Our December Disney Getaway: Our Itinerary

 

Hi everyone! We recently visited Disney for a quick 5 days in December so I wanted to share our itinerary in case any of you are considering a Disney trip of your own.

Day One: Arrival & Shopping

We flew from Philadelphia to MCO on Thursday and arrived around 12:30 PM. Once we picked up our rental vehicle at the airport, I checked the status of our room at the Coronado Springs Resort on the My Disney App. Did you know you can check in and see your room details without even visiting the resort lobby?! So convenient! Since the room was not ready we decided to do a bit of shopping and went to the Millennia Mall before going to Disney Springs.

The last time I was in Disney it was called Downtown Disney so it has changed a lot. It has been so built up with a ton of restaurants, bars, and stores. We grabbed some Christmas ornaments, a Pandora charm, and made sure to stop at the Ghirardelli store for a mini sundae and the largest chocolate covered strawberry ever.

We ran back to the resort once I was notified on the app that our room was ready. We settled into our room and got the lay of the land at the resort (it is so big!) before having dinner at Toledo, one of the restaurant options at our resort.

After dinner we returned to Disney Springs for the Cirque du Soleil show Drawn to Life. It was maybe 10-15 minutes from our resort and had plenty of parking. We bought tickets about 20 minutes before the show and there was plenty of room to spare. It was a smaller show but it gave us something to do that first night in Disney rather than just sit in our resort.

Day Two: Universal Studios & The Wizarding World of Harry Potter

My husband receives free tickets to Universal Studios so we included a quick day there. It was nice to be able to save a little here on the cost of tickets!

It was perfectly timed because they had a Wicked exhibit of costumes and props and stuff featured in the movie. The grimmerie, a photo op with Elphaba's broom, and alllll the Glinda costumes.

I loved this movie and cannot wait for the second one to come next November. I have never seen the theater production but it is on my list!

It started to rain a little drizzle after we came out so we ducked into the Today Cafe for some breakfast. After that we walked around and did a few rides. This may sound ridiculous but Minion Blast was my favorite.

We walked through some the lands before heading over to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter.

I have wanted to see The Wizarding World of Harry Potter ever since it opened but it had never worked out. It was extremely crowded when we were there, which was not overly surprising, but was a little frustrating. It felt like everywhere I turned I was bumping into somebody or in somone's way. But the world they created was really cool. We had an Express Pass and took the Hogwarts Express between the two worlds so we got to see both in one day.

Some random snaps, including my first Butterbeer and some pasties!

Seeing Hogwarts was such an amazing experience. They did amazing.

We stopped in the Three Broomsticks for dinner.

We stopped in at Honeydukes to look at all the sweets. How cute were the Bertie Bots Every Flavor of Beans with my Harry Potter nails?!

And on our way out we happened upon an evening light show they do using the Hogwarts Castle. It was set to music and lasted maybe 10-15 minutes but looked really cool.

If you are ever in Leavesden in England I highly recommend going to the Warner Brothers Studio Harry Potter tour. It is the backlot where they actually filmed and it has all the different costumes, props, sets, and things. It was really something to see and we added it to our itinerary in 2017 for our honeymoon while we were in the UK.

Day Three: Animal Kingdom and Epcot

We wanted to park hop and visit Animal Kingdom AND Epcot in one day to make the most of our limited time. Honestly, I think we were able to get to everything we wanted with the help of a Lightning Lane Premier Pass at Animal Kingdom and Lightning Lane MultiPass at Epcot.

We started the morning with a character dining breakfast buffet at Tusker House, where Mickey Mouse and friends were all dressed up in their safari gear. I did my best to dress on theme so I went with a leopard top and matching ears scrunchie.

It was an okay buffet, with the typical mickey waffles, pastries, breakfast meats, fruit, and other goodies.

My favorite ride was definitely Flight of Avatar. Although we saw Expedition Everest we did not ride it because I was concerned I would get motion sickness.

I did recreate a photo taken in 2008 during my senior class trip.

EPCOT has always been a bit of a favorite. I enjoy the World Showcase and think the overall concept is just really cool.

My favorite place is definitely France. Are you surprised? We enjoyed Remy's Ratatouille Adventure and a few of the other rides before deciding to stop for a snack.

For the snack, I enjoyed some poutine in Canada.

Then, after a few more rides, we went to dinner at Via Napoli.

Our server was from Naples and said he moved out because of Mount Vesuvius. He was very nice and made our dinner special.

