Latest / Mom Street USA / 102. 10 Holiday Experiences for Families at the Orlando Theme Parks

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102. 10 Holiday Experiences for Families at the Orlando Theme Parks · Mom Street USA

0:05
Welcome everybody to Mom St. USA.
0:07
My name is Jackie AKA Wish's Mama and on today's episode of
0:11
Mom St. we are looking forward a bit.
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I know that it's not even Halloween yet when I'm recording
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this. However, we are going to talk
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about the holiday season in the Orlando theme park.
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So that is on the list for today.
0:25
Now I know if you heard at the end of last episode, I mentioned
0:28
that I thought we were going to have a hub episode this week.
0:32
However, our good friend Stevie has decided that she needs to
0:35
take a step back from Mom Street right now just for some personal
0:38
reasons. So we are sending her all the
0:40
love, but she will be not joining us for a while here on
0:43
Mom Street. But that's OK because we've
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still got lots of great information for you guys today.
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And like I mentioned just a few seconds ago, we are going to be
0:53
focused on the holidays, which seems a little crazy to already
0:56
be thinking that. But if you are like me, and I
0:58
figure a lot of our Mom St. community is you're already
1:02
looking at holidays, especially if you've got a Disney trip.
1:04
So you need to know what is available.
1:07
You need to know what's going on in the Orlando area when you are
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going to be down at the parks during the holiday season.
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So today we are talking about 10 holiday experiences for families
1:19
at the Orlando theme parks. So we are going to focus
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primarily on Disney because honestly they have the most
1:26
offerings that I can chat about. But we are going to talk about
1:29
some of the Orlando, other Orlando theme parks as well to
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give you guys just kind of a full picture on what some of the
1:35
different offerings are that you have if you are going to be
1:38
visiting the Orlando area during the holiday season.
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So let's jump in to this list before I give you my first one
1:49
on my list of 10 here. I do just want to mention, and
1:51
I'll try to do my best to clarify this as we go through
1:54
that some of these events that I'm going to talk about are
1:58
free. Some of them are included with
2:02
the purchase of an admission ticket to whatever theme park it
2:05
is that we're talking about. But then some of them are also
2:09
like extra hour events that need an extra ticket for.
2:14
So I will try my best to clarify that as we go through all of
2:18
these different things, just to make sure you know whether or
2:20
not it's something you need to budget extra for or if you're
2:23
already going there, if it's included, you just need to kind
2:25
of plan accordingly for. So the very first thing that
2:29
we're going to talk about when it comes to holiday experiences
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in and around the Orlando theme parks is where can I take my
2:37
kids to meet Santa, right? That is something that a lot of
2:41
families do when they come down around the holiday season.
2:45
They want to meet the man himself.
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So let's talk about at the main Orlando theme parks where you
2:52
can meet Santa. So let's start with Universal.
2:57
At Universal, the one of the only places that you can
3:01
actually see Santa, not the Grinch, and we'll talk about the
3:05
Grinch here very shortly, but where you can see Santa is
3:08
actually on their holiday VIP tour that they offer.
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So this is obviously an added expense that you would have to
3:14
plan for. But otherwise you can only see
3:18
him in their parade that they do.
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And again, we'll talk about this here in just a moment.
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But with if you do decide to book the Holiday VIP tour, on
3:27
the tour, you get a couple perks along with just having that tour
3:31
guide with you. You get priority seating at the
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Grinch Miss Show. You get a meet and greet with
3:37
Grinch with the Grinch and Max. You get a special viewing area
3:41
of the Macy's parade. And again, we'll go over all
3:43
this here just momentarily. You get a meet and greet with
3:47
Santa and a viewing, a special viewing area for the Hogwarts
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Christmas Projection show, along with some food and drink
3:54
offerings as well. So at Universal, that is the
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only place that you can actually truly do a meet and greet with
4:01
Santa. Otherwise, you're going to see
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some other characters that we'll talk about here momentarily when
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we hop to what Universal has to offer at the holidays.
4:10
At Legoland, if you're visiting Legoland during the holidays,
4:13
they have a Lego Santa meet and greet, but you will not find
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Santa in a traditional sense over at Legoland.
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If you're heading to Sea World in Orlando, you can take their
4:25
Reindeer Express train to be transported to go visit with
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Santa. And again, these other parks, we
4:31
will talk about what have to offer.
4:32
I just wanted to kind of start off with here's where you can
4:35
plan to meet Santa for this. Now at Disney you have the most
4:40
opportunities to meet Santa depending on what your plans are
4:44
and where you're going to be. So a couple different places
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that you can see Santa at Disney.
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The 1st is at the very Merry Christmas party which is the
4:53
after hours additional cost Christmas party that they do at
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Magic Kingdom. You can meet Santa at Jollywood
5:00
Nights which is the after hours ticketed extra ticketed event
5:04
that they do at Hollywood Studios at Magic Kingdom during
5:08
normal park hours. If you've got a park ticket, he
5:11
meets in Liberty Square. If you're headed to Epcot again
5:15
and you have a park ticket for Epcot, he will be meeting this
5:18
year in Communicore Hall, which is a change from previous.
5:21
He had been meeting, I believe, in the Odyssey Pavilion, but
5:25
they are going to move him to the Communicore Hall space this
5:28
year at Animal Kingdom. Santa previously met in
5:32
Dinoland, USA at restaurant Asaurus.
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I haven't seen any official announcements from Disney where
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and when and if they plan to have a Santa meet and greet
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available at Animal Kingdom. Restaurant Asaurus is still open
5:47
despite a lot of Dinoland USA being closed, but I don't know
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whether or not they are going to put Santa back there.
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With all of the construction walls that have gone up.
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It's a little tricky to navigate back over there, so we'll have
5:59
to wait and see, but I would anticipate Animal Kingdom having
6:03
some sort of a Santa meet and greet.
6:04
We just don't know exactly where it may be for this year at
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Hollywood Studios. He met previously near Baseline
6:12
Tap House, kind of in that area. Again, there's some construction
6:16
going on over there with the removal of Muppet Courtyard.
6:19
So we'll have to wait and see what Hollywood Studio says for
6:23
that. If you are visiting Disney
6:25
Springs now, the ones that I mentioned earlier, you're going
6:28
to have to have a park ticket for, right?
6:30
If you're visiting Disney Springs, you don't have to have
6:32
a park ticket to visit Disney Springs, but you can meet Santa
6:36
inside Santa's Marketplace in the Once Upon a Toy building and
6:39
they do utilize a virtual queue for that.
6:41
So that's something you're going to want to look into ahead of
6:44
time. This I believe will be the third
6:46
year that they're utilizing that virtual queue system for the
6:49
Santa meet and greet there. We did it a few years ago with
6:52
our kiddos and it was super fun, super easy.
6:55
It was a really great meet and greet to do.
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So it is a free option that you have over at Disney Springs.
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And I do just also want to mention that if you were
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visiting during the holidays and the weather is warm enough and
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Blizzard Beach is an option and you do plan to go there, they do
7:11
have a Santa meet and greet over at Blizzard Beach where you can
7:15
find Santa in his beach wear. So he will be in kind of like a
7:20
Hawaiian button down shirt and swim trunks, but he is over at
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Blizzard Beach if you do plan to to head over there as well.
