Holidays at the Disney World Resorts

With so much to do at the parks during the Christmas season, many people forget, the atmosphere at the resorts the is just as magical. Many have special displays like gingerbread houses or giant Christmas trees. Here is a rundown of where to go when taking some time away from the parks.

SPECIAL DISPLAYS
The deluxe resorts have the most elaborate displays and are worth a trip on the monorail or bus to check out. Below are what the resorts have offered in the past but who knows if they may surprise us this year so check with your hotel concierge before you head out.

• The Grand Floridian boasts a life-sized gingerbread house which they actually use as a Bake Shop. Visitors can purchase Christmas Delights and watch Gingerbread House Demonstrations. The Victorian charm of their decorations brings one back to a more elegant time.
• The Contemporary Resort offers a 17 foot tall Gingerbread Christmas Tree and a huge lighted wreath (Mickey shaped of course), visible as you take the monorail through the resort. We did Chef Mickey’s for dinner here on Christmas Day.  
• Beach Club has a working gingerbread carousel with white chocolate horses and Yacht Club features a miniature train set running through a candy and sugar-coated landscape. The decor here is light, airy and most decidedly nautical.
• The Boardwalk has a gingerbread and chocolate gazebo display and a gingerbread bake shop. Don’t miss the chocolate seaside amusement park display in the Lobby!
• The Polynesian is decorated throughout and has small gingerbread displays in the Ceremonial House.  They do a great job working with their tropical atmosphere so it doesn’t seem tacky.
• Wilderness Lodge boasts homey decor and a cozy, rustic feel the Christmas traditionalist will love.  There is a huge tree in the center lobby with plenty of pine cones. Fireplaces grace the main areas and make you want to curl up in front with a hot cocoa and a copy of The Night Before Christmas.

All the resorts boast beautiful trees and decorations throughout. Always in line with the theme of the hotel. Some also have gingerbread displays or train setups, but nothing as elaborate or consistent as the Deluxe Resorts. If staying at a Value or Moderate Resort, check out your lobby none the less, you will be surprised at what you find.




Gingerbread Tree Assembly at Contemporary Resort

RELIGIOUS SERVICES
Contemporary Resort holds all religious services in their Fantasia Ballroom on Christmas Day.  Catholic Services are held at 8 am and 10:15 am. Protestant Services are held on 9am. The resort will usually limit parking on that day to their guests only, so you must take resort transportation. Leave extra time if taking the bus system from your resort to the Magic Kingdom,, hoping to catch the monorail. Magic Kingdom is so popular that it will take several full buses before you catch one. Ask your resort concierge for an alternate way if possible, depending on your resort.

THINGS TO DO

• Ft. Wilderness Sleigh Ride-Ft. Wilderness offers a 25 minute, horse-drawn, holiday “sleigh” ride throughout the woods of the campground. The rides leave on the half hour and cost $60 per ride. Each sleigh can hold 4 adults or 2 adults and 3 children (under 9). The rides begin at 5:30 am to 9:30 pm and reservations can be made at 1-407-WDW-PLAY.
• Children's Activities-Many of the resorts have activities available in the lobby for the kids to do. Often a craft or coloring page. Let them color and watch a little Vintage Mickey as you admire the Christmas displays.
• Dining-Some restaurants will have special Christmas menus they announce as the holiday time nears. I'll be sure to post an update when they are announced.  Some will offer cocoa and cookies on certain nights. Check in your lobby when you arrive.
• Visits with Santa-Most of the resorts will have Santa set up in the lobby on Christmas Eve. Traditionally he is available from 5pm to 8pm. There are schedules at each hotel with other days is “available”. He was there for several days before when we stayed at Coronado Springs. Reminder: Santa is also available at the Magic Kingdom and Downtown Disney.

I hope this article gives you a taste of what to find during the Holiday Season at Walt Disney World. Keep in mind that the exhibits can change at any time and I’m only representing what was available in years past. If you are interested in planning a holiday trip to Walt Disney World, contact me at maria@snapshotgetaways.com.  

Backstage Safari at Disney's Animal Kingdom

Hey Disney Devoted Fans!!! It's Dulcie again and I just recently had a client that went to Disney's Animal Kingdom and took her daughter on the Backstage Safari tour for her 19th Birthday!
(It's good to see my family isn't the only one that likes to make these tours extra Birthday surprises)

I asked her a few questions that I thought everyone would like to know about the tour and she sent me some photos to use in this post too.

