While I enjoy planning, my wife loves it even more! And she’s amazing at it. Not just for trips, but life in general! (And, while my wife lurks on these forums and reads almost everything, I’m NOT just saying that about her because she is “watching”…but because it is true!)
Anyhow, we’ve been spending the past days, weeks, months working on our upcoming December 2022 trip plan. We’ve tweaked, and rearranged, and have come up with a tentative plan that is looking pretty great.
In order to keep this concise (ha!), here’s the backstory… we celebrated our 25th anniversary in 2020, and spent 8 days at Disney World in December. We loved it so much, but also missed out on some things due to COVID. We bought DVC since then, and now are kind of repeating our trip in 2022, but this time hopefully getting to do things we couldn’t in 2020.
For this trip, we MAY be visiting with friends in Vero Beach. Originally, we were going to book two nights on DVC points there, but since there is a possibility they might move before then, we decided to forego that and just book a single night at a hotel if they are there. The rest of the trip we are staying at SSR…3 nights in a studio, and then 5 nights in a 1-bedroom. (We are going to TRY to get a 1-bedroom at BW for those 5 nights, but not holding our breath.)
So, the part you all care about (or not)…the deets. I’ll focus on the point we end up at Disney proper.
Sunday, Dec. 4
Arrive at SSR in the late afternoon/evening.
Check in, head to PO to get some Beignets!
Monday, Dec. 5
Head to DS in the morning/lunch (eat at Chicken Guy!).
Head to EPCOT for dinner (Mexico!) and spend time in FutureWorld, taking advantage of EEH.
Tuesday, Dec. 6
HS in the morning, focusing on SWGE, eating at Docking Bay 7.
Early afternoon, head over to Universal Studios and check out Grinchmas, the Macy’s parade, and the lights on Hogwart’s castle if we can.
Possibly eat in CityWalk.
Wednesday, Dec. 7
Take our bags to the van and then head to Kona Cafe for breakfast!
MK, eating lunch there
Afternoon, go grab some groceries and then check into SSR 1-bedroom.
Back to MK for EEH!
Thursday, Dec. 8
EP in the morning/afternoon, grabbing QS lunch and some school bread!
Focus on World Showcase, from France (Ratt!) to Norway.
Head to AK for dinner at Yak and Yeti, and then just take in AK at night…watching Awakenings, and seeing Pandora in the dark while eating Lumpia!
Friday, Dec. 9
Resort day (or, rather, resort morning/afternoon) and DS
Eat lunch at Raglan Rd.
After dinner in our room, head to HS, focusing on TSL, SDD, etc.
Saturday, Dec. 10
EPCOT, focusing on WS from Mexico to USA, or anything we missed.
Head over to the Boardwalk, and then over to DS
Dinner at House of Blues
Christmas Tree stroll
Sunday, Dec. 11
HS, Sunset Blvd area (ToT, RR)
Steakhouse 71 for dinner
MK Christmas After Hours Party! (assuming there is one that night…hopefully)
If you look at my planning spreadsheet, your name (or well “LTinNC82”…which will be an awkward way to refer to you!) is listed on that day!
Well, so, with us staying at SSR, and with the goal to make this a relaxing trip, we will have walking access to DS for food, etc. Each time, we’ll probably not stay in DS terribly long. Grab some food, maybe hop in a shop or something.
I feel so special! I do answer to LT, but Lauren is my government name. I’ll be at SSR too and I love the Mexico pavilion so we’ll find a way to make it work.
Truthfully I’ve only been to DS once since it became DS. We ate at Chicken Guy which was surprisingly good. I’ll have to dedicate more time in December, but it’s so hard to not spend every waking moment at the parks or the pools.
I ran into this issue when I met up with @drvillarejos in December 2020. I didn’t know her given name, and also though the “dr” meant she was a Doctor. Turns out not to be the case!
Your plan sounds good! I’m jealous! I don’t know what it means to have a relaxing Disney trip. If I’m not at the parks I feel like I’m wasting time LOL. I have issues that clearly need to be addressed I usually only visit 3-4 days at a time so I’m sun up to sun down.
AK isn’t getting a lot of love in this plan. But I’m loving the dedication to EPCOT/HS. Epcot is my fave park.
Okay but is a half day at Universal really enough though?! (sorry, I’m a Universal junkie and have to plan at least a full day there when I visit )
Well…longer story there. So, we have a family trip scheduled for USF in May 2023. We bought Seasonal passes, because we will be there for 7 days!
But we realized that we’ve never seen Universal during Christmas, and likely wouldn’t, so we figured we could activate our Season Pass at USF in December (since it will still be valid in May) and we can go there for the sole purpose of seeing it at Christmas. So, that’s the reason it is only a half day. We don’t actually plan to ride anything. We’ll do that the following May.
AK is our least favorite park…and, aside from perhaps FOP, there really isn’t anything we feel the need to ride. BUT, we’ve never seen Awakenings, and my wife has never seen Pandora at night, so we figured we would dedicate an evening to AK for that purpose. We MIGHT hop onto FOP if the line isn’t terrible, but it isn’t a priority. (Again…a relaxing trip, so we don’t feel a lot of pressure in actually getting on most of the rides, except a few such as Ratt, GotG, etc.)
Understandable. Having 7 park days takes the pressure off.
Hope you love it!
What are you implying?? 
)