First Time at Christmas! Tips & Advice?

[joonyer]

We have been to WDW many times, but never in December. This year we'll be going during Christmas week, Dec. 23 - 28. It's our first family WDW trip together in several years and it'll be the four of us, me, DW and our two sons, who are now in college (probably our last vacation with just the 4 of us) to re-live Disney memories of our trips in the past (we first went to WDW together when the boys were small kids) and to make new memories, too.

Needless to say, we are very excited to be going this time of year, but we are also aware that it's the most crowded time at WDW. We'll be staying at POFQ (with free dining) and we have already made ressies for the Candlelight Processional Dining package, which we'll be doing on Christmas Eve. And we have Park Hoppers passes. We like to think of ourselves as Disney World experts, but I know many of you have more experience than us, so any advice, inside info, tips and tricks from those of you who have experience at WDW during Christmas for making the best of our trip will be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

[faline]

I'd suggest focusing more on the decorations and special holiday attractions than worrying about getting on the rides.

For rides, make good use of Fastpass+. If any parks are having early extra magic hours, make the effort to get up early and get there. You'll be surprised at how much you can accomplish in that hour.

Visit the resorts - particularly Grand Floridian and Wilderness Lodge which are always nicely decorated. Other resorts have decorations as well that may be worth a look/see.

Whenever the parks are really crowded, we tend to do the often overlooked things - a nice train ride around the Magic Kingdom; a visit to one of the trails at Animal Kingdom; making a slow circuit of World Showcase etc.

Make sure you go to the Osborn Lights - it will be crowded but if you can go closer to closing time you might have a bit more space to spread out a bit.

We once went over Christmas with our daughter and her fiance (now her husband). We agreed to exchange holiday presents while there but only with things we purchased there. Christmas Eve day was a lovely, relaxed day. We split up and spent some time shopping for each other. (I had actually packed wrapping paper and scotch tape). I know you have reservations for Christmas Eve but you could do some variation of this. We put our presents near our "tree" (a miniature we had packed and brought from home) and opened them on Christmas Eve. Following that, we went out to dinner. At home, we traditionally bring in Chinese for that evening. The closest approximation we could get without going into a park was to go to Kona Cafe at the Poly so that was our Christmas Eve dinner.

Personally, I would avoid Magic Kingdom on Christmas Day. If you go to a park that day, I'd select Epcot. It holds crowds much better than the other parks.

Enjoy and have fun!!

[epceddie]

I don't know if they still offer these or not, but my wife and I had a blast taking the horse-drawn sleigh ride at Fort Wilderness. The people staying there do a great job decorating their campsites and we brought along a thermos of hot chocolate and some chocolate chip cookies. The drivers are wonderful and the people you meet along the way are very friendly.
We also enjoyed visiting the Wilderness Lodge and exploring the lobby. They put up a huge tree and it's a great spot to sit and relax for awhile.
Ditto for the lobby at the Grand Floridian. We like to get here around 3 p.m. and listen to the piano players. They're incredibly talented and they take requests!

[Main Street Jim]

Keep in mind that Magic Kingdom tends to open at 7:00am during Christmas week, while the other parks typically open at 8:00am.

Get to the parks *early* - and plan on staying. Once you leave - even as resort guests - there's no guarantee you'll get back in.

The Christmas Party (MVMCP) parade also runs at MK during Christmas week - usually twice a day (at noon and at 2:00). Same with MSEP.

The Holiday Illuminations is *fantastic* with the tag at the end.