Once Upon A Disney Christmas PTR 12/23-12/27 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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Hey everyone! Everyone's TRs have been feeding my Disney thirst so I thought I'd share too. This is my first one...here we go!
Cast: Me! I’ll be 21 and in my last year of college. Also coming along are: My little sister, Lissy (14), my mom (40), and my step-dad-to-be, Frank (51)
That's DS Lissy, Me (Nikki) and mom looking sexy in our ponchos
Where: Coronado Springs Resort
When: Thursday December 23-Monday December 27
How it happened: Last Christmas morning we were lounging around, watching the parade on TV when I stared longingly at the screen and told my mom how great it would be to go during the holiday season. Sigh. We don’t really take a lot of vacations and I didn’t think it was in our budget.
However, since it was a whole year away, I hinted heavily that we should consider going next Christmas. We’ve been wanted to go around that time since forever so I let out a big squee when my mom smiled and said “Look into it!” I immediately jumped online and figured out it would totally be in our budget! I told my mom and after a few minutes of “Really?” and “Yes, Really!” It was “WOOHOO!! We’re going to DISNEYWORLD!! FOR CHRISTMAS!!”
Our Disney History: My mom, sister and I have been twice in the past 8 years and that definitely hasn’t been enough so we’re all really excited.
Frank went once for a couple of days about 15 years ago and hasn’t had a single vacation in 12 years. He has an extremely stressful job so although he’s not a Disney freak like us, he’s happy to finally be having a family vacation.
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Hi everyone! I don't think the picture I tried to post loaded properly so I'm trying again. This is supposed to be my sister (Lissy), Mom, and me (Nikki)
What We’re Doing
Part One
Because our trip is only 5 days long I really wanted to maximize our time there. So when booking the flight, I chose the earliest one…6:45 am…which the airline later moved to 6:15....am…which now that I’m thinking about the logistics seems insane!!
We’d have to leave by 4 am to get to the airport within an hour and a half of or flight (I know we technically only need to be there 1 hour before but I want to give us a cushion for traffic, crowds, that stuff). That means we have to be up at 3am the latest if all four of us are going to be out of the house on time
Getting up at 3 am wouldn’t be so bad if I knew we could rest at our resort, but that’s not guaranteed until 3pm! Please reassure me that we’ll be so happy to be at Disney we won’t pass out on spaceship earth or something.
Since the flight shouldn’t be longer than 2 hours it will probably still be too early to go to our rooms when we arrive at CSR so we’ll check-in, leave our bags and head out to play!
I’ve been twice, but we have never planned anything. We were the type of people who just show up and see whatever we get to see but were always really happy just because we’re at Disney world. In fact, this is the first time I made any ADRs! Well now that I’ve learned so much thanks to pp and everyone on these boards I feel like I have a mission to do all my must-sees. My mom teases me because of all the planning and says once I get to the parks I’m going to blank out and forget everything lol.
Our first day we’re planning to head to Epcot and focus on the WS since we’ve been on 2 trips but have seen hardly any of it. I’m really looking forward to shopping and trying some drinks from around the world since I’ll be 21 for this trip! Any suggestions for fun stuff at the WS?
Then it’s lunch at Teppan Edo (hopefully) and the Candlelight Processional. Brad Garret’s supposed to be the narrator that day yay! I’m hoping we’ll get to see the first show at 5pm and head back to the resort after that since it will have been such a long day.
Great start! Disney at Christmas is so much more magical! We will be at the Coronado too, we check in on Dec. 26th!
Cool! Maybe we'll see you there
Thanks for reading everyone!
The rest of our plans:
Day two,Christmas Eve, we plan to explore Magic Kingdom. We usually celebrate Christmas Eve with family so I wanted us to do something special that night. I got really lucky and got my dinner reservations at Cindy’s! I realize this place is mostly about the atmosphere, but hey this will only be our second ADR ever at the world and that’s good enough for us. After dinner it’s Spectro and Wishes (which always makes me tear up)
Day three, Christmas day we’ll head over to DHS. I booked a Fantasmic package, with ADRs at Mama Melrose. I’m thinking about canceling though. Although we haven’t seen Fantasmic yet, no one but me even realizes this is a show so they won’t miss it. We plan to be at the parks for rope drop and even though the youngest member of our party is 14 I’m worried about not having time for a break in the day. The ADR I have is for 3:40 pm. I know we should be able to tolerate a whole day in the parks, it will still be Christmas and super busy. I’m also probably the first one to start to get cranky when I’m tired. I’m just not sure it’s worth it. What do you guys think?
On day four we’re planning for Animal Kingdom. No special plans here, but this is my absolute favorite park and I’ve never spent more than a few hours here.
Day five, our last day will probably be at Epcot again. I'm not planning much here either, I just want to finally try Beverly! I'm going to try to get my family to try it too since they've never heard of it. Then it’s back to our hotel to get ready for our 6:15 pm flight!
We'll only have three ADRs this trip, but CS fits better with my family's go with the flow attitude. I wonder how they're going to take it this year since I've actually made some plans...I've been trying to prepare them and my mom's response was "I'm buying you a whistle." LOL I promised to make the trip less commando-style in touring.
I have to call in the morning to book CP and I'm trying to figure out if I should book Teppan Edo or save about $50 and eat at San Angel Inn...I better decide soon
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Any suggestions for fun stuff at the WS?
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will probably be at Epcot again. I'm not planning much here either, I just want to finally try Beverly! I'm going to try to get my family to try it too since they've never heard of it. Then it’s back to our hotel to get ready for our 6:15 pm flight!
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