buzznwoodysmom
12-03-2011, 11:01 AM
So what started out as a conversation on a long road trip actually turned into one of my family's Disney dreams coming true. We've always wanted to wake up in WDW at Wilderness Lodge on Christmas morning, and this year its finally going to happen!
Cast:
Me-Denise 34
DH-Kevin 38
DS-Collin 11
DS-Landon 9
We are arriving in Orlando on the 18th and spending two nights at the Hard Rock Hotel at the Universal Resort. We've really enjoyed the Wizarding World of Harry Potter on our last two WDW trips so we've decided to bite the bullet and see all that Universal has to offer. We plan to spend the first night at City Walk, and the next day we'll do both Universal Parks. This shouldn't be too hard to accomplish with the Front of the Line Pass, or whatever its called. Plus the only thing my kids want to do in the Islands of Adventure Park is the Harry Potter section.
On the 20th we leave Universal behind and start our WDW leg of the trip. We are staying at Wilderness Lodge for 6 nights.
Day 1: After checking in and heading to Shades of Green for tickets we'll hit up Downtown Disney for lunch and shopping while we wait for the room to be ready. We'll settle in, decorate the room, complete with a 6 foot Christmas tree that we are bringing. We have the Fort Wilderness Sleigh ride booked, followed by our traditional first night dinner at Ohana's.
Day 2: Today we plan to visit MK. We have dinner booked at Liberty Tree Tavern.
Day 3: Today DH has a massage booked at WL, then if the weather is nice we might take a boat out on Bay Lake. Not sure what we'll do the rest of the day, but we do have an ADR at California Grill tonight.
Day 4: The plan is to head to Epcot today, we have ADR at Via Napoli for dinner.
Day 5: Today is Christmas Eve and we plan to spend most of the day at DHS. We have Sci Fi booked for lunch and we know we want to end our day at the Osborne lights. We plan to head back to WL early this evening. We want to spend the rest of the night cozied up in the lodge. Just a quiet evening hanging out near a fireplace! We don't have plans for dinner, but may grab a few apps and drinks from the lounge.
Day 6: Christmas Day!!!!! Ahhhh, I get to finally wake up on Christmas morning at WL. The kids will open thier gifts and we'll head to the Contemporary for the Catholic mass that's held there. We have breakfast ressies at Chef Mickey's and plan to head to AK for a few hours today. We have dinner planned for WCC, then we'll head back to one of the parks, probably MK (if its not closed to capacity), to end the night.
Day 7: We have breakfast booked at WCC this morning. We are supposed to be leaving to go home today, but we are notorious for staying an extra night. I have Cape May Cafe booked for dinner incase we stay. I really don't want to have to take down the tree and start packing up on Christmas day so if we do all the undecorating and packing on the following day we'll be leaving a bit late. Might as well just take our time getting everything packed up and spend one more night. If we stay we are thinking of checking out the "fork and screen" theater at DTD. We haven't seen the Muppets yet, so that's probably what we'll do. Just an extra day to linger!
We have hoppers so our plans are very flexible. If we feel any of the parks are too crowded we'll just hop to another park. The goal on this trip is to just enjoy being there for the holidays and being together as a family. We don't really care what we ride, what we can't do, we aren't going to let the crowds get us down.
Cast:
Me-Denise 34
DH-Kevin 38
DS-Collin 11
DS-Landon 9
We are arriving in Orlando on the 18th and spending two nights at the Hard Rock Hotel at the Universal Resort. We've really enjoyed the Wizarding World of Harry Potter on our last two WDW trips so we've decided to bite the bullet and see all that Universal has to offer. We plan to spend the first night at City Walk, and the next day we'll do both Universal Parks. This shouldn't be too hard to accomplish with the Front of the Line Pass, or whatever its called. Plus the only thing my kids want to do in the Islands of Adventure Park is the Harry Potter section.
On the 20th we leave Universal behind and start our WDW leg of the trip. We are staying at Wilderness Lodge for 6 nights.
Day 1: After checking in and heading to Shades of Green for tickets we'll hit up Downtown Disney for lunch and shopping while we wait for the room to be ready. We'll settle in, decorate the room, complete with a 6 foot Christmas tree that we are bringing. We have the Fort Wilderness Sleigh ride booked, followed by our traditional first night dinner at Ohana's.
Day 2: Today we plan to visit MK. We have dinner booked at Liberty Tree Tavern.
Day 3: Today DH has a massage booked at WL, then if the weather is nice we might take a boat out on Bay Lake. Not sure what we'll do the rest of the day, but we do have an ADR at California Grill tonight.
Day 4: The plan is to head to Epcot today, we have ADR at Via Napoli for dinner.
Day 5: Today is Christmas Eve and we plan to spend most of the day at DHS. We have Sci Fi booked for lunch and we know we want to end our day at the Osborne lights. We plan to head back to WL early this evening. We want to spend the rest of the night cozied up in the lodge. Just a quiet evening hanging out near a fireplace! We don't have plans for dinner, but may grab a few apps and drinks from the lounge.
Day 6: Christmas Day!!!!! Ahhhh, I get to finally wake up on Christmas morning at WL. The kids will open thier gifts and we'll head to the Contemporary for the Catholic mass that's held there. We have breakfast ressies at Chef Mickey's and plan to head to AK for a few hours today. We have dinner planned for WCC, then we'll head back to one of the parks, probably MK (if its not closed to capacity), to end the night.
Day 7: We have breakfast booked at WCC this morning. We are supposed to be leaving to go home today, but we are notorious for staying an extra night. I have Cape May Cafe booked for dinner incase we stay. I really don't want to have to take down the tree and start packing up on Christmas day so if we do all the undecorating and packing on the following day we'll be leaving a bit late. Might as well just take our time getting everything packed up and spend one more night. If we stay we are thinking of checking out the "fork and screen" theater at DTD. We haven't seen the Muppets yet, so that's probably what we'll do. Just an extra day to linger!
We have hoppers so our plans are very flexible. If we feel any of the parks are too crowded we'll just hop to another park. The goal on this trip is to just enjoy being there for the holidays and being together as a family. We don't really care what we ride, what we can't do, we aren't going to let the crowds get us down.