Christmas Glitches for Grinches

[RoseGold]

I decided to take my family to experience Disney Christmas. I've never visited Disney in anything close to peak, so maybe this is what the holiday rush is always like.

From wheels down to WL was 2.75 hours!!! MCO is struggling, y'all. That's no checked bags. Couldn't figure out how to get to a gate, took forever to get the stroller, ME took forever, and then ME went OKW, SSR, Port Orleans, French Quarter, and THEN WL. Bye Mears, Uber next time! That threw the schedule and then kids were tired the next day. Also, I guess I have now finally been to where I own a significant amount of points, SSR.

I've never seen parks this crowded. No big deal, I'll pay Disney a few hundred bucks for G+, like I did at Halloween. I guess they changed the rules a few weeks ago, as now you can only hold one attraction at a time. I paid $15/head for Jingle Cruise, Pirates, Buzz, and Dumbo. Night and day difference from Halloween. Nothing was available, it was frustrating and expensive. I have now been to Disney nine times since 2018 and still have never ridden Slinky Dog. Most ILL$ were booked in the morning. We were able to pay for Snow White, so kids were happy with that. I have a PhD in Disney AND previously used G+ successfully, wanted to throw money at this, and even I couldn't figure this out.

While we paid $6 for one Smore (with blueberry marshmallows?) at the campfire, and there were some people complaining it wasn't "Disney at Christmas." I guess the entertainment is all closed still? Whatever that is, I'm sorry I missed it? Kids loved the decorations and the cavalcades and the smores and the gingerbread house in the GF lobby. They got to see Santa near the funnel cake place at MK. We got to go to Minnie's Holiday lunch at Hollywood & Vine. DVC was lovely. Rooms were immaculate and on time. Aside from Bell Services, no issues at all with DVC. Ended up leaving Owners Lockers in the hall again with a $5 because no one answered the phone. They're back at the warehouse, so I guess that worked. Park transportation was on point, which surprised me. Neve more than 10 minute wait for any buses, from bus dependent transportation. Much better than I expected. Disney is my happy place, and maybe the holiday rush was just too much for us.

 

[hhisc16]

I decided to take my family to experience Disney Christmas. I've never visited Disney in anything close to peak, so maybe this is what the holiday rush is always like.

From wheels down to WL was 2.75 hours!!! MCO is struggling, y'all. That's no checked bags. Couldn't figure out how to get to a gate, took forever to get the stroller, ME took forever, and then ME went OKW, SSR, Port Orleans, French Quarter, and THEN WL. Bye Mears, Uber next time! That threw the schedule and then kids were tired the next day. Also, I guess I have now finally been to where I own a significant amount of points, SSR.

I've never seen parks this crowded. No big deal, I'll pay Disney a few hundred bucks for G+, like I did at Halloween. I guess they changed the rules a few weeks ago, as now you can only hold one attraction at a time. I paid $15/head for Jingle Cruise, Pirates, Buzz, and Dumbo. Night and day difference from Halloween. Nothing was available, it was frustrating and expensive. I have now been to Disney nine times since 2018 and still have never ridden Slinky Dog. Most ILL$ were booked in the morning. We were able to pay for Snow White, so kids were happy with that. I have a PhD in Disney AND previously used G+ successfully, wanted to throw money at this, and even I couldn't figure this out.

While we paid $6 for one Smore (with blueberry marshmallows?) at the campfire, and there were some people complaining it wasn't "Disney at Christmas." I guess the entertainment is all closed still? Whatever that is, I'm sorry I missed it? Kids loved the decorations and the cavalcades and the smores and the gingerbread house in the GF lobby. They got to see Santa near the funnel cake place at MK. We got to go to Minnie's Holiday lunch at Hollywood & Vine. DVC was lovely. Rooms were immaculate and on time. Aside from Bell Services, no issues at all with DVC. Ended up leaving Owners Lockers in the hall again with a $5 because no one answered the phone. They're back at the warehouse, so I guess that worked. Park transportation was on point, which surprised me. Neve more than 10 minute wait for any buses, from bus dependent transportation. Much better than I expected. Disney is my happy place, and maybe the holiday rush was just too much for us.

Which DVC resorts did you stay at on this trip?

 

[kboo]

Also, I guess I have now finally been to where I own a significant amount of points, SSR.

Did you use SSR points for WL? If so - you are a DVC Boss.

I have a PhD in Disney AND previously used G+ successfully, wanted to throw money at this, and even I couldn't figure this out.

Yikes. We are heading down in a few days, last trip was pre-G+. Were crowds bad? (We survived Xmas week 2019 which included Rise BG in the park at 6am, so we may have a different perspective)

 

[Dizzydizney]

Seems like most of your trip was good. We always rented a car so never experienced ME. It was extremely busy when we were there. And it was not as dressed up for Christmas as in the past. We did not do Genie at all, but it was just us and we were able to get up early for early opening. I kept checking availability on Genie plus and LL....quite shocking that LL was either sold out or had ridiculous return times. Also found their posted wait times were almost always not accurate.
The two to three weeks before Christmas were always considered ideal times to go crowd wise....those days are gone.
I love to roast marshmallows at the campfires. I’m too cheap to pay extra for the s’mores. The CMs at RR told me that the evening campfire/marshmallow roast is their favorite time of day. God bless them....the oak fire smoke was giving me a headache. I was surprised when they told me that they use the same oak as Topolinos uses for their oak fired oven. It’s delivered on pallets to the loading dock. I love chatting with the CMs.
Try one of the limo services next time from the airport. They will do a grocery stop too.

 

[RoseGold]

Did you use SSR points for WL? If so - you are a DVC Boss.

They were actually banked VGF points from the contract I bought in 2020. Wanted to try WL at Christmas, that's off the list! I thought my BR room was quite nice, even though it's due for refurb. I made another post about its condition. Maybe VGF was the right choice, but I'll never know because I'm never going back in December.

Not as dressed up???? WOW. I can't even think of where they could cram more decor! The holiday decor was awesome.

I don't mind paying for smores or rides or all the other things. But it's frustrating when its so crowded nothing is available, even when you're willing to throw cash at things. I've never seen that level of crowd. Touring Plans had MK around a 6, and it's now higher today is a 7 on a Thursday!, which is insane IMO. With little kids, I was still able to do less popular things they really wanted, like meeting princesses and Santa and see fireworks. That was really the point of this trip. Oh, and fondue at the Bavarian booth was legit.

I'm completely out on Mears. I'm going Uber now, like any other airport. MCO was special because it was the only place you didn't have to do all of that, but I'm well-versed in non-magical airports. With Owner's Locker, we are backpack only, and 2.75 hours is insane. I wish I could ditch the stroller. Gate check was a big delay.

 

[kes601]

They somewhat changed the rules of G+. You can still hold more than one at a time, but it has to be at least 2 hours since your last selection before you can add another one. Before there was a "glitch" that allowed an easier way to stack multiple times. The other issue to be with G+ is that they state it won't sell out ever. But if they aren't distributing more selections for each ride then the value of it goes down. I get that it is called "Lightning Lane" so they can't have as many "entries" as they did before since they want the line to move very, very quick. But, I'd rather be able to get a lightning lane and cut my wait time down significantly even if it means a 10 minute lightning lane. We get there tonight and will be at the park in the morning. Guess I'll see what we think of it.