The Unexpected Festive Family Trip

[Rescuer]

Originally Posted by collybird

I am so excited reading all of your plans, it all sounds fabulous. It’s actually quite scary how quickly it’s going to come around.

You have to go to MK on Christmas morning, I’m sure it will be utter chaos, but so magical.

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Thanks. It is fastpass day on Thursday so I really need to work on my plans.

I’ve been a little distracted as it’s school holidays and we have just been to London to see the Cursed Child. Oh my it was amazing!

[Rescuer]

29.12.18 EP- HS

This is the day we switch hotels. Still undecided about the luggage but I think we will just rely on bell services and cross our fingers that everything transfers without issue.

The plan is Teppan Edo for lunch with hopefully a fp for soarin on the way. Out the International Gateway and into the BC.

In the evening we have the Jingle Bell Jingle Bam dessert party. I’m not convinced there will be much in the way of same day fast passes available for much but you never know. I’m so excited for this night as the show has stuff from prep and landing and the nightmare before Christmas , 2 of my absolute favourites. Although I have avoided watching the show so far.

30.12.18 EP - MK ?

Our one offsite meal - probably IHop for breakfast and a few hours at the Vineland Outlets.

We have dinner at Nine Dragons and I am hoping to get a Frozen fast pass as it would be nice for mil to try this. And another opportunity to watch my beloved illuminations unless we are planning on hopping.

Now MK is open till 2am for EMH. My Mil won’t be up for this but Dh and ds might.. so I’m thinking we drop MIL at the BC and bus to MK or would the monorail be better? Fantasy in the sky is on at 11.50pm
Although we’d probably feel better seeing MIL to the hotel.

31.12.18 HS -EP?

I’m under no illusions how crazy it will be trying to travel anywhere today so we will be avoiding the roads.

Daytime is flexible - we might swim, do crazy golf at Fantasia Gardens or pick up a breakfast adr at the ale and compass.

We have a fantasmic package at HBD but I might cancel and keep the normal adr we have, although, I’ve got a touring plans alert for a later one. Hopefully we can get a fantasmic fastpass along with a slinky dog and a RNr one for ds.

They have changed the park hours and Hs is now open to midnight with the Star Wars fireworks on at midnight, might see if MIL is up to staying out late and we could stay for this.

Otherwise Dh and I and possibly ds might be crazy and drop her off at the BC and head into the chaos that will be Epcot. Are we mad? Does this sound like a ridiculous thing to be planning?

I’m not sure it’s closed at New Year for capacity but if it does we have not lost anything as we will only be minutes from our hotel. Ds is adamant that if we are doing this he is coming. I’m sure he can cope fine with the crowds and drunks. He is a regular at the football and travels up and down Scotland for games, Saturday night public transport has made him aware that not everyone makes the wisest choices around alcohol. And again if it’s too crazy we can just leave. I’m not planning on straying too far from the International Gateway anyway.

1.1.19 MK

The plan is the morning at MK but if we are tired after a late night this can change.

We have Skippers booked for dinner and this is our chance to let MIL see HEA which we have raved about since it started a couple of years ago. MK is due to close at 8pm tonight so curious to see if that changes.

2.1.19 AK

Tusker House this morning and hopefully FOP fast pass. These plus the fact it’s a Rivers of Light breakfast should be enough to persuade MIL to come along. I was super happy with myself when I got a 8am adr but they have just added emh so that rules out a quiet start. 😂 we are also hoping to see Lion King show and/or Nemo.

We will have a break and return to see rivers of light, the tree shows and pandora in the dark and we might try to have a drink and food in the Nomad Lounge as we never seem to manage that.

3.1.19 MK - EP

MK - hoping to end on a high with 7D and a Crystal Palace breakfast.

But if swimming - weather dependant and packing.

Last night so a chilled out dinner at the Boardwalk and hankies at the ready for Illuminations. Although if the September date is true we will see it again in the summer.

[Rescuer]

Changes to the plan

31.12.18
I have cancelled the Fantasmic booking we had and plumped instead for a normal booking with FP. Looking atthe price I was not sure we would manage to order enough food each to reach the value of the package. We shall see if this is the correct decision but at least it gives us the choice between starters or puddings.