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So those are the main places that you can find Santa in all
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of the theme parks if you are planning to visit the theme
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parks during the holidays. But let's jump into kind of some
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more specifics about what each park has to offer.
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So let's talk about Universal's offerings for Christmas time.
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And again, we're focused on family offerings.
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And they over at Universal Islands of Adventure do a
7:52
fantastic Grinch Miss event. So this is super, super good for
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your youngest kiddos and younger kiddos that are attending the
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Universal Parks. Grinch Miss itself is included
8:05
with your regular park ticket. So if you have a valid admission
8:09
for Islands of Adventure for the day, then you will be able to
8:13
experience the things that I'm going to be talking about this
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year. It runs from November 21st
8:19
through January 4th of 2026. So generally speaking, that's
8:24
about the range that you get with Grinch Miss.
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It doesn't run quite as long as the Disney season, which we'll
8:29
talk about here in a little bit. So there will be decorations up
8:34
all across the the entire Seuss landing area of Islands of
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Adventure. They've got a bunch of different
8:40
offerings that they have during this time period.
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We've got a Hoola Day spectacular live show, which is
8:47
really, really cute. It's basically just a retelling
8:50
story of the Grinch and it features some some pretty good
8:53
music in that. If you're familiar with Mannheim
8:56
Steamroller, they're very popular, well known musical.
9:02
They're not really an orchestra. They're kind of like a rock
9:04
orchestra group, but they do a lot of Christmas music and their
9:08
music is featured in that show. The big draw here is the meet
9:13
and greet with the Grinch. This is the one that you see all
9:17
over social media. It goes viral every year, people
9:21
having these really hysterical, super fun interactions with the
9:25
Grinch. Now the the big thing to keep in
9:28
mind is this line gets so long, so you really need to plan
9:36
accordingly. You have to rope drop it.
9:39
You have to go there immediately as soon as you are able to get
9:42
into the park and plan to wait for a couple hours.
9:47
Unfortunately, that's just the way that it is with that meet
9:49
and greet because it is so popular and there's just no way
9:54
that they can push that. You know that many people
9:56
through the line at each time. Now, if you want to meet the
10:00
Grinch and you're like, we absolutely cannot wait in that
10:03
line. It's just not feasible.
10:05
The other way that you could do a meet and greet with the Grinch
10:09
is by booking the character breakfast that they have.
10:12
So every year they offer a character breakfast with the
10:15
Grinch during that time period. It is very limited.
10:18
So it is a hard reservation to get and you do need a
10:20
reservation in order to go. So if you are able to book that,
10:25
you will have the ability to do a photo meet and greet with the
10:28
Grinch during your meal. So that is another option.
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But those are your only two ways that you're, you're going to be
10:35
able to meet with the Grinch if you do plan to go to Grinch Miss
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during this time period. The the good thing to note about
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this is that a lot of the attractions in the Seuss Landing
10:46
area do not have height restrictions or they have very
10:49
low height restrictions. So it is a very, very accessible
10:54
area and a very accessible experience for really young,
10:58
young kids, which is really nice.
11:01
I do just want to mention that along with the Grinchmas aspect,
11:05
Universal Parks does also do a Macy's parade.
11:10
So think about the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade that
11:14
you're used to seeing, you know, on your TV that goes through New
11:17
York City on Thanksgiving and Santa's at the end of it, you
11:21
know, the big balloons and the, it's kind of this big spectacle.
11:25
Well, Universal does its own version of this in the parks
11:29
during the holiday season. So it's a really, really fun
11:33
thing to do. Now do keep in mind that this is
11:35
over at Universal Studios. So if you remember when we did
11:39
our whole Universal breakdown, there's two main parks at the
11:43
Universal complex, not counting Epic Universe, which is in at a
11:46
separate location. So Grinch misses in Islands of
11:49
Adventure, but this parade takes place in Universal Studios.
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So planning wise, you may just need to take a look at that
11:55
depending on what tickets you have and what your plans are for
11:58
your time when you're at Universal.
12:01
But the the description of this Macy's parade is catch larger
12:06
than life balloons floating through the streets of Universal
12:08
Studios Florida, along with appearances by the Minions and
12:12
some of your favorite characters from DreamWorks Animations,
12:15
Shrek and Madagascar. So lots of really fun characters
12:19
in that really good holiday feel because, you know, the, the
12:22
Macy's parade is so iconic for the holiday season.
12:26
It typically runs once a day around 5:30 PM.
12:30
It is subject to change, you know, weather and, and, and
12:33
things can adjust that, that time, but typically 5:30 and
12:37
it's about a 30 minute experience.
12:40
So if that's something that draws you in and makes you, you
12:45
know, excited about the holidays, maybe figure out a way
12:48
to piggyback seeing the Macy's parade on the evening that maybe
12:52
you visit the Grinch and Grinch mist during the morning.
12:55
So that is the main offering for families over at Universal.
12:59
There are some other themed shows and things in the Harry
13:05
Potter areas, but that is the main family kind of focused
13:09
activity that you can do over at Universal for the holidays.
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So moving on to number three of our 10 holiday experiences for
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families at the Universal theme parks.
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Let's talk about Legoland. Legoland is a theme park that is
13:24
not too far of a drive. Now, I will mention that if you
13:28
are planning to do some of these other theme parks and you're
13:31
staying at Disney, you're staying at Universal, you may
13:34
want to look into a car rental just to help with not only car
13:38
seats and booster seats and things like that.
13:40
But also these distances are not necessarily all ones that you're
13:44
going to want to do like a Lyft or an Uber for.
13:46
So just take that into consideration depending on what
13:49
your plans are for visiting the different parks whenever you are
13:53
down there. But the holidays at Legoland,
13:56
they have some more specific dates that they run their
13:59
holiday events at. So for this year, December 6th,
14:04
13th, 20th, and then the 24th through the 31st, and Legoland
14:10
is typically open 6:50, so 10:00 AM to 7:00 PM.
14:14
All of their holiday experiences are included with your regular
14:18
ticket price. So if you've already got a
14:19
ticket and are planning to go to Legoland, that's something that
14:22
will be included. Some of the fun things that you
14:24
can see over at Legoland, they have a gigantic Lego Christmas
14:29
tree. So envision the big huge theme
14:32
park trees that you're thinking of and used to seeing at some of
14:36
the Disney parks or resorts. They have a massive Lego
14:40
Christmas tree, which is super fun.
14:42
They also have a life-size Lego reindeer sleigh that you can
14:46
see. Super fun.
14:48
Now as far as meet and greets go, we talked about that they
14:52
don't have a traditional Santa meet and greet over here, but
14:55
they do have a Lego Santa meet and greet.
14:57
So imagine one of those little mini figs mini figures in Lego,
15:02
just life-size so you can meet life-size Lego Santa.
15:08
They also have a Lego Gingerbread Man meet and greet
15:11
that you can do as well. Again, think about those mini
15:14
figs and just imagine them being life-size.
15:17
They have quite a few shows that you can attend if you are headed
15:21
to Legoland for the holidays. They have the Elf Extravaganza
15:25
show which is basically just like an elf training Academy
15:29
show, super cute. They have Festival of Flurries
15:32
and the Very Merry Mix Up among other little shows and
15:36
entertainment all throughout the park whenever you visit there.
15:40
They also have tons of interactive holiday activities
15:43
and this is super fun because they've got them kind of spread
15:45
out all over the park. So you will find different
15:48
crafts or coloring or activities like that.
