle of the savanna, we went to see Up! A Great Bird Adventure, which was
recently adapted to include characters from the movie Up. For the holiday season, there is a new Diwali
overlay to the show, which I really liked to learn about a different religious
tradition plus there were a lot of awesome birds that were on display.
For dinner, we took an adventure over to
the land of Pandora, where we ate at Satu’li Canteen and got chicken and rice
bowls again. I think that is a great
addition to Animal Kingdom since it doesn’t really have a lot of food options
in the park. From there we rode the
Flight of Passage ride, which is super awesome and unlike any other ride at
Disney World. If you’re an adrenaline
seeker, this is totally the ride for you.
Because it was winter, it got light outside around 7 pm so I got to see
all of the glowing plants and walkways of Pandora. I was a little underwhelmed as it was hard to
see even with all of the “luminescence” around Pandora. By that point, the change in weather from
where I live, which was freezing, to the warmth of Florida, and the busyness of
the past few days made me start to feel a little under the weather. We wrapped up our night pretty early and went
back to our hotel for the night.
Day
5: Sickness, Tornado Watch, and Disney
Springs
We didn’t really have plans for Thursday
during our trip since we had so many plans during the beginning of our
trip. It was really a day for doing
whatever we hadn’t gotten to do earlier.
However, our plans for no plans actually were sadly disappointed because
of two things: a tornado watch for the
Orlando area and my sickness. I woke up
feeling terrible, which is no fun when you’re on vacation. However, it actually wasn’t that bad because we
didn’t want to go outside in the pouring rain and wind. So we spent most of the morning relaxing in
our hotel room and watching the news for updates on the storm. We then decided to take the monorail around
to the monorail hotels to check out their decorations and to go to the
Polynesian for a Dole Whip to help my sore throat. On our way back to the Grand Floridian, the
monorail broke down so we had to take a bus back to the Grand instead (which
tbh, has never happened to me before).
Our only real plan for the day was
dinner at my absolute favorite restaurant in all of Disney World: California Grill. I always love dinner at the California Grill,
and this dinner did not disappoint. The
sides for the filet mignon were not gluten free so the waiter suggested that he
could switch out the sides for mashed potatoes and seasonal veggies. Umm, those were not just typical mashed potatoes;
they were amazing. Although this is one
of the most expensive restaurants in all of Disney World, the food there is
sooo worth the money. We also split an
amazing carrot cheesecake for dessert.
To finish off the night, we traveled
over to Disney Springs to see the new World of Disney store, which is so
modern. I kinda miss the old version of
the store because the new one could be any store and not one that’s
specifically Disney. We also did some
pin trading while we were there to try to finish our collections of the
trip. From there, we went back to our
hotel for the night.
Day
6: Magic Kingdom and Leaving Disney
I woke up on our last day in Disney for
this trip feeling a tad bit better than the day before but still not
amazing. For our last breakfast, we
headed over to the Polynesian to finally try out Kona Café. I had heard that it’s a really good breakfast
place but we hadn’t gotten there before.
My mom and I shared the fruit plate and some waffles while my dad
ordered the Big Kahuna (which has pancakes, French toast, eggs, bacon, ham, and
potatoes). I loved the fruit plate as
all of the fruit was super fresh and tasty and even topped with honey. My dad’s eyes ended up being too big for his
stomach as he couldn’t finish all of the food that came with the Big Kahuna,
but it’s definitely an amazing secret menu item for $20.
We spent our last morning going to Magic
Kingdom and riding two of our favorite rides:
Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin and Pirates of the Caribbean. We also strolled around the park to soak in
everything Christmas related and just Magic Kingdom itself. After returning to the Grand Floridian, we
stopped by Gasparilla’s for what became my favorite meal of the week: their Chicken and Brie sandwich with
raspberry jam and ham. I would eat that
sandwich every day and not get tired of it.
It definitely did not taste like a quick service sandwich. We passed the time until we had to take the
Magical Express back to the airport by listening to the piano player in the hotel
lobby and enjoying the giant tree.
Unfortunately, my sinus problems didn’t ease up before our plane took
off so my ears wouldn’t pop on the flights but other than that, this trip was
amazing!
I had so much fun on this trip and hope
you enjoy my videos of the holiday shows!
I know it’s been quite a long time since the holiday season but I hope
you enjoyed my recap anyway. Hopefully,
for my next vacation, I’ll be quicker with posting my travel blog!
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