1.1.19
Shelved any thoughts of an early start at MK and going for a late afternoon start there instead.

3.1.18
I have cancelled Crystal Palace and shelved MK. I kept thinking why be so close to HS and EP then pick another day at MK. So we are going to do the morning at HS instead.

[Goldia]

I love this part of the planning when you start making tweaks to it all...the plan is never really finished is it? I always seem to be on the look out for slightly better times for FP or something like that.

[Rescuer]

Originally Posted by Goldia

I love this part of the planning when you start making tweaks to it all...the plan is never really finished is it? I always seem to be on the look out for slightly better times for FP or something like that.

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The plan is never done
I'm trying not to faff with it too much. If it was just the 3 of us I'd be adding all sorts of stuff and constantly narrowing the chill out time but I am trying to plan something that works for all 4 of us. I don't mind, I suggested EMM at HS but Dh objected as he thought it wuld be too much for MIL, which I do agree with so I got him to agree to it for summer if its on so not all bad

[Rescuer]

Fastpasses

Well the day has been and gone. 12pm on a Thursday, not ideal when you have a classroom full of kids and are a control freak . So Dh took a half day and offered to do it if I provided a list. I was far from happy to relinquish control but it was nice that he wanted to contribute to the planning and I had no choice unless I wanted to leave it till much later in the day.

He was actually pretty sucessful for his first time We have pretty much got everything we wanted, some I feel are a little bit of a waste but there is no plan to actually do any of the bigger rides this time, unless we do the late night on the 30th, so it works.

24.12.18
Booked some just in case, they can always be cancelled on the day if we don't make it into MK.
7D, Teac cups and Buzz.

25.12.18
Alien Swirling Saucers, Star Tours, Beauty and the Beast

26.12.18
Jingle Cruise (day), Peter Pan and Pirates

27.12.18
7D (night), Winnie the Pooh and Buzz

28.12.18
FOP, Dinosaur and Everest

29.12.18
Soarin, Spaceship Earth and Living with the Land

30.12.18
Frozen Ever After

31.12.18
Slinky Dog (night), Frozen sing along, Fantasmic

1.1.19
7D (night), Jingle Cruise (night) and Haunted Mansion

2.1.19
FOP, Lion King and Primeval Whirl

3.1.19
Slinky Dog (day), Star Tours and Rock n Roller

4.1.19
Another just in case as hoping for TSM at rope drop but...
Toy Story Mania

Touring plans seems to think we will be ok to do other things early on but we shall see...

[Rescuer]

more changes

I wonder if the plan will ever be done. 😂

1.1.19

The park hours for MK have been extended from 8pm to 11pm and with this the crowd calendars are showing busy, busy, busy!

Since this is our only chance fir MIL to see HEA we have booked the plaza gardens dessert party.
I’m not convinced it’s worth the money but I think it will take away the stress of finding a good spot and cheeseburger spring rolls seem to be on the menu, win win!

We went with the after fireworks one so if anyone has been I’d love to hear what it was like.

extra stress

So Virgin pilots might strike from the 23rd of December...

[sizzle]

We are going over new year so may see you there! Can’t believe 4 weeks today we’ll be at the airport. We are doing the EMM at HS on the 31st. I don’t think we are going to get much sleep for the first couple of days as we plan to stay as late as possible in MK on the 30th, dessert party included and then with the EMM the following morning can’t see us getting to much shut eye. We’re going to see the New Year in at Epcot, it’s going to be crazy... Hope you all have an amazing time.

[Kellea]

so, so jealous ! Have a fantastic time x

[Rescuer]

Originally Posted by sizzle

We are going over new year so may see you there! Can’t believe 4 weeks today we’ll be at the airport. We are doing the EMM at HS on the 31st. I don’t think we are going to get much sleep for the first couple of days as we plan to stay as late as possible in MK on the 30th, dessert party included and then with the EMM the following morning can’t see us getting to much shut eye. We’re going to see the New Year in at Epcot, it’s going to be crazy... Hope you all have an amazing time.

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EMM at Hs looks good, I really fancy that in the summer. I was tempted by the 31st but MIL would not enjoy that I don’t think so this time is rather concentrate on things we’d all like.

Hopefully see you and another 80k people at Epcot at New Year😂😂😂

Who are you flying with? I can’t lie I’m a bit concerned over the strike announcement for some virgin pilots. I’d like to hope we won’t be effected but surely someone will which is rubbish.