15:51
You also find obviously ton of Lego building things that they
15:54
can do that is all themed around the holidays.
15:58
One of the unique things that Legoland offers at their holiday
16:01
event is they have a spot where you can write letters to Santa
16:04
and they actually have a whole little mailbox area that you can
16:08
take your letters to Santa and mail them right then and there,
16:12
which is a super fun little touch that they have.
16:16
They do also have holiday food offerings throughout the parks.
16:19
Again, we don't quite have menus for those yet.
16:21
We're a little too far ahead, but definitely keep an eye out
16:24
if you are visiting Legoland for for the holidays.
16:29
And then just something to note that after they're kind of
16:32
Christmas time has ended right here between Christmas and New
16:37
Year's, from December 26th through the 31st, they do New
16:41
Year's fireworks, but they don't do them at midnight.
16:45
So they don't make you have to wait with your little kiddos to
16:48
do them super late in the evening.
16:50
So they do them at an earlier time so that it's much more
16:52
family friendly if you wanted to do some fireworks over at
16:56
Legoland. So that that kind of in a
16:59
nutshell is the rundown of what Legoland has to offer.
17:02
Again, as we're recording this a little early in the season, we
17:06
don't have all the specifics for all of these events quite
17:09
released yet, but make sure that you check out their website if
17:13
you are interested in finding out more.
17:14
Once we get a little bit closer, probably right after Halloween,
17:18
we'll get some more details on some of these events that
17:20
they've got going on. So another Orlando theme park
17:25
that we don't talk a ton about here on Mom Street, just because
17:28
I haven't been there yet and I need to get there just to do
17:31
some of my own on the ground research.
17:33
But that is SeaWorld. So let's talk about SeaWorld
17:37
Orlando and what their Christmas celebration looks like.
17:41
Their celebration is select dates, so not everyday, but
17:45
select dates starting November 7th all the way through January
17:49
5th. So that is their kind of time
17:51
frame for their event. This again is included in your
17:55
admission. So if you're planning to go to
17:56
SeaWorld, these things that I'm going to talk about are all
17:59
going to be included except for one, which I'll talk about here
18:02
in just a moment. They do also have a ton of
18:06
really awesome special holiday ticket packages that include
18:10
things like reserved seats for the shows and some merchandise
18:13
credits and things like that. So keep that in mind if you are
18:18
looking to maybe add SeaWorld to a trip that you've already got
18:22
planned. Oh, definitely a really good
18:23
price point if you want to, you know, piggyback SeaWorld onto
18:27
another trip that you may already be taking.
18:31
The nice thing about SeaWorld is they've got a ton of really
18:34
recognizable characters. So we talked about the Grinch,
18:37
obviously, we talked about Legoland has more of the Lego
18:40
brick, you know, minifigure kind of characters.
18:43
Maybe not quite as recognizable for some kiddos, but SeaWorld
18:49
has Sesame Street IP, so they've got a ton of Sesame Street
18:53
friends that do special holiday shows and things like that.
18:58
They also have Rudolph from the traditional claymation Rankin
19:04
Bass version of Rudolph if you're familiar with that.
19:06
One of my all time favorite Christmas movies, but they also
19:10
from that movie have a meet and greet with Bumble, the
19:13
Abominable snowman from that movie, who is one of my favorite
19:16
characters. And they do also have a Santa
19:20
meet and greet, which we talked about here just a little bit ago
19:22
in this episode. So some really great meet and
19:25
greets that you can do with Sesame Street friends, Rudolph
19:28
and Bumble and Santa as well. They have quite a few shows.
19:33
They have an Elmo Christmas wish show, They have a Big Bird
19:36
Christmas story time show, They have an elf story show.
19:40
And then they also do have the O Wondrous Night show, which is
19:43
more of like the traditional Christmas nativity type of show
19:49
if that's something that you're interested in attending.
19:52
They do have holiday fireworks. They have a Sesame Street
19:56
Christmas parade that is specific to Christmas time.
20:00
They get the infamous Snope. So if you're familiar with the
20:04
snow, that happens a lot on Disney property.
20:08
It's a little soapy, so people tend to refer to it as Snope,
20:12
but they get that they have tons of decorations.
20:16
They have an ice show which is the Winter Wonderland on Ice
20:19
show which is fantastic. If you have seen any of our good
20:24
friend Kirk at Walrus Carps coverage of this event you will
20:28
know that the ice shows that they have are just next level
20:31
fantastic entertainment options for that.
20:35
They do also offer public ice skating during limited hours of
20:41
the day. Now, the ice skating is an
20:43
additional charge. So that is the only thing that
20:46
I'm mentioning about this SeaWorld event that is not
20:49
automatically included with your park ticket.
20:52
So that is an additional fee that you have to pay for that.
20:57
For that, the public ice skating, if you yourself want to
21:00
go and ice skate while you're visiting SeaWorld, they also do
21:04
have a holiday train display, holiday food offerings, and all
21:08
their attractions and rides are open open too.
21:10
So they've got a lot of really fun attractions.
21:13
They've got some great coasters. They've kind of got a little bit
21:15
of everything for every age between the animal attractions,
21:19
the rides, that they've got all of these amazing fun offerings
21:23
of different characters and shows.
21:26
SeaWorld is a really, really great place that you can visit
21:31
during the holidays for almost every age.
21:34
So now that we are leaving those other theme parks, we're going
21:38
to pretty much stick to Disney for the rest of our list.
21:43
So let's head over to the Disney theme parks and talk about all
21:48
of the offerings that they have for the holidays.
21:50
Now, the really great thing about Disney at the holidays is
21:53
they have a ton of options and they have a lot that are free or
21:57
included. It's really easy to to kind of
22:00
see a little bit of everything and plan just a whole trip
22:03
around all of their holiday offerings.
22:05
So let's talk about the rest of the holiday offerings that we
22:08
can find over there. And again, reminder that we're
22:12
focused on experiences for families.
22:14
So I'm going to talk next about Mickey's very Merry Christmas
22:19
party at Magic Kingdom. I am not today going to talk
22:22
about the Jollywood party over at Hollywood Studios that is
22:26
geared more towards older kids, teenagers, adults, right?
22:31
So I'm just going to talk about the very Merry Christmas party
22:34
during this episode for that reasoning.
22:37
Now this is a special ticketed event.
22:39
So we've talked about Very Merry on Mom St. before.
22:43
I'm not going to go into a ton of really specific details.
22:47
If you guys want more details, let me know.
22:49
I'm happy to do another refresher episode on Very Merry
22:52
if that's something that you guys want, but we have covered
22:55
it before, so feel free to hop back in our archives over on our
22:58
YouTube if you want more information about what the
23:01
offerings are over there. But this is a special ticketed
23:04
event for this year. The dates run from November 1st
23:09
through December 21st and the price range in tickets ranges
23:13
from about 169 up to 229 per person.
23:18
So again, it is that special ticketed event.
23:21
As of right now when I'm recording this, only the first
23:24
date is sold out for Very merry. I do anticipate that changing
23:28
though because even where we're at right now with Not So Scary
23:32
Halloween Party, we are more than a month out from Halloween
23:35
and it is completely sold out. So keep an eye on that,
23:39
especially if you're someone that wants to get tickets, I
23:42
would get them sooner rather than later so that way you don't
23:45
miss out on the dates that you want because it is not every
23:48
day. And that November 1st through
23:50
December 21st time frame, it's about twice a week to start.
