The Unexpected Festive Family Trip – Highs and Lows and Future Plans

[Rescuer]

Day 11 is here

Index

So overall this truly was a magical trip, if a little unexpected.

Highs

Contemporary – Theme Park View:

All 4 of agreed this was one of the big highlights of our trip. The Contemporary was my bucket list hotel and I was working my way up to staying here for a night or two in the future so when it was available over Christmas I was really pleased. I was a bit worried as Mil’s bucket list hotel was the Grand and that was where we were going to stay initially and I was worried she would regret the fact that we didn’t stay there but she loved the Contemporary. The location is fabulous and that view is magical.

It is also a really hotel to navigate your way round in that it does not have masses of rooms or corridors. The pool area lacks a bit of magic but for a winter trip it served its purpose nicely. I’d stay here again in a heartbeat although it is not on the cards anytime soon.


Christmas Day

Something else I was a little worried about, I’d read so many people posting about how horrendous it is over Christmas and how they would never do it again.

I think for us the fact we were at the Contemporary, combined with being awake at silly o’clock and a little bit of luck led to this being a wonderful first full day of our trip.


Fairytale Personal Shopper

I was concerned with what we should do about Christmas presents. Beth went above and beyond to ensure we had lovely presented gifts for bedtime on Christmas Eve and bent over backwards to go out and get me everything I asked for.


EMH

I’m not normally a fan, getting up early is not really something we actively like to do but MK EMH both the morning and night time ones worked so well for us this trip.


Epcot – New Year’s Eve

An experience I never thought we would do but it was lovely to do this just the of us and again was not the utter chaotic bloodbath that I was expecting.


Weather

The weather was glorious, which I know is not guaranteed at this time of year. I had packed for all seasons but pretty much wore shorts and t-shirts for the whole trip. The first couple of days we had lows of 12 but the average was a high of 28 and low of 18 and we never saw a drop of rain until we were sitting on the plane waiting to take off.


Storybook Dining – Artists Point:

It was like granting a wish for Mil to meet her favourite characters. As I said we expected it to be good for that and what we did not expect was the fabulous service, food and character interaction we got.


Multi Generation trip

What was another of the highs for me was watching Ds introduce Mil to a whole range of new things, yes she’d been before, but there was lots of new experiences that ds loves that he shared with her enthusiastically and it was lovely to watch him watching her reactions, I’m not sure I’ve worded this properly.

Lows:

These are few, thankfully.

The Wave – Christmas Dinner

Not bad in terms of food as the food was good but a very disappointing experience overall caused mainly be the greediness of overbooking. Such a shame as it has a great reputation. I’ll try it again at some point but to anyone going for Christmas Dinner next year I would not recommend it.


Candlelight Processional

This one is just on taste as I can understand why lots of people love it. More us than them really – I wanted to love it, I didn’t! Maybe with another narrator or maybe it is just not for us.


Arrival at the Magic Express

This one did make me a little mad but I expressed my views to Disney. It's still a shame that the only surly and rude cast member we encountered in the whole trip was our first one. Thankfully we know that this is the rare exception rather than the norm.

Future Plans

April:

This was booked in advance of the Christmas Holiday. Ds, my friend and I are doing a Universal trip in the school holidays. In case you are wondering why we are leaving dh behind, he really struggles struggles with holidays at this time of year but we are off for just over 2 weeks so why not. I'm sure he will enjoy the peace.
We got a really good deal with BA and are staying at the Rosen Plaza, Royal Pacific and Aventura.


Summer:

Again, this was booked before Mil even mentioned a Christmas trip. Offsite – Rosen Plaza, Universal - TBD and Disney – POFQ with DDP. Just the 3 of us. Me, dh and ds, although we are meeting up with our lovely dibb friend Cenerentola and her family.

Thank you

Thanks to everyone who has read along and for all the nice and kind comments that have helped me complete this.

I hope it has been useful, when considering a Christmas trip reports over the festive period were few and far between and it’s actually been ok doing my first ever full trip report. Not sure if I’ll attempt another one though, food reports are enough work. It has been nice reliving the holiday though. Hats off to those of you that do both and the really long full trip reports. Special thanks to Goldia for persuading me that I’d manage a full trip report.

[Orlandoguy]

Really enjoyed your TR’s and hoping you do more for your upcoming April trip

[Cinderella]

Thanks for sharing👍

[jools1302]

Your trip report was great... really enjoyed reading along, thank you 😊

[scotsprincess]

Thanks for sharing 😊

[mick]

Thanks for taking the time to do your trippie
I have really enjoyed reading along, sounds like you all had a great Christmas

Some lovely trips for the coming year too.

Joan

[Goldia]

As you say there are so many highs and not too many lows.

The location and stunning view from the Contemporary just made for the perfect start to the trip and a very magical Christmas morning. I loved reading that DS enjoyed showing his grandmother all the special things he enjoys at WDW. I'm hoping we get a small piece of that this summer.

I hope to one day be able to experience wdw at Christmas. Perhaps it felt more laid back because you already knew you had a trip planned for this summer? So, it didn't matter if you didn't get to ride a particular ride or see a show. Although saying that you seemed to get on everything, even the top rides so it wasn't like the crowds held you back.

I've loved looking at all the photos and seeing all the Christmas decorations it was a really special trip and I'm glad you shared it with us. I'm sure you were already leaning towards writing the trip report already anyway, but I'm glad to have been able to convince you to give it a go.

Enjoy your Easter eggstravaganza! I'm sure you will have a blast.

[clochette]

In glad Goldia persuaded you to write a report, I've really enjoyed reading along. Our first trip to WDW was a Christmas one but it was before I had discovered the dibb. It would have been useful to have read a few reports like yours before we went.👍

[collybird]

I'm so grateful you took the time to write up your full trip report, it was fascinating reading how you navigated the Christmas crowds, you really made it seem so easy, and I loved reading about all the special events etc on offer during the holidays.

Have a fabulous time at Universal, it will be here before you know it!

Thank you again for sharing, I am so sad it is over.

[Minnie Mum]

Thank you for sharing. Really enjoying reading your reports and your general input on dibb😊😊