I just want to say THANK YOU Brianne for sharing your experience with us all.

How many guests were in your tour group?

There were 8 guest total, including Cheyenne and me. This gave us all the opportunity to get to know each other just a bit and so felt a bit more relaxing versus a huge group.

In your opinion were there too many people or was it perfect for the type of tour you were doing?
Eight people was the perfect amount of guests. I personally think that anything over 12 guests on this particular tour would be too many.The reason why is that once you are on the Safari Truck, the less crowded the seats are the better opportunity to take pictures without having someone in your way. From the size of the van they provided for the first part of the tour, my guess would be that 12 might be the maximum per group, but I could be wrong

Did you find the Backstage Animal Safari physically challenging or was it a pretty easy tour? 

Backstage Safari was an easy tour.  It started out at the meeting place by the front of the park. We then walked at an easy pace through a small portion of the park in order to get to the transportation van.  When in the van, we drove over to the animal holding area for the rhinos and elephants. After that tour, we rode in the van to the nutrition building, then walked across the parking lot to the veterinary hospital.  We did our tour and were able to sit for about 15 minutes in the classroom, get some water and use the restrooms. Back into the van and off to the area where we would catch the Safari bus. The road the Safari bus drives on is bumpy, but not to the point of discomfort. (I had injured my back just days before this trip and the road didn't make it any more uncomfortable).  We started our tour at 8:30am and so it was nice weather and the animals were out and visible throughout the ride.

Do you think that this tour was informational and did you learn a lot of new things about the care of the animals in the park?

The tour was very informational and it shows how humane and secure their holding areas are.  In the nutrition portion of the tour, we saw the staff preparing the meals for the next day and it was very interesting as to how the measure out everything, what goes into the meals and the freshness of the food. I think for the older kids, it gives them the opportunity to see what types of opportunities there are for careers within the park.

Did you get to touch or hold any of the animals?

Unfortunately we did not get to touch or pet any animals. I was going to ask if we could touch the Rhino mom and baby, but then then decided not to.  Simply because I assumed it could be harmful to them if anyone on their multiple tours had something that they could transmit to the animals without knowingly doing so.

What were the highlights of the tour for you personally?

#1- I would say the Safari Ride out to see the animals.

#2 The nutrition area and holding pens, especially since the happened to have a mom & baby Rhino there.

#3. Vet hospital was good because the tour guide was very knowledgeable about some of the lab tests and procedures being implemented on the animals and one of the lab techs was there and gave us quite a bit of

interesting info and even shared a couple pictures. 
However, we (especially Cheyenne since she wants to be a veterinarian) were very disappointed that there wasn't more to the vet hospital tour, for example - we thought we would have the opportunity to have a question

answer session with one of the vets there on duty, or a more in-depth tour of the facility, but it was only the lab that we got to see.

#4- The short, yet informational walking tour as we started out.   I was a bit disappointed that the elephants were already out of their holding pens by the time we got to that part of the tour, but looking back I don't think that there was anything saying there would.

Do you think that you would do it again in the future or was one time enough to say you had the experience?

We would do it again, especially if we had someone with us that had never been.  My reason for going again would be the Safari Ride with such a small group was more relaxing than trying to squeeze into the safari bus with a load full of strangers. 

What are 3 tips you have for someone going on this tour?

The weather didn't really affect us since we were riding in an air conditioned van and the safari ride in the bus was mostly shaded. Definitely bring a camera, but you have to be quick with taking the pictures as our bus only paused for seconds before moving on. Sunglasses helped because we would go from inside a bldg. and back out into the bright sun, but not needed in general for the riding around.

Do you think that the tour was too short or too long time wise?

We felt it was the perfect length of time.  We started at about 8:30am and were done by 11:30 am.  And that was even with folks asking questions and several park staff giving us lots of fun side stories about a variety of things.

The Backstage Safari Tour is not to be confused with the Wild Africa Trek.
Cost per person $72.00 +tax and is for ages 16 + *no exceptions will be made and you must provide a photo ID when checking in*.
They do offer discounted tickets to AP holders, DVC members and Disney Visa card holders.
A portion of the proceeds from the tours are donated to the Disney Worldwide Conservation Fund.

                     All information is current at the time of this blog post.
*Photos and personal interview courtesy of Brianne Hoover.These photos are not to be used or shared without permission.

 

A little about Dulcie...