23:53
And then once you get closer to Christmas, they ramp that up to
23:56
about three to four times a week depending on the week and
23:59
depending on the day. So you don't want to miss out if
24:01
that's something that you're really looking forward to.
24:05
A couple of the highlights about the very Merry Christmas party.
24:09
They have a seasonal decor all over the park.
24:12
I'm hoping that they're going to expand some of that again, like
24:16
they did with Halloween. So it used to be that Halloween
24:19
and Christmas were just kind of primarily focused on Main
24:23
Street, right? It was the train station all the
24:25
way through kind of the hub area of Main Street was where we
24:29
primarily saw all of the decorations.
24:31
Well, this year for Halloween, they expanded some of that.
24:35
We got pumpkins outside Winnie the Pooh.
24:37
We got some different shaped character wreaths outside in
24:41
Storybook Circus area. So I'm hoping that with
24:44
Christmas and the holidays, we'll maybe see some of that
24:47
expansion happen for those decorations as well.
24:50
I think that would be super fun to see some some Christmas
24:53
touches throughout more of the park than just Main Street.
24:56
So we'll have to wait and see. But traditionally Main Street is
25:00
the the hub kind of area, the focus of their different
25:04
decorations. They do the Snope.
25:07
So we talked about the Snope soap snow that they do.
25:12
So they do that on Main Street as well.
25:15
There are ride overlays so you can get Christmas music on Space
25:19
Mountain. You get Christmas music on the
25:22
tea cups. You get the very famous
25:25
infamous, if you will, Jingle Cruise in place of Jungle
25:28
Cruise. Now that one is available during
25:30
regular park hours. The other two are not.
25:33
They are only available during the party.
25:35
You also get an overlay over at Monsters Inc Laugh Floor as
25:39
well. They do have the in in place of
25:43
if you're familiar with not so Scary, they have those trick or
25:45
treat stops. Well, at Very Merry, they have
25:49
cookies and hot chocolate and apple cider at those locations.
25:52
So that is what they have kind of in lieu of the trick or
25:56
treating. They have those cookie stops for
25:59
you. They have a special parade that
26:02
is like Minnie's Very magical Christmas parade or something
26:07
like that. They have a special fireworks
26:09
show. They have a special stage show
26:11
that's got some really fun songs to it, tons of exclusive
26:15
characters and exclusive merch. So it's a really, really fun
26:19
event. It's a little pricey, so you
26:22
definitely want to take a look at your budget and see whether
26:26
or not it fits into what you're hoping to do.
26:28
But it is a very, very fun event that you can take your whole
26:32
family to and everybody will find something that they enjoy
26:35
when it comes to that. Moving over to another Disney
26:40
park and what they have to offer.
26:43
Let's talk about Epcot. So Epcot does have the
26:46
International Festival of the Holidays.
26:48
So this is one that is traditionally in their festival
26:51
rotation. So if you're familiar with, they
26:53
have food and wine, they have flower and garden Festival of
26:55
the Arts. This is just included in their
26:57
festival rotation for this time of year.
27:01
It is all included with your Epcot Park ticket.
27:04
So this is not a special extra event, and we just talked about
27:08
Very Merry, that is an extra event.
27:10
The International Festival of the Holidays is not, so it is
27:13
included this year for 2025. It is running November 28th
27:19
through December 30th, so just over a month and that's fairly
27:23
typical. It usually opens after
27:26
Thanksgiving, so you will not see this festival running if you
27:29
are visiting the parks for holidays during November.
27:33
You need to wait until after Thanksgiving if you plan to do
27:36
this event. A couple of fun things that they
27:39
have. We mentioned earlier that Santa
27:41
does a meet and greet this year he is meeting in Communicore
27:45
Hall, so that is the location that you'll find him for that.
27:49
Now, we don't know if they're going to do any sort of like a
27:52
virtual queue or what the meet and greet over there is going to
27:55
look like. So we'll have to wait and see
27:57
kind of what they what they have planned for that location.
28:03
One of the the very most popular events during the festival of
28:07
the holidays is the Candlelight Processional.
28:10
This is an event, this is a show that happens at the pavilion in
28:15
the American's or at the at the stage in the American pavilion
28:20
where you typically see like the concert series and things like
28:23
that happen. This is the equivalent of that
28:25
for festival of the holidays. So Candlelight Processional is a
28:29
ton of cast members that come together and sing a bunch of
28:33
more traditional Christmas songs.
28:35
They tell the story the the traditional we talked about, you
28:39
know, SeaWorld having that nativity scene as one of their
28:42
shows. They tell the traditional story
28:44
from the Bible for Christmas. The big draw with this is they
28:48
have a ton of celebrity narrators.
28:51
So you will get people that are big name celebrities that come
28:54
and do the narration for the show and they tell the story
28:58
while the orchestra and the choir kind of enhance it with
29:02
their music. So that is one of the biggest
29:05
draws of this time of year for the festival of the holidays.
29:10
That is a nightly show that they do 3 * a night.
29:13
They do a 5:00, a 645 and an 815 and that's pretty standard for
29:18
those times. Now there is a dining package
29:20
you can you can also purchase with that as well.
29:23
So look into that if that's something that you're interested
29:26
in doing. Now, aside from Candlelight
29:28
Processional, they also have these really fun holiday
29:31
storytellers around World Showcase.
29:34
So nearly every country throughout World Showcase will
29:37
have whatever their equivalent is of like a Saint Nick or, or a
29:42
Santa type character and they will tell the traditional
29:47
stories of Christmas time from whatever country it is you're
29:50
visiting. So in France, you'll get the
29:53
French versions of those traditional stories.
29:56
You know, if you're visiting somewhere like Morocco for a
30:00
World Showcase, you're going to get something completely
30:02
different. So that is a really, really fun
30:05
thing that they have in a really unique way to kind of experience
30:09
the holidays, especially if you've got kiddos that are, you
30:12
know, a lot of kids I know learn about like Christmas around the
30:15
world or they learn about some of these types of things at
30:18
school. Well, this is a great way to
30:19
kind of enhance that and just give them that worldview of so
30:23
many people celebrate Christmas in so many different ways.
30:26
And I think that's super fun. There will be obviously the
30:30
kitchen food booths, the holiday kitchen food booths.
30:32
So just like any other festival at Epcot, you get those extra
30:35
food booths. We don't again have menus for
30:38
those quite yet. We are a little early for that,
30:40
but stay tuned to Disney Parks blog for that or through our,
30:44
you know, our partner in Chip and Co, they always cover all of
30:47
that as well for the food booths.
30:51
They also do a cookie stroll. So if you're familiar with like
30:56
meals fromage montage during food and wine, we've talked
30:59
about where it's like you go around to the different food
31:01
booths and you get stamps for the different things you try and
31:04
then you get like a little completion prize at the end.
31:07
Will they have the cookie stroll for the festival of the
31:09
holidays? So they have a a big list of
31:12
different cookies from the different food booths you can
31:14
try. Once you've tried 5 and gotten
31:16
the little stamp proof of purchase in your booklet, you
31:20
can get your completer cookie or they've done hot chocolate packs
31:24
before. They've done like a cookie mix,
31:27
I think it was last year where you could like take it home and
31:30
like bake the cookies together. So a fun little thing that you
31:33
can do if you want to do a little cookie sampling
31:38
throughout your family. I think that's a really fun
31:40
thing that you can do during the festival of the holidays.