We got over 32,000 steps this day! Likely because we kept walking all around the World Showcase and back and forth between rides. We enjoyed the new Frozen Ride but we did not have a Lightning Lane for it so we waited about 45 minutes.

Then, shortly before closing we enjoyed the Luminous firework show. It was spectacular. Walking out we had the most beautiful view of the Epcot sphere illuminated against the night sky.

We avoided Magic Kingdom on this day because it was closing early for a special party and we did not want to spend the money on special tickets.

Day Four: Magic Kingdom

We started the day off with some quick castle selfies since the park was the least crowded and walking up Main Street. 

Then we enjoyed another character dining experience at the Crystal Palace, which was only a short walk from the castle. 

The building itself was beautiful and we hung out with Winnie the Pooh and friends. Character dining is so fun because you get a chance to meet and chat with each one.

I did not know but you can only get churro waffles onboard the Disney Cruise Ships OR at Crystal Palace. And they are seriously so good!

Seriously, breakfast was so good. I rank it among one of the best breakfast buffet/character dining options in Disney.

We had the Premier Pass for Magic Kingdom so we didn't have to worry about booking any rides and having a timetable. We just went on the rides as we felt. Naturally, It's a Small World had to be one of the first.

Walking up to the Lightning Lanes was really fun because we got to tap our MagicBands and it saved so much time.

We even went to meet Cinderella, which was perfect because my Magic Kingdom outfit was to disney bound as Cinderella: blue top, black choker, and silver mouse ears with a crown. Easy enough

We also caught one of the parades. It was so much fun. Everyone laughing and talking and waving and smiling.

We had dinner at Be Our Guest, which was a beautiful room and delicious food. The entry is really neat too - it's like you are walking into a mountain and then it becomes this beautiful waiting room before heading into the dining rooms. Yes, dining roomS. There are three different grand dining rooms. We were lucky enough to be in the main one.

We even "tried the gray stuff" and it was delicious.

The Beast even welcomed everyone to his castle. We were lucky enough to be in fantastic front row seats and got a few good photos.

Unfortunately, our dinner lasted right through the fireworks so we did not get to witness the firework show but we could hear it. When we were leaving for the night we passed by Cinderella's Castle again. I could stare at the castle all day and night! 

Magic Kingdom was my personal favorite park and what I was looking most forward to. Ultimately we made it to every eligible ride, as well as some others like the Carousel of Progress and President's Hall. I could go to Magic Kingdom every single day and never tire of watching the magic.

Day Five: Resort Hopping, One Last Character Breakfast, & Goodbye

On our last morning in Florida we decided to do a little recon of the other resorts. We wouldn't have enough time to make any of the parks worth it so we drove over to the Contemporary and then hopped on the monorail after breakfast to visit The Polynesian and the Grand Floridian.

The Contemporary was not my favorite resort when it came to design but it had Chef Mickey's and was all decorated for Christmas. It even had a giant gingerbread Cinderella's Castle.

For breakfast we ate at Chef Mickey's. This was more low-key since it was at the resort instead of the park and the food was just as good. 

Of the three character dining experiences I would say my hierarchy was Crystal Palace as the best, Chef Mickey's, and then Tusker House. All three were good but the choices at Crystal Palace set it apart from the other two and Tusker House was just a bit more crowded than Chef Mickey's with slightly fewer buffet options.

After breakfast we took the monorail to the Polynesian. This resort is super cute and well-themed but I'm not sure it is worth the premium cost as a deluxe resort. 

The pool did look really nice and there was even its own beach!

It is walkable to the Grand Floridian, which is really pretty and looks like a plantation.

Since it was so close we just walked over to the Grand Floridian and then hopped on the Monorail back to the Contemporary.

The Grand Floridian was VERY grand and impressive. It was so sprawling, with plantation buildings that were very well appointed. I think if I can afford it I would want to try staying there at some point...but I know it is quite expensive.

The holiday decor was really pretty though. A beautiful large tree and an incredible gingerbread house that was used as a store! You could go up and purchase various goods right from the gingerbread house itself!

Once we were finished resort hopping we packed everything up, returned our rental car at the airport, and flew back home. 

I am already dreaming of our next trip to Disney. There are so many changes going on with rides closing for refurbishment, whole new lands opening (there is a villain land being created which I am sure is going to be amazing), and so much more magic to experience. Universal Studios is also opening Epic and will have even more Harry Potter stuff soon. And who knows....maybe we'll be bringing along our kids the next time we make it back to Florida!