I am a native Floridian who has been traveling to Disney World since 1976! I am Submariners wife,Mommy to a 9 yr old "Princess" Imagineer in Training and Travel Agent Extraordinaire with Snapshot Getaways. I earned my ears 4 years ago with Disney College of Knowledge and have enjoyed every Magical booking since.

Feel free to contact me for your FREE quote today and let's start Makin' Memories the Disney way.
Facebook-Dream Along with Dulcie
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Email-Dulcie@SnapshotGetaways.com

Disney Family Magic Tour

I am always trying to find one special thing to do on every trip we take to Disney.  One that we haven't done before to keep things fun and new for us.

For our daughter's 7th birthday I decided we would take the Family Magic Tour. She has been begging to go on the Keys to the Kingdom tour but Disney says you have to be 16 and older.  She doesn't like that idea, but I guess they have their reasons.  For this tour it's ages 3 and up though so I booked it! And couldn't wait to go see what it was all about.

You meet your Cast Member and fearless leader outside of City Hall at a specific time given to you when you book the tour. They give you cute Peter Pan name tags and a bottle of water.  We were there early enough to have a few minutes alone with Snow White about Princess Erinlee's special day. She walked up behind us and took her by the hand, walked off and sat down like old friends. These memories are what makes Disney so magical.

When everyone arrives for the tour the CM explains a little about what you are going to be doing and then you set off on an ADVENTURE. Did someone say ADVENTURE? Oh wait that's Dream Along With Mickey.

We were given Mickey dust to help us along the way.  Who doesn't believe in Faith, Trust and Mickey Dust?

They had a few little tasks for the younger ones in the group. My daughter was chosen to protect the gold coins.

So off we went with our fearless Cast Member to find where that trouble maker Peter Pan had hidden Capt'n Hook's hook!! We had to find it because if we didn't he would take over the Magic Kingdom forever... *GASP*


We were told that when we saw a Cast Member standing around that we should approach them and say ARRRRR!
If they responded back with an ARRRRR we knew they were pirates and were part of Hook's team.  If they did not say ARRRR they were just CMs and nothing to fear.

The clues were fun and pretty easy for the Disney Geeks in our family.  So we had to hold our tongues not to shout out every answer to every clue. That wouldn't be fun for everyone else.

As we were heading down Main Street to our 2nd clue, we saw a Cast Member standing on the corner beside Casey's and approached him with caution. And we all let out a loud ARRRRRR...and he responded with an ARRRRR!! We screamed and ran!!

It was a lot of fun but people around us did not know what in the world we were doing and why we were yelling at Cast Members. I can't say that I blame them but it was kind of like a little secret society that we were a part of and it was fun!!

About half way through the tour we found ourselves in Tomorrowland sneaking up on Sonny Eclipse. Have you ever tried to sneak through Cosmic Ray's on your hands and knees? It's rather entertaining when you have about 20 people in a line on the floor crawling through a busy restaurant.

At that point we stopped to have some water and take a bathroom break.

After about a 15 minute break we headed back out on our adventure to find that hook. We just knew we were doomed! We had to save the Magic Kingdom from that rotten Capt'n Hook....

We had a few more clues to go, and they lead us straight to the Pirates of the Caribbean ride area.

Tucked away in a cozy little corner we all looked and looked for the hook, and out of nowhere came PETER PAN!!! And guess what he was holding ? THE HOOK!! 
YAY, We saved the Magic Kingdom!

We were all given a chance to have pictures with Peter Pan and we thanked Meghann from South Carolina for being such a brave leader! Each family receives a certificate as a reward for helping save the Magic Kingdom.

Overall the tour was a lot of fun for all ages. I suggest doing it as early in the morning as you can, especially if you are there during the summer. It is not too fast paced but they do try to keep the tour within the 2 hour time frame.

The price for the tour is $34.00 plus tax per person ages 3 and up. They do offer discounts for AP holders,DVC,Disney Visa and AAA Diamond members. 

All information is current at the time of this blog post.

A little about Dulcie...

I am a native Floridian who has been traveling to Disney World since 1976! I am Submariners wife,Mommy to a 9 yr old "Princess" Imagineer in Training and Travel Agent Extraordinaire with Snapshot Getaways. I earned my ears 4 years ago with Disney College of Knowledge and have enjoyed every Magical booking since.

Feel free to contact me for your FREE quote today and let's start Makin' Memories the Disney way.

Facebook-Dream Along with Dulcie

Twitter-DreamAlongWithDulcie

Email-Dulcie@SnapshotGetaways.com