31:43
Let's see if you are into the scavenger hunts.
31:47
They've got the Olafs Magical Holiday scavenger hunt if you're
31:52
familiar with the short, and I'm going to forget the name of it,
31:58
but the Christmas Frozen short that is on Disney Plus where
32:02
Olaf goes around looking for all the holiday traditions.
32:05
That is what this scavenger hunt is based off of.
32:08
So he goes around and you have to find where Olaf is in the
32:11
different countries of World Showcase and and complete your
32:14
scavenger hunt with with the stickers for that.
32:18
The other big draw during the holiday season is one of the
32:21
most beloved attractions at Epcot.
32:24
Living with the land gets a really fun overlay.
32:28
So they call it I think is what glistening greenhouses, but you
32:32
can when you visit at night, they have tons of holiday
32:35
Christmas lights all over that attraction.
32:38
So it's a really fun experience to see during the holidays and
32:43
something completely unique that you you wouldn't, you know, see
32:47
normally during any other time of the year.
32:49
Now that is available, you know you're going to see it.
32:54
I should say you're going to get the most out of that experience
32:57
if you visit it after it gets dark.
32:59
But keep in mind that you will see those wait times for living
33:02
with the land skyrocket as soon as that sun gets anywhere close
33:07
to going down. So plan accordingly.
33:09
Maybe grab a lightning lane if you need to or plan to get in
33:12
line and just know that you may have to wait 30, 40 minutes
33:16
where living with the land is typically a 5-10 minute wait.
33:19
So keep that in mind if that's something that you want to
33:21
experience over at Epcot. So again, all of that for the
33:26
International Festival of the Holidays is included in your
33:29
Epcot ticket. Let's talk about something over
33:34
at Disney that's actually not in a park.
33:36
So the next couple things we're actually going to talk about
33:38
don't take place inside the Disney Parks, but they do take
33:42
place on Disney property. And the next one, we were just
33:46
talking about scavenger hunts not that long ago.
33:48
This one kind of goes hand in hand with that, and that is the
33:51
Christmas tree stroll at Disney Springs.
33:55
So Disney Springs is open to anybody who wants to visit.
33:59
It's not something that you have to be staying on Disney property
34:02
or going to the parks or anything like that.
34:06
Anybody can visit Disney Springs and this is a free activity that
34:10
you can do. When you visit Disney Springs,
34:12
they'll have a couple different locations that they'll announce
34:14
as like you are starting locations where you will pick up
34:18
a map guide and a sticker sheet and you will go around and match
34:24
the stickers to the locations of the Christmas trees.
34:28
So the the trees that you will find will be themed to all sorts
34:34
of different Disney things. They've got Haunted Mansion,
34:37
they've got Disney Cruise Line, there are Disney movies that
34:40
they'll do you know, anything and everything you could think
34:43
of. And there's probably I didn't
34:47
count. I should have grabbed my kiddos
34:49
one because I know my son still has it from when we did it a
34:51
couple years ago. But there's like 18 to 20 trees
34:56
all across Disney Springs. So it's so much fun.
35:01
It is a ton of walking. So keep that in mind if you've
35:04
got kiddos that are maybe borderline stroller or you're
35:07
like, oh, we might not need it just to go do the Christmas tree
35:09
stroll. You will go across the entire
35:14
length of Disney Springs trying to find these Christmas trees.
35:18
So keep that in mind when you've completed your map and found the
35:24
locations for all of the trees, you can return it to a
35:29
redemption location and you get a little button that says
35:32
Christmas Tree Stroll, Disney Springs and the year I believe
35:35
on it. So just a cute little completion
35:39
button prize whenever you have done that.
35:42
But my kids are huge into the scavenger hunts.
35:45
They love doing them at Epcot. It's one of their favorite
35:48
things to do. They loved the Christmas Tree
35:51
Stroll. And we did break it up a little
35:53
bit. We did a few and then we would,
35:55
you know, grab something to eat or, you know, walk around in one
35:59
of the shops and then go back and do a few more.
36:01
And then like we went met, went and met Santa when our time was
36:05
called with our virtual queue, which I talked about earlier
36:08
with meeting Santa at Disney Springs over in Once Upon a Toy.
36:11
And then we went back and finished the rest of it.
36:13
So it was a super fun day. Some of them are, are hard.
36:18
You know, some of the scavenger hunts inside Epcot are, are a
36:22
little more obvious than others, right?
36:24
This Christmas Tree Stroll 1 was tricky to kind of navigate and
36:28
find all of the trees and a lot of them are, there's some little
36:31
pockets that are kind of close together.
36:33
So it was fun for my husband and I to participate too, and to
36:37
help the kids, you know, 'cause some of them they, they needed
36:41
some help on whenever we did it. But it is a super fun,
36:44
absolutely free activity that you can do during the holidays
36:47
over at Disney Springs. Another free, completely free
36:54
activity that you can do at over at the Disney World Resorts now
36:59
is to look at all of the gingerbread creations that they
37:02
have. So Disney is famous for their
37:06
gingerbread creations and sculptures that they do during
37:10
the holiday season. So I'm going to talk about kind
37:13
of the different ones that you can go see and talk about how to
37:17
get there because it can be a little overwhelming trying to
37:22
figure out how to get to the Disney resorts because if you've
37:26
got a car, not all of them will let you park there, so you're
37:28
better off taking Disney transportation.
37:32
So most of what we're going to talk about, I'm going to mention
37:35
how to get there through Disney transportation.
37:37
So let's talk about the different resorts that have
37:41
gingerbread displays and what they are.
37:44
So the first one on my list being Disney's Animal Kingdom
37:46
Lodge. This one is the hardest 1 to get
37:49
to because you can only get there via the Disney buses.
37:53
So you could start at A at a park and get to this resort from
37:59
there. You cannot take a bus from
38:01
resort to resort. So that's where it gets a little
38:04
bit tricky. I'm trying to navigate.
38:06
You'll see some of these other ones that we're going to talk
38:08
about are on the sky liner line or the monorail loop.
38:12
This is the hardest 1 to get to. So it is accessible via the
38:15
Disney buses. And their gingerbread display is
38:20
so cool and so adorable. But they every year have a baby
38:25
giraffe made entirely out of gingerbread and a baby zebra
38:30
made entirely out of gingerbread.
38:32
And they are just phenomenal to see.
38:34
And they are life-size full size.
38:37
Now you got to remember a baby giraffe is not, you know, full
38:40
size, but you can go see them in the lobby of Animal Kingdom
38:45
Lodge and they are so special and so unique and so fun to see.
38:49
So that is a really fun one to be able to go and visit.
38:53
Now let's talk about some of the other ones.
38:56
The next two that I'm going to talk about are very close
38:59
together, so let's talk about Disney's Beach Club Resort.
39:04
That is another one that does a gingerbread display.
39:08
The Beach Club Resort is accessible a couple different
39:10
ways. If you're at Epcot, you can walk
39:13
there through the International Gateway entrance and exit, which
39:17
is between the UK Pavilion and the France Pavilion in World
39:20
Showcase. If you are along the sky liner,
39:25
you can take the sky liner to Epcot and then walk there from
39:28
there because it is adjacent kind of around the corner to the
39:31
boardwalk area. So that's how you can get there
39:35
from various different places on property.
