How I planned for my Christmas Time Disney World Trip
- Feb 2, 2017
- 5 min read
There are some basic steps everyone should follow when they are planning a Disney World Trip.
Choose a date
When we started talking about taking a trip to Disney World for Christmas, I knew that I wanted to focus mostly on the special Christmas offerings.
So, I began my research and most of the articles I read and social media I follow showed me that I needed to go after Thanksgiving to ensure that the resorts were fully decorated. Because we don’t have travel restrictions, we like to try to go to Disney World when the crowds will be manageable.
After consulting both www.touringplans.com and www.wdwprepschoool.com, we decided on December 4-10. To use the crowd calendars on www.touringplans.com, you do need to be a member, but I advocate for that anyway. They offer a lot of great services and information and the membership is not expensive.
Choose a place to stay
To decide on our resort, I spent a lot of time on the www.wdwprepschool.com page and listening to the corresponding podcasts. (Include links here) I am a self professed hotel cheapskate. I HATE paying more than $100 a night for hotel rooms for any circumstance and rarely do (and I usually stay at 3.5 star and up rated hotels). Click here to read about how I choose hotels not on Disney property.
We decided to stay at Pop Century Resort. It is a value resort, but I liked its theming. The price was in my comfort zone. The amenities were fine. However, the rooms were small. If we were more than a couple, we would have needed a second room and Disney can’t guarantee an adjoining room.
Decide on which park to go to each day
Deciding on which park to go to which day was difficult for me. I LOVE to end a trip at Magic Kingdom, but there was a Christmas party that night that we weren’t going to. So, we made concessions. Again, I used www.touringplans.com and www.wdwprepschool.com to decide on which parks to go to on each day.
Decide where to eat
I have a list of places I want to try. It is expansive. So I chose 3.
Jungle Skipper Canteen in Magic Kingdom for dinner.
Akershus in Epcot for breakfast.
Chef Mickey’s for breakfast.
We also went to Kona Café at the Polynesian because we were tired of quick service food.
Make dining reservations
Dining reservations at Disney World open 180 days (or six months) in advance. While it may seem to be a bit ridiculous to make dining reservations six months in advance, do it anyway. Many reservations are not available after the 180 day mark, especially signature dining and character dining.
If you are staying on Disney property, you can make your reservations for your entire trip 180 days prior to your check in date. You can consult the monthly dashboards at www.wdwprepschool.com for the exact date you can make reservations. Online reservations open at 6 AM Eastern.
If you are not staying on Disney property, but you have tickets, you will have to make reservations one day at a time, 180 days in advance. This means if you have a seven day trip, you will need to get up for seven straight mornings to get your reservations.
Make your touring plans
Again, this is where www.touringplans.com becomes invaluable. We do not like to crisscross the parks. I also will not knowingly wait more than 30 minutes for any attraction. Nothing is worth that amount of time. So, I made a list of must dos in each park and went at it that way. Here is how I handled Epcot.
Must Dos-Soarin’, Mission Space, Living with the Land, Spaceship Earth, Gran Fiesta Tour, Frozen Ever After, Meet Joy and Sadness, Meet Baymax, and Meet Mickey.
Epcot has tiers in their attractions and I’m sure you will notice that Soarin’ and Frozen Ever After are Tier 1. Also notice that Joy and Sadness and Baymax do not have FP+s.
So, Monday, we rope dropped Epcot. Meaning we arrived at 8:15 for a 9:00 opening. At 8:40, we were let into the park so we could get to zones. We headed to the Soarin’ stop and were within 20 feet of the entrance to the Joy, Sadness and Baymax meet and greet. At 9:00, they dropped the rope and we slithered over to the Joy entrance. We were first in line!!!!!
So we met Joy and Sadness. Then got into an empty Baymax line. After that meet, we went across the hall and had a short (5 minute) wait to meet with Mickey, Minnie and Goofy. By 9:25, we were done with all of those meets! We had a 9:15 FP+ for Soarin and after a quick bathroom stop, we rode Soarin’. Then went over to Living with the Land.
After that, we went to ride Journey into the Imagination and went over to Mission Space for a 10:25 FP+. After the walk over to Mission Space and taking a bunch of PhotoPass pictures, we were hungry, so we went back to the Land Pavilion for Sunshine Seasons. To do this, we had to try to adjust our 11:25 FP+ for Spaceship Earth. We were able to push it back one hour and we went to have lunch, rode Spaceship Earth and headed back to the hotel. On the way back to the hotel, we made a rolling 4th FP+ for Space Mountain at Magic Kingdom.
On Friday, we were spending the day in the World Showcase and had a 9:15 reservation at Akershus. Normally, I would say to not waste time at park opening on breakfast, but we were focused on the World Showcase.
We were able to enter the park at 8:30 and slowly made our way back to the Norway Pavilion. When we checked in at 8:55, we were told that they were working on turning over the restaurant and that we could ride Frozen Ever After WITH NO WAIT. We hopped to it and walked directly onto Frozen Ever After. AMAZING. When we got off, we were greeted with a 40 minute wait and released our 12:40 FP+ time for another family who needed the FP+.
We checked into Akershus, had breakfast and rode Gran Fiesta Tour as we made our way around the World Showcase.
So, long story short, plan to get the most things done in the first 90 minutes the park is open and then use FP+s on the most popular rides. We tend to use the last hour the park is open to get a lot of things done was well.
Make your FastPass+ reservations
After determining which FP+s you need, you will need to log onto My Disney Experience to make your reservations.
If you are staying on Disney property, you can log in 60 days prior to the day you arrive to make all of your FP+ reservations. Following advice from www.wdwprepschool.com , I started with the hardest to get FP+ and worked back. The hardest to get at this time are Frozen Ever After at Epcot and Seven Dwarves Mine Train at Magic Kingdom. For my touring plans, I started with the Frozen Ever After for Friday, December 9, then went after Soarin’ for December 5. After those were secure, I worked chronologically.
If you are not staying on Disney property, you can make your FastPass+ reservations 30 days ahead of time, one day at a time.
Adjust touring plans
After making dining and FastPass+ reservations, you may need to adjust your plans based on what you were able to find.
Other adjustments
Disney is constantly pumping out news about new offerings, new events, new restaurants, etc. Just keep an eye on things coming out. Also, if you were not able to get a dining reservation that you want, keep checking back, especially as you get closer, because people change their plans.
Where I get information about specific events
Disney Food Blog http://www.disneyfoodblog.com/
Chip & Co www.chipandco.com
Disney Tourist Blog www.disneytouristblog.com
Kenny the Pirate www.kennythepirate.com
WDW Prep School www.wdwprepschool.com
WDW Radio www.wdwradio.com
Touring Plans www.touringplans.com
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