It’s the most magical time of the year in the most magical place on earth!
Several years ago, my boyfriend went to Disney World with his family around Christmas time. They went to the Magic Kingdom Christmas party, experienced the beloved snoap, the gingerbread house at the Grand Floridian, ate all the snacks... he loved it…. and ever since, I just wanted to go so badly!
So this year we decided it would be the year (Because why wait? You never know what next year brings, so go for things when you can!) This year we decided we’d go to the Christmas party and enjoy all things holiday at our favorite place in the world - Disney World.
First of all, if you, like me, are from a cold-weather-winter climate, I 10000% recommend it because there is truly no better feeling than walking around in 80degree weather, wearing short-sleeves and a skirt and realizing its less than two weeks until Christmas. It’s so incredibly healing for the soul.
We decided to go Monday - Friday, because weekends are usually pretty crowded. We usually stay at our beloved Grand Floridian, but alas it was all booked up the week we went (I suspect it was because of the Gingerbread house and also there was a wedding going on the day we stopped by and visited!). So instead, we tried something new and found a great deal at Port Orleans Riverside.
Now, like I said, I’m used to the Grand Floridian, so I have high expectations, and Riverside was actually really nice! The lobby reminded me of Gringotts (Hahaha seriously!), and they had a really nice Christmas tree too!
Also, it’s worth to mention their Quick service restaurant is a bit better than the Grand Floridian’s. There was so much seating, we never had a problem, and lots and lots of options. They also serve breakfast until 11am, which meant on the first day we arrived (because we had a 6am flight) we were able to get our Mickey Waffles right away.
We stayed in the Royal Room, where you receive a special note from Tiana, and the room itself is decorated with all the Princesses (and has a fibre-optic headboard that shoots off fireworks - so cute!) I also really enjoyed that they had banners of the Prince’s silhouettes, because I feel like the Princes don’t often get as much love as they should!
Overall, Riverside is really nice, I was very impressed and enjoyed my stay there.
You have the options for the bus to any of the Parks or the boat to Disney Springs. The only thing with the bus though is that there’s about four stops at Riverside, north, south, east, and west lol - so it does sometimes take a long time when returning, so a Lyft is often just much faster. But the buses are free so pro’s and con’s!
The first day we went to Magic Kingdom and it was soooo nice to see it all Christmas-i-fied. Main Street was beautiful, the tree was awesome. The holiday music playing is so cute. Overall, just a good vibe.
Yes it was crowded, but we decided to try out Genie + (last time we went to the parks it wasn’t a thing yet so this was our first time). Honestly, my boyfriend did most of figuring it out, but he said it was sooo easy to use. And with it we were able to just walk on most rides. The park was crowded, most lines were close to an hour, so I’d say in that case Genie + was absolutely worth it so we could actually get on rides instead of waiting around.
At night we went to Disney Springs to meet my friend Tami for dinner! We went to Wolfgang Puck’s - it was sooooo good! I had the Rigatoni, it was so delicious. Tami and Justin each had different types of pizza that they enjoyed as well. Also, as an appetizer we got the Ciabatta bread with tomato butter because I needed to know what that butter tasted like, haha, and it did not disappoint. I would eat that everyday. 10/10 would recommend.
Disney Springs is so cute this time of year - they have a main big Christmas tree - and it seemed like every time we walked by it started snoaping! (The fake snow! Hehe so cute and magical). And then they have different decorated trees - like the Disney+ Tree, the Moana tree, the Star Wars Tree, the Lion King Tree, etc. So it’s fun to go around and try to find all the different trees as well.
The next day we went to EPCOT and we did the Holiday Cookie Stroll (Hehe because of course we would!)
It was actually really fun, I never did anything like that. It’s super cute, there’s 5 cookies that you have to find and buy at different booths (they’re about $2.50 each) and they give you a passport that you get stamped at each location. Once you’ve gotten them all stamped, they’ll give you a free commemorative 50th anniversary sugar cookie, along with a commemorative cookie stroll cup filled with chocolate ice cream.
Here’s my personal ratings of the cookies they give you!
Gingerbread Cookie - awesome, probably my favorite of the group. Very big, decent size, gingerbready but also very light and not very filling.
Snickers Snickerdoodle - very dry, too crumbly, too much snickers on top. I did not enjoy or finish this cookie. I also personally don’t like snickers, so a peanut butter lover may think differently.
Black and White cookie - I love black and white cookies but this didn’t really taste like one. I am a New Yorker, so I would know hahaha. It was overall dissapointing.
Dove Chocolate cookie - I had high hopes for this one, and it was good, but it was very rich, thick, and a lot. It tasted like a lighter brownie, but it was very heavy and hard to eat it all.
Linzor Tart - the raspberry filling tasted soooo good, loved this one.
Overall, were the cookies the best? No. But we had a lot of fun doing it, so it’s worth it.
ALSO. If you are in EPCOT, they have a Tiny World pic with one of the photo-pass people outside Spaceship Earth. It is sooooo sooo funny. Please do it. You won’t be disappointed.
Also at EPCOT, they have the different Santas from all over the world! I love learning about other cultures so it was so great to see.
We really loved the UK Santa, Father Christmas. He happened to come out just as we were walking by so we stayed and watched. He was hilarious, so funny, and had such great delivery and story-telling abilities. Definitely a stand out.
EPCOT also has specific holiday booths with special food around too, so that’s lots of fun and worth checking out! & each country is decorated, so its fun. I especially liked Norway, it had the cutest Christmas vibe.
We went to the Christmas Party on a Tuesday night (figuring it’d be the least crowded) and it was amazing. First of all, it goes until 1am so you have soooo much time. Every ride is essentially a walk on, so that alone is worth the price.
(^ Here is me excitedly running through a completely empty Space Mountain LOL )
There’s free hot chocolate, which was good, and snickerdoodle but I didn’t eat them because I don’t like them hahaha but I’m sure they were good, too!
The Parade was amazing - it was so nice to see a Parade again! The snow on Main Street is magical. Loved seeing Olaf and Elsa and all the snow-y characters in the parade. The wooden soldiers marching are awesome, and the gingerbread men are so cute. And Santa!
Santa shouted me out and told me I had a really pretty holiday dress! It was so magical - he’s such a celeb, I felt so special! LOL
They had special Christmas treats you could buy as well, but we didn’t wind up getting anything so I had no reviews of that.
We did a lot of time at the different photo pass stations and those were fun - I especially love the Tangled Lanterns! (As seen in the first image of this blog post!) Which I don’t believe is specific to just the Christmas party as it was at the Halloween party, too.
The Christmas fireworks were perfection (better than Enchantment, I think!) they were really well done, lots of fun, great to see.
Overall, the Christmas Party is amazing and everything I hoped for. It was my favorite night of the trip, we had so much fun!
The last really Christmasy thing we did was stop by our beloved Grand Floridian. They have the biggest, most amazing tree and of course, the Gingerbread house. The Gingerbread house is really cute and impressive - and you can buy different pieces of it! We bought a dark chocolate shingle and the thin mint cookies - both not bad at all.
We of course did our usual Galaxy’s Edge, Star Wars pics lol - (we did more Lightsaber pics with a photo pass person; who asked us if we practiced it because we basically went immediately into legit light saber poses hahahaha) but otherwise that area isn’t really Christmassy! But still so fun to go to.
So, for next year, if you are considering going to Disney at Christmas - do it! It makes the magic even more magical! I loved every second of our trip. But most importantly, I loved being outside on December 15th being in shorts, and having the most beautiful sunshine-y weather shining down upon me. It made my soul so happy. But then again, just being in Disney always makes my soul so happy too! <3