39:38
Again, you can always take a bus to the Beach Club from a park as
39:43
well, except for Epcot 'cause you'll just walk there.
39:45
But if you're at Magic Kingdom, Hollow Studios or Animal
39:48
Kingdom, you can take a bus to the Beach Club from there.
39:52
But they do a gingerbread carousel and the carousel
39:57
rotates and it is phenomenal. It's amazing to see what they
40:02
can do with gingerbread. It is absolutely incredible.
40:06
Last year's theme. So every year they do a
40:08
different theme for the carousel.
40:10
Last year's theme was the Mickey version of A Christmas Carol.
40:15
So all of the horses were themed to different characters and
40:18
different things from that. The year before was a a Duck
40:22
Tales theme, so we found Huey, Dewey and Louie and Scrooge,
40:27
Uncle Scrooge and Donald on that one.
40:30
Super, super fun, absolutely beautiful, magnificent to, you
40:35
know, stand there and, and watch it rotate around.
40:39
And I should mention that at all of these locations, they will
40:41
have like a little plaque somewhere that says like what
40:45
all the ingredients are that they use.
40:47
So it'll talk about, you know, how many tons of, of sugar and
40:51
things like that that they did to, to create them, which I
40:54
think is super fun to to read and to look at and to talk to
40:58
your kids about. Like, Oh my gosh, did you see
41:00
they used, I don't know, three dozen eggs to make this, you
41:03
know, things like that. I think is is super fun.
41:06
So that's at the beach Club. Is that gingerbread carousel Now
41:10
around the corner over at Disney's Boardwalk Resort, they
41:16
also have a gingerbread creation.
41:18
It is typically a house like a gingerbread House of some sort,
41:23
but it also will typically be a miniature version of a boardwalk
41:29
classic. So last year they recreated the
41:33
Boardwalk Deli building in Gingerbread and that was what
41:37
their creation was for the year. So you can, I should mention
41:42
also that you can reach the Boardwalk area in the same way
41:45
that I just mentioned for Beach Club through the International
41:48
Gateway exit at Epcot between the France and the UK pavilions.
41:53
The Sky liner also, or again those buses that I talked about,
41:57
if you're at a different park, again, you cannot take Disney
42:01
buses from resort to resort. You're going to have to be at a
42:04
park to get to these resorts that we're talking about.
42:07
So again, the Boardwalk Resort has a typically a miniature
42:11
version of some sort of Boardwalk classic.
42:14
If it's not that, then it's just more of a standard gingerbread
42:16
house that you'll find over there.
42:20
Moving on to our monorail resorts, let's talk about the
42:25
gingerbread creations that they have over there.
42:28
Let's start with the contemporary.
42:31
So Disney's Contemporary Resort can be accessed through the
42:35
monorail loop, or if you are at Magic Kingdom, you can also
42:39
walk. There's a walkway to the
42:41
contemporary. Once you go out the gates,
42:44
you're going to want to go all the way to the left and you'll
42:46
find a little sign that says like walkway to contemporary and
42:50
follow that. But that is where you will find
42:54
the Gingerbread Castle. So this is one that if you
42:58
remember the monorail does go through the Contemporary resort
43:01
and you can actually look down and see it as your monorail
43:04
pulls into the building. It's on the main level.
43:09
So it's a little confusing at the Contemporary because if
43:13
you're walking there or taking a bus there, you actually go in
43:18
underneath what everybody considers like the main area of
43:22
the Contemporary where like Contempo Cafe and Chef Mickey's
43:26
and their Fantasia themed gift shop is.
43:29
That's like the third level. I want to say I'm pretty sure
43:33
that's right. Don't quote me on that.
43:34
Apologies if that's not the right number, but I believe
43:37
that's the third level of the resort.
43:39
So that is where you will also find this gingerbread castle on
43:43
the one far end opposite of the Chef Mickey area that you see on
43:47
that level. And every year they theme that
43:50
castle a little bit differently. One of the Super fun things that
43:54
I know they do at several of the gingerbread displays, but I know
43:56
for sure they do it here, is there are always a certain
44:00
number of hidden Mickeys that you can find in that castle.
44:02
Just so that was something that my kids and I had a really fun
44:06
time standing and looking for and trying to find because you
44:10
can't get too close to it, you know.
44:11
So it's it's from afar. You have to see if you can spot
44:14
the little itty bitty tiny hidden Mickeys that they include
44:17
on that one over at the Contemporary.
44:21
Now while you're on the monorail loop, let's head over to the
44:24
Grand Floridian next. Now I do unfortunately have some
44:29
sad news for 2025. Typically the Grand Floridian
44:35
houses the massive iconic gingerbread house that is big
44:41
enough that there are bakery workers that are inside staffing
44:46
it making all sorts of yummy treats.
44:48
But unfortunately, due to construction in 2025, they will
44:54
not be having that iconic gingerbread house, which is so
44:58
sad, but it's going to be OK. I'm excited for the renovations
45:03
they're doing to the lobby over there.
45:04
It's going to be really great. Look those up if you haven't
45:06
seen them. They're adding some really fun
45:08
elements. So we don't know for 2025 what
45:13
they're going to do at the Grand Floridian.
45:16
Are they going to have something smaller in place of the
45:20
traditional gingerbread house? I feel like they have to do
45:23
something. They can't just leave us hanging
45:25
and not do any sort of gingerbread house over there.
45:28
But that remains to be seen. Again, you can access the Grand
45:33
Floridian Resort through the monorail loop.
45:36
So find your way to either the Ticket and Transportation Center
45:39
or Magic Kingdom Hop on the monorail, the resort monorail to
45:44
get you there. So those are some of the
45:47
gingerbread displays at the resorts.
45:50
I do just want to mention also that there was a gingerbread
45:54
display last year at Epcot. Now, this would not be something
46:00
that would be free of charge to go visit.
46:02
You would need to have a park ticket for Epcot.
46:06
Last year they had a huge gingerbread spaceship Earth over
46:12
at Epcot, so it wasn't Communicore Hall.
46:17
They've announced that this year the Santa Meet and greet is
46:19
going to be in Communicore Hall, so we'll have to see what Epcot
46:25
plans for us this year. But last year they did have like
46:30
a Spaceship Earth one, complete with some little lights.
46:32
Again, you must have an Epcot Park ticket if you want to view
46:36
whatever it is that they plan for this year.
46:39
And it makes me wonder if maybe they're going to flip flop,
46:42
right? Because last year Santa did his
46:44
meet and greet inside the Odyssey and Commute Core Hall
46:48
housed the gingerbread display. So I wonder if they're going to
46:51
flip flop those two. We'll have to wait and see what
46:53
happens and see what Disney decides to do about that.
46:57
But I did just want to mention that they do have that
47:00
gingerbread display in there as well.
47:04
I do want to mention something fun that you can do and we're
47:07
going to talk about Christmas trees here momentarily.
47:11
But doing like a gingerbread tour and a Christmas tree tour
47:15
at the Disney resorts is such a fun way to experience the the
47:19
holidays over at Disney. So I think that's a really fun
47:22
way to kind of pick your highlights from each because I
47:25
am going to talk about some of the other activities at the
47:28
other Disney resorts here in just a moment.
47:31
But you can kind of piggyback those two together to make a
47:33
really fun day where you're just kind of roaming all around
47:36
Disney property and maybe seeing things that you don't typically
47:39
see. I know myself included, a lot of
47:42
people that visit Disney just focus so much on the parks that
47:45
you miss a lot of the magic that also happens at the resort.
47:48
So, you know, spending some time exploring the resorts is a
47:52
really, really fun way to to experience the holidays over
47:56
there. So that's super fun.
47:59
And just a fun little side note because as I was reading and
48:02
researching about the gingerbread and I do remember
48:05
I've heard this before, but you will find that a lot of the the
48:08
structures of these displays are reused.
48:12
So like the structure for the carousel, they keep and reuse it
48:16
year after year. However, what do they do with
48:20
the actual edible part? Well, the gingerbread and
48:25
anything sugary confectionery related are set out to a nearby
48:30
Disney tree nursery to help feed the local bee population.
48:36
So that is so fun to get to know that that's what they take, you
48:40
know, that's where they take all the gingerbread pieces out to
48:44
the Disney tree farm for the bees.
48:46
So I just think that's super fun.
48:49
OK, so we got through all of the gingerbread.
48:52
We've got two more things on my 10 holiday experiences for
48:56
families in the Orlando theme park.
49:00
So let's we're going to stay in Disney because like I said, the
49:03
rest of my list just ended up being Disney.
49:05
But let's talk about some of the other Christmas activities that
49:09
you can find at the Disney resorts.
49:11
So the great thing about the Disney resorts is that every
49:14
Disney resort has some sort of a themed Christmas tree that has
49:21
decor that matched the theme to the resort.
49:24
So for example, if you stay at Art of Animation during the the
49:28
holiday season, you're going to find art, different art supplies
49:35
and drawings on the tree. If you go over to somewhere like
49:41
let's see, Caribbean beach, you're going to find different
49:44
Caribbean decor over on their tree.
49:47
So you've got a Christmas tree no matter what resort you visit,
49:51
which is super fun. I want to mention just a few
49:55
resorts that kind of have some above and beyond activities.
49:59
Again, they all have a tree and every resort is going to have
50:03
some sort of a themed weekly activity that matches the
50:06
holiday season. So they do movies under the
50:09
stars. They're probably going to be
50:10
Christmas movies. Their events and their different
50:13
activities that they have for the kiddos that are staying
50:15
there are all going to be holiday themed.
50:17
So they have no shortage of holiday activities at these
50:21
resorts, but a few of them kind of go a little bit above and
50:24
beyond. So I'm going to talk about three
50:27
others here that you could maybe pair and partner with some of
50:31
those ones we talked about with the Gingerbread earlier.
50:34
And this first one I'm going to talk about is actually a really
50:36
great one that you can pair with some of the ones we talked about
50:38
earlier. So earlier we talked about the
50:41
Beach Club and the Boardwalk. Well, let's talk about Yacht
50:43
Club. Yacht Club is the sister resort
50:46
to Beach Club and it is found in that same little kind of L shape
50:51
area outside of the World Showcase exit for International
50:57
Gateway for Epcot. They have a full Christmas
51:02
display in their lobby that is complete with working trains in
51:08
a Christmas village. And we stumbled upon this a
51:10
couple of years ago when we did our family trip around
51:14
Thanksgiving. So my family and I went down the
51:17
week of Thanksgiving during my kids break and we did some of
51:20
these parties and then we just did some resort days because we
51:22
wanted to experience the the Christmas trees and the
51:25
gingerbread and all that kind of stuff.
51:26
But this display is so much fun. It is a massive tabletop display
51:33
in their lobby area. And it's so fun to look at all
51:36
of the little figures that they have set up and the trains, you
51:40
know, they've got multiple trains running that you can
51:42
follow around. So imagine if you're familiar
51:45
with the trains near the Germany Pavilion inside Epcot, but
51:50
imagine that they took that, made it Christmas and put it on
51:53
a table top. That's what you're going to find
51:55
over at the Yacht Club. So it is a super fun place to
51:59
visit and it's walkable from where we talked about getting to
52:03
the Yacht Club or getting to the beach Club.
52:06
We'll also get you to the Yacht Club.
52:08
So it's Sky Liner or it's exiting through the
52:12
International Gateway at Epcot or taking a Disney bus to one of
52:16
those locations. And the nice thing is you can
52:19
hop on a Disney bus, start on one end.
52:21
So let's say you start on the Boardwalk, then you go over to
52:23
Yacht and Beach Club. You can hit all three without
52:25
having to take an extra transportation between them.
52:28
So that's a super fun one, especially if you've got younger
52:31
kiddos who love trains. That is the place that you want
52:35
to be. These other two are not quite
52:40
connected to the ones that we just talked about.
52:43
However, I will mention that there is still transportation to
52:49
them from from wherever you are in, in the parks, right.
52:53
So bus transportation, boat transportation, those types of
52:57
things. So perfect, yes.
52:59
OK, so let's talk about Wilderness lodge.
53:03
Wilderness Lodge is one of the most iconic resorts when it
53:10
comes to Christmas, and it doesn't have anything really
53:17
specific to it. It has a fantastic tree, a
53:20
massive Christmas tree, but there's just something about the
53:24
vibe over here and the feeling over here because they've got
53:28
big comfy rocking chairs and tons of fireplaces and a massive
53:32
Christmas tree. It's just very Christmassy and
53:36
homey and it just, it very much embraces the holiday feel.
53:41
Again, nothing specific other than their tree, but it's just
53:44
the overall vibe of the resort that really puts you in that
53:49
kind of cozy holiday feeling. Now you can get to the
53:54
Wilderness Lodge. The easiest way to get there is
53:57
by bus if you're at a park. If you're at Magic Kingdom, they
54:02
also have a have water transportation, so you can take
54:05
a boat over to the Wilderness Lodge.
54:08
If you are at Magic Kingdom, if you're driving, the easiest way
54:12
is going to be to park at the transportation and ticket
54:15
Center. Take your monorail or your ferry
54:18
to Magic Kingdom and then right near where the boat docks for
54:22
the ferry, you'll find the boat transportation to Wilderness
54:25
Lodge. You can also get to the Grand
54:27
Floridian through that boat. And I totally spaced on that
54:30
earlier. Thank you.
54:30
Shout out to Ali Beth in our live chat here who reminded me
54:34
that you can take that boat over to the Grand Floridian as well.
54:38
But that is a super fun one. So Wilderness Lodge is a fun
54:42
stop if you just want to feel that kind of Pacific Northwest
54:48
cozy, pine tree, Christmassy vibe is what you get over there.
54:53
The last one that I want to talk about is a resort that is often
54:58
confused with the Wilderness Lodge and that is the Fort
55:02
Wilderness Resort. So that is a different resort
55:06
than Wilderness Lodge that we were just talking about.
55:09
This is where you will find the iconic cabins that you hear a
55:13
lot of people talking about when it comes to staying on Disney
55:17
property. So that is the, again, this is
55:21
Fort Wilderness different than Wilderness Lodge.
55:24
I know it's confusing. I don't know why Disney did
55:26
that, but we just know that they love to do that to us.
55:29
They do have transportation as far as you can take a boat there
55:35
as well from across the Seven Seas Lagoon from Magic Kingdom
55:39
or you can do buses if you want to get over there.
55:41
But they have a ton of really fun Christmas activities.
55:45
So they have a holiday campfire sing along with Chip and Dale
55:51
that they do over there. They have a holiday golf cart
55:55
parade where you the guests that stay there can enter their golf
55:59
carts because it is such a vast space.
56:02
And they do have those cabins. You can rent golf carts over
56:04
there to transport you to and from.
56:08
So they have a a golf cart parade where you can, you know,
56:12
dress your golf cart up in their finest holiday attire or you can
56:17
just go and be a spectator on that as well.
56:21
The other thing to note is that if you're doing a golf cart
56:24
rental or you know somebody who is or you're planning to go over
56:26
there, the guests that stay at the campsites, whether it's
56:31
their own campsites or the cabins, they always go all out
56:36
with their own personal decorations for the holidays.
56:39
So you are able to drive through that area and see they've got
56:44
all sorts of blow up inflatables and huge Christmas lights
56:48
displays. That's not Disney that does it
56:51
over there. That is the guests that are
56:52
staying there, and it's just become such a part of the
56:55
culture over there that people will go just to, you know, go
57:00
sightseeing for the Christmas lights over during the holidays
57:05
at the campsites and things like that.
57:06
So that is super, super fun. It's helpful if you've got
57:11
someone who's been over there and kind of knows their way
57:14
around because it can be a little overwhelming to figure
57:17
out where to go. But if you don't know where to
57:19
go, your best case scenario would be to chat with someone at
57:24
concierge or at at the in the lobby to kind of give you the
57:28
the rundown of how it works over there.
57:30
With that, they also do sleigh rides over there with like horse
57:34
drawn carriages, which is I love it so cute, so much fun.
57:39
And then they do their own personal holiday cookie
57:43
scavenger hunt over at Fort wilderness.
57:47
So that is a super fun thing. Again, they just go above and
57:50
beyond with that feel for the the the holiday season and
57:55
Christmas vibes. So Fort wilderness is a really,
57:58
really great one to visit as well.
58:00
And again, like I mentioned, all of the Disney resorts, no matter
58:03
where you stay on property for Disney, are going to have some
58:07
sort of a themed weekly activity, weekly movie.
58:11
They're going to have things like s'mores at the at the
58:14
campfire. So you're still going to be able
58:16
to find holiday activities no matter what resort you stay at.
58:20
The ones that I mentioned, again, just kind of have that
58:22
little extra that they give during during the holiday
58:25
season. All of these activities that
58:28
I've talked about for this, not only seeing the gingerbread at
58:32
the resorts, but also the seeing the trees at the resorts or
58:36
visiting the resorts to do some of these experiences, all are
58:41
free. Now.
58:42
Things like the sleigh rides are going to have an extra cost.
58:47
And do keep in mind that things like their holiday cookie
58:50
scavenger hunt, those are for Fort Wilderness guests only.
58:55
So take a look online, do a quick Google search if you want
58:59
to know more about how all these different activities work
59:02
because some of them do have some specific guidelines for who
59:06
can participate or how much it may cost if you do choose to
59:09
participate in those. OK, we've got one more on our
59:16
list of 10 holiday experiences for families at the Orlando
59:19
theme parks. And again, we're staying with
59:21
Disney, and this one is just kind of like a little bonus.
59:24
So it's really like 9 1/2, but we're going to call it 10
59:27
because 10 is a nice round Number and that makes my Type A
59:31
brain happy. But something to consider during
59:35
the holidays. And I'm talking about this
59:37
primarily with Disney, but I'm sure you could also do something
59:39
similar at the other theme parks.
59:41
I just don't, I'll be completely honest with you all.
59:44
I don't know as much about that, but Disney does offer an
59:48
enchanting extra Capture your moment session.
59:52
Now this is something that they offer year round, but the reason
59:55
I want to mention it now and we've talked about this before
59:58
on our Photo Pass episode. A few back, not too far back in
1:00:02
our archives there we did an episode on character meet and
1:00:04
greets and Photo Pass. This is something we talked
1:00:07
about with Photo Pass and what this capture the moment session
1:00:10
is. It's a 20 minute photo session
1:00:13
in the parks. You can choose where you want to
1:00:16
go. They have tons of locations that
1:00:19
you can go across all of the Disney theme parks.
1:00:22
It is $99.00 for your 20 minute session.
1:00:26
But the reason that I want to mention this is if you are
1:00:29
visiting during Christmas time, this is a fantastic idea to get
1:00:35
your Christmas, your yearly Christmas photo or take a photo
1:00:40
for your Christmas card that you want to send out.
1:00:42
If you're a little earlier in the season, it is just a
1:00:46
fantastic idea to capture some Christmas memories or holiday
1:00:51
memories in the parks. I think, you know, hiring one of
1:00:55
these photo Pass photographers is a phenomenal idea for you to
1:01:00
really capture the magic and have those, those Christmas
1:01:06
photos available to you. So highly recommend.
1:01:10
Again, if it's within your budget, you can have, I believe
1:01:14
it's up to 10 people. So if you've got an extended
1:01:17
family trip that you're doing, that would be a really fun thing
1:01:20
to do as well. And they take a little bit more
1:01:22
time, right? You can always get photos with
1:01:25
photo Pass or the other photographers that around the
1:01:27
theme parks. But when you do these
1:01:30
personalized specific sessions for your family or your travel
1:01:34
party, they're going to take more time with you, right?
1:01:36
So you're going to get a bigger variety of photos, you're going
1:01:39
to get more photos, different poses.
1:01:41
They're going to, you know, really kind of work with you to
1:01:43
get those those magical moments captured.
1:01:47
So again, my #9 1/2 or #10 is to consider booking something like
1:01:53
a capture your moment session. Now, I do know that this is the
1:01:58
only way to do like professional photos inside the Disney theme
1:02:02
parks. I'm not sure about the other
1:02:04
theme parks, if they, you know, are OK with photographers coming
1:02:08
in and doing photos for your family, that's something you'll
1:02:11
want to look up before you look into doing that.
1:02:13
But I know that that is the best way at Disney to grab those
1:02:17
holiday photos is to do that capture your moment session.
1:02:21
So that being said, I think we at least touched on 10 really
1:02:27
fun holiday experiences for your family at the Orlando theme
1:02:31
parks. I hope that this helps.
1:02:34
Again, like I said, I know it's early in the season.
1:02:36
People are not ready to talk about the holidays yet.
1:02:39
However, if you're like me and you know you've got a holiday
1:02:43
trip coming up, these are the things you want to hear about.
1:02:45
So I wanted to make sure to get this information out to our Mom
1:02:49
St. community ahead of time. So that way you had plenty of
1:02:52
time to do some research of your own and look into and maybe book
1:02:56
some of these little extras that you're able to.
1:03:00
Again, the majority of what we talked about are included in
1:03:03
theme park tickets or are free, so that is a bonus as well.
1:03:07
Especially when you've got kids and you're heading to the theme
1:03:10
parks around the holidays, saying no to them, it's going to
1:03:13
be really hard. So anything that you can find
1:03:16
that is free or as a low cost is always a good idea.
1:03:20
But thank you all so much for joining me for this episode of
1:03:23
Mob St. USA.
1:03:24
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1:03:29
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1:03:33
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1:03:52
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1:03:56
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1:04:38
will see you guys next time on Mom St.
1:04:40
USA. Bye everyone.